#fil-am representation

[joshualunacreations]

In 2022, Corinne Tan was announced as the American Girl Doll of the Year and heavily promoted as a way of raising awareness about anti-Asian racism during COVID. But what message did her story send?

When Corinne Tan debuted, AsAms were offended by the synopsis and how it centered a white man in what's supposed to be a COVID racism story. Once I heard the book had been fast tracked for two live-action specials on HBO Max and Cartoon Network, I knew more harm was coming. In the rare instances Western media talks about anti-Asian racism, it's downplayed. Instead, narratives are used to reinforce the 1) Model Minority Myth, 2) Asian gender divide, and 3) "correct" levels of assimilation. Unsurprisingly, Corinne Tan’s story does all of these.

There's a place for stories about divorce and blended families, but this story isn't it. COVID racism is specifically about the threat of AAPI being verbally or physically assaulted by non-AAPI. The author's choice to emphasize conflict within an Asian family is inappropriate.

Instead of empathizing with David Tan's inability to work during the pandemic—a real problem that has devastated many AAPI families and businesses—it's the reason Judy divorces him. The story not only erases racism as a reason for AAPI pandemic joblessness, but victim-blames. It implies her parents have an antagonistic relationship because her dad isn't white and rich, and that makes him an inferior romantic partner. Despite referencing a slur meant for Asian men, the story never acknowledges that her dad experiences racism too.

Another appalling aspect is how Corinne, an 11-year-old girl, is responsible for teaching a grown white man to empathize with her experiences of racism—because her mom won't. Not only does Judy never talk to Arne about racism, she lets him gaslight Corinne in front of her. Judy seems fixated on wealth and achievement over her daughters' emotional safety. When the family lived with David, the walls were decorated with the daughters' artwork. In Arne's house, Judy is concerned with protecting the aesthetic chosen by Arne's professional decorator.

This is why the Eileen Gu poster becomes such a sticking point. While David encourages his daughters to embrace Chinese culture in everything, Judy seems to apply it only to her restaurant. Is it because Arne tells her he hoped marrying a chef would mean never buying takeout?

Meanwhile, Arne, a rich white businessman—who calls himself Goldilocks and whose behavior the author describes as "clueless" racism—gets sympathetic treatment. His fear of heights and dogs is equated to Corinne's fear of racists, as if it's a phobia to overcome via willpower.

Recall that the purpose of Corinne Tan's story is to educate about AAPI experiences with racism during COVID. Mattel, owner of American Girl, hired a panel of AsAm academics and consultants to tell her story with "authenticity and accuracy." So how did it turn out so harmful?

It's because the AsAm consultants for this project and many similar projects—like Dr. Jennifer Ho—are out-of-touch with our community. Insulated by wealth and/or whiteness they've chosen, they think they've acknowledged their privilege, but their work shows they're still reinforcing it.

The broader problem is that racist and misogynist white men control media. Regardless of gender, sexuality, or marital status, AAPI are given media power only when they internalize and repeat white men’s messaging. This isn't limited to fiction—it affects real-life activism too.

A picture says a thousand words, and it speaks volumes that Stop AAPI Hate chose to literally center white men in the photo accompanying their hate crime data report summarizing the past two years. Of those "thousands of voices," it isn't hard to guess who's prioritized. Stop AAPI Hate pushes the same message as Corinne Tan's story: racist white men deserve more humanity and sympathy than actual AAPI male victims. Hating and erasing AAPI men is required to show that you're a "safe" Asian deserving of resources and support. (see my data thread about how hate crime data is manipulated to erase AAPI men as victims)

It's bad enough that an entire gender is being cut out from resources and empathy, but what Corinne Tan’s story reveals is another disturbing trend: AAPI youth are being groomed into normalizing having racist white men in their lives, specifically in their families and homes.

Corinne Tan is a middle grade story (ages 8-12). For its consulting, Mattel partnered with AAPI Youth Rising, a non-profit led by AAPI middle schoolers. At the time, Dr. Ho was president of the Association for Asian American Studies, which helps shape AsAm studies in schools. It's not a stretch to think Corinne's mom Judy, who puts Corinne in harm's way by refusing to address her white husband’s "clueless” racism, is reflective of the behavior of AAPI adults involved in Stop AAPI Hate and other AsAm orgs—they gave the story their stamp of approval.

Anti-Asian hate crimes against AAPI should've brought the community closer together. Instead, we've been segregated further, and the AAPI who hurt the community the most have hoarded the empathy, media attention, and resources for themselves. How can any of us heal like this?

(Please don’t repost or edit my art. Reblogs are always appreciated.)

If you enjoy my comics, please pledge to my Patreon or donate to my Paypal.

https://twitter.com/Joshua_Luna/status/1134522555744866304 https://patreon.com/joshualuna https://www.paypal.com/paypalme2/JoshuaLunaComics

[villainesses]

deleting every trace of vanessa hudgens on my blog after seeing her pics with the dictator's son ❤️

[bougiebutchbinch]

You know, if I weren't lazy I could give you an essay on how comic Wade is either closeted transfem or wants to at least medically transition even if he stays using he/him pronouns. I'd even site my sources in MLA format for you. I'd just have to find some very specific events, and it also relies on the idea that the scars are psychosomatic (which was implied in one of the Deadpool and Spiderman comics).

The only problem is on a good day I'm wishy washy about liking that (a physical representation of his poor mental health that people either ignore or out right demonize? yes please) but on most days I don't really like it as a concept.

oh goshhhhhh I am soooo here for transfem Wade!!!!

