Desert Wanderer

Long before gender was policed and queerness was punished, they were sacred. In the Philippines, trans and gender-diverse people once stood at the centre of spiritual life. Precolonial Filipino societies recognised figures known as babaylan, ritual leaders primarily in the Visayan region who served as healers, spirit mediums, historians, and political authorities.  Many babaylan were women, while others were asogor bayog, who were described by Western accounts as effeminate men or transgender individuals. Their gender variance was not only accepted but revered. Their authority did not exist despite their gender expression – it existed because of it.

Stir shit up a little. What's the point of being the mouthpiece of god if nothing you say has consequences.

it's rushed and ugly, but I threw this together about it anyway.

from Viteloi on IG: 2026 ✨

prev these tags have me crying. this is absolutely what it's all about

so, several million years

I get that a lot of the art portraying Madonna and Child as fabulously wealthy europeans in splendid robes and golden light was meant to glorify God + whichever nobility was sponsoring the artist, and while of course it’s genuinely beautiful art, it just always struck me as horribly missing the point, which is that the supposed son of God started in incredibly humble circumstances, among the kind of people that everyone else looks down on

‘Massacre des Innocents’ by Leon Cogniét, 1824. Although the Feast of the Holy Innocents is in a couple of days time, this painting is still really relevant in that it portrays Mary as how She really was: a scared refugee mum, so fearful that Her son was going to be one of the Innocents killed by King Herod.

New favorite interpretation of the nativity. 

Gloria sticker on the payphone

from an exhibit of nativity sets in barcelona (2023), with jesus born next to atm machines (top), in a war-destroyed movie theater (middle), and in an alley (bottom, featuring graffiti saying “coronavirus”, “no human being is illegal”, and the anarchist symbol)

The Fool

The Hanged Man

The Lovers

This is just the beginning. More changes are coming as we keep building this out – stay tuned!

If you’d like to talk directly beyond the comments, leave a reply and we’ll follow up with as many of you as we can. We want to work with you to make Tumblr better.

I'll be taking a few days off from using tumblr. Hopefully in that time, there will have been some meaningful restoration of the blocking function. If not, then I'll have to reassess my use of this site.

My few days away, however, showed me that despite my love for this particular site and my history here, it really wouldn't be hard to jump ship. Having the ability to limit others' interactions with my own posts is really the bare minimum for protecting my peace anywhere on the internet. I won't compromise on that protection and will make the sensible choice when @changes fail to uphold it.

This is just the beginning. More changes are coming as we keep building this out – stay tuned!

If you’d like to talk directly beyond the comments, leave a reply and we’ll follow up with as many of you as we can. We want to work with you to make Tumblr better.

I'll be taking a few days off from using tumblr. Hopefully in that time, there will have been some meaningful restoration of the blocking function. If not, then I'll have to reassess my use of this site.