sapphicdalliances:

ok immm sorry but im gonna have a taz discourse moment. bear w/ me.

ive been trying to like keep a lid on it but like i havent seen anyone point out that the mcelroys aren’t the right people to tell a story starring a POC where their racial identity becomes an important part of their character. like straight up im gonna say it? taako shouldn’t be brown – not in the sense that it’s wrong to draw taako brown, but that the mcelroys don’t have the right to make that artistic decision or canonically make him latino. taako’s the player character of a white dude and was developed with no racial identity in mind at all. making him brown at this point would be thoughtless lip service, not meaningful representation – and making him latino in particular would actually be horrifically racist. stop demanding tokenism from the mcelroys and acting like that’s something all POC fans want, it’s honestly embarrassing to see by now.

the nature of TAZ is that the creative team is and always will be four white guys. they’re a nerdy family doing a nerd activity and recording it as a free internet radio show. their team cannot be expanded to include more diverse creators; that’s just not how this story is set up, and that’s okay. there is more than one story in the world – that’s the point of diversity. progressive storytelling happens when many people tell their own stories, not when one person tells the stories of many people. that second one is shallow at best and downright appropriative at worst. stop demanding the mcelroys do that second one, and go support some more diverse creators.

this isn’t a pessimistic “how can you expect better from white dudes they’ll always fail us” spiel, but “you should not ask white dude creators to tick every representation box because even if they succeed it will be an inauthentic and meaningless achievement”. and that doesn’t mean white men should only make stories about white men, and i’m very glad that griffin has put in an effort to make a diverse cast of NPCs, but this demand to change one of the leads into a specific ethnicity and cultural background won’t work because it has not been considered from the start and it’s not something that justin is ready, willing, or able to do.

there’s been a lot of back-and-forth about how Criticism Is Good and you have to help the mcelroys Do Better but tbh? there is nothing wrong with the taz graphic novel designs. there’s literally nothing wrong with them because the point is that they are one single individual interpretation drawn by one person – a queer woman, no less – and are not the official designs, and don’t actually matter. like even if you want to argue that any green skin is antisemitic (which is a poorly-sourced, self-referential knot of yarn to begin with), taako’s skin is blue. merle being brown while also not being a perfect person is not tokenism or racist because there’s a diverse cast of NPCs, many of whom have dark skin. everything beyond that is up to personal preference.

not all criticisms are created equal. not every criticism is valid or useful in every situation. at some point, you have to accept that taz is not your story and you cannot demand a certain type of representation from the creators just to make yourself happy, and you can’t act like all POC fans feel the same because we certainly do not. like, if taz does something and you’re upset by it, that’s okay, and your emotions matter, but you need to realise that they are not the only emotions that matter, and also it’s not the creators’ job to fix your emotions for you.

i am a big advocate for critiquing media you enjoy and as a creator myself i do seek to learn more and better myself but part of that is also filtering out entitled white noise, like the racist asses trying to convince us that taako is “coded” as mexican and jewish just because his name sounds like taco and he likes money. so, like, whatever, good luck to mcelroys and carey on this front, but part of creating is accepting that you’ll never please everybody so hopefully they’re okay.

(“reblog this post to make taako brown” is just “sign this petition to make sterek canon” all over again and it’s still garbage, guys, after all these years it’s still bad.)

p.s. can everyone stop acting like the only two races are white and black. super would appreciate that thanks.

unlikelyflowerdefendor:

winterwombat:

the-vaudevillain:

iput-witch-inmyurltofeelvalid:

anecdotesandelderthings:

najikasun:

dawhitebag:

yall-aphobes-need-to-stop:

jinxii-infinity:

risotto-relatable:

loftwingpursuit:

pokemon-black-version:

aphobeasriel:

this pride month if i see ANY of you fuckers including ace/aro identities anywhere, if you even fucking say the words asexual or aromantic in any context of pride in any day this June, you have 0% of my patience and respect. this month isn’t for ace/aro identities and never will be. shut the fuck up.

