#let your children read lgbt books

[ungroomedcat]

Yo being dark skinned is not an insult💀

I Was having a pleasant conversation with a coworker about summer plans and naturally the conversation shifted to the harsh southern sun and the need for sunscreen. I said thankfully I'm darker skinned and she interrupted me with, "aw you're not~" with the same type of awkwardly kind tone you use to tell someone they're not ugly even though you think they are. Girl I'm chocolate colored and proud of it get out of here with your pale ass.

[qbdatabase]

Book bans are on the rise across the US, but even if you want to go read and buy as many books with LGBT+ representation as you can get your greedy little hands on--it's hard to know what you don't know :/

The Queer Books Database lists over 3,500+ fiction and non-fiction titles in a google docs spreadsheet that lets you search by representation, or just by age, genre, year published, and more. It doesn't just track LGBT+ rep but also tags for people of color, disability, mental health, neurodivergence, fat rep, older characters, and religion!

You can use the database to search for:

multiple identities at once--find rep for a schizophrenic asexual lesbian, an autistic black boy, or a non-binary soldier with tinnitus

age appropriate books--search for children's books, junior chapter books, teen titles, and YA

non-fiction education--this includes biographies and memoirs, self-help, mental health, sexual education, LGBT+ history, legal resources, and affirming spiritual texts

trope/setting/time period--get a list of ghostly paranormals, queer fiction set in africa, gay regency romances, enemies-to-lovers, dark academia, and tons more!

Using the database, supporting my patreon, or buying me a ko-fi also really helps out the autistic transgender librarian who put this all together during the pandemic! Please share and reblog if you can~

[fuck-hamas-go-israel]

Ok so I have watched multiple videos on the history of Israel - Palestine and honestly? Go Israel.

The only thing I am not able to understand is, why is the whole world in the support of Palestine? Even Tumblr? (Yes the death of innocent people is bad but it's happening on both sides, why are they pretending that everyone in Israel lives in idk, rocket-proof luxury rooms?)

And people are purchasing books on history of Israel - Palestine, and still violently supporting Palestine. And not even seeing a shread of "blame" on them? :(

This is just an observation, but wherever muslims are in majority, they won't let the minority in peace, no matter what — they're not the “peaceful” community the world tries to show them as.

There is whole history on how they are ruthless, tyrants, who can not accept let alone tolerate another religion in their proximity.

I JUST don't know what will it take for the world to see the actual history and stop viewing Israel like The Evil Nation.

That’s a good question, but a very difficult one to answer.

As you’ve said, the information is out there in the open, available to anyone willing to put in the time to read and understand.

However, it takes a lot of mental effort to wrap one’s mind around the historical and geopolitical nuances of this conflict. As a result, it’s definitely less of a mental burden to get information from reading headlines, reading tweets, and watching TikToks.

Of course the information isn’t always accurate, and if someone absorbs news from these sites that all have the same bias, they’ll be inclined to think a certain way. But even still, it’s digestible, and why put in the work to make informed opinions of the subject when these smaller, bite-sized pieces of info are being spoon-fed to you easily?

You can tell people to “educate themselves”until the cows come home, but the chances of them actually going to read up more are pretty slim. After all, it’s more comfortable and safe to maintain your opinion than actively seek out information that challenges your point of view.

That aside, I think the Israel-Palestine conflict in particular has elicited, or rather, uncovered a very worrying hypocrisy and double-standard, and caused a rise in antisemitism that’s alarmingly reminiscent of 1940s Europe.

Those who support Hamas claim to be on the side of “human rights” and “protecting the innocent”, yet turn a blind eye to or rejoice at the slaughter of innocent children.

They present this issue as intersectional with other liberalist movements such as feminism and LGBTQ+ rights, yet Hamas rapes and parades the naked bodies of women around to publicly humiliate them, and calls the LGBT community “sinners” that will be “punished by Allah”, and refuses to allow any LGBT person on Palestinian soil.

Yes, it is baffling to see people defend a terrorist group that has such fundamentally incompatible ideologies with them, and would kill them on sight. Normally I wouldn’t just tell them to go to Palestine if they like it so much, but if they can’t see the irrationality of their own beliefs themselves, if they can’t see that their parroted platitudes are of no use and don’t make them immune or exempt from the hate-filled violence of Hamas, then maybe going there to see for themselves is perhaps the only solution.

So maybe there isn’t anything that can be done, unfortunately. It’s very telling that many pro-Israel accounts are sent hate mail daily, and instead of being presented with the opportunity for discourse on the complicated subject, it’s just crusty anons calling for the end of Israel and telling them to kill themselves for supporting Israel.

If someone calls for your death, then there’s little to nothing that can be done anymore to have a rational discussion. All you can do is stay safe and stay informed, and don’t stoop to their level because they’ll use that as ammunition against you to justify calling for your death.

Am Yisrael Chai 🇮🇱

[pupuseriazag]

Now in "I hate living in this country" the Education Ministry of El Salvador confirmed they are erasing and deleting any trace of educational material, books and guides that include "gender ideology" in an attempt to start a war on LGBT salvadoreans and queer children in public schools.

Same Ministry who infamously years ago fired the person on charge of a segment in an educational program in Canal 10 (meant to be seen by eight graders) which featured a basic explanation on the differences between gender, sex and sexual orientation.

Every politician who deepthroats the president's dick celebrating this heinous act as a "triumph over the lgbt agenda" while completely ignoring the several public schools around the country having no support from the government for better infrastructure, better access to education and some not even having teachers AT ALL!

El Salvador's education has been in decline lately as NO actual meassures to educate the children properly have been made, with even the National University (the only public university in the country) being on the verge of bankrupt as the government of nayib prioritzed doing a small makeup on the zones of the campus that were used for the Iberamerican games last year, ignoring the several demands by students to do something about their university, since for a lot of people, the National University is their only access to superior education as it is economically accesible on contrast to private universities.

But yeah sure, taking out ""the gender ideology"" is the fucking solution to this 🙄

Let me also tell anyone who reads this: Us queer people dont have rights in the country, no same sex marriage nor adoption rights, neither rights to get a sex change or input your gender identity in your ID. So far it is not criminalized being queer here, but it seems that may change soon if more movements like this one start happening more frequently.

[therealvinelle]

How does Norway view it’s royal family I’m from Canada and lets just say that we are not big monarchy fans. But I wonder about other countries because commonwealth countries are kind of in a unique situation where their royalty is actually royalty of another country (Britain) and we just pay for it. (no seriously, we pay more for the monarchy in canada than the uk does)

I can't speak for everyone, but I personally am in favor of having a royal family and would find it disappointing and a change for the worse if we became a republic.

