swim through the fires to stay in this world

It’s so fucking weird when one of tumblr’s sponsored posts shows up on my dashboard, because it’s ALWAYS a big photo of Johnny Depp as Tonto and I keeping looking for the #outraged hashtags #about what an egregious example of white-washing that casting choice is #and how arrogant Johnny Depp was about that #and how terrible that movie looks in the trailer #and how they’re cribbing gags from POTC 1 #that POTC 2 and 3 #already cribbed

The often repeated chorus of Train’s new song is, “These bruises make for better conversation, these bruises make for better conversation.”



And, you know, I am not opposed to a little violence in my music (Kiss With A Fist and Love The Way You Lie are both AWESOME and I pretty much accidentally have a playlist all about intimate partner violence of various tones) but Train’s mellow, dulcet duet makes me think the song is saying, ‘I hit you because you’re more interesting that way.’ And I know, FROM LOOKING UP THE OTHER LYRICS THAT YOU CAN BARELY HEAR that the song is *actually* about two HS friends and discussing their failed relationships, but that is not what it sounds like.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, while I am 100% behind the message of this song:



I kind it kind of ridiculously annoying. But REALLY LOVE the female vocals. 

So, a couple of things showed up at the same time in my fannish life that I want to talk about. First, I learned about Ginnifer Goodwin's comment that Swan Queen was never going to happen because Once Upon A Time is a "family show", I was listening to femmeslash for fans show on Subtext 101,

and then I read this article, Why Embracing Slash Is Good For Everybody.

Let me bottom line it.

SUBTEXT IS NOT FUCKING REPRESENTATION.

ABC is not going to write Swan Queen (or ANY homosexual romance in their show about true love and blood family) because they are not going to risk offending viewers.

RDJ's Sherlock Holmes was never going to make out with John Watson because the studio isn't going to risk offending viewers.

Trust me, studios are already "embracing slash" in their 100% mercenary way, which is by showing deep, complex, meaningful and nuanced relationships between TWO WHITE DUDES without ever having to commit to actually writing homosexual characters.

That's what all those buddy cop shows and bromance movies are all about.

And the result of this, the part that really HITS ME WHERE I LIVE, is that "embracing slash" MEANS THROWING THE FUCKING FEMALE CHARACTERS THAT I LOVE UNDER THE BUS.

Do you know what it looks like when a show feeds the slashers? It looks like fucking Supernatural, where every goddamn awesome good/neutral/evil lady winds up dead.

The reason that there is not a gay Avenger is because MARVEL STUDIOS DIDN'T HAVE THE BALLS TO WRITE ANY OF THE AVENGERS AS GAY.

DO YOU KNOW WHY THERE ISN'T A BLACK WIDOW MOVIE ALREADY IN PRE-PRODUCTION? BECAUSE HOLLYWOOD DOESN'T THINK A WOMAN CAN HEADLINE A MOVIE.

And none of that is fucking okay.

The mainstream media is throwing scraps of representation at the audience and some people are pretending that it's enough. It's fucking not, and honestly, to me personally, it feels like a slap in the face.

Stop pretending to be inclusive of homosexuality and fucking be inclusive of homosexuality.

Realize that audiences can handle and fucking love movies with female/poc/homosexual (or all of the above) leads and film them.

In case you missed it, Chick-Fil-A revealed themselves and homophobic douche-bags. The Jim Henson Company responded with an epic amount of class and social justice, Boston's mayor provided an epic smack-down, and this blogger recorded a hilarious response to Chick-Fil-A's justifications: