W K

Body doubling yessssss

Look there is nothing hotter and more terrifying than someone who can leave a bruise with a big goofy grin on their face.

So like, that’s the Bad Take version of that. I think what’s true, though, is that it’s a good idea to sit with the desire to follow these beauty standards and unpack — inside your own heart, for yourself, where no one can tell you the answers except you — what they mean to you and why.

I believe that is what kids these days call “girl dinner”.

…though if you are trans, the doctor might also use the word “technically” in a way where it’s difficult to parse which part of the msm equation is meant to be a technicality.

A thing I learned today: if you are slightly too old to have received the HPV vaccine, but are a man who has sex with men, the NHS might still give you a jab!

That feeling when your employer insists on asserting their commitment to inclusion by suggesting that trans staff should talk to a trusted colleague about our feelings or call a crisis helpline, while refusing to provide a list of the locations of sex-neutral toilets that already exist on campus…

When my step-niece was 7 she asked me “were Native Americans real?” and I had to be like… “yes, they ARE.” I was maybe 16 at the time and it kinda radicalised me.

Good news: you do!

Does your local hospital system have an advice line you can call? They might be able to tell you whether or when you need to go in.

As a linguist, I second this motion with my whole heart.

One thing that’s great about singular they is watching the gears grinding in people’s heads as they try to figure out whether I’m being coyly bisexual, flagrantly polyamorous, dating a nonbinary person, or all three.

Some people start and it’s like ✨bam✨ instant transformation— for others it’s a slow burn that takes years and is hard to notice until you look back and say “oh dang, I *have* come a long way”. You can also talk to your doctor (or another doctor!) about adjusting the regimen/dose.

A picture of a package of Marshmallow Peeps, but Photoshopped to say "Pepys." The peeps visible through the packaging are wearing curly old-style wigs. The package explains that it contains "10 diarists." Here's the deal: I only know two things about Samuel Pepys: 1. His name is pronounced like "peeps" 2. He was a famous diarist. That's the only motivation I needed to make this stupid thing as an Easter joke, and I will post it every year on Easter until long after the joke has worn off.

The reason for the season:

I have made it a rhetorical strategy to present this in an extremely matter-of-fact way, using the same tone I use to explain the Bernoulli effect and harmonics and categorical perception of voice onset time, because it is simply what you need to know to interpret average differences in pitch.

In several of my classes, I teach about the complexity of “biological sex” in the context of vocal tract anatomy and the resulting effects on speech production and perception, and I don’t know what else to do now except double the fuck down on that part of those lectures.

Toes?

The law determines what is legal. It does not determine what is true; what is just; what is morally and ethically sound and defensible. The history of law is the history of the legal system being wrong on these grounds.

Trans women are women.

If there’s also a steam powered vibrator in the mix, sign me the hell up.

"Helpless is a shitty feeling. But it is not forever, and it doesn't make you any less capable." Jett Reno, Star Trek: Discovery

Absolutely, right down to the taunting flirtation with the ostensibly straight very serious lead…

It is called the Globe Garden

Oh cool yes just what we needed a repeat of the nutmeg wars

Look, Keiko is tired of always having to be the one bringing Kira to orgasm twice before supper. Does she have to do EVERYTHING around here.

YES I think about this a lot about the discourse around attempting to work from within the system vs agitating from outside it — we need both. We need all of it. We need to try every conceivable fucking angle and triangulate them however we can.

I don’t know why people have such a hard time with the concept of “it meant one thing to me then, and it means a different thing to me now”. Understanding media isn’t like a fucking quiz you do better on, it’s an emulsion of Self and text. There is no correct answer, only mayonnaise.

Or, failing that, I hope they at least remember to ask “what test did this study use, and was it appropriate for the subject population?”

And maybe I sound a little unhinged telling them that an entire research area is fundamentally flawed, but I can only hope that my persistent agnosticism around big theoretical divides in the field lends a bit more credibility to my full throated denouncement of the deficit model.

Like yes I will absolutely talk about the relationship between the development of IQ tests and Eugenics, but then I take a literal step to the side and make a little dividing gesture and explain how an aggregate score does not provide sufficient detail about specific cognitive processes.

I get a little amped up about some things when I teach about neurodiversity and language, but I try to include enough delimitation that even students who aren’t on board with anticapitalist disability justice can still understand why concepts like mental age are scientifically counterproductive.