#and this isn't to mention all of the other shit like trans women still being deleted for criticizing staff/photomatt's treatment of avery | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

genericpuff · 3 months

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(disclaimer, this is coming from a heartstopper fan! i love heartstopper this is not hate!!)

i think at least part of the annoyance with heartstopper isn't just that isn't a light fluffy ya series, it's also that its another example of how the queer media that gets the most mainstream attention tends to be this kind of light fluffy ya stuff that focuses on two conventially attractive queer boys or men and it also tends to be written by people who aren't queer men on top of that, so not only can it feel very samey but it can feel like other queer people are relegated to side characters in the stories of cis gay men. and as someone who loves heartstopper i get that on some level.

btw by "written by people who aren't queer men" NOT saying that isn't not written by queer people. alice oseman is genderfluid and aroace, becky albertalli is bisexual, etc. and while i think the point is still valid there is a misogyny element in that a lot of the focus is put on things that are written by women or people they perceive as women while tumblr darlings like good omens and ofmd (written by presumably straight men) don't get the same treatment.

nah y'know what, that's fair, I can get how frustrating it can be for a lot of popular queer stories to feel samey, I've definitely gotten BL-fatigue in the past on platforms like WT and Tapas because many of them ARE the same and feel like they're just piggybacking off trends for the sake of clout (and this is a problem in the heterocis romance stories too, don't get me fucking started on how dark romance has turned into torture porn where vulnerable women are constantly being victimized by rich powerful men and we're just supposed to root for that ??), but it's one of those things where like, what might be seen as just more corny shit could very well be the revelation another person needs that they're gay / trans / etc. that the story helped them realize. there's just a point where i see these arguments against cheesy popular queer stories that teeter dangerously close to being queerphobic and, as you said, misogynist, simply because "it was written by someone who i perceive as a woman so that makes it BAD!"

and I didn't mention it in the original post because I didn't want to @ OP in any way but in the comment section they literally said "i dont think heartstopper itself is all that bad but it has pretty much aimed the direction of all mainstream gay comics towards wholesomeness instead of anything more interesting so i want to destroy heartstopper to destroy heartstopper clones" and that gives me massive ick because it implies their sole reasoning for including it was "chill and happy queer stories bad, if a character doesn't suffer enough then they're not interesting"?? why can't LGBTQ+ audiences have more 'vanilla' stories that aren't all sad and angsty all the time? are we not entitled to the same corny romcom vanilla shit that the heterocis are entitled to? why do LGBTQ+ characters - and by extension, people - have to suffer to qualify as being 'interesting'? You're already interesting, you're you! like i'm sorry, are we trying to scare people straight??? 😭 shit, that's even a plot point that's touched on in Heartstopper itself where Nick is questioning his sexuality and he starts googling shit and it's just ALL the terrifying news stories of queer kids being ostracized / bullied / murdered / etc. and as much as it's important to be aware of the ongoing issues so we can keep fighting for our rights, we ALSO need to find balance and remember to celebrate the stories that AREN'T that because we need something to be hopeful for, something we can find peace in. I don't think Heartstopper is some deeply profound piece of work, but it also doesn't seem like it's trying to be? It's a low stakes celebration of the LGBTQ+ experience that's very warm and comforting, especially for those who are the same ages as the main characters who are often being persuaded by the grown-ups around them that it's a death sentence to be gay / trans / etc.

and it's not like we HAVEN'T had popular pieces of queer representative media that explored things outside of cheesy BL, like are we forgetting about Nimona which explored both the gay and genderfluid experience in a very accessible and fun way while still being mature and not pandering to its audience over how society has made monsters out of queer people?

(and even then I'm sure there are folks who would argue "actually, here are the issues with Nimona" , and that's fine tbh, we can like media and appreciate what it brings to the table while also discussing what it lacks in, such as what we're doing now with Heartstopper! progress is a never-ending journey!!)

and also okay, not me trying to be argumentative in the slightest BUT I don't really get the argument that 'other queer people' are being sidelined for the main characters? unless there's something I'm missing here lol (I will apologize for that because it's admittedly been a while since I've re-read Heartstopper so I should probably go do that to refresh myself on it). like i say that in the sense that Heartstopper is clearly meant to be about two gay male teenagers. just like how Nimona is about a shapeshifter who is not a girl or a boy (they're Nimona!) and a gay man who are both trying to change the system that's other'd them for years for the better. that is the story Heartstopper is trying to tell and it achieves that. it also has a trans character plotline that I could see people arguing feels sidelined but I think there's a massive difference between 'sidelining' and just having a B plot ? my honest take with that is not every piece of representative media is going to be able to cover every single topic, it's just not doable for one piece of media to be a monolith for everything, the same as how one person can't be a monolith for an entire community of people. BUT that doesn't mean works like Heartstopper and Nimona can't inspire others to also lend their voices into the medium and create that representation that's needed. That's why we need ✨variety✨ and Heartstopper is part of that variety by offering a more vanilla cutesy story full of good vibes for people who want that sort of thing.

IDK, I think there's just a lot of nuance that's being missed in that poll, and in the difference between Heartstopper inspiring more people to write happy cozy BL stories vs. implying that it's had an actual negative influence on modern art and media in the same way that series like Homestuck and LO have to the point that people think it needs to be destroyed, like wtf LOL Like they're not even comparable IMO and a lot of the arguments I see people making about why it is just feel a little backwards, and those arguments obfuscate the real issue which is just "popular thing is popular and people like to piggyback off popular shit". That's a fact for basically any niche and genre, these trends come and go. Even if the whole cutesy BL trend passes one day (which it will) it'll be replaced by something else that people will also inevitably find samey and boring after a while. This is not a concept that's unique to LGBTQ+ media, it's universal.

Balance is important and I think finding that balance is as much a responsibility on the shoulders of the consumer as it is on the creator. And I don't think Heartstopper deserves to be put into the same camp as stories like LO which literally straightwashes its canonically queer characters and gives those queer identities to nothingburger characters who are easy to shoo out of the plot to make way for the heterocis ones (while still parading itself around like it's actually 'queer rep' which... it really isn't.) Like all three of the comics in that poll are vastly different, serving different audiences, with different goals and intentions. It's comparing apples to oranges to pineapples.

The worst Heartstopper has to offer is just a low stakes plot that might not appeal to everyone or feel 'samey' which yeah, valid, but in the grander sense of whether or not it's had a negative effect on queer media just for being... cheesy? And inspiring other people to write stories like it? I don't get the argument, it feels like it's severely missing the point of what we're fighting for here - to live happy little unbothered lives - but that's just me ╮(￣ω￣;)╭ I'm definitely not trying to be a dick about it in any way and I don't want anyone to think I'm not open to the opposing points here, I do agree with you on the oversaturation of samey BL stories, but it just rose some massive red flags to see Heartstopper next to frigging Homestuck and Lore Olympus LOL

#ask me anything #anon ama #anon ask me anything #ama #heartstopper

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ventbloglite · 2 months

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Some of you really need to step back a little bit and acknowledge how ignorant you are towards how misogyny affects trans mascs and how you yourself may be perpetrating said misogyny when speaking ill of trans mascs.

Which is not something you should be doing at all, fyi. You can talk about individual shitty trans mascs and certain community issues you dislike which involve or are perpetrated by trans mascs without just being transphobic towards trans mascs in general.

So many times I've seen the sentient of 'AFAB's have it really easy, everyone accepts AFAB's as trans, everyone loves AFAB trans people, the world caters to you, there is basically no problems for you if you're AFAB unlike AMAB folk' shown in a variety of ways from a variety of people including just outright saying it. Not to mention the belitting of trans masc experiences with transphobia and misogyny + the way those interact because they identify as men even though transphobes still consider them to be women and don't give a shit about their actual gender.

A main crux of transphobia (though many other factors which result in hating us come into play, too many to go into now) is that trans people are seen as and treated as their AGAB and punished for not identifying as it or portraying it 'correctly' by society. So tell me why so many seem to 'forget' about how misogyny impacts trans masculine people. Could it be because you believe that advocating for trans women and trans femmes and fighting transmisogyny somehow must involve being transphobic towards trans men due to that radfem influence you've absorbed? The world will never reach gender equality of any kind if everything is 'men versus women' so can we just fucking not bring that into trans spaces please.

Examples!

I saw recently a post which perfectly pointed out the potential risks associated with someone considered 'male' growing out her hair but OP clearly knew absolutely nothing about the same risks associated with someone deemed 'female' cutting his hair. Instead of not making that post or doing some research, OP thus assumed there weren't really any risks likely due to already believing that AFAB trans people have it easy.

The ignorance! Misogyny heavily impacts the way hair is treated on those perceived as women (including body hair) and women/those perceived as women have no end of people policing what they can and can't do with their bodies often taking things to the absolute extreme to do so. Short hair on woman may seem 'more accepted' but AFAB people of any gender could quickly tell you multiple situations where it's not and results in the same violence, abuse, homo(lesbo/butch)phobia and yes possibly even death depending on the situation even if you still identify as a woman. Pretending this doesn't happen is straight up misogyny btw.

'AFAB's pass easily by doing basically nothing' is another frequent one which makes me laugh. 'Passing' for most trans people is so situational and so dependent on what you do or don't do to strictly conform to gender stereotypes if you're even able to do that at all. To suggest that the world ignores feminine gender markers the moment someone's hair is short and their chest appears mostly flat ignores both the complexity of how humans perceive gender and how misogyny comes into play whenever a woman/perceived woman shows any masculinity let alone maleness. Considering the same misogyny comes into play frequently against trans women you'd think it'd be easy to remember.

