Fiber Arts

this is why demanding flawless representation from every piece of media, and trying to police who writes what based on identity is a huge fucking mess

Assuming that straight people’s writings about queer characters are bad representation by default, which has terrible implications for representational media 

Stalking this author’s social media to ascertain if she was queer or not 

Deciding that, despite being openly bi to the publisher and social media, she is “presenting as straight” by having a husband and so must be lying about being bi 

Rather than offering actual constructive criticism of her work, dismissing it outright based on representation alone (even later admitting that they had no issue with her work aside from her perceived sexuality)

When confronted, doubling down and putting the blame on the author for somehow being dishonest about her sexuality and for rightfully complaining about their unprofessional behavior, which is libel, apparently

Calling the author’s character “slutty” 

Trying to guilt-trip the author by presenting the situation as a personal insult rather than a professional complaint, including the “if you’re going to be that way I guess I’ll just never offer constructive criticism ever again” rebuttal even though 1. That is literally their job as a publisher and 2. Their criticism wasn’t constructive in the first place

Defending their actions as support of the LGBT+ community while refusing to acknowledge that this type of gatekeeping only hurts the community

Accusing the author of being petty in one of the most passive-aggressively petty letters I’ve ever read, which was also characterized by grammatical errors that don’t help their case as a reputable publisher

This seems like the kind of situation where, long ago, someone had good intentions that went downhill when they decided to only engage with only the most unproblematic representation available.

Such an attitude negates the work of anyone doing their best who is writing about an experience that is not their own, or even representing their own experience in a way that makes someone uncomfortable. This is further evidenced by the publisher’s about page, which states that they will not publish books that include “explicit/toxic romance” and “any works that depict rape or have extreme trigger warnings,” while not specifying what those triggers are. That is their prerogative as a publisher, of course, but purging anything problematic from your catalogue can often do more harm than good, as authors use these subjects to work through their own problems and help others do so as well. That’s why trigger warnings exist in the first place.

Cats are so weird

Disability can happen at any time, sweetheart!

Your perfectly healthy, abled kid can be in a car accident that paralyzes them from the neck down

Your lovely neurotypical toddler can contract a rare disease that leaves them with irreparable brain damage

Your child can lose motor skills from a sports head injury

Your child can become deaf or blind from an illness, an injury or a recessive gene

Your child can suffer an accident that costs them a limb

Your child can develop a brain tumor or a heart problem or a myriad of issues that will disable them long after they are born a healthy, abled, neurotypical baby.

Just because your child was not born disabled does not mean they cannot become disabled.

David Tennant + Theatre Seats

Bonus:

Excerpt from this EcoWatch story:

Andrew Yang’s assertion that people move away from the coast at the last Democratic debate is the completely rational and correct choice for NASA scientists in Greenland.

“There is enough ice in Greenland to raise the sea levels by 7.5 meters, that’s about 25 feet, an enormous volume of ice, and that would be devastating to coastlines all around the planet,” said Josh Willis, a NASA oceanographer, to CNN. “We should be retreating already from the coastline if we are looking at many meters [lost] in the next century or two.”

Willis and his research team at NASA’s Ocean Melting Greenland have been seeing some alarming patterns as they jet around the island’s coastline since heat waves bore down on the U.S. and Europe at the end of July, as CNN reported. Not only is the surface temperature warmer, turning Greenland into a slush-filled mess, but the ocean temperature deep under the water is also rising. The warming water eats away at the foundation of the glaciers, meaning Greenland’s massive ice sheet is getting weaker at the top and the bottom, which spells trouble for the entire world.

“Greenland has impacts all around the planet. A billion tons of ice lost here raises sea levels in Australia, in Southeast Asia, in the United States, in Europe,” said Willis to CNN. “We are all connected by the same ocean.”

The scientists looking at the ice and waters found a large opening of water near Helheim glacier, a huge 4-mile glacier on Greenland’s east coast, that had warm water along its entire depth, more than 2,000 feet below the surface, as CNN reported.