#bipoc themes

[sebastianravkin]

Fuck Book Banning - Rogue Librarians

I just found out about the Rogue Librarians podcast.

Since 2021, an unprecedented number of Young Adult books, especially ones with LGBTQ+ and BIPOC characters, have been removed from libraries across the country. 

The mission of the Rogue Librarians is to provide clarity and context during this period of record-breaking book challenges in the United States by discussing banned books on their podcast. They currently have over 30 episodes posted.

They also have a page of resources on how to fight censorship.

[afropridelife]

[3liza]

I think it must be for the lack of going outside of your room on this website that debates about personal presentation and appearance literally never have any material analysis. sorry it's counterrevolutionary to shave my legs or wear makeup or a bra or style my hair in certain ways or "worry" about visible signs of aging but have some of you just never encountered real world situations where those things caused measurable problems dealing with other people, jobs, money, respectability, access to resources, or the ability to influence important situations? this starts happening when you go outside a lot. there's a debate on my dash rn about balding and finasteride in which not a single person has mentioned the potential negative social outcomes of losing your hair and how that can affect socioeconomic status and personal risk. maybe someone doesn't need to be "vain" to care about keeping their hair and consider the risks of medication for it. maybe they've seen how bald people get treated and referred to and made a cost benefit calculation that they can't afford, sometimes literally, to eat that cost, with everything else they've got going on. maybe I wear makeup when I have to go talk to doctors and other gatekeepers because people make assumptions about your class and mental status when you have "bad skin" and "eye bags". maybe a lot of women who wear uncomfortable restrictive bras and shave whatever and buy skin products and do gua sha have already been sharply punished when someone saw leg hair or a mustache or puffy greasy skin or god forbid their nipple through their shirt. not everyone can just say "fuck it, I can afford to eat one more social cost that will measurably impact my ability to get medical treatment or pay rent". sorry this sounds like an economics lecture, that's because it is

if you are about to tell me a long story about how you personally have not been affected by perceptions of your appearance actually so you can conclude it never happens at all, please don't. sometimes you get lucky, that's it. and on this website I think it's less likely that you're lucky and more likely that you're oblivious

[aq2003]

(x)

[emberoops]

OOC: Something I found today

The above link is a resource that is AMAZING for anyone that wants to give agriculture- or food-based resources and reparations. I personally find it a beautiful thing. Each pin on the map comes with a quick blurb from the person requesting aid - some lead to websites with needs listed, but most have the need listed immediately in the pin-blurb itself.

This tool is excellent in two ways: for those who have reparations to make, it is an excellent resource. For those who need bolstering, this is also excellent; many pins on this map are community efforts with a history of success in lifting BIPOC voices, promoting land stewardship and agricultural independence for BIPOC, and making food resourcing easier for those groups.

It's a beautiful homage to the power of BIPOC community.

I would like to challenge the people reading this with white privilege to read through and pick something with needs suited to your capabilities, or who have needs within your grasp in the near future.

Personally, I have chosen Our Core's AgriCultural Program, linked here.

[radiomogai]

。in order ;

‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ -> cherokee , japanese , thai

‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ -> inuit , arabic

pasted from under the cut

[ID: six flags with 7 stripes. in between each stripes are thinner lines that act as brighter transition outlines.

the first flag's stripe colours are dark grey, dull sea green, moss green, beige, dull orange, dark red, and dark grey.

the second flag's stripe colours are white, blue, bright purple, light yellow, dull red, dull orange, and white.

the third flag's stripe colours are dark grey, dark teal, dull red, light yellow, brown, forest green, and dark grey.

the fourth flag's stripe colours are black, salmon orange, bright violet, white, dull blue, mango yellow, and black.

the fifth flag's stripe colours are dark grey, dark blue, dull green, white, dark orange, dark red, and dark grey.

the sixth flag's stripe colours are dark grey, green, dark blue, off-white, dark orange, red, and dark grey. end ID.]

IDs by @idescription

。bipoc queer

‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ -> for bipoc who identify as queer.

‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ -> specific flags under the cut. None are for transrace. Tags for reach.

。in order ;

‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ -> cherokee , japanese , thai

‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ -> inuit , arabic

[writingwithcolor]

Black woman’s skin turns blue from powers; is this whitewashing/erasure?

Anonymous asked:

I have a character in a comic I'm hoping to write one day. She's a light skinned black woman(she's half white if that helps!) living in New York City during an 80s themed post nuclear apocalypse. The comic's main characters are all rock stars, so a lot of the character design elements revolve around the different rock genres. The character in question is in a glam rock band, so there's lots of bright, saturated, crazy colors involved in her design. The problem I'm having involves this one story beat where she gets mutant superpowers that give her electricity and sound based abilities. Her skin turns cotton candy blue as a result of the mutation. I'm hung up on whether or not this might fall under some kind of skin lightening or white-washing trope since it's a fairly light shade of blue. I designed her mutant look before her human look, so this was well before I'd even figured out what race she was, and I simply thought the shade of blue would compliment both the electricity powers and the fact that her hair is dyed pink. Is there a way I could still make this work? Or am I worrying about nothing?

Ideally, it would be nice to keep her brown skin tone. There’s a common comic and supernatural trend where Black people’s skin is covered up by a suit or Black-coded characters are an unnatural color (blue, green, purple, etc).

This is more of an issue when: 

There are no other Black characters of those identities besides the covered up/ ones with unnatural skin colors.

The creator adds this change to make them "special" because they do not believe Black characters, with features commonly associated with Black people like dark hair, skin and eyes, are acceptable enough for the character to stand on their own.

The supernatural special Black people are treated well by the story. The "non-special" Black people have unhappy stories and misfortune.

Other races of characters do not get their skin covered up or changed. Only the Black ones and/or BIPOC in general.

