#not to mention the author is queer and trans and jewish

[beforeviolets]

locked tomb fans:

why are yall not reading the empire without end series?

queer cast. snarky sarcastic unreliable narrator. sci-fi space opera. bisexual julius caesar and cleopatra. mark antony if he was a butch sapphic. weird convoluted info that builds up to an amazing payoff. narrative framework and storytelling style changes per book. many moments where you go: wait WHAT the fuck is going on? alexander the great is a dead gay god who lives inside a computer. brutus is nonbinary.

tumblr needs to be all over this. it’s for the locked tomb nerds AND the gay ancient rome/egypt nerds!!

[glownery]

wishing everyone who celebrates a happy easter and an even happier transgender day of visibility 🐣🪩🫶🪽

[beirarowling]

No, JK Rowling is not a Holocaust denier

The LGBT lobby has found yet another sickening way to attack JK Rowling. Trans-activist bullies, who so often delight in sending death and rape threats to the Harry Potter author, are now suggesting she is a Holocaust denier. It should go without saying that this is an absurd and defamatory slur. It is also one that’s being increasingly employed against anyone who dares to question the trans lobby’s latest attempt to rewrite history.

Rowling was accused of Holocaust denial last week, after she wrote a post on X that doubted claims that the Nazis made trans people a specific target for genocide. This argument is part of a wider attempt by activists to place trans people at the centre of the Holocaust. But the truth is that they weren’t. At least, not in any meaningful sense.

Digging into these claims, I soon discovered that activist historians have been sewing together a patchwork story of an alleged trans ‘genocide’ that is breathtakingly misleading. In fact, their entire narrative is built on only a handful of trans victims. Crucially, most of these victims were also Jewish or homosexual.

In response to Rowling’s comments, Pink News published an article claiming that ‘the persecution of trans people by the Nazis was devastating’. The proof for this? The names of five trans victims. What Pink News fails to disclose is that three of these people actually survived the war and fortunately lived to a ripe old age. One victim – Liddy Bacroff, who was arrested as a male prostitute – did sadly die in a concentration camp. Another, Gerd R, took his own life.

Take the case of Gerd R, one of the victims mentioned by Pink News. Gerd was a married, heterosexual man who had a history of crossdressing. He was arrested multiple times for public indecency after his neighbours grew tired of finding him hiding naked in their communal bins. He was later rescued from a concentration camp by the intervention of his doctor, who pointed out that he was heterosexual. This action saved his life and he was moved to a mental institution. There, Gerd took his own life.

Gerd’s fate was tragic. But it is almost certain that he would have ended up in an asylum for this behaviour anywhere across Europe at that time. The idea that a non-Jewish, heterosexual man like Eddie Izzard would without question have been murdered when Gerd R was not is fanciful, self-serving nonsense.

Another victim, Gerd Kubbe, a woman who identified as a man, had a very close brush with the authorities. In 1938, she was arrested for wearing men’s clothes and sent to a concentration camp. But a few months later, she was released and permitted to dress as she liked and to adopt the gender-neutral name of Gerd. One ‘queer’ historian admits that ‘police at first reacted harshly but later showed surprising leniency’. Even gay transvestite Fritz Kitzing, who was repeatedly arrested for soliciting, was sent to join the army rather than killed in a concentration camp. Kitzing survived the war and ran an antique shop until the 1990s.

So far, the mixed fortunes of the handful of named trans victims suggest that it was entirely possible to be ‘trans’ and elude persecution. If you were heterosexual, considered ‘Aryan’, followed the rules on public crossdressing and avoided prostitution or public indecency, you at least had a chance of surviving the brutal regime. No such leniency was afforded to the Nazis�� key targets, like Jews or disabled people, who were ruthlessly sought out for elimination.

When trans activists describe this truth-telling as ‘Holocaust denial’, they do a disservice to all Holocaust victims – including the few trans victims who really did suffer at the hands of an evil regime for their other characteristics. We must resist this blatant rewriting of history and the trans appropriation of the Holocaust.

[transition-with-the-torah]

The post about JVP's teacup mikveh is going around, but I don't want to derail.

First, I've seen at least two mentions of the ritual being created during the pandemic, but the guide in ~tikkunolamorgtfo's reblog has "...wp-content/uploads/2017/11/..." so I'd interpret that as November 2017. There was some sort of guide that I remember seeing during 2020 that mentioned taking a shower for X amount minutes in order have a certain amount of water pass over your body, but that wasn't this guide.

Second, there was a very specific post that mentioned this teacup mikveh and JVP offering information on self-conversion in the same chain of reblogs that didn't say they were paired together, which is where I think some people have converged the ideas. It wasn't a matter of people just randomly deciding. No one had enough faith or goodwill in JVP to not connect 'just offering some self-conversion info' with 'just offering some alternative mikveh info'.

I feel like most people have touched on their main issues with this guide. There's a lot to set off Neopagan associations, and this is just a limit to two examples:

"The spirit of water can be present with us if we choose to call for water, so even when water is not physically available to us we can engage in mikveh practice." This pings as 'calling' the corners of a magic circle and sounds like we're interacting with elemental spirits.

"Queer mikveh is an earth and water honoring ritual." This sounds like Neopagan honoring the land and water stuff.

Some of the information is just baffling, and I have no idea if the goal is to make it more difficult for someone to actually engage in going to and immersing in a mikveh:

"For some people, doing mikveh in drag will feel most vulnerable, with all your make-up and best attire." The idea of taking off clothes and make-up isn't about vulnerability, and this is just going to confuse people (anyone who tries to immerse in a mikveh like this and others there).

"What to bring to a mikveh: 2) Items for the altar [...]" There's no altar. (We're not escaping the Neopagan vibes here.)

I also went back and forth on the impression that there's this sorta disconnect from Jewish communities or an awareness of them:

"[...] we have long wondered why it is not available to more people, including the significant trans and queer populations in Jewish communities." Until there's a mention of some resources later, this is it, and it sounds like JVP's just disconnected from actual efforts to make mikvot accessible to more groups of Jews.

"We do mikvahs in lakes, rivers, bathtubs, showers, outside in the rain, from teacups and in our imaginations." Some of this isn't wrong, but that doesn't mean it all is correct. There's a later section that talks about the ocean, but that doesn't mean this guide is clear on when water is actually involved in a mikveh.

This seems like such a small thing, but it feels intentional that Yiddish and Torah aren't capitalized. Plus, "You can use a book you find meaningful (or the torah)" sounds a bit like there's not an awareness of what to call the Hebrew Bible or the Tanakh. Are the guide writers actually knowledgeable enough to be making a guide on mikveh alternatives here?

Additionally, there's this impression of isolating the assumed audience that I keep coming back to:

"Your own wisdom is all the power you need to be a Jewish ritual leader." Plus, "Each person is their own spiritual authority and has the power to create their own ritual for individual or collective healing." It also pings as a solitary Neopagan doing self-empowerment rituals, but unlike with many Jewish discussions where you can't go for very long before someone advises you to reach out to a rabbi, this comes across as very separate from other Jews.

