#HAWP

[historyhermann]

Ashly Burch’s Contribution to LGBTQ+ Representation

Four of Ashly Burch's roles, all of which are canon LGBTQ characters

Recently, Ashly Burch, a well-recognized voice actress, singer, and writer, came out as pan and queer. Taking into account this development, I decided to examine some of her past roles and offer my thoughts on her contributions.

Reprinted from The Geekiary, my History Hermann WordPress blog on Feb. 11, 2023, and Wayback Machine. This was the forty-eighth article I wrote for The Geekiary. This post was originally published on July 30, 2022.

On July 1st, Ashly Burch came out as pan and queer, saying she is "old fashioned pansexuals". She added that this is not a shock because half the characters she plays are "members of the rainbow fam" and added more in a longer thread.

Burch has added herself to the list of other LGBTQ+ voice actors who have voiced LGBTQ+ characters in media. There's Anna Akana, a bisexual actress of Japanese and Filipino descent. She recently voiced Sasha Waybright in Amphibia and Daisy in Magical Girl Friendship Squad. Both characters are bisexual.

A non-binary actor, Iris Menas, has voiced non-binary characters in various Disney series. Ian-Jones Quartey, a bisexual creator, has voiced various characters, including Radicles "Rad" in his series, OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes. Abbi Jacobson, a bisexual actress, voiced a bisexual princess named Bean in Disenchantment. She also voiced a lesbian woman named Katie Mitchell in The Mitchells Vs. the Machines.

In many ways, Burch is definitely a queer icon. Apart from her video game voice roles, live-action roles, commercial roles, and dubbing roles, there are five roles that stand out to me. This article focuses on those roles and their significance in LGBTQ+ representation.

Ash in Hey Ash Whatcha Playin'

Ashly with her beauties in Season 1 - Finale Part 1 of Hey Ash Whatcha Playin'

In May 2008, the series Hey Ash Whatcha Playin' first premiered on Destructoid. It would garner tens of millions of views. The series used surreal humor and sibling rivalry with her brother Anthony. Each episode focused on video games, and their themes, trends, and societal impacts. In 2011, the series began airing on YouTube. Papa Burch, Burch's actual father, and Ashley "Leigh" Davis, who becomes Anthony's girlfriend, also appear. Guest stars include Burch's mother and many others.

Many episodes had queer themes. One implies that Burch had sex with sex workers. In another, she says things can be "really gay" when everything becomes male genitalia. The icing on the cake was when she struggled with the homophobia exhibited by Orson Scott Card, whose ideas inspired the game, Shadow Complex.

In the show's second season, Anthony had gay sex through a message board. Ashly asked her dad for help with "lady problems" (i.e. liking a lot of women). Some episodes had Ashly joking about how brains are "gay" and defending her brother as a person who doesn't bash gay people. Others included dildos, Papa Burch coming up with imagined gay scenarios, or defense of female characters.

One episode stands out from the lot, the one where Ashly says she likes pretty girls and runs away when she sees a girl she likes. Later episodes have Ash loving a female villain-of-sorts or portray her losing her cool when people use the word "lesbians".

Enid in OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes

Enid (left) and Red Action (right) in an episode of OK K.O.!

Burch is known for her role as Enid Mettle in this action-adventure-comedy animated series by Ian Jones-Quartey, Rebecca Sugar's husband. In the series, Enid is a bisexual woman previously in a relationship with Radicles "Rad". She is later Red Action's girlfriend.

Enid has a key role in OK K.O.! as a witch and a ninja all in one. She also fights villains and works at Gar's Bodega. Burch has voiced Enid in almost all her appearances apart from the original pilot. She has been the subject of much fan art and over 700 fan fics.

Somewhat like Enid is Lainey in Loud House, who Burch also voiced. Lainey is dating another character, a woman named Alice. Unlike OK K.O.!, Lainey only appears in two episodes. In the former series, she becomes very romantic with Red Action, a lesbian character voiced by actress, comedian, and model Kali Hawk.

