#(I Am Yelling Because I Got Excited Over Theorizing w Others)

[whyqueerbaitingisbad]

movies & shows

cracks knuckles* alright this is going to be more of a rant than an analysis because i’m basing this on both my research, but also how it felt to personally be baited by these shows. there are obviously more pieces of bad (almost every horror movie) and good ones but these are the ones i’ve watched.

please keep in mind that i am but one queer and everyone has different opinions.

Supernatural (CW) 2005

This show is 15 years old and just ended. From season 5 till 15, there has been tension between two of the lead characters. They were constantly shipped together and not only did the entire fandom know about this ship but so did almost all of Tumblr. On top of that, the actors and show runners knew about it as well. Which is why it makes it ridiculous that it was constantly pushed aside while the romantic coding  kept happening, even after show runners dismissed it as being intentional. The Destiel (Dean x Cas) case has been going on for years, and as the show came to its end, many fans had hope. But N O P E. Instead, we got a love confession from Cas where Dean looked like he was near constipated and the Cas was killed and sent into a fiery place that was not hell but s u p e r  h e l l.

… w hy.

Sherlock (BBC) 2010

Just like Supernatural, this show was renown on Tumblr for not only how good it was, but its hinting at a potential relationship between Sherlock Holmes and John Watson. But again, like Supernatural, the intentional tension between the two characters was denied by producers. This caused an uproar within the fandom, and even left some people believing that, after the last season aired, it had been a joke and the producers were hiding a “secret, unaired season” because they had felt so robbed by this show that had implied something and denied it.

The 100 (CW) 2014

We got lesbians. We got background gays. We were happy. Then, all of a sudden, one of them is killed for no reason. Did it advance the plot? No. Was she fighting and died in battle? lol no. She was doing literally nothing and got shot and died. And then the producers kept bringing her back once a season in the form of a ghost or illusion because why? Because she was a fan favourite queer character. ✨bury your gays and sparingly bring them back for profit anyone?✨

Voltron: Legendary Defender (Netflix) 2016

*deep breathe* This one is a special disaster. Not only was there romantic tension and romantically coded scenes for 7 seasons, but producers, voice actors and artists working on the show repeatedly said “don’t worry klance (Keith x Lance) shippers, you’ll be happy”

. … w h e r e??? You code one of their scenes with a sunset in the background while they talk about love and then one of them goes on a date with someone who has declined his advances for 7 seasons but now in season 8 decides to do a full 180. Not only that, but you announce at a Comic Con (a convention) that a character is gay and has a fiancé, only to kill off the fiancé and never make it explicit in the show except at the last second of the last episode where he marries a no name character. 

Personally, i’d like to say a big fuck you to the show that strung me along for 2 years and never stopped saying we’d be happy to then pull the rug out from under us and call us crazy for thinking anything from the past 8 seasons was intentional.

Scooby-Doo (2002) 

While not being outwardly queerbaiting, this movie’s filmmaker has just revealed some shocking news, which wasn’t at all shocking to the gays who had watched this movie over the years. In July of 2020, James Gunn, the filmmaker of Scooby-Doo, revealed in a podcast that, initially, Velma was explicitly gay in his script, but then the studio watered it down until it became nothing. This isn’t an example of baiting as much as it is changing a character’s initial design to “better fit an audience”. The worst part of all this is that with Velma’s character having been written with a l i t t l e queer subtext, people had been theorizing about if since the movie came out, but were always yelled at by the internet for “imagining something that isn’t there”. But now, even with it being said that the initial point was for her to be gay, people have no objections to still refusing to accept it. Why?? So we can’t get the subtext gays OR the confirmed gays?? Make it make sense.

Brooklyn 99 (NBC) 2013

To have the queer characters firstly introduced without mentioning their sexualities and have it brought up naturally was so goddamn nice to see, because no one does a big deal about it unless they ask for that. This show is amazing in general but the way they show their queer characters is *chefs kiss*.

She-ra and the Princesses of Power (Netflix) 2018

This. Show. My heart SOARS. It's just a remake of an old show so absolutely nothing was ever expected, but then it was sprinkled in and ENDED WITH A BANG. And it was so beautiful and real to see the struggle of two friends who care for each other and want to be together but have different visions of the world fall in love. And they also had characters with disabilities, a non-binary character and jUST SUCH A GOOD SHOW.