"Most mikvot currently exist in Orthodox synagogues [...]" This is something that I'd want more of a source on, since I live somewhere that doesn't tend to have a mikveh in any movement's synagogues. (The closest mikveh is used by multiple movements and has a secondary, smaller mikveh for kitchenware, so I'm not aware of whether there's just a small mikveh just for kitchenware in some Orthodox synagogues.) It seems kinda misleading to portray almost all so-called mainstream mikvot as being inside Orthodox synagogues where someone reading this guide probably won't want to risk going, especially if they think only this guide is bringing up the whole trans and queer accessibility discussion.

"How to make mikveh a Non-Zionist ritual" This section doesn't involve doing or saying anything to anyone else, so someone could very well do this before immersing in a mikveh and no one would know. However, it feels like this guide is disconnected from the purpose of a mikveh and just slotting Non-Zionism (or more specifically the Palestinian cause) into a ritual bath. (There's also potential for supporting non-interaction with more conventional resources in order to avoid Zionists, but that's not explicitly stated.)

Overall, there's a surprising amount of direct text and impressions that set off 'I dunno about that' bells for me, and I'm not surprised that there hasn't been an overwhelming wave of Tumblr responses chomping at the bit to incorporate an alternative mikveh suggestion from this guide into their life.

[pearlmoney]

Meet my characters!!

My brother in law (blairyvision on instagram) drew the main characters in my book The Haunting of Miss Caroline Marsden!! so with the art I'll introduce you to my absolute favourite people lol

From left to right: Caroline Marsden, Rose Blum, Wren Lawson and Liv Green

Caroline Marsden: Caroline Marsden is a 26 year old film director and screenplay writer. Born and raised in Britain, she moved to LA with her friend Wren to pursue her career in film making. Caroline always had a deep fascination for each part of making a movie, and knew a fair amount about each aspect that goes into a film. Caroline is a pessimistic, paranoid, and careless person, with little empathy towards others around her with Rose and Wren being the acceptation. Her  family situation is comfortable, she would never say they’re close but she doesn’t think they’re oddly distant. Caroline’s unstable mind and new-found grief is making her living situation harder to maintain along with her relationships, not to mention her house being haunted. (canonically has BPD, NPD, autism)

Rose Blum: Rose Blum was a 26 year old trans and Jewish author, happily wearing her diversity on her sleeve. She died suddenly of cardiac arrest that got her while away on her book tour. She always had a love for writing, indulging in poetry and writing competitions since they were 9. She met Caroline in college and instantly hitting it off, becoming great friends, and soon after, loving partners. Rose was shunned by their family ever since she came out as queer, attempting to flee from home but having nowhere to go. She would only meet with them for special family occasions like weddings and Hanukkah. Rose was a sweet, caring and loved person, who was “gone too soon”. (canonically autistic)

Wren Lawson: Wren Lawson is a 26 year old sex worker from London, who moved to America with his best friend Caroline. Wren has been interested in sex work since he was 17 after sneaking into a strip club and getting high with one of the performers. His family never accepted him for being trans so he usually saw Caroline’s family as his own, but the two of them never saw each other as siblings as they dated briefly in high school. Wren is witty, sarcastic, and unfiltered, all wrapped up into a dirty, punk outfit. (canonically AuDHD)

Lively "Liv"Green: Liv Green is a 23 year old makeup artist from Massachusetts who works for and is friends with Caroline Marsden. Liv began having an interest in makeup when her parents took her to a drag show at 10 years old, since then she has experimented with all kinds of makeup and gets paid generous amounts from many clients in her store. Liv is a naturally beautiful woman who can get by with her looks, although she seems slightly oblivious to how her beauty coasts her through life. She is very close with her family, holding them very close to her heart. Her name is fitting to her personality, a bubbly and outgoing woman who gets along with everyone. (canonically autistic)

[fairyringcrownbraid]

who runs this blog?

Hi, my name is Kenny. I’m a 22 year old, non-binary queer. I’ve been in the practice for about 10 years now and tho I am by no means an expert, I have some experience that I like to share on occasion. My focus is divination (oracle mostly, mountain card reading, pendulum, some tarot, etc) but recently I’ve been finding myself wanting to stretch my legs and try out some new stuff.

I am also (currently) a pagan who just kinda goes with whatever and is trying to reconnect with ancestors, the earth, and my deities. I also have an interest in Judaism and Jewish Mysticism, but unfortunately I don’t think it’s my time to convert just yet. I have a lot of learning and growing to do before I feel ready to commit to something so big and life changing. So in the meantime I’ll be trying to have as much fun as I can being a pagan witch

Tags! + some extra stuff ✨

all tags are on this post for easy access. more tags will be added as they become useful, and if you’d like me to tag anything specific don’t be afraid to send an ask or dm me <3

~txt

for text posts or posts with no pictures

~pic

for posts with a picture or only a picture (both tags will be used if there’s text and pic)

~music

posts with music linked or in a video

~video

posts with videos

~fav

just my favorite posts or ones i want to come back to

~tips

these are tips and advice i find helpful, but they might assume you have some things on hand or require you to buy something

~free tips

these tips are completely free to use/utilize. they don’t assume you have things on hand and they don’t assume you have the money to buy new things

~tools

posts about magical tools/ways to use them

~divination

posts that mention or focus on divination/oracle/tarot

~spells

posts that specifically talk about a spell or how to build one

~spellwork

posts that mention/focus on how to improve your practice or make it more informed

~sigils

posts about/mentioning sigils or how to make them

~ritual

posts that i find i can use to integrate into my ritual practice or just posts about forming positive, healthy habits in your practice

~selfcare

posts that offer mental, physical, and/or emotional support. sometimes these posts are a bit harshly worded, i find that it helps me get motivated (i can add another tag for those if requested)

~protection

posts that mention or focus on protection rituals/spells/practices

~meditation

posts about meditation, could also be used for posts i find meditative or plan to use as meditation inspo

~devotion

posts about my deities or posts that i think they might like. as well as posts about the more religious side of things. i may eventually add tags for my deities but only if i feel it necessary

~spirits

posts about spirits (like ghosties not Spirit)

~mine

posts authored by me

~me!

posts with me in them :0

~wife!

posts about or mentioning my lovely wife (to be). these could also potentially have pictures of her but likely not since she tends to lean more agnostic and doesn’t practice witchcraft

If you made it this far, thank you for reading. I don’t have any DNI’s (mostly bc the people I would list would not respect it) but I do have a ‘will be blocked on sight’ list:

my blog is for adults and if you do not have an age/range somewhere on your blog you are going to be at risk of getting blocked. this is also an LGBTQIA+ safe blog, and especially a trans safe blog. you will be blocked if you are a terf or any flavor of homophobic. and if there’s any sort of racism in your current tumblr, you will be immediately blocked.

TLDR; if you treat others with kindness, i will return that kindness. and if not, i am liberal with the block button

if you read till the end, give this post a like so i know who’s read it :)

[wahlpaper]

The Year My Life Went Down the Toilet Review

The Year My Life Went Down the Toilet by Jake Maia Arlow

CW: Poop, Divorce, Parental Fighting, Internalized Queerphobia, Low Self Esteem, Anxiety, Medical Descriptions, Tween Angst, Mentioned Racism, Ableism

5/5

Libby (the app) recommended Jake Maia Arlow's The Year My Life Went Down the Toilet to me. This was likely because I asked my library to add Arlow's How to Excavate a Heart. This is the first book I've read by them, but I know they're going to continue to be one of my favorite authors. This book was filled with Queer, Jewish, and chronic illness representation! The story wasn't a reflection of my life or anything close, but I still found myself relating to the feelings of the characters. I'm glad Arlow wrote a character as complex as themself.

