Ná bí buartha.

anatomicalhearteyes:

Peggy and Pete were just two genius weirdos who really and truly got each other and that’s actually just such a rare thing and I think they both felt that. I think if this was meant to be a love story they would have ended up together, but that’s not what this story was about. And Peggy said it herself : she could have had him. And I think they would have had a good marriage because they had that understanding of each other. But Peggy wanted other things more. Not that she didn’t want him she just wanted more MORE. And their lives went on.

rthko:

I am increasingly annoyed with “boys will be boys” and “dudes rock” in response to videos of men, say, digging a hole at the beach or doing tricks on a trampoline. I’m not a hater and I enjoy seeing people have fun, but men are just given the space to be whimsical and carefree in a way that women are not. Girls are expected to be caregivers from such an early age, sexualized earlier, effectively denied a childhood. I’ll see a video of a guy giving random people on the street hugs and everyone observes that “all the women ignored him but the dudes had his back,” and it’s like well yeah, women are used to being harassed and have their guards up. And I want to see women get their own “dudes rock” treatment without being considered immature in a way that reflects on their entire gender, labelled “manic pixie dream girls” (a term used in media criticism not to be leveraged against real people just living their lives), or denied the kindness reserved for men with a sense of childlike wonder.

williamfbuckley:

listen i am more than aware that hormonal birth control can do fucky things to your brain and body. i have been there and i have dealt with it and i don’t take that lightly. but i do want to say that if you’re sexually active and can get pregnant, the last people online you should be listening to are the “divine femininity” cryptofash tradgirl influencers who are spouting leftist-sounding rhetoric while telling you to throw out your birth control and “just track your cycles naturally” at a time when it’s functionally impossible to get an abortion in many states. i cannot stress this enough. these people are white supremacists who have learned to cloak their right-wing, reject-modernity beliefs in language that sounds appealing to the left, and they are winning, and you need to be really vigilant about the influencers and messaging you are following and consuming and helping give more of a platform. because this shit is everywhere and women are going to die because of it.

sadoeuphemist:

A scorpion, not knowing how to swim, asked a frog to carry it across the river. “Do I look like a fool?” said the frog. “You’d sting me if I let you on my back!”

“Be logical,” said the scorpion. “If I stung you I’d certainly drown myself.”

“That’s true,” the frog acknowledged. “Climb aboard, then!” But no sooner than they were halfway across the river, the scorpion stung the frog, and they both began to thrash and drown. “Why on earth did you do that?” the frog said morosely. “Now we’re both going to die.” 

“I can’t help it,” said the scorpion. “It’s my nature.”

___

…But no sooner than they were halfway across the river, the frog felt a subtle motion on its back, and in a panic dived deep beneath the rushing waters, leaving the scorpion to drown.

“It was going to sting me anyway,” muttered the frog, emerging on the other side of the river. “It was inevitable. You all knew it. Everyone knows what those scorpions are like. It was self-defense.”

___

…But no sooner had they cast off from the bank, the frog felt the tip of a stinger pressed lightly against the back of its neck. “What do you think you’re doing?” said the frog.

“Just a precaution,” said the scorpion. “I cannot sting you without drowning. And now, you cannot drown me without being stung. Fair’s fair, isn’t it?”

They swam in silence to the other end of the river, where the scorpion climbed off, leaving the frog fuming.

“After the kindness I showed you!” said the frog. “And you threatened to kill me in return?”

“Kindness?” said the scorpion. “To only invite me on your back after you knew I was defenseless, unable to use my tail without killing myself? My dear frog, I only treated you as I was treated. Your kindness was as poisoned as a scorpion’s sting.”

___

…“Just a precaution,” said the scorpion. “I cannot sting you without drowning. And now, you cannot drown me without being stung. Fair’s fair, isn’t it?”

“You have a point,” the frog acknowledged. “But once we get to dry land, couldn’t you sting me then without repercussion?”

“All I want is to cross the river safely,” said the scorpion. “Once I’m on the other side I would gladly let you be.”

“But I would have to trust you on that,” said the frog. “While you’re pressing a stinger to my neck. By ferrying you to land I’d be be giving up the one deterrent I hold over you.”

“But by the same logic, I can’t possibly withdraw my stinger while we’re still over water,” the scorpion protested.

The frog paused in the middle of the river, treading water. “So, I suppose we’re at an impasse.”

