Recently, as those of you who read this blog regularly will be aware, I have been on something of a numbered list kick. So far we've had numbered lists of French films, LGBT+ webcomics, and gay songs. Today, I'm going to combine this trend with a little reflection, by listing the 5 best pieces of media I spent my time consuming during lockdown. This will most likely be shortly followed by a list of their five worst counterparts, but I'm trying to start on a positive note.
The ways in which most of us spent our COVID-19 lockdown (or confinement, as it was known here in France) varied from person to person. Some of us were supremely productive, some us took a well earned rest, and some of us spent that time consuming massive amounts of media. I was a member of the latter category. So, in this post I'm going to go over the five best pieces of media I spent time on during lockdown and tell you why they were worthy of that time. Ratings of time well-spent will be established through bread, for obvious reasons.
5. Jackbox 3
This is a pack of five one-screen video games designed to be played with friends, four of which it turns out can be played very well through Zoom or Skype. I spent several evenings having a great time playing these with friends during long-distance, video call game nights. Quiplash 2, which is basically a better and funnier version of Cards Against Humanity, is my stand-out favourite, but the other games were fun too.
Rating: three bread loaves
4. Contagion (2011)
Someone told me to watch this movie because it was meant to be eerily predictive of the COVID-19 pandemic. It turns out they were right, to the extent that I spent every five minutes of the film going "oh my god, oh my god, oh my god" and praying that things didn't get as bad in real life as they did in the movie. Despite causing slight panic, overall it was an enjoyable film and actually made me feel oddly calm about our impending doom.
Rating: a delicious grilled cheese sandwich
3. Don't Starve Together
The multiplayer spin-off of survival game Don't Starve, this game entertained me and my friends for almost 70 hours during lockdown, which I am simultaneously proud and ashamed of. It kept me occupied and helped me stay in touch with my friends, so in that sense it was probably good for me. I will also never forget the high of finally managing to capture a beefalo.
Rating: two croissants with butter and jam
2. Severance by Ling Ma
I mentioned this book in a previous post, so I won't talk about it much here... okay, that's all I have to say. Go read the other post if you want to know more.
Rating: a veggie wrap, delivered by courier
1. Middleditch and Schwartz
This was, without a doubt, one of the highlights of lockdown for me. I wouldn't normally consider myself a fan of improv comedy, largely because I find a lot of it quite cringey, but these three improvised specials made me laugh more than I had in weeks. Thomas Middleditch and Ben Schwartz are so naturally funny and their chemistry is so brilliant, it's a joy to watch them perform.
Rating: a fresh, crispy baguette
Thursday 30 July 2020
Tuesday 28 July 2020
12 Songs About Gay Yearning (That Aren't by Taylor Swift)
Roughly a year ago, I got annoyed about Taylor Swift's release of a song called "You Need to Calm Down", which was being presented as something of a gay anthem at the time despite Swift being straight. I channelled this irritation into making a blog post listing five gay anthems performed by LGBT+ artists to listen to instead. Back then, I thought that was the probably last post I'd ever make about Taylor Swift - it turns out I was wrong.
Recently, my social media feeds have been filled with people discussing Swift's new song "Betty", which apparently can be generously interpreted as a queer love song. I'm holding myself back from going into a full-blown rant about why I think this is not the case (although I would happily do so in a later post if people are interested), because the song itself is not what I want to focus on here.
I've mentioned before that LGBT+ representation created by and for LGBT+ people is very important to me, and the release of "Betty" struck me as the perfect time to recommend some songs which might hold similar appeal to queer listeners (specifically in that they focus on gay yearning, a feeling many of us queers know all too well). The only difference is, these songs are actually by queer artists.
With all of that in mind, I compiled a playlist of twelve songs about gay yearning, all (with the exception of one, which I will explain later) performed by openly queer artists. By all means, continue to listen to Taylor Swift and "Betty", but consider also giving these songs a chance. You might just find your next great anthem for queer longing among them.
I've listed the songs below with embedded links to their YouTube recordings, or you can scroll to the bottom of this post for the Spotify playlist I've made. Happy listening!
"Jenny" - Studio Killers*
My research for this post has led me to conclude that, for many a queer, yearning = being tragically in love with your best friend. Despite its catchy techno beats, lyrically "Jenny" is about just such a situation. Besides the original Studio Killers version, I would also highly recommend the heartbreaking Lily Sevin cover, which turns the song into a ballad.
Lyric of peak yearning: "I wanna ruin our friendship / We should be lovers instead"
"i wanna be your girlfriend" - Girl in Red
Of course the artist who is so gay that "do you listen to Girl in Red?" has become code for "are you gay?" would have done a song about the being-in-love-with-your-best-friend experience. "i wanna be your girlfriend" is about the singer's longing for their friend named Hanna, and it includes an iconic line which I can't include here in order to keep this post safe for work - you'll just have to listen to the song to find out what it is.
Lyric of peak yearning: "I don't wanna be your friend, I wanna kiss your lips"
Sleepover - Hayley Kiyoko
Another song about being in love with your friend - it's amusingly sad how common an experience this is for all of us. I'm starting to think that Hayley Kiyoko has made it her mission to write a song for every quintessential queer experience, from coming out ("Girls Like Girls") to not being sure if a girl is interested in you romantically or just physically ("Curious"). Either way, "Sleepover" is her take on the unrequited-best-friend-love trope.
Lyric of peak yearning: "Sleeping here right next to me / But will you ever mess with me? No / But at least I got you in my head"
Cherry - Rina Sawayama
Unlike the previous songs, this one isn't about unrequited feelings for a friend (at least not explicitly). Rather, it's about finally facing up to your feelings for a girl and wondering if you can make the leap into that becoming a relationship. While I've included the original version on the playlist, Sawayama's piano version is definitely worth a listen as well.
Lyric of peak yearning: "Holding on to feelings / I'm not used to feeling / 'Cause, oh, they make me feel alive"
Boys Aside - Sofya Wang
Not only is this a great song about wanting to steal a girl away from the boys who want her attention, it also has a music video which is pure aesthetic goals. It's pastel, pink, and has an adorably tiny kitten in it. I'm not sure what else you could want.
Lyric of peak yearning: "I wanted you to be my baby girl tonight / And all the other boys could just say goodbye"
Flowers for Anna - Ames
This song has a smooth, dreamy sound that I really enjoy. The lyrics in "Flowers for Anna" are a bit harder to decipher than some of the other songs on this list, at least to me, but that just makes it more fascinating. It's also something of a hidden gem, with under 20,000 views on YouTube.
Lyric of peak yearning: "I've always been the weirdo / With flowers in my hands for Anna / Her little brother who liked me / I'd pretend he was her"
Girl - The Internet (ft. KAYTRANADA)
I wouldn't normally use words like "sultry" to describe a song, but this one fits the description perfectly. There is still a hint of uncertainty in the lyrics, though, when the singer tries to persuade the girl she likes that they should be together.
Lyric of peak yearning: "If I told you that you rock my world, I want you around me / Would you let me call you my girl, my girlfriend, my girlfriend?"
She - Dodie
This song goes back to the first step in many a gay journey, when you struggle to recognise your feelings for a girl and/or if it's even okay to have them. It's a little sad, but it's also tender and relatable.
Lyric of peak yearning: "I'd never tell / No, I'd never say a word / And oh, it aches / But it feels oddly good to hurt"
Pretty Girl - Clairo
Not all songs about yearning focus on a positive relationship, or even aspiring to one. "Pretty Girl" is about wanting someone so badly that you'd change yourself to be with them. It may be the negative side of the emotion, but it's yearning nonetheless.
Lyric of peak yearning: "It's getting harder to understand, to understand / How you felt in my hands, in my hands"
She's so Lovely - The Butchies
No, this isn't the Scouting for Girls song. This "She's so Lovely" is by The Butchies, a queercore band from America. Lyrically, it's about the ecstatic, urgent longing for a person you have a crush on.
