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I was compiling a to-read list for another purpose anyways, so I thought I might as well drop this here! These 3 papers are at the intersection of Deaf studies, disability studies, and linguistics. Jon Henner, Lina Hou, and Octavian Robinson are all scholars to read in this area.

Henner, J., & Robinson, O. (2023). Unsettling languages, unruly bodyminds: A crip linguistics manifesto. Journal of Critical Study of Communication and Disability, 1(1), 7-37. The paper is here, and there's also this lovely podcast version read by Vagrant Gautam.

Hou, L., & Namboodiripad, S. (2024). Manifesting a Crip Linguistic Theory through a Critical Disability Raciolinguistic Perspective. A preprint of the paper is available here.

Robinson, O. E., Sheneman, N., & Henner, J. (2020). Toxic ableism among interpreters: Impeding deaf people’s linguistic rights through pathological posturing. Honouring the past, treasuring the present, shaping the future, 14-41. The paper is here.

This is what each Link’s relative height would be

If you're interested, here's the link: https://courses.osd.k12.ok.us/collections

Right ok thanks for enabling this, I don’t have the time nor the energy to write an actual essay so this really will just be a rant. But first of all, I fucking hate the idea of taking whichever pair of characters and making them gay and having that be an automatically good and progressive thing and ignoring the original context. Empowering win for wlw: the king and relative who kidnapped you is… a woman!

Generally, what people miss when they engage with the Persephone myth, is the question of why it was created in the first place, what it represents. The modern narrative surrounding hades and persephone is that of Persephone escaping her old life, old name, and incredibly overbearing (often villainous) mother — even the Hades game (2018) does this, which frustrates me to no end. The modern narrative is then that Persephone is granted more freedom in her marriage to Hades, she’s empowered and becomes the Queen of the underworld, but her mother throws a hissy fit so she needs to leave every winter or Demeter will let all of humanity die, basically.

The original myth, for those who are not aware, is actually told from the perspective of Demeter to begin with. And I’m aware that there are different versions of every myth, but if there are any great deviations from the recorded myth of Demeter then I’m unaware of them.

The story goes like this:

Demeter’s young daughter Kore (Greek, meaning young girl or maiden) is out in the field picking flowers. Hades comes out riding his carriage and snags her and drags her down with him into the underworld to be his wife. She doesn’t want to, once there she begs to go home, but since she eats three seeds of a pomegranate grown in the underworld, she must stay there for three months. Hades had received permission to do this by his brother, Zeus, who also happens to be the girl’s father. Demeter searches desperately for her daughter once she finds out she’s missing, and the goddess Hecate tells her that she heard screams but saw nothing. Then the god Helios tells Demeter that he saw what happened and explains it, that Zeus had given Hades permission to take Kore as his wife. This is what sends Demeter into a rage, and she brings a stop to the seasons and the harvests. Zeus figures that this is bad, actually, and so sends Hermes to Hades to get back Persephone. Hades says yes unless she’s eaten something, and now is the part where the pomegranate seeds become relevant. The three months probably represent summer and not winter like we usually say btw, since those are the months in Greece in which nothing grows.

Also relevant: Demeter, and so also her daughter, were very central figures to the Euleusian mysteries (idk if I spelled that right, sorry) and we don’t need to get into that but basically, they were HUGELY important figures, with Demeter at the helm.

Here’s why this myth matters: it clearly mirrors the reality of women living at the time that it was created. The father having a say in who the girl marries, and the girl and the mother have no power over it. When a girl was married off, that might very well be the last time her mother ever got to see her, so Demeter actually getting to see her daughter? Regularly? A fantasy, a happy ending to the reality women lived under. Demeter’s rage actually has effect, she actually has power enough to sway Zeus, which most women couldn’t relate to but likely wished for. They could relate to the story of the Rape of Persephone. They could relate to Kore, they could later relate to Demeter.

But today, the people reinterpreting the myth can’t relate to this. They don’t have to fear being married off against their will, or losing their daughter. But they can probably relate to having an overbearing mother. They can probably relate to feeling stifled by their mother and wishing for greater freedom and power, and what’s more of a power-trip than the Queen of Hell the underworld?

If the original myth was wish-fulfilment, then the new popular reinterpretation is so to an even greater extent. This is my little caveat about why I understand that this interpretation exists. Here’s why I loathe it, in particular when it’s a book with modern marketing:

It shows a lack of understanding for the original myth. And, from those who know the original myth and claim that their version is more progressive, a lack of respect for it and the people who created it.

In general, I have no problem with modern reinterpretations of myths. I have problems with them being hailed as more progressive simply because they might be easier for us to relate to. I have huge problems with the fandomisation of myth, which I’ve talked about earlier. I’ll try to link it later.

In 2022, Corinne Tan was announced as the American Girl Doll of the Year and heavily promoted as a way of raising awareness about anti-Asian racism during COVID. But what message did her story send?

