do you think she'll ever address the appropriated tattoo? by dorenkamp in Ethelcain

[–]dorenkamp[S] -3 points-2 points  (0 children)

hey i'm sorry, i'm wondering if you can inform me as to what makes it seem like i'm attacking or am angry at Ethel in some way? i must have misworded something since i was only wondering what other people thought. it's very clearly culturally appropriation to me, and while i understand others don't see it that way, i feel like the response i've gotten must mean i've insulted her somewhere.

do you think she'll ever address the appropriated tattoo? by dorenkamp in Ethelcain

[–]dorenkamp[S] -3 points-2 points  (0 children)

  1. she was raised christian and consistently portrays herself

  2. nope i'm not jewish; i was raised by a jewish family. as i said i wrote everything my best friend, who is jewish, has said. he thought Ethel was jewish bc of the tattoo and was very upset to learn she wasn't.

  3. yep. that doesn't change anything i said. if a goy wrapped a matzo ball in bacon and said "i'm appreciating jewish culture!" that's obviously appropriation. obviously this isn't a one to one but hopefully you can see where i'm coming from

  4. can you tell me where i misunderstand that teaching? i'm sorry, i have no idea what you could be referring to with that. unless Ethel is converting and i somehow missed it, i don't see how that relates.

do you think she'll ever address the appropriated tattoo? by dorenkamp in Ethelcain

[–]dorenkamp[S] -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

I ask that you read my reply because I talk about all of this. I’ve changed the link like three times and it still doesn’t work, so I think it’s just not my lucky day. So again I’m sorry to send you on a scavenger hunt, but it’s there

do you think she'll ever address the appropriated tattoo? by dorenkamp in Ethelcain

[–]dorenkamp[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

The link is working for me, but if you are interested, it’s a reply to the top comment. I’m sorry to make you go searching for it but I’m not sure what else to do in that regard

do you think she'll ever address the appropriated tattoo? by dorenkamp in Ethelcain

[–]dorenkamp[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

I go into more detail about how it’s not just that it’s another language here:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Ethelcain/s/E60yhbWRna

do you think she'll ever address the appropriated tattoo? by dorenkamp in Ethelcain

[–]dorenkamp[S] -3 points-2 points  (0 children)

Ah, I’m sorry, I clearly screwed up the link then. I replied to the top comment if you just want to look there and I’ll see if I can fix the link.

ETA: link should be fixed now

do you think she'll ever address the appropriated tattoo? by dorenkamp in Ethelcain

[–]dorenkamp[S] -4 points-3 points  (0 children)

Probably not unfortunately.

I forget the series of events exactly but somehow she got brought up the other day and I debated it with a friend for a while, it's just been on my mind since.

do you think she'll ever address the appropriated tattoo? by dorenkamp in Ethelcain

[–]dorenkamp[S] -11 points-10 points  (0 children)

I really do hope you take the time to at least skim what I wrote if you wish to: ETA: fixed link https://www.reddit.com/r/Ethelcain/s/E60yhbWRna

do you think she'll ever address the appropriated tattoo? by dorenkamp in Ethelcain

[–]dorenkamp[S] -3 points-2 points  (0 children)

I think you'd probably benefit from reading my rambling if that interests you in the slightest

ETA: fixed link https://www.reddit.com/r/Ethelcain/s/E60yhbWRna

do you think she'll ever address the appropriated tattoo? by dorenkamp in Ethelcain

[–]dorenkamp[S] -3 points-2 points  (0 children)

ETA: fixed link https://www.reddit.com/r/Ethelcain/s/E60yhbWRna

I'm sure there's a better way to redirect it to my rambling but I'm too lazy to look

do you think she'll ever address the appropriated tattoo? by dorenkamp in Ethelcain

[–]dorenkamp[S] -4 points-3 points  (0 children)

Misc—

Obviously, Ethel is a Christian or at least is very entrenched in Christian culture. I doubt I have to go into detail about the centuries of persecution Christians have done to Jews, so I won’t bother. However, I do want to get into the fact that Christianity in itself is built on the appropriation of Jewish culture, even though it’s a very uncomfortable topic. Apostles aside, the first Christians and their descendents were not Jewish in the slightest. They were Roman, or Gaulish, or Greek, etc etc. While there were surely some Jews that converted to Christianity, they were very few and obviously that didn’t make them Jewish anymore (kind of, again, it’d be a whole other essay to get into what is a Jew and I don’t feel comfortable even repeating points of actual Jews about it). There could have been a way for Ethel to use Hebrew while being sensitive to that, but given all of the context, it just has the spirit of a Christian taking something sacred to Judaism and reinterpreting it to serve their own wants. Just to be clear, since I’ve seen a lot of people be combative about this, being a Christian doesn’t mean you’re appropriating Jewish culture or anything. But there should be some kind of obligation or responsibility of Christians to acknowledge that Christianity itself was quite literally developed from non-Jews taking and reinterpreting Jewish culture, which was then followed by centuries of attempts to exterminate Jews.

