#Because oh it's too “traditionally masculine” or whatever

[galactichelium]

I love the idea of dying my hair in concept. But in practice, I have no clue what colour I'd like to dye it to. I just can't imagine having anything but my dark brown hair. However. In the future, when I have more of a beard, dying my beard sounds like a fun idea lmfao. I can totally imagine dying my beard crazy colours

[hg-aneh]

Hi,ik I've been asking questions frequently but I'mma do it again bc I'm that petty;

In the AziraCrow relationship/marriage/or whatever. Who do u think is the housewife/husband? 😀

if we're talking about traditional gender roles applied to marriage ((which i believe would NOT apply to them in canon as they're both nonbinary supernatural beings)), i have to preface this by saying that i rlly don't agree with them as a concept

[if ppl choose to engage in them and not judge others for not doing so then good for them (idgaf akfbsjf)]

i hate that they're still being imposed onto people and that they haven't been left in the past for some contexts

i also want to clarify that the following """analysis""" I'm going to make is all for the sake of poking fun at gender roles and satirizing their entire existence.

Having said that, these are my headcanons:

Aziraphale-housewife, Crowley-husband

Why? Simply because husbands are fucking useless and I like to bully Crowley cuz he stinks and he sucks c0ck and b4-

I'm just goofing around 😭

In my little bubble world, they'd be neither (or both if you wanna see it from that POV)

Let's start with this:

If we take the definition of a traditional husband, which is basically "i work and do nothing else cuz I'm a man and men have their mommies i mean wives do everything for them" and take the Work part away, which is what we'd do if we were to place the ineffables in the south downs aka their retirement shack, then you get a useless fuck

And in reality, they both do jackshit (that's the whole premise of s1) so????? does that mean they're both husbands???

For further insight let's try to affirm Aziraphale is the housewife.

Aziraphale bakes, so he's probably a decent cook too; that's "housewife" material. He also happens to be very pretty and plump and a blonde, which I've been told are pretty ladylike things to be (/sarcasm)

(There are no pretty male blondes in ba sing se good omens)

He dresses in light, dainty clothing and talks with an accent only girls and women talk with, as well as getting his nails done and using make up for his magic act, and he says "please" and "thank you", which are things only women do (I'M BEING SARCASTIC. I'M BEING VERY SARCASTIC. god i hate gender rolesAAAA)

Now this is where the comparisons end cuz let's face it, Aziraphale is a lazy fuck.

You KNOW the bookshop smells like mold and he just miracles it clean every now and then.

He'd rather sit his plump (pretty) blond ass on the couch and read the day away than actually get to doing the baking and cooking or caring for the kids (plants) if it's not a hobby activity

Now let's do the opposite and try to affirm Crowley as the housewife.

He's clean (does the cleaning), he's of service when needed, he organizes when he's stressed (read the book), he- he drives a car...

OH SHIT. MAN ACTIVITY!!!!!🤯🤯🤯 (we're still being sarcastic here, it's not over EFJSJF)

In all seriousness though, trying to fit these two into gender roles, even as a joke is kinda difficult even in headcanon-land ajbfsnf

At least that's my opinion

For every traditionally "feminine" thing you have one of them do, the other outdoes that by a mile. And vice versa with the traditionally "masculine" things, like "being useless" and "car" /sarcasm is back.

So which one would be which? I think they're both dumbasses who fight over who gets to do what in the household (neither of them wants to do anything except for cuddling) and come up with an agreement to divide each chore :)

y'know, like normal people in a functional marriage (my parents lol)

[st-hedge]

for genderbends, i know trans people who really like them because it was sort of like an awakening moment for them to see that their favorite characters could be another gender and just as well liked if not more. people who couldn't come out got to sort of live vicariously through genderbends. gender is a performance, and yes by having a genderbend you sort of end up implying that genders should look certain ways, but to some people gender presentation is VERY important! for some trans women, being able to wear a dress and having a big chest is how they want to show they're a woman. for some trans men, looking traditionally masculine and wearing a packer is what they want to do to show they're a man. the list goes on.

now tbf there are also trans or otherwise non genderconforming people who don't think that gender expression needs to look one way or another and don't like when people say/imply it should (bc for example, you can wear traditionally feminine dresses all the time and still be a man if that's how you want to express your gender! your gender is whatever you say it is, however you want to present that). but i don't think it's problematic to show that some people might be performative when it comes to gender. bc for some trans people gender euphoria comes from passing. for some trans people the ideal is to look like you were born with a different biological sex. (and for some they're happy to be trans! they like being specifically a trans woman instead of just a cis woman, for example. but there are also ppl who wish they were just a cis woman in the first place. every person's experience is unique).

last thing on words is that i think genderbend is fine bc there's a difference between genderbend or genderflip. flip to me implies there is only one or the other. heads or tails. male or female. but bend could be for a bunch of things, not just two. prev anon pointed out issues with cisswap too so i think genderbend is the middle ground there. you're bending gender presentation just like real people do

so yeah i know a lot of ppl like genderbends bc doing a genderbend resonates with their own stories and their own ideals for gender performance. it's an outlet for them. so i think for their sake, genderbends are good

Oh wow this is very well put! I feel like I resonate this in some instances. Different thing but kinda reminds me of people making characters in games of a different gender to themselves and coming back years later to that character to go “waaaaiiitttt a second” cuz it looks like them now

[mamawasatesttube]

Tbh it’s kinda stereotypical that a lot of people view Tim as gay and Kon as bi when canon evidence suggests it’s the other way around

Tim has had several relationships with girls that show a lot of love and care even if they don’t work out. But all of Kon’s relationships with girls have been performative in some way (or were like one date with a lesbian)

But since Kon has the super strength people view him as more masculine so they make him bi, and Tim is more academic and has a lithe frame and is often made gay in fics and is given a more feminine role. Tim being a mistreated damsel and Kon being his savior is very common. It’s literally them being assigned top/bottom aka masculine/feminine, it’s just heteronormativity in a different font

YEAAAAAAH ANON GO OFF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! its literally so true ive bitched about this exact thing to my friends before. it's both the homophobia implicit in the idea that a more "traditionally masculine" man (esp one who's not twink-shaped) must be available for m/f ships and cannot possibly be gay, plus the biphobia of the notion that bisexuality is this "half gay, half straight" midpoint default setting for any character who doesn't fit the ~gay archetypes~ or whatever.

like to be clear i have absolutely nothing against bi kon hcs. but i REALLY find the narrative of gay kon compelling (for the same reasons you state!! he has never had a real relationship with a woman) and yet. the one time i made a post about this, SO many people in the notes were like yeah bi kon is good too though. oh yeah you can have this narrative but i like him bi. as if that's a) the default setting and b) the ONLY option, because gay narratives and bi narratives have no distinctions. it was... pretty grating to be honest. it's a shitty way to treat both bisexuality And gayness.

also reminds me of the time someone left hate mail on my fic bc i described kon wearing heels and fishnets lkdjalksjdl like i laugh at it but it was. definitely someone who couldnt handle him being written as an actual queer man lmao. he HAS to be the manly man in the timkon relationship. or whatever.

ANYWAY all this to say, i fully agree with you!!! it's so pervasive and so annoying. also compounded w the number of people in the timkon tags who simply have never touched a kon comic tbh (goes back to bisexuality as being treated as a default not worthy of actual thought or consideration). alas :/

[passionesolja]

Okay, so I’m going to try to explain this as best I can. Ima say that I’m approaching this topic as somebody who’s AFAB. That’s my lived experience and socialization so this is my potential bias.

