#if i called out everyone who didn’t include trans media in their fave queer media the list would be ALL OF YOU | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

dwarrowdams · 4 years

Text

Okay, so I am saying this here because saying it elsewhere might just be the end of my (fledgling) career as an author.

I’ve previously read and enjoyed books written by Brooklyn Ray/Taylor Brooke (a queer + nonbinary white author), but their social media presence was...not my fave. I saw them drag readers over small things and eventually I couldn’t take the negative vibes so I just unfollowed them, even though something told me that there was more than just ~bad vibes~ going on here.

Giving myself some space helped me to figure out what about them rubbed me the wrong way. Was it that they RT-ed a tweet that amounted to “free menstrual products are important, but please don’t bash on free condoms bc activists worked hard to make that happen” by saying the OP was tone policing people who menstruate? Was it the fact that they said that you can’t be Christian and a witch?

Neither of those rubbed me the right way, but the thing that got me was them saying that they disliked POSE because of the queer stereotypes.

That didn’t sit right with me, because POSE is one of very few pieces of modern media that centers Black trans women. If you don’t like it, whatever, but saying that it’s stereotypical ignores the fact that so few Black trans women have been allowed to exist in queer spaces. Stories of queer folks with AIDS (or queer folks who are homeless) usually center cis white people, so seeing a story like this focus on Black trans women as stereotypical is...odd, particularly since Janet Mock (a Black trans woman) writes, directs, and produces the show.

Tonight, it all clicked into place.

The comment on POSE.

Their positive review of a book that readers of color have called out for racism (and of course their review doesn’t mention that there’s anything racially problematic in the book).

(White reviewers have mentioned these issues as well.)

The fact that they released an anthology of stories by nonbinary authors and only two authors included were POC (again, please correct me if I’m wrong).

While that might seem fine (it’s the same number of authors of color as the recently released romance anthology He’s Come Undone, after all), there are nine stories in Behind the Sun, Above the Moon.

There are five stories in He’s Come Undone. So compare the 40% ratio of authors of color in He’s Come Undone to the 22.2% ratio of Behind the Sun, Above the Moon. It’s pretty damn telling.

Brooklyn Ray/Taylor Brooke is one of the White Queers who does not acknowledge the white privilege they have. They are sidlining and ignoring queer/trans people of color and from my knowledge, they have not taken a step back and acknowledged that any of these actions are problematic.

I am tired of seeing white queers who don’t examine their white privilege and racial biases—and I’m white, so I can only imagine how tired queer people of color are of seeing white queers doing this.

While it may be tempting to do so, please do not @ them on social media about this—they can get really nasty with folks over very little, even if those folks are calm and polite (see image below or click the link).

(context: Taylor had vague-tweeted about an article praising Leigh Bardugo’s NINTH HOUSE and someone was asking for the link to the article)

Just stay away from them and use your energy to support trans authors of color: today, this month, and every damn day.

If this is something you want to talk about on Twitter, do so very carefully because I’ve also seen this author post screenshots of tweets where their name was censored out. (Did someone send them the pics? Did they poke around looking for their censored out name? Idk, but something is definitely rotten in the state of Denmark.) I do hope that they learn to be a better ally to QTPOC, but I don’t want any of y’all risking your mental health by trying to confront them directly.

Fellow white queer folks, we need to do better so that the people of color in our queer community can openly be themselves without being criticized for not fitting the White Queer Ideal.

Update: As of today (6/29/20), Brooklyn Ray/Taylor Brooke/Taylor Barton has been dropped by their agent and all of their publishers. However, they are planning to self-publish the books they wrote as Brooklyn Ray (and perhaps others) using the same pseudonym and the same book titles. The fact that they felt the need to harass me for telling others not to buy their books bc they’re racist + for speaking out against their harassment of other writers says a lot.

Also worth noting: the fact that everyone they harassed when they reactivated their @/BrookieRayWrite Twitter a couple days ago is a) a new writer with fewer industry connections b) trans/nonbinary c) a person of color, or some combination of A-C, is pretty damn telling.

Obviously they have not changed and their apologies were not sincere (especially not the “wah my team made me apologize” one). They are not worth your time or energy.

(Note: I apologize for not having links/screenshots for all of this—I didn’t think to screenshot the tweets mentioned early on because I didn’t imagine I’d have to make a post like this, but I did try my best to find what I could.)

(Another Note: Edited to include the link to the screenshotted tweet and added links to reviews of Docile by white reviewers that address the racist issues of the novel.)

(A Third Note: Edited to reflect that there was one author of color in the nonbinary anthology; my thanks to the anon who corrected me.)

