#latinx women soldiers

[profeminist]

Read Lt. Emily Perez’s story here

[magicofthepen]

Five books I want to read this year

tagged by @sparklingdocta, thank you! 😊

This is extremely hard to answer because I have over 50 books on my 2022 TBR list (and actually many are the first in a series, so definitely more than 50 books).

(yeah I likely won’t get to all of them, but hopefully I’ll get through at least a good chunk of the list? I keep seeing cool books and going ooh shiny!! and adding them to the list oops.)

So to narrow it down, I’ve decided to only list books here that are coming out this year. But even with that restriction, I’m still gonna list ten books instead of five. 😄

All of these are either standalones or the first in a series (and they’re either YA or adult SFF because that’s what I like to read!) Titles link to Goodreads (I’ve done my best to summarize the blurbs, but the full ones are there), and I also listed the release date for each book!

1. The Kindred by Alechia Dow (January 4)

I love books with science fantasy vibes, and this one has mind bonds between nobles and commoners and an escape and crash-landing in a spaceship, so I am very 👀. (There might be a sci-fi explanation for the mind bonds? But still! The vibes!) Also features nobility drama—royal assassinations and false accusations!— and a love story between a fat, Black, queer woman and a brown, queer man.

2. Fire Becomes Her by Rosiee Thor (February 3)

I am very into politics in fantasy, so I’m really excited to pick this one up! It’s a Jazz Age (1920s, U.S.)-inspired YA fantasy—a world where magic buys votes, and a MC who’s get involved in a political campaign to elevate her status, but has to figure out where her loyalties lie. Includes multiple arospec and/or acespec characters!

3. Blood Scion by Deborah F. Savoy (March 2)

This books is full of rage against colonization and is inspired by Yoruba-Nigerian mythology, and I’m very 👀 about it! It’s a dark YA fantasy about a teenager with fire magic who’s forced to be a soldier. If her powers are discovered, she’ll be killed, but she plans to use her forced conscription as a chance to destroy the brutal regime from within.

4. Lakelore by Anna-Marie McLemore (March 8)

Magical world under a lake? Characters who haven’t spoken in years who suddenly have to work together? Sign me up! The two MCs (both nonbinary, Latinx, neurodivergent teenagers) are the only people in their town who have visited this mythical world under the lake—but when the boundaries between the two worlds blur, they’re forced to team up to keep them separate (and their own secrets hidden).

5. The City of Dusk by Tara Sim (March 22)

Queer epic fantasy!! The four gods of the world have withdrawn their favor from the city, and all the realms are dying. The four heirs to the gods—a necromancer, and elementalist, a shadow-wielding rogue, and a soldier—must ally to save the city. I’m very intrigued by how this book (slash series) twists the chosen one trope—the MCs were chosen by the gods, but the gods abandoned them—and now the MCs are saying screw you, we’ll save our world anyways.

6. The Blood Trials by Nia Davenport (March 30)

My love of science fantasy strikes again! This one’s about a young Black woman harboring secret blood magic who pledges herself to deadly trials to become an elite warrior—because her grandfather’s been murdered, and surviving the trials is the best way to find out who killed him. I keep hearing really good things about this one, I’m excited to pick it up!

7. Kaikeyi by Vaishnavi Patel (April 26)

I love mythology retellings, particularly ones that center women, so of course this one ended up on my list! This one is a retelling of the story of the vilified queen from the Indian epic the Ramayana. Kaikeyi grows up hearing stories about the gods, but they never answer her calls for help. Instead, she discovers her own magic and becomes a powerful queen—but her path defies the destiny the gods chose for her family, and she has to decide if resisting is worth it.

8. Under Fortunate Stars by Ren Hutchings (May 10)

I love the time travel premise of this one! A research vessel rescues a run-down freighter and discovers the crew are legends from their own history. Meanwhile, the crew of the freighter was running from a war and fell through a strange rift—and the ship that rescued them claims to be from their future. Time crunch as both ships are stuck in the rift and running out of power! History isn’t what they think it is! Queer space opera with ensemble cast!

9. Silk Fire by Zabé Ellor (July 5)

Dragons, necromancers, corrupt politics….very much want to read this epic fantasy! It’s about a courtesan who tries to sabotage his aristocratic father’s campaign—but his involvement in politics gets more intense after he gets draconic powers from a dying god. Features queer characters and polyamory!

10. The Book Eaters by Sunyi Dean (August 9)

This premise sounds so good, and I’m into the intense family relationships! This one’s a contemporary fantasy about a secret group that eats books—and retains their content after devouring them. The main character grew up only allowed to eat books “for women”—but now her son has a darker power, and the simple stories she’s been told all her life are not enough. It’s about motherhood and queer identity, sacrifice and hope, and the way stories are used to control people.

tagging: @sircarolyn, @whoteacheswho, @presidentromana, @isolatedphenomenon, @oflightningandstars, @custardhoneybee, @mistressoakdown, @loombarrow, @gallifrogs, @best-enemies, @mayagender, @thebraxiatelcollection

[paperdollsdaily]

a housekeeping post

Hi! Thank you so much to everyone who’s followed or liked my posts so far. I love being able to share one of my lifelong obsessions.

I just wanted to say a few words about a topic that’s been bothering me. Namely, paper dolls in my collection that I will NEVER post on this blog. There is one set in particular, “Paper Dolls of the Confederacy.” There are a lot of pretty dresses in that set, but I will not post them on principle because there are also a lot of pretty dresses NOT worn by slave owners accompanied by their Confederate soldier husbands and little kids waving Confederate flags.

Tom Tierney (he died a few years ago) was a white Irish-American Texan gay man born in the early 20th century. His art reflects the whitewashed version of American history shown in the media of his childhood, and also the media of MY childhood, much more recently. He LOVED “Southern Belles” and drew quite a few paper dolls on that theme. He was not alone in this. The “Southern Belle,” who lived a glamorous, aristocratic lifestyle thanks to slave labor, was an iconic character type in American media for decades. If you’ve ever seen “Gone With the Wind,” you know exactly what I mean.

I will also not post President Thomas Jefferson (yes I’ve got a paper doll of him too. Courtesy of the gift shop at Monticello. Most of the paper dolls are souvenirs of historical sites my parents took me to visit as a kid.) I think I WILL post his daughters and grandchildren, who have some incredible early 1800s dresses (a unique era in fashion history not represented elsewhere in the collection). It’s just that whenever I look at them I can’t help but think about his OTHER children and grandchildren who aren’t represented there. Because they were enslaved.

Queen Victoria and her family also represent a history that’s abhorrent to me, but I WILL post them. Because it’s my blog and I get to decide where to draw the line with what I will post. And that line is drawn where a Confederate flag is planted (in the hand of a 4-year-old girl).

The collection is very, very, very, very white. I have hundreds of paper dolls (no idea of the exact number) and to my knowledge exactly 5 of them are black, and most of those five are based on real people. There are even fewer Asian dolls. The Latinx representation is slightly better, because I have “Mexican Folk Dance Paper Dolls.” Which is four dolls, but with dozens of outfits representing many but not all regions and states of Mexico. (What did you have against Guerrero, Tom?) And because I only got those 2 years ago, they are some of the few for which I still have the accompanying text.

I also have a few non-Tierney paper dolls. Namely, the American Girls Collection, which was another childhood special interest of mine. I never had any of the actual dolls, only paper dolls. I might post some of those eventually.

Thanks for reading all that. I’d love to get requests for what you’d like to see next on this blog. Want something in a particular color? A particular time period? (Keep in mind that the Victorian era is vastly overrepresented compared to all others.) Men, women, children, young people, old people? (There are a LOT of children and also quite a few grandparents, because a lot of these paper dolls are families.) Please send me an ask!

[belonglab]

Dispelling Myths: Model Minorities and Meritocracy as Sources of Harm and Hierarchy

by Neha Sampat

May 25, 2021

The Model Minority Myth lauds Asian-Americans as somehow superior to other minorities and parades them as proof of meritocracy and the American Dream: If you work hard, you will succeed. In doing so, the Myth creates a false racial hierarchy, placing Asian-Americans right below White-Americans and above all other racial minorities, thereby serving as a tool of oppression of all other minorities, and more broadly, as a manifestation of White supremacy that harms all minorities, including Asian-Americans. It is a form of the colonial “divide-and-conquer” strategy of oppression that pits one minority group against the other to sustain the power and privilege of the colonizers. It plays out in its harm societally and personally, but it also causes tangible harm in the workplace and to different minorities in different ways as they navigate their careers and their lives.

Right from recruitment, the Model Minority Myth is used as a tool of oppression and exclusion. Whether intentional or unconscious, many organizations and recruiters are relieved to find Asian-American applicants because doing so allows them to “check the diversity box” without having to confront their own anti-Black, anti-Latinx, and/or anti-Indigenous bias. In this way, Asian-Americans sometimes are recruited as “diversity candidates” and showcased as “diversity hires” by organizations that are not truly diverse. And the idea of checking the diversity box of course means that this type of hiring of Asian-Americans is a form of tokenism, whereby the Asian-Americans hired are not valued for their unique skillsets, experiences, and perspectives, but are valued merely for their identities as Asian-Americans and the optics they provide, which ends up stifling their authentic engagement in their work. Then of course, the employment data showing greater employment of Asian-Americans than other racial groups, perpetuates the Myth itself: “Well, see, these Asians have no problem finding a job; why can’t other minorities be more like them?”

The Model Minority Myth also plays out in a negative way for minorities once they are in their jobs, particularly when it comes to career advancement and monetary valuation. The Myth requires Asian-Americans to play by the rules and not step outside the lines: Be happy with what you’re given; don’t ask for more. We see the negatives impacts of this on Asian-Americans play out when it comes to raises, in that Asian-Americans are the least likely among racial groups to ask for raises, and when broken down by gender, Asian-American women, specifically, are the even less likely. In fact, one study found that white men are 1.8 times more likely to ask for a raise than Asian-American women! 

In my experience as an Asian-American woman who has worked specifically with Asian-Americans in their career development, it is fairly clear that Asian-Americans (and even moreso, Asian-American women) are socialized to be agreeable and not rock the boat, which gives us approval as “model minorities.” I’ve experienced this myself: Asking for a raise always felt to me like rocking the boat. It felt risky and, based on how I’ve been excluded in the past due to my race, I rightfully feared that I would be the one to fall overboard.

