#“I'm really straight! I love men. I just think women are neat.”

[ur-friendly-nbhd-cardassian]

Is it just my bi ass, or does anyone else think every aggressively straight person is secretly just closeted?

[docholligay]

A relevant question was asked by @tallangrycockatiel about my love of Interview With the Vampire: "Um, why are you into something that is all about dudes, all the time? Is this us not being a bitch's bitch?" Only, she is English so she said it in a more polite, suggested sort of way.

A very fair question! It is extremely true that, by and large, a thing with men only is less interesting to me by far and it takes a lot more for me to get into it. But she was not put off by this, for she had developed a theory:

My two initial theories are that either it hit you early enough that that hadn't become such a strong preference, or that it has something to do with the fact that despite being 95% men the entire cast seems to be having what I can only describe as dyke drama the entire time.

She both knows me and is smart, so there we are. The answer is basically: YES.

I started reading the Vampire Chronicles when I was something around 13, and so I didn't really have an idea that it was kind of fucked up that men we treated as the only default interesting people on earth. I pretty much took it as an implicit truth, where I never would have SAID that, but, I was very much in what can only be described as a 'masculinity k-hole' where of course I wanted to be a 'tomboy' and the only way for a girl to be tough and cool was if she was 'just like a boy' and this whole idea that men and masculinity were superior vomit vomit vomit whatever I am perfectly capable of beating someone's ass in red lipstick but that line of thinking did not occur to me at the time.

So I had NO sensitivity to the idea that stories whose ENTIRE UNIVERSES centered around men might be even, annoying. Anne Rice straight up does not care about or like women, and it is absolutely reflected in the way she writes her female characters. I cannot IMAGINE someone reading these as a fully grown adult who thinks women are neat, actually, and not coming away going, "My god, what is happening in these books?" But when you grow up with something, it changes with you, and the ways you think of it aren't COMING from adult you, they are, at least in part, coming from YOUNG you. And, in much the same way A Song of Ice and Fire, which I read at a similar time, gave me what I wanted from fantasy and wasn't getting, this did as well. I did not know that it would have been what is now called urban fantasy, and I didn't know that was a thing I liked (I very much know that now) all I knew was, I liked it. It was batshit and felt dangerous and it was unhinged and very gothic, though, again, not a way I could have expressed it.

So I'm carrying all that --I'll say baggage even though that has a negative connotation--when I come to the work. I already pre-like it.

This can of course backfire, but it didn't, so, I'm not gonna get into that.

NUMBER TWO: The 'all dudes' thing is not insurmountable. It's a quality issue. I love Dan Simmons' work and his women are basically nonexistent. There are plenty of things I like that don't center women. But, the bar to entry is MUCH higher. I would never in my life willingly watch something like "sailor moon but boys though."

What Interview has, that I love, is a very rare thing: Well written, EXPLICITLY gay, and everyone is fucking terrible. It is an adult show for grown-ass adults where people fuck and murder and abuse each other. Armand is the physical manifestation of gaslight gatekeep girlboss. Louis rewrites an entire personal history to make himself look better and emotionally manipulates everyone he comes into contact with. Lestat is a hot tempered, vain dilettante who does shit without thinking and then has the audacity to go, "Oh no, the quencies!" Everyone sucks, everyone is abusive in one way or another, all the fucking exes overlap, and I LOVE IT. Anyone looking for a hero or victim is watching the wrong fucking show and I am SO HAPPY ABOUT IT.

I'll close with my response when we were talking about how fucking great Sarah Waters is, in relation to the above:

it took me forever to realize that I didn't actually want recommendations for lesbian fic, what I was actually asking is: So who is doing it like Sarah Waters? Which unfortunately is no one. The woman is my own personal oasis in the desert.

And God, it has taken me YEARS to convince people that I care so much less about whether or not something is gay than if it is GOOD. Does it say something TRUE, you know? Is it messy? Is it sometimes uncomfortable? I would fucking LOVE if it could be gay on top of these things, but I'll real here:

l'll read a good straight thing versus a bad and especially a fluffy gay thing

I LOVE that shit like REd, White and Royal Blue or coffee shop Aus or whatever exist for people who want them, but I am out for blood ahaha

I have a happy, boring, domestic gay life, i do not need to imagine what a life where your biggest argument is about the quantity and variety of fucking breakfast cereal (We have EIGHT. BOXES.)

[mercy-misrule]

I've read like a third now of the second pern book.

Again, one of the things that absolutely sailed over my head as a kid is the abortion stances in the narrative.

Women are easily able to attain pain free, instant abortion via the dragon teleport, the mere act of going in between removes pregnancy.

And there's issues between the conservative Holders who don't believe in it, who are very anti sexual freedom in general, and the relaxed ideas of the dragon riders.

Also, women in the dragon weyr don't raise their own kids, they foster them out, and while people do form long term relationships, there isn't marriage.

These things are so obviously revolutionary in retrospect, they are such clear signs of the politics of the era.

And man, pern world building is just neat. Having it be backwards to fantasy is neat, it really is.

I read a really interesting fic that did some exploring of the darker implications of the dragon hierarchy, and the mating flights and stuff

And in it Jora lives, and I just felt really vindicated.

I hate the way the books talk about her, about fat bodies in general. I wish she could have been someone that Lessa could have interacted with, maybe with more sympathy, maybe with less power behind the men?

One of the weakest moments of description in the first book is Lessa looking at herself in the mirror after being clean for the first time in years and she's all 'im so skinny and pale, but still got those titties!'

God, it's such an exercise in conflicting values and concepts as a series, in authorial intent, in actual execution.

I think it's important to engage with its canon, rather than just handwave it away, and the fic I've been reading has done this, while exploring it, questioning it and evolving it. It's good stuff.

I was hoping there would be fic like that!

There's an astounding fic series, Friends Across Borders for Mercedes Lackey's Valdemar series that has straight up supplanted a lot of the canon for me.

As I'm reading fantasy that I loved as a kid again, I hope I find more fic for those series that people write original scenarios and characters for while still embracing the canon with a critical eye.

[cosmichoneyz]

bbc ghosts sexual/romantic/gender orientation headcanons because i think about them way too much

spoilers none of them are straight

thomas - bi. this isn't up for debate as a bi person and thomas thorne enjoyer this is real actually. his intense rivalry with byron????? that time he was trying to wake up mike by prodding his .. uh .. region when he was asleep in the burglary episode???? and the ICONIC line "most of my dreams are about women!!" he even dresses like a bisexual with the curly hair and little waistcoat (i know he dresses like a georgian romantic poet. my only consensus is that all georgian romantic poets were bisexual which checks out actually) he would like using he/they idk but he still identifies as cis

the captain - gay. yeah this one's canon idk what to say. man kisser. he draws little pictures of havers in his army notebook. he/him cis

pat - either omnisexual or maybe comphet gay not sure actually. i do think he did genuinely love carol but whether he was forcing himself to feel that way because of heteronormativity is up for debate. cap loves him either way (i love my dead queer autistic dads) he/him cis

kitty - comphet lesbian. this is also very real. she constantly talks about men and dating but it comes across as super performative to me. lolly adefope being a huge ally also makes me kinda go. yeah. she loves women. her and thomas bi and lesbian besties. she/her cis

mary - comphet aro lesbian her and annie were dating (annie is also a lesbian) she's a little silly i miss her so much UGH. her canon crush in mike was just heteronormativity to me tbh. she/her cis

julian - bi. the only queer tory to ever exist. robin is his husband and we stan a toxic bisexual. also the scene with mike in the burglary ep again ... Yeah. he/him cis but he would say MY PRONOUNS ARE UK just to annoy everyone

robin - unlabelled he just loves everyone. this goes for gender identity as well he just doesn't care. be like robin! any/all pronouns and genderfluid

humphrey - i actually don't know but he's definitely queer in some way just look at his hair. he/him cis

fanny - comphet lesbian COMPHET LESBIANNNNN the internalised rant she goes on in the s2 finale about queer people like fanny i know what you are .... she's just scared to admit it because of george. i believe in lesbian grandma passing her gay wisdom on to lesbian granddaughter (kitty) supremacy. she/her cis

bonus: alison (she/her) and mike (he/him) are cishet but they're huge allies and would probably set up a big pride parade at button house if one of the ghosts asked. love that for them

i am so normal. sorry i made almost of all them cis i'm cis so i can't really think of many headcanons on the gender identity side. i have seen people hc cap as trans tho so that's pretty neat. thank you for reading my rambles

[sircarebearalot]

there is no bad variation of the 'let's get together to trick everyone for shits and giggles' (queer edition bc straight fake dating has had it's glory already, and i don't even mean fake dating for a reason other than to dupe people, i literally mean shits and giggles)

like at least not any that I can think of i mean

there's the ansgty pining edition: where A pitches the idea to B in a wacky fun way and just literally wants to get closer (and maybe it's to get over B, maybe it's to satisfy their curiosity before closure, maybe it's because they are an actual fucking moron) and B is like, okay bet (but internally is like 'so this is all a joke to you huh') and they are going along and they aren't saying 'hey, this feels real' but they aren't initiating anything and they are just quietly miserable that the only way they could have this experience with A is if they are faking it. obv ends with like some kind of angsty as fuck confession.

there's the soft pining edition: where they literally just want to get closer together and they both claim it's for the prank for the reveal but like you know, i've alwasy wondered what it would be like to hold your hand and oh, are they not convinced? i think we should kiss obvsioulsy, it's really the only way and they go on like this and everyone either suspects that they've been dating forever and just came out adn that's why they're so shy or that they're totally faking it but at least they aren't pining in silence you know. and at the end there's like a timid lil 'what if it was real?' and then they're smiling and it's grossly cavity-inducing cuteness.

then there's the crack oh we're just bros obv edition: where they are both 'straight' but like codependent and people think they are in love (they are for these purposes) and they're like, we'll mess with them, yea? and they act like it's a big game of gay chicken except they're not afraid and their friends are really supportive and they are starting to feel guilty for tricking them but also you know it's crack so they are doing wacky shit that needs a 'no homo' disclaimer excpet neither feel like saying it and it's like full homo. and at the end the confession is lame but they're in love and that's beautiful.

