This is me

🌱Nature loving, tree-hugging, witchy, hippy teacher 🍎 Queer humans right activist 🏳️‍🌈

[treehuggingwitchyhippy]

In traditional village living, people went with the flow more. Hunters and gatherers OR early farmers, they worked together as a community to get things done. Whatever you were good at, that helped the village, you did. Leaders were the ones who were best at recognizing strengths in others. Storytellers, often elders, kept the culture alive while caring for the children. Usually men were the hunters and protectors, but if a woman was good at it? No problem! Whatever helped people survive. That doesn't mean that everything was easy... or that all people were good. But MOST people were and ARE good. So small communities thrived, and made connections with other small communities creating a global network.

In teacher talk, we learn about "21st century skills". But really, the most critical skills are no different today than they were 10, 20, 100 or even 1,000 years ago. Children need to feel loved and safe to grow and learn, and so do adults!

We think now about things like a "global culture", again, like it's something new. But a long time ago people still connected globally. There were always travellers and traders, herders and sailors, people who moved around the globe.

So what feels so different, and even wrong, about today's world? In my mind there are two things - the speed at which we travel, talk, think and work; and how large our rulers' domains have gotten. Oh yes, and the power of money!

I often think that people forget that money isn't "real" in the sense that it was totally artificially created for our convenience. All that happened was that we got too complex as a species for our traditional barter and trade system, so people started trading shiny things or small metal discs, etc., instead. Eventually money as we know it today evolved. And there is nothing wrong with it, in theory, but when it rules the world...? Then there is a problem! People, plants, animals, and nature in general should ALWAYS come first.

Thank you for coming to my TED talk. Tune in later for more reflections. 😘

*Resouces that influenced this reflection:

The Parable of the Sower (and other novels)

Ishmael by Daniel (David? Quinn)

The Shaman's Apprentice

Orson Scott Card novels

Barbara Kingsolver novels

Tom Robbins novels

Numerous other fantasy and science fiction books and media

Blitzen Trapper's music

ellis music

Beatles music

Queen music

...and friends and mentors and community members throughout my life 💞

[dyingroses]

[cheeseanonioncrisps]

“A kiss may be grand, but it won’t pay the rental, on your humble flat, or help you at the automat.”

Like literally the most famous song about how much girls love jewellry is just explaining the importance of getting jewellry for when your partner leaves you penniless and alone.

[ohheyheyitsjj]

The founder of Girl Scouting in the US, Juliette Gordon Low, funded her first troop by selling her pearl necklace, which was her only belonging after her husband died and left everything to his mistress.

She founded Girl Scouts to teach girls self-sufficiency so they wouldn’t have to go through what she went through when her husband died and she didn’t know how to take care of herself.

[penrosesun]

While we’re on the subject, let’s please also remember that historically disenfranchised communities who had to worry about frequently being run out of town often bought expensive jewelry with their limited funds not because they were greedy or tacky or classless, but rather because you can’t sew a real estate investment into the lining of your coat, and the powers that be can’t freeze a diamond necklace the way that they can freeze a bank account.

[shymikka]

Speaking as a jeweler in America right now, I cannot tell you how many people are buying jewelry as an emergency fund. The business my spouse started and I’ve been helping with for nigh on 20 years now, we sell to the queer community. Other people, sure, but I cannot tell you how many queer folks I’ve made jewelry for.

And they are buying as much as they can right now. Genderweird people, gay men, bi folks in same gender marriages, lesbians, anyone who looks around and realizes that the noose is tightening? They’re buying what they can afford. Sometimes a little more than they can afford.

People are asking about metal purity in our jewelry. This has never happened before, not even during the first trump debacle. People are worried, wondering how they can get out if things go real bad. And I tell them how to sell their stuff for cash if they need to. How to find places that won’t cheat them.

How to get the most out of the jewelry they already have.

They play it off as a joke, most of the time, and I’ll play along to make sure they’re comfortable, but we all know the joke is only funny because it’s true.

