#has been censoring lgbt content from ads

[fullhalalalchemist]

🚨🚨🚨URGENT PLEASE READ AND REBLOG

dec 13, 2022

we literally have just a few days to act. the senate is debating about putting KOSA, the Kids Online Safety Act, into the omnibus spending bill. if it is added, it WILL pass. despite the title and content of the bill seeming to be about protecting kids, we know everytime someone claims they are "saving the children" they have more sinister goals

which is why Senator Blumenthal is working with one of the biggest transphobes in the senate, Marsha Blackburn, to force this bill through, and claiming they are listening to LGBT voices when they are blatantly ignoring us.

essentially this bill gives every state attorney generals the power to remove anything they deem 'harmful' to kids online. you can see how a state like Texas or Florida would run with that, yes? it also forces you to upload your government ID online to access the internet. the bill will create a 'commission' led by handpicked members of the govt to oversee what is and isn't allowed online. it will lead to mass censorship of anything related to race or LGBT content. in a post-Roe world too? say goodbye to any abortion/sex-related info.

they are doing a shit ton of PR for this, including claiming they are listening to LGBT voices. i mean just look.

two weeks ago, 90+ human rights, LGBT, and tech orgs signed onto an open letter telling Senators NOT to pass this bill. in response, over 230 orgs led by the American Psychological Association signed a letter urging senators to. it's really fucking bad. like i can't sleep because of this. i didn't expect this to happen. we really really need people to speak up.

if this bill goes through it will literally kill off the internet as we know it

sign the open letter and petitions against KOSA here

the best way to fight against this bill is to call these specific senators (if you have dem senators, call them too)

nancy pelosi (202) 225-4965 roger wicker (202) 224-6253 chuck schumer (202) 224-6542 maria cantwell (202) 224-3441

call script below:

For Wicker only:

I'm calling because I'm asking the Senator to vote no on KOSA S.3663 from being added to the omnibus and being put through the Senate. The re-released text of the bill is still not adequate enough, and it's being rushed. This bill does not belong in an omnibus anyway. As a Gen Z, I also want to protect kids. I've been there. But this language is not ready yet. It should not move forward at all.

Hello Senator __:

My name is _, and I strongly urge you to oppose the dangerously misguided KOSA bill from being added to the omnibus spending bill. Bills like this should not be included in spending bills. Over 90 human rights and LGBT organizations have spoken out against this bill.

KOSA gives state attorney generals full power to sue any website if they see it has anything that is “inappropriate for children”'. For the past year, Republicans claimed everything LGBT is “grooming” children and we ended up with a shooting in Colorado and bomb threats sent to hospitals, NO senator should support a bill with vague phrasing like this. Before that, they successful removed books on race due to "CRT". This gives them a pass to do this to the entire internet. KOSA will only lead to more harm towards minorities and LGBT youth across the nation by censoring everything online.

The Heritage Foundation said they will use KOSA to target LGBT kids, specifically trans kids. In a post-Roe world, they will even use KOSA to censor resources on abortion. Anything they dislike will be targeted.

A bill this huge and this impactful should not be added to any spending bill. Even if it was a small bill, it has nothing to do with the omnibus spending bill and shouldn't be added at ALL. It needs more time being discussed. There should be hearings on it as well

We all care about kids mental health. We all want to hold Big Tech accountable, but this is NOT it. This will give Big Tech more power while taking away resources from the most vulnerable children. It is not the solution.

Please, do NOT support this bill. Do the right thing, and VOTE NO on KOSA.

[ammyamarant]

There are so many arguments against AO3 that I know are coming from people who haven't seen a huge fanfic purge in their fandom lifetime. I say this because they're all pearl clutching hysteria that has and still is being used to censor and suppress LGBT people and content.

I'm not kidding. These arguments historically were used both on fanfiction.net and on livejournal to purge LGBT fanfic. Saying it is the pedophilia website? Hey, did you know that's been used against gay men as long as I've been alive, is still being used against the same demographic, and has added trans people to that? Did you know if you manage to get that taken off of AO3, these homophobes and transphobes will do what they've done in the past and lobby for all LGBT content to be removed? This isn't a slippery slope. This has happened. This has worked. And it's currently working. This argument against the LGBT community is working on this hellsite. People just talking about being trans are getting the mature warning slapped on their posts.

Incest? Oh boy same argument. And have you seen the ships called incestuous? How many of them have characters nowhere near being family? I saw the breakout pairing of this, Sheith, getting this. Shiro was a mentor and a friend. They were nowhere near being siblings. And I'm old enough to have seen it used against real life gay people. Gay people have been told it's only because they were molested as a child, even if they had a good childhood, and that they'll do the same if they have children.

None of this is a slippery slope.

This has happened.

This is CURRENTLY HAPPENING.

This will continue to happen.

Stop pressuring AO3 to bow to this.

And the argument they don't need to do a donation drive? They have enough money? I understand even what we call middle class now has to live paycheck to paycheck. I understand having money put aside in case something goes wrong is not something the people saying this have been able to do. AO3, because people always donate even after the goal is met, have this rainy day fund in case they suddenly need to spend a lot of money on the site. They wouldn't need to do an emergency donation drive to afford this. I understand a lot of you aren't used to having money you can just hold on to in case you get a sudden massive bill. But don't say anyone who can manage that should stop getting money. That money is not meant to be used just to keep the site up.

AO3 also doesn't have advertisers harvesting your data and selling it. That's why the donation drives. They don't want to do this. For the "use Firefox it is safe and doesn't sell your data" website you're very insistent to make AO3 sell your data to stay afloat.

Stop attacking AO3. If it's really something you can't abide by, make your own. That's what we did. That's the "of our own" part of AO3. We made our own because we weren't welcome on ff.net and on livejournal. You can do the same. You can make an archive of your own.

And stop using arguments that have historically and are currently being used to censor all LGBT content. For fuck's sake.

[cherryg]

For the past months there has been a storm of bad internet bills this year, now it’s not just the EARN It Act or KOSA but now a bill just like EarnIt called STOP CSAM.

There has also been overwhelming support on KOSA with some news articles claiming that groups who once opposed KOSA supports it now.

It also now has 36 cosponsors with a group called Design it For US saying they are going to lobby for it to get more cosponsors to sign the bill in the senate in July along with pushing a markup for the bill.

This group is dedicated to protect children online which is a good thing but they also have huge misguided support for KOSA.

There are also bad pro censorship groups like NCOSE and The heritage foundation supporting this bill as well

KOSA was supposed to protect kids online but this will actually give state attorneys power to dictate what could be recommended for kids.

This is a huge issue because this will give bigots and transphobic people power to use this against lgbt and trans content censoring them entirely.

Major proof from this is that a far right group called the heritage foundation recently came out with this tweet. Last year they created an article stating why the support KOSA (KidsOnlineSafetyAct) and it’s not pretty at all.

/Warning/ if this stuff triggers you feel free to skip this part until you see a green check mark

TW: Transphobia

✅

Some groups that support KOSA claims that the state attorney stuff in the legislation has been “watered down” and that all concerns are “addressed”

but it’s kinda hard to believe when you have groups that have these kinds of dangerous and close minded views behind statements on how they are gonna use this particular bill to censor content from groups of people they hate.

Also, support was so huge that Dove is also advocating for it with Lizzo https://www.fightforthefuture.org/actions/tell-lizzo/

Also if you want more information and facts on why KOSA may not be a good idea. You can find more info here https://fair.org/home/these-bills-will-make-children-less-safe-

Meanwhile a few senators are trying to push the EarnIt act along with its sister bill called STOP CSAM. https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2023/04/stop-csam-act-would-put-security-and-free-speech-risk

While stopping csam is a great idea, these bills are bad for privacy and increase government surveillance. It’s also a section 230 carve out and will hurt creativity and free speech and expression. It’s also dangerous for everyone in a lot of ways. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2023/06/15/lgbtq-earn-it-act-risks-online/70247956007/

Please everyone, call your senators and tell them to oppose these bad internet bills!

( I’m sorry guys if this is badly made I’m currently rushing, I will be updating this post more and adding in more information)

[grimgiblog]

Why you should make a Misskey/Shonk.Social/Mastodon account.

Hi lol. As a trans artist who has been incredibly frustrated with tumblr censoring lgbt content and general transphobia. Eat shit Matt.🔨🚗💥 I wanted to offer a small guide about activitypub servers. Considering Tumblr and Threads wish to integrate with activitypub services.

It truly doesn't matter what instance or server you pick. There are a lot of them that within each individual one hosts thousands of smaller communities. You can also make your own servers and instances!

Other good servers.

Point of the matter is, you can follow anyone from any instance and have them on our dashboard. You can follow someone from mastodon and still use misskey.io Or (eventually) follow someone from tumblr on shonk.social.

Or even make your own instance. The best part is say one of these sites has another CEO meltdown, or they have harmful policies, you can migrate to another instance without losing followers or our posts.

From our experiences Misskey.io is similar to twitter AO3 and deviantart with no censorship regarding artwork (so long as you mark it as explicit). Which is good and bad. That means they allow drawn nsfw lgbt content and sex work. However being a japanese instance they allow drawn loli shota and noncon. Therefore I highly recommend using an instance blocklist and blocking any terms or words in relation. There are hatespeech instances and conspiracy instances of course. And it is always good to be aware of when a server becomes toxic. Luckily with instances and account migration we can pack up and leave. The reason I'm on Misskey currently is because its the biggest server and there are more utilities than shonk such as animated banners, decorations, and community outreach.