Lyric of peak yearning: "She's a rocker dressed like a killer / She's got lips like wine not sugar / I'm running running into timing / Got a watch it's stuck in shining"
Bestie - Sizzy Rocket
You thought we'd reach the end of the list without another song about liking your best friend? I'm afraid not, my dear reader. This song focuses on the more physical side of things, and I should say that it's definitely not safe for work in terms of lyrics.
Lyric of peak yearning: "I wonder what, what, what does she want / What, what, what does she want"
What's It Gonna Be? - Shura
It may or may not be about a best friend, but either way this song is about having feelings for a person and not being sure whether to tell them. The music video is also a cute story of romance and friendships that takes on the archetypes of "The Jock, The Nerd, The Dork, The Popular Kid" - but with a queer twist, of course.
Lyric of peak yearning: "Do I tell you I love you or not? / Cause I can't really guess what you want / If you let me down, let me down slow"
*In terms of queerness, Studio Killers is a grey area because they're actually a virtual band, and I can find little-to-no information on the real-life artists behind the characters. However, it seems that the band's lead singer avatar, Cherry, is pansexual, so we'll just say this counts.
Recently, my social media feeds have been filled with people discussing Swift's new song "Betty", which apparently can be generously interpreted as a queer love song. I'm holding myself back from going into a full-blown rant about why I think this is not the case (although I would happily do so in a later post if people are interested), because the song itself is not what I want to focus on here.
I've mentioned before that LGBT+ representation created by and for LGBT+ people is very important to me, and the release of "Betty" struck me as the perfect time to recommend some songs which might hold similar appeal to queer listeners (specifically in that they focus on gay yearning, a feeling many of us queers know all too well). The only difference is, these songs are actually by queer artists.
With all of that in mind, I compiled a playlist of twelve songs about gay yearning, all (with the exception of one, which I will explain later) performed by openly queer artists. By all means, continue to listen to Taylor Swift and "Betty", but consider also giving these songs a chance. You might just find your next great anthem for queer longing among them.
I've listed the songs below with embedded links to their YouTube recordings, or you can scroll to the bottom of this post for the Spotify playlist I've made. Happy listening!
"Jenny" - Studio Killers*
My research for this post has led me to conclude that, for many a queer, yearning = being tragically in love with your best friend. Despite its catchy techno beats, lyrically "Jenny" is about just such a situation. Besides the original Studio Killers version, I would also highly recommend the heartbreaking Lily Sevin cover, which turns the song into a ballad.
Lyric of peak yearning: "I wanna ruin our friendship / We should be lovers instead"
"i wanna be your girlfriend" - Girl in Red
Of course the artist who is so gay that "do you listen to Girl in Red?" has become code for "are you gay?" would have done a song about the being-in-love-with-your-best-friend experience. "i wanna be your girlfriend" is about the singer's longing for their friend named Hanna, and it includes an iconic line which I can't include here in order to keep this post safe for work - you'll just have to listen to the song to find out what it is.
Lyric of peak yearning: "I don't wanna be your friend, I wanna kiss your lips"
Sleepover - Hayley Kiyoko
Another song about being in love with your friend - it's amusingly sad how common an experience this is for all of us. I'm starting to think that Hayley Kiyoko has made it her mission to write a song for every quintessential queer experience, from coming out ("Girls Like Girls") to not being sure if a girl is interested in you romantically or just physically ("Curious"). Either way, "Sleepover" is her take on the unrequited-best-friend-love trope.
Lyric of peak yearning: "Sleeping here right next to me / But will you ever mess with me? No / But at least I got you in my head"
Cherry - Rina Sawayama
Unlike the previous songs, this one isn't about unrequited feelings for a friend (at least not explicitly). Rather, it's about finally facing up to your feelings for a girl and wondering if you can make the leap into that becoming a relationship. While I've included the original version on the playlist, Sawayama's piano version is definitely worth a listen as well.
Lyric of peak yearning: "Holding on to feelings / I'm not used to feeling / 'Cause, oh, they make me feel alive"
Boys Aside - Sofya Wang
Not only is this a great song about wanting to steal a girl away from the boys who want her attention, it also has a music video which is pure aesthetic goals. It's pastel, pink, and has an adorably tiny kitten in it. I'm not sure what else you could want.
Lyric of peak yearning: "I wanted you to be my baby girl tonight / And all the other boys could just say goodbye"
Flowers for Anna - Ames
This song has a smooth, dreamy sound that I really enjoy. The lyrics in "Flowers for Anna" are a bit harder to decipher than some of the other songs on this list, at least to me, but that just makes it more fascinating. It's also something of a hidden gem, with under 20,000 views on YouTube.
Lyric of peak yearning: "I've always been the weirdo / With flowers in my hands for Anna / Her little brother who liked me / I'd pretend he was her"
Girl - The Internet (ft. KAYTRANADA)
I wouldn't normally use words like "sultry" to describe a song, but this one fits the description perfectly. There is still a hint of uncertainty in the lyrics, though, when the singer tries to persuade the girl she likes that they should be together.
Lyric of peak yearning: "If I told you that you rock my world, I want you around me / Would you let me call you my girl, my girlfriend, my girlfriend?"
She - Dodie
This song goes back to the first step in many a gay journey, when you struggle to recognise your feelings for a girl and/or if it's even okay to have them. It's a little sad, but it's also tender and relatable.
Lyric of peak yearning: "I'd never tell / No, I'd never say a word / And oh, it aches / But it feels oddly good to hurt"
Pretty Girl - Clairo
Not all songs about yearning focus on a positive relationship, or even aspiring to one. "Pretty Girl" is about wanting someone so badly that you'd change yourself to be with them. It may be the negative side of the emotion, but it's yearning nonetheless.
Lyric of peak yearning: "It's getting harder to understand, to understand / How you felt in my hands, in my hands"
She's so Lovely - The Butchies
No, this isn't the Scouting for Girls song. This "She's so Lovely" is by The Butchies, a queercore band from America. Lyrically, it's about the ecstatic, urgent longing for a person you have a crush on.
Lyric of peak yearning: "She's a rocker dressed like a killer / She's got lips like wine not sugar / I'm running running into timing / Got a watch it's stuck in shining"
Bestie - Sizzy Rocket
You thought we'd reach the end of the list without another song about liking your best friend? I'm afraid not, my dear reader. This song focuses on the more physical side of things, and I should say that it's definitely not safe for work in terms of lyrics.
Lyric of peak yearning: "I wonder what, what, what does she want / What, what, what does she want"
What's It Gonna Be? - Shura
It may or may not be about a best friend, but either way this song is about having feelings for a person and not being sure whether to tell them. The music video is also a cute story of romance and friendships that takes on the archetypes of "The Jock, The Nerd, The Dork, The Popular Kid" - but with a queer twist, of course.
Lyric of peak yearning: "Do I tell you I love you or not? / Cause I can't really guess what you want / If you let me down, let me down slow"
*In terms of queerness, Studio Killers is a grey area because they're actually a virtual band, and I can find little-to-no information on the real-life artists behind the characters. However, it seems that the band's lead singer avatar, Cherry, is pansexual, so we'll just say this counts.
Sunday 26 July 2020
5 LGBT+ Webcomics to Read Online Today
Most of you reading this post should be aware by now that I am a big fan of LGBT+ representation in media. I especially love media with LGBT+ people as the main characters, and what I adore with all my heart is when you have such media that not only stars LGBT+ but is created by LGBT+ people too!
Finding stories which fit this description can be a challenge, since queer and trans narratives are hard to find in mainstream media, let alone narratives written by people from our community rather than seen through a cishet lens. Thankfully, one area in which I've found a number of queer creators creating equally queer content has been webcomics.
For the uninitiated, webcomics are comics that are primarily, if not exclusively, published online. I like webcomics, and as you know I love LGBT+ content, so I thought I'd share with you five of my favourites. All of these prominently feature LGBT+ characters and are made by members of the community.
Just one note: some of these comics are not fully available online as they've now been turned into published, physical comics (hurray for queer success!). As frustrating as it is to have to stop a story partway through, I hope if you enjoy any of these you might feel inclined to buy the full book and help to support real-life queer creators who are giving us the representation we need. Anyway, on with the list!
