formerly alluras-castle

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277k ratings

See, that’s what the app is perfect for.

Sounds perfect Wahhhh, I don’t wanna
aspiringwarriorlibrarian
fandomsandfeminism

Yall wanna hear a kinda funny, kinda sad story about my grandmother and hetero-normativity?


Ok, so... when my grandmother was in her 50s (I was an infant), she met a woman at the Unitarian Church. And, as can happen when you meet your soul mate, this event made it impossible for her to deny parts of herself that she had fiercely hidden her whole life.

All the drama- their affair being found out, the divorce with my grandfather, the court battle over who got the house, happened while I was a baby. Even in my earliest memories, it's just Mama Jo and Oma, and my grandfather lived elsewhere (first his own apartment, then a nursing home, then with us.)

But here's the thing- no one ever explained any of this to me. No one ever sat down and was like "hey, Rosie, so do you know what a lesbian is?" It was the 90s. It was Texas. I think my mom was still kinda processing all this, and just assumed that like... I was gonna figure it out. Don't mention it, let it just be normal. Like I think my mom thought that if she explained the situation, she would be making it weird? I dunno.

But like. In the 90s, in all the movies I had seen and books I had read, do you know how many same sex couples I had seen? Like. 0. Do you know how many "platonic best friend/roommates" I had seen? A lot. I had no context, is what I'm saying.

I literally thought this was a Golden Girls, roommates, besties situation until I was like...I dunno, 11? 12?

It was actually their parrot, an African Grey named Spike, imitating my grandmothers voice saying "Johanna, honey, it's getting late", that triggered the MIND BLOWN moment as I realized that *there's only one master bedroom and it only has 1 waterbed* when all the pieces finally clicked.


Anyway. I think it's a real important thing for kids to know queer people exist, for a lot of reasons, but also because kids can be clueless and it's embarrassing to have your grandmother be outted by a parrot because everyone just thought you'd figure it out on your own.


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Anyway, here is my grandma and her wife, Oma, after they moved to Albuquerque to be artsy gay cowboys and live their best life. They helped run a "Lesbian Dude Ranch" out there (basically just with funding and financial support. As Oma has explained "traditionally, most lesbians don't have a lot of money" so they wrote the checks and let the younger ladies actually run the ranch.)

sandersstudies
only-tiktoks

sandersstudies

Grizzly 399 is so cool! I went to her Wikipedia page intending to screenshot interesting facts about her, but I would really recommend you go check out the whole thing for yourself.

Grizzly 399 lives in close proximity to humans but has never caused problems or attacked a human - she has taught her many cubs important skills like looking both ways before crossing the road. She has had more triplets than is normal for grizzlies, and is far better at keeping triplets alive than less experienced mothers.

She had 22 progeny, (though not all survived) including Grizzly 610, who in 2011 adopted one of 399’s triplets along with her own two cubs. 399 previously went viral on social media for keeping her quadruplets alive through two seasons, despite bear cubs only having a 55% survival rate.

llamascanbepurple
muffinlevelchicanery

image
geobrarian

Yes BUT. This specific desk is in a library so a parent that needs to use a library computer can do their work and have a little ease in managing their kiddo. In a library environment this is less productivity culture bullshit and more 'oh this is a fantastic solution to a difficult situation library staff see 8 times a day'. Is it still productivity culture bullshit because this parent may not have affordable childcare or internet available to them? Yes. Am I glad it exists in a library environment to fill a demonstrated need? Hell yeah.

‘Revolutionary’ desk for working parents at Virginia library goes viral
The setup allows a parent to work while their child plays in an adjoining area.
KIRO 7 News Seattle
kittensforbrowncoats

and keeps library staff from having to act as babysitters...

impling

dear GOD we could use a couple of these. we keep crayons and coloring books on hand for the ones old enough for that, but the wee ones squirming and fussing in laps while the parents are fighting with job applications or convincing gmail’s current 2-step verification to let them in so they can print off a return label (both of which i have seen)? this would be SO NICE.

curliestofcrowns

library groups have been loving this & are spreading the word & actively trying to purchase/create similar things in different systems

pomrania
homunculus-argument

Tumblr is so funny because you can make a post like "hey do not mix bleach and vinegar in your cleaning, you'll make chlorine gas and you do not want to make chlorine gas. It is dangerous to mix these two specific chemicals together", and the comments are like

"Um vinegar isn't dangerous?? My mom cleans things with vinegar all the time and we have never had lung issues. White people are insane." (<- does not use bleach, missing the point)

"OH MY GOD BLEACH IS CHLORINE GAS? NOBODY EVER TOLD ME I'VE BEEN CLEANING WITH BLEACH MY WHOLE LIFE, I WILL DIE." (<- has literally never used vinegar in cleaning, and never mixed the two, missing the point)

"This is just stupid fearmongering, we use bleach and vinegar to wash the floors all the time, OP is lying." (<- does not actually know what "vinegar" is, and is confusing the word for something else)

"Yeah this is true enough but also keep in mind that this kind of household cleaning product chlorine gas is too weak and unreliable to use for domestic terrorism purposes." (<- raises concerns, but potentially has a point)

kuno-chan
ublock-origin

image

"if you put too many people together they start shooting each other!!" that just sounds like usamerican projection, but okay

ublock-origin

also: western lib: *sees an apartment building in a socialist country*
western lib: is this a gulag??

apas-95

i love the 'imagine the energy consumed by this building' because like. it's actually very clear and obvious that a building of many apartments will require less energy than the same number of detached houses, since it shares services and thermal inertia

loth-catgirl

imagine going to visit so many of your friends and they're like only a few floors away or maybe right next door

imagine the tenant's union that this kind of place can form 😍

judge-existential-dredd

image

The ideal living arrangement, according to the people on this post lmao

howl224stillalive

If you like this idea then go live there, go live that dream.

I personally will live like a human instead of a lab rat, I want to be able to go outside and touch grass and listen to the wind blow through the trees.

ublock-origin

Usamericans are so suburbpoisoned they don't realize you can just. Walk out of an apartment building. You aren't stuck inside.

jewish-harley-quinn

People on this website talk about creating self-sustaining communes and working together and making accessible walkable cities and then see a close knit community in China with walkable shops nearby to every home and call it inhumane