#That was until she said something anti-black and they realized she had very limited access to the industry anyway

[beautifulpersonpeach]

I don't call myself army, just a music fan, like to follow grown up fans of kpop and other groups and honestly up until now I thought your characterization of kpop fans and multis behavior to BTS was very one-sided and overblown. But now I'd like to offer you an apology Bpp. I keep up with a bunch of kpop podcasts run by kpop fans and black women and I follow this 30+ black woman whose whole shtick is being in kpop for vibes, not engaging in fanwars and overall being above the gross behavior from immature racist armys. So imagine my horror when I open my Twitter today and the first thing I see is this:

https://twitter.com/SideShowShit/status/1647483768423464961?s=20

My heart is so heavy and burdened by this I don't even know where to start bpp. Just last week I saw a Shinee/taemin/multi fan say the hate against Jimin should 'show give those armys a taste of what they do' when Jimin has been the target of overwhelming hate from the same shinee fans since his debut. I'm thinking to just leave kpop completely because this kind of brain rot in adults over nothing makes me depressed as fuck. I sympathize more with armys now more than ever. I love Jimin and don't want to stop actively following him. How do you deal with all this hate? Seriously how do you do it?

***

Hi Anon,

Your link.

Abridged answer: "I got no worries because you can't stop me lovin' myself" - reference linked here. :)

Long-form answer:

Like I've said before, if you've managed to make your way to the podcast side of k-pop stan environments you already have my condolences lmao. I won't state the exact reasons for that here but you're already experiencing a few of those reasons it seems.

That user is actually familiar to me - she's a black woman who works in the US entertainment industry, Hollywood to be exact, in a semi-administrative role. That person is a Blink who runs in the same circles as Ash - a k-pop writer/podcaster and multi in the US; Carrie - an Exol and Shawol in Toronto who writes K-drama/film reviews; Tamar - a Jewish Blink and multi who is a k-pop journalist; and a bunch of other k-pop writers, journalists, DJs, and otherwise 'grown-ups in k-pop' who can't seem to speak even in a neutral capacity about BTS, let alone ARMY, despite many of them deriving their livelihoods from the spread of k-pop in the West spearheaded in a large part by BTS. It's partly why ARMYs are extremely skeptical of k-pop journalism because oftentimes these content creators, journalists or reviewers are just stans of other groups with barely concealed animus for BTS. And also why the quality of critical conversations in k-pop fandom is so poor. I mean, how can you trust the opinion of an adult Black woman who should intimately know the implications of racism, calling Jimin, Oli London, unprovoked? It's all so comical but also kinda tragic lol.

You sent me this ask just as I was publishing this post so perhaps you hadn't yet seen what I've said about the dominant behaviours of k-pop stans in fandom.

I understand how painful it is to see things like that but I suggest you ignore them, report and block the account if it bothers you that much, but otherwise focus on celebrating Jimin and the things you love about him. I keep saying that hate does nothing but create more of the same. Many of the people who belong to rival fandoms, especially the fandoms that have a history of being abusive to BTS and ARMY since as far back as 2014, including fans of Shinee, EXO, Beast, Super Junior, and since 2018, BlackPink, many of the people in those fandoms default to hating anything connected to BTS, and it fascinates me even now how it's like a social contagion.

If seeing opinions like that really distress you, it's okay to step back from k-pop completely. In fact I recommend it for people who tend to get really emotionally connected to the artists they support, because none of those people are going to learn to do better, and chances are you could begin mirroring their behaviour if you get too attached. I'm friends with many people from those fandoms because they've known me since before I became ARMY, they know what I think, value, and tolerate, and they share the same values as me. But a few of those friends have been sort of 'excommunicated' from their fandoms because they refuse to engage in the hate towards BTS, and this happens far more often than you think.

I write as much as I do about this topic because I get it. Nobody wants to see shit like that. But at the same time, those sentiments towards Jimin and BTS have always existed and Jimin is still happy, thriving, more concerned with knowing what his fans think about his music, so if he's the reason you're here, then focus on him.

For me it's really that simple.

[piracytheorist]

Allen & Colin interview (pt. 2) summary and tidbits

Again, these are just the bits I found interesting and worth mentioning. I still tried to mention as much as possible, but the interview was one hour long, and I only did this on my own whim to share with the people who, for whatever reason, have no access to the interview. So it is what it is :P

Once again, I recommend supporting Allen on patreon if you can. Without him and the work he shares we wouldn’t have this in the first place. Plus he has lots of interesting podcasts too ;)

(starting off under the cut, I’m very tired right now and there will probably be a lot of mistakes here and stuff I forgot to mention, I’ll try to look it up better tomorrow but I wanted to share it as is now, knowing how not being part of that stuff can be a BIG itch. So y’know, if you want, check it up tomorrow too, lol, it may be better :P)

They started by talking about Colin's career after he graduated from drama school. Colin talked about how in drama school, compared to the "real world", it was like being in a bubble because of the limited number of actors in one’s specific school. So it was difficult getting out and realizing how much more competition there is out there, and how you'll audition for a part that you feel you're ideal for but still not take it a lot of the time. He talked about how early in an actor's career, if they don't get such a role, they may start wondering why the producers don't see what the actor has to offer, when later they realize it can be for any reason, including small ones like their eyes being the wrong colour.

(And I'm here like, how can anyone look at Colin's eyes and think they're "wrong" for anything???)

(joking aside, it was just an example he gave, but I found it fitting because THOSE DAMN EYES)

And he mentioned how, due to the tight schedule any production has, they don't have the time to tell to every single actor they rejected why they rejected them in the first place (he's so understanding about it too, despite how much such rejections could have cost him, I love him so much!), so they can either spend a lot of time wondering what they did wrong or just move on to the next project they can apply for.

"Yeah, you come out thinking that you're gonna be the next James Bond straightaway or whatever, do you know what I mean?" He talked about while school prepares actors a bit about the realities of the world, a lot of people still come out of drama school with very high expectations, and how often that happens. But sometimes it's just pure luck that very young actors get big roles in big productions.

A lot of understanding of the job comes with the experience, he says. Of course training is necessary, but it develops with practice. On that note, Allen asked him if he thought young Colin could handle working on a big production right after finishing college, and Colin said that he can't give a straight answer because while he had experience when working in The Rite, his first big film, he had lots of confidence when straight out of college... so it would also depend on how well the production did, like if it flopped, it would've been a hit to his confidence.

