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feckin-zicons · 3 years

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that's why i hate larries, i hate them with all my heart. besides being boring they are hypocrites 🙄

Hey nonnie, sorry its taken me so long to reply but if you’re following me you know I’ve been travelling lately and have been more scatterbrained than usual. Not that I’m ever not scatterbrained, but its been just a little crazier than usual!

Now I wouldn’t go as far to say I hate Larries. After all their delusions can be pretty funny sometimes!

Joking aside, I don’t hate Larries, I love Larries, I’m a Larry, so I really hesitate to tarry the whole group with the same brush. However I do strongly agree with you that there are those who are complete hypocrites. Nothing annoys more more than when Larries ™ treat the other boys, other celebrities, their friends and even family as one more side character to the Larry Show.

In particular when Larries ™ flood comment sections asking or in some cases, ordering people to confirm rumors/the couple being together. The absolute fucking disrespect. Not just because they’re flooding comment sections in videos streams, tweets, what have you, that sometimes have nothing to do with the couple in question, but because its presumptuous and rude as fuck to think they’re owed a coming out- just because they’re fans of the boys.

Stop it. Thats fucking ugly as hell.

While I have no doubt all the boys will one day be out (as referenced by their continued efforts in fighting the closet. I don’t get the sense the boys will just stop at being freed from their contractual obligations). It should and will be on their own terms. Provided they’re not forcibly outed some other way.

Coming out is a deeply personal experience and no one, no one ever, has the right to out someone else. I’ll never not be absolutely furious at the Larries ™ who posted about having ‘receipts’ that would out the boys. Which… tbh weren’t receipts at all but thats a whole other story. I’m also still angry at the reactions after Liams Attitude spread that wouldn’t have been as bad if not for the entitled fandom that peddled ridiculous claims beforehand about Liam confirming Larry to be real.

I mean… What the actual fuck. Setting aside the fandom experience of the time, and boy was it an experience. What right would Liam have confirming Louis and Harry’s relationship? I mean, get some perspective? It doesn’t help that a lot of fandom adults were the ones coming up with, and reblogging those theories and the younger fans ate it up. It would have made more sense for Louis and Harry to do it but idk maybe I’m still out of touch for thinking so. I mean, it felt like every other week someone was talking about Larry coming out. It was such a shit storm oh my god.

Biggest issue I still have with them is that the entitled behaviour hasn’t stopped. For some it seems like, Larry coming out is it for them. Like pack it up, goodbye, shows over, Louis and Harry are gay and in a relationship and everything is rainbows, we get to see cute pictures of them and everyone lives happily ever after.

Yeah, no. Coming out, for anyone, is just the beginning, can’t even begin to imagine what its like for them. They’re still going to need everyones support, and it irritates me that for some fans it seems so fucking conditional.

Time and time again, I’ve seen tweets, and posts, and videos, whatever, going on about Larry coming out and it reads like a fucking wattpad story. Not just that but its always on the assumption by the poster, on the off chance they consider the other 3/5ths of the band and Ziam being a possibility, that Larry will come out first?

What?

I’m sorry but, what?

Everything I’ve seen from the boys tells me they’re all in this together, they support each other and are working through the bullshit as a team. We have all seen the No Judgement music video yes? The merch, posts, double speak etc referencing each other, yes?

I mean, I suppose if you only look at Louis and Harry, like so many do, sure. Only Larry matters, everyone else is a side character in their life.

(Lemme just, scream for a second).

However, that kind of thinking leads them to the wrong conclusions. Like… assuming the SBB/RBB countdown was attributed to nothing, when it counted down to Liam finally being free of Sophia. In the years since, I’ve seen Larries ™ backtrack on claiming the bears had anything to do with the boys, that they weren’t behind it at all, or that they were just trolling the fandom.

You know, despite all the proof otherwise, and some really, really good posts breaking down clues about what the boys were trying to tell us. The moment something might not actually be about Louis and Harry its like all their thinking shuts off. Its frustrating. Really fucking frustrating.

Seriously, fans of the other boys as individulas, not just Ziams, have been talking about the stunts too and how they fit together. Its why we tend to be right, because we’re considering the entire group. They’re still a group. They’re not free until all of them are free.

Just for that Nialls coming out first. Lmao. I’ll call it now. Lets go Niall, whens the baby coming. We all wanna know. Its been years.

Imagine, imagine! Acting like coming out is some race to be won. The fucking audacity.

Go outside and touch fucking grass you absoulte ninny.

I get it, you want to be vindicated, you want to be rewarded for putting your faith in two celebrities being together.

Newsflash you dandelionfluff, its not a race, Louis and Harry coming out isn’t a fucking prize. Thats not what supporting a relationship looks like.

Its worse when someone admits they don’t know much about Ziam or the possibility of Niall being LGBT+, and claim they’re open to it, but then immediately tweet or reblog or sub tweet or tag comment a post or answer an ask from another Larry ™ talking about how Larries ™ are the most marginalized and persecuted group.

???

In what fucking world?

IN WHAT FUCKING WORLD?

If we wanna play that game, boohoo, the media claims Louis and Harry aren’t friends anymore because of crazy shippers. Meanwhile Zayn publicly isn’t friend with anyone and “left” the band… despite the Ziam fandom calling the stunt about either Louis or Zayn “leaving” and getting it down to the exact week (the second article coming out a week before about the Ziam kiss pretty much cemented it for Zayn leaving. Which did a lot to fan the flames of the already rabid fanbase when Ziam got two articles confirming a Ziam kiss over the years and Larry got nada. Like that actually means anything).

Not to mention Larries ™ using the hetties and management tactics against the other parts of the fandom to silence them.

Who cares what the media says anyway! TPTB, 1DHQ, The Sun, The Mirror, Simon and his minions and their unpaid interns have used the media to split the fandom apart and it worked.

Who the fuck cares if the media calls the 1D stans delusional, you know the truth! The truth it out there and you’ve seen it! The truth is coming! Who gives a damn about what some two bit “journo” who failed out of their creative writing course writes? They get worse by the year. If it wasn’t so pathetic and hilarious I might actually feel embarrassed for them. They can’t even come up with new stories and have just taken to copying old articles, but you’re upset with them??? Give it a rest. Honestly.

The sense of disconnect, entitlement and victimhood of some Larries ™ is absolutely ridiculous.

Oh my god they’re Karens. I’m not trying to be insulting, but thats exactly who they remind me of.

I’m not going to say its a surprise to me that so many in the Ziam fandom are POC, LGBT+, and Neurodivergent and any combination of those, but I am going to say I’ve read a lot of Larry fics that just have Het sex made gay. Those in the Ziam fandom just tend to look at facts in a different way than Larries do due to their life experiences. A interfaith, interracial, relationship where one or both partners fall under the Bi umbrella (not saying Louis or Harry can’t be or aren’t Bi+ but rumors, and the way the fandom markets them, puts them firmly in the gay category) looks very, very different than gay or straight relationship. Both looking from outside and being in one. There’s just different dynamics at play that aren’t often realized or understood by the gays and hets.

Its not a bad thing. All relationships are different. The issue is that theres a lot of biphobia/racism/religious prejudice etc that arises from people being unwilling to understand the inherent differences.