I find it very interesting the difference between how most men and women react to Astarion. A lot of men don’t like him, and find him too extra. A lot of women find him to be very attractive and endearing.

I’ve never found Astarion as creepy. Yes, he’s extroverted and sassy, but as somebody who’s AFAB I’ve never felt like he was weird. If anything, it’s quite the opposite. Never once did this man sexually objectify my character based on their gender—or any other character. I’ve never dated anybody in a video game before but Astarion was the first character I ever said “I want to romance you” and so I did like twice.

Now, let me contrast this with Atton Rand from KoTOR 2. When I played KoTOR 2 as a kid and I picked my assigned gender and met Atton Rand, and he was like “oh nice a barely dressed woman heheh” and then went “aw man smh no more woman in her underwear” when I finally found clothes, I got so uncomfortable that I quit and played as a guy. To this day, I do not like playing as a woman in Kotor 2 because of how Atton Rand be acting. I don’t like Atton Rand.

I never felt that with Astarion. Astarion never made me feel uncomfortable as a player. Yes, he’s sassy and a lil flirty but it never felt like it was directed solely at me like he’s literally like this with everybody. I’ve had male characters in games make me feel uncomfortable as a real life woman but I don’t get that with Astarion. I could make judgements and say that it’s internalized homophobia and because Astarion isn’t some traditionally masculine man but I won’t do that.

All I’m saying is that I’ve been made to feel uncomfortable by male video game characters but Astarion has always made me feel comfortable. I’m not saying that you’re wrong if you don’t like astarion or whatever but just speaking as somebody who’s AFAB, he’s no Atton Rand. It’s not like you meet him for the first time and he objectifies you. He doesn’t make sexual remarks about you when you first meet him, he just tries to kill you—which is honestly more attractive than having somebody say “ooo sexy lady with tight clothes my dream come true” imo

Astarion is sassy and flirty but I’ve never felt like he objectifies the player character for their gender. But that’s just me

[generic-sonic-fan]

Happy pride! Here's some headcanons.

In-depth explanations beneath the cut (please keep in mind that these are personal and that I actually don't really stand by any that strongly! This is just for fun.)

Sonic: okay do I really need to explain this one?

Knuckles: What can I say, his gender contains multitudes. He's definitely a member of the "I don't care" camp for both gender and sexuality. He is what he is, loves who he loves, and doesn't give two rips about what other people might say. I like to imagine he plays around with both genders of clothing from echidna culture.

Amy: oh Amy, my sweet summer child. It's so autistic and queer of you to relentlessly declare your love for someone of the opposite sex because it's what is expected of you. I did the same in third grade before I realized that the other girls meant what they were saying about their target boy. Heteronormativity is a bitch, get well soon <3

Rouge: I think she fucked around with being she/they for a while before settling back on she/her. And bi icon, of course.

Blaze: okay do I really need to explain this one?

Silver: That is one nonbinary hedgehog if I ever saw one! He's a he/him by convenience alone. He hasn't had the chance to explore his sexuality yet unfortunately.

Big: He's good with he/him and that's all he cares about. Not a super strong connection to his assigned gender at birth but he likes being a boy well enough. As for his sexuality, he never figured out what everyone was going on about when it came to sex, and only recently figured out it was because he was literally missing that 'sexual attraction' thing.

Shadow: is nonbinary as fuck and has no idea. Honey, seeing masculinity as a burden you have to bear is not normal!!! He's also demi-ace. It takes a very close relationship with someone to even consider sexual attraction.

Cream: happy being a girl! Hasn't really thought about crushing on anyone yet.

Tails: Internalized homophobia + transphobia from being bullied go brrrrrr. Besides, Sonic doesn't spend much time thinking about these things, so why should he? (Tails. Tails listen to me. Sonic's aro and knew he was trans at an unusually young age. he's a statistical outlier with how early he figured it out PLEASE consider that and don't base your self-discovery journey on him. . .)

Metal: You all know my headcanons for this one. Metal was assigned male by Eggman from its earliest iterations and gender dysphoria is literally 98% of all of its problems. Please get this robot some estrogen. As for sexuality, full romantic attraction is definitely on the table but jesus christ this robot needs to do some work on itself before that. Please read Complex Inquiries if you want me to elaborate that's like my master's thesis on this subject

Vector: Gave his gender a really good thinking before shrugging and sticking with his assigned gender at birth. Also pan as hell, definitely dated some femboys in high school I think.

Espio: Currently in the process of speculating if he's nonbinary. Keeps very quiet about it though. But he knows he likes dudes, so there's that.

Charmy: He's bit-sexual. Whatever he needs to be for the punchline of the joke to land, frankly.

Omega: For narrative parallel reasons to Metal Sonic, I love to headcanon that Omega wasn't programmed with a gender, but then discovered that masculinity is traditionally associated with aggression and violence and went ham. Doesn't mind getting she/her'd, doesn't exactly like they/them, but it/its is of the highest offense. He will kill you for that. As for his sexuality, (I know he's a robot but PLEASE hear me out) he's demi-aro! He'd have no idea that any sort of feelings on his part are happening until it was too late. He'd hate himself for it and promptly bury said feelings beneath so many layers.

[taylortruther]

I’m gonna say something that might upset some people. But I would like to first say that I love Taylor and Travis together and I love that he makes her happy. I don’t care who you are, you’re there to serve Taylor my queen and make her happy and that’s all that matters to me. BUT

It’s very telling how beloved Taylor and Travis are, that despite Taylor being a very smart, intelligent, successful business woman people still traditionally want her to be with a manly man who will put her in her place basically. Not that I think Travis ~puts~ her in her place. I think so far he has treated her with only respect, it’s society that wants to put her in her place. Because it’s already too much that she’s a successful and powerful, she clearly can’t be the dominant one in the relationship too. Again I don’t personally think either one is more dominant than the other nor do I think he’s overshadowing her in any way but I do think on the surface they’re very pleasing to the eye and that’s why the people love them so much.

no, i agree, i do not think travis is overshadowing her, i think he's handling her fame and his own with grace. but some of the implications from some people (whether it be fans, gp, detractors, whatever) do have a whiff of sexism. like, oh finally she has someone on her level! i, too, am happy she has someone who sees her as a human and not a monster on a hill. but i think some people mean it as 'oh finally she has a tall, masculine, rich man who can be her equal' and, you know, i don't like that mentality.

[m4gp13]

@altorringtons K so I know I brushed over T4T ethabaster in your ask but I've managed to compile most/some of my hcs for them.

Ethan was sort of aware his gender was a little loopy from an earlier age and started presenting more masculine from a young age without really being aware of what he was doing (lmao irls remember being nine and not knowing being trans was a thing and J started going by max several years before coming out? yeah that probably should have been a hint) So when he was fairly young in camp he kept his hair short and went by Ethan while barely being aware that he was a boy and not just a tomboy, which is how Annabeth recognised him in the labyrinth years later.

He only discovered being trans was an actual thing after he left camp and started doing research into Greek mythology (due to meeting his mum) which is when he discovered the trans people in mythology and later on, the ones in real life too, and figured out what was actually going on with him.

Sometimes I hc Al as having never been to camp and sometimes I hc him as having met Ethan at camp but I prefer the first one so we're gonna go with that.

He's always been a weird kid with the autism gendery stuff so gender was always a kind of vague thing for him. Growing up a bit and finding out that being trans is a thing he had his own little "yeah, that makes sense" moment and was delighted when he found out about genderqueer stuff. It wasn't until he started experimenting by trying to present more masc and going by masculine terms of address that he was like "Oh I am doing this!" It just felt so right to him that he knew it was who he was.