He talked about how his very first job after college was a theater play - also dark and heavy, it was centered around suicide - and they went on tour for it too. He then mentioned Home for Christmas, his first TV role. "It was a great role, it was a really dark, black comedy."

(baby actor Colin finding his place in the world <3)

One of his favourite memories from there was that the prop master had an oyster farm, so you know, instead of biscuits, he'd bring oysters to share with his coworkers. (XD)

He also talked about how different it was to learn to act for the camera instead of the theater, where with a camera you can be much more subtle, and you're not projecting to an immediate audience. He always wanted to do film and TV and he was watching films and such, so it wasn't hard for him to learn to "rein it in", as he referred to it.

The year after Home for Christmas was released, he won an IFTA award for Best New Talent - which wasn't just an acting category, it also included directing, screenwriting, etc. so it meant a lot to him, he hadn't expected to win that award.

He talks about how dark that film was and he sounds so excited about it. Never change, Colin <3

Allen remembers how when they all watched it together, Colin was very self-conscious about it being him on the TV, and Colin said (now) that it's still the same for him now. Like, it's still weird, from acting out emotions ("You don't look in the mirror when you're crying") to the most mundane things like walking ("You don't see the way that you walk"), so even now it makes him self-conscious to watch himself.

Then Allen said about how he couldn't attend the award ceremony, but was waiting on news about it all day and as soon as he learned Colin won he tried to get there as fast as he could. What a proud and supportive bro.

Colin talked how he was in such a high after college, but then due to not getting a job for a long time the toll it had on him and his confidence was very big, especially considering how much more confident he was before. During that time, he was playing with The Enemies as his day job, and he is very grateful to "the lads" for giving him the flexibility to not play for a couple of days if he needed to be elsewhere to have an audition or something. But still he felt fulfilled with playing in the band, making music with it meant a lot to him. He misses playing with them.

At the time the whole "sending out a video auditioning for a role" wasn't a thing yet, especially the way it is nowadays, so Colin had to go to Dublin and London a lot to audition for stuff.

His first agency, before even starting college, was a modelling agency. "We never modeled [laughs]." He clarified that it was mostly because that agency also did commercials and stuff, so it was a way for him to get into acting and make some money before starting college. Through that he auditioned for an anti-bullying video (if I got that right) and the casting directors connected him with an agent in Dublin. He continued with his acting course though, so he already had an agent when he finished college.

His work in theater after that allowed him to hone his craft and work with bigger and more experienced actors, so he kept contact until he worked in The Tudors, where a casting director in the US saw him in. She contacted Colin about connecting him to agents there, and though at the time most of his savings would be going for his wedding that summer, he and Helen decided that he could invest in going to the US and take the opportunity. Six months later, he was on the set for The Rite, opposite Anthony Hopkins. "It was a surreal thing." He talked about how nervous he was for the first read-through with Hopkins, but on that first meeting Hopkins told him "Hello Colin, nice to meet you. Let's just have fun" and it immediately helped him relax and focus.

They originally wanted a big name for Michael Kovak, saying that even though they wanted Colin, the studio might ask for a big name, but once they got Hopkins in for Father Lucas, Colin got it.

(And I just... you know, I find this quite important. Like, it wasn't a common-courtesy promise of the type "Leave your contact info and we'll let you know if you get the role", it was a legit "We want you but the studio makes the final decision", and once the studio had their big name, the casting directors went through with their word.)

He had faced a lot of rejection by that point, so he said that he was very close to giving up before he got cast for The Rite. He still remembers the day he got the call confirming to him that he got the role, and again, how Allen rushed to him to celebrate.

{Ahhh they're adorable, I love getting that glimpse into their relationship :)

Allen mentions how different it is for actors, when they have to deal with a lot of rejection, when that doesn't happen on a regular basis with a lot of other careers. Colin said how one of the most frustrating parts about that is not that you don't get the job, but that you get the feeling that people can't see what you have to offer. And again, they talked about how due to the tight schedule directors can't provide constructive criticism on what went wrong in the audition.

He doesn't consider one thing factoring to his persistence to acting; it felt right for him, but the support from his family had also a big impact.

So much about The Rite was a new thing for him, like even the fact that he had about 3 months to prepare for the role - he even boxed during that time because the description for the role talked about a guy who was boxing all his life - to going to Rome and being part of such a big production was so big but also inspirational for him. Also getting to see posters of the film in places like Times Square or Los Angeles, and having people send him pictures of posters of the film was so wild for him. "It's one of those things where you can't think about it too much, you just sort of hop on and enjoy the ride."

(WHAT A PURE BEAN T_T)

He talked about being introverted and how acting allowed him to put on a facade. When he first went to LA, it not only was a different cultural experience, but also with how it was the thing of going to the right parties and talking to the right people, and Colin said "That's not me." And being a true introvert, he said "I'd rather sit in the corner until I have to go home. I can't go up to some random stranger that I don't know and introduce myself and start telling him how great I am and why they should put me in their movie."

He talked about being considered for a series of big films but he eventually didn't get the role, and I now wonder which one it could be. He said how the directors were interested in changing the character up a bit to make him Irish, so I don't think he meant Superman, for whom he was a contestant at the time...

He then mentioned doing the Pilot for Identity, the show that ABC didn't pick up, then doing Storage 24, then getting hired on OUAT, and how big of a commitment that was, since he had to move to Vancouver, away from his friends and family aside from Helen, who went with him, and sign a contract for six years where it was basically a huge part of his life.

Even though he loved Vancouver, going there was like completely starting over, since he had no support system set before he went. But he was glad for the people who helped him during this change in his life, and even without factoring in what impact working on OUAT had on his career, it was still a very positive experience for him.

Working on OUAT was different especially since he entered a show that was already a hit. Due to his young age he'd never expected he'd play Captain Hook. It was unexpected, but it gave him the job security to have a family, and after working so long he bonded with the cast and crew and felt them as family too (no, he didn't mention any names), especially with people who, like him, had relocated and didn't have that support system set.

(And that gave me the feeling of how it was like when I was studying, when I made many friends who, like me, had left their parents' home to go to a brand new place where they didn't know anyone and made a new start. And that kinda feeling helps you bond deeper with them.)

