So I’m going to be bitter and old here for a minute.
The absolute refusal to allow anyone to use queer as an umbrella is both novel and regressive (I know, I know). For decades, queer was an accepted and neutral way to concisely refer to a coalition of loosely connected communities and identities. Queer theory, queer film, queer spaces, queer history.
This use came after another few decades of committed work in reclaiming the word from oppressors who flat out stole it from us.
It took a lot of effort to wrestle it back out of their hands, and now I’m expected to just give it over to them because decades of unity and collective action and shared experience don’t matter because a handful of (usually white, almost exclusively american) kids on this godawful website have deicded it’s illegal for me to “force it on others” and that I should instead just let them for LGBT or gay or whatever else on me.
Like, fuck off?
Fuck off.
I am going to refer to my community in the way that I have been doing for an entire lifetime. Not just my specific identity, which is queer as fuck, but the whole fucking shebang.
And I will not hand the word back over to straight people with a nice little ribbon and a coat of polish and say “here, some kids decided it was cool if I let you stab them with this word so here you go” like
Fucking, why would I ever.
Frankly, and I know how people are going to react to this but, frankly?
I damned well will use queer to refer to my community as well as myself, and anyone who wants to take it away from me can take it over my COLD DEAD QUEER LITTLE FINGERS.
I will not sit by and let antsy, nervous kids who don’t know a damn thing about our history talk down to me about how “well, actually” when they can’t even recognize the fact that trans people were still being policed out of here literally three fucking years ago.
The presumption and the ignorance are staggering.
So yeah.
Queer as in fuck you people in particular.
And, to my followers who are made uncomfortable by this, well. I will regret losing you on some level, but not enough to stop.
I fully intend to use queer as the umbrella term it has been for my entire life. LGBT never did my intersex, pansexual ass any favours anyway.
My point is, I’m not going to be referring to the “LGBT” community at all, anymore. It’s going to be 100% queer here, in a more conscious and consistent way than it has been before. Because, you see, even people who do use queer as an identity unashamedly have gotten into this pattern of being apologetic or conditional about it, with a constant, overbearing tone that even when we do use queer as a community term with have to hedge it and gentle it because it’s so dangerous.
but it’s fuckign not.
We spent decades pulling the danger out of it.
And ‘m not going to let it sneak back in.
Every time someone says “queer is a slur, you shouldn’t use it” I feel like they’re trying to fucking gaslight me. Like, I was there when it got reclaimed. I read “Queer Science”, I saw the “Queer Studies Departments” in college and the majors in Queer Theory. Kids do not get to invalidate my life out of ignorance. And I can’t help but think that someone who knows exactly what they are doing was behind it to begin with, because how would the kids who don’t know what the fuck they’re talking about know to invalidate that word?
You go. Reclaim that reclamation. I’ll probably use LGBT+ and queer interchangeably, like I always have, and if some kid tries to lecture my 47-year-old ass on the matter I’m just going to have to look at them over my imaginary librarian glasses and tell them “no. you’re wrong. Go back to school, kid, you need to remember you’re sharing the world with adults and there is a consensual reality you have entered into. You don’t get to make it up from scratch any more than I did.”
And I can’t help but think that someone who knows exactly what they are doing was behind it to begin with
Because it’s absolutely surreal to see someone who is fifteen years old speak as if queer’s been used to constantly attack and smear and belittle and insult them, when they’re about twenty years too late, at the very least, to have gone through that as a teenager. I’ve seen it happen so many times, with so many teenagers on here, that it reads honestly like a script – like a Discourse Point someone’s taught them that they need to trot out as an argument, always and forever, amen. I made this connection over a year ago, when the screaming against ‘queer’ started in earnest on here and thought about it more in-depth when a number of very young activists both here and on Twitter told me unironically and with a straight face that they took all of their discourse points from the likes of leftbians and other exclusionists, starting with your garden-variety aphobes and biphobes and ending with outright radfems / TWERFs / SWERFs.
