“You Can’t Ship a Protagonist and an Antagonist”

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Content Notes: This post is ostensibly about abuse (and how fandom assigns “abuse/r” labels based on the role a character plays in their respective narrative). I also quote dialogue between Jessica Jones and her abuser Kilgrave and discuss abuse related to Batman and the Joker. But the entire post is about abuse and it may trigger survivors so… Read carefully.

“You Can_t Ship a Protagonist and an Antagonist”

It’s a bit worrying that to huge swathes of fandom, the words “villain” and “antagonist” are now synonymous with “abuser”.

I’m a lurker by nature, so I’m always watching the way that fandom clings to or discards trends or tropes in their favorite source media and the fanworks that they produce about them. One thing I’ve noticed is that recently, within certain fandom spaces, the words “villain” and “antagonist” are more and more frequently conflated with the word “abuser”, something which I find worrying and frustrating.

In many fandoms, I’ve seen villains called “abusive” just by virtue of their being the villains. I’ve also started to see the terms “abuse”, “abuser”, and “abuse apologist” being thrown around willy-nilly to try to somehow show fans the error of their shipping ways (usually by calling them names or suggesting that they’re as bad as the fictional villains – or real life abusers in the accuser’s past).

Only that’s not how any of that actually works, but that’s not stopping it from happening in several fandoms that I’m in or have been adjacent to and I have… thoughts.

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“Who’s Super Selfish Here?”: Oliver and Felicity, WestAllen Wedding Crashers

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References: Stills from DC Legends of Tomorrow S03E08 come from Screencapped.net, the transcripts from the episode come from the Springfield! Springfield! website which has transcripts for tons of films and TV episodes and the gifs embedded in the piece (as well as the promo image for the header) come from WestAllenGifs.com.

Westallen Wedding Promo

In a May 2017 Dear Prudence column, a newly married bride sent in a question regarding the fact that her husband’s best man had the gall to propose to his girlfriend partway through the wedding ceremony, thoroughly stealing the spotlight from their friends’ special day. She was wondering whether or not they should seethe quietly about the absolute infringement on their super special day or if her husband should just straight up cut off his friend for the rudeness.

Slate.com’s awesome agony aunt, along with basically everyone on the internet, was rightly upset on the author’s behalf because well… that’s a shitty move from someone that’s supposed to be your friend.

What could be worse than proposing during your friends’ wedding?

How about… pushing your way into their impromptu ceremony, turning it into an unexpected “double wedding” and stealing the spotlight from them (even stopping them from saying “I do”?Read More »

[Flashback Friday] Dear Fandom, It’s Always About Race

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I originally wrote this post over a year ago, back in May 2016. It was one of those period where I was seeing racism in fandom surge to a high level (this was after the meta of doom a certain BNF wrote) and I was just so fed up by how many people were dismissing our conversations about race and racism in fandom and saying “it’s not about race”.

So, I wrote an open letter that is sadly still relevant in fandom to this day.

Dear Fandom

Dear fandom,

It is ALWAYS about race.

No matter how you twist it, fandom’s collective and constant dislike of characters of color (especially if they’re in relationships/shippes with white male characters) for some reason you “just can’t put your finger on” is directly related to race.

Your race.

Their race.

Race.Read More »

Stitch’s Stuff: December 7th

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It’s almost midnight so… This will be short.

My roommates in the dorm are super sweet young women who have been nothing but generous and kind since we all moved in back in August.

They are awesome and without roommates as amazing as they are, I doubt my dorm life would be anywhere near as amazing as it has been! 

[Book Review] All About Mia by Lisa Williamson

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All About Mia Cover

Title: All About Mia
Author: Lisa Williamson (Twitter)
Rating: Recommended
Genre: Contemporary, Black heroine, Diverse, Coming of Age, Young Adult,
Publisher: Scholastic, Inc.
Release Date: September 12, 2017

Buy Links: AMAZON | BARNES AND NOBLE

Note: Please message me if you require trigger/content warnings for this novel beyond the alcohol abuse I reference in my review.

SYNOPSIS

One family, three sisters.
GRACE, the oldest: straight-A student.
AUDREY, the youngest: future Olympic swimming champion.
And MIA, the mess in the middle.

