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Once when I was in undergrad, someone described something as âproblematicâ in class and our professor was like, âThatâs cool, but âproblematicâ doesnât really mean anything. It means that the thing youâre describing has a problem, and in and of itself thatâs not bad. Art, especially, should always have problems, or else itâs not interesting and not art, either. It sounds like youâre trying to say that this is bad, but you donât want to say âbad.â Is that right?â
So from then on whenever one of us called something problematic, he would make us talk it out until we could name the âbadâ thing we were hinting at. In this particular class, 7/10 it was some type of oppression, and the remainder was like, âIâm uncomfortable because this is very new/confusing/pushing boundaries that made me feel safe.â
Once we stopped calling things âproblematicâ and stopping at that, class got way more interesting and... we all had to say, like, âthatâs racistâ or âthatâs misogynisticâ or âew capitalism grossâ out loud, which a lot of us had never done in a classroom before. Or we had to be like, âUhhh... Iâm not sure whatâs so bad?â and confront our own beliefs and that was maybe even more useful.
Anyway. Whenever I see the word problematic, I canât help but think of this professor being like, âGood starting point, now letâs get specific.â I think when we have to commit to saying âthatâs ___â it requires a lot more careful thought about the truth and impact and complexities of whatever weâre claiming. Sometimes there really is some bullshit afoot, and also sometimes itâs art, and it should be full of problems, because thatâs what art is.
Importantly, the teacher deliberately created space to name the bad.
âthat's problematicâ didn't get invented out of laziness. It was used by people who knew saying âthatâs racistâ or âthatâs misogynisticâ would get them in trouble.
denying trans kids hrt when they're sure of which puberty they want to go through is also an act of oppression. even if puberty blockers are available, we're not protecting kids by denying them the opportunity to go through puberty at the same time as their peers
"what if they go through physical changes that they later regret?" we allow cis kids to take that risk. in fact, most of them are never even given a choice and told they might regret it. just educate trans kids about what hrt will and won't do for them, then let them decide
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The rule could have heavy impacts towards trans people across society.
Last week, the Trump administration quietly released a sweeping new federal rule that would use funding threats to force institutions across the country to reject transgender people. The 400-page proposed regulation would codify the administration's anti-trans executive orders into binding federal policy, imposing a blanket prohibition on federal funds going toward "gender ideology"
The proposed rule, formally titled "Regulation for Federal Financial Assistance," rewrites the government-wide framework governing all federal grants across every agency. Among its most consequential provisions, it requires that before a federal grant recipient can receive money, the award must pass a "pre-issuance review" conducted by a political appointeeânot a career expert or peer reviewerâto ensure it is "consistent with applicable law, Federal agency priorities, and the national interest." The regulation explicitly instructs these appointees to screen for "denial by the recipient of the sex binary in humans or the notion that sex is a chosen or mutable characteristic." [...] An institution that acknowledges transgender people existâthrough its policies, its training, its healthcare, its bathroom access, its HR procedures, its name-change processesâcould be deemed to "deny the sex binary" or to âsupport the notion that sex is mutableâ and have its federal funding blocked.
Importantly, the gender ideology prohibition has no age limitationâhospitals could be targeted not just for providing care to minors but for providing gender-affirming care to adults, because prescribing hormone therapy to a transgender patient of any age could be deemed promoting the belief that "sex is a chosen or mutable characteristic."
Most of the Dragon Age franchise holds a continuous in-universe debate on the Circle of Magiâs existence in Southern Thedas; whether it should even exist, and if so, how it should exist. A key argument point are the many abuses mages suffer behind its walls. However, among the long list of abuses, the sexual violence is sometimes overlooked or understated.
When referring to sexual violence in the Circle, the first example that usually comes to mind is Ser Otto Alrik of the Gallows in Dragon Age II (DA2). Andersâs Act 2 companion quest, âDissentâ, is about Alrikâs âTranquil Solutionâ to use the Rite of Tranquility on every mage in Kirkwall. In his letter to Divine Justinia, he proposes the following:
âThe Tranquil Solution is our answer. All mages at the age of majority must be made Tranquil. They'll coexist peacefully, retain their usefulnessâa perfect strategy! It's simply the best way to ensure mages obey the laws of men and Maker.â
Notice how Alrik puts an emphasis on âage of majorityâ and âretain their usefulnessâ? This would be sketchy on its own, but there is more evidence that Alrik is a rapist.
Confronting Alrik in âDissentâ, the player discovers him about to recapture a feeling young mage girl. She begs not to be made tranquil, saying sheâll do anything to avoid it. Alrik responds by saying âThat's right. Once you're Tranquil, you'll do anything I ask.â The implication given his leer is that he is planning on raping her, something he already does to others. A Tranquil woman named Helena and her former lover, a mage named Jaken, have the following ambient dialogue in the Gallows:
Jaken: I've been searching for you everywhere. You weren't in your rooms, the libraries...
