#if you're still not understanding why this quote is racist ... that's privilege

[summerongrand]

7x02: The Watcher

Any amount of gratitude you might have been owed was more than paid off while we were dating...

Generally, from what I observe, fans who interpret this quote sexually are in one of two camps: they're eating it up or they think it's misogynistic. Ironically, those in the misogyny camp who until recently labeled seemingly every trivial slight toward Lucy as racist now insist that the offensive quote in the 7x02 gratitude scene is *not* racist. Their sloppy rebranding undermines both the integrity of actual discussions on racism and so-called "dog whistle" conversations about the subtle ways racism manifests.

Anyway 💋.

I grieved this scene, then rewatched it with fresh eyes and picked it apart more times than I can count, analyzing it through as many perspectives as possible. The quote is suggestive. More importantly, it's loaded with problematic implications, especially for women of Asian descent.

Please look up intersectionality if you're unfamiliar with this word. With WOC, we cannot disentangle misogyny from racism. We just can't. So when we talk about the misogyny, we gotta talk about the racism too. We can't leave the latter part out. But when we discuss WOC experiencing racism, the misogyny part is inherently there.

The implication that she "more than paid off" her gratitude with her body plays directly into ingrained media tropes and stereotypes about Asian women being hypersexualized, docile, existing for white male gratification, etc. She's not his plaything. She doesn't owe him sexual favors for doing his job as her TO. This is the same woman who sabotaged her own career to get him into Metro and she's still paying off that debt.

Last season, her ex-boyfriend called her a freak in the sheets and a fifteen year old made assumptions about her bedroom activities. We're two episodes into S7 and Lucy's already been sexualized twice.

I'm disappointed that a woman (Natalie Callaghan) wrote this episode. Like, why cause Lucy to embarrass herself publicly in front of both her exes, surrounded by colleagues who gossip? Why lean into and embrace racist stereotypes? I also wonder if there's some spillover of Melissa onto Lucy because the actress often shares suggestive content. If personal choices by an actress are being used to justify further objectification of her character, it compounds the existing problems of Asian female hypersexualization trope both on and off screen.

To those who ate this scene up—ask yourself why. Racism cloaked in snark to make it palatable isn't funny. It’s exhausting to see systemic issues iterated on screen, only to have it celebrated or ignored by viewers. This scene didn’t just undermine Lucy’s character, it fed right into intergenerational trauma for women who share her culture.

Last season, I pointed out that Lucy was being used as a plot device to advance Tim's storyline. I also said that Lucy was being used as a doormat for Tim. I'd rather that Lucy over the S7 one we've gotten so far who can't resist betting with her ex, flirting with him, checking him out, degrading herself, doesn't set boundaries around locker room gossip about her former relationship with said ex, etc. Her world shouldn't revolve around Tim but that's been her focus so far.

Oh, and Seth (white man) can't tell her he's running late? Tim (white man) made this about Tim too. He embarrassed her in front of a station that already gossips about her, plays circus music when she walks in (while Tim laughs), and makes bets about her relationship. Then after promising her kindness, he mocks her in front of Nolan (white man) during the food truck scene. That's not kindness. You don't tell someone you'll repay their kindness back after they saved your life (again), and do the opposite.

Look, I love these characters. I just hate what's currently being done to them (and by extension to real women like Lucy). I hope Natalie Callaghan learns from this.

[ohara-n-brown]

[WARNING: Rant]

Sometime made a post going 'Love the trans women in your life while they're still here'

Someone added 'Trans men and Nonbinary too!'

And this was the response.

My response: Cut this shit out, you're acting literally ridiculous.

First of all - no it's NOT an All Lives Matter moment.

ALL LIVES MATTER was created by white people who DON'T experience racism to silence the experiences of those who DO experience racism and die at the hands of it.

A transmasc or nonbinary person saying 'Us also!' is a not the same.

It's a group of people who DO experience transphobia adding to the experiences of those who ALSO experience transphobia.

It's A LOT MORE like a black person going 'BlackLivesMatter' and sometime commenting '#StopAsianHate too :)' and OP going 'wow fuck you read the room you're being racist.'

