A true queen does not need a king

The owner of this Blog will be making as much noise at Tumblr Staff about how horrible this ban in on other sites such as Twitter or Facebook. 

The owner of this blog will be logging out of all accounts for the entirety of the 17th. Will Not run a queue. Will not even check the dash. Or give the money hungry executives a single page view to squeeze ad revenue out of

A MOOD or what?

made by @theseavoices as a gift because i was sad about #tumblrgeddon

                       !!!!!!!!! BREAKING NEWS !!!!!!!!!!

The Tennessee Supreme Court ruled former sex slave Cyntoia Brown MUST serve 51 years in prison before she is eligible for parole.

According to them:

“In today’s unanimous decision, the Tennessee Supreme Court explained that, under state law, a life sentence is a determinate sentence of 60 years,” the court wrote. “However, the sixty-year sentence can be reduced by up to 15 percent, or 9 years, by earning various sentence credits (good behavior. & getting involved in prison based education programs while incarcerated) Therefore, the Supreme Court concluded that a defendant serving a life sentence for a first-degree murder committed on or after July 1, 1995, may be eligible for release after serving at least 51 years of the sentence.“

For those of you who haven’t yet caught up to this story:

Cyntoia Brown was a 16 yr old girl, who at the time of the incident was living in a room at a Nashville InTown Suites with Allen (the man who propositioned her for sex) because her pimp and boyfriend Garion McGlothen, nick-named “Kut Throat,” insisted that she needed to earn money.

Kut Throat abused her physically and sexually throughout the approximately three week period in which she lived with him.

After Allen took her to his house, he showed Cyntoia multiple guns, including shotguns and rifles. Later in bed, as she described in court, he grabbed her violently by the genitals, his demeanor became threatening and, fearing for her life, she took a gun out of her purse and shot him.

IF YOU WANT TO HELP:

You can sign this petition 

Call Governor Bill Haslam (615)-741-2001. she has a Clemency hearing May 23rd. DEMAND JUSTICE!!

Well… Can’t say I wasn’t expecting it but I had been almost hopeful…

This was the response to my @tiddie-protest post of my MALE chest, pre and post top surgery - which you can view here. Tumblr flagged it the exact moment I posted it and this was the response I got to my appeal. It has been reviewed and confirmed as “”sensitive”“ and is now only viewable to people who are not using safe mode, but after 17th december it will be hidden from everyone.

This goes directly against Tumblr’s new guidelines. My photo was not of a female chest and was not intended to be sexual and there is no way to interpret it as pornographic in any way!

I was incorrectly hopeful that Tumblr would at least adhere to it’s own guidelines, and this is why they are bullshit - 

Firstly - I will argue till the day I die that my nipples, those of A MAN, are not female presenting and never have been, even pre-surgery. This entire focus on “female” rather than just all nipples is both perpetuating the idea that female bodies are inherently pornographic (what century is this??) and invalidating to trans and non-binary and other genderqueer people. This is especially hurtful given how long Tumblr has been a safe space for both women and queer people.

“Female presenting” aside for a moment, for argument’s sake, I have not one but TWO other exceptions under their guidelines - gender confirmation surgery and political speech.

I would even argue, given that before and after photos of surgery can be very helpful and educational to others, that it falls under educational too. Which they also say is allowed. But I guess they mean by “certain types” not trans people?

Given that my post, personally, is also related to my journey as a trans person - one that has been supported by Tumblr and it’s amazing communities so far - it is utterly disrespectful that it be deemed “sensitive” in this manner.

Essentially, proving the sentiment and statement in the below, is utter bollocks. This is not how you strike a balance, this is how you invalidate people and their experiences. 

All of the photos being posted for the #tiddieprotest are in fact A PROTEST! Not just a protest against Tumblr’s new guidelines, the way it has been handled and verbalised by tumblr in a inherently misogynistic and transphobic way, but what that represents in a wider context. Tumblr is spearheading another round of shaming of female bodies and invalidating of gender non-conforming people whilst claiming to be working toward a better, more positive Tumblr.

They note Tumblr is “proud to have inspired a generation of artists, writers, creators, curators, and crusaders to redefine our culture and to help empower individuality.” But state “we’ve given serious thought to who we want to be to our community moving forward and have been hard at work laying the foundation for a better Tumblr.” And that doesn’t include most of those in their first paragraph - no thanks body positive women, trans people this isn’t the place for you, but thanks for your previous efforts in empowerment and redefining culture.

Shameful. 

i’m so done with this place

The first on-screen kiss between two men.

In this scene, the lower pilot is dying. He had been captured, managed to escape, and stole a German plane to fly back. The upper pilot–his best friend and rival for the love of Clara Bow*–shot him down, believing he was the enemy. This is him kissing his friend goodbye.

“But that’s still slashy!” you can say. Yep, it is. “You can read this as homoerotic!” Yes, you can. “Why are you denying this? Is it because you think being gay or bi is shameful?” A thousand times no. I am pointing this out because I think this is an important piece of evidence about what homophobia has done to our society and to male expressions of emotion. 

