fucking fandom
Dec. 9th, 2022 04:40 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
impyFirst up: still sick. New sickness arrived just as maybe the old one was at the stage where I'd just go to work, masked as always, and be miserable. Don't want to say more as everything I say or think jinxes shit.
Because I've been sick, you're two days or so behind on the GOTY 2023 leaking. I am ever so sorry. We'll jump right into Kavi, shall we?
I'm betting money on MG mold, one of the medium skins (possibly the newer one? but not as sure on that), and black hair. Since at least one person actually represented by Kavi has said, it's not the older white ladies' place to be deciding if she's proper representation, especially when they're talking over the people who've been waiting and waiting. So in the spirit of that, and because I am too tired to go looking up who, exactly, Kavi is supposed to represent, I'm going to stick with my initial reaction:
She's cute as fuck and I need her. Followed quickly thereafter by "Another MG mold, my heart!" Since this is obviously a picture taken of a screen, I'm not basing too much color accuracy on anything beyond feeling safe in assuming her boots are gonna be hot pink and the black hair.
My book loving self is not as thrilled with the idea that her book is a journal and not an actual story. :/ Give me stories, AG!
But that leads us to our other controversy.
I don't keep up with AG's non-story books. I just don't. I don't think they started coming out before I'd aged out of them and thus I didn't fully realize they were a thing until much, much later. I do know that over the years, their A Smart Girl's Guide to Bodies books have been challenged more than a few times because the AG consumer base is a strange, odd place that we've previously discussed.
But what the hell, let's follow that tangent for a second. I do not understand the exceptionally conservative or hateful who latch onto AG and act like it's a brand new thing for AG to take a stand on things. Because it's not. Saint Samantha is an outlier in her time because she befriends Nellie. Cornelia baffles Samantha a bit in her quest for the right for women to vote. Grandmary is against it. Samantha's views on Black people are not the norm for a girl of her time and status. Felicity coming down on the side of the colonies would not have been a given back in her day and her friendship with Elizabeth surviving this divide? Yeah, not easy in the books or in reality. Her running around in breeches? Scandalous. She's your rebel and yet she's also usually the second one the super conservative pull out to prove how American the line is. You fools.
This line has always fallen on the side of treat people like people and give them the respect they deserve simply for being human or you are the villain of the story. ALWAYS. There was a backlash against Kira's aunts being gay but it didn't stop her from selling like crazy. The Care and Keeping of You books are frequently lauded as being essential reads for any child.
A Smart Girl's Guide to Body Image came out at some point and apparently certain people are up in arms over things contained within. Specifically the mention of trans kids. One of the hateful biddies on the board was kind enough to post some of the passages she had issues with and I swear to God, the passages were as simple as Being transgender is not an illness or something to be ashamed of. If you're questioning your gender identity, or if you already know that you're trans or nonbinary, talk with an adult you trust. Yes, they mention hormone/puberty blockers are a possibility, but they stress that you need to talk to a doctor you trust. They also point out that Trans and NB kids who get help from doctors have much better mental health than those who don't, and if you don't have an adult you can trust, they direct you to a list of resources on another page.
*deep breath* If AG talking about trans and NB kids in a book about Body Image is a breaking point for you, enough to get you to wave away the whole line, you were not paying attention to the company at all during your stay in the land. You have also made it abundantly clear that you are not a safe person for your kids to talk to and that proves there is a need for this book, because kids are pretty good at figuring out whether or not they have someone safe to talk about big shit to. Not always, as people can surprise you, but if your reaction to this book and that passage is to say burn it all down, you are not a safe person.
I wouldn't agree with them if the reaction was, "well, I don't want my kids to read about such things so I just won't get them this book" but like... I get it. But that's not the reaction in play here.
