#so I feel there's an element of downplaying queer sexuality

[allofthebeanz]

Hi! I saw your post about due South and gender, and I'm so interested in what you had to say, and it definitely got me thinking, and I'm so sorry for the wall of text.

I'm most interested in Fraser's experience of gender, because imo he's a character archetype that female characters aren't often portrayed as (knight errant, duty and responsibility as a mask for real feelings and decisions, etc). Like, Fraser's loneliness and sense of alienation even from other RCMP- Were there many other women in her trainee class? Did male colleagues feel threatened by a stubborn, intelligent, and near-supernaturally talented woman, and if so, how was that expressed? How would Thatcher and Fraser's relationship change? Would Bob Fraser have been supportive of his daughter being a Mountie, or would there always be a sense of comparing her to a son that didn't even exist, however unintentionally?

Even things like Fraser's apartment in seasons 1 and 2. How would Ray V (of any gender really), react to a single woman in a strange city (even a single woman with a half-wolf and enormous capacity to take care of herself) insisting on living in a terrible apartment in a bad part of town? Fraser would have bewildered, infuriated, and endeared herself to Ray V from day 1, and it could be interesting to see how Ray V's notions about women change when he's presented with Fraser's complete inability to be anyone but herself.

I already love the "Victoria's" secret arc, and I think it could be just as compelling with a queer element entangled with Fraser's loneliness,not to mention potentially having to hide the real nature of her relationship with Victoria for a number of reasons.

Again, I apologize for the rambling, and I would love to hear any other thoughts you have on the Rays and Fraser and gender.

Never apologize for rambling, this is fantastic!!!

I always pictured Fraser as a woman trying desperately to even be acknowledged by her father or her peers. You know, it's always brought up by Bob and everyone who knows him how she's just like her father - except she's a woman. Like her being a woman downplays all of her achievements (I recall Thatcher mentioning this in the show). Marginalized groups so often get thrust into a position where they can't be anything less than perfect, and I think in Fraser's case that would be taken to the max. Like, you want your dad to notice you because even if you did everything right he still won't take you camping since you're a girl. You go above and beyond expectations in your class, and no one takes you seriously because most people are objectifying you. (Oh, and don't get me started on how Fraser still faces sexual harassment but now it'd be from men. Oof.) I can see Fraser really upsetting the men at the police station/RCMP because of her solve-rate. Like, can you imagine a bunch of male cops, in the 90s, getting out shined by a lady? They'd have a fit over that. Dewey specifically comes to mind when he said he could beat Lady Shoes in poker because she's a woman. But I also think Fraser would keep that 'innocent mountie' shtick to protect herself, though she's not above using sexism to her advantage (I'm thinking Ms Fraser going 'you wouldn't hit a woman would you'). At the end of the day, Fraser is still very much JUSTICE and the COMMON GOOD above all else, even ignoring her inner yearning to have recognition for her achievements (and yes, love, Fraser would still be incredibly lonely). I think that gives the conversation in the Vault a different weight. And Fraser would absolutely do hair flips.

Okay, so I think if we go with Vecchio being a woman rather than a man, their relationship would have this envy about it. Since Fraser literally acts like she gives zero fucks about doing anything (she lives in an apartment in a sketchy place by herself, ignores the jabs of male coworkers, etc.), I feel like Vecchio would want what she has and be even more annoyed when Fraser gets all the attention in Red, White, or Blue since she'd be undermined and harassed as a female cop in Chicago. God, we all know that Vecchio isn't the best at his job, but instead of being seen as a buffoon can you imagine how they'd berate her as a woman? How she'd have to represent her entire gender, especially coming from a traditional Italian family? Not to mention if we switch it so she's the sole/eldest daughter in the Vecchio family, the societal pressure of that is immaculate. Though, I do imagine her to keep Vecchio being the most emotionally mature (or at least expressive) out of the three leads. She'd be wanting to talk about stuff and Fraser'd be throwing herself out windows more than ever.

Now, Kowalski, oh boy. In the my head she's not changing anything about her style - this woman is 100% butch. Personally, I read canon Kowalski as someone who got bullied in school (I mean, in the 70s he had glasses, had a best friend that was a girl, small, had less money than his peers, and has shit self-esteem. I can't see that he wasn't bullied) and he created this super tough 'loose cannon' persona to fight back (I also read Fraser and Kowalski as definitely queer, with Vecchio being a more grey area but anyways that would make sense for Kowalski's overly butch persona as well). Kowalski as a woman is no different, but now you got an extra layer to that because women aren't taken seriously in law enforcement. A guy calls her 'sweetheart', dude you better fucking run. Guys probably tell her to smile and she punches their teeth out. She's still a whirlwind of emotions but now she isn't seen as 'scary' because she's a woman. And as a butch woman, she's probably seen as a 'freak' and bullied at her job. Probably also a factor to why she goes undercover so much, at least she can get away from the people at the precinct more. And I would switch her name to Stella Rachel Kawolski and her husband Stanley Kowalski (because I think that'd be even weirder for a dad to name his daughter that???).

Now a f/f Victoria/Fraser has some terrible implications into stereotypes of lesbian relationships. You know, the 'Mean Lesbian' as it were, and maybe that would reinforce Fraser's not only fear of love, but her fear of queerness. So, I think Kowalski coming along and being openly gender nonconforming and developing a friendship/relationship with her would be incredibly healing for Fraser. I also feel like Fraser would still be drawn to Kowalski's vulnerability since she was taught never to show emotion other than happiness as a woman. And she's be drawn to Vecchio for not being afraid to complain constantly. When that woman is mildly inconvenienced, she'll let you know. And I think both Rays would really be enamoured by Fraser by all the same qualities in canon, but even more so as she demonstrates you can be badass and a kind person (something hollywood really needs to learn with their female characters already).

I see Fraser and Thatcher at first having a competitive relationship but one sided on Thatcher's part (internalized misogyny) but then in We are the Eggmen she realizes how stupid that is and they have a healthy working relationship :)

Thank you so much for this ask, I had so much fun writing it! Feel free to drop by any time!

#due south #ask #gender #i also read Fraser as genderqueer/nonbinary and it doesn't matter what agab he is #so that'd be interesting how being raised as a different gender would affect his understanding of that #and if you want to know how i picture RayV's femme outfits i reblogged a 'the nanny' post with the lead's fashion

[sharonisthebettercarter]

Hai.

How do you measure your top and bottoms? I will likely greatly regret asking.

oh HIIII @diamonddung~<3<3<3!

why yes. yes you will<3 i never did get that answer on fiona's nick valentine % <3 tho you may need to amend billy's % lmao<3<3<3

as a bonafide too queer to function lunatic and multishipper who *hates* catty supremacist false dichotomy fandom bullshit because of all the unnecessary problems it causes (you know me, lmao, bit of another psa in here i guess given multiship tags and yes, i am still upset about the thing with the artist)? ya know i'm a little out there and not quite with the 'in' crowd of the chunk of cis het women who take party~ in the shipping world~<3 no shade, but it does tend to change one's perspective. i do feel there's lots of shipping discourse that may miss the mark/certain character elements in favor of...

well, normally just plain ol' over-sexualization from some horny ass people lfmao, (homie's scene with doppelhomie is a good example, the trauma presented on his face was ignored in favor of the selfcest fantasy, but in antony starr's words, homie wasn't interested, he was traumatized :((() but also unfortunately... echhh i gotta say it!

hetero-normalizing gay ships and then treating the kink presentation like a goddamn religion... the amount of times i have those 'are the straights okay???' moments are just...

LMAO, all in good fun of course<3 let's not kink shame.

it's fine to have different kinks and discourse, disagreements over how you view characters or what you like, even be enthusiastic with your own views and shout them out to the heavens~! it's *NOT* fine to try and police, dehumanize, or discourage others from enjoying what they like just because it's *different* from you and they exist in a *shared* space.

friendly important reminder to *ship and let ship*, *art and let art* however that may be. even if i don't like the way a ship is presented or voice how *i* personally feel about it, i would *never* try to or even have the gall to tell someone *no, you can't do that, my way or the highway*

It does NOT *exclude* you to *include* others. It costs nothing to be *nice* or simply DNI. This is NOT a dichotomy. Fandoms do NOT need additional toxicity and bullying over something so *trivial* as fictional bullshit. EVER.

"i don't like bullies... i don't care where they're from." ;)

anywho~<3 i love top/bottom exploration because i have a very bad BAD~<3 dominance kink, but switching definitely gets the most downplaying/ignoring with a heavy focus on... mmm, i suppose often, more superficial elements half the time and i'll admit some of mine def are~ lmao nose size. and i don't say that to dissuade any writers, young or old. i say it to *encourage* moar deep diving<3<3<3 and even questioning the way you might think/listening to new perspectives~<3!

we all start somewhere and have times of exploration/learning~<3 learning moar and challenging yourself? that's a *good* thing<3<3<3 but sadly, not always valued (it should be!) :(

but apart from canon dynamices/character depth/personality to the best of my ability/understanding? the long answer is ANAL GAPE~<3

among other things, i'm sure that makes no sense whatsoever<3 because some other factors do get thrown in. intelligence because i'm a morosexual and LOVE big dumb tops<3<3<3, practicality super anuses are a death trap to not be played with however super phalli~, and weirdly... nose size. i'm not kidding!

yeah i know some idiot out there told me nose size is apparently related to phallus size and testosterone levels OH WAIT-- but oddly enough...? i think there may be some kinda instinct there LOL, because it seemed to registered in my brain the same way i registered my top/bottoms for the most part, even *before* learning that...

and i *swear*... i'll come back to this shit cause it's hilarious, but even in fanart, you'll see many artists subconsciously/purposefully give the guy they want to 'top' a bigger nose... even if he has a smaller one. ;)))))))))))))))))

BUTT ANAL GAPE! WHAT IS IT!?

not the nasty version ya nasties~<3

it basically boils down to... how big of an ASSHOLE is this asshole... just wide do those booty cheeks spread with the level a disrespect-- how *badly* does he *need* a good railing and prostate MMPH~<3<3<3! or even spanking~<3 how much of a control freak is he? how stubborn~? how far do those bitchy manipulative little devil vibes go~<3<3<3 what does he *want*? really want. figurative dick energy? is he compensating for something? is he in need of, holdin' out for a hero~<3<3<3? how so? how far from the goal of expressing positive masculinity are we and why? just how toxic we talkin~? i'm slippin' under<3

what is the outward presentation being given vs. the one he gives privately/with those he loves? there's a pretty big difference sometimes and it can say a lot. naturally gentle doms like kal-el or steve rogers i see get mislabeled for that old thing, 'mistaking kindness for weakness', so to speak. but as a general rule, they say that in the bedroom~ people actually tend to give the opposite of what they present in their day to day lives/'those with the most control of their lives are secretly the most submissive' or something along those lines, and it makes sense that things would manifest that way when you think about it. (ironically learned about this *after* learning my kinks)

a good example would be billy butcher, who gives the outward presentation of being rough and ragged and 'in control' wannabe logan, but is extremely soft, caring and submissive with those he loves<3 contrast with homelander who has had ZERO control over his own life from day one and *really* likes it rough when he gets the chance and--

boi lemme tell ya hwat--

it's a number of things, lmao, and the calculations in my head are automatic and will not make sense in numbers. so.

i don't think i need to explain much on anal gape when it comes to scott summers, lex luthor, bruce wayne, tony stark, and especially... *especially* billy butcher.

but lets not forget the added morosexual aspect~ which *can* even override anal gape! so let's go over what every one a my tagged ship bottoms might be saying to their big dumb idiot animal tops being DUMB<3<3<3

scott: *glares violently*

lex: *glares in pure bitch trying to hide the horny*

bucky: steve... what the fuck.

tony: *hard eye rolling and harder cuddling*

bruce: . . .

charles: ERIK!?

billy: *as he takes off his clothes* why... are you a brainless cunt?

pay no mind to homie's indignant huffing with a side of horny in response (somebody find me that goddamn meme lmao<3), and brucie might still be processing clark's stupidity lol<3

it's funny tho, cause i have competency kink too~<3 and i love me a good boi team up/learnin' as we go~<3<3<3

practicality? pretty self explanatory... way back when... dc gave us detail on the urinals of the justice league and pretty much confirmed man of steel, woman of kleenex (my favorite<3). i could not make this shit up-- (thanks btw dd for sending me this shit now i HAVE to share it)

so. given that we know superman's piss stream is strong enough to *dent* reinforced titanium steel when *weakened*--.

do i really have to say much about his sphincter? it makes diamonds, it makes fucking diamonds, do not stick anything up there unless you wanna lose it forever.

from a practical sense, i never like making it *easy* for clark~<3 to bone someone lmao, it's just too fun<3<3<3 (blue k is always an option of course) but also... he can vibrate it (along with his fingers and tongue), he has infinite stamina. and he has no refractory period... ;)))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))

homelander is much the same, maybe with an added *lack* of control and def a bit moar scary leik, might deliberately murder you scary but STILL--

you could not fucking *PAY* me to miss a goddamn chance for superweiner--

not sure i wanna think about what martian manhunter has... but i'd still let him do whatever to me, honestly<3 he'd be the BEST gentle dom i *swear*. like he'd literally check in and politely ask on you instead of reading your mind and check for any discomfort and be SO SWEET and tender and caring, making sure you're okay the whole time and just genuinely give you an experience you're never gonna forget leik<3<3<3 J'ONN~<3! HHHHHHNNNNNNNNNNNNGGGHHHHHHHHHHHH~<3<3<3

oops... ignore that--

and as for nose size~<3?

well~<3 OBVIOUSLY i want my bottoms to be getting the best they can<3 i SPOIL the shit out of them! of course we NEED the guy with the bigger dong nose to top, they should be havin' a grand ol' time~!

but back to that artist thing and genuinely, genuinely amazing. it's almost like a guarantee and i don't even know if people are aware of doing it, but it is always so hilarious and adorable to me. *especially* with billy butcher, the star of the anal gape show<3<3<3

