I’m Writing for Medium.com

I just want to remind you guys I’ve been writing about movies for Medium.com.

Now some of it is behind a paywall, but you can up to three articles on the site for free each day, and a subscription to Medium is only 5.00 a month.

Fortunately, there aren’t a whole lot of articles up yet, and some of them you may have seen here. Some of them have been edited with more content, and cleaned up for Medium. There are also a couple of personal articles, and at least a couple of rants.

There’s also a not insignificant number of comments that I’ve left on other people’s articles which some of you might find of interest.

So look for, and follow me, under the name:

Lakitha Tolbert

https://lakithatolbert.medium.com/halloween-1978-the-horror-of-framing-and-identification-32b42e2270c6

https://lakithatolbert.medium.com/starring-the-landscape-the-horror-of-po-white-trash-classism-in-horror-pt-1-b0e83c4ad5c8

https://lakithatolbert.medium.com/the-slave-rebellion-genre-9dbeccb5fbc0

You can also find me on Tumblr at:

https://lkeke35.tumblr.com/

The things I write about on Tumblr don’t really relate much to what I write here, though, but it is an opportunity to look at pretty pictures, books, cat and dog videos, humorous posts, and the occasional political rant.

What I Said: Tumblr Edition

This is just a compilation of some of the posts I made for my Tumblr account. I post very different things there, than I do here, but sometimes I post some things which overlap. These are just some thoughts that occurred to me in the past couple of weeks, and I wrote them down really quick, because although my thoughts about things are consistent, I sometimes forget what I wanted to actually say, and how to say it.

On Narrative Conditioning

As usual, I have this habit of watching events that happen in the rest of the world through the lens of the films I’ve watched, because the analogy just hits me, not because I can’t tell the difference between fiction and reality. It’s just how my mind connects things to other things. Nothing that happens in stories is new, and I see fiction as a reflection and reinforcement of things and thinking that happens in the real world. On some deep level, white people do understand that certain things are wrong, because they keep making fiction (often fantasies) about it.

I think fictional narratives are important, even today, because so much of what we all believe about other human beings does not come from direct experience. A lot of what we believe comes from popular and mainstream media, which is primarily owned by straight, white, men, and it is their thinking about the rest of humanity that gets prioritized. The images of black people that white men put out in the world, for decades, not just in fictional narratives, but in news stories and opinion pieces online, all of it, essentially teaches the rest of the world that our lives are unimportant, and teaches us to hate ourselves. Everyone (yes, PoC, and me, too) are inundated with the idea that whiteness is the default, and takes priority. Some of us overcome this constant messaging by critically challenging these narratives. Some people don’t.

For example, as I grew up, I was inundated with the idea that I was ugly because I was black. Not because I was ever told I was ugly. And not because people told me that white was prettier, but because the words “beautiful” and “pretty”, were never associated with women who looked like me. Those words were used everywhere, in tv ads, and shows, and movie after movie, to only refer to thin, middle-class, white women. (For a good example of this, count how many times Uma Thurman’s character is referred to as beautiful in the Kill Bill movies, and how none of the other female characters looks are ever mentioned. Those women do not have to be called ugly for us to get the message. She just has to constantly be referred to as pretty, while their looks are ignored.) Now imagine a steady diet of this from childhood onward. No one is calling you ugly, but you get the message loud and clear, that pretty doesn’t mean you. This is what is meant by passive conditioning. All of us have this conditioning, and most of this conditioning is done through mainstream media, like books, movies, tv shows, and music.

 

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On Not Thinking

lkeke35

One of the things I’ve observed about trump supporters is that many of them seem to be every bit as incoherent in their mental faculties as trump is. These are not people who have ever had clear, and consistent thoughts, in the sense that one idea follows the next, but instead, seem to have a collection of specific talking points, that are attached to whatever issue sparks their outrage.

These are not ideas that are part of a coherent schema, and most of these thoughts are separate and unattached to one another. It’s one of the reasons so many of them gravitate to raving anger when asked deeper questions about whatever it was they just said. If you ask one of them how sheltering in place is like slavery, to elaborate on that, then they’ll simply produce a string of more talking points, at the mention of the word slavery. They are simply parroting what theyve been told to think, when a specific word is mentioned, and it’s also the reason that while they are consistent from one person to the next, they are internally inconsistent with the individual.

This, I think, is why none of their thoughts make logical sense, to the rest of us, who do have a consistent life philosophy. We form our philosophy over time and then fit circumstances, events, life experiences, and people, into that philosophy. (I’m not speaking about Evangelicals because they’re a special case of nasty, so this doesn’t fit them.) I could be wrong about this but the bottom line is that non-trump supporters are generally pretty coherent and consistent in their thinking in a way that his deepest supporters are not.

Many of trumps supporters didn’t logic there way into the statements we hear them make, and so cannot be logicked out of any of those ideas. These are things they have been told to say, and believe, when a subject is mentioned, even if there is no consistency between the answers. They literally do not see the inconsistencies because they have been conditioned not to think critically, not to ask questions, while the rest of us have. I don’t think they believe sheltering in place is like slavery. That’s simply the thought that’s been attached to their frustration at being inconvenienced, even if that specific thought contradicts another thought they might have if you bring up slavery (It wasn’t real, black people need to get over it, I didn’t own slaves, etc.)

 

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I wrote this one when I was feeling particularly salty, about some dumb shit, I saw on Tumblr.

On Speaking Out

lkeke35

So as soon as some shit pop off, you got white people coming out from under the floorboards, (honestly, these people are like cockroaches, they only come out when our lives are at their darkest), with their traditional hot takes about black violence. What do these people do? Lie in wait for an opportunity to tell black people how they should respond to white wtf*ery? Yes! That’s exactly what they do.

 Some people are so shameless, they will take any and every opportunity to express their anti-blackness. They’re completely oblivious to injustices that aren’t happening to them, but when hands get thrown, they finally notice that, and manage to work up enough energy to care…but only about the response….like those teachers who only saw when you got fed up with being bullied, and finally kicked some ass!

 If they didn’t have shit to say about a single Black person’s death, at the hands of vigilantes and extrajudicial killers, (or worse yet, didn’t even notice that shit was happening), they don’t get a say in how black people respond to the violence that was done to them, especially the kind of violence that could have been thwarted, if they’d paid closer attention to what was happening ,and done something.

Offering their shitty hot take, on what black people need to be doing right now, is very possibly some of the most mentally lazy, and easiest bullshit they can pull right now!

 

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On the Optics

lkeke35

One of the reasons you keep hearing about how George Floyd’s death was the worst one yet, is because of the way in which it was caught on film. In movies, this is called “framing”, and unfortunately, this framing accounts for at least some of the responses we’ve seen from people, who previously, were capable of ignoring most of the deaths of unarmed black people. With almost all the other deaths of black people we’ve seen captured onscreen, most of them, even while seen up close, didn’t allow us to look into the victims eyes,and follow that person down into death, while it happened, and for a lot of people (especially the ones who hadn’t been paying close attention) that shit was deeply traumatic!

 With the Floyd imagery, there is a visceral component to it,that even the worst of these types of videos lacked. As viewers we sat there, and watched his face, and heard his last words, and looked into his eyes for as long as it took to kill him, and that had an effect on people that the other videos didn’t.

Even in other videos we didn’t see the victims faces up close. The videos were from a distance, or the victims were seen from behind, or it happened so fast it almost didn’t register for some people. Just like in a movie, the way the image is framed has a lot to do with the level of emotional engagement with the subject. The closer the camera is to the people being filmed, the higher the level of emotional engagement with that image.

In closeup, in broad daylight, one man is being killed, while the person that does it, looks completely indifferent to what he’s doing.

 Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think these are like movies, but this is how a lot of our minds have been conditioned, through decades of movies and television, to think and/or feel about death. If it’s not up close and personal to the viewer, then the emotional engagement, (certainly for a lot of non-black people), just isn’t there. They didn’t really SEE it, or FEEL it. But this time, they were standing right there, watching his face, hearing his last breath, watching the life being strangled from him ,and knowing it was real.

They watched the face of his killer, and could see the lack of humanity, of empathy, of care, in his expressionless face. In such imagery, there is a level of complicity that’s absent from mostof the other videos ,where you didn’t see the perpetrators face, or the victims expressions. This felt different because it looked different.

 

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On All Cops Are Bastards

lkeke35

I have an even simpler explanation for those not understanding. You got a bowl of skittles. Every one in ten skittle is actually a cyanide tablet, and you cannot tell the difference between it, and any of the other skittles.

 

Would you eat from that bowl? Would you grab a handful and chow down, knowing that in a bowl of 100 skittles, ten of them will kill you?

 

No. You’d throw the whole damn bowl out. The whole damn bowl is bad.

 

We cannot tell, just by looking at them, which cops are going to kill us, and which ones won’t.

 

All cops are bad, because it is the system that is bad.

 

The correct phrase is: One bad apple spoils the whole bunch.

 

If one cop is bad, and the others don’t work to eject him, that makes them all bad!

 

You throw the whole damn group out!

 

“What does it mean when people say that all cops are bastards (ACAB)?”

If it were an individual thing, you’d give them the benefit of the doubt, but it isn’t; it’s an institutional thing. the job itself is a bastard, therefore by carrying out the job, they are bastards. To take it to an extreme: there were no good members of the gestapo because there was no way to carry out the directives of the gestapo and to be a good person. it is the same with the american police state. Police do not exist to protect and serve, according to the US supreme court itself, but to dominate, control, and terrorize in order to maintain the interests of state and capital.

Who are the good cops then? The ones who either quit or are fired for refusing to do the job.

While the following list focuses on the US as a model police state, ALL cops in ALL countries are derivative from very similar violent traditions of modern policing, rooted in old totalitarian regimes, genocides, and slavery, if not the mere maintenance of authoritarian power structures through terrorism.

• police shoot people twice as often as previously thought. Keep in mind that this was self-reported, so we have no way of knowing if these numbers speak to the actual number of shootings in the US. Many of these people are completely unarmed. Police kill far, far more people than terrorists in the US and have killed over a hundred people more than mass shooters did in 2019 that we are aware of. Mass shooters are easily tracked. Police killings are not. 1 2
• Oh, and cops also killed more people in 2019 than school shooters did in all of US history.
• And if they don’t shoot you, they might just airstrike your block and burn your children alive.
• They also shoot one dog every hour, every day. At the absolute least.
• Once you’re in jail, be prepared to sit there for weeks -or months or years. It’s so bad that people constantly plead guilty just so they can get out. It’s so bad and so common, in fact, that over a third of all exonerations come after an individual has pleaded guilty. So much for the right to a speedy trial, huh?
• And getting arrested is easy – tens of thousands of people yearly, in fact, thanks to lowest bidder garbage that police departments use in order to test for illicit substances. Field drug tests are about as reliable as lie detector tests or horoscopes. They just don’t work. They just don’t.
• Think you’re safe if you just follow directions? Yeah, no. And if they don’t just outright kill you, they could make their instructions so arcane and hard to follow that they’ll kill you for not following them, and they’ll usually get away with it. He got away with it, by the way. Surprise!
• They’ll prosecute you for even knowing about crimes cops have committed.
• Think you’re safe in your home? lmao nah. Not even your 7 year old is safe from getting her brains blown out. check out this horrifying megapost on no-knock raids
• Being a taxi driver is literally more dangerous than being a cop.
• cops are more of a danger to themselves than anyone else is to them
• they’ve admitted to stealing as much -or recently more– than burglars through “asset forfeiture,” and the rate of their thefts has been climbing yearly. Keep in mind, these numbers only articulate what’s been reported. It’s probable that they’ve stolen far more than just this.
• police are literally allowed to rape people on the job in 35 states, as they have the power to determine whether or not you consented to sex with them while in their custody.
• up to 50% of the people police murder are disabled
• the police are being trained to kill as if they’re an occupying army and we’re an insurgency. this is an inevitability, as the military-industrial complex needs to keep expanding into new markets.
• Eugenics was still alive and well in the prison-industrial complex up until very recently, and could very well be continuing for all we know, as it was forcibly sterilizing inmates as late as 2010. I honestly don’t see a reason to believe it’s stopped.
• The US surveillance state is massive (and while this post primarily focuses on the US, other countries are just as bad), though much of our surveillance is privatized. This doesn’t stop the police from partnering with private companies, however. This will only get worse as time goes on. Also, we can’t forget about the Patriot Act and Snowden’s PRISM leaks.
• the police, as an institution, are so completely steeped in violence, that up to 40% of them commit acts of domestic violence and other forms of domestic abuse. Most citizens are not even allowed to own firearms if found guilty of domestic violence, and these guys are expected to handle military-grade equipment.
• Police exist to control and terrorize us, not serve and protect us. That’s only their function if you happen to be rich and powerful.

also this: lol

the police as they are now haven’t even existed for 200 years as an institution, and the modern police force was founded to control crowds and catch slaves, not to “serve and protect” – unless you mean serving and protecting what people call “the 1%.” They have a long history of controlling the working class by intimidating, harassing, assaulting, and even murdering strikers during labor disputes. This isn’t a bug; it’s a feature.

The justice system also loves to intimidate and outright assassinate civil rights leaders.

The police do not serve justice. The police serve the ruling classes, whether or not they themselves are aware of it. They make our communities far more dangerous places to live, but there are alternatives to the modern police state. There is a better way.

Further Reading:

(all links are to free versions of the texts found online – many curated from this source)

white nationalists court and infiltrate a significant number of Sheriff’s departments nationwide

Kropotkin and a quick history of policing

Malcolm X Grassroots Movement. (2013). Let Your Motto Be Resistance: A Handbook on Organizing New Afrikan and Oppressed Communities for Self-Defense.

Rose City Copwatch. (2008). Alternatives to Police.

Williams, Kristian. (2011). “The other side of the COIN: counterinsurgency and community policing.” Interface 3(1).

Williams, Kristian. (2004). Our Enemies in Blue: Police and power in America. New York: Soft Skull Press.

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Source: Watch large group of officers protecting George Floyd’s killer (reddit user american_apartheid)

Source: second-degree-education

 

 

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On Trump’s Photo Op

lkeke35

I am a movie lover, and I especially love horror movies written by Stephen King. I grew up watching horror movies. In fact, I think my mother and I (I blame her for my sordid addiction to horror films) tried to watch every one that got made between 1982, and 1989, before I went off to college.

 One of the movies that always stuck with me, on a moral and political level, was Stephen Kings The Dead Zone. Christopher Walken plays a man named Johnny, who gets psychic powers after a car accident. After he gets these powers, he meets a union delegate named Greg Stillson, played by Martin Sheen, and has a vision of the future, where Stillson, as president, starts a nuclear war. Haunted by this image, Johnny decides to assassinate Stillson during his campaign for president. He doesn’t succeed in killing Stillson, but he does change the future.

 During Johnny’s assassination attempt, Stillson, while standing at a podium, grabs a little girl (who happens to be the daughter of Johnny’s ex-girlfriend) and is photographed using the child’s body as a shield. It effectively ends his campaign and he never becomes president.

 Movies often use the trope of a person’s willingness to harm the innocent to protect themselves, as a way to show how corrupt, ruthless, or just sheer evil they are.The other day, Trump, who has a life long record of shitty behavior it would take too long to get into here, used police brutality against a crowd of peaceful protestors (against police brutality,) and Australian journalists, to clear them away from a photo op he wanted to take at the church in Lafayette Park, which is across the street from the WH. Every moment of the brutality was caught on film.

 George Floyd may have been the death heard round the world, but this is different. The footage from this was seen and heard around the world too, only this time, Trump was directly involved, and in doing so, has created an international incident that has received global censure. We have reached the point where government officials, of other countries, are openly trolling and just blatantly disrespecting the president, and his staff, on social media. Any kind of moral standing we ever had in the world, as a nation, has been entirely spent. Even the rest of the world are utterly sick and tired of this man, and are feeling free to express their contempt for American imperialism.

 There have been a lot of times, we’ve watched his actions and thought, “This is it, this is the last time he can do something like that. His term is now over.” But it never happened. This may actually be Trumps Baby Shield moment. At any rate, with every terrible decision he makes during this crisis, he insures the demise of his career.

I certainly hope so.

But, I’ve been wrong about that before, huh?

 

Just as his supporters mistake cruelty for honesty and bluster for courage, Trump has mistaken bloodlust for leadership. The bombast hides the fundamental truth that the president is a coward, so crippled by the fear of appearing weak that he screams for blood from the safety of his darkened White House, emerging only to gas peaceful protesters and clergymen in an attempt to look strong. He is incapable of understanding how further brutality fuels the unrest he has proved incompetent at confronting.

