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reasonsforhope · 1 year

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How can I stay positive regarding the wildfires?

It can be really hard in the face of so much destruction. I don't know how much anyone can specifically stay positive in the face of disasters like this -

but I can give you some thoughts about how to let hope live alongside everything else you're feeling about this, and how to avoid spiraling and remember that this is not proof that we're doomed.

Possibly relevant note lol is that I've lived my whole life in California, so suffice to say figuring out how to move forward among the consequences and destruction of massive wildfires is something I'm definitely not new to.

I remember walking to my classroom in elementary school, about 20 years ago now, and it was literally snowing ash around me. This too shall pass.

Take a few deep breaths. I know it's cliche but it's also important

Zoom out in terms of perspective: Wildfires can make the sky look apocalyptic (like I said, I have lots of experience with this!), but they are regional, and they always end. These wildfires are awful but this specific wave of fires is happening in just one country in a huge, huge world. There's far more land that isn't burning

Canada is about to get substantial international aid in fighting the wildfires - there are already 200 additional firefighters headed over from the US and France, and Canada (Quebec specifically) is also already in talks with Costa Rica, Portugal, and Chile about additional firefighters/resources. Help is on the way and these numbers really will make a big difference, and as the disaster continues (unfortunately it is uh...pretty early in fire season), more help will be sent. People are doing what they can to help, because in the face of disaster, that's what we're wired to do

There are actually MUCH better fire management plans than just about anyone is using, esp in North America but that we COULD implement and increasingly WILL going forward. A lot of the wildfire situation these days is because of the West's incredibly wrongheaded derision toward traditional Indigenous land and ecosystem management practices, including cultural prescribed burns that keep massive wildfires from happening. California in particular is already partnering with several First Nations to revive prescribed burns, to significant success. As fires continue to be terrible, more and more places will get on board with this. We can and will implement practices that will truly change our situation

Cultural burns work because, ironically, the reason for the wildfires is that "is that we've been so good at putting out every fire possible that it has led to overly dense forests and a buildup of burnable material like branches and dry vegetation" that makes wildfires much worse in a number of ways. At lower intensity, however, as with cultural burns, forest fires can actually have huge environmental benefits

Finally, every time a natural disaster happens like this, as awful and destructive as they are, it serves as a wake-up call for thousands of people and adds both ever-mounting urgency and ever-mounting evidence to the importance of fighting climate change, which really does translate into action. For a lot of people, "saving the environment" feels super distant - but you know what feels super immediate? Saving their homes from burning down (or getting flooded or otherwise destroyed, etc. etc.) In 2021, the UN ran the world's largest climate survey, across 1.2 million people and 50 nations, and almost TWO-THIRDS SAID THAT CLIMATE CHANGE IS A GLOBAL EMERGENCY THAT WE NEED TO WORK HARDER TO ADDRESS. Imagine that 10 years ago! That other third of people aside, this really is real and massive progress

Also, every time there's a big disaster like this, climate change deniers look more and more baldly ridiculous. Think about it: How often did you hear US Republicans bullshitting about climate change denial 10 years ago? And how often do you hear them doing it now? In fact, there's increasing evidence that Republicans really are shifting on climate change (mind you they're managing to do it in an obnoxiously somehow pro-fossil-fuel way, but it's still a major sea change). Some of them are literally calling for a clean energy transition, and Kevin McCarthy himself (guy in charge of the US House right now) created a task force for to a conservative climate change agenda that acknowledges climate change is real. There's now a conservative climate conference that does active lobbying and a House Conservative Climate Caucus, which somehow has SIXTY MEMBERS. Again, something that would've been unimaginable just six or seven years ago.

Every acre that the fires burn this year is an acre that's pretty guaranteed to not burn next year, for what that's worth. (And I do think it's worth mentioning, esp with such a high number of acres)

The battles are going to be hard, but I truly believe that even the ones we lose often bring us closer to winning the war.

Fires burn, but life always grows back.

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disgruntled-lifeform · 1 month

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People who sell handspun yarn, how do you manage it when the profit margins are so razor thin?