"they just can't get my nose right!"

and of course no shade/disrespect to the actor (his nose is so goddamn cute<3<3<3 and i love it<3) or any other actors, or artists, but even *becca* (her nose is also cute and i love it~<3) had a bigger nose than him. seriously. homie's nose is fiiiiine~<3 but also actually bigger and longer. and it's just... ALMOST *guaranteed*. anyone who sees billy as a 'top' while drawing him *automatically* gives him the bigger/longer nose... and it just blows my mind how amazingly consistent that seems to be LOL (apparently like the study done on noses and weiners!)

what does that say about us, i wonder...?? (no seriously, i really wonder<3) adamant denial~<3 maybe? ;))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))

billy boo does have the biggest eyes tho~<3<3<3

and apparently, did look it up... but it works inversely with bmi?? which... 100000% explains willem dafoe<3<3<3

it ALSO pretty much... confirms show homelander as their very own willem dafoe/norman osborn... and i never thought i'd have it THIS down bad for osborn but i can't with the things that does to me-- I'VE BEEN CONVERTED!! like the boi *already* is confimed *HUGE* canonically. *by BILLY* in the comic!

but by the gods--

down to the lovely eyes, scary smile, and psychosis. so it is that history repeats... hello mad daddy~<3

god i need to watch dafoe's spooderman again<3

I guess billy boo is now confirmed to be actually *compensating* for SOOOOOO much--

welp. i guess this explains why billy called himself an 'alpha male' unironically which i will never let him live down~<3 he already has the biggest gape i have EVER seen on a character. EVER. like. this boi. has enough gape to fit a goddamn planet up his ass. let's be generous and say that show boi billy is just at moon level. but it is still just. HUGE. which i guess makes homie just the perfect match for him given the willem dafoe vibes--

and honestly... it's beautiful<3

and the best part about billy is just how *self aware* he is of this. he postures to high hell and plays the part his dad would want him to, but he knows it's a goddamn problem, *addiction*, *hates* it, and spends his life looking for *solutions* and *self punishment*...

that's homie baby~<3

billy considered becca his *cure* (if the clear cut submissive role he took with her wasn't enough<3<3<3 SO CUTE<3<3<3) but *homelander* is the *replacement*. his *last resort*. cut my life into pieces--NOOOOO--

goddammit billy boo, i *really* do feel for you, i do... but lemme translate what billy butcher is *actually* saying in both the show and comic in going after homelander. cause lemme tell ya it ain't just revenge...

*destroy me, eviscerate me. because i am afraid of what i will do if you can't stop me. and because you took away the one who could save me, you owe me this and i will take it if need be.*

because there's *one* thing that billy fears, and he's had the ability to say it, even feel it... beaten out of him. but he almost always fully goes into battle *not* intending to come out of it. he *wants* to die and he hates himself a whole lot... and he knows. it's the thing his father gave him, the sickness he passed on that billy never wanted but can't control. but this would also be why he gives no fucks about 'collateral'.

even if by force or violence, billy wants to fail, he wants to be held down, he *wants* to lose, he wants to get knocked back down until he can't get back up anymore. he sure as hell isn't gonna make it easy for anyone, that's not in his nature, but he knows what happens if he can keep going.

billy knows he's a monster, but he is preconditioned to never control it. he sees the kindred monster in homelander, preconditioned to be *under control* but slipping through and vying to get loose... but homelander, despite everything *still* has control... billy wants to see it break, he *needs* it.

ugh~<3<3<3 yes, i know i am redundant with this shit<3 but it's just SO poetic<3<3<3 i CANNOT--

even season 3 evidenced their dynamic and dug in perfectly. scorched urf? the candle's fuckin' lit. herogasm? 3 on 1. ONLY A BRUISE--. billy, bloody smile~ comes back for more? billy gets his ass kicked by the dad on his own and only *maeve* gets anything done to homelander... who doesn't want to kill her, so he holds back even if she won't.

"i respect what you are even if you don't--."

got. damn...

but homie? he's the last lifeline, and he's tied to *both* sides of billy. and a people pleaser<3<3<3! who's also too dumb to get what's going on with billy, not that he'd care if he did... who's at the same time caught and curious by billy's obsession and the mirror between them<3

homie wants and knows how to please people... not just because he's been trained for it or a clear cut service top with dark~<3 elements<3<3<3 or because he wants the feeling he gets from their approval/admiration. very typical of a narcissist lmao, but also because of the added vulnerability that he is easily manipulated/exploited by the women in his life, not realizing he's a victim or being groomed/manipulated.

even the uh... *moment* he had with stillwell, she exploits his trauma and desire for a mother so directly that he just totally loses it and profusely appologizes. he's aware of how to *please* someone if ya get me~<3 ;))))))) (by the apology given at all) but he's *not* aware that she is abusing/exploiting his trauma in this way *because he lacks empathy for himself/has never genuinely had it given without some sort of exploitive exchange*, sort of opposite of billy in this sense too. poor dumb baby~<3!

what's really extra hilarious and ironic is that stormfront is pretty much what a lady billy would be but nowhere near as good as manipulating as him

but all homelander has ever known is the *examples* set before him by vought. and it's... quite obviously not a good one... :(((((((((((((((((( but he's *not* aware. billy is much the same, but he *is* aware. hence the deep buried cravings to be *free* vs. fucking approval ratings in homie, and *controlled* vs. lack of self control in billy... goddammit the fucking POETRY<3<3<3

so? it's just more of the same old same old. and homie loves, LOVES not having to hold back once he gets a taste for it... with *stormfront* no less... but *also* from billy in a different sense and now... beyond. still ADORE how he went flaccid on the nazi rhetoric lmao even this boi has his limits<3--

"let's light this candle--"

it's already fucking lit--

... you know full well how excited i get, lmao<3 and ya DID ask<3<3<3 XD

everyone else (to homelander): don't be what they made you... please for the love of fucking gawd, PLEASE--

billy: be what they fucking made you motherfucker, i wanna fuck FIGHT and see everything destroyed. i'll wait.

stormfront: be what we fucking made you, i wanna fuck and see everything not us destroyed. i won't wait.

but the short answer? i go by % of willem dafoe energy, the *CORRECT* answer is WILLEM DAFOE<3<3<3 (not to be confused with norman osborn... unless willem dafoe<3) DUH~!

WOOO-- goddamn... and i ain't even done yet. i spend WAY too much time obsessing over these fuckers, i SWEAR.

and ALSO the ladies~<3 are tops. all of them. ALL OF THEM. NO EXCEPTIONS-- lmao, KIDDING... maybe<3 (i might do another one going over mah lady~<3 ships<3<3<3 cause this got long... and i did get carried away with butchy and homie... of course i did. but you know how i love them<3<3<3)

#top and bottom #discourse #meta #billy butcher #homelander #butchlander #scogan #clex #stucky #superbat #stony #cherik #shipping #switching #character analysis #nose size #diamonds #willem dafoe #norman osborn #bratty bossy bottom billy butcher #the 5 essential b's #homelander's canonically huge dong #the correct answer<3 #lmao #psa

[smokingtiger]

there is the ever recurring argument that “if jikook was truly real, it wouldn’t be so obvious/encouraged” and no, i do not agree with that.

they could be as obvious as they can be and they will still be explained away by majority of people. and as a queer person living in a third world homophobic country, there is a sort of safety in that.

so you can act, dress, say whatever you want; but as long as you don’t openly acknowledge it, you are safe.

This ^^

I think about this a lot and I do sort of roll my eyes when people try to bring that point up. Of course, every couple is different so how they choose to present themself in the public eye does vary. So, if Jikook is dating (like I said in previous posts, I really won't put my foot down and say for a fact that they are), they can choose how they want to go about presenting themselves in accordance with how safe they feel.

To tag onto your comment "they could be as obvious as they can be and they will still be explained away by the majority of people." we see a lot of media that is inherently queer or references that are based on queer art and expression... but homophobes or the general population will still find a way to make an excuse to why it can't possibly be queer. It's like clockwork, a never-ending struggle, really.

For example, the visual imagery in Like Crazy, the costuming, the makeup, the dance, the promotional material... there were deliberate choices to utilize the works and faces of queer artists, yet people still attempted to downplay Jimin's connection to the project and how he chose to express himself in his personal album. This isn't me pushing an agenda or assuming Jimin's sexuality, but there is no denying that he inserts himself into his work and takes heavy inspiration from other creatives in the LGBTQIA+ community. Like come on, he literally had Robert Mapplethorpe on his pants and utilized elements of his work in his photofolio.

I think, especially in terms of GCF in Tokyo, I had a discussion with another anon about whether or not GCF was a risk taken by the company due to its intimate nature... and this is something that I had said:

"If they weren't planning on uploading something that would be perceived as romantic, they failed, because people interpreted it that regardless of its nature. That's just how media can be consumed and that's a gamble that many creatives have to make."

Media is interpreted in many different ways, so I think seeing different people's perspectives is quite interesting. Queer folks also don't owe anyone a coming out!

#ask #jikook #kookmin

[nativehueofresolution]

tagged by @wizardysseus to share five books i've read since september and loved

credible: why we doubt accusers and protect abusers by deborah tuerkheimer - i came across this book after the author appeared on a podcast i listen to, and referred to her work on this book. i've enjoyed the work of many of the authors who appeared on there, so i decided to check it out. it didn't disappoint. tuerkheimer is a former prosecutor and she's very thorough in breaking down how the us legal system is designed in a way to devalue survivors. you can know this generally, just by common sense, but knowing the specifics of how the system operates is, i think, still really important if you want to seriously focus on how to repair the damage it does. she spends a lot of time, for instance, talking about how claims sexual harassment in the work place often get disregarded because the protections against sexual harassment rely on very narrow legal definitions of 'employer' and 'employee' or require companies to be of a certain size, etc. the parts i found so illuminating were the many stories of accusers who were believed but who were still disregarded because the system decided it didn't matter. at least in my personal experiences, there is so much focus in discussions about sexual misconduct on believing survivors, that we don't discuss how being believed often does not change the outcome of these cases, and many times that can be just as painful or even moreso than not being believed. she provides a helpful framework for discussions about credibility that i will definitely be drawing on moving forward.

interview with the vampire by anne rice - up until a few months ago, i mostly knew of anne rice from losing the war on fanfiction and from discussions about the many ways the lestat became the blueprint for fanon draco. i watched the recent tv series and enjoyed it a lot (shocking news to my followers, i know) but found some of the stuff that came up kind of triggering so i intentionally sought out spoilers to see if there was anything that would make it too hard for me to watch the next season. i ended up learning about a lot of wild plot lines that intrigued me, and so i became interested enough to check out the books. i did not start the series in order (i wanted to get to the straight to storylines i was interested in), but eventually i was like 'ok, i have to actually like start at the the beginning now'. i was honestly surprised by how much i liked it, because in the other books, rice's prose would alternate between being quite powerful and quite cringey for me, but by and large it really worked for me here. what really struck me about this book though is that the second half made me totally rethink the first half. in the first half, the relationship between lestat and louis is all subtextual and louis doesn't dwell upon it. i assumed that perhaps that was just all she was able to get away with at the time, and that she became more explicit with the queer themes in later books, so i was really surprised when i got to the paris section of the book and louis spends every other page making grand, passionate declarations of love to armand. it made me realize the censored version of his relationship with lestat was a personal choice by louis as an unreliable narrator, and that made me totally rethink what happened in the first half. i found it really fascinating that the more he is discussing falling for armand, the less he's able to continue downplaying his feelings for lestat because he can't help but compare the two. it's compelling stuff, and it made me appreciate many of the choices the tv series made as well because i think they adapted this element well while still making it more explicitly queer in a way that i think is more satisfying for a modern story. to be clear, there is a lot of racism and anti-blackness specifically built into the book, and i read as a result of loving the amc show that challenges and confronts much of what rice was doing, so i would not unequivocally recommend it. but it was a very interesting reading experience.

jesus and john wayne: how white evangelicals corrupted a faith and fractured a nation by kristin kobes du mez - this book felt like uncovering my secret origin story. having grown up in a white evangelical community, the men described in this book literally shaped my life and yet before reading this i knew very little about them as people. having this historical context, particularly for how masculinity is thought of in fundamentalist circles, really helped me better understand why certain things were taught to me the way they are. i think it's a book many would benefit from reading because of the influence white evangelicals have in the us, but for me in particular it was just very satisfying to finally feel like i better understood why certain myths were pushed on me so much growing up.

becoming abolitionists: police, protests, and the pursuit of freedom by derecka purnell - great book for those who, like me, believed in general that police abolition sounded like a good idea but hadn't done much research into the specifics of abolition framework and what it means to transition from questions like 'what do we do about murderers' to 'how do we prevent murder' and breaking down myths we still buy into that convince us the police are capable of preventing things like murder. it has a lot of resources for further research as well, so it has been a very good starting point for me.

when breath becomes air by paul kalanithi - terminal illness memoirs are practically their own subgenre, it must be said. as someone obsessed with death, i have certainly checked out a fair few, but i also don't really like the idea that we expect someone closer to dying to have better insight or perspective on death and life. the search for the meaning of life is a universal human experience, and i think expecting those dying of terminal illnesses to be able to solve these questions or even have meaningful things to say about it is unfair. what resonated with me about this book is that it is a gifted neurosurgeon discussing what it is like to receive a terminal diagnosis. i often struggle with reconciling the fact that i can understand the science or logical reality behind what is happening to me as a result of my illness, but not feeling it as my emotional reality. the sort of double reality kalanithi experiences - of being a patient receiving a terrible diagnosis and of being a doctor critiquing the way he's being delivered a terminal diagnosis after having done it many times himself - is fascinating. his ability to interpret his own test results and suggest drugs for his treatment is both a blessing and a curse for him as a patient, and while the circumstances are wildly different from what i've been through, i related to his struggle to turn off his analytical side and let go and receive help. the discussions he has about choosing to have a baby with his wife with the awareness that she will likely be a single mom for most of the child's life were quite moving, and i think the decision to bring life into the world with the explicit understanding that like the child you are creating is going to have a difficult life and experience loss is something more people should be honest and upfront about. probably the best of its kind i have read, though inevitably somewhat abruptly ended by the fact kalanithi died while still writing it.

