#And it's ok to like cishet characters even if you yourself are you queer?

[rosecorcoranwrites]

Just saw someone posting a pic from Shadow House were Patrick gives Emilico a bouquet of roses and tagged it "lesbian Patrick". This is the same comic where Ricky is embarrassed about his crush on on a girl (living dolls aren't supposed to have any feelings), and a fan took this as evidence of him being a trans girl. The same comic where multiple people head canon Patrick--who is the first character to internally admit his love for a girl, and then gets embroiled with another girl (it's complicated ;-;), and whose soot power literally manifests as hearts shooting out of him --and multiple people headcanon this guy as aromantic.

You know, maybe we DO need a straight awareness day?

[queer-reader-07]

queer characters are allowed to die in media. and it isn’t inherently A Problem or homophobic when they do.

i understand that it hurts seeing queer people die in shows and books and movies, especially if you’re queer and you saw yourself in those characters.

but the thing is, if you want better queer rep in media you have to be ok with queer characters being treated the same way cishet characters are treated. and that means letting them die sometimes.

Bury Your Gays is a problem, I’m not going to pretend like it’s not. but Bury Your Gays isn’t synonymous with every death of a queer character that happens. you’re allowed to be hurt and devastated by a character death, but i don’t think it’s fair to act like that character death is part of some wider issue just because that character is part of a minority group.

not every queer story is sunshine and rainbows with a happily ever after. some queer stories are violent, some are devastating, and people die in some of them. and that is OK.

if we act like queer people can’t die in media we’re contributing to the othering of our community. it’s saying “queer people are this special group you can’t ever do a bad thing to in media because if you do it’s homophobic.” which is not a true statement.

we can’t act like every death of a queer character is homophobic or has capital I Implications about the writer’s opinions on queer people. if we keep pushing that specific narrative queer stories are going to be stifled. writers need to be able to tell the stories they want, even if that includes a queer person dying. and acting like they can’t is doing more harm than good.

you can dislike a writer’s decision, you can stop watching a show because of that decision. that is OK. but you don’t get to go around saying the writer is homophobic because they did something you didn’t like to a character you loved.

[jules-hoard-of-stuff]

You know what?

Transitioning into a queer form of self that is not binary or what people expect is fundamentally different from binary transition, and that is something I don't think is talked about enough.

Now, binary transition itself HAS challenges. It's tough, from what I have seen/experienced having thought I was a binary trans man for a long time. And that's valid. This post is not about "binary transition NOT AS BAD" you know? Ok? It's about something else. This post is no longer about binary transition. We've gotten that out of the way, and we're not gonna talk about that. Long post under the cut. This is more me being fuckin. Angy. so don't mind me.

As someone transitioning into a queer form of self that, as I'm discovering, does not fit any linear path that gender roles set out for you, it's. It's got its unique challenges.

Internalized transphobia goes further than forcing yourself into the closet. It can be forcing yourself into the binary. I STILL do it, and I have trouble with it.

The very specific idea of what nonbinary looks like to society is so specific that it cuts out 99% of the queer community.

Our language, identities, presentation, and rights to ourselves are scrutinized even within the community. Some people think we shouldn't get the word Queer. It's one of the only words that works, after 10 years of trying to 'just figure it out'(said by both people inside and outside of the community). But I'm told I am not allowed to use it, as if there aren't other descriptors that have been used as slurs in the past. I'm told I'm an embarrassment to the queer community because I just. Don't want to lean one side or the other.

I'm constantly told everything about me is wrong. No WONDER I'm questioning everything, the cishet allos keep telling me I'm wrong and cis, the LGBTQ community keeps telling me I'm wrong and binary trans, and I'm.

I'm tired of it. ngl. I just wanna look like a cartoon character and live my life.

I like cute things. I like earrings and kandi bracelets and jewelry. I like bright colors and florals. I like plushies. I use they/he. I eventually wanna use xe/xem pronouns but am getting comfy with that and its taking a hot second. I take testosterone. My aesthetics are all jumbled. I like looking pretty. I like looking handsome. I love making things with my hands. I want to work out and be buff and strong. I sing in both high and low ranges. I want long hair. I want to be androgynous. I like boy things, girl things, in between things, and honestly?

It's a lot of contradiction. And I think that should be MY business whether that's right for me or not. I don't want anyone else's input on it anymore. They can make comments but it's none of their fucking business anymore.

I'm so tired of being poked and prodded at. I just want people to go "Oh! Okay!" And then respect me. Is that so hard to ask for?

[the-bjd-community-confess]

Bro, I'm gonna be real with you. No one cares that you're a trans man, and that your initial comment was /allegedly/ about the cishet women specifically in your personal circle. Which you only specified after people called you out on your first confession where you basically complained about How dare cishet women have gay dolls, and present them in ways they want to. Your original comment, and the follow-up you did was just a wide sweeping gesture talking shit about gay and trans dolls/characters, then tacking on "owned by cishet women," in a way that several LGBTQA/Queer people found to sound homophobic and transphobic as fuck, and Misogynistic to boot. You made a shitty comment about femme, or androgynous male characters/dolls. You had a stupid rant about how "they can never know how we LGBT people feel" and even after being called out by exactly that, US OTHER LGBTA/QUEER folks, you still stick your heels in and get mad we called you out.

Then you say that "trans people using that trope don't bother you" as if other trans persons needs you to validate them? You tried to gatekeep creating a trans doll because it upsets you personally, not because you actually care about the feelings of other trans people. (Otherwise you would have taken the hint after several trans individuals in the comments made a statement refuting your stance) Additionally it's just a gross way to basically lowkey demand that trans people must publicly proclaim their trans status, because you use that as a way to "OK" someone having a trans character. And then you shift the goalpost crying out how you "I’ve yet to see any cis person diversify their lgbt dolls unless it’s a fantasy character, like nonbinary or trans women or having a butch/femme lesbian couple etc, it’s always guy dolls." Where you go back to not only shitting on cishet women, but now it includes Cis-LGBA/Queers, and trying to make it a diversity problem, even though your initial rant wasn't even about that at all. Nor do you even know that, considering how you don't seem to give two shits about other LGBTA/Queer people's thoughts and feelings. Your use of the word fetish is also super gross, and doesn't make you sound any better, you just sound like a virtue signalling asshole, by implying something has to be a FETISH because they have dolls that aren't exactly like them. You think you did something, but you're just an asshole, and when a large amount of LGBTA/Queer people called you out, instead of taking the L, you just try to make everyone else the villain for your shitty comments. Just because you then reveal yourself as a trans man doesn't make the initial comment any less homo or transphobic, or misogynistic to people who read it.

And before you start that stupid "It's just my opinion!" Yeah, and it fucking sucks, and tons of people have told you why. You ain't making it fucking better by keeping this going, especially since this all started by you trying to speak for several groups who just don't need you, a single individual, to speak for them, and then back-pedal claiming it was /only/ about your own experience, when in the original confession it's a clearly a general statement about your beef with cishet women having male dolls and what they do with them. Newsflash, even a LGBTQA/Queer person can make -phobic statements, and when a bunch of LGBTQA/Queer call you out on it, maybe take the hint that you did say something shitty.