Should you ever have the spoons to deliver that essay, I for one would love to hear it.

She (or he, I think they're pretty fluid with pronouns, like Deadpool always is!) is the transfem who makes her gender identity A Big Joke for years and years and years, always laughing about 'haha what if I was a girl what if I was your girlfriend what if my pussy got wet whenever we fought what if I wore a maid dress for you what if that hahahaha wouldn't that be funny'

to the point where

everyone can kinda tell

it isn't a joke

but Wade's almost too afraid to acknowledge that it isn't? Like, she's been keeping her barriers up with comedy for so long, and especially growing up with her dad and then in the military, a BIG part of her is fucking terrified about what it means to acknowledge how she really feels about herself, let alone embrace it.

Anyway, I think one day someone (Vanessa?) would listen to Wade doing his usual bit about 'lol what if I was a girl' and would just say "You could be, you know."

Her tone is kind, gentle, and completely fucking serious.

And Wade suddenly gets

very

very

quiet.

For all of a minute.

"Yeah," he manages eventually, hoarser than ever. Flashing Vanessa a bright, cheeky grin that doesn't quite reach his (her?) eyes. "But then you'd have competition for being the hottest woman in this polycule, and we can't have that."

But maybe next time he takes Vanessa up on her offer to do his nails and make up, she catches him looking at himself wistfully in the mirror, and presses a little kiss to the side of his head.

"I'm ready for that competition whenever you are," she promises. "But you'd better bring your A-game. I'm not gonna go easy on you just because you're a newly minted girl."

Wade chokes out a laugh. She jerks away from her reflection like she's scared that she's been caught - then, tentatively, glances back again. Looking at herself, scars and high cheekbones and thin eyelashes darkened with mascara, and more scars, and all - before her nervous, sickly yellow eyes flit to Vanessa's.

Vanessa can see the want there. The yearning.

And she can see, just as clearly, the fear.

"Rain check?" asks Wade, fake-breezy. "Not that I'm not ready for you to kick my ass at the art of hot-girlhood, but you have had a lot more practice."

Vanessa finds her hand - fever-hot as ever, and just a little sweaty. She gives it a tight squeeze.

"Rain check," she agrees, not because she wants it, but because Wade needs it. Then, distracting her, because there's a fragile set to Wade's mouth, like she's letting something she so desperately wants slip between her fingers - "What colour should I paint your toenails?"

"Ooh!" Wade perks up immediately, clapping her hands in delight. "Wolverine-costume-yellow? Nonono, gunmetal grey for Cable! And Colossus. Okay, so maybe one yellow for every two grey? Hey, I'll do yours too~ We can match!"

She's adorable when she's excited. Vanessa drops another little kiss on one of the textured ridges that divides Wade's skull into continents of scar tissue. "Sounds like a perfect girls' night."

"Girls' night," Wade repeats, smile small and precious. Then, bouncing up from the chair in front of Vanessa's vanity - "Okay, game plan! I'll go put on the Golden Girls and make popcorn, you get the nail polish and the files. Sound good?"

"Sounds amazing."

[belladonnafleur]

IM SO GLAD IM NOT THE ONLY PINOY JO KOY ANTI

i stg when he made his bit about how patis smelled like pussy in one of his netflix specals i was like 😐 ok

my entire tagalog class got free tix to see easter sunday and when we discussed it in class i went on an entire rant about how uhh not good it was

when dante basco (aka prince zuko from avatar) starred in a filipino american themed family comedy, i went to go check out the trailer. not that i have high hopes for fil-am humor—or any asian american humor, for that matter—but i still wanted to give it a try. the second one of those guys uttered “we’re jungle asians!” i clicked the exit button so quickly.

[brainwormcity]

I don't want to be sitting here being angry because of Taika's ignorance, I want to be reading fics and making edits and rewatching the kiss from episode 8 over and over again but I can't. In the years past, I've had to swear off jelly belly jelly beans, cracker barrel, shein, harry potter, chik fil a, and home depot. That's just the brands; more importantly to me, I've given up on Jensen Ackles, John Mulaney, Thomas Middleditch, and more than I can possibly think about right now. I have long since learned my lesson in regards to parasocial relationships and hero worship.

Media and art are so extremely important to me as both a coping mechanism and a source of representation and OFMD checks so many boxes for me. It's one of the few unsanitized, non-eunichized queer shows with adult characters, POC, and trans folks and I'm so brutally sad that it's hampered by the actions of one person's lack of social awareness and hypocrisy but I can't in good conscience indulge knowing that when celebrities endorse things like this stupid fucking letter (however well-meaning and done out of ignorance) they normalize this sort of callous thinking.

I'm not sure how to proceed, going forward. I'm pointedly not streaming the show and using my platforms to make other fans aware of these circumstances, as well as sharing information from other indigenous folks who are feeling hurt and betrayed Taika's contribution to all of this. I don't know if it's okay for me to even engage with fan content. I'm not willing to compromise my values by consuming Taika's works without a retraction and it sucks because I am desperate for something to buoy my mental health. Interested to hear how others are coping with this. Anyway, free Palestine.

[selkies-world]

Hey, disabled Tumblr, can you help me out please?

In the YA book I'm currently writing, 1 of the characters is a wheelchair user. He's middle-aged, and a father of 4. He's been in a wheelchair for around 20 years. He lives in a mid-/low-income house, where he and his partner have raised their kids. All of their kids are grown adults. He and his partner both have jobs and their own income, and he does not have a live-in carer, though his partner helps with some tasks when he asks her to, and one of his sons stops by quite often (multiple times a week) to help out around the house.