Taking myself for example, I’m bi, like, bi as hell, and I don’t understand how gays and hets only like one gender. I just don’t. Can’t wrap my head around it. If someone asks me to choose one gender over the others to prefer I can’t. Its so stressful. My brain goes into panic mode and it feels like I’m being torn apart. My sense of identity is shaken- its a shit feeling. I just can’t lie to myself like that. If other people feel the same well, its no wonder bi+ have such high rates of depression and suicide. Its not about choosing who to like, there is no choice, I just feel attraction to everyone. Aces, I get. Its similar to being the opposite of what I feel, or not feeling an attraction to someone I’m not interested in. Easy. Gays and hets? I’m completely lost on.

Completely, and I know I’m not the only one who feels that way. But that doesn’t mean I’m not willing to try and understand where they’re coming from. Its alien to me, personally, but I’m not going to shut down the fact, that theres a fuck ton of people who only like one gender or try and make up reasons as to why they’re actually bi+

I digress, none of the boys fall neatly into the gay stereotypes, its just that parts of the Larry fandom have boxed Louis and Harry into certain roles to fit preconceived notions (likely do to them initially fitting in better with the white, sassy, somewhat effeminate twink thats been plastered all over Hollywood as their “LGBT+ representation” for years. Gag), they can understand better, and only look for proof to back up their theories but don’t look at things objectively.

They really need to get out more and make some LGBT+ friends that aren’t on the internet and talk to some gay elders. They need educating that’s not the often sanitized and insulting Hollywood version, that’s all I’m saying.

They made Louis and Harry more palatable for themselves and its… really gross.

I don’t know, I don’t get it.

Some Larries ™ turned the boys into their fandom and fanfiction stereotypes when they’re so much more than that. The Sony leaks should have been enough to dissuade the fandom, and prove that the brand sold to the broader audience is just that- a brand, and yet… Niall only talks about food and golf and Ireland and is only allowed to be straight or ace. If he exists at all its just to be Capt Niall. Liams slow and dumb and depending on the day he’s either Capt Liam or a horrific abusive homophobe. Zayns just The Worst, a unstable drug addict, and the boys hate each other, and they should have kicked him out of the band sooner because he never wanted to be part of them anyway, etc.

It drives me absolutely around the bend some days. They’re real people who don’t owe anyone anything, especially not coming out.

Yes, I think they will. But they’re not obligated to. They can change their minds, I’ll support them regardless of an “official” coming out or not.

Look, a part of me gets it. They wanna be right, they wanna prove the haters wrong, they want to be able to say I called it all along! The vindication will be sweet.

But like, it takes a quick look at someone other than Louis and Harry to realize theres something hinky going on with Liam, Zayn and Niall. Please listen to their fans who have spent just as much time as you have looking into Louis and Harry compiling together evidence.

It might take a weekend to watch the ILYSM and pterodactyl bros videos and a few more hours looking into some Niall blogs, which isn’t much compared to the hours I know they’ve spent looking into Larry. At least then they’ll have enough information to form an opinion on things.

I wonder, for some, what would happen if Larry didn’t come out, or didn’t come out first, or one of the other boys was outed against their will. Because… I don’t know. It seems like some would rather just be proven right at this point.

I get it. We’re tired. Its been eleven long years. But this isn’t a television show were everything can come to a head with a s3 or s4 cliff hanger and fixed in the series finale. Its real life, and they started off as boys trusting industry veterans who never had their best interests at heart.

Iduno. I just want some Larries ™ to take a step out of the echo chamber, realize life isn’t The Larry Show & co. And especially. ESPECIALLY, that every instance were someone, friends, family, co-works, industry peeps etc support the boys they are SUPPORTING THE BOYS, NOT THE FANDOM. They are not “confirming Larry for the fans” they’re doing it to support the couple, not to cater to the fandom. Please stop confusing the two. There’s a huge fucking difference. Learn it.

#Honestly it should be the Liam Payne the three guys who’ve had a crush on him and the one who married him.#aka the hill I'll die on #lmao #sorry not sorry #IM SORRY IT LOOKS LIKE I HAD A LOT MORE TO SAY ABOUT THIS THAN I THOUGHT I WOULD #ASDFGHJKL;#also please don't think I'm calling anyone out specifically #these are a lot of generalizations and trends I've noticed after being in fandom for nearly 11 years they pop up all the damn time #circles we're just going in circles #I've been following Ziam in particular since the Nov 2011 interview #but suspected Liam had a crush sometime before when I saw a gifset of him talking about Zayns birthday presentsbc he as acting the exact sa #e way I was when I was crushing on a girl I knew #I saw myself in him and ignored it for another day #lmaooo #ziam #larry tunnel vision #larry vs ziam #Larry vs Niall #fandom bs #ask

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hotforhandman · 4 years

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Gran Torino and the Legacy of Dehumanisation

Oh boy. Time to make another sect of bnha fans hate me. These are always fun- and always seem to come after I browse the bnha spoilers tag.

So after the 281 spoilers hit, once again, the fandom seems to have been divided into two very vocal camps - those who are celebrating GT’s death, and those who are offended that anyone would dare do such a thing. The former hated GT (and in some cases Miruko, too) for being openly degrading towards Shigaraki, labelling him an ‘it’, a ‘thing’ or a ‘monster’, and the latter say... well of course he did. Shigaraki is a monster. He’s violent, destructive, aggressive, he’s purposefully modified his body in order to destroy, he’s the villain. And we can’t hate on a beloved mentor character for being mean to a villain.

Now, my own opinions on the situation are... very meh. I wasn’t particularly invested in GT’s character, I held no particular affection for him, but neither did I virulently hate him. That being said, I do think there are some very interesting things to think about in regards to the whole debacle and people’s reactions to it.

To an extent, I do think that a certain amount of it is played up for kicks, or happened as a result of a subset of the community playing hype-man for each other until a tiny gripe became a massive point of contention, but more than that I think a lot of it boils down to what the villains (specifically the LOV) represent to the reader. The LOV seem to have separated the hero stans and the villain stans more than any other bit of media I’ve been a part of the fandom for, and seem to be the source of a lot of these conflicts (see: Hawks v Twice, Dabi v Endeavour). And I think that is largely because Horikoshi has put so much effort into humanising them. I’ve mentioned before in an offhand way about how of course the LOV resonate with people, they’re a bunch of young adults who are considered to be some form of ‘degenerate’ by the general populace, who are dissatisfied with a corrupt system and want to see the perpetrators held accountable for the suffering they’ve experienced. They’re a perfect microcosm of all us LGBT+ kids, us poor kids, us disabled kids, us POC, all the young adults who feel like society would rather see us locked up or dead than simply existing as we are. Of course, they’re also wilfully violent, and fictional violence is a contentious point these days. Some find it unforgivable, some find it justified, some might be living out a power fantasy about hurting their own oppressors through it, and some simply don’t care, because a fictional murderer never actually killed anyone. So now you’ve got groups of people who dislike the villains because they’re violent and aggressive, groups of people who sympathise with the villains but can’t justify their actions, and groups of people who both sympathise with the villains and consider their actions a reasonable response to the abuse they’ve gone through.

