#INCLUSION

[amaiguri]

MARK FUCKING ROSEWATER, EVERYBODY!

I want to speak out against the whole push towards DEI. I feel that ever since you made the push to make identity the forefront of a character it has hurt the stories you tell. Captain Sisay's race was never the focus of her character and she was a complete badass! And I fear if you did it over again Gerrard would be trans, black and disabled just because. It also cheapens the stories of world devastation when characters worry more about their gender than Bolas destroying everything.

The reason I started this blog is so we can have frank conversations about things, so please let’s talk about this.

Imagine if every time you turned on the TV or watched a movie, no one looked like you. For some of us, that’s never happened. We see ourselves constantly, so it’s hard to truly understand what not seeing yourself represented in media is like.

I do have a personal window to this experience. While I am white and male, there’s an area where I am the minority - my religion. Jews are just under two and a half percent of the US population. I have had many experiences where I’ve been in situations where everything is geared towards a group I do not belong to, and zero consideration is given that not everyone at that event is part of the majority.

You just feel invisible and like an outsider. It’s not a great feeling. And I just experience it a tiny portion of time, only things that are geared specifically towards something religious. Most minorities have this feeling all the time, whenever they’re outside their personal community.

Now imagine, after years of not seeing yourself ever, you finally see someone that looks like you, but nothing about the character rings remotely true. They don’t sound like you, they don’t act like you, the facts about their day-to-day life are just wrong. It’s clear whoever wrote the character didn’t truly understand the lived experience of the character, so the character feels fake.

You bring up Sisay. Michael Ryan and I didn’t technically create Sisay (she played a small role in the Mirage story), but we did do a lot to flesh out her character as the creators of the Weatherlight Saga. We turned her from a minor character into a major one.

And while I’m proud, in general, of our work on the Weatherlight Saga, I don’t think we did justice to Sisay as a character. Neither Michael nor I have any knowledge of what it’s like to be a black woman. Nor did we ever talk to someone who did.

And if you’re someone like us that has no knowledge of that experience, you probably didn’t notice. But that doesn’t mean it’s a good thing.

Imagine if we made a movie about your life, and we just made everything up. We invented people you never knew, we gave you a job you never had, and we had you say things you’d never say. The movie might even be a good movie, but your response would be, but that’s not my life - that’s not me.

Now imagine we put the movie out, and people that never met you assumed that was what you were like. When people met you for the first time, they assumed things, because, you know, they’d seen the movie.

That’s what misrepresenting people does. It not only makes them feel not seen, it falsely represents them, spreading lies, often stereotypes, making people believe things about them that aren’t true.

Our move towards diversity is just us trying to better reflect the world and the people in it. We’re trying to do to everyone else what a certain portion of people get every day without ever having to think about it.

But why are we “making it the forefront of their character”? We’re not. We’re making it a part of their character. But in a world where you’re not used to ever seeing it, it feels louder than it is. Things that are a natural part of the world that you’re used to feel like the background of the story because you understand the context to it.

If a man kisses his wife before going off to a battle, that’s not a big deal. It’s just a thing a husband might do to his wife when he leaves. It’s not the forefront of his character. It’s just part of his life. But you’ve seen it hundreds of times, so it feels normal.

When someone does something that isn’t your lived experience it pulls focus. It seems like a big deal, but only because it’s new to you. It’s just as mundane a thing to that character as the man kissing his wife is to him.

Even the turn “pushing” implies that it’s unnaturally here, that we’re forcing something that naturally shouldn’t be. But why? That thing exists naturally in the real world, and it doesn’t make the real world any less. Maybe you’re less aware of it, but is making you aware of how others live their life “pushing” something on you?

How you live your life is represented constantly, everywhere. Why isn’t over-representing your experience at the expense of everyone else’s “pushing” it? Why is media only being the experience of those in power the “proper way”?

Having more depth and variety doesn’t lessen stories. It makes them deeper, more rich, more nuanced. In short, it makes them better stories. In my former life, I was a professional writer. I took a lot of writing classes. One of the truism of writing is “speaking truth leads to better stories”.

