Latest Posts by asymptotic-rage - Page 6
Almost every day I think about the time in 2000 when my doctor slipped out of the room for a minute, and so I looked at my chart, and the first words my eyes saw were, "Pt. is a low-functioning young adult."
Reminds me of the part in A Crown of Candy where Liam picks change as his wish. It’s so silly that a bunch of comedians playing dungeons and dragons can have such a profound impact on the way I look at life.
I simply can't afford to quit on the idea that human life can change for the better.
Awhile ago @ouidamforeman made this post:
This shot through my brain like a chain of firecrackers, so, without derailing the original post, I have some THOUGHTS to add about why this concept is not only hilarious (because it is), but also...
It. It kind of fucks. Severely.
And in a delightfully Pratchett-y way, I'd dare to suggest.
I'll explain:
As inferred above, both Crowley AND Aziraphale have canonical Biblical counterparts. Not by name, no, but by function.
Crowley, of course, is the serpent of Eden.
(note on the serpent of Eden: In Genesis 3:1-15, at least, the serpent is not identified as anything other than a serpent, albeit one that can talk. Later, it will be variously interpreted as a traitorous agent of Hell, as a demon, as a guise of Satan himself, etc. In Good Omens --as a slinky ginger who walks funny)
Lesser known, at least so far as I can tell, is the flaming sword. It, too, appears in Genesis 3, in the very last line:
"So he drove out the man; and placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life." --Genesis 3:24, KJV
Thanks to translation ambiguity, there is some debate concerning the nature of the flaming sword --is it a divine weapon given unto one of the Cherubim (if so, why only one)? Or is it an independent entity, which takes the form of a sword (as other angelic beings take the form of wheels and such)? For our purposes, I don't think the distinction matters. The guard at the gate of Eden, whether an angel wielding the sword or an angel who IS the sword, is Aziraphale.
(note on the flaming sword: in some traditions --Eastern Orthodox, for example-- it is held that upon Christ's death and resurrection, the flaming sword gave up it's post and vanished from Eden for good. By these sensibilities, the removal of the sword signifies the redemption and salvation of man.
...Put a pin in that. We're coming back to it.)
So, we have our pair. The Serpent and the Sword, introduced at the beginning and the end (ha) of the very same chapter of Genesis.
But here's the important bit, the bit that's not immediately obvious, the bit that nonetheless encapsulates one of the central themes, if not THE central theme, of Good Omens:
The Sword was never intended to guard Eden while Adam and Eve were still in it.
Do you understand?
The Sword's function was never to protect them. It doesn't even appear until after they've already fallen. No... it was to usher Adam and Eve from the garden, and then keep them out. It was a threat. It was a punishment.
The flaming sword was given to be used against them.
So. Again. We have our pair. The Serpent and the Sword: the inception and the consequence of original sin, personified. They are the one-two punch that launches mankind from paradise, after Hell lures it to destruction and Heaven condemns it for being destroyed. Which is to say that despite being, supposedly, hereditary enemies on two different sides of a celestial cold war, they are actually unified by one purpose, one pivotal role to play in the Divine Plan: completely fucking humanity over.
That's how it's supposed to go. It is written.
...But, in Good Omens, they're not just the Serpent and the Sword.
They're Crowley and Aziraphale.
(author begins to go insane from emotion under the cut)
In Good Omens, humanity is handed it's salvation (pin!) scarcely half an hour after losing it. Instead of looming over God's empty garden, the sword protects a very sad, very scared and very pregnant girl. And no, not because a blameless martyr suffered and died for the privilege, either.
It was just that she'd had such a bad day. And there were vicious animals out there. And Aziraphale worried she would be cold.
...I need to impress upon you how much this is NOT just a matter of being careless with company property. With this one act of kindness, Aziraphale is undermining the whole entire POINT of the expulsion from Eden. God Herself confronts him about it, and he lies. To God.
And the Serpent--
(Crowley, that is, who wonders what's so bad about knowing the difference between good and evil anyway; who thinks that maybe he did a GOOD thing when he tempted Eve with the apple; who objects that God is over-reacting to a first offense; who knows what it is to fall but not what it is to be comforted after the fact...)
--just goes ahead and falls in love with him about it.
As for Crowley --I barely need to explain him, right? People have been making the 'didn't the serpent actually do us a solid?' argument for centuries. But if I'm going to quote one of them, it may as well be the one Neil Gaiman wrote ficlet about:
"If the account given in Genesis is really true, ought we not, after all, to thank this serpent? He was the first schoolmaster, the first advocate of learning, the first enemy of ignorance, the first to whisper in human ears the sacred word liberty, the creator of ambition, the author of modesty, of inquiry, of doubt, of investigation, of progress and of civilization." --Robert G. Ingersoll
The first to ask questions.