Mastodon works but the UI is incredibly bland and uncustomizable. It also feels mostly dead.

Shonk.Social is a fork of Misskey that is a safe lgbt space. It is a very small server currently but the people who code it are incredibly passionate. Their boosts and global timelines are really good ways to keep up to date on other servers.

You've also got custom emojis, lists, channels, antennae.

There's also cookie clicker LOL

But all the same I highly recommend it. If tumblr decides to feature activitypub integration we could eventually follow people from tumblr on any instances without all of the Transphobic ceos and app breaking ads.

[olderthannetfic]

"Have there been purges on the Russian language sites yet?" We have one big archive which is for profit so they are shady at best. For example they had a "no mature content with characters under 16" and only R for chara" (which is yuacky as itself) and then they have (payed) moderators who can delete your fic because "yes you said that he's sixteen there but also you wrote that he looks younger that he is so it's still counting". They also deleted fics that had mentions of russian attac on Ukraine. Not in fics (site has a policy about "not writing fics about major tragedies until it's six months over" which I found restrictive but understanable) but like in notes as "pls donate to Ukraine" or "pls protest". And when goverment made last censor lgbt+ ban which now forbids not only "propaganda to children" but "all propaganda that can make same sex relatioships as equal to hetero", they lost their shit and made another site named slashbook that won't show up in russian search engines and won't assosiated with first archive in any way and then was like "we will drop ALL works containing slash and femslash there" but they had such a backlash after that that they kind of stopped this? But maybe will do it if giverment will send them angly later. Btw owners of site is not in Russia and servers are not in Russia too. They just scared about losing money from ads. Suckers. We also had two? I think? Smallish and still beta-ed (or more like alfa-ed) fannish archives but a) they ugly b) they both had the same "no sex with minors" and not clear in many ways rules so I'm not happy with them either. So it's mostly ao3 for now, but smallish fandoms have little to no fanbase there + it's just sad to lose place that was your TO-GO place for so long. I mean it's not the biggest problem in the world with war and distopian laws etc, but after long day of shit work and then volunteering and then reading upsetting news person should have a right to go to fanfic archive and just mindlessly scroll in search of perfect omegaverse and not think that some fuckers could sunk this ship if it's stop being profitable. Also there's some useful things in this archive that ao3 doesen't have and I will mourn them. Sorry for the long rant! Just thought that in can be interesting as I find other people talking about how fandom works in their countries facinating

--

Very interesting!

[suppuration]

I've been seeing a lot of talk about the Community Labels debacle, and I figured I really need to make a post about why it's particularly fucked up that it's happening.

First things first: some definitions. Explicit content and mature content are two different categories, for the intents and purposes of Tumblr's ToS.

Explicit content filtering

Implemented in 2018, as a direct result of the porn ban.

Algorithmic. One filter checks at time of post. A second checks once the post is complete. At any time after a post is made, any user can flag a post as explicit.

Allegedly, flagged posts/blogs are reviewed by a real human, as posts/blogs that get reported aren't yanked instantly.

Both blogs and posts can be flagged as explicit.

If a blog is flagged for explicit content, its avatar and header are censored, it's removed from search results, cannot be viewed at blog level on PC, and its posts can generally only be viewed by appearing on the dash of a user who already follows it.

The only way a user can toggle whether they see explicit content on their dash is to simply not follow explicit blogs.

Explicit content doesn't abide by Tumblr's ToS. As such, having too many posts flagged as explicit can get the blog and/or entire account banned.

Community labels (AKA "Mature Content")

Implemented in 2023, part of "bringing back the tiddy"

Not algorithmic. OP can mark the post themselves to benefit other users. At any time, literally any user can flag a post as "missing a community label."

Besides being broadly labeled "Mature," OP can additionally mark a post as specifically containing sexual, violent, or drug themed. To label a post as mature, OP doesn't have to specify. If a user that is not OP flags a post as missing a community label, that user cannot specify what mature theme(s) they believe the post contains.

Allegedly, the flagging system is algorithmic. If any user flags a post as missing a label, the system will automatically mark that post as mature.

Only posts can have community labels. If you're viewing a blog on PC and receive a "This blog may contain mature content" warning, that means that one or more posts loading on page 1 of the blog have a community label. Both original posts and reblogs will trigger this message.

Most users can change the visibility of mature content in their settings, and can change these settings to make certain types of mature content visible but hide others. On Android, users can do so in the app, and all users who are not minors can change these settings in a browser. iOS users cannot change the visibility of mature content in the app at this time. Mature content is hidden by default to new users, and cannot be toggled on for users who are minors.

Mature content abides by Tumblr's ToS. At this time, I'm not sure whether a user can get banned for consistently neglecting to apply community labels to their posts, but I do know that as long as it follows all other community guidelines, mature content will not get a user banned.

The explicit content algorithm has been notoriously buggy and inconsistent from the beginning. For example, I personally had a toy duck marked as explicit without appeal. This algorithm has always been heavily skewed to flagging LGBT posts--including text posts, and including posts that didn't even contain "Mature Content"--to the point that Tumblr recently settled a lawsuit for discrimination allegations. Entire tags were hidden from searchability, and just adding certain tags to a post could get it flagged. I'm not sure whether it's gotten all that much better.

Now, the current issue is with the Community Labels. Transwomen in particular seem to be disproportionately getting swaths of posts marked Mature, and appeals aren't removing erroneous labeling. The posts can be about literally anything, and be any type of post, but most commonly it's transwomen's selfies.

The only algorithmic way for a post to become flagged as "missing a community label" is if a user adds "NSFW" to the post's tags, either when OP makes or edits it, or when any user reblogs it. Every other way a post will gain a Mature Content label is user driven.

I believe this can only mean one of two things: 1. Transphobes are abusing the "missing a community label" button to purposely hide transwomen's posts from minors and people who've opted out of mature content. If appeals are in fact handled by human review, that means staff is either just as prejudiced and/or is siding with the transphobes. 2. Or, staff is testing a feature which will eventually algorithmically determine whether a post contains mature themes automatically, and their current algorithm is just as prejudiced as the one that dictates explicit content. If so, that means the company learned nothing from the discrimination lawsuit.

It could be both, but I'm inclined to believe this is the work of some particularly nasty transphobes, just based on how many screenshots I've seen of people's activity feeds where they suddenly get dozens of Community Label flag notifications for posts of ANY age. (Really, if it's people doing this, I'd say they're being rather immature, hm?)

If anyone has more information about the situation, please don't hesitate to add onto this post.

If this has been happening to you, you have my deepest sympathies, and I really hope that @staff fixes the issue with utmost priority. I know that the staff blog made a post recently that mentions that they know there's a serious problem with Community Labels right now, so hopefully that means they're actually working on a fix.

[junko-apologist]

[stubbornjerk]

Why people keep telling you to block them if you support Pholo (Penumbra Edition)

Or: why jitterbug-juno really deactivated

I love when people categorize this as fandom wank. Really makes you feel like you’re putting the onus on either side of the conversation.

I’m making this post not because I want to stir up spoiled milk, but because I want it out there that this wasn’t a purity culture war.

The TL;DR version of this is that fans of color tried to tell Rab (prev. jitterbug-juno) not to post her Omegaverse (or A/B/O) fic. And instead of taking the L, she posted it on Ao3 and deactivated.

But, if you want context, well, buckle in. CW for mentions of racism and transphobia.

What did jitterbug-juno do?

Before I get into this I do want it out there that I will not be linking Rab’s fic, but I will show you this screenshot of the summary of it.

[ID: It is a screenshot of a fic, “As You Are” by Pholo.

Summary: Peter can hide his scent glands behind cologne; makeup; concealer pads. He can quash his heats with suppressants. He can divert the urge to nest and fawn.

But he can’t feign another gender’s subvocals. He lacks the anatomical capacity. Mag taught him to distract from his silence with fast, flashy words. For longer heists he relies on social convention. Traumatic mutism is uncommon, but remarked upon by enough war vets and soap operas to be widely recognized. Peter’s marks assume he’s been harmed long before they assume he’s a closeted omega. It would take quite the backwater brute to ask why he doesn’t murmur or chuff or growl.

On the 'Blanche there are the usual furtive glances. Juno makes clear to Peter that should he ever want “to talk about what happened,” he’ll be there to listen. The gesture annoys Peter more than comforts him.

‘Nothing happened,’ he wants to scream. ‘There’s nothing to talk about!’

There are 14 comments, 85 kudos, and 11 bookmarks /end]

You decide what you’re doing with that information, but honestly, I’d rather you don’t give it anymore engagement than it deserves.

There was a period earlier this June (yes, even though it’s only the 10th, at time of writing) when Rab was posting snippets of the aforementioned fic on her blog and tagging it appropriately, putting it in the attention of pretty much the entire Penumbra fandom.

What’s Omegaverse or a/b/o and why is everyone so against Rab for it

If you know what Omegaverse is, I don’t have to tell you why it’s controversial. If you don’t know what Omegaverse is, well, Fanlore said it best:

a kink trope wherein some or all people have defined biological roles based on a hierarchical system, with the terms originating from animal behaviour research. There may be werewolf, knotting, or other animalistic elements involved, or the characters may be otherwise purely human.

The term is generally written with slashes (a/b/o). Many fans, particularly ones from Australia and New Zealand, are uncomfortable seeing the term without slashes because it is also an Australian slur for aboriginal people.

I won’t get into the history or the heaps and tons of other discourses (mostly about fictional male pregnancy, homophobia, transphobia, sexual assault, etc.)  that go on within that. We’re here specifically on Rab v. Penumbra fans of color and we’re staying there.