1 of his youngest sons is Autistic, and his other youngest son is able bodied & most likely Neurotypical with some Autism traits, but ends up comatose after being hit by a car.

Here are my questions:

Is he in physical pain? (Are there conditions which can cause someone to need a wheelchair which consist of physical pain? What do these feel like? Do they impact how he uses his chair? Does he need medication for the pain, or the condition?)

How easy or difficult is it for him to move himself around - can he go from his wheelchair to the couch to his wheelchair to a dining table chair by himself? Is this taxing on his body or his mind?

What kind of accommodations will he have in his home?

Does the furniture have to be arranged a certain way to allow his chair to move around?

Same question for his kitchen - what's different in his kitchen to allow him full access and autonomy within it?

How should his son-in-law offer assistance? (In my current draft, SIL asks if FIL wants any help getting from his wheelchair to the dining chair, FIL tells SIL to wait a second then to take the wheelchair out of the way of the table. SIL finishes setting the table while FIL gets into the dining chair, then moves the wheelchair across the room, out of the way of anyone else walking past it to the table. SIL also helps carry dinner through from the kitchen while FIL gets the drinks.)

How would he feel about seeing his son in a hospital for long-term care? Would he feel differently about it than the able-bodied family members? Why? Would this difference impact his behaviour or responses?

Is there a reason he may (or may refuse to) ask for help or assistance with something which is directly impacted by his being in a wheelchair?

I have Aspergers syndrome, idiopathic scoliosis, hypermobiloty, Raynauds, and an undiagnosed connective tissue disorder, along with undiagnosed CPTSD, a history of eating disorders and a few various sensory issues. I am transgender, FtM. Within this book, I have representation of Autism in characters who are cosgender, transgender & gender queer, all of whom are at different points on the spectrum. I have representation of a child with severe PTSD and amnesia surrounding her trauma & life before it. I have a genderfluid character who uses he / she / they interchangeably, 1 polycule which includes a black man of mixed race who may be Scottish or Welsh by the time the final manuscript is done, and a fat Chinese woman who is either Welsh or Scottish. The protagonist uses he / they.

The fantasy elements in this book include shape-shifting, but shifting shape does not cure or fix a disability: if someone is am amputee, and they turn into a duck, that duck will have the same amputation. As such, there are depictions of various characters in shifted forms with prosthetics - a shoebill in a wheelchair with a prosthetic leg is one example of this.

There are also heavy features of Celtic folklore throughout the book.

[hellomynameisbisexual]

“I’m not even sure bisexuality exists. I think it’s just a layover on the way to Gaytown,” Carrie Bradshaw famously said in the offensive, misinformed 1998 episode of Sex and the City in which she dates a bisexual man. These words are still painfully seared into my brain. How could a sex columnist, a character written predominantly by gay men, have such a limited view of queer identity? Nearly ten years later, a 2016 episode of HBO dramedy Insecure sees Molly (Yvonne Orji) finding out that the man she’s seeing, Jared, nonchalantly had a sexual encounter with another man. After exposing her biphobia to her friends, another character declares Jared to be gay. Ultimately, Molly and Carrie both decide, despite the chemistry and their attraction, that they could not get past their own compulsory monosexuality to continue dating a bisexual man. Why does television, a medium primed for long-form character development and storytelling, continuously fail at representing bisexual men?

Twenty-five years after that infamous Sex and the City scene, bisexuality (for the purposes of this piece, I am using bisexuality as a term that encompasses all people with the capacity to be attracted to more than one gender, including those who identify as bisexual, pansexual, fluid, queer, and more) on television has made significant strides—from young-adult programming like Euphoria, Riverdale, and Gossip Girl, to adult dramas like Game of Thrones, The Magicians, and obviously, The Bisexual. Bisexuality is no longer relegated to a very-special episode, and is slowly leaving the realm of bad, misinformed jokes. According to GLAAD’s 2021-2022 Where We Are on TV report, queer representation on television is at an all-time high. After two consecutive years of decreases, bisexual representation increased by one percent over last year: nine non-binary characters, 124 women, and sadly, only 50 men. Fifty may seem like a solid number at the outset, but consider the quality of these representations. Aside from a few stand-out examples, like Nick Nelson (Kit Connor) on Netflix’s much-loved Heartstopper, many are relegated to supporting and recurring characters, at best, and stuck in tropes, at worst.

Maria San Filippo is an associate professor at Emerson College whose research focuses on screen media’s intersections with gender and sexuality. In 2013, she published The B Word: Bisexuality in Contemporary Film and Television, a pathbreaking monograph on the state of bisexual representation in both mediums. “Bisexuality was only beginning to be central and recurring, rather than peripheral and episodically one-off or short-lived,” she said over email. “Bisexuality’s representational legibility has been expanded; it’s less easily deniable as ‘just a phase’ when bisexuality becomes an ongoing character trait.”

Broadly speaking, on-screen storytelling has struggled to construct bisexuality in ways that reach beyond the word landing at the butt of jokes or framed through the lens of disgust and abjection. Nowhere does it fail bisexuals more than television, a site of endless discursive possibilities. Television’s long-form narrative offers unique opportunities to watch sexuality unfold over time, but rather than exploring and showcasing every permutation of bisexuality, bi men on television are far and few between.

