Winnie-The-Pooh

On to another litter. I'd considered doing the Aussies, but I think I'll do the Bears first. Or at least one of them. 

Everyone knows at least something about Winnie The Pooh, that he's a fictional character in a story by A.A. Milne, he's yellow, wears a red t-shirt, and loves honey. His best friend is piglet. He has other friends, Owl, Rabbit, Kanga, Roo, Tigger, and Eeyore to name a few. He goes on adventures with his friends in the Hundred Acre's Woods. 

What you might not know is that part of his name comes from a real bear named Winnie, who was in the London Zoo. 

The guy who did the illustrations, E.H. Shepard, was a political cartoonist before he convinced Milne to let him draw Winnie and that whole world. 

That A.A. Milne's son was named Christopher Robin, and was the main character in the stories. He actually grew up to resent Pooh and his father for it all. He felt like his father had gotten famous on his shoulders, and that his father had stolen his good name before he could use it. 

A.A. Milne and E.H. Shepard actually regretted him some too, since it took over their lives and any later work would be overshadowed by what they'd once done. 

That his iconic red shirt didn't come until a producer bought the rights to him and added it. Stephen Slesinger, which is a strangely familiar name that I'm not going to look into right now, added it to Winnie's look so he could get more money with trademarking, about 10 years after Milne started writing about Winnie. 

Winnie The Pooh has been translated into several languages, and it led to the first time that a book in Latin actually got on the New York Time's Best Sellers list.

Scholars have used Pooh and Piglet to create philosophy books, such as the Tao of Pooh, from 1982, and a following book about Piglet. There's also a Medical Association Journal Article that goes into the psychology of the characters, assigning them all mental disorders and possibly physical ones also, such as Piglet having a small brain due to his head being smaller than most pigs. 

A game from the books, Poohsticks, actually has a world championship held in England every year. 

According to some, Winnie the Pooh is the patron saint of teddy-bears. 

Cambridge University's Pembroke College has a Winnie the Pooh Society that was established in 1993 and supposedly had the Queen as a member. They meet up on Saturdays during term to drink tea and read from Milne's works. 

You may have noticed 'Blood and Honey' portraying a very different type of Pooh-Bear, but that's because it's actually in public domain now. That's how old he is. 

And that's the end of fun facts about Winnie the Pooh. Did you learn something new? I hope so, but let me know which one you liked best. 

I planned to share more of my kitten pictures, but they're apparently not loading, so...next time. 

Sources:

Fun Kids Live-- 10 facts about Winnie The Pooh

Mental Floss- 12 facts about Winnie the Pooh

Reader's Digest-- 18 Winnie The Pooh facts

Canterbury Classics-- Facts about Winnie the Pooh

CBC.ca-- 90 Facts about Winnie the Pooh

New York Public Library-- Winnie the Pooh facts

Fun Trivia-- 50 Winnie the Pooh Trivia questions, answers, and fun facts

Borneo Bay Cat

 Also known as Bay Cat, or BB for me. 

Unlike the last few, this guy is actually in Southern Asia, instead of South America. Also, unlike the leopard genus the last few were in, this one is in the Bay Cat lineage, which is older than the leopard genus. 

Pic from BigCatsWildCats. These guys aren't much larger than the average housecat, so I'm kinda giggling about how I know that look. He's either afraid of the photographer, or considering prey. Either way, he's tracking something closely. 

These guys live in Borneo, but the Bay part of their name is actually in reference to their colors, being a rusty red or deep tan. Unfortunately, my baby is a dark tabby, but that doesn't make her less adorable. 

As with most cats, they are silent and sneaky and researchers only see them when they want to be seen. Which isn't often. So, again, most of the information on them is photographs. It's even harder because they are mostly nocturnal and solitary. Personally, I vote we just send a cat-lady over and she can adopt them all. My mistress Squirrel says I'm not allowed to volunteer, but if it meant I could possibly cuddle one of these guys, I'm in. 

One of the interesting features about these cats that we do know of, is that they are about 19-26 inches long, but their tails are 12-16 inches, making their tails have as long as them. I'd try to get a measure on my kittens, but they say they're too busy playing and not interested in this. On the other hand, I did do a measurement of this baby, who is very new and adorable, and his length (minus tail) is equal to the current circumference of his stomach. That's a talent. Mostly on the mom's side, but still. 