This general sentiment of 'Being born with a vagina means your life is easy and everything you do will be loved and supported because society adores you. You don't and will never have any real problems, not like anyone born with a penis.' isn't magically okay and absolutely super different to when misogynists say it about cis women because you're using AGAB language and cite 'because you're men and blah blah patriarchy' as the actual reason you're saying it. It's very clearly same shit different coat of paint. The pool is there, your toes are in, stop preparing to dive for Gods sake.

#transandrophobia #anti transmasculinity #transgender

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minthe-lover · 1 year

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So because it's pride month I just gotta mention again how lore olympus isn't as progressive as it may frame itself. All of the queer relationships and characters are overwhelmingly ignored in favor for the multiple hetro-normative monogamous relationships.

I mean even the most basic shit isn't present... like we just had a wedding and none of the women wore suits? Eros fits the gay best friend trope for basically everything but still manages to only make one passing comment that like sort of imply attraction to men that could easily be miss or ignored.

And also the biggest thing for me, how most of the women with different body types are queer women. Hestia is the only fat women that gets any time, Athena is just straight up drawn like a man sometimes, and so is Morpheus.

When 90% of the women are drawn with the same or extremely similar body type of thin, small with big boobs.. and every single queer women doesn't have that body type it's just... hits me the wrong way. It's honestly the worse with Morpheus because besides just learning she's trans outside of the comic, there are only two ways to know she's trans. One knowing the god she is based on is a man (which isn't even that good a way cause of chiron being a cis women) and two.. that she isn't drawn like the other women.

I don't think it's something Rs is doing purposefully or maliciously but I feel like its something that should be mentioned cause it is really weird how this happened...

#lo critical #anti lo #lore olympus critical #anti lore olympus

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roachliquid · 1 year

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Dissecting some examples of rhetoric that tries to force trans people into privileged/oppressed dichotomies (CW transphobia, transmisandry, misogyny, biphobia, aphobia, exorsexism)

NOTE: This list is not comprehensive. The point isn't to cover every possible piece of bullshit rhetoric, but to educate people on the common problems and logical errors that characterize these kinds of claim. As such, this is mostly going to cover shit that harms transmascs, because that's the material that I know the best. This is not a claim that this bullshit only goes one way. It can happen, has happened, with ANY group cast as the oppressor.

"Trans women are publicly shamed and bullied for being trans. Trans men are 'just' invisible, so they're privileged because they don't have to deal with that!"

"Transphobes want transfem people dead. But they just want transmascs to detransition, so transmascs have it better."

Both of these are examples of oppression Olympics - claiming that one group is really privileged because their oppression doesn't look as bad. It's also misleading as hell, because it never explores what the actual consequences are of what's being done to AFABS/trans men - for example, that invisibility exacerbates the difficulty of finding transmasc-inclusive resources, or that the reason many transphobes want us detransitioned is so that we will be "sexually available" to them (I.E. they want us as sex objects and breeding stock, which is not all that better than death).

"AMABs are hated no matter what they do, because they're either seen as perverts or Evil Men. AFABs can avoid being seen as either simply by detransitioning, convincing society at large that they are harmless, vulnerable women."

And here's yet another example of the claim that being forced to detransition isn't "that bad", as if gender dysphoria and the pain of being in the closet are magically washed away by the healing powers of society's overwhelming love and support for women. And the assumption that that exists is a problem in itself, because misogyny? Racism? Islamophobia, fatphobia, literally everything that causes people to clutch their pearls and treat others like absolute shit? Apparently none of that matters at all, literally any (supposed) cis woman can say "jump" and society will start tripping over themselves to do so.

"Nonbinary trans people aren't really trans, they just want to be because they think it's cool. They need to accept their cis privilege and get out of the way."

Folks, this is literally oppressor logic. Queerphobes have been trying to deny people rights since day one on the basis that their identities don't fit into mainstream concepts of gender expression. Are you trans, but mainly attracted to people of the "opposite" sex? Then you're not really trans, because normal people are straight. Are you bisexual? No, you're "really" straight or gay, because people are only attracted to one gender. Asexual? Bullshit, everyone's attracted to someone. Nonbinary? That's not a real gender, or if it is, it's not as important as my binary one.

You get it. This logic has been re-used and regurgitated so many times that it's mostly bare wires and bits of vomit. And yet people are still using at least half of the versions I just mentioned, plus more that I didn't have energy to cover. And all of it stems from the same, laughably conceited premise: that the mainstream model of gender and sexuality is so close to perfect that your understanding is all it needs to finish the puzzle.

I'm going to stop this here, because it's very tiring to write, but hopefully this helps to battle some of this nonsense.

#transunity #(in that that's what I'm working towards)#transphobia #transmisandry #exorsexism #whatever the fuck you call it when people are assholes to afabs

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skullamity · 2 years

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I saw a non-binary person on twitter applauding another tweet about how a lot of cis people really just sometimes label trans masc and afab nonbinary people as femme-presenting and then get angry at those people for not presenting "properly" when they ask not to be misgendered (to be crystal clear, this is something I do see happen, and also applaud this person for saying), but the way they applauded it was amazingly frustrating.

Without including a screencap or the exact wording because I don't want anyone hunting this down and harassing them, their response was, to paraphrase:

"femme presenting does not equal everyone impacted by misogyny."

Now, I didn't respond there because twitter is hell on digital Earth and I don't want my mentions filled with garbage for the next week for weighing in, but I'm comfortable expanding on why this statement is bullshit here. There's a whole other conversation to be had about how a lot of afab trans masc and non-binary people are complicit in silencing our own by pushing this sort of statement, but people more articulate than I am have said plenty on that and I'll leave it to them.

No, what I take issue with is the idea that there is a single person on this goddamn planet who isn't impacted by misogyny. Let's break it down, nice and easy.

MISOGYNY AFFECTS:

1) Cisgender women and girls. Takes the form of cat calling, infantilization, systemic discrimination in the workplace and a disparity of social and economic advantages afforded to cisgender men, high rates of violence against them, high rates of medical neglect, social conditioning that pushes them out of STEM career and education paths either because it's been drilled into them that these are not jobs for women OR because they made a go of it and felt unsafe, underutilized, passed over for promotion in favour of less qualified male peers, and so on.

2) transgender and amab non-binary people. Trans women who pass (note, I do not think passing is important or required to be respected in our identities, so if you're reading this and transmed, fuck all the way off) are treated of all of the above, unless they are openly trans or outed to peers who thought they were cis, in which case this treatment is conditional.

Being outed or not passing doesn't make the above go away, but it adds in shitty bonus features like the possibility of being confronted/attacked/harmed/killed publicly just for existing as trans in public, denial of housing, chronic unemployment (especially in states where you can be fired at will with no reason given as to why), loss of insurance and high rates of homelessness. On top of that, non-binary people often intentionally do not pass, or incidentally are mistaken for male or female. They are misgendered in almost all situations abs are subject to all of the above.

3) transgender men and afab non-binary people. This one is apparently a really controversial take to have these days, but as a trans man who passes and transitioned later in life, passing means jack shit if and when people know that I am trans. If people don't know I'm trans, their acceptance of me is tenuous at best and entirely conditional.

This is a problem for me personally because I a) refuse to pack the first 30 years of my existence in a box and lie about it to impress strangers. All of those formative experiences that are supposed to really affirm womanhood? Tried 'em. Yes, ALL of them. Even the one that transmasc transmeds will swear up and down that if you do them, you are not really trans. You know the one (it's pregnancy if that's not clear!).

I will not pack that away for the comfort of others. I am who I am because of those experiences, not in spite of them. But even if I did choose to pack all that away and keep it secret for the sake of seeming cis to new people, I still have a big 'ol target on my back because I am married to a cis dude. We're both bisexual, but that nuance means nothing to cis dudes for whom the existence of gay people where they can see them is emasculating by proximity. And how do cis dudes treat people, including other cis dudes, who aren't performing masculinity properly? With misogyny.

Cis dudes will treat gay and bi men, efeminate men, men with voices, mannerisms and style outside of a specific masculine archetype, like women. More specifically, women who deserve to be punished for being "that way." That misogyny isn't misdirected, a term I frequently see people throwing around to push back against the idea that afab trans men and non-binary people who have gone on testosterone or gotten top surgery or both are affected by misogyny specifically. It is directed exactly where it is meant to be directed, for all the reasons above and more.

On top of all that, the second someone (including doctors!) knows I'm trans, if they're not chill about it I can expect them to immediately start treating me like a delusional woman who has been tricked into transitioning and couldn't possibly have the agency required to make the decisions I have about my own body. Which is, again, textbook misogyny.

Anyhow, all of these things? If I were to go stealth to avoid them, it wouldn't be a privilege because, again, these things are conditional on remaining steal and honestly I didn't step out of one closet to baracade myself into another. If you have to hide your past and who you really are 24/7, that is not a privilege. The meager bonuses of having strangers think you're cishet are nothing compared to the detriment that living a double life, always in terror that someone will find out and tell everyone, causes. Trans men have worse outcomes with mental health than anyone, currently, and this is part of why.

4) Cisgender men who are visible minorities. Cisgender men with disabilities, who aren't white, who are fat or neuroatypical, or are gay or bi? Being treated "like a man" has conditions that they are either already outside of because of immutable characteristics OR is conditional based on whether they force themselves to conform and tow the line by reinforcing the "conditions" of previously mentioned masculine archetypes.

and finally

5) Able-bodied, neurotypical, cisgender heterosexual white men. Yeah, you heard that correctly!

Cishet white dudes are absolutely affected by misogyny. Let us count the ways:

Cis men are taught from a young age that being "like a girl" or even just being a girl is undesirable, worthy of disgust and/or punishment. How many childhood taunts meant to embarrass, emasculate and keep male peers in line are along the lines of comparing boys to women or denying/revoking their masculinity?

You throw like a girl. You hit like a girl. You look like a girl. Boys don't cry. What are you, gay? You'd better not be gay. You're not a f****t, are you? No son of mine is gonna play with dolls. Why are you crying? Time to hand in your man card. Don't get your vagina in a twist. Why are you mad? You on your period? And on and on and on...