#kaitlin speaks

[damnesdelamer]

Recommended reading for leftists

Introduction and disclaimer:

I believe, in leftist praxis (especially online), the sharing of resources, including information, must be foremost. I have often been asked for reading recommendations by comrades; and while I am by no means an expert in leftist theory, I am a lifelong Marxist, and painfully overeducated. This list is far from comprehensive, and each author is worth exploring beyond the individual texts I suggest here. Further, none of these need to be read in full to derive benefit; read what selections from each interest you, and the more you read the better. Many of these texts cannot truly be called leftist either, but I believe all can equip us to confront capitalist hegemony and our place within it. And if one comrade derives the smallest value or insight herefrom, we will all be better for it. After all... La raison tonne en son cratère. Alone we are naught, together may we be all. Solidarity forever.

***

(I have split these into categories for ease of navigation, but there is plenty of overlap. Links included where available.)

Classics of socialist theory

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Capital (vol.1) by Karl Marx Marx’s critique of political economy forms the single most significant and vital source for understanding capitalism, both in our present and throughout history. Do not let its breadth daunt you; in general I feel it’s better to read a little theory than none, but nowhere is this truer than with regards to Capital. Better to read 20 pages of Capital than 150 pages of most other leftist literature. This is not a book you need to ‘finish’ in order to benefit from, but rather (like all of Marx’s work) the backbone of theory which you will return to throughout your life. Read a chapter, leave it, read on, read again. https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/download/pdf/Capital-Volume-I.pdf

The Prison Notebooks by Antonio Gramsci In our current epoch of global neoliberal capitalism, Gramsci’s explanation of hegemony is more valuable than much of the economic or outright revolutionary analyses of many otherwise vital theory. Particularly following the coup attempt and election in America, as well as Brexit and abusive government responses to Covid, but the state violence around the world and the advent of fascism reasserts Gramsci as being as pertinent and prophetic now as amidst the first rise of fascism. https://abahlali.org/files/gramsci.pdf

Imperialism: The Highest Stage Of Capitalism by V.I. Lenin Like Marx, for many Lenin’s work is the backbone of socialist theory, particularly in pragmatic terms. In much of his writing Lenin focuses on the practical processes of revolutionary transition from capitalism to communism via socialism and proletarian leadership (sometimes divisively among leftists). Imperialism is perhaps most valuable today for addressing the need for internationalist proletarian support and solidarity in the face of global capitalist hegemony, arguably stronger today than in Lenin’s lifetime. https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1916/imp-hsc/imperialism.pdf

Socialism: Utopian And Scientific by Friedrich Engels Marx’s partner offers a substantial insight into the material reality of socialism in the post-industrial age, offering further practical guidance and theory to Marx and Engels’ already robust body of work. This highlights the empirical rigour of classical Marxist theory, intended as a popular text accessible to proletarian readers, in order to condense and to some extent explain the density of Capital. Perhaps even more valuable now than at the time it was first published. https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1880/soc-utop/index.htm

In Defense Of Marxism by Leon Trotsky It has been over a decade since I have read any Trotsky, but this seems like a very good source to get to grips with both classical Marxist thought and to confront contemporary detractors. In many ways, Trotsky can be seen as an uncorrupt symbol of the Leninist dream, and in others his exile might illustrate the dangers of Leninism (Stalinism) when corrupt, so who better to defend the virtues of the system many see as his demise? https://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/idom/dm/dom.pdf

The Conquest Of Bread by Pyotr Kropotkin Krapotkin forms the classical backbone of anarchist theory, and emerges from similar material conditions as Marxism. In many ways, ‘the Bread book’ forms a dual attack (on capitalism and authoritarianism of the state) and defence (of the basic rights and needs of every human), the text can be seen as foundational to defining anarchism both in overlap and starkly in contrast with Marxist communism. This is a seminal and eminent text on self-determination, and like Marx, will benefit the reader regardless of orthodox alignment. https://libcom.org/files/Peter%20Kropotkin%20-%20The%20Conquest%20of%20Bread_0.pdf

Leftism of the 20th Century and beyond

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Freedom Is A Constant Struggle: Ferguson, Palestine, And The Foundations Of A Movement by Angela Davis This is something of a placeholder for Davis, as everything she has ever put to paper is profoundly valuable to international(ist) struggles against capitalism and it’s highest stage. Indeed, the emphasis on the relationship between American and Israeli racialised state violence highlights the struggles Davis has continually engaged since the late 1960s, that of a united front against imperialist oppression, white supremacists, patriarchal capitalist exploitation, and the carceral state. https://www.docdroid.net/rfDRFWv/freedom-is-a-constant-struggle-pdf#page=6

Postmodernism, Or, The Cultural Logic Of Late Capitalism by Frederic Jameson A frequent criticism of Marxism is the false claim that it is decreasingly relevant. Here, Jameson presents a compelling update of Marxist theory which addresses the hegemonic nature of mass media in the postmodern epoch (how befitting a tumblr post listing leftist literature). Despite being published in the early ‘90s, this analysis of late capitalism becomes all the more pertinent in the age of social media and ‘influencers’ etc., and illustrates just how immortal a science ours really is. https://is.muni.cz/el/1423/jaro2016/SOC757/um/61816962/Jameson_The_cultural_logic.pdf

The Ecology Of Freedom: The Emergence And Dissolution Of Hierarchy by Murray Bookchin I have not read this in depth, and take issue with some of Bookchin’s ideas, but this seems like a very good jumping off point to engage with ecosocialism or red-green theory. Regardless of any schism between Marxist and anarchist thought, the importance of uniting together to stem the unsustainable growth of industrialised capitalism cannot be denied. Climate change is unquestionably a threat faced by us all, but which will disproportionately impact the most disenfranchised on the planet. https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/murray-bookchin-the-ecology-of-freedom.pdf

Why Marx Was Right by Terry Eagleton I’ve only read excerpts of this; I know Eagleton better for his extensive work on Marxist literary criticism, postmodernity, and postcolonial literature, so I’m including this work of his as a means of introducing and engaging directly with Marxism itself, rather than the synthesis of diverse fields of analysis. But Eagleton generally does a very good job of parsing often incredibly dense concepts in an accessible way, so I trust him to explain something so obvious and self-evident as why Marx was right. https://filosoficabiblioteca.files.wordpress.com/2018/12/EAGLETON-Terry-Why-Marx-Was-Right.pdf

By Any Means Necessary by Malcolm X Malcolm X is one of the pre-eminent voices of the revolutionary black power movement, and among the greatest contributors to black/American leftist thought. This is a collection of his speeches and writings, in which he eloquently and charismaticly conveys both his righteous outrage and optimism for the future. Malcolm X’s explicitly Marxist and decolonial rhetoric is often downplayed since his assassination, but even the title and slogan is borrowed from Frantz Fanon.

Feminism and gender theory

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Sister Outsider: Essays And Speeches by Audre Lorde The primary thrust of this collection is the inclusion of ‘The Master’s Tools Will Never Dismantle The Master’s House’, probably Lorde‘s most well known work, but all the contents are eminently worthwhile. Lorde addresses race, capitalist oppression, solidarity, sexuality and gender, in a rigourously rhetorical yet practical way that calls us to empower one another in the face of oppression. Lorde’s poetry is also great. http://images.xhbtr.com/v2/pdfs/1082/Sister_Outsider_Essays_and_Speeches_by_Audre_Lorde.pdf

Feminism Is For Everybody by bell hooks A seminal addition to Third Wave Feminist theory, emphasising the reality that the aim of feminism is to confront and dismantle patriarchal systems which oppress - you guessed it - everybody. This book approaches feminism through the lens of race and capitalism, feeding into the discourse on intersectionality which many of us now take as a central element of 21st Century feminism. https://excoradfeminisms.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/bell_hooks-feminism_is_for_everybody.pdf

Gender Trouble: Feminism And The Subversion Of Identity by Judith Butler Butler and her work form probably the single most significant (especially white) contribution to Third Wave Feminism, as well as queer theory. This may be a somewhat dense, academic work, but the primary hurdle is in deconstructing our existing perceptions of gender and identity, which we are certainly better equipped to do today specifically thanks to Butler. Vitally important stuff for dismantling hegemonic patriarchy. https://selforganizedseminar.files.wordpress.com/2011/07/butler-gender_trouble.pdf

Trans Liberation: Beyond Pink Or Blue by Leslie Feinberg Feinberg is perhaps the foundational voice in trans theory, best known for Stone Butch Blues, but this text seems like a good point to view hir push into mainstream acceptance where ze previously aligned hirself and trans groups more with gay and lesbian subcultures. A central element here is the accessibility and deconstruction of hegemonic gender and expression, but what this really expresses is a call for solidarity and support among marginalised classes, in a fight for our mutual visibility and survival, in the greatest of Marxist feminist traditions.

The Haraway Reader by Donna Haraway Haraway is perhaps better known as a post-humanist than a Marxist feminist, but in all honesty, I am not sure these can be disentangled so easily. My highest recommendation is the essay ‘A Cyborg Manifesto: Science, Technology, and Socialist-Feminism in the Late Twentieth Century‘, but it is in many ways concerned more with aesthetics and media criticism than anything practical, and Haraway’s engagement with technology has only become more significant, with the proliferation of smartphones and wifi, to understanding our bodies and ourselves as instruments of resistance. https://monoskop.org/images/5/56/Haraway_Donna_The_Haraway_Reader_2003.pdf

Postcolonialism

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The Wretched Of The Earth by Frantz Fanon Perhaps my highest recommendation, this will give you better insight into late stage (postcolonial) capitalism than perhaps anything else. Fanon was a psychologist, and his analyses help us parse the internal workings of both the capitalist and racialised minds. I don’t see this work recommended nearly enough, largely because Fanon’s Black Skin, White Masks is a better source for race theory, but The Wretched Of The Earth is the best choice for understanding revolutionary, anti-capitalist, and decolonial ideas. http://abahlali.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/Frantz-Fanon-The-Wretched-of-the-Earth-1965.pdf

Orientalism by Edward Said This is probably the best introduction to postcolonial theory, particularly because it focuses on colonial/imperialist abuses in media and art. Said’s later work Culture And Imperialism may actually be a better source for strictly leftist analysis, but this is the groundwork for understanding the field, and will help readers confront and interpret everything from Western military interventionism to racist motifs in Disney films. https://www.eaford.org/site/assets/files/1631/said_edward1977_orientalism.pdf

Decolonisation Is Not A Metaphor by Eve Tuck and K. Wayne Yang In direct response to Fanon’s call to decolonise (the mind), Tuck and Yang present a compelling assertion that the abstraction of decolonisation paves the way for settler claims of innocence rather than practical rapatriation of land and rights. The relatively short article centres and problematises ongoing complicity in the agenda of settler-colonial hegemony and the material conditions of indigenous groups in the postcolonial epoch. Important stuff for anti-imperialist work and solidarity. https://clas.osu.edu/sites/clas.osu.edu/files/Tuck%20and%20Yang%202012%20Decolonization%20is%20not%20a%20metaphor.pdf

The Coloniser And The Colonised by Albert Memmi Often read in tandem with Fanon, as both are concerned with trauma, violence, and dehumanisation. But further, Memmi addresses both the harm inflicted on the colonised body and the colonisers’ own culture and mind, while also exploring the impetus of practical resistance and dismantling imperialist control structures. This is also of great import to confronting detractors, offering the concrete precedent of Algerian decolonisation. https://cominsitu.files.wordpress.com/2020/05/albert-memmi-the-colonizer-and-the-colonized-1.pdf

Can The Subaltern Speak? by Gayatri Spivak This relatively short (though dense) essay will ideally help us to confront the real struggles of many of the most disenfranchised people on earth, removing us from questions of bourgeois wage-slavery and focusing on the right to education and freedom from sexual assault, not to mention the legacy of colonial genocide. http://abahlali.org/files/Can_the_subaltern_speak.pdf 

Wider cultural studies

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No Logo by Naomi Klein I have some qualms with Klein, but she nevertheless makes important points regarding the systemic nature of neoliberal global capitalism and hegemony. No Logo addresses consumerism at a macro scale, emphasising the importance of what may be seen as internationalist solidarity and support and calling out corporate scapegoating on consumer markets. I understand that This Changes Everything is perhaps even better for addressing the unreasonable expectations of indefinite and unsustainable growth under capitalist systems, but I haven’t read it and therefore cannot recommend; regardless, this is a good starting point. https://archive.org/stream/fp_Naomi_Klein-No_Logo/Naomi_Klein-No_Logo_djvu.txt

The Black Atlantic: Modernity And Double Consciousness by Paul Gilroy This is an important source for understanding the development of diasporic (particularly black) identities in the wake of the Middle Passage between African and America, but more generally as well. This work can be related to parallel phenomena of racialised violence, genocide, and forced migration more widely, but it is especially useful for engaging with the legacy of slavery, the cultural development of blackness, and forms of everyday resistance. https://dl1.cuni.cz/pluginfile.php/756417/mod_resource/content/1/Gilroy%20Black%20Atlantic.pdf

Imagined Communities: Reflections On The Origin And Spread Of Nationalism by Benedict Anderson This text is important in understanding the nature of both high colonialism and fascism, perhaps now more than ever. Anderson examines the political manipulation and agenda of cultural production, that is the propagandised, artificial act of nation building. This analyses the development of nation states as the norm of political unity in historiographical terms, as symptomatic of old school European imperialism. Today we may see this reflected in Brexit or MAGA, but lebensraum and zionism are just as evident in the analysis. https://is.muni.cz/el/1423/jaro2016/SOC757/um/6181696/Benedict_Anderson_Imagined_Communities.pdf

Discipline And Punish: The Birth Of The Prison by Michel Foucault Honestly, I am not sure if this should be on this list; I would certainly not call it leftist. That said, it is a very important source to inform our perceptions of the nature of institutional power and abuse. It is also unquestionable that many of the pre-eminent left-leaning scholars of the past fifty years have been heavily influenced, willing or not, by Foucault and his post-structuralist ilk. A worthwhile read, especially for queer readers, but take with a liberal (zing!) helping of salt. https://monoskop.org/images/4/43/Foucault_Michel_Discipline_and_Punish_The_Birth_of_the_Prison_1977_1995.pdf

Trouble In Paradise: From The End Of History To The End Of Capitalism by Slavoj Žižek Probably just don’t read this, it amounts to self-torture. Okay but seriously, I wanted to include Žižek (perhaps against my better judgement), but he is probably best seen as a lesson in recognising theorists as fallible, requiring our criticism rather than being followed blindly. I like Žižek, but take him as a kind of clown provocateur who may lead us to explore interesting ideas. He makes good points, but he also... Doesn’t... Watch a couple youtube videos and decide if you can stomach him before diving in.

