Purplewords

Relatedly, we've got HF 146 currently in the state legislature and we should contact our state reps to support it. What it would do, if passed, is bar enforcement of any laws passed in other states to remove children from parental custody for receiving gender reaffirming care treatments within the state of Minnesota. Here's the kind of situation the law is designed for:

Imagine a trans child whose parents divorce, partly because they have strong differences of opinion about how to respond to their child's gender identity. Say the custodial parent moves from Texas to Minnesota because they can see the way the winds of change are blowing, and allows the child to seek gender affirming care in the new state. The other parent is horrified that the custodial parent is "allowing" the child to "pervert" their body by, um, taking puberty blockers to delay puberty or dress and socially take on the gender in which they feel comfortable, and takes legal action. Say that noncustodial parent, who is still living in Texas, reports the custodial parent to the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services as a child abuse case purely on grounds of the gender affirmation care.

RATING: RELIABLE

The above is from this article from The Guardian.  The images are from MYA Network. The caption on their website reads:

Source: ‘When a sperm and egg get together, the body creates tissue in order to support the developing pregnancy.  Here are photos of that tissue from 5-9 week pregnancies.  This is called the gestational sac, and it’s like the “house” for the pregnancy. Inside this sac there are cells that have the potential to become a fetus but there is no visible embryo at this stage. We rinsed off the blood and menstrual lining (decidua) for these photographs.’

The published images sparked a lot of debate, leading to the story being picked up by other news outlets. For example:

Source: ‘Last week, the Guardian published images of pregnancy tissue after abortions in the first 10 weeks of pregnancy. The small size and appearance of the tissue were shocking to many. We have all absorbed, knowingly and unknowingly, the pervasive anti-abortion narrative that a pregnancy resembles a tiny baby starting in the earliest weeks. Though an early embryo can be seen under the magnification of ultrasound, it can take months for it to be perceptible to the naked eye.’

Source: ‘People have responded in disbelief, citing the (magnified) images they’ve seen on ultrasounds. […] ”Think of the illustrations on pregnancy and medical websites. The Mayo Clinic, one of the preeminent medical organizations in the country, shows week-by-week illustrations of embryonic and fetal development without any context of scale, like the rulers in the MYA photos.’

As stated in the article, whilst people talk about a ‘heartbeat’ at 6 weeks, there is no heart developed at this stage - only a group of cells that will become part of the heart.

Source: ‘But what exactly do we mean when we talk about a “fetal heartbeat” at six weeks of pregnancy? Although some people might picture a heart-shaped organ beating inside a fetus, this is not the case. Rather, at six weeks of pregnancy, an ultrasound can detect “a little flutter in the area that will become the future heart of the baby,” said Dr. Saima Aftab, medical director of the Fetal Care Center at Nicklaus Children’s Hospital in Miami. This flutter happens because the group of cells that will become the future “pacemaker” of the heart gain the capacity to fire electrical signals, she said.’

It should also be noted that the images show an embryo, not a fetus, until the 9th week.

Source: ‘In human pregnancies, a baby-to-be isn’t considered a fetus until the 9th week after conception, or week 11 after your last menstrual period (LMP).’

The co-founders of the MYA Network responded in a New York Times article.

I saw this on FB today and I wanna try and express something about it. Like, you know the curbcutter effect? Where when curbcuts are put in it benefits everyone (bicyclists, people with baby strollers etc) and not just disabled people?

There is also whatever the opposite of the curbcutter effect is. And this is that.

This isn't just anti-adhd/autism propaganda... this is anti-child propaganda.

Kids have developmentally appropriate ways that they need to move their bodies and express themselves and sitting perfectly still staring straight ahead is not natural or good for ANY CHILD.

Don't get me wrong, I was punished unduly as a kid for being neurodivergent (and other types of kid will ALSO be punished unduly for it... Black kids come to mind) and thus UNABLE to perform this -- but even the kids who ARE able to perform this type of behavior are not SERVED WELL by it. They don't benefit from it.

