Showing posts with label LGBTQ. Show all posts
Showing posts with label LGBTQ. Show all posts
A lot of people in my offline-life often tell me that they don't know how I manage to read so much. That they don't have time to read, or they can just never get into books, or struggle to find the motivation to finish them once they do start reading. My answer to the first is normally along the lines of - then make time. Instead of sitting down and watching TV in the evenings I will nearly always stick my nose in a book; and on the days when I do watch something I normally always spend at least half an hour reading in bed before going to sleep.
And I do read quickly. I can finish most books in a few hours so finishing them in a day is really dependant on how early in the day I start reading rather than anything to do with the book. But, saying that, there are definitely some books which I started late and finished the same day because they were either shorter or just grabbed my attention from the very first page and for today's post I thought I'd share the queer ones with you!
100+ queer books that fit at least one prompt for reading it queer. if they fit more than one then I've included it in every applicable prompt section (to my knowledge - I've doubled checked everything but if i've missed any then please do let me know).
I remember searching desperately for characters who looked like me (or rather, looked like the thing that I might be but was too scared to admit yet, even to myself.) I stared at every blurb I found, scanning the shelves at the school library, the public library and the ones in the bookshops in the hope that suddenly there would be a bright beam of rainbow light and any potential queer book there would launch itself into my arms. Unsurprisingly, that didn't happen.
Hello and welcome to my reading it queer rec list!! If you have no idea what I'm talking about you can check out my explanation post here and then come back to check out the book recs!
Small Town Hearts by Lillie Vale is a book that's been on my radar for a few months and is actually one of my most anticipated queer releases of 2019. Set in Oar's Rest in Maine over the summer it sounded like a complete dream of a book so when Lili from Utopia State of Mind contacted me to see if I wanted to be involved in the blog tour for it I replied with a giant YES. Well, technically I shrieked at the email, danced around my room for a couple minutes and then said yes, but the point of the story is the same and it resulted in a shiny attachment landing in my inbox; cue more happy dancing!
Before I jump into the review I want to give you all a little warning because I went into this book very unprepared. The food in Small Town Hearts is unbelievably wonderful. Lillie's descriptions are gorgeous and I was hungry for the entire time reading this, so when you pick it up please make sure you have some form of snack (ideally something baked but anything will do), because the alternative is having to put the book down to go all the way to the shop just to buy something. And you won't want to put this book down.
Before I jump into the review I want to give you all a little warning because I went into this book very unprepared. The food in Small Town Hearts is unbelievably wonderful. Lillie's descriptions are gorgeous and I was hungry for the entire time reading this, so when you pick it up please make sure you have some form of snack (ideally something baked but anything will do), because the alternative is having to put the book down to go all the way to the shop just to buy something. And you won't want to put this book down.
Your teenage years are a weird time of life.
Add in realising halfway through Year Nine that girls are so much nicer than boys in every single way - and then promptly pushing that thought to the very back of your mind to deal with later on (anyone else procrastinate dealing with their sexuality or was that just me) my teenage years were a very weird, confusing time for me. I had no idea why I felt like I had to actively pick a boy to crush on when it seemed that most people around me seemed to just fall into liking someone.
Hello Hello and Happy New Year!
If you follow me on anything you might already know this but (drum roll please) I have decided to set myself the challenge of only reading books with a LGBTQ+ element during 2018!
This element could be a queer character, relationship, theme or total point of the plot. Whether its a comic book, series, memoir, YA or adult; any genre and any style if it has a queer element to it then I'm going to try and read it this year. The only rule I'm setting is that the element has to be explicitly stated within the book itself; no subtext or vague author comments are going to count this year so I'm saying farewell to my Harry Potter re-read as well as a vast majority of my old favourites.
If you read my post about being an invisible femme the other week you might be looking at the title of this thinking "hang on a second.." but don't click off just yet- I haven't done a complete u-turn on everything I wrote, nor have I made huge errors in the title of this post! You see, I view being a femme lesbian as a coin: with visibility and invisibility being the two sides, you can't have one without the other and both are just as valid and important to discuss and talk about. As much as I consider myself to be an invsible femme; I also view myself as a visible one too.
I am a visible femme because I'm out, proud and feminine with no wish to hide any part of me.
I am a visible femme by choice and not just because I might not be seen otherwise.
I am a visible femme because I've been told "well I guessed", "you're not subtle when you see a pretty girl" and "I did wonder" all on separate occasions after coming out to people. I am a visible femme because I'm too passionate about LGBTQ+ rights (and pretty girls apparently..) to simply pass under radars as just an ally.
We march because in 1969 Sylvia Rivera threw the first brick and yet fifty years later bathrooms are still being patrolled and controlled,
because you treat my fellow sisters like we're both your worst nightmare and your greatest fantasy rolled into one even though we are not here for your pleasure,
and because America's worst mass shooting in history took place in our month against our people and they ask why marriage isn't enough?
The invisible femme: a feminine looking lesbian who struggles to convince or show that she is gay.
The invisible femme: a lesbian who recieves yet another label because she doesn't conform to society's stereotypical definition of what a lesbian looks like. You know; short hair, short nails and a wardrobe full of checked shirts and and heavy-duty "man boots."
The invisible femme: the girl writing this blog post.
"You're too pretty to be gay" or "I never would have guessed" are both comments I've recieved a few more times than I'd prefer and I'm still baffled as to how the first one is supposed to be complimentary in the slightest. As for the second one I always feel a surge of annoyance which is quickly followed by frustration because I know that the stereotypes I mentioned before are to blame for people not guessing. My long hair and painted nails are as much a part of me as my blue eyes and my sexuality are and yet the first two somehow erase or coverup the fourth despite the fact that it's the latter two which aren't changeable?
As an invisible femme I am both privileged and disadvantaged. I "pass" as a straight woman so therefore do not recieve even half as much abuse and homophobia as my sisters who fit the stereotype, but on the other hand the number of homophobic comments that have been made in my hearing about those sisters because I am not counted as one of them is heartbreakingly high. I don't fit the stereotype so therefore I'm clearly a straight women who would find a "haha gayyyyyyyyy" comment amusing.. By not fitting the stereotype I pass under the radar, I avoid the weird looks and whispered comments that so many people I know have had to deal with but at the same time I often wonder if I also pass under the radar of people I belong with.
Stereotypes are so prevalent both outside and inside my community that often I am an invisible femme not only to boys in the club but also to members of my own group. How many potential flirtations or coffee dates have I missed out on because I chose to wear a dress that day. When I went to a queer craft fayre did I look like an outsider to my own people? Is my love of checked shirts just seen as a quirky "me thing" or as the tongue-in-cheek acceptance and love of one of the many stereotypes held under the umbrella of lesbian it actually is?
hello!
I just wanted to spill out some feelings and thoughts about the LGBT fans deserve better movement.
(Image from http://lgbtfansdeservebetter.com/ and used with permission)
When Dana died I was heartbroken, she was one of my favourite characters and her storyline could have gone on to be so good and helpful for hundreds of girls. However once I wiped away my tears I was fine, I still had about seven other women, gay women, to watch and love.
When Lexa died I was heartbroken and angry, she was one of my favourite characters and her storyline could have gone on to be so good and helpful for hundreds of girls. However when I wiped away my tears I was still angry, I no longer had any one I could look to, to watch and love. No one that represented me as a lesbian, as a girl who just happens to love other girls.
Watching Friends Carol & Susan gave little gay me hope, hope that I could one day figure out what I was feeling, that I could one day fall in love with a girl, that I could be happy and in love and loved. But since Friends? I've only had a handful of onscreen wlw; even fewer in relationships and even fewer still who are alive at the end of the shows run.
Since Lexa's death I've lost count of the number of women-loving-women (wlw) who have died or been killed (one of which was thanks to the creator of the L word, Ilene Chaiken), and yes many of them have been from under the same TV company- but the company itself is completely irrelevant.
