“you support gay rights so you must be gay”
i support animal rights do i look like a fucking alpaca to you
turns out i am gay
holy shit how’d this alpaca learn how to type
Diversity win! The alpaca is gay!
I actually have a note on my laptop specifically for marine creatures depicted on ancient vases that I update periodically with cool vases and their Information. Octopuses come up a lot bc they’re such frequent shield devices. Past me’s comment on this one was ‘another one of those octopuses that looks more like a sneeze.’
Apparently it’s currently in the collection of the National Museums Liverpool.
Lost interest in Zeus and Europe bc of this guy. Fucking amazing.
it's always a good day to complain about English speakers
Important addition: Maria Skłodowska-Curie was born during partitions, which means Poland didn’t exist, which means her insistence that she was Polish was a significant act of defiance against the occupation, which means that you should respect that instead of arguing that ‘well she had French citizenship’. She couldn’t have Polish citizenship despite being Polish, that’s kinda the point she was making by keeping her maiden name and naming a chemical element she discovered ‘Polonium’ .
HOW TO PRONOUNCE: Skłodowska
L with a dash through it (ł) makes a “W” sound. and W makes a “V” sound.
skwo-DOV-ska
Thank you for the pronounciation guide instead of the condescending guilt trip
passports…should not expire
actually i have decided that passports shouldn’t exist at all
i love it here
Me when I'm about to do a terrorism but I am stopped by a cop asking for my passport
The Classics mailing list is having another ‘how many languages should People know?’ discussion. (And it is actually a discussion this time! Not to jinx it But it has so far not descended into Oxbridge professors telling postgrad students that if they haven’t spent a year living abroad in specific European countries then they shouldn’t even be doing Classics).
And like, I’m never gonna contribute to that discussion on the mailing list because there is always the chance that you’ll set someone off and I genuinely cba to deal with that, but the discussion so far is missing actual practical solutions of any sort.
Here are some facts:
- Classics scholarship gets published in a lot of languages. It is absolutely the case that the majority of it is in a smaller group of languages.
- it would be super awesome and great if everyone was multilingual!
- Most scholars are not multilingual.
- difference circumstances make it more/less likely that someone will be fluent in a second language. This includes Country, school, class, etc.
- there is literally nothing to be gained from excluding people from the subject for not knowing more than one language.
- everyone would produce better scholarship if we could read everything written on the topic we’re researching.
- there are a not insignificant amount of instances in which something was published in a language other than English and then someone else comes along later and writes the same thing again but in English and it gets all the attention (and honestly leaves you wondering whether the author deliberately chose to ignore the non-English work bc srsly how do you write an entire fucking book and not be aware of someone else’s whole entire book on the same theme??)
- non-native English speakers are more likely to get papers rejected from English speaking journals.
- it is absolutely not reasonable to expect them to be spending so much of their time perfecting their knowledge of the foibles of English academic language.
- searching for Research is a skill. Knowing what terms to use and where to search is a skill. Knowing another language doesn’t actually mean you will be good at searching using that language.
- DeepL and even google translate are pretty good actually.
Here’s some thoughts:
Publishing: I’m currently co-editing a volume and I spent a lot of time working with one contributor bc it’s the first thing they’ve published in English. They’ve been a delight to work with. And honestly, yes, it has taken me more time to help them polish their chapter than for others, but it’s not even the chapter that’s taken the longest. Like, one of the chapters written by a native English speaker has been a way bigger headache for me.
I know everyone is overworked and underpaid and being asked to Peer Review Journal/Book submissions for free in their spare time, but also, some of us are very much happy to help others polish journal articles/chapters for free too. I’d rather do that than peer review shit, tbh.
Sure, in an ideal world we’d get paid for all this kind of work, but we do not live in an ideal world, other scholars can’t afford to pay us to do that and frankly, like, they shouldn’t have to be literally paying more money than others to stand a chance of getting published just because they’re having to write in a second/third/etc. language. Ideally universities or other bodies could fund that cost but whatever. No one is putting me in charge of a university budget anytime soon, so I’ll just be here helping people for free if they need it.