The Model Minority Myth also negatively impacts all minorities when it comes to promotion. Bolstered by the stereotype that Asians are hard and good workers, an Asian-American may get that promotion over the equivalently or even more qualified Black-American. That is an example of how Asian-Americans are positioned as a “wedge” between White-Americans and other minority races. However, Asian-Americans still hit a leadership ceiling at some point, with Asian-American white-collar workers being the least likely among racial groups to be promoted into management positions, and with White professionals about two times as likely to get promotions into management than Asian-Americans. Asian-Americans are allowed (and in fact are expected) to be good, but they are not allowed to be the best. They are allowed to follow, but not allowed to lead.

I’ve seen this mentality play out firsthand, even in the diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging (DEIB) field, with the role of leadership being reserved for White people and with Asian-Americans being looked to as great soldiers and followers. I can’t tell you how many times I have been approached by White colleagues and fellow business owners, asking me to join their teams and support their missions because they “need more diversity” on their teams. This is a double whammy because I’m being tokenized for optics reasons while also being expected to be a good soldier for them, the leader. Unfortunately, it has been a rarer occasion when I’ve been approached by White colleagues asking how they can support my ideas for equity and inclusion and support my mission; how they can follow my lead. 

This dynamic is not just limited to Asian-Americans (although Asian-Americans may feel uniquely pressed by their role as “model minorities” to go along with it). After the murder of George Floyd and the reignition of the racial justice movement, I noticed a surge in White-led racial justice and inclusion initiatives, which would not be so awful if many of these initiatives were not already being implemented and led by our Black sibling experts in this space. Instead of throwing their weight, power, resources, and privilege behind the great work already being done by Black experts, some were entering the space to replicate what had already been done and receive credit for it. White supremacy teaches White people that they are the leaders by default, and this plays out even in the DEIB field, oftentimes with many subconsciously perpetuating it.

In my work focusing on internalized bias, I also see the Model Minority Myth being internalized to the detriment of Asian-Americans: The Model Minority Myth sets up an unbending expectation that Asian-Americans excel, and the buy-in to the Myth of Meritocracy sets Asian-Americans up to believe that when they don’t excel, it is because they somehow underperformed or didn’t work hard enough. So when Asian-Americans don’t excel, they may feel like epic failures. There is no space for Asian-Americans who falter and thereby disrupt the hierarchy, and that lack of space feeds the invisibility of Asian-Americans when they don’t meet the impossible pressures for performance or when they disrupt stereotypes about their group. There is a set space carved out for Asian-Americans in the racial hierarchy, and if they don’t do what it takes to get into and stay in that space (no matter whom they have to step on and how they have to alter themselves), they belong nowhere. 

Sadly both myths (Model Minority and Meritocracy) feed Imposter Syndrome in the Asian-American community. Imposter Syndrome is the false narrative that one is not good enough for the work one is doing or wants to be doing, combined with a fear of being discovered as a fraud. Although Imposter Syndrome is commonly experienced by all races, it runs rampant in the Asian-American community uniquely as a result of the external pressure the Model Minority Myth puts on Asian-Americans to achieve, excel, check all the boxes, and abide by all the rules, setting Asian-Americans up to constantly feel like they are coming up short. This can sow the seeds of self-doubt in their minds, which then grow and flower into anxiety and a constant drive towards perfectionism, all of which can result in self-sabotage and underperformance (reinforcing the false narrative) and can fuel significant mental health issues.

Thus, the Model Minority Myth and the connected Myth of Meritocracy cause tangible harm to non-Asian minorities in America as well as to Asian-Americans themselves. Too many among my Asian-American community have bought into the myths and thus become pawns of our White supremacist system. They are unable or unwilling to see the falsity of the myths and the harm caused to other minorities, and clearly, unable to see the harm caused to the Asian-American community itself. The harm is fact, while “model minorities” and “meritocracy” are fiction. Only by facing the harsh truth can we dispel these myths and disengage from the system of White supremacy that oppresses all minorities, including the so-called “model” ones.

[militantinremission]

Juneteenth: What R We Celebrating?

I saw ABC's promotion of their Juneteenth Celebration; it looks like a jubilee w/ a program full of Celebrities & Cultural Performers. The promotion features a lot of 'Song & Dance', but what exactly R We celebrating? This is Kwanzaa all over again... The Kwanzaa Celebrations of my childhood, were mostly home gatherings that reinforced the Spirit of Black Unity through Family, Culture, & Collective Action. The Kwanzaa of today, is a 'Dog & Pony Show' that resembles a 'Black Christmas'. People focus more on 'fashionably Black' gifts, than the Principles. I see Juneteenth going in the same direction.

All of the hype is pretty interesting when U consider- How many even knew what Juneteenth was 3Yrs ago? Donald Trump can't take credit for 'putting Juneteenth on the map', but he did present it to Mainstream America. For those not in The Know, June 19th, 1865, is the day that Union Soldiers rode into Galveston, Tx. Maj. Gen. Gordon Granger is credited w/informing the Chattal Slaves of Texas that The Civil War was over, & They were 'Free'. This Day, marks THE OFFICIAL End of Chattal Slavery in America. The fact that Texas held Chattal Slaves over 2Yrs after Emancipation, is another issue. Juneteenth is also known as Emancipation/ Freedom/ or Jubilee Day.

It's traditionally a Day of celebrating Freedom- through Food, Family, & Fun, so ABC's promotion falls in line w/ the 'vibe' of Juneteenth. I can relate w/ the desire to get out & resume pre- COVID Life, but We have to admit that We can't put the Events of 2020 behind Us either. The COVID 19 Pandemic exposed the depth of White Supremacy in America, & Anti- Black Racism in particular. COVID Protocols were lacking in Black Communities. Even when Testing & Vaccines were made available in those Areas (for those who wanted it), We find more people from Outer Communities, than Black Residents on line.

Black Men, Women, & Children were being wantonly attacked & killed, w/ little recourse. A spotlight was fixed on Black America, & the term Systemic Racism came en vogue. Americans of All Persuasions took to The Streets, in protest of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Tayor, George Floyd, & a nonstop list of Black victims. Mainstream Media mentioned the Racial (i.e. Black- White) Wealth Gap, & its effect on Black America. Black Communities R being gentrified @ an alarming rate, & Black Families R being priced out; increasingly into Homeless Shelters. Many of the Black victims of COVID 19, were 'Essential Workers' that didn't have the luxury of telecommuting.

As these things were coming to light, Democratic Presidential Candidates offered Class Based Programs for 'Black' Uplift. The Trump Administration also chimed in w/ a toothless 'Platinum Plan' for Black America. Both Parties offered Black America/ ADOS more lip service than Policy. Despite a Black Vote of 'No Confidence' for both candidates in several Primaries, The Democratic Party & their Black operatives pushed a Biden- Harris Ticket. Ever hopeful, Blackfolk trusted their Representatives & voted for this Ticket @ a rate 20 Points higher than any other group. Biden promised to 'have Our back'. Roughly 6 months into his Term, The Biden Administration has passed measures for the Latinx, LGBTQ..., Muslim, Native American, & Pan Asian Communities, but nothing specifically for Black America/ ADOS.

Instead, it looks like Dems R turning the Page on Us. It's 'Bread & Gladiator Games' (Red Velvet Cake & John Legend Songs may B more accurate), but NO POLICY... What R We celebrating? Some may say: "It's Freedom Day", but R We Free? Our Great Great Great Grandparents, up from Slavery, enjoyed a better Quality of Life than We do today. They were Land Owners & ran their own Businesses. They erected dozens of Independent Towns, where dollars circulated throughout the Community for weeks. Today, a dollar circulates in Our Communities about 6- 12hrs- long enough for non- resident Business Owners to deposit in their Local Banks.

I was resigned to keep my thoughts to myself, but ABC's choice of Barack Obama as a Key Speaker for their Juneteenth Event took me over The Edge. That Promo got me thinking- Ever since the Derek Chauvin Verdict, Mainstream Media has tried to downplay the ongoing Anti- Black Racism occurring Nationally. Shows like ABC's 'Soul Of A Nation' offer a multifaceted view of The Black Experience, but that view mainly comes from the perspective of Celebrities, & others that live better than the average Black American/ ADOS Family. When most of Us turn off the TV, We STILL have to deal w/ being Broke in America, in addition to Anti- Black Racism... We R being lulled by 'Feel Good Stories', @ a Time when We should have Our Eyes on The Prize.

ABC's decision to feature Barack Obama @ their Juneteenth Celebration, is a blatant act of appeasement. It's clear that Mainstream Media sees him as a 'Negro Whisperer', & they 'hope' that he can quiet the rising demand for a Black Agenda. The problem, is that he has been exposed as an Agent of White Supremacy, in Blackface. Barack's genealogical association to Chattal Slavery, is as a Slave Owner. Obama has no connection to The Black American/ ADOS Experience; his perspective is more aligned w/ Suburban White Americans. Again, what R We celebrating?

Family is going 2 do what they're going 2 do. In a Climate where We R collectively struggling, Juneteenth can B a time for Us to look @ what 'Freedom' means to Black America/ ADOS in 2021. We can challenge Ourselves to retrace the steps of Our Ancestors. We can honor them w/ Food & Fun, but We can also honor them w/ Our Actions. As American Descendants Of (Chattal) Slavery, it's time for Us (as a Collective) to brainstorm ways of keeping the pressure on Federal, State, & Local Governments for a Black Agenda that specifically addresses 144Yrs of Sanctioned Anti- Black Racism & The Reparations Programs needed to 'Make Us Whole'.

#NoPolicyNoPeace

#ADOS

[trillian-anders]

amor de mi vida - 1944

pairing: bucky barnes x latinx!reader

warnings: racism, prejudice, fluff, angst, graphic descriptions of concentration camps/gore 

word count: 2686

description: Bucky Barnes is a sweet young Brooklyn boy, just on the cusp of manhood, a hopeless romantic that falls in love with almost every girl he sees. when he sets his eyes on a young girl fresh off the boat from Cuba he finds out how hard love can really be.

for @cake-writes 1940s challenge.

note: in this year’s letters bucky goes into detail about what he sees out on the war front, it might be upsetting. 

