Sexualized Saturdays: Finding Solace in #queerselflove

Our community here at Lady Geek Girl and Friends is a tight-knit one, and as a majority queer group, we were shaken to our core by the horrible tragedy that occurred a week ago in Orlando. Our deepest sympathies go out to the victims and their families, and we urge those who can to take an active role in responding to it, whether through blood donation, financial aid, or political activism. In the wake of the shooting, the LGBTQ+ community has responded with vigils, with calls to action, and with affirmations of self-worth. Notably among the latter is the #queerselflove hashtag, started by Welcome to Night Vale actor Dylan Marron on Twitter.

I am a soft-spoken brown queer man who wears his mother's pearl earrings. And I love my queerness. Let's start a #queerselflove hashtag

— Dylan Marron (@dylanmarron) June 15, 2016

The hashtag quickly took off as the wounded queer community took the time to reflect on what made us special and important. In response to a hate crime, we told the world that if it was not going to love us, we were still going to love ourselves. I contributed my own personal #queerselflove to the tag on Wednesday night, but today I’d like to talk about a few of my favorite happy LGBTQ+ people and pairings in pop culture. We’ve spent so many posts recently condemning the treatment of queer people in fiction and this post isn’t meant to erase or negate those. Indeed, the importance of meaningful queer representation is more important than ever in a time when the gays we’re burying are no longer fictional. Queer people need to be able to look to something and see ourselves being happy.

Sexualized Saturdays: Ace’s Top 10 Headcanon Asexual Characters

Well, it’s that horrible, horrible time of year again, when Lady Geek Girl forces all of us here to list our Top 10 fanon and canon pairings, successfully turning our blog and mission of equality into a giant shipping war for a day. This post, however, is not that list. You’ll get that later on today, but in the meantime, let’s talk about asexual characters. Asexuality is not well represented in popular culture, and when it is, it’s not represented very well. Unfortunately, this leaves me with very few characters I can related to sexually. Coming to my rescue, though, are headcanons. Headcanons are hardly the same thing as representation in the source material, but at least they’re something.

So without further ado, here are my Top 10 characters who I think could be asexual.

Angela: Asgard’s Assassin #1 Exceeds Expectations

Full disclosure: when Angela: Asgard’s Assassin #1 debuted a few weeks ago, I didn’t pick it up. I was familiar with the character because I’d read a bit of her adventures in the Guardians of the Galaxy comic; however, while I liked her, I wasn’t so in love that I wanted to know more. I’m not one to turn my nose up at a free comic, though, so when one of my coworkers offered me his copy, I was happy to accept it—and to my surprise, it exceeded my expectations.

Spoilers for the issue below the jump.

Magical Mondays: The Ancient Language in The Inheritance Cycle

It’s been four months since the last time I talked about my favorite series and my love-hate relationship with it, so I figured it was time for another post. One thing that always bothered me about The Inheritance Cycle was its use of magic. In the series, magic is an unstable force that can have various unpredictable consequences. While this is not a problematic idea, the story doesn’t use it to its full capacity. The dragons, for instance, being magical creatures, don’t have control over their own abilities. Yet the story doesn’t use that to the characters’ detriment, so much as it turns them into deus ex machinae in order to fix problems.

However, because magic is unpredictable and therefore dangerous, a long time ago a now-supposed extinct people called the Grey Folk somehow managed to bind magic to a language. Essentially, they made it impossible to use magic without knowing the Ancient Language. Unfortunately, just like the dragons, the rules governing magic in The Inheritance Cycle tend to change depending on what the narrative needs them to be.

No Really, Trust Me: Pan’s Review of Thor & Loki: The Tenth Realm #1

Welcome back, friends (or whoever you people are). This month Agent of Asgard has taken a detour into a universe-wide Marvel event called Original Sin. To be honest, the Original Sin storyline has proven fairly bland overall, but it could potentially be bolstered by Thor and Loki forming flimsy brotherly bonds built on layers and layers of Loki’s lies and deceit. You know, really heartwarming stuff. With these high hopes begins Thor & Loki: The Tenth Realm #1.

Side plot: when did Loki also become a pro bodybuilder? Did I miss something?