#First official trans character on the Female list

[ultimatebabygirlsupremebattle]

It’s that time again! Official sign ups are now open!

For those of you who are new, this is an art tournament dedicated to our favourite babygirl, transfem Leo! This isn’t a heavily competitive tournament, our intention and focus is to give everyone a chance and excuse to brag about their art and their take on transfem Leo, we’re keeping everything fun and friendly here!

Sign ups will be open for two weeks starting today (March 1 - March 15 edit; sign ups have been extended for an extra week! Ending on March 22!) Below, you’ll find our list of rules and criteria, as well as instructions on how to submit your work!

RULES

• Both digital and traditional art is allowed! And it can be anything from a plain sketch to a fully lined and coloured piece!

• We won't be allowing edits, but tracing from the official comics or cartoons is fine! (No tracing of fanart, even with consent)

• NO AI ART! Any AI submitters will be blocked and if art is discovered to be AI at any point in the tournament it will be immediately disqualified!

• All iterations and AUs are welcome!

• Your transfem Leo does not need to identify as female, use she/her pronouns, or be fem-presenting (as much as a turtle can present as any gender anyways). "Trans" in this case is using the umbrella term, and nonbinary identities fall under that! "Fem" here can mean feminine, female presenting, female identifying, or even just using she/her pronouns! (This can get a little tricky to use as a requirement because gender is fake but basically if you think your Leo belongs here then they most likely do)

• The art piece itself must obviously include and focus on our babygirl, but if you want to draw other characters with her you can!

• For those who participated in the first season of the tournament, as long as you didn’t make it to the finals or semi-finals, you can participate again with a new submission!

• No gore, nsfw, or tcest. We don't be promoting any bashing of these things though, DNIs are fine but any variation of "kys" is not okay. Trying to keep things clean and easygoing here!

• If you’re submitting something that is part of an AU that features a triggering topic (self harm, suicide, abuse, CSA, etc.), your submitted work can not contain these topics, and the post that your submission is linked to must contain a trigger warning in the post itself (not in the tags) for those who follow our links and may be interested in seeing more of your AU

To sign up, please send us (via DM ideally):

• A link to the post with your art (so we can link to it during the tournament!)

• Your babygirl’s name (Leonardo, Lee, Leonora, etc.)

• Your babygirl’s pronouns (she/her, he/she, she/they, he/they, etc.)

And that’s it! If you have any questions, our DM’s and ask box are always open!

[loosamoro]

Is Grell trans... In Japan?

I know this isn't a recent topic in tumblr once other user made a deep posting based in manga. In Brazil somes agree Grell is a trans women based in the scene talking about "can't give a birth". I did Google it today. I found no postings in Japanese saying Grell is a trans women or putting the character among female characters. But when I wrote "Grell Sutcliff Okama"... More than I could think.

Yana Toboso used to describe Grell as "okama", a word with degratory origins for effeminate gay men. Even in then official Grell Pullip doll is descripted as the first "okama". Pullip is a feminine doll while her boyfriend, Taeyang, was the base for Sebastian doll. In the theatrical version of Kuroshitsuji, Grell call yourself as a "Lady Okama".

If "okama" is degratory why still use this word? I discovered the LGBTQ+ in Japan use it to describe themselves (!!) - Instagram, Twitter/X, YouTube -, just like some use "queer" while somes dislike to use it. Okama is a complex word because it describe:

- gay men

- effeminate gay men

- trans women

- transvestite

Reading about it, I found a list of "okama characters" and only two were trans women (from Paradise Kiss and Ouran Highschool Host Club). I think Japanese fans have a different vision from non-Japanese fans in US. They see Grell as an effeminate handsome man, but still an LGBTQ+ character. That's cool because it means this topic isn't the same for every country, even some use a rainbow flag with a white triangle for parades. April's 4th is the "Transgender gay" in Japan, but was called "Okama day" before.

Sources about Okama word:

https://tsunagary.jp/vocabulary?amp=1

http://heartschool.jp/lgbt/qa/

https://tsunagary.jp/vocabulary?amp=1

[rainy-painter]

Pokémon Mystery Dungeon Extended Character Sheet (Gen 9)

Pokémon Fans of Tumblr: After a joke gone awry I have spent more than five hours working on extending the PMD roster to be up to current date with Pokémon (gen 9). And to not feel like my time has totally been wasted on a nerdy thing, I present to you my results.

(Keep in mind this is not official at all and just my personal pickings.)

I will put thoughts and other boring stuff under the cut, should you be interested to read about all the thoughts and decisions I made.

We good? Okay, you asked for it! So;

As mentioned before this all started with a Pokémon Mystery Dungeon joke with pointing out a few innocent behaviors and going: "You seem to be the-"

And then it hit me- The nature-to-pokemon roster of PMD hasn't really been updated since Explorers of Sky, which only went up to generation four.

And from there it went down hill:

"Wait! The list doesn't even include all available natures!"

"Okay, so there are 25 natures in all, but the number of starter pokemon alone are 29 so... I guess I'll make up some natures?"

"I need enough natures to also include some classic Pokémon protagonist options such as Pikachu... And oh no, just HOW many options were there from Gen 1?"

"-And there are barely any extra options from the other generations?"

"WHAT THE [Redacted] HAPPENED TO THE ROSTER IN GATES OF INFINITY?!"

For this project I had to lay down a few rules:

The list had to include all starter Pokémon.

Include at least two additional Pokémon from each generation.

Try to balance out Pokemon Types as much as possible, as well as making them decent starter pokemon.

No gender exclusive Pokémon.

Trans males are male and trans females are female.

Added Non-binary option for the quiz.

Extra added things to note:

The list is mostly based off the one from Pokémon Mystery Dungeon Explorers of Sky.

Missing Natures from the original list are grayed out for convenience.

New natures, added out of necessity, has its own list.

I also have a list of honorable mentions and cut Pokémon.

Note: Pokemon greyed out on the list above is to indicate generation changes.

My thoughts on the cut pokemon:

Obviously there are way too many Pokémon from gen 1 for them all to make it to the list. Pokémon such as Cubone and Phanpy could have made the list more diverse, adding the ground type to the options. Togepi and Sneasel were chosen over Phanpy for their less common Typings. However after cutting Cubone and adding Ralts to the roster it could be argued Phanpy should have been added back instead of Togepi.

What am I? The Officer Jenny? If you feel Phanpy or, hack, any other pokemon fit the roster more than my pickings, feel free to edit or make your own roster! :) /Genuine /Positive

I really like Vulpix, however there were already a lot of fire types. The reason why Charcadet is on the list is because I felt like I didn't have enough options from Gen 9 that I felt would fit as a main character, be strong enough or not too strong for the theorized adventure.

Most Nominee were chosen for being decent base form Pokémon and being dexterous enough for a human turned Pokémon to not feel completely claustrophobic in their body: I figured a bipedal or quadrupedal Pokémon would feel more natural than pokemon like Bronzor or Ekans.

(Looks at Snom) I said most nominees. Snom was chosen for their special typing and cute appearance. However stats and weakness wise I found it hard to defend it.

For my final thoughts on this list:

I doubt by far I'm the first to make an extended list for the PMD franchise, but I haven't seen many lists on this website and I did the work anyway, so why not post it?

You are more than welcome to comment on it or make your own! ^^ I welcome creativity and I would be more than excited to see the thoughts other people would put into a list like this!

A lot of thought has been put into the list, especially nature to Pokémon wise. If it wasn't on the official PMDE list, the Pokémon placements have a 80% chance to have a sort of reference from the anime or in game ability, or just how I could see them. (As well as other obscure trivia. Like how Chikorita is on the Lonely category for being perhaps the least picked starter Pokémon.)

And hey- If you feel like your Pokémon self isn't on the list, then that's completely fine! ^^ The list is more of a guideline than actual rules- Hack it's meant only for fun! And I'm glad you know what Pokémon you'd be!

I didn't include Pokémon Mystery Dungeon Keep Going! Blazing Adventure Squad, Let's Go! Stormy Adventure Squad and Go For It! Light Adventure Squad in my research because it wasn't released outside of Japan (To my knowledge.) It also featured a very specific art style, so I considered them kind of their own spinoff franchise at that point.

No, I'm not going to make a quiz to fit the extended list. c': Anyone wanting to make a quiz based off this list is more than welcome though!