Kipo and The Age of Wonderbeasts (Netflix) 2020

This is a case where you go into it not expecting anything and are BLOWN AWAY by the bare minimum. And not because it’s bad!! It's mind blowing because this is the simple representation we need!! Not something over the top, but an every day relationship. It’s just two boys falling in love and going on dates and being nervous around each other, yet i was so stunned. Because it’s not shown enough. I should not be this excited over something that should be this normal. 10/10 though this show is so good for all kinds of representation.

Steven Universe (Cartoon Network) 2013

This show did so much for queer representation with its general message of loving everyone and loving who you want. Especially since it was aired on Cartoon Network, a channel for kids, it was able to help normalize something so looked down upon in some circles. It made it easy to watch for s o m e people because it's a cartoon but it's so beautiful to see these ladies so in love with each other, both platonically and romantically and we see them have a family dynamic that isn’t a “nuclear family”. Rebecca Sugar (creator) really said “lemme just break all stereotypes real quick”.

Adventure Time (Cartoon Network) 2010

It's the “knowing a fanbase shipped something so hard that the creators made it canon” for me. This relationship had been theorized by fans for years, but it had never been explicit in the show. When the finale episode came out and the two shared a kiss, it was a moment of celebration. The producer of the show said that it had not really been planned but when the episode was being made, the choice of what happened was given to one of the artists (bless your soul Hanna K. Nyströmthe). And as the show releases little bonus episodes, its latest was centered around Marceline and Bubblegum and their relationship. AND WE LOVE TO SEE OUR DOMESTIC LESBIANS BEING HAPPY AND IN LOVE.

Yuri on Ice!!! (anime) 2016

The fact that an A N I M E gave us a love story between two men is mind boggling and it makes me so happy!! Especially because it's a Japanese show and they’re very conservative about these things just makes it more emotional. The creators said they wanted to make the anime take place in a world where gay/straight isn’t a thing, it’s just love (ladies, you’re going to make me cry). So as the weekly episodes came out and fans start speculating, THEY GAVE US THE LAST FEW EPISODES FULL OF ROMANCE AND EMOTIONAL SCENES BETWEEN THE TWO AND THEN THEY GET R I N GS?!???!! You watch for the figure skating, you stay for the figure skaters that are in love.

Shadowhunters (Freeform) 2016

*insert me being frustrated that the actors are straight so we can move on from that disappointment*

This show really said “let’s name a whole episode after this couple because they deserve it”. But seriously, they gave us two characters whose entire plot does not center around their sexualities while still showing us the differences in a relationship between someone experienced and someone new at this. They were both powerful and amazing characters apart from each other, with their own story lines and goals but they loved each other so much omgs. SO MUCH. 

It was so great to watch.

Love, Simon (2018) 

There’s a lot of disagreement on whether this movie is good representation or not. However, we need to take into consideration that this was Hollywood’s first movie with a main character that was gay, where the story’s focus was on Simon’s love story. The biggest problem, for me at least, was that the actor playing Simon is a straight man and not queer. My problem is not with him, but the fact that there are other actors that are gay and that could have played Simon just as well. (the love interested was however played by a queer actor so ✨progress✨)

All in all, this movie does represent what a lot of queer kids have to go through: being outed at school, how they then come out, the bullying and doubt they go through.

The book is also really good.

Call Me By Your Name (2018)

This movie is so aesthetically pleasing and was able to capture the confusion and heartbreak felt by a boy who’s struggling with his own feelings towards a man. His inner conflict and joy and l o v e he feels but doesn’t know how to deal with is so well communicated through the screen and just breaks your heart because it feels so real.

But again, they could’ve gotten gay actors to play gay characters…

through having this list here, i want to show you that it’s not hard for creators to give good queer representation. the LGBTQ+ community isn’t asking for much, we just want to be well represented on screen as just a regular character, not some token queer kid there for the diversity points. having been exposed to so much queerbaiting and just not seeing any representation on screen, i always get over-excited when i see a queer character, and that’s not how it should be. it should be a normal thing, something you can find in most pieces of media, just like there’s a straight white cisgender person in everything.

and they seriously need to start casting queer actors for queer characters...

[queen-of-deans-booty]

99 Problems: Part Two

Pairing: Dean x Reader

Word Count: 2,284

Warnings: typical supernatural violence, language, angst, blood, you know the usual

Author’s Note: I do not own anything from Supernatural. All credit goes to their respective owners. Any and all comments on these are appreciated. I really want to hear what you guys think about this one!