There’s another famous quote: “When you’re accustomed to privilege, equality feels like oppression.” You’re used to being over-represented, so being a little less over-represented feels like something has been taken from you. But really it hasn’t. Having a better sense of the rest of the world comes with a lot of benefits.

I’ll use food as an example. Let’s say all you were ever exposed to was the food of your heritage. Yeah, that food is really good, but sometimes isn’t it nice to eat foods of other nationalities? Isn’t your life better that you have a choice? Isn’t your exposure and access to the food of other nationalities a positive in your life?

Exposure to variety is a positive. It allows you to learn about things you didn’t know, experience things things you’ve never experienced, and get a better sense of understanding of your friends and neighbors.

Our actions are not to harm anyone, and if you think that’s what we’re doing, please take a minute to actually absorb what I’m saying. You’ve spent your whole life metaphorically eating one type of food, and we’re just trying to show you how much you’ve missed out on.

And while this might not impact you directly, we’re making a whole bunch of people felt seen. We’re bringing joy. Think of it this way. We make a lot of cards. Not every card is for you. But if it makes someone else happy, if they get to include it in a deck, and it makes Magic better for them, how is it harming you that we include it? You have so many cards that you can play.

To this poster or people that share their viewpoint, the narrative that a gain for someone else is an attack on you is just not true. As I just pointed out above, you play a game all about personal choice, about players getting to choose how they play and enjoy the game. Why should life be any different than Magic?

Thanks for reading.

[sophieinwonderland]

Wait... are you pro-radqueer?

Radqueer is a very broad umbrella that can include a lot of other labels within it that I tend to judge on a case-by-case basis. I have nuanced opinions on each individually that could keep me occupied for hours going over.

Most physically transabled people (those who feel they should have physical conditions) are experiencing a recognized condition psychiatrists call BIID. I believe there's a mental equivalent experienced by mentally transabled people that has yet to be studied but will be in coming decades. And if it can happen in disorders, then it could happen in non-disordered conditions like transplurality.

I think people can experience dysphoria around things outside of these conditions and gender, justifying transspecies and trace as concepts. Though it doesn't really seem like my place to weigh in on whether people who experience racial dysphoria should identify as that other race. Although if I did, I might find myself ranting about how race isn't actually real and is a social construct made by white men to oppress others, and maybe the best thing for it would be to completely destroy the very concept so as to make it unsalvageable.

I think that hate against people suffering from paraphilias is extremely harmful since it's based on the brain and how people think, rather than actions people take. I don't believe in thought crimes, and to be blunt, hate against people with harmful paraphilias, treating them as subhuman for their thoughts even when they've never harmed anyone or anything, is a gateway to fascism and eugenics. It also distracts from people with who hurt others but don't have a paraphilia. Rather, they've done it because they're opportunists who are targeting the vulnerable.

I have issues with some parts of the community encouraging actual harmful behavior. I also think some labels are just kind of silly. For instance, I don't get "transreligion" when you can just make your own religious beliefs even if they're outside of the norm, and those beliefs would be as valid as any other religion.

With all of that said, am I pro-radqueer? I wouldn't really identify as such.

But I'm anti-anti radqueer, in that I genuinely can't wrap my minds around people who are seeing far right fascism take hold around the world, and trans people having their rights stripped away, and think "you know what would be a productive use of my time? Harassing people for being too inclusive."

In the end, this is a niche issue. The Right has now thrown their lot in with Russia, and we can't rule out them passing similar laws here in the US outlawing LGBTQ activism like Russia has.

If that happens, I expect some people are going to look back and realize that they spent all the time they could have fought for queer rights without being arrested instead fighting against people for being the wrong kind of queer.

This is not a time for division. This is not a time for infighting among queer communities. This is a time when you take whatever allies you can get wherever you can find them.

Because there is an evil sweeping over the world. And whatever kind of queer you are, you are in its crosshairs. And the only way to weather this storm, if we can at all, is going to have to be together.