Ash in Final Space

Evra (left) and Ash (right) in an episode of Final Space

Burch is less known for her role as Ash Graven, who has the same first name as her. In the series, Ash is a humanoid alien who strikes up a romance with Evra (Jasmin Savoy Brown), a genderless being, in the Season 3 episode "Forgiveness". They sit together in a romantic moment, watching lights that resemble the aurora borealis.

Before this, she says she hates a man named Jordan Hammerstein with all her guts. This hints that she is a lesbian rather than  "ambiguously bi," as I noted in my review of the series. In that review, I noted a podcast where show creator Olan Rogers confirmed Ash as an LGBTQ character. At the time, Rogers said he would expand the relationship between Evra and Ash if he had another season.

Ash is only one of the many LGBTQ characters in the series, although the others are recurring characters rather than protagonists. Unlike Enid, she becomes an antagonist, and villain, akin to Cassandra "Cass" (Eden Espinosa) in Tangled. She is a character as complex as Cass while both are exploited by someone else who plays on her trauma triggers.

Rutile Twins in Steven Universe

Rutile Twins (right) brings Lars and Steven to the Prime Kindergarten where Off Colors are hiding out in their debut episode.

In a little-known role, Burch voiced a non-binary Gem fusion named Rutile Twins in Steven Universe. She later said she was "extremely honored" to be on the show. Unlike the other characters she voiced, these characters are non-binary women, as are all Gems as Rebecca Sugar confirmed in a 2018 article. So that makes this character unique beyond any others mentioned in her resume.

In an interesting trivia, since Burch voices both components of the character, they have the same voice, but with different tones. The same is the case for the Amethysts, all voiced by Michaela Dietz, or all the Rubies voiced by Charlyne Yi. Real-life rutiles are said to help with the stabilization of emotions and relationships. They reportedly evoke romantic feelings and aid with handling past trauma.

The Rutile Twins are outcasts who are part of a group of Gems ostracized by society, the Off Colors. These Twins later join Lars Barriga, and the other Off Colors, traveling through space, and living on Earth. In Steven Universe Future, the Off Colors graduate from Steven's school for Gems, known as Little Homeschool.

Molly in The Ghost and Molly McGee

Andrea (left) and Molly (right) in the "Andrea Song Takeover"

Burch voices a lead character named Molly McGee. Unlike her other roles, Molly is half-Thai and half-Irish, like Burch in real life. The series incorporates Thai culture into storylines and helps educate viewers about Thai culture.

In The Ghost and Molly McGee, Molly befriends a ghost named Scratch after moving to the Midwestern town of Brighton with her father, mother, and brother. Also appearing in the series is Molly's grandmother. She meets many friends there. This includes a Latine and Jewish girl named Libby Stein-Torres (Lara Jill Miller). She also has a geeky friend Sheela (Aparna Nancherla) and a sweet pink-haired friend, Kat (Eden Riegel).

Although Molly is not a canon queer character, some fans have shipped her with her frenemy, Andrea Davenport (Jules Medcraft), with their ship being Mollandrea. Others have shipped her with Libby Stein-Torres, with their ship called Mollibby. This ship has been denied by Bob Roth, a show creator, who said that LGBTQ representation unfolds naturally in the series.

Closing thoughts

There are many other characters Burch has voiced or played since her career began in 2007. She voiced Josette Grey in Blackford Manor and Tiny Ghost in Chainsaw Richard. She offered her voice as Lila Twinklepipes in Pig Goat Banana Cricket, Meadow Springs in Trolls: The Beat Goes On!, and Miss Pauling in Expiration Date, along with others in Over the Garden Wall and We Bare Bears.

She is further known for voicing Bun Bun and Breezy in Adventure Time, Ridley in Glitch Techs, and Cass Wizard in Bee and PuppyCat. Recently, she played Rachel in Mythic Quest who is in a relationship with a Black woman named Dana (Imani Hakim).

