#one of these characters comes from an accurate depiction of the education system. and its not jacq

[puppianqueen]

"Remember this!"

[blockgamepirate]

Technoblade’s purpose in the political narrative of the Dream SMP

I can’t sleep so I decided to finally write the post I’ve been struggling with for literal months, except way more casual because I can’t be bothered anymore and also I’m sleep deprived.

So the thing is: to me the DSMP storyline has always been primarily political, probably because I was introduced to it through Wilbur who was definitely going for political, and also because I’m just generally interested in political narratives right now. Obviously I appreciate the character work and the personal relationship stuff, that’s what makes it more interesting than just dry allegory, but when it comes down to it, this story is about politics to me. So that’s the angle I’m going to approach it from.

Also not to spoil the conclusions here, but I’m an anarchist, that’s my lens.

(Obviously all of this is about rp from here on out unless otherwise specified)

Basically the situation as Techno joins the server is this: L'Manburg exists as an autonomous nation and is de facto independent although not officially recognised by the Dream SMP. The self-appointed president Wilbur Soot decides to hold an election and rig it in order to consolidate his power over the nation he founded and he gets his VP Tommyinnit to join in on the plan. Their scheme fails and they end up voted out instead. The new president, Schlatt, immediately establishes himself as an authoritarian figure and exiles Wilbur and Tommy.

A couple of points on what the election arc demonstrates:

1: the appearance of democracy can be used for distinctly undemocratic purposes.

2: even if the elections aren’t rigged, the electoral system could be massively flawed and end up favouring a party that in fact didn’t have the popular vote

3: even if the winning government (the coalition in this case) has the majority vote, that doesn’t guarantee that they’ll actually act according to the popular will.

4: the supporters of the losing parties basically just have to let the majority overrule their wishes, espcially since apparently L’Manburg doesn’t have an established role for an opposition, yikes. That’s actually a MAJOR oversight in the system but I’m not gonna go into that too much.

5: frankly as an anarchist I am just deeply cynical towards representative democracy, and just because you have a token appearance of choice and consent doesn’t mean that it isn’t a hierarchical and authoritarian system. And to be fair, from my point of view this applies even to so-called liberal democracies and progressive parties. Full disclosure: even if L'Manburg was the ideal example of a representative democracy (which it very much isn’t) I would still be opposed to it because I fundamentally do not believe in top down systems, even electoral ones.

6: despite all these flaws, all the characters seem to implicitly accept the electoral system as legitimate. There’s criticism against the actions of individual characters acting within the system, such as Quackity calling out Wilbur for trying to rig the election, but nobody is questioning the system itself.

So at this point I’m sitting there, watching all this go down, and thinking “man, this would be so much more bearable if there was an anarchist point of view being represented in the story.”

And hey, look who IMMEDIATELY SHOWS UP.

Okay, I’m not gonna lie, early installation Technoblade is not the best representation of anarchism. I was mostly rooting for him out of sheer contrarianism initially. I didn’t really even care if it would be another Killmonger/Magneto/Zaheer situation because I’m used to reading against the authorial intent when it comes to these things. Sometimes any representation is better than no representation, even with political ideologies. That’s not to say that him just straight up spouting this hobbesian notion of a “dog-eat-dog world” didn’t grate on me, obviously it did.

That kind of worldview of humanity needing authority in order to prevent chaos and conflict is literally antithetical to anarchism and is the favourite talking point of authoritarians, the least anarchist people there are. It’s literally what people use to argue AGAINST anarchism. I think it’s mostly because cc!Techno obviously wasn’t particularly educated on anarchist thought and was just basically having fun roleplaying with his friends at this point. Which is frustrating but fair enough I guess.

Cynical ideas about human nature are pretty deeply rooted in the mainstream, unfortunately, most people just consider it common sense. And like I said, it’s a huge talking point in the propaganda against anarchism.

(… even though in fact these arguments were originally used against proponents of representative democracy. Hobbes himself was very much a monarchist, the idea of letting normal people vote for their representatives would have been terrifying to him. Like surely the world would descent into a free-for-all war, all against all. Imagine letting commoners have OPINIONS, the horror.)

So yeah, that stuff was pretty ehhhhh. It was basically what I’d expected though: cc!Techno isn’t an anarchist and we just don’t get accurate representation from non-anarchists, ever. What I dared to hope was that Techno’s character would at least stay consistent about his opposition to ALL governments. I was pretty sure that he would, even though it seemed like the majority of the fandom at the time was convinced that he would switch over to Schlatt’s side or something. It would have been a really shitty twist, I would have ragequit immediately. I mean what would have been the entire point of his character then? He might as well have been a random mercenary. Why even have his character be an anarchist if you were just going to make him work for a government?

(ftr this is kinda my biggest problem with the Hypixel Skyblock revolution event lol, honestly I think that was a worse depiction of anarchism than early DSMP Technoblade. I mean the speech was good, but… still became a government official, tho. booooooooo, cringe)

And yes, I was rooting against L'Manburg, obviously, and I would have even if it had meant having to deal with another badly written anarchist villain character. I never understood why people saw L'Manburg as the good guys, they were nationalist and exclusionary and their whole existence was based on trying to scam people for money.

I mean they were definitely funny, they were great entertainers. I have no problems with people rooting for them because they’re fun to watch; I did that for a bit too. But people were starting to get really into the story and talk about Wilbur and Tommy, the corrupt politicians, and the country that literally excluded people based on nationality as the heroes, unironically, which was wild to me. And when Wilbur started his “villain arc” well: people called it a villain arc, as if he hadn’t been pretty much a bad guy from the beginning, constantly just out for money and power and taking advantage of the people around him and then pretending to be the victim when challenged. I mean yes he got worse, but I wouldn’t call it a villain arc, more like just a mental breakdown arc.

More importantly, to me L'Manburg represented so many things I hate about the status quo in real life, and seeing the fandom mostly unquestioningly accept it as good just pissed me off. Still pisses me off tbh. I mean, to be diplomatic I could say that I understand the emotional attachment and the way L'Manburg was built up mirrors a lot of how real nations are built and how they create a sense of patriotism out of symbols and a sense of honour and loyalty, and it’s actually really fascinating how it even works in a Minecraft roleplay. Says something about the human mind I guess. Doesn’t mean I have to like it though.

Anyway, I just wanted to see literally any kind of opposition to power, even if it had to come from a character that was unquestionably a villain, which I fully assumed Techno would be. Because political narratives so often just leave us out, or at best barely mention us. And even from a narrative point of view, adding an anarchist perspective to a political story just objectively broadens its scope and actually challenges people who are used to only arguing along the lines of conservative or liberal, welfare state or privatization, nationalism or multiculturalism, etc. Even if the original work dealt with it poorly, at least it would give me the excuse to rant about it on Tumblr, which is kinda why I revived my old Minecraft sideblog for this. (That and pig!Techno fanart.)

Also how can you have a story so fundamentally about power without its counterpoint: the rejection of power?

(Yes, Dream SMP as a whole is definitely a narrative about power, it’s a huge theme for Wilbur, Quackity, Dream, Eret and the Badlanders at least, as well as obviously the anarchist characters from the opposite direction.)

So yeah, the build up to November 16th for me was mainly about the anticipation for what Techno would do, how would Techno’s character respond to the seemingly inevitable formation of a new government. THAT was the point of interest for me, that was what I was the most invested in. Would we get an actual anarchist opposition as a new side to the conflict or would they just awkwardly drop that whole angle? Or even have him team up with Schlatt like a complete sellout? There was so much potential but I worried they might just waste it.

And I was right to worry since apparently in the original script Techno wasn’t supposed to do anything, he was just there to help fight Schlatt and witness the explosion along with everyone else.

And WOW that would have been so incredibly boring

Not even just from the political perspective, just talking about the narrative in general terms here: imagine November 16th without Techno’s plot points. Not only would it have been boring for Techno’s character but it would have been equally boring for basically everybody but Wilbur and Philza. An anticlimactic fight followed by a big explosion that pretty much everybody had seen coming already. Yes, the button room scene is dramatic and heartbreaking… for Wilbur and Phil. But nobody else was there to see it. For everybody else, it was just a big explosion. It would have been such a huge disservice to anyone watching the other POVs.

Techno’s intervention gave everyone an ACTUAL climactic fight, it allowed characters other than Wil and Phil to witness some actual drama happening and to participate in it, rather than just waiting around for the explosion, while also foreshadowing the explosion. Even better, it provoked SO MUCH discussion in the fandom AND gave a perfect hook for future conflicts to arise. Wilbur’s end was tragic but it was, at the time, final. L'Manburg would have still suffered a catastrophe but it would have been left with just the same exact antagonist as before: Dream.

And at this point Dream’s core goals had barely changed, just his approach was now different. Yes, that makes a difference for the plot, but it doesn’t really change much in terms of ideological conflict. Especially since there really isn’t that big of an ideological difference between Dream and Tommy, because arguably neither of them are particularly big on ideology in the first place, they just have conflicting goals and use different tactics to achieve those goals (well, the tactics aren’t always even that different *cough Spirit cough*).

Techno’s conflict with Tubbo and especially Quackity (and honestly most of the other characters in general) brings in so much more depth to the story, just by introducing another angle, not to even mention how much it brings to focus questions about power and violence. These are themes that exist in other characters’s storylines too but nowhere in the same way or as central as with Techno.

I’m getting kind of ahead of myself here, though.

The real twist of November 16th was the fact that Techno WASN’T a straight up villain, actually. It was a twist to me anyway, because with all my cynicism I just didn’t see it coming, I didn’t expect him to actually start making reasonable criticisms. I didn’t expect him to drop the hobbesian arguments entirely and start making points that actually sounded like anarchism.

I have to assume that cc!Techno must have seen some of the criticisms of his character and been inspired to adjust because the difference is pretty notable.

(Sidenote: I’m just forever kinda sad that Techno’s “I may seem like the villain here” monologue was cut from the video and most people never heard it.)

And I felt SO validated by the way, because it works so well in the story! Everyone is mostly content with the restoration of a status quo of some sort, Schlatt is gone, this is supposed to be the good ending, and then Techno calls them all out and turns the narrative around completely: This was just a coup d'état. This was just the previous political leadership retaking power by force. Why is everyone celebrating the same exact system that lead to Schlatt’s authoritarian rule in the first place?

What he does there is force the audience to question the narrative they’ve been presented so far, that they’ve accepted without a thought. It might not convince them, but they can’t just ignore it either.

Whatever you wanna say about the discourse around Techno on that day, in the ideological narrative THIS IS THE IMPORTANT PART. Not who betrayed who or when is political violence justified, that’s about personal relationships and morality and it’s mostly all more relevant to the aftermath than the event itself. In my opinion, the REAL point in the moment is that the characters and the audience were comfortable with the ending only to be presented with a completely new perspective on the events.

It also recontextualises the finale, including Wilbur’s actions! It’s a much more ambiguous end to the Pogtopia vs Manburg arc and to Wilbur’s original run as the head writer. Wilbur’s “even with Tubbo in charge I don’t think [that ‘special place’] can exist again” is vague enough to be dismissed as just part of his paranoia and internal conflict, but with Techno, there’s a concrete question: what if Tubbo, given the same powers as Schlatt, will turn out to be just a new Schlatt? And suddenly you have to wonder what Wilbur meant by his words too. And was all this foreshadowing something about L’Manburg’s future?

Okay I’ve only made it to November 16th and there’s so much more DSMP to talk about but the post is getting too long and I’m starting to lose my energy. Will I ever make a part two? No idea. But I’ll try.

Standard disclaimer: I’m not the spokesperson of anarchism, other anarchists might disagree with my reading

[comedicreliefonlyworkswhenfunny]

I am against the "Americanization" of fandoms.

What this applies to

Holding non American characters (and sometimes even fans) to an American moral standard. This includes

Refusing to take into account that, first things first, America is NOT the target audience, so certain tropes that would or would not pass in the west are different in Japan.

Like seriously, quite a few of the jokes are just not going to pass or hit, because they require background information that is not universal.

Assuming all American experience is standard. (This could mean watering down just how much pressure is placed on Japanese youth irl by saying that sort of thing is universal (while it is, to a degree, Japanese suicide rates are pretty fucking high because of how fast paced and work heavy some of their loads tend to be), and it's really annoying and rude when someone is trying to speak out about how heavy and harsh the standards are placed on them to succeed just for some American whose mom occasionally yells at them to do their homework dropping by to say "it's like that everywhere")

Demonizing (or wubbifying) a character using American morals, including and up to harassing fans over their interpretations or gatekeeping whether or not a character "should" get development (while you shouldn't do that fucking period, it's rude and annoying- this is specifically for the people who use American standards without acknowledging the cultural gap between them and, you know, the fucking target audience) ((Like seriously, saying "It's different in Japan" is not the end all be all excusing someone's actions, but sometimes the author didn't immediately think that maybe (insert vaguely universal thing) was that bad or that heavy of a topic before they put it into their media. If you don't want to see things like that? Pick a different series and stop harassing the fans))

Getting mad at or making fun of Japan's attempts to satirize their own culture. (A good example is Ace Attorney! To most of us, it's just a funny laugh can you imagine if courts were actually like that- guess what? Japan's are! (Not that America's are actually that much better, they just look good on paper))

Making America/American issues the center of your fan spaces

(Usually without sharing or bringing light to the issues that other countries are going through)

Your

Experiences

Are

Not

Univseral!

Seriously, very few things across America, even, are universal. Texas things the hundreds are nothing while Minnesota's like "oh it's only thirty degrees below zero"- so for fucks sake, stop assuming that all other countries work in ways similar to America.

It's good and important to share Ameican issues with your American followers, but guess what? America isn't the only country out there, and it's certainly not the only one going through bullshit. Don't pull shit like "why's no one reblogging this?" or "why should I care about what's happening in (X country)?"

Don't assume everyone lives in America.

Stop assuming everyone lives in America.

America is not and has never been the target audience for anime, and it's certainly not the only country outside of Japan that enjoys it.

Like I said above, sometimes Japan attempts to satirize its own culture. We can't tell what is and isn't meant as satire, because it's not our culture.

Social media activism can be tiring and maybe you don't have the energy to focus on things that are out of your control, but, if someone tells you about the shit they're going through, don't bring American politics up.

For the neurodivergent crowd out there thinking, "But why?" it's because a lot of social media, especially, is very heavily Americanized- sometimes to the point where people assume that everyone is American. Not to mention, it's disheartening. I'm sorry to say, but you're not actually relating to the conversation, you're often diverting the focus away from the topic at hand. Even if you mean well, America is heavily pedestaled and talked about frequently, and people from other countries are tired of America taking precedent over their own issues.

Don't divert non-American issues into American ones. Seriously. It's not your place. Please just support the original issue or move on.

Racist Bullshit

This especially goes for islanders and South Asian characters, as well as poc characters (because, yes, Japan DOES have black people)

Making "funny" racist headcanons. Not fucking cool.

Changing the canon interpretation of an explicit character of color in order to fit racist stereotypes.

Whitewashing or color draining characters. Different artistic skill sets can be hard, yes, but are you seriously going to look at someone and say "I don't feel like accurately portraying you or people that look like you, because it's difficult for me." If someone tries to correct you on your cultural depiction of a character and/or their life style, don't be an ass. (If possible, it would be nice for those that do the corrections to be polite as well, but it does get really frustrating).

Seriously, no offense guys, but, if you want to persue art, you're going to need to learn to depict different body types, skin colors, and/or ethnic features.

On that note, purposefully, willingly, or consistently inaccurately portraying people or characters of color (especially if someone in the fandom has "called you out" or specifically told you that what you're doing comes across as racist and you continue to do it). If you need help or suck at looking things up, there are references for you! Ask your followers if they have tutorials on poc (issue that you're having), whether it be bodily portrayal, facial proportions, or coloring and shading. Art is so much more fun when you can depict a wider variety, and guess what? Before you drew the same skinny, basic, white character over and over, you couldn't even draw that!

Attempting or claiming to DEPECT CULTURAL ACCURACY within a work or meta, while being completely fucking wrong. ESPECIALLY and specifically if someone calls you out, and you refuse to fix, correct, or change anything.

*little side note that the discussion revolving art is a very multilayered conversation, and it has quite a few technical potholes, which I'll bring up again farther into this post.

Fucking history

Stop demonizing or for absolute fucks sake wubbifying Japanese history because UwU Japan ♡0♡ or bringing up shit like "you know they sided with Nazis, right?" It's good to recognize poor past decisions, but literally it's not your country keep your nose out of it. And? A lot of decisions made by countries were not made by their general peoples. Even those that were, often involved heavy propaganda that made them think what they were doing was right.

Seriously, it's not your country, not your history. Unless you have some sort of higher education (but honestly even then a lot of those contain heavy bias), just don't butt in.

^^^ this also goes to all countries that are NOT Japan (specifically when people from non American countries talk about their history while in fandoms and someone wants to Amerisplain to them why "well, actually-"). When we said, "question your sources," we didn't mean "question the people who know better than you, while blindly accepting the (more than likely biased) education you were given in the past."

What this does NOT include:

Fanfiction

FANfiction

FanFICTION

FANFICTION.

Seriously, fanfiction is literally UNPAID WORK from RANDOM FANS- a lot of which who are or have started as kids. ((No, I'm not trying to excuse racist depictions of people just because they're free, please see above where I talk about learning to grow a skill and how it's possible tone bad and get good, on top of the fact that some inaccuracies are not just willful ignorance))

"Looking it up" doesn't work

"Looking it up" almost never works

Please, for fucks sake, you know that most all online search engines are heavily biased, right? Not to mention, not everything is universal across the entirety of Japan. You want to look up how the school system works in Hokkaido? Well it's different from the ones in Osaka!

Most fanfiction is meant to be an idealized version of the world. Homophobia, transphobia, misogyny, ableism, and racism are very prevalent and heavy topics that some fan authors would prefer to avoid. (Keep in mind, this is also used by some people in those minorities often because thinking about how relevant those kinds of things are is to them every day).

A lot of shit that happens in writing is purely because it's an ideal setting. I've seen a few arguments recently about how fan authors portray Japanese schools wrong- listen, I can't tell you how many random school systems I have pulled from my ass purely because (I need them to interact at these points, in these ways). Sometimes the only compliment I can think of is 'I like your shirt' or sometimes I need character A to realize that character B likes the same thing as they do, so I might ignore the fact that most all Japanese schools require uniforms, so that I can put my character in a shirt that will get someone else's attention.

Sometimes it's difficult to find information on different types of systems, and sometimes when you DO know those things, they directly rule out a plot point that needs to happen (like back on the topic of schools (from what I've seen/heard/read- which guess what? Despite being from multiple sources, might still be inaccurate!) Japanese schools don't have mandatory elective classes (outside of like gym and most of them usually learn English or another language- I've seen stuff about art classes? But the information across the board varies.), but, if I need my character to walk in and see someone completely in their element, I'm probably not going to try and gun for accuracy or make up a million and two reasons as to why this (non elective) person would possibly need something from (elective teacher) after school of all things.)

Some experiences ARE universal- or at least overlap American and Japanese norms! Like friends going to fast food places after school doesn't /sound Japanese/ or whatever, but it's not like a horrible inaccuracy to say that your characters ate at McDonald's because they were hungry. Especially when you consider that the Japanese idolization of American "culture" is also a thing.

