It is I, Mother Russia

crafters often refer to this collection as a "stash" or a "hoard."

it's normal to have, but sometimes comes with a certain awkwardness.

the problem is that it takes a very long time to make things from textiles - and it is extremely quick, fun and easy to get more materials.

Presents, impulse purchases, leftovers from other projects, things you bought FULLY intending to make something that you changed your mind about...

Another problem is that you genuinely DO have a plan for the materials! your intentions and desires are THERE!

and admitting that it isn't going to happen - or that your mind has changed, or you're no longer able to do them - can be really painful!

it's incredibly hard to say: "we are not the people who can do these things. we are not the people who WILL do these things."

but sometimes you need to.

it's a natural part of life. it might feel painful to let go of things that you really want to use, but won't. But clearing them out - and the attached guilt and shame - will make room for a lot more things in your life. Room for things you'll use. Room for the projects you'll do.

Room and space - not for hanging on to the shades of the ambitions and intentions and people you aren't - not being held for lives you don't have - but room and space for who you are today, and who you'll be tomorrow, and for the things you'll do.

Room and space to grow.

Cropped image of medieval-stylized printed text, focused on a line which reads: “This wenche thikke”

This wenche thikke and wel y-growen was, With camuse nose and yën greye as glas; With buttokes brode and brestes rounde and hye, But right fair was hir heer, I wol nat lye.

In modern English (had to look up “camuse”, so that’s as good as my source, but I know the rest)

This wench was thick and well-grown With a pug nose and eyes grey as glass; With buttocks broad and breasts round and high, But right fair was her hair, I will not lie.

Conventional wisdom holds that great poetry should vary the meter (“the poetaster memorizes a pattern and works with it, whereas the poet understands the pattern and works against it”) and use slant rhymes (“the perfect end rhyme waves its arms and shouts, 'Look, Ma, I made a rhyme!’”), all to leave more flexibility to get across the intended meaning.

These little poems by Oscar Wilde are striking because they don’t do that at all: every line is iambic tetrameter, every rhyme is perfect. Actually the subject matter also seems like a mere demonstration or exercise.

when I had only been doing HEMA for a little while, I turned to a friend and said: "this is going to ruin fictional swordfighting for me, isn't it?" and he said, immediately: "yep."

THAT SAID, a lot of live fencing still happens too quickly for me to really track and process what is and isn't happening. so the one fictional swordfighting thing I've always wondered about is the only one I'll speak to here, and that is

TWO SWORDS CLASH IN THE MIDDLE DISTANCE, BLADE TO BLADE. A WITTY QUIP IS EXCHANGED. ONE FIGHTER LEANS IN, TRYING TO EXERT POWER; THE OTHER DOES THE SAME; ONE BEGINS TO GAIN GROUND, FORCING THE OTHER BACKWARDS FROM SHEER FORCE ALONE

hey guys, I'm always thinking at this point. hot stuff, but couldn't you just like...move the sword as soon as it's clear brute force ain't gonna do it?

So I will be talking about the longsword concepts of binding and winding and also some anecdotal observation of my year and change learning both longsword and greatsword.

I had to think about this one.

The history of the word? No, I don't know. The definition is essentially trying to say that people are affected by the social construct of race, rather than it being biological. Which... Is like... Yeah duh? Not sure why it needed that, except I guess there are a lot of people who believe it's biological. I guess it's meant to show more of an active process of applying racial identity to people, rather than "being" a race. So, okay, sure.

I can see why it puts a bad taste in your mouth, though. I don't think "racialized" as a word and meaning itself bothers me, but moreso the classic misuse of The Tumblr with a Word that bothers me. Particularly in how white folk try to use it as a way to dodge their Whiteness relative to the space they're in, when that Whiteness... Is relative to the space they're in. Yes, I meant to say that twice.

For example, a white Jewish person in Europe is gonna deal with far more racialization amongst other non-Jewish white people. That's just facts, has been for a long time. Jewish people are quite racialized. But if I put Arab and Black Jewish people in that same room, suddenly, the dynamic shifts. They didn't stop being Jewish, that's still going to matter! But... Now they're WHITE and Jewish. There's another level to the racialization, if that makes sense.

Here are a few quotes that may be helpful for the asker:

“Racial formation as a theory started in the 1970s by Michael Omi and Howard Winant in their perennial book Racial Formation in the United States.”

“Omi and Winant define racialization as ‘the extension of racial meaning to a previously racially unclassified relationship, social practice, or group’”

I also think, between reading this and The Mismeasure of Man, what bothers me as a scientist is just how BAD the science is. I'm always saying how white supremacy makes no sense. These people- mostly men, but there were plenty of women too- saw their ends, and said "how can I make something up that conveniently explains my ends?"

E.g.: I Need Slaves without Moral Dilemma -> I need to rationalize why Negroes are the choice -> Negroes are inherently inferior and will go mad with freedom without being enslaved to their superior white man, who is capable of thinking and not getting overwhelmed -> dysthesia aethiopica -> I get to keep and beat my slaves without qualm

E.g.: I am scared of Black men protesting for change -> how do I explain that them protesting is violent and antisocial to white power while getting them off the streets -> they must have schizophrenia -> I'm not racist for my beliefs, they're just crazy!

The answer is very bad. Rodney King was not beaten in the South; he was beaten in Los Angeles. Eric Garner was not choked to death in the South; he was choked in New York. Laquan McDonald was not shot sixteen times while walking away from police officers in the South; he was shot in Chicago. I could, to my great despair, go on for quite some time.

Although white people in our progressive cities and towns may pat themselves on the back for having never called anyone a nigger, many of them also hope we will not notice the strict racial segregation of neighborhoods and schools, the overpolicing of Black and brown neighborhoods, the job discrimination, or the persistent racial wealth gaps.

The concept of race in America was created for the subjugation of Black and brown bodies for the seeming benefit of white Americans. There are no pockets of America that are exempt from this. There is no liberal utopia that got a different memo. The story of hardships that people of color have faced in this country does not end when Black people left the South, and the story of white supremacy doesn't stop at the Mason-Dixon line."

The rest of you can (and really ought to!) reblog, but it's not your turn to talk. Just listen and reflect!

What DOES a good apology for antiblackness look like, to you?

Not a shitty twitter apology that dodges accountability. Not a genuine apology made to white fans to soothe their embarrassment and egos and maintain white solidarity.

What does an ACTUAL apology for antiblackness consist of, to you?

What actions do you need to see from people who claim to be better, to deserve your support despite a history of being unsafe?

Why do you think nonblack people feel they're entitled to grace, and what would actually EARN them your grace? What makes you not want to offer it at all?