Language learning: I don’t care about what the ideal situation is. I care about what we can actually, usefully do. Sitting around complaining that universities should make x or y language mandatory is useless. And there will always be more languages that it would be useful to know.
What’s actually useful, and far easier to implement:
- teach people how to use DeepL and google translate. Get universities to *subscribe* to DeepL. Teach this as part of standard research methods. Make it clear even from undergrad that there is valuable scholarship available in other languages and that students are expected to Not Ignore It.
- resource share. What’s actually the best place to search for academic research on Y topic in X language? And what’s the word for X person/art style/literary genre in Y language? Even if someone wants to look at lit in different languages, they still have to know what to look for before they start.
- ??? Idk what to call this, but like, it would be really fuckin’ great if we could tag stuff in multiple languages. Like, it would be better if a user could search for, say ‘Iliad animal metaphors’ and have it turn up all Language results rather than having to run 10 different searches to cover a bunch of different languages (also see above, re: knowing how to successfully search is a language-specific skill). But without knowing how to fix that problem, we should still be sharing the knowledge of how to use translation tools + the best search engines per Language / area + reminding people ‘that ‘look up that term in X language dictionary and then search for that’ is something they should be doing.
Like, there are already tools at our disposal that should make cross-language scholarship easier for everyone. Whether you know one or five languages. We’re just shit at using them/teaching them.
widespread archaeological evidence suggests that many North Americans of this era acknowledged the existence of three genders: "men", "women", and "employees only"
The Romani people who were the easiest to record and exterminate were those who were the most integrated in society. Like the Jews, these people existed on census records, military rosters, and school files. The decimation of this Romani middle-class meant that there were few strong voices who were in a position to speak up about the Romani genocide after 1945.
There were no Sinti or Roma called to testify at the Nuremberg trials. There were no Romani scholars, no Romani lawyers, no civil servants. No one left to document the atrocities committed against Romani people alongside the Jews – the only two peoples specifically targeted by the Nazis’ Final Solution to ensure German racial purity.
Whereas census data for Jews can be compared before and after the Holocaust, this is rarely the case for Sinti and Roma, meaning the total loss of Romani life is extremely difficult to piece together. Estimates vary somewhere between 500,000 and 1.5 million people. In 1939, around 30,000 people referred to as ‘Gypsies’ lived in what is now Germany and Austria. The total population living in Greater Germany and its occupied territories is unknown, though scholars Donald Kenrick and Grattan Puxon have provided a rough estimate of 942,000. Of the Sinti and Roma living in Germanic Central Europe, only 5,000 are thought to have survived.
Please read this. Please share this. Please remember us.
The Six Sexes in Judaism
I've gotten quite a few comments and questions regarding the sex recognized sex categories in Jewish tradition, so here's a standalone education post on the matter.
In fields such as anthropology and archaeology, we approach interpreting historical concepts and events in a multifacted approach. It's not enough to have one line of evidence, there must be multiple. Stating that, we know that the six sexes refer to sexes, and not gender, through many ways:
-Historical tradition. The tradition of the six sexes is unbroken and is understand to refer to sexes, and not genders. Rabbinical discussions throughout history refer to these terms as sexes.
-Linguisitics. The etymology of these words are very explicitly referencing genitals and/or sex characteristics, not gender roles or identities. These are technical terms regarding tangible observed biology, not gender, which is a more intangible concept.
-Historical context. The society in which these terms were recorded had very specific gender roles. Laws regarding purity and reproduction were very specific and valued, and were connected to the biology a person had. Therefore, words to categorize groups of people with certain biology were needed so that in discussing legal and social debates, universal terms could be used.
The six sexes are:
Zachar (זכר)- perisex male. Person born with external male genitalia and developing typical male secondary sex characteristics at puberty. "Zachar" most likely comes from the etymology of "pierce", as in, "penetration."
