I do not stand with Mark Waid.

The writer of a massively racist comic. Who insulted ace aro fans. Who threatened to punch a critic. Who doxxed a critic. Who harassed other critics.

As a 🔒 pal says, "Your fight for equity means nothing if your fight isn’t intersectional". When a horrible person sues an awful person, I do not stand with either.

I do not forget racism, harassment, and threats.

I do not value a united front that includes bigots and harassers.

I do not abandon those hurt by someone because of another evil.

The sea otter is the heaviest member of the weasel family but is still one of the smallest marine mammals.

Known primarily for being cute and holding paws, sea otters are endangered due to hunting: seaotters.com

By popular demand it's a thread of the best Mustelids! I did previously spotlight the best weasels but this time we're looking at the WHOLE family 😊

Like the Sunda and Palawan stink badgers who spend their nights digging for grubs with the protection of their noxious butts.

(photo credit: kaptenpanda)

tw: abuse

I tweeted recently about narcissistic abuse and how learning about that solved a lot of my confusion about the abuse I've encountered.

And I had a lot of folk ask about it so I'm just gonna step through the basics here. tw: abuse

Narcissistic abuse is a really common form of emotional and psychological abuse. It may or may not have physical components.

At the centre is the fact these abusers will pick vulnerable targets.

The more empathetic you are, the bigger the target 😑

The pygmy possums are the smallest family of possum species.

The Tasmanian pygmy possum is the smallest at only 6.6-7.5cm long (minus tail) and 0.25-0.35 oz.

But it's not the smallest marsupial.

By popular demand, it's a thread of the best marsupials! (photo credit above: Amanda McLean, Lauren Tworkowski, N. Remillieux-Leschelle, J. M. Harris)

The idea that it is "millennials" booing Robert Crumb is merely the same old misogynistic and racist erasure of comics history that has ever swung in white male bigot favour.

He was a huge part of fostering the anti-women & pro-white alt comix direction:

popmatters.com/no-girls-allow… And as Kim O'Connor & other female & marginalised critics have been pointing out for decades, this is not historical bigotry.

He was vile then. He is vile now. And he was/is a dangerous predator, witnessed by other men in comics who cheered/cheer him on:

amazingcavalieri.blogspot.com/2017/01/r-crum…

I have long been fascinated with the etymology of language in general, and names in particular.

Whether named for something or finding meaning relevant later in life, I always thought it must be pretty cool to have a name that *means* something. Alas that in my case, my name was simply derived from a tree, and one I felt little connection to at that.

The name I have now is one I fell into using internally, so that when I decided to change my name I didn't really feel like I had much of a choice.

Gender dysphoria often first manifests in teenage years because pre-puberty it can be easier to ignore your gender IF your parents don't demand you adhere to gender stereotypes.

Also because puberty very much shoves gender right in your face. Pre-puberty I was quite content knowing I was something other than the two boxes people were shoved in to, but then puberty came along and said NO YOU ARE THIS ONLY

ALSO WE BRING YOU GREAT PAIN AND EMOTIONAL DISTRESS, ENJOY

Have to laugh at the idea that comics ~sjws~ are turning on Dan Slott *now*.

There are few ways to signal how little you know about the comics industry than declaring that progressive folks like a creator famed for his misogynistic harassment of critics and fans.

Ya fakers. Dude led dogpiles on female critics and fans, puts out shitty content, and antagonises everyone.

Bigots can keep him - nobody else wants that mess 🙏

tw: abuse

First night since Friday that I've not had nightmares about abusive ex.

I got really upset on Saturday after some final straw misgendering, and my brain's reaction seems to be to replay feeling trapped when I sleep. tw: abuse

No coincidence yesterday was therapy day where I was able to dig down into the why and how the misgendering overwhelmed me that day.

It sucks that whenever I feel attacked my mind puts me back in a place where I felt so small and powerless.

"Marginalised readers, critics and creators have made painstaking efforts to highlight the disrespect they receive both on the page and off it, but so long as a white male comic creator is at fault, the rest of their peers have nothing to say."

theguardian.com/commentisfree/… The -gate may be new but the culture of toxicity, harassment and abuse in the US monthly comics industry and surrounding community is not new at all.

We've seen marginalised and women critics, creators and fans targeted by the men of comics for many many years.

