#rise up feminist archive

[evergardenwall]

sandrine rousseau my beloved 💚💚💚 retranscription under the cut + link to archived version here

PARIS — Sandrine Rousseau had just caused an implosion in French politics, again.

In the very last moments of a television program earlier this fall, she was asked about an internal investigation into the leader of her own political party, the Greens, and his romantic relations. She did not dodge the question.

“I think there was behavior that was likely to shatter women’s mental health,” said Ms. Rousseau, 50, a self-described “ecofeminist,” a philosophy that combines ecological concerns with feminist ones.

Her words had a swift impact: Radio and television shows lit up in debate, and Julien Bayou stepped down as the Green Party’s leader a week later, while denying he had emotionally abused a former partner.

“Before, we spoke only about rape, and after we talked about sexual aggression and harassment. Now, I think we need to talk about psychological violence because many women are victims of psychological violence. It’s a form of domination,” Ms. Rousseau said a few weeks later, in her small parliamentary office equipped with a bed, for long nights when debates rage on in the National Assembly, the lower and more powerful house of Parliament, to which she was elected this year.

“It’s the next battleground,” she added.

Few had ever heard of Ms. Rousseau before last year. But she has recently become a brand-name in France for her penchant for jumping into the country’s fierce culture wars on multiple fronts.

She has positioned herself as one of the main torchbearers of the #MeToo movement in France.

And after a summer of frightening heat waves, forest fires and record droughts, she has also suddenly become the country’s loudest champion of fighting climate change.

Her newfound prominence stems in part from her proven ability to spin off one attention-grabbing idea after another, which her ideological fans and opponents alike find irresistible.

Among her statements that have delighted, or infuriated, much of France: “The right to be lazy.” That she lived with a “deconstructed man.” And “we have to change our mentality so that eating a barbecued entrecôte is no longer a symbol of virility,” a line that underscored her view that meat consumption must be reduced to help fight climate change, and that men eat more meat than women.

The intentional provocations are part of a strategy, she says, to wrest the themes of the country’s ongoing cultural battles from the controlling thumbs of the far-right, which has fueled debates on security, immigration and the perceived threat of Islam to French society.

“We’ve been swept along by the right and extreme right who have set the questions of political debate,” said Ms. Rousseau, a trained economist and a former university vice president. “I see my role to change the debate and bring it to ecology and feminism.”

Ms. Rousseau has become a favorite target of the country’s political right, who paint her as the humorless face of self-righteous, American-influenced cancel-culture and “le wokisme.” A parody account poking fun of her has more than 130,000 followers.

The feminist philosopher Élisabeth Badinter on Twitter described her as wanting to “burn everything,” while the leader of the far-right party, Jordan Bardella, said on Facebook that she “embodies a radical madness.”

Her rising fame and decision to denounce Mr. Bayou have made her unpopular in her own party as well, where many consider her unruly, divisive and a distraction.

Ms. Rousseau has been at the center of a political and media storm before.

In 2016, when she was the Greens’ spokeswoman, Ms. Rousseau and three other female politicians publicly accused her powerful party colleague, Denis Baupin, of sexually harassing them. A Paris prosecutor closed the case, because the incidents the women described fell outside the statute of limitations. Otherwise, the prosecutor said, the facts of the case “would likely constitute criminal actions.”

A judge later threw out Mr. Baupin’s defamation lawsuit, instead sentencing him to pay a 500 euro fine ($523) to each of the defendants.

Some French feminists considered it a landmark win, and a new stage of the fight against sexual violence.

“It was a precursor of the #MeToo movement,” said Geneviève Fraisse, a French feminist philosopher. Before, French women had talked about their individual experiences, and now they were exposing a trend, as a group. “That was the trigger than turned everything upside down,” Ms. Fraisse added.

But Ms. Rousseau didn’t feel successful at the time.

More than a year before the #MeToo movement swept the globe, the case left her feeling battered by criticism and abandoned by her party colleagues, some of whom she believed had turned a blind eye to the sexual harassment for years, she said.

“When I looked at my political party, I saw it as a patriarchal organization, where men had the power,” she says. “It was a new kind of violence.”

She left politics and returned to northern France to focus on herjob as vice president of student life and a professor-researcher at Lille University.

She wrote a book about her experience with the Baupin case and launched an organization called En Parler, or “Speaking Out,” to bring together victims of sexual violence.

Ms. Rousseau was not born a rabble-rouser. The daughter of two tax inspectors from a small town in the southwest of the country, she was a bookish child who had to be ripped from homework for dinner and “never caused us any problems,” said her father, Yves Rousseau, who was also the town’s Socialist mayor.

She studied economics in college. For her postgraduate degree, she worked with a community group fighting a plan to cut down a local forest to make way for a hotel. Her contribution, as an economist: calculating the worth of the forest, if it remained a forest.

The hotel project was canceled, she said, adding: “It was my first activist action.”

She married another economist at the university. After having three children, they turned their academic eyes to the source of their marital fighting: the division of cleaning duties.

The paper they wrote together revealed that men spend one-third the time of women on household chores; the research later became the foundation for Ms. Rousseau’s argument that “not sharing household chores” should be made illegal.

The approach became part of a pattern: Her arguments are often received as outlandish, but are based on academic research — along with a feminist sensibility that the personal is political.

“There is little space between what she defends and what she feels. Often they are intimately linked — that’s her way of doing politics,” said Nicolas Postel, a longtime academic colleague.

She was in her kitchen making lunch one day in 2020, still working at the university, when she heard on the radio that President Emmanuel Macron had named Gérald Darmanin the country’s interior minister, one of the most powerful positions in the government.

At the time, Mr. Darmanin was under investigation for rape. In his new job, he would be in charge of the country’s police forces, which feminist activists already considered dismissive of rape and sexual assault reports.

“It was a slap, a spit in the face of the women’s movement,” Ms. Rousseau said.

When Mr. Macron later defended the appointment, saying he had spoken to his new interior minister “man to man,” Ms. Rousseau decided to run against him in the 2022 presidential election as the Green party candidate.

“That said, ‘The world of women doesn’t count. That women are outside of this game here, they can say what they want, but it’s of little importance, really,’” she said of Mr. Macron’s comments.

(A judge dismissed the rape case against Mr. Darmanin last summer; the plaintiff has appealed that decision. Mr. Darmanin has never been charged.)

In the race for the presidential nomination, Ms. Rousseau presented herself as the radical, ecofeminist candidate and, to the surprise of many, lost only narrowly to Yannick Jadot. She later ran as a Green candidate in last June’s parliamentary elections, winning a seat in Paris. Yet there are signs that Ms. Rousseau’s ecofeminism and culture-war tactics are not supported by the bulk of her party’s members.

“She makes a buzz. That’s how Sandrine Rousseau has acquired such a big media audience without any official post in the party,” said Daniel Boy, a retired research director at Sciences Po, who specializes in the politics of the environmental movement. “Will that change things? I doubt it. Changing people’s values is long, chaotic and difficult.”

Still, there’s no doubt that Ms. Rousseau continues to occupy an outsized position in the French imagination.

Last month, her claims that members of the French soccer team were “cowards” who had not taken a symbolic stand for L.G.B.T.Q. rights at the World Cup in Qatar made news across the French press.

She believes she is seeding the national conversation toward concepts anchored in respect — of women, and the environment.

“There are important questions being asked, that at any given moment, will bring changes,” she said. “But it might be too early.”

[aeviarth-the-dragoness]

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I am neurodivergent with AuDHD so please don't get mad at me for when I mess up.

Tags: #Aevi-Art < My art tag. #dragon replies < My (current) reply tag.

Links:

Mastodon, Youtube, Newgrounds, Toyhouse, Fur Affinity, Itaku, Inkblot, Archive of Our Own, Flight Rising

Fandoms/Communities:

Dragons

Wings of Fire

How To Train Your Dragon

Flight Rising

Furry/Scalie

Minecraft

Nintendo

Glitch Productions

Old/Indie Web

Chikin Nuggit

Castoff

DNI:

Exclusionary, Anti "woke", Right Wing, Conservative, Speciest, Racist, Colorist, Xenophobic, Facist, N@zi, Antisemitic, Islamophobic, Religious Extremist, Cop Supporter, Prolife, Antivax, Pro Confederacy, Pro-Capitalist, El0n Musk Supporter, Crypto Bro, NFT Supporter, ChatGPT Supporter, AI "artist", D0xx3r, Scammer/Scam Account, Anti Nuclear, Sexist, Intersexist, Anti Feminist, Misogynist, Radfem, TERF, SWERF, Anti Sex Worker, DDLG, Queerphobic, Homophobic, Biphobic, Transphobic, Transmed/Truscum, J K Rowling Supporter, Aphobic, Anti Poly, Anti Xenogender, Anti Neopronouns, Chaser, P3do/MAPS, Z00phile, R Kelly Defender, Porn Bot, People who fetishize race - disability - gender - sexuality - or biological sex, Ableist, Fatphobic, Autism Speaks Supporter, Antifur, Anti Otherkin, Proshipper, Anti Age/Pet Regression, People who support Cringe Culture, and finally - people who are Dracophobic - who are people that dislike or fear dragons to an unreasonable degree. (this list will be updated as needed)

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You Found Me! ^.=.^

[tryst-art-archive]

Context: 2006

Looking through the archive, I think 2006 is when I started to get properly serious about art. At the very least, there's a life to the things I was making that seems to indicate a shift in my relationship to making. I'm not sure if that was a conscious move at the time though; there's evidence from later years that I saw 2006 as when I began doing less work of value.

My memories of 2006 are blurred into memories of the rest of high school, but I do know I went to Ireland with Mare and his family that spring, and I attended an art summer camp that Mare had been to before. Ireland was a very cool experience, and the camp allowed me to meet more art-inclined folks and try new media forms that I wouldn't've had access to otherwise, like flameworking (small glass sculpture).

But, I was still massively depressed so encountering a bunch of people my age who were also inclined toward art and were, in my opinion, better at it than me knocked my overall confidence and self-belief down a bit, even as I simultaneously got more invested in the Khra-nicles characters and viewing myself as An Artist.

I'm pretty sure I was wearing colors again by 2006 (it'd been brown and black all the time), but I wasn't following fashion beyond the sway of whatever happened to be in stores. I did have a particular style, but it involved long, unstyled hair, handmade necklaces based on my OCs, and oversized shirts and sweatshirts that pretty much hid my mortal form.

