Non-Sexual and Non-White Intimacy

Alrighty - I’ve gotten a lot of questions from aces who’re hella confused about sensuality, and I’ve decided to point out something that I debated for a long time against sharing:

With all the ‘gal pal’, ‘bromance’, and ‘white people’ jokes we see, we risk missing on some important details involving sensuality and platonic intimacy. There’s an entire side to the ‘intimacy’ discussion that most of you aren’t aware of, and being unaware isn’t an ok thing; y’all don’t know about the diversity of intimacy because of neo-colonialism, whitewashing, and gentrification. 

Water births being a ‘white hippie’ thing. Two men kissing ‘obviously’ being a case of heternormative washing. And so on. Behind a few of these bromance/gal pal/yt people joke hide not only whiteness, but a rhetoric that erases asexuality/aromanticism. And it’s time to address that. 

Why? Because American views on intimacy erases non-American people of color, and also forces compulsory sexuality upon people in the ace spectrum. Being an ace of color, my patience is tried.

Listen; America is notoriously neurotic when it comes to intimacy. And only periodically throughout the centuries. In so many other places, kissing on the mouth is what friends and family do. My cousins and I were breastfed until past kindergarten, by our mothers, aunts, babysitters, and friends of family. I’ve seen, touched, and hugs many naked friends throughout my life, all ages across. What western culture sexualizes, not everyone agrees with.

Sexual attraction is described as the compulsion to commit sexual acts with a specific object of desire. Romantic attraction much the same, except not explicit. Sensual attraction similar guidelines, and so on. So what happens when one person’s ‘sexual attraction’ is another’s ‘I just want a goddamn cuddle, is that so damn important?’

When we see vintage footage of old-timey Americans who kiss, cuddle, and embrace each other’s bare skin, there is no doubt that many of them are same/multiple-gender-attracted. But a lot of you say so with absolutely no comprehension of the diversity of physical intimacy, and how different it is around the globe.

In so many other countries and cultures, you regularly cuddle, kiss, and touch your friends. When someone pulls out a camera and says, ‘smile!’ you drape your arms lovingly around your mate, and kiss them on the neck. And that photo is uploaded to facebook and all that jazz. 

In modern day America, holding hands is literally second base. Our desire for physical intimacy has been heavily sexualized. And for some people, that’s a huge deficit to their wellbeing and themselves.

As an ace of color, I really don’t appreciate my desires for physical intimacy to be sexualized. I am very much compelled to touch, cuddle, and kiss people. Sometimes it’s romantic in intent, most of the time it’s not. But because of who I am, my actions are very much scrutinized as sexual. Which is very white sexuality and I want none of that in my life.

Thank god someone said it. I always want to kiss and touch my friends, I consider sleeping with them totally normal, and lots of manners of casual touch to be normal, but I don’t fucking touch them because….Culture. And then in my long term relationship I have a hard time with intimacy because it’s always attached to an expectation of sex or feels like it is and I get nervous. I’m an intensely cuddly person who literally never cuddles. I don’t know what happened here (I’m lying I know) but our society is SO WEIRD about physical intimacy and we’re all fucked up but like, a lot of the cultures that aren’t mainstream here allot for physical intimacy which in turn has to be treated differently if it can be somewhere it’s judged by the Average American Eye.

I think I’ve kind of always known there was something wrong with how we were raised and not something wrong with me specifically, but it doesn’t help that WHERE in the US I grew up is so intensely puritanical. 

I remember when I was about 4 I had a nightmare and my brother invited me to sleep in his bunk with him. When mom came to wake us up for school, she screamed at us about how inappropriate that was, and I remember that was the very last time I was ever cuddly with my brother. That incident caused my sense of intimacy to be warped dramatically. I was always allowed to be cuddly with mom or other little girls who were my friends, but I wasn’t allowed to be the same way with boys who were my friends. To this day intimacy on any level with a woman feels more natural than the same with a man. 

Also, the bath image above from My Neighbor Totoro intensely infuriated my mom. She kept going on about how no grown man should be bathing with daughters and about how creepy it was. She then went on to say that it’s disgusting for any adults to bathe with their children after a certain point. But I don’t understand that logic at all.

Americans are taught that bodies are shameful and that sharing our bodies in any ways other than what’s deemed as acceptable by our culture is the most shameful, sinful thing you can do. This kind of platonic or parental intimacy is so shamed that we’re /forced/ to have an unhealthy relationship with it by the time we leave home. And when intimacy of any kind is demonized like it is, we end up with situations where parts of the human body are sexualized because they are taboo. Even now, women are being constantly shamed for breastfeeding their children, teenage girls are forced to cover up shoulders and collar bones for fear of being distractions to boys…

And for what? All because Americans shame displays of non-sexual intimacy and up-sell sexual intimacy to the point of causing the sexualization of non sexual body parts and so on. It’s so ridiculous, but American culture is just really weird like this.

“Americans shame displays of non-sexual intimacy and up-sell sexual intimacy to the point of causing the sexualization of non sexual body parts and so on.”

^^^THIS^^^

folks in North America and a larger extent ‘White British Colonized’ places- have ‘flattened’ human interaction into touching=sex, nude=sex, affection=sex and to finish it all off Sex=BAD.  This strange hyper-sexualization and parallel rejection of sex has created an entire culture of touch and affection starved people. With all the psychosis and trauma that goes with isolation and rejection. 

It is critically unhealthy. We’re primates. We belong in communities- that groom, cuddle, and show genuine warm affection with one another. 

I like this discussion.

As both an asexual and aromantic person this kind of thing has been the bane of my existence my entire life

i love it when you accidentally meet eyes with a stranger in public and you flash a quick polite smile and they look at you like they wish you were dead in a ditch

I’ve seen this several times on my dash and always with southerners being confused in the tags why the rest of the US is like this, and as a southerner, I have to say, SAME. Like, there’s plenty to hate about the south, don’t get me wrong, but at least in general we have public courtesy down to a science. I ordered at a Sonic out West once and the guy specifically had someone take over his headset so he could come out and shake my hand because he was from Tennessee and it was the first time since he moved West that he heard anyone say “Yes sir.” And it’s just…. Automatic for me? And this polite smile thing, people will jump and glare and I’m just trying to be friendly not awkward? What else is a socially anxious southern child to do upon accidentally making eye contact? Look down and hurry away? Isn’t that rude??? Someone explain why is smiling met with such anger I am confused and afraid.