He talked about how tough it was for him on the first conventions he attended, like, getting up on the stage and answering questions about himself. He became more comfortable, though, when he realized that the actors weren't the central theme of conventions, but rather the feeling of community among the fans. He loves seeing people who even now discover the show and love it.

He talked about how playing in Dolly Parton's Heartstrings helped him "shake off" Hook after having played him for so long, and then being able to jump to The Right Stuff, which was also a commitment (unlike Heartstrings, which was one standalone episode). He's very proud of his work there, he loved the cast and the story, how for those characters going to space was so brand new and unsure whether they'd survive. He's so excited for it to come out, and for people and him to see it.

He concludes by saying he feels good with his career, that the periods of uncertainty and not working prepared him for his future. He feels content, though still ambitious for roles he wants to play but he feels he's given his best self.

He feels so humbled and blessed for his fans that watch his stuff and hopes they'll enjoy his future works.

(We will! :D)

[a-certain-academy-city]

The Danger of Seeking Information

Academy City: The Last City of Humanity.

It was a phrase that took some getting used to, yet the weight of such was a heavy thing to imagine. When she first heard the news, Uiharu Kazari couldn’t believe what was being said. She refused to believe that the world had been destroyed by an unknown cause, and that her parents were caught in such destruction.

It was only until much time passed and the various drone footage of what should have been Tokyo had been shown, that she was simply forced to accept the reality. There were no words for it, only tears.

But she saw the resolve of many in the city, regardless of their levels or walks of life, rallying around a certain woman who was doing everything in her power to make sure the city thrived and helped deal with the threats that the esper militia organization known as ZERO posed.

Uiharu had seen the effect she had on many, including her partner and friend, Shirai Kuroko, who seemed more motivated than ever to carry out her duties as a member of Judgement. Whether it was because of the obvious fact that the world ended or her worry for a certain #3, was unknown, but Shirai had taken that woman’s words to heart.

The woman was known as Violent Violet.

When Uiharu first heard the name, she was intrigued in that in itself, but the more the woman was active in the city’s affairs, her curiosity grew.

She looked through Judgement and Anti-Skill’s database to find any information about her, only to draw a blank. There was surprisingly little to know info on her whatsoever. What she knew of her was what had been revealed publically, that she worked for the Board Chairman and had been helping with the city’s affairs for some months now.

Then there was the matter of her powers. From what Uiharu could tell, Violet was not an Academy City Esper, having monstrous strength that seemed to rival the #1′s. The clearest examble was how she was able to do things like take down an entire force of ZERO radicals, to holding up an entire building so others could escape.

There was very few people in the city that she was aware of that could pull of such feats, and the fact that she didn’t seem like she was an esper produced by the city made her think that she was a Gemstone.

But even then, something about her seemed different, suggesting that she was not a Gemstone or anything of the wort at all, but something different altogether. Like the woman in black who had once impaled Uiharu with her hand alone.

And while Violet had caught her interest, perhaps the most striking thing that became the source of her curiosity was the mysterious tower that was constructed months ago.

The Tower of Chaldeas.

It was a structure that had seemingly risen up from the ground one day, without any explanation of description of its purpose being there. It was so random, yet the thing stood taller than every other building in the city. Its appearance was similar to the Endymion Space Elevator that had been there one year ago, yet the tower’s presence was alien in a way that couldn't be described with human words or comprehension.

Uiharu wanted to find out just what was with that place, why it was there and what purpose it served. She dug further, hacking into the Board of Directors’ database, trying to find anything that related to the tower’s existence, and if it had anything to do with Violet’s sudden presence.

It had just been then that she realized how similar the two’s existences were. Both had suddenly appeared out of seemingly nowhere and became integral parts to Academy City. Both had rumors surrounding them for a while, and if the timeline in her head was correct, both had seemingly appeared around the same time. 

There was a possibility that they may have been completely unrelated to one another, but then again, they could be connected.

Sitting at her desk in the Judgement Branch Office 177, Uiharu continued typing away on her laptop, looking through a long list of files in the database, and it was only after a while that she found a particularly curious file.

“C.S.C 002...?”

The file had an image of the Tower of Chaldeas, which she was looking for. There was a great nervousness as she hovered the courser over the file, clicking it.

When it opened, she was given more closer images of the tower and some details written below that could clue her in on the structure’s purpose.

“...As per the agreement of Multi-Universe Peacekeeping treaty, Academy City is to have one facility dedicated to the C.S.C, serving as a secondary headquarters for designated personnel and to maintain a protective displacement boundary field around the city in the event of an X-K Class End of the World Scenario. Access to this facility is limited to C.S.C Personnel with Level 7 clearance, and unauthorized access will be dealt with severely including termination.”

Uiharu felt a chill as she read the file description. There was a lot about it that she didn’t understand. End of the World Scenario? Secondary Headquarters? What was this about? Did Academy City, or this third party know about  the end of the world before it happened and created this facility to protect the city? Uiharu did not get it, but she guessed that tower was the very reason why Academy City wasn’t blown off the map.

But the threat of termination was what chilled her. It was a statement, to anyone that read this that they would be dealt with if they looked in too deeply.

She started to wonder if she was in danger for reading this very file. She did hack into the Board of Director’s database after all.

But before she could do anything, multiple windows suddenly opened up on her laptop’s screen, each of them taking up space and no matter how much she tried to close them out, more of them kept appearing.

“H-Huh?! What’s going on?! W-What is this?”

The windows contained a very disturbing image of the same picture. The image was a silhouette of a strange person... could it even be called one? It had multiple horns on its head, seven circles that looked like eyes on its chest, had what looked like a tail, or tendrils around it, its lower body wrapped in what seemed to be chains, sharp white teeth that formed a grin on its otherwise featureless face, and a crown that seemed to hover atop the figure’s head.

Strange audio that sounded like distorted laughter came from the laptops speakers as more windows popped up. It had then came a point where the computer had been completely destroyed. The screen shut itself off and smoke seemed to come from the device as she tried to turn it back on.

Uiharu had heard of a Virus that had been only talked about in fourm boards where looking into certain files on the internet would allow such a virus to infect software and utterly destroy their systems, making the device too far gone.

This was the Scarlet King Computer Virus.