Anyone who’s been in Penumbra enough to realize that everyone draws the Junoverse characters in a certain way knows that a) Juno is black, b) Nureyev is Asian, and c) as a fan you have to be aware of what you’re subjecting or saying about either of them because of the political repercussions that come with it.

And despite that, Rab proceeded to write Peter Nureyev, a gender nonconforming gay Asian male character that is widely headcanon’d as trans, into a fic using a kink trope that relies heavily on animal behavior.

Unlike most people new to fandom, Rab is aware of what Omegaverse is and is very much white. She is (and if she isn’t, should be) aware of the racist undertones that writing him in would get.

I couldn’t get a screenshot of what snippets Rab was sending out into the ether, seeing as a majority of my friends would rather not have seen any at all (I have all of the usual tags blocked so I wouldn’t have seen it either way), but needless to say, Rab got attention for it. Both positive and negative.

Anne (@hopeless-eccentric) even posted a satirical fic, in the odds that Rab was just writing this thing to be “the first” to write Omegaverse fic in the Penumbra tags.

But, I’m assuming more than one fan of color came into Rab’s inbox and messaged her about it, but someone I know (who would like to remain anonymous) was gracious enough to take a screenshot before he sent his in and let me use it for this post:

[ID: A message to jitterbug-juno about to be sent by a sender whose name is censored with a black bar. His messages says:

“as someone who is a person of color i think the nature of the fic you are writing right now is extremely racist and attributing animal characteristics to lgbt people of color is not at all appropriate, especially when you are someone who is white. i have to ask you to not publish this fic and to reflect as to why you would want to write this in the first place, these tropes are extremely harmful and”

There are 33 characters left to write into the message. /end]

I can’t speak for whoever else sent asks about the fic she was writing. If anyone was actually not-so-gentle with her, well, minorities don’t really owe it to you to be gentle about what they can tell is bigotry-tinged behavior.

But, the message was clear: this is different from your garden variety, lily white straight male character m/m kink fantasy. This is an actual queer Asian character that a lot of queer Asian people feel attached do. Do not post the fic.

What happened next: the beginning of the end

The next morning, I woke up to most of my friends being frustrated by this post on Rab’s account:

[ID: Dated 5 June, a post by jitterbug-juno:

“Gonna leave the fandom for a while. Wishing you all well.”

The tags say the following: not sure if i’ll be back, thank you so much to everybody who’s read my fics, and who’s sent asks or engaged with my art or any of that, you’re amazing and I’m sending love /end]

That... was not what fans of color wanted, but it was definitely an action they took. Some celebrated, as they were very much wary of Rab for having caused much of the same category of drama in fandoms like Voltron: Legendary Defenders and Warrior Cats. This also meant that she was probably not going to post the fic either.

Some, myself included, were relatively pissed, as they’d wanted even just the measly bit of accountability. An apology or an acknowledgement of having been called out in private and that they’ll take time to consider why. But instead we got Rab leaving in the face of fans of color telling her not to post her Omegaverse fic.

Well. The next day...

[ID: Dated 6 June. A post by jitterbug-juno titled, “Well... that was short-lived”

“I gave the situation a lot of thought yesterday. The reaction to my omegaverse previews made me figure I should leave the fandom. It seemed like the safest option.

But you know what?

Hell.

I don’t want to leave. The fic discusses the tropes of omegaverse and I spoke to several POC on Twitter, and I’m going to post it with plenty of tags so people can avoid it if they wish. I’m not going to be chased out of this space.

Thank you to everyone who sent messages yesterday. I shouldn’t have made that post about leaving. It was really reactionary. I’m okay and I appreciate your support so much.

(bolded on the post) To those who are angry and uncomfortable with me: Please block me. If you’re going to talk about this fic on Tumblr and Twitter– and this may sound odd– PLEASE NAME ME as Jitterbug-juno or Pholo. Don’t vague me. That way people who don’t want to see this discourse can add my name to their block lists.“ /end]

That certainly was short-lived, she wasn’t kidding.

This got a lot of outrage. Again, the fic is up on Ao3 and she has not taken it down. A lot of POC were pissed and I didn’t see a single fan of color actively support what she was doing, at least, not in my friend group. Everyone started making those posts to block them if you liked the fic or Rab’s content in general, in accordance to what Rab wanted.

Perseus (@mraudiodrama) noticed/pointed out that Rab deleted the part where she said she spoke to several POC about releasing her fic, as well as the part where she said she refused to be chased out of the fandom. This was an incredibly pointed detail to edit out, according to some.

[ID: A screenshot of jitterbug-juno's last post taken 11:00PM. Much of it is the same except the following bolded words are removed: "The fic discusses the tropes of omegaverse and I spoke to several POC on Twitter, and I’m going to post it with plenty of tags so people can avoid it if they wish. I’m not going to be chased out of this space." /end]

That same day, Rab deleted her blog. I actually caught this one on tape, believe it or not.

[ID: A screen recording taken at 12:01 PM of someone scrolling down jitterbug-juno's account. The posts and asks about Omegaverse and her post about leaving and coming back are conspicuously absent. /end]

Initially, I thought she deleted all mentions of it. I wanted to see firsthand if the rumors about her deleting portions of it were true. If she added things where she was saying that she wanted to write it because she was autistic and wanted Nureyev to be autistic too, regardless of the numerous QPOC telling her not to do it.

Instead, it turned out, she deleted her blog.

And now, we're here. The fic is still up. Her blog is down. Rab's public Twitter account @nataclinn is quiet about this. Her @cushfuddled Twitter account is on private after her run-in with the Warrior Cats fandom, according to a friend. And her Tumblr @cushfuddled account has nothing but memes.

Again, I didn't make this post to stir up drama. I wasn't even obsessively making this post as a call-out because she isn't in the fandom anymore. I just want it out there that this isn't a purity culture thing that got out of hand in a fandom as niche as Penumbra. This was a case of someone being called out and failing to acknowledge it before running away. And I want all that out of the way before I say:

If you are on Rab's side of this debacle, I, a queer person of color, want nothing to do with you either.

[filmmakerdreamst]

Xena: Warrior Princess Review

During Pride Month 2020, I finally got around to watch ‘Xena’. A show that had been in my to-watch list for years, but never got around to start. And when I finally did, I was pleasantly surprised. It was not what I expected and it was everything I think my 11 year old self would have loved.

The one thing that surprised me about the show, was the lack of packaging. Even though it was a fantasy, it also played with different kinds of genres too. I’ve talked about this before in my other review - ‘Xena’ was made at a time when TV had very few rules/rarely had a set audience, since there were parts of the show that were clearly for kids and there were other parts that were clearly for adults (therefore had much more flexibility). I admired how they weren’t afraid to break barriers and touch on deep themes such as religion, morality, redemption, spirituality, motherhood, forgiveness etc - even more than shows of today are able. I also loved how they played into the idea of ‘murder’ and how much it can damage a person - not just the person who commits the act, but the many people affected afterwards. I wasn’t expecting it to be that extreme. It made me think that this must of been the inspiration for ‘Game of Thrones’. 

I see a lot of comments here and there, saying how ‘cheesy and terrible’ it was but to just accept it because its part of the fun. And while like any show it does suffer from the occasional spell of bad writing (the whole of season 5) but it was also shown to be very aware of that fact and never took itself too seriously - unlike some shows I could mention. 

And regarding the ‘cheese’ factor (what 90s show wasn’t) It definitely can be, but I would call it ‘camp’ and ‘experimental’ more than anything else. (Don’t diss the poor use of CGI - I’m personally sympathetic to what was avaliable to them at the time) The style of humour reminded me of Taika Waititi’s filmmaking. If you’ve watched any of his films such as ‘Hunt for The Wilderpeople’ or ‘Jojo Rabbit’, then you know what I’m talking about. I liked how little they cared about being accurate or logical, which added to the ‘bonkers’ element in the show - which you can see in all of Taika Waititi’s films.

In all seriousness, a show centered around two women in their late twenties, who are realistic sizes (not trying to play teenagers). One of whom is a reformed mass murderer, who has lived a life experience, trying to do good in the world for the first time, picking the other one up who has no life experience prior (after they bugged them until they said ‘ok fine’) in their path to redemption. Just two women who become friends travelling the world together, fighting crime, having a laff, learning from one another without any toxicity - when suddenly when the stakes are raised - they realise ‘oh I'm actually falling in love with this person’ I have watched a lot of badly written shows in my childhood enough to know that, that’s not ‘cheesy’. I’ve never seen a story like that in my entire life. I’m not at all surprised that Russel T Davis was inspired by it while writing the Doctor and Rose’s relationship in ‘Doctor Who’ since he’s gay himself.

What’s more amazing about their love story is how they’re both develop as separate people as well. There was this video essay explaining ‘Why you should watch Angel’ the spin off series to Buffy; how ‘Buffy The Vampire Slayer ‘was all about growing up and ‘Angel’ was all about being an adult. With Xena: Warrior Princess, you have both of those stories at the same time. 

Xena’s character was such a multifaceted experience to watch. And I can’t imagine anyone else who could play her as well as Lucy Lawless. What planet did they get that actress from? She's flawless! The amount of skill she has to put herself into a very physical role is astonishing. I personally had a love/hate relationship with her character all series long. Not in the way that I hated her, just that I couldn’t trust if she was all good or bad, which I know was intentional on the writers part. I haven’t seen a character quite like her before. She felt very much like a fallen angel; almost like the villain of her own story. Some of my favourite episodes come from fleshing out her character and dark past (‘Locked up and Tied Down’ is one of them) which reminds the audience that's she's not the stereotypical hero everyone expects. I loved her transformation from being this incredibly stoic warrior to being content and happy with who she is in season six, all because of a woman she fell in love with along the way. 