The monarchy in Norway came about the right way, when the country became independent in 1905 the people voted with an overwhelming majority in favor of getting the Danish prince Carl to become our king. It was in order words not something imposed upon us by a thousand years of feudalism, but a newly independent people's choice to have a king of our own.

King Haakon proceeded to, when Norway was occupied by the Germans, refuse to accept our government's formal request to disband (as they had been driven into exile and could no longer govern), as well as refuse to surrender. Did this lead to war, yes, but it also meant that through the war we remained an occupied country with a legitimate government overseas broadcasting to every citizen by radio that we could look towards in place of the occupying government imposed upon us.

After King Haakon there was King Olav, who took the bus during the 1973 energy crisis so as to lead by example, and went skiing in the woods like everybody else, he was an immensely popular king. Now there is King Harald, who married a commoner in Queen Sonja and whose children have made even more scandalous marriages (Princess Märtha married an artist and author, Ari Behn, while the crown prince Haakon married a single mother of a child out of wedlock who was and in certain circles remains viewed as very low class), but both Harald and Sonja are very loved. Harald famously is very witty, and more importantly he is a very inclusive and kind-hearted person who made it explicitly clear he is as much the king of immigrants and LGBT people as he is everybody else. He has also competed in the Olympics seveal times, we love an athlete.

The big eyesore is Princess Märtha, whose sins and scandals are money but in a nutshell, she made the choice to be financially independent (good!) only to then do so in the worst ways she could manage. There was the angel school, where you would go learn how to speak with angels (I once went to a party where we read her book and followed her instructions on finding your aura, great fun and I recommend this for a party game), which had everyone laughing at her, to the much less funny adventure she is now on, where she has... gone full Gwyneth Paltrow. As in, she is engaged to a shaman who says children with cancer must have wished the cancer upon themselves and he will also cleanse women's vaginas of evil if they've had too much sex, and she has toured the country with this man using her princess title (The tour was called "The princess and the shaman") which... yes. When they are criticized, they say it's racism because he is black, this has not endeared them to many either.

She can live her life how she wishes, the fact that what she wishes is to give a platform to a man who talks about being a lizard who contains ancient spirits and also the 5G net is bad is what makes people upset and lose respect for the monarchy as a whole.

Personally, I remain in favor of the monarchy because she'll never be on the throne, she is already irrelevant in every way that matters. The relevant royals we do have do their jobs well and responsibly, which is where my wanting to have a monarchy in the first place comes in: I believe in the constitutional monarchy as we practice it in Norway.

The people who make the decisions will be elected by the people, but the person representing the country, whose job is only to represent and better the country through charities and strengthened diplomatic ties, has an advantage if he isn't political and gains a continuity from not being replaced every time he loses the election cycle. In these times of rising populism I think the advantage to having an apolitical head of state and military is even greater. We could in theory vote a populist party into power but we wouldn't have a populist president, the way certain countries experienced not too long ago and stand to do now. As for how one should go about finding such a non-political, continuous leader of the country, I think inheriting the position is as good a way as any to keep the transferrance of power from one sovereign to the next from getting political. In other words, monarchy but keep it constitutional.

(I'm also colored by how King Haakon handled the occupation, as well as how the King of Spain as recently as in 1981 prevented a military coup in Spain by denouncing the military's actions. How relevant these events are to the present day can be debated, but I think the past couple of years have proven that we should not take the status quo for granted and our democracies can come under threat. When they do, I prefer to have every safeguard imaginable in place for them. If that safeguard spend their time promoting art and charity that's just a big bonus.)

[windb0rne]

Ok, I’m done being angry and now I just want explanations as to WHY the radqueer/paraphile positivity movement is a thing. Because, in my humble opinion, it shouldn’t be.

It’s clear that paraphiles recognize how wrong their thoughts are. They say that they know kids and animals can’t consent, and that they’d never act on their “unwanted” fantasies.

Then, they make pride flags, communities, and talk openly about their paraphilias on a website full of children. They try to force themselves into the LGBT+ community. They try to force themselves into political movements. They admit to engaging in ageplay, and make lewd fanart of underage characters. They’ve even made emoji dogwhistles and innocent-looking mascots.

If you truly believed that your thoughts were just thoughts, you’d treat them like any unwanted thought: you’d keep them in your head. I understand that you want a community. I understand that you want to connect with people like yourself. And believe me, there are better ways to do that. Find a hobby. Learn an instrument. Read a book. Play a video game (but don’t fantasize about the underage characters, please and thank you). Join a sports team. Learn to cook. One way or another, you’ll find a community of your own, built around something positive rather than negative.

My only question is, why? Why build your online persona around the darkest parts of yourself, when there’s so much more that you have to offer? Why let your demons control you, rather than learning to live above them?

This isn’t a rhetorical question, by the way. Feel free to answer. I’ll be civil.

[endcant]

a big reason why i personally respond very strongly and publicly about internet censorship bills is because every tool and support ive ever had to understand my trauma, cope with my mental health issues, historically contextualize my experiences, and become a somewhat functional adult, were all found online. the friends who support me found me online. my ability to do my art business & be my authentic self in the same place at the same time is thanks to the expressive powers of the internet. almost nothing good in my life would have been possible if there was legislation like KOSA enacted when i was a child. which is why i have been openly speaking out against legislation like this ever since i was a child.

one example of the problem here is that the heritage foundation intends to use KOSA as a way to sue websites into censoring information about LGBT+ issues and sex/reproductive health. they said it publicly, and i have no reason to think they’re bluffing. the heritage foundation is also the main party behind Project 2025 (an authoritarian agenda for the U.S. political right published and free to read online). they should be taken seriously because they have proudly played a massive role in deciding what Republican public policy be will be since the Reagan administration. if you are politically active online at all and don’t know whether your most dearly held causes are under threat by this group, type “the heritage foundation’s stance on” into your favorite search engine, take a look at the recommended searches, and get ready to have a very bad time. (…unless you’re one of those rare far-right political users on this site, in which case you’d probably have a pretty good time)

this is happening alongside the recent growth of the “parental rights” movement, whose achievements include promoting book bans, trying to suppress any information they deem to be “Critical Race Theory”, as well as harassing and threatening people for supporting LGBT+ kids. they aim to silence any voices that don’t fall in line with their agenda. moms for liberty is a prominent example of a harmful “parental rights” activist group; they have repeatedly done things like this. i have no doubt that these groups would absolutely utilize KOSA to further prevent children from accessing important educational information.