Even beyond flattering literary interpretation, we know that Crowley is, so often, discreetly running damage control on the machinations of Heaven and Hell. When he can get away with it. Occasionally, when he can't (1827).
And Aziraphale loves him for it, too. Loves him back.
And so this romance plays out over millennia, where they fall in love with each other but also the world, because of each other and because of the world. But it begins in Eden. Where, instead of acting as the first Earthly example of Divine/Diabolical collusion and callousness--
(other examples --the flood; the bet with Satan; the back channels; the exchange of Holy Water and Hellfire; and on and on...)
--they refuse. Without even necessarily knowing they're doing it, they just refuse. Refuse to trivialize human life, and refuse to hate each other.
To write a story about the Serpent and the Sword falling in love is to write a story about transgression.
Not just in the sense that they are a demon and an angel, and it's ~forbidden. That's part of it, yeah, but the greater part of it is that they are THIS demon and angel, in particular. From The Real Bible's Book of Genesis, in the chapter where man falls.
It's the sort of thing you write and laugh. And then you look at it. And you think. And then you frown, and you sit up a little straighter. And you think.
And then you keep writing.
And what emerges hits you like a goddamn truck.
(...A lot of Pratchett reads that way. I believe Gaiman when he says Pratchett would have been happy with the romance, by the way. I really really do).
It's a story about transgression, about love as transgression. They break the rules by loving each other, by loving creation, and by rejecting the hatred and hypocrisy that would have triangulated them as a unified blow against humanity, before humanity had even really got started. And yeah, hell, it's a queer romance too, just to really drive the point home (oh, that!!! THAT!!!)
...I could spend a long time wildly gesturing at this and never be satisfied. Instead of watching me do that (I'll spare you), please look at this gif:
I love this shot so much.
Look at Eve and Crowley moving, at the same time in the same direction, towards their respective wielders of the flaming sword. Adam reaches out and takes her hand; Aziraphale reaches out and covers him with a wing.
You know what a shot like that establishes? Likeness. Commonality. Kinship.
"Our side" was never just Crowley and Aziraphale. Crowley says as much at the end of season 1 ("--all of us against all of them."). From the beginning, "our side" was Crowley, Aziraphale, and every single human being. Lately that's around 8 billion, but once upon a time it was just two other people. Another couple. The primeval mother and father.
But Adam and Eve die, eventually. Humanity grows without them. It's Crowley and Aziraphale who remain, and who protect it. Who...oversee it's upbringing.
Godfathers. Sort of.
I work with primarily men and it makes them so uncomfortable when I am better than them at something. It makes me feel like I need to be smaller in order to make them more comfortable.
You know what really hit me hard in the Barbie movie?
That scene at the beginning where Barbie goes around her normal day, at the president's office, at the court, at the nobel prize ceremony...
All the Barbies, when being complimented on their achievements, being told they're doing an awesome job, when they, themselves, talk about their work and what they've achieved...
None of them doubt it. None of them are awkwardly trying to go 'oh it was very hard, I had help, it wasn't that important..."
No. Instead, they own it. They are confident. They know their value, they are not afraid to say 'I am good at what I do. I wrote an excellent book. I am great at being President of Barbieland. I am strong. I am a doctor and very good at my job. I am a lawyer and me showing feelings and empathy does not diminish my work in any way."
That scene actually hit me even harder than Gloria's speech. Because how often have I been hesitant to say I have done a good job, how often have I done my best to tone down my achievements because I didn't want to be seen as bragging, because I myself wasn't even sure it was that good, because I never think it's good enough?
Too often.
I'm going to try and work on that. Because I am badass, and I write good stories, and I deserve to be proud of them.
Because I AM good enough.