In the middle of Harlem, almost an hour on the train from Brooklyn there was a movie theater you could go to. One that showed the movies of the war effort. Moving pictures that showed Captain America and the Howling Commandos. You could see him there, large and in black and white. Your husband. You cried the first time you saw him in action.

You wrote to him about seeing it. His hair was a little longer than he’d kept it at home. His face was more serious. You could see the dark circles under his eyes that sparked the memory of how he wrote to you about the lack of sleep. How he was always tired now. How the first thing he was going to do after getting home, aside from kissing you and eating dinner at his Ma’s, was sleep. 

He’d lost weight. You knew he wasn’t able to eat enough. Not like when he was home. You knew it was something he had to deal with. His last letter talked a little about hunger. The chocolate bars they gave them in their rations, he wrote, were chalky but the sweetest thing he’d had in a while. 

He asked if you’d make the dulce de leche you’d made not long before he’d left. Your Mother’s guilty pleasure. He said he could taste it in his dreams. That’s what he wanted, that and his Ma’s spice cake. He wrote about boliche and his Ma’s roast chicken. He wrote about getting ice cream at the soda shop, having a burger at his favorite diner. 

You watched a man you couldn’t believe was actually Steve lay out plans on the hood of a war vehicle. Laying out plans for a mission already completed. Your husband, a man you hadn’t seen in two years, fighting tirelessly beside him. You only hoped he would continue to do so. And that this war will end and he will be home soon. 

“I wanted to apologize.” Winnie lay her hand over yours, “I was taken off guard by what she said,” Winnie stopped by in the morning bearing a loaf of banana bread wrapped in cloth, still warm from the oven. “I shouldn’t have let her say those things about you.” Truth be told you’d already forgiven Winnie. You could understand that it’s hard, but times were changing. Slowly. But they were. 

“Thank you.” For the apology. Winnie cried when you opened the door, it broke your heart a bit. George conveyed her sorrow to you a bit earlier in the week. And the girls came over once or twice to check in and brought food with them each time, undoubtedly made by Winnie. 

Bucky and Steve. The Howling Commandos. He didn’t outright say it, but he was doing dangerous work. That you knew. These side missions, these bases they were infiltrating, something to do with a cell called Hydra. A brutal underbelly of the Nazi regime. Something deeper, more sinister with worse intentions. 

It made your heart leap in your chest every time there was a knock on the door. The fear that it would be someone from the government coming to tell you that Bucky was gone. That he wasn’t coming home. 

But his letters kept coming. Fewer in number than they had before. 

It’s harder to write when they’ve got us in the middle of nowhere. He says. They ship the commandos all over Europe. Chasing after Hydra cells. He sends out the letters in a thick stack when he can. Steve met a woman, he says. Margaret Carter. 

Bucky says you’d like her. And how when they get home the four of you should go out. A double date. Some realm of normalcy after the horrors he sees out there. 

He talks about something truly horrible. They were skin and bones, these kids. These people. Starved half to death. Flies on their bodies as though they were already dead. Taken from the concentration camps and put in these Hydra facilities to be experimented on. Bodies left to rot in the cells with them. 

The smell, he says. He doesn’t think he will ever forget that smell. 

These aren’t in the letters he sends to his family. 

He said he started having nightmares. He couldn’t understand how someone could do something so evil. To hate someone so passionately for what they believed. For who they were. But then again, he hates them for what they believed, for who they were. These monsters who ripped people from their homes and starve, beat, and kill them.

He just wants to be home. He sends a pressed peony on your anniversary. 

I love you, he says, more than anything. I can’t wait to see you again. 

He acts like he’s not afraid, because he doesn’t want to worry you. He says that the allies are winning, that he’ll be home in no time. 

“Are you Y/N Barnes?” Usually you don’t get bothered while out. Most women who shopped at this grocery store ignored you, the rumors of whether you were hired help or housewife circulated, but they were all too afraid to ask. It was impolite after all. And most believed you were the Help regardless. 

“Yes, can I help you?” Your english had gotten better but was still heavily accented. The woman behind you had a soft smile, you didn’t recognize her as someone you knew but the younger girl behind her looked to be Becca’s age. The Mother blushed, 

“I’m sorry to bother you,” Her voice soft, so those around could not overhear, she stepped closer to you, “My daughter is infatuated with the dress Rebecca Barnes was wearing last Sunday in church and Rebecca says that you’re the one who made it.” You did. It was a soft blue for the oncoming spring. Yellow daisies hand stitched into the skirt. 

“I did.” The basket in your hands was growing heavy with the fresh peaches they’d recently gotten in, you weren’t sure where this woman was going with this. 

“Would you be able to make my daughter a dress just as fine?” The woman asked, “I’d be happy to pay you.” The young girl, fourteen, looked hopeful behind her mother. “A dress like that would probably be ten dollars in the store? Does that sound fair?” 

“What color would you like?” Ten dollars was good money for a dress. You couldn’t say no and the woman and her daughter were both very sweet. You’d worked hard on the dress for seven days before she came to pick it up. Her daughter cooing over the fabric and turning around in the mirror as you made final measurements. The blush pink and white stitching, blush pink roses soft in the hem. 

“Thank you very much.” The Mother, handing you the money as payment for the dress now zipped in a garment bag they’d brought. “I’m sure once I wring a little more out of my husband's pockets we will be back for more.” 

One dress became another, and another Mother wanted a dress for her daughter, and then the other girls in Becca’s class asking for dresses. Suddenly you were making your own money, not in the factory this time, but enough to keep your fingers busy and give you something to do during the day with the help of Winnie. 

Winnie would help you measure and fit the girls. She would help you with the basic stitching when the orders piled up, you would work on the finer details. The small stitching. The tug and pull of forming flowers. 

You excitedly wrote to Bucky about it. 

Once you were married he didn’t want you working at the factory anymore. “It’s a death trap.” He explained. But people could get away with a lot when it came to immigrants. Poor working conditions, not having the proper ventilation, and the long hours. You were doing the very thing he encouraged you to do all along. 

But making dresses for family was vastly different than making dresses for strangers. When prom season came around you were up to your ears in tulle and velvet. 

It seemed a little arbitrary, but he praised you for it anyway. You imagined him covered in dirt, out in the heat of summer, blood on his boots and an empty belly, writing this letter telling you how proud he was that you were doing something you loved doing. It felt heavy in your stomach. 

Like it was unfair.

But his checks went into the same account you put this money into. And it was good money. A plan for the future. 

A woman brought her baby once. A sweet fat little thing. Yes, she wailed and cried, she tugged on your hair and just about ripped the earring out of your ear but it gave a new craving. You wanted to start a family.

You thanked God that you hadn’t gotten pregnant before Bucky left, a baby was hard to handle alone. And with the stress and heartache with him being overseas you weren’t sure you could have handled having a baby going on two years old now. But when he got home, it was something to be brought up. A maternal craving you didn’t know you had. 

The summer brought backyard barbecues and trips to the beach. For Bucky it was a little different. 

He wrote about some nice things. The countryside. Steve rambling incessantly about his new girl. A village that made them a decent meal. He said that he’d forgotten what good food tasted like. He wrote about how he got to sleep in an actual bed for the first time in a while. About how he got to meet Howard Stark. That Steve knew him. That Stark helped him become whatever he is now. Stronger, faster, a super soldier. 

Stark was talking about starting an organization to deal with people like this, Hydra. To keep groups like this from taking root. He offered Bucky a job when he gets back to New York. But that would be a conversation for another day, he writes, he wasn’t sure what he wanted to do. 

He also wrote about the Russians liberating a camp, how they felt like they were getting closer to the goal. He said this time next year he should be home with you the way it’s looking now. There were a number of hydra bases left, but they’ve spent the better part of a year eradicating them. 

These letters that were being read by you now, albeit slowly, but Suzy was no longer looking over your shoulder became brazen, a little racy. 

Bucky wrote about how he dreams of you, every night. How you feel against him. How you taste on his tongue. You felt heat grow in your cheeks reading about it. He talked about how he looked at your picture every day, how he craved your lips. How your hair felt in his hands. How your body felt under his. 

You wrote back about tracing your fingers over his back, trailing your lips there. The closeness that sex brought you. How it made you feel. A breath apart and panting with it. The reunion was craved by both sides. The longing in the letters was clear. But it quickly turned sour. 

There was a husband, he wrote, in one of the villages. He’d gotten to safety. But his wife was taken. There was a Hydra base nearby. These men, he wrote, come whenever they want, whatever time of day they want, and they rob these people who have no means to defend themselves. When they found the base, it was similar to the others. He didn’t want you to know what conditions he was put under, so he never described it to you. But you could assume it was terrible with the way they found the people there. 

The man’s wife was dead. And he described how this man fell in the street. The emotion of it, raw and powerful. It broke your heart. He lamented about how the man told him that he’d met his love as a child. He spent his entire life with her. And now she’s gone. He asked what he should do. Because he didn’t know. And he wasn’t the only civilian who experienced loss that day. 

The sorrow was palpable, he wrote, there were no songs of victory by the campfire that night. There was no celebration. The village was small enough that everyone lost someone, and it was felt.

The summer closed with the boys back in London, seemingly the home base for whatever missions they’d been working on. And there was something big, or so Bucky eluded to. He couldn’t say to compromise the mission, but it was something big. He didn’t know exactly what would happen, but it was the beginning of the end, the real end. Of Hydra and Nazi Germany. 

It gave you hope. Maybe he’ll be home soon. Maybe this war will finally be over and he’ll be home, safe. 

Communication was tight for the rest of the year. Something you chose to ignore by making the girl’s fall and winter dresses. Throwing yourself into your dress orders, an entire room in the house, one that would, god willing, be a room for one of your future children, covered in crushed blue velvet and rich greens and reds. You’d gotten a beautiful champagne colored tule you couldn’t help but buy along with some frivolous ribbons and playful buttons to change up the looks of the back of the dresses. 

It was something easy to focus on, mindful and relaxing tasks that took your mind off of the fact that letters were fewer than ever and your husband was thousands of miles away doing truly dangerous work. 

The Barnes household was buzzing with activity. All morning preparations for Christmas dinner, straight after Church you found yourself in the Barnes’ kitchen peeling potatoes, cutting carrots, and trussing a turkey. 

