#and being disabled means you get left out of “diversity” all the time

[heliza24]

Being a physically disabled Dimension 20 fan breaks my heart sometimes

I’ve been thinking about this since last Wednesday’s episode when we finally got a real scene with Lydia, one of the few physically disabled characters in the entire canon of the show. It was nice, but it was really just a lore dump. An excuse for exposition. A moment for Kristen to look good by expending sympathy/pity. (I’m a little frustrated about how that interaction went down. Extending the help action was nice but patronizingly touching the neck of a full-ass adult without consent was not. It was weird and not something she would have done to a nondisabled character).

I have watched almost all of D20 (still missing a couple of seasons) and as far as I know here’s where our list of canon physically disabled characters stand: Lydia Barkrock, Jan de la Vega (who feels pretty problematic to me, maybe more on that in a later post), one of the Dwarven statues in the temple in The Seven (who is not given the dignity of being brought to life like Asha), and Pete’s coworker in TUC2 who is in exactly one episode and is so unimportant I have forgotten his name. I guess you could make an argument that Gunny is disabled, but I don't feel that Lou or Brennan really talk about him or play him through that lens. So in terms of canon physically disabled PCs-- that leaves us with 0.

We do a bit better with neurodivergent characters and characters with mental health problems; Ayda (my beloved) is very well developed and Adaine is a PC. There have been some openly neurodivergent players, like Omar and Surena, whose characters also read ND to me. But that isn’t labeled or discussed in canon, so it's hard for me to know where to class that. I am going to focus the rest of this post on physical disabilities, since that is my area of lived experience. If another fan wants to write about their perspective of neurodivergence rep in the show, I would love to hear that, and will happily amplify.

There has never been a character with a sensory disability or a limb difference or a chronic illness (not a fantasy one, a real one) on Dimension 20. The only NPCs we have are nondescript, similar wheelchair users. And there has never been a physically disabled player at the table. On the flagship show of Dropout, a company founded on diversity and inclusion. It feels extremely pointed to me.

In fact as far as I can tell there has only been one (1) physically disabled performer on any of Dropout’s shows. (Shout out to Brett, you were great on Dirty Laundry.) Obviously I haven’t seen every episode of everything they have produced. If I have missed someone, please do let me know in the comments/reblogs. But it’s a problem. And Sam Reich even agreed with this criticism when I asked him directly about.

I do really hope they’re working on it, as Sam says. But why has it taken so long?

Dimension 20 has had trans and nonbinary and queer players. It has had players of many different races. I’m not saying that the diversity here is perfect; there should always be more POC in the dome, more queer people. We should keep pushing for that. (And we should also push for performers at the intersections of these identities!) But we’ve seen the ways this diversity has expanded and improved the different seasons, because diverse players create sensitively drawn, diverse player characters. They add details to their PC’s experiences that make them feel rich and alive. I’m thinking about each of Ally’s PC’s incredible capital G gender and Aabria “all my characters (even the stoats) are Black” and how excellent they all are. D20 would not be the show it is without this input.

And yet. And yet.

There are 1,000 interesting and complicated themes to explore around disability. Dealing with access. Dealing with ableism. Dealing with compassion and community care. Dealing with none of it and just being a cool fantasy or sci fi character that happens to be disabled. We don’t get any of it.

I watch my favorite show and I see myself in the ace rep and the female characters. But I don’t see all of me. I see a silent but ever present message: you aren’t quite welcome here.

I have this fantasy that I play in my brain sometimes that someday I’ll get to talk to Brennan in person, like maybe if I buy a VIP ticket and risk Covid to go to a live show or we run into each other on the street or something. I am able to look him in the eye and articulate why he NEEDS to include a physically disabled player in an upcoming season. I reference the ways he’s talked about inclusion and writing diversely on Adventuring Party. Maybe I hand him a handwritten letter, or hell, a printout of this post. And because he really cares about diversity and his shows and his fans he would listen to me, and cast a physically disabled performer in the next season.

But I think that might be giving that nondisabled man (whose work I adore, who I respect so much) too much credit. Because he’s had Jennifer Kretchmer, a physically disabled actual play performer, on adventuring academy to talk about access in gaming. He’s hired disability consultants. He knows about physically disabled people, enough to give us shoutouts as inconsequential npcs. And he still hasn’t thought to include us at the table. In over 20 seasons. None of that other stuff matters if we aren't given a seat at the story telling table, and the agency to craft our own narratives equal to other participants in the game.

When Lydia was telling her story in the last episode, I kept wishing for a prequel, where she is more than a plot delivery device and a kind but unimportant parent. I want to know about her adventures with her adventuring party. I want to see a talented, wheelchair-using actor play out the scene when she decides to put the gem in her chest. I want to hear about what happened after. I want to know how she survived. I want it so badly it hurts.

I am in the process of trying to find new indie actual plays that feature more disabled talent. I am learning how to GM myself so I can tell these kinds of stories. But it’s not the same as being a fan of something. Sometimes I don’t want to have to make my own representation. Sometimes I just want to turn on my favorite tv show, the one that I have cosplayed from and written metas about and loved whole heartedly, and see myself included.

If you’re another disabled or neurodivergent fan I’d love to hear your thoughts on this. If you’re not, I’d love for you to reblog this. I would love for the absence of physical disability in this show to be a topic of fandom conversation, at the very least.

#dimension 20 #d20 #my crip media reviews #being a fan is hard sometimes #and being disabled means you get left out of “diversity” all the time #I love this show so much it hurts #I wish it could love me back a little bit more #fantasy high junior year #fantasy high #my meta #dropout #dropout tv #Sam reich

[made-this-cause-why-not]

Quick rant about ATYD because, the slander just does not make sense to me. It's not a perfect fic and people are allowed to not like it but some of the reasons for people not liking it are just so weird to me. Like- people don't like it because Sirius is sexist.... Sirius is a teenage boy. Do the people that say that hang out with teenage boys IRL? They are sexist and sometimes racists, pieces of shit- especially around their guy friends or girl they think 'are cool with it'. Also, it was the 70's. Like, do people not realize that a white, rich (like fully out of touch with reality, Billionaire with money dating back to the 15th century Rich), SEVERLY TRAUMATIZED cis guy from the 70's would be a piece of shit as a child. Like, as Sirius got older he would grow to regret all the fucked up stuff he said an take the time to actually apologize and stuff but we never saw that because he was 21 when he was imprisoned. He never even left his frat boy era. And then I have seen others be mad because they made Dorcas white. This is a complaint I have only seen from white people and as a Black mauraders fan, it literally does not matter. Like- Dorcas meadows is a character mentioned less than five times in the entire series, with her race being nothing more than a token black person that J.K shoved in The Order to prove it wasn't all white and that the HP world has diversity. Her being made white changes nothing in the plot. People also say that wolfstar is toxic in it, like this isn't a fic about two deeply traumatized boys with no role models or healthy relationships or base their own off of, other than Effie and Fleamont which they don't meet until they are like 13. Like, of course they are going to be toxic and fucked up- their entire lives have been fucked up. The only valid critique I have seen is the fact that the G word is used to describe the wolf packs. Granted, I didn't know that was a slur until 2021 or so, it's still a fucked up term to use. But yeah, I feel like people often say it's a bad work, which is fine if you just don't vibe with it, but the reasoning for not liking it makes me pause a little because 'what?'.

Edit: Forgot to say this but people also hate the characterization of Mary because she is oversexualized, to which I say: so is Sirius. Like, they are both sooooo fucking slutty and sleep around a bunch, the fact that people only talk about Mary in this light can be attributed to one of two things. Either A: grasping at straws, or B: Putting the weight on Remus's narration. Him being inexperienced for alot of his time as hogwarts would allow for any kiss or hookup seem like the end of the world for in his eyes and by reading with the grain I can understand that- but even then don't slut shame the black women and not the Black. "but mary lost her virginity at 14"- people get their sexual urges right as they hit puberty. Teens are horny. In the 7th grade my middleschool took an all day trip that used to be over night until two students got caught fucking in a cabin. 13 year old 7th graders. I am not saying it is right to loose your virginity at such a young age but it isn't unheard of.

Edit 2: Last edit I swear, but I just saw some one's post saying they didn't like how remus having a learning disability was for shits and gigs or that he did drugs and joined a gang. Firstly, remus having a learning disability is a beautiful metaphor for his lycanthropy and class. He is studying along side his friends, completely confused and just playing along to not give anything away. It doubles onto how isolated Remus must have felt and his whole problem with opening up to others. Also, the fact that Remus had to push himself so hard academically just to get the same grades as his rich friends who coast by on their name and the fact that they have been learning latin and french from tutors since they could walk- I mean, it's just chef's kiss. And, do people not realize that people in the real world do drugs? That a lot of people struggle with addiction and are more prone to said struggle when they grow up in a shitty environment with out learning proper ways to cope with the traumatic events? Remus was in a gang because he was surrounded by people who were in a gang- people who understood him more than James or Sirius did.

Like, I know that I can't really say this because I am a legal adult ranting on tumblr, but all of the slander just makes me want to tell people to go outside. Make friends irl- not mutuals. Touch grass, hand out with people you age. Like yes atyd isn't perfect but it was very much accurate to how real people would have been in the 70's and I personally prefer that to the babygirl-ification of every male character in Harry Potter to the points where they are almost caricatures of themselves

#atyd #mauraders era #had to get this off my chest #wolfstar #rant post #this is very long #sorry #I am just very heated when people have bad media literacy #is it obvious that I'm an english major?

[darklinsblog]

Humankind’s finest Part 3| Sandman imagine

Author’s note: Hey! Firstly I wanted to thank you for all the love on this story, I truly didn’t expect any of it as I posted it, but as a disabled female it was important for me to bring this representation to the table.

Pairing: Dream of the Endless x Human! Disabled Fem Reader

Summary: Having given his loved one immortality, Dream had felt more at peace with himself, but the news about Morpheus’ new consort has finally reached the ears of Lucifer & Desire.

Part 1 Part 2

Morpheus was staring at Y/N while she laid peacefully beside him, he ran his fingers delicately along her skin, he traced each and every scar in her body. He loved moments like this, where before the day would start, he would take his time to admire her beauty, to take in the reality of having the pleasure of being greeted by her presence.

No matter how hard he could try, Dream could not keep his hands to himself when it came down to you, he just had to touch her, to kiss her, to make love to her. His time in isolation had definitely made the Endless crave for a physical touch. But Y/N ignited a fire in him, a blinding need and longing not just for physical touch, but for her touch.

Immortality fit her like a glove, she was glowing and loved to explore The Dreaming, Morpheus had made it his personal task to make everything as accessible and safe for you as possible, he wanted you to have your freedom, he built a diverse set of bridges, ramps, anything you needed. He loved to tailor all kinds of pieces of clothing for her, Dream felt the most alive, the world was perfect in his eyes, inspiration flowed through his pores.

You both decided to visit the Waking World, since you missed it so and of course Morpheus had his centenary reunion with his friend Hob Gadling. Y/N left him at the bar and decided to wander close by, and of course Dream insisted in that his lover should take his raven along. A loud blow filled the air and the girl saw a tall figure trying to pick up their books and other scattered belongings from the floor.

The girl quickly approached to the person’s aid collecting as many items as she could, being careful not to fall from her wheelchair.

“Here you go” she said handing the belongings to their owner who when looking up, had a shimmery pair of golden eyes and a wide grin.

“Well, thank you my dear” the man said, Matthew immediately squawked and flapped his wings, Morpheus appeared right in front of the Y/N; his tall frame covering the view of her.

Morpheus had grabbed the man’s coat aggressively, his nostrils flared as he felt his insides bubble with anger.

“Did I not warn you about exhausting my patience?” Desire changed to their natural appearance, showing a smug smirk, there was not a single glimpse of fear nor anger as there usually was.

“Oh Dream… but we wanted to meet the one and only human that stole your dusty heart, did we not Lucifer?” At the mention of Morningstar, Dream turned to see behind him.

The Angel was kneeling at the side of Y/N’s wheelchair, twirling a strand of her hair between his slim fingers, Y/N was holding her breath feeling unsafe and clenching her fists.

“We did… and I’m glad to say I’m not disappointed, she is truly marvelous at the eye” Lucifer said in a quiet whisper, holding out a small shiny dagger to her neck. Morpheus was fuming, his eyes glistened and a light blush creeped up his cheeks, clouded by his rage and frustration.