My favorite genre of buddy comedy
The Green brothers make me feel okay. Like I can do this, even if it’s harder for me than it is for other people
i know people make these kinds of posts with fictional characters a lot but like. hank green truly is one of The Most Guys Ever. like. he's one of the earliest youtubers who is still on there. he's a 43-year-old tiktok star. he's a science educator. he got cancer and his response was to make a tier list of the press's coverage of his cancer announcement. the president of the united states sent him a message of support and he told the president that he was pissing out the cancer. years earlier he was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis and his response was to write a polka song about it. he created vidcon. he's the ceo of a company that produces a shitton of educational series (well, not acting ceo at the moment due to the aforementioned cancer). his guitar says "this machine pwns n00bs" on it. he invented 2D glasses. one of his earliest videos to get popular was about animal sex. between him and his brother, he was known as "the science one" (or "the music one") while his brother was "the writer one," and then he wrote two new york times bestselling novels. his most controversial opinion is that butt is legs. he's done so many things that there is a website dedicated to counting the number of days since he started a new thing. he and his brother use their internet following to (among other things) fight maternal/infant mortality in sierra leone. he has a baked bean furby. hes even bisexual
Manic pixie dream girl with emphasis on the manic
Barbie (2023) ✦ Dir. Greta Gerwig
I agree but I wish there had been more emphasis on the fact that patriarchy wasn’t good for the kens and that matriarchy isn’t good for the Barbies. It is present throughout the movie but they undo it by ending the movie basically where they started. Only the main Barbie and Ken are really different in terms of their outlooks.
So many thoughts on the fabulous Barbie film, but especially on how anyone who thinks it’s “hateful towards men” clearly isn’t getting the message.
SPOILERS UNDER THE CUT
[Credit for both gifs goes to their makers!!]
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I started crying about here and then continued for the rest of the movie
“It is literally impossible to be a woman. You’re so beautiful and so smart. And it kills me you don’t think you’re good enough. Like we have to always be extraordinary. But somehow we’re always doing it wrong. You have to be thin, but not too thin, and you can never say you want to be thin. You have to say you want to be healthy, but also you have to be thin! You have to have money, but you can’t ask for money, because that’s crass. You have to be a boss, but you can’t be mean. You have to lead, but you can’t squash other people’s ideas. You’re supposed to love being a mother, but don’t talk about you kids all the damn time. You have to be a career woman but also always be looking out for other people. You have to answer for men’s bad behavior which is insane but if you point that out you’re accused of complaining. You’re supposed to stay pretty for men but not so pretty that you tempt them too much or that you threaten other women because you’re supposed to be a part of the sisterhood but always stand out and always be grateful. But never forget that the system is rigged so find a way to acknowledge that but also always be grateful. You have to never get old. Never be rude. And never show off. Never be selfish, never fall down, never fail, never show fear, never get out of line. It’s too hard! It’s too contradictory! And nobody gives you a medal or says thank you! And it turns out in fact that not only are you doing everything wrong but also everything is your fault! I’m just so tired of watching myself and every single other woman tie ourselves into knots so that people will like us.” -Gloria (America Ferrera, BARBIE)
I’ve seen people complain about Gwen saying to her dad “you’re a good cop” but I don’t think they understand what that scene actually means. Gwen’s dad is supposed to represent the “good cop”. It’s like Gwen says: he puts on that badge everyday so someone worse than him doesn’t. Pre Gwen’s reveal, he SEEMS like a good person, advocating for bringing peter’s killer to justice. But then he finds out, and in that moment, values the law over his teenage daughter. He even shows it in their reconciliation scene, even after not seeing his daughter for MONTHS, by arguing against Gwen being a vigilante despite the all the good shes done. When Gwen says “you’re a good cop,” she’s not saying “youre a good person” or “youre a good dad”. She’s saying “youre a BAD person. You’re a BAD dad. you value the law over my life, no matter what I do. You’re willing to sacrifice me for what you assume is the greater good, but it’s not even that.”
So he decides not be a good cop anymore.
i Love vaccines, autism, abortions, homosexuals, sex changes and crime
That moment when you qualify for Mensa but have a 9th grade reading level
I used to hate the word faggot but now I realize that it's probably one of the only things that the gay community has left that isn't being sanitized, shined, and sold back to us at a premium by deceitful ass companies who claim to like us but then vote for policies that kill us. you're not gonna see a bank in a pride parade with banners that say "we love faggots" but you sure as hell will see a gay person saying "I love being a faggot" it feels so more real.
and I want it to stay controversial too because if a bank ever feels like they have the right to say "haha faggot right guys? 😏🏳️🌈" we should be able to publicly execute their ceo
so ya wanna know about autism: masterpost
I give this google doc link out to individuals a lot, and realized it might be useful for a lot of people if i shared it more widely. It’s a masterpost of a whole bunch of Autistic Stuff – here’s the link to the actual doc, but i’ll also post it all here on tumblr (under a readmore after the table of contents).
(edit: if the hyperlinks aren’t working for you, here’s the google doc url that you can copy and paste into an internet browser to access everything: https://docs.google.com/document/d/16BqhRv4IlZ6KcElGAEZOx8sFYwRs4W1jF-ddY_XKYnE/edit?usp=sharing )
Please spread it around (including sharing the google doc link outside of tumblr wherever you want). Feel free to comment with more resources, tumblr posts, articles, etc. that you find helpful! And if any links are broken, let me know.