Softly in the background was a memory of last year. I’ll Be Home for Christmas. The optimism of last year drowned with the optimism for next year. Bucky said he feels like it will be over soon. And hopefully it will be. 

There was a stack of presents accumulated from last year's Christmas and birthdays, and the year before’s. Waiting for him to open. 

“Maybe he’ll be home by his birthday.” Ginny was twenty and beautiful, now with a steady boyfriend you were sure would propose any day now. 

The room was light and hopeful. George Barnes was stringing cranberries with Rebecca and Suzy, and now eighteen-year-old Ruth was reading a letter that had just arrived for the family. 

“They got to see a USO show before going back out.” Ruth reads, “Dinah Shore.” You looked at her confused. You didn’t know who Dinah Shore was. “She sings ‘Yes, My Darling Daughter’, she was in ‘Thank Your Stars’.” You shake your head, never having heard the song or seen that movie before. Ruth shrugs, a smile on her face, “She’s blonde and pretty.” As an explanation to why they would have Dinah Shore try to raise the morale of the troops. A laugh was shared. “He said that he’s never going to eat another can of beans for the rest of his life.” 

You focused on placing the turkey in the oven. There was some unfound jealousy at the thought of your husband screaming and shouting, hollering at a woman sent to perform for them. It was dumb, but it was there. 

You tried to remind yourself about his last letter, the one he’d written before he left for his mission. He’d written enough to stagger out some letters, but you were afraid they were going to stop coming all together. You felt like you were being silly having jealousy about some woman who you didn’t even know. And it quickly went away as you thought about maybe this time next year. Maybe it’ll be all over. And that extra spot at the table will be filled. 

You could only hope. 

.

.

.

taglist //  @corneliabarnes​ @bookish-shristi​ @saturnki​ @jennmurawski13​ @geeksareunique​ @albinotigerpython​ @cake-writes​ @iheartsebastianstan​ @000bananaclip000​ @shadowbusiness @sprinkleofbooty​ @gifsbysimplysonia​ @vhsbarnes​ @loseralert @wendaiii​ @mcueveryday​ @alwaysbenhardysgirl @beck-alicious​

[swanlake1998]

Article: The Radiant Sarah-Gabrielle Ryan: Why She's One to Watch at Pacific Northwest Ballet

Date: March 1, 2021

By: Marcie Sillman

Hollywood could make a movie about Sarah-Gabrielle Ryan's big break at Pacific Northwest Ballet.

It was November 2017, and the company was performing Crystal Pite's film-noir–inspired Plot Point, set to music by Bernard Hermann from Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho. Ryan, then a first-year corps member, originally was understudying the role of another dancer. But when principal Noelani Pantastico was injured in a car accident, Ryan was tapped to take over her role.

Ryan had danced featured roles before, including Maria in Jerome Robbins' West Side Story Suite. But she had just one day to learn Pite's choreography. It was a daunting task, but she was determined not to squander her shot. After a session in the studio with Pantastico, Ryan went home and rehearsed for hours in her living room. "I learned the hell out of that role," she laughs.

Her hard work paid off. When she hurtled onto the stage, draped in a gray trench coat, she stared at the body sprawled on the floor, turned to the audience, her dark eyes opened wide in shock, and let out a horrified scream. The audience was rapt.

"The expectation was that we'd throw her onstage and she'd be tentative," says Pacific Northwest Ballet artistic director Peter Boal. "But she gave a really strong performance."

Ryan's success in Plot Point led to a string of featured roles at PNB, from the Sugarplum Fairy in George Balanchine's The Nutcracker to work by David Dawson and Donald Byrd. But Ryan is no overnight sensation; her success is the result of years of training, discipline and a passion for her art form. That passion also buoyed her during an on-going struggle with body-image issues, and her decision to establish her career a continent away from her close-knit Philadelphia family.

Early Successes—and Struggles

Ryan, now 23, has been dancing since she was 3 years old, when her parents enrolled her in tap, jazz and ballet classes at a local dance studio. At age 5, her teacher recommended she pursue more rigorous ballet training at Philadelphia's acclaimed Rock School for Dance Education.

Ryan flew up the levels there, and by the age of 12, she'd advanced to the top, the youngest student in her classes. Although she held her own with high-school–aged peers, Ryan knew she was different. "Everyone was older," she says. "You were expected to look a certain way, but I was still going through puberty!"

That didn't stop Pennsylvania Ballet, which then did not have an affiliated school, from casting Ryan in its annual Nutcracker. Ryan was 10 when she danced her first role, a toy soldier. Miami City Ballet School director Arantxa Ochoa was a principal dancer with Pennsylvania Ballet at the time, but she noticed the young dancer.

"I just remember her beautiful eyes and big smile," Ochoa recalls.

Five years later, when Ryan enrolled in Pennsylvania Ballet's newly revived school, Ochoa was her teacher. "She was that ideal student," says Ochoa. "Hard worker. Very smart, very talented. To me, she had that thing, that 'It' factor."

Ochoa wasn't the only one to notice her potential. Ryan continued to win roles in Pennsylvania Ballet productions, including Balanchine's "Diamonds," videotaped for PBS. At 16, she was offered a contract with Pennsylvania Ballet's second company. From the outside, it looked like the culmination of Ryan's dream.

The reality was less idyllic. Ryan had struggled with body-image issues since her early years at the Rock School; she was particularly self-conscious about the size and shape of her thighs. She remembers one Rock School teacher asking if her Mexican-born mother made good flan. When Ryan replied in the affirmative, he told her she looked like she was enjoying too much of it. Another teacher at the school suggested she go on a liquid diet to drop some weight.

Ryan recalls other "advice," such as being told not to go out into the sun, so that her skin wouldn't get too dark. Although she took that particular comment in stride, it compounded her self-consciousness about her appearance. It also strengthened her resolve to work harder in the studio.

At PBII, Ryan was determined to show she had what it takes to succeed as a professional ballerina. But while artistic director Angel Corella told the young dancer that he liked her dancing, she says he advised her to slim down or risk fewer onstage opportunities. She valued his feedback, and her long relationship with Pennsylvania Ballet, but Ryan knew it was time to look for opportunities outside her hometown. She focused her attention on Seattle.

A New Home

Ryan had attended Pacific Northwest Ballet's summer intensive the summer after joining PBII. She was among 30 young women enrolled in Peter Boal's class that summer—all excellent dancers, he says—but Ryan stood out.

"She had this kind of go-for-broke presence," Boal says. "A gutsiness." He made a mental note. A year later, when Ryan contacted him about an audition, Boal invited her to attend class when the company toured to New York City. At the end of that class, Boal offered Ryan a contract; she joined PNB as an apprentice in the fall of 2016.

"I loved PNB's rep, I loved the idea of working for Peter," Ryan says. Although she was scared about moving across the country, she calls it "good scared."

Ryan credits Boal with helping to free her from her self-image issues, but that didn't happen overnight. During her apprentice year, Ryan attended class in "trash bag pants," concerned that if Boal saw her thighs he'd decide not to cast her. She braced herself for the all-too familiar weight talk.

It never came.

But Boal noticed Ryan's tension, how she seemed intent on proving herself every time he was teaching class or watching rehearsal. He took her aside and explained that he'd hired her for a reason—he liked her dancing—and advised Ryan simply to dance for her own love of it. By the end of her apprentice year, new contract in hand, Ryan felt she'd found a true ballet home.

Ryan also credits her new-found comfort to the camaraderie she feels at PNB. She gravitated to a small group of Latinx dancers, who reminded her of her close-knit Philadelphia family. Ryan's mother is Mexican; her father grew up in Belize. The family identifies as Latin American, speaks Spanish at home and celebrates especially their Mexican heritage. Ryan was particularly touched when one colleague, a Seattle-area native, brought her samples of Mexican dishes her own mother had prepared. Small gestures like this helped ease the young dancer's homesickness.

Ryan had another reason to embrace her new city: Not long after she joined PNB, she caught the eye of a fellow dancer, principal Kyle Davis. They've been partners onstage and off for the past three years. "She's fantastic to work with," Davis says. "She's intelligent, open to discussing how steps work and how we can better work together. I personally think that's a phenomenal quality in a partner."

Finding Her Voice

During this long pandemic year, Davis and Ryan have had ample opportunity to explore their partnership. They share a Seattle apartment with two miniature Australian shepherds, Hawk and Magpie, who make frequent cameos during the online classes the couple both take and teach.

PNB's 2020-21 season is all-digital, and when the dancers returned to the studio last August, only those who co-habitated could partner one another. In the company's opening program, Ryan and Davis reprised the pas de deux from Balanchine's "Rubies." While dancing for cameras instead of live audiences hasn't been ideal, Ryan says she's learned how to use her face to convey emotions in a more intimate way, instead of playing to the second balcony.

Beyond the pandemic, the past year also ushered in frank national conversations about race and racism, which freed Ryan to speak more openly about her Latin heritage. "It gave me a voice I didn't always have before," Ryan says. "I always knew I was different, especially in ballet, but didn't often talk about it."

Last fall she encouraged PNB to acknowledge Hispanic Heritage Month. But she also wants to see ballet open its ranks to more dancers of color, and to see them advance to the upper echelons of companies like PNB.

Perhaps she'll be one of those dancers; at 23, she still has a long career ahead of her. Although she dreams of dancing the iconic classical roles—Giselle, Juliet and Kitri—Ryan also looks forward to the contemporary ballets that are a PNB mainstay.

Boal believes she can do whatever she sets her mind to. "Some dancers, there is no ceiling to their capability," Boal says. "Sarah-Gabrielle Ryan is one of them."

[theunvanquishedzims]

Calming my post-election anxiety with sweet sweet logic

So Trump is a wannabe dictator with crazy screaming fans who are headed toward violent armed meltdowns. What’s to stop him from going full dictator and refusing to leave office?

I’m glad you asked!

You see, the major difference between wannabe dictators and actual dictators is ALLIES. Dictators are surrounded with tight security, aided by the military, cheered on by media that they control, and are either helped, encouraged, or just ignored by other countries with the power to stop them.

Trump has charged the Secret Service money for the privilege of protecting him and his family since day one. You remember the first year, when his wife and son refused to move to the White House so the Secret Service had to RENT FLOORS in TRUMP’S BUILDING to be close to them? And how his extended family went globetrotting and the Secret Service had to accompany them? And when Trump himself insisted on hosting people at his golf club, he made the Secret Service RENT GOLF CARTS from TRUMP’S CLUB to follow him while he went golfing?

