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incorrecttowerofgodquotes · 1 year

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How Season 3 Upped Tower of God’s Queer Undertones; or why Khun is definitely gay

KhunBam shipping is wide spread in the fandom. The amount of shipping ramped up due to the release of the anime, but it’s always been a long standing and popular ship, even compared to half-canon Bam pairings like Endorsi, Yuri, and Ehwa.

First off, is the direct connection of Bam and Khun’s relationship to Roen and Daniel’s, and Dowon and Cha’s, both canonically romantic ships. And looking at the three relationships, there’s a common theme of one side losing the other.

Daniel lost Roen due to White, and spent the next 600 hundred years searching for ways to bring her back. Cha lost Dowon when she was sealed away inside the wall, and Cha went on a rampage against Jahad’s forces before being sealed himself. Meanwhile, both Khun and Bam have experienced the same loss.

After believing Bam died on the Floor of Tests, Khun sought revenge for 7 whole years despite only knowing Bam for a few months. And when Khun enters a coma, Bam is so enraged that he immediately cuts off and threatens Rachel, who he had previously been decently cordial to. Bam also ends up changing his appearance in a way that is reminiscent of Khun’s.

During Season 3, a lot of focus is placed Khun’s relationship with Bam. Multiple characters call him out for being overprotective of him, and Khun’s very first words when waking up from his two-year coma were “Where am I? Where’s Bam?”

During the Wall of Peaceful of Coexistence, Khun and Bam end up exchanging some dialogue that could be taken as flirting when facing down a Ranker. (Which Rak directly calls out at flirting in the original Korean text)

Khun even winks to Bam in a playful manner, which wouldn’t mean much of anything if it was Endorsi or Yuri, but considering’s Khun’s personality, it’s pretty weird that he did so.

There’s also the very infamous hug scene between the two. Of course, since I’m not a straight man, I don’t have complete authority over whether this is a normal hug or not. (If anything I think men should be more intimate and open with each other than society says they should.) However the panel composition focuses on Khun tenderly patting his head while Bam somewhat snuggles into his chest. The scene feels very intimate, like the two are separated in their own world. It’s only after we get the scene break with White looking on (and licking his lips) that the viewer remembers that the two are in the middle of what was just a battlefield seconds ago.

However, this is where we’ll have to get to the darker parts of this relationship. Strictly speaking, Khun’s over dependence on Bam.

We got hints of this in Season 2, specifically in the conversation between Khun and Evan on the Hell Train. Khun states that Bam is his reason for continuing on. This connects to his talk with Rak in Season 1 where he stated that the reason why he’s going up the tower is in order to find his purpose, which he then receives from Bam’s reliance on him to help Rachel go up the tower.

Khun strikes me as a codependent person even though he tries to hide it. Bam is so important to him that he’ll intentionally put himself in harms way or follow Bam’s orders even if he doesn’t agree. While this was okay in the first two seasons, Khun’s obsession has started to taint the relationship. He directly helped White gain his power back without talking to Bam about it and lied about Arkraptor and Prince’s fates in order to keep Bam moving (but then again we don’t know what Wangnan said to him so he might have just gotten the wrong info.)

These actions seem to stem from Khun’s anxieties that Bam will eventually leave him one day. He even states he feels guilty leaving Bam alone for the two years he was in a coma despite the fact that the entire situation wasn’t his fault. While Khun shared some of these thoughts with Bam on the Hell Train, he hasn’t actually talked about it with Bam, leading to buildup of these feelings on inadequacy. It’s only a matter of time before he eventually fucks up majorly.

In a way, Khun and Bam’s relationship sorta mirrors Yasratcha and Wangwang’s. Both Wangwang and Bam have a special power and the ability to stand against the abusive powers that reign over them. Meanwhile Khun and Yasratcha just want to live a normal life with their loved one and will do anything to keep it that way.

Hopefully Khun will receive a wake up call before things get too bad, and he and Bam can have a proper conversation about each other’s wants and needs.

As of right now, Season 3 has ended with the two separated and dealing with different, but also similar, issues. Bam is being forced to marry a woman without either of their consent by Traumerei, who seeks to add him to his collection. Khun is being kept as a pet “cat” by Bellerir because of his looks, with specific mention of selling him out to rich men and women.

There’s a clear link between Bam and Khun’s situations, explicitly in a way that takes away their autonomy for a “romantic” purpose. I expect the two’s storylines to follow a similar path before eventually converging. And if SIU does want to make KhunBam canon, then the end of that arc would be the perfect place to do it (or even just have them realize their feelings I’m not asking for much.)

Also separate thing but Season 3’s overarching theme seems to be about abused groups fighting back against their oppressors, which is pretty gay.

Now for the non-KhunBam gay:

Yasratcha’s entire story is about the ultimate destruction of his relationship with Wangwang, leaving him bitter and spiteful due to his crush’s death but also attempting to protect his son’s. Yasratcha and Wangwang’s meeting as regulars is an alternate version of the “turn the corner and bump into your soulmate” that’s utilized (and parodied) in so many anime. Yasratcha enjoys his time with Wangwang so much that he makes his entire purpose to be with him. (And he says it in a very romantically charged way)

When Wangwang encounters Nennen, Yasratcha comments that Wangwang’s heart was stolen and that he was jealous of her ability to do so. He strikes up a somewhat antagonistic relationship with Nennen, continuously needling her and being weirdly interested in their sex life.

This eventually culminates in Yasratcha’s “betrayal” all so Wangwang can break free from his master and become reliant on Yasratcha again. When Wangwang is begging for Yasratcha to kill him, Yasratcha can’t bring himself to. Finally he enters a suicidal battle against the rest of the canine people hoping to eradicate them while also hoping to die himself, because he feels like he can’t live on without Wangwang.

White is another queer-coded character with his obsession of “corrupting” Bam and his daddy issues.

Finally there’s Traumerei. Even though we don’t know much, due to the large jacket, his comments on love, and “relationship” with Wangwang, we can assume he had a close relationship either V or Jahad. He may be an intentional foil to Yasratcha, losing his “friend” because of their interest in a woman.

Also even though it isn’t Season 3 content, Wangnan and Shibisu carry heavy bisexual energy with their casual flirting with Nia and Khun respectively.

TLDR: Tower of God is plagued with queer-coded twinks who have trouble forming healthy relationships and get too easily obsessed with talented men. They also all have abandonment issues

#I don’t know if KhunBam will be canon #but I do know Khun has a crush on Bam #and that’s all I really need #tower of god #tog

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nicosraf · 3 months

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Sorry if this gets rambly, but I just wanted to let you know how much I appreciate and admire you for turning down a traditional publishing offer to continue to write the way you want. There's a certain level of tender rawness in your works that I know would be completely stripped away by a publishing house. From the topics you write about to the way you portray queerness, it would all be soulless and devoid of any beauty if you signed it all away. I don't think I would love your work as much as I do if you didn't self-publish. From the topics you write about to the way you portray queerness, it would all be soulless and devoid of any beauty if you signed it all away. My previous experiences with reading self-published books has always been 50/50, and most of the time, I felt like they would've been better if they were polished and cleaned by a traditional publisher. In reading Angels Before Man, I've come to realize how important it is to read books outside of the "approved publisher" bubble. It feels so liberating to read something so unapologetically queer and dark and emotional. In a world where queer works feel like they're getting more and more santitized for the comfort of cishet corporate overlords, it's comforting to know that we're able to tell our stories on our own terms.

Hello!!! Thank you for saying this. I'm sorry if I also get rambly but I have a lot, a lot, of thoughts on self-publishing and the industry after I've taken some big steps away from it.

I need to make the small correction that I didn't turn down a deal itself. I was in limbo waiting for the deal and had already gotten a rejection or two on ABM getting picked up. I'm not sure how much I'm allowed to talk about but I'll try to be clear

The series of events goes: I posted ABM online in November 2022, my agent reached out to me in January, ABM immediately gets sent to a "very interested" publisher in February, then I revised the book before I sent it to other "interested/excited" publishers around March. I lasted until early August, had a meltdown, then begged my agent to tell the publishers to let go of my book so I could work on the sequel.

I'm giving context because "stripped away by a publishing house" really struck a cord with me.

Here's the thing: the publishing industry is in a downward spiral. The author dream is gone. If you sell a book, your advance is more likely to be, say, 50k instead of 100k and that 50k is going to split into 4 payments over 2 years. Publishers don't market books anymore; they just make you open up a TikTok account and tell you to dance. Editors are overworked and picking up books that either are or feel already developmentally edited and (some) are asking for blurbs from big name authors (?!) before they look at your manuscript. They want books they can line edit quickly and send to market — but it's not their fault. HarperCollins editors were on strike for an absurdly long time and have gained... well, basically nothing. Agents and editors are leaving the industry. Publishing houses are "poaching" successful indie books and stroking indie author egos to take half their royalties.

I haven't even gotten to the racism and white liberalism problem. Look at Xiran Jay Zhao having their work being held hostage by their publisher for being anti-genocide. I worry about how queerness is represented in tradbooks but maybe more deeply worry about the race problem. There were calls for diversity 10 years and they've led absolutely nowhere. "Diversity" focused imprints keep getting shut down and leaving their authors in limbo.

But about editing again — so I'm sure you've heard of this book Babel by RF Kuang. It's popular but gets critiqued for hand-holding a white audience too much. Here's the thing though — I made a similar comment to my buddy and he told me whether that's the fault of Kuang or the fault of the editor. And that made me think — how many books are critiqued for what authors may have been forced to do? Yellowface by Kuang, written after Babel, goes into a manuscript getting heavily changed to appeal to white readers. Editors say "But I'm confused" and "But it doesn't make sense to me" because your editor is themselves the inescapable, white audience. And usually the cishet audience too — the straight person sighing that your fags are too problematic in these scary political times.

So why am I saying all this?? Look, I've never thought ABM was perfect. I think it's got some mediocre lines, some things I attempted that I don't think I pulled off. I, also, got into the habit of looking at self-published books (my own included) and thinking, "Oh this needed a professional hand-holding it." Tradpub was exciting to me because I could have someone hold my hand and work on the prose with me. I wanted to make the prose better.

But so I step into tradpub and it all goes wrong. They don't know what to do with me. They suggest a revision to cut it down to a novella. I get angry and then get angrier when I'm treated like I'm being spoiled; it's not about my "vision" here. Imagine if I announced to ABM readers that I cut ABM to 80 pages for a little bit of money?? Others started implying Part 2 basically needed to go; it's too confusing, too fucked up. Part 1 was perfect. Rafael, have u considered it being more of a romantasy? Have you considered a happy ending. Have you considered Michael and Lucifer having romantic virgin sex and have you considered cutting that other part with God entirety. Have you considered whether you're just trying to shock people and maybe you need to calm down

Well, I responded to all this with "What about the readers?? I can't make any big changes. They wouldn't like that." But I saw that they didn't want my readers.

