零 (ling)/30s (THEY/THEM/佢)
art tag: #a pile of bread
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“We never say that all men deserve to feel beautiful. We never say that each man is beautiful in his own way. We don’t have huge campaigns aimed at young boys trying to convince them that they’re attractive, probably because we very rarely correlate a man’s worth with his appearance. The problem is that a woman’s value in this world is still very much attached to her appearance, and telling her that she should or deserves to feel beautiful does more to promote that than negate it. Telling women that they “deserve” to feel pretty plays right in to the idea that prettiness should be important to them. And having books and movies aimed at young women where every female protagonist turns out to be beautiful (whereas many of the antagonists are described in much less flattering terms) reinforces the message that beauty has some kind of morality attached to it, and that all heroines are somehow pretty.”
— You Don’t Have To Be Pretty – On YA Fiction And Beauty As A Priority | The Belle Jar (via brutereason)
earth-dad

You Don’t Have To Be Pretty – On YA Fiction And Beauty As A Priority | The Belle Jar (via brutereason)

gaymanga: “ Don’t reblog. When you see a complete manga or comic posted by someone other than the original artist, please don’t reblog. It’s one thing to privately enjoy a bootlegged work and another to publicly advance its spread. I try to refrain...
gaymanga

Don’t reblog.

When you see a complete manga or comic posted by someone other than the original artist, please don’t reblog. It’s one thing to privately enjoy a bootlegged work and another to publicly advance its spread. I try to refrain from getting negative about piracy on this blog, but it saddens me when I see it directly affecting artists who I love. 

Seizoh Ebisubashi is a truly freelance, full time gay manga artist. He left G-men last year to pursue an independent career in this niche within a niche. Ebisubashi voluntarily shares a boatload of his artwork on Tumblr in an effort to directly reach fans. Recently, he’d noticed a surge of postings by other users sharing his comics in their entirety. Here’s what he wrote about the subject in a Tumblr post last week. Translation by Anne Ishii:

"Hi. Nice to meet you, this is Seizoh Ebisubashi. I have a message concerning the manga you recently published on your Tumblr. I’m glad you were able to enjoy my manga but when you post it for free for anyone to download it seriously damages my ability to keep up paid publishing work and has a direct effect on my life. If you could at least read it on your own and not make it public, I’d be grateful."

I sent the above message to a Tumblr account that posted one of my works in its entirety. It’s not like it’s the first time this has happened. My stuff has been published without permission before, but it’s been work from magazines and compilations, scanned and uploaded, which isn’t to say it’s fine, but at least it’s limited in scope, and I reason to myself, it might serve as some kind of publicity for my complete works. Whereas this is the wholesale publishing of an entire story by one person—three volumes—and if someone sees that it’s available for free they will think it only their due right to read it for free going forward. It cuts directly into my income and has a profound effect on my life. I just ask that anyone encountering this consider resisting the urge to download the work and suffice with the previews I offer on my own site. 

I’ve been publishing my work in JPEG format because I trust my readers not to exploit it, but if this keeps up I will have to publish in a non-downloadable PDF format that probably won’t be viewable on Macs [ed note: with a type of manga DRM that’s notoriously clunky and only works on certain operating systems]. At the very least, if you come across a free downloadable version, please don’t then spread it or publish it on your own site.

The posts he’s referring to tend to have hundreds of likes and reblogs. Once these bootlegs become ubiquitous, Ebisubashi stops getting paid for his work, and it becomes impossible for him to make art for a living. But you can break the chain! By just not reblogging. Reblogging a bootleg comic may seem like a small, meaningless gesture, but it directly counters the efforts of the artists whose work you’re enjoying. 

I won’t pretend that I can offer a complete solution to the problems of accessibility through our small (but earnest!) efforts at MASSIVE. Anne and I are passionately engaged in eliminating the divide between gay mangaka and English-speaking gay manga fans. We want to get so much more manga translated and published here— but it’s not a fast or easy process and we still have a long way to go.

In the meantime, artists like Ebisubashi are doing their best to offer their hard work to readers directly through sites like Digiket and BOOTH. Let’s support them wherever possible! 

♥ Graham

pinoy-culture

JUSTICE FOR JENNIFER LAUDE !

END THE MILITARY EXERCISES AND VISITING FORCES AGREEMENT!

KICK OUT THE U.S. MILITARY OUT OF THE PHILIPPINES !

If you live in NYC, come join us for the action and rally on Wednesday, October 15 at 5 pm in front of the Philippines Embassy.

When: Wednesday, October 15, 2014 at 5 pm.
Where: 556 Fifth Avenue, New York front of the Philippines Embassy

If you haven’t heard already in Philippine news and now some U.S. news outlets like ABC News & The New York Post, yesterday night a transgender woman name Jennifer Laude was found murdered inside the Celzone Lodge on Magsaysay Drive in Olangapo City, Zambales. She was found, strangled with her head leaning over the toilet by one of the hotel attendants who was also a witness. The attendant, Elias Gallamos, witnessed a white man with blonde hair and a marine cut walking out of the hotel room a few minutes after both he and Jennifer went in. According to Elias the suspect left the door open and Elias went to check the room but saw slippers outside the bathroom so believed someone was inside using the room and he left. Later, they returned to check back in the hotel room and discovered Jennifers body.

Earlier on in the night another witness, the victim’s friend, said they met the suspect at the Ambyanz Disco Bar at 10:55 p.m. Jennifer then invited the suspect to the hotel and asked the witness to leave before the suspect found out they were both transgender.

Both witnesses describe the man as having a “white complexion, with marine-style cut of hair,” standing between 5’8″ and 5’10” and between 25 and 30 years old.

The suspect is now detained in the USS Peleliu assault ship as the investigation continues. However according to the VFA any military servicemen who has committed a crime in the Philippines must be held by U.S. officials not Philippine officials. Basically the U.S. military is hiding behind the VFA (which they created) for the suspect and any other military personel stationed on the islands to gain immunity and escape prosecution from Philippines laws.

Now people, especially the family members and friends of Jennifer, are worried that the U.S. ships can leave at any time and justice won’t be served as the suspect and 3 other suspects of the case will not be turned over to Philippines authorities. Though officials say the ship will not be able to leave the port until the case is solved many worry this will not be the case.

We call for the U.S. to turn over the suspects to Philippine officials for investigation. We call for justice for Jennifer Laude in which its clearly a hate crime and for the numerous rape cases by U.S. military who have escaped prosecution. 

JUSTICE !

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