Exactly!! When I moved to Missouri I was baffled at how rude everyone is! Like I saw someone I knew at Walmart and stopped to chat and they didn’t even stop! They just went ‘hi’ and moved on. Like????

And when I moved here I made cookies for the neighborhood, cuz that’s what you do and the first place I went they said “we don’t eat things with sugar” and shut the door.

Like why do y’all hate everyone so much?

I’m Canadian and am also confused

Well yeah everyone knows Canadians are the friendliest people in the world

I’m from Indiana and I’m pretty sure if you don’t talk to someone you know In Wal-Mart for at least 5 minutes you go to jail

No but that would still be rude in kentucky

You are expected to talk for at least 15 minutes, say goodbye (like, a “take care y’all, tell me how that knee is doin”) and then you talk for another ten minutes, move a little further apart and say goodbye again (“well I better get going tell your nana I said hi”) and then you talk for a while and say goodbye one more time (“I’ll see y’all at church on Sunday/school/Jo-mart/Nana’s funeral”) and move on to the next person

And don’t even get me started on food etiquette

It’s not a south v. west thing, it’s a city thing. That’s why New Yorkers are the purest version of this. And it’s why I get both sides. I grew up in a small town in Northern California, and it was proud of all the small town things – “you can leave your door unlocked” and all that. I got a job for a while as a bank teller, and this coworker of mine had moved there from New York. I liked him (I tend to get along with folks) but a lot of people thought he was rude. “short” “impatient” even “brusk” were some descriptions of him, not just from our coworkers, but from the bank customers too. They complained because he always rushed them, never wanted to make small talk, etc. One day I was working next to him, and I heard him verbally pushing yet another customer along, just racing him through the transaction against his will, and I thought, I’m gonna say something to him about it. As soon as the customer left though, before I could say anything, my coworker goes “damn I hate people like that, get to  the front of the line and want to tell me their whole life story. So RUDE!” So I say something like, how is he the one that was rude to you? And goes, like he can’t believe how stupid I’m being, “ not to me, to all those people in line behind him that want to finish up here and get on with the rest of their day! You’re at the bank, you know why you’re here, you step up, you do a polite greeting and get the fuck down to business. Everybody has shit to do, and they can’t do it until you shut up about your life story that zero people drove down here to listen to. It’s so selfish! I can’t stand people like that”   Since then, I’ve lived in San Francisco, and L.A., and Montgomery Alabama, and Germany and Portland and Oakland and a bunch of little ass towns like Suisun Ca, and Kenwood and all kinds of places, Santa Cruz and Rohnert Park. And I’ve thought about the thing that guy started me noticing. It’s true. The closer in to a city (and the larger the city) the more the concept of polite changes from “how you are effecting the person you are communicating with” to “how you are effecting the people packed in around you” In Oakland there are like, zero grocery stores (Oakland is literally documented as a “food desert”) and so the best grocery store in Berkeley is also a favorite grocery store of Oakland residents and it is… full. You’ll spend a full 30 minutes in the snake of cars circling around in the parking lot waiting for somebody to finish shopping and leave so a parking spot opens up. Once inside, it’s more of the same. Shopping carts are cart-front to ass cheek. You literally can’t reach onto a shelf for a box of cereal without waiting for somebody to give you a break in traffic. Sometimes you get stuck standing in a single spot for several minutes, boxed in on all sides.  I’ve only been twice, and I swear to all holy gods that if I saw two people trying to catch up on chit chat while we all tried to maneuver around them, I would been reaching for my murdering stick. It’s called skype motherfuckers, go the fuck home and talk to each other, jfc, the rest of us are trying to make a deadline for some other shit we gotta get done today. Now, going back home, to small town Nor Cal, yeah, I don’t want to be rude, I’m gonna stop and say hi, I’m gonna ask about your family, I’m gonna rack my brain and remember that you had a sick cat or a trip you were trying to take or an interest in boats, and I’m gonna ask about that shit, fuck yeah tell me about how the tomatoes are coming in this year, I hear the birds are worse than ever. Anyway, city folk ain’t rude, they just polite different; suitable for city life.

This is such a great explanation, and really important.

what if i told you that a lot of “Americanized” versions of foods were actually the product of immigrant experiences and are not “bastardized versions”

That’s actually fascinating, does anyone have any examples?

Chinese-American food is a really good example of this and this article provides a good intro to the history http://firstwefeast.com/eat/2015/03/illustrated-history-of-americanized-chinese-food

I took an entire class about Italian American immigrant cuisine and how it’s a product of their unique immigrant experience. The TL;DR is that many Italian immigrants came from the south (the poor) part of Italy, and were used to a mostly vegetable-based diet. However, when they came to the US they found foods that rich northern Italians were depicted as eating, such as sugar, coffee, wine, and meat, available for prices they could afford for the very first time. This is why Italian Americans were the first to combine meatballs with pasta, and why a lot of Italian American food is sugary and/or fattening. Italian American cuisine is a celebration of Italian immigrants’ newfound access to foods they hadn’t been able to access back home.

(Source: Cinotto, Simone. The Italian American Table: Food, Family, and Community in New York City. Chicago: U of Illinois, 2013. Print.)

Stuff you Missed in History Class has a really good podcast overview of “Foreign Food” in the US.

I LOVE learning about stuff like this :D

that corned beef and cabbage thing you hear abou irish americans is actually from a similar situation but because they weren’t allowed to eat that stuff due to that artificial famine

<3 FOOD HISTORY <3

Everyone knows Korean barbecue, right? It looks like this, right?

Well, this is called a “flanken cut” and was actually unheard of in traditional Korean cooking. In traditional galbi, the bone is cut about two inches long, separated into individual bones, and the meat is butterflied into a long, thin ribbon, like this:

In fact, the style of galbi with the bones cut short across the length is called “LA Galbi,” as in “Los Angeles-style.” So the “traditional Korean barbecue” is actually a Korean-American dish.

