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For this Witch Hat Monday I drew Coco in a Starry Night Dress! It's a continuation of the Starry Night Hat I painted a while back :)

Time lapse below, the full hours long art videos, PSD file and HD image will be DMed on Patreon the 5th of each month :)

call me a killjoy but if my "friends" drew swastikas on each other as funny jokes in a "social setting" they wouldn't be my friends anymore 🫠 wild.

the thread this was on in r/television was taken down, but all of the comments like this were equally disturbing and talking about how it’s just “drunk teenage fun” and social bonding behavior and only “zios” get offended by it.

the one empathetic, intelligent comment pushing back against that idea and saying we shouldn’t normalize this, and that it’s appropriate to apologize for a situation where hate symbols are involved, and that we should be more careful not to model this as a joke or as laudable, was downvoted to oblivion, and had nasty responses.

admittedly I don’t watch HR, and I’m not shaming Hudson Williams (it’s whoever drew that on him that made the bad choice anyway), but as the tags above say, this isn’t about him. it is, however, about how far too many people dismiss or diminish concerns about hate if that hatred is antisemitism. it is about how the Holocaust is so commodified, universalized, and even at times denied or justified, that people have no reaction to it other than an “lol boys will be boys.”

then the media pretends to wonder why these issues have gotten so bad, why extremism and white supremacy are on the rise, and why Jews are being targeted by hate crimes every day.

And these weren’t smart lads or sensible lads. None of us were growing up to be future social justice activists. The lot of us used to sit in the woods drinking stolen beer and trying to turn Coke bottles into makeshift bongs. One of them got sick by trying to roll up his homework and smoke it as a joke. One of them got suspended on day one of year 11 for turning up covered in anti-climb paint. My favourite lad got done for stealing a Mercedes Sprinter van (he was very adamant we always mentioned it was a Mercedes and not a Ford Transit) and trying to drift it around a roundabout, all while blasting Goldie Looking Chain out the windows.

I want to add something I meant to say earlier too, which is: acting like this is amusing adolescent behavior and nothing that merits concern is why we’re here:

They're preying on insecurities to do it. Yes, you can write an essay - but can you write a good essay, they ask you. Do you not want to improve your output? Do you not want people to think of you as competent and very clever? Why go through the mortifying process of failing and failing and failing until you succeed if you can just skip the "learning" part of doing, and simply generate a ready-made product?

I'm preaching to the choir here obviously but it's a concerning thing to witness nonetheless. My kid is 6 next week and I've been teaching her that failing at things is morally neutral and in fact necessary even before the advent of AI, but it's becoming ever more important that we teach the kids that criticism and failure and discomfort aren't necessarily bad things, but just a part of the growth process.

got my first commission from ko-fi and got so excited i did it immediately!! they requested drunk bkdk walking home lovingly and oh i love them

I am begging the UK trans community and its allies to attend the Mass Lobby at Parliament on June 25th, 11am-4pm, organised by Trans Solidarity Alliance.

The new EHRC Code of Practice pushes trans people out of toilets, hospital wards, and community spaces. It normalises gender policing based on appearance and stereotypes. It becomes statutory guidance in the UK by the end of June.

Trans people are now legally their assigned gender at birth and must join gendered spaces accordingly, but if they are perceived as their lived gender, they can also be ejected from those spaces. The guidance says: either break the law, or don’t pass too well.

A mass lobby is where you invite your MP to discuss your concerns with you in-person. Ask your MP to:

Demand full parliamentary scrutiny, debate, and use their free vote on the EHRC Code of Practice.

Support any motions rejecting the EHRC guidance. As of June 4th, Labour MP Nadia Whittome has submitted a prayer motion - Early Day Motion 240.

Write to Bridget Phillipson, the Minister for Women and Equalities about our concerns

Your MP does not have to be an ally, they do not have to respond to your email for you to show up and greencard them (details below the cut.) What matters is that as many people as possible show up.

I cannot stress this enough: Showing up in person matters. It is much more effective than petitions, emails, and letters.

It is a horrible, stressful time, and I am so sorry if you're trans and live in the UK. But I was at last year's mass lobby and the line for greencarding alone stretched around the back gates. It was a record breaking mass lobby and made us impossible to ignore. Let's do even better this time. Details under the cut:

I'm not going to be able to go, but I do have some experience with lobbying my various MPs over the years, so here's some quick advice off the top of my head:

If you're resident in the UK but not a citizen you still have the right to go to Parliament and be seen by your MP.

If you don't know who your MP is you can look it up by putting your postcode into the Find My MP page on Parliament's website (pro tip if you are a uni student, check your MP for both your family home and your uni, one may be a better option for lobbying than the other, you may even be able to Green Card both of them, but I don't know if that's possible, ask on the desk when you ask for the card).

And everyone needs to remember that while officially you're not required to show photo ID to get into Parliament the official guidance from the House of Commons is "you don't need photo ID to get in but we suggest you bring it anyway" (which is just unhelpful)

You will also be required to pass through airport style security which obviously may be a stressful experience for some of the people taking part in the mass lobby. That can take anywhere up to half an hour, the staff are usually pretty nice, but the entry into the security check is a sloped metal ramp with zero shade and nowhere to lean or sit so plan accordingly.

If your MP is not in the building to come and meet you they are required to respond to your Green Card as soon as possible via the contact details you put on your Green Card. While meeting them in person is the ideal you will get a response so it will be worth it even if your MP is unavailable.

People in general, are more likely to take you seriously and want to help you if you are nice and polite to them.

They may not be in parliament. They may be their London offices which are located a 5-minute walk away in the Portcullis House.

a mosque in scotland had to be put into lockdown. they are going door-to-door with hit lists and addresses in northern ireland, setting houses alight. they firebombed an imam's house in manchester. people of colour are being targeted and attacked by racist mobs in the street in broad daylight.