It can be a major challenge for adult autistic folks to find content for us and by us, because so much “official” content is 1) ableist and harmful and 2) geared towards parents of autistic children. So I’ve compiled just about every resource I’ve got that discusses autism by and for #actuallyautistic folks.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
- ORGANIZATIONS AND SELF ADVOCATES
- DEFINING AND DESCRIBING AUTISM
misc.
Metaphors and images for autism
Disability models
Issues with Functioning Labels, ideas of “Mild” - “Severe” autism
- AUTISM AND INTERSECTIONALITY
misc.
Autism among women
Autism and race
Autism and LGBTQ
- STUFF ON SELF DIAGNOSIS
misc.
Is it ADHD or Autism??
Tests / checklists
- STUFF ON PROFESSIONAL DIAGNOSIS
- AUTISTIC PRIDE / CULTURE AND HISTORY!
misc.
Autism / disability history and culture
The Neurodiversity Movement
Person first vs. identity first language
Cureism
- AUSTITIC TRAITS (BEYOND THE ONES COMMONLY DISCUSSED!)
Misc. - samefoods, lists, needing to know what to expect, etc.
Stimming
Communication stuff - misc. - Verbal/nonverbal - Infodumping - echolalia - Prosopagnosia - Aphasia - Eye contact
Special interests / hyperfixations
Auditory Processing Disorder
Sensory issues / Sensory Processing Disorder
Meltdowns and Shutdowns and Burnout
Executive function
Emotion stuff
- MASKING / PASSING / SCRIPTING
- WHY AUTISM SPEAKS AND ABA ARE SO BAD
- MISCELLANEOUS
Suicide
Allyship / for allistics - For parents of autistic persons
More non-speaking autistic self-advocates
misc.
_________________
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It drives me crazy whenever I see “judeochristian” being used to refer to something which is not Jewish at all. Jews and Christians aren’t the same religion.
Today in fighting Christian hegemony, a non-exclusive list of some concepts Christians/culturally Christian people seem to think Judaism and Christianity agree on that they don’t:
1. Original Sin
2. What it means to be “chosen”
3. Sin/Chet
4. Dualistic afterlife
5. Charity/Tzedakah
6. Monotheism
7. Meaning of the Tanakh
8. Theism
9. Blasphemy
10. “The world to come”
11. What “religion” means
This is absolutely my new response to this question
"ok but are you diagnosed" what are you a cop.
Fuck it I'm bored so here's a ranking of different Peter Parkers by how Jewish they are
Dead last, obviously, is MCU!Peter Parker. This version of Peter is the farthest from comic canon to the point of being almost unrecognizable at times. Also, Tom Holland answered the question "is peter parker Jewish" in a Wired Autocomplete Interview a while back with a very baffled "no", cementing him forever as my sworn enemy. So he's actually the only peter parker who, at least by word of God, is canonically NOT Jewish. -1000000/10
Next up is Tobey Maguire's Peter Parker. I think this Peter is... fine, at least he's much closer to comic canon than MCU!Peter, but honestly that's not saying much considering how far the MCU strayed from comic canon or even the spirit of comic canon. But like overall, Sam Raimi's movies just aren't particularly interested in presenting Peter as Jewish, so, eh. 1/10
By far the most Jewish of live action Peters is TASM!Peter, also by far the most comic accurate of live action Peters. I'd be remiss not to mention the fact that Andrew Garfield is Jewish, and he understands the character so fucking well. He stated on record that he played Peter as Jewish and that he sees Spider-Man as an inherently Jewish character:
However, the Webb movies still do not textually define him as Jewish, and the best parts of Andrew's Peter's Jewish subtext are better when viewed in light of the comics. Overall, 6.5/10
Next up is the original, our beloved comic book Peter, pictured here saying Happy Hanukkah in a panel from Matt Fraction's Hawkeye. Comic Peter is one of the most heavily Jewish coded comics characters of all time, which is saying something considering how Jewish comic books are as a medium. Obviously he was created and often written and drawn by Jewish writers and artists, but beyond that his driving ethos and values are incredibly Jewish, and as a bonus he's constantly sprinkling Yiddish and Jewish phrases into his speech, alongside things like the above panel where he outright acknowledges Jewish culture in a scene where everyone else is saying merry Christmas. However, despite the extremely heavy coding, Marvel Comics are fucking cowards, and he has yet to be confirmed Jewish, so I must give him a measly 8/10.