There's a publisher right now who has Angels Before Man by rafael nicolás slapped on their "type of books we want" brochure they sent to (I believe) agents. They never contacted me though. I started to see that maybe no publisher ever wanted ABM. They wanted something like ABM, the idea of ABM and the idea of rafael, the mysterious queer mexican guy. you see, the publishing dream is not dead! you too can be like rafael. you can be a nobody who gets their book picked up by Penguin Random House and Fixed to Be Good and make a hundred thousand dollars and youll get to sit at the cool kids table.

Anyway, I love to read self-published, 0 rating books. They're usually weird, full of typos sometimes, but I never care. I don't read to judge something on a merit of goodness anyway (what does that mean) but just to experience something. I love reading porn, but I'm not usually sexually tantalized but it; I just love how insane it is. And seeing someone put their whole heart in something full of typos and pacing issues and plot holes is a thousand times more fulfilling to me than reading a polished husk of 3-act structure, perfect clean characters, strong prose that was worked on by 19 people and doesn't hold the dreams/desires/flaws of anyone.

I'm really happy to self-publish. I like not having a censor and pouring my heart into something. And work! Hard work is incredibly fulfilling to me; I care more about the work I put into A&M than the product it'll end up being. But I also keep thinking of situations like Babel and I think that if my work sucks, at least it's because of me and my skill, or lack thereof. It gives me a little bit of dignity.

thank you again for the ask. i appreciate it very much.

#sorry for the ramble agh #mine #ask #publishing #self publishing

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olderthannetfic · 1 year

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This might be a somewhat controversial opinion/rant, but as a black queer woman (i really id myself as being more genderqueer, but since i'm afab there are just things about womanhood growing up that has just stuck with me as formative experiences.), I find it really difficult to build community with queer men, even in fandom. I've tried to have friendships with transmen, but so many just feel the need to ramp up misogyny to 1000 to validate themselves as men, and then with gay men, some will say the most out-of-pocket, misogynistic things but because they're not attracted to women, it's somehow okay, I guess. But lately, there's been this trend among queer men of saying and doing misogynistic things but justifying it by stating they're talking about white, cishet women. But the thing is, there's nothing in what they said that can be specifically applied to only white women. It's a target to all women (I refuse to play the oppression olympics of who has it worse). And now I see other queer women in fandom saying the same things to each other. I typically stay in anime/manga and danmei fanbases because that's where a lot of my interests are now, and I don't have to deal with USAian nonsense as much. But now that 7 Seas has unfortunately decided to translate more danmei into English that's changed. A queer male fan of a popular series has been unfollowed en masse by danmei fans for saying wildly misogynistic things about the author. Everyone all week has been scrambling to figure out where this came from. "He only ever said these things about cishet white women," but you guys... he was always talking about us the whole time. Now, I just don't know. Now I see why men aren't generally welcomed in or are common within romance-genre circles. It's just really frustrating to see the same thing over and over again. I'll add on that the only genuinely cool queer men in fandom I've met have come from yuri circles. The ones who try to talk about BL are, from my experiences, generally misogynistic, toxic, and feel as though everything should center around them because they're men and in BL the characters are men, as well. But when other women don't want to form community with them, they scream about 'homophobia' and 'fetishizing gay men.' No, you're just an annoying, awful person to be around, and the queer male yuri fans didn't want to deal with you either. Has anyone else, or you specifically, dealt with this? Is there a way to become friends with more queer men in BL spaces who aren't... like That? Or are there specific things/patterns to look for as far as who to avoid?

God, so much of this sounds so familiar.

I've known a sad number of trans dudes who overcompensate in dickhead ways. A lot of them do calm down a few years into presenting publicly as male, but it's infuriating to see that crap even if it's temporary.

I will say that two of my close circle of offline friends are trans men, including one who came out during the time we've all been friends. The defensive tomfoolery is in no way inevitable. Both of these dudes are nonwhite and have experience in various other geeky and queer spaces beyond BL (gaming, drag queens, etc.). Maybe that broader perspective helped, or maybe they're just nicer and more mature people than a lot of the little jerkfaces I run across online.

TBH, I often have better luck in offline meetups because to show up at all, people have to be a little more comfortable with getting along with others and behaving themselves. It's also sometimes easier to detect the people you want to back away from slowly when you can see how they treat people in person.

One of my neighbors is a cis gay guy. White, able bodied, middle class, yadda yadda. Exactly the demographic you'd expect to be the worst in certain spaces. He and his partner have lots of queer friends, and plenty of them aren't fellow cis gay guys, which is basically my litmus test for non-annoying cis gay guys offline. (Toxic cis gay dude culture is its own kettle of fish with a different set of issues than defensive trans boy culture, but I've encountered it plenty too.)

This neighbor is interested in geikomi and was delighted to find out I'm a fellow nerd and eager for all my nonfiction book recs about queer Japanese stuff. We don't necessarily overlap in our manga tastes, but there's still a lot we do share. When I ramble on about how AFAB queer people and/or bisexuals study history that's presented as cis gay men's history because that's all we have for most historical periods, he's like "Yeah, that makes total sense!" and not "Mine and not yours!"

I think the key here is that this is a dude who is secure in his identity, who's getting both his media and queer community needs met, and who's in his 40s, so he has some god damn perspective and doesn't need to pretend BL is aimed at him.

A lot of the little jerkfaces make me think "Did your preschool teacher not teach you how to share your toys?"

To be honest, there seem to be plenty of dudes hanging around my tumblr. A few cis. Many trans. But they're not going to bring it up incessantly in some defensive "you know I'm not a cootie-having girl, right?" way because who does that?

It comes up when there's a discussion about trans shit or BL as #ownvoices or whatever. (And, in general, any dude worth hanging out with will not think BL as an industry is, or should be, anything of the sort—even if he's expressing his own sense of queerness by writing some.)

On the flipside, I have seen some pretty extreme "no boys allowed" clubhouse nonsense in fandom. It's less common than it was, and past shitty dudes have often been the inspiration, but it can still be a bit much. The nicer class of fandom dude is often pretty hesitant in certain spaces because he's expecting to be met with hostility and is trying to figure out how to participate without tromping all over everyone. (TBH, the guys worrying about this are rarely the problem, but you know how it is.)

I've had dudes send me private messages being like "this thing you said seems kind of stereotypical and anti-man", but in the adult capable of conversation way, not in the tantruming 5-year-old way. And we had a conversation, and they stuck around.

I think having a very clear "It's not #ownvoices, fuck off" stance deters a lot of the more pestilential set. Being equally clear that everyone is welcome and that male yuri fans and female BL fans are pretty equivalent makes the guys worth knowing come out of the woodwork.

In 99% of spaces, I do not give a fuck if some man has his precious feelings hurt by a double standard or default suspicion of men... But fandom is a little unusual because of the demographics and relative power here being so different from in most spaces.

I've definitely seen some people who think women liking BL are fine because we care about characters' personalities, while male fans are all predators or all write f/f that is just fetishy porn or m/m that sounds like Nifty.org and not other fanfic or whatever.

And, yeah, I'll shut down the dumbasses crying in my inbox because I made a joke about Nifty and "coke can dicks" (the kind of guys who have clearly never read m/m that's aimed at dudes outside of fandom spaces), but at the same time, we should extend a little benefit of the doubt to our fellow fandom members of whatever gender. There are usually plenty of men facepalming right along with me at these inexperienced young fools who cannot bear to share.

I think you're just running into the problem that the loud people whose identities you know are often using those identities to browbeat other fans on social media.

There are fewer men in BL spaces than women or nonbinary people, so one will typically end up knowing fewer men.

Honestly, I think you find the reasonable people and get rid of the unreasonable ones in the same way regardless of gender: Gatekeeping bullshit is a red flag. Very Online understandings of oppression are a red flag. Enthusiastic and clueless blanket endorsement of own voices as a concept is a red flag. Lots of talking about "fetishization" or even "appropriation" in a very online way is a massive red flag. Monetizing fanfic or seeing other pro authors as competition instead of peers is another. (Professional jealousy and fear about earning potential are behind a lot of bad behavior.)

A lot of it is down to whether you're willing to make yourself a target by publicly telling annoying people to fuck off.

If others can tell what you stand for, they can figure out if they want to hang out with you. Most people keep their heads down a lot of the time, so it can be hard to even hear of them, let alone know if they're your sort of person.

tl;dr – Be nice to nice men. Tell shitty men to take a hike. Making friends with men is really as simple as that.

There are larger issues here with what kinds of queer spaces exist and whom they prioritize and with toxic understandings of what representation even means and what should be demanded of whose art. But as you say, a lot of women are also promoting toxic-ass understandings of these things.

The bottom line is that we must resist social media clout-driven understandings of justice. The loudest assholes in the room are rarely worth listening to.

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soft-for-them · 1 year

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I don't know a thing about love - Daryl Dixon x plus size non-binary reader

Summary: A Daryl x plus size non-binary reader based off the song 'I don't know a thing about love' by the White Buffalo.

Comments and reblogs are much appreciated and help more people read my works.

A/N: This is both a non-binary reader and a plus size reader, so cis people this isn't for you. The reader has been left vague because this is a short fic and not all plus size non-binary people are afab (really, it's real problem with authors, non-binary people aren't women!) This is coming from your very own non-binary/queer op. 👍

Everyone knows that you and Daryl Dixon are partners but everyone also knows that your relationship, or lack thereof, is complicated.

It’s clear you love each other, Rick or Carl could tell you (with various amounts of excitement) about the first time the two of you met, how Daryl’s eye widened, how you smiled like you had be given the sun and moon.

From the very start of joining Rick’s group you had it hard. Having to explain to people that you’re non-binary and not a man or woman was hard, both for yourself because you were coming out again to complete strangers and for them for most of the group aren’t queer.

Carl got it straight away, he happily used your preferred pronouns and asked you many questions most of which weren’t about being trans but where about random this like comic books and how your survived.

Rick, Carol, Glenn and Maggie learnt quickly too whilst the rest took their time getting used to someone so different to their heteronormative life.

Maybe it was because living people are hard to come by, maybe it’s because most of the bigots of the group had met their grizzly end but somehow you feel safer with Rick’s little rag tag group of survivors then the people you house shared with before the apocalypse arose.

Then there’s Daryl.

Now don’t get me wrong, the first few weeks of you joining Rick’s crew he didn’t talk to you, he just stared at you. He was raised by bigoted people and he was trying to be better, before the end of times even began he was trying to be better. He wasn’t racist or homophobic like his dad or brother nor did he go out his way to antagonise anyone (for he isn’t Merle after all) but still he was learning.

He was drawn to you, it made him panic just a bit but he has long realised that he isn’t so straight, that he identifies with both Bisexual, Pansexual and Queer, that he didn’t need a label for one he loves you and two who fucking cares.

But still it took a long time to come to terms with, thankfully you were there with him to help.

He remembers one day when you still were new and everyone was still stuck in the prison out the blue he asked about your jacket, an oversized black denim jacket sparsely covered in handmade patches.

You told him about the small amount of patches that you had; a non-binary flag on the breast pocket, an anti-Nazi patch on your arm, two ridged band patches that really should have been ironed on instead of sew on dotted around, tin badges decorating the collar like a jewelled necklace.

Over the years the jacket has evolved like he has, both have become more outward and full of love.

Daryl still cracks a smile at the back patch adorning your jacket made out of an old t-shirt of Carl’s that depicted a superhero dog.

You and Daryl talk, sleep close, sneak kisses when people aren’t looking, go hunting together, laugh at each other’s silly jokes. You’re out going and talkative whilst he stands back quiet and stoic his eyes always filled with love for you. You share clothes like it’s nothing, he loves holding you close at night the feeling of your plush body against his better than any bed or pillow, he knows you in and out, as do you for him.

But somehow still the two of you have never breached the subject of how much you love each other, you’ve neither had the conversation trying to figure out what to call one another.

Well not until today.

Sitting idly on the front porch of a nice enough house in Alexandria you work away under the watchful eye of your lover.

It was no surprise that you and Daryl were put together in the same home, neither is it a surprise that you both sit so close as the sky starts to turn orange, the sun slowly setting and the moon rising into the sky.

Knees touching, you carefully try to stick on a new patch onto your jacket next to one of many pride flags you’ve acclimated over the years.

Daryl leans over watching you quietly sew wonky stitches, his face almost pressed to the side of your round cheek.

“You know what Daryl?” you whisper, eyes flickering up to look up at him.

He just hums out a yes.

“When I first met you I didn’t know anything about love, I don’t think I fully know a thing about love now but with you I- I well-“ you face goes warm, your fingers stop sewing as he looks up at you with sparkling eyes, “-I think I’m learning because of you.”

He just stares at you for a moment, shock and what you assume is love morphing his face into a sweet smile.

That moment disappears as he leans down and kisses you, his chapped lips gentle on yours, your hands dropping your handiwork on your lap to hold his face in place.

You pull away first but still hold onto him with pin pricked hands, eye still connected staring like a fool at him, happiness flooding through your bodies.

“For years I was told I’d never find love because of who I am-“ you begin again still in a whisper, the thoughts of the long dead people who said such cruel things being pushed away by the many memories of your and Daryl.

You push a piece of his long brown hair back from his face, you smile growing big and proud.

“- but I had been looking for love below and above despite all the dead roaming around and then there you were.”

He lets out a small chuckle, one that isn’t filled with malice like old lovers did but one filled with a joy you’ve only seen for yourself.

“Do you?” he asks covering your wondering hands with his, “Because I do, I love you.”

“So many eyes in the world are searching for love and somehow I find you, of course I love you Daryl.”

The two of you laugh together as you kiss again, the set of wings you were stitching onto your jacket fully discarded as the kiss deepens.

#daryl dixon #daryl dixon x plus size reader #daryl dixon x reader #daryl dixon x nonbinary reader #x nonbinary reader #nonbinary #x plus size reader #the walking dead #the walking dead x reader

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punkeropercyjackson · 11 days

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Gonna be petty for a minute and complain about the fact that the ONE Bluepunk(Percy and Hobie,platonic)post not by me said Hobie would be friends with Percy because Percy is a skater boy

I am so sick and tired of the skater boy allegations against Percy because 1.She's transfem-coded and hates masculinity and most men in-text and 2.Even if not to his level,she is a legit anarchist like Hobie is!!!She's anti-authority because she grew up facing nonstop ableist and classist bullying and to a lesser extent emasculation from her tormenters too and had an abusive stepdad,she hates richness as a concept and billionaries personally(Rachel dosen't count,she makes it clear she wants to destroy her dad's company when she gets older + It's implied Percy joined her at protests and charities),she's been a beater of bullies of ALL SIZES including fucking gods????Which is kinda the whole plot of series?and she even did the same thing for Nico and Hazel Hobie did for Gwen and Miles by providing shelter and care for an abused queer minor + 'I see a black kid in trouble and i'm gonna help them out' typa of beat and she's a real friend to them too instead of treating them as tokens.Do i even to remind y'all of how hyperpopular afrolatino Percy was and still rightfully is because like with her being a tgirl,there's so much subtext in the books it makes way more sense than her being white and also like it it's pretty much universal approved by the irl group

Sigh.Yeah,they'd be instant best friends and close enough to see eachother as family but Not Like That.Hobie probs thinks Avril is a loser in canon and Percy never brought her up in the books but she DID give Nico a Ramones shirt as a gift and has 'I am impertinent' and 'The sea does not like to be restrained' to Hobie's 'I hate the a.m,i hate the p.m,i hate labels' and 'I don't believe in consistency' and you can shove in a joke of Percy wanting blue laces for a Secret ReasonTM she won't tell and Hobie is giving big time mama's boy and has adultification trauma as a core aspect of his character.Percy makes blue food for Hobie and teaches him to do black glamrock looks like hers.Hobie diy's personalized blue beads for Percy and teaches her how to play the guitar.They shit talk posers together and she goes to his shows and they play video games on her emulator and go to the beach every other saturday and she visists his dimension on the regular to get a taste of Tartarus again and he gets a celestial bronze AND mystical morganite sword that disguises itself as a guitar with a stygian iron and Mrs O'Leary and Spidermutt have playdates and Percy and Hobie are afro-dominican/jamaican/caribbean solidarity

Yeah okay i'm good now but also sidenote Sk8ter Boi qualifies as more of a sexyman than The Onceler at this point,WHERE IS THE GRIP COMING FROM,IT'S BEEN OVER 20 YEARS??????Anyway i love Hobie and his hot older sister

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magicalrocketships · 8 months

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Books!! Thanks to @officialmood for the tag :)

An estimate of how many physical books I own: Me, staring at my bookcases and doing an estimate per shelf x number of shelves... maybe 500? (and if you include ebooks, then there are 304 books in my to read folder and 339 in my read and keep folder). AND I did a big clear out before I moved last year. And took four bags to the charity book shop earlier this year. I cycle a lot of second hand books in and out tbh.

Favorite author: There are loads of favourite books and I could pretty much go on about most of the books on my shelves, but I think I could continue to lose myself in Lois McMaster Bujold's books over and over and over again. I know that Georgette Heyer books are very much Of Their Time but it is also true that if I ever need a comfort read then I know what to reach for.

A popular book I've never read and never intend to read: Godddddddddd. Liza said Infinite Jest and I also have zero intention of ever reading this. But SO MANY.

A popular book I thought was just meh: Red, White, and Royal Blue. I did not get along with Wolf Hall, but I also didn't get that far into it before giving in.

Longest book I own: Toss up between the Neal Stephenson Baroque Cycle volumes, War and Peace, Samantha Shannon's The Priory of the Orange Tree (although I've lent this out and probably won't get it back), and Victoria Goddard's Hands of the Emperor / At The Feet of the Sun. They're all pretty chunky, without doing any specific investigation.

Longest series I own all the books to: Elinor M. Brent-Dyer's Chalet School series (approx 62 books, depending on which editions you own). After that, Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan series.

Prettiest book I own: I don't own any where the cover is the prettiest thing I've ever seen, but I do own a queer historical photography book where together the inside and out is the prettiest visual history. Some of my books are v pretty because of the way they make me feel, but that's a different question.

A book or series I wish more people knew about: Maybe Hands of the Emperor by Victoria Goddard? There's a core few of us that feel a lot about it. One of my very oldest internet friends that I haven't seen in years sent me a package earlier in the year that was just a notebook that had reminded her of this book and therefore it was a necessity to share it with me (she was right to do this). I also kind of want more people to talk to about Joan Aiken's Black Hearts in Battersea series.

Book I’m reading now: I'm listening to Jingo by Terry Pratchett, have just picked up the second Sandman volume, and I'm partway through Our Wives Under The Sea by Julia Armfield (although I realised last night that it was too creepy for me to read in bed, lollllllll)

Book that’s been on my TBR list for a while but I still haven’t gotten around to it: BRB just going to stare into an invisible camera, my goodreads to read pile is 462 books long and is only made up of stuff that I own / once owned and is probably not up to date with paperbacks. Let's say The Simarillion, because I've probably intended to read that since I was a kid (and have not yet managed it). I've read 133 books so far this year and yet my to read pile never gets any fucking smaller.

Do you have any books in a language other than English: Nope. I used to own some HP books in German and Latin but I did not keep them. I am not very good at languages, although me and the Duolingo owl are trapped in a daily standoff.

Paperback, hardcover or ebook?: Mixture of all three. Love a good paperback but I am... gently allergic to paper, so sometimes if I've read too many paper books my hands pay the price, and on the whole I do believe that skin should stay on my body, where I've put it, rather than peel off and bleed. A healthy mix of ebook and paperbook in general, with the odd hardback.

People have probably already done this, but tagging @junkshop-disco, @magog83, @dearmrsawyer, and @pennyplainknits.

#waffling on about books

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aronarchy · 10 months

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hard disagree; I think his transmisogyny shows in his analysis in the book pretty clearly already

this is just some notes bc i have actual drafts elsewhere & really want to do a proper writeup but adhd will not let me

main pts:

his theory of socialization-into-abuse boils down to, basically, “monkey see, monkey do”—that boys grow into misogynistic men bc they saw male role models (for example his example of fathers) and copy. this presumption that simply bc they see therefore they’ll copy relies on a preexisting automatic alignment/identification with “male” gender roles—that cisness is natural/biodetermined, basically. he doesn’t state that outright—he obfuscates, claims “well yeah patriarchy is not rooted in biology”—which is the TERF POV, “well technically it’s not bio,” but instead they target “gendered socialization,” but their prediction for the result of the socialization is rooted in biology.

he weights his examples so that it’s more likely to “prove” this theory. some particularly egregious ones are how he talks about some boys supposedly seeing the father abuse the mother and then starting to abuse the mother too, and commenting on it in a way suggesting that mothers are the central victims of domestic abuse (he also generally centers mothers over girls), that sons abuse mothers (in general) and mothers don’t abuse sons (or that if they do, it’s just basically a stress-result of the father’s abuse of her, eliding the intersecting axis of adultism—also why his views on vaccines & children rn etc are shitty) (also goes w/how he treats child abuse as a side, always, to intimate partner abuse; doesn’t consider that maybe child abuse might be the core violence of the family, and partner abuse structured around that/from that, the other way around; just overall fails to center children’s experiences of abuse) (plus the outright child abuse apologia/advocacy where he refuses to condemn all child abuse, says some of the stuff fathers do is bad bc “takes away from the mother’s authority over her own child,” says it’s fine & necessary to force children to do homework etc, has multiple passages where he says stuff along the lines of “abuse bad bc don’t treat women like children”)

transfeminists argue that “cis male” socialization is a product of material power granted to cis male identity & misogynistic violence in a patriarchal society, not tautological relations btwn “identity/biology”—lundy doesn’t recognize this though, so his analysis locks out transfem survivors from legibility (his understanding of queerness is also simplistic and tends toward more binary thinking/being closer to assimilationist het standards than what many of the rest of us would say in analysis, which is unsurprising given the rest)

there’s a section where he tries to talk abt race issues, and claims that an Indigenous culture did not have any misogyny/patriarchy/domestic abuse pre-colonization, but after TV was introduced they also started having dv issues bc, basically, apparently the men saw the white men abusing women & so adopted the ideas. presuming, again, that “man” is an identity which cuts across all cultures (relies on bioessentialist assumptions abt “humanity” & gender) and that just bc a “man” anywhere shares this supposed “male essence” then he will automatically see any other unfamiliar “man” as a role model/identify with the same gender role. also leaned on some pretty gross assumptions abt, basically, “innocence”/ideological/epistemic purity of the ~pre-modern~ & that basically ppl don’t abuse if they haven’t been introduced to the ideas yet (analogous to his views on children being “socialized” into abusers—implicit innocence/purity again, simplifying their thinking processes in a paternalistic way, idea that they can’t think of complex things for themselves w/o adult guidance).