Newspaper comic strips and cartoons used to dwell in the gold tier of the comics industry - syndication made creators rich and the job had a pretty open gate.

Well. Relatively.

But the idea that newspaper cartoons today are an accessible medium is utter nonsense. The advent of the mechanical reproduction of images ushered in a new age of accessible art and information.

The illiterate working class could look to political cartoons to explain current issues, and before long everyone was reading - and viewing art - regardless of station.

The Japanese dwarf flying squirrel is not the smallest of squirrels but it is undoubtedly the cutest.

At 14-20cm long (minus tail) and 150–220g, this squirrel is happily non-endangered.

By popular demand, it's a thread of the best squirrels! The red and white giant flying squirrel (or Chinese giant flying squirrel) is the largest of the flying squirrels at over ONE METRE long.

Gliding at distances of 10-20 metres there's a high probability this squirrel is the result of mass hallucination.

A big reason why the phrase "women and femmes" is bullshit is that what people REALLY mean is "people affected by misogyny" and that is a MUCH BIGGER group of people.

Some of us cannot magic misogyny away just because we know we are not a woman or femme 🙄 Gender based oppression is not dictated by what our birth certificate, pronouns, hormones or chromosomes are.

It is dictated by who is perceived as "not a cis male", and that covers a LOT of genders and gender expressions at various times or always.

Some folk might not know that when I first went to uni, it was to study astrophysics.

I was never actively dissuaded, yet my Physics class swiftly changed demographics-

14-15: half my class are girls
16-17: 4 girls out of 25
17-18: 2 girls out of 20

At uni: 2 out of 100 Every professor, tutor and teaching assistant I met at university while studying physics was male.

Every teacher I had at school for physics was male.

But I got to the age of 15 still thinking that physics was not a gender specific field of study.

The pygmy rabbit is the smallest species of wild rabbit/hare at only 0.8-1.1lb and 21-29cm.

Like the smallest dog species, pygmy rabbits are non-endangered though an isolated population was listed as such.

By popular demand, it's a thread of the best wild buns! The marsh rabbit is a small cottontail bun in the marshes of the east and south US.

A strong swimmer, these little buns are smaller than swamp bunnies with ears measuring at "teeny tiny" cm.

Don’t say you’re "just" upset if you persistently feel depressed.

Don’t say dismiss as mood swings what hampers your life.

Don't brush off "just" stress if you find it hard to cope.

Mental illness is often ignored because we place such a stigma around admitting it is there. Neurodiversity and neurotypicality are not clear cut.

Mild mental illness in particular is often overlooked as "normal" for people who don't seek help.

Overlooked mental illness often worsens over time.

EARLY intervention saves lives.

Guess who just got back today
Them wild-eyed boys that had been away
Haven't changed that much to say
But man, I still think them Hawkes are crazy And this one I am playing VERY differently this time...

This piece is especially pertinent in light of recent c-gate pushback by those privileged enough to have ignored it for years

who are now credited for speaking out 😐

https://twitter.com/ComicsMNT/status/1034758457818263553

And THIS:

"That same admin had taken our conversation and my grievance with the group and turned it into an article published on a large comic website. She was praised for writing about the exact concerns I brought to her."

is comics "activism" in a nutshell.

Therapy yesterday.

Just back from physio today.

Now I'm Guess who did a full hour workout tho!

A reminder regarding ableist slurs:

✨ you can only reclaim slurs you have ownership of
✨ you can reclaim your own slurs for yourself, not others
✨ not all disibilities are visible, be mindful
✨ do not gatekeep what "counts" as mentally ill or neurodiverse "enough" If someone is open about their disability or it is clearly written in their profile or badge:

✨ do NOT police them for using their OWN words for THEMSELVES
✨ but if they're using them on other people, particularly in a slur-like way, that's DIFFERENT

You'd think that Comic Art Festival in Kendal, last year overreacting to the criticism about their all white lineup, engaging in overt & casual islamophobia, enacting a harassment campaign against one of the most talented people in UK comics

wouldn't invite comicsgate this year. I mean you might think that. But I don't know why the fuck you would.

Because of course they have.

"Hey so we now have the stench of racism hanging around our name, why not invite some vocal members of a white supremacist movement?"

And I bet it'll, at best, be an "accident".