Sane Alex

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:

and what i mean by this is 22 years is long enough for john to have been kind and cruel and fiercely protective and physically abusive and remorseful and loving and absent and overbearing. it's enough time for him to have tried to force lessons about strength or manliness or emotionality on his kids and then been hypocritical and inconsistent and changed. and then gone back again. and again. it's enough time for him to have said over and over that this isn't what he wanted for his kids, that it was temporary, and then to have gone on another hunt and another. it's enough time for him to have used dean as bait so frequently that it's a given and enough time for him to have made it clear how much he relied on dean on hunts or made it clear how dissappointed he was with dean on hunts. enough time for him to have kept sam out of hunting and then wanted sam in hunting. enough time for whatever the goalposts were for being A Good Son to have moved a thousand times. and enough time for him to bring a feast home with him after a hunt and enough time for him to leave dean with not enough money for food and enough time for him to have taught his kids to hustle pool to get cash. it's enough time for him to have abandoned dean in jail on one occasion and enough time for him to come swooping in at the last minute to save him on another. enough time to take them to ten different school districts a year and also to wrestling matches. for dean to have been relieved john was home and terrified john was home and desperate for john to be home and to feel like he was gonna feel relief one moment and then have it turn to dread. to feel angry resentment right up until the moment john showed up with a bleeding forehead at 2 am. it's enough time for john to have had moments where he never wanted to talk about mary and moments where he couldn't stop. to give orders and to get dangerously drunk and to laugh and to cry and to yell and to sing along with the radio and to hug his kids fiercely and then to be gone for weeks a thousand times over.

canon john's actions are a mess. he was constantly in crisis mode. constantly torn between guilt for his actions and the cognitive dissonance of trying to justify them to himself. he made promises he couldn't keep. he was both crushed by circumstance AND crushed his children more than the circumstance demanded. abuse like this is just not consistent. that's a huge part of it.

I try not to make sweeping statements but I think there’s a case to be made for bernini as the greater sculptor there’s ever been.

here’s his bust of costanza bonarelli

here’s apollo and daphne from the front, where she’s mostly human

from the back, where she’s mostly tree

and details

Insanely detailed feet with veins from “Aeneas, Anchises, and Ascanius”

Another foot from the same statue because a) he textured underside of the foot and the folds of skin in the arch and b) can you see the light coming through the thin marble between the toes?

One of the mouths of Cerberus from “The Rape of Prosperina”.

Prosperina/Persephone’s facial expression and HAIR TEXTURE

Hades’ hair as well - this man was entirely too good at making CURLS out of ROCK.

A (poorly lit) close-up on the tree textures from “Apollo and Daphne”.

Hand, sling, and rock from “David” which I think deserves to be at LEAST as well-known as Michelangelo’s. Saw them two days apart and I prefer Bernini, honestly.

Facial expression from “David” - I just love the character in this so much.

Kind of a weird angle but look at the texturing on the sling pouch!!!

We also got to see one of Bernini’s earliest works (possibly his very first) in the Uffizi; it’s not currently on display, unfortunately, but look at this:

Forgive the poor photo quality but. He was 14 when he carved this. FOURTEEN.

Man was a straight-up wizard.

’Twas Tumblr, and the slithy memes Did bode and call out on the dash: Fucken WIMDY were the shitpost streams, And of things was the trash.

“Beware the Jabberwock, my son! The eeb that deebs, the blorb that plinks! Beware of Shittos Glup, and shun Bendlebick Cumperdincks!”

He took his discourse sword in hand; Long time the chungus foe he sought— So rested he in the ball pit (free!) And sat awhile in thought.

And, as in uffish (derogatory) thought he sat, The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame, Came GIFfling through the old group chat, And hurgled as it came!

UWU! UWU! And through and through The discourse blade went "Um, actually, the Jabberwock is coded as friendly because 'eyes of flame' means red and orange, and those are warm and inviting colors according to 'color theory', which I guess you haven't heard of and don't understand." He left it dead, and with its head He man car door hook hand.

“And hast thou slain the Jabberwock? Come to my arms, my beamish boi! O #frabjousday! Sounds fake but okay!” He reblogged in his joy.