Additional highly recommended authors (with whom I am not familiar enough to give meaningful descriptions or specific recommended texts) (let me know if you find anything of significant value from among these, as I am likely unaware!):

Theodor Adorno (of the Frankfurt School, which also included Herbert Marcuse, Erich Fromm, and Walter Benjamin, all of whom I’d likewise recommend but with whom I have only passing familiarity) was a sociologist and musicologist whose aesthetic analyses are incredibly rich and insightful, and heavily influential on 20th Century Marxist theory.

Sara Ahmed is a significant voice in Third Wave Feminist criticism, engaging with queer theory, postcoloniality, intersectionality, and identity politics, of particular interest to international praxis.

Mikhail Bakhtin was a critic and scholar whose theories on semiotics, language, and literature heavily guided the development of structuralist thought as well as later Marxist philosophy.

Mikhail Bakunin is perhaps the closest thing to anarchist orthodoxy. Consistently involved with revolutionary action, he is known as a staunch critic of Marxist rhetoric, and a seminal influence on anti-authoritarian movements.

Silvia Federici is a Marxist feminist who has contributed significant work regarding women’s unpaid labour and the capitalist subversion of the commons in historiographical contexts.

Mark Fisher was a leftist critic whose writing on music, film, and pop culture was intimately engaged with postmodernity, structuralist thought, and most importantly Marxist aesthetics.

Che Guevara was a major contributor to revolutionary efforts internationally, most notably and successfully in Cuba. His writing is robustly pragmatic as well as eloquent, and offers practical insight to leftist action.

Hồ Chí Minh was a revolutionary communist leader of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, and a significant contributor to revolutionary communist theory and anti-imperialist practice.

C.L.R. James is a significant voice in 20th Century (especially black) Marxist theory, engaging with and criticising Trotskyist principles and the role of ethnic minorities in revolutionary and democratic political movements.

Joel Kovel was a researcher known as the founder of ecosocialism. His work spans a wide array of subjects, but generally tends to return to deconstructing capitalism in its highest stage.

György Lukács was a critic who contributed heavily to the Western Marxism of the Frankfurt School and engaged with aesthetics and traditions of Marx’s philosophical ideology in contrast with Soviet policy of the time.

Rosa Luxemburg was a revolutionary socialist organiser, publisher, and economist, directly engaged in practical leftist activity internationally for a significant part of the early 20th Century.

Mao Zedong was a revolutionary communist, founder and Chairman of the People’s Republic of China, and a prolific contributor to Marxism-Leninism(-Maoism), which he adapted to the material conditions outside the Western imperial core.

Huey P. Newton was the co-founder of the Black Panther Party and a vital force in the spread and accessibility of communist thought and practical internationalism, not to mention black revolutionary tactics.

Léopold Sédar Senghor was a poet-turned-politician who served as Senegal’s first president and established the basis for African socialism. Also central to postcolonial theory, and a leader of the Négritude movement.

***

I hope this list may be useful. (I would also be interested to see the recommendations of others!) Happy reading, comrades. We have nothing to lose but our chains.

#original #leftism #leftist #Marxist #Marxism #socialist #socialism #literature #reading list #critical theory

[siliquasquama]

This Cerulean Sea is an optimistic place

Which I don’t necessarily mind, but -- I worry that it’s too close to naïve.

There are a fair few stories that treat societal prejudice in an unrealistic fashion by downplaying the government element. RWBY, Zootopia, and X-Men come to mind. These are stories where such prejudice arises from the common people and becomes strong without being fostered by the government. Zootopia is the strongest example of this, because its police force has less discrimination than its general populace, which is the reverse of the usual case.

The House in the Cerulean Sea offers a more realistic treatment of prejudice by making it clear that the oppression of magical beings is strongly promoted by the government. The Department In Charge of Magical Youth seems to have a vested interest in keeping magical children marginalized, and there are all the “See something say something” posters everywhere constantly prodding mundanes into fearing magical people. 

It is hard to tell if prejudice arose from the common people or not, but it is easy to see how the government amplifies the attitude for its own purposes. The “See something say something” posters especially remind U.S. readers of the years in which their federal government promoted the fear of scary middle easterners in order to prop up public support for its military operations in the Middle East.

And yet -- what The House In The Cerulean Sea misses is the actual source of hatred and violence. It asserts that these things arise from difference, and the lack of understanding, much like X-Men’s take on the subject. But that is not so. Such hatred tends to arise from the fear of loss, and the resulting violence is typically an attempt to forestall potential loss. 

For example, Anti-semitism is Europe’s oldest prejudice because the Catholic Church has been around for a very long time. Jewish people live outside a social order that the Church says is necessary for stability. Thus their existence historically unsettled people who thought that everything depended upon obedience to the Church.

For another example, American housing markets from the 1930s onward. Banks were convinced to dis-invest from vast swathes of American cities, thereby sending their economies into a tailspin for most of the 20th century, because they were told that having black people in a neighborhood meant unacceptable financial risk. Owners of houses were convinced of the same thing on the small scale, and whenever black people moved into a neighborhood, they either sold as fast as possible for fear of losing their own investment, or they formed angry mobs and drove the newcomers out. 

For a third example, Home Owner’s Associations. Their members police the outward appearance of neighborhood houses in order to shore up their housing prices as much as possible, to the level of measuring the height of someone’s grass with a ruler. They get very mean when someone violates The Rules because they see it as a threat to their ability to borrow against the value of their houses.

For a fourth example, American midwestern farmers after the civil war. They saw black people becoming citizens, and felt that the change in the nature of citizenship was a loss of the privileges they had enjoyed, so all across the plains they drove black people out of their towns.

For a fifth example, the homophobia of the late 20th century. Heterosexual people saw queer folks as a threat to an order that they thought was founded on heterosexual marriage. Thus their rhetoric usually included prophecies about societal collapse.

For a sixth example, the Millennial Anger I see on this website and twitter, which, if I am being frank, seems mostly like the domain of white people scared that they will never receive the stable and profitable life they were promised. (Such as me.) Folks who never had the expectation of owning land have a different perspective on the current economy.

For a seventh example, the eternal cry of “they’re taking our jobs” when any new immigrants arrive, legally or illegally.

For an eighth example, the entire kerfuffle with the lobster fishing industry in maritime Canada, when white folks thought the Mi’kmaqs were fishing too much for the lobster beds to be sustainable. The idea of having white folks catch fewer lobsters didn’t cross their minds because that would have meant economic loss on their part, so it was easier to blame Mi’kmaq fishers for being there at all.

And then there’s police officers, who see their jobs as shoring up local order. Any crimes that happen quietly behind closed doors, such as child sexual abuse, barely evoke a yawn from such people. But as soon as people start marching in protest of the current economic order, they’re out there swinging cubs.

All of this has economic uncertainty at its foundation. 

In the village of Marsayas, I do not see any such hatred arising out of economic fear -- only responses of disgust which are relatively easy to overcome. Solving the troubles with Marsayas is as easy as getting the mayor on side and talking down an angry mob. 

But when people think their own power is threatened, well -- you can’t allay those fears by appealing to basic decency.

And the one government element that makes no appearance in The House In The Cerulean Sea is how political parties leverage social prejudice in order to stay in power. Speaking as a citizen of the United States, I have grown up seeing one party in particular using every bit of racism possible in order to secure its electoral victories. I have seen them attack the funding and integrity of the federal government itself, in order to promote the idea of governmental disfunction to their voting base. 

I have also been informed by a friend in India that the BJP is promoting existing prejudices against Muslims in order to shore up its own political power. And then there’s China with the Uighrs, Hungary with the Roma, Chechnya with queer folks, Poland with queer folks...prejudice may exist among the common people, but it usually gets worse when the local government thinks it will be useful for political power. (We tend to call this Fascism.)

So if the book wanted to be very realistic about the government’s actions, the final chapter would show politicians rallying a party around the fear of magical beings. The book would have this party making a great fuss about the whistleblower and demanding his head. It would have Extremely Upper Management also demanding the whistleblower’s head in order to shift blame away from themselves.

Instead, we get a government without politics and political parties, without specific groups of politicians rallying around hatred, without any of the things that continue to make governments dysfunctional. The government here is bland, boring, implacable, and generally good-hearted, with DAICOMY being more of a bad apple than an outgrowth of deeper issues. The ability to change its function is as easy as firing its leaders.

The House In the Cerulean Sea gets closer to the truth than most fictional treatments of prejudice, but not close enough. Its conflict and resolution feel too easy to be real.

#The house in the cerulean sea #children's literature #prejudice

[queermediastudies]

Little Effort for LGBTQ Representation in a “Maximum Effort” Superhero Movie

In comic books, one of my favorite characters is and has always been Deadpool. He is “popularly known to be pansexual and isn't particularly choosy about the gender of his partner, much like he has no particular affinity to anything. While this wasn't reflected in the 2016 film starring Ryan Reynolds, both Reynolds and director Tim Miller have hinted that this might come up in the sequel” (Vijaykumar, 2016). After watching it, I feel that the movie succeeds on some marks for giving out adequate LGBTQ representation, but not for the character one might expect. The movie Deadpool 2centers around Wade Wilson’s “one or two moments” that make him an (anti)hero. After losing his love Vanessa from the first movie, Wade finds himself attempting to create the X-Force in order to protect Russell, a mutant teenager from Cable, an experienced and genetically enhanced time-traveling soldier on a quest for revenge. Most of the movie focuses on the drama that ensues after Deadpool’s vain attempt to die is foiled by his own mutant abilities, his grudging acceptance of life and a sense of responsibility for Russell only to then (spoiler alert!) die. Except he doesn’t. Yet, in all of the CGI fights and snarky comments and constant breaking of the fourth wall, the movie does actually manage to discuss some elements of LGBTQ identities and representation. There are two main topics surrounding LGBTQ issues that the movie Deadpool 2 focuses on: the alleged hypersexuality of bi/pansexual people and alternatively, the de-sexualization of queer couples already in a relationship. Deadpool’s‘R’ rating and the characters’ own desire to “Fuck Wolverine” by getting better ratings in the second film took away from the potential of better, full-fledged LGBTQ representation stemming from the titular character, however, the film manages to cover up some of its pitfalls by succeeding in portraying a healthy lesbian relationship between one of the already established characters in the franchise and threading subtleties that condemn conversion therapy and argue for acceptance of others.

           At the start of the film, Deadpool makes a valiant, but luckily, unsuccessful attempt at suicide with the first two words being “Fuck Wolverine.” This merges directly into his habit of breaking the fourth wall and speaking directly to the audience and promising that he’ll be dying in this film too. Deadpool, played by Ryan Reynolds then goes on to explain what led up to this moment which can be quickly summed up as the love of his life, Vanessa, was killed and he feels responsible for her death. The fact that Deadpool only begins to show more signs of a queer sexuality after Vanessa (his love from the entire first movie dies) indicates that being queer means exhausting every other opportunity of expressing yourself. Without the director and actor Ryan Reynolds discussing it in interviews, the average viewer would have been largely unaware of Deadpool’s canon queer identity in the comics. GLAAD actually gave the first movie some flack for its “veiled references” to Deadpool’s sexuality, however, the second film does not seem to take the subject much further (Romano, 2018). It is easy to view Deadpool’s flirtatious manner with Colossus as simply a moment of weakness and used as a joke, rather than an affirmation of his queer identity and sexuality.

           The other, more direct aspect of LGBTQ identity that is given in the movie is between Negasonic Teenage Warhead and her girlfriend, Yukio. The following scene occurs just prior to Deadpool’s confrontation with Colossus.

           “The power-couple proves groundbreaking, proving to be the first truly open, explicitly LGBT couple in superhero cinema” (Armstrong, n.d.). Despite this being the first out relationship in a Hollywood movie, the moment isn’t treated like a groundbreaking moment. In some ways, this could be seen as negative, because it isn’t treated like a big deal, but Armstrong argues that it could also be a way of trying to prevent alienating viewers by “mak[ing] any LGBT representation too visible [then] make certain audiences uncomfortable” (n.d.).

           In the article from Scott, Darieck & Fawaz, the authors explore queerness using the X-Men as an example (2018). The queerness in X-Men characters is even more pronounced for certain individuals, such as Iceman who are actually labeled as gay/bi/pansexual, alongside of Deadpool. There is a scene in the second X-Men movie in which Iceman “comes out” to his parents, except rather than dealing with sexuality, it is about his mutant status (Puchko, 2018).

           Exchange the word “gifted/mutant” for “gay” in the previous clip, and the movie would have passed for solid LGBTQ representation. This movie was filmed before “the character Iceman realizes that he has been in the closet after his younger self confronts his older self in Uncanny X-Men (in a messy time-travelling episode)” (Vijaykumar, 2016), but the franchise as a whole still works to entice LGBTQ viewers for the marginalization that mutants feel in society that mirrors the lack of acceptance for LGBTQ individuals. Going back to the film, although Deadpool 2fails at giving enough exposure and time to focus on Deadpool’s pansexuality, it still adopts many of the themes from previous X-Men movies that argue for acceptance alongside of Negasonic’s relationship with Yukio. The movie provides its own anxious teen serving as a symbol for queer youth and their fight against with bigoted condemnation through flame-throwing Russell Collins” (Puchko, 2018). Russell, or “Firefist” lashes out in violence because of the torture suffered at the hands of Essex House’s mutant-hating headmaster whose techniques are similar to real-life “pray away the gay” conversion therapy (2018). Given that Russell is seen purely as a victim, regardless of the violence he instigated and the reckless choices he made that led to Cable searching for revenge against him in the first place show how damaging the lack of acceptance is for people in marginalized communities. Russell was persecuted because of his mutant status, and despite the film not exploring the canon texts of queer visibility in the comics in any nuanced way, it still provides some representation what is still a hilarious movie.

           I only just recalled the Celine Dion music video that came out before the movie that Deadpool did a music video to and is the song for the very Bond-esque opening credits for this movie. Check it below, both the music video and the opening credits.

Music video: 

Opening credits to Deadpool 2: 

Given that I’ve read the Deadpoolcomics, I saw the moments where Wade is flirting with Colossus as an affirmation of his sexuality in the most “Deadpool way,” that is, ridden with crude humor and sexual overtones. However, it is understandable to me where audiences would downplay those moments because the movie does not return to them or make them “a big deal,” when it needs to be in order to provide a critical and engaged LGBTQ character. Additionally, Deadpool’s character is very much an anti-hero. Although we see him have a couple heroic moments in this movie, he is still a mercenary who has a murder tally in the hundreds for the movies and thousands in comic books, which doesn’t bode well for overall positive LGBTQ representation. Also, given that the network Fox was subsequently bought out by Disney just prior to this movie’s release makes me concerned for the future of Deadpool and the X-Force as a whole because of Disney’s now long-running trick of the presenting their “first” LGBTQ character appearing in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it scene in recent movies (Beauty and the Beast, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, Onward). Personally, I identify as pansexual, so seeing a superhero movie where it was at least alluded to more directly, alongside an explicit lesbian couple appearing on-screen simply gives me great joy although I definitely want to see Hollywood go further in how it portrays queer characters. My biggest issue with the movie was actually that the character Yukio has already been portrayed in X-Men films and is actually at one point, dating Wolverine. Therefore, her relationship with Negasonic does not make any sense if one follows the movies and comics very closely, however, it is a sin I was willing to forgive because other than Yukio’s rather small presence in other movies, she shines in Deadpool 2.

References:

Armstrong, B. (n.d.). Deadpool 2 is Groundbreaking, But Still Lukewarm LGBT Representation. Retrieved October 2020, from Metzia.com <https://metiza.com/culture/lifestyle/deadpool-2-is-groundbreaking-but-still-lukewarm-lgbt-representation/>

Puchko, K. (2018). ‘Deadpool 2’ is the gayest superhero movie yet. That’s not saying much. Retrieved October 2020, from Mashable. <https://mashable.com/2018/05/20/deadpool-2-queer-representation/>

Romano, N. (2018). What Deadpool 2 gets right and wrong about Hollywood’s first LGBTQ Marvel heroes. Retrieved October 2020, fro, Entertainment Weekly. <https://ew.com/movies/2018/05/18/deadpool-2-lgbtq-superheroes/>

Scott, Darieck & Fawaz, R. (2018). “Queer About Comics.” American Literature 90(2), 197-219.

Vijaykumar, N. (2016). Wonder Woman and other LGBT characters in comics universe. Retrieved October 2020, from The Week. <https://www.theweek.in/webworld/features/society/lgbt-comic-characters-wonder-woman-deadpool.html>

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#queer media studies #deadpool #deadpool 2 #comics and zines #lgbtq representation #lgbtq relationships #wade wilson #ryan reynolds #pansexuality #xforce #xmen #hollywood films

[carriagelamp]

November 2020: A Months of Familiarity

This November ended up being a month of me either rereading old favourites, exploring new books by favourite authors, or a mix of both.

…Be prepared for so much Terry Prachett, I found his audiobooks on Libby last month and since that I’ve been unstoppable.

The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents

The first of my Terry Practhett books to mention! I chose to include this one on my list because it’s a beautiful stand alone novel, perfect to read if you’ve never touched on of Pratchett’s works before, and is often overlooked.

The book is about Maurice, an “amazing” cat by his own admission, who has teamed up with a stupid boy and his very own plague of rats. The moneymaking scheme is simple: set the rats loose on a town and after causing a panic let the boy stroll in and offer to play his pipe and lead them away… for a fee. This is working well, until Maurice, the boy, and the rats arrive in the town Bad Blintz. Here the rats are beginning to question the morality of their work, the boy gets entangled with a young, mischievous local girl, and they’re all shocked to find out that the town already has a real rat infestation… or so the rat catchers claim. Things quickly turn sinister and deadly as the group is forced to confront not only the cruelty of humanity, but something even more sinister living in the small, dark, hidden place of the town.

This is a YA book, unlike some of Pratchett’s other novels, so it’s a quick, fun read, while still having all of his dry wit and heavy, complicated thoughts about society, morality, belief, and what it means to be a person. It’s a genuine delight to see Maurice and the rats, recently made sentient by wizards’ rubbish, struggle to come to terms with who they were and who they are now.

Black Pearl Ponies: Red Star & Wildflower

Y’all it ain’t a secret at this point that I enjoy a stupid horse girl book, right? I picked up the first two books of the Black Pearl Ponies books from the library on a whim and they were basically what they promised. Girl lives with family on ranch, father helps train horses, girl goes on pony adventures with ponies. A particular focus is given to horse welfare and care. Very mediocre but a nice thoughtless covid read if you, like me, get a craving for animals books written for seven year olds from time to time. Plus this comes with the added humour of it being written, as far as I can tell, by a British author who thinks all Americans are stetson wearing cowboys which I find unreasonably funny.

Crenshaw

I love Katherine Applegate’s work; I read the Endling series earlier this year and they are overwhelmingly good. Crenshaw was also an enjoyable read, though not my favourite by her. It read a little bit like a book I read last fall, No Fixed Address, which was also a very good read though not my usual genre. Crenshaw is about a boy, Jackson, whose family, though close-knit and loving, is experiencing financial difficulties and struggle with food scarcity, homelessness, and all the instability and stress that results from this. During this tumultuous time, Jackson is surprised by the reappearance of a tall, bipedal, snarky cat — Crenshaw, his old imaginary friend. This is a charming book that blends genuine, real world hardships with whimsy and magical realism.

The Enemy Above: A Novel of WWII

Since it was Rememberance Day this month, I decided to pick up a holocaust novel. This book is about 12-year-old Anton, a young Jewish boy who finds himself fleeing from his Polish farm in the middle of the night with his old grandma when a German raiding party that attacks their village in an effort to make the countryside “judenfrei”. The book is, perhaps, not the most well-fleshed out, but it’s fast-paced and exciting for a child/YA audience that’s being introduced to holocaust literature, without trying to downplay the absolutely horror and brutality of the Nazis. It manages to strike a satisfying balance between fear, tragedy, and hope.

“Everything he had heard was true. He was just a twelve-year-old boy and yet they hunted him. He had broken no laws, done nothing wrong. He was simply born Jewish. How could anyone want to kill him for it?”

Gregor the Overlander

Somehow I never knew that Suzanne Collins wrote anything other than The Hunger Games? I stumbled across this series at a used bookstore and was first taken by the cover and then shocked when I realized I recognized the author’s name. Well The Hunger Games was such a good read, how could I not pick up a book with people riding on a giant fucking bat?

Such a good choice. I’m almost done book two and bought book three today after work. It is exactly the sort of low fantasy that I live for, when a fantasy world lives so close to the real world that you can practically touch it. I also love the fact that while all the wild fantastical elements are happening, you still have the main character taking care of his toddler sister the whole time. It’s at times charming, hilarious, and nerve-wracking!

It’s about Gregor, a normal kid who’s doing his best to help his mom take care of his two younger siblings ever since his father disappeared years ago. Gregor expected months of boredom when he agrees to stay home over the summer instead of going to camp like his sister in order to watch his baby sister, Boots, and their grandma while his mom is at work. He never could have expected that a simple trip to the apartment’s laundry room would lead to both him and Boots tumbling miles beneath the earth into the pitch black Underland, a place filled with giant rats and bugs and people with translucent skin who fly through the massive caverns on huge bats. He also could have never expected that he would get wrapped up in a deadly prophecy that would force him to travel into distant, dark lands into the waiting claws of an overwhelming enemy.

Kings, Queens, and In-Between

A Canadian queer novel that I’ve seen trumpeted everywhere. Libraries, classrooms, bookstore, this book got so much hype (and has such a pleasing cover) that I had to get my hands on it. Now, I’ve got to admit that it’s not really my genre; I don’t love realistic fiction. But that being said, it’s a fun, heart-warming, queer romp through that explores gender, sexuality, love, family, friendship… there’s a lot of lovable, quirky, complicated characters that get thrown together in unexpected ways at a local summer carnival. While there’s tension and misunderstandings and mistakes, this is overall a very optimistic and loving novel, and would be a great read if you want a queer novel that reads like cotton candy.

Love, The Tiger

This book is the graphic novel equivalent of a nature documentary. There’s no text, but you follow a day in the life of a tiger as it moves through the jungle on the quest for food. The art is honestly beyond outstanding, and though it’s a really quick read it is so very worth it. I’ve also read Love, The Lion in this series (also good, though a bit more confusing imho) as well as one of the books from his other series Little Tails which is still very nature and education based, though for a slightly younger audience.

Making Money

More Pratchett! Making Money was the first Discworld book I ever read, and it’s one of my most reread ones — it’s an ultimate comfort read! This is technically the sequel to Going Postal (another book I reread this month), in which conman Moist Von Lipwig is saved from a rightful death at the noose in exchange for agreeing to work for the city. Going Postal sees Moist narrowly dodging death in many varied forms as he tries to get the Anhk-Morpork postal service back on its feet and get the drifts of dead, whispering letters moving again. In Making Money things at the post office have become… too easy. Moist is bored, restless, until he finds himself thrust into a new job: head of the Royal Mint. There he has been given not only charge of the biggest bank in Anhk-Morpork, but also a dog with a price on its head, a lethal family with all the money in the world out for his blood, and the fear that his secret past life may be on the verge of being exposed to everyone, all while he’s desperately trying to make money…

The Moist series is honestly an example of Pratchett at his absolute best imo, and the amount of humour, wit, adventure, and scathing commentary he can build around a bank is outstanding. Cannot recommend enough.

The One And Only Ivan

Another book I’ve been hearing everyone talk about, as well as another Katherine Applegate book. It’s been on my radar for a while, but with the sequel and a movie coming out, it had everything at a fever pitch and I finally picked it up. Fantastic read, I definitely enjoyed it more than Crenshaw. This book was based off the true story of Ivan, a gorilla taken from his home in the jungle and sold to the owner of a mall, where he spent years of his life growing from child to adult silverback in a small, concrete enclosure. In this fictionalized version, everything changes for Ivan and his friends, when a new baby elephant is bought to help revitalize the mall attractions and Ivan makes a promise he doesn’t know how to keep: to protect this baby, and keep her from living the life Ivan and his friends were forced to. This book made me very emotional. Applegate’s picture book that goes along with it is also a great companion read.

Ranma ½

I realized that our library had the 2-in-1 editions of Ranma ½ and honestly that was it for me. This has been a favourite series of mine since I was in middle school and realized that the creator of Inuyasha had written other things. It is unapologetically ridiculous and larger-than-life and you have to love the shameless joy it has at being ludicrous. It does start to feel a little repetitive the further into the series you go, but at the moment, with covid, I find I have a huge tolerance for rereading slightly repetitive things so long as they make me happy. And boy howdy does the vaguely queer undertones, endless pining, and relentless slapstick of Ranma ½  make me happy. This is classic manga y’all and if you’ve never read it you should!

The basic premise, for anyone that doesn’t is that of an bonkers martial arts comedy. It follows Ranma and his father who, while training in China, fell into cursed springs. Each spring has the tragic legend of a person or animal who drowned in it, and if someone falls in they inevitably turn into that creature any time they’re doused in cold water. Ranma had the misfortune of falling into “The Spring of Drowned Girl” and, indeed, turns into a girl anytime he’s hit with cold water. Things continue to spiral out of control when Ranma meets his arranged fiancée, Akane, who is as exasperated by this situation as Ranma. Both would rather be fighting people than worrying about things like romance. And don’t worry, there is lots and lots and lots and lots of some of the goofiest martial arts fights that you can imagine for a bunch of high schoolers.

Through the Woods

A beautiful and creepy Canadian graphic novel. I honestly really don’t even know how to describe it in a way that does it justice. It’s a collection of short horror stories, with beautiful, flowing art style that draws you in and sends chills down your spine. I’ll let the art doing the talk, and honestly beg you to go find a way to read this graphic novel:

The Witch’s Vacuum Cleaner: And Other Stories

The last Terry Pratchett book on my list (though shout out to the others I’ve listened to this month: Wee Free Men, Hat Full of Sky, Men At Arms, and Snuff) and one that I actually physically, rather than listening to the audiobook. I included this one because unlike the others, this was a Pratchett book I had never read before. It collects a number of Pratchett’s short stories that had been written for children over a number of years. These weren’t necessarily my favourite examples of Pratchett’s writing (I prefer his longer work that can really dive into social issues) but it was such a quick, easy, fun read that you can’t really help but be charmed by it. I liked the stories that took place in “the wild wild west (of Wales)” in particular.

#book review #book reviews #chatter #listen i know no one but me really cares about this but i look forward to the end of every month #when i get to look back at which books i've read and try to decide one the twelve best to ''review'' #but it's also nice to think that maybe adding a little positivity and book love might help other people find books #that will help them get through covid like they've been helping me #terry pratchett #discworld #the amazing maurice and his educated rodents #moist von lipwig #the witch's vacuum cleaner #katherine applegate #the one and only ivan #crenshaw #canadian literature #canlit #canadian lit #queer lit #queer literature #queer books #through the woods #emily carroll #ranma #ranma 1/2 #kings queens and in-betweens #gregor the overlander #suzanne collins #the enemy above #middle grade novels

[maddie-grove]

Little Book Review: Unmasked by the Marquess

Author: Cat Sebastian.

