#But this is my blog and I allow old men yaoi here

[salem-sapiens]

Phoebus × Frollo ship art under the cut.

I'm sorry to inform you I am THAT kind of thond fan.

So yeah, Phoebus × Frollo beneath. Just for the true degenerates like me ✨

Again, nothing explicit but it may not be everyone's cup of tea.

Enjoy the most embarrassing ship art I've ever made.

[formerlycookierunauprompts]

Hiii! Unfortunately, this isn't a new prompt.

Then what is this? You may be asking, well, it may or may not be Mod Kenzie shamelessly promoting her RP server.

" But this is a prompt blog-" Shush, it is also my blog and I do as I please./j

So! What's this exciting server I came to talk to you all about? Well look no further! Because it's called Crown's County! Crown's County is a multifandom roleplay that's a mix of primarily Slice of Life and Mystery. Your setting is the small little town of Crown's County( as the name implies), but that begs the question, how did you character get there? Did they move there one day? Or had they lived there all their lives? (somehow, neither of those seem just right)

Can you trust your memories? That will all depend on your Awareness Level, or AL for short! AL is a fun little mechanic for this roleplay, and will help you with rolls(like in dnd) and serves as a marker towards your character's progression in solving all of Crown's County's mysteries! Though it can also decrease so be wary of that! There's around 5-6(if we count 0) levels, with Level five being the highest, but nobodies reached level five... yet.

The possibilities in Crown's County are almost endless! You could make a (sealed for lore purposes) Eldritch Horror work in retail! You could investigate a spooky forest! You can get up to highschool hyjinks! There's tons of possibilities to be discovered!

As for what we do have already, here is a small list.

Bread Bank reenactment

Old men yaoi

Toxic doomed Yuri

eldritch horrors forced to go to high school/office jobs

clowns

weed bakery??? for some reason???

the horrors

Regular yaoi (that also has angst)

Whilst the Roleplay has already started, you're free to join in at any time! There's also no longer any character limit so you're free to go wild!(just not too wild.)

Here's the link, and I eagerly await to see if anyone new joins!

( P. S. You're also welcome to just come to spectate. And OCs are also allowed here! Anyways bye!)

[absolutebl]

I really appreciate your breakdowns and I just throw this out there because you actively talk about consent in regards to subject matter about queer men (THANK YOU).

Would you talk a bit about the ubiquity of dubious consent and rape/sexual assault and/or harassment that occurs in BL? And perhaps (personal input here) how that ties into unhealthy and dangerous social and personal anxieties about queerness? Like queerness being inherently predatory, the conflation of pedophilia with (mostly) queer men, inability to express desire due to homophobia, maladaptive coping, agency, and autonomy?

Sorry I know that was a lot for one ask!

WHY SO MUCH DUB CON IN BL? 

This is a great ask.

I have to say to start that while I side mention these kinds of topics a lot but I don't actively use this blog for queer commentary. I’m gonna make an exception, but I don’t want to turn this into a rant, so I’m going to try to be gentle and politic about everything. 

Would you talk a bit about the ubiquity of dubious consent and rape/sexual assault and/or harassment that occurs in BL?

Here’s some scattered thoughts: 

It's very prevalent in source yaoi.

It used to be in standard het romances 1990s and prior. 

It’s still common in its benevolent sexism form in Kdramas in particular. 

I have talked about it before in depth but I can’t remember where, sorry if this is a repeat for some of you. 

Kdramas are gonna come up a lot because they are dictating general taste in romances right now, so Hallyu action is happening in this post, sorry not sorry

So BL is getting it from both narrative and cultural backgrounds. Also all of these notions are being bolstered by Hallyu romances, which are similarly sourced (manga, manwha, web comics, Japan early 90s). 

Fantasies 

Last I checked dubcon/noncon was still the world’s #1 sexual fantasy. Not sure if that is still as strong as it was, but from my experience within the kink community I’d say yes. (In kink the #1 fetish is feet but the #1 fantasy is rape. Yes, there’s a difference between a fantasy and a fetish, this is not that blog.) 

How to unpack that? 

