Intersectionality - Blog Posts

SAY IT LOUDER FOR THE PEOPLE IN THE BACK 🗣🗣🗣🗣🗣

Some of y'all SERIOUSLY need better awareness and critical thinking, especially when it comes to POC characters; particularly this issue is more prevalent with black characters and women of color, and how you perceive and react to them.

It's shockingly and VERY concerningly common to see this issue occur and to see the lack of self-awareness or flat out willful ignorance to their own internal biases coming out into fandom spaces and their interactions with media. All too often, there is hypercriticality or malice lunged at POC characters, but their white counterparts or even white characters who are absolutely abominable with their views and/or actions get a pass or even end up with sympathizers trying to excuse their actions and views.

Not to mention, it's getting frighteningly more prevalent/common with the rise of right-wing talking points and ideology; at least here in the States.

We need to be aware and alert about this, and always view media and the analysis or reaction to media, INCLUDING OUR -OWN- VIEWS AND ACTIONS, with a critical and analytical eye. We need to question the "why" behind all of it instead of jumping onto and believing in first instinct.

i know of course that fandoms are not immune from cultural and societal biases but it still disappoints me that people in fandom will be blatantly sexist and racist and not even critically think about where exactly those takes are coming from

here's your friendly reminder that disability advocacy has to be intersectional!

happy disability pride month to BIPOC disabled folk!

happy disability pride month to queer disabled folk!

happy disability pride month to disabled women!

happy disability pride month to those with physical disabilities!

happy disability pride month to those with mental disabilities!

happy disability pride month to those with invisible disabilities!

happy disability pride month to those with visible disabilities!

happy disability pride month who are unable to work due to their disability!

happy disability pride month to those who are seen as "Not Disabled Enough"!

happy disability pride month to those whose disabilities arent recognised as a disability!

happy disability pride month to those who require any amount of mobility aids!

happy disability pride month to those with high support needs!

happy disability pride month to those with low support needs!

happy disability pride month to people who are demonised because of their disability!

happy disability pride month to literally every kind of disabled person!!

Nuclear Wasteland

The nuclear war had been over for two years, but the world was still a very different place. The few remaining cities were overcrowded and chaotic, and resources were scarce. Soot from all the firestorms still blocked out sunlight, while enemies might strike again at any time.

In one of these cities, a man named Adam was trying to board a lorry to get necessities for his parents and children, all of them on the autism spectrum like himself. He had been finding transportation for hours, and he was starting to get frustrated.

"I'm an autistic caregiver," he said to the soldiers guarding the lorry. "I need to get on board to get food and medicine for my parents and children, who are autistic too."

The soldiers looked bored. "We have many families with autistic children in this city," one of them replied.

"Please, I mean I am also an autistic person myself. My sensory issues mean I need to stay warm more than others as I fetch necessities for my family. I cannot be trekking in this frozen wasteland for too long."

"Ah, I hear you correctly now. But what's a person with special needs doing out in the open right now? Hunker down in your bunker and tell your family to run their own errands."

"No, no, you heard me correctly. They are also autistic."

"So your kids are the ones who're autistic?"

"I am, too."

The soldiers still didn't understand. "How can an autistic person be a caregiver?"

"It is difficult but necessary," Adam said. "Autism often runs in the family."

"Poor thing. The mother didn't survive the bombings? Get the kids' grandparents to help out."

"Like I've said before, they're autistic themselves. Their symptoms have been worsening with age. They're practically deaf to vehicle horns, and their bodies feel like rumpled bags of broken bones."

The soldiers shook their heads. "Come up with a more believable multigenerational sad-sack story, dude. I don't even know autistic people have girlfriends in peacetime, let alone in war and breeding till now. At most, you're either just autistic or just a caregiver and neither would make you so special," one of them said.

"Get your facts right before you cosplay autism. Autistic guys live in their own heads. They don't run all over the place for parents or kids," another chimed in.

"You can't get on board. Period."

Adam was starting to lose his temper. "I need to get on board!" he shouted. "My family is depending on me!"

The soldiers raised their guns. "Back off!" they ordered.

Soldiers further away, who were not even paying attention to them or Adam before, turned their heads and threw accusatory glances at him.

Adam knew that he couldn't argue with them. He turned and walked away.

Later that night, he was so worn out and frostbitten he huddled among trash bags in an alley behind a dilapidated power station, his chest heaving against the supplies. A string of fairy lights peeked out from one of the bags, its extinguished bulbs emptied of dreams.

