Heracleum Mantegazzianum

Yeah! I took one of my transmasc friends out to a bar for his 21st birthday and had a great time. We went to a party afterwards and just had a great time overall. Turns out we have pretty similar experiences as trans people despite crossing the road in different directions. I don't know him that closely but yeah just a really cool dude. Likes robots a lot.

My other friend is kinda nonbinary and kinda transmasc maybe or something. She/they/he is honestly one of my best friends and is fucking amazing just really one of the coolest people I've ever met

I’m convinced that the trans masc people that harass/stalk/dox trans fems and enbies on this website are like under a dozen people and probably some kind of psyop to cause queer in-fighting. (It literally happened to 4chan, why would anyone think Tumblr is immune?)

Like, the person who supported me the most through my transition is a trans man. He knows what it’s like to be the target of misogynistic bigots just like any woman, it’s almost like he used to be one… But when others in this community abandoned me, he didn’t.

South Africa at number 5

the op linked the study in the replies & i’ve been skimming it & it’s actually rlly rlly interesting to think abt

in the appendix (which you can find by scrolling down) CA:TWS is listed as having one torture scene, which immediately made me wonder because there are two that I can think of.

further on in the appendix when the authors are discussing the criteria for including torture, they give the vault scene in CA:TWS as an example of a scene that isn't torture, with the justification that Bucky seems to comply with his captors, and given the information shown on screen we can't conclude whether or not Bucky is a willing participant in the "wipe." Willing participants cannot be tortured, therefore the vault scene is not counted as torture

That is a WILD take on that scene. "doesn't fight back" does not equal "not being tortured" come on now

now, I could see disqualifying the vault scene as being a torture scene on the basis that the purpose of the "wipe" is not to inflict pain, it just happens to be an extremely painful process.

That's an interesting take. Is doing something incredibly painful or distressing to a person torture when there is ostensibly a secondary purpose to the painful thing, even though it also clearly doubles as a way of inflicting suffering and asserting power? This is a really important question to answer, since a lot of instances of torture and mistreatment in prisons and military situations etc. seem to fall under this. e.g. a strip search is nominally for "security" purposes, but it is also forced nudity which is a common form of sexual violence inflicted as part of torture.

But disqualifying the scene because there is not enough evidence that Bucky is being coerced to do it is nuts, since immediately prior Bucky gets slapped in the face for not answering a question and doesn't retaliate, and immediately before that Bucky gets a bunch of guns pointed at him when he acts up

That's another important question. Does being forced to comply with or participate in your own torture disqualify it from being torture?

The answer is, to me, obviously no, and in fact this seems like a relatively common feature of torture: e.g. forcing prisoners to dig their own graves requires a good amount of compliance from the victim and that's a major reason why it's so distressing

[Image ID: tags that read "#i can understand them choosing an conservative threshold for deciding what torture is #it's so hard to be objective with these kinds of things #like the last comment said the data is likely a sever undercount #but that they found an effect still should emphasize the point that much more"]

So I really want to focus on prev’s tags here because I disagree that this is a case of “the paper researching torturing in media excusing torture in media.” Jazzafrazz is completely right, the threshold is stated by the paper to be conservative.

[Image ID: excerpt from the linked paper with two lines highlighted: "we erred on the conservative side in an effort to understate our case" and "excluded any incidents where it was unclear whether or not the actions amounted to torture"]

“In an effort to understate our case” and “unclear” are important words to note here. Brainwashing, while absolutely a human rights abuse, causes the scene to have a layer of nuance to it. Yes, any average viewer would perceive what Bucky is put through as torture (that’s largely the point, since it’s a scene setting up how evil the antagonists are), but someone critiquing the paper could argue that the scene is an extension of the brainwashing rather than torture done punitively, or for the purpose of gaining information. At the same time the average viewer might not clock the scene where the protagonists dangle a man off the side of a building to get information out of him as torture, despite it more firmly fitting into the paper’s threshold.

As soon as he has spoken, a cloud materializes out of nowhere, moves in front of the sun and dissolves again.

The other three look at him, at each other, go "Well... That was certainly unusual, but the weather's been acting up a bit lately, so this does not really mean anything", and just continue with the discussion unmoved.

The fourth rabbi, increasingly desperate, again stands up and calls out "My Lord, they continue to defy your word, please send another sign to help them see the error of their ways!"

This time, it's not just one cloud, but the entire sky darkens, a thunderclap sounds and a bolt of lightning hits just next to the other three rabbis. They're startled, but after catching their breath conclude that no, you don't see that every day, but it's late summer, thunderstorms can come in surprisingly quickly, we're out in an open garden, there's no lightning rod on top of the synagogue even though there really should be, etc. So this still doesn't mean anything, we'll stick with our viewpoints thank you very much.

Now absolutely livid and still outvoted, the fourth rabbi gets up one final time, stamps his feet, raises his hands and shouts "Oh Lord, you who created all, for the love of your peope and the ways of the world, make your will known, so that it must be clear even to these stubborn mules!"

And a booming voice fills the sky, "HE IS CORRECT"

The other three rabbis look up, look down to their colleague, and finally one says:

I know the time. I know the place. It's the only thing I know for real.

I sit by myself in the back, trying to pretend that everyone isn't staring at me.

I order a beer... or whatever passes for beer in this place.

Then she arrives.

She knows exactly where I am, how can she not?

She moves with purpose, a haunting effortless beauty to her motions.

She is seven minutes late. Is that on purpose?

"Hey kiddo," she says with a soft smile, something like guilt or pity or regret written across her face.

I know that face. I've met her before, so many times. But this is the first time I recognize my face.

Hers is the face that's been slowly taking shape in the mirror.

"Why?" is all I can manage to say.

My throat is tight. Decades of hurt all piling up all at once, focusing into a single crystalline sharpness.

"To protect you," she says.

She places an object on the table. Small, bright, pearlescent.

"This is everything I took from you," she explains. "You'll need it soon."

I stare at it. A fragment of me. Shards of myself, stolen and collected away.

I don't know how I know.

Then I understand. My heart twists with rage. It was never for her. It was for me.

She huffs a laugh, seeing the realization on my face.

"You're mad," she says. "Hold onto that. You'll need it. One day you'll understand, but I don't expect your forgiveness."

The truth of her words hang in the air.

"What... what am I?"

"Something special," she replies. Then she sighs. "Listen, kiddo... I can't say much for reasons that are now obvious. But one thing I can tell you is time... it's not a straight line. It folds back on itself, but that doesn't mean it's the same every single time around."

She rises from the table to leave.