I’ve always thought of Gabrielle as the real hero and narrator of ‘Xena’. She’s the prime example of ‘a normal person becoming extrodinary’. Gabrielle’s coming of age story starting out as an innocent girl from a poor village dreaming of adventure, and ending as this vicious warrior who realises the ‘adventure’ wasn’t how she made it out to be is honestly the best character arc that I’ve ever seen. I loved how travelling with Xena made her realise her passion for writing (which was never going to happen in her home town, given the ‘sexist’ and ‘heteronormative’ ideas) and that she became a amazon princess like Xena. In regards to her sexuality, which is more up for debate than Xena’s (which I think we can all agree is bisexual) I personally interpret her as gay, just in terms of how she was written. Theres this moment in season 4 where she's being held up her hair, and Xena “symbolically” cuts it off ‘freeing her’. And she never really gets with a man afterwards, unless she’s being ‘possessed. It reminded me of a moment in one of Hayao Miyasaki’s films ‘Laputa, Castle in the Sky’ where the bad guy Moska shoots Sheeta’s ‘princess hair off’ which symbolises her transition from child to adult.

The cinematography was breathtaking. There was some great utilisation of New Zealand as the scenery. So was the soundtrack. You could tell it was made by experienced filmmakers. One of my favourite things about the show was the domestic elements - moments in the show where time seemed to stop - which made the world around the characters seem very real and magical. Even though it was a show that featured a lot of action/adventure, there was also this gentleness to it as well. For example, you could feel the wetness of the rain, the warmth of the sun and the clashing of the waves. This technique is used in Hayao Miayasaki’s work a lot .

The technique is referred to as ‘MA’ 空虚 meaning emptiness in Japanese. ‘Miyasaki describes this as the time between a clap’

“If you just have non stop action, with no breathing space at all, its just busyness. But if you take a moment, then the tension building in the film can grow into a wider dimension” - Hayao Miyasaki

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The episode ‘A Day in the Life’ in season two is a really good example of this technique being used.

To my understanding, they used a lot of the local actors in New Zealand, which according to Lucy Lawless, consisted of ‘African immigrants and other different ethnicites’. It was so refreshing to see such a diverse show (despite some slip ups) especially in the 90s. I appreciated the idea that if the actors or extras couldn’t do an ‘american accent’ people could just talk in their natural speech which was also very refreshing. 

The LGBT representation was surprisingly amazing. I never expected so many queer characters in one show - especially under the censors. There was this one episode where they had a trans woman - played by an actual trans actress - win a beauty contest. It made me cry. Not to mention the actress was an aids activist. It was actually Lucy Lawless’ idea to kiss her which was incredibly controversial at that time considering how everyone thought you could catch aids just by kissing. I can definitey see how it validated people back in the 90s.

When people told me that Xena: Warrior Princess was one of the greatest love stories, I thought they were exaggerating a little. But no, watching the show in context, I found out that it really is. Despite its obvious restrictions, It made me realise (regarding token gay couples today) how often television writers rely on physicality and drama to convey a ‘love story’ and how much of it is actually pandering the audience. One of the reasons why Xena and Gabrielle’s relationship felt so genuine is because it was built on mutual respect/compassion and they were also best friends. I felt like I was witnessing something very real and private. It didn’t need kissing scenes or drama to make it interesting. 

It really helped that most of the writers were queer also. There’s this opening scene in season 4, panning over to Gabrielle giving Xena a massage (metaphor for sex - because they weren’t able to show that on screen) which I consider to be one of the most iconic scenes in media - considering how I wanted to sick up my supper when I watched the 10 minute ‘empty’ explicit sex scene in ‘Blue in the Warmest Colour’. The difference when something is written by a queer women vs a straight man.

Because the creators weren’t allowed to write their love story in the normal way, due to the studio forbidding them to, they found creative ways to showcase that love on screen - which made for a very magical/sensual experience. And I can safely say, if anyone has doubts about watching ‘Xena’, whenever I expected to be queer baited at a few points in the show, I was proved wrong time and time again. It’s the most romantical show I’ve ever seen in my life!

[theritualofourexistence]

Clarity in the Cancellation Crusade

After posting multi-paragraph comments on a couple different things that have popped up in my feed recently, it seemed like I should probably just sit down and write this out.

“Cancel culture.” Crazy shit, right?

The recent onslaught of cancellations includes Mr. Potato Head, Pepe Le Pew, a handful of Disney movies (Peter Pan, Dumbo, The Aristocats), and *audible gasp* Dr. Seuss. The Muppets also got a newfangled Disney+ content warning, though I’ve seen significantly fewer headlines about that.

The thing that inevitably happens when the news media decides to publish a headline about a children’s toy or book being “canceled” is a veritable parade of social media complaints about how sensitive people have become. I saw this particular post over 10 times in the period of a couple hours one day last week…

The question I’ve been asking recently when I see posts like that is this: “Who do you think cancel culture is?”

Because “cancel culture” isn’t real. In the majority of the cases currently making headlines, the choice to remove a character from a movie or stop publishing a book has been made by the company responsible for that character or book… and that is very much a normal thing companies can choose to do.

No one I’ve posed the above question to has overtly mentioned “Libtards,” but it’s certainly implied. People who haven’t read a Dr. Seuss book in 20 years are now suddenly all up in arms (literally?) because “the Liberals” are coming for “And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street.”

The Liberals are not coming for Dr. Seuss. They do not care about a potato toy. Also, nothing is happening to the Cat in the Hat. I repeat: NOTHING is happening to the Cat in the Hat.

The choices to stop publishing that book and to market a vegetable toy in a less gendered way were made by the companies responsible for producing those products… not the Liberal “cancel culture” ghoul. In fact, it’s really, really hard to find public outcry about any of the things that have been recently “canceled.” There was a single NYT article that recently discussed the problematic nature of the Pepe Le Pew cartoons… that said, Warner Bros hasn’t aired that show in decades and it is not clear whether that article had anything to do with the skunk’s scene being removed from the new Space Jam movie.

Even growing up I remember things like political correctness needlessly becoming a partisan issue. When we fall into that media trap, all we’re doing is watering the plant of an already poisonous and ineffective two-party system. Be bigger than that temptation. Push back against media intended to further divide Americans. If something stinks, it’s probably rotten. Sure, there are certain topics that fall under the umbrella of political correctness that sound alarm bells for censorship issues… but didn’t everyone’s mom tell them that if they didn’t have anything nice to say, they shouldn’t say anything at all?

Again, though, the most important thing to remember about this recent wave of “canceling” is that censorship concerns are moot. A person who owns a thing is legally allowed to do all the censoring they want. It’s not the government that has decided to stop publishing 6 books written by Dr. Seuss… if it were, we could have the censorship conversation. These changes aren’t happening because there is a Democrat in the White House. They’re happening because the company who makes these products, has for whatever reason, decided to take a different approach.

In the case of the Dr. Seuss books, Dr. Seuss Enterprises re-evaluated their choice to publish 6 books based on racist themes and images. I have only heard of two of those six. The image below is, in my opinion, objectively problematic:

The fact that a major company behind such a well-known name has seen that something is problematic and has decided to stop publishing the books containing overt racist images is awesome. It sets a great example that we can all learn from. Humans have an amazing capacity to learn… that’s one of the only reasons we are in charge here on Earth. If we fall on ice once, we are often more careful on ice the next time. When we see that something is racially problematic, it’s a good thing if we can take action to get that thing out of rotation. More on that later.

Fundamentally, what is happening right now in Media Land is gross sensationalism.

“Cancel culture” isn’t real. Should people face consequences if they say or do racist things? Yes. We should all agree on that. Should we stop publishing books that perpetuate racist stereotypes? Yes. There are plenty of non-racist books that provide an education about racial differences without the added (exceedingly inappropriate) zing of Asian characters being painted yellow and African characters being given monkey features.

If you’re not convinced that some of Dr. Seuss’s material is racially problematic, I encourage you to pop on over to Google to check out the series of ads he did for FLIT in the 1930s. Yes, it was the 1930s. In the last 90 years, we’ve learned that images like that are not okay… let’s use that knowledge to let old racist graphics die.

Still can’t accept that “cancel culture” isn’t real? Still feeling like there’s something in the air now that is different and worse than before?

Okay, then, let’s consider it further.

Things have been “canceled” by people for millennia… this isn’t new. Being all for cancel culture when Colin Kaepernick kneels for the anthem (a perfectly legal form of peaceful protest considered respectful by many veterans) but opposing cancel culture when it’s threatening to eliminate an obviously racist thing is not exactly a moral stance. Burning your Nikes in the street but then turning around and spending $400 on a copy of “If I Ran the Zoo” on eBay after Dr. Seuss’s own family has pulled it from publication due to racist imagery is… silly.

The same people who seem to be so vocal about “cancel culture” now are part of the same communities who tried to cancel plenty of things in my lifetime. Things like trick-or-treating, Harry Potter, school dances, books and movies with LGBT+ characters and themes…

History absolutely bubbles over with things that have been canceled… often for good reason! Some examples that come to mind: 

DDT

the Catholic Church (see the 16th century Protestant Reformation)

doing our everyday poopin’ in outdoor holes

polio

hoop skirts

phrenology (new science cancels old science like every damn day)

Ford Pintos (not to mention cars without seatbelts)

telegrams and rotary phones (replaced by easier and better ways to communicate)

lead paint

asbestos

Four Loco

Y’all remember when we all did the ice bucket challenge to cancel Alzheimer’s?