The Tea Dragon Society by Katie O'Neill
When I first heard about The Tea Dragon Society, I thought perhaps I had stepped into an alternate reality where all my dream stories actually existed. The plot of this webcomic surrounds two girls who are introduced to the world of tea dragons - tiny dragons which produce tea! There's also friendship, queerness, and adorable little creatures (not just the dragons), all illustrated beautifully in light and natural tones. To top it all off, it's completely family friendly, so even young LGBT+ readers can enjoy it. If you like tea, cute things, or the idea of running off to live in a cottage with your girlfriend and your pack of animals, I highly recommend you read The Tea Dragon Society.
Status: complete, fully available online
Cosmoknights by Hannah Templer
Full of action and intergalactic adventure, Cosmoknights is about a band of misfits who roam space, rescuing princesses and being gay. The artwork is breathtakingly gorgeous and really gives a sense of the awe and excitement that the main character, Pan, no doubt feels when she takes off on her first outerspace adventure. This story has gladiators, strong women, futuristic space worlds, and a plot to take down the patriarchy. It also has one of my biggest fictional crushes at the moment, Cass (｡♥‿♥｡). Plus, I once tweeted about Cosmoknights and Hannah Templer literally replied to my tweet to say thank you, so how could you not want to support comics by a person as lovely as that?
Status: complete, partially available online
High Class Homos by momozerii
This is a newer comic for me, which I discovered through the webcomic platform Webtoons. I'd been sceptical about Webtoons ever since the Zuckerbot's hellsite started bombarding me with adverts for it, but once I started reading High Class Homos, all of my concerns about targeted advertising flew out the window and were replaced with love for this group of chaotic gays. High Class Homos, which arguably has the best title of all of these webcomics, follows a lesbian princess and a gay prince who decide to enter a lavender marriage with each other so they can keep being gay in secret. But even if those two give the series the "high class" part of its name, they are hardly the only homos. The story also includes their network of friends and love interests, most of whom are LGBT+ in some shape or form. While the setting is medieval and homophobia drives a good part of the plot, this webcomic is also incredibly funny. If you wish you could have a Disney princess story that also includes queer friendship and plenty of comedy, I would like to point you in the direction of High Class Homos.
Status: currently updating
(Note: I couldn't find a good photo of a "cover" for High Class Homos, so here is a poorly-embedded picture of Princess Sapphia that was posted on momozerii's Instagram)
Nimona by Noelle Stevenson
You might know Noelle Stevenson as the creator of the new She-Ra and the Princesses of Power TV series or possibly her Lumberjanes comics (both of which are very popular among the LGBT+ crowd, for good reason), but before either of those, I knew of her as the creator of Nimona. The eponymous main character of Nimona is a young shapeshifter and generally chaotic miscreant. One day she turns up at the door of supervillain Lord Ballister Blackheart and demands to be his sidekick, to which Ballister reluctantly agrees. As the story goes on, we get to see Nimona and Ballister's relationship develop, as well as learning more about Ballister's history with his nemesis Ambrosius Goldenloin. It's a funny, action-filled, and emotional story about acceptance and found family in a magical steampunk world. Looking back on Nimona now, it's especially cool to see how Stevenson's art style develops over the course of the series, and it's inspiring to know she has gone on to such success while still telling queer stories.
Status: complete, partially available online
Pandora's Tale by Xanthippe Hutcheon
Most of the stories I've mentioned so far have involved one of my favourite tropes (and one which I think is especially meaningful to LGBT+ folk), the ragtag bunch of misfits. Pandora's Tale is no exception, but in this webcomic's case, the main bunch of misfits has an added layer of coolness: they are also a branch of a resistance movement operating underground in a dystopian society. The titular character of the story, and the newest member of this band, is Pandora. She is a "helper", which is basically a mentally-programmed slave created to serve the upper classes of the society she is born into. After the people who train the helpers find out she is a trans girl, she escapes and ends up being adopted by the aforementioned resistance sect, including her new best friend, resistance member Isabelle. This is a story about dystopia and defiance that is also about identity and friendship, and it's also incredibly cute. I'd venture to say Pandora's Tale is less well known than the other webcomics on this list, but it is just as queer and endearing.
Status: currently updating
There you have it! Those are my top 5 LGBT+ webcomics. These are hardly the only ones out there, and I will admit that my choices are heavily influenced by my own preferences, both artistic and romantic. While most of these do include representation for other LGBT+ groups, most of these do clearly focus on relationships between women. If anyone else has any recommendations for LGBT+ comics that represent any other letters of the acronym, I would love to hear them.
I think that while mainstream representation is important, as a community we should also make a greater effort to support media that is created by and for LGBT+ people. We don't need to beg for scraps from the likes of Disney, Star Wars, and other media giants when fellow queer and trans folk are making the gay princess, trans space gladiator, queer tea dragon stories of our dreams. Let's try and support each other, in stories and beyond.
Finding stories which fit this description can be a challenge, since queer and trans narratives are hard to find in mainstream media, let alone narratives written by people from our community rather than seen through a cishet lens. Thankfully, one area in which I've found a number of queer creators creating equally queer content has been webcomics.
For the uninitiated, webcomics are comics that are primarily, if not exclusively, published online. I like webcomics, and as you know I love LGBT+ content, so I thought I'd share with you five of my favourites. All of these prominently feature LGBT+ characters and are made by members of the community.
Just one note: some of these comics are not fully available online as they've now been turned into published, physical comics (hurray for queer success!). As frustrating as it is to have to stop a story partway through, I hope if you enjoy any of these you might feel inclined to buy the full book and help to support real-life queer creators who are giving us the representation we need. Anyway, on with the list!
The Tea Dragon Society by Katie O'Neill
When I first heard about The Tea Dragon Society, I thought perhaps I had stepped into an alternate reality where all my dream stories actually existed. The plot of this webcomic surrounds two girls who are introduced to the world of tea dragons - tiny dragons which produce tea! There's also friendship, queerness, and adorable little creatures (not just the dragons), all illustrated beautifully in light and natural tones. To top it all off, it's completely family friendly, so even young LGBT+ readers can enjoy it. If you like tea, cute things, or the idea of running off to live in a cottage with your girlfriend and your pack of animals, I highly recommend you read The Tea Dragon Society.
Status: complete, fully available online
Cosmoknights by Hannah Templer
Full of action and intergalactic adventure, Cosmoknights is about a band of misfits who roam space, rescuing princesses and being gay. The artwork is breathtakingly gorgeous and really gives a sense of the awe and excitement that the main character, Pan, no doubt feels when she takes off on her first outerspace adventure. This story has gladiators, strong women, futuristic space worlds, and a plot to take down the patriarchy. It also has one of my biggest fictional crushes at the moment, Cass (｡♥‿♥｡). Plus, I once tweeted about Cosmoknights and Hannah Templer literally replied to my tweet to say thank you, so how could you not want to support comics by a person as lovely as that?
Status: complete, partially available online
High Class Homos by momozerii
This is a newer comic for me, which I discovered through the webcomic platform Webtoons. I'd been sceptical about Webtoons ever since the Zuckerbot's hellsite started bombarding me with adverts for it, but once I started reading High Class Homos, all of my concerns about targeted advertising flew out the window and were replaced with love for this group of chaotic gays. High Class Homos, which arguably has the best title of all of these webcomics, follows a lesbian princess and a gay prince who decide to enter a lavender marriage with each other so they can keep being gay in secret. But even if those two give the series the "high class" part of its name, they are hardly the only homos. The story also includes their network of friends and love interests, most of whom are LGBT+ in some shape or form. While the setting is medieval and homophobia drives a good part of the plot, this webcomic is also incredibly funny. If you wish you could have a Disney princess story that also includes queer friendship and plenty of comedy, I would like to point you in the direction of High Class Homos.
