Does anyone else have that one fanfiction that they’re dying to to write but it’s like, mega long and basically a whole universe, and then you’ve got head-cannons to go with that fanfiction and like fanfiction to go with that fanfiction an back-stories for every character and you get frikin’ feels about that universe and it’d be the most coolest thing if you could just be bothered to frikin’ write it.
I want you all to know that an Arab Muslim from Tunis proposed the Theory of Evolution near 600 years before Charles Darwin even took his first breath. Don’t let them erase you.
Also, it was not the apple falling from a tree that made Issac Newton “discover” gravity. He was reading the books of Ibn Al Haytham, an Arab Muslim from Iraq, who pioneered the scientific method, discovered gravity and wrote about the laws governing the movement of bodies (now known as Newtons three laws of motion) some 600 years before Newton existed. Without him, modern science as we know it wouldn’t exist. Read on him. His achievements are far greater than what I’ve just mentioned here.
yo, the two people you’re talking about are both really cool dudes and yes they should be more widely known but stop spreading misinformation. do not use lies to spread the word about cool people and things.
the concept that things evolved from other things was already an idea floating around for basically ever in any scientific circle not completely dominated by creationism. like, darwin didn’t come up with it and he never claimed to. you can find dozens of natural philosophers throughout history like “yo i’m pretty sure that there’s some evolution going on here.”
it was not like the scientists in the 1850s were finding fossils of transitional forms and being like “LOL well dragons i guess!” it was already getting pretty obvious to academics in the 19th century that the earth was really old, life had gone through some serious changes, and there were common ancestors and related species. once maps got good enough for people to go “fuck dude africa and south america fit together” young earth creationism was fucked.
the problem was that there was no mechanism they could devise that would explain how creatures changed from one form into another, which was really kind of the vital piece of the whole thing. they had evidence that there was an evolution of life, but no way to build a theory because they had no way of showing how it might happen. some people were playing with the idea that creatures picked up traits from the environment and passed those to their kids.. somehow, but they had no evidence. they had a chain with no links.
then darwin comes along with some sketches of birds and he’s like “hey so here’s what going on. gregor mendel has shown that traits can be passed along, i’m gonna propose that what’s happening is, creatures that are best suited for an environment to flourish, so this preserves and eventually exaggerates certain traits over time to cause divergences. you go back far enough, like billions of years, all life coulda started from just a few basic types, or maybe even just one ancestor.”
darwin didn’t discover evolution. he proposed evolution by natural selection and he was right.
i mean, mostly. we had to correct his theory a whole bunch as we learned more about things like genetics and dna. he was actually kinda wrong about a ton of shit but that’s to be expected.
secondly, what’s important about newton wasn’t his observations, it was his math. ibn al haytham made a lot of important discoveries and advanced a lot of ideas about physics, especially optics, the big science of the middle ages, but the principles he talked about weren’t quite there yet.
like, he did this whole essay talking about planetary motion which, while more accurate than his contemporaries, was fundamentally inaccurate clockwork universe stuff because he actually hadn’t discovered gravity as a useful theory and he wasn’t able to use it to make predictions about motion.
that doesn’t make him stupid or worthy of being forgotten or nothin’. thats not how science works. he made advances, he didn’t quite have the shape of things yet, his work was important.
newton, building on his successes, was like, yo dawg, orbital mechanics. its like falling, but you miss. here’s a form of math i fucking invented to show some proof. lets check that against the universe.
and we did. and when it turned out his predictions were slightly wrong, some other motherfucker named einstein fixed it. and when he was wrong, etc.
its almost like science is totally built in increments on people who came before and trying discrediting the people who made some of those increments for political reasons is basically just as fucked as forgetting the folks who did the foundation work.
spreading misinformation to try to lionize historical figures so they are acknowledged has the opposite effect. it makes people who know shit roll their eyes and ignore similar posts later on. it makes the people who do read them look like dumbasses when they try to spread the word. it makes you look like one of those liberal stereotypes who disregards reality when it is politically convenient and that is not a good thing to look like.
minor point:
then darwin comes along with some sketches of birds and he’s like “hey
so here’s what going on. gregor mendel has shown that traits can be
passed along, i’m gonna propose that what’s happening is, creatures that
are best suited for an environment to flourish, so this preserves and
eventually exaggerates certain traits over time to cause divergences.
you go back far enough, like billions of years, all life coulda started
from just a few basic types, or maybe even just one ancestor.”
Darwin’s work preceded Mendel’s, actually. On The Origin Of Species came out in 1859, Mendel’s paper on inheritance in 1865. That traits could be passed along was known to everybody, though not how; Mendel discovered some particular rules that inheritance follows.
+1
Darwin spent a good chunk of his life wondering what the mechanism of natural selection could be, while ignoring Mendel completely.
To be fair, Mendel was publishing in some obscure-ass local Moravian natural history society journal. I’m not sure how much of that made it into Darwin’s circles.
(And on the original topic: Ibn Khaldun did pretty much legit invent historiography though, as far as we can tell, so there’s that)
This is anecdotal but I’ve heard that in one of the journals in Darwin’s collection, he had scribbled notes on an article across the page from an article by Mendel, which he had ignored entirely.
As I am both a Person Who Loves Promoting Obscure Historical Figures (Especially Non-Western and PoC Figures Who Have Been Shamefully Overlooked) AND a scientist, the original posts made me pretty damn tired and I didn’t have the energy to post corrections about Ibn Khaldun’s work on evolutionary biology. thanks to everyone who did have the energy. It’s a great topic for discussion and those who are interested in the history of science will always appreciate sharing their knowledge with the public, so I’m glad we had this talk.
one of the most famous quotes by Isaac Newton is “If I have seen further [than others], it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants.”
I fucking love how tumblr has been using high flicker rate gifs on the login screen. Have you not heard of epilepsy?
not to mention that once in a while i go to a blog, and either the url is changed, they deleted, or i just typed it wrong, and it’s literally always a p high flicker rate gif:/
For anyone with sensitive eyes or epilepsy, if you’ve downloaded AdBlock, you can get rid of these GIFs.
Go to ‘options’, it should open up in another window. You can then go to ‘customise’ tab, and select ‘manually edit your filters’.
If you then paste tumblr.com###fullscreen_post_bg, the GIFs should no longer show up (in the very least, they shouldn’t show up when you go to an unclaimed URL).
Reblogging for any followers who have issues with this.
what i’ve learned is that if you’re gonna engage in a romantic relationship during your young adult years, it damn well better be with someone who makes your insides explode with nothing but positive emotion. someone who takes the time to be kind, patient and understanding, more often than not, and who is as warm with their words as they are with their touch. life is too short to be focused on people who do not have your growth and best interest in mind. the right person will love you in a way that makes you feel completely free and accepted within your own skin. they won’t attempt to hinder your development out of fear or insecurity that your new experiences might lead you into the arms of someone else. good lovers will desire to see your personal success just as much as you do, and they will support and respect your decisions. stay away from people who make you feel guilty about desiring the best for yourself. they don’t love you for you, they love you for what you can provide for them. and that is not love.
