#no one ever talked about the lack of diversity and the way that the woc were literally killed off to spur the white characters' narratives

[codename-adler]

Dear Tumblr toxicity,

Hi. Adler here. We need to talk.

- TW: mental health issues, depression, bipolar disorder, self-harm, homophobia, transphobia, coming out, xenophobia, islamophobia, racism, implied sexual content, rape, non-con, addictions, abuse, parental negligence, depictions of violence, swearing (please message me kindly if I forget anything)

- What prompted this message: The release of Skam France S7 teaser (emphasis on teaser, will get into that below)

- Where I’m coming from: I will talk from the pov of a white, cis and queer 22-years-old woman (she/her); this is the pov that affects my experiences and the opinions I will share below; but my message comes from a place of deep hurt, and love

- What this is about: My goal is to share a recurring experience that has hurt me in order to spread a message of awareness, maturity, peace and love

- Central content: Skam France, Skam Wtfock, and Skam/remakes in general

From now on I will assume people have enough information for me to talk about the topics without explaining every plotline/character. There are plenty of wiki pages to help you out and I will gladly answer any (respectful) questions asked if a plothole bothers your comprehension of my message. I’m only making these assumptions in order to alleviate the text.

January 9th, 2021.

The francetv slash YouTube channel releases an unexpected teaser video for an equally unexpected seventh season Skam France. The video features Tiffany, a white, cis female teenager, going into labour from denial pregnancy just after winning what appears to be a gymnastics championship. Overall, the video and its release are very dramatic.

The character of Tiffany, also called Tiff, was previously seen on season 6 of Skam France as a bully who persecuted the main character, Lola, both at school and on social media. Outside of this characterization, nothing is known about her. It is majorly accepted that Tiff is not a liked character; she rather poses as one of the antagonists of Lola’s arc.

Now you know the details of what happened, in the most objectively possible way. 

Now I’ll speak for myself.

Before I went digging around for people’s reaction, here is what I initially thought of this video.

1) Shock: I thought Skam France was over, so... Big, big shock.

2) Excitement: I hold this web series very close to my heart. It has gotten me through depressive episodes, anxiety attacks, coming out to my best friend. To see this new development? It couldn’t bring me more joy.

3) Curiosity: I recognized Tiff immediately. I was intrigued as to what would happen to her to set off a new season in true Skam Fr fashion. As soon as she started gripping her stomach, I knew she was pregnant and wasn’t aware of it. Big, big surprise here again.

4) Numbness/Overthinking: As I stared at my screen, motionless, my mind went off. What did it mean? How did she not know? Who is the father? Do we know him? Will the baby survive? Where are the other characters? Will Lamifex be present? What? How? When? Why? Who?

5) Disappointment: No, I did not like Tiff one bit in S6. Yes, I sincerely wished for a season on either Jo (ambiguous and funny teenage girl, cis + white), Sekou (seemingly neurodivergent teenage boy, cis + black), and my favorite, Max (mysterious and grave teenage boy, trans + white) So why Tiff? It felt to me like a missed opportunity, but I did not lose hope.

So, these were the five stages of my emotional process. And then I made the terrible mistake to go look for the fans’ reaction. I didn’t even look at the YT comments, I didn’t go on Instagram, I went directly here on Tumblr. Why? I’m still asking myself that. From S1 to S6 of Skam Fr, I kept my love for the show to myself and only looked at ig and video edits. I tried once, and only once, to look it up on Tumblr, and was greeted by fervent agressivity, disrespect and hate. Why did I ever forget that after watching the S7 teaser? I still don’t know.

The reactions on this platform were wild. People are furious (I get that). People are disappointed (I get that). People are anxious (I get that). People are also verbally agressive, insensitive, hateful, disrespectful and bullies. I don’t get that.

Comments along the lines of “What she gonna do with a fucking baby?”, “Are we gonna watch the baby do nothing all fucking season?”, “Wowwww, teenage pregnancy, so new and relatable!” (note the sarcasm made in the comment here), “Who gives a shit about Tiff?”, etc. 

And then all the mistakes Skam Fr ever made flooded back onto the feed. The wlw misrepresentation, the whitewashing, the overdramatization, the dubious sex scenes between minors, all of it.

Let’s take a break here. Do I condone these mistakes? Nope. Am I a white-bully apologist? Nope. Did I forget every horrible action Tiff has made in the past? Nope. She manipulated a whole school against Lola, she profited from Lola’s mother’s death, she bullied her, harrassed her, pushed her deeper into mental distress. Tiff was a despicable character that I never once liked. The way she was played by the actress made it clear that Tiff was not intended to be a good guy. If I could replace her as the main of S7, I would, in a heartbeat. I’d choose, as I said, Jo, Sekou or Max.

Skam France deeply lacks diversity and made mistakes when attempting to diverse the issues represented. This is not an opinion, it’s a fact. 

Poc representation is very, very low. Only one season has a woc of Islam beliefs as mc (Imane, S4) with poc entourage/family. Only 2 other characters not related to Imane were poc (Sekou and Sarah, S1-S2). These 2 characters were very in the background and served to further the mc’s plotline, they had no real content. (I am not a poc, and so my opinion does not matter here. If you are not poc, your “opinions” don’t matter here, this point is not for you to debate. These are facts.)

While I do not particularly find the wlw representation bad, I do understand how it hurts/bothers other queer women. From my perspective, the bar was very low regarding my expectations of the Lola/Maya pair (none of them died *yay* they had a happy ending *yay* they were not typically overfeminized or overmasculinized *yay* Lola  and Maya were respectful of each other, understood each other, accepted each other with all their flaws and their beauty *yay* I truly believed in their love and it gave me confidence and hope *yay* I ould really go on but this is not my main point so I’ll stop here) Regardless of my opinion on Mayla, I understand that to some queer women, it was bothering/hurtful. (If you are anything other than a woman / wlw, this point is not for you to debate. Keep your “opinions” to yourself, it does not matter here. These are facts.)

Like every remake of the original Skam where the S4 was given to Sana/Imane, the Muslim community was not represented at its best, at its most beautiful and respectfully. The character of Imane, although she is my favorite girl of the series, was not portrayed in a way that respected the majority of the Muslim community. (If you are anything other than Muslim, this point is not for you to debate. Our opinions do not matter here. These are facts.)

And so the same goes for the portrayal of sexual assault and child pronography in S2, of mental illness and homophobia in S3, of disabilities in S5, of addiction, transphobia, self-harm and neurodivergence in S6. Again, if you are not part of these communities, your opinions do not matter on these issues. These are facts that are not up for debate.

In other words, Skam France, as well as the original Skam, Skam Wtfock, Skam España, and probably all the others I haven’t watched in their entirety, are NOT perfect shows. They (maybe) tried their best to portray issues of the younger generations that are ugly, shameful, taboo, hard-to-swallow-pills. Of course they made mistakes. Of course they have to be held accountable. Of course they can and should do better. Of course it must be spoken about.

Here is my problem.

The so-called “fans” shamelessly SHITTING on the WHOLE show because of ONE TEASER TRAILER. (btw, this is where I get angry)

I am not talking about the fans making fun of the show and this season’s premise like “Better MCs than Tiff for S7: a romance between the car that almost hit Lucas S3 and the car that hit Arthur S5, or the school’s nurse, or Imane’s dad, or Elu’s rabbit” (that shit’s funny and I’d watch all of these).Or the joke about Wtfock and Skam Fr shaking hands while signing the same contract to disappoint the fans with white MCs (it’s funny cuz it’s trueeeee).

I am not talking about the fans criticizing the producers’ choice of Tiff as MC. There is a difference between shitting on issues and adressing/discussing them. I WANT to talk about how this season’s issue would have been so much better if a woc, specifically a black woman, had been the MC, because black women and doctors are a whole different level of issue than white women and doctors. Add on top of that an unplanned teenage pregnancy? It would have been IMMACULATE. I WANT to talk which wlw couple was better represented, Mayla or Croana/Crisana, and why is that. I WANT to talk about disabilities in black and poc communities. I WANT to talk about headcanons, AUs, to rectify the missed marks. I WANT to talk about our takes on seasons about Max, Sekou and Jo, instead of Tiff’s.

I DO NOT WANT TO TALK ABOUT YOUR SHITTY, NEGATIVE, UNHELPFUL, HURTFUL COMMENTS.

Just because the protagonist is white, doesn’t give you ANY right to dismiss the issue that is unplanned teenage pregnancy. This is a problem that affects countries WORLDWIDE. Do you know how many deaths are related to minors giving birth? Do you know how many babies die at birth from these pregnancies? Do you have any idea the trauma it puts you through, to go into labor without even knowing you were pregnant in the first place, and then giving birth, and then having to care for a defensless human being? The dilemma of keeping it, or giving it away? The fear that lives in every person able to give birth, that one day they’ll become pregnant, because society turns sych a shameful look to that? No matter your ethnicity, your gender identity, your sexuality, your political stance or whatever shit you bring up to justify your disgraceful and downright degrading comments, YOU HAVE NO RIGHT TO SAY THAT A MINOR GIVING BIRTH IS NOT AN ISSUE. 

You think the topic has been covered plenty before? Yeah, because shows like “16 and pregnant” and “I Didn’t Know I Was Pregnant!” are such good examples and show the reality with such an objective point of view! 

Bullshit. Teenage pregnancy is still a taboo, it still kills, and people are still morons about it. 

“Well I guess everybody is secretly pregnant now!” No, Jessica, but you wouldn’t know about it, would you? Because I wouldn’t tell you shit if you were my “friend” and I was going through it. The whole message of all the Skams is not that it presents super relatable issues of teenagers, although it is a big topic of the show. They present some issues that affect the youth in an authentic light, but that’s not it.

Tous les gens que tu rencontres mènent un combat dont tu ignores tout. 

Sois indulgente. Toujours. x x x

//

Everyone you meet is fighting a battle you know nothing about.

Be kind. Always. x x x

THAT’S THE MESSAGE. THAT’S THE WHOLE POINT OF THE SHOW.

And you all missed it.

All of you making dead baby jokes and death threats, degrading people who give birth, shaming teenagers for their pregnancies... Listen to yourselves.

“Well she deserves it, she was such a bitch!” No, Michael, you shit stick. Let’s rewind a bit for you, yeah? It was a GOD DAMN TEASER. We literally know nothing! Nothing at all! Why are y’all getting mad when we saw 3:25 minutes representing a whole ass season! Listen to yourselves. Y’all judge so fast for people pretending to love Skam and its authenticity and its motto.

You say Tiff is irredeemable?

Emma cheated on her boyfriend.

Manon lied and manipulated her friends.

Lucas was homophobic and prejudiced agaisnt mentally ill people.

Imane was homophobic too and went behind her friends’ back to get what she wanted.

Arthur cheated on his girlfriend too.

Lola dragged Elliot down with her in her addiction, lied, was verbally abusive, etc.

ALL THE MAINS ARE PROBLEMATIC.

Any guess why?

BECAUSE THEY ARE TEENAGERS. THEY ARE STILL GROWING AND LEARNING.

Yet we still loved them all. 

So don’t you dare tell me that Tiff deserves this, that her baby deserves to die, that teenage motherhood is irrelevant. Motherhood is not a curse in the first place, nor is it something to wish to inflict upon anyone. Motherhood is different for every single person and nobody except the person living with it can have an opinion on that. We don’t even know if the baby survived, for God’s sake!

There is no excuse for this kind of behavior..

It makes me so angry. Women are discriminated against in a fandom I thought was safe, again and again and again. 

I have to stop here because, well, this is just too much. There is much wrong with Skam (the original AND all the remakes), but there is even more wrong with the fans. I’m done.

You don’t support the show anymore? Fine, then don’t watch it! If I really am wrong, the number of viewers will go down and the show will die, just like you wished. There is no need to be vicious about it. 

I hope y’all are proud of your misogyny. 

Sincerely,

Adler.

#skam france #skam fr #skam fr s7 #fandom toxicity #toxic fandom #toxic fans #intersectionality #elu #skam elu #skam #mayla #skam mayla #lamifex #imane bakhellal #lucas lallemant #elliot demaury #lola lecomte #emma borges #manon demissy #arthur broussard #david hourregue

[reimenaashelyee]

History for Granted, or When a Marginal Voice Tackles The Main Text

My thoughts about being a marginalised creator who chose to make a graphic novel on a historical figure in the dominant Western canon. About why I didn't choose a lesser-known history instead. About why, either way, it is not a loss to POC representation

Reposted from my official blog, where I keep all my long-form thoughts.

Some of you may know I write historical fiction. Some of you may also know I’ve been chipping away on an Alexander the Great graphic novel.

My role as a historical graphic novelist has been stewing in the back of my mind for a while now. Actually, the stewing began when I first thought of The Carpet Merchant of Konstantiniyya, but I already know my insights from that project. Be actively thoughtful. Be self aware of how your own biases and societal context influence your storytelling. Recognise the people before and around you. Use your power to bring up voices. Understand that the work of being a responsible author lasts beyond the final page of your story.

Such is the case for Alexander, The Servant and The Water of Life. What I have learnt from TCM still carries over, thank goodness.

However, since last November, I realised that Alexander is a different kettle of fish. I already knew this early on: the mindboggling breadth and scope of research material, the baggage carried by the subject, and the newness of everything. While TCM focused on a narrow historical context (Ottoman era Istanbulite migrates to Georgian era England), and had the advantage of me knowing the lead character for years prior (Zeynel, my precious nerd son…), Alexander was from scratch. I didn’t know just how many Alexander Romances I really needed to read. I didn’t know much about ancient Greek anything. I didn’t know an atom about Alexander the Great himself – really, it was zilch.

Which means my responsibilities this time have a somewhat different character. A different edge.

I don’t write historical fiction about royalties or the elite. The most I have ever been interested in is a well-to-do merchant. Even then, my merchant would have an uncommon edge; he is with the common people. That’s where my interests lie: in the common people. The ordinary people outside of the court who go about their daily ordinary lives and daily ordinary struggles. The ups and downs and ins and outs of aristocrats and royals don’t excite me as much.

Then why Alexander? Honestly, he’s an exception.

