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pigspeetsandhooflikefeets · 4 years

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Hey. I don’t like posting this because I like to be a positive person and this is a really cool and positive fandom, but I need to say please avoid melodicalmusic on DeviantArt/doggiebeats on Quotev. Initially I thought it was just someone who was missing the point, but they are far worse and actively harmful. (notes under cut)

melodicalmusic/doggiebeats is the author and illustrator of an au fic named “Velo Life”. At first glance it is harmless, the art is fine. The story revolves around a mask named Pap (a papillon dog) doing things, being an assistant to the monarchy, and dating Fox. Sometimes other masks get chapters, but the overall focus is on her oc, which is fine, as ocs can be good. The problem isn’t conception, it’s execution.

Transphobia: Melodic decided to cast Leopard as a non-binary intersex character. It was a fair design choice, other than the fact she referred to them as a “pseudo-h*rmaphodite”, which is medically outdated, as well as the inclusion of ‘pseudo’ is more offensive than the slur alone. Leopard has biological cubs, despite most intersex (obviously not all) being infertile or unable to carry children showing a lack of research on the topic, as well as it being a very dysphoric situation for many trans and intersex people.

Leopard was referred to as a “quing”, combination “queen” and “king”. Now. Mull over it. Okay stop mulling, because she had every inch to just use “Monarch”, such as “Monarch Leopard”, as well as titles like “Their/Your Majesty”, which works for both kings and queens, so it should have been suitable for Leopard.

Unprompted, she backpedaled saying “But I wanted Leopard in my AU to be a actual female. Cause I think it's for the best. Everyone kinda hated Leopard, but I love everything she does. No not Transgender, just really a female.”. Besides the fact she took it in her own hands to decide that a mask played by Seal was ‘now a cis woman’, she implies that trans women are not women, calling cis women ‘really a female’.

In her fic, the only other trans character is Egg, who is exceptionally ambiguous to being trans, not specifying if Egg is NB, FTM, or if he as well was going to be intersex. She dedicates a chapter to pride month, yet a lot of the focus is on the cishet masks (Pap (her oc), Frog, and Fox), as well as a concerning ship of T-Rex and Poodle, as everyone knows that T-Rex is somewhat coded to be a child, since Jojo was only 16 when she performed. Despite claiming to respect trans people, she only had two trans characters, and decided that one of them wouldn’t be trans anymore because “I admired the high-pitch voice that was fitted for the Leopard, it just suits SO well. Even if the show kept going, I always hear the digital high vocals.”. Call me crazy, but that’s not a reason to make a man a cis woman.

As a trans man, Leopard was disgustingly handled in the show with the panel first week, accusing Seal of ‘tricking’ them for wearing drag and acting feminine (not acting like a woman, acting feminine), and I hoped it wouldn’t leech into the fandom. Clearly I was wrong.

Homophobia: Where to start with this. As stated, she changed Leopard from a NB intersex character (in her original canon) to a cis woman. In the fic, Leopard is married to Nick. I don’t need to tell you that she made Nick x Leopard into a straight ship. She made the only gay ship tease in the show into a straight ship. I wish it ended here.

Somali, an oc, has potential. Not here, but he has it. Somali is gay. If you think I’m undermining his character, that is his character. Somali likes magic and theater, and is very flamboyant. He is a gay walking stereotype. In his description, it is stated, “The story is that he turnout Gay, Of course Pappy was Supportive, but she knew it wasn't fair, especially through everything she's involved.” If you need me to translate: Somali broke up with Pap after realizing he was gay. Pap saw that as unfair, and that she was a victim of being lead on because he found out he was gay. Yes, Pap is making Somali being gay and dealing with his internalized homophobia… about herself. She goes to the point of calling him her nemesis. Which is a... toxic way to refer to someone who broke up with you on clean terms.

Somali eventually teams up with Rottweiler, Pap’s brother (who abuses her, despite it being out of character in every means) and is. Evil, and he hates Pap now apparently. We can’t go a minute without the gay oc being evil huh. Somali being gay doesn’t add to the story, it just suggests the only reason he stopped dating her was that he was gay (which is bad and offensive in Pap’s eyes) because he is not shown to fall for Rottweiler, or have any crushes on other male masks. His homosexuality is an accessory tag, and it’s really not a good one when he is the only gay character with a lot of lines.

Every. Character. That. Is. LGBT. Is. A. Token. Ice Cream and T-Rex are the closest ones to not be tokens, as Ice Cream has a job at a diner and T-Rex gets lines, but T-Rex is only used for exposition, and again, a child shipped with an adult mask. Peacock’s and Rabbit’s role outside of the first chapter is to have a rocky relationship, being forced to rekindle their relationship after Pap tells them to do so for a love festival. Several of the female masks are bisexual or lesbians, but they add so little to the plot, that I don’t even remember which ships are which. Every [since Leopard used to not be but is now] main character is heterosexual and cis (Pap, Fox, Leopard, Kitty, Frog, Turtle, Rottweiler) which doesn’t imply that she actually is that pro LGBT. Drawings of hers for Ice Cream and Egg are captioned “Just something Gay for you guys to see~” (fetishizing much?).

Ableism: One of the ocs in the fic is a Red Panda, who is related to Panda (don’t be confused, animal wise they are not closely related at all). In the fic, Red Panda suffers from PTSD due to an accident which caused her to be disabled in the leg, who uses a single-leg-crutch to walk. The physical disability is handled well enough, not being a hindrance or made fun of, but her personality is the worst. Red Panda is a cowardly and sniveling child, scared of her own shadow and completely incompetent. Her PTSD is very thinly written, not giving her any specific triggers or reasons for anxiety. If her PTSD was presented with her being afraid of entering a vehicle or certain smells that would relate to the accident (rubber, smoke, leather), it would make sense, but Red Panda is scared of everything. On a dare, Frog tells Kitty to impersonate a mask. Kitty impersonates Red Panda, making fun of her cowardice, which can be an actual attack on people who have PTSD (like myself), Kitty justifies herself, saying she couldn’t think of anyone else, Red Panda immediately accepting it. Being a minor character, there is no time for her to develop, and the Red Panda we were presented with is already a mess.

In the same chapter that Red Panda is introduced, Axolotl (mentioned a lot later) dares Fox to remove his prosthetic arm. I don’t need to need prosthesis to know that asking someone to take their ARM OFF is unfunny and uncalled for. Pap, Fox’s girlfriend, decided to take the time and kissed the welt, commenting that it “looked interesting”. Don’t- don’t do that. Don’t kiss people’s scars or cuts or welts or anything related to their disability, especially without permission. Axolotl was being ablest to Fox and somehow Fox didn’t know better and forgot to tell her she was acting uncivilized, despite being one of the smartest masks in the canon.

Condoning Incest: One of the ocs in the fic is an Axolotl. The axolotl is Frog’s biological sister, Frog having Turtle as his adopted brother, which in fic Turtle is stated to have been adopted in Frog’s family for over 15 years. In the axolotl’s description, it is stated “Though Axolotl is a relative of him, She deeply has a crush on him. Which maybe weird but hey, Turtle's Adopted. So not a big deal”. No, it’s not ‘ok’ because Turtle is adopted, especially since they’ve been related 15 years. It’s not like Frog and Turtle are ‘close enough to be brothers’, they are related by law. Axolotl is presented to quirkily force a kiss on Turtle in one chapter, which she is not punished or condoned for 1. Sexually harassing him 2. Committing incest and putting it on his conscience, OTHER than her getting salmonella, which all characters who kiss Turtle are prone to getting (Ice Cream in chapter was stated to have fallen sick after kissing him). Axolotl is treated completely fine and Turtle has her in his band, regardless of the fact she is predatory towards him. Additionally, Axolotl is treated as a babysitter towards all of the children on the island, despite, again, sexually harassing someone she is related to, which people saw happen.

Incest is a harmful thing that can cause people to self-deprecate themselves or worse. It’s not a quirky “ha ha, they kissed, so funny!” because Axolotl DOES want to prey on Turtle. She DOES want to be with him. She didn’t CARE about his feelings, in the moment or after. It wasn’t a cute kiss on the cheek, and it wasn’t funny.

Fetishization of Japan: Pap is a weeeeeb. Pap is stated to be Japanese (her last name being Akita) which is confusing on account of the fact Rottweiler and her family are not shown to be Japanese? Anyways, Pap uses broken Japanese, completely unsparingly, and just says it in a way she expects everyone to understand her. It’s not Engrish, she speaks English well enough, she just adds it in sentences, and Melodic doesn’t even offer translations at the end of chapters. Phrases used are arbitrary, one some reason ending with “translator”. Entire sentences can be in Japanese, making the story hard to follow. If this fetishization of the language was limited to Pap, it’d be more tolerable, but other masks, ones who have no reason to know Japanese, use it as well, equally poorly.

