The comfiest mountain you ever been to!

this is not life-threatening, but also who wants weeks of diarrhea and a fucking parasite in them lol. if you suspect you've already had this and it's passed, i would see a doctor. you might need an antiparasitic anyway. if you're actively sick, see a doctor and they might be able to prescribe medication to help you get over it faster.

try to avoid eating raw vegetables, scrub fruit with a produce brush and rinse thoroughly with water. again, don't bother with premade greens or bagged salads. if you buy lettuce, remove the outer 2-3 layers of leaves.

Only high temperatures will kill cyclospora. It resides in what is like a shell, which is highly resistant to water and most cleaning chemicals. The substance it uses to cling to food is so strong we don't even fully know what its limits are. It may be best to avoid fruits and veggies you can't cook. Scrubbing only works if done hard enough and on foods with no hiding places (Like cucumbers and grapes). Peeling the skin off is your best bet at avoiding it however, scrubbing is not guaranteed.

You don’t get to get pissed at them when they ask why they’re being left out of things that should’ve involved them from the beginning, it is not transmisogynistic for them to be upset about constantly being left out, or involving themselves in conversations about trans things.

Under the cispatriarchy, cis women, particularly cis white women, will often have the role of the enforcer of femininity. You’ll very frequently see this in groups of women and, if you were raised under the assumption that you are a girl, you’ve likely seen it in action yourself, particularly from cis women family members. At some point, your mother decided it was time you learn to shave your pits and legs and made sure you did it. If your girl classmates saw your leg hair, they’d freak out cause that’s soooo gross. If you didn’t wear makeup, they’d either make a huge effort to teach you or they’d make snide remarks about it. If you wanted less feminine clothes, your mom would never buy them for you and since you’re a kid you have to wear the girly clothes she picks for you instead. If she doesn’t, the girls at school will try to “give you a makeover”. Actually, the fact that makeovers are a thing and seen as something exciting to take part in even if the central focus is unwilling should say a lot. Basically, if you’re seen as someone who’s supposed to be a girl and you’re not Performing Girl hard enough, you get harassed until you comply or become a social outcast among women.

If cis women perceive you as One Of Them but Doing It Wrong, they have a sudden need to correct it. This is already weird and a sign of a misogynistic culture. But then we get into the problem of being a trans man in an environment like this.

You want to cut your hair short? “But it’s sooooo much prettier long! Why would you wanna get rid of it?! I’ve been so jealous of your hair, you can’t do this to me!”

You don’t want to wear makeup if you did before? “You don’t have to wear too much, you know, just the basics, come on. You look so much worse now.”

You stop shaving your legs and pits? “Ew, that’s so gross and unsanitary!”

And I haven’t even gotten into medical transitioning.

Which, okay I guess cis women would likely see the idea of taking a body Like Theirs and masculinizing it to be a horror show because they would never want the same thing for themselves. Thing is, out of all the things that are not about them, this is the most not about them. Still, they will make it about themselves.

Cis women who lost the body parts we want removed will take it deeply personally as if we wouldn’t offer to hand you ours without hesitation. Cis mothers will cry and act wounded and victimized over their trans sons getting top surgery. If you go out to a beach with visible top surgery scars, cis women approach you and talk to you like they just caught you self harming for the first time (“oh, sweetie, what have you done to yourself” in That Specific Tone). Cis women in general will say and do anything to make you reconsider your desire to make your body, which they see as Like Theirs, less Like Theirs. As if it’s about them. As if you’re a lost lamb to guide back to the fold. And not just some guy trying to improve your quality of life by getting rid of what’s causing you distress and giving yourself things that make you happier.

And you’d hope after a certain point in transition they’d stop. They’d finally recognize you’re a guy and you want a body that matches You, The Guy. And some do. But some don’t. You’re still a tragedy to them and now a danger to other girls and they’ll overwrite your words and your reality to paint you as such. Because now you’re Once Like Ours. Something corrupted. Not a real man but instead That Which Was Once A Woman, and you carry a corrupting force that they fear will reach them or their daughters. That corrupting force, by the way, is the knowledge that you literally do not have to be a woman if you don’t want to be and there are options. Because once you have that, well, their gender policing doesn’t quite work the same way it used to now. They lost control. And that’s scary. But they didn’t need or deserve it in the first place, now did they?

“I have something important to tell you but can’t message u pls message me ” - accidentally reported you scam

“I love your story and want to illustrate it dm me at discord” - commissioner scam

“I saw your post looking for artists to draw (x) and would love to draw it it sounds like a lovely idea and im an artist” - commissioner scammer who DM’d you when you didn’t ask

“Did you send me this link for free tumblr premium?” - accidentally reported you scam

Are you having fun? Do you want to keep scrolling or are you just on autopilot?

Have you eaten today?

Have you consumed water today?

Do you need to go to the bathroom?

Have you slept recently?

Do you have any chores in process that you've forgotten about or are putting off? (Laundry that needs taken out of the machine, a dishwasher full of dishes that need put away, etc.)

Have you taken all your meds?

If the answer is "All good," feel free to keep scrolling!

The problem wasn’t what I had access to. It was that I didn’t have access to a safe adult I could actually talk to; someone I could trust to help me without immediately cutting me off from everything and everyone. I remember getting messages from strangers on Skype. I didn’t even respond. But when my parents found out, they banned me from using it entirely. That meant losing most of my contact with friends outside of school. So what did I do? I went behind their backs. And once I was hiding, I couldn’t tell them when something actually dangerous was happening, like when I started being groomed. By the time things escalated, I was already alone with it.

I think about an episode of Scared Straight where a girl was dragged through a prison because she’d been talking to adult men online. She wasn’t doing that because she was reckless or malicious; she was lonely. Her parents weren’t present, she was being bullied at school, and these men gave her attention, told her she was pretty, told her she mattered. She was already being harmed. And the adults in her life responded by terrorizing her. Humiliating her. Calling her a slut. Telling her she deserved it. Breaking her to pieces.

What lesson does that actually teach? Not “this is dangerous, come to us.” It teaches: If you get hurt, we will hurt you more. Do you really think that makes her stop, or does it just make the predators look safer by comparison? They might as well have driven her straight into the jaws of those predators with torches and pitchforks. Because when every path back to safety is lined with punishment, kids don’t run away from danger. They run deeper into it.

If you want kids to be safe, stop treating them like problems to control and start treating them like people worth protecting. Stop ripping away their autonomy the second they make a mistake or encounter something risky. Stop teaching them that honesty will cost them everything.

me: 

@scarcity-of-cats @annajanes

2 - This and rotten apples are some of the best sites ever

When was your last Pap smear?

Because I am tired of seeing young people (think 40 year olds!) die horribly of an almost completely preventable disease, and I haven't seen the obligatory Tumblr PSA about it, so I'm making my own.

1. CERVICAL CANCER IS REALLY BAD

Cancers that have a good prognosis are usually cancers that can be caught early--like skin cancer, which is easily seen, and therefore usually treated very early. Cervical cancer does not give you symptoms until you have very advanced disease, which means unless someone is regularly testing your cervix, you will likely not be diagnosed early. More than half of people diagnosed with cervical cancer present with advanced disease. 75% of them will be dead within 5 years. For comparison, when caught in the earliest stage, there is a 90% 5 year survival rate. Treatment for those diagnosed is chemo and radiation, and believe me, those are not fun. If you do happen to be in the lucky 25% of survivors, if your cancer comes back, you have an 85% chance of dying within a year. Also! We think of cancer as something that happens to old people, but the average age of diagnosis for cervical cancer is 50.

2. WHO GETS CERVICAL CANCER?

Cervical cancer used to be the most common cause of cancer-related death in women in America, but at this point it's basically a disease of People Without Pap Smears--developing countries, immigrants, low socioeconomic status, BIPOC, rural communities, LGBTQ, etc.

3. HOW DO PAP SMEARS SAVE YOUR LIFE?

A Pap smear is a screening test for two things: HPV, and your cervical cells. HPV is the most common sexually transmitted disease in the world. Literally half of the people in America have some strain of HPV on their body. Most HPV infections go away on their own (in people with healthy immune systems), but some strains are Very Bad, and some people are just Very Unlucky, and the HPV starts causing your cervical cells to turn cancerous. 91% of all cervical cancers are caused by HPV. So a Pap smear looks to see if your have HPV, and if so, is it one of the bad ones? And also, do you have any cancerous cells hanging about in your cervix? And! It takes 10-30 years for HPV to turn those cells into cancer, which means you have a really really long time to catch it before it becomes cancer and cut those pre-cancer cells out!

4. WHAT ABOUT THAT VACCINE?

The thing my dad said I shouldn't get because it might make me a slut. Yes! There is an HPV vaccine! You should get it! It protects you against the nine most common cancer-causing types of HPV. It's recommended starting at age 11, and you can get it up to age 45 now! (It used to be 26, but as of 2020, it's now extended.)You can get it from most primary care doctors, or from Planned Parenthood, CVS, Walgreens, etc. If you get the vaccine you still need Pap smears.

5. I HEARD YOU CAN ONLY GET THE VACCINE IF YOU'RE A VIRGIN

Fake news. While the vaccine does not treat old infections of HPV, it does prevent new ones, so while the benefits are theoretically decreased in those who have already been sexually active, it does not mean you will not benefit from having it!

6. WHO GETS PAP SMEARS?

Everyone with a cervix starting at age 21, until you lose your cervix or until you're 65. You should get them every 3-5 years (depending on your exact age and what test your doctor does).

7. BUT I GOT THE VACCINE

Nice! You still need Pap smears.

8. I HAD ONE AND IT WAS HORRIBLE/I'M SCARED OF THE EXAM

Talk to your doctor about this in advance! Good gynecologists (and other providers) will work with you to minimize discomfort as much as possible. They can use a small speculum and lots of gel, prescribe anti-anxiety medications to take in advance, and some people will even use numbing creams and/or laughing gas.

9. BUT I DON'T HAVE/CAN'T SEE A GYN

Most primary care physicians can do them! So do a lot of urgent care centers!

10. BUT I'M A LESBIAN

HPV can be transmitted through oral/genital contact, hand/genital, and even hand-to-hand-then-genital, so you still need Pap smears.

11. BUT I'M A VIRGIN/ASEXUAL

You still need Pap smears. HPV can be transmitted not just through penetrative sex, but also through oral/genital, hand/genital, and hand-to-hand-then-genital, and also 9% of cervical cancers are not caused by HPV.

12. BUT I'M A TRANSGENDER MAN

If your cervix was removed, then congrats! You do not need Pap smears. Otherwise, unfortunately, you are still at risk for cervical cancer and need to be screened.

13. BUT I'M A TRANSGENDER WOMAN

Neovaginas do not need Pap smears! Congrats! Consider getting the vaccine, though, to prevent spreading HPV to others.

14. BUT I'M A CIS-GENDERED MAN

Congrats! You do not need Pap smears! You should still consider the vaccine though, not only to prevent the spread of HPV to others, but also because HPV causes 50% of all penile cancers as well.

In summary: please please please go get your pap smear. Go get vaccinated. The spread of HPV can be prevented, and cervical cancer can be caught and treated before it even becomes cancer.