Many of these roles aren't canon LGBTQ+ characters. However, since Burch came out as pan and queer, this could lead to new interpretations of these characters. Burch was also a writer for "Shadows at the Gates", the fourth episode of The Legend of Vox Machina, a mature animated series filled with LGBTQ+ characters and based on the Critical Role podcast.

In the end, Ashly Burch will likely continue to voice queer characters, working with other such actors to continue improving queer representation in media.

© 2022-2023 Burkely Hermann. All rights reserved.

[quartings]

I made a new OC animation!

[hawper]

[sallytwo]

painted shut by hop along is truly one of the most incredible albums in the world dear god (putting my hands together in prayer) can everyone go listen to painted shut. please. (blinks)

[ntwhlvndthnks]

me when i remember i started listening to dndads when it only had like 5 episodes out

[herooakgarcia]

ok i've been curious about this

[hockybish]

https://www.instagram.com/reel/C4D-hAWP-Ih/?igsh=MXZiMDYyOHN4cWh6bA==

Imagined this with Nico and Trevor! It’s so cute

awe. they're each other's biggest supporters. they go to games when they can. trevor will almost always sit court side. nico sits a little higher up so she can everything, but you know she'll be down watching warmups trying to distract her brother. they'll yell at refs like they can hear them. and their handshake can't be replicated by anyone else.

[blink182times]

Percy Jackson translated into Scottish

Percy jakeson 'n' th' olympians: th' lightning thief by rick riordan

chapter yin: ah accidentally vaporize mah prealgebra teacher

keek, ah didnae wantae be a half-blood. If ye'r reading this fur ye think ye micht be yin, mah advice is: claise this book richt noo. Hawp whitevur lie yer maw or da tellt ye aboot yer birth, 'n' huv a go tae leid a normal lee. Bein' a half-blood is dangerous. Tis scary. Maist o' th' time, it gets ye murdurred in loupin, no nice ways. If ye'r a normal bairn, reading this fur ye think tis fiction, stoatin. Read oan. Ah envy ye fur bein' able tae hawp that none o' this ever happened. Bit if ye recognize yersel' in thae pages-if yer feelin' something stirring inside-stop reading immediately. Ye micht be yin o' us. 'n' wance ye ken that, tis ainlie a maiter o' time afore thay sense it tae, 'n' they'll come fur ye. Dinnae say ah didnae warn ye. They ca' me percy jakeson. A'm twelve year auld. 'til a few months ago, ah wis a boarding student at yancy academy, a private schuil fur troubled weans in upstate freish york.

[eeveeandme05]

First post, what whaaat!

So, first time here! To get straight to the point, I have a fic crewing which I'll be posting snippets of here. Yes, it is a TTTE story, but with my own twist to it, featuring a pair of human characters. Take this as you will - please enjoy!

The train rushed down the mainline, the rural scenery rushing past in a blur. Amano was sat in one of the coaches, staring vacantly out the window. He was on his way to the Island of Sodor, where a family friend had agreed to host him while he stayed on the island for a month to do some work experience - a mandatory practice instated by his school. While he would have been excited about this new adventure he was going on, something he often longed for, he was feeling unusually sombre.

However consumed he was by whirling, anxious thoughts, they were all promptly swept out of his head the moment the railway drawbridge from Barrow to Sodor came into view. He was almost there. The boy sucked in a breath as he was pulled back to reality.

The stories Amano had heard from this obscure island were, to him, nothing short of legendary, having grown up with them, and now he had been given the opportunity to visit it in person. The excitement he should have been feeling began to well up inside him - he even felt himself crack a smile. He took a deep breath and put on a brave face. He would get there and make a good impression, then show them what a good worker he could be!

***

Donald whistled as he puffed into Vicarstown. It wasn't often that he went to the mainland, but James had been relegated to goods work after being silly a few days prior, so he had been asked to take over the red engine's passenger duties temporarily.

Edward was simmering at one of the adjacent platforms, and opened one sleepy eye at the sound of Donald's arrival.

"Hullo, Donald!" he said cheerfully. "Welcome back. Had a good trip?"

