susana polo is the hero we deserve

In The Room And At The Table; An Entertainment Industry Directive In Light Of #Charlottesville

You know what I see when I look at the Tiki Torchers? The current face of the Entertainment Industry: a sea of cisgender (I am, admittedly, assuming), able-bodied, straight (at least they’ll claim as much), white males, just like our culture’s movies, TV shows, and theater productions.

In the recently published USC Annenberg study, white characters make up 70.8% of the 900 movies surveyed from 2007-2016, and in 2016 only 31.4% of all speaking characters were female. What you see, is what you will understand; what you understand, is what you will have empathy for. If we don’t consciously change the faces and bodies that we are allowed to see, as a nation, then we will continue to repeat what is happening in Charlottesville and Seattle and all over the United States. 

We, the entertainment industry, are the problem: we determine what people see, we determine what people understand. If we don’t challenge who is in the room, who is at the table, and who is on the screen at every moment of our careers, then we have blood on our hands. 

And I mean this for ANY room, table, or screen, no matter how big or small. I have recently been invited to a number of private table readings of projects friends are working on. I’m honored to be invited to these events, as new work of any kind is where my passions lie. But when I walk into any space, I do a headcount; I count how many women, and I count how many people of color [1]. My experience lately has been strong gender parity, which is not surprising given the number of self-identified feminists with which I associate. But much to my disappointment, when the rooms have been curated by white writers or directors, then they have been predominantly, if not exclusively, white. 

Your choices matter at every step of the game, even the early, tiny, private steps. Make inclusivity and racial diversity a priority even when you think “I just need to hear it,” or “we’ll worry about this when the piece gets produced.” You’re lying to yourself. You must start right now. It will take work and you’ll have to reach outside your circles, perhaps, but do it anyway. Decide you’re going to do it. Keep deciding you’re doing it as the project grows. Your life and your piece will benefit from the decision.

Because here’s the thing: we’ve got a chicken and egg problem. Our content is white because white has been established as a default, and white has been established as a default because our content is white. Here at CastAndLoose, all day long I slog through casting breakdowns, many of which are from film students rehashing every film they’ve ever seen, thinking they’re coming up with new ideas, but all they know how to write is what they’ve already seen, and that is white, male, cis, hetero, young, and able-bodied. By choosing to surround yourself by solely other white people, even for a private reading, you are more deeply inscribing a cycle that is already challenging to break out of. 

When I say diversity, I mean broad diversity. One person of color in your room full of white people is not enough. A brilliant friend of mine, who is a writer, actor, producer, and black woman in the industry put it to me this way: when you are the only person of color in a room, you are Other. When you are in a room that is diverse and inclusive, then you get to just be a human. The more diverse every room is, the more every person in that space can be a human. Choose to make everyone human. 

I focus this directive at white content-makers because we have a responsibility that we cannot ignore. When my friends of color, or trans friends, or disabled friends wake up in the morning, they can’t decide to be privileged that day. They can’t decide to take a day off from being faced with subjugation or assumptions or micro (or not at all micro) aggressions. But if you’re white, cis, and able-bodied, like I am, then we have a responsibility to wake up and actively decide to look our privilege, our prejudices, and the systemic oppression in which we engage in the face. If we decide today we’re not going to deal with it, and we’ll take the easy route, then we have paid into the system [2].

I am often accused of being an idealist, of not accepting the realities of my chosen career. This is not idealism, this is the only choice I can make and be able to look at myself in the mirror. Our nation teems with racism, anti-Semitism, misogyny, transphobia, homophobia, ableism, and ageism, and the flame is fueled by an orange beast who rose to power on the back of the Entertainment Industry. We have to take responsibility, investigate our personal bigotries, and choose to be a force for change. No matter how hard. No matter how exhausting. No matter how small your room or your table. We are out of time.

[1] I would include here that I head count trans and gender nonconforming individuals and/or people with disabilities, but I recognize that in doing so I am making assumptions about gender presentation (if I don’t know the individual personally), and the visibility of disability, so I choose not to include these items in this particular list. However, in constructing a room, this sort of inclusivity must also be addressed.

[2] I owe much of this paragraph to the words and ideas of that same brilliant friend, Penny Middleton.

my beautiful daughter likes throwing rocks at things and screaming

i finally watched lego batman, aka the only version of batman i care about

Ejecting a floppy disk in space

1.44MB of wheeee.

Pigeon Comic 44 - Under Pressure

Stay coo’, pigeon army.

k2, because I decided I needed another banner image

‘Aaaahh’ ‘AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA’

i can no longer take any description of a male protagonist seriously if the writer describes him as ‘brooding’

because i used to think ‘oh, that’s sexy and mysterious, etc’

and now i think of this

once you’ve been loudly cussed out by 2.5 lbs of feathers, that word only ever means one thing

This is the kinda brooding i WANNA see

#so this behavior basically translates to nonstop cuddling of offspring and vocal aggression towards anything that tries to prevent that #tbh i would be delighted to see male protagonists do just this sort of thing (via starfoozle)

There is nothing about this post I don’t like.