“Oh god, your want and lust for her is suffocating. How do you even contain yourself? I mean how do you manage given her delicate condition?” Desire went on, taunting their brother. Y/N clenched her jaw.

“Yeah? Come over here so I can show you how delicate I can be, ass” even when he could not express it he felt proud of his loved one at that moment, she was kind and gentle but she knew damn well how to stand up for herself. Even Desire and Lucifer respected that about her.

“We won’t do anything, for now. This was just a quick visit to tell you both not to get too cozy” Lucifer spoke lastly, in the blink of an eye Morpheus siblings were gone leaving the echoes of their sinister laughter behind.

When they were gone, Morpheus ran to Y/N’s side cupping her face in his hands, inspecting the small cut Lucifer had made in her neck, he was truly distressed, he blamed himself for dragging her to this situation, he had to know better.

“Dream, don’t do that” she said in a low voice, he looked at her confused “Don’t blame yourself” she explained further, making him look away from her bright eyes.

“How could I not? They could have done much worse if they pleased”

It was true, to the extends of Desire and the Ruler of Hell the scene they experienced was nothing but a child’s play. Both of them were obsessed with power and had the same objective of making the King of Dreams bow down, beg for mercy. Y/N had unfortunately become the means to a cruel end. Only the Creator knew what sorts of evil deeds they had in store for the woman he loved.

He felt guilty about putting through all this supernatural family drama, all he ever desired for her was happiness and safety; it hurt to realize he may never be able to provide that to her.

“Morpheus, stop. I don’t care what they do, as long as we have eternity it will not matter”

“I can’t live without you”

“You won’t have to” she was so sure of her words he could not help but feel a little comforted. In the end, it was true; with the gift of mortality it would not matter how much time passed, how many plans his siblings could come up with. Their love was so strong it would inevitably bring them together, because that was how it was meant to be.

Finally, they went back to the Dreaming, and Morpheus had put some distance between them, trying to deal with his feelings and conflicts on his own, while they did have eternity ahead, that didn’t stop him from being scared, and his way of protecting her was isolating himself in his thoughts and work.

Y/N felt this as rejection, he wouldn’t even dare to be in the same room as her, he would avoid her gaze, it was just unbearable to see the man she loved change practically overnight by fear.

It wasn’t until one night, that Y/N was dreaming that he realized how far his actions had come, at first he could not tell it was Y/N’s dream because of how dark it was, a single lightbulb illuminated the space. She was trapped in a cristal sphere, similar to the one he lived for over a century, the young woman had a white silk dress that was teared up to pieces, and she was covered in a mixture of dirt, blood and bruises.

He inspected the scene before him in complete horror. Her nightmare feeling disturbingly real to him, to the point even the Lord of Dreams had to remind himself this was an invention of her mind, he was well aware of the fact that a nightmare would come by you, he was the king of Dreams and Nightmares after all. But he was so caught up in his own mind that he didn’t stop to think what this nightmare would bring to you.

Then he heard your voice.

“You abandoned me…” she whispered softly, she went on mumbling inaudible words, while laying on the cold sphere, not a single muscle in her body moved an inch. It was as if her body just fully stopped functioning properly, even her breaths were quiet, then her eyes locked with Morpheus for a few seconds.

And then she woke up.

Completely startled, she practically jumped up the bed taking a deep breath, as if she had been underwater for too long, she inspected her whole body, in search for blood, bruises… but there was nothing aside from the salty tears that run down her cheeks.

Feeling observed, she looked over to the doorway to find Morpheus standing disturbingly still, with a conflicted look in his eyes, she moved away as he sat at the edge of the bed. Silence filled the room as she cried quietly, his heart was breaking at the sight of her.

“Y/N”

“Fuck you” she spat as he tried to reach out to her

“Nightmares are supposed to help you face your fears” she scoffed, finally facing him.

“You want to face things? Fine. You can’t even be in the same room as me anymore, let’s not talk about intimacy. All you do is avoid me at any cost, if you don’t want me anymore just say it” she was mad, scared, sad and everything in between. Hearing her say such words caught the king completely off guard.

“You think I don’t want you anymore?” He asked completely dumbfounded

“I’ve been rejected my whole life, I fucking know what’s that like, don’t pretend like you don’t”

“Y/N that’s not-“

“SHUT THE FUCK UP” she roared, Morpheus was taken back by her sudden outburst.

“I think I was so caught up in protecting you that I failed to realize I was doing the opposite of that” he spoke sincerely, reaching out for her hand. As she allowed the gesture her eyes soften.

“Pushing me away is not protection” Dream felt his cheeks burning with shame, he had good intentions but sometimes, his actions weren’t the best.

“I promise to do better for you”

There was a small silence before the Lord of Dreams spoke again.

“Would you like to accompany me? I wish to make it up to you” that wasn’t a statement Y/N could easily refuse to, especially as his blue orbs glistened with hope.

Both lovers spent the day together, they walked around the castle, visited Cain, Abel and Goldie at their garden. Went to the library to ask for Lucienne’s help on some investigation Morpheus was conducting.

The day was very peaceful as the couple reached the meadows and Y/N’s dress was floating gracefully with the soft breeze, Dream extended both of his hands with a smile to Y/N who reciprocated the gesture and allowed his partner to lift her up from her mobility aid.

He placed one of his hands on her hip, the other was holding her hand with his, and she took this as a cue to place her opposite hand on Dream’s shoulder.

Softly, he started moving and she tried her best to follow his steps even when she struggled with coordination. Soon they found themselves caught up in a sweet vals, and a full orchestra could be heard playing even when there weren’t any instruments around.

Y/N chuckled softly at the absurdity of Morpheus’ loving gesture, it was true he wasn’t used to expressing himself, he struggled with that many ages and he would likely continue to struggle. But he was willing to change that, to be better for the one he loved, not because it felt like something he was obliged to but rather was inspired to do out of love.

She deserved the very best version of him, and perhaps he would struggle with vocalizing his fears and love, but he was always sure of how to show her just how much she meant to him.

While Y/N knew there were things to be worked on, she also knew there was nobody else she could see living for eternity with. Dream had many flaws but he too had many strengths and as a whole she loved him for all he was.

The good and the bad, all that embodied the King of Dreams, and if she was honest with herself she too loved the way he was able of anything and everything for her; he would go till the end of the world just for her.

He was at her command, in every aspect.

Their love would mark history forever, showcasing how truly unconditional and pure love could be, beyond banal aspects, like her physical condition.

#love #dream of the endless #morpheus imagines #sandman imagine #sandman netflix #sandman x reader #sandman x y/n #the sandman comics #sandman headcanons #morpheus x reader #morpheus dream #morpheus #dream headcanons #dream of the endless x reader #tom sturridge x reader #tom sturridge #neil gaiman

[the-casbah-way]

i just think it's so unfair that when i left high school my entire support system was gone overnight and i was just expected to get on with it with no help and because i wasn't diagnosed back then no one believed me or accommodated for me or cared, so i had to postpone my degree for two years and watch all my friends graduate without me and move to different cities and i went from being a straight a student who never had to study in their life to barely scraping the minimum grades and never showing up to class because i had convinced myself i was too stupid and slow to ever get my degree because i wasn't getting any of the support i kept asking for and was expected to read and listen to lectures without any help and keep up with everyone else when none of my support needs were being met. and now after trying for five years to find a way to get the degree i always wanted my uni have told me they're not going to let me do it anymore because of one module requirement that i missed because i was in hospital against my own choice. and even after i said i would use the entirety of my savings which i specifically worked for so that i could have a safety net for my studies to pay for the extra year required to get the module they need they've still said no. even though there's a bunch of spare places on the course and it wouldn't impact my timetable at all. even though i got As in every assignment i did for that course compared the the Bs and Cs i used to get in every other subject. even when i told them that i can't keep doing a science based humanities subject because i have dyscalculia and it's literally impossible for me to get through a single sentence of reading on my own, compared to the module i want to do where my lecturer literally bought me extra course textbooks with his own money because i finished everything else on the reading list in my own time and he said he was impressed with the work i sent him. i told them that me and my brother are the first in my family to go to uni, and how neither of my parents finished school or have any qualifications, and i never though in a million years i would ever get to have a degree and i've had everything stacked against me because their uni is 99% rich able bodied neurotypicals and i'm so close to graduating even though i had no support at all for the first four years. and they still don't care. they can't even give me a reason as to why they won't let me get the degree i want. they just keep saying 'we're not in a position to let you do the extra module' over and over again and i don't even understand what they mean. i'm going to pay for it myself. they have spare spaces on the course. i don't understand what else i can do to make them listen. they talk so much about diversity and accessibility yet every other poor and disabled person i talk to (and there's barely fucking any at this uni because they don't want us to be there) has been through similar experiences and had opportunities taken away from them because they were too unwell to attend one single fucking class. i don't know what to do but i've been here way too long and tried way too hard to drop out now. but i also can't bear to not to the degree i've always dreamed of. i don't want to do anything else

#this is what triggered my whole episode last week or whenever it was i tried to off myself #i've been ignoring it since then so that i can become sane again but #it's been stuck in my brain the whole time and i don't know what to do about it #i can't accept it and move on because i don't understand why it's happening and i don't think it's fair #but idk what to do and i don't want to kick up a fuss or act like i'm being like victimised or some shit #it's just. i only missed that module because i was literally on a drip and almost had to get a blood transfusion #it wasn't like i couldn't be arsed to show up. i was really sick and it was also when i found out my dad had cancer again idk #even if i'd had it in me to show up to classes i wouldn't have taken anything in or passed my assignments #and i told them that and they said it was fine #if they'd told me it would mean i wouldn't get my degree i would've done something about it #idk what i could've done but i would've done something

[daydreamerdisease]

So this is a thought post to this lovely podcast episode featuring @sleepstxtic on the @fanficmaverickpodcast about the POC experience in fandom. I don't actively listen to podcasts much, but she shared about it in the @harrypocter discord server and had me intrigued (which I HIGHLY reccommend you check out)!

Podcast episode here: https://open.spotify.com/episode/4B79Q1LLzt96tcLTjec84v?si=7hYs-rxAQDSp4LToiv7i4w

I'm adding my thoughts below a read more, because it can get long, but please let me know if there is a more accessible way to do it!

Note: I have shit memory and I'm hard of hearing. So there will be no quotes because, unfortunately, there are no transcripts (a convo for another time about disability and fandom maybe?). I'll try my best to be concise and not misrepresent anything said but, please do correct me if I say something wrong!

Most of this is not in any particular order to the podcast itself, and definitely just the tip of the iceberg of this topic, so there is absolutely so much left unsaid. Please feel free to add your own thoughts, experiences, etc.

First off, it's unsurprising and I agree, but it is interesting that we don't tend to read fic that are specifically about POC even though we do enjoy the idea overall as POC. I do have to wonder how much of that has to do with the fact that we are not already written into canon itself and how that might affect how we interact with fanon/headcanons? It might be different depending on the fandom, but for HP, the few characters we do get are certainly not the ones we focus on overall. It is kind of changing with Harry (and James, typically) being headcanoned as Desi, though!

I have to agree though, that fanfic isn't really about being the most "correct" representation of anything, and that fandom is not inherently activism. It can certainly help facilitate it (see Fandom Trumps Hate, for example) but ultimately it's about having fun and engaging with the works and others who enjoy it, whether fanon or canon. Not even us POC are 100% actively trying to include the "best" representation in all our works all the time. Sometimes it isn't about that at all, sometimes it's the entire point of a piece of work. But it varies and can be a bit of a spectrum of inclusion! And that's ok.

I also loved the point about how there is no one specific representation that is going to indicative of everyone's experience. Humans are so diverse. There are certainly things that are going to hit more people than others (and things we can conclude is offensive too usually) but wholly universal experiences don't really exist for a lot of, if not most, POC. I believe when you narrow it down, by things like where you're living and stereotypes that most people know, it can get very specific. But POC are not a monolith and neither are their experiences.

I absolutely vibe with the idea of seeing the richness in culture within fandom though?? It's one of the ways that I absolutely engage in fandom myself. Whether for perspectives on being POC, things like sexuality and gender, and including all the intersections. I really do think the HP fandom pockets I've been part of are some of the most diverse and richly creative spaces I've been in?? Sometimes they are niche corners but not always! It is just so vast, has touched so many parts of the world, which means that the creators are diverse too. Even if we don't write it explicitly into our work, it can influence it, because of who we are.