Back to the Bay cats though...They got discovered in the 1800's, but none were caught until the 1990's. Furthermore, after 13 years of recordings, there was only one picture of a Borneo Bay Cat found. Most of the studies about these cats comes from skeletons and skins that got found. There are none of these cats in zoos, because there haven't been caught enough. 

This picture is from Big Cat Rescue.

They seem pretty similar to the Asian Gold cat and another similar cat, but genetics tells a different story. These Bay Cats are pretty much on their own. Throwbacks to a different age, or some such. Isn't that cool? 

Despite the mystery, this cat is still very much a cat, as you can see here, in the picture from the Monga Bay link below. 

That last picture reassures me that my kitten is named well. They have a mysterious and graceful namesake to look up to, but they can also be the absolutely ridiculous kitten I know they are. Thanks for reading, I hope to see you again soon to talk about either the Aussies or the Cubs litters. 

Sources:

BigCatsWildCats- Borneo Bay cat

SoftSchools-- Borneo Bay Cats

Wild Cat Conservation-- Borneo Bay Cat

Monga Bay-- On the Trail of the Mysterious Borneo Bay Cat

Wild Cat Family-- Borneo Bay Cat

iNaturalist-- Borneo Bay Cat

Felidae Conservation Fund-- Bay Cat

Animalia-- Bay Cat

Guina/Kodkod

Guina is another wildcat that is in the running for the smallest wildcat in the Americas. They're smaller and more compact than the Oncilla, but their weight range is pretty similar. 

In my case, they're the same size as everyone else, but just as adorable. 

 

As with most cats this size, not a lot is known because who, exactly, is going to successfully watch them, or catch one to study in a lab? Plus, it's unlikely that they'd be allowed to catch one to put in a lab because that's mean. So, they avoid people and people don't know much about them. We'll learn more as we get better at the watching and studying thing, but not immediately. 

Picture from the Great Cats World Park link below. 

Guina are also known as Kodkod, or Chilean Cat. They're mainly found in Chile and a bit over the border of other countries, so it makes sense. These guys are small, but they do have some pretty dense fur that keeps them warm in the wet and cold. 

Interestingly, these guys usually eat small rodents, but sometimes they sneak onto farms and steal a chicken. According to local lore, they might also bring death, famine, and disease. There are also superstitions about them being magical and bulletproof, and their reputation has led to some communities referring to shady people as guinas. 

It's reputation is getting an overhaul though, because they're getting known outside of South America, and everyone loves how adorable they are. 

Aside from looking adorable though, they also sound adorable. One article describes the sounds they make, which we have some evidence of now, as a chirp. There are very few recordings of them because they're shy, so most of what we can get are pictures from camera traps. This time though, they got a bit of sound. I'd like to share it, but I can only suggest that you go to this link, which is repeated below as Live Science. 

There are lots of people trying to help these adorable kittens, so please consider joining their efforts. or at least looking at and sharing their adorable pictures so that people know they're around and need help. 

Considering their rodent hunting prowess, I hope my kittens take this as inspiration and try to rid my home of similar small rodents. If they aren't interested though, I hope they at least stay as cute as these guys. 

Thanks for your time, I'll see you soon to finish the wildcat litter's namesakes. 

Sources:

Great Cats World Park-- Guina

Atlas Obscura--The cutest Harbinger of Doom

Wild Cat Family- Guina

Wild Cat Family-- Cat 5 of 13 in the Leopardus Family of Cats

Big Cats Wild Cats-- Kodkod/Guina

Wild Cat Conservation-- Kodkod

Live Science-- Guina Sounds

Oncilla

 Continuing on with the plan of telling you about the kitten names, today is Oncilla. 

Aren't they all adorable? 

Well, I guess I should say, the usual Oncilla is this guy, pics from the Fact Animal link below. 

Still pretty adorable. As anyone that knows me would guess, yes, I would love to cuddle. Considering that this guy is actually a bit smaller than my usual housecats, I might even survive the encounter. Well, as long as my Mini-Mistress Squirrel doesn't find out ang get upset that I'm cuddling someone that isn't her, or her family who I am allowed to cuddle half as much for all of them as I cuddle her. It took a bit for her to accept that I do still pet other cats, even if I do recognize that I am her chosen servant. 

Back to Oncillas though. 

