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Audio readings of TRANSlating Everything content and wacky discussions!
A wise man once offered advice to the random white people who show up in his YouTube comments.
He said that many collaborations meant to celebrate a person instead require an unfair cost of labor from the subject of celebration.
He said if you want to celebrate a person, then celebrate them.
The Mother of #Cornbreadtube (feat @TeeNoir) - Signified B Sides
Let the celebration begin.
Stardate 47634.44…
That sound is the TRANSporter beam locking on to you.
That feeling is your material body being broken apart and reconstituted.
You’re still you but…
How do you know that you’re still you? That your gender remains what it once was? That your identity persists even if your body only took this form because the pattern buffers were told to do so?
In another quirk of fate, you would be reborn with the same mind, the same gender, the same identity—but with your body reshaped as it was when six years old. Your identity persists despite what people see or assume rests within its shell.
Star Trek, you see, is incredibly queer. It makes sense then that the most pioneering insights into the franchise come from a trans activist whose lived experiences speak to a depth of exploration into gender, orientation, and identity that most people think is only possible in science fiction.
Her name is Jessie Gender
Welcome to TRANSlating Everything. I’m Stephenie Magister, helping you cover, uncover, and discover the “invisible” representation of gender diversity in all forms of media.
Today, I want to help you get to know a pioneer in media criticism and queer activism.
Jessie Earl, also known as Jessie Gender, works in digital video as a producer and on-air talent. They have produced videos for Microsoft, America’s Funniest Home Videos, Skybound Entertainment, The Advocate, Pride.com, MuteSix, and many more.
An equally prolific writer, Jessie’s work has been featured in The Advocate, Pride.com, Out, Gaynrd, GammaRay, and others.
Jessie Gender on YouTube
Jessie’s primary YouTube channel discusses “the nuance in the nerdy,” with a “focus on issues facing the LGBTQ community, transgender specific community, women, nonbinary and autistic folks as well as other social and political issues through and within geek topics, with an eye to the most vulnerable.”
Their mission statement is “to create a space where we can talk about hard issue but in a way that is constructive, positive, welcoming, and educational, and still never loses sight of the joy and love for each other that brought us together in the first place.”
In 2019, they took on the stereotype that anything left of the Nazis can only exist in an echo chamber: “What Does the ContraPoints Controversy Say About the Way We Criticize?”
Personally, I can’t get enough of Jessie’s Star Trek videos.
Just look at these topics:
Star Trek Explained (As Simply As Possible)
A Complete (& Unhinged) Guide to Watching Star Trek
Star Trek: The Next Generation - A Sexual Retrospective
Star Trek (2009) Is a Masterpiece | RETROSPECTIVE (1 of 2)
Star Trek's Autistic & Neurodiverse Representation
Jessie Gender: “Star Trek is an imperfect franchise that nevertheless taught me and keeps teaching me to never let imperfection stop me from striving to be better and do better for others.”
And most recently, their analysis reveals as much about why the final season of Picard completes the story of Star Trek: the Next Generation as it does point our gaze toward the queer frontiers Star Trek has yet to explore.
Star Trek Picard's Queer Problem
Star Trek Picard "The Last Generation" SERIES FINALE REVIEW
Folks, the only reason I’m not angry that Paramount didn’t give Jessie the official Picard After Show is that with great funding comes great lack of creative control. And I will declare today a good day to die if doing so will preserve Jessie’s voice.
But you and I both know we’re just delaying the inevitable.
Resistance is futile
This may be our last chance to see Jessie Gender’s most authentic videos before she receives the inevitable wave of funding that comes for production and on-air talent like theirs.
On the other hand, twenty years from now, it’ll be kinda cool to say you were a fan “before.” You’ll want to be able to tell the newer fans which videos proved Jessie had the talent to transcend the test of time.
Jessie Gender’s Top Ten Videos (ranked according to Views)
10: So JK Rowling Tweeted About Me... | 273,566 views | Premiered Dec 17, 2022
Description: So JK Rowling tweeted about me today... and it was very weird.
9: The Book that Murdered JK Rowling | 297,957 views | Premiered May 20, 2022
Description: A recent horror novel by a transgender author, Manhunt by Gretchen Felker-Martin, murdered JK Rowling in it's story... and TERFs freaked out.
8: The Anti-Trans Disinformation Pipeline | 304,544 views | Premiered Sep 16, 2022
Description: Looking at how The Daily Wire, Matt Walsh, Fox News, Blaire White and others create and generate disinformation campaigns and vilify transgender people as whole.
7: Lindsay Ellis Quits YouTube: A Messy, Imperfect, Honest Response | 337,418 views | Premiered Dec 27, 2021
Description: Lindsay Ellis has quit YouTube, and all content... so we got to talk about that.
6: The Manipulations of Matt Walsh's "What is a Woman?" | 345,298 views | Premiered Aug 12, 2022
Description: What is a Woman... truly a difficult question that only Matt Walsh was "brave" enough to ask. Yet, clearly, there are issues, so let's break down all the ways The Daily Wire plus' film What is a Woman manipulates its audience and how Matt Walsh created a documentary to frame trans people as the villains through misinformation.
5: 12 MINUTES is a Pretentious Misogynistic Nightmare (STORY EXPLAINED) | 379,900 views | Premiered Sep 3, 2021
Description: Annapurna's latest release 12 MINUTES was one of my most anticipated games of 2021... and became one of my least favorite of all time. And I need to discuss why.
4: Exploring The "Gender Critical" Radicalization Pipeline | 257,335 views | Premiered Nov 5, 2021
Description: Gender critical, aka TERF, views are a pipeline to more radicalization issues, and transphobia is being weaponized to stoke authoritarianism, so we need to discuss it.