Finally, the cream of the crop, the most Jewish of all Peter Parkers, Into the Spider-Verse's Peter B. Parker my beloved!!! Peter B. is voiced by Jake Johnson, himself a Jewish actor, and is a phenomenally accurate representation of comic book canon - but he also has the unique quality of being canonically, textually, in the actual movie Jewish! It's a bit of a blink and you'll miss it scene, but when we get introduced to Peter B. in his "one more time" segment, we see his wedding to MJ, where he steps on a glass. This is a Jewish minhag - custom - meant to represent the destruction of our Temple and Jerusalem, as well as remind us that sorrow and joy come intertwined, and is one of my personal favorite Jewish customs. It's a phenomenal moment in the best Spider-Man movie, and while this version of Peter would have been my favorite film version regardless, his Jewishness absolutely pushes him even further up. 13/10, no complaints
Identity is complicated, especially in the world we live in. Every time you try to make a generalization, it will fail.
"queer spaces are for everyone but cis men! safe spaces include everyone but cis men!"
okay
that will require stealth trans men to out themselves in order to receive help
that will require closeted trans women to out themselves in order to receive help
that will require nonbinary people who don't ""look nonbinary"" because they look too masculine to out themselves in order to receive help
it will also alienate transfems & trans people who were AMAB who haven't realized they're trans yet from spaces that could provide them a safe place to explore gender & sexuality and be introduced to the idea of being trans
trans people are eventually going to get uncomfortable with your hatred for cis men, because people who were AMAB are gonna wonder if you secretly hate them for being "actually men" and trans mascs are gonna wonder if you hate them for being men at all
people attracted to cis men are going to feel uncomfortable when they try and bring up their love for men including cis men or bring their cis boyfriends/partners/friends to your spaces
there are cis queer men & queer men who blur the lines between cis and trans and they have just as much a right to queer spaces as you do
^ intersex men also exist including intersex cis men
there is never going to be a group of people who it is alright to blindly hate just because of circumstances of their birth or identity and every time you try you are going to end up hurting people. embrace compassion and nuance
Having people accept and accommodate my autism is the best feeling. I love finding a quiet corner to sit in with my other autistic friends, but when it’s neurotypical friends, it means even more. They aren’t doing this for them, but only for me. I used to (and often still do) think of myself as less than because of my autism and other mental illness, but this helps me remind me that I’m not. Yes, I’m disabled but that doesn’t make me weird or worse.
can you infodump to me? (i love you) is this overwhelming? (i love you) is this the right texture? (i love you) is it ok to touch you? (i love you) do you want the subtitles on? (i love you) do you want to go somewhere less noisy? (i love you)
Calling myself a dyke helped me accept that I’m a lesbian. It was a way for me to face the fact that I am everything I was taught as a child not to be; I am everything I was taught that’s wrong. “So what if I am that?” is exactly right.
christ i'm actually seeing people insist that dyke is not a slur now as if that's a necessary justification for wlw to be able to say it? why are people so fucking terrified of what reclamation actually means? the point isn't to make a weapon used against you so meaningless that target feels safe to sell it back to you on a shirt, it is transgressive and shocking to say "so what if i am that? i am the words that have been the last thing people have fucking heard before being bashed". don't insert yourself into a words history and then deny its weaponization, WIELD IT against your oppressors!!
A thing we could do better this Pride month: In quick summaries of queer histories, do not toss in a throw away line about how “lesbians took care of gay men dying of aids”.
Lesbians were also getting hiv/aids and dying from it and taking care of themselves and their community.
Women faced extra challenges when they got sick, because the CDC ignored symptoms seen mostly in women in their aids definition and locked women with aids out of lifesaving disability benefits. Trans women faced additional challenges on top of that and fought additional battles to get access to health care and disability benefits.
Lesbians were central to ACT UP, planning and participating in many daring direct actions in the fight for hiv/aids health care, and they brought with them years of experience from feminist activism around health care. Lesbians were on the front line in EVERY SINGLE big action around hiv/aids health care.
Lesbian hiv/aids history should not be reduced to nursing gay men. I love every lesbian that did that, nursing matters so much and they are all heroes. But this can not be the only story we tell. Lesbians are not supportive characters in gay men’s history.
Therapy is just paying someone with a degree to tell you things that would be obvious if you weren’t mentally ill
Reblog to have something lgbt happen to you this summer
tumblr is the abyss and I really need it to not stare back
Maybe if I cared any more or any less, then things would change. But I care the same amount, in the same way. Things stay the same.