This is bad for everyone.

I saw this on FB today and I wanna try and express something about it. Like, you know the curbcutter effect? Where when curbcuts are put in it benefits everyone (bicyclists, people with baby strollers etc) and not just disabled people?

There is also whatever the opposite of the curbcutter effect is. And this is that.

This isn't just anti-adhd/autism propaganda... this is anti-child propaganda.

Kids have developmentally appropriate ways that they need to move their bodies and express themselves and sitting perfectly still staring straight ahead is not natural or good for ANY CHILD.

Don't get me wrong, I was punished unduly as a kid for being neurodivergent (and other types of kid will ALSO be punished unduly for it... Black kids come to mind) and thus UNABLE to perform this -- but even the kids who ARE able to perform this type of behavior are not SERVED WELL by it. They don't benefit from it.

This is bad for everyone.

ok this is “earring magic ken” who was introduced in 1992 (and discontinued shortly thereafter)

basically mattel had done a survey and discovered that girls didn’t think ken was “cool” enough

SO someone had the bright idea to research coolness by sending people to raves which, at the time, were mostly hosted & attended by gay men. so they went to these raves and took notes on what the fashions were and finally landed on this outfit, mesh shirt & all 

SO

MAGIC EARRING KEN. This bitch gay as HELL. supposedly the aforementioned rings on him are for “magic earrings” and clip on charms. These charms are advertised as totally COMPLETELY heterosexual, not gay at ALL, see there’s a Barbie that also has Magic Earring Action with clip on charms! Ken wears them to match, because he’s STRAIGHT

Here’s the issue: THERE IS NO MATCHING BARBIE. Magic Earring Ken is out here straight up wearing cock rings on his jacket with a thinly devised advertising ploy to make it SEEM not-gay. But it’s DEFINITELY GAY. (And if you’re thinking, why cock rings? Well way back in 1992 gay culture was HUGE on wearing cock rings, it was the in-style. Everyone who was gay wore one, even women; you sewed them to your leather jacket, and the placement indicated some of your sexual preference. In case you were wondering, Ken is a Bottom.)

AND IT GETS BETTER. Magic Earring Ken was on the shelves for six weeks before they pulled him. In that short amount of time? Magic Earring Ken became the BEST SELLING Barbie Doll Mattel has EVER SOLD. LET THAT SINK IN. SIX WEEKS. And now every time these wheezy old hetero windbag execs go to look at their sales board, they’re forever haunted by Magic Earring Ken at the top of their charts.

Relatedly, we've got HF 146 currently in the state legislature and we should contact our state reps to support it. What it would do, if passed, is bar enforcement of any laws passed in other states to remove children from parental custody for receiving gender reaffirming care treatments within the state of Minnesota. Here's the kind of situation the law is designed for:

Imagine a trans child whose parents divorce, partly because they have strong differences of opinion about how to respond to their child's gender identity. Say the custodial parent moves from Texas to Minnesota because they can see the way the winds of change are blowing, and allows the child to seek gender affirming care in the new state. The other parent is horrified that the custodial parent is "allowing" the child to "pervert" their body by, um, taking puberty blockers to delay puberty or dress and socially take on the gender in which they feel comfortable, and takes legal action. Say that noncustodial parent, who is still living in Texas, reports the custodial parent to the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services as a child abuse case purely on grounds of the gender affirmation care.

alpha reader: just fucking uncritically loves your work. #1 fan. fully obsessed with the pairing you're writing to the exclusion of all good sense. might correct a comma or two but they are there to tell you that you are amazing and that you have never done anything wrong in your life and you should post that shit immediately. you ask them "does this part work?" and they say yes before the question is fully out of your mouth. the golden retriever of writing friends. every writer 100% needs one of these in their back pocket.

pros: THE best preemptive defense against the gaping chasm of self-doubt between "post work" and the first kudos.

cons: this is the reason why sometimes you see a fic that has eight beta readers thanked in the author's notes and the main character's name spelled wrong.