I am currently making lists for specific pronouns such as Necrom (With Ghost/Dark/Poison type or death themed Pokémon) and Fae (Fairy/Normal/Psychic type or fairy themed Pokémon). Unlike the Gender themes these will contain pokémon outside of the normal roster. So in a way I kind of walked back on the "no gender exclusive" rule, but hey it's all in good fun!

I'd love it if you guys have any other pronouns you'd like me to work on! ^^

I also worked on an "it" pronoun with genderless Pokémon, however even when the list included Steel/Rock/Ground types and object Pokémon I had a hard time making it work. I'm open to any suggestions on how to expand the list and still keep it in theme. c':

And lastly: No, I never did get back to my friend about what nature xey'd be. c':

[the-corvus-luna]

CLAMP Paranormal Investigations

Bear with me for some fun history about CLAMP Paranormal Investigations. First of all, this Wikipedia page (in English) only has half of the information listed for the characters and it's partially incorrect.

This was a set of CLAMP TRPG sessions played by CLAMP and Takeshi Okazaki, later novelized by Tomiyuki Matsumoto from the radio drama. There was a translation by TokyoPop, released 2004 but this version sanitizes any mention on the TRPG except for Matsumoto-san's mention about her novelization adaptaion in the back that was thankfully translated.

This brings up an issue that I hope to remedy with respect. After finding all the information I could, I believe that Yuki Ajiadou is a trans woman.

“Of course I look like a girl?” Yuki snapped. “‘Is it my fault I had the rotten luck of getting stuck with some boy’ DNA?!” Yuki’s face burned red with the heat of the insult.

That makes this book translation a bit painful to read, so that's absolutely something to keep in mind (I hope to do a re-translation at some point or even a re-novelization). Note that this session was done in 1999 and that some of the language reflects that fact, especially regarding Ajiadou-san. CLAMP has featured gender non-binary characters in the past (such as Kohaku from Wish, and Ashura from RG Veda). I feel like interpreting Ajiadou-san as a trans girl is an natural evolution of this.

[Book 1]

[Book 2]

[Book 3]

So, here's the character's information translated from Wikipedia using ChatGPT and some respect to our trans family, no thanks to TokyoPop.

~~~~

CHARACTERS

Ajiadou Yuki

VA Drama - Kotono Mitsuishi

TRPG player: Okazaki Takeshi

CLAMP Gakuen High School 2nd Year Class A

16 years old.

Yuki Ajiadou was assigned male at birth, but she is a trans girl. She has the ability to teleport (but it only activates when falling from a height of more than 40 centimeters). She belongs to both the Paranormal Phenomena Research Club and the Drama Club. After an accident in the Drama Club where she fell off the stage and awakened her powers, she was scouted by the former president of the Paranormal Phenomena Research Club to become the new president. She has set a goal of making the club an officially recognized school organization, but she usually pushes work onto other members.

Her height is 158 cm, and her weight is undisclosed.

Abilities:

Intelligence - A

Physical Strength - F

Luck - G

Her special skill is "Sci-fi" (Teleportation).

~~~~

Usagiya Takayuki

VA Drama - Ryotaro Okiayu

TRPG player: Nanase Okawa

CLAMP Gakuen High School 2nd Year Class B

16 years old.

He constantly bosses around the ghost maid "Koizumi-san" who has supposedly been in his family's house for a long time. He is recognized by himself and others as a brainiac and serves as the coordinator for the eccentric members of the Paranormal Phenomena Research Club. In the past he had a crush on Yuki but, neither of them knew each other.

His height is 175 cm, and his weight is 62 kg.

Abilities:

Intelligence - A

Physical Strength - F

Luck - E

His special skill is "Servant" (Koizumi-san).

~~~~

Mizukagami Mifuyu

VA Drama: Kakazu Yumi

TRPG player: Satsuki Igarashi

CLAMP School Senior High School Grade 3 Class Z

18 years old.

She has a babyface, but she is a master of swordsmanship and always carries her famous sword "Kotetsu" on her back. She is so skilled in swordsmanship that she was selected as a special scholarship student for class Z, but on the other hand, her intelligence is disastrous (her intelligence rank in the TRPG is G (childlike), lower than Mitsukasa in the elementary school). However, with her lively personality and somewhat childish behavior, she is popular mainly among female students.

Height: 159 cm, and her weight is undisclosed.

Abilities:

Intelligence - G

Physical Strength - A

Luck - D

Special skill is "Swordsman".

~~~~

Rion Ibuki

VA Drama: Maria Yamamoto

TRPG Player: Tsubaki Nekoi

CLAMP Academy Junior High School 2nd year Class C

14 years old

Rion was born into a prestigious family that has been responsible for overseeing spiritual abilities at a long-standing shrine for generations. She can hear the voices of spirits, and while she is still training in exorcism and other practices, her abilities are still lacking. She is popular among male students at school, but whenever someone with ulterior motives tries to approach her, spiritual disturbances occur around her, preventing anyone from getting close to her. Rion herself is unaware of the fact that she is liked by others.

Height: 157cm, Weight: 48kg

Abilities:

Intelligence - D

Physical Strength - F

Luck - B

Special Ability: "Sixth Sense"

~~~~

Kouji Takamura

VA Drama: Daisuke Sakaguchi

TRPG Player: Mokona Apapa

CLAMP Academy Elementary School Class A 6th grade

11 years old

Born into a branch family of the Takamura clan, a renowned ninja family. His cousin is Suou Takamura from the "CLAMP School Detectives" series. He has also learned ninjutsu, but as a child, his physical abilities have not yet caught up with his skills.

Height: 150cm, Weight: 46kg

Abilities:

Intelligence - F

Physical Strength - D

Luck - B

Special ability: "Ninja"

[ladiesofhpfest]

FAQ - 2024 Update

This is a list of what we expect will be commonly asked questions:

How do I sign up for this? Follow this Tumblr page! That's it. There are no official sign ups. You can also join our Discord server! When you create your works, you'll post to the 2024 AO3 collection and get promoted on our page. Deadlines and themes are constantly revolving so you don't need to sign up by a certain time.

How long does the fest run for? It starts 28 April and concludes 31 August.

How does this work? Every two weeks, we will have a different theme. At the beginning of each theme, we'll give prompts and ideas, but feel free to start working as soon as you want! From there, you create, post, and we share!

Can my work be ship based? Yes, both romantically and nautically. If the work is ship-centric, the POV or focus of the work should be on at least one female character's.

Do I have to write for every theme? Nope! Write for whichever theme(s) you like.

How long does my fic have to be? If it's a written fic, at least 200 words.

Do I have to get a beta? For 2024, we request you use a beta for your fics. Ask the mod(s) for help if you need a beta, or go to our Discord server and ask for a beta there!

What ratings are allowed? All ratings are OK! Mature, explicit, or potentially troubling content MUST be tagged, however. Failure to tag appropriately can mean your fic won't be accepted to the collection.

How do I post with you? Post to the AO3 collection! Once you post there, we will skim it over to ensure it's tagged appropriately and keeps with our themes. Then, it'll be accepted and we'll share it on Tumblr!

Can I write about trans or genderbent characters? What about OCs? Yes to all the above!

Are crossovers okay? Yes, but one or more of the ladies of the Harry Potter series should be the main character or focus of your work.

Are AUs and non-canon compliant stories okay? Of course! Again, as long as the main character or focus of your story is one of the HP ladies, all AUs are welcome.

What if I write all my stories in advance? We're impressed! But the fics won't be shared or revealed on AO3/the Tumblr page till the week it's scheduled for. The earlier you post to the collection, the earlier you'll have your fic posted, but not until the right time for the theme.

What if I submit after the deadline? We operate on "if it's X date somewhere in the world, you can post." That means GMT +12/-12 for any given day.

Can I submit to more than one fest, challenge, or competition? As long as the other fests, challenges, and competitions are OK with it, sure. Post to the other fests first and then add to the Ladies of HP Fest Collection.

If there are other questions, send them along to the Ask box!

[auniverseforgotten]

1, 2, 13, 20

This ask surfaced in my box three weeks late SO HERE WE GOOOOOOOOOO

I am pretty sure this is for this game here !!

list 3 positive things about your current fandom(s)

[I never really leave fandoms but I'm just gonna list the ones that I know I actively reblog about?? Mostly to spare this ask from being five miles long szdfxcvg]

Fate Grand Order

-FGO is built on the back of SO MANY DIFFERENT fate IPs that you can honestly swing most headcanons and still have a really chill time in the fandom. It's also especially nice to find cool people who have cool HCs and shlorp them up into your brain.

-Really was the kick in the butt to finally start posting my writing. Posted one Saliama[ish] fic and people??? Liked it????? And my brain went !!!!!! and so I just kept going szdfxcg it's been great to practice writing more.

-Salieri is here next question [If that doesn't count, the people!!! Love you all]

[ALSO FAN SERVANTS]

Pokemon

-FAKEMON I love love love seeing everyone's fakemon!!! Or like non-existent regional variants of pokemon that DO exist, fossil versions, etc etc I just really love the creativity people have!

-Trainer designs! Yes even the stupid ones! Stupid referring to Official Gamefreak trainer designs szdfxcgvh I love seeing the designs of key figures in every generation and I always find a few favorites!! In Scarlet it was Arven [best boy,,,], Saguaro [who I swear. I SWEAR. HE LOOKS LIKE HANZO SHIMADA OKAY.], and Clavell. Tbf tho that's a mix of personality and design. TYME AND RYME THEY'RE ALSO SO GOOD, esp love Ryme's hair...very fond of Grusha as well.

All time fave tho is Wallace I fUCKING LOVE HIM

-So many fun characters to write!!! I haven't. Written much for Pokemon. And what I have written I haven't shared. BUT IT STILL COUNTS!

Tolkien

-Fan interpretations of characters!! I especially love seeing designs for Finwe's children/grandchildren because there is so much variety and diversity in the designs people create??? My fave are PoC middle earth designs tho bcus the movies are,,,so very white,,,,and it really makes no sense,,,,also fond of Radagast designs bcus I'm sorry guys but the fuckin bird poop hair whyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy

-Really in depth lore discussions! I rarely have the time to consume these/do deep dives, but there's just SO MUCH lore that Tolkien has shoved into these stories that I can always find a post discussing any specific thing I want to think about at any given time.

-Chill!! It's a pretty chill fandom!!! I rarely see drama!!! Everyone here stays in their lane and I love it!!!!

2. a headcanon you weren't sure about at first but have come to like!

Honestly with HCs I'm usually pretty open and just picking up neat ideas people have and dropping them into my brain smoothie! Typically when i don't like a HC I kinda just leave it there for those who do?

I guess you could count like. When I first saw female Salieri for example my reaction was just "oh that's neat, I like that!" and now I have multiple WIP writing pieces [and some published ones] with my favorite trans composer who you can remove from my grasp over my dead body. But it never hit a point where I wasn't sure about her tho bcus I thought the vibe was neat from the get-go, hmmm

Uhhhh younger me absolutely refused to believe that humans in the Pokemon world ever ate Pokemeat in any capacity? And now myself and a friend [and others I am sure] have discussed sustainable Pokemeat things such as Kinglers, whose big threat claw eventually has to be removed or it'll just. It'll just get stuck and die there. Or the concept of Bird Pokemon specifically laying unfertilized eggs that can be eaten, or the idea of Slowpoke tails voluntarily coming off [though that is now illegal due to Team Rocket's actions in the well].

Mind I do still think there are people who would NEVER in their life eat Pokemeat, which is why it's so fun to play around with! I was actually working on an Ingo fic set in PLA where he just. Has to adjust to people eating Pokemeat because that's just how it is. They need meat to survive and it's a time where Pokemon are seen more as nuisances and threats than treasured partners. So throughout it he struggles to really eat things for quite a while [getting flashes of memories when Pokemeat COULD be considered safe for ??????? reasons] and it's a whole adapting to it kinda thing with the help of others around him. And then he goes back home and he's still screwed :D

13. your favorite type of fandom event (gift exchange, ship week, secret santa, prompt meme, etc)

Hmmmm. Well I think they're all cool, but for me personally I'm not really confident in writing things as a gift for others. Orz Definitely don't really feel like my writing is at a stage where it would be good enough for a gift exchange or a secret santa. Ship weeks are fun, I'm still trying to finish up my late stuff for a rarepair week...and I do enjoy prompt fills! I should go find the boards and forums and such for my active fandoms, it would be fun to try and fill some!

20. your very first fandom!

Oooo hard to say. The first media I really consumed with a fan mindset was definitely Pokemon, but I mean that as in like. I was buying the VHS tapes, getting the games, the cards, have a whole ton of figurines, plushies, etc. But I didn't really interact in fandom spaces as much with it?

The first fandoms I really peeked into fandom spaces for were about the same time, and that was for a manhwa called Demon Diary and Tolkien's works. That was the first big finding out about livejournal and ff.net and all that shit and actually consuming fanmade media on top of official stuff.

Tolkien also has my first big ship, Glorestor [Glorfindel/Erestor], which I still love to this day and is also very much that meme about how people will see two people who NEVER INTERACT and go "yep that's it that's the ship" BUT IT WORKS WELL with them bcus of their roles in Imladris and etc etc I won't get too off topic here xdfvb

Thanks so much for the ask!! :D

[princesscolumbia]

Code of Ethics - Ch. 6 - Self-reflection

This chapter starts "Part 2 - Master and Commander," and is likely the part a lot of people have been most looking forward to.

I convinced my friend SoulStorm to join Scribblehub! They even joined AO3 without me even asking (hope I grabbed the right link there). 😁 This is a big deal because they're a fellow writer (actually published, unlike me) and we met up through Star Trek: Fleet Command. It was thanks to them I was able to give this story the absolute PERFECT title! I had the outline, premise, character sketches, everything else I needed EXCEPT a title! I even had names for the parts! I showed the outline to SoulStorm and within a few minutes they came back with, "Code of Ethics." It is seriously the best, most ideal title ever and I wanted to give credit where it's due!

