So I was out to eat and this child(maybe 3 years old) in the booth next to us started crying loudly. The mom tried to calm him down but he started to go into tantrum mode and fussed even more. So she picked him up and walked out of the restaurant to a bench outside our window. We could hear her ask him, “look at me, what’s upsetting you?” To which he responded with more crying. So she says, “Well you’re clearly overwhelmed, so we’re going to sit out here and take a break until you can compose yourself and tell me what’s wrong.” Which is exactly what happened after a couple minutes. Anyways I just think it’s so good to speak to your children in a logical, respectful manner instead of shushing them and leaving them to deal with their stress alone.
this is such a surreal way to calm a child down like is a three year old really going to understand you like that ….
Yes, if it’s what they’re used to. It has to be consistent though, you can’t, like, suddenly start doing it one day and expect them to understand.
It also helps if you kind of narrate your own emotions when you’re upset even just over little things, like ‘oh! I just can’t get this to lay flat, but I really want to! I got mad because I couldn’t get it to work, and that’s frustrating!’
It feels silly at first, but it models it for them and helps them understand how to communicate (and recognize) their own emotions.
I think I reblogged the original post before, but I love and appreciate the further explanation. All in all this is a great practice, but some parents either don’t do it consistently, or aren’t taking in other factors (like, can your child process your words right now? Sometimes they can’t because EMOTIONS!) OR they do this without removing them from the stressor/stressful situation, and then their kid is overwhelmed and has no idea what their parent is saying to them. You need to look at your kid and make sure they’re taking in your words, and also not expect them to respond like an adult would.
You can also easily simplify the language, to something like “Hey what’s going on?” or “let’s get some space”/”I’m going to give you space” or “let’s take a break and take some deep breaths”
I’ve seen parents who just totally take this and start speaking to their children in ways that their child legitimately cannot understand, not necessarily because of their age, but because they have no context, or are too overwhelmed by outside factors, OR because their parents are expecting them to process words they’re not used to (consistency and modeling are key) and then demanding an adult response. That’s stressful. Using this kind of language with kids is GREAT to get your kids more in touch with their emotions and actions, but it’s important that you’re doing it correctly, paying attention to how your child responds, and providing them with a model in your own actions and interactions.
I work in education and how that parent in the first post helped their child calm down is exactly what we do when I work in preK through 1st grade classrooms.
I also do this with my own children and it ‘s incredibly helpful. Small children are able to tell you what’s wrong and tell you how they feel if they’re given the tools to do so.
Common mistakes parents make:
-Assuming this will work right away. It won’t. It takes time for kids to get used to this. Parents/families need to use this frequently, consistently, and using language children can understand.
-By not staying calm themselves. This will not work if you let your own emotions/frustrations get in the way. When this happens frustrated parents want the kids to ‘hurry up and tell them what’s wrong’. Kids can tell you’re upset/frustrated/impatient. This can make things worse. You as a parent/caregiver need to remain calm as well.
-Use language that the child doesn’t understand (as Enog mentioned above). Use language that your child CAN understand. A big thing you need to do even when your child isn’t upset is to identify feelings. Do this all the time. When a child can’t identify emotions, they have a hard time dealing with them. Use accessible language and model identifying as well as healthy ways to deal with various emotions.
-Failing to remove the child from a stressful situation. This is a VERY COMMON mistake parents and caregivers make. Young children in particular have a hard time focusing/calming down when overwhelmed. Some parents/caregivers expect the child to calm down while overwhelmed get frustrated with the child when this method doesn’t work. Be sure to remove your child from the stressful situation or stimulus before asking them to tell you what is wrong.
Many people won’t get it right the first time. Recognizing the frequent mistakes above will help parents/caregivers from making these errors.
My mom was also taught in my brothers daycare that you can start communicating with kids under 4 to get them used to communicating and to try and make the world seem less chaotic. They would tell the kids if they were going to stop playing in 10 minutes or change their diapers or eat or whatever. And as strange as it sounds that toddlers actually became less fussy and it really made the parents start paying attention to their kids and making sure that they were communicating. I’ve seen so many young kids have a tantrum because their parent just picks them up from playing and takes them instead of giving them a five or ten minute warning that might have made it so there was no problem at all. I’m sure it would set them up for everything mentioned in this post. I hate people that act like you shouldn’t communicate with kids or try and help them understand what’s going on around them, I just always think of how overwhelming and scary being a kid, and especially a very young child, can be.
^Important. 😀
Omg it’s so important to talk to kids about what’s going on even if they’re newborns and you think they can’t understand, at some point (long before they can talk themselves) they do and they learn that their feelings, needs and boundaries matter, that they’re people not objects to be moved about and acted upon
Research shows babies understand the gist of what parents are saying as early as six months. Explaining things to babies and toddlers like they’re real people who can understand you (which they are) is incredibly powerful and good for their brain and social development! For example, I was recently hanging out with parents who are really good at this. The one year old was fussing as my friend tried to get him to eat, and so she communicated everything she was doing with him. “I see that you don’t want the apple sauce right now. Is your tummy full? Let’s try the noodles. No, I can see you’re making a face, so I don’t think you want those. How about your bottle?” Etc. This starts an early precedent of clear communication and showing that you care and understand a child’s needs. Even when I was saying goodbye to the family, that kiddo clearly had no idea what was going on, and mom still made a point to say, “Sequoia is going home now, so we say goodbye. Bye Sequoia!” instead of saying bye without involving him.
Samhain (Oct 31)
Food and Drink of Samhain: Turnips, apples and apple cider, gourds, nuts, mulled wines, beef, pork, poultry, ale, bram brack (dark loaf or cake made with dried fruit), corn, mugwort tea, pumpkin, squash, and colcannon
Boxty Cakes
1 C. raw, grated potato
1 C. cooked mashed potatos (leftover is fine)
1 onion, minced fine (optional – for savory boxty pancakes)
1 C. all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking powder1 tsp. salt
1 egg, beaten
1 C. buttermilk
2 tbsp. butter
In a med. mixing bowl, combine the grated potato, onion (if using), and buttermilk (this keeps the potato from discoloring). In a large mixing bowl, sift together flour, salt, and baking powder. Add grated potato mixture, egg, and mashed potato. Mix well. Batter should be about the texture of thick pancake batter. Add additional flour or buttermilk if necessary. Melt butter in a heavy skillet or on a griddle.Over medium heat, drop large spoonfuls of boxty batter into skillet, making approximately 6" pancakes.
Brown well on both sides.
Cheesy Potatoes
12 medium potatoes, peeled, cooked & roughly mashed
2 Eggs; well beaten
250g Cream cheese, softened
1 teaspoon Salt
¼ cup Butter
Pepper
½ cup Sour cream
¼ slice Green onions
½ cup Milk
½ cup grated tasty cheese
Mix potatoes with remaining ingredients. Mix well, but lightly; do not whip! Place in a greased 20cm round casserole dish and bake in a preheated 150°C oven for approx 45 minutes.
