#it is not a 'black or latinx(and yes they really did use that fucking word urrggh)' label!

[princessefemmelesbian]

Me when an article says that “stud” is for “Black and Latinx(sic) lesbians”: 

[beardedmrbean]

>The left complain about places being named after confederate people

>Fight tooth and nail to protect planned parenthood even after data revealed that black people suspiciously makes up nearly 50% of abortions.

Like I heard the Fort Bragg named change to Liberty…I’m sorry but as s black guy who lived on fort Bragg as a kid for a few years.

No. Black. Person. Gave. A. Single. Fuck. About that history of that name on the base. Imo, the sex revolution, planned parenthood, the Duluth model, and Feminists intentionally changing the American public school system to cater to nuerotypical girls. Did more damage to black people than any confederate soldier.

Sorry for ranting, I’m only 23 but Jesus white liberals did so much damage I can’t comprehend why black people still trust them.

I mention this particular bit of prose fairly often when these types of situations come up, Rudyard (Jungle Book) Kipling is encouraging the US to annex the Philippines from the Spanish to bring "civilization" to them, you'll notice in the image (gold bit at the top is "civilization")

Just about everything racist you could imagine when it comes to caricatures, poem itself is likely one of the most racist bits of prose to ever get widely published.

Guy was a progressive, the mindset of a lot of these people hasn't changed over the decades and centuries, one of the "compassionate" reasons given to continue the transatlantic slave trade had to do with people like "the warrior queen" if you remember that movie, better to be chained up and toted across the ocean and sold into slavery in the US where at least they'd not have to worry about becoming a human sacrifice or being worked or beaten to death. (yes that did happen, but not often, why would a farmer take a sledgehammer to a working tractor just stupid, and criminal though not heavily enforced) that was progressive thinking at the time, at least for the people that truly believe it and weren't just evil and trying to make a buck off human misery.

So much like they needed to civilize all of the backwater people of the world and protect the africans from the other africans because they absolutely knew better than they people they claimed to be helping

What's really fun here is there's ethnic minority groups that 90% of them will flat out say that something is incredibly offensive or demeaning or any of the litany of things out there that in the ism/phobic/ect community and you'll get the progressives telling them that no that's not what that means.

Wonder how many of these things, like that mountain that had its name changed, or fort hood, or any of 10,000 other things that were deemed insensitive by people that are professionally offended on other people's behalf would have had any changes made to them if it had put to a vote in the community they're talking about protecting.

Assholes continuing to push latinx even after the Latino community overwhelmingly has said they hate it come to mind.

Someone in the notes of a old post of mine was going off and saying all of the different Spanish speakers around the world just need to suck it up and change their language.

The arrogance and selfishness is insanne

[whitehotharlots]

I fear we're all already dead

Just a few years ago, human decency--a concept that was admittedly always nebulous and contextual--became radically redefined. Whatever it used to be was inadequate. Now, decency is defined by one's willingness to perform obedience rituals regarding interpersonal comportment. You don't add the letter X to random words because you like it or because it changes anything; you do it because you just do it, because that's what it takes to be a decent fucking person.

Like most other social malignancies, this one started in academe and slowly slithered its way into white collar spaces before becoming mandated elsewhere. As recently as a decade ago, the more pointless and onerous of precepts such as this would either eventually die out or take a very long time before reaching the mainstream in some tempered form. The internet has hastened to speed of the spread. Today's bit of niche retardation is tomorrow's unbreakable mandate, and you will be punished if you refuse to obey. And why shouldn't you be? Are we as a society supposed to just sit there and tolerate behaviors that are as indecent as using naughty words or not posting a Black square on your instagram feed?

The left either celebrates developments such as this or, in their edgier and more honest moments, attempt to downplay them. Yes, a large majority of Hispanic people refuse the term Latinx and many of them find it actively offensive. But so what. It ain't hurting anybody. J-just go through the motions, keep your head down, obey in public and snicker about it when no one's watching.

But I fear we've lost something. Something essential. At heart, this is a social project meant to inculcate all Decent people into a form of didactic manicheanism. As nearly everyone acknowledges, none of this really changes anything. It's a social sorting mechanism, something that gives us all an excuse to automatically hate those who fall into the wrong side of performance.

The need to judge everyone, at all times and as harshly as possible, has stripped the concept of morality of all human traits. Assessments become more superficial at scale. Tasked with sorting every person, every thought, every action and utterance into Good and Bad piles means we don't really have the time or capacity to dig deep, no room to consider whether our judgments are reflective of anything more meaningful than our desire to judge.

The news was rough last week. It started with two separate incidents in which left-wing activists were murdered by strangers: one in his home, another on the street. Each did exactly what they were instructed to do in the wake of the Daniel Penny incident. They had been trained to ignore their basic survival instincts, that both flight and fight are problematic responses to encountering deranged and visibly angry men. What does it say about your privilege, if you confront or distance yourself from a man simply because he's verbally threatening to kill you? Are you some sort of Republican? Or are one of the Good ones, willing to reach out and attempt to provide deranged vagrants with the validation society has so cruelly denied them?

The right responded to these murders with unbridled glee. Everyone is sharing the same screen, after all... just looking it from one of two opposed angles. The men had supported what they thought were more humane policies in regards to crime and housing, and so that means their deaths were cause for celebration. Everyone is still either Good or Bad. They are labels, not humans.

And then, over the weekend, Hamas launched the largest offensive against Israel that's happened in my lifetime. Here we were treated to the ripest fruits of intersectionality: unironic racists allying with leftie keyboard revolutionaries to celebrate the victory of based hyper-religious trads over the heathen children of an EMD festival, august professors of Decolonization Studies attempting to reconcile their nagging support of violent revolution with videos of young women being raped and murdered. Context was secondary. The need to sort prevailed above all else. We need to determine who is Good here, and who is Bad, so that we can either cheer or cry. There is no human reality beyond my screen. There is no human reality beyond my judgment.

[allthingsfern]

In order, my responses to comments in Reply of my COVID19 era post that was my answer to my question “My answer to my questions: Has the era of COVID19 changed your photography? How? And perhaps also, why?“ I am so confused now...

adventuresofalgy

Algy thinks you are lucky and - certainly if compared with Europeans - perhaps quite unusual in not having experienced a more profound effect on your creative outlets and expression. Many of Algy's creative friends have experienced wide-ranging and often severe impacts on their creativity and associated motivation - and therefore on their mental health as well.

themazette

As @adventuresofalgy Jenny said.... you are lucky...

I am indeed very lucky, or as I think of it, blessed. However, it is no way a US thing, nor even a California thing. I add California, because I know many in the US and around the world think of the Golden State as a haven, a progressive, hippie filled state that is all about peace and love and marijuana. However, that is far from the truth. California is like Germany in the 1920s and 30s. There was Berlin, where there was a wildness in the city that was not shared, and was often looked-down on, by those in the majority of the country, who lived in more conservative areas and who, often, economically could not afford the grand life of partying Berliners. In California it is the same. Except for a few urban areas, the state is full of very conservative folks, and for them, like for those in the cities (and in the rest of the world) this COVID19 era has been devastating. Well, and the fires for Californians have been too.

Even in this cool college town where I live, which is lovely and quiet and inspiring, the painfully empty streets, movie theaters, restaurants, shops (think of all those unemployed people) is (still) staggering. In mid-March last year, right after lockdown, I took several phone videos of the deserted street in our town and the campus, but I could not bring myself to share them, since I knew that so many others here on Tumblr were experiencing the same desolation in many different ways. (I figured: “Why add to the sorrow we are living, almost globally?”) I was overwhelmed by the emptiness of the major (well, major for a small town of around 65,000 people) street where I live and the empty bicycle trails and street on campus. And by empty, I mean that even now, I see maybe 3 cyclists per hour, and very little car traffic. Remember, this is a bicycle town; I do not own a car, doing most all my errands on my bike with its 2 fordable baskets in the rear.

And now, over a year later, that same heavy, oppressive emptiness persists. And no, I am not used to it. And yes, I traveled over the last year, but I found the same suffocating blanket of emptiness in each city I visited, even in Las Vegas. It was unnerving. As a matter of fact, last year when I drove to San Francisco 2 months after lockdown for my birthday, I wound up getting depressed and disoriented, in a city where I lived for almost 7 years. Driving back home across the Golden Gate Bridge with tears of sadness in my eyes on my birthday was not what I expected. However, I did get some solid photos of the malaise that hung thick in the air, a malaise that physically took up the space that once was taken up by crowds of people.

Now, I am also very aware that my situation is unique. (Not a fan of the word exceptional, since it can mean both unique and special, and I do not see my situation as special.) My life situation is very unique in that I have a job I love and I work with a great team of characters. We get work done and we have fun, share about our lives. My job is often, especially since COVID19 first got noticed in early 2020, stressful and demands my colleagues and I learn (and sometimes then teach) lots of new technology and that we adapt to the vagaries of the technology gods, which are sometimes unfriendly and unresponsive. And a big part of my job is trying to figure out how to get the technology gods to like us again and grace us with their gifts. (I never realized, until now, with this discussion, that the troubleshooting that is a big part of my job is creative and probably fuels my photographic creativity. Who knew?) Yet, as a group, my colleagues and I support each other. And I am fortunate to count my closest colleague, Steve, as a friend. We have been a great emotional support to each other over the years and now through this COVID19 era. And I recently was reminded (as if I needed reminding) just how unique my work situation is because I participated in a committee that was going over responses to a UC Davis-wide survey exploring levels of employee satisfaction. My 2 colleagues who were also on that committee and I did not have the complaints that others from other departments shared. We work well together, have supportive management that share what is going on and include us (as mush as possible) in the decision making process. And as a department, we get stuff done.

Possibly the best example of how blessedly unique my situation is is what happened this morning when I was talking (yes, on ZOOM) with my immediate supervisor. We discussed the work related stuff, including how at around 10:30 pm the night before I figured something out about an online tool integration I had never done before that I knew was easy but I did not see as easy until I reread the overly complicated instructions a couple of times and just figured out how and where to cut and paste the lines of code (it was that easy, just fucking cut and paste some lines of JSON code) that got the fucking thing to work. Then we talked about his dealing with his young children returning to school and how “normal” now is not “normal” from before and how disruptive the whole thing has been, yet since we work in a supportive atmosphere (and are both salaried), he was able to deal and keep living.

Then, and you are gonna love this, I shared about my original COVID19 question post and the responses and pretty much said to him what I am sharing here.

We talked for a little over an hour. That kind of rapport is rare, for any job, anywhere.

And then there is another way my situation is unique. In some ways, previous “bad things” were actually a preparation for this era of physical distance and uncertainty. In mid-2019, from July to August, first because of my work related bowling concussion and then an antibiotic resistant infection, I was bedridden for about 5 weeks and then had several absences because of concussion issues, like sudden and extreme anger flare ups, nausea, headaches. But however bad I thought that concussion and infection were, the concussion induced forgetfulness and my desire to sharpen my mind and nurture and nourish it have lead me to become, in my old age, organized. I now often take notes of important stuff, add work and personal dates and notes to my Outlook calendar, and even know what day it is, which bugs my colleagues who often find they have no idea what day and/or date it is. Yep, unique, but the bad concussion shit got me to be organized in ways that I was never able to be before, no matter what I tried. This time, I just fucking get organized, without thinking about it too much. And if I fuck up with my being organized, like I did the other day for work, I admit it, fix it, and move on.

Preparation for isolation (and unexpected natural threats) came by way of the 2018 Northern California (the region where I live) fires that year, which caused the campus to shut down for about a week. (As my friend Steve called it, the smoking break.) And for work, my colleagues and I faced a couple of long term, emergency technical outages that impacted all of the UC Davis faculty, one of them for over a month. Pretty much on a professional and personal level, I was, if not ready, at least getting used to the WTF of whatever life decides to surprise me with. (And lets not forget the really bad fire last September, seen in this video I posted of ash “snow” falling. We did not have to shut down the campus because there was no one there anyway.)

