femmedplume reblogged
femmedplume reblogged
Lovely people of tumblr, if I may speak with my librarian hat* on for a moment:
If you are in the US, you may be aware that librarians are Going Through It because some malicious people believe in fascism and have decided to make that our problem. Whether you are in the US or not, there is something you can do to help your local librarians out:**
Say something nice to us.
You can post on social media and tag your library, you can find the library’s main phone number and call, you can go in person, you can send a card (we display cards in our break room)! I guarantee you that you will make the day of the person you talk to, we will immediately go tell all our colleagues how lovely you were, and you will help us live to love and fight another day.
*it is a fetching piece of millinery in purple silk
**I propose we make this an international group project. Whether your librarians are going through it or not, we all appreciate a kind word.
Well, my loves.
(downs three cups of coffee in quick succession)
The above advice remains one thousand percent true no matter where you are in the world, I would venture to say.
For those of you in the US, I am going to add that if you need a way to not feel helpless, getting involved with your library is a wonderful and *genuinely useful, will make a day to day difference in your neighbor’s lives* thing to do. Librarians are there to provide, vet, and guide you through reams of information. Give us a hand and everyone wins. This can look like:
- using the library and getting to know the staff
- if there’s a volunteer Friends group, join it! Or start one! These folks raise extra money for the library and often run things like book sales
- going to library board meetings and standing up during public comment time to talk about how much you love the library and the First Amendment
- if you have an elected library board, run for it. Usually the only qualification is you have to reside in the district the library serves.
- vote yes on library funding measures
Librarians have been fighting for your rights for years and while I’m sure some of us are tired, I have to confess I’m not. I’m full of love and determination and spite, in that order. Give us a hand and we can help keep each other safe and informed.
Co-signed, except if you go to a library board meeting and mention the First Amendment you may get a reflexive reaction from library folks who have experienced “First Amendment Audits” which are pretty much staff harassment in the name of My Rights, so it may be better to specifically praise examples of free speech you see in the library.
Go in June and tell them you love the Pride displays. Go in February and talk about Black History month. Go any time of the year and say how glad you are to see diverse authors, queer representation, etc. say you’d love to see more of those things, programs on those themes, all of it.
Library boards set budgets and policies and they NEED to hear from the part of their community that wants a drag queen at every storytime or they WILL decide they can’t risk pissing off the parts of the community who does show up to complain.
Might I add, also find out:
- Is your library county funded, city funded, state funded, etc.? The government bodies which fund your libraries are the ones you want to be getting in touch with EVERY winter/spring (the new fiscal year starts July and often library funding for the year is decided late spring) to tell them how much you love the library and want it to have more funding. In more local systems, grassroots calling campaigns still work!
- On that note: is your library seeking unionization? Once again, you can help by calling and writing to the local government responsible for your library system to tell them you support library staff having a workers' union. End of October is usually the deadline to sign off on a unionization vote, and officials sometimes need incentive to do so via loud public support.
- What schools system does your public library serve? School library/book policies (such as challenges and bans) can spill over into the public libraries as well-- but school libraries also need your support! Attend their board meetings and voice your support for the first amendment whenever possible.
- Are there library board spots up for grabs? This is a crucial time for a library. Sometimes a system allows for voting in the board members but most systems simply hire someone via a job listing. In this case, contact your sitting board members and tell them you are a library patron and want them to hire someone who supports intellectual freedom and first amendment rights. Get all your friends and family to do the same. Attend board meetings and tell them, too. A single pro-censorship board member can do a lot of damage to a library system.
I know that was long but I hope it was helpful for readers who want to support their local libraries!
AMAZING additions. I’m especially co-signing the union support and running for library board. My library unionized about a year ago and two community members who got involved supporting us just ran for library board and won. Now we’ll have two pro-union board members the next time we negotiate, and the board member who was the biggest pain to work with lost the election and is no longer my problem. Being a union worker is something that is going to help me stay in the same job for a long time and do good work for the long haul.
femmedplume reblogged
There are local elections as soon as 2025.
RUN FOR SOMETHING.
The Run For Something website is incredibly helpful for anyone who even remotely entertains the idea of running for a local office. They have all of the information you need and then some.
femmedplume reblogged
I have seen multiple posts going around making fun of, or minimizing, what happened in Amsterdam from antizionists. So I want to give a timeline of what happened.