Helena: We have no scheduled appointments at this time, apprentice.
Jaken: No! Helena, it's me. Don't you remember me?
Helena: Of course. YOu are Apprentice Jaken. We were once involved in an illicit relationship.
Jaken: Illicit? I love you!
Helena: I am Ser Alrik's now. He is the only one who can command me.
The Tranquil are not always regarded as real people, even by their fellow mages. This is, of course, not true â just because they lack full mental capacity and are a vulnerable population does not make them less deserving of personhood. But the fact that they lack the capacity to properly consent is what so easily leads to them being abused as they are. If the Chantry actually cared about the wellbeing of the Tranquil, there would be proper protections for them put in place, to avoid people like Alrik getting away with his blatant crimes.
It is not just the Tranquil who suffer from sexual violence, though. Any mage is fair game for the templars. Alain, a mage first encountered in the DA2 quest âAct of Mercyâ, can later be found in the Gallows. If Ser Karras survives the quest, Alain can be overheard saying, âSer Karras said if I tell anyone he's been in my chambers, he'll make me Tranquil.â But even if Ser Karras does not survive, during the quest âBest Served Coldâ when Alain is encountered again, he will uncomfortably say, âYou don't know what itâs like. We're locked in our cells all day, no light, no air. The templars... ask things of us.â Alain is still being raped, just by someone else.
It is worth noting that Ser Alrik and Ser Karras are no random grunts, either. They are both Knight-Lieutenants, meaning the only two people of higher rank are Cullen and Meredith. They have been rewarded, granted even more control for their horrid actions. Other templars are supposed to obey them without question, or the Knight-Lieutenants have the power to strip them of their knighthood.
While the Gallows has the most examples, by virtue of being a central part of the plot in DA2, sexual violence is by no means exclusive to Kirkwallâs Circle.
In Dragon Age: Origins, during the mage origin, you can overhear an apprentice mageâs ambient dialogue: "Gerda told me the templars watch us while we bathe. I hope that's not true." And while voyeurism is certainly not as severe as rape, that is canonically confirmed by Anders to have happened in the Ferelden Circle as well, in a banter with Sebastian:
Sebastian: Did something happen to you in the Circle? I understand there were problems in Ferelden...
Anders: Are you saying a mage can only be unhappy in the Circle if demons were involved?
Anders: No, it's not about Uldred. It's not about being beaten or raped by a templarâ that does happen, but I've been fortunate.
In the novel Dragon Age: Asunder, Cole watches two mages of the Val Royeaux Circle have a conversation about the infamous âghost of the spireâ (namely, himself). During this conversation, one mage suggests it may have been a templar the girl saw. Her response:
"You think I don't know every templar in the tower by now? Some of them far better than I'd like." She touched the bruise on her cheek, and the elven boy scowled but said nothing.
Saying that she knows templars âfar better than sheâd likeâ implies that she has had suffered from non-consensual intimacy â aggressively, given she was wounded.
The fantasy of a sexually available mage even bleeds out into the common person. In the DA2 quest âRepentanceâ, accompanying Sebastian to investigate the Harimann family involves witnessing Ruxton Harimann carrying out a sexual roleplay with an elven woman in which he says, âNow, you be the naughty apprentice, and Iâll be the templar torturerâŚâ No shame on consensual roleplay, thatâs not my point. My point is that this specific scenario did not come from nowhere; it is perpetuated by the Circle.
This is why I believe it is only fair to call the sexual violence mages suffer from to be a systemic issue, part of the entire structural Circle of Magi. These are not individual errors, but rather a built in part of how the Circles are set up. The Chantry giving the Templar Order complete control over the mages as they do easily creates an environment where abuse can flourish, including sexual violence. This cannot be fixed without changing the underlying system of the Circle itself.
---
SOURCES:
Dragon Age: Asunder
Codex entry: Templar Letter (DA2)
Codex entry: Ser Alrik's Letter (DA2)
Dialogue: Ambient remark from apprentice mage (DAO)
Dialogue: Ambient remark from Alain (DA2)
Dialogue: Party banter between Anders and Sebastian (DA2)
Dialogue: Obtaining the quest âDissentâ from Anders (DA2)
Dialogue: Alain during the quest âBest Served Coldâ (DA2)
Dialogue: Ruxton during the quest âRepentanceâ (DA2)
ive been meaning to read more communist theory (ive maninly been reading secondary sources on revolutions and stuff) but i want to read the classcs of marxism vol 1. but it involves trotsky, and i dislike trotsyism as i think it an unreliable ideology, should i read the book (the book is transitional program)? is it a necesary book to read in order for the expansion of my understanding as a marxist leninist?
