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#and i completely understand why. the aggression and popularity of trans politics has made it so it’s IMPOSSIBLE to do anything else
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I want to preface this confession by saying that I have no stake in the discussion. I am not trans, I am not from the UK and I don't care about HP. I made business with V0lks in the past and will continue to do so and I know some people are calling for a complete boycott of V0lks, but I find that, quite frankly, unnecessary. Calling out and boycotting a compony for bad behavior is great, but I see no reason why supporting them for releasing good or 'unproblematic' products should be a bad thing. Anyhow..
The HP franchise or 'W1zarding W0rld' is listed on Wikipedia's 'List of highest-grossing media franchises' as spot Number 10, with a total revenue of $30.06 billion. Realistically speaking, boycotting a doll line will have very little effect on the franchise as a whole. It might stop V0lks from making more HP dolls, but that's about it. I get the argument, it's not just about the dolls, the franchise should be boycotted in all of it's forms. With how popular it is, however, I don't think that's really feasible. It's hard to find numbers on this, but HP is fairly popular all around the world. One of their mobile games made a whole lot of money over in China last year for example. I think it's pretty reasonable to assume that most fans of HP are likely unaware of JKs harmful agenda and then there is also people who buy HP merch not for themselves, but for their loved ones or whatever and they most likely will have even less of a clue about the entire situation regarding the franchise.
So, what now? Educate people, I suppose.
Now, let's say we manage to tell the world all about JKs behavior, etc. and absolutely everyone stops buying into the franchise - or at least enough people stop for it to become unappealing to vendors.
Another quick google search revealed that JK is the seventh richest entrepreneur in the UK, with an estimated net worth of $1 billion. Of course, not all of that is actual money, but I have the strong feeling that she has at least enough cash in her pockets to do whatever the heck she wants for the rest of her life. Even if she didn't earn another penny from today on, she can continue to do what she does, influencing politics, going on cruises, whatever it is rich people do really.
If someone wants to knowingly support JK, that's a decision they have to make for themselves. The impact their decision will have is virtually non-existent, regardless of which choice they make. I don't think it's okay to attack people based on it though and I've seen a couple confessions/comments that got really aggressive and it just baffles me to be honest. I understand where the frustration is coming from, but if you want people to join your cause, don't antagonize them. It's just going to alienate people. I'm not very familiar with sculpts and stuff like that, but maybe someone could compile a list of dolls/sculpts that could work to customize and make 'homebrew' HP dolls. That would be more helpful than hurling insults at each other.
If you really want to do something about the situation go out and educate people within the UK. Voting with your wallet can be a powerful tool, but in this case voting with your, well, vote and getting people to do the same is probably the easier way - even if it's still incredibly hard.
~Anonymous
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pussy-ache · 3 years
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there used to be so many more resources for radical feminists outside of tumblr and they’ve all been taken down or just abandoned :/
like the majority of my radical feminist knowledge comes from old radfem texts obvs (daly, dworkin, mackinnon etc) but i like. lived on wordpress accounts in 2012.
the corners of radical feminist wordpresses from 2012-2014 were truly something else and the comments sections were fucking goldmines! i miss all these resources! i’m trying to find all my favorites and most of them are gone and it’s just so heartbreaking and it makes me so sad for women who are just discovering radical feminism.
like i just feel so lucky to have had this background of knowledge that women just don’t have access to anymore. i’m carrying around the thoughts and opinions of women that have changed my points of view for almost TEN YEARS now! and now that i wanna find those resources again to share with other women i go back and find it’s all fucking gone and i’m just so sad about it
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evanescentjasmine · 4 years
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I’m going to talk about a little pet peeve of mine with regard to portrayal of poc in fic, TMA specifically since that’s what I mostly read and write for. 
I suppose I should first start by saying that, of course, poc are not a monolith, and I’m certain there are other poc who have many different views on this issue. And also this post is in no way meant to demonise, shame, or otherwise discourage people from writing poc in fic if they’re doing something differently. This is just a thing I’ve been noodling on for a while and have had several interesting conversations with friends about, and now that I think I’ve figured out why I have this pet peeve, I figured I’d gather my thoughts into a post.
As a result of the fact we have no canonical racial, ethnic, or religious backgrounds for our main TMA cast, we’ve ended up with many diverse headcanons, and it’s absolutely lovely to see. I’m all for more diversity and I’m always delighted to see people’s headcanons. 
However, what often happens is I’ll be reading a fic and plodding along in a character’s PoV and get mention of their skin colour. And nothing else. I find this, personally, extremely jarring. In a short one-shot it makes sense, because you’re usually touching on one scenario and then dipping out. Likewise if the fic is in a different setting, is cracky, or is told from someone else’s PoV, that’s all fine. But if I’m reading a serious long-fic close in the poc’s head and...nothing? That’s just bizarre to me.
Your heritage, culture, religion, and background, all of those affect how you view the world, and how the world views you in return. How people treat you, how you carry yourself, what you’re conscious of, all of that shifts. And the weird thing is that many writers are aware of this when it comes to characters being ace or trans or neurodivergent—and I’m genuinely pleased by that, don’t get me wrong. Nothing has made my ace self happier than the casual aceness in TMA fics that often resonates so well with my experience. But just as gender, orientation, and neurodivergence change how a character interacts with their world, so do race, ethnicity, and religion. 
As a child, I spent a couple of years in England while my mother was getting her degree. Though I started using Arabic less and less, my mother still spoke to me almost exclusively in Arabic at home. We still ate romy cheese and molokhia and the right kind of rice, though we missed out on other things. She managed to get an Egyptian channel on TV somehow, which means I still grew up with different cultural touchstones and make pop-culture references that I can’t share with my non-Arabic-speaking friends. She also became friends with just about every Egyptian in her university, so for those years I had a bevy of unrelated Uncles and Aunties from cities all over Egypt, banding together to go on outings or celebrate our holidays.
As an adult who sometimes travels abroad solo, and as a fair-skinned Arab who’s fluent in English, usually in a Western country the most I’ll get is puzzled people trying to parse my accent and convinced someone in my family came from somewhere. When they hear my name, though, that shifts. I get things like surprise, passive-aggressive digs at my home region, weird questions, insistence I don’t look Egyptian (which, what does that even mean?) or the ever-popular, ever-irritating: Oh, your English is so good!
At airports, with my Egyptian passport, it’s less benign. I am very commonly taken aside for extra security, all of which I expect and am prepared for, and which always confuses foreign friends who insisted beforehand that surely they wouldn’t pull me aside. Unspoken is the fact I, y’know, don’t look like what they imagine a terrorist would. But I’m Arab and that’s how it goes, despite my, er, more “Western” leaning presentation. 
This would be an entirely different story if I were hijabi, or had darker skin, or a more pronounced accent. I am aware I’m absolutely awash with privilege. Likewise, it would be different if I had a non-Arab name and passport. 
So it’s slightly baffling to me as to why a Jon who is Pakistani or Indian or Arab and/or Black British would go through life the exact same way a white British character would. 
Now, I understand that race and ethnicity can be very fraught, and that many writers don’t want to step on toes or get things wrong or feel it isn’t their place to explore these things, and certainly I don’t think it’s a person’s place to explore The Struggles of X Background unless they also share said background. I’m not saying a fic should portray racism and microaggressions either (and if they do, please take care and tag them appropriately), but that past experiences of them would affect a character. A fic doesn’t have to be about the Arab Experience With Racism (™) to mention that, say, an Arab Jon headed to the airport in S3 for his world tour would have been very conscious to be as put together as he could, given the circumstances, and have all his things in order. 
And there’s so much more to us besides. What stories did your character grow up with? What language was spoken at home? Do they also speak it? If not, how do they feel about that? What are their comfort foods? Their family traditions? The things they do without thinking? The obscure pop-culture opinions they can’t even begin to explain? (Ask me about the crossover between Egyptian political comedy and cosmic horror sometime…)
I’m not saying you’ll always get it right. Hell, I’m not saying I always get it right either. I’m sure someone can read one of my fics and be like, “nope, this isn’t true to me!” And that’s okay. The important thing, for me, is trying.
Because here’s the thing. 
I want you to imagine reading a fic where I, a born and raised Egyptian, wrote white characters in, say, a suburb in the US as though they shared my personal experiences. It’s a multi-generational household, people of the same gender greet with a kiss on each cheek, lunch is the main meal, adults only move out when they get married, every older person they meet is Auntie or Uncle, every bathroom has a bidet, there’s a backdrop of Muslim assumptions and views of morality, and the characters discuss their Eid plans because, well, everyone celebrates Eid, obviously.
Weird, right? 
So why is this normal the other way around? 
Have you ever stopped to wonder why white (and often, especially American) experiences are considered the default? The universal inoffensive base on which the rest is built? 
Yes, I understand that writers are trying to be inoffensive and respectful of other backgrounds. But actually, I find the usual method of having the only difference be their skin colour or features pretty reductive. We’re more than just a paint job or a sprinkle of flavour to add on top of the default. Many of us have fundamentally different life experiences and ignoring this contributes to that assumption of your experience being universal. 
Yes, fic is supposed to be for fun and maybe you don’t want to have to think about all this, and I get that completely. I have all the respect in the world for writers who tag their TMA fics as an American AU, or who don’t mention anyone’s races. I get it. But when you have characters without a canonical race and you give them one, you’re making a decision, and I want you to think about it. 
Yes, this is a lot of research, but the internet is full of people talking about themselves and their experiences. Read their articles, read their blogs, read their twitter threads, watch their videos, see what they have to say and use it as a jumping-off point. I’m really fond of the Writing With Color blog, so if you’re not sure where to start I’d recommend giving them a look. 
Because writers outside of the Anglosphere already do this research in order to write in most fandoms. Writers of colour already put themselves in your shoes to write white characters. And frankly, given the amount of care that many white writers put into researching Britishisms, I don’t see why this can’t extend to other cultural differences as well.
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i'm confused about the JK Rowling thing. I mean surely not every story has to represent everyone right? I get that people are upset with the way she's responding, but why were they attacking her in the first place? Is it because it's so wildly popular that people think it should be more inclusive? I can understand that, but how would she have known that in the beginning? I don't know i guess i'm clouded by my white privilege but i don't quite understand what people want from her at this point.
I know what you mean, anon. Although I’ve been part of the HP fandom on here since I first created my Tumblr account, I don’t consider myself actively involved in it (by which I mean that I avoid current topics/gossip/drama), but for years I’ve been aware of the voices of the fans questioning JKR’s lack of representation in Harry Potter. It’s exploded again recently because of the reveal of Nagini as a person (more specifically, a Korean woman) in the new FBAWTFT film and there’s a post here that you can read that explains that. 
Warning, discussion below on sensitive topics regarding representation of minorities, race/racism, sexuality/homophobia, disability and colonialism. 
Firstly, you are right that no story has to represent everyone, because that would be impossible. The truth of it is that any writer has the agency and choice to write the characters and story they want to. Speaking from a personal perspective as someone that loves to write and is a straight, white girl with no disabilities or part of any minority group (that I’m aware of), it is significantly more challenging to write characters that are from minority groups. The reason for that is because I myself do not identify or fit into any of those labels (I can’t think of a more appropriate word, so I’m gonna stick with labels, forgive me if it’s a poor choice of word), so I don’t completely understand what it is to be gay or black or physically disabled and what if I can’t bring justice to a character that is those things? What if I offend someone that reads it that is gay, black or disabled? And these are the kind of issues that representation can pose for writers. Having said that, all of this can be resolved with one simple word - research. In my case, it’s very different because I only write for fun and recreational purposes (although there’s always a certain level of research that goes into my writing), but for a professional author, they should be working their asses off to do research to ensure they do their characters justice. 
Personally, I think concerns over representation being raised are always valid. We live in a world where there are more voices speaking out against injustices and particularly, injustices that are more subtle or that have been normalised and widely accepted, such as the lack of representation in popular culture. Having said that, I don’t agree with sending hate and/or being violent or aggressive in raising those concerns and at times, I think the HP fandom can be guilty of that. 
As I pointed out to the tags in my post, I really don’t think JKR did anything wrong in not having diverse representation in her books for a number of reasons. The most obvious reason is that she simply wrote characters that were relatable to her and that she was in touch with in her daily life. It’s important to bear in mind the context of the time in which she was writing - people, particularly young people, seem to forget how much progress has been made in such a short time and how much more liberal societies (I’m particularly referring to the UK here, since that’s where I live and JKR lives) have become over the last few decades. When I was a child I didn’t know anyone that identified as anything but straight until I was around 19/20 years old and then slowly I had friends and people around me that came out as gay, bi and pan; I didn’t meet anyone that was trans until I was 22 years old; at my school I only knew one child that was physically disabled; at my primary school there was only one child that wasn’t white. 
Obviously I can’t comment on JKR’s personal character since I don’t know her and I don’t follow her or engage with her through social media, but the lack of representation doesn’t immediately mean she’s inherently racist or homophobic or biphobic or erasing any kind of minority group deliberately. She was just writing what she knew. But what I said and you have agreed with is that she hasn’t handled things right. Her reactions to fans complaints have sometimes been childish and the Nagini incident shows that she’s grasping at straws to try and pacify people by providing them with the representation everybody is asking for, but it’s only making things worse for all the reasons the post I linked above explains. 
However, shifting away from the whole JKR drama and reflecting on what you said about white privilege - it’s a topic that I’ve been researching a lot recently for educational purposes (this is really just my opportunity to discuss an area of research I’m thoroughly enjoying and finding fascinating, so I apologise in advance if you don’t care about any of this lmao). I’m currently studying a module at university about Jim Crow in South America which is an exploration of black history in America starting from Reconstruction following the end of the Civil War right up until the 1970s (I think near the end of the module we may even touch upon Black Lives Matter). I’m also researching for my dissertation which is about experiences of African American soldiers in the Vietnam War and what’s fascinating to me through the research I’ve been doing is the construct of race and ‘whiteness’. It’s an issue that’s too complex to explain, and you may not care or be interested, but the short version is that race biologically and scientifically does not exist. There is no biological differences (except external appearances) that separate a black/brown/yellow person from a white person, it has quite literally been constructed by European white colonialists and scientists as a way to suppress people of colour, usually for economic purposes. You might be wondering why this is relevant, but it’s because until about 2-3 years ago, as a white person I had no understanding or knowledge of race and how it impacts people’s entire lives - socially, economically and politically. You’re right that white privilege clouds your judgement, particularly when it comes to issues of race, it clouds the judgement of every white person in the world, but what’s worse is that most white people don’t even recognise that white privilege exists. I see so many white people around me in my daily life and on TV (the most recent example I saw was on Celebrity Big Brother UK, which made me so angry I could create an entirely different post on that) claim “racism doesn’t exist anymore” or “this is a equal society” and it infuriates me beyond belief. White people don’t see racism because they don’t experience it and they’re not living it. 
To finish on a final point that’s relevant to your original ask, at this point you’re right that there’s nothing JKR can do to make fans happy. When a series is as popular as Harry Potter and has such a huge fan-base, there is always going to be someone complaining about some aspect of it. If it wasn’t an issue of under-representation, it would only be something else. Nothing in this world is ever perfect and there’s always room for improvement. Honestly, I think the best thing for JKR to do is leave the Harry Potter universe the hell alone. The series is not without its problems, but generally it’s so well-loved by millions of people globally and the fact that she keeps trying to add/retcon certain aspects of the universe and/or characters is what’s frustrating fans more so than anything else. She should just admit that it doesn’t have the representation it could’ve had, learn from that and in any future projects, she can be more aware to be diverse with the characters she writes. 
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dirtyfruit · 6 years
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no drama or debate but someone asked why i think IB is abusive so:
(tw for rape/abuse under the cut)
Some proof iron bull is abusive (there are more, these are just the immediate things I can think of off the top of my head)
- to the inquisitor: 1. At the end of his romance, if you pick the right dialogue option, he reveals he was ordered to sleep with you to manipulate you. Your inquisitor notices Bull is acting odd and asks him if he was ordered to sleep with them as part of a job, and Bull says it wasn't "JUST a job". This means that he has intentionally been using bdsm sex to control you, and that you have been having sex under false pretenses - which is, at the very bare minimum, sexual abuse. 2. It is very clear throughout the relationship that the Inquisitor doesn't have a very good idea of how BDSM relationships work. They don't even know what a safe word is, and Bull doesn't introduce one until AFTER they have sex for the first time. Which means their first BDSM session completely lacked a safe word. This is a HUGE no-no in the BDSM community, ESPECIALLY for first-time subs, where confirmation of consent and constant attention are VITAL to make sure they aren't being seriously hurt. Although he says he wouldn't do anything the Inquisitor didn't want, he's already broken that by using sex to manipulate them to begin with, and the fact he doesn't even make sure they have a safe word before they sleep together is a HUGE red flag. Ground rules need to be established BEFORE sex, NOT after, and this is for good god damn reason. 3. Bull completely controls the Inquisitor's safe word and actively discourages them from using it by praising them when it isn’t used and breaking up with them when it is. He doesn't let them choose it, first of all, which is another no-no. The safe word is all about control, making sure there's an equal exchange of power between dom and sub, and having your dom just tell you what you're going to do to prove you consent is a warning sign that they don't value your input. A safe word is an expression of consent, and having Bull PRAISE the Inquisitor for never once using the safe word is an ENORMOUS deal. Your partner should NOT praise you for not expressing a lack of consent, especially when it can be established there were a couple times they thought about it, but they "didn't want to disappoint Bull" (I believe Cole reveals this in a dialogue, saying the Inquisitor both didn't want to disappoint Bull, and that it feels good when they don't use their safe word - which, um, is not a good sign! Especially given the following!). That shows that the Inquisitor may not have actually been consenting, but was instead performing for their partner - who didn't even give them the option of a safe word until after they'd already slept together, who is actively using them for political purposes without their knowledge VIA sex, who praises them for not using the safe word, and who entirely controlled what their safe word was. 4. Bull is not willing to pursue a relationship with the Inquisitor if the Inquisitor refuses to be his sub. Again, considering this is a job for him from the Qun, it is highly likely the reason he's so adamant that you be his sub is because he wants to use his position as dom to make you think of him as someone in control of you. This allows him to manipulate you in other ways, outside of your relationship, and makes you inclined to do things that he - and, by extension, the Qun - want you to. THIS IS EMOTIONAL AND SEXUAL ABUSE. If you pursue a relationship with him, he is grooming you. He even tells you he’s manipulating you! Multiple times! His name literally means “liar”! 5. When the Inquisitor and Bull are first having sex, Bull says "last chance" after pinning the Inquisitor. Um? "Last chance" to not consent???? That's not how sex works??? Considering the lack of safe word established, the lack of ground rules - this is just another speck of him disregarding the Inquisitor's consent. He comes off as caring about how you feel and whether or not you want it, but then acts like you saying yes is a contract and you can't change your mind. This is reaffirmed by him breaking up with you if you do. 6. The first thing he says after you sleep together is how he grew up learning how to manipulate people. He tells you that he was manipulating you to give you "what you need". Yikes?? Obvious yikes?? He does this with Dorian as well, which I touch on later. It’s a habit for him to manipulate people emotionally because he thinks they “need” him, and that’s ... not good lol. - to Dorian: 1. Repeatedly discusses explicit details of their sex life in public, despite Dorian begging him to stop. This is unusual behavior for Dorian, since he doesn't mind joking about sex at all with the Inquisitor, and even discusses details of their sex life on his own with Sera (this does not change, even if the Inquisitor is Adaar). With the Inquisitor, Dorian is extremely hesitant to talk about his "relationship" with Bull, and comes off as very timid and uncertain. Another odd change of behavior from how boisterous and open he normally is - this is a man who danced with the Inquisitor on a balcony at a crowded party full of royalty, for god's sake. He outright talks about how much he loves the Inquisitor just, in the middle of public places. I think there might be ONE dialogue line where Dorian is a little cheeky with Cassandra about how he's happy with the Inquisitor, but the rest of his dialogue is very comfortable and playful when it comes to his relationship. This is not the case with him and Bull, and when you factor in other parts of their "relationship" plus the fact Dorian isn't normally shy about dating 'Qunari', it starts to become clear that it's because of how Bull, specifically, makes him feel - which is, more often than not, negative.