Adam Serwer: A Nation Without Law, Order, or Justice 

 

Lkeke35’s Hot Takes – Weekend Reading

I have a Tumblr blog where I follow certain people and conversations. I’m not on Twitter or Facebook ,as Twitter eats up far too much time, and Facebook is largley useless to me, for talking about issues. I talk about different things on Tumblr than I do here, and I noticed my manner there is more blunt and direct than here. I feel like when I’m on there I need to say what I need to say as fast and with as much clarity as possible, not like here on my own blog, where I can take my time to make my point.

On Tumblr, I can send some quick missives off into the ether, and maybe I’ll get  some feedback, maybe not but its a good way to dash off some thoughts about something before  forget what was being talked about. Here’s a few (largely unedited) hot takes I made in response to whatever issues were being talked about on my dashboard.

Tired Of Superheroes

These are just the thoughts that occurred to me after I had a conversation with a friend of mine (who is white, btw), and she and I got into a discussion about why she feels anytihng at all about movies she has no plans to ever see, and doesn’t care about. I’m genuinely baffled at the idea of people being angry about  certain types of movies getting released. My friend knows nothing about comic books, or superheroes, so I get her disinterest. If she said she didn’t care for the quality of such films, I would understand, but that’s not what she said.

I was having a conversation with a friend of mine yesterday,and she proclaimed that she was getting really tired of superhero movies, and that they should start making other films. I had to get on her case about that, because I’m pretty sure she doesn’t know how she sounds. Hollywood does make other kinds of movies, but people don’t go see those. She certainly doesn’t go see them. Maybe if she went to see the other kinds of  movies Hollywood makes, they would make more of those types of movies.

First of all how are you going to be mad about Hollywood making movies that you don’t ever go see, and are not particularly interested in? I mean how does it work that you’re upset that other people are making certain types of films popular. I also told her that these kinds of movies are still a relatively new thing, especially since the technology has caught up with out ability to imagine absolutely anything. Its really only been about ten years that this has really been kicking off, and that’s mostly due to the MCU.

Hollywood is going to keep making superhero movies as long as we keep giving them money and making them blockbusters. Now I happen to like superhero movies. I like their action, colors, and inventiveness. I prefer the comedies, and the straight up actioners, and I just enjoy watching the onscreen version of characters I’ve always only ever read about in books, and you know what? I simply don’t pay any attention to movies I’m not interested in. I hate watching Rom Coms, and Hollywood keeps making those, but I’m not angry they are making movies I don’t like. I just don’t go see those films. How you gonna be mad that other people are excited about movies you’re not interested in seeing? I’ve never understand that kind of thinking.

I also think it’s mighty funny that I’ve been hearing this refrain a lot more often, now that women, and poc are starting to get superhero movies made about their favorite characters. I’m not saying people who make such statements are racist, but it doesn’t look good, that the only time I hear so many people talking about how they need to quit making so many superhero movies, is when poc and women start to get theirs. When it was just white men, I heard this complaint a little bit, but not as much as I did after Black Panther was released. Now suddenly after Captain Marvel, and BP, Hollywood needs to stop making these types of movies.. That’s just an interesting observation.

 

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https://fangirlish.com/2020/02/04/queerly-not-straight-prioritizing-white-queer-couples-over-those-of-color/

 

White Feminism in Fandom

This is part of the continuing conversation to be had on Tumblr where we discuss intersectional feminism in movies and shows.This time it was about the treatment of Uhura, specifically her relationship with Spock, in fandom. Black women on Tumblr are forever trying to get white female fans to understand that the way Women of color are traditionally treated onscreen, is not the same as white women’s treatment,  and how the treatment of black female characters in fandom is often full of racist tropes. As white women you cannot demand the same things of Black female characters that you can of white ones.

What white feminists want is for black Woman to be”strong and not need no man”. Uhura is just supposed to be unloved and single, like she was in the original series, like every black woman in genre narratives. I’ve been watching the original series since I was a little girl.

Don’t get me wrong. I grew up on Spirk, I read a lot of Spirk, and that was my thing for two decades because I knew no one was ever gonna let Uhura be loved, but when I saw that JJ had went there in the new movie, I stood and I applauded.

As a little girl I used to dream about being as beautiful and elegant as Uhura, and I was sure I was gonna marry Spock when I grew up, and I finally got that representation at my old age, but I guess the dreams of little black girls don’t mean shit to white women who just want, yet another, after another, after another, mlm ship, in yet another show!

Teen Wolf, The Flash, Walking Dead, in every single show where there is a black female love interest with the white male lead, white women fans always show their whole duplicitous asses, about the black woman not being worthy of their white male love, and how she should be replaced with any compatible white woman, any same age white male he’s ever locked eyes with more than once, and even the villains who have tried to kill him, and his love interest, multiple times. We’re not talking about your individual ship, or attacking you personally. We’re telling you you need to examine why you need yet another mlm ship in yet another show or movie when fandom has dozens of such examples, all of that while ignoring canon male interracial ships, at that!

Why do all the ships need to be white!

This is a pattern across multiple genres, for more than two decades! This is racism!

Fandom is not the same for black women as it is for white women. The stereotypes for black women are the opposite compared to white women, though the objective of those stereotypes may be the same. Where white women get damseled, we don’t. We get to be strong onscreen, white women don’t. White women in movies get to be brides, while WoC only get to be side pieces, and murder victims.

Ship what you want, but be mindful of what you’re doing. Be mindful of how it looks to black women. Be mindful of what you say in defense of your ship when someone says something to you about. Our biggest issue isn’t always with the shipping you do, it’s the deceitful and racist manner in which y’all defend said ships that piss us the f*ck off!

(Spirk= Spock +Kirk; mlm = men loving men)

 

 

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/lets-talk-about-the-black-women-in-joker_n_5d9605dae4b0da7f6622abc7

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This was said during a discussion about how the failure of BoP at the box office,(which is not a compete failure, but that’s another discussion), is being spun by the “manosphere” to say that movies that include feminist thoughts and ideas, are all going to be failures. I think this is once again just part of white men’s agenda to only have films made that center them and their needs.

One of the  biggest complaints about BoP before its release was that none of the female characters were sexy. That said, the movie is unapologetically femme! So, the answer to that was “not sexy according to white men, no.” Now that the movie has under performed at the box office, these same men are using that to say that if the movie had given in to their demands to make the female characters sexier for men to look at, it would have done better.

Birds of Prey and Quality Films

So, because this movie isn’t doing as well at the box office as predicted, there’s been this gleefully obnoxious strain of thought, that the reason why the movie isn’t doing as well as the creators would like, is because of feminist messaging.

And I’m calling bullshit!

There’s a hundred different reasons why a movie could not do as well as expected, some of which we will never know. But some things we can, like Timing, people’s lack of money, it came out too soon in the wake of something else, not being shown in enough theaters, improper advertising, sometimes a movie is just plain bad, etc.

Any one of those reasons (or ones we don’t know) could be the reason this movie didn’t do well.

But there has been a concentrated effort on the part of comic book and superhero fanboys to denigrate this movie, on the basis of its “feminist agenda”, while calling it on its “quality”, which I say is utter bullshit.

There’s a good half dozen “feminist” movies  that have been released in the past ten years that everybody loved, and I don’t think that the reason people may have disliked this movie, is because of the messaging in its story. For one thing you have to pay money to see it, in order to know it’s a shitty film, but that’s not what the detractors have done. What they’re doing is claiming the story was so heavy with feminism that it was a bad story. Hell, Fury Road was one of the heaviest feminist films, I’ve seen in the past ten years, and there has been nothing to top it, and people loved the Hell out of that movie, considering it one of the best action movies of the past ten years. Captain Marvel has a blatantly feminist message in it and it made plenty of bank! Wonder Woman had a milder message in it, and it made bucks.

No, this type criticism is, yet another attempt, by comic book fanboys, to argue that feminism, and any form of social justice messaging, doesn’t belong in their precious superhero films. In fact, they would prefer that no PoC, and no women be involved in these movies at all, except as stereotypical sexy, love interests and sidekicks. Creators start making these types of fun stories with marginalized people in the center of it, and fanboys HAVE to object. Their objection to such material has become so routine that the rest of us no longer bat an eye at it anymore. We just expect it, and trot out the same arguments we used on all the other movies they objected to…and this is just the latest version of their near constant objection, to women and PoC working in genre movies.

Dozens of feminist movies get made every year. Some of them fall quietly, and no one says shit. Some of them blow up and win awards all over the place. But the only movies you’ll see a couple dozen Youtube videos about its feminist agenda are superhero movies. Fanboys have been trying really, really hard to vilify any form of social messages in genre movies. It’s a lot easier to do it with a movie like Birds of Prey, than Wonder Woman, which still has enough gratuitous prettiness in it to satisfy their little WW fap dreams. (But yeah, they definitely objected to WW real hard, too.)

Birds of Prey was hated for having a director of color, a cast full of diverse women, who were not trying to be sexy for the male gaze, and a cast of men not centered in the middle of the story, who were busily getting their asses kicked by said women. The movie being good or bad is not my point. My point is that whether it’s good or bad had nothing to do with its “wokeness”, which is another word (along with feminism) that’s being heavily vilified by white men in the mainstream media. There have been plenty of “woke” movies that fanboys haven’t said a damn thing about, it’s only when those movies contain comic book characters, or are products of their childhood nostalgia, that these men suddenly become deeply concerned with the “quality” of the movie.

I also know damn well they’re not sitting there clocking the story  and telling themselves it’s a bad story. They don’t give a flying f*ck about “story”! Not a one of them gives a fuck about the story when it comes to any of the movie franchises that have white men in the center of them, like The Transformers movies, those Kick Ass films, the last Batman or Superman films, the umpteenth iteration of Spiderman, the original Ghostbusters movies, or just about anything in the MCU.

No! the only time white men trot out ideas about “Quality” is when whatever they’re criticizing involves women and people of color. Funny that! From books, to movies, to job positions, etc. it’s really funny how the privileged are only concerned with the “quality” of something  when that something is not catering or servicing their needs…

Birds of Prey was aimed at white women, and women of color, and was meant to be a quick, fun romp, not too deep, a little violence and some asskicking. That it didn’t cater to the men’s needs when watching it, and was never aimed at men as its audience, let’s me think they definitely felt some type of way about it.

This disingenuous critical bullshit is yet another reason I do not trust white male critics to judge anything having to do with the field of entertainment, at this point. They have shown their whole, moon white, pale asses over every genre movie that features women and PoC, so damn often, and so badly, that their opinion about what’s good or bad, or what I should see in the theater is thoroughly suspect, now!

So, Fuck their sensibilities. They don’t give a flying fuck about quality. They only care about two things. Can they fap to it, and can they center themselves in the middle of the story as the hero!

 

 

 

*****************************

 

This was a response to some white guy on Tumblr who was upset about Black people not wanting to interact with white people, calling it racist to not trust them. This sounds exactly like men who are upset that women have difficulty trusting that men won’t hurt them and refusing to interact with them, because as men, they are individual,, special beings, that women  should be able to tell, just by looking, that they would never hurt anyone.

Habitual Foot Steppers

 

Every day, PoC in this country have negative, sometimes even violent, interactions with white people. Hell, they probably often have such interactions with members of their own culture, but it’s only white people, especially those who control mainstream public messaging through media, who are constantly advocating that white people are individuals who don’t represent their group, and need to be forgiven for those negative interactions, without a single one of them making any effort to bring those types of interactions to a halt.

In fact, many of them will simultaneously argue that not only should such actions be constantly forgiven, overlooked, or gotten over, they will also insist those interactions don’t happen at all. It’s the equivalent of people stepping on your foot every time they see you, and when you complain, or tell them to stop it, them telling you they didn’t do it, to prove they didn’t step on your foot, and it didn’t happen because they didn’t notice it, or intend to do it. You would naturally be well within your right to not only avoid that people in the future, and probably be more than a little pissed that they didn’t listen to you when you told them they hurt you.

All these different people, from the same cultural group, insist on stepping on your feet, while proclaiming loudly to their audience that not only didn’t they intend to do it, that it’s not hurting you, they didn’t actually do it, and you’re too sensitive and should get over it. And when you get angry about it and avoid them and express resent,ent over their behavior, they call you a racist, for not trusting them, and deciding to protect your feet by avoiding them.

 

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These are some of the hot takes I left on Medium.com. This one was about men who think, if they pursue a woman hard enough, long enough, she will eventually give in to his desires, and this is an idea that is prevalent in Pop culture media.

Stalking for Love

One of the reasons some men are like this is because they are socialized to do so, from the moment they start consuming the culture. Songs after song, books upon books, movie after movie, and TV shows after show, are really good at imparting one major message. That women are prizes given to them for persistence, correct behavior, owning the right car, shoes, house, and sometimes just for having a penis!

They have been shown again and again, that if they pursue a woman hard enough, stalk her long enough, just keep asking, and asking, and asking, they will eventually wear her down, she will reach enlightenment, and of course, dispense her charms. “No”, in Pop culture, really just means, “Not right now.” or “Keep trying!” This is what they’ve been sold, and you can tell which ones have fully bought it, because they are the ones who get enraged when women go off-script.

They are behaving exactly the way they’ve been taught to behave, having fully, and uncritically, drank the Kool-aid, that persistence wins the girl. Almost nothing in our culture tells men they need to have the correct character, or hold certain virtues. Too much of Pop culture teaches men that they don’t have to be genuinely good, or kind, or gentle men, to attract women. They are taught that women are fickle creatures that need to be tricked, or hounded into wanting them.

This is not a hard and fast rule because there are plenty of men who have, somehow, managed to avoid this kind of thinking, but it is definitely an element in the thinking of these kind of men. I don’t think there is a causality, so much as a life long influence.

 

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White Fragility

These responses I wrote as comments on Medium.com.

Both of these responses ended up being tangentially related to each other. The first  was a response to an article about White people’s hypocrisy in calling PoC racist, whenever we express any form of unhappiness (or sarcasm) at the existence of White people in a public sphere. I  remember that Asian woman who lost her journalism job over tweets she made years ago, where she joked about white people. It is important to keep in mind that these people are reacting to things that progressives have been doing, and its been the tactic recently of marginalized people not  just to  talk back to the kinds of people who victimize us on social media, and in public, but to see that such people be ostracized by society, by contacting their families and employers.

This particular article was about a young African American woman, who made a public statement about there being too many white people in her college’s Multicultural Center, and white (mostly men) opinionators in the news media, having a full on meltdown,  and calling her a racist. For the record, I think what she said was kind of stupid, but it doesn’t make her a racist. It just makes her very young and silly.

Since reactionaries have a tendency to lack imagination, they have this nasty thing where they appropriate the tactics that have traditionally been used by marginalized people to fight their oppression. Its especially galling when such people use those same tactics against, not just the people who invented the tactics, but whom they have traditionally bullied. Marginalized people invented the tactics out of desperation, to teach a lesson, or to make the harm  they cause have consequences, but what reactionaries are doing (as so much of their behavior is often motivated)  out of pure spite.

1.

I definitely think this is a backlash against white people being called out for everything they’ve gotten wrong for centuries. They’ve  been calling everyone who isn’t white, straight, or a man, nasty slurs, since the invention of American English. They still do that on the regular today, and these same people are the ones who like to argue about saying the N*word, but let some anonymous black girl make a dubious statement, and they lose the entirety of their shit! I’d be angrier, except it’s amazing to behold.

But then: Never, in the history of this country, have white people been spoken back to, and challenged, by marginalized people, in such great numbers, as much as they have, since the invention of the internet.

(Every time they say anything, they are reminded that white people have caused an incredible amount of damage to other people, and are still doing it. No one likes to be called out for behavior they have always known is wrong, but are  reluctant to change, because they derive  emotional benefits that they are unwilling to acknowledge, what Du Bois called “the psychological wages of whiteness.”)

And this isn’t like before, where your garden variety white person was largely unaware of all this “talking back”, and could simply quash any talking back, they encountered by screaming, and extreme violence. Now its impossible to not know how marginalized people feel, and our pushback against oppression, and injustice, is often immediate, and intense. They are working desperately to reestablish their equilibrium, by upholding the status quo. But someone once said to me, that’s what Conservative means: to conserve. To keep things as they were.

They’re so used to simply ignoring any form of oppression, but now it’s constantly being thrown in their face. They can’t ignore it anymore. (This is mass white fragility (rather than individual).

2.

I commented on this very thing in another post. I think it’s time for us to stop focusing so much on just black pain and racism. Although we can still make such stories, I think it’s time to start imagining ourselves in new environments, new types of stories, and in the future, which is why I’m a huge supporter of Afro-Futurism.

Part of the reason white fandom acts the way it does is that so often, those have been the only type of stories they’ve been exposed to, in mainstream media. Black people know there are other types of fun, lighthearted Black oriented, movies out there, that are not associating our race, yet again, with crime and slavery (even positive depictions still associate our race with these two topics). These are often the only ways that white audiences know us, even though we can list a dozen or more films about Blackness that don’t center either of those.