Learning that something is problematic and moving past it is LEARNING… not cancel culture.  Learning and growth are good things. We all benefit from them.

Another thing worth commenting on from that Cat in the Hat post that circulated in my Facebook feed: why do we consistently demonize sensitivity? Racism feels like something we should all be sensitive about. If being sensitive about something results in meaningful change and a less hateful country, isn’t that… good? Why do so many Americans seem to place so much value on their “freedom” to hurt others?

And don’t get me started on comparing this stuff to Cardi B. It boggles my mind that that’s happening at all. Why is there suddenly so much outcry about one song that features female genitals in a literal ocean of songs that feature male genitals. I grew up knowing every word to songs about sex well before I even knew what sex was. Your kids are only desperate to listen to WAP because they know it makes you squeamish. And take a second to think about why it makes you squeamish. Genitals are human and scientific and we literally all have them. If you have more of a problem with WAP than with any of the other 10,000 songs about dicks and sex, you need to spend some time examining why that is.

Here’s another post I’ve seen bouncing around the social media feeds:

Something about this is just plain hilarious to me. Like what are racism and rape culture if not THE REALEST issues? This country’s problem with systemic racism runs so, so deep and is reflected very plainly in centuries of cold, hard numbers. It’s not that I *think* systemic racism is a problem. The data very clearly shows that regardless of what white people think about race in this country, systemic racism absolutely IS a problem. Racism and rape culture, arguably at the root of the most recent canceling spree, are not just real issues, they’re real American issues. They’re cultural issues. And solving cultural issues is not easy. We know that these issues have been passed down through the generations so maybe changing children’s toys and books and shows isn’t such a bad thing to try. There is SO much work to do to address racism and rape culture in the United States, but small steps are still progress.

If choosing to stop airing a show that blatantly perpetuates rape culture means one less young person is stalked or assaulted or raped, that’s worth it, no? What if that one young person who doesn’t become a victim is your daughter?

If choosing to stop publishing a book with racist themes and images leads to even one kid understanding more about the nuance of race in America and the breath-taking extent of white privilege, that’s worth it too.

Would I rather the media spend time and money to bring American attention to bigger issues associated with this nation’s racism and rape culture? 100%. There are ENORMOUS fish to fry. Dr. Seuss is not an enormous fish. Potato head toys are not enormous fish. Pepe Le Pew is not an enormous fish. They’re not even big fish. They’re small. They’re tiny fish. They’re anchovies. But frying some fish is better than frying no fish.

Canceling Pepe Le Pew is not hurting anyone. Warner Brothers owns Pepe Le Pew. Warner Brothers owns nearly everything; they are not hurting for money. And canceling Pepe certainly isn’t hurting American kids. There are plenty of other kids’ shows to watch that are significantly less problematic. Just because you watched Pepe Le Pew and went on to be a properly respectful adult doesn’t mean there aren’t other kids out there who did internalize a harmful disrespect for consent. No, Pepe Le Pew probably isn’t single-handedly responsible for anyone’s decision to stalk or rape anyone else. But could a show reinforce the groundwork that ultimately leads a kid down a path where he is unable or unwilling to respect the boundaries of others? I mean, it’s not the craziest thing I’ve heard this week.

Canceling six total Dr. Seuss books that are already pretty obscure is not hurting anyone.

Changing the name of an already genderless potato toy to reflect that genderless-ness is not hurting anyone.

A brief recap: racism and rape culture are very real, very American issues.

If the decision to stop doing a thing doesn’t hurt anyone and may even save someone some hurt, why does that decision bother you?

Also, in all your frantic Facebook posting, make sure you are differentiating between “cancel culture” and consequences. When the media tosses around the phrase “cancel culture” it has this tone of finality that is, plainly, not realistic. Fads and trends move so quickly in the internet age that the idea that a group of people could “cancel” something permanently is just not possible. People who do or say racist things, though, should face consequences. People who do or say transphobic or homophobic things should face consequences. Consequences are one of the only ways we learn to do better. And again, that’s not my opinion, it’s science.

One of the consequences that can have the most impact is, you guessed it, losing money! In this capitalist hellscape, money talks. Boycotting and choosing how we spend our money are some of the most engaging ways to combat racist and homophobic garbage. When you have your temper tantrum because the company who owns a book with overtly racist imagery decides to stop publishing that book, that speaks volumes about your priorities. If you respond to that company’s decision by buying the book in question on eBay for $400, that speaks even louder volumes. What are you doing? WHY are you doing it? I’m guessing you don’t even know, and you should probably spend some time thinking about it before you flush away a chunk of your stimmy on a freaking RACIST KIDS’ BOOK.

All actions have consequences. All of our choices never affect just us. How we vote affects other people. How we spend our money affects other people. Spending our money on things that are problematic perpetuates the problem… whether it be racism, rape culture, homophobia, or transphobia… or so many other things this country desperately needs to address.

It’s human to not like change. Change is going to happen, though, regardless of whether or not we’re comfortable with it. In the information age, we have a remarkable opportunity to steer that change. Leaving behind racist relics is change, so it may be inherently uncomfortable. But change that moves our country away from racism and rape culture is GOOD change.

I am begging you. Use critical thinking… if you’re seeing a headline about something being canceled, look up WHY. Some of these headlines are absolute bunk… they’re shared just to get people all riled up and create American division. However, just like we *should* cancel lead paint, a children’s book with overtly racist images shouldn’t be published anymore and it’s weird if you disagree with that. Disagreeing with that decision, as silly as it may seem, perpetuates racism. I know how triggered y’all can get when someone suggests you might be perpetuating racism, but it is what it is. Do your research. Don’t spend your money on racist garbage. Be better.

I feel like this post is me just barking the exact same thing in different ways, but I also feel like there is so much more I could say.

I’ll leave you with this:

What will it take for Americans to weigh the threats of racism and homophobia the same way we weight the threat of lead paint? If it’s a matter of costing lives, well, the numbers speak for themselves.

[overgosh]

So it’s after BlizzCon.

Some thoughts, because there are some posts that have popped up on my dash that make my blood boil:

On the Hearthstone Tournament Situation:

For its treatment of Blitzchung and the twitch casters, Activision Blizzard was completely in the wrong.

It was inappropriate for Blitzchung and the twitch casters to use the platform that way, as it would be if any other political statement was announced (whether divisive or not). It is completely reasonable for a penalty to be given, but not in the manner that it was.

Activision Blizzard’s corporate executives royally fucked up, and will continue to not serve the best interest of its userbase when it comes to making money and continuing to be a behemoth corporation. All statements have been strictly based on PR and have not been suitable apologies or plans of action for improvement.

On Fake Diversity Which Has Somehow Become The New “Forced Diversity”:

While it is great for marketing and for shitty apologies to fall back on their ideals using Overwatch’s diversity and Blizzard’s tenets, AND that certainly is a selling point that they will, of course, use to sell their game to people:

The idea that Activision Blizzard’s corporate executives are trying to bait LGBT people and POC into forgetting their misdeeds by adding LGBT people and POC into the game is totally bizarre... For so many reasons. For so long there hasn’t been representation because it “doesn’t sell” or “appeal to the masses”, especially for the types of games that Blizzard produces. The implication that Tracer having a picture of Emily on the dashboard and Sojourn arriving were solely added to soothe the controversy are so wildly absurd in terms of the timeline of reality itself and straight up common sense. 

Overwatch specifically has admirable goals of diversity. Sometimes the team does a damn good job, and sometimes (often) they mess up. If there’s an actual solid foundation and evidence about how the exec’s insidious use of “diversity points” are being used to manipulate the public while not contributing anything meaningful to the landscape of video games, I’d love to hear it. There is a LOT to unpack here, but that’s my brief point on it.

Oh also, for fuck’s sake - of course China has censored the LGBT content in Overwatch. That’s not an Evil Blizzard Machination -- China pushes through censorship for all kinds of media content that’s not considered “decent”, which as you may remember as an example included the LGBT relationships in Steven Universe (namely, Ruby and Sapphire). Using the same logic, that would imply that Steven Universe’s LGBT themes were included for diversity points. It’s.... There’s lots of problems with Blizzard, y’all, that one doesn’t quite hold up.

On “People Are So Quick To Forgive Blizzard”:

Some people are, yes. There are folks who fully believe J Allen Brack’s statement(s) in their entirety.

Other people didn’t really care either way in the first place, and just want content.

Some have decided that based the actions after the initial incident (the penalty reduction, as well as not stifling or turning away hosts that spoke out against the incident, and also not interfering or silencing the protests at BlizzCon) that they are taking a stance anywhere in the middle of this situation. They may be excited for game content created by incredible people, including diversity that they have been asking for for literal years.

People are not so simple as to be put into one bucket. This is a huge leap of logic I keep seeing pop up on social media. Being excited about a revelation from Blizzcon doesn’t equate to forgiving the company.

