gender envy and calling ppl gender was like just a quirky little injoke between trans zoomers on the internet it was never meant to be this super serious clinical term or trans exclusive experience… “dont call ppl gender if ur cis” do whatever u want its not even a real thing oh my fucking god

regardless how can “wow im envious of their specific gender presentation and how theyre perceived by others gender wise” possibly be a trans exclusive experience. ? answer quickly

I’ll go one further: Can we normalize cis people making ‘that’s my gender’ jokes? Maybe if they learn to take it a little less fucking seriously they’ll start to recognize how ridiculous it is to try to codify every human experience into a gender binary.

cis people defining their gender for themselves is actually something i seriously encourage. like,,, go on, friend, you don’t have to be trans to enjoy your gender the way that we enjoy ours. deconstructing shitty systems starts by hitting at the base of the tower.

We interrupt this lovely readalong for more HarperCollins union news.

Namely, the union is on strike. HarperCollins, the second largest publishing house in the United States, has made record profits (in the billions) but refuses to pay its employees a living wage or negotiate in good faith. Unlike the one-day strike earlier this year, this will be an open-ended strike, to last until a fair, good-faith contract is agreed upon.

I cannot overstate the implications here. HarperCollins is a 200-year-old behemoth with over 120 imprints, owned by billionaire Rupert Murdoch. You have reads books from this company, I guarantee it. You have enjoyed movies and TV shows spawned by this company. The workers striking at the blood and sweat responsible for launching those properties you love. And as Harper goes, so goes the rest of the industry. If we raise the living standards for one, so the pressure increases on other companies to raise it for all.

The Harper Union need your support. They have a full thread here, but here’s the gist of what they’re asking:

EVERYONE:

- Donate to the strike fund if you can

- Politely email Harper’s HR (peopleteam@harpercollins.com) and the CEO (brian.murray@harpercollins.com) to express your support for the strike and the union.

- Boost their message on social media and among your social circles (here are some assets you can use to do that)

- If you are in the NY metro area, come join the picket line at 195 Broadway in Manhattan!

BLOGGERS/REVIEWERS/BOOKSTAGRAMMERS/BOOKTOKERS:

- If possible, please hold all reviews of Harper titles until the strike is over. (And I would add, if you feel comfortable doing so, tell Harper why.)

FREELANCERS/INDUSTRY HOPEFULS:

- Don’t be a scab. Don’t take new freelance projects or temporary positions while the strike is ongoing.

BOOKSTORES/BOOKSELLERS:

- Share the “I Stand With” graphic

- Print and distribute the union bookmark at your store

AUTHORS/AGENTS:

- Do not submit or sign new contracts to Harper until the union’s own contract is finalized.

———

Please note they are not asking for a boycott on Harper titles. A boycott would harm the authors, who have nothing to do with this, so the union is explicitly requesting no boycott.

Also, please do not @ Harper social accounts to yell at them. Direct all feedback to that peopleteam email. The majority of folks watching those accounts are out on the picket line anyways, and their managers have already been warned that, as non-union members, they risk termination if voice any public support for the strike.

For more info, check out the union’s accounts on Twitter and Instagram. I also recommend this Twitter thread for some hard facts and figures.

Want something you can share on TikTok? Check out Carmen’s video here.

Reblogging with some additional information in answer to notes, replies, and comments left on the original post, This addition is current as of November 11, 2022. (The post above is from November 10, 2022.)

- The union’s official Venmo is @HCPSolidarityFund, but I’m trying to get a current, official statement from them to link to here, so you don’t have to take my word for it.

- The Harper union is part of the UAW Local 2110. Their website is here. The union’s press release announcing the strike can be found here.

“I want to email but I don’t know what to say.”

Templates are tricky. If you copy-paste my words, HC can dismiss it as spam. Here’s what I would recommend trying:

- a greeting (”To whom it may concern” or “Dear HarperCollins” or just “Hi” works)

- introduce yourself in relation to who you are to them (a regular customer of their titles? a member of a Harper-related fandom? a concerned parent/teacher/librarian? an author? a bookseller? a potential future employee?)

