Creaturebeeing - I-might-bite

I think we're all really scared right now. If you live in a high risk area, and if you can, make sure you have all your important documents where you can easily access them, get a passport, etc. Make preparations if you potentially have to get out.

The strange and surreal furniture by Korean designer/artist Lila Jang.

calling what is happening to trans people in the south an attempt at genocide: correct and ok. it's going to get worse if we don't fight back now

comparing it to the holocaust: not ok and also i'm fucking blocking you.

no genocide is the same. not every genocide mirrors the holocaust. using the deaths of jews, lgbt people, disabled people, and poc during the holocaust as your "gotcha" card every time our rights are in danger today proves you know nothing about the history you're talking about.

The epidemic of young queers ignoring or cherrypicking queer history is really biting us all in the ass because Montana just tabled the bill that banned trans and gay panic, and many of the younger queers I’ve come across have no idea what gay panic really is, or what that means.

All they know about gay panic is the “Oh my gosh! I talked to a pretty girl/boy and I’m a girl/boy hehe so flustered” that at some point replaced the actual meaning of gay panic. Do you know how dangerous this is, that they don’t know of the dangers of trans and gay panic? It’s lethal.

As things in the US become more dire for the queer community, I’m begging the young queers: read up on queer - our, your - history. Talk to your elder queers. Really look into current politics surrounding the queer community. Don’t get all your info from social media, and absolutely do not take what you see on social media at face-value. Get yourself educated and prepared for what’s to come. It’ll save lives, I promise you. 

Continuing my post about why I'm tired of TERFs: Come the fuck on. I spent most of my life back when I thought I was a cis girl being made to feel like shit because I had to get repeated surgeries on my breasts because of a chronic condition. It was other women who told me to reconsider if I wanted to "ruin my tits" and "mutilate myself" and if I couldn't just put up with the unbearable chronic pain it caused.

It was also women who told me I should consider plastic surgery if I ever needed to get a mastectomy, which is something I'll need sooner than later. I was a MINOR when I got told this.

It was ALSO a woman who told me that even if my condition has a 4% chance of turning malignant, I should not get the mastectomy that could reduce that to almost a 0%, because "So many women regret it later".

Now I decide that feminity is not for me, that I'm tired of putting up with it after being told a thousand times about how I'm doing it bad, and now I'm betraying womanhood. I have to hear how they keep talking of any breast surgery as mutilation and "ruining a perfect healthy female body" but I'm the evil one for finding that being non binary suits me better.

All while TERFs repeatedly show they'd rather work with the far right to take everything from trans people, the same groups actively also harm women. They devote their entire existence to harming trans women, who are some of the fiercest fighters for women's rights, and then go silent when pro-lifers fuck up bodily autonomy.

Who in the actual fuck is actually betraying womanhood here?

Here's to Quannah Chasing horse, who yet again has won this year's Met Gala theme. And to everyone who wore pink, showed off curves, and embraced styles antithetical to the racist fatphobic myoginist the event was themed to honor this year. Memes by ennan.

Hi- er, this is my first-ever writer's strike, how does one not cross a picket line in this context? I know how not to do it with things like Amazon and IRL strikes, but how does it apply to media/streaming?

Hi, this is a great question, because it allows me to write about the difference between honoring a picket line and a boycott. (This is reminding me of the labor history podcast project that's lain fallow in my drafts folder for some time now...) In its simplest formulation, the difference between a picket line and a boycott is that a picket line targets an employer at the point of production (which involves us as workers), whereas a boycott targets an employer at the point of consumption (which involves us as consumers).

So in the case of the WGA strike, this means that at any company that is being struck by the WGA - I've seen Netflix, Amazon, Apple, Disney, Warner Brothers Discovery, NBC, Paramount, and Sony mentioned, but there may be more (check the WGA website and social media for a comprehensive list) - you do not cross a picket line, whether physical or virtual. This means you do not take a meeting with them, even if its a pre-existing project, you do not take phone calls or texts or emails or Slacks from their executives, you do not pitch them on a spec script you've written, and most of all you do not answer any job application.

Because if this strike is like any strike since the dawn of time, you will see the employers put out ads for short-term contracts that will be very lucrative, generally above union scale - because what they're paying for in addition to your labor is you breaking the picket and damaging the strike - to anyone willing to scab against their fellow workers. GIven that one of the main issues of the WGA are the proliferation of short-term "mini rooms" whereby employers are hiring teams of writers to work overtime for a very short period, to the point where they can only really do the basics (a series outline, some "broken stories," and some scripts) and then have the showrunner redo everything on their lonesome, while not paying writers long-term pay and benefits, I would imagine we're going to see a lot of scab contracts being offered for these mini rooms.

But for most of us, unless we're actively working as writers in Hollywood, most that isn't going to be particularly relevant to our day-to-day working lives. If you're not a professional or aspiring Hollywood writer, the important thing to remember honoring the picket line doesn't mean the same thing as a boycott. WGA West hasn't called on anyone to stop going to the movies or watching tv/steeaming or to cancel their streaming subscriptions or anything like that. If and when that happens, WGA will go to some lengths to publicize that ask - and you should absolutely honor it if you can - so there will be little in the way of ambiguity as to what's going on.

That being said, one of the things that has happened in the past in other strikes is that well-intentioned people get it into their heads to essentially declare wildcat (i.e, unofficial and unsanctioned) boycotts. This kind of stuff comes from a good place, someone wanting to do more to support the case and wanting to avoid morally contaminating themselves by associating with a struck company, but it can have negative effects on the workers and their unions. Wildcat boycotts can harm workers by reducing back-end pay and benefits they get from shows if that stuff is tied to the show's performance, and wildcat boycotts can hurt unions by damaging negotiations with employers that may or may not be going on.

The important thing to remember with all of this is that the strike is about them, not us. Part of being a good ally is remembering to let the workers' voices be heard first and prioritizing being a good listener and following their lead, rather than prioritizing our feelings.

[Img id: bugs bunny meme. To the left the text reads, "I wish all people with chronic digestive problems a very plesant evening".]

Trans politician Zooey Zephyr is getting twittercanceled by the right for tweeting horny Genshin Impact fanart. This is in fact a real thing that’s happening. Say what you want about the Republican Party but they provide some absolutely mind-numbingly bizarre moments.

I'm sorry who's getting what for what now

a quick word about the writers guild strike, for those of you who currently AREN'T guild members but would like to be one day: the WGA has always strongly enforced its right to ban from future membership any non-member who crosses the picket line and engages in scab writing, aka writing for any of the struck companies during the WGA strike.

so if you're seeing job openings for screenwriters at places like netflix, amazon, paramount, etc and you're thinking "hey, maybe i'll apply and get my foot in the door," just know that you WILL be scabbing and you WILL be barred from ever obtaining WGA membership. permanently.

learn more about the strike on the WGA contract site.