Newly-minted TERFgoblin alert

hellsyeschezapocalypse:

thehumanarkle:

thehumanarkle:

thecreach:

Heads-up for people who may have to deal with her: 
Jill Bearup of “Stuff You Like” fame appears to have gone full TERF. In a recent post, she misrepresents an incident where professional transphobe Maria MacLachlan assaulted a much smaller woman at an LGBT event and put her in a headlock, which lead to her being elbowed in self-defense. Bearup uses the warped and incorrect “innocent old lady assaulted by savage men” version put forth by MacLachlan and her ilk. She also prefaces said post with a link to an article called “The Careful, Pragmatic Case Against Punching Nazis“, so it appears that yet semi-famous internet personality shows her true (and indeed very pragmatic) face when it’s become profitable and acceptable to side with fascists and oppressors.

I suggest for everyone who may be targeted by transphobic violence to steer clear of her. 

Sad to say, this is true. http://jillbearup.com/post/165633676124/if-you-strike-them-down-they-will-become-more

She even repeats talking points about transwomen (who she refers to by their genitalia) going into toilets (public restrooms), much the way Right Wing Republicans did last year with the unconstitutional HB 2 to create the narrative that transwomen are just men looking to target “our daughters” for sexual assault when in reality transwomen are much more likely to BE attacked than to attack anyone in public restrooms. https://www.bustle.com/p/what-really-happens-when-a-trans-woman-uses-a-public-restroom-40417 As in, as that article points out, “there are zero reported cases of trans people attacking others in public restrooms[.]”

Oh, and she calls the term TERF a slur. And suggests putting a transwoman in a male prison. Which studies show tends to lead to rape. Of the transwoman. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGBT_people_in_prison#Physical_and_sexual_abuse

As such, unless she walks back and apologizes (doubtful, given that, as a colleague of mine pointed out, “There’s so much detail in it that it can only be deliberate that the chokehold was left out.“) I will no longer be posting her content on the Chez Apocalypse fan Tumblr.

I’d certainly like for this to just be a blip and that she’s really better than that post I linked to implies, but I’m not hopeful. A shame too, as Stuff You Like was often a top priority show for me for the past few years; meaning I would often watch the new episode almost as soon as it showed up in my Subscriptions, sometimes even pausing whatever podcast or Spotify playlist I was in the middle of to watch it. :(

For the past 5 days, I’ve struggled with how I address this here on this page. I didn’t think just sharing what I’d written on my personal page in response to Creature’s post was adequate.

Unfortunately, I’m not sure what else I can say. Jill is a monster. She repeats the kind of rhetoric that in my country has led to cismen to storm women’s restrooms under the guise of “protecting girls” from transwomen. The kind of rhetoric that has led to the murder of transwomen in my country being at epidemic levels the past two years (and that’s just what I’m aware of). She wants to put trans women in men’s prisons where they’re all but guaranteed to get raped. She uses the outdated word transsexual. She calls the term TERF a slur. 

It’s not surprising that her post has taken off in transphobic circles, including people who casually throw around the actual slur “tr***y”. And when I looked at the post again today before writing this, to double check my own comments, I couldn’t help but notice that some comments critical of her were missing.

She is spreading falsehoods to protect hateful people and hurt disadvantaged people, which is in direct contradiction of what I understand to be the core characteristics of Chez. After all, apart from entertaining, it’s also meant to educate. Right?

So effective this past Friday, September 22nd, 2017, Jill Bearup and her content are no longer welcome on this page. Chez has a large number of LGBTQ fans, and they deserve better. As for past posts, I am seriously considering going back and removing them all.

