Peanut Butter AND Chocolate Brownies: September Means Both

It's Bi Visibility Month!

Those of you who follow me in other places on the internet know I'm bisexual, so you get why I'm excited. It’s all too often that those of us who are bisexual are erased by the gender of our partners—or our lack of one. People assume being bi means that you’re constantly craving the company of two sets of genitals, instead of understanding that it means that we can find our perfect partner amongst people of more than one gender.

The bi pride flag is made of three colors. Blue, pink, and purple. The purple rests solidly in the middle as a visual metaphor for what it’s like to be bi. No matter the gender of the person I may one day choose to spend the rest of my life with, that will never change my sexuality. It’s like being a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup. Not chocolate, not peanut butter, but BOTH.

So let’s talk about how to make some mouthwatering peanut butter brownies!

Ingredients:
Brownie Batter -
3 oz unsweetened chocolate, roughly chopped
⅓ cup unsalted butter (plus a little greasing the pan)
1 ¼ cups granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
¼ tsp coarse sea salt
⅔ cup all-purpose flour
(Store bought is also fine if this sounds like too much work)

Peanut Butter Batter -
¾ cups peanut butter
⅔ cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
¼ tsp vanilla extract
A few pinches of salt

Before you begin, preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. You’ll want to dig out an 8’’ square baking pan as well, and line it with parchment paper and then coat that with nonstick cooking spray or butter.

Once you’re done with that, we can start in on the respective batters. To make the brownie batter, melt the chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl over a gently simmering pot of water. Turn off the heat when they’re mostly melted, and stir them together until they’re fully melted and smooth. If you don’t have a heatproof bowl, you can melt the chocolate and butter in the microwave using thirty second bursts. Be careful not to microwave for too long, though, because you could burn your chocolate or cause it to separate.

Next, whisk in your sugar. Then your eggs (one at a time). Then your vanilla and salt. After your whisking is done, stir in your flour with a spoon or spatula.

The peanut butter batter is much simpler than the brownie. Just throw all the ingredients in a bowl and whisk/stir until completely combined. I find whisking works best when using smooth peanut butter, but can be tricky when using crunchy.

Once both batters are ready, spread a thin layer of brownie batter across the bottom of the pan. Then toss alternating spoonfuls down in rows to fill the pan. Use a butter knife to swirl the batters together in pretty wavy fashion. This works best for me if I think of drawing figure eights or infinity signs. Now the brownies are ready to go in the oven! Bake for thirty to thirty five minutes, and check with a toothpick to make sure the brownies are cooked all the way through.

There’s a very special book I want to talk about this month. I only just got my hands on a copy a few weeks ago at Rose City Comic Con in Portland, and the artist (Irene Koh) was sweet enough to even autograph it for me.

That’s right, you guessed it. The Legend of Korra: Turf Wars Part 1!

“But what’s so exciting about this book?”, those of you who didn’t guess what I was talking about might ask. What’s exciting about this book is that it’s a fantasy story about a young woman named Korra, who is tasked with keeping her world in balance. She is the Avatar, capable of manipulating all four elements and communing with spirits. And she just happens to be in a relationship with Asami Sato—another woman, who also previously dated Korra’s ex-boyfriend.

That’s right. You heard me. There’s an A-list title out there that features two bisexually behaving women in a relationship with each other THAT ISN’T FOCUSED SOLELY ON THEIR RELATIONSHIP.

That doesn’t mean the relationship between them isn’t a large part of the story, though. And what’s even more exciting about it is how realistically Korra and Asami’s love story is handled. While the previous iteration of The Legend of Korra that ran as a cartoon on Nickelodeon refused to even acknowledge the same-sex relationship Korra and Asami canonically started during the events of the cartoon, the Turf Wars Part 1 gives Korra and Asami room to talk about what it was like when they were still questioning their feelings for each other.

These two pages made me cry because they were so spot on about what it’s like when you first discover you might have feelings for someone of the same sex as you. You’re scared they might push you away, you’re not sure what you’re feeling is real—and yet ultimately you come to the conclusion that you want to take the leap.

The Legend of Korra: Turf Wars Part 1 doesn’t fall prey to the trope of letting Korra and Asami exist as the only queer characters in a non-queer vacuum, either. Almost as soon as Korra and Asami return to Republic City from their vacation, one of the previous Avatar’s children Kya notices their relationship—in part because she’s in a same-sex relationship herself.

The book then goes even further to retcon how same-sex relations were handled by the different cultures in the entire Avatar franchises continuity.

Normalizing same-sex relationships, giving them a place in the historical narrative even when they weren’t accepted… These are new, exciting things for an A-list title to do. Korra and Asami meet with different reactions as they navigate their new relationship. Korra’s parents are worried she and Asami will be mistreated if they don’t keep it private. Due to their reaction, Korra and Asami are nervous about telling their friends, and their mutual ex/friend, Mako. The truth comes out after a battle when Korra rushed to the side of a possibly wounded Asami.

Everyone reacts well, except for Mako. But Mako doesn’t react poorly! What’s exciting about Mako’s reaction is that it hints at further discussion about how friends can support their friends who come out. Sometimes people feel that someone else’s sexual preference reflects on them. In particular, sometimes men who have ex-girlfriends that come out as bisexual or gay will feel emasculated and respond poorly, taking their misplaced hurt out on others. Mako isn’t the sort of character to take those feelings out on Korra and Asami—but he is the sort of character that might be confused about his feelings after hearing that two of his exes got together. Should something come of that and a conversation is had between Mako, Korra, and Asami, it will serve as a positive example for how other people in Mako’s position can respond.