Also I saw someone complaining about how, in December, a lot of (usually westerners) write Christmas fics! Well, not only are quite a few of those often gift fics, with it being the season if giving and all, but Japanese people do celebrate Christmas! Not as "the birth of Christ," but rather as a popularized holiday about gift giving (also pst: America isn't the only place that celebrates Christmas)

But, on that note, sometimes things like Holidays are "willfully ignorant" of what actually happens (I've made this point several times, but (also this does by no means excuse actual racism)), because, again: plot convenience! Hey what IF they celebrated Halloween by Trick or Treating? What if Easter was a thing and they got to watch their kids or younger siblings crawl around on the ground looking for tiny plastic eggs?

Fanfiction authors can put in hours of work for one or two thousand words- let alone ten thousand words, fifty thousand words, a hundred thousand words. And all of these are free. There is absolutely no (legal) way to make money off of their fanworks, but they spent hours, days, weeks, months- sometimes even years- writing. It is so unnecessary to EXPECT or REQUIRE them to spend even more hours looking up shit that, no offense, almost no one is going to notice. No one is going go care that all of my combini prices are accurate or that I wrote a fic with a Japanese map of a train station that I had to backwards search three times to find an English version that I could read.

Not everyone has the attention span or ability to spend hours of research before writing a single word. Neurodivergent people are literally a thing yall. Instead of producing the perfectly pretty accurate version of Japan that people want to happen, what ACTUALLY happens is that the writer reads and reads and reads and either never finds the information they need or they lose the motivation to write.

^^^ (This does NOT apply to indigenous or native peoples, like Pacific Islanders or tribes that exist in real life. Please make sure that you portray tribal minorities accurately. If you can't find the information you need (assuming that the content of the series is not specifically about a tribe), please just make one up (and for fucks sake, recognize that a lot of what you've been taught about tribal practices, such as shit like human sacrifices or godly worship, is actually just propaganda.)

Not to mention, it often puts a wall in front of readers who would then need to pull up their OWN information (that may or may not be biased) just in order to interact with the fic ((okay, this one has a little bit of arguability when it comes to things like measurements and currency, because Americans don't know what a meter is and no one else knows what a foot is- either way, one of yall is going to have to look up measurements if they want to get a better understanding of the fic)). However, a lot of Americans who do write using 'feet, Fahrenheit, dollars,' also write for their American followers or friends (which really could go both ways).

On a less easily arguable side, most fic readers aren't going to open up a new tab just to search everything that the author has written (re the whole deep topics, not everyone wants to read about those sorts of things, either). Not only are you making it more difficult on the writer, but you're also making it more difficult for the reader who's now wondering why you decided to add in Grandma's Katsudon recipe, and whether or not the details you have added are accurate.

Some series, themselves, ignore Japanese norms! Piercings, hair dye, and incorrectly wearing ones uniform are frowns upon in Japanese schools- sometimes up to inflicting punishment on those students because of it. However, some anime characters still have naturally or dyed blond hair some of them still have piercings or wear their uniforms wrong. Some series aren't set specifically in Japan, but rather in a vague based-off-real-life Japan that's just slightly different (like Haikyuu and all of its different prefectures). Sometimes they're based on real places, but real places that have gone through major changes (like the Hero Academia series with its quirks and shit).

Fandom is not a full time job. Please stop treating it like it is one. Most people in fandoms have to engage in other things like school or work that most definitely take precident over frantically Googling the cultural implications of dying your hair pink in Japan.

Art is also meant to be a creative freedom and is almost always a hobby, so there are a few cracks that tend to spark debate. Like I said, it is still a hobby, something that's meant to be fun (on this note!)

If trying new things and expanding your portfolio is genuinely making you upset, it's okay to take a break from it. You're not going to get it right on the first try and please, please to everyone out there critiquing artists' works, please take this into account before you post things.

I'm sorry to say, but, while it gets frustrating to see the same things done wrong over and over again, some people are genuinely trying. If it matters enough for you to point out, please offer solutions or resources that would possibly help the artist do better (honestly this could be said about a lot of online activism). I get that they should "want" to do better (and maybe they don't and your annoyance towards them is completely justified- again, as I said, if this becomes a repeated offense and they don't listen to or care about the people trying to help them, yeah you can be a bitch if it helps you feel better- just please don't assume that everyone is willfully ignorant of how hurtful/upsetting/annoying a certain way of portraying things is), but also WANTING to do better and ACTUALLY doing better are two different things.

Maybe they didn't realize what they were doing was inaccurate. Maybe they didn't have the right tutorials. Maybe they tried to look it up, but that failed them. Either way, to some- especially neurodivergent artists- just being told that their work is bad or racist or awful isn't going to make them want to search for better resources in order to be more accurate, it's just going to make them give up.

Also! In fic and in writing, no one is going to get it right on the first try. Especially at the stage where we creators ARE merely in fan spaces is a great time to "fuck around and find out", before we bring our willfully or accidentally racist shit into monetized media. Absolutely hold your fan creators to higher standards, but literally fan work has so little actual impact on popular media (and this goes for just about every debate about fan spaces), and constructive criticism as well as routine practice can mean worlds for representation in future media. NOT allowing for mistakes in micro spaces like fandoms is how you get genuinely harmful or just... bad... portrayals of minorities in popularized media that DOES have an impact on the greater public. OR you get a bunch of creators who are too afraid to walk out of their own little bubbles, because what if they get it wrong and everyone turns against them. It's better to just "stick with what they know" (hobbies are something that you are meant to get better at, even if that is a slow road- for all of my writers and artists out there, it does take time, but you will get it. To everyone else, please do speak up about things that are wrong, but don't make it all about what's wrong and please don't be rude. It's frustrating on both ends, so, if you can, please try not to escalate the situation more.)

Anyways, I'm tired of everyone holding fictional characters to American Puritanical standards, but I'm also tired of seeing every "stop Americanizing fandom" somehow loop into fanfiction and how all authors who don't make their fics as accurate as possible are actually just racist and perpetuating or enabling America's take over of the world or some shit.

Fan interpretation of published media is different than fan creation of mon monetized media. Americans dominating or monopolizing spaces meant for all fans (especially in a fandom that was never meant for them to begin with) is annoying and can be harmful sometimes. Americans writing out their own personal experience using random fictional characters (more often than not) isn't.

[ryukyuan-sunflower]

Response to the Moral Question of the MugenxFuu Romance

This is a full response to an anonymous ask I received: 

“Can I ask why you ship fuugen? Isn’t Fuu a minor and Mugen is 19.”

This is a rather...complex and loaded question. There’s multiple things to address but I’ll start simple and work up from there. I will first go into my personal feelings on why I ship the pairing, evidence, and then the more complicated concept of the character’s ages both in reality, as well as in the fictional anime. Hopefully it will alleviate some distress on the issue. If it doesn’t, and you consider the age gap morally unacceptable, then it might unfortunately serve to make Mugen out to be a morally questionable character, implied romance aside.

The Simple Question: Why do I ship it? 

I ship Mugen x Fuu because it’s implied canon by the creators.

I believe strongly, and have found and provided plenty of evidence in my numerous other posts that support my belief, that Mugen and Fuu were written to have romantic feelings for one another. These feelings were never addressed, acted upon, nor explicitly spelled out for viewers. But the subtle implications of their unsaid feelings added up, episode by episode. The interviews of Shinichiro Watanabe, Ayako Kawasumi and Ginpei Sato only solidify my interpretations and findings.

The actual anime aside, here are the links to my posts concerning the interviews, if you are interested.

-Shinichiro Watanabe about Mugen’s Character.

-Ayako Kawasumi and Ginpei Sato about Fuu’s Feelings for Mugen in the Roman Album.

I adore the entire cast of Samurai Champloo, as much as by themselves as I do as a trio. I love Jin just as much as Mugen and Fuu. However, I do not see any implication of Jin having romantic feelings with either of them. His romance is canonically with Shino and his role for Fuu feels more brotherly and fatherly to me.

Personally, I am not a “crack shipper”. I am not someone who typically likes two characters and pairs them off together for my own amusement. I have nothing against crack pairings, nor their shippers, but it is not my taste. I enjoy romances that have some type of evidence or backing behind it. So it is not as if I simply ship Mugen and Fuu because I like Mugen more than Jin.

If hypothetically, all the things that happened with Mugen and Fuu happened with Jin and Fuu—if Jin saved her constantly, if Jin and Fuu had strange, intimate moments like the wrist grab scene,  if Fuu jumped in the way to save Jin’s life, if Fuu cried for Jin seven times, if Fuu’s voice brought Jin back from death, if Jin gave up his sword for Fuu—well, I would not be a fan of the Mugen and Fuu ship. I’d be a fan of Jin and Fuu. 

But that is simply not how the anime was written. 

On that same note of liking an implied romance, I am not as interested in blatant romance stories either. Implied, subtle romance is so interesting because it leaves enough clues that one has to find themselves, and then you are able to make your own interpretations and “what if” scenarios surrounding it. This is why I enjoy the story types of, say, the Souls video game series and its related titles. (Demon’s Souls, Dark Souls, Bloodborne, Sekiro). The story lines have to be figured out, and while there is evidence and clues dropped all over, nothing is ever specifically stated. But even so, we can come to solid conclusions that are difficult to disprove, but also never fully confirmed.

Samurai Champloo spells out very little for viewers. Example: Never does the anime state what island Mugen is from. We only know it’s in the Ryukyus. But based on historical evidence, and also symbolism in the show (the paantu and the trees in his flashback) we can assume it’s Tarama-shima or another island in Miyako.

Never do Mugen and Fuu state they have feelings for one another, but it’s in subtle dialogue, numerous times. Most blatant however, is when Sara tells Mugen “It’s as if you’ve never been loved by anyone.” and then Fuu proves her wrong by saving his life by throwing her own in the way, only seconds later.

Their actions fascinate me. Both Mugen and Fuu demonstrate self sacrificial behavior for each other, and show how much they care with actions rather than words. Most of all, I enjoy the romantic trope of “love leads to a character’s redemption.” Mugen’s feelings for Fuu is what redeems him from the sins of his past, and saves him from a life without meaning and only pain, anger and hatred. These aspects of his dark character are highlighted both by the dialogue of Mukuro in Episode 13 and Sara in Episode 21. Fuu being his redemption is also symbolized in her saving him on three separate occasions. The last incident, when she calls him back from death and the Paantu taking him away, is the most symbolic of his “redemption”.

Samurai Champloo is a direct response to the cynicism of Watanabe’s previous work, Cowboy Bebop. Where revenge and the past consumes Spike, ruining his future and love, Mugen is redeemed by love and is able to face his past and press on. 

Here is a fantastic article about the concept of Mugen’s love for Fuu being his redemption and also being a direct response to Cowboy Bebop. 

All of this aside, because of the second comment, I’m assuming that this isn’t necessarily what you were asking. 

“Isn’t Fuu a minor and Mugen is 19?” 

I’m guessing you’re implying that either the romantic pairing is impossible due to their age gap, or it’s morally wrong.

I was conflicted how to answer this, at first. I know this can be a triggering topic. So I decided on providing several explanations. I hope at least one answers the question properly, or at least sheds some light on the issue.

Either it will justify why there is nothing morally reprehensible about the Mugen x Fuu romance, or, it will unfortunately show that Mugen is morally questionable, depending on how the evidence is taken.

First, at 15, Fuu is not a minor in her time period. Second, Mugen is either 19 or 20 depending on the source.

Samurai Champloo is not set in one specific year of history, as the anime is not only anachronistic, it historically takes place in multiple years that could not coincide. In essence, Samurai Champloo is not one year, but “a chanpuru of one whole era.” This era is the Edo/Tokugawa era, which includes the years of 1603-1868.

In the Tokugawa Era, Fuu is considered an adult. She is a young adult, yes, but in the eyes of everyone, she is an adult. This is both historically accurate, and is also demonstrated numerous times in the anime. Fuu’s sexualization and her being seen in a romantic way is never frowned upon by any of the characters in the entire series.

Brief disclaimer: Nowhere in my love of the Fuugen pairing or fan interpretations of the characters’ futures, do I see any sort of sexual relationship between Mugen and Fuu developing when she is 15. After they part ways, is where I like to make my fan conclusions on them meeting again when she’s older.

I also want to clarify here and now, that I’m not a supporter of a 15 year old entering a romantic relationship of any kind, let alone a sexual one in real life. I think that teens should work on themselves and not get swept away by romance and sexuality, especially frivolously. It’s irresponsible and dangerous. But, it’s also unrealistic to believe all young people will never fall in love, whether it’s fake or real. If there happened to be a man who was 5 years older than a girl and the two did develop feelings for each other, I believe nothing should be pursued between them until they are both of age.

Adulthood in the Tokugawa Era

I want to first talk about the concept of Fuu being a minor. In short, she is not a minor in her time period.

To begin with reality first, the life expectancy hundreds of years ago was much lower than now. In Japan now, the average life expectancy is in the 80s. But hundreds of years ago, it was estimated to be about 50. Women in particular had the complication of fatality from childbirth. Led makeup, childbirth, and also STDs were a huge threat for courtesans of the time period as well. Many women died in their twenties.

As for the concept of ”adulthood”, the adult age of 18 only started in the Meiji Restoration (late 1800s- early 1900s) when Japan contacted the west and emulated its practices. The age of 18 being an adult nowadays is largely based on the setup of the education system. Whether 18 is too young or too old is a matter up for debate and varies country to country. 

Specifically, in the Tokugawa Era, the age of adulthood was considered when one entered puberty. This was generally 15 for a male and 12 for a female. 

Here is a link to the full article on the topic of the shifting coming of age, if you are interested.

In the case of aristocratic children, such as boys raised as samurai, the Genpuku ceremony that transitioned children to adults varied in age. During the early Tokugawa era, it was 15-17, while later into the Tokugawa era, during less civil unrest, the age dropped to as low as 13. At this age, these young men could then marry and were likely pressured to do so. Marriages in the Tokugawa Era were very different than nowadays as well. Many nobles and royalty had their daughters married off at young ages such as 8 years old.Though, the sexual nature of these relationships did not develop until the girl was likely of child bearing age, which was in the teens.

Taking the historical 12 year old age into account, Fuu being 15, is then already three years into adulthood. 

Fuu’s Depiction as a Woman in the Anime

In regards to Fuu’s maturity, she has no guardian, nor caretaker, which shows she is an independent adult making her own decisions. Yes, Mugen and Jin are her bodyguards, but they are not her legal guardians, because she does not need one. It is her who commands them and leads them. After they part ways, she is fifteen years old (perhaps a year older based on the time span of the anime) traveling the country alone.

She was forced to grow up very fast. Not only is she an orphan, but Fuu’s resourcefulness allows her to survive on her own. She tricks two complete strangers to escort her across Japan. But Fuu is fully functional as an adult, arguably more than Mugen or Jin in some ways. She works, fishes, cooks, sews, tends to wounds etc. Fuu is by no means innocent to mature situations either. She’s seen Mugen and Jin kill numerous people in front of her, which is traumatizing in itself.

In regards to Fuu’s sexualization,on separate occasions, there are bath scenes in the anime, showing Fuu partially nude. There are also scenes of her undressing. Morally correct or not, it is clear she was sexualized like many young anime females.

Aside from that, here are examples of male characters viewing Fuu as an adult woman, romantically or sexually.

Episode 3 and 4: Fuu is thrown in a brothel. While the legality of her being forced against her will just for the sake of paying off a debt is somewhat in question, the fact that she is 15 in a brothel is not. Brothels were not an undercover organization. It was completely legal in Tokugawa Japan, and Fuu being 15 as a courtesan was not illegal. When an ugly rodent man buys her, it’s served as comedy.

Episode 5: Fuu becomes a ukiyo-e model, the backwards beauty, for Moronobu Hishikawa, who was a real historical figure. This grown man, probably around Jin and Mugen’s age or maybe older, also is not considered a creep for his attraction to her. In fact, it’s not even considered wrong that he paints a nude picture of a 15 year old. Again, because she’s deemed a woman in this time period.

Episode 8: Nagamitsu, who is leagues older than Mugen and Jin, asks Fuu to become the “harem of his heart”. He is attracted to her, sees her as a younger version of his wife when he first met her, and even asks her on a date, to which she accepts. This entire interaction is played off as comedy, and not that he’s some creepy grown man attracted to a minor. More like, he’s a bumbling buffoon. His two sidekicks, the beatboxer and Ogura do not intervene, nor make a comment that it’s wrong he is interested in a 15 year old when he’s in thirties or forties. Because quite simply, in this time period, it’s not wrong.

Episode 16: Okuru tells Fuu that “a woman with a healthy appetite is a good woman” when she is devouring fish.

If you stand firm that it is still morally wrong and all these characters were creeps for being interested or saying these words to a 15 year old, that is fine. If you think it is morally wrong to ship Mugen and Fuu because of the age gap, and refuse to believe that the two are an implied romance, that is fine too. I can’t convince everyone.

However, I will make the counter argument then, that liking Mugen as a character means liking a morally questionable character. Romance and feelings aside, the reason for this is simply how he treats and talks to Fuu.

Mugen’s Questionable Dialogue to Fuu

If shipping them is wrong, then what Mugen directly says and does to Fuu is just as wrong. In my opinion, it makes it weirder if he doesn’t develop feelings for her.

Episode 2: In the original Japanese dub, Mugen tells an unconscious, intoxicated Fuu that he’s going to rape her. “Okasu kureru” is the dialogue.

The English changes this to “Let’s strip her and dump her.”

Episode 11: When Fuu asks why Jin needs to go see a woman when she’s around, Mugen then responds “Because you’re flat chested”, not to be confused with “You’re a child.” When she says her kimono makes her look slender, Mugen calls her a liar and then says “Show me.” He asks Fuu to undress for him and show him her breasts...

Episode 20: Mugen stands up naked for Fuu in the hot spring even though she’s clearly flustered. Exposing oneself to a minor is an offense in the modern era. But he doesn’t stop there. He berates her, and then peeks his head out to look at her naked too.

All of these examples are meant as fluff and comedy too, no matter how offensive they can be. It also implies his attraction, interest and his consideration that she is indeed a woman. This is then furthered in his dialogue with Jin.

Episode 12: When they read Fuu’s diary, Mugen asks the odd question to Jin. “Man to man, what do you think of her?” This “man to man”, implies Mugen wants to know how Jin feels about Fuu as a woman.

As for a debatable canon example, I have the need to bring up the Samurai Champloo: Sidetracked video game on PS2. In Japanese, it is entirely voiced by the same cast as the anime: Kazuya Nakai, Ayako Kawasumi and Ginpei Sato. In English, Mugen is not Steve Blum, but Fuu and Jin are the same voice actors as the anime: Kari Whelgren and Kirk Thornton.

In it, Mugen develops an attraction to a girl who looks nearly identical to Fuu: brown hair in a ponytail, big brown eyes, pink kimono, three hairpin beads. The kicker is her name is Yuu. The even bigger kicker is that she is younger than Fuu.

Here are the links to the scenes. Japanese audio is much better, as a warning.

Link to English, Fuu catches them alone and tells Jin “I had no idea Mugen was a cradle robber!”

Link to Japanese: Fuu calls Mugen a “lolicon”.

