unicorns

I forgor what some of the flags mean. But ik flutters is transage zoo that is a regular theme

Would be fun to fill out radqueer-related or adjacent templates like I remember there was a MAP one we filled out. They are fun

If you know of any feel free to share!

I'm using past tense since I have not looked into Christine for a while. I take pride in avoiding information which I might do for difficult subjects in general but particularly here since her fetishizers and harassers have a thing for infodumping her life onto people.

It's just so upsetting to see a fellow autist be subjected to vile ableist bullying and harassment, dehumanization, and moralization. Even in more tame aspects of her harassment it makes me so sad that many people know about her but many won't bother to be compassionate or patient toward someone they don't understand, instead jumping on freak show bandwagon, if not as active participant, as judgmental observer.

To clarify I'm okay with people having "problematic interests" but I'm talking about a systemic problem. CWC being broadly interesting is a byproduct of a culture of ableist gawking. As an autist who values accepting autists and their traits, even the less palatable treats, and who has seen a few autists (understated for humor), CWC is not a novelty. She's a victim.

While this isn't exclusively a radqueer take I think it's heavily aligned with radqueer.

cross-posted from: https://rqd2.net/post/44052

I think part of the reason I may be trace (I'm still questioning and go back and forth) is because I'm autistic.

I'm part of a hereditary group with a distinct culture and status in society. Autistic people. We also get recognized quickly by others (usually not explicitly, but studies show we are recognized as different within minutes). I come from an autistic family. Basically, one side of my family is autistic and one isn't. These two sides are so different from little cultural differences to wealth disparity. The differences between autistic and allistic people feel like the differences between racial groups.

I suspect I have this desire to be recognized as a racial minority because I kinda am. But neuroraces aren't treated the same because they're harder to see explicitly.

I'm sick of autism being treated as an isolated thing, seeing autistic family members acknowledge neurodiversity in others but not themselves, and autistic people having overly individualistic ideas of what it means to be autistic in society. We are a people with a long history and direct blood ties to each other.

It makes me wish autistic people really did have a distinct look so it would be easier for us to recognize each other and ourselves, band together, and be recognized as large, interconnected cultures and subcultures.

This is a great starting point for learning more about being autistic.

You may learn some lesser known aspects of autistic people, like how we can process from two vantage points as once, whereas allistic people tend to process from one.

This allows me greater ease and/or scope in doing some things, like:

• in solo TTRPing, acting as the player and the GM
• being curious about a new idea despite defensiveness and/or skepticism (good example is wanting to learn more about the radqueer community despite being conditioned to disregard it)
• consciously recognizing my hypocrisy or internal contradictions, and being able to do so comfortably (as long as I recognize that hypocrisy isn't bad)
• approaching ideas with nuance, or from two modes, like regarding the physical and metaphysical at the same time, without one being "under" the other
• appreciating anything "meta" in storytelling, double meanings, art with multiple "layers"
• practicing "psychonautics" and related things, like tripping, introspection, and plural system communication
• adopting and understanding "contradictory" identities

A good reason to use a resource like Embrace Autism over something like the DSM is because you can learn more about how autism is experienced rather than how it is perceived by allistic people.

For example autistics are oft categorized as "black/white thinkers" which to some extent is the projection of allistics who don't understand autistic nuance. They see us be passionate/extreme about things because of our strong feelings and care and assume it's the result of allistic-style thinking turned up to 11 (reference).

I really like how Gabby really wants a cutie mark like the ponies, and the lesson isn't about how she can't have one. At the end, the ponies give her a cutie mark made of wood. Cute!

I think part of the reason I may be trace (I'm still questioning and go back and forth) is because I'm autistic.

I'm part of a hereditary group with a distinct culture and status in society. Autistic people. We also get recognized quickly by others (usually not explicitly, but studies show we are recognized as different within minutes). I come from an autistic family. Basically, one side of my family is autistic and one isn't. These two sides are so different from little cultural differences to wealth disparity. The differences between autistic and allistic people feel like the differences between racial groups.

I suspect I have this desire to be recognized as a racial minority because I kinda am. But neuroraces aren't treated the same because they're harder to see explicitly.

I'm sick of autism being treated as an isolated thing, seeing autistic family members acknowledge neurodiversity in others but not themselves, and autistic people having overly individualistic ideas of what it means to be autistic in society. We are a people with a long history and direct blood ties to each other.

It makes me wish autistic people really did have a distinct look so it would be easier for us to recognize each other and ourselves, band together, and be recognized as large, interconnected cultures and subcultures.

At almost 17 minutes long, Joanna Newsom's "Only Skin" can tell many stories, and it does! In this post, I will discuss the motif of youth attraction in this song.

