#also if we're on the subject of microaggressions.

[bancaishi]

didn't want to put this rant in the tags of that last post but honestly i feel like a lot of people hate toshiro disproportionately compared to what he actually did in-story. and if we're being real it's most likely because of racism

[timkontheunsure]

Blitz's solo career?

Ok so is there an actual reason that Blitz thinks all Goetias are 'all the fuckin' same", and that "royal demons don't give a shit about guys like us"?

Fizz doesn't have this opinion, even after working with Mammon...

I assumed it was just growing up in a racist system, and having a lifetime of it rule class not caring being reinforced. But what if it's that plus, something that Fizz didn't go through. Something after the Circus but before Loo Loo Land?

Something that affected him enough to be in his bad trip years after. Someone that offered him a career if he slept with them?

We know he has trauma of being on stage, and ends up in a panic attack when he's forced onto one. Nearly saying when he's last performance was. "Oh, shit! Oh, shit! Oh, shit! Oh, shit! I-I... I can't do this. No, not again. I-I haven't performed since--"

When the crowd laugh he lights up.

And at the end of the episode, when they've got back Via all safe, the book and Loona's mostly forgives him; Blitz is still upset at his 'acting career' going up in flames.

Everyone else is happy to watch the fireworks and he's still grumpy, about a bit part on a very bad human sitcom. There's no career here. So what making him feel bad?

Blitz doesn't trust Mammon from when they're teenagers, but it's not quite "you royal fucks think you can do this EVERY TIME, like you can just play with our feelings because we're smaller and not as IMPORTANT!"

This looks like a trauma trigger about a royal discarding him for both sex and a job. It is directed at Stolas, but also every Goetia. Like it's not all about what happening here.

Why does he look angry at Stolas laughing at his jokes? He loves Stolas doing that, so who pretended to laugh at them?

Blitz says all royal are the same, after a very long list of things showing he notices when Stolas cares for him as a person. And Fizz tries sarcasm saying...

Which gets the biggest eyeroll of 'even Blitz can't be that thick'. So why does Blitz think that make it more fake?

Then Fizz says "They can't all be the same if some have taste, and some wanna fuck you." By inference any royal that wants to sleep with Blitz is one of bad ones.

And this is the point where he wants to stop talking about his sexlife, and change the subject after being it up in the first place...

They do a lot of foreshadowing in this show to what if this really isn't about Stolas, but past experiences being put onto him.

A royal that he liked, thought liked him back, and screwed over his job when he got tired of him.

If so Blitz might have a bit more to work through than denial, and getting Stolas to unlearn racist behaviours and microaggressions.

Still thinking they'll get there but might be being set up for season 3.

[gunbun]

this post is about the cultural concerns regarding ffxiv: dawntrail

Hi doods. Activism has brushed up against fandom YET AGAIN but this time it punches me straight in the heritage and this time I wanna talk about it.

I'm a non-status Qalipu Mik'maq, for the record. An Indigenous American, if thou wilt.

I discuss some pretty heavy shit below the cut. I pray it persists across all devices. Please advise if you want me to tag this as something, or block the tags I have used. I do not need anyone to spread this on my behalf, I do not need anyone's defense. I just have some thoughts and I want to think them.

So it's been less than 24 hours since Dawntrail was announced and we got the Keynote.

We're going to Fantasy The Americas! Before Industrialization!

Many people went "oh hell yeah, that's Brazil, this is gonna be great! We don't usually see this!"

On Twitter especially, many MORE people lost their goddamn minds, citing CBU3's prior wobbles with depicting foreign/indigenous persons.

And of course, the White Community Leaders are out in force performing pre-emptive outrage or even asking people to quit FFXIV in light of this announcement.

I'm here to ask folks not to do that.

What follows is my tweet-thread about it.

"It is perfectly okay to be waiting and seeing how Tural is going to be portrayed in Dawntrail. It's okay to have a concern.

It is NOT okay to come out preemptively swinging and performing outrage.

Because blood quanta are their own touchy subject I usually don't bring this up, but I am the class of indigenous person what represents "what's left".

