To repeat something that has been said a lot over the past few years, JK Rowling is not just some boomer on Twitter with stupid opinions. She has the equivalent of the entire population from Rwanda following her and is the creator of one of the most culturally significant works of fiction of the 21st century. She is hailed as a literary and cultural icon. We have seen that she has a direct impact on policy in the UK. And that's before getting into the fact that she is a billionaire who can and does donate insane amounts of cash to transphobic causes.

So when she tweets blatant misinformation and nastiness about asexuality, a sexuality that is already misunderstood, underrepresented and mischaracterised, it is for a good chunk of her audience one of the first times they've heard of asexuality, maybe the first time for a number of them. As an ace person, it is not comfortable knowing a significant number of people went from not knowing my community exists to viewing us as self-absorbed wannabe victims with no real oppression or problems. And while they are not passive victims of Rowling's manipulation, her incredible influence means she is bringing asexuality into the mainstream under this light.

So no, there is no "just separate the art from the artist", nor do I feel I can sit back and let her yell into the void when the void has 14.5 million people in it, actually many more who aren't on Twitter. I don't know what the so-called "correct" action to take would be, but it isn't brushing her off as just an old biddy who doesn't know what every pride flag means. She shapes how communities are viewed by wider society and is wielding this power to harm us.

an appalling number of marginalized people in this upcoming generation appear to be under the impression that saying they're "reclaiming" a slur gives them a free pass to use that slur in a derogatory way towards other marginalized people in their communities that they dislike or think are annoying. maybe it's just the people i've had the misfortune of encountering in the wild, but it's getting bleak out there, folks.

like the other day i encountered some cunt using the fucking R slur to refer to an autistic person stimming in a way they found annoying, and when confronted about their ableism, they replied, "oh, i have ADHD, i can reclaim it." and it's like, no, you jackass, you absolutely the fuck cannot! that is not what that means! if the way you use a word is indistinguishable from the way a fucking nazi would use that word, then you're not "reclaiming it" anymore, you dumb bastard!!! you're just using it the same way the damn nazi does!!! shut the fuck up and be kinder you ass!!!

ALT

i miss my wife tails

Since watering means giving something water but milking means extracting milk from something that must means that water's default is to give but milk's default is to take. So water must be inherently kind while milk is cruel

The thrilling sequel to "that's not body horror, that's just a regular injury": "that's not a 'fate worse than death', that's just ableism"

we have all noticed that "self-care" basically ended up as a replacement word for "pampering" in a marketing lexicon and not as an active set of behaviours intended to allow the body and brain to adequately rest and revive in the face of the ceaseless crushing grind of capitalism yes

Original comic by Rasenth

every now and then the internet decides it should revamp the ole “stop texting first and see how many friends you lose” when in reality you could literally just communicate that u feel bad that ur the only one texting first