It was developed by an unknown party, and if weaponized, could be used to take down entire grids and networks across the world. Uiharu had gotten a small taste of that virus’s capability, with her laptop no longer functioning. It was a Judgement issued laptop, so if the time came, she could request for a new one, but this was a concerning development.

What were they hiding to warrant such a hostile cyber response? with the virus being sent her way, it was obvious that they knew she had accessed their files....

....And if what they were saying about unauthorized access being dealt with severely was true, what did that mean for Uiharu right now?

She suddenly dealt as if her life was in danger.

“T..This is bad isn’t it?”

[cannonalise92]

What Is Cat Spray Miraculous Tips

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How Long Does It Take For A Cat To Stop Spraying After Being Neutered

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Is Cat Spray Harmful To Humans

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[vox]

Why feminism didn't lose in 2016

Donald Trump’s presidential election victory, and Hillary Clinton’s loss, was a devastating blow to feminism. America had a choice between its first woman president and an alleged sexual predator; between “women’s rights are human rights” and “grab ’em by the pussy”; between telling our daughters they can do anything they want, and telling them that anything can be done to them by powerful, entitled men.

We know which option America chose. We also know it would have chosen differently if “one person, one vote” were anything but a cruel joke under our Electoral College system — but that’s beside the point now.

“However freakishly contingent [Trump’s] triumph, it forecloses the future feminists imagined at least for a long while,” Michelle Goldberg argues at Slate. “We’re going be blown backward so far that this irredeemably shitty year may someday look like a lost feminist golden age.” 2016, Goldberg writes, might go down as “the year the feminist bubble burst.”

In some ways, it’s hard to argue with her conclusion. Federal policy on women’s issues is likely to become a train wreck over the next four years — from Congress defunding family planning services, to civil rights enforcers shrugging at rape on college campuses, to labor agencies dismantling the few protections there are against gender-based discrimination in the workplace.

It’s also a massive blow to morale, Goldberg argues, when an obviously qualified woman loses the presidency to such an obviously less-qualified man — a blow that “can’t help but reverberate through the culture, changing our sense of what is possible for women.” Goldberg says her nightmare scenario is a new anti-feminist backlash of the kind we haven’t seen since the Reagan years. She fears the dawn of an era in which men who have been “stewing about political correctness” can start mistreating women with even more impunity.

Part of me shares those fears. Backlashes to social progress are real, and they happen with depressing regularity. But, honestly? I have a hard time seeing this particular nightmare — men feeling any more entitled to women’s bodies than normal, or feminism being any more credibly blamed for all of women’s problems than normal — coming to pass.

Yes, feminist hopes have been dashed — but feminist efforts haven’t failed. The only “bubble” that’s been popped is the one that had some people convinced misogyny was already over, or at least well on its way out the door.

There were some deeply painful losses in the ongoing battle for women’s rights and equality this year. There’s no way around that. But Trump’s victory didn’t vanquish feminism. It just clarified the challenges that feminism is really up against — even now, still, in America in 2016. And the important part is this: 2016 proved that feminism is up to the challenge. And it’s steadily winning battles in a very, very long war against something even bigger than Trumpism.

2016 was still a year of reckoning for men who act with sexual impunity

2016 did, sadly and predictably, keep up humanity’s thousands-year trend of men committing sexual violence against women or otherwise behaving badly. Jezebel has a whole list of “Men Who Got Away With It in 2016,” where “it” ranges from criminal mischief to domestic violence to genocide, and where the men in question are all famous and still basically doing just fine for themselves.

But some of them didn’t get away with it, at least not entirely. And the reasons for that are reasons for feminists to be optimistic. It’s getting a little easier for victims of sexual violence to come forward, it seems, and it’s getting a little harder for perpetrators to escape consequences.

Former Fox News CEO Roger Ailes became “former,” not to mention “disgraced,” thanks to the determined efforts of Gretchen Carlson — the former Fox anchor who sued Ailes for sexual harassment, secretly taped his advances (which Ailes still denies making) for a year, and inspired numerous other women to go public about similar experiences with him.

There were limits to this feminist victory. Carlson may have gotten a $20 million settlement and an apology from Fox, but Ailes got a $40 million golden parachute. Carlson faced public skepticism from her colleagues and attacks on her character, like so many women who go public about sexual misconduct. And how are ordinary women with ordinary support networks supposed to feel about coming forward when even a popular TV personality like Carlson is only vindicated after a year of dedicated groundwork, and only after an even more famous colleague (Megyn Kelly) also comes forward to back her up? (We may have a gender wage gap of 80 or so cents on the dollar — but when it comes to public perceptions of sexual violence, we’ll be lucky when a woman’s word is worth 80 percent of a man’s.)

Nonetheless, Ailes was one of the most powerful men in media. He made Fox News what it is today. It was never, ever a foregone conclusion that he could be taken down at all by something like this, much less that he’d lose his job over it.

Other high-profile cases of sexual misconduct in 2016 came with similarly mixed, but still powerful, feminist victories. Bill Cosby’s accusers were ignored for years until a malecomedian said something in 2014 — but in 2016 Cosby faced criminal charges (which he may or may not be convicted of, but there’s damning evidence against him), and his reputation is in the toilet. Former Stanford student and convicted rapist Brock Turner only served three months of his six-month jail sentence — but after his victim’s eloquent plea for justice went viral, his light sentence became a national scandal.

As for Donald Trump, well, he won the election. But while many voters were able to overlook his blatant misogyny, that doesn’t mean they liked or approved of it. The Access Hollywood tapes, and the many women who came forward after that to accuse Trump of sexual assault, dealt a huge blow to his campaign — one that only the last-minute chaos of FBI Director James Comey’s letter about Hillary Clinton’s emails could really help him recover from.

All of these major stories have one thing in common: women’s voices, amplifying and being amplified by other women’s voices. One woman speaking out, inspiring a dozen others to follow suit because they know they’re not alone. One woman speaking out, and changing the story we tell about a powerful man — in public, instead of the usual whispered warning to other women behind closed doors, or the usual ashamed silence.

More women are speaking out, and more people are listening to them. This is a new normal that can’t easily be reversed.

Perhaps more than ever, 2016 was the year of women both speaking out and being heard. This doesn’t seem like too much to ask for, but it’s also not something we can take for granted.