Not because he’s suddenly a royal that interests me. Seriously, no royal will ever interest me enough to make a GN out of their life, based on their biography alone. (Though King James of the King James Bible and the secret tunnel to his boyfriend make a convincing petition) Alexander came to me in a roundabout way. A trick. He fooled me to exception by showing me his resume: Macedonian king, prophecised Egyptian pharoah, Persian king, son of a god, Jewish convert, Christian hero, Muslim prophet. And he showed me how many different cultures have absorbed him into their folk mythology over 2000 years. Even as the world changed and his body laid somewhere in Egypt, his shade travelled the world. He’s the only secular figure with similar cultural-legendary reach as Jesus. King Arthur can’t claim that. Heck, even Odysseus can’t claim that. Oh, how could I have resisted? This is exactly what I am all about.

This is all Alexander by the way.

The common people’s Alexander. The story of how different places have appropriated and localised him over time. Gave him different faces. Gave him slightly different names. Gave him quests and adventures and stories that had absolutely nothing to do with ancient Greece. Made him the believer of a pantheon into a believer of a singular God.

What brought me here is this literal embodiment of world literature. But he’s not an epic. He’s popular legend. And he doesn’t belong to any one culture or time or place. He’s everywhere.

But like I said, this kettle of fish is different.

Alexander the Great is not exactly the most obscure of histories. He’s a military idol. A national figurehead. He was a man. He was from ancient Greece. He’s claimed as a “heritage of the Western (read: white) world”, an excuse for why conquest is the legacy of the white, Western man. This is Alexander’s baggage, as I call it.

As a woman of colour (WOC) author from the global south, I’m aware of my (small, individual amount of) power to bring up unheard of histories. Unseen biographies of little known people. A glimpse into outside cultures and voices that Western-dominated media and education gloss over like wallpaper. I could have written about Puteri Gunung Ledang, or May 13th 1969, or the history of how my family came to Malaysia sometime during the Xinhai Revolution. I have no obligation to write about Alexander, because until last November, he was seriously a cultural nobody to me. I have no stake in the furthering the hegemony of Western history.

And I think, maybe not owning that stake is why it’s necessary.

Just as important as minorities writing about little known histories, minorities should write about the histories that are taken for granted. Because of our unique experiences with the consequences of colonialism, slavery, violence, discrimination, dehumanisation, etc, we look at history differently. It’s not about who wins or who loses. It’s about who is missing, who is harmed, what is lost…the gaps made by what was edited out.

With those glasses on, history taken for granted – if not already thoroughly given a critical cleansing – is shown to be what it really is: a history that isn’t as well-known as we thought. (and that’s okay)

I won’t be alone in saying I had no clue Alexander belonged to nobody and everybody (because everyone in the old world has an Alexander). For a long time, Western white history was gatekept, using the reasoning that whatever they claimed had an easy connect-the-dots relationship to their present day (even though I always knew that claim was oversimplified, anti-intellectual thinking). But, all of these things are simply whitewashed facades. The truth is that, like Greco-Roman everything, like Norse history, like Christian destiny, they are more complex, more diverse, more ambiguous, than what these facades can contain.

Just working with Alexander through the framework of the Alexander Romance already blows up general misconceptions about history: that history was a bubble, homogenous and separated from each other (“Egyptian history” “Chinese history” “Roman history”, “Christian world”, “Muslim world” “East”, “West”), rarely interacting and influencing.

And looking at Alexander’s actual biography says a lot about how open the world already was in his time. He was king of three empires. His pre-Hellenistic world was multicultural and diverse. It wasn’t all white marble statues. It was, like what reality is, painted technicolour marble statues.

The Victorian era archeologists who whitewashed those statues stripped off more than just the colour. They took off knowledge.

After a lot of thinking, I feel like I’m in a good place to make a GN about Alexander and the Alexander Romance.

It’s not a confidence thing, though tbh, I believe that as a WOC creator from the global south I cannot afford to doubt myself. It’s more about the position I am in and the new perspective I can offer about a historical-legendary figure taken for granted. And there’s my endless well of passion for multicolour histories. Alongside my desire to decolonialise everything.

It’s not a loss that I have chosen to work on a history taken for granted. Historical GNs are still dominated by the white Western cis-male perspective, both in subject and authorship. To be clear, I wouldn’t consider that particular perspective wrong or lesser on its own. My only qualm is when that perspective becomes the majority perspective, or worst the only perspective, which is given to an audience. I always think about this TED Talk by Chimamanda Adichie, about the Danger of a Single Story:

Me being here, telling an entirely different story, is a statement by itself.

Even then, I shouldn’t need to justify my choice. Whether it’s to a person who tells me I shouldn’t pursue Alexander because he’s a part of the dominant narrative, or to another person who tells me that as a minority creator I must adhere to my social responsibility (responsibility demanded by whom?) to tell little known histories or stories. Again, in my case, I think it’s not a loss which way I go, Alexander or not, because whatever I write is going to be a different story.

I think the only loss is when there aren’t still yet more marginalised authors to take on both the little known histories and histories taken for granted. The project of diversifying storytelling is not demanding the few marginalised voices to choose the correct, exotic, culturally-representative dish they had to bring to the potluck, but making the table wider, inviting more voices, so that, by author’s choice, any dish can be present and enjoyed by everyone.

My choice in whatever story I desire to write, as long as it doesn’t bring harm and intolerance and it undergoes the necessary self-interrogation, should be a choice that is already given. If white, Western authors can have this freedom, why not everyone else? Why must minority voices be defaulted to never having this good faith at the start?

Is it not enough that we already suffer from a lack of representation and a lack of self-esteem? Must our hands be tied even tighter, to be told that even our own voice cannot be trusted, because that trust has been abused over and over by the dominant voice?

Every new voice that is encouraged to speak is one more step towards making the table bigger.

This is one of my responsibilities of being a (historical) graphic novelist. I am here to encourage, and to make the table bigger. I am here to say, oh look, this particular history is exciting too, see how weird and creative and large the world already was.

And for Alexander GN in particular, it’s about showing that we have shared a historical-literary figure. That Alexander (and his baggage) isn’t immune to criticism. That by bringing him back the way I’m planning to, I’m no longer just talking about Alexander of Macedon. I am talking about Sikandar. I am talking about Alisaunder. I am talking about the Alexander conceptualised by Nizami, by Arrian, by Joseph Flavius, by every hand who has ever written and drew their own Alexander.*

Already, is that not a hundred different stories? * despite the fact all of these voices were male…well that’s gonna change

There will be time for me to write of lesser-known histories, if I feel the calling. Maybe I won’t ever. (I did tell myself The Carpet Merchant was the last historical GN I’ll ever do in forever…here I am. Nothing is predicted.) And if I’m not compelled, again, that is not a loss.

I am not the only one with a voice.

#alexander comic #craft thoughts

[oceanmonsters]

the problem with Tall Girl

this turned into more than an essay than I was expecting so get comfy:

Look, I get it, I know I’m a short bitch so I don’t know what it’s like to be tall etc. etc. and I’m sure there are a lot of tall girls who do / have felt insecure about their height, and maybe there are even girls who’ve faced problems similar to those in the movie. But this movie... I had so many problems with it, from the plot to the cast to the writing.

First off, the premise: a movie about a tall girl who gets picked on and harassed for her height trying to find love. On the surface, doesn’t seem too bad. And I’m not gonna deny that the main characters life isn’t harder because she’s tall than it would’ve been if she was short. But here’s the thing: tall women aren’t insulted considered less attractive for being outside what’s considered normal (if it was about that, tall guys would face the same thing) - it’s specifically about not being considered feminine enough, or rather conforming to the standard that women are supposed to be smaller and more petite than men. Jodi, however is played by a blond, cis, white girl who conforms to typical female beauty standards in pretty much every way other than being taller than average. And I’m not saying that her height or any problems she may faces because of it are invalidated by those things, but in the movie it’s like all of the rest of those things are invalidated on account of her height. WOC (especially black women) are far far far more likely to face adversity for not looking “feminine” enough and for years have been insulted and degraded for looking “masculine” - being too hairy or too tall or too large or our features not fitting eurocentric female beauty standards. The same point stands for trans women and even more so for trans woc. So while I’m not saying the kind of situation in the movie could never ever happen in real life, the fact that they’re making a movie about overcoming adversity faced due to not conforming to female beauty standards and making a thin, cis, white girl out to be the one facing the most adversity with the woc in the story either bullying the protag for not conforming to those standards or being the best friend who defends and supports the protagonist is pretty tone deaf. This isn’t just a normal movie situation where I think that it would’ve been nice for it to be more diverse or have a main character of colour - the premise would make much so much more sense with, for example, a tall black girl or trans girl at the lead because they’re so much more likely to face the problems faced by the main character in this movie.

Those were all thoughts I had even before the movie even came out, just from watching the trailer and reading the description. I tried to go into the movie with an open mind, thinking it would maybe exceed my expectations and I was being too harsh based on two minute trailer. However, almost straight off the bat the movie really tested my good intentions. Less than 5 minutes into the movie, Jodi is narrating how hard her childhood. And I could sympathise with her - children can be cruel and it can be tough to stick out like that in such an obvious way. I don’t doubt her childhood was harder on account of her height. But any goodwill is immediately destroyed by Jodi asking the audience “You think your life is hard?” and challenging them to “beat” her struggle. Because yes, while I’ll admit being tall has probably made her life harder up until this point, she’s still a straight, cis, rich white girl! Her height doesn’t make it harder for her to get a job or make her more likely to lose her job or to be the victim of a hate crime or be murdered by the police. And yet she still thinks her life is harder than anyone else in the school - where her main problem is apparently being asked “How’s the weather up there?” constantly. Jodi’s friend Fareeda even completely goes off at some random guy for saying it to her. Is it annoying to be asked that, constantly? Yes, probably. But the movie treats it as if it’s literally a slur. The movie constantly goes on about the “adversity” Jodi faces, but other than being picked on by one other girl (who is an asshole to Jodi and only Jodi for seemingly no reason whatsoever other than that she’s a Mean Girl) the “How’s the weather up there?” comments are literally the only “adversity” she ever faces over the course of the movie. Apart from said mean girl, there’s no one else making mean comments or laughing at her behind her back - she’s largely ignored by her peers. By teen movie standards, she’s not even receiving the typical treatment faced by the unpopular and bullied protagonists - no one’s spreading rumours about her or trying to ruin her life or throwing slushies at her or really harassing her in any way. But the movie still tries to push the narrative of Jodi facing so much adversity. There’s a part in the movie where Jodi’s mom tells her she has to stand strong in the face of adversity, and starts talking about all the problems she faced in high school for being so beautiful and popular - for example that she once had 10 guys ask her to a dance. Jodi looks completely incredulous that her mom considers this adversity and emphatically responds “No, it doesn’t.” when she’s asked if it is. The screenwriter somehow fails to see the irony in the fact that Josie herself is shown interest in by three different guys over the course of the movie (yet still continues to lament throughout the movie that “tall girls don’t get happy endings” and that all people see is her height and not her or something along those lines). This scene is so lacking in self awareness about the movie it’s in that it’s almost a metaphor for me watching the movie - me as Jodi, watching the movie and thinking “She really thinks THIS is adversity?” Another thing the movie seems to fail to consider is that Jodi’s problems are very much limited to high school. Yes, some people are assholes to her and she feels insecure but that’s definitely not a unique experience in high school. And once she actually moves into adulthood and the real world, she’s not really gonna face the same issues. As I said earlier, her height is not going to make it harder for her to get a job or make her more likely to lose her job or to be the victim of a hate crime or be murdered by the police, whereas these are issues that POC and LGBT people may have to deal with for the rest of their lives. The only way that being tall is going to significantly affect the rest of her life is in dating & finding a romantic partner, but even within the movie her height clearly doesn’t hold her back that much because 3 GUYS pursue her over the course of the movie.

While I do think the premise was bland anyway, the movie could’ve been somewhat enjoyable if they stopped trying to convince us and shoving down our throats that Jodi’s life is harder than everyone else’s and actually made the issue to be Jodi’s own insecurities and shown her overcoming those, instead - and maybe they would’ve had more time to actually focus on developing the relationship between the eventual endgame couple.

I was really hoping at some point there would be a scene where Jodi is being self-pitying and Fareeda (or hell, even Kimmy) were to sit her down and say “Look, I know you have problems, I know some people have been assholes to you because you were an easy target to make fun of for being different but you’re still a rich abled conventionally attractive cis white girl. I’m not saying your life hasn’t been more difficult because of your height, but it doesn’t make your life more difficult than everyone else’s,” and then maybe made a point about the adversity they face as WOC. I was so expecting Fareeda to do something like this in the bathroom scene but all she does is try to be Jodi’s emotional support which Jodi is ungrateful for. Which brings us up to the last point of how badly the characters of colour are treated in this movie. Fareeda is literally a walking “angry black girl”+”sassy supportive black friend” stereotype. Her only purposes in the plot are to go off at people when Jodi’s being “harassed”, support and uplift Jodi constantly even though she’s completely ungrateful, and be her friends’ dumping ground for their emotional problems. We literally know nothing about her other than this. She only exists to support the white characters. Kimmy, once again, is a one dimensional stereotype. She’s basically a caricature of a movie Mean Girl, with absolutely no reason given to why she’s such an asshole to Jodi. She’s not shown being a dick to anyone else, she’s not shown to be the queen bee of the school trying to consolidate her power, she’s just a pretty girl who apparently only has two interests - hating Kimmy for literally no reason, and being crowned homecoming queen. Her only purpose in the plot is as a device to prevent Stig from being with Kimmy. In fact, that’s the only purpose of the remaining two characters of colour as well - as romantic obstructions to create drama in the central white love triangle. There’s literally a scene where each white character (Stig, Jodi, Jack) is kissing their respective love interest (who each happen to be POC) but are distracted by / looking at each other instead of their love interests. They have no character or development or anything beyond being eventually rejected love interests to the white people. The only thing we know about Liz is that she’s gluten free, but the only reason for that is for her to have something in common with Jack. The school they go to looks very diverse - a lot of the extras & background characters are POC which imo just makes the movie worse because they’re making Jodi out to be the poor girl who’s life is harder than everybody else’s while all the people making fun of her & making her life difficult are POC. Literally all the people in the movie who ask her how the weather is up there are black. Most of the girls laughing at her while Kimmy makes fun of her are WOC. It was like they wanted the movie to look diverse for woke points but didn’t actually bother to have any of the characters of colour be developed or have any complexity or actually be relevant to the plot other than to obstruct the white romances and help the white people realise what they really want. They literally only existed as plot devices, not as people. And yes, Stig’s only purpose was to have Jodi realise her worth and that Jack was the right person for her but his character has some kind of emotional depth and character arc. He’s given a motivation and reason behind his actions - he likes being the popular kid and he lets it get to his head. Nothing of the kind is afforded to Kimmy or Schnipper.