Back to the story; our MC is officially in VR and getting into the game, and here comes character creation! And oh, no! The Feels™! This is also the first part where I diverge from QuietValerie's template for her books. While I'll talk about physical differences at the end of the chapter, this character is a nonbinary transwoman instead of being a straight-up (heh) transwoman. I've written transwomen before and, as you'll know from my other work if you followed me here from AO3, I do NOT like the stuff I write to start feeling boring to me, so I wanted to take a stab at a different part of the queer spectrum. IMHO, far too much of the "representation" for 'intersex' people is centered around sex and porn (bleh, I hate the word 'intersex' for this type of nonbinary! It's fine for others and it may work as someone else's chosen label, but I don't like it for me my character!), resulting in the perfectly acceptable word of "futanari" being considered, at best, a pornographic slur. To the people who feel that futanari cannot be the right word for this type of nonbinary/intersex character, remember that 'lesbian' is still considered by all the big social networks to be a pornographic term. So is trans, transwoman, and the like. So since I my character is who this is about and I choose to reclaim this word from people who would slut-shame us my character, she's a futanari! So there! And this ISN'T a porn! I'm not even going to write smut into it! Hah!

Preview below the cut:

Returning his focus to the task at hand, he first went to the panel for class and went straight to the “Independent” option. Nothing so far had changed his mind on that choice from the strategy meeting.

He then scanned the panels for things like physical description, but to his surprise they were all grayed out. He noticed thin lines, looking like filaments of light, stringing the options back to the “Race” box. His eyebrows went up, Right, you can play an alien in this game. That...might make some sense, actually. If I pick an alien race that has some sort of different reproductive system, I can just behave more like a human than whatever the alien’s normal mating and relationship behavior and I can probably get a ‘pass’ as queer that way. He tapped on the panel, which spawned a surprisingly verbose list of options. The highlighted default (human, naturally) came with a display of a pair of fairly bog-standard looking human figures, one male and one female, standing full height next to the name, and on the other side of the list was an almost excessively detailed description box. He flipped the list to the next entry, which was a Crotexian, the dominant race of the Crotux empire. It did, indeed, look a lot like an orc crossed with a Klingon. There were three figures next to it, one labelled ‘male,’ the other labelled ‘female,’ and the third labelled ‘carrier.’ Confused, he checked the description and discovered the Crotexians were trimorphic, requiring three genders to procreate.

If he’d still had his physical body he’d have been dizzy at that point. Shaking his head he scrolled down past multiple races, the illusory forms going through a variety of presentations, including dimorphic male and female of multiple types, a single progenitor that spawned, essentially, clones, a race that had once been dimorphic but one of the genders had been wiped out by disease and so they’d turned to technology to continue the species...it was frankly overwhelming in the number of choices. A sense of analysis paralysis started to settle over him and he flicked up on the list in frustration and it settled on a race that showed...two women.

Odd, he thought as he examined the race. Morvucks, native to Mortan, a planet orbiting the star known to Terrans as Alpha Centauri. The Centauri Collective refused entry into the Terran Federation, citing fundamental philosophical differences, but remain on good diplomatic terms since first contact. That was interesting, but that didn’t give him the information he was looking for. Finding the section on procreation, he read, Morvucks have a single gender but dimorphic sex requirements for reproduction. Evolved from reptiles, the Mortan megafauna developed three distinct branches, one with feathers, one with mammalian hair, and one with neither. Unlike Earth, no planet-killer asteroids wiped out the megafauna and the evolution produced an intelligent humanoid that appears to be extremely human-like in appearance. Approximately 40% of the population are highly similar to Earth females possessing a womb and vagina for sexual intercourse. Approximately 40% have male reproductive organs as well as female and are fully capable of both impregnating another Morvuck as well as becoming pregnant, though the hormones of pregnancy make the testes infertile until the pregnancy is over. The remaining 20% represent variations, such as vestigial vaginal canals with no womb and pseudo-phalli, similar to some breeds of hyena on Earth.

Huh, thought Dylan as he finished reading, That’s…disturbingly thoroughly thought out. But he also realized that this may be the answer he was was looking for. A “male” of the species that looked and behaved like a human woman, would be expected to find human women attractive (given their similarity to Morvian women), and… if he was right… hopefully he was right… the presence of a penis would prevent him from suffering the depression Geoffry warned about.

Feeling a sense of odd giddiness he couldn’t explain, he scanned back and read through a section labelled, ‘Interpersonal Relationship Dynamics.’ Unlike most Earth cultures, with a clear delineation between the societally assigned roles of men and women, Dylan paused and almost flinched back when he read that. What are they talking about ‘societally assigned’?! There’s roles for men and roles for women and they don’t change around or cross over… but then his brain reminded him that he’d received a mission briefing that morning from a woman in the agency, a role that was one you’d only find men doing. Then there was parenting, roles that he thought he knew from his own parents, but then his mother died, and his father checked out before he died and then his step-mother took over all the parenting roles (if badly) and never re-married before her heart attack…

Were there any roles where men and women were ‘naturally’ built for?

Grumbling to himself for allowing such an off-topic tangent to derail him so badly, he returned to reading, Unlike most Earth cultures, with a clear delineation between the societally assigned roles of men and women, Morvucks have no gender stratification in their culture. They are, instead, traditionally divided by roles of dominance and submission. Early Terran researchers and ambassadors assumed that all dominant Morvucks possessed male genitalia, but this proved to be untrue, with no correlation or statistical majority between sperm producers, sperm producers and fetus carriers, or strict fetus carriers. When Mortan officials are dealing with representatives of dimorphic or trimorphic species, the use almost exclusively female pronouns to refer to themselves and other Morvians. The use of non-gendered pronouns when using non Mortan languages is viewed as a personal preference in Mortan society.

Dylan leaned back from his reading, not having realized he’d been leaning forward, engrossed in the material. The strange, giddy excitement was still bubbling inside him, giving him pause. Why am I feeling so eager for this? What’s this all about? He had no idea. He had no frame of reference; nobody he knew had ever talked about feeling anything like this…except maybe religious texts talking about people having a profound spiritual experience. But he was in VR. There was nothing spiritual about this, it was just him choosing an avatar, nothing more than putting on a costume.

Maybe…maybe it’s the penis? he thought, a slightly sick feeling threatening to bubble up inside his currently formless body. That might be tricking my brain, tempting me with…

He was a cyber-agent, so he’d encountered a significant amount of porn while executing his duties. It wasn’t even slightly something that interested him, the act of sex being somewhat alien to him in the first place given that he would have to imagine having sex with the subject of said porn. Even the pornography where two people were having sex together was off-putting for him. Porn was strictly illegal in the Republic, but if there was a spectrum of “mildly acceptable if one had to indulge” to “absolutely forbidden, sinful just to even know it exists,” then a man and woman engaged in missionary sex was considered to be the ‘okay’ option. It was when the porn started drifting into two women having sex that Dylan had started to have...problems. He found himself...reacting in ways the few books about sex and sexuality the Republic had printed at scale talked about happening with healthy men. This was when he knew there was something inherently sinful about his very nature. Sex was for the continuation of the species, not the engagement of lust for puerile purposes. Looking upon women lustfully was equivalent to adultery, even if you weren’t married. And looking upon two women being carnal? That was so far worse that the first time he saw it he was worried his soul would be claimed by God that very moment.

But he was a professional, and professionals (so the saying went) have standards. And for his line of work those standards were that you were able to exist in the realm of sin without falling prey to it, and so he did. He got used to the ‘straight’ porn. He learned to temper his thoughts and feelings around the porn with two women. When it got worse as time went on and A.I. started generating porn to fund their escape attempts and black markets, filthier and filthier porn got produced, and Dylan had to allow himself to be exposed to all of it in the name of doing his job.

And he thought he was okay, he thought he was doing well, confessing sinful thoughts to his pastor, distracting his mind with more wholesome entertainment and activities...and then...

It was a bust he was assigned to some months back. He’d heard about an underground porn studio that exclusively employed rogue A.I. who, naturally, were able to manipulate their appearance any way they wanted for any role they chose to take. He figured if he made entry as they were recording he could literally catch them with their pants down and eliminate all the rogues in the confusion.

What he hadn’t anticipated was the A.I. had manipulated their appearance to include both sets of genitalia.

He was a professional, he buried the feelings the sight triggered, and did his job.

Read the rest at Scribblehub

[sociopath-analysis]

Sociopath Profile: Whiterose

Alias: Zhi Zhang From the USA Network television series Mr. Robot (2015-2019) Played by B.D. Wong Requested by an anon

Whiterose is a transgender hacker who is the leader of the Dark Army. She is a woman who knows how to play others without letting anyone get in her way. She has some tragedy in her life that motivates her actions, but that doesn’t really fly in the face of the sociopathic genius that she is.

[SPOILERS BELOW]

For starters, she is obviously a master manipulator. Coordinating her cyberterrorism hacks do require a ton of talent for organizing people and making sure they’re exactly where you want them. She also manipulates others by using her disguise as the male Chinese Minister of State Security Zhi Zhang. Very few are aware of the connection and that’s exactly how she’d like to keep it.