also as he centers domestic (cis, het) motherhood as primary victim of patriarchy he also erases sex workers’ positionality (his section on pornography & it ~causing violence thru objectifying Women~ is a pretty good example)—it was very SWERFy, which lines up

I feel the cissexism (& adultism, that usually goes hand in hand w/it) is pretty clear to me from a read (esp w/materialist, transfeminist, youthlib, decol. / anarchist lenses), it ticks off a lot of the usual radfem boxes—which is especially disappointing to me as a trans survivor (& also a minor & person w/an abusive mother who does apologia for my father’s abuse; limited nonintersectional radfem/TERF activism has left us behind a lot) though I get why ppl might not see it/feel it’s as obvious, it is a book that in many respects is extremely helpful & revolutionary. but that just makes it worse, imo, when we (intersectionally marginalized survivors) are pressured to rely on incomplete resources like these that don’t like us and are fundamentally exclusionary of us and ultimately lacks a lot of what we need

(side note, another complaint I had abt the book but which isn’t as directly related is his investment in the state/policing/prisons/the psych industry, generates power imbalance (inherent to his position as a legitimized therapygiver) and also gives him major blind spots like his cop advocacy for solution (doesn’t mention the whole 40% thing, ofc) and what seems like an aversion to survivor militancy as praxis? (can’t be certain of that, but for example he had a part where he said that women physically attacking abusive partners is “assault” & bad (& don’t do it, you might get urself in legal/adjacent trouble (iirc?)) unless it’s self-defense in response to direct present immediate physical threat—I was a bit shocked reading that, was a really ignorant statement imo & acts like physical self-defense against “non-physical” psychological abuse is not a valid tactic that many survivors use or would like to use, and the direct/present/immediate danger requirement ignores the context of persistent ongoing (incl background) threat abuse occurs in)

(i found the book very helpful too but ultimately we deserve much better)

#OP #ramble #currently reading #book review #cissexism #adultism #lundy bancroft #domestic abuse #transfeminism #youthlib

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chemtrail-notes · 2 months

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I’m not sorry, where was the “big asexual news” that was promised? Because I didn’t see it at all. Yea this is about Heartstopper s2. *Originally posted 08/05/23*

This rant and or essay or essay rant will be through the lens of an asexual, aka my asexual lens. If you are asexual and you disagree with me, valid. Regardless I got things to say. And it is a rant so don't be surprised when I get blunt and sharp and harsh with what's down below.

First, what I liked about the show in short, good. It gave exactly what I expected it to give especially going off the vibes of s1. A whole lot of kissing vs actually talking to show their intimacy but hey, thats that.

Again first, what I liked about the asexuality aspect in the show.

1. There's an asexual/aromantic character.

2. Shout out to 'Summer Bird Blue' (aroace main character) and 'Ace: What Asexuality Reveals about Desire, Society, and the Meaning of Sex' as I have read them both and love them. (Wouldn't recommend 'Ace' to someone who is just realizing they are asexual without reading a less theorized/asexuality book prior to but it was wonderful to see it.)

That's it.

Like if you have never seen asexual rep in any form of media until now, I'm glad you got to see it here but when I hear "BIG ASEXUAL NEWS" I expect it to be big. This wasn't big. It was small, medium at best and I wasn't satisfied.

My first impression of Heartstopper was just basic curiosity back in 2022. I only heard of the name from seeing the graphic novel in my library years prior. And when the trailer came out, I had already read 'Loveless' by Alice Oseman (I was reading any book with ace characters and waited patiently to finally get my hands on this book that was wonderful for me) so I recognized the name. And watched it. I had no expectations then. The expectations came when I discovered after watching s1 that Oseman tweeted this:

That is when I had expectations for s2 and held her to that. And I had full faith. Oseman is literally aroace! Oseman has said openly that having aro/ace characters in their stories is extremely important to them! Oseman is basically an aroace activist and their name is one of the known names in the community! So of course, I was happy to not only watch s2 of Heartstopper but also support her as she is a voice I believe that can more people recognize asexuality. And I still do believe that; this rant isn't about her personhood, ethics or vibe. We have seen how many famous people show us that we do not know them at all so I'm not making any statements about who they are as an individual - nah I'm over doing that. I'm criticizing them as an AroAce author/activist plus Executive Producer of Hearstopper that has openly stated they want to show more ace and aro rep in media. My question is, the minute you saw your rise in fame and rise in popularity of Heartstopper the tv show why didn't you run to add that purple, black, gray, and white in the show? Because of all the shows to showcase asexuality on a main stage, Heartstopper can and dammit should be that.

Hi to the non-asexuals reading this -

homoromantic (gay/lesbian) asexuals exist - biromantic asexuals exist - panromantic asexuals exist - trans asexuals exist - heteromantic asexuals exist - nonbinary asexuals exist - it's just little to no sex involved

the same goes for aromantics just in reverse - aromantic bisexuals and so on

I don't want to hear anything about taking away from the other queer identities present in the show. I'm aware of how little gay or bi or trans or otherwise queer character shows the community gets. But do you want to know how many asexual characters shows the community has? Dare I add "main asexual characters that are explicitly mentioned by name or by how they are in relation to society"? ............. Exactly. Not many. Because from 2010 till now there has been a nice chunk now and growing gay, bi, or even trans mainstream media or characters in said media (even when they are cancelled, they still existed and do exist). Having the main characters of Heartstopper have some asexuals in the show wouldn't take away anything. And it should have happened. No, no, no, no not minor characters. Main. Cast. Asexuality is insanely diverse and has so much intersectionality within it, it CAN work! Would it change the canon from the graphic novel? Yeah, but who cares, the canon was already changed!

As I was watching s2 and realize that this big asexual news was making an insanely late debut, I was already ready to write this post. By episode 6 we had gotten a little attention to asexuality being mentioned with Issac getting more screen time (oh my gosh he actually gets more time on screen and lines??! Because he was literally a background character despite being in the main friend group) and that was it. But I was like "let me not run my mouth, maybe in the graphic novel Issac had way more time to shine and then it led into him being asexual seamlessly." So I go to the wiki and learn all about the Osemanverse - all Oseman's books are in the same universe - and all the characters of Heartstopper and to my surprise Issac didn't even exist in the novel! Lol! So now knowing that, I know all about Issac and can now run my mouth.

Issac was created for the show most likely to replace a character named Aled who was gay demisexual and also the main character for 'Radio Silence' another book of Oseman's but was part of the friend group in Heartstopper graphic novel. I find it really weird that the ace character got cut because it "wouldn't fit with the timeline" as he was a main character in another story but whatever (Oseman on tumblr says here). They bring us Issac. And in s1 he is the quiet one (literally he barely has lines) who holds a book all the time listening to his besties romance antics and sometimes being a voice of reason (within a minute to 3 minutes cause thats all he gets). And in s2 he is STILL the quiet one who has little screen time but a little bit more lines holding a book all the time listening to his besties romance antics BUT NOW has an intro to a guy who he likes but is questioning how far that "like" extends to then realizing the term aromantic asexual resonates with him....in the quickest, exposition-based way I have seem.

'Heartstopper' Season 2 Will Explore Isaac's Asexuality, Says Alice Oseman (collider.com)

WHEN?! Because it seems like any time to Issac was rushed. Am I supposed to appreciate the literal 1-to-2-minute discussion with the AroAce artist while we barely saw the actual art piece and then the exposition-like description of living in a world heavily toward romance or sex? Were the little purple graphics supposed to make my heart leap? Nope that is reserved for another character of a different show (more on that later). It wasn't explored - not like the relationship between Tara and Darcy or the connection between Elle and Tao, who are also not the main-main characters! Secondary characters if you will. I didn't add Charlie and Nick because of course most screen time would be dedicated to them, they are the primary characters. But shit! Even the two gay teachers had a more intimate and kind handling of their gay experiences and then falling for each other! And they are tertiary characters we just met! I---. I can't get it. Why didn't Issac get the same level of focus in this show? Explored? It was barely shown sans Issac telling James he didn't feel what he thinks is romance toward him. And then at the end where Issac grabs the 'Ace' book. I mean okay then...

Now for Oseman. Listen, I do not know her entire ace life story. However, I did read interviews about them and their quest for asexual representation and also aromantic representation. In a Guardian interview states - "'The world is obsessed with sex and romance. And if you don’t have that, you feel like you haven’t achieved something that’s really important,' she says. Oseman tries to highlight the importance of platonic relationships in her own work – even in Heartstopper, an out-and-out love story, friendship is hugely important – and to include asexual representation in her books."

I will say, friendships are shown to be highly important in the show so I have no qualms with that. I do have qualms with what she states next: "As much as Oseman and others like her are trying to start conversations about asexuality, she doesn’t think it’s going to be a widely talked about subject any time soon. 'We’re never really going to see much cultural change in terms of awareness until a big celebrity comes out as being asexual,' she says. 'And there’s nothing I can do about that.'"

You as an individual human on this Earth can't change that yes but lets stop pretending you don't have strong influence now, from your Webtoon days and now to Heartstopper TV days. Oseman even recognizes the attention and new fame that has come to them since the show premiered and became so popular that even Netflix (Mr. Let me cancel a show that people actually liked) renewed it for s2 and s3 practically a month after its premiere. So, I don't get it? Why not add in more asexual rep in the show? Why not run to do so especially because you didn't back when you first starting your author journey? Again, I've read up on them; I know Oseman may have discovered the term asexual at 18 but didn't claim it then and had many years of questioning themselves (not looking into asexuality, believing they may be demisexual, trying to like boys etc) until 2020 when they came out publicly when 'Loveless' debuted. So their old stories wouldn't have asexuality in them. Heartstopper may have been wrapped for s1 production by that point, but Heartstopper said officially on Sept 22, 2022 that production had started. Which really means from the end of spring into the summer s2 had started being produced and written. AGAIN, as the executive producer seeing the massive popularity for this teen show, why didn't you say "hey this is different from the graphic novels but thats okay because we can have two different forms of canon in these two different forms of media (novel, tv) - but lets make a main character(s) be on the ace/aro spectrum! The audience will be open to it!" And who would I make asexual as a main character? Easy peasy - Nick.

I refer you to the italicized words above with all the labels I listed. Anyway. The bisexual to asexual pipeline is real and many aces say that before figuring out they were ace they assumed they were bi because they didn't have a preference toward a gender and assumed either was good. I literally thought it for a long time myself. And it can work perfectly because Nick in s1 and s2 was thinking about his sexuality. The scene in episode 6 where things get intimate, and Nick stops Charlie as he isn't ready to do anything more than kissing though he says he wants to just not at that moment. Charlie literally states, "And I'd only wanna do it if you did, and...if you didn't ever want to do it, then I wouldn't either." THE STAGE IS SET. And what could have happened next is Nick goes on his phone (they on them phones all the time anyway) to look up why he's nervous about having sex despite liking his boyfriend, scrolls down page after page, sees posts about the pressure to have sex, in the article it mentions asexual people. Boom! Seed is planted. Obligatory: Aces can have sex as asexuals can fall under sex-favorable, sex indifferent (the two that would or could engage in sexual activity), sex-averse, and sex-replused. Then we would have Issac and Nick, both aces showing the beautiful spectrum that is asexuality and a dab into aromanticism. And yeah, I read that Tori will be officially stated as asexual and aromantic in Volume 5 of the graphic novel but as of now thats only for the graphic novels.

I don't write fanfic nor will I so no I won't just make up a fannon to satisfy me but when I hear Big Asexual News I expect it to be big. Because while Issac's realization of asexuality may have been nice I've seen better. Remember that character I mentioned before? Yea well its no surprise, its Todd Chavez from BoJack Horseman and not only was it actually built up longer with more focus on Todd, it was also the main queer sexuality in the show. Besides the former producer man who was gay (and Bojack ruined his tv career), then got cancer and died - Todd's asexuality was the main focus - main character - for diversity and I loved every second of it. You saw him not only realize something was amiss with him, go to an ace meeting and see differences in the ace spectrum, get a gf, realize the gf and him didn't have to date just bc they were ace, not back down when others would question if he could have romance, and eventually find a nice girl and move in together. Not to mention how the show pokes fun at allosexuality in a satire way. And you would think a show like Heartstopper with the influence of a literal AroAce person could match this or surpass this for the 13 to 17 teen audience (BoJack is good but heavy so kids shouldn't just watch it lightly) but it just fell flat.

I really feel like asexuality and aromanticism was pushed to the side by allosexuality and alloromanticism yet again, but it irritates me this time because it didn't have to be. And if Oseman didn't say anything, didn't hype the asexuals desperate to see more asexuality on screen in mainstream pop culture, then this post would have never existed. Yea the other producers and writers and blah blah blah may have stopped them, I can see how one executive producer doesn't have all the power but damn that tweet had me convinced that they had a significant amount of influence. And yes again, can 1 person change everything? NO. Oseman cannot be the only AroAce person to change the tides, we need more activists and people demanding to see more ace or aro rep. Yasmin Benoit is a great one who is getting more and more known by the day, more asexual books are being bought and in libraries, asexuality has more of an understanding than it did years ago (still a long way now). But in terms of asexuality in media.....not just the dumb stereotype of a robotic person or the "well you arent conventionally attractive or charismatic so it fits that u are aro or ace or aroace" or soley based on they had a trauma (bc that isnt a prerequisite for asexuality)....there's not many.

I don't care about spoilers for s3 so, in the future, before I decide to watch or not, I am seeing if more aroace identity is directly present before I decide to support the show in streams. Which won't matter in the long run because 1 person not watching won't hurt its popularity and I don't want it to. I don't want to hurt the show or dismiss how it is a showcase of lgbtqia in a happy, comforting, fantastic binge worthy show. I just want more for asexuality in media and this show could have launched it far if they actually made it big.

#heartstopper #issac heartstopper #Issac heartstopper aroace #issac heartstopper asexual #asexual #asexual rant #honestly I could tag the one the only themselves but I've chosen not to #but I am still going to talk #I said what I said #heartstopper netflix #netflix #kit conner #heartstopper alice oseman #heartstopper tv #heartstopper s2

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applestorms · 11 months

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been reading through some of the author commentary from the patreon post archive for HS^2 stuff & writing notes on certain quotes from it and i think i've come up with (slightly) more distinct reasons for why the epilogues/homestuck^2 feel so off and/or frustrating to me. not gonna post the full thing + i'm only about halfway through reading it all, but here's a few points (warning this one gets kinda political):

It’s possible “Ultimate” Dirk’s presence was suppressing other splinters of himself from manifesting.

Wait, so... Ult. Dirk is just suppressing the other splinters? But I thought the entire point was that he subsumed all the other splinters to become one Ultimate Self? Weird, but I guess that plays more into the narrative powers side of things that they put a lot of emphasis on. That, or the creators don't have a very clear idea of what actually makes an Ultimate Self, which would. also work lmfao

Unlike the other victors of the game, Jane threw herself into the world the kids made together. She grew up preparing to take over a major company, and has the confidence to show for it.

Gonna get more into two ideas here in a bit related to this quote, the first being HS^2's Trump Era politics & the second being Jane more specifically. Here's the first connection:

I don’t know if you noticed, but everything is terrible right now. And I don’t mean just in Homestuck’s dumb fake earth. I mean in our dumb real earth. Our planet is burning and folks go to bed hungry just so twelve guys can have more money than Croesus could have ever dreamed of. The concept of “truth” is at its most tenuous – political divisions involve contradictory interpretations of basic facts. I’ve been playing a lot of Death Stranding recently. Basically any media that you’re making in 2019 has to either address what’s going on around us or come off sanitized, sterilized, with its head in the sand. Kojima offers a simple power fantasy: Through Norman Reedus’s sweaty, urine-filled labor, the things that divide us can be banished. America can be unified again.

HS^2 is kind of agonizingly pessimistic when it comes to its (not at all subtle) political messaging, which I suppose you can in part attribute to a Trump-era leftist/liberal culture, but I personally also attribute to a specific flavor of white person existential pessimism. What frustrates me about HS^2's politics in particular though is just how much it talks down to the reader, acting like their (frankly, imo, pretty fuckin basic) reflections on the flaws of capitalism, gender constructs, and contemporary American politics are these revolutionary ideas that nobody other than them truly understands. It's really aggravating to read, honestly, and reminds me a lot of the perspective reflected on in this video by F.D Signifier about Bo Burnham's Inside & white performative liberalism, though in this context the creators are much more insufferable about it than Burnham ever was. (This is NOT to say every creator working on HS^2 was white or even ascribes/d to these kinds of politics, but that's one of the voices that I feel comes through the strongest.)

Edit: Re-watched that whole video and he really does get at the exact idea I'm thinking of. However, I would add that the thing that makes HS^2 feel especially insufferable to me is the fact that it doesn't feel like the authors are engaging in their politics as genuinely or personally as Burnham does. Where Burnham's look into these issues is self-reflective, the existential dread coming from the ways in which he himself plays a part in perpetuation of systems of oppression, I feel like HS^2's creators were unwilling to look at the ways in which they themselves might've benefited from the same kinds of privileges. It's just- it's egotistical, honestly! And it's a vibe that I get from a lot of heavily queer, young, white fandom spaces, which presume that because of their own experiences with queer and trans-based bigotry they understand everything and don't have to examine their own biases or any other nuances to their social position/the privileges they might personally have & continue to benefit from. I don't know- Homestuck was never going to be a good medium for examining the nuances of race and privilege, that was determined by the very first page or whenever Hussie decided non-canon races were a thing, but that doesn't make it any less agonizing to watch such a ham-fisted, pompous attempt at "social commentary." Ugh.

I guess I can understand the desire to get HS^2's politics to be more up to date and with it, again considering what the Trump-era American political landscape looked like (and what HS proper looked like, let's be real), but the way they approach this just makes the authors seem that much more immature to me. I hesitate to even call this political commentary, it's just pointing out that things are bad and then complaining about it. There's no hope here and it shows, and I personally have very little patience when it comes to that kind of perspective. I don't want to be too harsh to the creators or completely undermine the ways they might've faced structural social challenges (yes, trans people have it fucking bad right now! And there was absolutely some bigoted shit directed at the creators that was more reprehensible than anything here, I was there when this shit was coming out, I saw it all too (alongside the genuinely good criticism that they wrote off just as easily, but I digress)), but this shit is just bad, I'm sorry.

Privilege, safety, and inherited wealth do funny things to the brain. People justify to themselves why they have what they have. If you have enough for long enough, you start to convince yourself you deserve it. Jane won the game, lost very little, and as god of a new world decided to dominate its markets as a corporate mogul. Her conception of what was possible with her capability and god-like reason was shaded, limited by the world she grew up in. She is not a goddess of fantasy, a semi-mythical trickster creature like Jasprose, or a meta-aware marionette master like Dirk. She saw a new world and chose, simply, to replicate the power structures of the 21st-century America she was raised in. Boardrooms, power pantsuits, formality and professionalism.

(Longer quote here justifying the horror they did to Jane's character but let's add one more before I elaborate further)

But in the end, isn’t that what every story is? Trying to untie knots that you put in the rope yourself?

This quote is very telling and gets at my issue with the Jane quote from above, really one of my main issues with the all post-canon shit just in general: when the authors were creating a bunch of problems and inserting them into the story, something that is (typically) necessary for any kind of meaningful storytelling, they went about the process of introducing that conflict totally wrong.

In the original story of HS, problems for the characters primarily originated from Sburb, which acts as both the game they're playing and, as is demonstrated throughout Act 1, the world itself. Problems in the story thus often feel at least kind of true to life because they either originate directly from the game & its constructs (which the characters have no control over, parallel to how you can't usually control the world irl) or individuals responding to those circumstances w/ their own set of unique characteristics (Vriska being an active character and creating villains to become a hero but also Rose deciding she has to go through with a suicide mission in response to the game/Doc Scratch and Dave in turn responding to her actions, etc. etc.).

This is not necessarily true for all of the story or every single plot point/character arc, but I think it generally follows, and so for as meta as HS gets, it never really felt to me like you could see the hand of the author when it comes to how major plot elements are introduced, outside of a few very overt examples. Problems are able to crop up fairly naturally through characters responding in what they think to be natural/rational ways to their circumstances, but may or may not be due to the limitations on their understanding. The situation and environment of Sburb and the world of HS itself may be absurd and stupid and crazy and very obviously created by an author, but the characters typically feel consistent and true to themselves as people in how they respond to the absurdity and confusion of their world. It's one of the reasons why I think HS is so appealing as a coming of age story actually, since stepping into adulthood (or even just your teenage years) does often feel like entering a world that is crazy and cruel and unknowable with all of these malicious, far-away forces that know way more than you could ever possibly understand controlling every detail of the world around you and deciding your fate before you even get the chance to know it's coming. These are kids, they really don't have a lot of power even once they ascend to godhood in comparison to the forces they're dealing with, and the story & world reflects that.

The problem w/ HS^2 & the Epilogues is that the authors don't have the same game construct to work with, barely have a world at all to begin with actually, and so they instead twist pretty much every single character into the worst possible versions of themselves in order to try and recreate the same HS absurdity. But it just doesn't work, because there is no real explanation for why every character is suddenly at their lowest point and acting like a fucking idiot all the time other than "ooo adulthood makes everyone worse!" and vague gestures to capitalism and privilege (or what I would call structural ignorance, though I don't think they ever call it that), so the story just comes across as incredibly cruel and uncaring and unabashedly pessimistic in a way that's just miserable to read.

Yes, Jane grew up privileged, it makes sense that she would be sympathetic to capitalism and try to recreate the same social structures that fucked people up on the original Earth- but that is not nearly enough justification for why she has suddenly gone full fascist dictator endorsing troll eugenics and trying to murder people, and it doesn't even work well as social commentary cause it's so extreme right from the start that it couldn't possibly reflect real life issues or the development of actual fascist/bigoted ideas. Yes, Trump's ties to the alt-right are fucking terrifying and conservative politics in general in the U.S. nowadays are incredibly fucked, but there's still logical people and seemingly rational explanations being utilized to justify the bullshit that many people genuinely believe in and HS^2 fails to meaningfully reflect or comment on any of those, at least from what I can tell. Everyone is consistent with how they are terrible, I'll give them that, for Dirk and Jane and everyone else the flaws that are being emphasized are ones that are generally kind of consistent with canon, but I simply cannot get behind why they suddenly decided to be the worst possible versions of themselves other than that the authors realize they needed plot and decided that the best way to make Candy and Meat the Bad Timelines:tm: was to spontaneously make everyone as insufferable as possible.

I think a part of the problem is the time skip, honestly. And the fact that Earth C as a location itself is surprisingly underutilized when it comes to creating problems for the characters. The characters are gods ruling over a world where they can be dictator of the globe at the end of a single election. Without the game and the lack of distinct outside villains, there is nothing stopping them from having full agency over everything other than each other, so in order to create plot, instead of going through the effort to create a world or social structure they just made everyone worse and called it a day. It's like the epitome of white liberalism's inability to understand bad systems vs. bad individuals- there are no real systems here, nothing that actually functions past a name, so everyone is just fucking terrible.

(Honestly, I think the fact that there are no overt outside villains could've been a good way of transitioning to the fact that these characters aren't kids anymore- if Dirk and Jane didn't have to be transformed into fucking caricatures of themselves in order to do it. Really the problem is that so many of the characters that used to add interesting nuance to the social conflict are fucking dead now. RIP trolls.)

Since this is turning out to be the political astronaut ramble I guess I'll just keep going for a bit: one of the most meaningful insights a professor has ever given to me came is the idea that we "haven't earned our pessimism yet," as the younger generations, or haven't faced The Shit directly or long enough to justify having as little hope as we do. Many of us have looked at the problem and given up before even trying to solve it, and are, in fact, not really justified in making such a decision.

For me, there's an additional layer to that idea as well: one of the ideas that Beauvoir talks about in her feminist philosophy is that of agency, wherein social privilege allows for certain groups to decide which meaning-creating projects they want to or to not take on where others are not allowed to make the same choice. If you sit in any kind of position of social privilege, that historical role has continually been the one to not only benefit from the rules, but make them in the first place. This kind of pessimism is thus not just unearned, not just frustrating to listen to, but actively harmful to the creation of meaningful change. Who really benefits from inaction? From a lack of change to the status quo? And who are the privileged to make decisions about whether or not we're allowed to fight for this shit in the first place?

#astronaut rambles #big warning this one got a lot more political (sorry?)#i hope this doesn't come across as too harsh ik it gets a little preachy at the end #but i just. i have *so* little patience for that shit now guys #it was insufferable when hs^2 was first coming out and the creators were scrambling to justify their own actions #all the while bullying any fans that dared to try and reasonably criticize their terrible and/or questionable creative decisions #and it only gets worse the more time that passes #i almost get secondhand embarrassment reading these commentaries just from how unprofessional they can be #do not recommend #hs #rose tag #it's kind of difficult for me to properly criticize post-canon stuff actually #i don't know what it is about it #it's like it's just consistent enough w/ just enough half-decent ideas that sometimes i think its not that bad or ill even enjoy parts of i #but then i read certain comments and just. Remember #the Horrors #kinda scared to post this one but i've read it over a few times guess i'll just go for it

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royalreef · 1 year

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Anonymous inquired: 15. What is your biggest pet peeve? Munday Salt - Accepting

(( This is less an RPC pet peeve and more a writing pet peeve in general, but it’s been a MAJOR repeat issue lately, so:

The whole recurring thing of it being okay for characters to kill and slaughter innocents because the characters are queer.

Let me be completely clear upfront about this. I am not paraphrasing. This is not the author talking about the character’s perspective. I am specifically referring to the utterly bizarre phenomenon that happens way too fucking often in queer writing of the author themselves insinuating that they are entitled to be judge, jury, and executioner based off of their own minority status.

You may think I’m joking about this! You might go, “but [REDACTED], SURELY they’re just saying it’s okay to kill homophobes/transphobes/your abuser/etc!” I am not.

This is why I hated “Patricia Wants to Cuddle” when I read it. There’s so much talk in the book about heteronormative and cisnormative society and how much it fears hairy women and the female body and POC. There’s so much at the end of how the bigfoot in the story is beautiful and wonderful and people just want to destroy what they can’t understand and so on and so forth. And the entire time I’m sitting there and thinking. About how there’s a scene earlier on in the book, where said female bigfoot breaks into the tent of a lady who had never interacted with it before, hadn’t done anything “wrong” by the standards of the book, and is mercilessly beaten to death because she, very reasonably, panicked when something crashed through her tent in the middle of the night. I read that scene. It was written as a horror scene. The bigfoot could have been anything, it could have been the most beautiful perfect person in the world, and anyone would have freaked out and panicked and been Not Okay if the same thing happened to them, let ALONE a minority group who already has to deal with violence and lingering trauma.

It is always white writers too. The author of the book I mentioned is white. I think it’s very telling that you see this a lot less with writers of color, though I think more than anything this is a tell of bad writing to begin with.

It keeps happening. Over and over and over again. I have no idea how this trend got started but it is so mind-numbing to see parroted again and again. Stop trying to write some grand notion about love and humanity and queerness when you keep trying to punish anyone and everyone who just isn’t nice to you personally.

#Most secret royal advisor || OOC #Dreaded rumors || Asks #The masked ball || Anonymous #(( i have so many fucking examples of this #(( i would also put on this list: queer people who REALLY want to be cops in all but name #(( sometimes its a fucked up little character doing fucked up little things in their fucked up little story #(( and sometimes you can see the hand of the author #smoking

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dash-n-step · 10 months

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My thoughts on the Toby Fox "discourse" that twitter keeps going through in cycles, as asked by no one

F Slur in Earthbound Rom Hack

that rom hack was made over a decade ago and when he was a teenager, and anybody who's been a tee ( especially on the internet and especially during peak "live tv commercials telling people not to say gay as a casual insult" era) knows how poorly they're taught how to act, and the dumb things they'll find funny at the time

he has repeatedly and preemptively said that he's ashamed of that rom hack and doesn't look fondly of it, claiming a lot of it hasn't aged well, even as people forgive him for it

the only reason it's brought up is because it's seen as a footnote in the "coming of age of toby fox" so people keep looking for it

none of this means that people CAN'T be disappointed with his use of the word, or personally cutting him off, as regardless of how much one person can reclaim a slur and be fine with it, another person can still be harmed by its use and be hurt by it

At the end of the day, he is still (as far as it's any of our business to know) a cis white straight guy with a traceable early internet presence, and it's up to YOU whether his impact for making undertale/deltarune and all the queer characters and stories those have and inspired, makes up for the use of a slur, regardless of growth of character, but you shouldn't be surprised if other people give him a pass

The Baby is You

a shitpost rock opera made only two years after the previously mentioned rom hack

as far as I know, aside from musically referencing it in a pokemon game (purposefully or not), he has never brought up this work

it is primarily a joke album about how the official Homestuck forums (formally known as the MSPA Forums) disallowed ANY depiction of pregnancy (including adult pregnancy) while allowing more problematic instances involving minor and related characters

the work, itself, makes that blatantly clear when it stops itself to either go on nonsensical tangents that mean nothing, or outright states its issue with said hypocrisy or its own inane nature

again, that doesn't mean people aren't allowed to personally be uncomfortable with it or some of its content (ultimately it's still mpreg involving teenagers, even if jokes about mpreg weren't new [remember that one Jimmy Neutron episode where Carl had alien jellyfish babies?]),

it's still an early 2010s homestuck fanwork, and homestuck is already overly infamous for its fans, the people who worked on it, and being a reflection of the overall internet environment it found itself in

Comparisons to Omocat

Omocat was an adult making jokes about being a pokemon to abduct children, selling shirts (inadvertently or purposefully) referencing certain types of works involving children (the word on its own is innocent, but with added context of her behavior, it's reasonably questionable), and was then able to work on an official pokemon shirt involving said pokemon

her main OC, eventually adapted to a standalone game and removing the ick tied to its inception, heavily stems from this era

many people have talked to her about this and much of her behavior for years with her ranging from brushing it off to making acknowledgements about these complaints in apology posts

regardless, there has been collaboration between both omocat and toby fox, and many other indie developers, as its an industry that encourages collaboration and mutual support

Ultimately, whether this constitutes as "dumb terminally online adult" behavior that she could have learned from, something to be used as a reason to dissuade people away from supporting her is, and how much discomfort with this information extends to those who have collaborated with her is up to you

regardless, the main difference is that

one was a dumb teenager surrounded by equally dumb teenagers making edgy content, holding no position of authority over those affected by said content, with clear signs that they've moved away from that behavior

the other was a dumb adult digging themselves deeper while openly making comments about children and not having much to show that they've grown, arguably profiting off said behavior

For as much as you can compare the "fujo community" as being as self-poisoning as terminally online teens: the main source of contention is Omocat being an adult, not having changed, and will always be supported by people who share the same or worse ideas because she's never really denounced them, while homophobic UT/DR fans will never be catered to, and Toby Fox has clearly grown from who he was as a teen, regardless of people who absolutely DO NOT owe him forgiveness for what he did then.

#dashingposts #dashingthoughts #long post #toby fox

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vaveyard · 2 years

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Please don't talk about POC and Queer authors getting hate when much of the criticism you receive IS from POC and Queer readers and you answer their asks with snark and memes, and laugh about and dismiss them with other people messaging you 🙈

How many struggling, oppressed authors could your contracts have fed? Don't speak for them when you contribute to their oppression. Redistribution of wealth and equality can't happen when white mediocrity gets 6-7 figures, and excellence from people of color gets almost nothing.

Please stop painting yourself as the perpetual victim and even comparing yourself to systematically oppressed people. Please. Surely there has to be a limit as to what you're willing to do for attention.

Most people (like me) do not criticize you for attention (hello? we're on anon? and you have all the power to delete the asks?).

