Mink.Gold.Silk.

St. Brick Intro a.k.a. Gucci Mane’s version of Jingle Bells

Always.

‪I'm tired of a Majority blaming the actor for their roles. Blame the casting, producers or editors. A bipoc isn't at fault for their melanin. Support bipoc artist. ‬

i’ve been working out some thoughts on how femininity allows women’s bodies into to be drawn as aestheticized objects to be consumed — and illustration so often focuses on commercial art, thus leaving gnc women out of its scope entirely. i’m entirely sick of seeing women’s bodies used as a product to be sold rather than a portrayal of our complex humanity. 

feeling anything mentioned in this post doesn’t mean you have to identify as trans, but feeling anything in this post is literally all that’s necessary to identify as trans if you want to.

You can want to be another gender.

You can want to divorce all connection to the gender you were born into.

You can want to keep it as an origin point that shapes your journey.

You can want to be more than one gender at once.

You can want to be more than one gender, at different times.

You can want to be no gender.

You can want to be sort of in between genders.

You can want to be both genders.

You can want to be rid of gendered body parts you already have.

You can want to keep gendered body parts while also being another gender.

You can want to be rid of them but not want the side effects of excising them.

You can feel dysphoria at being shaped like/viewed as/treated like a gender you don’t want.

You can feel euphoria at being shaped like/viewed as/treated like a gender you do want.

You can change your mind or adjust your goals or refine your wishes.

You can be stationary and fixed in your identity.

You can be fluid and changing.

You can be extremely gendered in your presentation.

You can be not very gendered in your presentation.

You can be androgynous.

You can be a little of both.

You can be a lot of both.

If gender is a line you can cross, as the words trans (across/on the other side of) and cis (here/on the same side of) indicate, you can cross it in any way you like, including dancing on top of it.

Be happy.

You still have to have the right tool

I’m too angry and overwhelmed about this article to not share it. This was published early today (Jan 21st, 2020) after 20 months of investigative journalism by Justin Nobel, and everyone should read this.

Some key points:

Oil and gas drilling produces a byproduct called brine, which turns out is very radioactive.

This radioactive waste is transported in unmarked (no radioactivity placard) trucks by drivers who have no idea how radioactive their load is, and have no safety equipment to protect themselves or others. The standard brine truck is 1,000 times above DOT limits.

The waste is not regulated by the EPA, or anyone. “In fact, thanks to a single exemption the industry received from the EPA in 1980, the streams of waste generated at oil-and-gas wells — all of which could be radioactive and hazardous to humans — are not required to be handled as hazardous waste.”

“In 2016, a brine truck overturned on a bad curve in Barnesville, Ohio, dumping 5,000 gallons of waste. The brine water flowed across a livestock field, entering a stream and then a city reservoir, forcing the town to temporarily shut it down.”

Radioactive brine is given to towns across America to be used as road salt in the winter, or “dust tamper” in the summer. “On a single day in August 2017, 15,300 gallons of brine were reportedly spread.” If you’ve ever wondered where radioactive waste gets stored… well one answer is that they simply spread it across roads. Does your town do it? Who knows. You might want to find out.

“Regulators defend the practice by pointing out that only brine from conventional wells is spread on roads, as opposed to fracked wells. But conventional-well brine can be every bit as radioactive, and Burgos’ paper found it contained not just radium, but cadmium, benzene, and arsenic, all known human carcinogens, along with lead, which can cause kidney and brain damage.”

“Animals on Kerri’s farm [near an injection well] dropped dead — two cats, six chickens, and a rooster. A sheep birthed babies with the heads fused together. Trees were dying.”

“A lot of guys are coming up with cancer, or sores and skin lesions that take months to heal,” [Peter] says. Peter experiences regular headaches and nausea, numbness in his fingertips and face, and “joint pain like fire.” 

“Randy Moyer, a former brine hauler in Pennsylvania [..] says he quit the job when burning rashes and odd swelling broke out across his body after only four months.”

Point of order, tho - as they mention in the article, it isn’t the type of well that dictates how radioactive any given brine is, it’s what geological formation that well is drilled into, and that’s going to vary based on 1) what they’re drilling for, and 2) geography/stratigraphy. 

So in the US this is a giant problem in New York and Pennsylvania where they’re drilling into the Marcellus shale, which is loaded with radium. A well drilled into, for example, the Pierre Shale in Colorado will produce minimally-radioactive brine.

That said, it still shouldn’t be SPREAD WILLY-NILLY ON DIRT ROADS.