~Anonymous

[asher-in-the-south]

hi um,,, do u have more sow head canons? may be some enderknight ones? I really like ur other ones for koa btw

✨ oh boy it do be Enderknight headcanon hours.

✨ this ended up being longer than I intended so uh anyways enjoy some EKHCs.

✨ And yeah please feel free to req any sort of headcanons for any characters. Yes I mean anything literally go wild my dudes. Also I'm glad you liked my KoA hcs! <3

× Saxon and Trevor are in a qpr (queer platonic relationship)

× Denny gets really cold really easily so when they were travelling they all ended up dumping their jackets and extra layers on him when they had to stop for the night

× they also gave him lots of hugs to share body warmth and also just snuggle

× Denny is baby and that is something they all agree on

× Abbigail is their religion ok. they all stan their queen

× they have all tried Saxon's glasses on at least once

× when they said "omg it's so blurry" Saxon was all "yeah because they're for my eyes only dumbasses"

× they once tried to ditch Allister six times in one day

× it nearly worked. Thunderdome betrayed them. the lil shit (affectionate)

× Saxon has gotten drunk from his potions on more than one occasion

× it wasn't really drunk drunk, he was just a bit tipsy

× I mean I say tipsy but he regrettably tried hitting on both Allister AND Abbigail

× Trevor wouldn't shut up about it for weeks

× yeah Saxon is very very bi, we love our bi king

× more sexuality hcs: Allister is cishet, Abbigail is bi, Trevor is also bi (another bi king), and Denny is demisexual and genderqueer!

× Denny would have been the one to help Saxon regularly restock ingredients for his potions

× Trevor does that job instead now

× Abbigail is just so. exhausted

× she's literally falling asleep on Luna's back while travelling

× Saxon and Trevor do everything they can to lighten her load

× they still basically worship her though

× one might even call them simps—

× they make such good footrests tbh

× after the sgw they just. had parties/chill sessions in the end castle sometimes

× occasionally they invite like, the remains of KoA over

× Ria never comes though since she's too busy doing david knows what

× they've probably bumped into the prod. team self inserts at some point pfffft

× they bought takeout pizza together jkjk UNLESS

× I think Trevor probably plays some sort of musical instrument.

× he strikes me as a clarinet lad

× do they even have clarinets in Ardonia?

× well if they do then he plays clarinet

× Saxon is a guitar boi

× Abbigail is probably. Piano??? I think that would work

× Denny probably would play the flute or violin

× Allister just doesn't play

× he thinks it's stupid

× why learn it yourself when you've got servants who can play it for you amirite

× stfu Allister not everyone is a rich boy like you

[myvirtuesuncounted]

So in school this one year I had this one bitch in my class whom we will call Regina George for hopefully obvious reasons. And she was just. A massive bigot. Constantly bullying the neurodivergent kids, being an asshole to gay ppl, openly hating sushi. She was just,,, the worst. And I had made it my personal mission to destroy her (not like that you sickos). I drew a shitty copy of her face and stuck it to a pillow whenever I needed to punch something and you may think I'm lying about that much like a politician may say he wants equal opportunity for all, or a person on the internet claims I'm "really not that attractive so I should stop worshipping myself" which doesn't even make sense because like hello can you see me rn and also all my trauma and mental illnesses are stored in my dump truck ass which is why it's so big and you probably think I'm deflecting my deep rooted insecurities by making jokes about how hot I am which is not true and- point is I really hated this Regina bitch. So deep was my burning desire to set her hair on fire that I hatched a plan. Regina obviously wants more bigots and Trump supporters in positions of power, right? What better way to anger her than have me, an openly queer and pagan punk that's read the communist manifesto 3 times, get onto the school council leadership team? Pretty smart, right? Wrong. I had no leadership experience whatsoever and in hindsight I probably should've been focused on getting onto the team to help people rather than have my one motivation be a giant middle finger to some rich cishet girl who's dad is probably gone. Ok that was dark but you get what I'm saying, I hated this bitch. But anyway, I gave my big speech about leadership and equality and if I got onto the team I'd give the school bathrooms actually good toilet paper that doesn't feel like I'm having intercourse with a cactus covered in sandpaper. And it worked. My unhinged demonic definitely-possessed-by-a-crack-addict, stop-trying-to-drink-the-box-of-juice-you-found-in-a-bin-wtf-is-wrong-with-you self got onto a team full of white brunette children with rich parents. Excellent. Now all I needed to do was convert a herd of pubescent children into spitting on Regina's shoes and throwing gas cans back at the police. Shouldn't be hard, right? Wrong again. Apparently no one is willing to listen to a short feminine presenting dork with anger issues. Weird. My plan to make Regina's life miserable was failing. And there was only one thing left to do. You know those thoughts you get, where the side of your brain that practices kindness and forgiveness tells you not to do it but the other side that eats crayons and memories WAP is telling you to do it for no other reason than it'd be fucking hilarious if you were a character in a tv show (which I'm starting to feel like with U guys. I'm not mad tho, I feel like a small mammal in an enclosure as a group of four year olds watches me take a shit as they start giggling hysterically). So I stared deep into the mirror of agony and asked God where my moral stance lies if not elsewhere than replaceable specks of dust on a dirt road. And god, with her many mouths and her many tragedies, says nothing. So anyway I bought a roll of stickers of the lgbt pride flag online and stuck them on all of Regina's belongings without her knowing. Yes it was funny as shit no I don't regret being an asshole. The immense amount of joy it brought me to see this girl become enraged and try to frantically tear off a sticker of a rainbow off her school bag. Which really proves that you can do all the goodness your heart demands of you but at the end of the day death and life do not care what you have done and so why not make yourself immortal. Anyways this has been fun bestie love U also who do you speculate I am I'm curious 💖💖💖

oh my gods i don’t know if i should be proud or terrified, i’m most likely feeling both. but honestly she had it coming

[hues-of-purple]

I kinda feel that being part of the LGBTQIA + community is like being in a fandom... (let me explain haha 😂)

You have like-minded ppl around you who have mostly had similar experiences and/or feelings that you wouldn’t necessarily talk about with cishet peeps. There’s amazing ‘fanart’ of the flags and lgbtqia + things (snails, frogs, memes, etc).

It’s a place where you can really be yourself (that’s how it should be, anyway.) And most ppl, especially here, make online friendships with like-mined ppl just like ppl from similar fandoms do.

Also, more often than not, lgbtqia + ppl (or queer ppl, whichever you prefer) will join fandoms and make friends from there, who you’ll find are part of the lgbtqia + community as well and might even ship the same lgbtqia + characters as you do.

What do you think? I’d be interested to see all your perspectives on this... (more than ok to reblog)

[salamanderinspace]

Review of Feel Good (Netflix)

So I've been watching Feel Good on Netflix.

