Coherent Cats

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[coherentcats]

crossposted from cohost: transcript of james somerton thread (12/11/2023)

I did a twitter thread about james somerton (and nick herrgott) but twitter is blocking all the URLs for some reason. so here's a transcript of the whole thing (while correcting a couple typos) with the links, except for the tweets in the middle that are about how the links don't show up on twitter lol.

Edit: I have now created a transcript of the entire video, that also includes some fact-checking, including the fact-checking I originally did in the thread

Edit from 9/30/24: transcript of the video on github

I wasn't sure if I should say anything about james somerton since it's been over a week since the controversy broke and most everything in a general sense has been said. however, I haven't seen anyone bring this up so I figured I would.

it was live-streamed and archived on youtube and is probably the only publicly available video of james talking at length left. youtube link

first, I wanted to go over some of the strange things they said that I think are either made up or lies?

james claims that denis villeneuve wanted arrival (2016) to "take place in ontario" and "make it through the canadian system so that he could employ canadians" (13:29) but that the federal government turned him down, so it had to become an american-funded movie set in the usa?

I can't find anything supporting this and in fact, while the movie is set in montana, it's filmed in quebec and employed a lot of canadians. villeneuve is very proud of this.

"Denis Villeneuve says Arrival's Oscar nods recognize Quebec film scene" article link

he also claims james cameron wanted to get funding for titanic and avatar ("both avatar movies") from the canadian government (12:05).

also it just doesn't add up to me. why would he go to canada to fund avatar, which was extremely expensive at the time and required multiple investors, including his own money?

"A Movie’s Budget Pops From the Screen (Published 2009)" article link

somerton also talk about some scottish guy who immigrated to ontario during the 18th/19th century and had a "twinkie boyfriend" who was a werewolf who killed cops? and that the library of toronto was research this but the socttish government made them stop?

(sorry, timestamp for that is 19:21). I couldn't find anything and have no idea if this is just obscure or bullshit. feels like it would at least pull up some unsourced tumblr post if it was at all true.

there are other things he says that are true (such as canada decriminalizing homosexuality in the 1960s while it took the usa until the 2000s to do the same) and other ones I can't sort out clearly (such as margaret atwood having trouble getting published in canada initially).

anyway this video has less than 1000 views (it was under 500 when my partner first showed it to me). but I think it's worth flagging that he (and his co-writer) was not above just saying whatever outside of youtube.

I also think it's worth pointing out how an event hosted by a public institution like this can build social capital and an air of legitimacy for his self-appointed queer historian reputation.

it feels like at a minimum, they took a spot during a pride event that could've gone to someone else who has like. integrity and decency.

also there's a (very short) negative dig at forrest gump (!!) from nick lol? (1:15:30)

finally maybe my view is tainted, but doing a talk titled "canadian queer identity" and spending 70% of the time talking about the american cultural hegemony and how hard it is to get movies made in canada seems. odd!

neither of them bring up much historical or current canadian lgbtq+ media besides a mention of gingersnaps and "elliot page going around and doing his documentary" (edit here to add that that paraphrased quote is from the time stamp 32:15)

like this letterboxd list seems to do a better job of highlighting canadian queer identity

"LGBT Canada" letterboxd list link

I won't say the talk itself is bad (besides the stuff that is 100% not true) but it doesn't feel especially relevant to what it should be about. and it feels strange in retrospect when somerton himself never specifically focused on canadian queer media on his channel

even after gaining more subscribers and fames. (wow I wonder if he was just mining topics people made discourse about on twitter 🤔🤔🤔)

anyway kind of hope more people, especially canadians, see this video so they can better fact check it than me.

wait I forgot to add (edit: to this QRT of a thread tweet link) that the closest thing I could find about this was some merchant involved in a sodomy accusation sex scandal. wikipedia page for "alexander wood (merchant)"

I might come back and comb through more of the video for parts I missed (such as a lot of the canada-specific legal stuff) but if anyone else spots any weirdness, let me know.

wait, I also want to add this video by jessie gender. it's a good analysis of how somerton didn't really care about and exploited the lgbtq+ community and other marginalized people "James Somerton & Community Solidarity" youtube link

I think it contextualizes how slimy his presence at a local pride event is. he wanted to posture himself as an authority and trustworthy figure while doing all of that.