Another aspect of this last year, and one that has been present in my life for a few years now, is the BLM movement and the brutal police violence against Black people in this country. As someone who was a teaching assistant and taught in African American Studies and worked closely with students of color on campus in a student run organization, I was and am still devastated, in part because I know, from hearing so many personal accounts, the pain many of my friends, former colleagues, and former students, are still facing and how overwhelmed they felt and still feel. I understand, if as an outsider, their emotional exhaustion. This has been going on for a while, plus add the years of anti-immigrant hate against the Latinx in the US and the rising tide of violent hate against Asians, and yes, it has been sorrowful. Heartbreaking. And I have, in several ways, including my photography, tried to capture the sorrow and resilience of US people of color. It hurts, almost physically, that many people of color are just tired of talking and dealing with the hate.

So, yes, my situation is unique, but with its own emotionally draining weight. And yes, I am extremely grateful. This leads to the other 2 comments in Reply:

kkomppa

Thank you for sharing, Fern. Very interesting. Like you, I would say my output hasn’t changed much. However, I have sought locations deeper in the wilderness. This has been fulfilling.

schwarzkaeppchen

Really interesting thoughts. We live in strange times, but creativity and motivation comes and goes for so many different reasons. My photography has changed a lot. I used to work as a photographer at events and took portraits for fun... Now I'm officially a portrait photographer.

Both of these comments point to another unique aspect of my life situation: For some of us, our photography and how we do it, has not changed much, and if it has, that has been a part of our overall experience with this art form we love so much.

For me, because of my depressive tendencies, the Zen of photography, at least the way I do it, is therapeutic. And I do not use the  term “Zen” lightly here, because my spiritual life has helped me come to terms with the WTF surprises that are pretty much life, if at times the WTF of it is more impactful, as it is during this COVID19 era. And that is part of what I was trying to share with my original post: Before this period of isolation and disorientation, I was already coming to grips with the gospel truth that “creativity and motivation comes and goes for so many different reasons.” as @schwarzkaeppchen​ said. In no way do I diminish the anguish flared up by these bleak times that impact so many around the world. And really, when you think about it, bleak times have been a norm, at least here in the US, since late 2016, though, of course, lockdowns and physical distance make it all worse. But, at least for me, I try to learn from the bleak times, even if I abhor going through them. And when dealing with the highs and lows of creative energy, at least for me, I have a calm certainty that photography is part of my life and I do not have to worry, since I only love it more each day. And the other side to my certainty is that if someday my love of photography fades, some other treasure of creativity will replace it.

Let’s be real, because of photography. I think about stuff like this and get to have discussions with so many great Tumblr original photographers.

And I am grateful for it, and no, this is not unique to my life situation. I know many of us love being here and sharing the good, the bad, the confounding.

Please think about joining @tvoom and me for InConverversation this month. It has been a long time since we talked, and this COVID19 era will be our topic.

I am grateful for all y’all.

[andsmile]

I stumbled across a youtube vid where Camila had spoken about feeling secondary to her friends growing up and down in the comments people were stating that her comments didn't make sense since (to them) she is white. I know that Brazil is a bit of an anomaly cus its not a Spanish speaking country but I don't know how someone can look at Camila and think she's white. If anything she strikes me as being mixed.

ahm, this is kind of a hard topic imo, so i’ll put it all under the cut!

camila is a latina who grew up in the united states, where the racial/ethnic aspects sometimes get confusing... and i’m going to do my best talking about this because i am white, way whiter than cami even though my dad is black, and i am not from the US, but as a white latina it’s how i’ve learned how to look at it. PLEASE, educate me if i’m saying something wrong! always willing to learn here.

in brazil, cami would be considered “white” or “parda”, which is the word we have for those who aren’t black but also aren’t really white - but “parda” just refers to the skin color, not the ethnicity. 

here, you could only say she’s mixed if she was the daughter of a black woman and a white man, for example, and her skin tone reflected that; or if she was the daughter of an asian man and a white woman, etc, but she isn’t.

i am the daughter of a white woman and a black man, however, i am super white, so i can’t be considered mixed or parda. the “pardo” here is just a color. and the ethnicity doesn’t really play a game.

example of a white actress in brazil. she’s the grand-daughter of german immigrants:

example of a black actresses in brazil:

example of a mixed actress in brazil, daughter of a black man and a white woman. same as me, but you see she’s essentially the same color as the black actress, so she’s considered mixed and could self-identify as parda. i, on the other hand, cannot.

cami. her parents are not black, but her skin color isn’t as white as the white actress or me, so she would be considered “parda” here in brazil, or just a white “morena” (brunette), depending on how you want it to be:

however, in the US, it doesn’t work that way. 

this happens because the US, historically, had colorism policies and race segregation that we in Latam never did. so, when there was segregation back then, you would only be considered white if you were “purely white”, so if you had “one-drop” of black blood you’d already be considered black. this is why it gets so confusing, imo, because you consider the ethnicity, and not just the skin color.

ok, so, when feminism movements started to blow up in the seventies, US black activists came up with the term women of color. it was supposed to be about the afro-american/black women in the agenda, but other minorities who felt like the white feminist agenda didn’t suit their needs, wanted to be part of the “women of color” agenda, and it ended up englobing everyone who isn’t considered “purely white”. you should read about this in wikipedia and other sources, it’s pretty interesting!

the fact that cami’s ethnicity is latin-american already places her in a "in-between” position. it’s what we call “white passing” in english. she’s white passing, but she isn’t “purely white”. the culture she grew up with doesn’t fit. that means she is, as a latina, considered a minority in the US. her ethnicity places her in this position.

so, is cami as a latina a woman of color? yes, if you go by this term definition. just like asian-american women and black women. OF COURSE she would never struggle with the same issues as a black woman. but she also isn’t considered an “equal” to her white friends in many ways, because of her origin and culture. it’s hard to understand! but it’s valid that she feels like this in a society that consider latinos non-whites, no matter how white-passing they are.

gisele bündchen is a brazilian model who is obviously white, but she hasn’t suffered any kind of prejudice about being a minority because she’s white and german descendant. if she has suffered with anything, was probably with the misconception that all brazilian women are down to fuck, etc - same kind of prejudice i’ve been through, rooted on sexism and misinformation about latinx women. 

but there’s a huge difference between gisele, who has a white skin, german last name, blue eyes, blonde hair, supermodel body, etc, and cami, who has dark hair, latinx features, latinx body, dark eyes, etc.

so cami’s struggles are super valid in the society she lives in.

none of this applies to veronica, though. veronica comes from a mexican family in canon, both her parents are mexican, and she most definitely can be considered a woman of color in the show, regardless of how white-passing cami is. 

you see how much the character is hated, mistreated, and slandered by the fandom. you see how much she’s disregarded by reviewers who pay more attention to betty. of course, she’s still in a better position than the black women in the show, but if veronica lodge was purely white like in the comics, she’d be a bigger contender for archie’s heart in the eyes of the fandom, for sure.

anyway! i hope this helped? and if you guys have something to add please do, i hope i didn’t say anything wrong. 

[ehliena]

FilAms referring to the Philippines as the acronym PI while they are calling homelanders for the use of Filipinx and Pinxy is peak irony. That is without adding these two facts: the letter F is a loaned letter in Tagalog from the oppressors (and its corresponding phoneme too) and that the demonym is an appellation to Felipe II of Spain. And for someone like me who reads and writes in Baybayin since age 15, to write a Baybayin X seems like a dark humor scene in a Taika Waititi comedy. (Yes, I do Baybayin shiz for fun, but not as serious as Kristian Kabuay and NordenX.)

I first encountered PI among FilAms during Christmas vacation 2002 in LA; and Pilipinx when I joined the theatrical production of a FilAm musical at CalState East Bay in 2016. I understand that it is their culture and I respect it, and I assimilate. I easily assimilate with what I call my Nickelodeon voice, which I have acquired from when jailbroken cable services became a thing in Mega Manila and through my theatre background. But when in Rome, we live the Roman way, so as the Santa Mesa-born foreigner, I have to hide that dark laughter every single time someone uses PI.

But of course, 2020 had to make us see PI-using FilAms pressuring homelander to use Filipinx, citing political correctness and gender neutrality (while white American Pemberton, the killer of Filipino transwoman Jennifer Laude, was given an absolute pardon by Duterte).

So, let us start my TEDtalk.

P.I. is a colloquial acronym for Putanginamo (the equivalent of Fuck You) used by conservative Filipinos who probably are only retelling a story.

Tsismosa 1: “Minura ni Aling Biring si Ka Boying.” (Aling Biring cursed Ka Boying)

Tsismosa 2: “Oh? Ano ika?” (Really? What did she say?)

Tsismosa 1: “Malutong at umaatikabong PI.” (A hard and surging PI.)

Then I imagine PI as the curse when FilAms say some sentences:

“Are you flying back to Putangina?”

“I miss Putangina. We went to Boracay.”

“Duterte is President of Putangina.”

But it’s fine with me. I understand they mean well and I know that Americans, as first world as they are, have poor grasp of history. It’s a little sad though that FilAms have not always been reminded of this special footnote in the history of the United States:

P.I. stands for Philippine Islands. That’s the colonial name of the Philippines as a commonwealth republic under the United States, which the republic stopped using when the 1935 Constitution was enacted in 1946. Yes, in case people are forgetting, the Philippines has long been a state with full sovereignty recognized by the United Nations (of which we are a founding member of and wherein Carlos Romulo served as President) and recognized by Shaider Pulis Pangkalawakan.

Also, RP is used to refer to the Republic of the Philippines before the use of the standard two-letter country code PH.

I’m not saying FilAms should stop using PI to refer to the Philippines but I’m saying that the roots of that practice is from American oppression that homelanders have already cancelledttt.

Our oldest bank in the Philippines is BPI. It stands for Bank of the Philippine Islands, originally named El Banco Español Filipino de Isabel II because it was founded during Queen Isabella II’s reign. It was a public bank by then; perhaps comparable to the Federal Reserve. Upon its privatization during the American occupation, the bank started using BPI for the sake of branding because it was the Americans who christened us with P.I. (I have a theory that Manila was a character in Money Heist because the Royal Mint of Spain used to have a branch in the Philippines and operated very closely with BPI. And my other supernatural theory is that our translation of peso which is ‘piso’ affects our economy. ‘Piso’ means ‘floor’ or ‘flat’ in Spanish.)

Now, going back. To me, P.I. is more appropriate an acronym for the ethnic group of Pacific Islanders. I don't think I need to explain further why. These would be the natives of Hawai’i, Guam, Tuvalu, Kiribati, and other islands in the Oceania continent, and maybe even New Zealand. If a curious FilAm raises a question of whether Filipinos are Pacific Islanders or Asians or Hispanics, the answer is long but easy to understand.

The Filipinos live in a group of islands within the Pacific Plate. The Philippines is an Asian country, following conventions of geopolitical continental borders from the other. We are Hispanics by virtue of being under Spain for three fucking centuries. And Teresita Marquez is Reina Hispanoamericana because why not? (We could’ve been a part of America still if not for the efforts of Quezon.) So, the quick answer is that the Filipino is all of it.

Yes, the Filipinos have an affinity with the Pacific through nature and geography. Think of the earthquakes, volcanoes, flora and fauna, and the coconuts. And they even look like us. The earlier inhabitants of the archipelago were Pacific Islanders who were introduced to Hinduism and Buddhism as being closer to the cradles of civilization India and China. Then, the Islamic faith has grown along with the rise of the kingdoms and polities in Southeast Asia. The Spaniards arrived in the archipelago, to an already civilized Islamic polity - too civilized that they understood how diplomacy is necessary in war. We knew that it resulted to the defeat and death of Magellan who was fighting for Rajah ‘Don Carlos’ Humabon. Then came the 333 years of being under Spain AND (sic) the Catholic Church which made us more Hispanic. Our Austronesian/Malayo-Polynesian languages (Tagalog, Bisaya, Kapampangan, Ilocano, Bikol, Waray, Cuyonon, etc.) have kept our Asian identity intact - unlike Latin American countries where the official language of each is one of the Romance languages; thus "Latin".