I think a quick fix for this would be for her skin to turn blue when she’s actively using her powers, at random, or other specific times, besides constantly. If she needs to be more consistently “mutant looking” Are there other ways she could change without her skin color changing or changing completely?

People with glitter on skin, light surrounding their face, and blue braids. Images from pexels.

More ideas that keep her skin brown

Hair

Her hair color changes blue or your color of choice (which could include body hair too, which would give her a more “otherworldly” appearance).

Note: If her hair is curly or natural, please keep it so! At least, the powers shouldn't change it straight.

Eyes

Her eyes glowing brighter or colorfully during power-use.

Note: If they're usually brown, they could stay brown when powers not in use, like Marvel's Storm in some versions.

Storm by Marvel Entertainment//20th Century Studios.

Skin and body

Blue patterns appear on her skin.

Blue glow or sheen to her skin without fully changing the color.

Her skin projects color and light.

New growths or changes to body, such as ear shape, wings, etc.

No matter what you decide, please make clear in your tale that she’s a Black mixed race woman. And have fun!

More reading:

How Special is Too Special? The Politics and Characterization of Stacking Special/Abnormal Traits on Mixed Race Characters

~Colette

[jesncin]

Caped Crusader, "Safe Diversity", and Catwoman

We're at a point where it's expected that a new incarnation of any story previously with a white-dominated cast would be reimagined with a "more diverse" cast. This can mean racebending them, genderbending them or making them queer, but for the purposes of this analysis we'll be focusing on racebends. Most of the time, executives will take the "safer" routes with diversifying their cast- pick a couple of unproblematic supporting characters to be incidentally "diverse this time". Other times, there might be "braver" takes where more prominent characters (perhaps even the main character) are racebent. This doesn't necessarily mean racebending prominent characters is an inherently better thing to do.

I've been more than critical of MAWS' portrayal of BIPOC characters but especially their Asian Lois before. Sometimes BIPOC representation is just a decorative palette-swap change for these shows. Caped Crusader however, is different. It's more complicated- but it's rooted in very similar problems. Unlike MAWS (though I can only speak for S1), CC is far more willing to take on political topics: classism, sexism, police corruption and brutality, even beauty standards in the entertainment industry! Yet, in choosing to portray these topics in their stylistically anachronistic 30s-40s set piece- it makes it so the show's reluctance to discuss race intersecting with any of these topics far more apparent.

(spoilers for all of Caped Crusader)

Take for instance, episode 2: "...And Be A Villain". The story is about Basil Karlo, a less than handsome actor who wishes his appearance wasn't holding him back from both love and playing roles saved for better looking people. He makes a deal with Jack Ellman, an experimental makeup artist who turns him into Clayface. This story is set in motion when Miss Yvonne Francis, a beautiful actress, goes missing. Miss Francis is a woman of color (brown skinned, unspecified) played by Lacey Chabert: a white actress. CC goes for a generally colorblind casting what with Stephie (a white girl) being voiced by Amari McCoy (a Black actress) but it always feels icky when a white actor voices a character of color. Prominent characters of color in CC are more accurately casted. However I do think animation should be wary of using their medium to get away with their show appearing more diverse than the actual talent behind it.

The episode's theme is pretty clear on how unfair the entertainment industry is in regards to who it prioritizes in leading roles. Basil is constantly emphasized as a tragically talented actor whose appearance is holding him back. "With your talent you should be a leading man, Basil." Yvonne says to Basil in a flashback. Meanwhile as Alfred is watching through movie clips featuring Yvonne and Basil together, he comments "while lovely to look at, Miss Francis is no Gloria Swanson." So Yvonne has the looks, but not the talent and still gets prestigious roles because that's showbiz. The only time this is weirdly inconsistent is when Yvonne calls out Basil/Clayface in the finale, saying:

"I don't believe your performance. You're chewing on scenery. Relying on makeup effects to enhance weak characterization. It's insincere, Basil. It's not real."

I honestly feel like this scene was just meant to quickly "subvert" Yvonne being a damsel in distress by having her call out Basil's acting. It's a moment that isn't reinforced by anything the episode set up. After all, according to Alfred, she's not as good an actor compared to Basil. That's supposed to be how they foil each other, so this moment feels unmotivated. Again, I get what they're going for, that Basil's performance ironically relies on his newfound appearance so much that even a bad actress like Yvonne can spot his meager acting. But it doesn't work when our protagonists were actually convinced by his imitation of others. She's still a damsel in distress character regardless of her having a bit of attitude when calling her captor out.

What I don't understand is: why make Yvonne a woman of color if this was the story you wanted to tell? It's not like they're paying homage to how her voice actress looks, after all. Why, in your story set in purposely anachronistic 30s-40s era noir, did the character who was meant to represent the epitome of "not talented but gets by the industry because of her conventional beauty and pretty privilege" a woman of color? We're missing the very obvious conversation here where Tinsel Town is a white industry with white biases to what it considers attractive. It doesn't matter how many attractive actors of color exist, they're still pigeon holed into stereotyped and often racist roles (especially back then), and have to work twice as hard to get the opportunities their white colleagues get. Why is Basil, a white man, the only one afforded a marginalized narrative when Yvonne is quite literally a woman of color right next to him? The episode is especially painful to sit through when Basil is afforded so much sympathy compared to Yvonne.

"He didn't have the right look. He didn't have the right face."

"The camera is kind to some, but cruel to others."

This is transparently a colorblind narrative. Yvonne is written and even casted as a white woman. The CC crew just decided she should be a WOC likely because "wouldn't it be neat if the beautiful actress in this story is POC" without thinking about how that would drastically change a narrative already critical of the showbiz industry based on appearances. It's not intersectional and flattens the narrative to being selective of the prejudices Tinsel Town has. This episode is a great example to what CC generally does with diversity. It's not afraid to be critical of society, but it gets oddly squeamish with discussing how race intersects with these topics- opting mostly for a palette-change type of representation.

