Karamelldiamant - Kadia

Out of curiosity, if you could make one change to ao3, what would it be?

I'd want:

Change character tags to "MAJOR character" tags and relationship tags to "Relevant relationship" tags to prevent overtagging

Have authors have to click a box stating that their work is actually in line with ao3 terms of service and not a find a fic.

Ban DNI tags because they are against the spirit of the site. Its an archive. Not how it works.

You know, Hitler was obviously a big douche for what he did to the Jews. I think history would judge him differently, however, if he had just narrowed his focus to trannies. I could get behind that sort of thing.

Ok, wow. Yeah. I'm gonna go with wow.

So you know how I have this thing where I respond to anon hate with interesting historical facts? Yeah, that thing. See, that thing works because normally I get anon hate that's directed at me specifically. So I can brush it off and give y'all interesting history and everybody wins except the person insulting me.

But this isn't like that. I mean, sure, this is horrifically offensive to me, since I'm both Jewish and trans. But it's not just hatred towards me; it's hatred towards every other trans or Jewish person.

So, after some thought (by which I mean staring at the ceiling and saying "what the fuck" for several minutes and then cuddling my dogs for a while), I've decided to address the situation as follows:

Instead of me providing an interesting historical fact to make this anon feel exactly as pointless and irrelevant as they are, I'm throwing this thread open to every trans or Jewish follower who wants to add some historical facts. They can be facts about trans things, or Jewish things, or facts about bylaws or bog bodies or bridge construction. Whatever you want. If you're trans or Jewish or both, add some facts.

I'll start:

The Talmud (for those of you who don't know, the Talmud is a collection of Jewish legal commentary, opinions, and rulings and is essentially a guidebook to Jewish law and practice and also the Jewish tendency to argue over every goddam thing) recognizes 6 distinct gender categories.

The first two are the classic male and female (zachar and nekevah is Hebrew). But after that, it gets interesting.

The next gender category is "androginus," a word borrowed from Greek. It describes someone who has both male and female characteristics. After much argument, the Talmud more or less concludes that a person in this category is obligated to perform some male religious duties and some female religious duties, and that the details are determined by individual context. For instance, an androginus may or may not be alone with women (something a woman may do and a man may not), depending on the person and the precise situation. Essentially, in modern terms, an androginus is analogous to a bigender person.

Then, there's the tumtum. I know that sounds ridiculous in English, but I promise it's a totally normal sounding word in Hebrew. Tumtumim (yeah, that's the plural, and again, I promise it doesn't sound silly in Hebrew) are people whose gender characteristics are unclear in some way. A tumtum is different from an androginus because an androginus is acknowledged to inhabit multiple genders, while a tumtum has only one gender, but that gender is uncertain to observers. In modern terms, the tumtum might be analogous to someone whose gender presentation is ambiguous or who is questioning their gender.

The last two categories are the saris and the ay'lonit. A saris is a person who is identified as male at birth, but develops female characteristics later in life. An ay'lonit is the exact reverse (an afab person developing male characteristics later). These terms are generally understood to refer to intersex people, but there is an interesting exception. A saris can be someone who had a penis but who had it removed for some reason. This means that the status of saris (and that of ay'lonit by extension) can include those whose gender is altered by choice. So, saris and ay'lonit can apply, in modern terms, to both certain categories of intersex people and to binary trans people.

I personally know of multiple Jewish trans people who have started using some of these terms to describe themselves, and I love it. Would the rabbis of the 1st through 8th century recognize the way we use these terms now? Probably not. But hey, I don't need their permission, because:

For this commandment which I command you this day, is not concealed from you, nor is it far away.... it is very close to you; it is in your mouth and in your heart, so that you can fulfill it. (Devarim 30: 11-14)

a list of takes that tumblr apparently cant handle:

1. calling someone by a label that they dont identify with is harmful

2. men can be abused too, not just women and gnc

3. asexual people are valid and deserve representation

[Image Description: Tag reading “There was a Mail Theft tag here but it was stolen before it arrived”]

The AO3 Tag of the Day is: That sudden exhale from the nose that we all pretend is equivalent to a belly laugh for some reason

I wonder if, in superhero universes, the villains ever get contacted by those “Make a Wish Foundation” and similar people.

I mean, the heroes do, of course they do, kids who want to meet Spiderman or Superman or get to be carried by the Flash as he runs through Central City for just thirty seconds.

But surely there are also the kids, who - because they are kids and sometimes kids are just weird - decide that what they really, really want is to meet a supervillain. Because he’s scary or she’s awesome or that freeze ray is just really, really cool, you know?

the joy of AuDHD and executive dysfunction 😅

anybody else in the club feeling this one

We're looking into some issues that are causing 503 errors for some folks, please stand by!

Posted: November 17, 2024, 11:15 UTC

Reblog if its ok to spam you with boops

In response to the reactions I’ve seen to #EndOTWRacism

Four things that can, actually, co-exist:

1.) being anti-censorship

2.) writing extremely kinky, fucked up idfic

3.) being a longtime lover and supporter of AO3

4.) supporting the End OTW Racism initiative

There are only four things the End OTW Racism initiative is asking for right now.

ASK ONE:

Harassment policies that can be regularly updated to address both on-site harassment and off-site coordinated harassment of AO3 users, with updated protocols for the Policy & Abuse Team to ensure consistent and informed resolutions of abuse claims

If the inclusion of “off-site coordinated harassment of AO3 users” upsets you, try one of the following:

1.) consider the idea that a person should be able to submit evidence of off-site harassment in conjunction with reports of on-site harassment, or

2.) go to the final thought at the bottom of this post.