[dirigibleplumbing]

if you love Christmas but also want to be kind and inclusive toward people who don't, or simply don't celebrate, here's my #1 tip.

stop lying about Christmas.

if the only "holiday" your holiday party includes is Christmas, call it a Christmas party.

if your "holiday" fandom event only uses Santa and Christmas graphics and is centered around the date of Christmas, call it a Christmas event (that is, presumably, open to non Christmas-celebrating fans).

if your "holiday" fic recs only contain Christmas fic, call it a Christmas rec list.

[paddysnuffles]

Oh, my pleasure! I'm not religious myself, but I always try to be as inclusive as possible for my kiddos, both because seeing yourself in stories is important and because seeing others in stories is important too. Two sides of the same coin, if you will. I've recently been growing my library's collection of books beyond Christianity (which we have a disproportionate lot of), and I'd recently watched a video about an ex-JW talking about how he felt left out as a kid due to the things he couldn't do due to his religion and I thought "Hmm, it'd be nice if I could avoid making my kids feel that way" shortly before seeing your blog. And the rest, as they say, is history. ;)

Ah, yes, it's wild how different the standards can be for what a parent thinks is okay for their kiddo to read vs not okay!

At my school I have some Grade 1s who get read Goosebumps at home (my mom banned it in my house because I kept getting nightmares when I read them when I was 9, lol -- I'm clearly not made for that genre), but one of the Grade 5s isn't allowed to read any horror or anything with kissing. And at a previous school there was a kid who wasn't allowed to read books on technology. It was a religious reason but I have no idea what or for what religion. :P

My general policy is to let the kids take what they want since my idea of what's appropriate may not match their parents'. I've only had two instances where I've had an issue so far, and one was solved by me getting more info on what the parent's preferences were and helping the kid avoid books that were on the "not allowed" list.

Hi there,

I recently came across your blog and I was wondering if I could pick your brain about something Mormonism-related.

I'm an elementary school librarian, and as I see kids of all kinds on a daily basis, I'm always looking to be more inclusive so all my kiddos feel like they belong.

I was wondering if there's anything I could do to be more inclusive to any potentially Mormon kiddos I might have now or in the future.

Is there any topic you aren't allowed to talk about/read about that I should avoid for storytime, for example? (e.g. I know Jehovah's Witnesses aren't allowed to read fantasy novels as they involve magic; is there anything similar in Mormonism?)

Thank you for your time and have a great day!

This is such an amazing gesture!! Thank you so much for putting in so much effort to be inclusive :)

We don't have much when it comes to things that we can't/don't read. Generally, we've been told to try and stay away from adult / inappropriate / pornographic content, and that's about it -- seeing as you're in an elementary school, though, I don't see that being much of an issue. Overall, we as members are encouraged to be well-read and learn as much as we can. "Seek ye diligently and teach one another words of wisdom; yea, seek ye out of the best books words of wisdom; seek learning, even by study and also by faith."

If you're familiar with Brandon Sanderson, you know us Mormons LOVE fantasy and sci-fi, so no worries there. I always had my nose in about five fiction books at once growing up, whether that be Warrior Cats or Lord of the Rings or Inkheart or The Mysterious Benedict Society. We definitely love our magical stories, as evident by the things we believe 😂.

However, every parent will have their own take on what they want and don't want their kids reading, and a lot of the time they'll blame the things they don't want their kids reading on religion. Some people use religion as a scapegoat to be homophobic or racist or whatnot, and that just sucks. Know that there's not any real doctrinal basis to that; that's just overbearing parenting.

I know a lot of other literary-loving Mormons are on here, so I'll turn the time over to them, so to speak, to say anything that I forgot to mention. Thank you so much for your efforts to be inclusive and supportive!!

[catchymemes]

[ed-recovery-affirmations]

Body positivity absolutely must extend to disabled bodies. And that's disabilities of any kind. Disabilities by illness, disabilities by birth, acquired disabilities. Facial differences, limb differences, bodies that move atypically, adaptive tech and medical equipment that serves as a part of your body. If this is you, you deserve the space to navigate a complex relationship with your body. You deserve the tools to learn to love your unique body and make it feel loved. You deserve to be surrounded by people that truly love your body as it is.

