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genericpuff · 6 months

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All That Glitters is Not Feminism - An Analysis of LO's Brand of "Feminism" and What Remains of its Fanbase (The Twist)

Alright y'all, I've been waiting a hot minute to talk about this because I wanted to see how it fully panned out before saying anything about it. And it's not even specifically about LO, but I do think it's very adjacent to it in a way that I'm sure you'll be shocked to hear. Much of it speaks to how we prop up white writers even at the expense of POC.

This is 'the twist' attached to my first post that I made just a couple hours ago that concerns an entirely other topic but I feel ties into this subject very well.

If you haven't heard, there's this author who recently fucked around in the Del Rey publishing scene.

Her name is Cait Corrain.

In the original tweet calling this person out, names were not dropped, but it was made very clear that what Cait did was unacceptable behavior.

You can read the entire thread that started it all from Xiran here:

There's also a GREAT recap thread from one of the affected authors, Bethany Baptiste:

I want to make it clear that Cait Corrain isn't just a debut author.

Cait Corrain is - or now, was (foreshadowing is a literary device that-) - a debut author who had an agent, a publishing deal with Del Rey (an imprint of Random House which is a MAJOR publisher) and even an upcoming Illumicrate deal - meaning, her book was going to be packaged in a monthly loot crate subscription shipped directly to people's doors, quite possibly one of the best marketing deals a debut author could ever get, usually unheard of in this industry. All the pre-reviews were strong and positive.

Cait's book was literally set up for success. All she had to do was sit back, relax, and watch the fruits of her labors roll in. She had written the book. It was ready for release. The hard part was technically over.

But I guess the racism brainrot got to her because as it turns out, since April - for EIGHT MONTHS - she's been making alternate accounts on GoodReads to review bomb the indie and debut works of her friends and peers, most of whom were POC and did not have the same opportunities set up for them as she did. There are loads of receipts to back this up that you can find in those above threads ^^^

To say that this is appalling is an understatement. This was an intentional and deliberate act of racism by a white queer writer who claimed to be "jealous" - of what, I can't imagine - so much so that she deliberately sabotaged her peers, people who had supported her and her book.

And then when she got caught? She doubled down on it and claimed it was a "friend", also an alternate account she made up.

The exchange between her and this made-up person is actually the funniest shit out of this entire thing, it's so poorly written and as soon as people noticed the time stamps were out of order, that was when it truly cemented her newfound clown status.

"oooooh he's standing right behind me, isn't he?" energy right here LMAO

yes keep expositing cait, that's really selling the "this is a genuine conversation that really happened with a real person" bit 🤡

Anyways, it became abundantly clear that Cait was just going to continue to dig her heels in over something she caused.

This has been a hot topic in the UnpopularLO Discord, not just because of how crazy of a situation it is that we had to talk about it - and we have people within the community who work in the literature and media sector - but because we noticed one very telling thing in the list of series that she had review bombed in her very own personal act of wrath.

You see, Cait made one fundamental mistake that led to her undoing - she didn't just review bomb the works of her peers, she positively reviewed her own book and others.

What's her book about though?

It's an Ariadne x Dionysus retelling set in space.

It's literally another "modern retelling" of Greek myth.

And wouldn't you know it, guess who else created a modern retelling of Greek myth that she included in her positive review raiding while she was sabotaging the work of her actual peers?

Now, I think it goes without saying that what I'm about to say should be taken with MOUNTAINS of salt, I'm sure a lot of you are reading the headline and going, "Ugh, really? You're gonna make this about LO? Could you give it a rest already???"

I need you to understand, with the current state of Rachel's fanbase and 'modern' Greek myth literature as a whole, at this point Lore Olympus - and the works that are literally inspired by it such as A Touch of Darkness - has basically become the shopping cart litmus test of basic decency. It's like when someone says they like Harry Potter - you can't take it automatically at good faith anymore, because there isn't a whole lot separating someone who simply liked Harry Potter as a kid and still rewatches the movies from time to time from someone who fully supports the politics and agenda of J.K. Rowling. No, not everyone who still watches the movies or reads the books fondly is a TERF by default, but it's justifiably a reason for suspicion when the consequences are often too dire to risk.

There's this thing that's been happening in the LO fanbase that I frankly saw coming, but has really recently started to hit its peak. It's what I call the "Kanye Effect", where the comic has become so absurd and backwards in its misogyny and white feminism that the only people who seem to be left supporting LO are the people who are legitimate white feminists and misogynists - because all the normal level-headed people fell off the comic ages ago (or transitioned into the critical side of the community).

I mentioned it in my last post, but it bears repeating - Rachel's fanbase has literally been shipping Hera, a victim of abuse, with her abuser, Kronos. I'm really hoping a lot of them realize how fucked up that is now that Hera herself has called it what it is - abuse - within the comic, but I also can't count on the LO fanbase picking up on that or even noticing it with how quickly people swipe through it each week, it's very apparent at this point that most of LO's readers don't know how to chew their food and don't pay attention when Persephone and Hades aren't onscreen.

But I'm digressing. Or am I? We're talking about Crown of Starlight after all. The debut Dionysus x Ariadne sci-fi/fantasy romance that was quite literally advertised using Lore Olympus as its baseline-

This. This is what the ongoing cultural erasure and white feminist uwu-fication of Greek myth is doing to the literary zeitgeist surrounding Greek myth as a whole. This is why we criticize Lore Olympus and works like it that are created by disingenuous people who only seek to use the assets of Greek myth material as a way to shoot themselves up into fame and stardom. This is why we demand better standards in the literature and webcomic industry, so that people like Rachel and Cait can't use their privileges to quite literally erase the source material that they used to make themselves famous in the first place.

If anything, Cait's actions didn't just affect the people she negatively review bombed, or the people she was affiliated with, but also the people she positively reviewed. While I don't support what Rachel creates, she wasn't the only one who Cait went out of her way to review positively from her alt accounts, there were many others as evident in the Google Doc - but all this really does is tarnish the legitimacy of these books and their ratings by artificially jacking up their numbers that are advertised to others.

Making Greek myth fanfiction or fun creative retellings was never the problem, but it's now being sabotaged alongside so many other genres and mediums by toxic white individuals who can't even keep themselves from committing hate crimes, let alone create something purely for entertainment that's transparent in its illegitimacy, lest it destroy the illusion that these people are qualified to speak over those whose voices are being stifled, often by these very same people. Many of these writers get caught and are still allowed to continue what they're doing - that was certainly what we feared with Cait.

Until today.

It was revealed today that Cait's book will no longer be featured in the Illumicrate May 2024 box.

Del Rey has dropped Crown of Starlight from their publishing schedule.

Daphne Press will be hopefully following suit.

And, most telling of all, Cait's own agent has severed ties with her.

For anyone not familiar with the inner workings of the publishing industry, Cait has essentially been blacklisted. Without an agent or a publishing house, she'll have to entirely rely on her own resources through self-publishing. Unless she manages to sneak her way back in under an alias (which I wouldn't put it past her to try) she no longer has access to the mainstream publishing industry that was already guaranteed for her before she let her 'jealousy' get the better of her.

Her career was already made for her. She had a red carpet laid out for her debut. Her book was getting good pre-reviews and she had quite literally nothing keeping her from her success. The best thing she could have done was nothing. Somewhere in her head, she made up a threat that didn't exist, and sealed her fate in acting on it, a self-fulfilling prophecy.

I think in these situations such as with Cait Corrain, Rachel Smythe, and - also recently and relevant - James Somerton, we need to become increasingly aware of how white voices are still overpowering POC voices, not just in their actions, but in the opportunities they're given over others which they then use to further stifle the voices of those they feel "threatened" by or feel entitled to speak over. While neither James nor Rachel have used sock puppet accounts to "take out the competition" (at least as far as we know lmao) James did quite literally steal the words and voices of queer writers who were deserving of their time in the spotlight, and Rachel's work is being quoted as "rewriting Greek myth" as if its blatant gentrification and appropriation should be marketed as some sort of positive.

It's all too common for these deeply-rooted prejudices to rear their ugly heads and for the people who carry them to act out in this way while justifying it as "jealousy" or "a mistake". This isn't jealousy. This isn't a mistake. This isn't someone "starting drama". This is genuine, targeted hate, with the intention of snuffing out the voices of others who should be empowered, not silenced.