That's like a Gay person speaking out against homophobia and how it's wrong. And then a trans person says 'Transphobia too!' and suddenly it's 'Read the room. This isn't about y'all. Why do y'all have to bring yourself up always. This isn't about gender. Read the room-'

Sounds familiar to y'all? It should. I'm reading the room and the room is saying you just fucking hate another group of oppressed people lol

Another oppressed person who experiences the same violence as you adding their voice to your choir is NOT the same as white people using their privilege to silence others who experience racism when they themselves don't.

SECOND OF ALL - (tw death mention under cut)

YEAH THEY HAVE A RIGHT TO ADD 'Celebrate your trans brothers while there here' on a post you know..

considering a transmasc non-binary person got fucking beat to death on school grounds exactly a month ago.

Remember that??? The one whose death is being actively covered up by school, law, and state officials on a systemic scale??

Also - a fucking trans man from NJ is still missing as we speak (Elliot Ganiel)

But calling attention to that is like being a MRA??? Talking about a children deaths in a school bathroom and missing people are like being MRAs whose main concerns are women playing video games or some shit?

No. No it isn't.

Y'all misusing terms like MRA and yelling 'That's like all lives matter!!!' clearly show youdon't understand how oppression works in the slightest.

If you try to compare any white racist movement to an oppressed group of people - YTA.

One of us gets fucking killed with no justice, LGBTQ crisis line calls skyrocket, and when asked about it state officials say and I quote 'We don't want that filth in our state!!'

- and when we talk about it amongst people in our community it's 'read the room!!' or 'wow really MRA like'

Fucking bite me.

And before - 'Oh but they didn't have to put it on THAT post, they could've made their own'.

Did you not hear what I just said. A transmasc teen was beat to death and misgendered publically statewide.

Maybe transmascs would like to feel included by the community at this time? So they can feel safe? Safety in numbers? And maybe want to feel like the wider community cares when shit like this happens - which clearly.. y'all don't.

Cause when a transmasc kid is literally killed - and we see a post saying 'Love your transfemme friends whine they're here!' and add the same - only to be told to read the room - it tells us 'You only have a month or so to morn. They died last month? Why are you bringing it up now on a post about appreciating trans people before their death??? Read the room. That was for us only. Stop trying to hog all the attention'.

Like damn sorry for wanting to feel like my community would care if I got wiped off this fucking earth silly me. Silly us.

When we start the conversation on our own we're ignored. When we try to contribute our experiences to other conversations we're told to shut the fuck up and read the room and then compared to actual racists and sexists.

You constantly compare us to people who DO NOT face oppression - cis men and white people - in order to silence us, despite the fact you know we face oppression in ways both groups could never even imagine. You think you're slick. You're not.

BITE ME. HARD.

[bitchy-peachy]

https://www.tumblr.com/bitchy-peachy/768338161013325824/i-remember-coming-across-a-post-after-the-election

I frankly think there's also a strong element of cultural Evangelicism present in the mindset behind Third Parties, and honestly a lot of other things that have been co-opted by the worst aspects of the left.

They don't really want to DO any of the work necessary to make their dreams a reality, because doing so would risk "tainting them with impurity" of the realities of such a thing. They'd have to make difficult compromises, talk and pull people into their group via understanding and compassion instead of basically acting like a cult, and not be so damn condescending towards those they deem inferior.

They don't want that. They view third parties, socialism, communism, worker's rights, etc. not as tangible things with complex histories and difficulties and consequences, but as their mythical "pure" belief system that will swoop in and stomp their enemies, kill the haters, and plop them at the top of the food chain without them having to lift a finger or actually care about the people they claim to stand for.

They want to sneer down from atop their throne (coughHeavencough) and praise themselves as the morally pure chosen ones who made the "right decisions" and who have no blood on their hands because they expect OTHER "lesser" people to make the tough sacrifices which they can then condemn while they pretend they themselves are blameless.

And if they don't succeed? well then it's ALL the filthy impure people's fault for not getting with the program of sacrificing themselves for the gain of the "right people"! It's NEVER their fault.

And that's why they won't do anything. That's why third parties, socialism, and the like can't ever gain any significant foothold for long, or actively sabotage themselves constantly:

Because frankly, a far too large chunk of the far left has been taken over by selfish egotistical assholes who will literally let us all die if they don't get what they want to the letter, with their name in bold to preen about how THEY'RE the saviors, even if it means destroying their own cause in the process.

