First, some local news. FTB got rid of ads! At some point we’re going to start asking for crowdfunding to cover server costs.
This month, I published several articles on The Asexual Agenda. Most of it’s not legible to general audiences, but I would at least plug Ace Exclusionists and Gender. Ace exclusionists are an anti-ace Tumblr faction, our very own version of TERFs.
Useless Vanity. Or Not. – Crip Dyke shares a personal narrative of how she became one of the early activists of transfeminism in the 90s, starting out in anti-domestic-violence activism. We are honored to have Crip Dyke here with us.
Queer Tropes in Video Games (video) – It’s a three part series by Feminist Frequency! I think this follows the usual pattern of Feminist Frequency videos, of explaining points that are very well established, but are nonetheless important to explain because a lot of viewers aren’t necessarily familiar with the issue.
The Weird World of Vegan YouTube Stars is Imploding – Some vegan youtubers are publicly admitting that they haven’t been eating vegan, for health reasons. They’re being targeted by a lot of harassment, and their livelihoods are at stake. But also, it seems like their livelihoods were based on selling some unhealthy diets. And more generally, it sounds like vegan youtube has a toxic culture of fad diets and healthism. It’s just a mess. Rebecca Watson also had a take.
The Sweetness of the Fleeting – Sara shares a story about putting together a 3D jigsaw puzzles, disassembling it (despite protest from her mother), and then giving it away. Oh god, I remember assembling a 3D jigsaw puzzle when I was very young–a Millennium Falcon. As far as I know, the Millennium Falcon is still there. I think it’s broken in half, and covered in dust. I don’t think I even knew what a Millenium Falcon was. This is why I like smashing old origami.
Cultural Appropriation, Revisited (video) – T1J has a good take. The thing to remember is that “cultural appropriation” as it is commonly used is a very broad category that includes good things and bad things, as well as a bunch of ambiguous things. Personally, I think the term should be avoided entirely in favor of actually describing what the problem is, although T1J has a different approach that also works.
Thanks for the plug for my post, and your own story. It seems that Millennium Falcon puzzle taught you a lesson about what to do with completed puzzle/art projects. Maybe whoever picked up the Taj Mahal puzzle with reassemble it, keep it for twenty years, and learn a lesson from that.
I almost never pay attention to vegan-themed YouTube videos because, they rarely have anything to say which I haven’t heard/read a zillion times, and based on your links, the only new thing about this story is who is involved this time (and maybe this is the first time it’s happened on YouTube, though I very much doubt that). Raw foodistas and other diet gurus within vegan communities who promote something a lot more restrictive than ‘don’t eat animals’ because people need to ‘detox’ or something have been around for a lot longer than YouTube, and sometimes they get caught not sticking with their raw food (or whatever) diet. Another blog post you may find relevant to the topic (from a few years ago) is https://www.theveganrd.com/2015/12/vegan-diets-and-orthorexia-how-should-activists-respond/
That said, I appreciate the culinary creativity of the raw foodistas, and I think some of the recipes they have developed are quite tasty.