Al is not above using divine magic for personal comfort and used his mistform magic to make a binder that essentially functioned as a magic ether locker from TKC to give himself a flat chest with none of the usual drawbacks of wearing a binder, just the regular stuff that comes with any underwear worn on the chest i.e. uncomfortable shoulder straps or red lines on the skin.

I feel like for Al, the euphoria of presenting more masc was a much stronger draw to transition than the dysphoria of presenting femme so he doesn't mind occasionally presenting slightly femme leaning with stuff like wearing his hair longer, wearing traditionally feminine clothes/jewellery, going without the magic binder for a day or so. He's got strong anarchist tendencies so he's not going to let someone or something else tell him what being masculine is and what being feminine is. He's going to make his own definition of masculinity that suits him.

For Ethan, the gender euphoria was a massive pull factor but the dysphoria was also a significant push factor so he was more keen to do things like permanent physical transition. He wore whatever he could use as a binder during his years on the run and jumped at the chance to get Triumvirate Sponsored top surgery when he joined the army and even got started on T.

Getting surgery after joining the army was probably the best thing to happen to him in terms of his health because before that, his binding habits were Bad.

As in, if pre-TA Ethan went to Tartarus, the scariest thing down there would have been his binding habits. My boy does not know how to look after himself, it's a miracle he made it to seventeen.

But yeah, when he joined the army and started working in close proximity to Al, they both took one look at each other and connected their brains via the trans Bluetooth hive-mind network and didn't exactly know what was up but they got the vibe.

They did eventually start talking to each other enough to find out and got the "yeah that makes sense" thing and started talking about gender and transition together.

Al, slightly spoiled by his magic bag-of-holding binder, was horrified by Ethan's old binding habits and was front-lining the effort to get Ethan whatever physical transition would help him, if just to keep him alive.

Each other's gender was the most fascinating thing to them and they were both deeply invested in the other's transition. Ethan was very impressed (and slightly jealous) of Al's magic binder and Al took great interest in Ethan's physical transition stuff like surgery and HRT because he was really interested in how it worked and the physical and mental effects they had on Ethan.

Ethan started going by the name Ethan from a fairly young age and Al always assumed that Ethan was just his chosen name. But no. Ethan was a nickname derived from his chosen name, a chosen name that Ethan sorely regretted a few years after bribing a hacker to get his government name changed to Ethanol.

He likes to pretend that phase of his life just never happened but he'd be lying if he said he didn't admire Al's steadfast resolve and confidence in his chosen name of Alabaster C. Torrington.

What does the C stand for? Ask again in a week and it will have changed.

Alabaster, after Luke got Kronified, was the most powerful demigod in the hierarchy of the Titan Army and Ethan was an extremely high-ranking member who often acted as Kronos' right-hand man. If someone gives them shit for their genders or sexualities you know they are gonna be getting a talk from their higher-ups.

Ethan is all about balance and equality so if he catches so much as a ripple on the wind of inequality in the army he works in, he's going to ensure that gets sorted out and while Al isn't such a Nemesis evangelical, he's going the be the shadow over Ethan's shoulder enforcing his will.

While I don't have canon confirmation of this I know in my heart it's true that demigods are gonna be more likely to be LGBTQ+ and while in the army, Ethan and Al were responsible for the cracking of many a young trans egg. They were like the cool older brothers of the younger queer demis in the army and some kids considered them like the dads of the army because sometimes they did banter and bicker like an old married couple.

Emotionally constipated Ethan acts more like the bad cop who knows exactly what's up with Kronos and just wants to keep all the younger ones in line so if they get in trouble, they get in trouble from him and not from a Titan or monster that will be much tougher on them. He's very good at telling it like it is, cutting through the bullshit and recognising things they might too young to see. It becomes kind of like an unspoken rule that if you're seriously questioning something about your identity, tell him because he will just lay it all out as blatantly as possible.

Al is more of the good cop between them because he has experience with kids from being the surrogate father for his younger siblings and he likes to be the life of the party for them. He has so much love for the little kids looking up to him and feels very much responsible for them and wants to live up to their admiration. He's the one to go to if you want to have fun and experiment with some things in your life/presentation.

Al liked to hang out with the Aphrodite kids a lot and taught them some basic magic stuff in exchange for teaching him things like makeup. He likes to mix this with his magic and can get makeup looks that would put a drag show to shame and overshadow every image uploaded to pinterest since its inception. He uses it for art, fun and to play with his presentation. He rejects the idea that excessive and elaborate makeup has to be inherently feminine and in a way it's like his way of reclaiming the feminity forced on him as a kid and turning it into masculinity that he can feel comfortable in.

(Sometimes when he's in the mood for it, Ethan will let him do his makeup too. Nothing as extravagant and colourful as Al's but those eyeliner wings are sharper than any weapon he owns.)

Ethan takes his T via injections and Alabaster, fearless General that he is, used to get really squeejed out by it.

Al always used to get T via gels or creams but when Ethan started taking injections Al forced himself to get over his heebie-jeebies to help him out and eventually started taking injections as well because he finds it more convenient.

(Also sorry this took literally forever, sometimes I'll stick something in my queue where it will sit for literal months but I do hope this is satisfactory.)

[illwynd]

Not to be overly intrusive but I very much want to hear your rant about jms lady loki arc? Your thoughts about thor stuff are fascinating generally, and it either makes me go " I hadn't even considered this aspect of things ", or " oh that's what bothered me about this but I just couldn't find the words!" I mean it goes without saying that you don't have to if you don't want to, but I haven't heard people say anything about that arc other than it was sexist, so now I'm very curious about your opinions on it.

Oh nonny you’re not overly intrusive at all! Thank you for asking this and giving me the excuse to blather about it XD and thank you for the kind words. I clearly think about this stuff way too much, and all I can hope for is that someone else finds it of some sort of interest or value.

Re the JMS lady Loki arc…

So OK I guess I should summarize the thing for the benefit of anyone who hasn’t read it. The main gist goes like this: Thor is having to call Asgardian souls back into the world after breaking the cycle of Ragnarok, and when Loki is brought back, he is “inexplicably” in a female body. Loki has in fact arranged this as part of a con, using his new appearance to better sell everyone on the idea that he’s changed and no longer villainous, but the truth is that it’s Sif’s body he’s stolen, and Sif’s spirit is trapped in the body of a dying mortal, so it’s basically attempted murder (though Loki’s plan is thwarted and Sif is saved at the last minute). In the meantime, the “lady” Loki is a sexy, buxom caricature of played-up femininity, using her wiles to manipulate the men around her, and through it all it doesn’t really seem to be motivated by any genuine gender fluidity on Loki’s part. It’s just a trick. 

So I can see where the criticism comes from: that it’s sexist, that it’s bad genderfluid representation since it’s in the form of a murderous villain, that it resembles transphobic tropes of trans women being “really” men trying to steal whatever from women. But those criticisms never seemed to me to land quite right. They seemed to be superficial and missing something important. And there are several angles you can take in looking at it more deeply where all those criticisms just fall apart.

I’m not even really going to go into the problems with decrying it as bad representation because he’s a villain. I really hope we’re past that. It’s not good when your media queers can only be villains, but having every queer character be morally upright and squeaky clean isn’t a good answer either, because real people aren’t like that. What I ask for is that the whole range be available, and that for any given character, they are first and foremost an interesting character with believable motivations for what they do. So “but he’s so evil he was trying to kill Sif! Bad representation! Bad!” is a complaint we’re just going to set aside and make dubious faces at, because for reasons I’ll get to later, I think there is an emotional truth to the portrayal, and in fiction that matters far more than any black-and-white moral claims.

