Sophie

@sophies

Programmer, game developer, Kinsey-six gay. Always using the correct amount of cynicism. Wishlist ROBOT RECKONING:

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Sophie@sophies· Jul 6

if you're a gay person who doesn't give a shit about trans people, you too could get published in the new york times also if that bit at the end of this excerpt was true surely he'd just quote someone saying it lmao

What’s in a word? It’s more than just a shift in linguistic fashion. “Queer” carries an adversarial charge that “gay” does not, and that charge has a specific intellectual lineage. In 1990 an activist group called Queer Nation published a manifesto exhorting gay people to call themselves “queer.” Its rationale was that “gay” was “a much brighter word” and that “queer” better conveyed the anger and disgust they felt at how society treated gay people: as marginal others whose deaths barely mattered. That sentiment had an understandable resonance at the height of the AIDS epidemic, but the us-versus-them posture it represented has outlived that crisis.

This oppositional framing of “queer” achieved its most enduring influence through the rise of queer theory. In that academic context, “queer” did not simply mean “gay or bisexual.” It meant “anti-normative” in a sweeping sense. As the queer theorist David Halperin wrote, “Queer is by definition whatever is at odds with the normal, the legitimate, the dominant.” By that standard, same-sex relationships could be queer, but so could open marriages, prostitution and public sex, even when heterosexual.

Sophie@sophies· Jul 6

just the one copy but I'm playing for 8 people

Sophie@sophies· Jul 3

fucking banger

The Trump Administration and the high court are not far right extremists taking a wrecking ball to our most dearly held principles, except on trans rights where they are modest, moderate, pragmatic thinkers balancing fairness with pragmatism and the best available science, neutrally applying US law. Instead, anti-trans pundits are liberals except in the case of the transgender community, where their intense discomfort with people who live differently turns them into carbon copies of the far right on this issue alone.

This dual vision is dangerous for trans people, but it’s also dangerous for the entire country. The rights of trans people have become a testing ground where some of the most extreme actions, such as the prosecution of WPATH by a politicized FTC, can be rolled out without risking a widespread outcry. When the outcry comes, it’s diluted by the fact that Lewis and her compatriots have defended the excesses of the Administration and the court when it comes to their culture war against trans rights.

The trans community didn’t ask to be a canary in the coalmine of American democracy, but it adds insult to injury when members the pundit class refuse to even glance over at the cage to observe us falling off our perch. Their rights are next, whether they see it or not.

Sophie@sophies· Jun 25

Chocolate biscuits had gone liquid so I put them in the fridge and created a new problem. #heatwave

Sophie@sophies· Jun 21

jesus fucking christ

Instead, the new minister for levelling up, Angela Rayner, is someone who has actually levelled up, from a single mother in a council house to deputy prime minister. The new minister for prisons, James Timpson, has spent the past 20 years finding jobs for former prisoners. The new minister for transport, Louise Haigh, has the kind of red emo hair dye that suggests she’s frequently jumped the barriers on the Tube on the way to a Green Day gig — and so actually knows what public transport is. All my friends were watching these arrivals as if we were watching Magic Mike Live. We were rubbing our thighs.
“It’s almost as if Keir Starmer has hired … the best people for the job, rather than just someone’s wife or a mate from school,” said my blow-dried friend, sounding palpably aroused.
“I think he has a lot of really full box files with ‘DETAILED PLANS’ written on them,” said another, before excusing herself from the group chat. She didn’t say why she had to excuse herself — but we knew.

Sophie@sophies· Jun 21

they're calling it the most poorly aged article of all time

And whom was that date with? As we spent an enjoyable hour analysing her subconscious, we concluded it wasn’t specifically with Keir Starmer, or even a new Labour government, but with competency. There is nothing more erotic to a middle-aged woman than competency. It is the quality we value above all others. As we age, our preferred language of love shifts from, “I would die for you,” to, “I will stay alive and do your VAT return for you.” The single most sexual phrase we can hear is, “I’ll take care of that.”
Or — the best — the one that makes us start taking off our nicely ironed blouses and carefully putting them on a coat hanger: “I’ve taken care of that.”
And so however it pans out, at the beginning of this new government, the fact that they seem at the outset incredibly competent is making women of a certain age very frisky.

Sophie@sophies· Jun 16

@batariangal.eurosky.social you're welcome and/or I'm sorry

Eminem with Cloud Strife's face photoshopped onto him

Sophie@sophies· Jun 10

got a reply. basically a lot of words to say "go fuck yourself"

We note your concerns about the range of women’s associations’ perspectives included in the piece and how they are described.