They're the smallest of the South American wild cats, weighing about 5 pounds and measuring about 2 feet long, which makes them longer and lighter than most house cats. There might be two species of Oncilla, though it's still a bit weird because it doesn't seem like there are a lot of differences, but there might be evidence that they can't interbreed, which is one of the big markers for species being separate. 

Interestingly, it seems like Melanistic Oncillas aren't uncommon. Melanism means that they are differently colored, more black. In this case, they go from miniature leopards to miniature panthers, such as this picture from the Panthera link below. 

These guys are small and agile, and they tend to go after rodents or whatever small animals they can find, and they tend to find areas that are low in larger cats so that they can fill the gap, such as places that don't have enough food for the larger cats, or are closer to humans than an ocelot would like. Because of their small size, agile nature, and hiding, some consider them to be the least studied wild cat in the Americas. I know I say that a lot, but there is a lot of things that aren't studied enough yet, and that's probably not going to change soon since the list keeps growing as we learn of more things to look into. 

There's a quote from a podcast I really like, the Infinite Monkey Cage, and it paraphrases as 'Science doesn't answer questions. It just helps us find better questions.' Which means, to me at least, that the more science tells us, the more we understand what we don't know and therefore the more questions we know to ask. 

But, that's ok. We'll learn more as we study the new questions, and I look forward to what comes next. 

Right now though, it's more kitten pictures and another wild cat that gave it's name to my adorable little beasties. To end this particular post though, I'll share a real kitten picture of a wild Oncilla, instead of more of my 'tamed' Oncilla. 

Animalia link below for this pic. I just had to use it. 

Sources:

Fact Animal-- Oncilla

Kiddle- Oncilla

Wild Ark-- Oncilla

Animalia-- Oncilla

Panthera-- Oncilla

Animal Diversity Web-- Oncilla

Wild Cat Conservation--Leopardus ID; Ocelot, Margay, Oncilla

Oncilla Conservation Fund--About Oncillas

Felidae Conservation Fund-- Oncilla

Margay

 Hi. Sorry for disappearing again for a bit. Things got a bit hectic and...problematic recently. I volunteered to help my Aunt move to her new house, but the timing of things went wrong and we had to have the Pod she got filled up on Friday, then we got the large Uhaul truck to load up, but we couldn't go to the new house until Tuesday morning, which was also the day that I was supposed to be back home for things, and she had to be out of the house by Wednesday, so we had to get everything loaded, unloaded, reloaded, and re-unloaded on Tuesday so that we could load up the stuff that wouldn't fit into her new house and get home, which was a three hour drive, and after arriving at home at 1 am on Wednesday, I, my mother, and my brother, had to unload everything so that we could get it back to the Uhaul people before they opened Thursday morning. Which means I spent the last week tired from moving an entire house's worth of furniture around twice, including her large collection of plants, a dozen of whom were in 15 gallon pots and weighed a half-ton, or trying to get things dealt with but being stopped by my aunt because she has a few health issues but wanted to be the one doing a lot of things even though she didn't actually do things because she didn't have the energy/ability, but she wouldn't let us do it because she needed to be the one going through things...and just making things really annoying. 

Because of  that, I didn't have the energy or care to write about something without being really grumpy, and I needed some time cuddling my babies again for a bit to get back the energy and care to write this without being grumpy.

Pic from We Love Catz below. 

Today, I want to tell you about Margays. They're a kind of wild cat that I would definitely cuddle, but would probably try to kill me if they could. In case you were wondering, no, that wouldn't stop me from trying if I meet one. Look at the picture above and tell me you wouldn't pet that. 

This picture comes from A-Z Animals, link below. These lovely cats are often mistaken for ocelots, which live in the same area, but there are a few key differences that you might be able to use to keep them separate. Ocelots are larger, and Margays have larger eyes and feet, proportionally. 

These guys are about the size of a house-cat and live in the thick rainforests of South America. They haven't been studied a lot because they're small and fast, plus they spend a lot of time in the trees and are nocturnal, so it's hard to count them or keep an eye on them for long. 

One of the unique things about Margays is that they can actually go down a tree headfirst, like a squirrel, because their ankles can turn to support them. I know you're probably thinking about cats going up and down tall things all the time, but they usually do something more like a slide and leap, rather than a controlled descent. These guys are adapted to life in the trees more than most-- which doesn't mean they're always in the trees, but they still spend a lot of time up there, and have trouble if their environment suddenly doesn't have trees. Picture below from We Love Catz. 