(then there the crack crack crack crack one: where one is like i'll seduce you and the other is like, huh, this is kind of neat? wish it was real lol and like nobody is falling for any of it but whatever)

if you guys see any fics with this flavor hit me up please!!

like, just so you know the flavor i'm gonna give a brief snippet of each, yeah, for funsies and also bc it's my life mission to get your obsessed with the concept so more fics like this can exist and so if you know them you can send them my way so i can have crack-induced brain rot

(the examples are gonna feature WOMEN bc i've already went crazy over men and i ahve to keep myself fresh)

there's the angsty induced pining pining edition: catradora

bc they are peak pining and dumbass and angst and love, for reasons Adora pitches the idea, 'you know, just to get them off our backs, like we're dating? what! and then we're like, ofc we're not' and Catra grasps it and doesn't let it go.

("We should kiss," Catra says decisively.

Adora's gut reaction was finally, what came out of her mouth was,

"No."

It came out strangled, guttural, tortured--- and Catra, always in tune, notices and is hurt. And Adora doesn't know how to say that I want it more than anything but I want it to mean something with you so she doesn't.

"Oh, well okay," Catra says, and she had already looked a little tense when she pitched the idea but now she looked stiff as a board. She looked like she was about to shatter. And Adora knows that Catra never handled rejection quite well, even if it was about something she didn't really care about, but she just can't.

"I- I would, but it would be my first kiss," she says, as an apology. "i want it to mean something."

Catra stares at her before nodding jerkily, something fire bright in her eyes. Her voice had a bitter, abrasive quality that stirs the familar urge to soothe in Adora. "Right, no yeah, obviously. Don't want to waste your first kiss on me."

"I--," Adora explained, voice catching, "I want it to mean something to you, if I kissed you. I don't want it to be for anyone else. For a prank.")

there's the soft pining edition: lumity

(any setting really, just the premise that luz is like ppl would go crazy if they realized we were friends, you know what woudl drive them crazier?? if we we're dating--- and amity is like, oh yeah totally crazy, we should do it, and luz is interanlly like i don't think it;s crazy i think other ppl would think it's crazy but you know if she thinks it's crazy then i should play along, adn out loud she's like 'let's do it' and amity is just internaklly thinking 'omg omgomgomgomg we're gonna hold hands??? wtfffff??? akdgaydzfbkafbc???)

("Well," Amity says, smiling weakly, "We did say it was a crazy idea."

"They don't believe us," Luz murmurs, gradually becoming more indignant. "They laughed in our faces!"

"I mean, we are messing with them!"

"They totally brushed us off! We cann;t let this slide! We have to convince them."

Amity never really learned how to say no to Luz, so she said, "How?"

And that is how Amity learned an expansive vocabulary of Spanish pet names. She also learned that it was very possibel to blush so hard you stop breathing. She learned both of those valuable life-long lessons, the hard way.)

then there's the crack oh we're just bros obv edition: raris

Where Paris and Rory are just (gay but in denial but she doesn't realize she's gay or in denial?) and Star's hollow is like 'oh, those lesbians!' and Pairs is like, 'let's date and mess with your town' and Rory is like 'that's stupid' but they end up doing it anyways for no other reason than Paris' research paper and Lorelai's amusement.

("I don't think we convinced Luke."

"He's convinced," Rory reassures, as she highlights a particularly good line. "He's just giving you the cold shoulder for my virtue or whatever."

"Hmm."

"But," Rory says, not sure why she is saying this other than that she kind of wants to. "I mean, we should be thorough. I've only seen Taylor print one Raris Valentines Poster."

"That is freakish on it's own."

"Yeah, but not to Taylor's standards. I think we can do better."

"Should I propose?"

"Oh my god.")

then there the crack crack crack crack one: nevermore

("Maybe you should kiss me," Anabel Lee suggests, eagerness shining through.

Lenore pretends to contemplate it, "I guess it's the only way..."

Two feet away, Duke turns to Pluto and whispers, "They do know we can hear them right? Like, we are all sitting at the same table?")

[strawberryblondebutch]

what are your top 10 ships? in order? 👀

Ten? TEN?!

Christ. Okay. There's gonna be some rarepairs and some crackships on here and I'm not going to apologize.

Cheryl Blossom/Veronica Lodge (Riverdale) - Sorry not sorry putting this number one. I've been on this train for over half a decade. I feel like I have a red string board about how the narrative implicitly connects them but the writers are cowards. Justice for Camila Mendes, who spent seven seasons trying to kiss women and the writers kept putting her back in straight relationships.

Dinah Lance/Zatanna Zatara (DC Comics) - This is explicitly the comics canon, because I don't think they've really interacted in any other forms. Admittedly this one has less to do with the ship and more the fact that Zatanna is my pathetic bisexual wet cat and no one at DC seems interested in examining her trauma through anything besides her relationships with men.

Sam Carpenter/Kirby Reed (Scream) - God. The wasted potential here. The Scream franchise has never written a protagonist that wouldn't be better as a lesbian. The shared trauma. The height difference. Can they both get some goddamn rest.

Robin Buckley/Nancy Wheeler (Stranger Things) - This one has dropped to four because of my umbrage with the fandom in general, which I know I don't need to explain to you. But besides Natalia and Maya having so much chemistry, Robin being the only one who consistently listens to Nancy and vice versa is so important to me.

Yelena Belova/Kate Bishop (Marvel Cinematic Universe) - Once again, specifically in the MCU. Again, Hailee and Florence have such amazing chemistry, and their relationship is the natural successor to Clint and Nat. I can't wait to see how the MCU wastes their potential!

Hazel/PJ (Bottoms) - RIP to everyone who loves Josie and Isabel, but you can't give me a local dirtbag and a cringefail butch and not expect me to smoosh their faces together like Barbie dolls.

Kate Bishop/America Chavez (Marvel Comics) - The MCU already decided they didn't want this one by aging America down and Kate up, but this was the ship that originally got me onto Tumblr. They're still kicking ass and taking names forever in my heart.

Betty Cooper/Donna Sweett (Riverdale) - I just think she (bitchy prep school brunette with big eyes) is pretty neat, ok?

Sansa Stark/Margaery Tyrell (A Song of Ice and Fire / Game of Thrones) - They hate to see one girlboss winning, much less two. In a different world, they are Cheronica in a different font. Stop booing me, I'm right.

Laura Kinney/Marc Spector (Marvel Comics) - Are they an M/F ship? Sure are! Have they ever interacted in canon? I don't think so! But this one I can explain - when I did Marvel PBP, my Moon Knight ended up romancing X-23 and now I desperately need them to interact. Their dates mostly involved patching each other up and talking about their trauma.

[luvuwite]

Hihihi TDTC ask!

Was wondering if there was a reason why the majority of the cast/world are female? Was very curious about that :0

Ofc no reason is also a good reason it's really cool to just have women lead for once I find it really neat :)

OMg!!! YEAH OK!!!

um no theres no specific reason LOL I JUST FUCKING SUCK AT MALE CHARACTERS ITS ACTUALLY SO SAD 😭😭😭😭

IVE BEEN TRYING to do more male ocs but overall woman are just so much more 😊😊

the actual only ocs that are. importantly. woman?!?!???? Idk if that's how i'd word it LOL but Elyisan (basically God) actually is just a fat lesbian tbh. she thinks the woman anatomy is genuinely a beautiful design so she mimics her appearance off of it :)

the Queens are all woman since in order to pass down the card symbol, it has to come directly from the mother (pregnancy/birth basically) so the kings aren't really as important as the girls, ESP MORE NOW THAN EVER SINCE THE QUEENS.... THEY'RE NOT EXACTLY.... NOT ALL OF THEM ARE STRAIGHT. my woman lovers.

other than that, the other ocs are just all girls bc i fucking love women (i am terrible at drawing men) BUT i'm trying my best to try and... make more men????? I JUST i also enjoy just evil woman/women in power, imo i think there isn't much attention of that trope and IDK its just fun doing it!

[runthepockets]

I've been thinking a lot today about how self hatred seems pretty integral to straight culture, at least from all the passing remarks my gay friends and peers have made throughout our time together. Like that analysis of Carmen and Richie from The Bear is really sticking with me, the way fans resonate and are more forgiving of the latter because he's that of your average red blooded working class old school straight dude, while Carmen is seen as prissy and pathetic and weird by some fans for not linearly healing from unlinear trauma, for standing up for women and taking no issue with having them in power, some headcanoning him gay or trans for all this. I was watching Bojack Horseman with one of my old roommates last year and he made a comment like "it's so crazy that they made Diane go this hard for feminism and they still made her straight", almost as if to imply straight women don't need feminism and if their feminism goes any deeper than centricism or liberalism then they've probably got more going on, so the reverse of this exists for straight women too.