Nekeva (נקבה)- perisex female. Person born with female genitalia and developing typical female secondary sex characteristics at puberty. The root of the word "Nekeva" comes from the Hebrew word for "cavity", so you can see how it's very focused on tangible sex characteristics, not gender.
Aylonit (אילונית)- Person born with female genitalia but who either doesn't develop secondary female characteristics or fertility, such as one someone who never begins to ovulate or who was born without or with reduced internal reproductive organs, or who develops typically "male" characteristics at puberty such as those characterized by intersex conditions that cause hyperandroginism. An Aylonit is still categorized as a woman according to Jewish law, "Aylonit" is in fact as a feminine word, literally meaning "female ram", in reference to the development of typically "male" characteristics upon puberty. According to Midrash Sarah the Matriarch was an Aylonit herself because she was born without a uterus, and the miracle was that G-d planted a uterus inside her later in life.
Saris (סריס)- Person born with external male genitalia but who either doesn't develop secondary male sex characteristics at puberty, such as one whose testes never descend or whose penis doesn't develop further or who is naturally sterile, or who develops typically "female" characteristics such as gynecomastia. A Saris Chamah (סריס חמה) is one who was born a Saris, and a Saris Adam (סריס אדם) is one who was castrated by another person or themself. A "Saris" is also a word meaning "eunuch", which was an enslaved person who was castrated as a punishment or part of some religious ritual. A Saris, whether born that way or made into a eunuch, is still categorized as a man according to Jewish law.
Androgenos (אנדרוגינוס)- A person born with a combination of male and female genitalia and who develops a combination of male and female secondary sex characteristics. An Androgenos is commonly translated as a h*rmaphrodite (this is a slur used against intersex people, so I'll only use it once for clarity). An Androgenos is described as being able to both ejaculate and experience menses, and is subject to both the Jewish laws pertaining to men and the Jewish laws pertaining to women. The word "Androgenos" is borrowed from Greek. An Androgenos is functionally treated in their own gender category according to Jewish law, because they are subject to unique laws regarding their sex, although they typically are treated as men in society.
TumTum "טמטום"- A person who was born with indeterminate genitals and sex characteristics. The word "TumTum comes from the Hebrew word for "concealed", in reference to the indeterminate nature of their genitals. A TumTum's gender status according to Jewish law varies depending on the law and on the person. They can be treated as either a man, a woman, or both.
***
These terms were extremely important and held a lot of weight for those in certain categories. Whether a person's body was determined to be that of a Saris or a TumTum, for example, would define what their gendered roles would be in society and whether they would be required to perform certain reproduction and purity based commandments. A Saris, for example, is determined to be still in the gender role of "Ish", a man, and would be classed as such. A TumTum, however, because of the observed characteristic of their body, would be in a much more difficult position of being exempt from certain gendered commandments, and obligated to do others. In a society valuing reproduction, a person's biological reality and how to classify them were extremely important.
What sex a person was classified as was extremely important in defining their ritual purity status. Whether someone's genital discharge was considered menstrual blood or ejaculate was dependent on their sex, and there are specific ritual purity laws for each. A person who discharges menstrual blood would have to wait seven days after the cessation of their menstruation and then bathe in a ritual bath before they'd be allowed to engage in sexual relations. A person who discharges ejaculate would only have to bathe in a ritual bath after the event to be allowed to engage in sexual relations.
In a culture very focused on reproduction and reproductive roles, defining someone's sex was extremely important.
These categories are extremely biology-based and medicalized. They are about someone's genitals and reproductive status, not their gender. Judaism at the time recognized the existence of cross-dressing and gender flexibility (even if it was frowned upon), and these categories have nothing to do with gender. The best way we know this is that it was forbidden to cross-dress, but the existence of intersex people was not considered forbidden (although they were subject to different laws depending on their category) because they cannot control how their body appears.