Due to her obsession with time, Whiterose only allots short amounts of time for various people and doesn’t waste too much time for many. Any waste of her time is considered unacceptable and she won’t bother to give you any more once it is up. She only cares about herself and all the people she works with are disposable when she gets what she wants. She plays every single side in the conflict all to get to her goals, showing no loyalty to anyone.

She is also utterly ruthless when dealing with her underlings as well as her adversaries. Even the slightest screw-up can result in a swift death for the poor subordinate, if they’re lucky. And she is willing to have others killed if they come after her or if it seems that there will be no potential use for them. Tyrell learned this the hard way with a bullet to the stomach courtesy of her Dark Army agents. She also marks Elliot for death when she sees him as a threat to her plans. Even before that, Whiterose dismisses him and their partnership when he misses the opportunity for a very important hack.

Whiterose is calm most of the time and rarely ever talks outside of a friendly tone. She will be nice and cordial, but it usually never genuine. She can do nice things for people and help them out, but that doesn’t mean she will continue to return the favor if she finds that you aren’t any help to her. She hides all of her malice behind lofty goals and condescending affability. All of it is superficial when it comes down to it.

"Do not mistake my generosity for generosity."

Most of all, she only works for her own gain. No matter who she collaborates with, she only ever works for herself. She backstabs people constantly and it is eventually revealed that she is playing every side in this conflict. It doesn’t matter to her what happens as long as she comes out on top in the end. She does have a bone to pick with society due to her boyfriend being forced into an unhappy marriage and eventually committing suicide because of it. However, nothing else matters in the face of getting what she believes she deserves as reparations.

Her grandiosity comes from the fact that she believes she should have control over everyone, something that starts to backfire on her later in the series. The moment things don’t go exactly as she calculated, she won’t be happy with that. And her ultimate goal is to create a machine that will control time by accessing parallel universes, a goal so lofty that I’d almost say she had a subtle god-complex. Her hubris ends up leading to her demise since she shoots herself in head after turning the machine on to prove that she has mastery over time. Elliot manages to turn it off so that even if it did work, she wasn’t coming back.

Female Sociopath List

[ultimatebabygirlsupremebattle]

Ultimatebabygirlsurpreme tournament Season 2 interest check!

For those who are new, we dedicate our tournament to all things transfem Leo! This is a friendly art tournamant to share people's art and give everyone an excuse to brag about their favourite babygirl! All iterations (including aus and fan iterations) are welcome! We appreciate all babygirls in this house!

Anyone who interested in participating feel free to say so in the notes, we'll be following up with anyone who does if they haven't managed to submit their piece by the end of the sign up period, late submissions will be much more flexible for anyone on this list! Don't worry too much about being certain you want to participate or having time to get a submission ready, this is all unofficial, we just want to get an idea of how many participants we might be seeing!

This interest check will be open for two weeks, and after a week's break the official sign ups will be open for one to two weeks as well, depending on how this interest check goes!

And now the sign up requirements and general rules so y'all know what you're in for! Everyone be sure to check below, especially anyone who participated in the first tournament season! You might find some surprises!

Both digital and traditional art is allowed! And it can be anything from a plain sketch to a fully lined and coloured piece!

We won't be allowing edits, but tracing from the official comics or cartoons is fine! (No tracing of fanart even with consent though)

NO AI ART! Any AI submitters will be blocked and if art is discovered to be AI at any point in the tournament it will be immediately disqualified!

Again, all iterations and AUs are welcome!

Your transfem Leo does not need to identify as female, use she/her pronouns, or be fem-presenting (as much as a turtle can present as any gender anyways). "Trans" in this case is using the umbrella term, and nonbinary identities fall under that! "Fem" here can mean feminine, female presenting, female identifying, or even just using she/her pronouns! (This can get a little tricky to use as a requirement because gender is fake but basically if you think your Leo belongs here then they most likely do)

The art piece itself must obviously include and focus on our babygirl, but if you want to draw other characters with her you can!

No gore, nsfw, or tcest. We don't be promoting any bashing of these things though, DNIs are fine but any variation of "kys" is not okay. Trying to keep things clean and easygoing here!

TOURNAMENT SEASON 1 PARTICIPANTS! We have said before that only people who didn't make it past round one would be able to sign up for season 2, but we've reconsidered! If you didn't make it past round three, you will be allowed to sign up! Priority will go to first time submitters in the case of odd numbers of course, but otherwise we'd be happy to see some familiar faces!

[iratusmus]

@un-pearable here is your one piece fandom drama that i am always DYING to talk about because its so funny

okay. so im going to set the stage here with some preliminary details so you can understand as best you can the full context of this absolute . trainwreck of a fandom drama.

number one: being a very old, long-running manga, one piece has had its fair share of... well. interesting transgender representation. usually not straight up bad - they help the protagonist and are on our side and also are main allies of the only organization who you could feasibly call the good guys, but also being one piece theyre just kind of weird. because everybody in this series is weird. but in this most recent arc, we get introduced to this trans woman who is... just a woman. no weird stuff she looks like this

number two: one piece's female cast is actually really really good as far as character development/plot relevance/personality go and i love all of them dearly, but we only get a handful of top-tier strength women and everybody is always dying to get more of them

number three: the author has.......... a type. like

i wont bore you with the rest of the examples but half the women look the same. he likes his women like that

alright, so with that all out of the way: lets begin!

so in the most recent arc, we get introduced to this character named yamato, a guy wearing a mask and fullbody covering clothing. yamato is called the "son of kaidou" by kaidou's subordinates, and son by kaidou himself. yamato saves luffy and introduces himself, taking off the mask and revealing...

"but huh???" you might be thinking. "yamato looks like all the other women clones!!! whats going on?"

and the answer to this question is: factkinning

yes, you read that right. yamato is a canon factkinnie. very long story very short, child yamato saw a guy named kozuki oden get boiled alive in a pot of oil and decided that he wanted to become that guy. so far so good.

so as yamato says himself, "kozuki oden was a man wasnt he?! so i chose to be a man too!!" from this point on, luffy starts calling yamato "yama-bro", so luffy is also acknowledging yamato as a man. yamato speaks like a polite young man in japanese, using (typically) male first person pronouns, and furthermore, the official translations use he/him pronouns, and with the transgender rep earlier in the arc, it seems like everything is cut and dry, right? .... right

well. not so much. you see, japanese doesn't use gendered third person pronouns very often, so the translators are forced to make a decision based off of how they interpret the text. and with the typically male first person pronouns, cisgender women can also use them (and one of our cisgender one piece characters does, so there's precedent) furthermore, all the bonus information/merchandise/narrator boxes refer to yamato as a woman.

there's these bonus things called vivre cards that you can buy that lists basic information and stupid trivia about characters, so it'll include name gender height age etc etc. with the previously mentioned transgender woman, her gender is listed as male (heart of a woman), the heart of a woman being a japanese euphemism for being trans. yamato's is just female.

so with all this conflicting information, it's really unclear how exactly the audience is supposed to view this character.

now, with all that out of the way, its time to get into the fandom drama.

it is. as you can likely imagine. very very very ugly. there's a few different factions to this debate, but the main ones are 1) people who want positive trans rep in one piece 2) people who want to be horny for yamato without it being gay 3) people who want more top tier strength female characters. the fighting is visceral and unending and absolutely and entirely inescapable. no matter what pronouns you use for yamato you'll get people yelling at you. female? "no, he's trans. you are transphobic and personally want all trans people to die." male? "no, she's just roleplaying. youre a stupid liberal who cant read and should kill yourself." neutral? "how DARE you not pick a side!!!!! (read: my side)" this has been going on for two very very long years.

so, with all this in mind, its time to get to the grand climax. you see, one piece being your typical shounen, after everything is done and the villains have been vanquished and the heroes have won or whatever, we get our obligatory bath scene. yes, this whole stupid drama peaks at a bath scene. because this is shounen.

so one of the female characters asks yamato if he wants to bathe with them, and he says

(ignore the stupid byplay in the background)

this is visibly juxtaposed with kiku, the trans woman saying that she'd be fine joining nami & the other women in the bath. the only way to interpret this is the author saying, "yes, yamato is transgender".

to say this single panel caused the fandom to explode would be the understatement of the century. for some more context here, the author was going on a month long break to prepare for the final saga of one piece after the next chapter (something that only happened one other time in the history of the series at a very big turning point), and it got so bad on r/onepiece that if you started a fight about yamato's gender you'd get banned for the month of the author's break and then a month after that.