The river rushed around them. The scorpion’s stinger twitched against the frog’s unbroken skin. “I suppose so,” the scorpion said.

___

A scorpion, not knowing how to swim, asked a frog to carry it across the river. “Absolutely not!” said the frog, and dived beneath the waters, and so none of them learned anything.

___

A scorpion, being unable to swim, asked a turtle (as in the original Persian version of the fable) to carry it across the river. The turtle readily agreed, and allowed the scorpion aboard its shell. Halfway across, the scorpion gave in to its nature and stung, but failed to penetrate the turtle’s thick shell. The turtle, swimming placidly, failed to notice.

They reached the other side of the river, and parted ways as friends.

___

…Halfway across, the scorpion gave in to its nature and stung, but failed to penetrate the turtle’s thick shell.

The turtle, hearing the tap of the scorpion’s sting, was offended at the scorpion’s ungratefulness. Thankfully, having been granted the powers to both defend itself and to punish evil, the turtle sank beneath the waters and drowned the scorpion out of principle.

___

A scorpion, not knowing how to swim, asked a frog to carry it across the river. “Do I look like a fool?” sneered the frog. “You’d sting me if I let you on my back.”

The scorpion pleaded earnestly. “Do you think so little of me? Please, I must cross the river. What would I gain from stinging you? I would only end up drowning myself!”

“That’s true,” the frog acknowledged. “Even a scorpion knows to look out for its own skin. Climb aboard, then!”

But as they forged through the rushing waters, the scorpion grew worried. This frog thinks me a ruthless killer, it thought. Would it not be justified in throwing me off now and ridding the world of me? Why else would it agree to this? Every jostle made the scorpion more and more anxious, until the frog surged forward with a particularly large splash, and in panic the scorpion lashed out with its stinger.

“I knew it,” snarled the frog, as they both thrashed and drowned. “A scorpion cannot change its nature.”

___

A scorpion, not knowing how to swim, asked a frog to carry it across the river. The frog agreed, but no sooner than they were halfway across the scorpion stung the frog, and they both began to thrash and drown.

“I’ve only myself to blame,” sighed the frog, as they both sank beneath the waters. “You, you’re a scorpion, I couldn’t have expected anything better. But I knew better, and yet I went against my judgement! And now I’ve doomed us both!”

“You couldn’t help it,” said the scorpion mildly. “It’s your nature.” 

___

…“Why on earth did you do that?” the frog said morosely. “Now we’re both going to die.”

“Alas, I was of two natures,” said the scorpion. “One said to gratefully ride your back across the river, and the other said to sting you where you stood. And so both fought, and neither won.” It smiled wistfully. “Ah, it would be nice to be just one thing, wouldn’t it? Unadulterated in nature. Without the capacity for conflict or regret.”

___

“By the way,” said the frog, as they swam, “I’ve been meaning to ask: What’s on the other side of the river?”

“It’s the journey,” said the scorpion. “Not the destination.”

___

…“What’s on the other side of anything?” said the scorpion. “A new beginning.”

___

…”Another scorpion to mate with,” said the scorpion. “And more prey to kill, and more living bodies to poison, and a forthcoming lineage of cruelties that you will be culpable in.”

___

…”Nothing we will live to see, I fear,” said the scorpion. “Already the currents are growing stronger, and the river seems like it shall swallow us both. We surge forward, and the shoreline recedes. But does that mean our striving was in vain?”

___

“I love you,” said the scorpion.

The frog glanced upward. “Do you?”

“Absolutely. Can you imagine the fear of drowning? Of course not. You’re a frog. Might as well be scared of breathing air. And yet here I am, clinging to your back, as the waters rage around us. Isn’t that love? Isn’t that trust? Isn’t that necessity? I could not kill you without killing myself. Are we not inseparable in this?”

The frog swam on, the both of them silent.

___

“I’m so tired,” murmured the frog eventually. “How much further to the other side? I don’t know how long we’ve been swimming. I’ve been treading water. And it’s getting so very dark.”

“Shh,” the scorpion said. “Don’t be afraid.”

The frog’s legs kicked out weakly. “How long has it been? We’re lost. We’re lost! We’re doomed to be cast about the waters forever. There is no land. There’s nothing on the other side, don’t you see!”

“Shh, shh,” said the scorpion. “My venom is a hallucinogenic. Beneath its surface, the river is endlessly deep, its currents carrying many things.” 