Feedback is the glue that holds my writing together.

Tags at the bottom

If now isn’t the right time, then you don’t know when it will be. Things keep piling up, and you’re scared Dean is going to find out about you through someone else which will only make this worse. The guilt is eating at you from the inside, and you need to come clean about what you did.

“Dean, I need to tell you something,” you say while Sam is off making a call to the nicest angel you know.

“Yeah.”

“Dean, this is important. Like, really important.”

“Are you okay?”

“Yes, well, no. You see, a couple of weeks ago, I… okay, I'm just going to come out and say it. I—”

“I left Cas a message. I think,” Sam interrupts. He takes a seat and hands you and Dean a beer, and his attention is focused back on the case. “So, uh, what’s your theory? Why all of the demon hits?”

“I don’t know. Gank the girl? The prophet, maybe?” Dean theorizes.

“She’s not a prophet,” you interject.

“What?”

“She’s not a prophet because she’s not human. Prophets are human. She’s not, so therefore, she can’t be a prophet,” you say with some tension.

“How do you know she’s not human?” Sam asks.

“I just do, okay? I can sense these things.”

“Yeah, well, whatever is going on, sucks. These angels are sending these people to do their dirty work.”

“Yeah, and?” Dean asks after he takes a sip of beer.

“And they could get ripped to shreds.”

“We’re all gonna die, Sam. In like a month—maybe two. I mean it. This is the end of the world, but these people aren’t freaking out. In fact they’re running to the exit in an orderly fashion. I don’t know that that’s such a bad thing.”

“Who says they’re all gonna die? What ever happened to us saving them?” he asks angrily.

Before anyone else had a chance to answer, the church bells toll, and everyone starts to get out of their seats.

“Something I said?” Dean shrugs.

“Paul. What’s going on?” Sam asks.

“Leah’s had another vision.”

“Wanna go to church?” Sam questions and gets up.

“You know me—downright pious,” Dean smiles.

“Dean, seriously, I do need to talk to you. It’s very important.”

“What is it? Tell me now.”

“It’s not the time. Just please remind me when we have a chance.”

“Okay,” he nods, and the three of you head over to the church where everyone is gathered.

“Three miles off Talmadge Road,” Pastor Gideon says once it’s time to begin. Leah stands behind him, and she interrupts by whispering in her dad’s ear. “Five miles. There are demons gathered. I don’t know how many, but a lot. Thank you, Leah. So, who’s going to join me?”

“Wouldn’t miss it,” Rob volunteers.

“Someone’s gotta cover Rob’s ass,” Paul grins.

“We’re in, Padre,” Dean speaks for you three.

“Thank you. I’d like to offer a prayer. “Our Father in Heaven—”

“Yeah, not so much,” you scoff.

“—help us to fight in your name. We ask that you protect us from all servants of evil. Guide our hands in defeating them and deliver us home safely. Thank you, Amen.”

Pastor Gideon directs his crew to the house Leah told everyone about. There is something off about that girl, but you can’t place your finger on it. She’s not human, then what is she? She’s not an angel or a demon, then what is she? She’s not a witch, then what is she? There isn’t time to think about it since you arrive at the demon house. Gideon and his crew crouch down to see if there are any demons outside, and you look around for them.

“Do you see anything?” Dean whispers to you.

You lift up your right hand and swipe it from the left side of your house to the right. By doing so, you allow your magic to let you see an x-ray version of the house. There are at least half a dozen demons inside, but you don’t know why they’re here.

“Two upstairs, three downstairs, and one in the basement. I’ll get the one in the basement. Be safe,” you say and get up.

“How did she do that?” Rob asks.

“Not the time, Rob. Just listen to her,” Dean coughs and takes two men with him to tackle the two upstairs.

Sam and the rest take the ones on the first floor. You, however, find a door that leads to the basement, and you use your magic to unlock it. It’s dark and dusty, but you ignore the smell and walk down the stairs. You create a ball of magic to float beside you as a source of light since you didn’t have a flashlight.

“I know you’re down here. I can sense you,” you say loudly.

There is a bit of a scuttle from behind you, and you smirk. The demon gave away his position the minute he decided to move. Turning around, you threw your ball of light at the creature. He isn’t expecting it, and the ball slams into his stomach. His body absorbs the magic which causes him to cry out in pain. He lifts his right hand and uses his demonic power to throw you against the wall. It hurt, but not as bad as this might.

