Trauma survivors deserve complex heroes that make us feel seen in our justifiable rage, and stories that encourage us to hold onto hope and love, even in our darkest moments. In Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness chooses the entertainment value of writing the Scarlet Witch as a villain rather than honoring the character’s humanity as WandaVision did.

Read more of this piece over at Joysauce!

Between the infantile, submissive Lotus Blossom or the seductive, calculating Dragon Lady, Asian women have rarely been portrayed beyond these exotified, hypersexualized stereotypes for decades. Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings intentionally challenges these gendered tropes, portraying compassionate, powerful, and above all, capable women. It’s possible to create a world where Asian femininity is a strength, and not something to fear or otherwise annihilate.

Read more at Refinery29.

Wandavision affords Wanda the opportunity to move through the entire reality of her trauma, ultimately transmuting her loss to further her personal growth and sense of self.

Read more over The A.V. Club here.

The modern retelling of Mulan seemingly sacrifices the humanity of its characters to establish itself as a war epic about filial piety.

Read more over at Bitch Media.

Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. demonstrates a shining example of how to depict women friendships, that of Daisy Johnson (Chloe Bennet) and bio-chemist Jemma Simmons (Elizabeth Henstridge).

Read more over at The A.V. Club.

The series makes it clear that it’s Elena Richardson’s white entitlement and massive, unchecked ego that spark the events leading up to the fire that ravages the Richardson family mansion. Through Elena’s relationships with her mother and her own daughters, we see how Little Fires Everywhere strikes at the oppressive cage of white matriarchy.

Read more over at Wear Your Voice.

In the aftermath of the mass violence in Atlanta on March 16, 2021, hearing a white American man use the words “sex addiction” and “temptation” to downplay horrific violence against marginalized Asian women struck a very specific nerve for me.

Read more at VICE.

In the middle of a depressive episode and writer’s block, Bitch Magazine commissioned me to write a piece on stan culture for their “Legacy” issue, marking the 25th anniversary of their first publication. The last thing I wanted to do was write about my experience getting harassed by Ariana Grande and her abusively obtuse and obsessed stanbase but I knew it was a story that needed to be told.

Amanda Rosenberg tells Wear Your Voice in a Skype interview, “The guilt and shame and repression got me institutionalized. So I figured that the opposite of that was actually better.” By that time in her life, she had come to terms with her mental illness, and understood that there was nothing she could do to change the minds of those who couldn’t accept that part of her, even her mother. The only thing she could do was help other people in the same situation by sharing her experiences.

#JusticeForJohnnyDepp was a misinformation campaign designed to provoke intense reactions and guilt people into supporting him at the expense of Heard.

Author’s Note, January 2022: Wear Your Voice Magazine has since ceased operation and the website that originally published this piece is no longer available. An archived snapshot is available here.

The misplaced and normalized aggression and the constant popularity contest have given rise to a poisonous subculture of fandom where violence is acceptable if it’s done in the name of a celebrity you love. It’s tragic that what used to be a safe haven for so many has turned into something utterly alarming and sometimes traumatizing.

Chani Nicholas’ horoscopes empowered me to draw from my own innate strength to overcome the immovable obstacles in my path. Astrology was the tool I needed to survive that day, and survive the next.

Read more at Wear Your Voice Magazine.

Abusers put on a veneer of kindness, carefully crafting a progressive image to distract from the atrocities they commit behind closed doors. This is intentional and by design; a tool to further gaslight and marginalize the people they victimize.

Read more at Wear Your Voice.

Trauma is inherently isolating, but it demands an outlet for release. While my silence and denial amplified the pain, telling someone I trusted was my first step in healing. The dense emotional burden of my trauma eased with every person I told—support reminded me that I’m safe, loved, and valued.

Read here at Bitch Magazine!

Conflating constructive criticism with hatred is not only wrong, but extremely dangerous and damaging. Criticism is how we encourage growth and positive change, while shame and hatred serve to stifle both. It’s irresponsible for celebrities to use their platforms to perpetuate the idea that any and all criticism is nothing but a personal attack that serves no value.

Read more at Wear Your Voice.

With Lust For Life, Del Rey demonstrated that she’s capable of self-reflection and critically examining the world around her. Unfortunately, that album was seemingly the beginning and the end of Del Rey’s political engagement. In a recent interview with the New York Times, she said, “I’m not really more of a liberal than I am a Republican—I’m in the middle.” She’s essentially refusing to pick a side between fascists and progressives, a dangerous position to platform in today’s political climate.

The intensely negative reaction to Wu vocalizing her frustration is rooted in her identity as an Asian-American woman. Popular media and social structures still code Asian women as being submissive, delicate, soft-spoken and respectful. As visible Others, we’re faced with nasty consequences when we refuse to conform to the one-dimensional ideals projected onto us. 

Although we may intellectually understand that it’s inappropriate to make fun of people with mental illnesses, we still have this continued knee-jerk reaction to mock Britney Spears for hers. It’s as if the public’s perception of Spears is frozen in time, where we’re unable to see past her breakdown to fully recognize her as a human being.