The end result was that halfway through the first year of his presidency, the Secret Service could not pay their own wages. Because half their yearly budget had gone straight to Trump’s pockets. And that’s just financially. I think we all remember how the White House came down with Covid and Trump still insisted on Secret Service agents driving him around to wave at people. He has not been kind to the people who are sworn to protect him. These people have had a front-row seat to his circus since 2016. When the time comes from Trump to leave the White House and Biden to take over, I doubt they’ll betray the country out of loyalty to Trump. If anything, they’ll be the ones to drag him out.

As for the military, Trump insulted and fired four generals from his administration staff. He said on multiple occasions that soldiers who get captured or killed are suckers and losers. He refused to visit a cemetery to honor the dead because it was raining. He tries to pander to the military by massive increases in defense spending, but that money goes to capitalists who make weapons and war technology, not the soldiers or veterans. (He also hypocritically accused military officials of being in bed with those same companies.) In a poll of 1000 service members 50% said they disliked Trump. Overall, he doesn’t act like a leader, and the way he skirts responsibility (like taking charge during the pandemic) doesn’t appeal to a group that functions on trust in their leadership.

A proper dictator would have spent the last four years cozying up to his generals and making sure they knew the financial and social benefits of answering to him personally, not the office of the President. And while Trump did adhere to the adage “find a foreign foe” to unite people against, he badly misjudged what most US citizens consider “foreign.” He hasn’t found a villain that we would root for the military taking down, and the people he targets (Latinx, Blacks, immigrants, and people in countries our military has already devastated) are not a minority he can turn the majority of the country against, especially with how many of the former two serve in the military themselves. When the time comes for him to leave office, the military might be the first to cut ties with the wannabe Dictator-in-Chief.

Now, the media. They’ve been treating him like a joke candidate since day one, but after he was actually elected and took office they’ve started to take him more seriously. He’s gotten his catchphrase “fake news!” to catch on, but that doesn’t change the fact that under his administration news reporters have been harassed, illegally arrested, and generally poorly treated by Trump, especially if they’re women. He’s trashed talked everyone, with Fox News being the last bastion of semi-legitimate news that openly supports him (and their credibility has taken a big hit over it.)

Despite this support, in recently months Trump has been increasingly dumping on Fox, even throwing the mediator they provided for the debate under the bus, and risking alienating them in the process. If his supporters listen to him and start considering Fox part of Big Fake News, it might possibly be the death of Fox, leaving most of his supporters adrift and isolated from their source of right-wing news, and sending the more extreme fringes into the arms of conspiracy theory websites. (I’m not saying this is bad, being cut off from Fox and its toxic stream of “information” can actually help rehabilitate the right.)

Honestly, I don’t think Trump ever had a shot at controlling the media like a dictator would, mainly because of social media. He’s in love with attention, and Twitter has provided him a nonstop stream of it. No other President has threatened, insulted, promoted, or hinted at war over social media the way Trump has, and he gets so much direct feedback and interaction with the public and the world as a result. He could have leveraged that by buying the company (through a shell corporation, obviously) and setting it up as The One True Source of Information, manipulating public perception of him and his administration by keeping a tight grip on what information he let out.

But he’s just. Not. That. Clever. He blurts out everything that crosses his mind, leaving his administration to play clean-up on his messes, put out fires he keeps pouring gasoline on, and claim he’s joking when everyone knows he’s testing the limits on what he can get away with saying. He took advantage of the direct communication with legions of supporters, but seemed to forget that his detractors had equal access and would absolutely call him out on things he definitely said, it’s right there on his Twitter account, they have the Tweet pulled up on their phone right now. Instead of operating a single state-run media outlet while crushing all free press and limiting internet access like other dictators, he’s mooned the world’s cameras and acted surprised when they put his saggy butt on tv. “Fake news! That’s not my butt! THIS is my butt! [image attached]” he tweets. “Twitter is so biased, they haven’t censored any of Sleepy Joe’s photos!” he later tweets.

And lastly. The key to a dictatorship’s success. To prevent outside intervention, the country a dictator runs must be unimportant and ignored, wealthy and well-connected, or scary and well-armed. Minor warlords are the former, Putin is the latter, Trump might have weaseled his way into being the middle. But at the end of the day, America’s whole thing is new leadership every four years. It was revolutionary to replace a lineage of kings and queens stretching generations with a non-royal elected leader who only held office for four to eight years, but we’ve stuck to that for 200 years and everyone’s used to it by now. It would take a charismatic and powerful person to move the American people towards abolishing such a basic tenant of our democracy, and despite the mob mentality that lead a small portion of his supporters to chant “sixteen more years!” in the heat of the moment, Trump is not that charismatic. He’s not that smart. He’s not that well-connected. He’s not that savvy. He’s not that good at politics. And he’s not that powerful.

(I was going to say something here about him being the laughingstock of the world’s leaders and shouldn’t expect any outsiders to help him stay in power, especially since his tax returns came out and showed he owes people a ton of money that he doesn’t have, but this post is long enough so let’s cut to the chase.)

Trump is a greedy, small-minded man that has clung to power by appealing to the worst in humanity and scraping away at the best. But he hasn’t succeeded. He’s a sad old man who will say anything to be loved, and I don’t think he even knows what love is, so he’ll settle for attention. He doesn’t have money, he doesn’t have an army, and the only allies he has are using him as a political pawn to further their own interests. They will cut him loose the minute he stops being useful.

Now, the bad part: crazy screaming fans. Fringe groups on the internet. Mobs chanting “sixteen more years!” Men with guns and bombs and kidnapping plots, men trying to get into voting centers to destroy the election, men driving trucks with black flags that say FUCK YOUR FEELINGS, TRUMP 2020 (available on Amazon for $11.99, I wish I was joking.) I have no idea how many people in this country genuinely love Trump. It is hopefully significantly less than voted for him. There are some big issues in this country that are make-or-break, and unfortunately by reason of running Republican Trump has aligned himself with some of them.

There are people who hate everything about Trump, but he put a pro-life judge on the Supreme Court so they’re voting for him. There are people who are uncomfortable with Trump, but they’ve forgiven their grandpa for saying worse at Thanksgiving dinner, so they’ll vote for him. There are people who don’t know a single thing about Donald Trump, but they see (Republican) next to his name on the ballot, so they vote for him. None of that means those people will side with him if he tries to make a move towards dictatorship.

Now there are people who love Trump. They’ve heard and seen the vile things he’s said and done, and are genuinely okay with it, because they are full of hate and rage and want to change the world to put themselves on top. I do not know how many of these people there are. I know they exist all over the country, not just in red states. I know some of them have guns and want a reason to use them, because they’ve been talking about it for decades. I don’t know if we can trust the police to side with us over them if fights start breaking out. (And I pray pray PRAY people de-escalate any fights, because monkey see monkey do, and one news report of a MAGA extremist shooting someone can inspire a hundred copycats can lead to full-on civil war like we've never seen.) I know we need to be careful the next few months, to take care of ourselves and watch out for the more vulnerable in our communities.

And above all, I know this: Trump is not going to keep this country. He got it through trickery and deceit and foreign influence and national indifference and people not taking him seriously. We’ve learned. We’ve grown. We’re taking him seriously now, and we will not let him take what we’ve already told him he can’t have. The election is over. He’s a loser. He’d better start packing his bags. Because he’s not staying in office.

[eeattherich]

99 Reasons to Vote Donald Trump out of Office

(from femislay)

1) referred to Nazis as “very fine people”

2) separated 4,500 children from their migrant parents at the border

3) lied over 15,000 times since coming into office

4) has yet to release his tax returns

5) referred to countries like Haiti and Africa as “shit-holes”

6) withdrew from Mercury Effluent Rule, which regulated safe use and disposal of mercury in dental offices

7) presidential negligence resulted in 3,000 deaths in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria

8) cut all funding for the UN Family Planning agency

9) dropped bombs on Syria without congressional approval

10) Advanced construction of the Keystone XL and Dakota Access Pipeline

11) barred individuals from 7 majority Muslim countries from entering the US, including Syrian refugees

12) signed a bill allowing states to withhold funding for Planned Parenthood

13) Put Betsy DeVos in charge of education

14) Increased gov spending by half a trillion dollars

15) 20,000 reports of abuse in detention centers

16) a government shutdown that cost 11 billion

17) blacklisted the term ‘climate change’

18) halted a directive that allowed transgender students to use the bathroom corresponding to their gender identity

19) renewed contracts with for-profit prisons

20) anti-Semitic attacks increased by 87% in the six months after Trump’s election

21) cut the number of refugees allowed to resettle in the US abt almost 100,000

22) considered courting funding from TSA and the Coast Guard to fund his border wall

23) 140,000 covid deaths and counting

24) lied under oath

25) continuously profited from events held at Trump International Hotel

26) demonized journalists and the press

27) sent federal troops across the country to violently respond to protests

28) Ukraine

30) appointed a VP who used his personal email for state affairs

31) considered cutting funding from TSA an the Coast Guard to fund his border wall

32) expanded the CIA’s power, allowing them to conduct drone strikes on suspected terrorists

33) removed catergories related to sexual orientation and gender identity on the US Census

34) called journalists “the enemy of the people”

35) said Andrew Jackson had a “big heart”

36) been accused of sexual assault by dozens of women

37) fired James Comey in the middle of an investigations into Russia meddling in the 2016 election

38) under his leadership, the EPA withdrew mining restrictions on Alaska’s headwaters

39) shares highly classified information with the Russian foreign minister

40) hosted QAnon supporters at the White House

41) required all visa applicants to share their social media handles

42) withdrew from the Paris Agreement

43) blocked a veterans group on Twitter that was critical of him

44) reversed an opening of diplomatic ties with Cuba

45) appointed Rick Perry, who does not believe Carbon Dioxide causes climate change, as Secretary of Energy

46) cut 1200 jobs from the EPA

47) rolled back regulations that ensured drinking water was safe for consumption

48) the US military paid over 2 million dollars to rent space in Trump Tower claiming it was needed to protect Trump, despite Trump not spending a single night there

