#reposted from cohost

[gadgettr]

Sailor Jupiter

did you know: it's her birthday today

[jesncin]

Thinking about Disney and how we talk about Cultural Representation

(concept art by Scott Watanabe)

Old essay originally written on Cohost in November 2023. With additions.

With all the promo stuff about Disney's upcoming animated film Wish, I can't help but think about Raya and the Last Dragon again. I spent a year intensively researching things about that movie and the discourse surrounding it for a series of videos on Xiran Jay Zhao's channel, and oh boy did that reveal a lot about the current way we talk about cultural representation in casual media criticism.

Lately we've grown a habit of looking at signifiers to culture, things like a cultural dish, a nod to a martial arts style, a piece of clothing, maybe a hairstyle, a weapon and so on, and then projecting a bunch of intentions onto the work regardless of authorial intent. I witnessed this a bunch of times in discussions surrounding Raya and the Last Dragon.

You basically get a bunch of 4d chess-style justifications for the lazy implementation of culture in Raya.

random examples cuz there's too many to name:

The movie will do something like make the leaders of the villain nation women, and people immediately assumed it was some kind of bespoke reference to Minangkabau matriarchical society.

the art book of Raya specifically stated that they purposely misplaced things as a stylistic fantasy choice "we could take something that is known and place it in an unexpected location, like coral in the desert and cacti in the snow". But when people saw a water buffalo placed in the desert they assumed it was some super clever environmental story decision.

The movie will tell you it includes things like Borobudur, Angkor wat, Keris, and most people will take their word for it without hesitation. Never mind that Southeast Asians could barely recognize these nods to our culture through how amalgamated the designs are.

(early concept art by Scott Watanabe)

Moving forward, I think we need to talk less about "what" parts of a culture are being represented in these movies, and more about HOW they're being included, we need to ask:

What is this piece of media's relationship with the cultures it represents?

Because Raya and the Last Dragon is not a cultural movie, it's a monolith film pitched and written by white people and a Mexican director with 2 SEA writers added later in production to avoid backlash. Culture serves the purpose of aesthetic set dressing in the film, as opposed to something that informs its themes and characters.

it wasn't even initially pitched as a Southeast Asian movie. The white writers who pitched it were going for a vague East Asian sci fi fantasy story under the working title "Dragon Empire". Southeast Asian culture was an aesthetic change added much later.

This is what happens when a corporation tries to put representational value on a shallow aesthetic. Because of the way Disney constantly marketed Raya as this big authentic cultural film, it primes its audience to read cultural intention in the most benign details. And when we get lost in the details, we lose sight of the bigger picture.

Contextualizing Cultural media criticism

(visual development art by April Liu)

We need to start demanding more context in our analysis. The next time we see a reference to culture in media we consume, take a step back and ask what purpose it serves in the narrative. And most importantly!! What Is Its Relationship With The Culture It Represents? We shouldn't just accept things at face value.

start asking yourself,

through what lens is this cultural dish and its spicy flavors being presented to us? Are the customs surrounding the food being respected?

If martial arts or dance is represented, how is it translated in the adaptation? Are you getting generic hollywood-fu or are you seeing specific movements with purpose and motivation? Are the philosophies or spiritual contexts of these traditions present in the text?

Are the clothing, hairstyles, and presentation of the characters being de-yassified through a colonial filter? Is the non-conformity of the cultures' different framework for gender presentation being adjusted to fit a more recognizable binary?

If language is present, what role does it serve? Is it presented as other through being exclusively used by villainous beings? Is it being made a monolith as one "non-English" language?

is this temple actually a place of worship or is it just a set piece for a goddang Indiana jones booby trap action fight sequence

This way, instead of unquestionably defending a piece of media because a character wore a traditional outfit one time, or because some characters took their shoes off at a temple, or because there were Arnis sticks in that one fight scene, we can approach the text with a more nuanced and holistic understanding of how culture informs narrative.

To quote Haunani K. Trask (author of From A Native Daughter):

“Cultural people have to become political… Our culture can’t just be ornamental and recreational. That’s what Waikiki is. Our culture has to be the core of our resistance. The core of our anger. The core of our mana. That’s what culture is for.”