It's fascinating. People will assume you're gay if you're a nice / sensitive dude, as evidenced both by real life interactions that've been recounted to me by my straight guy friends and by the countless amount of headcanons that any boy or man in fiction with trauma who tries to do the right thing is a trans guy or a gay dude. I mindlessly reblog pictures of shirtless guys + male positivity posts cus "hey that's cool, I could look like that. I hope people think I'm as cool as this guy looks." Men are pretty cool" " or "yeah, men do have the potential to be good. I'm a man, I like to think this is the case" and very little more, and next thing I know I've got like 3 dudes trying to slide in my DMs. I have my personal grievances with these lines of thinking; I think they're really limiting and kind of regressive, especially from the perspective of anyone who's serious about any kind of gender or sexuality liberation. I don't think it's a crime to have headcanons or to want to find other gay people or to want to be seen in your media of choice, or any of that stuff, but I do think it's kinda rude to talk about straight people who don't fit into neat little boxes of "rampant abuser" and "vapid floozy who'll agree to anything as long as it gets her a husband" as if they're, like, weirdos or a waste or something. Part of sex and gender and feminist liberation means that everyone gets to do whatever they want. You're gonna meet a lot of straight women like Diane Nguyen, you're gonna meet a lot of straight men like Carmen Berzatto.

More importantly though, it just makes me kinda sad. Like the only way to love yourself and your gender and the people around you is so lacking in straight culture that people will sooner assume you're gay when you do good things for the women in your life or when a woman has a life outside of her husband. Like why did we do this to ourselves. It sucks bad.

[popculturebuffet]

Mutant Month: House of Claremont: Avengers Annual #10: Rogue Rises, Carol Falls (Patreon Review for Brotoman.exe)

Hello all you happy mutants and welcome back to Mutant Month, my celebration of the X-Men and all things marvel mutant. Today we're taking a step back from the strangest heroes of all themselves: while they do cameo in this story and Charles plays a very imporant roll, the main focus is on the X-Men's sometimes friends, sometimes rivals, and sometimes guys who sit there and do nothing while genocide happened because of editorial not stopping to think how bad this would make them look, the Avengers.. specifically Carol Danvers, at the time Ms Marvel. While Carol is absent most of the story it's her being found half alive and mostly brain dead that kicks off the story, her scathing reason you suck speech to the avengers for the events of Avengers #200, and the writer of this book being so pissed off by the events of said issue he wrote THIS ONE in the first place.

For those who haven't heard of avengers #200... i'm truly sorry i'm about to tell you it exists. But since this story is a direct sequel/fuck you to the story, I have to. Apologizes in advance.

So Avengers #200 was the story of how Carol Danvers got mystically impregnated by Marcus, extradimensional son of avengers foe Immortus... WITH Marcus. Marcus then revealed he'd previously kidnapped Carol, made her fall in love with him with the subtle manipulations of his machines, his EXACT words, and then when he had to go back to his home dimension due to his presence destroying the world, took Carol back with him. The avengers all GLADLY sent her off with her rapist and hoped she'd be okay.

If your curious to view this nightmare for yourself, my review of it's right here`, and it's easily one of the worst things i've reviewed. And that's not in a general group.. i'm still not sure if this monstrosity or the transphobic episode of faimly guy where Brian vomits for 2 minutes straight because he slept with a trans woman is worse. It's a toss up. It's a straight up deadlock of things that PHYSICALY HURT to write about.

So as a sort of apology Brotoman, who comissioned the review of Avengers #200 not having any idea how bad it was, as did I as while I knew what happened reviews only prepare you so much, agreed to eventually have me review the direct response to that, this issue. As for why it's in X-Men Month.. well if you know Carol's history or x-men history.. then you know where Rogue got her powers.. and this is where not only that happens.. but Rogue debuts. So not only does this change avengers history.. but it's also VITALLy important to x-men history, to the point the issue is both int he x-men and marvel masteworks and their respective epic collections. It's simply too vital to both stories to ignore, especially the x-men's as Carol also basically joins the group for a while after this.

As I said this is a direct response from Chris Claremont about Avengers #200. Now any resonable person would hate this story, something i'd rarely say as tastes differ but this is

So I feel confident saying no one likes this and if they do their just being a trollish jackass.

But no one liked this story less than X-Men Maestro Chris Claremont. Chris was deeply attached to Carol and for good reasons: While Carol existed before him, debuting in Captain Marvel and then getting her own solo, the character wasn't exactly defined, first being a kinda sorta but not really love intrest to Captain Mar-Vell, then having this weird split identity gimmick and working at a women's magazine printed by J Jonah Jameson. It was clear while Marvel had the idea of "neat new womens superhero" that was about all they had.

Luckily Chris took on the book and quickly ended the split identity schtick and defined carol as we know her: Tough as nails, badass, miltary referree. He defined her backstory, the son of a sexist jackass who joined the Air Force to get an education after he refused because she was a woman. He defined most of her supporting cast, her skill and genuinely who she was. He even took her archenenemy mystique with him when he started writing x-men and to my shock Rogue was actually intended for an arc in Carol's book.. but the book got cancelled before it happened.

So finding out a character he poured his heart into was raped and her friends were just fine with it while also pouring a thick gravy of sexisim on top of the procedings.. didn't go so well

Shooter.. let Chris right the ship. Which says a lot as normally when editorial is asked to correct a creative mistake they either wait a bit so they can make money off correcting their own bullshit or actively refuse

Granted in this case, Chris Claremont was marvel's #1 writer at the time, with X-Men rising to be their best seller, with Chris having just finished the back to back classics Dark Phoenix Saga and Days of Future Past. It was clear the X-Men needed chris, wouldn't be the same without him and Chris had all the power in this negotation, while all Shooter could do is nod and say sure. While Shooter would ocasoinally flex his power on x-men for both good (shutting down the Colossus and Kitty Pryde thing) and bad (not letting Mystique and Destiny be publicly gay.. or letting Destiny be nightcrawlers mom and Mystique having shapeshifted into a man to make that possible. ), but it was stuff Shooter was willing to fight for where as here the writer of his biggest hit was asking to fix a huge mistake for him. And given jim was busy making mistakes of his own

Someday.... i'll deal with this mess someday.. but for now Chris had the greenlight to fix Shooter's mistake, and thus we got Avengers Annual #10. And as said, since he couldn't do the Rogue story in carol's book, he did it here a way to both set up Rogue as the next big threat for the x-men, and of course swerve it by them being forced to take her in, and Carol joining the team in a supporting role while not having her powers... then giving her a new more powerful set. The latter part was also likely always intended, it simply played out diffrently. It's hard to tell. What won't be is does this issue hold up on it's own and does it help wash the taste of avengers 200 out of our mouths? Let's find out.

Avengers Annual #10 gets right to it as we open with a woman getting pushed off a bridge.. thankfully she's quickly saved by one of the guest stars.. no not storm...We're in san francsico and Chris Claremont is still writing non- mutant books so...

Yup. As a nice bonus to this issue in addition to Carol and the X-Men guest starring, we also get the Startling Spider-Woman. As I mentioned in my review of God Loves, Man Kills, claremont really likes using everything he's worked on or has worked on. I see echoes of that attitude in Al Ewing's work today, finding ways to weave in your other books or tie off loose ends you never got to.

For those less familiar with her, Jessica Drew was experimented on by her dad and the high evolutionary, raised around Animal People, and then became a super heroine, with Claremont turning her into a detective after some hit and miss directions. I'm a fan thanks to Dennis Hopeless breakout run, so it was nice seeing Jess here. When we next see Jess she's waiting at the hospital, where she finds out her Jane Doe is carol.. and whlie not suprising to us given this issues place and history, it was meant to be a suprise at the time with the cover lady easily being any super being the avengers had met.

And before we move on, let's talk about that cover for a second because it's this weird mix of being both really eyecatching and an absolute hot mess. On the one hand the striking red, various panels of all the stuff and nice bit of building intrigue as they don't spell out what out of the brotherhood knocked out cap and iron man. On first look it's not too weird.

But when you really step back and look at it it's saying a lot of nothing. instead of going just with cap being thrown through a window or showing the various things happening to the avengers and then having jess and the x-men on the botttom it tries to showcase EVERYTHING in this issue and cram it all on to one cover, which is never a smart idea. Not helping is the large advertisment for a ten speed giveaway taking up a lot of real estate in an already busy cover. I don't mind covers homaging this, as it's a neat IDEA for a cover, the excecution is just sloppier than I remember and has diminishing returns: it does the job of catching your attention.. but then gets it for all the wrong reasons.

Anyways there's a problem: Carol's mental state is so withdrawn the staff psychologist assumed she'd been insutlationalized since child hood, and they can't really reach her. Thankfully Jess happens to be friends with the x-men.

That's something.. weird that happened with the passage of time. See due to Chris writing her early on Jess was friends with the x-men and her reason for knowing them is not remotely small: on a case she found former member Banshee's lost daughter Siryn, who'd go on to be a major part of X-Force and X-Factor and a faviorite of mine thanks to the latter. It's not the biggest foot note but it's something that almost never gets brought up. She's friendly enough with the x-crowd it's weird it dosen't get brought up apart from her skrull counterpart and wolverine being on good terms due to Jess also having been a close friend of logan's in his series during her powerless days. For instance in the solo I mentioned, none of the uncanny x-men visit her party. They just kinda fell out of touch. I mean Logan was dead at the time but I can't imagine Kurt Wagner would pass up free shrimp and pretty ladies. It's just not who he is.

At any rate Jess calls the professor for help, and we get a little bit of slice of life stuff with the x-men. It's something chris REALLY loved doing and that I honestly miss in modern comics: with how tightly packed the pacing is there isn't time for the x-men to say, be busy rebuilding the danger room after Kitty had to use it to murder an alien, which is the case here. It's fun seeing Kurt and Kitty slowly bond and also fuck up some machinery together trying to fix things. Charles heads down to San Fran, and the avengers have been notififed: Carol's identity isn't public YET , so it's just said their linked "somehow". Charles tells Jess in his mind that not only is her concious mind just.. gone but he was able to find out who did it: Rogue. Who at the time would've gotten a solid reaction out of fans as

As this is her intro. It's a good way to set up a villian though: have her take out a hero at Carol's level.. and a few more. YOu do have to thread this needle carefully: if you go too far, the villian comes off overpowered. Here , Rogue has just enough to be a threat, but not so much she's entirely overpowered, as we find out some drawbacks later.. and much later will find out permenanlty stealing Carol's powers and memories comes with the whopper downside of a whole other person being grafted to her brain.

