Hi, my name is Rachel. Chicagoan. Roman Catholic. Nerdfighter. Liberal. Left Handed. Blue Eyes. Lover of books. Fan of Harry Potter, Firefly, Buffy, Doctor Who, Parks and Recreation, HIMYM, puns, sarcasm, etc.
LGBT activists have been vocal about intersex issues for several decades, because establishing the legal right to bodily autonomy for intersex persons is basically inseparable from establishing the right of trans persons to that same legal autonomy over their own bodies. many intersex persons prefer not to be grouped together with LGBT causes; however, the vast majority of LGBT activists would agree that performing “corrective” surgery on intersex infants - to force them to adhere to a largely fictional gender binary - is pretty fucking evil.
Actress, Miriam Margolyes: When you know your worth, you know your worth.
She is beautiful and I love her.
She’s also a lesbian and has been with her partner, Heather Sutherland, for fifty years!
Who is calling her ugly?!? I want names! I want addresses! I want a grant from the UN to travel the world smacking every one of those assholes. She radiates warmth and sincerity, she is lovely.
i bet john green thinks people don’t like him because he’s a “dork” or a nerd or whatever
when in reality it’s because he’s a creep who panders to…
Reblogging for a few reasons, namely:
1. As a human being, I feel the need to stand up for friends who are being hurt and have done nothing to deserve it. These include Cassie Clare and John Green, both of whom are my actual, real-life, flesh and blood friends. They do all the things that real life friends do. They’re kind, and the real. They’ve helped me when I’ve needed it, and now seeing things like this, I have to step up. In this case, John is casually being painted with the worst brush imaginable, seemingly by people who don’t seem to make the connection between internet posting and human beings and real-life impact.
You think John is a creep? Okay, let’s talk. I’ve been with John while he’s talked to people in trouble, the same people you think he’s somehow pandering to, and believe me, there was nothing creepy about it. Yes, he is good at talking. Yes, he tries to (and usually succeeds) to be funny in order to mitigate tension and discomfort. Yes, he believes in trying to help. He’s not perfect–I’ve seen him eat, after all, and that’s not something I can forget soon. But he is kind. And he is for real. You don’t like his style? I have a suggestion: don’t read his books. Or leave a book review that’s about the book. But casting these kinds of aspersions isn’t a virtuous act.
To speak about my friend Cassie for a moment…Cassie did an interview just yesterday about this kind of thing. It’s here. Cassie is smart. She genuinely loves and gets fandom. She’s enthusiastic. She’s generous. It’s not a virtuous act to threaten to break the bones in her hand because you didn’t like something she did in a book. It’s not virtuous call in a threat to a store, or threaten to set fire to her books in front of her. I’ve seen her cry and/or throw up about these things so many times I literally cannot count them, because that is how often it happens.
As authors, you have to expect a certain level of commentary, but commentary does not equal spurious accusations of child molestation, threats of violence, and death threats.
No, I’m not saying these things because I’m some kind of sycophant. I knew these two before they were as famous as they are now. I make friends with nice people. I tend not to like raving assholes. If they were raving assholes, I wouldn’t be friends with them.
2. To the people who posted this: I’m going to assume you’re young. I’m going to assume maybe between 18-21. That’s just a guess. (If you’re, like, 35, then we need to have another kind of talk entirely.) But if you are young, posters, I get it. I get that desire to do something and pick things apart and be seen. BELIEVE ME I GET IT. But you’ve conflated book criticism with accusations of a terrible crime–a crime that happens every day and is frequently either buried or made difficult to report. I lived in a place where this kind of thing was going on and was buried, and when I think about it I get so mad I want to set the sky on fire. THIS DOES NOT HELP. You’ve gotten some wires crossed here that I hope for your sake, and frankly for the sake of people in your life, you uncross.