(I don't blame the library for this, I have no idea what their logistics were at the time and they obviously didn't know. I feel bad that they were associated with him.)

wait he just took that from a horror novel??? from a gay canadian writer??? QRT of a reply link

I checked out the ebook for "red x" from the library and this is definitely it. I don't have the knowledge or access to resources to say if this historical exposition is accurate (google turns up nothing), but weird that neither of them just don't mention this book at all!

I realized I could check this easily by just looking up her bibliography and verifying the publishing companies of her early books. which were all canadian (primarily mcclelland and stewart). this includes the handmaid's tale. QRT of a reply link

update: somerton did not do any intensive historical research and plagiarized the plot of red x and passed it off as obscure canadian folklore?

QRT of a previous tweet in the thread

it's both more devastating and predictable that he didn't just make some bullshit up, but just stole other people's writing. for the nth time.

[coherentcats]

crossposted from cohost: some thoughts on yellowface by kuang (7/11/2023)

(still trying to figure out what do here and maybe I will use to write down slightly longer form thoughts.)

I just finished the book about an hour ago last week (it's taken a little while for me to write this post) and I'm turning it around in my head. there are the most salient points of harsh spotlight, the way juniper emplifies whiteness as ultimately self-serving no matter how "well-intentioned" or sincere; the publishing industry's cynical marketing moves around controversy and diversity; etc.

but what I didn't see talked about as much was athena. she's such an interesting character for someone who dies in the first chapter. (spoilers for the entire book.)

her entire personality is filtered through the lens of juniper, someone who was a friend and peer and colleague, but not close, not equal, and not kind. she's marginalized and yet has it all. and even through juniper's shifting envy, affection, indignance, grief, and bitterness, there's a real person there. and the person we see is someone obviously maligned by juniper's whiteness but also is still a human being, neither pure victim or haughty villain.

she's socially savvy, great at social media, great at networking, great at maintaining her Image or Brand as a refined, cultured writer whose works are popular but not populist. her professional conduct, both in the public and among peers, is interpreted by juniper as either cynical or passive aggressive. there's no way of determining the true "heart" of what motivates athena's conduct but it would be silly to assume she's completely golden-hearted. the inner machinations of the publishing industry when you're successful from juniper's pov involve a lot of calculated moves. why wouldn't athena be just as aware?

there's the social position athena resides in. it's huge point of contention for juniper, something that she feels somehow overrides her own whiteness. but it's not completely irrational. athena is marginalized as a chinese american woman living in the united states, but she also comes from wealth, she's (likely) from the dominant ethnic group within chinese ethnicity. she's also queer but it seems to come up very little in her public image or her private life. she's a member of a minority but very respectable, appealing one. this is a very common conversation among racialized ethnic groups when members are raised up by the elite.

it's also hard to not feel like the animosity and resentment juniper and geoff* have towards her, while deeply fueled by racism, also contain some kernels of real betrayal. while obviously juniper's interpretations of her and others' actions aren't reliable, I don't see any reason to doubt her story about athena essentially poaching her breakdown after her sexual assault. and there's something true to the creation of fiction, especially most fiction or art based on historical trauma and atrocities, that does involve a kind of unauthorized poaching of other people's suffering. when you particularly care about the craft of your work, or pour mountains of effort into research, determining what ugly parts of reality you can shape into something beautiful and compelling, the line between tasteful and parasitic methods is very blurry. it can't all be a subconscious melding of influences. it's very reminiscent to me of the cat person story controversy. while maybe no concrete wrongdoing was committed in that incident, it's hard not to feel like some harm wasn't done or that a line wasn't crossed.

there's a point in a conversation between juniper and the people optioning her book for movies where one of them says that any adaptation will necessitate changes and cuts by virtue of film being a different medium (implicitly in service of making the movie more marketable to white, american audiences). he sort of mentions and then glosses over the idea that translation is violence (which I know is a theme in another of kang's books that I haven't read). taken broadly, the act of making fiction, and in particular a very specific kind of fiction, the kind that gets acclaimed as Important, where others' real life pain (whether broadly historical or acutely personal) is plagiarized or translated into a story, a narrative for strangers to consume, is violence. and to what ends? for white people to feel better about themselves? to be commodified for further entertainment? to be tokenized and used to still gatekeep asian writers from the industry?

in a way, juniper's biggest crime within the literary world isn't that she plagiarized, it's that she plagiarized so poorly and blatantly that she was caught red-handed, even when she had the perfect cover-up opportunity. this is what the publishing industry actually cares about.