“Bi+ male representation has always been the biggest challenge,” San Filippo said. “Bisexuality threatens heteropatriarchy and phallic authority, and so must be hidden or, if acknowledged, desexualized and disparaged through mockery or else hypersexualized as in porn (and even then bisexuality is rebranded as ‘gay for pay’).” She said it’s not unlike the uncommon sight of male frontal nudity on screen, which she explores in her 2021 book, Provocauteurs and Provocations. “Dan Levy’s character David on Schitt’s Creek is one high-profile example of recurring, more nuanced male bi+ representation,” she said. “We need more.”

The phallic authority, as San Filippo calls it, is not as threatened when it comes to the representation of bisexual women characters, who were more than double as numerous in the 2021-2022 television season. Nate Shu, a bisexual comedian based in Boston who spoke with me over Zoom, suggests that feminist film theorist Laura Mulvey’s work on patriarchal ideologies in film still applies here. Mulvey’s seminal 1975 essay, “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema,” uses a psychoanalytic lens to look at the way women have been depicted in film primarily for the pleasure of the male viewer. She coined this theory the male gaze.

“Lesbian and bisexual characters are more attainable when they’re female because there’s something for male viewers to hold on to,” he said. “A bisexual woman is still an attainable woman to a straight man, whereas a bisexual man is both a threat and an anomaly.”

These conventions are sewn into the fabric of on-screen storytelling, a part of the canon of cinema that queer storytellers are working hard to reform. But despite this hard work, bisexual stories are still too-often made palatable to viewers through a handful of storytelling tropes: the coming out story, reasserting the status quo of a relationship or identity, or hinting at a character’s dishonesty or shiftiness (it pains me to bring it up, but Frank Underwood on House of Cards is a great example here).

The CW’s 2015 musical-dramedy Crazy Ex-Girlfriend showcased one of the more fleshed-out bisexual men on television, Darryl Whitefeather, played by Peter Gardner. His unapologetic musical sequence on how he’s “Gettin’ Bi” was an audacious and refreshing moment for a middle-aged character embracing his sexuality—despite his entire storyline being framed around coming out. We tend to see these coming out narratives again and again, to the point where it begins to feel like viewer manipulation. The coming out scene will only lead to the catharsis of Heartbreaker-level tears if it feels earned through a character’s arc of self-suppression and pain. However, the gay blueprint has already been established, and thus the coming out story is relatable and palatable, rather than depicting a character already living their truth.

Shu, who identifies as bisexual and biracial for the sake of alliteration in his comedy (as opposed to pansexual, a term to which he more closely relates), asked me poignant questions: “What is queer representation? Having a character make an off-hand comment and it’s never acknowledged—that is a queer character, but it’s not a queer story.” His ideal bisexual representation allows characters to be authentic people living outside of constructed narratives that are more viewer-friendly like the coming out story. He could only name one example of an Asian bisexual character on television that he felt somewhat seen through—Magnus Bane, played by Harry Shum Jr. on the Freeform supernatural drama Shadowhunters. “It’s tough to get out of the boxes of what culture, film, and TV have defined for decades,” Shu said.

Marvel has been a site of critique around its inability to flesh out queer characters in an authentic way, awkwardly suggesting that all superheroes are heterosexual. The 2021 Disney+ series Loki made headlines for a 20-second scene where the titular character confirms his bisexuality after admitting he has been with princesses and princes in his past. This kind of casual bisexuality has become more commonplace in the streaming era, to the point of forgettability: Bill Pargrave on Killing Eve, playing Eve’s MI5 boss until he was eventually stabbed by murderess Villanelle, also identified as bisexual in a passing conversation. Other examples include Joe MacMillan (Lee Pace) on Halt and Catch Fire and the titular character (Tom Ellis) on Lucifer. Does the off-hand knowledge of a character’s sexual fluidity, without an in-depth exploration of his sexuality, qualify as queer representation? Perhaps a better question would be, does it make bisexual viewers feel seen and understood, and add to monosexual viewers’ understanding and empathy of bisexuality?

At the end of October 2022, Kit Connor came out as bisexual in a bitter tweet after months of being hounded and online bullied by Netflix Heartstopper fans, some of whom accused Connor of queerbaiting for playing a bisexual character. The fall-out made me wonder why any actor, let alone a bisexual actor who may still be processing or figuring out his sexuality, would want to play a bisexual character in the social media age. “I think some of you missed the point of the show. Bye,” his tweet read.

Not to center myself in the discourse, but I can’t help but wonder how a more thorough cultural understanding of bisexuality would impact my own dating life as a gay man, what the dating pool might look like if there was a more rigorous acceptance and visibility of bisexuality and fewer “discreet” men refusing to send you photos of their faces on dating apps with fear of being outed in their real life. The latest 2021 Census data coming out of the United Kingdom suggests there are currently nearly as many bisexual-identifying individuals as gay and lesbian survey respondents combined. These numbers feel hopeful, to me. Previous generations grew up dissatisfied by the range of representation on television, leading to iconic shows like Pose that shifted the course of television at the intersections of queerness and race. I can only imagine what the landscape will look like in 10, 20 years as the bisexual-identifying Gen Zs—the queerest generation yet—make their way into creative fields. We’ll have to watch and find out.

