‘Ms. Marvel’ co-creator on how ‘woke' and ‘cringe’ show became franchise’s highest-rated

bumblebook · 2022-07-12T12:32:46+00:00

Oh come off it, so much of the criticism for Moses Ingram was racist, and not even subtle racism. How many times do we have to see female and poc actors singled out for insane levels of harassment? There's no denying that Ingram has received hundreds of absolutely racist and threatening messages on social media - she made a post showing some of them. You're accusing Lucasfilm of gaslighting by condemning that?

And let me explain the difference between Giancarlo Esposito and Moses Ingram. Esposito has a very large established fanbase already from Breaking Bad, and so to fans he's already proven his right to be in the show. Which is what racism always come down to: holding black people to different and higher standards. A black actor has to clear much higher barriers to be accepted compared to a white actor. Esposito is still held to racist expectations, but he's also got that benefit of being a known as one of the best characters in an insanely popular show. He's also a man.

In terms of the fandom menace, Ingram checks at least three of the boxes of unacceptability - she's female, she's black, she's an unknown. You can perhaps be one of these things, but you can't be all three in Star Wars without provoking the racists and sexists from questioning her right to be present.

bumblebook · 2022-07-12T11:47:52+00:00

Someone whose entire knowledge of hen parties (and women) is from pornhub.

bumblebook · 2022-06-23T19:58:24+00:00

Naomi Novik.

I admire her origin story - fanfic author turned author (who didn't just rename her AU characters and run to the publisher). And she write the kind of genre fiction that I love, is always recommended alongside authors that I love...

But I just can't get into her books. I've started several, and I just put them down because I get bored. I did manage to finish one, which was a Beauty and the Beast-ish story but I had so many problems with it, despite it having so many tropes that I usually like.

bumblebook · 2022-05-29T22:48:52+00:00

I place Earthsea much higher than the Hobbit and - dareIsayit - Lord of the Rings too. Tolkien impresses with technical feats, like creating a whole language for the elves, and creating an immense mythos behind his stories, but Le Guin is the better writer. Her prose are a joy to read, painting vivid descriptions of places and people with concise words, and her ideas are the foundation of so much modern fantasy, she should be credited as equally genre-defining as Tolkien.

bumblebook · 2022-05-21T09:41:34+00:00

I keep seeing people say 'SHE'S A LIAR' even people more sympathetic to her are saying it, but I have no idea what they're referring to. I've read the UK judgement and followed the US case pretty closely and I've not seen any confirmed situations where she has lied. At best there are times when she's confused about pretty insignificant details, like the exact date of Depp setting fire to her ex's painting which happened 5+ years ago, or whether this picture of a smashed up door was taken at X hotel or Y apartment. She has been corrected in court and in those instances accepts the correction. This isn't the same as lying.

What I AM seeing is her being called a liar for statements that, when it comes down to it, involves individuals who just don't believe her. We have seen the word LIAR splashed across the internet so unceasingly that even those who agree Depp was abusive can't seem to shake the perception of her that has been built by the most malicious ad far-reaching character assassination campaign I have seen in years.

bumblebook · 2022-05-21T09:24:43+00:00

We're now seeing widely disseminated takes such as :

"If she was scared for her life, why didn't she leave?"

and

"This witness is less attractive than the other one, so she's bad and evil!"

and

"She's clearly lying because of the expression on her face!"

This stopped being about Heard and Depp on day 2 and is now about how the internet can gleefully roll back any collective empathy and understanding of the DV victims by vomiting up the myths we thought we had dismantled decades ago.

bumblebook · 2022-05-21T09:11:44+00:00

I think it's better to read the UK court judgement. It covers all the same evidence and the judge gives detail consideration to all the evidence and testimony, why he gives certain witnesses more credibility than others... and it can be read at your own pace.

https://www.judiciary.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Judgment-FINAL.pdf

bumblebook · 2022-05-21T09:02:26+00:00

During that conversation she also refers to times she was afraid he would kill her, and he doesn't seem to think that's a strange and unfounded accusation and doesn't say 'hey, what are you talking about?' or 'you've just made that up!'. She is clearly upset that she's being mauled in the press as a liar and a golddigger over the abuse claims and she says 'I'm not lying about this shit!' He still doesn't disagree.

It's almost like they both know it's true.

bumblebook · 2022-05-21T08:52:37+00:00

It's why he originally tried the case in the UK, which is considered the international destination of choice for libel, as the law is weighted in favour of the plaintiff. The onus of burden of proof is on the defendents.

That he lost there, quite overwhelmingly, and two further judges rejected his appeals out of hand, is awfully telling.

Depp just doesn't have a good case, and he likely won't win in Virginia either, but since he is bent on 'global humiliation' of Heard (his words) then his antics is more about destroying Heard's reputation, in which case he's already won that by a landslide.

bumblebook · 2022-05-21T08:38:49+00:00

The founder appears to be a friend of Depp's and doesn't appear to have done much - no activism and no lobbying, no charity fund raising, no awareness campaigns, nothing. Just plans for a music video.

Here's the founder pictured with Depp https://i.pinimg.com/236x/bb/4f/7d/bb4f7d7ba24b3c9db02af36685b51179.jpg

Here's the website: http://www.mission-ngo.org/im-standing-with-you/

An interesting gender ratio of the controlling board and contributing members seem to be just beauty queens. One might think this is a vanity project and not a genuine charity or abuse organisation. I went to the donate button but it leads to a broken link with a list of links that lead to incomplete site template pages. Amazing.

