#'queer people don't get to have shitty teenage relationships as teenagers because there's only one queer person in every high school

[shmreduplication]

i hate the concept that queer people have a "delayed adolescence" due to being queer so it's really funny reading zach braff's concepts behind Garden State, a heterosexual romance(?) movie about an emotionally-numb coming-off-his-meds-for-the-first-time-in-his-adult-life cishet man (played by braff) and an epileptic compulsive liar manic pixie dream girl (played by Natalie Portman) and he describes it as a second puberty of the brain during a person's 20s. This movie came out in 2004

this is his quote from describing the basis for what the movie is about: "I have this theory that your body goes through puberty in its teens, and the mind goes through puberty in your twenties"

[dwobbitfromtheshire]

Steve Harrington x Past Tommy headcanon, Steddie being the future (this isn't me trying to make an excuse for Tommy, but I'm just trying to fill in the blanks the Duffle bags left us with):

Don't get me wrong, I love it where Eddie is Steve’s queer awakening and all, but it's definitely used a lot. Not a complaint, just stating a fact. Come on, there definitely wasn't anything straight about his relationship with Tommy, and Carol was definitely Tommy's beard. At least, I think that Carol is Tommy's beard and a lesbian. Am I like the only one who thought they weren't that bad? I mean, yeah, they were assholes but to be fair, every teenager is one. I was a good kid who didn't make my dad worry so much, but even I could be such an asshole sometimes. The theater thing was over the line, but I can imagine they did that because they probably witnessed Steve crying. They're probably one of the only ones who saw Steve cry, and I think we probably would have gone to war if we saw Steve cry. And I think Tommy probably did it out of guilt.

I think Steve was with Tommy once, and maybe he thinks Tommy was a special case. Maybe he had hoped that Tommy would stop being an asshole and that's why it didn't work. Maybe that's why Tommy basically called him a coward. Maybe he walked away from Tommy more than once. I mean, he did get onto Tommy when he said something shitty. Why do people think that he didn't try to ever stop Tommy? He never joined in on when they talked shit. He got onto Tommy for saying shit about Jonathan. I think the theater was the only time he didn't ever try, and the only time he talked shit about Jonathan was because he was angry and hurt. Shit, maybe he wasn't just thinking about his parents when he saw Nancy with Jonathan? Maybe he was thinking about that time he walked in on Tommy having sex with Carol because they were trying to see if they were interested in the opposite sex. They weren't, but Steve didn't know that because he walked away. He also stayed because Tommy was his oldest friend. He walked away for the last time, and Tommy, heartbroken, befriended Billy, hoping to make Steve jealous.

Steve didn't tell Robin, not only because it hurt too much, because it wasn't just his secret to tell. He didn't think he could ever fall for another guy again. He knows he's attracted to them, but he didn't think he could love another one until Eddie came along. And when Eddie was lying prone in the hospital, Steve brought Robin to the bathroom and told her everything. She was another person who saw him cry.

I don't know. People don't give Steve enough credit for walking from Tommy and Carol. I mean, just because they were assholes, their friendship doesn't mean anything. . .it doesn't mean anything that Steve walked away from a shitty situation? Most adults can't do what Steve did. Just the facts.

[steviewashere]

Return to Sender

Characters: Steve Harrington, Billy Hargrove (A Warning in Itself), Eddie Munson (E.M.)

Relationships: Steve Harrington/Eddie Munson

General Audiences (May Change, but Will Not be Explicit)

CW: Use of the word Queer (as a slur, from Tommy) mentioned briefly and not at all lingered on

Tags: Pre-Season 2, Rewriting Canon, Though Keeping to Main Canon Events (i.e. Steve getting roped into finding Dart, Billy smashing in Steve's face, The junkyard, etc.), Eddie Munson has ADHD, Steve is Self-Deprecating, Teasing Banter (sort of), Steve has Shitty Parents

This is Part 2! To read Part One, follow the link here!

-------- It dawns on Steve that trying to find somebody by their little hobby of drug dealing is going to be tougher than he thought. He can't just ask anybody. And it's not like he can make some bulletin board statement or put an advertisement in the newspaper. What would that even look like?

Local Teenage Boy Who's Seen Some Shit Is Now Seeing Cute Little Locker Notes! Looking For Inquiries About A Drug Dealer With The Initials E.M.! Will Give "The Best Sex" You've Ever Had a Run For Their Money as Reward!