I had a bad case of "Not Like Other Girls" and had applied moralism to the fashions of the time--baby doll T-shirts, low rise flare jeans, Ugg boots, thongs, push-up bras--while deliberately going in the opposite direction. (Mum criticized me more than once for essentially following the fashions by so resolutely refusing to.) Skirts and make-up were adamantly off the table as I defiantly reveled in doing only the most pragmatic personal maintenance.

Unfortunately, I'd developed an anti-feminist streak by this time. I recall that starting when I was in 8th grade, but it persisted for several years, and what evidence I can find suggests it was at its worst in 2006 and 2007, when I was 15 and 16 respectively.

It was, simply, misplaced anger. The idea that women "can have it all" was good in theory, but in practice it connotated not that women had the option to do whatever they wanted but rather the mandate to do everything, and I resented that. I also resented every gendered expectation heaped upon me, and looking at that now, I'm dead certain that was gender dysphoria. I was resentful of being a girl and everything that the world around me had decided that meant, everything that meant for my body. I didn't have an outlet for any of that anger, and so I chose the easiest target, one I perceived as the creator of the expectations: feminists.

I didn't see the contradiction in being staunchly pro-lgbt and being anti-feminist. I also didn't see a contradiction in being anti-feminist in name and pro-feminist in action, because I didn't see "caring about women and girls" as necessarily being feminist. It was a lot of mental gymnastics that I didn't even realize I was doing.

I don't remember the exact point at which I grew past this particular phase, but I think it was either senior year of high school or the start of college (2008 or 2009, basically). Regardless, I don't think there's a ton of this phase to be seen in the archive. Most of what I made relating to it was in the dA journals deleted years ago.

Still, it shows up in some comments and descriptions as passing asides, so if you see it, know that I did get over it.

[ao3feed-izch]

Echoes of Love and Battle

by snooze_moose_13

Suspicious villain attacks, confusing formal invitations, their debuts lurking along the horizon. Class 3-A built their reputation from the ground up as they've fought tooth and nail to win as much as they have. But now, stakes are rising, and with life becoming more dangerous, only one question haunts every students' mind:

Who should they ask to the gala?!

Words: 7112, Chapters: 1/1, Language: English

Fandoms: 僕のヒーローアカデミア | Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero Academia (Anime & Manga)

Rating: Not Rated

Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings

Categories: F/M, M/M

Relationships: Midoriya Izuku/Uraraka Ochako, Jirou Kyouka/Kaminari Denki, Todoroki Shouto/Yaoyorozu Momo, Asui Tsuyu/Tokoyami Fumikage, Hagakure Tooru/Ojiro Mashirao, Ashido Mina/Kirishima Eijirou, Shouji Mezou/Tsunotori Pony, Sero Hanta/Tokage Setsuna, Monoma Neito/Shinsou Hitoshi, Aizawa Shouta | Eraserhead/Yamada Hizashi | Present Mic, Bakugou Katsuki/Utsushimi Camie

Additional Tags: Teen Romance, Aged-Up Character(s), Rating May Change, Fluff, Angst with a Happy Ending, There's a lot of emotions idk, Shenanigans, a lot goes wrong, Internalized Misogyny, Overcoming Misogyny, Jiro is a feminist, love that for her, Kaminari Denki Being An Idiot, Everyone's confused about their feelings, first time posting, Please be nice, no seriously I have anxiety, goofy teen nonsense, Idiots in Love, Shinsou is so emo for no reason lol, Monoma being extra, Tsuyu is a ray of sunshine, gonna add more tags as this goes on, can y'all tell idk what im doing

source: https://archiveofourown.org/works/58089517

[readingsquotes]

Jordan has recently been much-touted as an example of Black women’s solidarity with Palestine, as evidenced by lines from her 1982 poem “Moving Towards Home”: “I was born a Black woman / and now / I am become a Palestinian.” But the context of the fateful year that inspired Jordan’s writing of this poem—the Israeli invasion of Lebanon and the Israeli-backed massacres at the Palestinian refugee camps of Sabra and Shatila—is seldom discussed, nor is the full scope of Jordan’s lifelong commitment to Palestinian liberation. Considering Jordan’s dedication, why was it Lorde’s book amid the rubble, and not hers?

Jordan is lesser known nationally and internationally than Lorde, and it seems to me that her decades of unwavering support for the Palestinian people is partly responsible. Jordan’s vocal anti-Zionism hamstrung her career for nearly a decade, resulting in death threats, a loss of writing opportunities, and social ostracization within multiracial feminist circles. Even in the time since her death, Jordan’s pro-Palestine stance has made her less co-optable into a neoliberal diversity narrative in which Palestinian liberation has been taboo for decades. Lorde is famous for the maxim “Your silence will not protect you,” but in this case, Lorde’s initial silence on Palestine did protect her career and her flourishing afterlife as a patron saint of the oppressed. Meanwhile, Jordan’s decades of writing and advocacy on behalf of the Palestinian people have been woefully underappreciated. Jordan once wrote, “I say we need a rising up, an Intifada, USA,” and for her, intifada was not a metaphor. Unlike Lorde, Jordan intended her writing to be a weapon, a public act in the service of Palestinian liberation. Despite their biographical similarities, Jordan and Lorde had differing practices of solidarity. How can we add nuance to the historical narrative of Black feminist solidarity with Palestine? After all, even 40 years later, US-based solidarity movements are still threatened by the same fault lines that felled Lorde and Jordan’s friendship.

.....

What makes Jordan’s solidarity so enduring is that Jordan was not just concerned with the violence leveled against the Palestinian people but was also deeply inspired by the Palestinian resistance. This was quite radical in 1982, as Amy Kaplan argues—despite increased sympathy for Palestinian war victims, “the focus of the American media quickly shifted from the suffering of Palestinians to the anguish of the Israelis,” as American Zionists began to reframe the war as an aberration and a stain on the ultimately noble project of Israeli statehood.” Even today, a politics centered in Palestinian life, rather than in a redemption of Jewish morals, has proved sticky and divisive. Debates around the use of phrases like “intifada” and “from the river to the sea” have shown the limits of public sympathy for Palestinians as a people with demands for statehood rather than as passive victims.

Jordan was notable in her rejection of this framework, particularly in the way she used the word “intifada” in many of her poems and essays. “Intifada Incantation” is framed as an emphatic love poem written in all capital letters—the famous first line is “I SAID I LOVED YOU AND I WANTED / GENOCIDE TO STOP.

[jellimac-sims-stories]

Gasshpon Vacation

---

Is it really the holiday season without family drama

It's almost Christmas time in Mt Komorebi and the long-estranged son of the Shin family has returned with his family in tow.

Yuri, the eldest of the grandchildren, watches as the tension between her uncle Yejun and grandfather unfolds.

---

I had been wrapping up a special holiday edition of “How to Spice Up Your School Uniform” try-on haul Livestream when I heard the doorbell ring and saw the unread message on my phone. 

[Seohyun] Lookout. Dad and I are inbound. See you in 10! 

“Shibal (씨발/Fuck),” I swore under my breath, quickly ended the stream and threw on something reasonable. To make a three-generational story short, my Uncle Yejun is the blackest of black sheep in our very traditional Korean family. Granted there are a few (I'm not the snowest white there is and my cousin Youngsol the snowboard model is no angel either) but my Uncle Yejun really pissed off my halmi and halbi (grandma and grandpa for you westerners).

My family is the founder of WestEnd Co; one of the leading export businesses in all of Japan. Yep, that WestEnd Co. The one that you order all of your books, electronics, and upgrade parts from online. Who do you think sends out all the free Hitz Earbuds? Anyway, WestEnd Co has been a family-run business for almost 75 years. Each time the CEO of the company retires, the eldest son of the next generation takes over. It's been like that for the whole of WestEnd Co’s history. Even the branch office in Seoul is headed by my halbi’s youngest brother and his sons. Next in line would have been my Uncle Yejun but he didn’t return home after attending university in America. 

Home is Mt Komorebi; specifically the Wakaba district. My family has lived in this area for the past ten generations. Most have moved back to South Korea or elsewhere on the globe but some still live here. Two of my cousins' on my father’s side of the family live down the road, another cousin lives in Senbamachi, and Youngsol’s family had moved to Osaka after he graduated.

It's not as if it's odd that my Uncle went to university outside of the country. My halmi and halbi had three kids; my mother the eldest, Uncle Yejun, and Aunt Minso the youngest. All three of them went to university out of the country. My mother went to Cambridge in England where she met my father. My uncle and my aunt both went to university in Britechester (that’s somewhere in the states); Uncle Yejun went to Foxbury double majoring in business and technology, and Aunt Minso went to the University of Britechester for law. 

The big difference between my mother and her siblings is that she came back. After my father proposed (with my halbi’s permission of course), Mom came back home to get married and to start a family, i.e. to have cute little baby me. My aunt seems like she plans to come back home when she’s done interning but my uncle continually refuses to come back. I think this is the first time he’s been back home since he left when he was still a teenager.

Uncle Yejun was expected to be groomed to take over from my halbi after he finished school. From what I know, he’s totally uninterested in running the family business. Right now my mother is the Vice President while my halbi is still the CEO. Almost every day I overhear my mother arguing with my halbi asking him when he is going to retire. He usually responds with some sort of grunting sound, basically meaning that he doesn't want to talk about it and he goes off to play the piano. The whole conversation makes my inner feminist rage rise. It’s not like my mother doesn't have an MBA from one of the best universities ever! I know my family is well soaked in traditions but it’s not like my mother is gonna have a “wild female mood swing” and sell the company. Like, okay boomer.

I lowkey understand why my uncle doesn't want to run the company, truly. If and that's a big if I have any sons I'd have no desire to have my children more or less chain ganged into joining the "family business" like their last name was Winchester. Honestly, it seems as if my uncle is doing better now that my halbi cut him off. Oh yeah, my halbi cut him off when it became clear that he wasn't coming back. To make this whole thing worse for my uncle he started a family with a "nyeon (년/whore) that he is still not married to”. Not my words. I’m just quoting my halbi. Let’s also not forget Uncle Yejun covered in tattoos that my halbi also disapproves of. 

Basically, my halbi has disowned my Uncle more or less for living the life he wants for himself and has refused to talk to him for nearly my whole life. The only reason why I even met my cousin Seohyun was from a Christmas visit to my aunt's apartment when I was a kid. Aunt Minseo is G.O.A.T. She’s always snatched, so stylish, so smart, and a really great lawyer. The last time I visited we both got our hair dyed ginger (she kept her hair darker and short while I got mine ombre). My mom blew a gasket when I got home but at least my school didn’t make me change it back. 