When the girl asks “Do you like me? You can lie if you want.” he tells her:

Link to Japanese: “Suki da. Uso jane.”

Link to English: “I like you. I ain’t lyin’.”

And the two share a kiss, before she dies. Worth mentioning, Fuu also admits to being jealous about all this and a fortune teller tells Fuu that this is her “heart talking.”

While debatable canon, the video game still highlights this concept that Mugen will even like a girl younger than Fuu (anywhere from 12-14), so long as she resembles Fuu.

If we pretend for a moment that Fuu is indeed a minor in her time period, then that makes Mugen’s actions and comments out to be even worse. Not only is he a pervert, but he’s then a pervert flirting and making sexual comments about a ”minor”.

Underaged Girls and Age Gaps in Other Japanese Romances

If you still believe that there is something morally wrong, regardless of the time period it takes place in, I have more modern examples in media.

Modern Japanese shoujo manga and anime (shoujo being a genre directed at teenage girls) is rife with romance stories of older guys with younger girls. It’s not frowned upon in Japan, and even for its readers in the west.

I will give you some major examples I can think of, off the top of my head.

Inuyasha: Inuyasha and Kagome. Inuyasha is over 150 years old (not counting the other 50 years he was comatose). Yes, he ages slower as a half demon, but that is still 150 years of experience in life. Kagome meanwhile, is 15 years old and does not come from the Sengoku era. She’s from the modern era. If one wants to argue that Inuyasha doesn't count because every decade for him is one year, meaning he’s supposed to be “15 in human years”, then there is the matter of Miroku. Miroku is 18 years old, and fondles not only Kagome who is 15, but Sango who is 16. And he and Sango later become a romance.

Shugo Chara: Ikuto and Amu have an age gap of 17 and 12. While there is a love triangle element, it is debatable that Ikuto is more her true love interest in the manga. This takes place in the modern era.

Dengeki Daisy: Kurosaki and Teru have an age gap of 24 and 16. This also takes place in the modern era.

Incidentally, all of these aforementioned romances share some parallels to Mugen and Fuu in some way. Whether the guy is argumentative with the girl, a homeless wanderer, antagonist by nature, teasing about her lack of a figure, a bodyguard/protector role etc. 

These are just a few of the more pure Shoujo examples directed at young girls.This does not include age gaps between characters, or underaged girls in anime meant for men or adults in general. They can get far more morally questionable, in my honest opinion. Mugen and Fuu barely scratches a surface. There is clearly a cultural gap between Asia and the West and the concept of age gaps, regardless of one’s personal moral stance on the subject.

Mugen and Fuu’s Actual Age Gap and Maturity

In the Tokugawa Era, their age gap of 4 to 5 years is incredibly small. Even nowadays, that age gap is very small, if Fuu was a legal adult in modern times.

Tsuru-himegimi, the real daughter of Shogun Tsunayoshi was 8 years old when she was married to her husband Tsunanori of Kii, who was 12 years her senior.

As for the anime’s depiction of them, there was never a sense of “Fuu is child. Mugen is a man”. It always felt like the two were in a similar age bracket. 

I must ask the question, if Fuu or Mugen’s ages was never revealed, would it change the context of the story at all? If Fuu was older, would it change it? Personally, I don’t think so. In this case, because she is both physically developed and also deemed a woman in the anime and historically, it changes nothing.

Their interactions, their bickering, their attitudes, and the way Mugen yells at her, and the way Fuu reprimands him, it always felt like they were similar. They both exhibited many immature, innocent qualities, as well as adult qualities. It was Jin who had a more mature demeanor, being the calm, responsible one, who would rather not intervene with their nonsense. This is another reason why I see Jin as a father figure to Fuu: a representation of the samurai who smells of sunflowers that she did not have growing up.

These images here show their similarities in behavior quite well. And there are many more examples.

Conclusion

A good, well developed character is not a perfect one. There is no denying Mugen is flawed, morally questionable and sometimes straight out an antagonist. He steals, he kills, he was an ex-pirate who likely raided and pillaged… Realistically, he would have no qualms about being attracted or developing feelings for a woman who is 4 or 5 years his junior, let alone the other crazy stuff he’s done. Especially when, in their time period, there is nothing wrong about it at all.

Regardless if his morality is in question or not, what makes the implied romance so interesting is the fact that he didn’t act upon anything sexually with Fuu. His actions towards her were selfless, and Mugen developed greatly by the end. But because of his actions and words,and jealousy, it does not come off as simply a sibling or familial relationship that the two have. This differs from how Jin and Fuu interact.

Most importantly, Fuu serves as the catalyst for Mugen’s growth and redemption of his sins. Unlike Jin, Mugen saves Fuu time and and time again, making him her hero, despite being seemingly an ex-criminal that only works in self interest. Jin did not require this change, as he was always an honorable samurai from the start.

Both men found purpose for different reasons.

Mugen needed love.

Jin needed duty.

I think that covers everything. Well, unless your question is simply why do I ship them when the characters are young and I’m older than them.

As of the time of making this post, I am a 23 years old woman. The first time I ever set eyes on the anime, I was 8 or 9 years old. As a kid, I had my first innocent, childlike suspicion of a romance between them when Mugen first went to save Fuu from the “bad place”, being the brothel in episode 4 without any reason to, while Jin didn’t. Also, he saved her in Ep 1 and 2 and Jin didn’t.

The first time I got to watch the whole anime, I was 13 and saw the full story play out. And at that point, I was more convinced. Over the years, I rewatched, looked into a lot of the history and symbolism used in the anime, analyzed the episodes, and I became more convinced. I shipped it when I was Fuu’s age of 15. I shipped it when I was Mugen’s age of 19/20. And, I will likely continue to cherish the beautiful story of Samurai Champloo and the implied subtle romance of Mugen and Fuu for years to come.

Perhaps it is a reminder of the purity and innocent nature of love for me. These two did more for each other, cared more for each other, and were more entertaining with each other than so many cliche, blatant romance stories.

[thegentlecriticfilmreview]

Late Night, a feminist review

This is another old essay, on my favourite movie Late Night, from the coolest class I ever took, Women in Pop Culture. Writing this essay actually made me realize I want to more closely study competitive femininity one day! I also remember this was an essay where I wished the word count was higher, because I love this movie and had a lot to say!! lol, maybe one day I will write more. 

if you read, I hope you enjoy!

Mindy Kaling's first feature film, Late Night, is a dramatic comedy starring Emma Thompson as Katherine Newbury, the only female late night talk show host in America. Kaling co-stars as Molly Patel, an Indian woman selected as a diversity hire for Katherine’s writing staff. The film is a pointed remark on the lack of diversity in Hollywood writing rooms, as well as the cultural shifts that are bringing about change in the industry. Molly Patel’s intersectional feminisim not only builds her relationship with Katherine but also attests that a truly feminist character has less limitations than most depictions of empowered women. 

Five minutes into the film, we see Katherine Newbury fire one of her writers after he asks for a raise because he has just had a second child with his wife. Katherine is more than pleased to inform him of why this is a sexist request. “You’re asking for a raise, not because of any work-related contribution,” she says, “but simply because you have a family. And that’s why in the 1950’s, family men were promoted over the women they worked with.” It is understood from this scene that Katherine approaches the world from a place of education and with feminist intent. However, the writer she is firing quickly retorts, “There are no women on this staff. And the reason there aren’t any women is because you hate women.” This is a shock for both Katherine and the audience because, how can a self-proclaimed feminist be accused of hating women? 

An internalized competitive feminity is revealed in Katherine. Angela McRobbie explains competitive femininity as, “an amplification of control of women... so as to ensure the maintenance of power structures...Feminism, at the same time, is made compatible with an individualising project and is also made to fit with the idea of competition” (McRobbie, 2015, pg. 3). Katherine is the only female late night host in television, yet she is an upper class, white woman. Her economic background alone allows her to occupy a place of privilege in a system that relies on the oppression of the lower classes. While it is a triumph that Katherine is a successful female host, she fails to reflect on possible extensions of this triumph, such as hiring other women for her staff. Therefore, Katherine’s feminism is a self-serving feminism. “It seems then there is a battle to ensure that the new popular feminism which emerges or which holds sway is one which discards the older, welfarist and collectivist feminism of the past, in favour of individualistic striving” (McRobbie, 2015, pg. 4). Competitive feminity is a sly instrument in our society. It allows for the success of certain women over others, while leaving “the existing patriarchal regime relatively untouched” (McRobbie, 2015, pg.17). 

As the media we see often reflects certain aspects of the society we live in, Mindy Kaling is making a purposeful statement that writing rooms in the entertainment industry are disproportionately white, male and upper class. As Douglas Kellner details in, “Cultural Studies, Multiculturalism and Media Culture,”  the entertainment industry plays a massive role in our society’s culture. “Media images help shape our view of the world and our deepest values...Media stories provide the symbols, myths and resources through which we constitute a common culture and through the appropriation of which we insert ourselves into this culture” (Kellner, 2015, pg. 7). It is important to view Late Night with a cultural studies perspective. Kaling’s character Molly Patel is very clearly both a fan and critic of popular culture, and Katherine Newbury is considered an international icon. Furthermore, Andi Zeisler, in “Pop and Circumstance: Why Pop Culture Matters,” demonstrates the significance of examining phenomena such as cultural icons “in the context of its social value, influence and ideology” (Zeisler, 2008, pg. 5). We see examples of strong cultural reactions in Late Night when Katherine receives negative backlash from both journalistic and social media for attempting to embarrass one of her guests, as well as having an affair with one of her writers. This is because Katherine’s status as an icon places her in a space of perpetual examination.

The introduction of Kaling’s character, Molly Patel, is the biggest shift in the plot. Molly is the opposite of Katherine in that she is exceedingly earnest, prone to hesitation, attended a community college and is not white. Bell hooks identifies from her experience teaching cultural studies that, “everyday folks from all walks of life were eager to share thoughts and talk critically about pop culture” (hooks, 1994, pg. 4). If we understand popular culture and its various productions paired with its widespread influence, what can possibly justify the fact that it is dominantly created by white, upper class men, and not a more accurately diverse portion of the population? Molly raises this issue in the film, urging Katherine to use her perspective as a woman in her comedy. Soon, the entire staff is branching out their writing in order to be more embracing of their audiences. Although it is a comedy, not a superhero film, a connection can be drawn to feminist heroes and how they achieve their goals through collective effort (Curtis and Cardo, 2018). It is in this way that Molly represents a more inclusive feminism. Her question of, “how can I help make this show better?” comes from a headspace of feminist unity. Not like Katherine’s earlier self-serving feminism, Molly asks, “How can I help further the cause of feminism?”

Ultimately, Late Night is an incredibly funny film that successfully tackles feminist and cultural issues. There is room for more than just one empowered woman in the film, and they experience their empowerment in unique ways. Initially, Katherine Newbury’s competitive femininity limits her, and this contrast in her feminism is a reminder of our society’s culture. As bell hooks states, “we must be willing to courageously surrender participation in whatever sphere of coercive hierarchical domination we enjoy” (1994, pg. 6). The introduction of Molly Patel and her desire for a more inclusive and diverse work environment proves that the best way to act as an empowered woman, is to lift up and empower those around you.

[alexsfictionaddiction]

Alex Recommends: May and June Books

I must apologise for the late arrival of this post. It should have been up days ago but I’ve been struggling to read much for the last month or so. My head has been very foggy and dark with all of the confusion, anxiety and hate that has been filling my news feeds and I’ve been filled with a desire to combat it. Before this month, I’d have run in the opposite direction from any kind of confrontation but recent events have given me the kick up the butt to actively do better. I’ve been calling out bigotry when I come across it and I’ve noticed that some people, notably my older relatives, haven’t necessarily reacted favorably to the changed, more outspoken Alex. It has been pretty daunting and I’ve worked myself up into fits of rage and tears several times over the last couple of months.

A lot of things have changed for me since my last Alex Recommends post. I’m currently temporarily living in Staffordshire with my boyfriend because my depression got too bad for me to stay at home for much longer. I missed him unbelievably much and I knew that spending some prolonged time with him would help -and it has. Both him and I have spent 12 weeks religiously following all of the rules, so we’re both extremely low-risk for catching and spreading COVID-19 and being together was something that we simply really needed to do. Please don’t hate me for it! In other news, I have also started writing again, which feels amazing. I’m now a few thousand words into a queer Rapunzel retelling that I have lots of ideas for. Maybe I’ll even post an extract or two, when I feel it’s ready to show you.

In the centre of the renewed energy of Black Lives Matter and the undeniable exposure of the horrors that is police brutality, the book blogging and BookTube worlds vowed to uplift Black voices. I wrote a very long, in-depth blog post full of Black-written books and Black book influencers. Please check it out to diversify your TBR and educate yourself on Black issues, which is what every white person should be doing now and always.

June was Pride Month and I tried my best to compile a series of recommendation posts in honour of it. These included gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, non-binary, ace, pansexual and intersex lists. I’ve had some great feedback on this, so I hope you find some fantastic new reads. It felt especially poignant to put them together the same year that one of my childhood heroes came out as an ignorant trans-exclusive feminist. As a lifelong Harry Potter superfan and someone who has repeatedly publicly supported Rowling in the past, I feel the need to clarify where I now stand. I do not support or agree with a single thing that she has said in recent times with regard to transgender people. I’ve never felt my own status as a cisgender female threatened by trans people wanting more rights or believed that children or women were at risk due to their existence. 

I read her words more than once and struggled to find any semblance of the woman who wrote the books that have most defined my life. I’m hesitant to say that we can always successfully separate the art from the artist but I will say that it makes sense to me that the Rowling of 2020 is not the same Rowling that wrote Harry Potter. She was a destitute single mother when Philosopher’s Stone was published in 1997 and of course, she is now a million worlds away from that lifestyle. It breaks my heart but it makes sense to me that she has changed beyond belief because her life has changed beyond belief. I’m not and never would make any excuses for her recent behaviour and I have stopped supporting her personally but I will not be getting rid of my Harry Potter books and I will undoubtedly re-read them several more times. However, I am now hugely reluctant to buy any more merchandise or special editions of the books, which saddens me but at the moment, it feels right. There is no coming back for her from this and I will make a conscious effort to keep Harry Potter and Rowling away from my future content. It can be really tough to admit that the people you once really admired aren’t great humans but it’s something that we all have to acknowledge in this case, in order to move forward with our own quests to become our best selves.

It didn’t feel right to post my May recommendations last month as I didn’t feel comfortable promoting my own content in the midst of boosting Black voices. So today I’m bringing you a bumper edition of Alex Recommends. Here are 10 books that I’ve enjoyed since the start of May that I’d love to share with you. Enjoy! -Love, Alex x

FICTION: Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng

Set in the affluent neighbourhood of Shaker Heights, Ohio in the 1990s, two families are brought together and pulled apart by the most intense, devastating circumstances. Dealing with issues of race, class, coming-of-age, motherhood and the dangers of perfection, Little Fires Everywhere is highly addictive and effecting. With characters who are so heartbreakingly real and a story that weaves its way to your very core, I couldn’t put it down and I’m still thinking about it over a month after finishing it. 

FICTION: Get A Life, Chloe Brown by Talia Hibbert

When coding nerd Chloe Brown almost dies, she makes a list of goals and vows to finally Get A Life. So she enlists tattooed redhead handyman and biker Red to teach her how. Cute, funny and ultimately life-affirming, this enemies-to-lovers rom-com was exactly the brand of light relief that I needed this month. The follow-up Take A Hint, Dani Brown focuses on a fake-dating situation with Chloe’s over-achieving academic sister and I can’t wait to get my hands on that.

FICTION: The Rearranged Life of Oona Lockhart by Margarita Montimore

Just before her 19th birthday at midnight on New Year’s Eve 1983, Oona Lockhart finds herself inexplicably in 2015 inside her 51-year-old body. She soon learns that every year on New Year’s Day, she will now find herself inside a random year of her life and she has no control over it. Seeing her through relationships, friendships and extreme wealth, this strange novel has echoes of Back To The Future and 13 Going On 30 with a final revelation that I certainly never saw coming.

NON-FICTION: The Five by Hallie Rubenhold

Atmospheric and engaging, The Five details the previously untold stories of Polly, Annie, Elisabeth, Kate and Mary-Jane -the women who lost their lives at the hands of Jack the Ripper. Full of fascinating research and heartbreaking accounts of what these women’s lives may have been like, Rubenhold paints a dark immersive portrait of Victorian London and gives voice to these tragic silenced lives. Although we can’t know for certain if these accounts are entirely accurate, they feel very plausible and in some ways, The Five exposes how little time has moved on, when it comes to the public portrayal of single, troubled women.

NON-FICTION: Unicorn by Amrou Al-Kadhi

From a childhood crush on Macaulay Culkin to how a teenage obsession with marine biology helped them realise their non-binary identity, Unicorn tells the story of how the obsessive perfectionist son of a strict Muslim Iraqi family became the gorgeous drag queen Glamrou. Packed full of humour, honesty and heart, this book will give you the strength and inspiration to harness what you were born with and be who you were always meant to be.

MIDDLE-GRADE: The Super Miraculous Journey of Freddie Yates by Jenny Pearson

When fact-obsessed Freddie’s grandmother dies, he discovers that the father he has never met may actually be alive and living in Wales. So he has no choice but to grab his best friends Ben and Charlie, leave his home in Andover and go to find his dad! I laughed so many times during this madcap adventure and I know the slapstick crazy humour will hit the middle-grade target audience just right. It’s also a wonderful depiction of small town Britain with a focus on the true meaning of family.

MIDDLE-GRADE: A Kind Of Spark by Elle McNicoll

When Addie learns about her hometown’s history of witch trials, she campaigns tirelessly to get a memorial for the women who lost their lives through it. This wonderfully beautiful novel gives a unique insight into the mind of an 11-year-old autistic girl with a huge heart. Busting myths about neurodiversity while tackling typical pre-teen drama, you’ll laugh, you’ll cry but most of all, you’ll close the book with a huge smile on your face. 

HISTORICAL FICTION: Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell

In 16th century Warwickshire, Agnes is a woman with a unique gift whose relationship with a young Latin tutor produces three children and a legacy that lasts for centuries. This enchanting, all-consuming account of the tragic story of Shakespeare’s lost son, the effects that rippled through the family and the play that was born from their pain will send a bullet straight through your heart. Wonderfully researched and beautifully written, Hamnet is worth all of the hype.

HISTORICAL FICTION: The Mercies by Kiran Millwood Hargrave

When a vicious storm kills most of the men of Vardø, Norway, it’s up to the women to keep things going but a man with a murderous past is about to come down with an iron fist. At the heart of this dark tale of witch trials, grief and feminism, two women find something they’ve each been searching for within each other. Gorgeously written with a fantastically slow-burning queer romance, Kiran Millwood Hargrave’s first adult novel is an addictive, atmospheric read with a poignant, tearjerker of an ending.

SCI-FI: Q by Christina Dalcher

When one of Elena’s daughters manages to drop below the country’s desired Q number, she is sent away to one of the new state schools and Elena is about to find out something she’d really rather not know about the new system. Packed full of real social commentary and critique of life as we know it while painting a picture of how things could be even worse (yes, really!), this pulse-racing, horrifying sci-fi dystopian gripped me from the first page and refused to let me go. 