I think part of this is also a “white lash” against the pop culture demands of black people in the past ten years, demands which are finally, slowly, being answered. I know it’s not because we’re taking over white characters roles, because even with original roles, in original stories, black actors get harassed and vilified by white fandom. So it’s not about any of the reasons they state, and in quite a few cases, it’s simply an excuse for some of them to engage in the anti-Black bigotry they’ve always wanted to express, in the real world, but can’t do so without being called a racist bigot. I think that’s something that’s never going to change.

It’s because Black People are being highly visible, everywhere, and demanding, not asking, not begging, to be included in any industry that takes our money. We are demanding they include us, or we will give our money to someone, or anything else, or make our own, and rake in that dough (look at Fenty Beauty!)

There’s also an increasing sense of white male irrelevance, which is the kind of backlash that happens, every time there’s a pop cultural shift of any kind. This sort of behavior happens every time white people start feeling like they are no longer in control of the culture. It’s happened in music for nearly a century (Jazz, Rock, Rap). This is also currently happening in even the most innocuous subjects, like the knitting community, and Romance fiction.

I’ve been thinking about this, studying this, and trying to put it into some kind of historical context, for a while. This kind of behavior from (primarily) white people is far from new. It’s been going on for decades.

Next week:

We will return to our regularly scheduled programming, wit hsome actual essays and reviews!

Laughs For Your Weekend

 

Well, this was a nice photo to greet me on my Tumblr dash. The first shot of Misty Knight with her new Prosthetic arm. Now its not the golden one from the comic books (maybe we’ll see that one later?), but I can see these shows leading to another teamup called Daughters of the Dragon, which stars Misty and Colleen Wing, or even a version of Heroes for Hire.

I still don’t like the idea of a relationship between Danny Rand and Misty, which is what happened in the comic books, but these shows have been changed enough from canon, that that may never come to pass onscreen (and the two of them are no longer together in the comic books, as of a couple years ago.)

This is a scene from season two of Luke Cage, which I’m really looking forward to. It’s unclear if Misty is still a detective, but she’s still hanging with the heroes. I do still  prefer her bouffant from The Defenders, though.

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*Like we need drugged up dolphins. They’re bad enough sober…

nyilams

did u kno dolphins puff puff pass:

 

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You have to read the entire thread this came from. I can guarantee, after you read it, you will never again watch this video without thinking about it. NSFW!!! This whole damn thread, including the comments will have you crying at your job.

The Brrrrddott part had me in tears!

 

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*Welp!

slimetony

Hey people who know astrology shit. I’ve been having a lot of feelings lately. Any planets I can blame that on.

 

chandra-nalaar

Earth

 

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*I think this pretty much sums up the entirety of this blog!

andieblogs reblogged from

saltmaven

me: man i love this series

me: here’s a 40-page annotated essay on everything i hate about it. every misstep i believe the creators have ever made, complete with citations and a signed drawing of me punching the installment i hate the most in the face

me: still love it tho

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*This squirrel discourse is truly what Tumblr is all about!

 

teamnowalls

like u ever seen some squirrels fightin in a tree and then one of them will chase the other out of it and keep the fight going in another tree like damn b you won YOU WON MY NIGGA CHILL

 

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*Shit, I would smack Taylor Swift, Kim Kardashian, and Kendall Jenner,  for just 8 dollars, 35 cents, and the entertainment factor…

Plenty of others seem to agree.

rihsusvevo

I would do it for free tbh

doomfistsbabymama

*I would pay $5 to slap the shit out of her

 

africanaquarian

I’d smack her for a hershey cookies n cream bar

 

onlyblackgirl

I’d do it for free

Originally posted by ihiphop

 

untilstarsfall

I’d slap her for free and collect the money regardless tbh

 

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*This man is speaking my life…

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*I love Black people…!

dynastylnoire

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*This post would not be complete without some Iron Fist/Danny Rand shade…

allmisfittoyswelcomehere asked:

Danny rand is a Chihuahua: 50% unnecessary anger and 50% shaking

😂😂😂 although honestly I should be offended on behalf of Chihuahuas.

 

 

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*I miss SNL, sometimes. This had me laughing so hard, I needed some aspirin…

 

“Do I get stress headaches at work? Yes, definitely. From the moment I get in, it’s “Denise we need this! Denise we need that!” Which is stressful… ‘cause my name is Linda. Denise is the other black woman that works here.

By 10am, someone in the copy room makes a joke about Kobe Bryant, and everyone looks at me to make sure it’s ok. And I smile like it’s ok. But really, my head and neck are starting to throb.

Then I spend the rest of my afternoon training my interns, and answering their questions, like, “Yes, black people use shampoo”, and, “No, I don’t know any good reggae clubs around here”, and, “Yes, Condoleezza Rice is very articulate, why do you sound so surprised?” And, “No, I can’t tell you where to buy weed!” And that’s when I reach for Excedrin.”

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*Okay, I also propose we just start doing this to every White person that does this thing…

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*Yeah, I asked myself these questions, too. Who gon’ turn down Malala, The Nobel Peace Prize winning teenager?

foreverravenclaw

Okay of course I’m happy that Malala got accepted to Oxford, but I really want to know more!

What did she write for her personal essay- “Just google me bitches”?

Did she have to do an interview and if so did she just plonk her nobel peace prize down on the table?

Did her student counselor advise her to apply to other crappier places just in case she wasn’t accepted?

Was there anyone who actually turned down freaking Malala Yousafzai, I need to know!!

 

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*Here, have some funny photos. Feel free to caption any or all of them

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“What if a white guy played Black Panther?: The Fake Concern of Fake Geek Guys — Stitch’s Media Mix

Whenever I talk about racebending as a concept when it comes to comics and comics-related properties, smartasses always show up to say something snarky like “what if Black Panther or some other Black hero were a white guy”. They crowd into my mentions or any comment field they can get a hold of, trying to […]

via “What if a white guy played Black Panther?: The Fake Concern of Fake Geek Guys — Stitch’s Media Mix

 

**And for further reading, the distinction is that Whitewashing is bad and Racebending is okay, and here is why:

Dear Comic Fans: We Get it. You’re racist and racebending scares you.

The Incomparable Differences between Whitewashing and Racebending

Whitewashing vs. Racebending: Yes, There is a Difference

https://moviepilot.com/p/how-whitewashing-does-and-doesnt-affect-movies/4112605

https://www.theodysseyonline.com/whitewashing-racebending

 

**And further readings on Race and Media for the weekend include a description of harassment in the Art world,  for speaking the truth, which is important to me because I’m an artist.

This ties into America’s general belief that History was all White, and that PoC played no part in European History at all. As Dr. Who said, “History has been whitewashed!” And yes, I blame Hollywood, and America’s  general historical ignorance. It’s this ignorance of the part PoC played throughout every era of human history that leads to cries of “Historical Accuracy” every time a Black person wanders into the orbit of, not just historical films, but any Fantasy films that have a foundation in European folklore.

https://hyperallergic.com/383776/why-we-need-to-start-seeing-the-classical-world-in-color/

https://www.artforum.com/news/id=68963

 

**And on Race and Fandom Wankery…Stop It! Fandom is every bit as racist as non-geek culture, but Klandom thinks it’s better at disguising it. There has also been some confusion about patterns of implicit racism vs calling individuals racist.

Thinking that you are personally being called out on your racism is basically the Racism 101 approach to this topic,  because we’re not talking about individual people, although individuals may be used as examples of what were drawing attention to.

The discussion that PoC and LGBT people are having is from the 401 Class, and seems to be over quite a few people’s heads. We’re discussing patterns of behavior across multiple platforms. We’re not talking about a handful of bigots, writing stories we don’t like, but  about hundreds of people across fandom engaging in the same behavior, and then making the exact same excuses for their behavior, over and over again.

We are supposed to be the most progressive and transformative community in pop-culture.

nyxelestia

We who…

• Hyper-focus on white, male characters
• Contort these male characters into heteronormativity
• Marginalize and erase characters of color
• Write out women and replace them with men, especially in shipping
• Attack women for “getting in the way” of our preferred ships
• Hold female characters to higher standards than male characters
• Hold characters of color to higher standards than white characters
• Latch onto any single excuse to marginalize female characters
• Utilize any single excuse to demonize characters of color
• Put women on pedestals and act as if we’re doing them a favor
• Justify white and male abuses or dismiss them as “mistakes”
• Use actual mistakes to denigrate female and non-white characters
• Romanticize white, male pain and mental illness
• Expect female characters to perform all the emotional labor
• Expect characters of color to be perfectly mentally healthy forever
• Expect everyone to subsume their own mental health for the white males’
• Dismiss the traumas and experiences of characters of color
• Minimize the achievements of female characters

And then we wonder why mainstream media is so regressive, especially compared to us. We all talk as if mainstream media creators are behind the times.

They’re not.

Fandom likes to imagine itself as being progressive because of all the slash – a mechanism of progress which conveniently boils down to extra attention on overwhelmingly male (and overwhelmingly white) characters. This form of progress is one which takes a minor deviation from the social norm (homosexuality), only to end up ultimately supporting or even amplifying the status quo, by virtue of over-focusing on male characters (and over-representing white ones in the process).

Strip back that gay window dressing, though, and you’ll see that at best, fandom is just as socially stagnant as mainstream media and mainstream culture – or even worse, by virtue of engaging in media that overwhelmingly sidelines several other marginalized groups in order to prop up one.

Professional women have long known the old adage, “Whatever women do they must do twice as well as men to be thought of half as good.” What no one seems to realize is that fandom is still doing exactly the same thing.

We expect female characters to be twice as good for half the acclaim, we expect characters of color to be three times as good for a third of the acclaim, and we let white, male characters be only a quarter as good for four times the acclaim.

Mainstream media is keeping up with the times and with social progress just fine, it’s us who’ve deluded ourselves into believing that we, as a community, are more progressive than we actually are.

 

 

And Danae Guriria lays it out:

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From: mindizmyspear

**And on Hollywood Erasure. This topic is especially interesting to me becasue I know there were Black cowboys. When Slavery ended, a lot of Black people fled West, rather than North, which is how and why there are so many black people in places like Minnesota, Oklahoma, California and a huge Black population in Texas. I know there were Black Cowboys (and many many Mexican ones) but this is something most Americans don’t no about due once again to Hollywood Whitewashing. The remake of the Magnificent Seven is a lot more historically  accurate than the original.

Although the reception of that movie proves one more thing to me, that Denzel Washington can make whatever the Hell movie he wants, and no one will criticize him for historical accuracy. Apparently, he belongs in any era he wants.

 

black-to-the-bones

The LIT History Series is for the Legends, Innovators and Trailblazers that have shaped our culture.

It is widely believed that the “Lone Ranger”, the famous cowboy of the TV show and the movie, was inspired by a Black man named Bass Reeves.

Reeves was born a slave, but he escaped to the West where he eventually became a Deputy U.S. Marshal, an expert marksman, and a master of disguise with his Native American sidekick. Blacks were a huge part of the Western frontier despite what’s told to us in pop culture or taught to us in the classroom. “The kids who are learning history in our schools are not being told the truth about the way the West was,” says Jim Austin, founder of the National Multicultural Heritage Museum. “I bet you nine out of 10 people in this country think that cowboys were all white – as I did.” (x)

Cherokee Bill, born Crawford Goldsby, was a notorious outlaw whose father was a Buffalo Soldier. His reputation and career as an outlaw rivals the reputation of Billy the Kid. Bill Picket was a “famous” Black cowboy who toured the U.S., Canada, Mexico, South America, and England, and he was inducted into the National Rodeo Hall of Fame 40 years after his death. (x)

And black cowboys are still here, they do exist.

That’s a huge part of history that was also erased from the history of America. We need to bring attention to this, because it’s unfair that black people along with other people of color have been erased from this narrative.

Source

 

Black Panther (The Reaction)

*From Dark Matters Blog, a collection of video reactions to the Black panther trailer. you gotta watch these. They will make you smile:

via The Diaspora Reacts to the Black Panther Teaser Trailer on Youtube! — Dark Matters

 

*Yeah, I don’t think people are realizing what a groundbreaking moment this is for us. Just like Wonder Woman brought so many women to tears, this seems to be having the same effect on those of the diaspora. Here on this blog, I’ve often jokingly referred to the release date of this movie as, The Ascension.

I don’t think people fully and completely realize just how much visual media matters. How much it has not just reflected the world, but shaped it, and made the world what it is. Those of us who know this realize the impact that movies like Ghostbusters, Wonder Woman and Black Panther can have.

I want Asian-American men and women, LGBTQ, Latinx, Native Americans, everybody to have this same amount of representation in movies, and get it all the time, so that movies like Wonder Woman, Suicide Squad, and Black Panther are not outliers.

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Here are some more reactions from Tumblr:

unclesteeb

Idk what the appropriate level of emotion is when you’re in a fandom already but y’all I keep bursting into tears seeing all these beautiful edits and gifsets of black panther

This movie is so important. It might be the most important superhero movie of all time. Think of all the black children who are treated like shit from the world around them walking into a movie theater.

This is the movie we need.

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*From behind the scenes:

 

 

 

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*Wonder Women is accessible to ALL women, but it’s not FOR WoC in the same way that it’s for White women. I want White women to have that moment when you’re sitting in a movie theater in tears because you’re so happy. I also want everybody else to have that moment. That said,  I also want for people to just  let us enjoy this time, and to come out in support of this movie the way we came out for WW.

geeky-galpal

Dear white women feminists who loved Wonder Woman–

Listen, I also loved Wonder Woman. But I also think that Diana would be the first to note that we are not free until we are all free. So if you posted a thousand times about how important WW was for little girls to see, then I hope you are also prepared to post a thousand times about how important the new Black Panther movie is for black kids- girls and boys- to see.

I saw Wonder Woman, and I teared up the first time she stormed the battlefield in her full regalia. But, as a black woman, I couldn’t not notice that the women who looked like me played supporting, and largely non-speaking, background parts. Black Panther is the chance for women who look like me to see ourselves as the heroes in our own story. To see ourselves as warriors, as epic royalty, as fully actualized superheroes. In a major studio blockbuster, no less. Never- not ever- has that happened before.

We are looking forward to your support.

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disastergeek

I am all about Wonder Woman and I am definitely all about Black Panther.

But mostly what I really want is a WOC superhero movie. Every woman and every girls should feel what I felt watching that movie and while the gender is the same, race does matter. REPRESENTATION FUCKING MATTERS.

I want black and brown girls to see someone just like them playing the hero. I want them to look at that screen and say, “She’s me!” Because it matters.

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kamala-khan

so as it turns out, there is no such thing as superhero movie fatigue. we all just tired of watching the same white dude in the lead.

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 *Whatcha wearing to The Ascension?

pwussywillow

y’all gon see me walking into theater in full dora milaje gear on opening night for black panther

the-thotyssey

im making my auntie tie my head wrap so i can sit in front of white people and block the screen

pwussywillow

when they ask you to take down your head wrap, turn them, smile and just say “reparations” and go back to watching the movie

moonisneveralone

It’s gonna be cold as fuck here but I’m gonna be in full kente and a headwrap.

 

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From John Boyega, whose movie, Pacific Rim II, drops in March of 2018.

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tittytenda

me presenting my 56 slide , 2 hour long presentation on why everyone is gonna watch black panther and im not gonna hear any complaints from ANYONE  bc we all know that its gonna save the MCU:

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*And from the trailer:

 

And in the “This Is Ridiculous” Column:

I just want all of y’all to be prepared for a full eight months of White noise, gibberish, and tears, as racist cockroaches come out of the woodwork to crawl all over Black people’s happiness.

There’s a certain type of White bigot who sees Black people (any race of people that’s not them, really) being happy about something that’s important to them, who  will then go out of their way to throw water on them.

 

Y’all knew this was coming tho’. As soon as all of America got to see the trailer during the NBA finals, that was the cue for the White whiner to go into danger mode like:

 

 

 

But I’m not letting these people take away my joy, and neither is anybody else. We just gonna, in the immortal words of Taylor Shifty, “Shake it Off”:

 

Okay, I’m still a bit giddy, as you can tell. Later, I’ll have  something a little more substantial to add to this conversation, as I give those of you who do not read comic books, but  are still excited about this movie, the Black Panther 411.

The Racism in Fandom (Do I Really Need to Number This One?) Chronicles

This is PoC at this point.

Fantasy Writer N.K. Jemisin Explains the Rise of Racism in Fandom

I’m going to start this off with a quote from Chip Delany, writing in the essay “Racism and Science Fiction” which was published in NYRSF in 1998. It’s online, you can look it up.