This is great news for ScarJo and all but we have one, very important question: SO HOW ABOUT THAT BLACK WIDOW MOVIE? Seems like a pretty sound investment at this point, friends.
find a slightly older female friend. like… two to ten years older than you. they will save your life, they will teach you so much, they will give you such great life lessons. they are so vital and helpful and important.
If you are the older friend don’t kid yourself that you’re not learning from younger friends too. That’s how you become that old person who is bewildered by hairstyles and slang.
my friends have honestly taught me more about adult life than my mom ever did re: my mom and I have a strained relationship at best
my therapist in college was the only person who ever told me how to set up a gyno appointment, and she also gave reviews of places and told me its not rude to ask for a female doctor
one friend brought me on my first apartment hunt, and all of them, having already run that gauntlet, have a lot of tips and tricks that have been super helpful
one of them reformatted my resume and cv to the kind that med students use, and helps me respond to frightening work emails
a lot of advice about looking for jobs and applying to grad school
how to hunt for a sale, and how to put together an adult outfit
cleaning literally everything, getting stains out, fixing things
how to have difficult conversations
but meanwhile I’ve also done my share of teaching:
introducing them to the pink tax, and how men’s products were cheaper, I could almost hear ‘a whole new world’ playing in the background, mind blown
I bake more pastries than anyone else
I bring the memes
like, any relationship, no matter the dynamics or ages, should have a give and take sharing of emotions, knowledge, and skills
you always have got to be careful, especially young ones, of people taking advantage of inexperience etc, but if you can find a good group of people to run with, run with them
my friend group has a mix of ages between 24 and 44 and no one person is more than 3-4 years away from anyone else. its a range, we have shared interests, and we like each other. we also have diverse backgrounds, skills, and experiences, so we have a pool of shared knowledge that can solve most problems.
I wonder if, in superhero universes, the villains ever get contacted by those “Make a Wish Foundation” and similar people.
I mean, the heroes do, of course they do, kids who want to meet Spiderman or Superman or get to be carried by the Flash as he runs through Central City for just thirty seconds.
But surely there are also the kids, who - because they are kids and sometimes kids are just weird - decide that what they really, really want is to meet a supervillain. Because he’s scary or she’s awesome or that freeze ray is just really, really cool, you know?
Oh, man, that would absolutely be a thing. The heroes would be so weirded out by it. The villains with codes of ethics would totally band together to force the villains without one (should they be the one requested) to do their part for the cause.
But imagine the person who has to track down the villains and organise everything?
Like, the first time it happens, no one actually thinks it’s possible, but one of the newbies volunteers to at least try. They get lucky, the kid wants to meet one of the villains who is well known to have a personal code of ethics (eg one of the rogues), and it takes them weeks to track the villain down to this one bar they’ve been seen at a few times, plus a week of staking out said bar, but they finally find them.
So they approach the villain, very politely introduce themselves and explain the situation, finishing with an assurance that, should the villain agree, no law enforcement or heroes will be informed of the meeting.
The villain, assuming it’s a joke, laughs in their face.
At this point, the poor volunteer, who has giving up weeks of their time and no small amount of effort to track down this villain, all so a sweet little girl can meet the person who somehow inspired them, well, at this point the employee sees red.
They explode, yelling at this villain about the little girl who, for some unknown reason, absolutely loved them, had a hand-made stuffed toy of them and was inspired by their struggle to keeping fighting her own and wasn’t the villain supposed to have ethics? The entire bar is witness to this big bad villain getting scolded by some bookish nobody a foot shorter than them.
When the volunteer is done, the villain calmly knocks back their drink, grips the volunteers shoulder and drags them outside. The bar’s patrons assume that person will never be seen again, the volunteer included. But once they’re outside, the villain apologises for their assumption, asks for the kid’s details so they can drop by in the near future, not saying when for obvious reasons. They also give the very relieved volunteer a phone number to call if someone asks for them again.
A week later, the little girl’s room is covered in villain merchandise, several expensive and clearly stolen gifts and she is happily clutching a stack of signed polaroids of her and the villain.
The next time a kid asks to meet a villain, guess who gets that assignment?
Turns out, the first villain was quite touched by the experience of meeting their little fan, and word has gotten around. The second villain happily agrees when they realise it’s the same volunteer who asked the other guy. Unfortunately, one of the heroes sees the villain entering the kid’s hospital and obviously assumes the worst. They rush in, ready to drag the villain out, but the volunteer stands in their way. The hero spends five minutes getting scolded for trying to stop the villain from actually doing a good thing and almost ruining the kid’s wish. The volunteer gets a reputation among villains as someone who can not only be trusted with personal contact numbers but who will do everything they can to keep law enforcement away during their visits.
The volunteer has a phonebook written in cypher of all the villain’s phone numbers, with asterixes next to the ones to call if any other villains give them trouble.
Around the office, they gain the unofficial job title of The Villain Wrangler.
The heroes are genuinely flabbergasted by The Villain Wrangler. At first, some of the heroes try to reason with them.
Heroes: “Can’t you, just, give us their contact details? They’ll never even have to know it was you.”
The Villain Wrangler: “Yeah sure, <rollseyes> because all these evil geniuses could never possibly figure out that it’s me who happens to be the common thread in the sudden mass arrests. Look man, even if it wouldn’t get me killed, it would disappoint the kids. You wouldn’t want to disappoint the kids would you?”
Heroes: “… no~ but…”
The Villain Wrangler: “Exactly.”
Eventually, one of the anti-hero types gets frustrated, and decides to take a stand. They kidnap the Villain Wrangler and demand that they give up the contents of the little black book of Villains, or suffer the consequences. It’s For the Greater Good, the anti-hero insists as they tie the Villain Wrangler to a pillar.
The Villain Wrangler: “You complete idiot, put me back before someone figures out that I’m missing.”
Anti-hero: “…excuse me?”
The Villain Wrangler: “Ugh, do I have to spell this out for you? Do you actually want your secret base to be wiped off the map? With us in it? Sugarsticks, how long has it been? If they get suspicious, they check in, and then if I miss a check-in, they tend to come barging into wherever I am just to prove that they can, even if they figure out that they’re not being threatened by proxy. Suffice to say, Auntie Muriel really regretted throwing my phone into the pool when she strenuously objected to me answering it during family time. If they think for even one moment that I’ve given them up, they won’t hesitate to obliterate both of us from their potential misery. You do know some of the people in my book have like missiles and djinni and elemental forces at their disposal, right?”
Anti-hero: “Wait, what? I thought they trusted you?!”
The Villain Wrangler: “Trust is such a strong word!”
