#media: articles

[haysianrose]

Kelly Marie Tran has publicly come out as queer.

Speaking to Vanity Fair about her upcoming remake of Ang Lee's queer rom-com The Wedding Banquet, the Star Wars actress felt emboldened to step into her truth on the record for the first time. "I haven’t said this publicly yet, but I’m a queer person,” shared Tran.

She added of her involvement in queer filmmaker Andrew Ahn's remake, "The thing that really excited me about it was I got to play a person that I felt like I knew. I don’t feel like I’m acting at all in this movie."

"I’m here doing this amazing movie with these amazing people," said Tran. "I’ve never been in a queer space before. I’ve never truly felt this accepted before.”

[videogamesincolor]

Despite all the perceived controversy and faux outrage in the leadup to its release, few games have had as impactful of a launch as Assassin's Creed Shadows. Within days of its release, the game had crossed over 2,000,000 players, becoming Ubisoft's second-biggest launch of all-time and on pace to hit 6,000,000 players in a month. But if you ask legendary Japanese developer Hideki Kamiya why that may be, it's because most people aren't enraged with the game. Most "normal" people, that is. Taking to Twitter, Kamiya first congratulated Ubisoft on passing 2,000,000 players. Then, in a follow-up post, he noted that a "majority of normal people" have been silent as compared to the vocal minority of outraged gamers. He added, "I wonder if there's (a) way to make these "normal people" equally visible in everything..."

[blackwomeninstarwars]

Star Wars: The Last Order By Kwame Mbalia

About Star Wars: The Last Order New York Times best-selling author Kwame Mbalia makes his Star Wars debut with this exciting YA novel! Following the end of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, the Resistance rescues a ship full of young passengers who had been kidnapped by the First Order. As Finn and Jannah set out to find the First Order officer responsible before he can endanger any more children, the two former stormtroopers must wrestle with their own complicated pasts as soldiers of the oppressive regime. Take a deep dive into the pasts of popular characters Finn and Jannah in this richly-drawn, action-packed story that fans have been asking for. About Kwame Mbalia Kwame Mbalia is a husband, father, and New York Times bestselling author of the Tristan Strong series, for which he received a Coretta Scott King Author Honor award for Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky. More about Kwame Mbalia

[probablyasocialecologist]

Fifty per cent of web users are running ad blockers. Zero per cent of app users are running ad blockers, because adding a blocker to an app requires that you first remove its encryption, and that’s a felony. (Jay Freeman, the American businessman and engineer, calls this “felony contempt of business-model”.) So when someone in a boardroom says, “Let’s make our ads 20 per cent more obnoxious and get a 2 per cent revenue increase,” no one objects that this might prompt users to google, “How do I block ads?” After all, the answer is, you can’t. Indeed, it’s more likely that someone in that boardroom will say, “Let’s make our ads 100 per cent more obnoxious and get a 10 per cent revenue increase.” (This is why every company wants you to install an app instead of using its website.) There’s no reason that gig workers who are facing algorithmic wage discrimination couldn’t install a counter-app that co-ordinated among all the Uber drivers to reject all jobs unless they reach a certain pay threshold. No reason except felony contempt of business model, the threat that the toolsmiths who built that counter-app would go broke or land in prison, for violating DMCA 1201, the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, trademark, copyright, patent, contract, trade secrecy, nondisclosure and noncompete or, in other words, “IP law”. IP isn’t just short for intellectual property. It’s a euphemism for “a law that lets me reach beyond the walls of my company and control the conduct of my critics, competitors and customers”. And “app” is just a euphemism for “a web page wrapped in enough IP to make it a felony to mod it, to protect the labour, consumer and privacy rights of its user”.

[blackwomeninstarwars]

As long as misogyny remains the bedrock of all romances in media, fulfilled or imagined, things like this will continue to be bolstered without the slightest bit of irony.

One thing Disney gonna do is hire people who are willing to tow the company line. And this means, they're not gonna work with anyone who contradicts the notion that The Last Jedi was their tour de force while The Force Awakens and Rise of Skywalker were their only duds in that franchise.

so the creator is also comparing them to r*ylo :/

[morganbritton132]

Steve, accidentally interrupting Eddie’s interview: Hey, can I tell you something and you not be dramatic about it?