That was the lightbulb moment for me. Question:
what group has managed to spread their posts and their ideas far and wide on Tumblr, because people reblog without checking the source or reading between the lines?
and what group has had a vicious ideological axe to grind against ‘queer’ as both a self-descriptor and an umbrella-term for decades now?
The answer to both is radfems. I was there ten years ago when they were absolutely driving themselves into a frothing lather over the fact that a very large number of LGBTQIAP+ youth were describing ourselves and our communities as queer uncontroversially – seriously, this was so common on the English-speaking queer youth forums I used to frequent back then that no one batted an eyelash, specifically because the work of reclamation had already been done for decades and if, asked, the vast majority of people answered that they preferred queer because it was INCLUSIVE (which is and has always been the kryptonite for groups of people whose ideas revolved around gatekeeping the community and their precious selves being the arbiters of who gets in and who stays out), Radfems quickly realized that they weren’t going to be able to demonize the word in the eyes of Gen Xers or people at the older end of the Gen Y generation in the community, because we’d either contributed to the work of reclamation or spent our whole fucking lives in communities where queer was a badge of pride.
So, in what is honestly an absolutely brilliant move and which I’d be almost tempted to admire, if I didn’t want to spit everyone involved right between the eyes, radfems and other exclusionists targeted much younger LGBTQIAP+ people, leapfrogging a generation. Tumblr, in this sense, has been absolutely vital, both in giving them access to very young people who were just discovering themselves and whose knowledge of community history was nonexistent and in being built in such a way that radfems could make their posts go viral and attract tens of thousands of reblogs, if not more, if they knew to word them in just the right way (I’ve lost count of the number of what, at a shallow glance, seem like very decent PSAs on consent, but that at a closer reading were actually anti-BDSM screeds, easy to see for anyone who knows the dogwhistles).
If radfems have managed to mire this place in their ideas intensely enough that they’ve turned their anti-kink crusade into an omnipresent thing in certain progressive communities on Tumblr, it’s not impossible to make the logical leap that they’ve managed to do so with their decades-long anti-queer crusade as well.
I’d laugh and clap at the ingeniousness of it all, if it didn’t involve obliterating decades of community history, solidarity and reclamation efforts.
Please note this. Regardless of how you personally feel about the word, this backlash against it happened much more recently than many people seem to think. And it’s worth pointing out who benefits from the backlash, and it sure as hell isn’t the people who gave decades of their lives to make the word a sign of inclusivity and acceptance.
Look, I moved to a new school almost every year growing up, and got into a lot of fights as the perennial new kid. One thing I learned very quickly is that when you’re in a fight, you’re in a fight. Act accordingly. Doesn’t matter if the ringleader is an orange buffoon or someone who looks like a cartoon villain. WE ARE IN A FIGHT. First focus on doing what’s right (impeach Trump) and **then** worry about Pence, who may be implicated in the whole Russia debacle anyway.
Also, Mike Pence is not that bright? Did you see the VP debates?
And remember, the last time the media and the DNC colluded to cherry pick “the perfect” opponent, it ended up with Trump in the White House
PLEASE believe me, anyone who isn’t straight, white, “Christian,” wealthy and male……you’re already IN a fight. Act like it. Don’t pull any punches. Republicans won’t
Bottom line: Racists like Jeff Sessions stay running the DoJ whether Trump or Pence is president. Betsy DeVos doesn’t stop attacking hungry children in public schools. Things don’t get any “better” if we pick “different” Republicans
Please get this through your heads: the *entire* Republican Party is thoroughly foul. So fight them. ALL of them, ALL the time, at every step of the way
Last thing: That mentality of, “Don’t fight too hard, or you might disrupt the status quo and make things worse” is precisely why the Democrats have lost so many seats in state and local governments over the last 30 years
I say, the way to break the status quo and make things better is to bloody their nose, and fight like hell every single time, and that way they’ll learn to think twice before they mess with you. Make them understand the word “consequences”
Washington (CNN)Democratic Rep. Al Green of Texas called for the impeachment of President Donald Trump Wednesday morning, the first member of Congress to officially request leveling charges against the President from the House floor.