Xenophobia: Some reason the USA and UK masks are all good guys (other than Rottweiler) but the German masks live in a ‘badlands’. German Monster teams up with Rottweiler and is his girlfriend, while German Dragon sexually assaults Kitty when they go through the badlands. There is no rhyme or reason why they are the scapegoated ‘evil’ series, but it leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

Inability to handle criticism: I tried. I tried my absolute best to tell her that what she was writing was harmful and past borderline offensive. I told her that Somali was a gay stereotype and very poorly presented, not getting a personality out of ‘likes singing’ (which all masks do…) and ‘is evil gay’. She didn’t care. We told her she was using slurs and that turning a mask played by Seal into a cis woman was offensive and transphobic (as well as Leopard already poorly being handled). She didn’t care.

In fact she more than didn’t care. She called us insensitive and whiny. Quote from her, "Now, I been feeling upset about some Haters/Karens harassing me on my AU ideas. And yes that's dumb.” Karens. You know, the stereotypical older women who hate the gays and trans people and bully people doing their jobs? Karens? Yeah, no. A Karen would be against any characters being trans or gay, insisting the show is for families, not telling them to stop using literal slurs (which have been outdated over 20 years) and to actually write gay characters. She genuinely acts like she can do no wrong and that everyone that doesn’t fawn over her is bad. This has nothing to do with the quality of the writing and the lack of grammar, this is about how she is unapologetically offensive and writing triggering content for the sake of being ‘quirky’.

I’m not saying “go rally against her” or “dox her” or “flame her story”, I’m suggesting please don’t give her attention. She’s clearly a child, and she’s not willing to change. All we can do is limit how much attention she gets until she grows up.

#masked singer #the masked singer #talking about this with my group really hurt like this is a bad headspace to be in #I don't want her to quit I want her to grow as a person

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loveerran · 4 years

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I mentioned that I might do a bit of posting on my personal trans history/experience. For example, I recently read a history of some labels used in the trans community that varies, quite a bit, from how I remember we used them internally. The authors tended to rely on ‘first time used in print’ and then, from that date, they applied the current meaning or understanding of the word. That can miss the nuance of how language evolves.

All the opinions and memories below are mine. Perhaps they will be useful to future historians, they were important to me at the time.

“Transgender”. My first gender conference (SCC - Southern Comfort Conference - in Atlanta) was circa 2005. I would estimate I had been part of the online Internet community (a phrase which here means 2-3 message boards) for a year prior to that. It’s important to remember that Google and Amazon weren’t really a thing yet. The world was just coming out of dial-up and 56k modems. Message boards were the thing. My first ever pictures of me got posted on those forums :)

‘Transgender’ as a vocabulary word was first defined to me, by my community, as an umbrella term that included crossdressers, transsexuals and (probably) the drag queens. ‘Transvestite’ was on its way out, though it was still being used, particularly by people who thought it had more of a ring to it than ‘crossdresser’. The three main labels (crossdresser/transvestite, transsexual and drag queen) broadly reflected the break down Wesley Snipes wonderful character Noxeema Jackson gave in ‘To Wong Foo’ in 1995: “When a straight man puts on a dress and gets his sexual kicks, he is a transvestite. When a man is a woman trapped in a man's body and has a little operation, he is a transsexual. When a gay man has WAY too much fashion sense for one gender, he is a drag queen.” (loved the movie, might disagree with the details on that quote just a bit).

In the mid-2000′s, I understood that ‘crossdresser’ was someone who wasn’t pursuing transition actively, and someone who labeled themselves ‘transsexual’ was. My first three in-person trans girlfriends were at the beginning/mid/late stages of transition respectively and readily welcomed the transsexual label as an indicator of status. Historical insider joke: Q: “Whats the difference between a crossdresser and a transsexual?” A:”About 2 years if you do it right”. Interestingly, it was meeting my first set of drag queens at SCC that convinced me I wasn’t gay. Convergent evolution...

I hated ‘crossdresser’ though. Always have. From the time I first saw myself, I’ve known it had nothing to do with the clothes. The clothes and the makeup and the other things are just the trimmings. And so I was one of the first people I knew to start using the word ‘Transgendered’ (yes, with an ‘ed’ at the end - the ‘ed’ didn’t get dropped until a few years later and I went straight from ‘transgendered’ to ‘trans’ about the same time (I’m so edgy with my words, lol) - some of my older girlfriends still used ‘transgendered’ and I got a light hand-slap for putting the ‘ed’ on a tumblr post, which was funny but a good reminder).

So I didn’t define as ‘crossdresser’ and I didn’t define as ‘transsexual’, and I wanted ‘transsexual’ somewhat, but it was specific to something I wasn’t doing. And there was this umbrella term that I thought was perfect. So I started saying “I’m transgendered”. And it was enough of a unique usage (the first few years anyway), that I had to regularly explain to people within the community that I wasn’t a type of TG (a frequent abbreviation we were using, along with CD, TS, TV and so on), but that I wanted to be a girl, always had, and wasn’t transitioning. To which people, within my community, would say ‘Oh, you mean a crossdresser’ - which was kind of annoying, tbh. Because being trans is a bit of a continuum between enjoying a preferred presentation at one end and being on the other end, and I was definitely on the being a girl end of the continuum.

#trans history #trans words #trans vocabulary #queerstake #crossdresser #transsexual #drag queen #transgender #lgbtq history #language

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fandomshatelgbtqpeople · 4 years

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mod a’s lgbt musicals

Hi there! I’m a big theatre kid so I thought for pride month I’d put together a list of LGBTQ musicals. Despite its association with queer people, musical theatre is not known for its amazing representation. I’ve put together a list here of musicals I know of with queer characters. I’ve tried to avoid those where the queer characters are incredibly minor roles or those where the representation is just not good enough to be salvageable (*side eyes Legally Blonde*) I know there are many musicals I will have missed out but these are the ones I am most aware of. Feel free to add more! So without further ado, here it is.

Fun Home

The big Tony winner of 2015! Based on Alison Bechdel, a butch lesbian cartoonist. At the age of 43, she looks for new material by trying to explore her past and her relationship with her closeted gay dad. Looks back at a version of herself when she was 10 and a “tomboy” and at 19 when she came out and got her first girlfriend. Has very cute lighthearted moments as well as very sad moments. Has a beautiful song where small Alison sees a butch deliverywoman. Problems in that since the original broadway cast, Alison’s costume has got less butch. Content warning for suicide.

Here’s their Tony performance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMAuesRJm1E

The Color Purple

Based on Alice Walker’s novel about black women in the 1930s. Follows Celie who has been abused by men her whole life who discovers she is a lesbian but also makes a journey of self discovery and learns to love herself. Her love interest is a bisexual woman. Won best revival at the Tonys in 2016. Content warning for discussion/implied sexual abuse.

Here’s their Tony performance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3k2xzQyT2bk

Everybody’s Talking About Jamie

A teenage gay boy in Sheffield wants to be a drag queen and go to prom in a dress.Also a nice touch that is does not focus on him having a relationship (since he is sixteen) and him having to come out as he is already out. Focuses on his close relationship with his supportive mother. Has a diverse cast. Jamie is currently played by a black actor and his best friend wears a hijab and has a very diverse ensemble as well. Unfortunately has a part where Jamie responds to a homophobic bully by calling him a bunch of ableist and classist slurs.

Here’s a clip of the most popular song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7C3FuFWDdw

The Prom

Emma is a lesbian teenager in Indiana whose prom is cancelled by the PTA after she requests to bring her girlfriend to it. A group of Broadway actors come down to help her campaign to be allowed to attend prom, as well as styling her, helping her work on her confidence and educating the town’s people. What ensues is basically a two hour musical episode of Queer Eye. Cheesy and fun with so many musical theatre references crammed in. My one issue is that the show is rather harsh on people who are closeted since Emma has conflicted with her girlfriend Alyssa because she is not ready to come out.

Here’s a clip of their Tony performance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGcG_r5xv3E

Rent

Probably the most well known on this list. Artists in New York during the AIDS crisis. Two of the main couples featured are queer: Maureen is bisexual and in a relationship with Joanne who is a lesbian, and Angel is a transgender woman of color in a relationship with Collins, a presumably bisexual man. However, she tends to be played bi cis men and there are instances of her being misgendered by the main characters uncritically. In Rent Live (2019), all instances of her being misgendered were removed and her gender identity was confirmed. She was played in this by Valentina, an nb drag queen and has also been played by Pose’s MJ Rodriguez, a trans woman. Very diverse with Jewish characters and people of colour and in the live show, only 1 of the 8 main characters was white. Has been criticised over the years, mainly for its biphobic portrayal of Maureen who is promiscuous and implied to cheat, but in the 90s did a lot for the LGBTQ community and is more progressive than a lot of media even now.

Here’s a clip of Maureen and Joanne from Rent Live: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=06oCfKYYPTY

And here’s some Angel and Collins: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_hl-M94o_x8

Falsettos

Marvin comes out as gay in the late 70s but decides to move his ex wife and son in with his boyfriend. Addresses AIDS crisis in Act 2. Has “lesbians from next door” in act 2. F Revived on Broadway in 2016. All of the characters are Jewish. Unfortunately, in revival casts, very few actors tend to be Jewish.