Villain: “Indeed.”
Anti-hero: “Wait, wha-” <slumps over, dart sticking out of neck>
The Villain Wrangler: “Thanks. I thought they were going to hurt me.”
Villain: “You did well. You kept them distracted, and gave us time to follow your signal.” <cuts Villain Wrangler free>
The Villain Wrangler: <rubbing circulation back into limbs> “Yeah well, you know me, I do whatever I have to. So I’ll see you Wednesday at four at St Martha’s? I’ve got an 8yo burns unit patient recovering from her latest batch of skin grafts who could really use a pep talk.”
Villain: “… of course. Yes… I… yes.”
The Villain Wrangler: “I just think you could really reach her, you know?”
Villain: <unconsciously runs fingers over mask> “I… yes, but, what should I say?”
The Villain Wrangler: “Whatever advice you think you could have used the most just after.”
Villain: <hoists Anti-hero over shoulder almost absently> “….yes.”
The Villain Wrangler wasn’t lying to the Anti-hero. They know that the more ruthless villains would not hesitate if they thought for one second that the Anti-hero would betray them.
But this is not the first time the Villain Wrangler has gone to extreme lengths to protect their identities.
Trust is a strong word. The Villain Wrangler earned it, and is terrified by what it could mean.
My first official deadpool headcanon is this. This this this.
Okay but this whole concept actually makes a lot of sense, because villains are a lot more likely to be disfigured/disabled/use adaptive devices (bc ableist tropes), so of course, say, a child amputee is going to be more interested in the villain with a robot arm who almost destroyed New York than the heroes that took him down.
Also, imagine one of the kids gets better, and a few years down the line becomes a villain themself, except their crimes are things like smuggling chemo drugs across the border for families that can’t afford treatment, or stealing from corrupt businessmen to make donations to underfunded hospitals (idk this turned into a Leverage AU or something) and every time the heroes encounter her, they’re like “oh no. she’s getting away. curses. welp, nothing we can do.” Though it isn’t that she can’t take them on; bc of course once the villain from way back when found out what she was up to, he started helping/training her.
“I thought they just hired someone to dress up and pretend to be you,” she says, amazed, when he reveals himself. “I didn’t think they actually got the real you!”
Every year the Villain Wrangler gets a very expensive gift basket from the pair.
and for the kids who don’t get better the villains are there too, they show up to every funeral, they bear too small coffins on their shoulders and the heroes stand aside
they are fierce with grieving families assuring them that their child will not be forgotten, and they don’t balk at negative emotions, they don’t tell people to be strong or “celebrate their child’s life,” because these parents have every right to their grief and anger
and the lost children are never forgotten. flowers appear on graves during birthdays and anniversaries, heroes find pictures of those kids and they carefully take them down and ensure they’re delivered to the villain’s cell, and a few villains can be seen with friendship bracelets wrapped around their wrists the cops have learned not to try and take them off
And then one day, one of the evil geniuses who happens to specialise in inducing bizarre genetic mutations meets a young fan who was born with a rare genetic disorder that is slowly killing them, and realises that they can help.
Another, who created their own exosuit, talks to a young fan and suddenly understands how much the technology that they have built for themselves could revolutionise quality of life for people with muscular dystrophy, or paraplegia, or other disorders that confine people to wheelchairs with little mobility.
A third thinks of a way that their nanobots could be used to detect and remove cancer cells when their fan, who had been in remission, writes to say that the doctors have found a new metastasizing tumour.
Then shortly after, an evil genius specialising in cloning is contacted by an old colleague asking if a suitable heart couldn’t be grown for their young fan with a congenital heart condition who needs a donor.
Suddenly, a pattern of villains offering (and marketing) their insights and resources to improve medical science starts to arise. Many who had previously been operating on society’s fringes are shocked to receive public accolades, research grants and job offers from major companies because of their work.
A grassroots movement arises advocating for imprisoned villains with appropriate qualifications and/or experience to have access to resources to conduct research for the public good. The Second Chance Rehabilitation Project launches.
(It is an open secret that only people who have been vetted by the Villain Wrangler are allowed to join, because the Villain Wrangler has by now a meticulously set up method and intelligence network to run background checks and character references through ensure that none of the children wishing to meet their role models get hurt.)
Being able to say that one is involved with the Project begins to look really good in parole hearings. The Villains involved perform their own quality checks on one another, because if one of their kids got hurt, then all of their kids could potentially lose out, and the ones that are serious about the Project are not having that. (Also, the ability to collaborate with other geniuses is the most interesting thing to happen to most of them since losing to various heroes, and most consider the intellectual stimulation to be worth putting up with the ridiculous egoes and inevitable personality clashes that arise.)
Reformed Villains come out of the woodwork to advocate about better mental healthcare, and support systems. Savvy universities and private labs quietly take their advice, setting up better mental health supports and laboratory safety standards to prevent the Brain Drain caused by losing their less stable scientists to the Costumes.
The Villain Wrangler watches all of this develop with a smile.
i’m watching this documentary about halloween and there’s a part where they’re explaining that ghost stories got really popular around the civil war no one could really deal with how many people went off and died and
the narrator just said
“the first ghost stories were really about coming home”
IIRC, the Civil War also played a huge part in forming the modern American conception of heaven as this nice, domestic place where you’re reunited with your loved ones. People (particularly mothers) responded to the trauma of brother-killing-brother by imagining an afterlife in which families would once again be happy together.
(also not doing this in the correct tag-style, because I wanna KNOW— )What documentary is this? Or is there more than one? Any books on the subject? THIS IS FASCINATING.
cool (ghost) story, bro.
reblogging because, as a us history phd student, i want to say YAY for how much of this is totally on point. i also want to rec the book where a lot of this is covered very, very well, which is Drew Gilpin Faust’s “This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War.”
a lot of books on the Civil War are deadly dull because they’re about battles and shit, but as a transformative moment in mindset and ideology, it becomes *fascinating*
the other book I’d even more highly rec is David W. Blight’s “Race and Reunion,” which is about how the “(white) brother against (white) brother” image of the war was invented and how throwing African Americans to the merciless viciousness of post-Reconstruction racist whites was part of constructing this “oh everybody was white men and everybody was noble let’s celebrate them all” approach to Civil War remembrance
very good stuff
Thank you! This looks like exactly the sort of reading I’m after! *adds to wish list*
Also, look for David Blights recordings of his Yale lecture series on The Civil War. 21 hours of class lectures, and its FASCINATING. He barely touches on the battles other than to use them as timestamps as to what was going on. Most of it focuses on what the mindset of everyone was going into the war, and what happened on the way out. It’s an amazing series that will change your entire perception of the war - how it happened, and how it wasn’t going to be possible to avoid it, because of the inherent evil of slavery and how it was destroying damn near *everyone* except rich white people.
