Blackwater776 - Untitled

All MXTX novels are just about one outwardly put-together, inwardly screaming mess of a man and his emotional support war criminal.

🖤💜 Happy international asexuality day! 🖤💜🐀

Asexuality is the lack of sexual attraction to others, or low or absent interest in or desire for sexual activity 🖤💜

I am sincerely sick of hori presenting the league’s unity as a good thing when they’re hurting people together for a selfish and crappy goal

damn me too, i'm sick of hori pulling some cheap baits of sad past, pitiful moment for those villains instead of showing more that they are wrong. like, he clearly did that, calling out their faults. but those callouts just... passed like a background instead of weighting the actual importance of its meaning? that's why i'm so frustrated with the dabi-shouto battle. hori never emphasizes the faults of the villains. instead he threw in all the bullshits found family this, sad past that, corrupt system this, bad heroes that, and i disgust this action.

Personally, I think the real reason people keep insisting MDZS is told from WWX's POV, even though they admit it's third person omniscient, is because JC is addressed by his birth name 'Jiang Cheng' throughout the entire novel and not his courtesy name. So people wrongly assume it must be from WWX's perspective...

Well, those that cling to such a take aren't going to like the real answer to this... But that's still not the case. If it were from WWX's perspective, JYL would be addressed as 'Shijie', LWJ would be 'Lan Zhan' and JFM would be 'Jiang-shushu' etc. JC is addressed by his birth name throughout the novel because even the narrator thinks he is a clown.

Sorry, but that's the reason. They do not think he deserves respect, just as the rest of the cultivation world doesn't either. If you actually look at the text, you'll notice behind his back, nearly everyone calls JC by his birth name out of disrespect - it's literally in the first few chapters for all to see. He's rarely called by his courtesy name by anyone other than LWJ, WWX when he's pissed and later by JGY and XY in the extras. That's it. It's a show of disrespect throughout the novel and the narrator shows the same. JC isn't called 'Sandu Shengshou' for nothing you know, it's a running theme of disrespect for a character that doesn't deserve much if any at all.

Absolutely true. Let's no forget that at the end of S3, when they went back in time, he literally outed himself as a rapist as well. His words to Emma were that if she approached his past self, "the different between me now and that guy (his own past) is that I take no for an answer."

Fucking WHAT.

So, this guy admits on screen that he used to routinely sexually assault women and it is never addressed again and he's still treated like some suave Bad Boy that Emma should want to date?

Let's not talk about how he also lied about "well, I'll take no for an answer." Hello, the entire dynamic with this guy is that since he walked on screen in S2 he has not been respecting Emma's "no, I'm not interested, go away, stop lurking". He is literally that guy in a bar harassing a girl who turned him down because he thinks he can change her mind by being belligerent. He's never respected anyone's no, the narrators just made him eventually wear Emma down. And he apparently never respected anyone's no back then either.

Hook is a giant walking red flag and consent issue and the writers should be ashamed of trying to sell them as being in love.

Hook is basically a "Nice Guy". He told Emma she owed him a kiss for saving her father (no, the fact Emma kissed him first and liked it does not excuse how wrong this is), he doesn't take no (she told him the kiss was a one-time thing and her expressions show no interest in him) for an answer, can't comprehend why Emma doesn't want him even though he's "good" now, flat out told her he *will* win her heart, and in the end he got Emma as a reward for giving up his ship/"redeeming" himself.

pretty much. and the only reason his actions were often glossed over or interpreted as romantic was solely because he was played by a conventionally attractive white guy. if he had been played by mrj instead of c.olin or by any other less attractive actor you can bet no one would be willfully ignoring his gross bullshit.

Solitary Confinement

While I haven’t been directly asked for a Masterpost on Solitary Confinement the sheer volume of asks on the subject prompted me to put this together.

Let’s start with some definitions-

Most sources define solitary confinement as 23 hours (or more) a day without human contact. This can be in or outside of a prison context.

Most sources agree that anything over a week is prolonged solitary confinement and most victims would begin to show symptoms within a week or sooner.

All of the research on solitary confinement that I am familiar with was conducted in a prison context. Most of it was done in the USA. Some of the results and conclusions will be affected by that context and we do know that environment effects how well victims cope with isolation.

Symptoms of solitary confinement affect both physical and mental health

Physical symptoms include-

Headaches

Eye problems

Joint pain

Lethargy

Insomnia

Feelings of physical weakness

Psychological symptoms include-

Worsening of all pre-existing mental health problems

Depression

Anxiety

Feelings of helplessness

Self harm

Suicidal ideation

Aggression

Severe mood swings

Irrational impulses

Hallucinations

Psychosis

Difficulty interacting with people

Difficulty learning new skills

Memory problems

There is some data on the prevalence rates of different symptoms but it’s not very clear cut. The fact that pre-existing mental health conditions are more common in prison populations may skew the data.