Here’s the trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZjnAHOdMQVk

Come From Away

In the aftermath of 9/11, 38 planes are diverted to a small town in Canada called Gander. Shows people of different races and nationalities bonding in a scary time. Addresses Islamophobia. Has one song called Prayer where prayers from different religions overlap. Has an interracial gay couple called Kevin and Kevin. They break up in the end but are very important characters. Won best direction of a musical in 2017. The Broadway production starred Jenn Colella who has referred to herself as ‘mostly gay’.

Here’s a clip of Jenn Colella singing a song from the musical: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8ukgH6U-d0

Head Over Heels

Honestly I don’t quite know what this musical is about, even by reading the plot summary and listening to the soundtrack. I know it’s set in a Tudor fantasy world and that there are wlw couples as well as an explicitly non binary character, played by Peppermint, a trans woman, and that there are interracial couples and plus sized actors. It is a jukebox musical using songs by the Go-Gos and yes the wlw anthem that is Heaven is a Place on Earth is one of them. The soundtrack is fantastic even if you can’t follow what is going on.

Here are some show clips: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wx2qQ7QAPm0

Spring Awakening

German school kids in the 19th century discovering their sexuality. Two of the schoolboy supporting characters, Ernst and Hänschen, have a romance when they have a reprise of an earlier song in Act 2. A BIG content warning as it has graphic discussions of rape and songs about it and a sex scene with very dubious consent. However there was a very wonderful 2016 revival using deaf actors and sign language.

This is another one you can very easily find the full show of on YouTube which I won’t link. However here’s the Tony performance for the revival: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CSagsMcak4Q

If/Then

A woman named Elizabeth (originally played by Idina Menzel) moves to New York after a divorce and contemplated how different her life would be if she took two different paths. Four supporting queer characters. Her ex-boyfriend is bisexual and played by Anthony Rapp (who is bisexual in real life) and he gets a boyfriend in one timeline. Another of her friends is a lesbian called Kate who marries her girlfriend in the musical. Problems occur as in both timelines, cheating goes on in the lesbian relationship although they stay together in one. Elizabeth also says she doesn’t believe in bisexuals, a view no one ever challenges her on, however Lucas is very clearly bisexual which is some proof for the audience that she is wrong.

I’m not going to link it here but there are many very high quality bootlegs on it on YouTube if you want to watch,

Ghost Quartet

A bit of a weird one. This is more of a concept album. There are four performers who each play instruments and they tell the stories of many interconnected timelines. It is very hard to explain but there are souls travelling through time who keep being reincarnated as different people with different relationships to each other which usually end with one woman killing the other. In the song Soldier & Rose, the ghosts Rose and Pearl are lovers as Rose seduces the soldier for her honey. In the song Four Friends, for one chorus the men sing “I like to put my hand on a pretty girls’s knee” and the women sing “pretty boy’s knee” and then they switch for the next chorus so they’re all bisexual. In general, a lot of fun if you like weird musicals and I mean really weird.

The full show is online: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJSaEJm8pCE

Mean Girls

Yes there’s a musical of it. I was not looking forward to it when it was announced but have actually grown to quite like it. It’s hardly lyrical genius but the songs are fun and a lot of the problematic aspects of the film have been fixed. Damian is more explicitly gay in the musical and sings about an ex boyfriend in one song. Janis is heavily implied to be a lesbian (confirmed by actress offstage) and she doesn’t end up with Kevin Gnapoor. She is played by a queer actress in the tour cast. Both queer characters are much bigger roles than in the movie and get several songs each. I’d consider the musical to be quite white feminist but it does address issues such as the sexualisation of teenage girls and the notion that to be ‘sexy’ is ‘empowering’.

Here’s a clip of one of Damian’s songs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-zM6QKkxEQ

& Juliet

An English jukebox musical about what might have happened to Juliet in Romeo and Juliet if she had not died at the end. I haven’t seen it but I’ve listened to the soundtrack and it is mainly comprised of 21st century songs by women. One of Juliet’s best friends is non binary although is played by a cis man as far as we know. Also I went to the same school as one of the actors which is a bonus for me. Very diverse cast.

Here’s a trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dm2k9nS3o20

In Transit

A capella musical about several people’s adventures on New York public transport. Two of the main characters in this ensemble cast are an interracial gay couple where both are pocs. They are engaged but one of them is having trouble coming out to his mother. I found it refreshing in that his fiance for the most part was not upset with him at his struggles in coming out and they were both able to live fulfilling lives despite this. I am always astonished by the talent of a cappella singers.

Here’s a trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhvik6qoass Another one where the bootleg can be found very easily on YouTube

Firebringer

Remember A Very Potter Musical? Well, the company that did that are still putting out new pieces of theatre on their YouTube channel. In 2016, they put out their ridiculous comedy musical Firebringer, about a group of bisexual cavewomen. I won’t spoil the ending but trust me, it’s great. You may know it from the viral clip of one of the main characters singing ‘I don’t really wanna do the work today.’

You can watch the full musical here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZmVuNlu0LCk

Special Mentions

Company

Musical by Stephen Sondheim about a man unable to commit to a relationship, surrounded by his friends who are all in couples. However, the award-winning 2018 West End revival chose to change the genders of some of the characters. The main character Robert became ‘Bobbie’ (although all of her love interests were gender-swapped as well). One of the originally M/F couples became an M/M couple. It opened on Broadway for about a week before the Covid outbreak so that will be one to look out for.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OtDK03y4gT0

In the Heights

A musical by Lin-Manuel Miranda about the Latin American community living in Washington Heights in New York. The original theatre production has no explicitly queer characters. However, in the upcoming movie version (that was meant to be released this summer but has been pushed back to next summer) it has been confirmed that the characters of Daniela and Carla (Daphne Rubin-Vega and Stephanie Beatriz) will be explicitly a couple.

I absolutely love this musical and the trailer for the movie looks beautiful check it out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0CL-ZSuCrQ

#mod a #musicals #theatre #lgbtq rep

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raeynbowboi · 5 years

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My Hot Take on the Ariel Controversy

Let me Preface this by saying I am a white man. I am not a member of the Black community, so I am looking at this controversy from the outside. As a little kid, The Little Mermaid wasn’t just my favorite Disney movie, it was my favorite movie period. This movie damn near made a marine biologist of me. I grew up absolutely in love with water because of this movie. Didn’t matter if it was Water type Pokemon, Waterbending, or Water Attribute Yugioh decks. This movie basically shaped me in a lot of ways. So, I’ve been excitedly waiting for the film to come out. I would say the only Disney live action remakes I’m as excited for is Hunchback of Notre Dame and The Black Cauldron because both are actually flawed enough that it’s a chance to atone for those movie’s mistakes and make them stronger films.

So a live action remake of my childhood favorite movie in an amazing underwater setting with live action depictions of what mermaids look like? Hell yeah, I was excited for this movie. And then the news came out that Halle Berry got the part, only to find out the correction that the part went to Halle Bailey. My general reaction is honestly conflicted. I can fully understand both sides of the argument. On one hand, Ariel isn’t pulling a Hamilton. It’s not taking real life people that actually existed and altering their ethnicity for a political statement. Which just makes the historian in me cringe. Ariel is not a real person. She’s a fictional mermaid. Even in the original book, I don’t think her appearance is ever described, so even in the original fairytale, you could say that she’s black and it wouldn’t change anything. But I think the reason there’s such a backlash isn’t the fact that she’s black, so much as the fact that Ariel is already a recognized brand name character. In this case, you are not changing the race of a fictional character, like when Brandi was cast as a black Cinderella. That was a separate adaptation of a fairy tale. It was its own standalone thing. But, if that Brandi movie was made by the Disney corporation as the live action remake of their Cinderella, it becomes a bigger issue because Disney already has a canon version of Cinderella. And thus, this dips back into Hamilton syndrome, because it is altering the ethnicity of an existing character. I don’t believe the outcry is just that Ariel is black, so much as the fact that Ariel is an established face in Disney marketing. Ariel was the first ginger Disney princess, and she’s looked that way for 30 years. We’re used to her looking a certain way, and now this new movie is in a way, disregarding that 30 year legacy. She’s looked that way for 30 years and now out of the blue and for no real good reason, Disney is repackaging Ariel as an entirely different ethnicity, and I think it sort of draws the movie into the Uncanny Valley. It’s Ariel, but it doesn’t look like the Ariel we’ve been seeing for 30 years, thus causing people to react negatively.