Now, here’s where things get interesting. You see, flanken-cut ribs aren’t actually all that popular in American cooking either. Where they are often used however, is in Mexican cooking, for tablitas.

So you have to imagine these Korean-American immigrants in 1970s Los Angeles getting a hankering for their traditional barbecue. Perhaps they end up going to a corner butcher shop to buy short ribs. Perhaps that butcher shop is owned by a Mexican family. Perhaps they end up buying flanken-cut short ribs for tablitas because that’s what’s available. Perhaps they get slightly weirded out by the way the bones are cut so short, but give it a chance anyway. “Holy crap this is delicious, and you can use the bones as a little handle too, so now galbi is finger food!” Soon, they actually come to prefer the flanken cut over the traditional cut: it’s easier to cook, easier to serve, and delicious, to boot! 

Time goes on, Asian fusion becomes popular, and suddenly the flanken cut short rib becomes better known as “Korean BBQ,” when it actually originated as a Korean-Mexican fusion dish!

I don’t know that it actually happened this way, but I like to think it did.

Corned beef and cabbage as we know it today? That came to the Irish immigrants via their Jewish neighbors at kosher delis.

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/is-corned-beef-really-irish-2839144/

The Irish immigrants almost solely bought their meat from kosher butchers. And what we think of today as Irish corned beef is actually Jewish corned beef thrown into a pot with cabbage and potatoes. The Jewish population in New York City at the time were relatively new immigrants from Eastern and Central Europe. The corned beef they made was from brisket, a kosher cut of meat from the front of the cow. Since brisket is a tougher cut, the salting and cooking processes transformed the meat into the extremely tender, flavorful corned beef we know of today.

The Irish may have been drawn to settling near Jewish neighborhoods and shopping at Jewish butchers because their cultures had many parallels. Both groups were scattered across the globe to escape oppression, had a sacred lost homeland, discriminated against in the US, and had a love for the arts. There was an understanding between the two groups, which was a comfort to the newly arriving immigrants. This relationship can be seen in Irish, Irish-American and Jewish-American folklore. It is not a coincidence that James Joyce made the main character of his masterpiece Ulysses, Leopold Bloom, a man born to Jewish and Irish parents. 

Build a fantasy religion

i didn’t see around a lot of indications about this, so i decide of making some short, direct and usefull indication based even on my experience. (feel free to add tips) 

Why create a religion for my world?: 

Religion is a big part of every culture that can influence the daylife of larg group of people so it’s important to define it if present in your world. The other thing is that is a good way for worldbuild, you can define the life of people, the way cities are built and the way of think of the population.

Where to start:

- Polytheist or monotheist: choose the type of religion that fit better your world, it’s important because polytheist and monotheist religions have some differencesthat have relevance when you write. (not only the number of gods but for example how gods are workship or how are build temples)

-Read about real religions: this is a good base and you are going to see a lot of aspect that you have to take count of. Reinterpret is a way of creating a new one, so you can take prinples for example.

-Decide the characteristics of the God/s: After have a clear idea of what you want to do (example: religion similar to Romans’ one or a mix between Egyptians and Greeks gods) you have to put cleare some poits:

- Worship: While the poits before where about the poit of wiew of the God/s, you have always to define how humans venerate God/s. Some points:

The Name: The name can be 1 word or more but it’s better if not more than 4 because it have to be somenthing that affect. It can be a word or a period that describe a foundamental principe of your new religion, or somenting like “The believe of X” .

A thing that is always good to keep in mind is that religions tend to give a sense of belonging to the believers. This can be use in a lot of way and is a important specially if your new religion have political power or a big influence on population.

I hope it help someone. (feel free to add tips)

@ethilite

BL, “Okama”, and gay stereotypes in animanga

Since BL and fujoshi discourse is the hot topic du jour, let’s talk a bit about gay stereotypes in Japanese manga and anime.

I’m seeing a worrying number of people not only saying that all BL and fujoshi promote homophobic stereotypes, but that BL is the primary or sole instigator of homophobia in Japanese society (excuse me, I choked on drink there).

For those who don’t know, Boy’s Love (BL) is a niche category of shoujo/josei manga that focuses on M/M relationships (commonly known in the west as “yaoi”, though that is a misnomer). It’s still frowned upon, both for being gay content and for being mainly romance aimed at women. The word “fujoshi” — used today to mean “female fan of BL” — even has seriously misogynistic origins.

So far, BL is published on specific magazines, and most anime adaptations are OVAs that aren’t aired on TV. Although it has a significant following, it’s definitely not popular enough to change the opinions on gay men of the entire anime fanbase, much less of Japanese society as a whole.

Homophobia in Japan has a long history, but one of the most impactful chapters was the Meiji Restoration (1867-68), when Japan’s isolationist foreign policy was abolished and rapid westernization began. Negative Christian views on homosexuality disseminated throughout the country and public opinion of practices such as nanshoku/wakashudou declined until they were practically criminalized and banned.

For reference, both BL and yuri had their origins more than a century later, in the 1970’s-80’s.

I find that a lot of criticism of stereotyping in BL is, unsurprising, very US-centric. The thin, androgynous, pretty and emotionally sensitive characters of BL may coincidentally fit western gay stereotypes, but this type of character just represents an East Asian beauty standard for men. Guys who fit these bishounen and ikemen types are considered desirable by Japanese women and are generally assumed to be straight. 

In the US, your idea of a stereotypical gay dude may be a metrosexual twink with a lisp and a limp wrist, but different countries have different stereotypes. In Japan, the appearance of イカホモ/イカニモ (“ikahomo” or “ikanimo”, a stereotypical gay man) is a heavy-set masculine guy with short haircut, strong face, and facial hair.

Sort of like the guys you see in geikomi, right?

But we’re talking about entertainment media, more specifically about animanga. We’ll get there soon.

Gay men in Japan are stereotyped by the general population as being camp, and using feminine clothes, language and pronouns. Those who present femininely are often referred to as オネエ (“onee”) because they use オネエ言葉 (“onee kotoba”, feminine speech), and may or may not identify as male. Many entertainers who are out use onee personas on TV to, well, entertain the audience. That may be the only exposure an average Japanese person has to a real-life openly gay or trans person.