I have warned people that they won’t get what they paid back. People who buy jewelry are trying to make money, and they don’t care about the hours put into hand crafting a piece. They care about the metal, the stones, and not much else. Folks I tell this to understand, and sometimes ask if we sell bullion. Or coins. Something that they can use in the emergency they expect is coming.

I wish I didn’t have to do this. I wish more people worried about what it says when people are planning on fleeing their homes with only what they have on their back. I wish I didn’t have a plan for what happens when my genderqueer ass is declared illegal.

But I do.

[treehuggingwitchyhippy]

Scary world we're living in...

[briarhide]

In light of some of the many things happening across the world this year, I thought this Pride Month needed a special illustration.

Happy Pride Month, may we all stay safe, look after each other, and keep painting our rainbows, no matter what. 🌈🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️

[treehuggingwitchyhippy]

Starflower took some time to stop and smell the Spring Flowers this evening.

[velartis]

“what radicalized you” bro EMPATHY

[puppygirllaika]

"what radicalized you" well in kindergarten they told me to share things and be nice to people.

[molly-writes]

[angryschnauzer]

Happy April 25th Everyone. Remember your light jacket.

[moonbasealpha]

[ID: an image set of the interview scene from miss congeniality. cheryl fraiser (miss rhode island) is told, "describe your perfect date." she responds, "that's a tough one. i'd have to say april 25th. because it's not too hot and not too cold. all you need is a light jacket." /end ID.]

[dduane]

A banana bread recipe

Some kindly person (whose name I can't now find) posted this on Bluesky last March. People here might like it: thought I'd store a copy of it here.

@petermorwood liked this a lot (as he routinely liked anything with ginger in it).

[teaboot]

My coworker asked me a question about Queer culture the other day and it was a really good question but I couldn’t think of a polite way to tell them that they didn’t have the foundational knowledge required to support full comprehension of the answer

[teaboot]

Coworker: So why do some people say they’re bisexual and other people say they’re pansexual? They sound like the same thing

Me: Do you want the real answer or the answer that will make sense to you

Coworker: I guess the real answer?

Me: Do you have three hours and a notepad

Coworker: No

Me: The flags are different

[diane-nguyen-watches-cartoons-d]

[teaboot]

^

[molly-writes]

To be fair "I like the flag better" is the reason I identify as Bisexual most of the time even if Pansexual would actually fit me better anyway. Of course, now that my wife has come out as trans we can both identify as "useless lesbian(affectionate)" and that's ok too.

[treehuggingwitchyhippy]

I self-identify as queer and use bi as a term to explain myself to others. It's still continues to be the simplest term, and the term that let me know it was okay to be gay even though I was ALSO a boy-obsessed middleschool girl. I "like the wine and not the label," but I do typically prefer to date masculine women and feminine men, so I guess gender plays a role in my attraction? Mostly I'm just really into people and I like it when people like me! 😆

[dreamyintersexpuppy]

I literally had my pussy sewn shut I deserve k cup tits as compensation

[dreamyintersexpuppy]

right forgot most of my followers wouldn’t know this so

TW for medical trauma and child abuse

when an intersex baby is born and they have what’s called “ambiguous genitalia” aka they have an intersex condition which causes them to develop a mix of traits from both male and female genitals, doctors will just pick which one it’s closest to and without consent from the parents and obviously without consent from this living human person that just got born, perform a permanently scarring cosmetic surgery to force the baby’s genitals to align with societies perspective of either male or female genitals. these surgeries cause lifetime medical issues and sexual dysfunction and are only performed because our medical understanding of intersex people was written by a bunch of bigoted genicidal monsters. And yes it’s genocide they are removing our ability to conceive children in almost all cases of these surgeries, on top of generally erasing us from public view by hiding our own existence from everyone Including us from birth. these surgeries aren’t well known about because parents literally aren’t told (my mom only managed to figure it out cuz she overheard the doctor talking to a nurse about it when she came down off her painkillers) and scientific literature on it is not only hard to read it sounds like fucking nazi shit so obviously most medical establishments don’t want it in public view. I had one of these surgeries performed on me, I literally don’t even know exactly what it was cuz it’s not on my medical records anymore but I have the scarring and still have uterine tissue so in compensation for our current human society systematically mutilating my body and genociding people like me I think I deserve some banger bazhoingas i think that’s fair