As for myself, I’m indifferent. I’ll admit I was very disappointed by this news. I’d been looking forward to a live action remake of the movie I watched as a kid, so I expected a white redhaired actress to play Ariel. This isn’t how I imagined Ariel would look if she was a real person. It’s not the faithful adaptation of my favorite kids movie that I’ve been excitedly waiting for since I first heard about the live action remakes. It’s very underwhelming because it’s not what I wanted for a live action retelling of this story. But, that doesn’t mean I hate it. It’s just disappointing and not what I was hoping for. But if anything, Into the Spidervirse has already taught me not to trust these initial beliefs. When I saw the first commercials for Into the Spiderverse, I questioned why Spiderman was just suddenly and randomly a black kid now. I don’t really follow the comics, and I was completely unaware of the existence of Miles Morales. To me, it just looked like they turned Peter Parker into a black character for no reason. But the art style looked cool, and I was at least mildly intrigued. Then the movie came out, and suddenly everyone was calling it this fantastic movie. I finally got a chance to watch it, and yes, every last drop of my uncertainty was eradicated because it was a genuinely amazing film. I think even if he had just been a black version of Peter Parker, I would have still fallen in love with the movie because the end product was way more amazing than my initial reservations toward it. So, I’m hoping black Little Mermaid is the same way. That my reservations toward it won’t matter. That the visuals will still be amazing. That it will still look and feel like The Little Mermaid.

And frankly, if Disney was fine with repackaging Ariel as a minority for the sake of the movie, I would genuinely have preferred it if she was in the LGBT community over being POC, mostly because the Little Mermaid is flooded with LGBT themes and symbolism. See, The Little Mermaid was written in 1836 by Hans Christian Andersen. Andersen at the time was in love with his financier’s son, Edvard Collin. But Edvard was in love with Henriette Tybjerg. Andersen wrote the Little Mermaid as a covert love letter, recasting himself as the mermaid so that it would be acceptable in their era. So, the fact that Ariel herself is a gender-swapped version of a bisexual male author, it would make far more sense from a literary and history standpoint to cast either a gay male star with a prince love interest, a lesbian star with a princess love interest, or recontextualize Ariel as being transgender, whether it be the male transitioning to female just as Hans wrote himself as a woman to publish the story, or as an assigned female at birth mermaid becoming male upon becoming human. This to me just feels more in line with the actual context of the story and makes the change to Ariel feel less out of the blue. If Disney was ever going to make one of its fairytales gay, this is kind of the perfect one to do it with.

So, in summation, it’s not the look I wanted. It’s not what I was hoping for, but I’m not foaming at the mouth threatening to boycott the movie either. Frankly, I’m just gonna wait and see how it looks in the first trailers. If I end up passing on this movie, it’ll be because it looks bad, not just because they decided to make Ariel black. Although if they don’t cast a drag queen to play Ursula, I will be mad at this movie for missing a golden opportunity to make itself fabulous. But until I see more, I’m just kind of indifferent. Not happy, not angry. It’s just a thing that exists. It’s the quality of the film that’ll make or break whether or not I like it. Because even a seemingly perfect casting choice, like a certain 2017 live action remake, doesn’t guarantee a good product. And at least this casting choice can sing.

#black ariel #ariel controversy #disney #live action remake #the little mermaid #little mermaid #ariel #princess ariel #disney princess

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alexsfictionaddiction · 4 years

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Alex Recommends: May and June Books

I must apologise for the late arrival of this post. It should have been up days ago but I’ve been struggling to read much for the last month or so. My head has been very foggy and dark with all of the confusion, anxiety and hate that has been filling my news feeds and I’ve been filled with a desire to combat it. Before this month, I’d have run in the opposite direction from any kind of confrontation but recent events have given me the kick up the butt to actively do better. I’ve been calling out bigotry when I come across it and I’ve noticed that some people, notably my older relatives, haven’t necessarily reacted favorably to the changed, more outspoken Alex. It has been pretty daunting and I’ve worked myself up into fits of rage and tears several times over the last couple of months.

A lot of things have changed for me since my last Alex Recommends post. I’m currently temporarily living in Staffordshire with my boyfriend because my depression got too bad for me to stay at home for much longer. I missed him unbelievably much and I knew that spending some prolonged time with him would help -and it has. Both him and I have spent 12 weeks religiously following all of the rules, so we’re both extremely low-risk for catching and spreading COVID-19 and being together was something that we simply really needed to do. Please don’t hate me for it! In other news, I have also started writing again, which feels amazing. I’m now a few thousand words into a queer Rapunzel retelling that I have lots of ideas for. Maybe I’ll even post an extract or two, when I feel it’s ready to show you.

In the centre of the renewed energy of Black Lives Matter and the undeniable exposure of the horrors that is police brutality, the book blogging and BookTube worlds vowed to uplift Black voices. I wrote a very long, in-depth blog post full of Black-written books and Black book influencers. Please check it out to diversify your TBR and educate yourself on Black issues, which is what every white person should be doing now and always.

June was Pride Month and I tried my best to compile a series of recommendation posts in honour of it. These included gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, non-binary, ace, pansexual and intersex lists. I’ve had some great feedback on this, so I hope you find some fantastic new reads. It felt especially poignant to put them together the same year that one of my childhood heroes came out as an ignorant trans-exclusive feminist. As a lifelong Harry Potter superfan and someone who has repeatedly publicly supported Rowling in the past, I feel the need to clarify where I now stand. I do not support or agree with a single thing that she has said in recent times with regard to transgender people. I’ve never felt my own status as a cisgender female threatened by trans people wanting more rights or believed that children or women were at risk due to their existence.

I read her words more than once and struggled to find any semblance of the woman who wrote the books that have most defined my life. I’m hesitant to say that we can always successfully separate the art from the artist but I will say that it makes sense to me that the Rowling of 2020 is not the same Rowling that wrote Harry Potter. She was a destitute single mother when Philosopher’s Stone was published in 1997 and of course, she is now a million worlds away from that lifestyle. It breaks my heart but it makes sense to me that she has changed beyond belief because her life has changed beyond belief. I’m not and never would make any excuses for her recent behaviour and I have stopped supporting her personally but I will not be getting rid of my Harry Potter books and I will undoubtedly re-read them several more times. However, I am now hugely reluctant to buy any more merchandise or special editions of the books, which saddens me but at the moment, it feels right. There is no coming back for her from this and I will make a conscious effort to keep Harry Potter and Rowling away from my future content. It can be really tough to admit that the people you once really admired aren’t great humans but it’s something that we all have to acknowledge in this case, in order to move forward with our own quests to become our best selves.

It didn’t feel right to post my May recommendations last month as I didn’t feel comfortable promoting my own content in the midst of boosting Black voices. So today I’m bringing you a bumper edition of Alex Recommends. Here are 10 books that I’ve enjoyed since the start of May that I’d love to share with you. Enjoy! -Love, Alex x

FICTION: Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng

Set in the affluent neighbourhood of Shaker Heights, Ohio in the 1990s, two families are brought together and pulled apart by the most intense, devastating circumstances. Dealing with issues of race, class, coming-of-age, motherhood and the dangers of perfection, Little Fires Everywhere is highly addictive and effecting. With characters who are so heartbreakingly real and a story that weaves its way to your very core, I couldn’t put it down and I’m still thinking about it over a month after finishing it.

FICTION: Get A Life, Chloe Brown by Talia Hibbert

When coding nerd Chloe Brown almost dies, she makes a list of goals and vows to finally Get A Life. So she enlists tattooed redhead handyman and biker Red to teach her how. Cute, funny and ultimately life-affirming, this enemies-to-lovers rom-com was exactly the brand of light relief that I needed this month. The follow-up Take A Hint, Dani Brown focuses on a fake-dating situation with Chloe’s over-achieving academic sister and I can’t wait to get my hands on that.

FICTION: The Rearranged Life of Oona Lockhart by Margarita Montimore

Just before her 19th birthday at midnight on New Year’s Eve 1983, Oona Lockhart finds herself inexplicably in 2015 inside her 51-year-old body. She soon learns that every year on New Year’s Day, she will now find herself inside a random year of her life and she has no control over it. Seeing her through relationships, friendships and extreme wealth, this strange novel has echoes of Back To The Future and 13 Going On 30 with a final revelation that I certainly never saw coming.

NON-FICTION: The Five by Hallie Rubenhold

Atmospheric and engaging, The Five details the previously untold stories of Polly, Annie, Elisabeth, Kate and Mary-Jane -the women who lost their lives at the hands of Jack the Ripper. Full of fascinating research and heartbreaking accounts of what these women’s lives may have been like, Rubenhold paints a dark immersive portrait of Victorian London and gives voice to these tragic silenced lives. Although we can’t know for certain if these accounts are entirely accurate, they feel very plausible and in some ways, The Five exposes how little time has moved on, when it comes to the public portrayal of single, troubled women.

NON-FICTION: Unicorn by Amrou Al-Kadhi

From a childhood crush on Macaulay Culkin to how a teenage obsession with marine biology helped them realise their non-binary identity, Unicorn tells the story of how the obsessive perfectionist son of a strict Muslim Iraqi family became the gorgeous drag queen Glamrou. Packed full of humour, honesty and heart, this book will give you the strength and inspiration to harness what you were born with and be who you were always meant to be.