In The Year My Life Went Down the Toilet, Al is diagnosed with Crohn's Disease at age 12. She has been pooping a lot, often having to run to the bathroom in urgency. She's not feeling good, physically or about herself, but it's made worse by her mother's constant worrying and the thought that she may lose her best friend, Leo. While Leo is busy finally following his passion by joining the school musical, Al gives in to joining an IBD (Inflammatory Bowel Disorder) peer support group. Things start looking up for Al, but how long can it stay like that? Will her secrets or her stool come out first?

Although the pacing in Arlow's novel was hard to follow at times, I have zero other complaints about how it was written. This book invoked an impressive balance of emotions from me. There were funny moments, relatable ones, ones that made me annoyed with Al or other characters, and ones that brought me close to tears. There were just enough characters to make Al's life feel real, but not to overwhelm the audience. I know that middle-grade novels aren't for everyone, but I love how wholesome they are. They can tackle poop, anxiety, fights among friends, divorce, and big promises broken while still being sweet and healthy. Writers for adult romances could learn something from them, especially through the middle school romance featured in The Year My Life Went Down the Toilet.

The copy I listened to of Arlow's book had an Afterwards by the author. They talked about being nervous about writing a character who is queer and Jewish and has a chronic illness that involves poop. They worried about people calling it silly or too much, which I imagine bigots would do with even just one of these. Arlow figured that if all three were true for them, they could be true for Al too. I'm so glad they did! I don't have Crohn's, but these three things are true of me. I appreciate the representation very much and can empathize with Al and her friends. The diversity representation in this book includes anxiety, non-binary, racial, and aromantic. Nothing feels shoehorned, it all matters.

Singling out the queer rep, I appreciate that almost every character is a part of the queer community. It's highly unrealistic in TV shows where there are a bunch of straight characters and one queer one. We flock together. I also appreciate that this is just a slice of Al's queer identity journey. It's not the beginning or the end. It's unlikely that we figure it all out quickly. Al knows she likes girls and gets the chance to like a specific one. She tries out a label for herself, but she doesn't sound 100% sure of it, but that doesn't get resolved. She makes a non-binary friend who uses "she/they" pronouns (pronouns beautifully woven throughout the narrative) and starts to question if maybe that would work for her. She's in the stage that older trans people might call an "egg". Someday after the story ends, she may just find herself hatched as a non-binary person.

As multiple characters are Jewish, the audience gets to experience a nice sample of different personal relationships to the religion. Al and her mother aren't very religious, but they care about their Jewish identity. Leo and his mother are more religious. His mother runs a Jewish bakery and uses a lot of Yiddish. Leo is dealing with the realities of being a biracial Jew. He doesn't look much like his mother and doesn't "look Jewish". There's also Sephardic Jewish representation, although not as heavily explored. If you're looking for Jewish joy, you'll absolutely find that in The Year My Life Went Down the Toilet.

As long as medical descriptions don't deter you completely, I definitely recommend Jake Maia Arlow's The Year My Life Went Down the Toilet. Either you can relate to the chronic illnesses of the characters or you can learn a lot about it. You'll be treated to the sweetest cast of characters along the way in addition to Jewish food ideas. If you're looking for your next bathroom read, this is the one!

[hineini]

affirming energy

Wasn't that something.

When I went to the counterprotest being run early this afternoon, it had such affirming energy it didn't feel any different than worship. So many vehicles honked once they'd read through various signs visible...sometimes had potential to seem musical in nature much as I'm not denying it was noisy too and I'm pretty noise-sensitive.

If I have potential to feel concern about anything, it's that higher board authorities will learn about my participation and throw their awareness toward trying to make me completely disappear even if human rights makes it known I'm supposed to be able to resume being on the job, homophobic as they obviously are, hence their refusal to name their "other concern" they had during the mediation human rights ran two years ago.

Doing a 180 I'd think it went without saying I didn't feel an iota of concern when I read many signs people had created and chosen to wave toward cars and any other vehicle tracing a path through my city's downtown core. Some I have enough chutzpah to dub a holy trinity despite my Jewish faith; God knows Jews aren't supposed to talk about trinities, right??? went like this:

No hate; educate

Trans and queer joy equal resistance

My heart is full of colours

So had it easy talking to the people who had created every one of the above, making known the effect they'd exerted on me, including mentioning to the creator of the first one that I'd always honoured its message prior to being fired since my employer didn't want anyone to run the risk of learning any staff member was gay.

Definitely didn't hurt anything to spot someone donning a top that read "Visible for those who can't be" either. If there was a parallel edition making it known its wearer was "Audible for those who can't be" I'd have it easy investing in one since I sure won't hesitate to communicate anything about the fact I'm one of God's gay children if coming out's right due to heterosexism or intervening during homophobic interactions with others no matter any danger it has potential to put me in since I want to show we're supposed to have full and equal rights voicing our realities and give others evidence they're not the only one to be queer, no matter any specific demographic that puts them under the rainbow umbrella.

As it is, I'm left to laugh at the fact I'd expected to feel drained after everything finished. Nope; if anything my energy level was higher after those two hours. Struck me as ironic that the small group of people who'd come to make it known GLBT-especially trans-people are problematic looked beyond bored and maybe even mechanical in nature. As I couldn't help joking while being genuine with a group member of mine as we were wrapping up, "I'm not sure if I'm supposed to feel badly for those people, they look so bored if not asleep." Unknown if any-let alone all-of them will regard that as some kind of sacred message through God saying affirmation's a path to being happy but shit. As as asexual dyke I can always fantasize, right?

[ghastmaskzombie]

this blog is a safe place

this blog is safe for queers of all kinds: it is safe for gay men and lesbians, for bi and pan people, for aro and ace people, for allosexual aromantics and alloromantic asexuals, for polyamorous people, for trans people and nonbinary people, agender and pangender and genderfluid and others i haven’t heard of, for he/him women and she/her men, for cis people with unconventional gender presentation who are tired of being called ‘eggs’, for two-spirit people, and probably for someone else i haven’t thought of.

this blog is safe for people of all faiths and races and nationalities. it is safe for people white or black, asian, indian, hispanic, the natives peoples of all places, and anyone else i may have missed. for people atheist, christian, jewish, muslim, hindu, buddhist, sikh, for believers of obscure mysticisms and religions most think of as old mythology, and so on.

this blog will never condemn ordinary people for the actions of the governments that have authority over them or the religious institutions that have indoctrinated them. i have no ill will for the collective populaces or the individual people of red states and conservative nations, or common believers of historically destructive christian denominations and the like (i can’t just condemn every catholic now, can i?). some people are kind gears in cruel machines.

this blog is safe for people with neurodivergences and mental illnesses that are stigmatised and demonised even among people familiar with psychiatric ableism (is there a proper term for that?). i don’t know what many of those are but suffice it to say i’m working to scrub words like ‘psychopath’ and ‘narcissist’ from my casual vocabulary.

i will not interact with bigots or exclusionists on this blog in any way. i will never subject my followers to the sight of a debate about the validity of their existence, no matter how well i think i or anyone else can defend them. this blog will not share bad opinions for the sake of mocking them, or attempt to ‘own’ someone trying to make a point that doesn’t deserve consideration to begin with.

if it’s ever necessary, i will attempt to resolve conflicts privately, where they are not seen, such as in DMs. this is civility, not cowardice. anyone trying to get me to argue with them on a public post will be given this warning once, then blocked. (not that anything like that’s ever happened to me, anyway.)

this blog does not confuse doomscrolling for activism; it will not reblog out of guilt. there is a time and place to learn about the horrors of current events and i don’t know when that time is but my silly little blog is not the place.

this blog attempts to tag common triggers and phobias* and gets the obvious ones right sometimes, but i don’t know what i’m doing so always feel free to ask for your triggers to be tagged.

this post will be edited as time goes on, as i learn new things and i remember things i’ve forgotten to mention and i think of better ways to say what i’ve already said. this post takes suggestions. i think everyone who isn’t perfectly privileged is a little bit afraid that someone will claim to be safe and inclusive but then turn around and say “no, but not you,” when it really counts. i never want to be the source of that fear. i want you to know that you (yes, you), are safe here, and what ‘safe’ means when i say it.