3. Mostly, I’m posting because this seems to be a high tide for this sort of thing–online attacks, hateful language. It’s not just John and Cassie. It’s not just authors. It’s EVERYONE. EVERYONE is reporting it across the board. And this is especially true of people who are traditionally marginalized, people who are using the internet to raise their voices.
I think we have a real shot of turning back the tide and making people feel safe again, making the internet a good place where creativity can flourish and people can be themselves. I’ve heard from so many readers who are now afraid to be online. They’re afraid to be themselves. This is not a good state of affairs.
I genuinely believe with all my heart that the internet can remain totally open and free and we can make that connection between the words or image on the screen and the flesh and blood person those words or images represent. Few people are fully good or bad. We’re all a mix. We screw up. But we also learn, do better. We don’t have to go around being fake nice all the time–that’s not what I’m saying. I’m also not saying we shouldn’t criticize or comment. We absolutely must do those things. But it is never okay to threaten, or to make up claims that could poison someone’s life. There are fables and fairy tales written about how bad this is–that’s how far back this goes.
It’s difficult when new things come along (and the internet is new–I know, you are reading this and it’s been around your whole life, but in terms of communication methods it was pretty much born yesterday). It’s hard to find levels. It’s hard to work out how to do this right. But I’m optimistic because we generally do find those levels. We learn how to talk to each other. We learn how to communicate negative feelings and experiences. Words save lives every day.
Now I’m going to eat an entire box of herbal tea bags and listen to some calming music.
Okay but after seeing this I started doing it too and it’s amazing how many men I’ve run into bc they expected me to move
Gotta try it
I work (and walk) on a college campus. I’ve lost count of how many men I’ve smacked shoulders with.
Recently, I was standing outside my son’s classroom waiting to talk to his teacher. I stood on one side of the hallway, not even close to the center. At some point, a man came walking along. I was standing right in his path, but the hallway was empty, so I logically expected him to swerve around me. Instead he kept walking right toward me, got to me, and stopped, as if waiting for me to get out of his way. I didn’t; I just smiled politely at him. He finally walked around me, clearly annoyed that I hadn’t leapt out of his manly path.
Now I’m wishing I’d leapt aside, taken off my jacket and laid it on the floor before him, then bowed deeply and said, “My Liege!”
I also work at a college campus. I smack shoulders sometimes, but I find that if I stare straight ahead and follow the advice below, people get the heck out of the way.
Honestly this post changed how I carry myself when walking alone in public, or in a situation where I’m the one leading. People definitely move for the murder gaze.
Confirmed. I once had to rush back inside a convention hall as the con was closing in order to a retrieve a sick friend’s medication, and I didn’t understand why people in the crowd were jumping out of my way (literally—one guy vaulted a table) until I realized I was dressed as the Winter Soldier and doing the Murder Walk because that’s just how I walk in those boots. I got the meds, got out, and made a mental note.
I repeated the experiment later, wearing the boots but otherwise my usual clothing and mimicking the expression I thought I’d had at that moment. People parted like I was Charlton Heston.
I now wear that style of boots whenever possible. I recently had a man do a double-take as I walked by and ask me, politely, where I had served because I “looked like a soldier.” I’m not current or former military. I was wearing a flowy purple peasant top and looked as un-soldierlike as possible.
Moral of the story: wear comfortable shoes, square your shoulders, and walk like you’ve been sent to murder Captain America.
So my mom is shopping in a supermarket, wearing a full hijab and jilbab (commonly misnamed as a burka) and the whole time she is there, this kid is staring at her. Won’t stop staring. Just looking with wide-eyed shock. The lil feller isn’t any older than four. She doesn’t think much of it, she is used to far worse than just a few stares.
Until the very end when the kid and his mom are behind her in the checkout, and he leans up and whispers loudly:
This is one of the best things that has EVER HAPPENED ON LIVE TELEVISION. You could not write this. People would say you were being too fanciful or ridiculous. The best things happen in real life.
William is forbidden, by tradition, to turn around. Harry is not. SUCH BROTHERS. MY HEART.
