Read I Sexually Identify as an Attack Helicopter again for the first time since it was new, and I liked it even more than I did then. I got a pair of headphones with a detachable cable a while ago, and sometimes it's more convenient to just detach the cable to go to the kitchen or whatever than to take them off, and what feels like plugging a cable into my head after I come back to my computer has been giving me some Feelings about wanting a machine body, which the story reminds me of now.

Remaining troubled by how people saw the title of this good and thoughtful story and ruined someone's life because it gave them an excuse for a Two Minutes Hate. Gave me a real distaste for the whole "dunking on the latest Main Character" thing, and the very shallow "This appears to be Problematic, and therefore it's Bad" kind of media analysis.

The writer N. K. Jemisin commented that she was "glad the story was taken down" and that "artists should strive to do no (more of this) harm."[14] Jemisin later wrote that she had not read the story,[14] and apologized.[15]

I have just finished reading it for the first time today. I kept a personal copy after that awful controversy went down but I never really got around to reading it until getting reminded by this post (thank u for the push). I have this dumb little problem where I find it hard to experience media that's currently significant (in good or bad light) because I find it easy to be swayed by those preconceptions. but I usually find my way around to these things when the time is right.

I love this story, I'm deeply touched by it, especially reading it as who I am now, a year in to very significant changes to my life and gender, and dealing with an early period of significant doubts. but almost in paradox to the context in which it was recieved, this story gives me some needed self-confidence in my exploration and expression of my personality and being. there are just so many points where I feel kinda seen by the metaphors and the empathy used and just smile. I smile more at seeing these direct questions posed to the reader and feeling some of my preconceptions that now have been challenged time and time again as I have aged, once again be challenged. and then I cried through the ending.

I highly recommend it if like me u had yet to get around to it. it's a truely beautiful story.