– I’m going through this scene by scene y’all get
ready
– Kay so, when diana rescues him he’s immediately
anxious when she asks him “You’re a man…?” I could almost taste the “oh god am I
suddenly not passing??” fear in his eyes
– He doesn’t say something like “of course I am”
or “yes haven’t you ever seen a man??” instead he goes straight for “Yeah, uhm…don’t
I look like one?” this is not something a cis man worries about
– Side note: if y’all come at me with “oh he says
steve is his name when they use the lasso of truth on him so he must be cis” l i s ten his name is steve. Why would he answer that
question any other way? Also, I’d like to note, in the comics when Batman was
asked the same question while holding the lasso of truth, he answered with
Batman, not Bruce Wayne. The lasso makes you answer what YOU believe is the
truth. Steve’s deadname isn’t his “true name” steve trevor is obv
– Consider: we know there were LOTS of women who
cross-dressed in wwI in order to fight. What if that’s what steve did to join
the military when he was much younger, but then he realized oh…maybe there’s
more here going on than I thought
– HRT became available after WWII largely due to
this guy, and in this superhero universe of Scientific
Inaccuracies and Magical Goddesses Made From Clay, it’s not entirely
implausible that HRT couldn’t have become available a few decades earlier in
some capacity (alan hart is amazing, please read more about him)
– Okay, the bathroom scene: Steve panics at first
when diana walks in on him, because he’s like SHIT CANT REVEAL MY WEIRD JUNK
but when its clear shes not going to be weird about it, he stops trying to hide
– diana specifically says “are you considered
average for your sex” not gender. And
we know from later during the scene on the boat that she must know the
difference, because she read the 12 volume collection on genitals and what you
can do with them
– So diana’s like “well that’s not what I was
expecting at all” and what she says is basically the more subtle, educated way of saying: dude why
don’t you have a penis and balls
– And when steve answers above average, he’s basically
saying “yeah, im trans, go me, deal with it”
– Just saying, him being trans makes this entire interaction
and every one after that where steve is trying to explain western gender norms
to diana significantly more hilarious
– Moving on: the boat. Diana asks about marriage
and Steve answers two people go in front
of a judge etc etc. then when she asks why they get married, even if they’re
unhappy, steve says he doesn’t know. Marriage is as mystifying to him as it is
to her. If that isn’t queer then idk what queer is
– The “this confuses me just as much as it does
you” look on his face throughout this entire interaction
– His interest in her books about sex: as a trans
man in an age when sex for the pleasure of vagina owners was basically unheard
of/considered sinful, of course he’s
interested
– The soft “no” when she says the books ultimately
say men are unnecessary for pleasure; no as in utter disbelief, more like “no
way can I read this??” than “no omg sex needs a penis and a vagina what are you
talking about”
– Lastly: it makes SO much sense for steve to
become a spy. Trans people are excellent liars. They have to be in order to
survive. Steve obv would have made it through his entire military service
without letting on that he was trans, so he knows he’s totally capable of lying
his way into german high command
– This has so
much fanfic potential, I am dying
– Go forth and write all the fanfic about diana
teaching steve the secrets of her 12 volumes about sex
today at goodwill i found a kirk/spock au where kirk is a lowly redshirt
Okay no but this book.
Do you know how fucking long I hunted for a copy of the first edition of this book? I can’t remember the specifics, it’s been ages since I read it, but in the first edition it had some line that was basically confirming Kirk/Spock that was removed after the first printing.
oh my god are you telling me i found a piece of fandom history and i had no idea
I AM BACK AT GOODWILL AND IT’S STILL HERE AND IT’S A FIRST EDITION WITH GAY STUFF???? IT’S A DOLLAR?????? I’M
it starts out with wholesome hand-holding and boyfriends worrying about each other
they’re in an au now and kirk is an angry ensign with a drug problem
“being the top felt weird and wrong”
SOMETHING STIRRED INSIDE HIM
no matter the universe kirk can’t keep his shirt intact
THIS IS WHERE SHIT GETS REAL Y’ALL I CAN’T
THE MIND MELD IS BARELY EVEN A METAPHOR
KIRK WAS ASKING FOR IT
aaaaaaaaaaah
this is the best dollar i have ever spent and yes that includes bearllionaire
I’d heard about this as some sort of fandom urban legend – everyone heard about it, no one seemed to have hard copy. Nobody was sure if it was some unpublished fanfic, a first draft, vanity press, whatever.