And now we come back to Gran Torino. The beloved mentor of All Might, the man who taught Deku to use his power without breaking himself, the living proof of a legacy of heroism. The thing is that I think he represents something very interesting. Where Endeavour is the epitome of the corrupt system, where All Might is the accidental arbiter of complacency, where Izuku is the hope for a better, more compassionate future, Gran Torino is the visual representation of tradition. He’s a classically successful hero, he was fairly well-known back in his day, he took down a fair few villains in his time, and he lived to train not just his own successor, but his successor’s successor. He’s been kicking villain butt since his early years. I’ve seen people getting angry that GT seems to blame Shigaraki for villainous doings that are not his fault (see also: Mic/Eraser blaming Shigaraki for what happened to Shirakumo), and I think that’s because he didn’t view Shigaraki as an individual with the capacity for right or wrong, he viewed him as a symptom. A symptom of that disease called villainy, the one to blame for the suffering of the people he cared about - Toshinori and Nana. Nana didn’t give up her son because she was a heartless mother, or because she didn’t love him. She was forced to because of a villain. To the heroes, ‘villains’ are an angry, violent monolith that needs to be dealt with, and individual villains are symptoms of that intangible evil.

To him, Shigaraki isn’t a hurt child, an abuse victim, a person to sympathise with. He’s an immediate threat, and a synthetic monster put together by AfO and Ujiko to act on that villainy. He’s a boss fight. And no one feels bad when they’re kicking a boss’s ass, because that’s just what you’re meant to do.

And so to circle back, I think that’s where the divide comes from. On one side, you’ve got people seeing Shigaraki the villain, Shigaraki the threat, the aggressor, the boss fight. And on the other you’ve got people seeing Shigaraki the victim.

And the thing is? He’s both. And for as long as the characters in universe fail to see the root causes of villainy rather than seeing villainy as the root cause itself, they’re going to keep creating new villains themselves. Because how many of us, given superpowers and the ability to change the world around us, would become villains in the name of bettering society for ourselves? Violence for the sake of violence isn’t acceptable, but dehumanising the violent and stripping away the environment that cultivated them won’t do anything except perpetuate the cycle.

So was Gran Torino a bad person for attacking Shigaraki? No. Was he wrong to dehumanise him, and doing harm by doing so? Yes. Once again, as most of these things I write seem to come to the conclusion of, the answer is somewhere in the middle.

#gran torino #shigaraki tomura #bnha spoilers #ch281 #long post

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adorpheus · 3 years

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on fujoshi and fetishization

Lately, more and more, both here on tumblr and on other sites, I keep seeing people spew unfiltered hatred at fujoshi - that is, women who like mlm content such as gay fanfic and fanart featuring men with other men. And I don’t mean like a specific type of fujoshi, like the ones who are genuinely being weird about it, but just like a general hatred for girls (but especially straight identifying girls) who express love for gay romance.

I hate to break this to you all, but women (including straight women!) actually are allowed to like mlm fanfiction and fanart, even enthusiastically so. A woman simply expressing her love of gay fanfic, even if it is in kind of a cringey way or a way that you personally don’t like, is NOT automatically fetishization.

I’ve been on the receiving end of fetishization for my entire life, from a very young age, as many black and brown folx have, so I consider myself pretty well acquainted with how it works. Fetishization isn’t just like, being really into drawings of boys kissing, or whatever the fuck y’all are trying to imply on this god forsaken site.

Fetishization is complicated imo, and can encompass a lot of things, such as (but not limited to):

1 - dehumanization, e.g. viewing a group of people as sexual objects who exist purely for entertainment purposes, rather than acknowledging them as actual people who deserve respect and rights

and

2 - projecting certain assumptions onto said people based on their race/sexuality/whatever is being fetishized. These assumptions are often, but not always, sexual in nature (like the idea that black people in general are more sexual than other races, etc etc etc).

I’m going to use myself as an example to illustrate my point. Please note this isn’t the best or most nuanced example, but it is the most simplistic. A white person finding me attractive and respectfully appreciating my black features as part of what makes me beautiful is not, on its own, fetishization. A white person finding me attractive solely or mostly because I’m a PoC is now in fetishization territory. Similarly, assuming I’m dominant because of my blackness (like saying “step on me mommy” and shit like that) is hella fetishistic.

That being said, theres definitely a difference between how fetishization works in real life with real people, and how it shows up in fandom.

Fetishization manifests in many different ways in fandom, but most commonly on the mlm side of things, I personally see it appear as conservative (or centrist) women who love the idea of two men together, but don’t actually like gay people, and don’t necessarily think LGBT+ people deserve rights (or “special treatment” as its sometimes dog whistled). These women view queer men as sexual objects for entertainment rather than an actual group of people who deserve to be protected from systemic oppression. I’ve noticed that they often don’t even think of the men they “ship” together as actually being gay, and may even express disgust at the idea of a character in an mlm ship being headcanon’d gay. In case its not obvious, this is pretty much exactly the same way a lot of cishet men fetishize lesbians (they see “lesbian” as a porn category, rather than like, what actual LGBT people think of when we read the word lesbian). There’s a pretty popular viral tweet thread going around where someone explains seeing this trend of conservative women who like mlm stuff, and I have also personally witnessed this phenomenon myself in more than one fandom.

The funny thing is, maybe its just me buuuut.... The place I see this particular kind of fetishization happen most is not in the anime/BL fandom, from which the term fujoshi originates - I actually see these type of women way way more in western fandom spaces like Supernatural, Harry Potter, and Hannibal. I can’t stress this enough, there’s a shocking amount of people who are like, straight up trump supporters in these fandoms. If you want to experience it, try joining a Hannigram or Destiel group on facebook and you will probably encounter one eventually especially if you happen to be living through a major historical event. Like these women probably wouldn’t even be considered “fujoshi”, because that term doesn’t really apply to them given they aren’t in the BL/anime fandom, yet they’re the ones I personally see actually doing the most harm.

Of course this isn’t the ONLY kind of fetishizing woman in the mlm/BL world, there are other ways fetishization shows up, but this is the most toxic kind that I see.

A girl just being really into BL or whatever may be “cringe” to you, or she may be expressing her love for BL in a “cringey” way, but a straight woman really enjoying BL is not, on its own, somehow inherently fetishization. Yes, sometimes teenage girls act kind of cringe about how much they like BL and that might be annoying to you, but its not necessarily ~problematic~.

That being said, IT NEEDS BE REMARKED that a lot of the “fujoshi” that you all hate so deeply, are actually closeted trans men or nonbinary people who haven’t yet come to terms with their gender identity, or are otherwise just NOT cishet. I know because I was one of these closeted people for years, and I honestly think tumblr and the cultural obsession around purity is one of the many reasons I was closeted so deeply for so long. STORYTIME LOL!!! In my early adolescence, I was a sort of proto “fujoshi”. I identified as a bi girl who was mostly attracted to men, or as most (biphobic) people called it, “practically straight”. I wrote and read “slash” fanfic and looked at as well as drew my own fanart. We didn’t use the term fujoshi back then, but that’s definitely how I could have been described. I was obsessed with yaoi, BL, whatever you want to call it, to a cringe-inducing degree. I really struggled to relate to most het romances, so when I first discovered yaoi fanfics (as we called them at the time), I fell in love and felt like I finally found the type of romance content that was made for me. I didn’t know exactly why, I just knew it hit different. LGBT+ fanart and fanfiction brought me an immense amount of joy, and I didn’t really think too hard about why.

At some point, in my early 20s, after reading lots of discourse™ here on tumblr and other places like twitter, I started to get the sinking feeling that my passion for gay fanfiction was ~problematic~. I had always felt a sense of guilt for being into mlm content, because literally anyone who found out I liked BL (especially the men I dated) shamed me for liking it all the fucking time (which btw is literally just homophobic, like can we talk about that?). In addition to THAT bullshit, now I’m seeing posts telling me that girls who like BL are cringey gross fetishists who inspire rage and should go die?