Aunt Minseo's also my favorite more or less down to the fact that I didn't know I had any other option until I met the rest of my family that Christmas. Both Seohyun and my Uncle came over for Christmas dinner. It had been my first time out of Japan to anywhere besides Korea. I had been hooked up on Christmas joy and barely paid any attention to the extra people opening presents. I'm never gonna forget how shocked I was meeting a little blonde-haired, white girl that speaks Korean and learning that I had more family in America!

As I raced down the stairs, I could hear the piano from the study. Good, that would mean my halbi was in the study playing the piano. The study was just off of the living room but behind doors so he wouldn’t see Uncle Yejun and Seohyun right away but he’d hear them eventually. I found my father talking to Uncle Yejun and Seohyun in the foyer. My father, the typical professor he is, was just commenting on Seohyun’s Korean when I walked up to join them, “Your Korean is very good but I think it hasn’t been that helpful on your first trip to Japan.”

Everyone laughed andEveryone laughed and Yejun simply said, “Didn't think about that one. Maybe the little one will learn Japanese. I'm sure Hoesung, our second eldest, will learn Japanese in a weekend. He's so smart. Smarter than me I think. Not that you aren't, sweetheart," he chuckled and then continued, "I probably could have been clearer on the 'where I grew up’ location when I told the kids where we were going on vacation.”

"They raised us speaking English and Korean at home and the first place they take us is Japan," Seohyun teased, making everyone laugh again and she came over to hug me. Our fathers busied themselves catching up with each other (Like what? They know each other?) so I pulled Seohyun to the side and asked her what was going on.

"Um, has your dad forgotten that our halbi mostly hates him?" I quietly asked in English. Both of our dads speak English but I exactly wasn't trying to keep our conversation from them. 

"My parents brought us here for a pre-Christmas vacation. We've been here four days and my dad hasn't relaxed once. You should have seen him. The first day we were here he took us on a hike to an echoing cave. It was supposed to be a relaxing meditative walk but he was as jittery as if he had a Denkimushi in his shirt," she whispered back. "Yesterday night after dinner, I heard my mom say that my siblings and I at least deserve to know our grandmother so here we are."

"Why didn’t she come then? Halbi is going to lose his mind once he realizes…" I started to say but just then I realized that the piano had stopped playing. Seohyun had turned her attention to someone standing behind me and was beginning to bow as she introduced herself in Korean...

Read the rest on my AO3

[uf200singleproject]

The Single Positivity Movement

As we work our way up to the present, let’s continue the conversation on the history of the stigma surrounding single women. We’ve already established that, as far as we know, the Western beginning of widespread social awareness and othering of single women in particular can be traced back to around the seventeenth to eighteenth centuries—it is recent, in the grand scheme of things, but simultaneously considered to be a newer “problem” than it is.

As it turns out, the idea of the liberated “New Woman” and one of the largest early waves of resistance to marriage in the West came in around the late nineteenth century and, like the concept of the “spinster,” is often thought to have cropped up far more recently than it really did. The female “single positivity” movement is probably considered a product of just the last decade by some—including myself, before this project—and that assumption is likely based on the recent influx of popular media coverage on the topic.

In reality, the rise of historical figures like feminist author Sarah Grand (pictured above) and women’s rights advocate Susan B. Anthony in the late 1800s represents the roots of the movement. Rachel Thompson’s article on the history of the single positivity movement describes Susan B. Anthony’s prediction in 1877 that there would soon be “an epoch of single women” with the reasoning that “if women will not accept marriage with subjugation, nor men proffer it without, there is, there can be, no alternative.”1 Thompson then reveals that in 1894—not even 20 years later—the term “New Woman” was coined by Sarah Grand.2

And in the 20th century, the movement was spurred on by author Marjorie Hillis. Thompson explains that her book Live Alone and Like It: A Guide for the Extra Woman gave advice on just that: living alone. Joanna Scutts, interviewed by Thompson, sums up the intention behind Hillis’ writing in a beautifully profound way; Hillis “urged women to call themselves 'Live Aloners' rather than spinsters or single” because “she wanted them to define themselves by what they’d chosen, rather than what they lacked."3

And this powerful message is one that I have been proud to see come through in popular culture throughout my lifetime. From children’s media with plots far beyond the pursuit of a “prince charming,” like Disney’s Brave and Moana, to the confidence of celebrity role models like Emma Watson, who publicly described her romantic status at 32 as “self-partnered,”4 it seems that we as a culture are working to make room for women to make that choice without shame.

But, as we know, real life and pop culture don’t always perfectly align, and there is still work to be done.

1-3. Thompson, Rachel. “The History of the Single Positivity Movement Goes Back Further than You Think.” Mashable, 29 Oct. 2021, mashable.com/article/single-positivity-movement-history.

4. Lees, Paris. “From the Archive: Emma Watson on Transcending Child Stardom.” Vogue, 15 Apr. 2022, vogue.co.uk/news/article/emma-watson-on-fame-activism-little-women.

[worklabournewsresearch]

COVID-19 and Canada’s (Non-Existent) Childcare Strategy

“Though a recent study shows that men have been taking on more caretaking tasks and housework during the pandemic, women are still performing a majority of household duties. For single mothers, the burden of care becomes even more onerous without a partner to share the workload and with only one income to rely on. Without affordable childcare options, many women may remain outside the workforce indefinitely, gendering Canada’s economic recovery and imperiling hard-fought gains in employment equity. Government support for childcare is key to ensuring an equitable return to the labour force for working women during and after the pandemic.”

“Women have been demanding greater government support for childcare for years. In 1970, the Royal Commission on the Status of Women published a landmark report containing recommendations to improve women’s access to equal opportunities for employment in Canada. Women who participated in the commission advocated for childcare to improve gender equity in employment, arguing that women should be free to choose whether to work outside the home, and that childcare was the responsibility of mothers, fathers, and society. The report called on the federal government to support women’s equality through labour-force participation by developing a national childcare plan. Fifty years after the RCSW report’s release, women’s economic prospects have improved greatly, but a national childcare program has yet to be realized.”

Rise Up Feminist Archive, August 29, 2020: “COVID-19 and Canada’s (Non-Existent) Childcare Strategy,” by Brenna Clark

SocArXiv Papers, May 22, 2020: The Division of Labour Before & During the COVID-19 Pandemic in Canada by Kevin Shafer, Melissa Milkie, and Casey Scheibling

The Globe and Mail, May 9, 2020: “Canadian job market has split in two in the coronavirus crisis,” by Patrick Brethour

The Globe and Mail, May 9, 2020: “Motherhood in the coronavirus pandemic,” by Cindy Blazevic

Rise Up Feminist Archive, January 29, 2020: “Promises, promises – A history of federal childcare proposals”

work&labour news&resaerch: childcare + covid

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Meet the new generation of pro-abortion activists

With Roe v Wade likely headed to the US Supreme Court and a woman’s right to a safe and legal abortion under grave threat, a new generation of pro-abortion activists are rising up.

As Amelia Pollard writes for The American Prospect, this new wave is militant, organized and unapologetic — rather than engaging in petty framing wars about being “pro-choice” or “pro-life,” they call themselves “pro-abortion.”

https://prospect.org/justice/the-new-pro-abortion-generation/

They link the right to safe, legal abortion on demand to wider struggles for gender equity, trans inclusion, and, especially, comprehensive sex education and access to contraception as the single most effective way to reduce the number of abortions.

They’re not intimidated by evangelical harassers who congregate outside of abortion clinics to terrorize pregnant people seeking abortions, nor are they shy about bucking movement leadership when they engage in trans-exclusionary bullying.

These young people are rising up especially in “red states” like Mississippi, where cynical politicians have courted the misogynist and religious maniac vote by attacking abortion rights, sex education, and access to contraception.

They’re starting their organizing careers in high school, demanding sex education and access to contraception, and staying with the movement as they graduate. They demand that abortion be understood as an issue at the intersection of race, class and gender.

As such, they don’t just focus on changing the law, they also work on the immediate needs of people seeking abortions, raising money to defray travel and other costs as abortion clinics disappear thanks to restrictive laws.

They also offer emotional support, “one-on-one care during every stage of the abortion process,” and a new crop of “abortion doulas” is emerging that helps before, during and after an abortion.

I grew up in the abortion legalisation movement. My mother was an early abortion rights activist who marched for reproductive rights while she was pregnant with me.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/doctorow/3117302867

The first time I ever appeared in the paper, it was in the company of Dr Henry Morgantaler, the heroic Canadian abortion-rights campaigner who was jailed and terrorized by the state and by anti-abortion terrorists.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/doctorow/8882641733

I spent my teen years doing clinic defense, including at the Morgentaler Clinic — a clinic that was eventually torched by religious terrorists. Morgantaler’s anti-abortion opponents were absolutely shameless.

At one point, when he was seeking an injunction against people who’d repeatedly blocked access to his clinic, the anti-abortion side’s lawyer accused him of aborting gentile babies to get revenge for his experiences in Auschwitz.

When he was finally recognised with the Order of Canada in 2008, he didn’t mince words: “It’s an appointment I deserve, even if I say so myself.”

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/morgentaler-honoured-by-order-of-canada-federal-government-not-involved-1.716775

The erosion of reproductive rights in America — and the weaponising of a woman’s fertility to whip low-information evangelicals into line (the same people who spent 50 years ignoring abortion as a “Catholic issue”) has been an ongoing catastrophe to watch.

The rise of a decentralised, indomitable, modern, militant pro-abortion movement of young people with new tactics to suit this moment is a ray of hope.

Image: Rise Up Feminist Archive (modified) https://riseupfeministarchive.ca/culture/buttons/buttons-repealabortionlaws-willingmother/

[yournameyn]

Feeling Deeply: Chapter 3

Genre: Fluff so much fluff. Arranged Marriage Fic.

Pairing: Namjoon x OC

Summary: The story of two deeply feeling nerds who find themselves in an arranged marriage. Something neither of them really wanted but are now discovering just how much each needed. Away from their childhoods, their families & their homes, Namjoon & Brishti (the OC) are privileged immigrants who slowly build a home, a family & a true sense of self, together in 1960s London. Please note this is not the typical immigrant experience of that timespace and I’ve taken many-a-leap to write the fluuuufffiness I wanted to write.