Another thing that's interesting and unique about these guys is that they have what could be called a mating dance. The female makes long whining calls, and the male, once they find the female, roar and trill while shaking his head. This hasn't been seen in other cats, and might not be something all Margays do, because they are under-studied due to being small and shy. 

This picture of what I assume is grumpy mama and curious baby, is from We Love Catz. They've got some really nice pictures. 

My Margay looks a lot like them, don't you think? Or, at least, my Margay looks adorable and cuddly...and sleepy. 

I hope you enjoyed learning about adorable wild cats, and my same-name adorable tamed kitty. I'll try to be back soon with news about another adorable wild/tame kitten. 

Sources:

Wild Cat Conservation-- Margay

Soft School-- Margay Facts

Animal Diversity Web-- Margay

A-Z Animals-- Margay

Encyclopedia Britannica-- Margay

Earth's Endangered Creatures-- Margay

Big Cat Rescue- Margay

We Love Catz-- 6 Facts about Margays

Fact Animal-- 14 Margay Facts

Pampas Cat/Colocolo

 I started telling you all about my kittens before June happened, so I'll tell you about all the others. Well, not all the the others. 

We had four litters of Kittens and they all got named by themes from their mothers names. 

Bearnie had her second litter. Last year, her kittens were Polar, Panda, Sunny, and Ursa. This year, they're famous movie bears, Paddington, Fozzie, Pooh, and Smokey. I'm probably not going to do posts about them, but maybe. 

Cathy had her babies, who got named after wild Cats. Oncilla, Guina, Margay, Caracal, Colocolo, and BB (Borneo Bay Cat). 

Wallaby had the last litter of the year and her babies are the Aussies, our little Echidna, Quokka, Emu, and Cassowary. 

Please look forward to these 9-13 posts about my baby kittens. Since most of them have the same coat pattern, I apologize that my kitten pictures are just going to be adorable babies overall instead of the single specific kitten. 

The first kitten I'm going to talk about is Colocolo, or the Pampas Cat. 

These guys are from South America and pretty widespread. The pictures of them just look like extra-fluffy cats, which supports the suggestion that they eat anything meaty they come across. 

This picture is taken from the Felidae Fund link below. As you can see, this is a very cute and fluffy kitten. 

These guys are mainly nocturnal and terrestrial, so they hunt at night on the ground, but there are actual studies suggesting that they're 'cathemeral', which means around any time. That fits with the cats I've got around that love being noisy brats day and night. Interestingly, this isn't an attempted pun about cats being equally likely to be awake or asleep at any given time, but actually comes from Greek for 'through the day'. 

From what I've seen, it seems like Colocolo is the scientific name for the species, and one of the names in use in some areas for a cat that they think is all one species, or possibly has been considered the same species but might be getting split into three, five, or seven different subspecies or entirely separate species. I'm not sure what the state of this debate is, I'm pretty sure half the sites I can check for these things don't know the state of the debate, and I'm just going to tell you that there is one, and it's up to you if you want to check this further. 

 

The name Pampas Cat is from their habits of hanging around in the grass, since Pampas is a local word for grass. It's believed that Colocolo comes from the name of a warrior chief that lived in the area they're found, but I don't know a lot about that one. 

Like a lot of things, these guys aren't studied a lot in the wild because, like a lot of cats, they know how to disappear into their habitat and avoid notice. Plus, there are a lot of things in South America that don't have nearly as much study on them as you'd think. There's a lot that scientists haven't investigated yet, the lazy brats. 

In case you're wondering, these are on the list of creatures that might kill me but I would absolutely cuddle if I got the opportunity. 

And now for my, admittedly more cuddly, versions, then I'll be back soon with information about the namesake of a sibling. 

Sources:

Great Cats World Park-- Pampas Cat

Animal Diversity Web-- Pampas Cat

Felidae Fund-- Pampas Cat

Wildcat Conservation-- Pampas

iNaturalist-- Pampas Cat

Wild Cat Family-- Colocolo

Big Cat Rescue-- Pampas Cat

Animalia-- Pampas Cat

Kiddle-- Pampas Facts for Kids

Uglyography

Bad handwriting or Spelling. Used from 1800-1835

I saw this word and definition on the Lost Words site below,  and it made me laugh. It's literally Ugly Calligraphy, smashed together. 