I didn’t know about the free Blight lectures. You can listen to them here:
Art museums are a lot more fun when you can admit your honest opinion of the works. I hated visiting them as a kid, ‘cause adults always expected me to be very serious about every exhibit and have complicated, nuanced opinions about What Art Is.
Visiting them with friends? Loads of fun. You can make dick jokes, laugh at ugly Renaissance babies, and focus on things that you genuinely like or find interesting.
Babe,
you GET me. I assume you mean “that time
where modern AU Enjolras made the most ridiculous wish ever and subsequently made
Grantaire’s life miserable,” of course.
Here’s the
thing. Enjolras doesn’t believe in what
he can’t see and touch and handle with his own two hands. The ideal
of freedom is only something he believes in because he can see it on the
smaller scale, but he’s not religious or spiritual or what have you because it
just doesn’t even occur to him.
So when Marius tells
him to be careful what he wishes for, all wide eyes and earnest voice, because Marius’
mother used to tell him warning stories about the Goblin King, Enjolras laughs
at him. He’s particularly unkind about
it because Marius interrupted a meeting where they were actually getting things done for once with this nonsense, and
because it’s the twenty-first century and they’re past fairy stories. Marius is offended, and insists that he knows those stories are true.
“Is that so,”
Enjolras says flatly, and Marius nods emphatically. “Fine, we can test that. I wish–”
“Enjolras, don’t,” Marius yelps.
“—that the
Goblin King would come and take all of France away, right now.”
stop romanticizing mic dropping… damage to sound equipment is no joke
Modern stage microphones for concert use are actually designed specifically with mic dropping in mind. When the move started to become fairly popular amongst performers back in like the early 90’s manufacturers started making their products more durable so that sound technicians didn’t have to buy a new mic every concert. The biggest concern most sound guys have when mic dropping is concerned is actually the feedback that’s going to be coming from the mic when it hits the ground. That’s why you always see the performers hold the mic out for a second before they actually drop it, to give the dude at the soundboard time to mute!
Pet peeve: People who yelled at you and made you angry but try to joke with you a few minutes later because they can’t stand the atmosphere they created
OK SO in the days leading up to the biggest maths exam I’ve ever written (also my 4th last one ever ) i’ve found this website. now, symbolab is different to mathaway and wolfram alpha (which are both great!) in that it shows you all the steps and it doesn’t do that thing where it’s “free” but if you want the explanation you have to sign up and pay. it’s AMAZING. know why?
it does everything. not baby everything, but everything. Calculus?
what’re you looking for?
also, the interface is really easy to use, and it’s set out so well.
(sorry for spamming you with asks) Is anakin known by everyone as ani in this au?
AT LAST THE NEXT PART IS DONE. \o/ And holy crap it’s like 3500 words?? When did THAT happen.
I will confess I’m a little nervous about posting this one, because I made up some bits of Naboo handmaiden/Tatooine slave culture to fill the story out better and I’m not sure how well it all came together/works with canon. I hope it at least works for you guys?
We’re so bad at sex and then we wonder why women aren’t like, really aggressive about sex. We think it’s cause they don’t have as much desire as we do. That’s how stupid men are, that we think ‘they’re just weird, women are like fucked up in the head cause they don’t wanna just fuck all the time. If I was a women, I’d just fuck everybody. Why don’t they wanna fuck all the time? I do.’ Of course you do, cause when you fuck, you get to fuck a woman! When she fucks, she has to fuck a guy! Wildly different experiences. For a man, 100% of the time, it’s the greatest thing that ever happened in his entire life. For a woman, about 40% of the time, when she’s being fucked by a guy, she’s thinking ‘I’ll get over this in a week. It’s not the worst thing. I’m not gonna cry this time.’
“Another thing that proves how bad men are at sex is that after sex, you’re looking at two very different people. The man just wants to lay there, be cool and the woman wants to cuddle … ‘Why is she so NEEDY?’ She’s not needy you idiot, she’s horny, because you did nothing for her. YOU DID ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. HER PUSSY IS ON FIRE BECAUSE IT’S GONE UNFUCKED COMPLETELY. Of course you’re fine, you climbed on and went ‘KFHGSKG’ and rolled off. And she’s on you because she’s like ‘WH-at SOMETHING ELSE HAS TO HAPPEN, THIS IS BULLSHIT!!’ If you fuck a woman well, she will LEAVE YOU ALONE. ‘Thanks a lot buddy, zzzzz.’
”—
Oh, Louis CK, advocate for the female orgasm. (via whismical)
I vow to reblog this every time it appears on my dash.
hello I am here to tell you about Worst Time Traveller Han Solo, possibly post-TFA, grumpily rolling through the Clone Wars and accidentally earning a Reputation for knowing, strangely, exactly where to invest his money and what to do when confronted with Completely Unexpected Events. also, for some reason, he keeps running into baby-Vader a lot. STOP SHOOTING AT ME, yells Anakin, possibly just before they find themselves in another hot mess. sorry, force of habit, says Han.
also, at least once, somebody’s like “ok dude you’re a bit TOO accurate with your blaster shots as Anakin keeps complaining, lemme take your midichlorian count” “midi WHAT NOW” “I mean, you’re clearly Force-sensitive” “NO I’M NOT IT’S LUCK.”
“Miraculous! Adrinette where Marinette is an upperclassman.
Her main interaction with Adrien is at her parent’s shop, where he always grabs
something during lunch break. She’s still a hot mess around him, and he’s still
a complete flirt with Ladybug. Go.” For @littlestartopaz , on the AU meme.
C’mon now, we’ve all basically agreed that I’ve co-opted this
meme as an excuse to get AU prompts and write a lot on every single one of
them. So Marinette is seventeen here and
Adrien is still a lonely fifteen-year-old kid who gets devoted to anyone who
seems like they care about his feelings.
There’s no regard whatsoever for the canon timeline here, we’re
pretending that they’re already working together by the time he starts public
school.
The
first time Adrien Agreste walks into her parents’ bakery, Marinette hides
behind the counter and hyperventilates for a solid minute while he looks
around. She stutters her way through
taking his order, and he gives her a small smile that genuinely makes her heart
stop a little. (She’s going to feel bad
about that later, once she knows how much it bothers him when people get fluttery
over him, but look, just look, he’s a
very handsome boy and she’s awkward, this is a matter of record, Alya has the
proof.)
And
then he actually sits at the counter and picks through his sandwich and talks
to her, and he’s nice and funny and wry, with a sweet self-deprecating
smile. Marinette can barely string a
sentence together, but he doesn’t make fun of her or question her and he seems
fine with pretending that she has no idea who he is. She might die, she might have a heart attack,
but what a way to go, that’s all she’s saying, under those bright green eyes.
I wonder if, in superhero universes, the villains ever get contacted by those “Make a Wish Foundation” and similar people.
I mean, the heroes do, of course they do, kids who want to meet Spiderman or Superman or get to be carried by the Flash as he runs through Central City for just thirty seconds.