Pre the attack:
Before people arrived in Amsterdam for the football match, there were people organizing the pogrom. Stuff like wanting to steal jews passports, were shared on social media. Yes, the word used on social media was jews not Israelis. The main people organizing the attack were arab and muslim. We do not know at this point if all the attackers were arab and muslim, but we do know that at least a majority were. This fact does not mean that all Muslims and arabs want to harm all jews, however the extremism which lead to the attack and antisemitisms place in it can and should be talked about.
The Israeli government got wind of this attack and warned the Netherlands Police, who decided to not do anything to protect jews.
This did not happen because the Israeli team lost, despite what certain people are saying.
Day before or of the attack (unconfirmed which day it was):
Once in Amsterdam, there were some fans who did tear down Palestinian flags and chant a racist anti arab chant. Whilst this is still very much racist and should be labeled as such as viewed as bad, it's not out of character for for European football culture, and has happened before with other fans which have not lead to them being hunted down. The pogrom was pre planned and still not a proportional response.
The attack:
Jews were hunted down, beaten, run over, and many more things. They were also forced to say "free gaza" and "free Palestine"
The attack harmed far more than just those who were racist. They attacked jews and anyone they perceived as Jewish indiscriminately.
Jews were saved by an Arab Israeli football player speaking to them loudly in Arabic so people assumed they were arab Israeli or just Arab.
A Greek man was attacked because he could not prove to the attackers that he wasn't jewish and was in fact Greek.
A brittish man was punched because he helped save jews. And when he told his attackers that he was brittish and not israeli or jewish (not sure if he wasn't, but he told his attackers he wasn't), he was told "but you helped a jew"
Jewish businesses were also broken into.
How and why it is antisemitic:
If at this point, you still cannot see why it was an antisemitic attack, let's recap.
• It was a planned attack on jews, not Israelis, jews. And it was planned before any racist things happened.
● jews were spared if they were perceived to be non jews, including being perceived as arab Israeli and non jews were attacked for being perceived as jews and for helping jews
• Jewish businesses were broken into. If it was about breaking into zionist businesses, ones own by non Jewish zionists also would've been broken into, but they were not.
• Non Israeli jews were attacked
It is antisemitic, as the targets of the attack were specifically jews. It was not revenge for palestine or for racist comments.
Israel intervened and flew people out of Amsterdam as it was no longer safe for jews in the city. Not because they lost the match.
femmedplume reblogged
not to enforce gender roles but a computer should NOT fucking have apps okay. if I wanted an app I'd go on my phone my laptop is for Programs. I mean this.
bringing the ancient meme back
really glad to see hate for this concept.
count me among the haters. i've been a hater since i first encountered this conflation of many different well-defined concepts into one ill-defined one
it's part of the general trend of hiding the inner workings of computers from the user, which is something i hate since it tends to promote computer illiteracy which tends to promote incompetence and dysfunction in society as a whole
femmedplume reblogged
Anonymous asked:
Has anything actually gotten better, for all the work you talk about doing? Or is it just treading water in misery forever?
Anon, ten years ago gay people couldn't get married in large parts of the US. AIDS was an almost certain death sentence when I was in high school. I was looking at job boards the other day and found a part time gas station job that had health insurance as a benefit, which NEVER would have happened 15 years ago. When I was a kid, hitting your child was extremely normalized in the US and my parents were the weird ones for not doing it. There is a vaccine for chicken pox. I didn't meet anyone who had transitioned until my 20s because it was so uncommon to transition in the aughts, and now there are some states that protect your right to have gender affirming care provided by your health insurance. It's not all states, but it's better than the number of states that had it in 2010, which was zero. THERE ARE TENANTS UNIONS NOW. WE HAVE A VACCINE AGAINST CERVICAL CANCER.
And all of that has been the work of a lot of individuals and organizations and research teams and activists.
Do you know how bugfuck insane the words "Unionized Starbucks" would have sounded to someone in 2005? Baristas getting union-mandated breaks could have been a throwaway joke in part of the Scary Movie franchise as something ridiculous.
RALPH NADER WAS AGITATING FOR A FIFTEEN DOLLAR MINIMUM WAGE IN 2004 AND SHIT IS MOVING SLOWLY BUT MY STATE HAS A TWENTY DOLLAR MINIMUM WAGE FOR FAST FOOD WORKERS. WHEN I STARTED HIGH SCHOOL THE ONLY OPTION FOR AN ABORTION AFTER 7 WEEKS WAS SURGICAL AND NOW THERE'S A PILL.
FUCKING. ELECTRIC CARS. SO GODDAMNED MANY PEOPLE HAVE SOLAR PANELS ON THEIR HOUSES OR IN THEIR PARKING LOTS.