I think the sexiness and appeal comes from the idea that your partner is so overwhelmed with lust for you, and only you, they can’t resist. Many people love the idea of being taken. THE IDEA OF IT. That’s what makes it a fantasy. 

Seme/Uke (AGAIN) 

In BL it remains popular and prevalent partly because of the seme/uke dynamic that imposes heterosexual dysmorphia on the players. I go into this a lot in conjunction with the blushing maiden trope. 

It’s basically that the uke isn’t allowed by the narrative to want sex, he must be taken, because if he makes the choice, he’s dirty and impure. This ties back to the old standard of shaming women for sexual agency (the uke is acting the feminine in these narratives). Stuff like the madonna/whore complex. 

However, removing seme/uke entirely can have an adverse effect. 

If it’s enemies to lovers and the two are physically matched and less seme/uke as you see out of Taiwan, for example, or something like TharnType then the battle of wills becomes a battle of dominance. What in kink might be called rough play. Which is to say the point of the liaison is for one of the boys to come out on top and take what he wants. The fight itself is designed to be sexually exciting for the characters and the watchers. While this is fine in kink play it can read VERY poorly on screen. 

Cultural Biases 

All of this remains alive and well in BL narratives for many reasons.

Legal standing. The cultures producing these narratives do not have the same definition of statuary rape and consent as we/some international watchers might expect. 

Victim blaming. The attitude is that If the sex is between 2 men, as a man the uke should be able to defend himself. If he didn’t fight the other dude off, then obviously he wanted it. (There is no concept of “he can’t” fight him off, maleness negates that possibility/thought process in highly patriarchal societies.) 

The gayness itself is a loss of power. There’s also all this baggage around gay as taboo. If same sex activities are already considered culturally dirty, kinky, abnormal (whatever, sigh) then adding in stepbrothers, age gap, or rape doesn’t matter. It’s already liminal. In a way the characters themselves are “asking for it” by engaging with the very concept of gayness. This is another reason why owning gay as an identity is so comparatively rare in BL. It can be regarded as physically safer to say “I like men” or “I just like this one man.” 

Admitting to being gay puts one in a socially and culturally weak position as a man, because you will be instantly associated with the feminine and that’s a lower status position. Quite apart from however that culture views gay masculinity as valid identity, as of this moment in time, dominant social status as MALE is always materially diminished in the eyes of society by gayness or gay activities. (Gay males who come out move from dominant into marginalized status.) Humans will rarely willing sacrifice social standing, it’s an anathema to the herd brain. If we can linguistically dodge this with a new term, phrase, or semantics, we will. This is one reason why there’s so much debate in the queer community around reclaiming slurs and the word “queer” in general. (Sorry, I got diverted by linguistic anth for a second there.) 

Feminism & agency. Because one character is usually conflated with female (and also because gayness is conflated with the feminine in general), at least one of the BL characters will be fighting a feminist battle as a gay man. But because he is biologically male as a character, he isn’t recognized as needing the bolster or protection that feminist agency/advocacy can provide (even in those places where feminism and queer rights are active). This has to do with a  basic conflation of biological sex characteristics - and associated physical manifestations - with gender, which is a social construct. (And is why trans identity is not just a feminist battle but an obligation of care and protection. TERFs are actually anti-feminism IMHO.) 

You can see some of this play out with Noona romances, especially out of Japan and Korea. The female character is already acting abnormally by “dating down” so she is allowed to push social norms by being more romantically dominant as well. She’s already taken the step into taboo/dirtiness (and agency) by flirting with a younger man. Another way this manifests is in Korea’s fascination with women crossdressing as men in their historical dramas. 

Pure fantasy. The fantasy of all these romances, including BL, is packaged in the abnormality of the romance existing at all. The special uniqueness of it as a pairing and as a romance all. It’s subversions as a fantastical narrative.  

None of this is an excuse, just a sort of explanation, I guess? 

(Here’s an excellent article on the history of consent in the western romance genre.) 

How that ties into unhealthy and dangerous social and personal anxieties about queerness? (Like queerness being inherently predatory, the conflation of pedophilia with (mostly) queer men, inability to express desire due to homophobia, maladaptive coping, agency, and autonomy?) 