“Since I began to publish in 1962, I have often been asked, by people of all colors, what my experience of racial prejudice in the science fiction field has been. Has it been nonexistent? By no means: It was definitely there. A child of the political protests of the ’50s and ’60s, I’ve frequently said to people who asked that question: As long as there are only one, two, or a handful of us, however, I presume in a field such as science fiction, where many of its writers come out of the liberal-Jewish tradition, prejudice will most likely remain a slight force—until, say, black writers start to number thirteen, fifteen, twenty percent of the total. At that point, where the competition might be perceived as having some economic heft, chances are we will have as much racism and prejudice here as in any other field.

We are still a long way away from such statistics.

But we are certainly moving closer.”

 

N.K.Jemisen, Leslie Jones, John Boyega, Candice Patton

Danai Gurira, Nicole Beharie, Lucy Liu

http://observationdeck.kinja.com/pop-discourse-the-state-of-black-female-characters-in-1725969028/1725979051

@

@

*We’re going to be hearing a lot about this topic, as next month is Asian American ,and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. The Model Minority Myth has often been used as a way to silence Black Americans from speaking out on their own oppression, as it was invented as a way for White racists to escape culpability for their behavior, and ignore systemic racism, by “pretending” to elevate another racial group to favored status. I say “pretending” because White people don’t actually care about Asian Americans either. The MMM has been used as an excuse to ignore social issues within Asian American communities.

The real fallout from the Model Minority Myth for Asian Americans:

Zack isn’t a new breed of Asian-American. It’s just that Zack and the millions of others like him are rarely seen in Hollywood movies. It was 1987 when TIME ran its cover story, “Those Asian American Whiz Kids,” which chronicled the academic prowess and affluence of American-born children of Asian immigrants. It was a flashpoint for Asian-Americans at the time, who became aware of their image as the “model minority” (a term which first appeared in the New York Times in 1966). A follow-up in 2014 revealed things hadn’t changed: “The belief in a blanket Asian-American culture is so thick that it has resulted in confusion when Asian-Americans deviate from the model minority myth,” wrote journalist Jack Linshi. “[T]hose who display that diversity are often perceived as exceptions.”

This misperception that Asian-Americans are naturally gifted and succeed more has been devastating for the psyche; the Counseling and Mental Health Center of the University of Texas at Austin purports Asian-American students are “more likely to seek medical leave, more likely to go on academic probation, and are less likely to graduate in four years.” The university has statistics to illustrate the crippling pressure: 33 percent of Asian-American students drop out of high school. Asian-American students were likely to report stress, loss of sleep, and “feelings of hopelessness” but “were less likely to seek counseling.”

And not all of them have the resources to seek help: 11.8 percent of Asian-Americans live below the poverty line. The model minority monolith ignores Asian-Americans from less-prosperous regions. A national report in 2015 revealed that those of Cambodian, Laotian, and Hmong heritage “earned bachelor’s degrees at a lower rate than the national average.” In 2013, The Myth of the Model Minority author Rosalind Chou told NPR “there are consequences to living in a country with a racial hierarchy,” to which Sharon H. Chang argued in ThinkProgress results in complete and total invisibility, even within one’s own minority group.

“‘Power Rangers’ and the Realness of Poor Asian-Americans,” April 6 2017

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*This one was a topic that I’d both noticed and didn’t notice. I’m one of those women who are somewhere in the medium brown category, so the only time I ever noticed colorism, was when I noticed how I was treated when I was around girls with lighter skin. I kind of knew, but didn’t,  that girls who were darker than me got treated shabbily, but it didn’t really register until I saw the movie Dark Girls a few years ago. I couldn’t imagine how horribly the women in that movie had been treated, and I’m sorry to say I’d remained largely oblivious to it. I’m taking steps to correct my woefully ignorant stance on this issue:

The “Angry Dark Skin Friend”

There’s a common pattern in many forms of black media where there are 2 black female characters who are friends or sisters, one being lighter in skintone, while the other is darker. Even though darkskin and lightskin women form friendships all the time, the way they’re commonly depicted in Black Media is what stands out and perpetuates certain stereotypes:

1. in the film/show/etc, the main character/focus of the 2 is typical the lighter skin woman

2. this makes the darker skin woman the “sidekick”

3. the lighter skin woman is portrayed as prettier, nicer, “classier”, more reserved, and/or overall more likeable and desirable

4. the darker skin woman is portrayed as shady, mean, loud, desperate, abrasive, aggressive, and/or overall less attractive (many would say “ghetto”)

These photos show just a few examples that came to mind…

Coming to America (1988) – The darker skin sister was more desperate for a man, chasing after Prince Akeem, Simi, and even her sister’s ex-fiancé. In the frame of society’s norms, this would be seen as “fast”, “tacky” or lacking in morals, which would therefore, make her less fitting to be a wife.

House Party (1990) – The darker skin friend (AJ Johnson) was the louder, more outgoing friend who was ready to date both Kid & Play, whereas Tisha Campbell’s character was more timid, and ended up being Kid’s “better suited” love interest.

Martin (1992-1997) – Once again, Tisha Campbell is playing the main female character, Gina Waters, and love interest to the main character, Martin Payne. While Gina is depicted as a kinder, classier, professional, “wifey” type, her best friend/assistant Pamela James, played by Tichina Arnold, is depicted as a loud, angry, man-less, berating black woman with “buckshots” and “beedeebees” in her “horse” hair, who was constantly butting heads with Martin.

Proud Family (2001-2005) – Penny, the lighter skin girl, was the main character with Dijonay, the darker skin girl, as the friend/sidekick. Dijonay had a less “traditional” name, as did her many siblings, was portrayed as louder, having more attitude, and was constantly chasing after Sticky, a boy who not only didn’t want her, but preferred the lighter skin friend, Penny.

Rick Ross’ Music Video for “Aston Martin Music” (2010) – In the early portion of the video, we see a young Ricky out on the block with other neighborhood kids, dreaming about owning a luxury car one day. Among the kids there’s 2 young girls, one darker skin and the other lighter skin. While the darker skin girl is quick to berate him and tear down his dreams of ever being that successful, raising her voice and waving her finger in his face, the lighter skin girl is quick to reassure him and support his dream. Once again, this display reaffirms the stereotype of darker skin women being mean, bitter, and angry, while lighter skin women are kinder, sweeter, and happier.

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*This person is reminding us all that at the intersection of race and sexual expression, there is a helluva lot of anti-Black racism, in the fandoms. As a straight, cis-gender, woman of color, who is supportive of these issues, I really do have to stay on top of of what these communities are saying if I want to be a good ally.  One of the ways I do that is by constantly reading, keeping informed on the subject, through the writings and speeches of those who are are actually experiencing it.

sapphicwocsource:

I’m really tired of white LGBT people sanctimoniously preaching to LGBT people of color what constitutes “good” vs “bad” LGBT representation. You expect us to put up with heavily white-dominated, often toxic and racist representation that harms us, in the name of progressiveness, but at the same time you turn around and make fun of our sources of representation and tell us that they aren’t “good” enough or don’t hold up to your racist, exclusive standards.

You’ll tell us to endure racist writing and racist white characters but then mock LGBT characters of color using all sorts of absurd reasons – “there wasn’t enough time for them!” or “they just aren’t realistic!” or “I’m going to rant about how a children’s cartoon is reinforcing bourgeois, imperialist conceptualizations of class”. You never give LGBT people of color a chance to celebrate the few sources of representation they have. You rant endlessly about white LGBT characters being tokenized or killed off, but when the same things happen tenfold to LGBT characters of color, who are also brutalized, fetishized, and sexualized by both their creators and their fandoms, you use all sorts of justifications to whisk away any criticisms LGBT fans of color have.

Stop telling us what to prioritize and what not to like. Stop making us feel bad for finding representation in sources that you might decry as not “good” or “intellectual” or “radical” enough for you. Stop condescendingly informing us that the shows we love are bad but that the shows you love are good using x circular logic.

You’ll celebrate 0.2 seconds of a same-gender couple’s appearance in a children’s movie (like Finding Dory) but if a show begins to flesh out a storyline for LGBT characters of color (as in The Get Down), you’ll say “lol Dizzee only kissed another boy for a couple seconds so it’s terrible representation and you’re an idiot for liking it”. You’ll lament Commander Lexa’s death but justify Poussey Washington’s death. You’ll fawn over Clarke Griffin but claim that Asami Sato is a “bourgeois light-skinned imperialist”. You’ll drool over Connor Walsh but call Magnus Bane “predatory”. You’ll say “lol Barb from Stranger Things is clearly a lesbian because she died” but remain silent when lesbians of color are brutalized or killed off. You’ll claim needing LGBT representation and use that as a reason not to watch shows with people of color in them but when The Get Down and Queen Sugar both have LGBT representation, you won’t say anything about them or give them the time of day. You’ll glorify Carol, which had sex scenes, but claim that The Handmaiden, which also had sex scenes, involved “the male gaze”. You’ll get angry at cishets for expecting us to put up with heternormative media but tell LGBT people of color to shut up when they criticize how white and racist LGBT shows are and how they alienate LGBT people of color.

And I am completely exhausted by this. It is not “divisive” or “whiny” of me to bring this up because guess what? White LGBT people use the exact same arguments against cishets when they talk about how “LGBT representation is unrealistic and blah blah blah”. Yet you turn around and pull the same line of rhetoric when LGBT people of color try and express themselves. You’ll either use our media (all the “foreign” LGBT movies that you watch and consume, all the iconic LGBT characters of color who broke boundaries and stereotypes, all the LGBT celebrities of color who are outspoken and compassionate, etc) without giving credit where credit is due, or you’ll tokenize our media, stamp it as not good enough, and glorify your often racist, exclusive, and frankly bad media and demand that we put up with it. It is immensely hypocritical, not to mention self-righteous.

And as a corollary, to the above, is a reminder that some shows and movies are engaging in little more than performative diversity. They don’t actually care about representation, but they do want the brownie points that come with doing the absolute bare minimum required to support inclusion. (We’re looking at you MCU, Disney, and DCEU!)

andhumanslovedstories:

There’s such a weird fixation in media about “firsts”. Beauty and the Beast boasting disney’s “first gay scene” is the one I’m thinking about in particular, and Power Rangers with the “first gay superhero”, and in both cases it’s a blink and you’ll miss it thing, something that maintains plausible deniability of queerness within the film itself, but establishing explicit queerness in everything outside the film. We know Lefou is gay because the interview told us he was in disney’s first gay scene.

And most of these discussions of firsts devolve into which first is first. Bill gets announced as the first gay companion on doctor who, and then follows the argument of whether Jack counts as companion, whether he was the first pansexual companion while Bill is the first gay companion, whether Amy or Clara was ever canonically bisexual and should that be a factoring in calculating firsts as well. (I remember a similar argument going on when Martha was announced as the first black companion, and people were like “but Mickey?” And there’s definitely commentary waiting about contentious Firsts and characters of color, but my white ass has nothing incisive to offer on that front except the hope we are kinder and better towards Bill than we were towards Martha.) And meanwhile, here is Bill, a black gay female companion, and while that fact has definitely not gotten lost, it is still very very cool and good that she is the companion even if she is not the Absolute First.

The language of Firsts is everywhere when you start looking for it, the idea that this show/movie/video game is doing something New Never Before Done Whoa Look At The Unprecedented Gay. And when this trend worries me, it’s because:

1) it gives off a strong whiff of performative representation, where the representation isn’t as important as people knowing you’re doing it

1a) the corollary being that the emphasis on First First First makes me worried that creators are not interested in Second Third Fourth. That having had the First *spins wheel, throws dart* Lesbian Asian Marvel character (a guest star in three episodes of the Defenders, maybe fifteen minutes, every gif set celebrating her has the same three quotes because that’s all there is), they are now exempted from every having to write a Second Lesbian Asian Marvel character. Because they already did that. Didn’t you see the article in Entertainment Weekly? It was a very big deal.

2) the trend of press on the First Gay Thing tends to vastly outscale the actually gayness, which traps us in an endless loop of hype and disappointment (versus Dumbledoring where the gayness is revealed retroactively for a previously ambiguous character or relationship, and it’s a weird combination of vindication because you thought they might be gay, surprise because you didn’t expect them to be gay, and disappointment because why didn’t the work just say they were gay)

And this, even more than the rest of this post, is a personal grievance but 3) queer fandom has spent decades finding representation in subtext, in coding, in wishful thinking and disciplined literary analysis of the text. This whole First thing seems come with a subtext that every other character who had significant ambiguous relationships, was flamboyant or butch, was in anyway queercoded? Not queer. This here is the first gay thing, and we’re very brave for being the first to have done it. Gay characters must formally come out to count.

Putting aside explicitly queer characters (which exist! Which have a history that creators and fans are welcome to build upon instead of thinking they have to invent gay representation every time they launch a franchise), queer history and queer art has always entailed writing and reading in between the lines. Which requires there be lines. If the new trend is unwritten in text, out and proud in press, what does that offer? I’m happy that Explicitly Confirmed Queer is a thing that’s happening, I very much am, but if a gay child who has never read a think-piece cannot recognize themself in your Brave Unprecedented Gay Character because they didn’t read your interview with the av club, then what use is that character? What was the point? What have you actually contributed to us?

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And finally, a clear illustration of the difference between racebending and whitewashing, since some o’y’all seem confused on the issues. (Also, I thought this article was really cute! Tag me! I’m the raisin in the bottom left corner.)

This is a jar full of major characters

Actually it is a jar full of chocolate covered raisins on top of a dirty TV tray. But pretend the raisins are interesting and well rounded fictional characters with significant roles in their stories.

We’re sharing these raisins at a party for Western Storytelling, so we get out two bowls.

Then we start filling the bowls. And at first we only fill the one on the left.

This doesn’t last forever though. Eventually we do start putting raisins in the bowl on the right. But for every raisin we put in the bowl on the right, we just keep adding to the bowl on the left.

And the thing about these bowls is, they don’t ever reset. We don’t get to empty them and start over. While we might lose some raisins to lost records or the stories becoming unpopular, but we never get to just restart. So even when we start putting raisins in the bowl on the right, we’re still way behind from the bowl on the left.

And time goes on and the bowl on the left gets raisins much faster than the bowl on the right.

Until these are the bowls.

Now you get to move and distribute more raisins. You can add raisins or take away raisins entirely, or you can move them from one bowl to the other.

This is the bowl on the left. I might have changed the number of raisins from one picture to the next. Can you tell me, did I add or remove raisins? How many? Did I leave the number the same?

You can’t tell for certain, can you? Adding or removing a raisin over here doesn’t seem to make much of a change to this bowl.

This is the bowl on the right. I might have changed the number of raisins from one picture to the next. Can you tell me, did I add or remove raisins? How many? Did I leave the number the same?

When there are so few raisins to start, any change made is really easy to spot, and makes a really significant difference.

This is why it is bad, even despicable, to take a character who was originally a character of color and make them white. But why it can be positive to take a character who was originally white and make them a character of color.

The white characters bowl is already so full that any change in number is almost meaningless (and is bound to be undone in mere minutes anyway, with the amount of new story creation going on), while the characters of color bowl changes hugely with each addition or subtraction, and any subtraction is a major loss.

This is also something to take in consideration when creating new characters. When you create a white character you have already, by the context of the larger culture, created a character with at least one feature that is not going to make a difference to the narratives at large. But every time you create a new character of color, you are changing something in our world.

I mean, imagine your party guests arrive

Oh my god they are adorable!

And they see their bowls

But before you hand them out you look right into the little black girls’s eyes and take two of her seven raisins and put them in the little white girl’s bowl.

I think she’d be totally justified in crying or leaving and yelling at you. Because how could you do that to a little girl? You were already giving the white girl so much more, and her so little, why would you do that? How could you justify yourself?

But on the other hand if you took two raisins from the white girl’s bowl and moved them over to the black girl’s bowl and the white girl looked at her bowl still full to the brim and decided your moving those raisins was unfair and she stomped and cried and yelled, well then she is a spoiled and entitled brat. 

And if you are adding new raisins, it seems more important to add them to the bowl on the right. I mean, even if we added the both bowls at the same speed from now on (and we don’t) it would still take a long time before the numbers got big enough to make the difference we’ve already established insignificant.

And that’s the difference between whitewashing POC characters and making previously white characters POC. And that’s why every time a character’s race is ambiguous and we make them white, we’ve lost an opportunity.

*goes off to eat her chocolate covered raisins, which are no longer metaphors just snacks*

Source: timemachineyeah

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tumblr Humor # 247

*Why does no one think it at all strange to be gluing appliques on their baby? And what about gluing shit on boys? How about little bow-ties, since we’re going for that whole gender essentialism thing?

brainstatic:

Tired of your baby girl being seen as a genderless imp? Afraid strangers might not recognize your sexless proto-human as the soft femme heartbreaker she is? Well now you can glue some shit on her head! That’s right, just glue some gender conformity right onto her unclosed fontanelle! Say goodbye to awkwardly explaining that no, despite her bald head, your androgynous poop machine is actually a demure coquette! Glue your fucking baby today!