Status: currently updating
(Note: I couldn't find a good photo of a "cover" for High Class Homos, so here is a poorly-embedded picture of Princess Sapphia that was posted on momozerii's Instagram)
Nimona by Noelle Stevenson
You might know Noelle Stevenson as the creator of the new She-Ra and the Princesses of Power TV series or possibly her Lumberjanes comics (both of which are very popular among the LGBT+ crowd, for good reason), but before either of those, I knew of her as the creator of Nimona. The eponymous main character of Nimona is a young shapeshifter and generally chaotic miscreant. One day she turns up at the door of supervillain Lord Ballister Blackheart and demands to be his sidekick, to which Ballister reluctantly agrees. As the story goes on, we get to see Nimona and Ballister's relationship develop, as well as learning more about Ballister's history with his nemesis Ambrosius Goldenloin. It's a funny, action-filled, and emotional story about acceptance and found family in a magical steampunk world. Looking back on Nimona now, it's especially cool to see how Stevenson's art style develops over the course of the series, and it's inspiring to know she has gone on to such success while still telling queer stories.
Status: complete, partially available online
Pandora's Tale by Xanthippe Hutcheon
Most of the stories I've mentioned so far have involved one of my favourite tropes (and one which I think is especially meaningful to LGBT+ folk), the ragtag bunch of misfits. Pandora's Tale is no exception, but in this webcomic's case, the main bunch of misfits has an added layer of coolness: they are also a branch of a resistance movement operating underground in a dystopian society. The titular character of the story, and the newest member of this band, is Pandora. She is a "helper", which is basically a mentally-programmed slave created to serve the upper classes of the society she is born into. After the people who train the helpers find out she is a trans girl, she escapes and ends up being adopted by the aforementioned resistance sect, including her new best friend, resistance member Isabelle. This is a story about dystopia and defiance that is also about identity and friendship, and it's also incredibly cute. I'd venture to say Pandora's Tale is less well known than the other webcomics on this list, but it is just as queer and endearing.
Status: currently updating
There you have it! Those are my top 5 LGBT+ webcomics. These are hardly the only ones out there, and I will admit that my choices are heavily influenced by my own preferences, both artistic and romantic. While most of these do include representation for other LGBT+ groups, most of these do clearly focus on relationships between women. If anyone else has any recommendations for LGBT+ comics that represent any other letters of the acronym, I would love to hear them.
I think that while mainstream representation is important, as a community we should also make a greater effort to support media that is created by and for LGBT+ people. We don't need to beg for scraps from the likes of Disney, Star Wars, and other media giants when fellow queer and trans folk are making the gay princess, trans space gladiator, queer tea dragon stories of our dreams. Let's try and support each other, in stories and beyond.
Tuesday 14 July 2020
5 French Films to Celebrate Bastille Day
Happy Bastille Day! Or bonne fête nationale - I haven't quite figured out which is the traditional celebratory phrase yet.
Regardless of the exact words we use to express our recognition of it, today remains an important occasion here in in France. The 14th July marks the anniversary of the storming of the Bastille back in 1789, when French revolutionaries overwhelmed the Parisian fortress, which had historically been used as a state prison. Although the Bastille somewhat infamously housed only a handful of prisoners at the time of its takeover, it still held great symbolic importance. From a historical perspective, the storming of the Bastille is widely recognised as a huge turning point for the French revolution.
Fittingly, today the 14th July is a bank holiday and the official national day of France, celebrated with military parades, aerobatic flyovers, and fireworks. However, if you're not able to celebrate Bastille Day with such fanfare (or perhaps, like me, you'd rather stay home to avoid the crowds), there are other ways mark the occasion. One such way to celebrate is by enjoying the plethora of art and media which French creators have brought into the world, including.... films!
So, to help you and I celebrate Bastille Day from the comfort of our own homes, I have compiled a list of 5 movies from a variety of periods, directors, and genres, but all with one thing in common: they are all 100% French.
1. Amélie (2001)
(Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amélie Poulain)
What's it about? Directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet and starring Audrey Tautou, Amélie follows a charmingly unconventional but lonely Parisian woman who tries to secretly better the lives of the people around her.
Why should you watch it? Amélie is possibly one of the most well-known, critically-acclaimed, and iconic French films outside of France, and for good reason. It plays out like a modern fairy tale, with Paris as its whimsical backdrop. Audrey Tautou gives an understated yet endearing performance as the titular character, while the heartfelt story is underscored with a beautiful soundtrack by composer Yann Tiersen.
Where can you find it? It is available to rent on Amazon or Google Play.
2. Bande à part (1964)
What's it about? In this classic French New Wave film directed by Jean-Luc Godard, three young people plan to stage a robbery - but things don't quite go to plan.
Why should you watch it? If nothing else, Bande à part is worth watching purely for the famous "Madison" dance, which has inspired dozens of copycat scenes in later films. It also features Anna Karina in one of her famous '60s roles, and she is as magnetic a presence onscreen here as ever. Even when they are making morally dubious decisions or stretching the limits of conventional behaviour (like running through the Louvre to beat a world record), there's something hypnotic about watching Karina and her costars go about their ill-conceived mission.
Where can you find it? It is available to stream on BFI Player or Amazon Prime with a subscription (or a free trial).
3. Diplomacy (2014)
(Diplomatie)
What's it about? Set during the Nazi occupation of Paris during World War II, this historical drama focuses on the relationship between two officials on opposing sides of the conflict who must reach a diplomatic agreement to protect both the city and themselves from German forces.
Why should you watch it? Being based on a play by French writer Cyril Gely, Diplomacy takes a global conflict and puts it on a personal scale, with the bulk of the drama confined within the office where the two main characters have their high-stakes debate. It could have been a recipe for boredom, but the performances of André Dussollier and Niels Arestrup combine with a smart and touching script to make this movie a fascinating watch.
Where can you find it? It is available to rent on Google Play, although potentially without English subtitles.
4. Nocturama (2016)
What's it about? In this unsettling thriller, a group of young people stage a series of terrorist attacks in various locations around Paris, before hiding out in an empty department store overnight.
Why should you watch it? If the previous films on this list sounded a bit too optimistic for you, Nocturama could be the darker, more cynical antidote you're looking for. It makes for a tense but intriguing watch, and it provides a slightly less rose-tinted look at Paris than you might be used to seeing. The scenes at the start of the film, when numerous characters travel around the city on the metro, are among the most realistic depictions of Paris I've seen on screen.
Where can you find it? It is available to stream on Netflix.
5. I Am Not An Easy Man (2018)
(Je ne suis pas un homme facile)
What's it about? Based on the short film Majorité Opprimée (by the same director, Éléonore Pourriat), this romantic comedy follows a male chauvinist who hits his head and wakes up in an alternate reality where gender roles are reversed.
Why should you watch it? Like Nocturama, I Am Not an Easy Man shines a light on one of the more negative but less talked about aspects of modern French society: sexism. While one might expect a serious tone from a film which tackles issues ranging from beauty double standards to workplace sexual harassment, this movie manages to maintain a sense of levity throughout. Whether you are looking for a romantic comedy or a wry takedown of French patriarchy, this might be the film for you.
Where can you find it? It is available to stream on Netflix.
Regardless of the exact words we use to express our recognition of it, today remains an important occasion here in in France. The 14th July marks the anniversary of the storming of the Bastille back in 1789, when French revolutionaries overwhelmed the Parisian fortress, which had historically been used as a state prison. Although the Bastille somewhat infamously housed only a handful of prisoners at the time of its takeover, it still held great symbolic importance. From a historical perspective, the storming of the Bastille is widely recognised as a huge turning point for the French revolution.
Fittingly, today the 14th July is a bank holiday and the official national day of France, celebrated with military parades, aerobatic flyovers, and fireworks. However, if you're not able to celebrate Bastille Day with such fanfare (or perhaps, like me, you'd rather stay home to avoid the crowds), there are other ways mark the occasion. One such way to celebrate is by enjoying the plethora of art and media which French creators have brought into the world, including.... films!
So, to help you and I celebrate Bastille Day from the comfort of our own homes, I have compiled a list of 5 movies from a variety of periods, directors, and genres, but all with one thing in common: they are all 100% French.
1. Amélie (2001)
(Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amélie Poulain)
What's it about? Directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet and starring Audrey Tautou, Amélie follows a charmingly unconventional but lonely Parisian woman who tries to secretly better the lives of the people around her.