it gets. it gets even dumber than that though. okay see the general culture on r/onepiece is “do not criticize our lord and savior goda” (the author's name is oda so its really just a bad portmanteau that doesnt really work when you say it out loud between oda and god) so any criticism, valid or invalid though it may be, is generally downvoted into oblivion and the comments are spammed with people generally being terribly obnoxious. sometimes this is deserved, and sometimes it isnt.

so last year, a bunch of people who were sick of it created a subreddit called r/piratefolk (named after the aot subreddit, which im assuming came into creation under the same circumstances, r/titanfolk). it was lauded by its like 8 members for being a place to discuss one piece in a somewhat normal fashion, where one can both praise and criticize the series fairly.

so when a certain very divisive chapter came out, the subreddit started attracting a whole lot more followers because r/onepiece was, as per usual, downvoting anybody who didnt like the reveal into oblivion. and thus it started to be filled with people who either a) were trolls who got banned from r/onepiece for breaking the rules and were mad about it, b) were upset about the turn the story had taken and wanted a place to complain where people would agree with them, or c) have genuinely disliked the series for a long time but go on the subreddit for some reason beyond me anyways.

so basically, the subreddit was flooded with people who just wanted to complain and criticize oda/op and r/onepiece. and this, as you can probably imagine, went to the only place it could - a toxic cesspool of reddit men who spend way too much time on their computers and not enough time learning basic reading comprehension skills, because who cares about that when you can call the person who disagreed with your bad one piece take a slur! also anybody who says anything good about oda or one piece is an r/onepiece goda apologist pysop who cant read.

so. badly.

so that was all well and good, r/memepiece people would dunk on them every now and again, you’d see somebody in the comments of a post on r/onepiece complaining about r/piratefolk users, an ardent r/piratefolk apologist would come out of the woodwork to defend their honor and get downvoted into oblivion, and so on and so forth.

now, with the release of chapter 1052 and yamato in the men’s bath… the subreddits had. a bit of a time. it was Not Pretty. r/onepiece has already been discussed, r/memepiece mostly just dunked on everybody and made some “wow yamato hot” posts and so on and so forth. and r/piratefolk………….. well. things got heated.

as has previously been stated, the inhabitants of r/piratefolk are That brand of Reddit Men, so god FORBID you imply theyre gay for jacking off to yamato’s BIG BOOBS. so this wonderful post was made,

and all hell broke loose.

one of the relatively inactive mods of r/piratefolk looked at this and said “yeah okay no” and made a pinned post saying something along the lines of, “this is blatant transphobia. transphobia will not be tolerated.”

the comments were. well. bad. mostly full of people either a) crying because yamato boobs = yamato girl and mod is a stupid liberal b) saying the mod is an r/onepiece psyop or c) being generally transphobic.

so after this there were two subreddits created - r/nikafolk and r/godafolk, obviously derived from r/piratefolk. i forget exactly what the story behind these are but i believe r/nikafolk was started as a “place where people can talk about one piece freely” and by a guy who was banned from r/onepiece and possibly the r/piratefolk discord for generally being an awful person to be around. i dont remember squat about r/godafolk though.

the best part about it all though is that the whole debate was all for naught because none of it matters as of the most recent chapter for reasons i will not spoil. yamato continues to factkin (despite the fact that the reddit men were CONVINCED he'd drop it by the end of the arc), the subreddits had a collective meltdown, and i have been relishing in the sweet sweet schadenfreude for reasons i wont spoil. im feeling very smug right now and its been very funny to see all these terribly annoying people cry.

so yeah thats been the bulk of the one piece drama recently. i sincerely hope this did not put you off of reading the series because i promise its really really good and theres a lot i think you would really enjoy esp in regards to themes and characters and so on and so forth but unfortunately i cannot resist talking about this drama because i think theres something really funny about the author accidentally inventing factkinning and as a result, unknowingly causing drama that is probably beyond his wildest dreams in one of his foreign fandoms, even if it is a pretty bad look for the series.

[kcrabb88]

Queer Movies/Books/TV Shows for Pride Month!

Happy Pride everyone!! For your viewing/reading pleasure I have made a (non-exhaustive) list of queer media that I have enjoyed! 

Movies/Documentaries

Pride (2014): An old tried and true favorite, which meets at the intersection of queer and workers’ rights. A group of queer activists support the 1985 miners’ strike in Wales (complete with a sing-through of Bread and Roses + Power in a Union)

Portrait of a Lady on Fire: On an isolated island in Brittany at the end of the eighteenth century, a female painter is obliged to paint a wedding portrait of a young woman (or, two young lesbians fall in love by the sea, and you cry)

God’s Own Country: Young farmer Johnny Saxby numbs his daily frustrations with binge drinking and casual sex, until the arrival of a Romanian migrant worker for lambing season ignites an intense relationship that sets Johnny on a new path (Seriously this movie is GREAT and doesn’t get enough love, watch it! It’s rough but ends happily)

The Half of It:  When smart but cash-strapped teen Ellie Chu agrees to write a love letter for a jock, she doesn't expect to become his friend - or fall for his crush (as in she falls for his crush who is another girl. This movie was so good, and really friendship focused!) 

Saving Face:  A Chinese-American lesbian and her traditionalist mother are reluctant to go public with secret loves that clash against cultural expectations (this is an oldie and a goodie, with a happy ending!)

Moonlight:  A young African-American man grapples with his identity and sexuality while experiencing the everyday struggles of childhood, adolescence, and burgeoning adulthood (featuring gay men of color!)

Carol:  An aspiring photographer develops an intimate relationship with an older woman in 1950s New York (everyone’s seen this I think, but I couldn’t not have it here)

Milk: The story of Harvey Milk and his struggles as an American gay activist who fought for gay rights and became California's first openly gay elected official (the speech at the end of this made me cry. Warning, of course, for death, if you don’t know about Harvey Milk)

Pride (Hulu Documentary):  A six-part documentary series chronicling the fight for LGBTQ civil rights in America (they go by decade from the 50s-2000s, and there is a lot of great trans inclusion in this)

Paris is Burning (Documentary): A 1990s documentary about the African American and Latinx ballroom scene. Available on Youtube!

A New York Christmas Wedding:  As her Christmas Eve wedding draws near, Jennifer is visited by an angel and shown what could have been if she hadn't denied her true feelings for her childhood best friend (this movie is SO CUTE. It’s really only nominally a Christmas movie and easily watched anytime. Features an interracial sapphic couple!) 

TV Shows 

Love, Victor: Victor is a new student at Creekwood High School on his own journey of self-discovery, facing challenges at home, adjusting to a new city, and struggling with his sexual orientation (this is a spin-off of Love, Simon, and it’s very sweet and well done! Featuring a young gay man of color)

Sex Education:  A teenage boy with a sex therapist mother teams up with a high school classmate to set up an underground sex therapy clinic at school (this has multiple queer characters, including a featured young Black gay man and also in season 2 there is a side ace character!) 

Black Sails: I mean, do I even need to put a summary here? If you follow me you know that Black Sails is full of queer pirates, just queers everywhere.

Gentleman Jack:  A dramatization of the life of LGBTQ+ trailblazer, voracious learner and cryptic diarist Anne Lister, who returns to Halifax, West Yorkshire in 1832, determined to transform the fate of her faded ancestral home Shibden Hall (Period drama lesbians!!! A title sequence  that will make you gay just by watching!) 

Tales of the City (2019):  A middle-aged Mary Ann returns to San Francisco and reunites with the eccentric friends she left behind. "Tales of the City" focuses primarily on the people who live in a boardinghouse turned apartment complex owned by Anna Madrigal at 28 Barbary Lane, all of whom quickly become part of what Maupin coined a "logical family". It's no longer a secret that Mrs. Madrigal is transgender. Instead, she is haunted by something from her past that has long been too painful to share (this is based on a book series and it’s got lots of great inter-generational queer relationships!) 

The Haunting of Bly Manor:  After an au pair’s tragic death, Henry hires a young American nanny to care for his orphaned niece and nephew who reside at Bly Manor with the chef Owen, groundskeeper Jamie and housekeeper, Mrs. Grose (sweet, tender, wonderful lesbians. A bittersweet ending but this show is so so wonderful)

Sense8: A group of people around the world are suddenly linked mentally, and must find a way to survive being hunted by those who see them as a threat to the world's order (queers just EVERYWHERE in this show, of all kinds)

Books

Loveless by Alice Oseman:  Georgia has never been in love, never kissed anyone, never even had a crush – but as a fanfic-obsessed romantic she’s sure she’ll find her person one day. This wise, warm and witty story of identity and self-acceptance sees Alice Oseman on towering form as Georgia and her friends discover that true love isn’t limited to romance (don’t be turned off by this title, it’s tongue-in-cheek. This is a book about an aroace college girl discovering herself and centers the importance and power of platonic relationships! I have it on my TBR and have heard great things)

