Katherine Alejandra Cross
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quinnae.com
Katherine Alejandra Cross
@quinnae.com
Sociologist, Mistress of Information Systems || Techy TransLatina Ph.D Candidate @UW iSchool || The Saturday Paper VG Columnist || Contributing Editor Liberal Currents ||📍Seattle || 🏳️‍⚧️ || Author of LOG OFF; order here! https://www.littlepuss.net/shop
"You could not live with your own failure. Where did that bring you? Back to me."
December 6, 2025 at 11:23 PM
Okay but this would slap, actually. I need this show.
December 6, 2025 at 9:26 AM
Alright, gang, it's Book 3 time. Leia's characterisation as President continues to improve: she battles former allies' attempts to space-impeach her because she supposedly can't be geopolitically objective due to the Bad Guys kidnapping Han Solo, and she's a huge husbando-gal.

It's legit good shit.
December 6, 2025 at 12:03 AM
If MacArthur Park has 1 million fans, I am one of them.
If it has five fans, I'm one.
If it has one fan, that one is me.
If it has no fans, then I am no longer alive.
If the entire world is against that cake melting in the rain, then I am against the world.
December 4, 2025 at 2:31 AM
December 3, 2025 at 10:10 PM
December 2, 2025 at 5:02 AM
The reason lies in the fact that a cadre of political and media elites, on both the right and the left, have made transphobia an article of faith--impenetrable to reason.

What the far-right, the reactionary centre, and transphobia-curious liberals/leftists have in common is being Extremely Online.
December 1, 2025 at 10:01 PM
When I was researching this essay I was struck by the fact that a key piece of evidence used to support the idea that the "they/them" ad was decisive is, apparently, unverifiable to the public.

That inconvenience didn't stop a stampede of people waving the 2.7% figure around like a bloody shirt.
December 1, 2025 at 9:57 PM
Speaking of Star Wars, let's do this. Does McDowell get better at writing women in Book 2? Eh.

I'll start with the structure. Instead of intercutting between everyone's stories, this book is divided into three novellas devoted to the main perspective character for each, Lando, Luke, and Leia.
November 25, 2025 at 3:01 AM
What was the line? Ladies and gentlebeings, I give you glory:
November 24, 2025 at 12:45 AM
November 23, 2025 at 11:33 PM
November 22, 2025 at 8:20 AM
So we don't even get a good sense of what's actually going on with her, just vague gestures that are left incomplete.

And then the coup de grace, right near the end of the book. He actually lampshades the sexism.

Mate, it's because she's a woman that you wrote her this way.
November 16, 2025 at 11:36 PM
Folks, I found a Q&A on McDowell's website where he specifically addresses this issue with Leia and, well, it's... interesting in the proverbial sense, for sure.
November 16, 2025 at 11:22 PM
Nearly done rereading Before the Storm, and it's... such a frustrating book. Genuinely interesting intrigue and political drama. It's the Geopolitical Star Wars.

But McDowell cannot write women (and with narrow exception simply doesn't try). And Leia's portrayal as a naif is unforgivable.
November 15, 2025 at 2:30 AM
What the World Needs Ross Douthat to Not Write.
November 13, 2025 at 9:17 AM
She's breaking away, folks.
November 12, 2025 at 12:05 AM
Here at the Grace Hopper Celebration, repping @ischool.uw.edu, I decided to contribute to a free response wall that asked how we feel about generative AI/LLMs. I got a little pretentious with it. Also drew one of my slugs.

Point blank, with all tech, we must always be in the loop and responsible.
November 6, 2025 at 6:51 PM
Man, these last 24 hours...
November 5, 2025 at 10:04 PM
Me, currently out of town at a conference:
November 5, 2025 at 9:49 PM
To further cement this point, from an editorial by Roger Chelsey:
November 5, 2025 at 8:56 PM
Here's a sample of the genre, from an interview of Jon Stewart conducted by the New Yorker's David Remnick. You see this everywhere.

Whenever I make such an assertion in one of my Liberal Currents essays, my editors make me cite it. Funny how more elite outlets seem to have different standards.
November 5, 2025 at 8:27 PM
🎶Canada's shoreline has been calling out to me...
Hello old friend, welcome me home again
Well, I've been away but that's all over now, now
Say I can stay for October now
Stay awhile and play...🎶
October 31, 2025 at 11:34 PM
October 31, 2025 at 11:03 PM
Alright, Jays, as the M's flame out, my message to you is this:
October 21, 2025 at 3:59 AM