[Patreon Preview] Stitch Talks Tropes

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I’ve been sitting on this for a couple of weeks as I planned, and now I think I’m ready to share a preview of something I’ve been working on and planning for almost all of June: Stitch Talks Tropes (Or, possibly, Talking Tropes) will be a half-hour long, monthly podcast-y series where I talk about tropes in the media we love.

I’m planning on talking tropes in romance novels, urban fantasy, science fiction, and fandom spaces. Some of these tropes will be ones we love and always will. Others will be tropes that are problematic and need a little subversion. And at the end of every episode, there’ll be a recommendation for at least one work (published fiction or fanwork) that displays a trope I think is positive or subverts a problematic trope.

So here’s what you need to know about Stitch Talks Tropes/Talking Tropes:

  • Will be Patreon-exclusive at the $5 Tier (with articles being written and posted on my website once 6 or more episodes are completed, providing a likely six-month delay between what Patreons get and what my website readers get).
  • Won’t have transcripts until I can afford to pay for transcription services, but hopefully that will be soon.
  • The first three episodes are already planned out
  • All of the episodes will have a header image because those are cute
  • Each episode will likely be about 25-30 minutes of audio
  • And at least one recommendation related to the trope will be provided at the end of every episode
  • I’ll hold polls and ask for feedback for future episodes.
  • The first episode will release sometime during the second week of July

If you’re interested in hearing me analyze the tropes we love or loathe (and really want to support an unemployed writer of color), please consider signing up to be a patron at the $5 Tier today!

Patreon, folks.

[Stitch Likes Stuff] Fence

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If One Tree Hill and basically any sports manga out there had a literary lovechild that grew up to be queer and was also invested in fencing, that’d be Fence.

Written by Australian author C.S. Pacat and with art by Johanna the Mad and colors by Juana Lafuente, this series got me invested by the end of the first issue. Heck, from the moment character design posts went up on Tumblr in the months previous, I was hyped. I was intensely invested in Western creators’ comics that were obviously inspired by their love of Japanese sports manga as well as their own experiences with sports in the United States and Fence seemed like it’d be my thing.

And it was!

Pacat and Johanna (who created the series together) come together to make a charming and absolutely engaging sports-drama with diverse queer characters right on the page. I love everything about Fence so far. Six issues in and I’m beyond invested in the way that character development is revealing more and more about the complex characters and their backstories. The art is cute and crisp, the characters are interesting, and the drama is never-ending. It is everything I could’ve asked for from such a series.

Legit, from the first issue I had favorite characters and even some light shipping going on. It’s a series that seems tailor-made for fandom and I hope it gets a good one!

If you’re like me and you love Ngozi Ukazu’s Check, Please, I’d suggest checking out Fence as issues 1-6 are available now on Comixology/Amazon.

Don’t forget to reach out to the creators if you enjoy the series!

(And come talk to me about the series too!)

Where Are Y’all Getting Your Characterization From? Finn Isn’t A Coward, Or Selfish, And He Doesn’t Need A Damn Redemption Arc.

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I’m not Resistance. I’m not a hero. I’m a Stormtrooper. Like all of them, I was taken
from my family I’ll never know. And raised to do one thing.  In my first battle, I made a choice. I wasn’t going to kill for them. So I ran, right into you. You looked at me like no one ever had. I was ashamed of what I was. But, I’m done with the First Order. I’m never going back.

— Finn to Rey in Maz’s cantina in Star Wars: The Force Awakens

I know that the Star Wars fandom – both the dudebro hubs and the supposedly feminist and progressive parts on Tumblr and Twitter – is racist as shit, but I still can’t believe the audacity of people calling Finn a coward and demanding he be killed off as like… a form of progressive protest on his or Rey’s behalf.

In her article “Star Wars: The Last Jedi Could Have Been Better If This Character Had Died” author Alessia Santoro goes above and beyond in order to “prove” that The Last Jedi would have been a better movie if only for one death – that of John Boyega’s Finn. She does so, of course, by completely crapping all over his character, problematizing his behavior and, wishing for his death because that’s the only possible way for him to matter to her.

Despite the fact that she – and many other members of the Star Wars fandom – claim that they really do like the character, there’s no bigger sign of disliking a character than by wanting them dead.Read More »

Signal boosting an emergency fundraiser

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A very dear friend of the family – she’s my mom’s best friend and her daughter and I grew up together – is trying to raise funds so that get to New York by the sixth of June in order to attend the funeral of her sister, who recently passed away.

I know money’s tight all over, but if donations aren’t a possibility (and even if they are), can y’all share this so that she can see her sister off?

Please.

FACEBOOK DONATION LINK

May Wrap Up and June Plans

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Stitch does stuff in June

Out of all the things I said I’d do in May on this post, I’ve done… most of them? Well, for Patreon at least.

I didn’t get to do the “Worldbuilding Wednesday” post on Secret Societies or the post on Anita Blake #5 (in part because I still haven’t finished rereading it) for Patrons, but I’m going to slide those forward to June.