I do think that fandoms like HP are kinda unique for being that way though. It is so huge and long lasting (maybe even immortal lol) and not a lot of fandoms are like it. It has been given the time and space to grow, to change, and for the people in it to do so.

But also the idea of using fandom/fanfic as a medium for being diverse when we're surrounded by things that are not that way is absolutely amazing. Whether you're POC or not, it is deliberately creating a space for that diversity!

It makes it possible for some of us, like sleepstxtic and I, to even realize we can see ourselves in these fanworks we consume. That we can freely create them and tangibly be part of this space we're in.

Also, the absolute enjoyment of sharing culture with each other!! Of learning together, of creating a space to learn, is so important. Especially for those of us who are sometimes disconnected from our family's cultures or heritage, who are more assimilated, etc etc for so many reasons. It is so important to be able to question and learn from each other. Especially using characters like Harry, for instance, who is so painfully wrenched away from his culture. We might not always find someone with our 1:1 experience but it does open the door for being able to find connection to our own heritage and culture. It can be painful and absolutely lonely and finding that place within fandom can be so healing. 😭

I definitely think we are still growing as a fandom, we have plenty more to learn when it comes to encouraging and including POC and what we have to give to the fandom, but I am happy to see us having these conversations!

And I loved learning about sleepstxtic's culture during this podcast, the way she fell into writing fanfic, and the thoughtfullness put into it. Thank you so much for sharing your experience with us!

I hope you all check out the podcast episode but either way, what are your thoughts and experiences? I'd love to hear what other people have to say, whether negative or positive, and if you wanna share your favorite POC-centric fanfic/fanart recs...

👀 I won't turn those away!

#harry potter fandom #poc experience in fandom #the fanfic maverick podcast #sleepstxtic #jay speaks #my thoughts

[youdontloveme-yet]

[It is the law] or a GMMTV 2023 line up's worst commentary. (part1)

Hello, my dudes and cryptids. Don't lie I know some of y'all are cryptids. Anyway, I said I will make the worst commentary for the new GMMTV line up, and so I am delivering. If somebody gets offended by something I've said - fuck you. That is all.

We all know what the gmmtv2023 line up is and apparently "diversity" in their dictionary is disability or weird conditions. So let's get to it.

Enigma

Starring: Prim Chanikan, Win Metawin, Piploy Kanyarat; Director: O Patha Thongpan; Genre: Horror, Suspense;

Interestingly enough the trailer starts with a Nietzsche quote, which sets the bar somewhere high, but at the same time, not the entirety of that quote is included, which I find kind of weird, since it is a horror series. What I mean with that? Well, the whole quote is as follows:

“Battle not with monsters, lest ye become a monster, and if you gaze into the abyss, the abyss gazes also into you.”

– Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil

I cannot comprehend why this was left out, when we are obviously going to be dealing with demons (monsters). Whatever, I am nitpicking I guess.

Typical school setting, because yes, that is exactly where all the occult shit always happens. Nothing new here. I’m guessing there is dimensional jumping, if I’m judging by the trailer. A person with a snap off blade that looks like it can give you some tetanus, is seen, which if I may add is not very creative. Can we finally have people with actual knives for once? Or swords. Swords are good. Anyway, is that supposed to be a girl holding the knife? Because in the shot with the knife it is definitely a man holding it. Some cool shots of occult shit - nice touch. Oh and our FL’s picture being cut into. Some more occult shots, because why the fuck not? There’s always something wrong with the school. We been knew. Students going crazy, yada-yada. The depiction of schools in Thailand is always horrific. The stress, the pressure, I can see why the favourite setting for horror is the schools. There always has to be one person to drown, it is the law. Can you imagine this occult shit happening every year and your parents not moving you to another school? Parents in this show will not be included as actual characters, it is against the law. They do not exist, these students are entirely on their own, it is the law. The new teacher is a socio, how surprising. (probably doesn’t shower as well). I love black magic, but too many western/christian ideas into this shit. Crosses, really? Thailand is a Buddhist country, no? Who the fuck holds a person’s face like that? It seems it is the socio teacher… oh, well, let’s hope he washed his hands. Suddenly has tattoos and jiggly things around his neck - kitsch. And we continue with the western symbolism. Ah, yes, putting that cape on makes you look so much cooler in front of the faiting student. Oh, my favourite - closing doors with the snap of the fingers. I’m guessing it is supposed to look seductive or whatever… it doesn’t. Ah, sorry, he can do more than just closing doors apparently. Who knew?

Well, it tries to look promising. But I am very much on the fence if it could actually deliver. Love me suspenseful horror, but I don’t see how GMMTV can execute this. Also, I cannot believe how many roles Prim has lined up!! I will indeed be watching for her only.

Conclusion: will definitely try watching it, but emphasising on the “try” part.

A Boss And A Babe

Starring: Book Kasidet, Force Jiratchapong (and other gmmtv people); Director: New Siwaj Sawatmaneekul Genre: Romance

It’s those dudes, whose names I keep forgetting every time.

At first I was “ah! A gaming series!”, but nope, not really anyway. I want his setup, ngl. But I would beat the shit out of him with that smugness. Annoying. Ah, no, they used the nickname of one of my favourite pro players, oh gods. The team is introduced. None of these people look like they can play games. Unrealistic. Where are the bags under their eyes or the dark circles? You say you play for 30hrs a day, which does not exist in the first place, yet you look as if you got out of a cryo chamber or whatever. Next thing you know, the 30hrs guy has an office job. Downgrade, my dude, very big downgrade. He’s the boy for everything in that office, as per the law. Yeah, nobody can convince me this guy has that amount of energy. The boss is grumpy, and the boy for everything is stupid, as is the law. What are we gonna do if there is no awkward bathroom scene? Most romantic thing is to ask your crush to dinner, while he’s taking a shit. The boss has no boundaries whatsoever. Oh, yes, the courting rituals are very intricate, borderlining with psychopathy. Typical trope, nothing to see here. Yes, ask your friends about love. The thing you are too much of an infant to understand. Stupid advice as is the law. He has an ASMR channel ?? Why the fuck are you doing an office job, if you are a pro player and have an ASMR channel? That makes you more money than that shitty office job, brother. This is not a real gamer. This Force guy is kind of attractive in a suit. I guess they have sex, idk. Wait. “Don’t act like main character in a novel who confesses his love when the other is asleep.” Who comes up with these lines. It is not even cheesy, just bland and cringe. Oh, he says it, okay. That is forgiven. Boss guy is done. And so am I.

Oh, another thing. Whoever comes up with these titles, I hope your socks are wet. Also, have in mind this is a New series, meaning that there’s the possibility this series will be progressing extremely slow.

Conclusion: looks kind of boring. All over the place plot. Overused trope of stupid office romance. Might take a look, but I doubt it.

Find Yourself

Starring: (a majority of people you don’t know) Nonkul Chanon, Aff Taksaorn, Earth Pirapat and other gmmtv lakorn people; Director: Petch Varayu Ruksku Genre: Business, Romance, Drama (it’s a lakorn)

Have these people been courting since the dark ages or what? I do not understand the constant nagging about having a younger partner, when you are female. Never will and never will try to understand. ‘Tis bullshit. Homeboy is very awkward, so I like him. So, she’s almost 40 and single? What about it? Stupid archaic tropes. Okay, homeboy has balls now, being all touchy-touchy. Are you looking for a sugar mommy, my son? Cute montage of them doing couple shit - 7/10 I’ve seen better. Ah, yes, the drunk first time. Classic. Girl, you are almost 40, can you not act like a 15 year old who just lost her virginity? Too much screaming. And ofc there is the accusatory “what did you do to me?” idk, babe, maybe you both initiated in sinful acts. This is per the law. Now she feels like a whore or some shit. Apparently sleeping with someone is the worst thing you can do. The mother is creepy, as is the law. And we continue with my least favourite thing - meddling in other people’s affairs. Ma’am your daughter is 40, why are you sending her brother to figure out who she’s dating. Stupid trope. Never let people come out with their partners on their own, it is against the law. Ah, yes, some dude taking a video of girls dancing or whatever. Classic. Now he has an accomplice in this bullshit. This girl is cute, but they are all psychos. Yes, everyone is dating, but there has to be that one guy who says it can’t be true. And the girl who apparently has ownership of the guy, even tho he really is not aware of that, bless his soul. Stupid one-liners. Again with the age garbage. Now, there’s an old man, idk what his deal is, but if I have to guess - to make drama. So, she likes him, but the age thing is a thing, how boring. What the fuck is a 3-month relationship trial, this is not a game or some astrological site behind a pay wall, girl. Another cute montage. Oh, they kiss… finally, I guess? Sign. What sign do you even need? You like him, he likes you, are you batshit insane or something?

Conclusion: it’s a lakorn. Looks cute, has an age gap - will watch.

Double Savage

Starring: Ohm Pawat, Perth Tanapon, Film Rachanun; Director: ??? Genre: Action

Starts off gritty and looks violent, I approve. Oh, not a terrible fighting scene, this is new. From the get-go we have the good and the bad. Who is who, we are yet to see. Aren’t these people like brothers or some shit, why so mad? Foei with a gun to a dude’s head, pretty sure I’ve watched this before. Good fight tho, enjoyed it. I can tell you from here that Foei’s character jerks off to men fighting. Ah, yes, the stare down. Good old stare down. Woah, jail? This doesn’t sound like giving him an option, jerkface. More like a threat. Disowning your children the moment the fuck up? Classic parents. This is very allowed per the law. Ohm and his staring through your soul, peak acting. Oh, no, he thinks he is irredeemable. I mean, unless you’ve killed someone I don’t see how you’re such a big bad criminal, my son. Why the fuck is Perth’s character mad? His brother got kicked out, not him. Calm your balls, boy, the world hasn’t stopped spinning. They keep calling him a criminal. Idk what this is about, but it sounds greatly exaggerated. Ofc there is a girl, it is by the law to like your brother’s girl. A fighting montage. This is right up my alley - more fighting, less talking, like in the stone age. Oh, no, the popo are involved - the horror. All of this for a girl. I’ll act surprised - GASP, IT IS ABOUT THE GIRL. Yeah, I can bet you all that he hasn’t done something so criminal. Foei and his psycho characters. Good touch. Always appreciated. I’d shoot him tho. Won’t even wait for his clown act before I pull the trigger. “Between blood brothers” is the “blood” that needed? Yeah, we kind of got the idea that they’re biological brothers. These people talk too much and shoot too little. You might as well blow both your brains out, that’d be fun.

Conclusion: will watch, let’s hope there is less talking in the actual series and more fighting and stare downs.

Hidden Agenda

Starring: Dunk Natachai, Joong Archen, Aou Thanaboon; Director: Tee Bundit Sintanaparadee Genre: Romance

Alpha rule of trailers: start with a cliche quote about love. Idk if it is the translation or the actual quote, but it sounds so weird. Ah, Louis! My child is in whatever the fuck this series will be. Wait, didn’t he say the same thing in Star In My Mind? University setting I’m guessing. Yes, we are definitely not sick and tired of the university thing. I mean, it could’ve been high school, which is much worse, but still. He’s stupid. This is literally the plot of half of the shows out there. The boy who wants a relationship, the popular girl that he will never have and the guy who will creepily pursue him. I haven’t finished the trailer yet. Show her you’re so manly bro, even if you look like a wet noodle. Seeking advice from HER ex? What have y’all been smoking, because that’s some otherwordly shit right there. His name is JOKE, hahahahah. I’m gonna watch it just to make fun of his name I swear. Ofc, he’s a jerk, it is the law. Wait, so it’s Zo and Joke… sounds like the worst possible joke. Can you imagine the ship name tho. I’m losing it here. Personal space who? He asks you to help him and you ask him to spend the night with you ?? If somebody told me that I’d get a restraining order. Taking notes, as if that will help you when the guy next to you will definitely do you before you do her. There has to be a study date, it is against the law to not have one. The staring. There was only one bed. Ah, yes, the stranger into whose home you went, now snuggles with you, this is by the law. Cute gays want kids. I hope you can adopt like 5, my dudes. Weird one liners, more intense staring. Then we have people not minding their business as is by law. Denial. Pushing him to be uncomfortable. Because that is exactly how you get in a relationship with someone. Okay, he’s not talking about the girl. Thought so, but I had to get sure. Smol guy gets annoyed, I am pretty sure this is Star In My Mind. Weird debate. So, I guess he got with the girl, who would’ve guessed. Joke is jealous. Girl needs help for who-knows what bullshit. But ofc, as is by the law, she would go to her ex, not her current partner, because that makes so much sense. And here somebody is gonna say “but, Ra, they have a bond!” and all I will hear is the voices in my head, not yours tho. Oh, no the secret. Could it be that he’s gay and people are once again too nosy? Oh, no, he lied. Local angry noodle throws paper at man who lied to him. You cannot trust anyone, bro, don’t try it. This is the drama world, you can’t trust even your mother. Ah, yes, cry on the shoulder of the next man that will lie to you. Smart. By the law, you have to be possessive of the person who probably wants you dead. Some angry grown ups. Idk what their deal is, but they might as well kiss with all that stupid tension. How many people wanna have this Zo guy ?? Confrontation done wrong. People giving weird looks as we read their names. Now you ask him not to hit on the girl. The hypocrisy is crisp. So, all is forgiven? The magical forgiveness is here by the law, okay? You won’t get it. They be smoochin’.

