Aboriginal art by Birrikidji Gumana

Don't let Republicans distract you with gimmicky culture war bills. Republican policies are making Americans' lives shorter and worse in every conceivable way.

If anyone knows the artist please credit them. Posted by democracyactionnet.bsky.social on Bluesky and last_willow_tree_on_the_left on Threads.

Nyaduola Gabriel for Self Portrait FW 24 Collection

Women in Shakespeare

Also like to point out that when her mother says “I was your mother much upon these years that you are now a maid,” (translation: I had you when I was your age) you have to remember her father’s words: “earth hath swallowed all my hopes but she,” (translation: all the other children died.)  The whole plot point of Juliet being an only child is explained by her mother being a Margaret Beaufort type who had her first child too young and it damaged her past the point of being able to bear more children.

Margaret Beaufort died in 1509. She was a major player in the Wars of the Roses, the swirling on-again-off-again civil wars that consumed England from 1455-1487. Romeo and Juliet was written and first performed in the early 1590s. Your average English person of Shakespeare’s day would probably have had at least a vague understanding of who she was and what happened to her, because she was a key figure in recent history and was still getting passed around as a cautionary tale.

There are two great problems with what happened to Margaret (and that her parents are trying to do to Juliet). One is easy for modern people to spot (but was also a common response back in her own day). And that’s the moral implications of what was done to her. She was too young to be married, and it was horrifying that she was forced into it so young. Every one of the adults around her either acted immorally or failed to protect her. They were wrong. This is what modern people see, and it’s important to remember that people back in her day mostly agreed with it. You’re supposed to think it’s fucked up! When girls were married that young (and it didn’t happen often!) it was a formality 99% of the time. It was for dynastic or financial reasons (the girl has lots of money and/or land and/or a title that her husband wants), but the “couple” don’t consummate their marriage for years. And it’s not just that they would have separate bedrooms. They might not even live in the same country until the girl was in her late teens and physically and mentally mature enough to bear and raise kids. Hell, a lot of times they didn’t even meet until the girl was older! They had this thing called “proxy marriage” where you would have two separate ceremonies, in two separate places, with each party saying their vows separately, one in one city and the other in a different one. So, yeah, sure, the girl was technically married at 12, but she didn’t actually meet her “husband” in person until she was 17 and they didn’t start sleeping together until she was 20. That was a thing they did.

The other problem, the one that modern people don’t notice, is dynastic. See, marriage wasn’t generally because you loved someone. It was because you had the resources to support a family, and you or your family wanted to pool those resources with someone. It’s about “our family has these resources, and we want that to continue.” It’s about continuity across generations. It’s about making sure that your children and grandchildren have the best possible resources to survive and thrive, whether those resources are land or a trade or a title or money or whatever. In order for this to work, you have to have kids! The family and the family’s resources depend on the married couple having children. If the couple doesn’t have children, the marriage is a failure. And that failure affects not only the couple, but both families. This is a really big problem. And you can’t have just one kid to pass on the family name, because half of all kids die in early childhood. If you want to be safe, you need several kids, to be sure at least one will survive to adulthood (when they can marry and pass on the family name and resources.

You know what happens when a girl has her first pregnancy too young? She is very likely to either die in childbirth, or have complications that destroy her future fertility. Just like Margaret Beaufort. Just like Juliet’s mother. In other words, the marriage is a failure, not just for her, but also for her family, and her husband (who can’t divorce her, it’s not allowed except in extremely rare circumstances), and her husband’s family. So even the people who didn’t have a moral problem with adult men having sex with pubescent girls had a practical problem with girls married too young because you are very likely to destroy the entire purpose of the marriage by doing it. As Shakespeare reminds us in the play through Juliet’s mother having been married too young and only having one child.

Shakespeare is telling us “yeah, this is fucked up. but even if you’re the kind of awful person who doesn’t think girls marrying too young is morally wrong, it’s also a problem for practical and dynastic reasons, don’t forget that by doing this wrong thing you are very likely to destroy what you most want out of it.”

Interesting

It bears repeating:

don’t forget that by doing this wrong thing you are very likely to destroy what you most want out of it.”

yes, excellent discussion!

another thing i noticed, the year my local community shakespeare theater did r&j, and i made the costumes so i got to watch the show every night: part of why capulet is telling paris, take your time, get to know each other, no rush, is that he still has his nephew tybalt as his heir. as long as tybalt is in the picture, there is no pressure on juliet to go further with paris, than get acquainted. once tybalt is killed, then suddenly capulet needs an heir, he needs a husband for juliet, now, this week. (the role of capulet is best given to the actor in the company that can do over the top apoplexy, you need to believe his urgency comes at least in part by how clearly he could drop dead any moment from giving himself a stroke)

i feel like this play is often taught in middle schools as if it was somehow relevant to, or about, teen hormone storms. really it's got more to do with the social structures around family and inheritance. leaving that context out makes it confusing, why is capulet suddenly flipping from nice dad to evil dad?

art history matters.

two whole years after the finale of The Owl House, and I'm still thinking about Raine getting possessed, because, like. here's the thing. canonically, they're extremely fucking good at resisting it. just like they were clever and stubborn enough to avoid mind-control by Terra, they were also stubborn and powerful enough to really give Belos a fight, enough for him to even comment on it. but the other thing we know about Raine resisting possession, besides them just being good at it — we also know they're also incredibly self-destructive about it. in order to trick Terra, they completely sabotage their relationship with Eda, out of a desire to keep her safe but far away — and with Belos, they smash their viola, just to try to keep Belos from reaching the Titan's heart. they're a self-destructive, self-sacrificing person in general, when it comes down to what they perceive as the greater good — before they learned Eda had kids, they were willing to give their life to take out Darius and Eberwolf (whom they didn't even know were on their side).