(A Fourth Note: Edited to reflect that there was another author of color in the aforementioned anthology; my thanks to the anon who corrected me. Also added update on the situation and deleted the call for folks to share their experiences bc they absolutely have.)

#hush Bree #long post ///#also the POC I follow in the book community haven't read their stuff #which is...telling #also I'm not joking about that ending my writing career #they have some cachet in the romance world and I don't wanna piss them off #(at least not under my pseudonym)#(I'm totally chill with pissing them off as tumblr user dwarrowdams)#also sorry if this is kind of a mess #I couldn't sleep until I wrote it #also I'm def making a list of books by trans authors of color

19 notes · View notes

ko2vo · 4 years

Note

Do you have any queer horror media you recommend?

Sorry to take a couple days to answer! At first, I didn’t think I knew very many but the more I thought about stuff I’ve found over the years, the longer the list got. I’ll put some stars beside personal faves.

BOOKS/FICTION

Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde - It’s pretty typical for a list like this but I’d still like to include it because it is a great read.

★★The Wishing Game by Patrick Redmond - Two boys at a boarding school in the 1950s become very close, intimate friends and mess around with a Ouija board. The main cast isn’t overtly stated as queer (I like to interpret them as such though, they hug and kiss behind locked doors), but there is a very depressing but influential queer subplot. Heavy warnings for homophobia, f-slur, suicide, mental health, psychological horror. As well as an extremely dynamic relationship that has all the elements to be healthy but goes sour. But honestly I love this book and really want more people to read it and talk to me about it haah.

The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks - Messed-up kid grows up on an isolated island and has some unusual ideas about the world. There are gender themes that make me interpret the MC as a trans man (and both me and the other transguy that rec’d this to me just pretend the last five pages dont exist PFFF).

The Little Girl who was Too Fond of Matches by Gaétan Soucy - Very similar to the Wasp Factory but more fucked up. The death of their father causes two siblings to realize they have very strange misconceptions about the world. Another one that does gender themes but very different, I’d recommend checking out the wikipedia page before the book cuz very fucked up.

★ Dangerous Saviour by tenuous - NB author with an original m/m work. It’s got a very stereotypical slasher movie feel and it really is a lot of fun. Mind the tags and Explicit sexual content. But tenuous is great at introspective terror.

Claustrophlia by Ezra Blake - Another title available for free, homoerotic horror. Scroll down on the page for the EXTENSIVE trigger warning list, definitely not for everyone. If you like Saw movies, this could be for you.

WEBCOMICS

★★Nasty Red Dogs by kosmicdream - Surreal horror. Dogs roam the night. Absolutely love the moral grey in all the characters this artist creates and the entire cast is some shade of queer. They also write Feast For a King, which has 6000+ pages at this point and equally terrifying moments and queer cast, so if you like NRD, definitely check FFaK out too.

★ Ninety-Nine Righteous Men by K. M. Claude - A complete and finished webcomic! Religious horror themes with discussions about forgiveness, rape, and power imbalance. If you can handle the themes, its a really beautifully crafted story. This artist is also part of a duo that runs a zine called Two Dead Queers and I haven’t had the chance to explore the site yet but eyes emoji

GAMES

Boyfriend to Death - An 18+ horrorporn vn, it’s pretty popular around this site and I really enjoy Lawrence in the second game LMAO. A dating sim with a torturey twist. MC is gender neutral so I’m throwing it in as queer horror jlhkfjhk

Hello Charlotte - Not explicitly queer but another game series that I love and is open to interpretation, especially in EP3. Surreal horror in a surreal world.

OTHER

Rope (1948) - A really interesting movie? About two men that kill someone and host a dinner party while the body is in the room. Homoerotic subtext.

★ SPINES (podcast) - Love this podcast. Wren wakes up in a pool of blood with no memories and attempts to find the people she remembers being there. Grotesque, body horror, weird superpowers with repulsive consequences. And Wren has a voice that I absolutely love. In the second season, there is a NB androgynous character who becomes a very important character and I love them a lot.

#ask #THANK YOU FOR YOUR CURIOSITY OWO #i wish i knew more tho pls throw queer horror at me #ALSO IF YOU READ WISHING GAME DFKJGDLKFJ TALK TO ME #but also any of these cuz remembering Spines is making me wanna relisten #also... im sorry i dont have wlw recs aaaa im very geared toward masc and nb masc themes #but HC and spines is probably the closest to wlw and nblw #AH AND FFAK HAS EM TOO PFF #Anonymous

10 notes · View notes