I loved her show. Her pro-fan fiction videos over the years inspired me to not only follow through with a massive fic project I’d done but also to be proud of it without hiding behind my AO3 and FFN pseudonym. I read Grand Central Arena on her recommendation. I take no pleasure in this. I’m not the kind of person who just sits around and waits for Internet Famous people to fuck up so I can knock them off their pedestals. This hurts. This just fucking hurts. :(

And somehow I managed to forget to actually post it TO this blog as opposed to my personal one. *sigh*

end-otw-racism:

End OTW Racism: A Call To Action

A fan protest against the lack of action from the OTW on addressing issues of harassment and racism on AO3 and within the organization

This is a Call To Action for Fans of Color and Allies

AO3 has acknowledged that they have a harassment & racism problem that its parent organization, the Organization for Transformative Works (OTW), needs to address. Currently, people can use AO3 to harass others through fanworks, comments, and tags. Just a few examples include: racist Untamed “spitefic” that used anti-Indigenous slurs and was written specifically to lash out at fans of color; a Transformer fic that used its Black-coded character to reenact George Floyd’s murder in July 2020; someone naming a fandom scholar who criticized their Nazi omegaverse fic in the tags of the fic specifically to incite harassment to the scholar; writers using racial slurs against commenters who pointed out racism in their hockey fic; and so much more.

In June 2020, after the murder of George Floyd, the OTW committed to addressing these issues. It has been nearly three years and they have not yet implemented any of the changes they promised, other than a blocking/muting tool that was already in development before 2020. We need to hold the OTW accountable to their own promises. (See the section further down on “Why Are We Doing This” for even more detail.)

As fans, together, we are powerful. We are organizing to protest the lack of action on promises made by the Organization for Transformative works to deal with issues of racism and harassment on their platform, Archive of Our Own.

We call on fans to do any or all of the following actions any time between May 17 to 31, 2023 to send a message to AO3 and OTW that we will hold them to their promises.

On AO3

• Change the title of ten (or more!) of your most recent or most popular fanworks to include ‘End Racism in the OTW’ in the beginning, and provide a link to this post in your summary or first/top creator’s note
• Post a new fanwork any time between May 17th to 31st with “End Racism in the OTW” either as the title or at the beginning of the title. The fanwork does not have to be long - it can be a 100-word fic, a quick sketch, a podfic of a ficlet, a 20-second vid/edit, a short piece of meta, etc. In the summary or first/top creator’s note, provide a link to this post
• If updating any WIPs with a new chapter, add ‘End Racism in the OTW’ to the title and provide a link back to this post in your summary or first/top author’s note
• Update your AO3 icon using the profile pic graphic in our Social Media Toolkit
• Plan to maintain these changes until May 31, 2023, or longer if you wish
• Send a message to the OTW asking for an update on their 2020 commitments!
• For Readers: leave encouraging comments on fanworks with the “End Racism in the OTW” title to show your support of this initiative.

On tumblr

• Reblog this Call to Action with the tag #End OTW Racism
• Update your profile pics and banners using the graphics in our Social Media Toolkit
• Follow this account for updates and signal boost our posts

On Twitter

• Follow @/EndOTWRacism (remove the backslash) and signal boost our pinned tweet
• Update your profile pics and banners using our graphics, and change your display name to include #EndOTWRacism
• Use sample tweets and graphics from our Social Media Toolkit to tweet about your fanworks, and use the hashtag #EndOTWRacism

Help us make this a long-term campaign - sign up to help with other anti-racism projects and future actions!

What Do We Want?

Since their June 2020 statement, OTW has been working on updating their Terms of Service (TOS) to address racist and bigoted harassment, but with little transparency and only the vaguest of updates. It has been three years since their commitment to this update - we want to see the results of their work implemented in the next 6-12 months. Their TOS updates and complementary policies should include:

• Harassment policies that can be regularly updated to address both on-site harassment and off-site coordinated harassment of AO3 users, with updated protocols for the Policy & Abuse Team to ensure consistent and informed resolutions of abuse claims
• A content policy on abusive (extremely racist and extremely bigoted) content; by abusive, we are talking about fanworks that are intentionally used to spread hate and harassment, not those that accidentally invoke racist or other bigoted stereotypes

These points are not particularly new and are not our own innovation; please refer to Stitch’s article written over two years ago, asking for several of these very things.