- a statement of support (”I am writing in support of the ongoing strike because…”)

- an explicit notation on why they should care (should be framed in terms of Harper’s reputation, Harper’s clout, and/or Harper’s finances. How can YOU affect THEIR bottom line?)

- a line on what actions you wish to see them take

- your name

Voila. That’s like six sentences, tops. If you’d like, add in how you heard about the strike to give and how you plan to share the news even further to give a sense of scale. (see: the impact on Harper’s reputation.)

You can do it. I believe in you.

A brand/book/author you care about is definitely going to be affected

Here is a very incomplete list of just SOME of the books, brands, and authors published by HarperCollins:

Warrior Cats. Series of Unfortunate Events. Bridgerton. Wicked. Chronicles of Narnia. Lord of the Rings and the entire Tolkien backlist. Agatha Christie. Dorothy Sayers. E.B. White (his adult stuff and Charlotte’s Web, Trumpet of the Swan, Stuart Little). School for Good and Evil. Amelia Bedelia. Goodnight Moon. If You Give a Mouse a Cookie. Harold and the Purple Crayon. Frog and Toad. Master and Commander. The Princess Diaries. The Queen’s Thief Series. Red Queen. The Hate U Give. Dumplin. The One and Only Ivan. New Kid. Simon Vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda. They Both Die at the End. Ella Enchanted. Beverly Cleary. Wayside School. Bridge to Terabithia. Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark. Where the Wild Things Are and other titles by Maurice Sendak. Where the Sidewalk Ends and other titles by Shel Silverstein. All of the I Can Read books. Bel Canto. American Gods (and a bunch of other stuff by Neil Gaiman, incl. Coraline and Stardust.) All of Terry Pratchett’s Discworld books. Pretty Little Liars. To Kill a Mockingbird. The Little Bear books. The Divergent series. Little House on the Prairie. The Abhorsen books. Howl’s Moving Castle and Diana Wynne Jones’s other books. Splat the Cat. Flat Stanley. Babel by R.F. Kuang. Song of Achilles. Anthony Bourdain’s books. Barbara Kingsolver. Anthony Horowitz. EVERYTHING under the Harlequin and Avon imprints. EVERYTHING under Zondervan and Thomas Nelson. The Little Prince. Life of Pi. Ursula Le Guin. Virginia Woolf. The Princess Bride. The Handmaid’s Tale. Fancy Nancy. Zora Neale Hurston. Neal Stephenson. Becky Chambers. Clive Barker. Michael Crichton. Sarah Plain and Tall. R.A. Salvatore. Mitch Albom. Aldous Huxley. Anne Hillerman. Michael Chabon. FGTeeV. 

200 years of history. 200 years of gobbling up other companies, other imprints.

You. Are. Affected.

This strike is not anti-Harper/anti-tradpub

Listen, I get it. Some of y’all have some rightful bones to pick with HarperCollins and/or traditional publishing. But the brave people forgoing their livelihood indefinitely in order to demand livable wages, increased diversity in the workplace, and union protections—demands that will affect our entire industry—ARE HarperCollins, far more than the C-Suite execs they’re fighting against. It is the latter group, the VPs and executives who roll up the ladder after themselves, who are the barrier here, not HarperCollins as embodied by the stressed out and in debt subrights coordinator marching on the sidewalk.

I agree, stick it to The Man, especially when that man is Rupert Murdoch, but this isn’t about “taking Harper down a peg” or “burning tradpub to the ground.” This is about bettering working conditions and providing a more equitable, sustainable environment for hundreds of passionate, dedicated people and thereby further opening the door for those who come after them.

This strike highlights issues that are endemic to publishing as a whole

Publishing is white. Publishing is rich. Publishing is layer upon layer of privilege and power and invisible hurdles like you wouldn’t believe.