And I fucking tell you now I don't need the opinions of Concerned White People.

I do not need Concerned White People telling me what colonialism is.

I do not need Concerned White People telling me to be mad.

I do need Concerned White People to realise that the above two actions are microaggressive as fuuuuck.

"but Jai, aren't you White?"

colonialism and genocide comes in many forms. this includes forcing indigenous persons to assimilate or be killed.

also stuff like reinforcing the idea that being indigenous is shameful so that when their descendants find out, they deny it."

Thus ended my tweet thread. There's one more tweet linking to qalipu.ca.

So I want to write more about this on Tumblr.

I really want to make sure that folks take a hard look at what they're concerned about and why.

Like… a lot of White Concern about the use of indigenous motifs in Dawntrail is itself a brand of anti-indigenous racism.

Thinking that the MSQ is going to automatically be about the Scions starting a colonialism in Tural? That's a pretty gross thing to say in the same breath y'all complain about Always Fantasy Europe.

Calling "cultural appropriation" when everyday items are displayed and depicted in the manner in which they were/are used (gulal, curry)? Way to exoticise foreign and indigenous cultures by thinking that everything they make, wear, use, or eat is something of Deep Cultural Significance that Cannot Ever Be Shared With Outsiders. Saris and salwar kameez are just as culturally significant as skirts and slacks. Moccasins are just shoes.

And moreover, getting preemptively Concerned when thus far THERE IS LITERALLY NO NEED TO BE CONCERNED is actually kind of beyond the pale. I haven't seen many indigenous folks and/or folks from South America being anything but pleased that this time The Americas gets a cool pastiche like Europe, Asia, and India have gotten in the past. There's an undercurrent of "oh no, I hope it's not bad stereotypes" which is ABSOLUTELY OKAY. Reblog and retweet what THOSE people are saying. Do not add commentary.

Preemptively saying "you're worried" about your South American/Indigenous friends with zero indication that they're bothered? Come the actual fuck on. We are not a monolithic group that you can "be concerned" for to get a pat on the back later as a Good Person. Do not Perform the I'm A Good Person And The Worst Thing You Could Do is CALL Me A Racist dance.

Don't "get ahead of the discourse". Not every conversation needs your fucking input. Shut your mouth.

What is and isn't an Offensive Portrayal of Indigenous Americans is a lot more nuanced than most people who like to perform outrage make it out to be.

We can and will speak up for ourselves. Share our words and our concerns if you must. Do not go and distill our words and turn us into the monolith you hide behind to perpetuate white saviourism and neocolonialism.

We aren't a monolith of poor uneducated people who don't understand what the europeans did that need to be uwu protected.

[massharp1971]

Racism in the sga fandom... let's talk about it

I came to fanfiction specifically for John Sheppard/Ronon Dex. Unfortunately, the majority of fics in that ship are racist, albeit subtly so. That got to me as a white person who cares about racism, but let's be clear, subjecting people of colour to continual microaggressions is *proven* to be psycholgically harmful - many experts would say traumatising over time.

This is still true if the microaggressions are delivered through the medium of fanfiction. Much as we love the fairy story "fiction can't hurt" it's simply not true. Microaggressions are microaggressions, racism is racism.

It also doesn't matter that none of the writers intended harm. You can accidentally cause a fire and it still burns as much.

So when we allow racism to happen and don't challenge it, we're choosing to sit by while people are harmed. It's that simple.

When we say words cannot harm I think we know what a fairy story that is.

Sga fandom - find something to say about Ronon other than his looks and physicality and cock size. Don't treat him like a sex object or a weapon or someone less than human, comparing him to an animal or even Chewbacca. If you're a white woman, don't do to him what men do to women, thinking turn about is fair play and ignoring the very complicated power relations between white women and men of colour. It isn't turning the tables on power if you're leaning into a structure of oppression you benefit from. Go find a nice white man to objectify. I hear John Sheppard's available. Don't have Teyla and Ronon be there solely to dispense wisdom to the white characters (something I know I've been guilty of). Don't expect them to be dignified and stoic and never get angry. Don't have them forgiving the heinous crimes committed in the show towards Pegasuns and don't excuse those crimes under the heading "anyone would do that" because no, imperialism and colonialism is not the only response from every culture on Earth. Many could have and did not. Think about what it means if you ship them in a passive or submissive role. Think about what it means to not allow them to have an inner world and complex emotional responses. Think about what it means when they are purely there to facilitate the narrative arc of white people.