It sure is June and I’ve never been prouder to call myself asexual

What a great day to be Asexual and Aromantic!

Wow aces and aros are so cool

Man I love and support all asexuals and aromantics this Pride!

The perfect month to shower my cishet ace fiancé in kisses and remind him every day that he’s part of our community and that I’m proud of him.

I love being ace!

I love my ace gf and can’t wait to propose to her next month! I also love all my ace/aro friends and followers!

The sun is shining, my home is full of music and Asexuals and Aromantics are valid parts of the lgbtA community. 

^^^^^^

WOW I love my ace husband and all of my aro and/or ace friends! I hope all aro and/or ace people have a great and wonderful and very good day.

It’s the third day of Pride month and I already feel 3x as proud to be ace, and 3x as proud of all the amazing ace and aro people out there! Nothing would please me more than knowing that you’re all having a wonderful time being yourselves and doing what you love.  

ALL ace & aro people are lgbtaq+ and i hope they all have an extraordinary june! 💖 💖 💖 💖

me: wow rein,,, i didnt know that your charge ability automatically gives you back half your health as you speed to the other side of the fucking map,,,i guess you dont need a mercy after all-OH WAIT YOU FUCKING DIED GUESS NOT BITCH

preoccupiedpepper:

vaspider:

holybikinisbatman:

lestermygaard:

excessively-english-little-b:

I just… wanna remind people that asexuality was classed as a mental disorder by the DSM all the way up until 2013…. Because I feel like people don’t know this or like to ignore it because it doesn’t fit into their “asexual people don’t face discrimination” rhetoric.

Asexuality was only removed from the DSM in 2013. Please, know this and remember it.

asexuality is STILL in the DSM they still have a disorder that’s literally the definition of asexuality called “hypoactive sexual desire disorder” which is what they’ve always classified asexuality as. they just added a clause that said “if the patient IDs as ace it’s fine” but it’s not like the general population knows what asexuality is and people want to complain about how visibility is such a high priority for us jesus christ

thats a very good point. i knew about that distinction, but it bears repeating for people that see this post and arent aware of it

And that’s why we need the queer community to be like ‘no really we exist and it isn’t hurtful it’s quite fine they belong here with us, the other queers, who were just de-pathologized.’ 

*bang gavel*

I was going to college and grad school when the fight over this diagnosis being included in the DSM-V was going on. 

If I remember correctly, the big push to keep it in the DSM came from the pharmaceutical companies who need this diagnosis to exist so that they can market a drug they are currently working on to treat “female sexual interest/arousal disorder”. 

This diagnosis is so fucked up. It not only pathologizes Asexuals, it also pathologizes non-asexual women for having less interest in sex than men. This disorder literally used to be called “Frigidity” and feminist psychologists had to fight like hell to get the DSM to clarify that simply having a lower sex drive than one’s husband was not sufficient for a diagnosis. 

The APA throws in that little disclaimer about being a “self-identified asexual” and the diagnostic criteria of distress, but they did the same thing before they removed homosexuality from the DSM. 

A lot of people think that psychologists stopped considering homosexuality a disorder in the 1970s, but that’s not entirely true. They kept it in the DSM with a slightly changed name and a criteria that the person experience distress about being gay. This was used to justify “reparative therapy” for decades. 

This diagnosis is just one part of the APA’s long history of pathologizing human sexuality, especially women’s sexuality. Women who deviate even slightly from the prescribed amount of sexual interest will find themselves labeled as either borderline or frigid. 

suqqer:

rnurphey:

celebrate pride by bullying straight people

Or don’t do that & just celebrate pride

armsocks:

armsocks:

ever since SU every newly popular fandom has gone through a phase where people expect the media and fandom to be 100% Ideologically Pure and half of it fucking implodes whenever that inevitably gets proven wrong

which isn’t to say that criticizing X Thing is useless since sometimes it is necessary but it’s just like … What Did You Expect