A thread was started about whether the company could survive this storm on top of everything else, and I do think it's an interesting topic, but it immediately went sideways thanks in no small part to the person who posted those bits on IG. She's been spewing just this side of hateful shit in the Kavi/Muslim threads and she just went alllllll out in the controversy thread. Due to being sick and not having really any friends in the fandom to speak of, I've been trying not to engage because I know full well that unless I find something at just the right point, I go in guns blazing and go down like a complete asshole. It's because I bottle it up too much and then explode. But the thread was just too much for me to let slide, so I waded in and tried my best to be just this side of nice while also pointing out that some people should be feeling very bad about their opinions right about now.
Also, I'm not sure if my eyes just crossed at some point, but someone else mentioned in that every so condescending way that there's a danger in having fat kids feel good about themselves and I just lost my absolute goddamn mind.
Fuck. You.
Fat kids know they're fat. Shaming them DOES NOT HELP. It can, however, lead to them feeling suicidal or developing all sorts of eating disorders and other mental health issues, and I swear to Jesus Christ himself we've had enough scientific evidence to back this up for pretty much the ENTIRETY of Gen Z so this IS NOT NEWS. NO.
IF, by some miracle of God, you have found that one fat kid who does not know they are fat? Don't fucking ruin it for them. That makes you a unicorn killer. Maybe kids these days aren't quite as cruel, but the parents sure as fuck are.
Anyway, the thread is now locked but a few people backed me up and Mrs Redacted ignored me and that's better than fine. But dude. I will never understand how people can be so fucking heartless on a regular basis.
Now, had anyone picked up the thread about how AG was talking out of both sides of their mouth on the trans issue, that I would've loved. Because they absolutely are, given their HP collab and this book. But it was brought up in a different context and now the thread is closed.
For clarity's sake, I don't think Mrs Redacted had any hand in the obesity talk, though she did flip her shit over body dysmorphia being mentioned.
tl;dr AG fandom continues to let down the characters that helped raise them.
Because I've been sick, you're two days or so behind on the GOTY 2023 leaking. I am ever so sorry. We'll jump right into Kavi, shall we?
I'm betting money on MG mold, one of the medium skins (possibly the newer one? but not as sure on that), and black hair. Since at least one person actually represented by Kavi has said, it's not the older white ladies' place to be deciding if she's proper representation, especially when they're talking over the people who've been waiting and waiting. So in the spirit of that, and because I am too tired to go looking up who, exactly, Kavi is supposed to represent, I'm going to stick with my initial reaction:
She's cute as fuck and I need her. Followed quickly thereafter by "Another MG mold, my heart!" Since this is obviously a picture taken of a screen, I'm not basing too much color accuracy on anything beyond feeling safe in assuming her boots are gonna be hot pink and the black hair.
My book loving self is not as thrilled with the idea that her book is a journal and not an actual story. :/ Give me stories, AG!
But that leads us to our other controversy.
I don't keep up with AG's non-story books. I just don't. I don't think they started coming out before I'd aged out of them and thus I didn't fully realize they were a thing until much, much later. I do know that over the years, their A Smart Girl's Guide to Bodies books have been challenged more than a few times because the AG consumer base is a strange, odd place that we've previously discussed.
But what the hell, let's follow that tangent for a second. I do not understand the exceptionally conservative or hateful who latch onto AG and act like it's a brand new thing for AG to take a stand on things. Because it's not. Saint Samantha is an outlier in her time because she befriends Nellie. Cornelia baffles Samantha a bit in her quest for the right for women to vote. Grandmary is against it. Samantha's views on Black people are not the norm for a girl of her time and status. Felicity coming down on the side of the colonies would not have been a given back in her day and her friendship with Elizabeth surviving this divide? Yeah, not easy in the books or in reality. Her running around in breeches? Scandalous. She's your rebel and yet she's also usually the second one the super conservative pull out to prove how American the line is. You fools.
This line has always fallen on the side of treat people like people and give them the respect they deserve simply for being human or you are the villain of the story. ALWAYS. There was a backlash against Kira's aunts being gay but it didn't stop her from selling like crazy. The Care and Keeping of You books are frequently lauded as being essential reads for any child.