I just got reminded of a quote that went along the lines of "You're so afraid of doing something 'bad' that you don't do anything at all."

A lot of these people acting morally superior with their lame useless 3rd party or non-voting stance really remind me of this.

They still fucked up because they can't be taken seriously, least of all now. They're weak, too emotional and they actually put people off.

They've said racist shit to me and my friends, told us to die etc and then push 3rd party voting because they wanted to punish democrats.

What they did was just punish the people. Politicians still are getting their fat cheques, genocide still exists, minorities are more fucked than ever in this country.

That's their grand fucking "accomplishment" with their 3rd party.

(Don't get me started on how they didn't even know how truly fucked up their "candidates" were. One of them was a fucking transphobe and another a deadbeat shit dad.)

Who tf is gonna listen to pieces of shit that act up like this and push candidates like those? We were already done with Trump as it is and they sprung more shit assed candidates for parties they didn't even build.

As long as they continue squatting on this shit, they'll get nowhere.

Also, I never see a "perfect commie party" winning any election in the future like these delusional tankies want.

Their bullshit is extremely unpopular in all sides and they're genuinely unlikeable people.

They act like privileged whiny brats. I just block them at this point cos I'm tired of rolling my eyes every time I see their shit.

[ruffboijuliaburnsides]

I'm starting to believe Derek Hook was correct when he said the only truly antiracist act is suicide. We're so immersed in whiteness, in this inherently-harmful state of being, that the only way to stop hurting poc in our environment is to stop existing in said environment. We can do all the self-reflection and unlearning and community-building we like but at the end of the day it isn't enough and it will never *be* enough. I say 'we' here because I very much include myself in this.

Ok this is a lot, babe, so let me say this to start: Derek Hook sounds like a self-important TWAT.

So no, that is fully not that answer, because killing yourself is not the answer to ANY harm you could possibly cause, especially not to systemic harm caused by a demographic you happen to be part of.

It's cowardly. Not to say you specifically are a coward, I very much understand why you might come to this conclusion given everything, but Derek Hook certainly is and I'll tell you why:

If you (general you) were to kill yourself bc of harm you've done, the only thing you've really chosen is to actively avoid doing anything to help fix it.

We don't cause active harm simply by existing. No. False. Period. But yeah we have privilege afforded to us by systemic issues rooted in choices taken over centuries by other ppl and we (broadly meaning living ppl) are the only ppl around who can try to fix it.

So we do our best to undo what we can. To give reparations where we can. To lift up voices where we can. To listen and learn and do better. To do our best to dismantle systems and to try to undermine them when we can't. That's how we fight racism, not by removing ourselves from the equation, especially since even if every white person decided they agreed with Derek Douche over there, the only white people left would be THE RACISTS WHO DON'T CARE. And that's clearly not an ideal solution.

There's a quote, the latter part from Rabbi Tarfon in the Talmud and the former part from modern commentary, about tikkun olam, the Jewish mandate to repair the world, that I really love and that I cling to when everything seems too big for me to make a difference, and I think it applies well here:

"Do not be daunted by the enormity of the world's grief. Do justly now, love mercy now, walk humbly now. 'You are not obligated to complete the work, but neither are you free to abandon it'."

We are not obligated to completely dismantle racism in our lifetime. That's insane to think about, it's so ingrained, we'd need to dismantle the systems that encourage it and then give it a generation or two, y'know? But we have to do what we can to try to make less work for the next generation that comes along. And we might not succeed because there are people actively working against that goal, but it still means something that we're trying.

Are you going to make mistakes and not be perfectly anti-racist in every way? Well... Yeah, I mean that's a given. You're human. We all are. We will all make mistakes no matter how hard we try. The important part is how you respond when you realize you made the mistake. You acknowledge it, you apologize, and you do your best to do better next time.

Any person that tells you or agrees that killing yourself is a solution to anything, especially anything systemic no matter how you benefit from it, is lying or a piece of shit. Period, full stop. You are not making the world a worse place for others to live in simply by existing. Yes, systemic racism is a huge problem, and yes we as white people are all going to have shit to unpack and grapple with about it, and yes it's hard and yes you'll have to listen and learn and grow and you won't be perfect and you will mess up.

But do not be daunted by the enormity of the world's grief. Do justly now, love mercy now, walk humbly now. You are not obligated to complete the work, but neither are you free to abandon it.