Next time you have to write something down, say you have uglyography instead of bad handwriting, and laugh at the face of whoever you say it to. I wouldn't suggest using it as a word to make people feel better about their writing skills overall though, because it does start with ugly. 

Interestingly, this actually came back in the name of a band. I didn't investigate that side of things, but they do describe themselves as 'Quirkadelic', so they might be interesting. 

Either way, have fun with this word, and I'll see you again soon. 

Sources:

Lost Words-- S-Z

World English Historical Dictionary-- Uglyography

Song Bar-- Word of the Week-- Uglyography

Reading Addicts-- Word of the Day-- Uglyography

Jurassic Pork

 Sorry, I just came across this research paper and I thought it was pretty awesome. I have a strong love for the weird people that you find in scientific communities, in part because one of the things to get a doctorate is to write up a thesis on something in their subject and defend it. Since they, at least most of the time, have to come up with a new idea and new study/experiment, it can lead to some very weird things as they attempt to study a new aspect of the world. One such example is the guy who spent a decade studying the physics of pouring honey. A lot of their research is interesting, a bunch of could be considered amusing, and some of it...some of it is just awesome. 

This particular paper is one of those where, even if you're not scientifically minded, you have to love it. 

Roy E. Plotnick, Jessica M. Theodor and Thomas R. Holtz Jr. created a detailed and well discussed paper titled "Jurassic Pork: What Could A Jewish Time Traveler Eat?"

This paper discusses the rules of Kosher and what kind of animals could be found in the past. Reading this is both a lesson on what animals count as Kosher, along with a discussion about what kinds of animals fit those rules. I kind of love that this paper comes from people actually asking if various types of extinct animals are kosher. It's all purely hypothetical, of course, but amusing nonetheless. 

Some things are easier than others to figure out from fossil records. Cud-chewing is hard, if not impossible, to figure out from bones, whereas the presence of scales and fins on fish can be found a bit more easily. 

The first rule discussed is that kosher mammals chew cud and have hooves. Paws are apparently unclean. Part of me is glad that my pup isn't kosher, but I'm not sure I like calling her unclean either, even if she hasn't had a bath in forever. For fish, they are required to have fins and scales, specifically scales that can be seen with the naked eye and removed without tearing the skin. Birds are listed specifically to one side or the other, but there are some guidelines for that. Strangely, bats are birds according to the Torah, and Ostriches are labelled as not ok. It's not in the Torah, but discussions among rabbis say that birds aren't kosher if they are predators, or if they are flightless, and they are kosher if they have a gizzard that can be peeled, a crop, and an extra toe. Both the crop and the peelable gizzard are pretty impossible to check through the fossils, but they do their best. 

The authors then discussed past creatures and how the differing applications of the Kosher rules might apply to the creatures paleontologists find. The point of the paper, as they say in the end, is that they want to shift the discussion from being that science and religion don't work because evolution v creationism have problems, to how they can make the other more interesting to people. 

I'll leave the rest for you to read in the report if you're interested, or to ignore if you're not. 

I think it's a pretty awesome and I hope you have fun with it. Let me know what you think. 

St. Barbara

 Patron Saint of Fireworks. 

I'm not Catholic and actually tend to waver more towards agnostic/atheist than anything, but that doesn't matter much. I just like the stories, even if I don't pray to them. So, I will discuss mythology and patron saints and various gods from various places, because they're fun and interesting. 

St. Barbara is the patron saint of things that go boom because the pair of people who tortured and killed her were struck by lightning. Or sky-fire, whichever. 

St. Barbara, from the Catholic Online link below. 

Barbara was born in the third century to a pagan father. She was really pretty, so her father locked her in a tower to keep her safe. She looked out the window at the world and decided that there must be a single god that created it all, not the pagan ones her father and teachers worshipped. She became Christian and swore that she'd die a virgin, pure for her god. 

When she was old enough, her father started trying to find her a husband, but she rejected them all. He decided to give her a bit more freedom in hopes she'd understand and accept a husband, including creating a bathhouse for her. He planned for it to have two windows, but she added in a third for the Trinity, and some claim that miracles happened there. 