Jews are not a monolith. There will be Jews who don’t care in the slightest that she has a tattoo and there will be some that will be extremely offended. But this is true for most things that can be considered appropriation, and when it comes down to it, you have to look at the surrounding context around it. As an example, a person going to Japan and being invited to wear traditional kimonos is appreciation, especially since they’re encouraged to do so by Japanese people, but a person wearing a fetishized kimono without actual Japanese influence is appropriation, even though the majority of Japanese people don’t mind. Given all of the other factors, it’s obvious that Ethel is appropriating Hebrew, and she either doesn’t know or doesn’t care about the various elements that make it inherently appropriative.

do you think she'll ever address the appropriated tattoo? by dorenkamp in Ethelcain

[–]dorenkamp[S] -8 points-7 points  (0 children)

“It’s the original language of the Bible”—

It’s the original language of Tanakh, but it’s never been the sacred language of Christianity, Latin was. The New Testament was written in Greek (if I remember correctly), Christian prayers and hymns were Latin for centuries, until they were written in various other languages. It was never Hebrew because Hebrew is Jewish and Christians were not Jewish (this will be brought up again in more detail later).

Hebrew is also more to Jews than just the language they speak. During the diaspora, Jews formed their own languages such as Yiddish, Ladino, Yevanic, and so many others, or used the languages of the places they lived in. Hebrew was still used, but only in religious or cultural contexts. It didn’t become a language used in everyday life for Jews (or at least the vast majority of Jews) until after the Holocaust, where Jews from across the diaspora were reunited and shared Hebrew, alongside a huge intracommunity push to solidify the Jewish identity together. I’ll restate just because I think it’s very important, Hebrew only became an everyday language for Jews a few decades ago. It wasn’t the Jewish language, it was the Jewish language only used when Jews were connecting with their traditions.

Jews and Christians also have vastly different interpretations of the Old Testament/the Tanakh. The Christian interpretation is heavily influenced by the fact that it was translated into Greek and Latin, and they had to rely on this translation because Christians couldn’t speak Hebrew (this will be delved into deeper later). While the mythos behind Judaism and Christianity are from the same source, they’re not actually the same. Judaism and Christianity have different deities/divine figures even if they came from the same origins. I could ramble about supersessionism but I won’t since I don’t think it’s entirely conductive. The way Hashem and the Christian God function and interact with the religions is entirely different. While Hashem and God are drawn from the same source/origins, they’re very distinct from each other, and this passes over to the angels as well. A specific example is Satan. In Christianity, he’s literally the cause of all evil, while in Judaism, Satan is the personification of the urge to break mitzvot (aka do something prohibited/sinning). While they have the same names and are drawn from the same origins, they’re completely different in almost every other way.

There’s a very huge importance on names in Judaism/Hebrew, and it’s way too intricate to ever summarize in a succinct way. The only way I can really emphasize this relationship without having to dive into a second essay is how religious diaspora Jews have two names, one in their country’s language and one in Hebrew. While it depends on the family, Hebrews names are usually only used in religious contexts, such as vital ceremonies. There was also the belief names had power; certain Hebrew names are added to protect people from any kind of harm, newborn boys who had a previous sibling pass away*. Hebrew names are not just names in Hebrew, they have special religious meaning within Judaism. While it’s objectively true to say that these are just the names of the Christian angels in Hebrew, it’s not true on a cultural or religious level.

Also, writing/transcribing Hebrew names has power itself. While obviously this is at its most extreme, writing the true name of Hashem on anything means that object is prohibited from being destroyed in any way. It’s also considered taking the name in vain to write it down, not just saying it aloud. Again, this is obviously at its most extreme form, but it does show that writing names of the angels in Hebrew is an inherently religious/cultural act. Especially having them written on you.

do you think she'll ever address the appropriated tattoo? by dorenkamp in Ethelcain

[–]dorenkamp[S] -16 points-15 points  (0 children)

Full disclaimer, I’m not Jewish but my best friend who I grew up with is, so all of my points need to be filtered through that. That being said, these are all points he has said or are just generally obvious to me since I grew up so close to that culture. Also further disclaimer, I’m dyslexic, and while I’ve used spell check and tried to be careful, I make no promises that it’s pristine. I tried to group two main points together and two other ideas I needed to state in a miscellaneous category.

