The thing that gets me about the whole “you can’t call historical people gay because they conceived of sexuality differently” thing is this:

We already conceive of sexuality and gender significantly differently than we did 30-40 years ago.

I agree that it’s important to remember that there are different models for this kind of thing, and different societies in different time periods have varied a lot in how they understood and categorized sexuality.

I think that’s very important, I’m just not sure that taking modern terms out of people’s mouths is a useful way to do it.

Given that applying current understandings of gender and sexuality and the difference between them to even the LGBT people from right here, 40 years ago, has us running into problems… (the main one being who is trans and who isn’t, because we see that dividing line as a lot sharper and a lot more important than they generally did)

And given that the time period you’re talking about may not have its own set of words readily available, or the only ones that are available may be ones used to pathologize and criminalize…

At some point you just have to pick a word, and acknowledge that it’s not the perfect word, don’t you?

Still rereading Loud Hands. This may be hyperbole but

My favorite thing about ~autistic community~ or, well, being autistic and talking to other autistic people/ reading their writing, is that we can share the giddy excitement of really fun puns that also express really interesting and important and novel ideas.

Staff infection.

Pedagogy of the Confused.

I love it.

Sometimes I feel like it would be nice to be one of my fictional characters, and then I feel uncomfortable about that, until I remember that I deliberately wrote him to be more confident and stable than me, so, duh.

I’ve been rereading the Loud Hands anthology

and the highlights/notes I made when I first read it. So here is an idea I jotted down ages ago, expressed in a series of quotes.

When I first read An Unlcean Legacy, I loved some of Sophie’s interactions with the Devil, but I didn’t really get this particular line. Now I think I get what it’s about.

(Some of the quotes are about the Judge Rotenberg Center, and about bullying and abuse in general, fyi.)

Continue reading “I’ve been rereading the Loud Hands anthology” →

I am perfectly capable of understanding hints and subtext

I just don’t like them as much.

I don’t like not being able to ask questions and double-check things

I don’t like feeling like other people are waiting for me to figure something out

And honestly people hinting things at me is just subconsciously associated with the idea that I’ve messed something up and I’m being reprimanded. Even when I’m 100% sure that’s not what’s happening, that association kind of spoils it for me.