Ah yes well, that would make this a much longer essay. And I’m already pushing things here. 

But I think in part when you make a taboo identity a fantasy, then you convince those who are that identity that they themselves are also a fantasy. Some of their selfness is unrealistic, unmoored and unfounded. And therefore somehow more noble and less worthy at the same time. 

Ah the complexities of the human spirit. 

It’s not real if it only exists in a drama. This is the counter effect to the pro normalization stance I’ve talked about before. BL, while simultaneously making gay more acceptable for non-queers to digest, makes it harder for queer people to believe in themselves. BL is putting out this seme/uke, dominant/submissive, top/bottom notion of gayness, and choice within that gayness (as in: to be gay you must PICK your lane). Which is, by its very nature, unhealthy for a gay person because it has all these internalize notions of anti-feminist, victimization, heterosexual dysmorphia, lost agency, and gay = a fantasy and not a reality. 

The BL fantasy forces gay men into a very specific kind of marginalized space: 

if you’re sexually active and expressive about it you’re a whore, 

so you become unable to express desire, 

develop maladaptive coping strategies around sexual activities, 

and lack agency and autonomy as a result 

because you expect your partner to make these choices for you, including around desire.

Especially around desire. 

Maybe this manifests as a rape fantasy. 

(OMG did I just bring this blog post full circle? I think I did. It’s like I wrote a litcrit essay even when I didn’t wanna. How, meta: this essay itself is kinda my own dubcon.) 

All of which is to say: 

I fervently hope any female identified readers are spotting something VERY VERY familiar in those bullet points above. Because this is EXACTLY what is done to women ALL THE TIME. Especially straight women in patriarchal environments. 

In the End 

We all love seeing queer happy endings in BL. I love me a kindly coming out scene with the supportive friendship group. But most of us queers know, or fear, that it won’t be that way for us. 

In a very strange way the positivity in BL, and the companion flaws of representation, are like the fantasy of romance in general. The idea that you will be loved, by one person, forever, is as much a fantasy as the idea that being gay is as easy, as one dimensional, as codified, and as lovely as most BLs show it to be (or ends up). 

It’s complicated being a feminist who loves romances (particularly Kdramas!) 

It’s complicated being a queer person who loves BL. 

I don’t know that I have a pithy conclusion, except perhaps something I’ve harped on before. 

Like the fact that is is possible to both be a feminist and cherish a rape fantasy (or even enact one in a safe sane & consensual way), it is possible to both love BL and recognize it’s many flaws. 

The human brain can contain multitudes. 

We are humans who exist in grey spaces (especially when trying to track down some BLs, heh heh). 

More about how this can be handled better and well in this post on Takara & Amagi. 

(source)

[pak-pak-suhgar]

Lost One

Pairing: Johnny x Jaehyun

genre: angst, happy ending at the end.

Summary: In which where Jaehyun caught Johnny and Taeyong on their bed. With Johnny on top of Taeyong— topless. How did the two older guys got into that position? Jaehyun doesn't know and Johnny doesn't either, leaving the younger in a broken heart state.

A/N: My first yaoi fanfic on this blog and my first johnjae fanfic as well. This was written on phone so sorry for the mistakes. English isn't my first language either so I apologize for the grammatical error! Happy reading~

Johnny and Jaehyun has been dating for almost 4 years. Yes, you heard it right. They've been together for whole fucking years. So, why is it one of those times now where Jaehyun has to see an unpleasant scene before him? He stood at their door, frozen in his spot. Both guys haven't realized his presence not until he accidentally chokes out a sob. Johnny looked back, ready to glare whoever it was that interrupted them only to have his eyes widen. He immediately got off of Taeyong while the other older guy sat up. Panic was plastered over their face as Johnny quickly dresses himself and sprinted his way towards to Jaehyun. Ready to explain whatever bullshit he could come up with.