ASK TWO:

A content policy on abusive (extremely racist and extremely bigoted) content; by abusive, we are talking about fanworks that are intentionally used to spread hate and harassment, not those that accidentally invoke racist or other bigoted stereotypes

Say it louder for the people in the back: “we are talking about fanworks that are intentionally used to spread hate and harassment, NOT those that accidentally invoke racist or other bigoted stereotypes.”

(If you believe removing works that harass actual human beings is the same thing as censorship, you’ll need to engage with someone who has far more spoons than I do.)

ASK THREE:

Hiring a Diversity Consultant within the next 3-6 months

How is this controversial?  It’s been THREE YEARS.

ASK FOUR:

Committing to a policy of transparency on this topic, with quarterly updates on the progress of these projects including challenges and their plan for overcoming those challenges. These quarterly updates should be published on OTW News page and newsletters, not solely discussed in Board meetings

This is not a big ask.  This is an important enough topic that one should not be forced to either attend the Board meetings or read the published Board minutes in order to receive an update.

Final thought:

Your beliefs do not have to perfectly align with a movement (nor every person within that movement) in order to support that movement.

And if you think they do, please consider how that works in real life. (It doesn’t; that’s how movements get divided.)

And perhaps also take a moment to appreciate the purity culture/purity wank implications. (“I only support things that are absolutely perfect!”)

This post is from May 18, 2023.  The End OTW Racism initiative referred to here is the planned two weeks of action from May 17 through May 31, 2023.

not to be a dick but imo the mcu will always be fundamentally unsatisfying to me compared to the comics in part bc of how much it lacked in avengers team development

like speaking as an iron man fan i will always be bitter that

1) tony stark didn’t qualify at first like um excuse me? tony stark was a founding member of this bitch in the comics like i do not Care for your ultimates inclinations, you could at least have had him unquestionably be part of the team from the get-go lmfao mcu miss me with this,

2) the fact that tony didn’t qualify at first not ever being addressed in any explicit way as a Tragic Mistake like. honestly i’m just mad tony had to Prove His Heroism ™ to be taken seriously when he’d already proven his heroism before plenty of times,

3) i know everyone digs being salty and petty these days but tbh the fact that “does steve even care about tony?” is even a topic of debate is just. Wrong. i do not give a flying FUCK to who your notps and otps are i do not Care, what i care about is the mcu doing justice to the iron man legacy and steve and tony’s relationship is unquestionably one of the strongest and – yes – most passionate in the comics and let me tell you this WE WERE ROBBED OF ITS DEVELOPMENT,

4) the near non-existence of the general fucking concept of the avengers listening to tony and respecting what he has to say in times of crisis like lol. also the general concept of giving him the benefit of the doubt (like he was shown giving to thor while he’s arguing with steve during the aou log scene, like he’s implied to have done regarding wanda)???? yeah,

5) mcu you are honest to FUCKING GOD wasting the big trifecta (tony, thor, steve). you’re wasting them. you’re fucking wasting them @@@@ mcu for the love of fuck fix this. mcu where are my Big Three combo battle moves. mcu where’s thor lending himself as middle ground when tony and steve start arguing. mcu where’s tony and thor sharing the weight of their space experiences. mcu where’s my intense close-ups of thor, tony, and steve’s reactions when they see one another in danger during battles. mcu where’s steve’s “TONY, YOU GAVE ME A HOME” stuff. mcu where’s thor’s “tony you’re one of the most noble men i’ve ever known” stuff. mcu where’s tony’s “steve and thor, you’re my idea of higher power because of the things you inspire me to be” stuff. jesus christ we were ROBBED what a WASTE,

6) no visible captain america memorabilia rooms in tony’s towers/avengers facilities? *deep breath* FAAAAAAAAAAAKE,

7) (and before anyone hits me up like “but in the mcu tony has no reason to ever have been a cap fan bc of his dad” or whatever let me just tell you: a) my thoughts are way too 3D for that sort of black-and-whiteness but ok, regardless, b) if the price of sticking howard into mcu steve’s backstory was to finish the possibility of adult cap!fanboy tony actually like, welcoming steve to the team when steve wakes up in the present, then that was NEVER a price i was willing to pay),

8) natasha only called him shellhead in a movie that was So Bad that we barely even got to register the fact that tony was called shellhead in the mcu. what sort of fucking CRIME

9) someone at some point has got to call him Golden Avenger or i’m gonna have to quit,

10) “stark” “rogers” yeah yeah i get it you’re emotionally stunted men hurr hurr durr whatever let tony call him STEVE to his face before i get even more pissed and start straight up demanding the comic canon GOOD MORNING BELOVED,

11) whatever twisted mcu bullshit has led people to conclude that the avengers – shining beacon of light in 616 tony’s life, his legacy, part of his family, his most passionate affair – is the most unhealthy unrewarding thing in mcu tony’s life like jesus christ THE AVENGERS WERE SUPPOSED TO BE TONY’S PRIDE AND JOY MCU WHY DID YOU DEPRIVE ME,

12) you seriously expect me to take an ENTIRE mcu tony run where he doesn’t wear a superhero logo (not his own) t-shirt AT LEAST ONCE? jesus