Shoutout To My Fellow Aroallos Tbh. Shoutout To Cishet Aroallos Who Keep Hearing Theyre Not Queer Enough

Rick Riordan’s response to the racism and hatred directed at Leah after she was cast as Annabeth:

“Leah Jeffries is Annabeth Chase”

“This post is specifically for those who have a problem with the casting of Leah Jeffries as Annabeth Chase. It’s a shame such posts need to be written, but they do. First, let me be clear I am speaking here only for myself. These thoughts are mine alone. They do not necessarily reflect or represent the opinions of any part of Disney, the TV show, the production team, or the Jeffries family.

The response to the casting of Leah has been overwhelmingly positive and joyous, as it should be. Leah brings so much energy and enthusiasm to this role, so much of Annabeth’s strength. She will be a role model for new generations of girls who will see in her the kind hero they want to be.

If you have a problem with this casting, however, take it up with me. You have no one else to blame. Whatever else you take from this post, we should be able to agree that bullying and harassing a child online is inexcusably wrong. As strong as Leah is, as much as we have discussed the potential for this kind of reaction and the intense pressure this role will bring, the negative comments she has received online are out of line. They need to stop. Now.

I was quite clear a year ago, when we announced our first open casting, that we would be following Disney’s company policy on nondiscrimination: We are committed to diverse, inclusive casting. For every role, please submit qualified performers, without regard to disability, gender, race and ethnicity, age, color, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity or any other basis prohibited by law. We did that. The casting process was long, intense, massive and exhaustive.

I have been clear, as the author, that I was looking for the best actors to inhabit and bring to life the personalities of these characters, and that physical appearance was secondary for me. We did that.  We took a year to do this process thoroughly and find the best of the best. This trio is the best. Leah Jeffries is Annabeth Chase.

Some of you have apparently felt offended or exasperated when your objections are called out online as racist. “But I am not racist,” you say. “It is not racist to want an actor who is accurate to the book’s description of the character!”

Let’s examine that statement.

You are upset/disappointed/frustrated/angry because a Black actor has been cast to play a character who was described as white in the books. “She doesn’t look the way I always imagined.”

You either are not aware, or have dismissed, Leah’s years of hard work honing her craft, her talent, her tenacity, her focus, her screen presence. You refuse to believe her selection could have been based on merit. Without having seen her play the part, you have pre-judged her (pre + judge = prejudice) and decided she must have been hired simply to fill a quota or tick a diversity box. And by the way, these criticisms have come from across the political spectrum, right and left.

You have decided that I couldn’t possibly mean what I have always said: That the true nature of the character lies in their personality. You feel I must have been coerced, brainwashed, bribed, threatened, whatever, or I as a white male author never would have chosen a Black actor for the part of this canonically white girl.

You refuse to believe me, the guy who wrote the books and created these characters, when I say that these actors are perfect for the roles because of the talent they bring and the way they used their auditions to expand, improve and electrify the lines they were given. Once you see Leah as Annabeth, she will become exactly the way you imagine Annabeth, assuming you give her that chance, but you refuse to credit that this may be true.

You are judging her appropriateness for this role solely and exclusively on how she looks. She is a Black girl playing someone who was described in the books as white.

Friends, that is racism.

And before you resort to the old kneejerk reaction — “I am not racist!” — let’s examine that statement too.

If I may quote from an excellent recent article in the Boston Globe about Dr. Khama Ennis, who created a program on implicit bias for the Massachusetts Board of Registration for Medicine in Boston: “To say a person doesn’t have bias is to say that person isn’t human. It’s how we navigate the world … based on what we’re taught and our own personal histories.”

Racism/colorism isn’t something we have or don’t have. I have it. You have it. We all do. And not just white people like me. All people. It’s either something we recognize and try to work on, or it’s something we deny. Saying “I am not racist!” is simply declaring that you deny your own biases and refuse to work on them.