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*Once I sit down in my house, that’s it! I’m not having any more interactions with ppl for the rest of the evening. And no, don’t  even be in my neighborhood.

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*I think it might have been a mistake for NASA to ask for suggestions on this. I mean they’re talking to Americans and I think we invented snark.

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*This is the most plausible explanation, I’ve ever seen, for why people don’t recognize Clark Kent as Superman, and its not the eyeglasses:

raptorific:

I still think it’s hilarious that the reason nobody ever figures out Superman’s secret identity or where he lives or what he does when he’s not saving the planet, is because he already told them all the Kryptonian stuff that can’t be tied to any of his human friends or family. I guarantee you the in-universe wikipedia article on Superman lists his name as Kal-El and the “personal life” section says that he lives full-time at his private fortress of solitude at the north pole. Nobody in the world looks at Clark Kent and thinks “oh my god, maybe he’s superman!” for the same reason nobody ever starts to suspect that their coworker who looks KINDA like Barack Obama is actually secretly Barack Obama – They know who Barack Obama is and know what he does and they know their coworker Greg is Greg and not Barack Obama. They have no reason to assume Barack Obama secretly moonlights as Greg The IT Guy at their workplace even though they’ve never seen Greg and Obama in the same place. At best, “Greg is secretly Obama” would be a running joke at the office, and the same is true at the Daily Planet. “Kal-El of Krypton, who lives in a CRYSTAL PALACE at the NORTH POLE and whose dayjob is SUPERMAN, sometimes puts on a suit and pretends to be a clumsy reporter and lives in a one-bedroom walkup in Metropolis” is a ridiculous concept to anyone who doesn’t already know it’s true

@unpretty

“Hey, that— that guy, in the corner, is that— is that Superman?” 

Clark looks up from his computer at the new intern. “Oh, no,” he says. “You caught me.”

“Clark, you pull this shit every time, man,” his desk neighbor Steve says. “Shut the fuck up.”

“No, the kid’s right, I’m Superman,” Clark says. He gets out of his seat and cracks his back out. “I guess we’re gonna have a superhero fight.”

“Clark, sit back down.”

“Nope. Superhero fight.”

“Clark if you don’t sit the hell back down and finish your article by lunch I am going to tell Perry on you.”

Clark points at the intern. “You get off easy this time, buddy,” he says, and sits back down.

“So…” the intern says, very lost. “Uh…”

“That’s Clark,” a slightly older and more experienced intern says. “He’s Superman’s asshole twin.”

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*This is, very possibly, one of the best reviews of Fences.  Ever! Or, as clueless White people at awards shows like to call it, Hidden Fences!

Art Art by John Ueland

 

Source:wreckamic

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And you know Black Twitter couldnt let that Hidden Fences comment pass:

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*And finally , I laughed too long and hard at this discussion, with Black people refusing to tell White people what “Take the L”, actually meant, and basically trolling  them.

poonpie:

dope-lore:

poonpie:

For those who don’t know, ‘take this L’ refers to the Longitude and Latitude of a map. When you have to take an L, you need to locate your Longitude and Latitude. By doing so you will discover how far out of your lane you fucking traveled.

I thought the L stood for log like logarithim cuz u gotta do a complicated problem to figure out who the fuck u think ur talkin too

You’re actually not wrong. Originally it referred to the Latin word ‘lūcidus’ which means ‘radiating light’. Therefore, when you need to take an L, you must enlighten yourself on where you got me fucked up.

Finn Meta Linkspam

Here are some discourses on my favorite character from Star Wars:

Star Wars, Finn, and Fandom Racism

 

We start with an admonishment to not be “That Person”.

thesovereignempress:

the-bi-writer:

this is a post for my fellow white star wars fans: we gotta do better. the treatment of Finn in the fandom at large has been dismal, both in obvious and insidious ways. so let’s talk about this.

quick note before we start: if you’re only here to argue, move on. if you’re already typing out a response beginning with, “not all white people,” don’t. however, if you’re interested in challenging your own biases, welcome aboard.

here are some harmful things white fans do, in regards to Finn:

1. we ignore him in fan works.

a quick check of ao3 stats shows that Hux (who has approx. 3 min of screen time) shows up in two thousand more works than Finn.

before you get defensive: no one’s telling you what you can and can’t write. however, as white fans we need to consider why we’re willing to go to the effort to imagine a rich backstory for a minor character we know almost nothing about, while ignoring the *actual* protagonist who already has a rich backstory of his own. (that protagonist is Finn, in case i was being unclear. Finn is a protagonist of Star Wars: Episode VII -The Force Awakens. Finn is a main character and co-lead. it’s Finn.)

2. when we do include Finn in fan works, we treat him poorly.

i’m going to stay in my lane on this one, and refer you to Writing with Color for more specifics on how *not* to treat black characters in harmful and/or stereotypical ways.

briefly: Finn is often hyper-sexualized (BBC, etc.) or pushed to the side by the narrative. additionally, very few fics, even ones with Finn in the main pairing, truly treat Finn as the protagonist of their fic.

i’m guilty of this myself, and i’m working on it. which is all i’m asking you to do: educate yourself, be willing to change, and then do it.

3. we underestimate his role in cannon

go read this post, and then tell me you haven’t been underestimating Finn from the moment he stepped on screen. i’d noticed almost everything the post points out, but chalked it up to plot holes, instead of considering that Finn (again, a protagonist) had been awake in the force since the beginning of the film.

that, right there friends, is racism.

tl;dr fellow white fans, we gotta do better. let’s take the energy we spend trying to convince people we aren’t racist…and actually be less racist. it’s our responsibility to examine our attitudes and change our actions. now is the time.

further reading:

here’s some excellent finn meta

here’s 5 tips for being an ally (video) by chescaleigh (Franchesca Ramsey) – her channel has a ton of other videos about race too.

here are a whole bunch of resources from Writing with Color, a tumblr “dedicated to writing and resources centered on racial & ethnic diversity.”

(feel free to add links + resources)

The thing is, if Reylo is your pairing and that’s the characters you choose to focus on – since that is how shipping works and as a reader I’m definitely going in for Reylo and other characters are secondary – what qualifies as “ignoring” or “pushing to the side”? That’s my issue with these talks about erasure and sidelining around Finn.

Lest it be misunderstood, I totally agree that we can be better at treating Finn in our fan works. I’ve seen him used in some uncomfortable ways. But there are some contradictions in this endeavor that tend to get glossed over.

I mean, no one is saying Finn should be the focus of fanfics about Reylo or other non-Finn ships. That doesn’t make sense. When we talk about Finn erasure, we’re talking about the bigger picture.

For example, if I go to the main TFA tag or the Star Wars tag, Finn is often nowhere to be seen. If I look for Finn (or even Finnrey or Stormpilot) fics, few that come up in the search are actually about Finn, making it difficult to find actual Finn content where he’s not a background character. When the title for Ep 8 dropped, There was a lot of speculation that The Last Jedi might be Ren and Rey as if Finn doesn’t exist. It’s not just in individual ship fics, if you look at many fan spaces, you would think Finn was a very minor character, not a main character. And that’s a problem.

We have to ask why Reylo and Kylux are the dominant ships while fics about Finn are the least popular. The question is not why aren’t Reylo and Kylux fics about Finn, it’s why are these ships exponentially more popular than ships including Finn and fics where Finn is actually a main character.

After a year’s worth of justifications that historically ONLY apply to white characters (fandom loves villains, the blank slate, etc) plus the fact that white heroes/protags are shipped like crazy, it’s clear that Finn’s blackness contributes heavily to his minimization.

Source: the-bi-writer fandom racism star wars finn

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*I like this essay talking about the narrative, and visual,  parallels between Finn and Kylo, and how the two of them are being setup as the primary rivalry for future movies.

http://assets.tumblr.com/assets/html/like_iframe.html?_v=399aee1ea58b6007c2190a8138f100e5#name=lkeke35&post_id=156921119116&color=black&rk=AQCCPUF0&root_id=156855600120

jawnbaeyega luminousfinn

skywalkerapologist:

luminousfinn:

The narrative arc The Force Awakens create between Finn and Kylo Ren is an interesting one. Visually it begins in the very first scene they appear on screen together at the assault of Tuanul village after the execution of the villagers that FN-2187 refused to participate in. When Kylo Ren is returning to his shuttle, he stops and stares at Finn for, at the time, no discernible reason.

In doing this the movie draws a visual line between the two men, connecting them in the audience’s mind and in-universe. One is dressed in black, the other in white, both are helmeted and faceless, but already we have witnessed the distinction between them and the movie spends the rest of its time emphasizing it: Kylo Ren will murder on a whim, while FN-2187 refuses to kill unarmed civilians.

After this “meeting” Kylo Ren maintains a distinct interest in FN-2187. So much that he not only knows that it was the same trooper which aided Poe in escaping, but that when he learns that Finn has got away with BB-8 he throws one of his two destructive rampages.

The other he has when Rey escapes captivity.

After this their stories part for a time, but only to be rejoined on Starkiller Base after Kylo Ren murders Han Solo.

After Chewie shoots Kylo, blows up the oscillator and everyone including Finn and Rey starts shooting, we see Kylo Ren kneeling on the bridge looking up. .

The camera cuts to an angle behind Kylo Ren’s head so we now also have Finn and Rey in the shot, both standing on a balcony in the background

Another cut, closing up on our two leads. This shows them both standing, looking down on Kylo Ren. Both look shocked and Finn is stepping forward on the balcony, towards the audience and more importantly, towards Kylo.

Once again the movie cuts and again it zooms in so that now Finn is in focus. His face merges from the shock and fear he has so far displayed, into grief, anger and determination. And throughout the shot he steps further and further forward while the camera zooms in on him, visually emphasizing him stepping into the conflict with Kylo Ren.

Rey is barely in the frame here and by the end of the shot she’s entirely gone, leaving her literally out of the picture.

Next cut is back to Kylo Ren, who is staring up at Finn. The way this sequence is cut together makes it startlingly clear that this is where he is looking and who he is looking at. Kylo’s face merges from surprise into unmitigated fury and hatred at the sight of FN-2187, the Stormtrooper who defected, who is everything he is not.

The whole sequence mirrors their first encounter with the two men staring at each other, though they’re now unmasked and we can see the mutual enmity clear on their faces. Finn is no longer running away, he’s stepping forward and the camera zooms in on Kylo’s face drawing him into conflict with Finn as well.

The movie sets up this conflict not just for the coming battle in the forest, but also for the next two Episodes as the battle between the two men is a draw. Finn is defeated by Kylo, but the Dark Sider does not obtain the lightsaber and is in turn defeated by Rey. Neither of them emerges a victor and the narrative conflict between them remains unresolved.

So whatever Episode VIII and IX brings, it is clear that Finn and Kylo will cross paths again and Kylo had better beware. To borrow John’s words: “Finn ain’t playing no more”, that much is clear from the scene in the oscillator.

Next cut is back to Kylo Ren, who is staring up at Finn. The way this sequence is cut together makes it startlingly clear that this is where he is looking and who he is looking at. 

This part is so important and yet flew over like 90% of the fandom’s heads in favor of focusing on Rey (gee I wonder why).

The shift in Finn’s expression from shocked grief to quiet rage reminds me of Luke’s reaction to seeing his aunt and uncle’s burnt corpses in ANH. Obviously Rey and Kylo will be squaring off again in VIII but TFA also made it clear that there’s some serious bad blood between Finn and Kylo that’s entirely separate from wanting to protect or recruit Rey. Which is why I roll my eyes when I see people claim that Finn is going to be shunted off to a B-plot opposite Hux (a character he never interacted with in TFA) and Phasma (who he literally threw in the trash).

Also, it’s worth noting that for the first time, Rey has to take Finn by the arm and pull him away.

Kylo was stumbling up towards them and I’m not convinced that Finn wouldn’t have tried to take him down right then and there.

finn meta to read

rebelfinn

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*Look, as far as I’m concerned Finn is Force Sensitive, and that’s that. He will be a  Jedi. I will wrestle you out of of your underwear, with your pants still on, if you disagree. Here, have some receipts:

Also, I just love this gorgeous essay on the parallels between Finn’s narrative and Arthurian legend.

jawnbaeyega adagalore

luminousfinn:

Maz giving Finn the lightsaber is noticeable for many reasons, not least of which because it happens twice and for all the Arthurian parallels surrounding the scenes.

 

The first time takes place just after the destruction of the Hosnia system which is what makes Finn return to Han (and implicitly to the fight against the Dark Side). At this point none of them knows that they’re about to be attacked themselves by the First Order, not even Maz.

Despite this she immediately upon Finn’s return  takes him, Han and Chewie into the cellar where she keeps the lightsaber. When she takes it out of the chest Han recognizes it and asks where she got it, she brushes him off and focuses on Finn.

Why Finn? Last she saw him Finn made it clear that he was leaving. Hosnia’s destruction marked a tentative return, but so far it is tentative. And wouldn’t Han a man who might not be a paragon, but someone she’s know for years, make more sense?

Her words as she passes it are ambiguous. “Take it. Find your friend.” And do what exactly? Give it to her? Use it to protect her? What? Recall, no one but Maz and Rey herself knows that Rey can use the Force at this point. In fact Finn is never told this in TFA.

In assorted other things the fact that Han’s attention shifts off Maz and onto Finn the moment she tells him to take it, but before she stops talking is interesting. His intent gaze on Finn as he makes the choice to take the weapon is mirrored in the second “giving” by Maz.

Maz too is looking rather expectantly as Finn reaches out and takes the lightsaber from her. The music that has so far been playing softly in the background swells dramatically the moment Finn’s hand touches the saber and mixes with the diegetic sound of an approaching TIE fighter as Finn raises the lightsaber as a young Arthur might Excalibur. The scene ends in a dramatic boom as the castle is struck just as we see Finn look at the saber with a serious face.

It is noticeable that Finn is so entranced by the lightsaber that he doesn’t seem to hear the incoming TIE. Not long before at Niima Outpost he jumped at the first sound of it, but here he’s oblivious to the noise.

 

Now before I go on to the second “giving” I’m going to make a small detour around Arthurian myth.

Much have been made of the Arthurian parallels in TFA. Kylo Ren as a Mordred like figure. Luke as either a Merlin or a fallen Arthur himself and of course Rey pulling the Skywalker lightsaber out of the metaphorical stone. But the Arthurian parallels have been ignored where Finn is concerned, especially when it comes to the giving of the lightsaber/Excalibur, because in Arthurian myths there are two kinds of givings of that sword. One is Arthur pulling it out of the stone which declares himself the true king of Britain, in the other it is given to him by The Lady of the Lake.

In both versions Arthur starts out as a youth of unknown parentage grown up fostered by strangers, just as Finn is. In the second versions Arthur runs into Merlin, often portrayed as an older, wiser man. Depending on the version Arthur either asks Merlin for help or about his future, in either case Merlin takes him to The Lady of the Lake.

The Lady depending on the version of the tale is either a powerful magical being or a High Priestess of Avalon. She proceeds to ask the young Arthur several question and put him through a test which he fails, but she sees that though he is not perfect he has a good heart and a true spirit. Realizing this she bequeath him Excalibur, the sword of the true king and the mark of a hero.

Maz is in a quite literal sense The Lady of the Lake. She a powerful alien, strong in the Force who has made her home on a lake.

Her initial interactions with Finn runs parallel with The Lady’s testing of Arthur, complete with Finn “failing the test” by choosing to leave. But in deciding to return to the fight Finn proves to The Lady of the Lake that he’s heart and spirit is true and so she gives him Excalibur (the Skywalker lightsaber) to wield.

 

That she means for him to wield it and not just as a caretaker becomes clear in the second “giving”.

When they exit the now ruined castle the dark forces are upon them and battle is joined. Maz once more tells Finn to go find his friends.

This time Finn has no intention of leaving proving him once more worthy of Excalibur and this time Maz’s words are unambiguous, she intends, and always intended, for him to be a wielder of the blade, not just a carrier.

As Finn again lifts the Skywalker lightsaber and this time ignites it, Maz look on with great expectancy clearly meant to mirror the audience. Will “Excalibur” accept Finn as its wielder? And will Finn accept the lightsaber as his?

At first we see doubt on Finn’s face, it’s an unfamiliar weapon and a Jedi’s weapon to boot. How can he wield this? But Maz believes he can and Finn is nothing if not up for whatever challenge life throws at him so he ignites it. The blade flashes to life in his hand, accepting him as a worthy wielder, and the moment it does Finn’s decision is also made. He may not be a Jedi (yet), but the sword is his.