Adam started to imagine the fairy lights powered on, glowing underwater and on the tiers of a musical fountain buttressed by statues of mythical guardians, but quickly punched himself in the head, the way his class monitor, flanked by bootlicking underlings, repeatedly did to him all those years ago. Why couldn't his identity be neat and simple? Be either the stereotypical autistic tech genius or a typical family man. Have either so-called autistic interests in some scientific or mathematical field or the skill to deceive himself and abandon his passion for interior design from the beginning. What sort of rational person would care about art and decoration when radiation was in your only meal of the day while tank guns pointed everywhere?

If he could just switch his interests and match them with economic logic as readily as nerds in old clips solved Rubik's Cube in a split second, he would be the one launching the stealth planes that must be gliding overhead right now, not a pathetic hitchhiker of a military lorry. His family would be cloistered away in one of those underground enclaves for the super wealthy, with all the aides and sitters they needed.

The red hazard sign on the drab wall opposite seemed to be glaring at Adam: We told you so. No, rewind that a second. How marvelous his aesthetic mind still had the luxury to judge the appeal of the power station, as if a red sign on some royal blue background could order food to automatically march into stomachs.

Adam's train of thoughts came to a halt. He had a brainwave.

Years later, a group of journalists felt like they were stepping into a dream as they navigated an office space filled with art and soothing music. There were little bulbs in shades of purple everywhere, glowing in the low-light conditions its creative employees preferred to work in. In the depths of the office were laboratories and showrooms with magenta lights in various stylistic arrangements. Below the lights were lettuces, cabbages, cucumbers, carrots, tomatoes and many other crops, some of which looked healthier than those grown under the sunlight of the pre-apocalypse years. The chlorophyll hungrily absorbed the different combinations of red and blue light tailored for the plants. The greatest value a design firm could bring to indoor agriculture, though, was optimization of lighting and area usage under the varying and challenging space conditions of post-apocalypse dwellings. Adam was feeding stomachs one fairy light at a time.

The old question popped up. "What's the secret to your success?"

"I don't have a convenient, pared-down identity," Adam replied simply.

Credits

Story concept: Human

Story setting: FierceOcean @ Character.ai

Text: Mostly Human + some AI input

Images: Mostly Character.ai + some Human input

References

Liang, Y., Kang, C., Kaiser, E. et al. Red/blue light ratios induce morphology and physiology alterations differently in cucumber and tomato. Sci. Hortic. 281, 109995 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scienta.2021.109995

Sabzalian, M.R., Heydarizadeh, P., Zahedi, M. et al. High performance of vegetables, flowers, and medicinal plants in a red-blue LED incubator for indoor plant production. Agron. Sustain. Dev. 34, 879–886 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13593-014-0209-6

Winstead, D.J., Jacobson, M.G. Food resilience in a dark catastrophe: A new way of looking at tropical wild edible plants. Ambio 51, 1949–1962 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13280-022-01715-1

Xia, L., Robock, A., Scherrer, K. et al. Global food insecurity and famine from reduced crop, marine fishery and livestock production due to climate disruption from nuclear war soot injection. Nat Food 3, 586–596 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43016-022-00573-0

Among Wakanda Forever's many MANY achievements is its superb indictment of white feminism. Julia Louis-Dreyfuss' character is the classic superficially "empowered" woman in a high-level corporate job who does nothing to empower any other woman--who in fact only seeks to infiltrate and sustain the same colonial patriarchy that oppresses most of the world for her own benefit. Contrast this with the true feminism of Wakanda and Talokan, where women are not only on equal footing with men, but play an active role in creating and maintaining societies that would have no room for such backwards notions as misogyny in the first place. Wakanda Forever is a masterpiece.

Great stuff. It's amazing how love is a universal experience across diverse cultures and societies.

Allah Loves Equality - A Voice for LGBTQIA+ Muslims & Minorities

🌈☪️Allah Loves Equality is a revolutionary campaign that was started by a Pakistani Gay Muslim Activist Wajahat Abbas Kazmi The campaign amplified the voices of marginalised womxn including Queer womxn,Pakistani LGBTQ community as well as LGBTQIA+ muslims.Hashtag #AllahLovesEquality has been trending since 2016.The campaign gain both supports & criticisms. Through his campaign,wajahat wanted to spread the message of TRUE Islam,wanted to end hate & bigotry within muslim societies.The message of ''Allah Loves Equality'' was spred across the continents.A documentary film by the same name was directed by Wajahat Abbas Kazmi to documents the lives of queer muslims in Islamic State of Pakistan🇵🇰 It was a very courageous thing that he has done.Like A jihad for Love,Poshida:Pakistan's Hidden LGBT, Allah Loves Equality film abled to show Pakistan's underground queer & sexual minority.