*i use “#[trigger] cw” as my standard syntax for these tags

...Gosh, this post needs an update. I'll work on that.

[hyperfixationtimego]

Can you at least list down what exactly is accurate or not with Mindy? No offense but a lot of these posts that defend Mindy don't even provide sources of their own. So for ppl like me that barely know her, my knowledge comes from Jewish, Muslim, Black, Trans people that repeatedly point out the bigotry in her shows by providing source and timestamps. I can't go by anything with people telling me she is not that bad

I mean, the whole point of me wording the posts as generally as I did was to encourage people to look shit up for themselves instead of lazily expecting some random social media user to tell them exactly why and how to think, but sure yeah whatever.

“She’s a TERF/She’s transphobic.”

we’ll start with the one I’m most qualified to talk about, considering that I myself am a trans person.

the whole accusation of her supposedly being transphobic occurred after she allegedly liked this tweet by JK Rowling, who - as can easily be confirmed just based on a quick scroll through her twitter history - is a known TERF.

Notice how the tweet itself never specifically refers to trans people, though. Like, yeah, us queers know the context & hatred behind, but if you yourself are not LGBTQ+ and are thus not necessarily up to date on all the discourse & issues being discussed by the trans community, the tweet itself just reads like a well-known children’s book author giving a snippy, self-assured response to someone else’s complaint about her work/life.

i’m not linking to kaling’s twitter because. frankly I find this complaint about her to be one of the stupidest and I simply cannot be bothered, but if you do check it out you’ll find that she’s since unliked the goddamn tweet AND that she’s not actively following Rowling, because hey guess what.

Kaling has normal opinions about trans people, actually.

In 2018, Josie Totah - one of the stars on Kaling’s show Champions - came out as a trans woman, and in response, Kaling voiced support & excitement for her, and mentions her admiration for Totah’s talent & an excitement for the idea of being able to work with her again, publicly establishing herself as an ally & inherently supporting the idea of working with trans people in the industry.

Here’s the tweet btw!

So….yeah. Kaling’s not a TERF lmao she’s literally just. a cis woman who didn’t know all the context.

“She’s antisemitic.”

this is the other one I had already looked into beforehand, so for the sake of my sanity it’s the one we’re covering next 👍

As far as I’m aware, this claim was spurred by the way a Jewish character was depicted in Never Have I Ever, a Netflix show created by Mindy Kaling and Lang Fisher.

You know who Lang Fisher is? Yeah, neither does anybody else who’s been accusing Kaling of hating Jewish people, apparently.

Isn’t it funny how, of the two of them, the brown woman had her shit completely dragged, but the white woman of equal title & responsibility in the creation of the show is hardly ever acknowledged or brought up 🙄 /s

Anyway, I’m gonna preface the next part by stating for the record that I’ve not yet had the opportunity to watch Never Have I Ever for myself, and thus I won’t be able to comment on any thematic or narrative decisions within the show.

Here’s an article written by journalist Mira Fox, detailing the problematic depiction of that Jewish character I mentioned, and here’s a direct response to that article, written by Dr. Karen E. H. Skinazi, a Jewish woman & associate professor of literature & culture. Skinazi argues that, while far from perfect, the inclusion of Jewish stereotypes in respect to that specific character still manages to contribute to the show’s overall themes of diversity, individuality, & acceptance.

The nuance of these two reactions is really important - Dr. Skinazi’s testament that the depiction of Ben’s character serves a greater purpose to the impact of the show as a whole, instead of simply existing as a way for the creators to express a dislike or hatred for Jewish people, makes it fairly apparent that Kaling & Fisher’s intent with the character was noble, even if their execution of the concept ended up missing a mark here or there.

In addition to that, I feel that it is very important to mention Kaling’s close personal relationship with B.J. Novak, who is himself a Jewish man and also the literal godfather of Kaling’s children.

Does this mean that Kaling is outright incapable of engaging in antisemitic behavior? Of course not! But at the very least, I do feel it’s indicative that Kaling is not actively trying to insult Jewish people or put them down, and that needs to be acknowledged.

Now, I personally have not encountered claims of Kaling specifically being antiblack or islamophobic, but considering that you did not provide me with specific things you wanted me to look into other than the very tall order of “what is and isn’t accurate about her,” and that you mentioned that your knowledge of her is specifically coming from “Jewish, Muslim, Black, [and] Trans” people, I’ll tentatively assume that the Black & Muslim people you’ve spoken with were perhaps providing evidence for some other complaints entirely. If there is evidence of her touting that kind of bigotry, though, please let me know! It’s important to be accurate with this kind of stuff!

I DO want to touch on what you’ve said about about timestamps, though; they’re far from reliable sources of information, especially when dealing with the realm of comedy. Context is EVERYTHING - you have to be aware of the overall message being told to the audience. You can’t just quote the setup to a joke and then refuse to acknowledge its punchline when it’s delivered; they’re both serving a purpose to what the speaker or performer is trying to express.

There were a few other claims that came to mind that I considered touching on, but frankly this post is already stupidly long and it really is not my responsibility to teach you guys how to appropriately interact with the information you are presented on the internet.

You can tell me if you want, and I’ll do my best to fact-check whatever it is, but if you aren’t gonna give me specific claims or accusations to work with, find and corroborate the answers for yourself. I’m not your mom, dude.

[batboyblog]

Books of the year.

So it's almost New Years! and looking back at 2021 it turns out I read something like 40 queer YA books in the year (not counting re-reads) and a lot of them were shit some of them were okay and a few were truly great so lets run down the greats that you should totally read in 2022.

1. All Kinds of Other

by James Sie

I literally can not recommend this book enough, if I thought it would work I'd attack strangers on the street to force them to read it, when my 14 year old cousin came out as trans this is the book I got him, I love this book. So 2021 saw a flowering of trans mlm books, which is great, only most of them were horrible. All Kinds of Other brings us a trans teenager who is funny, snarky, faces dysphoria and transphobia in totally human and relatable ways. It deals with issues without ever becoming a PSA slog. Again this is most likely my book of the year and if even one person reads it because of this I'll cry tears of joy. oh also the author James Sie is the voice of the cabbage guy in Avatar The Last Air Bender if that matters to you.

