I’m Riff Raff: Your standard, run-of-the-mill lesbian raccoon ✨media curator✨
I started this blog to share all the amazing art, stories, and creative stuff I’ve found while digging through the garbage heap we call life.
Lesbian Trash Panda is a personally-curated list of recommendations for creative works of various types - stories, art, media literacy tools, whatever. I sort media with a system I call the ✨Q Rating, which starts at A for Amazing and then gets trashier and gayer as it goes on. Nothing is “good” or “bad,” it’s all hits in different styles. My collection is ever-growing and includes the best trash and finest treasures I can find.
TLDR: I find and share my favourite art, stories, and educational materials, often with a sapphic bend. Follow me if you like that!
More Info
The ✨Q Rating System
Lesbian Trash Panda recommends stories using a classification system developed by our crack team of rodents, vermin, and trash media scientists - the ✨Q Rating (the sparkles are important):
A = Amazing! Awesome! Art! This is a treasure, I love this, it’s wonderful. It is also Family-friendly, though not necessarily family-friendly ;) Recommend!
A✨Q = Amazing & Queer! It means the work is all of the above, and is either told from a queer perspective or represents queerness somehow. Recommend!
AT = Amazing Trash! I love trash, and if you do too, check this out - it’s raw, rough, silly, fresh, and wonderful. Recommend!
A✨QT = Me ;) Ohoho just kidding! AQT stands for Amazing Queer Trash. This is a high honour bestowed upon only the campiest, cultiest, queerest classics. Proof that low art can also be great art. Recommend!
Content Warnings
If it has a ✨Q Rating it is by default queer/Family-friendly, though not necessarily family-friendly. Appropriate content warnings will be provided.
Isn’t it rude to call art trash?
If that’s what you’re trying to do. As a raccoon, I love trash. As an artist, I love making trash. As an art lover, I love enjoying trash. The only real trash is the kind that judges art solely based on its origin and aesthetic instead of its content
How do you distinguish between “trash” and “treasure”?
The difference between trash and treasure is perspective and time. They say one man’s trash is another man’s treasure, but all men’s trash is a raccoon’s treasure, as is the trash of all genders. And treasure can so easily become trash - look at Beanie Babies and NFTs. All treasure will, eventually, turn to trash, then dust, then stars, and then it will be treasure again
No I meant what’s the difference between trash and treasure for the ✨Q Rating system?
Right, sorry! Think of it like a rock collection - some rocks are cut and polished and set in nice frames, and some rocks are raw and rough and natural. Both can be magnificent and inspiring and fun to look at. I, personally, get the same enjoyment out of fine jewelry as I get from a cool rock I find on the beach - sometimes more! Yes, I also have a rock collection. Would you like to see my rock collection? No, stay on topic Riff Raff
Time and effort and money and technique aren’t quality. Quality is quality. But quality work is hard to do without time, effort, money, and technique. It is actually harder to make high quality low-budget work than high-quality high-budget work, and I want to celebrate people that make great “trash” art as well great treasure. Art from adversity is usually my favourite kind :)
Do you know about the malevolent conspiracy theorist that also uses that letter?
Yes, and fuck that anonymous sockpuppet account and its obvious propaganda campaign. No one owns a letter, it belongs to everyone. I use sparkles to differentiate, and also for ✨pizazz✨
If someone searches “q” and “media” and this blog comes up instead of something else, well - I’m happy to do my part to disrupt militarized misinformation campaigns.
Plus ✨Q Rate is too good of joke. I love it too much. No pun left behind!
Media Literacy Monday
Here at Lesbian Trash Panda, we love art, no matter the medium. We also understand that constructive criticism, critical thinking, and general media literacy are foundational to creating and enjoying art and staying safe in the digital age
Learning to ask critical questions and produce thoughtful answers about the media we consume is vital in combating militarized propaganda campaigns. As a member of a community that has historically been, and is currently, the subject of media attack campaigns leading to horrific real world atrocities, I take media education and its role in combating misinformation seriously. Fantasy is fun, but we shouldn’t forget to think about the trash we consume, lest fantasy turn into phantasm - anxious delusion.