Wajahat Abbas Kazmi campaigning in Pride March of Italy 🇮🇹🇵🇰🏳️‍🌈

Turkish Gay muslim model is holding #AllahLovesEquality

#AllahLoveEquality in Europe's first Muslim LGBTQ+ Pride 🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍🌈☪️

A Queer Palestianian holding #AllahLovesEquality in Jerusalem Pride.

Filipino Muslim Filmmaker Rhadem Musawah marching with #AllahLovesEquality 🇵🇭🏳️‍🌈

U.S. Just Threatened To Restrict Aid To Ghana For Passing Anti-LGBTQ Bill!

Context: This explains how the U.S has no real intention of the liberation of queer communities but likes to pretend it does by playing the white savior.

If your feminism doesn't include Iranian and Afghan women, then you're not a feminist.

If your feminism doesn't include women suffering in highly patriarchial societies, then you're not a feminist.

If your feminism doesn't include honour killing victims, then you're not a feminist.

If your feminism doesn't include women suffering at the hands of a zealot religious ideology, then you're not a feminist.

If you support women who want to wear the hijab, but don't support women who don't want to wear it, then you're a morally corrupted person.

The truth will s̶e̶t̶ y̶o̶u̶ f̶r̶e̶e̶.̶ make you uncomfortable; it's still the truth.

// this video needed to be shared here too..

I’ve seen several posts (and a lot of reposts of those posts) talking about the misogyny in rap music produced by men, and while I think that having a conversation about misogyny in entertainment is incredibly important, I also think it’s important to think about why we’re focused so heavily on demonizing rap music in particular.

A lot of mainstream music produced by men, regardless of it’s genre, has the same messaging of misogyny, rape culture, sexism, etc. If you read a lot of the lyrics of popular club/dance music especially, it’s hiding in plain sight. However, in a world in which white is the norm, we’re used to hearing that type of messaging disguised underneath the soothing, fun loving, catchy melodies sung by familiar voices so we sing along without thinking about the words leaving our mouths. Rap, while it’s still a very popular genre, goes against that familiar, comfortable habit of hiding lyrics and is very straightforward, and therefore our condemnation increases because it forces you to interact with the lyrics instead of shutting off your brain.

I don’t advocate for a lack of critical thinking or criticism for the genre, in fact I’m asking for the opposite. Is Rap truly the worst genre for misogyny? Because I could, and am, arguing that abusive lyrics hidden in songs that play over the speakers at every establishment (and especially around children) with no issue, is just as bad if not worse. Genres such as Country, which is just as full of misogyny, are treated with a kind of “roll your eyes and get over it” attitude. We treat it as a joke, if we acknowledge it at all. Those silly, backwards folk living in a cornfield town don’t know any better, really.

Socially, we also forgive and forget about male violence much quicker when the man is white. I’ve watched people blow up angrily about a white man’s crime and after 6 months it’s forgotten to the point nobody remembers it when I bring it up. However a black man in that same situation will have his disgrace last years longer. This is not me advocating in any way for everyone to get the white man treatment, but for everyone to have an accurate social reaction to the crime itself without the person’s race tainting how we view him (and by extension, those in his racial group).

Rap, while it has some serious bad apples now, has an incredibly important cultural history of pushing for social change that other popular genres in the world today do not, and it’s ironic to me that it is now seen as the most morally corrupt and oppressive genre. Associating the entire genre solely with low intelligence (both in the artist and the audience), general moral failing and filth, and a backwards view on society when there are so many rappers who have pushed for social changes harder than any other musicians, when you do not similarly condemn other musical genres, is unfortunately a case of internalized racism.

I will reiterate once again that I am not in any way saying that anyone or anything should get off scot-free or without deep criticism. Pointing out an unfair balance in how we condemn groups of people is simply that, pointing it out. I think we need more criticism but I think that criticism needs to be nuanced, complete, and informed. I would also urge you to look into smaller or more underground rappers/rap movements because there is a lot to enjoy and many good people to support when you’re able to get past the big names that do well for a reason. The majority of our culture today is misogynistic so misogynistic lyrics appeal to the general masses, and people who refuse to fall under that group don’t end up as famous as those who do.