Yeah, he can't imagine that looking very well.

Not for him. Not for the other person involved. And he doesn't want to lose these little notes that he now looks forward to every time he goes to grab an assignment or a textbook or his lunch money. Because, what he's still reeling about, the notes keep coming. With not a single sign of stopping.

Little things. Like telling him how amazing he looks in his new polo shirts, to not listen to the scoffing of Tommy Hagan—who keeps telling Steve that he looks like a "Queer little prep." (Which, Steve's not sure how he's been found out in that regard. He hopes Tommy can keep a secret. But, knowing the history they share, he definitely can't.) And there was one with the answers to the math homework he was doing last minute at breakfast in the cafeteria, which were all correct, and Steve found himself giddily smiling over the big fat letter 'A' on the header of his paper. So, the notes are getting to be more frequent. They're nice. He loves them.

The only question is:

How the fuck is he supposed to find this person?

He began with the, albeit, dumbest way first. Standing vigil near his locker. Watching for anybody that looks like they're about to leave a note. A few girls wander near, but they don't mess with his locker. No, they flock to the other side of the hall to mess with Billy's. He scoffed when they did. And while he was busy watching them, he noticed at the glance back of his own locker, a new note.

It wasn't a very long one. Just:

"Have a good day, man. Also, stop watching random girls. You look like a creep. -E.M."

Steve physically slapped himself on the forehead when he reread it. Of course he missed his opportunity. Because he was distracted with some other mindless thing. That thing not only being those girls, but also stupid fucking Billy Hargrove. He always manages to find a way to ruin Steve's day, even without physically doing or saying something. He grumbled with the note tightly in his grip and stomped away to his last class of the day.

Then, when standing by his locker proved to be futile, he lurked in the cafeteria. Watching the tables. For somebody who was nose deep in a slew of little slips of paper, scattered near their hands, a blue pen secure in their hand. But—

He was the only one truly alone at a table. And the crowds of people at the other lunch tables made him nervous. So, he stopped watching. Besides, everybody was too busy talking to one another.

His locker didn't have a note at the end of the day. He was bummed about it.

Steve came to the conclusion on that day, Random person doesn't want me to be lurking. Or at least, that's what it seems like. Either he gets caught doing something he shouldn't be doing, or he can't actually see anything. Because there's nothing to see.

Some of his other ideas fell through.

Looking through last year's yearbook. Asking a few random students in the hallway if they knew an E.M., but they only rolled their eyes and shoved past him. (He's not used to that. Being ignored by the people around him. Maybe with his parents, but school life is supposed to be different than his home life. He doesn't like that the two are now bleeding together.) He even attempted the phone book. But that was a bust. There were probably thirty names to go through. And he didn't know which ones were teenagers in high school. And he seriously didn't want to call each one and ask: "Hey, are you the person that's leaving notes in my locker?" What kind of creep would that make him? An obsessive one, probably.

At least the student obsessed with giving him notes isn't bothering tons of other people in the process. At least this elusive stranger has morals and values.

He's growing frustrated, though. The longer this drags out. But he just has to...wait. Be patient. See if he can catch his secret admirer off guard.

In the mean time, he attends his classes. The ones that hold all the information for him to graduate, but all the knowledge goes into one ear and leaks out the other. He falls asleep at his desks from time to time. And since he's no longer on the basketball team, his schedule is wide open for after school detentions. Great, he thinks as he holds the pink detention slip in his hand today. Because what I need is proof that I'm still a failure, no matter what I do.

But he swallows his pride. Well, what's left of it. Some meager crumbs and a couple laps of liquid bravery that paint his insides like dried acrylic paint. Shuffles over to his locker at the end of his fourth period. Stuffs his oversized backpack onto the hook. Rustles around with some textbooks—maybe he can attempt his math homework; attempt is a strong word. He'' probably just stare at it and doodle a few drawings in the margins, hoping for time to pass.

There's a white slip of paper wedged between two books.

"Tough luck, Stevie. Maybe you'll get a proper nap at home once you power through detention. Believe me, the pent up frustration will knock you clean out. -E.M."

Steve scoffs. Crumples up the little thing into an even smaller ball. Tosses it at the metal backing of his locker. And watches as it bounces down pathetically to the floor. Embarrassingly, he finds himself on the verge of tears. Could my senior year get any worse, he asks nobody. But groans aloud as he picks up the paper once more and pockets it instead.