The blatant contempt for women in a lot of formative social interactions for boys between them and their peers and them and their male relatives genuinely makes cis men worse people unless they have the will and fortitude to unpack and unlearn all of this. And boy howdy do we make it hard for them to do that.

I have met grown men so emotionally constipated that they can only talk about their feelings to their significant others, who come to resent them because your significant other is not a substitute for therapy. We tell young boys to bottle their emotions up, and we reinforce this with mocking laughter and ostracization. Sometimes with physical violence. Their friendships with other adult men are superficial and lacking affection, and fall apart if they ever challenge any of this shit. Every word that leaves their mouths in social situations is macho bravado and desperate conformation because you need to be in the In Group. You don't want to be in the Out Group, do you?

So until they figure out (if they ever do figure out) that they have shit they need to unpack and unlearn, they let their own inner turmoil fester, and they take it out on women, men and other people who fail to hit the baseline for what a man is "supposed" to be. They make the people around them suffer, and they lash out. They will enforce masculinity on their male peers and treat the women in their life with patronization and contempt and maybe even violence, because who else are you going to aim at when every formative and ongoing bit of socialization you've experienced from the time you realized that there was a difference between boys and girls and how they are supposed to act, and the resounding message has been that girls and women = bad, and that being compared to either means you're failing at proper masculinity?

Yeah, cis men do a lot of harm to people who aren't cis men. They will also do a lot of harm to people who ARE cis men but aren't "doing it right," including their own sons, and the cycle perpetuates until someone decides to break it, usually at a pretty significant cost.

So yeah, cis men are absolutely affected by misogyny. They aim it at the expected groups, but also at each other as a form of controlling group dynamics and social hierarchy.

TL;DR- literally fucking everyone is affected by misogyny and has it levied at them to enforce conformity in one way or another, so could we please fucking stop attempting to classify different flavours of trans people as being affected by or exempt from misogyny? It isn't misdirected if the person hurling it at you means for it to affect you, harm you, control you and your expression or all of the above.

This is why, when we classify something as a hate crime or not on a legal level, the identity of the person who it was committed against is not relevant. Assaulting a straight cis man because you thought he was a cis gay man doesn't absolve the perpetrator of having committed a hate crime. If the intention was to commit a crime on the basis of gender identity or sexuality, the legal system agrees that this is a hate crime, even if the perpetrator was mistaken!

TME/TMA is not a functional way of discussing the different ways that misogyny affects all of us, and I would love for young afab trans people to please stop throwing us all under the bus by trying to insist that the misogyny levied at afab trans people somehow doesn't count. You're hurting the rest of us, but you're also hurting yourself and you should knock it the fuck off. It does not invalidate your masculinity to acknowledge that cis people, both men and women, are levying misogyny at us, because they levy it at other cis people (mostly cis people who are minorities in other ways) all the fucking time.

#transgender #transandrophobia #anti-transmasc #transmasc #I am begging you to aim all the effort you put in to making us smaller at calling out cis people/other transmascs who perpetuate this shit

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llatimeria · 3 months

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previously i had known you to be against incest and other similar kinks, but because of a post you reblogged earlier, can i assume you are now in support of it? it would be nice to have a clear answer in case it was somehow a mistake but as it was reblogged directly from op (who is open about their views on that) i find that harder to believe.

incest is bad, and incestuous abuse is absolutely life-ruining for a lot of real people, including people i care deeply about, and i personally am just not into it. it's less about me being "okay with incest now" (i am still. not, really) and more like... half "i have bigger problems than what strangers on the internet jack off about", half "i no longer trust random callouts that demonize vulnerable people, and even if I did believe every single accusation implicitly, the callout reaction really doesn't help with any of it; it doesn't help the victim at all (if anything, it can put them in harm's way by publicizing their abuse, which usually leads to them getting even more abused), it neither punishes nor rehabilitates the abuser in any meaningful way, and seems to only benefit the angry mob who get to jerk off to how cool and morally pure they are", and half "those in glass houses shouldn't throw stones".

basically it's a complicated subject. if by asking if i "support incest", you mean "would i molest my family members, or knowingly support people who have molested their family members" then the answer is "jesus fucking christ, absolutely not". if you meant "do you think incest is a fine thing to jack off to" tbh no not even that, i still think that's not especially cool. there's a reason it's taboo beyond just "i don't like it". it really, genuinely hurts people*. if you meant "do i have such a strong aversion to even the slightest possibility of being on the same side as an incestuous abuser that i'm willing to participate in a reactionary hate mob that, for all i know, was rallied up by transmisogynists in order to ruin some poor woman's life" then the answer is yes, i guess? accusing lgbt people, especially trans women, of being incestuous pedos is a a time-honored tradition of many homophobes and transphobes, so i don't really want to be a participant in that anymore.

*but then again so does half the shit i like. like, i'm into vore. vore in real life would literally kill people. not to mention that some people read furry stuff as bestiality - it's not, but there's no one authority on what is or isn't evil. no one person or group decides this, and we all have to decide for ourselves where our boundaries are.

there IS also an argument to be made that not caring about it, or at least not reacting with overt disgust and violence, helps normalize incest, which might make incestuous abuse more common or make it more difficult for survivors of abusive incestuous relationships to speak out about their experiences, which would Obviously Be Bad, and I don't really have a good rebuttle for it tbh. the ol' "fiction doesn't affect reality" battlecry is still kind of bullshit on the face of it, fiction demonstrably affects the way people behave. but also people aren't entirely mindless robots that are programmed to simulate whatever they find on e621? most of us have higher brain functions that allow us to do things like consentually negotiate morally gray kinks so people can have fun playing pretend without hurting themselves or others, and i don't really think the people who are selfish enough to genuinely molest members of their family for their own enjoyment are going to be especially influenced by porn? real abuse centers around predatory power dynamics more than literal sexuality and kinks anyway. the venn diagram isn't a circle or two circles, it's a venn diagram, you know?

tl;dr i can't tl;dr my thoughts on this subject you're just gonna have to read the post.

#sorry if any of this sounds dismissive but also come on. 'can i assume you support it now?'

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sunieepo · 3 months

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honestly, if i may, all of this talk about the way people treat trans women has reminded me of an experience i still remember vividly back when i was peripherally part of the tumblr / twitter mfrp community. which please note i was never a very active participant, i personally found mfrp very boring and so i was never really fully integrated into these communities - but while i was in them i did befriend a few trans women and i noticed a very persistent pattern in these supposed LGBT-friendly spaces regarding the moderation of trans women.

there was a persistent issue in multiple different mfrp communities i was peripherally involved in, in which trans women would always be regarded as "abrasive" or "aggressive", for making the same kinds of comments and jokes that tme people were making. and the (majority tme) moderation teams would almost always rule against trans women, silencing them or labeling them as deviants / weirdos for behaviors that they would be much more forgiving towards tme people for.

as a sort of bystander i didn't really have a leg in to comment on the actions of moderation teams, i could only offer being a friend to trans women as i watched them be ostracized from these spaces by the very same people who would plaster "terfs dni" all over their bios. i'm not saying this to pat myself on the back, there is definitely more i could have done in those situations, but i do want to call out why all these "fuck terf" type posts just never really resonate with me, seeing them be rbed by people who i know would just jump at the opportunity to demonize a trans woman again (and i just saw it happen earlier with that stupid shit slinging post falsely accusing a trans woman of something she didn't even do regarding cohost...) (i'm aware op of that post apologized for their behavior but what occurred is what occurred)

it's not enough to say "fuck terfs" and i hate that people always center on the buffoonery of terf behavior instead of centering and caring for and supporting the trans women in their lives. it's really frustrating for me to watch as a staunch feminist to continually see the way the lgbt community has let down trans women. the recent wave of discourse regarding "transandrophobia" is also extremely worrying to me - i have seen a non-insignificant number of posts made by certain people in that community that claim that the lgbt community is Too centered on trans women: as if it's a competition, and as if the visibility of trans women is somehow a boon to them rather than a consequence of people using their cause to simply be performative instead of genuinely uplifting and loving.

sorry this isn't the most well thought-out post, i'm just rambling and i have a lot of complicated feelings on this. i don't want to derail what's happening right now too much by bringing up other topics, but i will say i do think it's inevitable that at some point we do need to confront some of the "transandrophobia truther" type sentiments i've seen lately, because they absolutely are damaging to trans women and lead to situations exactly like this.

please, if nothing else, i really hope everyone takes this as an opportunity to be kind to the trans women in their lives. the least you could do is offer them your support. reblogging posts dunking on transmisogynists is not enough. we need to make our communities safer for trans women, and that doesn't end with car hammer explosion memes.

rbs off because i'm not interested in centering my voice as a tme person and this post isn't really something polished i want escaping from my social circle. if you're a mutual of mine and you're feeling unsure about my stance on some of the topics mentioned above, my DMs are open and i am happy to discuss, but at the very least all i ask is for us to be better to trans women. that's all.

#transmisogyny #if you're going to unfollow me for this post #i kindly request you block me first because i am very suspicious of why you would.#also sorry if anyone who sees this is familiar with the situations i described in the first few paragraphs.#i'm not trying to call anyone out in specific.#sunie posts

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purgemarchlockdown · 3 months

Text

New Apple

(Also Known as: Nott Broke, I am now writing the WKTD-Amane Cross Analysis. This is also the Trans Amane Momose Thesis)

(CWs: Cults, Child Abuse, Child Death, Body Horror, Homophobia, Transphobia.)

(Spoilers for We Know The Devil and Milgram.)

I am a unrepentant fan of the Visual Novel We Know The Devil. I love it dearly, I think it's one of the best Things ever made.

I am also a...fan, to say the least, of Amane Momose. I think about her every day. And as a result I've thought about these two things together a lot. I think there's a lot of thematically cohesion that can be derived from putting the two together.

Since this is Milgram Focused, I'm going to put an explanation for what the plot of WKTD is first before continuing.

WKTD is a 2015 VN about Three Bad Kids at a Christian Summer Camp who are sent to meet The Devil one day in a cabin in the woods. This game is about Queer Religious Horror and has great prose and you should play it-

Now, there are already comparisons that can be drawn to Amane's cult and the game's main premise, but let's discuss each of the three kids first.

No Prince For The Princesses

Starting with Jupiter. Jupiter is the tomboyish good kid of the bunch or, more accurately, tries her best to be the good kid to minimal success.

Laughing off a head injury isn't all that Jupiter's good at; she has the best grades in class, and coaches make her starter on whatever team has the most pressing need for someone who can do sports. She's a perfect role model, except for how she always misses the winning goal and she always blanks on the last question. She leads when no one else wants to, which is always.

Jupiter can keep up until right when it matters the most. It's here where I mention Jupiter snaps a hairband against her wrist, a common tactic used as an alternative to self-harm.

Her place in the dysfunctional group of problem kids becoming clear as her issues with being the perfect good kid and her immense self-hate and loathing start to seep through. Jupiter struggles under this weight of expectations and pleasing others but tries to pretend she an:

Neptune: ascetic monk at not giving a shit.

To her own detriment, she hangs out with the Worst Group in the Camp of Worst Kids just so she can get them to stay away from her. If they just like her enough then they won't bother her. Even if she personally dislikes them and how they act.

Not that she...enjoys acting like this. She's disgusted by the idea of the Counselor liking her. Because:

Jupiter: He likes people he can make a little uncomfortable and won't give any trouble about it.

Though as Venus says, that's exactly why he likes their group.

Jupiter is someone who's resigned to reality being like this. To being considered a bad kid even though she tried so hard. Sure it's unfair and people have tried a lot less than her but:

Jupiter: You can still get better at this, if you try, you know?

Even I can say "I'm sorry" Even I have hope I swear! I'm going to be a good girl now! That's it!

Anyway, Jupiter Kisses Girls. She Likes Women. She's a Lesbian. She has a Seven Minutes in Heaven Scene with Neptune where they Kiss-

That kiss having a lot of relevance to how (specifically) a t1 Amane attempts to approach certain taboo ideas and concepts.

Jupiter: It's not real if we don't say it out loud, right?

Amane tends to talk around things in T1. It's not immediately noticeable but it's prevalent in a lot of her speak. Specifically when taboo ideas come into play. Instead of saying anything directly she talks around it.

(Apostle and Death)

Amane: Okay! I’m kind, so I shall forgive you. That’s nice, isn’t it? If my parents were in my place, you would have been lectured for another hour.

This is my favorite example, as Amane is just calling her parents unkind here. But, Amane isn't really good at talking around things. In the same VD, when faced with the knoweldge that she's being underestimated she immdieatly talks about her genuine feelings about being treated like a child, and being talked down to because of it. Being very forward and open about her own emotions.

Outside of that we have instances of her showing interest in things that are believed to be taboo, or at least in things discouraged by her community.

(20/06/27, Amane’s Birthday)

Amane: I don’t need it. I’ll gratefully accept your well-wishes, but I don’t eat things like that. Also…… Shidou-san, I can’t say I’m especially fond of the way you assume that all children will love frivolous things like this. Shidou: ………… Is that so… I apologise. I’m sure everyone else will be happy to eat it, so don’t worry about it. Sorry for intruding. Amane: ………… ……cake……

She even disrespects the blue flag in Purge March, the flag representing "discarding vulgarity"

Considering both how a lot of the generally aesthetics of Magic and Purge March seem to be considered frivolous. And her being forbidden to go to an amusement park.

T1Q5:When you go to an amusement park, what do you like to ride? A: That is a place I should not go to.

I think we can infer that these things are consider vulgar and wanting them anyway. She wants something outside of what she has. Something that she tries to Hide in her interrogations. (Interrogations)

T1Q3: If you were allowed to do anything, what would you want to do? Nothing really. I am not lacking anything.

T1Q17: What would you do if the world ends tomorrow? If everything ends? Then, I might do all sorts of things I have never done before.

(Put a pin in these interros, we are Going to come back to them.)

It's wrong to want such a thing, she knows this well. That's why she doesn't say it out loud. It's not real until she does. No one can punish her for it if she doesn't say anything.

Except...they Do. Same with Jupiter, people who didn't try as hard to get into the "proper, good girl" summer scouts got in when Jupiter didn't. Amane studies so hard and yet she only gets a 83% when Kotoko is tutoring her.

(20/06/18)

Kotoko: There, I’ve finished marking. 83%. How do I put it… Even though you act like this, it’s not like you’re super brilliant at studying or anything, huh.

She just blanks at the last question.

Misses the winning goal.

Something about Her is...inherently holding them back from this illustrious standard of being a good girl. It's just, impossible for her to be one. She knows this herself.

Only if, only if, only if I could be a good girl

And even though she tries, she Can't do anything to change that. In the same way that no matter how hard Jupiter tries, people instinctively understand that she's something Other somehow. The both of them being harmed over and over again in an attempt to live up to ideals that they will...never be able to live up to.

The system of We Know The Devil works like this, you choose two kids and leave one behind each hour. Leave one behind enough and they become the devil. The worst kid out of all of them.

Jupiter does her best but her best is never going to be enough. So if she gets excluded enough times...

Even the best kid has the devil inside her.

Jupiter wants to touch, to hit, to pull.

Venus: I wish I could be meaner. I wish I could be so much meaner.

She's never going to be able to make up for this incessant greedy Want.

Her hairband snaps here, she can't keep the devil away for much longer, and she knows it.

Jupiter: You know, I actually liked when the captain talked about how heaven was on merit; as long as you do good things, maybe you can one day be good… Jupiter: But then they said we don’t believe that anymore and it’s only what’s in your heart that matters. Jupiter: Just when I think I got it right, they changed it. Jupiter: I can try hard, but I think… Jupiter: God knows my heart isn’t really in it. And that was my only shot, right?

Amane considers love a showcase of mercy,

T2Q9: What does love mean to you? A: To spread mercy with no limits.

And considers her punishments love.

T2Q2: Do you believe you were loved? A: Very much deeply.

I suppose when you think about it, trying to beat the devil out of someone is mercy.

But, you can't really do anything about it if someone does want the devil.

Jupiter: It's wrong to want such a thing, you know that, don't you? So don't do it. I still know that much.

In each color ending, the devil gets destroyed. The devil only getting one moment for whatever they wanted.

For revenge, for love, for "please take me back."

One Singular Moment to live as they are before having it burnt out of them.

...Someone had to have opened that door at the end of Purge March

(Milgram T1 Glitched Character Voicelines)

Amane: Ahh! I'm so sorry...! I'm sorry...! I'm sorry for breaking the rules!

Lukewarm, I Spit You Out

We have more bad kids to go through, so let's talk Neptune.

Neptune is, to be blunt, a self-proclaimed bitch. She doesn't act like she's supposed to belong her which is exactly why she belongs here. She uses profanities, sneaks alcohol into the camp, and the summary of this game calls her a mean girl. Though this meanness of hers betrays a certain amount of care and worry for her group, or, at least they like to think of it that way:

Neptune is very kind or possibly super mean and hates us. But that's okay. She's really funny.

This kindness of hers comes out in many ways. She's concerned for Jupiter, trying to get her to actually give a shit about herself, especially when she does so much work.

Neptune: I mean like, aren't you doing fine? Neptune: Aren't you trying harder than literally everyone else here? Neptune: You're so chill about everyone's bullshit it makes me so mad and then you won't extend even the slightest of that chill to yourself and that makes me EVEN SO MADDER. Neptune: Can't you just be a little less…good?

And wants Venus to get out of his egg, to let himself be a bit of a bitch, and stop apologizing for himself when he is doing nothing wrong.

Neptune: Wait, I got it. I dare you to not say sorry for the rest of the night. Jupiter: Oh my god. Venus: I can do that! Jupiter: …can he though? Neptune: No it's perfect. Neptune: It'll fix something annoying, and this will make everyone's life easier, and all of us win. Venus: Is it really annoying? Neptune: You shouldn't have to apologize for things you don't need to apologize for.

Neptune deeply cares about the people around her, it just comes out as harsh words and actions. She wants to make Jupiter's life a living hell so that she's forced to say that it hurts.

Neptune: People are supposed to get hurt by things. It's fucked up to not. It's not good for you.

Though, as Venus calls out, the way Neptune acts doesn't fully come from self-confidence.

Venus: ...your problem Neptune is. Venus: You think being mean is more honest. Venus: But you're just as bad as Jupiter. Venus: And me.

Neptune, like the other two, deeply hates herself. Like Jupiter she has a consistent "tell" that shows she's the devil. She throws up this black ichor-like substance. Poison really. The only thing she can say. She's a bad kid through and through.

Now, Amane is self-proclaimed annoying.

Es: Regardless of whether you’re a child or an adult… you are beyond annoying. Amane: Oh, my. I am honored by your praise. Es: As I said. Amane: (giggles)

She takes Real Pride in being, a little shit to people.

20/06/03

Fuuta: ……huh? What’s your problem? You’re just leaving all your meat? What a weird kid. Amane: You say that, but you’re not eating all of your food either. ……are you not able to eat your vegetables? Even though you’re an adult. Fuuta: Huh, what, so you’re just eating grass? What are you, a rabbit or something? Since you’re just a brat, you should be eating your meat properly. You won’t grow if you don’t. Amane: ……you make some really funny jokes, don’t you, Fuuta-san.

This behavior is mostly present in T1, mostly cause T1 is Amane's testing period. She's trying to see what she can get away with. These behaviors disappearing by T2 because she learns that she can't get away with much. Introducing us to a less playful, more angry and genuinely despairing Amane. (Of Blessedness and Punishment)

Amane: This is unforgivable! I won’t forgive you! (screams)

That isn't to say Amane doesn't genuinely want to help out though, even with her more aggressive attitude. In fact she goes out of her way to "help" Fuuta and responds to Yuno's questions and worries honestly and patiently.

(23/06/27, Amane’s Birthday)

Yuno: By the way, Amane. Have you ever wished you were never born? I’ve thankfully lived a pretty fun life so far, so haven’t really. But you seem to be struggling with something. So I kinda wondered if you thought like that. Amane: ……I don’t think that. Being born into this world is the first miracle any person experiences, and is something to celebrate. Even if after birth I was put through trial after trial, the value of that will never disappear.

Amane is kind, genuinely so. She helps the cat, she tries her best to "guide" people back to the better path. The problem is, is that her want to help gets tied up in her community and her worldview. Causing more harm than she would like, it's almost like she can only spit out doctrine when that isn't the case.

Amane: Hm. Is that so? Are the prisoners who weren’t forgiven feeling lost right now? Maybe they need our faith as well.

Outside of that, Amane is rather opinionated, she tries to keep it down but it seeps out anyway. She's expressed numerous times her frustration with being treated like a child (ie: being treated like she has no rights of her own.) And expresses that openly and bluntly.

(20/06/13)

Shidou: I…… I just don’t understand. If everything about MILGRAM is true…… why did a child like you have to become a murderer? Just imagining what sort of circumstances must have led to that, it makes me so sad…… Amane: ……*sigh*. Is that right. I don’t think I’m going to get along with you, Shidou-san.I don’t agree with the fact you refuse to acknowledge that I have my own free will, and that I should be held accountable for my actions, just because I’m a child. I may have only been alive for 12 years, but all the choices I’ve made, even if they weren’t the best ones, were entirely my own. What point is there in you getting sad when I have no regrets myself?

It's easy to call her annoying or petulant for this, especially when Shidou (seemingly) is just concerned for how how a child is in prison of murders. And again she Does act annoying on purpose.

But Shidou is being actively patronizing and forcing his view of Amane Onto her. When Amane rebukes this, instead of apologizing or reevaluating he dismisses what she says. Something that deeply frustrates her.

Neptune: I'm an evil bad slut right? I'm a bitch and a flirt. Neptune: I'm a bitch because I let people know when they walk over me. Neptune: I'm a flirt because boys keep talking at me. Neptune: And this is somehow my problem, because they can't get over themselves and leave me alone? Neptune: How is that fair? Why should I get hurt by that? It makes me so mad! Neptune: Why would I be anything but MAD about all this stupid obnoxious BULLSHIT.

You’re sorry? I don’t care! Please, go ahead and die already Remember MY cries, MY repents, MY words of “I’m sorry” that I said to you?

Amane cares a lot about being treated Properly, about the people around her being treated Properly. She can't really...accept injustice. She broke one of her cult's doctrines because she wanted wrap up what was probably a Small Wound at worst judging by the state of the cat. She's not going to waver just because the people around her believe otherwise.

Amane: ……I’m fine. I don’t know what you’ve done or what it is you’re worried about, but I think if there’s something you believe in, you should stay true to it. It’s not something that should waver just because other people said something. I personally don’t plan on changing my own beliefs even if I’m told I’m wrong either……

Amane believes in the idea that people can get better, and wants to see people get better even if she can't. She's going to help even if she has to be Violent to do so.

Neptune: You asked me to come out. So I'm coming out. The door opens and it's her but it's not her She grabs Venus and crushes him against the wall like he's a little doll.

Amane: Don’t you think it’s a good opportunity to be reborn? If, right now, you could shake off those around you trying to drag you down to depravity, and could change––

When Neptune's the devil she forcibly tries to turn the other two kids into the devil alongside with her. She knows this whole situation is a nightmare and wants to force the two into accepting who they really are, even if it meant hurting them.

Why should they be the ones to suffer when their trying so hard to be good? Why should they be suffering when they already ARE good?

Neptune: Doesn't it feel unfair? You're already good, so why do you have to try so hard to be good? It makes me mad. They want you to prove you're good. But you're already so good. What is that? Why do they do that?

We must not give into them, they are the ones that should be judged

Why does She need to prove that she's righteous when the people around her can break the same rules she does and get away with no consequences?

I don’t need it any more, if you’re going to break your vow Here and now, it’s my turn to tear you apart

It's just so Unfair. Why is she the one getting hurt for no good reason? Why was the cat the one who got hurt for something that wasn't even its fault? It's just not right. None of this is right.

Neptune: Does that kid look happy to you? Well I guess we have different opinions and you will have to stop me from making him into what he is trying very hard not to be.

Help Me God, I'm In Love

We have one more kid to go through.

Venus is known for being very much a doormat, and very easy to push around. A small detail when their sitting down to listen to the Bonfire Captain's story is that Venus tries his best not to take up space.

Venus sits with his legs crossed, taking up as little space as he can, which is at most not very much.

And As mentioned before he constantly apologizes for himself, even when it isn't even his fault. That dare Neptune gives him? He immdieatly fails it, the sorry is an instinct, he does it automatically.

Though even then, Venus is known to be...a bit of a little shit. Maybe even quite Mean. He has a bite to his words and can be extremely judgemental. Not that he seems to notice .

Jupiter: Do you think he notices how much of a jerk he is sometimes? Neptune: I wish.

Amane: An arts university, though…… Does that mean you’re good at drawing, then? It may be a bit rude to say, but that’s rather unexpected.

(I Love how Amane implies that she thought Mikoto was too boring to be an artist. Incredible.)

Not only that but he's strongly opinionated, often surprising the people around him with them and how pointed and critical he can be. The people around him being so used to how shy and docile he seems.

Jupiter: Why not you. You're safe. You're like a puppy. You're harmless. Venus: …did you lose your nerve? Jupiter: Except when you talk.

He doesn't mean to be mean on purpose, he doesn't even like being mean, but it just comes out of him. He can't stop himself. He's so angry and bitter about certain things that his real feelings bleed out of him.

Neptune: Wow Venus I'm ALMOST impressed. Neptune: You are, deep down, kind of a little shit. Venus: I didn't mean it in a mean way. I wasn't teasing. Neptune: That's so much worse, Venus. Venus: I guess I just don't get it? Venus: I don't like being mean and I don't want to be mean so I try really hard not to be mean. Venus: I don't get any of the 'just kidding' because it's not just kidding.

But Venus is easy to pick on, he smiles weirdly, he tries his best to avoid causing too much conflict, and the idea that Venus is "not like the other boys" get floated around pretty early depending on what interactions you chose, and Jupiter and Neptune discuss this their 10AM interaction:

Neptune: Are you seriously worried about him? Jupiter: Maybe. A little. Jupiter: He's weird. Not in a bad way, necessarily? Jupiter: But maybe in a bad way, possibly. Jupiter: Sometimes I don't even know what he is.

Jackalope: That isn’t even really Amane Momose anymore. You’ve awakened something much bigger.

There's something....different about Venus, like Jupiter and Neptune before him. Everyone can tell, and thus treats him differently for it but he's just not exactly sure what that...Is.

And it's so Frustrating.

Venus: …I don't know what's wrong with me.

Venus: But I can't. Not when it comes to this. Jupiter: What is "this"? Venus: Whatever they want out of me that's not fixing radios. Venus: To be tougher? To grow up? To-what's that?

He's jealous, so deeply jealous of Jupiter and Neptune and he doesn't even know why.

Venus: I'm mad about a lot of things I guess. Jupiter: Liar Jupiter: You're not mad. Jupiter: You're jealous. Jupiter: Why are you so jealous. Jupiter: It's flattering. But it's weird. Venus: I don't know.

Muu: ……hey, are you listening to me? What are you staring at……? Amane: I’m not staring at anything. Muu: Liar, you definitely are……

Amane: ……cake……

He wants...something from them, he doesn't know what but it's something important to him. Something that would make him feel like he's himself and not...whatever he is. It's not even like he necessarily minds being different. He doesn't even think he can be anything else.

Venus: I know I'm bad at getting anyone to like me and I'm weird and everyone else can deal even though I can't, but I can't. Venus: I'm just going to be like this. I'm not going to be any different. Jupiter: You're asking to get beat up. Venus: I don't care.

T2Q20: How do you feel about you not being like everyone else? A: Nevertheless I was born as myself, so I'm happy.

This deep want appears in Everything he does. Everything he does is to somehow get that Thing he Wants the Most. He can attribute it to something else but everyone can tell he wants Something.

Neptune: Venus, your problem is that you are very nice. But you want something. And you think being nice is going to give it to you. But it never will. And until you figure out what it is you want. Every kindness of yours will be full of that want.

Amane: Ah, I am looking forward to it! Seeing whether your judgement will align with that of these higher standards! If that is the case, maybe Milgram would be the right world for us to live in, rather than the outside world!

Milgram relies on your judgement, isn’t that right? In that case, you could become the mediator for a far more righteous world!!

That isn't to say he Isn't afraid of being found out. Of having the kind of person he is being revealed. In a game of truth or dare he chooses dare because:

Venus: I mean, it's kinda like Jupiter said? Truth is embarrassing and dares could get you hurt. Getting hurt is way less scary.

But then the contradiction of this gets pointed out to him, people can be embarrassing with dares as well. It's easy to hurt and embarrass someone.

I've already mentioned that Amane hides...a lot, she tends to talk around things and use double meanings and what not. But she also doesn't want to seem frivolous or wasteful. She wants to stay seeming mature and smart and pure. Being immature is dangerous to her, another reason for people to view her as useless and weak. Another reason to get hurt.

