Musing Archives · Joi Massat

The Feminine, Masculine, And/Or Nonbinarinine Within?

AKA My Good Friend Columbo From the Memes Helps Me Investigate Gender Roles

Tales from the Ace Zone: Sex and Gender Musings

Okay, get this: did you know that gender, sex, sexuality, romance, and aesthetic attraction…that they…that they might, might…they might…you know, they….they might be related???

I honestly didn’t because I thought I was too weird and too far beyond these things. It took some really roundabout reflection to reach these roundabout conclusions.

Searching for Erotic Non-Erotica

In my mind, the typical exploration of sexual psychology in literary fiction is one of these:

A character meets someone at a bar, then has a one-night stand. The one-night stand represents their alienation and the thrill of something secret.
A character has a weird kink or paraphilia, one that’s probably criminal or sadistic in nature. It represents the depravity of humanity or the downfall of society. The story perhaps unintentionally suggests that anyone in real life with a weird kink or paraphilia is a depraved human emblematic of the downfall of society.

I’m so bored.

Prison School Said “No Sex Forever”

Sad but true: sometimes we can only embrace our LGBTQ+ identities through watching the straightest cis-est shit of all time.

Let’s Just Chat About Catgirl System

Time feels short and distractions seem many. Right now I don’t want to write much other than Catgirl System, and other projects (including my blog posts) threaten to screech to a halt. So…why not smash them together into an unholy conglomerate? Join me for a LitRPG chat around the fire.

Take a Break: Let Your Body Catch Up with Your Mind

If there’s “no good reason” why you should feel burned out, yet you feel burned out, consider a rest. After that, your feelings might go, “Wait, it doesn’t seem hard anymore. …Huh.”

It sounds fake when I put it that way, but it’s been true for me.

The Artist Who’s Never Been Driven At All?

Some artists have a “creative mania.” They work day in and day out, like motors that feed on air. To outsiders, their path to artistry is simple—in the same sense as the simplest way to break into a bank is to pull out the battering ram. Just work tirelessly. Hammer it out. And it may even seem to happen spontaneously, involuntarily.

For me, though, it would take not only passion to reach this state (and…drugs?), but a lot of stifling work.

Schedule Slip and Not-So-Daily Tasks

Apparently when I give myself too many “every day” “every month” “every two weeks”-type tasks, I start to get overwhelmed. And rather than that overwhelmed-ness stoking a fire in me, it can kind of lead to…apathy.

It feels like the task itself is easy, but the run-up to actually beginning the task is difficult. No, the run-up isn’t even difficult for me right now. It’s the consistency part.

Life Keeps Moving

I haven’t been making much time to write lately. Some of it is familial obligations; some of it is me deliberately pushing it aside.

Your Audience Wants to Like You

You are an artist. You are afraid of heckling on the internet. But if you’re gonna overcome the block and put anything out there, you either have to throw all caution to the wind or hold strong in the conviction that your audience wants to like you.