Aside from that, i finished everything on the Patreon and I’ve decided to scrap the grad school wrap-up in general (I’m uninterested in further commentary on grad school at the moment) and I’ll be posting book reviews and the “Life as a (Semi) Professional Hater” post next month.

So here’s what’s up for June:

Patreon

  • WIP Snippets of: ” Too White Bread for This Shit: Race and Racism in Laurell K Hamilton’s Urban Fantasy Series”, “Urban Fantasy 101: Crime and Punishment”, the Misogynoir post, and WOC in the MCU: Mariah Dillard ($1 Tier)
  • Worldbuilding Wednesday: Secret Societies ($5 Tier)
  • Images for various blog posts ($1 Tier)
  • Great Big Anita Blake Reread: Bloody Bones ($3 Tier)
  • Finished Drafts of the Laurell K Hamilton post and the misogynoir one ($3 Tier)
  • Reapproaching Social Justice and Fandom Racism ($5 Tier)

Blog

  • Life as a (Semi) Professional Hater
  • Untitled Rose and Finn post
  • Where Are Y’all Getting Your Characterization From? Finn Isn’t A Coward, Or Selfish, And He Doesn’t Need A Damn Redemption Arc.
  • Stitch Likes Stuff: Fence
  • Untitled Black Panther/MCU piece on motherhood
  • Book Reviews

While I’m here, if there’s any content that y’all would like to see from me this month (or any other), please let me know! I’m also extra open for writing or editing gigs!

Become a Patron today!

Stitch Went to the U.S. Virgin Islands

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As y’all may have noticed by the very lengthy threads about fandom racism I keep making on my twitter, I’m back in Florida.

I had a lovely time visiting my father and once hurricane season is over, I’m going to go back and visit him (or get him to come up here once airports are open and whatnot). I loved being in my childhood bedroom and getting to bask in a sense of community that I still don’t really have in Florida. Those of you who grew up in/have lived in small towns know how it is: everyone knows your business and your face.

It can be stifling if you’re there all the time, but when you come home to visit? It’s just delightful to realize how many people know you, love you, and miss you. I’m a pretty likeable person and I’m So Good at making friends, but there’s something about coming home and having your people literally embrace you with giddy joy when they see you walking down the street that’s just… something else.

As much fun as I had with my darling dad and being reminded that I’m just beloved by so many people, there was a serious purpose to me going back home too: I wanted to see what the island looked like eight months after Irma and Maria.Read More »

[Stitch Elsewhere] Jessica Jones Doesn’t Care About Men of Colour @ Anathema Magazine

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The thing about the feminism on display in Jessica Jones is that it isn’t universally empowering or accessible. This is a series that centres the titular character’s pain above that of other people, and that treats the lives of people of colour—particularly men of colour—as accessories to her narrative.

As a show, Jessica Jones has represented peak ‘white feminism,’ centring white womanhood, from day one. Like Agent Carter, Supergirl, and Wonder Woman, it’s a narrative focused on white female characters in worlds where characters of colour are afterthoughts, sidekicks, villains, or background support. From Reva Connor’s death being used as a catalyst to jumpstart Jessica breaking free from the control of her abusive ex, Kilgrave, to the overwhelming lack of characters of colour in the series’ New York City, to killing off both of its black female characters in the second season, and to Jeri Hogarth filling the “Evil Lesbian” trope, this is not a series that cares about putting forward an inclusive or intersectional form of feminism.

However, one of the most glaring examples of this is in the way that the series treats its male characters of colour, particularly in its second season. Men of colour and their experiences (including their trauma) are never seen as important or as valid as Jessica’s trauma.

I got to write about Jessica Jones mediocre second season and how the season failed the three recurring male characters of color for Anathema Magazine last month. This season was even more awful about how it treated male characters of color and that’s saying something considering how the first season had Jessica stalk and sleep with Luke Cage knowing full well that he was connected to the woman that she’d killed on Kilgrave’s command.

If you’re interested in reading me at some of my saltiest, check out “Jessica Jones Doesn’t Care About Men of Colour” at Anathema Magazine!

(And if you like me at my saltiest, consider becoming a Patron today because oh boy am I salty over there!)

A Quick Quibble: Supposedly “Straightwashing” Okoye in Black Panther

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A Quick Quibble_ Supposedly “Straightwashing” Okoye in Black Panther

In a (now deleted) tweet thread from April of this year, writer and artist Kate Leth went in on superhero media for the lack of queer representation in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). The thread was fine and absolutely valid right up until the last tweet where she wrote that:

“There were queer characters in Ragnarok and Black Panther whose scenes were cut. Okoye was awkwardly made straight with a plot that went nowhere. Loki exists in subtext. It’s bullshit, pardon my french, that we’re just supposed to go “oh yeah of course, because of money”

You know what this tweet shows me?

It shows me that Leth might not be able to tell Black women apart from one another and that she doesn’t see the value in a character who chooses love of country and her faith in justice over the love of her life (after he sets himself against their country).