Media Literacy Monday is a project to promote media literacy of all types. I have been working in writing and media production for over ten years - which is a long time for a raccoon! Just ask my human agent, who is a real human and definitely not a cluster of squirrels. I want to use this blog as a platform to promote great art and share what I think is great about it, from the perspective of someone who also makes cool things sometimes. Sometimes I may critique, analyzing for love and knowledge and love of knowledge.
I love stories, I love all the ways we tell them, and I love seeing queer people thrive. If you like that, stick around! Hope you enjoy your stay
Summary: Paris, 1934. Down-and-out soprano Victoria is 5 minutes away from selling her body for a meatball when she meets Carroll “Toddy” Todd, an equally success-less aging gay performer who just got fired. Believing Victoria’s only problem getting work is her lack of a gimmick, Toddy hatches a plot to rebrand Victoria as Victor, Toddy’s new boyfriend and “the world’s greatest female impersonator.” Victor has a lot of success on the cabaret stage, eventually attracting the attention of King, an American mob boss who gay panics HARD and spends most of the movie being in denial and trying to reveal that “Victor” is actually a woman
Starring Julie Andrews (The Sound of Music, The Princess Diaries, my childhood) and Robert Preston (The Music Man), Victor/Victoria a fun, saucy musical that recreates 1930s cabaret aesthetic and antics in 1980s cult classic charm.
Why You Should Watch It: It is a musical and has Julie Andrews in a suit? That’s really all it took to sell me on this.
Victor/Victroria is, essentially, a queer historical piece twice over. It is a loving homage to the style, look, and verve of cabaret, specifically “The Pansy Craze” of 1930s Paris, the birth place of the drag star (though of course drag the art existed prior). The movie is from 1982, fully 42 years ago, which seems not that long ago but is actually WHOLE GENERATIONS of queer kids ago! Some of those kids aren’t even kids anymore! And I bet most have not heard of this film. It’s Pride season, kits! Respect our elders and check it out!
Also, it’s just a lot of fun. It’s fun to follow along on this wild, outrageous romp - there’s singing, dancing, costumes, stunts, jokes, slapstick, and antics that keep getting more ridiculous as it goes on. In contrast to, say, Cabaret, Victor/Victoria showcases the fun, zaniness, and charm of the nightlife scene of that era.
I love old Hollywood actors getting to do classic stage vaudeville schtick and if you do too, this is a great choice. Julie Andrews EATS as Victor, particularly in the Shady Dame from Seville. Robert Preston also eats in the finale in a different but spectacular way. And though you don’t see a lot of screwball comedies anymore, sometimes, all you really want is a scene where four miscreants are sneaking into different rooms in the same apartment just seconds apart and then oops someone else walks in unexpectedly oh no now that guys is stuck on a balcony how will he ever get out of this??? Great stuff
The story is inherently genderfuck in that classic Shakespearean way - the main character is a cis woman playing a cis man playing a cis woman, essentially “an incognito drag king pretending to be a outcognito drag queen.” But despite the jokey premise, it has nuance regarding its subject matter. My read is that it’s not intended as a trans narrative outright, but the idea is there, the same questions are being asked and the same norms challenged, and there is a great scene between Victor and King where V calls out K for being small-minded and hypocritical for being attracted to Victor “as a woman” and then getting angry and blaming Victor for that attraction later. The queer politics of this film are not cut and dry; Toddy essentially commodifies queerness, which is also kinda what the film is doing - it’s straight people playing gay “for the straights.”
But even so, as a genderqueer raccoon who grew up with this flick and saw some of myself in Victoria & Victor’s experiences, I appreciate that the story is not interested in giving clear answers or being overly didactic. It’s a romp. It successfully romps.