The union is asking for three things:

- livable wages

- an increased commitment to diversity

- better union protections

All three are intertwined. Until the 2020 protests, standard entry level salaries were at $35k, which is below the poverty level for NYC (where employees are required to live.) Harper raised their base salaries after the protests, after a lot of public lip service to diversity, and after literally EVERY other competitor raised their salaries first. Current entry level salaries at Harper are $45k, which is still less than a year’s rent in New York. (Food? Electricity? Who needs it!) Employees are expected to take on additional jobs to survive. That’s standard. Employees are also expected to work overtime without pay. Again, this is standard across the industry, not just at Harper.

The people who survive are people with wealth, people with privilege, or people who make it only so far and then burn out spectacularly. The churn in this industry is unreal. This also leads in to Harper’s lip service to diversity in the workplace. BIPOC folks, disabled folks, folks without significant financial support, even once they managed to get through the door, retention is abysmal. Again, standard across publishing.

Harper has done a heck of a job at trying to gut the union. The amount of union busting even in “normal times” was unreal. And yet Harper remains the only US publisher in “the Big Four” with a union.

If the union can pull off a win here, raised salaries will apply pressure for their competitors to follow suit. Same for tangible, practical, enforced commitments to diversity. And if the union wins, more may appear in other houses, keeping the cycle of change rolling forward. And this is not limited to the United States. We are an interconnected global world. May actions here inspire further actions abroad.

So again, thank you all for your support. If you have specific questions and want to make sure I see, send an ask or DM.

Let’s get crap done.

November 30, 2022

The Harper Union is still on strike. Harper’s HR, which publicly tried to position themselves as “bargaining in good faith” has yet to even reach out to the union.

It’s been fifteen days without even an attempt at a deal, and Harper has begun hiring scabs.

Now is the time for more pressure, not less.

December 6, 2022

Still on strike. Worse, the CEO, Brian Murray, sent an open letter to authors and agents rife with spin, misinformation, and outright lies—everything from claiming that the requested salary increase would be “higher than any other competitor” (it’s not), that they give generous benefits like ample time off (which by their accounting includes federal holidays like Christmas—but not Christmas Eve or literally any other day in December! can’t have that!—and also using that time off is aggressively discouraged by management), to pledging to remain “ready and willing” to negotiate in good faith when they’ve yet to speak to the union and have tried to recruit scabs from local bookstore staff and publishing courses.

I am eagerly looking forward to the union’s rebuttal letter in the style of their last round of edits, but that’s the only thing I’m pleased about. As a former employee, I feel sick for my friends and colleagues who are being so poorly mistreated by their company. As an industry colleague, I’m disheartened. I left Harper on good terms, but now I can’t imagine myself ever going back. They’ve shown themselves to be violently opposed to the wellbeing of the very people who make the company what it is. And as an author, I cannot at present see a future in which I would willingly submit a manuscript to any portion of Harper, knowing that anyone left is miserable, mistreated, or a scab.

I am posting this information twice, once here and once on its own, since this thread has gotten long. I’m also going to sit down and write an email to the People team, impressing upon them exactly what they’re losing by being so vile. I recommend you all do the same, and donate to the union, if you can. It’s going to be a long fight.

Wasn’t expecting to update this soon, but there are developments.

As with the last, I’ll drop this new information in a second, individual post as well for folks whose eyes glaze over at the length, but this will keep everything together.

December 8, 2022

The Harper union is STILL ON STRIKE but there are two new ways to help. (The other ways are listed above.)

1. Sign this open letter of support from the union to Brian Murray and Harper HR. For independent verification, they’ve posted about it on their Twitter and Instagram. (And once you do, share the link with the graphic!)

2. Maybe you can’t swing donating to the strike fund, but mayyyybe you’re looking to invest in your own writing career or you need a gift for a writer in your life? A bunch of publishing professionals, authors, agents, etc., are hosting Q&A sessions and all proceeds will go straight to supporting the union through the holidays. They have a suggested price of $20, but anything counts!