So next up, we have the complaint that he doesn’t seem to be motivated by any genuine genderfluid feelings, since it’s all just a con. And my issue with that is that… it’s a very superficial take. He is motivated by gender stuff. Just not in a way that the complainers recognize. 

The absolutely crucial detail is that his target is Sif. I say again. It really matters that he targeted Sif for this con. And yes, sure, part of his reasoning is jealousy over her close relationship with Thor (thorki is canon, y’all). But another part is this: Sif is the only other (that we know of) gender nonconforming person in Asgard, and definitely the only other one that we see as being close to his social circle. But where she is celebrated as a woman who is active and successful in traditionally culturally masculine pursuits, Loki’s gender nonconformity—his failure to live up to Asgardian masculine ideals—gets him demeaned, derided, dismissed. The gender fuckery going on here is that he is furious at the difference in how their GNC-ness is treated. His resentment and anger at that injustice, and he's being a right bastard in expressing it. We stan. 

(I also do think there is something genderqueer in how the trickster considers using a feminine appearance to be just one potential tool in his arsenal, the kinda just shrugging and doing whatever works for his purposes rather than getting worked up about having to do such a thing? I mean. So shocking for a trickster figure, right? But hold that thought.)

So that was where I was with it for several years. But I kept coming back to how relatable Loki is to me as a trans masc person, and trying to figure out why it was that way, and what that had to do with this particular arc, and then it finally hit me.

This scene. 

“Thus is Loki truly beautiful.”

In this scene, Loki has just been able to finally return to his male body (with Hela’s help), and he expresses his relief and joy in it, all while the art makes him look… kinda grotesque. And my gods that is such a trans masc mood. Knowing that while you pretend to be a woman you’ll be seen as nonthreatening and acceptable, and maybe you can put up with that for practical or social reasons for a while, but it isn’t how you want to live your life, it isn’t how you want to be seen, it isn’t the appearance that makes you happy. Constantly hearing how by changing your form you’ll be changing from sexy and desirable to ugly and monstrous… but thus you are truly beautiful to your own eyes. 

(I think it is worth pointing out here, for anyone who might not know, that it is not uncommon for trans masc folks to have a phase of trying to go hard femme before they really accept themselves as trans. I personally didn’t, but I can imagine that the exaggerated femme lady Loki might be familiar to some of those guys. I, on the other hand, had a phase of treating my afab body as a tool that wasn’t really connected to me, so there are some other bits of the lady Loki arc that I find familiar. And here I should note that I’m not saying JMS had all this in mind, I have no idea whether he did or not, but death of the author, baby. The interpretation is very much there.)

And there is another little bit that I want to mention. There is one point where Fandral says to lady Loki, “even when you thought you were a man, you weren’t the man you thought you were.”

And. Firstly, screw you Fandral. Seriously. Secondly, the interpretation of this arc as being related to trans femininity gets a lot more press but that is an insult that is far more relevant to trans masc folks. The insults against Loki’s masculinity are reminiscent of how trans guys are not seen as real men, especially if they are GNC in any way, as Loki is. Loki may be amab, but his struggles are so incredibly similar to trans masc struggles (and really, I can’t be the only trans guy who fuckin loves that: a character who feels so familiar and relatable, flawed and angry and messed up in ways that I know all too well, but also has the goddamn body I wish I had. It’s the perfect combination.)

So yeah. That’s the short version, at least, of the rant about what everyone gets wrong about the lady Loki arc. The sexism, and complicated gender politics, is a thing it is commenting on, and I don't see how so many folks miss that.

[demonichikikomori]

Hello! ♡

I've been trying to work up the nerve to send this ask but I just wanted to say thank you for enjoying my writing!

I'm so honored that a writer as talented as you follows me and enjoys my work! (I was so surprised when I found out we were following each other!) I'm especially excited to see that you write for Hypnosis Mic (Your Samatoki x Reader fic is just...I don't even know how to describe it I just love it that much, and I'm not even a Samatoki fan! lol) and I can't wait to see what you write next! ♡

Also, I'm so happy to see other Uta no Prince-Sama fans, as I noticed you liked and reblog my Syo x Reader story! Is there a particular character or group that's your favorite? If so, I would love to know!

I apologize if this message seems odd since I know we have never really interacted before but I just wanted to let you know how grateful I am, and how much I love your writing!

Thank you! ♡

AAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!

It’s nice to meet you officially!! I noticed we became mutuals a hot second ago but… I was too scared to say anything!! Sometimes I get worried about the content I make and if it might be kinda off putting so I get scared to reach out to blogs cuter than mine!!!!! <3 <3 <3 Thank you for visiting my inbox!!!!!!!!! I really like how you write Ruggie and when you made something for Syo… I had so many intense emotions in my heart I couldn’t bring myself to speak… I got back into HypMic recently (I discovered it in 2019 when I was at bandcamp and I remember when they announced the two new groups when I was in school!) and I decided to try writing for a character a friend of mine likes! … I didn’t realize how empty the tags are for HypMic x reader content… It’s kinda depressing… Feel me? There are so many cuties in the series! Just because it’s overseas people shouldn’t let a language barrier hold them back!! Feel the music on your soul and look on YouTube for event translations!!!!!!!

But, anyway!! I want to definitely write more HypMic since I’m a bit burnt out on Twst… That’s all I wrote for a good two years so I need to switch it up… At least for a bit. I have a post queued up for tomorrow about the Peel My Orange test?? I think I’m biased as I’m writing the Headcanons but this is my blog and I can do whatever I want!~!

ALSO YES THATS ALSO WHY I FOLLOWED YOU!!!!!!! AHHHH I SAW YOUR MASATO BANNER AND I WANTED TO SCREAM!!! Ever since UtaPri shut down I have been rocking back and forth wondering what I’m going to do without my first love. I even went as far as to downloading a PSP rom just so I can play the original VN. I will pretend the MC girl is not there so I don’t have to see her kissing MY boyfriend. Technically husband since we’ve been together for such a long time. Syo-Sama loves me the most in the entire universe, no one knows him better than me!! Syo is perfect in all ways!! He’s masculine and can enjoy traditionally feminine things like painting his nails and styling himself in pink. He’s not too tall so kissing him is super easy. He’s very passionate about the things he likes. He’s willing to better his body even after being told he won’t make it past 12?? Oh my goodness when I first played the game back when it first came out, let me tell you… I had seen the light… I am a super big fan of STARISH and at one point I was an Otoya girl… But Syo reigned me back in very easily. His voice lines for birthdays, White Day, Valentines, and his own… I really, really like Syo. Honestly? He’s the character I can say is a comfort character to me? I had a rough childhood and him greeting me when I logged in or asking if I would eat dinner with him… He seriously is the best in the whole wide world!! <3 <3 <3

Please don’t see it as odd coming to say hi!! I really like making friends even if I’m scared to take the first step!! Please tell me lots about you and don’t be scared to DM me either!! Let’s talk about our faves together and hopefully I can make more content that you secretly want to see!! HypMic related on the way… But I’ll have to write for UtaPri too… Wahhhhh my heart is going crazy. I’m a little scared, but excited too!~!

[5town]

please do aaron T x male reader hc

YEA TOTALLY :D ty for ur request i’m very honored to do any x male reader requests

aaron t so queer i love him

Aaron T!

✪ t is a very outwardly affectionate person. even if it comes off as all fun and games to him, he loves having fun, but he loves you even more.