Let me tell you, I internalized the fuck out of messages like this. I desperately wanted to avoid being ~problematic~. At the time, I thought being problematic was like the worst thing you could be. I was terrified of being “cancelled”, before canceling was even really a thing. I thought to myself, “oh my god, I’m gross for liking this stuff? I should stop.” I beat myself up over this. I wanted so badly to be accepted, and to be deemed a Good Person by the internet and society at large.

I tried to shape up and become a good ally (lmfao). I stopped writing fanfic and deleted all the ones I was working on at the time. I made a concerted effort to assimilate into cishet culture, including trying to indulge myself more deeply in the few fandoms I could find that had het content I did enjoy (Buffy, True Blood, Pretty Little Liars, etc). I would occasionally look at BL/fanfic/etc in private, but then I would repress my interest in it and not look for a while. Instead I would look at women in straight relationships, and create extremely heterosexual Couple Goals pinterest boards, and try to figure out how I could become more like these women, so I, too, could be loved someday.

This cycle of repression lasted like eight years. Throughout it all, I was performing womanhood to the best of my ability and trying to become a woman that was worthy of being in a relationship. I went in and out of several “straight” relationships, wondering why they didn’t make me feel the way reading fanfic did. Most of all, I couldn’t figure out why straight intimacy didn’t work for me. I just didn’t enjoy it. I always preferred looking at or making gay fanfiction/fanart over actual intimacy with men in real life.

Eventually, I stumbled upon a trans coming out video that someone I was following posted online, my egg started to crack, and to make an extremely long story short, after like 3 years of introspection and many gender panic attacks that I still experience to this day, I realized that I’m uh... MAYBE... NOT CIS..!? :|

I truly believe if I had just been ALLOWED TO LIKE GAY STUFF WITHOUT BEING SHAMED FOR IT, I probably would have realized I was trans way way sooner. Because for me, indulging in my love of gay romance and writing gay fanfic wasn’t me being a weirdo fetishist, it was actually me exploring my own gender identity. It is what helped me come to terms with being a nonbinary trans boy.

Not everyone realizes they are trans at age 2 or whatever the fuck. Sometimes you have to go through a cringey fujoshi phase and multiple existential crises to realize how fucking gay you are AND THATS FINE.

And one more thing - can we just be real here?

A lot of anti-fujoshi sentiment is literally just misogyny. omg please realize this. Its “women aren’t allowed to enjoy things” but, like... with gay fanfics. Some of the anti-fujoshi posts I see come across my dash are clearly ppl projecting a caricature they invented in their head of a demonic fujoshi fetishist onto any woman who expresses what they consider to be a little too much enthusiasm for gay content and then using their perception of that individual as an excuse to justify their disdain for any women, especially straight women, ‘invading’ their ~oh so exclusive~ queer fandom spaces.

god get over yrselfs this is gatekeeping by another name

idk why i spent so long writing this no one is even going to read it, does anyone even still use this site

*EDIT: HOLY SHIT WHEN DOING RESEARCH FOR THIS POST I FOUND OUT THAT Y-GALLERY IS BACK OMG!!!

#rant #fujoshi #I SAID WHAT I SAID #personal #gender stuff

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the-light-of-stars · 4 years

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hi!!! I remember reading one of the tags on one of your posts about how white people are like always racist and that they need to constantly unlearn racism. That's a vague summary so sorry but in the tags you said there was something psychological to do with it? Can you explain that so I can use it to explain to others???

Hi anon!! First of all it’s great that you’re trying to learn more about stuff like this and want to help explain to others!!

Second: I am white, so I can’t draw the line at what is or isn’t racist and my opinion/ arguments shouldn’t be the focus here. Instead I’d suggest reading through some of the notes of the post you mentioned because some actual POC, who are affected by day to day racism, explained more about it there and I don’t won’t to speak over their voices. (Also the op isn’t by me I’ve just reblogged it, but idk if that’s what you meant).

However since you asked about a particular tag and I don’t want to leave you without an answer I’m going to explain what i meant with it - if I’m overstepping here though, please tell me cause I really don’t want that.

Ok so in the tag you’re talking about I mentioned that internalized racism , on a sociological basis (there’s probably psychological explanations about it as well but I’m not a psychologist) can be related to the term of the Habitus.

Habitus is an important term in sociology that in its most common understanding has been introduced by the sociologist Pierre Bourdieu.

To put it simply the Habitus is aspects of behavior that are 1. Usually unconscious and 2. Internalized through society and social standing. It’s not something someone was born with but something someone was born into.

Basically Bourdieu researched differences between social classes (and other social identifiers) and found out that members of specific groups didn’t just identify as members of their group because of objective criteria (for example wealth) but also because of their behavior - which, in many cases, the people didn’t even realize themselves - and that this is a phenomenon that happens not only in one aspect of societal structures but all of them (eg not just when it comes to class, but also to race, gender, orientation, etc etc.) and is something that is learned by exposure to the social circle you live in and also will stick with you your whole life, even if you can change parts of it.

(Because Bourdieu mainly researched different social classes and because I’ve only ever experienced xenophobic microaggressions but not racist ones in that sense, which means I lack the necessary understanding to talk about those in depth (also I’m white so it’s not my place to say what is and isn’t racism) I’ll use an example about classism instead)

For example: a rich person that has been born into wealth will never really know what it is like to be poor and what struggles poor people face. They can read all literature on class disparity in existence, and yet because they lack personal experience they will never truly know what it is like to be poor. So I’m all their actions, even if they try their best to not be classist, this lack of personal experience and the lack of understanding that comes with it will shine through in one way or another, usually unintentionally, because it is simply part of their ingrained behavioral structure. To them something can be completely innocuous and yet show their lack of understanding that’s been ingrained through growing up in the society they did in.

As an example: a rich person has a poor friend, who they care for dearly. One day when out and about together, the poor friend accidentally breaks their new phone and starts to panic about it. The rich friend tries to calm them down : “It’s ok please don’t cry, it’s just a phone - you can buy a new one!” . To them this statement shows their concern for their dear friend and is an attempt at calming them down by reassuring their friend and making them see the situation isn’t that bad and is fixable.

But instead of calming them down, this statement makes the friend cry even more. Because they can’t just buy a new phone, they don’t have the money. They’ve been saving up for this phone for months and now they have to cut edges all over again while also havibn to deal with not having a phone in a society where having one is pretty much a necessity. But the rich friend didn’t consider that - they couldn’t! Because in the life they live a 1000$ phone can be replaced at any moment, like you could replace a missing paper clip (I say, as if I haven’t panicked about this once as well cause I had to spend 2€ on a whole new pack of clips and couldn’t pay for my lunch that day because of that..). To the rich friend the situation registered only as a mild nuisance, but not as something worth crying or panicking over, because to them that’s what it is, which is why they acted accordingly.

They acted like they did because it’s the behavior and worldview they grew up with, and because it’s impossible for them to really understand the experience of someone who isn’t rich, because they’ve never had to experience it themselves and grew up in a society that was nothing but beneficial to them. So what they can do in the situation of the example, is apologizing for unintentionally upsetting their friend even more, educate themselves on why their friend reacted like that (eg learn about poor peoples situations through first hand accounts or scientific literature) ,work on themselves to ensure they won’t make the same mistake a second time, examine their behavior to see where it stems from and how to unlearn and help their friend , for example by offering to buy them a new phone (though they also have to accept it if the friend refuses their help or tells them it’s not their business.). And of course they also have to , at least try to, accept that what they did was wrong and that they aren’t exempt from making mistakes again in the future (because unlearning learnt behaviors takes a crap ton of work and won’t ever be fully possible, which is something that anyone who ever had a bad habit (-> which stems from the same root as the sociological term: the Latin word habitus , which has a lot of different meanings but literally translated to ‘something one has’) and tried to get rid of it knows.)

