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spidermanifested · 3 months

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this is not my usual type of post but ive been rotating some thoughts and i guess my blogs as good a place as any to get them organized. okay so this is basically my take on the entire discourse surrounding the "feminine (presumed cis lets be honest) women are uniquely oppressed for being feminine/making female characters quote unquote Less Feminine is antifeminist" thing. which i keep seeing come up. on this internet of ours

context being im a trans guy. grew up largely seen by others as female, probably, sort of. was about as far from a cishet womans feminine as you can imagine. not in a cool tomboy way. not in a way that society had a box for. and thats the thing, is that when you fail at gender, whether youre conscious of it or not, theres this extremely profound loneliness that comes with it. part of it was the autism but i made like 6 real-life friends total from ages 4 to 18 and there were no examples of anyone with an even remotely adjacent experience i could find in the media or irl. anytime a female character skirted a little too close to actual masculinity in a tv show or movie shed get that makeover eventually. i was bullied by both boys and girls but the girls who bullied me were uniformly very feminine.

and so i see people talking about how hard feminine women and girls have it, how the world hates them for being beautiful, and on the one hand its like okay, Misogyny Exists. thats not really refutable thats just the reality of it. society hates women. and as for eurocentric femininity specifically i understand its a hard tightrope to walk!!! you have to put on all these masks BUT make them seem natural, youre forced into these narrow boxes of acceptable behavior and appearance and desires, and if you under- or over-shoot then people get reminded the whole thing is a farce and get mad (often violently!) at YOU for it

........but then my thing is, that on one side of the tightrope, the "overperforming eurocentric femininity" side, the tradwife or girlboss or blonde bimbo side, theres an entire history of structural trope-crafting to break your fall, right. like its a shitty box but its the box society WANTS you to be in. they look at you and go "yep thats a woman. we dont like those but that sure is one". there are known social niches to carve out. theres a script.

on the unfeminine side theres just. nothing. its stone cold concrete down there. and apparently twitter would have you believe its actually that the "more masculine" somebody presumed female appears the more society respects them but that to me is the wildest and most nonsense take on the planet because if people see you as a woman or girl who has not taken the needed steps to justify your place as one of those things you might as well be an alien, or even a monster. theres no script at all. and i feel like this is one of the major experiences that trans and gnc people of every gender share-- god knows trans women get the brunt of the vitriol-- and from my knowledge a lot of nonwhite people too, and also fat and disabled people, like. there are SO many things that affect your ability to achieve even a fraction of success at this aspirational femininity.

ive had to see people for real make the argument that princess peach making an angry face is masculine. i think the most masculine woman anyone on twitter can imagine right now is like a businesswoman in a form-fitting pantsuit and light mascara. maybe the struggle of succeeding at femininity under patriarchy deserves exploration, ive seen plenty of coherent and reasonable points, its not without worth as a discussion. but i do not trust the general public with the topic without immediately sliding into bog standard gender policing and transphobia, and so in closing, when the mainstream feminist take on the whole thing seems to be "the more you perform the femininity expected of you the worse you have it", i get the sensation that nobody told me it was opposite day and im about to feel real silly

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silvaurum · 2 years

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LRB reminds me of the post that articulated beautifully why trans men and women both face sexism in different contexts and different ways. misogyny is not symmetrical. trans people of almost all stripes are misgendered in misogynistic ways and treated in misogynistic ways. the fact that trans men are misgendered and treated as failed women doesn't detract from the fact that trans women are misgendered and treated as failed women. trans women face the brunt of misogyny, as women, and face transmisogyny. trans men face transphobia that often manifests as misdirected misogyny. because oppression is not a symmetrical set of forces.

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panharmopticon · 4 years

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“Society is especially harsh in its attacks upon transexuals or those who might appear as such: the butch lesbian, the queen or 'effeminate' male homosexual bear a greater brunt of public execration and contempt, and are frequently criticised even by those reactionary homosexuals who are better adapted to the system, the 'straight gays' who have managed to pass as 'normal' or heterosexual. These reactionary homosexuals (homo-cops) make out that outrageous queens and transvestites ruin the gay scene and spoil the image of homosexuality. For our part, we outrageous queens see them as queens dressed up as straight men, unfortunate people who are forced to disguise themselves and act a role imposed by the system, and who find ideological arguments to justify their position as contented slaves. They wonder what it is the gay movement wants, what it is fighting for, because nowadays our society accepts diversity. True, even today we can't make love freely wherever we feel like it, on the buses or in the streets, but then not even straights are allowed to do that. So things aren't that bad. Some consolation!