And it’s real.
No one had a copy because Gene Roddenberry found out about the romantic undertones and forced Pocket Books to recall the first edition so that it could be drastically revised.
I wish more people got this because some ‘low-empathy’ people are the most compassionate and sympathetic in the universe, and I hate it when that’s taken to mean ‘unfeeling and probably hostile’ when nothing could be further from the truth
Or, as my dad put it,
Sympathy: I know how you feel Empathy: I feel how you feel Compassion: is there anything I can do to help?
Posting this because I see these words used interchangeably in RP writing a lot, and they are – in fact – not the same. Know the differences and impress your writer friends! It really is noticeable when someone has a strong grasp of vocabulary, and thus is a stronger writer.
Also, empathy is not always compassionate or sympathetic! It very often goes with those two, but empathy itself is not a requirement for feeling sympathy or compassion at all. Empathy works like a sponge, and can happen whether you care about the people around you or not. It works with negative emotions such as anger, and can make you question which of the emotions you currently feel are your own.
i don’t get the “you would not believe ________ if ten million ________” meme
its the owl city song about ten million fireflies… the appeal is reading the different and amusing words and hearing the man sing them soothingly in your mind’s ears
I don’t think I know the song off the top of my head, but in any case, its not a new one right? why the meme all of a sudden
I think someone made a standard “title/post discrepancy” format joke a little while ago that was just “you would not believe your eyes/[an amusing line that replaced “if ten million fireflies”, and kept the original rhyme scheme]“. since the owl city guy is autistic and his music is appealing to people who have similar sensory processing differences-from-the-norm he’s almost universally Known to brainweird tumblr, and since that’s one of the most popular songs he’s released it was a tune pretty much everyone interacting with the original joke was familiar with. part of the humor of the meme is the mental echolalia aspect (hearing the tune just from reading the lyrics, which is one of those sensory processing things), so the initial riffs on the ur-meme were simply things that sounded funny if you mentally replaced them in the lyrics, but it quickly evolved into finding ways to maintain the rhythm and meter of the original snippet while replacing almost all of the words. at the moment, communal meme saturation has reached the point that the only words required to make it a recognizable meme remix are the “you would not” at the beginning of the thing, but someone will probably find a way to maintain the reference frame while completely replacing the content sometime soon. starting off a text-based singalong by posting the first line and waiting for someone who knows what song it is to join in with the second is a somewhat esoteric behavioral meme that has its origins in jamming the fuck out and shitposting wildly, but with the bonus of unknown friends. to sing out into the void and have another sing back is a simple and timeless pleasure. this is a variation on that – we are not singing the next line of the song, but the same line, over and over, in as many variations as possible, keeping only the musical aspect, since the original memer found that it was amusing and interesting to do so.
according to american gods the collective ideas and beliefs are enough to give birth to a new deity, this doesnt just aplied to say gods like odin but to concepts like media and the internet,as well. They also gain power from worship and sacrifices.
Woody Roundup is a collective effort
Deactivated Urls are offered in sacrifice with each one becoming a new branch of the hivemind
There are People who say i pray that your blog gets taken over by the woody collective to evildoers
People say its name in attempt to summon it like bloody mary
Ergo Woody is a hivemind eldritch god but a benevolent one
ALL HAIL SHERIFF WOODY
thank you sheriff for blessing us with your presence
I think all the talk about participation trophies is bs, mostly because I saw in real-time how Conservatives in the US constructed the myth in the 80s and how it has always been used to attack both the idea that children should feel good about themselves about anything other than pushing around and policing other kids, and the idea parents should be good to their kids; while promoting the idea that kids were properly property that parents ought to be able to treat however they damn well please with zero outside intervention. But also because I frankly never saw the damn things to begin with. I saw plenty of trophies, and all the ones I saw were given out for perfectly sensible reasons, visibly appreciated by the kids receiving them.
BUT, having said that, I DO think there is a certain well-intentioned tendency in the parenting of securely middle-class parents
(can’t speak to other classes because this is the only parenting I ever saw)
of the Boomer and X gens that had some unintended negative repercussions, and that is the tendency to play down mistakes.