Jaehyun remained on his spot, unmoving but his eyes were avoiding the taller one's who was now grabbing both of his arms. Jaehyun was emotionally drained- exhausted, numb. His feelings was all over the place that he doesn't know what to feel, "Jaehyun.. I can explain... It's not what it looks like-" Slap! Jaehyun could feel the excruciatin pain on his palm the moment it landed on Johnny's cheek, "But it is what it looks like." he replied spitefully, as much as he wanted to sound emotionless and harsh. He was too hurt to even try to sound like one. Jaehyun doesn't want to hear Johnny's explanations, so he swatted the elder's hands and made his way towards their shared closet. He grabs his bag and began to put all of his stuff or whatever he could grab from the closet.

This put Johnny on alert as he stood behind Jaehyun and held his wrist in attempt to stop him, "Baby, what are you doing- where are you going?" he bombards the younger with questions. Jaehyun doesn't bother to reply as he only prys Johnny's hands away, when he settled most of his stuff. His eyes were bloodshot red, he looks at Johnny then at Taeyong who couldn't look straight in his eyes. He wanted to shout at both men and tell them off. But he decides that they aren't worth it, so instead pushes Johnny out of the way and left their room, "Jaehyun- baby, wait!" Johnny calls out but Jaehyun never turned back.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A few weeks had passed since Johnny has last seen Jaehyun, he couldn't contact him either and he was worried sick. Jaehyun wasn't in the dorms, that was alarming. Johnny had tried to contact Jaehyun's closest friends, but none of them spoke about the younger's whereabouts. Or at least they wouldn't out Jaehyun just like that considering of what he did to Jaehyun. Johnny runs his hands through his hair in frustration and punched the wall, Taeyong who had witnessed the scene came up to Johnny and held hos hand, Johnny pushes him away and glared at him, "Don't fucking touch me! I-It's all your fault! Jaehyun is nowhere to be found and our relationship is at stake!" Taeyong could only scoff before glaring back at the taller male.

"If you could have had kept your dick in your pants and didn't allowed yourself to get seduced by me, you wouldn't be in this situation, Johnny. You put yourself into this situation." Taeyong says, before he leaves Johnny alone. He remained speechless and unmoving in his spot, what Taeyong said was true. Johnny wasn't able to wait for Jaehyun that he just let his emotions eat him up and control him to give in to his desires. Jaehyun had been fairly busy with his drama film that Johnny barely saw Jaehyun- let alone have sex with him. Whenever Jaehyun comes home, he was dead tired and would knock out the moment he sleeps in their bed. Johnny blames himself from everything that happened. He was afraid, he was scared- scared to death that Jaehyun will leave him for good. He sat on the floor and hugged his knees as he could do nothing but cry his heart out hoping that the pain will fade somehow.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Sicheng, I really can't bother you and Kun hyung anymore.. I'm sorry for crashing in but thank you for letting me stay." Jaehyun says, looking so apologetically at Sicheng. The male could only snort and waved his hand in dismiss, "Jae, you're always welcome here. Are you sure you can go back? Are you ready to face him?" Sicheng asks, concern written all over his face as he looks out for his friend. It took Jaehyun a few moments before nodding his head, "Yeah... I have to go home. I can't run away from it forever." he replies, he could feel the tears pricking his eyes but he blinks them away. He had been crying for weeks and his eyes honestly hurt a lot. Sicheng nodded his head in understanding, sighing at his friends' demise before giving Jaehyun a pat on the back, "Fine, but if you wanna come back. You're welcome to." He reassures with a smile, to which the younger returns happily. They hug one last time before Jaehyun went back to the dorm.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A loud banging woke Johnny up from his sleep, he groans at the noise and flutters his eyes open, "Come in." he says in a groggy voice before sitting up, Haechan slammed the door open as he ran towards Johnny, "Hyung. Jaehyun hyung came back home last night" with the information that Haechan spit out, Johnny became wide awake as he looked at Haechan, "J-Jaehyun? Where is he? I need to go see him." he says, almost wanting to fly towards wherever Jaehyun is, "In his old room! At the 10th floor!" Haechan shouted before Johnny disappeared into sight.