Colcannon
1 lb. of cabbage or kale, cooked
1 lb. potatoes, cubed and boiled until tender
2 leeks, cleaned well and chopped, or green onions
1 C. whole milk or light cream
½ C. butter, melted
salt and pepper, to taste
pinch of ground mace (optional)
Boil kale or cabbage in lightly salted water until tender. Chop.
Bring milk or cream to a simmer in a medium saucepan. Add leeks and cook until soft.
Drain potatoes, add salt and pepper to taste (and optional mace). Beat until fluffy.
Return potatoes to pot over a low flame.
Add milk with leeks.
Beat in cooked kale or cabbage until green and fluffy.
Remove from heat and serve.
Optional:
Make a well in the middle of each portion and divide butter evenly among servings, filling each well.
Dip each bite of colcannon in butter before eating.
Cream Cheese Potato Pie
1 egg, beaten
1 10 oz package cream cheese, softened
3 cups mashed potatoes
1/3 cup milk
1/3 cup Italian bread crumbs
2 Tablespoons sweet basil
¾ Teaspoon garlic salt
½ cup shredded cheese
Stir egg and cream cheese together until well mixed. Cream potatoes and milk together.
Add both these mixtures to the same bowl, along with bread crumbs and spices. Mix
until creamy and smooth. Turn into greased 8-inch pie pan and smooth out evenly. You can also
choose to make a nice pie crust to line the pan with, but it’s just as good without the crust. Bake
at 350 degrees for 30 minutes until pie puffs up a little and starts to brown slightly. Remove from
oven, top with shredded cheese, and allow to cool before serving.
Fairy Spice Cakes
These delicious cakes are best left in the garden for the Elemental Folk on nights of Wiccan significance, such as Samhain or Lammas.
½ cup sweet Muscat wine
2 tablespoons fine brown sugar
1 large egg
⅔ cup flour
½ teaspoon poppy seeds
⅛ teaspoon ground cinnamon
⅛ teaspoon ground nutmeg
⅛ teaspoon salt
Sunflower oil for frying
Mix the egg and the Muscat wine in a bowl. In a smaller bowl, mix together the flour, poppy seeds, cinnamon, sugar and salt. Stir this into the egg mixture. Let it stand for about ½ hour. Combine the nutmeg and honey in a small bowl. Heat some oil in a frying pan (about ½ inch in the bottom) until it’s hot. Drop the batter into the oil one generous spoonful each time and fry until golden. Place on paper towels to drain and then dip into the honey mix. Delicious!
Golden Herb Rolls
2/3 cup milk
½ cup (1 stick) butter or margarine
¼ cup water
4 cups all-purpose flour, divided
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1 package quick-rising yeast
2 teaspoons dried savory leaves, crushed
1 teaspoon salt
¾ teaspoon dried thyme leaves, crushed
½ teaspoon dried dill weed, crushed
1 cup canned pumpkin
4 eggs, divided
2 tablespoons sesame seeds
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease 20 to 24 muffin cups. Combine milk, butter and water in small saucepan; heat until butter is melted. If necessary, cool to 120º F. to 130º F. Combine 3 cups flour, sugar, yeast, savory, salt, thyme and dill in large mixer bowl. Add milk mixture and pumpkin; beat for 2 minutes. Stir in 3 eggs and remaining flour. Cover; let rise in warm, draft-free place for 10 minutes or until doubled. Spoon into prepared muffin cups, filling ½ to ¾ full. Cover; let rise in warm, draft-free place for 30 to 40 minutes or until doubled. Beat remaining egg and brush on top of rolls; sprinkle with sesame seeds. Bake for 30 to 40 minutes or until rolls are golden and sound hollow when tapped. Remove from pans; serve warm or cool on wire rack.
+ NOTE: Dry roasting the herbs in a pan for a few mins,
just until you can smell them, with give you a MUCH more flavorful end result
4 Eggs
1 cup Vegetable oil
2/3 cup Water
1 15 oz Can of Pumpkin
Or you can roast or boil fresh pumpkin 15 oz
1 cup walnuts or Pecans (optional)
* Mix *
Beat wet ingredients, eggs, add oil and water.
In another bowl mix dry ingredients, flour, sugar, salt and spices.
Make a well of the dry and gradually add wet ingredients.
Mix and pour into greased loaf pans (pound cake size)
Preheated oven at 350 for 1 hour.
Yields 2 -3 breads
Hallowmass Cakes
½ cup vegetable oil
4 ounces unsweetened baking chocolate, melted
2 cup granulated sugar
4 eggs
2 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups cake flour, sifted
2 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
1 cup confectioner’s sugar
In a mixing bowl, combine vegetable oil, chocolate, and granulated sugar. Blend in eggs, one at a time, stirring well after each addition. Add vanilla. Stir in flour, baking powder, and salt into oil mixture. Chill for several hours or overnight.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F Roll about a Tablespoon of dough into a ball. Drop balls into confectioners’ sugar, and roll until coated. Place balls about 2 inches apart on a greased baking sheet.
Bake for 10-12 min. The cakes should be a soft and the edges should be firm. Do not overbake; they burn easily. Makes about 3 doz
Harvest Scalloped Corn
2 cups whole kernal corn, frozen
2 cups potato chunks, peeled
2 cups broccoli florets
½ cup thinly sliced celery
1 cup Italian bread crums
1 ½ cups sour cream
2 eggs, beaten
½ cup milk
1 teaspoon garlic powder
¼ cup shredded carrots
sea salt to taste
Combine corn, potatoes, broccoli and celery. Pour into greased rectangular baking pan. Sprinkle bread crumbs over vegetables. Beat eggs, sour cream, milk and garlic together. Pour over vegetable mixture. Bake at 350 degrees for 35 to 40 minutes, until set in the center.
Irish Potatoes
12 medium potatoes, peeled, cooked & mashed
2 Eggs; well beaten
8 ounces Cream cheese, softened
1 teaspoon Salt
¼ cup Butter
Pepper
½ cup Sour cream
¼ slice Green onions
½ cup Milk
Mix potatoes with remaining ingredients. Mix well, but lightly; do not whip! Place in a greased 9~ round casserole and bake in a preheated oven for 45 minutes.
Oven Hash
1 cup coarsely ground beef
1 cup coarsely ground potatoes
¼ cup coarsely ground onion
¼ cup snipped fresh parsley
2 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
1- 6oz can evaporated milk
¼ cup fine dry bread crumbs
1 tbs. butter/margarine melted
In frying pan, combine and cook beef, potatoes, onion, parsley, and Worcestershire sauce, and evaporated milk. Remove from heat and turn out into a 1 qt casserole dish. Mix bread crumbs with melted butter/margarine and sprinkle on top. Bake in oven at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.
