Happiness is....

THIS IS MY CAT HELEN. SHE’S RAD.

Most Pokemon are highly adaptable to their surroundings, but Eevee take the cake. In their basic form, Eevee seem like nothing special. Eevee are very territorial creatures, and will fight off another Eevee who encroaches on their land. They are friendly enough with humans and other Pokemon, but not with each other. This animosity led Eevee to spread out all over the land, seeking their own space.

Because Eevee spread to land of all sorts, they had to be very adaptive to different environments. In extreme environments, Eevee evolved in order to survive there. Eevee in water regions evolved into fish-like Vaporeon, in volcanic regions to heat-resistant Flareon, and by power plants into the electric Jolteon.

Scientists were fascinated by this ability, and carefully examined Eevee in various environments and in labs to determine what was necessary to make them evolve. They discovered that if they had an object that was highly connected to one of the environments, they could cause the Eevee to evolve in the lab. In other words, a chunk of coral could cause an Eevee to become a Vaporeon, because the Eevee connected it to the ocean. Volcanic rocks and strong earth magnets were used to cause evolutions to Flareon and Jolteon. Scientists coined these ‘Evolution Stones’ and sold them to trainers.

With these stones, Eevee’s popularity with trainers skyrocketed. No longer would trainers have to spend long hours in harsh environments, training their Eevee in hopes they would evolve or searching for wild evolutions. As Eevee spent increasing time with trainers, they adapted again, into Espeon and Umbreon, to help them bond with their trainers and give them an edge over their opponents.

Some trainers tried to stimulate other evolutions, by training in icy tundras and deep rainforests. These produced Leafeon and Glaceon, but these were harder to bring about. Because these evolutions had been brought about by trainers rather than by survival in the wild, they were less instinctual to the Eevee. A leaf stone or glacier ice would not affect an Eevee; they would have to be totally submersed in the environment to evolve.

Unfortunately, over hunting led Eevee to be very rare in the wild. They are nowhere near extinct, as they are so popular a pet, but they exist in captivity. Breeding facilities will sell Eevee at high prices, though interest groups hope to re-introduce them into the wild.

have I uploaded this already I don’t remember

Can we talk some more about how guilt tripping someone for not being interested in you is a really shitty thing to do? Look, I’m sorry you’re lonely or depressed or  whatever. Those are bad things and having to deal with them isn’t fun. But I am not responsible. It is not my job to sacrifice my autonomy to make you feel better. Your attraction to me does not make your well-being my responsibility. And to use your unhappiness as a tool to coerce me into a relationship or a sexual situation that I’m not comfortable with makes you a bad person.

“Liking something popular doesn’t make you lame. Discounting someone for having some of those same interests does.”

And this is something that happens pretty exclusively to women. The article even points it out. When men enjoy things that are popular among men, no one comments on in, certainly not in a negative way. No one laughs at men for liking CrossFit, or beer, or watching football. It’s okay for men to like things that lots of men like because mens’ interests are good and valuable from a societal perspective. Because men are good and valuable. But when women like things, those things become the subject of shitty, sexist jokes that further the belittlement of the interests of women and women in general.

This is just another way for men to shit on women and to further brainwash women and girls with internalized misogyny. This becomes another case of “I’m not like other girls.”

“Oh she likes pumpkin spice lattes and Sex in the City? That’s so gross and lame. I like Guinness and WWE. I’m just not like other girls.”

As though being like others girls is so bad. But thanks to the idea that liking what other girls like makes you a “basic bitch” and thus lame and to be laughed at, another generation of girls is growing up thinking that women and the things they enjoy are detestable and to be laughed at while the interests of men are somehow superior and preferable. That girls doing things that make them happy is some sort of sad joke.