He wasted no time going upstairs and instantly inputting the passcode to the dorm, thankfully no one was inside so he invited himself in. He didn't think twice to barge into Jaehyun's room, his eyes searching for the man everywhere and when it landed on the figure. He felt like he could breathe again, like suddenly the air that was knocked out from him came back. His gaze softens as he looks at the man who was peacefully asleep. But his heart breaks when he realizes that Jaehyun may probably break their relationship off. It explains why he went here instead of going back to their bedroom. Of course Jaehyun wouldn't want to be reminded of what happened in that room.

They made so many good memories but also made the most hurtful one. Johnny was about to caress Jaehyun's face when the younger suddenly woke up from his sleep, he suddenly sat up and moved away drom Johnny, making Johnny's heart break into pieces, "What are you doing here?" Jaehyun was the first to break the silence, sucking in a deep breath as he looks everywhere but Johnny, "I... I know it's too late but I wanted to apologize." Johnny said, pausing for a moment and waits for Jaehyun to respond. When the younger didn't, he assumed that he gave him the chance to explain now so Johnny began doing so.

"I.. I let my emotions get to me. You were just so busy that we barely had time together.. When was the last we had sex? Whenever I took the initiative, you'd brush me off. And whenever you're back in our room, you knock out. I know you have drama filming but you didn't give us some time together-" Johnny was cut off by the loud scoff that Jaehyun made, the younger finally looks at him. And he felt his heart break as he sees the tears in Jaehyun's eyes. "And that gives you the excuse to fuck Taeyong? He seduced you and you give in? Have you even thought of me when you let your 'so called emotions' eat you up?" he asks, Johnny couldn't speak and this made only Jaehyun snort. He was right, it's no excuse for him. It's the end, Johnny thinks.

Jaehyun took a deep breath before finally speaking, "Look.. I know, we haven't spent much time these days.. I was planning to take you out on a trip because we finally finished our last filming. As soon as we finished, I came back as early as I could, John. That day... I planned everything out. But you- you and Taeyong hyung..." Jaehyun couldn't continue to speak as he chokes out a sob. He harshly wipes the tears away before covering his face with his hands, Johnny couldn't take the scene anymore and ended up pulling the younger in his arms. Hugging him flush to his chest as he sniffs in Jaehyun's scent. God knows how much he missed holding the younger in his arms like this, Jaehyun didn't bother pulling away.

When he felt the younger calm down, Jaehyun pulls away and wipes his tears. Johnny dreaded this moment, the silence was triggering his anxiety when Jaehyun kept his mouth shut. He was anxiously waiting for the younger to speak and when he did, he cut Jaehyun off. "Johnny, I think we should-" "No!" Johnny imemdiately declines, startling the younger male. "No... please... don't.. I... I don't-" "You don't wanna make up?" Jaehyun asks, tilting his head innocently. This caught Johnny off. He wasn't breaking up? "You won't... break up with me?" Johnny asks, hope fills his eyes, Jaehyun blinks at him in confusion before slowly nodding his head. "I won't... you hurt me, John. But when we first dated.. I told you no relationships are perfect.. and so is ours.. However, I can't really forget about this. But, no matter how painful it is.. My love is still stronger. I just needed a break and to gather my thoughts.. Breaking up with you crossed my mind and I debated over that for a few weeks that I was gone." Jaehyun says, biting his inner cheek as he confesses his feelings out. "But, I realized that my heart will always long for you, it will always love you. Because you are my soulmate, Youngho. I could never leave you."

And maybe, even if things do get toxic. Jaehyun will be too much of a martyr person to ever leave Johnny. So, they eventually make up and try to patch their relationship again.

Johnny kisses Jaehyun's forehead as he held the younger in his arms, "Thank you, Yoonoh.." Jaehyun tilts his head and glances up at Johnny, "For what?" "For not becoming my lost one."

[ardenttheories]

Homestuck's always been antagonistic and insensitive, but I don't recall seeing any of you try to dox Hussie? But please, continue to rationalise how cyberbullying lgbt people for not being nice enough and having opinions about a fictional character you disagree with puts you in the right. A story doesn't go the way you'd like and this is how you respond? You COULD have just not bothered reading it instead of CHOOSING to make your online life about something you hate like a toxic weirdo.

