learn to associate cleaning with pride instead of shame and your quality of life will improve in ways you can't even imagine btw
like I'm sympathetic, it's hard work, it takes some degree of mental organisation and physical capacity that is not equally accessible to every human being on earth. I know. but regardless of how much you can do and how often, you will get better results across the board if you can frame it as positive effort towards a better situation instead of perpetually self flagellating for having the sin of being a solid thing in physical space that steadily accumulates dirt no matter what just like everything else on earth
ALTFor Intersex Jam 2026, I made an informative zine. “Intersex Inclusion: A Crash Course for Creatives” is a quick primer on how to include intersex experiences in your creative works. The text-only version* is available for free, licensed under CC BY 4.0, and I encourage others to repost and use this zine in place of asking random non-activist intersex folks about how to represent our entire community with dignity.
* (it's supposed to be in comic form, but due to rampant computer crashes, I wasn’t able to assemble the artwork into a screen-reader accessible PDF in time for the deadline.)
Overwhelmingly, the most common question I see from allies to random bystanders who just so happen to be publicly intersex is “how do I include intersex people?”
I know they mean well, but it gets tiring. I hold no enmity for them in my heart; in spite of that, I’m tired. I want to see folks like me being considered at all—without having to see random, non-activist intersex folks awkwardly struggling to rehash the same three points again and again because well-meaning but ignorant allies keep asking the same question of non-activists while prostrating and flagellating themselves over how they didn’t spawn into existence as a perfect ally. It’s such a demanding task that thinking about it makes me want to roll over and take a nap.
Fortunately, I am an old dog incapable of learning new tricks; hence, I am back on my bullshit to provide a bunch of infographics loosely assembled into a zine. I made sure to pack it with resources and citations good for your nutrition, all with love from the universe.
Take my hand. Let’s be inclusive of intersex experiences in our creative works, together.
This is a zine specifically focused on creating and developing intersex characters, how to handle intersexuality in a variety of genres and creative project types, how to worldbuild while conscious of intersexuality, and common pitfalls for uninformed allies new to writing intersex folks. For references more specific to writing, see versegm’s “An Intersex Writing Reference” and Hans Lindahl’s “Tips for Writing an Intersex Character with Grace.”
[Content warning: in order to respectfully but realistically talk about intersex history, this zine contains brief, undetailed discussions of topics such as medical gaslighting and abuse, sexual harassment and assault, and medical and sexual abuse against children. These are included strictly for the purpose of educating on intersex history and experiences. Slurs and bigoted or discriminatory language towards intersex folks and traits are included without censorship, also to educate on their history and meaning. Full content warnings are available within the zine itself.]
the traditional british symbol for courage is the lion, an animal which, a careful observer will note, cannot be found there.
but with your help we can release several dozen of them onto the streets of birmingham
Attentive observers will note that the other great animals of the Mad At You Islands are substantially and sometimes pointedly nonexistent. Once again, however, England is proposed to receive all of the attention and economic renewal.
The traditional rival of the lion is, of course, the unicorn. The complete lack of unicorns in the British Isles is utterly unacceptable. Not only do they fulfil an important ecological role in containing lions, they have long been noted for fighting lions throughout towns in exchange for bread, providing entertainment. It is short-sighted to inject leonine economic vigour into the North without the accompanying consideration of an equal number of unicorns.
Further, this focus on lions once again privileges England while ignoring Scotland. I shan’t accuse my opponents of being insensitive, or focusing entirely on regional improvements to England, but the English insistence that the North ends at Scotland is part of a historical pattern at odds with the direction of travel of our current Government.
Once I have addressed the ecological balance of the lions of Birmingham I will, of course, turn my attention to the substantive lack of Red Dragons, although my advisors have strongly articulated the need for restraint, and a clear delivery framework. I have heard these concerns and further I thank our constituents for voicing their own.
Hearing these concerns, I promise to only make one.
I will also release it in Birmingham. I think it would be funny.
In the constrained economic environment I recognise that there is little headroom for ongoing ambition, which is why I propose formalising and establishing the Irish Hare, with accompany environmental supports. This will actually be an environmentally useful project. Attentive critics will note that it is a real animal, and is furthermore native to these isles.
I will now accept questions, but not criticisms.
The Irish Hare is one of those guys that looks like he knows what God's face looks like, right?
That’s the European, or Brown, Hare!
This is the March Hare, the boxing hare, the one that looks like it’s going to stand up and speak prophecy to you. It is brown all year round, and does not resemble a rabbit.
Below is the Irish Hare:
Also called the mountain hare, as well as a host of other names, this one’s range stretches along the top part of the Old World, from Ireland to Japan.
They famously turn white in winter, although the climate of the British Isles offers little scope, and frankly some disadvantages, for this talent.
The European Hare looks like an angel of rabbits, unconvincing and yet clear in who it is mimicking. The Irish Hare looks like a lanky rabbit that has recently gone through a confusing divorce, and moreover has lost its keys. It also looks like it knows that it isn’t invisible in winter, but hopes you will play along out of politeness and mutual regard for each other’s privacy.
