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writingwithcolor · 1 year

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Representing African-American Woman, Biracial, “fierce and strong” and hair questions

Anonymous asked:

I’m changing a character in a novel I’m editing to be a fierce, strong African American woman living with an anthropologist father and lawyer mother (I picture the mom like Jessica in suites). I also feel like being bi-racial in the south makes her a little conflicted. She sometimes wants to just “be white” to make things easier, but is so very proud to be African-American and bi-racial. She is also lesbian and a future love interest of the other main character However, I am white- so I have questions!! Here are 3 scenes I need help with:

1. Leigh is putting conditioner in her hair and hears the doorbell. She puts her hair in a silk hairwrap (is that ok to call it that?) after the other characters leave, she works on the computer and falls asleep. When she wakes up its 2:30. I was going to have her undo her hairwrap and run her fingers through her hair… but I know African American hair can’t be brushed, would running her fingers through it (even damp) ruin her hair?

2. her and the other lesbian “anne” are getting ready at a hotel for an important event and Leigh comes out of the bathroom in a beautiful dress and an “afro blow out” (I have the photo of hair names saved from this group- just not looking at it as I type and will use the correct hair name in novel). When she comes out of the bathroom Anne sees her and is taken completely aback by her beauty. Her reaction makes Leigh uncomfortable and she asks if she should {straighten/presss} her hair. Which action is the correct word there? …to which Anne tells her no, she loves her natural hair because it’s who she is.

3. Later in the book, they are going to be heading to an archeological dig in the desert and I thought about giving Leigh “braids” with “coloured extensions/weave” .. is “tightly woven braids with (haven’t chosen colour yet)” appropriate? What should I say instead? This will also prompt a convo between the two main characters where Anne asks Leigh why she changes her hair so much. Leighs response will be “{As an African American} my hair is a large expression of who I am. Much like the clothes we wear for different moods or events, I change my hair to reflect what I am feeling or just as an outward expression of who I am” .. should I put the African American part in? I feel that hair is an expression to most people, but I know it is a huge part of African American culture and I want to get it right

Thanks in advance for advice!! This is a book I have always wanted to write, but it also became a book about “underdogs”. I really wanted to make a book with queer representation. I also realized I wanted to have an African American as there isn’t much representation for them either. I really want to show her as a fierce, smart woman (who of course struggles with the brevity of being “mixed race”) that isn’t a gangster, rapper, or the typical things we see in the media. I really want queer and/or African American young women to read my novel (eventually) and feel like it describes them well. Not in a stereotypical way they usually are portrayed. Anyways.. Sorry for the ramble, but thanks in advance for all the help!!

First of all, I want to address your use of “Strong.” It is not the compliment you may think it is and Black women do not always accept it well, particularly from non-Black people. Being forced to be strong, aka the Strong Black Woman, is not an ideal condition. So portraying Black women as such without nuance is not welcome representation.

“I also feel like being bi-racial in the south makes her a little conflicted. She sometimes wants to just 'be white' to make things easier, but is so very proud to be African-American and bi-racial.”

Be aware that not every mixed race person has an identity struggle. But in a world where she faces racism, it could be realistic, a desire to "just be white.” As a visibly Black woman, though, she’ll always be seen as Black, and never just white, even if she’s mixed race or even lighter-complexioned. It’s part of the whole “one drop” perspective.

Now, to your specific questions.

Black hair questions - are these the right terms?

Leigh is putting conditioner in her hair and hears the doorbell. She puts her hair in a silk hairwrap (is that ok to call it that?)

1.)

It’s hard to answer if this sounds realistic without knowing what products Leigh is using in this situation.

Is Leigh using a leave in conditioner or a conditioner hair masque? The former is what you’d use to style and add moisture to hair. It’s fine to leave that in and go about your day. The latter is something you would wash out after use.

Also, I wonder if you’re referring to a silk hair bonnet or scarf in your description of a silk wrap? She likely wouldn’t put on a bonnet or silk scarf if she had a mask in that she was going to wash out. If she did, she’d need to clean it to get the product off of it.

For comparison, imagine you put a hat onto your head when you still had shampoo in it. Wouldn’t that be strange and messy?

Now, there are hair wraps and shower caps used for conditioning hair. The material is made for being washed out or disposed of after use.

“I was going to have her undo her hairwrap and run her fingers through her hair… but I know African American hair can’t be brushed, would running her fingers through it (even damp) ruin her hair?”

Yikes. Who said our hair cannot be brushed? One has to be more careful and curly/coily hair may not use the same brushes as straight-haired folks, but we can and still do brush and comb our hair. Popular brushes are boar brushes (although I find these too “rough” on my fine coils) and detangling brushes.

And there is no one shared “African American hair type.” Please look into the range of hair styles belonging to Black women, mixed or no. From thick and course, fine and soft, straight and/or straightened.

And, again I’m not sure what kind of conditioner was left in her hair. If this was a wash-out hair conditioner, and her hair was fully covered, it’ll likely still be damp. Some leave those on for hours, although the directions usually say 20-30 minutes is enough.

Long story short, her hair isn’t going to just be destroyed from running her hands through them, even if it’s really curly or coily. Hands don’t ease through certain curls in the same way it does straight, but you can roll over or around curls to avoid tangling and snagging, particularly if you carefully follow the flow of the curl itself. I am idly finger-combing a coil of my hair as I write this!

See also Black Hair Couple Interactions: Boyfriend Playing with his Black Girlfriend’s Hair

2.)

“Leigh comes out of the bathroom in a beautiful dress and an ‘afro blow out’" …her reaction makes Leigh uncomfortable and she asks if she should {straighten/presss} her hair. Which action is the correct word there?”

You seem to be using the right terms. Blow out (you wouldn’t need to add "Afro”) and straightened are fine to use. I wouldn’t imagine her saying “should I press it?” To a white woman, though.

I don’t have your photo references, but Google should’ve produced the correct results. Blow outs add volume to afro hair. Depending on how its done, heat level, etc. it can make hair look like a bigger fro, or make it straighter and stretched out. The more heat and time devoted to styling, generally the straighter you can get the hair.

“Is 'tightly woven braids with (haven’t chosen colour yet)' appropriate? … ;{As an African American} my hair is a large expression of who I am.; should I put the African American part in?”

While I’d leave out referring to the hair as extensions or weave, saying "tightly woven braids” is a fine description!

And honestly, I'd suggest leaving out the As an African American portion. Coming from a non-Black voice, it may be taken as speaking for Black people. Also, not all Black people may agree with that statement. Hair has important cultural aspects for many, absolutely! So i’m not saying it’s wrong, but its best to Keep her statement individual, her own perspective, not a statement about the whole race. Again, coming from a non-Black voice, especially.

Characterization

“I really want to show her as a fierce, smart woman (who of course struggles with the brevity of being ”“mixed race”“) that isn’t a gangster, rapper, or the typical things we see in the media. I really want queer and/or African American young women to read my novel (eventually) and feel like it describes them well. Not in a stereotypical way they usually are portrayed. Anyways.. Sorry for the ramble, but thanks in advance for all the help!!”

I do think you need to do a lot more research on Black women, stereotypes, hair, and being a mixed race Black woman before writing this story. Our blog is a general resource, though just the start.

I appreciate your efforts to tell a story that isn’t built on stereotypes or the typical portrayals of Black people. Now, mind that some people may fit “stereotypes” but they are not stereotypes - they’re people.

Another thing - her being mixed race. While it’s fine to portray a mixed race character, and your intentions seem good, some writers choose this route because it’s “easier” and anchoring the Black character to whiteness (or even anyone other than Black) makes them more palatable. I only ask, if you had the intentions of representing Black women, why not write a non-Mixed race Black woman?

After evaluating your characters and the language used, you would benefit from a beta-reader, Black + queer or otherwise, reading your story before publication. They’ll be able to help you “get it right” and note any areas that cause pause or need correction.

I hope this was helpful!

~Mod Colette

#Asks #Black women #mixed race #Black hair #Afro hair #representation #description #Black stereotypes #Black women stereotypes

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nanowrimo · 1 year

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How to Avoid Token Representation

What's the difference between token representation and authentic representation? NaNo Participant Nayantara discusses token representation and how to avoid doing it in your own writing! The smart Asian character. The sassy Black character. The Gay Best Friend.

Too many stories written today that supposedly have “diverse” casts fall prey to “token representation”: a symbolic effort towards inclusion that gives the appearance of equality, without actually exploring diverse narratives.

Recently in the publishing industry, readers have been calling for more representation within their novels, whether it is the LGBTQ+ community, racially and ethnically diverse readers, people with disabilities, or other marginalised groups of people, and many authors have responded with this easy-way-out tokenism — leaving readers unsatisfied and indignant.

So, what exactly is the difference between token diversity and real representation?

Essentially, tokenism includes a character that checks boxes titled “diversity” in face and name, but does not acknowledge their lived experience.

For example, Cho Chang in the Harry Potter series and Lane Kim in Gilmore Girlsare reduced to harmful stereotypes of their characters (both their names and characteristics) without acknowledging the diverse experiences that East Asian people have. Their Asianness becomes their entire character, yet at the same time, that same Asianness is entirely misunderstood.