All in all, The Legend of Korra: Turf Wars Part 1 is exactly the sort of representation I’ve been craving all these years. It couldn’t have come at a better time—and we finally got that kiss Nickelodeon refused to give us at the end of Season 4.

Miso Soup: But Not As You Know It

People travel, and people eat. When done in tandem, it becomes apparent that the way we’re used to eating something in one region of the world isn’t the way it’s eaten in other regions. America is a particularly interesting example, because it’s fairly easy to find food from all over the world here. Our diverse population is to thank for that. But when one travels to Japan and eats Japanese food, sometimes a thing we think we are familiar with confronts us with completely new flavors!

This was my experience with miso soup when I was studying in Akita—a city in Northern Japan that is considered to be fairly rural and spacious. The two kanji used in the name of the city reflect that, as they mean “Autumn rice.” As you can imagine, a lot of rice is produced in Akita. So are a lot of vegetables! So when I ate miso soup there, and found daikon radish and carrot in it instead of the “usual” tofu and seaweed, I was blown away. It grew on me, and now I find myself resenting that we only serve miso one way in the United States. Fortunately, miso soup is a fairly simple dish, and I was recently able to recreate the soup I ate in Akita two summers ago.

Ingredients:
1 small daikon radish
2 medium carrots
1 block soft tofu
½ cup white miso
9 cups of dashi

A quick preface: the ingredients list I’ve given above is for a main course miso, as in you’re planning on making it the main part of the meal. If that’s not the case and you’d prefer to serve this soup as a side dish, halve the recipe. There are also different types of miso out there! Miso soup is typically made with white miso as opposed to yellow or red miso. White miso is the least salty of the miso family. Yellow is more salty, and red is the saltiest! Be aware of this when picking out your miso and playing with the recipe. You can read more about different types of miso and their uses here. I’m sure you’re also wondering what dashi is. Dashi is a soup base commonly used in Japanese cooking. If you’re interested in making your dashi from scratch or making vegetarian dashi, here’s a handy guide. Otherwise, simply go to your local Japanese specialty store and grab some premade dashi packets. If you don’t have a specialty store near you, you can even order it online!

Now that you have all your ingredients and understand them to some degree, let’s get started. You’ll start by creating your dashi broth—either by boiling the ingredients you’re making it from scratch with in cheesecloth or by boiling one of the premade dashi packets you purchased. While you’re making your dashi, clean and cut the ends off your daikon radish and your carrots. Set the carrots aside for now, and cut the radish lengthwise, so you have two long halves. Slice each half into half moons. Set aside for now and turn your attention back to your carrots. You’ll want to cut them diagonally on the bias, so that each slice is a long strip of carrot.

Once done, check your dashi broth to see if it’s taken on the desired flavor. If it has, remove your dashi packet and add in your vegetables. Let the vegetables boil for a bit, then reduce heat and let them simmer. Turn your attention to your block of tofu and cut the soft tofu into the desired cube size for your soup. I find smaller cubes blend better with the vegetables, but larger cubes can be a fun way to break up the soup too.

Check on your vegetables. If they’re soft, we’re almost done! Make sure your soup isn’t boiling, or it will scald the miso during this next step and kill the probiotics present within it. Measure out your half cup of miso, but don’t add it directly to the soup. Instead, put a little on a cooking spoon or in a ladle (I find the ladle method allows me to mix more miso in at a time), and then mix the miso together with a bit of broth in the dish of the spoon/ladle using chopsticks. Once the miso is mixed in, add your tofu, give the soup a couple of stirs to warm the tofu in the broth, then serve and enjoy!

Like food, there are certain kinds of stories we get used to seeing one way. These become tropes, which inform our stereotypes, and ultimately just aren’t a reflection of the way people actually do things. One genre that is hugely guilty of this is the M/M romance genre. If you’re an anime fan, you may also know about the Boys Love genre of anime and manga, which consists entirely of stories about two male lovers for a female audience. Often, one character is branded the “uke” in the story—which literally means “receiver.” Since the genre is intended for female readers instead of actual gay men, the uke represents “the woman” in the sexual relationship between the two men in the story. Because of that, the sexual relations between the characters in Boys Love stories tend to be a little heterosexually informed and a poor representation of a realistic same-sex couple’s love life. M/M romance in America tends to have its own failings excluding gender roles from the same-sex pairings within their pages. However, the M/M sci-fi romance webcomic Starfighter does not.

Please be warned before you go looking up Starfighter on your web browser that the comic is an erotic one, and does include explicit material. None of the explicit pages of the comic will be posted within this blogpost, however, so don’t worry about NSFW content ahead.

Starfighter is set in the future during humanity’s first contact with aliens, a species called Colterons. The main story centers around a fighter and navigator duo, Cain and Abel. Navigators fly spaceships, fighters make sure the enemies the ship encounters explode. Neither can survive doing their job without the other. As you can imagine, this makes for some pretty reliant pairs. It can make partners obsessive, or controlling, or even territorial. Cain is a fairly territorial fighter, marking Abel as “his” with a bite-mark scar on Abel’s lip as soon as they are alone for the first time after their assignment. Abel is understandably upset—and refreshingly, doesn’t ever accept the way Cain first treats him as anything but abusive.