[melimelomoi-blog]

People think they are sooo original with their "edgy" interpretation of Jesus story. "What if Judas is worried Jesus is a cult leader" that's the plot of Jesus Christ Superstar, get better material.

[gn005virtue]

Taken in between sets, but I am exposing him to ska. Results inconclusive.

[starry-beetle]

Accidentally long post about my life ( positive, though! )

September gonna be super busy for me IRL but, at least this has made me finally sit down and fix up my daily schedules. If I manage to set aside 2 hours a day for drawing, that will really make a HUGE difference! Since we moved, I haven't had any schedule at all. Going from a workspace that was soundproof to a tiny house with no privacy ( Barry sleeps in the day and works at night, so if I'm awake I gotta sit in the living room/kitchen… ) was a huge change

THEN

Girl Dog got sick in 2023 the whole year ( dementia… she didn't remember me some days near the end. It sucked. ) and that lead to some of the most disorganized time I've had, since my teen years.

I'm getting back on track. I miss her every hour, of every day. Yet I am starting to write again! ( for myself to eat stupid shit like Urameshi Yuusuke teaching Yukina how to cook donuts and talking about PTSD without. saying it's PTSD, stuff ) I've been reading a lot of books and listening to many audiobooks while doing tasks! I've been catching up on backlogged art to the point I have 3 more old digital comms to finish and that's it!

Things have been rough but they've also been looking up. I'm even starting to feel about video games like I did, in my teen years.

[absentmoon]

dooku letting me see his lightsaber and then teasing me when i jump "it isnt going to bite you" I DONT CARE "i even have the output power rather low here why don't you feel" NUH UH

[theresloveinhere]

Help there's a funny feeling in my chest, the doctor called it 'love' what's happening

[999-roses]

is it just me or does cohost feel like a place where they'd call me a nazi for not hating china/cpc as chinese diaspora and because the site demographic is relatively small it's possible that i could become the equivalent of twitter main character of the week getting my head bashed in with lovely totally-not-sinophobic labels. like it isn't enough to be put on blocklists for supporting transwomen against slander here

oh also hiding too much data like metrics or reply chains makes it feel very low-functionality :/

[clownkiwi]

im a bad gamer because i need to play more than one game at a time. and this is a bad habit because this turns into "oh yea right i need to finish that game. oops"

[gadgettr]

crystal gems drawn from memory

[melimelomoi-blog]

Does anybody know how to pronounce "shibboleth" correctly? (urgent)(time sensitive)(please reply fast)

[jesncin]

Additions from cohost user @/ Unambiguous-Robin:

I love this a lot.

I have a tendency to get heated about traditional writing advice for a lot of reasons, but one of the big reasons for me is that traditional writing rules don't account for queer experiences.

"Show don't tell" discourages talking about feelings--but in healthy real-life relationships, talking about your feelings is a good thing, because everyone experiences emotions differently and it's hard to know if someone actually feels the same way in response to something that you do unless they bluntly state the things they're feeling.

Stuff like "be concise" or "don't use filler" or "stay focused on the plot" ignores that a majority of life experiences, themselves, are unfocused or meandering, and that these feelings are as worth exploring as any other--but in particular, it limits the means with which one can explore queerness, because a big part of queerness is in exploring the in-betweens, the lack of conclusions, the lack of definitions.

These are just a couple examples that come to mind immediately. More generally, I always try to emphasize that a lot of writing advice comes from capitalistic interests, from the assumption that everyone's end goal is, or should be, to write to sell as many copies as possible. Or more specifically, to catch the interest of people who have the money to spend on it, i.e. the people in power, i.e. mostly white cishet people. (At least, this is what I've seen in English-speaking communities, but I always have to wonder how much pressure the English-speaking colonial powers have put on the cultural priorities of other regions, as well.)

This is unfortunate, not only because it's appeasing the powers that be and reinforcing their beliefs ever further, but because I think it also creates the impression among a lot of writers that if someone writes in a way that's more honest to their own personal identity, it's not recognized as writing to their identity, it's looked at as "bad writing" because it doesn't fit conventional writing guidelines that were always formed with an entirely different cultural identity in mind.

