Eevee's Trash Bin

This is a man who is VIOLENTLY aware that when it comes to conservatives, he is a Muslim first, a Brown Man second, an Immigrant third, a Socialist fourth, and a human a very distant fifth, if considered at all. He was also a young adult during the Obama Years and will have seen Republicans rip Obama to shreds for wearing a tan suit instead of a dark one and use literally ANY excuse they could to try and degrade his image.

free/pay what you want printable pdf!

i am once again making a silly little zine abt covid safety but this time it is very unserious and not educational at all so if ur new here and dont know what the Heck i am on about. here's a place to start!

id:

slide 1:

a photo of the front cover of a black & white printed zine held up in front of a quilt in the background. top text of the zine cover reads: "reasons I love wearing my mask in public" with bottom text in parentheses: "besides the on-fire garbage can that is public health these days." a cartoon drawing of Maria, a pale genderfluid person with a buzzcut and glasses, is winking and doing a peace sign. she is wearing a boat-style mask with a star mask chain and crayon earrings.

slide 2:

top text: "1: I haven't had a man tell me to smile in 6 years." Below is a drawing of Maria walking down the sidewalk wearing a black mask, a cat cropped t-shirt, patched jeans, & star earrings. They are carrying a Mitski tote bag and look unbothered with their eyes closed as a man who looks a lot like the distracted boyfriend meme holds up a finger as if he was about to speak, but just looks confused as his speech bubble reads "..." Bottom text: "I simply cannot go back."

slide 3:

Top text: "2: I don't have to make facial expressions." Below Maria is waving and wearing a polo shirt, blank face emoji earrings, & an apron that says "JOB" with a name tag attached. Maria stares blankly behind her mask. Bottom text: "autism wins!"

slide 4:

Top text: "3: I can sing to myself on walks without being spotted by traffic." Below is Maria strolling down the sidewalk with cars in the background, wearing a mask, a baseball cap, and a Phantom of the Opera t-shirt. Maria has a speech bubble of floaty text singing "aangel of muuusic" with music notes floating around.

slide 5:

Top text: "4: mask chains!" below is a boat-style mask with a mask chain made of letter beads that spell "yippee." Bottom text: "another layer of accessory-maxxing."

slide 6:

Top text: "5: adds to my aura of being the mysterious and unknowable coworker." Below Maria stands in their job apron with a black mask & mushroom earrings surrounded by question marks. Text around Maria reads "what do they look like??" "we are literally on the clock!!" "wouldn't you like to know weatherboy!!"

slide 7:

Top text: "6: nobody knows I'm eating fruit snacks." Below is Maria with her mask on wearing strawberry earrings looking nonchalant as text points to her saying "maria acting normal." In the bottom left corner we see through the mask like an x-ray showing Maria chewing as she holds a scooby-doo gummy. Text pointing to this drawing reads "the REAL maria."

slide 8:

people in the comments will be like "okay but we could at least get rid of ticks and mosquitos because those spread disease."

we actually CANNOT get rid of ticks and mosquitos. not only do we plain lack the technology to lead a pointed extermination effort against them specifically without taking a score of other species down with them, but if we developed that technology and did eradicate mosquitos and ticks, it would be the catalyst of utter ecological collapse the likes of which i think people are not quite comprehending.

the problem is not the existence of bugs. the problem is that our current global systems ensure that specific Peoples in specific places are disproportionately impacted by zoonoses (illness spread between animals and humans).

those same populations also disproportionately lack access to preventative tools & PPE (down to things many of us take for granted so simply as effective bug spray), and crucially access to medical treatment.

the goal should not be an eradicating effort against bugs which would quite literally collapse entire ecosystems, but equitable access to healthcare, investment in medical research to improve preventative and acute treatment for zoonoses, and the destruction of systems which are currently rapidly increasing the threat of zoonoses worldwide (climate change!)

i am not defending the existence of bugs because i think they're cute and because i don't care about the devastating suffering zoonoses cause millions and millions of people.

drawing island moments :p

_ The Mouse

I spent so long tracking you down for this

i had to create a nixon mii just for this bit

Intersex people are often times not spoken about in the LGBTQIA+ community, despite the fact that we’re the sixth letter in it. The reason? I have no idea, especially when intersex people are arguably one of the best arguments when defending the rest of the community; The concept of gender truly does mean nothing, and consulting your genes does not secure the binary.