[gloriasfinalsession]

...AND EQUITY FOR ALL

We’ve found the antidote.  The Black Lives Matter movement that has captivated the globe is finally correcting all the ills of our Racist Society.  The people have spoken.  Equality has been demanded, and the demand has been met.  Droves of the Enlightened can be seen confirming this wonderful shift in history: one race paying obeisance by kissing another races’ feet.  If this doesn’t “reek” of Equality, then what does?

I knew the fortuitous day would come, when one race of people would be lumped together in a blanket generalization and called out for the True Evil that they are (and vice-versa).  I knew the day would finally come, when we no longer have to pretend a person’s character has any import whatsoever.  Finally, we have stepped away from the hackneyed, bourgeois, ethnocentric consideration of nuance, and returned to the most Supreme Binary—PoC VS Non-PoC—to call It like it is.  I know I may get some flak for implementing and promoting a binary, but in this case it is not erroneous or detrimental in the least.  

What’s more, this revolution has righted the wrongs of Capitalism, and is well on its way in dissolving the Patriarchy (but let’s not get too excited yet, comrades! we still have plenty of work to do there).  It’s a curious reaction isn’t it?  By bringing forth Equality of the human “race”—instantaneously I might add!—we’ve simultaneously solved the issue of Economy.  Look no further than CHAZ (Capital Hill Autonomous Zone)—borderless, sustainable, equitable, Peaceful.  But I digress.  In honor of this newfangled Equality, our allies in media, entertainment, fashion, et cetera have already begun their noble duty in expunging Racist propaganda.  We must stand firm and continue to call out any and all such toxic Weapons of Oppression.  Shout it from the rooftop!  We WILL be heard...  Once all forms of Racism—past and present—are completely eliminated and forgotten, we will have the unique perspective of Ignorance on our side.  And with that, the Impossibility for any such atrocities ever repeating again.  Period.  

The intense outpouring of emotion expressed by our celebrities is nothing short of shocking.  Ashton Kutcher’s weeping and pleading; that profound PSA announcement with the likes of Aaron Paul and Justin Theroux; John Oliver’s succinct and accurate depiction of his non-native country; all exemplary evocations of a profoundly broken system.  They get It.  They speak for the millions of impressionable minds, confused by this strange Mass Hysteria.  They understand how powerful their credibility (and Knowledge) is regarding extremely complicated socio-economic issues.  And because of this brash confidence, they have taken it upon themselves to get Their message out instantaneously—dare I say reflexively— without any Critical Thought.  That’s why they call it the “It-Factor!”  The ability to corral a massive, idolatrous group, and tell them With Certainty exactly what is right and wrong—now that’s True Star Power.   

But we can’t stop here.  We’re already making strides in the Racist field of Science (fingers crossed).  And while the tiny faction of Racists continue to question the Veracity of media, we must continue our journey of eradicating Reason and Logic.  Once we’ve cornered that market, these fallacious claims against our allies will hold no weight.  Continue to read the New York Times, and watch CNN, because what’s in a “Fact” anyway?  I believe everything these allies are asserting to be Fact.  And you should too.  Do not for one second let the cretins of the human species corrupt your mind into considering tuning into a Non-Ally.  Be Ware.  Do NOT, change the channel.  Do NOT, turn away from your chosen clan’s tweets.  Do NOT, under any circumstance, broaden your research.  Do NOT, “educate” yourself, because the learning that’s been oppressively forced upon us is Racist.  Be well my comrades, my allies, and keep fighting the good fight!

-Eru Inthawt  

[ficclique]

In addition to our own personal top fics (which you can view here), we asked you all to send us your choices for your fics of the decade and why you loved them. We received so many wonderful submissions, and now want to share them with everybody! In an effort to not make this post too long we’ve edited down the comments that people left us, but everyone had some really lovely things to say, so if anything catches your eye here we really encourage you to take a look at the complete list of comments here.

Without further ado, please enjoy the top fics of the decade as chosen by you, our listeners: 

Submitted by: Cricket

Fic 1: pilgrimage by wolfsupremacist

Info: EXO RPF, Baekhyun/Sehun

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18411497/chapters/43607615

Cricket’s comment: I can't get over all the building in this fic -- the world building, the character building, the relationship building. The main character’s development was like watching a child grow: it's hard to see it happening, but once you reflect on who he became versus who he was, it's so obvious how he changed.

Fic 2: the eye of providence by minhyukwithagun

Info: NCT RPF, Jaehyun/Taeyong

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14981330

Cricket’s comment: I have genuinely never laughed so hard while reading a fic.There were so many little details that the author added that were unnecessary to the overall plot but just made the characters so much more real. You get to learn so much about everyone in such a (relatively) short amount of time.

Fic 3: so collect your scars and wear them well by addandsubtract

Info: Hockey RPF, Connor McDavid/Dylan Strome

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5075128

Cricket’s comment: I feel like this fic changed me as a writer. It touches on such a relatable subject: that feeling of being completely unsure of what you should do with your life when Plan A doesn't work out, and discovering who you are without the thing that you previously thought defined you.

━

Submitted by: Claire

Fic 1: The Baffled King and The Idiot Hero by Ellarose C

Info: Hetalia, ?

Link: https://m.fanfiction.net/s/5819880/1/

Claire’s comment: This fic launched 3 of my high school friendships that continue to this day. It's cute and Hallmark levels of unrealistic, and I LOVE it. The overwhelming nostalgia and gratefulness I feel towards this fic (and all of Carrie's work, honestly) still blows me away.

Fic 2: Embers by Vathara

Info: Avatar: The Last Airbender, gen

Link: https://m.fanfiction.net/s/5398503/1/

Claire’s comment: The best, wildest, most comprehensively worldbuilt ATLA fic I have ever read. Tea, dragons, realistic motivations, that ending... perfect. *chef kiss*

Fic 3: Of A Linear Circle (series) by flamethrower

Info: HP, various

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/series/755028

Claire’s comment: I linked the whole series because I simply cannot pick a favorite installment. OaLC focuses on fixing the glaring plot holes in the Wizarding education system, accurately depicting the Founders' Era thanks to copious research, and showing that no one is truly irredeemable (except Voldemort himself, who more than earns it).

━

Submitted by: Threepwillow

Fic 1: All the Other Ghosts by rainjoys

Info: Glee, Kurt/Blaine

Link: https://rainjoyswriting.livejournal.com/146587.html

Threepwillow’s comment: All The Other Ghosts and its direct sequel, Grey, are some of the most incredibly original and simultaneously incredibly transformative works of fanfiction I have ever read. The way they masterfully twist elements of canon to fit into the lore of their AU is second only to the profound, revelatory character studies that they've executed. This shit is extraordinary.

━

Submitted by: Segs

Fic 1: Hemostuck (series) by roachpatrol and urbanAnchorite

Info: Homestuck, various

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/series/8470

Seg’s comment: THE WORLDBUILDING. THE ARTWORK. THE NARRATIVE VOICE(S). THE INCREDIBLE GRASP ON CHARACTERIZATION. DID I MENTION THE WORLDBUILDING.

Fic 2: transistor by fishcola

Info: Polygon RPF, Brian/Pat

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18760093/chapters/44503969

Seg’s comment: Rips my heart to shreds piece-by-piece and then gently puts it back together in the end. It's another put-these-characters-in-a-darker-setting sort of thing. It is brilliant and beautiful and I love it dearly.

Fic 3: any sign of spring by bluecarrot

Info: Hamilton, Hamilton/Burr

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7523227/chapters/17100376

Seg’s comment: This fic is so dang atmospheric. It feels very physical -- the temperature, the environment, the drawing. It's bittersweet, but ends on the sweet, and I think the sweetness is all the more emphasized for it. Rereading it feels like coming back to a familiar place.

━

Submitted by: Ang

Fic 1: Anarchy In The U.K. by Yahtzee

Info: X-Men First Class, Erik/Charles

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/673552/chapters/1232410

Ang’s comment: the writing of this one made it so easy to get completely lost in the au while still knowing the characters so well from the source material! super engaging, totally consumed my life for a week

Fic 2: blackjacks running down by back by dangerbears

Info: 1D, Harry/Louis

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/499474

Ang’s comment: this is like my comfort blanket fic! every time i reread it (even though i'm not in that fandom anymore), it's still just as funny and cute as it was the very first time i read it - again the au is so easily believable because the characterizations are so familiar.

Fic 3: this city bleeds its aching heart by renne

Info: MCU, Steve/Bucky

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/835829

Ang’s comment: unsurprisingly, it's another au that is so easy to fall into! this is another one that i've been consistently rereading since i first read it (in 2015, for this one) because it's my absolute favorite trope with a ship that i'm still very much into!

━

Submitted by: Scout

Fic 1: she called it a void by vans88

Info: Star Wars, Finn/Poe/Rey

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5493500

Scout’s comment: Short and powerful and essential to anyone's viewing of the new Star Wars trilogy. Seriously one of the most careful, tender, and graceful queer addendums to a piece of pop culture this decade.

Fic 2: The Love Song of The North American Douchebag by gyzym

Info: Star Trek RPF, Chris/Zach

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/852395

Scout’s comment: JESUS FUCKING CHRIST, I HOPE I CAN SWEAR. I'm not even in this fandom. The world building is just THAT good. It's one of my highlights *because* of its power to draw me in as a standalone. So much fucking talent in the transformative work community. The banter, characterization, sardonic-ness of this – international impact baby!

Fic 3: all this learning here is by you by decinq, nighimpossible

Info: Hockey RPF, Jamie Benn/Tyler Seguin

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5105441

Scout’s comment: Revolutionized – and I would argue – drove the GROWTH AND SURVIVAL of hockey fandom. One of the best known works in the fandom, and a masterclass in how to build a set of characters that you're genuinely envious you don't get to see or know. Two incredible authors and a plethora of personality. Fun and sexy and lighthearted but poignant. Chef kiss.

━

Submitted by: Em

Fic 1: the subtle science and exact art of chess-boxing, by fishcola

Info: Polygon RPF, Brian/Pat

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18931885/chapters/44945971

Em’s comment: fishcola is definitely one of the top reasons i actually started reading/writing polygon rpf. this fic!!!!! i sWEAR its so /so/ good oh my GOSH. yes, full disclosure im fish's beta for chessboxing but also i am enthusiastic simply because it is a very beautiful and powerful narrative on trauma, healing, and how the people we choose to interact with affect our emotions.

Fic 2: the old men call me by my mother’s name by theviolonist

Info: HP, Hermione/Ron

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1044467

Em’s comment: as a certified Trans(TM) im always pursuing and consuming trans content. the old men call me by my mother's name is an hp fic that i still cherish years after first reading it. trans!ron is a concept not often explored in hp fic, much less trans /girl/ ron. massive gender feels, folks.

Fic 3: national hot dad alliance is now calling… by dicaeopolis, owlinaminor

Info: Haikyuu! , various

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5663683/chapters/13045579

Em’s comment: national hot dad alliance really is the perfect evolution of a groupchat fic. i laughed, i cried, i fell in love with the characters all over again as these captains from different teams bond over graduating. and also being Dads(TM). in some cases-- pining over their fellow volleyball players-- plus star wars, the x-files, and memes. overall its is very good and i will stan it eternally

━

Submitted by: Staci

Fic 1: No Homo, by orphan account

Info: Teen Wolf, Stiles/Derek

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1148039/chapters/2326073

Staci’s comment: Literally my favorite AU ever written. The characterization is SO on point and it truly is a super fun read. It’s also a super long which helps with painting such a detailed picture of these two dummies who are-totally-just-bros-with-added-benefits. I’d recommend this to anyone, even if they’re unaware of Teen Wolf, but if you’re a Teen Wolf fan then it’s even better.

━

Submitted by: Nadine

Fic 1: Too Long, Too Close (series) by callmejude

Info: MCU RPF, Chris/Sebastian

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/series/253528

Nadine’s comment: kink exploration and bdsm done well.... and so thoroughly. but there's more! theres FEELINGSSSSSS uhhhhhhh it made me CRY it's so good.

Fic 2: On a Clear Day by Saras_Girl

Info: HP, Harry/Draco

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/879841

Nadine’s comment: I could've put a few other fics by this author because they write the best drarry but uhhhhh. I had to choose and it was either gonna be TURN or this one. Idk why but this one makes me so unbelievably emotional bc it was Harry who's Going Through Stuff and I just loved it a lot.

Fic 3: around the world in eighty thousand days, by fallfreely

Info: 1D, Liam/Harry

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/856935

Nadine’s comment: It was hard to pick a 1D fave but I think that this fic always had a v special place in my heart & I can't even explain why. I love the dynamic of this pairing (even though it's not even my OTP, wtf. I'm a Gryles and Narry truther... *eye emoji*) and the whole FEEL of this fic and it's slow burn tour fic, soo.

━

Submitted by: Frecklebomb

Fic 1: Shalbatana

Info: Mars Trilogy, Gen

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6629

Frecklebomb’s comment: A beautifully-written gen fic (with an incredibly gorgeous podfic by Luzula) in the near-future-scifi Mars Trilogy fandom but very easy to enjoy without canon knowledge. I revisit this story over and over and always marvel at the presence of the landscape and alien planet in it, the way it feels like a character. Bonus Mars rover feelings (I cry every time about the robot).

Fic 2: Through a Glass Darkly, by susiecarter

Info: DCU, Clark Kent/Bruce Wayne

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19395793/chapters/46155535

Frecklebomb’s comment: Sprawling post-apocalyptic epic, so rich and cinematic that it feels like a movie I somehow read. The worldbuilding and tension of the focal ship are what sucked me into this fic, but what stayed with me was the richness of the ensemble characters. I find myself just thinking about their character arcs, and imagining what they'd be doing post-story. I want fic of this fic.

Fic 3: Too Far Down The Road, by SoniaVice

Info: Hockey, OMC/OMC

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13208136/chapters/30212907

Frecklebomb’s comment: An amnesia trope origfic set in handwavey hockey fandom (author said they 'set it free' to be OMC/OMC when the dynamic needed to be different from the RPF ship it started out as). It gives me so many good feelings about family (of choice and otherwise) and ageing and self-acceptance and sexuality, and the way you can choose to be changed by the people you spend your life with.

━

Submitted by: Em (Springsteen)

Fic 1: Pull Me Under, by zarah5

Info: 1D, Harry/Louis

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/870766

Em’s comment: first of all zarah5 is a fandom legend. second, this is like the pinnacle of fake relationship fics to me it's 140k and so much of it is pining and like truly, who among us doesn't love harry styles with their whole heart. I can't think about the '10s without thinking about one direction and when this fic came out I remember a lot of people fully losing their minds.

Fic 2: Door to Door, by Ferritin4

Info: Hockey RPF, Jamie Benn/Tyler Seguin

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3478298

Em’s comment: this is one of the first hockey fics I ever read and I still come back to it so often. The relationship builds so well, Tyler's dogs are in it, it's just so sweet, and plus it's a very readable 10k.

Fic 3: Darling It Is No Joke, by thehoyden

Info: Teen Wolf, Stiles/Derek

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/399194

Em’s comment: look I can't be retrospective about this decade and /not/ include a sterek fic. the first half of this decade for me was all 1d and teen wolf and full disclosure, it's been a while since I've reread this fic, but I remember the banter being really stellar and thehoyden is another one of those authors who I just. Adore.

━

Submitted by: Dan

Fic 1: The Heart Rate of a Mouse (series) by Anna (arctic_grey)

Info: Bandom, Ryan Ross/Brendan Urie

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/series/712953

Dan’s comment: This fic is incredibly iconic. It’s definitely one of my favorites of all time—the way the story is told is just heart wrenching, and it manages to always keep you on edge about what’s going to happen. The portrayal of self discovery, love, jealousy, down to the settings and all the social issues of the time period (the 70s), is amazingly done.

Fic 2: The Cat’s Miaow by Pennyplainknits

Info: Bandom, Patrick Stump/Pete Wentz

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/930529

Dan’s comment: This fic is unlike anything else I’ve read. First off, I LOVE historical AUs, and the noir setting is everything I could have wanted and more. The author has managed to create such a delicate and profound romance along with an interesting plot that borders on thriller without ever going too far with either side of the story.

Fic 3: Get Real Get Right (Fuckin Right) by sophiahelix

Info: Riveyonce Cuoknowles, Sufjan Stevens/Drake

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9029020

Dan’s comment: Honestly? This is just art.

━

Submitted by: Carina

Fic 1: Bite Marks by provocative_envy

Info: HP, Hermione/Draco

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3580953/chapters/7894464

Carina’s comment: i've shied away from aus in harry potter fic for years, especially american college aus but this fic in my opinion kept the best of the characters and modernized them in a way that felt true to who they are.

Fic 2: old jokes from a wild youth, by knightspur

Info: SEVENTEEN RPF, Mingyu/Minghao

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18127073

Carina’s comment: mingyu and minghao are in love, but they're not soulmates. i love the dynamics and the quiet intimacy between them, and also how they work through wanting to be together despite them not having a bond in the way soulmates have.

━

Submitted by: Katy

Fic 1: The River and The Deep Green Bend by liquidmeasure

Info: 1D, Harry/Niall

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6005275

Katy’s comment: this fic honestly surpasses the genre of fic. it is a genre all its own. it is the pinnacle in catharsis and heartbreak and having a satisfying end that is completely unsatisfying as well. I will never recover from this fic.

Fic 2: Out of the Dead Land by Orphan Account

Info: MCU, Steve/Bucky

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1871955

Katy’s comment: there is a specific phrase in this fic that has and will continue to stay with me. I will never hear the phrase "up or down" without feeling immense heartbreak. an amazing blend of source material to create something altogether its own - but could still take place in either canon

Fic 3: Up We Go by Oh_Hey_Tae

Info: BTS, Taehyung/Jimin

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12297168

Katy’s comment: this fic is one that I found more recently, but I can already tell that it is one that is going to stick with me for a long long time. it is another fic that I feel transcends the genre of fic entirely

━

Submitted by: Corie

Fic 1: Build A Temple In Me by Authoress

Info: Haikyuu!, Iwaizumi Hajime/Oikawa Tooru

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3716002

Corie’s comment: A wonderful and moving fanfic with fantasy akin to studio ghibli. If I have to recommend Haikyuu fanfiction this is it.

Fic 2: Close to the Chest by darkmagicalgirl

Info: Haikyuu!, Kyoutani Kentarou/Yahaba Shigeru

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3898771/chapters/8721568

Corie’s comment: Another haikyuu!! Fic! I remember reccing this to my friend and she said it was more akin to a novel then any fanfiction she has read. High praise IMO

Fic 3: Fake Sugar by minverse

Info: BTS, Jungkook/Seokjin

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14707098/chapters/33987549

Corie’s comment: Oh sweet god I love minverse’s writing and this fic has it all. Romance, smut, and a nice dollop of humor.

━

Submitted by: Abby

Fic 1: an awful curse by blinkiesays

Info: Teen Wolf, Stiles/Derek

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/604092

Abby’s comment: Non-linear timeline, au within the story, "every me loves every you," domesticity but also heavy angst, and it's so beautifully written it makes me want to cry reading it. also it harkens back to the time of when the show was still good.

