World’s Smallest Cat: Rusty Spotted Cat | “He may look like a kitten, he’d still fit in the palm of your hand – but this little male is very nearly fully grown. [..] What he lacks in size… he makes up for in daring.”
CVS will charge $109.99 for a two-pack of the generic version of Adrenaclick, a lesser-known treatment than EpiPen, which can cost more than $600, the Associated Press reported. The products are auto-injectors that contain the hormone epinephrine and provide emergency treatment for potentially deadly allergic reactions to foods such as nuts and eggs and to insect bites and stings.The drug store chain said it cut the price of the generic version of Adrenaclick nearly in half and that the lower price is available in all its stores. The new price applies to both insured patients and those who pay cash without coverage, and is what customers will pay at the pharmacy counter, the AP reported.
$50 each is still entirely too expensive, but it’s better than nothing. Readers, take note!
institutional power does not disappear because the person holding the institutional power belongs to an oppressed group
I have been sexually assaulted by hospital staff who were men, I have been sexually assaulted by staff who were women. the fact that they were women did not prevent them from harming me the same way the staff who were men harmed me
I’ve had trans nurses enforce transphobic psych ward policy and it was quite obvious that the nurses had picked the only trans nurse to talk to me and the other trans patient about the policy because the nurses believed if it was a trans person who was enforcing the policy we would somehow be more okay with it
you could fill psychiatry with the most diverse group of women, people of colour, mentally ill people, trans people, and psychiatry would still be oppressive and people would still get hurt
locking people up in institutions, sexually assaulting them, putting them in restraints and seclusion, is harmful. doing harm to another person does not become less harmful because the perpetuator of the harm has the same identity as the person they are hurting
the psychiatrist writes down in my medical file that I don’t seem to be truly trans, that I wear baggy clothes to conceal my true female nature and to deceive people into thinking that I am a boy. the psychiatrist diagnoses me with borderline personality disorder
a few months earlier, a different psychiatrist writes down in my medical file that I am not truly psychotic and that I am either faking or confused, and also that I am “confused” about my gender. the previously referenced psychiatrist will highly praise this psychiatrist’s report, saying it is an excellent assessment of me. this psychiatrist diagnoses me with borderline personality disorder
a year later, a third psychiatrist tells me I may identify as male, but I have a “female brain”, which is what causes me to have bpd. he diagnoses me with borderline personality disorder
I see endless psychiatrists. they give over a dozen different diagnoses. bpd is always there, always waiting to pop up and remind me of how I am truly seen.
I tell people I hear voices, I am told that I am faking, I am diagnosed with borderline personality disorder
I tell people I was sexually assaulted, I am told that I am faking, I am diagnosed with borderline personality disorder
I tell people I am trans, I am told that I am faking, I am diagnosed with borderline personality disorder
I am hospitalized. maybe it was the sixth time, maybe it was the third time, the psychiatrist, I ask her what my diagnosis is. she tells me I have bpd, I smile bitterly. she asks, why are you smiling?