WE DON'T HAVE SMOG DAYS IN LOS ANGELES ANYMORE UNLESS THERE'S A FIRE AND IT'S BECAUSE OF CARB STANDARDS.
LITERALLY MILLIONS OF FUCKING PEOPLE TURNED OUT TO PROTEST POLICE BRUTALITY IN 2020 AND YOU CAN SAY "NOTHING HAPPENED" ALL YOU WANT BUT THE WAY PEOPLE TALK ABOUT IT NOW IS FUCKING DIFFERENT THAN THEY DID AFTER RODNEY KING AND NOW PEOPLE WILL STOP AND WATCH OUT FOR EACH OTHER INSTEAD OF GOING 'NOT MY BUSINESS'
THERE IS A MALARIA VACCINE THAT HAS BEEN GIVEN TO OVER A MILLION CHILDREN IN JUST THE LAST FIVE YEARS SINCE IT WAS APPROVED FOR USE OUTSIDE OF TRIALS
Something that struck me the other night as truly incredible—I grew up during the height of the AIDS crisis in the ’80s and ’90s. I remember around 1990 or so was when people really started working to bring HIV/AIDS and the search for a cure into public view and begin the really, really long work of destigmatizing it, even a little bit. The homophobic terror people had of even being NEAR someone who had the so-called “gay disease,” I really cannot understate this. A diagnosis was considered an absolute death sentence.
The other night I was watching whatever random thing on YouTube, and I got yet more of the constant ads that irritate the fuck out of me. But this one was for an HIV maintenance medication. It was a long ad, probably 60 seconds, and so help me, I watched the whole thing. It talked about this drug (forgive me, I can’t remember the name) that would let you live a happy and fulfilling life (while mentioning that of course safe sex is important). And it showed queer couples, straight couples (to break the stereotype), people who looked single and happy, different races and genders and presentations and body sizes, going out to lunch or cuddling on a couch or going out for a date, whatever it was the scene was implying. Bright colors, soothing optimistic music and voiceover, physical affection including kissing—you couldn’t even tell who among the actor couples was or wasn’t portraying an HIV patient. It blew my fucking mind to just see a whole minute of this between ads for Pizza Hut and car insurance. I’m not even sure anyone would have shown a gay couple kissing, full stop, on TV in 1990. And this ad was just out here like, if you’ve contracted this illness, there’s help for it, and you can live a good happy life among your loved ones. But also, you deserve to have that happiness, out in the open, and there will be people who love you, unafraid. Even if, and especially if, you’re gay. This is a world where this is possible. Like I’m honestly tearing up right now. I could not have imagined this in 1990. I could not.
You will swim for decades, and suddenly you will look up and see islands that you never would have dreamed of.
#us politics#hope#my dad died of AIDS in the 90s bc he couldn’t get treatment#which did exist btw but it was so expensive and rare there was a waitlist like there is now for organ donation#and even if you got the drugs they barely worked#and now we have treatments that make you able to live like you don’t even have it#30 years too late for my family but I’m so happy it’s not too late for yours 🥹#stitch's bright spot blog
femmedplume reblogged
hope isn’t something you just have, it’s something you sink your teeth into like an animal so it doesn’t get away
femmedplume reblogged
if you’re having a bad day, here’s a cute little marching band
blockbhyo
this actually made me cry with joy also one of them is eating noodles
It just keeps going and getting better. *^^*
Me two minutes ago: “cry with joy? an animation of cats playing instruments made someone cry with joy?”
Me now: (sobs into a tissue) “OH MY GOD THAT ONE IS PLAYING TWO RECORDERS AT THE SAME TIME” (blows nose)
CAT PARADE IS BACK
ALWAYS reblog Cat Parade! 💕💕💕
And one of them has a little duck on its head 🤣
I’ve been blessed with the kitty marching band! I love them 💚🥰
femmedplume reblogged
Hey everyone! This is my lovely friend Cyrus Nemati, who many of you may know as Theseus, Dionysus and Ares from the first Hades game.
He has spent the last couple years developing his very first indie game, Vampire Therapist, which plays with the many vampire character archetypes from across media.
It's been reviewing VERY well but it's not getting very many wishlists, so if you're interested in vampires, fantastic art and clever, funny, and thoughtful writing about vampire mental health, go wishlist it on Steam!
And listen, Cyrus may be too humble to leverage his colorful career as your favourite Hades hotboys, so I'm gonna do it for him 😌 GO SUPPORT FANTASTIC INDIE DEVS LIKE THIS ONE!
cyrus is a genuinely NICE DUDE and if you're a vampire enjoyer please check this out!!!