You get into a running stance before charging, and you put everything you have when you slam into his body. He grunts in pain when the wind gets knocked out of him, but he recovers quickly. He grabs at your throat in an attempt to subdue you, but he should know better than to mess with a witch. Your eyes flash bright blue, and you do the first thing that comes to mind. Much like you’ve seen Castiel do, you place your hand to the top of his bald head.

His eyes and mouth are wide with fear, and black smoke starts pouring out of every crease and pore. You don’t know how this is possible, but you are exorcising the demon without saying a word. Is this what Sam felt like when he was able to do this with his powers? Sure, he was hopped up on demon blood, but still. Is it weird to say you kind of like it? Maybe it’s the adrenaline talking, but you keep doing it until the demon is no longer inside the man. He drops to the ground, clearly dead, and you get up on shaky legs.

Did that really just happen? Did you exorcise a demon with your magic? You’ve never been able to do that before. It’s like you are unlocking certain things you can do. It all began after you found out you were pregnant. Shit, you were pregnant. You have to tell Dean. Dean! You hadn’t heard anything from above, and you don’t know if that is a good sign or not. Taking the stairs from the basement to the first floor two at a time, you open the door to see all the demons dead, Sam laying on some burlap sacks, and Dean with Ruby’s knife in his hands.

“Are you guys okay?”

“Yeah, are you?”

“Yeah.”

“Where were you?” Rob asks.

“Basement. There was a demon down there. Is everything okay up here?”

“Yeah, we got them all.”

“Great, we can leave now!” you smile.

It doesn’t take long to gather everyone and head outside.

“I guess that’s what it’s like, huh?” Sam sighs.

“What?”

“Having backup.”

“Guys I exorcised a demon!” you gasp happily when it was just the three of you.

Rob and his crew packed in their car while you and the brothers did the same with the Impala.

“Yeah, we all can.”

“No, with my magic! Like what Castiel does with he puts his hand on someone’s head? I did that!”

“Congratulations,” Sam chuckles.

“Be more excited for me, huh?” you scoff.

“Dean. Sam. Y/N,” Ryan says as he approaches you.

“Yo,” Dean greets.

“Hey. So, um, is—is that—is that cool that I get a ride back with you guys?” he stutters.

Dean makes eye contact with Rob in the driver’s seat, and he nods to let him know it’s okay if Ryan stays with you three. Rob doesn’t see anything wrong with it and leaves with the rest.

“Hey, you’ve saved my ass twice already. One more time, you can drive,” he laughs before turning to his brother. “Get a beer?”

Sam fetches for four beers from the car, and Dean tosses one over to the kid. Normally, you wouldn’t condone underaged drinking, but the kid earned it. Well, you don’t know how old he is, but he doesn’t look 21.

“Hey, you earned it. Don’t tell your mom,” Dean chuckles.

“Oh, believe me—I will not,” the kid scoffs.

The brothers open their beer and take a sip, but you finger the closed can. You don’t feel for alcohol right now, not when you have so much on your mind. You place the can on the trunk of the car, and before Dean has a chance to say anything about it, Dylan is grabbed by the feet and dragged underneath the car. He screams in pain, and you jump into action. Sam runs to the other side of the car while you and Dean help Ryan. There was a demon hiding underneath the car this entire time, and his only goal was to attack the kid.

“Dylan!” you scream and reach for the kid while Sam takes care of the demon with his knife.

When you see the blank look in Ryan’s eye, you know he is already gone.

“No!” Dean yells.

“Dylan, wake up,” you gasp and place your glowing hands on his face.

Dean pulls down his collar to reveal his throat had been cut by the demon. Maybe your magic can heal him, but you know that won’t work.

“Y/N, he’s gone,” Dean says painfully.

You pull your hand away as it fades to its normal color, and you lean against the car in defeat. This is not how you imagine this going.

“It’s all my fault,” you whisper.

“No, it’s not.”

“I should have known a demon was there! He died because of me! What am I going to say to his mother?”

It pained everyone when they found out about one of their own. The church obviously put together a funeral to remember Ryan, but you are more afraid of facing Jane, his mother. Rob is his dad from what you gathered before, but it’s the mother you are more scared of. At least Rob knows what the job entails. Janes doesn’t have a clue, not really. Everyone is gathered inside with you and the brothers posted outside of it. People are walking in, and when you spot Jane and Rob huddled together, your heart beats faster.

“Ma’am, we’re just, um, very sorry,” you apologize.