(It is only towards the end of that 333-year Spanish rule that the 'Filipino' emerged to be something the oppressed could claim, and for that we thank the poet in Jose Rizal. I see a parallel in how Christians claimed the cross, the former symbol of criminals in Jewish tradition, to become the symbol of God’s love and salvation through Jesus. Wow. That’s so UST of me. Lol.)

You add into the mix that our diaspora is so large and identifiable, the data gatherers decided to mark the tables with “Filipino” - too Asian to be Hispanic and Pacific, too Pacific to be Hispanic and Asian, and too Hispanic to be Asian and Pacific.

What many FilAms do not realize everyday is that unlike the words Blacks, Latinx, Asians, or Pacific Islanders, or Hispanics, the word Filipino is not just a word denoting an ethnic group. At its highest technical form, the word Filipino is a word for the citizenship of a sovereign nation, enshrined in the constitution of a free people whose history hinges on the first constitutional republic in Asia.

By state, we mean a sovereign nation and not a federal state. (Well, even with Chinese intervention, at the very least we try.)

By state, we mean we are a people with a national territory, a government, and a legal system inspired by the traditions of our ancestors and oppressors. It may be ugly, but it is ours, and we have the power to change it.

This one may be as confusing as Greek-Grecian-Greco-Hellenic-Hellene, but let’s examine the word 'Filipino' further when placed side by side with related words.

*Pilipinas is the country; official name: Republika ng Pilipinas. It is translated into English as “Philippines”; official name: Republic of the Philippines. Spanish translates it into “Filipinas”, the Germans “Philippinen”, the French “Les Philippines”, the Italians “Filippine”.

*Pilipino refers to the people. It is translated into English as Filipino. The plural forms are ‘mga Pilipino’ and ‘Filipinos’.

*Philippine is an English adjective relating to the Philippines, commonly used for official functions. It may be used as an alternative to the other western adjective ‘Filipino’ but the interchangeability is very, very nuanced. Filipino people not Philippine people. Filipino government and Philippine government. Philippine Embassy, Filipino embassy, not Filipino Embassy. Tricky, eh?

*Filipino also refers to the official language of the state (which is basically Tagalog).

*Filipiniana refers to Philippine-related books and non-book materials (cultural items, games, fashion, etc.) which could be produced by Filipinos or non-Filipinos, inside or outside the Philippines.

*Pinoy is a colloquial gender-neutral demonym; comparable to how New Zealanders use the word Kiwi.

The demonym Filipino has evolved from that of referring only to Spaniards in the Philippines into becoming the term for the native people who choose to embrace the identity of a national.

It started from when Jose Rizal wrote his poem “A la juventud filipina” and he emerged as an inspiration to the Philippine Revolution through Andres Bonifacio’s leadership. (But take note of ‘filipina’ because ‘juventud’ is a feminine word in Spanish.)

Today, no less than the 1987 Philippine Constitution, which was neither written by Hamilton nor a group of straight white men but by people of different faiths, genders, disabilities, and skin colors, in its first five words in both Filipino and English versions read: "Kami, ang nakapangyayaring sambayanang Pilipino", translated as "We, the sovereign Filipino people” validates the legitimacy of the word as gender-neutral, alive, aware and awake with our history of struggles.

Article 14 Section 7 of the current Constitution says Filipino is the national language. And while I agree that it is not really a real language but an alias for Tagalog, it is a conscientious codification of a social norm during the time of Manuel Quezon as he is aiming for the world to recognize the unified Filipinos as a sovereign people. People. Not men. Not heterosexual men. People.

It is a non-issue for the homeland Filipino that the word Filipino refers to the people and the language. But FilAms are concerned of political correctness due to an understandable cultural insecurity also felt by other non-whites in the US. And there is added confusion when FilAms pattern the word Filipino after the patriarchal Spanish language, without learning that the core of the grammars of Philippine languages are gender-neutral. The Tagalog pronoun "siya" has no gender. "Aba Ginoong Maria" is proof that the Tagalog word 'ginoo' originally has no gender. Our language is so high-context that we have a fundamental preposition: “sa”.

It is difficult to be a person of color in the United States especially in these times of the white supremacy’s galling resurgence. Well, it’s not like they have been gone, but this time, with Trump, especially, it’s like the movement took steroids and was given an advertising budget. But for FilAms to force Filipinx into the Philippines, among homeland Filipinos, is a rather uneducated move, insensitive of the legacies of our national heroes and magnificent leaders.

The FilAm culture and the Filipino homeland culture are super different, nuanced. It’s a different dynamic for a Latinx who speak Spanish or Portuguese or whatever their native language is - it reminds entitled white English-speaking America of their place in the continent. It should remind a racist white man whose roots hail from Denmark that his house in Los Angeles stands on what used to be the Mexican Empire.

Let’s use a specific cultural experience by a Black person for example: the black person not only has Smith or Johnson for their last name, but there is no single easy way for them to retrieve their family tree denoting which African country they were from, unless the Slave Trade has data as meticulous as the SALN forms. Let’s use a specific cultural experience by a Mexican-American with Native American heritage: the person is discriminated by a white US Border Patrol officer in the border of Texas. Texas used to be part of Mexico. Filipinos have a traceable lineage and a homeland.

Filipinos and FilAms may be enjoying the same food recipes, dancing the same cultural dance for purposes of presentations every once in a while, but the living conditions, the geography, the languages, social experiences, the human conditions are different, making the psychology, the politics, the social implications more disparate than Latinxs like Mexicans and Mexican Americans.

I don’t know if it is too much advertising from state instruments or from whatever but FilAms don’t realize how insensitive they have become in trying to shove a cultural tone down the throats of the citizens of the republic or of those who have closer affinity to it. And some Filipino homelanders who are very used to accommodating new global social trends without much sifting fall into the trap of misplaced passions.

To each his own, I guess. But FilAms should read Jose Rizal’s two novels, Carlos Romulo’s “I am a Filipino”, materials by Miriam Defensor Santiago (not just the humor books), speeches of Claro Recto, books by historians Gregorio Zaide, Teodoro Agoncillo, Renato Constantino, Nick Joaquin, Regalado Trota Jose, Fidel Villaroel, Zeus Salazar, Xiao Chua, and Ambeth Ocampo, and really immerse themselves in the struggle of the Filipino for an unidentifiable identity which the FilAms confuse for the FilAm culture. That’s a little weird because unlike Blacks and the Latinx movement, the Philippines is a real sovereign state which FilAms could hinge their history from.

I have to be honest. The homelanders don’t really care much about FilAm civil rights heroes Philip Vera Cruz and Larry Itliong, or even Alice Peña Bulos, because it was a different fight. But the media can play a role sharing it, shaping consensus and inadvertently setting standards. (But it’s slightly different for Peña Bulos, as people are realizing she was already a somebody in the Philippines before becoming a who’s who in the US, which is somehow similar to the case of Lea Salonga who was not only from the illustrious Salonga clan, but was also already a child star.) How much do Filipino millennials know about Marcoses, Aquinos? Maybe too serious? Lol. Then, let’s try using my favorite examples as a couch potato of newer cultural materials accessible to FilAms - cultural materials on television and internet.

FilAms who only watched TFC wondered who Regine Velasquez was when ABSCBN welcomed her like a beauty queen. Those with the GMA Pinoy TV have a little idea. But they did not initially get why the most successful Filipino artist in the US, Lea Salonga, does not get that level of adulation at home that Velasquez enjoys. Was it just Regine’s voice? No. Well, kinda, maybe, because there is no question that she is a damn good singer with God knows how many octaves, but it is the culture she represents as a probinsyana who made it that far and chose to go back home and stay - and that’s already a cultural nuance Filipinos understand and resonate with, without having to verbalize because the Philippines is a high-context culture in general, versus the US which is low-context culture in general. I mean, how many Filipinos know the difference of West End and Broadway, and a Tony and an Olivier? What does a Famas or a Palanca mean to a FilAm, to a Filipino scholar, and to an ordinary Filipino? Parallel those ideas with "Bulacan", "Asia", "Birit", "Songbird".

You think Coach Apl.de.Ap is that big in the Philippines? He was there for the global branding of the franchise because he is an American figure but really, Francis Magalona (+) and Gloc9 hold more influence. And speaking of influence, do FilAms know Macoy Dubs, Lloyd Cadena (+) and the cultures they represent? Do FilAms know Aling Marie and how a sari-sari store operates within a community? Do FilAms see the symbolic functions of a makeshift basketball (half)courts where fights happen regularly? How much premium do FilAms put on queer icons Boy Abunda, Vice Ganda? Do FilAms realize that Kris Aquino's role in Crazy Rich Asians was not just to have a Filipino in the cast (given that Nico Santos is already there) but was also Kris Aquino's version of a PR stunt to showcase that Filipinos are of equal footing with Asian counterparts if only in the game of 'pabonggahan'? Will the FilAms get it if someone says ‘kamukha ni Arn-arn’? Do FilAms see the humor in a Jaclyn Jose impersonation? Do FilAms even give premiums to the gems Ricky Lee, Peque Gallaga, Joel Lamangan, Joyce Bernal, Cathy Garcia Molina, and Jose Javier Reyes wrote and directed? (And these are not even National Artists.) How about AlDub or the experience of cringing to edgy and sometimes downright disgusting remarks of Joey De Leon while also admiring his creative genius? Do FilAms understand the process of how Vic Sotto became ‘Bossing’ and how Michael V could transform into Armi Millare? Do FilAms get that Sexbomb doesn’t remind people of Tom Jones but of Rochelle? Do FilAms get that dark humor when Jay Sonza’s name is placed beside Mel Tiangco’s? What do FilAms associate with the names ‘Tulfo’, ‘Isko’, ‘Erap’, ‘Charo’, ‘Matet’, ‘Janice’, ‘Miriam’, ‘Aga’, ‘Imelda’ and ‘Papin’? Do FilAms get that majority of Filipinos cannot jive into Rex Navarette’s and Jo Koy’s humor but find the comic antics of JoWaPao, Eugene Domingo, Mr Fu, Ryan Rems, and Donna Cariaga very easy to click with? Do FilAms know Jimmy Alapag, Jayjay Helterbrand, Josh Urbiztondo? Oh wait, these guys are FilAms. Lol. Both cultures find bridge in NBA, but have these FilAms been to a UAAP, NCAA, or a PBA basketball game where the longstanding rival groups face each other? Do FilAms know the legacy of Ely Buendia and the Eraserheads? Do FilAms know about Brenan Espartinez wearing this green costume on Sineskwela? Do FilAms know how Kiko Matsing, Ate Sienna, Kuya Bodjie helped shape a generation of a neoliberal workforce?

That list goes on and on, when it comes to this type of Filipiniana materials on pop culture, and I am sure as Shirley Puruntong that while the homeland Filipino culture is not as widespread, it has depth in its humble and high-context character.

Now, look at the practical traffic experiences of the homelanders. People riding the jeepneys, the tricycles, the MRT/LRT, the buses, and the kolorum - the daily Via Crucis of Mega Manila only Filipinos understand the gravity of, even without yet considering the germs passed as the payments pass through five million other passengers before reaching the front. Add the probinsyas, people from periphery islands who cross the sea to get good internet connections or do a checkup in the closest first-class town or component city. Do FilAms realize that the largest indoor arena in the world is built and owned by Iglesia ni Cristo, a homegrown Christian church with a headquarters that could equal the Disney castle?

Do FilAms know the experience as a tourist's experience or as an experience a homelander want to get away from or at least improved?

Do FilAms understand how much an SM, a Puregold, or a Jollibee, Greenwich, Chowking branch superbly change a town and its psychology and how it affects the Pamilihang Bayan? Do FilAms realize that while they find amusement over the use of tabo, the homelanders are not amused with something so routinary? Do FilAms realize how Filipinos shriek at the thought that regular US households do not wash their butts with soap and water after defecating?

