Hello! There goes another month! Good God!!
I have been a busy bee, working on fun and exciting things like this:
All going to plan (and I did make a plan, a beautiful little spreadsheet that I had to submit to the faculty) I’m submitting my PhD in August. It is DEEPLY surreal to be saying such a thing, after being in a constant state of Working On It for over three years now. The sensible thing would be to warn you all that I’ll be around less during the following months, but in actual fact the reverse is true because I’ve already scheduled a bunch of fun posts for Pride Month. Oops? I just love Making Content.
Speaking of content, here’s what I published this May!
On AniFem:
Genderless Gemstones: The Pros and Cons of Land of the Lustrous as Non-binary Representation – this series falls into some tired tropes about non-binary gender only being possible in non-human characters and otherworldly settings, but that doesn’t mean we ought to write it off as “bad rep” and call it a day. (There is some repurposed thesis material funnelled into this! I suppose this is that post about Phos and gender that I never felt “qualified” to write back when I reckoned I was cis…)
On the blog:
Super Cub: Of Grief, Freedom, and Motorcycles – a slow, sweet show about expanding your claustrophobic world. It wants to sell me a bike, but it’s mostly just warming my heart!
Queer YA Spotlight: The Falling in Love Montage – a romantic comedy that hit me upside the head with emotions about death and permanence. Very much excited to read Smyth’s next book, which I can only assume will also enrich and ruin my life.
Book chats: The Wayward Children series is still v good; Crier’s War is about a robot with gay.exe installed
Web content
Land of the Lustrous is a stunning adaptation not because it copies its source material shot for shot, but because it captures the beauty and energy of the manga while doing things unique to the medium of animation. This is a really cool breakdown of why the visual style in both versions works so effectively, and it makes me dearly want to reread and rewatch both.
Emily in Paris pulls the impressive feat of simultaneously presenting France as an idealistic playground for its American protagonist, and being excruciatingly racist to everyone who lives there. This Paris-born analyst breaks down why the show is so deeply dumb. Bonus: this show is so dumb that its Golden Globe nominations sparked an investigation into the corruption of award shows!
Death Becomes Her: The Style of Lady Dimetrescu – a deep dive into fashion and art history and how the ideas of “old world” glamour, opulence, and inherited power influence Lady D’s impeccable character design.
The Art of Pain: My Lesbian Experience with Loneliness Creator Kabi Nagata – an interview about the autobiographical comics from one of the artist’s first public appearances.
Weaponizing My Youth: Growing Up Aromantic and the Fear of Missing Out – Lexa Frail writes about a childhood navigating the pervasive ideas that boys and girls cannot be friends and that marriage is the end goal to any adult life.
Idols Gone Viral: How Hololive Vtubers Both Subvert and Reinforce Expectations of Idol Femininity – Vtubers can be crude, lewd, and downright weird, making them a very different model of “idols” – yet in many aspects, they’re beholden to just as many strict rules. (Edited this one, toot toot. It was really fun!)
Casey McQuiston is Writing the Queer Rom-Coms She’s Always Wanted to Read – ahead of the release of One Last Stop (which I am also v excited to read) the author talks about writing for “depressed queer millennials” and the importance of being corny now and then.
Bonus: Resident Evil Village is not a scary game! Let these puppets of the main villains assure you.
And this month, the song I have stuck in my head is the stuff of legend. Transgender Street Legend, that is.
See you next time, dear readers, and as always take care!
The Afictionado 