In just the past decade or so, feminism has become mainstream, culturally hip, and politically savvy. Beyoncé, for instance, has made feminism both appealing (think the FEMINIST sign at the 2014 Video Music Awards) and challenging (think the proud black feminism of her 2016 album Lemonade) to mainstream audiences.

In 2016, women’s magazines like Cosmopolitan and Glamour ran election stories that any other outlet would consider major scoops. And some people on the internet seemedshocked — shocked! — that Teen Vogue would feature hard-hitting coverage of the 2016 election and not just beauty tips.

But none of this is surprising, as Sady Doyle explained for Quartz: The rise of feminist blogs during the George W. Bush years ended up “training an army of female journalists and editors” who now write for major outlets like the New York Times, or who have found their home at successful new digital publications. Even though it still gets dismissed and made fun of, feminist news coverage has gone mainstream.

No wonder then, perhaps, that decades of rape allegations against Bill Cosby didn’t even begin to catch up with him until late 2014, or that this year featured a broader cultural reckoning on sexual assault, or that Hillary Clinton decided to vocally embrace her gender and feminist values in 2016 after having done the opposite in 2008.

Social media has also given women huge platforms and communities to discuss problems they might otherwise have stayed silent about — or that they may never have found the words for until someone gave it a name.

When Trump’s “pussy” tape inspired author Kelly Oxford to tweet about her first sexual assault, and encourage other women to do the same, she was inundated with responses at the rate of at least one per second for at least the next day. And when I wrote about her tweets, women I know started telling me about experiences they’d kept to themselves for years.

There are many reasons — stigma, shame, trauma, and so on — why women might not talk openly about assault, even though it’s so common. But we’ve also been raised to expect that this kind of thing happens all the time. That it’s no big deal if a guy casually gropes you at a bar, or that it’s flattering if he gives you a kiss you weren’t expecting. That the sick, hollow feeling you might get about it afterward is your problem.

If you get enough women in a room to talk about this, though, they might start realizing they all have the same “problem.” They might give that problem a name, like “sexual assault,” and decide there’s no good reason to put up with it anymore.

They might even start naming and stop tolerating some of “the small indignities that make even the most privileged female lives taxing,” as Goldberg put it — like “mansplaining” (a man condescending to a woman on a subject she knows better than he does) or “manspreading” (when men take up too much space on a subway, e.g., and crowd others out).

Can this get a little ridiculous or trivial? Perhaps. Then again, it’s not like sexism saves itself for the really weighty, serious issues. Sometimes misogyny is actually so ridiculous, so absurd, that the only sensible response is blowing raspberries and laughing in its face. Lord knows we’re all going to need a little levity under Trump.

Systemic sexism depends on silence — people who will look the other way, or who will shut up those loud women who don’t have the courtesy to shut themselves up. But once silences are broken as widely and deeply as they have been for women this year, this decade, it’s very hard to put all of that back in the bottle.

In 2016, loud women fought off an extreme abortion ban in Poland, led a fierce fight against the Dakota Access Pipeline, and smacked down the idea that women should ever be embarrassed about their periods. Loud women planned a massive March on Washingtonfor the day after Trump’s inauguration that could be the largest-ever mobilization of its kind.

Women just aren’t shutting up, and it’s hard to see why they would start now.

The near future of feminism will be local and decentralized. That doesn’t mean it won’t be effective.

It’s important to remember that women still made historic national electoral gains despite Hillary Clinton’s loss; the number of women of color in the Senate is about to quadruple, from one to four. Plus, the symbolic milestone of Clinton’s campaign — the first woman presidential nominee of a major party, who won the popular vote by about 3 million votes — really does matter despite her loss, and is in some ways a feminist triumph.

Of course, a majority-Republican Congress and a Trump-Pence administration don’t bode well for advancing women’s health or rights at the federal level. But there’s tremendous opportunity and energy for progressives and feminists to make some serious gains at the state and local level in the meantime — which also happens to be a much better long-term organizing strategy than obsessing over presidential politics.

2016 was the best year yet in a promising fight to pass paid sick and family leave at the state and local level. The United States is the only developed country that doesn’t have national paid maternity leave, and the momentum to change that — at least locally, as long as Congress does nothing — is strong. Three states, one county, and 10 cities passed laws in 2016 that require workers to be able to earn paid sick days, and New York State and Washington, DC, both passed very generous family leave insurance programs.

And amazingly, reproductive rights may actually be on the upswing — in spite of everything, including a promise from Trump to appoint “pro-life” Supreme Court justices who could overturn Roe v. Wade.

The Supreme Court’s decision this summer to overturn two Texas abortion laws was a sweeping pro-choice game-changer; it’s already been used to strike down abortion restrictions in other states, and more court victories will probably follow in the near future. That decision also makes it much less likely that the Court would overturn Roe v. Wade in the near future — at least not unless and until Trump gets to appoint two or three new conservative justices.

Collectively, states also proposed about 300 bills that would expand, rather than restrict, women’s health and rights, including better access to contraception and better maternal health care. It’s a promising avenue to shore up women’s health at a time when comprehensive coverage under the Affordable Care Act could be in jeopardy.

There’s also at least one interesting, and very promising, state and local side effect of Hillary Clinton’s loss: She is reportedly inspiring a massive surge of interest among women in running for local political office. Driven by shock, fear, and anger over Trump’s win, many women say they want to be the change they want to see in government.

That’s incredibly important: Research shows that women’s political ambition, or lack thereof, is one of the biggest hurdles to getting more women in political office and working toward equal representation in government. Some women are qualified and driven, but have just literally never considered running for office as a serious possibility. Others feel intimidated by fears of sexism on the campaign trail, or don’t feel supported by their political establishment.

Either way, there’s a lack of qualified women in the pipeline to advance in political office. And if more women run and win, especially at the state and local level, they will not only set themselves up for more powerful offices later — they’ll also change how their government works.

With someone like Trump in office, it’s much harder to argue that sexism is a thing of the past. That’s a good thing.

It’s tempting to think of these developments as the start of a sea change — the last stand of the “good old boys” who used their power to abuse women with impunity and trust that everybody else would look the other way, for instance. But we shouldn’t start writing rape culture’s obituary just yet.

Younger generations may be more liberal than older ones in general, but research suggeststhat they’re not necessarily more progressive on issues related to gender equality and sexism. While there’s been some progress on these issues, the sexism that remains can actually be more dangerous — because people will be less prepared to believe it really exists, and thus less equipped to deal with it.