Eddie: Seems unlikely

Steve: Can you be dramatic quietly? I’m getting a headache

Eddie: *thinks about it. nods*

Steve: No summer school

Eddie, whispering: Really?!

Steve: Yep, fully staffed. Didn’t need me this year

Eddie, whisper shouting: DO YOU WANT TO GO TO THE GRAND CANYON???!!!

[kensatou]

forget the horrors and think about this baby achieving everything he wanted and more (first goal, 2005 vs 600th goal, 2024)

[dreamings-free]

18/10/24

PLEASE CONSIDER SAVING THIS TO READ FOR LATER ESPECIALLY IF YOUR ARE FEELING VERY UPSET AND AFFECTED BY THIS RIGHT NOW. 🖤

very well said from Dazed. glad someone’s saying it, but sad and angry that it’s necessary.

[haysianrose]

An Ode to the Áo Dài

The traditional Vietnamese garment, which translates to “long shirt,” has been reimagined as a modern heirloom, writes author Thao Thai.

[...]

When Kelly Marie Tran wore an áo dài designed by Thái Nguyễn to the Oscars in 2022, this moment created a magnificent stir, both among Americans and Vietnamese people of the diaspora who’d never seen our national garment represented on a red carpet. It was, in so many ways, a kind of permission to exist outside of the margins, to have our culture spotlit without explanation or apology.

Nguyễn remembers receiving a phone call from Tran, who asked if it was possible to create an áo dài in three days. He said, “[That call] woke me up.” After 16 hours of work, the team at Thái Nguyễn Atelier finished the áo dài hours before the award show. Nguyễn describes the way that American PR companies and buyers once told him that his name and identity were too ethnic; they didn’t think an áo dài would ever be a mainstream garment. “I’ve been yearning for that moment,” Nguyễn says, recalling the first time he saw Tran at the Oscars. “Afterward, a Vietnamese follower sent me a photo of her five-year-old daughter in an áo dài and said, ‘She can wear this now to a birthday party, instead of a Cinderella or Snow White gown.’” In fact, Nguyễn is co-writing Mai’s Ao Dai, a children’s book about a girl who discovers the beauty of áo dài, with Vietnamese American writer Monique Truong. Such representation is already changing the way younger generations are embracing the áo dài.

Full article.

[videogamesincolor]

“I do think her work has informed the industry,” Mark Chen, a lecturer at the University of Washington Bothell, said. “I mean, part of the reason we keep hearing about harassment or sexism in the industry I think is because of her efforts and others like her who (forcibly) made space for others to follow.” Her work also continues to be referred to in academia, where it influences students who may go on to develop games. Tropes vs. Women in Video Games is a staple on digital media and video game class syllabuses. Marc Santos, an associate professor of English at the University of Northern Colorado, used Feminist Frequency in an undergraduate English class that’s focused on research writing on video games. Santos said he uses Sarkeesian’s work on Feminist Frequency because it stands up to this day, but also as a way to show students how to research and present analysis and criticism. In a recent project, students used videos like “Lingerie Is Not Body Armor” and “Strategic Butt Coverings,” which analyze the male gaze in video games, as a basis of analysis of clothing in the first 100 role-playing games that pop up on Steam. “I think there’s a lot of students — both men and women — who sort of realize that the portrayal of women, and all marginalized groups, in video games is bad. But Sarkeesian’s work helps focus their attention,” Santos said. “She provides a lens through which it becomes almost impossible to deny or ignore the extent of the problem.” Tropes vs. Women in Video Games continued until the end of 2017, and through years of abuse and harassment that one could simply call hell. The harassment Sarkeesian and her team experienced is unconscionable and included dangerous levels of violence, like bomb threats made at events Sarkeesian was attending. Sarkeesian’s first work predated the period of time now called Gamergate — a movement that is now considered a watershed moment in the rise of far-right extremism, a channeling of decades’ worth of bigotry and hatred embedded into systems, platforms, and communities both online and off. When Tropes vs. Women in Video Games continued through Gamergate, that hatred was channeled toward her and others who advocated for better representation in games.