Do your best. It won't be enough, but it is still enough that you try.

[imoc]

There has been a rash of trolling/cyberbullying on Dark Academia and Cottagecore Tumblrs lately. People have been posting awful anonymous asks, leaving nasty comments, etc. I think it's just a small handful of people, who hate the aesthetics for whatever reason, so they falsely accuse bloggers of bigotry (while hypocritically making horrible ablist, classist, and sexist remarks themselves.) They've even stooped as low as doctoring screenshots as fake evidence against their targets, and then attacking their victims with erroneous smear campaigns.

I keep seeing posts that claim that cottagecore is racist, or that the academia aesthetic is privileged. But moodboards of cafés are pretty benign, and not necessarily eurocentric or patriarchal. Like, yeah, sure, I share pictures of fancy universities, expensive art, and ancient libraries full of rare books. But, like, you do realize that I'm not actually a billionaire, who bought first class tickets, to travel to all these exotic museums, to buy all those leatherbound manuscripts and marble statues, for my own private collection, and then hired a professional photographer and personal social media manager, to upload pictures of them to Tumblr, right?! I just saw a cool post on the internet, and it took a fraction of a second to share it with the click of a button. I'm not exactly a pretentious art connoisseur; I'm just some guy with a blog.

Sure, I share the classic cliches like Gothic architecture, Shakespearean poems, Hemingway quotes, Greco-Roman mythology, French nihilist philosophy, etc. But I also share Egyptian pyramids, Sufi poetry, Native American jewelry, South American textiles, aborigine pottery, folk music from around the world, far eastern historical artifacts, and Russian literature (Russia is the largest country in the continent of Asia, but people still keep assuming it's European, for some baffling reason.)

Sure, I do the stereotypical Santa Fe thing of collecting turquoise, silver, Navajo rugs, Pendleton blankets, and pueblo Pottery. So why don't I get any flak for collecting crystals, gold jewelry, medieval tapestries, and terra cotta amphorae? The only difference is that brown people made the former, and white people made the latter. It is extremely frustrating when European art, culture, and literature are stereotyped as snobby and stuck up, while indigenous folk art is stereotyped as primitive and rustic.

But why is it considered oppression to share our traditions with others, yet appropriation to take interest in their customs?

Since I'm part white and part Hispanic, born and raised in the multicultural environment of New Mexico, my biracial identity and diverse community put me right at the heart of this question. After grappling with this paradox for several years, I finally thought of a simple metaphor that anyone could easily understand:

Culture is like cake. There are hundreds of different flavors, recipes, personal tastes, dietary restrictions, etc. Most of us can agree that cake is pretty good. There's nothing wrong with sharing cake, as long as both parties mutually consent to it. But cultural oppression is like force feeding someone a slice of your own cake, and cultural appropriation is like stealing someone else's slice. It's not a fair give and take, and it's completely different from someone willingly offering you a taste.

So on that note, I'm going to keep sharing my cake - that is, the culture, art, and literature that I love. If you don't like it, then don't consume it. 🤷🏽‍♀️ Duh. And, for the record, trying to tell femme/POC/LGBTQ communities what aesthetics they "should" or "shouldn't" enjoy, isn't exactly inclusive or progressive...But it *is* inclusive and progressive that more people finally have access to higher education, haute couture fashion, fine arts, etc. Don't accuse dark academia of being classist, racist, or problematic, if you're the one implying that historically marginalized communities and individuals must be poor, broke, uncultured, uneducated, illiterate, and miserable in order to justify their existence. That attitude is hypocritical as hell. Don't you dare try to project your own ignorance and arrogance on me. I don't mind taking responsibility for my own flaws, but I'll be damned if you try to blame me for yours. As a queer Hispanic woman, I find dark academia empowering, and NOBODY is entitled to tell me how *I* feel. Besides, why assume that Dark Academia and Cottagecore are problematic, when there are obviously so many inclusive, diverse blogs with those aesthetics? (For example, this one!) Like imagine getting triggered over gifs of teacups and books, as if that's the most disturbing thing you've ever seen on the internet, and then turning around and calling everyone else sheltered and privileged.

Same for all my motivational quotes, wholesome memes, etc. This is MY blog. I post what I want to. What's next, are you going to kick down the door to my house, barge inside, and crash on my couch, just for the sole and express purpose of insulting my home decor? SMH...