Makes 4 servings.
Pumpkin-Cider Bread
2 cups pureed pumpkin
1 tbsp cinnamon
2 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp nutmeg
2 cups of flour, and then enough to keep the consistency just right
2 tblspns dry yeast dissolved in ½ cup warm water
1 tblspn salt
2 tblspns vegetable oil
1/3 to ½ cup molasses
2 cups of fresh cider
Combine cinnamon, sugar and nutmeg with the pureed pumpkin.
Combine salt and 2 cups of flour. Add the cider, yeast mix and all other ingredients. Add
more flour if necessary. Pour the dough to a lightly greased bowl, cover it with a cloth or
plastic wrap, and let it in rise about 45 minutes, until it’s doubled in size in a warm place.
Punch down the dough and turn it out onto a floured surfact. Roll the dough into a long
strip and then roll it up jellyroll style to fit into the bread pan. Place in a greased pan and
let rise until doubled again. Bake at 400 degrees F for 50-60 minutes until brown and
done, when a fork comes out clean.
Pumpkin Muffins
1 c Unbleached Flour, Sifted
2 t Baking Powder
¼ t Salt
¼ t Ground Cinnamon
¼ c Vegetable Shortening
2/3 c Sugar
1 ea Large Egg
½ c Canned, Mashed Pumpkin
2 T Milk
Sift together flour, baking powder, salt and cinnamon; set aside. Cream together shortening and sugar in mixing bowl until light and fluffy, using electric mixer at medium speed. Beat in egg. Combine pumpkin and milk in small bowl. Add dry ingredients alternately with pumpkin mixture to creamed mixture, stirring well after each addition. Spoon batter into paper-lined 2 ½-inch muffin-pan cups, filling 2/3rds full.
Bake in 350 degree F. oven 20 minutes or until golden brown. Serve hot with butter and homemade jam.
(These are my personal favorite~)
Pumpkin Muffins
2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1 stick butter or margarine, softened
½ cup sugar
2 eggs
½ cup buttermilk
2/3 cup cooked, mashed pumpkin
¼ cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons molasses
½ teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon ginger
½ teaspoon ground cloves or allspice
In small bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. In a separate large bowl, beat butter and sugar until fluffy and pale. Beat in eggs and buttermilk until well-blended. Add flour mixture to form a batter. Preheat oven to 375ºF. In medium bowl, mix pumpkin, brown sugar, molasses, cinnamon, ginger, and cloves until well-blended. Stir into the batter. Ladle batter into 12 2 ½-inch greased muffin cups and bake for 15-17 minutes. Cool for 5 minutes, then cool on rack.
Yield: 1 dozen
Remembrance Cookies
These cookies can be made on Hallow’s Eve. They can be shaped like people and the herb rosemary is added to the dough as a symbol of remembrance. Some of the cookies are eaten while telling stories or attributes of special ancestors, reminding us that we still have access to their strengths–or perhaps a predisposition to their weaknesses. The rest of the cookies are left outside by a bonfire as an offering. This can be a solemn ritul, but it need not be.
1 ½ c. powdered sugar
1 c. butter or margarine (softened)
1 egg
2 t. vanilla
1 t. almond extract
2 ½ c. all purpose flour
1 t. baking soda
1 t. cream of tartar
1 ½ T. chopped rosemary
Heat oven 375 degrees. In a large bowl, beat sugar, butter, egg, vanilla, almond extract, and rosemary until creamy. In a separate bowl, sift flour, baking soda, and cream of tartar. Fold flour mixture into sugar mixture. Beat until dough forms and refrigerate for three hours. Divide dough into halves. Roll out one portion to 3/16 of an inch on a floured surface. Cut out with gingerbread women or men cutters and place on an ungreased cookie sheet. Repeat rolling and cutting with second portion. Bake for 5-7 minutes.
Samhain Cakes
½ c veg. oil
4 sq unsweetened chocolate (4 oz) melted
2 cups granulated sugar
4 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
2 cups pastry flour (not hard, sifted or cake flour)
2 tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
1 cup confectioner’s sugar
Mix oil, chocolate, and granulated sugar. Blend in one egg at a time until well mixed. Add vanilla. Measure flour by dipping method or by sifting. Stir flour, baking powder, and salt into oil mixture. Chill several hours to overnight. Heat oven to 350 deg F [175 deg C]. Roll about a tablespoon of dough into a ball (yes, it’s messy). Drop balls into confectioner’s sugar & roll around until coated. Place about 2 inches apart on greased baking sheet. Bake 10-12 min. They will be a little soft but should not be mushy. Edges should be firm. Don’t overbake—these burn easily. Makes about 3 dozen
Samhain Meat Pie
1 bay leaf
10 bacon slices
2 leeks or onionschopped into 1 inch pieces
3 carrots chopped into 1 inch pieces
1 chicken, cut into serving portions
3 TBS chopped parsley
3 sliced potatoes, peeled or not
1 TBS red wine vinegar
2 cloves garlic, optional
Place the bay leaf into the bottom of a Dutch oven or cauldron. (You will need a lid.) Place half the bacon over the leaf and cover with half of the mushrooms, leeks and carrots. Place the meat pieces atop the vegetables and then cover with the rest of the mushrooms, leeks and carrots. Season to taste, adding half of the chopped parsley, and one of the crushed garlic cloves. (Extra water or broth can be added if thought necessary, just not too much.) Place the potatoes on top of everything else. Add a bit more salt and pepper, the rest of the garlic and parsley. Place the rest of the bacon over this and pour the red wine vinegar over them. Place a tight lid on the pot and cook in the oven at 325 degrees for two hours. Do not check inside too often, as it will dry out the meat. Be sure to discard the bay leaf
Samhain Pasta
1 cup chopped onion
3 tablespoons butter
½ teaspoon salt
1/3 teaspoon pepper
1 cup cooking wine
1 ½ cups heavy cream
1 teaspoon chopped bay leaf
1 teaspoon celery seed
1 teaspoon dried thyme
6 ounces fettuccine, cooked
Sauté the mushrooms and onions in the butter until tender. Add the salt, pepper, and wine; simmer over low heat until the mixture is reduced by half, about 5 minutes. Stir in the cream, bay leaf, celery seed, and thyme. Bring to a low boil. Pour over pasta.
Autumn Butter
¼ cup firmly packed brown sugar
1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
¼ cup whipping cream
1 cup butter, softened
Mix all ingredients until well blended. Spread onto your favorite muffins, quick bread, sweet crackers, or drop a dollop onto morning pancakes.
Cinnamon Butter
2 sticks butter
½ cup brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
Combine all ingredients and mix well. Serve over sweet bread, muffins, or morning waffles. Store tightly covered in the refrigerator.
Combine all ingredients and mix well. Keep tightly covered in the refrigerator up to three weeks.
* ½ teaspoon of pumpkin pie spice can be substituted for cloves, ginger and nutmeg.