The only criticism that the Opposition has so far offered is that “Birmingham is not in the North,” a claim that our party have never made, which does not relate to the proposal, and which is derived entirely from confusion when reading the juxtaposed rhetoric in the worldbuilding premise from which we took our platform. We admit that the juxtaposition could be confusing to people who are not familiar with the established lion infrastructure, but more importantly feel that this wilful misreading indicates the Opposition has no valid criticisms, and is clutching at the frailest of straws. In the absence of real and proper criticism it is only sensible to proceed with forward planning for the unicorn programme.
We look forward to working with the Opposition on more substantive issues, such as finding headroom in the budget for another dragon.
The opposition was in full agreement on all issues pertaining to the reintroduction of lions save for the confusion regarding the classification of Birmingham. We are grateful for the Government's clarification of their stance on this contentious issue, and look forward to working with them on the feasibility of dragon reintroduction projects.
The opposition and the Government will have a summer wedding
Lumpfish come in a variety of shapes and colors.
[He scoops up the fish, it spits water and he turns it toward the camera]
This one is stumpy and green. Very beautiful, very powerful.
[He picks up another fish and turns it toward the camera]
This is what a normal lumpfish looks like. It is more elongated, but still a vibrant blue color. Very beautiful, very powerful.
[He picks up another fish and turns it toward the camera]
This is one of the stumpiest ones we have. Its hump is very high. It is very stumpy, but yet very beautiful, and very powerful.
[He pans over a lot of fish, all looking up at the camera]
My fish army is ever growing, and soon I will over throw the world. Very beautiful, very powerful.
because of this tiktok, i frequently murmur "very beautiful, very powerful" at myself, and i cannot recommend it enough.
This interview with Ncuti Gatwa crossed my dash again, and I was reminded of how much I like it. Because it makes the rare Third Argument for representation in fiction, the argument I think is the best, and I'm always happy to see it. I quote:
At times, Gatwa’s casting in those projects has been dismissed as an exercise in ‘box-ticking’. Gatwa scoffs. ‘First of all, you don’t know anything about me. Secondly, tick fcking boxes! People need to be fcking seen. What are you going to do, tell the same stories? Have the same people fronting things for all of eternity? Representation and inclusivity and branching out… it enriches us all. How embarrassing. You people with your tiny mindsets – open a book, look out the window and then f*ck off.’ (source)
What do I mean by the Third Argument? Well, I'm not sure I've ever made a post about this directly, but as far as I can see it, there are three main arguments for greater diversity in popular media. The first two are the most common, and they go like this:
- It is good for media to be diverse because it is good for people to see people like them on screen. That is, the beneficiaries are marginalized people.
- It is good for media to be diverse because it is good for people to see and learn about people who are not like them through art. That is, the beneficiaries are non-marginalized people, who then (hopefully) pass on the benefit by treating marginalized people better.
These two arguments are the source of a lot of debate here on ye olde tumblr. Despite both being arguments for representation, they pull in different directions. What counts as 'good' representation for the purposes of Argument 1 often would not be good for the purposes of Argument 2, and vice versa. Authentic versus sympathetic. Ugly or over-sanitized. You see this debate play out constantly. It's really hard for a piece of - say - queer media to do both at once.
But these debates tend to leave out Argument 3, the one that Gatwa is making above. And that argument cuts through a lot of this debate.
3. It is good for media to be diverse because art needs variety. The beneficiary of representation is art itself, absent any social effects that may or may not be present.
For this argument, diverse stories are intrinsically good. It is good to make art that's not just the same thing you've seen a hundred times before. Putting the kinds of people who don't often make it into mainstream media into your art is an extremely efficient way to make that happen. It's not the only method, but it's a really good method.
For representation to be 'good representation' according to Argument 3, all it needs to be is interesting. A story you haven't heard before, at least not in that medium. That which counts as 'bad representation' by the lights of this argument are stock characters, like the Eternally Patient Mother, the Gay Best Friend, the Wise Black Advisor. Perhaps there was a time in which these characters were new, but that time has long passed. There's no art in pulling a bog-standard character trope off the shelf. Show us a new kind of guy. The world is infinitely diverse. You're not going to run out. Telling the same stories with the same voices for all eternity, as Gatwa says, is boring. Even if there was nothing else wrong with it, this would be. Art isn't supposed to be boring.
And that's why Argument 3 is my favourite. I do want the world to be a better place, of course, and I think art is a part of that. But the main job of art is to be good as art. And diversity in all aspects of the production of art makes art better.
"It's not about adding diversity for the sake of diversity, it's about subtracting homogeneity for the sake of realism." --Mary Robinette Kowal
Coworker: man, you already have a lot of hobbies, how can you be thinking about another one?
Me: The only things keeping my interests and hobbies in some sort of check is having to work a full time job, space restraints of an apartment, and money. You have no idea how many I would have if I didn't have to be here 40 hours a week. This is nothing.
i like that the maned wolf and the bush dog are each other's closest living relatives. they're like cartoon henchmen
congratulations to dark green for being the colour of the year 2.4 billion years running