2. Bull and Dorian have had non-consensual sex on Dorian’s part. For at least the first 3 times they had sex, Dorian was heavily intoxicated. It's unclear how drunk Bull was, but he's shown to have a much higher tolerance than humans, and given how often he brags about how well he manipulates people, and the fact he's been sexually abusive with the Inquisitor, AND his rape fantasy about Dorian ... It is possible Bull intentionally got Dorian drunk to sleep with him. Even if he didn’t, it's worth noting that Dorian states how unsure he is about he and Bull's relationship, so it's very likely he did not “consent” until he was drunk. This is reinforced by the fact he calls them sleeping together a mistake that just kept happening, which means he did NOT go drinking with Bull with the intention of sleeping with him - so even if Bull was drunk as well, it was still rape, as Dorian was not drinking with the intention of sex, and actually seems very uncomfortable with Bull's sexual "advances" before this. 3. Bull graphically describes how he would rape Dorian. Just, casually talks about how he'd rip Dorian's clothes off while he was struggling to get away and would "conquer" him, in front of a bunch of people. Dorian is horrified, and when Bull says "Oh, was that not where this was going?", he clearly says "no!". Anyone who says "well, he was just SAYING no, he didn't MEAN no" is participating in rape culture. Dorian is very obviously uncomfortable with this talk - as he should be. Imagine if some guy you barely even know or like just started talking about how he'd rip your clothes off and pin you down and "conquer" you. That guy is Bull. Dorian is not okay with it. This is clear sexual harassment, and set the tone for it coming off as if Bull wears Dorian down by being overtly, aggressively sexual to him (and getting him drunk).
4. Bull outright tries to tell Dorian that Dorian is attracted to him. He psycho-analyzes him and says because Bull is off-limits, Dorian must be attracted to him and want to fuck him. I believe this preludes the whole "then I'd rape you and you'd totally like it" talk, which ends with Dorian rejecting Bull loud and clear. This reads very much like Bull pressuring Dorian into a relationship, not something that naturally develops from an unsteady friendship - and this same tone rings throughout their other interactions (note again how uncertain Dorian is, how he says it "just sort of keeps happening", how he "doesn't know what's going on", and how he considers the first times they slept together to be mistakes - coming after an "ill-thought night of drinking", or something to that effect). This is another instance of Bull manipulating someone to “give them what they need” - even if they’ve said no and had to be drunk at least the first 3 times to let him do it. - to Cole: 1. During a series of side dialogues, Iron Bull insists he's going to "fix" Cole by having him sleep with a prostitute. Cole has made it clear he does not understand sex (says confusedly to Bull that a girl wanted Bull to take her clothes off, repeatedly comes off as very innocent when it comes to sex), and cannot possibly consent to having it. Bull is not stupid, and in fact directly interacted with Cole during one of his "I really clearly do not get what sex is" dialogues. Bull is aware Cole has no idea what a prostitute would do to him. He buys him one anyway, and then gets pissed off when Cole helped her emotionally instead of getting raped. He literally pays to try to have Cole correctively raped because he disapproved of Cole's personality. This probably stems from Qunari culture using sex to heal, but understanding the why doesn’t change what it is. Additional notes: In interviews, Weekes (Bull's writer) has stated that Bull's BDSM-style romance was inspired by the popularity of 50 Shades of Grey, with Bull playing the part of Christian (not as a 1:1, but it's part of where his being a dom came from - which ... explains a lot). He also explained that, originally, Bull was going to out Krem as trans without Krem's permission, and the only reason this was not put into the game is because Weekes' trans friends made him understand that was a shitty thing to do. Because somehow that wasn't obvious. Bull's disregard for boundaries has been written into his character from day one - fixing that particular time it showed through doesn't mean it stopped being there in every other line.
I could rewatch all the dialogue and cutscenes about him and pick out a million more examples but honestly at this point just his voice grosses me out and I’d rather forget he exists altogether.
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