MIDDLE-GRADE: The Super Miraculous Journey of Freddie Yates by Jenny Pearson

When fact-obsessed Freddie’s grandmother dies, he discovers that the father he has never met may actually be alive and living in Wales. So he has no choice but to grab his best friends Ben and Charlie, leave his home in Andover and go to find his dad! I laughed so many times during this madcap adventure and I know the slapstick crazy humour will hit the middle-grade target audience just right. It’s also a wonderful depiction of small town Britain with a focus on the true meaning of family.

MIDDLE-GRADE: A Kind Of Spark by Elle McNicoll

When Addie learns about her hometown’s history of witch trials, she campaigns tirelessly to get a memorial for the women who lost their lives through it. This wonderfully beautiful novel gives a unique insight into the mind of an 11-year-old autistic girl with a huge heart. Busting myths about neurodiversity while tackling typical pre-teen drama, you’ll laugh, you’ll cry but most of all, you’ll close the book with a huge smile on your face.

HISTORICAL FICTION: Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell

In 16th century Warwickshire, Agnes is a woman with a unique gift whose relationship with a young Latin tutor produces three children and a legacy that lasts for centuries. This enchanting, all-consuming account of the tragic story of Shakespeare’s lost son, the effects that rippled through the family and the play that was born from their pain will send a bullet straight through your heart. Wonderfully researched and beautifully written, Hamnet is worth all of the hype.

HISTORICAL FICTION: The Mercies by Kiran Millwood Hargrave

When a vicious storm kills most of the men of Vardø, Norway, it’s up to the women to keep things going but a man with a murderous past is about to come down with an iron fist. At the heart of this dark tale of witch trials, grief and feminism, two women find something they’ve each been searching for within each other. Gorgeously written with a fantastically slow-burning queer romance, Kiran Millwood Hargrave’s first adult novel is an addictive, atmospheric read with a poignant, tearjerker of an ending.

SCI-FI: Q by Christina Dalcher

When one of Elena’s daughters manages to drop below the country’s desired Q number, she is sent away to one of the new state schools and Elena is about to find out something she’d really rather not know about the new system. Packed full of real social commentary and critique of life as we know it while painting a picture of how things could be even worse (yes, really!), this pulse-racing, horrifying sci-fi dystopian gripped me from the first page and refused to let me go.

#book recommendations #recommended #recommendations #may #june #books #bookworm

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transsupers · 5 years

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Excuse me, but crossdressing and magical transformation does not count as being trans. If a "man" dresses like a woman, but identifies themself as a woman, then she's trans. If a man dresses like a woman, but still clarifies himself as a man, then he's not trans. Are you perhaps cis or something? You really need to research transgenders, or ask them yourself, because this almost seems like a bad trans-fetish blog instead.

Wow, I’m responding a bit late (a bit? More like a lot). I don’t know when the idea of the term changed, but I originally learned, and still see, “transgender” as an umbrella term that encompasses not only transsexual people (I’ve seen it said that’s considered a slur now, but I haven’t seen the documentation that says why--I learned it as a medical term which absolutely could have changed, but it is still a term I find useful as a distinguisher), non-binary people, intersex people, crossdressers, and drag queens. Yes, the last two are rather separate from the others in terms of identity, but such is still how it is in my mind from those days in college when I was figuring out the terms while starting my transition.

As far as the magically transformed, quite frankly, I can’t stand the trope. It’s often handled insultingly and it’s not anything that really happens, but I guess part of my including them is because, well, this blog would have been quite small if not for their inclusion. Selfishness, I guess, but there’s also the fact as well that such a situation is still considered a transgender situation, even if only fictional.

But I won’t discount what you said. If there is an aspect to this blog that can seem like a fetish one, it needs to be relayed. I’ve never seen this blog as such, but sometimes people don’t see the flaws in what they do when they’re involved in its creation. Heck, fetish aspects are a reason I have been gone for so long from this thing. The next entries were going to be more of the adult characters, but those types of characters are not what I have any enjoyment covering. Heck, I’d drop them altogether if it weren’t for the fact that I wanted to cover every trans superhero (and villain) that I could find, regardless of whether they were done well (or even anywhere approaching the realm of okay).

However, this message may be pointless, anyways. I don’t know how long this comment was made, so I don’t know if you’re on the site anymore after the ridiculous purge, and I constantly doubt I’ll ever get back to this blog. It’s not something I have as much interest in anymore, especially going back and looking at some of my art on these entries. I mean, I feel a place to spotlight trans superheroes is important, but such a place should probably be a wiki and not a blog by someone whose art rarely reaches the levels of decent. But I shouldn’t count myself out. I mean, I did finally log in again after over a year, didn’t I?

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your-dietician · 3 years

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Megan Fox celebrates 'putting the B in #LGBTQIA for over two decades'

New Post has been published on https://tattlepress.com/entertainment/megan-fox-celebrates-putting-the-b-in-lgbtqia-for-over-two-decades/

Megan Fox celebrates 'putting the B in #LGBTQIA for over two decades'

Happy Pride Month, she’s, gays and they’s.

It’s the queerest time of the year – yes, the whole month of June – when the LGBTQ community comes together to celebrate being out and proud. Pride started as a protest outside the Stonewall Inn in 1969 in New York, and the community wouldn’t be as outspoken as it is today without the work of Black and Latinx transgender women.

The coronavirus pandemic thwarted traditional Pride parades and other debauchery last year. With the country reopening again, members of the LGBTQ community can more readily gather safely this time around.

But how are LGBTQ celebrities partaking in Pride Month this year, and what does it mean to them? We asked some – and are monitoring many others’ social media accounts throughout June – to tell us their thoughts.

Interesting: Is coming out as a member of the LGBTQ community over? No, but it could be someday.

Megan Fox has been ‘putting the B in #LGBTQIA for over two decades’

Actress Megan Fox celebrated Pride Month with a series of selfies that included a rainbow French manicure.

“Putting the B in #LGBTQIA for over two decades,” Fox, 35, captioned the photos June 26 on Instagram with two rainbow emojis and a Pride hashtag.

She also promoted two charities in the caption: Move On, an organization that refers to itself as “a force for social justice and political progress,” and Into Action, “a movement of designers, illustrators, animators and artists building cultural momentum around civic engagement and the issues affecting our country and world.”

More: Machine Gun Kelly, Megan Fox pack on the PDA at Billboard Music Awards: Their relationship timeline

Former ‘RuPaul’s Drag Race’ star Laganja Estranja comes out as trans

Drag queen and choreographer Laganja Estranja, who appeared in the 2014 season of reality competition show “RuPaul’s Drag Race,” announced she is “so proud to identify as trans” in an Instagram post for Pride Month.

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“I feel so empowered that I don’t have to hide in the shadows as I make this journey,” she wrote in a June 15 post, thanking “all the trans brothers and sisters that came before me who fought so that my coming out could be joyous!”

Estranja’s given name off-stage is Jay Jackson, which she told Entertainment Weekly she still plans to go by with those close to her.

“I am so proud to identify as TRANS and to be living my truth. Happy PRIDE, you are beautiful as you are.”

Kamala Harris and husband Doug Emhoff march in Pride parade

Vice President Kamala Harris and husband Doug Emhoff wore Pride T-shirts and joined marchers for the Capital Pride Parade on June 12 in Washington, DC.

Harris’ shirt read “Love is love” and Emhoff’s showed a series of text reading “Love first” in a variety of colors.

The vice president stopped and talked to the crowd, according to pool reports.

“We still have so much to do. We celebrate all the accomplishments,” she said. “Finally marriage is the law of the land. We need to make sure that our transgender community are all protected.”

Harris shared a similar message on Instagram the next day where she also recalled the honor of officiating the wedding of Kris Perry and Sandy Steir, whose court case paved the way for marriage equality in California. She noted a need to expand protections for the LGBTQ community in housing, employment and education.

“I want you to know we see you, we hear you and the president and I will not rest until everyone has equal protection under the law,” she said.

Vice President Kamala Harris and husband Doug Emhoff join marchers for the Capital Pride Parade on June 12, 2021 in Washington, DC.

JoJo Siwa celebrates first Pride, 5-month anniversary with girlfriend

JoJo Siwa is celebrating her “first Pride” this month, which also coincides with her and her girlfriend’s five-month anniversary.

“Happy pride month!” Siwa, 18, captioned a June 4 Instagram post with a rainbow emoji. “It’s time to celebrate being who you are and LOVING who YOU wanna LOVE!!❤️”

In the post, Siwa and girlfriend Kylie Prew are shown beaming and embracing while wearing rainbow getups in front of a huge “PRIDE” display. The internet star, who started out on “Dance Moms” in the mid-2010s, came out in January as a member of the LGBTQ community, later sharing she identified as queer and pansexual. For the couple’s one-month anniversary in February, she divulged in a sweet post that she was “the happiest I have ever been.”