And we first meet Rogue properly.. as she suprise attacks captain america. Which COULD be seen as cheap.. but Rogue makes a valid point after: she has Carol's memories.. and thus unlike most foes fighting cap , knows how he fights. And Carol being military herself meant she probably thought about how to take him down just in case someone possesed him, turned him into a werewolf or created a nazi clone. You know the usual.

Rogue then does what would become her trademark of taking the power with a kiss. This is also where we find out she stole Carol's powers for keeps, and as long as she dosen't touch someone TOO long can usually not take too much. This part.. is a bit out of sorts with her later deep fear of being touched, but I feel fits: At this point Rogue is a villian and is being encouraged by her moms to be evil. As such the ethics are likely being actively downplayed. Most memroies she's taken fade away and so does the guilt with only her first use of her powers with her childhood friend cody really bothering her. It's a case of her simply not having the downside of her powers HIT HER yet. Without any consequences, she has no reason to fear her power.

While the rest of the avengers minus thor and iron main wait for cap, Rogue leonardos him through a window. This gets them to contact Tony as Iron Man who plans to help.. but turns out the attack on Cap wasn't something random.. it was well planned, with Mystique waiting in hiding as the wasp to trick tony.. and slam some sort of doo dad that depowers the armor and leaves tony stuck inside it.

Finally for the big three, just as Thor turns out of being Donald Blake, Rogue hits him. Granted she docent know he's thor's mortal alter ego... but it still makes sense as he's their doctor. Before she can finish him though Jess shows up, having apparently travled to NYC to follow up on Carol's attempted murder.

We get a neat fight as Rogue really beats the shit out of the avengers, but like I said it's done in a way that dosen't leave her coming off OVERPOWERED. Yes she snatch's thor's powers.. but that's why: She has the combined powers of thor, cap and ms marvel with Steve, Carol and Thor's combined knowledge of their teammates. It makes perfect sense she easily floors them and only dosen't kill them because Mystique has other plans for her daughter. It's also a ncie way to show off her inexperience and deference to mystique: she stole three powers but dosen't know if she can do more, and balks out of a guaranteed win simply becaase it's not in the plan.. which sets up the brotherhood's defeat LATER by not finishing the avengers NOW.

With the avengers on the backfoot for now, Jess reveals that Carol disappeared from new york 6 months ago with avengers 200.. but resurfaced three months later in San Fran, living just fine. It's our first hint that Carol isn't exactly happy to see her friends again. She moved to a city with one other superhero, hasn't picked the mask back up, and didn't call them. And as we'll see later she has every reason not to.

The avengers reacap avengers 200, and after giving me some flashbacks, we get to the main point: This attack was cordinated, the avengers are now down their three strongest and most experienced members. The only good news is Beast, who was an avenger for a while, it's why he wasn't in the Claremont run outside of a few choice guest spots as by the time he wasn't, he got swept into x-factor, meaning beating Rogue won't be easy.

The reason behind hobbling the avengers like this? A prison break. See the brotherhood first appeared a few months before this in the landmark x-men story Days of Future Past, trying to assassinate bigoted senator kelly, our heroes winning.. but Kelly being an ungreatful bastard about it and turning around to be mutantkind's greatest pain in the ass for a while, trying to publish the mutant registration act.

The brotherhood at the time consisted of Mystique, master shapeshifter and Carol's arch enemy at the time turned x-men villian, Destiny, Mystiques wife who can see the futttttttooorrrrrr, the blob, the imovable object, Pyro, Australian arsonist and fire bender, and Avalanche, earthquake machine of the cool costume without a personality to match, with Rogue joining here. They'd keep the lineup minus Rogue for most of the 80's, transitioning from terrorists to being the goverment's go too hired goons

At any rate Misty was the only one to escape last time, so it's her job to break them out, with help from her wife predicting when, and Iron man being used as a blunt instrument. Though really he's more of an object. All that matters is he's blunt, hard and blunt.

So the brotherhood is broken out and costumed up... just in time for the avengers to arrive. Spider-Woman heads to fight iron man while a decent fight ensues: the main gimmick is destiny is tipping off the brotherhood before the avengers each move, allowing them to counter. It's a reminder of just HOW powerful Destiny is: her knowledge of the future isn't 100% , it's more propablities than full info or other wise she'd be invincible and our heroes could never win and it'd be really, really boring. But it's still potent enough and showed off well by chris claremont here: while the rest of the brotherhood get a great showing, their mostly hired goons. Destiny is Mystiques #2 for more reasons than that mouth thing she likes, and this shows it. The avengers are entirely on the backfoot because of her and it's telling the tide turns after Wanda gets a chance to attack her.. and more telling that it was only concidence she got a shot in on her and pure luck, as none of them KNEW destiny was doing this. The X-Men at least later have the advantage of knowing Destiny's the most dangerous piece on the board.

Mystique tries to kill Jessica, mostly because she's pissed Carol lived. Destiny warns her this will be their downfall.. and she's right. Mystique was a terrible choice to send for this as Jessica sees right through her nick fury disguise and Misty barely escapes , with Jessica bringing iron man back

With that the tide has fully turned: Iron Man goes with the genius strategy of hitting Rogue real hard.. and her feeling it tells her she's down to just Carol's power and Mystique tells her to retreat, the two of them feeling. Now.. tha'ts a solid marriage right there. Where you can leave your wife to get captured by the avengers.

We get more of the fight including highlights such as pyro makin ga giant firebird, his trademark and Vision and Jocasta using double laser vision to collapse the ground beneath blob. It's a decent enough fight, I just don't care about it a lot and it's one of the issue's main weaknesses: A lot of it's a fight scene and while there was good setup for it with Misty taking out a lot of their members, the people who did said setup.. have left at this point. IT's down to blob, pyro and avalanche. And while I like all three for their designs and they've had great development in later years... in this case their just three interchangable mooks. Destiny's the one really making them dangerous and with the people who actually personally hurt the avengers gone, it looses any emotional weight. It's just the avengers against some b-list super villians. I've seen this before, i'll see it again and while it's fun enough it just feels like padding. What Chris HAD to do to justify the issue. It would've been more intresting had they actually escaped. The avengers won, the brotherhood just had to retreat. But i'm guessing Chris wanted the actual escape in his own book, and knew it'd also be weird if these guys beat the avengers and the earth's mightest heroes weren't after them.

It's nice ot see the brotherhood in this sort of situation.. but I can see why we only saw them pop up more elsewhere after they became freedom force: it's a lot easier to have the heroes eat the loss or the villians loose when the villians are working for the goverment and thus wont' be going back to jail.

The ending of this annual.. is what we came for though, the big centerpiece. The only thing I can say bad about it is the art. See the avengers come to see Carol, whose staying with the x-men, and will be for the next 20 or so issues of their title. More on that in a moment. For whatever reason artist micheal golden.. decided to have her pool side so this scene of a woman talking about her sexual assault.. is done in a swimsuit.

The art in general is the book's weakpoint: As a critic while i'll point out stuff I dont' like I generally try to be positive. Something bad like Avengers 200 isn't my usual wheelhouse. i'll gladly REVIEW terrible media for money, but even then I try to be fair.

But while the writing is good as any Claremont story of the era... the art from Micheal Golden is just bad. It's bad. At best i'ts inoffensive and at worst we have Rogue's looking like she's a 4 year old who found mommy's make up

Wonder Man looking like he pulled everything , everywhere all at once and cannot move from this pose as a result

Or the blob breifly replaced with a wax statue by the ghost of vincient price

Now credit where it's do there are good shots like this one of wanda

Or beast easily out manuvering pyro and blob

But as you can see their still not the BEST shots, just decent ones. It puts a damper on an otherwise solidly written book.

Speaking of which, it's time for the moment you've been waiting for, the reason we're here. Carol has the x-men and Jessica go inside, she needs to speak with her guests alone. Before she does though there's one small moment.. but an important one

It's a small subtle thing.. but the fact Jess is still here despite this scene taking place weeks later... shows she was there for Carol's recovery. While she found out what happened.. she cared enough to stay by her side and help her.. and it was through that one of the strongest friendships in the marvel universe war born. While it takes Jess becoming relevant again to really take hold, the two have been best friends for most of modern marvel, only briefly having a falling out over civil war II.. and even that didn't last long. Jessica and Carol are each othe'rs ride or die, and that call goes both ways. While we never see these weeks their what built a bond stronger than any on earth.

But this is something Carol has to do alone.

It's an utterly heartbreaking scene, one of the best in Chris Claremont's long career on this reread. The pure PAIN in carol's voice comes through in print, a hard feet but one Chris makes seem easy. And while Golden's artwork still isn't the best... he does a damn fine job of capturing her pain without making it melodramatic: instead we see a person who was horribly violated, has her friends casually assume she was in love with her rapist and even has one loudly tell her "no we saw you you didn't see what you think we saw".. only for Carol to calmly and tearfully explain that no, she did. Marcus violated her, and they LET HIM take her with him. It's only through sheer grace of his instant death far worse didn't happen and by then he'd still done more than enough.