Rep. Marsha Blackburn, the one of the two legislators who has spearheaded the push to pass this bill through the Senate, is a self identified “hard-core” “politically incorrect” conservative who came into the Senate during the Trump administration. She is also part of the larger Tennesseean right-wing political apparatus that has brought this state wonders like cities where public homosexuality is illegal, and a county where the juvenile detention rate approaches 50%. these people do not care about the wellbeing of children. they are doing awful things here that the majority of tennesseans do not support. there are many other recent, infamous examples of similar state and local human rights failures throughout the US. if you let them have their way, these post-Trump Republicans will do their best to bring this kind of nonsensical, authoritarian governance to the entire country and potentially the rest of the world, given the role that U.S. law plays in the reality of the international internet.

i have been mostly sharing others’ posts and contacting legislators on my own time, but on December 6th, a letter was published in support of KOSA that was signed by 200 organizations— largely mental health and childrens’ health related groups. i believe that far-right political groups will use KOSA to silence the kind of online information that helped me with my own mental health when i was a kid, and that kids are currently relying on today. ultimately, i think it is a shame that these 200 organizations think they can get away with publicly supporting a bill that is so widely criticized and politically fraught.

[gracefulchristiangirl]

I understand that the LGBT questions can get old, but as a fellow Christian I wanted to ask whether you've read Magnus chase/toa and if you could move on from/enjoy it despite the less than ideal themes?

Thanks for your message :) I actually really, really, really LOVE apologetics! I can talk about this for hours and hours, as well as a slew of any other theological questions, whether you are a believer or very hostile to my faith!

it never gets old when people are asking these kind of things with the best intentions and in the kindest way! like so far, both people who belong to the pride community in different ways were very polite and respectful in asking, so I've been more than happy to answer.

its just I don't want to get attacked in the same terrible way I have seen happen to others, so I'm VERY careful with my response, and making sure to put in my post and not in the tags for anyone who sees this and doesn't like it to still be nice. so if you disagree with me as you are reading this, you CAN comment and repost this with your arguments, just do so *respectfully*

now on to the question:

i have friends and Christian mentors who I trust and admire deeply who would answer this question both ways, and both have had good reasons and strong convictions for each.

Like I said in this post here, I think that you can enjoy art without endorsing or supporting everything the art is about, or that the author does. like when Harry Potter first came out, it was a struggle for many believers on whether to let their children read it or not, right, because there were witches in it. but over time, people saw that Rowling just used 'witch' to describe a female magic user, and it wasn't endorsing worshipping Satan or anything, so a lot more christians have joined that fandom since. (because magic in kids books isn't the problem for christians [see the Chronicles of Narnia, anything of Tolkein's, the Wingfeather Saga, and more that I'm not currently thinking of], its using magic for nefarious ends that is)

you can use a similar argument here. if you can read about Apollo thinking about his 245921859 lovers of all genders and just kinda mentally skip over it to focus on the story, you could probably read it just fine, AS LONG AS YOU ARE ABLE TO SEPERATE SIN FROM STORY. that is VERY important. so if a brand-new Christian, maybe one that struggles with same-sex attraction, wants to pick up Rick's more sexuality-supporting books, I would absolutely NOT reccomend it. if you have a hard time understanding or avoiding a sin, reading books and filling your mind with that sin, you are going to have a far harder time avoiding it/saying no to it, and you've given the devil a crack in the door for him to shove into.

on the other hand, you could apply this for everybody. sin is sin. Rick Riordian believes that he is doing a good, and the right thing, by making more kids feel welcome and loved in kids books, but at the end of the day, they are KIDS BOOKS! designed for 7-13 year olds to read, even if many younger and older fans enjoy them as well. as an older sister, I don't want my younger siblings, who are at a very young and impressionable age, to pick up trials of apollo or magnus chase and deside that they want to kiss their same-sex peers at school, or pretend to be the opposite gender because their favorite book character did it and it was cool.

because remember: the whole movement has only blown up VERY RECENTLY in the course of history. in our 6,000 years of recorded human history, was their homosexuality present throughout the whole thing? absolutely. its in the Bible! but its only been in the last 30ish years that its become a 'if you're not with us you are against us' and 'anyone who doesn't enjoy this is a bigot/transphobe/homophobe/evil/whatever'. it has gotten incredibly violent incredibly quickly. and they are actively targeting children in what they do, which means we need to protect ones who grew up in the church, and who are immersed in that culture, equally.

all of this to say, is that my Christian peers and mentors who take this view think that if we give them an inch, they will take a mile (as they already have, unfortunately), so we need to keep our convictions strong and our foundations in Christ stronger. Rick has written pjo and Kane Chronicles (which are in my opinion, his best works even if you removed the sexuality stuff from his others), and as Heroes of Olympus only has Nico as the single gay character, its not a main theme of the book, so I still enjoy it. that is three out of his five series that are well written, and its probably thousands of pages of the demigod world to immerse yourself in. I can argue that there is plenty already there to enjoy, and no need to take part in his other works.

this is a very over-explained way of saying that you have to know 3 things before you, as a Christian, decide to pick up Trials of Apollo or Magnus Chase, and other books out there like it.

am I a child? - I firmly believe that kids 14 and under should not read those works at all, no matter what, until they are more firm in their faith and understand why homosexuality and transgenderism is a sin, instead of just knowing that it is. if you don't know the reason behind the sin, how can you think through it critically? this is my only hard and fast rule on this list, for obvious reasons

am I new in my belief? - if you are a new believer (and this is a loose term, I know. some 'new believers' are only 'new' for a few months because they are constantly immersing themselves in the Word, listening to sermons *by quality pastors*, seeking the Lord in prayer and in surrender, and maybe having counciling from their pastor or from a good Christian therapist. since they are spending so much time with God and trying to please Him, they learn a lot very quickly and while they are still 'newer' to faith, they are more experienced than someone else new who maybe has been new for 2 years, but is only going to church on Sundays, and praying and reading their Bible when they feel like it. I would say that they are newer in their faith than the first person, because its about knowledge, not time. but this is a generalization) than you need to be VERY CAREFUL, with anything that has apparent sin in it. (and not just queer stuff- if you have a book that glorifies death, or stealing, or hatred against people who disagree with you, you should also not read it. sexuality is not the only sin, its the one that the world uses to attack christians the most in this modern day and age). all this to say, I would say that new christians should probably hold back for a while, until they have a firmer understanding of the why behind the sin, rather than it just is

do I struggle with same-sex attraction or gender confusion? - if yes, just don't read it. there is lots of other literature out there that are just as enjoyable, even if they are not as popular. if you fill your mind with stuff that plays fast and loose with what you struggle with, its going to be much harder for you. plant your feet on the Rock and don't falter because it is popular media. same as with any other sin! if you struggle with lust, you shouldn't watch shows with mature themes or read spicy books or go to places where you know people will be scantily clad. if you struggle with cursing, don't listen to music that curses a lot, and don't surround yourself with people who are vulgar. its not just about lgbtqia+, its about every sin ever

at the end of the day, you need to use wisdom and discretion. there is is great passage in 1 Corinthians 8:1-13 that Paul talks about this. some people in the church of Corinth are very convicted about eating food that was offered to idols, while others are not. (for historical context, Corinth was a very Greek city, and sacrifices of meat were offered to the Greek gods daily, and then they were sold at the markets for far cheaper than normal meat, which was astronomically expensive. so people were inclined to buy the cheaper meat, but felt varying degrees of conviction towards it) Paul basically says that as idols are false, there is no harm in it, but verse 9 says, 'But take care that this right of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block for the weak.' then in verses 12-13, 'Thus, sinning against your brothers and wounding their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ. Therefore, if food makes my brother stumble, I will never eat meat, lest I make my brother stumble.'