49) choose a white nationalist, William Johnson, as a California delegate

50) refused to rebuke white nationalists in Charlottesville

51) rolled back emission standards for automobiles

52) called confederate statues “beautiful”

53) 6 migrant children died in ICE custody in 2019

54) costs taxpayers 3 million dollars per visit to Mar-a-Lago, a resort he owns

55) signed a directive preventing transgender people from joining the military

56) pardoned an Arizona sheriff found guilty of racially profiling Latinx individuals

57) threatened to totally destroy North Korea

58) scrapped healthcare subsidies for low income Americans

59) forgot the name of a fallen soldier when he called the soldier’s widow to offer his condolences

60) ended temporary protected status for 59,000 Haitians

61) retweeted anti-Muslim video on twitter

62) endorsed Ray Moore, an alleged pedophile, for Senate

63) prevented the CDC from using the terms transgender, fetus, science based, and evidence based in documents

64) dissolved his own comission on voter fraud

65) cheated on his wife just four months after the birth of his child then paid the woman 130,000 dollars in hush money

66) recieved praise from white supremisist, David Duke

67) appointed 30 people with tied to the coal industry to positions in the Enviormemtal Protection Agency

68) advocated for the execution of drug dealers

69) ended funding for NASA’s Carbon Monitoring System

70) withdrew from Iran nuclear deal

71) detained nearly 13,000 migrant children without access to education of legal services

72) mocked a sexual assault survivor

73) declared a national emergency at the Southern border in an attempt to get 5.7 billion for a border wall

74) made it easier for gas and oil companies to lay pipelines without beif blocked by states citing the Clean Water Act

75) encouraged supporters to attack political opponents

76) demanded his son-in-law be granted security clearance

77) withdrew from the Arms Trade Treaty

78) tried to withhold congressionally appropriated disaster relief money from going to Puerto Rico

79) rolled back power plant regulations

80) weakened the Endangered Species Act

81) tried to limit benefits such as food stamps, housing support, and Medicaid to immigrants

82) updated policy allowing US to detain migrant families with children indefinitely

83)misused over 2 million in charitable funds

84) diverted 3.6 billion from Defense spending to the construction of his border wall

85) places immigration restrictions on Nigeria, Sudan, Tanzania, Eritrea, Myanmar, and Kyrgyzstan

86) appointed Mike Pence to lead the COVID-19 response

87) made it legal for law enforcement authorities to obtain DNA information from detained immigrants

88) cut off payments to the World Health Organization

89) set up sham corporations to avoid paying taxes on 413 million inherited from his parents

90) called peaceful protestors in Minnesota “thugs”

91) threaded protestors in Minnesota with “vicious dogs”

92) had protestors outside the White House tear gassed by federal agents so he could hold a Bible for a photo op

93) eliminated healthcare protections for transgender patients

94) did nothing to punish or condemn Russia after discovering that Russia was paying bounties to the Taliban to kill American Soldiers

95) retweeted a video of a supporter yelling “white power”

96) helped Saudi Arabia drop bombs on Yemen

97) advocated against mail in voting, despite using this method of voting himself

98) relaxed regulations to allow offshore drilling off the coast of Florida

99) mocked people with disabilities

[howdywrites]

Hey, yo. Any advice on writing a sort of traditional spaghetti western type story that doesn’t accidentally glorify the problematic elements of the police as a system or the racism of early American western colonists? I ask since western heroes are usually law enforcement personnel like sheriffs or whatever. Thanks.

Howdy!

Putting in a disclaimer here that I am not a historian nor am I well knowledgeable about the history of what is now our modern day police force in the US. So these are simply my two cents :)

Law Enforcement

So first off, it’s completely possible to write a western that doesn’t have a law enforcement officer as a protagonist! It’s popular in some western media, especially the sheriff or the Texas Ranger, but it’s not necessary.

In fact, to my knowledge, law enforcement in the old west was chaotic at times. Perhaps there’s no sheriff at all in your setting because he got killed off or the town simply doesn’t have one. Perhaps the ‘sheriff’ is just a dude with a badge who only got the job because he knows how to use a gun. Perhaps the law enforcement is the antagonist of your story! There ought to have been plenty of crooked rangers and selfish marshals back then.

If you were wanting to write a protagonist who has the same respect of an officer but not the title of law enforcement, consider a bounty hunter or a Pinkerton detective (this is an official title but they weren’t like the sheriffs/marshals), or even a former decorated Union soldier who’s there to protect the town.

TL;DR: you don’t have to have a lawman as a protag! They can be anything from a farmer to a preacher to an outlaw or a bounty hunter.

Racism in the old west

Honestly? Racism and violent colonization are nearly impossible to erase from the history of the old west. With the expansion westward, the US forced indigenous tribes off of their homeland and historically have committed unspeakable atrocities towards native folks. The land the pioneers and settlers moved to wasn’t unoccupied or ‘untouched’.

In a similar vein, I think it’s just about impossible to ignore slavery and the pain african americans endured if you set your story on a plantation in the deep south during the Civil War. To use the setting but ignore the issues that were happening at the time feels... wrong to me. It’s like using a historic plantation as the backdrop to a “rustic chic” wedding.

The rules I use for myself is this:

- If you’re going to include BIPOC in your story, PLEASE do your research! Find out what tribes were on the land your story is set in if it’s a key factor in your story/setting.

- Don’t play into stereotypes when it comes to race. If you’re unsure about something, look it up or talk to someone in that group of people.

- Perhaps don’t write about what it’s like experiencing racism/homophobia if you’re not in the group that experiences that. Example: I, as a woman who comes from a white and latinx background, have no clue what it’s like to experience the racism black women face in the US, so I don’t feel comfortable writing about what it’s like because it’s not my story to tell. 

- If you DO have your character(s) experience racism/homophobia, please talk to folks in those groups. Perhaps find someone who can offer you advice and PLEASE get yourself a sensitivity reader or two!

There are stories that are able to exist outside of racism the violence against POC. Your characters of color are also allowed to exist outside of this kind of pain and suffering. The good thing about westerns is that often times they have a bit more whimsy than a historically accurate historical fiction. Use this to your advantage.

The issue with most westerns (both books and tv/movies) is that there are stories that have yet to be told. They’re almost all white washed, lead by cishet men, and play into awful stereotypes. Women existed in the west. POC existed in the old west. LGBTQ+ folks existed in the old west.

If it means we have to bend the ‘rules’ to make our marginalized protagonist the hero of their story, then by all means: break the rules! Shoot the racists in your story, punch the homophobe in the throat, and just let your protagonist BE. Example: In my own western, I’m simply not letting my main cast be homophobic towards my lesbian protagonist, though I still have them engaging in a somewhat secretive relationship as lgbtq+ couples would have done back in the day.

Above all, uplift BIPOC voices! Either in your story or in the writing community. Listen to BIPOC when they speak.

Sources -

Lawmen and Badmen: The Tin Star of the Old West

Law Enforcement in the Old West

America’s Forgotten Cowboys

The United States Government’s Relationship with Native Americans

Check out the blog @writingwithcolor !

[diverse-writing]

The term “soldadera” has been used since the Spanish Conquest to describe women who aided the Spanish armies in various ways. In a dominant patriarchal society with heavy Catholic influence, Mexico’s women were expected to follow traditional gender roles. But the dawn of the Revolution provided an opportunity for women to free themselves of society’s expectations and take control of their own lives. Becoming a soldier in the Revolution allowed these women a chance to break away from perceived gender roles and make their own money.

Take a look at this great brief intro to the role female fighters played in the Mexican Revolution--both on the side of the administration and the freedom fighters. Teen Vogue’s series in honor of Latinx Heritage Month has been excellent so far and I really appreciate their intro-level articles on significant events in Latinx history!

Does anyone know any good books on “las soldaderas” of the Revolution? Failing that, is anyone writing about or thinking about writing about them? I’d love to hear more about what you’ve learned! 

[burtlerrg]

Journal Part 3: The Heart of the Concrete Jungle

New York is a city where you can find expression on every street corner. Although these days you're just as likely to find a McDonalds or Starbucks nearby. No matter how much capitalism, consumerism, and gentrification progresses in the city there will always be some type of cultural expression plastered on the wall and on the streets between the lifeless fast-food chains. Once upon a time back in the 70’s New York was plastered with graffiti from head to toe. Tensions were found in every part of the city and people were expressing their voices through music, murals, and graffiti. Eventually, the streets got “cleaned up” and we don't have trains littered in spray painted rebellion but we can still see and hear the same expression of culture and self in the modern day. People still try to express themselves and their culture through the same methods. Take the mural “Soldaderas” made by Yasmin Hernandez in Spanish Harlem that depicts two cultural important women, Frida Khalo and Julia de Burgos, as soldiers that are connected to one another. This mural itself is more than art but a message to the latinx communities that they can coexist and are united in their life in the city. Although, sometimes expression of one’s culture isn’t shown in something so grand. The people that play their Spanish guitars in the subway, the kids that play their accordion on the train, and the poets that meet up and speak their lives are smaller ways of expressing latinx culture that bleeds much harder into the DNA of the city. As a Puerto Rican music has been the form that has been the most prevalent in my life. There would always be three types of music that would be played in any family get together: Salsa, Reggaetón, and Freestyle. What is so interesting about these genres is that they represent the different times of the Puerto Ricans and how they advanced as a culture in New York. Salsa was the culmination of the mixing of Black, Cuban, and Puerto Rican music, specifically jazz, post the influx of Puerto Ricans in the 60’s. Freestyle is probably the strangest one as it is probably the least Latin sounding in sound with its 80’s synth pop sound but was, according to every older person in my family and their friends, what Nuyoricans really enjoyed probably because it went along with club culture. Then finally you have Reggaetón which is the newest of the bunch getting pretty popular among Puerto Ricans around the year 2000 with people like Daddy Yankee but has blown up in the past decade. With the vast drop in Puerto Ricans in New York the rise of Reggaetón in recent history has created this link between the island and the city once again. The key figure in this movement has got to be the Reggaetonero Bad Bunny whose music isn’t just incredibly popular but he also uses his fame to push more modern messages like in his song “Yo Perreo Sola” where he tries to fight back against the toxic masculinity that is not talked enough about within the culture. Cultural Expression and protest will never fade from New York City because no matter how hard they might try to destroy it the people will have their voices heard.