What i love is that while Claremont is very thinly calling out how horrible the writing was.. he dosen't let his understandable outrage hurt his ablility to make a good narrative out of it: many a comic writer can succumb to clumisly fixing what they deem a mistake or even when fixing an actual mistake, fumble the ball. Chris here however turns it into character: Carol calls them out, tearfully, but calmly and lets them know how bad they hurt her, how bad they betrayed her.. but right after also makes it clear theyc an learn from this. They HAVE to learn from this. And if they do maybe all of this will have had SOMETHING good come out of it. But that's their choice.

It gives Carol agency back after an issue that was determined to strip it away, mocking her for not wanting a baby that was forced on her, that left her to a "happy ending" with her rapist." She could wallow in anger, but chooses to move on. She's cutting the avengers out of her life for now.. but after all they've done she can't bare to have them in it, and that panel above, that one right there shows how badly they get that: they came expecting to get some closure.. and instead got the wakeup call that they lost that one. Their friend was in pain, needed help, and they ignored what she wanted, ignored her concerns.. and like marcus ignored her consent. LIke him they didn't care what she wanted or who she was, just waht this whole thing meant to them. And it's clear fromt heir expressions.. that won't happen again.

I also like how it ends: Wanda, the one of them who was the most supportive during this debacle (and was missing during the sendoff with captain rapist, rest in dust you miserable bastard), is the most broken up by it and tells her sorry.. and Carol wipes her tears and accepts it, knowing at least one person tried not to betray her. It's a fitting sendoff for Carol's time in the avengers, a time that wouldn't come again till the 90's, one that dosen't let the avengers off the hook at all and has them utterly raked over the coaals for their henious actions, but allows her to move on

The final scene is in the Quinjet, as most of the avnegers sit in stone silence as the weight of everything hits them.. but it's once again wanda whose the most affected

It's a hell of an ending, one that offers no easy comfort.. simply the promise that maybe there will be a better tommorow. It's not easy making a mistake.. but it's the harder step learning from it. And evne harder to live with what others have inflicted on you.

So yeah while the art is hit and miss.. this issue is still solid. THe last act really steals the show, and is one long callout by chris.. but again it's done perfectly in character, a way to bridge carol leaving the avengers and joining the x-men and to make the Avengers deal with what they did. To make sure #200 isn't just fixed, with Carol back and Marcus a pile of dust, but to make sure it isn't forgotten. It's easier in comics to just.. wipe away a bad decision, and sometims necessary. But it's ofen the better route to take a huge writing mistake and refit it for character.

As for Carol her story would continue: she'd basically join the x-men, helping them on occasion, then get shot up into space with them, with her powers reawakend and reformatted as the even STRONGER binary. But with her emotions attached to most of her memories gonCarol's place on earth was gone and she took to the stars. She'd regain those emotions and rejoin earth of course, rejoining the avnegers, leading them and eventually becoming Captain Marvel.

As for Rogue.. having Carol's Memories would nearly drive her insane, revealing her not as the callous monster seen here.. but as a scared 20 or so year old... and forced to turn to the people who hated her most for help. But that.. my friend sis a story for next year. For now .. we can take comfort that even with lows like Civil War II under her belt.. Carol has never been through something like avengers #200 again.. and god willing never will. Thanks for reading

[frickingnerd]

i can't actually reply to the ask for some reason, so i'm answering it like this! as always:

answers for the ask game under the cut!

3 male characters I love:

my favorite male characters have recently shifted, with a new guy claiming the top spot. that one is no other than shinjiro aragaki! since i played persona 3 portable and romanced him (+got that eleventh social link with him 👀) he became my favorite guy! i really love him and he's such a tragic little guy. he'll break my heart a second time once p3 reload drops :')

my second favorite (and former first place) is yosuke hanamura! i liked yosuke from the start in persona 4 and he just grew on me so much over the game. he never left my party and he's been my favorite since my first day of playing the game. he's just great!

third place would have to go to goro akechi! i can't even remember why i was so interested in him when i started persona 5, but he just caught my attention from the start. his voice actor is absolutely amazing and akechi gets even better in the royal section of the game. he's just such a tragic character and so interesting!

3 female characters I love:

i'm not as passionate about the persona women as i am about the persona men. i like pretty much all of the girls equally, but a few stand out a bit. one of them being kotone shiomi aka. femc! i just love how silly she is and she's such a nice contrast to the male protagonist of persona 3. but she still keeps that tragedy that both of the protagonists have. honestly, she's by far my favorite girl!

my second favorite would have to be rise kujikawa! i knew i'd like her from the start and when i actually did her social link, i got so sad that i was already dating someone else, because turning down rise was so heartbreaking. rise is such a great and interesting character, as well as also being weirdly relatable!

my third pick would have to be makoto niijima (i'm seeing a trend here with my fav characters lmao). i just find her relatable and she's a very sweet character. she really grows a lot and i love that for her!

3 romantic ships I love:

my absolute favorite ship is foolmoon aka. shinjiro aragaki x kotone shiomi! everything about them is just perfect! they offer the right amount of angst/fluff ratio, their ship name is absolutely brilliant and they are both great characters, that get even better when put together! plus, there's something tragically beautiful about (major persona 3 spoiler coming now!) how when you pair them up in p3p, shinjiro actually survives the game, while kotone dies. the one that wanted to die lives, while the one that wanted to live dies. it's just... man, those two are breaking my heart in the best way possible!

no other ship can compete with them, but following my unintentional pattern, my second favorite ship is kanji tatsumi x naoto shirogane. i already love kanji a ton (he'd be my fourth fav guy, but he just barely didn't make the list) and he really gets to shine when he's with naoto. those two really are a straight ship made for gay people.

and my third pick is going to be aigis and kotone shiomi / makoto yuki. honestly, both of the protags with aigis are great! there's something so tragic about this ship, plus i love android characters like aigis that need to learn friendship, love, emotions and all that fun stuff. that pairing is really great as friends as well though! i just think they are neat together, no matter how!

3 platonic dynamics I love:

i have way more platonic dynamics i love, so this is kinda hard for me. i really love rise with both yosuke and kanji as friends! i can't really pick a favorite guy here, they are both great with rise!

another character that i just cannot pick for either is shinjiro aragaki, who i love with akihiko, fuuka and ken! each of those three for different reasons, but they are all great and really enhance his character!

that's more than three already, so i'll just... move on!

3 favorite moments in canon:

shinjiro's "secret eleventh social link" with the femc in persona 3 portable! first off, it's just a really sweet scene, plus it's great that you can still date him despite all of it. but then that social link itself is so funny, because... it highkey implies you two are fucking??? like with the right dialogue choices, you end up in his room and he tells you the whole "i'm not holding back if you stay". that caught me so offguard because i was just messing around with the dialogue choices and suddenly something's actually happening??? it's both sweet and funny, which is something you can't say about most scenes shinjiro is in, so i really appreciate it!

another canon moment i really love is the ending of persona 4, when everyone is running along the train and you get to see a picture of the investigation team :') it's just a very sweet scene and perfect to end the game with!

my third favorite canon moment would have to be the "bad" ending of persona 5 royal. because, it really isn't bad at all. it's happier than the "good" ending, which is a very interesting thing to do. that scene is just so incredibly bittersweet, knowing this is the "bad" ending, while also seeing everyone so happy. can it really be that bad if it makes them happy? :')

3 favorite headcanons:

i headcanon quite a lot of people as bi, but especially yosuke, kanji and naoto! kanji and naoto just give me "bi people in a straight relationship" vibe, while yosuke literally had a cut gay confession scene that i cannot ignore. also, he's such a disaster bi!

i don't really have that many big headcanons, so another one would have to be... haru likes otome games! and she gets ann & makoto to play a few of them as well (and both of them are lowkey into it).

my third headcanon is going to be that rise would've tried to become a streamer instead of an idol if that had been an option. sort of like iris from ai:tsf, who's half streamer and half idol. i think rise would've thrived like that and instead of taking a break from being an idol, she would've just taken a break and focused more on streaming!

3 least favorite things about it:

immediately spoiler for the ending of persona 3, but i hate that final boss! it has way too many phases! plus, i encountered a glitch during the last phase of that fight in my playthrough and it had took me almost two hours already to even get to that point. this one is just a personal grudge!

another thing i hate with a burning passion, even more than the p3 endboss, is the fact that you can date kawakami in persona 5! i really loved the first arc of persona 5, with kamoshida as the villain, since it's... relatable? saying it like that sounds bad, but hear me out: we all went to school and had teachers, some worse than others, so we all know a few teachers each. but how many politicians do you know? or how many famous artists? kamoshida was relatable because even if you never went through something that horrible, it's much more likely that you were wronged by a teacher before than a politician, famous artist or some mafia guy. i really loved how serious they took the kamoshida situation, only to be absolutely disgusted when seeing you could date kawakami. like, did we not just establish that teacher & student relationships are bad? did the people making persona 5 forget what the first ten hours of that game were about? or is it suddenly okay to have an age and power gap like that, because kawakami is a woman and "that's hot"? seriously, this is one thing i'm massively dissappointed about. also, in the same vein: why can you romance ken, a literal child, in persona 3? 🤨 that one is just as bad, but i just never did ken's social link so i never had the chance to build a hatred for this as strong as my hatred for the kawakami romance.

i think another thing i hate, which also fits my first point: the boss fight against haru's dad. it already sucks, but adding a timer to it? unforgiveable! timers are the worst thing to exist. i don't want to be rushed, i want to take my time with games. it's already a bad boss fight, but anything with a timer already gets ten times worse.