Why should you watch it? Amélie is possibly one of the most well-known, critically-acclaimed, and iconic French films outside of France, and for good reason. It plays out like a modern fairy tale, with Paris as its whimsical backdrop. Audrey Tautou gives an understated yet endearing performance as the titular character, while the heartfelt story is underscored with a beautiful soundtrack by composer Yann Tiersen.
Where can you find it? It is available to rent on Amazon or Google Play.
2. Bande à part (1964)
What's it about? In this classic French New Wave film directed by Jean-Luc Godard, three young people plan to stage a robbery - but things don't quite go to plan.
Why should you watch it? If nothing else, Bande à part is worth watching purely for the famous "Madison" dance, which has inspired dozens of copycat scenes in later films. It also features Anna Karina in one of her famous '60s roles, and she is as magnetic a presence onscreen here as ever. Even when they are making morally dubious decisions or stretching the limits of conventional behaviour (like running through the Louvre to beat a world record), there's something hypnotic about watching Karina and her costars go about their ill-conceived mission.
Where can you find it? It is available to stream on BFI Player or Amazon Prime with a subscription (or a free trial).
3. Diplomacy (2014)
(Diplomatie)
What's it about? Set during the Nazi occupation of Paris during World War II, this historical drama focuses on the relationship between two officials on opposing sides of the conflict who must reach a diplomatic agreement to protect both the city and themselves from German forces.
Why should you watch it? Being based on a play by French writer Cyril Gely, Diplomacy takes a global conflict and puts it on a personal scale, with the bulk of the drama confined within the office where the two main characters have their high-stakes debate. It could have been a recipe for boredom, but the performances of André Dussollier and Niels Arestrup combine with a smart and touching script to make this movie a fascinating watch.
Where can you find it? It is available to rent on Google Play, although potentially without English subtitles.
4. Nocturama (2016)
What's it about? In this unsettling thriller, a group of young people stage a series of terrorist attacks in various locations around Paris, before hiding out in an empty department store overnight.
Why should you watch it? If the previous films on this list sounded a bit too optimistic for you, Nocturama could be the darker, more cynical antidote you're looking for. It makes for a tense but intriguing watch, and it provides a slightly less rose-tinted look at Paris than you might be used to seeing. The scenes at the start of the film, when numerous characters travel around the city on the metro, are among the most realistic depictions of Paris I've seen on screen.
Where can you find it? It is available to stream on Netflix.
5. I Am Not An Easy Man (2018)
(Je ne suis pas un homme facile)
What's it about? Based on the short film Majorité Opprimée (by the same director, Éléonore Pourriat), this romantic comedy follows a male chauvinist who hits his head and wakes up in an alternate reality where gender roles are reversed.
Why should you watch it? Like Nocturama, I Am Not an Easy Man shines a light on one of the more negative but less talked about aspects of modern French society: sexism. While one might expect a serious tone from a film which tackles issues ranging from beauty double standards to workplace sexual harassment, this movie manages to maintain a sense of levity throughout. Whether you are looking for a romantic comedy or a wry takedown of French patriarchy, this might be the film for you.
Where can you find it? It is available to stream on Netflix.
***
If you are reading this on Bastille Day, how are you marking the occasion? Do you think watching one of the films above is a good way to celebrate, or do you have a better recommendation? I'd love to know what you think, so please feel free to let me know your thoughts either in a comment or by messaging me directly. Until then, bonne fête nationale!Sunday 12 July 2020
Why J. K. Rowling is Not Our Ally
If any of you reading are fans of the Harry Potter series, supporters of the LGBT+ community, or just followers of book-related news generally, you are most likely aware that there has been something of a controversy surrounding HP author J. K Rowling in the last month or so. Essentially, Rowling has recently taken to Twitter to air her views on trans rights, which have been criticised by many as transphobia masquerading as feminism. As an LGBT+ person who has long been a fan of Rowling and has previously written about the importance of the Harry Potter books in my life, I wanted to write a post explaining my views on the situation.
First of all, I would like to stress that while it has only been recently that Rowling's anti-trans Twitter tirades have hit mainstream news, people in the LGBT+ community have long suspected her of holding transphobic views. As far back as March 2018, Rowling was liking tweets that referred to trans women as "men in dresses" - an action which her representatives blamed on a "middle-aged moment" at the time. Many of us had been keeping a sceptical eye on Rowling's social media activity since then, and we watched as she slowly began to move from liking transphobic tweets, to retweeting them, to finally writing her own.
This eventually culminated in Rowling publishing a post on her website, explaining her "reasons for speaking out on sex and gender issues". I'm not going to link to the post here, but it's easy enough to find if you want to read it for yourself. The purpose of the post, I imagine, was three-fold: to justify Rowling's recent statements regarding trans issues, to elaborate on her "gender critical" views, and to condemn critics who correctly identified her views as those of a TERF (Trans-Exclusionary Radical Feminist). It also showed many of us why Rowling has historically stuck to fiction writing, although I doubt that was one of her goals in writing the essay.
I am not going to explain, in detail, why the things Rowling said are transphobic and harmful. This is not only because many other people, including many trans activists, have broken this down far better than I could, but also because her views are hardly unique. The ideas that trans women are a danger to cis women's safety, that acknowledging the difference between sex and gender will diminish the importance of reproductive rights, and even that supporting transition is in some way supporting a new form of conversion therapy - these are nothing new. Yet the fact that these views are being espoused by someone as influential as Rowling is worrying. Still, as I said, I am not going to get into much detail about that here. I am linking to other informative articles throughout this post, and I will leave a number of links for further reading at the end of it.
All of that said, there is one aspect of Rowling's vitriol which I would like to address, and that is the way she has been referring to queer women. When Rowling mentions cis queer women, she leaves the "cis" unspoken, despite the fact that trans people are more likely to identify as non-heterosexual than those who are cisgender. Rowling's exclusion of this is crucial, as she has recently taken to using cis queer women as human shields in her one-person war against trans people. The first example of this naturally took place on Twitter, on 7th June, when Rowling wrote a post claiming that "If sex isn't real, there's no same-sex attraction", which she soon followed by sharing an article by a lesbian woman who claimed that the LGBT+ community's support of trans people was leading to lesbians being "shouted down" and ignored.
Now, I'd like to quickly point out two things. First, I don't know of a single trans activist who claims that "sex isn't real". All I have ever seen trans activists advocate for which Rowling could possibly be confusing for this is the idea that we should update our perceptions of sex and gender so that they are in line with the most current scientific understanding: that sex is not binary and it is not the same as gender. Secondly, while there are small numbers of queer women who are indeed TERFs (though they apparently don't like to be labelled as such) and don't support trans people, I believe that the majority of us understand that trans people have historically been and continue to be integral to our community. So why, if she has studied trans literature to the extent that she claims, would Rowling choose to focus on a fringe branch of the community despite it not being reflective of the broader group?
The reason, to put it idiomatically, is because Rowling wants to have her cake and eat it too. She wants to be able to continue claiming she is an LGBT+ ally while still promoting her transphobic agenda, and the way she has decided she can do this is by presenting the conflict as lesbians vs trans people, with her on the side of the former. This is terribly convenient for Rowling, who can then deflect any criticisms from the LGBT+ community with quotes of one of the few queers who agrees with her or tweets referencing one of her "best mates" who is a "self-described butch lesbian". The shallowness of it all is almost comical. "I'm not homophobic," she might as well have said, "I have a gay friend."
For anyone who doubts that Rowling's supposed LGBT+ (minus the T) support is anything but self-serving, I would like to ask this: would a true ally have written an entire seven-book series without including a single openly-LGBT+ character? Would they have sloppily claimed, post-publication, that one character had actually been gay? Would they have then later, when given the opportunity to make this queerness explicit in film adaptations featuring said character, have chosen to reference it only in vague allusions that would easily be ignored or censored by homophobes who preferred to pretend they hadn't seen it? If Rowling is such a supporter of lesbians, where were the lesbians in Harry Potter? I could be wrong, but I don't recall a single one.