It’s only as Cain’s abusive behavior remedies itself that Cain and Abel become closer emotionally. And Cain does stop being such an asshat, I promise, here’s proof of one of his lackeys quitting on him because he cares too much about Abel now:

One of the other refreshing things about Starfighter, is that none of the sex Cain and Abel have is poorly disguised rape. One of the most unfortunate tropes in Boys Love and M/M is the case of the dubious consent in love making. Often times, the “fem” or “uke” character in the same-sex pairing will be unsure of their feelings and the sex they’re having with the other character. This takes the onus of sexual desire off of that character and places it on the other, more “masculine” character—which perpetuates and romanticizes silence culture in the bedroom and gender roles, where it is assumed that a man will always want sex and a woman never should. Instead of adhering to this trope, Cain and Abel are fairly communicative about their love making. Despite Cain’s possessive streak and his concerning behavior at the beginning of the story, Abel is very physically enthusiastic the first time he and Cain have sex. The reader is even treated to a play-by-play of how badly Abel has always wanted to have sex with a man and wants what is happening between him and Cain—which allows the reader to enjoy the scene instead of being concerned that Abel isn’t enjoying himself. Then, instead of feeling guilty over what they did or being unsure of his feelings, Abel decides he wants to do it again.

Abel takes a very active role in his and Cain’s intercourse the second time, destroying more of the heterosexual gender-norms that one partner is always acting upon the other. And, just in case those two things weren’t enough to blow M/M tropes out of the water, show that Abel is comfortable with his feelings, and convince the reader that Abel really does want to have sex with Cain, Abel tells Cain that he enjoyed himself afterwards.

Starfighter takes it even further, however. Whenever anal play occurs between two same-sex characters in M/M, often roles are assigned. One character will always penetrate, and one character will always be penetrated. Often, it’s easy to tell which character is which even before the characters have had any intercourse at all, because this trope often relies on lazy gender-coding. The penetrator is always masculine, aggressive, powerful—and the penetratee is always meeker, softer, and feminine. There are couples that break this coding out there, but they can be difficult to find. One genre in Japanese storytelling breaks it consistently, known as bara. The idea is to portray real men, with muscles and beards, having sex with each other. However, even bara falls prey to the strange heteronormative gender roles sometimes, where only one character will penetrate and the other will be penetrated.

Starfighter has Cain and Abel switch—you know, like a normal same-sex couple that engages in anal play might.

In conclusion, this is one of the most refreshing M/M romances I’ve read in a long time, that also has the bonus of being mega-hot and set in space. Here’s the link if you want to go experience it for yourself, and may you read many a story that has educated, healthy, and satisfying sex in it.

Valentine's Day and Chimichangas!

Last year we talked about chocolate. While this is a perfectly great food to give to everyone you love—including friends, family, and strange children you appreciate the sidewalk art of—it doesn’t quite display the “make your own” version of love I commonly celebrate with my best friends. You know what does? A burrito! A giant, meat packed, tomato-lovin’ burrito, deep-fried in the heat of my ever-burning love for them—more commonly known as the chimichanga.

Ingredients:
1 pound lean ground beef
½ cup diced onion
1 garlic clove, minced
1 teaspoon chili powder
½ teaspoon cumin
½ teaspoon dried oregano
1 15 ounce can refried beans
3 8 ounce cans tomato sauce
1 4.5 ounce can green chiles
1 jalapeno, minced
8 (10-inch) tortillas
Wooden toothpicks
1½ cups shredded Cheddar cheese or Colby Jack
Vegetable oil for frying
Cilantro, sour cream, guacamole, salsa (whatever you like) for garnish

As you’ve probably guessed, this list isn’t one of mine. The person who provided this list pays a lot more attention to actual measurements than I do. If that’s throwing you off, go with your palate. You can do things like forget about the chiles and jalapenos if you don’t like it spicy. You can switch up the meat if you’re more into carnitas or chicken. That’s the beauty of a chimichanga—you can make it however you want!

You’ll begin by browning your meat. Go ahead and break it apart as you go to make sure it all cooks evenly. Add the onion in when it’s about halfway cooked. When the onion gets soft and the meat is cooked, add the garlic, chili powder, cumin, and oregano. Stir the mix and cook 30 seconds to blend the flavors. Then add in the refried beans and add two cans of the tomato sauce—unless you hate tomatoes. Then you only need one can, and you’ll add half of it here. Save what’s left of your tomato sauce for the exterior chimichanga sauce. Stir everything up once again to get the flavors blending, and then remove it from heat. If you’d like to keep it extra warm, you can leave it on the lowest burner setting—just make sure it isn’t going to burn!

Next, we’re going to make the chimichanga sauce. Grab a medium saucepan and combine what’s left of your tomato sauce and your hot peppers in it. This isn’t going to cook so much as warm, so that when we pour it over our perfectly crisp chimichangas it doesn’t make them cold and soggy.

Now we move on to rolling the burritos. If your tortillas aren’t very pliable, heat them in the microwave for about 20 seconds covered with a damp paper towel. Or, if you’d like to get a head start or if you’re using corn tortillas, go ahead and fry the tortillas by themselves for a few seconds on each side in a very small amount of oil. The oil and heat will help the tortillas hold together while you wrap them around your filling. Once your tortillas are prepared, place about ⅓ cup filling towards one side of a tortilla. We’re going to use measurements here, because there’s nothing worse than putting a ton of work into a chimichanga only to have it unfold or bust in the middle of frying it. Fold over the side nearest the filling to cover the filling. Fold in the two sides, roll it up, and secure the ends of your burrito with toothpicks.

Once you’re done doing this with your remaining tortillas, we’re ready to get our fry on! The oil should be about 375 degrees to fry well, but the popcorn kernel trick we talked about last month in the latke recipe will work fine too. You can fry your chimichangas however you want, but it should only take about 2 minutes on each side to finish them. They should be a golden brown color and slightly rigid. When finished, top your chimichangas with cheese, sauce, sour cream, cilantro, essentially whatever you want! These chimichangas are yours, and they express you!