[dreamyintersexpuppy]

I hope you don’t mind me adding this @werewo1fbutch I wanted to offer resources in my original post but I’m still looking for my own so this is really appreciated

[luesmainblog]

But Wait, There's More! everything i'm about to say is secondhand experience from an intersex friend i have known for years, who i will not be identifying for safety reasons. not only can they just completely remove it from your medical record, many hospitals are in practice of straight-up lying to the parents to excuse why they're taking the baby in for surgery. an extremely common excuse is saying the baby has a heart condition. if you or a loved one were taken into surgery for a heart condition at birth and the parents had no idea anything was wrong until said birth, i HIGHLY recommend inspecting your genitals for scarring and speaking with a gynecologist or urologist(depending on which you usually rely on) if something seems fishy. they can also mark you as the wrong sex on your birth certificate because of this, which can barr you from treatment you are legally entitled to! worse than that, getting that corrected is extremely difficult. even if the doctor who edited your birth was LITERALLY THROWN OUT FOR MEDICAL MALPRACTICE, the hospital - and state - will continue to refuse acknowledgement of the mistake and no correction will be made. this is a very notable issue in the UK, especially if you were wrongfully marked Male. another thing people are often unaware of is the rampant issue of medical CSA that occurs if an intersex child is decided Female. There's a medical procedure called Dilation where a hole is carefully stretched wider over a period of time for various reasons; on its own, this is not a bad thing, and can be necessary for several reasons. however, many "female" intersex children are put through Vaginal Dillation at a disturbingly young age. the idea is that because their vaginas are shallow or more closed off, it's better to stretch them for a few years so that they'll be able to have sex properly when they get married. the thing is, there is no wrong time to start dilation. if you start at 18, there is no drawback; in many cases it would actually be safer, and it only takes between 1 to 3 years to reach a desirable state, depending on the person. and yet, this is often done to children FAR below the age of consent, explicitly with the future marriage reasoning in mind. this is sometimes started at infancy. let's really think about that. a young girl who is too young to consent and may not get any say in the matter is taken to a doctor over and over again to have her vagina stretched out because it is expected that when she's older she'll marry a man and have sex with him. there is no non-creepy way to put that. there is no way to explain this that is not BLATANTLY sexual assault on a fucking child. and the worst part is, this is not legally recognized as SA or abuse in the majority of juristictions. and ALL of this should be given the extra consideration that a large chunk of intersex children begin to identify differently than they were assigned at birth, often BEFORE hitting puberty. intersex people make up roughly 2% of the world population by modern count. that's twice as many intersex people in the world as there are redheads.

i know this is long, and i'm not going to guilt anyone into reblogging; you're not a bad person for keeping upsetting stuff off of your dash. but if you're able, i do gently request that you reblog this. it's important that more people know this is happening. stay safe all, and i wish every intersex person loads of moneys and whatever body they wish for.

[leo-fie]

TIL it's apparently custom for medical personnel to lie about surgery on infants to the patients and their family. Do they lie on the internal hospital paperwork too? To the insurance? Is this not a conspiracy? I have so many questions.

[dykepuffs]

Different in different jurisdictions - In the UK it's the NHS, so often it's just they lie to the parents to 'save them the embarrassment' and it's described as something like correcting a cosmetic abnormality on your paperwork. We don't often see our own medical papers (No billing means no opportunity to read back over what happened) and if you move to a new hospital trust as an adult often your paediatric records are just left behind.