Obviously you'd have to be pretty olivious not to see the ways in which the source material is also racist - we have to face the fact our fave is problematic and deal with this.

Talking about racism is not harmful. Don't buy into the far right rhetoric that such conversations are dangerous. Let's talk about this.



[the-eldritch-it-gay]

Get to know me game!

I was tagged by @tododeku-or-bust! Thank you 💖. I will no obligation tag @omgkalyppso @cheshirepirouette @ahasiw-okitowin @razrogue & anyone who would like to join!

1. Are you named after anyone?

I have a couple names. My birthname I believe I was named after someone on my mother's side of the family, but I'm not certain. As for my actual names, if it counts, Salamatullah is a theophoric name, so it bears the name of God (Allah) :)

2. When was the last time you cried?

The other day, I was certain everyone I loved was dead and that I was about to die (I was not, no one had died. give it up for psychosis)

3. Do you have kids?

No, but I've been mistaken for being a parent since I was like 16 lmao

4. What sports do you play/have you played?

Before my health was Bad(tm), I played a lot of sports in my youth. My favorite was figure skating, though I also played hockey, basketball, volleyball, baseball, archery, etc. through various community programs. I also was a founding member of my high schools cheerleading team, before the transphobia caused me to leave it. And I did horseback riding through a special olympics kinda program.

5. Do you use sarcasm?

Sometimes. Not as often as people I know.

6. What is the first thing you notice about people?

Very little. Genuinely can't think of a specific, I'm very bad with faces and people in general 😂. I think I usually notice piercings or tattoos, maybe just because I have piercings and tattoos so I like seeing other people with em.

7. What's your eye color?

Brown!

8. Scary movies or happy endings?

Man... I love both.

9. Any talents?

Talent always feels like a strong word. I suppose art is something I'm talented at. And since I've started beading people have said I'm talented with that. I'd like to think I retain some programming talent and technical writing talent from university.

10. Where were you born?

United States, in Minnesota specifically

11. What are your hobbies?

I do a lot of crafts: knitting, embroidery, sewing, beading. Like mentioned I draw, I also write. I like to read. I play video games. I like writing analysis essays about media.

12. Do you have any pets?

Yes! My old man. He's a little guy and gonna be 14. He's my beloved elderly puppy.

13. How tall are you?

5'9.5 I believe. I get measured pretty regularly since I'm always at the doctor.

14. Favorite subject in school?

In high school, math was my favorite because it was the only one I was good at. In university, linguistics was my favorite but that was quite soured by the fact that academia and linguists in general tend to be horrifically racist and classist and colonialist and I experienced countless of microaggressions every day. (be wary of any yt linguist, self-identified or otherwise)

15. Dream job?

Might seem weird but I would like to be a custodian, but only if we're talking dream where I can also dream up a custodial job that accommodates my disabilities, doesn't treat me as subhuman, and pays enough to life comfortably. I like cleaning, I like doing repetitive tasks, I like that its work that doesn't require me to talk with many people, I can just put on music and chill. It's a perfect autism job. But I don't think I could take the way (white) people treated me when I was cleaning for them.

[tavina-writes]

Reblogging this to say that I feel very heartened by the support I've seen on this post, and Peridot's post (which is much more articulate than this one) about why the post (since been deleted) that I wrote this in reaction to was just. So appallingly in bad taste. By no means do I think people should go over and tell them that anymore given that I think they figured out that it made a lot of people angry. I wrote the original post up there with the thought that "oh maybe like three of my mutuals will like it!" so it was made in anger for venting and wasn't super articulate about anything at all. And I think there's a place for that, but given that more people have seen this than I thought, I feel that it might be better to be more articulate (if also more wordy) about this.