I think the worst thing about this movie is how inoffensive it seems on the surface. It’s racially diverse, it’s about a girl overcoming her insecurities and learning to lover herself, what could be the problem? Which is why I don’t necessarily blame people for missing how shitty it actually is beneath the surface. But what I definitely don’t appreciate is (white) people insisting that the people who are rightfully pointing out this movie’s flaws are just being mean or bitter or being “discriminative” for “hating on the movie just because the main character is white” when that’s just so far from the actual point. I think the moral of the story is that it’s not enough to just think critically about the media you’re consuming, sometimes people need to actually listen to marginalised people when we’re telling them that something is not okay and not just insists that we’re being mean for no reason and then maybe we can avoid more movies like this in the future.

#tall girl spoilers #tall girl #movie critique

[skamofcolor]

why are you one of the Eve haters? Is it just because she's not a POC?

Lol, so the short answer is yes.

But if you feel like reading me rant, here’s my longer response. This is just gonna be about the casting and styling because I think that’s the part that most important in terms of this blog. I do have my own thoughts on characterization, but let me not get into that here, lol.

When the casting call went out, the show said it could be for a queer woman of any ethnicity. So maybe this was on me, but that alone sparked a hope that they would be casting a Woman of Color, particularly someone who was a Black stud/butch/tomboi/masc/etc. lesbian in that role. When I found out that they cast a skinty feminine white woman instead, it was extremely disheartening. There was literally no reason why they had to cast her as white. Even if she is Grace’s cousin that A) is a choice made by the showrunners and B) doesn’t rely on whiteness to be true. Multiracial families exist.

My issue is that someone’s ethnoracial identity absolutely cannot be thought of as a separate entity from their gender/sexuality.

Okay, so let me explain.

Every version of Eskild is not only vital to their Noora’s storyline, but to their Isak’s. And for me, that’s why Eve’s casting made no sense to me the most. Now, to be fair: we had a submission earlier that said it wasn’t right that no Eskild was getting the same scrutiny as Eve, and I think that’s a fair assessment (and the submission is worth reading). No other Eskild has gotten this kind of criticism for being a white cis guy.

But for me personally, when it came to the other remakes, my annoyance was always at the lack of diversity in the Isaks first and foremost. This is because it stood to reason that whomever was cast as Eskild would have to match up. I think at a certain point I was resigned to the idea that each remake would have cis white gay Eskilds for cis white gay Isaks. Would it have been really nice to have more gender/racial diversity? Yes, of course. To me though, it didn’t feel as pertinent for those remakes to cast diverse Eskilds. Both because of my resignation and also because… tbh this kind of matching made sense to me in terms of an intersectional lens - meaning the types of discrimination that Isak faced should match up with Eskild, in order to really make the Pride lecture make sense. Right or not, it’s how I felt. Obviously other folks, especially lgbtq+ MoC who don’t have any rep in the Skams, can and might feel differently.

Now, when I’m saying intersectional lens, I want to be clear. When Kimberlé Crenshaw  first coined intersectionality (though ofc her focus was on Black women specifically, not all PoC) she wasn’t really talking about identity at all, she was talking about discrimination. it means that the oppression people with multiple marginalized identities face has to do with overlapping forms of discrimination.

Isak only has one marginalized identity. On the discrimination he faces from that alone, Eskild can wholeheartedly relate. That’s what make that mentorship/friendship so important and more equitable.

Shay on the other hand has multiple marginalized identities: woman, Black, lesbian. The discrimination she faces isn’t just because she’s Black, or just because she’s a woman, or just because she’s a lesbian. They all intersect, and the sexism, antiblack racism, and homophobia she will face are  inextricably intertwined. There is no and never will be a white lgbtq+ person can ever, nor will ever, understand what it means to navigate the world as an lgbtq+ Person of Color.This is the heart of my disappointed with Eve’s casting.

Again - as a Black lesbian, Shay will have to deal with sexism/antiblackness/homophobia. All as one, all informing each other, and inseparable. This is something a white woman, even if she experiences sexism/homophobia, will never, ever be able to grasp. Even if Eve were butch, she wouldn’t ever be able to understand this experience. White women do not experience sexism the way a Black woman or an other WoC does. White lgbtq+ people do not experience homophobia or transphobia the way a Black person or an other PoC does. There is no possible way for them to know what we go through.

And so. The idea of having a white woman lecture Shay on Pride? On the discrimination she’s going to face? On the history of lgbtq+ liberation in the U.S? Specifically when it was started by trans women of color? It’s ugly to me.

It’s true we don’t know what they will do in Shay’s season. But I can’t stop thinking about this. I’m not speaking for all lgbtq+ PoC, just from my experience. I honestly do know that there are lgbtq+ PoC who are really freaking excited about Eve. And that’s great for them, honestly. If other folks can still see themselves in Eve and feel represented, that’s a good thing.

But for many of us, we didn’t/don’t have any lgbtq+ characters of color to look up to. The majority of lgbtq+ characters in the U.S. media have been white. Even in 2018, 58% of lbpq+ characters in the media were white. And even when we do get lgbpq+ characters of color, most of them weren’t stud/butch/tomboi/masc/etc. or gender non-conforming. Rarely are they trans or nonbinary. They didn’t and don’t reflect a lot of the realities that we live in. This lack of visibility means something. When every lgbtq+ person you see on TV is white, it’s alienating. (See this Autostraddle survey for more on this data.)  

But I can’t feel that way. Because I was a Shay, and in my experience, being lectured to by white people only served to push me deeper into the closet. It only made me think that being gay was for white people. Because their whiteness protected them and they got to be out in a way I thought I would never be. That is, until I met older lgbtq+ PoC. Who looked like me and shared my cultures and got it. And yes, she’s a TV character. But I’m devastated that from what we’ve seen, Shay won’t get this.

Fine, though, they cast who they cast. My biggest issue is in terms of presentation and style. First, it literally makes no sense to me why Eve isn’t a butch lesbian. Second, I HATE the way they styled her in hipster faux-poverty aesthetics.

We look at the role of Eskild and his characterization, his femininity is a huge part of who he is. It’s a massive part of the Pride lecture he gives Isak, especially because a large part of Isak’s internalized homophobia comes from just wanting to be “normal.” Eskild is not ashamed of being flamboyant/feminine because it’s who he is, and he said a big fuck you to gender roles and expectations. This is the same with the other Esikld remakes that we’ve seen. They show that being who you are is never a stereotype.

Binaries are fake and socially constructed, yes. BUT with Eskild’s femininity in mind, it would only make sense to make Eve butch. There is a massive stigma against GNC lesbians/queer women not only in general society but in lgbtq+ spaces. This is not to bash or police feminine/femme lgbtq+ women (I’m one of them!) but it’s also to acknowledge that the ways in which butch/stud/tomboi/masc/etc. women express themselves makes them extremely visible, and that’s not a privilege. Butch women face high rates of sexual violence and assault based on their appearance in the same way that feminine gay men do.

And even with the increase in lgbtq+ women in media (again see the Autostraddle survey) the majority of portrayals are NOT of butch/stud women. Which fucking sucks because that’s erasing a huge population within lgbtq+ communities. It’s not that having a butch white woman lecture Shay really makes it any better for me personally, but it would’ve made so much more sense to have Eve be butch. Because that’s the direct correlation to Eskild’s femininity.

Finally, once you cast someone you can style their character anyway you want. Just because Eve’s actress dresses/looks as she does doesn’t mean Eve has to. So why did the showrunners chose to style Eve the way they did? Rather than do something actual subversive, they styled her like every other 20-something middle class white hipster who relies on an aesthetic of poverty. (I know one of her defining character traits now is that she never has any money, but… something about that framing feels like it’s supposed to be kitschy and not because she’s literally impoverished. Could be wrong, but look at Grace in comparison.).

Personally, this stylization is especially hard to witness because of how many white lgbtq+ people I know who dress and act exactly like Eve. It’s not something that’s specific to white people - I’ve seen plenty of middle to upper class PoC aestheticize poverty too - but this kind of thing is often rooted in the junctions of class and whiteness. For more on this, I would really suggest reading this article. It really gets into this like… fetish that middle/upper class lgbtq+ people have for “looking” poor.

Anyway this is really long so let me wrap up. My issue here is mainly what my issues has consistently been with some of these shows. The showrunners want to include “diverse” issues and (for the most part) a “diverse” cast but it seems like they don’t have a crew that have strong race/gender/class analyses. Eve could’ve really been something but from casting and styling alone, her character already falls flatly for me.

So, yes. At the base of it is because she’s not a Black stud, but it goes deeper than that, too.

- mod Jennifer

#answered ask #long post

[the-ronan-cycle]

Diverse Book Recs

I recently typed up a list of books for a friend who said she’d stopped reading because she couldn’t find diverse/queer books. This list is predominately focused on queer diversity but there’s also lot’s of super awesome ladies and poc here too. The list is also in two parts, the first are all books that I’ve read myself and include me trying to give a summary, content warnings (If I can remember, I can’t guarantee they’re all exhaustive.) and a rating. The second part has books on my to read list that, to my knowledge, have queer characters. All of the titles are linked to their goodreads page.

I Was Born For This - Alice Oseman

A Hijabi ace fangirl goes to London on a week long trip to meet her internet friend and go to the concert of her favourite band. Jimmy, the trans, gay, mixed race, mentally ill singer for said band is figuring out how growing up famous has changed himself and his friends. They cross paths and stuff happens. A really interesting look into fan culture, both the good and the bad. Really fun characters and relationships. Written by the same person who does the Heartbreaker webcomic. CW: alcoholic behavior, brief mention of unintentional trans outing 4.5/5

The Raven Cycle - Maggie Stiefvater

Welsh mythology meets small town Virginia. Gorgeous, poetic writing by Stiefvater tells the surreal story of a group of teenagers on the search for a lost welsh king and wish foretold if one wakes him. Along the way they discover the power of ley lines, dreams, and ~friendship~. One of the main characters (my favourite character) is canon queer (he’s into a girl and guy but like, the word bi isn’t explicitly said) and one of the other main characters is canon gay. It’s a difficult story to describe but it’s such a fascinating read. CW: child abuse, alcohol and drug abuse, there’s a scene in the second book that I think the author confirmed was sexual assault 5/5

Shades of Magic Series - V.E. Schwab

Avatar the last airbender meets pirates and royalty and multiverses. In this world there are 4 earths that intersect at London. Kell is one of the only two people who can travel between Londons. Grey London is our world, Red London is Kell’s, full of magic. White London is a wasteland barren of magic and ruled by bloodthirsty twins. Black London is dead. The main cast of Kell, Lila Bard, a pirate thief who gets caught up in the adventure, Rhy, the (gay? Bi? I forget lol) prince of Red London, and Alucard, (also gay? Or bi?) actual pirate have to save the multiverse! Lots of great subplots, written by a queer woman and impossible to put down. If you saw me with my kindle in class after winter last year, it was because I literally couldn’t stop reading. CW: frankly it’s been too long since I read it im sorry 5/5

Leah on the Offbeat/Simon vs the Homosapiens Agenda - Becky Albertalli

Simon Vs is the book Love Simon is based on. Simon (gay) has a mystery pen pal, Blue. All he knows is that Blue also goes to Creekwood High and is gay. But Simon leaves the emails open on a school computer because he’s a dumbass and then also an ass but the bad kind, Martin finds them and blackmails Simon. It’s similar to the movie but I prefer the book! There are some scenes and plot points that didn’t make it in. Also his friends don’t suck as much when he’s outed. Leah on the OffBeat is the sequel about Simon’s friend, Leah. She’s bi! Simon thought all his friends were straight but jkjkjk gays flock together. Cute wlw high school story. CW: character is outed against their will, underage drinking  SVTHA 5/5 LOTO 4/5

The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue - Mackenzi Lee

Main character is a total slut and we support him. Bi and ready to party. But wait it’s the 1800s and that’s not super chill. In a final hurrah before he has to become master of his family estate, Henry Montague takes his best friend (gay and also ready to party) and, reluctantly, his little sister  (ace and ready to be a doctor) on a tour of the continent. Along the way they discover a plot and their trip turns upside down. There’s pirates! Period accurate medicine! Characters unlearning their prejudices! CW: Child abuse, period typical homophobia, sexism and racism 4/5

Captive Prince Trilogy - C.S. Pacat

hEAR ME OUT. This is probably my favourite series I’ve ever read. You’ve heard of enemies to lovers? Get ready for enemies to friends to lovers to enemies to allies to lovers! Crown Prince Damianos of Akielos is caught up in a coup lead by his half brother and sent to the enemy nation of Vere to be a pleasure slave for their crown prince, Laurent. Now here you think it’s gonna be some kinky sex romp but it actually becomes the best political intrigue with a thoughtful, loving, very vanilla romance. “If you gave me your heart, I would treat it tenderly”. Dw they only have sex after the whole slave thing is over. Also, they abolish slavery so there’s that. If you don’t like the first book,  I get it but just try the second book, the tone changes with the change of setting. The author does some really interesting stuff with her setting. Typically writers will just make society reflect our by default but Pacat threw that out, homophobia? Never heard of her. In Vere it’s actually taboo for men and women to have sex before marriage because of the threat of bastards. So everyone just is gay instead. You want a matriarchal warrior women country? Pacat has got your back. The series does lack in well written women. There are a few women but not enough, Pacat has talked about this and is basically like, u right, I’ll do better in my next series. Written by a queer WOC (kinda? Woc is the wrong word but just read these tweets where she describe it better than i ever could)  and I love it, the end. CW: child abuse, child sexual abuse, incest, rape, sex slavery, prostitution, graphic violence, non consensual drug consumption, child death, suicide, torture, animal death (also it should be obvious but none of these things are glorified, the abuser is the worst and he sucks and everyone hates him) 6/5

Carry On - Rainbow Rowell

Based on the Harry Potter parody series from Rowell’s book Fangirl. Simon Snow (doesn’t ever figure out his sexuality but had a girlfriend and boyfriend) is the chosen one, orphaned and brought to a magical boarding school, must save magical britain from evil. His best friend, book smart Penelope and his (possibly evil and a vampire? Also gay) roommate Baz must work together to defeat the humbug. This book has a really fantastic closed magic system and gives the character very clear limits. CW: rat death? 5/5

Queer There and Everywhere - Sarah Prager

A nonfiction book about 23 people throughout history that were both queer and very cool. From Frida Kahlo and Abraham Lincoln to the actual Danish Girl and Kristina Vasa, Prager dives into the lives of many historical figures who were also queer. A really wide gamut of women, men and nb, cis and trans, white and poc. Could have had more historical figures from the east. A fun, easy read. Made me cry, i want lesbian moms. 4/5

Huntress - Malinda Lo

It’s been a few years since I read this so bear with me. Cool magic girl main character and less magic but also cool other girl as well as a misfit group including the prince and a badass lady named shae (hell yeah) have to go into the fae world to right the magical imbalance of their world. Wlw, written by a queer woc CW: I don’t remember sorry 4/5

Outrun the Wind - Elizabeth Tammi

(I’m actually only half way through this) (Also it’s written by a mutual of mine on tumblr so that’s tight) A queer retelling of the greek myth of Atalanta. Atalanta (bi) is taken by the hunters of Artemis and has to help them defeat Apollo who’s being shitty. Wlw, written by a bi lady CW: animal death

Iron Breakers trilogy - Zaya Feli

Bastard Prince (queer), Ren, is happy to be out of the line of succession and just party it up but suddenly is framed for the murder of his brother and on the run along with a prisoner who escaped with him. Ren is faced with realities of y’know, not being a prince and decides to help save his country. Political intrigue with some twists I didn’t guess. MLM CW: slavery, graphic violence 4.5/5

All for the Game trilogy - Nora Sakavic

Think dark, queer, sports anime but with a co-ed team. Neil Josten (demi sexual- “which way do you swing? “I don’t?”) is on the run from his mob boss, murderer father and finds himself on the collegiate exy team of the palmetto foxes. Exy, a violent cross between lacrosse and soccer is Neil’s favourite thing but the team is made up of misfits. Neil has to survive both his father and the Raven’s (another exy team) owner, another mob boss, coming for him and his team. Super fast paced, very intense, after the first book I couldn’t put it down. The characters are all super interesting as are the relationships. Multiple mlm relationships, one briefly mentioned wlw couple CW: (o boy here we go) suicide, graphic violence, graphic torture, non consensual drug consumption, alcohol and drug abuse, prescription drug abuse, non consensual kissing, rape, child sexual abuse, sex work, mention of gay conversion therapy, discussion of self harm and self harm scars, child abuse 4.5/5

The Posterchildren - Kitty Burroughs

It’s been years since I read this so I really don’t remember much. It’s about a school for superheroes. Definitely wlw I don’t remember any else 4/5

Six of Crows Duology - Leigh Bardugo

A misfit group of criminals is hired to travel north to break into an impregnable prison. The cast of characters is lovable and the plot is fast paced. It’s set in the same universe as Bardugo’s first series but you don’t need to read them. (I did and they were ok but six of crows is better). Two of the main characters are mlm. CW: gore, graphic violence, child abuse 4.5/5

The Percy Jackson Series and Magnus Chase Series

I don’t need to describe these lol. PJO has two canon gay characters, the most recent series has lesbian and ace huntresses of artemis, and a bi main character. Magnus Chase has a non binary main character starting in the second book.

On My To-Read List:

Orlando - Virginia Woolf

I love her writing, it’s poetic without hurting my brain to read. This is a classic queer novel. It’s been said that Woolf wrote it as a “love letter” to Vita, her lover. The main character changes gender throughout the novel.

Stars in Her Eyes - Clare C. Marshall

I bought a copy of the first book in this series from the author at a convention last summer. It’s about a school for people with powers. I asked and apparently there’s a queer character but you don’t find out til the second book.

Ash - Malinda Lo

A wlw retelling of cinderella by the same author as Huntress.

The Academy Journals - Garrett Robinson

Apparently there’s trans, lesbian, gay, poly, ace, bi, pan! It’s about a magical school. It has really good reviews on goodreads so that’s promising

The Abyss Surrounds Us - Emily Skrutskie

There’s gay lady space pirates. Actually maybe not space? Idk i got space vibes

Vicious/Vengeful - V.E. Schwab

A story about moral greyness and supervillains. Kinda reminds me of Nimona tbh. I heard the main character is ace?

Our Bloody Pearl - D.N. Brynn

There’s mermaids, and pirates, and it’s gay apparently. The main character uses they them pronouns I think.

Breaking Legacies - Zoe Reed

Fantasy wlw by a trans dude (i think? They went through some sort of gender transition but i can’t find their pronouns)

The Dark Wife - S.E. Diemer

A wlw retelling of Hades and Persephone

The High Court Series - Megan Derr

Fantasy political intrigue mlm and I was told the main character is trans

Btw my rating system was basically:

4/5=i enjoyed reading it and would recommend it but probably wouldn’t read it again

4.5/5=I really liked it and would probably reread it

5/5= i love it, i either have or plan to reread it

#booklr #book rec #captive prince #the raven cycle #percy jackson #all for the game #I was born for this #shades of magic #carry on #iron breakers #huntress #outrun the wind #the posterchildren #six of crows #most are YA or adult #feel free to ask me about any of these!! i love talking about books #theres a lot of schools and pirates on here

[niafrazier]

Making the Case for Beto O’Rourke

Full disclaimer: Beto is one of my top picks amongst the 2020 democratic field as of now. I’m a supporter but am in no way affiliated with his official campaign.

At a certain point, Beto O’Rourke was hailed by the media as basically the second coming of Obama, RFK, JFK, [insert any popular democratic figure from this past century… oh and Abe Lincoln]. After he unsuccessfully attempted to unseat Ted Cruz in the senate race, many people across the country were calling him to run for the presidency. He even surged in polling being just behind Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders, both who virtually have 100% name recognition. His senate race garnered national attention and even caught Oprah’s attention (she practically begged him to run on her show FFS). Many (including me) grew to admire his authentic, organic, and down-to-earth approach to politics, which is especially refreshing to see given the fact that everything seems so contrived nowadays. So, he wrestled with his decision thoughtfully and eventually came around to the idea, officially tossing his hat into the ring on March 14th, 2019. But now? Right out the gate, the narrative has shifted, and to the mainstream media pundits and Twittersphere, he is seen as an empty-suited, entitled, misogynistic, arrogant dude dripping with white male privilege. What changed?  How is it that the media, the very one that contributed to the rise of “Betomania,” subsequently went into a frenzy and poo-pooed all over his rollout? The faux outrage, double standards, and cynicism directed at Beto by opinion writers, pundits, etc. have basically motivated me to give my own takes on the most common criticisms I’ve seen thus far. So, here we go:

 “ ‘Man, I’m just born to be in it?’ ”

I’m not gonna lie, taking a look at the Vanity Fair cover and seeing that quote was a facepalm moment. As predicted, this quote sparked outrage fairly quickly… given the optics of a privileged straight white man joining a race of several qualified women and POC… Understandably so.  However, upon reading through the whole article, I was able to grasp the essence of Beto’s words. Here’s what he says leading up to his declaration, expressing urgency:

 “This is the fight of our lives…not the fight-of-my-political-life kind of crap. But, like, this is the fight of our lives as Americans, and as humans, I’d argue.”

And now here’s the full quote: “Man, I’m just born to be in it, and want to do everything I humanly can for this country at this moment.”

 He’s not so much saying that he was born to be in a position of power, rather, he’s expressing that during such dire times, especially in U.S. democracy, he could not in good conscience be complacent and not take action. Just as he was drawn to serve his district in El Paso as a 6 year city council member and a 3-term congressman, he believes that at this moment, he has a purpose to serve the whole nation by being as actively involved in the national discussion as possible—to stand up to bigotry and divisiveness displayed by the current administration of the White House. Beto basically confirmed what I had thought after further inspection when he clarified his statement later (Google it. I’m having trouble with my hyperlinks right now). Could he have worded it better? Sure. I just reject the notion that this one gaffe is supposed to sum him up as an egotistical maniac… please. 

“He adds absolutely no value to the race”

This is arbitrary depending on what your key issues are, but I’m gonna give my take on why I think he’s an excellent addition to the race. So, I’ve been intrigued about the possibility of an O’Rourke presidential run since he’s hinted at it back in November. I really didn’t know much about him until toward the end of Midterm season, but the more I learned, the more impressed I became. (Side note: it was this clip that first caught my full attention.) What really fueled my interest in Beto though, was his stance on immigration. As a first generation Nigerian American, this topic is pretty personal to me. My parents were fortunate enough to have the opportunity to immigrate to America and raise me and my three other siblings. However, I’ve also seen firsthand the difficulty of not only getting through with the ridiculous process but also assimilating into this country. For so long, the Democrats haven’t really made immigration a central issue, until the Trump administration hijacked it and pushed the Overton window all the way to the right. With heightened xenophobia running rampant in this country as a result of this abhorrent presidency, it is pertinent that the Democrats not merely pay lip service to this issue any longer and take serious action. Beto has an advantage here: He’s grown up in and served as a U.S House Rep. in the border district of El Paso, also home to the largest binational community in the Northern hemisphere. He can add a lot to the national discussion and debate on the matter. When Trump came to El Paso, the local community organized a counter rally where Beto gave an impassioned speech about the border wall and immigration. It’s pretty long, but I highly recommend the watch. Furthermore, Beto has outlined a 10 point proposal on how best to approach the immigration issue, along with some facts about the border’s history, which you can read here. Immigration hasn’t really been a winning issue, and I honestly don’t see it being one in 2020. With that being said, I respect the fact that despite this, Beto has shown that this is an issue that he deeply cares about. If I’m being honest, even though comprehensive immigration reform is universally called for amongst Democrats, I doubt that anyone in the field will truly make immigration a main priority in their prospective presidencies. To me, Beto has shown that he will. Even if he doesn’t clinch the nomination, it still means a ton to me that we can have the potential to change the narrative of immigration in this country with serious discussion. With the way Beto is able to convey his message, I am hopeful for what’s to come.  

So, let’s talk about Texas. With the way Beto was able to energize the Democratic base in Texas, Democrats have the opportunity to put the Republican bastion state into play. With 38 electoral votes at stake, Texas is extremely crucial for the GOP. To put things in perspective, if Texas turned blue in 2016, President Hillary Clinton would have been a thing.

*Bonus: “He Lost to Ted Cruz lol… already a nonstarter”

Yes. But you know who else lost to Ted in Texas? Donald Trump. Cruz obliterated him in the Texas Republican primaries. I’m not saying Texas is guaranteed to turn blue with Beto on the ballot, but if we learned anything in 2016, it’s not to underestimate the possibility of seemingly blue or red states to flip at any given moment. The GOP has taken note of this. We’ve seen that Beto has a ton of appeal in Texas amongst not only Democrats but Never-Trump-Republicans and independents as well! If Beto is on that ballot, the GOP will most likely exhaust a ton of resources and money into Texas to keep it from going blue. This will only make other states that Trump won with the slimmest of margins vulnerable. Also… I find it disingenuous to make comparisons between Beto and other senators that hail from deeply blue states regarding electability. If Beto lost to Ted in California, then yeah… we could have a conversation about that.

“A woman running mate is his preference? Who does he think he is?”

The backlash on this surprised me, to be honest… Even Whoopi Goldberg blasted his ass for the statement on The View.  If I had to go on a whim here, I feel like it was the Vanity Fair article that sort of set the mood for Beto’s campaign thus far… because otherwise, I believe that this really wouldn’t have been a story. In fact, Beto is not the only male candidate to call for a woman VP. Cory Booker and Bernie Sanders have strongly hinted at choosing a woman running mate. Interestingly enough, I didn’t recall there being any backlash. Here are Beto’s full remarks on choosing a woman as his running mate:

"It would be very difficult not to select a woman with so many extraordinary women who are running right now, but first I would have to win and there's-- you know, this is as open as it has ever been."

This is very much the response I expected from Beto. Time and time again, he has openly acknowledged his privilege, even before getting hammered about it on social media. In the Vanity Fair article, he states his stance on lack of representation in Washington:

“The government at all levels is overly represented by white men,” he says. “That’s part of the problem, and I’m a white man. So if I were to run, I think it’s just so important that those who would comprise my team looked like this country. If I were to run, if I were to win, that my administration looks like this country. It’s the only way I know to meet that challenge.”

Furthermore, he is understanding and considerate of the fact that people are craving for diversity.  Here’s what he says:

“But I totally understand people who will make a decision [cast a vote in the primaries] based on the fact that almost every single one of our presidents has been a white man, and they want something different for this country. And I think that’s a very legitimate basis upon which to make a decision. Especially in the fact that there are some really great candidates out there right now.”

I know I don’t speak for all POC or women, but as a WOC myself, I took no issue to his statements. In fact, I appreciate his sensitivity to the issue and the fact that he doesn’t shy away from addressing uncomfortable topics in politics, such as race and representation.

Let’s just be glad he didn’t pull a Hickenlooper…. Jesus.

“Light on policy… but he stands on counters amirite?”

To discuss this point, it’s important to understand Beto’s campaign style. Beto is more like a blank canvass. What he does is first listen to people and their concerns, and then from there, he shapes his policies around that. He feels that this is the best way to serve the people. The point of his road trips and tours was not to lecture people on full fleshed policy proposals. There is debate on whether or not this is an effective strategy, and I do understand that people do like to know exactly what they’re signing up for before casting a vote. That’s why some people will more likely gravitate toward candidates like Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren who have been consistent in their messaging. However, I also think people underestimate the power of simply listening. Take these comments that a potential voter made concerning Beto’s ability to listen during his stop in South Carolina for example:

"I think if he keeps talking to the people and being able to listen, and not talk at the African-American voters. Talk to us. Listen to what we have to say… As long as you listen and then actually put forward ideas that are legitimate ideas to do things, then he will be fine.”

 While policy specifics are important, this is still the early stages of Beto’s campaign. Specifics, of course, will have to come at some point, especially when debates come around. Another critique I hear is Beto not having any policy proposals on his website yet. He’s not alone though.  Several candidates who have been running longer than he has don’t either. It’s also important to note that while people in the race most likely have been mulling a presidential run for several months or years, this has been something that came around to Beto as recent as November 2018. Stuff like this takes time. I think he has potential, however, in this area. For instance, as I mentioned earlier, he has put out a 10-point proposal on immigration. He also has a brief 5-point plan regarding criminal justice reform and legalization of marijuana. (Fun fact, he even coauthored a book concerning the legalization of weed.)  And it’s not like he hasn’t taken stances on issues ever either… I mean, he has a whole congressional record, and his townhalls give you an idea of where he stands on key issues. 

Oh... and about the countertops. Ugh. The fact that this really sparked outrage is comical. I’ve seen all sorts of takes on this from asserting his male dominance to throwing his youth in Bernie and Biden’s faces (lmao). At a campaign stop, the owner of the coffee shop that he was at asked him to stand on the countertop because people complained that they weren’t able to see Beto amongst the crowds and camera equipment (despite him being 6’4’’, ha). So then it just became a thing since. And he’s respectful about it in case anyone was wondering, lol. But there’s one thing I think both the Beto detractors and I can agree on: why tf is this getting media coverage? I do agree that there should be more coverage for other candidates concerning the real issues. However, the response shouldn’t be to go after Beto or chastise him for doing harmless acts during his campaign stops… Talk that up with the media. The ironic thing about this is that some of the media pundits complain about giving Beto so much coverage… all while giving Beto more coverage about the coverage he’s receiving… 🙄

So if you made it to the end of this extremely long effortpost, thank you. I actually had tons more to discuss but I’m not trying to make this into a novel. Anyways, I’ll say one last thing: 

Before going along with groupthink or engaging in the toxic political echo chamber that is Twitter, I implore you all to take a step back and actually get to know these candidates. Seek after local news outlets when candidates visit to get a feel of the vibes from locals. Go to Beto’s Facebook page and watch a town hall or two. You may come home with a different impression than what is portrayed in mainstream media. I can tell you that when I did this, the difference was night and day.  We have such an amazing field of contenders to choose from, and I’d hate for misinformation or bad-faith arguments to warp perceptions.   

#beto o'rourke #2020 #democratic primary #2020 election #politics

[nastywomanbu-blog]

What Is Postfeminism?

Tina Fey and Taylor Swift have quite a few things in common -- they’re both straight, white, slim, able-bodied women with a pretty massive audience, and they both claim to be feminists. They’re also both widely criticized for popularizing White Feminism and ignoring the struggles of WOC and the LGBTQ+ community in particular.

It’s common knowledge that Swift is really good at playing the victim to further her career. Buzzfeed writer Ellie Woodward outlines the many ways that Taylor has used her position as the “innocent white girl” to gain public favor at the expense of others in her article “How Taylor Swift Played the Victim For a Decade and Made Her Entire Career.” (Taylor’s history as a bad feminist is only slightly longer than this title.) Specifically, Taylor is well known for writing songs about relationships and heartbreak that position her as a helpless victim to the heartlessness of others. When her audience got tired of her constant fixation on her unrequited love, labeling her “clingy & desperate,” Taylor turned the blame around on the media. Suddenly, the public focus on her love life was due to a sexist media that was “obsessed” with painting her in a negative light.

This renewed status as a victim got Taylor sympathy -- and a lot of money. Taylor’s brand of feminism began as a marketing strategy to maintain her popularity, and fans who bought into her narrative also bought her music in record numbers. Some might argue that it’s ultimately a good thing that Taylor calls herself a feminist, because she’s drawing national attention to the movement -- except that Taylor’s kind of female empowerment isn’t representative of feminism at all. Woodward rightly observes that Taylor only views feminism in relation to her own experience, disregarding the experiences of other women completely.

Tina Fey has been called out for similar problematic behavior, namely in the form of racially insensitive jokes. Several writers have tried to tackle the challenge of drawing a line between political satire and straight-up privilege. Fey came under fire after the Charlottesville protests for her “Sheetcaking” skit, shown below.

Critics argue that this skit misses the mark in terms of satire. Audiences can’t agree on what, exactly, Tina’s point is. Megan Garber addresses this problem in her article “’Let Us Eat Cake’: The Tina Fey Effect in 2017.” Fey has a huge platform that influences the perceptions of millions of Americans, so her work has the potential to be a force for good when it speaks to a larger movement. But, Garber writes, “There is no ‘movement’ here. The joke is about seeing a problem in the world and turning inward in response. It’s about a kind of political introversion--

An introversion that is, as astute critics have pointed out, its own kind of privilege.”

Many Americans don’t have the privilege to turn a blind eye to the oppression they see and experience, so even if it wasn’t intentional, the message that this skit sends is damaging to movements toward social justice. Garber makes an excellent point that the concept of “sheetcaking” begs the question of just who should have a voice in conversations like the ones following Charlottesville. In this age of pop culture, Nina Metz argues that satire might not even exist anymore. The prevalence of social media means that we nearly always consume content that has been reposted with additional context -- rarely do we ever see the original, unfiltered message. According to Metz, satire loses its power when we see it alongside someone else’s analysis. This is particularly dangerous when the jokes in question are political. Satire that is open to interpretation always runs the risk of being taken the wrong way, and, as Metz says of Fey, “When they have an enormous platform and want to talk politics, the stakes are higher. The misses hit harder.” Here is yet another way that Tina Fey is similar to Taylor Swift -- their huge followings mean that their misinformed versions of feminism can have real consequences.

Of course, the REAL problem that all of these authors are hinting at is that Swift & Fey aren’t actually practicing feminism at all. In her article “Celebrity Feminists Have Problems, Too!” Kimberly Springer summarizes the damage that these women wreak with their message of individual empowerment at the expense of other women. She writes that pop culture feminism, “Makes it appear that feminism has won, leaving little room for thinking feminist politics as cyclic, actionable, and requiring vigilance.” Conveniently, we have a name for this idea:

POSTFEMINISM.

Jess Butler defines the boundary between feminism and postfeminism in terms of displacement. She writes, “Earlier feminist demands for equal rights, collective activism, and the eradication of gender inequality are taken into account and then displaced by the postfeminist ideals of individualism, choice, and empowerment.” (44) By implying that feminist goals have been achieved and a social movement is no longer necessary, postfeminist thinking prevents any forward progress from being made. This is why Taylor Swift and Tina Fey are judged so harshly -- they perform postfeminism on a national stage, and young women are taking note. 

Just as conversations about feminism often lack intersectionality, so too do examinations of postfeminism. Women of color are excluded from narratives about postfeminist ideas, which prevents a realistic view of the diverse ways that women engage with postfeminism. In order to study postfeminism well, WOC must be included in the conversation. This is the central idea in Butler’s text, “For White Girls Only?: Postfeminism and the Politics of Inclusion.” As women make advances toward goals of gender equality and sexual liberation, traditional hierarchies of race and gender shift to maintain white privilege despite these advances. Although they receive the most benefit from these social norms, white women aren’t the only ones who conform to them. Butler identifies famous WOC who, “embrace femininity and the consumption of feminine goods; they espouse a vocabulary of independence, choice, empowerment, and sexual freedom,” a criticism very similar to the ones we hear of Swift and Fey (48). Butler calls out Nicki Minaj in particular, noting that she profits by commodifying her sexuality for public consumption. 

Videos like the one for Anaconda play into stereotypical ideals of the black female body in order to get views. Is Nicki empowered in this video? Only she can say, but individual empowerment isn’t the point of feminism. It’s a textbook definition of postfeminism.

#feminism #pop culture #intersectionality #intersectional feminism #taylor swift #tina fey #white feminism #postfeminism #nicki minaj #anaconda #commodity feminism #commodification

[safflowerseason]

1. WW anon here - just started S6 and finally things are moving on the Josh/Donna front. On the one hand, he can be creepy and I sometimes want to shake her but on the other I love them. The show is definitely different post-Sorkin and while some things are worse, I like others better (e.g. the morality is less black and white while the relationships are more complicated)

2. WW anon - the show is definitely a product of its time in terms of diversity. Its now at the point where they've wasted two WOC: 1) Nancy - the later seasons' increased focus on foreign policy should be Nancy's time to shine but instead we get Kate (who no offence to the actress, is a bit bland). 2) Angela - I was so looking forward to Josh getting some real competition for his place as Leo's protégé, Donna's mentor and political strategist all star but alas she was sent off to Mandyville

I love hearing your takes! And I largely agree with this commentary. While Josh and Donna obviously don’t change overnight and some of their worst habits around each other remain in the post-Sorkin era, Sorkin would never have pushed their relationship the way that the Wells team did--he would have kept them in banter-y boss/secretary purgatory forever. And it is kind of refreshing to watch the show wrestle more seriously with the dark side of politics. I recently watched 3.08 where Sam gets all up on high horse about using soft money for Bartlet’s campaign, and it just felt so quaint and borderline silly. As you note, the show is twenty years old and it shows.  It’s interesting that you note the increased emphasis on foreign policy in the later seasons (a direct consequence of America’s early-00′s foreign policy quagmires), because I think one downside of the post-Sorkin years is that the foreign policy storylines are all pretty limp, especially after the S5 finale/S6 peace conference plotline. The foreign policy side of the show really devolves into boring serialization, like The West Wing got the CBS treatment and became NCIS-ified.

My best guess with the show’s introduction of Kate/Mary McCormack is that Anna Deavere Smith wasn’t available or interested in a bigger role on the show, and I’m certain the network wasn’t willing to pay her enough to make it worth her while. In another example concerning the diversity issue, it’s so evident now that the show’s lighting team clearly had no idea how to light Dulé Hill, especially in the earlier seasons. As for Angela Blake, I completely agree with you--it was great to see her disrupt the dynamic of the ensemble. One of the main producers of the post-Sorkin era of the show, Lauren S. Hissrich, spoke on the WW Weekly podcast about how their conscious strategy for S5 was to cycle through a series of guest roles (see also Josh’s upstart intern Ryan and Toby’s temporary assistant Marina), so I don’t think Angela Blake was ever supposed to be a permanent addition. This doesn’t excuse the show giving her the Mandy treatment, of course, or its general whiteness and lack of nuance when it comes to the issue of race in American politics. (If you’re interested, Michael Hyatt did an interview with The West Wing Weekly and it was really illuminating how she talked about her experience playing Angela Blake). 

Still, compared to the rockiness of S5, S6 is really where the post-Sorkin creative team settle into their creative stride. (I’m a bit of an S5 apologist, admittedly. I don’t think it’s nearly as bad as some fans make it out to be even though it does have some of the show’s worst episodes). 

#the west wing season six #the west wing season five

[onceuponamirror]

Opinions on POC in Riverdale?

on…their representation? treatment by writers or fans? i mean, this is a vague question, but i’ll answer it best i can! though, of course, i am not a person of color, so at the end of the day there are things i can’t speak to. 

i have certainly seen some comments from within the fandom that felt racially coded to me, but i’m not going to call out anything specific, particularly because i immediately closed the window and thus don’t have receipts anyway. 

but overall i haven’t noticed much within the fandom that was offensive or worrisome on this regard, though i don’t tend to venture out much into tags, etc. 

on the show itself, i think the most glaring issue with representation has been what they did to chuck clayton. 

i’ve been saying this for a while—they took a sweet, artistic character who was developed at a time when media really wasn’t diverse, and created as a response to his stereotypes. chuck’s original crux was about feeling pressure to be the perfect athlete vs. wanting to just be an artist. 

but there’s a post on the blog nerdsofcolor that talks about it better than i ever could/should, and i highly recommend it: [x]

i get that they needed a villain, but i’m still mad that they made it him.

as far as the rest….i mean riverdale is advertising a class war, above all, but obviously there are racial dynamics involved there too, though i don’t know if the writers are planning to explore that too. 

southside high is clearly way more diverse and i’m curious to see if that’s going to have more of a discussion—like, there have been a lot of lines about how riverdale is still a place stuck in the past. 

both with moose’s speech about homophobia or how many people are closeted in riverdale, and josie, early in s1, saying there was a lot of backlash to a black female mayor—

so it feels like they’re skirting a bit around the issue for now, but perhaps setting it up for a larger, more serious discussion about the prejudices that aren’t just class. hopefully, idk. 

and as to issues of screen time for poc/woc characters, i think that in s1, i’m going to give the benefit of the doubt that it came down to a short season with a large, time-consuming mystery. 

ross butler was often unavailable. josie was underused, but her episode was one of the best, and i think with her mother becoming shadier and shadier, her own storyline is set to step up and out of just showing up to do music, i think. 

tl;dr, i think that the riverdale writers are genuinely trying to create a diverse, representative show, but they haven’t quite figured out how take that past some of the progressive casting choices. 

however, i think we fairly can chalk some of that up to the lack of practical available time in s1, because the plot itself was such a heavy hitter. in s2 i’m looking forward to seeing how/if that changes—i mean, we’ve already seen reggie really step up more, he’s been in every episode thus far, etc. 

so…feeling optimistic. but again. i am not a person of color, and thus my opinion on these issues doesn’t mean as much. if i’m wrong on anything, please let me know! 

#social justice #representation #riverdale #chuck clayton #josie mccoy #reggie mantle #Anonymous

[backtothestart02]

To the Westallen Fandom...

So, in honor of all my followers (a majority of which is part of the westallen fandom), I just wanted to make a post about how much I appreciate you and how knowing all of you has changed my life.

Before The Flash, before getting sucked into the westallen fandom on Tumblr, I can honestly say there were parts of me that were very different. I wasn’t as well-informed about celebrities or what was going on behind-the-scenes, but that is the very least of what was different.

I’m not going to say I was ever racist, b/c I don’t believe I ever was, but I will say I was a little less appreciative of POC and WOC. I didn’t recognize how important representation is and how lacking women and WOC specifically is in media and television today. I didn’t notice when there were more white people or when men usually took up more screentime than usual. I knew it was more exciting when there was more diversity or more than one gender took up majority screentime, but I never took the time to think about why I felt that way. And I didn’t get why having an interracial couple was such a big deal. People were just people and couples were just couples. Screentime was occupied by whoever was necessary for the storyline. I didn’t question whether that could be wrong or necessary or if another character was more deserving or could offer something more interesting. And most importantly, I didn’t get how incredibly reflective this was of American society and culture in the present, the lack of representation and opportunities. It just completely never occurred to me, something which I’m kind of ashamed of now.

So much has changed though. I see the importance of women, WOC, and POC. Representation is a big deal, and it’s important. It’s amazing when it happens. It should keep happening, and Candice is a HUGE part of that happening. She recognizes that. She talks about it. She’s a hero for so many people b/c of it, and that is the absolute coolest.

Westallen is such a pure, good, healthy OTP. The way they are portrayed makes any interracial couple pique my interest elsewhere. Like, that is a TYPE for me now. WOC draws more interest for me, as does POC. Irl too I sit up more and pay attention when non-white issues raise up. I’m protective and defensive on their behalf. It is honestly incredible, and I have all of you to thank for this change me. So from the bottom of my heart, thank you.

In addition to this massive change in me is the fact that I feel so incredibly loved on here. For the most part, you guys just LOVE on me. You acknowledge how I think and feel and you credit my work. I feel like I’ve found a family on here in this fandom. It’s unlike anything I’ve ever felt in any other fandom. Every time I come on and talk to anyone really, it just feels like…I’m home. The support system is unreal. The happy and excitement and joy and enthusiasm over everything we discuss is indescribable the way it makes me feel. I don’t know who I’d be, how I’d think, or what my emotional health would be like. I can only hope that in exchange I’ve offered some of you some semblance of the same thing.

And NOW for some special shoutouts:

To @inksmudge - she was my first introduction to westallen fanfiction via her incredibly detailed spot-on better-than-canon headcanons that still blow my mind to this day. Also, she’s incredibly sweet. I’m thankful every day for having met her and wish her nothing but happiness.

To @valeriemperez - my strongest support, the westallen Stan that GETS me even if she doesn’t always agree w/ my opinions, the best beta I could ever hope for, an amazing friend, and an absolute inspiration in her personal life (not to mention her insane comics knowledge that forever fascinates me). She’s such a great calming force in the fandom. She plays peacemaker w/o even trying & she’s 100% successful every time imo. I do not know where I’d be w/o her.

To all the absolutely incredible WA fanfiction writers that not only read (& sometimes review) my fics, but sometimes also think it’s a great idea to be my friend: @irissswests @wanderer765 @latebarryallen @sophisticatedloserchick @inksmudge (again!) @mosylufanfic @minute42 @cbsnforeverandalways @trufflemores (& more!)

To an incredible WA vidder who also has become my friend: @cisco-iris

To all the people who reblog my posts and leave comments in my tags!!

To those even who always like my posts and tag nothing at all: @frogleggz @dawsey62 @waflashlover123 (& others whose names don’t quite come to mind, sry!!)

To those who’ve helped me brainstorm my fics (most of which I’ve already mentioned, but I’m sure others too!!)

To the inspirations I rarely talk with but still love: @iriswestallens @trufflemores @redstreaking @iwasalwaysaromantic

To the reviewers who became friends: @westallen94 (& others)

To those who recognize me: @theartofdreaming1 (& others)

To those who take my gif requests: @nikascott @valeriemperez

To those who challenge me: @westallenfun

To all of you, to everyone, you mean the world to me. You make my day, my week, my month, my year… You make it all worthwhile.

And for those I haven’t mentioned, you know who you are and you know I love and appreciate you. ESP my anons. God, where would I be without my fun, thirsty, supportive, INCREDIBLE anons??

Thank you from the bottom of my heart. Thank you for following. Thank you for giving and receiving. Thank you for supporting, defending, cheering me on. Thank you for sharing your life with me and really for just EXISTING. All of you make a difference in my life.

So truly, THANK YOU. ❤️

#THANK YOU #westallen fandom #all my love #I may update this as I remember more people

[theskies-areclear]

Bad post OP. You're missing the point entirely of the criticisms. While it is nice to go against the hyper femme ideal of Arab women, and it's absolutely wonderful when Fareeha is drawn as muscular and athletic. But there's also a point where drawing Fareeha as muscular crosses into caricature, and so many other P/M artists are guilty of that. The exaggerated hulk Pharah draws parallels with caricatures like the Mammy and Sambo, which are often used to disparage black and brown people.

(2/3) Also, it looks awfully suspicious when it’s the brown girl who always has to be the one who bucks the gender norms, but it’s never the white or pale girl who is depicted that way. It ties into the stereotype that black/brown women are manly and therefore, not worthy of love and admiration the same way white girls are. Don’t get me wrong, I love P/M, but you need to see where the woc who criticize this ship, are coming from on this.            

(3/3) Other than this, I agree with you on the toxic nature of the antis and agree that some of them go way too far and are looking to pick fights as well. But there are some legitimate criticisms within some of the arguments, and they are worth listening to, and examining in order to better improve the community of our ship and to make it welcoming for everyone who loves Phar/Mercy.            

——–

(background: anon is referring to this bad post)

First of all, let’s start at the last part. I would like to point out that is precisely the point I was trying to make. The criticisms do have validity and there are definitely discussions to be had, I just question the intent of some of those voicing them because they don’t seem to want, like you and I, to examine and improve the community but to tear it down. I know it makes me weary as hell and I haven’t ever been a direct target.

Onto your other notes, yes I do actually agree with you that some depictions do take it too far. For instance, giving her animal characteristics whilst Mercy often remains human holds a lot of unfortunate implications. I think the Hulk Pharah phenomenon becomes a problem when that’s all she is, like her personality, her sensitivity, and her passion is reduced to bumbling big non-verbal muscle. That’s just a case of people evaporating her character away for an aesthetic. Sometimes I feel that tumblr can get so caught up getting in on all that Diversity but lack substance so it comes across rather fetishising at times, like eerie empty faces smiling at you in an echo chamber of buzzwords. This is not specific to Pharah and Pharmercy though.

You will have to elaborate on the parallels to the Mammy and Sambo stereotypes for me because while I do know the former is like an often heavyset black woman non-character devoted to white people, I’m not too sure what constitutes the latter.

And yes, I do agree that Pharah does carry more of the burden to be Different. I don’t think it’s a good thing that Mercy does not have any though. Her’s is a different burden. I don’t like a majority of Mercy art because while even though they are technically good, the push to make her pretty and appealing can often take away from substance of character (kind of like the issue I take with Hulk Pharah but in a different direction). I don’t think it’s some kind of aspiration that we want Pharah to be subject to the same type of attention and objectification that Mercy gets. For example, my lovely experience the other day where I had to hear dudes talk about masturbating to her on team chat.

Which brings me to your last point and is the thing that I disagree the most with, of the stereotype of “black/brown women are manly and therefore, not worthy of love and admiration the same way white girls are”. I’ve already noted that I’m skeptical of the quality of the “love and admiration” Mercy gets for being the ow Hot Girl™. I also note in my original Bad Post is that I ofc don’t want this stereotype to be perpetuated - but you seem to have missed the part where I observe that this is not the message accompanied by a lot of these depictions. She is drawn “manly” but the artists often are painting this as something to be desired and admired.

It’s YOUR problem if you see a gender non-conforming woman and decide ah yes here is someone we must ridicule and find gross, this is a woman no one (*cough*no man*cough*) would want. And between you and me and the internet, I’ve had enough of that from my mum. Being a woc doesn’t exempt you from perpetuating patriarchal beauty standards.

I don’t think the most effective way to combat this stereotype is that we must never draw black/brown women as “manly” lest people think they are unlovable, but that we must break the idea that being a “manly” women is something unlovable. Also the idea that being “lovable” (which ngl in this context seems to be shorthand for “desirable by men” bc there’s no shortage of women in fandom lined up to swoon over Handsome Pharah) is something that a woman has to be in the first place.

Overall, I think the best way to move forward from here is to just give more thought to character, to substance, to society and it will show in your art. I don’t want people to shy away from gender non-conforming depictions of Pharah (bar yknow not crossing the line into racist caricature). I don’t think we tackle the restrictions woc have in their depictions by confining them to something else. Instead, I feel the burden should be on the Mercy depictions to become less generic so there isn’t such an undertone of otherness in their contrast.

You’re welcome to disagree with me, but I would appreciate that you posit other solutions to consider to these problems because there’s only so far just pointing out what’s wrong can go.

[angelfireeast]

SLEEPING ON DIVERSE TV SHOWS Sleeping or just fakes?

After the cancellation of several big diverse shows over the past few months I’ve seen many posts saying STOP SLEEPING ON DIVERSE TV SHOWS. I’m starting to think that sleeping on diverse tv shows isn’t the problem. There is just bunch of fakes on Tumblr who talk the big SJW ‘I’m all for diversity’ but really have no interest in actually watching anything with diversity in it. They don’t really want to watch anything other than white leading characters and the only gay characters they want to see are white gay men or hot white gay usually young women.

Just think of many different, creative, interesting and wonderful diverse tv shows we’ve had of late. Pitch something for the sports fans, Still Star-Crossed fulfill every period piece romance soul’s heart, Sense8 it’s got it all! The group turns family all wakes of life, gay, lesbian, trans, white, black, brown, mental health (depression), action drama you name it. The Get Down: music, coming of age story, all black cast, LGBT story, did I mention the music! Rosewood: crime show, Dr. Ken: comedy. The list goes on and on Sweet/Vicious, Underground, East Los High. Thinking even further back Almost Human: sci fi police drama exploring deep issues like slavery/free will/race issues in the form of robots & humans. There has been some really, really, really good shows made with good original ideas, doing something other that the standard cookie cutter tv series made with talented actors, great production values, and good writing. But in the end, they all get canceled for ‘low ratings’ and the excuse of it costs too much to film these shows. Then we get the ‘don’t sleep on this next show’ posts and ‘I wish we had more diversity on shows’ and ‘oh yeah I was going to watch that but it’s cancelled now’ and fan casts of diverse casts for shows getting reblogged and the posts about the idea of including POC and LGBT characters as such a great idea. Yet no watches every time a next and exciting show comes along...

Going back even further Rush Hour (Asian male lead, Black male lead, Mexican/Puerto Rican female lead and black supporting male with recurring female Asian character) and Selfie. Asian man as the lead in a romantic comedy as the romantic love interest to a white woman. How many shows are on tv with Asians women or men as the main leads right now? Elementary, Fresh off the Boat, Agents of Sheild that’s all I can think of. Rush Hour was not the greatest show ever but when was the last time you remember an Asian man and Black man co-star as leads and the leading lady not be white? Actually, have no white person headline the show? I can’t think of a time when that happened. Yes, some shows make it through and seem to be making a go of it, B99, Blackish, Fresh off the Boat, and Elementary. But so, so, so many get canceled and at higher and higher rate it feels like.

Let's also consider what happens in fandoms with diverse casts. People flip out when a black woman is treated as a romantic lead because they just can’t imagine themselves in her role. Look at Iris West on The Flash there is a whole crackship that was invented the moment the casting when was announced just to make a white woman (Caitlin Snow) to ship with the white male lead (Barry Allen). If you look in the fandom some of these crack shippers try to cut Iris out of her role on the show taking things from the comics and giving it to the white woman their want to ship with the white man. Even giving Iris’s comic book children to Caitlin Snow, making videos of grand moments of love between Iris & Barry literally cutting Iris out and pasting Caitlin over her. There is not one thing Iris has that fans don’t want to take and give to Caitlin. These shippers are fine if Barry is with any other white women they ship those ships but they have an unnatural hatred for Iris. Why? Because she’s black. People say they want diversity but when they get it and they don’t have a clear self-insert character they lose interest and even become enraged and turn nasty as the people I’m talking about here. A lot of hate directed at Iris West is people demanding the right to see themselves reflected in media - white fans demanding the right to see themselves reflected on screen by white woman who is then the hero’s lover/soul mate/hero herself. These people don’t get how stupid they sound demanding one of the few black women as respected loved leading lady be removed the screen because they don’t have enough white women to see themselves EVERYWHERE ELSE. I’ve seen this damn for white girls to see themselves on tv BS more than once in the Flash fandom. It’s just so absurd.

I think that has lot to do with a lot of people who think they aren’t racist until there is a black woman in a leading role instead white woman and suddenly people don’t know what to do with themselves because suddenly when tested they are big racist. It doesn’t come out pure racist hate like what I’m talking about above. It comes out as ‘I just don’t like her. I don’t have a reason I just don’t like her’ and for others, it just is a complete lack of interest in anything without white lead to be self-insert. These people don’t think they are racist but they grow up in a racist society full of white privilege that they are so used to everything being white and their way that can’t put themselves in a mindset of not having everything be 100% white even as they sit and claim to want diversity. So shows like Pitch and Still Crossed don’t appeal to white women who claim they would love to see woc in leading roles. Yeah, leading roles but just not this leading role or that leading role. Maybe the best friend to the white lead. When black men are the male leads it still troubles people, just look at the star wars fandom, but they will just pick any white man and project onto his character. Men of color are less of a problem because the fandom just pushes them aside to replace with white character male or female (like Supergirl, Star Wars and others). 

For Elementary managing to make it through not getting canceled it has all the diversity Tumblr fake SJW claim to want. A woman is leading role, treated as equal, not reduced to love interest or sex symbol. A woman who isn’t white! Mental illness and addiction storylines have given constant dues within the story, Trans character played by trans actor. Diverse cast with New York full of diverse people as opposed to *cough*BBCSherlock*cough*superwhiteLondon*cough*. Yet what do I see all over Tumblr? People attacking the show as anti processive because if it was really processive it would have made Sherlock and Watson gay together in a romantic storyline. Vile hatred directed at female Watson existing, racism at Asian woman playing Watson, people who just want to ship two white men together and are pissy about Elementary existing so Elementary is the only Sherlock Holmes drama to be left out graphics and posts about the many SH movies and tv series. And so, so, so many people who say...’Oh I just don’t want to watch Elementary even though it has everything I claim to want into tv shows. All the fan casts I reblog and rants about more women and poc in starring roles...but for some reason that I can’t put my finger on I just don’t want to watch it’s just not my cup of tea.’