After a while, she did tell him that she was a Christian and he tried to get her to let go of those silly ideas. She didn't. When he couldn't get her to let go of it all, he turned her in to the government, who tortured her to try to get her to reject Christianity. Supposedly, all her wounds healed up when she prayed though, which was one of her miracles. She also got dragged through town while naked, and had an angel show up to give her a robe and heal her again. When she got threatened with fire, it went out before it got close to her. That might be part of it. 

They eventually gave up and she was beheaded by her father, who was then struck by lightning/sky fire. That is most of the reason that she was given the title of patron saint of fireworks, along with artillery and most things that go boom. The other reason is that some say that she got struck by lightning also, but wasn't hurt. Since that supposedly happened at the moment of death and only in half the sources I found, I'm not sure about that one. 

It just seemed to fit to post about her right before one of the days with the most fireworks. Her story isn't nearly as interesting as some others, but still worth a few minutes to consider. I hope you'll remember to stay safe when you use fireworks, lest you accidentally become a martyr alongside her, or get burned up like her father. 

Have fun. I'll be back soon with something else fun. 

Sources:

Catholic News Archive-- St. Barbara

National Catholics Register-- St. Barbara

Christian Apostles-- St. Barbara

Kate Antiquity-- Patron Saint of Fireworks

Catholic Online-- St. Barbara

Kuebiko

This seemed like something that...I resonate with a lot more than I'd like. 

Kuebiko is both a Japanese Deity and a description of a state of being that I think half the world can agree they understand. 

As a Deity, Kuebiko is a god of agriculture and wisdom. He's a scarecrow, who can't move but has a lot of knowledge about how the world around him goes. His name means 'crumbling prince' or something similar. A man falling apart. 

As a feeling, Kuebiko is meant to refer to a state of exhaustion caused by the senseless violence of the world. One of the more poetic descriptions of it, from the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows, link below:

n. a state of exhaustion inspired by senseless tragedies and acts of violence, which force you to abruptly revise your expectations of what can happen in this world, trying to prop yourself up like an old scarecrow, who’s bursting at the seams yet powerless to do anything but stand there and watch.

It makes sense that this word was reimagined by an author from the Japanese God into this feeling. 

After Pride Month and the...issues...that have been caused by bigots, and after the issues politics keeps causing by demonizing a minority to give us all someone to blame, and after the number of times that we've all been so sure we were going to end up in a war...

I can understand this feeling. I'm not sure if it's better or worse that there is a word for it, but there is. 

Please, take a moment to think about this for you, and if there is anything you can do to try to stop the feeling of powerlessness at least. I know no one can stop it all, but if you can stop a single act, it may be worth it. 

Either way, I'll see you again soon. 

Sources:

Red Tree Times-- Kuebiko

Emotions Wiki-- Kuebiko

Quartz-- A Japanese Word for the News Generated Sadness You're Feeling

Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows-- Kuebiko

Old World Gods-- Kuebiko

Japanese Mythology and Folklore-- Kuebiko

Homophobia, the End of Pride Month

I wanted to get through all 30 of my planned posts, but I realized a few days ago that I was burning myself out on it, that my writing wasn't doing well because of the pressure I put on it, and I can skipping over things that I didn't want to, because I wanted to get the posts out fast. That isn't what I want. I also didn't like that everything seemed to be running together in my head and I didn't like how similar the posts were all getting. I'm going to go back to one post at a time, even if it means a few days between posts, though I do want to keep to every other day at least. 

Next year will bring another Pride Month, and you can wait until then to learn about Loki and albatrosses and the Hijra and Kalonymus ben Kalonymus's poem. Or maybe I'll tell you about them sometime between now and then. Or you can look into them yourself, because I trust you to be able to find interesting things online if you want them. 

Here's today:

Homophobia. 

I really hate that word, in case I haven't said it enough. 

It shouldn't be a word, and it's not a phobia. 

Phobia is defined as a FEAR of something. An intense FEAR. It's paralyzing and panic inducing and serious. It's irrational, a fear you can't avoid or control, despite logically knowing that it's not a danger. Phobias are serious and real and not something to be joked about. 

Homophobia, a word I seriously hate because of this, is a PREJUDICE. A BIGOTRY and a CHOICE. A bad one, but still. It is not a phobia. It's not a fear. It's irrational, I'll give you that, but humanity is irrational often enough without it being a phobia. It's not a phobia. 

I will say this as many times as I need to. Homophobia isn't a phobia. Don't use that word and don't let anyone else use it. It isn't right. 