In a 2013 Pew survey of Americans, for instance, millennial men were the most likely demographic group to say that all necessary changes have already been made to bring about gender equality in the workplace. That’s nuts: Women face workplace discrimination in almost every imaginable way, from the very real gender wage gap, to pregnancy and parenting discrimination, to unequal representation in leadership, to America’s complete lack of any national paid maternity or family leave.

But complacency in the face of all of that could be tougher when your president is the kind of guy who thinks his own daughter should just change jobs if she were ever sexually harassed at work.

I think of the status quo on sexism, racism, and other forms of bigotry as like living in a town built on top of a toxic waste dump. The barrels aren’t as well-sealed or deeply buried as people think, and your kids are still getting sick, and still only certain kinds of crops will actually grow in that soil. But city officials insist everything’s fine — and really you should count your blessings, because in the next town over everybody has to wear gas masks.

But then one day, Hurricane Donald comes along. It roars through and rips up the grass and soil, and all the barrels bob to the surface and ooze toxic black goo everywhere, the stuff you thought and hoped was long buried.

It’s a much bigger and more obvious mess, and nobody’s happy. But at least nobody’s fooling themselves anymore, and you know just how much hard cleanup work is still ahead.

[revlatte]

Sanctuary: Pre-Launch Thoughts

It’s Sunday morning here in the Land of the Sky. I sit in front of a computer screen, alone down a very long drive way. There’s tea brewing in the kitchen. Jill Scott is playing on my Spotify. The track is currently “He Loves Me.” I’m in winter socks, plaid boxers, and a University of Tennessee Center for Leadership & Service long-sleeve shirt I received as a gift for participating on an alumni panel. My plaid pants are laying on the bed next to me with a pair of long johns inside. The heater is set to “4″. I have no clue what temperature that is but it’s warm enough. The curtains are still drawn because I’m a Pisces and love lurking in the dark, even in the day light. I am about to light 3 candles to be obedient to my partner’s ancestors. 

Admittedly, my brain is not firing as strongly as it used too. This gives me great pause and reason for concern. It’s almost as if my brain reached it’s peak a decade ago when I was working, involved in ministry as a youth pastor, and in graduate school at Wesley Theological Seminary. I’ve spent the last decade searching for my people, my family, my home, my faith community, myself. Perhaps with the Sanctuary Movement, I’m a bit closer. 

3 Thoughts for Today: Hidden Figures, #wearenotinvisible & brewing, Black Star Line Brewing. 

Hidden Figures

One of my good friends here in Asheville and I went to the pre-release to see Hidden Figures on Thursday. I was so proud of Taraji P. Henderson. She is a true come up! From Hustle & Flow to Hidden Figures with Kevin Costner. As a Black American, I understand the significance of this and how Taraji is maturing as an actress who is commanding respect in Hollywood circles. I may not respect all of her choices in movies but I see her value as an actress and role model. Heck, she inspired me. 

Throughout the movie, there is a common narrative that we as Black women are familiar with. The asshole bosses who lack any emotional intelligence and create hostile work environments and don’t give two shits about how their egoism, patriarchy, heteronormativity, cis-gendered male privilege, misogyny impacts everyone one else. There’s the narrative of having to work harder than everyone else though you’re more qualified and have more experience. The experience of being paid less because of what’s between your legs and the color of your skin. The narrative of others knowing the discrimination you are facing is real but THEY DO NOTHING! They want to protect their safety, their freedom, their privilege. They watch as you face oppression, hatred, bigotry and become ostracized. And, there’s the one person who can see through this shit and validate and affirm our experiences. We, as Black women, so often, play critical roles in the development of institutions, organizations, companies and receive no accreditation. We are written out of history and convinced that we can be nothing more than subservient slaves to capitalism and white supremacy. Hidden Figures broke that narrative. 

I left that movie theater inspired and proud. I left with a fire in my belly that we, the Sistahs of Sanctuary, could do anything. We already are. 

#wearenotinvisible & brewing

When I first came to Asheville and arrived at my home on Lamar Avenue, I declared my new home as sanctuary and a place to land. I told my girlfriend at the time that I wanted to fly under the radar, keep my nose down, not get involved with organizing, and take some space to process and heal. I needed a low-key, “normal” life. That was my desire. 

Within just a few short months, all of that had turned on its head. I was working at the progressive UCC in town. It was a great experience and also really damn difficult. I had the same degree as the co-pastors, comparable experience in many ways, and was in a position of assistant. My options for employment were limited so $14 an hour for 14 hours a week (as it started) was stable and kept the lights on. Additionally, I had some outside contracting work and residuals, so it was all good. While there, I realized my brain was working the same and was too afraid to say anything to anyone. I imagine the pastors could tell something was off. Perhaps none of us wanted to say anything. I was a shell of a person. Through it all, I waited for the moment when they would ask me to preach on a Sunday. Or help with the Eucharist (which I believe is the most sacred and holy of acts in faith communities.) Or do a reading. I waited for an invitation to be a part of the community. Rarely, if ever, did that come. My engagement with the community was structured around ways I was showing up as a staff. This was sad in many ways and I received a sense of home, place, community through it all. Until...

The week before Valentine’s Day 2016. My partner was certain she was going to loose the baby. I was not surprised. Stress, shitty ass nutrition, and a diet of many beers, mixed with older age. This was sad and devastating for me, as their partner. We had dreamed of the baby, names, colors for the walls. The plan was that I would be transitioning to her house to live. All of us, as a family. 

I received a call from the doctor that whatever was growing on and inside of my uterus was growing. Surgery had to be scheduled immediately for that upcoming Tuesday, the 11th. 

Long story short - an emergency hysterectomy for me while simultaneously, my girlfriend was having a miscarriage. Devastation. 

I was out of work from the church and my girlfriend did not want any support or visits. I couldn’t understand but wanted to respect our relationship boundaries. Less than a week later, a white, older, lesbian, wealthy Board member came in to my home and unleashed her white rage on to me and broke a really dear item to me, at my dining room table. In the weeks that followed, the #wearenotinvisible movement was launched to address anti-Black bias in the workplace, primarily in gay/queer organizations. The fall out was shitty. As per usual, folks took the side of the oppressed, did everything in their power to discredit me, and engaged in a long and multi-tiered level of victim-blaming. It was humiliating and devastating. In fact, to this day, the organization has comments on their website about the #wearenotinvisble movement. As SHE said, it’s painful and it hurts. 