Conclusion: 50/50. Might try it only because it is the director of Lovely Writer. But I am pretty convinced this is at least 90% what happened in Star In My Mind.

23.5

Starring: Milk Pansa, Love Pattranite, Gemini Norawit; Director: Fon Kanittha Kwunyoo

Congratulations, my dudes, we made it! I don’t know who made a human sacrifice for this, but your jail time is not in vain. Anonymous chatting is my go-to romance bullshit. It never disappoints really. Cute conversation, some weird shit about the Earth and Sun, which sounds relatable and is probably some profound metaphor, but I am not here for that. Ah yes, walking past the person you are actively flirting with, can be a coincidence only in a drama, otherwise is pretty much stalking. Gotta love Milk’s backpack. The hat is stupid tho. Don’t be creepy, my girl. Ah, yes, seduction through knowledge. Gotta add some sadness to it, such is the law. Babygirl, we are all nobodies, chill. She’s not the center of the universe, she is just extroverted as fuck, while you probably stutter when speaking. Pretty sure you’re the only one spinning around her, but okay. More nerdy talk, because that is indeed hot as hell. No creepy staring, babygirl, you are better than this. Ah, yes, the “i must hide my feelings trope, cuz that person is out of my league” grow a pair, girlie. Ofc they all think it is a guy, how very heterosexual of them. Some creeping around. I’m guessing this is the rival or whatever. Or not, which is great. Let’s mope around instead of hyping ourselves up and actually talk to her. Because that always works so well. What do you mean she has the guts?? Are y’all insane? She’s literally hiding. Drama logic, as is the law, make no sense. Supportive friends I approve of, tho. So you are forgiven for being stupid. Love’s character asking the real questions. I mean, it could be some hobo, but she got the right spirit. Some cute moments in the gym are absolutely mandatory. More looking. Oh, there are gays here? This is some elementary school type of behaviour. What’s next? Pulling his hair and biting him in front of the class? And he continues throwing things at him. Take him home, but for the love of anything holy stop throwing stuff at him. Oh, no, she figured it out! Be distressed for nothing. Especially when she’s literally pining you at the book shelf. Gay panic. THEY CUTE AS SHIT BRO. I want what they have. Face rubs are cool. We continue with the profound astronomy metaphors I just can’t deal with right now. Overall good shit.

Conclusion: 100% watch, no need to even elaborate.

Phro Thoe Khue Rak Raek

Starring: Dew Jirawat, Prim Chanikan, Neo Trai; Genre: Romance

A lot of Prim and Dew this year. Delightful. For me, idk about you people.

I don’t like her with that ginger hair, makes her look older, not my jam. I can and I will complain about this when her series air. It’s a first love story. Not that anyone is surprised or anything. Girl, that’s some bomb-ass outfit and I need it. Guess half of the show will be in the past… or the majority. Ladies and gentleman, we are back at square one - grumpy guy and the girl who fell for him. I hope she’s not stupid. Height difference oh my. She’s literally like his child. How fucking tall is this guy?? Like 180? He makes you smile, yet he never fucking smiles at you. That’s just sad. I mean, you literally had him take space in your head. The memories of all the times he just straight up ignored your existence? Damn, girl, you thirsty. Jealousy, my beloved. Why is it always Neo tho? He’s like the go-to guy when you need jealousy. Now the tall motherfucker reacts. The confusion is mutual. He left. The drama. The irony. The cliche. Yes, pretending you’re not staring at him works every time. Hiding behind a notebook in a very non-suspicious way. It is the law, you won’t get it. Girl, if you look at me like that with that slow head turn, I can and I will turn into a human puddle. Adorable. I want to punch him in the face. Ruin it a bit, y’know. She smiles and he’s stoic as fuck. I’m punching you brother, I swear. Pretty doe eyes. Woah, he finally smiled, can you imagine. I still want to punch him tho.

Conclusion: will watch, but will be angry about it. Mostly because he never smiles at her.

Cooking Crush

Starring: Off Jumpol, Gun Atthaphan, Mark Pakin, Neo Trai; Genre: Food, Romance;

Okay, the first thing I said when this started was “another cooking flop”, because let’s be real here, they are bad at making cooking series. And that is that.

Anyway, some cool ass shots of food being prepared, because that’s how you know it is about cooking. Per law, it is mandatory that he is nothing less but a TOP CHEF. Hands. Gourme. Pretty boy. This guy is a fucking disaster. How in all hell is he a top chef? Yes, because grabbing the extinguisher is the hardest thing one could possibly imagine. Maybe if one of these absolute idiots removed the hat from his head and dropped it in the sink all of this could’ve been much easier. It is the idiot trio, maybe a disaster trio? Something along the lines, I am not good with words, shut up. A cooking competition? Wasn’t he like a TOP CHEF? Misleading intro. 10 million baht sounds cool and all, but it really is like 270k euro or something along the line. Oh, so the old dude is the top chef. The intro continues to be confusing. What does simple food even have to mean? Not putting black pepper and honey in one or what? Don’t mind me, I am everything but a food person. That is a necessity, idc about food beyond that. Off just appears out of nowhere. Who the fuck are you and why are you leaning on him like that? Fucking creep.Do they even know each other? This is so confusing. “From dog food to doc food” is legit the worst pun I have ever seen. This boy ain’t cheap, damn. Straight away with the fee, I feel you bro, that’s the way to go. You be calling him a fool, but you’re both fools. I can smell it from a mile away. He cannot hold a fucking knife. I would nope out of there is somebody held a knife like that. Neo’s character being the relatable one again. Fi-fi ??? No, no, don’t learn his name please, call him Fi-fi, it is most entertaining. My son, you are anything but fire with that ugly ass shirt. Please sit down. Love me some self proclaimed playboys. And a monster? I don’t think that you scared him, more like turned him on, because it is drama logic and these types of weird outbursts usually mean that for whatever reason. Yes, licking food off of the hand of the person you like is mandatory, you know it’s the law. Woah, bro, no need to make it gay. I too would be shocked. This is unhygienic. I’d freak out and punch him, that’s disgusting. Only 16?? I have friends who used to sleep in the university. Weak shit. Is he learning to cook for a girl? Weak shit x2. Another top chef, it’s like they’re selling them at the market with the fish. “For the price of one fish, you get a top chef for free!” or some shit like that. Top chef #2 wants some twink for dinner that’s for sure. Pure unfiltered jealousy as it is meant by the law. How the fuck did you deceive him? He didn’t learn how to cook or what? That would be only his fault really. Ah, the classic Off stare, has to be one of my favourite stupid faces. What funny business, my man? Oh yeah, give it up for spilling secrets, because this is purely platonic. Back hugs my most beloved. That yellow sweater is gorgeous and I want it. Did he just punch top chef #2? So, Neo and Mark are a thing now? I would never understand people carrying others bride style while unconscious. I am pretty sure that arm behind his neck has to fall off if he ain’t awake. But then again, by the law, this is a mandatory scene. Yeah, he does look heavy to carry around. But pulling him up like this may as well break his spine, this is stupid. Please, don’t fucking do this, guys. As usual, we have a dead parent, because it cannot be a good drama if we don’t have a tragedy along the line. The gay chase! Hugging and crying. Weird seductive noodle eating, as is by law. Do you like the food or him? I think you be lying about his food. Yeah, we’re not talking about food, damn. Awkward hand holding is my jam. And some weirdly animated stuff just floating around.

Conclusion: looks weird, 50/50 on this.

Wednesday Club

Starring: a bunch of people y’all know. Director: ??? Genre: Romance (?)

I don’t think anyone quite understands what this show is about. Star cast tho. Might flop.

What is this weak ass russian roulette? Choosing between friendship and justice sounds as dumb as it gets really. There’s like 10 of them, yet they chose to be crammed up in the smallest of spaces. Peak stupid. Mandatory squad shot. Can’t know who is in the squad without that shot. It is the law. These skinny motherfuckers be running nakes. Why is the guy next to Ohm so fucking pale ?? Somebody has to take the video I guess and girls absolutely love watching men’s ding-dong swing left and right while they run. It is definitely not the funniest shit. They definitely did not hit each others ding-dong while pushing each other, this is purely heterosexual. The popo is here! Always ruining the fun, huh. So you’re trying to tell me these fuckers meet after 2 of them run nakes on a fucking roof. Shit on the popo, as you should. Party time. Fancy bar. The middle children club. Can Jane be less pretty or do I have to constantly suffer? Oh, no, let’s make it dramatic that we are middle children. The outcasts. Poor rich kids. People like you? Brother, you ain’t a minority or whatever. This guy is a theatre kid. You guys need rules for friendship? My confusion grows. Is she taking a blood bath? This boy is like he has never seen money in his life. Greedy motherfucker. Slave? Ew. Not the sister, bro. You be breaking the bro code, bro. How dare you? Actual backstabbing? This trailers is confusing. Is this guy a freak or something? That looks like a cut scar, so maybe he’s into that shit and that’s why he doesn’t want to say. No romantic shit, says who? Yeah, because you can actually stop that shit from happening. Foolish. I am not understanding the russian roulette reference of this show. And they all got into a fucking fight I guess. Is the gun loaded this time? It better be or I am suing.

Conclusion: lots of pretty faces, huge confusion on my part. Will watch tho, I’m curious.

Last Twilight

Starring: Sea Tawinan, Jimmy Jitaraphol, Namtan Tipnaree; Director: Aof Noppharnach Chaiwimol Genre: Romance

The other two dudes, whose names I cannot remember. Nothing personal, you guys, I know you love to get offended at such things.

Ooh, bad boy mechanic vibe. Nope, nvm, I saw those atrocious jeans. I take my words back. More like wet towel boy. So, you can buy cigarettes, but you cannot pay your debts. Your maths suck I’m sure. Namtan pretty. Some poll going on. Idk how he can play poll when he has no money, but okay. It feels like she’s trying to set him up to be gigolo and I absolutely love that. She’s not unfortunately. Yep, wet towel boy. Fancy house. This is the mother I see in every show now. She plays all the good ones tho, so may she proceed to do so. This guy be going blind, damn. Sorry for your loss, my dude. Or whatever the fuck you say for shit like that. Why is he in a wheelchair? I thought he was only sight impaired. He makes the job sound like the worst in the world. Some self loathing going on around I see. Another wet towel boy. This is the wet towel boys series. Ahahah, straightforward NO. He looks so stupid. He just basically told him he’s a buffoon, didn’t he? “Can you read?” I am dying here. Yes, make fun of the man who will take care of you, that just never ends bad. I hope we get to know what the accident was. Very grumpy. Ah, we have the grumpy + stupid trope again. It is by the law that you make jokes about the disability of your employer. My dude still wants a pity party, who is he trying to lie to? Continue to be grumpy, doesn’t want help, while actually hiring a guy to help him. Logic at its finest. Why the fuck are you smoking in a non-smoker’s house bro ?? Go outside, these people rich, they have big yards and all. This is just poor manners. He can definitely walk by himself. If walking is defined as being on all fours. The gay shaving. This guy has balls, gotta admit. But with that smoking, I doubt he wants you to be too close. I want someone to explain to me what in the burning hell is a water curtain supposed to be? Weird gay mating ritual. Some flirting. They just made it sound like he’s dying, not going blind. “You have only 180 days. Make them count!” Or some other generic anime line. Despair. Depression. Namtan being a queen teaching the stupid gay what to do. Dramatic lying on the bed ying-yang style. Pining. The mating rituals are sophisticated and difficult, okay? Beach shots are kind of mandatory, it is the law. This guy has superpowers, but I can bet you that he would never guess what a person is online. So far with your powers, huh? Some more awkward flirting, but with face touches this time. We are progressing quite nicely. No smoochin’ here I guess, just some shoulder lean. Montage time. Some jealousy I see. Drama time. I mean, he is kind of your boss and all. Pretty shots all over the place, damn. Ah, yes, the smoochin’ has arrived. Beautiful shot tho. This trailer had more beautiful shots than an actual plot so idk.