It's not entirely fair to say CC doesn't ever touch on the topic of racism. It sort of does: if you read between the lines for why the mayor gives Jim Gordon his commissioner role, and more prominently with the Gentleman Ghost (a rich aristocrat ghost that steals from the poor, believing wealth is his right) being offended that his mansion is sold to Lucius Fox (saying "and you would sell it to rabble like this?")- racism is somewhat present in the world of CC. We see the women in this show experience misogyny, but it's ambiguous if any of their struggles are intersectional with that of race. But that's... just about it. Racism isn't discussed more than it is alluded to, whenever the writers decide it's relevant. Because of this, CC has a spectrum of hits and misses when it comes to integrating characters of color in their reimagined cast.

Here's how I would visualize that spectrum using canonized instances of Asian Lois Lane. I should emphasize that representation of people of color doesn't entail the narrative owing us "a racism arc" or what have you. This spectrum is more used to measure how much racial identity was integrated in the characterization of the character: whether that be cultural identity or history. Being a person of color isn't just "person who goes through racism".

This is how I'd personally place the prominent characters of color in CC on my "spectrum of racebends" chart. Generally most of the characters of color (whether reimagined that way or were originally POC already) are fairly harmless in how they were integrated into CC's world, but none of the characters feel bespoke as a reimagining of the character and are interchangeable with their white counterparts. To quote cartoonist Juni Ba (in a discussion on CC):

"...stripping characters of color in these time period stories of any cultural, [a]esthetic or social signifiers that’d make them true to the groups being represented. Instead they dress, act and speak very western."

In my opinion, the only character that is an exception to this is Linton Midnite (or as he's popularly known as: "Papa Midnite"). Midnite is a character so interlinked with Haitian culture and mysticism that even CC couldn't erase that aspect of his identity (important note: historically, the portrayal of Midnite since his creation is riddled in racism, but that's not my place to discuss here). Midnite at most speaks with an accent, dresses more nonconformingly compared to the western standard dress of all the other characters, and practices occultish stuff (though I don't think there was anything culturally specific in that episode, please correct me otherwise if someone has more insight!). That's a lot more cultural representation than just about any other character of color in CC. Midnite can't be changed to a white character, his African identity is too interlinked with who he is.

There are a few characters I consider in poor taste to be POC- that being Arnold Flass, Yvonne Francis (who we've covered already), and Harley Quinn (who will be getting her own post, as her case is complicated). So let's talk about cops, then.

I tend to be indifferent about media choosing to diversify cop characters because it feels like choosing the most "respectable to society" role for a marginalized character to play. Cops uphold bigoted systems of power at the end of the day, so that's a very comfortable place to represent your marginalized characters. It's why we keep getting gay or lesbian cops, which Batman media absolutely perpetuates as well with Renee Montoya. It's hard to cheer for two women of color being allowed to date and kiss in public when one of them is a cop, y'know? But this doesn't mean re-imagining cop characters doesn't have narrative merit.

In regards to Jim Gordon being reimagined as a Black cop, I'm gonna refer to La'Ron Readus' video on "Fixing the Batman's Copaganda problem" where he goes into detail about the missed potential of Black!Jim Gordon from Reeves' The Batman (2022). Generally, I felt that opportunity was missed in CC as well. While I love that Barbara Gordon is in CC, nothing about her being a WOC is integrated into this version of her. It felt like if either character was white, the story wouldn't be that different. The bigger issue here is the choice to racebend Arnold Flass- a previously white, blonde, cunningly smart, and brutally corrupt cop.

CC follows some of this in their version of Arnold Flass- he's paired with Harvey Bullock (also a corrupt cop). While Bullock is the brawns of the duo, Flass is the smarts. He's cunning and even implied to be willing to frame Bullock if the worse comes to it. It isn't an inherently bad idea to racebend a corrupt white cop into a Black cop. If the writers want to tell a story about how the police force assimilates people of color into the system and forces them to be just as if not more brutal than their white counterparts, then by all means tell that story.

But that's not what CC gave us. By rarely acknowledging race, we don't get to have a conversation or themes surrounding that delicate intersection of identities. We just have "diverse Flass". Look at these panels from Year One for example, can you imagine how Flass' casual disrespect for Gordon by constantly calling him "Jimmy" could be re-contextualized with a race change? Unlike other characters who just feel like missed opportunities for not integrating race into their characterization, Flass is an elephant in the room. To not acknowledge his race in themes of police corruption and brutality is to white wash the narrative with diverse paint.

I personally think the stronger narrative decision would have been to racebend Bullock as Black instead of Flass. Flass could still be the conniving cop, but he encourages Black!Bullock to be the more "violent brute" who does the dirty work for him. It would put a newfound racial layer to how Flass considers Bullock disposable. Then we could have some kind of commentary on how the police force encourages a system of abuse that makes even fellow POC turn on each other. It'd also make it so a certain scene would be better in optics.

I have many criticisms for the scene where Batman holds a gun to Flass in the finale of CC. It's a narratively unmotivated (see my criticisms for CC's Two Face here for elaboration) and weak moment that relies on metatextual shock value to cover up how underdeveloped this take on Batman is. But it's also just very uncomfortable optics-wise. It's a common and valid criticism that Batman as a character can very easily fall into copaganda, with his status, goals, and collaboration with the police force. In many ways, Batman is often written to be committing his own kind of vigilante police brutality.