This is a broad explainer which is clearly providing brief information about different aspects of a very wide subject area. While we acknowledge some readers would have liked to have found more detail or more nuanced analysis, we believe that in framing the sections “What have women's groups said about the judgment?” then “What have transgender groups and other critics said about the judgment?”, the groups’ standpoints are made clear. The section itself sets out their views which we believe are fair summations.

We acknowledge that they don’t speak for all women’s groups but believe that the range of reaction is fair and reasonable. We also explain that “Groups, such as TransActual and Stonewall, described the Supreme Court ruling as "devastating" for trans people and said it created confusion not clarity.”

In our wider coverage of news stories and events affecting transgender people, we have referred to some groups as gender critical – we believe it is useful to convey to readers what the ethos of a group is, for information and context.

Regarding the Women’s Institute, in our reporting at the time, we make clear that the WI announced with "sincere regret" it will no longer offer membership to transgender women, and that “the decision comes after "40 years of fellowship and sisterhood with those women", she told BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour”. (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c3e05130wyno).

While we acknowledge you may continue to disagree, we hope to have explained why we are satisfied that the article is accurate and adheres to our published standards. We value your comments, which have been shared directly with the team that produced the article as well as being recorded on our overnight reports and circulated widely.

Sophie@sophies· Jun 6

fascism is a scavenger.

You’d never know it, but Reform is actually pretty vulnerable right now. They have about a quarter of the vote and seem stuck there. This is not the will of the true volk, but an ugly, angry minority with the support of international elites. A sustained, aggressive, pushback from our mainstream press, or real public outcry against them, could prove devastating. They are a creature of press hype, and could be destroyed by the favourable terms our elites have given them being withdrawn.

And that’s the thing about fascism: it needs collaborators. In 2015, Trump’s movement was probably a similar percentage of the country. They required the cowardice of traditional conservative leaders and institutions, or the media ‘both sides’ing his fascism and Hillary’s failings. The ideology is very, very dangerous indeed, but it can’t really get traction without centrists dismissing the danger, without the media sanitizing it, without the public at large muttering some disapproval and moving on.

For that reason, it’s an opportunistic predator. More scavenger than hunter, despite its ferocious self-image. At least in its early stages, it prefers to attack the weak, isolated, members of the herd. Safety lies in closing ranks against it, leaving no one behind.

Sophie@sophies· Jun 3

buddy, as a 29-year-old I feel like I can't do anything about it. ❤️

“Every time I turn on social media or I hear someone talking about the news, it’s just another batshit insane thing. There’s people in AP Gov class debating trans rights. As a 17-year-old, I feel like I can’t do anything about it.”

Sophie@sophies· Jun 3

for your consideration bsky.app/profile/soph...

"content" is an offensive term to those of us with taste because it implies that the content itself is irrelevant, it's just something to put advertising next to, and it sucks shit to see art described that way. and of course this logic suggests that AI-generated slop is the future.

but also, well, watch a mr beast video and tell me that's not just human-made slop. or watch a reality TV show that endangered its participants for the drama.

advertisers are sadly correct that a lot of (maybe most) people really do not give a shit what it is they're watching.

Sophie@sophies· Jun 3

nice

Sophie@sophies· Jun 3

this is what I imagine whenever I see "british shiitake mushrooms" in the supermarket

guy in a kimono meme with a badly edited cartoon top hat and moustache on top

Sophie@sophies· Jun 2

they're calling it the worst ratio of all time

Sophie@sophies· May 29

oops

Sophie@sophies· May 28

also gets it right with subtraction. tried the first request 6 times and this one 5 times, ~same answer every time. same if you ask for the subtraction cold. if you just do "5.9 - 5.11" sometimes it'll ask for context instead of just doing the calculation.

Sophie@sophies· May 28

claude wrecked by gemma4 running on less than 10GB of VRAM

Sophie@sophies· May 28

also fuck @lbc.co.uk for calling this a "clear" stance instead of pointing out the obvious hypocrisy of saying this but now saying we should implement a rollback of trans rights. just because he's saying it nicely doesn't mean he isn't saying it. www.lbc.co.uk/article/live...

At last year’s Manchester Pride Parade, Mr Burnham made his position on LGBTQ rights clear. He said: “I am going to make it really plain: I support trans rights and I want that to be known.”