This whole thing has brought up a lot of irl memories into my fandom space, where like, I've been musing a lot on the nature of how my identity is intrinsically tied to my past and my culture, in ways that cannot be erased or even avoided by masking. Even online, these things bleed through.

I think we often think of online spaces as places where we can truly be anonymous, or share just as much as we want to about ourselves. But I think the events of this past week has reminded me that while I can share as much or as little about my brickspace life as I want online, that doesn't mean that I am not impacted by the racism and other microaggressions that come with being a second generation Chinese-American woman. I can no more take off my skin online than I can in person, it's just that people are far more likely to make split second judgments about who I am in person based on how I look.

There have been many instances of microaggressions over the course of my life, both large and small, and I won't delve into them here because ultimately this is a fandom blog where I come to have fun and talk about fictional characters on the internet. But I think every POC I've met and spoken to for any length of time has had those moments, large and small, of being discriminated against, of being insulted for being their identity, for being asked weird intrusive questions about their past or their cultural practices, of being made to feel afraid of existing in a space because of their heritage.

I've also seen a lot of solidarity from other POC in the notes of both this post and Peridot's, noting their own experiences with racism both irl and online, and while it makes me feel less alone in the knowledge that other people have shared my experiences and understand what it's like, it's also heartbreaking to know that truly, none of us are exempt from this. So often, we are divided and conquered by being told that we "have it better than [x]" or we're "not as oppressed as [x]" or that "[x] has it better than [we] do." Ultimately, racism is not special. To have survived it is neither a badge of honor or a source of shame, just something that I hope one day other people will not have to experience, as perhaps, people who came before me wished for my generation.

On the subject of names -- my family is both radical and traditional. Traditional in the sense that I share the same generational stem as all of my paternal first, second, and third cousins. Radical in the sense that my parents chose very ambitious, far reaching names for their daughters. I've always felt that my given name is beautiful. It means 'to narrate infinite breadth,' given in the hopes that I would witness an infinite number of things, and that I would encompass all of them. When matched with my childhood nickname, which means 'pure, unmixed, and unsullied,' it explains the hope that I would be able to see and encompass an infinite number of experiences while retaining who I am at my core.

There is so much ambition and beauty to my given name that the years I've spent being bullied for it has been especially...ironic, I suppose. In some ways. In other ways, it's just really sad. It's neither the worst nor the least terrible thing that has happened to me in the line of racist remarks, made both by my peers and by adults and teachers that I've had the pleasure of being in a classroom with, but it's one that's remained with me. I have a legal English middle name that I could use for ease of access, but I want people to feel uncomfortable with my parent's language and all of their hopes for me on their tongues whenever they want to speak to me, as English has never been able to sit entirely comfortably in their mouths. Even after decades.

I would never presume to tell another POC to not adopt an English name. Sometimes it fits with your journey. Sometimes it's safer for you to do that. Sometimes at your local Starbucks you just want to be something spelled right and said right for once. I understand. I've done that. I guess I'm writing this to tell us that we are not alone. I am not alone. If anything good has come of this experience and these posts it is that we know we are not alone, because there are many of us, and we are still here in this fandom and others together.

Do we really gotta do the psa where we tell people that assigning English names to Chinese characters is racist again :/ like is that really a PSA that I am typing with my own goddamn fingers in 2023.

Like, this is actually a thing that East Asians go through in the west where our own names are deemed too difficult or different to say or use properly so we get assigned or be forced to pick an English one for other people's convenience. Being made fun of for having a different sounding name was a MAJOR part of my classmates bullying tactics through pre-k to 12th grade. Like that's a pretty standard thing to have been bullied for in a racially targeted manner for pretty much every Asian friend I know??? Names and food are the big ones????

I thought that as a fandom given the amount of time mdzs has been this would no longer be a thing???? Also lmao the literal irony of having to block people in the notes of that post with "end otw racism" as their profile photos like hello congrats YOU are the problem here.