but even interpreting athena's craft under the harshest light and taking juniper at her word doesn't make athena the bad guy. it doesn't make her death karmic or the theft of her art fair. I type all of this to not tear down athena, but for all of juniper's anxieties and frustrations humanize her hubris, athena's flaws make it impossible to make her an object of pure pity. this book recognizes how while white supermacy victimizes poc, to reduce them to simply innocent, uninvolved victims is also dehumanizing. (edit: plus the easiest way to become reviled and demonized is to first be put on a pedestal of perfect victimhood.) and to recognize this doesn't take away from the weight of how athena was deeply wronged and harmed, even after death.

additionally, candice's remarks about the tokenization athena herself experienced puts her in a different light. often, juniper comments on the publishing industry being a rigged, cynical venture without considering that athena would be in the same straits of misogynistic (and racialized) visibility. and when she does, it's under a justification of her own behaviors. it's fascinating to me that juniper never even considers what it would feel like for someone to do to her art after death what she's doing to athena. because she barely considers athena a person who could feel struggle or pain. she never considers the choices athena made were ones made under larger pressures of trying to make it in a racist, sexist industry, even if she does have some significant, material privileges.

I don't know how else to end this post since I'm mostly word vomiting. but ultimately I find that it's a real writing feat that despite juniper's objectification of athena as a nemesis, as a creative well, as inspiration, for all the things we don't know about her, that athena is still so complex as a person.

*edit: something I find very funny is how juniper and geoff end up finding empathy and solidarity with each other over sharing resentment towards athena, even while juniper basically makes out geoff to be a borderline sex pest in the same breath. that's whiteness baby!!!

[coherentcats]

Get Your Gender On: Jaden Yuki and Yubel

With Jaden (Judai) Yuki, Yu-Gi-Oh as a franchise began its tradition of male protagonists, but he has more going on with gender than meets t

In honor of Yu-Gi-Oh GX’s 20th anniversary and the booster set “Phantom Nightmare” featuring the nonbinary icon Yubel, let’s examine gender in GX in depth. For each day leading up to the release of “Phantom Nightmare,” I’ll be sharing a case study of a different character in relation to gender roles, with special attention paid to gender variance–behavior, expression, or identity that deviates from gender norms. Today’s duelists are Jaden Yuki and Yubel!

[coherentcats]

Get Your Gender On: Jesse Anderson

The third season of GX introduces Jesse Anderson, one of four international transfer students to Duel Academy. In the Japanese version Johan

In honor of Yu-Gi-Oh GX’s 20th anniversary and the booster set “Phantom Nightmare” featuring the nonbinary icon Yubel, let’s examine gender in GX in depth. For each day leading up to the release of “Phantom Nightmare,” I’ll be sharing a case study of a different character in relation to gender roles, with special attention paid to gender variance–behavior, expression, or identity that deviates from gender norms. Today’s duelist is Johan Andersen!

[coherentcats]

Get Your Gender On: Chazz Princeton

Where Alexis represents the female students of Duel Academy, Chazz Princeton (Jun Manjome) initially epitomizes the male students of Obelisk

In honor of Yu-Gi-Oh GX’s 20th anniversary and the booster set “Phantom Nightmare” featuring the nonbinary icon Yubel, let’s examine gender in GX in depth. For each day leading up to the release of “Phantom Nightmare,” I’ll be sharing a case study of a different character in relation to gender roles, with special attention paid to gender variance–behavior, expression, or identity that deviates from gender norms. Today's duelist is Chazz Princeton!

[coherentcats]

Get Your Gender On: Atticus Rhodes

You can’t discuss Alexis without discussing Atticus Rhodes (Fubuki Tenjoin in the Japanese version), her older brother who disappears before

In honor of Yu-Gi-Oh GX’s 20th anniversary and the booster set “Phantom Nightmare” featuring the nonbinary icon Yubel, let’s examine gender in GX in depth. For each day leading up to the release of “Phantom Nightmare,” I’ll be sharing a case study of a different character in relation to gender roles, with special attention paid to gender variance–behavior, expression, or identity that deviates from gender norms. Today’s duelist is Atticus Rhodes!