I read about bpd. I read blog posts, peer reviewed studies, self help books, books on how to divorce me, how to reclaim your life from me, how I must be abusive, how I am lying about being abused. I try to find a single solitary strain of The BPD Experience that I can relate to, that I can hold onto, that I can say, well sure, people use this diagnosis against me, but at least it describes my experiences. I search for people diagnosed with bpd who hear voices, who have been abused, who have complicated relationship with the names given to their suffering. I find people who talk about the relief they felt when they were told they had bpd, and I think about the terror I feel each time it is brought up as a diagnosis. I find people who hate bpd and it’s symptoms, I cannot imagine conceiving of my experiences as symptoms of bpd, I cannot imagine conceiving of myself as having bpd
I see my current psychiatrist. he asks all the bpd questions, Do you feel your emotions are more intense than other people’s? I say no. I mistakenly believe that if I give all the wrong answers I can stave off the diagnosis. when the day comes to reveal my diagnosis, he does it carefully. he first asks me what diagnoses I would give myself. I list them, and then conclude by saying that I “guess” that I “might” have “some sort” of personality disorder. I say this as a concession, in the hopes that maybe he will listen to my other concerns and not make bpd the main diagnosis. he hands me a photocopy of the dsm criteria for bpd and asks me which ones I relate to, if any. when I am finished, he asks me which ones I disagree with, his concession to me
the diagnosis comes, inevitably, and I hate it, inevitably. I write an endless string of diary entries about how I hate being diagnosed with bpd!!!! I would rather die than be diagnosed with it!!!! I type, how borderline of me!!!! to get so angry over nothing. to have any emotion about anything, ever at all
I try to be as emotionless as possible, I try to pretend the criteria don’t apply to me. because if they don’t, then maybe i’m not an Evil Manipulative Faking Psycho, maybe i’m a Real Person. but it doesn’t work. somehow they can all see through my disguise, somehow the deep down evil within my soul is revealed within one psychiatric interview each time
i write out a list of reasons i don’t want to be diagnosed with bpd and hand them to my psychiatrist. he says he’ll read them. i doubt that he does
i visit the ER sporadically. i tell a nurse of my frightening voices and visions. she tells me the things i am describing don’t happen to people with bpd. she asks the real reason i am there. i don’t know how to explain this is the real reason, so i lie and say i’d rather not say. she seems pleased, like I’ve revealed my true, lying, manipulative nature. like she’s exposed me for what i am
i discuss the origins of my symptoms with my psychiatrist. i am focused on talking about the connection between trauma and my present behaviours, so as to better understand them; my psychiatrist is focused on changing my behaviours. i mention that it is hard for me to try to change behaviours when i can’t even admit that they are there, for to admit that would be to admit that i am a borderline
he looks surprised, and holding his clipboard, he looks up at me and asks, “But why wouldn’t you want to be diagnosed with bpd?”
One day that tiny baby will be a big shark able to rip people to shreds
most blacktip reef sharks are no more than 5.5ft long when mature. not only that, blacktip reef sharks are timid and shy, with no fatal human attacks documented. don’t comment stuff like this on my posts, save it for another post and stay off mine. thanks
There is lots of prehistoric sharks, including some that haven’t even been discovered yet! Megalodon is the most commonly known prehistoric shark, but there are lots of others.
everyone, especially trans lesbians and gay trans men, should be sure to block & report a blog that’s shown up here recently called “youre-not-passing” which reblogs mostly trans lesbian and gay trans men’s selfies with nothing but insults and deliberate misgendering. quite a few members of our community have already been targeted by the terf running the blog, along with their followers. please be on the lookout and be safe. if enough people report them, hopefully their blog will be removed, but in the meantime i advise you all to block the blog so that you’re not targeted, i also encourage everyone to reach out to those who have been targeted and make sure they’re okay and give them some love and validation. be safe y’all
also PLEASE reblog this and share with other people so they’re aware !!!! i just wanna make sure everyone’s safe
Hey trans day of visibility is coming up soon (March 31st) and there’s going to be a lot of selfies posted so please signal boost this post
Also go to that link above and block quickly, please don’t torture yourself and go through their blog. I did, and it’s disgusting and awful.
also on desktop you can go to your blog’s settings and block by typing in the url on the list of blocked users! it only seems to block them from interacting with the blog you do it from, but you won’t even need to look when you do it that way
dear Christian friends! since we’re now approaching Easter and Pesach…
if you’re a Christian in the US, you’ve probably seen a church advertise a seder. [a seder (lit: order) is a Jewish festive meal, often for the holiday of Pesach, or Passover]. churches will often put on seders for Easter in a misguided attempt to connect to the last supper, or will use it to celebrate Pesach in a Christian manner. this might have happened in your church. you might have attended it.
[psa: i don’t blame you for being taught that this was okay! but,] here are some reasons why that’s a problem:
seders are a specifically Jewish ritual. the same concerns about appropriation apply here–this is a sacred practice by us and for us, and if you’re not invited to participate (which often happens! talk to your Jewish friends!), it is harmful for you to take our ritual and use it to suit your own purposes.