[exloveaffair]

writeblr intro!

hi everyone, my name is juli (she/her, 22, fil-am) and i'm a literature grad & writer. i primarily write plays and short stories though i would like to finally commit to longform fiction as well.i'm currently developing a play that's slated for edinburgh fringe festival in 2025, but i wanted a place where i could talk about my other projects + post my short fiction.

horror and romance are my bread and butter, but you'll see fantasy and sci-fi too. some things to expect: complex doomed relationships, aspec representation, lots of asian-american characters, argument scenes, Narrative Foils TM.

like/rb if you want to be mutuals! i especially would love if there were some witchy folk because i incorporate tarot and ritual into my writing practice. i follow from lovemyths. i'll probs also be posting short fiction on my ao3 (i've posted like one thing already if that tickles anyone's fancy).

[sansculottides]

by the way i fucking hate that imelda m*rcos musical & FUCK lea s*longa. fuck every cookie cutter burgis that thinks ohhhhh we should look at both the "good and the bad" FUCK YOU. if you want to talk about martial law, talk about the workers and unions, the communists and revolutionaries, the indigenous peoples and muslim people outside manila, all those scarred, tortured, killed by the m*rcos regime, many of whom survive to this day and carry all that with them and carry on with the revolutionary struggle. the older activists i know who lived through the m*rcos years are the strongest fucking people i know. "ohhh we need to know who the m*rcoses were as human beings" fuck you. you are adding to their mythologized image. being the protagonist of a fucking musical is exactly the kind of thing demented im*lda and her family would want. i dont fucking care about what the m*rcoses did for "ph*lippine culture" and nationalism, as if these are good things, NO, that bullshit was part of their whole fucking thing. to cement an essentialist version of "f*lipino culture" towards an ethno-state with the fucking m*rcos family at the head. and then this fucking petibugoy fil/ams are going to gush about how this fucking musical is good for REPRESENTATION AND DIVERSITY? DO YOU HEAR YOURSELF?

[joshualunacreations]

The US and its propaganda arm, Hollywood, have always been anti-Asian. Although opportunities are opening up for Asian actors, the underlying messaging—that divides and hurts Asians—hasn't changed.

Not too long ago, AsAms seemed united in outrage against racism and white-washed casting such as Scarlet Johannsen in Ghost in the Shell, Tilda Swinton in Dr. Strange, or Netflix’s Deathnote. Yet as more projects with AAPI leads and casts were produced, this so-called unity proved to be a lie.

The illusion of AsAm unity fell apart with To All the Boys I Loved Before—which was widely celebrated despite its blatant white-worship. The most recent blow comes from Hulu's The Company You Keep, a U.S. remake of a k-drama that replaced the male love interest with a white man.

Once it seemed like AAPI women were getting roles and being “humanized” (i.e. garnering attention and approval from white men on-screen and off) AAPI with media power were satisfied. It didn't matter that AAPI men were still erased and dehumanized—even in supposedly pro-AAPI projects.

Not only do AAPI with media power not care about the continuing harm against AAPI men, they exacerbate it. When AsAms critique anti-Asian narratives—especially ones erasing or targeting AsAm men like TATBILB—they're gaslit, harassed, censored and even permanently blacklisted.

This is because AsAm media is held hostage by the racist framework of the U.S. government's 1942-43 Mixed Marriage Policy. White men's hierarchy—based on perceived threat levels and receptiveness to white assimilation—still dictates Hollywood narratives.

Research confirms that the MMP persists today. A 2015 study shows how gendered racism leads to severe under-representation of Asian men (and Black women). Whereas monoracial Asian men face significant barriers in dating, a 2014 study shows mixed-white Asians get a "bonus effect."

This is why Hollywood execs know there will be less uproar if monoracial Asian men aren't represented—it's been the status quo for decades. In the few roles made for Asian men, they still fall into two categories: pathetic loser or toxic man/villain. In some cases, both.

The hatred and erasure of Asian men is so deeply embedded that it's led to the widespread erasure of AAPI men as victims of anti-Asian hate crimes in recorded stats and media narratives. AAPI journalists know this, yet continue to do nothing to correct it.

So what's next for AsAm representation? In 2022, Janet Yang became president of the Oscars. She's co-founder of Gold House—an AsAm Hollywood collective—and executive producer of Joy Luck Club, a seminal work bashing Asian men as irredeemable misogynists compared to "good" white men.

Many AsAms like Yang want more of Joy Luck Club and similar stories. Amy Tan, author of JLC, has been pushing for years for a sequel with the original cast. A TV series was optioned in 2017, and as of 2022 a movie sequel is to be written by white male screenwriter, Ron Bass.

Stories like Joy Luck Club aren't just bad media—they're dangerous. Arthur Martunovich randomly hammered three AsAm men to death because he saw a movie depicting Chinese men as abusers and he wanted to "protect Chinese women". There's a high chance that movie was JLC.

Hollywood has figured out it’s easy to make anti-Asian films and stifle criticism by hiring Asian tokens to give stamps of approval. An article from 1986 (40 years ago) about AsAm criticism of racism in Big Trouble in Little China shows there's a history of sowing division among AAPI and using government resources to do it. I understand the allure of the Hollywood dream because I used to believe in it myself. From an early age, all marginalized groups—POC, women, LGBTQ+—are taught to fantasize about how we'll finally be accepted and heal the hurt once we get on a big stage and give an award speech. Having experience in Hollywood as a comic creator, I know how people in power (esp. white men) behave. Their goal is to wear you down until you internalize their bigoted messaging, regurgitate it yourself, and then thank them for it. They hate the word "no." Awards don't matter if the content that gets you there ultimately serves bigoted and harmful purposes. In 2020, I made a test for AAPI media. None of the projects so far have passed. That's by design. We think we’re holding the statue, but really, it’s holding us.