All that time and effort, and for what? Racism and petty jealousy? It just goes to show, it doesn't matter how many opportunities you're given, how high up on the ladder you already are - it won't fix the deeply-rooted insecurity and racial pettiness that spurs people on to do such horrible things.

I've spent enough of my time and words today talking about Cait, and James, and Rachel. So to end this off, I want to join in with all the others who have highlighted the books that were review-bombed by Cait, and help in uplifting them so they can have successful debuts. I'll be pre-ordering a few of them, so I'll be happy to make dedicated posts for them in the future after they release. Please consider purchasing them for yourself if you want some new reading material <3

The Poisons We Drink by Bethany Baptiste:

So Let Them Burn by Kamilah Cole:

To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods by Molly X Chang:

Mistress of Lies by K.M. Enright

Voyage of the Damned by Frances White:

(I'm sure there are plenty others so if I missed any here, please let me know so I can add them here and check out their books!)

If there's any silver lining to this, I hope that it makes people aware of the media they consume and who it's being created by. I hope it makes people more willing to seek out the books that aren't getting the same opportunities as Cait Corrain and Rachel Smythe. I hope it's a wake-up call to the industry that matters like this need to be taken seriously and that POC writers are still being silenced under their own noses. And most of all, I hope it's a reminder that we shouldn't even need at this point that this behavior is not okay, no matter what level a person climbs to - that just because someone is part of one minority doesn't mean they're not capable of sabotaging another. It sucks that that has to be said, it sucks that despite these groups being so intersectional there are still people within them who submit to their deeply-rooted insecurities and find ways to feel threatened that they use to justify hateful behavior.

Having a platform is a privilege. It should never be weaponized against your own peers or those who you simply feel "threatened" by for no reason beyond your own imposter syndrome or doubts or internal struggles. Because as much as you may feel like you've earned where you are, that never gives you the right to weaponize your opportunities against others who were never given those same opportunities in the first place. "Feminism" is not using your power to crush "other women". "Progressiveness" is not exclusive to the progress that only benefits you.

I wish only the best to those who were affected by the actions of Cait Corrain. You deserve to be heard and seen and appreciated for the work you do and the abuse you've had to tolerate. I look forward to your debuts in 2024 <3

#cait corrain #support POC writers #crown of starlight #the poisons we drink #so let them burn #the voyage of the damned #mistress of lies #say isn't it funny how all the debut books cait tried to sabotage accurately describe her and her actions LOL #that's what we call irony #debut authors 2024 #booktok #webtoon critical #lore olympus critical #anti lore olympus

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doctorwhogirlie · 5 days

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Doctor Who - Heavenly Hosts

#heavenly hosts #the voyage of the damned #tenth doctor #astrid peth #doctor who #doctor who girlie #new who

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besidesitstoowarm · 6 months

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"The Voyage of the Damned" thoughts

put this off forever bc i didn't want to see it. in the end it was fine even if i keep mixing the title up with "planet of the dead"

ten slaying in his tux-with-converse look that had the 2007 girlies in a chokehold. troy bolton wears the same thing in high school musical 3 btw. if you even care. he gets interested in the angel statues that to me look like craghas "crabfeeder" drahar from hit hbo drama "house of the dragon". do you think the doctor would support the greens or the blacks

we meet max capricorn who is the most "john waters from wish" looking person i've ever seen. and max capricorn as a name sounds like a discount drag name. i like that everyone is wearing 10s-20s era clothing, the mix of titanic-era set dressing with typical sci-fi machinery actually blends really nicely. the two "low class" contest winners are in cowboy clothing which i also like since a lot of the nouveau riche around the turn of the century were oil millionaires from out west (in america anyway). they seem extremely nice and i would love to hang out at a buffet with them

the doctor flirts with kylie minogue, who actually does a really good job in the role, she's very wide-eyed and charming and the character felt fully realized. doctor who is really good at one-offs. he offers a "brand new sky" and she takes it and off to london where we meet WILFRED MOTT, MY GRANDDAD!!!! i completely forgot he was in this one. i screamed "GRANDDAD" when he appeared and scared my bf