Bourdieu mainly focused his studies to the concept of Habitus on social class , but the concept is translatable to any other kind of socially learned behavior.

A straight person will always show homophobic behavior.

A cis person will always show transphobic behavior

A male person will always show misogynistic behavior. (Also before any terf tries to use this for their rhetoric: trans women face the same issues cis women face (as well as the added issues specific to trans people), because they are women and have to deal with misogyny as any other woman does. So don’t even try). (Edit: I first wrote ‘a cis male person will always show misogynistic behavior’ which is exactly the kind of unintentional mistake I’m talking about. Because writing it like this is already making a weird distinction between cis and trans men, and also implies trans men would be excempt from misogyny when they , just like any other men, aren’t either. Sorry for that!)

And, most importantly in the context of the op and your ask as well as the current situation, a white person will always show racist behavior.

No matter how hard a white person tries, no matter how much they educate themselves, listen to the voices of people in racial minorities (in this specific case black people), or how much they help - they can’t ever understand completely and can’t ever completely get rid of their internalized behavior , so with their Habitus they’ll always show their being privileged in a racist society.

Does this mean white people should just go ‘well if I can’t ever get rid of my internalized racism I don’t even have to try’ ? No. Because even if you always will keep making unintentional mistakes, it’s better to make those unintentional mistakes once, acknowledge them and try to avoid them in the future , than it is to make an unintentional mistake and then keep repeating it intentionally for the rest of your life simply because you couldn’t be bothered to try better.

Does this mean white people should be patting themselves on the back for trying to unlearn? Also no. Because for one like I said its impossible to ever truly unlearn every racist behavior, and two: trying to unlearn bad behavior isn’t some great feat, it’s basic decency. Just like in the example you wouldn’t call the rich friend a hero for trying not make their poor friend upset again, because that’s basic decency - of course they shouldn’t make their friend upset again that’s what being a friend is! So in a similar vein being an ally to Poc is trying your best to not harm anymore, and to acknowledge that even if you’re not doing it intentionally you’re hurting others with your behavior and help uphold a harmful system as long as you just ignore and profit from it.

As an example for this just read some of the replies on the op you mentioned: there’s dozens of white people applauding themselves for being ‘not at all racist’ or saying it’s impossible for them to be racist because their parents are voting for democrats or because they themselves are part of a different marginalized community (eg a woman, or part of the lgbt+ community). when that is just. Not the case. Because racism is a learnt behavior that can never get rid of completely. Because people don’t just learn behaviors from their parents but also from the rest of society (and even if they’d only learn from their parents they will also have internalised racist behaviors). Because being part of one marginalized group doesn’t mean you automatically have perfect understanding of the struggles of everyone else and this are now infallible (if that were the case then please explain how the leader of Germany’s most notorious right wing extremist party is a lesbian woman). Etc etc.

So, does this mean you should self flaggate over every little mistake? No of course not. You should realize your mistake, accept it and try to unlearn the behavior that led to it. Constant self punishment doesn’t help and might just make matters worse. And more than that by self flaggelating you will end up forcing others to pity you for being sad, instead of rightfully pointing out your mistake or investing energy to help or learn themselves - which is especially isnidious if the people that have to ‘cheer you up’ are poc themselves. It will also prevent people from pointing out your mistakes in the future because they’ll be worried you’d self hate for it again, making it even harder for yourself to unlearn bad behaviors. (also yes this point might be a bit hypocritical for me because I tend to apologize a dozen times to everyone for any small mistake no matter what the mistake was even about, but that’s something I try to work on bettering because oh wow is that a toxic behavior, no matter how understandable it might be)

So, lastly, what can you do? You can realize your mistake. Accept it. Learn what caused it and why it was harmful. Try your best to not make this or similar mistakes again. Understand and accept that you will inevitably make mistakes again. Understand that you’re not infallible. Understand that you live in and profit off of a harmful system. Listen to people from the affected communities and accept their opinions. Help where you can - even if it’s just by being a good friend. And don’t victimize yourself in the process.

I hope this made it a bit less vague and made my tag clear. Also again: I’m not infallible either and since I’m white i also might make hurtful mistakes, so if there’s anything wrong in this reply or if I’m overstepping with this please let me know so I can try to fix that. Also for the same reason take my opinions and explanations with a grain of salt and look up what people from the actually affected communities have said about this topic.

I hope this was coherent enough and I wish you (and everyone else who might still be reading at this point) a great day, Anon! (Also : if youre able to and want to help people who are actually affected by racism there’s many organizations and causes that currently need the help! )

#anon ask

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sulkybbarnes · 5 years

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could you recomend some podcasts? because i want to get into them but there are so many i dont even know where to begin... i've already listened to the bright sessions tho and i love it!

Hey anon!! Of course, I’m more than happy to give podcast recommendations so I’ve included my faves here which are from wildly different genres, but all have lgbt+ characters and awesome representation!!

Alice Isn’t Dead: This podcast follows a truck driver on her mission to find her missing wife. I’m not a horror person at all, but this podcast is the exception for me. It has some horror elements as the protag faces different supernatural scenarios and creatures on her road trip through America, but each story somehow ends up reflecting the reality we live in and is far deeper than some scary story. It genuinely has some of the best prose and storytelling I’ve ever heard/read, and slowly starts developing an awesome plot along the way. It also has a kickass wlw couple at the heart of it, is narrated by a woc, and handles the protag’s anxiety beautifully. You can’t get better than this tbh!

The Bright Sessions: I adore this podcast and I’m adding it for anyone who hasn’t listened to it yet. TBS is presented as a collection of tapes/recordings made by DR Bright, a therapist who exclusively treats patients with super powers known as atypicals. Each tape is a character with different powers, and the story of each individual slowly starts becoming part of a bigger plot. Excellent lgbt+ representation, great character dynamics, and has one of my favourite lgbt couples in fiction. TBS also deals with mental health issues and trauma super well.

Wolf 359: A story following the crew of a space ship sent into deep space. This one starts up all funny and light hearted, with space shenanigans and an annoying af yet somewhat lovable narrator, and slowly gets darker and crazier as you go. Another one that develops a plot along the way and suddenly you’ve gone from “haha this idiot’s best friend is the spaceship’s AL system to ....what the fuck just happened?!”. It has some kickass female characters and the gift that is Isabel Lovelace, but not much of lgbt+ representation (as there’s really no romance in the podcast at all) until the very end and even then it’s only mentioned in passing, although some of the cast are lgbt+ in reality and the dynamics are left up to your own interpretation.

The Two Princes: A really short, happy, cheesy af podcast following two princes on their quest to defeat an enchanted forest and falling in love in the process. Super predictable but really funny and cute if you’re looking for an easy listen! And extra points for them casting Middle Eastern voice actors to play the Arab characters (one of the princes and both his parents). So full points for lgbt+ and poc representation!

EOS 10: Another space podcast! This one is set on a space station in the future and follows Dr Ryan Dalias, a tired bisexual who should probably get paid way more to deal with all the shit he has to deal with. A pretty funny, light hearted podcast for the most part with more lgbt characters that show up a bit later on. I haven’t listened to season 4 yet but the first 3 were pretty enjoyable!!