Textbook in hand and a wrinkled homework sheet in the other, he's on his not so merry way.

When he gets to the detention classroom, he's the only senior in it. Well, other than that overtime senior, Eddie Munson. He takes his seat next to Eddie, near the back, a textbook and homework sheet dutifully laid out on the desk, and his eyes stubbornly locked to it. Just to make sure it looks like they're not talking. Because he seriously doesn't want to be the only one in here. Sure, there's what appears to be a couple sophomores spaced out on the left side of the classroom. A few girls that he recognizes from Nancy's school year, all huddled around each other and whispering not so soft under their breath. But it's just him and Eddie in the back right corner. And hopefully he doesn't get reprimanded, forced to sit somewhere else, he isn't sure he can take anymore awful shit in his day.

However, it seems like it can get worse. His calculus homework. It's not something he knows well, having cheated off of one of those locker notes. Sparing his life of cognitive embarrassment, having to prove himself to maintain his average 'C' grade for sports this year. I'm not getting accepted to college, why the fuck do I have to do this shit, he has to wonder. It's giving him a dull headache.

The problem that's getting him:

What is the integral of the function f(x) = sin 2x?

He wants to slam his head onto the surface of his desk until he's just a mound of bloody, pulpy meat. He's better with English literature, surprisingly enough. Even if the words move a little bit, it's better than whatever garbage he's looking at now. It's like the problem knows he doesn't understand. It's like it has teeth, gaining and baring and wanting to chop off his fingers. It's like—

Something taps on the corner of his desk.

Looking up from his paper, agitated and exhausted, he finds the eraser end of Eddie's pencil clacking against the wood of his desk. Growling, he asks, "What the hell do you want, Munson?" Adding, huffed and close to giving up, "I'm trying to do my homework."

Eddie just grins at him. "I know, dude," he snarks. "We're in Mr. Nelson's class together, remember? I've got the answers, if you want them."

Steve rolls his eyes. "Yeah, right," he mutters. "Like you'd know. I know for a fact that you have an F in calc, why should I trust that you actually have the right answer?"

"Oh, that's simple," Eddie chirps. "I know my shit. Just don't turn in my assignments. You know—" He gestures vaguely at his head. "—I got that new diagnosis, ADHD. The thing that sort of makes you forgetful, or whatever? I know it, I'm just...Not on the money with turning it in on time."

"ADHD?" Steve can't help but asks, somewhat suspicious. "What does that even mean? Are you just making that up? There's no way—"

"Look," Eddie interrupts, voice short and firm, "do you want help on your homework or do you want me to explain shit that I know you won't retain? Because I could sit here and describe the whole thing, get you bored and distracted, and send you off on your way even more dumb and lost than when you entered in here. Or...I could tell you the answers and make you look better in front of Mr. Nelson and your basketball team."

Steve huffs. "I'm not stupid," he argues, voice weak. "And besides, I'm not on basketball anymore. So..." He sighs, defeated. His eyes fall back to his blank homework assignment. And he can feel his eyes begin to burn from embarrassment. Maybe I am stupid, he thinks, Maybe I'm no better than some super senior. "Can you just show me what to do, without making fun of me? I get that I was a jackass in the past, but this week has been rough. I just need to get through the end of it." He knows that to his own ears that he sounds like a petulant, begging little kid. And knows, too, that it's not a good look on him. His dad doesn't like it. Coach didn't like it. Mr. Nelson and Nancy Wheeler and Tommy Hagan and...Nobody likes it when he sounds like this. When he's a sight for sore eyes, down on his luck, ready to just curl up in a ball and melt into the floor.

He drags a hand quickly over his eyes, trying to wipe away at the wetness barely coating him. Sniffs back whatever emotion is still souring his throat. And keeps his line of sight pointed downwards. “I—Never mind, you probably don’t want to help some jerk. Especially one that just made fun of whatever you…whatever you said. God—“ He chuckles something deeply self-deprecating. “—You were right. Can’t even fucking remember what you just said. Can’t remember how to do math. Can’t remember…My head hurts and I’m tired and this just sucks. I’m sorry, man. I didn’t mean to come off so shitty,” his voice strains, though spits. Guess wiping my eyes did nothing, he notes, watching something wet drip down onto the desk.

“Steve,” he can hear Eddie breathe. “It’s fine, dude. I didn’t take any offense. Nobody knows about my shit, it’s fine. I was just giving you a hard time.” Steve looks up briefly at that. “I don’t even know why, if I’m being honest. You seem like you’re better, but maybe I’m wrong?” Eddie shakes his head. “Just let me see your paper. Act like you’re studying your textbook, I’ll do your assignment.”

“How am I supposed to learn if you do it for me?” Steve asks wetly.

“You’ll learn, I’m sure of it. Just give it here.”

At the end of the detention period, his homework is completely filled out. It looks correct, better than what Steve could ever possibly do. He has to go to the bathroom, stops inside, erases some of the correct math and fills in with his own scratchy handwriting, goes through his whole restroom routine, and returns to his locker.

Only to find another note.

“See? Detention wasn’t that bad, you survived! Now, take a nap at home. Relax. You’ll be alright. Senior year will be a breeze for you, I’m sure of it. -E.M.”

If only mystery person knew that taking roses to Nancy Wheeler leads to weird creatures that eat raw meat, tunnels and fire, and a beaten face.

If only he knew how to lick his own wounds. When he gets to his locker the day after him and Billy fight, he finds one more note.

“Okay, maybe I was wrong about this being a breeze. Meet me in the woods, picnic table, sit and wait for me. Think it’s time I show myself. Get you a friend around here. Someone who’d be willing to kill Hargrove if asked. -E.M.”

-------- Some Notes:

Did you know that ADHD was not an official diagnosis until the 1980s? So it's literally brand new here. Also, gotta get them to have a little bit of rivalry—something akin to a rivalry, at least, before they can be buddies and then lovers and then rivals again. Hehe, I love angst. <3

[eldritchsurveys]

1239.

Do you ever feel super shitty about your appearance? >> Frequently.

Have you ever been in a relationship where everything with your partner felt natural and effortless? >> I have a really, really hard time believing that's actually possible. Sure, it's an idealistic dream of mine, but.

Have you ever been in a relationship where everything was difficult and rocky? >> This is far more attainable, and I've attained it several times in fact.

Do you know any computer programming languages? >> I do not.

When was the last time you were in a really bad situation? >> Define a really bad situation.

When you were a teenager, did your parents set rules about dating? >> There was no need. I was simply not allowed to socialise outside of school at all.

Have you ever lived with a person who you tried to avoid at all costs? >> I've lived in several shelters, so yeah. Lots of people I tried to avoid at all costs.

Have you ever committed a crime that directly harmed another person? >> I have not.

What is something all of your exes have in common? .

Which disease do you personally think is the most horrible? .

What is your worst childhood memory? >> Just about every memory I managed to retain from childhood is either kind of sad in retrospect or straight up bad. I hear there's a reason for that.

Do you remember where you first drove to after getting your license? .

What was the best part of your day yesterday? >> The part where I played FFXIV for seven hours.

What did you get into trouble for the most when you were a kid? >> I got in trouble for so much stuff, I couldn't even tell you.

What do you wish you could get paid for? >> Existing.

What is your biological sex? .

Are you in a heterosexual relationship? >> I could never be in a heterosexual relationship because I am simply not a man or a woman. Every relationship with me is automatically queer.

Do you know how a carbureted engine works? >> I do not.

Have you ever hosted a dinner party? >> I have not. Do you use online dating? Or do you use another method for finding dates? >> I do not find dates.

What is the oldest gaming console you own? >> I think there is still a PS2 Slim floating around here somewhere. Oh, wait, there's also a GameCube...

Of all the houses you’ve lived in, which has been your favorite? >> I have only lived in a few actual houses, and I don't remember the ones from childhood well enough to speak on them, so... I guess the one I'm currently in.

Do you get sunburnt easily? >> I don't get sunburnt at all.

[fantasylover145]

Television shows fucking hate saying the word gay or queer or bi though, but we get quite a bit more gay representation so we at least have gay characters being able to actually fucking say they are gay. With bisexual characters they have to blur the lines but never make it clear what their preferences are, because for some reason tv producers hate saying the word bi. Like in that show teenage bounty hunters or whatever where instead of the main character saying they are bi they just literally describe the BISEXUAL FLAG " I think if I was a colour I would be blue, purple, pink" that's bullshit. Either have your character say they are unlabeled or just say they are fucking bi, there's no need for shitty cop outs, it makes the producers/writers look like pussies. As a bi person it's so disappointing to see how they will have gay people on the same show say their sexuality proudly but bi people have to be vague and elusive. So I genuinely think that they just won't say it but maybe I'm cynical 🤷‍♀️.