Caped Crusader wants to be a deconstruction of a Batman tied to power and hellbent on his mission to eliminate crime. But because CC occasionally omits race from its narrative, the scene where Batman holds a gun to a Black cop-a man stripped of his ability to fight back-just falls flat for me. There's no acknowledgement in this scene that Batman basically gets to be an anonymous cop, "warning shots" and all. Batman shoots at an unarmed Black man several times. It's meant to be shocking to us how Bruce is willing to stoop to such a level and indulge in gratuitous gun violence, but it honestly hits too close to real incidents where this is racially the case for me to enjoy the narrative point of this scene.

You know a character who would be perfect for calling out Batman's many privileges? Selina Kyle. Let's talk about Caped Crusader's biggest downgrade.

I've heard just about all the arguments in favor for CC's reimagining of Catwoman and none have convinced me that this was in any way a good take on the character. I see people saying that this Catwoman is a return to her golden age roots, and there's a lot of misconception surrounding that assumption. So bear with me as looking at Catwoman's history is necessary to discuss race and how a character evolves.

Catwoman debuted in the 1940s as a jewel thief who disguised herself as an old lady. She was just called "The Cat" and would not don her more feline appearance until later. True to the mystery woman femme fatale trope she was inspired by, her backstory was left unknown for a long time. 10 years later, in Batman #62 it is revealed that after a plane accident bonked her head, the now named Selina Kyle got amnesia and went on a crime spree. Giving her leeway to reform and be an ally to Batman. This would historically inform how Selina Kyle toed the line between good and evil as an anti-hero.

Her origin would be revisited in 1983, in the Brave and the Bold #197. Although not canon to the mainline universe, it is still a crucial development for her character's history. In this story, Selina reveals that she lied about having amnesia to get out of facing punishment. Her true story was that she entered a life of crime to escape an abusive relationship with a rich man. The only loss her husband understood was material loss, loss of property, so stealing was how Selina fought back.

This crucial re-examination of her character transformed her from shenanigans inducing femme fatale, to a marginalized fighter. Shortly later in 1987 in Batman Year One, Catwoman is reimagined as a street-hardened sex worker in poverty. She is inspired by the Batman to become a vigilante for her own goals and gets annoyed that she's assumed to be his sidekick.

The moment Catwoman became marginalized by power, was the point where she became worthy of solo-character status. She was not only a compelling foil to Batman-capable of going toe to toe with him and make him question his motives even though she did not share his privilege-she could lead her own adventures reflecting a side of Gotham Bruce Wayne's perspective doesn't. She actively makes the setting of Gotham stronger because of how she's evolved as a character.

Catwoman's character would continue to evolve, with some iterations reimagining her as a latina woman and others where she's canonically bisexual.

While Catwoman has been portrayed by Black actresses before, I want to focus on the most recent and prominent iteration of a race-swapped Catwoman. When Matt Reeves' The Batman (2022) featured Zoe Kravitz as Selina Kyle, an explicitly biracial character within the text of the story, we see another step this character evolves. I think La'Ron Readus' video on "Why Race-Swapped Characters Are Not The Full Story" does a fantastic job of explaining why this is a narratively great race swap. To summarize (though I do encourage watching his video as he goes into depth about 2022 Batman's Jim Gordon as well among many other examples) and add analysis of my own: Selina being the byproduct of an Italian crime lord and a Black sex worker is a brilliant marriage of her original backstory (being connected to and abused by powerful men) and her modern backstory where she's poverty stricken (and tangentially related to a sex worker if we're talking about Batman Year One).

We understand why someone of her background would have an affinity for stray cats because of how she lost her mom at a young age, she is sympathetic to fellow people from the lower class, and explicitly calls out privileged white people- including Batman who attempted to over moralize Selina's partner as a sex worker.

"All anyone cares about in this place, are these white privileged assholes."

It's especially that last line that makes it so Selina's character isn't interchangeable with her white counterpart. She's a textually rich character to contrast Bruce in Batman 2022, and we can see how years of history and evolution has brought such an empathetic character to the screen. Interestingly, Readus feels that while 2022 Selina was an example of a race-swap that works, he believes it was great by coincidence, because of the miss that was Gordon's characterization in the same movie. I think with Reeves as a collaborator on Caped Crusader, that assumption was correct.

Selina in CC is back to being a rich socialite, but (unlike her Golden Age counterpart) she's not married into wealth- she's got generational wealth (with a dad serving jail time for tax evasion). Worse yet, she's taking what little remains of her money and spending it on superficially imitating the Batman to create her Catwoman persona. She even has her own reluctant Alfred, a Catmobile, the works. Selina steals things because. She likes shiny things. And is something of a kleptomaniac. Catwoman is instantly discovered to be Selina because of course she's not as good as Batman is with keeping a secret identity (another key difference from her Golden Age counterpart, whose backstory was shrouded in mystery for a decade).

It is laughable to me that CC touts that their version of Harley Quinn has an origin of her own outside of the Joker, only to turn around and make a Catwoman that is completely tied to copying a man as her origin (did they decide Harley's goofyness as a character needed to be replicated in Selina for some reason? In their supposed dark and edgy show?). What a strange choice to fixate on the part in Year One where Selina didn't like being mistaken for Batman's assistant despite being inspired by him and turn it into a quirky bit. It feels like such a regressive take that frames Selina as a sillier, whimsical version of Bruce that just spends money on a whim because women just aren't smart enough to know how to keep track of their money. They're too busy looking for shiny things to steal. The fact that both 2022 Batman and CC have a scene where Selina is looking through her many bills she's yet to pay is wild to me. How am I supposed to care for a Selina that has the expendable wealth to create a Catwoman costume, car, and gadgets, but delay paying her maid? One of these versions of Selina is far more sympathetic than the other.