The core message of Percy Jackson has always been that difference is strength. There is power in plurality. The things that distinguish us from one another are often our marks of individual greatness. You should never judge someone by how well they fit your preconceived notions. That neurodivergent kid who has failed out of six schools, for instance, may well be the son of Poseidon. Anyone can be a hero.

If you don’t get that, if you’re still upset about the casting of this marvelous trio, then it doesn’t matter how many times you have read the books. You didn’t learn anything from them.

Watch the show or don’t. That’s your call. But this will be an adaptation that I am proud of, and which fully honors the spirit of Percy Jackson and the Olympians, taking the bedtime story I told my son twenty years ago to make him feel better about being neurodivergent, and improving on it so that kids all over the world can continue to see themselves as heroes at Camp Half-Blood.”

(x)

June 15 is the anniversary of both the Night Vale and Gravity Falls pilots, as well as Vanessa Doofenshmirtz’s birthday and “give it up for day 15” day

“scar, i think we’re soulmates & you’re too busy chasing fairies!”

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hello trafficblr i have an Offering

If Trump goes to prison during pride month I will literally never stop laughing like to charge reblog to cast give me all of your evil thoughts and prayers for this freak to get his first ever consequence.

have some fucking tips for androgynous presentation that mixes femme and masc styles and isn’t just ‘be afab and wear trousers from the men’s section’

recently I wore some of those trousers with the wide non form fitting legs   and added small heeled boots. 10/10 would recommend I felt very high fashion. looked masc but was making the femme click clack heel sound.

basic loungy outfits can be made 100% more queer by adding colour. srsly jeans with a nice tshirt is queer as fuck if the jeans are orange.

wearing the femmest outfit possible, long skirt, cute blouse, etc. becomes a power move when you do so without a single shred of makeup. bonus if your hair is short. bonus if it’s not a pixie. bonus if your shoes are stompy

find all your Statement Pieces. wear them together. voila.

we all know about suspenders. now put them where they don’t belong. attach them to skirts. attach them to your trousers but leave them hanging

literally just wear stuff you think looks rad because if you enjoy both masculine and feminine clothing styles it naturally follows the stuff you think looks rad together will end up being genderfuck

embrace alternative fashion/weird charity shop finds/vintage/stuff that breaks fashion rules even if its ‘technically’ femme/masc. part of fitting into gender roles is wearing mainstream and current femme/masc clothes because gender roles and their associated accepted dress are always shifting so anything that differs from that is automatically subversive.

billowy shirts. undo them as much as you’re comfortable with. somewhat obvious but the howl’s moving castle vibes are v strong. am I a femme arts student or a dashing masc pirate type? who knows. 

floral patterns feel a billion times more masc if the colours are bold. 

personally after I stopped wearing makeup I felt I lot more able to just be like huh. that’s my face. and feel kinda triumphant  in the ugly parts of it and just be unabashedly weird. and if that’s not genderfuck idk what is. same w not shaving my legs tbh. I enjoy just existing.

that said if you do like makeup, using just (just. no foundation or shit) eyeshadow or just lipstick? also a power move. 

If you go for the classic dapper style of androgynous presentation but want something closer to androgynous than just weird masc, try adding a soft girly jumper to your manly trousers and etc.

adding an emphasis to your natural waist to a masc outfit (with a belt or something) is a good way to feminise it and vice versa with emphasising a dropped waist in a femme outfit to bring attention away from your smaller natural one (again with a belt or maybe low waisted trousers)

long coats are very good I feel my most formless and inexplicable when my outer layer goes straight past my knees.

obviously all this is gonna be slightly biased to my agab/personal style/body type/etc. but yeah. there’s my tips and hopefully none of them are weirdly unachievable or equate androgyny with masculinity 

@stvksn on ig

Shout out to orange onesie child for greatly improving a rather mid con.

stress <33 she is a spore blossom moobloom you can't change my mind <3

I'm finally made it out of depression enough to work on the full version of this. MCBLR, please keep the frog hype alive so my work doesn't go unpunished T_T (song: Meizong - Deadly Banjer)

the string isnt real, it cant hurt you

but it can rob you