Donne-moi la couleur

At this point I want to scream at people that we don’t HAVE to be faithful to the horrible beliefs of our predecessors. Like even IF Serkis was right (and he’s not) WE can choose to NOT repeat the mistakes of the past.

Tolkien wasn’t perfect and there is racism and bigotry in his works AND there was also a lot of anti-bigotry in his works but we’re not bound to the perspective of one man. We can choose to pick up where he left off and further correct the harmful tropes and inherent biases in his books.

No matter what Tolkien intended, Middle-Earth belongs to everyone and is home to everyone and we can choose to reflect the beauty of our diverse world by welcoming EVERYONE into our own interpretations and reimagings of Tolkien’s world.

When WE create something (even if it’s a reinterpretation or built off of someone else’s work) WE get to choose what values we want to imbue that work with. If we truly believe in antiracism and fighting against white supremacy, racism, fascism, etc. then we must actively choose to include the voices of people who historically have been pushed out for racist reasons.

By actively choosing to hide behind this weird logic that Tolkien wanted a pure whites only Shire so we just CANT cast people of color as hobbits, you are actively choosing to uphold the white supremacist and racist thoughts that are harming the world today. Then you’re using the dead professor as your shield to retain the goodwill of people willing to give you the benefit of a doubt (or who just don’t care). It’s insidious and a great way to cover your own troublesome beliefs. Additionally it creates this mental wall where you don’t have to question your own inherent biases.

Also, even IF that was truly Tolkien’s intention (which it wasn’t) WHY would you want to uphold that intention of all intentions? Why wouldn’t you want to dismantle that disgusting idea as soon as possible? You can love Tolkien and his world and also say you know what that’s a fucked up idea. Let’s not do that. Or yeah no professor that’s your bigotry/racism/biases popping up and I’m not going to tolerate that

There is this weird tension between remaining faithful to a book/comic and acknowledging that the mere act of adapting a work requires you to take someone else’s work and make it your own and by doing so YOU are actively choosing what to retain and what to reimagine. Your adaptation will NEVER be the book because the book is the book and your adaptation is YOUR take on the book. You, ultimately, are responsible for what is included and what isn’t and what you, either subconsciously or consciously, add to the adaptation.

It's the rare instance of 'no, this visitor was actually doing everything right; some jackass in a truck that pissed off the bison is at fault.'

What started as a yearly trip for a grandfather and his grandson turned into a visit to a Montana hospital after a bison attack at Yellowstone National Park.

Carl McDaniel, 65, was hospitalized with a broken femur after a bison charged and tossed him into the air Friday evening at the park’s Bridge Bay Campground, according to McDaniel and the National Park Service.

He was visiting the park with his 13-year-old grandson when they decided to take a walk after dinner.

Along the way, they encountered a large bison that appeared to be rolling around in the dust and was not bothering anyone, McDaniel told CNN.

“We were about a hundred yards away,” McDaniel said. “He was not aggressive; he was not having problems and we took some pictures and decided to walk on.”

McDaniel and his grandson snapped a quick photo and continued with their walk, video of the encounter shows. At the same time, a truck drove by, and the driver laid on his horn in what appeared to be an attempt to get the bison to move, McDaniel said. There is no audio on the video.

The bison then appeared to become agitated and began running toward the pair.

“There was little time to decide what to do. At that point, he was within 100 yards; he could be to us in seconds, so I told my grandson to run in one direction and I went the other to try and draw him away,” McDaniel said.

The animal then pushed McDaniel with the top of its head, sending him flying into the air before he hit the ground, the grandfather said.

“When I was on the ground immobile, unable to move, he was right on top of me. He could have stomped on me, he could have gored me, he could have done almost anything to take my life, and he did not do so,” McDaniel said.

After McDaniel hit the ground, photographer Mike MacLeod, who captured the encounter on video, had to step in, he told Cowboy State Daily.

“I was really afraid he was going to gore the guy on the ground, so I stopped videotaping and ran at the bison, yelled loud, and was trying to be as big and intimidating as possible,” MacLeod said.

After the bison took off, people rushed over to McDaniel, who was in a lot of pain, MacLeod told Cowboy State Daily. Yellowstone EMS arrived soon after, he said.