OTW has also already committed to various process-based actions for longer-term works towards centering antiracism, including hiring a Diversity Consultant. The last update that OTW published said that the consultant would be hired within the next five years (after already having had three years to work on it since their original commitment). That is not soon enough. We want to see the following process-based actions implemented:

• Hiring a Diversity Consultant within the next 3-6 months
• Committing to a policy of transparency on this topic, with quarterly updates on the progress of these projects including challenges and their plan for overcoming those challenges. These quarterly updates should be published on OTW News page and newsletters, not solely discussed in Board meetings

Why Are We Doing This?

16 years ago, Astolat famously published her manifesto calling for a fandom Archive of One’s Own. In that time, AO3 has grown to be a central pillar of fandom, likely far outstripping its founders’ original vision. It is more than just an archive now; it is a central hub of the modern fannish experience. AO3 and the OTW must continue to grow and evolve with fandom over time to remain a healthy and functioning pillar of fandom. To that end, there are several areas in which the organization, as it admits itself, is lacking.

In June 2020, in the wake of the George Floyd protests and the uprising of the Black Lives Matter Movement, The OTW published a “This Week in Fandom” referencing the works of Dr. Rukmini Pande and Stitch, among others in which they discussed ‘making change for a better society’ through ‘conversations about race and racism’. In response, Dr. Pande and Stitch submitted a letter to the OTW calling for a more formal public statement than an offhand reference in a News Roundup that only served to call for thoughts and discussion without any indication the organization intended to do anything, policy wise, to address the issues being raised.

Eventually, the organization did remove the references to the works of Dr. Pande and Stitch and then made an official statement on the issue of racism within the organization and AO3. In it, they identified several things they would be prioritizing to combat harassment and benefit users. Some of those have been implemented (notably those that were already under development). However as of this writing, little else has been done especially in regards to:

• Improving admin tools for the Policy & Abuse team
• Reassessing the current mandatory archive warnings with the possibility of implementing others
• And, most importantly, reviewing the Terms of Service (TOS) to allow the Policy & Abuse team to address harassment that is currently not covered by the existing TOS

By their own admission, the current tools and policies of the OTW are not sufficient to deal with issues of harassment and racism.

Several people who were involved in the founding of the OTW, including previous OTW Board members and staff on the original OTW Content Policy Committee, acknowledge that the founding of the OTW in 2008 and early board iterations failed us as a fandom by not doing enough, and by not even considering the way racism is perpetuated in fannish spaces, despite a long history of racism in fandom.

It has been nearly three years since the original commitment by the organization with little visible, measurable progress on these three crucial issues and a complete lack of transparency on where they are in regards to even beginning to deal with these issues. In fact, in Q&As, it was heavily implied by a member of the board that those calling for OTW to deal with issues of racism (which OTW had already acknowledged as a problem!) were not really fans but outside agitators.

This has cast significant doubt on the organization’s sincerity and commitment to their stated goals, and on their position as leaders of a central fan tent-pole. Fans of color are not outsiders. They are right here, members of our community, and they are being harassed and targeted and driven out while space and platforms are being given to racists.

We, as fans of color and our allies, find the current state of fandom and current actions (and lack thereof) unacceptable. Fandom is our space, all of ours. We, as a fandom, have a right to a racism-free space and have a duty to our fellow fans to create that space. Unlike so much of the world, this is a space we can control and make better. It is a space we must make better.

To read even more about this movement, visit our FAQs.

Picking A Lightbulb, Made Easy →

npr:

We have some tips to help you learn what you need to know to avoid ending up with lights that hurt your eyes or just make you feel tired. Being a little more conscious about what lights you buy and when you use them also could improve your sleeping habits.

Here are five takeaways to help you get just the right light for the different rooms in your home.

Listen to or read the story at NPR.org

(Source: NPR)

Picking A Lightbulb, Made Easy →

npr:

We have some tips to help you learn what you need to know to avoid ending up with lights that hurt your eyes or just make you feel tired. Being a little more conscious about what lights you buy and when you use them also could improve your sleeping habits.

Here are five takeaways to help you get just the right light for the different rooms in your home.

