What Do You Enjoy Most About Being Loveless?

Steven Universe Trading Cards: An Introduction to the World of Non-Sport Trading Cards

What Are Non-Sport Trading Cards? Although trading cards are traditionally associated with athletes from the world of professional sports, non-sport trading cards—as the name implies—put the attention on anything but sports! Embracing pop culture, these cards have opened up an exciting world for collectors who are passionate about movies, comics, and TV shows.

Cryptozoic released a neat article going in-depth about the upcoming SU trading cards! Here’s the highlights:

The cards are expected to release in June/July.

A hobby box contains 24 packs, with each pack containing 5 cards. 1 autograph card and 1 sketch card are included per hobby box.

There’s a 72-card base set, featuring episode images (fancy for “screenshots”) from every season. 3-4 of these base set cards are in each pack 

There are 4 chase sets: Totally Fabricated Bubbled Gems, Crystal Gem Friends, Fusions, and Greatest Hits

‘Totally Fabricated Bubbled Gems’ are rare cards embedded with a swatch, allowing to to “feel” the gems of your favorite characters from the show! These are randomly inserted

‘Crystal Gem Friends’ features members and allies of the Crystal Gems, in front of the Temple Door. There are 9 to collect, and each features deco foil on the character names and card frames. These cards appear in roughly 1:3 packs.

‘Fusions’ features several of the fusions we’ve seen on the show. There are 9 to collect, and each features deco foil on the character names and card frames. These cards also appear in roughly 1:3 packs.

Last but not least, we have ‘Greatest Hits’. This set features 9 cards cut into the shape of a vinyl sleeve and record, with covers for several iconic songs from the show! These will also be in 1:3 packs.

In addition to those, you also have autograph cards and sketch cards! Sketch cards are one-of-a-kind cards featuring art from several talented artists working with Cryptozoic!

Additionally, Rebecca Sugar herself has done a handful of unique sketch cards for this set! Sketch cards appear in 1:24 packs.

And, last but not least, there’s also autograph cards! These feature autographs from Rebecca Sugar and the cast of the show! These are also in 1:24 packs

Greninja

Greninja is good. 

He was my starter in X.

So I drawded him. 

Also on deviantart: http://coldbed.deviantart.com/art/Greninja-549837795

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

If you make it to the end of Peridot’s rainbow, it means you’re a lesbian.

Not my proudest gut reaction and I keep thinking about it because of all the levels of social f*cked-up-ness this whole moment implies

this is the official amatonormativity hatepost.

i hate amatonormativity.

Some people are being weird about Stevonnie’s intersex designation.

Hopefully I can write a post that sums up and addresses a few confusions and criticisms I’ve been seeing!

Intersex: This is a term for anyone who has one of the dozens of biological sex variations outside of “male” and “female.” Knowing someone is intersex does not tell you anything about their genitals, their hormones, their surgeries, their gender identity, whether they identify as trans or nonbinary, their secondary sex characteristics, or their chromosomes.

Some intersex variations are hormonal. Some are about genitals. Some are chromosomal. Some are a mixture.

Intersex is a designation that is exactly as “sexual” as calling someone “male” or calling someone “female.” It isn’t explicit in a way that makes it racy, sexualized, or inappropriate for children to see. And in fact, it answers zero questions about what is in Stevonnie’s pants (or the pants of any intersex person).

Preoccupation with nonbinary, intersex, and trans people’s genitals is what’s inappropriate.

And unless the person in question wants you to know, it isn’t your business.

Please also acknowledge that while we’re talking about a cartoon character here, the way we treat and talk about them shouldn’t be different from the way we treat and talk about real people. It’s not about whether we’re concerned about “hurting” an imaginary person. You all know that how people react to conceptual people is often how we learn to react to real people. Trans people and intersex people and people with hormone variations have historically been (and continue in the present to be) mocked and paraded as weirdos, from “man in a dress” pitched as a joke to “bearded lady in a sideshow” tropes.

Note: Say intersex, not “intersexed.” Because people aren’t intersexed any more than they’re maled or femaled.

