Queer Webseries

 There's a huge vacuum when it comes to representation of queer identities in media. So it's understanding that many people have turned to indie webseries to make their own representation. Or to just look there for representations of what they're experiencing. And in theory this can be really cool, many more stories can be told a lot better when people make them themselves. But I've found that there's plenty of reasons why these can... fall flat. Lack of a budget for one, and using people who are figuring out what they're doing as they go isn't always the greatest. Regardless of these reservations though, I think there's a reason why so many of these speak to people, so don't let my critiques here stop you from watching them.

One production that I think can highlight the highs of webseries really well is "I Put the Bi in Bitter." It tells the story of a bisexual high schooler with coming out, having a crush on a female classmate, talking to her family about being queer, and navigating college applications. I tend to promote this show to anyone who will listen to me, because I think it's a really great show and a lot of fun to watch. The cast is diverse, there's bi, gay, lesbian, characters and allies, and while the acting isn't sublime it's quite good. The writing also is great in that the writers know how to take their time. Most webseries only have about 10 minutes per episode and instead of cramming a whole arc in there, this show knows how to give us a single scene or interaction per episode. It shows that they have a great sense of timing and how to tell this story. Finally the cinematography is fun in that characters' emotions will appear as emojis around their heads. It's super simple, but really effective and helps the show to stand out from others that play it more conventionally.

To contrast, a show that I think misses the mark is "BIFL." I had heard a lot about this show since it features both an ace lesbian and an aro bi, neither of which you see often. I finally watched it and honestly, I didn't think it was remarkable beyond that. The characters seemed a little two dimensional, the ace lesbian is mostly mad all of the time, and the bisexual main character just pines over her best friend. The straight guy just wants his roommate to get together with his friend. There are some interesting side points, but the show doesn't have the time to flesh them out fully, like one character's struggle with mental health. For sure this show has less of a sense of how to effectively tell a story within 10 minutes. There's a reconciliation between two characters that felt really rushed and made their whole relationship difficult for me to believe after that. Plus, and this might just be my preference, the plot revolves entirely around romantic relationships. And there's two of them! You could have at least had one be romantic and pick anything else for the secondary plot. 

Having said all that, "BIFL" only has 1 season while "I Put the Bi in Bitter" has 3. So they've had more time to find their feet. And whether the show is good or not, I'm still glad that it exists and that people are making this. So if you check out the show links, they are crowdsourcing for money to make more episodes. Watch what they have, and if you like what you see, donate to get more produced! It's well worth your money dollars.

This Is Beautiful: COVID Booster

 Get your booster shot if you're eligible! I finally got mine this past weekend, which is really good because I was originally vaccinated back in February. I was exhausted and sore afterwards, but it was super worth it! I'm really not looking forward to the inevitable next booster dose, but hooray for antibodies and viruses!

Irony

 Alright well in a crazy follow up to the last 2 posts that I made, the club that I was complaining about not listening to feedback about making members feel safe has had a couple COVID cases in the wake of its first in person performance. I'm so mad. Finally the club is doing something to protect members, but it took the president getting COVID and potentially spreading it to other members of the org for anything to happen.

I haven't gotten the results of my COVID test back yet, I'm a little nervous because I was standing next to the infected person for part of the performance. If this is how I get COVID, I'm going to be so angry. At least the board has finally said no food indoors and to submit a negative COVID test the week of the performance. I already suggested this weeks ago, but glad that they're finally coming to their senses.

It's just incredible how little people care about things that they can ignore. If anyone else tested positive, I'm willing to bet that we wouldn't have made changes. Hopefully I get my results back soon.

This Is Beautiful: Performing

 This past weekend I had my first in person performance for flow arts in about a year and a half! It was so invigorating being on stage and seeing reactions to my group. I forgot how much I missed the sound of applause and little things like that. You get a lot of energy from an audience, and I've missed that for the past year and a half.

Leadership and Handling Complaints/Feedback

 There are somehow multiple organizations that have managed to made me mad recently so I'm venting and explaining how I view the responsibilities of an organization's leadership at the same time. It primarily has to deal with how they respond to and take feedback, or usually, criticism.

First has to do with what the follow up interactions should focus on. The feelings of the leadership in this case definitely should not be the focus, nor should it even come into the conversation. If you actually are in leadership, your concern should be with your members and what you can do to help them. Don't talk about how you were surprised by this, or if you'd like the feedback in a different form. Leadership should be happy to get it in any form, otherwise that gets close to tone policing. There's also the fact that there's a power dynamic at play here, most complaints aren't going to get to leadership just because of that. So anything that gets through is precious indeed.

Typically the reaction should be an attempt to get to some kind of compromise. If there isn't a good response, explain that and maybe offer alternatives. What the response shouldn't be is "well this was our thought process and this is fine." That becomes gaslighting of the members, and doesn't exactly encourage them to come forward with more feedback. If actions aren't taken to respond to and address complaints, they will stop complaining and stop participating as a whole. Members do need to feel valued (because they are) and reacting and discussing next steps is an important part of that.

Additionally what often gets overlooked is the method of receiving feedback. If someone submits anonymous feedback, then that feedback should stay anonymous. Only reason I can think of to try and figure out who it was from is to discredit the member who submitted it somehow. This thinking has its roots in the idea that some voices are taken more seriously than others which should not be the case. If the opposite is true, this is someone who supplied their name, then there should be a response to the individual person. If this person sent a message to the whole board, then the response can be generated from the entire board and can be considered more official. If though, the member just sent a message to an individual person, then they're probably looking for a more informal response from an individual board member. If these aren't matched, then that'll result in either being overly dismissive, or impersonal. If someone messages the whole board and gets a response from one of them, that appears to dismiss their thoughts without really considering it. If someone messages an individual and the whole board responds, that sounds like a crisis response and an impersonal method of dealing with it.

There's a lot of nuance to this, and many people get it wrong. I think that's because of the first point that I made, where they want to make it all about their feelings because now they feel bad. But that's just not relevant. And then the proceeding actions I think also say a lot about the organization, which is the rest of the post. But if I were to make one point, it would be to care more about the members, and less about the leadership. They volunteered for this, and they should behave responsibly.

This Is Beautiful: Donating Blood

 I managed to donate blood last week! It was super great. I was really worried about it because last time I went I had high blood pressure, and I sometimes have low iron levels, but it worked out perfectly!

I do think that I need to take a break from donating blood, it has been stressing me out, but I'm super glad that I was able to make it happen this time! I just feel so down in the dumps if I get rejected, it's not a great feeling at all. I'm working on trying to take it less personally but it can be hard. Especially since everyone else seems to have no issue donating regularly. But I did it!

Donate blood if you can, there's a lot of issues with the Red Cross, but people still need blood. Get out there and try to give yours.