Conclusion: might check it out, might not. Depends on my mentality at the time.

Part 2 with the other 10 shows will be tomorrow at some point, idk. Let me repeat myself, if somebody feels offended or does not agree, you can fuck yourself, this was made purely for my enjoyment.

#ra rants #gmmtv 2023 #enigma #a boss and a babe #find yourself #double savage #hidden agenda #23.5 #Phro Thoe Khue Rak Raek #wednesday club #last twilight #i will not tag a single actor #this is awful #to tag #so no thanks

[androgynousbirdtale]

23 September is Bi Visibility Day. But why do we still need Bi Visibility Day? George discusses the challenges the bi community faces and how we can all play a role in addressing biphobia.

Bi people are often the forgotten part of the LGBTQ+ community. Our experiences are commonly assumed to be the same as lesbian and gay experiences, and our identities are frequently made invisible or dismissed as something that doesn’t exist, by people both inside and outside of this community.

We face a number of negative stereotypes, the primary ones being that we’re greedy, manipulative, incapable of monogamy and unable to make our minds up – the last of which is the same as saying who we are isn’t real.

The assumptions about bi people are also gendered. Bi women are more likely to be viewed as ‘actually straight’, their sexual orientation merely a performance to attract straight men, whereas bi men are frequently seen as going through a ‘phase’ on the way to coming out as gay.

Personally, I’ve had previous colleagues and friends be thrilled, when I left a long-term relationship with a woman and started dating men, that I had finally ‘come out’ and embraced my ‘true’ sexuality. While I was in this relationship, I also had members of the LGBTQ+ community accuse me of ‘betraying the cause’ of LGBTQ+ acceptance, which made me doubt whether I in fact had any place in the community.

Even on dating apps, I’ve found that I get more matches with both men and women when I remove any mention of my bi identity from my profile. I can only assume this is because of biphobia from both LGBT and non-LGBT people, and to have this discrimination coming from both sides doesn’t feel great.

Added to the above is also the problem of media representation. Depictions of bi identities are still extremely rare on screen, and when they do feature, they often fall into the usual pervasive negative stereotypes. In fact, the general public are as likely to have seen negative portrayals of bi public figures as they are to have seen something positive.

The challenges bi people face, often unshared by our lesbian and gay peers, can also have a huge impact on our lives and frequently mean we feel unable to be ourselves, even among our closest friends and family.

For example, I did initially come out as bi to my parents (although I didn’t have a word for it atthe time), but I remember feeling guilty for being unable to give them the certainty that I’d end up with a man; it’s only since I began working at Stonewall that I’ve been comfortable having an honest conversation with them about my identity.

Stonewall research published last month exposed that for many the problem is worse than what I experienced: almost half of bi men (46 per cent) and a quarter of bi women (26 per cent) aren’t open about their sexual orientation to anyone in their family, compared to 10 per cent of gay men and just five per cent of lesbians.

This means a huge proportion of bi people are facing the harmful effects of biphobia in their daily lives – the stereotypes, the invisibility, the lack of belief that bi people exist – without the benefit of support, reassurance and acceptance from their parents, grandparents and siblings.

With this in mind, it’s not surprising that we have higher levels of anxiety, and lower levels of happiness and life satisfaction, than lesbian, gay and straight people. And these will be worse for those with other marginalised identities or experiences, for example bi people of colour, bi trans people, bi disabled people and bi people of faith.

This is why we need Bi Visibility Day. It’s an opportunity to celebrate diverse bi identities, raise the voices of bi people, and call for positive change.

Everyone has a role to play in achieving this: we need you to learn about bi experiences and the unique challenges we face; we need you to call out biphobia and harmful stereotypes, if safe to do so; we need you to not assume sexual orientation on the basis of someone’s current partner; and we need you to increase the representation of bi people whenever you can.

But first and foremost, if you want to step up as an ally to bi people this Bi Visibility Day: remember we exist, remember the stereotypes and assumptions we face every day, and think of one thing you can do in your daily life to help.

#2023 #bi visibility day #article

[scrapyardboyfriends]

This might be a weird question, but do you think that the constant every new charachter must have some convoluted sordid past with an already established charachter, is done out of lazziness, or do they just not know how to write for new charchters? I mean more than not really being able to write anything decent at all. (me snarky? No never)

I forgot to answer this the other day...

I'm not sure what their deal is with their inability to introduce character without this kind of thing. To some degree it's been like this longer than these three have been there but I don't think it was quite as bad.

For example, introducing the...secondary Bartons...let's call them, they brought Ross in first through the carjacking with Laurel and then had him be revealed as Moira's nephew. And then they brought the rest in after that and then did very dumb retcon things with making James Adam's father, which I hated but in general, the Barton's having a bunch of cousins didn't feel that unbelievable if that makes sense. Because there's bringing in extra family members that we haven't necessarily heard of before but feel plausible and then there's bringing in extra family members that we've never heard of before but make no sense and break previous canon to a ridiculous degree, see Mack. There is zero way to make his age make any sense and his whole backstory with Moira makes her backstory with John kind of invalid. That's the issue.

Or for example, bringing in characters like Liv or Rebecca felt kind of okay because we knew they existed to some degree. We knew Aaron had a younger sibling and we had heard about Rebecca plenty of times before we actually met her. But Meena for example, we'd never had an inkling of and her backstory with Manpreet still confuses me.

I think part of the problem these days too is that it's never just one thing either. Like Jamie could have just been a returning character but no, he had to have a secret family and then Andrea had to have a weird convoluted connection to Graham who was also supposed to be keeping an eye on Jamie. It's just a lot.

Or Charles and Ethan. Like Charles could have just known Harriet through being a vicar and that was it and he could have just brought along his son. But no, we had to have that and a convoluted connection to Manpreet who he didn't just know from the past but he knew her under a false name and thought she was dead after she left him at the alter and scarred him and his son for all these years. Not to mention that also really messed with what we already knew about Manpreet's backstory, plus the Meena inclusion. Again, a lot. And if that wasn't enough, they had to go and throw in that random connection to Luke that was 100% unnecessary. It's just layers and layers of convoluted connection.

Like Suzy. Okay, she knows Leyla through work circles, but then is also the one getting her cocaine and then is also the one who gave Holly the drugs that she overdosed on.

It's all just so messy it doesn't feel like it can be laziness. I think they actually think they're being clever with it. They just don't realize that all we want are some completely unconnected characters who come in unencumbered by convoluted baggage.

We don't need secret retconned sons of rapists, we just need an electrician who happens to be gay and strike up a conversation with the local gay lawyer.

We don't need another secret retconned son of a rapist so that we can have some disability diversity on the show. The surgery just could have gotten a nice not murdery new nurse Irene, who moves to the village with her son Ryan and maybe brother Josh.

We don't need sisters of heart donors who then have secret gangster dads who employ MIA characters as their cleaning ladies.

and so on and so on.

The last non connected or normally connected character I feel like we had was Jessie who was just the new headmaster and Ellis. Of course then they brought in Billy who had his convoluted connection with Aaron and Al who was secretly working with Kim and they ruined it all but there were two characters at least.

All I want for the show is a brand new family who is not tainted by secret connections. It would be so simple and yet they refuse. Do they think people would be bored by that?

Imagine a brand new family had bought the pub and the mom or dad had a gay electrician brother, Marcus, that they brought in to do the electrics on the pub and he met Ethan. Imagine they had a daughter, Chloe, who got stalked by the local creepy weirdo. We could have had a brand new family that was immediately brought into the drama of the show by getting involved in big stories but without all of the weird baggage that they put in there and then kind of forget about until they want to dredge it up again for something they deem a good twist.

Sigh...

#emmerdale complaints corner

[jetlagadventure]

diversity, equity, and inclusion statements are scam – february 7

Applications from the following groups are strongly encouraged: persons with physical or psychological disabilities, Indigenous people, racialized people, people who identify as LGBTQ2+, and neurodiverse people.

Don’t get me wrong, I am in favor of the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) statements and policies – as long as they are actually implemented, that is. As a woman, I sometimes even partially profit from them. But while they might as well promote beautiful rainbow diversity, they are complicit in the individualism of late capitalism. The individualism which, mind you, is not necessarily terrible for everyone everywhere (I, for one, am quite comfortable in it, if only for lack of experience with anything else) but which is certainly problematic to say the least, and contradicts most of what might be subsumed under the broad term of left-wing politics (Marxist or not).

Let me explain.

I am sure that there are many lists of different types of discrimination but since this is not an academic paper, I have created my own:

1. Individualistic discrimination.

2. Societal/systemic discrimination.

3. Legal discrimination.

Individualistic Discrimination

DEI statements like the above only touch upon the first one. I have come across many such declarations so I can give you an example of the context I am talking about. I just finished my PhD in philosophy and I am looking for postdoc positions, any assistant professor positions and the like. Someone like me who has completed a PhD in philosophy is very likely privileged in being able to fit into three norms: 1. Their intellectual abilities (both innate and learned) are in the niche balance between conformity (to fit into the educational system) and exceptionality (to be able to earn their degree). 2. Even if they don’t have enough money to pay for their education right away, they have enough money to pay with their time. 3. They (and often their immediate environment) value education enough to pursue it at all and – specifically in the case of philosophy and related disciplines – value education not so much as a means to a good life but rather as an end in itself.

Now suppose a black transgender lesbian with high-functioning ADHD gets a PhD in philosophy and applies for a postdoc in the humanities. Of course she will get it because 1. the institution is excited to signal its own diversity and 2. the chances are that she is smarter than the average applicant because she probably did have to work harder than me for the degree. What will she get and what can she hope for? 1. She might like the statement because she is finally explicitly included. 2. She can hope to get into a safe environment, that is, an environment bereft of the individualistic discrimination listed above: she is likely to encounter colleagues whose racism, ableism, transphobia, and homophobia are close to non-existent. This is not a small thing! But there is absolutely zero attention given to the other two types of discrimination.

Societal Discrimination

One doesn’t need to go far to see the absurdity of the DEI statements and policies in the context of societal oppression. A good example is the recent scandal of police forces destroying homeless encampents in Edmonton at -40° (Celsius or Fahrenheit, as the popular Albertan exercise in met(eo)rology goes): Not only is there no housing for homeless people out of whom 60% are of the Indigenous origin, but the authorities decided to dismantle their tent camps on the coldest day in fifty years (without enough space in shelters), destroyed their belongings, and arrested some of them, including Brandi Morin, an Indigenous journalist reporting on unhoused communities and police interventions against them. Some photos from the incident show show an Indigenous leader raising a ceremonial feather above his head, in a pitiful attempt to appeal to compassion within the “diversity” paradigm.

source: https://twitter.com/Songstress28

The more DEI policies are deployed, the more they are exposed as hopeless. And I am not just referring to university scholarships for Indigenous people, Indigenous Studies courses within any conceivable discipline or the need to have the Indigenous philosophy specialization on your resumé (whether you are Indigenous yourself or not), I mean also systemic measures that should actually be quite nice but end up being woefully inadequate, such as covered dental healthcare for the Indigenous population. Centuries of official legal discrimination in the past have led to some groups of people being on the other side of the law almost by default. Individuals not being racist will not change anything about that, even if it were theoretically the case of every single person.

Legal Discrimination

This is very unfortunate, you might say. We just need more time for the generational trauma to get resolved. Yet there is the third type of discrimination that is happening all over the world: discrimination on the ground of non-citizenship.* Of course, I cannot compare the situation of my fellow immigrants and myself – all of us university graduates – with refugees, people begging for refugee status or even people in the category described above. Still, it is comical how often (albeit not always) pretty DEI statements explicitly exclude foreign nationals without the permanent residency status. “We are unable to sponsor H1-B Visa’s at this time.” “Preference will be given to candidates who are Canadian and permanent residents.” I don’t have a solution. I understand that the system would collapse if anyone could work anywhere (maybe one more reason to try though). All I am saying is that at the end of the day, all the inclusive policies are extremely exclusive.

