I am blogging again. I don't think I am much of a blogger but sometimes I just have things to say that burst from my head onto my blog.
Today, I am angry. I am angry because I am watching blatant stealing from another LGBT creator, and I am sick of it.
A little background, one of my favorite creators is Jennifer Juan. She is an LGBT, WOC who is a writer and singer from the UK, and I've been following her work for about two years. (*Excitedly screams* Senpai noticed me) Jennifer Juan has a podcast called Sincerely, Jennifer x, where she recites poetry and talks about her creative work, her perspective on the world and her life so far. Sounds good, right? Well, as is almost always the case, someone saw this LGBT creator speaking her truth and creating something special, and had to try and scoop some of it up for themselves.
Fans of Jennifer will already know the situation, but for those who don't, another creator decided to start a podcast, suspiciously similar to Sincerely, Jennifer x. The podcast is called...wait for it...the blatant thievery will really surprise you...Sincerely, Jen. The content is also suspiciously similar to Sincerely, Jennifer x, with the host presenting a solo podcast, discussing their life and the way they see the world, just without the beautiful poetry in between segments. There are other similarities, like the artwork color schemes, description wording and general details.
Stealing people's ideas is obviously wrong, but there is something even more insidious about the fact that Jennifer Chira, who is, from what we can tell, a straight, cis woman, stealing the ideas and hard work of a LGBT woman who has to work twice as hard as her straight, cis counterparts to get half the praise. Straight, cis creators will always have more space on platforms than LGBT creators, that is just a fact, so when straight, cis creators decide to take up spaces that are occupied by LGBT creators, and try to take credit for their ideas, we have a problem. There is arguably an aspect of LGBTphobia in this. Chira clearly thought that nobody would notice or call her out on borrowing so many aspects of Juan's work to try and build her own success, because, hey, Juan is just a LGBT artist, a niche event, not a big deal, and everyone knows that straight, cis voices matter more, right?
This isn't a new issue by any means, there are countless examples, such as major corporations stealing art from LGBT artists, the constant cultural appropriation of gay culture, straight, cis popstars building their careers off of stolen work from LGBT performers of color. It never ever stops, and this is just another example of the LGBT community finding ways to shine and succeed, only to have straight, cis creators try to pocket some of their hard work, without doing any of their own.
What can we do? I don't have all the answers. For every blogger or journalist calling out appropriation of LGBTculture or concepts, there are a million who will ignore it, because they only care for LGBT people when it's pride month or when they consider them fun. I will continue to call it out when I see it, though, because someone has to, and this is what being an ally should be about. I don't want a shiny badge or thanks and gratitude for standing up to be angrily counted, and neither should you.
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