A/N: It’s unabashed fluff. And eventual smut but I hope you’re okay with a really slow burn. Like, reaaaally slow. Both our characters are introverts & met as strangers so it’s going to take them a while to get the *ahem* fire going.

Big big big love to @sahmfanficbts, @mintjoonlep, @holdinbacksecrets, @sunshyngal, @xjoonchildx - who give me so much love and encouragement & whose straight up genius writing makes me swooooon!

Characters: Brishti is our OC. She’s a feminist, obviously. She’s Indian, wheatish in colour, curvy & slightly short. Brishti is bengali & her name means ‘Rain’. Her pet name is RimJhim which means the sound of rain. (Namjoon calls her Rim & she calls him Joon) This whole story is a tribute to Forever Rain.

The Namjoon in this fic is what I imagine he would have been had he not followed his dreams at the age of 13. Hopefully, I’m able to do justice to the idea as I write ahead.

Current Chapter: London, late 1963. Brishti & Namjoon meet her colleagues. They listen to the then-rising band The Beatles & take a strong liking to one particular track, if you know what I mean. Again, sorry to spoil but there’s no smut yet. I was not kidding when I said it’s a slooooow burn. Next chapter, it’s happening. There's not much conversation in this chapter, either. Is this almost 3k words of just CONTEXT to the actual smut or just a tease - you tell me!

Also, someone else we love is also introduced in this chapter!

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Previously in Feeling Deeply: Preface Chapter 1 Chapter 2

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Namjoon loved his weekends now. They were like a real couple, Brishti and him… setting the never ending “final touches” in their home, together. They went out to pubs and gardens, libraries and cafes together. And yet, to both their secret dismay, they hadn't moved ahead from that one hug they had shared. They'd played, instead, with words and been more and more intimate in their conversations.

Brishti introduced him to her colleagues - her group among the staff at the British Library. Working there was her pride & these folk were her joy. This was nerve-wracking for Namjoon because he knew how much she loved them. These were her people. Her true tribe. It was almost like he was meeting her parents. Instead of two indian elders (whom he had spoken to on the only international call she had made since their wedding), he found himself faced with a weird band of strangers. An English couple Harry & Kate who had adopted the library instead of a child, an elder woman from Japan, Sayuri-san - whose stories Brishti narrated to Namjoon all the time, a Korean guy (his age!) & Yana, a girl, Brishti’s age who was half English, half Iranian & completely in love with Sam, the black historian from America, as Brishti had reported. As they settled in for their picnic in Hyde Park, Namjoon tried his best to hide his shock when he found Sam was - one, a girl & two, as tall as him. He wondered which attribute threw him off more. Still, he was completely enjoying himself with Brishti’s Unlikely Gang of Weirdos that Will Save The World. That’s what she called them. Sayuri-san agreed - They were all groovy outcasts who had somehow clawed their way into the (apparently) cutthroat world mainstream librarians.

Brishti was glad to see Namjoon really hit it off with the only other Korean she knew, the guy who’d told her about the only place in London that sold black bean noodles, made the right way. Namjoon had almost cried when she had brought them over from work. The two of them spoke as if they had been thick as thieves for years. They talked about Korean poetry and the folk music they had to participate in their childhoods. They spoke about the music archive section of the library, which was heaven for Min Yoongi. The passion in Yoongi’s eyes when he spoke about maybe someday taking a class about world music appreciation was something Namjoon wished to have too, but wasn’t yet ready to admit.

As they were packing up their picnic, the conversation flowed to a new band in the country. Brishti spoke about how every young girl she had met recently just could not stop talking about how groovy The Beatles are. The elders in charge of the music archive brushed them off as a fad but she was insistent to bring it up every meeting - after all, it was teenage girls that had popularised & helped usher in the lyrical music of Vivaldi. Or of Lisztomania - that popularised the soft romantic tones of Liszt which formed the base of the modern love song. Namjoon loved to see her almost up in arms, struggling to find a better word for the admiration that girls had for music and musicians.

“It’s not hysteria… or fanaticism… it- it’s just love.” She had said. No one disagreed. In fact, everyone in her group was persuaded to (at least) give The Beatles a listen over the weekend.

And so, This evening, A Hard Day’s Night played as they arranged books & records at home. Brishti was arranging the books, apparently not having had enough of the task despite working as a full time librarian. Namjoon’s heart ached when he thought about how Brishti loved her job. Thankfully his mind never stayed on that thought for long. Namjoon wished he could pay attention to the song. These days, paying attention to anything but Brishti was almost impossible. The smallest movement in her, the smallest stir intrigued him.

Meanwhile, Brishti had been trying to figure out a way of getting him to touch her &… as silly as that sounded to her rational mind she couldn’t really come out and say it. Night after night when they’d stayed up talking about things or listening to music or just simply reading their respective books, on the floor or by the window with their legs sprawled out in front of each other, she wished he’d touch her… that somehow maybe he’d notice her feet. Strange as it was, she kept thinking about his hands, his fingers tracing the contour of her ankle while she didn’t turn one page of her book for almost an hour.

She understood the problem - both of them were so hyper-aware of each other while pretending not to be that an accident couldn’t really occur. Things had to be done & Brishti thought about how she shouldn’t let tradition dictate who makes the first move. She also kicked herself for not following tradition and stopping him from taking his pillow & blanket away to the couch on their wedding night they were supposed to sleep on the same bed. It made her heart race that she could sleep next to this Korean Greek God-like feminist man. Ufff. She was covered in tense knots everywhere and anytime she even thought of making a move, the fear in her would make her do something else - like unpack all the books into a makeshift bookcase.

They were facing in opposite directions in the same room and Brishti couldn’t help glancing back at Namjoon again and again. The broad expanse of his back made her long to hug him again. They hadn’t touched each other since she let go of the hug. It made her ache, the memory of him moving away from her. Next time they touch, she wouldn’t let go first - of this she was certain.

Brishti looked at him again & smiled, wondering how someone so tall could look so tiny & cute. Namjoon did look surprisingly tiny, poring over the vinyls & neatly arranging them. She smiled thinking about how he had spent some time wondering if the records should be kept chronologically or alphabetically.

Finally, he had announced, “Ofcourse! I have it! The category has to be mood! The...” Brishti loved the small pauses Namjoon took to find the perfect word. “The story of each album and the feeling it brings out!” The way he smiled, pleased with his decision created a flutter in her heart.

Looking at him poring over each song in each album trying to discern what the overall feeling of it was, she felt an unbearable urge to tease him, to disturb his cataloguing. She would go over and irritate him… probably tickle his waist or blow in his ears. Or maybe just nuzzle his neck. Brishti wondered if these things would actually irritate Namjoon or perhaps lead to something else... The thought made her blush so fiercely, she turned to face her pile of books. Brishti wished she could walk over, silently demand a space in Namjoon’s lap, he would throw out anything that crowded his lap & she would sit there, being cuddled, enveloped in him & talk about songs… if she could talk, at such a moment that is.

She needed to stop staring at him and yet, she couldn’t help but look... She was a warm-blooded woman after all. And Kim Namjoon was a particularly delicious man. It wasn’t so much that he was tall… plenty of men were tall. (She rolled her eyes thinking how most everyone was taller than her.) Unlike other men, though, Namjoon was not awkward or gangly. He had wide shoulders and a gorgeous neck. She had to actively keep her eyes focussed on something else when she could see the contours of his chest.

In that first week of them living together she wanted him. She felt the heat of being seen by those sharp beautiful eyes that held a deep fire in them. Brishti found herself thinking more and more about how his back looked, how it would feel to be cuddled up against that broad beautiful chest, how it would feel to touch him and to be touched by him. She blushed & laughed to herself when her spontaneous thought was that she’d like to “climb that tree” - whenever Namjoon stood up after being scrunched over his table, writing. That yearning awakened a much fiercer part of Brishti -

Why couldn’t she?! He was her husband. They have to come closer at some point, so what was she waiting for? Without a second thought, her body moved to get up & walk over to him. But as it had happened every time, her mind caught up to her at the very last minute. As Brishti walked over, bent, stretched out... for a pile of books close to him. She was close enough to touch him. And still, she just picked up the books & walked back. Thankfully for Brishti, she had a natural sort of nonchalance. Something Namjoon envied. Brishti did not know what this little stunt of hers did to him. Namjoon, with his fists balled, had to hold himself back in that moment. He had to stop himself from grabbing her; from pulling her into his lap and having his way with her.

The gentle thread-like tug he had felt when he’d first seen Brishti’s photos... it had become a magnetic pull now. Shocking and also somehow inevitable.

It had been more than a month of them living together and Namjoon was wrestling with something. An idea, apparently. It was as though an idea was caught in a vast net that he had laid out across the ocean of his mind. But he was having trouble fishing it out. He understood there was no point forcing it, that the idea, the thought would emerge when it, or when he was ready.

Taking his time, slowly, Namjoon was understanding how he had done the perfect thing for her, accidentally. He was confused too, when his instinct told him to let his bride sleep alone on their marital bed the first night they had moved in this flat. He had reasoned that it was the decent thing to do. Unknowingly, he gave her the time to explore, to own that space; Not crowding her with his body. Not invading her with expectations that, no matter how silent, would be blaringly evident. That was the right thing to do. Then.

Now things felt different. Now, it felt like she had made that space, this whole home hers. But then that’s where his thought-net felt stuck. The thought he wanted to fish out kept pulling at him, telling him she needed something else now. Like Brishti craved something else now. He wondered if she, like him, craved touch. Was that why her body instinctively moved, stretched, inched closer towards him these days. Was this why he’d found his shirt among the blanket instead of the laundry basket the other day?

Namjoon tried to shake off these thoughts again - they felt dangerous, explosive. What was happening? He looked back at his beautiful wife and saw her stretch her arms, then her abdomen, all the way till her hips and then bend forward to touch her toes. She mewled, very softly when she did that. Namjoon felt the familiar flip in his stomach again. This time, thankfully, the thought leapt up within reach too.

Namjoon suddenly understood just how feline Brishti is. Somehow, it was a key he needed. The idea surged through him & made him stand up. Because it wasn’t just an idea, it was an epiphany. Brishti looked at him, her eyes asking, saying, expecting something he didn’t understand fully.

The tingle that ran down his spine told him he was about to.

“You okay?” Brishti asked, concerned & embarrassed because the move she expected hadn’t come. But then again, it was probably too much to think Namjoon had stood up to carry her & throw her on their bed. Wasn’t it?

