#pls let me now & i'll edit accordingly

[ofdreamsanddoodles]

making a post about the new designs made me realize that not everyone is probably aware of everything the penumbra podcast has done, so in light of the fact that they’ve officially stated they will eventually release a statement, here is a brief list of everything to keep in mind if/when they apologize:

hiring on an artist, Michaela Buckley (@/disasterscenario on tumblr) who’s designs were both racist & transmisogynist (post about it here) and then declaring these designs as canon, despite the cast being almost exclusively white vas, which is an issue with all her podcast art (like drawing damien from the bright sessions, a literal mind controlling villain, black, as well as a villain from wolf 359) here’s an example of some of the art in question

then, after being called out, said the designs were never really meant to be taken as “completely” canon (meaning any complaint of them hiring an artist who saw juno, an alcoholic with a broken home & anger issues, & making him black was just something they couldn’t control or change) and then only released an apology after said artist had left of her own choice to pursue other projects 

here is a twitter thread on disasterscenario’s apology. she’d said something previously, but it looks like she’s come back to it & apologized more thoroughly which i appreciate, though she hasn’t actually mentioned any of the racism involved. one thing she mentions is them wanting to do something “subversive” by having a black lead, despite doing none of the work for it.

despite the penumbra’s apology (which was more an apology for making the art canon than the racism) merch using those designs are still available on their store despite them saying they’ve discontinued merch. not entirely impossible for it to all be leftover, but considering it’s been several years i feel like it maybe should just be taken down entirely

not only that, but there has been a history of transmisogyny and racism in the story itself, as far back as the first penumbra episode, which described an asian family as “breeding like rabbits” (though i believe that was corrected with the newer version of it) issues that are only more prominant  in the latest season, which also included deadnaming vespa and constantly misgendering ale, the later of which was was excused with “but i’m too attracted to him for him to NOT be a woman.” even if your story is intended to show people that your characters can learn to be better despite living in a bigoted kingdom, misgendering a guy about a hundred times despite his clear frustration doesn’t really work, because all you’ve shown is that angelo doesn’t want to learn about this, since clearly ale’s distress isn’t worth him correcting himself over

despite getting feedback from fans from all of these fronts, still hired artist Ellison Estephan, who is also transmisogyistic and racist, which i’ve already talked about here, and when fans understandably were upset, harley tagaki kaner made a post about people “bullying in the name of social justice” on twitter

all of this is important to remember to make sure they honestly take responsibility for their actions. if they claim to still be learning, ask yourself why the effort and energy of all their trans fans & fans of color hasn’t been enough to teach them anything so far, and how much emotional labor these fans, as well as allies, will have to go through to continue to hold them accountable. if they claim they hadn’t realized the designs were racist, what proof do you have that they actually understood the criticism the first time? how can you promise they won’t do this again? even if they do genuinely want to do better, how many of their fans of color & trans fans will they keep hurting in the process?

[darkvitas]

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// OOC: Is this meme a free pass to gush about your favorites? It does say "whatever you want to talk about" so... as a result, I’m gonna talk about (one of) my oldies favorites. You know when I gush, I get long. And I apologise, but here we go. (Also if I get a fact wrong or if you have a source to add, pls let me know and I'll add it accordingly! I'm still learning.)

This is the Big Bopper. His real name is Jiles Perry Richardson, Jr, born in Sabine Pass TX, (October 24, 1930 - February 3, 1959). Friends called him Jape! You may or may not know him from his songs Chantilly Lace, or White Lightning. Anyway, he was rock n' roll, rockabilly, etc, in the '50s. Not only was he known for those songs, he was probably also known for being on the ill-fated Winter Dance Party tour, the tour that ended up taking the lives of him, as well as Buddy Holly & Ritchie Valens, among other things. But... The reason why he's a favorite of mine is because, compared to Ritchie and Buddy (who are also favorites, Buddy especially more so) I feel like he's overlooked, in my opinion, & I want to give him more recognition. Maybe he is overlooked, or maybe he isn't. That's just how I feel. If you feel differently about that, then that's okay! I just learnt more about him, and he became a musical favorite also. He is more known because of his exuberant and "comical" (if you want to call it that)? character in his songs, but there are other songs that show another side of him that are very nice, such as "Beggar to a King", "Someone Watching Over You", "The Clock", or "Strange Kisses". Now, Bopper here was also a DJ for the radio station KTRM, so you can hear that in his voice in some of his tunes: deep, smooth. His voice is very satisfying to listen to, for me, when it comes to his more serious songs at least. Back during his time, he also set the record for on-air time, according to Wikipedia, for "a total of five days, two hours, and eight minutes". Another neat thing about Jape is that he once mentioned "a tape device you hook to your TV -- long before VCRs -- and watch your favorite music video by your favorite music artist." It's amazing to think about how he was even thinking of things like that, during that era. Apparently also he was one of the first pioneers... of the music video... from what I've read. I also saw somewhere that on KTRM, he played Elvis' records also, but I forgot the source for it. Elvis DID, however, send a special wreath to his funeral. That's pretty big. (Edit: You can read about Elvis & The Big Bopper here!) He graduated from Beaumont High School in 1947, was also in the army as well, studied prelaw at Lamar University in Beaumont, TX, and played American football. To be honest, I'm astonished to know that he isn't in the Rock n' Roll Hall of Fame, while Buddy and Ritchie are. Buddy has a statue in his hometown, a museum, I'm sure Ritchie has things dedicated to him as well. I mean, a post office in his hometown is being renamed in dedication of him. I looked into things for Bopper in his area, but I've not really seen anything for him, besides a marker telling you about him at his gravesite, which is a good start, but to me, more needs to be done in my opinion. Maybe I've just not looked deep enough to see if there is more there in dedication of him? Not sure. I did see that a statue was in the works, but I didn’t see any updates on it... I just think he deserves to be in the RnR HoF. He was very talented. Maybe one day.

To read more on Bopper: x & x