Fic 2: dance this silence down (the emergency room remix) by Fahye

Info: Les Miserables, Enjorlas/Grantaire

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/994140/chapters/1966093

Abby’s comment: It's such a great, understandable ensemble fic for a dense canon, with such a great modern day au setting, but the whole time it really deals with the main character's depression and alcoholism and the complete overwhelming love that he has for the guy he's shipped with. it's so gritty and real but the ending brings so much hope I love it.

Fic 3: comment fic by anon

Info: iCarly, Sam/Spencer

Link: https://author-abz.livejournal.com/35003.html

Abby’s comment: this is an ANONYMOUS comment fic someone wrote me when I was feeling down on LJ and it's so short but so complete, and it says everything it needs to about it being okay to mess up and just be messed up together. also: "glitter emergency" (technically a cheat, it's from 2008; I forgot it was so old)

━

Submitted by: Kassie

Fic 1: An Exercise in ‘Worthless’ by beastofthesky

Info: Supernatural, Dean/Castiel

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/535676

Kassie’s comment: an exercise in worthless introduced me (indirectly) to my favorite musician and (directly) to the subject i almost minored in during undergrad, so honestly i would put it as a fic of the decade even if it wasn’t one of the best fics i read in the supernatural fandom.

Fic 2: Superstition (series) by Superstition_hockey

Info: Hockey, OMC/OMC

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/series/413233

Kassie’s comment: superstition started out as a tropey, fun, lighthearted short fic, and grew into a big thing that deals with a lot of serious topics incredibly well while also being still very funny and emotional and having honestly some of my favorite fictional characters i’ve read in years

Fic 3: United States v. Barnes

Info: MCU, Steve/Bucky

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2304905/chapters/5071058

Kassie’s comment: united states v barnes is the multimedia fic of my DREAMS. this is what i want to show people to explain why i love fanfic so much. it does so much with the medium its working in and the presentation of the fic, and fits that perfect fanfic niche of exploring the kind of background that will never appear in canon but that everyone wonders about.

━

Submitted by: Kat

Fic 1: I’ve felt and I’ve Been by autotunedd

Info: Big Bang RPF, Seunghyun/Jiyong

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15349758/chapters/35616516

Kat’s comment: Possibly the fic that marked my entire decade. The characters are so human and real, the plot is heavy and winding and the twists sometimes seem life ending. It is heavy, it is painful, it is sad, it is angsty, it is maybe even a smidge too real and dangerous at times, but it makes a solid read, a long, relatable novel about real people with real fears and problems.

Fic 2: Eversion by thespectaclesofthor

Info: Detroit: Become Human, Hank Anderson/Connor

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15754140/chapters/36638253

Kat’s comment: Beautiful, long, detailed, well written, hard hitting, serious, sweet, painful, kinky, all in one! The characters have so much depth, their issues and inner workings seem so real and the plot is so carefully crafted and detailed, every chapter keeps you at the edge of your seat. All in all, beautifully crafted, passionate, hard hitting piece that I couldn't help falling in love with.

Fic 3: Eggshell Landscapes and the Burden of Love by NoContractTermination

Info: NCT RPF, Taeil/Johnny

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10446438

Kat’s comment: Short, sweet, angsty and charming! I loved the intimate look into their relationship this fic brings, the trials and tribulations and the struggle to communicate. It all seemed so raw and real and coupled with the author's beautiful writing, it all came together in a perfect read, with bounds of re-read potential.

━

Submitted by: Wen

Fic 1: the bellwether by highoctane

Info: Polygon RPF, Brian/Pat

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18634426

Wen’s comment: Feelings!!! It's really refreshing to read a character who, as an established adult, is reconfiguring an understanding of himself without it being either a whole crisis or a sudden seamless lightbulb moment. It's very fair to both characters' emotions, letting them both react in a way that feels wonderfully human and real rather than idealistic.

Fic 2: Five Times the Potion Seller Refused to Sell a Potion (and One Time He Didn’t) by misura

Info: Potion Seller (Justin Kuritzkes Short Film), Knight/Potion Seller

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5441447

Wen’s comment: It's based on a 3 minute meme video and if it was just a tweet or post with the title alone it would be a great joke but... someone went and wrote the dang thing! And it could have been ridiculous crackfic, and while it certainly toes that line it's also got a really fun flow of dialogue that leaves a lot to the imagination without it getting confusing.

Fic 3: I Am The Horrible Goose That Lives In The Town by Daniel Lavery

Info: The Untitled Goose Game, gen

Link: https://www.shatnerchatner.com/p/i-am-the-horrible-goose-that-lives

Wen’s comment: the writing is tremendous and sits beautifully in that razor's edge space where english is used just strangely enough to create a fantastic character voice without going too far and falling into some kind of awkward english language uncanny valley. it's so hard to pick out the best line because every line is the best line. "Here I am coming, with the good news of me, and you hate it. You can think only of the bell and how much I have it, and you are never the goose."

━

Submitted by: Mage

Fic 1: Fog, Sheets and Thunder by theopteryx

Info: My Chemical Romance RPF, Frank/Gerard

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/351396

Mage’s comment: i have literally thought about this fic at least once a week since i read it in 2012. do not ask me why. i have no answers.

Fic 2: Flowers in Bones by fringecity (indiachick)

Info: BTS, Taehyung/Yoongi

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16256390

Mage’s comment: sometimes i just wanna be a careful selection of small animal bones that yoongi gently unearths and meticulously crafts into an altar of pressed flowers and ink

Fic 3: It Happened Quiet by hobimo

Info: BTS, Taehyung/Yoongi

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15070646/chapters/34939646

Mage’s comment: haunted woods :) cryptids :) that deeply unsettling feeling that there are greater, mysterious forces at work and there's nothing you can do about it :)

━

Submitted by: BirdieLeonie

Fic 1: Reprise (series) by Elfpen

Info: Star Wars, various (Obi-Wan centric)

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/series/454408

BirdieLeonie’s comment: I spent about seven months of my life reading nothing but Star Wars time-travel fix-it fics. (I am not exaggerating; there are enough of them to last that long or longer.) This is my favorite.

Fic 2: Friday Night Arrives Without a Suitcase by marycontraire

Info: Hockey RPF, Danny Briere/Claude Giroux

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/534247

BirdieLeonie’s comment: This is a fic I have kept coming back to again and again in the years since I first read it. It's domestic and sweet and still adult. It's like curtainfic, inverted; the leads live together and parent their kids and go grocery shopping before they have a romantic or sexual relationship.

Fic 3: The Hero’s Journey; or: What Jasper Sitwell Did Last Summer (podfic), by artzbots, blackglass, daroos, girlwithabubblegun, kalakirya, Opalsong, reena_jenkins, RsCreighton, sabinelagrande

Info: MCU & Welcome to Night Vale, Jemma Simmons/Jasper Sitwell

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6462223

BirdieLeonie’s comment: I love podfic, I love crossovers, and I love this fic. Again, I picked this because of all the thousands of MCU fics I've read, this is the one I find myself coming back to repeatedly. This crossover is creative, fun, and plays with one of my favorite tropes: what was happening to a minor character in the background of the story we saw?

[bezoarcureforpoison]

VANCOUVER—Canadian doctors and abortion care providers say a new anti-abortion film premiering in Canada on Friday misrepresents the facts about abortion.

Unplanned is based on a memoir by Abby Johnson, a former Planned Parenthood clinic director who became an anti-abortion advocate and now leads an organization that provides support for abortion care providers who want to “leave the abortion industry.”

Unplanned depicts a period in Johnson’s life when she personally accessed two abortions and rose up the ranks of Planned Parenthood, starting as a volunteer and eventually becoming the director of a clinic in Texas. The pivotal moment comes when she assists with an ultrasound-guided abortion and sees a fetus “twisting and fighting” away from the abortion instruments — a scene many health-care providers have condemned as unrealistic.

Several pro-choice organizations have spoken out about the potential dangers of the film.

The Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada calls Unplanned “a dangerous piece of anti-abortion propaganda” containing “vicious falsehoods.” National Abortion Federation Canada Director Jill Doctoroff said she’s concerned that “it looks like a regular movie,” but “really it’s more propaganda.”

“It can be hard for people to distinguish between what’s really based on true facts and what’s been changed from reality,” Doctoroff said in an interview.

Johnson, however, maintains the film is accurate.

“While there may be a few abortion supporting doctors who state that the film is inaccurate, there are many other physicians who have publicly responded, stating that this is exactly what abortion looks like and that the film is entirely medically accurate,” Johnson said in a statement provided to Star Vancouver via email.

Read more: Anti-abortion movie ‘Unplanned’ set to screen in Canada amid protests, free speech arguments

Star Vancouver has viewed the film and fact-checked a few of its most questionable portrayals and claims about abortion, consulting with Abby Johnson and experts provided by the film’s PR team, as well as with prominent medical experts not affiliated with the film.

FACT CHECK:

The movie: In the first scene, an ultrasound is performed on a woman who is in the process of having an abortion. The 13-week fetus is depicted with a large head approximately 1/3 the length of its body, which has somewhat developed limbs and joints.

What the filmmakers say: Abby Johnson said this was normal growth and referred to a page on thebump.com, which stated a fetus would be “as big as a lemon.”

Fact check: Dr. Jen Gunter, a U.S.-based OBGYN with experience providing abortions, and author of the upcoming book The Vagina Bible, said that while it would be difficult to tell the age of the fetus by simply looking at an image, it was likely the fetus would be “more advanced” than 13 weeks.

“You’d have to know measurements ... in real life it’s really small, just a few centimetres,” she said.

The movie: The doctor insists on using an ultrasound as a guide while he performs an aspiration abortion. He pushes a catheter tube toward the fetus, and it squirms and flails away. The doctor says “They always move, that’s why I do it this way,” referring to the fetus attempting to evade the vacuum suction of the tube. The woman receiving the abortion appears to be in pain and is crying.

What the filmmakers say: The film’s team provided the Star Vancouver with a response from Dr. Kathi Aultman, a retired OB/Gyn and former abortion provider, who said that “such reactions by the fetus have been scientifically documented in numerous studies” and said the depiction of this abortion “was not sensationalized but very accurate for the gestational age and technique that was used.”

Aultman, a former abortion provider, is a devout Christian and anti-abortion advocate. In a November 2018 video interview with the Christian Broadcasting Network, Aultman compared abortion to murder, and said she is a “mass murderer” for having performed abortions. She said that she healed from her past wrongs with a counsellor who prayed with her and spoke in tongues.

Fact check: Gunter told Star Vancouver that this scene from the film was “100 per cent bullshit.”

“Fetuses are not capable of purposeful movement,” she said. “That’s not proven scientifically ... That’s just not a thing.”

She added that pain can vary depending on the patient, but that if someone was in a lot of pain during a procedure, doctors would stop and check in.

“Most people are not in a lot of pain with modern techniques,” Gunter said. “Some people might be more emotional, you can image how traumatic it might be for someone who has had a sexual assault, but we would stop if someone was in a lot of pain.”

The movie: Abby’s character in the film says she regrets her abortion. “Anger disappeared only to be faced with self loathing,” she says, and various depictions of women who had abortions throughout the film suggest that this is how people can expect to feel after having an abortion.

What the filmmakers say: “It’s one of the many feelings associated with having an abortion,” said Johnson in a statement.

Fact check: Women who have abortions have varying emotional responses, medical experts say. A 2017 peer-reviewed articlepublished in JAMA Psychiatry titled “Women’s Mental Health and Well-being 5 Years After Receiving or Being Denied an Abortion” studied 956 women over 5 years and concluded that while women who had abortions did present with adverse psychological outcomes, there was greater risk of those symptoms for women who were denied abortions.

These findings also do not support policies that restrict women’s access to abortion on the basis that abortion harms women’s mental health. Having worked in abortion care for ten years, Doctoroff said most clients are grateful for the professional and compassionate care they receive, a sentiment echoed by women who shared their abortion experiences with Star Vancouver.

The movie: In another scene, Abby takes the RU-486 pill, also known as the abortion pill. She is told that the cut off to take the pill is nine weeks.

Fact check: Gunter confirmed that nine or 10 weeks is the cut off for the abortion pill.

The movie: An hour after Abby takes the pill, she is shown screaming and stumbling for the bathroom, blood dripping from her legs while she vomits. She passes large clots and more blood into the tub. Abby says she spent “12 hours in agony” before the pain went away, and it was followed by “eight weeks of blood clots, eight weeks of excruciating cramps.”

What the filmmakers say: Johnson describes this experience as “very common.”

Fact check: Gunter said this depiction “wouldn’t be normal at all” for someone taking the abortion pill. While some bleeding does occur, Gunter said that “people aren’t sent home to bleed in the bathtub.”

However, she said pain levels can vary, and are usually dependent on how much pain a person has during their monthly period. “Some women have such painful periods that it’s worse than a heart attack ... Usually it’s like a really heavy, crampy period.”

The movie: In another scene, a clinic staff member tells Abby about the “products of conception,” or POC room, in which she says doctors keep the fetus parts from an abortion and must reassemble the baby parts to make sure “nothing is left in the patient.” She says there are usually 30 to 40 petri dishes of these fetus remains by the end of the day.

What the filmmakers say: Johnson says that abortion clinics must have a POC procedure. “The clinic staff needs to make sure that no parts of the fetus are left inside the woman because that can cause serious infection and other complications.”

Fact check: While she agreed that biological matter from abortions are referred to as “products of conception,” Gunter, who has performed abortions at U.S.-based hospitals, said this depiction wasn’t entirely accurate.

She said medical staff would examine the tissue to ensure it looked like “placental type tissue,” but it would never be done in another room — it would only be completed while the procedure was taking place. She said that the same would be done in any form of surgery to ensure that everything that needed to be removed from the patient was removed.

The movie: In a scene when Abby becomes a clinic director, she says “Part of my job was selling abortion and I was really good at it.” At an annual meeting, a Planned Parenthood manager says that “Each of your clinics are being assigned growth targets to double the number of elective procedures.” Later, the manager says “abortion pays your salary, it pays for everything.”

What the filmmakers say: Johnson refers to the story of Sue Thayer, a former Planned Parenthood staff member, who maintains there are quotas.

Fact check: “I would be surprised that anybody ever said we need to get abortion numbers up,” said Gunter.

The film depicts a U.S.-based Planned Parenthood clinic, so while abortion clinics may have different financial structures, experts say that the core principles would be the same.

“Aspiration abortions or medication abortions are part of out health care system — it’s not profitable in Canada. It’s something that we, as a tax base, invest in,” says Michelle Fortin, executive director of Options for Sexual Health.

She also said abortion is not profitable in the United States either.

Planned Parenthood in the U.S. is a non-profit organization. According to its 2017-2018 annual report 72 per cent of its operating budget comes from private donations, government health services reimbursements and grants.

The organization provides sex education and sexual and reproductive health care at clinics and lobbies governments for increased access to health care. Clinics also provide STI testing, birth control, cancer screening, abortions and more.

Cherise Seucharan is a Vancouver-based reporter covering crime and public safety. Follow her on Twitter: @CSeucharan

Tessa Vikander is a Vancouver-based reporter covering diversity, inequality and education. Follow her on Twitter: @tessavikander

[userseokkie]

Steve Rogers is a walking contradiction: the anti military soldier

After reading this meta on a gifset about Steve and Tony i got carried away and wrote essentially an essay about the analysis that had been made. and while i agree with the general sentiment of the post, some things didn’t sit right with me. btw i decided to make this my own separate post because this isn’t intended to start an argument or derail the original post, i know it can be annoying for gif makers to have dozens of comments added onto their posts.

(the meta in question)

ok so full disclaimer I’m not American and I’m not white. i just felt like this analysis was really interesting and when I read it I couldn’t stop all these thoughts that formed in my head, next thing I know I had written all of this in like 30 minutes. I’m not trying to argue or start shit, this is my own personal analysis of Steve’s character and why I don’t agree with some things said above.

First of all, let’s get this out of the way: Steve does not trust the US government. at least not blindly. the fact that he’s still the little shit that had a real problem w authority figures is something they touch upon on catfa a lot. he changed on the outside but on the inside he’s still that idiot punk kid and like, I get what the tags above me are saying but also Steve’s arc is more than that? and let’s not forget this stupid movie was written and directed by thanos Joss “I’m the true feminist ally” whedon so I would take this exchange with a grain of salt. I mean this is the movie that gave us “gOllY tHeRe’S OnLy oNe gOd m'Am” and “sOn oF a GuN” Stephen Rogers which is the most ooc thing I’ve seen since endgame’s Steve. Steve is a fucking potty mouth ffs he’s Irish and a soldier, so that doesn’t even make sense. but anyway, my point is something else, nvm this movie’s portrayal of Steve in general.

I guess we could probably argue all day long abt which Steve portrayal is the most accurate one since his character in the MCU is the one that’s suffered the most at the hands of inconsistent characterization, but I prefer thinking he already WAS someone that was well aware of the horrors of war and how unfair it was to recruit people w lies and the promises of education opportunities and loans for the poor to join the army, because he LIVED that he grew up dirt poor and had to see his mom take on three different jobs to support herself and him, so he’d consider this attempt to bring civilians into the military life by preying on their needs disgusting, he’d be fucking seething with anger. and if he had lived through the 60s (which I think it’s better for everyone involved that he didn’t, can u imagine poor guy would’ve died from the disappointment in what his country had become) I highly doubt he would’ve been the bitter WWII vet that defended Vietnam and shit on the protestors……. Steve would support the citizens’ rights to ask for accountability and demand justice!! even the hippie movement I think he would’ve been ok with when he saw that they were advocating FOR PEACE. that’s why he enlisted on the war after all, to bring the fight to an end and to have Bucky come HOME. I think Steve rogers would be all for peace. I mean, civil disobedience and telling the government to shove it? that’s Steve Rogers’ goddamn ethos. he would be all over that shit.

I agree w op’s tags where they say Steve doesn’t represent America, he represents what America wishes it had been. and I think Steve himself would be well aware he’s the anomaly here, the one that should have been America’s highest ideal. and I think that makes Steve very wary of his own image, anything he endorses becomes what America endorses. Steve rogers isn’t important, Captain America is. but I think Steve’s response here has more to do with his coping mechanisms to deal with loss, rather than coming from a place of “oh we’re soldiers, it’s what we do, we die for our country.” while Tony’s response comes from a place of anger (we are NOT soldiers!!! fuck u old man, i never asked for this!!! coulson didn’t ask for this!!!!!) Steve’s reaction comes from the intrinsic nihilism and dadaism product of his own time. it’s not that he’s minimizing Coulson’s death, it’s more that he’s so used to losing people, the thousands he met that died in European soil, the sick and ill from his ma’s work that died everyday, his own father whom he never even met, that his mechanism is to just. shut down. shrug it off a bit, even. people die. every day. “for believing” means for standing for something, because Steve is WELL aware that people that stand for nothing will fall for anything, and standing for something gives counterbalance to the official agenda. in his eyes, Coulson died not because he’s a soldier and winning the war means being prepared to make a few sacrifices. Coulson died because he chose to believe in something that the majority didn’t care about or even actively sought to destroy (the wsc over fury’s shoulder) and he died because he would not back down from the fight. I can do this all day is something Steve feeds off of because he knows that when you stop getting up from the ground, anyone and anything can strike you down.

but on another note, I get that Avengers happens literally 6 fucking days after he woke up from the ice, he probably had no time to catch up on all the atrocities the US had done on his behalf, or rather on what they said he represented, on the ideal he died defending and the US took and twisted and tore apart until it was no longer recognizable. Steve being a week out of the ice is super sad and to me, the biggest crime this movie did was literally brushing off Steve’s trauma, being riddled with PTSD and shocked from waking up seventy years in the future was not even addressed. at all. this could’ve been easily avoided by setting the movie at least a couple of months AFTER he wakes up. but whatever. After learning of all the shit the US has done, I think Steve rogers would be the first to walk out of there and be like “fuck it, I died for this country and you took it and fucked it up and now young people and people who’ve been killed for protesting your shitty ass decisions genuinely believe I would side with the government. they think I’M the stubborn baby boomer who kisses government boots and would approve of the Gulf War or the Vietnam War or the Central American coups or the war on terror or any of the stupid shit you’ve pulled in the 70 years I was gone!!! YOU MADE ME A SYMBOL FOR YOUR BIGOTRY WHAT THE FUCK”. so he obviously needs time to catch up on all of that before realizing how bad they fucked up his memory and how corrupt the system has become. but Steve’s depiction as a boy scout who believes the US can do nothing bad is inherently wrong and something only this one movie tries to do. no other movie featuring Cap tries to drive the point home that Cap is a goodie two shoes who still believes in american exceptionalism.

