Colleen Shogan confirmation hearings, ephemera, the Internet Archive case, genealogy, LGBTQ people, animation, work conditions, and public opinion polls
This third newsletter of 2023 will focus on articles/posts about archives, libraries, genealogy, history, LGBTQ topics, animation, work conditions, and more.
Hello everyone! I know it has been a while since my last newsletter, but I thought I’d write once again, before I get busy with something else. I published my last newsletter for 2023, along with posts on Pop Culture Library Review about various topics: revisiting Black librarian Clara Rhone in Welcome to the Wayne who heads the Stanza, some real-life Black librarians who should also be in fiction, recently added titles in February 2023, examining Hanamaru Kunikida in Love Live! Sunshine!!, asking whether she is a school idol or librarian, examining fictional librarians with (and without) hair buns, and White male voice actors who bring fictional librarians to life. In addition, for Pop Culture Maniacs, I wrote an article entitled "What the World Thinks of Velma”, along with reviews of Kiff, and The Magical Revolution of the Reincarnated Princess and the Genius Young Lady (also known as MagiRevo). With that, I begin this newsletter.
When it comes to archives, there is one story of note which goes above all: the confirmation hearings for Colleen Shogan, Biden’s nominee as the next Archivist of the United States, the individual who heads the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). Her confirmation hearings are currently in process, with some reactionary people questioning her social media posts or classified documents, while she pledged to address a backlog which stood in the way of veterans getting benefits. At the same time, those who supported the publication of the Equal Rights Amendment were critical of Shogan’s argument on the ERA, which is that the courts should decide the fate of the ERA rather than the archivist publishing the amendment.
There were further articles about the Uvalde district attorney trying to hold back public release of records, use of memory by women, femmes, and queer folk in the African diaspora, an analysis of why the floppy disk “just won’t die”, an article about white gloves in New York Times entitled “For Rare Book Librarians, It’s Gloves Off. Seriously” (about how white gloves aren’t worn by archivists or librarians despite what some falsely believe), the FBI barely even approving the search of Mar-a-Lago (and their other failures), asking why politicians keep classified documents, and the latest issue of Archival Outlook. The latter has articles about community archives, disability awareness, museum archives, SAA student chapters, records of the Human Society (and protecting animal rights), digitizing religious records, volunteering, and intergenerational conversations, to name a few topics.
Furthermore, the newest issue of American Archivist was also recently released. There are articles about protecting Germany’s cultural heritage, data recovery project in Australia, teaching with primary sources, user-centered approach to born-digital archives and email, finding aid aggregation, graduate-level archival education, and other topics. There were, additionally, reviews of books about archives and Jewish culture, exploring web archives, and preserving awful archives, among other books. Just as prominently, Allison Elliot of The Feminist Institute defined the word “ephemera” and noted how important it is to history of those who are marginalized, especially queer people, because institutions were not “prioritizing recording the lives of marginalized communities”. Elliot also argued that history at the present, without ephemera, would leave cultural records lacking. I made a further comment on this below the post, which you can read here. It is mostly reprinted below:
Allison, this post really rings true for me…in today's world there is LOT of ephemera, not just the press releases, flyers, t-shirts, notes, buttons, press releases, and such, as you mention, but also social media posts. Some are trying to preserve that, but it can be a challenge, as sometimes this software isn't designed well to be preserved. In terms of materials which aren't typically kept or preserved, possibly emails could count with this as well? I can think of some things in my own life which were definitely not preserved, like the posts on my old Facebook account, my messages on AIM, the text messages on my old phone, or anything else like that. To add onto that, I'd say that when it comes to genealogy, which is something I'm very familiar, it can be easy to find census records, photos, or even video recordings…I index the first two, and especially the first one (well, declassified documents to be precise), for my job. But, for marginalized people, especially those who aren't White, the ephemera is vital to create an accurate record of marginalized histories, as you point out…some institutions are trying to prioritize marginalized communities, although I'm not sure how well that is going…In any case, if recording of marginalized communities isn't prioritized, an accurate cultural record can't be claimed. Surely, official documentation has its limits, even if it is interpreted differently (and in a more progressive way)…Otherwise…I…can agree that marginalized histories haven't always been accurately represented in the larger cultural record, and surely ephemera can help tell more of the story (or many stories)….without a doubt, keeping a record of previous queer people, and communities, is valuable as well.