Sophie@sophies· May 28

also that article lead me to Burnham's comments about the issue and I guess I shouldn't be surprised that they suck. "I'm going to take 50 quid from you, but you shouldn't see that as me stealing" do you think we're idiots lmao. "live and let live" my arse.

“Let’s implement the guidance, but to do it in the fairest and most compassionate way possible.”

He explained: “I think the time has come to take the Supreme Court ruling and the guidance and implement it, but to do it in a way that protects those spaces but does not marginalise already marginalised communities, that’s my view.

He said he thought Britain needed to “stop arguing with each other” and urged Brits to find “common ground and start pulling together.

He added: “The Supreme Court was really clear that while spaces should be protected, so people are not in that position, the ruling shouldn’t be seen as a victory one side over another. They were very clear about that, and it’s about not further marginalising communities that already feel very marginalised.

Sophie@sophies· May 27

making a complaint. let's see if this goes anywhere.

In the linked article, there is a section titled "What have women's groups said about the judgment?" where groups such as For Women Scotland and Sex Matters are characterised as "women's groups", which implies they are long-standing groups that fight for women's rights on all fronts (eg. discrimination, abortion, pay, etc).

However, both groups were only set up within the last decade, and neither generally campaigns for women's rights, but rather they only advocate against the inclusion of transgender women in women's spaces. This information might lead one to believe these groups are more interested in trans-exclusion than women's rights broadly, and are using "women's rights" as a framing to advance that goal, but the BBC chooses not to mention it.

The BBC also fails to provide comment from more long-standing women's groups that do broadly advocate for women's rights, such as the Women's Institute, which has been torn apart by the Supreme Court decision (https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026/feb/14/womens-institute-groups-close-after-transgender-ban).

Another long-standing women's group, the Fawcett Society, has not made a recent statement on this issue, but previous statements have been much more nuanced than those of "Gender Critical" groups.

In the same section, LGB Alliance (v. obvs not a women's group) are characterised as "lesbian, gay and bisexual campaigners", but again were very recently founded, and as a group are only really focused on trans-exclusion, rather than LGB issues more broadly. Also, the views they espouse run counter to the majority of LGB people, as polling consistently shows, but this is also left out, and instead they are treated as representative of LGB people's views.

It would be more accurate to call this section "What have Gender Critical groups said about the judgement?". Calling them "women's groups" implies that they are correct that what they advocate for is both representative of women's views and would be good for women.

Sophie@sophies· May 27

thank you! also tell them they're doing great work, as much as I'd like even more options my browser's never looked nicer or been nicer to use. (tip for anyone looking for a background: NASA publishes tons of super high-res images from their missions)

Sophie@sophies· May 26

getting reamed in the spotify comments for it too lmao

Sophie@sophies· May 26

IBCK at work in the Spotify comment section @ifbookspod.bsky.social

The Spotify page for the latest episode of The Ezra Klein Show, where Yuval Noah Harari is a guest and to top comments say he has nothing of value to say.

Sophie@sophies· May 25

apparently the bra ones are from spy kids, but still very strange

Sophie@sophies· May 24

what the fuck is going on here, google

google search for "sports sunglasses" with sponsored products, except instead of normal products, it's a full visor followed by sunglasses that look like a mix of a bra and an alien's eyes

Sophie@sophies· May 22

The draft guidance is fairly explicit that there is no such thing as "trans-inclusive within the law". If I'm being very very charitable, maybe Owen is trying to bait someone from the government to say this out loud, but I think more likely she just hasn't read the thing she's opining on. (1/3)

13.130 If a service provider (or a person providing a service in the exercise of public functions) admits trans people to a service intended for the opposite sex, then it can no longer rely on the exceptions set out at paragraphs 13.99 to 13.111. This means that if a service is provided only to women and trans women or only to men and trans men, it is not a separate-sex or single-sex service under the Equality Act 2010.

13.131 A service like this is very likely to amount to unlawful sex discrimination against the people of the opposite sex who are not allowed to use it. A service which is provided to women and trans women could also be unlawful sex discrimination or lead to unlawful harassment against women who use the service. Similar considerations would apply to a service provided for men and trans men.

It is possible to offer a mixed-sex service alongside a single-sex service. A mixed-sex service must be open to all service users.

Sophie@sophies· May 21

Been playing some of that sweet Hades-1-in-Hades-2 mod recently, this was a fun kill to get.

Sophie@sophies· May 21

switched to vivaldi button menu because it's cleaner - would love it if the menu button lined up with the panel buttons, and would love an option to centre the page title in the window frame