but. despite all this, the thing is. Raine's only good at resisting possession when they're at full power. not when they're a puppet. and at first, Belos is possessing them because they're a puppet, and an easy target. Raine knows that Belos's goal is the Titan's heart, so they might even be partially conscious when Belos uses them to talk to the Collector — just unable to fight back, and forced to watch Belos use their voice, use their voice to manipulate a child. definitely, unmistakably a child, from the perspective that they have now.

so, if Raine hadn't been a puppet — well, they would've fought back, of course they would have — but, like always, how self-destructive would their resistance have been? what would they have been willing to do to their own body, just to hurt Belos, too? would they have tried to get the Collector to strike both them and Belos down, both at once? was being a puppet a twist of fate that actually saved Raine's life — from their own willingness to sacrifice themself? the tragedy of surviving, but only at the cost to their own autonomy? after Belos is dead, do think Raine thinks about that, ever? are they relieved? are they guilty? do they break down to Eda about it, or do they keep it buried, because they know Eda's dealt with her own suicidal ideation, too? does Raine ever find out how Hunter got possessed, too, and tried to take himself down with Belos, too? does Raine ever find out that Luz died, even if temporarily, because Belos was able to get to the Titan's heart? Luz, one of the very kids that Raine had tried to protect, and convinced Eda to stay alive for — dying to protect the Collector, who'd been manipulated by Raine's own voice and face? absolutely devastating survivor's guilt on Raine's part, I'm sure. that's my diagnosis.

That is the wettest sounding bat I've ever heard. :')

In fairness Australia does actually have "bat rabies" so you should still be careful handling bats, but it's a lot more controllable than normal rabies (which we do not have). This person clearly knows what they're doing though.

Actually Derin, if I'm remembering rightly from my several years of animal studies education, Lyssa is still 100% fatal like rabies and all bats are considered a vector for it.

If you handle a bat at all, you need to be vaccinated for rabies. Full stop, no question. This was pounded into me a lot.

Especially because any bites or scratches can contain active viral cells and be so tiny that you don't even notice them. I was taught not to even pick up a dead bat out of the road and to just call a government hotline for this very reason.

yeah Australian Bat Lyssavirus has just three recorded deaths ...out of three recorded cases. transmission is rare but absolutely not worth taking chances with

So to recap

\*: Linking to AI images is technically allowed if tagged, but PF will never host them, no exceptions.

I know a bunch of people are into this as a kink thing, but as a person who is really into survivalism, this is so cool.

Strap them on like backpack

writers take note if you have a scene where a character needs to move someone

fuckin wild that the government has straight up blocked internet porn in florida unless you submit your government ID and NOBODY'S talking about it

Whoever stores that info is gonna get hacked and it's going to ruin people. I give it less than a year.

This is part of why a bunch of porn sites (like pornhub) are just blocking Florida instead of having to deal with this shit: if they had to store a bunch of data, they would get hackers trying to hack them to steal it. They don't want to deal with that shit!

I usually don't make serious posts, but as a kink blog in this situation, it's not just Florida.

Other states do this too, with larger porn sites. Pornhub itself went "nope" and blocked my state altogether. So did several other sites. Many of us have to use a VPN just to see the content- and if we want to PRODUCE said content it's even harder.

Funny that if that happened, lots of lawmakers and republican pundits would be experiencing quite the scandal. Instead of simply allowing human beings to enjoy sexual content, and teaching safe sex ed in schools, they want to make sex solely for producing children on paper and nothing else (while still consuming sexual content behind closed doors because its okay if you oppose something in public and indulge in private like a hypocrite, apparently.)

They'd rather risk people's ENTIRE LEGAL IDS being leaked or sold for information. Literal identity theft. Just so they can continue to act like humans in our society are perfect sexless beings until the marriage bed, and no other time ever.

It's a surreal situation when the porn websites want to keep you safer than your own government.

But the DOW bounced back now so I guess everything is fine forever again. Market manipulation? What's that?

More Tiff & Eve: My Site | Webtoon

Support on Patreon!

Coconut crab (Birgus latro)

New paper art! This one was just entirely for fun, I love these weird giant tree climbing hermit crabs. Their shape and patterns and colours are just perfect for paper art honestly. This one took me about a day and a half to do and I'm super happy with how it came together!

The crab is about 25cm wide, which is within the real size range of these crabs but definitely not the biggest they get!

Awar Odhiang by Sean and Seng for Pop Magazine Summer 2025

you know what you shouldnt do? constantly tell your child how expensive they are to take care of. because eventually, that child gets scared of asking for money, and doesnt feed themself at school, doesnt go places with their friends that require money, because she doesnt want to be expensive. it really does get into their minds, that theyre too much money and that they shouldnt do anything.

When all you value is whiteness, you allow horrible men to do horrible things. Betrayal becomes a superpower.

Corruption. Insider trading. Abuse. Rape. Misogyny. Adultery. Treason. Insurrection. Espionage. Perjury. Aiding our enemies. Kidnapping. Ethnic cleansing.

And all this is built on racism and the myth of whute superiority.