We all have to make money some way, but I ask writers to hold onto their sincerity in whatever ways they're able to. And I ask readers to please, please be open to anything unfamiliar to you. You don't have to like it, but at least try to think through the author's perspective of why they might be doing something a certain way, or try to think of the kind of person who would enjoy something for being written a certain way, and why.

Happy Pride! Now that Lunar Boy (our middle grade graphic novel) is out, we wanted to share our thought process behind queer vocabulary in media. The constant censorship, imposed western biases on queer culture, and what it means to introduce queer vocabulary to a young audience.

Check out Lunar Boy wherever american graphic novels are sold, or check it out at a library!

[thenomadic-kleiner-gott]

repost from cohost

when u get mad at me this is what ur getting mad at /hj image desc under readmore bc there's so many details

additional info: backdrop: [ isuka ] get out backdrop (https://marketplace.secondlife.com/p/isuka-get-out-backdrop/12179489) 10L (not currently available as group gift inworld despite what the listing says)

if anyone cares to know- primary body parts by Violet Studios (specifically VS Fusion Ruben upper body, super small no boobs chest under vString X-Loons, and lower body is… probably Titans Extreme or Titans Gargantuan), hands and feet are Handy Paws and Feety Peets by Apricot Paws. none of these are particularly cheap! also they do not line up without seams (that's why i have those weird 'anklets'). you were warned!

two images of gabi (GA-bee) inworld. he is a pale-skinned humanoid, with large upright elf ears, and two curved blue horns that are tipped with yellow. his hands and feet are tipped with black, and are animal-like with black claws. his hair is long and crimped, and pale blonde with a hint of orange fade toward the ends. he has small round black eyebrows, an upside-down star shaped wound on his forehead, reddish eyeshadow below his eyes, and dark eyeliner. his eyes are pale blue with round black pupils. he has a black septum piercing, light pink lips, and his mouth is parted slightly to show off small sharp teeth. he is wearing a grey tanktop and much darker grey striped pants, and deep red ankle cuffs. in the first picture he is facing the camera but looking off to the side, one hand raised, his face and hand barely visible above his huge breasts. in the second, he is turned away to the right, revealing a similarly large rear end and lower body, except for his tiny little tiptoed foot paws. here you can also see he has ball-jointed doll joints (they're only a texture), and he is posed with one foot up and behind him slightly.

the photo background is a white wall and door, with a pink neon sign that reads "get out" in plain capital letters toward the right, as well as a light wood floor, and a solid black second wall visible to the left.

[insomniaink95]

Nah dude…

I watched the debate last night. Not because I needed to know anything else about these two candidates, but because I had explained to my Mom my thoughts on how the new debate rules involving muted mics, that president dingus insisted on, would be clearly used by orange dingus to utterly dominate the debate, and I wanted to confirm my instincts on the matter. I was correct btw. I wasn't prepared for just how out of it president dingus was however. Watching it was legitimately rough. The dude spent the majority of the time that orange dingus was answering questions staring down at the floor with his mouth agape. He was clearly exhausted and lost his train of thought repeatedly and said completely nonsensical things from time to time like, "we beat medicare." As I was heading to bed I realized that one of the faces president dingus was making regularly throughout the debate was the same one from the Lisa Simpson Dinner meme, so I thought I would make a comparison image today to soothe my nerves. All the news articles last night were using it and similar president dingus vacant expressions as their thumbnails and image search had showed some of them last night before bed too, so I could snag one this morning and get it done easily.

Nope. By the time I woke up today I found it impossible to find ANY of those president dingus expressions in image searches on any search engine. Specifically searched for images in the last 24 hours too, because those images didn't even exist 24 hours ago. The ones that were turning up in searches from last night had either been changed by news outlets that were using them or flooded out of the search results by recent SEO perfected posts including newly posted images from the 2020 debates. 🤔

In the end I had to load up the actual debate footage, scrub through it to locate the expression that had the correct head tilt, and screen cap it to make this.

[undeadfvckgirl-base]

Aw yeah baby let's go Co Host time

[dragonpurrs]

i am an awe aspiring beast no matter how much my tummy hurts!