So I’m tired of fake people with their fake calls for diversity.  Beyond tired of people who call for female lead comic book movies and diversity in comic book movies only to turn and try to BP against WW and JL against BP and so on. People who bitch and bitch and bitch only wanting diversity but it turns out to be very the select diversity. I really think there is less sleeping going on and more fake people who don’t realize that racism is driving their viewing choices. Part of me thinks if they would simply turn the shows on they would see how amazing they are and would watch. But another part of me thinks of DCtv fandom and thinks no these are people who don’t get racism is a thing you work on every day to destroy because it’s so built into everything you have to choose to see it, acknowledge your own failings and do better. People can’t acknowledge they might not be perfect.

#still star scrossed #iris west #pitch #almost human #Sense8 #the get down

[thischicklits]

Hi! I am currently writing a romance novel in which the main characters are both women. One of the characters I've already decided will be Black, and I originally intended for the other woman to be white, but now I'm thinking of writing her as POC. I don't think I should make her Asian because I've decided that she is the type to work hard and pull all nighters for straight A's, which I think could reinforce the 'all asians are smart' stereotype. What's your advice?

Hi Anon! You’re my firstmessage, I’m so happy! Hurrah! Kudos to you for adding more diversity to yourromance novel.

So, I’m not an expert onanti-Asian racism, but I’d love to help you figure out how to make this work. 😊I think stereotypes become a big problem when they are stand-insfor well-rounded characters, or throw-away qualities that don’t connect to thestory. This is my advice on how to explore your concept further:

Research what other people are saying about Asian representation, and stereotypes. A great place to start is Writing With Color’s Smart Asian tag, but you can also try interviews, podcasts, and youtube vlogs. Remember, Asia is pretty big, so there will be different stereotypes and challenges for different groups. On top of that, like anyone else, Asian people may immigrate and grow up in different cultures that may also influence them.

Don’t let readers attribute herintelligence to her race: I’m prettysure I don’t need to tell you this, but think about ways you can disallowreaders to attribute her intelligence to something in her DNA. Show me how she ‘earns’those smarts: the all-nighters, the highlighters in her purse, the audiobooksshe listens to when she runs.

Give her purpose: Instead, give readers an explanation for her hardwork/intelligence that is not simply her culture/family. Maybe she is up for apromotion, or trying to land a big account, or is trying to get into gradschool or keep a scholarship. Maybe she is a WOC in a field where she has towork twice as hard to get noticed/rewarded.

Make her well-rounded: Yay for character sketches! Ok, you don’t have to use character sketches, quizzes, snowflakes or otherwriting techniques. But you should start thinking about her other qualities,hobbies, interests, approach to life and philosophy on love. Being smartshouldn’t be her be-all-end-all.

Connect it to the plot: I read a book where a woman was a chess-playing math whiz –sure, those traits broke a stereotype, but they never connected back to themain plot or influenced the character’s actions. It felt like a cheap trick. Justlike with everything else you put in your story, it has to be there for areason. If her intelligence is important, then show me how it influences the storyyou’re trying to tell (does her love interest find it attractive, does it helpher resolve a conflict, does it make her discover something that puts her relationship at risk…)

Is every Asian character smart?: How are you portraying her Asian family/friends/coworkers? Theycan’t all be smart! And how do they react to her intelligence – are they proudof her, do they find her difficult to speak/relate to, do they worry about herworking too hard?

Consider other fields: I think Asian intelligence is often associated with the STEM fields,but she can also be an entrepreneur, lawyer, fashion designer, journalist, chef, orkindergarten teacher.

Be willing to hit reset: You’re in first draft stage, no shame in starting from scratch!If you’re still considering other backgrounds, maybe try picking what her fieldis, getting a better understanding of where the lack of representation is, and trying to apply the above topoints to your new character.

Write! Ah, the advice everywriter hates. 😝 Try writing a few scenes to get a sense of yourcharacters and how they interact, and tweak as you go until it feels like atrait and not a trope. Don’t be too judgmental on your first draft – no oneever has to see it, and this is where you refine in it, in private, until it is fit for human consumption.

I’m excitedfor you! You’re asking the right questions, and will only get more curious fromhere. Remember, I’m always here if you need a pep talk or someone to vent to. Idon’t have to publish every message I get 😉

Best of luck!

[todisturbtheuniverse]

So, we’ve finished the game, and now I’m just going to run through a list of pros and cons. YMMV, obviously.

Pros

It’s pretty. It’s not perfectly pretty, probably because it’s still a fairly big game with some customization, so depending on the armor Aloy is wearing, her hair clips through it sometimes. Minor grievance. Overall, still pretty.

Fun/intuitive combat system. Highlights for me were the stealth abilities, picking off enemies one by one, overriding machines, gaining the ability to shoot off specific machine parts (like laser guns!) and using them against said machines. Particularly useful against the Thunderjaw (aka, robot t-rex).

The story appealed to me: the mystery of the old ones running alongside the mystery of Aloy’s birth and the present machine threat, and how it all ties together.

There were a lot of POC in this game, and most of the memorable, major/important characters were POC. There’s a glaring exception to that, but I’ll talk about that under cons. Varl, Sona, Avad, Talana, Vanasha, Sylens--all memorable, all in positions of power, all people of color, and not just ambiguous-brown but with distinctive Black, Asian, Middle-Eastern features. Even the Old World, revealed piece-by-piece in the metal ruins, reveals a diverse population in positions of power; many of the individuals who worked on Project: Zero Dawn were people of color. Samina, who was educated in Iran and wears a hijab, stood out in particular.

On that note, the game also had a ton of POC voice actors. Good to see diversity in the recording booth, too.

Entertaining side quests that weren’t just fetch quests.

Cons

I don’t have any major technical issues with the game, but minor things: the quest path marker, which usually shows you the quickest route to actually go somewhere, is generally good. Sometimes, though, when you have to go up or down a level, it’s not so good--doesn’t lead you to the stairs, and stairs can be hard to find in this game, so you end up running around in the dark in Meridian for like twenty minutes trying to find the stupid side quest marker. In terms of combat, you can’t change which shoulder Aloy is shooting off of, which isn’t the end of the world but is occasionally annoying.

Aloy is white. I feel pretty strongly that this is the game’s biggest issue. She comes off as a white savior: sauntering through both the Sacred lands and the Sundom, fixing all the problems that their rulers (the Matriarchs, the Sun-King) and citizens cannot fix for themselves. There’s a seriously cringe-worthy moment where Vanasha, who has been undercover in the Shadow Carja hub for two years to organize a difficult operation, is not thanked by the Sun-King Avad who benefits from her work; instead, he thanks Aloy, the white woman who hopped on to help at the last minute. The really dumb thing is that I think this could have been pretty easily fixed: make both Aloy and Elisabet Sobeck women of color. (They both must be, since Aloy is a clone of Sobeck.) That way, a WOC saves both the old world and the new.

The language issue. “Braves,” “savages,” etc. etc.--these have specific connotations in our real world that cannot be ignored. I don’t think “brave” to refer to a warrior is a slur, but it feels at least tone-deaf, and at worst like appropriation to use it to apply to warriors of a people who are not Native American. I’m not as turned-off by the use of “tribe,” since it has much older uses. The game’s narrative director commented on the backlash, such as it was, against the term “brave,” and while I understand his intention, he needs to better consider his impact. Dia Lacina, who is Native, wrote a good piece on the issues; just don’t go into the comments section.

White people with dreadlocks. I don’t think I even need to go into why that’s a problem.

Neither here nor there

Plot spoilers, but this is noteworthy: the guy who brought about the ruin of civilization--not once, but twice--is an old white man. Or a middle-aged white man? It’s hard to assess how old Faro is based on those holograms you find. If they had stopped at once, I would’ve said this is a pro, because historically, this is definitely the person who would destroy civilization because his arrogance allowed a number of oversights in this line of robots manufacturing--and a ton of other smart (and diverse) people had to come in and clean up his mess. 

But they should have locked this guy up, to prevent him from doing anything else in the name of his misunderstood genius. They didn’t, and he got a second chance to ruin things. There is a really awful moment where APOLLO--the most intensive archive of the world’s knowledge that has ever existed, built to last until new humanity emerges from the ashes--is destroyed by Faro. 

This is especially awful because the person who built APOLLO is a woman of color, Samina Ebadji. The swarm has overrun the Earth, these Alphas who built GAIA and all its sub-routines are still working away, locked in their underground bunker and trying to make sure humanity has a shot in a thousand years, and this guy has the gall to destroy their hard work. Faro’s reasoning is that knowledge is a poison, and it’s going to kill humanity all over again if they get their hands on it, just like he did. 

Except that humanity, in its last gasp of existence, built this amazing thing with their knowledge, an amazing thing that would give humanity a chance to exist again someday, so really, it’s just him (and the people like him) who are the problem. 

Anyway. Then he vents the room all the Alphas are sitting in and they all die, and we have no idea what happens to Faro himself after that. Surely he’s going to pop up in a sequel and ruin more things.

I would have liked to see Faro be punished for his first transgression, not...coddled, I guess. He’s bullied into funding Zero Dawn (GAIA and all its subroutines, basically) by Sobeck, but as far as we can tell, that’s the only retribution he receives for creating a robot apocalypse. He’s kept around, “managed” by Sobeck, even after the swarm has overrun the Earth and the fragment that remains of humanity is underground...leave that guy out for the robots. Don’t put him where he can fuck everything up again.

Overall

I think this could have been a kind of revolutionary game, honestly, with a few tweaks. Maybe the main plot would still be pretty basic--man creates machine, machine turns on him and everybody else, must fight the machine, etc--but it would be told with new people, people of color in particular, at the helm. As it is, it’s fun, entertaining, interesting...but it didn’t take the extra step it needed to become something really brand-new.

I’ve seen a lot of in-text-based defense for the language and the style of the game. Pretty much everything but the dreadlocks can be explained with an in-text reason, I guess. But the game doesn’t exist in a vaccuum. It’s played by people who live in the real world, where words are not a blank slate and instead carry historical baggage. That’s the perspective that so many game designers seem to lack.

#universe plays horizon #horizon spoilers

[patheticphallacy]

IT’S MAY Y’ALL. Even though I’ll still be doing blog posts in May, it’s not going to be as hectic, as I finally finished my second year of university and have decided to take it easy after a very packed April.

I’m also doing things a little different with my wrap up this month by getting rid of star ratings. I watched a video on it, and I just feel like I’d rather people go by my actual comments on the books than look at the rating and decide that covers all my thoughts. I still have star ratings on Goodreads for my own personal use, but I’m doing my best to start writing proper summaries of my thoughts from now on!

READING WRAP UP

  Tropic of Serpents by Marie Brennan– a solid follow up to the first book, although there’s a startling lack of dragons in a series about a dragon naturalist! Definitely go into this one expecting a lot more politics than book 1, and Isabella starting a lot of Drama.

The Elementals by Michael McDowell– such an amazing horror novel! McDowell is so underrated for a writer who wrote predominantly in the seventies and eighties, and it’s so tragic how young he died. 

Princess Jellyfish Volume 1 by Akiko Higashimura– such a disappointing read. It’s really problematic, to the point where it drastically impacted my enjoyment of the plot, especially when I’ve got so many other more recent manga I could be enjoying more than this. 

Fullmetal Alchemist Volume 8 by Hiromu Arakawa– speaking of next tier manga… holy shit. I am so scared of volume 9 and finishing this series, it’s meant so much to me and it’s really helped me immerse myself fully in reading manga. 

Lumberjanes Volume 9 by Shannon Watters– Barney is a precious precious bean and I love them! This is a roller derby volume, and it was pretty great: I’ve been a fan of roller derby since I first watched Whip It, and this volume was super entertaining!

Lumberjanes Volume 10 by Shannon Watters– wholesome volume where the parents come to visit their kids. I do feel really sad for Molly, but it was nice seeing everyone else’s parents! 

Lumberjanes: A Midsummer Night’s Scheme by Nicole Andelfinger– this was a fun bonus one shot comic. However, it does get very cheesy and it’s whole message is just so obvious  that them explaining it was very much unneeded. 

Smut Peddler Volume 1 by Various Authors– this is a fun anthology of smut comics that I super enjoyed reading. E.K. Weaver’s comic is by far my favourite, and it’s only after I realised that it was a one shot about a character in her webcomic! 

Rumple Buttercup BY Matthew Gray Gubler– a very cute children’s graphic novel about loving yourself and finding acceptance! 

Smut Peddler Volume 2 by Various Authors– this wasn’t as good as volume 1, but I still read it really quickly and had a fun time looking at the different art styles and methods of story telling!

Dream Daddy by Various Authors– there are so many good moments in this comic, it’s so great. Highly recommend if you’ve played the game, and if you haven’t, check it out, it’s real fun! Damien and Robert’s issue was by far my favourite as they were my favourites in the game too.

Tokyo Ghoul Volume 5 by Sui Ishida– finally, I’m starting to enjoy Tokyo Ghoul. It took a while this volume to actually understand what the hell was happening, but once I did, it really did become something I enjoyed.

Rick and Morty VS Dungeons and Dragons by Patrick Rothfuss– A decent enough read, although there is way too much dialogue and exposition on every page. The font is really small, too, so reading it was a hassle. 

Meddling Kids by Edgar Cantero– this book was actually terrible and I have a whole review discussing my issues and how harmful it is!

Jackass! Volume 1 by Scarlet Beriko– This is a funny, sweet manga about fetishes and blackmail. It has an age gap romance between an 18 year old and a doctor, and there is some transphobic bullying/weird treatment of bullying being okay if the person has a crush on you, but the main relationship is great, and the MC has a really lovely relationship with his older sister. 

Batwoman: Elegy by Greg Rucka– Chronicles the Alice Batwoman arc from Detective Comics, as well as giving the backstory for Kate. It’s so great having a badass DC hero who is a lesbian, whose storyline also touches on homophobia in the ‘don’t ask don’t tell’ era of the military. Glad I finally got to this!

Sparrowhawk #5 by Delilah S Dawson– a really disappointing series conclusion overall. I knew I should’ve just stopped reading after the first issue and I wasn’t feeling it, and I honestly wish I had after such a dissatisfying conclusion. Others may enjoy this, but it really wasn’t for me.

