You Know I Think Ive Come To The Conclusion That The Answer To But What If A Cis Woman Is Traumatized

you know i think i’ve come to the conclusion that the answer to “but what if a cis woman is traumatized by men/male presenting people/whatever?” irt safe spaces is this: if you can’t be in the same room with someone you assume to be male or a man without feeling triggered, it probably means you have a lot more solo therapy and healing to do before relying on group therapy or other communal healing.

because how do you decide who gets to stay and who gets kicked out based on a cis woman’s trauma response? is it based on appearance? should intersex women with facial hair not be allowed because beards are triggering? should butches and studs not be allowed because masculinity is triggering? should talk broad shouldered trans women who don’t want to voice train not be allowed because low voices are triggering? is it based on identity? should a pre transition trans man who came out two days ago not be allowed because he’s a man? is a nonbinary person with a full beard and deep voice allowed because they are not a man?

because if you base your entire set of rules for who’s not allowed in the safe space on what makes cis women uncomfortable or triggers them, you’ve just made that space unsafe for trans people. and you need to decide if you’re ready to own that.

I remember reading a post about fencing once, and how people who are new to fencing actually tend to win a lot more bouts, particularly against experienced fencers, than most people would guess. The reason? Because people who are new to fencing haven't learned all the rules yet, and they will make absolutely bonkers, unsafe, and chaotic choices that are just not possible for someone more experienced to predict with any reasonable degree of accuracy. So lots of newbies win a surprising number of bouts, not because they are better at fencing but because they are more chaotic and more likely to make objectively more dangerous choices.

It occurs to me now that this makes for a really wonderful analogy to how Oliver ends up "winning" in Saltburn, when Felix and the Cattons were actually much more experienced and subtle manipulators (to the point that a good chunk of the audience didn't even notice how wildly manipulative the Cattons and Felix especially are), while Oliver is out there making wild impulse decisions and then retroactively pretending there was a plan, probably.

Oliver is the chaotic new guy whose understanding of normal social expectations is so far behind his peers that his behavior winds up being not just hard to predict for most people, but especially hard to predict for the wealthy assholes who have made an art form out of manipulating other people to get whatever they want without giving up anything of value from themselves.

And now I'm going to go roll around some more in my endless reams of delight over this movie and these characters and how wonderful and delightful and absurd every bit of it is. Haters can hate, but this movie continues to be perfect and own my whole heart because of it.

if you would rather elect a fascist than a liberal you're not a leftist you're just edgy

Sometimes, "Write for yourself," means that you have to stop waiting for someone else to convince you that your work has value worth sharing before you believe in that value for yourself.

Write for yourself because you believe you have a story worth being told, not because you are hoping that someone else will agree with you after the story is done.

It means worry about what other people will think about your story after you've written it, but you have to decide you have something worth writing first.

The only definite guarantee is that no one will ever think anything of the story you gave up on before it was ever put down on a page.

¨ANTEDILUVIAN¨ gifs

Antediluvian is a short animated film in commemorative homage to Classic Paleoart and the earliest Paleontologists. Exactly 200 years ago was the first dinosaur formally described.

Full short film now available at Youtube/MarioLanzas.

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*cups ao3 author's face in my hands gently* please. you are the only one who understands the blorbos correctly. you must write more.