"Aye. A'd forgotten howfur stowed it gets back oan th' mainland. Loads o' tourists this time o' year!"

"Naturally! James must be in a right tiff, knowing how many there are that he can't show off to." The old engine chuckled as he watched the crowds of passengers disembark, gradually dispersing off to their various destinations, until there were only a few left.

"Hello!"

Donald started at the voice right next to him, and glanced over to see a young boy, not much older than fourteen or fifteen, standing on the platform, grinning.

"Awright, laddie," said Donald, bemused. "Haven't seen ye aroond afore. Whit brings ye 'ere?"

Before the boy could answer, a voice hailed him from the station's entrance. Donald looked up to see a man come forward and shake the boy's hand. He was a familiar face, a close friend of Donald's driver; he recalled speaking to him a few times when they met.

"Ah, hullo Donald!" he said, seemingly just noticing the engine. "Sorry old boy, I forgot to tell you. This is Amano, a young friend of mine. He'll be staying here for a little while to learn some life on the railway. I hope you and the others will make him feel welcome!"

Donald looked once more at the boy. He saw his mop of black hair, his sparkling heterochromatic eyes, his cheeky smile, and found himself smiling back. "Weel, weel, weel. Walcome tae Sodor, laddie! Ah shuid hawp ye'll lik' it 'ere."

In the background, Edward raised a bemused eyebrow.

He rather felt like things were about to get interesting on the North Western Railway.

And that's a wrap for now! A work in progress for sure, but I hope you like what we've got so far!

[hawpypuyo]

hello, social media is kind of...destroying my mental state so i’m leaving. i will probably be back but honestly i don’t really know right now. to my mutuals i hope you know i’m very grateful for the positive stuff you’ve said about what i make, even if it isn’t very impressive. i am bad at communication but i did read it, and it really really made my day. thank you to the kind strangers as well.

sorry for being all sappy but considering this may be a last post i wanted to get it out. thank you :)

- hawp ♡

[amantesmultorum]

@glimpseofwonder​​ / Lila

"I didn't mean that." ( *  ―  𝐅𝐎𝐔𝐑  𝐖𝐎𝐑𝐃  𝐒𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐄𝐍𝐂𝐄  𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐑𝐓𝐄𝐑𝐒. )

The man hung his head. He couldn’t look at her at the moment. For the words were already said, and the wound formed. Now all that was left was for it to scar over. And Malcolm had had his share with scares. “ Ye ken didnae mean that. Bit it haes bin said. ”  His voice was calm, as he took deep breathes.

Malcolm spoke softly, before looking up at her. “ And if ye said it, some pairt o' ye mist have believed it. ” A gentle frown, formed on his face as he shook his head. “ I'm sorry. That I did something tae mak' ye hawp that.” He took a step closer to her. “ Bit I daenae loue ye fur o' Piera. I ken ye aren't Piera. A loue ye fur ye'r ye. Fur yer Lila.My Lila. And if ye continue tae think otherwise, ye cannae be farther fae the truth ! ”

[nailatem]

@blackplaguebrewing Tony Hawps #craftbeer #cervezaartesana #craftbeertoday #adventbeercalendar #blackplaguebrewing #tonyhawk #birdhouseipa #cervezadeldia #craftbeergrammers #craftbeerpleasure #craftbeerstoday #ipalover🍻 #ipa (en Cádiz) https://www.instagram.com/p/Cl8tGViqIY1/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[collectingall]

∀ Brad Hawpe Autographed Colorado Rockies OML Baseball Beckett 44368 http://blog.collectingall.com/T6gkNX 📌 shrsl.com/4fuj5 📌

[hawper]

[WIP] I started grinding this project literally yesterday, just about a minute in so far

Mounders Just Dance party!

[Update]: I finished this animatic! You can find it on YouTube :)

[audiokayness]

Hawp

Made with Waveform, Noise Maschine, headphones, MendelToneFree, 3 AM radio theremin setup, Stylophone as amp, etc.

[barneysbigstompers]

hawp on cawl 😣

>?!?