Assassination Classroom Volume 1 by Yusei Matsui— an amazing series starter! Already really moving with a teacher who spends all his time encouraging his students despite being a threat to the entire world they have to kill within the year. I have a feeling this will become a new favourite.

I’ll Be Gone in the Dark by Michelle McNamara– really great non-fiction read written by a journalist who played a massive part in the resurgence of talk surrounding the Golden State Killer. You also get some of her life story, and by the end I was almost in disbelief that the author had already died by the time her work was published. I will say it did drag at points, especially in the parts not written by McNamara that had to be finished after she died, but overall a really thorough look into the cases and the victims.

The Woods Volume 5 by James Tynion IV– this series is- dare I say it- picking up? I still have issues with the representation and the fact that most of the main characters to have died, especially in this volume, were POC while the white characters are in the exact same situation and survive. Will have to see if this carries on. 

Backwards & In Heels by Alicia Malone– this started off strong, and I found out so much about women in film and their presence in the industry since the creation of film in the 1800’s. However, by the end it got so repetitive and formulaic in the way information was presented that I started skimming. This is more of a coffee-table, occasional-read book when you fancy learning more about amazing women! Also, even though there is diverse rep and talk of lack of hiring of WOC and LGBT+ women in the industry, we also get the author praising white women earlier on in the book who took on roles where they did blackface and yellowface, which really dulled down the conversation in the latter half of the book. 

My Love Story!! Volume 6 by Kazune Kawahara– so GOOD. I got so emotional reading this volume, I ended up crying. This is by far one of my favourite manga series, I can’t recommend it enough. It follows tough-but-soft boy Takeo as he enters into a relationship with Yamato, cutest girl in the universe, with the support of his best friend Suna. Truly the PEAK of romantic comedy fiction. 

When the Sky Fell on Splendor by Emily Henry– emotional, hardhitting read about a group of friends who end up with superpowers after discovering a strange alien object. It’s very reminiscent of the film Super 8 in my head, and if you love stories about not only aliens but found families through friendship, highly recommend!

The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle– I just don’t think Sherlock Holmes is for me. I love the retellings and adaptations, and in theory, I’m invested in the murder mysteries, but I just think Doyle’s prose weighs it down and there’s always that underlying racism I don’t think is appropriate to even attempt to shake. 

And my May TBR Jar pick is…. MY HEART GOES BANG by Keris Stainton!

TV SHOWS/MOVIES/VIDEOS

At the start of the month, I started bingeing Dead Meat videos, a channel entirely revolving around horror. My personal favourite series is the Saw kill count videos, and the movies that changed horror podcast episode James (the host) does with his girlfriend Chelsea (who is amazing)!

I finally watched season 2 of Stranger Things! I adore Steve, as always, and it was such a solid season (BOB). However I did have an issue with the needless rivalry that festered with Elle towards Max, season 3 better sort that and stop pitting girls against each other for no reason other than because of boys.

Zoe from Read by Zoe was on FIRE this month with some really great read-a-thon videos! I loved her 24 read-a-thon vlog especially, she read only books she enjoyed growing up and it all felt really nostalgic.

This is very much a personal one, but my favourite streamer returned to a podcast with the company he used to work for, and it was just…. so heartwarming to watch. I can’t believe he left four years ago! I’ve been watching this company since I was about fourteen, so it was so nice watching this, a long-awaited reunion.

Kat at paperbackdreams did an amaaaaazing video rant reviewing After by Anna Todd, and I loved it. In general Kat is a top tier booktuber for me, I highly recommend her videos as much as I can!

MUSIC I’VE ENJOYED

Pressure by The 1975

Old Town Road Remix by Lil Nas X, Billy Ray Cyrus

The Black and White and I Spend Too Much Time in My Room by The Band CAMINO

I Got 5 On It  (Tethered Mix From US) by Michael Abels, Luniz, Michael Marshall

Soldiers (From Stranger Things) by Kyle Dixon, Michael Stein

REVIEWS I POSTED

Three Romance Reviews: Kulti, The Hating Game and Sunstone

The Elementals Book Review

Meddling Kids Book Review

OTHER POSTS I’VE DONE 

Spring Cleaning Book Tag

Film Friday: Favourite Campus Films

Getting Through Exam and Essays: ADVICE

DISCUSSION: Reading at University, and how I do it!

Music Monday: OMG This Song Book Tag

Top Ten Tuesday: Rainy Day Reads

Top Ten Tuesday: First Ten Books I Ever Reviewed on Goodreads

  April Wrap Up & May TBR Jar Pick IT'S MAY Y'ALL. Even though I'll still be doing blog posts in May, it's not going to be as hectic, as I finally finished my second year of university and have decided to take it easy after a very packed April.

#blog #book review #movies #music #reading #reading wrap up #tv shows #videos #wrap up

[mateotorrezjr]

again, but better → christine riccio

special shoutout to st. martin’s press via netgalley for providing me with a copy of the book to review, all thoughts expressed in the following discussion are my own.

if i were a person that used half stars, i find that this is a book that would a perfect time to utilize them. as it stands, i don’t, and while from a purely objective standpoint this is a solid three star book, i don’t rate books objectively. i rate them from a purely subjective standpoint based solely on my enjoyment, and so i had to settle on a solid two stars.

before i descend into a ramble i want to acknowledge that i don’t think it’s inherently wrong for an author to draw on their own personal lives for a character, in my opinion while this is a novel it does teeter on the edge of semi autobiographical. i don’t even think that it’s wrong for a book to serve as wish fulfillment for an author or for a protagonist to be any kind of analog for an author. it gets into a weird territory when you can start to draw those connections perhaps, but to judge the whole of the book in that way i do believe to be a mistake. my relationship to the author, as tangential as it is as i haven’t watched her youtube content regularly in a few years, is not universal and there are plenty of readers that won’t come to this story with the same baggage that i did. if there was anything about the self-insert, semi autobiographical nature of the book it was the use of references. for a bulk of the novel the references seemed to be used entirely to make the reader that the book was taking place in 2011, it felt more like a crutch and one that riccio refused to abandon as the book went on. judging by how lackluster the bulk of the descriptions we did get i can understand why the references were used as a crutch. i’m not sure that at this point the “world building” could have been strong enough without that reliance. if the second half of the novel is anything to go by, even when presented a second chance to fix some of the lackluster descriptions the opportunity wasn’t seized.

part of the reason i felt like i needed to keep this in two star territory and not simply round up to a three were the characters. not so much individual arcs, but i found that our supporting players were never quite utilized an any kind of meaningful way? they existed seemingly as afterthoughts, which is kind of insulting as they do serve as some of the books only “diversity”. first we have shane’s roommates during her semester abroad in london; sahra and babe. babe is described as “dark skinned and curvy”, i’ve seen at least one person label babe as a black woman, and if further description of babe is provided in the book i can’t recall anything other than a mention of her hair being thick and curly. i feel like descriptions like this don’t do any service in terms of representation as “dark skinned” can refer to a multitude of ethnicities and racial identities. sahra is described as tan, and that’s about it. her name coupled with the fact that her family went on a trip to lebanon at some point in the past i assume that she’s middle eastern, but it’s never confirmed and furthermore neither of these characters are all that instrumental in shane’s life. there’s a throw away line about babe becoming her best friend, but all of those sort of references are made off the page and we rarely get to see those moments. they do get to share pleasant moments of general getting along, but nothing that would make me believe they were anything ever than simply pleasant with one another. what bothered me most about these two characters specifically if they were meant to be woc, is that both of them have moments where they are seemingly antagonistic toward shane for seemingly no reason, both times for pure shock value.

the novel also includes atticus, a gay asian [ nothing more specific is ever given to my recollection. so whether he is japanese or mongolian or vietnamese is a complete mystery to me ] and he is only ever included in minor moments of even far less significance than the ladies. presumably because the novel isn’t from pilot’s, atticus’ roommate and the love interest of the story, perspective. there is a second gay character, but he is by far and away the least important character in the story and his coming out is shoehorned in at the very end of the book in a way that feels more like a deleted scene that forgot to be removed. there is a black woman at shane’s internship, but her not getting an arc wasn’t an important to me given that she wasn’t really an important character to the story in the same way that babe and sahra could have been.

now i want to discuss the plot twist of the book that happens just before 50 percent of the way through the book, without getting too spoilery. simply put i don’t think that it was at all necessary. if anything i think that the later half, particularly the parts written between 65 – 80ish percent of the way through the book were by far and away the weakest of the novel. not only because we were retreading ground that we had already traveled, but really at no point did it feel as though any of our characters had grown.

in the interest of fairness some of the character have an excuse for the staticness of their arcs, this was a novel that was really never interested in making those characters three dimensional and was really only interested in one of the two leads. that said even they didn’t seem to have grown in a way that i think would have made sense given the circumstances. when you take into consideration shane’s goals the fact that she remains so static becomes even more painfully obvious.

shane as a character herself was also really painful to read at times during this novel. part of me feels that if you don’t fine shane interesting and compelling by the time you get to the plot twist the second half of the book doesn’t really offer you anything you can’t assume will happen, there’s very little reward for sticking through it once you’ve reached that point. that aside, shane for so much of the novel seemed to be pushing the blame for certain actions off of herself and onto the shoulders of various other characters. particularly in the first half of the novel. there’s an instance where she meticulously planned and coordinated a lie and then when confronted tried to play it off like it was an accident or she hadn’t meant to do it. i don’t think that the story really ever dealt with that situation, or even what would have been the fallout following the plot twist?

another thing i think the book failed to do was describe anything well. it never crossed into white room syndrome, i did typically have a general understanding of the layout and some of the key furniture or flooring, but there was general lack of depth. the book is set in london, but there are moments that take place in rome, paris, edinburgh, and new york city. all of these cities have distinct flavor and vibe to them, that riccio utterly failed to capture. i’m not even sure that it was a goal of the writing, and i do feel like it hurt. the setting all sort of blurred together. in terms of settings i think riccio relied on landmarks to really do the heavy lifting without thinking through how these setting could play into the story she wanted to tell in a way that was important to the narrative.

at times i found the dialogue to be clunky. mostly that a lot of it seemed to be 1) a reference to something or 2) something that could have been in any straight to dvd teen rom com situation. some of the clunkier moments were when riccio was trying to subvert a popular ya cliche. the first being a riff on the “i let out a breath i didn’t know i was holding,” line that was honestly just whatever, nothing to offense. what really made me decide that it was clunky was a line later that’s an extended scene and conversation about that big romcom moment in entertainment where two love interests have a conversation that builds to a sort of iconic tattoo worthy word like “always” or the “okay, okay” moment from tfios that ends in the most ridiculous way. to be fair, it wasn’t the worst thing i’d ever read, in the grand scheme of things for some people that moment will work. it didn’t click for me, and it’s one of the easier moments to point to and not the countless conversations that obviously occur over the course of a novel that didn’t click. y’know?

riccio also made the decision to include postcards written to shane’s parents and her journal entries, and while i do think that at times they help to make shane a more well rounded character, at least more in comparison to the characters. but i found that these journal entries were another crutch to breeze through aspects of the story that honestly should have been far more fleshed out. i feel like this approach was taken to better facilitate this plot twist that i don’t think was entirely necessary. a book can only be so long, and the way that this narrative was chosen to be told, you have to make concessions and unfortunately i’m firmly in the camp that this same story could have been told without it and that the story could have even been better without it.

how many times can i sneak that sentiment into this discussion?

it’s hard to talk about the cheating that takes place in this book without going into spoilers, but i’ll do my best to. the cheating aspect was one of the many things that halted me from becoming fully invested in this romance. i was also partially not into it because for at least the first half of the novel i think that it was really easy for a reader to see as very one sided. i don’t know if that’s me being a dumb bitch, or me being stuck in shane’s head where her running commentary and anxieties. after the first 25% i was really convinced that this mutual attraction thing wasn’t all that mutual. even when i was back on board i thought that it was very strange that shane would continue to pursue a relationship with someone that was already in another relationship, and at one point in the novel she laments about how upset she was that the dude didn’t cheat on his girlfriend with her? it’s something that’s completely and totally irrational. i think that the narrative casually ignores the fact that after the plot twist shane is technically not in a position to be pursuing a relationship. ignoring isn’t the right word, it’s acknowledged, but still tossed aside in favor of resting on the fact that because of the plot twist it changes things. it’s a very nuanced situation, and one that i don’t think that this book was honestly not prepared or wanting to handle. it’s serious ethical conversation that most ya contemporary novels aren’t trying to tackle. it’s okay. just don’t introduce them. pilot’s girlfriend is also firmly in stock character, total plot device status. we literally get to know nothing about her. also just not a fan of this idea that after three months you should be completely in love with someone or the relationship is a failure, like, i feel like that’s not the message. i also feel like the book send a weird message about pursuing people already in a relationship, that if you have a crush on someone that is with someone it can work out for you and you can get a happily ever after with them. it’s very complicated like i said, and honestly not the type of conversation this book is capable of handling.

i had a lot of issues with this book, if you are interested in my live reactions and thoughts about things i did livetweet it, so you can check that out here. i tried to keep this review centered on the larger issues that i had with the narrative. i’m almost positive thought that few of the pettier critiques i had slipped in, and i wouldn’t be surprised if i was more than a little repetitive.

all of that said though, i objectively don’t see this book as terrible. if nothing else i was compelled to finish the book, it was really easy to read and so it never felt like a chore to continue despite the fact that shane was constantly annoying me and the narrative was constantly failing to utilize it’s whole cast of characters. as i’ve stated there’s nothing inherently bad about this story. despite the fact that i’ve given it such a low rating, i do think that there are people that won’t have the same issues that i did. i don’t think that this book is for everyone, that said i think that it’s also really easy to tell if it’s not for you and even if it’s not if you do manage to get to the end i don’t think that it feels like a waste of time. as aggravated as i became that the narrative wasn’t living up to the full potential, i can’t deny that some small part of me was at least pleasantly entertained by the mess that i was watching unfold. it’s a book that while can’t support the conversations that it sparks, it does spark discussion and i think that’s certainly better than a book that exists simply as matter in the universe.

#again but better #book review