“You - You’ve killed us both,” said the frog, and began to laugh deliriously. “Is this - is this what it’s like to drown?” 

“We’ve killed each other,” said the scorpion soothingly. “My venom in my glands now pulsing through your veins, the waters of your birthing pool suffusing my lungs. We are engulfing each other now, drowning in each other. I am breathless. Do you feel it? Do you feel my sting pierced through your heart?”

“What a foolish thing to do,” murmured the frog. “No logic. No logic to it at all.”

“We couldn’t help it,” whispered the scorpion. “It’s our natures. Why else does anything in the world happen? Because we were made for this from birth, darling, every moment inexplicable and inevitable. What a crazy thing it is to fall in love, and yet - It’s all our fault! We are both blameless. We’re together now, darling. It couldn’t have happened any other way.”

___

“It’s funny,” said the frog. “I can’t say that I trust you, really. Or that I even think very much of you and that nasty little stinger of yours to begin with. But I’m doing this for you regardless. It’s strange, isn’t it? It’s strange. Why would I do this? I want to help you, want to go out of my way to help you. I let you climb right onto my back! Now, whyever would I go and do a foolish thing like that?”

___

A scorpion, not knowing how to swim, asked a frog to carry it across the river. “Do I look like a fool?” said the frog. “You’d sting me if I let you on my back!”

“Be logical,” said the scorpion. “If I stung you I’d certainly drown myself.”  

“That’s true,” the frog acknowledged. “Come aboard, then!” But no sooner had the scorpion mounted the frog’s back than it began to sting, repeatedly, while still safely on the river’s bank.

The frog groaned, thrashing weakly as the venom coursed through its veins, beginning to liquefy its flesh. “Ah,” it muttered. “For some reason I never considered this possibility.”

“Because you were never scared of me,” the scorpion whispered in its ear. “You were never scared of dying. In a past life you wore a shell and sat in judgement. And then you were reborn: soft-skinned, swift, unburdened, as new and vulnerable as a child, moving anew through a world of children. How could anyone ever be cruel, you thought, seeing the precariousness of it all?” The scorpion bowed its head and drank. “How could anyone kill you without killing themselves?”

bimbomarxist:

from this ask polly

stantler:

Th problem I think is ppl don’t see misogyny as the systemic issue that it is. A man saying misogynist slurs and making threats of sexual and physical violence towards a woman - that’s not him being a misogynist that’s just him being an asshole or a shitty person. Intimate partner violence from a man towards a woman, that’s not a man abusing the power he has over women under patriarchy and the contempt he has because he has been socialized to see women as quite literally objects rather than human beings, that’s just an example of a “toxic relationship” and individual bad behavior that has nothing to with gender. All of these things are examples of individual failings rather than a culture that revolves around the dehumanization of women in every aspect of life, in ppls minds. It’s tiring

luulapants:

When folks say “Protect Lil Nas X” I want you to understand that this is coming from a deep place in queer culture. One of the prime directives of the queer community is to protect young and recently out queer folks. It comes from a place of understanding that coming out is inherently a traumatic process. Being young and queer in a community where queerness is not accepted is inherently traumatic.

It does not matter if the young queer person is annoying or cringe or wearing rainbows from head to toe and transforming themselves into a walking stereotype. That’s part of the process of reclaiming identity for a LOT of people. Sometimes shoving it in people’s faces is the only way you can get over the instinct to cower and conform. It doesn’t matter if they made some off-color jokes while they work through internalized queerphobia. It doesn’t even matter if you like the young queer person much as a person.

You protect them. Because someone protected you. Or because no one was around to protect you, and you know how much that sucked. You see a young person in a gay bar that looks a little lost or nervous, guess what? That’s your child now. Go help them fix their lip gloss and tell them their body glitter is cute and teach them how to tell if someone is giving them the eye from across the room. You see them getting hassled? Take out those earrings, you’re giving someone a smackdown tonight.

The queer community has been so turned against itself in recent years, we’re forgetting our fucking roots. We’re not here to bitch out queer kids for making mistakes while they figure out who the fuck they are. We’re here to throw bricks at cops.

barbarian15:

“The festivities of Saint Jeanne d’Arc in Orleans, this year.

The girl chosen to represent Jean d’Arc was Clotilde d’Arc, a direct descendant of Saint Jeanne d’Arc’s brother, 600 years ago.”