It shows me that while Leth knows the basics about the characters and the film (the cut scene with Ayo flirting with Okoye and the Ayo/Aneka relationship in the World of Wakanda comics), she doesn’t know enough to recognize that Okoye and Ayo (or Aneka) aren’t the same characters.

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In Fandom, All Villains Aren’t Treated Equally

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In Fandom, All Villains Aren't Treated Equally

From Hannibal Lecter eating the rude across the northeastern United States to Loki’s attempts to subjugate the human race and Kylo Ren’s patricide and misogyny, fandom just loves to look at villains who have committed atrocities and decide that they’re in fact complex characters who just need a redemption arc to set them on the right track (because they have a good reason for what they did/the heroes of the series are in fact the real villain) …

But only if they’re white dudes.

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[Small Stitch Reviews] May 21st

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Whatever for Hire by R. J. Blain

A paranormal romance novel with jokes everywhere and a minor enemies-to-lovers relationship between the main characters, what makes Whatever For Hire fall flat for me is the copious use of the g-slur. Yes, that g-slur. The main character Kanika is half-Egyptian and half-Rromani (but also, maybe not even that considering the hints that the literal devil kept dropping), but did this book have to be rife with the g-slur being dropped willy nilly all over the place on top of Orientalism out the butt? (Aside from Kanika, all of the Egyptian characters were evil, teenager-selling, forced-marriage-having assholes so… problem much?)

Whatever For Hire could’ve been decent but instead, it was kind of a mess where the little moments that I disliked wound up adding up fast.

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Ship It by Britta Lundin

Ship It, as you can tell from the title, is about shipping and fandom. It’s about Claire, a teenager who watches a Supernatural-esque primetime drama and ships the main characters. When she actually gets a chance to talk to one of the two leads on the show at a convention, things go pear-shaped when she brings up shipping and representation and he kind of… doesn’t react well.

I know a lot of people that liked Ship It in my group of fandom nerds who also read young adult fiction. I wanted to like it too. I even requested it on NetGalley because I thought it’d be amazing.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t get into Lundin’s debut novel even though I tried my hardest. I’ve been stalled at 40% for a few weeks now and while I might eventually return to it, right now I’m not that into the portrayal of fandom or fans. While Lundin’s writing is fun and full of snappy banter between the characters, I found it incredibly difficult to care about most of them or what they were going through.

I also, honestly think that with everything I’ve been going through in fandom, this kind of book would’ve been a good read for 2013!Stitch or younger – you know, before I got in the thick of things with the discourse.

Headcanons only go so far when it comes to representation

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Headcanons Only Go So Far

In my head, my version of Harvey Dent will always be associated with three things: his Blackness (he’s biracial), his bisexuality (he was totally in love with Bruce Wayne), and how he deals with/manages his mental health issues (which are far more detailed than “spooky split personality” crap from the comics/other media).

None of this is canon even though I used canon to build my mental image of the character.Read More »

A Quick Update

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If you know me from tumblr (the same username as my website), that’s on an indefinite hiatus for the foreseeable future.

For various reasons (including someone (some people?) running a smear campaign against me and reblogging my stuff with vicious untruths for at least two straight days), I’ve decided that I currently don’t want to spend time on the platform and that my time needs to be spent working rather than reblogging.

The harassment is a portion of it, but not the entirety. It was just the final straw.

From here on on, I’m only going to be active on Twitter when it comes to social media. I’ll continue to write content on fandom and media racism, of course, but tumblr is no longer in the equation on any level. You can also always reach me on here or via my contact form page on my website.

On top of that, I’m going to be inaccessible for much of the next week. Tomorrow afternoon I’m flying down to help my elderly father with some things and seeing as he’s almost eighty, he doesn’t have internet. Unless I can get to someplace with internet (possibly the Kmart at the mall of it’s still up), I won’t be online.

Barring any awfulness, I’ll be back in Florida by the following Thursday with a notebook full of ideas and a much calmer sense of being.

This trip to see my dad was last minute and his idea since he needs help and wants me to hang out with him and my brother (who’s also visiting), but after the past few days I am glad for the break and the chance to have the cord cut between me and the internet so I can destress.

I’ll have my laptop and notebooks with me as well as my headset so I’m going to carve out some time to write as often as I can so I can come back to y’all with new content (not all of it Patreon-first)!

Thank you all for your patience and understanding!

Urban Fantasy 101: A Quick Guide to Shifter Romances

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This is a new aspect to my Urban Fantasy 101 blog series that I hope y’all find useful! I read a lot of urban fantasy and paranormal romance and I wanted to make little primers for tropes, sub-genres, and whatnot in these overarching genres in order to help introduce new readers to things they might not be familiar with!

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What are shifters?

“Shifter” is short for “shape-shifter”.

Both terms can be used to encompass everything from the traditional fantasy novel fare like werewolves to mythological/folkloric beings like selkies and the lamia.

The most important thing that most shifters have in common across the genres they show up in is that they usually have at least two forms: a base human(oid) form and a full “animal” form. Some shifters have the ability to partially shift parts of their bodies or to inhabit a third full form between beast and human.
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