But perhaps, you might argue, she can be an ally without necessarily putting representation in her work. To which I would say, we do not owe Rowling our support as an ally. She does not deserve it simply for claiming she has a gay best friend or once sharing a shallow, rainbow-tinged reference to Harry Potter on social media. If she truly cared about us, she would have put us in her books. She would have donated to charities which supported us. She would have promoted books by other LGBT+ authors. Has she ever done any of these? Furthermore, if she has, has it ever been on anything close to the scale at which she has voiced such disrespect for trans people? The answer is no, because Rowling doesn't care about LGBT+ voices unless they are speaking up in support of her.
I have hesitated to write this post for a while, feeling that adding my voice to those who are speaking out against Rowling was unnecessary at best or speaking over trans people at worst. It was one comment, among many which angered me, that infuriated me to the point of wanting to finally write this. It was Rowling's assertion, which she has in fact made a number of times now (as many other TERFs have done before her), that transitioning is akin to conversion therapy. Her idea seems to be that young queer people are being forced to transition rather than being allowed to accept their queer identity. This idea is absolutely ludicrous. If trans people, as we have established, face transphobia even within the LGBT+ community, then how do you expect us to believe that trans people are now magically more accepted than queer people? I have never in my life met a person who accepted transness but not same-sex attraction; far more often I have met people who supposedly support the LGBT+ community, but who don't accept the T part of the acronym. For Rowling to then make this absurd claim is not only silly, it's disgusting. It is repulsive to me that she would take an experience which has caused so much harm to so many young queer people (and, yes, trans people too!), which she as a cishet woman knows nothing about, and use it to support her own hateful position. A true ally would never do something like that, and the fact that Rowling would shows to me that she never truly supported us at all.
Let me make this very clear. Rowling does not represent the views of queer women. She is not our ally, and she certainly does not have the right to be using us to deflect from criticism of her transphobic agenda. Our trans siblings have more in common with us than a self-serving, cishet faux-ally like Rowling ever will. I am disgusted at Rowling's attempts to co-opt queer women's struggles. What I see in these attempts is that Rowling will go along with a tide of LGBT-phobia as long as she can position it as feminism. I am not oblivious to how much of the anti-trans discourse mirrors old-fashioned homophobia - does Rowling think we don't remember hearing that queer women were threats to straight women, that we shouldn't use the same bathrooms because of our inherent perversity, that we were harmful to the feminist movement? I've heard it all before, and changing your target from cis queer women to trans women has not deceived me. I know that if J. K. Rowling were a prominent feminist only a few decades earlier, she would have directed this same hate at the queer women she claims to support. I hope that every other cis queer woman sees her fake support for what it is: a flimsy attempt to keep herself from being seen as the LGBT-phobe she is.
So, what now? Where do those of us who have spent large parts of our lives loving the HP books (and even, as in my case, Rowling's post-HP writing) go from now? Personally, I will no longer be supporting J. K. Rowling. I have many happy memories connected with Harry Potter, but I know that these are not solely because of the books themselves. I mentioned in my previous post about HP that the books reminded me of home and of my family. I still have those things, and I don't need Harry Potter to maintain their importance to me. Privately, the characters and their stories will likely always hold some sentimental value for me of course, but I will no longer be promoting the books to new readers, buying Harry Potter merchandise, or reading any of Rowling's new books. Instead, I will be trying to support writers of fantasy and children's fiction who don't have Rowling's influence, especially those from marginalised groups, such as trans authors. I will try to lend my support to those authors who deserve it, who will use their influence for good instead of causing harm. Harry Potter has indeed been important to me, but supporting my friends in the LGBT+ community is more important than that. I hope that those of you reading feel the same.
As I mentioned earlier in the post, I think that the people we need to be listening to most at the moment are those most affected by the situation: trans people. To that end, here are some links to content by trans creators on this subject which I have found informative. I would encourage you to explore these and seek out more perspectives by trans people wherever you can.
First of all, I would like to stress that while it has only been recently that Rowling's anti-trans Twitter tirades have hit mainstream news, people in the LGBT+ community have long suspected her of holding transphobic views. As far back as March 2018, Rowling was liking tweets that referred to trans women as "men in dresses" - an action which her representatives blamed on a "middle-aged moment" at the time. Many of us had been keeping a sceptical eye on Rowling's social media activity since then, and we watched as she slowly began to move from liking transphobic tweets, to retweeting them, to finally writing her own.
This eventually culminated in Rowling publishing a post on her website, explaining her "reasons for speaking out on sex and gender issues". I'm not going to link to the post here, but it's easy enough to find if you want to read it for yourself. The purpose of the post, I imagine, was three-fold: to justify Rowling's recent statements regarding trans issues, to elaborate on her "gender critical" views, and to condemn critics who correctly identified her views as those of a TERF (Trans-Exclusionary Radical Feminist). It also showed many of us why Rowling has historically stuck to fiction writing, although I doubt that was one of her goals in writing the essay.
I am not going to explain, in detail, why the things Rowling said are transphobic and harmful. This is not only because many other people, including many trans activists, have broken this down far better than I could, but also because her views are hardly unique. The ideas that trans women are a danger to cis women's safety, that acknowledging the difference between sex and gender will diminish the importance of reproductive rights, and even that supporting transition is in some way supporting a new form of conversion therapy - these are nothing new. Yet the fact that these views are being espoused by someone as influential as Rowling is worrying. Still, as I said, I am not going to get into much detail about that here. I am linking to other informative articles throughout this post, and I will leave a number of links for further reading at the end of it.
All of that said, there is one aspect of Rowling's vitriol which I would like to address, and that is the way she has been referring to queer women. When Rowling mentions cis queer women, she leaves the "cis" unspoken, despite the fact that trans people are more likely to identify as non-heterosexual than those who are cisgender. Rowling's exclusion of this is crucial, as she has recently taken to using cis queer women as human shields in her one-person war against trans people. The first example of this naturally took place on Twitter, on 7th June, when Rowling wrote a post claiming that "If sex isn't real, there's no same-sex attraction", which she soon followed by sharing an article by a lesbian woman who claimed that the LGBT+ community's support of trans people was leading to lesbians being "shouted down" and ignored.
Now, I'd like to quickly point out two things. First, I don't know of a single trans activist who claims that "sex isn't real". All I have ever seen trans activists advocate for which Rowling could possibly be confusing for this is the idea that we should update our perceptions of sex and gender so that they are in line with the most current scientific understanding: that sex is not binary and it is not the same as gender. Secondly, while there are small numbers of queer women who are indeed TERFs (though they apparently don't like to be labelled as such) and don't support trans people, I believe that the majority of us understand that trans people have historically been and continue to be integral to our community. So why, if she has studied trans literature to the extent that she claims, would Rowling choose to focus on a fringe branch of the community despite it not being reflective of the broader group?
The reason, to put it idiomatically, is because Rowling wants to have her cake and eat it too. She wants to be able to continue claiming she is an LGBT+ ally while still promoting her transphobic agenda, and the way she has decided she can do this is by presenting the conflict as lesbians vs trans people, with her on the side of the former. This is terribly convenient for Rowling, who can then deflect any criticisms from the LGBT+ community with quotes of one of the few queers who agrees with her or tweets referencing one of her "best mates" who is a "self-described butch lesbian". The shallowness of it all is almost comical. "I'm not homophobic," she might as well have said, "I have a gay friend."
For anyone who doubts that Rowling's supposed LGBT+ (minus the T) support is anything but self-serving, I would like to ask this: would a true ally have written an entire seven-book series without including a single openly-LGBT+ character? Would they have sloppily claimed, post-publication, that one character had actually been gay? Would they have then later, when given the opportunity to make this queerness explicit in film adaptations featuring said character, have chosen to reference it only in vague allusions that would easily be ignored or censored by homophobes who preferred to pretend they hadn't seen it? If Rowling is such a supporter of lesbians, where were the lesbians in Harry Potter? I could be wrong, but I don't recall a single one.
But perhaps, you might argue, she can be an ally without necessarily putting representation in her work. To which I would say, we do not owe Rowling our support as an ally. She does not deserve it simply for claiming she has a gay best friend or once sharing a shallow, rainbow-tinged reference to Harry Potter on social media. If she truly cared about us, she would have put us in her books. She would have donated to charities which supported us. She would have promoted books by other LGBT+ authors. Has she ever done any of these? Furthermore, if she has, has it ever been on anything close to the scale at which she has voiced such disrespect for trans people? The answer is no, because Rowling doesn't care about LGBT+ voices unless they are speaking up in support of her.