In 1927, the obvious reading of this scene, for audiences, was not that this was a romantic kiss. Audiences primarily understood this as an expression of friendship and love, because of course it was perfectly natural for non-romantically involved men to embrace or even kiss, particularly at highly emotional moments. Of course a dying man would want to be held during his last breaths. Of course a guilt- and grief-stricken man would want to kiss his friend goodbye. 

However, not very long after this, the commercialization and commodification of homophobia became a powerful force. The market (including Hollywood) began drawing lines and graphs and boxes, declaring which emotions, expressions, habits, and even colors “belonged” to men and to women. This kind of touch, which would not necessarily have been sexualized during many eras or in many cultures, became forbidden to men in the US, Britain and Canada (and many other places, too) within the decade–and is still lost to them today. This scene–a far more honest expression of grief and affection than anything we’re used to seeing in today’s action films–became gay. 

Now, if you strongly wish to write “Wings” slash, you can still do so–and not entirely by putting on your goggles! University culture of the 1900s-1920s definitely allowed for a far wider range of sexual behavior than frats do now, etc. I don’t want to police what anybody can and does find in “Wings.” But I think we should acknowledge what we lost when capitalism decided that, for men, kisses could only be sexual. 

Good morning! I’m salty.

I think we, as a general community, need to start taking this little moment more seriously.

This, right here? This is asking for consent. It’s a legal necessity, yes, but it is also you, the reader, actively consenting to see adult content; and in doing so, saying that you are of an age to see it, and that you’re emotionally capable of handling it.

You find the content you find behind this warning disgusting, horrifying, upsetting, triggering? You consented. You said you could handle it, and you were able to back out at any time. You take responsibility for yourself when you click through this, and so long as the creator used warnings and tags correctly, you bear full responsibility for its impact on you.

“Children are going to lie about their age” is probably true, but that’s the problem of them and the people who are responsible for them, not the people that they lie to.

“If men don’t know how to interact with roughly half the human population in a professional setting, they are - simply put - unqualified for the jobs they hold.   They don’t deserve a pass, our sympathies, or special treatment for their incompetence.”

- Fannie Wolfe, responding to Bloomberg headline, “Wall Street Rule for the #MeToo Era: Avoid Women at All Cost”

CURRENT MOOD: “Excuse me, which way to the “no girls allowed” boardroom?”

You remember that post about the homestuck t-shirt design contest collaborating with hot topic? And how Hot Topic are the biggest art thieves?  This is recent.  As you can see above, I stumbled upon Hot Topic’s website and they are selling a very popular fan art put on a t-shirt, and did not ask permission from the original artist (rismo).

BY AGREEING TO TERMS AND CONDITIONS ON DEVIANT ART.

THEY SOLD IT TO A THIRD PARTY ROYALTY-FREE.

———

3. License To Use Artist Materials. As and when Artist Materials are uploaded to the DeviantArt Site(s), Artist grants to DeviantArt a worldwide, royalty-free, non-exclusive license to do the following things during the Term:

a) to prepare and encode Artist Materials or any part of them for digital or analog transmission, manipulation and exhibition in any format and by any means now known or not yet known or invented; (DA  can post them on their website and edit them in any way they see fit)

b) to display, copy, reproduce, exhibit, publicly perform, broadcast, rebroadcast, transmit, retransmit, distribute through any electronic means (including analog and digital) or other means, and electronically or otherwise publish any or all of the Artist Materials, including any part of them, and to include them in compilations for publication, by any and all means and media now known or not yet known or invented ; (They can publish your art in any media, use it to showcase their website or even promote certain groups without your knowledge. For all you know, your art could be promoting the KKK.)

c) to modify, adapt, change or otherwise alter the Artist Materials (e.g., change the size) and use the Artist Materials as described in Section 3(b); and

d) the right to sublicense to any other person or company any of the licensed rights in the Artist Materials, or any part of them, subject to the terms and conditions of this Agreement. (They can edit, change, or otherwise modify your artwork in any way they want, as well as sublicensing it  to third parties, such as Hot Topic.)

e) Artist acknowledges that Artist will not have any right, title, or interest in any other materials with which Artist Materials may be combined or into which all or any portion of Artist Materials may be incorporated. (By posting on FA, you forfeit your right to dispute any third party profits or copyright infringements upon your art.)

f) During the Term, DeviantArt’s licenses under this Agreement include the right to use any part of the Artist Materials in the promotion, advertising or marketing of the DeviantART Sites. (DeviantArt can use your art to advertise anything they want.)

g) As used in this Agreement, the term “Artist Materials” means any content uploaded to the DeviantArt Site(s) which may include without limitation Artist’s name(s) (including professional names), trademarks, trade names, likenesses, photographs, biographical materials, audio-visual materials, artwork, liner notes, and other graphical, textual, video, film or audio materials and any and all “skins,” computer-generated images or other artwork or images that Artist submits to DeviantArt in any medium or format whatsoever. (ANYTHING you submit to DeviantArt belongs to DeviantArt now. Including  your drawings, your photos, videos, your stock materials, your music/audio, your written stories, and your artist name.)

“Lighten Up” by Ronald Wimberly