The Strange Case of Starship Iris: Space stories again but this time with lesbians! If you want to see space pirates and a baffled scientist trying to survive them and deny her attraction to one particular kickass female pirate, you’re gonna like this one. I haven’t listened to this one since s1 ended so my memory is shaky on it, but it’s got wlw characters, genderfluid characters, AND space pirates so it had to go on my rec list!

The Orbiting Human Circus (of the air): Don’t know how to describe this to you but it’s a whimsical dream-like story that follows Julian the janitor, who works at the Eiffel tower and spends his days dreaming of joining a fictional radio show. It’s strangely comforting and weird and guaranteed to make you feel emotional. The main character is gay, as confirmed by his (also gay) voice actor, but it only comes up in passing because the story doesn’t have any romance.

The TryPod: This is the only non-fictional podcast on this list, and I included it because I adore its hosts and the podcast makes me laugh a lot. A podcast run by The Try Guys, a youtuber group of four guys, who sit around for one hour and talk about everything under the sun. They’re genuinely funny without being mean to anyone, and Eugene Lee Yang our Asian gay icon always delivers on good opinions while Zach and Keith mess around, Ned tries to keep everyone in check, and Miles (their podcast producer) gives hilarious, weird af yet strangely useful advice!

Limetown: I debated whether or not I want to include this one because I didn’t like the second season much and therefore haven’t finished it, but the first season deserves the mention. This is presented as tapes recorded by a journalist investigating the disappearance of an entire town’s population, over three hundred people, that happened overnight ten years ago. A bit horror-y and chilling at times, but the first season is so good. There’s science and sci-fi elements involved.

Please let me know what you think if you listen to any of these, and happy listening 💕

#podcasts #podcast rec #podcast recommendations #asks #mara talks for ts #rec #lgbt stuff #Anonymous

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kimyoonmiauthor · 4 years

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Barnes and Nobles Bookstore Report 2020 on Diversity

For those who are new to this... What I do every year since I was 13 was go to the bookstore, usually in summer and take an overview look at what is being shelved and sold. This, of course, changed with the internet. It’s a way for me (and maybe you) to get a sense of what the industry is and isn’t doing, particularly with diversity. I also check local bookstores (But my local one is closed due to covid this year). I usually note what has an hasn’t changed. It’s something that authors should be doing anyway. I don’t do it more often because it’s usually depressing. And I don’t do it near holiday seasons, since that can skew the book selection unfairly. So I usually pick a non holiday-heavy month and one that will not skew my numbers (like say, February, which is Black History Month) I pay attention to the following: - Where the books are shelved. - How many times a book is shelved (in different areas) - Who gets the most real estate and a rough guess as to why. (Usually because they are white cis and male.... no lie) - Which diversity gets the most real estate - What are the labels on the shelves and if those are separate or different from previous years. - I generally skip the children’s section since there is a yearly report for that. - Demographics of the area visually apparent v. numbers of the area itself. Who are they supposed to sell to (and usually failing to sell to) Blame the Anthropology... I’m well-trained to look for such things. - All Bookends and displays. - I usually look at all sections of the bookstore and take notes, in order. - If I have access to internet, then I also look up the authors, if I can to find out their diversity and spread. - I also take lots of pictures.

These are my notes for this year.

Demographics of the area outside of the bookstore: About 50/50 with the majority being Latinx (Black and Latinx mainly) Mostly women. (It was early, though--maybe white) Last demographics of area 2010, granted 36,226 (71.1%) White, 2,573 (1.3%) Black, 531 (0.3%) Native American, 31,434 (16.4%) Asian (6.9% Filipino, 5.4% Korean, 1.3% Chinese), 122 (0.1%) Pacific Islander, 12,146 (6.3%) from other races, and 8,687 (4.5%) (Latinx is around 17%)

The first two bookcases at the front of the store, were mostly white cis male authors. In the new author case, this was true, as well, and mostly had well-knowns.

Considering the Latinx population, I’m always kinda feeling like why aren’t there more Latinx books on the shelves?

White and black authors. But the black authors are only there because of Black Lives Matter, which feels like it’s catering to the white people who want to know what this is about, rather than the demographics of the bookstore itself. The Magazine section, Vogue, in particular did have PoCs on it.

- The Art History Section is and always is really white. I could count the PoCs on the shelf of 6 tall shelves on one hand. All of the How to draw Manga books are by white people. I know this because I’ve looked up the authors in the past. And it’s not that Japanese don’t publish books in English with instructions, BTW... so I always find that a bit strange, especially since the author they choose doesn’t really have a manga style 100% but mixes in American Comic books. (But that’s a separate thing.) They mostly had known PoC artists, acceptable to white people. - The Cookbooks don’t cover Africa. They had one African American cookbook which interested me. (Labeled Soul food and had a Black author), but the books mostly were for “French” in the international section. A few Korean (2-3) and I didn’t spot many other regionalities. I looked for Indian, for example.

- There were SFF books front of the store, which surprised me. Might be because there were PoC authors and the majority were PoC. (Also Black Lives Matter skewing) - All of the seating was removed (probably because of covid) I usually use it to sort through books I want...

- No Surprise, the same location for featured “classics” as last year and all but one were written by white men. The token book? Arabian Nights. I’m not sure that really counts since it was compiled by a white guy. (Believe me, I had thought like where is Jorge Borges? Marquez? etc) Most of the authors were white cis and het too... - The recommended section... by looking, mostly white cis het men. - Danielle Steele was shelved in General Fiction section. Actually several genres were shelved together there. Some Science Fiction, Some Fantasy, Some Romance, Some Historical Fiction, etc. There was no special section for Historical Fiction. (Not popular? Used to be back in the day...) There’s no LGBTQIA, women’s or African American section, even in the non-fiction. I have mixed feelings about taking it out of the non-fiction section. I like it combined in the Fiction section. They also took out all of the sub labeling except for major transitions. (Labeling individual shelves as containing something) - Diminished Latinx books in the Classics (Shelf) section. This has not changed... and it still ticks me off how white and cis het (also leans towards male) it is. - Increased black authors overall. Octavia Butler was Shelved twice, for example. Toni Morrison got a bookshelf all to herself (probably because of her recent passing). Nnedi Okorafor actually showed up on the shelf. Rena Barron was triple shelved--once at the front of the store and in two sections of the bookstore... So apparently B&N have a lot of faith in her book. - Overall, improved balance between men and women (except in the classics and recommended sections. I feel stabby about that.)

- The covers were a lot less offensive overall. (Though I had a few head scratchers on why that cover for that book, but that’s getting into graphic design quibbles) The PoC books actually had PoCs on the cover. And some of the covers were redone to have PoCs on the cover. There were no sexualized women on the out turned books. The Mystery/Thriller books, for example, has a trend of being symbolic and drawn. Kinda felt like I was staring at the old Chick Lit.

- There were less books shelved overall, because of the shelving practices of out turning the books so people could see the covers. (Even less than last year)

- The Romance Section ticked me off since I could count the amount of PoCs on the cover with one hand. But the covers have improved a bit. Jim Hines won the cover war... There was ONE LGBT book and ONE interracial book. It’s like PoCs don’t fall in love at all. What gives?

- Science Fiction and Fantasy were separated again. The amount of shelves for YA and SFF were about equal. (Which drastically changed from last year). This meant that the genre fiction was mostly equally shelved. (Mystery/Thriller might have gotten a smidgen less). The Science Fiction section was astoundingly male cis het. I even looked for authors I knew who were queer/poc, etc and couldn’t find them. Anne McCaffrey was gone completely, BTW. Oh and JK Rowling didn’t make it to the main shelves (She was in the audiobook section). lol Someone was mad. So win one, lose the rest.