Again, I get what CC is going for. Batman is characterized to be hellbent on catching criminals, Catwoman is supposed to serve as some kind of reflection of his obsession. They're both self destructive in their goals, but one is vengeance and the other is chasing thrills. But is that really as interesting a foil as having Catwoman be marginalized, just as skilled, and making Batman second guess himself? Is it a take that strengthens Gotham as a setting by shedding light on its lower class characters? Is it a take that makes her worth revisiting as a perpetual rogue and not a one off episode where's she's basically a shenanigans-inducing nuisance to Batman? Evolved takes on Catwoman have talked about her desire to seek thrills and paired it with how she dismantles power. So it's not like CC's take is particularly unique, it just lacks all the depth that usually surrounds Selina's thrill seeking.

In a show that is frankly desperate to make it so Bruce doesn't have a personal relationship to his rogues gallery because he's too busy being "A cold, remorseless avenger of evil, seemingly more machine than man. Forged in the fire of tragedy, every fiber of his being is dedicated to the eradication of crime." (according to promo) that's how we end up with Barbara as the foil and humanity to both Harvey Dent and Harley Quinn. How the show focuses on the police force more than Bruce. It feels especially pointed that Catwoman is characterized this way. When she doesn't contrast Bruce, she becomes less personal to him as a character that is poverty stricken but still matches up to him in skill. She can't challenge him or his worldview, he can't find her fascinating as an equal, all of their chemistry and intrigue is erased.

All this to say that of the characters revealed for CC, I was honestly surprised that Selina wasn't one of the many characters racebent. CC followed up on a Black Jim and Barbara Gordon, two characters that have been race swapped before in previous media. Most prominently! Harley is Asian in this iteration, something never done before. So why is it that Selina doesn't follow up on the many times she's been portrayed by Black actresses?

It's because it's an actual good racebend if written well. It wouldn't be a "safe" racebend because writing Selina this way means you'd have to acknowledge racism, and it would be much more noticeable if you didn't. There is no canonized version of Asian Lois Lane that parallels her relationship to Superman as an immigrant. But there is a version of Selina as a Black woman who directly calls out white people and is aware of systemic power. It's in something as prominent and mainstream as Matt Reeves' 2022 Batman. So instead it just reads as cowardice to me that CC couldn't follow up on this evolution of Selina.

Not only does it weaken Catwoman and Batman's relationship to regress Selina this way, but it actively weakens Gotham as a setting and the very themes of Caped Crusader. I personally think all the energy that went into Harley Quinn should have been shared with (or straight up gone to) Selina Kyle. Because unlike CC's take on Harley, the way Selina Kyle's marginalization intersects with race and queerness would have actually critiqued Gotham's class corruption effectively. As a Black queer woman, Selina would be among the most vulnerable people in Gotham. We don't have prominent characters in CC that truly reflect the lower class, there are these unnamed characters Harvey Dent sits next to on a train. There are some orphans with Batfam names. A proper Catwoman reimagining that takes advantage of her evolution would have filled this gap in their narrative.

But that's not how "safe diversity" works. CC would rather racebend and canonize the queerness of a character like their take on Harley Quinn. A WOC who gets to kiss a cop and call out powerful men, but not in a way that makes white people uncomfortable.

If I could edit the Sandman quote that "The great stories will always return to their original forms" for Superheroes, I'd say "The great stories will always return to their most resonant forms" because without iterations we don't get characters like the Kents, Alfred or Catwoman as we know her today. Classics are good to look to, but we like these characters because they evolve. In my opinion, none of CC's takes on these characters of color feel resonant. They're not definitive to the level of Mister Freeze's tragic love story in BTAS, among many standout narrative choices in BTAS that continue across media iterations.

In my opinion, CC isn't as thoroughly clumsy as MAWS is in regards to POC representation and race-swaps (all characters of color in MAWS get put in the left side of that chart I made. In the Sunken Place. Where they all Missed The Movement). However, I can't help but see Caped Crusader's take on the world of Gotham as nothing more than an anecdote in the evolution of Batman's story for the modern era. "It's BTAS but superficially more diverse and with less compelling narrative choices."

[summerlinenss]

here’s the thing.

if you’re one of the people celebrating our flag means death’s cancellation for whatever reason right now, i need you to realize that this is just a sign that whatever you love is next.

and i’m not saying that out of spite. having your favourite show cancelled is awful, i wouldn’t wish it on anyone. but if our little-gay-pirate-show-that-could can’t get its third and final season, the future of queer media is extremely grim.

ofmd was the definition of a sleeper hit. hbo max had no faith in it when the first season came out. it gained popularity purely through word-of-mouth. but it became one of max’s biggest shows, and it’s since been marketed as their flagship series.

it was the #1 most in-demand series in the world for 8 weeks (7 of those weeks consecutively). it’s currently in the 99.7th percentile of the comedy genre, meaning it’s in higher demand than 99.7% of all comedy series in the u.s. it has a 94% audience and critics score on rotten tomatoes. it’s the most in-demand hbo original series even above euphoria, succession, and the last of us.

it was nominated for 16 awards for the first season alone, including a GLAAD award and a peabody award. the second season was just nominated for an art directors guild award, which it was previously nominated for and won in the same category for season one.

besides awards, ofmd is critically-acclaimed and praised for its representation (including a cast of majority queer, bipoc, and disabled characters) and themes of anti-colonialism, challenging gender norms/toxic masculinity, and self-discovery/acceptance. it also has a diverse team of directors and writers consisting of several bipoc, women, and queer/trans/non-binary people.

on top of all of this, the plan for the show all along was only ever for three seasons. david jenkins only wanted three seasons for the full romcom structure to tell ed and stede’s story. that’s it. nothing more.

this isn’t an attempt to make you care about the show. but ofmd’s cancellation isn’t just a loss for the fanbase and the cast/crew. it’s a sign that it does not matter how successful or profitable shows highlighting lgbtq+ (or otherwise inclusive) narratives are or how many big names are involved. ofmd would not have been cancelled if it were a straight romcom. they would’ve magically found the budget. but corporate greed doesn’t care about us. they have no respect for queer people or queer media. and in the age of streaming, it’s only a matter of time until we lose all of it.