Hi, Kate. I’m so glad you could find my blog. (Edit: that was a joke. Apparently, some anons find it impossible to tell that I don’t actually think you’re Kate). It’s clear to me that you didn’t take the time to read through any of the content that’s actually on here, since you’re throwing around rather wild accusations, so let me take this down step by step.

Homestuck has only rarely been antagonistic and insensitive. Things like the Alpha Trolls - which were clear criticisms of fandom culture - were relatively few and far between, and when we complained about them, they actually stopped. Remind me, for instance, how relevant the Alpha Trolls were to the plot? How long they stayed as mockeries towards the fandom? Yeah, not long. I actually have talked about this before on the blog - alongside other things I thought were negative towards the fandom from the original comic - but the difference here is that... in the entirety of Homestuck, these things were outliers and inconsistencies. They stuck out because they were in stark contrast to the otherwise wonderfully handled content Homestuck went over.

For instance, Homesuck is critical of abuse - especially in terms of relationships. We see through a critical lense the shit normalisation of parental abuse can do to a child - with actual talk of triggers and of the mental and emotional scarring left behind, and the complexities of the child’s feelings towards the parent’s death through Dave - and we see how self destructive relationships can be, how harmful they are, and how hard it can be to leave them - such as Terezi’s very toxic blackrom with Gamzee, which was always portrayed as something negative and harmful especially with how worried Karkat was for her and how withdrawn she became during its run, and Dirk’s relationship with Jake, which goes very much over how communication can cause a deterioration in romantic relationships especially when the two participants have conflicting mental illnesses. 

It also goes over how men, though they can be mired in toxic masculinity, can choose to be good. How sometimes we’re not born as good people, but we can become good people through the love we have for the people around us, through frequent attempts to check what we’re doing, through the sheer willpower to be good. Dirk’s entire arc, knowing that he could very easily become Bro but deciding he doesn’t want to be, that it’s something he wants to work on, is so important and incredibly powerful. Mental illness in men is often just given as an excuse to make them violent with no attempts at betterment - so Dirk actually existed as proof that you don’t have to be that stereotype. 

In contrast, Homestuck^2 completely uncritically gave Jade, who was cis, a dog dick, made her, a bisexual woman, a sex maniac and the yaoi “woman who gets in the way of the gays” trope, made her a cheater and someone who forced her partner into the relationship to begin with, and made her a neglectful mother after having cheated with her best lesbian friend in something that has incredible recall to just about every futanari video ever - and they tried to claim that this was good representation of trans women, actually, and that the only reason we didn’t like it is that Jade is “a woman” who “has sex”.

Likewise completely uncritically, they made Gamzee, an anti-black stereotype, enter a relationship with Jane, a fascist, and then made the entire thing into a cuck joke wherein Jake being frequently drunk and sexually assaulted was funny because he wasn’t “man enough”. They then forced him to go back to his abuser after he left her in a scene that read very much like, “ridiculous man thinks woman is abusing him, go back and do your manly job”. 

This, of course, doesn’t even go into the travesty that is any form of trans representation in the comic. Roxy, a trans man, is barely even focused on as trans; they make no attempt to enforce in the fandom that he’s a trans man the way they do that June is a trans woman, and even then, they seem to think that just saying someone is a trans woman is actually good representation. Not, like, bringing it into the comic - just saying that it’s a thing. And of course, that’s not even going into the completely uncritical lense they have of Vriska, wherein her being a trans woman completely frees her of any and all blame for the past abuses she has comitted, and once again she becomes an amazing character to save the day without a single flaw - which in turn inherently associates trans women with abuse apologism, abusers, and the ideology that just because we’re trans we can get away with anything scott free. 

I honestly cannot think of one instance of good and genuine representation in Homesuck^2, nor can I think of any scene where negative content was actually treated as the negative thing it actually is. There’s no critical lense at all, not like we have in Homestuck; there’s just no fucking comparison. And this isn’t a one-off situation, either. Whereas Homestuck does do fuck ups - isn’t perfect - in between the otherwise brilliant content, Homestuck^2 is just founded upon these horrific takes. There’s almost no good content in between, and what is left is a slog to get through when surrounded by the thick slurry of shit that compromises futa Jade, abuse apologism Vriska, and victim blaming Jake. 