Many feminists criticise us queens because we often tend in our dress and behaviour to copy the stereotyped 'feminine' fetish that women have to fight. But if a woman dressed like a starlet or cover girl is normal for the system today, a man dressed in a similar way is quite abnormal, as far as 'normal' people are concerned, and so our transvestism has a clear revolutionary character. There is no harm in us queens having our bit of fantasy: we demand the freedom to dress as we like, to choose a definite style one day and an ambiguous one the day after, to wear both feathers and ties, leopard-skin and rompers, the leather queen's chains, black leather and whip, the greasy rags of the street porter or a tulle maternity dress. We enjoy the bizarre, digging into (pre)history, the dustbins and uniforms of yesterday, today and tomorrow, the trumpery, costumes and symbols that best express the mood of the moment. As Antonio Donato puts it, we want to communicate by our clothing, too, the 'schizophrenia' that underlies social life, hidden behind the censorious screen of the unrecognised transvestism of everyday. From our vantage point, in fact, it is 'normal' people who are the true transvestites. Just as the absolute heterosexuality that is so proudly flaunted masks the polymorphous but sadly inhibited disposition of their desire, so their standard outfits hide and debase the marvellous human being that lies suppressed within. Our transvestism is condemned because it shows up for all to see the funereal reality of the general transvestism, which has to remain silent, and is simply taken for granted.

Far from being particularly odd, the transvestite exposes how tragically ridiculous the great majority of people are in their monstrous uniforms of man and 'woman'. You need only take a ride on the underground. If the transvestite seems ridiculous to the 'normal' person who encounters him, far more ridiculous and sad, for the transvestite, is the nudity of the person who laughs, so properly dressed, in his face.

Mario Mieli, Homosexuality and Liberation (1980) trans. David Fernbach

#mario mieli

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the-ghost-of-jason-todd · 4 years

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Now and Then Synopsis and Character Cheat-Sheet

As of writing this I’ve completed the prologue and Chapters 1 and 2, and have outlined the rest of the series. It is by no means a finished project, therefore this synopsis will not be inclusive of every little detail.

With that in mind, here we go!

Shawn Dalton is a normal kid. He’s a middle child, a high schooler, and a neighbor to a whacky pair of siblings. He has four sisters, a school bully, and lives a normal life. The story starts on a school day. He’s woken by his sister Lily in the morning, gets water thrown on him by his sister Lucy, goes to school, gets bullied... a normal day. A normal week. A normal life. The only kink is that his little sister Lucy is friends with the little sister of his bully, Rogers, and he learns a secret about his bully that he definitely shouldn’t know. Rogers, who he’s always assumed was a cis boy, is, in fact, a trans boy, stealth at school and closeted at home.

Shawn keeps this information to himself. He could pursue it, find out more about Rogers’ home life, but... nah. He decides to just live his life, and he’s doing fine... mostly... until the night his mother hits a drunk kid in the family minivan and he gets strangled by his seatbelt. He dies.

This... this is where things get weird.

Shawn wakes at the beginning of the story, with a vivid sense of deja vu. He’s woken by his sister Lily, sees Lucy coming with the water... and ducks just in time to avoid getting a faceful of water. He gets to school and the same thing happens--he sees the hit from Rogers’ coming before it happens, and ducks just in time. He’s still beat up, but now he’s beginning to suspect something is off. He has memories that he shouldn’t have, of things happening before. It’s as if a literal ghost of another timeline is hanging over his shoulders, telling him what to do.

And the ghost has one (or really two) very important things for him to do. First, it stops the crash that would have killed Shawn and the drunk kid that Mama Dalton hit. Then, it gets Shawn to investigate Rogers’ home life.

It’s there that he learns another secret, an even larger and darker one--that Rogers is abused at home. And Shawn, a boy with a heart of gold, decides that even though Rogers has bullied him for years he can’t just sit on this secret.

So first things first--he recruits his sisters and his neighbors (who are Rogers’ aunt and uncle, the adopted siblings of Rogers’ mother) to help him talk to Rogers about it. It goes about as well as expected, and he winds up with a concussion. He then decides to face Rogers’ mother directly, to confront her about abusing her children--and in doing so causes his own death a second time. Rogers’ mother is not to be trifled with, and his already concussed brain makes matters all the worse. He dies a second time.

And then there were two. Two timelines, two ghosts, two deaths.

It’s here that he finds himself in the afterlife. His recently deceased ghost falls into soulsleep, the healing sleep that all new ghosts fall into upon entering the ethereal realm. The first ghost, however, is wide awake--and this time he sees a bunch of ghosts, who are waiting for him. It’s six ‘bandits’ (mutated ghosts) and one spirit-jumping human. They offer Shawn’s ghost a deal--a wish, that will take him back in time to the beginning of the story so he can try again. He’s suspicious, but he takes the wish--with the caveat that Shawn #2 also comes with him. Chapter 2 closes at the beginning of the story, with Shawn waking up to two ghosts hovering over him.

From there the story is a series of timelines, each getting progressively weirder. Behind the scenes, the bandits watch Shawn and Company through a series of cracks in spacetime as he travels back in time again and again. One of them is a genie/human hybrid ghost, whose ephemeral body grows wishes like tumors, so they have an almost infinite amount. The downside to this is that every time Shawn uses a wish to get back and add another ghost to the timeline, he causes another crack in spacetime to appear, and his amalgam ghost and the world around them gets a little more unstable. Still, he’s determined to find the perfect timeline, where everything goes right.

In one timeline, Shawn joins Rogers in bullying people. In one timeline, Shawn overshoots and the amalgam ghost attaches to his mother before he’s born, causing himself to never be born in the first place. In one timeline, there’s a fungal zombie virus that nearly wipes out the planet. In another, the world is full of magic and there is a war between light and dark being waged. Etc, etc, etc.

The universe, meanwhile, is slowly unraveling. Shawn’s amalgam ghost has caused dozens if not hundreds of cracks in spacetime and the ethereal realm is folding in on itself. There’s also the question of the Bandits--one of which holds a secret that may very well be the key to the perfect timeline. Will Shawn be able to get to it before everything falls apart? Will the gods come in and wipe out all the Bandits before he can get to the secret? What would Shawn give for the perfect timeline?

Stay tuned to find out!

CHARACTERS:

Dalton Family:

Lucy, 4 years old: an exuberant and stubborn kid whose only wish in life is to wear a skirt on the first day of school. The only problem? She’s trans and mom won’t let her!

Ana, 8 years old: a kid who always has a witty response, Ana is the bookworm of the family.

Shawn, 17 years old: the middle child. He’s fairly meek and doesn’t stand up for himself much. He has a weak stomach but a heart of gold.

Kari, 18 years old: the traditionalist of the family, but also the most forward-thinking. She wears a hijab and favors dark lipstick. She and Shawn get into the most shenanigans due to being the closest in age. In the timeline with the Light VS. Dark war she goes by the name Vi (short for Violet) and kicks major ass.

Lily, 21 years old: The eldest of the pack and the most reserved. She hates being the eldest and would like nothing more than to be left alone. Gay and closeted, she has a secret girlfriend that no one but Kari knows about.

Mama Dalton, ?? years old: Born in Pakistan to an arab family, Mama came to the US seeking a better life. Her husband still lives in Pakistan with her father, but she has all the kids. She works as an arab-english translator for the hospital.

Rogerson Family:

Mandy, 7: the ‘baby’ of the family, Mandy is a quiet girl. She’s friends with Lucy and tells her secrets sometimes.

Seb, 14: A little snot. He is only rarely targetted at home and is very fond of their mother despite being scared of her temper. He rarely changes over the course of different timelines--he’s pretty consistently awful.

Danny ‘Rogers’, 17: trans boy, bully, and abused kid, the ‘eldest’ sibling. He takes the brunt of the hits at home and then turns around and hits people at school to feel powerful. Often portrayed as a dragon. Is sometimes sympathetic, sometimes antagonistic, and sometimes neutral, all depending on the timeline and the actions that Shawn takes.

???: the real eldest sibling, who was disowned by their mother when he got a girl pregnant at 13. Mandy is technically his child, but Ms. Rogerson is raising her as her own.

Ms. Rogerson: the abusive mother herself. She is consistently an antagonist and rarely if ever has a change of heart. Emotionally and physically abusive. Often portrayed as a hydra.

Uncle P: the brother of Ms. Rogerson. He’s depressed as heck, struggles with his weight, and is just about the closest thing that the Rogerson kids have to a father figure.

Aunt Morgan: the sister of Ms. Rogerson. She and Ms. Rogerson don’t get along because Morgan is trans, and Ms. Rogerson (and their foster father) is very against that. She’s into fashion, loves kids, and has a different hair-do every day of the week.

Mr. ----------, deceased: The foster father of Ms. Rogerson, P, and Morgan, plus a few others. He and his wife split over irreconcilable differences after he took the stance that his trans daughter wasn’t a woman. He does not show up as a ghost.

Ghosts:

Obscura: Morgan and P’s dead sister. She and Morgan were fraternal twins and can sort of converse from either side of the veil, but only with each other. Obscura can talk to other ghosts and Morgan can talk to other humans, but Obscura is the only ghost Morgan can talk to and vice-versa. She has a hell of a lot of hair and wears glasses, while Morgan does not.

Old Lady Fortier: Morgan and P’s dead foster mother. A very sympathetic woman who had empathy for everyone but bigots. In a wheelchair. She shows up very rarely from the other side.

Ralta: Part-time ghost. He’s a kid who suffers from an extremely rare form of epilepsy that ejects him from his body every time he has a seizure. He hangs around with the bandits just for funsies. Morose, often isolates himself from other humans. Feels like ghosts are the only people who understand him.

Bandits (basically ghost amalgams and glitches):

Cilia: the combination of the ghost of a middle-aged woman and a bunch of bacteria. Her head is the shape of a microbe and her hair is flagella. She scares people when she smiles. Very excitable, and the main driving force behind the bandits.

Cytokine: a giant of a ghost, the combination of a genie and a young girl. She grows wishes like tumors--they look like pearls. She has one giant one in her head where her brain would be, which if removed will kill her.

Glitch: a normal ghost, except for the fact that he’s not all the way dead. He was ejected prematurely from his body and his spirit had a weird reaction to the ethereal realm, causing him to soak up extra energy from the world around him. He bleeds ectoplasm from an enormous wound on his shoulder. Inquisitive and kind of dumb.

Key: A combination of a human boy and a sky walker (a being who is basically an angel, the creatures who take care of the universe). Has a MAJOR secret.

Achos: comes from the Light VS. Dark magical war timeline. In that timeline, there is magical technology that can basically create a copy of a ghost out of a matrix of tiny nanobots suspended by electricity. The nanobots run off the energy of the ethereal realm. The person they were copied from is (a massive nerd) a warrior with a massive sword he inherited from his big brother. Has a tragic backstory and dies in tragedy, as well.

Terato: the official name for Amalgam Shawn. At some point the pressure of all the ghosts cramming themselves into Shawn’s body begins to literally melt the ghosts together, creating a many-faced-many-limbed THING with like a hundred minds. It’s... not pretty.

Various Other Characters (not inclusive):

Alison: An old friend of Rogers who speaks out against him now. Wary of everything.

Empusa, the mother monster: a monster who shows up in one of the timelines. She has the body of a small child but an aura the size of a skyscraper, and she has enough power to fold reality. She appears after a crack in spacetime cracks open her interdimensional cage.

Matrix: a superhuman who can unmoor herself from the linear flow of time, also from the timeline with the Light VS. Dark war. She has crimped hair and Knows Too Much.

Wren: half vampire, also from the Light VS. Dark timeline. She’s cool because in that timeline there are three types of vampires, and she comes from a lineage of siberian monstrosities that eat raw organs and can transform from human to vulture-like creatures.

Honestly the Light VS. Dark timeline is one of the coolest and most in-depth, I might elaborate more about it in another post just because it’s cool.

And there you have it! A basic synopsis and character breakdown! Cheers!

#now and then #NaT #shawn #my OCs #:D

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aspecsafespace-blog · 7 years

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I’m doing my English final on media’s representation of the LGBT+ community, or lack thereof, and was wondering if you could provide me with your opinion on this topic? Thank you so much!

Hey anon!

While I don’t pretend to be an expert on this subject, I definitely think media’s representation of the LGBT+ community is underwhelming at best (and down right discriminatory a lot of the time if I’m being more accurate), and I don’t think I’d be wrong is assuming most LGBT+ people would agree with me on this. Before I start, I just want to say that there’s nothing wrong with real people being any of the things I mention that do actually get some kind of representation, it just gets a little frustrating for the rest of us when they’re the only ones being represented in media.

Not only do we have to fight tooth and nail for even the tiniest amount of representation, when we do actually get that representation it’s often negative (Did anyone say queer coding every villain until it gets old and then some?) or tokenised with one white, middle class, able bodied, neurotypical, cis gay man bearing the weight of representing the whole community. A task he is definitely not up to doing, to the disappointment of all of us who don’t fit that exact mould and even to some who do.

The media completely disregard intersectionality and a majority of the LGBT+ community, and they rarely, if ever, use their token gay character to talk about actual LGBT+ issues.The also seriously lack originality with few of their LGBT+ characters straying beyond the two polarised ends of their stereotypical pole. They are always either the flamboyant gay that usually ends up being the brunt of the jokes of the exact opposite so the media can toot their horn about how forward thinking they are, revelling that the character no one could’ve thought was gay (because they displayed absolutely no homosexual tendencies), is actually gay! Usually, conveniently for them, at the end of the whole thing so they don’t actually have to address it. While this can be taken as a positive, because it forces people to make a judgement on the character rather than their sexuality, it’s pretty convenient for media companies that this means they don’t actually have to follow through with representing that sexuality within the character.

And that’s just the tip of the iceberg! It’s also painfully obvious that most lesbian representation we see in media is put there for a male audience with two conventionally attractive, feminine women who usually have a loud, revelling sex scene that’s generally inaccurate to actual lesbian sex. But it sure looks good if you’re trying to get off to it and don’t know what two women having sex really looks like. This could (almost) be forgiven, however, if it weren’t for the trope of killing off at least one of the women involved, usually just when it seems like things could be getting better, at least for the LGBT+ viewer looking for representation. Anyone else remembering The 100 right now? It’s like queerbaiting’s (which, don’t even get me started on) older, more soul-destroying cousin. Just when we think our voices are finally being heard, they’re finally giving us a fraction of the representation we deserve, it’s ripped away from us, kicking us while we’re down with the remaining character’s sorrow. A sorrow that will often, in the case of movies, last until the end of story because a happy ending for wlw is just too much to ask, right?

Then there’s the out and out refusal of the media to use the word bisexual. I think I’ve heard of one show (serious props to Grey’s Anatomy) that has a character explicitly state that they are bisexual, instead of someone who “doesn’t like to use labels”. Which again, is fine and a totally valid way for people to identify, but it’s obviously a cop-out for media companies, one they use so they don’t have to use the world bisexual. Or pansexual or polysexual for that matter but I think pigs will fly before media companies acknowledge even the BT in a meaningful, positive way (more than once every ten years), nevermind any of us who fall under the +.

And let’s not forget their trend of having cis men play trans women. There are plenty of trans women out there they could cast in these roles, and yet they’re still being given to cis men. Cis men who know nothing about trans people, or even the LGBT+ in general. Not only does it completely defeat the purpose of telling trans people’s stories to have a cis person play a trans character, it’s a real slap in the face for trans women to have their stories told by male actors. Here we are trying to tell people that trans women are women and media companies are out there validating the arguments of bigots saying that trans women are just men in dress. It’s transphobic, insulting, and downright infuriating. But you know what else is infuriating? The absolute lack of trans men in mainstream media. Unless you go digging in the far reaches of the internet, you’re not gonna find representation for trans men and if you do, it’ll probably be just as inaccurate and insulting as the limited amount of representation for trans women we’re treated to by these companies.