i really encourage you to go read that full passage, talk to your parents/pastor/Christian mentors that you trust and who are more mature and experienced in their faith than you are to answer this question for you personally.

i personally, read the Trials of Apollo once at the library, but I have not read Magnus Chase or will read Trials of Apollo again, but that is my personal desicon I made with my personal convictions. I would prefer to just avoid it entirely than have it open a door of sin in my mind that cannot be shut.

but I'm going to turn the question back on you: based on my response and your own convictions, do you think that you personally can read it and enjoy it while ignoring the sin?

i know this was a VERY long response so thanks for sticking with me until the end :)

[ladyhindsight]

I want to say it really ticks me off when this fandom (and Cassandra Clare to some extent) acts like TMI isn't for children. I've seen posts comparing Cassandra Clare's work to Colleen Hoover. As far as I know Colleen Hoover is an adult novelist who basically makes abuse fetish smut so like great comparison to a YA author guys in the fandom!

Clare's choosing to include things like normalizing abuse (Maia and Jordan) and incest are really terrible. Clare always hides behind the fact that the reason the incest existed in her story was "symbolic" for like how love can make us do evil things. But children can't understand something that complex and Clare does NOT do a good job at making this theme clear in the story and SHE DOES romanticize their incestuous relationship as so bad it's good (Clare fans go reread the scene in book 2 where clary has to kiss Jace in front of everyone and then go reread book 3 where they're constantly kissing and cuddling and sleeping in the same bed in a romantic way) and it's just really upsets me because I've witnessed first hand (I've been in this Fandom since 2013) child fans normalizing and becoming attracted to incest fetish because of these books. I've seen so many children normalizing incest because of Clare's continual refusal to JUST APOLOGIZE! She literally writes these LGBT books with incest fetish and rape fetish tied into it and eventually a conservative is gonna find these books and it's gonna be all over for Miss Clare and the LGBT community will probably be blamed for her bullshit because we're always blamed for gross books like these.

I also wanted to say (and you don't have to post this ask if it's divulging too much I don't want to offend anyone) but I'm an incest survivor. I read these books when I was thirteen years old (they were in my schools library listed for my age and up) and they really really hurt my recovery because at the time I thought what had happened to me was normal and when I read these books I thought it was totally okay and normal what happened to me. I won't go into any more detail than that but these books made it so hard to seperate the "love" from the "abuse". I've talked to others in this fandom and many other girls have said that these books normalized abuse to them because Jace is so controlling and abusive to Clary and she does nothing to stop him. The abuse is also normalized by the Fandom too I see posts all the time joking about how "Jace isn't a hero who helps people he's a hero who helps his girlfriend!!!" And "haha Jace doesn't let clary have her own tooth brush or space or any friends! Sooo kawaaaaiiii!!!!!" Or "if clary died Jace would be worse than sebastian lol so smexyyy!" Like as if that isn't disturbing and disgusting to normalize to MINORS!

I just wanted to take a moment to talk about the people who suffer the most from Cassandra Clare's continuous deflection of any wrong doing. You wrote these books about incest Clare, and children read these books and cannot understand your "complex" symbolism for how incest is bad but it's oh so good. It makes me want to burst into tears sometimes but instead I'll just send this ask and forget about it.

Oh,

P.S.

Fuck you Cassandra Clare for writing a Trump supporter female character who is against incest to try and say all the people who hate incest are Trump supporters or conservatives. I am a victim of a serious fucking trauma and I am not a fucking conservative because I want you to be held accountable for your fucked up books. You have spit in the face of rape victims time and time again and I genuinely hope some day you get torn to shreds by the public for everything you've perpetuated to CHILDREN.

Every once in a while I think about this interview Clare once gave that I saw on YouTube. She said that her readers often told her (at the time of the interview) that they are older than they consider the target audience of her books to be, and Clare commented something along the lines of, if you read her books, no matter the age, you are the target audience. Which is a nice thought, but the tonality is still very juvenile—even in her later works that are supposedly new adult genre. They differ in no way in style or tone from those works that are categorized in young adult fiction.

Colleen Hoover? Yuck. Perhaps it tells something about the mentality of those readers who liken Clare to Hoover.

Clare’s writing, tone, and capacity to handle serious and complex matters have always sucked. Each topic is handled with surface-level attention or used as a vehicle to ruminate and moan over the main couple and their obstacles in love. The writing has never went into any great length to realistically include themes such as incest (societal or personal level approach and attitudes) or abuse because the characters’ need to be liked and loved and be above the characters that are only used as a fodder for ridicule and betterment of the main characters in comparison. All while Clare tries to create a guise of them being “complex” because of the fact. It’s one of the reasons I have found comparing G.R.R. Martin’s style of implementation of different themes to Clare’s meaningful (as there have been convos about this some time back on the blog) because they are not nearly the same even though it is an easy comparison her readers like to make.

When it comes to idealizing abusive behavior, similar attitude within the readership can be seen in Isabelle’s character when she thinks Valentine is hot for being a villain. Young adult literature is littered with characters exactly like Jace who do not face responsibility for their abusive behavior because that is what the author chooses to prioritize and coddle, simultaneously failing to realize the impact that kind of behavior realistically has on others around them. Jace’s behavior isn’t acknowledged because others are meant to serve him and conform around his needs. Even Clary, who is the protagonist and heroine of the story. It’s never really about her—even her pain—it’s about Jace.

When I read TMI for the first time, I was incredibly conflicted with feeling the way I did (hateful and uncomfortable with many decisions and characters) because authors know better, right? This is how it is supposed to be, right? This isn’t supposed to be about anyone else than Clary and Jace, right? So why anything would be done different or better or given more attention to?

Fuck that. And also fuck Zara Dearborn because we know what Clare’s doing. And it’s embarrassing.

I am incredibly sorry that you had to live through such a horrible thing. I can’t even imagine the pain and confusion you’ve had to endure and work through. There isn’t much I can say but I hope you are faring better today and had good and trustworthy people around you to support you during the recovery (and still do). How could you offend anyone with your thoughts when you’ve survived it and know the destruction it causes? Never apologize for that. I wish you happiness and all the best in life.

