Liana K: New Escapist Staff

[Thunderous Cacophony]

So I was just poking around on Twitter because I heard that's where all the cool kids get their news and I found this: https://mobile.twitter.com/redlianak/status/569673543325233152?p=v

Apparently Liana Kerzner is going to be hosting a show on cosplay here, possibly starting in March. My fellow Canadians may recognize her as one of the hosts from Ed and Red's Night Party (given that Ed is a sock puppet, you should be able to guess which one she is). She's also done some writing for Metaleater that's pretty good.

I didn't see another thread or announcement about it, so I figured now would be the perfect time to offer an entirely unofficial welcome to her, and say that I'm looking forward to the show.

Spoiler

And now we wait for the reactionary squad to go look her up and discover that she's a feminist who doesn't like Feminist Frequency, then somebody says "bigot" and we have to wait for Spidermod to save us. And here I was being proud of the Escapist's forums.

 

[Fappy]

Spoiler

And now we wait for the reactionary squad to go look her up and discover that she's a feminist who doesn't like Feminist Frequency, then somebody says "bigot" and we have to wait for Spidermod to save us. And here I was being proud of the Escapist's forums.

Holy hyperbole Batman!

Not really sure how a feminist not agreeing with other feminists is even remotely related to a guy spreading transphobic rhetoric on twitter.

 

[PsychicTaco115]

I honestly never knew that cosplay was that popular that it got shows and stuff

Hope she finds success here because this site could use some more content that isn't gone within the year

*does a happy dance*

I swear I'm trying to be optimistic, WHY WON'T YOU BELIEVE ME

 

[Remus]

Upon googling her for some further introspection (no, seriously!) I have to say, Welcome to the Escapist! She looks like a fun time at parties, and she rocks a solid Red Sonja. Hope to see her in the podcasts.

 

[VanQ]

Welcome to Liana K. I've always enjoyed cosplay stuff but never got into cosplaying myself. Doesn't stop me from admiring the creativity and dedication of others. I really hope she doesn't just cover Western events and covers some of the more Asian stuff involving cosplay. There's some really interesting stuff to be said about cosplay in Japan and Korea, where you could even go so far as saying that cosplay is a subculture of its own.

After a quick google search I realize that I actually recognise her and have admired her cosplay in the past! I didn't know her by name but I know that cosplayer for sure! She's not afraid to show skin either, which could rustle some jimmies on this site for sure. Very much looking forward to her input.

 

[Thunderous Cacophony]

snip

snip

Spoiler: Off-topic discussion, move along citizens

I started this thread immediately after reading the Lisa/Brandon "welcome" thread and I was pretty cheesed off. I didn't know anything about either person, and that thread was worse than useless; it didn't even give the last names of the two new staff, let alone clear directions to some of the stuff that people found offensive. It started off as an oblique criticism of one of the people and swiftly degraded into personal insults from there. I don't support transphobia, but it just seemed like a really ugly way to greet anyone joining the Escapist (regardless of their politics) seeing as how the forums have been filled with people worried that this place would lose all it's creators and disappear. I wasn't a fan of Moviebob, but that doesn't mean that I liked the personal attacks he got in "Moviebob Leaving The Escapist."

I like the Escapist for it's friendly community and well-managed moderation, where people say what they want and mostly aren't assholes about it, and the mods let people say what they want and only step in when people are assholes. Seeing Spidermod's obvious frustration at having to shut down another thread for personal attacks, and noticing how many others had been closed for similar reasons, rubbed me the wrong way. To start a thread on the basis of "Does the Escapist have a mission policy preventing harrassment" and use it as cover to indirectly bash someone literally hours after a tweet about them working here at some point, regardless of what they have said, was underhanded.

 

[ByzantineEmperorInExile]

Liana's awesome and her addition to the roster is much welcome : P better late than never eh.

edit: I accidentally many words.

 

[dalek sec]

Well I can't say I know the girl but welcome to the Escapist!

This should be interesting, hopefully.

 

[Vault101]

Holy hyperbole Batman!

Not really sure how a feminist not agreeing with other feminists is even remotely related to a guy spreading transphobic rhetoric on twitter.

I wonder what "brand" of Feminism she's into...cause some are definitely better than others

but I don't know, so I can't say

I hope she's not in the same line as that other *guy* I assume not...hopefully not

Also, don't drag Morse into this. Not only do we not need another thread becoming about him, but its dishonest to pretend that his tweets weren't rightfully considered offensive. People are mad at him for a reason, get over it. People were mad at Bob over the same thing. All I want it consistency on the part of the site management.

but its just an opiiiiiniioooooonn!! *cough* sorry

 

[KyuubiNoKitsune-Hime]

Spoiler: Off-topic discussion, move along citizens

I started this thread immediately after reading the Lisa/Brandon "welcome" thread and I was pretty cheesed off. I didn't know anything about either person, and that thread was worse than useless; it didn't even give the last names of the two new staff, let alone clear directions to some of the stuff that people found offensive. It started off as an oblique criticism of one of the people and swiftly degraded into personal insults from there. I don't support transphobia, but it just seemed like a really ugly way to greet anyone joining the Escapist (regardless of their politics) seeing as how the forums have been filled with people worried that this place would lose all it's creators and disappear. I wasn't a fan of Moviebob, but that doesn't mean that I liked the personal attacks he got in "Moviebob Leaving The Escapist."