Publication Date: 2018.

Genre: Historical romance.

Premise: Alistair de Lacey, the Marquess of Pembroke, is loath to expend any effort or money on bolstering the social standing of his various young female relatives. Somehow, though, Robert Selby, brother of a beautiful but poor debutante, persuades Alistair to lend his support on a flimsy pretext. Alistair finds himself drawn to the irreverent Robert, who returns his interest. Yet their budding relationship is complicated by Robert’s secret: she’s really a servant, christened Charity Church, who’s pretending to be her “sister’s” late brother for fee-tail-male reasons (which, incidentally, feels a lot more natural to her than her previous life ever did). Can Charity (or, rather, Robin, as she eventually names herself) find a way to live her best non-binary life? Can Alistair get the fuck over himself? Basically, yes!

Thoughts: Although there’s nothing wrong with quieter romances, it frustrates me when not-particularly-sedate authors tone things down for marginalized protagonists (or, rather, characters more or differently marginalized compared to the ones they usually write). I understand the impulse to be sensitive, but the resulting stories often lack complexity, tension, and/or the fun nonsense that makes the genre special to many readers. The thing I appreciate the most about Unmasked by the Marquess is how it combines a high-concept, trope-filled premise with two protagonists who are relatively rare in the genre (a nonbinary protagonist and a bisexual hero). I also enjoy how Sebastian mashes up cross-dressing, a Martin Guerre plot, and a clever homage to Frederica (Georgette Heyer’s best novel, IMO). 

The representation of Robin’s gender has gotten mixed reviews from nonbinary readers. As a cisgender woman, I don’t have much to contribute to this conversation, but the most critical of these three reviews does point out an aspect of the novel that causes multiple problems: the narrative’s tendency to focus on Alistair more than Robin. This romance is a two-hander, but we spend more time learning about Alistair’s history, desires, and relationships, even though his character is (relatively) simple and familiar. He’s the first bisexual hero who over-corrects for the sins of his good-natured yet profligate late father and has to learn to be less of a cold snob, but that’s definitely a type. Meanwhile, Robin’s complicated past and feelings about her gender don’t get the attention they need to make the ending completely satisfying or convincing. The novel also suffers from the “too good, too bad” problem that plagues many m/f romances. Alistair is rather mean-spirited and narrow-minded for much of the novel, while Robin is good-natured and even altruistic. Yet his faults are downplayed and excused until he decides to reform, while Robin must agonize over lying to Alistair and preventing a distant cousin from inheriting the estate exactly when he’d like (whatever, he’ll be fine). The story still worked for me, but Robin’s charisma and Sebastian’s charming writing style had to carry me over some significant hurdles.

That said, I continue to enjoy the range of queer experiences I’ve seen in Sebastian’s work. Although he’s far from the unhappiest, Alistair is probably the most self-loathing of her protagonists. Irrationally but understandably, he views his bisexuality as a kind of greed--a manifestation of the carelessness that ruled his father. That’s what I like about Sebastian’s protagonists; their sexuality interacts so naturally with other elements of their identity that they always feel like individuals. I also think it’s okay that Alistair is a shit sometimes; he’s interesting and has a good arc, especially his shifting attitudes towards his late father’s mistress. I just wish Robin had more room to be similarly bad.

Hot Goodreads Take: Several readers seem to think that Robin sacrifices nothing for Alistair before they get married. I think this is a particularly strange opinion about a novel where a protagonist (spoiler alert) completely changes her social identity in order to legally marry her lover, but, honestly, it’d also be stupid for every other Regency romance where the protagonists get married (so, almost all of them). Not to be unromantic bummer, but it’s called the Doctrine of Coverture.

#romance novels #unmasked by the marquess #cat sebastian #books #reading #little book review

[three--rings]

My Thoughts on A/B/O, let me show you them:

(Dear god that’s an old meme.  Does anyone besides me remember it?)

So here I am, not entirely willingly, writing not one but TWO Omegaverse fics at the moment. (Stupid brain feeding me plots!) And talking with people in the comments of those fics makes me really want to blather about my thoughts on the whole trope.

So, I think it was about two years ago, maaybe three at the outside, when I first encountered A/B/O elements in a fic.  I had no idea what was going on, so I googled and ended up reading a whole explanation of the concept and was pretty much appalled.  I even went to my good friend The Gender Studies Professor and her wife The Fandom Podcaster and explained the thing to them and we all judged it together.  

And then somehow I read a fic or two.  I think it was in my early days in YOI fandom, probably because I was basically reading EVERY YOI fic, especially the E-rated ones.  And...there were still elements I wasn’t sure about, but I couldn’t deny the basic appeal.  And then somehow A/B/O became my guilty pleasure reading.  And now I’m writing it.  (Though I first did that over a year ago in Critrole fandom in a non-traditional way.)

So on a basic level, I look at A/B/O as smut writing set to easy mode.  Have two characters and want them to have lots and lots of sex with as little effort on the writer’s part as possible.  Why are they screwing?  Cause hormones.  Logistics? Not important, biology makes it possible.  And sometimes, as a writer, it’s nice not to have to worry too much about things.  

Course things never really work out like that.  There’s always way more world-building involved than you intend.  Some people take this to extremes, with like 30 chapters of preparation for a heat.  Not me.  No, what I’m in this trope for is the smut, NGL.

So things that really bug me about A/B/O and which, as a result, I try to eliminate or downplay in my fic:

(Cut for Explicit discussion of kinks)

-heteronormativity- on a base level the problem with omegaverse is that it tries so hard to fit queer relationships into a heteronormative shaped mold.  here is your new gender role, it says, complete with assigned sexual role and place in society.  From a sociological standpoint it fascinates me that women looked at same-gender relationships and said “no, too equal, we need to unbalance this shit.”   Which leads to point 2:

-pregnancy and children - look, I get that a lot of people like children and consider having children an important part of their love story.  Including some queer couples.  But I’ve looked on getting pregnant or having kids as a literal horror movie plot my entire life.  (Seriously my mom was a labor and delivery nurse...I heard things as a child no child should hear.)  So the idea of reading about a fictional person being pregnant, regardless of their sex or gender, NO.  So I will only read or write A/B/O without mpreg.  HOWEVER the universe is laughing because both Katsuki Yuuri and especially Wei Wuxian have canonical pregnancy kinks, so...yeah that’s coming up in both stories.  I’m not gonna actually DEPICT pregnancy though.  SHUDDER

-non-consensual sex aka rape - I almost forgot to include this because it’s such a given IMO.  But yeah, there is a lot of omegaverse out there with some pretty egregious content, typically the older stuff, but...yeah.  I will warn for dubious consent if I feel the scenario is equivalent to making a decision “under the influence.”

What appeals to me in A/B/O - 

-marathon sex - umm, yeah, there’s nothing hotter to me than a fantasy of just having sex for hours and hours or days...not practical or all that sexy in the real world usually, but that’s why we made fanfiction

-size kink - I swear I didn’t have a size kink before I started writing my YOI size kink fics, but uh, yeah I do now.  Another thing that is more fun in fiction than reality, especially if you’ve got unlimited magical lube.

-dom/sub tendencies inherent in alpha/omega orientations.  So this is where my tastes contradict my principles, because I think equating gender and sexual role is bullshit and breaking queer characters into tops/bottoms, seme/ukes, etc is offensive.  EXCEPT in life I’m a HUGE natural sub and a big part of what I find hot is tied into that.  So I relate strongly to people with natural preferences for bottoming/topping.  Still, you’ll usually see me fuck with this enough to make it clear this isn’t, like, a RULE.  My A/B/O fics are likely to include at least a little switching.

-exploring gender beyond a male/female binary.  So basically when alpha and omega are just ways to re-binary-ize two men, I object.  When they are more ways to explore and conceptualize middle territory or gender alternatives?  Cool.  You see more of this in Emboite, where basically traditional gender divides are absent in favor of secondary gender divides.  And in a Victorian European setting that says a lot. (I mention it mostly in discussions about ballet.  I made a whole mental ballet backstory, essentially) I don’t expect to explore this too deeply, since it’s really about the smut, but...it’s there.  

So yeah, I do have mixed feelings about omegaverse and believe ultimately it comes down to who is writing it.  Several people have said that they usually avoid A/B/O fics but will read mine, and that’s flattering.  I felt like maybe laying out where I’m coming from with this trope might be helpful for readers or potential readers.  

#writing #omegaverse #a/b/o #writing meta

[fuckyeahjamieandclaire]

Claire and Jamie’s separation across time and space has not been as detrimental to the show as I initially thought it would be. The bond that still exists between them without being in each other’s physical presence is powerful, and the story is still turning in moving, exciting character drama. [...] Something about both the writing and Hannah James’ heavy performance just doesn’t really click. On the night that Jamie comes to her room, Geneva transforms from hardened, cackling villain to a frightened and nervous young woman who doesn’t know how sex works, which seems to be a weird attempt to downplay the sexual assault connotations of the scene. Jamie reminds her that it isn’t too late to call the whole thing off, but she still doesn’t back down, saying that she doesn’t want to lose her virginity to her older, unkind husband-to-be. We’re perhaps meant to feel sorry for her in this moment, but given the context of how she got Jamie to come here and her behavior in the rest of the episode, the moment doesn’t really give the character depth so much as seem inconsistent. It’s a complicated scene to unravel. There are elements of Outlander’s subversiveness when it comes to sex and pleasure, but those elements are obscured by the fact that Jamie was blackmailed into this position. Jamie asks if he can touch her, giving Geneva the ability to consent, which she did not allow him. Later though, she does ask if she can touch him, and he says yes. He guides her through the motions, making sure her first time is pleasurable and painless. But it all seems to play into some of the tropes that Outlander once subverted in season one, when Claire was the one teaching Jamie how to have good sex. Geneva’s conniving and perceptive throughout the episode, and then she suddenly appears childish here. To group this scene in with Outlander’s other subversive sex scenes that center female pleasure is to ignore the fact that Jamie was stripped of his consent when Geneva blackmailed him. After sex, Geneva says she loves Jamie. Again, she comes off as silly and naive when she has been shown previously to be anything but. This character just doesn’t feel real. But this moment leads to a radiant, if obvious, Jamie monologue about the differences between lust and love. He doesn’t say anything earth-shatteringly profound, but Jamie’s words about what love is, what it feels like, evoke Outlander’s bold belief in true love. “Love is when you give your heart and soul to another, and they give theirs in return,” he says. Jamie and Claire’s love has always been the most believable, the most powerful force on this show. Time and time again, we’re reminded of how much they love each other, how much that love has withstood the test of time, grief, loss. When this show talks of love, it doesn’t sound like platitudes. Jamie captures his history with Claire, unearths raw emotions in this vulnerable and resonant scene.  [...] Jamie and Grey’s friendship continues to be a strong part of the season, too. The moment when Jamie asks Grey to watch after Willie after he has returned to Lallybroch and offers his body as payment is devastating. Jamie has been conditioned by his abusers, which includes Geneva, to believe that his body is currency. Grey balks at the notion, disturbed that Jamie thinks so little of his honor. He admits that he’ll be attracted to Jamie until the day he dies but that he would never agree to such an arrangement. He already intends to marry Isabel, which confuses Jamie at first, but Grey says he’s genuinely fond of her, suggesting that he’s bisexual. Queer characters on Outlander up to this point have been portrayed as predatory, but in Grey, the show finally has a likable queer character. Queer characters in historical dramas tend to get tragic storylines, and while Grey is mostly closeted, he isn’t a tragic character, and he’s out to his close friend Jamie. It’s easy to forget that Grey (as an adult) was just introduced one episode ago, because the development of their relationship has been strong, an example of Outlander accomplishing a lot through small details. [...] Jamie’s “I’ll remember you” is crushing. Sam Heughan really commands this episode, especially in scenes with Willie.

A.V. Club “Of Lost Things” review

#outlander #outlander starz #jamie fraser #lord john grey #sam heughan #geneva dunsany #jamie x claire #of lost things #review #tv news #3x04 #tv: s3 #tv series #people: sam heughan #character: jamie fraser #otp: jamie x claire #queue

[ladyloveandjustice]

OK, it’s bugging me, because I need to talk about Grant Morrison vs Original Wonder Woman and how Morrison failed at homaging it. 

It ties into stuff that’s been discussed elsewhere, like with the Star Trek reboot- if you really want to capture the spirit of something that was socially challenging 40 or 70 years ago, you can’t just reproduce that thing. Because what was groundbreaking or shocking 40-70 years ago isn’t socially groundbreaking now. Instead, you’ve got to look at what IS groundbreaking in today’s society and go with that. 

Wonder Woman was genuinely controversial when it came out in the 40s.Some parts of it were standard for it’s day- the jingoism and racism was typical bigoted white guy bullshit that dominated most of media- but the core message of it was genuinely shocking. Emphasized over and over again was this idea women are just as good as men but society was holding them back, that women can break free of that and be strong if the help each other, that they don’t have to aspire to being submissive to a man, that they can be dominant. It depicted marriage as a form of oppression, it has a main character whose WORST NIGHTMARE was being married to a man, if was dripping with so many queer implications Frederick Wertham declared it the spawn of Satan and the worst of all comics.