3: I'm Done With JK Rowling | 562,039 views | Premiered Jan 27, 2023
Description: My last video on JK Rowling ever; from Hogwarts Legacy to Fantastic Beasts; we're going to go over everything.
2: The Unending Lies of Matt Walsh | 615,188 views | Premiered Oct 21, 2022
Can a transgender woman answer "What is a Woman?" and what is Matt Walsh all about anyways?
1: Sia's Music: The Trap of Symbolic Autistic Representation | 818,319 views | Premiered Feb 26, 2021
#Autism #SiaMusic #Ableism
Sia's recently directorial debut Music has received a ton of critism from the autistic community and has been critically reviled... yet was also nominated for two Golden Globes, including Best Comedy. Considering the very wide reception of the film, let's take a nuanced look on the controversies around the film.
TVTropes.com reports Jessie Gender’s content provides examples of:
Accentuate the Negative: Inverted Trope, Jessie always tries to avoid being too negative and take a balanced approach to things. However...
Beware the Nice Ones: While Jessie does her best to give everyone the benefit of the doubt and hear out both sides, the gloves come off whenever she encounters someone maliciously trying to harm others.
Broken Pedestal: Jessie has this view of the author J. K. Rowling: She was a major fan of Harry Potter as a child, but as an adult she is very hurt and angry at Rowling's vocal support of TERF ideology. This is outlined in several videos, most comprehensively in the video "I'm Done With JK Rowling
Capitalism Is Bad: Comes up a couple times, usually comparing capitalism at it's worst to the Ferengi.
Cute Kitten: At the end of her video Exploring The "Gender Critical" Radicalization Pipeline, we see Jessie being comforted by her cat Newt.
Deadpan Snarker: Not often, but occasionally shows up.
Ms. Fanservice: For Sex in Star Trek: Exploring Gene Roddenberry's Sexual Frontier, she spends a good portion of the run time (which is nearly three hours) in lingerie and in a seductive pose to make her point.
No Bisexuals: She devotes a video to discussing bisexual erasure in sci-fi television, such as Willow in Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
Spiritual Antithesis: Discussed when she compares Please Stand By favourably to the maligned Sia film Music (2021). Both are films about a young woman with autism (both actresses were neurotypical) and how they express themselves, with a plot involving the characters' older sisters learning to care for them. Music's portrayal is very stereotypical and more symbolic, with the character being Inspirationally Disabled and only serving as a Living MacGuffin to facilitate her sister's story. Please Stand By protagonist Wendy is very well researched, with the portrayal avoiding Hollywood Autism cliches and instead making Wendy her own specific woman - and everyone else serves her story.
Self-Deprecation: Jessie is fond of this kind of humor.
Take That!: She describes the Vorta as slimy middle-managers who are mistaken for smart but are really just good at talking fast. Then she puts up a picture of Ben Shapiro.
Trekkie: Her unabashed love of Star Trek comes up frequently.
We ARE Struggling Together: A central theme of her videos centering on TERFs (Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminists) is that anti-Trans rhetoric is detrimental to the struggles of women, LGBTQ people and other minorities.
Jessie Is Co-author Of Chapter 3 In Navigating Trans and Complex Gender Identities
Chapter 3: Critical Consumption of Transgender and Non-Binary Representations in Popular Culture and Social Media
Co-Authors: Rhea Ashley Hoskin, Jessie Earl, and Ashleigh Yule
Having a voice comes with a cost
In the later part of 2022, Jessie survived a spurt of direct and stochastic violence from JK Rowling.
In an official statement, Jessie said:
“Rowling wants to divide us into us versus them because she has so fallen down a pipeline of hate that frames trans people, already a deeply vilified and marginalized community and yet one that is so filled with strength and joy, as the enemy, which we aren’t.
So I just remind you that TERFs are harmful and awful; and that trans rights and liberation can only exist in a world that is equal for everyone. Our fight is everyone’s fight and we stand together. Love you all my friends.”
Jessie’s Next Project: writing and directing Identiteaze, a sci-fi short film
Quick Facts
Birthdate: June 18, 1992
Other aliases: formerly known as Lostrekkie
Tagline: “the nuance in the nerdy”
Focus: LGBTQ issues (especially the transgender community), women, nonbinary and autistic people as well as other social and political issues through geek topics
Goal: to create a space to “talk about hard issues in a way that is constructive, positive, welcoming, and educational”
Place of origin: Seattle, Washington USA
Pronouns: she/they
Orientations: bisexual, liberal, transgender, non-binary, and agnostic
History of traumas: After coming out, Jessie struggled with suicidal thoughts and depression
Favorite book: The Hobbit
Bonus facts:
on the autism spectrum
has a cat
Other Links
What Does the ContraPoints Controversy Say About the Way We Criticize? - Pride.com
Jessie Gender – Who Hunts the Whale Interview - Laura K Buzz interview
Casually Based Jessie Gender W (this is not a jerk I just genuinely like Jessie Gender fight me you cowards) - The Front Page of the Internet/Reddit
Jessie Gender Explains Medical Transitions…And, We Love Her For It - Seattle Gay Scene
JK Rowling Bashes Trans Writer Who Doesn’t Want to Buy Hogwarts Legacy - Them.com
JESSIE GENDER, HEAT, VOTES FOR WOMEN, TURNCOATS, CANVAS - No Pun Included
NebulaTV landing page
View Jessie's resume here
If you want to see some of Jessie’s best videos on her channel, take a look at this playlist: Best Videos
For more of her writing and video portfolio, please visit www.jessieearl.com
The end (of the article)
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