Correction: I just noticed a typo in the comic. Inside the Hollywood sign's letter "Y" I meant to say "non-Asians" not "non-whites." Sorry, it was a lot of drawing and writing, and I got tired 🥴 (Please don’t repost or edit my art. Reblogs are always appreciated.)

If you enjoy my comics, please pledge to my Patreon or donate to my Paypal.

https://twitter.com/Joshua_Luna/status/1134522555744866304 https://patreon.com/joshualuna https://www.paypal.com/paypalme2/JoshuaLunaComics

[dot823]

I'm thinking about how fandom has changed over the years, and how most fans of things tend to be apologetic about liking things these days. In 2012, I would've proudly stated that I love superwholock and if people didn't like that, they could just go on doing their own things and i'd do my own thing. It wasn't perfect, and people who didn't like it may have gotten annoyed if they saw too much of it on their dash, but like. Curate your experience or whatever, block people and tags you don't like.

Now, people are too busy being scared of their piece of media being labeled problematic for dumbass reasons like Existing to unapologetically love the things they enjoy in public. Or even in private.

To clarify, yes, liking something like Harry Potter which is made by a transphobe and antisemite and contains very clear antisemitic and transphobic messages, and willingly giving money to JKR when she's then giving the money to do bad things, is problematic. I'm not saying you should follow those blogs or allow that shit on your dash in any way. I'm not saying that protesting against very clearly bigoted things is bad, I am also very against giving any money at all to Joann. I also don't each chic fil a. I also won't shop at hobby lobby.

However.

I've seen so much hate for so many shows aimed at innocent people for stupid reasons. People riot and demand representation and then scream and yell when they aren't happy that the character isn't exactly like them. Or, my least favorite, a villain in a piece of media does something bad and the protag fights against it and yet haters start screeching that the creators and fans condone the villain's actions. They fail to realize that plot requires conflict, and people do bad things.

People are scared because they get ostracized for enjoying something innocently. They can't make mistakes anymore unless they want to be told to die painfully or get shunned from society, but probably both.

People are calling things problematic over the smallest shit these days, and then they go and tell people to die over liking things that they deemed to be problematic. If hating shit is your whole personality I think you need a new personality.

[altruisticenigma]

Let’s talk about how difficult it is to enjoy shit without it being analyzed/criticized and found problematic to a degree, especially in today’s world.

Do you ever feel excited about something that you’re honestly enjoying that helps you feel like you’re getting some representation in media, that makes you feel like your story is seen-

And someone’s very critical political/social take on it kinda ruins your happiness?

While these are wonderful and important discussions to have, this is also why it’s still listed in my DNI that discourse is a hard subject for me and not to bring it up to me- even if I don’t invite it into my space, I still run into it by accident and it causes debate and self-doubt in my head. I actively avoid having political, social, and other kinds of discussions too often because I’m aware that I am too critical and it’s hard for me to separate the concept of perfection from criticism. (That’s what therapy is for after all, lol.) It causes me anxiety and I talk down to myself to even like the things I like because now it has a critical voice around it.

I get overwhelmed with thoughts like:

“Should I enjoy this piece of media even though it’s got some problematic takes?”

“Should I like this even though I can see the positive and negatives and understand that it’s not all-encompassing “bad?”

“I see the problem this person is presenting, and ACTUALLY live the reality of what they’re presenting- but liking the fictitious side makes me feel icky for even relating to it, or having such a similar story”

“I want representation but now there’s discourse about it. I feel like I can’t like anything or indulge in media without always needing to have a critical eye on it”

As a queer, disabled, Fil-Am person, my life to a degree is politicized- to save myself the mental and emotional exhaustion, I pick and choose what and when I engage in these kinds of discussions. I also know what obviously has lines that shouldn’t be crossed- obviously like JK Rowling’s media and such, lol.

But I fucking hate it when I’m trying to honestly and openly enjoy something like CHILDREN’S MEDIA and people are out here tearing it apart. While I studied such things like women’s gender and sexuality studies in college and it gave me a critical eye to basically everything in life, I hate it because it feels like I can’t enjoy ANYTHING without feeling like everything is somewhat “problematic.” It gave me a lens I felt like I can’t ever take off.

I don’t know why I’m posting this. I just wanted to vent. I’m so tired of being highly self-aware, but also feeling unhappy that I can’t enjoy things without knowing they’re, to a degree, problematic.

[lovedrac]

AG Historical/GOTY Wishes: What Kind of Character Do You Want to See?

If there’s one thing I know the community for American Girl has, it’s thoughts and opinions- and rightfully so!

When I was 10 I got my first AG doll which was Kaya. I got her because she looked enough like me, and she lived in the area I grew up in- The Nez Perce had settled in or around parts of the PNW. I also liked her rebellious and enduring spirit, as I too considered myself “a outspoken rebel.”

As I am now older I have the same dilemma I faced when I was younger when wanting a AG doll: I want representation and myself reflected in the doll. I distinctly remember struggling between the “prettier” dolls like Felicity and Elizabeth, but wanting a doll like Josefina or Kaya who looked like me- a tan, dark haired, Filipino-American girl at the time.

We already know AG has extremely limited Asian-American Historical and GOTY dolls. It’s even more difficult because Filipino dolls are pretty much a rarity in the doll community.

For me, I’d love a doll from around 1980-1990 representing the immigration struggle in modern America today, highlighting those Asian diasporic feelings and what it means to be “American” in a society that doesn’t look like you. As a Filipino-American whose a child of a immigrant mother I do live between two worlds: the culture I resonate with and the culture I currently live within. I already know AG covers both immigration stories and we already have too many 80s-90s girls, but for many of us Asian-Americans growing up with those feelings- both older and younger today- it’d highlight a new perspective and continue the stories and perspectives of minorities in my opinion.

This hypothetical doll probably would function much better as a GOTY, and Corrine covers this already (pretty recently), I’m just a bit selfish and wanna see her be a girl who is really into baking and making traditional foods from home, whose shy and afraid to be herself in a world that doesn’t exactly seem welcome to her, and see her flourish as she learns what it means to truly be herself.

(That and well… I just would love to see a Fil-Am doll so badly!!!)

What kind of dolls would you love to see?

[badedramay]

Can you do a breakdown of the David/Kim scenes from this week’s yunhi like you did with the last episode?

before that can I just say how glad I am Kim remembered what her father said to her about leaving her a message and by the end of the epi she found it out? warna yeh MU drag ho sakta tha. but it didn't. we can make an educated guess that Kim knows that it's her own Dad who took away her stuff so at least we won't be subjected to her blaming anyone in this "corrupt" country for her predicament.

of course the Sofa™ had to make its importance known this marital bedroom xD i used to confused about just why Kim has made Dawood her zidd but I am getting the hang of it now. while Dawood is also one of those "hamare mulk mein aisa hi hota~" person like every other person in the house..Dawood also has a personality that would easily "fit" in a western world. he's a doctor, he's mature, he's responsible, he takes pride in his self; Kim taunts Dawood for being a "Pakistani mard" but in heart she has accepted him and only him as the only "worthwhile" representation of a Pakistani man. to her this is an experiment. of how much she can push around a Pakistani man before the veneer falls off and Dawood shows him the ugly, regressive side of desi men that Kim is 100% convinced is true for all men all across the board. the marriage is just a means for her to get there.

Kim feels safe in the knowledge this new relationship will have no affect on her. Dawood was rebound for her after her breakup. she has no romantic feelings for Dawood hence she doesn't have any attraction for him that will make her soft for him. she's not naive enough to not what the wedding night entails for a bride and groom but since her heart is not in it, she cannot subject her body to the deed. which is unlike what a good desi ladki will do. the whole "shauhar ke huqooq" thing is drilled in girls' head so much that they learn to completely lock their hearts away. the same goes for desi men. Dawood doesn't have any love for Kim but he has accepted his role as the "shauhar" and with that he has accepted all the "haq" that he has on Kim. he kept reminding her of his position in her life. he IS the husband, Kim CHOSE him to be. her denials don't work.

except..they do kinda do for Kim? like..she didn't impose herself on Dawood. she was asked a choice and she gave Dawood's name. Dawood had every right to say no. if the man can express his dislike for Kim to Kim's face, he can very well express his dislike for her in front of his adults. but he didn't. thus, this gives Kim more power here. 'sure i chose you but you also chose me despite knowing me, you don't get to order me around now.'

and it's not like Kim is completely opposed to the idea of Dawood. she just doesn't like him YET. she says to Dawood na..if one day she'll like him she'll dress the way he wants. and she also says that she will never oblige to any thing that is forcefully imposed on her. c'mon..Kim is putting all the hints out there. treat her nicely and she'll react in kind. make the mistake of pushing her around and she can show everyone just what she's made on. that's gonna be their journey. Dawood slowly and gradually learning about how Kim's heart&mind works and Kim slowly and gradually learning to accept Dawood as he is. both Kim and Dawood are individually not bad people, they have flaws sure but not glaring enough to be incapable of being loved.

i think what Yunhi is also showing through Kim and Dawood's relationship is how all this "raub" of a men only works because the society has rendered women to benefit from it. Razia gets reprimanded by her FIL and even her husband doesn't stand up for her, Razia feels bad about it but she will never complain about it in public. cuz bhale hi she gets scolded by the FIL or not supported by the husband..the two men still are the reason she lives a comfortable and respectable life in the society. these minor insults become negligible them. the same formula can not apply to Kim. because she's not dependent on any men here. look at the morning after scene. Dawood slightly refused to get up and go after his friends as Kim wished him to do and Kim simply said fine, then i'll go to the police myself. she doesn't NEED Dawood for protection or validation. she's enough on her own. the loss of her documents is a minor setback. Kim IS an American citizen. it won't be impossible for her to get the security of her country back once she contacts the embassy; she's most definitely confident enough to get through this long messy procedure on her own.

lol this turned into me pouring out all the stray thoughts i had about the show more than the scenes breakdown xD thank you for patiently reading this!

[young-koko]

In 2016,  I wanted to create a set of characters I could call my own. I was so inspired by Sanrio, Sumikko Gurashi, Rilakkuma, etc. In 2019, I made Buchi! I was excited because this character (and the latter), was influenced by my childhood and Filipino/ Asian sweets and foods. With that, I wanted to bring more Fil-Am representation to the cute culture, while also recognizing that many of these foods have a rich history. I wanted to acknowledge the different cultures they originated from. One example being that buchi or butsi, is the Filipino term for Jian Dui (Tang Dynasty, 7th century CE, China).

That being said, I hope you enjoy Buchi, Pandeube, Ube Cheese, Biko, and Kopiko, and fall in love with them too

[darrencrissarmy]

Darren Criss

You have been working with Ryan Murphy for a really long time now. How has the collaboration grown in these years? Have you guys gotten into a shorthand?

