I feel like I need to write an article like “How to React When Your Friend Comes Out: A Guide For Really, Really Straight People” and it’s just eighty pages of me transcribing all the terrible experiences I’ve had coming out to straight people
Chapter 1: Why “I Knew It” Is Nowhere Near As Funny As You Think It Is
Chapter 2: Is Now The Time For An Abridged History Of You Being A Good Ally™? Signs Point To No
This is actually hella interesting, bc in simple terms, tigers are extroverts and lions are introverts. There’s more to it, but that’s the gist.
Whenever zoo’s tried to put lions and tigers in the same enclosures, the tiger would eventually try to groom the lioness and play constantly. The lioness would lose patience and snaps at them
So basically what I’m saying is that you have a regal and refined gf who stands at the edge of a balcony during parties, sipping champagne
Then you have the other girl who drank all of the little flutes on the servers platter, and is now drunkenly pointing at her gf and telling everyone that that’s her gf and doesn’t she look beautiful I love her so much
im bi but I tend to get crushes on fictional male characters more that real men and real women more than fictional female characters
so I guess I like to concept of men
i think this is a common feeling because men are written with such depth and complexity, whereas fictional women are not only few and far between, but are written half-assedly and from a place of little understanding of a woman’s standpoint.
meanwhile, real women are lovely and complex people, and real men are mostly just potatoes.
tips for people making identity flags: whether it looks pretty should be THE LAST thing on your list of priorities if you want it to be taken seriously as a flag
the first thing on your list should be: could I make an actual flag out of this, as in, physically sewing together strips of fabric? and if I can, would it be difficult or prohibitively expensive to do so and still have it be identifiable?
some things that will make it harder to do this:
multiple shades of the same color. the trans flag works because there are only three colors and they are all distinct from each other (pink, light blue, and white). I could conceivably go out and buy any shade of pink and light blue to make a physical trans flag and still have it be identifiable as a trans flag.
if instead I had to buy seven shades of blue, that would mean not only having to be sure that each shade was separate and distinct (I couldn’t just get any old blue), but also having to buy seven yards of fabric or seven skeins of yarn or seven skeins of embroidery thread. even if this were possible (for example, at most yarn stores it’s hard to find even two different shades of blue yarn in the same brand and size, let alone seven), it’s stupidly expensive.
also, side note: different shades of the same color are also not great for people who are colorblind.
colors that are uncommon. the hot pink stripe was removed from the original pride flag because it was hard to find hot pink fabric. colors that are easy to obtain are better for flags because they are more available. it would be hard to find yarn that DOESN’T come in the asexual pride flag colors (black, grey, white, and purple). colors like lilac, mauve, chartreuse, or peach are far more uncommon and likely would have to be specially dyed or ordered.
rule of thumb: the larger the box of crayola crayons needed to draw your flag, the less likely it is that someone will be able to physically make your flag. 8-count box? awesome. 72-count? not great.
too many unique colors. the rainbow flag gets a pass on this because they were specifically going for a rainbow, and nowadays it is common to get fabric, yarn, or thread specifically in pre-made rainbow colors. none of the rest of you get a pass. the more unique colors you have, the more skeins of yarn I’m going to need to buy.
notice that I’m not saying you can’t have more than a couple of stripes. the trans flag has five stripes; however, it has only three unique colors. most other flags have no more than four stripes if each stripe is a unique color (the ace flag, the nonbinary flag, and the proposed new lesbian flag, among others).
like, please, by all means, go out and make new flags. but please be aware of what flags are for. they’re not meant to stay only on the internet – they’re meant to be seen and used by a lot of different people, and that means making them accessible. please take this into account in your designs.
artherra 