Mae Martin is and has been one of my absolute favorite stand-up comedians for years. I feel like I blogged some hot take before about how I thought they should have the same fan following as John Mulaney. I LOVE Mae Martin, and I was super excited when I discovered they recently starred in a Netflix tv show. Art is not a competition. But if it was, Mae Martin dunks John Mulaney in a trash can.

If the show "Feel Good" demonstrates anything, it's that MAE CAN ACT. Holy wow. This is high quality drama. It's funny and comedic in parts, but it's a super intense, dark show. It's a very, very honest look at some relationships. They don't always feel exactly real to me--more like someone is trying to tell a real story, but changing just enough to make it commercially appealing, compelling story-telling and protect the real people who were involved.

So, to start: it's a show about a queer relationship. The two main characters are George (a cishet woman) and Mae (non-binary.) And these people hurt each other. And they help each other. They both have a lot of emotions and they are chronically bad at being sensitive and emotionally literate and taking care of the others' needs. The show is aware of this problem. The text explores questions like: is this relationship "toxic"? Is it unhealthy, or a substitute for addiction? Despite those issues it does manage to leave you rooting for these two crazy kids to get together and work things out. Or at least, that's the response I had. If you've been in a romantic relationship like the one in the show you're going to find things triggering and you might come to a different conclusion.

One of the main driving conflicts in the story is Mae vs. Their Addiction. They are a Drug Addict. It's hard for me to relate to how this is framed, because my experience of drugs (including hard drugs) is that they are helpful in both medicinal and recreational contexts. I believe people should be in charge of what drugs they take. I believe people should have the space to use drugs if they find drugs helpful. And I mean. Rat Park. Google Rat Park.

But Mae is someone who's found drugs to be a very destructive force in their life. They're also dealing with trauma from a past ... relationship. From when they were a teenager. With a much older man. I was shocked at how complex the show's depiction of this relationship turned out. It's not all "it was Bad and Horrible and He Should Be Punished." I am disappointed, though, that the trauma Mae is dealing with is -revealed- in season 2 to be -all because- of this past relationship, when Mae's mother is so obviously... problematic. Mae's mother is ruthlessly domineering and controlling. She visibly hates everything about her child. It was upsetting for me. Maybe that reveals my own personal damage and my own biases. It's the kind of show where you have to keep assuring yourself, "ok, this is Mae's story. Not my story."

It is not an empowering show. It's frustrating and painful. Minor characters take shots at the main characters for being wrapped up in themselves, and you're supposed to agree with them. "I've never heard you guys have a conversation about, like, science," Paul says in one scene. Even though George just hosted a social activism presentation event about saving the bees? I mean, she's talked a lot about saving the bees. It reads more as a line that was spoken to someone in real life a long time ago by an insensitive third party who the writer has since developed fond feelings for.

Anyway this show made me feel a lot, and it wasn't all super pleasant. I have some issues with it that I might blog about later on. But it's an important show. Sometimes you have to do things that are important even when they don't exactly bring you bliss. So I definitely recommend. Everyone watch the show. Seriously everyone watch it.

[catboyfeli]

the past few days i’ve been experiencing so much confusion and dysphoria towards the concept of nonbinary itself, and i think that’s part of why i used to oppose it??

it’s just?? i’m autistic so i take everything literally, so if someone identifies as their agab, but not the gender roles assigned to it, would they be nonbinary? what even is gender to most people?

i’m so loving towards queer cishets because, although i’m not cishet, queer attraction to men as a woman is a big part of my identity, and everyone has different interpretations of what gender is, so if someone experiences their gender as queer, but still identifies as it, wouldn’t they be lgbtq?

like, if a cishet man identifies as male, but does not conform to the male gender role, expresses himself femininely, experiences a disconnect from the male social role, and experiences attraction exclusively to women (or those who present as women), but in a way that isn’t the same as typical cishet men, would he be considered nonbinary or genderqueer?

people go on and on about self identity always being valid, but the second someone identifies as cishet and queer, they act like it’s contradictory. but heterosexual attraction and straight attraction aren’t the same thing?

people say lgbtq means anyone who isn’t cishet, but also talks about how cis individuals may identify as genderqueer, or something similar, to describe their connection to gender roles and social roles. so by that logic, someone can identify as cis + het and queer without it being contradictory.

it’s been on my mind a lot lately and makes me feel like bursting into tears because it’s so overwhelming and confusing and i hate how exclusionary and hateful the community as a whole is.

i just? i have one character i’m kin with, that goes beyond just having them as a character i relate to or find comfort in. he’s a cis man, but very feminine, doesn’t conform to the male social role in the slightest, attracted almost exclusively to women with a rare exception here and there for other feminine men, identifies as male but not with the male social or gender roles

i know it probably sounds silly to most people but for me, this kin majorly affects my identity and so often i just wonder? is he cis? is he nonbinary? i don’t fucking know??? sometimes people say nonbinary and genderqueer can also refer to one’s gender expression, and yeah, this character’s gender expression is 100% nonbinary. he doesn’t “act” like a man whatsoever and identifies more with women than with men, but still identifies as a man.

anyway the big problem is that i roleplay this character, and whenever i think about the fact that people would assume a straight man or lesbian wouldn’t be attracted to him, it makes me feel incredibly dysphoric, because like?? ok he’s male but he doesn’t behave or present male whatsoever, so yeah, some straight men and lesbians COULD be attracted to him because attraction goes far beyond gender identity and is affected more by gender expression than anything else

so this whole thing just makes me feel confused and dysphoric and i’m about to start my period so i’ve been real emotional and disassociative lately which makes me hyperfixate on this and it’s so UGHGHHGGHh.

it’s just so difficult to explain my feelings, beliefs, and experiences to others and it makes me so frustrated and upset.

i just wish? the community would come up with something to refer to actual non lgbtq people? instead of using cishet as a catch-all because it’s really not? someone who’s cis and het can still be queer in their experience with gender and sexuality, and although i’m neither, i’m still supportive due to my past confusion with all of this and knowing what i experienced was queer, but at that time, feeling as if cis and heterosexual best described me.

and plus now even if i was cis and het, my attraction to men and experience with gender would still be queer, regardless of my personal identity or attraction (or lack of) to women.

most of society sees gender as either male or female, depending on your sex or which one you want to transition to, and how you behave and present yourself is independent of your gender. which makes sense, but now i don’t know what i believe and it’s all so fucking confusing and some aspects of nonbinary enforce gender norms and others demolish it and it confuses and distresses the hell out of me

i just wish i had one person who understood my way of thinking, then i’d feel less alone and crazy, because like? a woman who presents as male can still conform to the female social role? gender expression refers to more than just presentation, and a woman who presents as female can not conform to the female social role. is that considered nonbinary or genderqueer? is that why people think i’m crazy for being supportive of queer cishets? is a person who identifies as their agab but has queer gender expression considered nonbinary or genderqueer? have i just been taking this “identity” thing too literally?