[coherentcats]

Get Your Gender On: Alexis Rhodes

Alexis Rhodes, also known as Asuka Tenjoin in the Japanese version, resides as the only female character present in the main cast for all fo

In honor of Yu-Gi-Oh GX’s 20th anniversary and the booster set “Phantom Nightmare” featuring the nonbinary icon Yubel, let’s examine gender in GX in depth. For each day leading up to the release of “Phantom Nightmare,” I’ll be sharing a case study of a different character in relation to gender roles, with special attention paid to gender variance–behavior, expression, or identity that deviates from gender norms. Today’s duelist is Alexis Rhodes!

[coherentcats]

Get Your Gender On: Blair Flannigan

Blair Flannigan (Rei Saotome)’s debut in episode 20, in which she lies about her age to enroll and meet dueling prodigy Zane Truesdale, prov

In honor of Yu-Gi-Oh GX’s 20th anniversary and the booster set “Phantom Nightmare” featuring the nonbinary icon Yubel, let’s examine gender in GX in depth. For each day leading up to the release of “Phantom Nightmare,” I’ll be sharing a case study of a different character in relation to gender roles, with special attention paid to gender variance–behavior, expression, or identity that deviates from gender norms. Today's duelist is Blair Flannigan!

[coherentcats]

Get Your Gender On: A Yu-Gi-Oh GX Deep Dive

Last time on Coherent Cats, we discussed how many people in the United States wrote off Yu-Gi-Oh as a mere fad in the early 2000s. This prov

In honor of Yu-Gi-Oh GX’s 20th anniversary and the booster set “Phantom Nightmare” featuring the nonbinary icon Yubel, let’s examine gender in GX in depth. For each day leading up to the release of “Phantom Nightmare,” I’ll be sharing a case study of a different character in relation to gender roles, with special attention paid to gender variance–behavior, expression, or identity that deviates from gender norms.

[coherentcats]

The Voxy Bunch and the Legacy of Animated Queer-Coded Villains

Click for the full post on Wordpress!

Over the last few years, the amount of confirmed LGBTQ characters in animated television aimed at children in the United States has significantly increased. Media for children has additional hoops to leap through when including LGBTQ characters, such as fear of “corrupting” children into queerness or exposing them to “sexual content” of same-gender relationships. We’re currently at a turning point between reliance on subtext for depiction of LGBTQ people (such as under the Hays Code) and more openness about LGBTQ topics, and all the complications that come with it.

OK K.O.! Let’s Be Heroes on Cartoon Network juggles straightforward representation with the more nebulous. As brief as it is, Enid is deliberately drawn riding vehicles with a bisexual pride sticker, the same one Rebecca Sugar used to come out in real life. Lord Boxman and Professor Venomous, the main antagonists of the series, come across as queer in another less direct way. Boxman seeks business partnerships with other supervillains of any gender, given the same weight and imagery as if they were romantic relationships. He eventually joins forces with Professor Venomous, who previously dated a woman. Together, Boxman and Venomous are ostensibly a same-gender couple under the bisexual umbrella. Showrunner Ian Jones-Quartey later confirmed via Twitter that Boxman is pansexual and Venomous is bisexual.

On paper, two major antagonists being queer(-coded) sounds unfortunately like yet another offensive stereotype in cartoons. However, the big picture is much more complex. OK K.O. has queer characters on both the hero and villain sides of Lakewood, and even that hero and villain divide becomes blurred.

The rest of this post contains major spoilers for OK K.O.! Let’s Be Heroes.

[coherentcats]

Rainbow Releases: Spring 2019

Click for the full post on Wordpress!

In 2018, we introduced an anime convention panel called Rainbow Releases to highlight LGBTQ-related anime and manga coming to the United States in English. We plan to continue hosting this panel so long as there are LGBTQ titles to discuss and conventions will have us, and thankfully 2019 has plenty. Thank you to everyone who attended at Chibi Chibi Con 2019 and Sakura-Con 2019!

Last year we transcribed our midyear panel as a single blog post, which left out unprecedented works later in the year such as Zombieland Saga. This year we plan to keep a simple list of all releases on a Rainbow Releases: LGBTQ Anime and Manga of 2019 blog page, with in-depth blog posts looking back on each season as we move through the year.

Without further delay, here is our recap of LGBTQ-themed anime and manga from the spring season of 2019!

[coherentcats]

I Wanna Talk About Shazam!

It didn’t click until about ten or so minutes into the movie that I was gonna have Feelings about Shazam! In retrospect, it’s kind of obvious. A found family story about an adopted (foster) kid (who has other adoptee siblings!) who’s still laser-focused on finding his birth mom from his early childhood? All wrapped up in an energetic, fun superhero movie? Maybe it’s not particularly groundbreaking, but sometimes it’s just nice to have the adoptee-equivalent of comfort food.