Those of you familiar with Deadpool will have no trouble discerning the connection between him and this month’s culinary feature. The connection between chimichangas, him, and the many forms of love celebrated on Valentine’s Day might be a little more difficult to parse if you haven’t read the most recent crossover series featuring Deadpool and Spider-Man. Those familiar with Spider-Man will know that he’s often the least desired team-up by other super heroes, while Spidey enjoys working with anyone—except Deadpool.

Until this series, Spider-Man and Deadpool have had rather a terse relationship, with Deadpool idolizing Spider-Man and Spider-Man detesting Deadpool. Deadpool rather mirrors Spider-Man’s role in Spider-Man’s other team-ups, so the hijinks is always well placed when they end up on the page together. But in this first collection of the series—aptly titled Isn’t It Bromantic—Deadpool turns over a new leaf and tries to earn Spider-Man’s friendship and respect.

And after a streak of non-lethal behavior on Deadpool’s part, Spider-Man goes for it!

Although readers of both the Deadpool and Spider-Man series might have thought these two would never develop a real relationship of any kind, the two actually manage to create a friendship—one that both of them end up valuing. When that relationship is challenged, instead of just making assumptions and acting based on those assumptions, Deadpool and Spider-Man do something hugely out of character for two grown adult men in media: they talk about it.

Their conversation is honest and real. Spider-Man is hurt,

Deadpool is apologetic,

And both of them don’t make use of halting sentences or implied emotion. What’s exciting about this collection is these two grown men talking about their feelings and valuing each other as people without needing to rely on tired, ridiculous phrases like “no homo” to convey how they feel about each other.

Besides, there very obviously could be some homo involved if Spider-Man was interested. He’s on Deadpool’s pre-negotiated free-pass list.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Infused Water: MMOs and How They Bring Us Together

This really isn’t a recipe, but since my mother was diagnosed with breast cancer this month, I’ve got a link to a bunch of fun summer water infusions and a lot to say about MMORPGs. For those of you that don’t know, MMORPG stands for Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game--MMO for short. What in the world could water and MMOs possibly have in common, you ask?

All of our bodies are made up of sixty percent water. In that respect, we’re all the same. In an MMO, aside from differences that are chosen such as height, weight, class, and a charmingly outlandish haircut, all player characters are also the same. Everyone can run in the game. There’s no disease or physical limitations and you don’t ever have to present as a gender you don’t want to be perceived as. Depending on the game, sometimes it can be difficult to pass for androgynous or ungendered, but we continue to evolve. The important part is that everyone is on the same playing field. Everyone can be a dragon slaying, horse breeding, warrior farmer they want to be.

There have been some pieces of media that have illustrated this strength of MMOs to great effect over the years.

One of my all time favorites is the cult classic, .hack//. .hack// is a series that centers around an MMO called The World and has had many installments, starting with .hack//Sign, the first anime installment. The main character of .hack//Sign is a male presenting character named Tsukasa that gets trapped in the game and can’t log out. Turns out in real life, Tsukasa is actually a girl. This becomes relevant once Tsukasa gets out of the game at the end of the series, because while trapped in the game he falls in love with a girl whose character’s name is Subaru. Subaru is the leader of a prominent guild in The World called The Crimson Knights. In real life, she is a woman with a wheelchair who could never explore the caves, mountains, and forests she can in The World. What’s fantastic about both Tsukasa’s and Subaru’s experience with their characters in The World is that they offer them experiences they can’t have in real life. It’s unclear if Tsukasa chose to play a male character because they have issues with their assigned gender, but the point is that they are able to pass for male within The World. Subaru, on the other hand, gets to walk. When Tsukasa and Subaru finally meet outside The World for the first time, they recognize each other not because of the way they present in the real world, but because of the way they know each other as people from within The World.

The fade to color is a particularly evocative technique here. Only the in-game experiences of The World are portrayed in color throughout the series, while any real world scenes and flashbacks are depicted in the grayscale the video starts in. In this way, .hack//Sign creates a sense of realism within The World, implying that The World is the world that is most real to the main characters in this story. When Tsukasa and Subaru recognize each other as the people they know from the game, their interaction becomes real to them as well.

Because of the level playing field created by the equality of characters in online games, .hack// is able to include a wide and diverse cast of characters. Aside from Subaru and Tsukasa, they also include a trouble making child named Sora. Sora is taken seriously in The World as though he were an adult. This eventually gets him into trouble (spoilers: he ends up in a coma and losing his memory, and then shows back up in .hack//G.U. as the main character Haseo), but he learns from his mistakes and inevitably comes back to The World as a teenager in the .hack//G.U. game series. The other character .hack// has the chance to include that is often left out of most “save the world” stories is a pregnant woman!

.hack//Infection, Mutation, Outbreak, and Quarantine are the first set of .hack// video games that was released in the franchise. One of the first party members Kite (the player’s proxy in-game) acquires is a spell caster named Mistral. In the third game, she informs Kite that she can’t keep fighting against the anomalies in the game with him because she’s going to have a baby. She explains that she’s not just risking her life anymore, and if she was killed by one of the anomalies in game and fell into a coma in real life she might lose her baby. However, in order to protect The World for her child to enjoy free of anomalies and threats of falling comatose, Mistral later returns to the game in time for the final battle. Later, in the manga series .hack//Key of the Twilight, the reader meets Mistral’s child who has inherited Mistral’s old avatar, showing once again that The World is made for everyone.