She isn't that. She can prove it. She's not greedy or materialistic.

Venus: I don't want to be strong. I don't want to be that sort of person at all.

She doesn't want anything.

Venus: I want them within me and without me. All through and about me. I want feathers in my lungs and eyes on my skin. I want my heart to see and my lungs to fly.

Nothing at all.

T1Q17: What would you do if the world ends tomorrow? If everything ends? Then, I might do all sorts of things I have never done before.

This is when I reveal Venus is Trans.

Venus is Trans! She uses She/Her, I've been using He/Him for her previously to reveal she's trans like how the VN reveals she's trans.

Venus wants to reveal the truth, to be seen as she is, to have:

That wing to see the truth and that eye to lay it bare.

She wants to be honest and live as herself. To really Be Her. When she becomes the devil she says it's nobody's fault but hers. She wants this. She wants this so much.

She's not doing it cause she was forced or coerced she did it cause she Wanted To. She wanted to do it so badly. She does it with such glee it's honestly terrifying. She killed out of hate and duty and Enjoyed It.

The devil is lonely. We kicked out the devil and it must miss us. It keeps begging to be let back, to let it in.

And Amane Did.

Smoke and Honey

Amane Momose is undeniably monster-coded.

Jackalope: That isn’t even really Amane Momose anymore. You’ve awakened something much bigger.

Amane: Right now, I am both Amane Momose and I am not. I am speaking on behalf of our faith.

Amane: Yes. It is only natural for a person(/human) to apologize to another for breaking a promise. Es: … Amane: Why are you looking so doubtful? Are you not human?

This happy pinky promise hurts to break

There's so much to discuss that if I did do it in detail we would get so set off track very badly, but Amane Momose is Other. She's the Other, she's not human. She's never Been Human. Atleast not by the standards of her cult.

In the Milgram Cat Symbolism, Cats has been highly associated with sin. Yuno portrays her cat self as the most honest but also sinful version of herself. Kazui does the same. Amane being the cat, implicates her as a sinful force in the world. Something dangerous and terrifying that needs to be destroyed.

Amane Momose, somehow, is a threat to normal human existence (at least in the existence of the cult.) She's too opinionated, too dedicated, too Bad of a kid. Having her exist at all as she is, is a threat. She doesn't Want to stop being herself, she's supposed to want to stop. Humans aren't supposed to act like she acts. What if that stubbornness was directed at something against the cult?

Adults also hate perfect kids who love the world so much they can't stop themselves from saving it.

We Need to Destory The Devil No Matter What or Who it is. To choose someone to act as the scapegoat, the worst girl, the one kid too weird, too strange, too threatening.

What does Amane do? She's already a liability, just a child, useless and unhelpful. What if she was destructive? Better to teach her now to be better, right?

It's not like she isn't destructive, it's true. She does harm. Horrible harm actually. I completely understand wanting to restrain her for those reasons.

But, she had One Moment, and it was ripped away from her.

Jupiter: If I taste what it's like, I know, there's no way I'll be happy being human ever again.

I Wonder what else is left for her now.

#milgram #cw child abuse #amane momose #cw cults #milgram analysis #milgram meta #it is MIDNIGHT #I wrote this in Two Days and Two Long Sessions #Im telling you guys this VN is important reading for Amane Momose purposes #I also dont know how to beta read theres probably a quadrillion mistakes

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applestorms · 10 months

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BARBARA

might not go too in depth with this one since i'm a little outta practice writing essays but!! i wanted to get a few notes out of my reaction after watching the barbie movie so here we go ^w^ obvious spoiler warning under the cut, though if you want to just skip the section marked "ending," it probably isn't too bad.

STRENGTHS

1. early jokes

in my head i kind of split this film into two sections that intermingle often but are still pretty separate: the beginning half, which features more of the humor/references to the history of barbie, both in terms of the corporation and the experience of kids growing up with barbie dolls, and the ending half, which features more of the in-depth emotional reflection. while it does manage to delve fairly deep into some existential questions (enough that i think this is quite distinctly a barbie movie for adults), it stays pretty lighthearted overall which seems ideal for this kind of movie.

what i really like about many of the early jokes in this film (and its humor in general) is how they play off of the himbo/bimbo stereotypes of both ken & barbie in such a way that doesn't actually diminish the intelligence of any of the characters involved- specifically, most of the early jokes in the movie are based around the implication that (despite not actually being shown) kids are the ones playing with the dolls and moving all of the characters seen on set, meaning that the limitations on their intelligence are the limitations of the kids dreaming up their world (i.e. the continual references to a lack of genitalia, ken not knowing why he would want to sleep over, pouring an empty milk carton, etc).

what this means is that the movie is able to make a ton of stupid jokes referencing the absurdity of barbies and the dumb shit that inevitably comes up when you give kids access to toys while simultaneously allowing the characters (and in particular, margot barbie) the emotional intelligence necessary for the deeper reflection that shows up in the second half. it's really well done imo, and part of the reason why i think this film genuinely is appealing to fans and haters of barbie, lightly joking about the inherent weirdness and questionable history of the corporation while allowing room for genuine care & excitement on the part of people who care about it as a key part of their childhoods & experience growing up.

2. trauma of womanhood

alright, started off strong with this essay by explaining the joke. now let's talk about the trauma of growing up as a woman.

but forreal, the scene where barbie & ken are first rollerskating around in the real world and commenting on the reactions of other people to their (exactly copied) outfits hit me so much harder than i expected. while i mentioned earlier that this movie really does seem to have a little something for everyone watching, there still seems to be a target demographic of adult women that grew up with barbie & remember them fondly (i.e. gloria, the main mother) and for that group in particular i think this movie really has the ability to hit people hard.

what hits me so hard about that scene is just how real it is to the experience of that jarring transition. i'll write more about this in the section on mothers coming up next, but you can really read the movie as a reflection on the experience of growing up as a girl and hitting adulthood. the distinct stages that margot barbie goes through (mindless happiness -> existential crisis -> inner peace at the gynecologist) in part seem to reflect the experience of growing up as a cis woman (childhood -> sudden yanking into womanhood & being treated like an adult -> more peace with new social position).

in one of my classes on feminist philosophy this guy who i had been talking to a lot made a very significant comment that's stuck with me ever since. we were talking about trans feminism, and he (as a trans guy himself) mentioned how he always found it weird that people were so picky about the transition between genders when something like puberty and the bodily changes that come with that are so easily accepted as normal and barely even treated like a change. in particular, he mentioned something about how harsh & almost violent the transition from girlhood into womanhood can be, how you can be yanked into the role with all of its expectations so suddenly out of nowhere. it's a sentiment that i've heard echoed in similar comments from other trans individuals since, particularly from a few trans men about their own experiences where being a girl was fine, but being a woman was not.

this is honestly one of the areas where i think cis people and in particular cis feminism can really gain some meaningful reflection from the experiences of trans people, if i may say so as a cis woman myself. really, you don't have to be a man for the above sentiment about "being a girl is fine, being a woman isn't" to still kinda fuckin apply!! what resonates so strongly with me about the rollerblading scene is margot barbie's reaction to suddenly being sexualized, the (as she explicitly says) underlying violence of that experience, the discomfort and self-consciousness that comes from it and the distinct contrast of how ken really does not feel the same way. there's something that can really fuck you up about growing up as a girl hardly even aware about most of your body only to suddenly start growing tits and have everyone's treatment of you do a fucking 180.

i have a very vivid memory that reminds me of my own such experience when it comes to this, actually. when i was in high school we were required to take a foreign language for a few years to graduate, so i ended up taking a couple years of japanese to fulfill the requirement. it was one of my favorite classes overall since everyone taking it was pretty much guaranteed to be a nerd interested in anime and/or video games, and it was the one class where i consistently had friends and got close to the teacher. it was still a bit awkward on my part, however, because of one thing- the class was almost entirely made up of dudes, with the 3 exceptions being myself, the teacher, and one other girl who came out as a lesbian a couple weeks into the start of class. essentially what this meant is that i was the only potentially "available" girl in the room (ignoring whether or not there was any actual interest on either side of things) for most of the 2-3 years i took the class. this was fine for the first year or so, back when i was super depressed and only ever wore the same 2 hoodies every single day, but as my mental health improved, so did my clothing habits and with it came a distinct shift in the ways that the other people in the room treated me.

i remember i finally gave in and wore a skirt one day and the shift in treatment was practically fucking tangible. it wasn't that people treated me worse or better necessarily, i mean there were a couple dudes that weirded me out a bit and my relationships with my close friends didn't change a bit, but suddenly it felt like there was all of this additional shit weighing down my interactions with people i had previously felt comfortable with and, frankly, it fucking sucked! it felt like the fact that i had finally outwardly performed femininity suddenly reminded half the class that i was, in fact, a girl and all of a sudden there were all of these complex expectations and reactions that i was forced to shift through out of nowhere and i entirely didn't expect it.

to get back to the point, though that experience wasn't exactly the same as margot barbie suddenly being viciously sexualized by everyone in her path (though certainly, i've dealt with that one too) i think it still gets at a similar idea of how harsh and sudden the transition into womanhood can be and i appreciate how this movie reflected on that, especially in the context of how the shift primarily comes from a change in how other people view you. margot barbie never ages throughout the film, never goes through puberty like an actual kid and has to deal with the changes that come from that, but if anything i think that makes the message stronger- even if she is still fundamentally the same physical being, the external shift in perception is still strong, particularly in its influence on how one views themself.