I'm unable to work and money is tight so I've been considering how I can contribute financially and attempt to save up for the future but boy, things look lean.

If you sell your handspun, I'd love to hear from you either in my DMs or the replies/reblogs/tags because I have to make this work somehow...

#we are a one income household and have next to nothing in savings #chronic pain stops me from being useful in a traditional work enviroment and anxiety is a bitch #I just need to make number go up in some capacity and would really appreciate some guidance #where does one buy commercially dyed combed top from in Canada?#I'm not confident enough yet to dye wool myself without felting it #handspinning #craftblr #wool #yarn #fibre #please reblog #looking for advice #knowledge seeking #chronic pain

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cecoeur · 6 days

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Bro damn near got on the scooter with him.

#daniel ricciardo #dr3 #canada 2024 #the way people can get so close is anxiety inducing

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goldenstarprincesses · 5 months

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"But if I hadn't earned a dollar. What would you think of your dear daughter. Would it be pity or dishonour

And if I failed to earn blue ribbon. How could I ever be forgiven Tell me what love would still be given from you"

Actually Amelia's anxiety in words

#Top of My School= Amelia breaking down due to the belief that her parents won't love her if she doesn't keep proving herself and 1st #Price of Perfection= Canada's anxiety that revolves around not receiving love from his parents if he can't be America 2.0 #Katherine Lynn-Rose #hws america #hws canada #nyo america #hws england #hws france

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bunnihearted · 6 months

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i hate when i try to research suicide methods that are as painless as possible, but most of the results are like "there's help to get". no there isnt!!!! stop lying ._.

#i wish every country had medical assistance in dying as canada has #just getting pills prescribed and then go home and die in ur bed painlessly and without fear #that should be available to everyone #u shouldnt have to deal w the fear nd pain nd loneliness to first find a possible way thats is accessible to u #then consider the pain/injuries of possible failing the attempt or it taking too long and giving u 2nd thoughts #like if i jump off a building or bridge i will prob regret it in the air falling to my death #i dont wanna deal w that awful misery nd anxiety #shooting myself in the head is the most desirable one bc theres not a moment to regret #u shoot nd then ur dead #BUT u have to shoot right or else u survive b w brain damage lol #also guns arent accessible here.... i dont even know how i'd get my hands on one #idk... getting prescribed pills from the health care system and then dying painlessly without anxiety nd stress nd fear is the best #but every country in the world denies ppl that right :((((

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kazhanko-art · 2 months

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It’s fun watching other North Americans freak out about WW3 (again) like it’s actually gonna be fought on our soil and not in other countries (such as the ones currently at war) like the previous two world wars.

#for the record #I don’t think it’s wrong to be scared #war is scary #I’d rather not have mass cassualties and death #and of course some of us have family or loved ones or some other connection to people at risk #or are worried about being conscripted or drafted against our will #or just the general fear of what war especially in the nuclear age will be like #I’m not saying you can’t be anxious #or be scared #but there is a difference between those fears #however legitimate #and expressing anxiety over them #and tone deaf memes and statements when there are people dying right now #people who already have or will have boots on their soil #guns in their faces #and bombs from their skies #while in all likelyhood we at home in north america will be fine #unless you are on the battle field in some way #you are not living through ‘another war’#and it is incredibly tone deaf towards the people for whom this is a reality #not a hypothetical to make memes so you can ‘cope’#ww3 #north america #canada #usa

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petit-papillion · 1 year

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It's the circle of... mechanics!

I can laugh about these pictures now, but was not amused before the race. So glad we got the Ferrari clowning out of the way before the race this time.

