Orange!

I return with more old art until I get the time to draw again because FINALS TIME WOOOO :(

Art is beautiful because it exists.

Art is a process of decisions. Color choices, medium, subject, style, basically everything in art is a choice. And that's what makes it so beautiful. Being able to look at a piece of art and go "I wonder why they chose to use such a bright green here?"

That green could represent so many things. It could be the color of the grass outside that day. The color of their favorite toy. The color of their friend's hair. The color of the trees. Their favorite color. Their most hated color.

Maybe its about a message. Some part of their identity. It could be an injustice they experienced. Something unfair they saw. A victory they claimed. A fight they had. Joy they once felt or still feel. A protest piece. An important act. A source of motivation.

Or maybe there is no reason. Maybe they just felt like using it that day.

Even if art is not made to have a particular meaning, you can still look at it and see every stroke. Every line. Every intention. There was love put into this. A soul was mirrored. A little piece of that artist wound into the picture.

There is nothing there in generative AI images. It is a machine. It does not decide, it does not represent. It makes a collage of images fed to it from a database.

It does not make art. It makes images. Sure, a human prompted it. It told it what to do. But they did not make that art. If I told an artist "draw me a tree" and they did so, would I claim it as my art? I gave the prompt, but the artist created the art. Someone gave the prompt, but the machine generated the image.

There is one benefit: it has made me appreciate art far more. I wonder more when I see art just what the artist was thinking about. I like to think about each choice they made when they created it. I think about what I do in my own art.

I think I'm going to use green today.

Watching a video on aphobic memes reminded me of something...

It was basically like "Asexual and aromantic people don't face systemic oppression!"

And... we do. Take a look around at how much value society places on sex and romance. Many systems rely on the expectation you will fall in love and get married. We've all heard the meme about getting married for tax reasons. Romance is even used as a measure of happiness. I'm in therapy, and my therapist will sometimes have to use certain charts and templates with me. A good chunk of them always involve discussing romantic life. I'm blessed that she is perfectly accepting of me being aroace, and we've even discussed how harmful it is that there's so much pressure. I've heard of other people in the community who had their asexuality/aromanticism treated like a problem in therapy.

Or, in the medical industry: I was having severe abdominal pains and went to the ER. The nurses were absolutely convinced it was an STD, despite me swearing I'm not sexually active. They only focused on the idea of an STD. It later ended up being an intestinal issue. They pressured me into doing a pelvic exam, then used the wrong size instrument so I was screaming in pain the whole time. All because they couldn't believe there was a patient who did NOT have sex. Who was NOT in a relationship. The expectation was that teenager = sex.

We are continuously taught this idea that everyone has sex and falls in love. All of our systems are built around it. Our whole society expects it. If you are not in any relationship, you are stereotyped as lonely and/or crazy. If you are in a purely sexual relationship, you are stereotyped as being vain and sex-crazed. If you are in a purely romantic relationship, you are stereotyped as leading your partner on and incompatible with others.

I'm fortunate enough to have grown up surrounded by people who loved and supported me for my identity. I love myself for my identity. But even I have still faced discrimination and harm as a result of it. I still get anxious when a doctor touches me. I still feel left behind when I see my friends getting into relationships. But I don't want to change myself.

I want to change the world around me. We deserve better.

okay, i've gotten sick of this shit. please reblog and like and share and stuff so tumblr can know this is a problem.

i keep getting communities suggested to me on tumblr. this wouldnt be a problem... if it wasnt communities i do not care about at all. there are some fandoms i want to genuinely avoid, seeing as i have no interest in the content and honestly am potentially triggered by it.

speaking of the getting triggered part. it gets worse and genuinely very important.

there are certain nsfw communities that get randomly reccomended to me, and some of these topics can be genuinely triggering, such as r@pe f3tishes (yes, i genuinely got a post from an nsfw community featuring that recommended to me) and other VERY potentially triggering things.

though i think it's important for people to have safe spaces for that kind of stuff (such as the nsfw one, like it is not my place to kinkshame, but to people who have not shown interest in it it can be harmful), there should be ways to avoid these

my solution? the ability to block communities. not just say "not interested" (because we all know that hardly ever works)

if anyone knows any other solutions, please let me know. this is starting to genuinely bother me and make tumblr not very fun to use, which sucks.

"How do you know that if you haven't had sex? You should try it first."

Reblog if you've ever come out as ace to someone and been told any variation of "it's just a phase"

"well actually repulsed aro/aces can still be in relationships/have sex" SHUT. UP. SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP. I know! IM ROMANCE REPULSED!! but if you even tried to ship me (and a few of you did) i would come at you with KNIVES. STOP SPEAKING FOR "all aro/acespecs" YOU DONT. SHUT UP

Stop saying the Minecraft movie is just for kids. Kids deserve better.

I am genuinely infuriated at the amount of people defending the Minecraft movie with "well, its made for kids." That's not an excuse!!! Ever!!! Do you all think kids aren't capable of understanding deeper themes? They can't understand emotions? Do you really want to teach a kid they deserve only garbage media until they're older?

"Well, my kid liked it" ok cool. That's not actually my point. People can like what they want. My point is that kids deserve better. Every time some low effort slop gets released, people dismiss it with "its for kids." Its the inherent idea that kids deserve less that bothers me. Why don't kids deserve more? Why is making garbage for kids ok, but not for adults? Is it because... maybe... you value kids minds less? A stupid little kid could never understand the deeper meanings of Minecraft like creativity, valuing the world around you, and realizing how you have the power to shape yourself.

Because that's what Minecraft is about. Its not some goofy ass Jumanji rip off. You make your experience in Minecraft. You can become a miner, a builder, an explorer, a redstone engineer... its your world. I loved finding new things in Minecraft. The awe of seeing my first pink sheep. The fear of the deep dark. The wonder of a massive ravine. The accomplishment of crossing a whole sea. That's what Minecraft is about.

And it breaks my heart we got this instead. Plenty of adults play Minecraft, too. But in a big company's eyes, video games are for dumb children who don't know garbage from gold. Minecraft deserved better than this. I know the movie isn't out yet, but the trailer said enough.

Actual footage of Splatoon players sharing a single braincell

Idk who needs this but