There are many stories when it comes to libraries. One of the most talked about is the case of Hachette v. Internet Archive, which began in 2020 and revolved around allegations that Open Library, and the National Emergency Library, engaged in copyright infringement. Judge Koeltl, a judge appointed by President Clinton, ruled, as stated by Publisher’s Weekly, that IA’s fair use defense “rests on the notion that lawfully acquiring a copyrighted print book entitles the recipient to make an unauthorized copy and distribute it in place of the print book…no case or legal principle supports that notion. Every authority points in the other direction”. This was a ruling which favored the four publishers (Hachette Book Group, HarperCollins, John Wiley & Sons and Penguin Random House), along with Authors Guild and Association of American Publishers (AAP).
Judge Koeltl said the four factors of fair use favor the publishers rather than IA, but did admit that IA can “lend books in its collection that are in the public domain, and free to use works still covered by copyright in a way consistent with what is done on Google Books and HathiTrust”, which includes ndexing, snippet view, and full access for the print disabled. This point was also pointed out by Nancy Sims. Such a statement which may suggest that “publishers will likely not prevail in asking for the infringing scans to be destroyed…as it acknowledges there are legal uses for the IA's in-copyright scans.” The ruling appears to be an “unequivocal, potentially fatal blow to the practice of controlled digital lending” (CDL) as noted in Publisher’s Weekly.
In their statement, IA stated that the decision was a “blow to all libraries and the communities” they serve, saying the ruling hurts those which rely on controlled digital lending, harms authors, and “holds back access to information in the digital age”, which others agreed with. IA also said this is part of a “battle” for libraries, all while some have absurdly claimed they are “victims” of CDL in opposition to International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions which supports the practice. The IA even ended the National Emergency Library early to appease publishers, but this was not successful. Other scholars have even argued that libraries don’t need permission to lend books, or otherwise endorsed CDL.
On Twitter, there were a variety of perspectives, with Alexandra deGraffenreid (@alexiadpuravida on Twitter) arguing that while IA preserves internet history, they are a “private company with their own ends” which did something blatantly inane “under copyright law & brought on themselves a lawsuit risking their entire business”. She went onto say that while the publishers were overblowing harm, but did “open thousands of copyrighted books to the public w/o authorization” and said that HathiTrust is different as they “used copyright protections for preservation purposes”. After this, she rightly argues that while preserving internet’s history is necessary, notes that the IA is the only organization doing it “at scale”, meaning everyone relies on them, and states for people to possible “lose the entire history of the internet over this plainly bad idea side project is enraging,” since other heritage organizations exist. I tend to side with the IA on this case, as a person with over 33 files uploaded to the IA servers, and oft-user of the Wayback Machine. Even so, I think that the creation of the National Emergency Library was a mistake and should never have occurred. If they hadn’t created that program, in an effort to seemingly help users when public libraries remained closed, then this case would have never been brought.
Matthew Noe also said he didn’t like the decision but “some of the takes on here” but libraries still exist, while others replied that they agreed with the ruling that “just putting a copy of something on the web does not count as transformative use”, or noted the “stillbirth of last copy preservation”. Another stated, rightly, that “the IA's accessibility, as well as the sheer variety of what they uploaded, push it far beyond what even the best-funded libraries are capable of.” The latter also asked “would libraries really digitize and have available on-demand multiple versions of fansubbed anime?” The likelihood is that no libraries would do that, none at all. This case could open the door to others wishing to have their content taken down from IA.