Raspberry Butter
1 cup raspberries
2 tablespoons water
1 tablespoon sugar
½ cup butter, at room temperature
2 tablespoons powdered sugar
1 teaspoon blackberry liqueur
¼ teaspoon lemon juice
Boil raspberries, water and sugar in a small saucepan over medium heat until syrupy, stirring frequently, about 5 minutes. Strain through sieve to remove seeds. Cool. Process with remaining ingredients until smooth and well mixed. Can be prepared one day ahead. Cover and chill. Bring to room temperature and stir before serving.
Pumpkin Marble Cheesecake
Servings: 10
1 ½ c Gingersnap Crumbs
½ c Finely Chopped Pecans
1/3 c Margarine, Melted
16 oz Cream Cheese, Softened
¾ c Sugar
1 t Vanilla
3 ea Eggs
1 c Canned Pumpkin
¾ t Cinnamon
¼ t Ground Nutmeg
Combine crumbs, pecans and margarine; press onto bottom and 1 ½-inches up sides of 9-inch springform pan. Bake at 350 degrees F., 10 minutes. Combine cream cheese, ½ c sugar and vanilla, mixing at medium speed on electric mixer until well blended. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Reserve 1 c batter, chill. Add remaining sugar, pumpkin and spices to remaining batter; mix well. Alternately layer pumpkin and cream cheese batters over crust. Cut through batters with knife several times for marble effect. Bake at 350 degrees F., 55 minutes. Loosen cake from rim of pan; cool before removing rim of pan. Chill.
Quickie Shortbread Soul Cakes
1 stick of butter, softened
4 Tbs sugar
1 ½ C flour
Cream together the butter and sugar. Use a flour sifter to add the flour to the bowl, and mix until it’s smooth. Divide the dough into two parts, and shape each half into a flat circle about half an inch thick. Put them on an ungreased baking sheet (baking stones are really nice for this) and poke lines with the tines of a fork, making eight separate wedges in each cake. Bake for 25 minutes or until light brown at 350 degrees.
Buttery Soul Cakes
Two sticks butter, softened
3 ½ C flour, sifted
1 C sugar
½ tsp. nutmeg & saffron
1 tsp each cinnamon & allspice
2 eggs
2 tsp malt vinegar
Powdered sugar
Cut the butter into the flour with a large fork. Mix in the sugar, nutmeg, saffron, cinammon and allspice. Lightly beat eggs, and add to flour mixture. Add malt vinegar. Mix until you have a stiff dough. Knead for a while, then roll out until ¼" thick. Use a floured glass to cut out 3" circles. Place on greased baking sheet and bake 25 minutes at 350 degrees. Sprinkle with powdered sugar while the cakes are still warm.
Irish Cakes
4 C flour
1 pkt active dry yeast
1 C milk
2 Tbs butter
½ tsp each cinnamon & salt
¾ C sugar
½ C lemon zest
1 ¼ C golden raisins
Cream yeast with 1 tsp sugar & 1 tsp milk, let it get frothy. Blend flour, spices, & salt together, then cut in butter. Add the rest of the sugar to the flour mix and blend. Add milk & beaten egg onto the yeast mixture; combine with flour mixture. Beat until stiff.
Fold in raisins and zest, cover with a damp cloth and let rise. Divide in two, place each half in greased 7" round pan. Cover, let rise again for 30 minutes. Bake 1 hour at 400 degrees.
Cookies
100 g butter
100 g fine white sugar
3 eggyolks
½ pound plain white flour
1 teaspoon mixed spices
40 g raisins or sultanas
milk
Melt the butter in a microwave, then stir in sugar until you have a smooth, creamy mixture. Stir in the eggyolk, again aiming for smoothness.
Add flour and spices, stir and mix well, then add raisins. Add enough milk (slowly!) until you have a soft but still formable dough.
Form this dough into round, flat cookies with around 4 inches diameter and slightly less than an inch of thickness, arranging those on a greased baking tray. Then “carve” decorations into the cookies with a blunt knife – try Celtic spiral designs for that extra effect.
Bake the cookies at 180 degrees Celsius (360 Fahrenheit) for ten to fifteen minutes until golden brown.
So I was told that Human Planet had a segment about pigeons in the Cities episode that I might be interested in and I was honestly so underwhelmed. I haven’t finished the episode so maybe there’s more pigeon stuff but I feel like all I saw was more Birds Of Prey Are The Only Cool And Acceptable Birds and pigeons are Trespassers In Our Urban World Who Shit On Everything And Are Useless On Top Of It. Which isn’t true and I’m so tired of this being framed as some horrible burden that humanity must face. Pigeons are the victims here, not us.
Hate of pigeons didn’t start until the 20th Century. Before that was about 9,900 years of loving them. The rock pigeon was domesticated 10,000 years ago and not only that, we took them freaking everywhere. Pigeons were the first domesticated bird and they were an all-around animal even though they were later bred into more specialised varieties. They were small but had a high feed conversion rate, in other words it didn’t cost a whole lot of money or space to keep and they provided a steady and reliable source of protein as eggs or meat. They home, so you could take them with you and then release them from wherever you were and they’d pretty reliably make their way back. Pigeons are actually among the fastest flyers and they can home over some incredible distances (what fantastic navigators!). They were an incredibly important line of communication for multiple civilisations in human history. You know the first ever Olympics? Pigeons were delivering that news around the Known World at the time. Also, their ability to breed any time of year regardless of temperature or photoperiod? That was us, we did that to them, back when people who couldn’t afford fancier animals could keep a pair or two for meat/eggs.
Rooftop pigeon keeping isn’t new, it’s been around for centuries and is/was important to a whole variety of cultures. Pigeons live with us in cities because we put them there, we made them into city birds. I get that there are problems with bird droppings and there’s implications for too-large flocks. By all means those are things we should look to control, but you don’t need to hate pigeons with every fibre of your being. You don’t need to despise them or brush them off as stupid (they have been intelligence tested extensively as laboratory animals because guess what other setting they’re pretty well-adapted to? LABORATORIES!) because they aren’t stupid. They’re soft intelligent creatures and I don’t have time to list everything I love about pigeons again. You don’t need to aggressively fight them or have a deep desire to kill them at all. It’s so unnecessary, especially if you realise that the majority of reasons pigeons are so ubiquitous is a direct result of human interference.
We haven’t always hated pigeons though, Darwin’s pigeon chapter in The Origin of Species took so much of the spotlight that publishers at the time wanted him to make the book ONLY about pigeons and to hell with the rest because Victorian’s were obsessed with pigeons (as much as I would enjoy a book solely on pigeons, it’s probably best that he didn’t listen).
My point is, for millenia, we loved pigeons. We loved them so much we took them everywhere with us and shaped them into a bird very well adapted for living alongside us.