(If you are disabled and are not able to love your body all the time, that's okay too. But you deserve to have the option; you deserve the tools to try.)

[lgbtqtext]

[cartoonverisimilitude]

Don’t use the phrase “Punch a Nazi” if you aren’t willing to work with Jewish people and actively educate yourself about antisemitism and how baked in it is in Western culture.

I see the phrase get tossed around a lot - usually when people are talking about far-right white supremacists and how their toxic views (rightfully) shouldn’t have a place in our society. But when I see people saying “Punch a Nazi,” rarely are they (actively) including Jewish people in the list of people who will be victims

[nonconformityhub]

Lesboy and Male Lesbian Infographic - repost from my friend thelesbianbakugou

Since his account got terminated a few years ago, me and thelesbianbakugou decided to replatform this lil info sheet! There's one on mspec lesbians too but we just have to find it

Sadly we don't have access to the original image credits, if you know who made some of the images, please let us know and we'll credit them here!

tags for reach woo! @mogai-place @mogai-sunflowers @neopronouns @genderqueerdykes @ghosttypebeat @our-lesboy-experience @transonlyspace @mogai-faggot @enbermoonlish

[codthefishgod]

To all the people who think aspec people aren't LGBTQIA+ because we aren't "discriminated against enough", here's a lovely list of reasons why you need to educate yourself:

- We suffer from dehumanisation, people actively devaluing or even erasing our humanity because of our identities (The voidpunk community is heavily supported by aspec people because of this)

- We suffer from self hatred due to feeling as if and being told we are broken, that no one can be happy unless they're in a romantic/sexual relationship, because of allonormativity and amatonormativity that actively damages our mental health

- Amatonormativity shapes laws that put us at an active disadvantage, such as giving married people financial and legal benefits

- Aspec people have been victims of conversion therapy, correctional rape, a lower quality of life, and other effects of being a marginalised and oppressed group

- We suffer from our identities being pathologised and deal with medical stigma because of this, causing many of us to feel unwelcome in and even avoid health care settings

- We suffer from our identities being erased, which can range from people completely denying our existence and people equating it to celibacy, to an almost complete absence of aspec representation in the media (It's been getting better lately, especially for alloaces and aroaces, but I have yet to ever see a canon aroallo character, and representation for those on the spectrum rather than in the extremes is often ignored)

- YOU are creating a hateful, exclusionary space in a community meant to be about inclusion. The same thing that happens to us happens to bisexual people, to polyamorous people, and other identities that are "disputed." In a community meant to be about rejecting the norm, YOU are shoving us out because we don't fit the norm of being LGBTQIA+. Because we're not enough like you.

These are only a few examples of aphobia that people like me deal with. Discrimination and oppression against aspec people stretches far beyond this.

But even if it didn't, it is disrespectful and harmful to everyone involved to gatekeep membership in the community based on oppression and discrimination.

We aren't LGBTQIA+ because we experience oppression. We are LGBTQIA+ because our existence alone goes against heteronormativity and other societal norms forced upon us.

[liberalsarecool]

Do Republican women wake up every morning and punch themselves in the face?

Make no mistake, going after DEI is going after white women. Paternalistic weak men shrouded in Trump clothing want to force women to stay in their place and out of the workforce.

The racism about DEI is how Republicans sell it to their dumbass electorate.

[relaxedstyles]

[fixing-bad-posts]

[Image description: A tumblr post, edited blackout-poetry style to read, “lesbian is an umbrella term! Lesbians like women. you can be a guy and a lesbian. you can use he/him pronouns and be a lesbian, be nice”]

—

lesbian 👏🏻 is 👏🏻👏🏻 an 👏🏻 umbrella 👏🏻 term! 👏🏻

Submitted by @lordchiefinjustice

[did-they-mention-disability]

I just noticed in the recap at the start of episode 3 of midnight alley, on top of her thirty hall paintings julia also took the time to include a sign behind the desk at the theater that says "please let us know if you need any accessibility assistance" and I think that's lovely.