I have hesitated to write this post for a while, feeling that adding my voice to those who are speaking out against Rowling was unnecessary at best or speaking over trans people at worst. It was one comment, among many which angered me, that infuriated me to the point of wanting to finally write this. It was Rowling's assertion, which she has in fact made a number of times now (as many other TERFs have done before her), that transitioning is akin to conversion therapy. Her idea seems to be that young queer people are being forced to transition rather than being allowed to accept their queer identity. This idea is absolutely ludicrous. If trans people, as we have established, face transphobia even within the LGBT+ community, then how do you expect us to believe that trans people are now magically more accepted than queer people? I have never in my life met a person who accepted transness but not same-sex attraction; far more often I have met people who supposedly support the LGBT+ community, but who don't accept the T part of the acronym. For Rowling to then make this absurd claim is not only silly, it's disgusting. It is repulsive to me that she would take an experience which has caused so much harm to so many young queer people (and, yes, trans people too!), which she as a cishet woman knows nothing about, and use it to support her own hateful position. A true ally would never do something like that, and the fact that Rowling would shows to me that she never truly supported us at all.
Let me make this very clear. Rowling does not represent the views of queer women. She is not our ally, and she certainly does not have the right to be using us to deflect from criticism of her transphobic agenda. Our trans siblings have more in common with us than a self-serving, cishet faux-ally like Rowling ever will. I am disgusted at Rowling's attempts to co-opt queer women's struggles. What I see in these attempts is that Rowling will go along with a tide of LGBT-phobia as long as she can position it as feminism. I am not oblivious to how much of the anti-trans discourse mirrors old-fashioned homophobia - does Rowling think we don't remember hearing that queer women were threats to straight women, that we shouldn't use the same bathrooms because of our inherent perversity, that we were harmful to the feminist movement? I've heard it all before, and changing your target from cis queer women to trans women has not deceived me. I know that if J. K. Rowling were a prominent feminist only a few decades earlier, she would have directed this same hate at the queer women she claims to support. I hope that every other cis queer woman sees her fake support for what it is: a flimsy attempt to keep herself from being seen as the LGBT-phobe she is.
So, what now? Where do those of us who have spent large parts of our lives loving the HP books (and even, as in my case, Rowling's post-HP writing) go from now? Personally, I will no longer be supporting J. K. Rowling. I have many happy memories connected with Harry Potter, but I know that these are not solely because of the books themselves. I mentioned in my previous post about HP that the books reminded me of home and of my family. I still have those things, and I don't need Harry Potter to maintain their importance to me. Privately, the characters and their stories will likely always hold some sentimental value for me of course, but I will no longer be promoting the books to new readers, buying Harry Potter merchandise, or reading any of Rowling's new books. Instead, I will be trying to support writers of fantasy and children's fiction who don't have Rowling's influence, especially those from marginalised groups, such as trans authors. I will try to lend my support to those authors who deserve it, who will use their influence for good instead of causing harm. Harry Potter has indeed been important to me, but supporting my friends in the LGBT+ community is more important than that. I hope that those of you reading feel the same.
***
As I mentioned earlier in the post, I think that the people we need to be listening to most at the moment are those most affected by the situation: trans people. To that end, here are some links to content by trans creators on this subject which I have found informative. I would encourage you to explore these and seek out more perspectives by trans people wherever you can.
- Why What JK Rowling Said is Transphobic
- Addressing The Claims In JK Rowling’s Justification For Transphobia
- Is J.K. Rowling Transphobic? A Trans Woman Investigates
- J.K. Rowling’s transphobia is a product of British culture
- Responding to JK Rowlings Essay | Is It Anti-Trans?
- Where J.K. Rowling’s Transphobia Comes From
- So... Let's Talk About JK Rowling's Tweet | Kat Blaque
- J.K. Rowling wrote a controversial statement about transgender people in response to being called a 'TERF.' Here's what that means.
- JK Rowling is Transphobic... So What? | Kat Blaque
Monday 6 July 2020
My Favourite Book of All Time // 30-Day Book Challenge - Day 30
Today is the thirtieth and final day of the 30-day book challenge, in which I have been writing about a different book or book series every day for 30 days, with each book chosen according to the daily prompt. Today's prompt is: "your favourite book of all time".
We did it. We've made it to the final "day" of the 30-day book challenge, which thankfully was not unambiguously called the "one-month book challenge"; if it had been, that might have prevented me from shamelessly dragging out these 30 days over the course of several months, only posting if and when I felt like it. But that is indeed what I did, and while you can say what you like about my lack of commitment to the exact goal of the challenge (to write a post every day consecutively), I'm still very happy with the result that I did eventually complete the challenge in some form, and I now have 30 more posts here on this blog than I did previously.
So, in this final post, to celebrate the fact that I got here in large part due to interpreting the general challenge in a way that was most convenient for me, I am also going to cheat on today's prompt.
I don't really have one specific favourite book. What's more, most of the books I would consider naming or would place in my Top 10 Favourite Books, I have already mentioned in other posts throughout this challenge. So in the interest of not repeating myself or forcing myself to pick one book when I really don't want to, I'm going to use this post to talk about my favourite book that I've read recently: Severance by Ling Ma.
Severance is one of three novels I checked out of my local library the day before the coronavirus pandemic sent my city, Paris, into total lockdown. That sequence of events was almost eerily appropriate, as Severance is also a novel about a fictional pandemic.
As usual, here is your Goodreads summary of the plot:
Candace Chen, a millennial drone self-sequestered in a Manhattan office tower, is devoted to routine. So she barely notices when a plague of biblical proportions sweeps New York. Then Shen Fever spreads. Families flee. Companies halt operations. The subways squeak to a halt. Soon entirely alone, still unfevered, she photographs the eerie, abandoned city as the anonymous blogger NY Ghost.
Candace won’t be able to make it on her own forever, though. Enter a group of survivors, led by the power-hungry IT tech Bob. They’re traveling to a place called the Facility, where, Bob promises, they will have everything they need to start society anew. But Candace is carrying a secret she knows Bob will exploit. Should she escape from her rescuers?
So I should admit, perhaps my checking out Severance merely a day before lockdown wasn't so eerie, as I chose to borrow Severance specifically for its subject matter. Some people want escapism during times of crisis; I wanted a roadmap. I hoped that if I saw similar events to what was currently happening play out on the page, it might give me some idea of what to expect.
As I had sort of perversely hoped, Severance's story seemed almost prophetic. The novel's story focuses on the impact of a global pandemic and its aftermath on one person, and while not every aspect of the book's events mirror coronavirus (for example, while Severance's Shen Fever also originates in China, it doesn't lead to widespread anti-Asian racism in the way that COVID-19 has), it is nonetheless incredibly resonant.
The book jumps back and forth in time, between Candace's life pre- and post-apocalypse. While the latter veers into dystopian territory that, thankfully, is not quite so reflective of real life yet, the pre-apocalyptic chapters were very, very relatable. In Candace's world, the impending pandemic lays bare the hollowness of everyday life, the inertia of which forces it to continue all the way up to the brink of global catastrophe. We see its repetitiveness and its loneliness, and how the pandemic both solidifies and threatens society's commitment to this quotidian lifestyle.
I don't want to spoil too much of the novel, as usual, because I would strongly recommend reading this book yourself, especially given its relevance to the current global situation. However, I would like to share a quote from Severance which I have actually previously shared on my Instagram. This section of the book is from just before a storm hits New York City, after which the Shen Fever pandemic will fully take over the country. I find it rather haunting, not just for the way it mirrors how many of us felt before COVID-19 properly hit, but because of what it says about our daily lives even beyond the pandemic:
I was like everyone else. We all hoped the storm would knock things over, fuck things up enough but not too much. We hoped the damage was bad enough to cancel work the next morning but not so bad that we couldn't go to brunch instead.
Brunch? he echoed skeptically.