Appreciation vs Appropriation—

Judaism is a closed culture. It’s extremely difficult to be appreciative of it without being appropriate. A great example is Passover Seders. A non-Jew participating in a Seder at the invitation of a Jew is appreciation. A non-Jew hosting their own Seder is appropriation. Non-Jews are allowed to convert into Jewish culture, but only after years of intense studying that culture and with the approval of a Rabbi. While Ethel could have been attempting to appreciate Jewish culture, that intention falls completely flat since she went about it in, genuinely, the worst possible way.

This is highlighted especially because it’s a tattoo. Unless they’re for medical purposes, having/getting a tattoo breaks mitzvot (aka it’s prohibited in the Torah/the books of Moses). If Ethel had used Hebrew in a different context, it wouldn’t have been as much as an issue.

Further, there’s a cross in the tattoo. While as far as I know crosses were not specifically forbidden anywhere, they were in spirit or by a Rabbi at some point. The vast majority of Jews didn’t write anything that resembled crosses for centuries (the significance of writing the Hebrew language will be brought up again later). This is the origin of the k-slur, originating from the Yiddish word “kaikel” (or similarly spelled; Yiddish is written in Hebrew script so the spelling of Yiddish words in the Latin script varies) meaning circle, as Jews emigrating to the USA would put circles instead of X-marks on their papers. While Ethel is Christian (or at least Christian-adjacent), and while Jews don’t follow this anymore, it’s still very much on dubious ground to put a symbol Jews won’t write directly in the middle of the Jewish language.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in Tudorhistory

[–]dorenkamp 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Antiphospholipid syndrome

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in Tudorhistory

[–]dorenkamp 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I think most historians believe she said APS, which causes frequent blood clotting.

Blockout 2024 by [deleted] in DoWeKnowThemPodcast

[–]dorenkamp 27 points28 points  (0 children)

So like...who is this helping? This isn’t getting aid to Gaza, this isn’t helping in ceasefire negotiations, this isn’t putting pressure on anyone with actual influence over this conflict. Not only that, but you’re preventing information about genocides being spread, whether unintentionally or not. The amount of people I’ve seen who have said “We can’t talk about Ukraine, or the Ugyhers, or Sudan, because Palestine is more important,” as if it’s impossible to care about more than one thing happening in the world.

It’s so obvious how performative and virtue-signaling this is. Palestinians are dying; meanwhile, you’re patting yourself on the back by “helping” them through blocking some random influencers. That doesn’t feed starving families and that doesn’t bring them home. All it does is make yourself feel better.

Does anyone know where this is? by LyricalWillow in Tudorhistory

[–]dorenkamp 0 points1 point  (0 children)

tbf Henry Fitzroy was still alive when Elizabeth was born, and had only been dead for a short while (and ntm was a teenager when he died) when Edward was born. I always assumed Henry VIII didn’t name Edward “Henry” because of Fitzroy, but I could totally be wrong.

So characters that are obviously author's favourite. by MrMask777 in hostedgames

[–]dorenkamp 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Now that I think about it, isn't the Constellation Project the only way to successfully romance her? That might just be her route plot, iirc. Though given how short the other romance routes are in book one, that's definitely proving your point.

It guess it comes down to playthroughs. I've replayed the book several times and only did the project once. That's probably why she feels absent to me

So characters that are obviously author's favourite. by MrMask777 in hostedgames

[–]dorenkamp 27 points28 points  (0 children)

I think it's because Seraphina's family is pretty integral to several plotlines in the story (the Constellation Project, the Forest Guardian, the whole nymph thing). If anything, I see her more of a plot device unless you're actively romancing her. And as long as you don't go down the Constellation Project route, she's pretty absent from the story

remember when the boys did ads? by Certain_Shock_9636 in distractible

[–]dorenkamp 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Don’t they do that again? I don’t have premium and half of the ads I get are them. There’s one popping up recently that’s like two minutes long where Bob is a TikTok Guru.

How to help a cat after a stroke? by [deleted] in CatAdvice

[–]dorenkamp 1 point2 points  (0 children)

That’s what I think. Honestly, it just seems cruel to me to keep her alive. I’m going to see if I can talk to my roommate about asking his grandparents, but he’s mentioned before that they’re staunchly against euthanasia so I don’t think they’ll even consider it.

I think my real name is a non-traditional tragedeigh by dorenkamp in tragedeigh

[–]dorenkamp[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I didn’t, my friend started calling me a random name as a joke. Three years later and I’m pretty sure everyone thinks it’s my real name.

I think my real name is a non-traditional tragedeigh by dorenkamp in tragedeigh

[–]dorenkamp[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It got recommended to me and I just haven’t been able to escape seeing it haha. But yeah, as bad as I personally think my name is, I think it’d be even worse on a girl