2. The Darkness Outside Us

by Eliot Schrefer

I don't even know how to talk about this one without spoiling I guess I'd say the first half is "what if Romeo and Juliet, but gay, set in the sci fi future in space and co-staring the HAL 9000?" and then we get into an amazingly deep, at times painful examination of what it means to be alive, to be human, what is destiny and what is love. There are scenes of unflinching intensity and gut punches that leave you feeling for the characters all the way through. I'm currently enjoying a reread right now with a friend.

3. A Complicated Love Story Set in Space

by Shaun David Hutchinson

When he's firing on all cylinders there's almost no one better than SDH and A Complicated Love Story Set in Space is one of his best. Yes it's another love story set on a space ship where not everything is as it seems sue me I have a type. In here you'll get an intense meta criticism of reality TV and a gut punch to any one who writes fiction and ever sat up late at night feeling guilty about the things you do to characters and the things we maybe should think more deeply about before using as tropes in fiction.

4. The City Beautiful

by Aden Polydoros

If you're into historical fiction or intensely Jewish stories/characters this is for you 100%. Lots of loving detail has gone into depicting 1893 Chicago particularly it's Jewish world. It's full of Jewish food, Yiddish, 1890s political radicalism, Judaism, and Jewish folklore. It's a bit of slow burn on the romance but the imagery is lovely and if you're a nice Jewish boy you'll feel Alter Rosen on a deep level.

Honorable mentions:

Flash Fire by TJ Klune and Mister Impossible by Maggie Stiefvater

Since both books are part of a series, Flash Fire being book two of a trilogy and Mister Impossible being book two of a trilogy that carries on with characters from another series of books I can't rate them as stand alone works. But if you're looking for series there are few better than the Raven Cycle and the Dream Trilogy is great so far, I loved Mister Impossible's mediations on art, particularly all the John Singer Sargent, he's always been a favorite and the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum which appears in the book a lot is one of my favorite places. TJ Klune's Extraordinaries series is laugh out loud funny, a little sassy and a little rude. If you've ever liked Superheroes its totally for you, if you've ever been an ADHD mess or an awkward but lovable boy also worth your time

[ravenssunshine]

okay elaborating on my previous tags here as an addition because i think it’s important. the reason “judaism was supposed to be the leftist religion” makes me so fucking mad is because it immediately undermines ALL of the work jewish and israeli leftists have done. it also undermines all of the suffering myself, my fellow queer and trans jews, and jews of color have experienced from politically conservative jews. judaism is not the “leftist religion” but you know what it does have? marginalized people fighting every single day for equality and recognition within our jewish communities, not even to mention in the world outside of those communities. and the israeli leftists. american leftists have been bashing israel left and right (somewhat rightfully so) but. there are politically leftist people protesting all over the country every. single. day. they were doing it for months before october 7. israeli leftists have been fighting for peace for YEARS.

judaism is not “the leftist religion.” but it is FULL of leftists who ARE fighting for equality and recognition every single day. support the individuals.

i leave you all with the pride mural i painted on the door of the art room in my jewish high school (that i’ve since graduated from). this is what we fight for, in SPITE of the suffering we’ve experienced at the hands of religious authorities

can't stop thinking about "Judaism was supposed to be the leftist religion"

[o-vera-nalyzing]

book rating #2: red, white & royal blue (casey mcquiston)

author's summary:

First Son Alex Claremont-Diaz is the closest thing to a prince this side of the Atlantic. With his intrepid sister and the Veep’s genius granddaughter, they’re the White House Trio, a beautiful millennial marketing strategy for his mother, President Ellen Claremont. International socialite duties do have downsides—namely, when photos of a confrontation with his longtime nemesis Prince Henry at a royal wedding leak to the tabloids and threaten American/British relations. The plan for damage control: staging a fake friendship between the First Son and the Prince. As President Claremont kicks off her reelection bid, Alex finds himself hurtling into a secret relationship with Henry that could derail the campaign and upend two nations. What is worth the sacrifice? How do you do all the good you can do? And, most importantly, how will history remember you?

genre: romance fiction, lgbt literature

rated: r

racial diversity:

the main character, alex, and his sister june, are half mexican, and it is woven throughout the story in a very natural and believeable way that doesn't make it feel like it was added simply for diversity's sake. mcquiston is a white person (they/them pronouns) but the way that they wrote about alex and his family, especially with the entire family being in politics, is very believable, and in my personal opinion, very well done.

zhara, the deputy chief of staff for alex's mother, president claremont, is black, and her fiancé shaan srivastava (prince henry's equerry) is hindi. they are side characters so their backstories aren't delved into, but there aren't scenes where is feels like mcquiston was just trying to profit off of having diverse characcters and it felt more like she was just having her books reflect th natural diversity of the world, which i appreciate.

prince henry's best friend percy 'pez' okonjo is nigerian, and like zhara and shaan, his backstory isn't elaborated on, but again like the other two, it didn't seem like she was trying to profit off of the diversity, just trying to be accurate to real life. the main reason it doesn't feel like mcquiston was trying to profit off of diversity was because unlike the abyss surrounds us, she didn't put in small, unnecessary things about their ethnicity, but never elaborate on them and only put them in to get 'diversity points'.

another poc character is rafael luna, who is essentially alex's mentor in the books. he is gay and latino, similar to alex himself, and he helps alex navigate how to be a non-white, non-heterosexual politician.

alex and june's bestfriend (and alex's ex-girlfriend), nora holleran, is jewish, which is not elaborated on, but is a part of her character in a natural way.

overall i think that mcquiston did a stellar job of representing many diverse characters without it coming across as disrespectful, inaccurate, or only to check off the diversity box.

racial diversity rating: 10/10

lgbtq+ diversity:

this book is a gay romance, so obviously the lgbtq+ fiversity is up there. alex is bisexual, henry is gay, rafael luna is gay, nora is bisexual, and while there aren't any trans, ace/aro or poly etc, characters, i personally don't take many points off for that because mcquiston themself is a queer nonbinary person so i don't think it was meant as a slight to those communities.

edit!

two people mentioned that there actually was a trans character, a secret service agent that alex mentions during his sexuality crisis, so thanks to @r0ckwell and @releasing-my-insanity for letting me know!

also, the way they write about alex's bisexual crisis is not only so accurate and relateable, but also funny and sits with the book, as well as alex's character so well.

lgbtq+ rating: 10/10

plot:

in my personal (and Totally Unbiased Opinion) the plot of this book is amazing, there is just the right amount of angst and sadness to make it somewhat realistic, but it's also very witty and fun at the same time.

the only criticism of the plot i can think of is that it isn't 100% realistic, because it has a happy ending and in some ways unrealistic to how america and britain really are. but im not going to take points off for that, because i dont think that detracts from the plot, it's just a personal preference, and honestly i enjoyed it because i have enough of the horrid reality of america every day so escaism is fun!

plot rating: 10/10

characters/character development:

I think the character developement in this book is really god, the growth both henry and alex show throughout the book is astronomical, especially on alex's end, and the characters themselves are mulifaceted and entertaining, while also being realistic.

character rating: 100/10

readability:

fairly easy read, as long as you know basica gay history you'll get all the references, and if you don't get them, just look them up.

readability: 10/10

my personal opinion:

this is probably my favorite book of all time, and definitely my favorite lgbtq+ book of all time, that said, i tried to be as objective as possible throughout this, and i think i did passably well. but i really just love everything about this book. it checks all the boces for me, and it's very comforting to read, because queer people go through enough normally that we shouldn't have to only be able to read books that reflect the struggles we already face everyday.

all in all, this is mostly a happy, bute, fun queer romance that i would recommend to everyone, queer or not.

overall rating: 10000/10

[writingwithcolor]

Find your next diverse read! #2 (WWC Reader Publications)

We asked you to tell us about your publications, and here they are! 

These are the eleven (11) books submitted to us, written by Writing With Color readers. 

Book Titles

Always Darkest

Commonwealth

Faerie Rising: The First Book of Binding

Fate (The St. Cloud Chronicles) 

A Hero’s Tale

Less than Three

Moonrise

Not So Stories Anthology

OPEN: A Tale of Love, Mermaids, Bassists, & Creepy Dudes

The Path to Dawn

To Whom it Doesn't Concern

--

Book Descriptions

Title: Always Darkest

Author: Jess and Keith Flaherty | @demonsrunlit Series: Yes Buy: Amazon Premise:  Supernatural meets Good Omens with a dash of romance and divine chaos.‪ Ben wants a vacation away from Hell, but Mal reveals a path to redemption instead. ‬ On the run from Heaven and Hell, a demon becomes a hero. Themes/Elements: Dark Fantasy, Paranormal Romance MC Race/Ethnicity:  White  Other Characters: White  Other Diversity: LQBTQAI+, Religion

--

Title: Commonwealth (Patreon series) 

Author: Adam Lee Series: No Buy: Patreon  Premise: In a near-future U.S. that’s become a hyper-capitalist dystopia of inequality and climate change, a small band of dreamers fight to bring back the vanished era when people worked together and helped each other. Themes/Elements:  Individualism vs. mutuality, capitalism vs. socialism MC Race/Ethnicity: Biracial black/white Other Characters:  Latino (Mexican), Jewish, Japanese/Chinese Other Diversity: Economic and environmental justice, sexism and pregnancy discrimination

--

Title: Faerie Rising: The First Book of Binding

Author: A. E. Lowan | @aelowan (multiple authors) Series: Yes Buy: Amazon Premise: 

Winter Mulcahy is the last wizard in the city of Seahaven, WA and all that stands between the fractious preternatural population and total chaos. Holding the city together by the skin of her teeth, the blood of her friends, and an addiction to stimulants that is slowly killing her, the young wizard is approached by a pair of sidhe lords. They claim that her city is harboring a fugitive who has kidnapped a sidhe prince, and that they are on a mission to rescue the boy.

Winter must investigate this fugitive to get to the truth of the kidnapping, discover the cause of the surges of wild magic tearing open rifts between realms across her city, and navigate the deadly waters of preternatural politics before Seahaven both figuratively and literally rips itself apart.

Themes/Elements: Addiction, redemption, found families MC Race/Ethnicity: (multiple POVS)

Young black hero just coming into his powers

Teenage wizard who proves that weight won’t slow her down

Physician at the breaking point who is addicted to stimulants

Two bisexual men in a dance of attraction (one survivor of childhood sexual assault)

Young trans man who will play a larger role in the second book

Gay Viking vampire king and his lover. 

Afro-Latina wolf queen 

Afro-Latino Lion King

--

Title: FATE 

Author: Jade Stewart | @j-a-stewart Series: Yes Buy: Amazon Premise:  FATE is a YA fantasy novel about a teenage girl from the Bronx who realizes there’s more to her new home in Buffalo, and herself, than meets the eye. Themes/Elements: Urban fantasy, magic/wizards, werewolves, vampires, benefits of hard work, fate, moving to a new city, romance, revenge MC Race/Ethnicity: African-American Other Characters: Japanese, Jamaican-American and Romanian (mixed race), & American Other Diversity/Topics: Anti-bullying, high school, friendship

--

Title: A Hero’s Tale

Author: J. Stern | @theactualjstern Series: No Buy: Amazon Premise: Sam Garrett is determined to be a normal kid in spite of his superpowers, only to have his resolve questioned when his powers are exposed to the world and he becomes the target of a powered villain determined to remove all powered from the world. Themes/Elements:  coming of age, superhero MC Race/Ethnicity: African American Other Characters: Black, mixed race Philipino and Mexican, Greek Other Diversity: queer characters of color (bisexual and trans), queer characters, disability (Deaf), mental illness (PTSD, anxiety), gender parity of characters

--

Title: Less than Three

Author:  Téa Belog | @transannabeth Series: No Buy:  Amazon | Books2Read | Goodreads Premise: Ren has been in love with his best friend for the past three years, Calliope has spent most of her life dancing, and Ingrid plans to start over in college, to go beyond what held her back in high school. Less Than Three is a collection of three short stories about a group of friends. Together, they shoulder their way through romance, all-nighters, and the occasional dragon. Themes/Elements: Romance, friendship, coming of age, mental illness, and college MC Race/Ethnicity: Japanese and Black (Calliope and Ingrid respectively, individual POVs) Other Characters: Indian, Vietnamese, and white Other Diversity: LGBTQIA+ (trans and nonbinary characters, gay characters), depression

--

Title: Moonrise (interactive novel)

Author: Natalie Cannon Series: No Buy: Choice of Games Premise: You’re here. You’re queer. You’re a werewolf. Who will you kiss under the moonlight? Themes/Elements: queer femme werewolves, fighting for humanity or giving into the beast, romance, aligning with the tradition of the Masquerade or breaking free with the desperate Rogues, found family MC Race/Ethnicity: Intentionally left up to player interpretation Other Characters: Black, Japanese, Mexican, Jewish Other Diversity: Lesbian, bisexual, pansexual, asexual, polyamorous, aromantic, trans, nonbinary gender options and/or characters. Amputee character. Mental illness mention

--

Title: Not So Stories Anthology

Author: Multiple authors of colour Series: No Buy: Goodreads Premise:  Rudyard Kipling's Just So Stories was a timeless classic. It is also deeply rooted in British colonialism. Not So Stories attempts to redress the balance, bringing together new and established writers of colour from around the world to take the Just So Stories back; giving voices to cultures that were long deprived them. Themes/Elements: Fantasy, ghost stories, fairy tales.  MC Race/Ethnicity: Various Other Diversity:  LGBTQIA+ characters

--

Title: OPEN: A Tale of Love, Mermaids, Bassists, & Creepy Dudes

Author: Emilie Nantel | @emilienantel Series: No Buy: Emilie Nantel  Premise:  A queer, polyamorous romcom for millennials, OPEN: A Tale of Love, Mermaids, Bassists, & Creepy Dudes is the story of Amy, bi, 25, in an open relationship, navigating the ups – dating gorgeous people – and downs – trying to avoid creeps – of the Montreal dating scene, when she falls in love with a hot bassist. This was not part of the plan. Themes/Elements: Queer found family, polyamorous relationship, friendship breakups MC Race/Ethnicity: White Other Characters: Black endgame love interest; half Filipina/half White best friend Other Diversity: Polyamory, bisexual MC, a cast all across the LGBTQIA+ community, MC is fat and has anxiety.