As for fiction, media creators tend to fall back on archetypes based on prejudices for minority characters, and that includes gay men. A bit like how the US has the “fairy” archetype, Japan has the “okama”.

Now, オカマ (“okama”, lit. rice pot) is not a word used in polite conversation to refer to people. It’s a homophobic and transphobic slur, directed at people who fit the onee stereotype. If you’re not a Japanese queer man or transfem individual, you shouldn’t direct it at anyone, period. Not even yourself. Although there are some who reclaim the term, it’s still largely considered derogatory and insulting.

Japanese media has an okama character archetype, which reflects how society thinks a gay man looks and acts. You may be surprised to hear that it’s not the willowy, androgynous bishounen of shoujo manga.

It’s something more like this:

Keep reading

Eighth Generation is what modern Native American design looks like without cultural appropriation 

Louie Gong describes his company, Eighth Generation, as “a Native-owned, community-engaged small business that began when I started putting cultural art on shoes.” It’s true, in 2008, Gong began decorating sneakers and skateboarding apparel with indigenous Nooksack patterns — a move that, as a Nooksack himself, set him apart from the non-Native designers who’d been doing so for years. As demand grew, so did Gong’s ambition.

Here you go, kids!

How to procure Native-American-and-First-Nation-themed items without entitlement or cultural appropriation in one easy step.

BUY THE THINGS DIRECTLY FROM THE PEOPLE THEMSELVES.

Because if they’re selling these representations of their culture and being fairly compensated, you’re not appropriating, you’re appreciating. And helping good folks make a living while you’re at it.

Everybody wins.

^^^this is the difference. participate in the parts of culture that people CONSENT to sharing!! it’s that simple, if you buy directly from the source, they are creating with the idea that people outside the culture will be consuming, and can pick and choose what they are okay with you having. 

the same idea as wearing traditional dress that someone of that culture gave you as a present vs. buying a knockoff version for “fashion”

I’ve used this argument for a long time as a difference between appropriation and appreciation. If you are buying directly from the people of that culture you are supporting them in keeping certain practices and talents alive. They are choosing what they share while making a living from their work. You are supporting them, while enjoying their culture. This is not only okay but it can really help people from these communities.

With appropriation, you are taking money away from the people. While mocking everything they stand for, and giving money to big companies who only care about profit, and have no understanding of the people they are stealing from.

Eighth Generation is awesome!  They ship fast in addition to having gorgeous merchandise.  Five stars.

I appreciate everything in this post

Because it took like 4 steps to find the damn thing, here is a link to the place:

https://eighthgeneration.com 

(yes ok that was obvious but c’mon, we’re all lazy here)

the idea of people having to be ‘useful’ is just so gross, like people do not exist to be used

having to produce something and have a use is a capitalist ideal and not an intrinsic part of humanity

just by being alive you are human and you are worth something and you can never be useless

this applies to animals as well

“Having to like DO THINGS is SO OPPRESSIVE. No one had to like DO THINGS before evil capitalism. In ancient times food, water, and shelter just existed and everything was taken care of for me”

Guess what happened to people who didn’t do things before capitalism? They died. Cause if you weren’t hunting, gathering, or useful in some aspect of nature. You were killed, died or starvation, dehydration, or exposure. 

Being useful is literally part of our biology. Fucking moron. You pull some idea out of your ass because you literally don’t want to get off your ass. 

I’m not saying nobody should ever do things ever, I’m saying people don;t have to produce to an arbitrary standard in order to prove their right to live

And if you really think disabled people deserve to die if we can’t ‘contribute’ or be useful in a way you approve of then congrats youre a fucking monster

actually there’s significant evidence in terms of Neolithic burials that disabled people who would not have been able to hunt for themselves (the archaeological evidence mostly shows mobility disabilities because it’s visible in the bone record) were well fed and cared for by their communities

so the “people like you would have been left to die” argument isn’t just cruel and violently ableist, it’s extremely historically inaccurate and based off of projecting modern prejudice on prehistoric cultures

sources because I’m on my laptop now!

note: in the neolithic era, a person in their 40s or 50s would be considered elderly

12,000-year-old burial of a woman about 45 with mobility disabilities both congenital and acquired

burial of a 40-50 year old Neanderthal man who had survived to old age with a deformed right arm and a long-healed head injury that would have made him blind in one eye

neolithic burial of a man in his 50s who lost the use of his left arm in adolescence

neolithic burial of a man in his 40s with evidence of a significant mobility disability caused by an injured hip and leg, some time in adulthood but long before his death

neolithic Asian burial of a man in his 20s with a congenital disorder which would have made him a quadriplegic around age 14. He survived for 10-15 years after that.

5th century burial of child with Down Syndrome

Our society continually propagates the myth that our ancestors’ lives were miserable, but the truth is human beings figured out how to live cooperatively and humanely a long time ago. Really the agricultural revolution fucked everything up.

Cuz clearly people only died and starved before capitalism

Anthropologically, proof of fixed femur fractures in ancient hominids shows that is one of the signs of civilized people– caring for the sick and injured is a cornerstone of civilization. So lmao go fuck yourself with the injured and disabled died thousands of years ago if they couldn’t help provide for their group.

Stop turning ancient hominids into these cruel “survival of the fittest” images. Especially cause that isn’t even what is meant by that phrase.

Even Neanderthals cared for their sick and injured. Which says a lot about those who are against the idea.

Another point: back in the ancient times, pretty much ALL work that got done was work of the “if it doesn’t get done, you starve” variety, perhaps embellished a bit by the “if it doesn’t get done, you’re uncomfortable” sort. Work was vital, yes, but all the work that was vital was vital.

Nowadays, on the other hand, we have excess, and waste, and an absolute shitpot of arbitrary work that gets shoved into the “necessary and vital” pile just because somebody else can make a buck off it, made as much off of cut corners and financial shenanigans as of anybody’s honest labor. Shitty Wal-Mart plastic pitchers and crap toys that capture attention and drop it just as fast, “fast fashion” that you wear twice and it falls apart, shiny chrome washer-dryers that are going to be replaced in five or ten years because planned obsolescence meets upgrade culture, and produce that gets rejected because it doesn’t look shiny and uniform and perfect.

