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only tangentially related, but I have observed some protest more to injections than other forms of medication due to what I can only conclude is the squick factor. it comes up more in conversations with cis folks about HRT, like people feeling that taking oral estradiol is OK but being a lot more resistant to injections. they’re functionally the same thing but needles are more associated with scarier clinical interventions or drugs and that’s what it ends up being compared to. just speculating but I wouldn’t be surprised if the same “needle = artificial/dangerous” association is made among the antivax crowd.

idk this gave me the mental image of someone whacking it and muttering “jake jake jake jake jake” in rhythm to themselves through the whole thing

I was getting ready to come out to my sister in like late 2021, she had a really bad motorcycle accident and we were catching up and it seemed like the right time to tell her.

then she started talking about how a near death experience made her start re-evaluating some things, and then she came out to me and it was the fucking spiderman pointing meme. Both of us moved to WFH after covid hit so the timing makes sense, but it was such a wonderful coincidence.

<3

furries get a lot of psychological safety out of embracing animalistic traits in all contexts. Speech is extremely difficult for me and being able to “awooo arf x3 wuf bark!” my way through normal day to day conversations with partners is such an inexplicable relief that I hope people with a passing understanding of neurodivergence can empathize.

For as beneficial as these things are in normal day to day life, it would in fact be far weirder if it didn’t extend to the bedroom too. Like play-gnawing a partner to say “I love you” and then getting to the bed with them and just saying “ok for this one thing in particular I am a normal human who doesn’t howl!!!”

That would be fucking weird right?

I’m gonna copy another comment I made on this post since it’s the best thing I think I can say about it. But just know I once felt as you do and probably still would if my sister wasn’t a furry.

I think the kink and fursuit parts are what most people understand about furries because that’s the most signal boosted and bizarre parts about it. However, furries often have other things that really attach them to it, and the kink is a further expression of that.

For a lot of people, neurodivergence is a core feature. I struggle with speech a lot. I’m learning ASL but few people speak it. The flexibility to communicate in howls, barks and yips on occasion is extremely helpful. The furry community is full of people who just get this and will treat me very normally when I’m nonverbal. The scared kid in me still expects to be hit for disobedience, so it’s incredibly healing.

Some folks who like fursuits like them because they present a barrier and literal mask that helps them feel safe and protected from bad sensory experiences in public. Some attach themselves into a fursona character and find a way to express parts of themselves they couldn’t elsewhere. My sister describes her fursona as a manifestation of her inner child unburdened by abuse, and made the character female years before she worked out she was trans.

When you consider how much kink and trauma go hand in hand, how much furries lean on their identity as a way to feel safe engaging with others, and how much genuine joy people find in their fursona, the kink makes a whole lot more sense. It’s less about being attracted to “rejected Disney mascots” specifically as it is about the comfort and safety a rejected Disney mascot persona can bring to people who need it. For as much as it’s helpful in the outside world, it would in fact be weirder for none of that to come into the bedroom too.

It’s about who you love, not just who you have sex with. Two women who are asexual (don’t experience much in the way of sexual pleasure) who have a long term committed romantic relationship may not technically be “homosexual”, but they are definitely seen and treated as such. And I think the term “gay” very comfortably applies.

phobia of neurodivergent people as well, I think. A lot of the things people find weird and offputting are just like… autism or something.

I think the kink and fursuit parts are what most people understand about furries because that’s the most signal boosted and bizarre parts about it. However, furries often have other things that really attach them to it, and the kink is a further expression of that.

For a lot of people, neurodivergence is a core feature. I struggle with speech a lot. I’m learning ASL but few people speak it. The flexibility to communicate in howls, barks and yips on occasion is extremely helpful. The furry community is full of people who just get this and will treat me very normally when I’m nonverbal. The scared kid in me still expects to be hit for disobedience, so it’s incredibly healing.

Some folks who like fursuits like them because they present a barrier and literal mask that helps them feel safe and protected from bad sensory experiences in public. Some attach themselves into a fursona character and find a way to express parts of themselves they couldn’t elsewhere. My sister describes her fursona as a manifestation of her inner child unburdened by abuse, and made the character female years before she worked out she was trans.

When you consider how much kink and trauma go hand in hand, how much furries lean on their identity as a way to feel safe engaging with others, and how much genuine joy people find in their fursona, the kink makes a whole lot more sense. It’s less about being attracted to “rejected Disney mascots” specifically as it is about the comfort and safety a rejected Disney mascot persona can bring to people who need it. For as much as it’s helpful in the outside world, it would in fact be weirder for none of that to come into the bedroom too.

I lost my chance to stop years ago

Ultimately I think any conversation that boils down to who is or isn’t LGBT+ is a bit reductive. It’s not like every person in that broad grouping is completely valid as they are - there’s lots of abusive and dangerous queer people, just like any other group. It’s not like we endorse every LGBT+ person’s behavior uncritically, nor are we asking for anyone else to do so.

That’s kinda why I prefer “queer” as a broad label. It’s less about whether what you are fits into the acronym and is therefore valid. If someone identifies as queer, the question becomes - how so? And if someone spews some obviously abusive nonsense in response, we don’t have to support them, but if they experience attraction to people they know they can’t safely engage with (and don’t), my thinking would turn empathetic pretty quickly.

like most of these things, depends on context I think. being a furry is technically something different and not inherently sexual, however furries are treated as such and also overlap a lot with other queer communities. so there’s lots of solidarity to find there. same goes for lots of neurodivergent folks too.

carrying a crab around in your pocket is unfortunately not a zero-cost abstraction

my dnd party is fighting a bunch of crabs right now and the crabs are winning. thank you for this

that an offer, or…?

wait wait wait, but I’m on the internet! :o

as always, c++ lets us do better in breathtakingly elegant fashion:

#\
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c\
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t\
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finishing out hello world is left as an exercise to the reader, but the advantages and superior performance of this format should be obvious

“As a child, I once considered such unknowns sinister. Now, though, I understand they bear no ill will. The universe is, and we are.” - Solanum, Outer Wilds