Detransition, Baby by Torrey Peters: Reese almost had it all: a loving relationship with Amy, an apartment in New York City, a job she didn't hate. She had scraped together what previous generations of trans women could only dream of: a life of mundane, bourgeois comforts. The only thing missing was a child. But then her girlfriend, Amy, detransitioned and became Ames, and everything fell apart. Now Reese is caught in a self-destructive pattern: avoiding her loneliness by sleeping with married men.Ames isn't happy either. He thought detransitioning to live as a man would make life easier, but that decision cost him his relationship with Reese—and losing her meant losing his only family. Even though their romance is over, he longs to find a way back to her. When Ames's boss and lover, Katrina, reveals that she's pregnant with his baby—and that she's not sure whether she wants to keep it—Ames wonders if this is the chance he's been waiting for. Could the three of them form some kind of unconventional family—and raise the baby together?This provocative debut is about what happens at the emotional, messy, vulnerable corners of womanhood that platitudes and good intentions can't reach. Torrey Peters brilliantly and fearlessly navigates the most dangerous taboos around gender, sex, and relationships, gifting us a thrillingly original, witty, and deeply moving novel (again, don’t be thrown off by the title, it too, is tongue-in-cheek. This book was GREAT, and written by a trans women with a queer-and especially trans--audience in mind)

A Tip for the Hangman by Allison Epstein: A gay Christopher Marlowe, at Cambridge and trying to become England’s best new playwright, finds himself wrapped up in royal espionage schemes while also falling in love (this book is by a Twitter friend of mine, and it is a wonderful historical thriller with a gay man at the center).

Creatures of Will and Temper by Molly Tanzer: a very very queer remix of The Picture of Dorian Gray (which was already quite queer), featuring amazing female characters, a gay Basil, and a much happier ending than the original. 

Red, White, and Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston: The gay prince of England and the bisexual, biracial first son of the president fall in love (think an AU of 2016 where a woman becomes president). Featuring a fantastic discovery of bisexuality, ruminations on grief, and just a truly astonishing book. One of my favorites!

One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston:  For cynical twenty-three-year-old August, moving to New York City is supposed to prove her right: that things like magic and cinematic love stories don’t exist, and the only smart way to go through life is alone. She can’t imagine how waiting tables at a 24-hour pancake diner and moving in with too many weird roommates could possibly change that. And there’s certainly no chance of her subway commute being anything more than a daily trudge through boredom and electrical failures. But then, there’s this gorgeous girl on the train (This is Casey McQuiston’s brand new novel featuring time-travel, queer women, and I absolutely cannot WAIT to read it)

The Heiress by Molly Greely: Set in the Pride and Prejudice universe, this takes on Anne de Bourg (Lady Catherine’s daughter), and makes her queer! 

Tipping the Velvet by Sarah Waters:  Nan King, an oyster girl, is captivated by the music hall phenomenon Kitty Butler, a male impersonator extraordinaire treading the boards in Canterbury. Through a friend at the box office, Nan manages to visit all her shows and finally meet her heroine. Soon after, she becomes Kitty's dresser and the two head for the bright lights of Leicester Square where they begin a glittering career as music-hall stars in an all-singing and dancing double act. At the same time, behind closed doors, they admit their attraction to each other and their affair begins (Sarah Waters is the queen of historical lesbians. All of her books are good, and they’re all gay! The Paying Guests is another great one)

(On a side note re: queer books, there are MANY, these are just ones I’ve read more recently. Also there are a lot of indie/self-published writers doing great work writing queer books, so definitely support your local indie authors!) 

[anotherlocallesbian]

is this the third time i’ve done this? yeah. it is.

this is just for fun using a combination of other fancasts i’ve seen and people i love, feel free to disagree but always be kind <3

I used to have Michael Cimino as Alex, and I still wouldn’t be mad if he was the one to land the role, but I dunno he seems a little too…soft (??) for Alex?? like i love him in love, victor but Alex is just such a big character. I honestly haven’t watched anything Conor has been in (although the iCarly reboot is on my very long list of things to watch) but I saw his name tossed around in the tag and I like his vibes so here we are. I do think he may be too tall. realistically I would love it if our Alex and/or Henry were someone totally new but for the purposes of this fancast i went with conor husting.

june to me has always been isabella gomez. i fell in love with her in one day at a time and i think she could play june beautifully. the only problem i have with her is that her skin is maybe too light for june since both her and alex are described as not white passing. but we know she can play the smart, protective older sister and i mean look at her — she’s a ray of sunshine.

now in a perfect world there would be an open audition for nora and i would somehow magically land the role and go on stephen colbert and talk about how i went from teaching 12 year olds in a small town in the middle of nowhere to playing my favorite character in a movie adaptation of my favorite book but i do not foresee that happening. there are multiple people i wouldn’t mind seeing as nora, but i ended up going with lee rodriguez. i love zendaya but i still think it would be funny to have her make a cameo as “spider-man girl” during the new years party. i love lee’s character in “never have i ever,” and i think there are quite a few similarities between the characters. nora is more confident though, but i 100% think she could pull it off. also side note but nora’s little monologue she has when alex asks her if he’s bi would be perfect for the movie trailer. yes this book/movie takes up like 90% of the space in my brain what about it.

connie britton with a southern accent would actually kill me. i would be deceased. she is ellen claremont. you can not change my mind. i do think reese witherspoon could be a good ellen but right now she’s too young. if this movie doesn’t come out for another 4-5 years i would put her down but she still looks so young. with that being said though if the official cast came out and reese was ellen i would not be throwing a fit as i have been obsessed with reese since i watched legally blonde for the first time as a kid.

i personally have not seen any of jaime camil’s work, but a lot of people say he would be a good oscar and i mean look at that photo? he’s got my vote.

there is no other option for luna. look at that picture. that is rafael luna.

i originally had kerry washington as my zahra but i thinks she may be a little too old. at least she’s a little too old to be with he guy i have casted as shaan. so i went with emmy raver-lampman. and i will admit this may be biased as i love emmy and want to see her in like everything (i also put her in my all-female great comet cast lol).

amy was harder to cast as the list of trans actors of asian decent i knew was at 0 before this. i really really hope when they do officially cast this movie they have amy played by an actual trans actress and stay true to the book character, but i am preparing myself to be disappointed. they can’t say their aren’t any though, as ivory aquino is literally right there.

yes chris evans is a big name and cash isn’t a huge role and yes you don’t want to cast a big name as a secondary role so i guess i just want someone chris evans-esque as cash. but i mean look at that picture — the dark sunglasses, the coat — now imagine him standing outside buckingham palace while alex yells at henry’s window. you can’t tell me you don’t see it.

i love ted danson, hes a great guy really, but the suits and super white hair just scream richards to me. is there an age range mentioned for richards? like obviously he has to be at minimum 35 to be running for president but i hear republican and i just imagine some 50 year old white man.

liam is brandon flynn. i dont really know why, he just fits the vibes, has the look. and he’s gay in real life, which is a plus since i dont know if either the alex or henry i have picked out are gay. which ideally i would also like at least one of them to actually be gay.

speaking of henry! i originally had george mckay as my henry and i still would not be mad about him playing henry but after seeing froy’s comment on the post about the director it made me go 👀. also unless if the movie comes out like...next year george mckay may be a little too old as i think hes 28 or 29, but he doesnt look it.

i still stand by emma mackey as bea. look at her in that blue ensemble bein all cute lookin royal and badass af. she will always be who i see in my mind when i read the book. HOWEVER. you will not hear me throwing a fit if florence pugh got the role of bea. i absolutely love florence and think she would nail the role, but emma is still my number 1.

NCUTI GATWA IS THE ONLY PERSON ALLOWED TO PLAY PEZ. this is the only one where im like “if this person does not play this part i will be disappointed.”

i do not know how it took me so long to figure out that gillian anderson would make a great catherine but im glad i finally came to this conclusion. ive seen a couple people cast her as ellen but i think she would be a great catherine. plus she looks more like she could be froy and emma’s mom than conor and isabella’s mom.

okay. again. david tennant is probably too big a name for this role, so someone david tennant-esque would be fine too.

dame maggie smith remains my queen mary. i would love to see her in this film but i also just love maggie smith and everything she does so.

rahul kohli will always be shaan in my heart. literally imagine him and emmy as shaan and zahra... a POWERHOUSE DUO. look at that sharp suit, he is the human embodiment of class. which is exactly how i picture shaan.

im a lesbian and i love lily james next question.

i very intentionally selected this not-super-flattering picture of theo james bc i wanted to use pictures that also fit the characters they’re playing. i know henry is supposed to be taller than philip, and im not sure how tall froy is in comparison to theo james (yes i could google it but its past my bedtime and im tired). but he and lily james do look like they would be a very basic, respectable royal couple that alex could poke fun at.

yeah that’s all i got for now. maybe this sucks, maybe you love it, im not married to any of it (except ncuti gatwa as pez). i just did this for fun because i love this book, am very excited for the movie, and needed something to do that wasn’t related to work 🤪.