It's out now and on sale until November 4! I bought it :D
femmedplume reblogged
It was a kiss between a man and his wife, and when it was over, the king closed his eyes and rested his forehead against the hollow of the queen’s shoulder, like a man seeking respite, like a man reaching home at the end of the day.
hi, i'm very cool and normal about these books, don't worry about me
femmedplume reblogged
DISNEY + PUMPKINS 🎃
The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad (1949) Cinderella III: A Twist in Time (2007) Trick or Treat (1952) The Prince and the Pauper (1990) Cinderella (1950) The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993) Lilo & Stitch (2002) Frozen II (2019) Brave Little Tailor (1938)
femmedplume reblogged
they're burning ballots in the US now btw. in case you wanted to know where things are at.
Important info: Context: Dropbox location was Fisher's Landing Transit Center near Southeast 162nd Avenue Hundreds of ballots lost, voters should contact the Clark Auditor ASAP Clark Auditor contact info: clark.wa.gov/auditor Can confirm your ballot was received on: vote.wa.gov
femmedplume reblogged
Get ready for Janeuary 2025! @firawren is hosting a Jane Austen fandom event throughout the entire month of January. Save the date and start drafting your creations!
Anyone can join, and all types of fandom works are welcome: fanfic, fanart, gifs, manips, memes, fanvids, podfic, mood boards, etc.
Each day has a new prompt to inspire your creation:
(Text version of prompts under the “keep reading” link below)
You are NOT expected to do something every day! Just 1 work for 1 day of your choosing is enough, though you are welcome to do more if you like. And you are NOT expected to create your fanwork on that day, just post it on that day.
Your work must follow one of the daily prompts, be new for the event, not use AI, and include at least one of the following:
- Character from one of Jane Austen’s works
- Character from any Jane Austen adaptation (including modern ones)
- Setting in a Jane Austen-like AU
For example, any of these would be fine:
- Darcy and you the reader live in the Star Wars universe [character from Jane’s works]
- Cher from Clueless marries Inigo Montoya [character from Jane adaptation]
- Han and Leia live in Regency England [setting in Jane AU]
- Darcy and Cher live in Regency England [all three: Jane character, Jane adaptation character, Jane setting!]
Completely canon-compliant works are of course also allowed!
Send an ask or DM if you have any questions!
Please reblog this post to spread the word, since this is a brand new event, and follow this blog to see all the works that are posted!
femmedplume reblogged
if you are anti-zionist the most effective work you can do is to ensure your community--politically and geographically-- is safe for jews to exist in. im serious. is your community safe for jews to be in? do you know any jews? if you do, are they scared of you? if you don't, if they are, why?
zionism is the premise that jews need to take exclusive control of our own homeland by force because there is nowhere else in the world for us to belong. that's it, that's the heart of it. if you disagree with the premise, you need to be part of the counter argument: that the jews of the diaspora are valued by their fellow citizens in countries around the world. that the jews of europe and asia and africa and the americas belong where they were born, that the jewish people deserve to belong wherever we live, that we are not invaders or parasites or unwanted guests living on the sufferance of christians and muslims who have a natural right to expell us when we've outstayed our welcome.
i'm not israeli. that land is the home of those who were born there, and i was born in california. i know a lot of my fellow americans right now that say they're anti-zionist but what they mean is they want israel gone and me along with it. and that is, ironically, why there's zionism in the first place.
are you anti-zionist or anti-jew? are we your neighbors or not? if you really want decolonization, get your own community in order. if you want all the jews to just fucking shut up already, you can join a six thousand year tradition of not actually ever managing that no matter how many genocides get done.
femmedplume reblogged
My dream for the election is that it’s definitive. I want a 2012-style Election Day where everyone built it up beforehand to possibly be close but then the results start rolling in and it was like “Oh, nevermind. It’s obviously Obama. Everyone go to bed.”
I just want voters to put a stake right through the heart of Trumpism so that it crumbles to ash before our eyes. That’s the dream.
like to charge, reblog to cast
femmedplume reblogged
Casual reminder that the Palestine Children's Relief Fund has a 97% on Charity Navigator and you should donate to it if u can. Despite the limited external aid that's been allowed into Gaza, they've been able to distribute a lot of aid internally. And they are providing needed aid to Lebanon.
femmedplume reblogged
Actually cannot stop watching this
Good news the full version actually is on spotify!