This movement is starting to really become something; media outlets are taking notice, companies and taking notice and potential future writers and showrunners are taking notice. If we stop now we go right back to invisibility and/or death; and if we start arguing amongst ourselves about what to trend then this movement will fizzle out, people will stop taking us seriously and we go right back to invisibility and/or death.
It doesn't matter what we trend, it only matters that we do trend, that we stay together and we stay united. Our moment is now; let's make it count.
It's not about one character or one company. It's about us. It's about us standing up for ourselves and standing up for those who can't. It's about us standing up and standing together. It's about us fighting back and showing that they can't just throw us a bone every now and then and think it counts. It's about us hurting every time they kill off the only person we relate to because they got bored, or couldn't be bothered to work out a schedule. It's about us deserving better and it's about us getting what we need.
It's about us.
USEFUL LINKS
~If you want to find out more about the movement I recommend these two sites:
LGBT Fans Deserve Better
We Deserved Better
~To donate to the Trevor Project Leskru fund:
https://www.classy.org/fundraise?fcid=625415
~ Learn more about why the Trevor Project is so important:
http://www.thetrevorproject.org/
~My previous post on why minorities deserve better:
http://isthateloise.blogspot.co.uk/2016/03/minorities-deserve-better.html
MINORITIES DESERVE BETTER..why I hear you ask; well this is why: (although if you are genuinely asking why then you need to take a long hard look at the world around you and open your eyes a little bit)
~Minorities deserve better because out of hundreds of tv shows and hundreds of characters the only ones who keep repeatedly getting killed are the lgbtqia characters and the characters of colour and we have had enough!
~minorities deserve better because we are people who have lives and dreams and hopes and ambitions
~because I am more than a plot device to gain views and statistics
~because although it is just a show to you, to us it is the only time we see ourselves portrayed and represented
~because my friends have never had to watch their onscreen representation get killed over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over again.
~because there are fourteen years between Tara's death on Buffy and Lexa's death on the 100 and people are asking why we are angry instead of shocked.
~because we are people
~because most people don't have to look for hidden messages or meanings or subtext in their onscreen representation; most people don't have to take everything they see with a pinch of salt and a hint of queerbait.
~because this has been happening FOR YEARS.
~because this is what we meant by 'the fight doesn't end with equal marriage' when you asked why we weren't satisfied.
~because a happy ending shouldn't be solely reserved for the straight white couples on the show
~because we are people
~because it isn't just one show and it isn't just one character; it's most of the shows and the majority of the characters.
~because if I have to die then at least let me die with honour and some originality.
~because even in the stories where my sexuality is the main plot point the two characters will often end up apart, dying, dead or going back to their husbands.
~because I can count the number of onscreen lesbians who are alive, happy and in a female relationship by the end of the show/film on two hands. two. hands. less than ten female same-sex relationships that last the duration of a show and last happily
~because we are people
~because shows and films are meant to be entertaining and a form of escape but I don't feel very entertained when my representation ends up dying..again.
~because. because. because. because. BECAUSE. BECAUSE. BECAUSE. BECAUSE.
do we really need a because? do we really need a reason? do we really need to feel so completely let down and unsurprised everytime we turn on our tv. do we really need another generation to grow up thinking they will never fit in and they will never be happy and they will never find love because that's all they ever see?
"Minorities Are Not Disposable" is currently trending on twitter and I ask that you at least take a look at the tweets even if you don't post one of your own; because although yes- this was sparked off by the death of a fictional character; the truth of the matter cuts much deeper than TV and runs for much longer than a season. This uproar, this outrage has been building and building and we could now have the power and the possibility to make a start; make a change; make ourselves heard and refuse to let this terrible treatment of our represented selves go on. It started with fiction but it shall end with reality; and if we make enough noise, make enough mess and refuse to be contained in the trope boxes in which we have been placed then it shall end with a positive reality.
-we are not disposable . we deserve better -
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