But it’s six of one, half a dozen of the other. Sugar mentions centering Garnet in the show so that the character couldn’t be written out after the Ruby/Sapphire reveal. CN explicitly tells her that the characters cannot be romantically involved, though by that point the season in deep in production and the horse is…

If the net result is the content getting into countries where LGBTQ+ themes are normally verboten, and fostering any sort of contemplation or discussion, or helping a member of the community struggling with their identity in a society that condemns them for just being who they are; I'd say it's ultimately beneficial,…

And even better is Reunited, which I would honestly pay money to see a homophobic localization team try to handle. Ruby and Sapphire’s wedding is the focus of the whole first half, and if they tried to deal with the romance beforehand by presenting the more outwardly masculine Ruby as a male character, well too bad,…

A couple of my cousins are twin girls that just graduated high school, and the growing trend of representation of their identities in media has been great. They both are obsessive with drawing & such, so I’ve got them hooked on a lot of the female creators that have put in the miles, like Kate Beaton & Noelle…

This is such a relevant paragraph:

It took me a long time to learn some of the lessons in this piece. “Having a conversation” isn’t inherently a bad thing. In fact, you could argue it’s necessary, as that’s where everything starts. But the “conversation” never goes anywhere, the subject drops out of the news and people are expected to just think back…

Having a conversation implies that there are parties who need to understand the situation and learn more. Facebook is notorious for making such claims but...

Agreed. At best you could say that he’s in his manic phase and is using this pointless campaign as the outlet for the excess energy, but even that explanation only stretches so far. All of the bullshit lands squarely on him being a self-absorbed jackass that got rich and famous despite having the equivalent knowledge o…

Not when you’re building that IP for someone else, under a contract. You think businesses just operate without any kind of ownership over their products? You think the engineer who developed the iPhone fingerprint scanner gets to take that tech with them when they leave?! lmao

Well, I know Bari Weiss would never defend Nick Cannon here, because Cannon is being clearly anti-Semitic, and Weiss thinks anyone who can be connected to anti-Semitism deserves to be shamed and driven from the public square (and to Weiss, anti-Semitism includes any strident criticism of Israel).

I just don’t understand the popularity of Louis Farrakhan. I realize the Nation of Islam does a lot of outreach in Black and minority neighborhoods, and in other situations with marginalized people, and has significant credibility as a result (at least for some). But Louis Farrakhan is straight up a snake in snake’s…

Sarcasm noted, but it actually isn’t that crazy, is it? We already got TERFs over here aligning with alt-right a**hats to keep transwomen out of bathrooms (because CHILDREN). There’s no bedfellows that will surprise me anymore.

“The world is outraged about racial injustice and the pandemic is finally forcing people to acknowledge the vast divide between the few rich and the many poor. There are protests active, at this moment, in cities across the world.

This is is cancel culture, right? Bari Weiss, J.K. Rowling, and all the other Harper’s letter signatories are going to rally to Nick’s defense, and slam Viacom for shutting down opposing viewpoints and short circuiting the marketplace of ideas, right?

“I AIN’T GONNA FEYA LIKE SOME PUSSY QUEAH! FE-YAH’S A WICKED MINEKILLAH! FEYA’S LIKE DETH OR SOME SHIT, AN’ I GOTTA FACE IT LIKE A MAN AND KICK IT RIGHT’N THE FUCKIN’ BAWLS!” ~ Marky Mark Atraydees, Dune

Of course they can, but that doesn’t protect writers from criticism. Particularly in the case of public works of art. If we want to take games seriously—which I hope we all can agree on that at least—it will sometimes mean talking about stuff we found questionable.

It’s totally okay to disagree about this stuff too.…

Giving these moments strong, purposeful contexts. Plenty of stories tackle abuse or sexual trauma in ways that are both shocking but nevertheless empathetic. I don’t think Cage’s stories manage that, unfortunately.

He’s been pretty openly disparaging of Islam, to the point that a lot of people consider him hateful towards Muslims. And not just the “obviously evil” fanatical zealots who want to kill all the infidels, but basically Muslims in general.

A fitting match, to be sure.

100% agreed. This is literally the discussion my husband and I were having. He doesn’t really watch anime (except when I rope him into it), but despite being a superhero fan, he’s said he’s been very burnt out on them lately because there’s been so many of these big movies. My Hero Academia is the first anime he has…