If you’re a cashier, you have to stand even though you could do your job just as well sitting. A fast-food place throws out pounds of fries, empties the whole assembly-line of prepared food into the dumpster at the end of the night, and if you take any of it home to eat, that’s called stealing. Grocery stores throw out entire cartons of eggs because one out of twelve is cracked and lock their dumpsters so nobody can scavenge food from the tons of what’s thrown out still edible. Tech stores demand that unsold computers be destroyed with a sledgehammer before being thrown out, and all the labor that went into making it, assembling it, forming its component parts and mining its raw materials, is all wasted.

We can see this shit going on, we encounter it and sometimes we’re ordered to carry it out, in our workplaces that pay us shit, and let me tell you, there’s a hell of a difference between “if you don’t get the wheat harvested we’ll have no bread all winter” and “you need to spend the next eight hours cooking food so we can hold a profit after throwing a quarter of it in the garbage.” A multitude of people would benefit greatly if allowed to access that waste or allowed to not produce what’s likely going to be wasted.

It’s not that we want something for nothing–it’s that we want the stuff we’ve put work into creating to benefit us, or someone who could use it, and not see good work twisted into benefiting no one while still being demanded and still being underpaid.

If people in agrarian societies of the past starved it was frequently due to an uncontrollable act of nature (drought, flood, locusts, plague).

Now people starve because they don’t “produce” in an acceptable way for our capitalist system, which has a very narrow and limited definition of what being “useful” is, and because our corporate overlords would rather throw food away than feed someone who is starving.

We have enough food, but people are starving to death.

We have enough houses, but people are dying of exposure because they’re homeless.

We have enough medicine, but people are dying because they can’t afford to pay for it.

And we accept this as correct because we’ve been brainwashed that only “useful” i.e. “capitalist productive” people deserve to have food, shelter and healthcare.

That’s fucked up.

caring for the sick and injured is a cornerstone of civilization

I’ve used this in arguments for years. Those in need are never a drain on a society – but the way they are treated is the measure of one.

North Americans of my acquaintance, I have a question about kettles. In particular electric ones. Do you…not have them? Is that like an exclusively European or even British thing? Cos I’ve read a few fics recently were someone’s making a cup of tea (in a flat, in London) and they ‘filled the kettle and put it on the burner’. And my brain is like O_o do they have an aga???? I’ve never seen someone put a kettle on a gas hob but I guess if you had an old school kettle you could? Most people would just fill the kettle, plug it in and once its boiled pour said hot water over a teabag in a cup? (Yeah, its nicer if you make it in a pot but most people who aren’t like really into their tea wouldn’t bother unless they have guests and are making lots of tea.) I just really confused? Are kettles in the states (and canada, I presume) not plastic things, with elements, that plug into the wall?

I’m Canadian and everyone I know owns an electric kettle. I guess I might write about a stove top one for ambiance? But honestly I don’t know anyone who owns those anymore.

I’m American and I’ve only seen an electric kettle once in my life, in the possession of a person who frequents specialized tea shops.

We do have metal old-school kettles you heat on the stove but honestly it’s an aesthetic thing mostly and used for decoration.

We have both but only people who drink tea frequently or are in it for aesthetic will own either. These people are in the vast minority.

The tea drinkers I know microwave it, when they drink hot tea at home.

Coffee makers, on the other hand, are ubiquitous, and keurigs are on the rise.

AMERICANS MICROWAVE THEIR WATER FOR TEA????? i dont know what i expected from people who think that a fun party is throwing their tea in a lake…for shame

We have an electric kettle. Used to have a stovetop kettle too but I remember playing with that in the basement as a little kid so I don’t think we used it all that much. My sis’s really into tea, so’s my mum, so they drink it a lot.

Bean’s even got a special infuser thingy. It’s glass and apparently makes it better.

I have a stove kettle. It’s a couple years old, and I use it almost daily. I’ve seen lots of electric kettles but honestly prefer metal to plastic.

I’d prefer an electric kettle myself - it heats up a lot quicker! But my family has sort of agreed that we’ll continue to use our metal stovetop one until it breaks, which will be never.

I only heat up water in the microwave in times of desperation, and then it’s usually for hot choc.

I didn’t get an electric water kettle til i moved away to college, and the only reason I got it is we weren’t allowed to have microwaves in our room and I wanted to be able to have ramen in the middle of the night without getting dressed…. At home my mom always microwaves water for tea and coffee.

I’m American but live in England, we always had a stovetop kettle when I was growing up and I have one here now. Electric are faster, yes, but our first home was a one bedroom cottage next to a graveyard that had a dinky kitchen. There was no counter space for a kettle so we bought a stovetop and never went back when we moved house. Most people I know here use electric.

I’m American and the only place I’ve seen one is at a workplace because so many of us drank tea throughout the day and the microwave was weak. 

When I make it at home I put a metal kettle right on the stove and heat it up, or microwave it, but I prefer the former. I don’t think I know anybody that owns one in their home. They look useful, though, might get one, mostly because I also like pourover coffee and waiting for it to boil in the morning is just two minutes TOO LONG some days. :D

I’m the only person I know that has an electric kettle. Aside from tea, I probably use it weekly just to get quick hot water. Before that, I had a stove-top. Just say no to microwaved hot water.

I’ve had electric kettles, but we don’t drink enough tea to warrant another appliance. We have a stovetop whistling kettle, or microwave it. Now, most Americans have COFFEE MAKERS! That’s what we drink. And not espresso drinks. Just plain old Juan Valdez coffee. Drip through the filter, lots of cream and sugar, and some hazelnut to top. Yum!

I’ve had an electric hot pot for years, first because of college dorm rooms and later because of convenience (and now again because I technically don’t have a proper stove in my apartment and the hot pot is the easiest way to boil water).  I admit though, if I’m feeling especially lazy and still want tea, I’ll run the water through my k-cup machine which usually heats it up to a decent temperature for tea.  No microwaving required.