Through that advocacy and raising issues around transparency, I was blackballed. Eventually, I had to leave my job at the church. My relationship with my partner was falling apart. And I was in this new damn town, isolated, alone, afraid, unemployed and not employable. I sought Sanctuary. I had to go inward. Once inside, I couldn’t make my way through the mountains, rivers, valleys, and streams of consciousness and trauma. I was alone. 

Over the next year, I would watch friends come and go. Hot and cold. Close and far. It was as if I was walking around town with the Mark of the Beast. In each conversation, I had to give a disclaimer of who I was and what I was about. It fucking sucked. I just wanted to live.... until I didn’t because I couldn’t take it anymore. 

So what does this have to do with brewing? The #wearenotinvisible movement got hijacked and all around town I saw people wearing the shirts that I paid for (for half of them at least), and not knowing the history. It was clear that they knew this one person and bought a shirt to be a part of a movement. 

To be a part of something bigger than yourself. That’s what the Sanctuary Movement is all about. That’s what we are striving to achieve. Collective working, unity, healing, and liberation. To embody the principles of Kwanzaa. 

Well, as I think about the craft brewing industry, to be blunt: it’s fully of really privileged, white, cis-gendered males with a lot of access to cash. If they have enough cash, they can work hard enough (or make others work for them at a fraction of their worth), and amass a great living, if not millions, in just a matter of years. There’s no one in the industry that looks like me. A thick, Black, masculine of center, queer, woman. I know we exist and are excited and interested in beer. We are the under-served, un-tapped market. I know the secret to our success and healing. #wearenotinvisible and yes I can see the Hidden Figures. 

Black Star Line Brewing

Again, you are probably reading this wondering what the hell I’m talking about and how it all comes together and if it’s remotely related to the Sanctuary Movement. The answer is YES!

Sanctuary will initially house 4 Black, queer womyn and their children in the month of January 2016. We will host rituals. Healing circles. Visioning sessions. And begin to create the world we have envisioned. Challenging supremacy, capitalism, and individualism. We are welcoming each other home. To Sanctuary. 

AND, that comes at a cost. Rent is $1200. Utilities will probably average about $200. Water about $100. Internet is $60. Food for all of us around $400. Other items (such as toilet paper, paper towels, etc.), are estimated around $150 a month. If we have a shared car, estimated payment around $350/month. Insurance estimated at $200/month. Total baseline for the household: $1620. Add food and miscellaneous items: That’s $2170. Then, if we’re able to secure a car and insurance for such, we’re looking at $2,720. For the sake of round numbers, let’s say it cost $2800 per month to support 4 Black women and 3 children. That’s it. 

However, we are all coming to the space because we need, desire, and crave Sanctuary and community. Our collective and individual capacities to “work” in the system, to make someone else richer, and to have our worth evaluated at $10/hour at best, is not an option. There needs to be soul-affirming work with dignity, pride, and honor. 

To that end, we’ve asked folks who can see the Hidden Figure and those that know are lives matter, that #wearenotinvisible, to donate to the Sanctuary Movement. To donate in recurring donations, single donations, donate food, cars, whatever and however they are able. We are not a non-profit (because we do not believe in that hierarchy and oppressive structure). We are Sistahs of Sanctuary who are doing the work of healing and starting where it matters the most, with ourselves. 

We have most of the brewing equipment we need to get started. But not the funds for the rest of the materials or equipment. If we are able to brew and partner with our friends at breweries around town, we can make beer, mead, cider, etc. as a viable stream of income to support the community. We can break through the color and gender barrier in the industry and really show strength in self-sufficiency. This could be a model we could replicate and break free from the chains of traditional employment that is exploitative. It is a pathway to our liberation. 

We have the land and space to grow hops and really distinguish ourselves.

As we heal, we will see the launch of Black Star Line Brewing as a testimony to our individual and collective healing and liberation. As a form of resistance and renewal. As a form of Sanctuary in a bottle. 

Alone. Down the long driveway. Over a mason jar of tea. I dream of the tomorrow that is almost here. I dream of Sanctuary. Of our collective brilliance. Of being at the precipice of healing - individual and collective. I dream of the story that our children and grand children will tell about us being bad-ass, radical women who blazed the trail in the craft brewing industry, in commercial cleaning, healing, at life. 

I think of my Sistahs and give thanks. Because of them, I have the will to live. The fight in my belly. Because of them, I can come home. Because of them I am home and have finally found Sanctuary. 

[obsidianarchives]

Marci and Ako

Marci & Ako are the podcast duo behind The Colored Pages Book Club, a bi-weekly podcast discussing fiction, fantasy, and magical realism written by writers from colorful backgrounds. Through this lens they discuss their own lives as well as bigger social themes such as liberation, anti-oppression, and intersectionality. 

Marci is originally from Atlanta, Georgia, but, while they’re always repping Atlanta egregiously, they haven’t actually lived there since high school. A lover of Motown, anime, dance, and tea parties, Marci can often be found pounding vegan yogurt or engaging in rodent-like shenanigans with friends. While not always an avid reader, Marci’s love for storytelling dates back to his days as a wee lass enjoying cartoons, playing Japanese Role-Playing games, and living a life filled with hijinks and tomfoolery that honestly just had to be conveyed to others.

Ako has lived a decent bit of her life in one place or another. She considers home to be where her heart is — and anywhere she can find a decent slice. She never leaves her bed without her wits about her, and is always down for an adventure, a little mischief, or nonsensical turn of events. Her diet consists steadily of afro-futurism, sci-fi, fantasy, and comics. And she firmly believes a good story, heard at just the right time, can change a life. 

Black Girls Create: What do you create?

Marci: Through our collective vision, we create a virtual space of radical love for readers, writers, video game nerds, fantasy lovers, anime geeks, artists, and so many others that dare to imagine. We focus on centering the stories, narratives, and discussions that mainstream society tries to erase by centering the most marginalized or, in our words, most “colorful” individuals. 

Ako: As Marci said, we’re just making Black kid magic or youngblood joy. We’re trying to create a corner of the internet that’s a little off the beaten path. Somewhere you can laugh, relax, and maybe think a little.