 

tl;dr. There is a lot of Arthurian coding around Han (Merlin) bringing Finn (a young Arthur) to Maz (The Lady of the Lake), Maz testing him and in finding that he has a good and pure heart gives him the Skywalker lightsaber (Excalibur). The sword allowing itself to be ignited (drawn from the sheath) confirms Finn’s worthiness as its wielder.

Source: luminousfinnLISTENTHIS IS THE CONTENT FOR WHICH I AM HEREGOOD SHIT RIGHT HERE OKfinn factsfinn metafinn is force sensitiveboth rey and finn are gonna be jedi okchoke on THAT

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*I have a friend who insists that Finn was nothing more than comedy relief and refuses to move from the position that he is a “coon”, no matter how many valid points I bring up. I just don’t get it. Its obvious that she and I were not watching the same movie at all. But then, she and I aren’t in the same place on the idea of representation, either, which might be some type of generational thing. Also part of the problem is that a lot of Black people were expecting Shaft in Space. We already got all that with Mace Windu’s  purple lightsaber, so why copy that?

lj-writes

Finn’s subversive decency

Choosing to be kind is not choosing to be passive. It’s choosing to end the cycle of abuse… . It’s a courageous act in itself.

-Melissa Grey on Cinderella

It’s amazing to me how some parts of the Star Wars fandom have no sense of nuance when it comes to Finn’s character, seeing him as either a naive child who can hardly function in the real world or a ruthless killer who showed no regrets or conflicts whatsoever about killing his former comrades.

Both extremes are fairly dehumanizing and distorted portrayals of the actual character, because the core of Finn’s character is that he is innocent when he has no business being so. He’s a character whose innocence and purity are not oblivious naïvete but qualities he had to fight to keep and attain. His morality is not based on an ignorance of life’s harsh realities, but rather on an intimate knowledge of brutality and the will to break free of it.

Keep reading

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Oooh! More theory!

https://youtu.be/YByg2UoncBs

Tumblr Humor # 168

Here’s some good laughs for today, fresh from Tumblr and Medium.

I find the idea of Toast Jail inordinately funny!

trouserweasel:

LOOK THEY ACTUALLY DO HAVE TOASTERS WITH LITTLE WINDOWS SO YOU CAN WATCH YOUR FOOD GET TOASTED

it looks like toast jail

They’ve been taken into crustody…

bad and naughty slices

are put in the

These are their stories

CHNG CHNG

Source: trouserweasel

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OMG! Asian Americans are draggin’ Matt Damon on Twitter, because of his new movie, The Great Wall, and I am loving it. Personally I blame Constance Wu for being a good influence. Don’t get me wrong, I like Matt Damon okay, I just ain’t particularly interested in seeing Bourne Goes to China.

I knew Asian people had this level of snark in them! I just knew it! I’m so proud.

“We have to stop perpetuating the racist myth that only a white man can save the world. It’s not an actual fact,” Constance Wu wrote in a tweet criticizing the film back in July. “It’s not about blaming individuals. Rather, it’s about pointing out the repeatedly implied racist notion that white people are superior to POC and that POC need salvation from our own color via white strength. When you consistently make movies like this, you ARE saying that. YOU ARE.”

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I am totally here for TTI, or Tiny Turtle Investigator.

merosse:

TINY TURTLE INVESTIGATORS: THE CASE OF THE LARGE STRAWBERRY

GOOD MORNING EVERYONE

“HAVE YOU TRIED BALANCING ON IT, SIR?”
“YES OF COURSE I TRIED BALANCING ON IT JENKINS THIS IS NOT MY FIRST DAY AS A TINY TURTLE INVESTIGATOR”

THIS IS THE STUFF THAT TUMBLR NEEDS MORE OF

@tinyfierceandsassy quality turtle content!

(Source: animalkingd0m, via frominthemirror)

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 This is my aesthetic as regards the willfully stupid.

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I should not have laughed as hard as I did at this image.

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Uhmm, actually the idea that there might be a mobster under the bed, is still pretty frightening.

writing-prompt-s:

You realize you’ve misheard your daughter. There’s actually a mobster under her bed.

BADA BING BADA BOOM

I’M SLEEPIN HERE

(Turns on nightlight)

Voice from Under Bed: Eeeyyyyyyy pally what’s da big idea

(Parent looking around room) Voice from under bed: “Fuggedabout it”

“You didn’t see nothin’“

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There are people on the internet doing the Lord’s work of counting Tom Hardy’s grunts per film, so you dont have to.

Enjoy!

Goodbye Productivity: The Tom Hardy Grunt Counter is Here to Take Over Your Day

All the nonverbal utterances — so far — from ‘Taboo’ in one supercut.

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Caption these photos!

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Tumblr Politics: Laugh-In Edition

 

Yeah, there’s not much to laugh about these days politically, but what we can do is mock politicians and here’s a list of public mockings that occurred in the last few weeks.

*Yep, Tumblr and Twitter still can’t stand this woman, and we refuse to call her by her real name. Thanks Wale! You’ve given America no end of amusement.

Here Are (Most of) the Names Tomi Lahren Has Been ‘Mistakenly’ Called on Twitter

By Madison Malone Kircher

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*The Twitter responses to 45’s response to his court decision. I could make this up but then y’all would be mad at me.

Update: Trump, Clinton and more respond to decision 

• Since Trump’s victory, Hillary Clinton has mostly kept her opinions private. But after tonight’s decision she tweeted the following:

• “3-0″ marks the ruling of the three federal judges that made the decision.
• Clinton’s simple message of support for the court’s decision stood in stark contrast to Trump’s own reaction to the news.

• Twitter users didn’t hesitate to point out the irony of Trump’s message: After all, he had, in essence, just been in court. And lost.

• Read more (2/9/17 9 PM)

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*I’m pretty sure Netflix doesn’t give a flying shit about butt-hurt racists boycotting their streaming network because they don’t like some of their programming. I don’t know why they think this would even work. When there’s shit on Netflix that I don’t like, you know what I do? I don’t watch it. Why? Because there’s about a bajillion other things on Netflix to look at.

At any rate I’m always up for trolls getting trolled on Twitter.

delamind:

bellygangstaboo:

bellygangstaboo:

I am deceased

minor update:

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*Okay, this one made me laugh and cry. It really does feel like a break-up, doesn’t it?

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*When I first heard about this, I was just Wow! She just straight the fuck lying to our faces at this point. I have no more evens left. I just can’t. Twitter needs to drag this woman more often than it does. Well, in this political climate, people are definitely honing their Twitter skills.

 

LMAO Tumblr Day

*This just had me giggling all morning.  I’ve  loved Keegan Michael Key since his MadTv days.

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Snoop is so silly!

Btw, if you haven’t seen his cooking show with Martha Stewart, then check it out. Its a fun half hour, and the two of them have great comedic chemistry. They genuinely appear to be friends and like each other, which is kinda cute.

karnythia Source: weavemama

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Here’s some general tomfoolery on Twitter!

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*I love the little squishy in this picture. He reminded me of Gary Larson. He’s giving somebody the side-eye, tho’.

fruitsgood:

dawwwwfactory:

Mom’s potato staring at me across the room

this dog looks exactly like what renaissance era painters thought dogs looked like

 

*Does anybody remember the cartoonist Gary Larson. I have a bunch of his books in my collection,my all-time favorite is  titled  Wiener Dog Art.

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*I can’t even laugh too hard at this because I remember back in the seventies, everybody had this type of artwork on their walls in my neighborhood. I remember staring in fascination because one of my neighbors had a picture on his wall of a half naked Black woman with a giant black panther. It looked like it had been painted on velvet. I do have a special hatred for anything painted on velvet after that.

Ankh art

ankh-niggas-anonymous:

-naked black woman
-sometimes has third eye
-always light-skinned
-hourglass shape (maybe a fatter ass tho. maybe.)
-perky titties no matter what size
-huge afro or long locs
-always doing some ‘spiritual shit’ like meditation or praying or watever
-she not christian tho, cuz christianity is the white man’s religion
-always in some sort of ‘natural environment’ i.e. the woods, the ocean, the sky
-is mystical because???
-a picture of africa somewhere in the art, either as jewelry or a tattoo
-something about the woman’s vagina being powerful bc can Procreate
-in case woman is in a relationship, it is ALWAYS with a man
-the man is darkskinned
-the man treats the woman like royalty and/or goddess, but not like an actual person
-some fake deep statement??? that makes no sense whatsoever and actually goes against all logic and common sense

reverseracism Source: ankh-niggas-anonymous

See!

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*And lastly, I’d like to introduce all of you to The Liberal Redneck. He is one of the funniest White men on Youtube and one of the few White people who has managed to make me laugh about the upcoming wtf*ery that is US politics. Check out , and subscribe to, all his other videos on Youtube.

Tumblr Discussions # 192

 

*Nick Spencer is the current writer for the Captain America series, which I have not read. Earlier this year, he got into some fandom trouble for revealing Captain America to secretly be a Nazi. Then he put his foot in it again with Sam Wilson. Now I am a huge Sam Wilson fan, although I have not read the Sam Wilson version of Captain America. Apparently, he wrote a scene where a Black man apologizes to a White man for being socially active. And Spencer keeps up this trend of being an old White guy yelling at clouds, by mocking and deriding Social justice activists by  creating nasty caricatures of them:

thefingerfuckingfemalefury:

steviemcfly:

aka14kgold:

wetwareproblem:

lierdumoa:

hellotailor:

‘Captain America’ comic under fire for mocking social justice activism

Captain America writer Nick Spencer is no stranger to controversy, making headlines last year with the infamous “Steve Rogers is secretly a Nazi” plot twist. Now, he’s facing backlash for a satirical depiction of social justice activists.

During a standoff between the Falcon and a racist pundit, the comic introduces a stereotypical parody of young activists: a Z-list supervillain team of college students demanding a “safe space” on campus.

Spencer described the team as a lighthearted satire, but if so, that satire isn’t very effective. In a rather preachy tone, the comic presents a judgmental divide between two versions of anti-racist activism: wholesome heroes like Sam Wilson, and laughable weirdos who use words like “patriarchy” and try to blow people up.

It echoes the common misconception that social justice terminology belongs to a realm of Tumblr teens who get “outraged” as a kind of hobby, while reasonable adults provide practical solutions in the real world.

[READ MORE]

When a white guy, draws a black man apologizing to white man for possibly ever using the language of activism. That’s racist masturbation. pic.twitter.com/OTHHVWyrWw

Good article.

TL&DR: Comic artist draws comic equating criticism with terrorism. When met with further criticism, complains that “kids these days are so sensitive.”

Rule one of satire: Punch up.

Rule two: HOLY FUCKING SHIT do not write a PoC apologizing to a white dude for daring to have maybe possibly been an activist. Like. Holy FUCK.

(Rule three: don’t make a character created by a Jew a Nazi)

Seriously, this dude needs to be boycotted or something.

Dude needs to be fired. Out of a cannon. Into the sun.

It’s a pathetic example of some clueless imbecile playing “Respectability Politics” and trying to claim that there’s a “Wrong” way to be progressive or liberal

Or that there’s any such thing as going “too far” when it comes to opposing bigotry and fascism or that we should all just “Play Nice” and “Don’t fight hate with hate” and other such spineless garbage that pathetic cowardly moderates love to spout as they shout their cowardice and weakness to the world

This is the equivalent of Seth McFarlane or South Parks garbage excuse for “Comedy” that celebrates the status quo and acts like progressives and people who want positive social change are either laughable and stupid or else dangerous freaks who are “Just as bad” as actual fascists and bigots through some bizzaro troll logic that only some pathetic old white straight man could apply to a situation

And here we see Nick Spencer combine the worst of both approaches and give us THIS garbage that portrays activists and people who care about human rigths and social justice and oppose bigotry and fascism as being both ridiculous and to be mocked and also as dangerous weirdoes who toss grenades at superheroes

This is GARBAGE

It’s the right wing gutter trash that do shit like this. It’s right wing pieces of shit who commit hate crimes, bomb planned parenthood clinics and carry out atrocities like the shooting at the Pulse nightclub last year…but in the upside down world of Nick Spencer, spineless moderate douchebag, anyone who passionately and vocally opposes the bigotry and fascism of scumbags like that are apparently “Just as bad” and deserve to be mocked

And of course he uses a black character as a mouth piece for his anti-SJW bullshit to try and make it seem less blatantly like a boring old white straight man whining about “Kids today” and how awful it is that we don’t want to play nice with bigots

Playing nice gets you JACK SHIT, Spencer

The civil rights movement, stonewall, women getting the vote…none of these things happened because of us playing nice with the bigots and the fascists of this world.

Spencers writing is pathetic, unfunny and clearly an example of someone playing “Respectability politics” bullshit…you just know he’s the kind of pitiful twat who tries to win arguements with tired “Martin Luther King wouldn’t approve of this you guys” arguements whenever it comes to how to respond to social injustices

And holy shit having Sam Wilson apologise to some old white man if he ever sounded passionate and angry about civil rights (Because lol CARING about things is stupid right) is quite possibly the most disgusting and insulting cherry to put atop this shit sundae

Source: hellotailor

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*One of the more popular critiques of people who argue for representation, is the idea that they should make their own, which ignores that we do in fact make our own, but when the means of distribution is controlled by Straight White men, its extremely difficult to do this. From Bigskydreaming again, this is  a gorgeous essay on how difficult it is to make your own representation, hampered as he is  by the gatekeepers of various  popular media.

bigskydreaming

This shit makes me so mad, not just as a bisexual man, but as a bisexual creator.

Because it wasn’t even a week ago that I talked about a fantasy pilot I’m shopping around town about supernatural teens where the main character was a gay teen boy.

And I got a very well intentioned message about it and how I was likely going to have to make the lead straight if I ever wanted it to have a chance to get picked up by a major network like the CW. And they follow me and know I’m referencing them lol and please know I’m not trying to call you out or anything, because their message was never the problem.

The problem was they’re not wrong. Like, I’m well aware of how this town works, and the limitations it puts on creative content including marginalized characters, let alone REVOLVING around such characters. I’m well aware of how every creative industry is about that, and how audiences and readers are about that.

Even in industries that are supposedly actively seeking out diverse works by marginalized creators, there are still limitations, still quotas. Yeah, the YA publishing industry wants books about teens of color and various sexual orientations, but not TOO many. Trust me, I know. For every book that gets accepted for having a gay lead character, there’s another book that gets rejected because that publishing imprint already has a ‘big’ book coming out with a gay lead character and there’s such a thing as too many of those as far as publishing is concerned. And so every time I see a book getting published by a major imprint about gay characters that isn’t written by a gay author? It fucking hurts, because I know damn well just HOW MANY talented gay writers there are out there desperate to get their stories boosted to wider audiences, marketed by a major publisher….they just got there too late, their spot had already been given away.

I’ve shopped scripts in Hollywood. I’ve had pitch meetings, I’ve sat with people who have the power to buy my scripts and boost them to the next level. And you wanna know what note I get over and over? Too many LGBT+ characters. There’s just too many in my stuff.

There’s something so deeply fucked up and insidious about industries and atmospheres that don’t even bat an eye or show the slightest bit of awareness while telling marginalized creators to limit how much of themselves they pour into their work.

These people, to my face, have made it perfectly clear – they WANT my stories, they WANT my imagination, they WANT my writing….they just don’t want it to look or sound too much like ME, the person behind the story, the person who dreamed it up…..because apparently that just makes it too damn hard to market it to anyone who isn’t just like me.

Since I was a kid, I’ve heard it over and over – you want better representation, make it yourself. And its like yo, fuckwads, we’re fucking TRYING over here. But even when we do, you keep putting limits on it, or telling us you only had the budget to give one or two stories about marginalized characters a chance and oh wait, you already spent that money on straight white men telling these stories for us.

Except those stories? Not written by us? That’s how you end up with the homophobic version of MISERY, with tons of visibility and all the things actual LGBT+ creators would kill to have for their stories about LGBT+ characters….and its not just that the story exists. Its not just the knowledge that something that fucking eroticizes homophobic torture porn has thousands of fans. It’s the awareness that the visibility of THAT piece of work actually detracts from the visibility of actual LGBT+ creators’ work, because hate to say it, but marginalized works ARE still very much a zero sum game.

And to be perfectly clear, its not that you have to be of a specific identity to write a realistic representation of that identity. No, that’s an excuse that people who don’t want to put in the work to do just that love to fall back on, but like. Research. Educate yourself. Put in the time. Put in the effort. You can absolutely represent anyone realistically.

The problem with marginalized works being created primarily by people of non-marginalized identities isn’t in their ABILITY to represent non straight white male identities realistically. The problem is with PRIORITIES.

Because guess what? I’m greedy. I don’t just want to see more bisexual characters on TV. I don’t just want to see a realistic depiction of someone like me, if that means they’re just as likely to get hurt or abused or killed off like the straight characters there just so happen to be twenty replacements for, already to go, just waiting in the wings.