Finally (because this is getting a bit long and I could go on for a while), we get situations like the one with Jughead at the minute, where mainstream media take a canon LGBT+ character from another form of media and erase their gender/sexuality in the process of making their own ‘version’ of this piece of media. In this case, we have aroace Jughead turned straight, despite the already seriously limited representation we get in any kind of media. This erasure of LGBT+ identities is yet another slap in the face for the community and it’s made worse by the insistence that their changes are just their interpretation of the material, which would be fine if it weren’t for the fact that other than the erasure, everything is pretty canon compliant. This makes it pretty obvious that the only ‘alternative interpretations’ they have are ones that make it easier to swallow for bigots. Because why stay true to a character and give LGBT+ people representation when you can avoid the wrath of anti-LGBT+ activists, who have more of an impact on the opinions of the straight, white, middle class majority than we ever could?

Sorry this got so long and passive aggressive (or just aggressive), I have a lot of feelings about this.

I hope this answers your question, feel free to message me so we can talk more about this or anything else. ^.^

#ask #answered #anon #mine #sorry this got so long #seriously #and I know the tone is super angry #I couldn't help getting pissed writing this #let me know if you need me to tag this as anything so you can avoid it #it kind of strays from the positivity #a lot #lgbt+#lgbtq #lgbtqiap+#representation in media #rant #not positive

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michaelfallcon · 4 years

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Amid Worldwide COVID-19 Shutdowns, Cafe Owners Speak Out

For an updating list of barista resources, click here. For relief efforts for service workers, click here.

The new normal is wild. It’s turbulent and unexpected and is going to test the strength of many around the world. COVID-19’s impact is not just rescheduled events or a temporary upheaval of our social lives. Government mandates that ask for businesses to close have a very real impact on coffee workers’ livelihoods. Cafes are historically community gathering places and with their closures (temporary or not), the ripple effect is still unknown.

In countries like the United States, where baristas aren’t often provided sick pay or health insurance, the brunt of the closures falls on them. Whereas in countries like the UK and Taiwan with universal health care available, at least one source of anxiety can be taken care of, but many questions remain.

In an effort to see how cafes were managing with the virus, I spoke with owners and managers around the world to see what was happening in their sphere. These interviews span the globe, from Singapore to the United Kingdom to China. Because the news is moving so incredibly fast right now, I’ve dated each interview. A few of these answers are already outdated in places, but the importance of these voices remain.

In the earlier stages of the virus infection, cities have either not issued guidelines or only given recommendations to be cautious. These interviews include:

Han Tran, Store Manager at Bosgaurus Coffee Roasters in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Interviewed on March 13.

Robert Chaffin, Director of Operations at Commonplace Coffee in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, US but with locations elsewhere in Pennsylvania. Interviewed on March 13.

Mat North, owner of Full Court Press in Bristol, UK. Interviewed on March 12.

Costa Arvanitopoulos, co-founder of Barker St in Sydney, Australia. Barker St is an online marketplace and is not as affected by the virus as a brick-and-mortar store is. Interviewed on March 15.

In the middle stages of the outbreak, we have city or country guidelines imposed. There have been cases of community spread and cafes have had to significantly alter either their hours and/or availability. These interviews include:

Jake Paulson, co-founder at Anchorhead Coffee in Seattle, US. Interviewed on March 14.

Pamela Chng, co-founder at The Bettr Group in Singapore. It has several components: a barista training academy, roastery, and retail bar. Interviewed on March 15.

JoEllen Depakakibo, owner at Pinhole Coffee in San Francisco, US. Interviewed on March 15.

And finally, the advanced and recovery stages of the outbreak are where the government has made decisions to close the country or several cities down. Cafes have also been closed. These interviews include:

Chuck Chan, founder of Lock Chuck Coffee in Guangzhou, China. Interviewed on March 14.

Elisa Urdich, owner of Taste Coffee & More in Treviso, Italy. Interviewed on March 15.

Interviews have been condensed and lightly edited for grammar and spelling.

What are the current guidelines for your area?

Whether advised by the World Health Organization (WHO) or their respective federal health agencies, cafe owners took note of what was recommended. These are what they were told by their government. Be advised that these answers are current only at the time of writing this article.

Han Tran: Most buildings, complex housing, gyms, and cafes encourage citizens to sanitize their hands before entering. They frequently use Chloride to sanitize the place (doorknob, table, …).