“It really has been the best 5 months of my life truly being exactly who I am and finding love has been the best part of it all,” Siwa added in her new post. “I love this human so much. I’m so happy❤️”

‘You’re a shining example’: Elton John praises JoJo Siwa at ‘Can’t Cancel Pride’ event

Miley Cyrus seeks to put a stop to homophobia

Miley Cyrus’s message for Pride was blunt: “STOP homophobia whenever and wherever you see it,” the singer wrote on Instagram alongside photos of herself next to a stop sign. She tagged her Happy Hippie Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to providing resources to LGBTQ youth, homeless citizens and other vulnerable communities.

The former Disney star spoke about being pansexual and gender-fluid in Variety’s 2016 Power of Women L.A. issue and said she discovered her identity through through the LGBTQ center in L.A.

“I saw one human in particular who didn’t identify as male or female,” she said. “Looking at them, they were both: beautiful and sexy and tough but vulnerable and feminine but masculine. And I related to that person more than I related to anyone in my life. Even though I may seem very different, people may not see me as neutral as I feel. But I feel very neutral.”

Alexandra Shipp says it’s ‘never too late to be you’

“X-Men: Apocalypse” star Alexandra Shipp took to Instagram on June 3 to share “regrets” for not coming out as a member of the LGBTQ community earlier and to encourage fans to be themselves.

“I didn’t come out until I was 28. Though I don’t believe in regrets, this would definitely be #1 for myself. I denied denied denied,” Shipp wrote. “I struggled with not only my sexuality, but my femininity. I was scared it was too late. I was scared I wasn’t going to be able to get work. I was scared no one would ever love me. Scared. Scared. Scared.”

The 29-year-old added that she is now “happy in ways I don’t think my kid self could imagine.”

“It’s never too late to be you. If I don’t work because of a flawed, racist and homophobic system, then it was never the right thing for me … I’m not scared anymore. I have #pride in who I am and what I’m doing on this planet.”

Janelle Monáe encourages LGBTQ community to ‘shine hard’

Janelle Monáe came out as pansexual during a 2018 Rolling Stone interview and in 2021 she is using social media to spread love.

Pansexuality is attraction to all gender identities, or attracted to people regardless of gender, according to GLAAD President and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis.

Saturday the “Tightrope” singer reposted words from a tweet by LGBTQ writer and activist Alexander Leon.

“Queer people don’t grow up as ourselves, we grow up playing a version of ourselves that sacrifices authenticity to minimise (sic) humiliation & prejudice,” Leon wrote. “The massive task of our adult lives is to unpick which parts of ourselves are truly us & which parts we’ve created to protect us.”

She finished the post with a series of emojis including rainbows and spaceships calling herself a “kid for life.”

“For those of us who spent time in the dark and had to build worlds to protect ourselves Shine HARD. I love us,” she wrote.

More: Janelle Monáe comes out as pansexual (and it’s not the same as bisexual)

Former ‘America’s Next Top Model’ contestant Lio Tipton comes out as queer, nonbinary

Lio Tipton who starred in Cycle 11 of “America’s Next Top Model” and played the role of babysitter Jessica in the movie “Crazy, Stupid, Love” reintroduced themself on Instagram Wednesday.

“Hi. My name is Lio. My pronouns are they/them. I am proud to announce I am queer and I identify as non binary,” they wrote.

Tipton’s caption was linked to an illustration featuring a unique robot among other droids depicted to match one of two categories a call to the binary nature of gender.

They finished the post with a rainbow flag and a heart writing: “I hope to give as much love and support back to those who continue to show love and support for the Pride community at large.”

‘High School Musical’ spinoff actor Larry Saperstein comes out as bisexual

Actor Larry Saperstein, who plays Big Red on Disney+ show “High School Musical: The Musical: The Series,” announced he is bisexual Tuesday on social media.

Saperstein, 23, shared in a TikTok video that he “plays a character with a girlfriend on TV,” but “is bi (in real life).” In the current season, his character, a theater tech crew member-turned-performer, is dating fellow theater cast member Ashlyn (Julia Lester).

“is it really that unexpected tho #pride,” Saperstein added of his announcement in the video caption.

Laverne Cox celebrates intersectional Pride

Laverne Cox, who has made waves in Hollywood as a trans woman, posted on Instagram to celebrate Pride with the theory of intersectionality.

The “Orange is the New Black” star listed names of Black feminists who contributed to the theory of intersectionality which is defined by Merriam-Webster as “the complex, cumulative way in which the effects of multiple forms of discrimination combine, overlap, or intersect.”

“My pride is intersectional. I bring all of me into pride month. I believe true liberation must be intersectional,” Cox wrote.

Under a photo of Cox dressed in a golden leotard, she named 11 key figures of intersectionality and called on her fans to name the rest.

“There are so many names. Who have I left out? List them below. Happy Pride Month,” she wrote.

Tan France wants to ‘champion diversity’ for LGBTQ community

“Queer Eye” style expert Tan France who is expecting his first child with husband Rob, opened Pride Month with an Instagram post of him fashionably wrapped in a rainbow flag with a star-like flower adorned on his head.

In the caption France made it a point to approach Pride Month with love and support.

“Let’s celebrate and champion the diversity of our community,” France wrote. “Let’s show compassion to those who don’t feel that they can come out yet, and offer them love and support as they work through it, knowing there is a supportive community, waiting to welcome them with open arms and hearts.”

Busy Philipps praises her child Birdie for Pride Month

The “Girls5Eva” actress posted a selfie of her and 12-year-old child Birdie, who came out as gay last year and uses them/they pronouns, to celebrate Pride Month.

“Today is the start of PRIDE MONTH! I have so much pride for this kid and everything they are and do,” Philipps wrote.

She shares Birdie with her husband, screenwriter Marc Silverstein, and took to Instagram to brag on Birdie’s ability to give back.

“Birdie decided to start gathering the unopened makeup and hygiene items from me and other influencer types(actors, singers, makeup and hair artists) to donate to the @lalgbtcenter for the queer and trans youth that the Center provides a safe space for,” Philipps wrote. “Well. Thanks to many of my friends, Birdie was able to donate HUNDREDS of items to the center.”

Pride Month: Busy Philipps reveals her 12-year-old child Birdie is gay, ‘prefers they/them’ pronouns

In December 2020, Philipps revealed on an episode her podcast “Busy Philipps Is Doing Her Best,” that Birdie was gay and used nonbinary pronouns.

“I want Birdie to be in control of their own narrative and not have to answer to anybody outside of our friends and family if they don’t want to,” Philipps said.

Taylor Swift urges senators to pass the equality act

The “You Need To Calm Down” singer is “proudly” teaming up with GLAAD for its “Summer of Equality” campaign to help get the Equality Act passed.

“Who you love and how you identify shouldn’t put you in danger, leave you vulnerable or hold you back in life,” Swift wrote in a statement posted to Twitter Tuesday. “I proudly join GLAAD in their #summerofequality and add my voice to those who support The Equality Act. Happy Pride Month!”

The Equality Act would amend existing civil rights law to explicitly include sexual orientation and gender identification as protected characteristics. Those protections would extend to employment, housing, loan applications, education and other areas.

Swift took a moment to thank her fellow “courageous activists, advocates and allies for their dedication to fighting against discrimination and hatred.”

She continued: “As always, today I am sending my respect and love to those bravely living out their truth, even when the world we live in still makes that so hard to do.”

It’s ‘so upsetting’: Taylor Swift calls out 2020 census for ‘brutal’ transgender erasure

GLAAD President and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis thanked Swift for her advocacy and said the goal of their “Summer of Equality” campaign is to “get every senator to vote yes.”

The bill passed the U.S. House 224-206 in February, with all Democrats but just three Republicans supporting it. Its fate in the closely divided Senate is uncertain. The House also passed the bill in the last Congress, but it didn’t advance to the Senate.

Niecy Nash: ‘Love should be at the forefront’

Niecy Nash and wife Jessica Betts got married in August – when virtually no one even knew Nash was queer.

“I am proud of who I am,” she says. “I am proud of my relationship. I’m proud of our marriage. I am just proud to be a Black woman who (lives) life on her own terms and does it out loud.”

How’s she digging the newlywed life? “It’s treating me great,” she says. “I’m married to one of the most beautiful souls.” A typical weekend for the pair involves good food, swimming and relaxing in the hot tub, she says.

Surprise! Niecy Nash reveals wedding to singer Jessica Betts and shares photo with fans

Niecy Nash hosts this year’s GLAAD Media Awards.

Nash didn’t know what to expect once she revealed her truth to the world, “but my close friends and family were extremely supportive and so that was the most important part for me,” she says.

She’s been vocal about how she didn’t come out – she “never hid anything” – but rather came into herself.

“I feel like you only really need courage in the face of fear,” she says. “And I don’t know if I was afraid in as much as I was just cautious, because I did not know how we were going to be received in the world.”

Plans for her first Pride Month aren’t set in stone yet, but she encourages people to lead with love.

“The world needs so much love right now because we’ve come through a really tough year and there’s so many things happening in the world that bring stress and chaos,” she says. “Love should be at the forefront of any conversation that anybody is having.”