✪ he’s not the kind of guy to have crazy internalized homophobia; he wants to show you off, and as long as you two are safe then he doesn’t care what anyone has to say about you both being masculine ppl in love

✪ t loves putting his hats on you!! usually, he’s never found without one (his reasoning can be up to you 👀) but he’ll find himself just walking around without one because he forgot to take his off of you, but it’s all worth it when he sees you again later and you’re still wearing it 0u0

✪ t using words or phrases in his cultural/first languages (spanish? vietnamese? those are my personal hcs but think as you will) to flirt with you or make pet names out of

✪ t making you food from his culture, maybe some that he grew up eating himself, for you! he loves to take all of himself and give it to you, even going into his past like his first language/s or cultures that he holds close. he doesn’t even really do that with the band boys.

✪ in my hc, he’s a huge (but secret) nerd! he’ll initial lightsaber battles between you two, or start talking in goofy little voices or impressions, or making references that no one but him will get but insists that everyone really should know these things. maybe you two share some of these interests, esp. since his childhood interests are traditionally masculinized media.

✪ he LOVES showing you music. any and all kinds of music. but when things like selena or santana come on, he can’t resist the urge to pull you up and dance with you. even if the song changes to something different, he’ll find a way to dance with you to it.

✪ oh goodness the dates. THE DATES. his personal favorite places to go are places like the trampoline parks in the area, pools, rec centers where he can show off his acrobatic abilities, stuff like that. he loves to do whatever you want, too! but these places are like second homes to him; he knows the names of the workers at the trampoline park and even gets discounts if a 4townie is working the counter that day.

✪ speaking of trampoline parks, when he takes you there, prepare yourself to try and get taught a trick that he can do. first he starts gentle, maybe a front flip or a backflip on a trampoline, but it escalates to him trying to get you to do one when you swing into a sea of foam cubes, and it continues. he loves teaching people (minus old ass jesse) the acrobatic stunts he can do.

✪ speaking of acrobatic stunts, he definitely is one to try and impress you when he’s performing. he doesn’t say it’s for you, but you know it’s for you. especially since you two probably have a thing, a little hand signal or just some form of nonverbal, affectionate communication that stays between you two, that he does towards whatever camera he can find before he does some flip or parkour trick.

✪ there’s a lot of that actually, nonverbal communication. maybe he’s getting pulled off to another interview, or inside another venue, or getting back to his hotel and cannot have you come with him. when things like that happen, he creates whatever little thing that becomes a thing between you two as a way to say goodbye without having to yell over fans or through arms of bodyguards.

✪ but whenever he can, he communicates his thoughts to you as openly as possible. communication is very important to him! he’ll never say it, because he doesn’t like to seem serious during moments that he know he can make someone smile, but he cares about you and your thoughts and feelings a lot. keeping all of that in check is important to him.

✪ during softer moments, you can probably find him making popcorn and turning on a movie for you two, or see him trying to cook your favorite food, or trying to sew something that reminds him of you onto a pair of overalls that he’s actually allowed to alter.

✪ now, he’s not always the one to be the most outward. he enjoys being pampered and loved softly just as you may. during moments where he needs you in that way, you can find him buried in stuff that is just you. whether that means stuff that belongs to you or stuff that reminds him of you is something you’ve yet to ask, but you’re never complaining when you find him in a hoodie of yours, or holding something in his pocket that reminds him of you, or huddled up in a blanket of yours, or him even shyly asking for something from you before he goes on tour just so he can be comfortable without seeing you for so long.

✪ one last soft hc that is a bit more angsty, but in light of t’s softer hcs.. while he doesn’t have internalized homophobia, there is a bit of internalized toxic masculinity in him that doesn’t let him cry, that doesn’t let him let loose because “he’s a man and he shouldn’t be so soft about these things” but oh he is. you’re there for him when he cries, when he doesn’t want to be the “big strong man” that he’s always felt he needs to be, when he just wants to be in your arms the way he knows you’re in his.

[msfbgraves]

Would you say that Male Omegas in Knights and Pawns are treated in a somewhat “classically” feminine way/are feminized? Like, having doors held open for them, getting help when stepping from a car. Being called “Mama” by their Pups, or having their Alphas be the “Head” of their households, and having the Alpha partner dominate in the bedroom. Also being the stay at home parent, and not being the breadwinner even if they would like to. And going to school but not college (even, again, if they wanted to). (The opposite would of course be Female Alphas being treated in a more traditionally masculine way!) Does all this behavior/treatment depend on the Omega, Society, their marriage, or just the way their brought up from puppyhood?

They're not brought up a certain way from puppyhood, that's an interesting distinction to me, they're brought up a certain way from mid adolescence - or that is when you get a secondary gender turbo course. I'm not quite sure how an Alpha girl should present as an Alpha only as a teenager, they probably have a dick? But then how would anyone immediately know they're female? (Given that ultrasounds are a very recent invention?) Are all girls born kinda intersex and do they finish forming their genitals much later? And yes, I say omegas are feminised but only much later, unless of course, they're suspected to be omegas from the start. I think that Anthony was brought up to be much tougher than Luna, because he could be a father one day, like his Mama. (And I feel he hates it and would be so relieved to finally allowed to be 'proper' omega, more than Daniel ever felt necessary himself!) If Daniel had had children with Kumiko he would be Daddy to such a child. If male omegas remarry and father children they can be both mommy and daddy to their children depending on which children they physically gave birth to, and which children they impregnate others with.

If Daniel were married to a female Alpha, she'd be the breadwinner and the Dominant one (we've seen how that looks in Cobra Kai anyway). Though Terry is a somewhat extreme case. And again, in omegas and Alphas much of these gender roles are innate.

Omegas do work some jobs but I think they'd feel having to be the breadwinner a terrible burden, generally. But they are more naturally caregiving than I, a pretty cis woman, could ever be.

I prefer not to analyse my gender stance in abo too much. I feel that gender roles are incredibly politicised, and I feel that is so dangerous. Yet, I also feel that my personal feelings of what it means to be female are shifting a lot closer to some right wing traditionalist's wet dream even though I was raised to specifically reject that way of life, and I also don't fit into it fully. (And I don't want anyone forced into anything, however I may 'feel' the world!) So I like to play around with it a lot to see what is nature, what is nurture, what is, well, me being me, through characters. I feel that Daniel LaRusso has an extremely feminine 'energy', whatever that means, that is also a bit fluid compared to whomever he interacts with, while still unmistakably being male. Amanda is clearly a woman, but she has a bit of a masculine energy about her. But then, in abo, I find it interesting to have her as an omega who doesn't fit any of those secondary gender roles and a voice, at least in my brain, going wtf at a lot I dream up for omegas.

So I like to put them in scenarios, let them play out, and go "oh?"

[rubalotl]

An annoying thing happened, I'm gonna talk about it.

That person I talked to on Sunday called me today to ask some additional questions. And for the record, out of all the mental-health-related professionals I've talked to, she has come across as the most non-understanding person. But she didn't say anything atrocious, the weirdest thing she said was to insinuate that I choose to let my anxiety control me when I stay up late at night because of anxiety... ??ok??? But whatever, I just thought maybe she didn't mean it like that.

Well anyway, she called again today and it's so clear she knows nothing about trans stuff other than the bare minimum. Like, if we're talking about gender dysphoria you obviously want to be the other binary gender, right. Which... no. So I tried to clumsily explain non-binary to her, which I'm awful at because I hate talking loud about this topic (this is like the 3rd person I've talked to about it) and so I have no damn practice in explaining it in words. And once again I'm put into this god-awful awkward situation of explaining this to a disinterested cis-person that will probably for sure think I'm insane after we hang up.

And she responds with stuff like "well, I've always considered myself more masculine too, are you sure this requires some kind of intervention?" and "Why not just be that (nonbinary) then?" ...as if it's SUPER EASY to feel valid in a world that does not acknowledge the existence of non-binary genders. As if I can just tell anyone that "I'm non-binary" and they'll be like "Oh ok :)" AS IF I CAN JUST DO THAT. Yeah, just be nonbinary fivehead.

Or as if it's not a problem at all to talk about medical issues relating to this kind of body because medical professionals are just as ignorant, because I sure can't right now (and I do have... problems). I already refuse to do pap tests, which is a common procedure in Sweden. But I cancel the appointments immediately and throw away the summon notice right away so I don't have to think about it because it gives me such intense anxiety.

And finding a social role has been... impossible, so far. Being put in traditionally feminine tasks tears on my psyche constantly and I'm too weak to be very useful for manual labor, compared to those stronger than me, my contribution is nothing.

Yeah so.. never mind all these practical issues I have in everyday life because of this ig, because uh... *checks notes* this 50+ year old lady that knows nothing about trans issues feel a bit masculine sometimes.

[josiebelladonna]

so, this is my chart: if you can't see the positions, they are as follows:

sun at 25 aries moon at 17 aquarius mercury at 0 aries venus at 4 aries mars at 24 cancer jupiter at 7 libra saturn at 27 aquarius uranus at 22 capricorn neptune at 21 capricorn pluto at 24 scorpio northern node at 13 sagittarius chiron at 17 leo and i am cancer rising (4 cancer specifically)

everything i've read about planets at 0 degrees says that you are basically that planet and whatever sign it is to a t. and... yeah, i don't have much to add to that. i'm mercurial and aries, meaning i'm androgynous and tomboyish as aries is the quintessential masculine sign. i've never felt fully feminine, and if anything, i always felt weird doing things that are traditionally feminine and i'm not crazy about everyone wanting to be feminine it feels like when you should really be vouching for a nice balance. the right amount of feminine with masculine so you're healthy. aries being a fast sign, i often feel like my mind is going a mile a minute, and you can see this in my fictional writing, too. a lot of fic tends to be flowery and over-the-top in description: not me, it's often very concise and kind of bare sometimes, like i often wonder if there's more i can add to this to give it more substance.

also, i have a masculine instagram handle, badmotorartist, not just as an indicator of where i came from but this was something women were doing for centuries until rather recently: use male names because a female one will get you scrutinized to of great extent (tbh, it’s starting to go the other way: female pen names are becoming more common and taken more seriously. i just feel more comfortable with a more unisex name).

venus in aries: i was a field hockey player, and a baseball player (hell, i still enjoy watching both on tv: i'll watch ice hockey or baseball over football any day, tbh). i also like to go hiking and do archery. i'm a formula 1 fan. i also like watching tennis, the winter olympics, and cycling. i like rock and metal and will to the day i die. i like drawing men, specifically men i'm attracted to. no light, girly colors here, we're all about palettes that are rich, fiery, neon, striking, anything bold and stark (while simultaneously being earthy?)

i'm lowkey ashamed of my venus, though, and i really don't know what's to blame here for that, either.

up in my 10th house with mercury, too: you probably know me for my art and/or my writing. given my midheaven is pisces, i'll be telling you exactly how it is and you'll be the one to put it up for interpretation.

mars in cancer: don't talk about the people i love in a bad way or you'll get it. i may be round and getting rounder as i get older, but i'm strong, though. some days, i feel like working out; other days, i don't feel like doing anything other than reading. oh, my poor stomach.

i've also been told this is a very sensual position to have and- yeah. i buy that completely.

moon in aquarius: i really do feel like an alien at times, like i came from another place other than earth (i mean, the fact i'm the only one in my family with brown eyes should be indicative enough: my dad's eyes are hazel, my mom's are green, and my brother's are blue). one of my finest moments in writing was my sci-fi trilogy now it's dark, as aquarius is into science and science fiction and all things fantastical.

with the moon ruling my chart as well as my mars, you won't get noisy, rough sex or anything vanilla from me, oh, no, no, no.

saturn in aquarius: i think it's this strong uranian point with the two aquarius planets and uranus at an angle in my chart that allows me to think as logistically as i do. i'm an artist but i also have a long history of studying science: i was a mechanical engineering student for a time. i grew up reading about earth science - hell, my best friend and i wanted to be a paleontologist and a geologist respectively when we grew up. my grandpa was a nuclear scientist with a doctorate in mathematics (when i was 7 years old, he and i would sit at the kitchen table together and he'd teach me calculus or how a fission reaction works). my mom's stepdad is a literal rocket scientist: when the challenger exploded, he knew almost immediately what had happened (whereas it took nasa a year to figure it out). my brother is a chemical engineer who specializes in rocketry. my dad's an automotive engineer.

and yet, i'll admit it: i have some screws loose. i didn't suffer from depression and anxiety for as long as i did for no reason. i'm not psychotic like elon musk or andrew tate, two men with a strong uranus, but i do have these impulses to just absolutely shock people just kinda for the lulz. by the way, alex has a strong uranus himself, right next to his sun (at 0 degrees libra, no less! you see him and you think "hello, libra boy!"): i've often found something rather otherworldly about him, otherworldly and hypnotic. that's probably why he resonates with me so much because he and i are both strange, in the way uranus is, and yet we funnel our strangeness into good things like art and music, rather than destroying a social media site (that was admittedly on its way out, imo: twitter was starting to be uncool to me before elon showed up) or being absolutely horrible and misogynistic.

it's also a chore to keep friends, like i really struggle in making them and keeping them. i often feel like no one likes me just from a first glance, like they see me and they go "ew, no way." as i've gotten older (and i'm nearing my saturn return here in the next week or so), i'm learning to pick my friend group more wisely, and this is something i really, really wish tumblr would do more because you can't just trust everyone you call your mutual because in my experience, they very easily could just stab you in the back and shut you out for absolutely no reason, and the excuse they give is often complete bullshit to boot. saturn is in my 9th house, too, so this whole pattern has followed me all through my school days. and yes, i struggled in school, too.

and when i say i struggled in school, i don't mean i was a dropout or i flunked every class (even though i did flunk a couple of classes when in high school and into college). no, i mean there was an inordinate amount of pressure on me to do well, to perform well, to "get grades and everything would fall into place." and obviously, that never happened. i would take higher level classes like calculus or ap english or ap history and i often felt like i didn't belong in those classes - and yet, if i went into the regular classes, i would smoke everyone.

i hear about fucking children taking high classes like that and getting into universities, almost all the time now, and every single time, i just think to myself, "what." like... where did i go wrong? and i hear my parents saying that, too, "where did you go wrong? why wasn't that you?"

and yes, high school did not prepare me for college. like, not at all. when i went to the tech school that i went to for engineering, i was in way over my head. i often felt alone, too, like i couldn't talk to anyone about my struggles in classes because the stereotype of people like engineers and architects being absolutely insufferable is a stereotype for a reason: worse, i would get family telling me "if you need help, just say so" like, gee, thanks, that really comforts me a great deal.

speaking of which...

jupiter in libra: as much as i think like a scientist, i also think like an artist. hell, i am an artist. i haven't had the best luck with it, though (idk if it's from it being retrograde or harshly aspected or what).

i have a tendency to play devil's advocate, as a lot of people on here will tell you.

jupiter is in my 4th: i want a nice place to live. not a big place (i live in a big place right now and it kinda blows, tbh), but a nice living place. a place i can actually call my home, because this wasn't my house when i got here. it became my house once my stepdad passed and my mom is only heir by marriage rather than "next of kin". i.e., we can leave this house and then put it up for sale literally any day we want, we could do it today if we wanted to.

i come from a big family: i have 13 aunts and uncles, 7 nieces and nephews, and a shitload of cousins. my brother married into a huge mormon family and i only know like two of their names lol but holy fuck, is it dysfunctional, though. my dad's a recovering alcoholic with a very unpleasant personality. my brother is a control freak and a little bit misogynist, too. my mom barely talks to her brothers, and her brothers have only just recently started getting along with each other.

i've also read that wherever jupiter is in the chart, it expands whatever part of the body the sign and house it's in. like for example, alex has jupiter in virgo (no clue what his ascendant is, though), and he's got the cutest little belly on him now. eric has jupiter in taurus: all neck. chris had jupiter in taurus, too: a very nice neck and a voice that was too big for the room. i'm very "hippy" and chesty, and i'm also chubby by nature (part of me just wants to let go and be fat).

chiron in leo: i think my lack of success in the art world can also be attributed to this. chiron is like that one thing that bothers you constantly, like no matter how you try to dress it and fix it, it just nags at you, day in and day out. we all have something like this, and more often than not, it's something we don't really talk about much, either. for me, it's creativity. i don't think i'm all that creative, even though i make stuff for a living. this thing is my 2nd house, too. i was hating money before it was trendy. it wasn't that long ago i kept hearing family telling me to "find work" and what i'm going to do about money, rather than letting me enjoy myself and follow my heart, given that's what leo is: it's all about matters of the heart. i have the worst streak when it comes to romance, like if you've read any of my sex journaling, you've watched me bleed, and that's because i simply couldn't hold in chiron's pain anymore. leo is the sign of children: i don't want kids, period. i'm like chelsea handler, i'm literally not in any position or mindset to have kids, like that's a level of mentality that you just need to have. i'm happy to have 7 nieces and nephews, but children of my own? there's no way. there is absolutely no way. i'm turning 30 in april and i live in a world that's plunged into absolute oblivion the last three years: i'd be out of my fucking mind to bring a child into this world and destroy my body in the process. plus, good luck trying to get the perfect spouse, a ~match made in heaven~ for me, too: nevermind the struggles i've had with sexuality, i literally can't imagine someone loving me unconditionally, especially when i grew up feeling like there was something inherently wrong with me.

because of the strong uranian point in my chart, recently, i've started wondering if it's a sign of latent rebellion. like, "love, romance, marriage, children? fuck all that!" at the subconscious level. knowing the intense shame that i feel with my kinks, though, it's hard to say.

i know my desire to gain weight is an act of rebellion. i've read that chiron square pluto is a sign of eating disorders, more so since i have chiron in my 2nd house of the body: i've struggled with anorexia for years, because i grew up bombarded with messages across the board that i'm no good as i am, and that includes my stomach and my appetites. no exaggeration: there's this big part of me that just wants to let go and climb up to 300+ pounds because i already feel more "myself" being over 250. when i was a kid, i remember telling myself that i would be fat in the future and yet i was forced to keep my weight down and also dO wElL iN sChOoL if i wanted to be accepted as i am... and even then, i couldn't do it.

remember when i said alex has sun conjunct uranus in early libra? yeah, my jupiter is literally right there with that conjunction in the synastry chart. every time he sees me on ig live, he smiles, that really big genuine smile as if the sun is shining. it would also explain why i have the hots for him, too, and why i don't ever want to stop feeling this way for him, either (he's also got mars in virgo and venus in scorpio harmoniously aspecting my ascendant, too. figure i'm very attracted to him and i feel like he's way out of my league, too - poor guy's got pluto square venus right now. oh man. i went through that all through high school, is it any wonder that i suffered as much as i did?).

my venus is opposite that conjunction, too: i read about this and it's considered the "bad girl/bad boy" element between two people. it makes me think of rumble by link wray or lolita by lana del rey, there’s something so dangerous about it. all my encounters with him since february 2021 have had this really clandestine feel to it, like he comes back to my comments when no one's looking, or the time he said "i love you and everything you do" to me over ig live after he kicked back a glass of wine, or the time i called him "handsome" and he went, "who, me?" and though i've always made sure that they're not particularly naughty, i have said some things to him over stories that would make anyone blush and feel a tickly sensation in their very cute belly.

pluto in scorpio:

“oh, jos, you've really done it now, you rabid cur!

you are a dinosaur waiting 2 die, a millennial! a 90s kid!

finna aks you a question no cap, have you even been a child before? gen z is great because we said so and you gave them a scathing remark a while back so you can n E V E r take that back!

that's your official opinion! 5EVER! go back 2 ur ravenclaw house, you fecking boomer!"

(full disclosure: i don't consider myself a 90s kid because i was in kindergarten in 1998 and i barely remember 1997/1996. my brother on the other hand, born in 1985, is considered a 90s kid because he grew up and became a teen in that decade, whereas i grew up and became a teen in the 2000s.)

pluto in the 5th: art is in my soul. i have to make things or i will lose it, i will go off on the deep end. i feel like i'm on the brink of insanity most days. some days, more so now than ever actually, i don't feel like getting out of bed because the world is not safe. i suck at romance. i'm not sexy at all, and i'm royally obsessed with this thought, too. my relationship with sexuality is a weird, convoluted one that almost doesn't even make sense, and i'll admit this, too: i want to make peace with it and continually explore it but i also feel like it's all greek to me, like there's no way i can understand it and enjoy it, god forbid. the 5th house cusp in libra: "oh, you pretty things!" and "you gonna eat that?" are two things that coexist in my world.

going back to synastry, alex's scorpio planets (mercury, venus, and neptune to be specific) are all in my 5th house. joey belladonna (another libra boy who's a triple scorpio, not too sure how that happened) has those three + his sun in my 5th as well. alex's capricorn moon (oh, baby) is in my 7th house and joey's moon at 0 leo (surprise, surprise) is conjunct my mars.

i cannot get these two men off my ass. ...not that i'm complaining.

hell, i don't think i've ever met a scorpio i didn't like. helps that we're both martians (more so us aries), but they've all been nice people, though. just like how i never met a libra i didn't like, or a capricorn for that matter. virgo is actually hit and miss now that i think about it: my best friend elizabeth was a virgo, and i have a couple of friends who are virgos who have been friends with me for almost a decade now (we did it, saturn!). but my brother's first wife was a virgo, and she did not like me at all, and ben shepherd of soundgarden is a virgo and it was obviously too much to ask of him to even so much as communicate with me in those long stretches of time when soundgarden weren't touring or doing anything.

northern node in sagittarius: my destiny in life is to keep learning and expanding my horizons. being in the 6th house, i'm doing this every day.

as for uranus and neptune nestled up there in capricorn... i think they're the ones calling the shots around here because uranus rules my moon as well as saturn (saturn also co-rules aquarius), and neptune rules my midheaven, plus my sun is ruled by mars, which is ruled by the moon, which is ruled by uranus and saturn. everything in my chart goes back to those two + saturn. yeah, even that fucking pernicious saturn-pluto square, which is like carrying el capitan on your shoulders lemme tell you, has nothing on the ice giants. here i am, looking at 30, and i have this inexplicable feeling that i'm looking at something huge in the next year or so.

i remember feeling something somewhat similar in 2019, like all throughout the year, i had this feeling something big was about to happen that would change everything, and that that would be the last year where everything would have a sense of fun to it before reality set in. it was like a "make hay while the sun shines" sort of feeling. this thing that i'm feeling right now is not nearly that fatalistic (although i do have plenty of fears): it's more like "the other shoe is about to drop and all the toiling i've done behind the scenes so far is about to pay off big time". everything is about to change dramatically for me on a personal level, and it's not a question of "if" but "when", and also "how".