Legal discrimination gives rise to the societal one. Finally, this is not about me and my expat friends – we will figure something out. My closing thought goes to all refugees, displaced immigrants, and stateless people: How do we expect them and their children to abide by the same law that places them on its outside?

*) Canada seems to have different laws in different provinces. I might write about it later but probably not.

#jetlagadventure #toffeemaky #edmonton #borders #immigration #discrimination #indigenous peoples

[panther-os]

I've decided to turn the Coruwolf Guard AU into an A/B/O au, but slightly to the left.

First! It's just for certain near-human species and their human hybrids.

Second! In-universe, A/B/O does not stand for Alpha/Beta/Omega. It stands for Secondary Sex Type-A, Secondary Sex Type-B, Secondary Sex Type-O. Secondary sex characteristics are called tertiary sex characteristics. The DNA that determines a person's secondary sex is connected to the DNA that determines their blood type, hence it still being A/B/O instead of A/B/C or X/Y/Z, etc. Like with blood type, A and B are codominant and O is recessive. This means there is also Secondary Sex Type-AB. (Intersex people still exist in this AU, btw, bc fuck you, that's why.)

Third! Scent and pheremones still play a role, but "heats" and "ruts" are literally just hormone cycles and during the start of the cycles, people are grumpier and achier and sleep less well. People with secondary A/B/O sexes and uteri also have estrous cycles instead of menstrual cycles.

Fourth! Jango Fett has blood type AO. This means he's an "Alpha" with a recessive "Omega" gene. Because Arla, I'm also giving him a recessive blond hair gene and saying that, in the Kaminoan cloning process, the most common mutation is one that just turns "off" a dominant gene, which is how you get rare "Omega" clones or blond clones, or sometimes both.

Fifth! Regarding cloneshipping and incest - I am a cloneshipper, I don't see anything wrong with that, and communities with low genetic diversity often have different definitions of incest. I'd say, for the clones, partnering up inside their decanting or training batches is frowned upon. BUT procreating with someone with extremely similar DNA to yours does have health concerns for any resultant children. Clone couples who are able to procreate with each other are extremely careful for that reason - Oak, Mask, Flower, and Golden are part of the 1% of kids that come into being despite all parties using contraceptives correctly - and pregnancy loss is, unfortunately, common. Children that make it to term are also often disabled. Yes, this includes at least one of the babies, no, I haven't figured out how yet.

I think that's everything?

I have a list of OCs in this AU and names for Bogus and Sniffer's massiffs, but I'll drop them in a separate post for anyone who's squicked out by the topics in this one.

If my blog is suddenly marked as nsfw, it's because I used the "sexual themes" community label to be safe. I figure better that than having it taken down for the number of times I've said "sex" in this post.

#/incoherent noises/ #coruwolf guard adventures #abo #abo tw #tw abo #pregnancy loss #tw pregnancy loss #pregnancy loss tw #cloneshipping #coruscant guard #citrus warning #sort of

[ferikmvp]

The hidden business costs of poor childcare policies

DOWNLOAD NOW The hidden business costs of poor childcare policies

If you would like information about this content we will be happy to work with you. We strive to provide individuals with disabilities equal access to our website. Companies that don’t take action may struggle to recruit and retain the next generation of women leaders. Young women are also more likely than current women leaders to say they’re increasingly prioritizing flexibility and company commitment to well-being and DEI (Exhibit 4). Young women care deeply about the opportunity to advance-more than two-thirds of women under 30 want to be senior leaders. The factors that prompt current women leaders to leave their companies are even more important to the next generation of women leaders. And over the last two years, these factors have only become more important to women leaders: they are more than 1.5 times as likely as men at their level to have left a previous job because they wanted to work for a company that was more committed to DEI. Women leaders are significantly more likely than men leaders to leave their jobs because they want more flexibility or because they want to work for a company that is more committed to employee well-being and DEI. Women leaders are seeking a different culture of work. It also means that women leaders are stretched thinner than men in leadership not surprisingly, 43 percent of women leaders are burned out, compared with only 31 percent of men at their level.ģ. Spending time and energy on work that isn’t recognized could make it harder for women leaders to advance. Indeed, 40 percent of women leaders say their DEI work isn’t acknowledged at all in performance reviews. Compared with men at their level, women leaders do more to support employee well-being and foster DEI-work that dramatically improves retention and employee satisfaction but is not formally rewarded in most companies. Women leaders are overworked and underrecognized. Women leaders are also more likely to report that personal characteristics, such as their gender or being a parent, have played a role in them being denied or passed over for a raise, promotion, or chance to get ahead.Ģ. And women leaders are twice as likely as men leaders to be mistaken for someone more junior. For example, they are far more likely than men in leadership to have colleagues imply that they aren’t qualified for their jobs. In many companies, however, they experience microaggressions that undermine their authority and signal that it will be harder for them to advance. Women leaders are as likely as men at their level to want to be promoted and aspire to senior-level roles. Women leaders want to advance, but they face stronger headwinds than men. Three primary factors are driving their decisions to leave:ġ. Women leaders are demanding more from their companies, and they’re increasingly willing to switch jobs to get it. Please email us at: Why women leaders are switching jobs And this is especially true in senior leadership: only one in four C-suite leaders is a woman, and only one in 20 is a woman of color (Exhibit 1). The state of the pipelineĭespite modest gains in representation over the last eight years, women-and especially women of color-are still dramatically underrepresented in corporate America. The rest of this article summarizes the main findings from the Women in the Workplace 2022 report. They’re watching senior women leave for better opportunities, and they’re prepared to do the same. Young women are even more ambitious and place a higher premium on working in an equitable, supportive, and inclusive workplace. If companies don’t take action, they risk losing not only their current women leaders but also the next generation of women leaders. And finally, it’s increasingly important to women leaders that they work for companies that prioritize flexibility, employee well-being, and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). They’re doing more to support employee well-being and foster inclusion, but this critical work is spreading them thin and going mostly unrewarded. They’re more likely to experience belittling microaggressions, such as having their judgment questioned or being mistaken for someone more junior. Women leaders are just as ambitious as men, but at many companies, they face headwinds that signal it will be harder to advance. The reasons women leaders are stepping away from their companies are telling.

DOWNLOAD NOW The hidden business costs of poor childcare policies

#The hidden business costs of poor childcare policies

[samwisethewitch]

An Open Letter to Christian Witches

On this blog, I often champion the idea that witchcraft is a practice, not a religion, and that a witch can practice any religion, provided that religion does not explicitly forbid witchcraft. I still very much believe this, and the point of this post is not to tell Christians that they can’t be witches. However, as a non-Christian witch who has been deeply traumatized by Christianity, I do wish Christian witches would be a bit more mindful of how they show up in witchy spaces.

Recently, I’ve noticed a pattern of self-identifying Christian witches dominating the conversation and centering their own beliefs in spaces dedicated to witchcraft. Now, I wholeheartedly believe that this is unintentional, and most of these Christian witches seem like lovely people. But it’s still deeply frustrating and upsetting to be promised a safe space and support from other witches, only to be preached at.

Or be told that I’m doing witchcraft wrong because my ethics are not the same as someone else’s.

Or be told that I don’t understand Christianity, despite having spent the first two decades of my life fully immersed in it.

Or have my trauma invalidated because, “Not all Christians are like that!”

Or spend the majority of our time together reassuring and comforting a Christian witch who is uncomfortable with the inclusion of pagan and/or occult elements in a ritual.

These are all genuine experiences I have had with Christian witches in 2021. And in every single one of these situations, the Christian witch had a very negative reaction to any kind of constructive criticism or request that they be more mindful of the diverse beliefs and experiences in the space. Any suggestion that their actions may be causing discomfort for others was met with defensiveness, if not straight-up denial. The result is a situation where Christian witches are at the center of every discussion and demand (knowingly or not) coddling or hand-holding from teachers and facilitators, while those of us who are not Christian are left deeply uncomfortable but unable to express that discomfort without upsetting someone or being accused of creating conflict.

And I get it. I really do. Because for most of the people in the above scenarios, this was the first time they encountered a situation where their religion wasn’t the norm. But what I need Christian witches to recognize and be mindful of is that this discomfort of being surrounded by people who do not share your beliefs is something those of us who are not Christian experience every day.

In the Western world, and particularly in the United States, Christianity is a religious hegemony. (A hegemony is a group with total political, social, economic, and/or military dominance in a given area.) Everything in Western society was designed for Christians, to serve a Christian worldview, and to reinforce Christian hegemony. Everything from our government to our business practices to our media reinforces Christian values. For Christians, this creates the sense of comfort and security that comes from being part of the in-group. For non-Christians, it meas being constantly bombarded with someone else’s religion. For former Christians with church-related trauma, it means reliving that trauma constantly.

Here’s a look at an average day in my life as a formerly-Christian pagan with religious trauma. Please note that this is not an exaggeration — this is a description of what I experienced on the day I wrote this post.

I get up and, because I live with Christian family members, I walk past exactly five images of Jesus and/or the Virgin Mary on my way from my bedroom to the front door. On my commute to work, I drive past at least a dozen churches, including the one I used to attend, where my religious trauma occurred. I stop at a red light, and the car in front of me has a bumper sticker with an image of a cross and the message, “If this offends you now, just wait until you see it on judgement day!” I happen to know that these bumper stickers are for sale not at a local church, but at a privately owned, nominally secular business. When I get to work, the woman who greets me at the front gate is wearing a crucifix necklace.

I work in diversity education. When I get to the office, my boss asks me to join the local Interfaith council because I am the only person in our department who isn’t Christian. My current big project at work is trying to get a transgender speaker to visit our organization and help us lead a workshop to work towards amending a history of transphobia in our organization. My boss tells me today the she isn’t sure the speaker I arranged will be approved, because our administration might not think it is in line with our organization’s values. When she says this, I know she means evangelical Christian values. She doesn’t have to spell it out — there’s a chaplain down the hall from our office.

After my lunch break, my coworkers are talking about a church event one of them attended over the weekend. I do not contribute to this conversation. It has been several months since I attended an in-person religious event with people who shared my faith. As I’m leaving the office at the end of the day, I pass a Bible study group that has set up in our recreation area. On my drive home, I pass the funeral home where my grandfather’s memorial service was held earlier this year. The programs for that service had the Lord’s Prayer printed on them. My grandfather was an atheist.

This is my level of exposure to a religion I not only don’t believe in, but have been actively hurt by, on a daily basis. This is my normal. I’ve learned to live with it, tune it out, and self-soothe, because there is no other option.

When I’m finally able to be around other witches, many of them are coming from similar experiences. I am finally in a space where I can be vulnerable, where I can talk about what I really believe, and where I can receive support from like-minded people. But if there is even one Christian witch in the group, it’s highly likely that this space too will be dominated by Christian hegemony.

It’s a noted fact that a person exists within a hegemony, they have very little ability to tolerate challenges to this hegemony due to a lack of exposure. This is the origin of the term white fragility, which sociologist Robin DiAngelo uses to describe the discomfort and defensiveness white people feel when confronted with “racial discomfort” such as being asked to consider racism as a system they are complicit in and benefit from rather than as the actions of lone extremists. White fragility is something I have personally experienced as a white woman involved in antiracist work, and it’s something I have taken years to work through and am still actively working on. Since DiAngelo popularized this term, similar terms have been used to point to similar phenomena in other hegemonic groups, as in the cases of male fragility/fragile masculinity, cishet fragility, and yes, Christian fragility.

I’m not trying to argue that all hegemony is the same, and I am definitely not trying to say that my personal religious trauma is anywhere near the level of pain caused by the mistreatment of Black and brown people by white supremacist society. My point here is simply that being part of the dominant group breeds a very low tolerance for exposure to other groups.

Christian witches are members of a hegemonic group entering a space historically occupied by marginalized people, which creates an imbalance of power. (And yes, you can benefit from hegemony even if you are marginalized in other areas. Identity is multi-faceted. Queer Christians, disabled Christians, Christians of color, and yes, Christian witches still benefit from Christian hegemony.) The only way things are going to get better is if Christians are willing to do the work themselves of building tolerance for religious discomfort. The rest of us can host as many interfaith and secular events as we want, but if Christians aren’t able to tolerate the inclusion of other belief systems, we’ll never truly be on equal footing. Until Christians stop centering the Christian experience, it will continue to dominate interfaith spaces, including witchy spaces.