BGC: Why do you create?

Marci: Both of us share the core belief that imagination is the greatest catharsis and is the vector we need to create a better world. For that reason, literature has been a very transformative part of our lives. We wanted to create a show that made discussions around the precious medium more accessible. Conversations around books can be hilarious, serious, silly, and have the charm of two good friends catching up. So, we wanted to encourage imagination and change what it means to be someone that consumes and appreciates literature. 

Ako: Yeah, I think all people create in some form or another, whether it’s tangible or intangible. Creating is what we do with our lives and imagination, and I feel CPBC is one of the tools we do it with. I create to figure things out, to deal with life, to change my life, and sometimes, frankly, to escape my life. I create because I want to experience something that’s not there or I want to give my take on something that is. So for us, just like Marci said, we wanted to create a place that honors imagination, by interacting with it. You open a book and you see someone else’s whole perspective on life and you ask yourself, “How do I feel about this? What did I learn? What do I think?” and then get to talk to your friend about it and that conversation becomes this creation of fun, joy, healing, and growth.

BGC: Who or what inspires you to do what you do? 

Marci: Whether I was telling some ridiculously dramatic story on the bus or literally getting sent out of Calculus class for sharing some ridiculous tale, I’ve always been a storyteller. What can I say? But more than CPBC serving as a platform for Ako and me to tell our collective story — a story of friendship, social action, and rule breakers — we’re inspired by all the great stories that precede and exist alongside us. Stories are the key to building empathy, creating community, and fostering visibility and it’s the potential of stories and the act of storytelling that inspire us the most. 

Ako: For this podcast? I guess Marci inspires me. I mean they called one day and said, I have this idea for a book club and I thought of you. Before that I had very little intention of doing anything related to podcasting. But it was one of those moments when someone says, “Hey, I found this magic carpet and I’m gonna take it on a joy ride. Are you in or you out?” And at first I was worried — “What if we fall? What if we run into a plane? What about altitude sickness?” But then I thought, “Well if it's Marci, it’s sure to be an adventure, and moreover, I certainly don’t want to regret not giving it a shot!” It’s moments like this, that when life asks you if you dare — and whatever you answer kind of tells you the life you want to live. 

BGC: Who is your audience?

Marci: Listen, we invite anyone to listen to the Colored Pages Book Club! While the show is about fiction, fantasy, and magical realism, Ako and I love us some anime, 90s cartoons, and similarly imaginative mediums. So, for our readers out there, tune in if you’re looking to be part of a virtual book club, trying to find more books by colorful writers (women writers, LGBTQ+ writers, writers of color, etc.), and ultimately looking for hilarious discussion and intersectional analysis to accompany your reading experience. And, for everyone else, tune in for the anime references, the personal anecdotes, the hilarious sidenotes, and the general nerding out that take place. (And don’t worry if you haven’t read the books. Think of the show as Sparknotes: Blerd Edition.)

Ako: I agree, anyone who wants to join the conversation is more than welcome! That’s what’s so cool about having an online “book club.” We get to be like, “Yo, people somewhere out there, we read this book and we had some thoughts — what about you?” Of course, injustice and hatred isn’t really our speed, so if that’s what you’re into, we’re probably not for you. But otherwise, if you like books, blerd stuff, nerd stuff, or just something fun and a little different from the usual, you’re in the right place. 

BGC: How do you balance creating with the rest of your life? 

Marci: Lately, I have been really intentional about crafting time each day for the things that matter most to me. I am someone with a lot of varying interests and curiosities and keep myself on a set morning self-care routine that ensures I’m equally contributing to my personal, mental, and creative health. So, while that means I can’t quite binge YouTube video game reviews or the latest season of Pose like I used to, it’s well worth it. 

Ako: I don’t…or I’m learning how to, I guess. But often my life bleeds into my creative process and vice versa. Sometimes it’s not great and sometimes it is amazing. An experience will influence a creative project I’m working on, and often my creative projects influence how I live my life. Mostly, I just try to make sure one doesn’t sideline the other — but I would be lying if I said I had it all figured out. 

BGC: Why is it important as a Black person to create?

Marci: As Black people, our voices and stories have been erased, disregarded, and misappropriated for centuries. So, by creating, we are able to control our own narratives and ensure our stories are being told honestly and respectfully. But, in addition to that, as a Black, queer individual, I understand that my liberation is not mutually exclusive to the liberation of others. That it is just as important for me to lift up and support others on my journey of creative expression since, quite frankly, we can ALL eat. There’s more than enough to go around.

Ako: Because we’re humans, and creating is the human experience. Often times the world tries to deny or define that experience for Black folks. But honestly, we’ve created in the face of oppressive forces that have tried very hard to stop us before and we continue to create in the face of those forces now. Why wouldn’t we? We exist on this earth experiencing all that it is, and so it only makes sense that we influence it, and we leave a part of ourselves here in whatever form that it takes. 

BGC: Advice for young creators?

Marci: My biggest advice would be to not be afraid to create in ways you haven’t before. Learning to podcast was definitely a learning curve and historically, I’m not someone who really fell in love with reading until fairly recently. I spent so much time in the beginning stages doubting my ability to realize this idea and to manifest our vision for CPBC. It’s very normal to question your ability to do something you haven’t before, but dare to believe in your ability to learn, expand, and grow and, most importantly, trust that your spirit would never manifest an idea that you were incapable of actualizing.

Ako: I think just start. It doesn’t have to be good, in fact it probably won’t be, but who cares? Creating is for you. It’s not for the world, although you might share it. It’s a way of freeing yourself, or working things out in your mind, or imagining possibilities. Don’t think so hard about what it should be, just start, and allow the experience to tell you of what it is. 

BGC: Do you have any future projects?

Marci: So, in the vein of challenging your perceived creative limitations, I am actually in the process of writing my first novel. It’s an idea that has constantly shifted and expanded throughout the years, but I’m finally working to actualize this creative vision. Details to come.

Ako: I’m really excited to one day start an animation company. Animation, to me, is such an innovative and dope medium. It allows a creator to play with so many aspects of storytelling. And when I think about how those aspects could be used to tell different perspectives I get really excited. So, that’s my dream and I honestly look forward to it.

Follow Marci and Ako on Twitter @TheColoredPages and find their podcast at www.thesecoloredpages.com.