[my-strange-attraction]

Man people really do be straw-manning you and then interpreting all of your arguments in the worst faith possible and acting like that makes them So Smart And Correct. I’m sorry you gotta deal with all these bozos with zero reading comprehension or critical thinking skills. Just wanna add because it’s been seriously bothering me and I don’t remember you ever bringing it up: one of the core tenets of the original op’s post that you responded to was basically ‘this identity is bad because I’m a lesbian and those people aren’t lesbians in the exact same way as me so they’re hurting the lesbian community because I don’t want to see them when they don’t share all of my experiences and (gasp!) talk about men and their relationship to men sometimes because *I* don’t want to hear about men��� and I just. Idk man if that’s what his argument boils down to its kind of a shitty argument. Even ignoring all of the terf rhetoric (which you correctly pointed out) I can’t even begin to understand why someone would want to be in a queer community where everyone fits into neat little boxes and everyone with your label experiences their orientation exactly like you. Aren’t they forgetting that the whole point of the queer community is that larger society attempted to put us in boxes we didn’t want to be in and categorize us into labels and lifestyles we didn’t want? Why would someone ever parrot the actions of our oppressors and do that to other queer people, when they know what it feels like? I can’t even fathom being that selfish and closed minded

>your argument is chock full of straight up lies  Love how this was said in response to your rebuttal of an argument that CONTAINED ITS OWN “STRAIGHT UP LIES”!! Like pot meet kettle lol. Specifically referring to that one bit that was like “uwu bi women tried really hard on purpose to distance themselves from the lesbian community” because that is straight up not what happened!! I haven’t said anything yet but it’s been bothering me for a while and that one ask has so much fucking Audacity that I couldn’t stop myself from Pointing It Out this time. Ahistorical bullshit and they’re accusing YOU of lying. The audacity of it all I can’t

Anyway these guys are just mad that bi lesbians get more bitches than they EVER will. I heart bi lesbians I love you bi lesbians I hope y’all stay winning mwah <3

I'm assuming these are all from the same person because of the timing? If not, sorry for not doing separate responses.

Yeah, this whole thing has been pretty frustrating to be honest. In a way it's even worse than actual terfs, because these are people who are philosophically not that different than I am, and if we met in real life we probably wouldn't even know that we disagree. I mean, I do talk sometimes about label anarchy with some of my friends, but we have to be close and you have to get me in a philosophical mood. It's really frustrating to be openly disrespected as a person for one opinion that, though it does happen to be really important to me, doesn't come up in my everyday life (or, likely, theirs either).

The whole pronoun thing really got to me too. I KNOW they were just strawmanning, and I KNOW it wasn't really a valid critique of anything I said, but the suggestion that I would even consider purposely using the wrong pronouns for someone is upsetting. I don't think he even noticed before an anon pointed it out as a way to invalidate my argument. I don't think it upset him (or the anon) as much as the anon said it did. I still apologized though because I'm not going to not apologize for using the wrong pronouns.

Also I know jack shit about history because it doesn't stay in my break but yeah actually I do remember reading about that! That's crazy, I can't believe they called me a liar when they don't know their history. I mean, I don't either, but at least I'm honest about it.

Thanks so much for sending these messages! Not gonna lie, I was going a bit crazy with all this and the only anons I was getting until now have been the hate ones that I've shared and a few hate ones that I just outright deleted. I know people agree with me because I've seen the likes on my posts, but it's nice to have someone defending me as well, so thank you <3

[vio1315]

I think the implications of this post are kind of bs, honestly. (The implication I get from it is that if people don't have female characters they like, that they're genuinely sexist. But if taken charitably the post may just be that people are unable to recognize they have a bias to like male characters?)

If there is a claim of sexism, then I raise this: how is it that I don't like a single female character, yet every single one of my friends (who I deeply respect) are women?

I think the answers to that question will vary per person, but I really think any correlation to sexism is actually kind of rare. A lot of extremely sexist people love female characters. I'm sure you can think of seeing that sort of thing play out.

But if not sexism, then why does this trend exist? Let me cover some of the potential reasons I've come to when reflecting on the topic.

Tropes play out differently based on male/female

This is a hard one to explain, especially because it relies on 'feeling', and so some people may not have this same interpretation of two characters.

But say you like the trope of a parental figure with their kid. Depending on if you're looking at a man or a woman, that same trope may have a very different feeling, and you may have a preference to one or the other.

My favorite trope is 'con man with a heart of gold'. Now both men and women can express this same trope, but to me there tends to be a very different way they go about it, even if we take out any flirtatious elements. The same trope has room for that preference shift.

Women are usually written as the voice of reason / straight man

This is complicated, but basically, in a cast of kooky characters, a lot of the time you see the woman as the one with a better head on her shoulders. Which as far as characters go means she'll be a little bit more 'boring'. It can be vital to a group dynamic, but it won't make her very popular as having a standout personality to latch onto. As someone who likes villains for the more boisterous traits, this is especially apparent to me.

Obviously not all women are written this way, but I do believe the tendency can be a contributing factor, given the one female character I like which is a friends OC is out of her mind in her own special ways.

Women have something to prove

This is something I notice in more like 'modern era' fiction, but a lot of characters seem like they have to prove they're good enough? If that was focused on as a bad thing it could be interesting, but it generally isn't. A lot come off as tryhards, which to me personally is a negative trait that makes me dislike them. I'd rather they have a sense of confidence in who they are, or that the trait be shown as negative and a character flaw.

Or I guess that it made sense in setting? In a super competitive and sexist setting, then this reaction makes sense (though some focus on it would be interesting to me. Exploring if letting that environment change you is good or bad etc) but a lot of times it is in a normal setting, so it comes off as a clear flaw. Some people probably like this flaw, but not me, personally, and I know it's a turn off to others as well.

I have a hypothesis that this is a straight girl thing

Now this is the hardest to prove because it's all in the subconscious if this is true, but I have a Feeling that a lot of the people who like all male chars are going to be straight women. Not even because they're attracted to the characters, absolutely not. But just because they think guys are neat.

This would be fun to gather data on to me. It doesn't seem like gay men have this as far as I can tell? Which is kind of interesting, and idk exactly why the difference is there, but in my own observations this is the type of trend I've noticed.

I think the video is mostly irrelevant from what I saw, but the mention of exploring your feelings through writing men could make sense in some ways if something was preventing you from feeling okay about writing women with the traits that seem forbidden to you? I'd just add 'in a socially acceptable way'. Men being angry enough to punch a wall is seen a bit differently to a woman doing so kind of thing, so maybe to some writers there is that feeling?

For me... I really don't know why I like male characters better despite having pondered all these things. I think these certainly are elements that play into it for me, but I do think there's something missing too. Maybe my childhood of trying to prove myself as a tomboy and seeking out guy friends had some influence? Even if back then I liked girl characters more and have since grown out of this.

Mostly, I see this about as important as me liking 'con men with a heart of gold' though. Like I just do. I literally hate people like this irl, but in fiction it's fun, it leads to a lot of fun and engaging things. There's a clear separation to what I like in fiction and what I like irl. It's not really a big deal.

But maybe OP really was just meaning this as like 'just admit you don't like female characters!' in which case I'd say the reason people are nervous to is just in case someone thinks they're sexist due to the preference?

i dont really know how to articulate this but its crazy just how many people dont even realize they dont care about female characters. all their faves are men. they never talk about girls without being led into it. and when you try to point this out to them they try to defend themselves that their faves are just the archetypes they like, despite clearly not caring when that same archetype is a woman. like i feel like at a certain point it is your problem with the common denominator if you cant find a single female character to enjoy

[tiptoeing-upsidedown87]

They rape the skull so we can't think.

-And are held down by noise.

They rape the outer vagina so we can't breathe on our own.

-And have to sit with their man at the time of choice while being held down.

They torture the heart so we can't see clear.

-So they can dominate their realms and living dreams of life.

They rape the ass with men.

-So we don't respect them at all.

They rape the eyes with souls of dead nasty tattooed girls.

-Because they conquer their money and withdrawal symptoms.

You know how I know it's wrong? You know how I know they're wrong? I was bisexual. I would admire women so distantly from myself. Clear in my body to make physical decisions. To love a man and slowly learn love for a woman... Shower is to be expressed with women. We find a sense of bitter quietness and alone time. Something we'd only ever share with other women like us, like something far from a locker room? When are they gonna make up their minds and do something worth meaning something. Something not to be shared with men? The way the soap would hold my body and the way it holds the body of another. The way the water talks from God and establishes a sense of security in being watched blindly. You know how I learned I was leaning hard into bisexuality? When men started sharing. When they started seeing eachother. When they would place a woman or women in the middle of their conversations. When my only sense of safeness in my body was in the arms of a woman. When the only way I could express myself was in the heart of a doctor. It hardens my heart to feel like men and women will bully my idea of security. When women and men scold me and tell me to share my supposed to be silent sexuality. Like I'll never be bisexual again. I'll never experience true sex again? 😪 I'm tired. Exhausted. My means are exhausted. This is to be the body. And this is to be the flesh. I'm a child now for my beliefs. I am just insecure. I'm frightened by the sex of others because it is not the sex of myself. At 28 you shouldn't be having to prove your bisexual vagina. Your straight vagina. If you are feeling extra lesbian today why would you share that with a complete stranger? A stranger at all? It's hypocritical. To feel offended in the way these people envision life. Why would I get comfortable here? Why would I force myself security that isn't mine? To retrain myself over and over. Hey over here, our CLASS IS FULL were walking vaginas. Tomorrow our kids are gonna be learning to hang from jungle gyms from their skull. How neat. 🤔

child sex. Adult child sex. Almost 30 and my only classification till I get my teeth handled or fixed is adult child? I'm cryinScreamin... my ex is 40 somethin. Like we don't share a home together? I'm supposed to climb up the mountain time and time again to my child and his house. 👋 hey I'm still here. Bitching about personal freedom.