Mia is wild and daring, great with hair and selfies, and the undisputed leader of her friends – not attributes appreciated by her parents or teachers.
When Grace makes a shock announcement, Mia hopes that her now-not-so-perfect sister will get into the trouble she deserves.
But instead, it is Mia whose life spirals out of control – boozing, boys and bad behaviour – and she starts to realise that her attempts to make it All About Mia might put at risk the very things she loves the most.

REVIEW

A good summary for All About Mia is:

LOCAL MIDDLE CHILD HURTS HERSELF AND OTHERS ON HER WAY TO FIGURING OUT HER PLACE IN THE WORLD.

I mean… at least I think so at least.

I’ve got complicated (but mostly positive) feelings about Lisa Williamson’s All About Mia.

Caught between her “perfect” older sister Grace and her “primed for the Olympics” baby sister Audrey, Mia doesn’t feel as if she has anything that’s truly her own. Her sisters get what appears to be the focus of their parents’ positive attention and Mia, a chill teenager who likes to party a bit too intensely, gets yelled at… a lot and feels super overlooked by everyone in her family unless she messes up. She feels super overlooked in favor of her sisters and that… kind of leads to acting out in the form of drinking and staying out with her friends.Read More »

Stitch’s Stuff: December 5th and 6th – Books 

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I’m smushing the 5th and 6th together so I don’t mess up my blogging goals for December too badly.

 

2017 was a really good year for me book wise.

As in I bought a lot of books.

I’m really good at sales.  I mean, if there’s a book I want on sale, chances are that I’ll find it. Couple that with our on-campus Barnes and Noble and the fact that I’ve made bargain bin diving a hobby and well… I’ve bought a bunch of books.

2017 was also the year that I started seriously preordering books in order to support my favorite writers.  I have minor memory issues so if you don’t remind me repeatedly to do something, I straight up won’t do it. I’ll think about it every once in a while, very fondly even, but my brain needs active reminders or… in the case of book pre-orders, it needs choice taken out of my hands.Read More »

Stitch’s Stuff: December 4th – San Diego

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I flew to San Diego in April for PCA/ACA, a national conference for well… pop culture (and American culture apparently). I’m going to do another “Stitch’s Stuff” post on the conference itself, but this one’s about San Diego.

Prior to April of this year, the farthest away I’d been from my home in South Florida was New York. When I was eleven or twelve, my parents and I took a Greyhound bus all the way from Miami up to visit my family in the Bronx. It’s almost 1300 miles.

This year, I flew almost twice that distance to get to San Diego with my darling friend Katelynn at my side.Read More »

Fandom Racism: Predictable AF

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Fandom is nothing if not predictable.

I know I’m late, but I just saw the casting announcements for the upcoming Netflix/BBC series Troy: Fall of a City. One thing that immediately stood out to me was the way that the casting immediately flipped the script when it came to Achilles and Patroclus, casting two dark skinned Black actors in the roles.

I was (am still) excited by the choice to cast David Gyasi as Achilles and Lemogang Tsipa as Patroclus because it’s an inspired casting choice. Nothing about this story of gods and messy humans has whiteness inherent to the casting and I think it’s time that we got some dark-skinned people in these period pieces who weren’t slaves…

However, I know fandom.

I’m in fandom.

I know what the response will be from people who make a point of claiming objectivity and fighting against “blackwashing” with no sense of self-awareness even as they plaster #BlackLivesMatter and don a cloak of perfect progressivism. I can predict fandom racism and the forms it will take without even trying (and definitely without wanting to) because it’s a repeating pattern that fandom can’t let go of.Read More »

Stitch’s Stuff: December 3rd – Tokyo Ghoul

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I think I finished the first Tokyo Ghoul series at the beginning of the year.

I still haven’t shut up about it.

The series is one of my major special interests and, it’s a series that I haven’t let go of even though I’ve technically stopped reading the manga. (The sequel series, while it contains interesting aspects of worldbuilding and develops some of my favorite characters very well, has problems I’m currently unwilling to engage with so I’ve dropped the series for now.)Read More »

Stitch’s Stuff – December 2nd: Coco

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Can I count Coco for December 2nd?

Because I’m gonna. 