--

Title: The Path to Dawn

Author: Miri Castor | @miricastor Series: Yes Buy: Amazon Premise: Opal Charm is still grieving the loss of her brother when she meets a mysterious student in her class. Through their budding friendship, Opal discovers she has special powers, powers that brother once had. But she must learn how to wield them before an evil force destroys all that she loves. Themes/Elements: PoC kids/teens with superpowers, platonic relationships, family ties, light and darkness MC Race/Ethnicity: Black Other Characters: Filipino Other Diversity: LGBTQIA+ (Book 2) & depression

--

Title: To Whom it Doesn't Concern

Author: Wisdom A. Yarborough Series: No Buy:  Amazon | Goodreads Premise: (TW Suicide) 

A kid at Mortimer’s school has thrown himself off the roof. Everyone is freaking out, and trying to deal with the situation, while Mortimer wants this all to just pass as quickly as possible. It wasn’t like he was close to the kid who died, so there’s no reason to be concerned, or to even care? …Right?

Themes/Elements: Dealing with loss/grief, Suicide/Depression/Mental Health & Healing MC Race/Ethnicity: White  Other Characters: Topher, the love interest, is Pakistani-American. Mortimer’s ex girlfriend is black.

Other Diversity: Topher is Canonically Pansexual, Mortimer realizes he’s bisexual throughout the story, Many characters suffer with depression, and depression/suicide/suicidal thoughts are a huge part of the themes of the story, and coping with those feelings.

--

Read the first book share here: Find your next diverse read #1

Folks - If you read any of these books, please leave the author a review.

WWC Reader Publications - Winter 2019/2020 

[shiraglassman]

Rec: “Hungry Hearts” - mostly WoC authored YA short story collection about food and community

Hungry Hearts - I’m not gonna link it here because of Tumblr’s weird issues with links but if you search Big Evil River Site or your local library (since it’s with a big enough publisher to be AT the library) or anywhere else With Books, look for the one that’s “Edited by Elsie Chapman.”

Review!

I stumbled onto this anthology by accident while searching one of its authors, and feel very lucky to have done so. For one thing, I LOVE food and have a special fondness for the human stories of the restaurant business, because of my work history. For another thing, short stories make great snacks during the pandemic when longer tasks seem intimidating. I also really adore the way all the stories are linked despite having separate authors, because all the restaurants and families that run them are on the same street -- so characters from one will show up in another making the reader grin with familiarity. I'm not used to reading an anthology that crosses genre like this in the same setting -- some of the stories are firmly rooted in contemporary YA -- both romantic and not -- while others are paranormal (or otherwise magical) or even suspense. I can definitely get behind a communal storytelling, "all genres welcome here" atmosphere. What you will get in this book are trips into the world of teens who are looking for confidence and find it, teens who are looking to start new relationships or repair old ones, teens who are .... looking to appease an angry ghost? Solve a missing persons case? Win competitions? Yeah, like I said, this book has a little of everything. One pleasant surprise for me was that there was more than one story that had a f/f resolution. The book also has a trans m/f romance (as well as some cis m/f romances) and casual mentions of other queer characters -- it's definitely nice to be included in books that are not specifically queer-focused. Makes me feel like I'm part of the world, not just the queer world. To squee about some of the individual stories a little: "The Slender One" by Caroline Tung Richmond is a wonderful story about a Chinese diaspora boy who's inherited his grandmother's ability to talk to ghosts. He ends up having to appease one during the local food festival, and I enjoyed both the paranormal and "YA drama with other teens" plot. "Hearts a la Carte" by Karuna Riaza took me all over the place emotionally, with a Muslim YA twist on the age-old dilemma of superhero romance: how do you cope with being the non-powered love interest mixed up in the conflict between good and evil? I guess mentioning that he's a superhero is a spoiler given the way it's written but maybe there are some people out there who would rather know a story like this exists than go without. "Bloom" by @phoebenorthauthor made me literally squeal. And I was outside reading in my yard at the time so I'm glad it was early enough in the morning that nobody heard me! Okay so: this is the book's Jewish story (each story focuses on a different culture, written by an author from that culture -- other stories include Filipino, Montenegran, Black, Mexican, Iranian, etc.) and I'm Jewish so I'm just really glad that I ended up liking "our" story so much. The reason I loved it is that there's a phenomenon in literature that has very rarely happened to me but that I adore, where the author makes me want something, in this case a relationship endgame, before I have any indication at all that it's actually going to happen in the story. It's the sign of a really skilled romance writer when the author makes you 'ship the characters without even knowing that's what's going to happen, because it shows that there's something there between them besides "the plot said so." Well, let me tell you, Reader, I loved this character. If you've read my books I think you'll understand where I'm going when I say that Mangoverse fans or fans of my other writing will love Chava. Even though she doesn't get much screen time, there's a lot there and I was so happy to get the resolution the story made me want without telegraphing that it was gonna give it to me. That's like writing-burlesque! Good job, Author :P "A Bountiful Film" by SK Ali has no romance or paranormal (which I guess is a spoiler in this particular story) but instead just has a really, really good girl-centered plot about mystery, competition, and friendship. Top-notch short story writing. "Side Work" by Sarah Farizan is also f/f and cool, and for the first time in the book we hear about the threat of The Chain Restaurant. I enjoyed seeing all the plot threads come together, restaurant vs. chain, teen redeeming herself to the parents she let down, girls tiptoeing towards relationship. Throughout the book, a Mexican diaspora girl flits in and out of the scenery handing out pastries to the main characters of each story. The final story of the collection, "Panaderia - Pasteleria" by Anna-Marie McLemore, is her story, so by the time she shows up -- like a foreshadowed dessert -- we're so glad to see her! And she gets the book's trans romance, written by a trans writer. Incidentally, this is where the book finally mentions gentrification, after the whole book makes us fall in love with the unique patchwork of Hungry Hearts row, it reminds us that places like this can evaporate all too easily. I think that makes the warning all that much more effective and cutting. I hope I've convinced you to check out this book. If even one of these stories sounds intriguing, or if you, too, are stuck in your house and wish you could be visiting a place this colorful instead, it'll be worth it. And again: if you follow me because you like Mangoverse, you are going to have fun here. (I will note that one of the stories is straight-up horror and another one is pretty violent, so I'm gonna slap some TW's on the Missing Ingredient one and also Kings and Queens. But they are still very very good.)

[kindred-is-obsessed]

Reasons you should be watching Craig of the Creek

Not enough people are watching this wonderful show, so I thought I’d do my best to introduce people to it. It’s made by former Steven Universe crew Ben Levin and Matt Burnett, so if you’re missing Steven Universe while it’s on hiatus this is a great way to keep away the hiatus blues, or if you just enjoy in cartoons. It’s great for a whole list of reasons, which broadly fall into the two categories of great representation and great storytelling:

Canonical queer representation

-       The witches premiere in the episode The Curse. If you aren’t sure if you want to watch this whole show definitely watch this one at least! It’s my absolute favourite not least of all because it’s about teen goth girls in love. It has a sequel The Last Kid in The Creek which is also wonderful, and the witches cameo throughout the series. I don’t want to spoil too much but The Curse is essentially about the two not wanting to be separated and struggling to admit their feelings for each other. (Spoilers: they do and walk off alone, blushing, staring at each other lovingly, while the kids aww at them)

-       Bernard and his girlfriend watch a cooking show hosted by a gay couple.