CATWS was the gold standard because it truly touched upon the cognitive dissonance Steve experiences coming out of a 70 year nap. the loss he experiences not only for being “the man out of time”, but the true man behind the symbol. heavy are the shoulders that carry the world indeed. and he’s been carrying the entire world on his since he decided to become Captain America. I truly believe the tragedy of Steve Rogers comes from the lack of agency he has over the Captain image, one that has been used to prop up political agendas over and over again. of course, he’s the one that decides to be Captain America as much as he is Steve rogers, blurring the lines between the two men. he could’ve retired, he could’ve adopted a new mantle or even go the old reliable route and try to keep a civilian life away from the superhero gig. but he didn’t. even in the comics whenever he tried to do that it didn’t stick for more than a few issues. so, you know in CATWS he truly experiments what it’s like to pull back the curtain and see the wizard behind it, he faces this disenchantment with the institutions that created him, both SHIELD and the US government. this helps pinpoint the moment he grows super distrustful of politics and agendas, because up until this point he’d only been in the battlefield, and he realizes governments cannot be trusted to make the right decision or even act in benefit of their people.

this way, Civil War does make sense when you see how Steve has grown so disappointed with modern politics that he sees the Sokovia accords as one big red flag, and the first step in a direction that only points toward authoritarianism and civil control. this movie deals with many things poorly of course, but one thing that doesn’t feel ooc is Steve telling the UN to fuck off. He wasn’t around to see the formation of the united nations remember? he literally has no background on what collective security and globalized autonomy are. there’s many things that could’ve been different in CW, but Steve was on the “right” side of the conflict for his character. (i’m NOT saying there’s a wrong and a right side on the Civil war dilemma. that whole thing was badly written so let’s just say it made sense in a hypothetical way). supporting the government in any capacity isn’t a part of Steve’s “thing”, but even when/if he sided with the US govt, he’d never endorse a political agenda that he perceives as “wrong”, knowing it’s hypocritical to do so. 

he doesn’t think the end justify the means, which is highly different from Tony’s pragmatism. if Steve and Tony represented opposing philosophical movements, Tony would be utilitarianism and Steve would be deontology. this brings the analysis full circle by pointing out that yes, Tony and Steve operate differently in theory, but in practice they both work for the same objective. Tony is the cynic product of his own doing, he understands how war can destroy and he knows the US has a bad track record of owning up to its own shit. and because of that, he believes that the most good he can do is in his own hands (and because of his extremist way of thinking, he also equates that with being the only one who can do it and therefore, he must, no matter the personal cost). On the other hand, Steve is the idealist product of other’s people efforts, he understands how sometimes war can be the only way to save what is worth saving, but also how it can corrupt even the noblest of men. and because of that, he believes that the most good he can do must be done because other people believe in him, and because by setting the example, others can follow and make the world a better place. (and because of his very stubborn nature, he also equates that with being the ‘tree that must plant itself in the ground and say no, you move’.)

so what I guess I’m trying to say, is that to me at least, saying that Steve Rogers would be in favor of US militarism or that he equates the word “soldier” with hero is a huge disservice to his character. the fact that he’s a fictional character that was first conceived as WWII propaganda is not relevant, because I choose to believe the idea that says fiction stops being the creator’s own the moment it’s out in the world. And Steve Rogers NOW is a different character and serves a different purpose than what he was originally intended to. His entire origin is based on being a soldier, yes, but what makes his character so compelling is the juxtaposition between being a soldier and being essentially opposed to what the US military complex entails. he embodies a lot of american values ofc, like freedom and right of free speech and so, but my take is that he defends this values in a way that is distinctly non American. setting aside discussions of propaganda and the integrity of an art form, i think he’s been written in a way that evokes patriotism without being exclusively american. i mean heck, Steve rogers makes me proud to be from my own country, and inspires me to be better while never reminding me of the fact that he’s from an imperialist super power. Star spangled suit aside, he’s probably a fair enough representation of what one's love for their own country can bring to the surface, no matter which country specifically. i could delve more into that, but this is already getting too long and, since i already mentioned, I’m not from the US and my cultural upbringing is far different from the US. so i’m not sure i could make such a poignant analysis about the military culture and the way it impacts characters such as Steve. 

[kcwcommentary]

VLD6x01 – “Omega Shield”

6x01 – “Omega Shield”

Last episode ended with a significant conclusion, and this episode picks up immediately, following up on that conclusion (which makes the lack of a similar pick up at the beginning of 5x05 “Bloodlines” from the events at the Kral Zera feel more jarring since this episode shows they can write appropriate transitions at the start of an episode to connect to the previous episode).

The Castle Ship is returning to Zarkon’s old ship/base, and in front of everyone, Lotor offers a lot of praise for Allura’s actions. She thanks him in return for helping her learn of Oriande. And of course, the show has Lance jealous of Allura. Since the show eventually has Lotor revealed as a villain all along, it makes Lance’s jealousy in response to Lotor since 5x01 “The Prisoner” to be right. The show justifies his jealousy as him correctly interpreting Lotor’s spoken support of Allura as being villainous. I am not okay with the show having this message that it’s right for a person to be jealous of someone because they’re attracted to them, and that that jealousy is a valid indicator that the jealous person correctly understands a situation while the person they’re jealous about does not.

We’re introduced to Dayak, Lotor’s former governess. She’s strict, and it’s played for humor. I’ll admit I love the look on Lotor’s face and the tonal quality of his voice when he sees Dayak. I also really like that he refers to the Paladins as his “colleagues;” it sounds genuine and contributes to my inability to read him as villainous. We also get a bit of world-building: before the Galra were spacefaring, they used the title “Blood Emperor.”

Dayak is super proud of Lotor, especially with him becoming emperor, and it’s actually kind of a sweet moment. Lance reacts by taunting Lotor, “She raised you from a child? Awe, is this your nanny?” Uh, Lance, were you not paying attention: Lotor did identify Dayak as his governess. Governess isn’t some weird, alien concept. I actually kind of don’t mind Dayak whacking Lance with her crop. (I just did a tiny bit of research and learned that a crop used in the manner that Dayak is so doing is actually called a “swagger stick.” Swagger seems quite right.)

Hunk decides he’s interested in learning more about Galra society, and Dayak is only willing to teach him if Hunk subjects himself to her rigorous standard.

The show gives us an update on the civil war. Sendak is apparently being very successful in winning support. Lance asks Lotor if he’s going to start freeing planets, and Lotor counters, “It’s not that easy. My grip on the Empire is tenuous as is. I need to proffer an alternative to our current state.” He’s not wrong. Long-lasting change in government and political institutions do not happen quickly. This is why I think a lot of us read Lotor as being genuine and why the show ending his character by saying he was a villain all along is so jarring. He is demonstrating an understanding of social change that is proven accurate given our real history, so it seemed like the show was using Lotor to depict that reality (and maybe even educate viewers). No character other than Lotor has ever presented this nuanced, detailed understanding that to change Galra culture would take a lot more than just killing Zarkon.

Dayak says that “for the mind to learn, the body must be broken.” I can’t agree with that, but this is mostly played for humor so it’s not that bad of a claim in this context. She gives us a history lesson. “The Galra race started as a nation tribe on planet Daibazaal, home to many warring races at the time.” I wonder about the show is using the word “race” here. As we humans in the real world have come to understand (or at least some of us understand), race is a social construct, not something that’s biological. So, I’m wondering if the show truly means the word “race” here or if they mean the word “species.” It’s not an uncommon trope in science fiction to have some alien world result in multiple intelligent species who are in conflict with one another, often with one conquering/destroying the other(s). If she does mean the word race the same as how we use it to reference groups within the same species, then this is an indication that racism has been a fundamental part of Galra culture since apparently the beginning of the Galra.

Vrepet Sa, she tells us, means “killing thrust,” derived from an army combat tactic. She also says that if Hunk abandons her lessons, it is considered an insult to her teaching, and thus she is required to respond by fighting him to the death. This, again, is played for humor.

Lotor tells Allura that if they’re going to be able to get his ships able to enter the rift, she’ll “have to replicate [her] father’s work.” She has no idea how to do that. He tells her that it’ll have to come from “something she learned in Oriande.” Of course, we’re never shown her learning anything. We weren’t shown her learning anything (other than to accept being attacked and potentially killed) there, and I don’t think the show ever shows us that she’s learned anything as this plotline progresses. The show skips that step and just has her be successful in applying alchemy to Lotor’s ships. This is just another manifestation of the show’s lack of definition to its magic system.

Lotor gives his address to the whole of the Galra Empire. He refers to himself as a “slayer of a tyrant.” It’s again hard for me to see him as some deceptive villain with him proclaiming to the entirety of the Empire that Zarkon was a tyrant who needed to be stopped.

We are introduced to a new Galra base, one of the many shown watching the transmission of Lotor’s speech. This base is on a planet that periodically moves through what one Galra calls a “radiation belt” but is animated like it’s a solar flare. they have a shield (one that is small compared to the planet-wide one we saw used on Naxzela) to protect the base from the radiation. While they wait for the radiation belt to pass, the lieutenant complains to the commander about the speech, hoping the commander is not considering joining with Lotor. The lieutenant also has a problem with the idea of the Empire becoming peaceful. The commander is a traditionalist, calling down the lieutenant and cites that Lotor lit the flame of the Kral Zera.

This entire base is contrived. I’m willing to entertain the idea that there’s something of very notable value that would result in the Galra creating this base here, but I don’t have even a clue what that is. So, it makes no sense to me that they would choose this planet rather than some other nearby one that’s not subject to periodic exposure to this radiation belt. The entire premise of this base, narratively, is to create the need for help and Lotor to demonstrate his validity as leader. As the commander goes to send a message to Lotor, Sendak shows up with a fleet and starts blowing up buildings on the planet.

The show then again uses its jarring style of juxtaposing humor scenes in between dramatic moments. It is possible to write humor moments within dramatic scenes, but this show doesn’t do that, at least not successfully. Their humorous scenes that are interspersed within a larger, dramatic narrative only has the effect of disrupting that narrative’s attempt to build tension. Hunk’s scene is thankfully short lived before we return to the main plot.

Lotor identifies the planet that Sendak is attacking as being a “labor planet,” which to me sounds like a euphemism for a prison, but I guess it could be a location primarily made up of industrial facilities. The show never elaborates. Either way, it’s still senseless that they would build this base where this radiation belt would be a frequent, repetitive problem.

I don’t buy into this being a dilemma for Lotor, who says, “Sendak would have me respond to his attack and neglect my empire.” Is this planet not part of Lotor’s empire? Wouldn’t responding to Sendak be him attending to, not neglecting the Empire? Allura proposes Voltron handling Sendak, saying “Voltron can handle this while you continue to rule.” That doesn’t make any sense. Dealing with threats like this is part of ruling. This weird ignorance of what constitutes being the head executive of a government in this scene is baffling. There’s nothing wrong with Voltron being sent to respond, but the idea that Lotor responding to Sendak is somehow Lotor abandoning ruling the Empire is totally senseless.

On the way to the base (and I note that only the Lions are going, not the Castle Ship because wouldn’t want to have to actually show the Castle Ship being used the way it used to be used in the first two seasons of the show), Shiro undergoes some distress. He can even be heard a little over their communication. The Lions wormhole to the Galra base.

Meanwhile, Haggar has arrived at the white hole. She orders her ship to “stay on course” heading into the white hole, despite Axca saying if they go any further that the ship will lose power. Haggar’s facial markings glow, and Shiro is again shown visually and audibly in distress. Lance can hear him and asks if he’s alright, and Shiro says he is. It didn’t seem like Haggar was trying to psychically access Shiro in that moment, so why this whole moment happens, I have no idea. Haggar’s facial markings glowing, per the lore last episode, indicates she has the “mark of the chosen.” Chosen by whom, and why would Haggar be chosen? What are the qualifications a person must meet to be “chosen?” The show never answers this.

Voltron forms. Sendak decides to taunt the Paladins over their caring for others (he’s exploiting the same supposed vulnerability he identified of the Paladins way back in the first season on Arus), and he has his ship fire on the base’s shield, which he damages. “The entire planet is doomed,” the base lieutenant says. It’s supposed to be dramatic, but it just feels contrived because, again, the show has not provided any justification for why this base/labor planet facility has to exist on this particular planet. Sendak then orders his fleet to withdraw.

Shiro declares they need to fix the shield, but then he recoils in pain again and seemingly sees the pyramid on Oriande. Allura asks if Shiro is okay, and he continues to insist that they need to tend to the base. I love that Shiro identifies Hunk as being the one they need to listen to for a team plan. This moment makes me think of season one Shiro, who would often turn to other characters for their respective expertise. This is a great depiction of skillful leadership.

There are three tasks Voltron has to get done to remedy the situation. Hunk assigns working on the generator to Pidge, who needs Shiro’s help. He assigns dealing with the fractured shielding plate to Lance and Allura. And Hunk himself works to put drifting plates back into position. This latter seems more like plain manual labor style effort, which doesn’t quite make sense for Hunk to be doing. I would think, since he’s functioning as an engineer in devising a response plan, that he would be directly working with technology, not just moving it around. The show needs Lance and Allura’s respective Lions’ abilities for dealing with the crack, so without Hunk mentioning that as part of his assignments, it makes his assigning Lance and Allura to that task while he just moves things around a bit contrived. Only a very slight revision to his dialog, letting him point out the necessity of Lance and Allura’s Lions to dealing with the crack, would have fixed this.

The lieutenant on the base decides literally in the middle of the crisis while the base commander is working to try to bring the shield back online as the time to turn against him. Can this show please stop writing characters like they have such a lack of sense that it overrides their desire for survival? There is no reason the lieutenant would mutiny against the commander now while the base is in danger of soon being destroyed. Once the base is safe, maybe, but now? No.

It seems like the whole moment is contrived so that Hunk can yell at them to fulfill the supposed education he was getting from Dayak. While I do actually kind of like how this is simultaneously humorous and the resolution to a dramatic moment, and I like Hunk gaining something from his time with Dayak (so that those scenes weren’t just humor), it only happens because the show writes the lieutenant to behave so unrealistically. There is a little bit of outsider-as-savior trope applied, having Hunk demonstrating more supposed understanding of Galra culture than Galra themselves, that sort of taints the moment though.

Pidge and Shiro enter into the depths of the shield base to access the base’s systems. Hunk says that if the shield plates are “even one degree off, the shield will fail.” That’s a level of precision that does not feel realistic, and they could have easily left that particular claim out of the episode, and I wish they had. Allura proposes Lance hold pieces of the cracked plate in place while she uses Blue’s ice cannon to bind the pieces together. And then Lance adds the idea of using Red’s fire cannon to weld the plates together after they’ve been frozen in place. That makes the ice step of the process seem unnecessary, just get to welding. (Also, again, this whole plan of action with Allura and Lance should have been Hunk’s idea.)

Lance then takes Allura’s compliment and jumps into his jealousy, trying to replicate some of content of the dialog he heard from Lotor toward Allura at the beginning of the episode. I swear, this show seems to be unable to help itself when it writes Lance to behave like this while in the middle of crises. It’s so annoying.

The Yellow Lion spontaneously grows new abilities (without any use of Hunk’s bayard to activate it) and without any acknowledgement by any character, including Hunk. It makes this development have zero emotional or dramatic weight. (EDIT: Thanks to lostchasingsilver for pointing out to me that this upgrade Hunk uses here is the same one he used in 2x06 “The Ark of Taujeer,” just without claws. I didn’t remember that upgrade including a booster engine. Also, thanks to lostchasingsilver for pointing out that Lion upgrades do not use the bayard, just Voltron upgrades. It feels dissonant for one set of upgrades to use a bayard while the other doesn’t, but that’s how it happens.)

Pidge and Shiro are still working inside the base. Shiro winces, and he sees Haggar touching the floor with a glyph glowing under her in the room with the giant statues in the pyramid on Oriande. Haggar would seem to be fighting the statues. There is no explanation for how/why Shiro is able to see what Haggar is doing. There’s also no explanation for how Haggar has been allowed, not just inside Oriande, but inside the white hole. I guess the show thinks that having Haggar able to overcome the White Lion demonstrates that she’s such a huge threating villain for the story, but it makes the White Lion as a guardian last episode seem pointless. It makes Allura’s willingness to accept being attacked and potentially harmed by the White Lion lose significance and meaning.

The shield plates are restored, Pidge reboots the base’s power systems. The shield starts to function. Shiro then sees the White Lion as if it is attacking him, causing him to recoil his hand from the panel he was powering, sending the shield offline again. Energy from the cracked plate begins to spark, and Lance assumes that it’s going to jet out and hit the Blue Lion, so he pilots Red to knock Blue out of the way. Red gets hit by energy that looks like just big electricity (you’re telling me that the Lions can handle being hit by laser blasters, but electricity can mess them up?), and Lance seems to be electrocuted in the process. Allura immediately jumps out of Blue and jetpacks over to Red (how about just using Blue to pull Red to safety?). Allura’s voice conveys how distraught she is over the idea that Lance was injured.

This Allura and Lance moment feels very contrived to me, artificial to let her have this reaction. The problem for me is that this is such a big moment in the development of their relationship that it should have been given the narrative space to occupy the narrative entirely, not have to fit it in with other simultaneous developments of other plots. By not giving it due space, it feels rushed.

Hunk moves to try to restore the cracked plate.

Shiro is not able to do anything, clearly wincing in significant pain. Pidge grabs Shiro and tries to pull him back to the panel.

Allura touches Lance’s helmet, both Allura’s and Lance’s bodies glow and Red’s eyes also glow.

Pidge gets Shiro’s hand on the panel in the clichédly last second. Can writers please stop acting like literal last second success actually feels like success and not cheap writing?

Lance regains consciousness.

Later, the base commander and lieutenant thank Hunk “for reminding [them] what it means to be Galra.” Sigh.

On their return trip, Hunk is sleeping.