Ariana Grande’s reaction to being called out for cultural appropriation was immature and disappointing. Instead of listening to criticism with empathy, Grande reacts from her sensitive ego, reminding us that she is, at the end of the day, a wealthy white woman with a ton of privilege and a deep spray tan.

The momentum of #MeToo shows the media’s power to help shift society’s views on sexual violence. Yet, in a society steeped in patriarchal values, the media often perpetuates rape culture. If we have any hope of creating a safe world for marginalized communities that’s free of sexual violence, the media must change the way it responds to survivors/victims.

Read more at Bitch Media!

Between #MeToo and the onslaught of survivors of sexual violence coming forward about being abused by powerful men, social media has been a nightmare for survivors.

Read more at FLARE Magazine.

Another week, another shitty, entitled white dude in the music industry enjoying success after violating a Black woman. If there’s anything that Amerikkka loves more than a bunch of men fighting over a ball made from animal skin, it’s caping for mediocre white men and shaming women and femmes for their sexuality.

Trump’s plan to erase the Obama administration’s policies will support a system that will continue to inflict trauma and perpetuate the informal legalization of rape.

As a Filipina woman and survivor of sexual violence, I was hesitant to engage with Taylor Swift’s countersuit alleging sexual assault, especially given her status as Queen Becky of the White Feminists. From her “girlsquad” of thin, able-bodied, cishetero women, to accusing Nicki Minaj of tearing women (read: Swift) down while Minaj called out racism, Swift only ever cries feminism when it benefits her.

When Amber Discko announced her latest project Aloe, I was so excited to see it grow. As the founder of the Femsplain community, Amber has my full confidence and support. Femsplain came to me when I was at my lowest, it was like a lantern that I found while trying to navigate the darkness of trauma, and it helped me find my path to healing. I expect that many people will find Aloe has the same effect. I talked to Amber about her latest project.

Despite being a diehard stan, I was skeptical about Lana Del Rey's new album at first. Del Rey has often been gratuitous with her creativity at the expense of marginalized groups. One of her most iconic images as an artist is her appropriating an Indigenous headdress in the “Ride” video, and her portrayed herself as a Latina sex worker in “Tropico”. The hallmark of her music, along with a leaked clip filmed by Eli Roth where Del Rey stars in a horrifying visceral rape scene, is how she glamorizes and romanticizes domestic violence. Moreover, she’s made comments about how feminism just isn’t that interesting to her, and that she’d rather discuss our galactic possibilities.

Kesha's latest single shows that survivors who speak their truth come from a place of empathy and compassion. We act out of love for ourselves, and love for humanity. After all, if we don't tell our stories, how would we be able to affect the change society so desperately needs?

Survivors and victims do not share our experiences out of vanity, neither for glory or vengeance — in telling the truth about what we’ve lived through, we’re standing up for our right to survive.

Read more at the Toronto Star here!

There was no way I could justify effectively risking cancer to satisfy some arbitrary social norm. Learning to love and respect my body has been absolutely critical to my recovery process in the aftermath of sexual violence.

Filipino culture heavily stigmatizes mental health — it is either ignored entirely, or minimized and mocked. Luckily for my parents and for my own mental health, I adopted 2 kittens and changed all of our lives.

I fell in love with my best friend last year - the first person I'd been vulnerable with since being raped in 2015. He made me relive the exact circumstances of my rape, and then had the nerve to threaten to kill himself when I asked for space. I stayed with him for a year.

Sexual intercourse with a condom is different from sex without, and there are different risks inherent in both of them. Removing the condom changes the context in which you consented to sexual intercourse. If that context changes, it is imperative that consent is reaffirmed.

I could never change the fact that I had been assaulted, or that my heart had been broken. But instead of letting those negative experiences change me for the worse, I pushed myself to channel that energy into creating positive change and into pouring love into my life.

An administrative tribunal in Ontario ruled that they believed my story, and in one of the most gratifying moments of my life, found me to have been a victim of a sexual assault perpetrated by the "alleged offender." It took about two months to receive the written decision and cheque in the mail.

Watching a woman who looks like me kick major ass helps me accept both my Asian heritage and identity as a survivor of sexual violence.

Survivors are expected to conform to an impossible standard of victimhood, and are faced with an impossible choice — speak up now and be deemed a liar, stay silent and/or speak up later and it never happened.

In the past four years, I’ve listened to Lana Del Rey over 21,000 times, and that’s just according to my Last.fm records. I’ve bought multiple copies of each of her albums, and I own way too many of her magazine covers. I really don’t mean to come off as a crazy stan because she has a lot of those, but her music helps me in a way that I feel it necessary to support her.

I’ve met a lot of great people from the Internet over the years — through anime forums, fanfiction.net, MSN, AIM and IRC, among many others. As we progress through the age of social media and the “Internet 2.0”, meeting people online is increasingly becoming the norm. Catfishing is still a reality, but the people you meet over the Internet nowadays are usually who they say they are.

“I’m never coming back,” I said after my first hot yoga class. I proceeded to not only come back nine more times that month but also sign up for an unlimited membership that I’ve renewed every month since.