Let me lay a scene:
A child is doing something and they make a mistake. They say to their parent “I’ve made a mistake”. Now these parents, interpreting Dr. Spock’s advice through their own experiences of(almost invariably) having been raised by real assholes whose idea of “parenting” was mean-spirited insults and physical abuse and even worse, respond to this by doing the exact opposite of what they’re parents would have done, they Negate it. “No, NoNo,” the parent says, “it’s fine, it’s Fine! You’re doing perfect :)”
Now, what the parent THINKS they’re doing in this situation is building the child’s confidence in their abilities. What they are REALLY doing, though, is teaching the child to doubt their own ability to assess situations, and particularly their own performance. The child had an idea in their head of how things should have turned out, likely based on instructions. Things didn’t turn out that way and maybe they also realize they didn’t follow the instructions correctly. So they say, based on the evidence, “I made a mistake”. Yet the parent -from a place of kindness!- tells them they didn’t. So they learn that their judgement is flawed. Is it any wonder that kids constantly exposed to this grow up to be perfectionists, to NEED to know they’ve done everything possible in their minds to make something right because they can’t trust how they think or feel about it, who always ask for the opinions of others, particularly superiors, on how their work turned out before moving on?
Instead, I feel like they should have responded like this:
Kid: “I made a mistake” Parent: “You think so buddy?” K: “Yes” P: “Why do you think you made a mistake?” K:”Because of this.” P: “Hmm, could be. What do you think you did wrong?” K: “I think I did this wrong. I was supposed to do THIS, and I did this instead.” P: “Hmm, well, that makes sense. But Even though you made a mistake, that doesn’t mean everything’s messed up.” K: “It doesn’t?” P: “Nope! We can fix it *optional head ruffle* :] *proceeds to troubleshoot the problem or start the project over again with supervision, to avoid the mistake together*” –End Scene–
This is just as positive, affirms the child’s judgement, teaches them to pay attention to and think critically about their feelings and thoughts and actions, and it shows them that mistakes aren’t this terrible and shameful thing to be avoided, but rather normal, everyday obstacles that can be overcome with dedication, a calm mind, and thinking things through.
There is an alternate to this that is worse. The child, while doing the project, is confused about something and asks for parental advice; the parent says “do it this way.” This way doesn’t work out, and the child says “I made a mistake” or “I did this wrong and it didn’t work”(because, of course, it’s a very rare child who will say to a parent “your advice was wrong” from the get go). The parent then says, “No no; it’s find, it’s Fine; it’s perfect: Everything is Perfect, you’re just worrying about nothing, don’t beat yourself up about it.”
This is worse because, not only does it do all that the first example does, but it also teaches the child that the parent expects to be treated as if they’re omnipotent and incapable of making mistakes. This has a whole host of other, terrible, repercussions all its own: the child now feels responsible for their parent’s emotional state, they will be anxious over questioning the parent in other, possibly more urgent, situations, they will learn that one shouldn’t admit mistakes and errors leading them to react negatively to them -and moreso to being called on them- in future, and it will make it difficult for them to question authority figures generally, since humans naturally conceive of authority figures through familial/parental metaphor.
And of course, both bad -but well meaning!- responses put the child in a position of having to argue for their mistakes and flaws, against your “defense” of them as something they can never be: a perfect person. AND of having to go against your position if they want to repair the mistake to their liking. These are really shitty positions to put anybody in, let alone a kid.
I mean, I get the impulse, I really do, and obviously there are much worse things parents can do to their children, but it’s really no surprise that a gen raised this way would display the perfectionism, self-doubt, preference for outside input, difficulty finishing projects, and anxiety over performance in formal settings that so often get associated with Millennials.
See, the problem with people who aren’t in wheelchairs writing about and/or drawing people who are in (manual) wheelchairs is that the people who aren’t in wheelchairs tend to think that there’s only like four movements that you do in a wheelchair. You can either push forward, push backwards, turn left, or turn right. And the characters do it all while sitting up straight or bending forward so that their noses touch their knees.
But the amount of motions that I go through on a daily basis are actually amazing. And the body language…you could write an entire book on the body language of someone in a wheelchair.
Like right now, I’m more relaxed, so I’m slouching slightly. I’ve got my right foot on its footrest and the left foot on the ground. Every so often, as I stop to think of something to say, I’ll push with my left foot to rock the chair slightly.