The Verge argued that the decision states that IA “does not have the right to scan books and lend them out like a library” and noted the statement by the organization that “it will continue acting as a library in other ways, despite the decision.” The president of AAP praised the decision, stating that it “underscored the importance of authors, publishers, and creative markets in a global society” but also said they thanked “thousands of public libraries across the country that serve their communities everyday through lawful eBook licenses.” The Authors Guild, a professional organization said to represent “published writers” (actually publishers), praised the ruling as well, declaring that “scanning & lending books w/out permission or compensation is NOT fair use—it is theft & it devalues authors' works,” a typical anti-piracy statement. Some have also suggested using their public libraries instead of pirating books as a method of boycotting the publishers, saying the latter will hurt authors. I can understand that argument, but can sympathize with those who want to boycott Hachette Book Group, HarperCollins, John Wiley & Sons and Penguin Random House. Even so, such a position would be challenging considering that hundreds of thousands of books are sold every year, and trade publishing in the U.S. is dominated by “Simon & Schuster, Penguin Random House, HarperCollins, Hachette Book Group, and Macmillan”, known as the big five. Simon & Schuster and Macmillan are not part of the suit directly (indirectly as they are both members of AAP, which is a party in the suit), although John Wiley & Sons is.
In other library-related news, Alex Brown put together a thread about the Association of Independent School Librarians (AISL) hosting their annual conference in Florida despite LGBTQ+ members expressing their concern about safety, while others asked librarians to stand with the Internet Archive, and there was a special anniversary of hip hop at libraries. Another noted that school librarians are not a luxury, BCALA vice-president Jason Alaston criticized Black librarians for identifying as BIPOC rather than Black, annoying people (predictably so), while others in Library Twitter stressed the importance of computers wiping clean at the end of each session so people can still look up information on abortion care, while it was stated that public library budgets are being slashed while police have more cash than ever. Others wrote about an absurd law against public libraries in Indiana, access to libraries as a “democratic value”, while some argued that parents have the right to censor books for their children but don’t have the “right to censor books for other people’s children” (not sure I agree with this argument), noted that people are merely licensing e-books from retailers but do not own it, and stated reading comics described as “reading”. Last but not least, in perhaps the first case of its kind, the federal government is opening “an investigation into a Texas school district over its alleged removal of books featuring LGBTQ characters.”
This brings me to the topic of genealogy. Eastern Washington Genealogical Society Blog noted that everyone with ancestors “has a good story”. There was also a summary of Kate Moore’s The Woman They Could Not Silence (about the story of my ancestor Elizabeth P.W. Packard), a premiere of the play The Voices on Blackwell Island which “focuses on two badass, fearless women of the turn-of-the-century, Nellie Bly and Elizabeth Packard”, the importance of reclaiming family stories for marginalized people, a deal possibly meaning that “more artifacts of Utah’s Black history will be preserved” (which is good for Black genealogists), Ancestry and the Museum of the American Revolution working together to digitize an archive connected to Black and Indigenous soldiers form the Revolutionary War, importance of Angel Island Immigration Station, and racism of birth certificates toward people of color.
There were further articles of note, either about websites and organizations for Italian genealogy research, efforts to digitize records by the Ukrainian archives, 9 name research problems (and how to solve them), the worst disasters on the Mississippi river, the best free genealogy websites, how to trace your ancestors when birth names are unknown, restoring historic cemeteries in Massachusetts, and a couple being ready to launch a lesbian bar in Worchester (which makes me think of my previous LGBTQ ancestors and others who lived in Western Massachusetts), the fullness of enslaved Black lives as “seen through early Massachusetts vital records”, and reframing the history of American genealogy. The latter comes with the need to “acknowledge the connection between personal longing for ancestry and the ways in which powerful organizations, institutions, media, and businesses have sought to capitalize on this longing,” with democratization of genealogy beginning in the 1970s leading to commercialization. It was also noted, in the above-mentioned link, an article by senior lecturer Adam Hjorthén, that digitization could “raise troubling issues relating to national identity, privacy, and the relationship between state and corporation”, longing for those long-dead, role of the Mormons. The article concludes by saying that genealogy is “situated in a tension of innate human longing for ancestry and changing efforts to capitalize on that longing…[so it] harbors a 21st century potential that is both productive and pernicious” at the same time. In some ways, this makes me think of my slow-moving project examining contracts that so-called “correctional institutions” have with FamilySearch to do indexing, and this gives me a bit of a push to start this project up again.
With that, I move onto the subject of history. Some wrote about a proposed Alabama bill which raised the penalty for removing Confederate monuments, why the U.S. military can’t quit PowerPoint, the story of the 9th Virginia Regiment in the Revolutionary War, Dickson Mounds Museum built on top of Indigenous burial bounds, the FBI’s persecution of Sidney Poitier, competing cartographies in Cameroon, syndication regulation and TV’s big three broadcasting regulations and 1970s television, and Emily Geiger’s “fabulous” ride (and determining whether it is real, fiction, and the reality of the story). Others noted how to report on repatriation of Indigenous remains, the lonely vigil of America’s first diplomat, the escape of John Champe, a brief legislative history of homebrewing in the U.S. in two parts here and here, a rare atlas of the First World War, the return of Bruce’s Beach proving that “reparations are possible”, the improbable capture of eleven British ships, death restitution and legal pluralism in Upper Canada, and the Western forts of the 1783 Treaty of Paris, to name a few articles of note.
There were additional posts on the consequences of Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, examining General Nathanael Greene’s southern strategy during the Revolutionary war, newly scanned maps of 2022, abolitionist resistance to the aforementioned Fugitive Slave Act, the life and times of George Washington Carver, grave errors and incorrect markers for soldiers of 8th Virginia Regiment, remembering when the U.S. sterilized Black people (and why it matters today), UC San Diego scientists racing to document Mexico’s Maya ruins, archaeologists uncovering a 1,800 year old complete Roman city in Egypt, and the story of the man behind critical race theory. Beyond this were articles focusing on states with the most Confederate memorials, Spike Lee speaking truth to power, cities struggling over what to do with their Columbus statues, the complex paths of non-Western art which was “systematically looted” (also see here), the role of the museum in a “sea of stolen artifacts”, Italy opening a fascism museum, and a report that the first fossil finders in North America were enslaved and Indigenous people, to name a few.
Then, History News Network had articles about how weaponizing bad-faith history is a “conservative tradition from Jim Crow to Alito” (written by a professor I took a class about the Civil Rights Movement with at my alma mater), Jane Stanford's murder showing the moral vacuum of Gilded Age Fortune and philanthropy, what Prohibition history tells us about returning abortion to the states, lessons from the history textbook wars of the 1920s, and describing that food has long been a “culture war weapon.” There were further articles focusing on how Virginia's "guiding principles" are a right-wing fantasy of history, asking whether Biden will pardon Callie House (a “former slave and pioneering civil rights activist”) how the freedom to teach about racism has “always been threatened,” and an argument that the Far Right's embrace of Knights Templar is “about bigotry.” Additional HNN articles were about the long history of PR stunts by the CIA, asking whether marital status discrimination holds the key to “protecting sexual freedoms from SCOTUS,” what freedom meant to Black people in Nashville during the Civil War, Thulani Davis reconsidering the geography of freedom during Reconstruction, Philadelphia apologizing for prison experiments on inmates, asking whether the current labor surge is a “new CIO moment,” the ongoing problem of segregation in America, and determining why Southern Republicans want to narrow the U.S. Census definition of Black identity (using the one-drop rule to defend expansive Blackness?).
This brings me to the topic of climate and environmentalism. There were stories on the failures of the Paris Agreement to limit methane emissions, wildfire forest regeneration, auditing green labels (and deforestation), the rights of nature, climate resilience in New York City, asking whether there is enough lithium in the world to transition to electric vehicles, answering whether Massachusetts is under estimating its greenhouse gas emissions, noting who should lower their emissions (and why), how to take breaks from the climate crisis “without living in denial”, interrelation of climate change and human health, environmental justice impacts of the offshore wind economy, and the steam system “still powering Manhattan”.
There were other articles on what should be known about gas stove risks, state takeover of the Jackson, Mississippi water system, how researchers could help protect Louisiana and the nation’s cultural heritage from climate change, climate change impacts on museums and galleries, the effect of the melting Greenland ice sheet, asking why water needs an expiration date if it “never goes bad”, how plastic codes are total crap and worthless as the plastics industry came up with them (see the “Rein identification code” Wikipedia page), asking why humans believe that “beautiful animals” are more deserving of protection (connected to this is an article entitled “Looking Beyond the Charismatic Megafauna”), and the real possibility of floating cities as a result of rising seas across the globe.
Environmental, Law, and History blogspot had articles on the future history of the Paris agreement, the birth of the Clean Air and Clean Water acts in the 1970s, a historical perspective on the IPCC, cost-and-benefit analysis in recent history, carbon debt, climate justice, and environmental history, capitalism, and adaptation to climate change, to mention some posts. Recent news reports have said that climate change was a factor that led to a virus outbreak in Africa, noted climate advocates saying that oceans were overlooked in climate change policy and Biden’s plan supposedly changing this, described the complex link between tornadoes and climate change, the U.N. General Assembly adopting a resolution which clears the way for the International Court of Justice to “issue an advisory opinion that can be cited in future court cases regarding the legal responsibilities among nations in regards to climate change” (see Fiji’s response here), summarizing a new IPCC report saying that time is running out to combat the effects of climate change, and asking whether anxiety over climate change should be a clinical diagnosis or not.
I’d like to flip toward an entirely different topic: LBGTQ+ people. Mother Jones reported on the secret working group that “helped push anti-trans laws across the country”, the Nashville Scene outlined resources for LGBTQ Nashvillians, ever-controversial indie animator Vivienne Medrano said that she was “reclaiming hell” with her shows (Helluva Boss and Hazbin Hotel), and added that queer people “reclaiming the imagery of hell is…a thing some of us do cus it represents something to us,” and Jonathan Friedman and Amy Werbel wrote about the cautionary tale of the Comstock Act in an opinion piece for The Hill.
LezWatch.TV had articles reviewing the year 2022, examining the late cancellations of shows with LGBTQ characters, and memorable queer TV scenes “on or involving stairs where nobody falls”. In addition, the site has statistics with “characters, actors, and shows…added to the database” and recently added a page for Yang Xiao Long in RWBY, for reasons I’ll later explain later in this newsletter. CBR also noted the censorship of a lesbian kiss cut from The Last of Us. More importantly, Pew Research Center had a poll about views of Black Americans on transgender and non-binary people, noting they support gender equality, but are “split in their views on how accepting society should be” while also calling on more in the U.S. to give “women equal rights with men,” and that many Black people are “more likely to know someone who is transgender or nonbinary than to identify as such themselves.” Other parts of the poll stated importance, to Black people, than women have equal roles to men in society, oppose sexism, note that parents share childcare responsibilities, describe feminism as empowering, argued that organizations working toward Black equality should “address the distinctive challenges of Black people who are gay or lesbian…or transgender”, and say that there is a “great deal or fair amount of discrimination against transgender people in the U.S. today.”
The Pew Research Center survey was more important than the Gallup poll of LGBTQ identification, stating that 7.2% of U.S. adults identify as “lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or something other than heterosexual…in 2022…double what it was when Gallup first measured LGBT identification a decade ago.” The poll also said that Generation Z was “the most likely subgroup to identify as LGBT, with 19.7% doing so” while “the rate is 11.2% among millennials and 3.3% or less among older generations.” While corporate queer organization like Human Rights Campaign have applauded the poll, and note that another estimate says that 8% of Americans are LGBTQ, and it has been mapped by the Williams Institute, these numbers are limiting. Are the 86% of people who say they are straight in the Gallup poll being honest? And what about the 7% who refused to answer the question? The Wikipedia “LGBT demographics of the United States” page is no help here, nor is this, but the Williams Institute notes that estimates vary, and implies there are even MORE LGBTQ people in the U.S. The latter study states that averaging two surveys “yields an estimate of nearly 19 million Americans (8.2%) who have engaged in same-sex sexual behavior.”
One of the surveys cited, a CDC survey, states that “twice as many women as men report having had any same-sex sexual contact in their lifetimes (13% of women and 5.2% of men)” (page 11). The U.S. Census said there were over 543,000 same-sex married households, 469,000 same-sex unmarried partner households, and 191,000 children living with same-sex parents (also see other resources here), or others that note that the number of LGBTQ people are in the millions. A June 2016 survey with over 33,000 respondents, stated that 8.2% men have had sex with at least one man, 8.7% women have had sex with at least one woman, and 7.7% adults have had sex with men and women, and stated that “the increases in same-sex experiences were largest among whites and in the South and Midwest,” while another stated that “consensual, nonmonogamous relationships have become more common” and that “identity is inherently political” with some people are LGBTQ but not identifying as such.
Anime has been on a winning streak of late, especially when it comes to LGBTQ relationships. Above is a clip from The Magical Revolution of the Reincarnated Princess and the Genius Young Lady, also known as MagiRevo, with my review noted at the beginning of this newsletter. And spoilers, the two protagonists, Anis and Euphie, get together. Yuri Anime News has reported that Whisper Me a Love Song is set to premiere in January 2024, while Yuri is My Job!, Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear Season 2, Birdie Wing season 2, Mobile Suit Gundam: Witch from Mercury are set to premiere this month. Other se to premiere this spring with yuri themes, include Uma Musume: Pretty Derby, Otaku Elf, World Dai Star, Alice Gear Aegis Expansion, Kizuna No Allele, and Konosuba: An Explosion on This Wonderful World! These are additions to the yuri anime of Winter 2023 which have ended, like MagiRevo, Nijiyon Animation, and D4DJ All Mix.
There were further stories about the One Piece creator avoiding including fan service, a high-res scan of a full interview with Naoko Takeuchi in 1996, promotion of the Soaring Sky! Precure series, the best yuri anime of all time, anime which are focused on dance ballet, anime which do not have a sequel/reboot, a yuri anime bringing a Star Wars meme to life, the best anime about protecting the environment (includes Dr. Stone, My Neighbor Totoro, Miyori's Forest, Aquatope On White Sand, The Law of Ueki, Mushishi, Pom Poko, Shangri-La, Nausicaä Of The Valley Of The Wind, and Princess Mononoke), and the best short anime.
I especially loved Aquatope and would watch it again, as it was well done. Anime News Network had articles about Cardcaptor Sakura getting a manga (and anime?) sequel, Spy x Family voice actors trying to “predict the anime's new visual,” how a dream of three Sailor Moon fangirls of voicing in an anime coming true, AnimeJapan 2023 news roundup, Rascal Does Not Dream of a Sister Venturing Out anime film, Genjitsu no Yohane -Sunshine in the Mirror (yuri presumably) anime revealing six more cast members, an examination of A.I. portrayed in anime, Crunchyroll laying off 85 employees, and answering a question about the delay of Aniplex shows.
Apart from other disturbing stories, like a voice actor, Mike Haimoto, accused of sexual assault and domestic abuse, and others about ranking the worst written female characters, black creators and journalists in anime/manga fandom (also see here), examining how Tropical Rouge Recure rewrote narratives of femininity and fairy tales, noting how Stars Align offers a fresh narrative model for LGBTQ+ characters, I thought it was interesting that MANY of the voice actors in Genjitsu no Yohane are familiar. M.A.O. (also known as Mao Ichimichi), who will voice Kohaku, voiced Yukari Tenkawa in Teasing Master Takagi-san, Pecorine/Eustiana von Astraea in Princess Connect! Re:Dive, Hinata Tachibana in Life with an Ordinary Guy Who Reincarnated into a Total Fantasy Knockout, Mitsuki Ōshiro in Aharen-san wa Hakarenai, Ashuna in The Executioner and Her Way of Life, Kaoruko Iijima in Birdie Wing: Golf Girls' Story, Hellko in Love After World Domination, and Mameda in My Master Has No Tail.
Voice actresses Hekiru Shiina, Rie Kugimiya, Kana Asumi, Kanae Itō, Tomoyo Kurosawa, Aika Kobayashi, Kanako Takatsuki, Arisa Komiya, Ai Furihata, Anju Inami, Shuka Saitō, Nanaka Suwa, Rikako Aida, and Aina Suzuki, who are part of the show, have voiced characters in Re:Zero, Encouragement of Climb: Next Summit, Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear, Girl Friend Beta, Love Live! Sunshine!!, Astra Lost in Space, D4DJ First Mix, Miss Kuroitsu from the Monster Development Department, Oresuki, Akebi's Sailor Uniform, Management of a Novice Alchemist, The Aquatope on White Sand, Sweetness and Lightning, Dropkick on My Devil!, and Tokyo Mew Mew New.
Aida voiced Miyazawa in Aquatope, which I forgotten, making me like this upcoming series even better, as does the fact that Suzuki voiced Jashin-Chan in Dropkick on My Devil! (this series is great), makes me even more excited for Genjitsu no Yohane. To add onto this, Anime Feminist had articles about agency and motivation in girl’s hobby shows (i.e. Do It Yourself! which aired last year), transfeminine desire in the series Stop Hibari-Kun, the exploitation of women in Claymore, the “Marxist horror” of Aggretsuko, finding models of healthy masculinity in BL Manga, Penguindrum and the dilemma of yuri, review of a Soaring Sky! Pretty Cure episode, and fandom studies resources.
Furthermore, CBR had articles ranking the coolest josei protagonists, noted underdog anime to seek out/watch in fall 2022 (only ones I watched was Bibliophile Princess, Urusei Yatsura, Do It Yourself!, I'm The Villainess, So I'm Taming The Final Boss, and Akiba Maid War, but not Eternal Boys; More Than A Married Couple, But Not Lovers; Shinobi No Ittoki, Raven Of The Inner Palace, and The Eminence In Shadow), the best anime series predicted to die, while some are revisiting the cultural context and popularity of Vampire Knight, Eric Friedman is sadly stating that she got Long COVID (oh no), the wistful romance of Sasaki and Miyano with a twist, AMC’s Sentai Filmworks inking a “major MBS Anime Deal for HIDIVE”, and a new Netflix anime for Scott Pilgrim, the infantilization and sexualization of “Inoue Orihime in Bleach”, what we can “learn about labor organization from Akiba Maid War”, and subverting masculine expectations and “complicating the male gaze in My Dress-Up Darling”.
There are many articles about animation, whether a story by an animator laid off by Netflix getting a job at A24, an article in California Law Review about heroizing restorative justice in Steven Universe, fans stating that some future Disney series will be serialized (like Moon Girl and Hailey’s On It!, but not Kiff), Swampy returning to helm new Phineas and Ferb series with Dave Povenmire, James Gunn working on more Wonder Woman animation, Kiff creators talking about their show, the release of a new webtoon for Totally Spies! before its debut sometime in 2024, Netflix revealing their new kids/family slate, and 2023 film releases (like Nimona).
The biggest animation news, was not the best TV shows for this year, the review of Moon Girl, animated films coming this year, the importance of the Catradora kiss, and the message of hope with Your Name, but the kiss of Blake Belladonna and Yang Xiao Long in episode 6 of RWBY’s Volume/Season 9! It is great to see this slow burn romance finally come to fruition in the show, and in a powerful way. The series not only is a bit of Alice in Wonderland esque, but it focuses on the pressure and trauma all of the four protagonists (Blake, Yang, Weiss Schnee, and Ruby Rose), and the supporting characters, as they fight against an encompassing evil.
I’m switching gears onto articles about unionization. Recently, Disney production workers unionized despite Disney refuding voluntary recognition, while others noted the 1970s echo in today's union revival, or history of fights for labor rights, either when it comes to the Battle of Blair Mountain (said to be the largest labor uprising in U.S. history), child labor, or striking union workers turning “the first Labor Day into a networking event.” Gallup noted something not surprising:
"Living for the weekend," "watching the clock tick," "work is just a paycheck." These are the mantras of most global workers. With only 21% of employees engaged at work and 33% of employees thriving in their overall wellbeing, most would say that they don't find their work meaningful, don't think their lives are going well or don't feel hopeful about their future…The world's employees are feeling even more stressed than they did in 2020 (the previous all-time high). Forty-four percent of employees experienced a lot of daily stress in the previous day. While almost half of the world's workers felt the burden of stress, working women in the U.S. and Canada region were among the most stressed employees globally.
These findings align with the continuing grip of the gender pay gap, the low rate of unionization in the U.S., and less work stoppages than before, all while unions remain popular, and the need to organize the non-union workforce (which is more than 125 million workers in all), to name a few factors here, along with a similar survey from Pew Research Center which said that “only about half of U.S. workers say they are extremely or very satisfied with their job overall”.
With that, I come to the part of this newsletter which focuses on topics which don’t neatly fit anywhere else. This includes Pew Research Center surveys noting that 60 percent of Americans would be uncomfortable relying on AI for their healthcare (I agree with them on that, as AI is really nothing but trouble, despite what the tech bros and their followers declare about its “value”), and young adults in Europe being critical of the U.S. and China because of China’s human rights record, “China’s growing economic might and its policies in Taiwan, Hong Kong and elsewhere,” and the U.S. because of “poorly executed” withdrawal from Afghanistan, opposition to U.S. role as world’s policeman and saying it is “to the detriment of the world community.” This is all despite the U.S. getting “higher marks” than China and a desire to avoid military intervention even if “intervening is beneficial” (whatever that means), and have their countries maintain a strong and more independent presence “on the world stage without relying on policy cues from the U.S.”
Moving on, I found it interesting to see the continued debate over whether to capitalize the word “White” when referring to White people, with AP and CJR saying to not capitalize it (but capitalize Black when referring to Black people, etc.) but an opinion piece in Chicago Tribune, the National Association of Black Journalists, American Psychological Association Style Guide, Diversity Style Guide, and D Magazine opposing that view. Personally, I am not convinced by the arguments put forward by AP, CJR, and others, as it only seems fair that if you are capitalizing the B in Black, why not do the same for the W in White? For AP to say that the W should not be capitalized because “White people generally do not share the same history and culture, or the experience of being discriminated against because of skin color”, avoids the problems with Whiteness, White supremacy, White nationalism, and the like, which should all be critically analyzed and opposed. If it is the case that White supremacists are capitalizing it, then so what? Why should that stop those who don’t subscribe to that ideology from capitalizing the W? The answer is that it shouldn’t. Personally, I’m going to keep the capitalization even if its “unpopular” with some and at least until there is more consensus on this issue.
There are some other topics of note. For instance, the ERA Coalition had posts applauding the launch of the “historic Equal Rights Amendment Congressional Caucus”, so-called “founding mothers”, state lawmakers “introducing more than a dozen bills across the U.S. protecting sex equality Washington, DC”, so-called “early feminist writers” to know about. Unfortunately, the coalition has taken some bad positions, especially when it comes to an inane post supporting AI, and Iranian protests (no mention of previous U.S. intervention), all while Americans dumbly support banning Tik Tok (especially among those over age 65, but decreasing support based on those who get younger), with at least 30% unsure if to support a ban, and the far-reaching and problematic Restrict Act which would give the U.S. government the power to “regulate and even ban foreign-produced technology” in lieu of having any comprehensive approach to online privacy.
Last but not least are posts about toxic masculinity on campus, the rise of Black-owned birth centers, the health impact of Long COVID, citizen participatory trials in South Korea, examining when jokes too far (an absurd take on so-called “cancel culture”), the noninvasive prenatal testing industry confusing patients and even some doctors, a false arrest by the NYPD, what lurks “inside Google’s black box ad empire,” and racial disparities when it comes to stillbirths.
I come to the final part of this newsletter, with illustrations by The Nib. This included criticism of IKEA (and its role as a “good” capitalist company), a sexual survivor deemed too biased to serve on a jury, furry art, collateral damage of the Disney-DeSantis fight, people talking about escapist entertainment, hot takes in response to scientists saying a product is unsafe (like gas stoves), CNET’s journalist appearing to commit excessive plagiarism, if men were “polite” to each other, “Grand Theft Baghdad”, transphobia in the New York Times, and history of company towns.
That’s all for this newsletter! See you next month, or hopefully later this month, with another newsletter. Hope you all have a great rest of your week.
- Burkely