Nobody was having hormone therapy or sexual reassignment surgery in the ancient times. This is why there is no such thing as an "Aylonit Adam" (yes, you were lied too, if you thought this was a thing), because castration was something done in the ancient world, but hysterectomies certainly were not, at least not with any survival rate.
As a trans person myself, I do not even understand why perisex trans people would even want to identify with these terms. These are highly medicalized terms and refer to biology, not identity. They also do not change a person's gender assignment. An Aylonit is still in the gender of "Isha" (woman), so why a perisex trans man would want to identify with that category just because he's taken testosterone and/or gotten a hysterectomy is beyond me. A Saris is still in the gender of "Ish" (man), so I don't know why a perisex trans woman would want to identify with that category just because she's taken estrogen and/or gotten vaginoplasty. And TumTum and Androgenos are categories that are evident at birth. They refer to the state of a person's genitals at birth. Perisex nonbinary people are not intersex, they were assigned a specific sex of male or female depending on their genitals at birth. What their genitals look like in adulthood does not change their sex.
We all recognize that sex does not equal gender, so why is this misinformation still being spread that equates these sex-based terms to gender? That's going against everything trans and nonbinary liberation stands for!
Sources:
I'm just gonna keep reblogging this every time I see misinformation about this in Jumblr tags 🙄
Doctors are assholes until proven otherwise.
80 yr. old grandma and her crochet projects.
I don't believe it, I just found out that it's AI generated. Look at her fingers. So, she's fake, too?
https://www.forbes.com/sites/mattnovak/2023/07/29/viral-photo-of-giant-cat-crocheted-by-elderly-lady-is-actually-fake/
This doesn’t surprise me. The photo I saw was the all pink one where she’s sitting on the couch and apart from the fact that she was just a bit uncanny valley (‘bad photoshop’ vibe) the cat just like… where’s it’s back half? And the stitches on the chest are like, so loose. Which is the opposite of what you need for a thing you’re going to stuff.
sorry to say the worst thing in the world but it is a fact. no modern reception of persephone has made claims half as interesting when it comes to that myth and the relationship of heterosexual sex/marriage/reproduction to patriarchy as ovid did when he positioned proserpina's kidnap in the met as part of venus' project to end the eternal virginification of olympian goddesses
[image description: screenshots of tags. the first set, by magnvsmaximvs, read, "# venus' imperialism -> her role as the mother of the founder of rome & the patron goddess to several key players in furthering rome's power # and imperialistic identity."
the next, by hortensius, read, " # i've been saying. # like venus' imperialism is. infinitely compelling both for its historical context and what /we/ can make out of it."
the last, by medoisa, read, " # or as interesting as like. anything in the homeric hymn to demeter # also about the relationship between time and death and hetero-patriarchy as temporal structure # classics.]
thank you for pulling these tags out because i've been thinking about them all day, especially the sets on venus as imperial mother figure. my interest in the passage i reference in the original post springs from a very very long term project i've been trying to untangle about virginal huntress figures in the met, especially callisto, whose relationship to motherhood is fraught to say the least. at the risk of rehashing my thesis in its absolute entirety, i want to elaborate a little because this got me in a very Excited mood once ppl started pointing out the mother as imperial figure! can't figure out how to put this under a cut, so a big bold cw here for sexual violence, especially with a retaliatory nature against gender non-conformity. it also deals with one myth involving forced pregnancy after rape.
Lost interest in Zeus and Europe bc of this guy. Fucking amazing.
Unreasonably fascinated by how clean this janky-angled scan is.
Remarkable.
In general, I think it's currently really important for progressive Christians to be very loud about being both progressive and deeply religious Christians, and for everyone else fighting for progressive values to be supportive of them doing just that. I know that's like, idk, counter-intuitive or cringe or whatever, but seriously folks, the alternative is that progressive Christians have to be quiet about their faith to be accepted within broader secular and interfaith progressive advocacy, which means that the regressive asshole Christians (a) sound that much louder and (b) dominate the USian religious landscape all the more. That's a problem, for all of us.
