Dreaming Is Still How The Strong Survive

Over 90% of parents of visibly intersex children opt for cosmetic surgery on their infants.

The ones that don't experience medical violence then, likely experience it as a teenager.

I didn't.

I am very rare in that I did not experience medical violence.

Why? Because I learned what intersexuality was as a young age, and I actively fought against what doctors wanted to do to me. All the way down to legal research on what medical care minors can be forced into. I remember walking into that doctor's appointment with the state law written down that proved that if I did not consent they could not do surgery.

you are not eligible for the presidency if you are over the age of 65, if you turn 65 in office, that is fine but you cannot campaign if you are over 65

you cannot be president if you are a felon

you cannot be president if you have a personal net worth over $8 million

you cannot be presidency if you have had to file for bankruptcy in a business venture

you cannot be president if you cannot pass a basic neurological exam

you cannot be president if you have been convicted of or found liable for any sex crime, domestic violence or sexual harassment. unproven allegations are cause for investigation and can result in immediate termination from office if proven.

you cannot be president if you have been divorced more than once

you cannot be president if you never smoked weed out of a soda can in high school

it would be a mistake to think that this represents the natural behavior of chickens.

it would be a mistake to think that the social displacement harms we do to each other as marginalized people under a great deal of stress, under capitalism, represents the natural behavior of people.

Kat's notes:

So glad you're enjoying the goodies so far! So this is an excellent question actually and one I'm really glad you asked! This got long asf but hope it sheds some light on how I characterise you in fics because I know it's not the most common route most writers take.

So, the thing about Lady Stark that I think registers as unsettling to some readers (in the best way): she doesn't perform softness. She doesn't withhold it as a defence mechanism or trauma response that will eventually be healed by the right man's love. She just... doesn't have it. Not in the way we're conditioned to expect from women in romance narratives.

Most "strong female characters" in this genre are either (a) soft underneath the armour, waiting for someone to see the real her, or (b) traumatized into hardness, needing to be healed back into traditional femininity. LS is neither. She's not performing strength to hide vulnerability. She's not going to melt into conventional tenderness once Baelor loves her enough or Aerion breaks her down or Maekar earns her trust.

She's just cold. And wolfish. And she likes it that way.

There's something deeply unsettling about a woman who genuinely doesn't cry much, who genuinely doesn't soften because someone tells her she should, who sits in council meetings with the same predator stillness she brings to bed. The men in her orbit are drawn to her specifically because of this quality, not in spite of it. But they're also slightly unnerved by it, constantly testing whether she'll finally show them something vulnerable, something human in the way they understand humanity.

And she doesn't.

But here's where it gets interesting and where I try give you dimension. Because she IS feminine, just not in any civilized way. Her femininity exists entirely in the ferocity of her love. How protective she is. How fierce. How absolutely dangerous when it comes to the people she's claimed as hers.

It's that Stark wolf blood, that wildness that runs through the Northern line. The way she loves is almost animal-like—not in the sense of being irrational or uncontrolled, but in the sense of being primal. Protective to the point of violence. Loyal to the point of destruction. The kind of love that would burn the world down to keep her pack safe.

And that's unsettling because it's not soft maternal femininity or gentle nurturing femininity or even passionate romantic femininity (all valid btw, but highlights why LS is slightly off). It's feral. It's a wolf with its hackles up. It's the knowledge that she would kill for you without hesitation, that her love comes with teeth and claws.

The most unsettling thing about LS in that sense isn't her dominance. It's actually her choice to yield. Because both she and her partners are always aware that she could take control. When Aerion pins her down, when Maekar gives her an order, when Baelor makes her wait... they all know, on some level, that she's allowing it. That she could flip the dynamic at any moment if she wanted to.

If you ever wondered why they call tattoos and piercings "unprofessional" and "unsophisticated"

eyes: very nifty design only a little undercut by the viscera horror of something terrible happening to them. 8/10

nose: a lil goofy ngl but it works in context. 6/10

ears: also goofy, don’t like them, why do they produce wax and get infected. but the core concept is fine. 4/10

brain: very cool, does lots of neat stuff without having to gurgle, ooze, or twitch. 10/10

liver: like most good organs it is a calm, steady machine. a tranquil filterer of the blood. don’t like the whole oozing bile thing though. 6/10

kidneys: piss is actually slightly less gross than bile. 7/10

bladder, gall bladder: i strongly feel organs should not grow random rocks in them. 4/10

bones: very aesthetic. functional in sort of a primitive mechanical way but they give us an extremely useful set of imagery for death and time. 8/10

skin: terrifically design, though it does sometimes flake. 7/10

tongue, lips: crudely mechanical but in kind of a cool way. 7/10

digestive tract: why does it gurgle and ooze?? why must it engage in peristalsis and jerk and shudder? it’s not even the products of digestion I object to—it’s that so many organ systems in the body are at least on a macroscopic level serene and still and almost plantlike, quietly performing their function without calling any attention to themselves. and then we have the system that farts and burps and generally reminds you you are trapped in a prison of wet red meat. 1/10, only because eating is often pleasant.

heart, lungs: for such crucial organs the fact they have to continuously move feels so… primitive. we should respire by like passively absorbing air through our skin. our blood should be whisked around our body by millions of tiny invisible cilia in our veins. what is this rube goldberg shit, with an extremely vulnerable single point of failure? 3/10

What culture/ethnic group would you base people from the Summer Isles on? There's not A TON of information about them in canon, but I would really like to see your take on them Artistically and culturally.

Hiii!!! I am ALWAYS down to talk about the world of ASOIAF it is like my lowkey constant interest.

Anywho, I have been generally approaching the various cultures from a visual perspective, since we get most of the information about their practices from literary sources. (This means that, while I've based Valyrian headdresses on Russian court fashion, I'm in no way trying to imply that their cultures are similar lmao.)

But for Summer Islanders, I would probably take inspiration from adaptations to similar climate and general ecology. The wiki mentions they have "rain forests, sandy beaches, and towering mountains" which seems similar to IRL Tropical Rainforest regions. So we're probably dealing with lots of vibrant colors, light, heat resistant clothing and incorporating flora that would otherwise die very quickly in other environments!