- All of the “recommended race” books were written by People of color and well known. Win~ But all on black-white relations except one. (A book on my wishlist, but I pre-promised myself to not buy anything... so it was difficult to leave that one behind...) - The people with the most shelving were Shakespeare (Got his own section), Stephen King, and I forgot the third author, but he’s male cis and het too... Yeah... I know. And yes, there are authors more prolific than these authors too in history who are also PoC. - All of the books were from known and popular authors rather than unknown authors, mainly. Not like that rare find where you’re browsing and you go, “OMG, never heard of this person before.” So for me, who likes to browse and find that rare find it’s not as fun. I’ve found books pre-internet that were like that in Barnes and Nobles no less.

Overall: Improved, but I have this irking feeling the increase in black books is specifically to the Black Lives Matter movement. They care more about publicity than the cause, otherwise, other PoC groups wold have gotten better rep. Also kinda sad at the lack of LGBT. The widest diversity in the store is still YA. And as every year, I’m super sad about the lack of rep for Latinx. Seriously, didn’t you give it a thought that you might be in an area that’s not white? (I know the “But you could complain” thing... but it never worked in the past either and I have written to corporate, just so you know.) I pretty much left with this feeling of elation that it was improved, but this feeling of sickness that they were still, STILL catering to white people. (Cis het, etc). Yeah, depressing enough to want to marathon several PoC shows to undo the implicit bias type of feeling. And this area, as shown isn’t lacking in PoCs. Also, kinda have to state, I wish it was more like a treasure hunt... sometimes that’s the best part of going to a bookstore. Disappointed about the lack of a non-fiction LGBTQIA... kinda had a wish the Julie Sondra Decker might show up in that section. My ace little heart. I took 108 pictures as photo proof of my assertions (Again, Anthro training). BTW, Rena Barron should thank her publicist for convincing for the triple shelving...

#bookstore #barnes and nobels books #diversity

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catsnuggler · 6 years

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Got a bit of a difficult opinion about firearms, personally.

The following post is totally US-centric. I don’t mention any other countries once.

Pro/Against? Pro.

However, gun culture in America is terrifyingly dominated by conservatives and reactionaries; white nationalists, even (note how the family on that propaganda was all blonde, blue-eyed, and white); therefore, there is an unfortunate association between being a racist and owning a gun in America. Cisheteronormative masculinity pushes women and LGBT folks from embracing guns, as well. Furthermore, American white supremacy does its best to make even unarmed people of colour, Black people in particular, seem inherently dangerous, and therefore absolutely fears the prospect of them being armed. Then there’s the simple fact that unfortunately, it’s expensive to have guns. Not all guns, and there are some quite inexpensive ones out there, but overall, it’s expensive having to buy cleaning materials, to go down to the firing range and use up ammunition which you also have to buy, to take it into the gun shop, perhaps, if there is a mechanical failure. Upper-class cisgender white men tend to be the ones with the most guns, as a result. Especially, come to think of it, considering how many of these are cops and (ex-)military.

I’m pro-gun, but aware of the toxicity of what one could call “the armed class” in America. I feel there needs to be a rival group of proletarian, LGBT-positive, feminist, POC-Friendly and especially Black-Friendly gunowners to challenge the dominance of the patrician armed class, though one has to be careful not to challenge in certain ways too dangerously and too soon.

Regarding open carry, I think it’s a good protest tactic, but is not a good thing to do in one’s daily life. Carrying a gun around with you in the open says “Fuck with me and I’ll kill you. Stay the Hel out of my way and you’ll live.” If, let’s say, vastly repressed workers do a squat strike, and they’re armed, that will force the state to peel their eyes open and, yes, they’ll view the workers as a potential threat, but they’ll at least hear the workers in this case, and if it’s more hassle to put the strike down than it is to grant at least some of the workers’ demands, especially if the workers only squat and don’t shoot, the strike could be successful. If you go to work armed, grocery shop armed, go on a walk armed, etc - just to be openly armed, no other purpose - you’re going to terrify people minding their own business and you might invite trouble rather than ward it off (such as cops), because that’s kind of a dick thing to do.

Imo, if you want to keep yourself protected and armed without terrifying people, go for concealed carry. You might just need mace or a knife, but if you want a handgun instead, sure. Just go through the training program so you don’t get into trouble or shoot your dick off, and you should be good.

TL;DR The workers must be armed; any attempt to disarm the workers must be frustrated; the lumps, petty-bourgeois and bourgeois are already armed, so the previous statements are especially paramount; keep yourself safe, but don’t terrify every breathing soul you pass like a dick. Just my take on it.

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thuhlia · 6 years

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Disability in LGBTQIA

1. Introduction

https://health.usnews.com/health-news/patient-advice/articles/2015/07/29/lgbt-health-care-what-to-consider In this blog I will open up the dialogue addressing the issues within a specific LGBTQIA community that have lacked in recognition their queer community in addition to the rest of society. The topic in this blog is based on not having enough resources for disabled folks including others alike and elaborating on the issue of the Queer and overall community not making resources widely accessible to all types of disabled individuals. There is a lack of acknowledgement and discussion about the multiple obstacles LGBTQIA individuals face other than already being a part of the Queer community, which is the case we studied in this class. The most important step to progression on this issue is acknowledgement. To learn and address the concept that this population exists will open up the idea to be more inclusive, aware, and understanding. In willful ignorance, disability in our society has been pushed to the backburner of the fundamental rights of human life. Disability has developed into various layers that numerous people do not try to fully understand including the concept of individuality within that community in terms of sexuality, unequal representation, the combination of being a disabled queer individual, and being disabled, queer, and additionally, a person of color.

2. Sexuality is taboo

https://www.scope.org.uk/awkward/a-z

When society thinks of the LGBTQIA community, they think of sex and intimacy. When society thinks of the disabled folk, they strictly reminded of their incapabilities and certainly do not bother to consider that they may also share sexual desires just like any other human being. Whether they are straight or queer, the concept around sexuality and sexual lifestyle is ignored and denied when considering people with disabilities. The subject of sexuality as either a want or a need are seen as a taboo subject to the rest of society that should be untouched and forgotten about. Their sexuality and the act on pleasure of this particular group is ignored in all communities of sexuality and gender. (Tepper). There is a stigma that people with disabilities face in regards to sexuality and pleasure that once you become a part of the disabled medical category, that they must not desire or act upon sexual behaviors. Several institutions in our society “have adopted the ‘don’t ask, don’t tell policy of sexual education,” which already sets the community of the LGBTQIA group and in addition, leaving out the extra resources and recognition people with disabilities may need in this topic of discussion (Tepper, 284). The meat of this issue is briefly explained as Mitchell S. Tepper states, “The discussion of pleasure in populations such as women, older Americans, large sized people, gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered individuals, and children is also underrepresented in the medical or scientific research literature. This is equally true for people with disabilities” (285). Just as much as sexual behaviors and aspects of the LGBTQIA community is ignored by society and the medical field, one can only imagine the lack of consideration and research people with disabilities within the LGBTQIA community receive. In the film, Sins Invalid: An Unshamed Claim to Beauty, a particular group of individuals with disabilities express the importance of free-expression and recognition of the medically disabled community. Whether they were gay or straight, they want to also be considered and recognized as a norm to the rest of society because although they may have a physical or mental incapability, they do not want to be considered as incapable of being human beings and performing activities of human life (2013).