It’s only been very recently that we decided we hated them, that we decided to blame them for ruining our cities. The language we use to describe pigeons is pretty awful. But it wasn’t always, and I wish we remembered that. I wish we would stop blaming them for being what we made them, what they are, and spent more time actually tackling the problems our cities face.
I just have a lot of feelings about how complex and multidimensional hating pigeons actually is
ALL OF THIS
And also pigeon poop was a very valuable fertilizer before we had other options, people would hire guards to stop thieves from stealing their flock’s poop.
#LovePigeonsAgain2016
Late night, reblogging, so bear with me here…
Thank you for posting much of my thoughts over the past year and a half! I am known by many as “that guy who keeps the raptors”. Yes this is true, I do keep and handle raptors for educational purposes, but what many fail to realize is, I am fascinated with pigeons. My interest with birds began with the obvious, the raptors, corvids, and parrots. Then I discovered pigeons. These wonderful little birds with big attitudes and the incredible ability to thrive among people.
The organization I work with got its first pigeon a little over a year ago. She was a rescue with nowhere else to go. I was quickly drawn to her character and attitude about life.
We rarely handled her, but we did spend time with her.
She grew attached to our volunteers very quickly because their were no other birds she could socialize with in our facility.
We never intended to train her for educational programs. It was a job reserved for our raptors. It was our pigeon who decided she would be a part of what we were doing. One day, when we entered her enclosure to change water and food, she decided to fly to my hand and perch like our raptors do.
No training, no treats, just the reward of being with us.
What we hadn’t noticed for the couple months prior was her watching us. This brilliant little bird had been watching us every day as we trained and worked with our raptors. Finally she decided she didn’t want to be left out any longer. She made her place on our hands.
This occurred several times before we finally put her on a glove and brought her into the public. Needless to say, she was right at home. She fluffed up and preened the entire evening while people gawked and asked us why we had a pigeon on one glove and a hawk on another.
Since then, we’ve added 5 more rescued pigeons to our growing flock. And our pigeon (Tybalt) has become a mainstay ambassador for our programs. Each of our pigeons are incredibly fun to watch and interact with. Pigeons simply don’t get enough love. They are marvelous creatures incredibly suited to life alongside people both physically and mentally.
Raptors my have been my introduction into birds, but pigeons opened my eyes to a new appreciation for them and the fascinating world of bird cognition.
NOT ONLY are pigeons very amazing, worth our respect, and INTERESTING (did you read any of that stuff above?), but they are beautiful too!
Not chickens, but I feel compelled to spread this gospel.
hmmm. this is making me rethink my new york pigeon hate
and, AND, haven’t you ever wondered why city pigeons come in a magnificent rainbow of unusual colors?
Most wild animals all look alike within a species, with TINY, RARE individual variations in terms of rare color morphs, unusually big or small animals, different facial markings and other subtleties. But there is no evolutionary benefit to having species where everyone looks slightly different, and in fact, it’s beneficial for species to be similar and consistent, with a distinctive aesthetic. Especially if you’re trying to blend into the environment – a black wolf is all very well, but it looks positively silly in the summer tundra, where its grey/brown/brindley cousins blend in. A white deer has a great aesthetic – and a very short lifespan in the forest. Distinctive Protagonist looks are rare in the wild, simply because natural selection usually comes down heavily on them.
To humans, most wild animals are visually indistinguishable from each other.
As a result, most wild animals are like
“Oh it’s obvious – you can tell the twins apart because Kara has a big nose.”
Wild animals usually have a pretty consistent aesthetic within their species. It’s important to them!
SO WHAT IS GOING ON WITH PIGEONS?
Look, in one small picture you’ve got a red color morph in the center, several melanistic dark morphs, a few solid black birds, a few variations on the wildtype wing pattern, a PIEBALD, a piebald copper color morph…
Like, there are LAYERS UPON LAYERS of pigeon diversity in most flocks you see. Pure white ones with black wingtips. Solid brown ones with pink iridescent patches. Pale pinkish pigeons.
WHY IS THAT? When other wild animals consider “being slightly fluffier than my brother” to be dangerously distinctive in most circumstances?
BECAUSE CITY PIGEONS AREN’T TRULY WILD.
MANY OF THEM (POSSIBLY MOST OR ALL) ARE FERAL MIXES.
THEY WERE ONCE BELOVED PETS, SPECIAL MESSENGERS, EXQUISITE SHOW-WINNERS, AND PRIZED LIVESTOCK.
THEIR PRETTY COLORS WERE DELIBERATELY INTRODUCED BY HUMANS.
AND NOW THEIR HUMANS DON’T LOVE THEM ANY MORE.
See, pigeon fanciers bred (and still breed!) a huge array of pigeons. And the resulting swarms of released/discarded/escaped/phased out “fancy” pigeons stayed around humans. What else were they going to do? They interbred with wildtype pigeons.
Lots of the pigeons you see in public are feral. They’re not wild animals. They’re citizen animals. They’re genetically engineered. And now that’s what “city” pigeons are.
These “wild” horses are all different colors because they’re actually feral. Mustangs in the American West are the descendants of imported European horses – they’re an invasive domestic species that colonized an ecological niche, but they are domestic animals. Their distinctive patterns were deliberately bred by humans. A few generations of running around on the prairie isn’t going to erase that and turn them back into wildtypes. If you catch an adult mustang and train it for a short period, you can ride it and have it do tricks and make it love you. It’s a domestic animal. You can’t really do that with an adult zebra.
No matter how many generations these dogs stay on the street and interbreed with one another, they won’t turn back into wolves. They can’t. They’re deliberately genetically engineered. If you catch one (even after generations of rough living, even as an adult) you can make it stare at your face, care about your body language, and love you.
City pigeons? Well, you don’t have to like them, but they’re in the same boat. They’re tamed animals, bred on purpose, living in a human community. Their very bodies are marked with their former ownership and allegiance; they cannot really return to what they once were; if you caught one, you could make it love you (in a limited pigeon-y way.) They have gone to “the wild,” but not very far from us, and they’d be happy to come back.
So next time you see a flock of city pigeons, spare a moment to note their diversity. The wing patterns. The pied, mottled and brindled. The color types.
All of it was once meant to please you.
I am now on Team Pigeon. Thank you.
Aww, the pigeon discourse has come home to my dash again! Like a homing pigeon.
all adults have a responsibility toward the safety+well-being of all children they’re around, irl and online. i can’t believe this #hot take is controversial like. at all
When I go to conventions, my eyes are always open for kids who may have wandered off, because in that environment it’s real easy for parents to lose track.
And if a child wants to involve me in their play, then I will join in. In a manner that’s appropriate. I had a young boy ask to borrow my sonic screwdriver prop at a con. He promptly used it to pretend to kill a Dalek (I don’t know how the operator was not laughing out loud) and then handed it back. I could have been a mean adult and not trusted him.