[flower-zombie-rob]

Dearie you are the dense one for still pushing the lie that J.K. Rowling compared all transgenders to Death Eaters. If you bothered to actually listen to her, she compared the violent and autocratic behavior of people sending her death threats to the Death Eaters. You have some real nerve saying that radical feminists are thick-skulled when you cannot think critically and let your hatred of J.K. Rowling allow you to hear what you want to hear.

I would, once again, like to reitorate that in what context is conparing people to nazi allegorys correct in any circumstance?? If you give me an example of why this is an appropriate comparison in any context, ill listen, but as far as im aware a woman who spends her time actively hating transgender people and spreading false information about them comparing gay rights activists on twitter to fictional eugenicist murderers should be given this benefit of the doubt that you give her.

Also, she had done a plethera of things that her fans are ignoring and giving her this same benefit of the doubt idea of. She actively encourages the dead naming and outing of transgender children to their abusive households by supporting the british governments choices on that matter, in the past she has supported small businesses that sell anti-trans propaganda pins and merchandise, She has attempted to retcon her characters to be gay in an attelpt to be "progressive" while saying that there werewolf curse in her books(a thing that is pretty damn awful and that the antagonist werewolves try to spread among people) is an allegory for HIV(do i even have to explain what that is a bad thing to say??).

I call JK Rowling fans dense because they constantly choose to ignore and deny the fact that she makes her beliefs about transgender and gay people very clear constantly. People who hate her are not making things up, theyre taking what she says and the ways that she says and recieving it in the way that JK means it.

She did not compare all transgenders to death eaters. That is not what I said. Read some more and get that comprehention up "dearie." I said what was accurate, which was that she described lgbt rights activists who attack her as death eaters which are allegories for nazis and that is something she has openly said in the past. She could have said people who attacked her and she could have said people who sent her death threats but she did not. She chose the word's "trans rights activists" and "lgbt rights activists" to describe the people who attack her which actively antagonises all people within that bubble who fight for their rights and disagree with her points.

As with normal jk Rowling fans you believe that every valid criticism of hers is someone spreading a rumour because they simply don't like her but I think you fail to realise why people don't like her.

People do not hate jk Rowling because she fights for womens rights. People hate JK because she is attempting to tear down the trans and gay rights that people have fought for their entire lives for and she is a middle aged straight cis white woman using her massive fanbase to do so. If you really This have the reading comprehension that you are assuming you do in this ask I would please inform you to go and educate yourself on the ways the ways that JK Rowling's actions strongly affect not only trans youth but queer and even poc ans jewish youth today. Also, please stop reading JK rowlings twitter as your source for feminism information, people don't write genderist theory essays every day so you can ignore all reason and listen to JK rowlings version of feminism.

Thank you.

Also for someone who claims to be a radical feminist you certainly aren't against the idea of addressing someone is dearie in a patronising sense, a traditionally feminine patronism uzed against women by older men regularly. Thank you for making me uncomfortable too!

Also also, for someone so passionate about this "dearie" youre very shy in telling me your blog name and url with anon on. Almost like you dont want people to know youre a radfem. Almost like youre ashamed of it. How quaint. I on the other hand am not in any way afraid or ashamed of disliking JK and working to tear down the lies and rumours she spreads about an ultimately marginalised community of people who are attacked from all corners by the influence of people like her.

If you follow me, god help me, please unfollow because i dont want a supporter of a woman who refuses to even acknowledge and be held accountable for her transgender discrimination anywhere near my blog, which is a safe space for all. Please promptly and ploitely get off my blog, thank you.

[mermaidsirennikita]

So I know you’re not watching that show anymore but they recently came out with an article about a possible lgbt storyline later. What would you think about a genderbent Michael?

I think based on things that I've heard that

a) that's the most likely thing to happen if that show has a queer Bton (as in, a member of the Bton family)... like.... if I had to bet $$$ RIGHT NOW, that's what I'd say is gonna happen

b) I fully support it

I think that back when the "omg should a Bton be gay" wars were going on when I watched that show, I said that I was down with any one of them being queer, and I stand by that. And I mean... I think that ANY person who's read that show should realize by now: no matter what they do with "your" couple.... the chances of them really adapting the book closely in any way are out the door post s1. S1 was surprisingly close to the book, tbh. S2 significantly less so, and s3 even less, it appears. So like. Even if they adapted WHWW, which is my favorite book in the series... the chances of it being like the book I enjoyed at all are pretty low. With that logic in mind--like, you might as well give any Bton an entirely new love interest. Because if we're being fuckin' real. The Kate from the show doesn't have a lot of deep things in common with the Kate from the books if we never get into the deep things that affected the Kate from the books. Doesn't mean that she isn't a lovable character; she's just not the same, so if you're not gonna quibble with that, why would you quibble with genderbending?

Like. The Kate from the books had an entire traumatic backstory we never got into because the show.... sucks.

The Penelope from the books never ruined an unwed pregnant woman's life because she was jealous about Colin and his interests.

When the text is that different from the adaptation, you might as well genderbend whoever you want. A random guy named Peter who moonlights as Lord Whistledown has about as much in common with book!Penelope as show!Penelope does.

I say that as someone who like... yeah. I do love book!Michael. I actually really like his book, which is saying something as I'm either "meh" on or dislike 6/8 of those books lmao. I DO NOT REMEMBER what happens in books 7-8. Especially book 8. And that doesn't mean they're bad, it just means that those books by and large made little impact on me, and WHWW sticking out does matter. If I thought this show would actually give WHWW a good adaptation, then maybe I'd be like "aww, I wish I got book!Michael". But I ain't gonna get him either way, so do something cool with it and make it wlw if you want.

Do I think the show will do anything cool with a wlw storyline? lol no because the show is kinda rancid, you know?

So the thing about flipping Michael into a female character is that I don't even think you can call it "WHWW but genderbent". Because that storyline can't be genderbent and be that storyline. Michael's guilt isn't only built in him wanting Francesca when John was alive. It's also built in him inheriting John's title, something women in this show's universe can't do. He's "becoming" John in his mind. (He was also a rake, which I think is also difficult for a woman to be in this universe, but much more plausible.) Francesca's plot drivers also surround her infertility and her desire for children--Michael is very conscious of that, and is basically like "so what the fuck, are you only gonna marry me after I get you pregnant?" Francesca can excuse fucking him out of wedlock because it's like "let's see if he gets me pregnant, and if he does, I mUST marry him, oH NOOOOOOES". Francesca marrying Michael without knowing that she's pregnant with his baby is Francesca making a decision she has avoided making throughout the back half of that novel.