Speaking in general terms: physical symptoms of some kind are extremely common, depression or suicidal inclination is extremely common, anxiety is extremely common. Hallucinations and psychosis are less common but some estimates put their occurrence rate as high as 30%.

Factors that make Solitary Even Worse

Age is a major risk factor. Research on children specifically is lacking and the research that there is isn’t always clear about the age of the children involved. However in teenagers solitary confinement has greater and longer lasting negative effects. The current research suggests that younger children would suffer even more.

 Pre-existing mental health conditions are all worsened significantly by solitary confinement.

When solitary is combined with poor living conditions the effects on individuals can be devastating. Particularly harmful are lack of space, lack of stimulation, lack of light, lack of sound and any combination of the factors mentioned in this list.

 Having no known release date or time has been shown     experimentally to drastically reduce the amount of time people will feel     comfortable in solitary confinement. This holds true over days. Characters who are confined indefinitely or with no known release date should show worse symptoms then characters who know when they’ll be let out.

Any additional stress, trauma or torture. Threats, lack of medical care and anything that is likely to cause additional suffering will make solitary worse.

 Protective Factors

Some people are really resistant to the effects of isolation and we don’t know why. Individuals such as astronauts, lone sailors and     people conducting polar research are often specially selected in part for     their ability to withstand isolation. The important thing to remember is     that while they exist these people are not common and they are not the norm.

 Having a cause seems to have a hugely protective effect. Political prisoners in solitary confinement do better than other types of prisoners but they do still show symptoms and suffer from confinement.

How long is too long?

A lot of the asks I get on solitary assume it is much less damaging than it is, so I’m going to end with a couple of points on timings that will hopefully help people judge what’s an appropriate time frame for their story.

Remember that torture is cumulative and any additional factors/traumas will make symptoms significantly worse.

Less than a week- the character probably won’t show any lasting effects, though they will probably have started to show some symptoms while confined.

One week to one month- the character will have multiple symptoms, some of which will persist after they get out of solitary and start interacting with people again. They will struggle with mental health problems and may find it difficult to interact with people in a socially acceptable way. However with a strong support network and time they may still make a full recovery.

One month to one year- it is extremely likely that the character has self harmed and/or attempted suicide at least once. They will have multiple severe symptoms. The risk of hallucinations, psychosis and catatonia is increased. Multiple severe symptoms will persist when the character is released and they will probably have to deal with the resulting mental health problems for the rest of their life. Social isolation after release is extremely common and makes symptoms worse. Socially unacceptable symptoms are more likely and likely to persist after release.

Several years- the risk of death by suicide is incredibly high. Self mutilation (ie amputation, scarring the face etc) starts to become an issue. Symptoms can be so severe that the character may not have a firm grasp of reality. Chance of recovery is minimal and many victims find that on release they can no longer interact with others in socially acceptable ways. They are often isolated and severely mentally ill. The risk of suicide after release remains high.

So to summarise-

Solitary confinement is an extremely damaging torture which has long term repercussions effecting victims for the rest of their lives.

It’s rarely portrayed accurately in fiction, but you can help me change that.

If you’d like to use solitary confinement in your writing think about the symptoms your character will show and the time frame they’re confined for.

Consider how those symptoms impact on your character and your story. If possible pick symptoms that fit well with your story and character. Use both physical and psychological symptoms.

Above all don’t be tempted to play down the symptoms and effects of solitary.

I know it’s a long and intimidating list of symptoms. That, I suppose, is part of the point. Writing torture victims well means accepting that characters won’t survive without symptoms and trying to capture how they’d deal with these changes and challenges.

It isn’t easy. It shouldn’t be. It’s also far from impossible.

And as always I am here to help.

[Sources:

Sourcebook on Solitary Confinement by S Shalev A good general overview of the subject.

Solitary Confinement by P S Smith A summary of scholarly debate.

Deep Custody: Segreation Units and Close Supervision Centres in England and Wales by S Shalev and K Edgar This source is particularly about UK prisons but talks in more depth about the process of prisoners being put into solitary confinement and the conditions in UK jails.

American Civil Liberties Union, a source of first hand accounts.

Solitary Watch, another good source of first hand accounts, focused on US prisoners primarily but with some other cases around the world.]

Edited for typos, thank you for catching that.

Disclaimer

Today I was chatting with two guys and mentioned I was aroace. It went a little something like this.

A: wtf is that

B: it means she’s not attracted to people in that way

A: bro you can’t just not pick a side, that’s crazy

B: nah, it just means she’s spectator mode

A: OHHH IT MAKES SENSE NOW

I have never felt more validated or laughed so hard

Oh no, what a shame—

Sike. That's asinine and I have no regrets on the reblog

btw the thing she couldn’t ignore was someone calling her out for saying anti-depressants/hormone therapy are only perscribed by lazy doctors