This post is not an attempt to argue that "Only Skin" is about youth attraction. It is about womanhood, and youth attraction is just a part of that. Yes, I believe the imagery of youth attraction is intentional.

One of Joanna Newsom's favorite books is Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita, and she references this book in her music—"I saw a star fall into the sky like a chunk of thrown coal as if God himself spat like a cornered rat"—alongside lyrics such as, "Helpless as a child as you held me in your arms." She knows what she's doing. Perhaps she is evokes this imagery purely figuratively, or perhaps she means to write about actual youth attraction: this is up for debate.

"Only Skin" begins with the focus of the narrator's affection having a nightmare about war. Some listeners believe he is an ex-solider, but he doesn't have to be. I get the impression that he's an amalgamation of people, sometimes a man and sometimes a boy, agefluid due to representing more than one person in the narrator's life, the object of semi-incestuous, semi-pedophilic attraction (I use pedophilic loosely here as there is no way to determine an objective age range).

OK, but which lyrics evoke both the narrator's amourous attraction towards her youthful focus?

Press on me, we are restless things. Webs of seaweed are swaddling. And you call upon the dusk of the musk of a squid: shot full of ink, until you sink into your crib.

I have got some business out at the edge of town, candy weighing both of my pockets down till I can hardly stay afloat, from the weight of them (and knowing how the commonfolk condemn what it is I do, to you, to keep you warm: Being a woman. Being a woman.)

With your hands in your pockets, stubbily running to where I’m unfresh, undressed and yawning —

These stanzas are the best examples. Attraction is implied with pressing, restlessness, keeping warm, and strangely enough, pockets, which hold lust in Joanna Newsom's music. From the same song that evoked the cornered rat that is Humbert Humbert, "Have One On Me":

Here's Lola — ta da! — to do her famous Spider Dance for you! Lighten up your pockets! Shake her skirts and scatter, there, a shrieking, six-legged millionaire with a blight in his sockets.

("Have One On Me" is about Lola Montez, not Dolores Haze, the Lola in slacks from Lolita. It's just a coincidence-- ah who am I kidding! We've got another amalgam on our hands.)

Youth is implied in swaddling, the crib, and stubby running, sure, but those guilty, candy-filled pockets are my favorite. Picturing the narrator, who I imagine as Joanna Newsom, a stereotypical pedo creep holding candy and worrying about normies... It's humorous and refreshing in the context of this 17-minute masterpiece.

This isn't the end of youth attraction in this song. Far from it. The narrator calling her focus "son" and treating him as such, the narrator's internal conflict of surrounding womanhood and mapmisia, the imagery of cherry fruit and blossoms... There is a lot for a YAP and/or AAM to like in "Only Skin."

I was planning on combing through the entire song, listing each and every example, but I think it's more effective if you give the song a listen yourself.

Joanna Newsom — Only Skin

Semi-related, I ought to advertise our Ao3 profile as our writing can get heavily inspired by Joanna Newsom's music. It's mostly Breaking Bad fanfiction. Since we are radqueer, our ideology comes through in our writing sometimes. Especially in Peach, Plum, Pear, and yes it's named after a Joanna Newsom song.

Our profile, two_faced_hydra.

Where did they come from? Why are they so cute? I feel such joy when they're around. I wish they could be around all the time but there are barriers ig

We've been thinking about different ways we challenge the norm, trying to give ourselves more support in those areas. One thing we do is create every character as autistic, and we pretty much headcanon every character as autistic, conciously or not. Autism is the default to us, which makes sense. We are all autistic, and extrasystem, we mostly interact with certainly or likely autistic family members and friends.

We get this weird feeling about headcanoning so many characters as autistic. There who people who tend to be accepting of autistic headcanons but will argue with you if the character isn't "obvious" enough. There's this implication that you have to have "good reasons" to headcanon someone as autistic, and that you can't headcanon everyone as autistic, and that you certainly can't change a character's behavior to make them act more autistic when creating fan content.

I think this is a byproduct of autism being seen as lesser, abnormal, and purely medical. It's a shame. As an autistic system, we naturally want to imagine and write characters with similar brains to us, and yet we are expected to include token allistics, lest we be unrealistic or water down the meaning of autism or something.

We're trying to embrace this culture of "autistic takeover" that exists inside us despite external pressure (we also call it "autipunk" dunno if that's been coined yet, also ACA meaning "all characters are autistic"). This "culture" embraces trans autistics, any and all autistic headcanons, autistic world-building, autistics 4 autistics, reinterpreting both fiction and non-fiction to be "more autistic", consensual autistic supremacy, evil autism (having "problematic" traits caused or affected by autism), and more.