Black Superheroes: A Tribute

In honor of Black History Month, I thought I’d celebrate by showcasing a few of my favorite black superheroes (and supervillains) from comics and/or other fandoms with comic tie-ins.

Brain Food – Episode 13

Hello everyone and welcome to episode 13 of Brain Food, where I discuss After The Golden Age, by Carrie Vaughn, which is nowhere near as good as all the critics qho are quoted in the book say it is, believe you me.

I hope to do more positive reviews next time, because I like being positive, even though it is easier to make jokes during a negative review.

What If Regina/The Evil Queen from “Once Upon A Time” Isn’t White?

As my internet husband Neo Prodigy will tell you, it’s been firmly established that I really do have A Thing for brilliant, powerful, assertive women, especially the ones with a dark beauty that you never find in the wholesome Goldilocks/Girl Next Door type.

Having said all that, one of the TV shows on my Must Watch list is ABC’s Once Upon A Time. And by Once Upon A Time, I mean Regina Mills/Evil Queen. I am so smitten with this beautiful, brilliant, powerful, damaged woman it’s almost sickening. You know how Gomez is when it comes to Morticia? I so fucking get that now (and envy the fact that their relationship is healthier than the vast majority of heterosexual romances).

Aside from the fact that Regina is the sun around which my viewing this show revolves, the chemistry between her and Emma Swan is so deliciously subtexty in its queerness that the show’s alternative title should be Henry’s Two Mommies.  Granted, if this show was produced by HBO, they’d be fucking by now, I’m willing to give ABC the benefit of the doubt. And when that fails, there’s always fandom and AU fic.

Now that I got that out of my system, let’s talk a bit about race and Regina/Evil Queen.

PSA – How To Be A Good Ally

This post took me a good amount of effort and thought and even more thought.

What I wanted to do the most was relate what I had learned over the last couple of years, but with some good humour mixed in as well. It’s hard to say anything more without sounding pretentious, so I’ll let the video speak for itself.

Enjoy!

Open Thread: Opinion on The Runaways from Marvel Comics

I’m going to do a video review of the Runaways (much like Linkara and Kazel5). Since I read some much good things about The Runaways. I asked my friends if they heard of the comic, but they never heard of it. But I want to see what people think of the comic book. i mean do you like it or hate it? What was it that drew you into this comic? Mind you before i do the Review i want to have some other opinions before I go online and make a fool out of myself. Thanks you taking time out to help me. (Note: I could of add a pic but my terminal is acting up)

 

looking to hear from ya.

First of all – let’s have some actual portrayal

I’ve realised I talk a lot about the need for good portrayals in books (and other media). I talk about stereotypes and tropes, about the damage of bad characters, about the annoyance of tokenism, about never being the protagonist  – in fact, there’s no end of things I can rant about at great great length. There’s a lot of bad out there.

But I realise I’m actually teaching an advanced lesson, because, shockingly, the very concept of “portrayal” seems to be fraught in and of itself. And after leaving another argument about this, I feel the need to define what portrayal actually is – or, better yet, isn’t.

Now I can feel people scratching their heads – because surely this is a simple concept? If you want to portray a GBLT character, you include a GBLT character – how hard can this be? Well, apparently very difficult indeed. So what, in the eyes of Sparky, is not a portrayal?

 

If your GBLT character needs extra-textual support to make them GBLT – congratulations! They’re not a GBLT portrayal. Because you have not portrayed a GBLT person. This does not seem like an overly complicated thought process. If I cannot read the book and say “look, Fred’s gay” then Fred is not gay.

So that means if you decide in an interview that one of your characters is GBLT rather than actually including their GBLTness in the text, then that means you haven’t portrayed a GBLT person. If I have to consult your author notes or google every interview you’ve done or rely on gossip to inform me that your characters were actually GBLT, but your forgot to mention it/didn’t think it was appropriate to mention it/your publisher/preacher/agent/editor/pet dachshund said not to include it – then you have not portrayed a GBLT character. I am not going to give any points for inclusion if I have to google your book/game/film/series to find it. That’s not inclusion – that’s a treasure hunt.

That doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t write long biographies for characters that never work their way into the book, or you shouldn’t have author notes or even have interviews about how you envision your characters above and beyond where the text takes them. But it’s not GBLT portrayal – because you haven’t portrayed those characters as GBLT. And, ye gods, please don’t present your extra-textual retcon as inclusion.

And yes, this does mean that as far as I’m concerned there are zero GBLT characters in the Harry Potter series. *Hides in bunker from outraged fanpoodles*

And while I’ve pissed off the great beast of fandom with that line, let’s poke with another stick. Hints, suggestions and “maybe, possibly is he isn’t he” also don’t count as a portrayal. A great rapport between 2 characters of the same gender doesn’t count as a GBLT portrayal. And subtext, vague implication and most certainly slash goggles do not count as a GBLT portrayal either. Just as the author’s extra-textual notes don’t create a GBLT portrayal, nor do our own extrapolations, fanfiction, slash goggles or sexual fantasies.  I used to have wonderful imaginings of Nightcrawler when I was younger (don’t judge me) it doesn’t mean the X-men included a gay character by including him.

