I Sexually Identify as an Attack Helicopter by Isabel Fall

isabelfall.neocities.org

Submitted by anethum in general

have you read it? read it again

it's not really a 10 across the board (it's a solid 9 for me); it's kinda route one with regard to how you would take the premise of the One Joke seriously. it is written really well, though. it's definitely earned using that as title and premise. which, seeing how entrenched the one joke is/was... that's actually quite an endorsement in and of itself, isn't it

6

Comments

You must log in or register to comment.

devtesla wrote

the Emily St. James article about the situation gave me a very useful thought I go back to over and over:

So what’s the worst that might have happened if, somehow, the “Attack Helicopter” detractors were right and the story was a secret reactionary text?

As far as I can tell, the worst that would have happened is that another piece of transphobic literature would have existed. To be clear, transphobic literature is worth protesting. I would rather have less of it. But there’s a large gap between speaking out against a work of art you find objectionable and trying desperately to sniff out an author’s true identity, with ever more horrific accusations.

If there's a defining feature of this Woke 2 era is that I'm seeing more people fully understand that there should be line between those things.

4

anethum OP wrote

literally the first clue of new yorker's tuesday crossword was nk jemisin's book. i genuinely would've felt less bad had it been jk rowling

3

oolong wrote

i don't understand how this comment relates to the post (；∀； ) my first instinct with the crossword was "element" even though i haven't watched that movie but i haven't read that book either so it could've well been the fifth column (i solved it from the down clues)

3

anethum OP wrote

here's a short writeup on it re: nk jemisin

devtesla also shouted out emily st. james' article/interview with fall, which is kind of a "what happened next", i guess

2

oolong wrote

my comment disappeared (TДT) but basically i don't think that nk jemisin's contribution to the harassment and hatemob-ing of isabel fall puts her on the kinda level where she's verboten in crosswords. that's where i'm tripping up

i get the general disgust at nk jemisin as someone who's guilty of not reading before they comment but i'm not surprised she ended up as a the new yorker clue

1

underscores wrote

I heard about this when it came out a few years ago. I've seen the one joke way too many times, to the point where I can't get myself to read this.

I feel like the author didn't have any ill intent, but just straight up using the transphobic joke as the title is still going to piss off a lot of people. Way more people read the title than the whole story, so I'm not surprised it turned into a controversy.

2