[treehuggingwitchyhippy]

I researched this many years ago in college, and (sadly, but obviously) read about a lot of medical malpractice on intersexed infants in the US as well. Still, I wonder how this may have changed or if its still just as rampant a problem, and how this would show up on USAmerican hospital bills.

[heatherwitch]

My resolution last year was to do one thing before bed that would make my morning feel easier, and that’s become a daily habit that I’m carrying into this new year.

Some nights even filling up the kettle and setting an empty mug out for my morning tea felt hard. But I was always thankful for it in the morning.

Other nights, one thing would lead to another, and I’d wake up in a clean house with everything ready to go.

And, on a rare few nights, the one thing that I could do to make my morning easier was going straight to bed and allowing myself to rest.

What stayed the same each day is that I would take a moment to think of what I could do for my future self and do it, even after a hard day. And I would wake up knowing that I had done my best and any effort—no matter how small—was a kindness to myself.

[one-bite-is-undercover]

I’ve been doing a lot of “a treat for future me” moments lately.

[heatherwitch]

That’s a great way to look at it, and I love this artist! (Anna-Laura: instagram / website)

[todaysbird]

there’s been a really bizarre trend in the past couple years of TERFS/radfems getting pissed off about biology posts. posts about the bilateral gyandromorph cardinal (one half male, one half female), posts about older hens beginning to crow and act like roosters, posts about animals being animals. and it’s hilarious because they interpret these posts as some kind of agenda. no! these are animals not choosing any gender identity or sexuality but being born into bodies they have no control over. weird how that happens in nature huh

[butchosprey]

never tell terfs about white-throated sparrow or they will lose their fucking minds

[tkingfisher]

Do you want to hear about white-throated sparrows?!

Of course you do, they’re fantastic. They come in two models, one with tan head stripes and one with white head stripes. But the gene that controls stripe color also has a bunch of other effects! It’s a supergene!

To briefly sum up a grueling amount of fieldwork by people who were probably not getting paid nearly enough, basically the tan-stripes are nurturers and the white-stripes are fighters, across both males and females. White-stripes chase away intruders more, tan-stripes bring more food to the nest. Tan-stripe females bring more bugs to their chicks than white-stripes, white-stripe females are more aggressive and sing more.

There is a reason Jordan Peterson picked lobsters, not sparrows, to get all MRA about, because the sparrow ladies are ALL about the tan-striped males. Sexy nurturing tan-stripe males are immediately grabbed up by the more aggressive white-stripe females (who are also dead sexy if you’re a sparrow.) Then the remaining birds pair off, so you get tan and white couples reproducing in virtually all cases—nurturing male with aggressive female, hyper-aggressive male with hyper-nurturing female.*

And this is good!** Because it turns out that they can have a tough time if they don’t mate across stripes—white x white sparrows often come out undersized if they come out at all. There was some cool recent genetic sequencing and one particular chromosome is way funky, inverted, and scrambled in the white-stripes. So now every white-stripe has a funky chromosome and a normal one, and every tan-stripe has two normal ones.***

This is all really unique and means that white-throated sparrows effectively have four sexes, because they now only reproduce with a member of the opposite stripe and sex chromosome, and their offspring may be any one of the four sexes. The stripes have essentially become a second sex chromosome.

The geneticists involved think the funky chromosome probably showed up as a weird import from somebody gettin’ jiggy with another sparrow species. Presumably this created a hypersexy female whose white head stripes brought all the boys to the yard, and very unusually, that bred true.

Is that cool or what?!

*No word on whether there is a resulting sparrow tradwife media genre.

**Leaving aside the impact on the emotional health of the non-sexy sparrows.

**A population solely of tan-stripes can reproduce safely, they’re just not that into each other.

[krakensdottir]

I reblogged this a minute ago but I’m going to reblog it again, because I want to add another non-binary bird species: the ruff.

First of all, look at it.