[thowawayuntilfurthernotice]

CW: Racism and slavery.

Alright, let’s open up this can of worms.

Let’s talk about race and how it pertains to Viv’s shows.

No, I don’t think Viv and Adam are inherently racist, they just don’t know how to write for a BIPOC audience.

Viv’s shows (Like most western shows) are written with a white audience in mind. Because let’s face it, white folks don’t like to talk about race. That’s why a lot of shows that do tackle the issue of race and racism do it in a way that’s very surface level, as they don’t want to make white folks uncomfortable.

Even shows that are written by BIPOC writers have to dumb everything down when it comes to race because that’s sadly one of the only ways to get white folks to listen.

For example the Brooklyn Nine Nine episode Moo Moo (Which was written by a black writer) does tackle the issue of racial profiling, but it does so in that after school special way. Where it’s so basic and surface level that it almost feels insulting? And the fact that the episode completely ignores all the systemic racism that’s prevalent in the NYPD somehow makes it even worse.

Seriously, the episode ends with Terry’s application for a liaison job getting denied because he filed a complaint against a racist cop. And Holt’s all like “At least you did the right thing.”

Now, I haven’t really talked about any of the Hazbin/Helluva lore in great detail because it’s a hot gigantic mess of titanian proportions. And trying to make any sense of it from a narrative perspective is headache inducing, but for the sake of this analysis I decided to make an exception.

It’s pretty obvious that the Imps are supposed to represent the lower class, the majority of Imps we see in the series are stuck with low level jobs, involved in shady activities or are willing to kill to survive.

A good writer would have used the concept to highlight the many injustices that are caused by systems that are hell bent on keeping systemic racism alive to ensure that white elites stay in power.

But Viv and Adam don’t give a shit about that, as they know that tackling those sorts of issues is bound to upset their white audience. So they just don’t bother.

The lore feels like set dressing, i.e something that’s only there to make the audience think that there is much more to Viv’s shows than meets the eye, but there really isn’t.

Helluva Boss’ racist class system is introduced, but it isn’t really all that fleshed out. Because Viv doesn’t really care about exploring themes that mirror real world issues, all she cares about is watching her characters fornicate or make out with each other.

Not saying that every adult show has to have a deeper meaning or challenge people’s worldviews, but having a toxic relationship between a slave and his slave master in a dumb demon cartoon is pretty fucked up, not going to lie.

[allthinky]

OFMD fans on Bsky and to a lesser extent here are suggesting that we need to come together as a fandom, get over the divisions, etc. and in principle I am well in favor of that. The last thing we need is to show up as unhinged as we try to get the show picked up somewhere and Season 3 ordered.

But. A lot of folks were really harmed by the bullying, the name-calling, even doxxing? (I missed that, luckily, but certainly have been accused both of bad faith arguments and hatred for Izzy. [Ha. He's not real, for one thing -- also, he was drawn to be hated, right up until the middle of Season 2.] It's whatever. I've been trained in both argument and advocacy and can show up pretty...blunt? But still don't think people should encourage others to actually kill themselves over a tv show.)

I do think healing the rift is important. But.

It's not more important than respecting BIPOC and queer folks. I won't stop calling out racism and misogyny/homophobia where I see it, or at least suggesting that we can and should do better, especially for this show. For this show, omg!

That's the thing: for me, OFMD showed up not only during Covid but also during a huge life upheaval. One that made me incredibly cynical about the odds of justice anywhere in the world. And it said, in every episode: cruelty is wrong. Misogyny is wrong. Homophobia is wrong. Trying to protect your family, trying to become yourself, trying to make amends for your wrongs: these are still good. You can still choose a family, a life, a way in which you fight racism, colonialism, patriarchy. You may find only a grubby little band of weirdos, but they will make your life good. And also, late bloomers can still find true, queer, love.

I love how so many fans have recognized this and are willing to fight for it. But when there are fans who decide that Ed or Stede are clearly the bad guys, or need to suffer! Or that S1 Izzy is the good guy, or Izzy "deserved" a better ending ... These takes pull me out of the little home that the show built for me. I know, rationally, that such interpretations don't actually threaten what the show is, but they still pain me in a way I'm not sure I can fully explain.

(Worse yet, the attachment some folks have to Izzy seems to mirror my own attachment to the crew and the themes. We're all just unhinged. I can't help but feel it's messed up to love Izzy so much he should be front and center, when we finally had a show where the white masc dude wasnt front and center. Even while I think people have the right to enjoy what they want to enjoy. And who doesn't enjoy that little rat, losing when he thinks he should win. It's perfection!)

By 2.4 or whatever, Izzy is fine, he's learning how to be family, he is still a mess in all kinds of ways but whatever. He can be their dick. Their nightmare. Fine. But make him the "hero"? That's an insult. He can do heroic things -- as we all can -- but it's not his story. It's just not, and man, it feels good that someone else gets to be the hero for a change.

I'm really putting this here for my own edification. This isn't meta, this is just: why is allthinky so touchy about OFMD? I'm not done, but I'm done for now.

