Star Trek Discovery: Why Tilly is Actually Amazing

I love Star Trek. I grew up watching Next Generation as a family and my whole family loves sci-fi. Recently, with the pandemic going on, we started watching Discovery. This post will probably have some spoilers so if you are concerned about that stop reading, go watch Discovery, and then come back to talk.

Ready? Okay.

One of the things that I heard from Star Trek groups before watching Discovery was a lot of hate for the character of Tilly. The main thing that people seemed to complain about with her was that she was annoying so I went into the show expecting that. I did also want to keep an open mind and form my own opinions about her but I was prepared for her to be a character that would annoy me. Well having watched all of season one and two, I just don't know what people are talking about. I absolutely love Tilly so this is my post to talk about why she is, in fact, one of the most amazing characters on the show.

First I want to address what I am assuming people find annoying about Tilly. She talks a lot especially when she is nervous which is most of the time. She has a happy and bubbly personality. Maybe a little like a puppy. These are the things that I assume people find annoying about her, which to be fair I might find Tilly's personality exhausting for me as an introvert. However, I probably would also be the extremely awkward person in the corner at the party who Tilly would come over and talk to and invite to interact. I am pretty sure she would engage me and try to make me feel welcome and honestly, that would probably make me like her and move past the aspects of her personality that I might find clash with mine. Tilly is the kind of person who would try and make everyone feel welcome. She would see who is feeling awkward or uncomfortable and try to fix it.

The other thing that I love about Tilly is how much she is willing to go out of her way to help her friends and support them. She is a loyal friend. Such as when she was trying to find a way to help Staments with the spore drive. She wanted to find a way for him to not feel trapped as the navigator for the rest of his life. She is willing to reach out to Burnam as a friend when Burnam is feeling isolated. Tilly also helps to build her friends up when it comes to the Queen PO in one episode where she helps her to become strong and step up to her duty to her people. When she meets up with the queen again she recognizes how she has grown and tells her how proud she is of her.

Tilly is also willing to challenge Burnam. Burnam would rather avoid talking about her feelings but Tilly says "I love feeling feelings" and is open about what she is feeling. She practices empathy and connection with others and listens to them. She challenges how they think but does it in a subtle way by asking questions.

Something else that makes Tilly relatable to me is her complete nerdiness. She loves science and will say things like "that's so f*cking cool!" or "That is the power of math, people." She is incredibly smart but sometimes struggles to see herself that way. She isn't bold and being bold and speaking up pushes her outside of her comfort zone. She has the goal to be a captain someday but struggles with the confidence to achieve that goal. Her friends come in and support her and show her her strengths and tell her what will make her a good captain. I can relate to struggling to feel confident even when I know I am capable of doing something and having a goal but not feeling bold. However, having friends and colleagues that support me and show me that I am truly capable and strong and can achieve my goals makes all the difference. Just like with Tilly. 

Lastly, and perhaps this is an odd point, part of why I love Tilly is that she doesn't have the body of a typical Hollywood actress. She is a curvy girl, which is not often seen in sci-fi shows. I am a curvy girl and I really appreciate the representation of seeing someone with a body like mine on a TV show. I can't help but feel some of Tilly's struggles as a character come from not being a skinnier and not fitting a particular mold and that makes her all the more relatable. She is still an awesome and amazing and strong character and not just thin. Perhaps this is a bit of superficial reason but I can't help feeling that I would feel so much more comfortable in my own body during puberty if I had seen more women like Tilly on TV and had the representation of my body.

What are your thoughts or feelings on Tilly?

Social Work MSW Research Study

As you may or may not already know I am currently getting my Masters in Social Work right now and am currently in the research portion of my program.

I am conducting a research study on how much social workers know about developmental disabilities and knowledge's relationship with years of experience.

If you are a social worker, please consider participating in my study. It is completely anonymous. If you know of a social worker who would like to participate you are welcome to share the link to this survey with them. The survey is 10-15 minutes long. Thank you! I would really appreciate having participants.

I should say that I am also hoping to use this research for my capstone project which I am hoping will be making a handbook for child welfare workers on developmental disabilities.

CLICK HERE TO FILL OUT SURVEY

Reading women Challenge 2020

If you have never heard of the Reading Women podcast you really should check them out. For the past couple years they had done a reading challenge to push you to read outside your comfort zone and to diversify your reading. I have wanted to participate and this year I have decided to do it. Here is a link to their goodreads page with the list of the challenges and a community of people who also might have suggestions for books to full fill parts of the challenge.

Here is the list of challenges!