You can read it, but I definitely wouldn't say it's necessary. "The Transitional Program" was written well after Trotsky broke with Lenin and the Communist Party and was exiled from the Soviet Union. The tactics of the Trotskyist Fourth International resulted in zero revolutions to their name, and the few progressive reforms they achieved rarely lasted to the end of the century.
If you would like to read some works critical of Trotsky to see both sides of the conflict:
Our Disagreements, J. V. Stalin, 1921
The Second All-Russia Congress of Miners, V. I. Lenin, 1921
Once Again On The Trade Unions, The Current Situation and the Mistakes of Trotsky and Bukharin, V.I. Lenin, 1921
Trotskyism or Leninism?, J. V. Stalin, 1924
Trotskyism: Counter-Revolution In Disguise, Moissaye Joseph Olgin, 1935
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A recent leak has brought to light the existence of a political and media cell associated with Trumpism, funded by Honduran government structures, aimed at destabilizing both Gustavo Petroâs administration in Colombia and Claudia Sheinbaumâs in Mexico, as well as the Latin American left.
A collection of audios obtained by Diario Red revealed discussions between former Honduran president Juan Orlando HernĂĄndezâwho was convicted of drug trafficking in the United States and later pardoned by the Donald Trump administrationâand the current president of the Central American nation, Nasry Asfura, along with his vice president, MarĂa Antonieta MejĂa.
The recordings detail the formation of a communication team funded with Honduran public resources and contributions from the government of Argentine president Javier Milei, totaling over half a million dollars. The objective is to âstrike media blowsâ against the progressive leaders in the region.
Hey all, went back and checked up on these fundraisers and mutual aid donation drives to see how they were doing. I updated the list accordingly. If anything changes I will update the list once again so keep an eye out for that.
We didnât have a word for our, as you guys call, gay/lesbian people. So we coined that word as an umbrella for all our tribes. We never said, âWell, youâre transgender. Youâre bisexual. Youâre lesbian.â We never knew those terms. Those are all from Western culture, you know, LGBTQ and all that. So on some level, itâs about getting rid of labels. Those terms were forced upon us.
under US law, it's illegal for anyone who's not a member of a recognised native tribe to own an eagle feather. the penalty is a $100,000 fine.
14 years ago when I had recently moved to Alaska, I went hiking with an Aleut friend, and she pointed to a feather lying on the ground and said "hey that's a bald eagle tail feather, you should grab it!" and I was like "uhh I'm very white and that's very illegal" and she went "they're fuckin everywhere up here man. I have 20." so she grabs it off the ground and hands it to me and says "there, now it's a ceremonial gift from an indigenous person."
and I'm like, okay, cool, I guess this is how we do things in Alaska. nice.
so I keep this bald eagle tail feather around for years. display it in my home among other cherished memorabilia from places I've lived and visited, etc.
on a whim, I have just now looked it up. there is no exemption to that law for a ceremonial gift from an indigenous person. the last 7 years I lived in the US, I was technically a bald eagle poacher.
probably a good thing I don't intend to move back there anytime soon. I wonder what the statute of limitations is on bird crimes.
@freedomisscaryshit I'm fucking dying I think you forgot the word "feathers" in your tags?? or do you just wish you could grab whole ass eagles that land in your yard??
As an Indigenous person, it continues to astound me that there are such strict laws (written by White people) in our name, laws against...picking up things just found on the ground. Like, stop pretending this is "for" us. We don't want this.
so, for clarity, that's not what this is. the law against possessing feathers is an anti-poaching measure, derived from a North American treaty protecting certain migratory bird species from hunting. that treaty has an exemption for indigenous people to allow tribes that use eagle feathers in ceremonial or religious practices to continue doing so.
i used to collect feathers (illegally) as a teenager and the thing is that it's incredibly important for feathers from wild birds to be illegal to possess because it ensures that they never become fashionable to wear. the reason we passed the migratory bird act was because the american and european fashion industry was driving species to extinction in a timespan of years. not just decades. the ecological devastation of exporting birds for hats was absolutely insane and people were watching wetlands and forests and meadows just empty out in realtime. look at the wikipedia article for the plume trade.
the law against 'picking feathers up off the ground' means that you can't go shoot an eagle then sell the feathers on etsy by saying you 'just found them'. you can't own them no matter where they came from, which makes sure that they're not going to come from any birds killed and then secretly disposed of.
these laws, as harsh and ridiculous as they seem, saved flamingos, spoonbills, egrets, and all kinds of hawks and eagles from extinction. the minute these laws weaken and people can make money off killing them again, they're fucked.
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