“This is about my position. This is about what I believe. And this is where I stand. I will not be moved. The President must be impeached,” Green said on the floor. “For those who do not know, impeachment does not mean that the President would be found guilty. It simply means that the House of Representatives will bring charges against the President. It’s similar to an indictment but not quite the same thing.”
name ur politically correct ship that no one ever questions
I SHIP NICK SPENCER WITH THE DEEPEST PITS OF HELL RESERVED FOR TRAITOROUS BIGOTED SCUM. But I mean other than that…Natasha/Clint, Vision/Wanda, Rogue/Remy, and my much-maligned-by-movies-and-ignored-by-the-internet OTP Kitty/Colossus. There is no order of preference here. Also I recently got sold REALLY HARD on Steve/Bucky (recently, ha, like three years ago Jesus Moran get your shit together) so like, also Steve/Bucky. And any marriage that makes Storm happy and a queen of a country, so by default Ororo/T’Challa.
now name ur trash ship
I do ship Natasha/Bucky, but I think the circumstances confirm me for a bad person, because I only ship them in the context of ‘I don’t remember you and you barely remember me but you can’t bring yourself to kill me so you shot me and saved my life and I woke up in your safehouse while you wiped my wounds with a gun in your other hand and I’m not sure which one of us you’re going to shoot first.’ So. Like. In the single most unhealthy available context. In a whole universe of unhealthy contexts.
Also I feel like Bobby had a crush on Hank when they were both kids and sometimes still jerks off to his best friend but I DIGRESS.
and ur really trashy im-going-to-hell ship
Elektra the unhinged murderer/Matthew Murdock the desperately earnest crusader. Fuck brutally against a wall and piece each other back together with trembling hands that smear your skin with blood. Cling to each other in your dying moments and stand over each other’s graves feeling guilt for not saving each other and guilt for not killing each other. Throw words like knives and hate yourselves for every hit even as you gloat.
Good.
who is your cinnamon roll fave who everyone loves
KITTY GODDAMN PRYDE, @EVERY MOVIE PERSON EVER COME HERE AND FIGHT ME. Also Warren and Storm, I would die for Storm.
Also Steve Rogers. I have this reoccurring daydream where Steve punches Nick Spencer in the face.
who is your sinnamon roll fave who everyone loves to hate/hates to love
I genuinely would not even know if I had one of these, Marvel has been in my blood and bones since I was too young to be on a computer unsupervised. I like the FF more than most people seem to? I really like Professor Xavier and I get really defensive when people talk shit about him?
who is your trash fave who is so problematic they probably have hate tumblrs dedicated to them
I…do not know. I think Loki makes a pretty compelling villain, but I think I’m in the majority there. I low-key want to fight whenever someone suggests that Warren joined Apocalypse of his own free will, but I AM STANDING BY COMIC CANON COME AT ME. So yeah, don’t think I have one of these.
what is ur guiltiest guilty fave fandom
Okay, listen, I will be an eighty year old woman who is made entirely of salty, salty attitude and brittle bones and I will STILL be reading my campy ridiculous 60′s comics with terrible dialogue and circus-performer villains. I know it’s not a fandom, but still.
OH I really love X-Men: Evolution and I have a whole lecture about why it’s the best adaptation of the X-Men that I’m aware of to date, but I never tell anyone that I like it for some reason, does that count?
what is the fic you want to write/read but can’t because it is too full of Sin
…so. I actually started this one (this one) and it was Good but then I realized it would be months and months of work and I got pre-emptively tired, but basically, first words soulmate AU where Natasha and her Black Widow trainee peers all got programmed to brutally murder anyone who said their words. So then Clint shows up and of course says her words and she tries to kill him before he pins her to the wall with an arrow, and they have a really terrible brutal few months where she begs him to just kill her a lot. And Clint keeps a taser on his person for survival reasons. And at least once Natasha tries to stab him to death in his sleep just to end the struggle. And Clint has a terrible awful no-good very bad conversation with Coulson about the appropriate time to cut his losses.