I think just by nature of him inviting me to be a producer on here was definitely a step of me growing up a little bit. I can’t take a whole lot of credit for this show, we had a dinner where I didn’t intentionally pitch what would become this show, we were just talking about 1940s Hollywood, which I neither invented or created.

Hollywood in the '40s is a genre that — and I say genre, not just a period because it is so full of mythology and lore that we all love so much. It’s kind of up there with sci-fi and fantasy. It has its own kind of world. So we were just riffing on that.

By the time he sold the show after we were kind of just brainstorming, he sold it within a day or two. And then afterwards, he just asked me if I wanted to be an executive producer. And I said, 'are you sure? That is very kind of you, but I understand that this will be your thing and I don’t want to be too big for my britches.'

And of course he was like, 'you are an idiot, of course take it.' I say that because I was very appreciative, I think of the goodwill that he gave to me because he knew that it was something that were kind of piecing together.

But I definitely didn’t write the script or anything. He was very gracious to include me on the sort of very preliminary creative steps and was very open to my input and he was very receptive to that stuff. So there’s a shorthand in so far as I have learned to, he is the busiest man in Hollywood, so I try and keep it short and sweet and concise and I try not to be too big for my britches.  It’s the Ryan thing and when in doubt, let him take the lead and I am just happy to be invited.

Your character is also half-Filipino, just like yourself. Talk about how much you can relate to your character.

You have been around in my life in a much more Filipino capacity than others.  It’s a huge part of my background. But it wasn’t until the past few years where the idea of being white passing or the idea of a part of your identity being unrecognized was ever really a concept to me.

I think it was made clear because there are so many people, either from the Filipino community or other historically marginalized groups, that kind of gave me the term of, 'oh you are white passing.'  And I never thought of that because my whole life, I just was me.

I knew I was Filipino, my dad was white, it was what it was. And so I never thought of that as an internal conflict or an issue until honestly working on “Versace.” It was a conflict for Andrew because it was something that he tried to hide because he was ashamed and he didn’t want to be different, whereas the villain in this scenario is less the self and more, the main antagonist of this show is the '1940s and the suppression and repression that comes from the time itself. 

I am happy to say I don’t relate because I have never really felt slighted in any way because of my background. I am very lucky in that way. I have always felt very supported and welcomed and that’s just a lot of luck and I am very grateful in my life for the people who have given me that.

But somebody like Raymond, he sees this as a reason to kind of start this social justice crusade. You know what, he’s just like Ryan Murphy in the sense that there are things about him that he has had to fight through and accept as a young closeted man from a small town in Indiana, growing up to own the things that he was insecure about and using them to his advantage and in so doing, breaking down the walls for other people that were also in the shadows.

So I think there’s a lot of Ryan Murphy in Raymond, who looks at film and television as a way to push culture forward and to be an advocate for the underdog.

It was great for you to get into old time Hollywood. But facing the problems we are living in today, how do you envision the future of the movie industry? How can we reopen the space in the cinema while protecting and keeping people safe?

Oh gosh, I am definitely the last authority on this matter. I am just as interested in that question as I think all people are in the entertainment business. I don’t know what the answer is but I do know that after we make it out of this, I think we are going to reevaluate a lot of systems that have been in place for several decades, if not a full millennia.

So I love the big joke that once we started going into quarantine, I saw something going around about now we all know which meetings really could have just been an email. So there are a lot of things where we go okay, we really don’t have to do it this way.  And times of chaos make you reevaluate systems. I mean personally, I am a fan of the cinema, I will always be a fan, I think it’s because I am a theater person.

What is the first thing I am going to do when I am out of this? I am going to go to the bars, I am going to go to my piano bar, I am going to get really close to people, and I am probably going to make out with everybody at my bar, frankly.

I mean I just want to be with people, I enjoy the catharsis of communicating, of experiencing things with strangers in a fun — that is what entertainment does, it brings us together.

And even though we are brought together in our homes, there’s something so magical and eternal about sitting in a room and in real time feeling people and hearing people laughing or crying and realizing, oh they are feeling what I am feeling. That’s one of the sort of nuclei of the human experience is getting to do it together.

So I hope that cinemas can reopen soon, however given the priorities of human necessity, I should hope that it isn’t the absolute first thing that needs to happen, I say that to my own chagrin, I work in entertainment and I work in the theaters.

Obviously I would love this to happen but only when it is safe for the world at large.  But I think no matter what, human beings will always find a way, even though we always say, 'oh, we are on our phones, everyone is so disconnected, look at all the kids, they are on their phones,' human beings inevitably always find a way to get together in person.  It is inevitable and I wholeheartedly believe that.

What does the word Hollywood evoke for you? What is the first image, the first sound, the first memory that comes to your mind if I say Hollywood?

It is such a huge concept because I didn’t think, it wasn’t until I moved to Los Angeles that I even realized that it was a place.

I think for so many people, it’s a concept. To go to Hollywood is so much bigger than the sign and the place and the industry, it’s a mantra of sorts to people. So Hollywood to me was the entertainment industry.

I think there are people who aren’t even in the entertainment industry that refer to Hollywood as going big, going for broke, the big dream, the classic great white somewhere.

It’s always meant a whole lot. I mean it’s hard for me to disassociate it from the Hollywood sign and my own career. But gosh it’s an interesting question, it’s just all the things, it’s dreams and it’s the dream factory. For me, all of us having dreams as kids and wanting to work in the entertainment industry, you hear the world Hollywood and it’s exciting, it’s this eternal exciting Mount Olympus that you hope you get to visit. And I have been lucky enough to be granted access and I am still waiting for them to kick me out.