If that was all that mattered, like, I’d sink my money into making a Where’s Waldo book with a gay or bi character on every page and just print those up and hand them out on street corners.

But realistic representation is great and all, but its still not the only thing. There’s nothing realistic about decades and decades of stories where it just so happens that coincidentally, the straight white male character always gets what he wants out of the story even as the black character dies first, the gay character sleeps around but never finds true love, and the disabled character is inspirational, but not much else.

No, representation isn’t just about being able to point at the screen and go, there I am, that’s me, he’s just like me. It’s about getting to see characters like you get everything the other characters get.

It’s about seeing the gay and bi characters get to be the heroes, to save the universe. To be put in life-threatening situations and ESCAPE in spite of the odds, to live to fight another day. To have love triangles and options instead of being paired up with the only other gay character onscreen by default. THAT is what true representation is. Anything less than what straight white audiences take for granted is still just half-assing it.

And as for marginalized works still being a zero sum game, well, you can tell me they’re not, that there’s plenty of room for everyone. The internet is a big place. Yup, yup. It is. Its so big, in fact, that shockingly enough, things like funding and budgets and marketing departments and publisher backing and corporate sponsorship and name recognition all make a difference between you producing content that people can find and enjoy and boost and you just shouting into the void.

Don’t tell me that marginalized works aren’t a zero sum game when I have literally sat in meetings with people who are perfectly conciliatory when explaining that sorry, this is just the way the world/industry/game works.

I mean, don’t get me wrong. This is just me ranting, this isn’t me saying anything that any and all marginalized creators don’t already know for themselves and its certainly not going to do anything to change the minds or priorities of the people who have the most power to do something about this in the shortest span of time.

I know this is essentially me shouting sour grapes into the void. And yeah, I’m perfectly aware that the grapes here are very sour, that I am absolutely 100% bitter about seeing works with shit or even actively harmful marginalized representation get prioritized over the works of actual marginalized creators when it comes to resources, visibility, acclaim.

But just cuz I’m bitter while I’m saying it, doesn’t make what I’m saying untrue.

 

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*There is a huge argument on Twitter involving those who revere Kylo Ren from the Star Wars movies and people calling them out on this. It also involves shipping, and the idea that Kylo Ren fans engage in racism against Finn, to prop up their White male villain:

fandomshatepeopleofcolor

Re: the woobification of Kylo Ren

(Sorry if this submitted twice. For some reason it showed up on my own blog and I was confused.)

I think a huge problem is the lack of diversity in the casting of characters I call “the delicious villain.” When I was little, I used to watch soap operas with my mom, and there were always those “bad boy” characters who were absolutely the villains of the shows, but who were also absolutely known for their sex appeal.

We see these characters in mainstream cinema in the likes of Loki, the Joker, Sweeney Todd, The Phantom of the Opera, Jack Ripner (Red Eye), Spike (Buffy), etc. Is there some internalized misogyny at play that attracts us to these characters? Probably. But we have to acknowledge the popularity of these characters nevertheless, and we can’t ignore the fact the that they are all white.

We have to question why POC aren’t cast as “the delicious villain.”

We have to question whether we would woobify Kylo Ren if he were played by a POC.

Characters like Kylo Ren can actually be fascinating because they are villains that are written with a touch of humanity (Kylo Ren still feels a pull to the light) unlike the Darth Vader-type villains who are there simply to evoke fear. There is no reason not to cast POC in these roles except for the inherent racism that blinds white audiences to the humanity of anyone who isn’t white.

Submitted by a-world-without-shrimp

And I feel this is in line with this essay:

The Glorification of White Crime

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I’m posting this for the excellent clapback against critics of what used to be called “Political Correctness”, but now, in an effort to try insulting Black people in  a different way, is now called “Identity Politics”.

thisiseverydayracism:

The other day on Twitter, a man posted a picture of my coloring book he’d given his daughter for Christmas. He was excited to give her a coloring book full of badass intersectional feminists. He wanted to thank me for creating it.

“I don’t know,” chimed in a random stranger (because Twitter), “Sounds like identity politics to me.”

Hell yeah it does.

“Identity Politics” is now thrown about as an insult at many progressive activists. Critics say that Identity Politics make everything about gender, everything about sexuality, and everything about race. And to this I say: yes, yes, and hell yes.

Call it what you want. I don’t care. Complain that we’re making shit about race — you know what? We are. Complain that we’re keeping the left from focusing only on class — yup, and proudly so. Complain all you want because I am not and will never be ashamed of focusing on the politics of identity. I will not feel a moment’s guilt for slowing this whole train down to make sure that everyone can get on and we’re on the right track. I will proudly own up to making shit hard for you.

Thank god for Identity Politics.

You know why? Because you know what we had before Identity Politics? I’ll tell you.

We had White Dudes.

We had white dudes as the pinnacles of power. We had white dudes on all our TV screens, we had white dudes reporting all our news, we had white dudes writing all our books. Sometimes they were accompanied by attractive white ladies (as all the white dudes were straight). But mostly, we had white dudes.

And if you were not a white dude? You didn’t exist. Laws were not written for you, infrastructure was not built for you, history was not written about you. You did not exist in film, television, or novels. You were not a part of the American dream.

And do you know what has been changing all of that? Do you know what has been saving this country from the monotony and tyranny of white, cis, heterosexual dudes? Identity Politics.

Identity Politics are everything that its critics fear. Identity Politics are decentralizing whiteness, straightness, cis-ness, and maleness. Identity Politics brought you equal marriage, the voting rights act, and abortion access. Identity Politics has got people believing that black is beautiful, that disability is nothing to be ashamed of, that fat people deserve respect, that a woman can say no. Identity politics are forcing the world to consider what it has spent hundreds of years ignoring — everyone else.

Without Identity Politics, we wouldn’t all get along better, we’d just cease to exist. And know, that is primarily what those who decry Identity Politics want. They want the world of the past, where we existed in the shadows, where they never had to consider race or gender, because everything was only about their race and gender. They want a world where nobody raised a hand and said “what about me,” because the only people allowed in the room were those whose needs had already been meet. They want the simplicity and power that comes with being the default.

So yes, Identity Politics are the threat to both the right and the left that its enemies are making it out to be. Because our system is still mostly white dudes, on both sides of the aisle. Their fear isn’t wrong; Identity Politics do threaten their way of life and their idea of progress and unity. Identity Politics will tear down everything they have built because everything they have built is oppressive and exclusionary and wrong.

We are not going back to a time where we were overlooked, dismissed, invalidated, and discounted. We are not going back to not existing. Our Identity Politics are here to stay.

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And some Introvert stuff:

 

Just some of my various readings around the Internet last week.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tumblr Discussions #62

*I love the character Finn, (from Star Wars 7), and I’m always here for some Finn love, in the form of Meta-analysis on this character. There are so many people out there ready to dump on the only Black lead character in a Star Wars movie. There are White people harshing on Finn because he’s too Black and Black people hatin’ on him because he’s not Black enough. This analysis gets it just right.

lj-writes

Finn’s subversive decency

Choosing to be kind is not choosing to be passive. It’s choosing to end the cycle of abuse… . It’s a courageous act in itself.

-Melissa Grey on Cinderella

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*Of all the arguments occurring on Tumblr, the ones I find most intriguing, are the ones about Fandom. There are a lot of those. It seems to be very young people’s way of ironing out all the rules and regulations involved in being  “real fans”. This one is a discussion of exactly what slash fanfiction is, and what purpose it serves.

stitchmediamix organafinn

i can’t believe y’all made me write this

halfhardtorock:

steflovessamwilson:

arkynn:

markdoesstuff:

poseysprostate:

There’s a piece of meta going around that’s basically saying that mlm should have greater authority on what kinds of content should be produced from the slash community and I think that’s such a huge load of bullshit?  Slash isn’t, and was never about mlm.  Mlm are not the subjects of slash and yaoi works, they’ve always been proxies for the expression of women’s sexual/romantic fantasies.

This is not a bad thing and isn’t a thing that should be changed.

Yes, increasing amounts of men are becoming content creators for slash and yes, there are more stories about healthy and realistic relationships between men but there will always be works that contain tropes that appeal to women?  The failings of individual women to make a distinction between a fictional mlm as a sexual proxy and a real mlm is not the responsibility of the slash fandom?

Take the case of male pornographers producing lesbian porn for straight male consumers.  Does the idea of wlw arguing that these works do not depict realistic wlw relationships make sense?  Clearly not because that genre is not about depicting actual wlw and actual wlw culture.  If wlw create pornography for wlw then they’re really shifting into a different genre.  Although the subjects are technically the same (as in women are portraying these proxies) they are participating in conceptually distinct genres with different audiences.

And with increasing amounts of women consuming works relating to mlm sex, there’s been financial incentive for gay pornography studios to produce more naturalistic, relationship focused movies.  Certain JGV works and Western studios like Cockyboys have increasing numbers of female fans.  If you imagine a progression on this theme and we eventually have a pornography studio produced by women, producing content for women, using men having m-m sex, would and should women be given authority over the content and themes of all gay pornography?

In the fantasy industry, there are creators, there are consumers, and there are the characters and entities that mediate the fantasy – the subjects.  In BL, yaoi, and most slash, these aren’t mlm.  They’re proxies.  There is no genre requirement that they know anything about a mlm lifestyle or mlm culture or anything like that.  In bara, gay interest films, and in an increasing amount of general works, yeah they’re mlm.  They’re created for mlm to identify with.  That’s great!  There is no reasonable need to demand for the former genres to change because they aren’t about mlm.  A misunderstanding of this point only serves to further demonize women in their own spaces.

I pretty much ignore all the ridiculous discourse I see on this hellhole of a site these days but this is so Bad that I had to comment

This is supremely creepy, and viewing queer or gay or mlm as “proxies” is dehumanizing and weird and I can’t believe there is discourse defending this terrible idea. This is Bad, you should feel Bad, and no. You cannot absolve yourself of harmful representation just because it’s a different genre or because the intent of said genre is not for the consumption of mlm. Also: plenty of us queer and gay men write and read slash for our own purposes and this ignores that. And fetishization. And a million other things!!!

Also: COCKYBOYS. ARE YOU FUCKING SERIOUS. THAT IS THE SITE YOU REFERENCED???? Oh my god.

“The failings of individual women to make a distinction between a fictional mlm as a sexual proxy and a real mlm is not the responsibility of the slash fandom?”

This is on the same level as folks arguing about how they can “separate fiction from reality” whenever someone critiques a popular show and/or ship that depicts abuse or bigotry.

Also, “Mlm are not the subjects of slash and yaoi works” – the word you may be looking for is “audience”. Mlm are the literal subjects of the fanfiction. They are the focus, they are the characters driving the story. That makes them the subjects.

“Slash isn’t, and was never about mlm. Mlm are not the subject of slash and yaoi works, they’ve always been proxies for the expression of women’s sexual/romantic fantasies.”

THIS IS LITERALLY THE DEFINITION OF FETISHISING. Viewing members of a marginalized group as proxies for your sexual fantasies is WHAT THE PROBLEM IS. This is VERY MUCH SO a bad thing and this post is disgusting.

“Take the case of male pornographers producing lesbian porn for straight male consumers. Does the idea of wlw arguing that these works do not depict realistic wlw relationships make sense?”

Yes?

When lesbians have such few accessible products of their own and are highly fetishized by straight male-produced lesbian porn, this critique is valid.

When wlw can’t even find their own products because 98% of lesbian porn is made for the straight male gaze, thats a problem.

When some of the states where wlw have the least rights and experience the most violence have the highest number of lesbian porn searches on pornhub, this criticism matters.

The overwhelming amount of fetishistic lesbian porn made for the straight male gaze is a problem and critiquing this fetish, the way it dehumanizes wlw and asking for actual, inoffensive, non-fetishistic portrayals of wlw sexuality is valid.

Also this was a shit comparison in a lot of ways because wlw deal with objectification in a way white cis dudes do not.

OP needs to step back and just rethink all the crap they just spewed under the guise of wanting to be all about/exploring women’s sexuality.

Fetishizing queer people is never okay (and there’s a difference between writing about/being invested queer male characters and fetishizing them and fandom largely hasn’t figured out how to find that difference…)

*Finally someone did make a list of the rules and regulations of writing fanfiction:

thespoonslobeliastole:

glumshoe:

glumshoe:

Everyone’s familiar with “Rule 34 of the Internet: there is porn of any conceivable subject”.

Is there also a rule that states that fandom abhors a vacuum of sexually available slim white men to ship with each other, and any piece of media that doesn’t include at least two will invent them?

Should a piece of popular media include one (1) thin white boy, failure to include another thin white boy to ship him with will result in the most popular ships in a particular fandom…

1.) importing another thin white boy from an unrelated piece of media to pair him with, regardless of reciprocated canon relationships with female characters…

2.) interpreting a non-human character as a thin white boy, even a much, much older antagonist…

3.) shipping the thin white character with himself…

Related: if a fandom DOES include at least two thin white boys, but neither of them are lead characters, they will become the most popular ship in that fandom, preferred over non-white lead male characters who display affection towards one another….

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*This is an interesting little meta on White people’s peculiar ideas about PoC and  European history. I am reminded that most people’s ideas about History come largely from TV shows and movies, and that even if they do read History books, those rarely mention race. Even so, most White people consider Whiteness the default, so the assumption is that there were no PoC present, and that apparently we did not come into existence until slavery.

abbiehollowdays dangercupcakemurdericing

On performing race and performing authenticity

dangercupcakemurdericing:

There are two important things to know before I begin this post. I am a black person with white parents and I belong to a medieval reenactment organization.

I suppose the other thing you need to know is that within this organization, which is mainly white, even more so than the general US population, there is a subset of white people who try to re-create the culture and costume of predominantly nonwhite cultures, even though the organization is technically focused on Western Europe.

Simultaneously there is another subset of people who feel that people of color who are involved in the organization, such as myself, should only portray ourselves as foreign visitors to Western cultures because anything else would be unrealistic. This is laughably untrue of course, but it certainly is a thought process some people have, to the point where they find my portrayal which actually is more plausible than most of the “I was kidnapped by Rromani people, sold to a sultan’s harem and then I ended up in Japan which is why I can wear a kimono” kind of back stories you hear.

But regardless if you dig deep enough on the Internet you find people complaining about how people color participating is ruining their immersion. Which I would’ve thought something that would’ve ruined their immersion would be people from completely different centuries spread across large geographic regions interacting with each other, but you can’t really expect logic from racists.

Anyway because of this I try to be as scrupulous with my research as possible, but honestly I like the subversion of taking this whitewashed history and smearing my blackness across it. Because I’m not making up a fiction actually, any more than any of the rest of the people involved in the organization are, the woman I portray is very much a person who could have existed and if that’s disquieting I want people to think about why that is disquieting to them.

Why is the myth of the lily white Europe only recently invaded by foreign barbarians so popular? Why is it impossible to imagine intercultural exchange that didn’t rest on a system of modern racial domination? I want my presence to make them question what they think they know and how they have to envision history to be comfortable with the present.

I know that some of the people of color involved envision that the person portraying as a white person, but I spent enough of my life being paved over with white bricks that I didn’t feel the need to do that and something I do for fun and I think it is disingenuous anyway, given all the sidestepping we do from the exactness of history.

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*Okay, there isn’t anything I needed to add to this, I just wanted to preserve this because of Bigskydreaming’s EPIC clapback on the laziness, and lack of imagination, of writers who use shitty excuses for not writing PoC into any of their narratives. 

bigskydreaming:

solvola:

bizarrolord:

hijadepavlov:

When will racists stop crying “censorship” every time audiences demand that creators produce better content if we’re expected to buy it?

We are not the fucking government, we aren’t throwing anyone in jail for being a talentless racist shitstain. We are exercising our right to free speech by calling a racist creator “racist”, just like the racist creator is exercising their right to free speech by publishing their shitty ass work.

Unfortunately, many times a creator’s work is personal first and what sells later.

And I think that unfairly smearing someone as “racist” when there’s a decent reason they might not be writing characters of color (such as the “write what you know” maxim applied to a white author who may not want to give offense when writing a non-white character because they don’t know enough about the experiences of being non-white to write a character like that well).

I personally always thought that this wasn’t about diversity and representation at all. It was about fannish entitlement hidden behind a cloak of progressiveness. (Further confirmed by people who keep asking for diverse characters constantly nitpicking the ones they do get because they’re essentially not Mary Sues/Gary Stus/wish-fulfillment characters.)

Well, judging from the trends, it looks like bigotry sells, so that’s not it. We just don’t want to give our money to someone who’s insufferably insensitive and clearly hasn’t read a single article on any social issue (other than conservative conspiracy theories about the next liberal boogeyman and the dooms of socialism, I guess), and if anti-SJW tripe isn’t censorship, then neither is this.