Of course, we didn’t “doxx” Hussie. Hussie actually listened to our complaints, for the most part, and worked with us to create something that worked well. The way Homestuck^2 was touted to work. You know, since it was meant to be written with the fandom in mind, influenced by the things we suggest and react to. We went into Homestuck^2 with the explicit idea that we were going to be listened to and taken into consideration when it was being written - the way we were with old Homestuck. I’m very sorry to say that, when you make these expectations, people are going to be a titchy bit upset when you then commandeer the entire thing and exclude the fandom from any of the process that you said they were going to be part of.

Additionally, it’s rather funny, isn’t it, that what you call doxxing is actually just people upset with how triggering content is being handled, and going to the people who actually wrote the content in order to voice their complaints? It’s almost as if social media exists to allow this communication between reader and author, which is a fundamental thing you’ll learn in any creative writing course, such as the one I’m on currently, wherein you’re actually taught how to respond to social media and to build up your image with your fans. 

Homestuck^2 is an ongoing piece of media. We’re well aware that we have a potential to change these uncritical takes and the horrific way they’re being handled if the writers will just listen to genuine criticism. This is, frankly, no different to the people who go to J. K. Rowling’s Twitter to tell her how harmful her transphobic comments are; because if she believes these things, they will work their way into her texts and will perpetuate harmful ideologies. 

The literal same thing is happening in Homestuck^2 - again, such as futa Jade, which normalises the point of view that bisexuals are cheaters and completely trivialises what it means to be trans, or Gamzee, which perpetuates just about every anti-black stereotype possible. Media does have a very powerful impact on what people see in the real world. This is why, for instance, positive black characters are so important in media; if they’re always portrayed as villains, then people will see real world black people as villains as the ideology is perpetuated to the point of fact. This is especially true if the people already believe in the ideology.

Fiction is one of the best ways that we can counteract this cycle. If you make a character that they like, and they happen to be positive representation, and then they watch more media that is likewise positive representation, it’s more likely to stick that these positive representations are the actual experiences of minority groups. Also? It’s important TO those minority groups. A black person, especially right now, doesn’t want to see an anti-black stereotype fuck a fascist, engage in sexual assult, and then enact pedophilia - only to die at the hands of a hero and be laughed at for the death. Surprisingly, shit like this is why we need to tell the writers that what they’re doing is harmful, that they’re perpetuating phobic ideologies, and that we need better representation - especially in a comic that is this widely read, and also has a very large minor fanbase. 

I shouldn’t need to explain why exposing minors to anti-black stereotypes, transphobic, homophobic, biphobic, abuse apologism, victim blaming, and the trivialisation of rape and sexual assault (especially towards men), might be a federal fucking issue. 

So, no, we’re not actually cyberbullying LGBT+ people. We’re trying to hold shitty writers accountable for the incredibly toxic and harmful ideologies they’re forcing into a text that has always been written with critical thought in mind. 

I should also point out how funny it is that you’re focusing on how some of the writers are LGBT+ - as if we’re not? I’m trans, I’m gay, and I’m ace. Yes, I can actually be these things and absolutely furious that a trans women is writing some of the most transphobic shit I’ve seen in a while into characters she then claims to be completely free of blame. We can be furious that people within our own community are enforcing negative stereotypes.

Being LGBT+ does not make them free from blame. We cannot give them a free pass to be racist, to be transphobic, to be homophobic, biphobic, to be abuse apologists, just because they’re LGBT+. Not only because that’s just a terrible fucking idea to begin with, but because it also reflects so, so badly on the community as a whole. As if being part of the community instantly means that you can do no wrong? As if there can be no toxicity within our own community, despite the fact that there very much is and it is still an issue to this day?

That is such an issue, one of the biggest issues even shown just in Vriska and the way Kate handles her as a whole - and, once again, is WHY we need to get them looking at this shit more critically. This view that LGBT+ people can do no wrong and cannot be criticised is shoved into Homestuck^2 and, once again, perpetuates the ideology. This isn’t something to be proud of. This isn’t something that’s actually okay.

