“As a trans woman, not many things give me a headache the way the entire concept of passing does. Passing is the idea that if a trans woman (or any person who is presenting as a woman) looks, dresses and acts a certain way, people won’t be able to tell they are anything other than a completely “normal” woman. If you look at online trans communities or forums, you’ll find tons of tips on how to pass better – everything from hair removal tips to workouts to how to walk and sit more femininely.
All of this presupposes that there is only one right way to look like and be a woman. And it’s infuriating. On the one hand, whenever I go out in public or post pictures online, a part of me is deathly afraid that I’ll be insulted or worse. I desperately want to be accepted as the woman I am. On the other hand, I hate that in order to feel safe, I’m expected to fit into the very narrow box that is labeled “woman.” Tips on how to pass always seem to say that you should avoid building muscle mass and avoid wearing clothes and makeup that are too costumey, that you should try to hide your shoulders and soften your features. Trans women are often told that if we want to pass, we have to try our hardest to be petite, soft, have just the right amount of femininity, and not stand out too much. But what if I want to be a different kind of woman? What if I want to look like Grace Jones or Kate Moennig? What if I want to look like Beth Ditto or Dolly Parton? They’re all cis women; don’t they pass?”
Meyllen Djneres (via muffinsandcouture)
Just FYI Khan was supposed to be from northern India and yet he was played by Ricardo Mantelban who spoke with a Latino accent so it’s not like they got his race right the first time either (ﾉ´ヮ´)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧
NO
A) There were immigration restrictions on Asians during the fifties/sixties. This means it is entirely possible that they may not have actually been able to find an Indian actor to play the role.I can’t find the source where I originally read this, so never mind. If anyone has a link please let me know so I can have all my receipts.B) So yeah, they fucked up in the 60s. But there’s this magical thing called progress, which means that by now we should be able to get it right. There is no dearth of brown actors in this day and age. There is no lack of great Indian actors. There are many who have the acting chops and are of the right race to play Khan.
C) At least Montalban was a POC playing a POC. There is a major distinction between that and a white person playing a POC.
D) Cumberbatch is a white man playing a POC. There are already so few roles which are written/given to POC and the number has now been significantly lessened.
E) Khan was genetically engineered to be a better human. He’s stronger, smarter, faster than any other human, including the white male protagonist. He was genetically superior to all others. And he was a POC. This, written in the 60s, was earth-shatteringly progressive. It is still progressive today, as most heroes are still white. Having such a vital character taken from the ranks of great roles for POC (of which there are very few) is incredibly upsetting and problematic.
F) Usually when POC are cast as villains they are thuggish, dull, and ineffective. Khan was none of these things. He was sympathetic. He was complex. The role of Khan is a great one and it is absolutely important that he was specifically written to be a POC.
G) Star Trek was ground-breaking for providing major roles for POC actors in a time when there were few. Uhura and Sulu, a black woman and an Asian man, were main characters. Martin Luther King Jr actually spoke with Nichelle Nichols and asked her to remain on the show when she wanted to leave because of how important it was that there was a prominent black female character on television. Star Trek was a show about racial progress in the media. It was about moving forward. Casting Cumberbatch as a character who should be played by a POC is a step backwards.
H) There’s some really gross history between India and Britain, which adds to how problematic it is that a British actor was chosen to play an Indian character. So not only has Khan been whitewashed, he’s been whitewashed in an historically despicable way.
I) Stark Trek: Into Darkness was distributed by Paramount Pictures, the same studio responsible for whitewashing the Avatar: The Last Airbender movie adaptation.
Representation is important and it is incredibly hurtful that so many people do not see how important Khan as a character of color is.
And it’s Ricardo Montalbán, by the way. Not Mantelban. Get your spelling right, please.
NINETY-FIVE GRIEVANCES TO GOD: ABRIDGED
After Martin Luther
1. Children are capable of feeling
both shame and abandonment.
14. My father lives alone. Also,
a hawk killed his dog and you
expect me to believe in mercy.
20. Good things happen to bad people.
47. One day, every person I have ever
loved will die and the only option
you have given me is to just sit by
and watch it happen or hope
I am the first to go.
48. Speaking of love,
86. The list of artists who have
committed suicide only includes
the ones who were well known
enough to be found.
95. As a child, I prayed every night.
It felt important. Mature. Powerful.
I wish someone had told me that
it was me, that I was the powerful one.
Imagine it: fleets of six-year-olds
believing that strongly in themselves.
- Sierra DeMulder
Star Trek Into Darkness: the spoiler review (At io9)
After making a mere $84 million at the U.S. box office, Star Trek Into Darkness is considered by some to be a disappointment. Perhaps the problem is that it was a touch confusing. To help our readers better understand it, we’ve complied and answered these Frequently Asked Questions about the movie.
Maximum spoilers ahead…
How does the movie start?
Well, with Kirk and Bones fucking with a planet of primitive aliens. They steal some kind of holy scroll, and then get chased through a red jungle.
Seems like kind of a dick move.
Well, it’s not very clear, but ostensibly they’ve stolen the scroll to get chased, in order to draw the aliens away from a volcano that’s about to explode.
Okay, that seems reasonable.
Except that 1) when the volcano erupts, it’s going to kill everybody on the planet, so it hardly matters where they are, and 2) Spock is getting dropped down into the volcano to set off a cold fusion bomb.
Wait, what?
Yeah, he sets off the cold fusion bomb and all the lava freezes.
You know cold fusion isn’t actually cold, right? It’s only “cold” in the sense that opposed to regular fusion it’s not a bazillion degrees hot.
Huh.
And did you say Spock was in the volcano? Why the hell didn’t they just beam the bomb in there?
Um, something about the planet’s magnetic field. Although they do beam Spock out of the volcano just a few minutes later, so…
And why did Spock have to go with the bomb to set it off? Are you telling me in the 23rd century that people don’t have a way to detonate bombs remotely? That’s stupid.
Well —
And why the fuck is the Enterprise just carrying around a cold fusion suitcase bomb anyways?
Look, you’re getting very upset, and this is just the first scene of the movie.
(I was going to make a post about how mad Star Trek made me, but this does it better, with bonus tears of laughter. )
I HAVE SEEN TREK
i have a lot of feelings about a lot of stuff, i think i’m going to need to see it again to really be able to articulate a lot of things (though i am going to try to get an essay about the experience of seeing it up today), but i have seen it! i will be tagging everything about it, including this post, with “stid spoilers” until it’s out everywhere. THERE ARE SPOILERS. IN THIS POST. AVOIDING SPOILERS? STOP READING. THIS IS YOUR WARNING.
so: the very very not coherent version of my very very involved feelings:
Marion Cotillard at the ‘Blood Ties’ premiere during the 66th Annual Cannes Film Festival on May 20, 2013
FRANKIE DEAR, YOU ARE GOING TO REGRET THIS.
There’s No Room For It On The Bridge: Sexism in Star Trek (2009) and Star Trek Into Darkness.
Let me being by saying that the title of this really half-assed essay is drawn from the Star Trek: The Original Series episode The Balance of Terror, which is, in of itself, an excellent episode (Romulanssss guys A+ would recommend). And yes, whilst I know the quotation is actually a comment on racist comments made about Spock (“Leave any bigotry in your quarters…”), I feel like it sets up the attitudes of what Star Trek, to me, is meant to represent very nicely. Another thing you should probably know about this episode, is that is first aired on December 13, 1966.
It seems to me that over 40 years later, the bigotry is still alive and well on the helm of the production of the Star Trek films.
(spoilers for Star Trek Into Darkness ahead)