3. mothers (& patriarchy)

i think it's safe to say that this is, at it's core, a feminism movie, and it explores this through the exploration of two main ideas: motherhood, particularly through the relationships of the movie's main women (margot barbie, gloria, sasha, & ruth handler), and patriarchy as tested by the kens, in particular ryan ken.

imo the movie's demonstration of the transition from childhood -> adulthood through margot barbie's character arc doesn't just focus on her as an individual, but also her relationship with her "creator," ruth handler, who is essentially treated like margot barbie's mother (i believe this is really clarified at the end of the movie, though tbh i forget what exact scene/line made me think that while originally watching). what really caught me off guard about this aspect is just how much it symbolically delves into the topic of grief, specifically through the loss of a mother on the part of margot barbie. i almost questioned if this was intentional at first, since it's quite vague and doesn't really show up very often, but iirc it ended up being quite a strong point. i replayed gris quite recently and i wasn't expecting to come up with the same emotions watching the barbie movie of all things, but i think it works well.

*also, sidenote: while i won't go too in depth into gloria & sasha's arcs since they feel pretty straightforward to me, i do want to add that i really liked how gloria was the girl that margot barbie was originally attached to rather than sasha. feels like the moviemakers really learned from EEAAO for that one, and it's nice to see more older women get put in the spotlight for once.

4. ken

SO. ok i know i mentioned patriarchy above but let's just give ken and patriarchy his own section cause i really liked how his arc was done. ryan gosling fucking killed it here, he knew exactly what needed to be done and did it and it deserves all the praise.

the one thing i wished there was a little bit more of though (keeping in mind that i've got a section on weak points right after this one) is a slightly clearer demonstration of how toxic masculinity/patriarchy/whatever the fuck you wanna call it makes men just as miserable as it does women. i think a part of what made this point weaker in my mind is how separate the barbies & kens were by the end of the movie (more on this in the section on dubious hope), though idk i might be nitpicking a bit too hard there. overall ken is a lovely horse girl with stunning proficiency at beach and i think his arc was incredibly satisfying and beautifully flashy, a perfect balance to the rugged femininity of barbie. you ARE kenough my dude, and i laughed hard enough at that hoodie to almost consider shelling out the 60 bucks for a real one.

5. ending

i started getting nervous right at the end there because as the movie seems to be aware, there are a lot of ways this could've been fucked up. this movie had a very particular message (i.e. women don't have to be extraordinary just to deserve existing in peace) that it was very intent on delivering the right way, and ultimately i think it succeeded. it managed to not shove a last minute barbie/ken romance into the final minutes, it reflected meaningfully enough on what the idea of a barbie really represents, and it let you leave the theater in good spirits with a great dumb joke.

6. no apologies & marketing (barbie can be anything)

actually- let's expand on that previous point a bit! "women don't have to be extraordinary just to deserve existing in peace," is a great message and fantastic evolution off of the classic barbie brand of "women can do anything they set their hearts out to do," and i really liked that the film stuck to this idea the whole way through. there's a potential criticism of the feminism of this film that it tries to tackle too much at once and doesn't give each individual point enough time to stew (aka there's margot barbie's emotional development arc but also gloria & sasha's arc but also ken's patriarchy arc etc. etc.), but i think that in sticking to this one core message it feels cohesive enough that i can't lean on that point too heavily.

i also like how this idea kinda transforms the messaging behind the original marketing for the movie. "this barbie is a [INSERT OCCUPATION HERE]" is great in that it attracts your attention by playing into the "classic" barbie message but also in that the movie seems to fundamentally be about pointing out that the occupation is not what makes those barbies (women) deserving of being treated with humanity and respect. it's just. it's fuckin nice.

7. barbie girl in a barbie world (the SET DESIGN) vs. lovely reality

THE PLASTIC SETS & PROPS WERE SO FUCKING GOOD like we knew they were going to be but AAAAAAAAA. istg god bless whoever worked on making all that shit look like plastic it was so good i was staring wide eyed the entire movie. also: just the right amount of sparkles and incorporation of old advertisements. chefs kiss.

additional short note before we get to the weak points cause lord my hands are starting to Feel It again: i really like that the "real world," for all of its grittiness in comparison to the barbie world wasn't treated like completely disgusting or dingy but instead a different, but still at times lovely place. all those shots of the light coming through the trees really helped i think, it was just nice that while it was different and jarring to margot barbie to see she was still able to see the beauty in it all. that scene where she tells the old lady at the bus stop that she's beautiful is the emotional core of this movie in my mind and i can't appreciate it enough for keeping that all present.

WEAK POINTS

1. what the fuck was up with that smallpox line

as it says! it was weird and jarring and out of place and i kind of wish it was just cut out entirely. this is probably the biggest negative point i have against the movie and since i've actually seen some people talking about this one i think i should try going a bit more in depth.

from what little i've seen of other comments on this, i think one of the biggest criticisms says something along the lines of "it's a bad line because it equates american indian genocide with patriarchy which isn't an equal comparison," and though i don't know if i would agree with that point exactly, i do think the comparison is ultimately a weird one to make and fails to make any meaningful points that aren't tainted by a weird insensitivity to indigenous american history.

it's actually not about the deaths for me, since i think it's ignorant to say that women haven't been killed due to the effects of patriarchy (even if nowadays it is usually at an intersection of more minority identities- cishet middle-class white women certainly aren't the ones being killed for their woman-ness in this day and age, at least in most of america). while fundamentally i think it's always going to be weird to try and compare the experiences of people dealing with different types of bigotry, i think another key problem here is the fact that the things being compared here just don't function in the same way.

take what i say here with a grain of salt since i don't have any direct american indian affiliations myself (rather, i'm mixed white/filipino actually), but patriarchy and the deaths that came from the diseases that originated from the introduction of europeans to the american continent just aren't really comparable, literally apples to oranges in my mind. for one thing, the line takes away from the agency that goes into patriarchy on the part of (cis) men which seems to actively conflict with the actions of ryan ken throughout the movie, and for another, the focus on disease seems to uncomfortably disregard the very real active killing sprees that settlers fairly regularly went on in while violently colonizing the continent. it just- none of it really works! i genuinely don't get why this line had to be included- it's never elaborated on, it doesn't support any of the messages the film seems to be trying to send (if anything, actively going against what it's trying to do), and it's so uncomfortably out of place it actually distracted me from the movie long enough that i had to mentally scramble to figure out what was happening again.

i'd like to hear more of an in-depth criticism from someone more fit to comment on this topic. if anyone would like to respond/link elsewhere to something more sophisticated than these random notes of my own, it would be greatly appreciated. more on this movie and race a bit later.

2. limitations of capitalism

this is one point that i think the movie actually dealt with fairly well, which makes sense since there are so many ways that this movie could've ended up turning into a massive fucking ad campaign for mattel, like even more than it already was. i think it works because it just doesn't linger on it too much- there's only so much criticism of capitalism you can shove into your massively corporate, expensive film before it gets fucking obnoxious and impossible for anyone to take you seriously. frankly i think that for any movie this mainstream at this scale it should just avoid talking about it at all, but the short, vague references they kept in were quick enough that i couldn't complain for too long. in recent years there have been a lot of shows & movies that in their attempt to be woke end up just annoying everyone, the bigots and the people they're trying to appeal to both, but these shorter comments, especially within the context of the rest of the movie's messages & themes, felt at least a little more genuine.

3. white feminism & the lack of introspection w/ race

oh man. this movie is fuckin WHIIITE, which was kind of expected but also yeesh. in all fairness, similar to the above point i think this movie did a decent job at making the cast fairly diverse without being overly obnoxious patting itself on the back about how woke it is (again, i think this is because it had an actual message in mind), but overall i still can't think of this movie as being about anything other than fundamentally white, cis feminism. and to some degree that's fine!! this movie knows what it is and i think it genuinely does give some good direction for a better way of approaching "classic" white feminism (especially considering how much female CEO-type girlboss feminism pandering bullshit we've gotten in recent years), but, y'know. a smidge more depth would've been nice, especially in the relationship between sasha & gloria (though i did find the dad's broken language practice endearing lol white dads =3=.)

4. weird barbie & queerness (cock ring ken)

it could've been so much gayer. it definitely had some hints here and there, like you cannot tell me that weird barbie isn't a dyke, a couple twinks hit on ken during the rollerblading scene, and that final ken dance battle was exactly the right amount of homoerotic, but still. i just wish it was more blunt about it, i feel like a lot of the underlying tension of gay shit underlining all of the intense femininity went over the heads of straight audiences and that makes me kinda sad cause it feels like i'll have to fight to make it seen which we all seem to be getting sick of doing. bring back cock ring ken mattel, i know a shit ton of people (myself included) who'd by the fuck outta that.

that being said, i also like that it didn't linger on romance too much, instead focusing on the mother/daughter relationships that mesh more cleanly with the general themes of growing up and girlhood. ken figuring out how to deal with being friendzoned by coming to terms with his own self-worth was lovely and i wouldn't change that conclusion a bit. i just wish, for the sake of my own tastes, that we could've gotten a bit more time with that line about how you're either a stereotypical barbie or a weird loser, since that definitely resonated with my own experience growing up a queer weirdo loser, or just that side of queerness that often makes you feel like an outsider to the mainstream.

5. dubious hope

...ok to be honest, after writing the rest of this post, i'm not sure i believe this anymore. originally this point was going to be something along the lines of how i thought that EEAAO was a lot more clean in its defense of holding onto hope, and maybe i do still believe that, but thinking back i think this movie does actually do a pretty good job in trying to combat the usual pessimism that drenches a lot of white cishet feminism (and women in general, tbh). mostly this just goes back to the point i made before about how i wish they hadn't separated the kens & barbies so heavily near the end- idk, it just lowkey feels like its playing into this subtle idea that's been going around where, like, men have to be gay in order to have non-misogynistic relationships with women and just. ugh i dunno, i have lots of loaded, complex ideas about that which i will not be elaborating here, ultimate conclusion is that i think we need to figure out a better way to heal the fucked up relationship between straight men and straight women that permeates through patriarchal gender roles so heavily than just "make everyone gay".