The bondage stuff was also genuinely pushing the envelope as far as controversy goes, people were very upset about it and believed it would encourage perversion. Sex wasn’t talked about openly back then. But the feminism and gay panic were just as huge. Marston would explain the deep (and often bullshit) psychological reasoning behind all his decisions with the utmost sincerity. He truly believed the bondage thing was essential  

Letters came pouring in. Professionals denounced it. The editor was constantly frantic and concerned, he kept talking to psychologists to make sure this was okay. He friggin’ interviewed Lauretta Bender, the head child psychologist at Bellevue hospital, who was so impressed by the feminist aspect she didn’t even mind the bondage aspect and espoused the then-radical idea that kids can’t “learn” to be kinky or “perverted” from media, it just makes them aware of desires they already had. If they aren’t actually interested in bondage, this comic will not awaken that interest and they likely wouldn’t even really notice the bondage. What was more important to her was that the comic taught kids women and men should be equal, since she did very passionately believe comics could educate, comfort children and teach morality.

In contrast, another women thought the sex stuff was unforgivable and the feminism aspect was uncomfortable. But note how women were consulted about this. Note how Alice Marble, a female editor, was bought in, and it was her idea to do a back-up that highlighted “Wonder Women of History” which gave information about badass historical ladies to further inspire girls and impress on boys women have always been awesome (there is even a later story where a young boy complains to Wonder Woman he hates studying women in history because “girls are sissies”, so she makes him time travel with her and introduces him to all the amazing, overlooked things women have done, at which point he changes his mind and becomes interested in women’s history).  

So let me say it first- if Morrison really wants to reproduce the feel of 1940s Wonder Woman, he has to involve women in the process somewhere, because even in the 19-fucking-40s a woman was involved with producing Wonder Woman. He also would have to tie his comic deeply with the modern feminist movement. Stuff in Wonder Woman was deliberately evocative of first wave feminism and tackled first wave feminist issues. But those issues aren’t as relevant today. You can’t just have a stereotypical gross guy make some sexist comments and have Wonder Woman throw him to the ground and be like “there i’ve addressed feminism just like Marston did”. It has to be GENUINELY CONTROVERSIAL FEMINISM. For today, that would mean weaving in commentary about abortion, about toxic masculinity, about rape culture, trans issues- being blatantly opinionated about stuff that’s genuinely controversial.

Depicting bondage isn’t controversial in modern day comics. it’s been done. Writers have put their kinks blatantly on display for quite a while. Depicting two women kissing in a super sexualized way isn’t controversial or pushing any envelope, we see it all the fucking time. Having the heroine ditch her girlfriend and literally stomp her in the dirt so she can mack a dude is not controversial either. Nothing in Wonder Woman: Year One by Grant Morrison is genuinely controversial. Women will be groaning about it because they’ve seen this bullshit so much, not because it’s new and shocking. It isn’t pushing any envelope.

If Morrison wanted to be genuinely controversial and groundbreaking, he could have had trans amazons. He could have had Wonder Woman take her girlfriend with her on her adventure and tell Steve she was going to have to accept she was polyamourous and her gf wasn’t going anywhere if he wanted a relationship. He should have done a story full of political commentary. He could have hired an artist who was involved in doing pro-feminist cartoons, because Harry Peter, the original Wonder Woman artist, caught Marston’s attention because of his pro-suffrage cartoons. He shouldn’t have hired someone who draws women like they’re constantly orgasming. 

No stereotypical cis straight male is gonna read WW Year One by Morrison and feel threatened. They may feel pretty turned on by it, but it’s gonna be another in the pile of comics they masturbate too, no big deal. 

And you know why they won’t feel challenged? Because Morrison doesn’t sincerely believe that people can find freedom through loving submission and bondage is the key of happiness, he doesn’t genuinely believe women should take over the world and also sexually dominate men, he isn’t a person with a lot of connections to the feminist movement and he doesn’t publish controversial opinions about queerness.

Marston once published an book that claimed “homosexuality” shouldn’t be treated as abnormal and being “perverse” was healthy. That was genuinely a huge, unusual, shocking opinion to have in the 1940s. Marston took a risk in publishing it. Has Morrison done anything like that? Is he living an “alternative sexual lifestyle?” No. 

Morrison doesn’t actually buy Marston’s politics, which could be said of most people today and is largely a good thing because they’re deeply flawed even if they were groundbreaking in their day in some ways. Yet he still tried to reproduce them beat for beat and it resulted in a garbage precisely because he wasn’t sincere. He doesn’t actually believe in this shit. Marston’s sincerity is what made Wonder Woman groundbreaking, but it isn’t present in WW Year One.

Instead, he amps up the fetishy aspect, throws queerness in there solely for titillation, show a women being chained up and threatened with rape as sexy and alluring and there is no substance to any of it. It’s a shallow, rote recreation of the 1940′s comics with none of the good elements of it present, because the guy behind it doesn’t understand he has to be sincere for this to work. 

You want to know how badly Morrison missed the point and doesn’t get what the original comics were doing? He states that he thinks it’s boring the relationships between the women in the original comics were so supportive, so he’s going to add in some antagonism.

 Despite the fact “women supporting each other brings out their truth strength and if they do that they can overthrow patriarchal society” was THE MAIN POLITICAL MESSAGE of the original comics and is STILL so controversial today that every single adaptation really downplays it and tries to present the Amazons as “bad” for relying on each other instead of men. Even the movie drastically downplayed that aspect by having Diana mostly only interact and form bonds with men after leaving the island, with Etta getting only a bit role. It’s also why the "daughter of Zeus” thing has replaced her original origin, even modern day people cannot fucking stand the idea of a woman who doesn’t need a man to be involved in her life and to be the source of her power. 

But no, Morrison thinks that part is bullshit and wants to depict women as holding each other back.He thinks “female oppression” should be depicted as some random woman being put on a leash by a guy as she sexily eats from a dog bowl with her ass on full display, and it shouldn’t get more nuanced than that.

If you really want to pay homage to Marston and reproduce what Wonder Woman means, you have to take risks. You have to trumpet a feminist idealogy you SINCERELY BELIEVE IN. You have to tie it deeply into the modern feminist struggle. 

Morrison did not do any of that, and that is precisely why his comic failed at paying any kind of meaningful tribute to Wonder Woman and is instead an offensive mess.

#wonder woman #wonder woman year one #william moulton marston #diana of themyscira

[swirlingdisobedience]

References of performance today

Anne Imhof

Angst II, HAMBURGER BAHNHOF, Berlin, 2016.

“The artist is a painter first and foremost, and her performances are extensions of this activity. This allows her work to exist somewhat detached from antiquated notions of format and authorship. Imhof is not interested in property, only in how it can be shared with an audience and her collaborators ...” 

Angst is an opera, even if it doesn’t reference it in a classical sense. Billy Bultheel composed the music. All of the pieces – the march, the ballet, an overture – are deconstructed into separate tracks. The different instrumental elements were divided onto iPhones, the idea being that people come together or signal from a distance to sync their phones. The dancers hold the speakers of their phones up to the small mics that are attached to their bodies. The tracks can never be perfectly synced. And you can feel it. That’s what makes the music so massive and creates distortion.

“These roles were not assigned to the actors to be performed all throughout the piece. Instead, they were shared bet-ween them and traded over time. Their qualities consequentially appeared less specific to a role’s character and more integral to the collective. The group seemed unfazed by this and rather comfortable allowing their identity positions to expand and contract with natural flui-dity. They know consistency is an unsustainable notion. Its outdated parameters no longer apply within Angst. Imhof’s practice as a whole does not adhere to the deep-shallow dichotomy. Maybe a phone is just a phone, but what does it become in our hands? Instead of worrying that technological devices flatten our emotional landscape until they match the surface of their sleek screens, Angst proposes that they become extensions of our bodies, ourselves. A certain amount of suspicion is commendable in regard to technological advances that work for us just like they work to surveil us. But remaining open to the possibilities they offer is crucial to the advancement of us as a people.” (032c: https://032c.com/angst-anne-imhof)

Faust, Venice Biennal 2017

“Serving as the dramatic backbone of a several-hour long performance seen by thousands over the course of the Biennial, the soundtrack was a product of the collective and its individuals, animating and organising the performers while immersing the audience in the potent images of power and paradise. The music for Faust was written in a band-like process by Imhof and her close collaborators Billy Bultheel, Eliza Douglas, and Franziska Aigner during the months leading up to its premiere at the opening of the German Pavilion in Venice. From the chaos of the performative, the album is constructed out of live recordings and original arrangements, teasing out the most potent strands and weaving them into a new composition of brutal feeling and baroque intricacy, each track a testament to the energy that brought it into being.” (PAN: https://p-a-n.org/release/anne-imhof-faust/)

“As Paul B. Preciado has shown in Testo Junkie, the contemporary biopolitical body is no longer a one-dimensional surface marked by power, the law, and punishment but a dense interior, a site for both life and political control exerted by means of exchange and communication mechanisms. These discourses are very present in Anne Imhof’s work. It starts with her whole approach to the body; it is evident in her use of technology, in the way she incorporates matter and fluids, or in how she conceives of the participants in her performances as individuals. In the end, Anne Imhof was such a compelling choice that I was almost surprised myself.“ (Mousse: http://moussemagazine.it/anne-imhof-faust-german-pavilion-venice-biennale-2017/)

Sex, Art Institute of Chicago, 2019. 

“Imhof has explained that the title Sex refers to new, emergent frameworks for rethinking sex and gender identity, rather than to having sex, reproducing, or having sexual desire. Indeed, when one of her troupe members slipped off his shirt, donned a black mask, and descended a column like Saint Symeon the Stylite, I was initially fascinated: his was an ideal male body, like the ones I see and admire in magazines. But as he passed by, the lack of erotic charge was palpable; like the other bodies in the arena, this one felt a bit plastic. Sex is dramatic, even melodramatic, yet its drama is not sensual; it removes bodily urges from the mix. According to researchers, millennials are having significantly less sex than many previous generations. Teen pregnancy is down. Perhaps other forms of erotic activity or fantasy or interpersonal connection have taken priority. With her signifiers of millennial hipness and downplaying of carnality in favor of blank-faced ritual, Imhof has given this generation exactly what they deserve, which is also exactly what they want: a picture of themselves.“ (Hyperallergic: https://hyperallergic.com/507499/anne-imhof/)

ALEX BACKZYNSKI JENKINS

Holding Horizon, 2018, FRIEZE 2018 PERFORMANCE

Artist and choreographer, Alex Baczynski-Jenkins (Poland/UK) traces queer politics of desire, vulnerability, and collectivity. His practice is concerned with the mediation of queer embodiment and relationality, through choreographies of affect, empathy and intimacy.

Untitled (Holding Horizon), 2018

A neon sign created by the Warsaw-based feminist and queer collective Kem—of which the artist is co-founder and member—will be installed above the entrance and switched on when the performance is happening. Untitled (Holding Horizon) (2018) draws on the box step, a basic movement used in several social dances, to explore collectivity, subjectivity, queer embodiment and desire. Synchronised movements co-exist with moments of slippage and letting go, each performer embodying individual and shared gestures and affections. The performers both affect, and become affected by, the live sound and light mixing. In this altered state, the box step becomes a container for the relational force that resides in moving with others.

 ‘Who you want to work with is who you want to share your life with.’ (Interview for Mousse Magazine) 

Monster Chetwynd (Marvin Gaye Chetwynd or Sparticus Chetwynd)

Performance images of Marvin Gaye Chetwynd, one of the best-known performance artists in Britain. Nominated for the Turner Prize in 2012 (when she was known as Spartacus Chetwynd), she stages exuberant, anarchic performances in which everything from Dante and Karl Marx to drag acts and Stars Wars are drawn together to explore issues including gender politics and personal debt.

The works often feature large, homemade puppet structures capable of holding several performers within: in true Trojan Horse style, people emerge from or are swallowed up by openings. Not that the dolls are shaped like Trojan horses. They might be slightly awkward replicas of familiar figures, such as the Catbus from the Studio Ghibli film My Neighbour Totoro, which appeared in Chetwynd’s A Tax Haven Run By Women, presented at Kunsthal Charlottenborg in Copenhagen in 2011. A Brain Bug from the Starship Troopers film appeared in the artist’s Brain Bug Performance at New Museum in 2011. In this work, twelve performers move around the vast insect brain in what is quite an elaborate dance, particularly given that Chetwyn’s performance works usually have an improvised, amateurish quality.

Brain Bug Performances, Nottingham Contemporary, 2014.

The Snail Race, Galleria Massimo De Carlo, Milan, 2008

 Delirious, Serpentine Pavilion, London,2006

[entergamingxp]

Pride Week: Final Fantasy 7

Hello! All this week we’ll be celebrating Pride and the power of positive representations in games. Every day we’ll be bringing you stories and insights from different parts of the LGBT+ community. You can also help support Pride with Eurogamer’s newly redesigned t-shirt – all profits from which will be going to charity.

In the midst of a recent replay of the original Final Fantasy 7, I found myself welling up. Not because I’d reached that bit – the mandatory, number-one entry in every ‘gaming’s top ten saddest moments’ list from now till the Lifestream runs dry. No. The tears were rising much earlier in my playthrough than that. And those tears were accompanied by a big goofy grin. What in this gloriously janky PS1 classic that I hadn’t picked up in almost fifteen years could have had such an effect on me?

I was in Wall Market – Midgar’s gleefully ungentrified equivalent of San Francisco’s Tenderloin, or London’s Soho, a century ago – and the game’s taciturn, hyper-masculine, ex-mercenary protagonist, Cloud, had just donned an extremely pretty silk dress. Not only that, but he’d put on a blonde wig he’d won from a body-builder at a local gym, splashed on some sexy cologne, and had just had his make-up done by a burlesque dancer. And, to top it all, upon emerging from the dressing-room to reveal his transformation, he had been greeted with utter delight by the friend, ally, and (though it pains the Clifa stan in me to say it) love interest who had accompanied him there.

The reason I was crying was because, here, in chunky polygonal miniature, was my entire experience of coming out as a non-binary trans person.

No, you’re crying!

Okay, maybe not my entire experience. I didn’t start wearing make-up and femme clothing as part of an elaborate plan to rescue my childhood sweet-heart from the clutches of a local sex criminal, and Cloud’s family weren’t around to worry about what the neighbours might think. But, the key components were all there: the thrill of a new wardrobe; the unforeseen generosity of strangers; the relief that comes from the support and acceptance of friends and loved-ones; and, above all, the quiet euphoria of suddenly looking the way you’d never even realised you wanted (or needed) to look before. Heck, even the frantic squat-driven glow-up at the local gym was present and correct.