And I know this sounds ridiculous – but it happens. In the big battle over Disney not having a single GBLT character to be found there were fans pulling out their slash goggles and subtexts and implications and listing characters they thought COULD be GBLT. Whether it was a look they held or maybe the banter between them or just because they were just such a hot couple – we’re seeing fan hope or fan fantasy presented as actual inclusion.

To another excuse often trotted out – ambiguity is not a GBLT portrayal either! At best it’s an ambiguous portrayal – at very best. But the forces of heterosexism and cissexism in society means that it’s probably going to be another damn straight, cis portrayal. In fact, ambiguous portrayals actually annoy me more, partly because you’re trying to claim inclusivity cookies without even throwing in a characterless token and partly because the “ambiguity” inevitably rests on some gross stereotyping. And if the creator intended this implication then I still call foul – straight, cis folks get to be openly themselves in every single genre and media form we can imagine, yet we have to be obliquely referred to with sufficient deniability in case the haters lose their shit? Yeah no inclusion cookies for you, unless launched with great accuracy at your head.

Speaking on the subject of heterosexism and cissexism – and I’ve mentioned this in passing before – your “unlabelled” character is straight and cis. Yes they are. Because that is the default in a privileged society – if you don’t show any information to the contrary everyone is assumed to be cis and straight. And yes, that’s annoying and yes, that’s wrong – but it’s reality. So don’t tell me your unlabelled character is really GBLT (or could be GBLT) –because there’s no way they will be read as GBLT. Also, of course, since you have presented an actual GBLT character, you have, yet again, failed to portray an actual GBLT character.

I’ve actually had comments that a character is GBLT, we just don’t know it and, afterall, people don’t need labels to define themselves as GBLT. Now there’s a lot wrong with this – but from a portrayal perspective there’s one big flaw. We’re talking about characters, not people. If I meet Fred, we killing a large number of werewolves that keep digging up my lawn and he then goes home to his boyfriend then yes, he’s gay even though I am completely unaware of the fact. The fact I don’t know whether he’s gay or not doesn’t change that he is gay. But, if I READ about the fictional character Fred killing werewolves and the book ends with the last fuzzy death and we have no GBLT label to attach to Fred? Then he isn’t GBLT – because even while a real person has a life beyond the book, a character does not. The entirety of that character’s existence is in those pages and if none of those pages include any reference to him being GBLT, then it doesn’t matter that we imagine that he COULD go home to a boyfriend, because he isn’t – he’s doing nothing. His story has ended and his existence is limited to those pages that contain nothing of his supposed GBLT identity.

And don’t’ even try to invoke the closet. The closet is what we, as GBLT people, are forced to endure to try and survive this ridiculous heterosexist and cissexist world. In fact, I’m not going to give it that much credit – this homophobic and transphobic world. And by all means portray that if it is part of the story – but closeting your characters from the reader? You think that’s necessary or that it’s impossible to show a closeted character and without extending that to the reader as well? And, really, if you’re going to do that then what is the point? Here is your GBLT portrayal who is so closeted even the reader thinks they’re straight and cis? Oh… yay, give me a second I’m going to bake you a whole batch of inclusion cookies for that one!

We are talking about portrayal. How GBLT characters are portrayed and the very first step of that has to be them being actually portrayed as GBLT in the first place. And if we can’t even do that, how can we do anything else?

 

 

Brain Food – Episode 12

Hello everyone, and welcome to another first for me as I discuss the anthology, Steam Powered: Lesbian Steampunk Stories!

This is more than simply titilation, but a collection of short stories that revolve around steampunk while also having a plethoral of interesting, fascinating characters in various stories that range from political intrigue and espionage to plain old, lovely romance, all while being seen through the lens of people that steampunk normally would not include. It was a fantastic read and the editor has, in recent months, released a second volume that I highly recommend you all seek out and buy.

Why Piracy Is Not Responsible For Ruining Entertainment

I found this brilliant piece over on Comics Alliance a few days ago and the article eloquently and succinctly broke down my feelings on why piracy is the least of the entertainment industry’s problems.

While the author is specifically discussing comic books, I think his points also apply to television, movies, music, publishing and other entertainment mediums.

One other point I would also add is that another reason why the entertainment industry continues to hemorrhage is because it blatantly ignores and denigrates marginalized audiences. Marginalized audiences who aren’t straight and white and have disposable income and is virtually an untapped market.

Despite evidence upon evidence that proves that diversity and marginalized media done with respect equals success, the powers that be would rather stick to the same business model and are essentially doing this:

The Arkh Project: Cis straight white people are trying to shut Arkh down.

Details here

 

One fucking rpg and we can’t even get that much.

Kevin Keller #3-#4

My review of issues #3 & #4 of the Kevin Keller miniseries is live over on Prism Comics:

Among the many reasons why you should check it out, I managed to quote Jay-Z, MLK, and Archie all in one review. If that doesn’t procure my rightful place in the Hall of Fame of All Things Awesome, nothing will.

 

In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.

- Martin Luther King Jr

I didn’t think it was possible for the storytellers behind the Kevin Keller miniseries to top the first two issues of the four part miniseries (namely issue #2), and yet, somehow, they did so with the power and fury of a 1000 suns. This is definitely one of those times where I don’t mind standing corrected.

Read more……