Do FilAms understand the whole concept of "ayuda" or SAP Form in the context of pandemic and politics? The US has food banks, EDDs, and stubs - but the ayuda is nowhere near the first world entitlements Filipinos in the homeland could consider luxury. But, that in itself is part of the cultural nuance.

Do FilAms know that Oxford recognizes Philippine English as a diction of the English language? While we’ve slowly grown out of the fondness for pridyider and kolgeyt, do FilAms know how xerox is still used in the local parlance? Do FilAms know how excruciating it is to read Panitikan school books Ibong Adarna, Florante at Laura under the curriculum, and how light it is to read Bob Ong? Do FilAms realize that Jessica Zafra, with all her genius, is not the ordinary homelander’s cup-of-tea?

Do FilAms know that Filipinos do not sound as bad in English as stereotypes made them believe? Do FilAms really think that Philippines will be a call center capital if our accents sound like the idiolects of Rodrigo Duterte’s or Ninoy Aquino’s Philippine English accent? Do FilAms realize how Ninoy and Cory speak English with different accents? Lea Salonga's accent is a thespian's accent so she could do a long range like that of Meryl Streep if she wants to so she wouldn't be a good example. Pacquiao's accent shows the idiolect unique to his region in southern Philippines. But for purposes of showing an ethnolinguistic detail, I am using President Cory Aquino’s accent when she delivered her historic speech in the US Congress as a more current model of the Philippine English accent.

Do FilAms bother themselves with the monsoons, the humidity, and the viscosity of sweat the same way they get bothered with snowstorms, and heat waves measured in Fahrenheit?

Do FilAms know that not only heterosexual men are accepted in the Katipunan? Do FilAms even know what the Katipunan is? Do FilAms realize that the Philippines had two female presidents and a transwoman lawmaker? Do FilAms take “mamatay nang dahil sa’yo” the same way Filipinos do? Do FilAms know the ground and the grassroots? Do FilAms know the Filipino culture of the homeland?

These are cultural nuances FilAms will never understand without exposure of Philippine society reflected from barrio to lalawigan, from Tondo to Forbes Park. It goes the same way with Filipinos not understanding the cultural weight of Robert Lopez and the EGOT, or Seafood City, or Lucky Chances Casino, or what Jollibee symbolizes in New York, unless they are exposed.

The thing though is that while it is harder for FilAms to immerse to the homeland culture, it is easier for homeland culture to immerse into the FilAm’s because America’s excess extends to the propagation of its own subcultures, of which the FilAm’s is one.

We’re the same yet we’re different. But it should not be an issue if we are serious with embracing diversity. There should not be an issue with difference when we could find a common ground in a sense of history and shared destiny. But it is the burden of the Filipinos with and in power to understand the situation of those who have not.

Nuances. Nuances. Nuances.

And while I believe that changing a vowel into X to promote gender-neutrality has a noble intention, there is no need to fix things that are not broken. Do not be like politicians whose acts of service is to destroy streets and roads and then call for its renovation instead of fixing broken bridges or creating roads where there are none.

The word ‘Filipino’ is not broken. Since Rizal’s use of the term to refer to his Malayan folks, the formal process of repair started. And it is not merely codified, but validated by our prevailing Constitution, which I don’t think a FilAm would care to read, and I cannot blame them. What's in it for a regular FilAm? They wouldn’t read the US Constitution and the Federalist Papers; what more the 1987 Saligang Batas?

The bottomline of my thoughts on this particular X issue is that FilAms cannot impose a standard for Filipinos without going through a deeper, well-thought-out, more arduous process, most especially when the card of gender neutrality and political correctness are raised with no prior and deeper understanding of what it is to be a commoner in the homeland, of what it is to be an ordinary citizen in a barangay, from Bayan ng Itbayat, Lalawigan ng Batanes to Bayan ng Sitangkai, Lalawigan ng Sulu. It is very dangerous because FilAms yield more influence and power through their better access to resources, and yet these do not equate to cultural awareness.

Before Rizal’s political philosophy of Filipino, the ‘Filipino’ refers to a full-blooded Spaniard born in the Philippines, and since Spain follows jus sanguinis principle of citizenship, back then, ‘Filipino’ is as Spaniard as a ‘Madrileño’ (people in Madrid). The case in point is Marcelo Azcárraga Palmero - the Filipino Prime Minister of Spain.

But the word ‘Filipino’ was claimed by Rizal and the ilustrados to refer to whom the Spaniards call ‘indio’. The term was then applied retroactively to those who helped in the struggle. It was only later that Lapu-Lapu, Francisco Dagohoy, Gabriela and Diego Silang, Sultan Kudarat, Lorenzo Ruiz, and GOMBURZA were called Filipinos.

The word 'Filipino' was long fixed by the tears and sweat of martyrs through years of bloody history in the hands of traitors within and oppressors not just of the white race. The word Filipino is now used by men, women, and those who do not choose to be referred to as such who still bears a passport or any state document from the Republic of the Philippines. Whether a homelader is a Kapuso, Kapamilya, Kapatid, DDS, Dilawan, Noranian, Vilmanian, Sharonian, Team Magnolia, Barangay Ginebra, Catholic, Muslim, Aglipayan, Iglesia, Victory, Mormon, IP, OP, SJ, RVM, SVD, OSB, OSA, LGBTQQIP2SAA, etc., the word 'Filipino' is a constant variable in the formula of national consciousness.

Merriam-Webster defines Filipina as a Filipino girl or woman. Still a Filipino. Remember, dictionaries do not dictate rules. Dictionaries provide us with the meaning. To me, the word Filipina solidified as a subtle emphasis to the Philippines as a matriarchal country faking a macho look. But that’s not saying the word Filipino in the language is macho with six-pack.

The word Filipino is not resting its official status on the letter O but in its quiddity as a word and as an idea of a sovereign nation. The words Pilipino, Filipino, and Pinoy are not broken. What is broken is the notion that a Filipino subculture dictates the standard for political correctness without reaching the depth of our own history.

If the Filipinx-Pinxy-Pilipinx movement truly suits the Filipino-American struggle, my heart goes out for it. But my republic, the Philippines, home of the Filipino people, cradle of noble heroes, has no need for it (not just yet, maybe) - not because we don't want change, but because it will turn an already resolved theme utterly problematic. The Filipinos have no need for it, not because we cannot afford to consider political correctness when people are hungry, abused, and robbed off taxes. We could afford to legalize a formal way of Filipino greeting for purposes of national identity. But as far as the Filipinx, it should not be the homeland’s priority.

We may be poor, but we have culture.

From Julius Payàwal Fernandez's post

[imaginethatneathuh]

Because @aliencasket got me thinking. I am so sorry this is so long.

You know, Telegraph Boy probably had a hard time adjusting to life without D. I mean, this was a god that had been causing chaos for as long as he’d been around. They’d done all sorts of shit to bug and screw with him and other gods. D saw what the Old Gods were like and wanted to emulate that, so they had a very “hands-on” approach. So, all of that chaos and destruction just suddenly disappearing one day only to be replaced by a bunch of arseholes and Weed? That must have been hard on him. Especially, if you take into account how all of the gods that were split from D looked similar to them. Imagine your best friend (as annoying as they are) just disappearing, leaving you to deal with these kids, and those kids have the same hair and eyes as them so, every time you look at them, you see a slice of your favourite person, even if they aren’t really there, knowing you’ll never see them again. That shit must have been heart-breaking.

Also, I wanted to quickly talk about Coke. Coke didn’t form until around the 70′s or 80′s. I’m gonna peg the 70′s because disco. That means Coke never met Telegraph Boy or Telephone Boy. He did, however, most likely get to meet Television Boy. The two formed a connection and, since Coke wasn’t aware that New Gods sometimes just blink out of existence, he was devastated when Television Boy was gone and replaced with Game Boy. He, probably, like Telegram Boy, had a hard time adjusting. He got over it with Technical Boy, though, after he had time to heal.

But, that brings me to Weed. Weed has been there since the beginning, sort of. They were there with Telegraph Boy, Telephone Boy, Television Boy, Game Boy, and, obviously, Technical Boy. After Telegraph, they were probably hurting, but Weed is Weed and doesn’t let pain cloud their judgement of someone, so they likely welcomed Telephone Boy with a goofy, out-of-it smile. As one does. Toba probably wasn’t very welcoming, but he never is. After dealing with Telegraph Boy and Telephone Boy going out of style, they probably were sad but didn’t dwell when Television Boy was replaced and then Game Boy. At a certain point, one does get used to the idea that everyone will leave them eventually and the only thing they can rely on is the fact that one day, they and the other druggies will disappear too. That’s some fucked up shit to deal with.

Now, aliencasket brought up a question that I find interesting. Well, she brought up several, but this is the one I want to focus on for now.

“Were they the one to help him gain the sense of reality back, did they remind him who he was and who he is?”

In the beginning, I don’t think Technical Boy was aware that there were others before him. I do think, however, that he figured it out because A. the pictures on the wall and B. he’s nosy and probably overheard something from a gabber. I don’t think that Coke would ever really want to talk about the old tech gods. it’d probably hurt too much and Coke doesn’t do well with hurt. He avoids it at any cost, actually. Weed might but who knows. Technical Boy probably just figured it out. Maybe, sometimes, he thinks that his friends are only really his friends because they miss the old tech gods and he’s just the latest in a long line of them.

The above sort of ties in with another of aliencasket’s questions: “ Did they ever thought "oh, I miss the old TB"?“

I say, yes. Coke definitely missed Television Boy which is why he avoided even being in the same room as Game Boy for the longest time. When Game Boy died, he had an easier time dealing with it because he knew that each incarnation was different from the last. Game Boy wasn’t Television Boy and Technical Boy wasn’t Game Boy. Weed, as said before, got used to the idea that no one and nothing ever stays new enough for humans to keep being interested in it forever. Since they’re Weed, of course they think about crazy shit like that (overthinking about weird shit and “galaxy brain ideas” is a stereotype of stoners or people who extensively use weed). They know that one day, they’ll be gone to and so will all of their friends. It’s the reality of being a god of modernity. They don’t let it bother them because they’re the god of one of the most well-known and used drugs in the US. And even If that wasn’t the case, they’re Weed, they go with the flow.

On a completely unrelated note, Weed’s skin is probably some shade/varying shades of green because of the marijuana plant and the varying stereotypes about stoners. From what I’ve seen stoners are stereotyped as black and white people and there is also the fact that a lot of cannabis (weed) is grown in Latinx countries (places south of the US including islands). So, why have any of those specific skin colours and just have their skin green like their plant? It’s a lot easier if you ask me.

Another thing aliencasket brought up is how freeing it is for Technical Boy to be around Weed and Coke, and the druggies in general. I mean, the effect Weed and Coke have on living creatures definitely helps with that, but there’s also the fact that Technical Boy doesn’t have to watch everything he says and does. He doesn’t have to worry about impressing them or being the newest, shiniest toy. Technical Boy can actually relax because none of them give a fuck, they’re just there for a good and fun time. Even if you take Drug Gods who are technology based like Phone or Video Games or even Social Media, as long as they have that device or system or whatever, they don’t care. As long as the addiction is satiated, the druggies don’t care. That must be an incredibly freeing feeling. To be around people who care about YOU not what you can do for them.

[ceruleanwhore]

I’ve noticed that people in the AtLA fandom have a tendency to conflate our world with the world of Avatar and forget that AtLA is still a fantasy story based in a fantasy world. Mainly, this comes out in how people talk about race. One of the main examples is the recent argument of the Southern Water Tribe having been colonized by the Fire Nation. In the canon of the show, this is inherently untrue, which means that people just see that the Water Tribes are based on native people, conflate the two, and also assume the North American native experience that they then paste onto this completely different culture and society in a fantasy world.

The other one I’ve run into is people getting defensive and actually angry about how, yes, there are black people in Avatar and no, it doesn’t matter that they never existed in that world until at least Legend of Korra. Basically, I’ll make the point of how the different nations are based on east Asian and northern native people and then someone jumps in getting really defensive about immigration and emigration in countries like Japan. Essentially, they try to defend half-assed writing around race or argue against a lack of racial diversity by bringing up the fact that not every single person who lives in Japan is ethnically Japanese, as though the world of Avatar actually has all of the external populations that our world does to introduce racial diversity.

Then, there’s the technology in LoK and how some people get all cocky about it like “see? It’s good because it’s exactly how our technological revolution happened, breakneck pace and all.” It pisses me off so fucking much how smug some of these people can be about how they genuinely believe that the quality of fantasy can be determined by how realistic it is. Nobody talks about Tolkien like this, even though it, too, is fantasy that is modeled somewhat after reality, because people who talk about Tolkien know that this shit is just really fucking stupid. Imagine how people would take it if, after the trilogy, there was another book set 100 years later where there’s cars and Minas Tirith has been made into a mirror image of 1920s Chicago. How is Avatar any different? How could you acknowledge how fucking stupid my Tolkien example would be while simultaneously spewing bullshit about how LoK’s worldbuilding is good because it did exactly that bullshit?

And then, idk if it falls under this category or not but it is certainly based in cynicism that is rooted in our world, but there’s also the way that people just ignore redemption arcs and have that dumbass attitude of ‘people never change’ and they think that, once someone does bad things, they are completely irredeemable and that it is like straight up impossible for anyone to change for the better and make up for past mistakes. Also, kind of like my first point about colonization, people will label Iroh as a fucking war criminal for just… laying siege on an enemy city? Which, while kind of shitty, is a perfectly normal and reasonable tactical move in war and is certainly not a fucking war crime. But the idea that any general, by the nature of being a fucking general, is an irredeemable shit human is fucking disgusting. Are you then claiming that every single person who has ever served in the military is as well? These claims against Iroh seem, to me, at least, to be based in people’s views of things like Japan’s involvement in WWII and them then mapping the whole Fire Nation, and Iroh, onto that. Since Japan committed war crimes, then, now, so did Iroh just by being a general.

So, anyway, Avatar is fucking fantasy and some of these new gen fuckasses on twitter and in those cursed facebook groups need to shut the fuck up and remember the absolute most basic, fundamental part of all of this. The Southern Water Tribe was never colonized by the Fire Nation, systematic eradication of water benders ≠ colonization. The gaang traveling the world in AtLA was the fantasy narrative function of using the narrative to show the whole world- meaning that the genre inherently works on a wysiwyg basis and no, there weren’t black people, latinx people, white people, Middle Eastern people, or any races other than variations of east Asian peoples. Our breakneck paced technological revolution does not make for a good narrative or good worldbuilding in a fucking fantasy world that’s based heavily in ideas of mysticism and spirituality and has a very ancient feel to the land and the architecture, even with the technology that exists in AtLA. Zuko got better and so did Jet and Iroh; he’s no longer the fucking villain when he jumps in front of fucking lightning, throwing away his life to save Katara’s without hesitation. Fucking hell, it’s not rocket science you idiots.

[dasphinxone]

Judaism is about heritage. We've inherited the law and the tradition and we're commanded to follow them and pass them on, whether we believe in anything or not. Source of poignant and/or hilarious misunderstandings that I'm gonna write another post about at some point! 4/4

Soooo, while I am Black, I am also mixed due one parent being Mexican-American, American white and Native American. So one side of my family are definitely descended from African-American slaves while the other side is Mexican, American white and Native American. As a result, I was raised Roman Catholic by one Catholic parent with the other parent being Baptist by way of their African-American ancestors being in the south but who left it post WWII in the Great Migration, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Migration_(African_American)#:~:text=The%20Great%20Migration%2C%20sometimes%20known,occurred%20between%201916%20and%201970. 

All of us kids are fully Roman Catholic and didn’t participate in the Baptist parent’s religion at all, even though my parents are still together. They agreed to that since one parent wanted a fully Catholic wedding. We also did Catholic schools K-12. 

However, our Catholicism was VERY much about social justice and we fully ascribed to the reformed, post Vatican II “more liberal” Catholic church. Also and because one parent is Latinx, we ascribed to Liberation Theology, which the Holy See/Vatican disavows. Mostly because Liberation Theology sees Jesus as a radical who would be against the colonialism of Latin America and the repressive governments that a lot of Latin American countries had that the Catholic Church was utterly complicit in supporting (side-eying THE FUCK out of you, Pope Francis from Argentina). People like Archbishop Óscar Romero loudly protested against the complicity of the Catholic Church in Latin America’s repression of indigenous peoples as well.

At the same time, pretty much all of us have been lapsed Catholics since the early 2000s due to the Catholic child molestation scandal. So there is A LOT of anger there. 

Overall, Black Catholics, specifically African-American slave descendents, are a VERY SMALL group of people in the U.S. Most Black Catholics are such due to coming from Louisiana, which was colonized by the Spanish and then the French. 

As for Nile’s religion, I personally am very disconnected from religion when it comes to African-American slave descendants due to being raised in Roman Catholicism. As a result, I really can’t speak to how Nile processes her religion, which would likely be either AME, Baptist, or Pentecostal. The first waves of Black folks moving to Chicago during The Great Migration would have been AME and Baptist with the Pentecostals coming later. MLK actually made Chicago his base in the northeast for civil rights. Nile’s great-grandparents and grandparents could have easily participated in that, http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/1056.html

As for Nile’s sexuality, a lot of fanon is that she is not straight and could easily be bisexual. Sure, we support Book of Nile. Yet just because she’s (eventually after he gets his shit together) with Booker doesn’t mean she’s straight. It also doesn’t mean Booker is straight either, though canon does point to him being the most “traditional” among the immortals with his explicit mentions of his wife and kids...but again, that still doesn’t make him straight either.  

Nile’s queerness would definitely be in conflict with her Christianity, no matter what church she belongs too. And a lot of the cultural Black church is VERY conservative when it comes to not only sexuality but the role of women and how they should stick to being within the household with their husbands as head of the household. There’s also a lot of misogynoir in the Black church as well (and throughout society, frankly).  

At the same time, I’m not here for yet another Black female character suffering and having no allyship in the world. So I see Nile’s mother yes, quietly supporting her queerness and not going nuts about how she’s going to hell about it. I can see Nile’s brother fully supporting it as well. I can see Nile bringing around her girlfriends in high school where her family KNOWS that they’re girlfriends. But please, no making out in front of us. And that “no making out in front of us” wouldn’t be allowed of a straight teenage couple in that household either versus “no making out because I can’t stand to see the sight of girls kissing and loving up on each other.” 

I also feel like Nile probably got more religious at two points in her life. 1.) after her father died, and 2.) after she gets stationed in Afghanistan and sees the death and destruction happening around her. I can see her mother always having her included in the prayers at church for her safety as well. 

As for Booker and Nile exploring their religions together? I don’t know how to speak to that because again, I’m not involved in the historically Black church. Of course, Nile can’t have children, so there wouldn’t be concern for “Will the children be Jewish or not because their mother isn’t Jewish?” (I think that’s how Judaism works, please correct me if I’m wrong). But I think Nile and Booker can have some deep-ass conversations about how Nile’s religion is due to colonialism and her slave ancestors being stripped of their religions by the same powers that be that repressed the hell out of and were antiemetic towards Booker, for sure. 

[whereisstevethestove]

Captains that Smell of Salt and Liquor.

Fandoms: Sanders sides and technically the lore behind the Flying Dutchman.

Characters: Virgil, Roman, Remus, Janus, Patton, Logan

Relationships: Logan/Patton, Roman/Virgil

Additional tags: Mer AU, Pirate AU, Human AU, Mixed Latinx Remus, UMMM Siren!Roman, Siren!Virgil, Mer!Janus, Pirate!Logan and Patton.

Word count: 1022

Summary:  Remus is young when he runs to become a sailor.

Notes:  This is actually kinda a prequel to this post (x)

AO3

Remus is young and cocky when he first takes to the open water.  The sea has long called to him from his window in his home of Jamaica, and so the second he’s fifteen, he’s jumping on the first ship that needs an inexperienced half colonizer’s child.

The sea is cruel, she is unforgiving and Remus can see why they call her a female, the wild and reckless way that her moods flip.  It’s something that he points out to Virgil one day, as they’re both hanging from the crows nest, watching for a storm.

“I’d love to wed the sea.”  Remus blurts out and Virgil, with his dark hair and easy laugh just shrugs.

“You’re fucking weird Remus.”

“Maybe.  Do you believe in mermaids?” “Every sailor does.”  Virgil glances back behind him before turning back to Remus and leaning in as if he had a secret to share.  “I’ve kissed one.”

“Really?” “Hmmm, they had the most beautiful red tail I’ve ever seen.  Sharp teeth too, I still have a scar.”

Remus watches as Virgil tilts his head, displaying a clear bite mark, the scar a pale silvery color.

“Did he speak?”

“He said he’d come back for me one day.”  Virgil confirms before turning away.  “Get back to work.  I don’t want to be thrown off at the next port because I was gossiping with you about mer kisses.”

Virgil is twenty and Remus can’t help but follow him around after the mer story, entranced with the idea of making one of the creatures fall in love with him.  Virgil bares the younger well, teaching him everything he can about sailing so the captain of the ship doesn’t have to deal with an over eager teen.

Then one night, the pair are the only two on deck when Virgil’s eyes go glassy and he stares off at the water like it’s the only thing there.

It takes Remus a few seconds to hear it.

Siren song.

Virgil manages to pull them both below deck, but for a week after, Remus’ mentor is sick, and barely eats.  Remus is the only one in the crew to make sure that he doesn’t die, as the others are busy running the ship.

After Virgil gets slightly better he gifts Remus a worn coin.  

“Payment for keeping me alive.”

“There’s no need.”

“Keep it.”  Virgil insists and Remus begrudgingly tucks the coin away with his things, wondering why the older would give him something like that as if it was the most precious treasure in the world.

A month later Virgil is gone in the middle of the night and Remus can hear two sirens singing.

Rumor has it in the morning that a vengeful crewmate threw the unsuspecting man over, but Remus knows that siren can change their mates to be like them and Virgil had told him that only one siren song had ever tempted him.

He wonders what color Virgil’s tail is.  It’s probably purple, or maybe an ink black to match his wild hair.

Years pass,  Remus grows from an overeager boy to a hardened first mate, respectful of the sea and her children as he carries cargo across the wide ocean.  He grows tired of the monotony and at first chance, he runs from the crew he’s been with for almost seven years and joins a more savage crew, one that robs.

The captain and the first mate of this ship are married.   Remus has never met Logan, but his bubbly husband is a great first mate, always leading the crew in songs as they go from destination to destination, only destroying those who are merciless to others.

They’re strange pirates, but he loves it.

Remus is on night watch when he first meets his mer.   He’s looking over the side of the boat when the face pops up, scaled halfway and gold eyes glimmering like the dull coin that Virgil gave him years ago.

“Hello fish.”  Remus grins as the mer’s eyes widen.

“You seem to think I am real?”

“Well, considering my older brother swam off with a siren, I’d say yes.”  Remus calls down casually.

The mer rolls their eyes and dives back under the water and Remus is alone again.  When the morning comes, he tells Patton of the golden creature and the first mate nods.

“You are lucky.”

Remus isn’t so sure.

He stays with this crew until he’s thirty, and then when they dock in a small port in Cuba, he’s off again to go and seek out another life.

He stays onshore for about three days and during this time he hears the whispered rumors of a ship whose occupants never age, a ship that only docks once every seven years and that night is tonight.

So he goes to the docks and watches as the ship sails in, beautiful and old, somehow ancient and new at the same time.

They won’t let him board without payment.

Remus pulls out the coin that Virgil gave him fifteen years ago and the first mate sniffs it before looking at him.

