If you made it through the alphabet soup of that post title, congratulations! Your reward is that I’m gonna explain what the hell it is.
The acronym stands for The Year of “Taking In Media Made Primarily By Women And People of Color Instead Of More Stuff By White Dudes 2017” and it is something I chose to do this year for a few reasons:
- Supporting media made by underrepresented groups financially means that the industry will pay more attention to them and be more inclusive.
- There’s such breadth and diversity out there and reading/listening to/watching only one kind of person is really a shame in light of that.
- I was tired of white dude stories.
One year while I was in college I went the whole academic year reading only books by women (aside from stuff that was assigned reading) and it changed my life. I wanted to see what would happen if I chose to do a similar project again a decade later.
Some ground rules:
- This applies to new media. Re-watches or Re-reads don’t “count” but I will still limit my intake of old favorites that fall under “white dude” territory in favor of other options.
- I have to expand my reach in each category (film, tv, writing, podcasts, music) by at least one thing each month.
- The focus is on contemporary or new-to-me works, as I have covered many of the “classics” in these areas in the past. (Readers: please keep this in mind if you make suggestions.)
I’m tracking my media in my Passion Planner and will update this post with thoughts and the media I consumed each month. Stay tuned and feel free to play along!
JANUARY
Movies: 13th, Hidden Figures
TV: Master of None, Crazy Ex Girlfriend, Cristela Alonzo’s Lower Classy, Steven Universe
Music: Hamilton (I mean…always), Childish Gambino, Aimee Mann
Podcasts: Call Your Girlfriend, Put Your Hands Together, Politically Re-Active
Writing: The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemison, Over the Plain Houses by Julia Franks
FEBRUARY
This month was a challenge because I was performing in a musical (Ragtime) and writing & recording an EP, so I didn’t have as much time to take in other media. But I did get a few new things in
Movies: The Babadook, Tangerine
TV: Luke Cage, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend (S2)
Music: Sarah Donner & Kittens Slay Dragons Big Big Heart, The Hamilton Mixtape, Anais Mitchell Hadestown
Podcasts: Code Switch
Writing: The Obelisk Gate by N.K. Jemison, Real Artists Have Day Jobs by Sara Benincasa
MARCH
Y’all, I am not missing my old media habits At. All. I’m just not. At the start of this month, I removed everything from my Netflix “to watch” list and started fresh, adding anything that looked interesting and fit into my requirements. Now it’s easier for me to scroll through my options instead of scouring a list for something until I’m too tired to watch anyway.
I even did a version of this project “live” while I was on the JoCo Cruise at the start of the month. While it is difficult to completely avoid stuff made by White Dudes on a cruise tailored to nerd culture, I went out of my way to make time for and attend things presented by the non-white and non-dude performers and guests. It was a huge help that each year, the organizers of the cruise add more women and POC to the roster than they had the year before. Even though it’s nowhere close to “enough” diversity, they’re doing a bang-up job compared to typical cons.
Highlights were Aimee Mann, Zoe Keating, Cameron Esposito & Rhea Butcher, Jean Grae, Tawny Newsome, Hrishikesh Hirway (Song Exploder), Mary Robinette Kowal, Jackie Kashian, and Rebecca Effing Sugar (Creator of Steven Universe).
Movies: Get Out, As(h)oka
TV: Celia, Atlanta, sense8
Music: (see live music above), also checked out a bunch of instrumental hip-hop and Earl St. Clair’s My Name is Earl
Podcasts: Food Stuff, Song Exploder, JV Club
Writing: Piper Perish by Kayla Cagan
APRIL
Movies: Moana
TV: Chewing Gum
Music: Aimee Mann, Mental Illness; Norah Jones, Day Breaks
Podcasts: 2 Dope Queens, Politically Re-Active (S2)
Writing: The Princess Diarist by Carrie Fisher; Tomboy Survival Guide by Ivan Coyote
MAY
Movies: Miss Sharon Jones, The Girl King
TV: sense8 (S2), Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt (S3)
Music: Margo Price, Midwest Farmer’s Daughter
Podcasts: Last Name Basis, The Hidden Brain
Writing: Jaran by Kate Elliott; The Door by Margaret Atwood
BONUS: I also played a lot of Gravity Ghost, a puzzle game designed by Erin Robinson.
JUNE
Movies: Wonder Woman, Rough Night, Suicide Kale
TV: Her Story, GLOW, Unicornland
Music: Charly Bliss, Guppy; ALA.NI, You & I
Podcasts: Nancy, LeVar Burton Reads, The Complete Woman Series
Writing: salt., by Nayyirah Waheed; Binti, Nnedi Okorafor; The Left Hand of Darkness, Ursula K. LeGuin
JULY
Movies: The Big Sick
TV: Master of None (S2), Danger & Eggs (S1)
Music: The Beast, Valerie June
Podcasts: Happier in Hollywood
Writing: Shades of Milk and Honey, by Mary Robinette Kowal; The Year of the Flood, by Margaret Atwood
AUGUST
Movies: Deirdre & Laney Rob a Train, Tallulah
TV: Friends From College (S1), Crashing (S1), Fleabag (S1)
Music: Miss Eaves, Feminasty; The Doubleclicks, Love Problems
Podcasts: Queery with Cameron Esposito
Writing: MaddAddam, by Margaret Atwood; Who Fears Death, by Nnedi Okorafor
SEPTEMBER
Movies: Today’s Special
TV: Thirty (web series) ; Insecure
Music: Tori Amos, Native Invader
Podcasts: Spilled Milk; Reveal
Writing: The Stone Sky, N.K. Jemesin
OCTOBER
Movies: Inn Saei: The Power of Intuition
TV: One Mississippi (S1); Z: The Beginning of Everything
Music: Rhiannon Giddens, Freedom Highway
Podcasts: You Must Remember This
Writing: Whiskey Women by Fred Minnick (gave myself a technical pass on this one since it was non-fiction centered on women.)
NOVEMBER
Movies: What Happened, Miss Simone?; Thor: Ragnarok
TV: Call The Midwife (S1)
Music: Mavis Staples, If All I Was Was Black; Talib Kweli, Radio Silence
Podcasts: Baby Geniuses
Writing: Her Body and Other Parties, Carmen Maria Machado
DECEMBER
Movies: Sleeping With Other People, To The Bone
TV: The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel; She’s Gotta Have It
Music: Miguel Zenón, Tipico; Danay Suarez, Palabras Manuales; Sia, Every Day Is Christmas
Podcasts: Another Round with Heben & Tracy
Writing: Kitchen Table Tarot, Melissa Cynova; Ayoade on Ayoade, Richard Ayoade; The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet, Becky Chambers