All of the citizens are encouraged to access to tokhaiyte.vn or download app NCOVI to update current health conditions, to sanitize hands frequently, to wear masks in public, to keep a safe distance while communicating. Hotlines for an emergency is everywhere in case of any suspicion of symptoms. Self-quarantined if we have been in contact with any positive patient

JoEllen Depakakibo: We aren’t quarantined yet, but it seems like a lot of people are putting themselves in quarantine. Bars and wineries were told to close today.

Elisa Urdich: All Italy was considered a red zone from last week… all the cafes, restaurants, and shops are closed and we can go out only to the supermarket, or for medical or work reasons.

Chuck Chan: The government took the most severe measure to contain the spread of the virus. In February, all the restaurants in town were instructed to suspend dine-in service, which was another big hit to our already affected business. The citizens were encouraged to stay at home and very few customers were out. Now the situation is getting better, dine-in is available. Our regulars are coming back.

How has the virus affected your business and operations?

In the early stages, customers are encouraged to support their local businesses and maintain social distancing. As the outbreak progresses, we see more cafes transitioning to to-go cups only and eventually, closing for business. Depending on location, businesses may see support from their government.

Han Tran: For our store in HCMC, everything is still good since most of the customers are local. Everybody wants to save money at this time for living. As for operation, we have to postpone many projects, events, or workshops so we need to allocate the expense and human resource. Many plans are canceled. Purchase orders from overseas are affected and we need to change lots of things to keep stock under control.

Mat North: At this stage, we have seen little change to sales, but I expect that to hit in the next 7-14 days. I personally expect some of the changes we put in place over the next few weeks to last many months.

Jake Paulson: It has affected us in more ways than we could have ever imagined. Our sales dropped 85% within a week forcing us to put 90% of our staff on standby. This is a temporary solution, but it was the only way we could make sure our staff received as much money as possible while we dealt with what was happening. We have also cut hours and will have to close till this blows over if things keep trending downwards. We are hoping that this is all temporary, and we will be moving everything and everyone back to a normal schedule once this is passed.

JoEllen Depakakibo: When people were initially told to “Work from Home” our sales spiked.

Chuck Chan: We depend on face-to-face service, which was not recommended during the spreading of viruses by the government. We were forced to close our dine-in service for more than two weeks. What hurt badly is the confidence of the consumers, including our loyalties. It is estimated to need more time before they feel comfortable to hang out in a cafe.

What precautions have you implemented in your cafe to protect your staff and customers?

You’ve likely seen the posts and emails by now. Cafes have increasingly taken on more sanitizing protocols to maintain a clean environment. For some, staff protection includes sick pay if not covered by the government, face masks, mandatory distance from customers, and to-go cups only. Repeated often by many of the interviewees is the need to clean high-touch areas often, educate customers of new house rules, and minimize as much contact as possible.

JoEllen Depakakibo: Our first main thing we did was make a checklist of all the things to wipe down and sanitize. As things got more serious we implemented no outside personal cups allowed. Then no for here cups and pastry plates. We next moved half ‘n’ half behind the counter where baristas poured it into people’s cups and we switched to sugar packets rather than a more environmentally friendly sugar container. As of today, we added no cash allowed and no access to seating… encouraging everyone to take their drinks and go. It seemed like I was making new signs for a new precaution each day.

Costa Arvanitopoulos: For our staff as we are an online business, we have everyone working remotely and are getting all staff to follow the guidelines the Australian government is issuing on a daily bases. We are also emailing all staff the updated guidelines from the government once they are issued so they are all on top of what is required.

Robert Chaffin: At this time, we have made the decision to go take-out only, and not allowing anyone to spend time in our cafes.

Pamela Chng: [For students at the academy] Travel declaration before coming for classes. Before entering premises – Sanitising + Temp checks twice a day + Contact Info collected for contact tracing. Anyone who is sick or returning from countries in travel advisories is not allowed into our premises. [For cafe staff] Staff from different outlets are not to meet each other during/outside of work to minimize contact. [For customers in the cafes] As our bars are all in workplace communities, customers would have had their travel declarations, temperature taken and contact details recorded before entering an office building. Cashless payment strongly encouraged.

Elisa Urdich: Now we are close… but till last week we had to serve only on the table and all the people have to stay 1 meter far from other people. Our coffee shop is really small and we could serve only six people.