In contrast, the recent Oscar-winning film Everything Everywhere All At Once stars East Asian characters whose lives are affected by their race and background. However, they are fully fleshed out characters regardless of it.

As actor, Anna Leong Brophy, said in an interview, she enjoys it when her “Asianness complements a role, but is not the full role.” Real representation acknowledges how someone’s lived experience as a person of colour, queer person, woman, or member of another marginalised community affects their life — but they have genuine feelings, thoughts, and characteristics far beyond simply their race or identity.

The terms “Black dude dies first” and “Bury your gays” are also commonly associated with token representation. Quite self-explanatory, they are tropes in which the cast’s “diverse” characters are killed early, to save the writer from having to explore or acknowledge their experiences.

Not only is this lazy writing that erases diverse narratives, it also creates the subconscious belief that marginalised groups of people have no place in these stories or in commercialised publishing in general. Everyone deserves representation, whether or not the cis-het (cisgender-heterosexual) white reader can relate to the character’s specific cultural experience.

What counts as good representation, then?

Good representation involves any story that includes a diverse cast and follows each of their story lines fully, allowing them to be well-rounded characters that contain depth and get adequate development.

My personal favourite example of this is Leigh Bardugo’s Six of Crows duology, where her cast of six main characters includes Black and Brown people, bisexual and gay people, people from different countries and religions, and people recovering from trauma — all of whom have their own, carefully constructed character arcs that acknowledge their identity, but also give them substance and characteristics far beyond that.

However, this is not to say every story has to be as international — The Poppy War trilogy by R.F. Kuang has a solely East Asian coded cast due to its setting. But even within this, her characters are from different ethnic, religious, and social backgrounds, and each have their own, carefully-constructed character arc extending far beyond their identity on paper.

As you begin writing for Camp NaNoWriMo, ask yourself the following three questions:

Is my cast truly representing the diverse types of people who exist in this world (either real or imagined)?

Are each of these characters individuals beyond simply their ethnicity, sexuality, gender, disability, etc?

Do each of these characters have a fully fleshed out character arc?

You don’t have to be an author from a marginalised or minority background to write characters with diverse experiences. Just make sure to approach each character with empathy and respect, and devote adequate time to research (or to world building, if you’re a fantasy author!)

Good luck, and I know that you are going to absolutely smash your writing goals next month!

Nayantara is an 18 year old student, green tea connoisseur, bookworm, Spotify-playlist-maker, dancer, and writer hoping to study economics and political science at university next year — and hopefully find some time to work on her many unfinished novels in the meantime! Follow her on Instagram @ moonlitsunflowerbooks.

Photo by Ketut Subiyanto from Pexels

#nanowrimo #camp nanowrimo #writing #representation #diverse characters #writing advice #by nano guest #nayantara #characters

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lizzie-queenofmeigas · 3 days

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Bethany Antonia: We are Black Targaryens, which is huge, and is just so exciting. Just from a responsibility point of view, more than anything, it’s so nice to have that, so that other people can watch the show and see themselves on screen. Representation is so important.

Team Green: IDGAF, look at these VELARYON NON-VALYRIAN girls, save me VELARYON girls, I love you VELARYON girls.

I couldn’t care less about their hatred for House Targaryen but it’s just so funny to me how y’all all ears when your fav yt woman feed y’all with cringe headcanons and y’all treating it like a fact but the moment Bethany say something y’all completely ignoring it and disrespecting her opinion.

And Baela and Rhaena are literally more Targaryen than Velaryon (and more Targaryen than Alicent’s children) since their mother is half Targaryen herself.

Representation is very important. There are barely any people of colour in fantasy/supernatural/medieval genre. Majority of medieval and fantasy shows are European based, so they don't cast actors of color for them. And when they are casted people go rabid.

I remember when the trailer for the first season of Vikings Valhalla aired and people were pissed that a black woman was playing an Earl, even though her backstory made sense (I think she was the widow of the Earl) shit also got ugly when the velaryons were casted.

We live in a world where a little bit of representation is met with hate and people yelling "woke" and it's incredibly fucked up. Especially in fantasy, why would you care what's the skin colour of characters in a fantasy show? Why would you care about the skin colour of someone at all?

Anyways, I'm gonna be ready to defend Baela and Rhaena and their actors.

#house of the dragon #hotd #baela targaryen #rhaena targaryen #house velaryon #poc representation #racism #fandom racism

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queermediastudies · 1 year

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Paris is Burning: the Fabulous and the Ugly of Queer POCs in the Shadow of NYC

"Ball is like crossing into the looking glass, a wonderland. You go in there and you feel 100% right of being gay."

Directed by Jennie Livingston in 1990, Paris is Burning follows the Ballroom culture that originated in NYC, an underground LGBTQ+ subculture, where African-American, Latino gay men, and transgender folks "walk" in drag and attend performance competitions to win cash prizes and trophies in categories like “Face,” “Femme Queen Realness,” and "Voguing." In the 1980s of New York City, queer POCs were extremely ostracized due to their sexuality and race, they struggled in the dark ghetto of this metropolitan area, while the Ballroom community offered them a shelter to be their authentic selves. Most participants of Ballroom belong to groups known as "houses." Folks could choose their own "mother" and siblings who accept them and love them, for being gay. What's more, Voguing became queer POCs' distinct way of self-expression. Dancers act in different poses, with an emphasis on the movements of arms and body, just like the model on the cover page of the magazine Vogue. And it is all about confidence and self-love. In this sense, Ballroom became an identity celebration of the oppressed, the exiled, and the outcast, where queer folks of color find status, acceptance, and worth.

Regarding the documentary itself, I argue that Paris is Burning breaks into the mainstream media with its groundbreaking representation of black gays and trans people of color and its disclosure of the intersectional oppressions faced by queer POCs; however, the representation of "performance competitions" is still constrained in the frame of gender performativity, and the production of it is criticized as an appropriation of Ballroom culture by a privileged white filmmaker.

Here is a trailer to have an overview of this documentary.

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Part 1: About Intersectionality

The biggest message Paris is Burning brings to the table is intersectionality, where it captures black gays and trans people of color as well as their subculture. Queer theory actively acknowledges the importance of queer of color critiques. That is, oppression on various aspects of identity intertwines and compounds together, such as sexuality, gender, race, age, class, and ableness. And each oppressive institution (racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, etc.) cannot be examined separately from one another. Queer folks of color are being ostracized and marginalized not only within larger society but also in the queer community, meaning that they face multiple oppressions. And it is true. A gay man of color in the documentary said, "I remember my dad used to say, 'you have three strikes against you in the world. You are black, a male, and you are gay; you are going to have a hard fuckin' time.'"

Tracing back the history of Ballroom culture, we also see the significance of intersectionality through its origin. Black and Latino drag queens used to experience racism in established drag queen pageant circuits. Although participants were racially integrated, the judges were almost all white. Since then, drag queens of color have begun to organize their own pageants, the Ball. In that case, Ball culture becomes a retrospective symbol of the era when queer people of color underwent discrimination from multiple sources.

Venus Xtravaganza, a trans woman in the documentary, whose murder reveals the very dark and brutal side of intersectional oppression. Venus, an Italian-American, was saving up money for gender confirmation surgery while earning a living as a sex worker after she was excluded by her family. However, her dead body was found at a hotel on Christmas Day, 1988, during the documentary's shooting. But her killer was never found. In the documentary, she described the experience of being attacked by a man who discovered she was transgender during an intimate encounter. Hence, Xtravaganza's trans identity, multiraciality, homelessness, hustling, poor access to health care, and AIDS — all these aspects layered together contributed to the tragic end of this beautiful life.

Below is a clip about the self-narrative by Venus Xtravaganza.

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“The most profound and potentially the most radical politics come directly out of our own identity, as opposed to working to end somebody else's oppression" (Collective, 1983, p. 210). In other words, coping with oppression is inherently associated with identity politics, a deconstruction of identity and labels. What queer folks of color need are to be recognized as normal, equal, lively human beings.

Part 2: About Gender Performativity

It is undeniable that Paris is Burning is a milestone in portraying queer POCs, however, there are still some controversies. Firstly, the representation of "performance competition" still conforms to the tenet of gender performativity. To articulate that, we need to know the basic rules of competition in a given ball first. There are various "categories," or themes, for each competition, such as "Military," "School," "Executive Realness," "Butch Queen's First Time in Drag at a Ball," etc. And participants need to dress according to the guidelines of each category; for example, they wear “yacht wear," military garb, the outfits of private school kids, business attire, and extravagant dress to adhere to the rules.

Here is a clip from the documentary explaining "Categories."

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Overall, we can see these queer POCs parody their heterosexual counterparts. It seems effortless for them to perform high femininity or masculinity in a world of heterosexual folks. However, these "categories" also signify that they are still in a dichotomous system and perform binary genders.

Another category called "high fashion evening wear" required participants to dress and act as an elegant, beautiful young lady wearing an evening dress. Every participant was strictly required to have a purse. "An evening bag is a must, you have to carry something; no lady is sure at night." This kind of "norm" reminds me of the gender performativity theory by Judith Butler: gender is not something we are but something we do. However, due to the reliance on norms, we "do" genders through imitative performance, ultimately leading to extended repetition. In other words, we have no authentic gender.

The voiceover of the documentary said, "The more natural you are, the more credit your outfit is given." "Give people a sense that they are not gay, like a real woman or a real man." However, what is "natural" and what is "real"? What is even a category? As Judith Butler has argued, "we cannot necessarily assume that binary biological sex everywhere provides the universal basis for the cultural categories ‘male’ and ‘female’. If gender constructs are culturally variable, then so are the categories of sexual difference" (cited in Andresson, 2002, p. 6).

Being different is not a flaw, which is the spirit of the queer community. Unfortunately, the documentary did not highlight how queer people of color get rid of the constraints of the binary system or how they go against the mainstream, which makes it less queer.

Part 3: About the Production

Much of the controversy surrounding Paris is Burning has also centered on the perceived appropriation of a black gay subculture by a privileged white queer filmmaker for profits. Jennie Livingston is an American director. She graduated from Yale University in 1983, where she studied photography, drawing, and painting with a minor in English literature. "Whiteness" and the social status of an "ivy student" are critical privileges for Livingston. What's more, she identified herself as a lesbian. It seems Linviston's queerness helps her to enter the industry and tell stories about black gays and trans people of color even though she is not a part of the Ball community.

It is not surprising that the filmmaker's white view leads to stereotypical depictions of black folks in the documentary. For example, the "Banjee" competition features impersonations of the gum-chewing, round-the-way sexy girl on welfare or the crackhead gangbanger on the block. Besides that, Dorian Corey, an experienced drag queen, said in the documentary: "Black stars are stigmatized. Nobody want to look like Lena Horn, everybody wanted to look like Marilyn Monroe." This scene amplifies the drag queen's self-hatred, solidifying the admiration for whiteness among drags. But this kind of representation is biased.

"Too often, people with resources who already have a platform become the ones to tell the stories of those at the margins rather than people who themselves belong to these communities" (Tourmaline, 2017). We need to strive for a time when queer people of color have the opportunity and capital to shoot their own stories. “Power struggles over control of one’s image and access to the tools of media production were, and still are, crucial in communities of color” (Parkerson, 2020). Although the show Pose has made some breakthroughs by hiring trans characters and trans writers, it is hard to make any substantial change in this inherently racist, heterosexual, white male-dominant industry.

Moreover, the film made 4 million dollars, yet only $55,000 was distributed among the 13 performers. Performers felt cheated and were not satisfied with their representation in the documentary. In 2014, when the documentary was to be screened at a public event hosted by Celebrate Brookly! / BRIC, a protest was raised. In such circumstances, Livingston would apologize for the cultural appropriation to her own advantage.

Here is a clip showing the life of performers after the Paris is Burning.

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Final Thoughts

"Good or bad, Paris is Burning is a milestone in the gay community."

Considering my own subject positionality, as a straight, cisgender woman of color from China, I have to say that watching Paris is Burning is definitely a fascinating and eye-opening experience. Regardless of some of its biased representation, this documentary makes me take a glimpse of the Ballroom culture in NYC which has extended globally and influenced a lot of Chinese queer folks in recent years. I also get to know some drag queen shows becoming popular in underground clubs located in Shanghai and Beijing.

Meanwhile, I deeply resonate with this group of outcast New Yorkers, for whom racism, poverty, and homophobia are too real, too tough, while they create a world of sustenance and belongingness by themselves. It is all about the power they give to themselves. In the name of glory and pride, they dance, scream, suffer, survive, and most importantly, be themselves here. Ballroom culture makes them not stay in the shadow of NYC, but throw the shadow on those who demean them. All in all, Paris is Burning is the "fire this time."

References:

Andersson, Y (2002). “Queer Media?: Or; What Has Queer Theory to do with Media Studies?” IAMCR, 1-10.

Collective, C. R. (1983). The Combahee river collective statement. Home girls: A Black feminist anthology, 1, 264-274.

Martin, A. L. (2018, August 2nd). Pose(r): Ryan Murphy, Trans and Queer of Color Labor, and the Politics of Representation. LA Review of Books. https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/poser-ryan-murphy-trans-queer-color-labor-politics-representation/

Parkerson, M. (2020, February 25th). Paris Is Burning: The Fire This Time. The Criteron Collection. https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/6832-paris-is-burning-the-fire-this-time

By Selene

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that-left-turn · 21 hours

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Describing Michonne as “a black woman holding her own with the main cast” presents her as an outsider with her only trait being her race. You couldn’t even describe her as a mother who found a new life after losing everything because you don’t see her as human. Your fandom is disgusting and racist to it’s sickening core.

We can talk about racism, sure.

The quote is "a black woman holding her own as main cast" since the distinction between 'as' and 'with' changes the meaning of the sentence. She is main cast, she's not an appendage "with" them and it wasn't Michonne I described as a black woman holding her own, it was Danai. It wasn't to belittle her; it was to point out that with institutional racism at work and at a show with a very bad track record of how they treat their black characters/cast members, she's still there and she's a star of the franchise. Look at the lineup for those three spinoffs: it's five white people and Danai. She's the only representation for POC, so yes, she's more than holding her own as a trailblazer.

Hollywood still has a tendency to do tokenism. It was getting better, but with all the strikes last year, white men are closing ranks to assure that they keep the majority of work to themselves. (We're going to see more white men telling more stories by and for other white guys.) TWDU has all-male, all-white people in power of the franchise and I think that's why all the spinoffs are performing badly. They're not instep with their audience and to put it bluntly, TOWL would've done better if Danai had been put in charge instead of the white guy who hired a bunch of failed in-house showrunners to write the other five episodes. (Why wasn't Nana Nkweti given her own episode? She's a talented writer, unlike the rest of Gimple's cronies.)

When Danai was cast as Michonne, the industry was even more white; the power structures ensured that white talent took 90% of the pivotal parts on any show. TWD had Jacqui who was killed off early, without getting much characterization. T-Dog was fleshed out and interesting, but he never got a proper character arc on the show. He got a gruesome death to save a white woman and the inmates at the prison were a homogeneous group of thugs which presented as black—representative of what white people see when they think of prison inmates. Why were those parts all cast with POC save for Axel, which was the biggest role out of them? Sasha lived longer, but her positioning within the greater narrative was deeply problematic and Tyreese was characterized both as someone who didn't contribute to the group's survival: he couldn't kill walkers, and as the black brute who'd go on a rampage and murder a white woman because he couldn't control his temper. That positioning is very, very disturbing and then, he too was killed off before giving his arc any kind of conclusion.

That's the workplace I'm talking about, so yes, the fact that Danai's character survived and she went on to headline one of the spinoffs is a remarkable achievement on her part. She wasn't starting on a level playing field and while she isn't her skin color or her gender, we can't disregard it either because racism and misogyny is very much an active part of that work environment and the world we live in.

Michonne's characterization has been problematic as well because the writers' room for TWD was overwhelmingly one-note white. The concept for her was how white men see black women and she came on the show as a stereotypical "angry black woman," but Danai has imbued the role with so much more than that and elevated her beyond the racist conceits which were tossed her way along the run of the show. I wouldn't describe Michonne as 'a mother who'd lost everything,' because I think that too does the character a disservice. Just like she's more than her race, she's also more than her reproductive abilities, especially given the ugly history in the US of using and controlling black women's bodies.

I think Danai and Michonne are much more than one trait, but the wider system in which both of them exist is deeply racist. Danai doesn't pass the paper bag test (which is still a metric used in entertainment and colorism is a real problem too) unlike Sonequa who's also gone on to great success after leaving the franchise. TWD has had issues lighting their cast members with darker skin tones, which is another problem that we see in other areas, like facial recognition software. The black wigs were bad. TWD should've hired a theatrical master wigmaker who has the expertise to create good wigs for both Danai and Khary, but that comes at a premium they didn't want to spend on their black cast members. Hair and makeup are a challenge because a show needs stylists who know how to work with black hair and skin, and most productions are incredibly lazy about hiring qualified crew. Despite everything being set up (from centuries' worth of racism) to work against her and AMC being a cesspool of inequality, Danai has done amazing. By any metric.

As for fandom, I mostly hover in the periphery, so I can't speak on that with authority, but I have a post where I talk about racism, if you want to get a better sense of what my thinking is? There are a lot of people who say things that are problematic because the educational system doesn't teach "the unsavory bits" of US history, and who don't have much interaction with people of other social classes, races, belief systems, etc. because we still live in a segregated society with zoning districts for schools and housing that are designed to keep the Other out of our neighborhoods. That's not to say ignorance should be a free pass to hurt others, but we have to engage with each other in a non-weaponized manner to affect change and I hope this post can serve a purpose in providing some context to anyone who happens to read it.

Thanks for giving me the opportunity to elaborate on my thoughts regarding the institutionalized problems of TWDU.

#twdu racism #twdu franchise

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wormwoodandhoney · 10 months

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As a follow up to my favorite books of the first quarter of the year, here are some of my favorites from April, May, June! In no particular order, just in the order I read them.

The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi by Shannon Chakraborty is a fun, pirate fantasy adventure featuring one of my recently realized favorite tropes: getting the band back together. A retired female pirate just wants to live a quiet life raising her young daughter, when she is recruited to rescue the child of a former crewmate. She must reunite with her old crew and save the day. Killer cover, fun story.

Chlorine by Jade Song is a coming of age body horror novel about a teenaged girl who will do anything to become a mermaid. Slow burn- you know what will happen from the beginning, but it's a deep dive into the mind of this queer young swimmer to watch her get there.

Malice by Keigo Higashino is a Japanese novel translated by Alexander O. Smith about a detective determined to uncover the motive behind the murder of a famous novelist. Loved this why-done-it.

We See Each Other: A Black, Trans Journey Through TV and Film by Tre'vell Anderson is a nonfiction exploration of Black trans representation in pop culture and history, as well as moments from the author's own life. Looks at everything To Wong Foo to Pose to Survivor.

Don't Fear the Reaper by Stephen Graham Jones is the second book in the Indian Lake Trilogy. SGJ is my favorite horror author but his work and ESPECIALLY these books are not for everyone. People either love or hate this series and what can I say? I get it. Graphic here.

VenCo by Cherie Dimaline is about a young Indigenous woman who has to go on an adventure with her unusual and elderly grandmother after she discovers that she's one of seven witches to usher in a new era of power.

Madame Restell by Jennifer Wright is a nonfiction book about a famous abortionist in pre-Gilded Age New York. I found it fascinating, if not incredibly depressing, with how much we recycle the same arguments over and over again. Great read. Trigger warnings for this one, from childbirth to abortion to racism to misogyny.

Clytemnestra by Costanza Casati is a Greek mythology retelling on the titular murderer. As a Clytemnestra apologist, I really liked this. I kind of think so many of Greek retellings these days are all very similar, in writing style & theme so I feel like if you've read one of these recent retellings you've read them all, but I liked it!

Hamra & the Jungle of Memories by Hanna Alkaf is a Little Red Riding Hood retelling set in modern Malaysia, where a girl in a red hijab must help a tiger return to his human form. Really a beautiful story about humanity, grief, and what it means to make mistakes. Also just a fun adventure. Loved it. Graphic here.

You're Not Supposed to Die Tonight by Kalynn Bayron is another final girl horror novel. Look, I'm gonna read all of them and I'm gonna love all of them! You give me a final girl and I'm gonna eat it up. You give me a queer Black final girl trying to survive the night at her camp recreating a famous (fictional) horror movie while trying to protect her girlfriend? Yum, yum, yum.

Honorable mentions: Ayoade on Top is Richard Ayoade's definitive tome on the Gwenyth Paltrow film View From the Top. Get the audiobook for this one for sure! The Three Dahlias is a fun cozy mystery, and Saint Juniper's Folly is a fun queer modern fantasy adventure.

#books #long post #sorry it's long it was work to narrow it down to just ten!

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yurimother · 2 years

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The 2022 Yuri Pride Guide - Games and Visual Novels

Your ultimate guide to Yuri with over 170 diverse titles from every genre and medium

Pride month may be over, but that does not mean the celebration has to end! With a priority on quality storytelling and positive representation, this curated list features anime, manga, light novels, games, and webcomics that showcase love and passion for Yuri.

Blackberry Honey

• Shakaijin • Drama • Romance

Forced to work for fourteen hours a day, with little chance to rest, Lorina, the newest maid to the Lennard family, is bullied by the senior maids and the youngest Lennard daughter. One of the only maids who deigns to speak to Lorina is the mysterious Taohua – but Lorina wishes she wouldn’t. Her aloof, almost cat-like personality, coupled with her peculiar complexion, eyes, and name, have inspired more than a few rumors around the Shropshire countryside that she might be a witch. Lorina knows she should keep her distance from Taohua, and she wants to most desperately… but maybe there’s a pinch of truth to all the rumors, because she soon finds herself under the older woman’s spell.

~Developed and Published by ebi-hime~ Available on PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PC, Mac, and Linux

Black Closet

• School • Drama • Romance • Mystery

A noir story that places you in control as the student council president. To protect yourself and the school’s reputation, you must command your minions to solve mysteries by investigating scenes, looking for clues, performing surveillance, and interrogating students. Remember, never let your attention falter, no matter what sweet nothing your minions whisper or sly glances they give you. Because one of them… is a traitor.

~Developed and Published by Hanako Games~ Available on PC, Mac, and Linux

Butterfly Soup

• School • Slice of Life • Sports

Laugh-out-loud funny and featuring characters that each feels like one of your best friends! This gentle visual novel by Brianna Lei follows a group of four, queer Asian high school students living in California. The girls join an all-female baseball club together and spend their time playing the game, falling in love and memeing.

~Developed and Published by Brianna Lei~ Available on PC, Mac, and Linux

The Curse of Kudan

• School • Horror • Mystery • Yuri Harem • Friends to Lovers

Feelings start to bud between student Sakuya Kudan and culinary instructor Touko Shima after coincidence brings them into one another’s orbit. However, their peaceful lives are abruptly shattered when Touko sees Kudan, the harbinger of calamity. The rumors say that anyone who lays eyes on her is doomed within seven days. The hours tick down as Sakuya rushes find a way to combat the curse, and her search brings her to the academy’s Occult Research Club and its president, Koto Ashinaki. Now she must face off against the unknown in order to protect the people she loves…

~Developed and Published by SukeraSparo~ Available on PC

The Expression Amrilato

• Isekai • Slice of Life • Romance

"...Why is the sky pink...?" Rin should know this area well, but the unreadable letters on the signs and the strange language the people are speaking have made things unrecognizable. Suddenly transported to a parallel world, Rin is saved when Ruka, a girl so cute she could be an idol, appears and extends a helping hand. Now a guest in Ruka’s home, Rin, and by extension the player, must learn Esperanto through interactive lessons to navigate this strange world. This is the story, pure and sometimes frustrating, of two girls intertwined through their fumbling efforts to communicate.

The sequel, Distant Memoraĵo, continues Rin and Ruka’s story and romance and reveals the secrets of Ruka’s past. Two storeis of the struggles that come with attempting to connect with one another across age, language, and even worlds.

~Developed by SukeraSparo, Published by MangaGamer~ Available on PC, Mac, and Linux

Fatal Twelve

• Isekai • Supernatural • Adventure • Mystery

One day, Shishimai Rinka dies in an explosion—yet she finds herself continuing to live her ordinary life as if nothing had happened at all. That is, until a few days later, when she encounters the Goddess Parca in the dream world.

"Good evening, my lovely little slaves to fate." Rinka discovers that she is one of 12 people the Goddess has invited to her game. A game that could undo their deaths. In this maelstrom of life and death, Rinka must face a myriad different emotions, as well as the truth behind her own demise. What will her final decision be...?

~Developed by LYCORYS, Published by Sekai Project & PROTOTYPE~ Available on PS4, Nintendo Switch, PC, Mac, and Linux

Flowers

• School • Adventure • Drama • Romance • Mystery • Multiple Couples • Yuri Harem • Friends to Lovers

In the middle of a forest isolated from the rest of the world lies Saint Angraecum Academy, an all-girls school. This private boarding school is isolated from the rest of the world, allowing the girls who attend the space and freedom to develop into young ladies under the guidance of their teachers. This is where Suoh Shirahane, a painfully shy girl, will begin her first year of high school. Follow her and her classmates in this four-game series as she navigates new friendships and attempts to unravel the many mysteries at the academy, including occult rituals and the mysterious disappearance of fellow students, all while trying to pass her classes. Suoh must learn to overcome her anxieties as she navigates new friendships. These bonds of friendship grow even stronger within the academy's special Amitié program, and Suoh's heart will open for the first time. But is it okay to like a girl?

~Developed by Innocent Grey, Published by JAST~ Available on PC

Heart of the Woods

• Adventure • Drama • Romance • Supernatural • Mystery • Multiple Couples

Maddie Raines has had enough. After years of serving as manager, editor, and general business-handler for her best friend Tara's popular paranormal vlog channel, she's finally ready to move forward with her own life. But when she agrees to take one last trip with Tara to the mysterious village of Eysenfeld, she's suddenly surrounded by wondrous and dangerous supernatural events. One in particular captivates Maddie in a way she’s never been before: the ghost of a young woman, Abigail.

~Developed by Studio Élan, Published by Sekai Project and Sekai Games~ Available on Nintendo Switch, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PC, Mac, and Linux

Heaven Will Be Mine

• Sci-fi • Action • Romance

It’s 1981, and the dream of a new home in space for all humanity is dead. After fighting for decades against an intangible and ephemeral existential threat from beyond the solar system, Earth command has declared the war effort a huge waste of time. The honeymoon is over, and a future of glittering cities across the solar system and cosmic battles between giant robots just isn’t going to happen. The outcome is clear: it’s time to come home.

But we don’t care. Giant robots may not make any sense. Celestial cities across the solar system are silly dreams. They are, however, extremely awesome. We, the girls who were raised in space, to be special and incredible and pave the way for a new future, aren’t giving up so easily. We’ve got invincible Ship-Selves for ferrying human bodies through time and space, and we have the weight and power to make a fantasy of the future real.

~Developed and Published by Pillow Fight & Worst Girls Games~ Available on PC, Mac, and Linux

Letters From a Rainy Day -Oceans and Lace-

• School • Romance • Drama • Mystery • Senapi/Kouhai

The prestigious private girls’ school, Kikyou Academy, educates young ladies from elementary age to university. With cell phones forbidden on school grounds, letter writing is a pastime for many of the girls… for better or for worse.

Student Mikoto Kurahashi receives a disturbing blackmail letter, forcing her to ask out younger student Shiori Minato to protect her sister. The story switches between the two girls’ viewpoints, displaying both sides of this unconventional romance as Shiori works to discover the reason and the perpetrator behind the blackmail and Mikoto longs to get her new partner to engage with her more.

~Developed by Lily Spinel, Published by Hublots and mirai works~ Available on PC, Mac, and Linux

Lilycle Rainbow Stage!!!

• School • Slice of Life • Comedy • Multiple Couples • Friends to Lovers

Sweet, heartwarming, and bursting with cheerful, colorful illustrations features a swarm of adorable Yuri couples. As every character’s perspective is shown, you could say that they’re all the protagonist! A love triangle between two friends and a recent graduate, a young maid and her precocious mistress, student council rivals, a wallflower and her socialite companion, and more. This Yuri buffet is overflowing with cuteness!

~Developed by PARTICLE, Published by MangaGamer~ Available on PC

Linghua

• School • Drama • Romance • Multiple Couples • Fated Lovers • Tragedy

A Yuri visual novel series about young couples bound by fate and tragedy at an all-girls’ private academy. In Melancholy Love, an elite student, born into privilege, and a delinquent who longs to break free of her chains meet amidst the garden of scented dreams. In Symbiotic Love, a devastated Zihua discovers a mysterious diary after the death of her lover, Jisuo. One by one excepts begin to appear, revealing the truth behind the tragedy.

~Developed by White Dew Game, Published by Kikai Digital~ Available on PC

Lingua Fleur Lily

• Drama

The introvert Yuyi arrives at school every day with a secret deep in her heart, a truth she has kept hidden from everyone, even her beloved old tutor. But when she is paired with the excitable Yile, the eager girl helps Yuyi come out of her shell, confronting the bittersweet memories of her past and coming to terms with her identity. This tender hidden and emotional hidden gem is not a romance story, but a story of healing and accepting oneself, a gift given to Yuyi by an earnest and caring friend. Its gentle illustrations and enchanting soundtrack heighten this simple but poignant story.

~Developed and published by Narrator and STORIA~ Available on PC

A Little Lily Princess

• School • Drama • Historical • Slice of Life

Sara Crewe was raised like a princess by her doting Papa, always given the best of everything. Now that she is old enough, she must be sent away to boarding school in a foreign land, relying on her love of books and fairytales to help her make friends. But, what would happen to a little princess if she lost everything? This Yuri retelling of Frances Hodgson Burnett’s classic children’s novel gives players the option to plan Sara’s daily activities and bond with her peers, leading to several potential romances.

~Developed by Hanabira, Published by Hanako Games~ Available on Nintendo Switch, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PC, Mac, and Linux

Mizuchi 白蛇心傳

• Fantasy • Romance • Slice of Life • Mystery

Abruptly finding herself at the bottom of a snake pit, an impoverished girl named Linh is bound and helpless for a crime she did not commit. Left to the mercy of the village snake god, a mysterious entity appears before her, offering to save her in exchange for her soul. Finding herself in a new reality, she is torn between staying with the beautiful temptress, Ai, who had rescued her from death, and the resourceful wanderer, Jinhai, who promises to set her free.

~Developed and Published by Aikasa Collective~ Available on PC, Mac, and Linux

a new life.

• Romance • Music • Slice of Life • Slice of Life • Love at First Sight

A short, simple, and beautiful experience. A classic love story: Meet, marry, grow old. But when your loved one hurts you, what do you do? Is it better to love and be hurt, than never love at all? From their first meeting in college until the bittersweet end, this short visual story is a beautiful and emotional highlight reel of two women in love.

~Developed and Published by Angela He~ Available on iOS, Android, PC, Mac, and Linux

Nurse Love

• Fantasy • Slice of Life • Horror • Mystery • Yuri Harem • Slow Burn

Surviving a near-death experience as a child left Kaori Sawai with the dream to become a nurse and heal others. And today is finally the day, as she leaves school to join the Yurigahama Hospital, mending injuries with the magical touch of her hands and navigating sweet, strange, and exceptionally disturbing relationships with her quirky coworkers in Nurse Love Syndrom.

Set in the same world, Nurse Love Addiction follows Asuka Osachi, a ditzy and easy-going girl, who graduates from high school and enrolls in Teito Nursing School along with her younger sister, Nao. With their two classmates Itsuki and Sakuya and their instructor Kaede, the girls will experience what it means to be an adult... and a nurse.

~Developed by Kogado Studio, Published by Degica~ Available on Nintendo Switch and PC

OshiRabu: Waifus Over Husbandos

• Comedy • Slice of Life • Romance • Already a Couple • Love at First Sight

Akuru Hayahoshi is an unlucky otaku office worker who just can't pull her husbando in the gacha game she's obsessed with, no matter how much money she throws at it.

Until one day, she runs into the garishly gorgeous and freakishly lucky Ren Furutachi. A series of misunderstandings causes Ren to full-on pursue Akuru. One thing leads to another, and in order to bring her husbando home, she ends up... bringing Ren home?!

In the sequel ~Love･or･die~ a fit of jealousy and more misunderstandings lead to a Akuru unthinking accepting one of Ren’s many joke proposals… and by the time she realizes what she's done, it's too late. Ren is in bridezilla mode and starting to plan the wedding!

~Developed by SukeraSomero, Published by Hublots and mirai works~ Available on Nintendo Switch and PC, iOS and Android (Game 1 Only)

Perfect Gold: The Alchemy of Happiness

• Fantasy • Romance • Enemies to Lovers

Marion LaRue is not having a fun day at all. What was meant to be a harmless little fire turned into an explosion that has her stuck in detention, missing out on one of the rare opportunities for her to enjoy life outside the academy. And of course, she just had to be stuck with Audrey Clary, of all the high-class LeFay students she could be in detention with.

Determined to not miss out on the long-awaited festival, these former lovers begrudgingly work together to escape detention and find their way to the festival. As they explore the city and celebrate the Sunflower Festival together, an old friendship is rekindled, and new feelings begin to bloom.

~Developed and Published by Yangyang Mobile, Published by Mama Morin (Console/Mobile)~ Available on Nintendo Switch, PC, iOS, and Android

SeaBed

• Romance • Drama • Mystery • Tragedy • Slow Burn

A mystery told through the perspectives of three women: Mizuno Sachiko, a designer plagued by hallucinations of her past lover; Narasaki Hibiki, Sachiko's friend and a psychiatrist researching the workings of human memories; and Takako, Sachiko's former lover who has been rapidly forgetting her past, including how or why the two women drifted apart, despite being together since childhood. All three live in different worlds but seek the same goal. To separate truth from illusion. To make sense of their own lives.

~Developed by paleontology, Published by Fruitbat Factory~ Available on Nintendo Switch and PC

A Summer's End - Hong Kong 1986

• Shakaijin • Romance • Drama • Historical • Love at First Sight

Michelle is a young professional working woman living in Hong Kong during the heydays of the 1980s. She meets Sam, a free-spirited woman and an unconventional entrepreneur, by chance after an incident involving a broken heel. They share a mutual attraction. As their relationship progresses, Michelle is forced to make a decision between traditional propriety and her newfound feelings.

Inspired by classic Asian cinema, this beautiful game depicts the intense curiosity, confusion, and desire whirling around this incredible romance. Michelle A Summer’s End is a modern romance. A dazzlingly vibrant and intimate experience that explores identity, family, queerness, and love in a rapidly changing and highly political world.

~Developed and Published by Oracle and Bone~ Available on PC

Synergia

• Action • Sci-Fi • Mystery

Cila, a veteran cop with a sour outlook and anger issues expects nothing more from life besides the smell of ozone, blinding neon lights and the ever-present manhole steam. At least, until a shady friend replaces her broken-down housedroid as a favor. Advanced, more efficient and remarkably perceptive, unit M.A.R.A. begins to penetrate Cila's toughened exterior and possibly even heal her new owner's old wounds – if Cila can decipher the recurring nightmare the process brings. Soon Cila and Mara forge a unique - if sometimes uneasy - bond. Unbeknownst to Cila, just as her life begins to find its new normal, the technological giant Velta Labs gets wind of Mara's existence and takes a mysterious interest in the android. A war unlike any before it is brewing on the horizon, its players are silently being selected and one android's fate may spell the difference between peace, war, the blossoming of a new religion, or a technological singularity beyond comprehension.

~Developed by Radi Art, Published by Top Hat Studios~ Available on Nintendo Switch, PS4, PC, Mac, and Linux

Yumeutsutsu Re:Master

Slice of Life • Mystery • Slow Burn

Set in the town of Koenji, not far from the imperial capital of Tokyo, where a small game studio called Eureka Soft has set up shop. The heroine Ai, a country girl, joins her sister Kokoro who works there, after receiving a mysterious email from studio head. There she meets the quirky all-girl (and a dog) cast: the big sisterly head of the studio, her sister, giving her a cold shoulder, the maid/voice talent, the "tiny dinosaur" scenarist, the uniformed artist, and Banako, the dog and vice-president. Ai starts learning about game making as she slowly pieces together the mysteries of her colleagues. Ai's world will expand bit by bit, as the game production begins.

~Developed byKogado Studio, Published by Degica~ Available on Nintendo Switch, PS4, and PC

Read More 2022 Yuri Pride Guide

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#Yuri #lgbt #lgbtq #lgbtq+#queer #yuri pride guide #gaming #video games #visual novel #visual novels #girls love #anime #Yuri games #Yuri visual novel #yuri anime #manga #wlw #lesbian #lesbians

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youranemicvampire · 1 year

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Week 6: Favorite WLW movies / shows

15-week Sapphic challenge

PS: I didn’t include shows or movies that have sapphics as side characters or side storylines with little screentime

Shows

Orange Is The New Black (2013-2019)

Torrent :)

Not only the best WLW show, but it’s one of the best shows of all genre and all time. I mean, they are the reason that Netflix became successful (Ungrateful MFs). If you haven’t watched it yet, you’re missing a lot, i swear. I’m not exaggerating when i say this show changed me and made me grow as a person.

A League Of Their Own (2022-)

Prime Video

It’s character complexities, queer majority, diversity, intersectional stories, heart and sense of humor reminds me a lot of Orange is the new black so if you like the latter, watch this and vise versa. + Women in sports, duh!

The Sex Lives Of College Girls (2021-)

HBO Max

Mean (but not really a bad person u know) lesbian lead, let’s go! This show is f*cking hilarious like you won’t just love the show for the lesbian representation, but all of the leads! It’s more than its title!

Dickinson (2019-2021)

Apple TV

Haven’t finished it yet, but it’s already on my top 5. Not every show can pull off a modern interpretation of period pieces. And thank you, Apple TV for letting the show wrap up in the middle of lesbian cancellations. Thank you for the bare minimum.

Gentlemen Jack (2019-2022)

HBO

Haven’t watched the show yet, but I KNOW, i know it would be one of my favorites. I love badass lesbian historical figures especially when they are gender-nonconforming

Movies

But I’m a Cheerleader (1999)

Hulu

Classic. Historical. I think this is the 1st lesbian movie i’ve watched after i came out? It also helped me became more aware of my compulsory heterosexuality.

Ang Huling Cha-Cha ni Anita / Anita’s Last Cha-Cha (2013)

Juanflix (DM me if you’re outside Philippines)

Unfortunately, only few people know about this movie, but it’s really one of the best WLW movies in the Philippines AND in the world. And just so you know, the older woman and the girl didn’t have any weird romantic or sexual relationship, this is just all about the lesbian girl’s first childhood crush. A very wholesome story!

Rafiki (2019)

Hulu

This is not hyped enough and we all know the reason why. :) Very beautiful film with amazing cinematography, chemistry and soundtrack. It’s banned in Kenya so make sure to support this movie.

TRIGGER WARNING: Blatant and violent Homophobia scene near the end

NECESSARY SPOILER: It has a good ending so don’t worry

Saving Face (2004)

Prime Video or Apple TV

Cutest WLW movie ever! It felt very warm the whole time i’m watching it. Another Sapphic classic and Lesbian 101 for baby gays.

Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019)

Hulu

A masterpiece and a great take on Female gaze. Art and Lesbianism really are partners.

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horizon-verizon · 8 months

Note

Would you describe aegon as a ‘good/deep/complex’ (and more along those lines) type of character in the book? I’m curious to know your opinion as this is how so many Aegon fans describe him.

"Good" as in morally good? Obviously no. As in "well-written"? Eh, so-so.

I may have written a long meta about him HERE, but I thought this was so that it could make clear that he still is a spoiled raping prince who feels entitled to having power--even with him saying Rhaenyra should have--by the principle of him being male. As in "heart of hearts". As one Tiktoker I-recently-listened-to-but-can't-remember-the-name-of said, Aegon II is Rhaenyra's literary foil in that he is the result of how a patriarchal society creates its own enemies in men, creates a rapist, etc. Therefore, he's "complex" in his representational value more than as a person himself.

I see him refusing to be king at first and deferring to Rhaenyra being older/sister/chosen heir as him not really wanting the actual responsibilities and commitment of being a leader and wanting to live in a male-privileged state of ennui forever.

I also think that when some people use the word "good", they want to say they find that character emotionally compelling or "relatable" but do not want or know how to explain what they find so emotionally compelling. Or what they relate to. "Emotionally compelling" vs "relatable" is sometimes kind of the same, bc the reader is matching with traits, behaviors, and motives they experience(d). But sometimes "emotionally compelling" is recognizing a character's core desire, how it developed, understanding how they could be so passionate, desperate, etc., and admiring their determination, endurance, etc. Others say "good" to say "was this character's development logical from their experiences and does it, therefore, seem natural and emotionally realistic". And others say "good" as in "was there a fair distribution and relations of social dynamics between these sort of characters and those sort of characters"--for example, how writers write their men vs. their women comparatively to their other men and women; some claim Rhaenyra is the least well-written female Targ bc she doesn't do the strategizing as they wished she does or because she herself was not as forward-thinking or compassionate as they want a leader/a female leader to be.

I think GRRM could & should have made Rhaenyra at least come up with parts of the dragonseeds or capture of KL's with Daemon and her son even with Luke's death [scroll down to section B] (the black council advised her and deliberated on the message vs outright violence with her only saying that she forbade her kids to fight in a confrontation with the greens while said greens were in KL).

I say "parts" bc I wouldn't have believed, personally, that without a POV showing me how she did it, Rhaenyra (or ANYONE) could have pushed aside her grief at Lucerys' death to think very straight to come up with a sophisticated plan without advisers.

GRRM does have a habit of making debilitating grief the means of disallowing women/potential female leaders from addressing certain critical problems in his writing [scroll down to section B],

BUT I also think (if he left Aelora and enough of other women alone simultaneously) it's unfair to expect a person, man or woman or enby--to "pick themselves up" and be the perfect leader and push away all their grief and STILL come up with plans that will "save the day" without that taking a toll on their psyches. Again, parents can and have maimed/killed to preserve their kids' lives with little to no compunction. It's a visceral/sometimes strongly reflexive bond some people will never get or have because some are infertile, dislike kids/babies and were not paternal (this word is used for the general inclination towards nurturing and parenthood), or simply do not want children (which is fine, it'd be weirder if everyone did). But they don't have to "get" it to know that it's not wise to not antagonize a caring and protective parent.

In view of Aegon having raped many women who he has a lot of sociopolitical power over, and rape being a crime/act so heinous that I think that it merits death, exile, or castration, I find it hard to understand why people wish to relate positively to the emotions and motivations of him in particular when the evidence in the show is clear AND in the book, with a personality and position as his, rape is never going to be far from his "fondling". We know this from our own stories of rape culture and overly-privileged rich boys and fraternities. We know mothers can snd do often cover for their sons. Why would it be different for Aegon & Alicent, esp when we've seen that Alicent is all for usurping Rhaenyra and endangering her & her kids' lives?! (book & show). Well, it can only be the persons have misogynist ideas of women:

cannot stand women being actual people with flaws and searching for power without having been rape victims to "make up" for that loss of control

want women to exist to "calm" men down from their naturally violent tendencies so those men can rule "empathetically" or not become tyrants

So they naturally go to stan a rapist over a woman who had consensual sex with all of 3-4 men in the show and 2-3 men in the book for all of her life AND was the one actually usurped and lost children due to the other sides' plots and ambitions.

#aegon ii #asoiaf asks to me #hotd fandom #green stan nonsense #green stans #aegon ii's characterization #fire and blood characters #fandom misogyny

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wodania · 7 months

Note

What are some of your favorite quotes from the main series? And what are some from Dunk & Egg?

A lot of the asoiaf quotes are gonna be A Storm of Swords because it’s the book I read digitally the most, meaning I was actually highlighting as I went along. So lots Storm representation oops. Rule of five per series so I don’t get carried away.

Dunk and Egg (this one is long because I love discussing these novellas):

Something something the wealthy huddle beneath lavish roofs and tents and leave the poor to sleep in the rain and mud, but the wealthy have created for themselves gilded cages while the poor can watch the stars fall and claim the gift of luck that comes with it. Thanks George I eat stuff like this up like I’m a starving man.

Feel like we need to mention a dragon dream if we’re discussing Dunk and Egg. My favourite dragon dream in the D&E series. Everything about it is correct: Dunk will be a Kingsguard, he’ll be famed throughout the land, he’ll live for nothing but to serve his King. Though Daemon gets one big thing wrong and that’s that he is not going to be King. Second hand embarrassment. As Bloodraven put it, “The fool just got the colour wrong.” Literally Daemon’s entire character. Spitting facts but he can’t tell red from black.

