very well then

Bonus:

Twitter celebrates #QueerSelfLove with an unstoppable hashtag

Dylan Marron, an actor on the “Welcome to Night Vale” podcast and creator of the hashtag, expressed his distraught for his LGBT family on Twitter after the death of 49 people and 53 injured at Pulse, a gay Orlando night club

House Aesthetic, Volume II:

Ravenclaw | “the more you know, the crazier you look”

why poi? 

i’d heard there were artificial intelligences and lesbians and cyberpunk aesthetics and yea it had all of that (!!!!)

So you know how I proposed to my girlfriend with a Bering and Wells quote?

Well it turns out both of us COMPLETELY INDEPENDENTLY planned Bering and Wells themed proposals. We are such trash for this ship and fandom and it was such an important part of our early relationship.

i KNOW, right? 

and yet, and yet… and YET.

HOW the fuck do we keep making these stupid mistakes?

if i were a justifiably angry fan, and i were reading my tumblr - and everything i have said, you know what i would ask myself?

i would ask - “javi, you said you talked about this in the room - you said others talked about it in the room - you knew about the trope, you tried to make it understood, when you realized that your boss was going through a course of action that upheld something you felt - no, knew - to be wrong, if you saw that he just wasn’t getting it, for whatever reason - why didn’t you storm into his office and make him GET IT by any means necessary? why? were you afraid to lose your job? were you tired? were you lazy? were you worried about causing a scene? did you think you were such a great bunch of storytellers that it would somehow not remind people of their own horrible experiences in the real world?”

and frankly, my response would most likely entail an admission of any and all of those awful truths - and perhaps a couple more that i don’t have the guts to own up to in public.

i know it’s cold comfort, but you’re right.

and you are right to be dumbfounded that it is possible for people in power over the popular culture to just not know, and in not knowing to downplay the discussion as not being the the equal to what they want to do with story.

it sucks. 

it makes no sense.

and yet, there’s episode 307, on the air for all to see.

and the next time, i will do everything i didn’t do this time.

Take a deep breath guys first..

Orphan Black returns on April 14th Person Of Interest returns on May 3rd Do you know any other show that contains 2 regular lesbians?

So what will be this time after all this chaotic situation over Lexa? 

After Delphine, Cosima will follow? or the end for Shoot will be bitter and deadly? 

An open letter to executive producers, writers, and cast in the age of Twitter, tumblr, AO3, Instagram, Youtube, whatever social media platforms come next, and global audiences. 

Congratulations! If you’re reading this its highly doubtful you’re in any way involved in mass media production but I’m fucking sick of shitty audience engagement by multi-billion dollar media companies and anyway this was better than working on my dissertation you’ve probably got a successful show! 

That’s fantastic! Your work is being viewed by millions of people! Pat yourself on the back! But wait! Oh dear. There’s a hiccup. Suddenly you notice tweets and messages and questions at SDCC about your characters - your beloved, money-making, copyrighted intellectual property - being…gay?? 

You didn’t intend this, your protagonist and antagonist and supporting characters and background characters are 100% heterosexual!!  What ever will you do?!

Fear not, my hypothetical content creator! I’m about to break down some key do’s and don’ts for when you find yourself suddenly in possession of a queer fandom. I will categorize my advice in three simple levels to help you best choose which type of engagement with your fandom is right for you, your show, and your network: Beginner, Intermediate, and Advanced. Please note: this is not an exhaustive post. I can’t literally write the book for you on how media producers can engage their diverse, 21st century audiences (well, lol I could but you’re not paying me so suck it) and fandoms - like any subculture - vary greatly in demographics, linguistic quirks, norms, and culture. That means there is no ‘one size fits all’ strategy for dealing with your most passionate fans. Theoretically, you have marketing people who earn a paycheck. Make them work for it by doing some actual research instead of just changing the fonts on the SDCC posters. 

Ready? No? Well too fucking bad because here we go. 

Actually, no, I’m sorry, hold up. We need to lay some groundwork first. Let’s call these our a priori assumptions about fandom in general but queer fandom in particular. 

Assumption 1: Your queer fandom is not going anywhere. You’re fucking stuck with us. You will not get rid of us. Better bigger assholes than you show runners, executive producers, marketing teams, writers’ rooms, and casts have tried. We’re still here. We still show up at all the conventions. We still produce fanfiction, art, videos, meta. We still spend ungodly amounts of money, time, and energy engaging with the media you have created. Even sometimes especially when we are angry at it. We are here to stay.