TLDR: I’m asking Christian witches to be mindful of the privilege they bring into interfaith spaces. I’m asking you to be willing to feel uncomfortable, and to recognize that your discomfort does not invalidate the work your facilitators have put into creating the space and/or program. If you truly can’t stand the discomfort, I’m asking you to politely excuse yourself instead of demanding emotional labor from other witches.

#my writing #mine #long post #open letter #christianity #christian #christian witch #christian witchcraft #interfaith #catholic #catholicism #catholic witch #witchblr #witch #witchcraft #witchy #witches of tumblr #magic #magick #pagan #paganism #politics #hegemony #religious trauma #exmo #exmormon #ex mormon

[1990jeevas]

👀 mcc discourse? /gen

okay mcc discourse time everyone strap in

the three things i see people being pissed about most often are the lack of lgbt+ people in the event, the specific lgbt+ creators playing and, of course, technoblade being involved. so, let's break down why all three of these things are fucking dumb.

1) "there isnt enough lgbt+ creators".

this would be a fair argument that i could get behind...if not for the way mcc is set up for this specific event—and by that i mean it is a youtube sponsored event. the ccs involved need to have platforms on youtube to be able to participate to begin with, as it is a charity event. mcc doesn't have a lot of lgbt+ streamers involved this time around because a lot of those streamers straight up could not stream this event and scott literally said this himself.

on top of that, this isnt a "get invited and you can play!" event, it is a "you need to apply to be involved" event, meaning, if people dont meet the deadline, or they dont apply at fucking all, they cant play. that's not on fucking scott or anyone organizing mcc, that is on the ccs (if they even wanna be involved, i could not blame them for avoiding mcc after last times mess) who didnt apply in time/at all.

2) "there isnt enough diversity in the lgbt+ streamers" aka "im erasing people's identities and, again, disregarding the literal qualifications for this mcc which include having a youtube platform"

i keep seeing people bring up how every lgbt+ person in mcc is white and able bodied and neurotypical etc etc (which is an inaccurate statement anyways) as reasons why they "arent good enough" or they're bringing up how there "isnt any of [x] sexuality/gender involved" as if that's the organizers faults and i uh. i hate to break it to yall but, again, this is an apply to get in event. if these ccs that were "more diverse" (bc why the fuck are we referring to these ccs playing in fucking minecraft championship as some weird ass diversity characters instead of real life people who are more than their race, disability, etc.) met the requirements and were lgbt+ but just didnt apply, while a lot of other white, cis, neurotypical, able bodied, whatever the fuck else, did? yeah. nobody can change that. scott didnt just pick and chose who gets to play, there are literal rules for this event and also applications that are involved like?? hello????? and obviously i would love to see some more lgbt+ creators from different backgrounds with different identities in the cast, that would be awesome, but that is ultimately not up to the organizers. they cant force people to play. they cant skip people in the waiting lists. they can't have people who cant stream be involved in this mcc as their first event, both because it would be sad for them not to stream their first mcc and because it is a literal charity event.

and, to make things worse, a lot of people are saying there "isnt any trans people this mcc" which is just. a blatant lie. eret isnt cis and sqiashey is genderfluid, yall just dont like eret so you decide to refer to her as a "cis man" constantly, which is transphobic, and yall also dont know sqiashey so instead of doing research, you started running ur mouths and then didn't apologize when you got called on it.

like. even if eret was truly problematic, which i dont believe they are as they have apologized for every little mistake theyve made and dealt with the backlash from entitled little privileged teenagers online all while not complaining even the slightest bit, that still doesnt give you a right to misgender them and erase their identity as a non cis person entirely because you're mad over a fucking minecraft event like??? how fucking privileged you must be that this is what gets you heated. not any actual homophobia or transphobia, but apparently "lgbt+ people in minecraft not being diverse enough". choke.

3) "technoblade is a lesphobe, why is he in mcc"

tw on this section: i discuss my expierences with homophobia as an afab nblw briefly and reclaim the d slur (if you wanna read this section and avoid the homophobia discussion and/or d slur, skip from "as someone who is nblw" to "techno making a shitty joke").

all of techno's lesphobic comments are from 5+ years ago and were, at worst, jokes in poor taste. as someone who is nblw, i have had men follow me and my friend around and call us dykes for holding hands in a museum, i have had my family members harrass me for my sexuality and casually talk about how im gross and wrong for liking girls and i have been punished by literal teachers for showing "too much pda" with my past girlfriends despite the fact that ive never even kissed someone on campus before, just held hands and hugged. techno making some shitty jokes when he was a teenager years ago, while also having a plethora of examples of him being an lgbt+ ally, which does include lesbians, should not be treated the same way as literal bigots calling queer people slurs. and if you think it should be, you have had it fucking lucky.

yes, it is valid to be upset over these jokes, they're fucking weird and he shouldnt have made them, but to treat it with the exact same seriousness as a grown ass adult showing blatant homophobia in current times? no. fuck no.

extra notes bc there's some minor discourse points i left out: no, dream team shouldnt get to be involved in this event over other cishet ccs involved just because they have bigger platforms because this quite literally isnt about them, it's about lgbt+ people and they just didnt happen to get in. shut the fuck up. stop mentioning ant and velvet as people who shouldve been involved, they're quite literally together rn doing little daytrips and shit and they most likely dont wanna spend their time together playing fucking minecraft. also, stop saying techno should be replaced with ranboo (or anyone for that matter), it breaks ranboo's fucking boundaries and him donating 100k to the trevor project doesnt suddenly mean he gets to skip the mcc waiting list.

in conclusion: twitter stop whining over pride mcc, your privilege is showing.

(tagging @tauntwenthome bc you said you wanted to hear as well <3)

#mcc #technoblade #mcyt fandom critical #dsmp fandom critical #fandom critical #discourse #this was hard to write bc this situation is a pain in the ass to explain ajsksk #like specifically the 2nd section i kept rewriting and i still think it sounds confusing but whatever #mcyt #mcytblr #ask to tag #shit self #ok to rb #asks #ghcstbvr #magnus tag 💭 #bangerz

[inawickedlittletown]

Queerbaiting and Buddie

(word count: 1,900)

I keep saying that I don’t want to spend any more time on 9-1-1 meta or fic, but the events of this weekend made me open up a document where I had some unfinished meta and in light of the S4 finale airing tonight, I thought I might at least write this: 

“Queerbaiting is a marketing technique for fiction and entertainment in which creators hint at, but then do not actually depict, same-sex romance or other LGBTQ representation. They do so to attract a queer or straight ally audience with the suggestion of relationships or characters that appeal to them, while at the same time attempting to avoid alienating other consumers.” 

That is how Wikipedia defines queerbaiting. And I really feel like everyone needs to read that and then read it again and realize that what is happening on 9-1-1 with Buddie is NOT queerbaiting. 

I don’t want to go into the long history of queerbaiting because we would be here all day and anyone that wants to do some research should go and do so. There are a lot of resources out there. Use them. 

But the short of it is this: queerbaiting has a lot more to do with the way a show is promoted, with the way that anyone involved in the show talks about a queer ship, and with the show deliberately scripting scenes that hint at a relationship without any intention of following through. Expectations and wanting a queer ship to go canon and those expectations not being met do not alone equate to it being queerbaiting. 

For any of us that have been around a long time there are a lot of perfect examples and if you compare Buddie to any of them, they are very different. I’ll name a few:

Merlin/Arthur

John Watson/Sherlock

Emma Swan/Regina

Derek/Stiles

Castiel/Dean Winchester (though they did go canon...barely)

Lena/Kara

Buck and Eddie do not fit into that list. Which isn’t to say that someday they could belong there, but I just do not believe that they will even if Buddie never becomes canon. And this all lies in how Buddie as a ship has been treated both on screen and off. I’ll break it down by season. 

S2: 

Eddie is very clearly introduced as a new character, a straight Army veteran with a disabled kid and family drama. He and Buck have immediate chemistry. We can’t deny that, or deny that from that first episode there are immediate sparks. Unintended sparks, but sparks nevertheless. And it is easy to tell that no one on the production team expected that and the story reflects that. 

Yes a foundation for their friendship is formed and yet the season long story focuses on Eddie’s relationship with his estranged wife and Buck is dealing with his own growth after being left by Abby. Their friendship shines and their scenes are great but none of them suggest romance and there are actually a lot of episodes where Buck and Eddie barely interact in S2 aside from in the background or for small work related moments (this mostly happens after Shannon returns). 

S2 does give us the first acknowledgement from the powers that be aka Tim Minear that they know what the fans have seen. This is why the elf scene exists, but it exists in a space where it’s a nod to the fans and not meant to do much more than that. The other moment is during the call with the livestreamer. But S2, places them completely and without question on a strong friendship. 

S3: 

We see a lot more conflict for Buck and Eddie in this season and we see how close and important they are to each other. Those are the two main things. That can be read as friendship easily and it’s a season where both Buck and Eddie deal with their pasts and in one way or another start to get closure while their friendship remains intact. 

Yes there are some scenes that make us squint and go huh, wtf? (I’m looking at you kitchen scene), but narratively we also know that neither of these boys is ready for a real relationship with anyone, let alone each other. But we can bask in how close they are as well as how Christopher fits in into all of it. 

But in S3 we are also introduced to Ana and we see the return of Abby. We also get to see that Buck and Eddie have become closer than ever and that the lawsuit only serves to highlight the importance that they both feel about having the other available to them. I’ll also quickly mention that Eddie Begins worked hard to highlight Buck’s devotion to Eddie. 

S4: 

Without considering the events of the finale (I am avoiding spoilers and know nothing about it or the speculation), we’ve seen Buck and Eddie both grow and get further closure on their past. This season has paralleled them well and their friendship has not faltered, they’re as close as ever. 

The beginning of the season was heavily focused on Buck and we saw him grow as a person and begin to work on himself in a healthy way and we’ve seen Eddie be supportive of that. 

We also have Ana to consider and her relationship with Eddie as well as the return of Taylor and yet the appearance of these women has not changed the Buck and Eddie dynamic. And I find it fascinating that Eddie beginning to date Ana, is the thing that prompted Buck to start dating. The parallels are all over the place but it is the strength of the friendship and the way they care so deeply about each other that remains whether that becomes romantic is still to be seen, but it could still go either way.  

Off-screen by the end of S2, Tim Minear had already addressed Buddie by throwing in that elf scene in a wink/nudge fashion that said “I see you” and in the scene with the girl with the livestream with the comments. During S3 he tweeted about being frustrated by the fans demanding and being hostile and thinking that that would make him more likely to do what they want (I’m paraphrasing what I remember seeing). Tim has never once said that Buddie will happen or shut the door on the ship entirely, but he did say he did not want to engage in conversation about it because he doesn’t want to get into arguments with fans. 

Oliver has always been enthusiastic about Buddie and has even said that he would be perfectly fine with it happening both a while ago and more recently in promo for S4. Conscious of queerbaiting and not wanting to give fans false hope, he has specifically said that he does not know if it will or won’t happen and that he wouldn’t speak on that as he’s not the one making that decision. His support for it happening does not mean he has any sway one way or the other. He’s said this a few times and even wrote a letter to the effect to make it clear to fans that the last thing he wants is to disappoint someone due to something he’s said. 

All in all, it just isn’t a constructive environment for anyone working on the show to interact with fans on this topic because any time that they do, they get attacked by overly enthusiastic buddie shippers that in many ways are making everything worse. 

In all of the interviews from Tim that I’ve seen, he has always been very quick to hint at what was coming up on the show in a way that at times has been misleading on purpose. The number one thing that comes to mind is early in S4 where Buck was said to get a new woman in his life. Tim absolutely made it out to seem like it was a girlfriend while knowing fully well that it was a therapist. This is an excellent example of what promoting and hinting is actually like. No one from this show has done that in regards to Buddie. 

No one has gone out of their way to hint that it may happen in a way that excites the fans. And this is one of my main reasons for knowing that Buddie is not a queerbait. At no point in the life of the show so far has anyone used Buddie in a promotional way to bring in viewers. Because THAT was the whole point of queerbaiting in the past. 