I like the Escapist for it's friendly community and well-managed moderation, where people say what they want and mostly aren't assholes about it, and the mods let people say what they want and only step in when people are assholes. Seeing Spidermod's obvious frustration at having to shut down another thread for personal attacks, and noticing how many others had been closed for similar reasons, rubbed me the wrong way. To start a thread on the basis of "Does the Escapist have a mission policy preventing harrassment" and use it as cover to indirectly bash someone literally hours after a tweet about them working here at some point, regardless of what they have said, was underhanded.

Spoiler: Off-topic polite response, from a trans-person, apologies...

The response to his hiring was rather vehemently negative for a reason. It's because that community of LGBT tends to be rather sensitive, and transgendered people especially so. We feel, rightly for the most part, heavily persecuted for just being on our selves. So the backlash against hewhomustnotbenamed was somewhat understandable, especially considering that there are quite a few transpeople and homosexual people who come to the Escapist on a regular basis. Plus there are the people who want to defend the LGBT community. who were also going to respond badly to this. Now lets let this subject lie.

Anyways this new addition looks pretty awesome to me, a good hire for the geek culture side of things, and she's a cosplayer! I love cosplay my self so I'm hoping she has at least one column, or video with tips for cosplayers to improve skills and such. *fingers crossed*

 

[Redlin5_v1legacy]

I was wondering if we were ever going to get someone to report/talk about cosplay here in a series format. The cosplay galleries seem to be rather popular content here.

 

[Pinkamena]

I'm just glad we're getting some new content, although cosplay is not one of big interests.

 

[tilmoph]

So is she just doing the cosplay series, or will she be doing any writing on gaming/ geekdom in general? Not to be negative, a cosplay series from someone known for their cosplay is a neat addition, Just wondering since I've seen her writing on other subjects, was wondering if she'd be doing that as well. She's a decent author, so I'd be fine with her doing a column.

In either event, welcome to the Escapist Liana!

 

[Addendum_Forthcoming]

Welcome! I'm not much into cosplay anymore, but I'm kind of eager with the prospect of learning more design and patternmaking skills! So I'm genuinely interested in the content you'll be belting out.

Time to blow the dust off my sewing machine again!

That being said, might have a crack at a Twilight Princess style Zelda outfit ... eh. Maybe at semester break.

 

[Jake Martinez]

I wonder what "brand" of Feminism she's into...cause some are definitely better than others

but I don't know, so I can't say

I think you may have (unintentionally) high-lighted one of the core issues that is on display with feminism as a movement in modern politics.

Let's suppose for an instance that Feminism as an ideology is comprised of 20 propositions. Now, someone may agree wholeheartedly with propositions 1 through 19, but if they disagree or take issue with proposition 20, then what happens usually is charges of being an "anti-feminist", an "MRA", or some sort of *-phobia or *-ism. I'm not saying that you are like this, but the idea that "some are definitely better than others" is so deeply ingrained in the overall conversation that many people absolutely do take it to absurd levels (and yes, particularly on the internet and GOD YES particularly on cesspools like Twitter).

Anyway, moving on to Liana - I'm glad to see her start writing for an actual gaming site. She's done some excellent gaming related opinion pieces at Metaleater over the last few months. I'll be honest, in my estimation she blows away several of the contributors that the Escapist "lost" when it restructured and I hope that she gets to do frequent non-Cosplay related pieces. She has steadfastly sung the praises of gaming and is one of the few journalists I've seen who has managed to write fair criticisms of not only the gaming press, but relate her own negative experiences with GamerGate as well as Feminist Frequency.

She may not be perfect, but the highest compliment I can give her is that even when she writes an opinion piece she goes the extra mile to try and evidence it and argue it persuasively. I see too many people at some gaming websites thinking that "opinion" or "editorial" means just venting their spleen without trying to back up their opinions with a shred of rationality. Liana puts in the kind of extra effort that you used to expect from a journalist writing an op-ed, to the point where even if I don't agree with her opinion, I can at least understand and to some degree sympathize with how she acquired it.

Frankly, I feel like this is a fantastic move by the Escapist.

 

[Addendum_Forthcoming]

Let's suppose for an instance that Feminism as an ideology is comprised of 20 propositions. Now, someone may agree wholeheartedly with propositions 1 through 19, but if they disagree or take issue with proposition 20, then what happens usually is charges of being an "anti-feminist", an "MRA", or some sort of *-phobia or *-ism. I'm not saying that you are like this, but the idea that "some are definitely better than others" is so deeply ingrained in the overall conversation that many people absolutely do take it to absurd levels (and yes, particularly on the internet and GOD YES particularly on cesspools like Twitter).

I'm a transfeminist, and the only people that call me a MRA or anti-feminist is TERFs. It's also not so hard to level the assumption of transphobia upon them. You know ... given that many of them have stated they want to 'morally mandate us (transgender people) from existence'. Also ... unless you haven't bothered to actually study feminism, or basic philosophy, you'd realize that it's not a supposition that essentialist philosophies employed by some feminists are diametrically opposed to the libertarianism that is representative of most third wave feminist discourses.

The metaphysical qualities by which adherents of, say, TERFs and transfeminism espouse about the nature of the cosmos and the self are diametrically opposed.

Also, why is this actually cropping up in a discussion?

 

[Vault101]

[snip.

soo...if someone does't agree with something someone might call them names?

oh please..

I was referring mainly to the kind of feminism that a.)happens to not be very feminist and b.) the kind that leave out certain groups like transgender people of differing race and economic backgrounds

Also, why is this actually cropping up in a discussion?

probably my fault...I mentioned it

 

[FirstNameLastName]

Eh, I don't really care much for cosplay. Yay, I guess.

Spoiler

Why are people writing single paragraphs of their post into spoilers? They aren't spoiling anything, nor is it long enough to warrant being hidden by default. Just seems like a rather bizarre practice.