[cosmicdahlias]

dude i need to rant for a sec

the red dead community on tiktok is so fucking toxic. it’s full of all the -phobics and -ists like i’m not even exaggerating. people post about l*nching lenny, calling javier slurs, calling bill the f slur, and saying that the racist guy in saint denis gained “+1000000 aura points”, and all kinds of shit. hell i can’t post a single goddam tiktok about being attracted to arthur without some cishet chud losing his mind that a fat trans person likes their favorite video game cowboy. i’ve literally gotten called the t slur like it’s insane. like it’s starting to put me off from posting shit on tiktok because every time i get a new comment notification i dread opening it.

and ik it’s not a problem in every community because the gravity falls fans literally have always been so kind to me for my ford content. i guess that just comes down to who the main demographic is. like gf mostly appeals to queer and trans folk whereas red dead (unfortunately) attracts white cishet males. afab, queer, trans, and bipoc red dead fans absolutely do exist because i’ve interacted with them and they’re all lovely but idk the gross straight men seem to be the loud majority.

what’s so painfully ironic is how little they understand red dead and it’s progressive themes. the gang practically lives in a commune, arthur supported women’s rights to vote, if you kill the racist in saint denis you literally don’t get a bounty, and the game encourages you to kill klansmen. plus roger clark literally said “trans people are people” and “terfs ain’t got no friends”. i understand that roger doesn’t speak for rockstar or what arthur would be written as supporting, but the fact that his voice actor went out of his way to support trans people should say enough.

i’m done i’m literally so fucking tired

[city-tickles]

Hi!

I have a new story for you that I didn’t expect to have lol.

I had a prior engagement this weekend but I checked FetLife and there was a party that the ler I usually get tickled by was at. I wasn’t dressed as appropriate as I normally am for these but I figured why not go? My birthday is this month so try and get some birthday tickles lol. The worst thing they can do is tell me to go home.

I get to the party and I decided to give myself an hour-hour and a half and if it wasn’t happening, it wasn’t happening. This one was Pride themed and BIPOC was encouraged, but even though I’m BIPOC, I didn’t expect much being a cis male.

As usual, people are paired up and playing with their friends. My ler is pretty busy in the non tickle world so she was doing a bunch of things. I watched (which was allowed) and did my best to stay out of everyone’s way. Sometimes at these parties, there are pay to play dommes and I was trying to avoid that.

Luckily I was accidentally too close to another scene because the owner scolded me for doing so. After a light scolding, I apologized and he introduced himself to me. It gets even luckier because just when I was about to leave, the guy took pity on me and some other wandering straight men and introduced us to the dommes. They asked what I was into and I told them tickling. Two of them were interested and told me and the other guy who was not into tickling to come back in a few minutes.

When I came back, I asked the guy who was waiting if I could go first. He obliged so I went with my domme who was this beautiful curvy black woman who liked anime and also looked like Willow the pro wrestler lol. I didn’t have any tools on me since I didn’t expect to go, but there was an X rack there. I didn’t really want to use the rack because I don’t like the stretching feeling but there was also nothing to strap me into the rack. The domme told me to hold onto the X’s and if I let go she wouldn’t me. I don’t like hitting in my play so it was an easy reason to not let go.

And then holy crap…

This was one of the hardest tickle sessions I had because even though I was unbound, I didn’t want to risk the pain part so I am holding on for dear life as this domme is scribbling all over my sides, my tummy and my chest. My knees melt buckling but I managed to hold on. Tickling was not her forte but her nails would make you believe otherwise. The domme would work her nails along my sides and my then down to my tummy and scribble faster before going back up to my chest and my ribs and then down my back. She would slow down then speed up with very little breaks in between. I’m sure if I asked for a break I would’ve gotten one but I didn’t want to break.

Everything she did tickled. The worst was when she would start to slow down to caress my chest, getting me to catch my breath before slowly starting up again. The way her nails slowly dragged up and down my sides and ribs just made me laugh more. I told her that it tickled when she did that too and she laughed and just said “Good” before starting up again.

Then things got more intense when she lifted my shirt to the top of my head and began tickling under my arms. I almost broke a few times and dropped them and she might have even given me a pass or two but my poor underarms could were struggling to take it lol

This went on almost nonstop for at least 10 minutes. It’s probably the best upperbody tickle I’ve gotten in 5 years. The challenge of not being bound but not wanting to let go really added to it. After we were done, we exchanged FL names and I ended up running into the other domme. She had someone else she had to play with but she told me to stick around and she would maybe tickle me while her sub got ready.

This one was a completely different experience because once again I was unbound but the second domme who was slender and had glasses and lingerie, started asking me questions about how I fit into tickling. While she was doing this, she began tickling me! Example:

Her - “You said you got into it through cartoons? How was tickling on cartoons?”

And then she’s tickling me while I’m trying to tell the story of interrogation on shows like Ninja Turtles.

She kept adding on…

“Interrogation? Like what? What were they looking for?” And scribbling my sides and underarms while I’m in the chair trying to laugh and explain what happened.

“Information!!”

“Information? What kind of information. Tell me”

And this went on for a little bit until her sub was ready. She also told me the her one ticklish spot and how interest she was to tickle more. She asked if I had my feet tickled yet and I didn’t. Seemed like it could’ve happened but her person ready

I waited around but the other person’s scene was taking a really long time. I ended up getting up and catching up with my ler friend who spoke nicely to her friends about our tickles and introduced me as her “tickle guy” which I was okay with because I would rather people know up front. She and I didn’t get to play but it was great catching up with her.

I tried waiting some more but my battery was ready to die on my phone and with the trains in NYC the way they are, I didn’t want to be stranded so, I went to go home. I really wanted to stay because the device I could’ve been tickled in after Domme 2 was done looked similar to this

I always wanted to be in that scenario and the first domme I had and two other dommes were having fun with the other guy, so there was potential for me being next with all of them after they were done. I just couldn’t do it because of the phone and time.

But overall I had such a great experience. It was great meeting such friendly and dangerous dommes and not have to pay extra outside of the fee to get in. I only wish I took my shoes off earlier because some foot tickling could’ve happened (even though the upper body tickling was soooo good) and to bring my charger lol. I hope to have another session like that happen again in the future.

Thanks for reading!

[pro-sipper]

I definitely agree with "fiction affects reality" in the sense it can introduce new ideas and concepts to an audience that never considered or heard of them. What I take issue from puritans drawing the conclusion of "oh so this means someone reading an incest fic will make them want to kiss their sister" is that they only ever think about how it can make someone do bad things but never positive things. In fact, if they think about how fiction can motivate someone to do good things, their argument would fall apart quickly when they realize how often this isn't the case in reality. There's so much popular fiction out there you can find radical, far-left themes inside of so if fiction really was this powerful mind control device that puritans act like it is, all the normies who watched stuff like Gundam or Squid Game or Chicken Run or Hunger Games would have become radicalized anti-war vegan anti-capitalists but they didn't. While there are people out there where that absolutely was the case, that was entirely on those peoples' own ability to see those themes and agree with them. You can also find bigots in fandoms for media with positively portrayed women, queer, and BIPOC characters. I could drag a raging homophobe into a movie theatre to see every action movie with a positively gay character in there, he's still going to walk out as a homophobe. The reality is, fiction can never make you learn something you refuse to learn.

...and people are absolutely not looking at ship art, reading AO3 smut, or playing morally bankrupt eroges with the intention to learn something, nor expect that these things were made with the purpose to educate.

Exactly!! Such a good point about how they only expect fiction to affect things on a 1:1 level if it's something negative.

I'm sure it's been said before but overall positive and light shows like My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic or Steven Universe have so many good messages that are delivered in an appropriate way for even kids to understand and yet their fandoms are notorious for being full of hate and arguing. If a show was all about the power of friendship and fiction affects reality so severely, surely their fandoms would be the happiest places on earth?? No? Maybe because that's not how things work...

Hopefully one days antis will understand. If they even want to at this point.

[papenathys]

This whole trend of accusing reviewers of color of being white and racist because they didn't like your favourite BIPOC author's books reeks of fandom culture, token diversity and cult of persona. A book by a non-white author can have valuable themes and other merits, and still not resonate with minorities. We are not a homogenous community and there are different types of lived experiences with no "one size fits all".

Reviews can have valuable criticism too. If you have convinced yourself that there is a strict binary of Victim (poor BIPOC author) versus the Evil Insecure Haters (the reviewers, who are often ALSO marginalized), bookish/publishing spaces will successfully continue to be dominated by a small circle of authors of color, whose writing and representation shall be taken as "word of god". Such spaces will continue marketing those racial/cultural/religious narratives that are easily palatable to a Western audience as some universal bipoc lived experience. And once again, we shall forget that there are divisions of privilege that extend beyond a single racial identity– divisions that may not be felt by white readers and reviewers but are felt by reviewers of color.

So many reviewers I used to follow have started backing out of these forced positivity, identity-centric bookish circles because you might notice all the booktwt and bookstagram drama that happens daily when bestselling authors screenshot reviews and invade reviewing spaces. But it gets worse, and more mean-spirited when pedestal tokenism convinces you that only your favourite marginalized author has something to say of value, and the rest is just a rabble of haters being bigoted and miserable. "Are you white?"– and often, the reviewer is as marginalized as your favourite author, perhaps more, considering different categories of privilege.

(Don't get me wrong, poc authors do have their fair share of racist criticism esp in comparison to the most normcore white litfic, but that's not what the post is talking about, it's about the mystification of authors of color as some universal speaker of political truths. This, ignoring the obvious and most ground-level truth that often..... books by bipoc.... can also be racist to other minority communities.) But how does it matter, because we are all mean, racist and don't get your favourite novel that makes you feel like a good person.

[piizunn]

We Will Always Remember (Where We Met), 2024

House paint on un-stretched canvas

On display at AceArtInc in Winnipeg, Manitoba from September 6th to October 18th, 2034 as part of a group exhibition titled ‘Room To Grow Tall’ curated by Sanaa Humayun and Kiona Callihoo Ligtvoet of Making Space, a BIPOC focused peer mentorship for visual artists.

We Will Always Remember (Where We Met) 2024 is an installation in the form of a map leading from AceArt Inc. to the Forks National Historic Site. The piece utilizes modern materials like latex house paint with traditional canvas, exploring themes of contemporary Métis homes, our trappers tents, and the ways in which Métis access knowledge, and housing, community, and our traditional spaces.

The map invites the viewer to walk from the gallery to The Forks as they consider the past and present uses of this land, and the relationship between the Métis and this sacred confluence. The work is a continuation of a piece created in 2024 for The New Gallery in Mohkinstsis titled let’s meet at the confluence which took the form of a public billboard in the downtown area.

At the core of my practice are concepts defined in the works of Gerald Vizenor, Sara Ahmed, and Chantal Fiola whose writings discuss notions of survivance, queer phenomenology, traditional Métis teachings, and appreciation for the lands that hold us.

The following is an accompanying text I wrote the morning of the workshop programming I planned for this exhibition.

Saturday, September 7th, 2024

12:01 PM

I’m staying with my friends B. and C. in their beautiful apartment in Winnipeg. They’re such sweethearts and I’m so grateful I can crash with them. I took the morning to myself after karaoke last night. I was sleepy and a little dehydrated so I stayed back to make my plan for the day.

I felt the sound of drums, I opened a window but the sound was coming from inside the building somewhere. I found the place where the drums were the loudest and standing in the dining room with my hand over my heart and a rowdy kitten named Mabel at my feet, I listened to the drummer as their voice joined the beat and felt the vibrations through my feet like the roots of a tree.

I texted my dad happy birthday, I had leftover root beer and french fries for breakfast, I let Mabel walk on my notebook as I write, and I’ll let myself move slowly today.