On “How can people support an evil company?”:

We have to deal with late stage capitalism, so unfortunately we can’t avoid supporting corporations while living in society. This one sucks ass, guys. We live in a time where global superpowers are so interconnected that foreign influence affects everything we do, and the simple act of impulse buying a candy bar from the grocery store check-out may have just been a teeny contribution to slave labor (hi, Nestle). It’s positively overwhelming. On that note:

Other behemoth companies such as Apple and Google are also causing significant damage to the same freedoms, many related to the same Hong Kong issues and much more. SO:

Use your voice to do good, and use this revelation about the actions of a small group of people at the very top of this video game company to make a difference. Screaming at tumblr users for being “sheeple” for being enthusiastic about dark-skinned and lesbian heroes as though shutting that down will solve the problem is a really horrendous missing of the point. There is still good that can (and does!!) come out of Blizzard, like the realization of the success of a diverse cast of human characters. As we all say time and time again: representation is important. We fight for the message that Blizzard champions to not ring hollow, so use your voice. The employees at Blizzard sure did. And speaking of:

The devs and artists working at Blizzard are not Activision Blizzard’s corporate executives. In an industry as unforgiving and volatile as games (Remember when Activision laid off 800 people after a record-breaking, successful financial year?), they’ve worked their asses off for years for this. They’re regular-ass working people who actually have a say in the story and how the game is developed. You can love the story. You can love the characters, love the games, and STILL hate the corporation. You are a complex individual, just like this world we live in. You are welcome to find where the scale for you tips. If it’s not worth it for you to support Activision Blizzard, then that’s a battle that you are fighting. If you choose to be an activist like many hosts, casters and content creators who speak up while still covering Blizzard content, great. If you choose to boycott, great. If you choose to share information to others about the issues, great. The world is far too complicated to judge on a “GOOD” and “BAD” polarity, unlike the method of thought this site (and yes, others as well) tends to proliferate. So if anyone tries to put you into a black and white box, know that there is no such thing.

Finally:

On “I feel so helpless about Hong Kong. How can I help?”

https://www.reddit.com/r/HongKong/comments/cv0ws4/how_can_you_help_hong_kong_protests_from_abroad/

This Reddit user has compiled a list of Hong Kong protest resources. This includes a Blacklist and Whitelist if you are someone who is interested in cutting ties or supporting companies based on their reaction to the HK protests.

[allthebrazilianpolitics]

Brazilian YouTuber Felipe Neto gives away 14,000 LGBT+ books, after attempt to censor them

Neto, who is one of Brazil’s most popular YouTubers with 34 million subscribers, made the grand gesture after Mayor of Rio de Janeiro Marcelo Crivella tried to ban sales of books with LGBT+ themes at the Rio International Book Biennial.

The right-wing politician had sought to censor books on sale after taking exception to an Avengers comic book that features a kiss between two male superheroes, claiming it is “unsuitable for minors.”

In a video, Felipe Neto branded the attempted censorship a “sad day for Brazilian democracy,” adding: “Love is not porn. Love should not be censored. It cannot be prohibited for minors.”

Announcing his response, he explained: “We need to send a message of unity, to show these people there is no way that they will censor LGBT+ content.

“So I bought all the stock of all the major LGBT-themed books at the festival, and they will all be delivered for free, tomorrow, to those who are there and want a free book.”

In a mischievous act of compliance with the mayor’s demand that LGBT+ books are sold with content warnings, the books come in black bags with a label that says: “This book is inappropriate for backwards, outdated and bigoted people.”

Continue reading.

Update by the mod: they ran out of books. All the 14,000 books have been distributed, one book per person. People described a World Cup kind of atmosphere, it being by a mile the most crowded day on the event so far. Earlier today, a Rio de Janeiro court authorized the City Hall to order the retraction of the books. According to Felipe Neto, officials arrived there to try and confiscate the books that were being given away. He also said an armed troop has just come in with 20 armed men. Most of the crowd are young adults, children, and teenagers.

(Post from September 7th, 2019)

[saint-patrice]

“Tbh I would like to have the 34 *other* Bergy pics on your shortlist, complete with commentary lolol. And then (if you’re still waiting that is) any other Marchy pics with commentary? xD xD” 

here are some more of my favourite marchy pics, complete with my bizarre personal commentary, for anon! the 34 bergy pics can be found here also!

Note: a few people have said they like these posts, so i’m up for taking people’s requests if there’s a particular player they’d like to see! inbox is always open (and anon is on) so just drop me your request and i’ll get working on it :)

okay so this is some absolutely premium cute marchy!! the smile that manages to be completely self-confident yet in no way cocky? the polite little wave as he surveys his audience who, if i recall correctly, were booing him heavily?? oh i do love you mr rat. marchy is fantastic and i have so much respect for the way he deals with his reputation across the league and the excessive amount of shit he gets.he knows what people think of him yet doesn’t seem to let it get to him. i have so much love for him.

KATRINA IS LEGENDARY. before moving on to the part of the image that gave me whiplash when i first saw it, we’re back to talking about brad’s smile. i think i said it in my last post but he really is one of those people who smiles with their whole face - even if you just saw his eyes in this photo you can immediately tell that he’s got that little grin on his face and that’s adorable tbh. now onto the d*lf mug (censored bc i fear the dodgy underground porn blogs these days)… i don’t even know where to start. i feel like he very proudly bought it for himself. and it’s like the only mug he ever wants to drink out of. just my take. i also think the longer hair really suits marchy ngl

ahhh the boys and their dirtbag christmas suits 💛 highlights of this image are the suit jacket that is definitely just one size too small for this absolute man rocket, and the pants with “FRAGILE” plastered all over them - very relatable if not at all festive.

gay rights are stored in the rat!!! i’m glad marchy has been pretty open about his support of LGBT stuff, particularly within hockey. also i feel like some of the stuff he’s said in interviews or social media (esp re: lickgate) manages, even if not intentionally, to be quite diminutive towards implicit homophobia or ‘toxic masculinity’ within hockey. okay maybe that that was poorly expressed but basically he just doesn’t give a shit and appears very open and accepting and i think that’s super nice. this picture also makes for a good reaction image when someone says something dumb

short kings love.jpeg !! a wonderful example of the love that brad shows his teammates on a regular basis, despite his constant chirping. i have no real opinions on torey krug (no h8, i just don’t think i’ve seen that much of him off ice so idk) but him and marchy are quite the duo tbh, i live for their back and forths on twitter - more on that later - and they seem to love each other an awful lot, it’s v cute :^)

that’s my pest™. honestly i think lickgate is one of the best scandals in recent hockey history. when looking for a good image of this is saw an article where some dipshit reporter was outraged about it and was like “how would you feel if someone just came up and liked you?” i mean what if someone just came up and started punching you or hip-checked you into the wall????? hockey is a nasty game a lot of the time, and instead of giving people concussions or broken bones (not that he hasn’t in the past ik…) marchy managed to make opposing teams just as angry, if not moreso, just by licking players. i think it’s fucking hilarious. and most of them took it well in hindsight anyway - i think it was komarov who said he kinda liked it lmaoooooo. peak bradley kevin antics if you  ask me

every pic from the china trip has such a special place in my heart. this is just an all-round adorable photo and brad is looking gorgeous in the sunlight and his backwards cap

brad waving the towel in surrender is just about the funniest thing i’ve ever seen someone do in the penalty box… i can’t believe they gave him a 10 minute misconduct for it, something i think they’d wouldn’t have done if it had have been someone else. at least someone in this league has a goddamn sense of humour. the penalty minutes stat in the corner just makes this even better

brad, once again, showing us how we should deal with people talking shit about us - just get on board with it. i love how much he’s just embraced his massive nose and his height and his general reputation. idk if it’s really deliberate but i think it’s such a good message to send, and it makes for some pretty funny stuff too.

brad single-handedly keeps nhl refs in a job. in my bruins drinking game™ you have to take a shot every time the ref has to physically restrain marchy (2 if it’s because he was going to get revenge or fend for bergy) and you could get fucked off that alone during some games. it was nice to see him not actually get suspended this year, but i will always love that he’s such a physical player and quite the pest on the ice :))

me: *slaps helmet of brad marchand* this bad boy can fit so much personality.

really though, can you believe he’s managed to squeeze more charisma into only 5 feet and 9 inches than 85% of the league combined… very cute picture, and always lovely to see him by bergy’s side on the ice where he belongs

oh my goddddddd how fucking cute is this though!!!! the hat! the dad energy those jeans and the boots give off!!! his face!! his little daughter!!!!! i can’t take it, my heart is going to burst.