We need people pushing back within the faith as well as outside of it, because that destroys any edifice that this is about Christianity and religious freedom.
You can be a devout Christian and also:
- Openly, proudly, and without being forced to remain celibate or otherwise limit your full expression of self, identify as LGBTQ+ or be a supportive ally.
- Advocate for full reproductive autonomy and comprehensive sex education.
- Love and support people of other religious groups, non-religious people and/or atheists, by choosing to believe that a truly loving God would not pursue anything less than universal salvation.
- Stand against evangelism and proselytizing as they have thus far been interpreted and used, because there are ways to interpret the Great Commission that don't promote colonialism and cultural genocide.
- A steward of the earth, protecting God's beautiful creation and lovingly tending to it as the unique and incredible gift that it is.
- A believer in science, rationalism, and human progress as part of God's divine plan for humanity.
- A believer in history and someone who understands that the Bible can be both divinely given and open to interpretation (no really)(if you're confused, please talk to a knowledgeable traditional Jew)
- An ally to Jews, who stands against supercessionism and antisemitism in the church.
And in before regressive Christians come shouting at me that (1) what do I know, I'm a Jew and (2) no lol you can't because of ___ reason:
My source is that I've personally met and talked to Christians of great faith and integrity - people who embody the closest forms of kindness I've seen to what Jesus himself advocated - who are each of these things.
It is 100% possible; you just choose to believe otherwise.
At this point I think it's time to start preaching and claiming the moral high ground here.
Right-wing evangelical Christians want you to think that they're the moral ones, when they EXPLICITLY defy the word of God. They routinely:
- Evade taxes intended to help the poor
- Oppress the foreigner
- Hoard wealth
- Hate their fellow in their hearts
- Destroy God's creation that they were entrusted to steward, intentionally and recklessly as well as carelessly
- Cast the first stone
- Preach idolatry through the prosperity gospel and the American cult of nationalism
- Sacrifice their children to Molech through encouraging a culture of gun violence
- Commit true sexual abominations, such as rape and pedophilia, and/or cover these things up or engage in apologetics
- Encourage actual child and spousal abuse while calling it "traditional family values"
- Oppress and demean women, when their main guy uplifted and valued women outside of marginal roles
- Smugly quote scripture to satisfy their bigotries and to benefit themselves without caring about the true message
- Fail to acknowledge God as the True Judge by substituting their prejudices for God's love and mercy
.......and plenty more. These are not just a few bad actors; this lifestyle is ENCOURAGED by this irresponsible and immoral cult. They are leading people astray into a life of sin and a culture of callous cruelty.
Is this the Christianity you want the world to know you by?
15 “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. 16 You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles? 17 Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. 18 A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. 19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20 Therefore by their fruits you will know them.
@yoshiofyellow lol we were talking about this last night
The Sheep and the Goats
31 “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne. 32 All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33 He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.
34 “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 35 For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36 I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’
37 “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38 When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39 When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’
40 “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’
41 “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 42 For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43 I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’
44 “They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’
45 “He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’
46 “Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”
Did a new wave of porn bot account things just start?
ITS SO MANY.
Send help.
I’m easily blocking over 40 a day honestly it’s just kinda bumming me out at this point. I don’t wanna open this app and find 15 new porn bots have started following me in the past couple of hours.
From what I understand from the article, it’s even rougher than normal content moderation: a lot of these workers were hired to train AIs like ChatGPT away from, well, all the worst that the web could provide, to detoxify it for the end users. They are specifically given the worst stuff that can be dredged up from the depths of the internet, and asked to label it - so that the AI can use that data to identify hatespeech, suicide ideation, racism, CSA, etc etc.
It’s an awful job, and some are paid less than $2 an hour. Workers have PTSD. Are they being offered counselling, support, compensation? Fuck no, they get punished for speaking up.