More broody characters 2k15

This genuinely makes Wolverine of the X-men a perfect example of a successful broody male character by this definition.

Batman and Robin.

To survival.

So which is considered the oldest fandom? ( By what is considered a fandom by today’s standards) Sherlock or Star Trek?

Star Trek fandom basically created the idea of fan fiction, but Sherlock fandom nagged the writer to bring Sherlock back from the dead so the series didn’t end.

Sherlock or Star Trek???

*dusts off lectern*

Star Trek is generally considered the first western tv/film fandom. (The Man from UNCLE had a fandom slightly before then, but it didn’t persist or make a huge splash like Star Trek did).

Sherlock Holmes is generally considered the first western modern fandom in the sense that it’s the first piece of media to have a fandom amidst modern ideas of copyright. (There are other fandoms that came a bit earlier, especially with the serialized publication of novels, but, again, they didn’t persist or make a huge splash like Sherlock Holmes did.)

As many other people have pointed out in response to this post, fandom (aka participatory culture) has been a thing basically forever, both in terms of writing fanfiction (though it wasn’t called that) and in terms of having Feels and Opinions about stories and sharing them with the creators.

Modern notions of fandom are generally characterized by our concept of intellectual property ownership and the methods of media distribution, both of which create a divide between producers and fans that makes each identity more discrete.

(Sorry for being a bad academic and not citing anything here, but I’m on mobile and don’t feel like sourcing it all.)

(Waves) I’m a graduate student studying Classical Japanese literature, and last year a colleague of mine did her MA thesis on 山路の露 (“Yamaji no tsuyu,” “Dew on the Mountain Road”) which is an honest-to-god fix-it fic of The Tale of Genji (aka the world’s first novel) that the 13th-century author wrote so her otp could get together.

A great many Knights of the Round Table were OCs added in to the narrative by local storytellers who wanted a knight from their area of England. Some of them have absolutely fucking crazy powersets, and a non-zero amount of them have same-sex romances. Lancelot himself, one of the most famous knights, is Chrétien de Troyes’ super cool good at everything totally hawt Gary Stu from the 12th century. 

The fic writers for BBC’s Merlin are arguably the truest inheritors of English-language fanfiction, especially the ones that make knight OCs and slash them.   

well,

There’s a full fic of this now

@itswalky

this is my favorite post to get better and be reblogged back into my feed

well,

You tell me Ryders are siblings and there’s more banter than ever before and I can’t imagine them not namecalling each other forever.

Anyways, I’m looking forward to the new kids. Happy N7, everyone

I have fruit polos and lollypops be jealous.

omg do many people not know what fruit polos are? they are heaven

In America, we call them lifesavers. They can be chewy or hard candy. 

polos aren’t chewy and they also come in mint.

this week on: britan thinks its special

This week on america copies everything from Britain.

This week on: Britain steals things from other countries.

things are heating up in the candy fandom

This is why my Irish cousins were so giggly about my last name being Polo. 

hell is right-clicking to save an image and accidentally clicking ‘email image’ and having to wait forty years for some email program you didn’t even know existed to rise from its slumber like some lovecraftian ancient god, meanwhile the fans on your laptop are preparing for takeoff and you stare dead-eyed as the rainbow spirals, spirals, spirals. you wait and suffer this cosmic karma. days pass. “just a few more seconds” you slur. your laptop freezes and the concept of time is no longer comprehensible. your family and friends forget your name and you fade from existence.

Y’know, I really enjoy the concept of Clark Kent.

Like, minus the whole superman aspect.

because, like, okay I can buy that maybe he can disguise himself well enough to hide the fact that he’s superman, but i doubt any amount of slouching and glasses wearing can truly disguise that he’s a very tall EXTREMELY muscular man with a jawline that can cut glass.

So basically this newspaper office has this guy who looks like a weightlifter/supermodel just hanging around but he wears glasses and acts like a huge nerd and everyone just goes with it???

Like “Oh yeah, that’s Clark. No no he works here. Oh no don’t bother being intimidated by him, talk to him for five minutes and he’ll devolve into a lecture on proper tractor maintenance. We like Clark.”

 I wonder if the ladies in the office ever drag him with them to bars so they don’t have to worry about creeps trying to harass them like “back off creeps our friend here is 6′4″ and grew up chucking hay bales”  And then it’s funny because (as far as they know) Clark is like, the meekest lil nerd around. (He don’t look it though!!!!)

It’s just incredible to me that Clark Kent can pull off being a quiet harmless dork while still looking like, well, superman. 

Do you think he occasionally turns up to the office Halloween party wearing a really shitty Batman costume?

Well, I do now.