the captain is on a suicide mission and apologizes to alonso. i have never seen alonso's actor in anything but he looks so familiar. the actor is gay btw. i loved the captain's "they promised me old men" speech, he's dying and needed the bribe money to take care of his family once he's gone but he was trying to limit the collateral damage to his crew ASTEROID ATTACK

we learn that the doctor is 903 years old. i think this is the first time his age is stated? nine had the whole "900 years of time and space" but i'd assumed he was just rounding. does he celebrate his birthday? i love the idea that he has no idea how old he is and is just guessing. the second doctor was canonically ~450. anyway they're trying to navigate the ship and the cowboy couple try to repair a broken angel bc they were like mechanics back home. i think it's interesting that in sci-fi, robots are stuff for poor people

cyborgs were recently granted rights and "can even get married" which is nice for them. the doctor says "you should see me in the morning" and astrid says "okay" and he looks like he stuck a fork in a socket. they're both sooo down bad this ep. i'd like to have seen her as a companion for a few episodes, adam-style except adam sucked and astrid is cool

max capricorn is a head in a jar. i'm not kidding that this is the exact same twist as the movie "prometheus" did ridley scott steal that from this episode?? it's the same goddamn thing. that movie was awful. i rejoiced when astrid killed him with a forklift, barbara-style (running over bad guys is always barbara-coded for me). the doctor brings the tour guide professor to london cause he's a millionaire on earth and he just like. cries with joy cause he can have a HOUSE with a DOOR and a GARDEN and DISHES and wow he's just like me fr. he refuses to take him with him cause he "travels alone" tenth doctor voice what kind of time lord takes a companion you can't fuck

this episode was in memory of verity lambert who had recently died when it was released. i had no idea who she was last time i saw this episode so i never noticed that. always famous to me verity <3

#DW s4 #The Voyage of the Damned #doctor who #besides its too rewatch #Christmas special

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thelowerdecker · 1 year

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Watching this classic ep right now! ♥️

#doctor who #rtd era #rtd #russell t davies #the voyage of the damned #david tennant #doctor who logo

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denimbex1986 · 2 years

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‘Back in 2008, Doctor Who fans were eagerly waiting for the show’s fourth season to drop on BBC. Not only was the Tenth Doctor (David Tennant) coming back for another 13 episodes of space and time hijinks, the new season would also feature the return of Catherine Tate as Donna Noble. Introduced in the 2006 Christmas special, “The Runaway Bride”, snarky, no-nonsense Donna was coming back as a full time companion. However, when viewers tuned in to watch Season 4, Episode 1, “Partners in Crime”, Tate’s wasn’t the only familiar face they saw besides Tennant’s. Sitting by a telescope, with his eyes watching the stars, was Bernard Cribbins as Wilfred Mott. Cribbins, who had already made an appearance in the 2007 Christmas special, “Voyage of the Damned”, didn’t know yet, but he was about to become every Whovian’s favorite grandpa.

On Thursday, July 28, fans all over the world lost a family member with the news that Bernard Cribbins passed away at the age of 93...among all the roles in his impressive resume, the one that made the most impact was certainly Doctor Who’s Wilfred - or Wilf, for those that got to know and love him.

Kind, joyous, and somewhat childlike, Wilf was Donna's grandfather, but he soon became a beloved relative to everyone that watched the show...An amateur astronomer, Wilf was always encouraging his granddaughter to reach for the stars instead of settling for the boring, prepackaged life that her mother had set out for her. He stood in sharp contrast with the judgmental and cruelly pragmatic Sylvia Noble (Jacqueline King), who saw only the worst in her daughter. While Sylvia believed Donna to be weak, stupid, and unlovable, Wilf knew her to be strong, bright, and destined for greatness.

