ALSO. on the concept of funky genders. "socially unacceptable" genders or "genderweird" people i love you. transmascs who are girls i love you. transfems who are men i love you. transmascs who feel transfem and transfems who feel transmasc i love you. everyone who feels like their gender is too "weird" or "complicated" or are an "oxymoron or self-contradictory" i love you and we are all trans and good and community and perfect ok.
remember kids the answer to the question "why do trans people always target WOMEN & WOMENS things?" is "because its what cis people care about"
if you want to demonize a group, make them Scary (oft masculinized) Predators who are Coming For Innocent Women (objects to be protected). the "trans issue" crops up where cis people MAKE it an issue.
"men's healthcare" is an exclusionary term for healthcare needed by a lot of people. "father" should not be our only term for people who can impregnate others. but its so much easier to rally the troops to protect the weak, innocent, defenseless property, so thats where the money is.
oh also: this applies to stuff like "why are there no BI GAYS?" which is based in the same logic. there ARE and have always been bisexual gay men, and there continue to be. the only reason you have only heard about bi lesbians is because gay men's spaces just are not as defensive about Invaders To The Identity, even if that prejudice still exists on some level sometimes. this is such an annoying thing to hear because its said like some intelligent statement and its just biased information
Subnautica seriously has my favorite relationship between the player and wildlife in any survival game. Certain creatures pose a real threat to you, but the solution is not to become powerful and fight them. It's just to survive. Killing anything is tedious and gives you no reward, and you are severely outmatched in many cases. You remain constantly a stranger in this land, not its conqueror.
You may think it cruel but when a white witch pisses me off I go through her etsy listings for native bird feathers and forward it to fish and wildlife services
Conservatives finally say the quiet part out loud:
Hello hope you're doing good. Question, if you want to answer: what does catatonia feel like for you? I watched a friend have her first catatonic episode last year and she didn't have a good memory of it afterward. I'd like to get some idea of what goes on there. Obviously if this is an unpleasant topic ignore
There are different types of catatonia and not everyone will have the same symptoms; I dont even have the same symptoms every episode. So my experience is just that; mine.
Withdrawn catatonia feels like being stuck inside my body. I can see and hear everything going on, but I can't react to it as normal. It's kind of as if I'm externally inanimate; I can't move (or can barely move), but if you move my limbs for me they stay in whatever position you put me in. I often get stuck in uncomfortable positions because one of the first symptoms I usually get is abnormal or exaggerated movements (and Im hypermobile so its even worse).
It's very hard to describe the actual feeling that goes with it though. It's like being drugged by your own nervous system. My body feels like lead and all my processes feel slowed. Even though I am aware, depending on the episode and trigger I may be confused and/or dissociated.
But I also experience excited catatonia, which is pretty much the opposite of what I described. I cant slow down. I either cant speak or cant communicate normally. I'll repeat things over and over, I'll do the same movements over and over - which usually ends up with me hurting myself. I feel very panicked when I experience this. It doesnt happen as often as withdrawn type, though. And when I do experience it, its usually a severe episode where I flip back and forth between withdrawn and excited.
For me, withdrawn episodes are usually triggered by stress like - dissociation, anxiety, and trauma. Excited episodes are usually triggered by autistic/schizophrenic nervous system overload. Both can be related to/triggered by psychosis, and there's decent overlap between my catatonic episodes and disorganized speech/thinking episodes.
So yeah. If anyone's ever wondered what it might be like, now you know.
See, while "gender is not inherently tied to sexuality" is true, I think it's a bit more complex than that. Often, you'll fond that society conflate gender and sexuality to the point that they influence each other, and that's important also to recognize.
My manhood isn't contradicted by my queerness, but I spent so many years feeling like I have failed as a man because societal manhood hinges on performing heterosexuality. It actually made me dysphoric to be queer because my manhood was already under scrutiny.
I've found that this is something cis queer guys and I have been able to bond over, though. Even though these guys are cis, their own manhood is just as criticized because of their queerness. They have been treated as lesser men or not even as men but gay men (derogatory). It's made me so much more aware of how fragile manhood can be if you base it on society rather than your own internal world.
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.
These policies can help to improve the mental health of students