it can do that

I’m so sick of being sick

Tue, 21 May 2013 20:09:58 -0700

I’m so sick of being sick

prevalenceofinsanity: fytortall: Alright, time to get this small rant out of my system. I realised...

Mon, 20 May 2013 22:37:37 -0700

fytortall:

Alright, time to get this small rant out of my system.

I realised today why I don’t like Bloodhound as much as I like Terrier.

For one, I really liked seeing Clary and Tunstall interact in Terrier. And I loved watching the other puppies. But mostly, it was Okha, and how she, yes, she, I’m going there, is handled.

Beka, girl, I love you. You braid your hair, you talk in slang, you’re dreadful shy around people you don’t know even though you’re tough as nails, but Nestor isn’t gay.

He’s lovers with a transwoman. There’s a swiving difference. Hell, Okha says it herself:

“Inside I am a beautiful woman,” Okha said, fiddling with a perfect curl. “The Trickster tapped me in my mother’s womb and placed me in this man’s shell.”

When Okha’s performing, she performs under a female name-indeed, she makes such a ‘convincing’ woman, that what gives her away are her large feet.

When Okha’s at home, even, where does it say she has any male tendancies? It doesn’t. She is a feminine, transwoman.

So, gods curse it Beka, why are you using male pronouns?

just….why?

Nestor could still possibly be/identify as gay even if his lover is a transwoman. (We only see Nestor with this one lover, and sexuality is fluid enough that he could be in love with Okha but still be gay. One partner does not an identity make.)

But that’s just a small side note.

Now, Beka’s smart. She lived in the Lower City, she knows her way around the streets and she turned in a gang when she was eight years old. Pretty fuckin’ smart, no?

But she’s also only encountered so much of the world. In the world that she lives in, she knows of doxies and cutpurses and Rogues and all that. She’s familiar with the idea that a man and a man or a woman and a woman might lie together as typically a man and a woman do, but as far as we can tell, she has never had a friend who is actually openly gay. It’s probably not something that the people in the Lower City can tell one another, or even something they think to tell one another because their lives are filled with so many more pressing matters.

Where their next meal will come from, for instance, or what to do because their child got taken by the Shadow Snake. That sort of thing.

Because of the circumstances in which she grew up in, I think we can reasonably assume that Beka has never before personally encountered anyone who is openly gay or trans.

So, then, back to the story. Beka is introduced to Okha as a man and Amber as a woman. Since she hasn’t been told that Okha is trans, she has no reason to assume that Okha is actually female and starts to call Okha “he” and Amber “she” just like other people do.

Then Okha tells her about being a woman trapped in a male body. That’s all Okha tells her. At this point, Okha has not told her that she wishes to be referred to by female pronouns. She has not explained anything else in detail.

Why, then, would Beka change the pronouns that she was using for Okha? That would be as disrespectful as addressing Okha by male pronouns when told to use female pronouns. When she has not been told what pronouns to use, the polite and proper thing to do is refer to Okha with the pronouns that Okha herself has told/led everyone else to use.

Beka’s ignorance is part of her character. To have her suddenly force female pronouns on someone who has not told her to do so is not part of her character. She is still learning. While we might recognize that Okha is trans, Beka does not necessarily know what to do with the information or how to process it. There are no commonly used terms to describe being trans in her world, or else we would have seen them. We’ve seen honeylove, after all, as a term for a lesbian.

The first person limited view that we get of her world has its advantages and disadvantages. We get a view into Beka’s mind, but that is all we get. What Beka knows and understands is what she tells us. While we may be frustrated that Beka doesn’t consider or think about Okha as a woman, we have to keep in mind that she only knows to call Okha a man because of her worldview. She only knows so much, and disliking her (or, at least, faulting her) for something that her world has not prepared her for is unfair and unforgiving.

Exactly. It’s also extremely probable that absolutely no conversation about gender identity has been had in the time period this is being set in, especially since, as far as we can tell, it hasn’t even happened in the contemporary Tortall setting, where we left off with Aly.

fytortall: Alright, time to get this small rant out of my system. I realised today why I don’t like...

