daemonism

As someone who actually read her book and knows a bit about her activism, this made me too angry to ignore it.

This is the cited quote from Lani Ka’ahumanu and Loraine Hutchins’ book Bi Any Other Name: Bisexual People Speak Out:

Bisexual attraction is narrowed to “men and women” while pansexual “opens the possibilities for attraction to more than two genders.” These definitions arbitrarily define bisexual in a binary way and then present pansexual as a non-binary alternative. This opens the doorway to a judgment that pansexual identity is superior to bisexual identity because it “opens possibilities” and is a “more fluid and much broader form of sexual orientation”. This judgmental conclusion is unacceptable and dangerous as it lends itself to perpetuating bisexual erasure. The actual lived non-binary history of the bisexual community and movement and the inclusive culture and community spirit of bisexuals are eradicated when a binary interpretation of our name for ourselves is arbitrarily assumed. (p. 16-17)

Left out is that pansexuality is not being criticized in that quote. How resource glossaries define pansexual and bisexual is being criticized. Specifically Exploring the Dimensions of Human Sexuality and Trans Bodies, Trans Selves.

Left out is that the following paragraph states:

The point is to respect one another and remain flexible in the ever changing self-identity landscape. We have to hold a safe space for people to define their personal experience without judgment. There is room for all of us. (p. 17)

Left out is that these quotes are in the same chapter:

Don’t “identity police” but DO spend time acknowledging the diversity that exists within the “B in LGBT” (p. 12) People who are attracted to more than one sex and/or gender — now called variously bi, pan, fluid, queer. (p. 12) All sexual identities including queer, pan, fluid, etc. (p. 13) The term bisexual will be used as an inclusive term to mean romantic and/or sexual attraction to more than one gender, and includes pansexual, fluid, omnisexual, and queer self-identifications. (p. 14) Pansexual people have been actively involved in the bisexual community since the 1970s. (p. 15) We bisexuals, queer people, polysexuals, fluid people, pansexuals, by every name we call ourselves — continue to subvert gender assumptions and explore naming ourselves — by every other identity, to no-identity-needed-or-wanted at all. (p. 21) What’s most important is respecting each person’s self-identity and being recognized and understood for who we are. (p. 21)

Left out is that Lani Ka’ahumanu said this in 2016:

I’m so glad I’m mentoring, and there’s so many young bisexuals coming up, and transgender people, and pansexuals, and sexuals, and fluids, and whatever you want to call yourself. Yes, do it. Just push it all. Please. (1:47:55)

Left out is that Lani Ka’ahumanu cofounded the Bay Area Bisexual Network, which published Anything That Moves, the pan inclusive magazine that the Bi Manifesto came from. The group has since been renamed to the Bay Area Bi+ & Pan Network.

Left out is that the bisexual community has a large, long history of supporting and including pan/mspec identities, one that far surpasses any pan/mspecphobic bisexual individuals.

Lani Ka’ahumanu supports pansexuality (and other mspec identities) and self-identification, believes there’s a place for all of our labels, and encourages people to grow as the terminology for sexuality grows.

But panphobes are taking the words of an almost 80 year old mixed race bisexual activist wildly out of context in order to use her as a tool in a hate campaign against a sexuality she supports.

I remember when the trailer for TFA first dropped, and Finn's face showed up, and I was too excited for new Star Wars to even realize how massive this was, that a Black man was going to be heading Star Wars, and he was a main character, not a stereotype, and a hero. And then the racists came out to say it was forced diversity. They never offered an example of what unforced diversity that was inclusive of Black people was. The harassment didn't stop there. It followed Finn and John Boyega through the entre sequel trilogy.

Where TFA respected Finn's character, TLJ trashed it, and TROS burned it. But by then as a Black fan of Star Wars, I wasn't surprised--sorely disappointed, but in a jaded sense.

racists didn't stop, they condensed and solidified. I got older and wiser since 2015 (lol) and I realized just how overwhelmingly white the star wars fandom is. i started looking at star wars critically. it started with plot critiques of The Clone Wars, and then it moved into critiques of the clones' treatment, the racialization of certain story lines, the whitewashing, the islamophobia, the genocide excusing, etc. It was only recently that I came to realize that a show that literally inspired me to start telling stories was also responsible for so much pain and hurt in all my friends.