And if you cosplay, you have a special responsibility to kids who recognize you, especially if you choose a child oriented character such as a Disney princess, a gem from Steven Universe…even a popular superhero. Or if the kid mistakes your Daenerys for Elsa (which has apparently happened to more than one cosplayer).
When you are around children you become part of the village raising that child.
If you see a child alone, look for their parents. If you see a child upset, find their parents.
Let them include you in their play.
Let them be kids. You don’t have to “like” kids or want kids, but do you really want to be written into that kid’s next imaginative play as the Grinch?
Because why should children ever have to learn boundaries or that they arent entitled to a person’s attention because of how they’re dressed? If you want to play with random kids, you go right ahead. But no one owes anyone their time and attention merely because it is demanded, no matter their age. Some people just want to go about their day in peace and they should absolutely get to. Learn to respect this. Dont be judgemental about people simply not being interested in acting like free public babysitters, just minding their own business and not bothering anyone.
As for safety issues or lost children, it’s best reported to security or police to handle. It’s their job and they no doubt have protocol for just such a situation. Seriously. This is what any expert will tell you, too. Dont take the child anywhere, call for help and let the people best equipped handle it.
And parents, parenting is a verb. Do it. Take responsibility for your own children. If you actually care about your kids, act like it.
1. I never said to take the child anywhere. I said to look for the parents. If they aren’t close, then yes, look for security. I don’t call the cops for anything but traffic issues these days. If the kid’s black in America for the love of whatever you call sacred don’t call the cops.
2. No, you don’t have to play with kids, but if you’re dressed as their favorite superhero and are nasty to them? That could put that kid off something they love. It’s not free babysitting, it’s giving that kid a *moment* with something they care about. But then, I’m talking about cosplay specifically, which is generally something people do FOR the attention.
If you want to be left alone, fine. I’m talking more about people who are fine getting attention from adults but react badly to kids like kids aren’t people.
Minding one’s own business needs to be a course in college…
This makes me sad. I grew up in a diverse area near the westcoast and I love casually hearing other languages. It makes me feel closer to the world and happy that they’re free to speak whatever language they want. This might sound weird, but whenever I hear them, it reminds me that strangers are real people with their own life and history. It’s a fact we easily forget. Language is such a huge part of who we are. I can’t imagine being forced to deny a part of my identity. To be told that I need to squish myself into their boxes or I’ll become the nail that needs to be hammered down. I hate this and I am so sorry this is happening to you.
If you move to an English speaking country, speak English, or better yet go back to the country that speaks your language and no one will say shit to you 🙆🏻♀️ the complete entitlement from immigrants when the loacals ask them to assimilate to their country. I wouldn’t go to Korea and cry like a baby because they told me to stop speaking English. Its expected I speak Korean. You people need to grow up .
While the United States is a predominantly English-speaking society, there is actually no official language. What would you say someone speaking an indigenous language? Also, the person who wrote these tweets speaks English? She was speaking Korean over the phone to her cousin in Korea. Do you expect her to speak in English to someone who might not speak it rather than a shared one because she’s in a public space in an “English speaking country”? Do you believe that everyone sharing a public space with you owes you something?
There’s a big difference between assimilation and integration and I don’t know how to tell you that assimilation is not a desirable thing.
Literally how the fuck are you going to call the victim entitled? They were having a private conversation and some fucking rando told her what language she could be speaking in a private fucking conversation that didn’t involve her at all. Gtfo.
For someone as paranoid and worried about people making fun of me behind my back as I am I was startled I discover other white people I knew objected to people speaking their native language in the street here in the U.K. because “they’re probably talking shit about me”
I remember going “but if you were in Spain with your family and walking down the street talking English with your family would you think that was wrong?”
“No”
“Then why is it wrong for them to speak their language?”
“Because I know they’re just talking shit about me!”
And how arrogant is that? Like paranoid “everyone secretly hates me” me thinks that’s arrogant and unnecessarily paranoid and also deeply racist
And it confused me as well because I never ever assumed people were speaking a different language to make fun of me specifically.
But yeah, attacking people for speaking a different language than English is atrocious
And even if they were talking shit about you, who gives a shit? Suck it up, Buttercup. Make like every fat kid in high school had to and keep walking.
does anyone have a convincing explanation for why homophobia declined so precipitously
femmenietzsche said: Byproduct of making sex and marriage about individual fulfillment.
that doesn’t really feel sufficient, I mean yes it’s obviously correlated with all kinds of other social change, most of which boost the value of individual lives over traditional institutions, but we’re still going from mental disorder to officially sanctioned love-is-love within 20 years, few other changes seem this fast.
It’s namby pamby liberalism, basically.
You know that black guy who befriended the KKK to get them to give up their robes? Daryl Davis? It turns out bigots actually are reasonably persuadable if you can get in under their defenses. Not to go all Saturday Morning Cartoon very special episode and everything, but the power of empathy and brotherhood is real and just knowing a member of an oppressed group on a personal level makes it hard to keep oppressing them.
And gay people had advantages even Daryl Davis didn’t have. We could and basically had to remain hidden for a long time. Before we came out of the closet, we were sons and daughters, best friends and pupils, the kid on the debate team or the co-worker. The fundamentals of the situation required that the intense personal confessionals and bridge building to bigots happened naturally and on a massive scale. One agonizing conversation with family after another, one difficult decision about whether to hold hands at thanksgiving or invite grandma to the commitment ceremony at a time, we won hearts and minds.
The strategy scaled, and in fact was made easier and easier as time went on. Some people come out, which made it a little safer to come out, which let more people come out, and on and on until everyone had a daughter or a mechanic that they knew was gay.
It baffles me that this is supposed to make me a naive and unsophisticated when most of those same progressives yelling at me about it either were queer themselves or involved in gay activism when all of this as going down. I saw dozens of people go from bigots to grudgingly accepting people to enthusiastic advocates of gay rights, And I’m betting you did, too, so where the current pessimism about converting the bigoted comes from is a mystery to me. Sometimes the spiritually uplifting and optimistic answer happens to be the right one. And the attitude of the modern-day to conversion of bigots strikes me as an intentional decision to stick to comforting and politically easy facts when the truth is obvious to anyone who has been paying attention to the past 20 years.
yay for namby pamby liberalism!
I’ve seen people argue that Will and Grace was hugely influential, just because “prime time TV”. You see something weird and scary and unfamiliar, and nothing happens, and you see it again, and nothing happens, and after a while it’s not scary anymore.
But think about the famous judge saying he’s never met a gay person, and his clerk saying “uh, actually”. Back in the 80s, when a kid in my school came out as gay, it was a huge fucking deal. I saw one other kid openly claim to be bisexual, and… like, that was it. That was what we had for anyone talking about being gay or admitting to it or anything.