The other piece of media that showed the strength of the leveling effect of MMOs is Corey Doctorow's graphic novel In Real Life. It’s difficult in western media to find media that depicts MMOs and players of MMOs in a good light. Too often, it’s the anti-social, overweight, white bigoted troll that is made out to be the only fan of MMOs. In Real Life’s main character, Anda, is not only a woman, but a woman with a real body shape. She’s not one of those gamer girls that hangs out in her bra and panties while playing Call of Duty to impress some asshat boyfriend--not that there’s anything wrong with hanging out in your underwear playing video games, but I find it’s often a lot less sexy than the internet makes it out to be. Instead, Anda’s a real woman who decides to get into the online game Coarsegold to join a guild of other female gamers.

With things like GamerGate and convention horror stories, it’s no secret that gaming and nerd culture in general can be a pretty sexist scene. In Real Life calls that out within the first few pages of the book:

This is an interesting phenomenon because while female players often play male characters to avoid sexism, there are male players that play female characters because they find them prettier than the male avatars. This is an example of the privilege male gamers enjoy in MMOs.

While the .hack// franchise doesn’t address the issue of sexism in gaming (I can only assume because the creators hoped such things would be resolved in the future era of gaming they chose to set their story in) In Real Life does a great job of being inclusive towards a female audience right from the get-go. The story then chooses to tackle another true-to-life issue with MMO gaming: gold farming.

Gold farmers are players who play the game solely to amass in-game assets and then sell them to other players for real life money. Most MMOs have rules that outlaw this behavior, and players can have their accounts suspended if they are caught participating in such exchanges. However, it doesn’t stop it from happening, and people who have only just started an MMO can find websites to buy in-game weapons, armor, materials, mounts, houses, and even pre-leveled avatars. Like many real life MMO players, Anda’s mentor in the guild doesn’t think it’s fair, and so combats the unfairness of gold farming by killing gold farmers’ characters for cash in her spare time. Killing other player’s characters is often referred to in MMO communities as “player killing” or “PKing” for short. Anda becomes involved in the gold farmer PKing, but when one of the gold farmers talks to her, Anda becomes conflicted.

Raymond is the name the gold farmer gives Anda. He tells her it’s the name he uses in his English classes. Through a mix of English, Chinese, and surprisingly inaccurate online translation services, Raymond tells Anda his story. He’s a Chinese man who works as a gold farmer--meaning he is paid in the real world by the company he works for to play Coarsegold and create in-game assets that the company then sells for real world money. For him, gold farming is not something he does to make a little extra money on the side like PKing is for her. Instead, it’s how he makes his livelihood.

What’s interesting about this story is that it does so many good things while simultaneously telling some really hard truths. Yes, gaming can be sexist, and yes, our global economy is royally messed up if illegal gold farming is the basis for companies in certain countries. Even more messed up if those companies aren’t offering things like health insurance, like Raymond’s company does to him. What I love about In Real Life, though, is that the game itself is never made out to be bad. Some bad things can happen in it like PKing and gold farming, but good things can too! International connections, crowdsourcing, and anonymously started calls to action like the one that gets the workers at Raymond’s company to strike until they receive health insurance are just some of the examples; and it’s because of all of those things the world of Coarsegold is just as real as the real world in some ways.

The transitions between the real world and the online one really illustrate that as well. At no point do we ever see Anda in the real world “playing” her character. Anda is always shown inhabiting her character in the online world, as if her avatar were her real body and the game her real world.

Now go have your own real life adventure in an MMO.

Lemon Bars: When Life Gives You More Lemons (Like Shootings During Pride Month)

So, Orlando happened. And I’m furious. And that’s really all we’re going to say about that here. I wrote a piece about it I’ll probably be submitting to Bi Women Quarterly’s fall issue, but feel free to read it in my Google Docs now if you need to spend a moment on that. When you’re ready, we’re going to talk about how to get rid of that sour taste in our mouths—by replacing it with a better sour taste.

Lemon bars are one of my all time favorite desserts. Not only do they have that delightful sweet-sour balance we call “tart,” but they’re this cheerful sunshine yellow that is impossible to keep from smiling over. The dusting of sugar on top is just the icing on the cake (pun intended, thank you).

Crust Ingredients:
½ pound unsalted butter at room temperature
½ cup granulated sugar
2 cups flour
⅛ teaspoon kosher salt

Filling Ingredients:
6 large eggs at room temperature
3 cups granulated sugar
2 tablespoons grated lemon zest (this will take between 4 and 6 lemons)
1 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 cup flour
Confectioners’ sugar, for dusting on top

To begin with, you’ll want to preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. After that, gather your crust ingredients. You’ll want to cream together the butter and the sugar until they’re light. You can do this by hand, or in the mixer with your paddle attachment (if you have fancy toys like that). Next, combine the flour and salt and then add them to your butter and sugar. Doing this slowly will help ensure that everything really gets mixed together instead of just combining in lumpy, flour bombs. Don’t be afraid to get your hands dirty if you need to. This is your dough mixture, so you’ll be able to rub it off your hands and back into the bowl fairly easily. Adding a little flour to your hands can also help keep them clean. You’ll want to flour your hands for the next step anyway, because once you’re satisfied with your dough you’ll press it by hand into a baking sheet. For the amount of dough you have, you’ll want a 9 by 13 inch baking sheet that has a height of two inches. You will want to make sure your pan has at least a 2 inch height, otherwise you risk your filling running over. Make sure you build up a ½-inch edge for your dough on all sides of the pan. Then, bake the crust for 15 to 20 minutes until it is very lightly browned.

While that’s baking, we can get started on our filling. All you’ll need to do for this is whisk together your eggs, sugar, lemon zest, lemon juice, and flour. The order in which the ingredients are added won’t affect the end result, so just throw it together however you see fit.