are gender and gender roles considered the same thing? because yeah, they are just about the same thing, but is that how other people view it?

typing this whole thing has helped a little with my thoughts but i still feel distressed and dysphoric as hell. i’m nonbinary, but still have a strong attachment to being female due to, you know, growing up as female and mostly conforming to the female social role, so seeing all this hate towards cishets makes me, by association, feel like shit, and seeing people constantly assume heterosexual attraction conforms to binary gender roles, makes me feel invalidated, invisible, and dysphoric. me being kin with a very gnc male character, who also experiences queer heterosexual attraction, makes it hurt even more and increases my distress and dysphoria.

like on tiktok? i saw some jerk say how “straight people shouldn’t use top/bottom” like??? first of all trans people?? second of all PEGGING?? like i said, i still feel strongly attached to being female, so this made me feel like garbage.

does the community consider those who do not conform to gender expectations as nonbinary or genderqueer? is cis used to refer to those who identify as their agab AND the gender and social roles that go along with it? am i the one who’s out of the loop?

feminine gay men (more specifically, mlm) are normalized in lgbtq spaces, but feminine straight and bi men when it comes to m/f attraction, aren’t, and are inherently assumed to conform to the male social norms. same with women, obviously, but i feel like it’s slightly more accepted with women.

even in bisexual spaces, m/m and f/f relationships are considered ‘superior,’ and m/f relationships are always assumed to conform to gender roles. by the lgbtq community, as well. people think m/f and het mean heteronormative, gender binary conforming. but it doesn’t. is there any sort of term or community for those who don’t conform to this? i’ve been meaning to make my own but i’d really rather not because i just don’t have the energy.

this is what i’m always talking about. this is why i thought so strongly i was just a cis girl that didn’t conform to the female social role. is my understanding of things just off? is being gnc considered genderqueer by default? and when i say gnc, i don’t mean a man who wears dresses or something, i mean men and women who don’t conform to the gender roles assigned to them because it’s who they are inside, not to make a political statement or whatever. i’m not gnc or nonbinary to make a political statement, i am because that’s just who i am.

anyway if i could just be a normal cis girl who isn’t exclusively attracted to femme men that’d be fucking amazing. sometimes i wish i was just a trans guy but even then i feel like i wouldn’t be completely happy since i’m just Not attracted to gender conforming men in the slightest. and yes, i’m bisexual, but lately it’s so rare that i’m attracted to women and when it comes to men, i’m exclusively attracted to femme men, not exclusively attracted to men as a whole.

so often i get jealous of trans men, gay men, and lesbians, and then i feel like an asshole because i shouldn’t be jealous but i am and i just wish i was one of them and not a fucking freak that doesn’t seem to fit any label or community properly. like my gay trans friend? i’m so jealous of him and i feel like an asshole. he has so much community and i have? nobody. i wish i was like him. i don’t know anyone who understands my attraction to exclusively femme men, and especially not girls who understand it. for a long time, you know, despite me feeling drawn towards the nonbinary label, i thought my lack of community of other women who understood how i felt and lack of representation, was why I felt that way, and I thus brushed it off as me being cis and confused.

knowing tumblr, someone’s going to see this and make fun of me or invalidate my feelings, as fucking always, so i don’t even know why i’m posting this. i just have nowhere else i can put it.

[speaking-from-the-abyss]

Thoughts about LGBTQA representation

If you wanna write or portray a LGBTQA character, first off, thank you.

It's important that the community has more and more representation in any type of media. Every time you hear someone saying that "there's no need to keep including LGBTQA people in series/movies/books/anything because we already have representation in a lot of them, and so, our 'battle' is over" is incredibly wrong. Representation is not nearly as much as they believe, specially if we talk about trans, ace/aro, non binary people and other queer identities/sexualities. We need to keep pushing for more representation in mainstream media, because in the long run that'll help normatization.

But that doesn't mean all representation is good.

For example, something that uses a LGBTQA character just for comedic purposes is not okay, because stereotypes, outdated info and a good dosis of lgbtphobia in the form of insensible jokes and passive aggressive behaviour are normally added to the mix.

And yes, sometimes they are funny, but for people of that identity/sexuality they might be just. Awful. Hurtful. And that's not ok.

Bad representation just keeps the discrimination ongoing, the prejudices, the missinformation. This becomes specially relevant when we talk about people who are just discovering their sexuality/identity, because we're just making the whole process of realization and self-acceptance (which is never easy or pleasant) even worse.

The best way to change this is by asking for more accurate characters that represent our community and a better work with the whole LGBTQA discourse. So, if you wanna make a LGBTQA character, thank you. Here are some considerations you may have in mind if you wanna portray a LGBTQA character:

Do research, specially if you're not part of that identity/sexuality. You can't just. Write based on what you think a person from an identity/sexuality might be like. Internet is an amazing place and if you ask, you can find a lot of people willing to share their experience with you.

Every experience is personal. That is, it's subjective. All experiences are valid, but they are not universal. Ask a bunch of people the same question and you're gonna get a bunch of different answers. This will help you gain perspective and a better understanding of what you're dealing with.

Be sensitive. You can't just go and ask a total stranger about personal stuff like this. They have to be willing to do so, and even then, please mind your words. For a lot of people, it's not an easy topic to talk about, and they might even have their own inner demons regarding it, so try to be reasonable and don't push them. And let me warn you: saying "it's for research" it's not an excuse.

Ask for advice. Once you're done with your character, ask someone to check it, so you can make corrections if needed. It's better asking for help than making a mistake.

People are not defined by one trait. It's great that you want to make an LGBTQA character, but being a LGBTQA person should not be the center of it. The character needs to go beyond that, to have a personality, dreams, fears, habits, interests, etc. that are not influenced by the fact that they're gay, or ace, or NB. Remember: you're writing a person. And a person is a universe. Beign LGBTQA is just a part of that universe.

Do even MORE research. What are the common stereotypes regarding this character's identity/sexuality? What is the history of the label or the movement? How cishet people see them? How about people from this or that religion/country/time in history? How do they see themselves? If the character comes from another world, how are they perceived there? These are questions you should ask yourself depending on what your story is about.

:3

[trashyeggroll]

Look at you getting analytical on the ARROWs Professor Trashy. :) Next please do why not shipping a queer pairing on a show and or pointing out flaws about it doesn't make you homophobic! Sitting patiently for your class.

😘 I would be a terrible professor anon bc flattery would make me buy fyre fest 2 tickets

PARAMETERS/DISCLAIMERS:

1. So you said queer pairings WHICH I accept as a blanket term for LGBTQ+ on my blog, but I think based on how simplistic gender identity is almost exclusively depicted in US media so usually this just means canonically only knowing a character’s pronouns and I’ll come back to that. Basically, let’s assume for the sake of this we’re talking specifically about mlm and wlw ships.