Defending myself by saying this isn’t a dragon dream. Uhhh so! King Aegon V was killed in a massive fire that burned down Summerhall on the night Rhaegar was born. Duncan the Tall, the Lord Commander, died trying to save both King Aegon and the other party guests from the fire. In this scene, Dunk dreams that he’s digging a grave and people, dead or alive, are appearing in it and speaking to him. The last to appear is Egg, who is buried in the sand even though Dunk tries to pull him out. Dunk falls into the grave and suffocates in the sand. It’s obviously supposed to represent the smoke at the fire of Summerhall. Literally wtf George?

The context is pissing contests by the way. Ignore the pissing part there’s a metaphor there I promise. Dunk is super interesting to me because his raising of Egg makes Egg the small-folk loving King that later rules Westeros. Dunk is wise in his life experience, yet he knows nothing of the struggle of women in both noble and peasant settings. Rohanne let’s him know just how difficult it is for a woman to claim any power or influence in Westeros, using the metaphor of a pissing contest, that classic male bonding activity (a woman needs to piss twice as hard).

This does a really good job of putting into perspective how notable Aegon’s kingship was. “Kings do not heap honour on the likes of you and me,” yet King Aegon V named Dunk his Lord Commander and solidified Dunk’s place as a legendary knight. By ASOIAF, Dunk is spoken about admirably. Another King might not have ever given a man like Dunk the opportunity, but Aegon did.

Asoiaf (shorter because I feel like these have been talked about way more):

Daenerys Targaryen:

Makes me tear up. I feel like it’s obvious why. Also after this she tells Jorah that the people will not hurt her, for she is their mother. And then she rides her Silver throughout the crowd while laughing because she’s so happy and in love with the world!!! This is probably one of the only quotes here that isn’t going to be miserable.

Beric Dondarrion:

“Are you my mother, Thoros?” propaganda I think about this quote so much. Beric and Thoros aren’t even on my top ten list but their conversations and dynamic is absolutely heartbreaking. Beric omg how you rot my brain.

Catelyn Tully:

Not “Ned loved.” Instead, “Ned loves.” Because perhaps in her grief and panic, she forgot her husband had even died. I’m dead.

Jon Connington:

He’s so doomed. He’s so bitter and angry. He loves his son so much and that’s exactly why he’s so doomed. Because he refuses to give his son anything but the best, even though the best is going to kill them both.

Maester Aemon Targaryen:

I am a loyal Egg girl so this killed me nine different times :)

#my asks

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leskami · 7 months

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Growing up as a black, masculine lesbian meant that I never really saw what I wanted to see on TV or in books. I never got to see the girl getting the girl. It was always boys winning the hearts of girls. I never got to see lesbians or gay people being complex people with dreams and goals and ambitions and humanity. Stories about us were about us being gay. That's not necessarily bad, but being gay takes a backseat to everything else going on in my life 💀 What if I wanna kill a dragon? What if I want to save the world? What if I want to not die at the end? What if I want a happily ever after? What if I want a story that doesn't revolve around depression and heartbreak and death?

"Write it yourself" is what I always heard growing up. It used to make me mad. But now I realize that they're right. Nobody is going to write the story that I want to see. Nobody is going to write the specific story arc or character interactions or romance or ending. After getting my heart broken countless times by shitty lesbian representation, I've decided to write what I've wanted to see for so long. I've decided to create the women I would've killed to see growing up. This is a story that nobody is going to cancel. This is a story that doesn't end with all of us dying. This is a story with complex women and characters who just happen to be gay.

If you're finding yourself relating to what I'm saying thus far, I'd like to introduce to you to my original audiobook

Thalassophobia

Thalassophobia is set in a world where demons roam the earth along side humans. The two species are far from a harmonious cohabitation, and nowhere is this more true than in the town of Reveldad. Due to a prophecy woven many years ago, Reveldad underwent an oppressive rule governed by the wolf demon known as Ma'Relle. Her rule ended the day that the human woman known as Krona cast her into the ocean. Ma'Relle escaped her imprisonment after a year, but has since opted to live a life far removed from what anyone would consider a reign. As such, demon-kind was forced to suffer a terrible retreat and their hope and faith in Ma'Relle as their hero wanes by the day while humanities faith that Krona is the 'one true victor' foretold by the prophecy grows ever stronger. Still, demons remain a presence in Reveldad, making it so visitors are rare, and often leave as quickly they come. New residents, however, are nearly unheard of. So when Vitala Ston, a woman free from any experience with demons or prophecies, decides to make herself at home in the town of Reveldad, she will earn experiences far beyond what she imagined when she set out with her horse and cairn terrier. Her curiosity and thirst for knowledge will earn her friends, enemies, and most unexpected of all: a love that may be the catalyst for a prophecy that has long waited to be fulfilled.

If that sounds interesting to you then I have two episodes out now on my YouTube channel for your viewing pleasure! I hope you enjoy and don't be afraid to tell me what you think! Always looking for feedback. Fair warning that updates will be slow due to me being in school but my ask box is open if you ever wanna talk about the story!

#Lesbian story #Lesbian representation #Gay representation #Gay characters #Lesbian characters #LGBT characters #LGBT stories #Lesbian #Gay

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illwynd · 1 year

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Not to be overly intrusive but I very much want to hear your rant about jms lady loki arc? Your thoughts about thor stuff are fascinating generally, and it either makes me go " I hadn't even considered this aspect of things ", or " oh that's what bothered me about this but I just couldn't find the words!" I mean it goes without saying that you don't have to if you don't want to, but I haven't heard people say anything about that arc other than it was sexist, so now I'm very curious about your opinions on it.

Oh nonny you’re not overly intrusive at all! Thank you for asking this and giving me the excuse to blather about it XD and thank you for the kind words. I clearly think about this stuff way too much, and all I can hope for is that someone else finds it of some sort of interest or value.

Re the JMS lady Loki arc…

So OK I guess I should summarize the thing for the benefit of anyone who hasn’t read it. The main gist goes like this: Thor is having to call Asgardian souls back into the world after breaking the cycle of Ragnarok, and when Loki is brought back, he is “inexplicably” in a female body. Loki has in fact arranged this as part of a con, using his new appearance to better sell everyone on the idea that he’s changed and no longer villainous, but the truth is that it’s Sif’s body he’s stolen, and Sif’s spirit is trapped in the body of a dying mortal, so it’s basically attempted murder (though Loki’s plan is thwarted and Sif is saved at the last minute). In the meantime, the “lady” Loki is a sexy, buxom caricature of played-up femininity, using her wiles to manipulate the men around her, and through it all it doesn’t really seem to be motivated by any genuine gender fluidity on Loki’s part. It’s just a trick.

So I can see where the criticism comes from: that it’s sexist, that it’s bad genderfluid representation since it’s in the form of a murderous villain, that it resembles transphobic tropes of trans women being “really” men trying to steal whatever from women. But those criticisms never seemed to me to land quite right. They seemed to be superficial and missing something important. And there are several angles you can take in looking at it more deeply where all those criticisms just fall apart.

I’m not even really going to go into the problems with decrying it as bad representation because he’s a villain. I really hope we’re past that. It’s not good when your media queers can only be villains, but having every queer character be morally upright and squeaky clean isn’t a good answer either, because real people aren’t like that. What I ask for is that the whole range be available, and that for any given character, they are first and foremost an interesting character with believable motivations for what they do. So “but he’s so evil he was trying to kill Sif! Bad representation! Bad!” is a complaint we’re just going to set aside and make dubious faces at, because for reasons I’ll get to later, I think there is an emotional truth to the portrayal, and in fiction that matters far more than any black-and-white moral claims.

So next up, we have the complaint that he doesn’t seem to be motivated by any genuine genderfluid feelings, since it’s all just a con. And my issue with that is that… it’s a very superficial take. He is motivated by gender stuff. Just not in a way that the complainers recognize.

The absolutely crucial detail is that his target is Sif. I say again. It really matters that he targeted Sif for this con. And yes, sure, part of his reasoning is jealousy over her close relationship with Thor (thorki is canon, y’all). But another part is this: Sif is the only other (that we know of) gender nonconforming person in Asgard, and definitely the only other one that we see as being close to his social circle. But where she is celebrated as a woman who is active and successful in traditionally culturally masculine pursuits, Loki’s gender nonconformity—his failure to live up to Asgardian masculine ideals—gets him demeaned, derided, dismissed. The gender fuckery going on here is that he is furious at the difference in how their GNC-ness is treated. His resentment and anger at that injustice, and he's being a right bastard in expressing it. We stan.

(I also do think there is something genderqueer in how the trickster considers using a feminine appearance to be just one potential tool in his arsenal, the kinda just shrugging and doing whatever works for his purposes rather than getting worked up about having to do such a thing? I mean. So shocking for a trickster figure, right? But hold that thought.)

So that was where I was with it for several years. But I kept coming back to how relatable Loki is to me as a trans masc person, and trying to figure out why it was that way, and what that had to do with this particular arc, and then it finally hit me.