[hir-nin-thranduil]

Why aren't more people upset about this? Especially my fellow Non-binary fans.

For so long, we have had an entire race of characters in popular culture, who do not feel the need to embrace conventional gender norms.

Tolkien's Elves are notoriously androgynous....the males are effeminate while also remaining a badass example of gentle masculine (aka: without the toxicity). The females are just as badass as the males while embracing a powerful version of the feminine.

Image credit: https://jyannamarcus.tumblr.com/post/109699297772/elves-elrond-galadriel-arwen-thranduil/amp

The new Amazon Lord of The Rings Series, The Rings of Power, clearly seeks to draw very defined lines between which characters are male, and which ones are female. They're basically erasing any less-than-binary features by taking on conventional standards for gender....such as cutting the male's hair short, while only the females have long flowing hair. This is NOT true to Tolkien lore! Oh, but the male humans and dwarves can have long hair. Probably because they also have beards. So, I guess that's okay, because they're still adhering to gender norms. But the race of Elves, who traditionally do not grow beards....well, I guess they decided that they need to make their hair short to make absolutely sure everyone knows who's male and who's female....because defining a binary is what they obviously value.

This show claims to be embracing progressive values....but when it comes to LGBTQIA representation, they're so obviously backsliding.

I mean, I love the diverse cast. Yes please, let’s have more of this. But why do we simultaneously have to undermine another marginalized community in the process?

I know, a lot of people will say "it's only hair"....but it's more than that. If they're willing to overlook such a fundamental aspect of The Elves and the way they're meant to be presented, what else are they going to change? Plus, as I've already stated...but I can't state enough: this is clearly erasure of anything remotely non-binary.

....and I haven't even started on the fact that Dwarvish Females were meant to have facial hair. Again, they are taking away what little non-binary symbolism there is, because they don't like the asthetic, or whatever their reasons are. They’re basically saying it’s NOT okay for people not to adhere to the current societal expectations of the gender norms, so they won’t support it.

Oh, and let's not forget....Galadriel. A character who is so powerful, she's one of the only beings in Middle Earth to single handedly defeat Sauron (albeit temporarily, but it's more than anyone else can say). She is formidable in her own right, and needs no conventional weapons. But we can't possibly have a powerful character, be it clearly defined as male or female, unless they're wielding a pointy phallic symbol that they get to stick inside their enemies. It's so clearly symbolic. Besides, these are Elves, not humans. No character should have to embrace society's outmoded idea of masculine prowess in order to be perceived as powerful.

Image found: https://pin.it/2eQ4n8d

I'll give them a little credit in taking SOME care in casting and costuming Morfydd Clark to look somewhat like Cate Blanchett's Galadriel...the Galadriel we have all come to know and love. Why couldn't they do this with Elrond too? Why do we get stuck with this subpar version of our beloved Lord of Imladris? And for clarification, I have no issue with the actor...and I don't agree with making fun of him or his looks. Hugo Weaving has a very unique face that is probably hard to match. But literally all they had to do was (at the very least) give Robert Aramayo long black hair. Why is that so difficult?

I’m not sure who created this. If anyone wants to let me know I will gladly edit and give credit.

...but I digress.

The Non-binary community doesn't have much representation in the media as it is....and this series seems as though they're seeking to erase what little we have. I'm furious. I'm actually sick over this. Why isn't anyone else? Where are my fellow Non-binary Tolkien fans?

[manmankai]

The Scents of the Mankai Company Troupes - Part 3

Autumn Troupe (Act 1 Only)

Banri Settsu Floriental by Comme Des Garcons

Banri would say it himself: he's practically perfect. He can do no wrong. He's good at everything. So what does a dude who's good at everything smell like, besides the obvious description of "really good"? That's a tough one and I won't lie - the pressure to nail Banri's scent like he nails absolutely everything is high. I chose Floriental by Comme Des Garcons for a few reasons: 1) it's unisex and I think Banri enjoys queering gender. He wears traditionally feminine and masculine clothes together. He'll get in a fist fight wearing pink leopard print. A scent that says, "Gender means nothing to me" just... makes sense. 2) it's expensive, and we all know that Banri has some pricey taste. His prime shopping partner is resident richboy Tenma, after all. and 3) it smells damn good. A little woody, a little smoky, a little fruity - and lets be real, Banri is a little fruity. Comme Des Garcons describes the scent as "enigmatic, contrasted, intense." Absolutely. Sold. I'm convinced.

Juza Hyodo Motor Oil + a Faint Hint of Chocolate

Juza is many things, but first and foremost, he is a sugar junkie. He loves candy, cakes, chocolate - you name it. The guy's got two modes: about to eat sweets or has just eaten sweets. I think that getting close to Juza would mean getting a whiff of chocolatey goodness. There would be something else, though, too. Being the motorcyclist he is, I'm of the opinion that he would also often smell like motor oil. He's out there fine tuning his ride and getting his hands dirty. He's gonna smell like his trusty steel horse. That might sound bad, but I think it actually would suit him quite nicely. Very rugged, much like Juza's appearance. You'd meet him and get that biker vibe, but then when you got closer, the sweet, gooey chocolate center would reveal itself.

Taichi Nanao BOD: Most Wanted

Oh, Taichi. Baby boy. You want girls so bad, and all the BOD commercials say that this is the key to make them want you back. But taking that spray bottle (yes, it literally comes in a spray bottle) to your body will not do what you think it will! BOD: Most Wanted is described as having "hints of fresh citrus and herbs" mixed with "smoldering woods and bold marine scents to create a full, aromatic fragrance." That sounds lovely, actually. The issue is the sheer excess with which we know our resident ADHD king applies it. No impulse control, we die like we live. Y'all thought Kazunari would be an Axe-Over-Applier? He ain't got nothin' on Taichi and his BOD. We love him anyway.

Omi Fushimi Whatever Delicious Meal He Just Cooked Up + Soap

Omi is the mother hen of the house and, by far, the best chef. You can hardly read an A3! story without a character remarking on Omi's food. I believe wholeheartedly that this means Omi smells delicious and edible all the time. Savory or sweet? That depends on what he's been cooking. Maybe tonight after dinner he smells like the umami aroma of the incredible ramen he made. Maybe in the morning he's gonna smell like those melt-in-your-mouth cinnamon rolls he made for breakfast because they're your favorite. The man lives and breathes cooking. When he's not giving Dinner Time Seduction, he probably smells fresh and clean like the dish soap he just used to wash all the dishes right after your meal together. (He is the picture of domesticity and an icon. Martha Stewart, eat your heart out.)

Sakyo Furuichi Like a fuckin' man

Sakyo is a reserved kind of guy. He cares about his appearance, but he isn't one to preen. He's tough. He holds back his feelings. He yearns. He's very sexy. I digress. I can't picture him waking up in the morning and dabbing on cologne. That'd be too much. His deodorant would be understated and practical, but masculine. Subtle, woodsy scents, clean cotton. You ever hug that guy and he's probably gonna smell like freshly laundered pine wood somehow. He may also smell faintly of leather, despite not wearing any. And is that... gunpowder you smell? Huh... Guess that's just what it's like when you smell like a badass. ;) (please note that "man" and what that smells like is entirely subjective and I'm approaching this from the stereotypical lens of how we gender scents. if sakyo smells like a man, then he smells like whatever that means to you <3)

Want more Mankai smells? Check these out!