Christa Wolf, From “Cassandra: A Novel And Four Essays”

issue #3 of Hellblazer (1988) is fucking amazing

IT LITERALLY STARTS OFF WITH JOHN RANTING ABOUT HOW FUCKED UP THE POLICIES ARE AND THEN GOING “anyway I’m here to be badass and fight bad guys not make political commentaries 🙄” AND THE WHOLE ISSUE IS JUST POLITICS

february confession

sin: lust once lost its luster, but I'm folding fingers down to you

maybe may will save you, and maybe it did

Are LGBTQ labels confusing? Do you ever see a collection of words and think "aren't some of those antithetical or mutually exclusive?" Congratulations! You've run into a very interesting phenomenon that I'm about to break down to the best of my ability.

There's two major philosophies when it comes to labels, they don't have names to my knowledge so I'm gonna call them Reflective and Telegraph.

The Telegraph Label philosophy states that labels primarily function as a means of conveying useful information about one's self to others. It's telling others what pronouns, what parts and what genders that person has or is attracted to. This is usually pretty straightforward, the stuff someone interested in dating you would check before asking you out to avoid embarrassment.

The Reflective Label philosophy states that labels are primarily a tool for describing an internal experience. Putting words to feelings for the benefit of the self. This is how we get lables like stargender or autismgender. These aren't meaningfully useful labels that tell others what to expect physically or what pronouns to use. But that doesn’t mean they're useless. In the case of someone using autismgender, that label probably describes the internal experience of the ways a person's autism impacts their views on and performance of gender. Stargender likely explains not that they literally see themselves as a star but rather that their internal experience of their prefered gender performance makes them feel a way that reminds them of stars or stargazing.

And this applies to sexuality too. Boy lesbian might seem antithetical but ultimately that label isn't there to tell others anything. It's merely a comfort to have words to describe a mess of feelings and social dynamics.

And for clarification, anyone calling themselves a boy-lesbian probably isn't the cis male boogieman forcing lesbians who aren't interested in cis men to date them or else be labeled a bigot. That boogieman doesn't exist. A more likely explanation is that a nonbinary or trans person has a complex relationship with their changing gender that doesn't trigger a change in the way they see themselves in relationships and attraction thus causing them to keep or adopt the lesbian label despite the gender weirdness going on.

I see a lot of infighting about what people call themselves and whether or not certain combinations can even physically exist. And Y'know what? I don't think that's terribly productive. Neither philosophy is wrong. People are just using labels to address different root problems.

As aggravating as it might be for Telegraphers, you don't have to understand everything. Not everyone feels that they owe you the list of information you find useful, and their labels reflect that. And that's okay.

this shit's easy

OBIT [My mother’s teeth] by Victoria Chang

This shit is incredibile. Like if you just looked at one video from one of the multiple Gazans living in tents who know english and are documenting their lives on tiktok and instagram you'd know.

I know how they get water, how they change their phones (literally one of the first photos ive seen after the genocide started full force), how they cook, how they wash their clothes, how they get money transfer to buy food throught the incredibly simple act of caring and listening.

You are too busy reading The Times of Israel and dehumanizing arabs to the point that even if you were teleported in Gaza right now you'd simply turn the other way and pretend you didn't see.

I wish nothing but harm your way.

But on a more positive note please donate to Medo Halimy's gofundme! And if you want to know how they "get wifi" go check out his tiktok and instagram account

gofundme.com

Donate to Help Medo and his Family Rebuild their Life., organized by Xavier Vergin

Hello there, My name is Mohammad, I go by Medo and I am 19 … Xavier Vergin needs your support for Help Medo and his Family R

Sorry for the bad photo quality, Tumblr doesn't like posts this long.

organic