The fact that you think that says a lot more about you than it does about your critics.

The fact that you think that criticism only comes from "one person", because you can't believe that more than one person in the whole world might find you lacking, that's just too absurd and improbable... is also very telling.

Most of us are people of color or members of the LGBTQ+ community or both. You're another white liberal author pretending to be anti-oppression while at the same time supporting the system, putting yourself at the center of the conversation, giving a platform to racist people making fun and/or dismissing people of color, and even participating in this behavior, and getting money and fame as a result. While the same authors of color and Queer that you speak for are left to fight for scraps.

You're not a martyr. It's obvious that you only post these asks to get sympathy and attention by people like you, because the mean oppressed people dare criticize you.

When oppressed people speak, please be respectful enough to listen. And if you can't be bothered to do that, at least keep quiet instead of dismissing them and putting YOURSELF at the center of the conversation.

Feel free to delete this if you wish, I'm not sure a public response would improve the situation. Positive change of behavior is the best show of taking accountability and apologizing for harm.

And so far, in all these years, your behavior towards readers has changed negatively.

Money, greed and entitlement really are a sickness.

Again, your issue is with the publishing industry (and the structure of capitalism in general, it seems), not with me. I'm flattered you think I have much power over either. I cannot control what manuscripts my publisher signs or who they choose as a lead title. I am also not going to refuse support for my own writing (as I am a working writing myself). I can control who I tour with and what panels I agree to be on. I'm grateful to be in a position where I can ask to do events with marginalized and/or debut authors/authors who debuted during the pandemic who didn't get a fair shake. That's been my protocol for the last few years.

And I stand by what I said. I know whatever "hate" I get is minuscule compared to what marginalized authors and creators deal with. I must acknowledge that, and I don't think that's "speaking for" anyone. Just stating the very obvious on the off chance someone thinks I'm getting an inordinate amount of negative comments. There is no comparison between my experience and their own.

I am a flawed human far from perfection. Trust me, I know many people find me lacking, some with valid cause and some without. But the vast majority of them are not on tumblr, sending a barrage of messages all at once, every few weeks, using the same syntax and focusing on the same issues every single time. It is very easy to tell which messages are from the same source.

I also have no way of knowing who a person actually is on anon. Or sometimes when it's coming from a named account. Quite frankly, I am usually the only part of the equation that is known in my interactions on here.

Regarding centering myself in conversation - I am responding to messages in my inbox, on my account. Perhaps that's the disconnect here? Unfortunately, the messages I answer are about me? As a rule, I don't answer any messages, comments, questions, or insults towards other authors that end up in my inbox. That's poor form in my opinion. And I can only talk in depth on my own experience.

#ask

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arcticdementor · 22 days

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There is something that I need to address. Something I can't ignore. I've talked about it on Twitter, but I need to talk about it here, too. White authors need to stay the hell away from the stories of people of colour. There has been another controversy in the YA world over the last few days, surrounding The Hand, the Eye and the Heart by Zoë Marriott. It's a retelling of Mulan, set in China, with a nonbinary main character. People have spoken up about this, about how this book is harmful and offensive. How a white author has taken a story belonging to people of colour for herself, again, when there are so few chances for people of colour to tell their own stories. There have been white tears and white fragility, and a fellow white author being outright racist. And it's absolutely disgusting. Before I continue on the specific subject of cultural appropriation, I want to point out that the fact that the character is queer and the author is queer doesn't make this ok. Where are the books from queer POC authors? How many are there? This very specific story should be told by a queer POC author, not a white queer author. Just because you're marginalised in one way doesn't mean you get to take from another marginalised group.

…

This isn't the first book written by a white author that has taken from other cultures to make the stories more interesting. Cinder by Marissa Meyer - set in a futuristic China - has been called out repeatedly. Rebel of the Sands by Alwyn Hamilton - set in a Middle Eastern inspired world, taking from the Islamic faith - has also been called out repeatedly. And I'm sure there are others I'm not yet aware of. White authors - you just can't write these books. "Can't" as in you shouldn't write these books, because they should be told by people of colour, but also because you're simply unable to write them without them being problematic. We can talk about sensitivity readers and research, but if your book is still offending people, then your book is problematic. Diverse books are wanted right now. There is a call out for authentic representation. But that doesn't mean, "White authors, please write marginalised people/stories into your books." It means we need people to write their own stories. We need authors of colour to tell their own stories, not have you write them instead, and stop that author of colour from having their story published.

…

I'm sorry, but no, you can't write about whatever the hell you want. Not any more. White authors have been able to do that for so many years, being the authors of the majority of books that have been published. It wasn't ok then, and it's not ok now - but now people won't stand for it. Haven't we white people taken enough from people of colour over the centuries? Have we not stolen enough?! White authors, you need to take a long hard look at yourself and your work, and ask, "Is/was this my story to tell?" If no, and you're still in the process of writing it, then can it. Shelve it. Leave it alone. If no, and the book is already published, then goddamn acknowledge your mistake - your harmful, offensive, problematic story - and own it. Apologise for the harm you've caused. Listen to what people are telling you about why your book is problematic. Learn from it, and do better. Just Bloody. Do. Better.

…

And yes, publishing is racist, and that's not something you can control. But you could stop writing these problematic stories. You could start promoting and supporting authors of colour and their stories - read and recommend them to your readers. You can check how diverse the panels you've been invited to take part on are, and refuse to be on panels that are white only. You can use your platform to support authors and readers of colour when they're being harmed by problematic books. You can do more. But stop writing people of colour's stories.

#writing #cultural appropriation #once upon a bookcase

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heart-shaped-system · 10 months

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The Political Landscape for Transgender Rights and Its Implications

Anna Bojorqiez

Many people don’t even realize that transgender rights are under attack, or care about the “culture war”, the cultural conflict that has become much more prominent due to failing institutions, growing inequalities, and technology that encourages people to cluster in their cultural groups.

But the fact of the matter is that this culture war is going to harm the people it is targeting. Former President Donald Trump has promised to ban gender-affirming care for minors, and to go after gender-affirming healthcare providers.

During this past years Conservative Political Action Coalition (CPAC), which is a political rally full of speeches, panel discussions, breakout sessions, and networking breakfasts. Michael Knowels, a political pundit with conservative values on the media company known as the Daily Wire, has called for the eradication of “transgenderism”.

The state of transgender rights to gender-affirming healthcare is dire, and help from cishet allies is needed.

In this essay I will define those who stand in the way of gender-affirming healthcare and the context surrounding it, the implications of banning it, and then provide solutions to making gender affirming care a national right.

My Personal Experience

As a transgender person myself, I feel the impact first-hand. There are nights when I cry myself to sleep, knowing that my trans siblings in conservative states might or will have their access to gender affirming care cut off by these invasive laws and consequently die out of fear that the same could happen to me if a Republican takes office as president again.

It is a traumatic experience to watch our rights get slowly stripped away, state by state, and it is an experience that is not talked about enough within spaces occupied by cishet people.

LGB Drop the T

Even in the gay community, there is a growing number of gay people in the UK who are aligning themselves with the LGB Alliance, which is a trans-exclusive radical feminist (TERF) group.

TERFs, as the name would suggest, are radical feminists who reject the inclusion and recognition of transgender people in feminist spaces.

However, this differs from the intersectional feminist ideas of intersectionality, which takes account the different ways in which women experience discrimination, whereas TERF feminism is a form of white feminism and has a tendency to overshadow not only the struggles of queer women, but women of color, disabled women, and women in other minority groups.

This puts TERFs in a weird position where they align more with fascists that believe in authoritarianism and the exclusion of people who don’t fit into their definitions of “normal”.

JK Rowling And Matt Walsh Bond Over Transphobia

In fact, the author of the Harry Potter book series and well known TERF activist J.K. Rowling, has made numerous transphobic dog whistles on twitter.

She has also praised the right-wing political commentator for the Daily Wire who has directly quoted fascists’ speeches, Matt Walsh, for his What Is a Woman documentary, stating that the film did a “good job exposing the incoherence of gender identity theory and some of the harms it's done.”

This is just a minuscule example of how even liberal people who consider themselves openminded individuals can just as easily turn around and stab the trans community in the back.

No, Were Not Grooming Your Kids.

With that said, many conservatives and TERFs have repeatedly made the claim that transgender people are “grooming kids” into transitioning, which is a process by which a predator builds trust and emotional connection with someone, usually a minor, for the purposes of abusing or exploiting the person who is being groomed.

There is absolutely no evidence to suggest that transgender people are grooming children. There is, however, ample evidence to show that gender-affirming healthcare, such as Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT) and puberty blockers, greatly improves the lives of transgender minors.

Why Minors Are Coming Out and the History of Left-Handedness

One might be asking, “if trans people aren’t grooming kids, why are so many minors coming out and transitioning?” The answer to that is simple.

If you are familiar with the left-handedness graph from the beginning of the 20th century to the beginning of the 21st century, you will see that left-handedness was at a low. Over the years it began to increase, and for similar reasons the transgender population is increasing. In the early 1900s, around 3% of the population identified as lefthanded. Over the course of the next 60 years, we saw an increase in the amount of left-handed people, but after the 1960s, the graph begins to even out.

This is because in the 1900s, there was a lot of religious and societal stigma around left-handedness, and people who were left-handed were forced to use their right hands, and wouldn’t admit to being left-handed due to the potential social backlash. (10)

Similarly, up until recently, most people didn’t even know that transgender people existed, and those that did often used offensive terms to describe transgender folks, which contributed to an environment of hostility towards transgender people.

For so long, so many trans people were afraid to come out due to the social backlash that came with it. But in the late 2010s and early 2020s, trans people were just barely starting to be shown in some mainstream media outlets in a positive light, and more people started to come out overtime.

Overtime, as acceptance of the transgender community begins to grow, the percentage of transgender folks will start to even out, just like it did in the left-handedness graph.

Left-handed people did not groom right-handed people into becoming left-handed, acceptance of left-handedness increased. In the same way, transgender adults are not grooming kids to become transgender; transgender kids are just starting to feel safe enough to come out, and it would be silly to suggest otherwise.

Banning Gender Affirming Healthcare Is Going to Kill Us

In addition, there is evidence to suggest that these bills that are banning gender-affirming care for transgender people, particularly minors, have been and are going to increase suicidality in the trans community.

In a policy analysis by Journal of Law Med Ethics, it mentions that these laws impact the trans community by shaping the contexts within which they receive social services, healthcare, and engage with their communities, and by “creating an overarching social landscape within which anti-trans sentiment and rhetoric cultivate misunderstanding of, hostility towards, and even violence against trans folks."

In a 2018 study by the American Academy of Pediatrics found that “nearly 14% of [transgender] adolescents reported a previous suicide attempt,” while the Journal of Law Med Ethics policy analysis found that the suicide attempt rate for transgender youths in 2022 was 19%.

The suicide attempt rate increase may seem small and insignificant, but that is a major increase. It is no coincidence that the suicide attempt rate has gone up as the amount of anti-trans bills being proposed goes up. This goes to show just how dangerous these laws are to the transgender population, and the need for everyone, including cisgender people, to stand up for what is right.