My parents, however, they have one of those water coolers with a hot water spigot on there.  So guess how mom makes her evening tea?

I drink tea rather than coffee in the morning and prefer loose-leaf to teabags. I’ve had stovetop kettles and electric. I recently bought a new electric kettle, a Hamilton Beach; it isn’t so much that it’s faster as that I feel somehow less likely to pour boiling water all over the place, or set myself on fire by catching a sleeve in the flame of the stove.

I loathe Keurig machines on principle, even if I feel like having coffee. You can make perfectly good coffee by boiling the water and pouring it over the proper grind; my ex used to use a two-cup filter and cone, being the only coffee drinker in the house. I will confess to having microwaved water for tea, but only when I was feeling so depressed that making a proper pot seemed overwhelming. 

But….microwaving it completely alters the flavour. Eugh. Eugh. We have a filter-coffeepot for coffee but even when we had a gas stove growing up in the UK, we had an electric kettle.  Besides tea, how in hell do you fill hot water bottles without a kettle?

Americans haven’t used hot water bottles since WWII.

WTF? Most of you don’t use rubberised hot water bottles with a variety of coverings that you put hot water in to snuggle up to? What about periods or being sick? Do you just use heat packs?

“Heat packs” like those disposable things you might get from a drugstore? Yeah. Also, hot towels and electric blankets.

I’m an American with a hot water bottle and a whistling stovetop tea kettle.

I’m an American by have family that have lived in Canada where they had up the electric kettle. I have an electric kettle more for French press or aeropress coffee than tea. I also use it to heat up water for boiling because it is faster than the stove. Also, I don’t own a microwave and people seem to think that is weird.

im american. i have an electric kettle, and a breville teamaker. i use the microwave at work tho.

I’m American and the only time I’ve seen an electric kettle was when I was in Japan. I didn’t even know they existed before that.

I’m American and I’ve had hot water bottles since I was born (AND it comes in a cute bottle cozy shaped like a moose), and I and my parents have electric kettles. $15 on Amazon, ya’ll.

I had an electric kettle when I was in college the first time around, for hot water to make ramen with.

However, I HIGHLY DEBATE that heating your water via a kettle VS a microwave can in any way, shape or form alter the flavor. All a microwave does is send energy into the water to make the water molecules move faster, making the water hotter. It literally cannot import a “flavor” of any kind to the water, because microwave energy doesn’t have a flavor. It’s made up of light particles/waves. You can’t taste sunlight or lamp light or x-rays, either. Light energy doesn’t have flavor.

A clean kettle shouldn’t give flavor either for that matter; it just heats the water via induction (external source heats the kettle, and that hot material of the kettle touches the water, which makes the water molecules move fast, which makes them hot). 

So unless you’ve all got really bad kettles that leech metal into your water when you’re heating it… a microwave cannot “alter” the flavor of water.

Remember that a lot of Americans live in places where it doesn’t get cold enough to need hot water bottles…

Microwaves don’t affect the flavor of water. They DO affect the flavor of tea, though, if you just drop a teabag into cold water and microwave the whole arrangement. That cooks, rather than steeps, the leaves, and makes the whole thing taste hideous. If you’re going to boil water for tea in a microwave, boil it separately from the teabag and then add the teabag after (or infuser, if that’s your jam).

Anyway I’ve had an electric and a stovetop kettle as a Canadian and US dual citizen. Kettles just aren’t the biggest deal over here, and frankly, if you’d been using a stovetop one for ages there wasn’t much reason to replace it when electrics became widely available.

i grew up in the US- my parents were earlyish adopters of electric kettles; we got one when i was about 15 (in the mid-2000s). 

my grandparents got one last week, under duress (read: my mom bought it for them), and seem perplexed as to how to use it. 

it has one button.

I’m Canadian and all my life my family have used stove-top kettles. I know plenty of Canadians who use electric kettles though.

@abackwaterprincess have we had this discussion yet? I can’t remember. XD

I’m an American, but my family is Puerto Rican–coffee is a mandatory staple in our house. I didn’t really get into drinking tea until college, where I had a professor/mentor who owned an electric kettle and also a friend who would occasionally send me mixes.

While I still mostly lean towards drinking coffee, I’ve got a pretty ample tea collection. I don’t really like heating the water in a microwave, though (mostly because my drinking cups of choice aren’t microwave-safe), and our current coffeemaker is kind of big and bulky (because when it comes to the amount of coffee we drink in the morning we’re practically stereotypical, thus requiring a heavy-duty machine). Might not be a bad idea to consider asking for an electric kettle that I can keep in my room…

American and avid tea-drinker. Growing up we always had a metal kettle for the stove, but when my grandma learned how much tea I drank she got me an electric one for Christmas, which I admit I’ve never seen in anyone else’s house. Most people don’t drink enough tea to bother. At work I microwave the water first then add the tea but it’s a less enjoyable ritual. I really should get one for work, but our counter space is limited….

I never saw a hot water bottle until I stayed in England for a few weeks. The room I was in had what appeared to be a small pillow with horses on at the foot of the bed. I ignored it for 2 weeks until I accidentally touched it one day and felt the rubber inside the cloth. When I realized what it was it was like an epiphany and I immediately filled it with warm water and was AMAZED at how happy my frozen icicle feet became. What is UP with England and its penchant for being freezing indoors? Outside I understand of course, but I could never get warm inside while I was there! And I’m from Portland, Oregon, which is just as damp and cold as Cambridge in the winter, so I’ve really no idea how my feet were just perpetually cold there. I suspect poor insulation in the houses or old heating systems.

Canadian, Ontario. I have both an electric and a stovetop kettle! I would never *dream* of using microwaved water for tea. Or of putting the tea bag in after the water goes into the mug from the kettle. It tastes different - flatter, smoother. Not as alive.

You may have known this already, but the Apollo guidance computer’s core memory was literally woven strands of copper, and it was all done by hand, by a bunch of women. Because who else knows how to weave things?

