foxgirl

There’s no stated reason. They just pretend to not be alive. We usually can suspend our suspension of disbelief here because when it’s something like a video game or an emoji because any odd occurrences is perceived as a glitch or something similar but the actual reason why they aren’t too hung up on this kinda shitty lot in life isn’t said

They get something out of their current relationship with humans (like in toy story)

They have some specific reason to hide that they’re alive, like they die if they’re seen (like in the christmas toy)

They perceive themselves as sentient, talking creatures, but humans can’t understand them. They just see a squeaking mouse or an inanimate hot dog or whatever. 

and the last one is what most animal movies do, and it’s like, not devoid of weird implications but you can see where it mostly works.

but barnyard is the outlier here: it goes with tier one: the animals can talk and walk on two legs but just pretend that they can’t for unstated reasons. 

in the history of the barnyard world non human animals, at some point, decided to just pretend to be unable to speak. a “cow” or a “coyote” or a “hen” do not exist as we know it in the barnyard universe. the baa of the sheep is false; the ewe doesn’t understand it either. they only made up that noise to hide the fact that they speak human languages. a dog barking and running on all fours is a facade. animals naturally walk on their hind legs and made up whole postures just to appear non sentient.

and for what? what do they gain from this? they have no rights and no voice by their own choice. at one point a donkey claims the farmer is a good person because he’s vegan and a pig mentions bacon - this is not a fantasy universe devoid of death and misery and meat. do animals, in hushed whispers, remind their children not to sob in their real voice as they’re taken away? do the dogs not beg for kindness when they’re tied up and hit? do cows and chickens not cry for their life in the slaughterhouses? does a rat not scream a human scream when the trap misses their neck and only breaks their spine? Why? what is the point? They loose so much and have everything to gain.

anyways does everyone remember this really awful cat. it only appears in one scene but i can just sense the porn of it that would pop up if i googled it’s name

University of Kansas officials threatened disciplinary action against a transgender employee for using the women’s restroom on campus.

Janitor Siobhán Kirchstein told The Lawrence Times that she had been reported for violating Kansas’s strict bathroom law, which activists have described as the most aggressive anti-trans law in the country. The initial email to Kirchstein served as a warning that using a restroom designated for a sex other than the one assigned to an individual at birth now violated the law.

The university said it had received a complaint about Kirchstein using a women’s restroom in Parker Hall. Kirchstein said she does not work in an area with single-stall restrooms available to all genders. She has used the women’s restroom on campus for years without incident, she told the newspaper, and has no intention of complying with the law.

“I’ll stay until they basically fire me,” Kirchstein said. “If that’s what they want to do, that’s what I’ll do. But I have no intention of complying. No intention at all.”

That termination could happen. Last year, before the new law went into effect, KU fired transgender student worker Anthony Alvarez for speaking to the press about the university’s change in gender-inclusive housing policies, The Lawrence Times reported.

Kirchstein does not know who reported her. My immediate reaction was complete shock that anyone in the Kansas Geological Survey would do that to me in the first place,” Kirchstein said. “And then I was furious about it.”

The first email served as a notice to Kirchstein but made clear the consequences of violating the law. An individual reported a second time can face a $1,000 fine, and a subsequent violation can result in arrest on a misdemeanor charge. The university, meanwhile, can be fined $25,000 for a first violation of the law and $125,000 for each subsequent violation. It was unclear from the email to Kirchstein whether the institution was facing any fines.

But the letter to Kirchstein shows universities are prepared to enforce the law, even under duress.