“You know… this is your fault,” she glares.

“Jane. Come on,” Rob whispers.

“It’s all my fault,” you sigh sadly.

“Y/N, why are you taking this so hard? People die on our watch all the time. It’s sad, but it’s true.”

“I know, but I do need to tell you something, and it’s been bugging me all day--all week—and I need to get it off my chest because it’s killing me.”

“Okay, after this we’ll talk, okay?”

“Okay,” you whisper.

Dean heads inside, but Sam stops you before you two can enter.

“You’re going to tell him? What happened to swearing me and Cas?”

“I can’t do it, Sam. When we died, all I saw was the daughter I killed. Daughter. It was going to be a girl. I thought I could do it, but I can’t. The guilt is eating me alive. I shouldn’t have done it. Oh, he’s going to hate me.”

“He’s not going to hate you.”

“Yes! I killed his child! I killed your niece! Why don’t you hate me for it?”

“Why don’t you hate me for what I did with Ruby?”

“You’re family. You’re--”

“Exactly. Dean will forgive you. Just give him time.”

“Thanks, Sam,” you sigh and head inside the church.

“I wish I knew what to say. But I don’t,” Pastor Gideon starts the service. It’s an open casket, and Ryan lays behind him. “I’m so sorry, Jane, Rob. There are no words. Dylan… I don’t know why this happened. I don’t know why any of this is happening. I got no easy answers. But what I do know is—” Leah’s eyes roll to the back of her head, and she falls out of her pew. She starts to have a seizure, and you watch from the back as this happens. “Leah, honey? Leah, honey? Honey? It’s okay sweetie. It’s okay.”

“Dad, it’s Dylan,” she mutters.

“Just rest a minute, okay?”

“No, listen. Dylan’s coming back,” she says with more urgency.

“What the fuck?” you whisper so low that no one else heard you.

Her dad helps her to her feet and lets her take the floor so she can explain what the fuck just happened. This never happened with Chuck. She’s not who she says she is.

“Jane, Rob… It’s going to be okay. You’ll see Dylan again. When the final day comes--Judgement Day—he’ll be resurrected and you’ll be together again. We’ll all be together. With all our loved ones. We’ve been chosen. The angels have chosen us. And we will be given paradise on earth. All we have to do is follow the angels’ commandments.”

“What are they?” someone asks from the crowd.

Oh, this is going to be a long ceremony.

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Is it OK to be 420 friendly on main?

It's 4/20 baby!!! It's Saturday, you're lit, brain perfectly calibrated to toasted, sparking your joy, blowing smoke rings so on point it feels criminal not to share on your Instagram story.

But something stops you from posting. And it probably sounds like the voice of your D.A.R.E. teacher yelling about how posting pictures of pot online can get you arrested and ruin your career.

"Even if you just post one picture, it comes back," said Anjela, who is very much not a D.A.R.E. teacher. Preferring to keep her full name separate from her online weed-sona, she's better known as Koala Puffs, a weedfluencer with over half a million Instagram followers. 

"You gotta be sure that's where you wanna take your life before you post. Because you have to be able to take on the judgement that's gonna come with expressing yourself."

View this post on Instagram

Caution, it gets gross 😖😖... I knew I messed up as soon as I put them in.... 😂😂 Old school and new school @stiiizy join powers to get snot out of me in the fastest way 😭😭😭😭

A post shared by Koala Puffs 🐨💨 (@koala.puffss) on Mar 12, 2019 at 1:59pm PDT

You'd think that in the year of our lord 2019 we'd have moved past the taboo of being 420 friendly on main. Cannabis decriminalization across the U.S. is at an all-time high, along with the general population's support for further legalization.

Yet while many of us are passing the blunt (or at least not harshing people's buzz) IRL, the stigma around talking openly about cannabis online remains. 

Elon Musk got the not-so-dank wake up call when he started posting vague (awful) 420 jokes on Twitter, culminating in a smoke sesh no one wanted or asked for that landed him and his company in hot water. Musk also drank alcohol on the same podcast, though, and no one cared two shits about that part.

And if Musk, a person with endless Fuck You Money and fame, doesn't have enough privilege to protect himself from online pot-shaming, who among us mortals does? Not even weed influencers can post to Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, or Facebook without facing repercussions that feel like we're stuck in 1998.