The holidays are rough because the industry goes into a bit of a lull, which means less natural pressure on Harper… but the union members still aren’t receiving wages. So let’s amp up that pressure and make sure everyone makes it safely into the new year!

January 3, 2023

Annnd we’re back again as the union enters WEEK EIGHT of the strike. Harper has begun hiring temps (untrained scabs) to fill their gaps. So that’s fun. I’m sure the authors and agents are stoked to learn their titles are being handled by folks who don’t know what middle grade is or how to navigate DAM and TitleNet. (As someone pointed out on Twitter, another unappreciated labor of junior staff is teaching newcomers how to actually do the job!)

So please, keep writing to Harper, keep donating to the strike fund, and keep sharing the news online and in real life with real people you know. Publishing is a bubble but the impact needs to be felt outside the bubble as well.

January 20, 2023

It’s been over FIFTY days. The strike is still ongoing. Harper has yet to even speak to the union.

Union members are still scraping on their second and third hustles (which most entry-level publishing people have) and donations to the strike fund. The union has set up a hardship fund (here’s the post about it on their official Instagram, for verification) so no more fiddling with checks or Venmo.

If you can donate, please do.

And whether you can or can’t, please do still share.

Next time transphobes call trans healthcare "experimental" you can show them this

penicillin was first discovered in 1928; vaginoplasty is less experimental

ibuprofen was first discovered in 1961; phalloplasty and HRT are less experimental

Adderall was first applied as an ADHD treatment in 1994; puberty blockers are less experimental

i just think it would be so sexy if the rail workers said fuck u to biden and started striking and then truckers would be like ukw slay and joined and it just was a domino effect and everyone stayed home and hung out w their neighbors and shit and everyone worth more than a mil or two killed themselves

i kinda wanna make a "what house are you" quiz where the answers are like "haunted house" "burning house" "waterlogged house" etc would anyone aside from @monstermarcie be into that

take the quiz here

so far people seem to be responding with "oh bees :) 💕" or "BEES??!!!"

my brother had a brilliant idea that i wanted to share with other people who have four-legged family members: he trained our two cats to go directly to the door when they hear the fire alarm.

obviously at first the fire alarm sent them scrambling for cover, but he started slowly by giving them treats whenever it went off, when someone burned food or forgot to open the fireplace flu. he then progressed to calling them to the door to offer treats immediately after the alarm went off. and it actually wasn't too long before the cats voluntarily started going to the door upon hearing the alarm.

i think this was genius because in the event of a real emergency we know exactly where the cats will be and we will not have to waste precious time trying to find them to rescue them. i think this method would work equally well with dogs and probably other free-roaming pets such as rabbits, ferrets, etc. and i certainly encourage others to give it a shot!

I trained Neelix to alert me to Sounds. So in the even of A Sound he'd find me to let me know about it. Oven timers, knocking at the door, weird creature stuck in the yard, etc. This has the added effect of being able to scoop him up and bring him to safety in the event said sound is a fire alarm or a tornado siren.

The downside is, when I had a baby, every time it cried he'd barrel into the room to let me know. Even if I was already in the room. And if I couldn't make The Sound stop (because an infant works differently than an oven timer), he'd start biting me urgently. 😅

Confused, but doing his best:

Oh, context is that I'm deaf not that I wanted to create a beast that'd harass me over sounds.

I have to physically stop myself from spoilering myself while reading ahead

@allthecanadianpolitics Some flag/symbol information so you can know the racists.