The floor of Charles car getting replaced prior to race start | Canada GP | 18 June 2023

📸 IMAGO Images

#i wasn't that concerned until i heard both Jensen and Martin say they'd never seen this happen on the grid #way to raise the anxiety level guys #anyway it was funny how the Sky cameraman tried to get between their legs to film #and just more ferrari peeps kept showing up to block the view #charles leclerc #scuderia ferrari #canada gp 2023

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tea-earl-grey · 5 months

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there's something so dismal about how so much of tv fandom's energy nowadays seems to go towards trying to prove to big corporations that their show is good enough to save. like whenever a new episode or series comes out it's "remember to watch it all in 24 hours or it won't get renewed!" "play it on repeat for a month or else it'll become another piece of lost media!" "don't stop talking and posting about it during the hiatus or else this season that's already in production might not air!" "if this tag trends on twitter for long enough we might get eight episodes instead of six!!!" it feels less like we're enjoying a show that so many people worked hard on and more like we're trying to create rituals to please the gods (which replace gods with The Algorithm and you're not far off).

like i haven't even been involved in fandom for that long but even just seven or so years ago if a show did well enough that it was nominated for awards and trending on twitter and having well attended comic con panels then it would be renewed for at least a season or two. and back then being renewed for another season meant "we're for sure going to get a new season next year!" with almost no possibility of cancelation. and even shows that did just okay ratings wise would easily get 5+ seasons.

and it was more fun. when i was watching Doctor Who or Arrowverse or whatever in 2014 i could enjoy and critique the media itself instead of constantly being nervous about whether the next season will be cashed in for nostalgia bait or have its episode count cut or be postponed for three years or just outright canceled because it was slightly less popular than last year. like the fandom would still stress out over potential bad narrative choices or whatever but we would also get excited about the future.

maybe it's just my own perceptions but i just tend to find myself favoring fandoms for shows (or at least eras, i'm looking at you Doctor Who) that have been completed. i like Good Omens and Our Flag Means Death and Strange New Worlds and Percy Jackson and the Olympians and the latest Doctor Who era but i just find it hard to get invested when there's so much anxiety around if there will be a future to those shows and so much of the fandom activity revolves around that anxiety. and then as a result when the show does end for good (whether through cancelation or design) the fandom starts to fade away too because so much of it was based on the temptation of The Future.

and i'm also quick to admit that production in pre-streaming era shows had their own problems (once popular shows running for 15 seasons and jumping the shark just because it's a cash cow, tampered down diversity in the interest of "popular appeal", the whole quantity over quality issue, etc) but at least the fandoms were more optimistic and focused on the story itself instead of just being angry about the eternal potential of cancelation or outright deletion.

(also there are obviously much larger issues to the streaming model re: residuals and everything else brought up during the wga and sag strikes but that's all been said much more coherently so i'm just speaking from my own perspective as a fan. and even then there's still definite overlap between the fandom anxiety over renewal and the real world economic anxiety for people involved with production over "will we have a job/be paid". it's far too early to tell but i really hope the strikes will help to solve this problem.)

#and not even to once again bring up the problems with serializing nearly every show #and how that means what would have been a few minor quibbles and problems are now baked into the formula of a show #and how that contributes to the fandom anxiety around inconsistency between seasons #idk if im saying anything new but ive just been thinking about this with how i feel like the anxiety around prodigy's future #is stopping me from getting more invested in the show/fandom #same with the new doctor who era. i love fifteen so far but i cant stop being So Nervous when fandom is the place i come to relax #anyways im very glad that i watched and got invested in Picard after s3 started airing or else i would have the same problem #idk what to tag this as #fandom stuff #my posts #also not even to talk about how streaming models have made it so much harder to watch things internationally without pirating #like i used to just be able to buy most international stuff on itunes or dvd and have it in perpetuity #but now i drive to canada and cant access things i paid for and fuck you if you dont live in a country where that streaming service works

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bathroomflooder · 3 months

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going on a plane for the first time ever in a couple of hours, hope it crashes so everyone talks about how much they miss me and admired me

#in all seriousness though i have so much flight anxiety #i've also never been out of canada sooo #actually npd #actually narcissistic #npd

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intothestacks · 1 year

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Adventures in Librarian-ing

As there are only a few weeks left of school, last week was the week kids were supposed to return all their books and we just had storytime.