Listen to or read the story at NPR.org

(Source: NPR)

black-nata:

nessa007:

2020 mood be like

planet earth since 10,000BC mood

montereybayaquarium:

Rey the penguin wanted to go in the tunnel 😭🐧❤️

This pengwinning content is brought to you by Aviculturist Kim! Thank you, Kim, for sharing a little Rey of sunshine with us!

sosuperawesome:

Lim Heng Swee on Instagram / Society6

I forgot to tag @copperbadge

(via mangy-mongrel)

doctorheebiejeebies:

practice social distancing by going to one of those vampire castles where the vampire will encourage you to stay for dinner but you have to sit at opposite ends of an extremely long table

(via black-nata)

'Stay home,' urges widow of 51-year-old Ontario man who died of COVID-19 →

allthecanadianpolitics:

As COVID-19 spreads through Canada and infects hundreds of people, the widow of a 51-year-old Ontario man who died of the disease is urging Canadians to listen to health officials to prevent the spread of the virus and whenever possible stay at home.

“I think that people aren’t taking this seriously enough,” Teri Cunnington told CTV News from her home in Milton, Ont.

Sean Cunnington, a salesman, musician and father of three from Milton, Ont., developed flu-like symptoms on March 4 and began experiencing night sweats. Shortly afterward, he developed a cough.

Sean had a form of chronic leukemia, but was otherwise healthy and physically active. He did not rely on any medication.

After two days of struggling at home, Sean was urged by his wife to visit the hospital. He was not tested for COVID-19 because he did not fit the criteria at the time, which specified foreign travel to any country with COVID-19 cases as a risk factor.

“It was basically dismissed because he had not travelled anywhere. He’s not been out of Ontario, he’s not really been out of southern Ontario,” Teri said.

Continue Reading.

Tagging: @politicsofcanada @abpoli

(Source: ctvnews.ca, via sciencetynan)

sosuperawesome:

Lim Heng Swee on Instagram / Society6

(via copperbadge)

copperbadge:

adelicateculturecell:

Journey to the Microcosmos:  Tardigrades: Chubby, Misunderstood, & Not Immortal

Images originally captured by Jam’s Germs

Thank you @airyearthgirl for inspiring me to gif these amazing lines

Tardigrades are just the best. 

(via copperbadge)

The Housemaid Who Discovered Stars

historical-nonfiction:

In the 1870s, the Harvard College Observatory director was frustrated with his staff, and would often say “My Scottish maid could do better!” When he hired her officially in 1879, Williamina Fleming proved he had been right all along.

She spent two years doing astronomical clerical work, then in 1881 Pickering invited Fleming to formally join the Harvard Collage Observatory and taught her how to analyze stellar spectra. She became one of the founding members of the Harvard Computers, an all-women group of human computers hired by Pickering to compute mathematical classifications and edit the observatory’s publications. 

Williamina ran an astronomy team for decades, publishing a classification system of tens of thousands of stars, discovering a total of 59 gaseous nebulae, over 310 variable stars, and 10 novae. One of her most famous discoveries (among astronomers, anyways) was the Horsehead Nebula in 1888.

(Source: Wikipedia, via scientistsarepeopletoo)

ucsdhealthsciences:

I’m worried I have COVID-19. What do I do?

March 20, 2020, 9:00 a.m. – With anxieties running high about COVID-19, the illness caused by a novel coronavirus, your first thought at the first signs of feeling under the weather may be: do I have it?

First, the symptoms of COVID-19 are any one or more of these:

• Fever
• New cough
• New shortness of breath or difficulty breathing
• Persistent scratchy throat

These symptoms appear an average of 5 to 6 days after exposure, but may appear in as few as two days or as long as 14 days after exposure.

What to do:

• Stay home.
• Contact your health care provider by phone for guidance about managing your illness.

If you are a UC San Diego Health patient, please call the COVID-19 nurse line at 1-800-926-8273. The line is available seven days a week, 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. The nurse will ask a series of questions, then you may be connected to a health care provider via MyChart Video Visit for further assessment and instruction. Get the latest info here: health.ucsd.edu/covid

If you’re an older patient, have underlying medical conditions or you are immunocompromised, please contact your physician early in the course of even mild illness.