CHALLENGES
All books read for this challenge must be by or about women. Please note that the spirit of this challenge is not to read books by men.

1) A Book by an Author from the Caribbean or India
2) A Book Translated from an Asian Language
3) A Book about the Environment
4) Picture Book Written/Illustrated by a BIPOC Author
5) A Winner of the Stella Prize or the Women’s Prize for Fiction
6) A Nonfiction Title by a Woman Historian
7) A Book Featuring Afrofuturism or Africanfuturism
8) An Anthology by Multiple Authors
9) A Book Inspired by Folklore
10) A Book About a Woman Artist
11) Read and Watch a Book-to-Movie Adaptation
12) A Book About a Woman Who Inspires You
13) A Book by an Arab Woman
14) A Book Set in Japan or by a Japanese Author
15) A Biography
16) A Book Featuring a Woman with a Disability
17) A Book Over 500 Pages
18) A Book Under 100 Pages
19) A Book That’s Frequently Recommended to You
20) A Feel-Good or Happy Book
21) A Book about Food
22) A Book by Either a Favorite or a New-to-You Publisher
23) A Book by an LGBTQ+ Author
24) A Book from the 2019 Reading Women Award Shortlists and Honorable Mentions

BONUS
25) A Book by Toni Morrison
26) A Book by Isabel Allende

Are any of you doing any reading challenges this upcoming year? If so which ones?

Review: The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue

I was skeptical of this book at first even though I kept hearing so many wonderful things about it. I listened to it on audiobook and at first I hated the main character. I found him very difficult to relate to and pretty much a lot of things I don't like, but as the book progressed he grew on me and grew as a character and now I quite like him.

The main character is a bisexual young man in Europe in the 17th century. He is also in love with his best friend. There were so many themes of talking about sexuality, race, and gender and how they all intersect and oppression. There is even some discussion around ableism. Those were fantastic to read about. There is a trigger warning for some strong homophobia and abuse.

The story itself required a bit of a suspension of disbelief there is an also sci-fi-like element and a big mystery and the characters are running around Europe causing all kinds of havoc. I did find myself laughing out loud in my car while listening as the book was so funny. I recommended this book to many of my friends as a wonderful story.

I do wish there had been more talk about substance abuse and addiction and the intersection of those with trauma. Those elements were all there but just not discussed or explored as thoroughly as they could have been in this book. overall this was a solid 4/5 stars for me. I look forward to reading the spin-off sequel A lady's Guide to Petticoats and Piracy.

Favorite Reads

I read several books last year but I have to say that my top three favorites were The Savior's Champion, Crooked Kingdom, and Blood Water Paint.

The reason these three I have chosen as my top three favorites from the last year are how they have stood out and how I still think about them.

Crooked Kingdom stood out to be because spoiler it made me cry. I was upset. I still haven't quite got over the ending. It also stood out to me because of the ideas around prejudice and changing one's perspective and ideas about another group of people. The diverse cast of characters is also something I think about a lot. I hold it up as an example of books should be diverse. I hope to read more books with just as many diverse and wonderful characters.

The Savior's Champion stands out to me because mainly that fantastic concent scene. I am still not over it. It just blew me away. It is hard to not be spoiled for any other book and how other author's write about consent. I also really enjoyed the plot of the story and am very excited for the next book the Jenna is writing.

Where to even begin with Blood Water Paint? It is just so unapologetically feminist in every page that I still think about individual quotes. I think about the feminist retellings of Judith and Susanna. I also loved reading Artemesia's voice as she tells her story and the challenges she faced. I loved how the author moved between telling the story in prose and poetry.

What have been your top 3 favorite books from the past year?

Review: Six of Crows Duology

From my Instagram 

Six of Crows kept popping up in my reading suggestions and I eventually got around to reading it. It was fantastic. I loved the diverse cast of characters and the darker plot I enjoyed as well. I was also very excited about the basis of the country Ravka on Russia.

I think I found Kaz a bit hard to relate to. I enjoy darker stories but I struggle to relate to characters who do not care about other people and only seek to look out for themselves. I cannot relate to them at all and find them incredibly difficult to tolerate. I adore Inej though.

I most related to Nina and her love of food and how she has had to be strong through a lot of difficulties and even how she grows and her own opinions about the world change. She is also bisexual representation. Mathias is a character who grows the most in the second book and I think his character growth is the most interesting and poignant for the times we live in.

Jesper was a fun character and is great for more bisexual and characters of color representation. Wylan is also a great representation of a gay character.

This is a great read for diverse characters and I would put it on a feminist YA must-read list.