Shiro meanwhile looks exhausted. He winces again and sees Haggar walking out of the pyramid with sparkling dots floating around her. She pulls back her hood and regains her Honerva appearance. The music makes the moment confusing. I don’t know if the episode expects me to feel unnerved by her villainous success, or if I’m supposed to think she’s restored herself to some pre-quintessence poisoning true-self.

The most significant development to the story this episode is the Haggar plot, yet those moments are given the least amount of time and explanation. Haggar’s part in this episode totally overshadows everyone else in the episode, with he exception of Shiro since he is how we’re given this information about Haggar. The absolute lack of explanation about what’s going on with Shiro really bothers me.

It’s also really bothering that Lance and Allura both had heard Shiro wincing in pain at points in the episode, and then Pidge literally sees Shiro in pain so severe that she has to pull him into position and put his hand on the panel, yet the episode ends without any of them talking to him about what was happening to him. Friends do not ignore their supposed friend when they literally hear and see that supposed friend in pain, but apparently they do on this show.

Lotor’s claimed inability to respond to Sendak because he has to rule the Empire was senseless, Allura and Lance’s moment was rushed (at best), Shiro was subject to suffering without anyone who’se supposed to care about him following up on knowing it happened, and Haggar is, without explanation, more powerful than ancient, almost spiritual, super magical, otherworldly defenses. The basic ideas of the episode are good, but the production of those ideas into a finished product needs more work.

[nationaldvam]

Our favorite childhood stories tend to stick with us. For me, rabbits seemed to be prominent characters in the books I loved – from Uncle Wiggily to Watership Down, Peter Rabbit and Alice in Wonderland. And more than the adventures of the bunnies, I remember the way the stories made me feel, and the lessons I still carry with me. There were lessons of survival, persistence, curiosity, risk-taking, and problem-solving that reinforced values of leadership, compassion, community, respect, and kindness. These rabbits live on in my subconscious, holding power and space having shaped my understanding of the world and all of its love and pain. Now, as a parent, I’ve come to know just how critical these choices are for my own children, and just how much power a simple picture book can hold.

Enhancing Social Justice Literacy

In 2015, Tanya Nixon-Silberg and Francie Latour, two Black mothers, authors, and community activists, drew on their own parenting practices – especially their use of children’s books to disrupt dominant narratives with their kids – to launch Wee the People (WTP) in Boston. WTP is a social justice project for children aged 4-12 that explores activism, resistance, and social action through the visual and performing arts. As part of their work, WTP hosts Social Justice Storytime at the Boston Public Library for their “Little Voices, Big Changes” initiative, built on the belief that if kids can understand fairness they can understand justice. Tanya and Francie work to builds parents’ capacity to confront topics like racism, deportation, gentrification, misogyny, islamophobia, and homophobia.

Innosanto Nagara, a Southeast Asian immigrant father, author/illustrator, and graphic designer creates new-wave board books that inspire conversations about social justice and encourage children’s passion and action around social causes like environmental issues, LGBTQ rights, and civil rights. With titles like A is for Activist, Counting on Community, and The Wedding Portrait, Innosanto explores themes of activism, free speech, political progress, civil disobedience, and artistic defiance. Innosanto is on the editorial team of M is for Movement, a site dedicated to exploring social justice and activism in children’s literature. The contributors to M is for Movement are children’s writers, illustrators, and book creators who are long-time activists and advocates who “come from and stand with marginalized communities living at intersections of identity, experience, race, class, gender, religion, sexuality, and ability.”

At the 2018 Facing Race National Conference in Detroit organized by Race Forward, Wee the People co-founder Tanya Nixon-Silberg and author/illustrator Innosanto Nagara presented a workshop together on racial literacy for children. They stressed the importance of racial literacy from an early age in the process of dismantling racist systems and structures.

Through their work, Tanya, Francie, and Innosanto are invested in inspiring social action through the arts, and have found that children’s books offer a powerful medium for moving new generations of people towards justice. Louise Derman-Sparks from Social Justice Books (a project of Teaching for Change) agrees:

“Children’s books continue to be an invaluable source of information and values. They reflect the attitudes in our society about diversity, power relationships among different groups of people, and various social identities (e.g., racial, ethnic, gender, economic class, sexual orientation, and disability). The visual and verbal messages young children absorb from books (and other media) heavily influence their ideas about themselves and others. Depending on the quality of the book, they can reinforce (or undermine) children’s affirmative self-concept, teach accurate (or misleading) information about people of various identities, and foster positive (or negative) attitudes about diversity. Children’s books teach children about who is important, who matters, who is even visible” (Guide for Selecting Anti-Bias Children’s Books, 2013).

Social Justice Literacy as a Prevention Strategy

Social justice literacy is an effective gender-based violence prevention strategy – a proactive effort to stop violence and abuse from happening in the first place by interrupting the cultural rules, norms, and constructs that support it. Several projects highlighted in the PreventIPV Tools Inventory demonstrate the effectiveness of social justice literacy in creating a more peaceful and just world. For example, Teaching for Change is a project that strives to build a more equitable, multicultural society by promoting social justice activism in the classroom. Their strategies center on leadership development and civic engagement for students, parents, and teachers that draw on real world current events. Teaching a People’s History offers classroom materials that emphasize the role of working people, women, people of color, and organized social movements in shaping history. And Rethinking Schools focuses on strengthening public education through social justice teaching and education activism with a specific focus on promoting equity and racial justice in the classroom. These approaches focus on impacting the outermost layers of the social ecology to shift our cultural norms and values.

Priya Vulchi and Winona Guo, youth activists and creators of The Classroom Index, a textbook on racial literacy, identified two gaps in racial education:

The heart gap: “An inability to understand each of our experiences, to fiercely and unapologetically be compassionate beyond lip service,” and

The mind gap: “An inability to understand the larger, systemic ways in which racism operates.”

TED Talk: What It Takes to be Racially Literate by Priya Vulchi and Winona Guo

Children’s literature is one way to bridge these gaps by inspiring, educating, and engaging readers of all ages in a deeper understanding of the lived experiences of all people, families, and communities in our wide and vibrant world. But the fact is that marginalized people and communities are outrageously underrepresented in books available to children in mainstream American classrooms, libraries, and catalogues – in terms of both those authoring the books, and characters represented inside them. The Cooperative Children’s Book Center found that in all children’s picture books published in 2015, you are more likely to find non-human characters like bunnies (12.5%) than African Americans (7.6%) and Latinx (2.6%) combined. White characters are primarily depicted in the vast majority (73.3%) of these books.

Illustration: Diversity in Children's Books 2015 by David Huyck, in consultation with Sarah Park Dahlen and Molly Beth Griffin

Social Justice Books serves to identify, vet, and promote multicultural and social justice children’s books, building on the tradition of the Council on Interracial Books for Children which offered a social justice lens to reviews of children’s literature. They also help parents and children develop critical literacy skills and promote activism around diverse representation in libraries. One example is their #StepUpScholastic campaign urging Scholastic to “publish and distribute children’s books that reflect and affirm the identity, history, and lives of ALL children in our schools.” Engaging children in proactive efforts to both notice and address the underrepresentation of people of color in literature, as illustrated above, builds their social justice literacy.

Books that Promote Justice and Peace

For those looking for books that promote justice and peace, resources like Social Justice Books offer vetted booklists on a variety of topics, as do Raising Luminaries: Books for Littles and Little Feminist: Books for raising conscious kids. Topics include:

Learning about family structures

Talking to kids about violence

Books for tomorrow’s leaders

Honoring single mothers

Promoting healthy fatherhood

Fostering social and emotional health, compassion, and independence

Helping kids recognize privilege

Cultivating healthy sexual boundaries

Preventing sexual violence

Bullying, civil disobedience, and disrupting injustice

Seek out books by authors of color like Newbery Medal and Coretta Scott King Honor receipient Kwame Alexander. Additionally, several anti-violence organizations offer book lists specific to addressing trauma. For example, The Child Witness to Violence Project offers books about trauma and violence for young children.

As M is for Movement explains, “Children’s literature—both fiction and nonfiction—is full of inspiration and examples of children and adults who stand up for themselves and others. Whether it’s ducks organizing animals to oppose unfair farm rules, a student listening to her classmates’ concerns when running for student council, or a boy joining his first march, young people’s literature can demonstrate how individuals and communities have the power to act as agents for social change.”

Through children’s books, we can teach justice and peace across generations. By engaging a child in a book with a strong message that fills the heart and the head, we can help build their understanding, compassion, and confidence to impact social change in ways that are meaningful and important to them. And these lessons and values will likely stick with them their whole life long

Images:

The Rabbit Listened by Cori Doerrfeld

Counting on Community by Innosanto Nagara

Illustration: Diversity in Children's Books 2015 by David Huyck, in consultation with Sarah Park Dahlen and Molly Beth Griffin

[epistolizer]

Hit & Run Commentary #135

Cal Thomas is now flagellating himself over the specter of White privilege as lamented in his column titled “America’s Reckoning With Racism”. If he is really so concerned about this why doesn’t he surrender his influential position in the media to a minority? Readers should also note that he selected the luxury of Florida in which to live out his golden years rather than the squalor of one America’s ghettos in which he would have been able to actualize the values he demands of the rest of us such as the willingness to be verbally denounced and berated by those we have allegedly oppressed.

So do media propagandists jacked out of shape over the use of tear gas and pepper spray to disperse riotous protesters intend to articulate condemnation as rigorous of Antifa’s strategy to gouge out eyes?

Do those claiming to support Black Lives Matter really support the cause when asked or fear bodily harm and vandalized property?

Regarding municipalities and jurisdictions threatening to disband police departments in order to placate riotous mobs demanding astronomical welfare handouts categorized as social programs: will those breaking the law in such areas still be apprehended or taken into custody? If so, even if under the banner of another name, aren’t those still the functions of a police department?

With the abolition or defunding of police departments, Whites have even more justification to flee urbanized areas leaving them to further decay and blight.

Apparently mobs marching through the streets are enough to get technocrats to ease the rigors of the plague cult. Perhaps churches ought to begin holding mass decentralized public worship meetings not directly linked to any one congregation surrounded by armed militias. If left unaccosted, such would not be violent.

Given that Black Lives Matter only gets jacked out of shape when those of a certain ethnic composition get mistreated by the police, doesn’t that expose how inherently racist that movement is?

If protesters carry signs with language deemed linguistically inappropriate, the media shouldn’t blur the image. Don’t these liberal journalists any other time insist upon how obligated oppressors are to listen to these disenfranchised COMMUNITIES expressing THEIR TRUTH unfiltered?

During protest coverage, media propagandists informed that certain images had to be blurred to protect viewers and their families from alleged profanity. Too bad the media is not as decisive about rendering judgment against the destruction and theft of private property

Media propagandists said that the profanity on protest signs had to be blurred so as not to harm viewers at home. But is it about protecting viewers or out of concern that seeing such might shock the average American that usually doesn’t consider the implications of this subversive element regarding how there is an effort underway to implement a worldview of demoniac tyranny formulated in the bowels of Sheol itself.

Protesters are demanding funds from cut police budgets be redirected towards jobs and education. Yet those calling for such will barely work or pursue academics as it is. Often these behavioral choices are denounced among such demographics as “acting White”.

Veggie Tales creator Phil Vischer has criticized the conservative response to violent protests as valuing property over lives. Wonder if he would respond the same way if the target had been a warehouse full of his anthropomorphized produce DVD’s and related licensed merchandise?

In its streamed service, a church posted a slide that in person worship would not resume until later in the summer. Then perhaps the next song sung by the worship band should not have contained the lyric that to die for Christ is gain? Because doesn’t that propositional juxtaposition indicate they really don’t mean it and are just as much afraid to croak as nearly every other slob on the street?

As much as these churches are harping about race, don’t be surprised if after lock down quite a few White pewfillers simply don’t come back.

If the government and private enterprise imposing the policies of such (the definition of fascism) can coerce you into wearing a mask in the name of public health, what is so wrong with assorted laws and regulations intended to punish sexual contact outside of heterosexual marriage in the name of disease prevention? Granted, such laws would be near impossible to enforce from a standpoint of practicality. However, that is not usually the position that they are argued against. Rather, it is claimed such regulations infringe upon matters of personal choice even when the health of another individual is involved, the very principle that has been curtailed to a disturbing extent in the Age of Plague.

It it was immoral to stoke fear of disease in the name of promoting abstinence, why is it moral to stoke fear of disease to coerce compliance with a variety of social distancing measures?

A Confederate monument was preemptively demolished in Decatur, Georgia on the grounds that allowing an incompetent band of hooligans that had probably never even held a powertool prior to being overcome with the current fit of revolutionary madness could imperil public safety. So wouldn’t it be prudent to also remove assorted Martin Luther King or Barack Obama commemorative statuary for similar reasons out of an abundance of caution?

At the Trump campaign rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, attendees were allowed to decide for themselves whether or not they would wear a mask. Medical establishment functionaries (many of which no one elected to office or not even employed as part of the civil service) issued numerous pronouncements decreeing that those deciding not to conceal their countenances in the proscribed manner were threatening the lives of those with compromised immune systems. But unlike a supermarket, one does not possess a compelling necessity to attend a political rally in order to continue one’s existence or maintain one’s quality of life. As such, so long as the individual is fully cognizant that masks will not be required at a particular venue or event, doesn’t there come a point where the individual needs to shoulder some of the responsibility for their own healthcare maintenance rather than to pawn that obligation off on everybody else? After all, haven’t we been told for decades now that if you don’t want your mind or soul soiled by filthy media, then don’t tune into such productions? Likewise, if you are afraid of picking up a disease in a place that the purpose in being there is more of a pleasure than a necessity, perhaps you ought consider not going there in the first place.

Commissar Cuomo is categorizing the removal of the Theodore Roosevelt statue at the Museum of Natural History in New York as an act of love. How long until mass executions or the seizure of the property of designated counterrevolutionary thought criminals will categorized as an act of love?

On Fox News Sunday, Chris Wallace remarked that, in light of the NFL’s reversal on the national anthem and the call to rename a number of military bases, a cultural shift is underway. But are these changes something that the vast majority want? Or is it that they afraid to question such proposals out of fear of riots and looting on the part of violent subversives?

If we are to be so gripped with fear of violent retaliation on the part of apoplectic activists (for that is rather the reason than belief in diversity and inclusion) to the point that White thespians can no longer be allowed to perform voiceovers for cartoon characters of color, do the producers of the musical Hamilton intend to replace the Black actor that performed that eponymous role with a White one to more accurately depict the historically documented image of that particular Founding Father?

Perennial rabble rouser Al Sharpton insists it is an outrage to have someone to pay taxes to provide for commemorative statues of individuals that fought to keep that taxpayer enslaved. Maybe so. But given that it has been documented that Sharpton is profoundly delinquent in regards to the taxes he owes, he obviously doesn’t have as much going towards that particular budgetary outlay as he dupes his deluded followers into believing. Shouldn’t this multimillionaire having flouted his fiscal obligations be the even greater outrage?

On the Five, establishmentatian mouthpiece Dana Perino called for a moratorium on all conspiracy theories. In other words, we are obligated to believe without question any information handed down to us by government or those institutions in league with it at the highest levels such as academia, multinational industry, and the mainstream media. Who is to say what constitutes a conspiracy? This time several years ago, had someone pronounced that a virus would be invoked to keep you under near house arrest, your face swaddled like a jihadist concubine, and vast swaths of the economy nearly destroyed, they would have also been denounced as a conspiracy theorist.

By Frederick Meekins

[cnroth]

On “Jessica Jones,” mental healthcare in the US, and representing mental health issues in media

First, a note: Although this post was inspired by listening to the recent Jedi Counsel podcast discussing season two of “Jessica Jones” from a psychological perspective, this is really just a personal reflection on the responses I have seen from various mental health professionals who have written articles/blogs, recorded podcasts or YouTube videos, or otherwise made publicly-accessible responses to recent popular media depictions of mental health issues. This post will specifically mention two Netflix series, “Jessica Jones” and “13 Reasons Why,” but my reflections have also developed out of some more general impressions of how professionals sometimes respond to fictional depictions of mental health issues.

For the record, I love the Jedi Counsel podcast. I come at this post from different perspective, but I do find them to do an overall good job of giving thoughtful opinions that add a lot to discourse on mental health in the media. And I think they did a really good job educating/discussing the concepts and techniques seen in season two of “Jessica Jones” from a psychological perspective. If that is a topic of interest to you, I highly recommend listening to their podcast. Visit the Jedi Counsel website here.

Warning: This post contains minor spoilers for “Jessica Jones” season two and “13 Reasons Why” season one. It also discusses portrayals within these series of issues such as PTSD, depression, substance abuse, and violence against women.

Okay, onto the actual post (below the cut).

I’m an MSW student, and I recently wrapped up my foundation field assignment in which I did a fair amount of work within dual diagnosis peer support groups and programs. Because of that experience, I assumed right away that Jessica’s anger management group was a peer-led group, and I knew that it would look different from how a licensed therapy group would work (which was acknowledged in the podcast). I have struggled, personally and professionally, with the pros and cons and ethical implications of peer support programs vs science-based therapy, and I, too, was frustrated by this anger management group in the show. However, my frustration isn’t with the show, but with the way mental health is understood and addressed by the justice system in the US.

I know that positive depictions of mental health treatment are very lacking in media, and that does frustrate me. Even so, I cannot deny that what “Jessica Jones” has represented is being done in the real world. Peer-support groups are commonly utilized by judges because they’re free and readily available in most areas. Now, don’t misunderstand me here, because I have seen peer support be an incredibly powerful force for good in the lives of people when applied thoughtfully and in conjunction with other forms of treatment. But, on its own, I’m not convinced that it is enough.

Unfortunately for many Americans (especially those who are socially and/or economically disadvantaged), peer support is all they get.

I found it incredibly interesting that the show chose to make the facilitator a man who had formerly been abusive towards his wife. Now, I’m glad they didn’t portray the facilitator as someone who seemed predatory or still acting out violently, because they could have easily villainized and dehumanized him due to his history. And again, not all peer support groups are like this. But, I have heard and read many stories of peer support groups failing to protect and support vulnerable people who attend— particularly women. In fact, there are organizations that have created women-only peer support groups for this very reason, because a lot of women have reported being harassed and assaulted by men they met in peer support groups.

So the story is that Jessica, a woman with a history of abuse from a male partner, is court-ordered to attend a peer support anger management group that is facilitated by a man who has a history of perpetrating domestic violence. For me, I interpreted it as a criticism of what sometimes passes for mental healthcare in America, and why it can be ineffective or potentially threatening to women. Expecting a woman who has been abused to find healing and “sameness” with an abuser is absolutely ridiculous, regardless of whether or not that man is still a danger or not. But it happens in the real world.

This touches on something that I think the podcast has missed before, specifically in their episodes on “13 Reasons Why”— that good mental healthcare in America is not readily accessible to people, and that what is accessible can be harmful to women who have been traumatized. Now, admittedly, it is my bent as a student of social work to focus on the impact of someone’s social environment rather than their internal cognitive processes as psychologists do. To me, this is a social justice issue, and that may place it outside the scope of what the Jedi Counsel hosts examine (and others in the field of psychology who have written or spoken about media depictions of psychological issues). That’s why I raise this discussion.