Adult Kids these days are off chains in their back yards dreaming about any possible thing that comes to mind. A fence is a fence. A bike is a bike. A tree is a tree. They really just have such peculiar things to envision about what lies in front of them. They're allowed to use it for an hour. In our time thats 3 days. After they get a new water bowl it's onto punishment for the 45 seconds they thought of jumping off their dog house. 62 seconds about how they jumped up for a ball that almost hit the sky. 45 minutes about the food trashed in the yard. Another 45 minutes for the sex with the neighborhood Colly... 'They were just talking about last week when they strolled the block with their plastic machetes and fake cigars. 😒 like it wasn't sex at all...... 2 seconds for an eye glare from a fuzzy in their eye. Now onto the plushed pillow in the house. Scattered with invisible feathers from the cat on the line. But still these parents insist its the adult dogs fault. Why are those peddles all over my tub? Did you do this? Like cmon no one else was in the house. Why did you peddle my tub? Because I had a sense of security. I was envisioning smoother skin. Someone told me do it. Lol. This life.

[fanonical]

you have any favorite LGBT homestuck headcanons?

June's a trans girl but she doesn't know it yet. She's not interested in men, but maybe one day she might be after she opens her mind up in her transition.

Rose works out she's a lesbian pretty young and maybe never "comes out" so much as everybody just realises after a while

Dave is gay and has been working that out hopping from "straight" to "not using labels" to "queer" to "bisexual" for a lot of his youth. I think by the start of Homestuck he firmly believes he's straight because he's afraid of the feelings he has for boys, and by the end he basically is on the cusp of admitting to his close friends that he's into dudes, but he still thinks he's into women (and he's not)

Jade has been unquestioningly bisexual for as long as she can remember, although she maybe didn't know the word for it until at least meeting the other kids online, and maybe doesn't even identify in a particular way at all (at least, not until she's in her twenties)

Jane is bisexual, and she will never, ever know it. There's a good chance she won't ever properly examine the feelings she has for women, and had for Roxy, and will die identifying as heterosexual.

Roxy is bisexual, and fully knows it. Again, I don't know if she would identify with the word itself, but I also don't think she'd mind people describing her that way (or as pansexual, for that matter). She's just into who she's into, and has never really understood a distinction in the "feelings" even if she understands men and women are socially different roles to some extent. Her relationship to human identity is pretty precarious because of her, uh, "upbringing"

Dirk doesn't identify as "anything" specifically, at least not as a teenager, but you could functionally describe him as gay; he doesn't have any interest in being with women. He probably uses the word gay a lot to describe his interests and hobbies, though, like "That's pretty fucking gay" sort of tongue-in-cheek, post-post-irony or whatever this fucked up boy's deal is.

Jake is bisexual. This is law.

The trolls are all ambiguously bisexual and also mostly literally bisexual? I think trolls can be straight or gay or whatever, but they certainly don't use words like that to describe those things; they simply don't envision sexuality that way on Alternia (Beforus might, though?) -- but I guess you could describe Kanaya as functionally a lesbian, but she'd most likely just envision it as "I'm not really attracted to men" rather than describing it with a group she's identifying into.

Some other misc stuff I like is envisioning Roxy as a trans girl, I really like AUs and headcanons involving that. I also like Dove Strider as a headcanon but mostly only for the cool and cute designs I see for her, I don't know if i actually think it about Dave but it's certainly really neat. i also feel like Calliope is metatextually transfeminine in the original comic, but that's not really a headcanon. trans Terezi is good, so is non-binary Terezi (however you envision that), Sollux is definitely transmasc. Jade Harley is trans maybe?????? love that girl.

thank you for asking a question i can self-indulge in. i love you.

Ask me anything about Homestuck!

[earthnashes]

In regards to that “I see no difference, love is love 👍” post... I genuinely can’t recall. Did you ever draw something straight that wasn’t a comission? or already canon??? 😂

The vibes I got were always ‘gay, gay, homosexual, gay’. Somft lesbeans and buff ladies. With equally soft gay men sprinkled in from time to time.

I'm not gonna lie to you, I really don't like getting questions like this. Not to say you meant anything by it, of course, but I don't care for them.

So to rephrase your question: Have I drawn and headcanoned a M/F relationship? Yes.

Have I drawn a specifically straight couple? No. If you're mad-frothing to label my content, “queer” is the closest you’ll get.

Long answer: I can't relate to labels. This is in general speaking; it might have somethin' to do with my IRL near-total disinterest in romance and sex but I generally don't really vibe with using labels for myself, and I think that reflects in my art.

It's largely why none of the characters get a specific label , especially in headcanon, because I guess I operate on the thought of "love is a very varied spectrum". I don't draw a female and male together just to say "they're straight", if I draw them together it's because I think they work well together. I don't draw two women or two men together because "they're lesbians/gay", it's because they work together.

I never say what any character strictly identifies as because that doesn't really change my perception any; if they love each other and treat each other with respect, that's enough for me. Why try to fit them into a neat little box when spectrum and love is far too varied to legitimately contain? I get it's for simplicity, but I think it's much simpler to just accept the person for who they are.

But yeah. Hope that answers your question. :)

[edai-crplpnk]

Part 3: Thoughts and Feelings

I happen, as you may have guessed, to have many of those regarding tops and doms. This is a disorganised list of them made by me at 3am, I apologise in advance if it is a little messy maybe.

By default assume that I am always talking about mlm dynamics here because I am way to ignorant about wlw dynamics to say something interesting (outside of: i would really love to write a fic between my service top chara and a stone butch chara because i find it really touching when queer ppl of different communities bond over their own iteration of a common identity), and straight dynamics have common points but also a lot of different stake and for now I'm gonna leave it to them to figure out, I do not have the time for this lmao.

Also I have decided to give this list some pompous title to make it look like there's a plan so:

1 - Being a top makes you human

And being a bottom does, too.

Allow me to explain.

When I started being active in fandom, I was very wary of describing characters as tops or bottoms, and of anyone who did so. (Let's put it frankly: I was a little stupid.) I bought into the idea that it was objectifying and "fetishising" (and honestly now I try to avoid that word as much as possible because I've found that 9 times out of 10 the people involved in the discussion would be unable to define what they mean by that, and so would I). That people were people, not tops and bottoms, and that reducing someone to this was bound to be dehumanising.

Dear readers: it is not.

To me, this idea comes from the same place as stuff like, "I think everyone would be bi without social norms/is actually bi/should be bi." or, "If there were no patriarchy/social norms, no one would be trans."

First of all, we don't live in a patriarchy-free society and most likely won't, while it's not a good reason not to try to get there, it's absurd to base your reflection of what life would be like in that hypothetical words to talk about how we should act in the real one.

But what is more important for me here is that this also comes voluntarily or not, along with the idea that people would not have an identity in an ideal world. And I am not fond of that. My gender, my manhood, and my masculinity are not things that are sad collateral damage from a brutal society. They are a joyful part of what makes me human. My love and attraction for men is not a restricted view of humanity. It's genuine and rich and extensive.

People have tastes and preferences and that's good, that's what makes them people. To give my characters sexual preferences and feelings about the various position they could be put in or take on during sex is not reductive, on the contrary. It's rich and it makes them diverse and distinct and it gives them an individual essence that is not that of every single other around them.

I will try to not ramble too much about my own personal life here, but I will just say that being helped to understand all of this has also done tremendous things to my ability to accept and embrace the fact that I am a gay man, because it has allowed me to view it as the joy and rich and precious individuality and shared love that it is, rather than the previous framing of it that I had of it being somehow a fault because, I'm not gonna lie to you, living in primarily queer and feminist spaces does not always make it easy to be able to think "men are neat". (And while I absolutely understand why because it is true that the violence brought by men, in general, onto women, in general, is extreme and entirely disproportionate to how it goes the other way around, the way it's framed is still an issue if it makes gay and trans men hate themselves or gives the tool to white women to threaten and get black men killed, but I digress.)

2 - Clichés are okay sometimes, actually

I will nuance this, I promise.

Sometimes, when people say that having characters that are tops or bottoms is okay, they will put an addendum like "but it's important to not equate personality and top/bottom or dom/sub, you can have any looks and personality and be a top/bottom/dom/sub". And, of course, I agree with the sentiment, fem tops are cool, shy tops are cool, dominant bottoms are cool, you get the gist. Part of saying that tops and doms should be treated as humans and embraced in their diversity has to mean that you want characters of various looks and personalities to be tops and doms!

But I have some issues with that, or rather, with how some people frame and think it albeit really agreeing with the statement in itself.

First, as per point 1, I personally think that seeing sexual preferences and dynamics as part of the characters' personalities is important and humanising. So while, yes, tops can have various personalities, of course, I think that it's important that it doesn't mean "my character's preferences are entirely unrelated to their personality".

For example, in the second series I shared earlier, some of Kankurou's personality traits are that he likes to show affection to others by doing things for them and is quite domestic (he's shown loving to cook for his siblings for example), that he tends to catch on feelings very easily, but doesn't necessarily wants to act on them in a romantic/committed way, it's more that for him love and attraction are only very mildly separated, so while he doesn't want to date all of his hook ups (or any, really), he does tend to view those encounter as also a very emotionally charge things and that while not necessarily ashamed of that, he is someone who cherishes privacy and modesty a lot, and is not necessarily comfortable with exposing himself. These things transpire in him being primarily a top, or rather in the specific ways that he is. Part of the dynamic he likes is being able to put himself at the service of his partners because he is often quite emotionally invested in them and their pleasure, and finds joy and fulfilment in being able to provide this for them, while also often finding it a more comfortable position to be in because the focus is less on him and it allows him to be more private about how he feels and make it more about what his partner want and like and feel like.

It's not that someone with this personality has to be a top, a bottom could like all of that, mix and match works with almost any combination, but his identity as a top, how he does it and why he likes it are very directly tied to his personality, and it's cool.