At the end of storytime for one of the Grade 3 classes last Wednesday, I noticed one kiddo standing by the return bin clutching a book open and crying really hard -- like, that shoulders-shaking-quiet-crying-that-kids-do when-they're-extremely-distraught-and-definitely-not doing-it-for-attention kind of crying. Naturally, I immediately rushed over and asked them what was wrong, having a feeling I knew where this was going.

"I can't finish it," the kid barely managed to get out in between hiccuping semi-hyperventilating breaths, "We have to return the books!"

Thank god I was right, because that was a problem I could easily solve.

"Hey, hey, it's okay. How about you keep it til Monday so you can finish it over the weekend?"

Their whole body immediately went from tense and drawn in to relaxed like a great weight had just been lifted, and they started managing to take deeper breaths, their crying now taking a relieved tone.

"Thank yooou!" they semi-wailed while giving me a tight hug while I rubbed their back before they went to put the book in their backpack.

Today (Tuesday) they returned the book with earnest apologies for it being late. I told them it was no problem at all and asked if they managed to get to the end.

"I did! It's a very touching story! :D"

So they got to find out what became of Pumpkin the pony at the end of the story and all is right with the world once again. :)

#mini bookworms #libraryland #librarylife #school librarian #school libraries #libraries #the real life of me #canada #elementary school #adventures in librarian ing #finishing a book #anxiety attack #panic attack #easy solution #kids being kids

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solarpunkpresentspodcast · 8 months

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youtube

Hey all, just a reminder that we have a YouTube channel, and that we're uploading our season one episodes biweekly so they can be found at our very own Acast feed.

This week, we uploaded Season One episode Four, which features @arielkroon 's conversation with Gabrielle Gelderman (aka @GabTheChaplain) about climate grief chaplaincy, what that is, and how it's relevant to movement work.

#YouTube #Climate Grief #Climate Anxiety #solarpunk #Solarpunk Presents #Solarpunk Presents Podcast #Edmonton #Alberta #Canada #Movement Chaplaincy #Spirituality #Hope #Grief #Despair #Emotions

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woahajimes · 8 months

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i feel so out of place

#im not #aaa #i cant balance school and a job #and my grades arent even phenomenal #and i have a gym membership and i rarely go but grad is soon and im not gonna be skinny and oh #yk what baffles me #listen when i got to ecuador july 5 i was like 115lb #up until like aug 15 i was 120ish and then all of a sudden i was 130lb?? which was insane to me #like i couldnt believe my eyes i was just like. listen if it were gradual id believe it but 10 in 10 days is that normal #anyways i only saw it once and i wanted to kms #we're back in canada and im back at 117ish but #i think i legitimately misread #or like idk the scale was wrong #but aughhh i felt so good in ecuador and here i feel like a loser like all the girls are so #listen i am not a loser by any means but ohhh the voices #also i have terrible anxiety like i need to investigate this #also anxiety levels are a lot higher in the US/CAN than other countries #like i went to ecuador and theres a lot less mental health issues but oh the men are polars #like theres a lot to work on yk esp w men like not the dynamics ive talked abt that before but i mean like the wya they view women even sub #like i was thinking abt my ex and how he'd constantly complain to me about this girl on the girls scocer team that was a 'whore' and #supremely 'slutty' and hed use all these horrible terms #like okay maybe shes flirty and sleeps around as you say but why would you speak of a woman like that #like it scared me a little bc hed be like genuinely angry too #so yeah #where was i #oh yeah i need to like get skinny #short torso wide ribcage ...#like bffr. pick one #at least i got a fat ass idgaf #its also 3am i feel terrible. ive been sleeping really good tho

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nokingsonlyfooles · 8 months

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Reefer Madness Lives

This is not such a hot paper, and the peer review process where it was published is not so hot either. Peer review in general is... Let's be charitable and say it's more for money and prestige than scientific rigor. But, just for basic integrity, you need to operate with a double-blind. CMAJ is single-blind, so their reviewers know if they're up against anyone famous or well-connected who might bring them a lot of attention. And their primary criteria is "importance and novelty." Less delicately, if it looks like it will get a lot of clicks and cites, they'll be pleased to publish it. This is not all that out-of-the-ordinary for science journals, and that's kinda bad.

But a paper saying that pot is gonna poison your children and give people schizophrenia will get a shitton of clicks and cites. It's the number one trending story on CBC right now! And there are live comments!

I need CBD and THC to deal with my PTSD and sleep problems. It's possible that, after being under-treated for decades, I will eventually deal with my underlying health issues enough to sleep unassisted, but I ain't there yet. And ya know what makes it really hard to make it to go to doctor's appointments and get care? Not being able to sleep!

I had a medical marijuana card before, and I could probably qualify for one again if I had to. But A) Do you really want me taking up a doctor's time for this when there aren't enough doctors for everyone right now? and B) Legalized recreational use keeps availability convenient, variety and quality-control reasonable, and prices low. If you are going to inflict capitalism on me, don't kneecap what little benefit a free market is able to provide.

Now, we don't want to get people high without their consent, and children cannot consent to getting high (although some of them do need cannabis products for medical reasons), so for fuck's sake store your shit carefully if you've got kids. But "cannabis poisoning" as they put it, means, "I feel awful and maybe I threw up but I won't die, even if I'm super paranoid and feel like I might." Most people who wind up in the hospital are adults screwing around with edibles who don't know what to expect, and all they need is a nice, patient friend who'll tell them they're fine. This "poison" doesn't kill people. Unlike, say, antifreeze, or children's Tylenol. (Although, I hear Willie Nelson's friend had a bale of pot fall on him one time, so it's not as safe as they say!)

And the schizophrenia thing... People with mental health issues self-select for these studies by choosing to self-medicate. You might also say cannabis use has a strong correlation with PTSD flashbacks - because people with PTSD know it helps and they freaking well try it, and sometimes they still have flashbacks. A psychedelic is not the best choice for schizophrenia, god no, but if you're having associated depression and sleep issues and you haven't been diagnosed yet, you might give it a try. Better mental healthcare and better, earlier diagnoses and treatment will address this issue more effectively than yet another moral panic.

But a certain portion of the population is really invested in "drugs are bad" and "drug users are addicts and addicts are bad" narrative. Like, literally invested. It keeps them in political power and gets money for studies like this and "public health" campaigns that are really thinly-veiled, outdated DARE propaganda.

Even this study, which specifically excluded medical marijuana use, found social benefits to not criminalizing drug use and drug users. No shit. People don't get addicted to something because addiction is fun; they have severe, unaddressed problems and they're doing whatever they can to cope with them, whether that's staying stoned all the time or blowing their retirement fund on Funko Pops. And most people who use drugs don't get addicted. (Also most people who buy Funko Pops, one assumes.) Removing them from society and giving them all criminal records doesn't help anyone.

Harm reduction should be the goal here, as in most things. You will never get it perfect, but you need to take steps towards improving the general situation as much as possible. Sending the War on Drugs (really, the War on Your Own Population) into extra innings after decades of failure is... Ha-ha, well, it's self-destructive addict behaviour, y'all. Maybe you could use some social services to help you deal with your problems in a better way.

#science #science?#marijuana news #canada news #oy again with the conservatives freaking out in the live comments #and undoubtedly in the government #drugs are not bad #drug users are not bad #you will pry coffee from my cold dead hands #(no the coffee isn't keeping me awake i drink 1-2 cups and never after 3pm - but it sure does help slay my anxiety all day)#i take regular cannabis holidays and when i can sleep without it or antihistamines i will do so #honestly tho my parents tried to control my behaviour with sleep deprivation and that left a freakin mark #so i really would prefer it not be too expensive or illegal to access something that helps - ty

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girl4music · 3 months

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SHELBIE: “We also actually have seen a difference in characters. So there are 80 less characters last year, queer characters, like WLW characters. There are 80 less WLW characters in the last TV season than the year before so it’s kind of like-“

EMILY ANDRAS: “Where’d they all go?”

SHELBIE: “ABC lost 18. Netflix lost 22.”

VALERIE: “Just walked into the parking lot and disappeared.”

EMILY ANDRAS: “Yeah, exactly. Or they all got on the wrong bus to the greatest party that we can go to.”

NOELLE: “Oh that’s much better!”

EMILY ANDRAS: “Yeah, I wish that was true. I wish that was true.”

SHELBIE: “From an industry perspective do you think that there’s - because of the backlash of 2016 - there was an uptick in like ‘Oh, we have to do rep” and kind of now, everybody’s a little afraid of how to tell those stories. Do you think maybe that’s what’s happening?”

EMILY ANDRAS:

*to Noelle*

“That’s such a good question and I’m looking at you.”

NOELLE: “Yeah, I mean, I would say anytime you get a finger pointed at you and someone telling you you’re not doing a good job - especially like from a network perspective where those optics are really important. In the US, they seem to care more than they do here. I would say, not to be cynical but I would say, yeah, that is probably why there were more. But that doesn’t mean that those stories, clearly, were being told more responsibly or in a better way or that those characters were three-dimensional characters who were fully fleshed. I think if you can lose that many, they probably weren’t integral enough to your show to begin with.”

EMILY ANDRAS: “Yeah, that’s my fear a little bit. It’s almost like this cute trend for some people and I’m like ‘It’s not a trend. These are real people and this is real representation and this needs to be what it is going forward’. So I think there was a little bit of a sense from some networks - One Day At A Time - that maybe it was like, ‘Well we gave you some candy and then you are the candy and now there’s no more candy left’. And I’m like ‘It’s not candy’ and they’re like ‘We love candy. How dare you!’. Um… I think it’s both things. I think it’s both like ‘Well, we can just throw in a bunch of LGBTQ characters and like that’ll feed the masses’. But also the other fear is that I do think there is a little bit of a resistance particularly, potentially from writers who are older or more established that they’re like ‘Well, I’m so terrified to wade in here and tell these stories that I’m just not going to tell these stories or include these characters at all’. But that’s just bullshit. You just have to learn to be better maybe and try harder.”

SHELBIE: “Be more creative.”

EMILY ANDRAS: “Yeah, be more creative.”

NOELLE; “Retire!”

EMILY ANDRAS: “Yes, retire. Yeah, exactly.”

*crowd laughs and applauds*

SHELBIE: “Do you think there’s a way that we can use Wynonna Earp as a little bit of kind of like a flagship saying ‘Listen, you can tell queer stories and you tell them with drama’. What I hear a lot, I feel like from writers is ‘Well, I mean you don’t want to be bad rep, so then we can’t tell any stories because we can’t have any bad storylines’. But Wynonna Earp kind of - you guys have been proving that you can have the drama and you can tell the stories and then still treat your characters with respect. So do you have any idea how we could get that information in to like a more of a way where it could be digestible by executives or showrunners or other writers?”

NOELLE: “Yeah, I mean I think just tell everybody to watch the show. I mean like, come on.”

EMILY: “Everybody.”

NOELLE: “Everybody, tell your everybody. Um… I mean for me it comes back to making sure that your queer characters aren’t secondary or tertiary to the main characters. Like I think the fact that when Emily built this world, you know, um, the queer characters became-“

EMILY ANDRAS: “Team effort.”

NOELLE: “Yes, team effort. Whatever. I wasn’t even here…. Um the fact that you can, you know, have - you can have an episode where, you know, where Wynonna’s sister’s girlfriend can be in the entire A-story with her, like is a testament to the fact that though, you know, Nicole, or if you have a story with, you know, with um, with Doc and Jeremy, like those characters are fundamental to the lifeblood of the series. They’re not just somebody you go out to for kissing scenes so you can tick the box and say, you know, ‘We did our rep. We did a good job’, you know, and pat ourselves on the back. I think if more shows did that then you,… the drama would be inherent. Like if when you created those characters you thought how they related to everybody on your show, not just the person they were sleeping with or smooching with, then I think that would just give yourself more opportunity for drama because, um,… because those characters are real and they matter to more people than just their partner.”

VALERIE: “And then your only options for drama aren’t relationship drama because you have so many other relationships and you can tell so many other sides of the story and it’s a lot more exciting that way.”

SHELBIE: “If they’re actual characters, yeah. If they’re only the ‘gay character’ then you have no other story to tell than their drama I guess. Their relationship drama.”

EMILY ANDRAS: “Their sexuality can’t just be their story. It has to be intrinsic to their character - but their whole story can’t just be ‘I’m gay’ all the time, although that’s not the worst.”

NOELLE: “I would also say that I think as writers and, you know, producers and people in the industry, we are conditioned because it’s the way we came up. Because it’s what TV has always been. That the thing that’s the most dramatic is loss and tragedy. And I think we undervalue how much emotion and how much drama a queer audience can get out of a happy ending because it isn’t the standard. You know?

*crowd applauds*

I think we need to put more value in happy endings for queer characters and not just go ‘Well, you know, for straight characters a happy ending - like who cares? We should probably kill somebody’. Like maybe we could have a happy ending every once in awhile.”

VALERIE:

*to Shelbie*

“And to sort of go back to what you’re saying about like Wynonna Earp being a flagship. It’s why like sometimes the running joke on the Autostraddle TV team is like ‘I bet Valerie is going to bring up Wynonna Earp on this roundtable again’”

EMILY ANDRAS: “‘How dare you!.’”

VALERIE: “Because it’s true… yes, I’m definitely biased because I love the show, but it’s also true that there are so many things that you can point to. It’s like ‘Well, okay this show failed us, but look how Wynonna Earp did a similar thing and succeeded at it.’ So it’s like it’s kind of always pointing those things out to hopefully get future TV writers, future people who are reading TV critic recaps, and things now, that will go on to create, like have it kind of in the back of their mind.”

NOELLE: “I hope so.”

EMILY ANDRAS: “I am impatient though, like the one thing I want, which we’re not quite there yet is like, it would be good to have a world where you can also have like queer villains, you know what I mean? Like I want to get to the point where we have our heroes, so then we’re going to have awesome LGBTQ-like villains and complicated people and it’s… we just need more of everything. Do you know what I mean? And then it’s going to be more fully rounded. But I’m not completely sure we’re there yet.”

SHELBIE: “I think Gentleman Jack is making at least a little bit of a stride.”

EMILY ANDRAS: “It is. It sure is.”

SHELBIE: “Because as much as we all want to love her… she’s not exactly the greatest person in the world.”

EMILY ANDRAS: “She’s complicated. Exactly.”

VALERIE: “Villanelle.”

SHELBIE: “Oh, yeah, that’s a good one.”

EMILY ANDRAS: “Villanelle. Yup. Fine. I’ll write a gay villain. Okay?”

NOELLE: “But then you get…”

EMILY ANDRAS: “Friends to enemies, enemies to friends.”

NOELLE: “Then you get into the situation though where you’re like, ‘We have this amazing part… and it would be great to cast this character or to write this character as a queer character’, but ultimately the bad guys die, generally, and so you’re like well… so if we’re a show that has really good rep, is it okay if we kill the… if we write this amazing part for an amazing queer character, but then at the end they have to die. So then that’s an added level of, you know, if we had made real sustainable progress since 2016, maybe, but the fact that we haven’t means I don’t know that… I mean it’s-“

EMILY ANDRAS: “Difficult.”

VALERIE: “As of right now there’s still a very fine line between like a queer villain and villainizing queerness.”

EMILY ANDRAS: “That’s so true.”

SHELBIE: “That’s a good way to put that. I think though that there’s, from like a straight statistics point of view - somebody’s going to be crazy, somebody’s going to die, somebody’s all those things. So if you have enough to balance it. I think that’s how you do that. So if you have 4 gay characters and you kill one from like our, you know, objective scoring system, you’d still have a really positive score because you’d have enough positive to balance out… the thing that you’re doing.”

EMILY ANDRAS: “Right.”

NOELLE: “It’s still scary as hell though. It still would give me hives.”

EMILY ANDRAS: “Yeah, I don’t know. We have a super hero that shoots people in the face. So I just like, do not think that’s a good plan at this stage. Like, no, I just like honestly, I just like think about it all the time. It’s like, I just wanted to move faster. Do you feel like that for diversity in general? I’m just like if it was faster, then there’s going to be more times for people who are queer too. Do you know what I mean? Like that’s the other truth. Like the actors I know who are LGBTQ are like ‘I just want to do everything’ right? Like ‘I want to play Bobo Del Rey. I want to play everything’.”

SHELBIE: “It’s an interesting argument ‘cause we want queer people playing queer roles and queer writers writing queer stories. But at the end of the day you want queer actors to be able to just play anything right? The same way that we wouldn’t want anyone else to get boxed in. So that’s kind of a… it’s an interesting argument I feel like that’s happening right now in the industry.”

EMILY ANDRAS: “It is, but at least we’re having it. At least we’re talking about it.”

SHELBIE: “We’re having the discussion.”

EMILY ANDRAS: “Yeah, exactly.”

NOELLE: “And you can’t really ask like, you know? I was just on a show where I was like, it would be great to get like a queer actor to play this role, but you can’t ask so unless you know, and you don’t always know, like… how do you do that?”

SHELBIE: “Yeah ‘cause you can’t not hire them because they’re not queer or hire them. Yeah, that’s tough.”

I had to transcribe this entire question and answer segment from this EH Con Canada 2019 panel because it’s such an important conversation to have and set of questions to address regarding LGBTQ representation in TV art/entertainment. What they talk about is what I’ve been writing about frequently and recently about how to provide better and more positive LGBTQ representation - particularly surrounding WLW characters - and the representation anxiety and cancellation anxiety that so many TV show creators feel over potentially accidentally perpetuating the harmful trope of Bury your Gays and being mistakenly accused of queerbaiting through main characters that can be perceived as gay or queer when they’re not canon gay or queer main characters.

They specifically talk about how to go about telling stories with and about gay or queer main characters that are the same or similar stories that we see with straight, cis and white male characters all the time because there is much less controversy over it when it’s a straight, cis white male main character because those main characters are everywhere and their stories - both positive and negative - in TV art/entertainment are everywhere because they get to be all different types of negative and complicated characters like villains that are abusive and destructive people that do deserve death or other forms of punishment and there’s no resistance against that by the general public because it’s not ever marginalizing or villainizing a specific group or community of people that need representation.

I would recommend you to watch the whole video because it’s all important but I specifically think this part of the panel is the most important and I am so proud of Emily Andras, her entire Wynonna Earp team, and the Earper fandom for spearheading this incredibly necessary initiative in addressing LGBTQ representation in the TV art/entertainment industry. This is a conversation that everybody that cares to talk about this subject needs to have to make a real difference in achieving better and more positive representation for gay or queer characters that aren’t or won’t always be the greatest people and telling their stories where they have a negative or darker character arc than other characters that are also gay or queer that have a positive and lighter character arc.

How do we do this? We need to have the in-depth conversations in addressing this subject together as a LGTBQ+POC community before we go asking for and pitching it to TV showmaking networks that have a sincere interest in providing better and more positive LGBTQ+POC representation but are afraid to because of representation anxiety and cancellation anxiety.

This video is long but it’s well worth the watch. If you don’t want to or don’t have the time to watch it, at least read the little segment that I have transcribed and if you feel like you want to talk about it - I’m here.

Let’s have the conversation. It’s incredibly important.

I will link you to where I’ve written about this before if you don’t understand and want to know more: https://www.tumblr.com/girl4music/743149350219333632

#wynonna earp #eh con canada 2019 #lgbtq representation panel #emily andras #shelbie cohen #noelle carbone #valerie anne #emily gutierrez #representation anxiety #cancellation anxiety

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