2. I’m also going to assume you don’t mean where a character has canonically identified with a monosexual queer label, eg lesbian, and under the fairly narrow way sexual orientation is typically defined in media. Because yes, it is typically homophobic to ship a lesbian with a cishet man over litch rally any woman in the general setting, but more on that later too.

3. This would be a much less fraught issue if we had a robust catalogue of queer stories told by queer people with all kinds of endings (happy to sad) and genres (war movies to romcoms), but because that’s not how capitalism and moralistic censorship in media works… we know that our attention and dedication to a franchise/ship is what the studios want from us to get that content.

This topic is another one where people tend to focus on individual examples, but the real issue is the big picture and repetitive behavior as experienced by queer folks. Western media and the male gaze love a “lesbian finds THE RIGHT man” storyline, and it’s not a coincidence that that also is a line delivered in abuse to lesbians: “you just need to try some dick”. I’m sure lesbians are not the only ones who’ve experienced this but because lesbians are women, the element of misogyny adds an extra twinge of violence to that outlook.

But a less basic and depressing approach to this, the Captain Marvel/Thor v Captain Marvel/Maria Rambeau example is a fairly decent example where one meaningful look between m/f characters can set off an Internet shipping lovefest but then folks gets real “friendship is the truest love” re: someone with whom a woman has a substantive relationship that isn’t given a romantic label. But that argument will never be resolved by Discourse, right, because the canon is the only place that can clarify, and MCU never will, so we’re left to our own devices. That’s just one example among a repetitive behavior that makes mlm/wlw ships feel inferior. Please don’t @ me, ya’ll know this is a Space Wives house no matter what anyone says 💆🏻

OK, now—

Most of the time, we are left to infer a character’s identity the via relationships they have, rather than any spoken identity. And most of the time, we are put through some heavy handed coming out reference for wlw and mlm characters, but it seems like we are increasingly getting some actual, spoken identities, ex: Grace Choi says the words, “You do know I’m bi, right?”

But IRL and with media, straight people still are just there, right? That’s why the coming out narrative belongs to queer people, and straight people “coming out” ain’t cute solidarity. The absence of words is what makes characters straight (and sometimes it’s queerbaiting), and we are right to demand the actual language we use to form community is used in the media representing us, in a substantive and respectful way.

Also IRL, when we are kind and at our best, we know that someone who has identified as a lesbian for years entering a loving, healthy relationship with a cishet man is OK. Nobody’s being invalidated. It’s not commentary on my marriage to my wife. It has literally no impact on anyone but the two people in that relationship, as long as we on the outside aren’t trying to be the Sexuality and Gender police… which we humans are much more prone to doing with thousands of strangers on the Internet 😬

So keeping in mind that people get so worked up at least partially due to #4 above, I think the question isn’t even about the ships necessarily, but how this friction in fandom is occurring. First and foremost, we should listen, without defensiveness, to everyone who tells us that the things we say or create make them uncomfortable in some way, and that doesn’t mean you have to agree, because it’s up to you to decide to hold yourself accountable what you feel is right. And if you’ve ever been the person trying to hold someone else to account, same applies to listening to the answer (including not accepting half assed apologies or whatever you have the emotional bandwidth to do after saying your piece). I think that if someone is going to someone else’s blog, commenting on their content, essentially proactively taking steps to let someone know you don’t like their ship for reasons other than problematic ones… you’re just stirring the pot for no reason. Make your own posts. Keep it out of the main tags. Filter and block content and blogs that make you angry.

Anyway, how’s that for the windy lead up to my answer to the question, which is: When we’re dealing with labeless characters, no matter how they present or who they date in canon, I think everything is fair game for fanon, and there’s a weird demand for performativity in calling someone homophobic for not supporting a wlw or mlm ship. In a general sense, and given the disclaimers above.

The most important questions to me are: Is the construction of this fanon relationship healthy? Would they be happy?

Outside of that, if we don’t have any indication otherwise, what’s the harm in shipping a “queer” pairing, a straight pairing, or both? Or neither? Or, why are we playing into the baseline assumption that no label = cishet? And, isn’t it at least partially bi/pan phobic to call a m/f ship hetero by default? 🤔 Same for it being transphobic to call the characters cis by default? The “phobic” words aren’t really right here: It’s more like passive reinforcement of heternormativity.

HERE’S THE THING THOUGH: That’s where I feel like Tumblr discourse (and I don’t use that word as a pejorative) has full speed lapped Hollywood and Western media bc no fucking way do they get to make that argument at us. Not until they have given us the utopia world of #4. We’re still getting your Call Me By Your Name’s and MCU patting itself on the back for that one dude referencing a husband. They get no benefit of the doubt until they make real steps toward inclusion and giving as many people as possible the opportunity to feel seen and understood and well represented on a worldwide stage.

So what I’m saying is, I just don’t think there’s any reason to fight each other when identity is left in the air, amongst the fandom worlds. We turn to fellow fans and content creators for the rep we want, the ships we want, and to commiserate on the sins of canon. The real enemy is scarcity, specifically a false scarcity created by the capitalistic media world, and we should be together in demanding to be seen by culture as fully realized human beings with just as much of a spectrum of experience with the world as cishets.

[mossrotts]

so blizzard’s got a shit load of problems, but i am so glad that soldier 76 is confirmed gay? like it’s just real nice that poster character tracer is lesbian and basically the most stereotypical actioniest action hero is gay.

but man i keep thinking of the forums and people asking like ‘does it even matter what sexuality the characters are?’ or ‘does it even matter if soldier 76 is gay?’. and i feel like... idk, if the asker is as neutral and “unbiased” as they think they are, then the answer is... no? cause like, idk it doesn’t affect the gameplay in any way (tracer still kicks my ass just as well as she did before we learned about her orientation), there is (UNFORTUNATELY) no mini game where you play as tracer getting past talon or something to go give her girlfriend a smooch, there’s really no story mode in the game despite all the surrounding lore and comics! so, if you’re somehow completely neutral, then no, it doesn’t really matter to the gameplay or how you interact with playing!

i think it does matter to people who are ‘unbiased’, however. unbiased in this sense meaning those who are affected by a character’s sexuality, and i think those are people who either say ‘yes it matters because it makes me uncomfortable in some type of way/makes me dislike this character/makes me dislike playing the game’ or ‘yes it matters because it’s representation/makes me more comfortable/makes me enjoy the game more’. the first rooted in or related to homophobia, the second rooted in or related to being queer/being supportive and empathetic to those whose situations are different than yours. 

and idk, if you’re asking ‘does it matter’ you should really question yourself what your own answer is! if it’s actually ‘no’, then it doesn’t matter that soldier 76 is gay or tracer lesbian (or that most of the characters are disabled with prosthetic, or that there’s nonwhite characters, or autistic characters, etc.), and it’s totally ok that those characters are in the game and affect you/your gameplay in no way! and more, you’ll probably realize that there are so many characters where the cliche hero who shares traits with soldier 76 is cishet so there is nothing lost for cishet individuals by this character being gay. and if that’s the case i hope you also realize that asking ‘does it matter’ tends to make it seem like there’s no place for diversity in games, that it’s not important for some people, and helps those for whom it does matter for  homophobic reasons delude themselves into thinking they’re less biased than they are--which all doesn’t seem very neutral of you so maybe keep ‘does it matter’ as a private thought for all of us. 