6. allan???

allan. needed more of him. michael cera was the perfect casting choice for this and i wish he had more of an arc but also i get it. i get it. uhh anyways

#should've known i'm incapable of writing something short #barbie #astronaut rambles #my hands are fucking dying #i haven't written an essay this long in a hot minute jesus #barbie movie #barbie 2023 #barbie 2023 meta #bonus idea: i like that this movie was self-aware without being obnoxious about it too #like the comment about margot robbie being the wrong person to cast #which was funny but also genuinely helped the message imo

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iwasforcedtomakethisbytum · 7 days

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Help me ahhh i can't stop thinking about what I'd do if i were in charge of a reboot of 6teen

For starters it would be more serialized, the original already had some of that and i don't wanna it to be so serialized you can't watch episodes out of order but we have streaming now so why not just have more mentions of previous episodes or foreshadowing future episodes

I'm mainly just thinking about Jonesy and how i could to not be the most hateable character, but i still want him to be a bit of a jerk to be honest but dear Lord I'm gonna give him a little chill pill like maybe he shouldn't be a literal criminal in multiple episodes, i wanna keep him being a selfish dick but maybe instead of flirting with literally all the women it's mostly just with his friends i kinda like the idea of him being demisexual idk i just like it, i also gave him more necklaces, mostly they mean nothing and he'd be happy letting another wear them, but one of his necklaces is his cremation necklace and is just really uncomfortable with the idea of others wearing it

i made jude trans, again i don't remember why i hc it but it's fun, so my design for him shows his binder under his tank top, i feel it would be mentioned but not a lot outside of a joke or two, i give him the more girly hands the women are given as a way to hint it and maybe older photos could show him with long hair or a dress. I also gave him a scarf which one thing i did add was maybe he'd like crochet/knitting and made the scarf himself (i also like to think nikki carries an opossum around that Jude made) he rollerstates everywhere even when he bumps into everything! I don't know what to headcanon his family like, they almost seem neglectful in the series as they're usually mentioned leaving jude alone at the house i feel but does that mean they're bad

Jen i feel she'd roughly stay the same, but maybe she'd be complaining a bit more about shit, i imagine she puts up with her job and school and stuff she hates because she knows it'll help her get what she wants but she doesn't care for it in private. Her parents are divorced like the original but i feel her dad isn't really explained in the original because jen remembers him as a good dad and some lines may reference him having died (omg what if he died by suicide, no I'm sorry not today) but it's never said that he's dead explicitly so it would make me wonder why in the original jen only lives with her mom, did he flee the area, was jen an unreliable narrator and he truly did something awful that warranted him not having custody, did her parents both choose to let Jen's mom have full custody for some reason? I don't know but in my version i like the idea of it being mention that she has to move between the houses (wait would she even have too, i know 16 is a bigger deal in Canada so would that give her the right to decide to not live with one of them?) but in my version of the show jens parents would have split costody of her and that would be mentioned

Nikki is a bit more nerdy i feel i made her, i like the idea of Chinese being her home language, and maybe she can also speak other languages outside of English and Chinese, i feel she'd speak Quebec French, Spanish and ASL to varying degrees of proficiency i could see her maybe considering being an interpreter as a career, she'd still be into protesting the same stuff she has before, she now has a half shaven head, one thing i don't necessarily care for with redesigns is just making her really emo but she's not really that in the original i mean sure it's alt but i don't see it as really emo. I feel like her and Wyatt talk about anime a lot. I feel she'd be fairly distant from her friends at the beginning of the series, like she's there with them they've known her most of their lives but it's not like she opens up to them about things and might seem unemphatic to them but overtime she tries to care about them and open up more maybe starting with them saying they're bi, which one is just like "wait you hadn't told us this before?"

Wyatt is also just nerdier, he draws, he sucks at it but he does draw, he obviously in a band, and so is jude, he just gets to do everything wyatt gets really obsessed with things he likes and will be upset if you don't like them, he also wears his headphones almost all the time, usually they're no music on though, i feel the music his band makes is just stuff that stimulates the ears it's just "hehe brain go brrrr" he's really into written art as well like fanfiction and poetry, i feel it would also be mentioned he takes care of younger siblings a lot as it's mentioned he's part of a big family in the series, i see him on the younger end of the family but still, idk maybe he could also have nieces and nephews

Caitlin also is into art, i feel she'd really be into the idea of fashion design but doesn't know how to make/modify clothing, she is the best drawer of the group, you can still very easily tell she's an only child, i liked the headcanon of her being homeschooled before joining the same school as the rest of the group, you could make an argument the first episode could imply it by saying "she didn't start until grade 10" but that also could mean she just went somewhere else, but i do think it would be fun if she didn't stop being friends with trisha despit being a bitch and the others keep trying to tell her to not hang with her but she "sees the good in her" i think it would be interesting to see it play out

I feel their parents would be mentioned more in the series, they might not show up but they are teenagers/young adults living under their parents roof so i feel it would make sense for it to be brought up more, like maybe the mention of a curfew or them complaining about something they're parents are doing or complain about rules they don't understand

It would be kinda cool to have a moment where both jen and jonesy bitch about their home lives and maybe complain that the marriage shouldn't even happen

Well that's it, i could probably say more but my brain has been satisfied

#6teen #6teen jonesy #6teen nikki #6teen caitlin #6teen jude #6teen jen #6teen wyatt

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opinated-user · 1 year

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You know, before Lily's Steven Universe video came out, I remember watching a stream of hers where she was editing it together, repeatedly doing takes to sound angrier and angrier about things. But the thing that turned me off of her and her content wasn't that. I never believed her shrieking was genuine, I had always seen it as performance meant to be comedic. What turned me off of her was her shit talking another content creator, SF Debris. Why? Because he has always been open about the fact that while he understands what women are and aren't aesthetically pleasing in traditional senses, the only person he ever felt attraction to in his life is his wife, and he's never had any desire to have romance with anyone else. Also it took him about five years to realize he was attracted to and in love with the woman he then asked out and ended up married to.

Now, to anyone else on Earth, there's nothing offensive about any of that. While SF Debris has never used any labels to describe himself or identified as such, a lot of his viewers think of him as being on the ace spectrum. Lily, though, has one major disagreement with him, which is that her least favorite Star Trek series is his favorite and her favorite series, he calls out for dismissing murder when it's done by the good guys.

So Lily went off on a tangent when someone (who presumably didn't know Lily hates being recommended things and cannot be rational about someone else liking/disliking a thing she dislikes/likes) recommended she watch his video on the Star Trek Deep Space 9 episode Profit and Lace, in which he tears apart the transphobia of the episode and the grossness of how that episode handles misogyny and feminism, and Lily. lost. her. shit. She went on a rant about how SF Debris isn't really LGBT (he's never claimed to be) and he's lying about his supposed lack of sexual attraction and everyone wants to fuck. That's a phrase she used that really made me uncomfortable. Everyone wants to fuck. He must be lying when he says he's not interested in having sex with anyone other than this one person. It must be virtue signalling, it must be lying, it's manipulation, he's manipulating the audience by playing an unrealistic saintly persona, and the kicker, that he's probably sleeping with underage fans.

I'm not ace, but I know a lot of ace people, and I just found that so uncomfortable, this idea that they're all lying, that they're trying to trick you so they can sleep with you. I'm trans and that's what people in my country say about trans men and trans women and often nonbinary people, too. Queer people (which I count him as, even if he has not used the term for himself) aren't lying to you in order to get into your pants. Queer people aren't secret predators. If you don't like SF Debris' videos, that's fine. I dislike most of his Gundam videos and I don't think his Enterprise analyses were very good or in-depth. That doesn't mean he's lying about his sexuality so he can fuck people and it especially doesn't mean he's suddenly into children! And it's even worse in context because his twin sons are disabled and he's mentioned worrying about protecting them from predators because the stats for abuse from people outside the family are much higher for disabled kids. She saw a queer-ish man and declared him a predator even though fear of predators is something that plagues him to this day due to his kids' disabilities. She saw an ace-ish person and declared them a liar automatically.

I don't like Lily. She's still trans and bi. I don't like Keffals. She's still trans. I don't like my Intro To Buddhism professor, he's still gay. People don't become liars once you dislike them. And while I do believe Lily is a predator, that took years of evidence to make me believe, I didn't go from "I don't like her content" to "she's a pedo" because those two things are not related. Your gender, sexual orientation, romantic orientation or lack of those things are unrelated to your actions, and it is predatory action that shows us who a predator is.

That was the day I quit watching Lily's videos. The way she talked about this guy who is on the ace spectrum was so fucked up that I couldn't excuse it or rationalize it away. Because it wasn't recorded, I'm sure she'd deny it ever happened. But the way she said "everyone wants to fuck" as if it was written in Scripture or an undeniable fact is burned into my memory. It was said with the certainty that queerphobes have when they say "there are two genders" or "you can't change your gender". It was said with the same 'you're ridiculous for suggesting otherwise' dismissiveness and disgust.

Ace people, you are valid. Demi people, you are valid. If you are only very rarely or never attracted to someone and never or rarely feel romantic connections with people, that is not a lie and you are not secretly gross or bad or wrong. There is absolutely nothing wrong with someone not being into sex or romance and it's not a character flaw of any kind.

I've been noticing an uptick in TERFs and radfems saying men can't be ace lately, that that's a trap meant to lure you into sex with them. So maybe that's why this is on my mind lately. It's so much like her take on this guy that when I hear aphobia I think of Lily.

I'm not ace but my heart breaks for ace people. Just for living their lives and being honest they're viewed as predatory liars.

You'd think a trans woman would know better than to treat others that way.

i'm going to go ahead and also assume that person has never interacted with LO or spoke a word to her. that's some serious unhealthy level of projection that LO really needs to work on.

#lily orchard

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