He was standing awkwardly in the middle of the room looking confused. Namjoon recovered & asked, “Coffee?”

Brishti smiled & nodded. Namjoon rushed to the kitchen. The catching of this thought excited him. Because after living with her for almost a month, he had just now realised it is this attribute - of being feline-ly feminine or femininely feline - that is what makes his body almost overpower any semblance of restraint his mind had imposed.

At first it seemed silly but soon Namjoon realised it isn’t. Not at all. It really clicked in place like the right key, the precise note does - he understood how to BE with her. Be there for the feline creature-like woman that Brishti was revealing herself to be: The way she walked, slowly almost moodily… letting her feet touch and caress each surface her feet felt. She would be walking across the room but would stop just to walk back and forth, softly, in a way that one can’t really call pacing at all. And everytime she touched something she liked, or saw or tasted something she loved, she made these small sounds that would make Namjoon’s heart melt. They were always half-way between a purr and a moan and they made him wonder what pleasure would make her sound like. Namjoon thought about how Brishti is graceful but her grace, like the curves of her beautiful body, aren’t timid; How, it’s a grace that announces itself... sometimes even before she walks in.

It isn’t the only thing that attracted him to her, not by a far cry. Namjoon thought about how he loves her mind, her words. But this felt, somehow, more… more visceral or... wanting to be. Could something formless long to be touched?; To become tangible, touchable? This feeling, in his chest and his gut. This feeling within him, it jumps, flips every time she walks by. These days it seems like Brishti walks by closer and closer each time she passes him. Like she needs to feel the texture of his skin the same way she needs to feel the slight drag of the rug on the soles of her feet. And it just adds more depth to this deep cavernous feeling within him. Instinctual whispers echoing within-

Why does it feel like he needs to touch a fragrance?

Like all he needs to do is reach out?

Like the moment he will reach out, an essence, an aroma will become an experience?

It felt like Brishti was calling out to him silently. That magnetic pull was stronger than ever and it was pulling him, drawing him to her, telling him to reach out, so she can find her way to him. That feeling, the way he was being pulled… that was feline. Like she needed him to reach out so she could make him hers too. And then, then it happened. The first four notes of ‘And I love her’ played and pulled him to her.

In that moment, in their 7th week together, as Brishti was tracing the lines of Namjoon’s back, gawking at him, thinking about this man - this gorgeous, curious, wonderful man - as her husband… a thought so fantastical it would make her squirm in her seat. Just as she was recovering from the thought, releasing the tension in her shoulders. The knots he didn’t know he caused, Namjoon kept the cups of coffee aside and extended his hand.

‘I give her all my love, that’s all I do…” To him, the instant she did it again, - the stretching her arms all the way up. The little moan she made every time she did that, the way her back arched and highlighted all her curves… it drove him, his body, his instinct to reach out.

“And if you saw my love, you’d love her too.”

The stomach flipped, again. This time, though, his instinct acted before his mind knew what he was supposed to do. Thankfully, his mind caught up -

He had just reached out. Reached out for her to claim him. But to one who didn’t know everything that had been going on inside both their hearts, it would look like he was inviting her to dance. Brishti looked at his hand and then at his eyes and suddenly Namjoon understood the reason for this magnetic pull... these lyrics is what she was saying all along -

“A love like ours could never die, as long as I have you near me...”

She took his hand & left no distance between them. Brishti realised there was music playing in the room only after she took Namjoon’s hand. Before this, she could only hear her own heartbeat, sharpened to an intensity never before experienced. Sharpened to a glint in a way that only love can. Love… and unmistakable, undeniable lust. Her heart had been beating with so much longing it had clouded everything else.

Now, in this moment, with his heart so close to hers, she could finally hear the music. This is what she had needed. This is what her heart had been pining for. And she knew. Without the shadow of a doubt she knew... he had heard her.

Brishti moved to the simple guitar strings that were tugging them both. The melody deepened each time the same four notes played. And each time they rooted deeper in the soil of her heart, she moved him too. His hands on her waist, caressing her curves everytime the four notes played. And they played over and over again… Namjoon followed the lyrics and sang along with his beautiful deep dark chocolate voice in her ears, saying -

“And I love her...”,

And his strong arms around her. How could she… Brishti, even if her name didn’t mean the rain, how could she have resisted pouring?

“Bright are the stars that shine, dark is the sky, I know this love of mine will never die...”

This evening was the first time they’d really touched each other. Stood so close to each other. Moved together.

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Oooooh god you read it?! Thank you so much! Please let me know what you think! Get into my messages about it! I would love to hear what you felt about this!

This is the song that's mentioned here in case anyone is curious.

[snailg0th]

here’s my giant leftist to-read list for the next few years!!!

if a little (done!) it written next to the book, it means i’ve finished it! i’m gonna try to update this as i read but no promises on remembering haha

Economics/Politics

Property by Karl Marx

Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx (done!)

Wages, Price, and Profit by Karl Marx (done!)

Wage-Labor and Capital by Karl Marx (done!)

Capital Volume I by Karl Marx

The 1844 Manuscripts by Karl Marx

Socialism: Utopian and Scientific by Fredrich Engles

Synopsis of Capital by Fredrich Engels

The Principles of Communism by Fredrich Engles

Imperialism, The Highest Stage Of Capitalism by Vladmir Lenin

The State And Revolution by Vladmir Lenin

The Revolution Betrayed by Leon Trotsky

Fascism: What is it and How to Fight it by Leon Trotsky

In Defense Of Marxism by Leon Trotsky

The Accumulation of Capital by Rosa Luxemborg

Reform or Revolution by Rosa Luxemburg

Discipline and Punish by Michel Foucault

The Conquest of Bread by Peter Kropotkin

On Anarchism by Noam Chomsky

Profit over People by Noam Chomsky

An Introduction to Marxist Economic Theory by Ernest Mandel

The Affluent Society by John Kenneth Galbraith

The Postmodern Condition by Jean François Lyotard

Capitalist Realism by Mark Fisher

The Socialist Reconstruction of Society by Daniel De Leon

Anarchism and Other Essays by Emma Goldman

Socialism Made Easy by James Connolly

Race

Biased: Uncover in the Hidden Prejudice That Shapes What We See, Think, and Do

Blindspot by Mahzarin R. Banaji

Racism Without Racists: Color-blind Racism And The Persistence Of Racial Inequality In America by Eduardo Bonilla-Silva

How To Be Less Stupid About Race: On Racism, White Supremacy And The Racial Divide by Crystal M. Flemming

This Book is Anti-Racist: 20 Lessons on How To Wake Up, Take Action, And Do The Work by Tiffany Jewell & Aurelia Durand

The Next American Revolution: Sustainable Activism For The Twenty-First Century by Grace Lee Boggs

Tell Me Who You Are by Winona Guo & Priya Vulchi

The Fire This Time: A New Generation Speaks About Race by Jesymn Ward

Class, Race, and Marxism by David R. Roediger

America for Americans: A History Of Xenophobia In The United States by Erica Lee

The Politics Of The Veil by Joan Wallach Scott

A Different Mirror A History Of Multicultural America by Ronald Takaki

A People’s History Of The United States by Howard Zinn

Black Theory

The Wretched Of The World by Frantz Fanon

Black Marxism by Cedric J Robinson

Malcolm X Speaks by Malcolm X

Women, Culture, and Politics by Angela Davis

Women, Race, & Class by Angela Davis (done!)

Freedom is a Constant Struggle by Angela Davis (done!)

The Meaning of Freedom by Angela Davis

Sister Outsider by Audre Lorde

Ain’t I A Woman? by Bell Hooks

Yearning by Bell Hooks

Dora Santana’s Works

An End To The Neglect Of The Problems Of The Negro Women by Claudia Jones

I Am Your Sister by Audre Lorde

Women’s Liberation And The African Freedom Struggle by Thomas Sankara

W.E.B. DuBois Essay Collection

Black Reconstruction by W.E.B. DuBois

Lynch Law by Ida B. Wells

The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison

Sula by Toni Morrison

Song Of Solomon by Toni Morrison

Beloved by Toni Morrison

Paradise by Toni Morrison

A Mercy by Toni Morrison

This Bridge Called My Back by Cherríe Moraga

Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America

So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo

The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander

Black Feminist Thought by Patricia Hill Collins

Eloquent Rage: A Black Feminist Discovers Her Superpower by Dr. Brittney Cooper

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou

Black Skins, White Masks and The Wretched of the Earth by Frantz Fanon

Killing of the Black Body

Revolutionary Suicide by Huey P Newton

Settlers; The myth of the White Proletariat

Fearing The Black Body; The Racial Origins of Fatphobia

Freedom Dreams; The Black Radical Imagination

How Capitalism Underdeveloped Black America

How Europe Underdeveloped Africa

An Argument For Black Women’s Liberation As a Revolutionary Force by Mary Anne Weathers

Voices of Feminism Oral History Project by Frances Beal

Ghosts In The Schoolyard: Racism And School Closings On Chicago’s South Side by Eve L. Ewing

Tears We Cannot Stop: A Sermon To White America by Michael Eric Dyson

Why We Can’t Wait by Martin Luther King, Jr.

