I'm not a book worm, I'm a book Dragon

So from then on whenever one of us called something problematic, he would make us talk it out until we could name the “bad” thing we were hinting at. In this particular class, 7/10 it was some type of oppression, and the remainder was like, “I’m uncomfortable because this is very new/confusing/pushing boundaries that made me feel safe.”

Once we stopped calling things “problematic” and stopping at that, class got way more interesting and... we all had to say, like, “that’s racist” or “that’s misogynistic” or “ew capitalism gross” out loud, which a lot of us had never done in a classroom before. Or we had to be like, “Uhhh... I’m not sure what’s so bad?” and confront our own beliefs and that was maybe even more useful.

For the this year's celebration of the Glorious 25th of May let me present to you my latest project.

Lady's Sybil Ramkin leather corset for a stage adaptation of sir Terry Pratchett's Guards! Guards! From sketch to final costume with lovely Errol the Dragon.

Corset made from genuine textured sheepskin and a lots of brass details like buckles, eyelets and studs. Straps has functional buckles and can be adjusted if necessary. Corset has cotton lining with lilac blossom print (I'm not sorry, I can't help myself, I wouldn't miss this chance for a little Easter hard-boiled egg). All creative processes was under strict supervision of my copilot Jarvis, as usual.

So piracy is at worst not even a problem, and at best it's free advertisement.

Source: (the link to the actual study is in the article)

I tried to narrow this down. I really did. Instead you get 54 of my favorite queer books, not including the series many of these are attached to.

Also some of these authors I've read their entire backlist or close to it, so I didn't include all of them. (Looking at you, Allie Therin, KJ Charles, Cat Sebastian, Lily Mayne, Foz Meadows, Tavia Lark)

If you’ll all pardon my Americentrism for a moment, the amount, visibility, and flamboyance of Pride merch available in clothing, home goods, and comestibles stores is a DIRECT reflection of how safe it is to be queer in public in the United States.

How? Simple. Out groups aren’t profitable. If you’re not “acceptable” in the current social climate, big franchise businesses will not market to you. (Prime example - Look how quickly Target dropped all their Pride merch after having been wall-to-wall rainbows every June for almost a decade prior.)

Sure, capitalism sucks and being viewed as an exploitable marketing demographic isn’t a fun concept.

HOWEVER.

The grim truth is that being normalized enough to be considered profitable by corporations IS A GOOD THING in terms of the barometer of social acceptance.

Same thing goes for smaller businesses that throw kitschy Pride events or even just put a token rainbow flag in the window or somewhere inside the shop. That’s a level of acceptance that DID NOT EXIST thirty years ago, and I can tell you because I was there.

The fact that we can scoff and bitch about being an exploitable marketing demographic nowadays means we have made GIGANTIC strides since the 1990s. It also speaks to the fact that the drive and the conversation surrounding LGBTQ+ rights and acceptance are continuing. And getting louder.

You can be cynical about it if you want. But I will take a store that puts out lip-service rainbow merch over a world that pretends we don’t exist any day of the week. Because that will always mean something.