I saw Coco today with a friend that I hadn’t seen in over a month. I lived with Host Family for about a year and a half, only moving to the dorms for this last year of graduate school because I wanted to be closer to my friends and family members in the next county.

I’d made plans to stay in their lives because I truly love the family and without them, I couldn’t have lived in Miami since 2016.

Host Daughter, a younger woman who’s like a little sister to me, is one of the aspects of living with this family that I missed. And when Host Mom offered me a chance to spend a few days with them, I took it. 

Same goes for seeing Coco.

 Coco was like… Everything. 

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Stitch’s Stuff – December 1

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Stitch's Stuff

Clearly, I haven’t been stressed enough so I’ve decided that I’m going to challenge myself to write about one thing I read, did, wrote, bought, saw, etc in 2017 every day for the rest of December.

For December 1st, I’d like to talk about…

My thesis.

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I hate the Joker.

I think it’s practically a part of my identity this point like I’m known for my intense Joker dislike back in meatspace (and like… obnoxious conversations about cannibalism but like… whatever).

To me, the Joker represents some of the worst things about superhero (villain??) narratives and his fanbase is generally super annoying to me because they claim to like him “as a villain” but then jump through hoops to talk about why he’s “just misunderstood” or “totally a badass”.

So why am I writing my thesis about him?Read More »

“Fandom is supposed to be fun.”

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#makefandomfunagain

Some variation on the phrase “fandom is supposed to be fun” gets spouted like clockwork every single time that people of color in fandom try to talk about the way that fan spaces – predominantly slash fandom spaces – are frequently inhospitable to fans of color seeking more representation in their fan communities and downright disrespectful to characters of color in these slash-heavy fandoms.

Try talking about the way that characters of color are treated across the board in slash-filled fandom spaces sometime.

Try pointing out that while you like slash and have ID’d as a slasher for well over half of your life, sometimes it’d just be nice if characters that look like you weren’t either ignored or portrayed via racist stereotypes in slash fandom.

Try tagging any commentary that even remotely attempts to be critical of the reasons behind why fandom ships the ships they do.

Try it.

I dare you.

Watch how quickly a space that keeps being touted as a safe one for women quickly becomes unsafe. Watch how quickly your fellow fans treat you like an outsider and ignore any validity in your words because people like you are taking the fun out of fandom.

I agree with the basic sentiment, that fandom is supposed to be fun.

But I just wish that it actually was fun.

For everyone.

As a result of things I’ve seen and experiences I’ve had, I always find myself wondering: who’s fandom supposed to be fun for and why isn’t it fun for everyone?

Even the chilliest of observations of fandom that count as “fandom critical” are frequently met with rude and violent comments in our inboxes, snark from other people of color who just want to fit in, and people talking smack like it’s something they’re getting paid to do.

To point out that there is racism in fandom and that fandom does need to try a little harder to make its spaces more welcoming to people of color of all kinds is to wind up subjected to dehumanization from your fellow fans because the first rule of fandom apparently is “don’t mess up anyone’s fun or else”.

Why is it that our fellow fans constantly rant and rave about how they long for the “good ole days” of fandom and strive to #makefandomfunagain with some of the same dehumanizing tactics and language that certain political figures have used to refer to people of color and anti-racist activists offline.

Why is it that our fellow fans have decided that the main thing that makes fandom “un-fun” is other people being critical of it in any way?

Oh! And if you’re wondering what constitutes “un-fun” in fandom well… here’s a checklist for you:

  • Talking about race in fandom? Un-fun.
  • Talking about racism in fandom? Un-fun.
  • Pointing out that slash fandom spaces/fans constantly center white dudes? Un-fun.
  • Writing about characters of color with fandom’s favorite white dude? Un-fun.
  • Being vocally and visibly both a person of color and socially aware (or “woke”) in fandom? Un-fun.

Essentially, if you’re a person of color in fandom spaces (any kind of fandom space, true, but primarily slash-filled fandom spaces), by asking your fellow fans to respect and acknowledge what it means to be a person of color in fandom and what it means to like characters of color in fandom, you’re not fun…

And you apparently don’t deserve to have any fun in fandom as a result.

