צֶ֥דֶק צֶ֖דֶק תִּרְדֹּ֑ף

Is this an actual thing built into the fabric of our universe or just a lot of weird coincidences?

I mean the second part of that question is WAY above my pay grade if true, and on top of that I would have no way to prove it. The "Outer Beings" as Gwen likes to call them (they dislike the term "Higher" in relation to beings they don't worship) are very opaque in the way they run things and if they ARE bluntly referring to their "intentions" for a person by what they get named that sounds more like an article of faith than something I can defend with the methods I was taught.

That being said nominative determinism is like, a real thing. Or at least it's a real theory that we have a name for beyond needing to assume a turn for the fantastical

(A picture of the Rainbow Raider. Didn't know what else to put here and he is VERY silly)

For those of you unfamiliar, the idea of nominative determinism is based around the theory that people unconsciously seek professions or occupations that match the meaning of their name. Or at least a meaning adjacent to how their name sounds. The original, half joking, letter submitted to the journal New Scientist in 1994 used the example of a book on polar exploration being written by an author named Daniel Snowman. This idea expanded further and further as sort of a proto-meme in the scientific community as more and more examples were discovered.

Though of course when the subject was applied to the world of superheroes, which tends to be more flashy than the world of scientific journals, it took off as a much more MODERN kind of meme. As you said, in the world of supervillains we can name a few dozen examples of costumes criminals whose names seemed to have set them up for a life of costumed robbery or worse. Although I would keep in mind that the principle of nominative determinism probably ALREADY applied to most of these people BEFORE they went into supervillainy. Victor Fries was already a world renowned cryogenics expert before becoming a criminal, Bivalo was a color blind painting prodigy (which means that whoever is handing out these names seems to have a very cruel sense of humor).

What's also worth keeping in mind is that nominative determinism gives a LOT of leeway and is just as much a product of linguistic pareidolia as anything real. Like, there's just as much room for Dr. Quinzel to have become either a motorcycle designer, an opera performer or a birthday clown before she became a costumed criminal with a coincidental clown theme. And by that same token it could just be all in the head of the viewer. If, hypothetically, Batman's last name turns out to be "Bates" and we all point and laugh, is it because that actually means anything or just that "Bates" happens to be a really common name for white American families.

And, like most truisms of this kind, it's got a huge cloud of confirmation bias wafting around it. Gotham City has MILLIONS of residents and a few million more within working distance of the city. There are probably dozens of people with some variation on the names Rob, Robert or Robin Banks, a good chunk of them are probably related to each other. And if you checked I'm sure most if not all of them would be entirely normal people doing entirely normal work.

My last name is Sweeney, a name most often associated with a fictional barber serial killer from a famous British stage musical and, in order:

I have had the same haircut since I have had hair TO cut and the idea of styling or otherwise maintaining my hair sounds like annoyance personified

I don't even REMOVE spiders from my home anymore, let alone kill them, which tells you something about my capacity for violence.

The only person I would ever be a threat to with a straight razor is myself as I tried to figure out how to use the damn thing or which way to hold it.

I can't carry a tune in a bucket and my last stage experience was when I worked the camcorder for my high school theatre class.

Strictly speaking, no, because kryptonite would be harmful to both him and the performing rabbi. It would violate pikuach nefesh.

ON THE OTHER HAND

(Isn't there always an other hand in Judaism?)

It could be argued that even if Superman looks fully human when nude (dear Supes if you're reading this I am so sorry), he's not human, and therefore is not actually a man, and therefore is not subject to the mitzvah of circumcision. Just to be clear, in Judaic terms that doesn't mean "oh, you're just confused, you're not really a man." It just means "for the purposes of adjucating and interpreting religious law, you're something else." There are actually cases like this described in Talmud (albeit with humans), constituting a total of eight sexes (often condensed to six), so there is legal ground to start from.

ON THE OTHER HAND

This leads to an extremely thorny question about whether one's gender is a matter of expression or biological circumstance. Orthodox Judaism currently holds the latter to be true; that is, whatever genitalia you're born with, that's what you are. Reform holds the former to be true, which takes us back to the original question (if Superman identifies with the human male gender, is he then male, or something else, and if male, how do we perform a bris?), and Orthodoxy might literally have to have an argument about how to sex Kryptonians.

This image is funny, I'll give you that, but maybe part of the reason no one ever knows when conservatives are talking about trans men is because its never taken seriously.

"Haha, they're talking about men being pregnant, isn't that funny. Anyway, its like conservatives always forget that trans men exist. Wonder why that is?"

A few months ago, I was on a tram when I met an Afghan woman speaking Persian. Since Persian is my first language, I joined her conversation. She shared her hope that one day Afghan women will be able to protest against the Taliban, just as women in Iran have done.

Today, Afghan women are showing incredible courage by standing up against policies that try to control their bodies and their lives. These policies, introduced since 2021, have included restrictions such as revoking access to education and limiting women’s presence in public spaces.

B: Any of your stories inspired by personal experience?

C: What character do you identify with most?

D: Is there a song or a playlist to associate with [insert fic]?

E: If you wrote a sequel to [insert fic], what would it be about?

F: Care to share a favorite hurt/comfort fic?

G: Care to share a favorite crack fic?

H: How would you describe your style?

I: Do you have a guilty pleasure in fic (reading or writing)?

J: Write or describe an alternative ending to [insert fic].

K: What’s the angstiest idea you’ve ever come up with?

L: What’s the weirdest AU you’ve ever come up with?

M: Got any premises on the back burner that you’d care to share?

N: Is there a fic you wish someone else would write (or finish) for you?

O: How do you begin a story–with the plot, or the characters?

P: Are you what George R. R. Martin would call an “architect” or a “gardener”? (How much do you plan in advance, versus letting the story unfold as you go?)

Q: Do you have any discarded scenes/storylines/projects?

R: Are there any writers (fanfic or otherwise) you consider an influence?

S: Any fandom tropes you can’t resist?

T: Any fandom tropes you can’t stand?

U: A pairing you might like to write for, but haven’t tried yet.

V: A secondary (or underrated) character you want to see more of in fic?

W: Do you like more general prompts, or more specific ones?

X: A character you enjoy making suffer.

Y: A character you want to protect.

Zatanna Zatara in a style inspired by vintage Harry Houdini Posters

Nevermind that there are articles, videos, etc. where these celebs directly say “I consider myself to be Jewish.” Nevermind that they’ve had Jewish weddings or funerals, nevermind that they have publicly claimed Jewish identities. You don’t want them to be Jewish, so they’re not. 

But then when Jews are upset because somebody who describes their relationship to Jewishness as “having a half-Jewish parent” rather than being Jewish themselves, and writes with a narrative voice that suggests they are completely disconnected from any Jewish identity at all, makes offensive, antisemitic jokes, suddenly y’all are Wikipedia detectives coming at me with “Oh no, you can’t be mad at Trevor Noah for his comments; he has a jewish grandparent, so he’s Jewish too!”