I don't know if it's intentional for Eddie to be the only one to say that part or not, that's an interesting take and hopefully will lead more into Buck and Eddie having a more intimate relationship, exploring that dynamic more and them getting even closer than ever before.

okay i’m probably definitely reading too much into things but i just find it very interesting that the only person that straight up says the word “gay” during buck’s coming out arc is eddie

like watching buck’s whole arc back, it really feels like the writers were dancing around any use of words like gay, bi, or queer when there was plenty of opportunity to use them

having eddie be the only one to say that part out loud and to subsequently watch his brain break a little just feels very intentional

[meyhew]

"name 1 time ive made harrys sexuality about louis" today when u said "Larries have been telling you he's queer for years." U thought he was queer bc u thought he was with Louis. I saw y'all say "I don't know what he identifies as but he has a bf so he's not straight" A MILLION times in the past 7 years. When Harry said "whaddup I like men" we embraced it and celebrated it and there's nothing "huh, inchresting" about that. We just accept what he tells us...

for Harry’s psyche… y'all being proud of “spotting it” is making me gag. Imagine how uncomfortable and scared he must’ve been with thousands of people calling him what he didn’t dare say out loud when he was a teenager. Making theory after theory of what he liked to do with his dick. There was a minority of fans that were mad at u bc they didn’t like the idea of him being queer, but the rest of us were just telling u to not fucking out him or label him, nothing else..

right okay so first of all idk why yall come to me with these complaints bc i sure as hell dont go around‘making theory after theory of what he liked to do with his dick.’ you literally do not know anything about me or what i believe, only what’s on this blog - which isn’t much, considering it isn’t even a year old and i havent shared so many of my thoughts.

second, i sure as fuck dont think harry’s queer because he’s with louis. neither do any of the larries i know. i said it before and i’ll say it again: harry is queer and in a relationship with louis, not because of it. just because we might talk about those things together bc they’re related does not mean that i think harry being queer is dependent on louis, thank a lot. they’re both their own persons before they become harry&louis, so keep that in mind. 

third, harry’s been implying he’s into dude for years now. literally years. and i’m not even talking about not labeling his sexuality. he’s made comments over the years that very bluntly translate to: i don’t give a fuck what the gender of my potential partner is. he’s been saying that and antis & the general public has been turning blind eyes and deaf ears on him. just because he’s being more explicit in his wording now doesn’t mean you get to suddenly crawl up his ass and decide yall have been supportive all along. you havent. 

and do not even try to make larries feel bad about saying harry isn’t straight and making him uncomfortable. one, straight isnt a default anything, so jot that down. second, it’s the same bullshit tactic y’all tried using to get people to stop bringing pride flags to harry’s shows, saying we’re forcing a sexuality onto him and making him feel uncomfortable. guess what, barbara? he fucking loves it and that support is probably one of the reasons he feels safe and comfortable enough to share medicine with us, even though he wasnt ready less than a year ago. if anything, it’s the media and the het fans who should feel badly about pairing him up with every fucking woman he came into contact with, even when he verbalized that it’s kind of a shitty thing to deal with. he never ever said that about larries. yall act like larries are the ones labeling him when, again, it’s the media and mostly het fans. they’re using his potential bisexuality as a reason to explain his manwhore image and console themselves that, yes, he is still attracted to women and, yes, they still have a chance with him. 

take all this self righteousness and shove it up your ass. 

[arielmagicesi]

Hi, sorry. So I am new to the st/efvater world, and I've only read one of her books (raven boys), and like I see you posting stuff about her a lot, but only like little bits and pieces, and I feel like I'm missing something and don't understand what's going on cause I'm not really in the fandom; I've just read one book, and don't really know anything about her. I'm sorry, this is rambling mess, but if you could enlighten me a little bit I would appreciate it.

OK I took a while to respond and I’m gonna try to be objective and polite but there isn’t a whole lot of objective politeness in this soul of mine, but I will try.