Around the time she started uploading videos critical of media like Joss Whedon's Dollhouse, I had my first come-to-Jesus moment with the gaming community and just how violently racist and misogynist it was in the Left 4 Dead [2] and Resident Evil 5 fanspace.

Nothing has changed about the L4D[2] and RE fanspace, or gaming, in that regard (they just moved to Reddit). But when she started uploading videos critical of gaming culture and the toxicity of that space, I was grateful to see the pushback, because it gave rise to other voices that occupied areas she either missed or weren't her focus.

It wouldn't be a stretch to say that Sarkeesian, Not Your Momma's Gamer, and I Need Diverse Games, were all a big part of why the dudebro-to-Ggate culture that was once so acceptable in gaming magazines and other gaming spaces, don't have mainstream games culture by the throat any longer, and why this blog exists.

[blackwomeninstarwars]

Rep. Ritchie Torres and other pro-Izzy lobby politicians have drafted a senate bill (S.B. 4127) that specifically targets the political ideology of anti-Zionism on Campuses and other public forums. This one wants the US to adopt the IHRA (a zionist holocaust corp) definition of antisemitism.

Call your represenatives, and use this call prompt:

"My name is [1st name], and I came calling on my representative [whoever that is] to vote against S.B. 4127. This bill does not protect the Jewish community and only encourages the suppression of political thought and demonstration in public forums. Vote no on adopting the IHRA definition of antisemitism. Vote no on criminalizing anti-zionist and pro-Palestine speech. Thank you."

Let them know that their position as your rep is on the line.

Reportedly, on top of S.B. 4127, there are nine more Pro-Izzy bills in the Senate waiting to pass. A few of them have been introduced by Torres. Click below for more details.

Columbia Act,

Define to Defeat Act,

Countering Antisemitism Act,

Antisemitism Inclusion in DEI Act,

Antisemitism Community Service Act,

PROTECT Jewish Student & Faculty Act,

Holocaust Education & Antisemitism Lessons Act,

No Student Loan Forgiveness for Antisemitic Criminals Act,

Ending Subsidies for Pro-Terrorist Activities on Campus Act

Zionism has become a deeply, deeply unpopular political position across the globe as a result of the genocide of the Palestinians. As a result of their connections to other political and social disparities across the world (be it here in the USA, or in places like Africa, South America, and etc.), its largest benefactor - the United States Government - has decided to rely on mass censorship.

They can no longer control the narrative, so the play going forward will infringe on your rights as an American citizen and the livelihood of students within public and private education sectors. And they do this by dressing it up in the theater of concern trolling for Jewish Americans, a community they do not give a shit about and frequently spread conspiracy theories about.

All of this is happening under a Democratic party majority and will continue whether the president is a Dem or Republican.

[geekylled]

Ken Sato, outfielder for the Yomiuri Giants, comes clean about giant spending habits!

In a recent interview, All-Star player Kenji Sato confessed to spending absurd amounts of money on grossly large sports memorabilia— mostly his own.

“I have a good, totally plausible reason for it,” Sato had plead, unconvincingly.

Sato bat an average of .420 last season, which puts him among the best. “It’s— ugh. Hm. Erm. It’s.” Unfortunately, he struck out severely in attempting to explain his spending habits.

“Don’t knock it ‘til you try it!” Sato swore, but then refused to give exact numbers in terms of pricing for those who may want to “try it”.

For the readers not in the know, a 15-foot recreation of Sato’s jersey recently went viral when commission details were leaked to the public. Our interviewer asked for a comment concerning the jersey, to which Sato is quoted to have said: “Well. I guess you can say I have a pretty big fan.”

[akajustmerry]

READ THE FULL ARTICLE HERE

‘Killers Of The Flower Moon’ Can’t Escape Its Own White Gaze by Merryana Salem / Killers Of The Flower Moon (2023). Dir. Martin Scorsese

[pedripics]

😭😭😭

[larrylimericks]

17Mar25

The formula’s never finessed: Insta moots, dodgy pics, trashy press. The Sun shouts “Exclusive!” Which means it’s conclusive: Strictly business and strictly BS.