Class Source: Sins Invalid: An Unabashed Claim to Beauty. Dir. Patricia Berne. Kanopy. New Day Films. 2013. DVD.

Class Source: Tepper, Mitchell S. “Sexuality and Disability: The Missing Discourse of Pleasure.” Sexuality and Disability 18.4 (2000): 283-290. EBSCOhost Academic Search Complete. PDF.

3. Unequal representation in resources meant for all Queer folk

https://www.advocate.com/sites/advocate.com/files/2015/05/15/Op-ed--We-Must-Protect-Disabled-LGBT-Adults-From-Conversion-TherapyX400.jpg Many have this perception that a person with a disability is represented by a wheelchair when there are so many other signs and symptoms of various disabilities that may not be as apparent as a physical disability. Sylvia Rivera, a Latina, transgender woman and activist fought for a long time to help the community she felt she was a part of in a number of their needs. In her article, “Bitch on Wheels,” she describes the hardships that many of the youth in her city have had to face for a long time and no one was there to help them so she took initiative and fought for their rights as homeless, queer, and disadvantaged misfits of society (Rivera 2001). When our society hears the word “disabled”, an image of a person on a wheelchair appears. The reality is that disability comes in all shapes and forms. There is no staple image that represents what that may be. Disability doesn’t always have to be medical. One thing that Rivera and her efforts represented is that homelessness is a disability of overall life as well. Being homeless means you don’t have medical insurance, you most likely don’t have a job to support your personal needs and as a result you probably don’t have money to help you gain access to transportation to various resources that could help a person in many ways. On the other hand, there are statistics stating that “the number of persons with disabilities who are homeless is higher than the number of people who are living in poverty - something that tells everyone that people with disabilities are having a difficult time finding a place to live, or a landlord who is willing to rent them” (Weiss, 2009). This is a perfect representation that not only people with disabilities are being discriminated against but the homeless community, including Rivera, are also being discriminated against for being queer and in that way, they have been categorized as disabled. The underrepresentation of the barriers that these groups are being forced to face is a reflection of the lack of resources that should be helping non-medically disabled queer folk. On a side note, fortunately, Rivera was that resource for many during her time.

Class Source: Rivera, Sylvia. “Bitch on Wheels.” Street Transvestites Action Revolutionaries: Survival, Revolt, and Queer Antagonist Struggle.Untorelli Press, 2013. 32-39. PDF.

Article: Weiss, Thomas C. “People with Disabilities and Homelessness.” Disabled World, Disabled World, 14 Apr. 2017, www.disabled-world.com/editorials/political/disability-homeless.php.

4. Double Discrimination (disabled/queer)

were-all-queer-here.tumblr.com/image/165032080253 Source: were-all-queer-here tumblr profile Based on the post above, this is a segway to the topic of double discrimination faced by queer disabled individuals. To quickly explain what this means, I found a testimony posted by Ashley Burnside called, “5 Intersections of Being Queer and Disabled.” She explains the intersectionality of the two marginalized identities that she personally identified with into five categories based on her experiences: Isolation, Dating, Fashion, Coming Out/Disclosing, and Pride and Acceptance (2017). A common theme in all of these categories that many other Queer individuals with disabilities may also experience is the pressure of being critiqued for not only being one or the other--queer or disabled, but it is also judged because of the combination of living with both identities (2017). An example of a level of discrimination among many is explained by Nancy J. Hirschmann in her article, “Queer/Fear: Disability, Sexuality, and The Other.” Based on the concept that both the LGBTQ community and people with disabilities are viewed as a more inferior version of human existence according to those who negatively judge them, Hirschmann states, “More pedestrian similarities, parallels, and intersections between disability and queerness abound, of course, such as the feminization of disability such that a disabled man is perceived as weak and helpless, regardless of what any disabled man or woman (or nondisabled man or woman for that matter) could actually achieve; much as gay men are feminized and denigrated by being labeled women—a term that is supposedly neutral in everyday discourse but which becomes a mark of contempt when used to refer to men” (141). Identifying as both disabled and queer means you are subject to discrimination and being valued less.

Article: Burnside, Ashley. “5 Intersections of Being Queer and Disabled.” The Mighty, 5 Apr. 2017, themighty.com/2017/04/intersections-of-being-queer-and-disabled/.

Scholarly: Hirschmann, Nancy J. “Queer/Fear: Disability, Sexuality, and The Other.” Springer Science+Business Media New York, 8 Mar. 2013.

5. Triple Discrimination (disabled/queer/poc)

http://images.huffingtonpost.com/2016-06-20-1466447965-4709255-DTWPic2-thumb.jpg http://images.huffingtonpost.com/2016-06-20-1466447385-2856280-DTWPic1.jpg https://tallerdeteoriaqueer.wordpress.com/2012/07/10/queer-chicana-discapacitada-3/ One of the most underrepresented issue surrounding the disabled community is not only discrimination against queer folk but being a person of color as well. It’s a triple threat that goes unnoticed going through life as a disabled queer person of color. Race is in effect. Although there are some LGBTQIA disability resources, the representation of disabled queer individuals has often been all too white. Walking into spaces around this supposed progressive society, one cannot deviate from racism as it sadly continues to exist. Discrimination takes many titles such as: racism, homophobia, etc. People carrying the identities, as a queer person of color with a disability is a triple threat that many aren’t prepared for. In the article, “Inhospitable Healthcare Spaces: Why Diversity Training on LGBTQIA Issues Is Not Enough” written by Megan A. Dean, Elizabeth Victor, and Laura Guidry Grimes, they describe the interpersonal interactions suggested as micro aggressions towards members of the LGBTQIA community are many times conveyed through interactions between hospital staff and patients (2016). Being a person with a disability going to the doctor with their partner while also identifying as queer and representing as a person of color can a lot of times inevitably call attention to those who choose to be close-minded about such a community, whether they be homophobic or racist. This would also mean a change in treatment. That kind of staff may not treat their patients as fairly as they would to a cis, white individual. That’s why this article that I mentioned is important in understanding the negative effects of a lack of understanding and training in healthcare spaces. They describe that the “healthcare providers’ reactions to patients’ disclosure of LGBTQ status can include micro aggressions of this sort” (Dean et al. 561). No space is truly safe from discrimination, especially for an individual with this triple threat identity.

Scholarly: Dean, Megan A., Elizabeth Victor, and Laura Guidry Grimes. N.P.: Journal of Bioethical Inquiry, July 2016. PDF. https://linkspringer.com/content/pdf/10.1007%2Fs11673-016-9738-9.pdf

6. Conclusion:

http://corescholar.libraries.wright.edu/assets/md5images/ab05c5954f4afb3aca1298a4dd7fe578.gif Disability in our society has evolved and is identified in a large range of different communities such as queer folk and people of color as mentioned in this blog. Disability in every group, culture and society has been deemphasized and devalued as there continues to be barriers that individuals with disabilities are forced to face without the establishment of proper or enough resources to support against those barriers. There is a lack of acknowledgement and conversation about the multiple obstacles LGBTQIA individuals face other than already being a part of the Queer community. As mentioned above, there are multiple obstacles that comes with being one, both, and all three identities: queer, disabled, and POC. After all, we are all human and we all deserve a chance at opportunities and resources free of judgment.

#GWSPROJECT Disability LGBTQIA

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