hey yall

i. the monster's body is a cultural body

ii. the monster always escapes

iii. the monster is the harbinger of category crisis

iv. the monster dwells at the gates of difference

v. the monster polices the borders of the possible

vi. fear of the monster is really a kind of desire

these are all direct quotes from jeffrey jerome cohen's "monster culture (seven theses)" (full pdf linked) i highly encourage you to read it yourself!

that said, while i think cohen's writing is evocative, it can be a little dense, so while i'm here, here's my capsule summary (you can also hear me talk about this in the first episode of my podcast) (listen to @ghostswerepeopletoo)

i. the monster's body is a cultural body - The monster is a work of fiction to be analyzed through tools of literary and sociological theory.

ii. the monster always escapes - As long as the cultural fear from which the monster stems persists, the monster will reappear in retellings, reimaginings, and sequels.

iii. the monster is the harbinger of category crisis - Monsters defy binaries and challenge easy comprehension or categorization.

iv. the monster dwells at the gates of difference - The monster represents the Other.

v. the monster polices the borders of the possible - Tales of the monster exist to discourage unacceptable or taboo behaviors.

vi. fear of the monster is really a kind of desire - Subjects can vicariously participate in the disruption of the social order through the monster.

jongler one leg proof poster for you to give to all your friends who dont believe you

this is a post from someone who is very very obsessive about deltarune, pixel art, pixel art in deltarune, jongler, and zappers, who has been seeing the recent discourse about jonglers legs and has been getting a bit miffed about it.

raw text below the cut

The idea of "anxiety" as a disorder of a person having inappropriate fear responses to harmless or safe things causes a framework where the impact of fear is measured by the person's ability to "function" and outwardly respond in "normal" ways, not their internal experience of suffering.

At a certain level of fear, "pushing through" or "doing it scared" loses its power to alleviate fear and instead creates another acutely negative experience of helplessness that increases the fear in future.

Likewise, if a person is extremely, inescapably afraid, telling them that they must "get better" by learning to tolerate and push through fear encourages dissociation and judgmental, domination-based attitudes toward the body, and reinforces the idea that existence itself is negative and scary

I've been given a lot of ideas for how to sense this distinction from notes on my posts, but i have to refine them.

Characteristics of "manageable" fear where "pushing through" might be productive:

Breathing exercises and other "coping skills" calm you down to some extent.

You still feel somewhat connected and responsive to your surroundings and your body, and you can drift between paying attention to different things.

Your memory of the event feels relatively normal (?)

The negative feelings and bodily symptoms resolve quickly do not last after the event is over.

Characteristics of fear that is extreme and severe enough that it needs to be addressed in a different way:

"Coping skills" do not help you to feel any better.

Paying attention to anything is difficult; it's hard to hold a conversation with someone and comprehend what they are saying to you.

Your memory of the event is extremely fixated on a small detail or aspect of it, or you can't remember the event clearly at all.

You feel like you're being pulled out of your body or that your body is limp and being dragged through the scary thing.

The way the fear is making you feel in your body is extremely distressing and unpleasant in of itself (severe nausea, sensations of suffocation, painful bodily tension)

The sensory memory of the event is extremely vivid and keeps replaying itself in your mind.

You do not experience a sense of relief after the event is over.

A small compilation of posts from the latest trans twitter discourse. I haven't bothered to screenshot all of the most viral tweets, but also I think it's important to include a lot of the smart ass replies to really help you simulate just how many people are going under black posts and asking "well, what even is racism really?" And if you'd like to know, one of the largest black trans women on twitter was harassed off of the site. No she did not do anything in particular, just posted an image of a sign she didn't make herself that claimed white trans people oppress black trans people (referring to I believe the silencing of a black trans woman who was slated to speak at the protest but was kicked off last minute. @/septembersister, If that's accurate.)

I don't think it ended up in the screenshot but the scenario of the trans bipoc sex worker they were called sex pests in a reply. Victryena was harassed into deactivating.

I think posters who are attempting to swing back on this conversation claiming this is an organized attack against trans women and fems are willfully ignorant. The sign does not name transfems. The sign is in defense of a trans woman. The vast majority of people making this about trans women are trans women posting racist bullshit. It's not my fault they are trans women. My go to search has been 'white trans' as well as off of my feed. Klansmascs and klansgender nonbinaries are also a plague on our spaces that keep us from community or action, but to dismiss this behavior as a psyop is to engage in apologia for racist communities and erasure of transmisogynoir.

Racism is a "personal grievance". Racism is a "niche cultural issue." Racism takes up all the air in the room and addressing it is hampering REAL action. Antiracism is "liberalism".

The most disgusting idea I have seen thrown at Vic, who is an asian trans woman, is that she is weaponizing racism or the struggles of TWOC/TPOC. Absurd as an idea of that is it makes me furious that we as a community continue to use the statistics of violence, sexual assault, and murders of black trans women to push for trans rights but when black trans women attempt to discuss racism they face backlash like this. We have tokenized the idea of the black trans woman as a silent victim, the emblem of transmisogynistic abuse, and continue to deny her her struggles lest she be masculinized and deemed an oppressive force herself.

Victry's racial identity is also important. As an asian woman and due to the racist misogynistic associations we, largely as American and Europeans, fetishize the 'natural femininity' of Asians. Her dysphoria is invalidated, she has had an 'easy transition', her sex work is weaponized as equivalent to racial violence. For those who haven't followed along, she returned to twitter with an eloquent statement I will add here.

I think its also important to notice how many of these creeds attempt to call on ones marxist values and position TPOC and POC as welding imaginary economic power over white victims. Sex work is continually used as a bludgeon (perverted sexually deviant TWOC are whining when they reap monetary gain vs white trans women as the victims of sexual violence forced to participate in survival sex work are being looked down upon by rich TWOC who never have to experience sexual violence to benefit)

For every singular person rolling their eyes and proclaiming their oppression has tuned them into the concept of suffering, that their experiences make them the true savior of the oppressed masses who doesn't NEED to ever listen to another group, theres 10 more replies 'just wondering' why we 'even bother to see color', or if antiracist action was CIA funded to erode leftist unity, and all of them are trying to make this exclusively about trans women. It's insane.

A couple more to close this out.

Racism is trivial. What even IS race? These rich blacks are speaking over fragile abused white trannies. Racism is a niche issue, you're distracting from actual problems. Calling organizations racist is too aggressive, you can't speak here. You're being inflammatory. You're not showing enough nuance. How was I supposed to know theres a victim when all your political slogans are so mean and violent? Discussions of race is a CIA psyop meant to dissolve the left. I'm angry you called me white and this is YOUR fault. Calling me racist is the justifying transphobic violence. You're equating me to a police officer murdering black people right now! YOU support trans peoples deaths because of the color of their skin! I'm not racist! YOU'RE racist for noticing race!

I reblogged something earlier with the comment,

"I kept getting called a nazi and a racist so I became a nazi and racist"