Thanks for the heads up, and before anyone goes ‘There’s no nazi’s in Canada!”, yes, yes there are:

Right-wing extremist groups ‘prevalent’ across Canada, study warns

Canada not immune to right-wing extremism

Far-right extremist groups on the rise in Canada, expert says

Repeat after me: - Veganism is not affordable - Veganism is not cruelty free - Veganism is not the best choice for everyone

Repeat after me -I’m an idiot and wrong. -Veganism can be made affordable. -Veganism is fucking cruelty free. That’s what it’s all about. - Veganism is the best choice for everyone, if everyone did it. -I’m a fucking asshole for making this completely wrong text post and should shut the hell up now.

Exploiting undocumented immigrants, and other workers is cruelty free? Nearly 500,000 children as young as six harvest 25 percent of US crops.

But I guess brown people don’t fucking matter. 

People are literally starving in South America because all the Quinoa crop is being exported mainly for white vegans who want to live “cruelty-free” but don’t care about brown people as much as they do about animals.

plus, 4 of the 8 most common food allergies (soy, wheat, peanuts, and tree nuts) are common vegan substitutes.

hello i am also here with The Science™ to back up the fact veganism is NOT even the most sustainable dietary option for humanity, like not even in the ballpark of close

JUST WATCH IT OK

Holt shit

YES

I am scared and confused.

(:

I love this….those kids are geniuses…and do they actually know how to play/tongue/bow the instrument they were playing in that video? Not doubting them or anything it just looked like they swapped instruments….

Ok, as the person in the blue shirt on the left, I can explain what is going on here.

On the far left, you see a clarinetist playing a broken cello.  She does not know how to play the cello.  (Nor does that cello have any intention of being played.)

My friend and I are collectively playing a frankenstein of an instrument that I like to call the “Eb bassooninet.”  It’s an Eb clarinet with a bassoon bocal attached. It sounds like a dying duck.

The bassoonist in the middle is the only one playing a normal instrument normally.

Second from the right, you see a clarinetist playing half a clarinet.

Finally, on the far right you see a clarinetist playing a Bb clarinet that is pulled out so far at every joint that it approximates an A clarinet.

The best part about this video is that everyone is actually a really accomplished musician, not that you’d guess it xD

I still don’t know what this fucking piece is called

@five-flats its molly on the shore by percy grainger if im not mistaken (and i could be its so out of tune but its got the same rhythm and approximate pitches) its actually a really cool song, ive played it a couple of times (the oboe part is fucking awful to play at tempo but it sounds so cool) bc its like right in the middle of our high range and in A flat so

A book crystallized in the ocean

oh mood

NO NO NO.

This was not crystallized by the ocean. People. No. This is why artist credit is SO DAMN IMPORTANT THERE ARE SO MANY PEOPLE MISINFORMED HERE.

Alexis Arnold is an artist who creates crystallized books. Her work is amazing and beautiful, she’s made dozens of these.

This particular one was not made by her, however, it was actually created by Catherine McEver - who was inspired to try it after seeing a show of Alexis Arnold’s work. It’s literally the first picture on Google image results if you search for “crystallized books” and she posted about it on her blog showing other process shots as she made it.

TWO DIFFERENT WOMEN ARE BEING DEPRIVED OF CREDIT FOR THEIR CREATIVITY BECAUSE THIS FALSE INFORMATION IS BEING SPREAD. FUCK THAT.

I want to _____ you.

Interesting..

I’VE LITERALLY HAVE NEVER DONE ANYTHING TO YOU PEOPLE

I was just reblogging for the above post I didn’t think I’d get any

apparently you guys want to do a lot of different things with/to me

Okay, guys. Go ahead. I know what’s coming.

Bring it on.

Do the thing

Keep your minds out of the gutter please

WHO SAID THEY GONNA PVP AGAINST ME? LET’S DO THIS SHIT

but i deadass didn’t think people were going to do this

Idek how to enable asks on mobile XD but you can just message me I won’t judge

omg. COME AT ME BRUH!!!

I’m bored. go ahead guys

“I was in the kitchen and heard a noise. I turned around and the sheep were just standing there. There were about nine of them. Rocky did look quite pleased with himself, but he’s going to need more training.”

This was on the news recently 😂