I love this one!

-“Traditional gender roles”

I just thought of this: Whose traditions? 🤣

As someone who is bi (well, 2 on Kinsey if you go aulde skoole; the kiddies would probably use pan), please let me apologize for the faux-bis treating you like you’re just a playing piece in a game. That kind of behaviour is utterly repulsive and those who engage in it deserve to be shamed publicly for it.

First you have to understand the INCREDIBLE pressure young people, men and women alike, are under to procreate in China. This dates back thousands of years and shows no signs of slackening. There is tremendous pressure from family, from friends, and from society in general to be married and with child by the age of 25. ABSOLUTE TOPS.

Note: this pressure is applied if you’re gay or lesbian. Everybody in a queer relationship knows that they’re doomed. That they’ll be forced, in the end, to be in a loveless marriage with someone they don’t have any attraction with so they can together raise a child.

Am I painting a bleak enough picture? Lesbians in particular are the ones who get hit hardest because they bear the costs of child-bearing and the ones who get saddled with raising children alone when, inevitably, the husband divorces her (c.f. the loveless marriage bit).

Now there are mitigating strategies that the queer communities use. There’s the “co-bearding” approach where gay couple Aaron and Barry arrange to marry lesbian couple Caitlin and Dinah. So officially and publicly Aaron and Caitlin are married as are Barry and Dinah, but in reality the actual couples are Aaron/Barry and Caitlin/Dinah. It works, but is pretty complicated and not really available to everybody despite the best efforts of the queer community.

But bisexuals are a monkey wrench in all that. They don’t have that unhappy end that most queer romances end up in. So let’s say I get into a relationship with a woman here, I’m fine, she’s fine. We’re in love. We’re enjoying each other’s company. But we both know that this is non-permanent. There’s a huge difference though: I pass as het. When (not if) the pressure forces me to seek a husband and procreate, I can do that and have a loving marriage with a man who turns my crank just like my current lover does. She doesn’t have that happy outcome.

And that generates INTENSE resentment.

-Long lists of requirements in a partner.

I should have thought of that. “A lot of thou shalt not this, thou shalt not that” like an income tax return is definitely red flag territory.

“NO BI GIRLS”. I get why women fear this but this phrase doesn’t say a lot about her tolerance.

I’d factor culture in here. There are tragic reasons for why bisexual people in China are not liked in the queer community, for example. Not legit, but understandable.

… a perfect first date is … going back to his place to cuddle and watch a movie …

WTAF!? That’s incredibly clueless!

For me? Having a dating profile. 🤣

More seriously:

• Anything manosphere-reeking. Instant “no go zone”.
• Emphasis on looks over personality (both in himself and in his descriptions of who he’s looking for).
• Inability to articulate.
• No sign of any kind of intellectual life: everything’s physical.
• Any mention of a recent ex. Sorry, but that’s a minefield I’m not crossing ever again.

Toss-up between autumn and spring.

Spring because that’s when the really good teas start showing up, when most of the flowers start showing (there’s nothing quite as beautiful as a plum tree filled with blossoms and icicles) and the days’ length starts to increase visibly in the race to the equinox.

Autumn because that’s when all the really good crops start hitting the markets, because the horribly humid heat of summer starts to fall, when the moon cakes start showing up (along with the nice delicate rice wines hitting the scene) and the colours start their final run toward their winter forms.

There are some places in the Chinese diaspora where leaving your chopsticks like that will get you soundly rebuked (or smacked if your parents catch you). That’s a superstition that’s taken very seriously in traditional Chinese circles.

EVERYBODY knows this song. If you go back in time to the 11th century Mayan Empire, everybody will recognize this song. 😂

I’m a bigger fan of poppy, upbeat keys paired with the darkest lyrics imaginable.

Like Nena.

(I used to be able to play the keyboard sting in this on keyboards, accordion, and saxophone. Because it’s just so damned infectious.)

They are the ultimate product of a societal structure that rewards only greed.

Somehow I think the headline could be made both more succinct and more conducive to short articles.

Can Tesla handle anything?

No

🤣

Where’s the emoji of Chief pinching the bridge of his nose after 86 speaks when you need it?

Did you not read?

One or two of those downvotes come from the people who automatically do knee-jerk downvotes of anything that has Chinese in it. Like my username. (I use that username in that form specifically to find the sinophobes, see.)

The rest come from people who don’t understand consent. You know: wannabe rapists.

I think that way about the '80s.

So what’s the album? Asking … uh … for a friend.