I wish I was boning vampires.

I have a tiny folder on my comp with vintage images I pull off the web. I thought I'd share some to torture sandglass of the more hilarious/ohgodwhy sexist advertisements of days of yore in my collection:

( Large post is large, Lysol saves your marriage, and Midol makes you gay! )

I’ve started reading a manga called “Hourou Musuko” or “The Wandering Son.” It’s well-written and explores gender identity and sexuality issues in high school in a sensitive manner which I haven’t seen in most literature or film. The main protagonists are a transgendered girl and a transgendered boy.

The thing is I started reading it on Mangafox at first. I was halfway through the archive before I realized that the main protagonist FTM (Takatsuki) was NOT a boy dressing like a girl though still gendered male as I thought (even though I briefly skimmed the manga summary before reading). I initially thought BOTH protagonists were born male. I double-checked Wikipedia and accessed that I was indeed wrong, but looking back at the archive I realized that with good reason (despite a few anvil sized hints) it wasn’t my fault.

A lot of chapters were missing, including volumes one through four. A lot of chapters which concerned the main plot for Takatsuki were missing and I believe it to be deliberate on someone’s part, primarily from the first half of the manga which would have made this clearer. I started reading it over at Mangareader.net which had a more complete archive. It should have been clear from the get go. In addition, the ones up on Mangafox portray two other female characters named Chiba (a girl who likes Shuichi, MTF character, but dislikes Takatsuki and is a bit cold-hearted and mean at times) and Maho (Shuichi’s sister who is disgusted by his cross-dressing and is mean to him on occasion) in a very unflattering light, though these characters are not always cruel or unsupportive as rereading a fuller archive has shown me. The ones that are up focus on Shuichi’s independent and main plot points entirely. Some chapters which concern Takatsuki’s independent plot ARE there, but not many. I could probably count them on one hand. The ones that concern Chiba’s are, but it seems clearly because they relate to Shuichi’s and due to shipping.

I don’t know who did this, but I am very, very disheartened and upset about the intentional misogynist and transphobia. Whoever is removing the chapters or not uploading them intentionally is OKAY with Shuichi’s exploration of her sexuality and her gender because she was born male, but not of Takatsuki’s self-exploration and it disgusts me. However, anime fandom is not without people who have LGBTphobia, are misogynists and have other isms and I already knew that.

This manga is INCREDIBLE. Even if you aren’t into manga, it is worth a read. I’m aware there is an anime series, but I’m a manga reader at heart and haven’t decided if I will watch it yet. I’ve barely begun to reread and I’ll update if I notice any other major things were left out at Mangafox. Apologies in advance if I have mussed terminology or pronouns anywhere.

ETA: And I got linked on animanga_news. Never been meta before. :)

I had an especially bad day yesterday. We went to a live tree farm to choose our Holiday tree for this year. My dad was in a VERY bad mood because we went going late and rushed choosing it. He was snappy when I asked how much he wanted the tree to cost because he thought I was acting like a car salesman. I was annoyed by this so I wandered off and they chose the tree without letting me look at it. This was supposed to be a family activity and I was the one looking most forward to it.

On the flip-side, I discovered Metalocalypse and I love it. Toki is seriously me in man form. I have a fuzzy exterior and rage like you wouldn't believe when crossed or triggered. Most people don't see this side.

I'm reading Jane Eyre again. I love Jane. She is such a bad ass and I wish that one day I can be like her. I discovered this book during a period when I had just started therapy and had a lot of problems with social anxiety. I discovered I was bipolar. I also was then a budding feminist and feeling a bit alienated over the fact that I hadn't read many women authors or artists as I had never been introduced to them during my schooling before college.

"Women are supposed to be very calm generally: but women feel just as men feel; they need exercise for their faculties, and a field for their efforts as much as their brothers do; they suffer from too rigid a restraint, too absolute a stagnation, precisely as men would suffer; and it is narrow-minded in their more privileged fellow-creatures to say that they ought to confine themselves to making puddings and knitting stockings, to playing on the piano and embroidering bags"
- Charlotte Brontë,Jane Eyre, Chapter 12

This passage means a lot to me and I tear up when I read it and other parts of the book still. It's one of the reasons I refer to this book as my "Band Aid book." How fucking awesome is this character. There's another film adaptation coming out in February. I'm a little anxious over that, but I hope its good.

Happy Thanksgiving, Canadians!

Unfortunately, it lines up with Columbus Day this year. I always feel a bit Ambiguous about Thanksgiving (though I do love food), but Columbus day really chaffs me. Here's a link to the Reconsider Columbus Day project, which is a grassroots movement to change Columbus Day from celebrating Columbus, the "discovery" of the Americas (and subsequently the conquest thereof) into a day to celebrate the indigenous people of the Americas and educate people on their past and living history, and their cultures.