But surely there are also the kids, who - because they are kids and sometimes kids are just weird - decide that what they really, really want is to meet a supervillain. Because he’s scary or she’s awesome or that freeze ray is just really, really cool, you know?
Oh, man, that would absolutely be a thing. The heroes would be so weirded out by it. The villains with codes of ethics would totally band together to force the villains without one (should they be the one requested) to do their part for the cause.
But imagine the person who has to track down the villains and organise everything?
Like, the first time it happens, no one actually thinks it’s possible, but one of the newbies volunteers to at least try. They get lucky, the kid wants to meet one of the villains who is well known to have a personal code of ethics (eg one of the rogues), and it takes them weeks to track the villain down to this one bar they’ve been seen at a few times, plus a week of staking out said bar, but they finally find them.
So they approach the villain, very politely introduce themselves and explain the situation, finishing with an assurance that, should the villain agree, no law enforcement or heroes will be informed of the meeting.
The villain, assuming it’s a joke, laughs in their face.
At this point, the poor volunteer, who has giving up weeks of their time and no small amount of effort to track down this villain, all so a sweet little girl can meet the person who somehow inspired them, well, at this point the employee sees red.
They explode, yelling at this villain about the little girl who, for some unknown reason, absolutely loved them, had a hand-made stuffed toy of them and was inspired by their struggle to keeping fighting her own and wasn’t the villain supposed to have ethics? The entire bar is witness to this big bad villain getting scolded by some bookish nobody a foot shorter than them.
When the volunteer is done, the villain calmly knocks back their drink, grips the volunteers shoulder and drags them outside. The bar’s patrons assume that person will never be seen again, the volunteer included. But once they’re outside, the villain apologises for their assumption, asks for the kid’s details so they can drop by in the near future, not saying when for obvious reasons. They also give the very relieved volunteer a phone number to call if someone asks for them again.
A week later, the little girl’s room is covered in villain merchandise, several expensive and clearly stolen gifts and she is happily clutching a stack of signed polaroids of her and the villain.
The next time a kid asks to meet a villain, guess who gets that assignment?
Turns out, the first villain was quite touched by the experience of meeting their little fan, and word has gotten around. The second villain happily agrees when they realise it’s the same volunteer who asked the other guy. Unfortunately, one of the heroes sees the villain entering the kid’s hospital and obviously assumes the worst. They rush in, ready to drag the villain out, but the volunteer stands in their way. The hero spends five minutes getting scolded for trying to stop the villain from actually doing a good thing and almost ruining the kid’s wish. The volunteer gets a reputation among villains as someone who can not only be trusted with personal contact numbers but who will do everything they can to keep law enforcement away during their visits.
The volunteer has a phonebook written in cypher of all the villain’s phone numbers, with asterixes next to the ones to call if any other villains give them trouble.
Around the office, they gain the unofficial job title of The Villain Wrangler.
The heroes are genuinely flabbergasted by The Villain Wrangler. At first, some of the heroes try to reason with them.
Heroes: “Can’t you, just, give us their contact details? They’ll never even have to know it was you.”
The Villain Wrangler: “Yeah sure, <rollseyes> because all these evil geniuses could never possibly figure out that it’s me who happens to be the common thread in the sudden mass arrests. Look man, even if it wouldn’t get me killed, it would disappoint the kids. You wouldn’t want to disappoint the kids would you?”
Heroes: “… no~ but…”
The Villain Wrangler: “Exactly.”
Eventually, one of the anti-hero types gets frustrated, and decides to take a stand. They kidnap the Villain Wrangler and demand that they give up the contents of the little black book of Villains, or suffer the consequences. It’s For the Greater Good, the anti-hero insists as they tie the Villain Wrangler to a pillar.
The Villain Wrangler: “You complete idiot, put me back before someone figures out that I’m missing.”
Anti-hero: “…excuse me?”
The Villain Wrangler: “Ugh, do I have to spell this out for you? Do you actually want your secret base to be wiped off the map? With us in it? Sugarsticks, how long has it been? If they get suspicious, they check in, and then if I miss a check-in, they tend to come barging into wherever I am just to prove that they can, even if they figure out that they’re not being threatened by proxy. Suffice to say, Auntie Muriel really regretted throwing my phone into the pool when she strenuously objected to me answering it during family time. If they think for even one moment that I’ve given them up, they won’t hesitate to obliterate both of us from their potential misery. You do know some of the people in my book have like missiles and djinni and elemental forces at their disposal, right?”
Anti-hero: “Wait, what? I thought they trusted you?!”
The Villain Wrangler: “Trust is such a strong word!”
Villain: “Indeed.”
Anti-hero: “Wait, wha-” <slumps over, dart sticking out of neck>
The Villain Wrangler: “Thanks. I thought they were going to hurt me.”
Villain: “You did well. You kept them distracted, and gave us time to follow your signal.” <cuts Villain Wrangler free>
The Villain Wrangler: <rubbing circulation back into limbs> “Yeah well, you know me, I do whatever I have to. So I’ll see you Wednesday at four at St Martha’s? I’ve got an 8yo burns unit patient recovering from her latest batch of skin grafts who could really use a pep talk.”
Villain: “… of course. Yes… I… yes.”
The Villain Wrangler: “I just think you could really reach her, you know?”
Villain: <unconsciously runs fingers over mask> “I… yes, but, what should I say?”
The Villain Wrangler: “Whatever advice you think you could have used the most just after.”
Villain: <hoists Anti-hero over shoulder almost absently> “….yes.”
The Villain Wrangler wasn’t lying to the Anti-hero. They know that the more ruthless villains would not hesitate if they thought for one second that the Anti-hero would betray them.
But this is not the first time the Villain Wrangler has gone to extreme lengths to protect their identities.
Trust is a strong word. The Villain Wrangler earned it, and is terrified by what it could mean.
My first official deadpool headcanon is this. This this this.
Okay but this whole concept actually makes a lot of sense, because villains are a lot more likely to be disfigured/disabled/use adaptive devices (bc ableist tropes), so of course, say, a child amputee is going to be more interested in the villain with a robot arm who almost destroyed New York than the heroes that took him down.
Also, imagine one of the kids gets better, and a few years down the line becomes a villain themself, except their crimes are things like smuggling chemo drugs across the border for families that can’t afford treatment, or stealing from corrupt businessmen to make donations to underfunded hospitals (idk this turned into a Leverage AU or something) and every time the heroes encounter her, they’re like “oh no. she’s getting away. curses. welp, nothing we can do.” Though it isn’t that she can’t take them on; bc of course once the villain from way back when found out what she was up to, he started helping/training her.
“I thought they just hired someone to dress up and pretend to be you,” she says, amazed, when he reveals himself. “I didn’t think they actually got the real you!”