While you await instructions from your health care provider:

• Stay away from others. As much as possible, you should stay in a specific room and away from other people in your home. Use a separate bathroom, if available.
• Avoid sharing personal household items.
• Clean all high-touch surfaces daily, such as counters, doorknobs, bathroom fixtures.

For more information, visit the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) page on What To Do if You Are Sick.

Will I be tested for COVID-19?
If UC San Diego Health’s COVID-19 nurse line determines you meet the criteria to be tested, you will be given further instructions on where to go.

At this time, while reagents are still limited, most health care providers cannot make tests available to all who request it. At UC San Diego Health, our infection prevention specialists have established criteria that assure tests are reserved for patients who need them the most. They are working hard to increase testing capacity, and are looking forward to relaxing the criteria for receiving a test as more materials become available to us and other testing laboratories in Southern California.

Stuck at home? Here’s an isolation survival post:

marst-n:

(Everything here is free to use! Feel free to add on. Links were purposefully broken to avoid Tumblr’s spam prevention.)

Social:

• discordapp.com/ - Like Skype but better, more accessible, smoother, and with more features. Call, play games, and chat with friends.
• twitch.tv/ - Watch and chat with people doing everything from gaming to cooking to teaching.
  

Reading:

• whichbook.net/ - helps you find what book to read
  
• overdrive.com/ - Free audiobooks through your public library
• standardebooks.org/ebooks/ - Free ebooks
  
• rbdigital.com/ - Free audiobooks and ebooks through your public library
  

Movies:

• www.kanopy.com/ - Free movies through your public library
• www.ted.com/ - Watch lots of educational and inspiring talks

Hobbies:

• join.skillshare.com/ - Learn how to do virtually anything with 2 free months of premium
  
• scratch.mit.edu/ - Make a game or movie, super easy to use, good introductory programming “language”
• gimp.org/downloads/ - Free photoshop-like program.
  
• twinery.org/ - Make a text-based game
  
• pixologic.com/sculptris/ - make 3D models
  
• unity.com/ - Make a 3D game
  
• yoyogames.com/gamemaker - make a 2D game
• spotify.com/us/ - Listen to music
  
• travelandleisure.com/attractions/museums-galleries/museums-with-virtual-tours - Museums with virtual tours
  

Dungeons and Dragons: (play over Discord!) (DM me if you want PDFs of the Handbooks)

• probablybadrpgideas.tumblr.com/post/612459866001391616/basic-rules-for-dungeons-dragons-dungeons - The Basics
• entertainment.howstuffworks.com/leisure/brain-games/beginners-guide-dungeons-and-dragons.htm - Learn to play
  
• roll20.net/ - Make maps/play online
  

Video Games:

• itch.io/ - play hundreds of games
• freegameplanet.com/ - Even more free games!
  
• dolphin-emu.org/ - Play Gamecube and Wii games
  

Phone Apps:

• sourceforge.net/projects/gameboid/ - Play gameboy games
• smartphones.gadgethacks.com/how-to/10-must-play-free-puzzle-games-for-iphone-android-0178848/ - list of puzzle games

Cooking:

• fridgetotable.com/ - Input ingredients you have and get recipes you can make.
  
• youtube.com/user/DepressionCooking - Learn how to cook with limited ingredients from a lovely old woman who lived during the Great Depression
• butterwithasideofbread.com/homemade-bread/ - Make bread with yeast
  
• letsdishrecipes.com/traditional-irish-soda-bread/ - Make bread without yeast
  

Other tips:

• Take care of yourself (eat well, shower often, wear clean clothes, exercise, clean your space)
• Talk with people
• Do what makes you happy
• Take time away from screens
• Play – with your pets, your kids, your friends. Keep yourself active and busy and happy.

(via listening-to-thunder)

montereybayaquarium:

Hey Tumblr friends! If you’ve been enjoying our Morning MeditOceans, the third one is now up on YouTube! We started the day watching the wild Monterey Bay… and it waved back! 🌊👋