But usually, I sit mostly upright with my upper-half slightly leaned forward. When I’m wheeling across the campus, especially if I have somewhere that I need to be, I’ll lean and shift my weight in whichever direction it is that I’m going. It helps make the wheelchair glide that much more smoothly. How far/dramatically I lean depends on how fast I’m going, the terrain, if there’s a turn, etc.
Plus people who don’t use wheelchairs don’t understand the relationship between grabbing the wheels, pushing, and the chair moving. Like I’ve seen things written or have seen people try to use a chair where the character/that person grabs the wheel every single second and never lets go to save their lives. Which isn’t right. The key is to do long, strong, pushes that allow you to move several feet before repeating. I can usually get about ten feet in before I have to push again. It’s kind of like riding a scooter. You don’t always need to push. You push, then ride, then push, then ride, etc.
And because of this, despite what many people think, people in wheelchairs can actually multitask. I’ve carried Starbucks drinks across the campus without spilling a single drop. Because it’s possible to wheel one-handed (despite what most people think), especially when you shift your weight. And if I need to alternate between pushing both wheels, I’ll just swap hands during the ‘glide’ time.
I’ve also noticed that people who don’t use wheelchairs, for some reason, have no idea how to turn a wheelchair. It’s the funniest thing. Like I see it written or, again, have seen people ‘try’ a wheelchair where they’re reaching across their bodies to try to grab one wheel and push or they try to push both wheels at the same time and don’t understand. (For the record, you pull back a wheel and push a wheel. The direction that you’re going is the side that you pull back.)
Back to body language. Again, no idea why most people think that we always sit upright and nothing else. Maybe when I’m in meetings or other formal settings, but most of the time, I do slightly slouch/lean. As for the hands…A lot of writers put the wheelchair user’s hands on the armrests but the truth is, most armrests sit too far back to actually put your hands on. There are times when I’ll put my elbows on the edges of the armrests and will put my hands between my legs. Note: Not on my lap. That’s another thing that writers do but putting your hands in your lap is actually not a natural thing to do when you’re in a wheelchair, due to the angle that you’re sitting and the armrests. Most of the time, I’ll just sort of let my arms loosely fall on either side of the chair, so that my hands are next to my wheels but not grabbing them. That’s another form of body language. I’ve talked to a few people who have done it and I do it myself. If I’m ever anxious or in a situation where I want to leave for one reason or another, I will usually grip my handrims – one hand near the front , one hand near the back. And if I’m really nervous, you’ll find me leaning further and further into the chair, running my hands along the handrims.
Also, on a related subject – a character’s legs should usually be at 90 degree angles, the cushion should come to about their knees, and the armrests should come to about their elbows. You can always tell that an actor is not a wheelchair user when their wheelchair isn’t designed to their dimensions. (Their knees are usually inches away from the seats and are up at an angle, the armrests are too high, etc.) Plus they don’t know how to drive the chair.
Let’s see, what else? Only certain bags can go on the back of the chair without scraping against the wheels, so, no, your teenagers in wheelchairs can’t put their big, stylish, purses on the back. We don’t always use gloves since most gloves actually aren’t that helpful (as stated above, wheeling is a very fluid motion and gloves tend to constrict movements). Height differences are always a thing to remember. If you’re going for the “oh no, my wheelchair is broken” trope, nobody really has ‘flat’ tires anymore thanks to the new material for the wheels but it is possible to have things break off. We use the environment a lot. I always push off of walls or grab onto corners or kick off of the floor etc. Wheelchair parkour should really become a thing.
This is all of the physical things to think about. I could write a thesis on the emotional treatment of your characters with disabilities. But for now, I think that I’ll stop here. For my followers in wheelchairs, is there anything that I left out?
Also why isn’t wheelchair parkour a thing? Somebody make wheelchair parkour a thing.
This is all REALLY GOOD and I wish something like this would be in more art guidebooks and classes.
One thing I’d add is that some of the posture stuff here is specific to wheelchair users who have the right chair; a lot of people (hi, past me) have to use chairs that aren’t at all the correct size, and that’s going to change posture, ease of use, etc. That’s such a broad variable that it’s probably useless to try and cover here, but it’s something to be aware of and research if it seems relevant to a character.
just moving along like everyone else 