Every year the Villain Wrangler gets a very expensive gift basket from the pair.
and for the kids who don’t get better the villains are there too, they show up to every funeral, they bear too small coffins on their shoulders and the heroes stand aside
they are fierce with grieving families assuring them that their child will not be forgotten, and they don’t balk at negative emotions, they don’t tell people to be strong or “celebrate their child’s life,” because these parents have every right to their grief and anger
and the lost children are never forgotten. flowers appear on graves during birthdays and anniversaries, heroes find pictures of those kids and they carefully take them down and ensure they’re delivered to the villain’s cell, and a few villains can be seen with friendship bracelets wrapped around their wrists the cops have learned not to try and take them off
This is all soooo good, but I wonder what effect this has on the villains. Like, can they really wreak indiscriminate havoc when they know the kids that worship them might be in the area? Like, what if they attack a shopping mall and it just so happens that Annie’s mom ran in for a pair of shoes or something? What then?
So what you’re saying is that there is now an organization of henchmen who do round the clock, exhaustive research in order to make sure the villain’s plan isn’t going to ruin the life of some kid. Just imagine some aunt getting a call from an unlisted number.
“I swear I am not a bill collector ma’am. It’s just. Well. Ok and I swear I am not a stalker even if this is actually going to be a very creepy phone call, but you said you were going to the mall at four? Is it possible you could reschedule or postpone that trip for about an hour? That mall is way too close to…well. It just wouldn’t be safe. I could wire you some money, and you could go to the much nicer mall one town over? Would that work for you? No? You are calling the police? Yes. Yes that is the sensible thing to do. Definitely do that. You have a nice day, ma’am. Tell Marcus Doctor Evil says hello and to have a nice day.”
And then the poor minion has to call the villain and explain why robbing X bank isn’t a good idea that day.
“Yes. Hello. Sir? Oh good I caught you before you left the base. Look, Marcus Smithson’s aunt is going to be near the blast radius for that job you have scheduled so-yes. Yes I am aware that rescheduling is going to be a lot of work since most everything is already set up, but….but, sir think about poor Marcus! She’s his favorite aunt, and the woman refused to ‘reorder her life around some crazy mastermind’. ……no…..no, please do not kidnap the aunt, sir. It’s terribly rude. Yes I realize you weren’t going to keep her or doing anything other than drop her off at an alternative location, but, well, citizens frown upon that sort of thing and….yes….Yes, of course. You have a good day, too, sir.”
And they turn to their coworker and are just like “So if I don’t come in to work tomorrow it’s because Doctor Evil threw me in his dungeon and/or sent his hellhounds to maul me. Please remember to send help.”
Oooooh yes.
But but but… what happens when one falls through the cracks? When Lord Dominion or whatever does a typical baddie thing but then Penny’s new best friend gets caught up in the damage and Lord D didn’t even KNOW Penny had a new bestie so how was he to know but now the kid is devastated and it’s all his fault? I mean, how does that even shake out?
Penny SWEARS REVENGE! Lord D is distraught but also somewhat proud. He sends Penny a very sincere apology and also a bunch of tips on how to execute a proper vengeance plot, in case she decides not to accept the apology. He sends henchmen to spy on her, and he keeps the surveillance photos of her sitting in her room, plans and schematics strewn all over her desk. He puts them in his wallet and brags to all his villain friends that one of his kids is taking up scheming, look at her go, she’s already started on pattern analysis of his latest heists. He’s so proud. Later this month he’ll show up on her way home from school so she can have her first Confrontation.
omg yes. Yes to all of that. There will inevitably be mistakes and tragedies.
Penny is an intelligent kid. She catches on to the spying henchmen pretty quick and bribes some of them to her side with snacks. That first confrontation does not go like Lord Dominion expected because Penny has minions (minions that are using his OWN WEAPONS against him, even)
Lord Dominion is the proudest villain ever, even if he did almost lose an ear thanks to the impeccable aim of a nine year old with a grudge. He does let the laser blast graze him just so he can have a scar to show people because that girl is a villain after his own heart.
He doesn’t want to ask his villain rivals to help her out because that would imply he doesn’t think she’s capable of eventually growing strong enough to kick his ass. Turns out Penny already thought of that and has mailed letters asking for advice to Lady Sinister, Lord Dominion’s long time, mostly friendly rival. (She mailed a letter to Lord D’s arch nemesis, but man. Heroes are always trying to make you do The Right Thing. Penny doesn’t have time for the high road. Plus, the low road has lasers.)
Lady Sinister thinks Penny is the best thing ever and while she has mostly stopped kicking Lord D’s ass, she still breaks into his hideout to sit in his favorite chair with a glass of wine and brags about her new favorite up and coming villainess. (She doesn’t warn Lord D about the attack rabbits she agreed to train for Penny as a favor, and for obvious reasons, she is going to be a bystander at the next confrontation, filming everything on her phone to post the dark web so all their villain friends can see this)
“You can’t have a character with big boobs and not sexualise them”
“There aren’t any feminist female characters that want to do things that are typically feminine”
“There aren’t any badass gay characters”
“There aren’t any cool/badass disabled characters”
“Okay well what about disabled POC characters?”
“There are no interesting or complex villains! None that ever question their morals, or have an interesting motive”
“There aren’t any women characters that don’t just do things for men”
“I want a poc character that fights against racism”
“There aren’t any cool characters that aren’t young and healthy”
“There are no male characters that like feminine things”
Need I go on? Go watch Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood.
Fullmetal alchemist also tackled the issues of imperialism, genocide, PTSD, friendly fire, racism, war brutality, and military corruption unflinchingly. “Most military commanders are killed by their own disgusted soldiers.” indeed.
at this point reading about post-Brexit news is like following the unfolding of a very nasty and painful breakup, where everyone involved is shouting and throwing furniture out of the window. The UK wants to talk about custody and alimony first, but the EU is seething and asking the UK to take all of its stuff and get the fuck out of their house ASAP, Scotland is taking EU’s side and telling England: look, we’ll always be neighbors and friends but you fucked up so we’re moving out, Northern Ireland is thinking to move in with their folks again, the racist aunt who never liked the couple is celebrating by kicking kids out of her yard, the markets are crashing drunk on the sidewalk and losing money like I lose bobby pins, whereas the rest of us, children of divorce from both sides of the Channel, are left weeping, confused, abandoned, wandering toward an uncertain future and thoroughly fucked over by our parents.
it baffles me that theres people who can just… just sit down and take out their homework and be like “time to work yes” and actually…get things done???? without a problem??? and move on?????? thats wild
hello I am here to tell you about Worst Time Traveller Han Solo, possibly post-TFA, grumpily rolling through the Clone Wars and accidentally earning a Reputation for knowing, strangely, exactly where to invest his money and what to do when confronted with Completely Unexpected Events. also, for some reason, he keeps running into baby-Vader a lot. STOP SHOOTING AT ME, yells Anakin, possibly just before they find themselves in another hot mess. sorry, force of habit, says Han.
also, at least once, somebody’s like “ok dude you’re a bit TOO accurate with your blaster shots as Anakin keeps complaining, lemme take your midichlorian count” “midi WHAT NOW” “I mean, you’re clearly Force-sensitive” “NO I’M NOT IT’S LUCK.”