“Park emergency medical personnel responded and transported him to a nearby hospital,” the National Park Service said in confirming the incident in a statement to CNN.

This is the second bison attack at Yellowstone this year. A 12-year-old was injured near Mud Volcano on June 26, according to the agency.

After Friday’s attack, “all the people that were there were amazing; they were all positive, they were trying to help as best they could,” McDaniel said. A nurse started tending to his leg, while another bystander held his head.

He was then transferred to a hospital in Bozeman, a two-hour journey during which he was in intense pain. He said he was grateful for the paramedic who helped him along the way.

McDaniel broke his femur, the body’s strongest bone, in four places near his hip and suffered several bruises. He had surgery Sunday and could stand by Monday.

“I will be doing physical therapy for the next few days to get to walk, but it was not as catastrophic as it could have been,” McDaniel said.

social ergonomics should mean looking at social structures and analyzing the outcomes they have re: human welfare, and then taking that information back to the design board and redesigning things to hurt people less.

Screenshot via Alejandra Caraballo @esqueer.net on bluesky

Tldr Amnesty International, global human rights organisation, published a report called 'A growing threat: the anti-rights movement in the UK'. In it is detailed, amongst others, a whole bunch of transphobic groups and organisations, including Beira's Place, JK Rowling's trans exclusionary sexual violence support service. JK Rowling threw a shit fit and got Amnesty to take the report down by threatening libel. This was obviously not enough, because you can't appease a fascist, so now she's going to bankroll a bunch of lawsuits anyway through the JK Rowling Women's Fund.*

You can read an archived version of the report here, please save it and share it.

"Here's an entire systematic review finding that the pain box from Dune has literally no effect on anything related to detransition."

"Well it's important that we don't make people do things they regret"

But the gatekeeping model isn't just not helpful to detransitioners. It isn't just ineffective in preventing detransition. It's counterproductive.

What's less traumatic? What's less frightening and humiliating? What's less likely to lead to despair in that small fraction of patients who decide they need to stop/go back?

Option A: "You can transition if you want. Try HRT and see if you like the effects. If you're not sure, you can try a lower dose and ramp up gradually. If you want to stop, you can stop at any time. Some effects will gradually reverse themselves as your body readjust. Some may be permanent. But either way, you'll be fine. We affirm your right to make all decisions related to your transition, and we trust you to protect your own emotional wellbeing throughout this process. We're here to support you."

Option B: "You're about to make irreversible changes to your body, so we need to make sure you're making the right decision. What if you're delusional? Or immature? Or just a pervert? What if you haven't fully considered the potentially catastrophic effects of transition? You know this is mutilation of a healthy body, right? So are you sure? Are you sure? Are you really really sure? You can never go back! Point of no return! Last chance! Final countdown!"

Like, the point of this is obviously not to protect the dignity and peace of some hypothetical patient who got all the way through transition and then is like oh oops.

If that were the case, the emphasis would be completely different. It would not be stuck on let's make sure you're not about to fuck your life all the way up.

If there were any empathy or actual concern, any intrerest in detransitioners or their actual relationship to this gatekeeping process, the problem with this approach would be immediately clear. The problem with treating patients like they're not competent would be clear.

The spectre of transition regret exists to torment trans people and justify external (cis) control of transition. It's brutal because it's intended to brutalize. It's meant to create learned helplessness through shame, to punish everyone who transitions for the sin of self-determination.

There's some people in the comments saying "fandoms have always been like this" and others saying "No, it's worse than it was." And both are to some extent right. Fans (or at least a small percentage of fans, and the larger a fanbase gets the larger a group this will describe) have always been Like That; but they did not always have the level of access to creators and actors that they have now.

The notion that a performer needs to be constantly available to public scrutiny, that their personal information should by default be available to any rando with google, is pretty new. It used to be that actors would only be expected to engage with the public on limited, specific, and controlled occasions, usually with security provided. Now they're being asked to rawdog exposure to the mob 24/7 on their own.

(Also, production companies have always always always been exploitative cowards, just to get that straight; reading the biographies of literally any actress from golden Hollywood years makes that clear. It's just, again, more public now.)