First, July was stressful but also… clearly more chill than June.

I think there was less direct harassment – that I saw, at least – in July. I’m sure it’s still out there because I’m basically a non-person to multiple fandoms and that justifies the weird and wrong shit people say and do to me, but… I didn’t see it very much this time. I didn’t even block that many people this month so that’s pretty nice. I hate feeling like I have to cut myself off from people. (Which is very funny because I had to make a policy change on my website that does cut me off from people! More on that at the bottom.)

The main stresses I had to deal with were familial or health related (and again, I really need a job with benefits), but they were manageable. I got to spend two weeks with the wee niece Meems here with me and while I orbit her when she’s here, she also helped me with a ton more work than I was expecting. (And yes she will be compensated fairly for her work.)

And because of the lack of harassment along with Meems’ help as a mini research buddy, I was able to do a lot this past month.

You can see everything I did for my site here, but some highlights are:

• What Fandom Racism Looks Like: Revisiting “POC Coded” White Villains/Anti-Heroes
• Stitch Talks Ish… About Manga
• Meme-Ing for a Reason #10: Blocked For Not Being Nice To Racists
• [Stitch Talks Ish] Season 2/Episode 4: Stitch Talks Ish With Sleeq and NJ

Outside of my site, I also did (unfortunately sporadic) Patreon updates and got content out elsewhere:

• On Loki, Anti-Heroes, and Who Gets To Be A Lovable Villain
• Twilight’s Jasper Cullen Is Part of Confederate Vampire History
• Zendaya Says “Euphoria” Season 2 Is “Not a Fun Watch”
• K-Pop’s Fandom Platforms Are Changing What It Means To Be An Idol

I also did some recording for a podcast and moderated a super cool panel (more info on both will be provided once I have the info) and I made progress on both of the books I’m working on. One imminent and the other… not so much because it’s the contemporary romance novel literally no one asked for. But I definitely did a ton of work and there’s some future payoff there that I’m excited for!

Now onto the serious stuff and future plans:

Serious Stuff

I’d like to announce some changes to the site in some key ways as we head into August.

First, we now have an official comment moderation policy because there are Teen Wolf fans who keep trying to harass me and I do not have time for this. Every time I even vaguely mention what I’ve seen or experienced from the Teen Wolf fandom or what has happened to Tyler Posey, I get waves of incredibly rude and aggressive comments from people misrepresenting him and me. So, we get a comment moderation policy. Thank those rude ass anons for that.

Second, this is comment related but not necessarily policy: I’ve officially changed the comments on this site to only allow comments from registered users. I understand that this is a massive inconvenience and removes folks’ ability to comment anonymously, but I’m tired of having to see drive-by anonymous shit talking/stirring in my pending comments. I don’t harass people or send them hate comments, but people keep doing that to me. So, I stopped allowing comments from unregistered users. I apologize for this, but I really just refuse to deal with this harassment in my space any longer.

If you want to comment privately or anonymously on something I’ve written especially when it comes to correcting me, there are ways for you to do that. But too many people across too many fandoms think it’s funny to trample all over my boundaries and lie to my face about me. So, we’re done with anon comments.

Future Plans

I want to take a vacation. Not a real “go somewhere, be somebody” vacation because we’re still neck deep in a pandemic and I’m poor on top of that, but I want to take some time off to just… not write. As I look at it, I might be able to do that near the middle/end of the month. I don’t know. But I’ll figure something out so I can spend a week just watching TV and napping without guilt that I won’t be able to afford rent the next month. I’ll keep y’all posted.

Content for August, as a result of my desire to take a break, will be light. The main things that will be coming out on my site are:

• the next Meme-ing For A Reason piece (on how I’m expected to accept bad faith and frankly unhinged interpretations of my work from people)
• a “What Fandom Racism Looks Like” piece I’ve been working on from… last year actually about how racists in fandom are echoing white supremacist tactics/language to divide (East) Asians and Black Americans in fandom
• a piece about white fandom entitlement using a June 2021 example from that portion of the Star Wars fandom
• at least one new episode of Stitch Talks Ish (the 2^nd Loki one with Jeanne, for sure)
• the next Rafael chapter spork

Now unfortunately: the first installment of Fandom Racism 201 is in progress but also… on hiatus. One issue I’m having is that since Fandom Racism 201 was going to focus on specific fandoms and how they’re Bad At Racism and where they/other fandoms can do better. This would open me up to more harassment and ultimately even more racism from those fandoms when I speak on the issues. As a result, I basically have to steel my spine and prepare for more harassment. I’ll return to Fandom Racism 101 in the meanwhile, however. I just can’t say for sure that it will be. It’ll definitely be on Patreon first, though.

I’ll return with Teen Vogue content of course – August’s Fan Service content is in the works and I’m looking at pitching other content there and to other outlets. I also hope to restart my music reviews at EatKS because the past two months have had that on hiatus and so much good music has come out in the meanwhile. I’ll keep y’all posted and I’ll cross-post everything once it’s out.

Overall, my goal is to try and figure out a way to do my work sustainably. The level of harassment I’ve been dealing with simply for being someone writing firmly about racism in fandom takes a lot out of me and I rarely feel properly or fully understood and defended. I’ve decided to keep my usual tone (mildly spicy) and I’m not pulling my punches in my posts, but I’m rolling back engaging even more.

Thanks so much for your support across the past month and I’ll try to make sure that I can bounce back sooner and return to a regular posting and living schedule. I’m sorry I can’t be as open as I used to be in the past, but I appreciate you all deeply.