A Smart Girl's Guide to Body Image came out at some point and apparently certain people are up in arms over things contained within. Specifically the mention of trans kids. One of the hateful biddies on the board was kind enough to post some of the passages she had issues with and I swear to God, the passages were as simple as Being transgender is not an illness or something to be ashamed of. If you're questioning your gender identity, or if you already know that you're trans or nonbinary, talk with an adult you trust. Yes, they mention hormone/puberty blockers are a possibility, but they stress that you need to talk to a doctor you trust. They also point out that Trans and NB kids who get help from doctors have much better mental health than those who don't, and if you don't have an adult you can trust, they direct you to a list of resources on another page.
*deep breath* If AG talking about trans and NB kids in a book about Body Image is a breaking point for you, enough to get you to wave away the whole line, you were not paying attention to the company at all during your stay in the land. You have also made it abundantly clear that you are not a safe person for your kids to talk to and that proves there is a need for this book, because kids are pretty good at figuring out whether or not they have someone safe to talk about big shit to. Not always, as people can surprise you, but if your reaction to this book and that passage is to say burn it all down, you are not a safe person.
I wouldn't agree with them if the reaction was, "well, I don't want my kids to read about such things so I just won't get them this book" but like... I get it. But that's not the reaction in play here.
A thread was started about whether the company could survive this storm on top of everything else, and I do think it's an interesting topic, but it immediately went sideways thanks in no small part to the person who posted those bits on IG. She's been spewing just this side of hateful shit in the Kavi/Muslim threads and she just went alllllll out in the controversy thread. Due to being sick and not having really any friends in the fandom to speak of, I've been trying not to engage because I know full well that unless I find something at just the right point, I go in guns blazing and go down like a complete asshole. It's because I bottle it up too much and then explode. But the thread was just too much for me to let slide, so I waded in and tried my best to be just this side of nice while also pointing out that some people should be feeling very bad about their opinions right about now.
Also, I'm not sure if my eyes just crossed at some point, but someone else mentioned in that every so condescending way that there's a danger in having fat kids feel good about themselves and I just lost my absolute goddamn mind.
Fuck. You.
Fat kids know they're fat. Shaming them DOES NOT HELP. It can, however, lead to them feeling suicidal or developing all sorts of eating disorders and other mental health issues, and I swear to Jesus Christ himself we've had enough scientific evidence to back this up for pretty much the ENTIRETY of Gen Z so this IS NOT NEWS. NO.
IF, by some miracle of God, you have found that one fat kid who does not know they are fat? Don't fucking ruin it for them. That makes you a unicorn killer. Maybe kids these days aren't quite as cruel, but the parents sure as fuck are.
Anyway, the thread is now locked but a few people backed me up and Mrs Redacted ignored me and that's better than fine. But dude. I will never understand how people can be so fucking heartless on a regular basis.
Now, had anyone picked up the thread about how AG was talking out of both sides of their mouth on the trans issue, that I would've loved. Because they absolutely are, given their HP collab and this book. But it was brought up in a different context and now the thread is closed.
For clarity's sake, I don't think Mrs Redacted had any hand in the obesity talk, though she did flip her shit over body dysmorphia being mentioned.
tl;dr AG fandom continues to let down the characters that helped raise them.
(no subject)
Date: 2022-12-09 01:37 pm (UTC)I have been checking this one blog for Kavi reveals and they did not have that photo. Failure. She looks cute as fuuuuuuuuuuck. I was disappointed I didn't want any of the MGs from the new batch of TMs, so this works perfectly for me. I'm glad she's not Sonali! SO glad. I like her outfit a lot. I do hope the actual doll is a shade or two darker than she's looking there though. I thought she was Indian based on her name so while there's a good range of skintones that are representative, darker never hurts. I'd call this acceptable but not ideal. But she could be multiracial so I won't say anything more. I'm here for her.
(no subject)
From:(no subject)
Date: 2022-12-10 07:56 pm (UTC)(no subject)
From: