Reclaiming Comfort Media đź“şđź“š
Comfort media holds a very special place in my heart, though I also have a very fickle relationship with it. I love re-reading my favorite books, re-watching my favorite movies and TV series, listening to my favorite albums (some of which I’ve had on rotation since high school), and playing my favorite video games. There are pieces of media I love so much I’ve tattooed aspects of them onto my body. There are some I’m so protective of that I share them only with certain people for fear of others ruining them forever.
This could easily be an essay about how it feels to have my favorite media—especially the stuff I turn to in moments of crisis—ruined by its creators being exposed as abusers. It could be an essay that digs into how I feel about the idea of “separating the art from the artist,” how a single post engaging with a piece of media I no longer support can turn me off of someone forever, how hearing a song I used to love can now trigger a panic attack.
This essay isn’t about any of that.
In 2020, a very short list of things kept me going. And after I moved to Brooklyn at the end of that year, I pivoted to completely new media as a means of processing the previous nine months. Since then, I’ve wondered if any of the media I loved during lockdown—especially the stuff that I watched or listened to or read on repeat during my divorce—would be media I could return to without it maintaining the flavor of that era.
I’ve often said that associating media with specific people is a dangerous thing because if your relationship falls apart or your opinion of them changes, it can ruin something you love forever. I still think that’s true, though the more I work through my trauma, the more nuanced my thoughts on the matter have become.
In particular (and to my great relief), it seems that comfort media from 2020 can maintain its appeal after enough time away from it. I’ve recently been listening to old playlists again, rewatching forgotten favorites, even diving into Archive of Our Own for some fandoms. There are moments when media reminds me of people from my past and those moments can feel sad or upsetting, but they’re fleeting. And honestly, having periods of reflection while I engage with media that’s had a huge impact on me feels good, even if the emotions I experience during reflection aren’t 100 percent positive.
Perhaps this is growth, or just a return to media that felt safe during a particularly torrid time as we’re going through yet another particularly torrid time. Whatever it is, I’m always fascinated by how my relationship to media shifts and changes as time passes, especially if it served a specific purpose during an identifiable period of my life. Who I was in January of 2020 is very different from who I am in January of 2025. I wonder how I’ll feel about this comfort media renaissance a few years from now.
Game Thoughts: Spirit City Lofi Sessions Might Fix Me
Executive dysfunction often hits me like a wall, large and looming and made of impenetrable bricks. When it happens, I struggle to start any task, no matter how simple or straightforward, and the more balls I drop the more my anxiety compounds until I find myself staring at a massive to-do list that feels impossible to break down into manageable chunks.
This semester, I’m writing my master’s thesis, and I’m anxious about how often executive dysfunction might hinder my progress. I’ve been vocal about my anxiety with my two partners, both of whom have ADHD and Understand The Struggle. One of them introduced me to Mooncube Games’s Spirit City Lofi Sessions a while ago, and since buying it in the Steam store in early January, it’s already made a huge difference in my work sessions.
It’s good to have things to look forward to! For The Mary Sue, I put together a list of 15 cozy games to look forward to in 2025 and another list of 15 queer and trans books to look forward to in 2025.
Quickfire recs:
Cartoonists for Palestine — Buy the anthology or read it for free
If I Must Die: Poetry and Prose by Refaat Alareer
If you want to make zines and don’t know where or how to start, I highly recommend checking out Rosalarian’s “How to Make a Zine, AKA My Zine Manifesto”.
Now would be a great time to register for a FREE Queer Liberation Library account, which works with Libby to provide borrower access to a ton of LGBTQIA2S+ titles.
For The Flytrap, Evette Dionne wrote about her time as EIC of Bitch Media, the struggle for indie publications to both innovate and keep the lights on without significant financial support, and why we need to put our money where our mouth is when they’re still here, rather than flooding social media with mourning when they’re gone.
For io9, Isaiah Colbert spoke with a group of letters behind some of the best manga in the world, specifically regarding localization for Western readers. This deep dive is fascinating, informative, and beautifully crafted.
AP News reporters Devna Bose and Carla K. Johnson interviewed a group of COVID competent folks who still mask and take precautions in the ongoing pandemic, as well as experts about why we should still be masking and taking precautions.
Diamond Comic Distributors has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, which will surely have a massive impact on the industry as a whole. Heidi McDonald broke down the news and its implications for The Beat.
EVERGREEN
2025 is a great time to start masking again if you’ve stopped, even if you cannot do it everywhere due to restrictions. This guide to COVID mitigation written by a UK-based sex worker for those who cannot mask at work lays out the real risks of infection and how layered mitigation efforts make the biggest difference for you and those around you. Remember: No one is immune from disability!
If you have the means to donate e-SIMs to Gazans and want art from the Cartoonist Cooperative for your support, click here.
Disabled activist and writer Tinu Abayomi-Paul passed away in September and the campaign to support her family in the wake of her passing is sitting at approximately 83% completion. If you have the means, please consider donating.
Jezebel’s Susan Rinkunas published a comprehensive guide for where to donate to support abortion access, which includes helping people pay for healthcare and not get arrested for seeking it.
Jojen stole one of my partner’s mini quiches today because she’s an egg and butter fiend, but you’d never guess that from how cute she looks when she sleeps.
Publish Her Anthology: Dear Body
My essay “Fat Is a Descriptive Word” is published in Publish Her Anthology: Dear Body! 🎉
Dear Body features work from 30 authors exploring what it means to them to live in their bodies. Publish Her Press is putting 100 percent of the proceeds from anthology sales toward program grants and publishing services for underrepresented women authors.
The Cyclista Zine Collection
My 2019 essay “Becoming a Cyclist As a Fat, Queer Woman Radicalized Me” from Cyclista Zine #1: Our Bikes, Our Spaces is included in The Cyclista Zine Collection! 🎉
The Cyclista Zine Collection anthologizes the first 10 issues of zinester Christina Torres’s collaborative zine project, with each issue comprising one chapter of the book.
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