So that kid came out in his senior speech, and said “you know, people keep saying they think I’m gay, and you know what? Yeah, I am.” And he got a standing ovation. And all the kids at that school got the impression that being gay was something that a cool person you really liked might be doing, and that it was hard on them when people were jerks to them.
And honestly, a big part of the reason it became a massive shift was precisely that homophobia was weaponized as a get-out-the-vote strategy. For a long time before that, the actual degree of active hostility was actually lower in most of the US; people just avoided the topic. So some of this was a result of the realization that this could be used as a topic to motivate people to vote. But that meant making it a major topic. And doing things like pushing for a law banning gay marriage, when no one had seriously been talking about it before that. (Almost no one. I know Quakers whose church was doing same-sex marriages in the late 80s.)
So suddenly it became a major thing people talked about, and it turns out that when it keeps getting talked about, and influential people keep saying “hey, this is… just sorta stupid really”, and stories about kids getting kicked out by their parents are heartbreaking and awful… People just kept moving over, and moving over.
One of my friends decided to come out as a trans girl at school, by showing up at a party in a dress and makeup. No one gave her a hard time about it. We asked.
But we asked “did anyone give you a hard time about it”. Not “was anyone okay with it”. Not “did you get seriously injured.” Because that’s where the question is, now, in most of our culture.
So, yeah, you can absolutely persuade bigots. It’s stunningly effective. And I know someone’s gonna jump in with “well, it wouldn’t work on the KKK”, but obviously it does; Daryl Davis has proven that.
And someone’s gonna say “okay, but it wouldn’t work on Aryan Brotherhood people”, but actually it can and does. One guy talked to reporters about it a fair bit; he went to jail, ended up with the Aryan Brotherhood, hated Jews, and all that. Got out, got a job working for a guy who was Jewish, was just dreading the Jewish guy stiffing him on his salary. First paycheck rolled around, guy gave him a bonus and said “you’re a really hard worker, you deserve this bonus, thanks for being a good worker.” Boom. Loyalty to Aryan Brotherhood: Gone. They lied to him and he knows it.
And someone’s gonna say “but it wouldn’t work on someone involved with Stormfront”, but it turns out the kid of the guy who founded Stormfront, who was active in promoting Stormfront, ended up getting outed at school, so some of the Jewish kids said “hey, let’s invite him to dinner since no one else will talk to him”, and now he’s actively speaking against white nationalism.
It’s not just that it works. It’s that it works extremely well, and most of the competing strategies backfire more than they work.
i think a lot of the panicky-hostile reaction against the idea of talking to bigots comes from people thinking “it works” means “you personally have to do it instead of any other thing” and they freak out because they don’t feel confident they can have a civil conversation with a douchebag without becoming a doormat.
folks, it’s fine if you’re not the one to do that. it takes social skills, luck, and guts. it also takes a lot of focus, so even if you have the ability you might not have the time/attention/energy.
Since joining Tumblr, I’ve met a lot of young queer people. Look, I’m a bisexual man in a gay relationship, and I’m approaching 30. I was still a kid when Matthew Shepard’s story was being covered on the news. I remember thinking, “I better keep my mouth shut about these feelings I’m having.”
And then I met Dominic when I was 12, and people could see how in love we were. And we got the shit beat out of us. The year I met him, some kids in the grade above me held me down against the bleachers in our gym and stomped on my hand until my fingers broke. Instead of sending me to the nurse, the teacher sent me to the assistant principal to explain the situation. She asked why the kids had beat me up. I said, “They were calling me gay.”
Her response was, “Well, are you?”
My, “I don’t know,” earned a call to my parents, and I was outed. Efforts were made to keep me from seeing Dom. Throughout high school, Dom’s stepmother intensified these efforts. He slept in the basement of the house. Although he was an incredibly talented student, he was prohibited from participating in any extracurriculars. He suffered a lot of physical abuse during those years.
The day he turned 18, he packed up everything he had and walked to my house, and we’ve lived together ever since. Things are better, but they’re not perfect. I’ve had trucks pull up next to me at stoplights and, seeing the pride sticker on my car, through old drinks and garbage into my window. I no longer speak to my dad’s side of the family. I haven’t been to see them for Christmas or Thanksgiving in years. One of my uncles had cornered me at Thanksgiving when I was 17 and said, “I’m not going to judge you, but I’d be happy to break your neck so God can do the judging a little sooner.”
I joined a support group for trans and intersex people. When I joined, 40 people attended regularly. Within the year, the group was half the size it had been. Some couldn’t make it anymore, because they were staying at the shelter, where their stay hinged on them agreeing to instead to attend homophobic sermons. Some were put in correctional therapy. Five of them died. Three of those, I didn’t know, but I knew Alex, the 19 year old who was fag-dragged in Kentucky and died a day later in the hospital, and I knew Stephanie, who went home to Alabama to care for her mom in hospice and was beaten to death with a baseball bat by her mom’s boyfriend.
Tumblr is not reality. The dynamic here does not reflect the dynamic out there. Here’s the part where I finally make a point, and it might be extremely unpopular – but guys, value your allies.Value each other. We are met with enough hate in our daily lives to enter an online safe-space and meet more hate from our own, over petty things. Don’t go after one another over every little thing you find problematic.
Learn to see nuance. Maybe the word “queer” bothers you, and you see a gay man using it as an umbrella term. Maybe someone called a trans man a trans woman because they’re confused about terminology, but the post where they did it was voicing support for the trans community. Maybe someone is just asking a question, wanting to learn more. Stop. Attacking. These. People.
Allies are being driven away. Members of our own community are being ostracized. Others are feeling nervous and estranged, and it’s largely because of places like Tumblr, where the social justice movement is quickly becoming violent and radical. I am begging you, stop nitpicking “problematic” things and start directing your efforts to create real change. When it comes to comes to your allies, forget the “social justice warrior” mentality and put down your torch. Educate calmly. Be respectful. Be understanding. Be forgiving. And I’m certainly not saying that your anger doesn’t have a good place – when you are met with bigots on the street, congress members who want to pass hateful laws, violent protesters, abusive parents, prejudiced teachers, that is when you need to be a warrior. That’s when it counts. In the real world. When you have the opportunity to protect people from real harm. Attacking your would-be allies via anonymous asks is just going to lose us ground in the long run. And we don’t have time for that, not when trans women of color are being murdered every day, not when states are still fighting against marriage equality, not when there are politicians in office who believe that trans people are possessed by demons, not when we’ve just lost 50 brothers and sisters to one gunman, not when the media won’t even admit that the attack was homophobic.
Please step back. Look at the big picture. Look at where we are, globally. Don’t just log on to your safe space and attack your allies over small missteps. That’s like washing the dishes in a house that’s on fire, kids. Let’s fight on the battlefield, and when we come home to each other, let’s just focus on bandaging up our wounds so we can go out and win the war.
Signal boost to this unbelievably important message.
I’d reblog this a thousand times if I could.
Stop attacking allies. Educate. Not hate.