(gif via @kureally) this is also just so cute, i need a minute. brad has some very powerful eyebrows and this gif displays them wonderfully. this section of behind the b was also pretty sweet all round, and i agree with pasta that the hair is looking pretty first class

(gif via @murlin09) i am not like into marchy (no tea no shade if u are though), but this gif… whew. i’ll let you come to your own conclusions on this one, gang

i was not lying when i said more on the brad-torey social media antics earlier. there are some truly iconic chirps (the zamboni one is lethal), but this self-roast just kills me every time. i never once thought i’d read a tweet from the official brad marchand twitter account that opened with “hey shorty” but here we are. “my nose wouldn’t fit” i astral projected the first time i read that. and if you’re wondering what torey said to prompt this, it was simply “hey marchy”. it doesn’t take much for brad to light on you, huh? we better watch our backs

definitely a favourite marcheron pic right here - the pucks and paddles (i still think that’s a questionable name but maybe that’s a me issue) content is always top notch. if you can find the video, it’s even better, but this picture captures the general energy of the video perfectly. the only thing missing is that brad’s feet aren’t actually on the floor because the height difference is so pronounced that bergy has to lift him. beautiful

return of the cute brad smile!! a cute yet mischievous little grin, i can only assume he’s restraining himself from laughing at m*tthews fivehead (although who is he to talk with that schnozz. at least he rocks it tbf 👃🏻). not sure blue is really his colour but he’s going for it anyway. that’s my all star!

it’s been days since this photo first surfaced and i haven’t stopped palpitating. the cutest photo ever, they all look so happy and i love that!!! also how are their wives so beautiful….!? oh my every pixel of this image is just stunning

i know i included this in my last bergy list but if they can name new york twice i think i can put this on 2 lists, because lord knows it’s even more iconic. i feel like this is a good metaphor for brad marchand: getting up to no good, although still relatively harmless, all the while supported by the considerably more sensible, yet still entertaining, patrice bergeron. additionally, another excellent display of the oft-overlooked fact that this man is built like a motherfucking tank. holy shit

i wish i could see these boys in suits without my brain immediately trying to think of some sort of au. anyway, i really like this look on brad (unpopular opinion - i love his loud checkered suits as a concept but i don’t think they look good). although he has dark hair, strong eyebrows, and dark facial hai, the all black actually looks really good on him. coffee in hand really adding to the look too - well done, brad “fashionista” marchand.

ahhhhh i love nothing more than family man marchy 💛 his daughter is adorable - those tiny jerseys kill me - and i love that his son is wearing the all-star jersey omg how cute (he is definitely going to end up taller than brad lmao)

sometimes i forget that brad is short and then i see photos like this (brandon is 6′5 for reference)…amazing. i relate to the lady on the left on a spiritual level. brad’s face is a mood and a half. his feet are half a foot of the ice at least. i adore this photo.

(gif via @brandoncarlo) absolutely one of my fav things about watching bruins games is how brad and patrice will always find each other during a celly - nothing beats the 100 hug. this is also just a very satisfying skating gif that i love.

last but very very very far from least is this. there is literally no need for me to make any comment on this so i’m just going to leave it and go. bradley kevin marchand you are iconic and ily

ayyy this was super fun to do, thank you for requesting it anon, i hope you like!! again, i’m absolutely up for taking requests for more of these lists so hmu if you have ideas :) 

[abri-chan]

On JJBA/JoJo Discourse

Just a summary of my thoughts so far. Last post on in for now, but if you have questions don’t hesitate to ask. (Warning: trigger, noncon, lgbt-phobia, aged-up)

1. The idea of a block list and intentions behind it, aren’t necessarily bad. I want to believe people are decent until proven otherwise. If you are concerned about triggering or disturbing content in your fandom, and want to do something about it, that’s a great attitude to have. We need people that are willing to stand up for those who are too afraid to speak or aren’t given a voice. What bothers me (and other users) is the way the idea was executed (more on 3). 

2. I do believe people sharing the list are acting like a hive-mind, BUT I also understand why you are doing it. If someone gave me proof of predators or dangerous people, I’d want to share it too, so others can be safe. But the way the list was compiled had no safety-checks, and the meaning of some “crimes” was redefined to include content that doesn’t belong in it. Did you actually go through 270+ (and the list is growing) blogs to verify the claims? If you checked a blog and found disturbing content, please do block. Sharing information on predatory content that you are sure about, is a good idea. On the other hand, sharing a list of over 270 blogs (and growing), that you won’t even check, is not. What if users ended up there due to mistakes, malice, misinterpretation of tags, or triggering content (that while some of you may dislike, it’s not a crime. Should we publicly shame all horror writers, because they write disturbing shit?)? Are you willing to take the burden of defamation and possible harassment these users will get? You are complicit now. Your followers trust your authority when you share/reblog something, You can’t escape responsibility. I do understand that wanting to protect others takes priority. But do use commonsense with what you share. Because sharing itself is a statement you make. (And yes, commonsense is something you learn.)

3. The execution of the idea was poor. That’s my main beef with the list. 

Let’s start with the administrative part. The list is owned by 8 people. This means they are immune to criticism, while everyone else gets shit. It is true that people could report to them (the block-list blog) about problematic users. But what makes you think they won’t be biased, since they control who goes in, and hide themselves? In fact, they declared genderbending as a crime (problematic maybe? but a crime?). And one of the 8 runs an Abbacchio/Bruno genderbend blog. They are not on the list. Isn’t it ironic? 

Once a user/blog is in, there’s no way out. No feedback, no appeal. Do mistakes and misunderstandings never happen? Today they did say that the way out of “jail” is to publicly apologize and delete harmful content. Again, if one was added by mistake, misunderstanding, or malice, what do you have to apologize for? So they can say they got you, and you must be guilty by admitting to it. There's no guarantee they will delete your blog name from the list. These 8 people think they have the right to judge an entire fandom. And that they themselves are beyond judgement. Nowhere in their blog (so far) do they admit to the possibility of making mistakes.

Here's a better way to deal with problematic content in the fandom: use a format (list, platform, forum, whatever) that gives everyone equal access and stakes. We could actually have a discussion that way, about what's problematic and needs to be tagged, and what is unforgiven.

Now for the content of the crimes themselves. There may be people advocating for fucked up stuff in that list, and in that case, you should stay away from them. No one is saying every blog is innocent. However, based on blogs I follow and the names of the crimes, a lot is just triggering content (LGBT-phobia, incest, noncon, aged-up characters, shipping teens together, etc). The debate about when and if fiction/art should include such topics is ongoing; and there are good arguments to be made on both sides. Context is very important. Is the work or piece of art advocating for it, or just exploring boundaries, or even speaking against it? Blanket-censoring everyone that produces triggering content won’t solve much. Also, just because something can be explored in fiction/art, doesn’t mean it’s okay IRL, and that the author condones it. 

A lot of the crimes were pejorative blanket-statements including and redefining a lot of content or tags. For example, noncon/rape included works with rough-sex or what can count as “rape fantasies”. You know how fucked up it is when people say that because someone has rape fantasies, they are okay with rape? Again, a lot of it is about exploring something risky in safe ways. Roleplaying “noncon” with someone you trust, with agreed boundaries, and consent involved (and withdrawn at anytime) is not the same as rape. Aged-up was added under “nsfw with minors”, and it’s not the same thing. Is grown-up Jotaro in part 4 a crime, since he’s aged-up from part 3? I do understand that a lot of these tags are controversial. Actual sexual harassment can be passed for noncon/dubcon roleplay. Or actual content advocating for nsfw with minors can pretend it’s just aged-up (the character still looks and acts like a child. Miss me with the 100 year-old lolis in anime and manga). 

A solution that works (to some extent) has been tagging, which a lot of people do. Granted, if a blog isn’t tagging their content well, reach out to them. But people themselves can block a blog that writes content they don’t like, or block tags they don’t want to see. What is the point of putting every controversial tag (and anyone who writes/draws about them) on a public shame list?

Whomever made the list may have had good intentions, but they do need to admit they fucked up in the execution step. Instead, their current attitude (as it is written on their blog) is there were no ways mistakes were made, and everyone in there is guilty (the audacity!). Also, let’s publicly shame everyone, since some of them may actually be bad people. 

[frost-skyder]

Gaslighting, homophobia, harassment, etc.

This is a copy of a journal that was/is on deviantArt since the incident happened there, but I’m putting some of my records here when it involves harassment and art theft.

Warning: This includes harassment towards minors by a predatory adult, homophobic behavior, gaslighting, and other predatory behaviors.

Another Update:

Archived here for better viewing:

https://web.archive.org/web/20190704135920/https://www.deviantart.com/haleyc7995/journal/Harassment-and-Discrimination-About-My-Opinion-802306133

It’s one thing to harass me, but going out and threatening others isn’t okay.

Update, a freaking year later:

https://www.deviantart.com/haleyc7995/journal/Everyone-report-this-journal-for-harassment-802227692

Apparently I'm part of the LGBT+ Mafia because I said it's homophobic to go out of your way to say our existence is wrong? Not sure where they got that idea but they chose to dig up this old warning journal since they were harassing Queer people, and apparently think it's still okay to do so. 

 Also going to note that trying to use neurodivergency as an excuse for our actions isn't okay and is ableist, basically spitting in the face of other neurodivergent people. 

---

OH WAIT THERE'S MORE!

This guy has sexually harassed minors. Also much more disgusting rhetoric than I expected in stamps but also in other comments towards minors. Please be advised of the explicit comments when clicking on this journal.

[Journal redacted by minor]

It's one thing for him to harass me, another adult, but to sexually harass and target minors is beyond disgusting, and illegal. If anyone wants an example of what a predator is, here it is.

---

Nvm, not last update.

Due to more and more people coming forward, I'm going to keep updating this journal, and adding links provided to me. I'm going to state that I'm so, so sorry to all of those who have been harmed by the three perpetrators in this journal. Hopefully from awareness comes prevention of further victims.

It was also brought up to me that my journal skin was causing issues for mobile users, so since this journal is very serious in nature, I have removed it so no matter what platform it should be legible.

This Journal is being added because it provides more information. TW (Rapey Rhetoric, body shaming, harassment, etc)

[Journal removed]

---

Last Update (hopefully): Due to the garbage he keeps posting, I decided to block both his accounts because he's just rehashing what others have said about him, and now pinning it on victims lmao. When I told him I didn't tolerate how he was sexually harassing women and belittling sexual assault victims, apparently I'm the one harassing trauma victims now?? 

For the record...the only person I've blocked is him, which makes it funnier, but okay Chad™

Also going to state that being neurodivergent is not a justification for marginalizing others, ever, and is a spit in the face and throws other neurodivergent people under the bus. As I said, most of my friends with autism are in the LGBT+ community, and a majority of my friends are neurodivergent in general. So am I. It's never an excuse to marginalize others,

ever.