[Edited to hopefully make my point easier to understand bc I was getting several reposts that seemed to be taking away a message I didn’t mean to put across]

Preach!! I'd add harassment to this as well though. Nobody deserves to be harassed.

Female cops don't deserve rape

Tradwifes don't deserve rape

Conservative women don't deserve rape

Fascist women don't deserve rape

""Terfs"" do not deserve rape

MRA women don't deserve rape

Disagreeable women in general do not deserve rape

No woman no matter her shitty ideology deserves to be sexually abused

Once it's okay to excuse rape based on ideology sooner or later you'll meet someone who doesn't agree with you.

"There's nothing feminist about having so many resources at your fingertips and choosing to be ignorant. Nothing empowering or enlightening in deciding that intent trumps impact. Especially when the consequences aren't going to be experienced by you, but will instead be experienced by someone from a marginalized community."

Hot take but if your organization has bioessentialism as one of its core ideologies then it could never really be intersectional.

whenever you don’t post for a few days I just know you’re cooking up something IMMACULATE

BAHAHAHAHA you're so funny for this! That is very sweet of you to say. <3

Part of it is so I can space out my posting and have consistent content for you guys. I actually have a lot written, but don't post it every day to 1) give it time to circulate and get read by people- my posts get more engagement if I leave a few days in between each one (I have no idea why, I'm so bad with algorithm know-how, so beats me), 2) because I would rather give you all consistent content spread out with a few days in between then bombard you with a week's worth with one every day and then leave you hanging BECAUSE, 3) I am actually in the middle of a multi-month trip! I don't have my computer, so everything that you have read for the past couple of months has been written on my phone, which just takes so much longer (I type on a computer SO MUCH FASTER than on my phone). I get back home in March sometime, so it will be easier to write with my laptop, but for now it's all being written on my phone in the spare moments I have on planes and buses, or at my lodging.

I do still LOVE seeing your requests, and I PROMISE to get to each and every one. It just might take some time, so thank you for being patient with me! :)

I really do appreciate all of you that read, comment, and reblog. I read every single message you send me, and this has been such an incredible creative outlet for me during a period in my life where I've been having to do some community building. I'm of the belief that if art can even positively impact a few people, it deserves to be shared. So while my following and engagement might not be large, I still care for you all deeply and am so grateful you have chosen to read my work.

As a queer person, it gives me such fulfillment to write queer stories with an emphasis on gentle love and companionship, which is something that we struggle with even in the lgbtqia+ community, and people outside of the community CERTAINLY have trouble seeing our love that way. I try to be good representation, but I also remind you to engage with other queer media as well (eg: BIPOC queer media, trans and nonbinary media, Latine queer media, aro media, aspec media, intersex media, lesbian media, disabled queer media, Muslim queer media, Jewish queer media, etc.). I try to include characters that fall into those categories when I can, because the world around us is not a vacuum and is beautifully diverse, but these communities deserve to be the center of the story! I also choose to write O'Knutzy/lumosinlove fics because I LOVE queer representation in hockey and have loved the sport since I was little, but I am a lesbian, so I do feel a sort of lacking even within the universe I choose to base my fics on. And, unfortunately, wlw/genderbent wlw fics generally are not as popular because they don't "sell"- it's a combination of misogyny/sexism and the fetishization of mlm relationships. The only genderbent cubs AU fic that I wrote had some of the worst engagement, which was a bit disappointing, because it was inspired by @fruitcoops's PWHL AU fics that I ADORED (please also go and follow the PWHL! They are AMAZING, and there are many that ARE queer, so it is great representation, something which the MNHL is still lacking in many respects, even with Pride Nights)! I had a think, and I will be writing and posting some more PWHL Cubs AUs because it makes me happy to write them. But, we should also be engaging with originally wlw content, NOT just genderbent! So please go engage with queer authors of all intersections in AND outside of fanfic (yes, this means go read books and support individual authors!). Representation is out there, and I encourage you to critically engage with it!

Anyways, I've said my piece! I hope you all have a lovely evening!

Eugenics, and how it leads to gender

NO.1

What is eugenics? Better yet, what was the eugenics movement about? Wikipedia states that ‘'it’s a set of beliefs and practices that aim to improve the genetic quality of a human population, historically by excluding people and groups judged to be inferior or promoting those judged to be superior. In recent years, the term has seen a revival in bioethical discussions on the usage of new technologies such as CRISPR and genetic screening, with a heated debate on whether these technologies should be called eugenics or not.’’