I KNOW it's meant to be "funny" or whatever but that thing is in such poor fucking taste. It's not remotely funny.

[leam1983]

Vampires in Broad Daylight

Having finished Interview with the Vampire with Walter, we found ourselves discussing the subject matter while under the covers. I was already snuggled up against him last night, eyes closed, but with my mind still fully active. He did as he usually does in these moments, and followed along while his pinched airways made him snore every other sentence. You could've sworn we were both asleep, but Walt's slight gestures when he raised a point, or his raising and lowering eyebrows, would've betrayed that we were in the midst of an interesting bit of discourse.

Back when Neil Jordan gave it his shot, all the Straights ever saw involved pretty monsters doing monstrous things to each other. Jordan's treatment buried the gay subtext under moral quandaries and enough sentiment to make even Herman Hesse's ghost tell Rice to tone it down. Now we've got a version vetoed by Christopher Rice himself, and the gay subtext isn't sub anymore. Louis de Pointe du Lac and Lestat de Lioncourt are gay. That's the series' beginning thesis. That reframes a few things interestingly - and posits that before being the "Brat Prince", Lestat was - and likely still is - a toxic individual to be around.

Walter started telling me about one of his earlier trysts, before he knew to embrace his own nature and to pursue love out of the perception that he deserved it. There was this guy, or so he tells me, who was the very picture of success. Clean-cut, fit, dressed to the nines in a way that made Sartoriophiles like Walter sweat bullets, cultured, pleasant to be around - and supposedly a living god in the bedsheets. Walter hung out with him for a few years, in the seventies. He rode the best cars, booked the best restaurants, and made Walt feel like someone finally appreciated him.

Then the microaggressions started. Tiny comments on Walter's weight, on his choice of tailoring, on the Marketing firm he was working in as a junior associate, at the time. On the food he ate, on how he snored in bed. On how he never had enough stamina to finish, when he took the lead. On how Walt was, and is, the type to roll over and fall asleep after sex. The truth is the guy didn't want to bare his soul or listen to Walter after doing the deed, he wanted to talk about himself. After doing exactly that for eight hours prior.

Walter didn't exist under this particular ex's wing. He merely survived. Walter ended up killing him - professionally - by exposing just how bloated our buddy's Expenses account was.

"Vampires exist," Walter told me. "They're the walking beacons, torches in the gloom of a Christmas afterparty. They've got more life than you or I combined - and everything is endlessly and forever about them."

His other hand rounded his gut and gently raised my head up. He had this precise look I keep falling for - a mixture of tiredness and boundless love; like we're not partners on equal footing for a minute or two, but I'm also existing as someone he also has avuncular fondness for; in parallel to the love that pulls us together.

I'm both his lover and the son he's never had.

"For every ounce of me you took over the past five years," he tells me, "you've given me a pound of your own. Your care, your attention, your time and your kindness - and you're always here, Grem. You listen, and you inspire me to keep doing the same. It feels like this jackoff sapped years out of me, and you make me feel twenty years younger."

I'm fighting to stay awake. "Even when we disagree on things?"

He smiled. "Especially when we disagree on things. We're constructive towards one another, and we're never so angry that we can't go back to one another, if you've noticed. We rephrase, reframe and apologize if need be... We work. We're not feeding off of one another, we're..."

He briefly lets me go to bring his hands together in a steeple. "We're feeding one another, instead," he says. "Not like parasites, though."

"We try and be symbiotic," I mumble. Walter repeats the word, mulls it over, I feel him nodding. He grunts in assent and his breaths start to deepen.

I wake up a few hours later. It's the middle of the night, I've rolled over on my side and Walt and I are spooning. I feel his head move slightly on the pillow, between his intakes and exhales. He's hugged me close without being too tight.

I remember Claudia's line about Lestat and Louis' breaths synching, when they share a coffin. Walt's pulse matches mine beat-for-beat. His exhales faintly smell of his Saturday evening pipe, like rythmic caresses on the nape of my neck.

