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If art wasn't an option and I didn't have to worry about being profitable, I know what I would be doing: Keep a little shop selling secondhand-thirdhand buttons and buckles.

Thrift shops and secondhand stores could dump (or sell, whatever) their unsold and unwanted goods to me, and I could spend all day going through the heaps and picking them apart, plucking the still-perfectly-good buttons, zippers and buckles out of discarded things with threadbare fabrics and sell them.

Closest match: Peromyscus eremicus genome assembly, chromosome: 183 Common name: Cactus Mouse

A timely reminder to all younger (and non American) writers out there who didn’t live through it that 'Gay Panic' does not mean your hapless gay/bi/pan blorbo is all a flustered and bad at flirting.

It was a legal defense for beating a gay person, sometimes to death, because the perpetrator thought they were being flirted with and that, somehow, sent them into a homicidal panic. It is a horrible horrible part of queer history. And it wasn't that long ago.

So when you tag your fic 'Gay Panic', it does not mean "here is my cute fandom child being a mess", it means this fic has homophobia and possibly someone dying from it. So if that's not what your fic contains, it's not the tag that should be used.

"Data current as of 6/28/2023"

Gay Confusion

Gay Disaster

There are other options that are there instead of a recent, ongoing, and terrifying part of our history.

Some women are expected to be strong at times when they can't. Her feminism would involve reassuring her that it's okay to not be strong.

Some neurodivergent people are raised to believe that they're too stupid to ever amount to anything. Their disability activism would involve reassuring them that they're capable.

Some neurodivergent people are raised to believe that they're smart and gifted, and are expected to live up to impossible standards. Their disability activism would involve allowing them to fail, make mistakes, be stupid, etc.

Some children are constantly reminded "you're the child, I'm the adult" in order to deny their autonomy. Their youth rights activism would involve treating them like an adult at times when they feel ready for it.

Some children are treated like adults in order to justify increased expectations or to downplay abuse against them. Their youth rights activism would involve allowing them to be a child.