Also, your point that the writers aren’t nice enough and that we disagree on fictional characters - well, I’ve already been over the second part. But for the first part, I would like to remind you that they aren’t just random LGBT+ people on the internet that we’re going to because we think their takes are a little shitty. They’re actual writers working on a piece of media. They are official content creators. 

Again, one of the first things you learn on any creative writing course is that when you become a writer, you gain a significant amount of responsibility for your interactions with the fandom. This is something that you genuinely have to expect, and if you don’t, then, unfortunately you just don’t know what it means to write something that thousands of people have a potential to read. As a writer, it is your responsibility to portray your image online; it is your responsibility to engage with the fans in a meaningful way; it is your responsibility to not cause drama and to listen when criticism is brought up, to have genuine discussion and not to perpetuate hatred - especially towards your own fanbase.

Consider, for instance, the way I’m talking to you right now. This is the sort of tone that someone should take when talking to a fan about genuine criticism. When things are brought up, you go over them step by step, you listen, you write back - you don’t go on a flurry of “fuck yous” to a minor who asked you why your team didn’t post anything about the BLM movement on the official Twitter, and you definitely don’t respond to every comment with genuine criticism with the word “pigshit”. You almost definitely don’t tell your trans masculine and masculine-aligned nonbinary fans that their opinions don’t matter.

As a writer, Kate and the rest of the team have a responsibility with their interactions with their fans. They aren’t just normal fandom voices anymore; they’re official fandom voices, voices that have more weight behind them than anyone else. They’re who people are going to turn to when it comes to anything regarding Homestuck^2. Their words now reflect literally everything about Homestuck^2, the future of Homestuck as an expanded universe, and the opinions of the group as a whole. They have to be careful with what they say. They have to be held to the same standards as industry voices because that’s essentially what they are - especially now that Homestuck is something you pay for. 

Also, this isn’t a point of the story not going the way I want. This is a point of many of people in the fandom being upset with how content is being handled, upset that their voices are being shut down, upset that triggering content is being laughed at or used flippantly and without care or respect. This is people being upset that trigger warnings were removed specifically to make the comic unsafe for them as a punishment for daring to say that something was wrong. This is people being upset that a piece of media that used to be so fucking good at portraying sensitive content in a critical light, that used to be so good at normalising LGBT+ identities and healthy representations of those identities, has suddenly turned to this. 

The story can go whatever way it wants - and frankly, that’s fine be my. What isn’t fine is that content is being used specifically to hurt and to incite.

And, of course, that final piece; nothing will improve if we don’t say that it’s wrong to begin with. Someone needs to voice the complaints of the fanbase, othrewise these toxic ideologies are going to go unchecked. One of the biggest things I’ve come to understand while making these posts is that a significant portion of the fandom feels isolated in their hurt; they don’t think other people feel the same way they do, and several people have mentioned feeling like they were going crazy because they were upset with things that the text and writers are normalising. It’s so important to make sure that these people know they’re not alone. It’s so important to make sure that our voices are heard. It’s so important to try and create critical discussion and debate over something that so many people still fucking love. 

The thing is, I don’t hate Homestuck^2. I actually really, desperately wish I could enjoy it. I wish I could read through it and theorise, could go in depth about how amazing the characters are, could write long and extensive posts on how creative and engaging it is - could even just go on about how interesting the Meat-Candy divide is, and all the points they’re trying to make about canonicity. But I genuinely fucking can’t. There is just so, so much wrong in the text that is completely unrelated to plot and to the overarching Point that makes it impossible for me to read, to want to read, to try to encourage other people to read. They’re things that literally don’t need to be in there, either; stereotypes and toxic ideologies and uncritical or badly handled sensitive topics that could be rectified so, so easily. 

Homestuck^2 could be amazing for a lot of the fandom. It could be something that we all rally around the same way we did for the original comic. For for a lot of people, it has ruined their fandom experience, has ruined their desire to want to read anything more to do with Homestuck, and has caused a significant portion of the fandom to just drop out entirely. That in and of itself should be a sign that this isn’t just a little fandom drama. That this is something much bigger and much more serious that, just maybe, needs to be looked into, talked about, understood - and, potentially, changed.