You've got vampires who fizzle out after sapping the life-force out of everything they touch. Inconstant lovers who see themselves as a gift from God when they're more of an Infernal punishment. Maybe some vampires are like Walt and I, then: we give each other strength and I'm filled with the notion that the count of our years doesn't matter.

If I only get ten, maybe twenty good years with him, then these will be our Forever. Within the limits of that span of time, we'll effectively feel timeless.

[angeloncewas]

no pressure to answer this any time soon (bc god knows we've had enough bad vibes today) but how you you deal with claims such as some of the ones in the anons shown here? i find it hard to just brush away serious things like claims of anti-blackness even when i know the information those claims are based on is faulty. how do you go about not feeling like a horrible person when you see stuff like that?

Well, to be honest, I don't really have to. I very rarely see stuff like that on my dash, since the only blog I follow that isn't at least an ex-mcyt fan is a random SPN-enjoyer whose vibes I liked. I've also only gotten 3 hate anons ever - all of which were mediocre at best (two that were accusing me of defending Dream in a situation where I was criticizing him so they held no weight, and that bs one about wishing apologists a good day lol) so those claims never really get on my radar.

(It actually makes me feel a little guilty at times; so many kind and wonderful people in this community have had to deal with an overwhelming amount of hate in their inbox or directed toward them, whereas I get off scot-free. This sounds weird, but it doesn't feel fair. I hope the people involved with that blog are doing okay - I'm very sorry that they had to deal with that, especially as mostly-outsiders.)

As for the claims themselves though, I kind of just have a lot of confidence in my own knowledge and judgement. There was a period of my life where I got sucked into a BaB/exclusionist community, and because of that I think I know better than most people how perceived harm can bring a group of people together in their hatred and spread like wildfire. I commend people for standing up for what they believe in - apathy is the enemy - but I also am not swayed by misinformation when I know for a fact that it is such. There is a possibility that some DSMP members are racist - in the same way there is a possibility that any creator is a horrible person. As consumers, our job is to remain critical and vigilant (which is why I'll never agree with the notion that crit-posting is pointless, though I do understand that it can be nitpicky at times), but that doesn't mean we can't enjoy content based on our good judgement.

This might sound a bit egotistical, but I know that I'm a good person. I do as much activist work in my offline life as I can and I'm hoping to do a lot more as we re-acclimate to things (in terms of COVID). I work to stay politically informed and stand up against acts of bigotry (or microaggression) that are oftentimes very easy to just let slide for the sake of everyone getting along. And as someone who has had many hopeless days, I do my best to keep others from feeling that way through whatever means I can. Some random anonymous person online is not going to be able to detract from everything I've worked on and for with their poorly-researched claims about some internet dude I'm currently into. I understand that this is easier said than done, and you shouldn't feel bad if those claims do get to you (that means you care, and that's important), but I want to remind you that we are often smarter than we give yourselves credit for. You have good judgement. You are (presumably) aware of the situation. You're not brushing it away, you're refuting it with evidence (by learning what actually happened and the details of each situation, etc etc).

It's a difficult part of being in this community, for sure, but all we can really do is combat the bullshit and keep going. It sucks to know that so many people have so many misconceptions about us and the people whose content we're supporting, but their failure to look into the full scope of the situation doesn't make you a bad person and their perspective on the subject isn't the end-all be-all. Trust yourself.

[massharp1971]

Okay, I get it, gut reaction this all sounds right, feels true doesn't it? It calls to us. That's what dogwhistles do. We've been groomed to hear this one as pleasant and reasonable.

I don't think the second person here realises the harm they're regurgitating, from their profile they seem a decent human but still, they're doing it by accident because they maybe don't realise the lines they've swallowed whole.

So I'm exercising my right to free speech to say I wish people would think more before they say stuff like this. And if folks see marginalised people saying they don't like something and wish it wasn't around so much in the same vein as oppressive regimes with organised structures of supression, well, we have a problem.

Yes, words can influence and harm. It's a known phenomenon that for example genocides begin with dehumanising language, and that right-wing calls for free speech are often an engine for the continuance of dehumanising language. Note how this person selects trans people as the only marginalised group they happen to actually specify, and then uses the frequently parroted transphobic microaggression that trans people (and their allies) are oversensitive, overreact over "tiny" things.