What is/was your plan for if/when the virus affects your area?

The best thing you can do if you have not been severely affected yet is to plan and plan well. Look to other countries and cities that are further along than you and see what their actions have been. This is the time for collective action and to do our part in flattening the curve.

Mat North: Plan now, seek advice and guidance from local health services where you can, don’t be afraid to act in a measured way, you can quickly ramp up your measures, maintaining them at a high level is hard. Avoid large expenditures as you may need the capital to fund staff cover.

Jake Paulson: Do everything you can to practice social distancing, and consider how you will help your employees once sales drop and hours need to be cut. Also, depending on how bad things get, consider closing completely. As an owner, that’s a super scary thing to think about, but if it helps get past this quickly, it could be a good option.

Pamela Chng: Take this seriously! Implement measures now and start being individually responsible for our behavior and actions—practice personal hygiene, social distancing, stay home if you are sick. Help slow down the spread to give your healthcare system a chance to treat the ones who really need it. Businesses need to start controlling and cutting costs and taking care of your staff’s well-being.

Chuck Chan: A lot of ingredients may be harder to order. So get well prepared.

Elisa Urdich: I would say… wash your hands… stay at home… stay safe because it’s not a joke… my husband is from Bergamo and many people die every day… 146 people in the last four days.

Final Thoughts

This pandemic has a global impact. Everything from manufacturing to stock markets to sourcing will be affected in the months or years to come. In the hardest-hit areas, we’ve seen mandated closures of cafes and staff layoffs. It will certainly be a test of the community, industry, and governments to see how responses are handled. Will personal cupping spoons no longer be used? Will sick pay and health insurance be prioritized by the US government? How will events change as travel advisories continue to be in place? We leave you with these last thoughts from our interviewees:

Robert Chaffin: The reality is, we’re not sure how long this will last. We employ a significant number of hourly workers, who could be hurt financially if we end up having to close on a temporary basis. We’re evaluating what support we can offer and any available resources for our staff should it come to that, but as a small business, our resources are limited, especially if closures last multiple weeks.

Mat North: It’s hard not to panic, but it may be that extended time of living with this pandemic is before us, this will change our norms and we have to be prepared for that to happen. The big thing to remember that it’s not about you getting ill, that will probably happen, it’s about keeping the most vulnerable as safe as possible, act for them, not for yourself.

Jake Paulson: I feel like people aren’t taking this as seriously as they should. This virus is spread by breathing, which is why they are suggesting 6 ft of distance between people. I absolutely love the community that has come out to support small businesses in this time of need, but I do worry about people getting together and congregating at restaurants and cafes.

Pamela Chng: We were one of the first countries outside China that had to deal head-on with COVID-19 starting end-Jan, and we are very grateful for a firm, clear, transparent government that took quick decisive action on so many fronts, and a populace that was cooperative in helping to contain the spread. We had our panic moments that the US and Europe are experiencing now, and it is critical that we all play our part to work with our communities and government to tackle this.

Chuck Chan: Challenges are never less. We’ve kept being busy. For example, we tested new recipes for brownies and carrot cakes, which is going to be launched in April. We prepared for our next upcoming exhibition in-house.

Elisa Urdich: Italian government is doing a good job with all these restrictions..maybe it would’ve been better to start with it 2 weeks in advance and not wait so many people infect and I think all the world has to do the same!!!

Jenn Chen (@TheJennChen) is a San Francisco–based coffee marketer, writer, and photographer. Read more Jenn Chen on Sprudge.

Amid Worldwide COVID-19 Shutdowns, Cafe Owners Speak Out published first on https://medium.com/@LinLinCoffee

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Amid Worldwide COVID-19 Shutdowns, Cafe Owners Speak Out

For an updating list of barista resources, click here. For relief efforts for service workers, click here.

In the earlier stages of the virus infection, cities have either not issued guidelines or only given recommendations to be cautious. These interviews include:

Han Tran, Store Manager at Bosgaurus Coffee Roasters in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Interviewed on March 13.

Robert Chaffin, Director of Operations at Commonplace Coffee in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, US but with locations elsewhere in Pennslyvania and Indiana. Interviewed on March 13.