Don Corneo (trans. ‘Lord Horny’), slum-lord sex pest, in action.

I concede, I may have been projecting just a little. But, if there is one thing that queer culture and, indeed, gaming culture, have taught me, it’s that queer people find representation wherever they can, and that, often, those discoveries occur in the most unexpected of places. And here was an echo of the moment at which my gender identity suddenly ‘clicked’ for me, captured in a game I had played and replayed as a kid. It was uncanny.

Admittedly, the fact that I had the uncanny feeling of suddenly finding my queerness so clearly reflected in a game I had loved as a child while playing Final Fantasy 7 should, perhaps, have come as no surprise. To paraphrase Paris is Burning: it is a known fact that Final Fantasy 7 do be as camp as a row of tents and as queer as a ten-bob note.

A reminder: We played this. As children.

Rightly described by Eurogamer’s Aoife Wilson as a ‘bi thirst-trap‘, Final Fantasy 7 buzzes with enough queer energy to power a thousand Sister Rays. Whether it be Cloud’s journey of self-denial and self-discovery (coming-out story much?), Tifa’s status as the living embodiment of soft-butch energy, Reno’s status as a chaotic bisexual pinball (you just know he and Rude met on Grindr), Jessie’s omnidirectional flirtation, the way everyone talks about Cloud’s eyes, the fact that everyone is wearing a harness, or Sephiroth’s, like, entire deal (if you ever thought a twink couldn’t also be a leather daddy, he’s here to prove you wrong), the game is, if you’ll pardon the expression, queer af.

Everyone’s favourite chaotic bisexual makes a graceful exit…

But, aside from being almost impossibly horny with virtually no concern for the gender of the parties involved – a feature the recent Remake has turned up to 11 – the game is also queer in deeper, more meaningful ways; ways that resonates strongly with the origins of Pride month, and its roots in a tradition of anti-assimilationist political protest.

A key figure in this regard is Barret (or, as he may be known to some of you, ‘Gunny’). In terms of representation, the game’s off-beat tone and broad-brush-strokes story-telling sometimes leave it seeming… unnuanced. At its worst, Barrett’s characterization in the original game comes off feeling like the production team watched a couple of re-runs of The A-Team and that music video where B.A. Baracus told us all to be nice to our mums and decided that they had learned all they needed to know about Black people (a serious problem in an industry as White-washed as gaming). But, without wishing to downplay these problematic elements, it is worth taking stock of who we ultimately discover Barret to be across the course of the game: a Black, physically-impaired adoptive father and climate activist, whose lost hand forms the basis for a narrative not of disability, but of empowerment, as he engages in a liberationary struggle to protect his local community and the planet at large from the toxic influence of a militarised form of corporate capitalism.

Barrett Wallace: Queer Big-Shot.

Like so many queer people who find themselves at the intersection of multiple forms of violence and oppression, Barret surrounds himself with a diverse team of like-minded individuals, united not by externally imposed categories of identity, but by a shared set of values and a desire to change the world for the better. This chosen family – for, what is the ‘party’ in an RPG if not a version of the ‘chosen family‘ of friends, partners, and allies upon which so many queer people rely? – comes to include not just a former member of SOLDIER like Cloud, who turns his skills and training against the oppressive forces he once served, but a figure like Nananki / Red XIII, a character whose story parallels those of many Indigenous and First Nations people whose lives, land, and heritage have been devastated by corporate imperialism. Like the Stonewall rioters, the Gay Liberation Front, Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries, Lesbians and Gays support the Miners, the AIDS Coalition to Unlock Power, or the queer activists currently taking to the streets to support Black Lives Matter, AVALANCHE – the revolutionary band of eco-warriors Barret founds and leads – take a stand against a society, culture, and political system that seek to oppress them and exploit the planet they inhabit.

Barrett tells it like it is.

This is not to claim that everyone in AVALANCHE or Final Fantasy 7 at large is ‘queer’ in the same-sex attraction / gender non-conformity sense of the word (though, again, does anyone really believe that the Turks aren’t living together in a gloriously messy, pansexual polycule?) But, if, as one influential theorist has it, ‘queer’ refers to ‘whatever is at odds with the normal, the legitimate, the dominant’, then Barret and AVALANCHE are about as queer as they come.

It is for that reason that, with Covid-19 necessitating the cancellation of in-person gatherings across the globe, I recommend Final Fantasy 7 to you as the perfect way to bring the spirit of Pride month to life in your living room. Whether you think Pride should be a protest or a party (hint: it should be the former), Final Fantasy 7 is both, and, in its depiction of a radically inclusive chosen family squaring off against a militarised, corporate police state to protect marginalised communities and the environment, it has never been more timely.

So, do yourself a favour, unfurl your rainbow flag, boot up the game, and try to decide which character you fancy the most. In the meantime, if you’ll excuse me, I have to see a body-builder about a wig…

For a fun and accessible introduction to queer theory and queer history, check out Meg-John Barker and Jules Scheele’s gorgeously illustrated Queer: A Graphic History (2016). If you are interested in thinking about gaming from a queer perspective, Adrienne Shaw’s Gaming at the Edge: Sexuality and Gender at the Margins of Gamer Culture (2014) and Queer Games Studies (2017), edited Bonnie Ruberg and Adrienne Shaw, are a great place to start. To learn more about the history of Pride and the queer liberation struggle more generally, you may wish to explore some of the books listed here. For some beautifully written reflections on the intersections of race, sexuality, gender, and disability, take a look at the work of Audre Lorde, particularly her essay collection Sister Outsider (1984). Two books I have found particularly resonant in my own gender journey have been C.N. Lester’s Trans Like Me (2017) and Nonbinary: Memoirs of Gender and Identity (2019), edited by Micah Rajunov and Scott Duane. To support QITPOC (Queer, Trans, Intersex, People of Colour) charities and organisations in your area, check out this list for the UK, or this list for the US. Also, everyone go watch Paris is Burning (1990). Right now. I’ll wait.

from EnterGamingXP https://entergamingxp.com/2020/06/pride-week-final-fantasy-7/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=pride-week-final-fantasy-7

[leatherbeacon-blog]

Leather Series - Beacon's Travels

Leather Series - My Travels Goal of this series: Over the past year or so, I’ve been having evolving thoughts on people of color, women, femme, GNC (gender non conforming) and trans folk in the leather and kink community, “old guard vs new guard” and what that debate actually means, leather contests, how they are run and what they mean to the community, who and what is leather and what we as leatherfolk should be doing. My intent is to share my thoughts on these topics and to encourage discussion. My travels: I've had the opportunity and privilege of traveling across California and to Cleveland for three different leather events, back to back to back. Starting with IMsL/IMsBB in San Jose, then off to CLAW in Cleveland and finally International Olympus Leather (IOL) in San Diego. I was a virgin to all three events and all three events gave me new experiences and a new understanding of leather and the leather community. Since IMsL/IMsBB I have been thinking through my growing understanding of leather and the leather community and I have teased that I will be sharing my thoughts, for what they are worth, with Facebook. Over the next several posts I will be doing just that. I don't claim to have a perfect understanding of Leather and of the community, I acknowledge I am still young in my journey, but this is my understanding as of now. I hope these posts will create a dialogue so that we a community may have a better understanding of Leather and of each other. TL:DR - Yesterday I was asked "you've gone to all these events, what have you learned?" I've learned the leather community is better when there is a seat at the table and space for everyone: men, women, GNC (gender non confirming), femme, trans, etc. IMsL/IMsBB - International Ms. Leather/International Ms. Bootblack This event has had such a profound impact on my understanding of Leather and the leather community, more so than I possibly could have imagined. I flew into San Jose late after the first night of the contest had already started. I made my way into the main room and watched the contestant introductions and listened to the speeches (more on the speeches later.) My first impression upon arriving? It's kind of great to be at an event where men aren't the focus. Let's be real, men have access to a lot of shit, especially in the leather/kink community. Don't get me wrong, I am a proud gay man, I love being with other gay men, and I respect and cherish our spaces and our events, but sometimes it's refreshing to see and experience how others express their leather. Whether they be women, trans, gender non-binary, gay, lesbian, straight, bi, pan or anyone else who doesn't subscribe to a set societal category. Being that this was an event for women, I could have walked the halls, the vendor mart, the hospitality suite and not be acknowledged and I wouldn't have been upset because I didn't expect to be acknowledged, just as women aren't acknowledged at men's events. And yet, everywhere I went I had women coming up to me telling me how glad they were that I was there, that men were there supporting their event. They even sold "Men of IMsL" shirts. Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, but I haven't been to many men's events that have "Women of ____" shirts. It was such a fun, positive event all around. Every few hours a different group would host the hospitality suite. The folks from Alaska had Alaskan salmon, jams, and even bear meatballs....yes, bear. I ate bear at IMsL. Onyx was invited to host at the hospitality suite as well and we had so many women coming up to us saying how glad they were that we were there. I can go on and on about how fun and positive the event was, but what it comes down to is acceptance. Every gender representation, ethnic group and sexual identify was out loud and proud at this event. I didn't see anyone shamed for expressing who they were. Everyone had a chance to be themselves and to be celebrated for who they are and what they give to the community. If you are preparing your leather calendar for 2018, I would highly recommend you write in IMsL/IMsBB before anything else. One last thing: Girl Complex, you took me to church for the first time in years. Praise be!!! CLAW - Cleveland Leather Awareness Weekend I've been excited about going to CLAW for years. CLAW has, for better or for worse, become overrun by puppies. Naturally, it seemed to be the perfect event to take my puppy to for his first big leather event. Before I go any further, I have to gush a little bit and talk about how incredible my puppy is. He's loyal, supportive, caring, kind, sadistic, patient, can be the most submissive pup or the most Dominant man. He's incredible. During CLAW, we got to "share" a pup that we have our own independent relationships with. It brought me so much joy to see my pup go from being submissive to me, to dominant to our shared pup. Seeing him run around the vendor mart like a kid in a candy store, looking at all the leather that no, he didn't want to buy, he wants to make. I would ask him about a piece, trying to buy it for him and instead he would say "no, I can just make it myself when we get back". And you better believe he's already in his shop working on incredible designs of his own. Everyday he makes me more proud and makes me strive to be a better Sir for him. Onto the event itself, after a couple weeks of thinking on the event, I've come to the conclusion that I didn't enjoy the event itself. I loved getting to see my friends, both again and for the first time. I loved the POC in leather panel by Tyesha. I loved spending time with my pup and our shared pup. But the event itself, meh. First of all, there wasn't enough time. If I go again, I'm going to have to arrive a day earlier and not volunteer. Between volunteer shifts for all three of us and many of my friends who were also volunteering, it was hard to feel connected with anyone that was there. That's not a fault of the event, just something to consider in the future. Critiques of the event: I felt, note I'm not accusing, as though the event had a forced masculinity to it. From the marketing, to the music selection, to the promotion for the pool parties (not blaming the hosts), to the playspace. To me, it seemed like it was a weekend embodiment of "Masc4masc". As for women at the event, the majority of them that I saw were either bootblacks or volunteering behind the scenes. The ones I did see, seemed to be downplaying their femme side or at least not expressing it. Same goes for the male femmes or GNC femmes. To go a little further and address specific concerns: The pool party. I understand that last year's pool party was held at the host hotel, which was at a different location than this year's hotel which doesn't have a pool. I get that. That being said, given that there were two other official CLAW hotels, which did have a pool, it seems like the possibility could have existed for CLAW to hold the pool parties at those hotels as opposed to at FLEX which is cis-male only. I could be wrong. But I would hope that the board at least considered the optics of removing access to women and trans men for the pool party. Next is the play space. The way it was advertised as "7 play spaces, the most of any year!" I assumed it was going to be 7 different suites or some combination of rooms at the hotel when in fact it was just an office with a handful of smaller offices. Before CLAW, I was critical of the event for having 7 male only play spaces and not a single pan play space. Given where the play space was located, I understand why it was male only. In the future, I would encourage CLAW to consider either moving the play space or at the very least, dedicating a suite or a meeting room in the host hotel as a pan play space. I am one gay man who would attend a pan play space. There were some other elements of the event that didn't make it as enjoyable as I had hoped. All in all the event was, meh. It won't be on my calendar for next year, perhaps it may be in the future One last thing: Watching Ray feed my puppy donuts was the cutest thing ever. Gainer porn IRL. IOL - International Olympus Leather I didn't know much about this event going in, other than my half boyfriend was competing and I was voluntold to help them with their fantasy scene in the contest. The first night featured a few musical numbers by a woman who has been singing at AIDS benefits since 1983, bless her. She was the sweetest woman with a kind heart, a rogue tooth and a pair of breasts that did everything they could to pop out of her shimmering gold top. Between the opening act and the tireless emcee for the weekend, this was the most fun I've had at a contest since IMsL/IMsBB which was the most fun contest I've been to maybe ever. More on that in a later post. One of my favorite aspects of the event was how familial it felt. All of the former IOL titleholders and producers who helped put on the event acted like family. They supported each other and teased each other just like family. We always talk about how the leather community is a family. IOL displayed that perfectly. I'm so glad my half boyfriend Matt is now a part of that family. Watching them compete and connect with their fellow contestants was such a joy and privilege. You are enough. One last thought: Singing along to "When you're good to mama" from the musical Chicago with a room full of queer leatherfolk has to be one of the best things to ever happen in my leather journey thus far. In conclusion: I've been so spoiled to be able to attend so many Leather events so far this year, with a few more to go. Meeting other leatherfolk from across the country (and the world) and seeing how other communities through contests and events has opened my eyes to just how big and impactful this community is. When we are doing leather right, we are supporting each other, creating space for each other, loving each other, beating, fisting and fucking each other. It's a beautiful thing. I'm so happy to be a part of this wonderfully perverted community.