Once the crust has finished baking, go ahead and pull it out. You can let it cool if you’re worried about it retaining its shape, or you can pour your filling over your crust immediately. Either way, once you’ve added your filling to the baking pan, return it to the oven for another 30 to 35 minutes until the filling has set. You can check your filling by piercing it with any long, thin object. Toothpicks are fine. If the toothpick comes back mostly clean, you’re good to go.

Take the lemon bars out of the oven once set, and let them cool to room temperature. Now you’re ready for your confectioners sugar. You can sugar the whole top of your bars without cutting them, or you can cut them into squares or triangles and dust them after cutting them. I find that if you don’t care about presentation leaving the lemon bars uncut keeps them a little fresher, but you will mess up the sugar on top of them each time you cut one off. If this is a classy affair, cut them and then dust them. Either way, enjoy this much superior sour taste!

That said, there is this thing that’s happening in media that’s also been leaving a vaguely sour taste in my mouth. It boils down to the inclusion of queer characters in media that have no established queer identity. I was discussing this with a friend, because on the one hand not establishing a queer character’s sexual preference or gender identity allows more people from the queer community to relate to said character. However, it also is one of the leading contributors in erasure of certain demographics from the LGBTQIAP+ acronym. For example, you’ll notice that two weeks ago in my Ceviche post I at no point referred to any of the characters I discussed with a label for their sexual preference. Although Korra and Asami from Avatar: The Legend of Korra, and Alphys from Undertale all exhibit what read to me as bisexual tendencies (perhaps colored by my own bisexuality), there’s no way for me to know that bisexual is truly the identity they subscribe to. Maybe after dating Mako Asami discovered she was only into women. Maybe Korra, as the spirit-focused Avatar, has discovered she’s not really about the flesh unless she’s romantically attached to someone and considers herself demisexual. Maybe Alphys prefers pansexual to bi because it’s not so much that she likes people of two different genders but rather finds that gender doesn't matter to her when she’s falling in love. Even Undyne’s lack of partners aside from Alphys in Undertale doesn’t mean that I can automatically consider her a lesbian. Maybe one of them is intersex. Maybe one of them decides they don’t like intercourse and prefer to be asexual. Maybe one of them decides they’re not comfortable with the gender they were assigned at birth. Maybe one of them is questioning.

The problem is that no one knows. It allows for people in any of these situations to project and see themselves in these characters (which is awesome, because there are still so few healthy portrayals of these types of characters in our media), but it also means that viewers in these situations never truly see their real life struggles portrayed because of the lack of specificity in these characters’ identities and experiences.

That’s why this month we’re going to talk about media that does get more specific. May I present to you my favorite manga starring a male same-sex couple, Fake. When Randy "Ryo" Maclean, a half-Japanese cop, shows up as the new recruit at the New York 27th Precinct, he is immediately and unceremoniously partnered with the infamous precinct trouble magnet, the cocky and smooth-talking Dee Laytner. The seven-volume manga details their adventures as New York detectives. Hostage situations, juvenile delinquents, and more than enough bullets to keep them busy, Ryo and Dee end up delving into the underbelly of the city and their pasts, and their budding relationship.

Often Boys’ Love manga suffers from a lot of unfortunate tropes. Fake falls victim to fewer of them than most, and does a pretty damn good job of being a positive portrayal of queer characters for being a story from 1994 that comes from conservative Japan. To begin with, I’m not saying this manga doesn’t have it’s problematic moments. What I am saying is that it does a fantastic job of portraying two realistic men who have the hots for each other and live in a time that didn’t teach relationship best practices. But what is it that sets Fake above all the other Boys’ Love manga for me? Well, the fact that Dee is a bisexual man.

This isn’t just me inferring, either. This is Dee upfront coming out and telling everyone who makes the assumption that he’s gay because of his interest in his partner Ryo, including Ryo.

Again…

And again…

And again.

As a bisexual myself, I can assure you it’s no joke that bisexuals often have their sexuality assigned by the people around them by the partner or sexual interests they express in a moment. When I was with my first girlfriend, tons of my classmates kept asking me what it was like to be a lesbian. It gets exhausting having to always correct people—but it was majorly reassuring having to see Dee put up with the same struggle.

The manga also does a great job of showing Ryo questioning his sexuality. Dee is the only man he’s ever been interested in, and so it makes Ryo rather standoffish because he doesn’t want to think of himself as a homosexual.

He has some pretty extreme reactions when people assume he’s gay, like when he meets Dee’s adopted parent known as Mother to the children of the orphanage where Dee grew up.

But, after punching out another man that kisses him, Ryo tries to figure out why he thinks of it as “different” when he kisses Dee.

Seriously, questioning is a pretty difficult time, even when the answers seem to be pretty obvious to an outside observer like a friend or a reader.

The phrasing in the first panel also makes it very clear that Ryo’s interests in Dee far outrank the ones he’s had for women in the past. While this does seem to lean towards indicating Ryo is gay, it could also be an indicator that he is demi, bi, or pan and just never found the right woman to fall in love with. Thankfully, Ryo has some pretty great support from Mother, his FBI contact Diana, and an insightful witness protection case.

It’s left unclear how Ryo ends up choosing to identify, but what is made VERY clear in the text is that Ryo is questioning and seems to come to a conclusion for himself even if it isn’t shared with the readers.

The portrayal of questioning characters may seem like a cop-out (heh heh, get it? Because Ryo is a cop?) in matters of specificity, but I would argue it’s one of the most important types of characters to be specific about portraying. Why? Because every member of the queer community went through a questioning phase before deciding on their identity.