*SLAMS HANDS ON TABLE* WOMEN’S WORK SENT MEN TO THE FUCKING MOON HOW IS THAT NOT MAGIC AS HELL

Oh oh oh oh this is my subject on Viking reenactment gigs, I’m the group’s Vala and I also fill in for the weavers and spinners because IT’S THE SAME SHIT let me tell you about it :D :D :D

SPINNING with a drop spindle, none of your fancy high-tech spinning wheels here my friend, SPINNING OMG is literally taking undifferentiated fluff and turning it into the most useful and life-essential item in your whole civilisation with little more than a click of your fingers–without thread you have no sails, no clothes, no blankets, it’s literally power of life-or-death shit here, it is magic AS FUCK. That’s without doubt why the Norns were spinners and weavers.

There was laws about not saying people’s names or talking about people when you’re spinning, because you’re basically bringing something into being out of nothing, and with that kind of power you could just as easily bring events into being. So folks probably look the other way when you’re spinning thread for your son’s shirt and you want him to be victorious and honourable, but if you’re spinning away and bitching out about that ho Ingvar (see below) and how she stole your man and deserves the same to happen to her, that’s a crime. You’d be in better legal standing if you just punched her, because enchantment against a person was seen as sneaky and underhanded, with all connotations of forethought and antisocial intention, while punching someone could be an understandable lapse of self-control.

It was also forbidden to spin “against the sun” (ie: counterclockwise) because ok we also know there’s a mechanical aspect to that as well, it’s very useful to have the twist going in the same direction at all times so it doesn’t cancel itself out, but it was believed that an item made from backwards-spun thread could literally kill a person, there’s an account of a Vala spinning a shirt to murder a priest and it’s inferred that it was spun backwards. Because like, the sun is the source of all life, and to go against the sun goes against life, and much as the anti-twist cancels out the twist, it cancels out life. Brutal.

And you couldn’t talk about people when weaving, either, because weaving is an extension of the whole something-from-nothing power, but presumably people did anyway because there’s an actual find of a weaving tablet with a curse carved on it “Sigvor’s Ingvar shall have my misfortune” so basically every time the card was turned, it would strengthen the curse, and literally spin and weave it into being. HOW FUCKING AWESOME IS THAT. There’s also a find of a weaving sword with a “love poem” carved on it, note the quotemarks because this “poem” goes “Think of me, I think of you; Love me, I love you” THAT AIN’T NO POEM FAM THAT A SPELL. She probably making him (or her) a shirt.

And that’s three times I’ve mentioned shirts, so I should tell you that making a shirt for someone was a Big Deal, in a way it was sort of the period equivalent of the boyfriend sweater, with the sheer amount of labour that goes into making a shirt you have to really give a whole lot of shits about that person. There’s an account of a woman making a shirt for her brother-in-law while her husband was away, and it’s OMG DRAMA BOMB. The Vala I mentioned above really gave a lot of shits about murdering that priest. Hence, the most-likely-a-woman who owned the inscribed weaving sword could very well have been making a shirt for her crush, who may OR MAY NOT have been her husband. You know, she could’ve been like “hope my nice hubby thinks about me while he’s away” or she could’ve been like “damn, brother-in-law too hot” or she could’ve been like “damn, Ingvar too hot” (wlw aren’t attested at all but you gotta assume it happened because humans) but in any event she knew what was up. And making a shirt for someone wasn’t thought of as *overtly* magical, mostly, but there’s kind of a subtext to it that presupposes any shirt could be enchanted and probably was to some extent.

And this is just scratching the surface of the academically well established stuff, with none of my own hypotheses and observations. I can go on for hours.

I have talked about knitting and fiber arts with many different women of all sorts of religion and non religion, and the vast majority of them say that when they make special items, they put some kind of intentions into the garment.

Mongolian women

His example is racism. This can easily be expanded to homophobia, sexism and all other oppressions of marginalized people, all other bigotry against vulnerable populations.

Well considering gender has literally nothing to do with biology I doubt that would happen.

Gender has everything to do with biology. We wouldn’t have a binary without it. They’re inseparable.

Surprise: There is no binary. The binary is an oversimplification that is largely contextualized within Western culture. 

We wouldn’t be here right now if there wasn’t a gender binary. Complex lifeforms need one to perpetuate themselves.

Also incorrect. Sex is a spectrum. You’ll find that reality is rarely as simple as pure and uncompromising binaries. 

Sex isn’t chromosomes: the story of a century of misconceptions about X & YThe influence of the XX/XY model of chromosomal sex has been profound over the last century, but it’s founded on faulty premises and responsible for encouraging reductive, essentialist thinking. While the scientific world has moved on, its popular appeal remains.

Have you considered that those scientists might be bias and pushing an agenda. Gender is a biological absolute.

Gender is highly contextualized by time and place. Like, if you want to talk about scientists being biased and pushing an agenda, look at modern western science for pushing a flawed binary narrative.

Non-binary genders are not a modern invention. The idea of third genders/non-binary genders is as old as human civilization, because gender is socially constructed and subjective, and people’s ideas about gender have changed over time and between cultures.

[Source] [source] [source] [Source] [Source] [source] [source][source]

[Read More] [Read more] [Read more]

it’s amazing how quickly “science says there are only two genders” becomes “have you considered that science is fake and is pushing an agenda?”

I’m a biologist and I can assure you the 2 gender binary doesn’t exist. All around we see animals that don’t fall into either categories. Gender is a spectrum is the realest line there is when it comes to biology and gender.

Cis people: Science says the truth.

Science: *Says they’re wrong*

Cis people: Actually, you know what, science is bad and is lying.

just eastern european things:

and finally

David L. Eng and Shinhee Han, “A Dialogue on Racial Melancholia,” Loss: The Politics of Mourning, pg.355-6  (via felislunensis)

The most celebrated and rarest Chinese porcelain is Ru kiln(汝窑) which began in Tang Dynasty and bloomed in Northern Song Dynasty, with only 79 authentic examples known to exist today. Ru kiln won its reputation for the unique color that is called color of Chinese imperial. Since Ru kiln has agate dust in its glaze, it has various blue or green lusters. There are pastel-blue(green), beans-blue(green), eggshell-blue(green) and etc. The most precious one is sky-blue for it’s like the clear sky coming out flimsy clouds after rain.

It’s said millions wealth can’t compete with a piece of Ru kiln. The last picture is a 900-year-old brush washer sold for US$26.7 million at Sotheby’s Hong Kong in 2012. Its color is sky-green(天青). In English it’s probably called celadon.

China began to restore production of Ru kiln in 1952 under Premier Zhou’s instruction, and in 1983 the production surpassed its highest level in Song Dynasty after identification of modern archaeologists. 

Terminology

I am going to do a break down of the various terminology as it is accepted in most Romani academic circles. I realize that this can be very confusing, especially to those outside our ethnicity and culture, and even to those who were raised in our culture, but do not have a full grasp of our language. I must also note that self-identification varies amongst us and many of our own people may not recognize what is considered proper terminology. “Gypsy” - The pejorative term created by the British in the 1500s. The term was created to identify only those who are Romani, most specifically those who we now call UK Romany & the Romanichal. It was never intended to be used as a descriptor for any other ethnic population. It comes from the Old English term for Egyptian, and not Greek. It is a slur. Romani - The term that refers to our entire ethnic population, including the Sinti. It refers to the ethnic population that left Northern India & Pakistan shortly after the invasion of the Persian Muslims who have since settled in Trukey, all of Europe, and the Americas. The term is used to refer to our culture & language in relation to the entire ethnic population: Romani culture, Romani language, Romani people, Romani ethnicity. Romany - The population of Romani who settled in the British Isles sometime in the late 14th century. They have since become two distinct populations self identifying as either Romany or Romanichal. This spelling is typically used to refer only to the ”native” Romani population of the region. It does not inculde more recent Romani immigrants or refugees from continental Europe. Romany is typically prefixed by British, UK, English, or another identifier of where in the region they have settled & lived. Ex: Some Romani families have lived in the UK for one hundred years or more and they have even picked up some words from the Rromanes dialect spoken by the UK Romany.  Sinti - The self-identifier of a sub-ethnic population of the Romani people who live in Germany, Austria, regions of Central Europe, and the United States of America. Many Sinti prefer their identifier over Romani, though they do indeed belong to the Romani ethnic population & their language is a dialect of the Romani language. Rroma - A sub-ethnic group of the Romani population who live throughout Transylvania, Central Europe and Northern Italy. (This is why referring to our entire ethnic population as the Rroma & Sinti tends to be problematic. It is inclusive of only these two very specific Romani sub ethnic populations, when in fact, we have likely over 80 self-identified distinct groups that are considered part of the Romani ethnicity.) Rroma - A Romani woman. The adjective that describes a Romani woman or girl. Ex: I am a Rroma woman, but I belong to the Romani people. Rromni - A Romani woman who is married. A wife. Ex: The Rromni took care of her sick husband. Rrom - A Romani man. The adjective that describes a Romani man or boy. Ex: The old Rrom told us stories about our history. Rromanes - The language of the Romani people. Sometimes referred to as “Romani chib”, which means “Romani tongue”. This includes all dialects of the Romani language spoken in all of Europe, Turkey, South Africa, as well as North, Central & South America. Dom - A sister population of the Romani ethnicity. They are believed to be descendants of similar North Indian & Pakistani ethnic groups. They likely began their diaspora before the people who are today considered the Romani. The Dom live throughout Northern Africa, the Middle East & Central Asia. Domari - The language of the Dom people. Lom - Speculatively related to the Romani in the same way as the Domari: a population of mixed Northern Indian ethnic groups who began their diaspora before the population that is considered the Romani. They settled mostly in the Caucasus Mountains, and largely in Armenia. Lomavren - The language of the Lom people. The Romani, Dom & Lom are related to some degree, but the exact relation is still contested by some. The Dom & Lom are sometimes lumped under the pejorative exonym, “gypsy”, though this term was never ascribed to them until rather recently. When referring to this entire diasporic population from the Indian subcontinent, they should always be termed “The Romani, Dom & Lom”. Of course, order can vary, but the proper terms should be utilized instead of “gypsy”. Single “R” & double “Rr” spellings - Both manner of spellings are correct. Some dialects use a double “Rr” spelling for phonetics purposes, while other use it to distinguish us from Romanians & inhabitants of Rome, Italy. Non-Romani Ethnic Populations: There are several ethnic populations that are wrongly lumped under the slur umbrella that is “gypsy”. Many have no relationship to us & should only be discussed in terms of contact. We are entirely separate ethnic populations. (For those who still have not grasped this concept yet.) Pavee - Commonly known as Irish Travellers, they are a sub-ethnic group of Irish who have lived a nomadic existence for several centuries. They reside in Ireland, and the United Kingdom.  Some self identify as “Irish Gypsies”, though the bastardization of that term from the UK Romany is a rather contentious topic.   Some Pavee have had very close relations with UK Romany, even inter-marrying. However, it is important to note that the Romany & Romani are in no way related to Irish Travellers. We are not only two separate ethnic populations, but we even belong to two separate races.  We each have our own lanaguage & culture.  Shelta - The language of the Pavee. Banjara - An ethnic population living in Northern India. Though we have been genetically linked to the Banjara, the group is not the only Indian ethnicity that comprised of the initial Romani diasporic population. In fact, we have been linked to a wide variety of ethnic populations that live throughout Northern India, Pakistan, and even Eastern Afghanistan. The Banjara are just one of those many ethnicities. The Banjara are not “gypsies” & they are not Romani. They are Banjara. They are Indian. There are many nomadic peoples throughout Europe. The only ones who are Romani are the Romani. The only ones who are “gypsy” are the Romani, most specifically, the Romany. The Yeniche, Quinqui, Scottish Travellers, Norwegian Travellers, any generic nomadic people, nomads of India, Asia, or any other place on Earth are not Romani & they are not “gypsies”. Not even the Lom & Dom are “gypsies”, or Romani, even though they are our sister ethnic populations. The only people who are Romani are the Romani.

Needed this today, so reblogged for everyone else too

get it right, and maybe avoid being a racist at someone!

Further Resources:

Bringing this back for International Romani Day

Reblogging cause people in the pagan tag (y’all know who you are) need to learn this and stop using that racist slur.