Recommended for: Fans of musicals, screwball comedy, slapstick, vaudeville, gags, silliness, schtick, people interested in pre-Pride queer history, anyone who is into the gif below
Content Warnings (Spoilers): The main love interest is a classic macho-boi asshole and he sucks for a lot of the story, including being homophobic, transphobic, and spying on Victoria while she showers. He is challenged on a lot of his opinions and he changes for the better, which is what dynamic characters do, but, you know - prep for some scenes about a real jerk. Also, as an older movie about a historically queerphobic era, there may be some outdated terminology/attitudes, but imo it’s more progressive and nuanced than some stuff you see today, so - your call! Enjoy responsibly!
I didn’t know about zeugmas until just now! That is so awesome, everybody:
zeug·ma ˈzo͞oɡmə/
noun
a figure of speech in which a word applies to two others in different senses (e.g.,John and his license expired last week ) or to two others of which it semantically suits only one (e.g., with weeping eyes and hearts ).
#in english class in high school my teacher had us write our own zeugmas in class#and one guy came up with ‘he fell from her favor… and the window’#i am forever looking for opportunities to use that one
Welcome to Lesbian Trash Panda, where I recommend the finest treasures and the best trash a gay raccoon can find. Today’s entry is the first book in the duology about everyone’s favourite Earthbender Avatar - The Rise of Kyoshi!
Summary: If you watched Avatar: The Last Airbender, you’ll be familiar with Kyoshi, the intimidating 300-year-old badass who brought balance to the world two cycles before Avatar Aang.
Kyoshi has a fandom reputation as a merciless killer, but this book — you really see why!
Haha, just kidding, she’s a bisexual simp. The murder is only a side quest.
“The Rise of Kyoshi” follows the longest-lived Avatar from humble beginnings as an orphan to her youth as a servant girl to discovering her gifts, joining a bandit gang, fighting pirates, and taking on some of the most brutal villains in the Avatar universe. Also, she is a huuuuuuuge dork for Rangi, her Firebender bodyguard/friend-who-is-girl/maybe more??? This book is 60% revenge fantasy, 40% pining teenager in love. Kyoshi is part Batman part Sappho and we love her for it
Why you should read it: Did the Batman/Sappho comparison not do it for you? Ok, here’s some more convincing.
Avatar the Last Airbender is one of the best-loved animated shows of all time. It blends the best of eastern and western animation & storytelling conventions to create a universe that is rich in beauty, lore, character, and heart. “The Rise of Kyoshi” adds new historical context and intrigue to the Avatar world while remaining exciting and engaged in its own narrative.
Kyoshi is adorable, and that’s not something you would guess based on appearances in the show. She’s complex and has a lot on her plate and she is frequently put in no-win situations, in a way we’ve never quite seen before in this world. I appreciate when a story is willing to set up a dilemma and follow through on it, instead of pulling a last minute fake-out (cough cough Legend of Korea S1). There are still surprises, but she is forced to make tough decisions and those decisions have consequences.
Rangi is also a great addition to the Avatar universe. Fans of KorraxAsami who were disappointed by how the relationship was censored in the animated show will delighted by how open and honest Kyoshi is about her feelings for Rangi, and I love her for it. I am impressed by the complexity of queer relationships in the Avatar universe - the Legend of Korea tie-in comic Turf Wars gave a brief history lesson on how the four nations feel about it traditionally, and it’s clear the creators put thought and attention into the development of that element of this universe. I am glad they get to explore this part of their world more here, in an avenue where they didn’t have to bind themselves according to homophobic advertising standards.
The book is also funny. It has that classic Avatar humour with some added, “Oh, Kyoshi, you gay sad sack!” Lots of fun characters, exciting moments, and surprising depth.
I just finished reading it to my partner and she loved it. Hopefully you will too! Get it at your local library or buy it, I dunno.
Content Warnings: Surprisingly grim violence, including war crimes - more so than the animated series; for teen readers
Recommended for: Fans of Avatar the Last Airbender and Legend of Korra, fans of historical fantasy, people who wish Bruce Wayne was a gangly teenage girl and Alfred was a badass teenage girl