In case you missed: Niecy Nash says marrying Jessica Betts wasn’t a ‘coming out,’ but a ‘going into myself’

Candis Cayne reflects on first Pride, need to band together for trans community

Actress Candis Cayne acknowledged that Pride has changed over the years – especially since she came out (Cayne came out twice, but as transgender in 1995).

“When I first came out, Pride Month was about fighting for our rights. It was about marching, it was about telling the world that we were OK with who we were, and we were valued people in the community. And luckily, more and more, it’s been accepted,” she says. That said, there’s still a ways to go.

Her first Pride was in New York City, where she saw a sea of people on Fifth Avenue.

“I remember just vividly thinking, ‘There’s more of us out there than I thought,’ ” she says. She’s done New York Pride for about 20 years, including performing on floats, and she recalled dressing as Wonder Woman and jumping off a truck and pretending to push it forward and backward – a magical, quintessential Pride moment.

‘I get goosebumps’: Laverne Cox on Netflix transgender history doc, landmark Supreme Court decision

She doesn’t have plans just yet for Pride – she is vaccinated and encourages others to do the same – but “might just have a get together and celebrate Pride in a more intimate way this year.”

She encourages the LGBTQ community to come together and support the transgender community amid ongoing legal battles and violence.

“Seeing how our community’s being affected right now, with all the legislation, how trans women of color are being murdered at an alarming rate, I think that’s something that we really need to focus on as a community and band together,” she says.

‘From Disclosure’ to ‘Pose’: What movies, shows to watch on Trans Day of Visibility

‘Grey’s Anatomy’ actor Jake Borelli talks growing in his queerness

“Grey’s Anatomy” star Jake Borelli viewed Pride Month as a celebration when he was younger. But after publicly coming out in 2018 and spending more time in queer spaces with a variety of queer people, he had time to reflect on what Pride is really about.

“As I’ve grown in my queerness, and my relationship to my own queerness, I know wholeheartedly that it’s a riot, and it is a protest,” the actor, who plays Dr. Levi Schmitt, says. “At this point in my queerness, I feel like I can’t allow myself to stand anymore for the negative way society has made me feel about my queerness and Pride and Pride Month, and Pride gatherings.”

The absence of physical queer spaces during the pandemic forced him to think even deeper.

Did you see? How Lil Nas X, JoJo Siwa and Zaya Wade are teaching kids to be more inclusive

“That caused me to start thinking a lot more introspectively about what it means to be queer and what growing up as a gay person surrounded by straight people really actually did to my psyche in the long term, and I’ve found myself having to re-parent myself right now as as a queer man, re-parenting my younger queer self,” he says.

He’s been to a host of different Pride celebrations in his life, from Los Angeles and New York to his hometown of Columbus, Ohio.

“It was such an incredible experience to go back to my hometown where I was fully closeted, and didn’t feel like I could be my full self and to see that there was an entire group of people who were pushing forward in Columbus for the queer community and had been forever,” he says.

His advice for queer people going on similar journeys as himself?

“Be patient with yourself and everyone who’s around you,” he says with a laugh. “I have to remind myself that every day.”

Leyna Bloom talks Pride Month, how she celebrates ‘every single day’

“Port Authority” star Leyna Bloom recently opened up to USA TODAY in a Q&A about how she celebrates Pride Month daily.

Leyna Bloom stars as Wye in the drama “Port Authority.”

“Pride is not just this time when we can explore things that are in us that we’re raised to suppress and now we’re taught to express it in the sun and in the streets and the world just for one month,” Bloom says. “It’s something that I have to do every single day of my life. I have to wake up and be proud that I’m alive and (ask) ‘Why am I here? And what am I doing here, and am I going to be able to help people?’

“Through all the most traumatic experiences in my life and in the world, seeds are being planted everywhere I go. And this summer 2021, everything is blooming at the same time: Sports Illustrated, movies, TV shows. It is really a moment to be Black, be queer, be trans, be Asian, so I’m just honestly going to celebrate every single day that I’m allowed to be alive to have those moments. So I’m really excited to see what else I can do and how we can elevate our community to unite.”

Contributing: Anika Reed and Cydney Henderson, USA TODAY; The Associated Press

For more on that interview: ‘Port Authority’ star Leyna Bloom on trans love story, how she celebrates Pride Month daily

‘We’re not there yet’: LGBTQ representation dips on broadcast TV, GLAAD study reveals

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Pride 2021: Megan Fox, JoJo Siwa, more stars celebrate month

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sevenlockets · 7 years

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Grell is a woman.

Part One.

Okay, originally “part one” and “part two” were going to be part of the same post, but this was getting so obnoxiously long that no one was going to read it.

So why not break it into two?

In this post (Part One of two), I am going to address the two “real-world” arguments against Grell’s trans identity that I see the most often when people are discussing her.

Part Two (I will insert it’s link here once it’s up), will be posted in a few days (today being 12/12/17). Part Two will be what I originally had wanted to talk about (before I realized I should probably clarify my view on those “real-world” issues I mentioned first), and will be entirely story and character based, nothing real-world about it.

Part Two will be about why, as I see it, the only way to read Grell that makes any sense in the context of Kuroshitsuji as a whole is to read her as a trans woman.

Now, onward and upward.

One of the primary arguments I hear against Grell being a trans woman is “Grell is okama, not transgender.”

For anyone who doesn’t know, okama is a Japanese subculture in which (predominantly) homosexual men — who identify wholly as male — dress, act, and speak femininely. The term ‘drag queen’ is often used as a loose translation. It is an expression of who they are, and while I obviously can’t speak for individuals within it, I can safely assert that the okama subculture in and of itself encompasses no implications of gender dysphoria. Grell, on the other hand, exhibits gender dysphoria on multiple occasions (1, 2, 3). These moments will be discussed in greater detail in the Part Two post.

There is literally never a time we see Grell where she does not go out of her way in some form or another to try to tell the others that she is a woman. It is clearly extremely pervasive in her psyche. You would think that if it were not a necessity to her, a part of her, she would get tired of the act at some point, especially since no one around her seems to understand, let alone care. It’s even the first thing out of her mouth after Undertaker literally slices her face open on the Campania. It is on her mind at all times and she cannot help it; even in a fight she prioritizes voicing her womanhood alongside literal survival. Okama is something one could “switch on and off”, while a transgender person obviously does not have that luxury.

A shining example of a truly okama character — who I believe most of us reading this likely have some familiarity with — is Ryoji (aka Ranka) Fujioka from Ouran High School Host Club. Ryoji is the protagonist’s father (and yes, he goes by male pronouns and repeatedly calls himself her ‘father’, ‘daddy’, etc.), all while speaking in feminine formats, and acting and dressing as a woman. As far as I’m aware, he never once requested, or even implied that he wished, to be referred to as anything other than a man. He is not trans. He happy as a male, as a father. He is okama. See how different that is from Grell?

That being said, is it possible that trans women seek shelter in lifestyles such as okama, if they do not feel safe or comfortable enough to be their full selves? Absolutely! When Yana called Grell ‘okama’, it’s because that is the closest thing Yana can compare it to within the context of the time period Grell exists in. There was simply no word for a transgender person in Victorian England, much less a refuge or any real avenue for them to express themselves. Grell would appear as a effeminate man because she has no other choice; and through Yana’s cultural lens, obviously this type of person would qualify as okama. Grell tries constantly to express her femininity with the tools available to her. Yet, most of her Victorian contemporaries — having no idea of what a transgender person was, or of the possibility someone like this could even exist — would see her as something akin to how someone in current-day Japan might view an okama person; as a man ‘playing’ a woman.

This is further convoluted by Grell’s interest in the theatre, leaving people even more prone to believing that all of Grell’s feminine tendencies were wrapped up in her ‘stage persona’, when in fact, nothing could be further from the truth. I will get into this in greater depth in that Part Two post, but remember, English theatre has a long-standing history of males acting in the roles of women- especially in Shakespearian theatre, which we can all tell Grell has a particular fondness for. However I bring this up now believe it underscores my point about Grell’s wish to seek asylum in a subculture that allots her even an ounce of herself.

The other primary argument I hear when people try to deny that Grell is trans is “But the author of Black Butler uses male pronouns when speaking of Grell.”

As for Yana Toboso herself referring to Grell as a “he”, I believe this is simply her way of speaking. Many, many people believe that referring to a person, or character, by their outwardly displayed sex characteristics is the ‘proper’ way to refer to them. Naturally in response, many, many people within the transgender community have come out and stated that this practice as a whole is extremely harmful to them, but that does not change the fact that it occurs all the time- and sometimes without even cruel intentions. I don’t believe for one second that Yana is transphobic — she clearly writes Grell with a lot of love, and about as blatantly trans as any creator could write a side character — but I do believe there are practices all of us have been raised with that do some amount of completely unintentional harm, and that this is one of hers.