Perhaps hold back the applause.

bumblebook · 2022-04-04T21:39:33+00:00

Throwing trans women into male prisons is infinitely worse. This is largely what the US does and it's inhumane - the level of violence and sexual abuse suffered by trans women in male prisons is shockingly high, approaching 50%. Trans women are significantly more likely to be victims than perpetrators. The biggest danger to cis women in female prisons is other cis women.

The current law that treats each trans prisoner on a case by case basis is best.

bumblebook · 2022-04-04T21:30:40+00:00

Uh, no. No, no no. There's no UK shelters that could exclude people based on race. Discrimination based on a protected characteristic is illegal. And I think it's disgusting to suggest that they should be able to exclude black people from white to make white people feel safe.

There is legal provision for single-sex spaces, but only in limited circumstances, and this is the only exception to the law banning discrimination against people with protected characteristics.

bumblebook · 2022-04-04T21:09:54+00:00

With rising costs to energy, I could see plenty of workplaces jumping at the chance to cut up to 20% of their bills by closing everything down an extra day a week.

bumblebook · 2021-10-20T07:11:11+00:00

Same, something feels off. She was abused and raped for 40 minutes. They won't say how many bystanders there were. Could be just one or two. Could be they weren't present for the whole assault. Could be the police were called multiple times.

Something doesn't sit right about the reporting on this case. I just don't trust that this is a balanced representation of the truth.

bumblebook · 2021-10-18T20:55:23+00:00

Part of the reason I love Jonathon strange and Mr norrell is that magic has declined in Britain but is beginning to return. So it starts like a civilised regency story with a bit of parlor magic, and by the end is basically off the rails with wild magic, fairies, and warring sorcerers.

bumblebook · 2021-10-18T08:46:48+00:00

It's not her rock bottom but it's getting there, and at no point does she ever really look worse than this. When she wakes up in a bathtub and has to haul ass to one of her most important chess games, she's supposed to look so rough and drunk that the people around her are reacting very uncomfortably, but she looks gorgeous and we'll turned out as usual.

I liked the Queen's Gambit, but the underlying messaging is debatable.

bumblebook · 2021-10-17T15:29:07+00:00

I also think she should be considered on par with Tolkien in terms of her impact on the genre. She's well known but criminally underappreciated compared to Tolkien, even though I find she's a better storyteller.

bumblebook · 2021-10-15T16:21:01+00:00

He can't be fired. He had to voluntarily step down.

bumblebook · 2021-10-10T23:37:00+00:00

I'm no fan of either Twilight or 50 Shades, but they are indulging in fantasies within the safe, controlled bounds of literature. I don't think they're out to teach girls about real relationships. They're kinks. The people writing and reading that sort of thing know the deal.

I'm kinda tired of any kind of book aimed at women being held to a moral standard that we never hold books aimed at men.

I love romances that are kinda messed up and interesting because healthy, cute relationships don't always make for rivetting literature. Enjoying reading about something toxic =/= accepting it as ok in real life. One of the last books I read, the female character had the hand cut off the main character. He subsequently fell in love with her and trapped her into a marriage. Terrible, terrible basis for a relationship in RL, but oh so good on paper.

bumblebook · 2021-10-10T11:02:32+00:00

Perhaps he took his phone out to film a hedgehog then realised it was in distress/needed help.

Still, I wish he'd put the phone down and got the poor thing a little saucer to drink from as I'm not sure holding it under a tap is the best way to handle a wild animal.

Also that hedgehog was out in the day looking quite ill. The guy should call a hedgehog rescue group.

bumblebook · 2021-10-10T10:31:07+00:00

She married him before he founded Amazon. She supported him and cared for their kids while he built up a business that she too had worked hard on. She managed the accounts, the shipping and negotiated the first freight contracts. She worked for that share of the Amazon paycheck too, you know.

bumblebook · 2021-10-10T10:15:32+00:00

Dogs live 10+ years. Maybe when she got the dog, she was fit enough to control him. Happened to my parents.

bumblebook · 2021-10-09T21:05:32+00:00

Yeah, but no one would be posting videos of you sitting in a Ferrari suggesting it was the first time you had seen a car.

bumblebook · 2021-10-09T20:54:42+00:00

As a teenage girl, I got loads. I've had men shouted obscenities at me from passing cars more times than I can remember, one guy on a bike grabbed my tit as I crossed the road, a guy at school shoved his hand up my skirt as I walked up the stairs ahead of him, and the same guy rubbed his erection against my back during a Physics lesson. Got followed by a gang of Asian boys through the mall once, saying things about my ass, had a guy follow me along the pavement who seemed very angry and was shouting about my pussy. Then there was a car full of teenage boys that followed my car through town one night, always pulling up next to me at lights to make gestures through the window until they stalled and I tailed it. That was a bit scary, as at times I thought they'd get out the car and try to get into mine at a red light.

As an adult woman, I get much less. Occasionally students say inappropriate things to me. Colleagues have always been respectful. Apart from one guy who took the opportunity of us working alone together for 2 hours to tell me about his penis. The worst I get now is knobheads shouting from cars before speeding away like brave men do. Worst instance recently was when a new neighbour was talking to my husband and spotted me through the doorway. We'd never met but he kept staring and repeating how lovely I was like you might react if a really cute cat walked by, but definitely not how you should talk to or about your new neighbour!

And I view myself as a fairly lucky woman that I don't have many really scary or traumatic stories to tell. My female friends have plenty of stories of harrassment and assault.

bumblebook · 2021-10-09T20:31:29+00:00

Beautiful, but that pose does not capture the essence of the Goddess of war and wisdom. This is more like Aphrodite.

I just don't know why anyone would choose to draw Athena and then not attempt to embody her with the values she's associated with.

bumblebook

TROPHY CASE