NO.2

The concept was created by Plato, where he suggested the concept of selective breeding; but the term was invented by a cousin of Darwin, Francis Galton, who launched the movement to ‘improve the human race, or at least, to halt its perceived decline. His ideas spread quickly, and by the 1920s eugenics movements existed all over the world. Eugenics, a movement for social betterment clothed in the mantle of modern science, claimed the allegiance of most genetic scientists and drew supporters from the political right, left, and center. The movement was embraced by Hitler and the rise of Nazism, which thankfully lost most of its power at the fall of the Third Reich in Europe and America, but some of its ideas still linger in the States. Like the notion of gender and marriage; strictly speaking, of white heterosexual couples.

NO.3

In the 1920’s eugenicist, Paul Popenoe brought marriage counseling to the U.S, where he sought to protect ‘family values’ since there was widespread concern over the declining white birth rates and created the American Institute of Family Relations (AIFR) where they popularized pseudoscientific sexual differences to the masses. Back then, everything in pop culture had little trails leading back to eugenics, including in schools, taught to their children, plastered as ads to their buildings, like pamphlets and books, all on advocating for the white female students to produce more children. Popenoe argued that the ‘male-female difference transcended all other human differences and was the ‘greatest that can exist between the two normal human beings.’ He felt that was this sex binary was essential to the survival of the family, nation, and western civilization, and therefore must be protected from the decadence of modern society.

NO.4

Post-war eugenicists were threatened by the higher education women which they felt decreased ‘natural birthrates and called for traditional marriage with defined sex-gender roles arguing that ‘men and women were made for marriage, biologically and psychologically.’ Patricia Hill Collins explains in her book, “It’s All in the Family: Intersections of Gender, Race, and Nation that ‘‘stationed in the center of ‘family values’ debates is an imagined traditional family ideal. Formed through a combination of marital and bloody ties, ideal families consist of heterosexual couples that produce their own biological family. Defined as a natural or biological arrangement based on heterosexual attraction, this monolithic family type articulates with governmental structures. Because family constitutes a fundamental principle of social organization, the significance of the traditional family ideal transcends ideology. In the United States, understandings of social institutions and social policies are often constructed through family rhetoric. Families constitute primary sites of belonging to various groups: to the family as an assumed biological entity; to geographically identifiable, racially segregated neighborhoods conceptualized as imagined families; to so-called racial families codified in science and law, and to the U.S nation-state conceptualized as a national family.’’

Intersectionality in regards to social science

Modern society in America, as a fact, has adapted the constructed norms of the Victorian Era in England, by which I mean how economic class, race, and sexuality is managed, or for lack of a better term, is misconstrued with eurocentric ideals; Since the creation of the United States, the only way you would be able to receive the privileges society holds was if you were white, straight and economically secure.

Throughout the decade, society has changed drastically when it comes to talks on these particular subjects, but we still have a long way to go in advancing a better community for everyone. Intersectionality, created or introduced in the 1980s, ‘‘as a heuristic term to focus attention on the vexed dynamics of difference and the solidarities of sameness in the context of discrimination and social movement politics. It exposed how single-axis thinking undermines legal thinking, disciplinary knowledge production, and struggles for social justice. Over the intervening decades, intersectionality has proved to be a productive concept that has been deployed in disciplines such as history, sociology, literature, philosophy, and anthropology as well as feminist studies, ethnic studies, queer studies, and legal studies.’’

So intersectionality is quite popular in learning all these studies. Patricia Hill Collins, a sociologist famous for writing the book ‘Black Feminist thought’ and ‘Race, Class, and Gender, writes about the politics of gender and race, and how they shape and influence knowledge. Epistemology is the study of knowledge, and Collins theorized that race and gender are part of our ‘social being’. ‘‘Social science argues that to truly understand society and group life one must be removed from the particulars and concerns of the subjects being studied. In this way, subjects are turned into objects of study. Collins’ (2000) alternative epistemology claims that is it only those men and women who experience the consequences of social being who can select ‘topics for investigation and methodologies used’ (p. 258). Black feminist epistemology, then, begins with “connected knowers,” those who know from personal experience—Rather than believing that researchers can be value-free, Collins argues that all knowledge is intrinsically value-laden and should thus be tested by the presence of empathy and compassion. Collins sees this tenet as healing the binary break between the intellect and emotion that Eurocentric knowledge values.’’

Gender and Religion

    NO.1

In order to understand the system of race, class and gender in America, we have to look at England’s role in their systems of class. ‘During this time period, the emergence of a consumer-oriented corporate order undermined the coherence of the Victorian gender system; rising gender consciousness among black women turned the ideology of ‘women’s sphere’ into a disrupted terrain of racial and struggle class; while women’s devotional practices became a site of gender contestation within American Catholic culture. Each of these developments has given impetus to new studies. Historians of conservative evangelicalism have complicated the heretofore easy equation of ‘Protestantism’ with ‘women’s sphere’ by delineating the different understandings of women’s role within early twentieth-century Protestantism; Progress across racial lines has been initiated by several important literary and historical studies that reveal how the separate spheres ideology served the interests of the white middle class by camouflaging racial and economic differences.’’

 NO. 2

Since the early 1980’s, advances in the study of gender in American history have come primarily through an unmasking of the assumptions of earlier studies; Others have laid bare the earlier scholarship’s assumption’s to universal gender definitions that do not take into account differences in women’s roles based on race, class, or region. Additionally, several historians have begun to explore the influence of gender relations on the lives of men. As a result, we are beginning to get a picture of gender in the American history that goes beyond the ‘women’s sphere’ experience of white, middle-class, northeastern women.

  For the past twenty years of this apparent lifetime, Protestant mainline has given way to a religious studies interest in the social and cultural history of outsiders. Concurrently, an older Protestant consensus narrative has come to be seen as one of several stories that, together seek to account for the American religious past. Further inquiries have questioned the usefulness of both liberal and evangelical labels in accounting for the deep racial, economic and theological divisions of late nineteenth century among the more than 150 Protestant denominations, not to speak of the rapidly growing population of Catholics with their own substantial differences of nationality, theology and social class. As historians have started to study seriously the deep diversities in American culture, gender has emerged as an important analytic category for re-imagining America’s religious past.

NO. 3

    As recently as 1985, Elizabeth Fox-Genovese complained that historians of religion and gender have too often simply added ‘religion to an almost finished picture rather than exploring ways in which religion might refine and even radically revise the picture.’ Within the past decade, however recent developments both within and without the field of American religious history have begun to coalesce and suggest the contours of promising new departures, and most of this new work focuses on the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

What exactly is anthropology?

Anthropology is the study of various cultures all around the world. To begin, we study all human socities and cultures, in order to determine our future and development. There are four subdivisions of anthropology, like visual, cultural, biological, and archeological. As an anthropologist, I explore human connections, rituals, gender inequalities, globalization, war, genocide, climate change, colonialism, what the meaning of culture is and how important it is that we all learn from the past so that we can change and improve our future.

NO. 2

When I attended high school, I felt like my education was limited. I was only learning about European history, and it was only when I got to college did things change, and I learned about things I should have known since the eighth grade or younger. I feel like every student, but especially POC students should have a vast amount of knowledge about cultures all over the world, and not just European. It was a lot of information I took in during my four years in college, but I don’t regret learning about why humans are the way they are, and why our society is the way it is. When people talk about anthropologists, they usually bring up popular movies like Indiana Jones, AND I’ll admit that’s where I learned about it before school. But movies that involve main characters who are historians, or archeologists who study humans through their material remains, must also be stereotyped as ‘treasure hunters’, ‘adventurers’, or ‘cool detectives’ who uncover what they’re finding without any help or colleagues to support them, who are almost always straight, of European background, male, and are almost always inaccurate.

NO. 3

The truly comical thing about is this? Since it is stereotyped that it’s a once in a lifetime job it is seen as ‘frivolous’, and not an actual lifechanging career that focuses on all contemporary human culture, like language, economic systems, social systems, art, and ideology. Social science focuses on the study of humanity, and they should be the forefront for everyone to study and learn from. And though I realize that we’re living in the technological age, those who study archaeology use technology, and explicitly use scientific method. When I was young, I was fascinated with history, with culture, and I wanted to change the world. I still believe in that sentiment, but I also understand that nothing will change if we don’t closely study the systems and cultures that benefit to an unjust, and unchanging society.

Protest

Sources: SigningSavvy, Lifeprint, ASLDeafined

[Image ID:

Protest in American Sign Language. S handshape palm facing signer and elbow resting on base hand in open B handshape palm down. Fist twists out and arms move out slightly. Movement is illustrated by arms that are translucent green and blue in different stages of the sign.

End ID]

[Image ID:

Image 1: Protest in ASL. Arms are different darker skin tones.

Image 2: Protest in ASL. First set of arms are in Gay pride colors. Second set are Trans pride colors.

Image 3: Protest in ASL. Arms are different skin tones in a black wrist brace.

End ID]

how would you stereotype the female panther?

and this question is meant sincerely. what could this panther do to be more “feminine”? how many octaves does she have to raise her roar for you to hear her as a female? does it matter when she’s chasing you at full speed?

is she less violent with less melanated fur or skin? is she more violent the darker she is? does it change her existence as a female panther? does it change how she scales a tree in search of prey? does it change her love for her cubs, or the way she loved her mother when she was a cub? does it change the sharpness of her canines?

do you look at her and see her as a female? or do you see her as a panther first, with her femaleness being secondary?

and why would a human be different?

why would a human female be stereotyped the instant she’s perceived? why does her skin correlate to violence or docility? why is she female before she is human? why is her existence inherently sexual, inherently meant for consumption?

it doesn’t have to be this way.

welcome to The Neutral Human Project, a space for envisioning a future beyond the myth of gender, beyond the myth of race, beyond the tangled web of identity as inherently political. this project is a work of theory, ever evolving before your very eyes, aimed at narrowing down the path toward the next stage of humanity, one with unity, equality, compassion, and connection at the forefront of all human interaction, political or otherwise.

this project values the human as another species of animal. despite our minute differences in epigenetics, culture, upbringing, class, and environment, this project makes it clear that there is simply more that unifies us than divides us. through advocacy for separation of church and state, dissolution of gendered stereotypes and discrimination, normalization and separation of sex from the gendered myth, the rights of all human females, and the freedom to be who you are without the burden of overcomplicated labels, this project aims to make a clear and ever changing plan for evolution beyond the boxes and borders of modern human society.

welcome to the future of humanity in text. we are equal, we are united, and we will stand indivisible against all problems— no matter how tricky they may be.

YES! To me intersectionality was this plus the beauty in all the different paths and histories that continue to shape my reality and my being. All the paths my body and soul have met. The reconciliation of everything I've walked. 

is the undercurrent theme of this blog. Perhaps this is a new concept. If so, here are some things to get started:

Kimberlé Crenshaw (who coined the term in 1989) on intersectionality: “I wanted to come up with an everyday metaphor that anyone could use.” (source)

"Intersectionality promotes an...

i’ve been thinking a lot lately about AI and its use in pornography, specifically in the seemingly gendered approach to it. Broadly speaking, there is a sort of ‘binary’ to the demographics of AI Pornography; men, typically, gravitate towards AI Images while women tend to gravitate more towards AI erotic roleplay (such as Chai and similar platforms which permit 18+ roleplay, unlike CharacterAI, generally speaking). While the gendered differences in consumption of pornography have been discussed and analysed before, I’m particularly interested in the broader implications of the intersection of AI and roleplay within pornography as I feel it differs from the traditional erotica-focused/text-focused pornography that many women gravitate towards, which I feel indicates a broader social pattern.

Particularly, what fascinates me about this is how much of this roleplay isn’t simply action-based (i.e., focused solely on sex) but rather more narrative-based (i.e., a specific dynamic - a mafia husband who’s secretly falling for you, a demon boyfriend courting his angel girlfriend, a prince smitten with a princess, and so on), which speaks to a broader desire for emotional connection.

Simply put, a cursory glance at these bots suggests that the user demographic seeks more than just sex - they seek connection.

Now, on its own this is not inherently surprising nor new - many women tend to prefer to feel ‘desired’ or ‘courted’ by their partners - but rather, I think that the broader social context that we see this interest evolving in is noteworthy. I think it is fundamentally linked to a larger social dynamic of the growing social gaps between men and women.

Over the past several years, particularly since the start of the pandemic, men in many countries have shifted towards more conservative and reactionary viewpoints; men overwhelmingly vote conservatively, many men have become far more outspoken in their misogynistic viewpoints, and many men have overwhelmingly demonstrated themselves to not be a desirable partner - be it due to politics, unequal contributions to domestic labour, disinterest in female sexual pleasure, or a litany of other factors.

Moreover, as the rate of female college graduates continues to rise - while the male rate declines - and womens’ overall growth in careers, mental health, education, income, and similar categories catches up to - or outright outpaces - mens’ performance, more and more women have seemed to developed a growing awareness that, simply put, being in a relationship with a man frankly does not offer the same benefits as it once did.

In reaction to this, many - though not all, of course - men have reacted negatively, instead doubling down on these behaviours rather than seeking to improve, which, in turn, has resulted in many women de-centering and de-prioritising men.

Concurrent to this, we’ve seen the rapid development and evolution of AI, which almost offers an escape - the ability to instead find fulfillment from an ‘AI Boyfriend’ - who’ll never leave dishes by the sink or ignore your pleasure - which I think contributes to this divide. Fundamentally, if you still desire companionship, at least in the vaguest of senses, you can satisfy it momentarily through the virtual embrace of AI.

Now, this isn’t to blame women for such a pivot - it’s wholly understandable why, given the above reasons, a woman might decide that remaining single isn’t that bad of an option - but I think it nonetheless requires discussion as we stare down the question of what happens when a large portion of the population may not end up in a relationship?

Regardless of what side of the issue an individual falls on, the question nonetheless retains its gravity. Fundamentally, whether or not we view men as wholly or in part at fault for this social trend in women choosing to remain single, we must consider how this affects men.

For example, if we take a group of 100 heterosexual men and estimate that 20% of them will not end up in a relationship, that leaves 20 men effectively isolated - particularly when we look at statistics of male friendships. Now, if we assume that 40% of them are unable to find a partner for ‘self-induced’ reasons - such as holding misogynistic views, for instance - that nonetheless leaves 12 seemingly ‘decent’ men single.

Now I’m not arguing that those 12 individuals are entitled to a relationship nor that they are obligated to be ‘given a chance,’ but rather I think we must ask ourselves: what happens to those overlooked individuals? It’s not sufficient to simply say “sucks to be you” as, ultimately, humans will still desire connection. Moreover, when we look at the systems that target these men - pipelines of radicalisation, such as the Far-Right - we fundamentally need to consider the outcomes of these circumstances.

I’m not positioning myself as a ‘defender of men’ here, but I fundamentally believe that we should not just abandon a segment of the population for no reason other than their gender. While, yes, the onus does ultimately fall on men as a whole to build up spaces and connections to combat this isolation, we nonetheless have to consider, as progressives, what will we do in response to this? Will we simply abandon these individuals, telling them to effectively ‘figure it out’ and leave them to search for communities, many of which implicitly push them out?

Fundamentally, I feel that that is an issue that pervades many progressive spaces; there is this tendency to engage in rhetoric outwardly hostile towards men and then be surprised that men are broadly disinterested in these spaces.

Now, I’m not arguing that we should placate and centre men - much of this rhetoric comes from people and groups who have understandable reasons to be distrustful of men, given the unfortunately too-common experiences of male violence - but we must nonetheless consider how we communicate this. To put it bluntly, we cannot reasonably expect men to happily sit by and be told they are fundamentally evil due to their gender; rather, we should try to find a reconcile our justifiable anger towards patriarchial violence while still offering space to men.

This doesn’t mean that we have to blindly tolerate patriarchial views and attitudes - fundamentally, I believe that everyone, regardless of who they are, should be held accountable and encouraged to grow - but instead we should open ourselves to a more intersectional perspective that considers that we are all victims of patriarchial violence.

Obviously, I’m not trying to equivocate between individual experiences of patriarchial violence and present them as all equal; instead, I’m simply positing that, in our ever-divided society, extending empathy to others is beneficial to reactionary ideology when we can.

In closing, I feel the words of Bell Hooks communicate my point much better than I ever could:

“To create loving men, we must love males. Loving maleness is different from praising and rewarding males for living up to sexist-defined notions of male identity. Caring about men because of what they do for us is not the same as loving males for simply being. When we love maleness, we extend our love whether males are performing or not. Performance is different from simply being. In patriarchal culture males are not allowed simply to be who they are and to glory in their unique identity. Their value is always determined by what they do. In an anti-patriarchal culture males do not have to prove their value and worth. They know from birth that simply being gives them value, the right to be cherished and loved.” - Bell Hooks, “The Will To Change”

Look at where you get your information. Make sure it’s reliable. Stop causing more pain to people already in a rough place. 

kind of belated, but Happy Pride y’all :)