Bookish Wonder Goth
General Disclaimer
I am a left-wing, bisexual, sweary British feminist with a chronic illness who endeavours to be as anti-racist and as intersectional as possible. If you feel as though my politics are going to clash with yours, please proceed at your own risk.
Regarding 'Problematic' Books & Authors
If you're considering messaging me to chastise me for featuring a particular book or author, I would kindly ask that you please refrain from doing so (discussions are fine; directives are not*). I will always endeavour to read critically, and if I notice any problematic content during my reading, I will say so. I'm very much of the mind that you can acknowledge a book's more problematic content and still enjoy it. I also think it's important to talk about problematic content as opposed to outright censoring it, because this is what helps readers—and authors—to learn and grow.
As per my review policy, in instances where I feel I'm not best placed to pass judgement on a work (because I'm white, British and cis), I will always encourage people to seek out reviews of the marginalised group in question. I cannot claim for my sites to be a safe space for anyone, because—aside from the fact I am human, and will make mistakes (and I'll always try to learn from those mistakes and do better in the future)—I post primarily for myself and not for others.
Very—and I mean 𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺—occasionally, an author's real life behaviour and/or actively harmful rhetoric will dissuade me from picking up or featuring their work. For transparency's sake, my current hard-line list consists of:
John Boyne
for continuing to use his platform and books to spread misinformation and harmful rhetoric regarding trans people and victims of the Holocaust (I witnessed a Twitter exchange in which he directly told the actual Holocaust Museum they were wrong about the inaccuracies they highlighted in his book 'The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas').
Cassandra Clare
for using her enormous platform to continually engage in actively harmful and harrassing behaviour against her fan base when validly criticised.
JK Rowling
for using her enormous platform to spread actively harmful rhetoric against trans people, for which she is clearly remorseless and determined to persue.
The above is not an exhaustive list, because we'd be here all day if I listed all the problematic authors I'm aware of that I haven't read. I also do not count dead authors. The above, however, is the most I will say on this topic. As per my review policy, it is not my intention to trash authors, books, or their fans on any of my sites.
Until an author features on the above list (which I will endeavour to keep as up to date as possible), I'm afraid I can't guarantee they won't feature on any of my sites. Just because you personally find an author disagreeable does not mean I necessarily agree and vice versa.
If you do still decide to message me about any of this, please be aware that I'll only direct you back to this page and refuse to discuss the matter any further.
Activism on Social Media & Charitable Causes
There's a lot of pressure both on and off social media for everyone to be talking about and giving all charitable causes their full attention at all times. I can't stop, chat and donate to every charity rep who accosts me on the street or knocks on my door, and the false sense of accessibility and general lack of respect for boundaries** some activists have on social media is 10x worse. As someone who suffers with a chronic illness that is seriously maligned, misunderstood and NEVER spoken about in mainstream media, I actually understand how frustrating it is when it feels like no one is talking about something so close to your heart, but that doesn't make rudeness OK. Please note, as a result of said chronic illness and especially now amidst the global pandemic, I have limited emotional and financial bandwidth to dedicate to infinite causes, and thus choose to focus my attention (in the form of raising awareness, IRL fundraising and monthly donations) on the following areas:
Chronic UTI Awareness
The Black Curriculum
Save The Uyghurs
Cats Protection
Links to all these causes can be found on my main page and I would be very appreciative if you checked them out for yourself ❤
I will also occasionally showcase urgent appeals and make one-off donations to causes besides the above at my own discretion. You are not entitled to know what these are; every donation I make is 100% anonymous. I try to stay clued up on many of the world's issues and just because I'm not speaking about it online does not mean I am not speaking about it or trying to do something about it in my day to day life. If you do not believe or trust me on this, that is a you problem, not a me problem.
**Enforcing Boundaries
Please note that for the sake of my own mental health, I will automatically unfollow and/or (soft-)block someone if any of the following shows up on my feed without a CLEAR content warning and/or buffer slide where applicable:
• ANY discussion at all with regard to health, doctors and/or medical content (yes, this includes memes)
• ANY images depicting people being killed, or the recently deceased (e.g. murder, genocide, bombing, suicide, snuff films etc.)
• ANY images depicting animal cruelty
*I will also automatically unfollow anyone who continually posts aggressive directives e.g. "I will unfollow/block you if you think/aren't posting about x"; "You are a y if you read/like/support/post about z". Regardless of whether or not I agree with the original sentiment of the directive, I do not brook with virtue signalling strangers on the internet who seek to shame and intimidate people until they conform and perform. Anyone who comes into my DMs to argue with me about this will be automatically blocked. Again, this is for the sake of my mental health.