Here is the English translation of a blog post Yana made way back in 2010. The post is explaining Grell’s feeling’s for Sebastian vs. William, but includes the line, “That’s the way girls are, isn’t it? Grell is a boy, but he has a heart of a girl.” I wholeheartedly believe this is Yana describing Grell’s physical versus psychological characteristics; so there we have it. A male with the “heart” of a woman. I don’t know how much clearer it can get. Just to compare, the dictionary definition of ‘transgender’ is “a person whose sense of personal identity or gender does not correspond with their birth sex.” I don’t know about you, but I think “a boy [with] the heart of a girl” sounds about as close to the absolute definition of ‘transgender’ as you can get.

Listen, at the end of the day, I really don’t care what you call Grell. It’s not my problem, it’s not my business, and I don’t believe you’re going to Hell for seeing something different in this fictional character than I do. I just wanted to put these arguments out there toward what I see as the truth regarding a character I love.

Stay tuned for Part Two, filled with character and story analysis.

Thanks for reading!

#grell sutcliff #black butler #kuroshitsuji #grell #grell sutcliffe #[ matpat voice: but hey- that's just a theory - a grell theory ]#[ i mean i wouldn't really call something plain as day a 'theory' but i wanted to make the joke ]#「✘」Out of Character

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neglectedrainbow · 7 years

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LGBTQ+ Representation in the 2017 Broadway Season

For a long while, Broadway has been considered somewhat of a haven for the LGBTQ+ community (the past few years, though, have been monumentally lacking). For this post, I’m making a list of LGBTQ+ representation currently on Broadway. This will not include fanon opinions or implied LGBTQ+ characters. I’m talking about characters who either say “I am LGBTQ+/not cis/not straight” outrightly or are seen/discussed as being in a romantic relationship with a same-gender character. I will also only be discussing musicals, as plays have very, very limited accessibility.

Shows that I have not seen before and/or do not have enough information/knowledge to confirm one way or another are labeled with a question mark. If you know about any LGBTQ+ representation in these shows, please reblog with that information, and I’ll update this post accordingly! Also, if I have missed or somehow misinterpreted any representation, please send me an ask, or something, just tell me, and I’ll make the appropriate changes!

Here we go! Happy pride!

A Bronx Tale - No.

Aladdin - None.

Amelié -?

Anastasia - No.

Bandstand -?

Beautiful: The Carole King Musical - Nope.

Cats - Nada.

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - No.

Chicago - None.

Come From Away - A lot of non-straight characters are in this show! Two of the most prevalent supporting characters are an interracial gay couple! Also, LGB (sadly, no transgender/nonbinary/or otherwise non-cis characters are ever mentioned) family members are mentioned by various other characters. No discussion of non-cis people, though, and all non-straight characters are supporting, not lead.

Dear Evan Hansen - :/// None.

Falsettos - The best! The greatest! The lead character is a Jewish gay man who is in love with another Jewish gay man! Also! An interracial lesbian couple!! The most representation of LGBTQ+ people on Broadway since Fun Home. (Still no non-cis people, though.)

Groundhog Day: The Musical - There is a very minor gay character in this show.

Hamilton - Noooope! (It’s here that I’ll remind you of this: “This will not include fanon opinions or implied LGBTQ+ characters. I’m talking about characters who either say “I am LGBTQ+/not cis/not straight” outrightly or are seen/discussed as being in a legitimate romantic relationship with a same-gender character.”)

Hello, Dolly! -?

In Transit - Yes! Two of the main characters are gay men in love, and the homophobia they face is mentioned a lot as well! I absolutely love this show, and it has wonderful representation all-around as well! (Thank you to @meepzer for pointing out that I forgot to mention it the first time around (I’ve been listened to this cast album on repeat for a month so I don’t know how I did that))

Kinky Boots - No. (The secondary main character, named Lola, is a self-described “drag queen”--which, of course, is not, under any circumstances, the same as a trans woman--who mostly uses she/her pronouns but identifies as a man and, if my memory is correct, is only attracted to women.)

Miss Saigon -?

Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812 - Kind of? Apparently, at one point, Dave Malloy may have confirmed Anatole to be bisexual, but this is never explicitly mentioned or confirmed in the show itself. Also, there is a lot of same-gender attraction seen in this show--i.e. women dancing with and kissing other women, men dancing with and kissing other men--specifically in the chorus, but no character is ever explicitly mentioned as being LGBTQ+.

On Your Feet! -?

School of Rock: The Musical - Yes! The parents of one of the main characters are gay men! BUT, this show has been criticized for a stereotypical portrayal of gay men :(

Sunset Boulevard - Nope.

The Book of Mormon - There is a gay male supporting character who eventually overcomes his internalized homophobia and leads a self-accepting life.

The Lion King - No.

The Phantom of the Opera - Not at all.

Waitress - None.

War Paint -Yes! There is a gay male supporting character.

Wicked - Nope.

Simply put, there’s a lot of work to be done on Broadway, in relation to LGBTQ+ representation, as well as representation overall.

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megacross-ground-zero-rated-r · 4 years

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I told myself I wasn't gonna write another damn dissertation on my process relating to a character but I think Verah needs one. All of this, together, is why I'm seriously second guessing everything I do with her.

Warning for descriptions of transphobia / transmisogyny.

1. She's a nonbinary woman and it really hurts my heart to think about the kind of backlash she'd get if I wrote period-appropriate responses. Nick takes one look at her and goes "okay, got it, Woman with a list of bullet points attached that say Not Quite." Smartass describes her as "a self-made woman" in the sense of both owning her own business and his understanding being she literally made herself into one, which in her case is pretty much what happened. He thinks she's a fucking badass for undergoing a year-long process to hybridize into two Toon Kindoms, Mechanical and Plant, being in total control of her presentation and using that control to create her own unique looks. Never trying to blend in with the human crowd also earns her points with him.

Because they don't really have another frame of reference most people in Ground Zero veiw her as a drag queen who has no personal identification with womanhood outside performing femininity, or think of her change as a clever allegory or comparison to being transgender and she's like: "No, I'm actually trans. I went from being named genderless by my creators to coming into my own as a feminine entity." She's okay with others referring to her with masculine or neutral terms because misgendering pretty much just Doesn't Happen where she comes from, at least to start with she thinks they have the same nuanced understanding of her as Nick.

She also thinks it's weird that so many humans present either really masculine or really feminine but who is she to question someone's relationship with their gender without their asking for a conversation on it? You don't just walk up to someone and breech that subject uninvited. People she encounters don't do that because they're intimidated by the idea of a bad reaction.

Nick's standing there fuming, extremely frustrated, because... What do you do to in that situation. He wants to snark at them in her defense but that could very easily backfire towards her or other vulnerable people. He doesn't fit Ground Zero's strict idea of a traditional man even if it's not immediately obvious to the casual observer, and pointing that out as a gotcha, asking if they're going to take back their treatment of him as a "valid" man could just as easily get someone to admit that okay, maybe this whole thing is a little more complicated than I thought or make him a target, too.

Eddie was initially thrown by her but Nick seems like he knows exactly what to do, she responds positively to the way he acts so he follows that lead. It dawns on him that they're sitting on a powder keg but he doesn't really have an easy answer, either. Toons get some more leeway to play with gender but it's another thing that's not really taken seriously.

Yes, she's meant to be big and grand and larger than life. She's meant to have a fluid identity. She embodies the joyful and creative aspects of being transgender, the euphoric, the unapologetic. And I want so badly to keep that spirit alive, but I don't know how.

What does the human trans population think of their portrayal in either Toons that were created to be trans or be like them, or ones taking trans / gender nonconforming roles in cartoons? Who's considered the authority on the gender of a Toon, them, their creator, the studio they're signed with? What about alternate gendered versions of the same character? In what capacity does drag / ball culture exist? What about the leather / biker scene? What about the military, the navy?

2. She was too powerful. Volunary shapeshifting with next to no limits, heightened perception, regeneration and the ability to heal others with contact and brewed potions, really strong. I knocked her down a few pegs by changing it so the last climate she was hanging out in was a cold, wet place, she needs time to get used to the desert before she can really excersize her powers or she'll end up draining herself. She's having trouble integrating plant data from the landscape because their genetics are all kinds of fucked up and she can't get what she already has to mesh with the new information. Does she remake herself again or take the power cut?

3. Making her appear naive by comparison to Nick and Eddie in too many things. This was 'cause the beginning and end of the setting she came from was "high fantasy near-utopia" and I didn't really think about the points in #5, she was consistently confused and hurt by encountering things like bigotry, poverty, militant anti-intellectualism, et cetra.

4. Because I didn't, and kinda still don't know how to show her reacting negatively I ended up projecting a lot of her traits and themes onto other characters.

5. I put a Lot of colonialist / imperialist ideas into her. And not just surface level stuff, I mean like baked in. "Worker drone repurposed into reseacher that Explores Untamed Lands, finding samples of Resources and Bending Them to her will through Science Magic, using that Knowledge to Create Medicine and wondrous Products." More on that in the second part of this post.

Am I thinking way too hard about all this, considering the tone of the source material? Probably. Should I just stop with all of this? Maybe. I don't know.

#verah the hybrid automaton #transphobia mention #transmisogny mention #nonhuman trans character #misgendering #the fic #long post

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