The Bad Batch shows up, I'm unimpressed, but I also forget that there are large swathes of willfully ignorant fans here. even in my extended circles. they can't see the racism. they cant see the whitewashing. they dont want to see the antisemitism. and they make excuses for all of it. they patronize or coddle or shout down fans of color who try to bring this to light. they let personal, petty beef get in the way of supporting us. ive had people say they wont support the movement because they thought i was rude. whats interesting is that those people had never been posting about uwwtbb in the four months now that the movement has been in existence. i dont know who they're trying to convince.

and im in a weird position. Star Wars likes to take Black characters and villainze them and/or throw them aside. Mace is villainized by the fandom. Finn was shafted and villainized by the fandom. Saw apparently keeps getting written to be an extremist of some type. Steela was the ONLY Black woman in all of The Clone Wars. They made half her arc a love triangle with Ahsoka and a guy who wasn't worth it, and then they killed her. I couldn't even be excited to see her because of it, and I hated when she died because she didn't need to.

As a kid I latched onto Ahsoka and Rex, the former because she was a girl close to my age and she was cool and badass, and the latter because he and the clones were close to my skin tone and they were cool and badass. and the one who counts as a person of color gets shafted, too. and ahsoka is being played by a transphobe.

Like, yeah, her character can speak. But when the audience can’t understand her, its the same as not giving her a voice at all, and that rubbed me the wrong way.

In-universe the heroes should have made an effort to learn her language, and out of universe the creators should have just let her be understood by the audience, either with subtitles or having a character know her language and translate, or just have her speak freaking English like everybody else!

I do like the idea that not all the heroes come from the same culture or speak the same language. That’s good world building.

I do not like the fact that the only character no one can understand is also the only woman.

Like, Revelation was doing so well with Teela, Adora, and Evil-Lyn being our dream team. Having the narrative be pushed by the women. It’s the women that are the heroes and save the world. It’s great!

“Uhuh, yeah, I see that look in your eyes Glynda. You know exactly where I’m going with this. How high do you think Spiderman can throw you?”

Cue Spider-Man kicking ass in pink ballet shoes and leggings.

This actually increased his popularity severely, and lots of people suddenly gained the interest in ballet; boys too, because if someone as cool as Spider-Man does it, everyone can do it.

The Stage Manager:

please try this on for size:

(I used to read a blogger who insisted that “All right, I’ll go to Hell,” from Huckleberry Finn is the most pure and perfect prayer in the canon of American literature.  Meaning, as I understand it, that the decision to do the right thing in the face of eternal damnation is the most holy decision one can make, and if God Himself is not proud of the poor mixed-up kid, then God Himself is not worth much more than a “Get thee behind me,” and the rest of us should be lining up to go to Hell too.  Worth noting that this person identified as an evangelical Christian, not because he was in line with what current American evangelicals believe, but because “they can change their name, I’m not changing mine.”  Interesting guy.  Sorry for the long parenthetical.)

Anyway, the point of Huck Finn, as far as I can tell, is that you can still choose to do good in utter darkness, with no guidance and no help and none of the right words.

(I wanted to add pictures of Kelly, John, and some specific TCW arcs, but there was just. No room.

Kelly Marie Tran being bullied by fans to the point she left social media and needed therapy.

As stated above - the immense bullying and literal boycotting faced by John Boyega

Having one of the ONLY TWO muslim-coded characters be a terrorist bomber (seriously?)

The Strange Fandom Hatred of Mace Windu

The characterization of Poe which is almost entirely formed around racist stereotypes

Eurocentrism in MUCH of the animation, including but not limited to: (1) An extreme lack of characters with darker-toned skin; (2) Giving an overwhelming amount of POC-coded characters eurocentric features, including eye colour

Appropriation of Asian religions, namely Buddhism and Taoism

The general orientalism which pervades, well, the entire saga

The Neimodians

The scene in rebels where Saw Gerrera, the one black man in that entire scene and one of the very few dark-skinned characters in the ENTIRE series, is written as a dangerous, radical extremist while Mon Mothma, a white woman, is shown to be the pure upstanding moral code of the good side.

The Sheer Number of Kylo Ren apologists who simultaneously try to demonize both Finn and John Boyega to uphold Kylo in this “he-can-do-no-wrong” light

Lando being first portrayed as a double-crossing traitor

The entire portrayal of Trace and Rafa Martez in their arc in TCW

On top of this, what I’ve been seeing lately, which is honestly extremely disheartening and is pushing me away from this fucking fandom:

The sheer number of white fans calling BIPOC fans racist for calling out whitewashing and colorism.

