Latest Posts by freshballoonsweets - Page 4

Writing about a child rapist did not make Vladimir Nabokov a child rapist.

Writing about an authoritarian theocracy did not make Margaret Atwood an authoritarian theocrat.

Writing about adultery did not make Leo Tolstoy an adulterer.

Writing about a ghost did not make Toni Morrison a ghost.

Writing about a murderer did not make Fyodor Dostoevsky a murderer.

Writing about a teenage addict did not make Isabel Allende a teenage addict.

Writing about dragons and ice zombies did not make George R.R. Martin either of those things.

Writing about rich heiresses, socially awkward bachelors, and cougar widows did not make Jane Austen any of those things.

Writing about people who can control earthquakes did not make N.K. Jemisin able to control earthquakes.

Writing about your favorite characters and/or ships in situations that you choose does not make you a bad person.

It’s a shame that in this day and age these things need to be said.

Bad Cats.

Anyway, Bob Marshall is a disgusting anti-LGBTQ bigot who has made life hell for LGBTQ+ people in Virginia since I was a kid, and this year Danica Roem, a trans woman, is running against him. 

Bob Marshall has been running anti-trans TV ads against her and sending out transphobic mailers (content warning: misgendering, transphobia.)

I know Danica Roem winning is a long shot but it would mean a great deal to me if she even came remotely close, as a bi/trans Virginian who’s dealt with Bob Marshall’s homophobic, biphobic, and transphobic shit for years.

So please, if you’re in Virginia (whether you’re in Bob Marshall’s district or not) vote in the 2017 state election. 

Mermaids first hoarded treasure to keep the sea clean, storing them in coves and land for humans to collect. Pirate: Arrghh, X marks the spot but where’s the treasure? Mermaid, holding worthless bags of jewelry: Sorry I’m late! Pirate: Wha- Mermaid: Is this for trash or recycling?

An incel gamer who calls himself a nice guy, decapitated a 17 year old girl “who wouldn’t give him a chance” after she went on a date with another guy.

friendly reminder that I’m autistic and one symptom of that is that I am terrible at telling if people are joking or being sarcastic irl and over the internet and I have a lot of tolerance for people being unkind to me but for some reason messages like “it’s so obvious so and so was joking, you’re such a dumbass” really irritate-almost-anger me. No it’s not always obvious. Fuck off.

!!!IMPORTANT FOR BLACK US VOTERS!!!

I saw this on Facebook and went to check my registration status, sure it was fine because I voted recently, but I put in the info and it said I’m not registered

PLEASE, especially if you’re a Black voter, check your registration status at vote.org

i want to point out that jared, paul, quil, jacob, and embry are all sixteen. seth is fourteen. they are native teenage boys written by a racist white women who bastardized an existing culture to create a racist interpretation of native teenagers. they are written to be out of control, violent, and angry, regardless of the fact that that goes against what little characterization they do have, or, in the case of paul, writing his sole characterization to be “extra angry.”

above all, they are children. even though the author does so in canon, they should not be sexualized. they should not have sexual headcanons written about them. there should not be sexual posts made about them. you should not have sexual feelings about them, especially when they are violent in nature. that is not appropriate towards any character, particularly characters of color, and particularly minor characters. they should not be sexualized, because they are children.

there is nothing wrong with liking twilight, but as fans (particularly those who are white like me) we need to be mindful of the very real harm that is created with stereotypes like the ones meyer perpetuates in the entire saga, and do our best to avoiding perpetuating them ourselves.

A friend and I were out with our kids when another family’s two-year-old came up. She began hugging my friend’s 18-month-old, following her around and smiling at her. My friend’s little girl looked like she wasn’t so sure she liked this, and at that moment the other little girl’s mom came up and got down on her little girl’s level to talk to her.

“Honey, can you listen to me for a moment? I’m glad you’ve found a new friend, but you need to make sure to look at her face to see if she likes it when you hug her. And if she doesn’t like it, you need to give her space. Okay?”

Two years old, and already her mother was teaching her about consent.

My daughter Sally likes to color on herself with markers. I tell her it’s her body, so it’s her choice. Sometimes she writes her name, sometimes she draws flowers or patterns. The other day I heard her talking to her brother, a marker in her hand.

“Bobby, do you mind if I color on your leg?”

Bobby smiled and moved himself closer to his sister. She began drawing a pattern on his leg with a marker while he watched, fascinated. Later, she began coloring on the sole of his foot. After each stoke, he pulled his foot back, laughing. I looked over to see what was causing the commotion, and Sally turned to me.

“He doesn’t mind if I do this,” she explained, “he is only moving his foot because it tickles. He thinks its funny.” And she was right. Already Bobby had extended his foot to her again, smiling as he did so.

What I find really fascinating about these two anecdotes is that they both deal with the consent of children not yet old enough to communicate verbally. In both stories, the older child must read the consent of the younger child through nonverbal cues. And even then, consent is not this ambiguous thing that is difficult to understand.

Teaching consent is ongoing, but it starts when children are very young. It involves both teaching children to pay attention to and respect others’ consent (or lack thereof) and teaching children that they should expect their own bodies and their own space to be respected—even by their parents and other relatives.

And if children of two or four can be expected to read the nonverbal cues and expressions of children not yet old enough to talk in order to assess whether there is consent, what excuse do full grown adults have?

October 10, 2019Mental Health day.

A very simplified version of a very serious, very complex matter.

#pascalcampion

This is the Lucky Ace. Reblog to recieve a wad of cash that is oddly specific to your current needs.

Trans Rights Are Human Rights button by RachelShneyerArt

..المبادرة بين الطرفين هي أساس بقاء العلاقة..

“The initiative of both parties is the basis for the survival of the relationship”

who would have thought that the solution to homelessness is providing people with housing? 🧐

#the four horsemen of the gaypocalypse

Pedophiles don’t belong in the LGBT community. Go die in a fire. You are not welcome.

Reblog if you think trans women:

A. Are women

B. Can be lesbians

Five seconds later:

Favorite MCU ladies as voted by my followers : #3 ↳ Shuri “just because something works doesn’t mean it can’t be improved.”

harold, they’re lesbians

people are gay, steven 

i’m a lesbian, carl 

don’t be a transphobe, chad 

we support the gays, david 

i’m not jealous, flavio. i’m gay

Remember in 1993 when Jurassic Park was like…the end all, be all of special effects?

“But if you forget to reblog Madame Zeroni, you and your family will be cursed for always and eternity.”

Self-defense? He’s 6 years old ffs…I can’t

Its 2am and i just laughed so hard outloud my mum woke up and came in and when i showed her this she laughed and woke my sister up

hired

Thinking about Steve Harrington and why I really love his redemption arc, and I think one of the big things is that, like… he doesn’t really get anything out of it? He gets his ass kicked in every season. His girlfriend dumps him (after cheating on him, depending on how you interpret everything that went down with Nancy and Jonathan). He went from the being the most popular guy in the school to a loser, a joke. His social circle consists of middle school students. The next girl he falls for turns out to be a lesbian. He couldn’t get into college and is working a shitty minimum wage job in an embarrassing uniform. In his words, he makes three bucks an hour and he has no future.

Like, he’s never rewarded by the narrative for becoming a good person, and he’s never given any Freudian excuses for how much of a dick he was through most of S1. He just realized that he was being shitty and decided to do better. I appreciate that.