 

[Book Review] Gluttony Bay (A Sin du Jour Affair #6) by Matt Wallace

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Title: Gluttony Bay (A Sin du Jour Affair #6)
Authors: Matt Wallace (Twitter)
Rating: So Funny I’m Gonna Die, So Highly Freaking Recommended
Genre/Category: Politics, Urban Fantasy, Supernatural, Food, Cannibalism
Release Date: November 7, 2017

Publisher: Tor.Com Publishing

Order Here: BARNES AND NOBLE | AMAZON (KINDLE)

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I’ve been doing drunk reviews of Matt Wallace’s Sin du Jour series from the start because well…

I like drinking.

I also do it because I want to and it’s fun.

I started Gluttony Bay, the penultimate book in the series, while sober. I made it to the end of the first chapter before I straight up needed liquid courage to tackle this book. (If you’re wondering, I went with a rum-vodka-juice mix in my Homecoming glass.)

Matt’s one of my favorite authors and people. He’s writer goals to the nth power. He’s one of like five authors I feel comfortable talking to in my reviews (and then showing them to him afterwards). He’s cool as hell.

But man… Gluttony Bay had me all kinds of fucked up.Read More »

[Book Review] Citywide (Five Buroughs #5a) by Santino Hassell

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Citywide_cover

You can purchase Citywide from Amazon or directly from Riptide Publishing.

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Santino Hassell’s Citywide is basically EVERYTHING to me.

From the second that he announced the title, I was prepared to go into full-squee mode. I love Hassell’s Five Buroughs series to the point where I wrote a grad seminar paper on Sunset Boulevard because I loved the way the narrative used “space” in the text.

I fan-Stitch over him on the regular.

And Citywide continues to validate my love of his writing thanks to three fantastic stories and the way that he fleshes out Queens crew (characters that are friends with the Rodriguez brothers from the first two books of the series) on their way to Happily Ever Afters.Read More »

The Consort – Chapter One

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THE CONSORT

After hearing the seer’s message, Iirin finds himself struggling to come to terms with the fact that he’ll soon be leaving the only place that he’s ever called home. Despite how he’s been mistreated in the temple-orphanage because he isn’t a typical demon, the idea of leaving still stings.

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Despite owning only a few worn items of clothes and several toys and books from his youth, Iirin was determined to make packing for his new future drag on as long as possible. He lingered over every single step of the process, drifting around his tiny room in the temple-orphanage’s rickety attic and packing at a snail’s paces.

As one of the left behind children in Akkadia’s capitol city, Iirin had precious few possessions to start with and as an older former-foundling, he has had to hide most of them in various places around his room lest Matron take the opportunity to requisition even more of his things.

After opening his wardrobe to pull a faded green tunic out of its dark depths, he let his fingers brush over a tiny ceremonial robe with purple and silver stitching creating wondrous patterns across the soft white fabric. It was the only thing that Iirin had left to remind him of his parents.

Not that there was very much to remember.

“Why I kept that silly thing, I don’t know,” Iirin mused aloud, gaze lingering on the robe he had been dressed in when his parents had left him in a basket at the temple steps twenty years before. He had only been a few hours old, but his parents had at least done that much for him.

From what Iirin had gleaned over the years, they never seemed to regret their choice. They never registered him at the midwife halls or even left an offering under the name they gave him at Dorna’s temple to make penance.

“Maybe I should get rid of it.” Iirin muttered, eyeing the tiny robe with a frown on his face. “It isn’t like I need another reminder of how little I’m wanted.”

Iirin frowned even harder a moment later when he caught a glimpse of his reflection in the dented silver shard mirror propped up next to his wardrobe.

Most of the time, Iirin didn’t mind looking at himself.

He liked looking at the way that his white hair brought out the shimmering silver-green sheen of his eyes and made his skin appear to be an even darker shade of brown. He liked his gangly tallness, the way that he always stood out in a crowd. He even, occasionally, didn’t even mind the fact that much of his body was covered in intricate markings that mystified all of the many healers that Matron had taken him to as a child.

Unfortunately, few people that Iirin had met over the years felt the same.

Iirin was hornless, fangless. A veritable sheep amongst the predators that trickled in and out of the god quarter. Sometimes, he wondered if that was why his parents had chosen to give him up instead of raising him themselves.Read More »