incredibly fucked up how the theatre des vampires launders post-liberation france's familiarity with the public sexual humiliation of women into silent consent for their onstage murders. in this essay I will (no seriously keep reading) it's common knowledge that french women who collaborated with occupying nazi forces had their hair ritually shorn after the war. practically that perceived allegiance could mean a lot of things, but the tenor was usually sexual. it was known as "collaboration horizontale".

we've entered the era of astroturfed fandom and it makes my skin crawl. fandom, for all its inter-community problems, was once a naturally occurring outpouring of passion for something. now it's just a marketing engine that's courted and indulged by media companies, and it brings out the worst in creators and audiences.

everyone writing ~slavic fantasy~ needs to get that it's not just set dressing. it's not just folktales. it's not a safe (white) place to write what you perceive as exotic without getting accused of appropriation. the history of eastern europe matters. (thread) communism matters, pograms matter, volhynia matters. you're writing fantasy, yes, but these things happened, they informed relationships between the people and countries who are having their serial numbers filed off in your stories! you don't get to plead ignorance.