“This is siren touched.”  He mumbles before pocketing it.

“So I’ve heard.”

“You sell your soul to the ship if you stay with us.”  The first mate offers as a warning before stepping aside so that Remus can walk up the gangplank if he choses.

“Perhaps that is my intention.”

“You have a desire to be captain?” “Don’t we all?”

“Welcome to the Flying Dutchman   I suppose.”

“Thank you.”  Remus gives a mocking half bow before boarding.

As it turns out, it’s pretty easy to become captain of the Dutchman.  Before Remus can even draw his sword for the duel, the captain kneels, admitting that he was tired and wished to sever his bind to the ship, so that he could finally rest.

The crew likes Remus.  He adds a new spice to the job, introduces them to the finest kind of liquor and eventually they realize that for being a ghost ship, their captain is usually superstitious.

Of course, they’ve never seen the mer that has started to follow the ship around...

[briniseavey]

This girl is Vanessa Guillén! Say her name, VANESSA GUILLÉN!

Vanessa Guillén was a victim of sexual assault and sexual harassment by her sergeant! She disappeared on April 22nd, in the city where the Texan Military Base is. The stupid ass people from Fort Hood have lied for the past two months, covering up a freaking screw up! This girl wanted to serve the country she loved, a country who gave her their back when she needed them the most. Most of all the country who took her as a joke, and won’t do anything for what happened to her! Vanessa Guillén didn’t deserve what she got, this girl had a bright future before her!

What happened to VANESSA GUILLÉN happened because of her race! What happened to VANESSA GUILLÉN happened because she was Hispanic, because she wasn’t white in a white supremacist country! LET THAT SINK IN!

People are saying “Oh poor Guillén Family, I can’t imagine what they’re going through”! Yes I can’t imagine what they are going through, because this should never happen to anyone, but the Guillén family is not the only one that’s being affected! It’s the Hispanic community as a whole! This situation just proved to us that we’re not worth much in this country, it showed us that to this country we are a joke, it also showed that we are not valued in this country!

WE NEED JUSTICE FOR VANESSA GUILLÉN! If this happened to Vanessa, it could happen to anyone because this country has gotten sick by the day! This country has gotten terrible with the racism! To everyone in America who protested for Black Life Matters, where the fuck are you when one of my people had this happen to them! North Americans are always saying All Lives Matter, really do they really fucking matter? Vanessa Guillén was murdered, the country freaking failed her by covering up the situation.

I’m officially disappointed and disgusted by the country that I live in! All lives Matter, not going to lie they do, but obviously freaking HISPANIC LIVES DONT MATTER! More people showed up to Black Lives Matter protests than they did for Vanessa Guillén’s protest last Friday! LET THAT SINK IN, more people showed up to BLM protest than they did for Vanessa Guillén’s protest but supposedly ‘everyone’ is done with racism. Since this wasn’t police brutality it’s not important, for crying out loud her freaking SERGEANT raped her and that’s abuse of power!

I feel for her family! I was born and raised a Hispanic/LatinX, and I know that in my culture the children are the most important thing to the parents! The Hispanic parents will do anything to protect their children and keep them safe! When a parent loses a child they will forever live with that pain until they die! I’m saying that because my mom and dad lost my older brother, and they suffer internally but they have go on with life no matter how much they don’t want to. That’s exactly the kind of pain Gloria Guillén is going through with the difference that she will feel a little relieved the moment justice is served!

Rest In Peace nena, justice will be served don’t you worry 💕

GoFundMe link to help her family

Petition to hold the US Army accountable for the disappearance of Vanessa Guillén

[samswinchesters]

a lot of white women in dbh fandom either fetishize white gay men. or sometimes they write these tone deaf self insert fics. usually depicting a white human lady who feels sorry for androids, showing how 'woke' she is by quoting mlk or nelson mandela or some other black person. it's like some of these people don't get how offensive it was for david cage to exploit the struggles of black people and they don't care either. they just want to fuck the white cop robot.

asjkdsajkld GO AHEAD KING STEP ON THIS PLATFORM BABEYYY! TAKE EVERYONE PRISONER!! LEAVE NO ONE LEFT ALIVE!!!

a lot of the fandom keep forgetting that their foundation is build on david cage’s exploitation of black people’s trauma, jewish people’s trauma, and profits off history that isn’t for him to tell. whenever a white person thinks they’re saying something by creating stories and films where “imaginary” characters are substitutes for marginalized people (ex. netflix’s “bright” and amazon prime’s “carnival row”). fairies, elves, and orcs go through a type of discrimination that is a lot like racism because of who they are, how they look, and how they are perceived as “other”. this is just a way for white people to digest the meaning of racism but it’s also incredibly harmful because it gives the perception that this doesn’t happen at all today when in reality, it is...and people are dying because of it. gosh not to get emotional but i was rewatching some of dbh because there was a mod for it and just...the way that this game is echoing a lot of what’s happening right now is just...it’s horrible! how can y’all demonize a violent revolution?? how dare a white person think that violence isn’t the answer when there is literal violence coming from the opposing side. then there’s the whole fucking fist symbol, the “i can’t breathe” shit, the “we have a dream”, the “hands up, don’t shoot”...literally getting sick thinking about how the game got away with so much shit and no one batted a fucking eyelash.

seriously, you really did capture this whole fandom in a nutshell. it’s incredibly frustrating when at the end of the day, the only thing the fandom walks away with from playing/watching the game is that connor is hot, nothing else. everyone’s attention is only drawn to connor’s storyline where they only care about him and the characters within his little world. it’s mainly white people (specifically white women) who are out here drooling over hankcon and reed900 as if gay men are some sort of sideshow attraction and say that they care about gay people when they don’t. even with rk1k, the ship between markus and connor, there are some works and fanart that depict a lot of racial stereotypes of markus and that shit ain’t right. people make fanfiction for stale side white characters and for what purpose? why can’t y’all think of headcanons for josh, a history university lecturer who definitely knows that history is repeating itself. what about rose and her son adam? why can’t y’all expand on her story and actually explore why she got into helping androids the that she does? and above all, why don’t y’all white stannies DESPISE markus? he is the literal at the center of dbh, this is his story...how are y’all just gonna brush him aside because you think he’s “boring”? this is not only the fault of DC but also the entire fandom. i have seen fandom literally create a character’s whole ass backstory, complete with fears and wants and dreams, for a side character that doesn’t fucking matter. trust if gavin was actually a man of color, he would be hated and cancelled. if hank was a man of color, he wouldn’t be forgiven for his past prejudices. hell, if connor was a man of color, y’all would NOT be this way with him...that’s on racism.

i did wanted to make this a separate paragraph because as a lot of y’all know, i used (maybe still..who knows) to write for dbh and i have seen firsthand the type of fics you described. the reader is either described as having the same prejudice as hank towards androids or the reader thinks “androids rights!” but it’s so base level activism and fake woke. like come on, girly, i don’t give a shit if you educated yourself by reading things, now what are you gonna do with the knowledge? how are you going to help this population? have you checked your own biases? then...that kinda gets to another thing where it drives me bananas thinking that white authors will write the reader as not having any sympathy towards androids...like what about us people of color who hurt alongside with them? who know what it’s like? it’s so vile to think that an author could write a reader to be so uncaring...it comes from a privileged place and that’s why i literally hate the self-insert dbh fandom. there is no representation whatsoever and whenever something is marketed as “neutral”, it never really is if the reader doesn’t care about androids. if the reader is actually written as neutral and to be “woke”, it’s a big ole bruh moment when they be like “why can’t we all get along :(” like fuck off!! we can’t get along because we still got a fucking police state, racist people in the streets, and the literal production of servants of color WHO STAND AT THE BACK OF THE BUS!! what is the reader doing about it? what are their biases? what are their privileges, if any? that’s why there’s not a single reader insert that is truly “neutral” because we know racism hasn’t been eradicated in the year 2038 (despite what rose said y’all KNOW that shit is deeply rooted and if the same establishments are still in place in detroit, we know racism hasn’t left) so we know that there will still be discrimination towards people of color. we can’t have neutral readers when writing in the dbh universe because that shit goes hand in hand. people of color, more so women of color, are gonna be far more sympathetic/empathetic towards androids and their cause than white people because they see a lot of themselves in them.

that’s why i tried to write for latinx readers while i was actively in the dbh fandom as a way to get the fandom into diversifying the reader. i have been incredibly vocal on my writing blog about these issues and though i was overwhelmed with love, support, and praise, i still wasn’t seeing the change the fandom promised to do. i was still seeing the same white reader being advertised as “neutral” ...and it hurt. neutral readers can’t provide the much needed nuances to discuss racism and discrimination about androids (since they symbolize black people/people of color do not argue this) because there needs to be a deeper understanding. yes, i have some privileges where i haven’t experienced half the shit others have experienced and i am not the spokesperson for people of color everywhere but i just know that we can no longer write neutral readers anymore when it comes to shit like this. it’s like when y’all right for 1940s!bucky barnes, you know damn well a woman of color would NOT be treated fairly during that time. that’s the nuance. you must be able to have the room to talk about it because then the work of fiction caters to white women. out of sight, out of mine and they go back to fucking connor. honestly, clown behavior.

no more “being hank’s daughter”, “gavin reed’s sister”, “reader that doesn’t care about androids/doesn’t believe in rights for androids” and other bullshit like that. society has progressed past being associated with white people!! fuck that shit xx

[mcustorm]

Thoughts on Love, Victor Season 1

PSA: If you think that you might be gay, don’t get a girl emotionally invested! Please!

Ya know, at first when I thought about what I was going to write about this show, I thought that I should split the writings into the first half/last half of the show. Now I’m thinking “screw it”, if only because if I was going to go that route I should have stopped, parsed through my feelings about the first 5 episodes, and written those thoughts before proceeding with the next half. That, of course, did not happen, so to prevent the back half of the season’s events from miring the first half, I’ll just write about the whole shebang. There’s probably a joke about that word somewhere, I’ll try not to make it.

Anyways, let’s start by saying that on the whole, I really liked this show. It was not as good as Sex Education season 1, yet in my opinion waaaay better than HSMTMTS season 1. Most of the characters were likable and felt developed enough, it moved at a nice pace, and you can tell that a lot of heart went into this. Perhaps because we all watched this in a day, it felt like a 5 hour movie rather than a 10 episode tv show.

Additionally, I of course like the Latinx representation. The intersectionality of the Latinx community and the LGBTQ+ community has been presented on at least five TV shows to my knowledge: Ugly Betty, One Day at a Time, Diary of a Future President, The Baker and the Beauty, and now Love, Victor. Let’s keep it up!

As for the premise of the show itself, I *love* that this show acknowledges that Simon’s journey, at least at his house, was leaps and bounds easier than many other people’s. Victor’s parents are more conservative and religious, and they don’t have their shit together, so this is not the best environment to drop that bombshell in (which is why it was so incredible when Victor decides to do it anyway). Simon and Victor’s DM’s being a framing device for the show was a great way to tie the universe together.

The hook of Love, Simon was that you know all those cheesy and cliche rom-coms that straight people have gotten since the dawn of time? Well LGBT people deserve those stories too! Love, Victor is sort of presented with that same thesis in mind, which is why watching these episodes felt like different things I’ve seen before all over. The whole season ironically feels like Alex Strangelove: The TV Show, right down to the often cringy relationship with the girl, the openly gay love interest who conflicts our protagonist, and the goofball friend who chases after a girl who is seemingly out of his league.

Mia’s character felt a lot like Laila from All-American, being a black girl who is ordained as the hottest girl at school (which I feel like is a title only given in fictional schools), who also has a missing mother and problems with her rich dad. Pilar, on the other hand, feels like Casey from Atypical, in that she is openly rebellious in large part because of her mother’s infidelity.

Victor’s story this season sure was something to watch. The biggest question for me was, just how much sympathy should he be given? The world is inherently unfair to Victor. None of us should have to go through the agony and anxiety that so often comes with being in the closet and coming out. But for Victor to have visited those problems on Mia, who is going through things herself? That makes him pretty morally gray.

But he was still finding himself! But he loves Mia, just not like that! I get it, which is why he should have cut things off as soon as he got back from New York, no he should have cut things off when she asked him if there was “anything else” in her bedroom, no he should have cut things off when he literally felt like he and Benji were the only two people in the room at the concert, no he really shouldn’t have done this to begin with.

The line between Victor finding himself and him deceiving Mia is the conflict of the show, but the moment for me when I was like “Damn, Victor” was after he intentionally derailed Mia’s shebang-ing that she planned, he found the gall to lie to Benji and plan a seduction! That is why the season finale was so glorious. Because yes, while the world is unfair to Victor, he’s being unfair to the people around him.

I have made it a point not to read other people’s opinions extensively so as not to bias my own thoughts, but is Felix everybody else’s favorite? Felix’s character and arc was great. He was a supportive friend yet still felt like he had a story and stakes of his own, something which some TV shows get right (Sex Ed) and some TV shows get various shades of wrong (Jamie Johnson, Andi Mack). I like that he knew his worth and cut things off with Lake, and I like that she realized that her happiness with him should take priority over what others think of her.

I was soooo sympathetic to Mia. Her world is being turned upside down at home. Clearly, she has not even processed her mother being out of her life, and now her Dad is “replacing” her Mom while the baby is also “replacing” her! In Mia’s eyes, at least. Mia just needs to know that she is loved and appreciated. Which she *thought* of all people she’d be able to get from her boyfriend. Shucks.

As for the rest of Victor’s family, I also thought the parents’ storyline was pretty interesting yet unfortunate. Armando just can’t come around to trusting Isabel, which I actually kind of understand. Isabel, meanwhile, is being prevented from doing the thing she loves to do, which sucks especially because she’s in a radically new environment. Adrian is of course great, protect him at all costs. Pilar’s seemingly permanent mode of “angsty” is completely justified, as her friends back in TX are moving on just fine without her, she’s having trouble opening up and fitting in, and her family is WYLIN.

Some things that didn’t go so well for me was Andrew’s character, who feels like he’s just there to obstruct at any given moment. Y'all knew that when Victor and Benji were having that convo in the bathroom, someone was in the stall and someone was Andrew. Also, my guy, how are you not even somewhat aware that you are a total douchecanoe? I liked Benji, but Venji didn’t quite work for me because of all of the cheatation that it took to get there. Benji was pissed and ready to stay away from Victor permanently after the [attempted seduction], but once his relationship was over he was completely fine with putting his tongue down Mia’s boyfriend’s throat.

Overall, I really enjoyed this show. Some of these teen dramas I’m admittedly only watching for the LGBT content, so to have that be at the forefront of a show for once was amazing. The conflict was realistic if frustrating, and to me most of the characters seemed fully realized. Thankfully, the show didn’t even feel too “spin-offy” even with Nick Robinson being all over it.

In any given multi-season serialized show, the trajectory of the show goes one of two ways: the first season puts your feet on the ground of the series, and then later seasons go above and beyond with the storytelling (The Office, Breaking Bad, Bojack Horseman, Jamie Johnson) OR the first season is pretty great TV, and the following seasons fail to live up to its glory (The Good Place, Dear White People, really most every Netflix show ever). Which category Love, Victor ends up in is something to look forward to. Where do we go from here now that Victor is taking his first steps out of the closet?

Stray thoughts from the episodes:

The soundtrack on the whole, was not my cup of tea. I still liked a couple of songs, so that means somebody out there liked more of them.

I completely forgot Natasha Rothwell was in Love, Simon. More of her! More of Ali Wong! More of Beth Littleford! They were all great.

So Roger got his ass beat by Armando, and he still wants to get back with her?? Roger is reckless, man.

Speaking of reckless, Victor’s closet skills completely fell apart towards the end there. Assume somebody’s always watching!

Lake’s mother is a trip.

Good for the family for standing up to the grandparents.

Oh my god, Simon and Bram. Those guys are mine, and now they’re growing up and moving to the Big Gay City. They’ve come a long way.

Speaking of the Big Gay City, we were in Atlanta for a season and got *0* acknowledgement of the vibrant gay community there. More things to look forward to.

Was anybody else singing Selena along with Isabel? That is my favorite Selena song!

By rule of Felix being a male and Pilar being a female close in age, I immediately thought they were going to be a thing. The writers didn’t pull that thread too much...

That moment at the end there when we all thought Victor was going to hold off on his announcement only for him to go “fuck it” and say it anyways? And then he got to exhale? Perfect. chef’s kiss

What with June being Pride month, the SCOTUS ruling a couple of days ago, this entire show premiering today, and Delliot things going down in less than 24 hours, this will likely be the gayest week of the year. I suggest we all enjoy it.

Stay Peachy!

[deliriumsetin]

So here’s the thing...

I’m really freaking hard to scare. Unlike my cat that just booked it into another room when our UPS guy dropped a package off at the door. Perfect timing, Percy. Perfect timing...

Anyways! I have NOT had a good scare in probably two decades. No matter what fiction I pick up that promises to chill and thrill me, neither happens.

Now keep this in mind.

As of right now I am launching a business and yes, this will tie into the weird opener. Be patient, please.

I am launching Vox et Liber, a publishing house for ALL kinds of stories and ALL kinds of voices. I started working on this in November 2019, what do you mean that was only 8 months ago?! I originally thought the publishing house up after learning a bunch of facts about the publishing world over the summer.

VeL publishing will be a new kind of publishing and I can say that with 100% confidence because I am building this beast from the ground up, with the help of @hazandlouwho​, my fiance, and a few other amazing people!

Because this business is getting started independently, which means no investors, we are working with a VERY small amount of cash reserved for start up. Initially all works will be published digitally. We do plan on launching a Kickstarter in September/October to get enough funds to keep this going and to do it right which means getting stories published physically and sold to both indie bookstores and Barnes and Noble. Please be on the look out for that.

If any awesome people want to donate to help us not break my own personal bank, which will be easy to do since Covid-19 forced me to quit my job working with the public because I’m high risk and unemployment has kept me in limbo for going on 3 weeks, you can tip us on Ko-Fi by clicking here. ALL donations and funds raised go towards launching VeL and all projects under the VeL umbrella.

Bringing it around to the scares. VeL is launching our first project and we need all you awesome writers’ help. As of today we are opening submissions for our first ever anthology, Graveyard Visits. It’s horror with the theme of marginalized voices written as Own Voice fiction. Meaning stories written by marginalized groups with their marginalized groups as main characters.

Submissions are going to be open from July 1st until August 12th 11:59pm EST. Stories are expected to be between 2.5k-5k words in length. We will be paying $.02 per word as well as giving you a digital copy of the anthology. Submission Guidelines can be found here.

Now the whole me being hard to scare; I want to be scared. Submit your best, your scariest, and most bone-chilling stories.

Also, not so subtly gonna add a nudge to @thebibliosphere​ because I feel like she might have something up her sleeve. If not for this anthology then definitely our erotica one that will be announced later this summer.

We also have a podcast series in the works but I will do another post on that once I or my awesome soon to be brother in law (that’s STILL weird) have a moment to do up some graphics.

Click below for my rant on why traditional publishing right now is a soul sucking leech on EVERYONE.

On average with hardcover books an author is lucky to make $1.50 off each one sold and that’s only AFTER they sell enough to cover their advance. I also found out the average advance is like 3k per book. Some (not including the wicked big names who get a shit ton more) can get as high as 5k but others can get as low as a 1k. An author is lucky to see that twice a year (selling 2 books) because they have to spend time MARKETING book 1 instead of writing book 2. 

Keep in mind fiction hardcovers are generally sold between 19.99 (usually YA) or 29.99 (usually adult). Wicked big difference, huh? I get there’s a lot that goes into making a book, trust me I do but the split between should leave the authors getting around $4 per copy instead of less than $2. That $2.50 is just extra that the publishing house takes because it can.

Then there are the mass paperbacks which an author gets paid 50 damn cents per copy. Yes, those books retail for anywhere between 7.99 and 14.99 per book and sell way faster than hardcovers. Take it from an ex-bookseller.

Most books take on average 500 to 1,000 hours of work put into them before they even get handed off to the publisher for the FIRST time. At minimum that author sees an hourly return wage of $6 which is BELOW the United fucking States shit-tastic minimum peasant wage. We devalue the arts so fucking much- arg! But that can be a separate rant for another day.

Then after doing more research I realized just how off balanced the publishing world STILL is in the year of hell 2020. Don’t believe me click the link. Sarah Park Dahlen did a great article with a great graphic on it. 

As of 2015, yes I’m paraphrasing to continue to rant, children’s books had ALMOST more books about anthropomorphic cars, household items, and animals than there were books about Black kids, Asian Pacific kids, Latinx kids, or Native American/First Nation kids combined. Talking teakettles and their kindred got a whopping 12.5% while if you add up all the groups above you get 14.2%. None on there own beat out the freaking Easter Bunny! Of course books about White kids are the highest at 73.3%. Yes, this was as of 2015 but as an avid reader who reads middle-grade and up books for fun I can tell you nothing much has changed. Books about black kids maybe SLIGHTLY higher since the BLM movement (fuck yes progress!!) but I’d be heartstoppingly shocked if they beat out talking fucking trucks.

And that’s just race. From what I gathered with all the publishing houses less than 100 books with LGBTQIAP+ main characters are published each year. Wtf? And among that as of 2015 55% percent are about cisgendered males and 31% are cisgendered females. (Thank you @malindalo​, you are awesome and I’ve enjoyed meeting you at the Boston Teen Author festival the last few years.) So, just focusing on those 2 first letters, huh? I want to read a story about a kickass transwoman that has to deal with transitioning WHILE demons have torn their way out of hell. That would be badass! Holy shit, someone trans write that!

Same goes for people that live with disabilities whether they are physical or mental, including mental illness and neurodivergents like myself. If you haven’t figured out by this rant just how ADHD I am than you might need an ADHD in your life. My brain works differently and I would have killed growing up to read about characters that have to deal with what I deal with. We have Percy Jackson now and his all ‘verse but it’s not enough and it wasn’t published until I was on my way to college.

All that aside we now have all the bs coming out about what’s been going on in traditional publishing. About all the dickweeds that have been using their power and pull to sexually harass new authors, most often the new authors are young women. I unfollowed people and canceled a pre-order because fuck that shit! Also, I don’t give a fuck how big a name someone is if the hate they spew makes all their trans fans collectively feel like shit for not believing the simple fact that transwomen are women then they deserve to get dropped like the bag of shit they are. TERFs can fuck right off. 

All the publishing bs has made me more determined to get VeL off the ground because no, no, no. We’ll have none of that. All the listed above reasons can go play in traffic. We will be paying our authors better and taking care of them from day 1. We will be making sure our catalog is so damn diverse that you’d have to be looking at the wrong website to not find a story that you can’t see yourself in and lastly, if we hear of any of our authors pulling a Myke Cole or a Sam Sykes than they are dropped. It is in the best interests of our authors futures that they aren’t shitbags. /end rant

If y’all have any questions about anything of this, I think my dms are open or if I’m wrong just tag me. My days lately have been chained to my shit dell computer with one or both cats pinning me to the couch. I finish this up as Percy settles in on my legs. Also, thunderstorm is starting up and both are sleeping through it? If only I could be so lucky when the fiance and I have kids...

[andsmile]

you probably have realized this but the way teen dramas treat latinas is so aggravating like theresa in the oc and anna in one tree hill (bi storyline included) were always treated (even veronica if we go by b*rchies reasoning) as an obstacle for the main guy to reunite with the main white girl or they just didn't exist. The treatment of veronica is worse cause she's one of the mains and idk i just cant see my favorite character be embarrassed by the guy who's supposed to be in love w/ her 😭😭

as a latina myself, i have realized it. i have spoken up about it several times whenever i get asked questions about why can’t i give b*rchie a chance or why i dislike b*rchie so much and i’ve had several people calling me out for saying what i said, that people should be able to ship whatever they ship without me saying they’re sexist or racist/xenophobe, but i still think that shipping ba in the context of riverdale and supporting the ~narrative~ their fandom supports is the ultimate fuck you for the portrait of a prominent latina character in the media. a character who was originally white and was turned into a latina only for her family to be criminalized, no other.

a lot more under the cut!

the other day me, @monica-posh (who’s black) and @archiercnnies (who’s another latina like me) had a very interesting conversation over representation and how we are always bound to be represented in the media by characters who are poorly written in an already poorly written show, “bitches”, “strong women that need no man”, or doormats who are always apologizing for stuff they sometimes never even did, or forgiving white characters for horrible stuff they have done without even getting a proper apology from the ones who wronged them. the short end of the stick gets shorter and shorter the darker the character’s skin is.

the oc and one tree hill were shows written in the early 00′s. i know this shouldn’t be an excuse, but it kinda is, considering how much the world evolved with the representation discourse since then. however, riverdale is from a very decade in a very different world and it was beautiful to see what a diverse cast they really were, until you actually watch it and realize how they write it. all pocs on riverdale at some point are turned into villains or antagonists to the three white straight mains. even veronica and her family have antagonized bh before. they are all written off without an explanation, killed, or given minor storylines that are carelessly written and forgotten.

granted, the ‘big bads’ have all been white so far... except hiram. whose main purpose is to be a mexican man who terrorizes the little perfect american town. and the mexican man’s daughter is the one who archie falls for interrupting the white boy-and-girl-next-door dream of being together. a daughter of immigrants is the problem of the little american town. i couldn’t make that shit up.

there’s the problem of the writing room, too. i googled and searched and i think even though ras is a latinx man, most of the other writers are white. and men. and it’s only getting whiter and more manly as the seasons progress. how can these writers ever stop and think wait, i am doing this and that and putting this latinx character in an embarrassing position? no, they don’t think that, they don’t think omg i am making two white kids embarrass a latinx girl, they think omg DRAMA. they can’t see it because it doesn’t affect them. we don’t have to go so far: if you ask a man reviewer what they want to happen to x couple in s5, they’ll say they want the girl to pine for the guy. if you ask a woman reviewer, they’ll say the contrary.

there’s a huge distance between the writers - white men - and me, a white latina woman. there’s an even bigger distance between the writers and the black girl. or the black trans person. etc. etc. and they don’t know how to write for us, because they don’t care. vanessa morgan had to speak out in public and jeopardize her job so she could see some alleged change happening. things are still changing. people are still trying to understand, from the top to bottom.

one thing that attracted me in riverdale and in varchie, specifically, is how archie was always choosing veronica and putting her first, despite her not being the girl-next-door. i have never seen on screen the narrative that the bas tried to conjure that she was only an obstacle, and i still don’t. i am always very upset with how veronica (and the lodges in general) is written and how they can’t even give her an original storyline that doesn’t revolve around her father, but i never thought this applied to archie and veronica and i still think it doesn’t. yes, it’s a very stupid writing choice that these writers took by making her sing a song that he’s written for her best friend in front of them? it is. but at the same time, i do not think this is what makes her an obstacle on their road or on his road to betty. i don’t think this is what the writers are trying to tell us, i really don’t, and i might be very disappointed about it in the end of it all, but the reason why they have veronica going through all this shit is because they don’t even realize how much it makes them look like they hate her. it’s just how they see them, as a latinx character: passionate! dramatic! artistic! dangerous! femme fatale! it fits her!

it’s a sad thing, really, this storyline. but i don’t think archie has ever pretended to be in love with her or was written to do so. and this belief makes me hold on to varchie in canon for sure. they will give them all the dramatic! passionate! fire! storylines and they will have them overcome their obstacles, and i much more would love watching them painting a wall then her needing the help of a white man to save her from yet another white man, but all the racist/xenophobe subtext here is something the writers (and even cami!) might not even realize, tbh.

(other things to think about: why did they have to make jughead not-poor so he could be in an established relationship with betty? why do fans want both jughead and archie to fight for/save betty but no one wants anyone fighting for/saving veronica? why couldn’t they write veggie as a compelling love story instead of whatever that was? etc etc etc.)

[segenassefa]

2: On Consumerism, Fighting Demons, and Societies Inevitable Collapse

Quarantine has been lowkey surreal. My constant complaint of never having enough time to do all the things I want/should be doing has now left me bored in the house, bored in the house, bored with nothing but time to get said things done. However, it is a dual edged sword - with the collapse and subsequent reformation of civil society outside my doors, it leaves me wondering – as well as a lot of other people – in the words of Miss Juicy…what the hell we gone do now?

Nearing the end of the first leg of my university career, I should be thinking about getting ready to transition to the next logical stages of adulthood - saving for an apartment, applying for permanent residency, as well as graduate schools and part time jobs. Yet, I’m worried about if these things will even be a possibility within the next month, six months, or even the next year.

On top of ALL of that, the recent BLM protests and the way that people (read: white people, Latinxs, Black men, homo/transphobes, etc.) have shown their asses the past few months is beyond mortifying - especially regarding the treatment of black women and how our value as individuals as well as a collective to society is really perceived.* This is not to downplay the murder of numerous black men in society, BUT who the fuck is riding for black women aside from other black women? And not just the ones who find attractive, or are racially ambiguous, or the ones you feel as if you get “guilted” into supporting and demanding justice for, I mean each and every black woman. I’m just saying, it gets pretty disheartening to feel like the legwork of the revolution is on the back of one category of people, and that your value to society is measured by the amount of emotional labour you’re ready to do for others, or how fat your ass is (but I digress…).

I feel like most people have used material things as coping mechanisms instead of actually facing their feelings and dealing with the things that bother them. Just think of the number of packages that have arrived on your doorstep the past few months. Breaking the glossy seal of packing tape is similar to therapy, until all the boxes are open, and you start feeling like shit again. And now, more than ever, there’s a lot to be bothered about. Western society has dedicated phrases based on the phenomenon of substituting true self-work with figurative emotional bandages (Phrases like comfort eating and retail therapy come to mind).

It’s nice to think that we – the people entering their adolescent and young adult years – will be the one to change these things, but suddenly it’s 2 am, you have twenty different things in your Amazon cart, (who the fuck needs a metal straw cleaning kit?) and you’re trying to see how far you can stretch and grab your debit card before falling off of the bed.

The conflicting messages pushed by society don’t help all that much either. If you look up “Kondo method” or “decluttering my closet” on YouTube, the numbers of videos that come up is astounding. Pages and pages of sweaty-faced, smiling YouTubers monetizing from this kind of faux “minimalism” only to post haul videos a few days later because “I threw everything out and now I have to rebuild from scratch sksksk!”. Does this not just perpetuate a cycle of buying and throwing and buying? I am....confusion, to say the least. Still I watch them, because I’m a hypocrite, and am also easily amused.

I will be the first to admit I have always had a very unhealthy relationship with money, with self-image, and with measuring my self-worth in proximity with “stuff that stems from a complicated relationship with physical self. Follow along:

Growing up, I was a fat kid. We don’t even have to sugar coat it. Think Terrio, but better eyebrows and more hair. Except I was not killin’ em, just myself. I always envied my friends who were able to go shopping at regular stores – read: Hollister, Abercrombie, Urban Outfitters (yes my friends were white), meanwhile I was condemned to shopping in the women’s department.

So, to compensate, I would buy trinkets – things like nail polish, lip gloss, journals, you get the point. My proximity to worthiness was measured not by the things that I bought, but within the act of buying. Growing up with parents who were also financially frugal also altered my relationship with money and blessed me with crippling buyers’ remorse after every purchase, even on things that are important (read: groceries).  

But as a kid, buying “stuff” was fun for me – it gave me some sort of purpose, and the acquisition of things (even if they weren’t the same things my peers had) made me feel like, to some extent, I could compete on the same playing field. As I got older, and I started to have real expenses, I moved towards second-hand shopping. I would religiously find myself at Goodwill on weekend, after school, or with friends. I could literally feel an endorphin rush when I would find something that I would consider a “good deal”, and it made me feel (again) purposeful, to be spending money, even if I didn’t need whatever I was buying.

I should also add that the people in my immediate family does not believe in thrift stores (“Why am I working for you to wear other people’s clothing?”, I remember my dad asking me one day), so the act of second-hand shopping was also my form of rebellion.

I began to amass a collection of clothing that would put Kylie’s closet to shame. I began buying things for events and situations that were yet to happen, for other people, for when I lose ten pounds. It was a madness.

In freshman year of university, I had an unhealthy relationship with clubbing clothes. Did I have the figure for clubbing clothes? Absolutely not. The funnier part is, I couldn’t even go clubbing because I wasn’t 19 at the time. And yet I had drawers and drawers full of the stuff. Not to mention that clubbing clothes is incredibly similar to summer clothing and living between Minnesota and Canada meant that these things were barely seeing the light of day.

The moral of this was – I could never figure out my relationship with stuff, This quarantine has forced me to try and break down the compulsion behind my behaviour.  I felt like I was spiralling the six weeks that they closed thrift stores, and I knew myself well enough to not try and online shop with the same kind of frequency as that. But the crazy part was, I didn’t die. I didn’t go into withdrawal (ok, I did a little bit, but whatever), and I was able to take the time to go through the things I already owned and find some hidden gems that were routinely buried in the cracks and crevices of my closet. It was like the episode of Family Guy when Peter realizes he has a vestigial twin – alarming and cool at first, but then it’s just alarming and annoying.

Its more embarrassing to realize that some semblance of myself image is tied to the frequency with which I am able to spend money. I would never say that participating in capitalist society gives me some kind of purpose as a black woman because God forbid. Also, considering that a lot of big names companies are actually racist and fatphobic as hell creates a whole new dimension for analyzing the power of my black dollar, sometimes creating another spiral of guilt leading to you guessed it – more spending.

As much as it seems like it, however, this self-reflection was not in vain. In the past month, I’ve cut down my closet from +200 pieces of clothing and shoes to about 40. If you ever want a fun, humbling activity this quarantine, just clean out your closet and be honest with yourself about how often you wear certain things. It was revolting to see the number of shirts, dresses, pants, skirts that I had bought and convinced myself wholeheartedly I was going to wear, only to pull them out of my closet months later with the tags attached *insert Marge Simpson covering her face meme*.

But at the end of the whole ordeal, it felt really good to look at my space and not feel burden or guilt. It was somewhat philanthropic realizing that not only will these clothes make someone else happier (I donated pretty much everything because it’s not always about money), but that my quality of life was not dramatically impacted in owning (or not owning) certain things. The past few weeks, I’ve spent more money on going out and sharing experiences with friends, but still nowhere near the same amount of money I would have spent buying clothes and other material possession.

Youtuber Kelly Stamps has a video on how minimalism “cured” her depression**, and the whole thesis boils down to the idea that owning less things gives you less to compare yourself too, thus making you happier (in a sense) and allowing you to focus the energy and time that would have been centered around maintaining and building your collection of possessions other things.

This still doesn’t break down the root of the issue, but it’s a start. I think when you have traits or patterns that you’ve participated in for so long, it becomes hard to step back and be objective enough to realize that you – yes, you – are part of the problem. I can blame my habits on a lot of things but at the end of the day, it’s important to realize that certain cycles seem never-ending because I actively choose to participate in these kinds of behaviours (accountability is sexy, huh?). While I’m not ready to face all my demons quite yet, it’s easier to do it with a nice wardrobe and a streamlined sense of mind.

Notes

*When I say black women, I mean ALL black women. Not some limited, cis-gendered, heteronormative view of what a woman is. Over here we ride for all those who identify as women.

**She emphasizes that she doesn’t actually means that it cured anything, but rather helped with her anxiety, and in turn, helped with her depression.

Links

That Family Guy Episode

The Kelly Stamps video