Fatal Invention: How Science, Politics, Big Business, Re-create Race In The 21st Century by Dorothy Roberts

We Gon’ Be Alright: Notes on Race & Resegregation by Jeff Chang

They Can’t Kill Us All: Ferguson, Baltimore, and a New Era In America’s Racial Justice Movement by Wesley Lowery

The Common Wind by Julius S. Scott

Black Is The Body: Stories From My Grandmother’s Time, My Mother’s Time, And Mine by Emily Bernard

We Were Eight Years In Power: An American Tragedy by Ta-Nehisi Coates

American Lynching by Ashraf H. A. Rushdy

Raising Our Hands by Jenna Arnold

Redefining Realness by Janet Mock

When Affirmative Action Was White: An Untold History of Racial Inequality in Twentieth-Century America by Ira Katznelson

Whistling Vivaldi: How Stereotypes Affects Us and What We Can Do

Citizen: An American Lyric by Claudia Rankine

Left of Karl Marx: The Political Life Of Black Communist Claudia Jones by Carole Boyce Davies

Black Studies Manifesto by Darlene Clark

The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas

The Souls Of Black Folk by W.E.B. Du Bois

Darkwater by W.E.B. Du Bois

The Education Of Blacks In The South, 1860-1935 by James D. Anderson

The Half Has Never Been Told: Slavery And The Making Of American Capitalism by Edward E. Baptist

The Color Of Money: Black Banks And The Racial Wealth Gap by Mehrsa Baradaran

A Black Women’s History Of The United States by Daina Ramey Berry & Kali Nicole Gross

The Price For Their Pound Of Flesh: The Value Of The Enslaved, From Womb to Grave, In The Building Of A Nation by Daina Ramey Berry

North Of Slavery: The Negro In The Free States, 1780-1869 by Leon F. Litwack

Black Stats: African Americans By The Numbers In The Twenty-First Century by Monique M. Morris

Pushout: The Criminalization of Black Girls in Schools by Monique M. Morris

40 Million Dollar Slaves: The Rise, Fall, And Redemption of The Black Athlete by William C. Rhoden

From #BlackLivesMatter To Black Liberation by Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor

A More Beautiful And Terrible History: The Uses And Misuses Of Civil Rights History by Jeanne Theoharis

Medical Apartheid: The Dark History Of Medical Experimentation On Black Americans From Colonial Times To The Present by Harriet A. Washington

Working At The Intersections: A Black Feminist Disability Framework” by Moya Bailey

Theory by Dionne Brand

Black Women, Writing, And Identity by Carole Boyce Davies

Slavery By Another Name: The Re-enslavement Of Black Americans From The Civil War To World War II by Douglass A. Blackmon

Black Like Me by John Howard Griffin

The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin

Some Of Us Are Very Hungry Now by Andre Perry

The Origins Of The Urban Crisis: Race and Inequality In Postwar Detroit by Thomas Surgue

They Can’t Kill Us Until They Kill Us by Hanif Abdurraqib

Beyond Containment: Autobiographical Reflections, Essays and Poems by Claudia Jones

The Black Woman: An Anthology by Toni McCade

Double Jeopardy: To Be Black and Female by Frances Beal

How We Get Free: Black Feminism and the Combahee River Collective by Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor

Indigenous Theory

Colonize This! by Daisy Hernandez and Bushra Rehman

As We Have Always Done

Braiding Sweetgrass

Spaces Between Us

The Sacred Hoop by Paula Gunn Allen

Native: Identity, Belonging, And Rediscovering God by Kaitlin Curtice

An Indigenous People’s History Of The United States by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz

Why Indigenous Literatures Matter by Daniel Heath Justice

Highway of Tears: A True Story of Racism, Indifference, And The Pursuit Of Justice For Missing And Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls by Jessica McDiarmid

The Other Slavery by Andrés Reséndez

Seven Fallen Feathers by Tanya Talaga

All Our Relations: Indigenous Trauma In The Shadow Of Colonialism by Tanya Talaga

All Our Relations: Finding The Path Forward by Tanya Talaga

Everything You Wanted To Know About Indians But Were Afraid To Ask by Anton Treuer

Rez Life: An Indian’s Journey Through Reservation Life by David Treuer

Latine Theory

Borderlands/La Frontera by Gloria Anzaldúa

Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of Pillage of A Continent by Eduardo Galeano

Inventing Latinos: A New Story of American Racism by Laura E. Gomez

De Colores Means All Of Us by Elizabeth Martinez

Middle Eastern And Muslim Theory

How Does It Feel To Be A Problem? Being Young And Arab In America by Moustafa Bayoumi

We Too Sing America: South Asian, Arab, Muslim, and Sikh Immigrants Shape Our Multiracial Future by Deepa Iyer

Alligator and Other Stories by Dima Alzayat

API Theory

Orientalism by Edward Said

The Making Of Asian America by Erika Lee

On Gold Mountain by Lisa See

Strangers From A Different Shore: A History of Asian Americans by Ronald Takaki

They Called Us Enemy (Graphic Novel) by George Takei

Yellow Peril!: An Archive of Anti-Asian Fear by Edited by John Kuo Wei Tchen and Dylan Yeats

Yellow: Race In America Beyond Black And White by Frank H. Wu

Alien Nation: Chinese Migration In The Americas From The Coolie Era Through World War II by Elliott Young

The Good Immigrants: How The Yellow Peril Became The Model Minorities by Madeline H. Ysu

Asian American Dreams: The Emergence Of An American People by Helen Zia

The Myth Of The Model Minority: Asian Americans Facing Racism by Rosalind S. Chou & Joe R. Feagin

Two Faces Of Exclusion: The Untold Story Of Anti-Asian Racism In The United States by Lon Kurashige

Whiteness

White Fragility by Robin Di Angelo (done!)

White Kids: Growing Up With Privilege In A Racially Divided America by Margaret A. Hagerman

Waking Up White by Deby Irving

The History of White People by Nell Irvin Painter

White Like Me: Reflections On Race From A Privileged Son by Tim Wise

White Rage by Carol Anderson

What Does It Mean To Be White: Developing White Racial Literacy by Robin DiAngelo

The Invention of The White Race: Volume 1: Racial Oppression and Social Control by Theodore W. Allen

The Invention of The White Race: Volume 2: The Origin of Racial Oppression in Anglo-America by Theodore W. Allen

Immigration

Call Me American by Abdi Nor Iftir

Create Dangerously: The Immigrant Artist At Work by Edwidge Danticat

My Family Divided by Diane Guerrero

The Devil’s Highway: A True Story by Luis Alberto Urrea

The Undocumented Americans by Karla Cornejo Villavicencio

Enrique’s Journey by Sonia Nazario

Tell Me How It Ends: An Essay In Forty Questions by Valeria Luiselli

Voter Suppression

One Person, No Vote: How Voter Suppression Is Destroying Our Democracy by Carol Anderson

Give Us The Vote: The Modern Struggle For Voting Rights In America by Ari Berman

Prison Abolition And Police Violence

Abolition Democracy by Angela Davis

Are Prisons Obsolete? by Angela Davis

The Prison Industrial Complex by Angela Davis

Political Prisoners, Prisons, And Black Liberation by Angela Davis

Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson (done!)

The End Of Policing by Alex S Vitale

Invisible No More: Police Violence Against Black Women and Women of Color by Andrea J. Ritchie

Choke Hold: Policing Black Men by Paul Butler

From The War On Poverty To The War On Crime: The Making Of Mass Incarceration In America by Elizabeth Hinton

Feminist Theory

The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir

A Vindication of the Rights of Women by Mary Wollstonecraft

Bad Feminist by Roxanne Gay

7 Feminist And Gender Theories

Race, Gender, And Class by Margaret L. Anderson

African Gender Studies by Oyèrónkẹ́ Oyěwùm��

The Invention Of Women by Oyèrónkẹ́ Oyěwùmí

What Gender Is Motherhood? by Oyèrónkẹ́ Oyěwùmí

Feminism Without Borders: Decolonizing Theory, Practicing Solidarity by Chandra Talpade Mohanty

I Am Malala by Malala Youssef

LGBT Theory

Gender Trouble by Judith Butler

Performative Acts and Gender Constitution by Judith Butler

Imitation and Gender Insubordination by Judith Butler

Bodies That Matter by Judith Butler

Excitable Speech by Judith Butler

Undoing Gender by Judith Butler

The Roots Of Lesbian And Gay Opression: A Marxist View by Bob McCubbin

Compulsory Heterosexuality And Lesbian Existence by Adrienne Rich

Decolonizing Trans/Gender 101 by B. Binohan

Gay.Inc: The Nonprofitization of Queer Politics by Merl Beam

Pronouns Good or Bad: Attitudes and Relationships with Gendered Pronouns

Transgender Warriors

Whipping Girl; A Transsexual Woman on Sexism and the Scapegoating of Femininity

Stone Butch Blues by Lesie Feinberg (done!)

The Stonewall Reader by Edmund White

Sissy by Jacob Tobia

Gender Outlaw by Kate Bornstein

Butch Queens Up In Pumps by Marlon M. Bailey

Black On Both Sides: A Racial History Of Trans Identities by C Riley Snorton

Go Tell It On The Mountain by James Baldwin

Ezili’s Mirrors: Imagining Black Queer Genders by Omise’eke Natasha Tinsley

Lavender and Red by Emily K. Hobson

[ao3feed-tododeku]

Phoenix Rising

Phoenix Rising by vigilantedaydream

Izuku had wished to never see fire like that again- not after he witnessed Shouto die at the hands of his own brother. So naturally, as soon as he got a glimpse of blue flames in the corner of his vision he was paralyzed with fear- well, paralyzed once he had fallen to the floor, yet another well aimed blow to his already broken ankle as his downfall.

Yet he couldn't tear his eyes away, entranced by the figure suddenly rising to his feet in the middle of the battlefield, surrounded by a brilliant blue blaze yet still somehow covered in a sparkling layer of frost. Izuku could have sworn that he had just seen a phoenix rise from the ashes. --- After being dead for three years Shouto challenges the Reaper herself to try to save Izuku.

Words: 2989, Chapters: 1/1, Language: English

Fandoms: 僕のヒーローアカデミア | Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero Academia

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings

Categories: M/M

Characters: Grim Reaper

Relationships: Midoriya Izuku/Todoroki Shouto

Additional Tags: Angst, Fluff, Angst and Fluff, more angst than fluff but I mean it's all building to fluff so it's fine, Angst with a Happy Ending, main character deathn't, as in the opposite of main character death, main character revival, the grim reaper is a woman, because i'm a feminist, also she lowkey acts like toriel from undertale, Not entirely though, trust me the toriel comparison was worse in the daydreamed up version of this au, dear god i hope this makes sense, somebody stop me from sacrificing my sleep schedule to write please, not beta'd but that goes without saying

Read Here: https://archiveofourown.org/works/35804008

[lilydalexf]

Old School X is a project interviewing X-Files fanfic authors who were posting fic during the original run of the show. New interviews are posted every Tuesday.

Interview with Sarah Ellen Parsons

Sarah Ellen Parsons has 18 X-Files stories at Gossamer and 19 at AO3. If you want high quality fic with interesting characters, go read her stories. Some of my favorites of her fics are The Crouching Thing and My Constant Touchstone Who Makes Me A Whole Person (which are two very different stories!). Big thanks to Sarah Ellen for doing this interview.

Does it surprise you that people are still interested in reading your X-Files fanfics and others that were posted during the original run of the show (1993-2002)?

With today's binge-watching culture, I'm not at all surprised. You can watch a bunch of eps and then seek out fic that is where you are in the series.

What do you think of when you think about your X-Files fandom experience? What did you take away from it?

I took away a writer's group Yes, Virginia, that is still together.  Mostly as friends, but whenever I write something, or someone else writes something, it's the first place we all run for machete beta. I have betad SO MANY novels.

We have a number of folks who are published writers since then and our time in X-Files fic brought us lifelong friendships IRL and made us all better at our craft. The majority of those folks were better writers than I am. And I make my living as a writer in my day-job.

Social media didn't really exist during the show's original run. How were you most involved with the X-Files online (atxc, message board, email mailing list, etc.)?

I belonged to a couple of the largest lists and posted there and bitched about the show on usenet with everyone else.  We had our own Yahoo group for beta.  We all had crappy GeoCities websites that we programmed the HTML for ourselves and hooked through various fandom link circles to get traffic to our stories.  But the main method of distribution was the lists.

Fun fact, I found a free page counter thing that I used at work one time through fandom. So fandom pays off in skillz.

Even without social media, we managed to get our stories in front of readers who would enjoy them. Where there's a will, there's always someone ready to step up and find a way.

What did you take away from your experience with X-Files fic or with the fandom in general?

Again, I have lifelong friends IRL that I got solely from fanfiction. That's the best takeaway.

Fandom disappointed me because it, like everything else, is ruined by people's egos, backstabbing, and petty people who get in positions of power and then use those positions to punch down or dictate. I was young when I was writing X-Files and I still had hope that people would rise to their better natures, so I got involved in various futile efforts to try to make people behave the way I wanted them to behave, I guess. I did a lot of public bitching that didn't serve me or my friends well. I now put that effort into politics, where it does actual good.

What was it that got you hooked on the X-Files as a show?

X-files was made for me. It combined science fiction, mystery, horror.  I love all of those genres. Plus there was Scully. No matter how sexist that writer's room was, Scully was awesome. But you kept seeing bad writing. Even in the heyday seasons, like Season 3, there were really terrible eps that made you want to fix things.

I'm a lifelong speculative fiction fan and a published feminist science fiction author. I actually was published before I fell down the fic hole. I got involved in fanfic due to getting my fantasy novel turned down from every major publisher for being "too dark". And I needed to get readers to see my stuff to prove to myself that I wasn't terrible at writing. I got a ton of feedback and it was like market research to see what people wanted to read.

My time in fanfiction made me 100% a better writer than I was.

What got you involved with X-Files fanfic?

I went to the X-Files Expo to see if I could make contact with someone from Harper Collins because the tie-in novels sucked so hard.  I got rejected with my pitch as I didn't have a literary agent.

Around that time, a pal who I watched X-Files with IRL was looking for a free X-files wallpaper for her work computer when she found the website where fans in Pennsylvania had fic archived. She read some and wrote to me - "you need to see this, and you can do better."  So I started reading and was.... I probably CAN do better. So I wrote The Batman Plot. And made two friends I'm still friends with with that one story.

What is your relationship like now to X-Files fandom?

Nonexistent.  I couldn't even watch the latest season and I saw only 2 of season one of whatever that was before I gave up. I have never watched the second movie.

X-files is my first fandom bad ex-husband. I loved it SO MUCH, but it betrayed me.

Were you involved with any fandoms after the X-Files? If so, what was it like compared to X-Files?

I was deep into Harry Potter for a while, but I didn't end up publishing anything in it. All my stories were novel-length and I was writing so much for work, I never completed anything. I called Snape/Lily when Prisoner of Azkaban was published and got Jossed by Rowling in one of my big ideas. (This is bad fandom ex-husband 2. JKR will never get a dime of money from me again because of her hateful stance on transfolk. I have RL friends who are trans and NO.)

I wrote fic in Supernatural. It was the obvious next thing after X-Files. However, the misogyny and bringing in all the Angel/Devil Christofascist stuff lost me. The ep where they declared all other religions other than Christianity as invalid and killed a Hindu god made me stop watching for good. I know enough Christofascists IRL that I can't tolerate it in my fiction. (Bad fandom ex-husband 3)

Who are some of your favorite fictional characters? Why?

This list is far too long to actually make.  But characters I spent time writing about include: Kirk, Spock, McCoy and Co. (I wrote three unpublished Star Trek novels before I found online fandom). King Arthur and Morgan Le Fay, Sherlock Holmes (I wrote a Sherlock Holmes play after seeing "Crucifer of Blood" and entered it in a national competition, where I got very nice comments back.), Mulder, Scully and Krycek, Rowling's Hermione and Snape (like him or not, its masterful characterization), Dean and Sam Winchester, John Winchester and Bobby Singer.  I wrote one comedy story starring Spike from Buffy the Vampire Slayer.  A couple of Roswell stories under a different name. Catwoman and Batman. I have some unpublished Avengers fanfic lying around as I'm an OG Marvel fan with a massive comic collection.

Do you ever still watch The X-Files or think about Mulder and Scully?

I was on a business trip a few years ago and FX had a marathon and I watched part of it when I was in my hotel room. Early seasons are comforting, but I don't go back there now.

Do you ever still read X-Files fic? Fic in another fandom?

I don't read X-Files fic anymore. I read a tiny bit of Star Wars after the second movie because Rian Johnson had it right. Now I don't care. I love Mandalorian, but am content to watch.

Do you have any favorite X-Files fanfic stories or authors?

Too many to count.  All of YV. Which reminds me, I need to go update our entry at Fanlore. I promised Punk I'd do it a while back.  I need to at least get everyone linked.  Right now it's only Punk and Sab.

But it was a ton of us.  Marasmus, Maria Nicole, Cofax, CazQ, M. Sebasky, Livia Balaban, Kelly Keil, Wen, Ropobop, Jess Mabe, JET, fialka, and a bunch of others that I can't remember their fic names any more, just their real names because I know them all IRL. I need to go back and look up their fic names and link them up there.

In addition to my little group of pals, I loved reading Mustang Sally and Rivka T, Rachel Anton - I keep trying to find her to encourage her to write romance if she's not doing it already, but no dice, Dasha K., Anjou, there were so many great ones, but their names have slipped my mind in the past 20 years.

What is your favorite of your own fics, X-Files and/or otherwise?

I'm most known for Prone, and I'm proud of that story for all kinds of reasons, but I think my very best is The Crouching Thing.

I mostly didn't publish anything I didn't think was good and hadn't been machete betaed within an inch of its life, but I'm not sure much of the angsty romance stuff holds up as well. I think it worked when the show was still ON and we were all in that emotional headspace, but probably not now.

Do you think you'll ever write another X-Files story? Or dust off and post an oldie that for whatever reason never made it online?

Funny you ask. I am currently reworking a plot idea I had for an X-Files fic into a contemporary M/M novel, which I will publish under a different pen-name. The plot is the idea I had for X-Files, the characters are very, very different other than one is uptight and the other more easy-going. But no more Mulder and Scully.

Do you still write fic now? Or other creative work?

I have been making my living as a writer for 25 years. I write the word count equivalent of 5 Tolkein novels a year, just for my day-job.  I am turning back to original fiction, which is where I was before X-Files.  I'm working on the M/M thing, a high fantasy thing, a low fantasy historical thing and a bunch of M/F Regency romances as I get time and energy.  I publish Fantasy and SF under my real name. Romance has pen names as you don't want that getting back to your workplace, either.

SEP is fic only and here she will stay.

Where do you get ideas for stories?

I have too many ideas to count.  I try to write them down when they come, so I won't forget. At least the outline of the idea. Often a scene. I've been like this my entire life. I started writing novels seriously at 15. I wrote a 500 plus page one about Morgan Le Fay during breaks in high school because "Mists of Avalon" pissed me off so bad as I'd read the original source material and that was a Wicca recruitment polemic.

What's the story behind your pen name?

Sarah Ellen was my great-grandma, Parsons was her grandma's last name.

Do your friends and family know about your fic and, if so, what have been their reactions?

Half my friends ARE fic friends. Most of my friends know as does my brother, who thinks writing for free is dumb. This is universally agreed on by non-fic friends who know. My mother still doesn't know about the fic. Just the "real" writing.  I write under a pen name to keep it away from my job and my published work.

Is there a place online (tumblr, twitter, AO3, etc.) where people can find you and/or your stories now?

My X-files stuff is up on Gossamer mostly. I'm trying to get the stories all moved to AO3 for all the genres. I'm working on this now.  SEP is really not a living thing anymore, but there was a time when she was more me than me.

If you want to find my "real" non-fic writing, write to me at se_parsons at yahoo dot com and I will point you at it.

And PLEASE someone, hunt down Rachel Anton and get her writing something we all can BUY.  Where are my old Krycek bitches at?  Do any of you know where she is? [Lilydale note: I’ve tried contacting Rachel Anton for this Old School X project but have not had luck. I would love to find her too!]

Is there anything else you'd like to share with fans of X-Files fic?

The community I loved has mostly moved on, but I think we left a legacy of solid work crafted out of our love for the show.  Find a living community you love for a show you love.  There are great people out there creating and get involved.  It will be worth it.

(Posted by Lilydale on December 15, 2020)

[ladysunamireads]

Phoenix Rising

Phoenix Rising by vigilantedaydream

Izuku had wished to never see fire like that again- not after he witnessed Shouto die at the hands of his own brother. So naturally, as soon as he got a glimpse of blue flames in the corner of his vision he was paralyzed with fear- well, paralyzed once he had fallen to the floor, yet another well aimed blow to his already broken ankle as his downfall.

Yet he couldn't tear his eyes away, entranced by the figure suddenly rising to his feet in the middle of the battlefield, surrounded by a brilliant blue blaze yet still somehow covered in a sparkling layer of frost. Izuku could have sworn that he had just seen a phoenix rise from the ashes. --- After being dead for three years Shouto challenges the Reaper herself to try to save Izuku.

Words: 2989, Chapters: 1/1, Language: English

Fandoms: 僕のヒーローアカデミア | Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero Academia

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings

Categories: M/M

Characters: Grim Reaper

Relationships: Midoriya Izuku/Todoroki Shouto

Additional Tags: Angst, Fluff, Angst and Fluff, more angst than fluff but I mean it's all building to fluff so it's fine, Angst with a Happy Ending, main character deathn't, as in the opposite of main character death, main character revival, the grim reaper is a woman, because i'm a feminist, also she lowkey acts like toriel from undertale, Not entirely though, trust me the toriel comparison was worse in the daydreamed up version of this au, dear god i hope this makes sense, somebody stop me from sacrificing my sleep schedule to write please, not beta'd but that goes without saying

Read Here: https://archiveofourown.org/works/35804008

[ao3feed-darklina]

by starwarringavengers

As the years pass between them, it has become less about running, and more of a game — Alina tries time and time again to see how far she can get, how long she can elude him before he appears in front of her, infuriatingly smug and handsome, a hand held out that she always ends up taking. Because if nothing else, the world is large and cold, and his arms are warm. His hands gentle when they pass over her skin, despite their callouses. His mouth soft and giving, when it serves him to be kind. ✨ In which Alina runs just because she likes when Aleksander chases her.