what is the most sinful fic you have ever read/written
what is the worst thing you want to become canon (character death, trash-ship etc)
…listen…it’s Marvel…it’s all already canon babydoll…all of it…everyone is dead…everyone has had bad relationships…everyone has been resurrected…there’s no answer here…
what is your most sinful headcanon
Do not look me in the eye and tell me that Remy LaBeau has not figured out a way to have sex with someone without touching her skin. Whether he’s put it into action or not, that’s another story, but he has DEFINITELY figured it out.
what is your cutest headcanon
Clint watches a lot of Disney movies (he looked it up, it’s called reparenting yourself) and so consequently during that couple month period where he and Natasha are basically locked in a warehouse waiting for her to fight off the worst of the brainwashing, Natasha watches a lot of Disney movies. Now they’re Avengers and they watch Disney movies after missions and shit. Steve gets invited to join them because Natasha decides that They Will Be Friends (Natasha’s grasp on how to make real non-mark friends is heavily influenced by the fact that her first real friend shot her, handcuffed her, and locked himself in a warehouse with her for a couple months, and also was a circus performer with a dubious handle on the friendship thing himself).
what is your heart-breakingist head canon
…I mean…canon…
I have others that are non-canon or fit within canon but like that shit’s a longer post that would need to be broken down fandom by fandom
what is ur crackiest crack ship
HA, Storm/Arkon, because the idea of Storm as the queen of a campy-ass warrior world makes me laugh
what is ur marginally less cracky crack ship
Fury/literally anyone, because he would be SO BITTER about growing feelings
what is ur favourite ridiculous au
It’s not actually that ridiculous, it’s kind of terrifying, but AU where Loki brainwashes Natasha instead of Clint in Avengers.
1. Name your politically correct ship that no one ever questions.
I really genuinely like Han/Leia because I am a sucker for the “I just really enjoy shouting at this person and get really furious when they risk their life suRELY THIS DOES NOT MEAN FEELINGS” thing and I feel like that’s…all of Hoth. The whole time. All of it.
Also, listen. I will die on the hill of The Damerons as a totally adoring, poly unit of heroes in which Rey sleeps with her back to the wall and her head on Finn’s chest and her fingers tangled with Poe’s, who gently traces the line of the callous on her thumb in his sleep, and Finn lies there and stares at the ceiling and wonders how the FUCK he got this lucky. (Because you deserve it, baby, you fucking deserve it.)
2. Now name your trash ship.
…I mean…Anakin is a trash can, so does Anakin/Padme qualify, or does Padme’s general quality everything lift them from the dumpster fire?
Although for real trash, you can’t do better than Rey/Phasma having really bitter angry hate sex. Before Rey figures herself out and marries her two husbands, of course.
3. And your really trashy I’m-going-to-Hell ship.
…do I have one of these? I don’t think I have–
oh no, yes I do, oh god I didn’t realize what the ship was for the fic but it was SO GOOD and I just.
Sith!Qui-Gon Jinn/Obi-Wan was not a ship I saw coming but F U C K.
It’s a really good fic okay, it sold me hardcore. It’s this series by @poplitealqueen. I should reread it because it’s been updated. I’ll go sit in a hole now.
(I just really like Sith Qui-Gon and also Darth Venge, who I don’t think shows up in this one but is a big player in Re-Entry, which is like. Yeah.)
wildehacked asked: OKAY I have an 18th century terrible medicine question. Do you know if there was a specific place on the body doctors would blister? Like, would a person be more likely to have cupping scars on their back, or their ribs, or? did they just not discriminate much?
Back and chest were the most popular in men, generally there was an attempt for symmetry because [some bullshit about balance]. In women, the back only because breasts got in the way. Arms and legs were generally uncommon because there’s a lot of movement there and a wide expanse of skin was better for minimizing extraneous damage. Also they DID actually know the abdomen was full of important squishy stuff so they were more hesitant to, you know, burn someone seriously there.