[crustaceousfaggot]

Trans men are subject to transphobia, and as a result we are also often subject to a form of misogyny.

However, we are not and can never be subject to transmisogyny, which targets trans women for the sole purpose of being trans women. We as transmascs need to acknowledge this and stand up for our trans sisters and make space for them, instead of insisting we have it just as bad.

I swear to god, people are happy to advocate for their own minority and the suffering of their denominator, but as soon as someone says "there are other people who are also targeted for different reasons, you need to accept that you are susceptible to being prejudiced and that being a minority doesn't make you excempt from privilege," they throw a hissy fit.

Gay people can be transphobic. Transmascs can be transmisogynistic. Trans women can be ableist. Disabled people can be Islamophobic. Muslims can be anti-Semitic. Jewish people can be racist. Black people can be homophobic. And etcetera and etcetera. This isn't about 'suffering Olympics' and this isn't about who has it worse, this is about acknowledging that if you're going to fight for equality, you need to fight for equality for everyone.

There's a quote from The Good Place, which is, as cliché as it sounds, a show full of wonderful quotes and philosophical questions, that sticks with me and that I find myself coming back to again and again;

"As humans evolved the first big problem we had to overcome was me vs. us – learning to sacrifice a little individual freedom for the benefit of a group. Like sharing food and resources so we don’t starve or get eaten by tigers – things like that. The next problem to overcome was us vs. them – trying to see other groups different from ours as equal. That one we’re still struggling with. That’s why we still have racism and nationalism and why fans of Stone Cold Steve Austin hate fans of The Rock."

Young liberals, in my opinion, especially young white queer people (of which I am admittedly one), get stuck on this. It's hard, and something I'm still struggling with. But if you want to identify as a radical, as a leftist, as an egalitarian, you need to understand that it's not just your group that's important and that needs advocacy. If we can lift each other up, and advocate for causes other than our own, we will succeed much more than petty squabbling among ourselves who is and isn't privileged and who is and isn't to blame.

This is, also, the belief that most TERF rhetoric is based upon. Women who believe that being a woman is the hardest thing a person can be, and that society hates women above all else. They see another belief or another minority which challenges this and, unable to accept that there are others equally as marginalized as women, decide that they are a threat to womanhood and feminism. But all of us can fall into this pattern of thinking, because mentally, it's very nice and easy and comfortable to assume that your group is the most opressed, and anyone claiming otherwise is an enemy. Try to catch yourself, because it's a sneaky feeling.

Sorry if this comes off as preachy and condescending and details the post, but I see it so often and it bums me out

ya we get hurt by TERF rhetoric too

but we aren't their main targets or victims & we have to acknowledge that & create space for trans women & trans fems to talk about the issues they face without yelling over them like "me too tho"

fr yall sound like "men get abused too!!!" in response to a woman talking about abuse she faces

[summerongrand]

7x02: The Watcher

Any amount of gratitude you might have been owed was more than paid off while we were dating...

Generally, from what I observe, fans who interpret this quote sexually are in one of two camps: they're eating it up or they think it's misogynistic. Ironically, those in the misogyny camp who until recently labeled seemingly every trivial slight toward Lucy as racist now insist that the offensive quote in the 7x02 gratitude scene is *not* racist. Their sloppy rebranding undermines both the integrity of actual discussions on racism and so-called "dog whistle" conversations about the subtle ways racism manifests.

Anyway 💋.

I grieved this scene, then rewatched it with fresh eyes and picked it apart more times than I can count, analyzing it through as many perspectives as possible. The quote is suggestive. More importantly, it's loaded with problematic implications, especially for women of Asian descent.

Please look up intersectionality if you're unfamiliar with this word. With WOC, we cannot disentangle misogyny from racism. We just can't. So when we talk about the misogyny, we gotta talk about the racism too. We can't leave the latter part out. But when we discuss WOC experiencing racism, the misogyny part is inherently there.

The implication that she "more than paid off" her gratitude with her body plays directly into ingrained media tropes and stereotypes about Asian women being hypersexualized, docile, existing for white male gratification, etc. She's not his plaything. She doesn't owe him sexual favors for doing his job as her TO. This is the same woman who sabotaged her own career to get him into Metro and she's still paying off that debt.