Mon, 20 May 2013 22:30:00 -0700

fytortall:

Alright, time to get this small rant out of my system.

I realised today why I don’t like Bloodhound as much as I like Terrier.

For one, I really liked seeing Clary and Tunstall interact in Terrier. And I loved watching the other puppies. But mostly, it was Okha, and how she, yes, she, I’m going there, is handled.

Beka, girl, I love you. You braid your hair, you talk in slang, you’re dreadful shy around people you don’t know even though you’re tough as nails, but Nestor isn’t gay.

He’s lovers with a transwoman. There’s a swiving difference. Hell, Okha says it herself:

“Inside I am a beautiful woman,” Okha said, fiddling with a perfect curl. “The Trickster tapped me in my mother’s womb and placed me in this man’s shell.”

When Okha’s performing, she performs under a female name-indeed, she makes such a ‘convincing’ woman, that what gives her away are her large feet.

When Okha’s at home, even, where does it say she has any male tendancies? It doesn’t. She is a feminine, transwoman.

So, gods curse it Beka, why are you using male pronouns?

just….why?

Okay, I love your guys’ blog, but there’re some problematic things here.

I agree with you on the pronouns issue. It makes way more sense for Beka to be using feminine pronouns than male for Okha, since, y’know, Okha is only male in the biological sense. I can give her a pass for not doing so because in the setting Tammy’s writing in here, trans* people are not really a thing that would be understood, but yeah, it is irritating.

But saying Nestor can’t be gay because he’s in love with a trans woman frankly makes me uncomfortable.

We already have the tendency to be very strict with labels. This is a fact. However, labels are there for us to define not only others, but ourselves, and it’s important to recognize that. Being super militant about the definitions of labels concerning sexualities, specifically, can be really problematic when those labels are meant to help empower the ones using them to define themselves.

This probably sounds ridiculous when, hell-o, Shannon, this is a fictional situation in a fictional book! Obviously Tammy didn’t do her research properly, or Beka’s just being a dumbass.

Except the thing is, it’s not a fictional situation. I have a lesbian friend who was dating a trans man for quite a while, and when that relationship ended, it was because she had fallen out of love with him, not because of his gender identity. And you know what? There’s a big difference between physical attraction and emotional attraction. Other people have experienced similar situations to this, and probably even the same situation. It’s still not anyone’s job to say, “Hey, girl, you can’t be a lesbian! You were dating a dude!” That’s not going to be anything but harmful.

Nestor might not be the same thing as the friend I have in real life, but obviously he sure thinks of himself as gay, or he probably wouldn’t have turned down all the multitudes of admiring females Beka talks about him having.

"‘We’re going to have an adventure,’ I told Achoo, putting her leash on her collar...."

Sun, 19 May 2013 22:00:48 -0700

“‘We’re going to have an adventure,’ I told Achoo, putting her leash on her collar. ‘And it’s a very good thing Pounce isn’t here, because he might try to stop us. But you, you’re game for nearabout anything, aren’t you?’ Achoo pranced, wagging her tail. She was excited. ‘Well, then,’ I said, ‘I’ll be Goodwin, and you’ll be Tunstall, only fuzzier. And mayhap we’ll live to tell this tale.’”

- Beka Cooper to Achoo, Bloodhound

Inks that I was going to do something more with at some point....

Sat, 18 May 2013 23:43:00 -0700

Inks that I was going to do something more with at some point. Steph’s really skinny here, sorry

kuno-chan replied to your post: Lol that’s okay! Trickster was actually my first TP series X3 It...

Sat, 18 May 2013 22:16:51 -0700

kuno-chan replied to your post:

Lol that’s okay! Trickster was actually my first TP series X3

It was my first, too, so that’s probably exactly why I’ve drawn so much fanart for it. I’ve had a lot of time to visualize it.

I did a rough tally of all the TP fanart I’ve done, just to see how the different series...