What Can We Do?

The situation in the US surrounding gender-affirming healthcare rights may seem hopeless to some, especially trans folks, but there are ways to help.

Cis allies need to talk to other cis people about the issue, spread awareness, and advocate for trans rights. People who are anti-trans aren’t going to listen to other trans people.

Cis people need to stop voting for the Republicans, and consider voting for a progressive candidate. Engage with lawmakers, especially local lawmakers. Attend townhall meetings, write letters, make phone calls, and use social media to urge them to oppose or repeal discriminatory legislation with evidence-based arguments and personal experiences.

And if all else fails, go to protests and make your voice heard.

Final Thoughts on the Issue

Hopefully this essay will clear up any misconceptions about the political implications of banning gender-affirming care.

In conclusion, the rights of the transgender community are being stripped away state by state. This will cause irreparable harm to transgender people, and will result in an increased suicide rate among those who are gender-nonconforming.

We need to meet each other where were at and ask questions to better understand each other, engage with lawmakers, and vote. It is vital to the survival of trans community that we take action now.

Biography

Anna Bojorquez is a college student taking an English 101 class. She is passionate about the transgender community. She enjoys playing her guitar, writing music, reading, witchcraft, and learning. She is majoring in social work to become a licensed therapist and a mental health legislation advisor.

#transgender #trans rights #persuasive essay

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writingwithcolor · 3 years

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Jewish author writing about antisemitism; should I include racism too?

anonymous asked:

Hi! I'm a white Jewish person who's writing a story set in a fantasy world with a Jewish-coded culture. It's important to me to explore antisemitism in this distanced setting, and explore what the Jewish diaspora means to me. I have a lot of people of color in my story as well. I don't know whether I, as a white person, should include racism in a story if it isn't necessary, but I also don't want to erase the aspects of many mildly/moderately assimilated cultures that are affected by racism, and I also don't want to imply somehow that antisemitism is a more serious issue than racism, which is obviously not the case. I was thinking that bigotry might be more culture-based rather than ethnically or racially based, but again, I'm not sure how or whether to write about bigotry against cultures + groups based on cultures + groups that I'm not a part of, and people of color in the story would obviously have their own cultural elements. Is acknowledging bigotry necessary?

It's okay to focus on antisemitism

Other mods have important advice on what exactly might be helpful or applicable to include in your story and how. I want to take a moment with the anxiety you express that focusing on antisemitism and not talking about other types of xenophobia will imply to your readers that you think antisemitism is “more serious” than other forms of bigotry. I hear and honor that anxiety, especially since “Jews only care about Jews” is a stereotype that never seems to go away, so I’m going to say something revolutionary:

It’s okay to center Jews in a story about antisemitism.

There, I said it. But I’m not making the case that you shouldn’t include references to or depictions of other types of bigotry in your story. There are a lot of great reasons why you should, because of what it can do for the complexity of your characters, the depth of your worldbuilding, or the strength of your message about the nature of xenophobia, diaspora, etc.

- How your non-Jewish-coded characters react to the things they experience can affect whether they sympathize over or contribute to the antisemitism at the heart of your story.

- How other types of xenophobia do and don’t manifest in your world can help explain why your world has antisemitism in the first place, and what antisemitism consists of in a world that also contains other minorities outside of the fantasy mainstream culture.

- Including other real-world xenophobia can help you set your antisemitism in context and contrast to help explain what you want to say about it.

Both your story and your message might be strengthened by adding these details. But if you feel the structure of your story doesn’t have room for you to show other characters’ experiences and you’re only considering doing it because you’re afraid you’ll be upholding a negative stereotype of yourself if you don’t, then it might help to realize that if someone is already thinking that, nothing you do is going to change their mind. You can explore antisemitism in your story, but you don’t have the power to solve it, and since you don’t have that power you also don’t have that responsibility. I think adding more facets to your story has the potential to make it great, but leaving it out doesn’t make you evil.

- Meir

Portraying xenophobia

As someone living in Korea and therefore usually on the outside looking in, I feel that a lot of people in Western countries tend to conflate racism and xenophobia. Which does make sense since bigots tend to not exactly care about differences between the two but simply act prejudiced against the “other”. Sci also makes a point below about racialized xenophobia. I feel these are factors contributing to your confusion regarding issues of bigotry in your story.

Xenophobia, as defined by Dictionary.com, is “an aversion or hostility to, disdain for, or fear of foreigners, people from different cultures, or strangers”. You mention “thinking that bigotry might be more culture-based”, and this description fits xenophobia better than most other forms of bigotry. Xenophobia can be seen as an umbrella term including antisemitism, so you are technically including one form of xenophobia through your exploration of antisemitism.

I understand your wariness of writing racism when it doesn’t add to the plot, especially as a white writer. Your concerns that you might “erase the aspects of many mildly/moderately assimilated cultures that are affected by racism” is valid and in fact accurate, since exclusion of racism will of course lead to lack of portrayals of the intersections between racism and xenophobia. I want to reassure you that this is not a bad thing, just a choice you can make. No one story (or at least, no story that can fit into one book) can include all the different forms of oppression in the world. Focusing on one particular form of oppression, particularly one you have personal experience with, is a valid and important form of representation.

You also comment that you “don't want to imply somehow that antisemitism is a more serious issue than racism”, but I honestly feel that doesn’t need too much concern. Much like how queerness and disability are two separate issues with intersections, racism and xenophobia form a Venn diagram, with large intersections but neither completely including the other. A story focusing on autistic characters that doesn’t also have queer rep doesn’t imply queer issues are less serious. Likewise, a story focusing on antisemitism doesn’t imply racism is less serious.

I am slightly more concerned that there might be an accidental implication of antisemitism being a more serious issue compared to other forms of xenophobia. Of course, exploring antisemitism alone is completely valid representation, and there’s no need to go out of your way to try and portray other forms of xenophobia. A microaggression or two, or maybe a mutual bitch out session with a gentile but marginalized friend should be enough to show that antisemitism isn’t more (or less) serious compared to other forms of xenophobia.

-Rune

Avoiding racialized xenophobia

I think one thing you have to be careful with here is racialized xenophobia. Are your characters of color getting disproportionately more xenophobia than your white characters? You might be falling into the trap of racialized xenophobia, which falls under racism, which you want to avoid. An example would be “all Chinese scientists are untrustworthy, but not you, you’re one of the ‘good ones.’” Although this is technically xenophobia, it is also racism.

--Mod Sci

In the case you choose to include even small snippets of other forms of xenophobia in your story, attempting to portray xenophobia without the complications of racism can be a difficult process when they often go hand in hand (especially to a Western audience). So here are a couple of suggestions I have of portraying xenophobia without racism.

First and the simplest method is portraying xenophobia between people of the same race. For example, there is definitely xenophobia against Chinese and Japanese people in Korea, but it would be difficult to claim there is a racial component when all of us are East Asian. (Something you might want to be aware of here is intersections with colorism, where even within the same race, lighter skin and other more westernized features are considered more desirable. I suggest looking through our colorism tag for more details)

Another idea is to include microaggressions for specific cultures rather than something more broad. For example, calling Korean food stinky because kimchi has a strong scent is specifically xenophobic against Koreans, while commenting on small eyes can be directed against Asians in general.

Finally, while antisemitism is a form of ethnicity-based xenophobia, it is also a form of religion-based xenophobia. Muslims and Buddhists and Hindus can absolutely be xenophobic against each other with no racism involved. Should you choose this method, particularly if religious xenophobia is only shown in a shorter scene, I suggest you try and avoid portraying any of the above religions as the Bad or Oppressive ones. As a Christian I will unironically tell you that Christianity is a safe choice for a religiously xenophobic character, as we’re far less likely to face backlash compared to any other religion, and inspiration should unfortunately be overflowing in real life.

-Rune

Other forms of ethno-religious oppression

Here is my TCK perspective as someone brought up in diverse environments where there are often other axes of oppression including religion, ethnicity and class:

Racism and xenophobia can definitely be apples to oranges, so creating a universe where racism no longer exists or has never existed seems doable to me. Perhaps in your fantasy world, structures that buttress racism, such as colonization, slavery and imperialism, are not issues. That still won’t stop people from creating “Us versus Them” divisions, and you can certainly make anti-semitism one of the many forms of xenophobia that exists in this your story. Meir has hinted that your reluctance to declaratively show the harm of anti-semitism indicates a level of anxiety around the topic, and, as someone non-Jewish but also not Christian or Muslim, my perspective is as follows: I’ve always viewed anti-semitism as a particularly virulent form of ethno-religious xenophobia, and while it is a unique experience, it is not the only unique experience when it comes to ethno-religious xenophobia. I think because the 3-way interaction between the Abrahamic religions dominates much of Western geopolitics, that can be how it looks, but the world is a big place (See Rune’s comments for specific examples).

To that effect, I recommend prioritizing anti-semitism alongside other non-racialized forms of xenophobia along ideological, cultural and class-based lines for both POC and non-POC characters. Show how these differences can drive those in power to treat other groups poorly. I conclude by encouraging you to slowly trace your logic when depicting xenophobia towards POC characters in particular. Emphasize bigotry along axes of class and ideology, rather than traits linked to assumed biologically intrinsic features. Ultimately, I think recognizing commonalities between forms of ethno-religious oppression as a whole will help make you more comfortable in depicting anti-semitism with the seriousness it deserves without feeling as though you are trivializing the experiences of other groups.

- Marika

Worldbuilding ethnically and racially diverse cultures

As has been mentioned by other mods, I think it’s completely fine to focus your story on antisemitism and not portray other forms of bigotry if that’s the focus and scope of the story you want to tell. My fellow mods have also offered several valuable suggestions for writing about “culture-based bigotry” in general if that’s what you want to do, while making sure it’s not coming off as racially based. One element I can add is that from a worldbuilding standpoint, it will also help to have your fantasy cultural groups be ethnically and racially diverse. After all, this was common historically in several parts of the world, and depending on which cultures you’re basing your coding on, you could absolutely have fantasy cultures in your world that include characters we would read (according to our modern-day standards) as white, and others that we would read as people of color, within the same fantasy culture. All these characters would face the same culture-based bigotry (such as xenophobia or religious oppression), even though they are read by a modern audience as different races.

As a note, the reason I say “read as” and “according to our modern-day standards” is that the entire concept of whiteness as we know it is very specific to our current cultural context. Who is and isn’t considered white has changed quite a lot over time, and is still the subject of debate today in some cases. Your work will be read by a modern audience, so of course, you need to take into account our current understanding of race and the dynamics surrounding it. However, it’s also helpful to remember that our modern racial categories are fairly new in the context of the many millennia of history of humankind, and that they are certainly not inevitable. Don’t fall into the trap of thinking a fantasy culture has to align itself entirely with modern-day racial categories.

- Niki

#Asks #fantasy #worldbuilding #anti semitism #xenophobia #racism #Judaism #Jewish

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