Much like how I saw “13 Reasons Why” as being less about depression and suicide than it was about the abuse and disempowerment that many American teenagers with mental illness and/or adverse experiences have faced, I saw “Jessica Jones” season two as less about PTSD and substance abuse than it was about the array of shit women have had to deal with in our lives and the anger we can (understandably) sometimes feel about it.

I guess my point, if I have one, is that there’s a broader scope to mental health than just “this is accurate/inaccurate for this condition in the DSM” or “this is/isn’t how a professional should respond.” Yes, that is all very important, and it does frustrate me that media portrays the dark side of psychology and mental health without the balance of showing psychotherapy in accurate and positive contexts. Yes, I do think these negative (and often stereotyped) portrayals of mental health issues are harmful in that they can leave people with the impression that there aren’t accessible options for them when they need help.

But, I also think it can be harmful to not acknowledge that a lot of us with mental health conditions have had negative experiences when seeking help (or being involuntarily forced into it). We have been met with unhelpful, unsafe, or downright damaging responses from professionals and systems that we thought would support us. Maybe, rather than assuming that storytellers are trying to be sensational, we should consider the possibility that they’re reflecting back to us some larger social failures in regards to the diverse experiences of those who suffer from mental illness. Yeah, sometimes media creators do sensationalize, but other times they use narratives to call out some very real barriers to service that many of us face due to criminal conviction, lack of resources, gender-based violence, or other social inequalities.

I get a bit frustrated at mental health professionals who call out these negative portrayals, yet fail to acknowledge that these things do happen. School counselors do fail to properly intervene when adolescents reach out for help. Quack practitioners do take advantage of vulnerable people with psychiatric and physical diagnoses, either to victimize them (as with Jeri Hogarth) or because they cling to harmful “alternative” therapy practices (as with the hypnotherapist Trish convinces Jessica to see for memory recovery). I’ve heard and read from licensed practitioners who rage about these portrayals and insist that this shit doesn’t happen, but it does. And yeah, maybe academics can recognize that this is bullshit, but most of us live in an entirely different world than academics do.

Yes, let’s push for more accurate representation of mental illness. Yes, let’s see empirically-based psychological and psychiatric treatments working for fictional characters, to normalize mental healthcare and show that there are options for treatment that work. I’ll be the first to say that therapy medication have given me the ability to live with my mental disorders.

But simply replacing all negative media portrayals with positive ones won’t magically fix mental health stigma, because it doesn’t change the fact that so many of us lack access to proper treatment in the first place, and are not equipped to discern what is helpful versus what is harmful. If anything, it would perpetuate a different false narrative— that anyone with a mental health problem can easily get help, and that help will definitely be safe and trustworthy, when the reality is that not every so-called counselor or group is helpful.

So when we have these experiences, get thrown off by these barriers, and loose hope in the system, we sometimes take solace in stories that reflect our experiences in mental healthcare, and we hope to start conversations about how it can and should be better.

[shirlleycoyle]

Meet The Genetic Sleuths Solving Decades-Old Trans Murders

On the blustery morning of November 26, 1983, a beachgoer spotted a still-warm body in Half Moon Bay, California. The victim, who looked about 20 years old, had been stabbed more than 20 times and left in the sands near Pillar Point Bluff. Their wrists were slashed, their face bruised and swollen. (Out of respect for the victim’s unknown gender identity, Motherboard is using they/them as a pronoun.)

At their time of death, the person was presenting as a stylish, slender woman. They were 5-foot-10 inches tall, wearing an auburn pixie cut and casual clothes: yellow capri pants and a turtleneck over a foam-form bra, fishnet hose, and two pairs of feminine underwear. A Madonna-style white metal crucifix hung around their neck. 

When taken to a medical examiner, the victim's body was misidentified as male, and nobody ever came to claim it. In an effort to identify the individual, cops dubbed them “John Doe #83-26” and released a crime sketch depicting a man. It failed to convey their gender identity or expression, including that they were likely wearing makeup and going by a woman’s name.

The case of Pillar Point Doe soon went cold and their identity remained a mystery for 35 years—until two genealogy sleuths recently cracked the case. The trans couple, who specialize in cold cases involving trans and gender non-conforming people, found the forgotten victim’s birth name through an online DNA database, reviving the hunt for their killer.

“I would work until I passed out”

Lee and Anthony Redgrave traced Pillar Point Doe’s relatives from Wales to Utah using the family history site GEDmatch, known for its role in finding the notorious Golden State Killer. The search was close to home for the Redgraves, who toiled obsessively for months without pay. 

“I would work until I passed out. I’d cry myself to sleep at night, and have dreams where I was woken up thinking that [the victim] was telling me their name,” said Anthony, who along with Lee, ran a small team for the DNA Doe Project, a non-profit that identifies deceased people through forensic genealogy.

Lee added: “There are a lot of factors—and homicide detectives have absolutely no idea how to do this.”

The Redgraves were inspired by personal tragedy to help solve the case. In January 2018, a transgender friend of theirs, Christa Steele-Knudslien—a beauty pageant organizer and trans activist—was beaten and stabbed to death. The attack, which came after another friend’s suicide, sent Lee spiraling into a depression.

“It really tore my brain up,” said Lee, 41, a non-binary night owl with arms full of tattoos. “I got depressed, and when that happens I usually throw myself into a project.”

Anthony and Lee Redgrave

When a true crime-loving friend recommended they volunteer for the DNA Doe Project, it seemed like a good distraction.“Partially, I’m sure, it was her being like, ‘You have to stop being in a funk,’” Lee said. “We both felt really helpless about Christa—and this was something we actually could help with.”

They had plenty of experience with genetic genealogy, but they knew the limits of DNA and family tree matches for transgender victims. Database searches often lead to “dead names”—birth names victims no longer use, and aren’t known by in their communities. And most law enforcement systems don’t allow searches across sex marker categories, blinding them to some gender non-conforming folks.

A “trans-informed” perspective could shed some light, considering trans people are more likely to be the target of violent, unresolved crime. “Being a trans person, I know I’ve been incredibly fortunate not to have had a bunch of horrible things happen to me,” said Anthony, 38, a soft-spoken Civil War buff with a long ginger beard. “That was a driving force.”

When the Redgraves first heard about the Pillar Point Doe case in July 2018, they knew almost immediately it was ripe for a genetic gumshoeing.

An Unlikely Partnership

The victim, who was carrying no identification, had been found only two hours after they were stabbed in the neck and chest, allowing cops to collect a piece of blood-soaked blotter paper known as a “blood card.” This meant Pillar Point Doe’s DNA didn’t have to be extracted from bone, a longer and more expensive  process. And yet it would likely show a complete picture of the victim’s entire genetic makeup, one that could be extracted in a lab and uploaded to GEDmatch, they said.

But the couple still had to convince the San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office to hand over the blood sample—and to team up with them on the investigation.  

The Redgraves had a hunch cops would be willing. Their request came on the heels of the Golden State Killer’s arrest a few counties away, and in a section of northern California that tends to be queer-friendly.

“The thought was it was a good case because it was the Bay Area. We expected  there would be more friendly law enforcement and a LBGTQ liaison in the Bay Area,” said Anthony. “We had to give an elevator pitch to the department, like, ‘This is why we want this specific case, and this is how it will benefit you.’”

The cops, it turned out, were game. The Redgraves signed non-disclosure agreements and— in a rare move—police released Pillar Point Doe’s private case files,  including the blood card along with crime scene and coroner photos. 

The Redgraves agreed to do the genetic sleuthing, then pass off next of kin matches to police, who would talk to relatives, collect DNA samples and handle the investigation from there.

It was an unlikely partnership. Many trans people refuse to work with cops since law enforcement has routinely targeted the community, trans activists and experts said. According to a 2015 survey, at least 57 percent of trans respondents said they would be afraid or uncomfortable going to police for help.

“It comes from being abused or not taken seriously by officers who historically have been disrespectful or dismissive of trans people,” said Rodrigo Heng-Lehtinen, a policy expert for the National Center for Transgender Equality. “There’s a real stigma. Sometimes just being visibly trans in public is enough to get stopped or harassed by police on suspicion of being a sex worker—whether or not you actually are.” 

Cases with trans victims have long been de-prioritized by cops, who assume victims are sex workers, living a “high risk” lifestyle or are “disowned” by their families, Heng-Lehtinen said. 

But a lack of trans awareness is bad for police, too. Detectives who are ignorant about the community are more likely to use a transgender person’s dead name  because it was printed on a government-issued ID, or to seek outdated information from estranged family members who knew them pre-transition, he said. It keeps those investigators from understanding the whole picture. 

“If you’re an officer who’s asking around for Mark Smith and everybody in the neighborhood knows her as Marcia, that’s not helping anybody,” Heng-Lehtinen said.

Lee chalks it up to lack of education and training. “If you look at popular media over the past 20 years, the characters that are dressing opposite of what they’re ‘supposed to be’ are usually trying to trick somebody or get away with something—the end of ‘Ace Ventura’ is a classic example, or ‘The Crying Game,’” Lee said. “You get a lot of that mentality still in law enforcement, just because they haven’t had an alternate education.”

Identifying Doe

The Redgraves quickly got to work on creating a more gender-accurate forensic sketch of Pillar Point Doe. In the 80s and 90s, at least three drawings had been made of them, all wildly different. 

One showed a “partially-Asian goth” guy with boxy slicked-back black hair, Lee said. Another depicted a shaggy-haired Val Kilmer look-alike with almond eyes. All were of men, and none were quite right.

“It seemed like [police artists] were trying to make this person look male,” Lee said. “Considering they had natural hair, not a wig, and were wearing pants with multiple layers of hose and underwear, it’s likely that they were tucking to have a more female appearance,” Lee said, citing details about the victim's outfit.

“They were probably attempting to pass as female as opposed to someone who was [a] drag performer or engaging in prostitution while cross-dressing.”

Based on those clues, the male sketch on fliers would have likely been lost on Pillar Point Doe’s queer “chosen family”—or anyone who saw them the night of the murder, the couple said. So using crime scene and coroner photos, the Redgraves and an artist came up with a new sketch that depicts the victim with a more feminine look, a yellow outfit and natural-style makeup.

In March 2019, Pillar Point’s blood card came back from the lab. It showed Pillar Point Doe’s entire genome sequence on a huge hard drive. 

From their cozy home office in central Massachusetts, the Redgraves and a small team plugged those chunks of genetic code into GEDmatch, which compares DNA from testing sites like 23andMe and ancestry.com to find possible relatives with similar genetic makeups. Unlike law enforcement’s Combined DNA Index System (CODIS), the site can pinpoint distant ancestors, not just immediate family members. 

It works like this: Say you find a painting in a park with no signature and you want to learn the name of the artist. If you could somehow scan the piece’s complex colors and brush strokes into a massive database of art, you might be able to match it to the person who made it. Other paintings by the artist with similar patterns—a distant cousin, in this analogy—may also pop up.

In general, DNA evidence is only as accurate as the people who collect and analyze it. Technicians have been known to misinterpret samples, and police have submitted tainted or mixed genetic material. But Pillar Point’s blood card appeared to be a solid sample, the couple said.  

The search led the Redgraves to a small town in Wales, where Pillar Point Doe’s distant relatives once worked at a glove factory. “We kept finding people who descended from this really specific family, but then finding the right branch turned out to be really hard,” Lee said.

Scores of unwed mothers hailed from the town for unknown reasons, leading to frustrating genealogy dead-ends. “It happened over and over again in this one little town,” Lee said.

The couple built a massive family tree and cross-referenced names with public records. They traced that to a group of relatives to a Utah pioneer community with roots in the Mormon Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. “When you work on someone’s genealogy, you get to know them in a really intimate way through their ancestors,” Lee said. “You know you’re getting close when they start looking like who you’re looking for.”

The couple soon discovered Pillar Point’s cousins belonged to an intermarried clan of families. Some men had multiple wives and children, amounting to a genealogy headache. “It’s a problem that’s common in isolated religious communities. The fancy word is endogamy,” Lee said. “You end up with a  whole lot of half-relations and unreliable predictions.”

Setbacks

Then a fiasco unfolded. The arrest of the Golden State Killer in 2018 had sparked privacy fears from critics who claimed GEDMatch could be used for nefarious reasons. When a criminal case centering on a minor stirred up more controversy on the site the next year, the owners abruptly purged the “law enforcement matching” section of it in May 2019, according to the Redgraves.

With no warning, it left the couple with only about 20 percent of the genetic clues they’d had before. “Think of it as the number of letters turned around on your ‘Wheel of Fortune’ puzzle. [Afterwards] there were 80 percent less letters, and we still had to guess the phrase,” Lee said.

The setback forced them to get creative. They sought uploads from people who descended from early settlers in Utah, along with the Mormon church, and mapped out “clusters” of potential relatives.

Anthony spent hours tinkering with DNA Painter, a tool that helps genealogists make sense of matches. Eventually, it led to Pillar Point’s possible great grandfather. 

During an all-nighter in October 2019, they had a breakthrough. When they got to one of the possible great grandfather’s relatives, they checked records for proof of the person’s life after 1983, and found none. Lee pulled out Pillar Point’s crime scene photo and checked it against a high school yearbook photo of the grandchild.  

It all added up:  Here was the long-forgotten face of Pillar Point Doe.

They both burst into tears. “There were periods of crying and shaking for a few days afterwards. It was really intense,” Lee said.

The team then sent Pillar Point’s birth name to cops, who collected DNA from a relative to confirm the match, reinvigorating the investigation.

San Mateo County police have since declined to release Pillar Point Doe’s birth name—or to allow the couple to—saying it could hurt their hunt for the killer. “This homicide is actively being investigated. Unfortunately, disclosing information about the details may hinder our investigation,” Sergeant William Young, from the San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office, told Motherboard.

Cold Case, Close To Home

Now, the Redgraves want more answers. “Ideally, police will find the perpetrator,” Lee said. “[Cops] definitely want to tell us something but they can’t. It makes us feel hopeful.”

Not long ago, Lee got a tattoo of poppies in Pillar Point Doe’s honor. It was inspired by the California flower bloom that could be seen from space in March 2019, the week the couple began searching for the victim's identity. “I am absolutely forever changed from working on this case,” Lee said.

Ultimately, the Redgraves hope Pillar Point Doe will be remembered for who they were—a complex and loved person, not a forgotten John Doe. “Hopefully someone who loved them will carry on their memory,” Lee said.

The couple now runs the Trans Doe Task Force, a research group that helps police and medical examiners with transgender and gender-expansive cold cases. Recently, they launched a database that allows for DNA comparisons across sex marker categories. They also founded their own firm, Redgrave Research Forensic Services, and Anthony has helped train law enforcement departments on five continents.

These days, the couple has a small framed high school photo of Pillar Point Doe in their home, near portraits of other people from cases close to their hearts. 

“Pillar Point has become part of our family. I feel like we are basically like their  foster parents,” Anthony said. “I’m going to feel that way until I know exactly how this case ends.”

Meet The Genetic Sleuths Solving Decades-Old Trans Murders syndicated from https://triviaqaweb.wordpress.com/feed/

[just0nemorepage]

It's Kind of a Funny Story || Ned Vizzini || 444 pages -------------------------------------------------------- Top 3 Genres: Young Adult / Contemporary / Mental Health

Synopsis: Ambitious New York City teenager Craig Gilner is determined to succeed at life - which means getting into the right high school to get into the right job. But once Craig aces his way into Manhattan's Executive Pre-Professional High School, the pressure becomes unbearable. He stops eating and sleeping until, one night, he nearly kills himself.

Craig's suicidal episode gets him checked into a mental hospital, where his new neighbors include a transsexual sex addict, a girl who has scarred her own face with scissors, and the self-elected President Armelio. There, Craig is finally able to confront the sources of his anxiety.

Finished: January 28th, 2020.

Progress: 3 / 10. 30% complete.

My Rating: ★★★☆☆. [3/5]

My Review: [Under the read more - NOT SPOILER FREE]

So to be upfront – I have a half hour to write this review, as my night is very busy and I don’t want to wait until I get home to get this done, so I’ll see what I can do in thirty minutes!

I thought this was an incredible and well-represented depiction of mental illnesses in general, and particularly depression and anxiety. I thought it did an excellent job portraying and de-stigmatizing mental hospitals and the people in them, and the reasons WHY people go to them. I thought the process getting to the point of suicide, and the process in the hospital on the path to healing were accurate and well-paced and felt very realistic. Other illnesses and conditions were also mentioned, albeit briefly in the form of other patients in the hospital, but they were there.

What was honestly pretty terrible was how trans people were handled. There was one transgender character, and she was misgendered, stereotyped, insulted, belittled, called slurs, made fun of SO badly – so much of the current bullshit trans people have to go through, and it was portrayed as completely normal. None of it was challenged, none of it was corrected or fixed – in fact, her being trans was very much implied to be the reason why she was in the mental hospital in the first place. It was awful and cringey and SO badly done, SO badly handled – even the NURSES seemed to think her being trans was a disorder. Even SHE seemed to think being trans was a disorder.

Likely, using “transsexual” instead of “transgender” in the BOOK SUMMARY seems to be a dead giveaway that this is the author’s view of trans people, not a character’s poorly educated views.

So. Welcome to the reason why the book gets knocked down from five stars to three.

Honestly, if it didn’t handle mental health in general so annoyingly well, it would probably have gone down to a one or a two, for how badly it was handled.

There were some other poorly handled and unchallenged things, too – like saying someone has “balls” to have guts, calling someone a “pussy” for being a coward, the MC calling something “gay” as an insult ON THE LAST PAGE, MC being told to “not be a girl” when he gets emotional, one of the girls being called a “slut” behind her back for poorly reacting to a breakup – they weren’t overly frequent, but they were THERE, and they were COMPLETELY unchallenged and just passed without acknowledgement and just – yeah.

I would have liked to read a book like this – where the MC spends time in a mental hospital – where said MC doesn’t have a rich family, or a supportive family, even. Where MC CAN’T just “switch schools” and doesn’t have understanding friends willing to learn and be better and doesn’t have any kind of support system. A far more realistic situation of real world people with real world mental illnesses – since this one was so painfully focused on a white boy who is in literally EVERY WAY privileged as fuck – just, who happens to have severe depression and anxiety.

I like that that illustrates that mental illnesses don’t discriminate, but I feel enough emphasis wasn’t placed on how damn lucky he was to have all he had – all the systems and all the opportunities – to work towards getting better. That was mentioned a few times, sure, but in throwaways, and not in any kind of real context to make you actually THINK about how hard it would be if you were LITERALLY ANYBODY ELSE. The ending felt very hopeful, very full of sunshine and fairy tales, but almost like it was making a mockery of the mental illness journey of anyone – read, most other people – who would NOT be this lucky. It was a feel good ending, but boy it did NOT feel realistic. Maybe it was for Craig, but if you’re NOT a 15-year-old white boy? Don’t make me laugh.

For what it is though, and for the simplicity of what it portrayed, it was still very good, very well done, and is an excellent weapon against the stigma and shame that comes with mental illnesses. However – if you can find any better portrayal, any better character, any better writing, in ANY kind of similar book – dump this one, and read that one instead.

This one gets an average rating purely because it’s the first I’ve found of its kind, so far, and I myself had no idea what it would be like staying in a mental hospital. I did, in fact, learn quite a lot.

But the moment I find one that’s better written, and with better representation and handling of shitty language, out this one goes.