Welcome to my side of the net.

MENA or SWANA This is a resource post explaining the words MENA and SWANA. What do they mean? MENA = Middle East and North Africa. Image description: screenshot from Google top results for "mena meaning". MENA the word is an English language acronym referring to regions of Middle East and North Africa. The countries referred to most often include: Bahrain, Iran, Iraq, Palestine, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, Yemen, Israel, Egypt, Afghanistan, Cyprus, Libya, Sudan, and with some more countries sometimes included.   MENA does not refer to one country only, nor does it refer to countries or regions with only ONE religion or ethnicity, as there are many different religions and ethnicities in these regions. As you can see from the Google result image, MENA as a word has been prominently used by the west. However, MENA as a term has also b een adopted by us folks from and connected to these regions to refer to ou...

  Image description: Actors clockwise from top left, Ezra Miller, Quintessa Swindell, Chella Man, Ruby Rose. Celebrating DC's non binary actors With the news of DC/HBO Max casting trans actress Ivory Aquino to play the first trans character in a DC feature film, I also wanted to do a post celebrating all the non binary and genderqueer DC actors. Listing is done by their first appearances in DC live action, both movies and TV shows.  - Ezra Miller : Ezra Miller , who plays Barry Allen/The Flash. First appearances: cameos in Batman vs. Superman (2016), Justice League (2017). Upcoming movie: The Flash (November 2022). Miller came out as queer in 2012 and has since spoken about their identity and pronouns in interviews (such as the GQ interview in 2018 ), also stating they do not use the label 'queer' other than to reject gendered labels. "Queer just means no, I don't do that. I don't identify as a man. I don't identify as a woman." Miller uses they...

'Batgirl' Casts Ivory Aquino as First Trans Character in a DC Comics Feature Film Barbara Gordon has officially found her roommate. Ivory Aquino ('Tales of the City', 'When We Rise') has been cast in the HBO Max feature film Batgirl as Alysia Yeoh, the best friend of the titular superhero, a.k.a. Barbara Gordon (Leslie Grace). Both Aquino and Yeoh are transgender, marking the first time a live-action feature film adaptation of a DC Comics title will feature an openly trans character. Yeoh first appeared in a 2011 issue of Batgirl written by Gail Simone and pencilled by Ardian Syaf Source: Variety - Congratulations, Ivory Aquino! This makes Ivory the FOURTH trans actor to be playing a named character in a DC superhero live action. So far we've had the pleasure to see: Dreamer/Nia Nal , played by Nicole Maines , and her roommate Yvette played by RoxyWood .  First appearances: Supergirl season 4 Then on Titans season 2 we had Jericho played by Che...

No, fans aren't 'racist' if they're unbothered about Ben/Phastos, it's simply a lacklustre ship. We are barely into 2022 and I see a worrying trend among fans of Marvel Studios/The MCU claiming that any fan not fully supporting one particular 'ship in The MCU is a racist. Wow! How come? Well this latest stan Twitter row is due to recent MCU movie Eternals, which was only released two months ago. Some more vocal fans of The MCU are currently claiming that fans who don't care about new couple, Phastos/Ben, are racist. They claim that fans have shown more support to the recent Loki show on Disney Plus than they have to Phastos/Ben in the Eternals movie, claiming it's because Loki is white while Phastos and Ben are not (the actors are Black and Lebanese respectively). The same fans claim that MCU Loki has more fans generally than Phastos and his walk-on-character-husband named Ben. (Well, obviously? Loki has been a fan favorite for ten years. ...

[Image description: Ben and Phastos outside their residence on Earth, one of the most used images for the Disney couple.] Ben: the Eternal's Laura Barton I wanted to do a short review of the character Ben in Eternals because he's in my wheelhouse being gay and MENA and also because he's LITERALLY the first named character played by a MENA actor in the MCU since Iron Man 1's Ho Yinsen and the Ten Rings. Which was a long ass time ago. So, in the same year as the first Muslim characters to appear onscreen since 2008's Iron Man 1 , we also got a side character (an upgrade from a walk on, I guess?) in Ben Stoss, the partner to one of the Eternal's main characters. I'm reviewing Ben only, by the way. I'm not reviewing the movie as I remain unmoved by it and honestly don't care. I am Eternals-ambivalent... possibly leaning into averse because it's Disney. The reason I feel this way is because of how Disney has treated us queer fans ...

Image description: character stills of Cass Cain portrayed by teen actress Ella Jay Basco, showing her casual streetwear clothes in the movie of jacket, shorts, sneakers. Why I like Birds of Prey's Cass Cain What I love about the Birds of Prey movie (2020) is the wardrobe choices for the characters.  They're practical, they're cute, they're more casual and everyday; it's the other side of life for heroes/anti heroes, their streetwear. ( x )( x ) I love that. I want to see what clothes they wear in the everyday too, I want to see their accessories.  We all know Bruce Wayne wears a designer suit when he isn't Batman, and that's been done ten thousand times already.  I want to see everyone else's day clothes! The costumes in Birds of Prey also give fans a wider option when it comes to cosplaying their fave women characters. For example, if you wanted to cosplay Harley Quinn before 2020, your live action costume choices from Suicide Squad (2016) ...