One comic series that is doing a fantastic job of portraying questioning characters is Lumberjanes. Molly and Mal are two of the five girl band that make up the leads of the Lumberjanes cast—and they’re totally adorable together. Their romance may be a bit in the background during the first two collected volumes—only really presenting itself when Molly tries to perform CPR on Mal after facing off on the river with a water dragon:

But their relationship takes center stage in the third collection, where even the plot mirrors their questioning of their own identities.

Sucked into a magical dimension, Molly and Mal have to decide if what they want (read as “getting back home” and as “a relationship with each other”) is something they’re willing to risk and be brave for.

For a couple of young girls, that’s a big, big step—and one that a lot of members of the queer community take at a similar age. The really awesome part is the support of the other Lumberjanes...

...and Molly’s and Mal’s conclusions.

Without portrayals of characters that can relate to the specific struggles of our daily lives, we are leaving out the experiences not only of our viewers, but of human beings in general. It’s time for the tropes to be broken and a whole new, human cast to emerge in storytelling—one that doesn’t tolerate the sort of hate that led to the tragedies of Orlando.

Orlando, this bisexual sister stands with you. And I swear that we’re gonna make this sour sweet.

Ceviche: IT'S PRIDE MONTH!!

It’s June. To me, this means two things: A) we’re finally getting some sunshine in Oregon, and B) it’s Pride Month!! And not just any Pride Month, either. If you haven’t heard about President Obama’s proclamation, go read it here. During last year’s Pride Month I was studying in Akita, Japan. I remember the Supreme Court’s decision regarding marriage equality passing while I was over there and being affected more than I thought I was going to be. As a bisexual woman, I wasn’t feeling the heat of not being able to marry a partner I loved yet. Knowing that I could left me more than a little breathless.

That was before this blog, so this year, we’re going to celebrate!

I chose ceviche for our recipe because not only is it a very attractive food with lots of different colors—almost rainbow-esque, some might say—but it’s the perfect sort of thing to serve at a great big, outdoor, summer gathering! Perhaps for your very own pride party, eh?

Ingredients: (it goes without saying all of these should be fresh)
1 small rock fish fillet
1 pound shrimp
5 limes
1 lemon
½ - ¾ tomato juice
1 large sweet onion
1 cucumber
1 tomato
1 avocado
3 jalapeño peppers
1 bunch radishes
2 cloves freshly minced garlic
¼ cup chopped cilantro
1 teaspoon salt
Tortilla chips (not actually included in the ceviche, but a handy tool for eating it!)

First, peel and devein your shrimp. Give them a rough chop if you like. Then, throw your shrimp and your fish into a bowl and juice your lemon and limes over them. Be sure that the seafood is completely covered in the juice. The idea behind ceviche is to cook the seafood with citric acid. If the seafood isn’t completely submerged, it won’t cook correctly. Cover your bowl and place it in the fridge for 30 minutes to cook. The shrimp should be opaque and slightly firm at the end. If at the end of 30 minutes you’re still concerned your seafood might be raw, throw it in a pan for a very short amount of time.

While the shrimp and fish are cooking, you’ll want to dice and combine your onion, fresh tomato, cucumber, avocado, and radishes. Toss in your tomato juice too. Once combined, toss and mix in the garlic, cilantro, and jalapeños to reach the desired level of spice. Be aware that your jalapeños will become stronger the longer they sit in the mixture, so if you plan to let your ceviche sit for a while you may want to hold off. I like my food spicy, so I mixed them all in and enjoyed the flavor.

Once your seafood is cooked and your other ingredients mixed, combine the two bowls together. You can leave the lemon and lime juice in if you like and even throw in some more tomato juice to play with the consistency of the ceviche.  Or you can strain most of it out if you prefer less liquid in your ceviche. Yvonne (yes, the same chef who made my birthday cheesecakes) and I left most of the citrus juice in. It was great day-of, but I would recommend straining it out before eating it again if you store it. I would also recommend eating this at room temperature. I found that if the mixture was too cold I couldn’t taste all of the ingredients as well.

Now, how does this relate to Pride Month, you ask? Aside from the beautiful coloration and apt weather conditions, I picked this dish because it takes time. More than anything, whenever I’ve seen media that wasn’t pitched as LGBT+ from the beginning, the media takes time to introduce the queer elements of their characters.

There are two bits of media I’d like to talk about in that respect, the first of which being Avatar: The Legend of Korra. The series is four seasons long, and in the first three seasons both Korra and her fourth season love interest Asami are presented as heterosexual women. They even date the same male firebender, Mako. Even in the first season, however, Asami and Korra are hardly rivals or unfriendly just because they’re interested in the same young man. Very early on in Asami and Mako’s relationship, before Korra has anything more to do with him than a crush, Asami takes Korra for a drive. This may seem fairly mundane—until you realize that Asami is the heir to a multi-million yuan (the Avatar universe version of currency) technological company. Aside from being a skilled mechanic, Asami is versed in the operation of all her company-to-be’s equipment. As the only non-elemental bender of the group, this is how Asami keeps up with her bender friends in the main story. So when Asami takes Korra for a drive, it’s one hell of a whirlwind, stunt driving scenario, and the two end up friends before the end of Asami’s introductory episode.

It’s unclear if series creators Bryan Konietzko and Michael Dante DeMartino meant for Korra and Asami to be romantically involved from the beginning, but regardless of original intent, it was refreshing to see two women interested in the same man not detesting each other over that. There’s an unhealthy trope I see a lot—both in real life and in media—of women viewing other women as competition when it comes to romantic inclinations. Korra and Asami’s avoidance of the trope seems rather apt now, since they become each other’s romantic interest in season four, but the initial avoidance of the trope was one of the things that kept me watching and clued into the fact that The Legend of Korra was going to be as good as its prequel series Avatar: The Last Airbender.