The cost of a pot-sona 

In early 2018, YouTube went on what appeared to be a marijuana-based purge, deleting and giving strikes to swaths of weed influencers' channels. Soon after, it started happening on Instagram. While both companies cited community and user policies about depicting, smoking, and selling drugs on their platforms, others theorized that the crackdown pertained more to advertisers' trepidation after a litany of unrelated scandals from big names like Pewdiepie and Logan Paul. 

But by and large, the fear of being publicly weed-friendly on social media isn't about getting banned. It relates to the unique stigma of making cannabis part of your online persona.

Koala Puffs said the nine months after she quit her corporate job to pursue cannabis influencing was the hardest in her life. Her family, friends, boyfriend, and her boyfriend's family couldn't get behind her pro-bud rebranding.

"Nobody changed their minds until I was 200,000 followers deep," she said. But to this day her mom still thinks she's just outgrowing a college phase.

"I 100 percent still experience stigma from within my family," said Arend Richard, who went from 420 YouTuber to cannabis CEO after launching The Weedtube, a weed-friendly alternative to YouTube that's releasing a new app Saturday in response to the crackdowns. Granted, the weed stigma in his family is only exacerbated by their larger difficulty in accepting another aspect of his identity as a gay man. 

"But I will say, if you want your family to not judge you for using cannabis, just start a cannabis company, and get it written up in Forbes," he joked.

SEE ALSO: OK, everybody: Stop pot-shaming Elon Musk

Since taking on the business side recently, though, even Richard went back and deleted over 200 posts from his Instagram. Because legitimate cannabis businessmen also need to avoid the stereotypes associated with the stoner label, which seems to stick like glue in an age when social media signifiers define so much of how other people perceive you.

Reefer gladness

Particularly, Richard doesn't like to post himself in the actual act of smoking, even though a tutorial video teaching people how to smoke was what first began his path into cannabis influencing. That conscious curation is part of a larger shift in how people are expressing their cannabis use online.

"At first, over-consumption was kind of the game in the cannabis industry to get a following. You just did The Most," said Richard. 

When total prohibition was the law of the land in America, seeing copious amounts of weed, bongs, and blunts was an exciting novelty. But now it's possible for just about anyone with enough money in certain states. 

"We're in the biggest change in trends for online cannabis communities right now, moving more toward positivity and less toward over-consumption," said Richard.

Cannabis/beauty/wellness influencer and yoga instructor Brittany Tatiana (or sweettatas) quite literally embodies this positivity movement, by normalizing weed as a lifestyle choice on social media.

She got into weed influencing after a car accident left her with chronic pain. Unable to go back to her corporate job for six months, weed became her best alternative to the opioids doctors prescribed. At the time she'd already began dabbling with modeling and beauty influencing, building a following and doing promotion with a few brands.

But then she made the fateful decision to take the leap into letting her 420 flag fly. "I guarantee you I lost jobs and contracts because of it. Immediately," she said.

"It's been hard for me to represent my full self and not have people judge me based on what they see in one post," Tatiana said. Straddling the more commercial beauty industry and the cannabis-friendly world is like walking a tight rope.

"It's been a real battle with friends and brands. It's a fine line to cross. So I just try to be conscious about what I post."

Tatiana hesitates to post herself smoking too, for example. But overall, "it basically comes down to a day-to-day, case-by-case basis. Am I OK with how this post represents me? Do I believe in it? Would I want my younger self to post it? Is this true to who I am?"

She decides whether or not to post by thinking of her weed habits almost like a diet, or any other wellness lifestyle activity. Would she post a picture of a smoothie because it feels good and is part of her wellness regimen? Is that also the case for her marijuana-related post? 

View this post on Instagram

Grateful and riding the high from yesterday’s 420 Live! Still time to tune in... @hightimesmagazine #wcw (watch their live stories before 420pm today) w/ host @jenaealt and guests @sanctuaryfw 🔥 #grateful #sweettatas #cbd #hightimes . . . Use my code SWEETTATAS on @cannasmack 🌿 @organicflame 🌿 @foriawellness to receive sweet 420 discounts.

A post shared by Brittany Tatiana (@sweettatas) on Apr 11, 2019 at 10:36am PDT

"It comes down to choosing how you're gonna show it, and what cannabis means to you," she said.

But the risk is always there, especially since the stoner label seems to dominate any other way you define yourself. 

"I worry in general that it'll put me in some sort of box that I don't want to be in. Even though these days, it's becoming a way bigger box."