Okay, maybe not brunch, I conceded. If not brunch, then something else.
A day off meant we could do things we'd always meant to do. Like go to the Botanical Garden, the Frick Collection, or something. Read some fiction. Leisure, the problem with the modern condition was the dearth of leisure. And finally, it took a force of nature to interrupt our routines. We just wanted to hit the reset button. We just wanted to feel flush with time to do things of no quantifiable value, our hopeful side pursuits like writing or drawing or something, something other than what we did for money. Like learn to be a better photographer. And even if we didn't get around to it on that day, our free day, maybe it was enough just to feel the possibility that we could if we wanted to, which is another way of saying that we wanted to feel young, though many of us were that if nothing else.
I don't know if you get that though, I said.
***
On that note, we have finally reached the end of the so-called 30-day book challenge. I hope that it has been of some entertainment or interest to those of you who have read any or all of the 30 posts. Whether you have read 1 or 30, I appreciate your reading what I've written and letting me know what you thought of it. I hope that some of you will continue to read future posts on this blog, too. If you think you will, I would love to know if you have any preference for what I write about next - perhaps you have a specific topic you'd like to me to give my thoughts on, or some recommendations you'd like to hear. Either way, fingers crossed it won't be too long until I'm back here with another post. Until then, thanks for reading!
Sunday 5 July 2020
A Book Everyone Hated but I Liked // 30-Day Book Challenge - Day 29
Today is the twenty-ninth day of the 30-day book challenge, in which I will be writing about a different book or book series every day for 30 days, with each book chosen according to the daily prompt. Today's prompt is: "a book everyone hated but you liked".
[Note: So I actually wrote this post about a month ago and was ready to post it, but given everything that has been happening around the world lately, it didn't seem quite right to post my frivolous book posts at a time when far more important things needed people's attention. That's why this post is so late and also why it lacks a proper introduction, as I had to delete the original, now-irrelevant one.]
Fun fact: This post marks the third in a row which focuses on a book with LGBT+ themes. Previously, we had the twisty novel Fingersmith and the poignant essay collection Sister Outsider. Today these two are joined by another novel, My Education by Susan Choi.
The plot of My Education, as explained by Goodreads, is as follows:
Regina Gottlieb had been warned about Professor Nicholas Brodeur long before arriving as a graduate student at his prestigious university high on a pastoral hill. He’s said to lie in the dark in his office while undergraduate women read couplets to him. He’s condemned on the walls of the women’s restroom, and enjoys films by Roman Polanski. But no one has warned Regina about his exceptional physical beauty—or his charismatic, volatile wife.So before I get into why I liked the book, let's address the first half of this prompt: why everyone hated it.
My Education is the story of Regina’s mistakes, which only begin in the bedroom, and end—if they do—fifteen years in the future and thousands of miles away. By turns erotic and completely catastrophic, Regina’s misadventures demonstrate what can happen when the chasm between desire and duty is too wide to bridge.
My Education seems to be nothing if not contentious, and not necessarily for the reasons you might expect. On a certain online shopping website that shall remain nameless but which you definitely know of and definitely begins with an A, My Education has an average rating of 3.4 stars out of 5. The distribution of reviews for each star rating is as follows:
Its ratings on Goodreads are a similar story, albeit with a greater proportion of reviews sitting around the middle of the scale, around 32% of these being rated 3 stars out of 5. Here is a chart of these ratings which I shamelessly stole from the Goodreads website:
So why the dislike? To get an idea of what people don't like about My Education, I have selected a few choice quotes from online reviews of the novel:
- "boring inarticulate book"
- "UNINTERESTING COULD NOT FINISH AS COULD NOT CARELESS WHAT HAPPENED"
- "how did this get published?"
- "one of the most boring and distasteful books that I have ever had the misfortune to read"
- "too wordy"
- "None of the characters are likable or sympathetic"
- "achingly dull"
- "overwrought [...] exaggerated and pretentious"
- "Hated, because annoying inconsistencies. Annoyed, because grammatically complex and faddy."
- "spectacularly bad. Overwritten, barely sensical in its flow, frivolous."
- "selfish, self-absorbed, whiney characters."
Beyond the general complaints that My Education is just a generally awful, objectively terrible book, I think there are three major complaints among its negative reviews: the book was boring, its writing was overdone, and the characters were unlikable. In order to best defend the novel, I'm going to go through these points one by one and explain why I don't agree with them and why I actually like the book, its plot, and its characters.
First of all, the writing. Ignoring the plot and characters for the minute, the most controversial aspect of My Education seems to be its writing style. A lot of this comes down to personal taste, but I would disagree with other reviewers' statements that the writing is "too wordy" or "barely sensical". I enjoyed the flow of the writing, its use of unusual words (the second page of the book alone gives us "esoterica" and "stultification"), and the expressive, detailed prose. If at times it veers slightly into pretention, I took that as a representation of the not wholly-likable main character (a graduate student attempting to fit in among the lives of successful academics) and her mindset at the time.
As for the book's characters and plot, I feel that these two must in some way be analysed together, as the book's plot revolves almost solely around the emotions and personal conflicts of its characters. This is not a book with events on the scale of saving the world or even having an impact on a community - most of its plot has its impact limited to three characters, perhaps five at a stretch. If you are disinterested in these characters and thus are not invested in the personal stories, the book's plot will naturally not be of interest to you either.
In my case, I found the plot intriguing because I found the characters to be so as well. None of them are intended to be likable, as some readers were disappointed to find out. They are deeply flawed people who make terrible mistakes. Yet for all the blurb seems determined to paint Brodeur as some sort of sexual predator, none of the characters are that far beyond redemption. They are tragically human people, whose desires and skewed moralities lead them to make equally tragic decisions. I understand that sort of plotline might not appeal to all readers, but I found it fascinating.
The funny thing about writing this post, and reviewing all of the negative things people have said about my chosen book, is that it made me question my own judgement of the book. It's been a while (a couple of years, to be precise) since I last read it, so I am not so well equipped to argue its merits as I would be had I read it only recently. However, the memory of loving the book when I first read it is still strong in my mind. Perhaps if I were to read it again today, with all of these criticisms lurking in my subconscious, I wouldn't enjoy it so much. Still, that doesn't change the fact that when I read it I felt as positively about it as many other people felt negatively.
First of all, the writing. Ignoring the plot and characters for the minute, the most controversial aspect of My Education seems to be its writing style. A lot of this comes down to personal taste, but I would disagree with other reviewers' statements that the writing is "too wordy" or "barely sensical". I enjoyed the flow of the writing, its use of unusual words (the second page of the book alone gives us "esoterica" and "stultification"), and the expressive, detailed prose. If at times it veers slightly into pretention, I took that as a representation of the not wholly-likable main character (a graduate student attempting to fit in among the lives of successful academics) and her mindset at the time.
As for the book's characters and plot, I feel that these two must in some way be analysed together, as the book's plot revolves almost solely around the emotions and personal conflicts of its characters. This is not a book with events on the scale of saving the world or even having an impact on a community - most of its plot has its impact limited to three characters, perhaps five at a stretch. If you are disinterested in these characters and thus are not invested in the personal stories, the book's plot will naturally not be of interest to you either.
In my case, I found the plot intriguing because I found the characters to be so as well. None of them are intended to be likable, as some readers were disappointed to find out. They are deeply flawed people who make terrible mistakes. Yet for all the blurb seems determined to paint Brodeur as some sort of sexual predator, none of the characters are that far beyond redemption. They are tragically human people, whose desires and skewed moralities lead them to make equally tragic decisions. I understand that sort of plotline might not appeal to all readers, but I found it fascinating.
The funny thing about writing this post, and reviewing all of the negative things people have said about my chosen book, is that it made me question my own judgement of the book. It's been a while (a couple of years, to be precise) since I last read it, so I am not so well equipped to argue its merits as I would be had I read it only recently. However, the memory of loving the book when I first read it is still strong in my mind. Perhaps if I were to read it again today, with all of these criticisms lurking in my subconscious, I wouldn't enjoy it so much. Still, that doesn't change the fact that when I read it I felt as positively about it as many other people felt negatively.
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