That said, it did take four seasons for Korra and Asami to end up together, and—due to Nickelodeon's archaic views on LGBT+ content—was fairly subtle. At the end of season three, Korra suffers a horrible injury that inhibits her abilities as the Avatar, wielder of all four elements and bridge between the human world and spirit world. She withdraws to her Water Tribe home in the south and corresponds with almost no one. Her only penpal? Asami. And just look at the amount of letters she’s written to Korra!

Korra recovers to an extent by the beginning of season four, but due to the conflicts of the story, Korra and Asami hardly have a moment together that isn’t fraught with plot-relevant tension. At the end of the season, a different, heterosexual couple gets married. Korra and Asami both attend the wedding, and slip off together. There, they have a conversation.

This type of conversation is one that I see many same-sex couples have. It’s one where viewers who do not expect to see a conversation between lovers see only a platonic bond, and viewers who expect to see romance, do. The two are emotional, affectionate, and physically touch each other. They agree to go on a trip together to the spirit realm. Just before entering the portal, they hold hands, turn to each other, and gaze into each other’s eyes with content smiles—mirroring the wedding pose from earlier in the episode.

Konietzko and DeMartino both verified that these choices were intentional and that even though they hadn’t been allowed to include a kiss between Korra and Asami—despite the overwhelming amount of heterosexual kisses in the show—Asami and Korra were indeed canonically in a relationship.

Dark Horse Comics has the rights for The Legend of Korra comics, and we all know the independent Northwest comics company has no issues with including diverse characters! I’m looking forward to seeing Asami and Korra’s relationship develop in the comics, and until that time, we have official art from Konietzko to tide us over.

The second piece of media I want to talk about is, once again, Undertale. Seriously, if you haven’t played it yet, even if you think you’re not a gamer, get yourself a Steam account and buy this baby. If you need convincing or background, check out my first two blog posts about Undertale here and here.

I attribute Undertale’s development as an indie game to be the reason that this game does so many things right. Korra and Asami were stunted due to some pretty unfair corporate calls, but Undertale creator Toby Fox didn’t have to adhere to anyone’s call except his. Due to his creative freedom and the support of his team and backers, Fox was able to include not just one but two same-sex couples in Undertale.

The first is stumbled upon in the course of the main storyline of all Neutral and Pacifist runs of the game. I believe in a Genocide run of the game, they have already fled before you arrive. The couple is a pair of guards tasked with evacuating an area due to a human wearing a striped shirt. They mistake you for a monster and try to escort you out of the area before realizing you’re the human they’re looking for and engaging you in combat.

The thing about combat in Undertale is that you really don’t want to kill anyone—which immediately puts using the “Fight” option in battle out of the question. Instead, you have to “Act.” Actions vary immensely from battle to battle, and if you don’t choose the correct actions from your action menu, the consequences can be severe. The best option is often to “Check” each monster and see what their description says. Often this can help lead to the correct course of action, especially when one is at a loss for what to do. Watch what you have to do in order to win the battle with the Royal Guards.

Think back to Korra and Asami’s fourth season conversation that could be read as platonic by viewers who weren’t expecting to listen to a conversation between lovers. This particular fight, I hear, has given some people a lot of trouble because they simply didn’t know what to do with it—because they weren’t expecting it to be a love confession between two male guards!

What’s important about this initial exposure to a same-sex relationship is that it changes the player’s expectations about situations, characters, and tropes in the game. While the player may have previously only been assuming that characters in the realm of Undertale were heterosexual, either due to the massive brainwashing of our media and culture or through some personal sense of bigotry. Now, they are either expecting to see more diversity amongst the characters or have quit playing in childish outrage.

This lays the stage for the main same-sex couple from Undertale: Undyne and Alphys. There are hints that Undyne and Alphys are interested in each other that the player can see during a Neutral or Pacifist run. The first is during their friendship encounter at Undyne’s house when Undyne is trying to civilly offer the player a drink without acting on her urge to immediately hunt any humans that enter the underground. The options you are given are sugar, soda, hot chocolate, and golden flower tea (obviously the correct option). Undyne won’t give the player anything but tea. However, her reaction when the player selects the soda is noteworthy.

If the player has been to Alphys’s lab, they know that Alphys has a penchant for junk food and soda. However, when I did my first run of Undertale, I completely missed this small hint to Undyne’s affections for Alphys BECAUSE I WASN’T EXPECTING IT!

The game gives you another chance to catch on, though. When taking Mettaton’s quiz in Alphys’s lab, his last question is “Who does Doctor Alphys have a crush on?” Being the hubristic thing I am, I went with option C) The Human. Here’s the thing, though: all of the answers are right! While Mettaton will accept The Human and Don’t Know as answers, because Alphys is obviously very interested in humans and the grand concept of someone unknown in an alternate universe where Alphys has found romantic attachment is completely possible (according to Doctor Alphys’s research). Of course, the best reactions come from options A and B, Undyne and Asgore respectively.

While these two moments in the Neutral and Pacifist runs are there, they can easily be missed. For example, not reading into Undyne’s blush and selecting one of the other three answers to Mettaton’s final quiz question would keep the player from ever noticing any of this! Fortunately, in the true Pacifist ending to the game, the player sees Alphys and Undyne confess their love to each other, and they receive a real happily ever after.

If you want to see the whole adorable story of how that happened, I suggest you hustle over to Steam and get to playing Undertale, my friend. I guarantee you will not be disappointed.

Happy Pride Month, everybody!