queerly_beloved | Entries tagged with identity: multiple

Hello, and welcome back to Thursday Recs!

This week I am doubling down on my recommendation for No Man of Woman Born by Ana Mardoll:

Destiny sees what others don’t.

A quiet fisher mourning the loss of xer sister to a cruel dragon. A clever hedge-witch gathering knowledge in a hostile land. A son seeking vengeance for his father's death. A daughter claiming the legacy denied her. A princess laboring under an unbreakable curse. A young resistance fighter questioning everything he's ever known. A little girl willing to battle a dragon for the sake of a wish. These heroes and heroines emerge from adversity into triumph, recognizing they can be more than they ever imagined: chosen ones of destiny.

From the author of the Earthside series and the Rewoven Tales novels, No Man of Woman Born is a collection of seven fantasy stories in which transgender and nonbinary characters subvert and fulfill gendered prophecies. These prophecies recognize and acknowledge each character's gender, even when others do not. Note: No trans or nonbinary characters were killed in the making of this book. Trigger warnings and neopronoun pronunciation guides are provided for each story.

Now, to get some unpleasantness out of the way: Over six weeks ago, Mardoll was threatened with doxxing by a now defunct website known for targeting and harassing trans people, people of color, and generally anyone not white, not cis, not straight, etc. To try and do some damage control, Mardoll revealed the name of his employer: A manufacturer that works for the United States military (like 60% of all manufacturing jobs in the US), where he renewed software licenses from home and on which he was relying as a multiply-disabled nonbinary trans man for their comprehensive healthcare. He had also been openly trying to leave this job for years.

Unfortunately, Mardoll was already a somewhat divisive figure on Twitter, so many people who already didn't like him decided to spin "renews software licenses for a manufacturer that works with the US Military" in the worst way possible, effectively painting him as just as bad as the worst war criminals the US employs. Mardoll was ultimately harassed off of Twitter and ended up moving. If you do not feel comfortable participating in a community headed by a mod that does not condemn Ana Mardoll, I wish you the best and will no make you stay.

Back on topic: I love this book! It's available as paperback, ebook, and audiobook, and I highly recommend it to anyone with gender feelings. The stories focus on: a trans man, a trans woman, an agender person, a bigender person, a genderfluid person, and a questioning person (not in that order), and include a bonus short that Mardoll had previously published on his blog.

I think that's it from me! Now, do you have a rec for this week? Just reply to this post with something queer or queer-adjacent (such as, soap made by a queer person that isn't necessarily queer themed) that you'd, well, recommend. Self-recs are welcome, as are recs for fandom-related content!

Or have you tried something recced on a previous week? Do you have your own report to share about it? I'd love to hear about it!

soc_puppet

Oh right, I should probably boost this over here as well:

My sister-in-law would like me to remind everyone that free-to-read speculative fiction magazines Strange Horizons and Samovar pay Pro Rates for artists, writers, and, in Samovar's case, translation! They are also always looking for stories by and about marginalized people: Non-straight, non-cis, intersex, POC, disabled, minority religion, etc. Samovar also offers stories in multiple languages, so feel free to submit something that's not in English! For example, in their recent Mexicanx issue, they had a story in Nahuatl!

The staff at Strange Horizons and Samovar are especially proud to focus on content about a particular identity whenever bigots get up in arms about their inclusion (or, as was the case with the Sad/Rabid Puppies and the Hugos a few years back, have completely misunderstood what the magazine and its staff stand for).

From an accessibility standpoint, they also have a podcast and toggle-able content warnings at the top of each writing entry; as of very recently, the content warnings are also available in multiple languages!

From a writing standpoint, Strange Horizons and Samovar use the broad definition of speculative fiction that includes not only all types of fantasy and sci-fi, but horror, and pretty much all non-reality elements, as well as accepting poetry and nonfiction.

Also, again, my SIL works as an editor for them, and I can vouch that she's good people and is telling the truth about how enthusiastic the staff are about representation in stories.

Anyway, if you like to write stuff (or draw or translate stuff!), or like speculative fiction, be sure to check them out!

alexseanchai

The list of explicitly queer characters in Miraculous Ladybug now numbers, I believe, six. Show creator Thomas Astruc said on Twitter ages ago that Rose and Juleka are dating; he also said ages ago Nathaniel and Marc are dating, and confirmed the tweet from a genderfluid friend of his that Marc, being based on that friend, is genderfluid; and earlier today he tweeted that Max is ace and Alix is aro.

This revelation surprises approximately no one.

soc_puppet

Something I've been mulling over since Queerly Beloved's inception:

If we accept questioning people (and my conscience says we must), then we also need to accept that some of them might find the answer is they're not queer/LGBTQIAP+. It's rare, I know, especially for folks who spend a good amount of time asking themselves, but they do exist. What happens when to them? I don't want to kick them out of a community where they've found support that they need, and especially where they can potentially support others as well; if they stay, how might their role in the community change?

After long consideration, I have some potential guidelines to propose; they are currently open to community members for commentary and input:

Cisgender allo-hetero perisex people are allowed, but should not make any post all about themselves unless they have actual, first-hand lived experience with an issue. Examples include questioning one's gender and/or sexuality, and supporting a queer/LGBTQIAP+ loved one, especially where any of these intersect with other marginalizations. Queer/LGBTQIAP+ voices are still to be prioritized on queer/LGBTQIAP+ issues.

This should allow anyone who has discovered that they're cis allo-het and presumed perisex to continue to support the community, as well as solidifying a place for other allies, while still prioritizing queer/LGBTQIAP+ people. However, there may still be some things that I'm missing or haven't thought of. Do any of you have any input on this proposed policy?

Edit: There's already a lot of good discussion in the comments section, proving that yes, I definitely didn't think of everything! I wanted to say thank you to everyone who's added something so far, and I promise I'm reading, I'm just also a teensy bit foggy at the moment. Please continue to share your insights and constructive criticism, and together we can try and find a good balance for community policy 👍

soc_puppet

Phew, okay! I've got our community tags up. Or, well, as many as I can think of, at any rate. I'm sure there's a bunch I missed, and fandom tags in particular I'll have to add as we go.

Anyone who wants to is welcome to look over the tag list and request that I add something to it, especially if it's something I missed. This was just everything I could come up with off the top of my head, and while it covers a lot of stuff, I know I'm not perfect and didn't think of everything or everyone. Please also let me know if you spot any spelling mistakes or typos; I'm still not entirely used to the keyboard on my new laptop, which will account for some slipups, but definitely not all of them.

Let's see here, what else. Oh! CW is short for Content Warning, and warns for types of content that people might not want to deal with or, in the case of NSFW (literally: Not Safe For Work), is the type of thing they might get in trouble for having a record of on a work computer. Media is for reviews and shoutouts about various forms of media that have representation of us, good and bad. Everything else should be fairly self-explanatory, I think.

Since Dreamwidth has a tag limit of 1000 for free accounts (1500 for paid, 2000 for premium paid), there may come a time when I have to combine some lesser-used tags in order to preserve some more-used tags. We've still got close to 900 tags to go before reaching the free account limit, though, so I'm pretty sure we'll be okay for a while.

Thanks to everyone who's joined so far, and if you have any feedback, I would be very interested in it!

Edit: It looks like I have tags hidden somehow at the moment? Lemme go take a look around, see how I need to fix that.

Edit 2: Apparently all unused tags were marked as "private" in the tag management thing. There's probably a better way to fix that, but it's late and I'm tired, so my current workaround is: Literally tag this post with every single tag available. (For the record, I tried doing that and then untagging everything, but the tags went right back to being private, so that shortcut is a no-go.)