It was a way that some showrunners found to bring in a lot of viewers when they needed to up their numbers in order to show networks they were worth keeping around. Someone figured out that LGBTQ people wanted to see themselves represented so much so that they would tune in to anything that promised an LGBTQ character in some fashion. It was a tactic that worked well in the landscape of tv where there was so little LGBTQ content on mainstream media that anyone wanting it would latch onto anything. And then they just wouldn’t deliver on those relationships or characters. In 2021, that is not the world we live in any longer. 

In today’s tv landscape there is so much to watch and so much to pick from and diversity has grown, it is celebrated. Queer characters are well represented as are queer relationships and queer stories. The times are different. A while back I was listening to a podcast (Bait: a queerbaiting podcast) and something I found interesting was how the hosts both agreed that in today’s tv landscape there is no more real queerbait and that we won’t easily find anything like the ships I mentioned above. I think I agree more with this than I expected to, because I do think that it exists in some spaces, but it definitely isn’t what it used to be. This is a good thing. 

Specific to 9-1-1, this is a show that has that diversity and that isn’t afraid of tackling that diversity and giving us interesting and nuanced perspectives and stories embracing that. We have characters of color, women in positions of power, a F/F relationship, two multi-racial relationships, a disabled character, other queer characters including a M/M relationship. There is so much in this show that embraces diversity and that embraces the reality of what the world looks like. To call it queerbait is to disrespect everything else that this show is and has done and the hard storylines that have been tackled that we would not have seen on tv ten years ago. 

And I get that Buddie would be another breakthrough. It would be a novel way to tell a queer story, and it would be amazing if it were to happen. The set up is there, but it isn’t fully realized, and Buck and Eddie can still be read as just friends if we take off the shipping goggles. But it also isn’t queerbait or likely to become queerbait and people have to stop calling it that. 

What Buddie resembles is one of the many unintended slow burn ships that have frustrated viewers in many forms across fandoms and we just have to go along for the ride and maybe it will happen. Or maybe it won’t. But if we know anything about relationships on tv, it is that a lot of the fun comes from the journey, even if the destination is good too. 

#911 fox #buddie #911 meta #911 on fox #buddie meta #buddie is not queerbaiting #long post #this is almost 2k long

[fixyourwritinghabits]

On Publishing Trends and You: Are You Even Allowed to Write BIPOC Characters Anymore?

Okay I’ve seen this both willfully misinterpreted and unintentionally so, but ultimately it seems to be summarized as thus:

Waaaah, meanies on twitter say white people can’t write stories about people of color!!

Or something to that affect. Look, it’s really hard to have sympathy for this viewpoint because it requires taking things so out of context you’ve twisted yourself into a pretzel. Let’s look at publishing trends and how we got here, starting with:

Own Voices: The #OwnVoices hashtag started as a way for marginalized people to pitch books based on their own experiences. Thanks to the great work of DVPit, Disability in Kidlit, and We Need Diverse Books, and others (please feel free to give shout-outs in comments/reblogs). To say OwnVoices is the main drive is misleading - a lot of great work has been put into increasing diversity in publishing before and after the OwnVoices movement, it’s just one of the more visible marketing techniques for how books are promoted today.

So how did an effort to promote marginalized people writing stories from their own perspective become ‘white people aren’t allow to _____ anymore’? GOOD Question! First, let’s look at some statistics:

Boy, that sure looks bad, huh? Well, wait, I’m sure the statistics have improved immensely -

Huh. Well, that’s some improvement. A whole .1% for Indigenous folks and hey, non-human characters more than doubled what the hell.

So you’ll notice two things right off the bat - first, this conversation is mostly taking place around Children’s/Middle Grade/Young Adult books. While it’s true diversity is also lacking in Adult books, it’s very important to provide young readers with books that not only appeal and reflect their own experiences, but are not actively harmful, unintentional or otherwise.

The bulk of this movement - from what publishers are buying, what agents are looking for, and what the twitter conversations are about - are focused on kidlit, because kidlit tends to be stories focused on finding your identity and yourself. One way to focus these personal stories is to not only promote and encourage BIPOC authors writing BIPOC centered books, but to take a step back from these spaces to allow those opportunities to exist. That’s why #OwnVoices will continue to be a big factor in publishing.

Now, the next reaction tends to swing for the bleaches:

This means all my characters have to be white or twitter will hate me forever!!1!

No, it doesn’t. Publishers/Agents/Readers still want diverse stories. What it does mean is that you have to be mindful of how you’re including BIPOC in your stories. You might have seen some of this discussion (possibly out of context) about the authenticity of dotting your stories with people of color with no thought to why they exist in your story and how they experience events. Or, as a friend of mine put it, making “ambiguously brown” people in fantasy, and both these criticisms have real merit. If you’re not considering how all your characters dwell in the world you create, be it a normal high school or a dragon fighting competition, you’re doing both yourself and your readers a huge disservice. It is worth it to take the effort to make your characters believable people, and not just existing for brownie points.

(Also, twitter can be an absolute pit of vipers and while it’s important to follow publishing conversations there, you must keep in mind that not everyone is acting in good faith and it’s more important to look where there is genuine conversation rather than focus on a small group of people being particularly nasty. If it is negatively affecting your mental health, bail out.)

So, to sum up:

Is it true I can’t ever make my main character a BIPOC if I’m a white author? No one can ever ‘make’ you not do anything. All people are asking is for you to consider why you’re telling this story from this perspective, who you’re telling the story for, and if you might be unintentionally contributing to a wider problem of a lack of diversity in publishing.

Is it true I can’t write ANY BIPOC characters? No. What is true is that you should give all your characters a good level of thought and if you have worries, seek out critique partners or consider hiring a sensitivity reader* for your work (*this is entirely dependent on where you are in the publishing process. It is a waste of money and time to pay someone to do a sensitivity read on a first draft. You might not even consider this step until you have an agent or have gotten a lot of feedback suggesting it.)

What if my story has multiple POV? Again, you’re going to have to cycle back to why you’re making the choices you’re making, and who you’re writing for. There is always room for nuance and you’ll find plenty of multiple POV books written by white authors with BIPOC characters. The question boils down to the story you’re trying to tell, and why.

What if I’m writing Adult fiction? I’ve left Adult fiction out of the above conversation because it is mostly centered on kidlit, but there still is a nuance conversation to have about making space for BIPOC authors. I’ll link some perspectives below.

One last important note is that by focusing this conversation on what white people can’t do, you are once again stripping the focus of the conversation from the BIPOC perspectives on it and centering it on whiteness. You can’t change how many diverse books are published or how we give all readers the narratives they need. You can work on how you contribute to it and hopefully for the better.

READ MORE:

An Updated Look at Diversity in Children’s Books (where the above graphics were sourced from)

Why Do White Writers Keep Fictionalizing Black Experiences?

 The American Dirt Controversy: Lessons for Writers on Getting Cultures Right  (Adult fiction)

Racism vs. Representation: The Missteps of Naomi Novik’s A Deadly Education

Who Gave You the Right to Tell That Story? Ten authors on the most divisive question in fiction, and the times they wrote outside their own identities. (Adult Fiction)

Videos:

Here are some great videos from BookTuber Withcindy, someone I highly recommend following:

Should white authors write non-white characters? *A closer look at the Whiteness of Addie LaRue*

What happens when you try to be inclusive, but mess up anyway? *A closer look at A Deadly Education*

[nellygwyn]

different anon, thoughts of harlots portrayal of historical sex work?

I got another anon asking for a similar thing so here it goes:

Season 1, in particular, I think, had a really nuanced approach to sex work, historical and contemporary. It says a lot that some of my friends who are full service sex workers felt it explored a lot of the complex thoughts they have about being sex workers. We had Charlotte and Emily who are both ambivalent and ambitious, practical, knowing that money is the most important thing in their world whilst also being unattainable for them in other socially acceptable careers (also, since I did my MA thesis on the rape of working class adolescent girls in Georgian London, where I basically found that working in a pub or as a servant in a house could just as unsavory, if not worse, as being a sex worker in the same time period, I like to think Charlotte in particular knows this very well and that's why she wants to control her own narrative so much). We also have Lucy, who hates it and is taken advantage of by her mother in many ways, and other characters who end up in the sex industry through ~Hogarthian~ methods i.e. tricked by a kindly older woman who turns out to be an unscrupulous brothel-keeper a la Mother Needham. This kind of thing certainly happened, though not as often as 18th century moralists might like you to think, but in the show, it plays into the overarching theme that this is a world where the people who should be looking after sex workers and making sure they aren't treated like shit literally do not care (which definitely mirrors our own times). Like, Emily likes sex work in many ways but when she experiences awful aspects of it? It's always because of powerful people letting other powerful people do whatever they want to these women....the only thing outside forces ever seem to do is moralise or take away their money, or punish them. People who have the power to actually transform the system are basically useless, except Josiah in S2 who initially starts off as useless but does later try to make amends.....he's just not powerful ENOUGH though.

I do wish they hadn't made so much of the '1 in 5 women in Georgian London sell sex' because....that's not necessarily a false statistic but it doesn't actually just include sex workers, it also includes women who lived with men they weren't married to which could've been a financial arrangement or could've been simply women living with long term partners. It also includes women who dabbled in sex work, which was extremely common in a world where other, more socially acceptable jobs for working women didn't always pay very well. We know that a lot of women who were in domestic service in Georgian London also had what we might call 'a side hustle' as sex workers, specifically strollers and bunters (sex workers who didn't work in a brothel and usually picked up clients/did work on the streets). I think Harlots did a good job of showing us like, sex workers who work in brothels but also more independent sex workers like Nancy and Violet, but it would've been nice to have a character who was a maid in a middle class home most of the time but occasionally dabbled in sex work in the late evening. It would've emphasised the theme of money being important and barely within reach, but also would've shown the reality of women's work in this period OUTSIDE OF sex work.

The diversity of the industry was also good, although it's a shame that the show kind of failed at showing us male sex workers, or queer sex workers - I mean, we did see mollies (contemporary name for gay men sex workers) but not in a particularly meaningful way imo. Plus, we could've had a trans woman sex worker, especially as there is precedent in this period! Princess Serefina, for example, was probably a transgender woman and one of the most famous sex workers of the early 18th century. But I think Harlots did show us the amount of women of colour who not only lived in Georgian London, but who worked there and not just as sex workers. We also had sex workers with disabilities, too. One of my favourite details is that Harriet Lennox is inspired by a real Georgian sex worker called Black Harriet who only employed sex workers of colour at her brothel (which Harriet Lennox also does in S2 and 3). And there is quite an admirable attempt to explore intersectionality in the series - Harriet doesn't just experience sexism but pretty awful racism (I mean, she literally used to be enslaved by the first man who made her his mistress)....and this changes the way she experiences the world.

My biggest criticism is of the way Charlotte was killed off. Well, first of all, I have an issue with the fact Season 3 put her in a relationship with a pimp, which is so fucked up on every level. Like, not even just a pimp but a pimp who tried to kill her and the women she lives with. Then, she ends up being ACTUALLY killed off by said pimp and his brother (also a pimp) in the most deranged way possible a.k.a getting in the way of a fight and being pushed down the stairs. So many stories about sex workers, historical and contemporary, employ the 'Dead Hooker' trope and I hate it and I especially hate it for this time period because dying violently or tragically as a sex worker doesn't have much basis in reality. Charlotte specifically was inspired by famous courtesans of the time like Kitty Fisher and Fanny Murray. Both of whom......met someone who was willing to keep them long term/marry them and left the industry, financially stable and contented. This series wanted to honour women like that but I don't understand how it could do that by killing Charlotte violently (and other characters violently). We know that most sex workers left the industry around their mid twenties, usually because they had found a long term keeper/husband or because they became actresses/singers in the London theatres (a job that had strong links to sex work and courtesanry at the time). There were so many options for Charlotte but the writers picked that one, as her exit. It just brings us back to the fact that for some people, sex workers don't deserve any kind of happy ending. In fact, John Cleland, the writer of the scandalous c. 1749 erotic novel 'Fanny Hill,' had his book banned and criticised not just because it was obscene but because Fanny never repents her life as a sex worker. Instead, she marries a decent man and has a decent life and explictly says she doesn't feel bad or upset about her old job. Like, that's an example from the actual time period so imagine my disappointment when history seemed to repeat itself in a period series c. 2019.

#long post // #i was blocked by so many harlots fans for having #opinions and thoughts based in actual historical record and fact lmao #listen i'm not particularly intelligent #but i do know a lot a lot a lot about sex work in the long 18th century #that's my thing that's my niche #so i hope that everyone normal appreciates my pov!!!