Apologies to everyone who had to deal with him, his nonsense, and has to deal with people like this in general.

And sorry, but marginalized groups speaking out against people actively trying to harm and oppress them isn't and will never be fascism. Thank you for coming to my TED talk.

---

Very, very IMPORTANT Edit:

It is fairly easy to tell, but EmpatheticDesign is the same person as GrandtheftAutoOnline, and uses the duo of accounts to block evade.

I was made aware by others spreading my journal that this person is known for this behavior, has harassed others in the past, and belittled victims of trauma, including rape victims. It's one thing to be a homophobic garbage pile, but to go out of your way to harm and belittle those who have suffered through serious trauma? So yeah, please let others be aware so they are not harassed as well.

Edit: The second journal was removed at the request of the victim, who didn't want to associate with their abuser, or be found again. I was allowed though to give some details about what happened, so I think it's best that I post a screenshot of our notes, censoring the names.

 https://www.deviantart.com/uwugirls/journal/Stay-safe-guys-749736306

At this point, it's beyond just harassing the LGBT+ community, and they seem to harass, sexualize, and belittle victims and women in general. Please be aware of this and stay safe.

Triple Edit: The person mentioned below, EmpathicDesign proceeded to post homophobic garbage on other people's posts so yeah, they kind of just admitted to be homophobic which is why they are so bitter lmao.

Double Edit: Apparently pointing out homophobes is facist now lmao. This was a great magnet for homophobic garbage so y'all can also block GrandTheftAutoOnline while you're at it, since they are trying to compare facism and oppression to someone pointing out homophobia. Clearly they don't know what facism actually is, what oppression is, and just want to justify hate speech without consequences.

Edit: I'm going to put this here so others know to also bock/avoid this person, who has made a variety of stamps targeting the LGBT+ community, and decided to think it was a smart idea to defend this person's discriminatory and phobic behavior as an "opinion."

Suuuure it isn't...

Then this lovely stamp shows they don't even know what "safe" spaces refer to whatsoever and they'd just rather shame Queer folk. Ya know, besides trying to avoid admitting that they are just phobic.

So yeah, here's another person that blatantly discriminates if you want to add to your list of "people that don't deserve any of your time." ------

Being gay myself, and having to deal with this on far too consistent of a basis, I thought I'd do my part to warn others so they can avoid some of this in their lives.

Apparently HaleyC7995 has done these things before, but I wanted to warn others who are Queer and may want to block people who go about spewing homophobic rhetoric.

I don't suggest going to her profile if you are sensitive to fat fetishizing, vore, and sexualization of a potential minor character (the character is in high school so there is a large possibility that they are a minor). Also racist depictions of characters.

People tried to explain why what they were saying wasn't okay, how it was homophobic, but she turned it around to blame the victims for her actions and other inappropriate behavior. She continued to say she was "misunderstood" about what she said, despite multiple times saying how being gay was "wrong" and overall seems quite content continue to say such things.

 It started by saying something unnecessarily homophobic on an art piece, then when the artist made a status saying how people needed to stop being homophobic at them, they posted this on that status:

As you can see here, many people expressed how this was innapropriate:

 https://comments.deviantart.com/62/13481362/4588682762 

Apologies to the artist who was subjected to this person. You aren't the first victim, and hopefully you will be one of the last. For those who aren't Queer and don't realize this yet...you can't "turn" gay. She for some reason acts as if it's a choice lmao. 

And well, many people reacted angrily, and she decided to "apologize" which wasn't an apology at all, but once again shifting blame and saying that it was just her "opinion." 

 For future records, hate speech isn't considered an opinion. It's hate speech and bigotry. An opinion is that I don't like raisins in my carrot cake because they make the cake texture gross. 

Credit to this person who tried very, very hard to explain why this wasn't okay. This had to be the most patient person trying to explain why homophobia isn't an opinion. 

 People continued to be mad, because well...the obvious lack of empathy, blaming others, and continuing to persist with the idea that being gay was wrong and a sin. 

Other people tried a well, especially those who have dealt with this person before she was banned on a previous account. She was ban evading for a while but it seems the accounts were unbanned now.

 She continues even with me to say she's "unaware" of what she's doing. It's obvious she's not, and at this point she gets very gaslighty and trying to flip it once again on everyone else. 

I was blocked after this so I couldn't respond, though as an angry gay person I had choice words. Unfortunately, due to how she's behaving, and how she has a history to blame everyone but herself for her own actions, I don't expect she'll be changing anytime soon. If you are Queer, have Queer friends, or just are very tired of blatant phobic behavior I'd just suggest blocking her. She's not willing to change or learn, but that doesn't mean we have to subject ourselves to hatred.  I am so sorry for those she's already caused harm to, for those who tried so hard and had to put up with this, and for those who have had to deal with her even before this incident.

[chimaeroid]

Ok. A lot of miscommunication is happening on the AO3 changes. I think it is intentional too.

I think people need to understand the difference between censorship/banning, and moderation.

Moderating content, adding tags, filtering options, and perhaps a requirement to have tags for certain kind of content. THAT I could get behind.

That allows people to moderate their own experience. They can control what they see and experience, within reason. And if something wasn't tagged, when it should have been, I'd see a review being needed, and a tag being added by moderators, as an obvious step.

But censoring takes that control away. It means that someone else is controlling what you are allowed to read, or create, or share, based on whether THEY find comfortable or "appropriate". This strips the voice from artists, and the choice from consumers.

The thing about "objectionable" content, is that everyone has different tastes from each other, and your tastes change over time, AND that different art exists for different reason.

Even the most vile content to you, might be another person's attempt to process trauma they have suffered. Say a kid got abused, sexually, among other things, and as they grow up, they need a safe place to talk about it. To explore their own psyche, to see what is going on in their own head.

Say they share it, and there are others who resonate with it, and it becomes a shared experience of processing, and healing from, trauma. It legitimately saves lives.

While it could, potentially, also, be a source of material for kinks, that many people have a distaste for, the point is that if you don't like it, nobody forces you to participate. Nobody else is controlling what aspect of yourself you want to explore through art.

Nobody else gets a say in what is "valid" or not. That is the reason we have much more open discussion of things like non-heteronormative sexuality, non-binary gender representation, non-neurotypical psychology, and plenty of other outliers in various regards, that are not served by society enforcing content controls based on collective comfort.

Art is supposed to be evocative. The only way to do that is to tread on the boundaries of propriety. It is intended to make you uncomfortable. Growth requires you to be uncomfortable.

The broader acceptance of people on the autism spectrum, and various LGBT+ identities, has only happened because people are talking about these things. People are being open about their identity and developing a strong community, and much of that is due to the ability to safely, and anonymously, explore subjects that are deemed bad by society.

I am not advocating for any particular set or subset, of behavior as acceptable. That's kind of the point. Gay sex was an arrestable offense, until 2003. Even if it was in your own home, fully consenting, between adults. It took having real conversations about how we treat people, even those thought of as evil, sinful, dangerous to society. It took pointing out that they are real people. It took those people realizing that they were real, and that they were not alone.

It always comes down to pedophiles. The thing gays have been tarnished as, as an excuse to dehumanize them, for centuries. The idea of "protect the children" from the evil horrible despicable people. Well, turns out that having people talk about their damage, helps prevent people from damaging others.

Abuse victims, people who are traumatized, if they don't get help to understand it, to process it, and heal from it, tend to fall into a pattern of reliving or recreating it. Those who direct energy inwards tend to be self destructive, making bad choices on purpose, sabotaging healthy relationships, and harming themselves, up to the point of suicide. Those who direct outwards tend to be abusive of others, physically, mentally, emotionally, socially. This is where new abusers come from. Most of them were abused themselves, and did not get the help they need. The humanity they needed, to recover.

That's why the disproportionate numbers of abusers show as male. Because the disproportionate number of abuse victims are male. Same as suicide, which has become so common that it is the leading preventable cause of death for men, and boys as young as ten years old. And this is coupled with societal derision of maleness in general. There are zero safe spaces for men to escape this.

Turns out that disregarding the humanity, and the right to be secure and safe in your own skin, because of gender, leads to huge issues, that hardly anybody is open about.

We could probably save way more women and children from being abused, if we also considered male victims worth saving. Because then they might be recovering instead of lashing out, or killing themselves.

Why bring this up on the topic of AO3? Because if the pedophilia debate. Because people don't really understand it, even professional psychologists mostly guess at it, the same way they used to for gay and trans people.

What if, what if having a safe place to talk about this, to process trauma, through writing in this case, gives people some sense of communion. Of just, not being alone. What if the victims of former abuse help each other, and in doing so, help prevent future abuse? Could be that having a place to talk about pedophilia will actually lead to a better understanding of what causes it, and what it really is. Perhaps how to prevent it entirely. At the least, it could save lives.

So, yeah. Your go to argument about why censoring AO3 might be good, because of pedophilia, is actually directly the opposite of helpful. Refusing to be part of a conversation is your right. But refusing to allow a conversation to happen is not okay.

Turns out processing trauma is easier through role play. One of the better ways is actually through stories, where you can fall into the identity of the character, and really get out of your own head for awhile. Guess what fan fiction is?

This is not what everyone creates fan fiction for, nor do those who read it share a universal reason. But those who do, who participate as writer or reader, and actually get something important from it, reclaiming pieces of themselves from a shared narrative.... They will never let you take away this option.