Note: I use “Shazam” to refer to Billy’s superpowers and everything incorporated within that. Billy is referred to as Billy and the wizard is referred to as the wizard.

Spoiler warning for all of Shazam!

[coherentcats]

Otterly Internalized Oppression

Click for the full post on Wordpress!

There is truly a lot to unpack in Sarazanmai, the latest anime television series directed by Kunihiko Ikuhara about a trio of secretive young boys transformed into kappas and tasked with saving Asakusa, Tokyo from giant thieving zombies. The zombies in question are created by a mysterious duo of police officers named Reo and Mabu, working under the even more mysterious Otter Empire.

In the final episode, the Empire’s Chief Otticer of Science and Technology sings “I am an abstract concept.” In the end, the force opposing the Kappa Kingdom does not physically exist. They are merely social constructs borne out of the human (and kappa) characters. However, that’s not to say they’re weak or unstable. They’re strong enough to wage a war against the Kappa Kingdom, advanced enough to transform humans into zombies and harvest their desire energies, and manipulative enough to control Reo and Mabu.

In Sarazanmai, oppression is not so much enacted by living actors as by concepts embedded in society. The abstract nature of the Otter Empire goes to show how internalization of oppression, when systematic oppression negatively impacts the self-image of the oppressed group by believing in their “inferiority,” can damage a connection like that of Reo and Mabu’s as much as external forces and systems. At one point, the otters manifest as a sexually menacing version of Reo he struggles to accept. It is not a true reflection of his attraction to Mabu, but one twisted by internalized homophobia, colorism, and classism. (Although I am white and cannot speak to colorism from personal experience, I felt it would be remiss to not incorporate colorism into my analysis.)

This post contains spoilers for Sarazanmai, as well as discussion of homophobia, colorism, classism and rape.

[coherentcats]

Asexuality in Manga and More

Click for the full post on Wordpress!

This post has been long overdue, as the convention panel it’s based on was first held at Kumoricon in October of 2018. The Asexuality in Manga and More panel is a collaboration between myself and Modulus, my aroace friend.

Our Dreams at Dusk: Shimanami Tasogare, the latest manga by openly asexual mangaka Yuhki Kamatani, is finally available in English! This is only one of many increases in visibility of Japanese asexual people and representations of asexual identity in Japanese media. Let’s take a took at the emergence of asexual and nonsexual characters in anime and manga, as well explorations of sexuality and relationships adjacent to asexuality in other titles.

The rest of this post contains discussion of sexual assault, anti-asexual and aromantic prejudice, and potential spoilers for all series mentioned.

[coherentcats]

Rainbow Releases: Winter 2019

Click for the full post on Wordpress!

An overdue cross-post from April.

In 2018, we introduced an anime convention panel called Rainbow Releases to highlight LGBTQ-related anime and manga coming to the United States in English. We plan to continue hosting this panel so long as there are LGBTQ titles to discuss and conventions will have us, and thankfully 2019 has plenty. Thank you to everyone who attended at Chibi Chibi Con 2019!

Last year we transcribed our midyear panel as a single blog post, which left out unprecedented works later in the year such as Zombieland Saga. This year we plan to keep a simple list of all releases on a Rainbow Releases: LGBTQ Anime and Manga of 2019 blog page, with in-depth blog posts looking back on each season as we move through the year. With all that said, here’s winter 2019!

[coherentcats]

Coherent Cats presents Genre is Fake: An Exploration of How We Categorize Anime and Manga THIS WEEKEND at Sakura-Con 2019 on Day 2 (Saturday) from 6:15 to 7:45 PM in Panels 9 (Skagit 3)! What decides if an anime is fantasy or science fiction? Can a manga be part of a genre that was coined after it was published? Do publishers decide a work of fiction’s genre, or do the fans? In other words, let’s explore how genre is constructed.

[coherentcats]

Coherent Cats presents Asexuality in Manga and More THIS WEEKEND at Sakura-Con 2019 on Day 1 (Friday) from 5:15 to 6:45 PM in Panels 5 (Room 401)! Our Dreams at Dusk: Shimanami Tasogare, the latest manga by openly asexual mangaka Yuhki Kamatani, is finally and officially coming out in English this year! In the meantime, come and learn about asexuality in Japan and representations of asexual and aromantic identity in Japanese media.