“Soldaderas” by Yasmin Hernandez

[straightouttagershwin]

Breaking Legs, Crushing Dreams

Witches, haunted opera houses, small-town diners, the founding fathers, and a magical Scottish town. These unusual topics are dazzling Broadway musicals loved by thousands. Musicals are a brilliant show of song, dance, and story that almost everyone can relate to. Every theatre kid has a role they would do anything to play. Unfortunately, casting bias based on race, gender, or sexuality, could make it difficult . In the past, most characters could be played by straight, white, cisgender actors. In today’s theatre world, that is being challenged. Why should there be a “basic” type of actor, and why should they get all of the parts? When people see themselves represented, it matters. It is especially important in youth development. Casting people of color, LGBTQ+ actors, and gender swapping, can change lives. A recent challenge to the status quo is the historical hip-hop musical, Hamilton. Casting a black man as George Washington, an Asian woman as Eliza Hamilton, and a Puerto Rican man as Alexander Hamilton himself, shocked audiences everywhere and opened up eyes to the possibilities of casting shows. 

Ten years ago, a black man playing George Washington was unheard of. Why did modern day genius, Lin-Manuel Miranda, decide to challenge that? To tell “...the story of America then, told by America now.” What exactly does that mean though? Miranda wanted to tell the almost unbelievable story of America’s creation. But he wanted to tell it through the mouths of the immigrants the country was built on (Quiñónez). The founding fathers were young, rebellious, and brave. They went against their king to fight for freedom and justice for all, but to them, “all” was all white men. Through Hamilton, the people left out of  “all men were created equal” get a chance to tell the story. The good, the bad, and everything inbewtween. Black men get to tell the story of soldiers fighting for the abolition of slavery, Latinx, Asian, and Black women have the opportunity to pay respects to some of the first feminists, and continue to spread the message of equality to the next generation. 

The characters in Hamilton are all based on real people. Because of this, there is debate about whether there should be a line between fantasy and reality in casting. A popular example is Wicked. The story takes place before the events in The Wizard of Oz and includes many of the same characters. Wicked has been on Broadway for 16 years. This year, the first woman of color portrayed the deuteragonist, Glinda. Why did it take so long for this to happen? It’s unlikely that is was malicious. The casting directors did not sit in their offices and throw every woman of color’s headshot in the garbage. It is also quite unlikely that it was completely by chance. The reason was most likely somewhere in the middle. In 2003, Kristin Chenoweth originated the role of Glinda. Chenoweth is tiny, blonde, and white. This description was used in casting every Glinda after her, and very rarely changed. As stated in the Wicked Wiki page, there have been 32 Glindas on Broadway. 32, and only one was a woman of color. So when it did change, people noticed. Brittney Johnson made history in January 2019. She became the first woman of color to play Glinda on Broadway. She made headlines in the theatre community, and made hearts swell, as she gushed about how much it meant to be playing the character. In an Instagram post, the actress told about her excitement, “My hope and prayer is that people see my story and have faith that they can achieve their dreams too. Nothing is impossible! And no dream is too big.” The dream she speaks of, is crashing through the stigma of a white woman playing a beloved character. Through this, she shows kids, adults, and everyone in between, that they too can bring a character to life. 

Aside from race, there are several other factors that could cause someone to not get a role in a show. Gender is a debated trait in modern theatre. Should characters be able to be gender swapped? Most argue that there are some roles that can be gender swapped, and some that cannot. And some believe that all characters should be cast as written. A recent example of gender swapping in a professional role is the character Old Joe in Waitress. Up until late 2018, the role was for a man, and played by one. In December 2018, the writers and directors decided to change that. When beloved actress June Squibb came to see the show, the creative team got an idea. They immediately decided to change the role to Old Josie, and cast Squibb in the part. “In this moment of time, it seems like a wonderful brush stroke to make the owner a woman-a strong, savvy business woman who is trying to help another woman find her footing.” says book writer, Jessie Nelson. Old Josie was loved by audiences and actors everywhere. But would the same love go to other characters?

 In the recent past, I acted in a production of  The Little Mermaid. A friend of mine tried out for Ursula, and had a shot at the role, except that this friend is a boy. He has the vocal range, the acting skills, and everything else necessary to play the character. But unfortunately, he wasn’t considered for the role. There are a lot of possible reasons for this. The conservative town, the young audience, or the views of the casting team, but it all comes down to the same reason. Our brains are trained to think that boys should play boys and girls should play girls. But is that even a factor here? The casting of mythical creatures has always been interesting to me. They’re fake, so there’s no reason for people to put any restrictions on who can play them. 

Religion is another casting factor in theatre. Most of the characters in the famous show, The Fiddler on the Roof are Jewish. Does this mean they should only be played by those of Jewish faith? In most cases, religion isn’t an issue in casting. But when it comes to religions that have been discriminated against, there are arguments. Religions such as Islam, Judaism, and Hinduism are the most argued about. Because the people of these religions have been treated so poorly and given so little chance to be represented, when a character identifies as one of them, it’s important. Some argue that a person not of these religions should not play characters that are, because the young people of the religion deserve to see someone like them, playing someone like them. This is especially important for hijabi characters. Women who wear the traditional headdresses are tormented in public, have their hijabs ripped off, and are mocked and laughed at for their choice. So to put a random actress in a hijab for a show, seems wrong to those who undergo the discrimination every day. 

Although America is supposed to be a haven for people of all backgrounds, racism is still a frequent issue. The iconic retelling of star crossed lovers, West Side Story, has been subject to a lot of whitewashing. To whitewash is to cast a white actor in a person of color’s role. In the 1961 film version of the show, the lead female character, Maria, a Puerto Rican girl, is played by Natalie Wood, a Russian woman. This casting, though common in it’s time, was offensive to the entire Latin community. Essentially telling them that their actresses were not good enough to play the character. However, the show is getting another chance. Set to be released in 2020, Steven Speilberg’s remake of West Side Story stars Rachel Zegler, a Colombian teenager, ready to take on the world as Maria. Zegler has spoken out several times about how important representation is. Millions of fans are awaiting seeing a true Latin Maria on the silver screen. 

Sexuality is becoming a more and more important factor in casting every day. Recently, the Tony winning show, The Prom, has been in talks to become a movie. The show centers around two girls who want to go to prom together as a couple, but the school administration shuts down the prom in retaliation. Young queer kids everywhere were thrilled when the movie was announced. They were less thrilled when the casting possibilities were announced. When it was announced that Ariana Grande would be playing the main character, Alyssa Greene, fans were not happy. In the Broadway show, Alyssa was played by a queer woman of color, and as far as we know, Grande is neither. Casting LGBTQ+ actors as LGBTQ+ characters is extremely important to the audience. If a character is “straight-washed” it takes away part of the identity the original actor brought to the stage. It also takes a role from an actor that could play it with more honesty, emotion, and feeling, because they have shared experiences with the character. 

Kelli Jolly has been involved in theatre for a long time. From growing up a dancer and actress, to choreographing shows, to becoming the president of a theatre organization, she pretty much lives and breathes it. When asked how casting has changed in her time in the theatre, Jolly said that it has changed a lot. “Directors are casting in creative ways to bring a story to life in a different way than the story has been portrayed in the past. It is exciting to watch different versions of the same play or musical with non-traditional casting.” Those like Jolly, who have theatre in every part of their lives, are excited to see change and creativity in shows. They are also excited to watch what the new generation of actors tell the same stories, in a whole new way. A group of 16 actors, directors, and stage managers were asked if (aside from characters that are written with a specific race, sexuality, or religious belief) casting should be blind, and 94% said yes. The world is changing, and theatre is changing with it. 

Casting should be based on talent first. Casting an actor that does not deserve the role is wrong, no matter their race, gender, or religion. Characters can and should morph as the times change. Aiming to be more inclusive and to better represent the world around them. But if a character is a certain way for a reason, the actor should reflect that. Seeing yourself represented in media is important. Having diverse actors can help make that a reality for more people.  

Works Cited

Fierberg, Ruthie. “Why Sara Bareilles, Diane Paulus, and Jessie Nelson Changed Waitress' Old Joe to Josie.” Playbill, PLAYBILL INC., 18 Nov. 2018, www.playbill.com/article/why-sara-bareilles-diane-paulus-and-jessie-nelson-changed-waitress-old-joe-to-josie.

Person, and ProfilePage. “Brittney Johnson on Instagram: ‘My Heart Is Bursting with Gratitude. Thank You, Thank You! God Is so Good! I Am so Humbled to Be the First Black Glinda and Honored to...".” Instagram, www.instagram.com/p/BsgWkRehCVo/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=dlfix.

Rogo, Paula. “This Actress Just Made History As First Black Woman To Play Glinda In Broadway's 'Wicked'.” Essence, Essence, 14 Jan. 2019, www.essence.com/entertainment/this-actress-just-made-history-as-first-black-woman-to-play-glinda-in-broadways-wicked/.

Samberg, Joel. “Fiddler on the Roof.” My Jewish Learning, My Jewish Learning, 6 Jan. 2004, www.myjewishlearning.com/article/fiddler-on-the-roof/.

[teenvogue]

The Real History of Las Soldaderas, the Women Who Made the Mexican Revolution Possible

OG History is a Teen Vogue series where we unearth history not told through a white, cisheteropatriarchal lens. In this installment, Teen Vogue's Marilyn La Jeunesse explains the history of Las Soldaderas, a group of women fought in the Mexican Revolution.

In the 2006 film Bandidas, Penélope Cruz and Selma Hayak’s characters, with their waist-cinching corsets, plunging V-neck blouses, cowboy hats and revolvers, are the stereotypical epitome of what a Latinx woman — specifically Mexican women — are supposed to be: sexy and dangerous. This contradicting characterization of strong Latinx women has become the norm in Hollywood, but the imagery was inspired by something entirely different: Las Soldaderas, the female soldiers who made the Mexican Revolution possible.

In November 1910, Mexico was plunged into a near decade-long war that pitted the federal government, run by dictator Porfirio Díaz Mori, against thousands of revolutionaries from varying factions. The Revolution was all-encompassing; everyone was expected to join the cause, and those who didn’t were forced to flee the country.