If Francesca's husband dies and she's left a wealthy widow... she can just be with his female cousin, tbh. Like. ON THE LOW. But that shit happened and it was much easier for a widow to be with her female partner as "companions" than it would be for a woman who was never married, right? The central tension of Francesca having to choose to be PUBLICLY with someone the way she'd have to be with Michael is gone, because according to the show's own logic, she can only be with a woman on the low. And that's an interesting story in itself, it's just not the same and it doesn't present the same emotional conflicts.

I say all this to argue that if they do that, they're not so much adapting WHWW as they are replacing it. And if people have a problem with that... Like, dude. It's whatever. They weren't gonna give you the WHWW you wanted anyway. I'm sure many will be up in arms.

And like, as someone who's always been pro "put Benedict with a man" (and I still am) I'll totally acknowledge that Sophie's story is dependent on her being a woman. Genderbending Sophie would change her story to an unrecognizable degree, the same way genderbending Michael's would/will his. But like. I think Benedict's book is shitty, and I think WHWW is not shitty. So to me, it always made sense to just totally change the bad book.

I know people are gonna hate that I just said "go ahead and change it because I think it's bad" but. That's my truth lmao. I have no great logical leap over why I would genderbend An Offer From a Gentleman over When He Was Wicked (if I had to choose) aside from "change the book that sucks, keep the book that is good overall the same with some changes because did Michael have to go to India and did we have to talk about an Indian princess being obsessed with him I think not Julia Quinn".

My IDEAL queer Bton would be Eloise because I think that.... not only does she read as a lesbian to me on the show............ her book is like, the worst, and it could actually be genderflipped while retaining its core, unlike Benedict's book or Francesca's. If SP was a widow with two kids and Eloise went to visit this widow friend and fell in love and they stayed in the country.... I mean, it's still different, but I don't think SP's character arc is necessarily as rooted in gender as Sophie's and Michael's are.

And there's a cynical part of me that says that if they do go with Francesca being queer, it's because they know they're gambling on whether or not they'll get renewed beyond s4, and they're making the Queer Bton the one who's kinda new to the audience and will have a b-plot for s3-s4 versus someone the audience knows, who may have a main love story, like Benedict or Eloise. Like. I see this show giving us a sapphic love story in the background for two seasons and being like "GIVE US OUR FLOWERS". I don't see them centering a sapphic love story as a season-leading romance. Dude, I can barely find a good historical romance novel that centers sapphic women lol.

ALL THAT BEING SAID. I support a queer Francesca. I support any queer Bton. Do I think the (online) fandom will? Meh. Do I think they should just get over this idea that the show is adapting their favorites like they would the books anyway? Yes for sure. THIS IS ALL A DIFFERENT THING. It being a different thing isn't why I'm over it, tbh; it being a bad different thing is the issue.

[magicofthepen]

Here’s a tag directory for my blog! (Not every fandom on this list is something I’m currently into – I’ve included old fandoms if I have a lot of posts in the tag.)

The Gallifrey audios have been my main fandom for several years, and this fall the October Daye series became my current main fannish interest.

If you follow me and haven’t listened to all of Gallifrey, I’m happy to tag for spoilers past the audio of your choice – just let me know! Same thing for if you follow me and would like me to tag October Daye spoilers past a certain book.

Currently tagging for #gallifrey spoilers post-Time War 1, and not tagging for October Daye spoilers. (Note: Gallifrey tag directory includes Gallifrey characters/relationships through Time War 3 and October Daye tag directory includes October Daye spoilers.)

my stuff

fic tag | ao3 account edits text posts answered asks fic talk

main fandoms

gallifrey audios tag directory october daye tag directory

(note: those are separate posts because I hit the link limit on this post.)

audio

big finish ( non-gallifrey ) the adventure zone ( balance / amnesty ) the strange case of starship iris the mortal path wolf 359 second star to the left

tv shows

doctor who avatar: the last airbender legend of korra steven universe steven universe future she-ra and the princesses of power good omens merlin ( merlin text posts ) taskmaster once upon a time

movies

star wars the old guard everything everywhere all at once marvel cinematic universe

books

the locked tomb leagues and legends the alliance trilogy wayward children wayfarers this is how you lose the time war percy jackson / heroes of olympus the kane chronicles warrior cats artemis fowl

musicals

wicked hadestown come from away cats

games

stay?

general

creative arts: art | writing | worldbuilding | publishing | fiction | poetry | music | dance | theatre | fashion | figure skating | bookbinding | video essays

tabletop games: dnd | general rpg tag

recs from others: books to read | general media recs natural world: animals | nature | gardening relationships, gender, sexuality: relationships | lgbt+ | gender things | sex ed | polyamory politics & social justice: us politics | racial justice | black lives matter | decolonization | environmentalism | environmental justice | climate change | reproductive justice | disability rights | accessibility | neurodiversity | labor rights | palestine | ukraine

brain things: mental health | brain soup

fandom: ao3 | dreamwidth | tumblr | fandom

other topics: space | food | health (us health insurance system, vaccines, etc.) | electronics | time loops misc: reference | ‘for later’ | general (catch-all) tag

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

Then:

"Thank you to the LGBT community! I will fight for you while Hilary brings in more people that will threaten your freedoms and beliefs." - Donald J. Trump, January 14, 2016

Now:

Donald Trump denounced LGBTQ equality in a speech at the America First Policy Institute’s first annual summit yesterday as he signaled his intent to run again in 2024.

During the speech, he denounced the “sexualization of minor children” while discussing LGBTQ people.

“Federal, state, and local government should aggressively enforce existing statutes to stop the perverted sexualization of minor children,” he said. “You have the statutes.”

The “sexualization of children” is a phrase that the right has been using this past year to refer to any discussion of LGBTQ identities and children. The expression has been applied discussing LGBTQ people in school or having LGBTQ books like And Tango Makes Three – which is about a baby penguin with two dads – available in school libraries.

It also gets used when supportive parents who don’t force their children to follow gender rules around clothing, or parents who support their transgender kids’ identities.

Trump didn’t specify what statutes exist that prevent kids from reading about gay penguins or teens from accessing life-saving health care.

“The society that refuses to protect its children is a society that soon will not be able to protect anybody,” Trump said. “This is a hallmark of cultural and social decay against which we should fight back very hard and very soon we don’t have time to wait years to do this.”

Trump then admitted he didn’t even know what he was talking about.

“The sickos who are pushing sexual content in kindergartens or providing puberty blockers to young children who have no idea what a puberty blocker is – neither do I, by the way, neither do most of the people in the audience as you smile,” he said. While he was at least honest about not knowing anything about health care for transgender youth, he took a strong stance against it.

“Let’s just say they’re not good – are not just engaged in acts of depravity in many cases they are breaking the law and they should be held fully accountable,” he said.

He then went on an ad libbed rant against transgender women playing sports.

“By the way, we should not allow men to play in women’s sports. So crazy,” he said.

He got loud applause from the audience for that line, even though it’s not something that anyone is advocating.

Trump proceeded to tell a surrealist version of the story of University of Pennsylvania swimmer Lia Thomas.

He said that he knew a woman – a “beautiful woman” whose name he didn’t give – who wanted to break an unspecified world record in swimming. She looked on one side of her in the pool, he recounted, and saw women. On the other side there was “somebody with a man’s body, that’s what they do, they call it.”

“You know the guy, he was named ‘female athlete of the year.’ Did you know that? It’s true!” he said.

“This guy is massive, he’s got a wingspan, he’s got arms that are 30 feet long,” he said, misgendering Thomas. “She was seriously injured during the meet because he swam so fast that he gave her major wind burn as he went by. She didn’t break the record but he broke the record that day. You know what the number was? 38 seconds. So she wanted to break it by an eighth of a second and he broke it by 38 seconds.”

Trump was probably referring to Thomas, but he got a lot wrong in his story. Thomas did not set any record by 38 seconds; she won a long-distance race by 38 seconds, which is normal in an over 15-minute-long race. Thomas was not named “female athlete of the year”; she was nominated for NCAA Woman of the Year and did not get the title. Thomas does not have 30-foot-long arms and didn’t give anyone “wind burn.”

Then Trump told an even more fantastical story about a transgender weightlifter named “Alice” who, he claimed, broke the women’s world record in clean & jerk, which he said was 218 pounds. “I can’t lift it,” he said, as if anyone expected a doughy, unathletic 76-year-old man to be able to lift as much as women competing in the Olympics for weightlifting.

He said that Alice broke the record that was in place for years without much effort and that she could have lifted more.

Internet searches didn’t turn up anyone who fits Trump’s description. The world record for women in clean & jerk is 411 pounds, set by Chinese lifter Li Wenwen in 2021.

“It’s so disrespectful to women,” Trump said immediately after mocking two women for several minutes in front of the crowd. “And they say it’s politically incorrect, it’s so disrespectful.”

In the speech, Trump suggested that he’s running for president in 2024.

“I ran the first time and I won. Then I ran a second time and I did much better. We got millions and millions more votes,” he said. “We may just have to do it again.”

[hussyknee]

I think I'm so fixated on Imriel's Trilogy because it would be such a great story if it wasn't the author writing it. Which is exactly my brand.

Jacqueline Carey is the most white woman to ever white woman good Christ. I know she apologized for not having any trans characters in Kushiel's Legacy even though it's an LGBT story because nobody knew what the T stood for in the 2000s. But if not for that, she's who I would pick to have gone fully radfem conservative liberal JKR. Not least because you can tell at what point she thought she was too good for an editor (halfway through the first Imriel book). All three books are at least one third longer than they have to be. The tortured fake medieval speak in making my eyes bleed. Did they kill the editors in the publishing house? Put them out to pasture to graze with JKR's? I keep wanting so badly to at least beta read this. The writing's engaging, even if the plots are a bit slipshod, but dear God it would be so easy to make this a bit more readable.

And then there is the narrative. Carey seems to think women are exceptionally sensible soft-hearted unicorn species (when they aren't scheming badass girlboss villains). She's indistinguishable from some benevolently sexist old Victorian guy. Rape only happens to women and children. For men, being sexually assaulted is a good nudge nudge wink wink joke. And the white ethnosupremacy! Girl, an idealised white Tolkien race that's better and more beautiful and progressive than everyone else, most of whom grow more and more misogynistic and barbaric the further away, is still white supremacy even when in it's alternate universe medieval France. Also, beauty standards aren't universal across borders and cultures, especially in the medieval world. How do you put this much thought into an alternate history and complex belief systems and not even consider what it means to have different cultures and ethnicities? You don't get cookies for allowing your Legolas race of people marry into indigenous Celts and Picts when you keep rhapsodizing about how much prettier and more civilized D'Angelines are! And what the fuck is up with this obsession with blood relations?? Why do you need to have your protagonists halfway in love with their adoptive parents (I overlooked it once because of extenuating circumstances but jeez), why do you need to make the adoptive parents have to qualify their claims in the middle of being a parent ("He is my son....at least in my heart") and why do you keep insisting blood connections equate to stronger bonds ("Alais may be the sister of my heart, but Sidonie is her flesh and blood." "She's my blood! Why do you think I tried so hard to protect her from you?") when the whole premise of the series is a ruling family fucking each other over for the throne?

I will say that Sidone finally seems like a real person and she's pretty great, but Imriel's own personality has faded so much to let her shine that sometimes it's like it's just some guy narrating the book. Imriel's intensity and guilt and charm and cunning have all just vanished in the third book. He's just there to weep and gnash his teeth at losing Sidone, tear at his hair about Sidonie being in danger, gaze adoringly at her and being her bodyguard. It's like watching the later seasons of a CW show. Everything is about the badass trophy girlfriend who's always right about everything. Sidonie isn't as obnoxious but good God it's like she's the only real person in this book. Kratos is literally just there to gape at her. (URIST PLEASE COME BACK YOU WERE MY FAVOURITE.) Complete waste of characters who've been so compelling and engaging all this time.

In short, this a goddamn mess. Why do the most privileged, insipid white people get the most opportunity to sell their stories?

I'm going to assume that Phedre's Trilogy is actually good though. I stopped halfway down the first book because I was too shocked and sad when my faves died and picked up the Imriel sequels instead so that I'd already know the basics of what happened in the original. (I literally read the Wikipedia plot synopsis while in the movie theater before it starts so that I'm not surprised by anything. My ex boyfriend once threw a surprise party for me and I nearly broke up with him. I'm too emotionally dysregulated for surprises.) But what I read was really, genuinely good. I skimmed the other two and they also seemed as good. So I'm hoping that whatever youthful talent Carey possessed before bloated egoism brought her down lives up to its promise. Plus I just really love Phedre. Scheming little bitch she is. She's lost all her spice and teeth and self-absorption in Imriel's books, but she's mostly there to be his mother that everyone has a crush on, including him, so it didn't matter. Imriel doesn't have an Oedipal complex, but he always gives the impression that he might if he let himself think about it too hard.

Edit: no but seriously. Why the fuck does this last book read like a bad ghostwriter wrote it??