beta reader™️: these friends also fucking love your work, but the way they want to love it is to stick their fingers in your fic like a fruit bin at the grocery store and gently squeeze your characters (and commas) to see if they're ripe.

a good beta reader will copy edit your fic, notice if you've used the same sentence three times, and let you know if your sex scenes seem to contain the intended number of dicks per person.

a great one will highlight for you what's unique and wonderful about your writing, will help you problem-solve and plot through long fic, and will lovingly bug the shit out of you with how did she get here? and would he really say that? and is this what you meant? and when you say "oh shit no it isn't" their eyes light up and they go OKAY! let's figure this out!!!

more of a border collie kind of situation.

pros: the best way to polish your fic and grow as a fic writer. in my experience, it's also an incredible way to work through impostor syndrome. knowing someone you respect has been all up in your fic's junk and still says "it's great and you're great, now post it!" is a game-changer.

cons: if they show you what's not working, you're probably going to have to take time to fix it :/

caveats: not everyone who wants to give constructive feedback can deliver it in a way that works for everyone, so if the experience ends up making you feel bad, this is not a good match! it's also VERY helpful to tell your beta reader what level of editing you're looking for. if someone asks "can you give this a quick once-over before i post?" i know they want me to look for obvious mistakes and reassure them that it's post-worthy. if you ask me to "rip it apart" i'm going in there with a fine tooth comb.

(the primary motivation of both of these editor breeds is, of course, that they want you to write more and they want to read it before everyone else.)

bonus mode:

@bethanyactually said:

oh, this is so interesting! I've always known alpha readers as the more intense beta readers--the ones who don't just help with punctuation and spelling, but also with story and characters and all that stuff. Annerb has what she calls squee readers, which are the same as how you described alpha readers. :)

i never ran into this in my fandom travels, so i didn’t know the term was spoken for! i was just being cute using “alpha reader” as a play on stephen king’s “first reader” (the Ideal Reader™️ for your story, the one you will send it to the second it’s done — in fandom terms, the person you are making the 😈 face about while you write, imagining how they will scream at you in your DMs/comments about how you have destroyed them forever with your perfect fic).

the quick google search that i didn’t do before my original post suggests the divide may be that alpha readers participate/collaborate while you’re writing and in messy draft versions, and the beta readers polish up the work once you have a near-finished product. in fandom circles, the same people often wear both of those hats (either on the same fic, or for different ones), i just didn’t know those hats were pre-named!

Nothing is real.

Except, possibly, toast. Toast is real. Everything thing else in the universe is a figment of our collective imaginations except toast.

And, obviously, pangolins. Nobody could successfully imagine a pangolin.

@stars8melanin @getinmelanin011 @moteldwelling @avintagekiss24 @justreadingfics @wiensrsoldier @gagmebucky

@captain-rogers-beard @maiden-of-asgard @the–sad–hatter @suz-123 @wkemeup

It still amazes me the ASTOUNDING quality of writing I see on this site, I’m awed by the talent!! AND IT’S FREE!!! 

Also gonna add @interestedbystanderwrites​ @tropicalcap​ @softbiker​ @invisibleanonymousmonsters​ @abovethesmokestacks​ @quant-um-fizzx​ @mermaidxatxheart​ @st-eve-barnes​ @heli0s-writes​ @imhereforbvcky​

I’ll add a few!!

@sweater-daddiesdumbdork @thorfanficwriter @what-just-happened-bro @threeminutesoflife

Fanfic writing is often put in a light where it appears less valuabe than what some would call “real writing”, but that’s not the case. Yeah, you might be using a fictional character as your muse, but doesn’t every writer have some sort of inspiration? Regardless, fanfic writing is beautiful and requires focus, hard work, and patience. For that reason, every writer I’ve come across holds so much talent and excellence, no matter who they write or what genre they write in!

@quietlyapocalyptic @amidnight–dreary @chaoscrafter