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In A Hell Of My Own Making

@morgothism

AJ - They/Xe
White - Queer - Trans - AuDHD - Disabled
Anti-social but trying to be friendly about it
Known Bug Reblogger, Sci-Fi Enjoyer and Uruk Enthusiast

Intro post?? Intro post.

AJ; Ajax - They/Them; Xe/Xem

Disabled + AuDHD

Adult who posts about adult subjects; not a NSFW blog but I will Reblog NSFW text on occasion.

Agender + Asexual + Aromantic (I collected them like Pokémon) I also consider myself under queer, gay, and trans labels.

I’m not the most interactive but I’m glad you’re here anyway. I draw but rarely post and only whatever my narrow interests are at the moment.

OC Sideblog, aka where 99% of the art actually is but also where I vague post about my unpublished fics (consider it a public diary I guess) : @moriondork

Art tag: #AJ Sketches

OCs of the Month Year: Únafea Posting; Margot Posting

the crew, belowdecks

when observing hissing cockroaches, you might have noticed a few brown specks scrambling over their backs or gathered in the seams of their exoskeleton. they are Androlaelaps schaeferi, a species of mite that lives its whole lifespan onboard a giant cockroach host! the commensal A. schaeferi isn’t a parasite, though, and takes its meals from its hosts’ own. if the mite’s mooching helps clean where the roach itself can’t, the relationship might even be considered mutualism, where both species benefit.

on the white of a freshly molted roach, the mites are particularly conspicuous, and even the pale juveniles stand out.

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Can't let British people have air conditioning because first they'd call it something twee like "the climate fixer" and then in 20 years they'll call it "the climb" or "the climmy"

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French kids would call it "le climot", frustrating language officials who would prefer they call it "machine pour le contrôle du climat froide à l'interieure de l'édifice"

This is the most hilariously accurate French joke I've seen in my life

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beastly reminder

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Almost. Years ago my computer suddenly stopped working and lost everything on it. Fortunately a relatively recent backup still existed bc of my family, a recent parts switch, and dumb luck. But last year a friend of mine got hacked and lost close to everything he had done creatively in the last 17-ish years. Art. Novels in progress. Entire conlangs. DnD character Sheets. Music he had made. All gone. He never backed any of it up. Few months later I started this habit (or ritual, almost) of drawing a reminder beast any time I would make a full complete backup. In hopes that seeing these things might remind others and myself. (Another factor here is that I am an animator and some of the stuff on my computer took literal years to make. And the film university I go to urges us to take this stuff seriously, too.)

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i hate it when people are like omg no the naughty squirrel is getting into the bird feeder!

that is squirrel food as well also. you put it out into your backyard which is the squirrels houses as well. in what sense is that not food for the squirrel. cop mindset honestly i do not trust it

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putting a tasty pastrami sandwich outside but the plate says ONLY FOR VIRGOS

Not many people know what amatonormativity is and I think that's a shame because it's a very useful concept to keep in mind

So let's do a crash course

What is amatonormativity?

A term coined by Elisabeth Brake in 2011 in her book Minimizing Marriage: Marriage, Morality, and the Law, used to explain the societal assumption that all people seek romantic relationships in the form of long term monogamous relationships. Easy, right? No

Nothing in life is so easy, especially not something like an idea taken as absolute truth by most people for as long as we can remember

Let's take it from the top

Amatonormativity intersects with cisnormativity, heteronormativity and patriarchal gender norms. What amatonormativity tells us is that EVERYONE wants and needs a committed heterosexual monogamous romantic relationship that usually ends in children. The American 50's ideal is a good example of that

The reason why the other terms I mentioned are not enough to talk about these issues is that they don't target specifically the nature of relationships under patriarchy. They are obviously talked about (especially in discussions about gender norms) but they are not the focus. There is also the problem that many don't recognize the insistence of love as a measure for one's humanity as a problem at all

We live in a world where love is considered to be the very proof of humanity. This is obviously a problem because there is no universally accepted definition of love outside amatonormativity, which claims that only romantic and familial love exist. There is no acknowledgement of alternative ways to love or of humanity existing apart from this concept

What is love? This is what I want to ask you, and I want everyone to think seriously about this question. Is it the idea of a soulmate, of finding your "other half"? Because then comes the 'why?'. Why should anyone find their 'other half'? Why can't people be whole on their own? Is there any weight to this idea at all?

But wait! Some will say! That's not all there is to love. Love is the affection and care you hold for other people. And that is a fair answer. But now I want to ask you, why should that be the measure for someone's humanity?

This conversation goes in circles. Philosophers have tried to find a way to define humanity since Ancient Greece and probably longer, and I'm not here to attempt to answer this question

But there is another question I can answer: why is it important? Why is amatonormativity and being aware of it important? Several reasons. Not only does it affect the lives of aspecs, polyamorous people, childfree and infertile people by making them feel less human for not participating in it's rituals, it also implicitly supports cisnormativity and heteronormativity

The model proposed by amatonormativity is ripe for exploitation, manipulation and abuse. It cuts off people's support networks by devaluing all other kinds of connections, it keeps people from leaving abusive relationships by eliminating all kinds of alternatives to happiness and fulfillment, it makes people enter relationships they don't want because it makes it seem like there is no other alternative, it blinds people to potential or ongoing abuse because it makes us believe that love can only be good and pure

Amatonormativity is often talked about in aspec and polyamorous spaces, but many others are unaware of its influence, and I think this is a mistake and another example of amatonormativity (blinding people to the flaws and alternatives to the ideal it proposes is another way amatonormativity works). And this is a shame, because the queer and feminist movements (along with all the other progressive movements) can't ever attain their goals without addressing amatonormativity

Girls will say "I just need to lie down for a little while" and then sink into a muddy river and get all their hard.tissues replaced with mineral deposits