What I mean: Modern country music, especially songs sung by modern male country artists, revolves around similar themes of toxic masculinity and nationalism. The recurrent lyrics referencing guns, trucks, beer and girls in short shorts are uncreative and not entertaining in the least. However, older country artists and folk rock bands such as Creedence Clearwater Revival and Johnny Cash have stronger, more diverse themes and often carry an overt anti-war message. I hate the fact that what was once an interesting and powerful genre of music has now been claimed by gun-toting conservative bearded dudes, and it hurts my heart to say I hate country music when there are so many country artists that I very much enjoy, but cannot state the fact that I enjoy country music without being associated with the aforementioned group.
If you are considering meeting up with someone online use this trick identify who really are who they claim to be:
1. Ask them to Skype 2. If they refuse or can’t for some reason ask for a current selfie 3. If they also refuse or can’t do not meet up with them 4. If they provide one ask them to send another with them holding 3 fingers up 5. If they refuse read step 3 6. If they provide a selfie where they show 3 fingers they are probably for real
(If you’re still unconvinced try again with them drawing something in their hand)
I SAY THIS FOR YOUR OWN SAFETY please spread this message as more and more young people are lured out into situations where they get kidnapped because they weren’t 100% sure the person they were talking to was real.
ALSO IF YOU ARE UNDER THE AGE OF 18 MAKE SURE YOU STATE THE FOLLOWING:
“My [fill in trusted adult here] wants to come too. [pronoun] said we can do our own thing and [pronoun] will just sort of grab [pronoun] own table, but I wanted to let you know. Hey, if you have an adult coming too they could sit together!”
If hearing this freaks the other person out and they decline, TERMINATE ALL CONTACT. Do not pass go, do not collect $200, go directly to block. I’m 26 years old and if you tell me you’re coming with a friend or parent for your own safety, I will automatically say “hey, cool. Y’know, if you’re nervous we can just do Starbucks or something, I’m okay meeting in a busy place. That way your [adult/friend] can hang out, too, and they don’t have to pay for [admission, a movie ticket, whatever].” Your safety and comfort is important to me, and is important to any good person you meet online who wants to meet up IRL. In the early 2000s when I first started seeing online safety PSAs, this was a widely-spread tip. Use it.
And for the record, you can use this over the age of 18, too. I still won’t meet people from online except in public places. You never know–that person holding up three fingers and drawing a Pokemon on their palm could be some pervert’s child, niece, nephew, family friend’s kid who was encouraged to take some silly pictures. Always voice-verify and always meet in public, with another person if possible.
Be smart and stay safe, kiddos. Nina loves you.
This is all so important for everyone and especially my younger followers.
Anyone who is being upfront with who they are and who you can trust will do whatever they need to do to make you and your parents/guardians comfortable. Hence why I am constantly requesting to too-busy-dancing13 to FaceTime her mom…
Please please please listen to this. Not everyone out there can be trusted.
FUCKING SIGNAL BOOST!!
I’m in my 30s. My long-time internet friend is also in her 30s. She lives in Chicago area. When a work trip took me out that way, we arranged to meet up.
In a public place.
With members of her family there.
You’re never too old for this kind of basic safety stuff. Don’t be too casual about it. I knew her for 12 years before we met in person and I was absolutely not insulted that she still wanted that extra layer of protection.
Anyone who blows off your desire to be safe isn’t really your friend and isn’t safe to meet.
Okay, this never happens. I just sat down for a solid 3 and a half hours and wrote a fic from start to end in a draft format that closely resembles mid-draft as opposed to first draft. My concentration never wavered.
I’m afraid
Reblog for the concentration wizard to visit you and let you get super far in your WIP
my prof, a fool: and in the 1995 bbc adaptation of pride and prejudice, you’ll see that darcy is often presented with water symbolism–the bath scene, emerging from the pond–and, given this, we can deduce that this means-
me, an intellectual: that bbc knew what they had with colin firth and did us all a solid
you, a fool: lmao my prof is so dumb talking about symbolism the filmmakers probably didn’t even intend because they were actually just thirsting over colin firth like any reasonable person
your prof, an intellectual: o shit if I come up with a semi-plausible academic reason to talk about it I can spend an entire week of lectures with pictures of soaked colin firth on the screen and make my students write essays on a topic I can daydream my way through the grading of.
Me, to a cis person: “have you….have you had…the surgery?”
Cis person: “what surgery?”
Me: “the one that removes your head from your ass”
Care for an anecdote? I call this one Cis People Are Crazy, and it’s a lil sumthin sumthin that will come as no surprise whatsoever to any trans person.
So, due to All Of The Most Recent Bullshit, I was at a trans support rally in my city yesterday with my family. Some nice person was handing out these big pretty heart stickers with the trans pride flag colors on them, like this:
We all got one. I put mine on the hoodie I was wearing, which I wear a version of basically every day, right? It’s the Cringeandwince uniform.
So, without giving it much thought, I put that hoodie on again today and go food shopping, and – this is dense as fuck, but it took me a few minutes to figure out why so many people were acting weirder than usual towards me.
I got a lot of looks.
I got mainly curiosity from people who noticed at all. But I also received open hostility from two separate White dudes about my age, over-the-top/smile-too-big kindness from a White woman a little older than me, and total, disaggregating confusion from my White 30s male cashier after he asked me what the sticker meant and I told him. As in, my presence coupled with the very concept of trans people seemed to have this guy on the verge of simply falling apart, joint by joint, atomically, behind his register. It was like he blew a fuckin gasket, ok.
For people who don’t know me well enough to know who I am – I’m a straight, mixed Native cis woman in her 40s. While I don’t think I’ve ever been misgendered, I am about 5′10″ and built like a brick shithouse, and I wear mainly “men’s” clothing (black hoodie, blue jeans, hiking boots); the word “butch” has been thrown my way in the past. I also however have very long hair and wear long earrings.
The gamut of reactions today was pretty interesting because I’m a middle-aged woman – I’m almost roundly ignored in public these days, utterly invisible. But the presence of that trans pride sticker changed that on a dime. I left the store thinking to myself, Jesus Christ, this is the most interested people have been about what’s in between my legs since I was about 25.
So, hey, other cis people? Just a suggestion that a lot of us may be looking like total gormless morons – possibly abject fuckwits, maybe even vacuous clowns??? – when we interact with trans people a lot of the time. Try to be aware of this if you ain’t already because: it’s fucking annoying as hell, kinda scary, really really boring, and weird.
Not sure I’ve ever read a more comprehensive summary of How People Stare at Me ™ before now.
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