Pandora Parrot @pandora_parrot@beach.city

Trans guys are amazing

Periodic reminder that @alt_text is amazing and fantastic!

The reason I was thinking about that "little devil on my shoulder" that I was talking about one thread ago is that I'm writing a song kinda sorta from its perspective? Here's what I've got so far. #music

Explaining its ideas to others is hard, because despite their frequently utterly absurd nature, it's constantly nagging at me and distracting me.

It really is like a little voice that's just sitting there, constantly nattering about how much everyone hates me.

It's SO EXHAUSTING. I'm almost constantly dealing with this in every situations and it's so tiring. Constantly having to ignore that voice or tell it to be quiet.

The things it comes up with can be so ridiculously silly too. Like it'll notice that a partner spends a lot of time as little spoon when we cuddle/snuggle and decide that they must do that because they don't want to look at me cuz I'm gross.

Like WTF.

There is a little paranoid delusional devil that sits on my shoulder and constantly constantly CONSTANTLY tells me all the ways in which people obviously hate me/dislike me/are disgusted with me.

It studies every situation, every interaction, ever micro-action... And in so doing, finds every possible way to suggest that a person doesn't actually like me/etc.

Of course we decided never to go back to that hotel!

God that was a weird dream, though it was nice to dream about @AzureHusky

Had a dream about @AzureHusky last night. We were on some sort of date with a bunch of other people. It was some sort of holiday like lunary new year or 4th of July, with fireworks, and Blue had never seen fireworks before (in the dream). She got scared when they started going off like the adorable doggo she is.

Later, after we took a shower together along with like everyone else in our hotel (???) we discovered our hotel had a TERFy "gender critical" sign.

My brain is odd

Yes

I love how many queer folks in my circle identify with the idea of being a monster. As a monster of sorts, I approve.

I think it’s really important to be aware of these sorts of higher level social dynamics when challenging someone’s language. To recognize when it’s emphasizing or enforcing existing cultural norms, or when it’s going into another culture and telling them how they should speak.

The details and nuances of that can dramatically alter the implications and ethics of the action, I think.

Like, it makes a lot of sense to police the language of an oppressor culture when that language is used as a tool of oppression. It makes less sense when the communities are not necessarily aligned around axes of social power like that.

Like how US west coast and east coast LGBT folks can have different values on the reclamation of the word “queer”. Or how “top” and “bottom” are defined. Etc.

I really want to write an essay on how certain kinds of language policing can take on elements of cultural imperialism. Specifically when people encounter folks from other cultures and judge their individual language choices on the basis of cultural values that they don’t share. Specifically when there isn’t an inherent/existing power imbalance between the clashing cultures.