And, indeed, he was right. Over the course of Doctor Who’s fourth season, Donna goes from being “only a temp” to the most important woman in the universe. Even before she touched that severed Time Lord hand and absorbed way more knowledge than her human mind was capable of processing, her character growth was evident: if her opinionated, loudmouthed, and stubborn persona was initially played just for laughs, it soon became clear that Donna was way more than a running gag. She was a fighter for justice. From London to Pompeii to the Oodsphere, there wasn’t anyone or anything that Donna Noble couldn’t stand up to. As the Doctor descended into his Time Lord victorious spiral, Donna was one of the few that had the guts to call him out. The problem was that no one could see her for what she truly was, except for the Doctor and Wilf.

But even if Donna hadn’t made anything great out of herself, even if she had remained “only a temp”, the fact that Wilf believed so much in her and always encouraged her to be better is enough to make us love him. After all, we all need a Wilfred Mott in our corner, especially when the other side is full of Sylvia Nobles.

Considering how important Wilf was to the show and to Donna’s story arc, it’s somewhat weird to learn that Cribbins wasn’t even supposed to be a regular on the series to begin with. He was cast as a replacement for Howard Attfield, who had played Donna’s father, Geoff, in “The Runaway Bride” and was set to come back for Season 4. Sadly, Attfield passed away in 2007, having already shot a few scenes as Geoff. Cribbins, who had been well-received by audiences as the kiosk owner that is one of the only two people still in London in “Voyage of the Damned”, was invited back to Who, and his character was turned into Donna’s grandfather. From what we know, Wilf’s personality is very much like Geoff’s was supposed to be, but it’s tough to imagine anyone but Cribbins in such a role.

...according to Russel T. Davies Instagram post, audiences weren’t the only ones that enjoyed Cribbins’ time in “Voyage of the Damned”. The showrunner recalls that even guest star Kylie Minogue couldn’t take her eyes off of Cribbins, who would show up to set with “a suitcase full of props, just in case, including a rubber chicken”. This cheerful, joke-loving energy translated well into Wilf. Who can forget his iconic scene in “Turn Left” in which Sylvia tells him to remove his antlers headpiece just to hear back “No, I shan’t! It’s Christmas!”? If you’re a Doctor Who fan, chances are you have sent a gif of this moment to at least one friend during Christmastime.

But not everything was fun and games with Wilf. Much like Cribbins himself, who served in the Parachute Regiment of the British Army, Wilfred Mott had seen the horrors of war and was quick to realize when things were taking a turn for the worse. He did his best not to let his spirit break, but, eventually, it became too much even for him. In “Turn Left” - an unusually dark episode for Doctor Who, despite featuring the aforementioned antlers' scene -, Wilf is the one that sobers us up to the real extent of human cruelty in the face of chaos and destruction. When the Nobles’ immigrant housemates are deported to labor camps, Wilf’s unforgettable line “That’s what they called them last time” is a true punch to the stomach.

This sense of gravitas, as well as his status as a fan favorite, made him the perfect companion for David Tennant’s last hurrah as the Doctor. Released as a two-part adventure on December 25, 2009, and January 1, 2010, “The End of Time” is a somewhat divisive Doctor Who story that has a little bit of everything that made the Tennant/Davies era of the show what it was, for better and for worse. But even those that can’t stand the campiness of the two specials can’t deny the beauty and the sadness of Wilf’s conversation with the Doctor about war, death, and the passage of time. There is no one else in the history of the show that the Doctor could have opened up about the dangers of the extended life of a Time Lord with the same level of impact. And when the Doctor says that he would be proud if Wilf was his dad, we all have to fight back at least one tear.

...Earlier this year, Tennant and Catherine Tate were confirmed as part of the upcoming Doctor Who 60th anniversary special. Though it is yet unclear whether they will be reprising their original roles or playing different characters, the possibility of having Donna back on the TARDIS came with the hope that Wilf would also return. Alas, Bernard Cribbins didn’t make it to the 60th. Still, it was a life well-lived.

As another incarnation of the Doctor (Matt Smith) would put it, we are all stories in the end. Bernard and Wilf will live forever in the hearts and minds of fans everywhere, in that memory space we reserve for our most beloved fictional family members.’

#Bernard Cribbins #Wilfred Mott #David Tennant #Catherine Tate #The Voyage of the Damned #The End of Time #Russell T Davies #Kylie Minogue #60th Anniversary #Doctor Who #Turn Left

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