Last season, her ex-boyfriend called her a freak in the sheets and a fifteen year old made assumptions about her bedroom activities. We're two episodes into S7 and Lucy's already been sexualized twice.

I'm disappointed that a woman (Natalie Callaghan) wrote this episode. Like, why cause Lucy to embarrass herself publicly in front of both her exes, surrounded by colleagues who gossip? Why lean into and embrace racist stereotypes? I also wonder if there's some spillover of Melissa onto Lucy because the actress often shares suggestive content. If personal choices by an actress are being used to justify further objectification of her character, it compounds the existing problems of Asian female hypersexualization trope both on and off screen.

To those who ate this scene up—ask yourself why. Racism cloaked in snark to make it palatable isn't funny. It’s exhausting to see systemic issues iterated on screen, only to have it celebrated or ignored by viewers. This scene didn’t just undermine Lucy’s character, it fed right into intergenerational trauma for women who share her culture.

Last season, I pointed out that Lucy was being used as a plot device to advance Tim's storyline. I also said that Lucy was being used as a doormat for Tim. I'd rather that Lucy over the S7 one we've gotten so far who can't resist betting with her ex, flirting with him, checking him out, degrading herself, doesn't set boundaries around locker room gossip about her former relationship with said ex, etc. Her world shouldn't revolve around Tim but that's been her focus so far.

Oh, and Seth (white man) can't tell her he's running late? Tim (white man) made this about Tim too. He embarrassed her in front of a station that already gossips about her, plays circus music when she walks in (while Tim laughs), and makes bets about her relationship. Then after promising her kindness, he mocks her in front of Nolan (white man) during the food truck scene. That's not kindness. You don't tell someone you'll repay their kindness back after they saved your life (again), and do the opposite.

Look, I love these characters. I just hate what's currently being done to them (and by extension to real women like Lucy). I hope Natalie Callaghan learns from this.

[whatamidoingqueer]

First of all, let me start off by saying that you genuinely seem like a respectful person. I hope you don’t take this personally or anything, and I’m not trying to start a fight. I just want to present you with my ideas on this topic.

So, on your point of a scientific consensus on gender, not every study or every scientist is going to agree on one thing. For example, only 97% of scientists believe that Climate Change is real and that humans caused it.

Also, most gender therapists and psychologists do agree that there are non-dysphoric trans people. This is on psychiatry.org’s page:

[image description: screenshot of apsychiatry.org webpage saying “Not all trans people suffer from gender dysphoria and that distinction is important to keep in mind.”]

But even if there were no scientific opinions on this or they all turned out to be inconclusive, I would still support non-dysphoric trans people. Because I would rather err on the side of acceptance and respect. Additionally, to my knowledge, there is still no “scientific proof” that gay people are born gay. And I, being pansexual, don’t really understand how people are only attracted to one gender, but that doesn’t mean that I don’t believe gay people exist. It just means that my experiences are different than someone else’s, and we haven’t found a definitive scientific explanation for that yet (to my knowledge).

Sam Dylan Finch, a trans person who has dysphoria, from everyday feminism wrote an article about why we shouldn’t define trans people on the basis of dysphoria, and I’m going to paraphrase/quote a few of their points:

1) Defining transgender on the basis of dysphoria sets a dangerous precedent that gender identity is for others to decide. “I should be able to declare what my gender is and have it validated, regardless of how I experience it.”

2) Saying that someone isn’t trans enough is harmful and privileges some narratives over others, which is not equality. “I’m just not interested in creating a power dynamic where some trans people are inherently better, more worthy, more trans, or more important than other trans people. That, to me, is not what social justice looks like.”

3) On top of that, it’s also a Eurocentric and lowkey racist stance?? Saying that our Western concepts of gender are the “correct” ones when there are so many different cultures with different ideas of gender is kind of arrogant and just a little racist.

Here’s the article:

https://everydayfeminism.com/2015/08/not-all-trans-folks-dysphoria/

Personally, my policy is erring on the side of acceptance and respect when it comes to others’ identity, as long as it is not harmful.

Happy pride month to everyone but bigots!

Bigots including (but not limited to): • Terfs • Truscum • Exclusionists/Aphobes • Transphobes • Biphobes • Homophobes/Lesbophobes • Enbyphobes • Panphobes • Intersexists