Maggie St/efvater (I only spell it that way so it doesn’t show up in her tag and annoy people, I’ll just call her Maggie for the rest of this post) is this fairly popular YA author, and she wrote the Wolves of Mercy Falls series, the Scorpio Races, and the Raven Cycle. Her writing is very good (I have some bones to pick about it as a writer but mostly it’s pretty good) and the Raven Cycle in particular has gained a big fandom because it’s an excellent series. I guess you would know cause you’ve read TRB- the concept is unique, it has cool magic stuff, there’s fascinating character concepts, and the teenagers do a lot of realistic teenager stuff like being annoying and cursing and either doing their homework or not, etc. And if I haven’t made it abundantly clear with my posts, a lot of us in the fandom fell in love with the main characters for many reasons, but especially because they represent parts of ourselves that aren’t often represented. Abuse victims who don’t react in a Good Abuse Victim way, poor teenagers who scrape and claw to get out of their shitty towns, mentally ill kids who have ugly unpleasant symptoms, girls who are feminists but whose feminism is a little messy because they grow up in a terrible small town, etc.

Unfortunately, the development of the Raven Cycle fandom online, like the development of ANY goddamn fandom on the accursed Internet, led to some gross pockets of fandom. In the second book, an abusive character called Ka/vinsky shows up, and some heavy subtext suggests that he’s gay and into one of the main characters, Ronan. He’s absolutely awful and monstrous to Ronan and the others, but you know how fandom is, they started shipping it and being like “Ka/vinsky’s just a misunderstood cinnamon roll uwu” and generally being the worst about it. Additionally, some parts of fandom started hating on the two lower-class characters, Adam and Blue, for not always being sweet and nice about the class privilege of all their wealthy friends, and for reacting "badly” to literal abuse and sexism.  so the fandom is a mess, yeah

In the second and third books, also, (spoiler alert I guess? I mean if you follow my blog you can’t avoid knowing this haha) it’s suggested and then made all but direct canon, that Ronan is gay and has a crush on Adam. So, like, everyone shipped it because they’re a great ship and it was pretty obvious it was gonna be made canon in book four.

But Maggie interacts a lot with the fandom online, and obviously the clashing of fandom issues like this with any author would lead to some mess, but the way she treated it was....... terrible. She would make jokes about Ronan being Gansey’s “dog” and things like that. She milked the whole “writing a gay character” thing for all it was worth, and would never really say “hey, Adam and Ronan are a romantic thing” but would hint at it constantly, which, if you don’t know, is agonizing to watch when you’re desperate for any representation of your identity. She eventually said “I realize you guys are used to being baited, so don’t worry, the ‘other kiss’ will be between the people you hope it’ll be between” or something like that. And she would talk about Ronan being gay, but never address whether Adam was bi, and god forbid those words were used in the books. In the fourth book, although they do actually kiss and presumably get together, they don’t talk about it, and they never use the words “gay” or “bisexual.” Her excuse was that she’s writing for a world without labels. Leaving aside that that’s bullshit and a straight* woman doesn’t get to say that when we are out here in a homophobic world and saying our labels out loud is a sign of pride, she actually didn’t write a world without labels. The aforementioned Ka/vinsky is constantly using homophobic slurs to describe Ronan, boys at the private school make homophobic jokes, Adam’s dad makes lowkey homophobic remarks, etc. So labels are OK if they’re nasty and negative and used against you, but you’re never allowed to say who you are out loud.

When she gets called out on this whole mess- or a number of other things**- her response is to block people, tell people “if you are hostile one more time you’ll be blocked,” to reply to private posts by teenagers, to sic her army of clueless fans on young LGBT mentally ill readers, to claim that she’s being bullied and attacked, to make vague posts talking about “callout culture” and how it’s mature to avoid “discourse,” etc. I talked a while back about how I’ve made several fully thought-out posts critiquing her, but when I sent her a polite ask about her next book, she replied linking me to one of my own joke posts about “hating” her, making it clear that she apparently has me down on some sort of list of haters or something. And at least she responded privately, so that her other fans didn’t attack me, which has happened to other younger fans before.

She claims to be an ally, but she only really wants the ally points. She’ll talk your ear off about how brave she is for “writing an on-page queer relationship” as a straight woman, but when actual queer teenagers critique her for the way she writes it, she throws a fit and absolutely refuses to listen. She doesn’t want to do the work.

Additionally, she is writing a follow-up series called “the dreamer trilogy” which she drops constant hints about on her social media. It will center on Ronan (naturally, because she’s admitted Ronan is her self-insert and has butchered his character development for the sake of giving him a life identical to hers and fulfilling her fantasies of driving fast cars 24/7 and being an asshole with no consequences) and she’s making it increasingly obvious that none of the other characters we all fell in love with will feature at all. And basically any plotllines we enjoyed, she scraps (often out of spite?), and any plotlines we hate, she makes sure to write tons about (I’m talking about the magical artifact community. No one cares. We started reading for the house of psychics and Glendower and Gwenllian, not the fucking Greenmantles and their haunted doll babies or whatever).