Jesus was a Jew. cool! let’s talk about it! interfaith dialogue is my jam. but Christianity has been a separate tradition from Judaism for 2000 years. you have your own holy traditions and practices, as do we, and all of those have changed over the last two millenia. Jesus’ Judaism looked very different than today’s, not least because he lived in a time when there was still a Temple in Jerusalem. in his time, Pesach focused on a physical korban, or sacrifice at the Temple, and the rabbinic extrapolations that formed the modern seder had not been set down in writing. while the modern seder uses ritual foods and texts to recall or fulfill similar functions to the korbanot, it is not the same as a celebration of Pesach that would have occurred during the Second Temple Era. that the holy figure of your faith celebrated a ritual that shares ancient roots with our modern ones does not entitle you to the modern ritual.
the above applies whether or not the last supper was in fact a Pesach meal. biblical historians can debate this more completely than i can, but in either case, the modern Jewish seder is the result of 2000 years of Jewish development independent of Christianity. it is not yours.
also, given that one of the central tenets of our tradition is that Moshiach, or the messiah, has not yet come, it’s pretty squicky for us to see a messianic group appropriating a Jewish practice in service of their messiah.
also, you all have some pretty cool practices as far as i can see! you have a beautiful and vast tradition to draw from when celebrating Easter and other holidays. why appropriate when you could be celebrating something wholly your own?
the history of antisemitism is long and checkered, and unfortunately has quite a lot to do with Christianity. Christianity has been a major body in the oppression, disenfranchisement, and murder of Jews for centuries. whether accusing us of killing Jesus, relegating us to ghettoes, perpetuating damaging stereotypes, limiting our citizenship, encouraging and engaging in large-scale murders of Jewish communities, expelling us from cities and nations, forcing conversions, or many, many other acts of antisemitic violence over the years, the church has consistently given religious power to antisemitic positions. while this has improved in certain places in recent years, it’s a long history. and its effects are still felt today–even in Christian-majority places where physical violence has become less common (though by no means absent), Jews have to fight for our ability to celebrate real Pesach, often facing the possibility of retaliation when taking time off of work or school, while Christian holidays are made federal. elsewhere, Jews continue to hide in our homes during the Easter season to avoid those set on revenge for Jesus’ death. it rankles when anyone takes our traditions, but when the people in question are part of a legacy that has, through physical and institutional violence, prevented us from celebrating them ourselves, it is all the more harmful.
antisemitism related to Pesach specifically has also had a massive and devastating impact on Jewish communities around the globe. the blood libel, one of the most pernicious antisemitic myths, accuses Jews of kidnapping and murdering Christian children in order to use their blood to make matzah, the unleavened bread used in Pesach seders. it has been used to call all Jews child-killers, bloodthirsty, predatory, and cruel. it was an impetus behind most of the major European-Christian acts of antisemitic violence, including the Inquisition, the Holocaust, and pogroms, and is still in use today, all around the world. the very observance of Pesach has been shaped by this violence–for example, many Ashkenazi Jewish communities still have a practice of using white or raisin wine instead of red for their seders, simply because the danger of being killed for having a cup of red liquid on a Pesach table was so great. for the right to celebrate this holiday in particular, millions (and no, i am not exaggerating) of Jews have been murdered. Pesach is a celebration of our freedom from bondage, but it has also been a time of fear. you can have a seder on a whim. we put our lives on the line.
please respect our history. if you have questions, my inbox is always open, and if you’d like to learn what a real seder is like, so is my door!
SO, what can you do? if you see a local church advertising a seder and are in a position to speak out, do so. if you’re not, that’s okay. but start these conversations whenever you can. and you can always, of course, get in touch with your local Jewish community and learn about actual Jewish practices! appropriation is not the only way to connect to Jews or Judaism. let’s celebrate these springtime holidays in the spirit of interfaith understanding!
Urocyon's Jaunts 2.0 
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