The sheer number of white fans dismissing BIPOC fans asking for a simple acknowledgement of racism while simultaneously degrading BIPOC fans.

The alarming number of fans who believe BIPOC fans are so “privileged” they’re making stuff up and labelling it racism (falls under the second point I made right under this)

I have two friends that I watch SW with. They’re both cis white men. And while they listen to me and try to understand, they don’t get it the same way I do. It has never, ever been a lived experience for them. It’s really startling how they’ll watch some episodes and not notice much while I’ll sit there annoyed or fuming mad at certain portrayals. Because as much as they listen to me, they’ve never lived through the experience of being a woman of colour.

We grew up in the exact same community. Same schools, same friends, same town, watching the same media. And yet the difference in what they notice and what I notice is huge.

Dr. Z. was, easily, the best and most competent doctor or dentist I’ve ever encountered – and after that accident, I encountered quite a number. He came stunningly highly recommended, had an excellent record, and the most calming bedside manner I’ve ever seen.

That last wasn’t the sweet gentle caretaking sort of manner, which some nurses have but you wouldn’t expect to see in a surgeon. No; when Dr. Z. told me that one of my broken molars was too badly damaged to save, and I (being seventeen and still moderately in shock) broke down crying, he stared at me incredulously and said, in a tone of utter bemusement, “But – I am very good.”

I stopped crying on the spot. In the last twenty-four hours or so of one doctor after another, no one had said anything that reassuring to me. He clearly just knew his own competence so well that the idea of someone being scared anyway was literally incomprehensible to him. What more could I possibly ask for?

(He was right. The procedure was very extended, because the tooth that needed to be removed was in bits, but there was zero pain at any point. And, as he promised, my teeth were so close together that they shifted to fill the gap to where there genuinely is none anymore, it’s just a little easier to floss on that side.)

But Dr. Z.’s insane competence wasn’t just limited to oral surgery.

When I met Dr. Z., he, like most doctors I’ve had, asked me if I was in college, and where, and what I was studying. When I say “math,” most doctors respond with “oh, wow, good for you” or possibly “what do you want to do with that after college?”

Dr. Z. wanted to know what kind of math.

I gave him the thirty-second layman’s summary that I give people who are foolish enough to ask that. He responded with “oh, you mean–” and the correct technical terms. I confirmed that was indeed what I meant (and keep in mind, this was upper-division college math, you don’t take this unless you’re a math major). He asked cogent follow-up questions, and there ensued ten or so minutes of what I’d call “small talk” except for how it was an intensely technical mathematical discussion.

He didn’t, as far as I can tell, have any kind of formal math background. He just … knew stuff.

I was a competitive fencer at this point in time, so when he asked if I had any questions about the surgery that would be necessary, I asked him if I’d be okay to fence while I had my jaw wired shut, or if it would interfere with breathing.

“Fencing?” he said.

“Yes,” I said, “like swordfighting,” because this is another conversation I got to have a lot. (People assume they’ve misheard you, or occasionally they think you mean building fences.)

“Which weapon?”

“Uh. Foil.”

“No, it won’t be safe,” and he went off into an explanation of why.

Turns out, he was also a serious fencer – and, when I mentioned my fencing coach, an old friend of his. (I asked my fencing coach later, and, oh yes, Dr. Z., a good friend of mine, excellent fencer.) (My coach was French. Dr. Z. was Israeli. I never saw Dr. Z. around the club or anything. I have no idea how they knew each other.)

So this was weird enough that later, when I was home, I looked Dr. Z. up on Yelp. His reviews were stellar, of course, but that wasn’t the weird thing.

The weird thing was that the reviews were full of people – professionals in lots of different fields – saying the same thing: I went to Dr. Z. for oral surgery, and he asked me about what I did, and it turned out he knew all about my field and had a competent and educated discussion with me about the obscure technical details of such-and-such.

All sorts of different fields, saying this. Lawyers. Businessmen. Musicians.

As far as I can tell, it’s not that I just happened to be pursuing the two fields he had a serious amateur interest in – he just seemed to be extremely good at literally everything.

I have no explanation for this. Possibly he sold his soul to the devil.