That’s a male ruff, specifically. You can see how they get their name. The females don’t have that fancy collar. They just look like sandpipers, which is what they are.

Like other sandpipers, these are wading birds, but they live in wet meadows and marshes instead of by the seashore. During the breeding season they gather together and the males hold territories, called leks, in which they display to attract females.

At least, some of them do.

Some male ruffs do not display in leks. They have plainer, often white, neck ruffs, and they sort of wander around the display grounds courting the females wherever. The interesting thing is that the territorial males tolerate this. Research suggests it’s because females are more interested in a display ground that has both kinds of males. The ladies like variety, it seems.

But it gets even more complicated. In 2006, a third male form was discovered. This form is extremely rare, and doesn’t have male display plumage at all. It looks just like a female ruff in the field. The other birds, however, can tell the difference, judging by their behavior. These female mimics travel with other males when the sexes split for the winter, and during homosexual mountings (which are common, as they are in many other animals), they often top.

What’s really interesting about these ‘cryptic males’, or faeders, is that they are apparently super sexy. Seriously. Females and males both prefer mating with them. And it’s believed that, like the satellite males, the presence of a faeder attracts more females to the area, which benefits all three forms.

And the thing about these forms is they are fundamentally different from one another. The plumage and behavior differences last throughout a bird’s life, and are determined by genetics. They are functionally three different genders - one of which shows natural intersex characteristics. All three can breed with females, and females are more interested in breeding when all three are present. They know that diversity is the good shit. Which makes them much, much smarter than TERFs.

[todaysbird]

there’s been a really bizarre trend in the past couple years of TERFS/radfems getting pissed off about biology posts. posts about the bilateral gyandromorph cardinal (one half male, one half female), posts about older hens beginning to crow and act like roosters, posts about animals being animals. and it’s hilarious because they interpret these posts as some kind of agenda. no! these are animals not choosing any gender identity or sexuality but being born into bodies they have no control over. weird how that happens in nature huh

[butchosprey]

never tell terfs about white-throated sparrow or they will lose their fucking minds

[tkingfisher]

Do you want to hear about white-throated sparrows?!

Of course you do, they’re fantastic. They come in two models, one with tan head stripes and one with white head stripes. But the gene that controls stripe color also has a bunch of other effects! It’s a supergene!

To briefly sum up a grueling amount of fieldwork by people who were probably not getting paid nearly enough, basically the tan-stripes are nurturers and the white-stripes are fighters, across both males and females. White-stripes chase away intruders more, tan-stripes bring more food to the nest. Tan-stripe females bring more bugs to their chicks than white-stripes, white-stripe females are more aggressive and sing more.

There is a reason Jordan Peterson picked lobsters, not sparrows, to get all MRA about, because the sparrow ladies are ALL about the tan-striped males. Sexy nurturing tan-stripe males are immediately grabbed up by the more aggressive white-stripe females (who are also dead sexy if you’re a sparrow.) Then the remaining birds pair off, so you get tan and white couples reproducing in virtually all cases—nurturing male with aggressive female, hyper-aggressive male with hyper-nurturing female.*

And this is good!** Because it turns out that they can have a tough time if they don’t mate across stripes—white x white sparrows often come out undersized if they come out at all. There was some cool recent genetic sequencing and one particular chromosome is way funky, inverted, and scrambled in the white-stripes. So now every white-stripe has a funky chromosome and a normal one, and every tan-stripe has two normal ones.***

This is all really unique and means that white-throated sparrows effectively have four sexes, because they now only reproduce with a member of the opposite stripe and sex chromosome, and their offspring may be any one of the four sexes. The stripes have essentially become a second sex chromosome.

The geneticists involved think the funky chromosome probably showed up as a weird import from somebody gettin’ jiggy with another sparrow species. Presumably this created a hypersexy female whose white head stripes brought all the boys to the yard, and very unusually, that bred true.

Is that cool or what?!

*No word on whether there is a resulting sparrow tradwife media genre.