[semper-legens]

188. The Mermaid, the Witch, and the Sea, by Maggie Tokuda-Hall

Owned: No, library Page count: 411 My summary: Florian is a pirate, whose ship cons people into captivity. Evelyn is the daughter of a rich family, being shipped away to marry a man she's never met. When their lives clash together, nobody would expect them to become close. But these two people who have lived by their society's rules are finding themselves slipping out of the roles cast for them. When you aren't who you were told to be, who are you? My rating: 3.5/5 My commentary:

This is a curious one. If you know anything about me, you can guess just from the cover of this book why I picked it up. It's about the sea! And mermaids! And pirates! Literally, it was just calling out to me to be read. And I…have struggled over the last few days to make sense of what I think of it, if I'm being completely honest. I liked it, that much is true, but there's a certain reservation on that liking, something I'm not entirely sure of. It's a curious world that's built up between these pages, and I did come away wanting to see more. In the end, this is very much a story that's up my street, and I certainly don't regret reading it. I'm just…you'll see what I mean under the cut.

Our main character is Flora, except when they are Florian. The narrative in her sections refer to her as she/her and Flora, so that's what I'm sticking with, even if it's made abundantly clear that Flora's identity is not a simple thing. Really, the issue of her identity is the core of her part of the book. Is she a man or a woman? A person or a pirate? A brother, a sister, a lover, a liar? Coming to terms with who she is forms the emotional climax of Flora's story, and it's not a simple question to answer. I admire the effort here, trying to name a trans identity in a quasi-historical narrative like this isn't tricky. Flora doesn't have the language to say 'nonbinary', let alone 'gender identity'. But at the same time, it makes the handling of Flora's character somewhat clumsy. The narrative is a little too in your face about it, making up for the ambiguity of the language by shoving the end result at you a little too hard. That said, however, I'd prefer a story that clumsily includes LGBT+ narratives over one that doesn't even try, so kudos there. Flora's interesting. She's hardened her heart because of the tough life she's lived, which makes her an excellent foil for love interest and secondary protagonist Evelyn. But she also loves, and is loved, and wants so desperately to cling onto that love even when it seems impossible. She carries a lot of guilt from being complicit in slavery and abuse, even when it's clear she had little real choice. There's tragedy to her, and it's compelling.

Evelyn, meanwhile, is in a tragedy of a different stripe. She's attracted to women in a patriarchal society where her role is to marry and have children. She's a boisterous, loud woman in a society where women are meant to be demure and polite. She's sheltered and naive, but at the same time hopelessly outspoken to a fault. And her apparent inability to see the boundaries of class lead to her befriending, and subsequently falling in love with, Flora. She's another really engaging character, her headstrong nature a good match for Flora's tendency to lurk in the shadows. And I liked that she was a confident and strong character without falling into the trap of needing a female character to be 'just as good as the boys' or physically strong rather than emotionally. She's strong in a way that's very credible to her station in life and her backstory; much like Flora, actually, who is the more physically capable of the pair. They play off each other well and are great to read about. It's really that clumsiness that gives me pause - Evelyn's attraction to women is treated with the same subtlety as Flora's gender. Not bad, just kinda clumsy.

I really enjoyed the worldbuilding here. Mermaid's blood that, when drunk, acts like a powerful intoxicant; spells woven out of stories; a genderless Pirate Supreme in a neverending pact with the Sea; the Sea as a character, as a mother with an agenda of her own; imperialism and colonialism examined under a magnifying glass. It's some good stuff, especially because I never felt as though it was force-fed to me or that there were large swathes of exposition. I'm leery of some of the choices made, though - the colonising force is a fantastical Japanese-inspired culture, but some of the colonised nations are explicitly white, like red-haired Rake. Tokuda-Hall herself is, obviously, of Japanese descent, and I'm white, so I'm hesitant to start throwing labels around, but this seemed a strange choice to me. So too did the decision for Flora and her brother, two of exactly three explicitly black characters, perpetrators of slavery, given the real-world context? I'm not sure what to make of it, but it did give me pause.

Next, still in the sea, but back to reality, as a great ship sinks.

[kaponebi]

Vanessa and representation in Fablehaven

What is representation? Why is it important?

Representation in books for young people is important for many reasons that I don't need to explain because they are quite obvious.

A young person needs to be represented in order to feel understood, even more so if they belong to certain discriminated ethnic groups, if they had any kind of problems that can hinder daily life, or if they are of a different sexual orientation.

Being diverse when creating one's work allows one to reduce the stigma of these groups, pretending as if they don't exist.

But sometimes, however, for authors, especially older ones, being diverse doesn't work out so well. At least in the good, not harmful, way.

In slightly older TV series, books, films, some hurtful stereotypes are repeated despite their efforts to be diverse.

There may be Asian characters, indigenous peoples of America, homosexual or wheelchair-bound.

An Asian character knows kung fu or karate. The Native American is strongly connected to nature and wears feathers in his hair. A homosexual behaves and looks like a girl if he is gay or like a boy if he is lesbian. A person in a wheelchair is a genius and must be dragged everywhere by the rest.

These are recurring patterns in books for young people because this is how pop culture portrays these people.

If these examples don't seem hurtful to you, I'll present another one that might speak to you.

(That's the example I gave in the Polish version)

How would you feel if every Pole in a book or movie was a stupid donkey drinking too much alcohol?

(Example for the English community, mostly Americans)

How would you feel if every American was someone overwaighted, stupid and always talking about... I don't know... Some eagle and freedom stuff.

It's not the nicest thing to do, and that's how Poland is perceived by pop culture.

(In films they try making the USA seem badass and all so I'm not counting it here)

Representation in Fablehaven

Representation in Fablehaven is an interesting topic.

People of different colours and curves appear through which one does not feel discrimination in this area.

You can accuse Brandon of lack of LGBT+ representation, but let me justify this by saying that then he could not have published the book in countries that censor these topics (e.g.: Russia).

True, he could have created a queer coded character, but he didn't, and I think we can forgive him for that as he also never mentioned anything negative about this community.

Let's just hope he doesn't do like J.K. Rowling who waited until the end of the series and Dumbledore's death to reveal the fact that he was gay.

However, there has never been a character who was an invalid.

In the fourth volume, Vanessa loses her eyesight. In a stupid way, yes, but she loses it. She is officially blind, and I consider her disability a good thing.

Brandon has made one of the main characters a blind person and has prepared the field for a great example of representation.

Vanessa is a strong, "badass" character, and she's very appreciated.

Not only that, the fact that she can't see adds to her character development allowing blind listeners of the audiobook to identify with one of the cooler characters in the series, perhaps their favorite.

It allows such people to feel more normal, not like overgrown children who need to have everything done for them all the time.

For the beginning of my writing in English I chose a shorter text so I can translate it with ease.

English is not my first or even second language so I am aware that it is not perfect.

Please be kind and if you see a fault, inform me in the comments.

I also gently ask to not spoil me the last tom of Dragonwatch because I didn't read it yet. If you want say something and it contains spoilers I would be gratefull if you ad a big "SPOILERS" at the top of your comment.

Thank you for reading and the warm responses I got in my last post.

Greetings friends and to the next time.