For the revolutionaries, the war was an opportunity to overthrow the outdated class system put in place by the Spanish elite. These revolutionaries saw it as a time for Mexico to reward the people who worked the land, not the other way around: a war for the mestizos; a war for the indigenous; and a war for the poor. But neither side could have endured for nearly 10 years without the dedication of Las Soldaderas.

Although not much is known about the demographics of Las Soldaderas, it is believed that a majority of these female soldiers were in their late teens and early twenties, and involved women of various ethnicities, including Afro-Mexicans and people of Spanish descent. As outlined in a 2009 scholarly article by Delia Fernández, now an assistant professor of history and core faculty in Chicano Latino studies at Michigan State University, women like Señora María Sánchez, Señora Pimental, and Petra Herrera — who fought as “Pedro” — showed that women could hold their own amid a bloody civil war. These soldiers fought on all sides, with many elite women joining the federales ranks and others joining different revolutionary leaders, like Emiliano Zapata, Pancho Villa, and Venustiano Carranza.

Continue reading

[mudaship39]

Alpha Centurion War

This is a memory of a mixed Asian and Latinx Native person of color young adult metahuman and superhuman child spec ops black ops super soldier. Someone who is who is an Asian Native as a East Asian Japanese person of color and Polynesian Tongan and Hawaiian Indigenous Pasifika. Someone who is a Latinx Native as a Central American Amerindian Indigenous person of Colombia and Latinx Columbian person of color. He/she/they were a Iuyamian alien hybrid who’s been fighting since he/she/they were a child metahuman and superhuman soldier. He/she/they were sitting on the hood of a burned down hover humvee. This metahuman and superhuman young adult black ops spec ops super soldier in question was none other than the future Cardinal Changeling (Alexander Mack Smith/Alexandria Macy Smith). He/she/they were standing with his/her/their fiancé Kulax Kojir. Kulax Kojir and Jeondr Kojir were botth awed by this genderfluid pansexual former metahuman and superhuman child soldier. He/she/they stayed unruffled and serene in a firefight of an intergalactic civil war. He/she/they did not even blink when executing people staring right into their eyes as the light left their eyes when executing people by placing a hard light plasma pistol against their forehead and shooting them with a hard light plasma 45 caliber bullet or executing them by beheading with a hard light plasma katana. He/she/they were unfazed as the blood from their slain enemies splattered his/her/their face. Include all that to the detail every time he/she/they brought up General Weiss Kane his/her/their eyes smoldered with a blameless hatred and just rage that harmonized with her own. She recognized that she had to go with him/her/them. He/she/they were throwing themselves headfirst into what was indicating to be one hell of a battle. She could almost hear his/her/their long dead Iuyamian ancestors who preceded him/her/them howling and she could hear her long dead Tevran ancestors lamenting for an intergalactic war to finish all intergalactic wars. Where the type of intergalactic war where a warrior such as her would be satisfied and honored to die in. She and Alexander Smith/Alexandria Smith fell into the tempo they both had set up. They had both stormed into the thick of the war, right through the enemy positions, cleaned house, & then move on to the next objective. It was pleasant to have someone at her back that not only appreciated and imitated her fighting method but entrusted her to watch his/her/their back and vice versa. Having a suitable cohort at her side in combat was something she had been missing but had not recognized it. She yelled, lost in the passion of combat, wielding two hard light plasma becoming a hurricane of violence. Crimson Changeling hissed, snarled, growled, & roared deafeningly as he/she/they domed out of protection and using his/her/their hard light plasma combat shotgun discharged a puncture the size of a soccer ball through a women’s torso with his/her/their ten gauge slug, cascading the barricade behind her with blood. She recognized that not many other species or hybrids that would appreciate, but the concoction of perspiration, adrenaline, the scorched whiff aroma of hard light plasma fire, and the pungent rust fragrance of blood was making her rhythm sprint and her combat armor and power armor feel too stiff. This was what she lived for, and she suspected Crimson Changeling felt the same way. After the smolder cleared and the last man, woman, or beyond lay lifeless on the freezing ground she turned to Alexander Mack Smith/Alexandria Smith, panting and blushing, and her gasp caught for just a second. His/her/their sapphire eyes that turned cardinal held a blazing passion that blazed low but with strength that threatened to consume her alive and a fraction of her desired him/her/them to. She would have said something to him/her/them something trivial maybe to lessen the tension that built between them. It was getting more problematic to refute her feelings and more challenging disprove her love for him/her/them. He/she/they were like a force of nature and even in her compassionate and thoughtful instances revealed a power that made her sit up and become aware.

[girlbossfrankshepard]

Decent list of musicals with canon LGBT rep that’s not only cis white gay boys:

Some obvious ones out of the way that people here are well-acquainted with:

Falsettos (happy lesbian couple supporting characters Dr. Charlotte and Cordelia, as well as heavy focus on Judaism)

Rent (supporting cast includes Collins, a gay Black man and anarchist, Angel, his GNC Latinx partner, Joanne, a Black lesbian lawyer, and Maureen, her performing artist partner who is implied to be bi or a lesbian depending on the version of the show)

Fun Home (protagonist is butch lesbian Alison Bechdel, plot centers on her complicated relationship with her closeted gay dad, and Alison’s college girlfriend, Joan, is very commonly played by women of color)

Some more I’d recommend or at least would like to discuss:

If/Then (plot focuses on two different timelines created by one choice the protagonist makes at the start of the show. There’s Lucas, who is an openly bisexual housing activist and has male and female love interests respectively in the different timelines, David, his sweet boyfriend who is usually Asian-American, Kate, a Black lesbian kindergarten teacher, and Anne, whose relationship with Kate works out in one of the timelines and there’s a really touching song about it. Also they’re played by Anthony Rapp, Jason Tam, LaChanze, and Jenn Colella respectively in the original cast, so how’s that for all-stars?)

The Color Purple (the protagonist is Celie, a dark-skinned Black lesbian living in the 1930s who faces intracommunity misogyny and abuse and comes out of it surrounded by the love of many women in her life, including her bisexual lover, Shug Avery, and is also able to see herself as having inherent value and beauty.)

Hedwig and the Angry Inch (the protagonist is Hedwig, described by the writer as “a gender of one”, who performs in a rock band and tells the audience the story of how she got bottom surgery and left East Berlin to find her soulmate. The show culminates in her accepting that she is a complete person in and of herself.)

Kinky Boots (The co-lead, Lola/Simon, is a Black drag queen who helps in a project to design high-heeled boots strong enough for AMAB people to wear. She also has an arc of reconciling with her father who had previously turned his back on her. I’m not crazy about the way the book is written and I remember there being some transphobic jokes both made at the expense of Lola and by Lola herself, but Cyndi Lauper did write some pretty good bops, so make of it what you will.)

A Chorus Line (one of the dancers, a young gay Puerto Rican man named Paul, gives a major emotional monologue in the latter part of the show about his coming of age.)

Kiss of the Spider Woman (the protagonists are two men, Luis and Valentin, who become lovers in an Argentinian prison. I’ve only listened to the cast recording once and am not all too familiar with it, but I get the impression it’s a classic and Chita Rivera was in it.)

First Lady Suite (one of four of the plots in this show focuses on the love affair between Eleanor Roosevelt and her reporter, Lorena Hickok.)

Bring It On (one of the supporting characters, La Cienega, is an explicitly trans Afro-Latina girl and everyone treats her with respect.)

Some to be on the lookout for:

The Prom (you know people have been talking about this one! It’s about a gaggle of Broadway performers, wanting to be relevant again, hear about a couple of lesbian teenagers, Alyssa and Emma, who got banned from their school prom in Indiana and go out to fight for them. Very sweet fun show, got all the MLM/WLW solidarity you could want. A live recording of the songs can be found on YouTube.)

Head Over Heels (jukebox musical using music by The Go-Gos set in a fairytale world, starring Peppermint, a Black trans performer who competed on RuPaul’s Drag Race and will be officially the the first trans performer to be in an original Broadway cast. Also it's got an interracial lesbian romance, Pamela and Mopsa, and apparently there's also a non-binary character.)

The Civility of Albert Cashier (the protagonist is Albert Cashier, a young trans man who fought in the Civil War and fell in love with one of his fellow soldiers. The young version of him in the show is played by a transmasc actor. There’s no official cast recording yet, but there are demos of the songs up on their website.)

Invisible Thread (Griffin Matthews wrote the show with his real life partner, Matt Gould, as a fictionalized account of his own experience doing volunteer work in Uganda and navigating the unique way he exists there as a gay African-American man and befriending the people there. It’s fallen off the radar for a while now and there aren’t any available recordings of all the songs, but the cast has done a lot of great talks that you can watch on YouTube, some of them from when the show was still going by the title “Witness Uganda”.)

Update (3/11/19):

Interstate (the show has a majority Asian-American cast and creative team and the leads are Dash, a trans man who performs spoken word, and his best friend Adrian, a lesbian songwriter. They are in a band together and the show is about them going on tour and connecting with with their fans. It has performed at the New York Musical Festival at The Acorn Theatre.)

The View UpStairs (this show is based on the real life events of the 1973 arson attack at the UpStairs Lounge, a gay bar in New Orleans. The protagonist is our framing device, a young gay Black fashion designer from the current day named Wes who’s having a rough time with his anxiety and finds himself transported to the UpStairs Lounge, connecting with his community’s history. The cast album is available on Amazon and iTunes.)

Lizzie (based off the 1892 murders of Abby and Andrew Borden, and the trial of Lizzie Borden, running off of the theory that Lizzie and her neighbor, Alice, were in love. You can find it on Amazon, Spotify, and YouTube. There’s a lot of loud noises- it’s a rock musical)

Volleygirls (it’s about what you’d think it would be about, high school girls playing volleyball. There is a Latina lesbian named Marisol who sings an absolutely adorable song about liking girls, which you’ve probably heard a few different people cover like Adrienne Warren and Lilli Cooper. My favorite is Monica Raymund, who I think is the original actress. As far as I can tell, the show has never been staged or recorded for an album, but you can watch them perform all the songs at 54 Below on YouTube.)

Across The Universe (pretty well-known jukebox musical of The Beatles directed by Julie Taymor set in the cultural landscape of America and Britain during the Vietnam war. Prudence is a Vietnamese-American lesbian who is part of the main group of friends. I do wish she had more story, but she sings an absolutely beautiful and tender version of I Wanna Hold Your Hand.)