Good luck to the African Content Moderators Union, I hope they get the protections and compensation that their workers need.
how to find literally any post on a blog in seconds (on desktop)
there are so many posts about ~tumblr is so broken, you can’t find any post on your own blog, it’s impossible, bluhrblub~
I am here to tell you otherwise! it is in fact INCREDIBLY easy to find a post on a blog if you’re on desktop/browser and you know what you’re doing:
- url.tumblr.com/tagged/croissant will bring up EVERY post on the blog tagged with the specific and exact phrase #croissant. every single post, every single time. in chronological order starting with the most recent post. note: it will not find #croissants or that time you made the typo #croidnssants. for a tag with multiple words, it’s just /tagged/my-croissant and it will show you everything with the exact phrase #my croissant
- url.tumblr.com/tagged/croissant/chrono will bring up EVERY post on the blog tagged with the exact phrase #croissant, but it will show them in reverse order with the oldest first
- url.tumblr.com/search/croissant isn’t as perfect at finding everything, but it’s generally loads better than the search on mobile. it will find a good array of posts that have the word croissant in them somewhere. could be in the body of the post (op captioned it “look at my croissant”) or in the tags (#man I want a croissant). it won’t necessarily find EVERYTHING like /tagged/ does, but I find it’s still more reliable than search on mobile. you can sometimes even find posts by a specific user by searching their url. also, unlike whatever random assortment tumblr mobile pulls up, it will still show them in a more logically chronological order
- url.tumblr.com/day/2020/11/05 will show you every post on the blog from november 5th, 2020, in case you’re taking a break from croissants to look for destiel election memes
- url.tumblr.com/archive/ is search paradise. easily go to a particular month and see all posts as thumbnails! search by post type! search by tags but as thumbnails now
- url.tumblr.com/archive/filter-by/audio will show you every audio post on your blog (you can also filter by other post types). sometimes a little imperfect if you’re looking for a video when the op embedded the video in a text post instead of posting as a video post, etc
- url.tumblr.com/archive/tagged/croissant will show you EVERY post on the blog tagged with the specific and exact phrase #croissant, but it will show you them in the archive thumbnail view divided by months. very useful if you’re looking for a specific picture of a croissant that was reblogged 6 months ago and want to be able to scan for it quickly
- url.tumblr.com/archive/filter-by/audio/tagged/croissant will show you every audio post tagged with the specific phrase #croissant (you can also filter by photo or text instead, because I don’t know why you have audio posts tagged croissant)
the tag system on desktop tumblr is GENUINELY amazing for searching within a specific blog!
caveat: this assumes a person HAS a desktop theme (or “custom theme”) enabled. a “custom theme” is url.tumblr.com, as opposed to tumblr.com/url. I’ve heard you have to opt-into the former now, when it used to be the default, so not everyone HAS a custom theme where you can use all those neat url tricks.
if the person doesn’t have a “custom theme” enabled, you’re beholden to the search bar. still, I’ve found the search bar on tumblr.com/url is WAY more reliable than search on mobile. for starters, it tends to bring posts up in a sensible order, instead of dredging up random posts from 2013 before anything else
if you’re on mobile, I’m sorry. godspeed and good luck finding anything. (my one tip is that if you’re able to click ON a tag rather than go through the search bar, you’ll have better luck. if your mutual has recently reblogged a post tagged #croissant, you can click #croissant and it’ll bring up everything tagged #croissant just like /tagged/croissant. but if there’s no readily available tag to click on, you have to rely on the mobile search bar and its weird bizarre whims)
I reblogged this last month, tagged it, and said “might as well see if it works.” I used this video as a reference to find all the forms that i needed (which is A LOT, especially if you’re a dependent) and sent them through the mail, not really allowing myself to hope.
dude.
$2,714 of medical debt from my top surgery - gone. im shaking this was such a weight on me for 2 years and it fucking worked. what the fuck.
re-reblogging and thinking about when i have another collection agency calling that i can just do this