(Cishet) Men Should Read Gay Fan Fiction

[Image taken from: https://65.media.tumblr.com/92534fe84b34615a4ea697b665250b40/tumblr_nk921y0JwB1t4elojo1_500.jpg

Description: An edited photo of Liam Payne and Zayn Malik kissing. Both of them are conspicuously clothing-free, but we are only blessed to see a little bit of their torso with most of the focus on their faces which are mashed together gloriously in a messy, stubbly kiss. Liam is wearing a snap back backwards and has a hand carding through Zayn’s hair.]

 

Dear non-culturally queer, non-trans men,

You should be reading gay fan fiction.

Now I know this may squick some of you out, but here me out. Reading gay fan fiction will help you get laid and/or get dates! I know! Unreal right? And no, this is more than just a chance for me to drool over one my favourite pairings.

The Legend of Green Snake

[Taken from: http://www.californiaherps.com/films/snakefilms/SorcererAndWhiteSnake.html

Description: Two snake/human hybrids are depicted in this picture lounging in a bed of plants. Both snake/human hybrids appear to be young, Chinese women with long black hair. The green snake/human hybrid is laughing holding onto the white snake/human hybrid who is making a face.]

So! A couple months ago, I attended this series of workshops/community study called, “Through Thick and Thin” which was about fat queer women’s experiences. The culminating project for Through Thick and Thin was to make a video.

My video is a re-writing of a famous Chinese tale called the Legend of White Snake. The original story is more or less, about two snake spirits/demons named Green Snake and White Snake. White Snake falls in love with a human man named Xu Xian and eventually marries him. But shenanigans happen to try and divide their heterosexual union. Anyways. The story has numerous versions so I thought I could write my own. I felt connected to the potential queerness (femmeslash) of the story and felt it tied to my blood.

“Diversity” and the Continued Erasure of Intersectionality

[Taken from: http://sociology.mrdonn.org/diversity.html

Description: the word, “diversity” is written across the top of the image. Below the word are five smiling, cartoon human figures. In the middle is a dark skinned man with short, wavy/nappy black hair wearing a yellow sweater and belted brown jeans. His arms are around two other people. On his right is a pale white man with short, straight brown hair. He’s wearing a red polo shirt and blue jeans. To the pale white man’s right is a presumably East Asian woman in a manual wheelchair with shoulder-length black hair. She’s wearing a goldenrod button up and violet pants. Her chair is facing to the left. To the dark skinned man’s left is a warmer toned white woman with long red hair. She’s wearing  a teal sweater with a white “H” in the middle and is wearing a shirt white skirt and knee high socks. To the left of the warmer toned white woman is a warm toned white man in a manual wheelchair with short, straight blonde hair. He’s wearing a green t-shirt and violet pants. His chair is facing forward.]

I feel pretty ambivalent about the word, “diversity”. On the one hand, I was raised discursively to talk about diversity through queer organizing and anti-oppressive work. But I can’t help but despair at where it falls short and how I see it being applied incorrectly.

One Direction, Fandom, and White Supremacy

I went to a One Direction concert a couple days ago. (FYI, Leeyum was delicious and wet and sprayed down the other boys with a fire extinguisher… THE FIRE EXTINGUISHER IS HIS PENIS, the absence of Zayn in the harmonies sounds profoundly wrong, and it was lovely hanging out with friends and going to my very first stadium-sized concert).

Photo taken by Shane Camastro.

[Description: A dark stadium lit up with a few spot lights. THOUSANDS of people can be seen in seats on the ground and filling two upper tiers to the brim. Two silhouettes in the foreground can be seen of two figures with hands raised.]

As I surveyed the audience from the nosebleed seats, I couldn’t help but notice how many people were there. I heard it was estimated 10,000 people were in the stadium. In the nosebleed seats, there were a lot more families with young children (both boys and girls) but the vast majority of the seats were taken up by (white) girls and young adults.

On the one hand, seeing so many girls in one place was empowering. It’s not every day that you see a sea of girls in one place. Exiting the stadium post-concert, I exclaimed to my companions that it looked like a mob of zombies in front of us due to the sheer number of people. I naively imagined that we could enact powerful change with such numbers. Imagine if the money for the tickets to see this concert were instead collected and used to create more sustainable systems of food production… Over many concerts, this money could change the world!