This scene.

“Thus is Loki truly beautiful.”

In this scene, Loki has just been able to finally return to his male body (with Hela’s help), and he expresses his relief and joy in it, all while the art makes him look… kinda grotesque. And my gods that is such a trans masc mood. Knowing that while you pretend to be a woman you’ll be seen as nonthreatening and acceptable, and maybe you can put up with that for practical or social reasons for a while, but it isn’t how you want to live your life, it isn’t how you want to be seen, it isn’t the appearance that makes you happy. Constantly hearing how by changing your form you’ll be changing from sexy and desirable to ugly and monstrous… but thus you are truly beautiful to your own eyes.

(I think it is worth pointing out here, for anyone who might not know, that it is not uncommon for trans masc folks to have a phase of trying to go hard femme before they really accept themselves as trans. I personally didn’t, but I can imagine that the exaggerated femme lady Loki might be familiar to some of those guys. I, on the other hand, had a phase of treating my afab body as a tool that wasn’t really connected to me, so there are some other bits of the lady Loki arc that I find familiar. And here I should note that I’m not saying JMS had all this in mind, I have no idea whether he did or not, but death of the author, baby. The interpretation is very much there.)

And there is another little bit that I want to mention. There is one point where Fandral says to lady Loki, “even when you thought you were a man, you weren’t the man you thought you were.”

And. Firstly, screw you Fandral. Seriously. Secondly, the interpretation of this arc as being related to trans femininity gets a lot more press but that is an insult that is far more relevant to trans masc folks. The insults against Loki’s masculinity are reminiscent of how trans guys are not seen as real men, especially if they are GNC in any way, as Loki is. Loki may be amab, but his struggles are so incredibly similar to trans masc struggles (and really, I can’t be the only trans guy who fuckin loves that: a character who feels so familiar and relatable, flawed and angry and messed up in ways that I know all too well, but also has the goddamn body I wish I had. It’s the perfect combination.)

So yeah. That’s the short version, at least, of the rant about what everyone gets wrong about the lady Loki arc. The sexism, and complicated gender politics, is a thing it is commenting on, and I don't see how so many folks miss that.

#replies #anon #ty nonny! <3 #grand unified theory of loki

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wifelinkmtg · 1 year

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Cruel Angel’s Thesis intensifies

Technically, it’s “Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty” and not “Neon Dynasty Kamigawa” but only the latter facilitates “get in the robot, Shinji” jokes when you tap your pilot token to crew your Thundersteel Colossus, so. Anyway, none of the mecha cards are relevant to this project - it would have been too much to hope for a POWER DoLLS situation - so really, the moral of the story is that I should have saved the Samurai Jack title joke for this edition.

TODAY ON WIFELINK: GUSHING ABOUT CYBERPUNK FANTASY JAPAN

NDK was a great set, you have to understand. Do you remember how one of the few unequivocally good things about Legend of Korra was this project of imagining a 1920s industrial setting derived from (mostly) East Asian art and architecture? Yeah, similar story here. Just one example: the Imperial mecha look like someone did origami to sheet metal, which is super cool and lends their faction a distinct visual identity. The art in this set is gorgeous - soaring architecture, grungy neon alleyways, sick cyborgs, spirits (in the original Kamigawa block, spirits had some of the weirdest creature designs Magic had ever had, and this continues that legacy) - sagas! saga art is in-universe visual representation of a story that’s important to the people of the world, and NDK sagas are told on ornamental fans, wall scrolls, porcelain jugs, the carved hilt of a katana, a silk dress, in a leaf carving and vector graphics AND, the best saga art ever, on the back of a biker rat’s leather jacket. (I would be remiss at this point not to recommend Rhystic Studies’ extremely good video on sagas.)

And the mechanics! Sagas turn into creatures when the story is over, sort of living memories. Ninjutsu made a triumphant return, the channel mechanic multiplied interesting choices, and so did the reconfigure mechanic, which let you either use a mechanical centipede as a whip attached to one of your creatures, or let it operate autonomously as a creature in its own right (which led to one of the best type lines in MtG: “Legendary Artifact Creature - Equipment Jellyfish.”)

The draft environment - and I know I’m way off-topic here, but I’m about to say some mildly unkind things about this set and I need to preface it - the draft environment was the best I’ve ever encountered. There were so many different viable archetypes, so many different cool choices you could make during drafts and gameplay. The blue-black ninjas deck, fast red-black artifact sacrifice, recursive green-white enchantments - all felt powerful and fun. The whole set was flavorful and compelling, and there are not that many good wifelink hits, I’m sorry to say.

THE QUALITY OF A MAGIC THE GATHERING SET IN TERMS OF THIS PROJECT IS NOT AN IMPORTANT INDICATOR OF OVERALL SET QUALITY

Heiko Yamazaki, the General (art by Magali Villeneuve)

Heiko makes it where her cousin Norika (also by Villeneuve) doesn’t for two reasons: one is that I find Heiko’s broody expression indicative of a rich and stormy internal life, which always hits me like the smoky scent of a fine scotch or a cup of lapsang souchong. A woman with inner turmoil draws me like a moth to a bug-zapper, which I suppose is why I keep getting into trouble with older women in troubled relationships. “If I simply provide enough unpaid therapy, she’ll leave her abusive husband back in [REDACTED FORMER SOVIET REPUBLIC] & also the closet she’s been in for forty-five years & stay in the United States with me!” Yeah, that’ll happen, idiot.

The other reason is that Norika is a cop.

Tamiyo, Compleated Sage (art by Chris Rahn)

There are a lot of planeswalkers I don’t care about, personally, and I’m not only talking about the male ones. If I’m being honest, my engagement with Magic story has always been kind of shallow on account of Magic story is frequently (but not always!) bad. Like, pursuant to the previous entry, I did enjoy the apparently-uncredited story about the Yamazakis Wizards published back in February. It’s compelling! There’s juice to that relationship. We will never get anything else about these characters.

See, it turns out that the incentives of creating a collectible card game are not terribly aligned with those of creating rich long-form fantasy stories. Novelty sells cards. We hop around. Those few characters who do enjoy a prolonged spotlight often wilt under the attention as we all collectively get sick to death of the fucking Gatewatch or whoever else. Magic the Gathering is still compelling media, or else why would I be doing this, but to me it’s a kaleidoscopic whirl of mostly detached ideas, characters, settings, and vibes.

ALL OF WHICH IS TO SAY that I never knew much or cared to about Tamiyo. She was some nerd from Kamigawa who didn’t save Avacyn, whatever. Then the Phyrexians got her and turned her into an ichor-weeping cyborg brainwashed into working toward the universal expansion of New Phyrexia, a biomechanical plane of horror, corruption, and ego death, so now she’s hot!

Go-Shintai of Hidden Cruelty (art by Johannes Voss)

I don’t think I can explain this one, to be honest. Sometimes you just wanna get fucked up by a magical bone machine.

I KNOW THIS ONE HAS BEEN REALLY TALKY ALREADY BUT I GOT SOME BEHIND-THE-SCENES STUFF TO SAY AND A SET WITH ONLY THREE HITS SEEMS AS GOOD A PLACE AS ANY

Well, only three hits that I can find high-quality images of for. I suppose I could be using card rips of Tia Masic’s Moon-Circuit Hacker (reminiscent of my introduction to cyberpunk via Shadowrun, a bad setting paired with a bad system which nevertheless compelled me to consume more cyberpunk, most of it also bad) or Wisnu Tan’s Spring-Leaf Avenger (a delightful vaguely-orchid-mantis bug ninja) but that would look like

and

...oh wait that actually looks fine, at least to me on desktop. Okay, then, I’ll incorporate those into my strategy as an acceptable last resort going forward. Actually, while I’m at it:

Junji, the Midnight Sky (art by Chase Stone)

The dragon’s hot, man, I don’t know what to tell you.

THE OTHER THING IS ABOUT WHAT WE WILL GENEROUSLY CALL AN “UPDATE SCHEDULE”

Phyrexia: All Will Be One releases the second week in February and I am goddamn well going to review that as soon as it’s out, because I played Cyberqueen at the young and impressionable age of twenty-two and now “quasi-omnipotent dominatrix corrupts you into a biomechanical horror ecstatically enslaved to her will” is the hottest thing I will ever get out of Magic: the Gathering unless Ashiok decides to start force-femming planeswalkers, so I am going to be tearing through one set a week for the next three weeks.

Next time is New Capenna, the Art Deco Metropolis of organized crime, bad draft experiences, and well-muscled arms, followed by a return to Dominaria where my excitement for more Phyrexians will be tempered by the fact that my favorite characters from the last Dominaria set are not quite so hot this time round.

#there's an argument to be made that i should more substantially edit these after writing them instead of continuing to discover #what the structure of the post is as i'm writing it and then leaving it as-is #there's also an argument to be made that i should have fewer tangents digressions parentheticals for overall readability #but i'm not going to do either of those things :)#anyway did you know that there are zero hits for forced feminization in the mtg tag on AO3 #personally i think ashiok should start with teyo and move on from there but i am open to suggestions

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