I personally have a couple intersex friends who are open about their designation. It’s way more common than you might think and the shame and stigma surrounding intersex is part of why many people have been saying it’s bizarre or gross to talk about associated with Stevonnie. Intersex isn’t rare, bizarre, or gross. It’s just what happens when physical sex isn’t a binary, which it’s not.

Some people don’t find out they’re intersex until they have genetic testing for some reason and see a chromosome anomaly. Some people don’t find out they’re intersex until they don’t experience typical puberty. Some people find out they had unnecessary surgery when they were infants to “normalize” their external genitalia, which is something some intersex activists are trying to stop from happening (especially since a. unnecessary surgeries can be painful and dangerous; b. they cannot consent at that age; c. they may have preferred an intersex body; and d. the sex determined by doctors or parents to be the right one might be the wrong one if the intersex person grows up and identifies differently gender-wise, and the parts they were born with are forever taken from them).

Stevonnie being intersex is a positive thing overall, mostly because intersex is not talked about for no good reason, and because of that we’ll continue to have generations of parents who want unnecessary surgery on intersex infants, intersex people feeling ashamed or weird about their bodies, and people in general believing untrue things about the physical sex of bodies. A character just casually identifying as intersex is a really nice change for once.

The only issue I have with it, honestly, is the same issue I have with non-binary representation on the show. So far, we’ve only seen it explicitly acknowledged in Fusions.

Fusion is a magical concept on a SF/fantasy show, and I do worry that the value of intersex rep on the show is somewhat diluted by the fact that it’s attached to a character who is LITERALLY a mixture of male and female characters. Being “a mix of male and female” isn’t really the best way to see intersex people–the parts in question have names and what determines their maleness or femaleness or non-binary-ness is who owns the parts–and I worry that if some people are introduced to intersex for the first time as if it only exists as a result of an impossible science fiction concept, they might also get the idea that it doesn’t happen in the real world.

It does happen in the real world! Just like nonbinary people and same-sex couples!

I would love to see some explicit nonbinary and intersex rep among human cartoon characters, and more same-sex human relationships too. SU is the perfect show to do this because it’s got sensitive, informed, diverse, cool people behind it who know how important this is. There are still people watching this show who are “excusing” its queerness because it’s mixed with literal aliens, but the intention of the show is the opposite: to give its audience characters that are relatable to historically marginalized groups who are not from outer space. So far it’s still GREAT that we got a Gem wedding, a few casual references to humans who are probably gay or queer, a polyamorous Gem Fusion, and a nice little gaggle of nonbinary Fusions, including an intersex Fusion. The only reservation I have with it is that introducing these concepts attached to characters whose non-binary and/or intersex identities and designations are consequences of being literal mixtures of more than one person does make it less readily incorporated into a less savvy viewer’s real-life understanding. What’s still fantastic about it is that people can see Stevonnie supporting Intersex Awareness Day and look it up and find out why it exists. It’s absolutely a stepping stone if nothing else, and they’re not wrong for doing it.

And please do stop claiming that talking about intersex is sexually explicit or disgusting because you think it refers to the genitals of minors. That isn’t true AND it is misleading when it comes to what intersex is. If you wouldn’t consider it inappropriate to ask a new parent about the gender of their baby knowing they can’t ask the baby and are therefore explicitly disclosing what genitals the child has, you shouldn’t consider it inappropriate to have a children’s show character identify as intersex.

Hope that helps.

Tired of owls clogging your dash? Don’t be fowl, gotta get Owl Trowel!

gravity falls was such a great show for so many reasons but one in particular that stuck with me to this day was that it proudly encouraged kids to be weird. there was never the almost stifling message of "everyone is their own normal :)" because as a neurodivergent child that is almost never how it actually feels. it did an awesome job at saying "yeah, you stick out like a sore thumb. six of em, actually! how cool is that!?" and it encouraged you to support your loved ones weirdness even if you don't begin to understand it

I think we should also appreciate how he took the time out of his days to visit kids at the St. Jude hospital while still battling with his own cancer. He was a real life superhero to not only me but millions of people <3

Piers and Marnie

All credit to original artist