Eliyes

Title: Mental Minefield
Summary: Random fictional people expressing opinions about gender perception and navigating a relationship. Oh, and Shakespeare stuff that might not be true (like a lot of Shakespeare stuff).


( I'm doing drag for you, I hope you appreciate it. )
.

I have no problem with Northstar marrying his boyfriend; they're a cute couple, and comics need to stop trying to keep everyone in this relationship limbo thing.

What I want to know is why the hell are they getting married in New York?! They're both Canadian citizens! Same-sex marriage has been legal in Canada since 2005! Why not get married there, avoiding the red tape of having your wedding in another country -- always a pain in the ass. They can have a post-wedding party in New York if for some reason a bunch of the guests couldn't go to Canada -- have the X-Men moved back to NY, even? I thought they were still based off the West Coast?

"My Latin professor told me that the only thing he has against homosexuality is that you’re mixing a Greek prefix with a Latin root."
(I found this here.)

It's just getting started, so come on and have some fun!

Authors Say Agents Try to “Straighten” Gay Characters in YA -- includes an account of an agent telling authors to make straight or entirely remove a viewpoint character who is gay. Note that this is an agent, not a publisher. There's a list of What You Can Do, for publishers, agents, writers, readers and reviewers. I would like to see more gay and/or non-white and/or other "minority" leads and major characters in all types of fantasy and science fiction, and fiction in general.

I am a white person who grew up in a predominantly white community, reading sci-fi and fantasy, and romances, and mysteries, and none of the things I read except comic books (which have their own problems) really reflected a diverse world.

(I think Claudia in the babysitters club was meant to be Japanese? But it wasn't really dealt with, that I recall -- I'm pretty sure I remember reading at least one book where she didn't know how to use chopsticks, for example; her cultural heritage was not present.)

Interesting update! So, a company of literary agent-type stuff (I'm not sure what to call them -- help, anyone?) read the above article and reacted like most of us, i.e. "I can't believe someone did that to them! That's terrible, and they are absolutely right about the need for more diversity in YA fiction."

And then they found out the authors meant were talking about them.

Here is their response. To summarise: Rachel Manija Brown and Sherwood Smith are misrepresenting the conversations that happened betweeen them and this agent (the company gives their side of the story), which is exploitive of the issue (and the agent!) -- however, the issue of greater diversity and more glbt characters in YA fiction is important and we should discuss it and do stuff about it (so long as our discussion is based on honesty).

Most people have seen K. Beaton's ooh Mister Darcy ooh strip, and/or one or more of the many many parody/homages of it.

This is my favourite so far.


K. Beaton, Eat Your Heart Out by ~Lady-Liesl on deviantART

(Not least becuse I have always loved Lady Liberty and Blind Justice as a couple. The only person Lady Liberty goes with better than Blind Justice is, in my opinion, me. I'd totally wear a blindfold for her! And I'm a Libra, so the scales are no problem! Oh, Lady Liberty. *dreamy sigh*)

friend: "Being a drag queen means dressing like an unholy cross between the Chiquita Banana lady and Lady Gaga --"
me: "...Now I wanna see Lady Gaga dressed like the Chiquita Banana lady..."

And in case you get mad at my friend for that comment about drag queens, here's a follow up:

friend: "There's only one drag queen I've met who wasn't a massive bitch, and you know him, and look what happened when he stopped."
me: "They were so mean he moved back to the USA."

They being the drag queens around here. Here, in a Canadian city, where gay marriage is legal.

[Error: unknown template qotd]

I confront, unless that person is very very old. But all my very very old relatives have died, so... I confront, period. And yes, if there is someone there who looks afraid to speak up, I will -- and I'll do it in a way I hope draws attention away from their discomfort while letting them know someone's on their side.

Go Iowa! :D