“it would be impossible for this disabled character to be played by a disabled actor because of the things this character can do in this movie” well then maybe…… you fucked up in the writing of this disabled character……
also cgi exists. if you need your disabled character to walk for a couple of scenes use a body double and green screen. this can also be used for trans characters prior to transition.
if it’s possible to make chris evans look 5ft nothing and skinnier than a maypole then it’s possible to cast disabled actors for disabled characters
As the kid of a doctor and a biologist, let me tell you something that just miiight go over some people’s (*cough cough terfs*) heads:
- XX and XY (or any other combinations - there are others) chromosomes are a thing and are medically important
- genitals are a thing and are medically important
- horomones are a thing and are medically important
- the idea of a “biological sex” is still completely unnecessary. If you have XX chromosomes, you can tell your doctor that. If you have a penis, you can tell your doctor that. If you have high levels of both estrogen/testosterone, your doctor should probably know that already but I guess if you go to a new one you can tell them that. There is no situation in which one has to say “I am biologically male/female”
^say it a little louder for the transphobic educators who tried to tell students otherwise
I teach intro biology labs at the college level, and I try really hard to get all of this through my students’ heads at the earliest possible opportunity. The biological definition of a sex is l i t e r a l l y just:
Does this organism produce: many tiny energetically cheap gametes, or few large energetically expensive gametes?
That’s literally it. There’s no other qualifiers, there’s no other anatomical characteristics involved in that definition, and even that scientific distinction exists on a spectrum! No species of animal ever 100% across-the-board conforms to this sexually dimorphic biological system! There will always be individuals of any largely gametically-dimorphic species that exist somewhere in-between, and there are a number species where the sexes all produce gametes of similar sizes!
IN NO WAY EVER does even that gamete size distinction ever confer gender upon anyone. Chromosomes and genitals and hormones ARE medically important, but these characteristics NEVER dictate gender, and they’re NEVER anyone’s business but your own unless you choose to involve another person in discussions of your strictly physical health.
There is no such thing as being “biologically [gender]”. The idea is a toxic social construct, and don’t let anyone try to shoehorn you into believing otherwise.
hello I am here to tell you about Worst Time Traveller Han Solo, possibly post-TFA, grumpily rolling through the Clone Wars and accidentally earning a Reputation for knowing, strangely, exactly where to invest his money and what to do when confronted with Completely Unexpected Events. also, for some reason, he keeps running into baby-Vader a lot. STOP SHOOTING AT ME, yells Anakin, possibly just before they find themselves in another hot mess. sorry, force of habit, says Han.
also, at least once, somebody’s like “ok dude you’re a bit TOO accurate with your blaster shots as Anakin keeps complaining, lemme take your midichlorian count” “midi WHAT NOW” “I mean, you’re clearly Force-sensitive” “NO I’M NOT IT’S LUCK.”
for the three-sentence AU meme, not that I personally consider this an AU: Steve Rogers being IN SPACE and not knowing wtf is going on down on earth, go.
All right, did you mean ‘Star Trek mashup,’ because I refuse
to dignify Dick Spencer with even the slightest iota of my attention and I LOVE
STAR TREK. Um, there’s definitely gonna
be more than three sentences, I tried but I got overexcited, sorry. THERE’S A READMORE, THAT’S HOW OUT OF HAND THIS GOT.
Starbase
616 is approximately five days at max warp past the generally accepted
middle-of-nowhere, the kind of place they send you when you’ve slept with a
higher-up’s spouse (or spouses, Security Officer Kellan will say mournfully,
not that he knew it at the time) or after you’ve blown up a very expensive
piece of equipment (Chief of Engineering Maxime Rochert is only allowed near
the engines with supervision, is the running joke). So when the ship drifts in, Starbase 616 has
a hot second of panic, because they have never
gotten a ship since the last troop of poor suckers was released from this
purgatory. It’s even worse because the USS Avenge left its last leg about a parsec
back and seems to have crawled in on some kind of souped-up impulse engine none
of them have seen before. It’s even worse because, once they get on
board to check why they’re not receiving a response to their thirty-one hails,
they find:
an
AI that apparently fried itself and shut down all non-life support or non-propulsion
systems,
a
piloting and navigation console that looks like it’s been ripped apart and
hotwired together,
and
almost a dozen (sort of living) legends in deep cryostasis in the medical bay,
with no other signs of life.
i can’t believe i still have to unfollow people for putting terfs on my dash.
“don’t reblog terfs” is not an attempt at a political gotcha, it is an urgent matter of safety for trans people esp. trans girls. a terf is a transphobe and transmisogynist being legitimized as a feminist - this means that any trans person seeking out feminist resources can be suddenly hit with abusive, violent rhetoric. terfs do not have a mere disagreement with trans women, they hate us and constantly throw verbal abuse & harassment in order to suicide bait.
it is absolutely a responsibility to not legitimize their voices.
nothing a terf has to say is worth the total disregard for our lives a snippy reblog signifies. this isn’t hard and there’s no fucking excuse.
if I ever reblog someone you know to be a TERF A) rest assured it was not intentional and B) pls let me know right away so that I can remove that filth from my blog
A common fat-phobic belief is that fat people are fat because they overeat. A recent submission to @facebooksexism perfectly illustrates this stereotype and the harmful classist attitudes it perpetuates:
Like most fat-phobic beliefs, this stereotype is completely wrong.
It is well accepted in public health science that food insecurity – which is the lack of consistent, dependable access to enough food for active, healthy living – predicts higher body weight.
Limited resources and lack of access to nutritious, affordable foods. Heavily processed, low-nutrition foods are usually cheaper, but are more calorie dense and less satisfying to eat.
Cycles of food deprivation and overeating. Low income people often run out of money for necessities like food before their next paycheck arrives, resulting in extended periods of hunger and starvation followed by periods of compensatory eating when the paycheck arrives. Such eating patterns cause weight gain over time.
High levels of stress, anxiety, & depression, all of which cause physiological changes resulting in weight gain over time.
Limited access to health care. Many chronic health conditions, like polycystic ovarian syndrome, thyroid dysfunction, and type II diabetes, cause weight gain when left untreated.
All of this means that systematic oppression causes people to be fat for reasons that are outside of their personal control, and that poor fat people are not lying when they report that they cannot afford to put food on the table. Stop spreading the harmful, oppressive, and fat-phobic belief that you can
judge a person’s nutrition or eating habits by the size of their body.
- Mod D
READ THIS.
Also, as a reminder, the reason that cycles of deprivation and overeating affect the body so much is because we evolved to survive those cycles. When someone goes through a period of deprivation, we have millions of years of evolution that go “OH SHIT WE COULD STARVE BETTER HANG ONTO THOSE CALORIES.” Hence weight gain.
In “How to SURVIVE the Hunger Games pt. 1,” MatPat points out that one of the best way to survive is to put on as much weight as possible–five pounds of fat is 17,500 calories, or enough calories to survive for 8.5 days with no food whatsoever. That’s the point of fat, after all, to have enough energy to live in periods of low- or no food.
Having to go through cycles of deprivation sets the body into survival mode. 10,000 years ago, having extra fat meant the literal difference between life and death when there simply was no food available. If I don’t have access to sufficient nutrition, my body automatically hangs on to every calorie available and turns it into fat. because it knows that there will be a time when I need that fat to survive. It doesn’t matter if it makes me look “ugly” or “unappealing” because my survival doesn’t hinge on me being pretty, it hinges on me being able to continue living.
While we don’t live in the exact same conditions–here in America, there is food, even if I can’t access it–we simply haven’t had enough time to evolve to change how the body responds to scarcity.
So saying that someone who lives in a constant state of food insecurity is lying because they’re fat? It’s a profoundly stupid, uninformed thing to think. If you want to worry about obesity, the best way to do it is guarantee that everyone–and I mean EVERYONE–has access to nutritious food. Not ramen, not cheap, shitty, high-calorie low-nutritious food, but good food.
(I live in the fucking future, in one of the richest countries in the world, and yet there are people who don’t have enough to eat. I cannot begin to tell you how infuriating this is to me.)
Access to healthier foods at a low cost would not solve the problem at hand without proper education, though. And there are plenty of nutritious foods that are at very low cost that most people who are worried about getting food on the table should be buying instead of the cheap, but unhealthy options.
Do you honestly think that if the solution to food insecurity was as simple as just buying rice and beans, that anyone would still be starving in the US or Canada? Do you really believe that poor parents are just choosing to let their children go hungry because they are too ignorant and uneducated to know better? Honestly, a person must hold some pretty prejudiced and condescending beliefs about poor people to justify this type of comment.
For the record: Poor people do not need “education” from wealthy people who have never experienced true food insecurity concerning the best ways to live and eat. Poor people are not poor and lacking food because they are ignorant, or uneducated, or lazy. Yes, even poor fat people! Poor people suffer from food insecurity because they experience legitimate social, economic, and physical barriers to accessing adequate food to survive. Period.
Poor people need to be able to earn a real living wage (or be provided with more than the most basic bare minimums to support both good physical AND mental health – for their own version of healthy – by social welfare programs such as disability, retirement, and SNAP benefits.
We need to not have to balance two or more jobs and sometimes school just to scrape by and be so exhausted from physical and emotional labor required by their shitty jobs where they are overworked and undervalued that leave them unable to cook the nutritious food they want to eat.
We need to be treated like competent human beings because we ARE.
We need rich (or even who are well into “comfortable” range) people to shut the entire hell up about deciding what we need to eat and whether or not poor drug users even qualify as human enough to justify being able to eat.
We need a healthcare system that isn’t dizzying in its ineptitude. After nearly four years of Medicaid not paying for what Medicare didn’t cover I finally got frustrated enough to seek help from a legal aid society. It should not be necessary to HIRE A LAWYER – even one who works pro bono – to get bills paid. I tried four years on my own and I am an intelligent, educated person. I can’t even imagine how people with developmental and learning disabilities and/or the elderly handle this if they do not have a strong support system.
We need to remind you that we ALSO pay taxes that find these programs. We get taxed at a higher percentage, and we earn dramatically less money.
The assumption that there are are plenty of cheap nutritious foods available for everyone omits a serious problem that many American face: food deserts. According to the American Nutrition Association, food deserts are “parts of the country vapid of fresh fruit, vegetables, and other healthful whole foods, usually found in impoverished areas. This is largely due to a lack of grocery stores, farmers’ markets, and healthy food providers.This has become a big problem because while food deserts are often short on whole food providers, especially fresh fruits and vegetables, instead, they are heavy on local quickie marts that provide a wealth of processed, sugar, and fat laden foods[.]”
How common are food deserts in America? Take a look:
Those are a LOT of places where Americans, especially poor Americans, don’t have access to whole foods, especially fresh fruits and veggies. You can’t buy what isn’t available in your local grocery.
And you also can’t buy what you can’t afford. Costs are relative. What is cheap to someone who is upper middle class or wealthy may be too costly for someone struggling to make ends meet–and anyone on SNAP has to meet income and resource tests.
Nor does SNAP automatically pay for everything in the grocery cart. A single person could get, at most, $194 per month. That’s just for food items (hand soap, sanitary napkins, toilet paper, etc., are not covered and must be paid for by the person). Assuming that the SNAP recipient goes shopping once a week, that would permit them to spend $48.50 SNAP credit on food each week in a four-week month. In a long month that contains half a week or so at the end, the food budget might drop to $38.80 SNAP credits per week.
That’s not much money to pay for an entire week’s worth of groceries. And allotments go down as numbers of people per household increase. Two people in a household would get $357 per month ($89.25 per week in a four-week month, or $44.62 for one and $44.63 for the other; $71.40 per week in a five-week month, or $35.70 for each person).
And $194 per month for one person (or $357 for two people) is the MAXIMUM.
Most recipients won’t get nearly that much.
So yes. I can well believe that Sharon’s monthly SNAP benefits do not allow her to purchase much food. It’s simple mathematics.
All of this, plus a note that most medical measures of fatness are standardized around abled upperclass cis white men and are far less accurate estimates of body fat, even on broad scale, for women and people of color. Physically disabled people and trans people are typically not looked at in general when these measures are constructed, instead they are standardized around abled cis men. Poor people also tend to be shorter, which measures like BMI penalize.
The demographics of poor people are different than those of wealthy people.
BMI was directly created as a eugenicist ideal and the fact that it stigmatizes women, poor people, and people of color as deviants more is a feature, not a bug.
That combination of stigmatizing fat people and using a measure designed to call poor people, women, and people of color fatter is absolutely also about policing and medicalizing the bodies of the poor, women, trans people, people of color, and disabled people.
^^ This is some spot-on analysis right here. Thank you, I agree with everything you say.
I WANT GAY ROMANTIC COMEDIES GOD DAMN IT I AM SO TIRED OF THE ONLY GAY MOVIES BEING DRAMATICALLY SAD BECAUSE THEYRE GAY AND SOMEONE HAS AIDS OR SOMEONES A COWBOY OR SOMEONE DIES GIVE ME YOU’VE GOT MAIL WITH TWO WOMEN GIVE ME SIXTEEN CANDLES WITH TWO BOYS GIVE ME SOMETHING
