Life As A Symbol

Stitch

I’ll talk more about this in detail – as in a proper essay, not an off the cuff blog post – one day, but it is weird being a public figure of any kind and a symbol before you’re a person. 

For starters, everything I say has weight… but it’s not usually the weight I attribute to it or intend? If I say I like something, there are people who assume it must be an incredible and insightful piece of media that gives amazing moral messages. (It’s not. It’s usually a villainess webtoon with at least one siscon and at least two yanderes)

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I Heart MJ

Stitch

I have been on a Spider-Man kick these past few days — and yes, that means I’m working on multiple somethings about Across the Spider Verse — and I’m now rewatching Spider-Man No Way Home while I do my work for the day. This movie put me through so much when the niecelings and I watched it together, and I’m still here going through it but…

One thing that I really love? Zendaya’s MJ. She is so nieceling-coded at all times, but especially in this movie. She is a baby. Her eyebrows are excellent. Her wit and sense of curiousity? Wonderful. I adore her. I also just… really appreciate her getting more to do in the narrative.

Anyway, I always forget to add it to my list of Top Marvel Movies because Spider-Man films really… don’t feel like MCU movies even though they so clearly are but… No Way Home is actually in my top ten of MCU films. Even though it made me cry the first time I watched it and it’s going to make me cry this time.

You’d buy anything, huh…

Stitch

Fundamentally, at the most basic level, if your response to that Telegram screenshot of “Anonymous Sudan” claiming credit for DDOS’ing AO3 because of “smuts” and “LGBTQ+ content” was to immediately express anti-Muslim spree and malign an entire country just so you could pretend to be even more oppressed than you usually think you are… You’re a bad person. 

Objectively.

Definitively. 

(And in before “well I didn’t see that happen so it didn’t”….

I’m not even on twitter anymore and I saw it. I saw it in TikToks. Not (just) TikToks comprised of tweets but people making quippy racist videos they then quickly backpedaled on. The AO3 Status twitter had to call it out so you know they saw it.

You’re just wilfully ignorant and determined to pretend fandom isn’t a racist shithole where racism is okay as long as it’s sexy and/or in defense of the fandom status quo. You are also a bad person, person who rushes to dismiss other people talking about racism!)

A Rogue Regency AU Arrives

Stitch

I was reading a Jujutsu Kaisen story that happened to be a Regency AU with a remarriage concept and it’s a good story. Great, even.

But it made me think about how fandom really resists (or runs away from) doing research when something easier is at hand?

Regency AUs are everywhere in fandom because… they are everywhere in Romancelandia and so the first thing many people thinks of when putting together a historical romance for their favorite character is… a Bridgerton style romance in a culturally fuzzy world.

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[Webtoon Wednesday] Lout of Count’s Family

Stitch

Title: Lout of Count’s Family

Author/Story: Byeol Narae (adaptation) and Yu Ryeo Han (original novel)

Artist:  PAN4

Rating: All Ages

Genre: isekai/transmigration, fantasy, found family, strong male lead, NO romance

Hosted On: TappyToon

Official Link(s): English

Official Summary:

Kim Roksu has one life motto: “Let’s not get beat up.” But after dozing off somewhere midway through the novel “Birth of a Hero,” he wakes up as Cale Henituse – one of the minor villains in the novel who gets the beating of a lifetime from soon-to-be hero Choi Han. Only time will tell how much longer he has before that dreadful encounter. Can Kim Roksu change the course of this story so he can enjoy a long and lavish life free of the soon-to-be hero?

My Thoughts:

TikTok has been really good for getting me into new series… and really bad for my budget.

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Who Holds The Assholes Accountable, I Wonder

Stitch5 Comments

Several weeks later, it remains horrifying that Dreamwidth co-creator Denise/@rahaeli (bluesky and Twitter)/synecdochic on Dreamwidth chose to unmask as an unhinged racist anti of… me.

To this day she continues to slander me based on the words of five to fifteen POC Too that she can’t provide any links to in public, even moving it to BlueSky and other platforms where even less people will see me dealing with this harassment and defend me.

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Manga Monday: An Observation Log of My Fiancée Who Calls Herself a Villainess

Stitch

Title: An Observation Log of My Fiancée Who Calls Herself a Villainess

Creator: Shiki (author) + Natume Hasumi (illustrator)

Demographic: Shojo

Themes: villainess, romance, fantasy, comedy

Status: Completed + Fully Translated to English

Published By: Alpha Manga

LINK: Kindle (3 Volumes) + Full series on Alpha Manga

Official Summary:

Because Prince Cecil is extraordinarily intelligent, life is boring for him. His days are without much excitement, but he becomes engaged to Bertia, the daughter of a marquis. The first thing she says to him when they first meet is quite baffling. She claims she is the “villainous heroine” in the story of his life!! According to Bertia, she has memories of her previous life. In a certain “romance game” she played in her life before, she played the character of the “villainess.” Her purpose in her new life is to become an exemplary villainess and ruin the prince’s engagement. In order to achieve this goal, Bertia does one outrageous thing after another and brings chaos and confusion into his life. A unique “love” story with a twist!!

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Speeding Away From Fast X

Stitch

Fast X isn’t worth the $25 USD it currently costs to buy it on most sites.

This is so painful to write as a diehard fan who’s seen every movie at least twenty times, owns them all on Blu-ray, and will one day write the Letty/Dom criminal romcom prequel we all deserve but I must say it… that movie is ass.

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[Webtoon Wednesday] How to Win My Husband Over

Stitch

Title: How to Win My Husband Over

Author/Story: Spice&Kitty

Artist: Siru

Rating: Mature

Genre: transmigration/isekai, romance, drama, abuse recovery, villainess, romantic historical fantasy

Hosted On: Tapas

Official Link(s): English

Official Summary:

I thought I’d finally escaped my hellish life when I died in an airplane crash, but I fell into another nightmare when I awoke as Rudbeckia de Borgia, a minor villain from a historical novel destined to die at the hands of her husband, Iske van Omerta. Surviving with the dysfunctional Borgia family is hard enough, but now I have to marry the man who will kill me! Still, it’s okay, I just have to convince Iske, his family, and all his countrymen that I’m completely harmless! How hard can that be?

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At Critique

Stitch

I don’t think I am or should be above critique. I’m at critique, craving those rare moments where someone will sit down and send a long meaty email for me to chew on as I rewrite… And knowing how how rare it is.

I’m not getting critique so much as harassment people then claim is critique as if there’s anything I can learn from unintelligent racists spending years lying about me…

Take the reaction to the woobification article. People called me racist, said I hated abuse survivors, said I had internalized homophobia and didn’t understand queer coded villains. Those aren’t criticisms and they’re not true in the slightest. They also hold no basis in what I actually wrote. Few critical (negative) engagements with my work actually address my work?

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Manga Monday: This Vampire Won’t Give Up!

Stitch1 Comment

Title: This Vampire Won’t Give Up!

Creator: Madoka Kitaji

Demographic: Josei

Themes: contemporary romance, supernatural, (light) smut, workplace romance, vampires, werewolves, fluff

Status: 5 Volumes Fully Translated/Published

Published By: Kodansha

LINK:KODANSHA

Official Summary:

Minami has awful luck with men—she falls for their looks only to find that they’re the worst of the worst. So when she finds out that her next work assignment involves a good-looking, rude-off-the-bat man, she feels just fine about kissing any feelings for him goodbye…that is, until she finds out he’s the son of the author of her favorite childhood picture book series, Bride of the Vampire. But the rude son soon changes his tune, and Minami doesn’t have long before she discovers the secret his gorgeous lips hide…

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Didn’t Ask, But I Do Care: On The Way Folks Rush To Remove Black Fans’ Escapism

Stitch5 Comments

I’ve been talking about misogynoir in fandom spaces for over a decade at this point – less than that on this site but still.

One thing that remains clear is that queer/feminist “transformative” fandom has never been interested in seeing Black women as valid and viable sites for shipping with the character fandom actually loves.

Fandom actively rejects romance and relationships for Black women unless it’s to make them a Mammy figure for someone they don’t care about so that duo can take care of their white fave.

Which brings us to The Bear and the way that, from the second the first season finished airing, people have decided to wring their hands and whine about shippers ”ruining” Syd and Carmy’s perfect platonic relationship by making it romantic in fanon and wishing it was requited and romantic in canon.

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[Webtoon Wednesday] Love So Pure

Stitch

Title: Love So Pure

Author/Artist: Plan B (a team!)

Rating: Adult

Genre: slice of life, drama, found family, contemporary, queer themes, trauma, crime/punishment, gangs

Hosted On: Tapas

Official Link(s): English

Official Summary:

It’s easy to get laid when you’re a pretty, sassy bartender working at a popular gay bar. This lifestyle suits Jihyun just fine since he loves casual hookups without any intimacy… That is until he meets Yohan—his big, scary-looking classmate who’s actually a pure-hearted sweetie. Can Yohan’s simple love help commitment-phobic Jihyun heal from the traumas of his past?

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Manga Monday: Love Me For Who I Am

Stitch

Title: Love Me For Who I Am/Fukakai na Boku no Subete o

Creator: Kata Konayama/Tozaki Ei

Demographic: Seinen

Themes: LGBTQ+, romance, high school, drama, found family, comedy, slice of life

Status: Fully Translated/Completed

Published By: Seven Seas

LINK

Official Summary:

An LGBT+ manga about finding friendship and common ground at an untraditional maid café!

Mogumo is a cute but lonely high school student who just wants a few loving friends. Fellow student Iwaoka Tetsu invites Mogumo to work at his family’s café for “cross-dressing boys,” but he makes an incorrect assumption: Mogumo is non-binary and doesn’t identify as a boy or a girl. However, Mogumo soon finds out that the café is run by LGBT+ folks of all stripes, all with their own reasons for congregating there. This touching manga explores gender, gender presentation, and sexuality from many different angles, including the ways people are pushed to conform in a world that doesn’t understand them…until the world begins to learn, one person at a time.

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[Webtoon Wednesday] Steel Under Silk

Stitch

Title: Steel Under Silk

Author/Artist: snob

Rating: Adult (and later chapters are uncensored)

Genre: Historical, Drama, Erotica, Romance, Enemies to Lovers, Revenge, Dark

Hosted On: Lezhin

Official Link(s): English

Official Summary:

Yeonjo used to have it all: a highly respected family, a kind brother, and a comfortable life. Now, with his father executed for high treason, his last kin dead, and damned to a lifetime of slavery, Yeonjo has nothing to lose. All that is left is vengeance, and his chance comes when the new governor assigned to the region is none other than Kwon Hee-ryang, the man who destroyed everything Yeonjo loved. Now, Yeonjo will do everything to get his revenge…even if it means getting in bed with his greatest enemy. Hiding a blade behind his beautiful smile, like silk hiding steel, Yeonjo waits for his moment to strike. But things are not going to be so easy…

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