if your answer is ‘yes’ but it’s because the character having a specific orientation (color of skin, disability, etc) that’s different than you makes you uncomfortable, then that’s a type of bigotry, babe! either deal with that and become a better person, or suck my trans dick. nobody cares about your crusty opinions and as stated before, there’s a multitude of characters made for you, “losing” this one doesn’t mean you’re being attacked and doesn’t mean you have less goddamn characters to play with or whatever. 

and those out of the side, the answer can also be ‘yes’ but for reasons that are, i feel, a lot more beneficial to society and communities in general. yes, it matters, because this is a type of character that is rarely shown as gay and he is confirmed gay! it’s neat and new. yes, it matters, because of folk that say gay people have no place in fiction. yes, it matters, because of shit happening in the world today with constantly higher rates of crimes and prejudice against the lgbt community. yes, it matters, because it means that tracer isn’t the ‘token queer character’ and she isn’t the sole representation of the entire lgbt community anymore and we’re seeing someone on the same team who has a very different story and relation with his own orientation than she does with her. yes, it matters, because players are validated and are able to connect with the characters they’re playing. yes, for so many more reasons. 

anyway i can’t remember where i was going with this but i’m glad jack’s gay and i hope that more characters are confirmed with neat and wonderful things in their backstories.

[junietuesday]

I posted 4,485 times in 2021

541 posts created (12%)

3944 posts reblogged (88%)

For every post I created, I reblogged 7.3 posts.

I added 2,381 tags in 2021

#june speaks - 550 posts

#loz - 470 posts

#undescribed - 368 posts

#good art! - 367 posts

#queue - 203 posts

#aro - 144 posts

#writing - 95 posts

#pokemon - 90 posts

#long post - 49 posts

#june games - 45 posts

Longest Tag: 98 characters

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My Top Posts in 2021

#5

it makes me sad when people’s tags are like “shut up x” or “x’s trash writing” or “my shitty art” like maybe you feel like youre bad or annoying but insulting yourself even just like. casually or in the background it just makes you internalize it more and more. if you wanna keep a lighthearted tone you can go “my incredibly amazing art” or whatever like even if it feels sarcastic youre still saying positive things abt yourself and it really does help your self esteem. also just saying smth neutral like “x soliloquies” or “sometimes i type words” is better than putting yourself down

85 notes • Posted 2021-01-05 05:41:28 GMT

#4

HELLO??????????

121 notes • Posted 2021-11-01 23:17:06 GMT

#3

“being gay isn’t a personality trait” bitter cause you’re cishet huh? sorry i’m sexy and cool for being queer

183 notes • Posted 2021-01-02 03:09:47 GMT

#2

ok ok there Is a problem of aromanticism and asexuality being constantly conflated. trust me im alloaro i know this well. however the solidarity between aros and aces,,,, the shared experiences despite being seeming opposites,,,, it makes me emotional thinking abt it!! like ok my friend is allo but theyre dating someone ace and theyre like “yeah i respect them but i cant imagine it lol bc my sexual side is just a part of me yknow? like they get uncomfortable talking abt sex even jokes and its kind of weird to me” and im like ohhh rip friend’s partner….. 🤝🤝 who cares if someone else cant imagine it we’re not missing anything. i hope she doesnt say that to you lmao. me getting so defensive over my friend’s partner me wanting to explain that im the same but the reverse but the same

193 notes • Posted 2021-10-02 21:07:51 GMT

#1

next straight girl to call a guy fruity literally owes him and every queer person in the room $100

388 notes • Posted 2021-12-06 19:28:35 GMT

Get your Tumblr 2021 Year in Review →

[permian-tropos]

why aces belong in the lgbt+ community a Not comprehensive post tm 

god I hate this discourse so much. it’s not a fun rousing kind of pissed off like arguing about star wars or w/e. I feel ill having to say this and I feel ill thinking people will want to inject their own ideologies into what I’m about to say, about my personal experience of identity

look. I’m neither cisgender nor heterosexual. I’ve had pre-puberty anticipatory body dysphoria, I’ve had tons of gender presentation dysphoria, I’ve had gender euphoria from people telling me they don’t see me as a woman. I felt isolated in a lot of ways when I was younger simply because I didn’t know how to engage with people in their gendered world I didn’t connect with. and obviously I’m not heterosexual because I’m ace but I’ve had strong aesthetic attractions to women and also found that I’m probably somewhat demisexual and I don’t want to get into that too much more (personal) but basically to the extent that I can be romantic or sexual it is not in a straight way.

on these grounds I would hope I would belong in the lgbt+ community

but the thing is -- neither my gender nor my multiple-gender-interest expressed themselves until I’d come to terms with how my aroasexuality shaped them both. because that always came first, and it was always really vivid in my mind. it was so vivid that I invented the word asexual to describe it quite independently of anyone else when I was a pre-teen. asexuality was always what made me different, what made me feel like I was not part of cishet society. I felt like I wasn’t fully a woman for many reasons, but I especially knew that I didn’t want to be a gender that people could be attracted to! that I wasn’t a gender that people could or should be attracted to, in the way that people can be attracted to men or women (because I had only learned the binary at that time). and so, also, my feelings towards other people were not governed by the interplay of recognizing people’s genders and sensing your own sexuality that allo people experience. 

asexuality is a huge range of experiences but a lot of those experiences are highly unique. and not in a ~fun~ way. maturing into asexuality can mean not knowing if every interaction or social connection you’ve had is sexual. again, I don’t want to get into certain things (you don’t have a right to all my personal anecdotes ok?), but it can mean feeling like any strong attachment you hold to something is sexual or romantic, and before I identified as ace, when I was around 8-9, I ended up doing a few things that I really regret because I couldn’t distinguish that emotional difference (they’re not that bad, just kinda odd neurodivergent child behaviors, don’t worry about me, but I still have these memories uneasily rattling around my brain)

what I’m getting at is that asexuality is an extremely queer experience and if you’re allo then it’s not your queer experience and you can’t measure it by your own standards, and it shouldn’t be offensive to suggest that. and it can’t be separated into its own community. I am not cisgender -- but my gender comes out of my asexuality and so if the queer community wants my queer gender, it will have to take my asexuality with it. I am not hetero-attracted -- but my non-het experience comes out of my asexuality. if I end up in a relationship with a girl, even one with sex as an element, it would still be an asexual same-gender relationship and my desire to be with them would be an asexual desire.

the ace community cannot be separate from the lgbt+ community. I cannot separately be lgbt+ and ace. my gender identity and non-het attractions clearly belong in lgbt+ spaces. but they are asexual. what do you expect me to do in your lgbt+ space, to express my gender and attraction, without my asexuality? you can’t pull these two things apart. 

so as a non-cis non-het ace, you are literally expelling my queerness from your community by making asexuality some separate thing.

the question of whether asexuals are oppressed or not is honestly BS because a) I can’t speak for the many asexuals who have in fact been stigmatized for their identity but they can damn well speak for themselves and they do but people refuse to listen and b) we’re trying to make a world where no one’s going to be oppressed. even in a world where no queer people are stigmatized or mistreated, there are still going to be experiences that are queer because they’re different. and asexuality is always going to feel different because of how formative sexuality is to individuals and society! we’re always going to be something else. why doesn’t that belong under the lgbt+ umbrella?

saying you don’t thing aces should be in the community focused on marginalized genders and sexualities that you’re in, but some other community, basically means you think you shouldn’t have to hear any of the complex ideas about gender and sexuality that we could offer. you think you deserve the right to to avoid our voices in broad conversations about these topics

allo folks? can I have your attention please? 

stop acting like you can personally comprehend the experience of being aspec and freely categorize it. and if you’re angry that we’re talking about how not wanting sex is valid (but also a complex and multifaceted way of being), because your identity has been stigmatized as hypersexual, I just have to say, is making asexuality a queer thing going to make all the other sexualities more sexual? like if you’re in proximity to us and consider yourself in a community with us, that suddenly makes your sexuality look too sexual to the cishets? 

do you think that we’re going to be treated as the good queers? is that it? I do genuinely empathize and understand this but it’s also a fucking petty and frankly selfish fear. you don’t get to kick us out because you’re afraid of what other people will think and do simply because we exist. and it also plays into the bullshit about how Oppressors(TM) and Oppressed(TM) are always clearly delineated along an axis of oppression -- allosexual people face tons of problems due to compulsory allosexuality in society! one of the longstanding problems throughout human history is people delineating the right way to be allosexual. people making the experience of having sexual attraction (not necessarily having sex) the locus of judgement on a person’s character because it’s seen as this universal part of being human, some unifying thing that all human psyches can be judged on, which lets societies justify extremely harsh judgments. looking at you, Religions Of That Book That Classifies Sexual Desire As Defining Humanity And Humanity’s Original Sin Establishing Their Capacity For Good And Evil (or just the adherents of those religions that use that interpretation, which is and always has been a lot of people)

anyway where the fuck do you get off citing how people stigmatize the lgbt+ community as hypersexual when you believe that sexuality should be mandatory for participation in the lgbt+ community but optional if you’re going to go anything else 

[thestuckylibrary]

The straight writers + mlm fic thing. I'm totally bummed that sounded like a dig at cis straight fans for being into + supportng m/m ships. Why s it bad for us to support slash ships just cause we're straight? LGBTQ writers matter + we need more of them, y'all! just why does our work mean less when we're here for and supprt those LGBTQ people and writiers? an I'm writing for everyone y'all, not just straight gals. We should support each other equally + not put others down dude

No one is putting you down, or saying you shouldn’t support or create content for slash ships. We’re just saying as fans writing about queer people, specifically mlm, we shouldn’t treat straightness and cisness as neutral or the simple fact that we are writing slash as allyship. We’re talking about queer issues, specifically mlm issues in fandom, and by sending an ask like this you are placing yourself in the role of a victim, which you are not. While I’m not mlm, I am queer. disclaimer that I’m not mlm I’m just a queer woman whos trying to show some solidarity. I’m not an authority by any means, I’m just riled and trying to put forth opinions Ive seen mlm give and you know, not hide from the fact that fandom isn’t perfect. but do note that I’m a cis, albeit queer, woman writing this, not mlm. 

We’re not saying your work is less or that you shouldn’t be here, we’re just saying, hey maybe engage with what you’re writing a little more critically and don’t act as though your writing is for everyone unless you are actively listening to mlm about problems that show up when women, particularly straight cis women, write about mlm.

As usual I could not keep it brief for the life of me so I put most of my queer rage under the cut

Ok so first off you have the whole side of fandom (once again, not mlm, but women, in my experience mostly cis straight women) that like calls bucky their “sad gay baby” or “smol sad gay” and calls m/m erotic fic things along the lines of “filthy sinful gay smut”. I can totally understand why this makes mlm uncomfortable, I mean like who wants their non heterosexuality to be the defining trait that makes them appealing to straight people, who would want their love to be routinely called sinful and filthy by a community that claims to love them? Seriously guys take a step back and think about how it would feel to have someone talk about you like that. 

I read a huge wonderful post by a bunch of mlm in fandom a while ago and I’ll sum up a little of it here. Basically it’s absolutely wonderful to have a huge community devoted to create content about lgbt+ characters. It’s amazing to have a space where people can come together and create content where queer people get happy endings and we can explore all sorts of themes all with lgbt characters. But since slash has a huge number of women, cishet or lgbt+, writing about lgbt+ men, stuff can get a not great. 

For example, its really, really common to see top/bottom debates among fans. It’s one thing for mlm to identify as a top or bottom, it’s a whole other for women to sit there and debate which character fits in which static role. The whole thing reeks of deciding whos the “man” and whos the “woman” all to appease (usually and I am speaking from experience, not statistics or anything) straight cis women. We used to have a mod here who was a sex therapist and she talked a lot about how top/bottom debates are a really stereotypical way to look at queer mens relationships and as they are now its basically all about perceived gender roles and fetishization which like, is one of those things that should be putting up a red flag. She also talked a bit about how statistically it’s pretty likely that most gay couples don’t even really have penetrative sex and stick to mostly oral, intercural and hand stuff. And I’ve seen like so many mlm say that the whole top/bottom debate in fandom is homophobic as fuck time and time again and people just keep on going. Randos (especailly straight people) debating whos penetrating and whos being penetrated in a gay relationship as static roles is really. hoo. yikes. You also see things like only trans writers writing trans men who top, which speaks volumes. While what you read and write is up to you, it’s a good idea to look at why these trends happen and how they happen and what they do. 

You also see a lot, like A LOT of unsafe sex practices because they’re “not hot otherwise” Just to start, me, a bi ace woman, cringes when I’m reading a fic and someone just shoves their dick into an asshole with like only some kissing as warm up. No. If you did that in real life, it would straight up just be painful and cause anal tearing. Also: rimming with no cleaning first? Like ok if you really think its hot to plunge a tongue into a dirty asshole, go for it but like, really? It takes literally one sentences to add in like “oh hey I did an enema and cleaned up before you got here” before delving into sex. It takes one sentence to do the same for lube oh my god seriously unlubed anal sex no matter the gender is just gonna lead to either 1. dick or toy stuck in asshole, 2. severe anal tearing, 3. both and even more delicate skin and tissue related injuries. While I’m on it if you are a vagina owner, or a penis owner or somewhere in between and are interested in playing with genitals, you should be using lube if you aren’t already. lube is your friend. 