Your point in the second paragraph seems to be incomplete, but if you were going to say that “unfairly smearing someone as racist” is akin to censorship (maybe because it might affect sales, I dunno), once more with feeling, that’s not what censorship is – and I even dare you to give me a single example of someone or something being “unfairly smeared as racist”, because chances are that accusation is wholly pertinent, but people just don’t understand enough about the subject of racism to get why it’s pertinent – thus being more a problem of lack of research done (a very common ailment these days) than unfair accusations of racism with no base or substance.

Whenever someone or their work is accused of bigotry, the knee-jerk reaction is always to go on the defensive, on the denial, and bring up intent, when none of those things matter for what’s in question. Someone or something is racist when it aligns with white supremacist or nationalist beliefs, when it validates or is conducive to unjust racial dynamics or stereotypes against non-white people, when it instigates or nurtures negative beliefs and attitudes, hostile sentiment and normalized or even desirable violence towards non-white people – and all of this will happen if something is set up to do so regardless of intent. That’s why there’s that expression “intent isn’t magic”, because intent will not prevent the consequences of unintentional bigotry no matter how clear it might’ve been.

Lastly, as for your two more fandom and creativity-oriented points: I don’t think “writing what you know” is a good excuse, quite frankly, because it discourages people from doing their research and from getting out of their bubble, leading to precisely the kind of unfair and unrealistic homogeneous lack of diversity that media in general is well known for, from stories to characters to casting. It’s lazy, it’s unoriginal, it’s overdone, and it’s entirely unhelpful to various sizeable chunks of people in your audience. If you’re a white, cis, straight, non-disabled male author, “writing what you know” will alienate non-white people, women, LGBT people, and disabled people in your audience from your work entirely, at least as far as identification and relatability go. If that’s what’s desirable, then I think I must have missed the memo, because the artistic paradigm of reaching audiences as far and wide as possible must have changed while I was sleeping.

If you use that excuse to justify not writing diversity, then people will hold you accountability for being lazy and backwards, and under free speech, people have every right to do so, just as you are allowed to retort or not even listen.

Regarding fandom entitlement, to keep it short, I think fandom entitlement looks like fans harassing actors and producers because their abusive ship wasn’t made canon. I think it looks like fans sending death or rape threats to actors of color and female actors (or both at the same time) because they weren’t happy to see an interracial canon couple on screen. I think it looks like fandom being in uproar every time someone dares say something remotely critical even when it’s pertinent. I think “only positivity always, no criticism/“hate” ever” looks like fandom entitlement, too. I think harboring abusers, violent bigots, rapists, and pedophiles in the name of “fandom positivity” looks quite like it also.

To me, fandom entitlement definitely doesn’t look like fans expecting media created last year or this year to be sufficiently diverse and progressive, it doesn’t look like fans expecting their existence to be acknowledged and portrayed respectfully and in a constructive manner, and it also doesn’t look like fans being critical of any attempts at diversity that end up doing more harm than good, or no good at all, because they were written by someone who “wrote what they knew” and didn’t go and do their damn research.

To add on real quick, falling back on the ‘write what you know’ maxim is bullshit, because since time immemorial, audiences, publishers and Hollywood have been perfectly comfortable expecting black writers to write white characters. Its not actually about writing what you want first, and what sells later, because for marginalized writers, the issue before them has ALWAYS been when sitting down to begin a book or a screenplay, they have to ask themselves – are they going to write what they know, are they going to represent themselves in their own work, or are the chances of such a work getting published so slim that they’re better off writing about white characters whose experiences don’t reflect theirs at all, etc.

Death to the write what you know misinterpretation, because it is bullshit and it has always been bullshit. First off, that quote has NEVER been justification for confining your creative output to the narrow margin of what you have personally experienced in life. It is about building your story or your characters around a core foundation of something that resonates with you and your experiences, something you have intimate knowledge of and can build from in terms of mood, its about passion and forming a connection with your work and through it laying down a road for readers to connect with you and your underlying reasons for writing something. It is THEMATIC, not SUPERFICIAL.

If write what you know were as sacrosanct as people would like to pretend in conversations like this, entire genres of fiction would not exist. Fantasy would not exist. Science fiction would not exist. Mystery novels would solely be the province of retired cops and detectives. Only veterans would write military adventures. Medical and political thrillers? Only doctors and politicians, thanks. You would need two masters degrees and a doctorate in historical fields of study to even be able to pitch something set a thousand years ago. And forget about including characters of a different gender, class, or educational background than your own!

Fuck off. That has never been what write what you know means, AND EVERYONE KNOWS IT. Write what you know means when penning a story about a boy wizard discovering magic and adventure and an impossible destiny no one can relate to, ground it in emotions people CAN identify with, imbue him with feelings of loneliness and neglect and a desperate yearning to be wanted and loved and appreciated that you can channel directly from your own soul onto the paper for people to pick up on and use as their grounding rod while venturing into your imagined world that holds very little similarity to anything anyone knows from the real world, other than the emotions that underpin everything in it.

Write what you know means when writing a script about a boy on a distant desert planet beneath two sons discovering his inner power as he sets off on a quest to destroy an imperialistic tyrant, center that story around archetypal narrative structures and themes that have resonated with audiences since the beginning of time – the simple farmboy who rises to greatness, fathers and sons, family honor, redemption and sins of the father, etc, etc.

Write what you know is a guideline, unless you are writing a goddamn autobiography you are expected and even encouraged to use what you know as a baseline template you step outside of to pull other experiences that AREN’T yours closer to, using your actual experiences to connect audiences to the parts of the story that neither you or them can automatically connect to because they are FICTIONAL EXPERIENCES.

If you’re not actually writing a goddamn autobiography, write what you know is not actually a computer function that copies and pastes your life directly onto the page and punishes any deviation from that material with a slap on the wrist and career ruination. No reader in the history of reading has ever put down a science fiction adventure with a disappointed frown and a ‘whoa whoa whoa, I thought I was buying a book by an actual intergalactic space captain who know what the hell he was talking about when repelling pirates trying to take his ship but this dude is just a fucking librarian from Sacramento? Hell no, I am addressing this in my one star review and telling all my friends not to try this author, he is a FRAUD.’

Write what you know didn’t stop Tolkien from reinventing the fantasy genre with the adventures of four foot tall hairy barefoot badasses trekking across a landscape of walking trees and talking eagles to throw a magic ring into a volcano. Yet somehow, it seems to bar stories about black Chosen Ones slaying dragons in medieval inspired settings because that’s unrealistic, black kids don’t fit in fictional settings like that.

Write what you know doesn’t stop fans from becoming ‘fluent’ in made up languages like Elvish and Klingon, but three lines of Spanish in a story somehow pulls them right out of it.

Write what you know doesn’t stop schoolteachers from googling espionage and military jargon and researching the most obscure factoids of crimes and serial killers and the lives of famous spies or historical military figures and going on to write bestselling crime or spy or political thrillers. Yet somehow it seems to block any attempts to put similar work and research and attention to detail into anything related to non-white characters, lives or experiences like the second google realizes they’re asking about something non-white it clutches its pearls and refuses to divulge anything but a 404 Error Not Found screen.

Okay, so I lied, I didn’t add on anything real quick, but let me just sum up real fast.

In conclusion: fuck your write what you know. It has never stopped white writers from writing beyond the boundaries of their experiences, researching the crap out of shit they know nothing about, or kept white readers from identifying with characters they can not possibly have anything in common with other than underlying thematic connections, on account of, y’know, NOT BEING FOUR FOOT TALL HAIRY BAREFOOT HOBBITS FROM MIDDLE FUCKING EARTH.

Writers have always been able to write characters who have different life experiences than them.

Readers have always been able to connect with characters who have different life experiences than them.

Refusing to write about non-white characters? Refusing to read about non-white characters?

It’s not because you can’t. It’s not because it wouldn’t be authentic. It’s not because some magical rule of writing prohibits you and you’ll lose your writing card for daring to venture outside your margin of personal life experiences.

It’s for one reason and one reason only.

YOU. JUST. DON’T. WANT. TO.

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*I just liked this:

What “Ghetto” Names Really Mean

robregal:

feministsmadefromfire:

“Tinashe” –  Means “God is with us” in Shona ( An African language spoken by nearly 80 percent of people in Zimbabwe.)

“Lakeisha” – A Swahili name meaning “favorite one.”

“Ashanti” –  Name of a powerful African empire in West Africa.

“Tanisha” – Hausa of West Africa name meaning “born on Monday.”

“Zola” – Means “quiet, tranquil” in Zulu.

“Amandla” –  Zulu and Xhosa word meaning “power”. The word was a popular rallying cry in the days of resistance against Apartheid.

“Zendaya” – Means “ To Give Thanks” in Shona

“Latonia” –  A Latin name. Latonia was the mother of Diana in Roman mythology.

“Lulu” – Swahili and Muslim name meaning “pearl” or “precious.”

“Ciara” –  Means “dark-haired” in Irish Gaelic

“Lateefah” – A North African name meaning “gentle and pleasant.”

“Mercedes” – Means “Gracious gifts/Benefits) in Spanish

“Kaya” –  Ghanaian name meaning “stay and don’t go back.”

“Amara” –  The Swahili word amara, meaning “urgent business.” Also the Hindu name meaning “immortal.”

“Shanika” – African Bantu name, meaning “young one from the wilderness.

“Zuri” – Means “beautiful” in Swahili.

“Onika” – Word of African origin meaning “warrior.”

JUST BECAUSE A NAME SOUNDS DIFFERENT DOES NOT MEAN IT’S “RATCHET” OR “GHETTO” THEY HAVE BEAUTIFUL MEANINGS.

DON’T BE IGNORANT, LEARN.

Reblog every time it hits the dash.

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*I hope this is a real movie, and not people just trolling me. If so, I’m here for it!

entertainingtheidea:

Watch the official trailer for J.D. Dillard’s sci-fi drama Sleight, out in U.S. theaters on April 7th.

The story follows a young street magician (played by Collateral Beauty’s Jacob Latimore) who is left to care for his little sister after their parents passing and turns to illegal activities to keep a roof over their heads. When he gets in too deep, his sister is kidnapped and he is forced to use his magic and brilliant mind to save her.

Seychelle Gabriel, Dulé Hill, SNL’s Sasheer Zamata, and Storm Reid (who will soon lead the cast of Ava DuVernay’s A Wrinkle in Time) are co-starring.

 

And some Introvert thoughts:

Weekly Tumblr Shenanigans

Well, its time for our favorite game show, Tumblr Hoopla, or things we’re making fun of on Tumblr this week. I hope this will lift at least a few of your Monday doldrums.

*The website Psych2Go is full of all these helpful little blurbs. I used to do this first one to my friends, but it probably wont work anymore, if they’re reading this. The second one used to work on my little brother until he got hip to  what I was doing.

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*This about sums up the Conservative Republican approach to women’s right to choose, I guess. They’re gonna force women to have kids nobody wants, and then let the kids starve to death, just like in the slums of Victorian England.

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*I still can’t quite pinpoint why this is so funny.

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*Uhm-hm! If I have to see this on my dashboard, then everyone on WordPress should  be forced to look at this, too. Enjoy!

nabyss:

counterftnoire:

antimana:

karnythia:

cakeandrevolution:

khealywu:

hotcommunist:

I saw these shoes last week and since that moment I have not know peace. My crops are failing, my animals are sick, snakes have manifested physically in my home-

This is Trump’s America

If i had to see this with my own two eyes then so do the rest of you…

WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS?

THAT is what the rest of the world pictures when they’re asked about America, I’m fucking sure of it.

My EYES ARE BLEEDING!!!

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*When I was a kid, I asked my Mom this question, about some scifi movie we were watching, and her answer was that we had left the planet. I will accept that as a perfectly legitimate answer to why there ain’t no PoC in that movie. That answer doesn’t seem to work for movies set in the past, tho’.

summerchasingmermaids:

kaylapocalypse:

kaylapocalypse:

kaylapocalypse:

Anyway, if the new Harry Potter movie that is set in NEW YORK IN THE 1920s doesn’t have any black people in it (like the trailer suggests) I am legit going to throw my Harry Potter books in the trash and never look back.

I don’t care whose fault it is. The casting directors, the producers, j.k. herself. I don’t care. That level of disrespect, historical revisionism via white supremacist fantasy is not to be tolerated.

The Jazz Age.

With no black people.

The JAZZ AGE.

Do they have ANY idea how creepy it is that every single fantasy is a world without brown people?

That every magical wondrous place they can imagine, a dominant feature is that we have been scrubbed from every corner?

And where did we go? We’re we driven out? Did they kill us all? When one type of person is overwhelmingly missing there is always a reason.

And what reason will small children of color make up in their heads to answer such a question?

What little cloud will enter their mental sky?

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*Go on Instagram and count how many of these photos show up before Xmas! We know Instagram gays are very clumsy people. I guess lesbians are a lot more graceful, so let them hang your  Xmas lights.

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*I’ve been reading a lot about how Baby Its Cold Outside is a date rape song, but guys! sometimes historical context has to be taken into account. Maybe its not an appropriate song for the modern world, but when it was written, it was pretty risque.

livinginthequestion:

bigbutterandeggman:

teachingwithcoffee:

It’s time to bring an end to the Rape Anthem Masquerading As Christmas Carol

Hi there! Former English nerd/teacher here. Also a big fan of jazz of the 30s and 40s.

So. Here’s the thing. Given a cursory glance and applying today’s worldview to the song, yes, you’re right, it absolutely *sounds* like a rape anthem.

BUT! Let’s look closer!

“Hey what’s in this drink” was a stock joke at the time, and the punchline was invariably that there’s actually pretty much nothing in the drink, not even a significant amount of alcohol.

See, this woman is staying late, unchaperoned, at a dude’s house. In the 1940’s, that’s the kind of thing Good Girls aren’t supposed to do — and she wants people to think she’s a good girl. The woman in the song says outright, multiple times, that what other people will think of her staying is what she’s really concerned about: “the neighbors might think,” “my maiden aunt’s mind is vicious,” “there’s bound to be talk tomorrow.” But she’s having a really good time, and she wants to stay, and so she is excusing her uncharacteristically bold behavior (either to the guy or to herself) by blaming it on the drink — unaware that the drink is actually really weak, maybe not even alcoholic at all. That’s the joke. That is the standard joke that’s going on when a woman in media from the early-to-mid 20th century says “hey, what’s in this drink?” It is not a joke about how she’s drunk and about to be raped. It’s a joke about how she’s perfectly sober and about to have awesome consensual sex and use the drink for plausible deniability because she’s living in a society where women aren’t supposed to have sexual agency.

Basically, the song only makes sense in the context of a society in which women are expected to reject men’s advances whether they actually want to or not, and therefore it’s normal and expected for a lady’s gentleman companion to pressure her despite her protests, because he knows she would have to say that whether or not she meant it, and if she really wants to stay she won’t be able to justify doing so unless he offers her an excuse other than “I’m staying because I want to.” (That’s the main theme of the man’s lines in the song, suggesting excuses she can use when people ask later why she spent the night at his house: it was so cold out, there were no cabs available, he simply insisted because he was concerned about my safety in such awful weather, it was perfectly innocent and definitely not about sex at all!) In this particular case, he’s pretty clearly right, because the woman has a voice, and she’s using it to give all the culturally-understood signals that she actually does want to stay but can’t say so. She states explicitly that she’s resisting because she’s supposed to, not because she wants to: “I ought to say no no no…” She states explicitly that she’s just putting up a token resistance so she’ll be able to claim later that she did what’s expected of a decent woman in this situation: “at least I’m gonna say that I tried.” And at the end of the song they’re singing together, in harmony, because they’re both on the same page and they have been all along.

So it’s not actually a song about rape – in fact it’s a song about a woman finding a way to exercise sexual agency in a patriarchal society designed to stop her from doing so. But it’s also, at the same time, one of the best illustrations of rape culture that pop culture has ever produced. It’s a song about a society where women aren’t allowed to say yes…which happens to mean it’s also a society where women don’t have a clear and unambiguous way to say no.

Best explanation of where this song came from I’ve heard, and it illustrates how much things have changed since then.

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• I love chocolate cake but even I could only eat one piece of this. Yeah, this cake will be even more moist, after you’ve upchucked the whole thing, into your local toilet bowl. 

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*Yeah, that’s definitely Uncle Darryl! Eats  three plates of food, takes an extra two plates home, didn’t even bring chips.

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*The soothing, delightful sounds of: Songs of the Cosmos, by five time Grammy watcher, Neil D.

With partially lovable hits like: 

Tie A Yellow Ribbon Round the Milky Way

I Left my Heart in the Cabrini System

Fly Me to the Moon

Starman

The Spiders from Mars (Ziggy Left Some Time Ago)

Goodbye Yellow Dwarf Star

And many, many, (too damn many) more