-       Other cameos, hints and coded queer kids such as JP’s sister (who has fancy dinner reservations with Kat, a woman with a shaved head who compliments Kelsey’s fake sword). There’s also Raj and Shaun (two very close friends), as well as several very boyish tomboys, including Handlebarb and Turner.

-       All public bathrooms I’ve spotted in the show have gender neutral signs on them which is nice.

POC representation

-       Craig, the main character, is black and has a loving family explored in depth, including an activist grandmother working for the council, a wise and fun grandfather, a supportive fun dad who loves his amazing wife, an adorable assertive little sister, and an angsty overachieving older brother who just wants to be a good grownup who loves his family and girlfriend.  

-       There are MANY characters of colour. There are black and brown characters, Raj is Indian, Stacks is Hispanic (and it’s implied she is an immigrant), there are several Asian characters, Kelsey is Hungarian and Jewish, a persistent background character wears a hijab (I’m pretty sure she was named at some point but I can’t find her name anywhere. She definitely has lines at one point). I’m sure there are others I have missed. No one is a stereotype as far as I am aware.

Subtle neurodivergent representation

-       JP is possibly on the autism spectrum. I’d love neurodivergent people’s opinions on this, but while the representation isn’t canonical or obvious I think it’s good that while JP is represented as having different thought processes from his friends, he isn’t made fun of for it, at least not by them. It’s noteworthy I think that he’s the eldest of the core trio, probably because he finds it easier to relate to younger people who still share his imagination and care less about his unique way of thinking. His neurodivergence is explored most explicitly in the episode Jextra Perrestrial, so if you’re interested in this kind of representation definitely check that episode out.

Non-nuclear family representation

-       While the main character is a member of the typical nuclear family you see on TV (except black, and actually interesting) most of the other families we see are not.

-       JP is raised by his mother and older sister. His father is never mentioned and their house is definitely in worse condition than the others we see. His family works hard to take care of each other. His sister is a nurse and both her and her mother are away a lot of the time, but they both love JP very much. JP’s sister also happens to be really openly body positive. I love them a lot.

-       Kelsey’s father is an only parent. There’s still a lot of mystery surrounding how Kelsey’s mother passed away. It’s a very subtle but important part of Kelsey’s character and comes through in really bittersweet adorable ways (not limited to Kelsey using her “half-orphan”ness to guilt trip a man into giving her money)

-       Other kinds of families are scattered throughout the show, including families that move around a lot, a home-school kid with a strict mother, and more.

Unique approach to fantasy and sci-fi

-       You know how most kids show will take a kid’s fantasy and bring it to reality? Well Craig of the Creek keeps the fantastical and nostalgic element of that line of thinking but never confirms or denies whether the kids fantasies are real or in their heads. And not in a Scooby Doo way where the fantastical elements are explained away, but are hinted as a possibility right at the very end. Instead, two perspectives (the fantastical perspective and the realistic perspective) are woven into every episode.

-       This means there are two ways to interpret every episode. You can view the witches as real witches, or as goth teenagers. You can view Helen as a kid from another dimension, or a home-school kid who is never at the creek at the same time as the other kids. You can view Deltron as a cyborg from the future, or as an imaginative kid from a big city.

-       This is super unique and fun to watch. They come up with so many new ideas and its always fun to figure out what’s actually happening, while still getting to relive childhood fantastical nostalgia.

-       Almost all of these episodes use this to talk about an issue, but these issues can get quite complex and are definitely not shoved down your throat.

Overarching mystery plot about a colonialist kingdom / cult

-       Love the slow burn storytelling of Steven Universe’s Diamond Authority? Love putting together the mysteries of Gravity Falls? Then you’ll love this plot about colonialism, classism, bullying, peer pressure and more and its mysterious build up including cryptic graffiti art and flower symbolism.

-       Even before this arc properly begins, Craig of The Creek primarily centers around the microcosm of the Creek. Many of the episodes have a lot of commentary on society, politics and how different factions of people form and interact.

-       The show is over 50 episodes in and this arc is only just starting to kick off so now is the time to catch up and watch.

-       Fun complex villain(s)

Complex relatable characters

-       Want commentary and nostalgia about horse girls, children’s tea parties, weird kids, angsty teens, young weebs, dweebs and more!? Every childhood obsession is represented in this show.

-       Adults! All the parents and older teens in this show are just as rich and complex as the kids. They are all so interesting and fun.  

-       Want characters with arcs, aims, fun relationships and complexity!? Look no further! Redemption arcs! Revelations! Found family! It’s all here!

Great art and soundtrack

-       Cute background and character designs that make you nostalgic as hell and are also beautiful and well thought out.

-       Sometimes the art design is changed up for a particular episode to portray a certain fantastical / sci fi element. It’s very fun and engaging. 

-       An opening song that’s fun to sing along to, bittersweet ending song that makes me want to cry, a couple of musical episodes including a super fun rap musical episode, and a great OST

Queer headcanons

-       There are tons of ways to interpret the show but here’s some of my head canons just to get an idea.

-       (Note that despite my headcanons I use the pronouns for the kids that they use in the show cause I’m not certain about any of it and they’re kids who haven’t come out yet and also for clarity and consistency’s sake – I’m not saying trans people are not their genders. Don’t worry I’m nonbinary)

-       I headcanon that all the main trio grow up to realise they are queer. They strike me as that weird group of friends that doesn’t fit in with the other kids and aren’t quite sure how they all came to be friends, only to later realise they all showed early signs of breaking gender roles and that’s why they stuck together.

-       Craig definitely grows up to realise he’s gay, bisexual or queer. His admiration for characters like Deltron and Green Poncho are definitely crushes that he mistakes for a strong sudden and eager desire for friendship.

-       Kelsey probably grows up to realise she is nonbinary, a trans boy or a WLW. I mostly headcanon this because I relate to her a lot and I’m nonbinary and queer so I said so. She reminds me a lot of myself as a kid. She throws herself into books, mostly fantasy for escapism. She fantasises and writes a lot for the same reasons. She dresses like a tomboy (She always wears her hair up in the same bun which strongly reminds me of my own childhood hair dysphoria) and she hangs out solely with male friends.

-       JP gives me strong trans lesbian vibes, or to a lesser extent nonbinary vibes. (I know his sister is WLW coded but take it from me there can be more than one queer in a family). He is interested in girls, specifically Maney the horse girl (he even joined the horse girls for one episode). He wears a long V-neck shirt that is essentially a dress ALL the time. He’s aware that he’s different and while self conscious sometimes, mostly just wants to express himself the way he wants to. He also chooses to go by initials JP over his very gendered name Johnathan Paul (In a recent episode he names a ship after himself, calling it “The SS Johnathon Paulina”).

-       (Sidenote if you do start watching this show and I see any nasty shipping of these characters in non puppy-love fashion so help me god)

 Other reasons

-       The show is at times very intertextual and references Princess Mononoke, Super Smash Brothers, Sailor Moon, Lord of the Rings, and a billion other things. It also has some fun cameos, including background images of the Tres Horny Boys from The Adventure Zone, a TARDIS from Doctor Who, and a Cookie Cat from Steven Universe.

-       Honestly, this post hasn’t done the best job explaining why I love this show so much. You honestly just have to watch an episode to understand fully what I’m talking about, so give it a go! Watch The Curse at least, it only goes for 10 minutes.