Words: 7118, Chapters: 1/1, Language: English

Fandoms: Shadow and Bone (TV)

Rating: Explicit

Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings

Categories: F/M

Characters: The Darkling | Aleksander Morozova, Alina Starkov

Relationships: The Darkling | Aleksander Morozova/Alina Starkov

Additional Tags: the marriage verse, overuse of the term 'little wife' thanks vuas, i have not read ruin and rising therefore in my head it does not exist thanks, alina keeps her powers because we're feminists in this household, mal who i don't know him, no thoughts head empty all darklina, Sex, Foreplay, the use of cuddling in a cave as.....foreplay, the darkling loves one (1) woman and it is alina, the working title for this was: cloak thing???, its just a little bit of them reminiscing on their marriage, and aleksander chasing his wild ass wife through the woods, then they have sex okay that's literally all this is

[fairestcat]

We Did The Thing: Musings On the AO3, Wiscon, and Winning the Fandom Culture Wars

HOLY SHIT WE WON A MOTHERFUCKING HUGO.

Ahem.

More seriously - or at least more verbosely - I think we won the fandom culture wars. How weird is that?

This is a sort of rambly post. It's about the OTW and the AO3, but it's also about Wiscon, because that's the community I'm in where old-school SFF fandom and transformative works fandom collide, and it's where I've watched this transformation happen over the last decade.

Back in October I made a tumblr post about the history of the OTW/AO3: On the AO3 all these years later.

That post is mostly just quotes from the comments to @astolat's original post that started the AO3: An Archive Of One's Own - and quotes from the post I made back then linking to hers:  An Archive of One's Own, Or: Why Shouldn't We Ask For Everything We Want?

Those posts are from May 2007. I was on the OTW Finance Committee by that fall.

One year later, in May 2008, I went to my first Wiscon. I was on two panels: "Fanfic and Slash 201," and "Fanfic Rising: The Organization for Transformative Works."

They were back to back on Saturday night. "Fanfic and Slash 201" from 9:00 to 10:15 and the OTW panel from 10:30 to 11:45. All fanworks panels at non fanworks-specific cons were late night panels back then. Or, occasionally, on Monday morning after half the con had gone home.

I don't remember who else was on the Fanfic 201 panel, but the OTW panel was me, @oliviacirce and ellen_fremedon. The three of us had never met before that con. @oliviacirce and I had been in Chicago Friday night for a Panic! At the Disco concert and hadn't gotten back to Madison until 3am. I have no idea how we were even still coherent for a 10:30 PM panel.

None of us wrote the panel description, which reads even more impressively antagonistic in retrospect.

"The Organization for Transformative Works (OTW), led by fanfic writers, fan vidders, and fan artists (including writer Naomi Novik) seeks to establish a new regime in copyright law, in which 'all fannish works are recognized as legal and transformative and are accepted as a legitimate creative activity.' Should there be an exception for fanfic under copyright? Is OTW a good idea? (Some fans are afraid that OTW's activities will end BigMedia's tolerance for fannish creations.) What does the law say? What's the viewpoint of those who create original works -- should authors lose control of their original creations, as long as fans claim protection under a fanfic exception? And what about OTW's commitment to offer protection for RPF (Real People Fanfic)?"

At the time I would have said it was a pretty good panel, and yet we spent a distressing percentage of the panel defending the mere right of fanworks to even exist.

I went back to Wiscon in 2009, which was an...eventful year. It was the first Wiscon post-Racefail and it sparked a lot of discussion of intersecting modes of fannishness and particularly online fandom vs. offline con-based fandom, which was at the time a much bigger divide.

Wiscon 2009 was also the year @ellen_fremedon went to a panel on historical fiction, and got jumped on by Ellen Klages, who was one of that year's Guests of Honor, for the sin of mentioning fanfic in her presence.

After that Wiscon I posted Wiscon, Media Fandom and The Larger Fannish Conversation, about my experience of that divide, particularly as a transformative works fan at Wiscon.

Here's the thing: online media and fanfic fandom is a vibrant, active community within broader SF fandom. [...] And to a large extent media fandom is where the young female fans are, the women who are the future of fandom. We're there at Wiscon too; I was amazed by the number of people from LJ fandom I saw at the con this year. And yet, when it comes to having a voice in larger fandom, we're still the embarrassing cousin shuffled off into the corner (or the hotel lobby). Even at Wiscon, the feminist science fiction convention, we're mostly under the radar, carving out a tiny niche for ourselves.

Last year we had two general, broad-topic fanfic panels. This year we had a fanfic panel, a vidding panel and the media vs. book fandom panel, which was not explicitly a media fandom panel but had an audience heavily weighted towards media fandom participants. And I walked into those panels and I thought "Here! Here are my people!" But it was frustrating too. Why are we relegated to the corner, why are we willing to be relegated to the corner? The conversations we're having, the things we're doing, they don't exist in a vacuum, they're relevant to the larger fannish conversation, they're especially relevant, I think, to the conversation going on at Wiscon. And I think it's time we were a bigger, more open part of that conversation.

So, we set out to make that happen. The OTW and the AO3 were a big part of that. Everyone who was worried at the time that the OTW would bring too much attention to fandom was right to be afraid. And wrong to be afraid too. Because that attention was how everything started to change. The OTW was fandom coming out of the closet, and like any coming out it was a powerful, transformative moment for those involved.

In 2010, a group of fans held the first ever Wiscon Vid Party. 

At Wiscon in 2010, we held the first ever vid party in one of these hospitality suites on the Saturday night, from 9pm to 3am. That's six hours of vid programming! It was mostly unthemed, other than "here are some amazing vids!"[...] The general vibe of the party was loud, a little bit raucous, and pretty informal. We had a mixture of sofas and armchairs, stackable seating, and standing room. People came and went at will. We put a sign on the door asking people to keep conversations to a minimum, and it worked pretty well to keep chatter down while still allowing people to relax and have a good time. It was pretty much like a really big living room.

I missed that con due to the whole move to Canada and get married thing I did, but I remember my first Vid Party in 2012, looking around the party room and having this amazing feeling of being surrounded by my people.

I loved Wiscon, but it was always a fraught experience. There was always this worry that I'd say the wrong thing in the wrong place and suddenly get that disappointed, "oh, you're one of those fans," response. The vid party was the one place at the con that you could just walk in and that worry went away.

And then there started being more of those places. We started suggesting more and more fic and vid related panels.

In 2012, @oliviacirce and I were both on two transformative works panels. "What makes a great transformative work?" and "Fans Fix SF." In a step up from previous fanworks panels at Wiscon they were both during the day. But they were also both in the smallest panel rooms at the con, and both panels fit comfortably into those rooms. Conference 5, where "Fans Fix SF" was held, is still the only room Wiscon uses for programming that's so small it isn't wired for microphones.

And then in 2013 I suggested ten panels for Wiscon and nine of them ended up on the schedule. They weren't all explicitly transformative fandom panels, but a lot of them were, and most of the panel descriptions were informed by my experience in transformative works fandom. Looking back, that was a sea-change moment, because an interesting thing happened. There mostly stopped being transformative fandom-specific panels at Wiscon, because it started being okay, even expected, that fanfic and other transformative works might come up on any panel, from the audience or the panelists.

At Wiscon 2018, I went to a panel on #OwnVoices fiction. Every panelist was a published author and/or professional editor. In the course of the panel, every panelist mentioned fanfic in general or the AO3 in specific in an explicitly complementary fashion. I nearly burst into tears in the back of the panel room.

Afterwards, I met up with @oliviacirce and ellen_fremedon to flail about it, at which point we realized that it had been ten years since that first fateful OTW panel where we all met. And that ten years both felt like so long ago, and also so recent for everything to have changed so completely.

At Wiscon 2019, the three of us were on another panel together. We called it "Fanfic: Threat or Menace - Ten Years Later," and this time I wrote the description:

Do you remember a time before the AO3? Do you remember a time when mentioning fanfic at Wiscon risked a lecture on its illegality and/or immorality? We sure do! In 2008 we met on the panel “Fanfic Rising: The Organization for Transformative Works,” & spent most of our time defending the right of fanworks to exist. In 2018 we were amazed to realize just how much had changed. Let’s talk about how the perception & reception of fanworks have changed, both in fandom at large and right here at Wiscon.

We made it onto the schedule. They once again put us in the smallest panel room. We looked around the lobby on Thursday night and said, "yeah, that ain't happening." We eventually moved to one of the largest panel rooms.

It was almost completely full.

I started the panel by reading out the original panel description from 2008. There was laughter! revolutionaryjo came up afterwards and asked to take a picture of the description on my phone. There were so many people in that room who had no idea what the Wiscon of a decade previous had been like. It was amazing.

Best Related Work? The OTW and AO3 changed the nature of the relationship between fic readers and writers and the entirety of mainstream organized SFF fandom.

The Wiscon Vid Party is still happening, and it's still a marathon of amazing vids, but it's not a really big living room anymore. The Vid Party is the Friday night feature in the biggest panel room. There are Premieres. There’s a sing-a-long. People come who have never watched a vid outside of Wiscon. People come who've never even heard of vids outside of Wiscon. The first year the Vid Party was in the big room, I walked into the room just before the show started, looked around, and realized I didn't recognize ⅔ of the people in the room. And I was so happy. Because I no longer need the Vid Party as a safe space to let down my guard, the entire con is now that place.

We did that. We made that happen.

The OTW made that happen. The AO3 made that happen. But also, a whole lot of individual fans made that happen. We stepped out of our corner, we stepped out of our closet. We demanded a seat at the table. And now we have a motherfucking HUGO AWARD, and when Naomi Novik got on stage at the Hugos and asked everyone who felt that they were part of the AO3 to stand up to be acknowledged, a notable number of this year's other Hugo nominees were among the attendees who got to their feet.