When Corinne Tan debuted, AsAms were offended by the synopsis and how it centered a white man in what’s supposed to be a COVID racism story. Once I heard the book had been fast tracked for two live-action specials on HBO Max and Cartoon Network, I knew more harm was coming. In the rare instances Western media talks about anti-Asian racism, it’s downplayed. Instead, narratives are used to reinforce the 1) Model Minority Myth, 2) Asian gender divide, and 3) “correct” levels of assimilation. Unsurprisingly, Corinne Tan’s story does all of these.

There’s a place for stories about divorce and blended families, but this story isn’t it. COVID racism is specifically about the threat of AAPI being verbally or physically assaulted by non-AAPI. The author’s choice to emphasize conflict within an Asian family is inappropriate.

Instead of empathizing with David Tan’s inability to work during the pandemic—a real problem that has devastated many AAPI families and businesses—it’s the reason Judy divorces him. The story not only erases racism as a reason for AAPI pandemic joblessness, but victim-blames. It implies her parents have an antagonistic relationship because her dad isn’t white and rich, and that makes him an inferior romantic partner. Despite referencing a slur meant for Asian men, the story never acknowledges that her dad experiences racism too.

Another appalling aspect is how Corinne, an 11-year-old girl, is responsible for teaching a grown white man to empathize with her experiences of racism—because her mom won’t. Not only does Judy never talk to Arne about racism, she lets him gaslight Corinne in front of her. Judy seems fixated on wealth and achievement over her daughters’ emotional safety. When the family lived with David, the walls were decorated with the daughters’ artwork. In Arne’s house, Judy is concerned with protecting the aesthetic chosen by Arne’s professional decorator.

This is why the Eileen Gu poster becomes such a sticking point. While David encourages his daughters to embrace Chinese culture in everything, Judy seems to apply it only to her restaurant. Is it because Arne tells her he hoped marrying a chef would mean never buying takeout?

Meanwhile, Arne, a rich white businessman—who calls himself Goldilocks and whose behavior the author describes as “clueless” racism—gets sympathetic treatment. His fear of heights and dogs is equated to Corinne’s fear of racists, as if it’s a phobia to overcome via willpower.

Recall that the purpose of Corinne Tan’s story is to educate about AAPI experiences with racism during COVID. Mattel, owner of American Girl, hired a panel of AsAm academics and consultants to tell her story with “authenticity and accuracy.” So how did it turn out so harmful?

It’s because the AsAm consultants for this project and many similar projects—like Dr. Jennifer Ho—are out-of-touch with our community. Insulated by wealth and/or whiteness they’ve chosen, they think they’ve acknowledged their privilege, but their work shows they’re still reinforcing it.

The broader problem is that racist and misogynist white men control media. Regardless of gender, sexuality, or marital status, AAPI are given media power only when they internalize and repeat white men’s messaging. This isn’t limited to fiction—it affects real-life activism too.

A picture says a thousand words, and it speaks volumes that Stop AAPI Hate chose to literally center white men in the photo accompanying their hate crime data report summarizing the past two years. Of those “thousands of voices,” it isn’t hard to guess who’s prioritized. Stop AAPI Hate pushes the same message as Corinne Tan’s story: racist white men deserve more humanity and sympathy than actual AAPI male victims. Hating and erasing AAPI men is required to show that you’re a “safe” Asian deserving of resources and support. (see my data thread about how hate crime data is manipulated to erase AAPI men as victims)

It’s bad enough that an entire gender is being cut out from resources and empathy, but what Corinne Tan’s story reveals is another disturbing trend: AAPI youth are being groomed into normalizing having racist white men in their lives, specifically in their families and homes.

Corinne Tan is a middle grade story (ages 8-12). For its consulting, Mattel partnered with AAPI Youth Rising, a non-profit led by AAPI middle schoolers. At the time, Dr. Ho was president of the Association for Asian American Studies, which helps shape AsAm studies in schools. It’s not a stretch to think Corinne’s mom Judy, who puts Corinne in harm’s way by refusing to address her white husband’s “clueless” racism, is reflective of the behavior of AAPI adults involved in Stop AAPI Hate and other AsAm orgs—they gave the story their stamp of approval.

Anti-Asian hate crimes against AAPI should’ve brought the community closer together. Instead, we’ve been segregated further, and the AAPI who hurt the community the most have hoarded the empathy, media attention, and resources for themselves. How can any of us heal like this?

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This is attention to details man

Ganon holds a bow straight while Link holds it at an angle.

Ganon also draws the bow like a samurai, (since this Ganon is more samurai like) he positions/aim the bow then draws.

(Not shown here) Even if Link uses a long bow like Ganon he will still aim at an angle since he is a soldier. He positions/aim the bow and draws at the same time.

One of those pieces of weirdness lies in the relative weights of various objects, particularly in relation to Link, the player character. Some objects are incongruously heavy or light for their size because the puzzles in which they appear require them to be, and Link himself is weirdly lightweight, presumably because that was the easiest way to cause him to experience the exaggerated knockback that many puzzles require without making the forces involved ridiculously strong.

not that i ever do, but here’s a reminder.

I think people reduce the character of Gale to a jealous pickme "Prim reaper" because he makes them deeply uncomfortable. His character is a stark, unusual and brutally honest depiction of how exploitation and drone strikes targeting civilian population centers might drive a survivor to want revenge.