That caution should be part of everyday people's process for posting 420-friendly stuff on personal social media channels, too — regardless of whether or not they live in legalized states like the influencers we talked to.

The legal case against legalized marijuana

Because any career development expert will warn you that companies do look at your social media before hiring. There have also been a few cases of people getting fired in legalized states like Colorado for using medical marijuana even when they're not on the job.

A 2015 survey from the Society for Human Resource Management found that a vast majority (94 percent) of HR professionals with employees in legalized states still have formal policies against cannabis, with 73 percent in medical marijuana states and 82 percent in recreational states characterizing them as zero tolerance.

This strict approach might be showing signs of changing since 2015, though. More recent suggestions from the HR group advise companies to handle weed in the workplace with more nuance and care. 

It me.

Image: vicky leta / mashable art team

"We've yet to see robust employment protections be adopted across legal markets regarding an individual's cannabis consumption," said Justin Strekal, federal lobbyist at the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws. But there are some emerging cases, like a recent ruling in Massachusetts that sided with an employee suing his company for wrongful termination over medical marijuana.

Still, posting about weed is far more penalized in the workplace than, say, a post about happy hour with your coworkers.

When it comes to criminal persecution, aside from the occasional headline-worthy case, "there's not an epidemic of law enforcement arresting individuals for posting about marijuana online," said Strekal. 

"But that still doesn't change the fact that it's their legal right to arrest an individual for smoking cannabis, especially in criminalized jurisdictions. And if you post evidence publicly that could be used against you in a court of law, you are volunteering evidence against yourself," he said. 

Even if the police aren't out to get you, those kinds of posts can add fodder to other legal battles, like child custody. And looking at the racial divides for how marijuana is prosecuted in the real world, it's likely that some of those biases translate into who's more likely to get away with posting about weed, too.

"The application of law enforcement when it comes to cannabis is clearly racist. Full stop," said Strekal, pointing to the ACLU's famous report on how the war on marijuana is racially biased. The 2015 report found, "marijuana use is roughly equal among blacks and whites, yet blacks are 3.73 times as likely to be arrested for marijuana possession."

That also tracks with the general demographics of 420-friendly influencers which, at a cursory glance, tend to be disproportionately white and often female. 

Largely, the answer to whether you should be open about weed through your online persona depends on who you are. Beyond profession, local marijuana rules, and your age, your IRL community is another major factor in determining whether or not it's OK. Because, as Strekal pointed out, social media is mostly regulated by algorithms and abuse reports. 

"So the biggest question an individual needs to ask themselves is how are my friends going to respond to this? Is my social bubble going to report this as abuse to these platforms?"

Tatiana agreed, saying that, "If you live in a community of churchgoers, they won't respond well. And it's going to get around. So it's really a question of who you are, what you're willing to stand up for."

Taking the hit, for a cause

Interestingly, though, despite all these risks, repercussions, and cautions, lots of people still do get 420 friendly on main anyway. Just search 420 on your preferred social media platform. You'll find plenty of weed content.

Let the good vibes roll.

Image: vicky leta / mashable art team

And an overwhelming majority of those posts will be positive, much like what researchers found when they tracked attitudes towards marijuana on Twitter between 2013 and 2016. 

Anecdotally, it feels as if we all live under the hazy threat of social media leading to pot-shaming or worse in the real world. But statistically, positive social media chatter around bud just keeps getting danker.

That is the fundamental tension with cautioning people against sharing their weed consumption. While people should remain mindful of the repercussions, the truth is that fighting the stigma largely takes place in social spheres like Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. At least that's what some recent studies found, suggesting a link between positive social media and support for legalization.

Let's be real

"People are making a point to be more open about it because they're done with that shit. We can all see it for a lie now. And posting, like, 'I'm smoking this joint,' or 'my mom takes CBD pills' — that's people taking back their power. That's sending a message in and of itself," Tatiana said.

As we all know, social media is never a perfect reflection of the world as it is. Like the #FOMO travel pics that dominate your Insta feed, posting is about creating a collective ideal.

Until marijuana is legalized on the federal level, no one can tell you it's perfectly OK to be 420-friendly on main. At the same time, changing public perception by normalizing weed online just might be how we keep the wave of support for decriminalization and legalization alive.

Solving the issues around being weed-friendly online is a chicken and egg problem — or rather, a bud and the flower problem. Because in the world of social media, pretending we all don't smoke weed is so damn tired — but wishing everyone on your feed a happy holidaze is totally wired.

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