**Leaving aside the impact on the emotional health of the non-sexy sparrows.

**A population solely of tan-stripes can reproduce safely, they’re just not that into each other.

[krakensdottir]

I reblogged this a minute ago but I’m going to reblog it again, because I want to add another non-binary bird species: the ruff.

First of all, look at it.

That’s a male ruff, specifically. You can see how they get their name. The females don’t have that fancy collar. They just look like sandpipers, which is what they are.

Like other sandpipers, these are wading birds, but they live in wet meadows and marshes instead of by the seashore. During the breeding season they gather together and the males hold territories, called leks, in which they display to attract females.

At least, some of them do.

Some male ruffs do not display in leks. They have plainer, often white, neck ruffs, and they sort of wander around the display grounds courting the females wherever. The interesting thing is that the territorial males tolerate this. Research suggests it’s because females are more interested in a display ground that has both kinds of males. The ladies like variety, it seems.

But it gets even more complicated. In 2006, a third male form was discovered. This form is extremely rare, and doesn’t have male display plumage at all. It looks just like a female ruff in the field. The other birds, however, can tell the difference, judging by their behavior. These female mimics travel with other males when the sexes split for the winter, and during homosexual mountings (which are common, as they are in many other animals), they often top.

What’s really interesting about these ‘cryptic males’, or faeders, is that they are apparently super sexy. Seriously. Females and males both prefer mating with them. And it’s believed that, like the satellite males, the presence of a faeder attracts more females to the area, which benefits all three forms.

And the thing about these forms is they are fundamentally different from one another. The plumage and behavior differences last throughout a bird’s life, and are determined by genetics. They are functionally three different genders - one of which shows natural intersex characteristics. All three can breed with females, and females are more interested in breeding when all three are present. They know that diversity is the good shit. Which makes them much, much smarter than TERFs.

[liberalsarecool]

"Dignity For All" is anti-capitalist. 👏🏻💫

[liberalsarecool]

Join a union. Respect your coworker. Solidarity.

[leebrontide]

Holllyyyy crap the new paid leave law in MN is AMAZING.

I was happy it was there but not frankly paying much attention because I am self employed. So, like, I figured it wouldn't apply to me.

NOT SO! For $300 a YEAR I can buy in to the scheme that will give me 66% of my average weekly income if I get hurt, or if I have to take care of someone. Like for Pookie's top surgery. Or if one of the many aging boomers in my life need help. (People with actual employers have this all paid for by their employer. But I am my employer, so I am paying for me)

BUT WAIT!

It can also be for taking care of people I'm not related to, as long as I'm not charging them for care. A law that supports found family! Amazing! Anybody can take care of anybody they care about enough to do this for!!!

It also covers bonding time for new adoptions, bonding time for non-carrying parents, and, not helpful for me but amazing. you can also use it to safely get out of a domestic violence situation!

They did a good job on this one.

Voting does matter.

[depsidase]

[treehuggingwitchyhippy]

There's donuts and coffee!

Where is it appearing from!?!?

It must be George Soros

[leebrontide]

Ok the US Attorney General says that she will remove ICE if MN drops all our sanctuary laws, complies with ICE, hands over all our SNAP, Medicaid and voter rolls. They demand control over our voter registration so they can "ensure free and fair elections".

They want to control our elections.

I am dead serious people call your representatives. Get volunteering. Get protesting. Get LOUD.

They released a letter full of straight up lies. Spread the truth. MAKE NOISE.

Source

[rederiswrites]

How interesting. How very interesting. They rejected my Blaze of this post.

Well, y'all. Make of this what you will, eh?

[a-krogan-skald-and-bearsark]

Then I guess we'll just have to Blaze it the old fashioned way, eh?

[megpie71]

Boosting signal. AGAIN.

[midnightcrisisstuff]

actually no, we're not "dating". we're bound together for infinity. like the stars. so, fuck you, actually.