The fandom obviously responded with like “ooh! more Pynch!” because like, fandoms like ships, but ALSO BECAUSE some of us are goddamn LGBT teenagers who are starving for representation and we want to see that “on page queer relationship” she brags about. And yet, at every opportunity, she makes remarks like, “This won’t be a romance. It won’t be the cuddle trilogy. It won’t have relationship drama, that doesn’t interest me. It won’t be fanservice. It won’t be lovey dovey, it won’t be cute, etc.” No, I don’t want fanservice or drama or the cuddle trilogy. But given her history, when Maggie says shit like that, I get worried, as someone who’s been baited a thousand times before. Doesn’t anyone see how awful it is to dangle representation like this? To say “ooh, look, someone who has the same identity as you? Juuuust kidding I’m not writing about it?” She can’t just say what we want to hear, which is “Adam will be there. I’ll say the word gay. I’ll say the word bisexual. Their relationship will be treated as real as Blue and Gansey’s or as any other relationship I write. Not the main focus of the plot, but THERE.” Because she’s not GOING to do any of those things, because writing actual gay relationships makes her uncomfortable. But she can’t say that or she’ll lose her sales.

And when she says all this bullshit about “I won’t write a romance” she gets so much FUCKING praise from her straight readers who think she’s the sun and fucking stars because their shit brand of feminism thinks all romances are equal and romance is insipid drivel and that a feminist book, apparently, is one token white girl who has a pink switchblade being sort-of in the background of a bunch of rich boys fucking around. I’m not saying I didn’t like that very book and that I don’t love that girl and her switchblade, but Maggie has to actually LEARN and IMPROVE and not go backwards. If she wants all this credit for gay representation, she has to actually write gay representation. And if not, I’m not congratulating her for “not writing relationship drama!!!!” because all that says to me is “yuck, I’m not writing gay stuff.” She says “relationship drama doesn’t interest me” and yet she wrote pages upon pages of Blue’s mother making out with a hit man. Relationship drama sure does seem to interest her. This isn’t her taking a Stand against romance, it’s her finding a way to make homophobia seem cool and progressive.

So yeah. That’s why she pisses me off.

*I know I know, “she’s never said her sexuality! How can you call her straight?” On the off chance she’s bisexual (she’s married to a man with kids), that doesn’t excuse her homophobic bullshit. She’s acting like an asshole straight person so yeah I’m gonna call her straight.

**Here are some other problems she’s been called out for and her bullshit reactions:

-Blue is basically the only female character and has no female friends or anything. Maggie says “well none of them had friends!” OK so why isn’t there another girl in the group? Why is her family the only other women who have page time besides villains and other relatives of main characters?

-Gansey gives Adam a lot of grief for not being fond of Gansey’s wealth, but Adam never makes Gansey apologize for blaming Adam for the abuse he endured? Maggie doesn’t have a comment on this, I don’t think.

-In book four, Ronan and Adam make racist jokes at the expense of the One (1) character of color, Henry Cheng. Maggie didn’t address this outright because “spoilers” but made a post about it saying that it wasn’t meant to be a racist joke, it was a throwback to some random joke from book one, and any good reader would know that.

-Blue isn’t a very intersectional feminist, which is fine, but it’s never really addressed, apparently because “all the characters are damn fools!” Who never get any character development except for Adam whose development essentially consists of “I stopped being prejudiced against the rich!” (and lots of other personal things but still)

Yeah, that’s about all I can think of. This didn’t end up being very neutral but I have class in 10 minutes and yeah this is hella long I just wanted to get it all out. I hope I don’t get shit for this, but you know what, anons? Go ahead, send me stuff saying I’m a nasty bitch and should stay away from fandom for criticizing poor Maggie. I don’t even care.

OH AND THEBROKENBREAKINGSEAS: THANK YOU FOR YOUR QUESTION. I know I answered in a horrifically mean tone but that ISN’T directed towards you, you were just asking! Don’t take my words at face value, I’m super biased. If you’re interested, you can go read Maggie’s blog and Twitter account, or other fans’ essays on this, etc. I’m glad you asked! And thanks for still following me after all this stuff haha. I’m normally... nicer? I think? Thanks again.