Microaggressions are things that seem little to most people but impact hard on the group concerned because they're part of a wider dehumanising or undermining structure. For some, it's a small, throwaway line but for others it's part of a bigger structure we come up against constantly.

Well, it turns out there are studies showing the way the anti-trans lobby fall over themselves to groom folks to see trans people as 2nd commenter describes us by oft-repeated storys just like this one here. It connects to that perrenial rightwing bogeyman the "leftist threat to free speech" only this time dressed up with added "trans people are oversensitive, easily offended snowflakes who overreact with little provocation".

You'll also note the dominant group get "free speech" even if they're calling for things like trans people to be stripped of civil rights or subjected to violence, but trans people are rarely allowed the free speech to verbalise their thoughts and reactions to such hate. I guarantee my commenting here will be seen as "proving a point" somehow.

The 2nd commenter is at one in the same time saying "people can exercise critical thinking and aren't easily influenced and so it's okay if they are exposed to unhelpful/problematic words" and "these words objecting to people supporting this media/author/content are bad and harmful". The cognitive disonance never gets picked up because we're groomed to accept words from the right and question words from the left - even if we're ourselves on the left.

Propaganda works, by the way, Don't believe all you read about people's ability to think critically. If people couldn't be so easily persuaded, advertising wouldn't be big business. And genocides wouldn't happen.

The anti-trans lobby know few people will go check what the person being criticised actually did or said and if they do go check well, most people won't get why it's a problem because most people know very little about trans people and what harms us.

Oh, by the way there's a ton of research on that too: a little under 50% of trans people have attempted suicide and there's an oft-proven direct correlation between that and how people treat us (check out why the World Health Organisation removed being trans from their mental health classifications to learn more). Dehumanise us, undermine our identites and experiences (gaslighting) and surprise, our mental health gets worse. Bullying makes people suicidal, no shock there - did you notice there's an onslaught of bullying against us, legitimised as a "culture war"? Did you know both hate crime and trans suicide are soaring as a result? People are genuinely dying because of this, and we just can't seem to get folks to care.

Of course, the story of an author using an outdated term and suffering terrible consequences is extra powerful because it doesn't even have to be based in truth - it feels true, dammit, especially to those generally older folks who've not liked younger folk exercising their right to free speech to tell them what they just said about a trans person was A Bit Shit Really.

It's no coincidence that the author who springs to mind here is JK Rowling. Even though the description doesn't match what she's done at all, it's her we're likely to think of, her name that fills the comments. As if any trans person is going to have time to criticise someone for an "outdated term" when we're fighting for our lives against deeply entrenched bigotry that is so mainstream we can barely participate safely in public life anymore. As if I don't ride the bus past a billboard displaying the latest blockbuster from the author who is helping young trans people to their graves. As if I don't count the deaths I know of personally every time I pass the billboard and wonder - would they still be alive today had it not been quite so beloved an author that the anti-trans cult managed to radicalise? I know that most people don't seem to care enough to even do their homework. To understand why it's a problem that JK Rowling is funding endless legal and political campaigns that make it harder and harder for trans people to exist, especially in the UK. (but her influence and that of the right-wing, anti-choice lobby behind her is now global, and even Putin has waded in on her side, bemoaning "cancel culture").

But it's easier for folk to read this as a trans person overreacting than to do homework and find out that what we're saying is true. Possibly even an understatement. We are scared for our lives. Folk have no idea how bad things are because they don't want to know. They want to believe we're overreacting. They're turning away so they don't learn the truth, because the one thing that has been true throughout time is the lengths people will go to to avoid aligning themselves against bullies - whether the bullies are nazi stormtroopers or schoolyard tormentors or somewhere between the two. The comment above is a masterclass in misdirection and dogwhistles, albeit, I think, an unintentional one. Its unconscious job is to reinforce the idea that the right wing is correct, and the real oppressors are the leftists who won't let them say whatever they want to say without any consequences or judgement.