This is incredibly important. Please read!
Educate calmly. Be respectful. Be understanding. Be forgiving.
Friendly October reminder not to put Spock or other Jewish characters in costumes with horns
to clarify: it is an antisemitic idea that Jews have horns (dating to a mistranslation of karan (shone) v keren (horns) ) which was perpetuated in art by the likes of Michelangelo. this is not a thing of the past–some gentiles still believe that jewish people have horns, and putting jewish characters in costumes/aus with horns is insensitive at best and also really fuckin gross
also do not depict Jewish characters as demons there is a very long history of Jews being seen as demons and that being used to kill us
please do not dress Jewish characters in costumes that are priest outfit or nun outfit or with crosses
Just to give y’all an idea of how modern the horn issue is: My dad, when he went to college in the early 1980’s, was asked by someone who had never met a Jew before where his horns were. In the 1980’s. My dad was asked where his horns were. This was only 30 years ago. I have been lucky not to deal with that particular stereotype in my lifetime, but that was less than a decade before I was born. And I know other Jews in areas where Jews are scarce have dealt with this much more recently than the 80’s.
Yup. When my mom went to college, her freshman year roommate woke up the first Sunday and started getting dressed for church. My mom was still in bed, so the roommate came over and woke her up.
Roommate: Did you want to come to church with me, or do you have your own church you’re going to?
Mom: Well, I don’t really go to religious services, but if I did I would go to a synagogue, not a church, because I’m Jewish.
(Long silence. My mom opens one eye to see her roommate staring in shock.)
Roommate: You … you don’t look Jewish.
Mom: (Who looks VERY Jewish) What do you mean?
Roommate: Well, my pastor always told me that Jews have horns and a tail.
Long story short: they didn’t end up getting along very well.
I’ve been asked about my horns as recently as 1997. In a public school in New Jersey.
It would b cool of my non-Jewish followers to reblog this!!! Spread this bc it’s scary and real and you should know!
I see a lot of people in the comments focusing on the fact that it’s Spock in the OP example, and asking what he has to do with it since Spock is a Vulcan, not Jewish.
Apart from the fact that Leonard Nimoy is Jewish in real life – which should be enough all by itself since despite Zachary Quinto’s excellent turn as the character Nimoy is still the iconic cultural precept – but he also heavily and explicitly used his heritage to influence Spock as a character.
Spock’s outsider role on the Enterprise and among other Vulcans due to his mixed ancestry is based on assimilation issues and prejudice faced by Jews in American society.
Many aspects of Vulcan philosophy were based on various Rabbinic and Talmudic teachings.
The infamous Vulcan Salute itself is based on the raising of the hands during a blessing.
Spock as a fictional person might be a member of an alien species and not technically a follower of the Jewish faith, but the character was based on and embodies several aspects of Judaism in general and Leonard Nimoy’s experiences as a Jew in particular. As the original and basis for all later Vulcans, it extends to the rest of them as well. That doesn’t mean he can’t be portrayed participating in non-Jewish events and celebrations – I eat candy on Halloween and I join friends for Christmas dinner every year – but you can’t ignore the background and history of the character.
Remember that when you’re including him in Halloween or Christmas stories.
Along the same lines, Superman is also an inherently Jewish character who was written as a metaphor for Jewish immigrant experience, so don’t put horns on him either.
A LOT of comic book characters are Jewish because a lot of the early creators were Jewish. Magneto, Kitty Pryde, the original comic Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver, Polaris, Batwoman, Doc Samson, Martin Stein (part of Firestorm), Ben Grimm…there’s a lot.
Remember the shitstorm over nazi!Cap?
Cap’s CREATORS were Jewish. So making him a fucking Nazi was so many shades of wrong.
Also Jewish: Billy Kaplan aka Wiccan aka future Demiurge
Yeah. I didn’t go through the entire list because there really are a lot. The American superhero comic would not be the genre it is without an entire bunch of truly talented Jews.
the idea that non sga bisexuals aren’t queer is a result of the homonormativity that pushes the idea that the salient feature of bisexuality which makes it “queer” is attraction to similar genders and not attraction to multiple genders. the truth is that bisexuality exists in conjunction with but entirely separate from homosexuality. we are not queer because of SGA (although for some of us that too is an aspect of our queerness/the only thing that makes them queer, which is valid but not a universal experience) we are queer due to our attraction to multiple genders and we deserve to be recognised and respected for that
when you’re straight but you’re mad about it
This is why I hate the term “queer”. It was used by straight people as a slur in the past, and it’s used by straight people to try and place themselves in gay spaces today.
Here’s the thing:
Bisexuality means attraction to both sexes. Not this absurd newspeak definition of “two or more genders”. Sexuality is about sex, not gender. Homosexual males are attracted to the male sex. Homosexual females are attracted to the female sex. Transgenderism has nothing to do with sexual attraction, and should never have been lumped in with bisexuality/homosexuality. But it was, and now people think that means that homosexual people should be attracted to the opposite sex if that sex identifies as their gender. But gender is made up, whereas sex and sexual attraction is a biological reality. So it’s insane to think that anyone should try to overcome their biological reality in order to satisfy somebody else’s demand to have their socially constructed identity validated.
I’m a Fucking WLW
Okay? Also if you’re gonna say certain people can’t interact with you in your About, you probably shouldn’t be seeking out and interacting with those people
I don’t know how to break this to you but ur on my post. I made this post. You aren’t supposed to be here.
When are exclusionists going to fucking realize that the ACTUAL straight people in society don’t give a flying fuck whether a bi/pan/queer person is “SGA” or not? Like… They still going to call you a f*g or a weirdo. They’re still going to assault you for being different. They’re still going to corrective rape you to turn you straight.
Like… It seems to me that exclusionists are under the impression that people are going to go “oh hey wtf kind of queer are you?” and then someone says “I’m a hetero-romantic asexual” and the response is going to be “oh sweet, you’re one of us, come on buddy, let’s go oppress those dirty SGA queers!”
No. ANYTHING that isn’t a heterosexual, heteroromantic, allosexual, cisgender response is going to be ridiculed and included in anti-LGBTQ+ oppression, because fucking homophobes don’t CARE about the specifics. They don’t CARE about the split attraction model or if someone is SGA or not. They will see someone different, someone who isn’t exactly like them, and they will throw the exact same bullshit at them that they give the rest of us.
And the sooner exclusionists realize that we are all fighting very similar battles against the same social institutions and the same prejudices, the sooner they can put on their big-kid pants, stop whining about people depleting non-tangible resources (and also tangible ones, because actually bi and ace people are being DENIED the same amount of resources as L and G people), and realize that not everyone is exactly like them, then they can stop peddling the same bullshit that homophobes and transphobes are by rejecting and ostracizing everyone who isn’t just like them or isn’t the “right” kind of queer.
Urocyon's Jaunts 2.0 
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