Sat, 18 May 2013 00:35:54 -0700

I did a rough tally of all the TP fanart I’ve done, just to see how the different series weighed against each other in terms of how often I’ve drawn stuff from then. The approximate results were:

SotL: 7

Immortals: 7

PotS: 6

Daughter of the Lioness: 2647272889939282839282

Provost’s Dog: 10

There are vague sketches sitting somewhere in sketchbook waiting to be transformed into actually interesting things, too, but I think most of them are Trickster’s related…

"I waited for one of them to move, to see what I had to deal with. I was feeling better than I had in..."

Sat, 18 May 2013 00:06:21 -0700

“I waited for one of them to move, to see what I had to deal with. I was feeling better than I had in days. Fights are such clean affairs. There’s no guessing what folk mean or what they’re after. I KNOW what they’re after.”

- Beka Cooper, Bloodhound

Scanning this was a nightmare, oh my god. I need to up the...

Fri, 17 May 2013 22:17:02 -0700

Scanning this was a nightmare, oh my god. I need to up the default resolution of my scanner or something to smooth out the details in the shading of the hair and stuff, because that shit looks kind of janky.

My and deltatauchi’s boys, for the first time in a while. Finding references for different techniques on portraying really dark skin with ink is fucking hard, which is sadly not a surprise at all.

Deviantart

ice eyes

Wed, 15 May 2013 18:24:13 -0700

ice eyes

Favorite Lady Friendships/OTPs → Stephanie Brown/Cassandra...

Tue, 14 May 2013 23:08:52 -0700

Favorite Lady Friendships/OTPs → Stephanie Brown/Cassandra Cain

arseception: idk i have this thing where i feel like if they ever made any of tamora pierce’s books...

Mon, 13 May 2013 23:46:29 -0700

arseception:

idk i have this thing where i feel like if they ever made any of tamora pierce’s books into movies i’d want the actors to not be like incredibly well-known people because idk i just feel like if these books were ever movies i’d want them to be really great and authentic and not have the same actors that you see all the time because like idk theres so much that could be done w/ these books as far as casting because it does have different races and all that and i feel like most popular actors are either white or male and i’d just want it to really be the best it could

YEP

Send me a character and I'll tell you;

Sun, 12 May 2013 21:30:41 -0700

sinnerlikedamon:

OTP:
BrOTP:
OT3:
NOTP:

Please reblog this if you post Tamora Pierce's Tortall stuff. Fanart, fanfic, meta, book review/discussions. Anything. Please.

Sun, 12 May 2013 16:28:11 -0700

severussaves-theaddict:

Mithros, Mynoss, and Shakith! Almost NO ONE I follow posts anything about her and I just really need a fix ok?

Reblog and I’ll check you out!

Follow backs are more than welcome, but totally not necessary! I blog some weird stuff sometimes, it’s not everyone’s cup of tea.

amijinju: So I remember reading about a fan made series of Tamora Pierce books and I think it’s a...

Sun, 12 May 2013 15:03:19 -0700

amijinju:

So I remember reading about a fan made series of Tamora Pierce books and I think it’s a lot more feasible to do a fan reading of her books. Everyone can have their distinct character and be that character through out the series. Maybe there could be sound effects or something. Like a radio show.

I was listening to an audiobook and was thinking of how great this would be if it wasn’t one old British woman doing all the characters.

I want it

I want it

The Dog and the spymaster

Sun, 12 May 2013 14:51:46 -0700

The Dog and the spymaster

You guys Terrier It’s just so good

Sun, 12 May 2013 00:16:35 -0700

You guys

Terrier

It’s just so good

Old sketch I forgot about

Fri, 10 May 2013 23:04:30 -0700

Old sketch I forgot about

Commission Reminder

Thu, 09 May 2013 21:01:22 -0700

Sketch commissions are still open! And I’m poor. And need to pay for college. So. You guys should hit me up.

I skipped Beka’s books the last time I reread all of the Tortall stuff because it’d only...

Thu, 09 May 2013 19:00:13 -0700

I skipped Beka’s books the last time I reread all of the Tortall stuff because it’d only been a couple of months since I reread them, but I skipped Terrier when I was doing that reread because I’d read it so many more times than Bloodhound or Mastiff, so I figured I’d focus on those instead.

So of course, guess what that means I’m reading now.