It's probably an unconscious replication of what is all around us as fascism takes an increasing hold, but it works as a tactic to avoid doing anything to help the group(s) that are getting the shit kicked out of them. It's a way to legitimise being a bystander.

I don't want people to not read JKR because I think her words will infect their brain, although I strongly refute that our reading/vieing choices won't influence how we think about the world. But with JKR it's more than that - I want people to not support a brand that is purposefully and intentionally and systematically destroying trans lives, aided by the power of that brand. I want folk to take the side of trans people against those with structural power and not help a hate campaign gain more traction than it already has by denying and minimising its impact. People bang on all the time on this site that "everyone's fave is problematic" but the point is that there will always be a line. When something/one has gone too far to be tolerated. Generally, when a marginalised group argues someone has crossed this line, people not from that group will argue they're overreacting, perhaps because they care more about the piece of media in question than they do about the group it harms (for reference, the line for me lies somewhere between Paddington (great film but can we not with the casual transmisogyny please) and Ace Ventura (reprehensible portrayal that taught thousands of young trans girls to hate themselves). I'm not about to call to boycott Paddington (though I defend your freedom of speech to do exactly that) but I will sideye you if you still like Ace Ventura in 2022.

Even without the actual hate campaigning, Rowling media crosses the line for me - the doubled down on antisemitism in the latest game, the extent and longevity of the transphobia in her RG novels. But that's not why I believe that if people really were capable of critical thinking, Rowling would have long since vanished from the public eye as a person best left ignored and unsupported til she's quit her hate campaigning. Because I know critical thinking believes actions can have consequences and so the wilful refusal to enact consequences on Rowling must be something else entirely.

There are so many trans people on youtube and elsewhere explaining the issues with JKR patiently and carefully. And yet most people seem not to have been exposed much to the detail of the trans side of this discourse (I wonder why).

Here's a handy tip: if you're not from the affected group, I promise you your life will be easier if you avoid learning the truth, don't get involved, and reassure yourself with posts like the above that it's all a fuss over nothing important. You're a critical thinker and what you instinctively imagine to be true requires no further research on your part, your brain cannot possibly be a repository of societal biases, propaganda and misinformation. You would know. You don't need to do any work to find out more about the ways you might have been manipulated. Trans people will die, but you will never hear about it because you're more likely to see a vaguely aggressive Tweet from a trans person on the news than hear about the harm that comes to us. And you won't have to stick up for groups who are currently being painted, one way or another, as Society's Big Problem. Because some of our marginalisation might rub off on you if you come to our aid or take our side, and you really wouldn't like that, trust me.

So, look away now, folks. Trans people are just a bunch of simultaneously fragile and dangerous snowflakes who scream about poor innocent writers for little or no reason. And even though words can't influence anyone because people are great at critical thinking, our particular words are dangerous and a threat Because Reasons. Nothing to see here. Move along. PS for my own wellbeing, because of the number of transphobes in the comments to this, I am writing this and then in all likelihood not reading any replies from folks i don't know - sorry. And please don't pile on the commenter (or me), remember we're humans.

Thank you for listening :)

you don’t need purity in the material you consume

you have a brain, you are capable of critical thinking, you can sift through the material and keep what is edifying for you and discard what isn’t

flaws don’t necessarily make material worthless

[gay-yuuri]

This!!!! If not made _for_ LGBT viewers, at the very least it was made WITH them in mind. Like, the show has literally had zero chill from day one in showing us the world of yoi is a better place (men and women alike losing their shit over Victor's wink in ep 1, nobody ever going "well that's weird" on y&v's relationship, no "but we're both guys" or other microaggressions, etc) so honestly it's just delightful that they also covered Victor in explicit gay symbolism/made a shout-out to RL gay ppl

thats exactly how i feel! a lot of people dismiss the show to have been made purely for fujoshi (i will admit it's important to be critical about this), but looking at our big gay romance, yoi did such a great job handling this subject matter. there's a reason so many fans are lgbt. regardless, i'd say us gays claimed yoi as ours ❤💛💚💙💜