Also, it should be noted that that bullshit, the word I hate, is more recent than Lesbians, Gays, Bisexuality, Transsexuality, Polyamory, and Third or Fourth genders. So, it's not someone objecting to a new thing, it's someone objecting because we're refuting new bullshit. Please keep that in mind next time you encounter a bigot, and please remember to let them know that they aren't homophobic, they're bigots and assholes because of their choice. It probably won't actually change their minds, but phobias are to be respected, bigotry is not. 

And with this Author's Note, I end Pride Month for right now. I'll try to be back tomorrow with information about something interesting. 

Pride Flags of Gender

 20th. I'm gonna catch up at some point here. 

'Yesterday' was the Pride Flags of Orientation, discussing the various forms of attraction people might have, such as bisexual and demisexual. Today, I want to talk about Genders, such as being Male, Female, Trans, or any of a dozen other things. As with orientation, I know that I'll probably have a few things that I miss because the sites I used for this don't have everything or some things are more obscure, or any of a dozen other things. I apologize if I missed anything, and I hope that no one thinks I'm trying to marginalize them. People are people, everyone is different, and labels are both important and not, because sometimes labels help us realize that we aren't alone, but they can also feel like cages. I, personally, want to learn about people, as ever-changing and unique as they can be, and I don't exactly like coming at it with a checklist of categories to fill out. 

That's not important though. I really need to work more on keeping my opinions out of things when they aren't important. Being snarky and silly is important though, so you'll still see that. 

Since I found that heterosexual flag, I decided to start by checking if there is a cisgender flag. There is. I found it on a Gender.Wiki site. It has a lot more of the subcategories than I am going to go into, so if you're not sure what label you want or you want to know more about it, I think that this site might help. They seem to have a lot of options that I didn't know exist, and they have the flags for them. 

Here's the Cisgender to start with, as my flag even if I don't like the actual flag:

So very imaginative. At least this one has color. For anyone that doesn't know, Cisgender is when the gender you identify with is also the one that matches what you were born as. 

Second up is Genderqueer. 

This lovely flag is the umbrella term for anyone that doesn't identify as cisgender. Anyone that doesn't fit in the 'regular' definitions of gender. Anyone Trans or Agender or any of a dozen different things. 

This one is for Genderflux, another umbrella term for any that have a more fluid gender identity. There are a few new options for this particular flag, but this is the most 'umbrella' like. 

In the more specific groupings, here's the most well known. The Trans Flag. This is what happens when someone isn't the same gender as what they were assigned at birth. When a woman is born in a man's body, or vice-versa. 

This one is for Non-Binary. It's for one who is neither male nor female, but somewhere in the middle, or in a different spectrum entirely. 

Similar to Non-binary, this is the Agender flag. It's for those that aren't male or female, that don't identify by either group much, if at all. These are the people that remind everyone that 'They' is an acceptable and widely used singular pronoun, and anyone that objects obviously hasn't been around English speakers for long. 

Gender-Fluid, the flag of which is right above, means those that have different gender identities at different times. Someone who feels female one day and male the next, or female for a month but male for a week, or any variation thereof. 

Intersex is more medical than the others. It's for bodies that don't fall in the male/female spectrum. It's also a bit more complicated than you might think it to be, and depends on the person that's picking their labels if they want this one. 

Bigender. When you're more than one gender identity, either at the same time or varying between the two. 

Deminonbinary. As you can probably guess, it's when you don't identify alot with the genders of male or female, but aren't quite detached enough from them to be entirely non-binary. 

Is this all of them? Not really. There are a lot of other options that people can find if that's what they feel like. That's up to everyone to pick for themselves. If I missed anything important, feel free to let me know and I'll add it in. I have no problems updating things. 

Right now though, I need to stop for a bit because one of my kittens, Squirrel, has decided my hands have better use, so I'll see you again soon, but I'm busy for a bit. If you aren't sure about things or want to investigate the flags more, use the Gender wiki link above and below. It's an interesting one, if not as well filled out as I'd like. 

Sources? The same as the previous post. 

Gender Wiki

HRC-- Pride Flags

University of British Columbia-- Equity and Inclusion Office-- Pride Flags

University of Colorado-- Cultural Connections-- Pride Flags

Bradbury Sullivan LGBT Community Center-- Pride Flags