You’d think we’d be happy for any representation. So why are so many intersex characters considered “problematic” to us?

Here’s the honest truth; The old term no longer used for intersex people is “hermaphrodite”, which was used to describe someone born between sexes, specifically when they had mixed genitalia. This term has since been deemed problematic and is no longer used.

But why?

The truth is, being intersex, or existing between sexes, is a massive spectrum. Will some people have mixed genitalia? Yes. Will some of them appear as androgynous? Yes. Will some of them have had an invasive surgery to make their genitals appear non-mixed? Unfortunately, yes. That is a thing that some of us experience. But for many others, intersex means naturally mixed hormones, chromosomes, or secondary sex characteristics (outwardly identifiable gender features such as: beard, breasts, fat distribution, etc.). For some people, you would never know they’re intersex just by looking at them. Intersex does not have a look, and it goes far beyond genitals.

And yet, every intersex character is the same; Mixed genitals, possible traumatic backstory of a forced surgery, and/or used as a fetish means to make a woman get someone pregnant, or for a man to get pregnant or have a menstrual cycle.

Even and sometimes especially within the LGBTQIA+ community, we’re still reduced to a fetish. We’re talked about like some proverbial possibility. A mythical creature that can technically happen, but that you probably won’t meet in real life. Just as an example, the tag “weird biology” is almost always included in fan fictions that feature intersex characters, and we’re never included unless it’s in a story that includes smut or discusses reproduction.

Everyone can understand that reducing a trans person to their genitals isn’t okay, but that thought suddenly goes out the window with intersex people.

And then there’s also the matter of character trauma. When we aren’t reduced to sexual objects, we’re reduced to genital trauma. It’s a tale as old as time (or at least as old as AO3); A character who thought they were genetically binary finds out they’re intersex, and then finds out a surgery was done without their knowledge as a child. This then massively drives a rift between them and their parents, leaving them to cope with their bodily trauma as they stumble through their identity. Does this happen? Yes. Is it every intersex person? No. So why is it every character?

Time and time again, when I’ve addressed creators on why they want to give their intersex characters this backstory, the response is almost always the same: “I want to explore trauma with them. It feels pretty central to their character, so this route of the intersex experience feels right.” But what I want to know is: Who told them this is the only trauma an intersex person can experience?

Intersex people without mixed genitalia will be told their hormones are off and forced onto medicine that alters them physically and emotionally. Intersex teenagers will go through puberties they were not told to expect, such as AFAB voices cracking and lowering or AMAB bodies developing breast tissue, both of which can cause bullying from peers. Reproductive disorders caused by mixed hormones can lead to infertility and painful or embarrassing doctor visits.

Why don’t we see these stories in fiction? Because they aren’t told in fiction. When you never see anything other than one specific existence portrayed, people become convinced that’s all there is. As a result, that’s all they know of being intersex, which affects how much will be known and accepted by them and their peers. An uninformed populace also makes it easier for intersex people themselves to go uninformed, causing shame and confusion in many cases.

I know of at least one historical figure who never knew in life; they weren't discovered to be IS until an autopsy was preformed. (I don't remember who they were, unfortunately; it was quite a while ago.)

And sometimes, finding out isn't a big deal. It's not always a terrible dramatic event. Sometimes it's just a mundane little bit of trivia one finds out about themself. It can even be something to celebrate for some people, in a self love/body positive way.

My point is, being IS does not have to come with inherent misery. IS characters don't have to be victims.

EDIT: Yes, people with PCOS/PMOS are largely accepted by the intersex community.

I suspect that part of the reason it's not recognized by the medical field as a DSD is because PCOS/PMOS is somewhat common. You wouldn't want to disrupt the status quo by saying such a large portion of the population doesn't fit neatly into one of the two boxes we've manufactured, would you?!