The second thing is that often this will come alongside a suspicion for any character that will tick too many boxes of the same archetype. It's okay that a chara is a top, and maybe it's okay if their also the masculine, or tall, or dominant, or idk what other cliché associated with tops, but if he's all of that, then he will be seen as too cliché and therefore bad and unrealistic or objectifying. While I'm sure that's the case sometimes (many times even maybe, I genuinely don't know) and I understand where this suspicion comes from, I think that it's also important to recognise that some people just do fit certain stereotypes, and are still people.

There is intrinsic issues with clichés that are actively stigmatising (like, no, i will not answer "queers are groomers" by "it's a generalisation, but it's okay that some of us are" OF COURSE) but some are most problematic in that they make blanket statement and, more importantly, I think, in that they are viewed as a negative thing.

The main issue with "gays are effeminate and always friends with girls and they like shopping and not sports", for example, is that it's just plainly not true for a number of people, and it's dehumanising in that, once again, it negates the diversity of individuality within a given identity, but also it's that the sub-text (or sometimes full on text) is "and that's bad". Yes, I have a character that is gay and effeminate and always friends with girls and who likes shopping and not sports. The big difference between me and bigots is that I appreciate those are human traits that he has because he's a person, not categories made to other him without thinking about what they mean for him, and that I think he's neat and that it's cool he has things and people he likes and preferences that mark him as an individual.

The third thing is probably less important (or is it? I don't know anymore) but it's fair to say at this point I'm not trying to keep this short anyway so I will still say it. It's that another thing that can be heard is, "It's okay if you have stereotyped characters, as long as it's not All Of Your Characters. It means that it's just that, yes, some people to happen to fit stereotypes, but that they're just some within a larger diversity." and I think that I don't agree with the idea that characters have to be people.

I love to write characters that are people, as I think this whole post is making very clear, crafting characters that have complex personalities and personal tastes and strong individualities is something that is very dear and important and joyful to me. But I have also written things with characters that are no people, and I certainly have loved works that did the same.

What I mean by "characters that are not people" is that it's also an option to write characters as symbols, ideas, forms that are meant to represent complex or more general feelings or experiences, and not contain a human individuality and logic of a past and a set of traits and experiences building their present self. This is how an astronomical amount of art functions, paintings, poetry, tales and fables, myths, a lot of theatre, and I'm sure, even if maybe less, a lot of novel-type writing too.

This isn't an issue, and it's not an issue in porn either. I will use the word this time, it's okay to fetishise characters in porn. That's quite literally what porn and fetishes are for. Representation of erotic ideas, topoi, imaginary, figures, etc. within a human character that is not written like a person, is not bad, it's a lot of what porn is. (And it's not even what I write at all, I'm not defending my church here, I just think it's very valid and cool.)

I think that what is important is to be aware of it, both as writers and readers, when this is what we write or read, and that characters are created equal in this. If you have human and complex characters in your story but suddenly there's that one chara who is a symbol of an idea or a cliché and not meant to be treated as a person, especially if it's a marginalised character, we're getting into very iffy territories.

Of course, it's important to be mindful of the fact that stereotypical figures, symbols, fetishes and the rest are always soaked in harmful social norms and we have to think about that too, but that does mean we have to burn all and every symbolic figures and characters because, again, the harmful social norms will never be fully gone of anything you'll do. Better know that than do something that you think will free you of them but will only achieve to make you stop thinking about it.

3 - Hurting people is not easy nor inconsequential

We're entering more the dom side of this than the top side now. (And once again, although I wholeheartedly believe in and love sub tops and dom bottoms, I think it's dishonest to act like topping and dimming are not to things that are linked in our imaginaries whether we want it or not and that, therefore the issues regarding the representation of both of those are interconnected and interdependent, just as are, shall I say since I'm here, the way we think about men, and the way we think about masculinity, for example.)

I think there is an assumption that, of course, being a sub (especially in a context of more "intense" kink, like pain play or, idk, fisting or whatever) is challenging and vulnerable and potentially dangerous, so it's important to make sure the sub is really wanting and ready to receive that, but that since the dom is not the one in physical danger and isn't the one who is going to receive and suffer (albeit with pleasure) through this violence (albeit consented), it will be less challenging for them.

I don't think this is entirely wrong, just as I don't think that the same type of belief being held towards tops and bottom is, because there is often more intrinsic physical risk to bottoming and/or subbing than there is to topping and/or dimming. However, I think the depth of this disparity is really overestimated.

As someone who is both verse and switch, I will tell you that I find it immensely scarier to top and dom, and I say that even as bottoming is not exactly easy either lmao. (Another day we should talk about how sides don't get enough appreciation either. Writes sides! Over a fourth of my smut fics do not have anyone top or bottom. You don't even have to do any of this!)

Hurting people, even when they want and like it, is not easy. Being the one who is made to take all the decisions is not easy. Being the one mainly responsible for checking everyone's safety (which isn't always the dom's role, but often is) is not easy.

More generally this boils down to something that is very important and way more general than anything sex or BDSM-related to me that is: being in power is not intrinsically easy or comfortable. It is exactly what it says on the tin: more power. It will often come with more resources to protect yourself, and more autonomy so you can flee a situation of violence, so in that, yes, it is a protection, but it can still be a very violent situation to be put in. (For example if you can't see where I'm heading: men tend to have more resources to protect themselves or get away from situations of abuse, but male socialisation, in itself, is not intrinsically less traumatising than female socialisation is.)

All that to say, domming can be a very vulnerable and scary and draining position to be in, and it shouldn't be overlooked simply because it is often (and not even always) less physically dangerous.

What that means too is that you need to consent to sub, and you also really, really need to consent to dom.

I've rambled about this before I'm fairly certain but I feel like while (in people who do actually care about consent which I will admit is not a given) there is a general understanding that anything violent done to someone should be thoroughly consented by said someone, the acknowledge that it should be thoroughly consented by the person who hurts is a bit slipped under the rugs sometimes.

This is something that I wrote a lot about in The Smell of the Rain, but I fundamentally think that making someone do something to you without them being fully aware of and okay with the impact it will have on you, including "negative" (quotation mark for "pain in painplay isn't negative per see but it's still pain") is abusive and a breach of consent. Letting someone do something that hurts you without telling them, when it's someone who does not want to hurt you, is a breach of consent.

This is complicated because of course, I don't want to say that anyone who has struggles upholding their boundary is a vile abuser, and that being unable to say no or stop during a sexual activity is active sexual assault. I certainly have been there many time, this shit is HARD. (And it can be hard for tops and doms too, it's to be noted.) It's something that is messy and takes time and work, but it's important. And it's not important just because you owe to yourself to be able to do that (and you do) but because you owe that do the partner who do not want to hurt you or force you, too.

I think it makes sense to think of things like that, because ina situation of abuse that is how it work, you aren't abusing someone who wants to harm you by letting them do. And because we often discuss consent in regards to base (which again, makes sense) this is what we think of. Making people who might hurt others know to not do that. (Not sure we're succeeding but-) But if you are writing about a relationship that is meant to be healthy and where characters have good intentions towards each other, then this is not the right perspective to have on consent than to think of it as "making sure that the person to whom something is done wants it" and not "making sure that both parties involved are equally aware of the meaning of this act for both, and both want to go forth with it.

Unless there is a reason why one of the two character is a likely victim and the other a likely abuser (which can happen), I don't want to frame consent between my character as "person who might be abuse and person who might be abusing need to make sure that doesn't happen" which will go on to dehumanise one of them (again, if there is not a precedent that realistically causes that, and then it will likely fall on the top/dom) but really as "two people who are all in capacity of hurting the other in various ways, trying to not do that".

Well. It is now 5am, I've been at it for 3 hours, and I'm sure there is a lot more to say but this is probably way more than enough for today lmao. I will now sleep so tomorrow can be another day full of loving tops and doms and other men loving other men. I will also not proofread this post for evident reasons, so I hope it won't happen to be a nonsensical sleep deprave mess. Bye 👋

I wish more fanfic writers were empathetic to tops and doms. I think a lack of empathy there explains a lot of the fandom discourse around the idea that it’s racist to make characters with darker skin the top or seme or whatever.

Part of why it bothers people, I think, is that in fandom spaces—for a variety of reasons—people have somehow come to a consensus that it’s fine to have submissive and degradation oriented fantasies, but not fantasies about making someone submit or doing the degrading. SOME people don’t let themselves think about the interiority of those that could actually deliver them what they want, sexually. And I don’t even just mean actual sex! I can tell when a fic author actually gets off on topping or domming. Those people are kind of rare in fandom, but their fics really stand out if you know what you’re looking for. Side note—I think there’s a lot of untapped potential in whump writers, who could probably write really wonderful nasty smut, but who are ashamed of writing something sexual and worried about backlash (so they just stick to narrative torture for now).

If you instinctively think that writing a character as a top or dom means they’re incapable of having interiority or complexity because YOU can’t write a compelling top or dom character for shit, then you might also think that any writing of people of color as tops or doms is inherently bad or offensive writing. And this is sad for everyone, but it’s especially sad for the actual tops and doms of color in the real world who have to read people saying that they don’t exist, or that characters who feel like them are offensive and racist.

Ironically, the people who claim that writing a character of color as a top or dom automatically makes that character a racist or brutish stereotype are reenforcing that stereotype. I want to see more compellingly written top and dom characters who have actual wants and conflicts. Give me more woobie, extremely emotional doms. Give me self esteem issues, or the struggles of being mistreated by subs, or feeling reduced to what they can provide sexually but not seen as a good person outside of that, please.

tldr; I wish more people knew that it’s not an insult to write a character as a top or dom, and therefore that it’s not an insult to write a character of color as a top or dom.

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