While it’s not content creators duty to make sure people know how to have safe sex, it’s pretty troubling that unsafe m/m sex is looked at as being “hot” in a very particular way. From what I understand, proper prep is a vital, vital part of gay sex and woman saying fics that show proper prep aren’t “”hot”” and fics that don’t show it are, that speaks to a broader problem. 

Anyways this is me, a womans thoughts on the matter synthesized from reading a bunch of posts by mlm discussing the way them and stories about them are treated in fandom and it’s honestly better to just like, read their opinions. I tried my best here but I am still a woman and therefore don’t fully understand mlm experience (not that there is a single mlm experience)

Please do continue writing and creating and reading and making headcannons! No one is saying you shouldn’t be here or you shouldn’t wrote m/m! All that’s being asked is for women, especially straight women who read and write and create m/m fanworks, to engage with it mindfully and like, at least make your best effort to not to fetishize mlm, to treat them as people rather than objects, which I really don’t think is asking too much. 

Further reading

here

here (same post but with different topics discussed)

here

Feel free to add more links of mlm taking about these issues cause I know i’m long winded but I don’t want to talk over mlm!

[arielmagicesi]

hey i hope it's ok if i ask but, i know a lot of latinx book twitter/bookblr ppl are uncomfortable and angry w/ all the crooked saints and i know its with good reason. i do have a question, do they think the way ms is handling latinx characters is shady and inappropriate or are they more upset that its a white author writing a book about latinx characters? im a writer who wants to write diverse books 1 day and i was just wondering if u know what her particular mistakes are so i don't repeat

 i thought the general rule is if you don’t belong to a culture you should still include a character of that bg in ur writing (avoid all-white trc again lmao) but don’t fetishize it/appeal to stereotypes or pretend you know the struggles that ppl of that group experience. sorry this is kind of a loaded question but i wanna make sure im informed           

OK, this definitely is a complicated question, and I’m also white so idk if I’m the best person to answer it, but I guess I’m like the authority on hating Maggie Stiefvater now lol. [I’m in a stable mood so I don’t really *hate* her, it’s just that she’s done a lot of things in her writing and online presence that bother me a lot and remind me of people that have hurt me, idk, long story]

Anyway: I’m also a white writer who wants to write diverse books. I don’t see a problem with white writers, or writers belonging to privileged groups, writing characters with identities they don’t belong to. I think it’s important, obviously, to not write a whitewashed world, like you said, avoid the all-white TRC problem again. I think Maggie is trying, which is respectable, as a response to the We Need Diverse Books movement and the backlash to how whitewashed her other books are.

Unfortunately, “just trying” isn’t enough, when you’re a person with this much privilege. Maggie is privileged as a white cishet woman, and she also holds a lot of power in the YA publishing community. The majority of YA folks really adore her, and she often appears on panels, interviews, as sort of the spokeswoman for YA, much like John Green or whoever. And she’s a popular writer, which means her books are more or less guaranteed to sell very well even if they suck at this point. Which means they’ll appear in publishing journals, in the media, get attention, be read widely by innocent young teens, show up in school libraries, etc. That is a LOT of influence.

Anyone who’s privileged is definitely gonna fuck up when handling diverse representation. You can do lots of research and get sensitivity readers and watch yourself and things, but you’re going to fuck up. That does NOT mean you should do nothing, and just stick to writing what you know, a cute whitewashed world. No, of course not- people like Maggie, who already have power in this community, should take risks, should be supporting diversity rather than just avoiding the topic out of fear of fucking up. I think that’s what she’s trying to do here, but there’s plenty of reason why I- and many readers, especially Latinx readers- don’t trust her with this task.

First off, supporting diversity doesn’t mean just writing diverse characters. It means putting in the goddamn work. It means getting- and paying- sensitivity readers, of a variety of backgrounds, and then listening to what they tell you. It means doing a hell of a lot of research. It means talking to actual, real-live members of those identity groups. It means changing who you are as a person to be an ally, to be someone who can see beyond yourself. And it also means, above all, supporting #ownvoices work- diverse books written by diverse authors. I have yet to see Maggie supporting books in this vein, with all the influence she has.

The one interview we have regarding “All The Crooked Saints” suggests that she hasn’t done any of the above. I believe she did get sensitivity readers, which is a step in the right direction, but from what I hear from Latinx bloggers, this book appears to be a hot mess of stereotypes and inaccuracies. Things like the names of the characters and the town are basically ill-researched Spanish, and the way she addresses it is in this voice that makes it sound like she picked this background for how exotic and free it is. I don’t think she did that consciously, but it feels like it to a lot of readers. Additionally, she isn’t just writing Latinx characters, she’s writing about a very particular time in history, the 1960s, and it sounds like she’s romanticizing it to be about the music, and misunderstanding the historical struggle of Latinx people at that time. This is a touchy place to go when you’re already clearly not doing your research.

I’d be more open-minded about this, and give her the benefit of the doubt, if it wasn’t for how she’s handled this sort of thing in the past. Henry Cheng in the Raven Cycle is a prime example. He was her one [1] character of color, and she managed to give him a “dragon lady” stereotype mother, have him make self-deprecating jokes about his race, and worse, have Ronan make shitty racist jokes about him that are never addressed. When readers called her out on this, she pretended that none of it happened, saying that the racist jokes weren’t actually racist and the readers were misinterpreting them.

She’s also historically been bad at taking criticism, especially about her representation. [See: literally any time LGBT readers asked about the half-ass approach to her two queer characters.] Being able to take criticism is essential if you’re a privileged writer writing about identities that are not your own. Not because “you need to have a thick skin, those mean diversity goblins are gonna come after you!” But because if a teenage reader of color criticizes Maggie online for shitty rep, and she responds by going “woe is me, being online is a constant onslaught of attack, I’m a woman you know,” all her fans are going to go after this teenager. She’s gonna get sympathy, and her critics- who are the readers, the young teens, the people she’s supposedly writing for- will be attacked by people who are most likely not going to be nice about it. And there’ll be a hundred think-pieces about how the YA community is so nasty and people need to defend the innocent white authors and this diversity trend is really leading to so many bad things. An ally, working for diversity, knowing damn well that this kind of shit happens, should not be the sort of person who lashes out against criticism. That’s not being an ally, that’s being someone who only cares for their own self-interest.

I’m a petty, vindictive bitch, but I don’t want to see Maggie crash and burn with this book and totally fuck up. Because the truth is, even if she does, she’s gonna get heaps of praise, and it’s not going to hurt her, it’s going to hurt teenage readers and actual Latinx writers. I want to see her handle this well, but I am very wary, and so are lots of people in the YA community on Twitter.Anyway, the conclusion to this essay that is longer and more thorough than any essay I’ve ever written for school is, people aren’t upset that she’s a white woman writing Latinx characters. They’re upset that she’s showing a lot of signs of being about to royally fuck it up, and that she has a history of not being great about that. Again, I’m white, so it might be better to ask a Latinx person, but this is pretty much what I know.