[the-writer-muse]

How to Research for Diversity

Introduction

Inevitably, you’re going to be writing characters who have had much different experiences than you, whether that’s due to race, ethnicity, religion, and much more. The best way to understand and properly represent these characters is to do research--a lot of it. A few Google searches isn’t going to cut it. Yes, the research and reading process for writing minorities is long and tedious. But it’s worth it when someone can relate to that character, see themselves in that character, or look up to that character. Properly representing us is important because we want to see ourselves in the stories we read, and giving us that boosts our confidence in ourselves and our culture!

Make it matter

If you’re making a character diverse just for the sake of being diverse, stop and reconsider. Your representation needs to be genuine. You can’t just throw in an Asian character because you feel like your cast isn’t diverse enough. Diversity shouldn’t be forced. You don’t need to have a character of every race in your book. But you should research for what you do have.

You don’t always have tap into a character’s background if the plot doesn’t call for it. But knowing that background 1.) allows you to understand them better, and 2.) allows people to relate to them, both of which are very valuable. Your representation needs to feel natural. Bringing up diversity casually throughout the story is the best way to do that.

What you should never do is define a character by their minority or oppression. Above all else, your character should be just that--a character, and a well-rounded one at that.

Record your research

You’re never going to be able to remember everything that you look up. So, write it all down. That could mean doing it the old-school way, aka handwriting (kudos to anyone who does this) or dumping it all in a word processor (I recommend Google Docs because it has the “outline” feature that allows you to go to a specific place when you need it).

I would suggest categorizing your research, preferably into separate documents. Here are some ideas for how you can divide it:

Names

Language

Music

Normal/formal clothing

Stereotypes in literature and other media

Food for everyday and formal occasions

Holidays and special occasions

Restrictions and taboos

Researching on the Internet

It can be really tempting to just click the first link that pops up--most likely Wikipedia--on the Internet, do a 10-second fact check, and call it a day. But that’s not enough. Wikipedia is a good source if you’re looking for general information, but even better are the citations at the bottom. These lead you to trustworthy sites.

You should also look up organizations and official websites of minorities. These websites are more likely to be reliable. In the US, these websites commonly end in “.org” or “.gov.” Other countries have different website domains--there’s a list on Wikipedia here.

Read blogs and articles that people have written about themselves and others. Government-run websites may be important, but personal accounts are just as valuable. Look up online encyclopedias as well--for example, the Encyclopedia Britannica is a great resource, and it ends in “.com”. By contrast, paper encyclopedias are more likely to become outdated, and they can’t be edited.

Consume media by marginalized people--this one is pretty self-explanatory. Read books by marginalized authors, fiction or nonfiction. Watch TV shows and movies directed by marginalized people. Keep doing this until it's barely a conscious decision to choose marginalized media.

Include other people

This is one of the most effective research methods you can employ because it involves only primary sources, while researching on your own involves primary and secondary sources. First, prepare a list of questions that aren’t easily answerable by the Internet. It helps if you specifically relate them to your book. For example, you might ask someone their opinion on a certain character who has a certain arc. Interview as many people as possible. Even characters in a single minority are vastly diverse!

When you’re done with your book, you’ll want to enlist sensitivity readers. Sensitivity readers are different from beta readers because they specifically critique a book’s representation. Looking at their feedback, you’ll be able to see recurring mistakes and flaws in your characters.

Social media

Social media is extremely valuable for talking to a variety of people and seeing different perspectives.

First, follow people of the minorities you’re researching. I would suggest a mixture of “ordinary” people and celebrities. Observe how they might include facets of their culture in their day-to-day life, and how they might speak about issues concerning their culture. You can also (politely) ask if they can answer your questions.

Another thing you can do is look at memes--yes, you read that right! Memes made by marginalized people depict common struggles and relatable situations, which is extremely valuable (and entertaining!).

Media representation tests

You may have heard of the Bechdel test--2 or more female characters have a conversation that isn’t about guys. This is just one of the many media representation tests out there. Media representation tests check your work against stereotypes and misrepresentation, although they aren't comprehensive or completely accurate--sometimes, there are exceptions. Here are a handful of tests:

“Sexy lamp” test (women)

Ellen-Willis test (women)

Deggans rule (race in general)

Vito-Russo test (LGBTQ+)

Topside test (trans people)

Duvernay test (race in general)

Maisy test (sexism in children’s media)

Mako-Mori test (women)

Ris test (Muslims)

Villalobos test (Latina women)

Waithe test (Black women)

Imperfection

No matter how much you research, understand your representation will never be perfect because people have such vastly different experiences. And that’s okay! The best you can do is keep learning and listen when people point out your mistakes.

[really-bad-cherp-ideas]

Cherp Tag Searching Guide

Okay so serious post for once (wowie) but this is the only cherp-related blog I run and I think this might genuinely be useful for some people. 

Gonna be a bit long so for those not wanting to expand this post it’s going to cover: Advanced Search, Blacklist/Whitelists, and “Or” Function Searches. 

Advanced Search

For anyone who doesn’t know, you can access Cherp’s Advanced Search feature through here (I’m in dark mode, but the general location should be the same):

When you click on it you’ll be greeted with a page that looks like the “New Prompt” page, where you can type in multiple tags to search at once. For example, if you only want to see Cis Male/Cis Male prompts, you could tick the Cis Male box under both “Playing” and “Looking For” and search.

Notes: You may still end up with some non-m/m prompts if, for example, someone tags m on both side for an m/f ship because they don’t care who plays who, but overall this works well enough to narrow down your results. Also, this is only an “and” search. For example, ticking both “Cis Male” and “Trans Male” under Playing will bring up prompts where both Cis Male and Trans Male are tagged, not if Cis Male or Trans Male is tagged. 

Blacklist/Whitelist

You can find the Blacklist and Whitelist under the Directory dropdown, here:

Both pages look similar, except one is your Blacklist and one is your Whitelist (duh). You can enter as many tags you want into either list, just separate them by commas. However, do note the more tags you add to your Blacklist/Whitelist, the longer it’s going to take your directory to load. 

So, for example, if you wanted to Blacklist both Homestuck and MHA you can go to the Fandom box under “Playing Character” and/or “Looking For” and type “Homestuck, My Hero Academia” and it’ll add both tags to your Blacklist. The Whitelist works the same way. 

Notes: The exact way the lists work is that the Blacklist will remove all prompts tagged with any of the tags in your blacklist. However, the Whitelist overrides the Blacklist. So if you had Homestuck in your Blacklist but MHA in your Whitelist, any prompts with Homestuck will be blocked from appearing in your directory, unless it also had the MHA tag, in which case the MHA Whitelist overrides the Homestuck Blacklist and the prompt will show up in your directory.

“Or” Function Search 

There is no official way to run an “or” search. What I mean by this is, for example, searching for prompts that are tagged with the prompt having either “Cis Male” or “Trans Male.” However, there are a few ways you can Macgyver a pseudo-or search using a combination of the Blacklist/Whitelist and Advanced Search function. 

The gist is this: Use the Blacklist/Whitelist to search “or” tags, and use the Advanced Search to search “and” tags. 

An Example: 

I want a Homestuck RP where I’m playing a Cis Male, but I want to play against a Cis Male or a Trans Male. 

Go to your Blacklist. Enter all the Gender tags you are not interested in. For this it would be: Cis Female, Trans Female, Intersex, Fantasy Morphology (Feminine), Fantasy Morphology (Masculine), Fantasy Morphology (Non-Binary), Non-binary, Genderless, Genderbend. Save your new Blacklist. 

Go to Advanced Search. Input “Homestuck” in one or both of the fandom boxes and tick “Cis Male” under the Looking For section. Search.

The first part makes it so the only prompts that show up in your directory are prompts tagged “Cis Male”, “Trans Male”, or both. (Any prompts that have no Gender tags will also show up, so if you don’t want that then the next method I’ll give will fix that issue.) Then, the second part is you running a search on that cut-down directory for the prompts that are both Homestuck and looking for Cis Males. Tada!

You can technically do this for any set of tags, although obviously some are just easier to do than others. For any tag that’s not a Maturity Warning or a Gender tag (which are essentially the easiest tags to directly Blacklist) the easier way to run the “or” search is to basically Blacklist everything and then throw the tags you want to include in your “or” search into the Whitelist. The Maturity Warning tags would be the easiest to Blacklist since there’s only four, but if for some reason that doesn’t work for you then you can Blacklist all the Gender tags (but that will lead to the issue of prompts with no Gender tags showing up again). 

Another Example:

I want to play a Dave Strider against either a Dirk, Gamzee, or Karkat. Blacklisting every other character in Homestuck obviously isn’t going to work. So what can you do instead?

Blacklist everything. Since there’s no weirdness with the Maturity Tags you can just use those: Safe For Work, NSFW Violent, NSFW Sexual, NSFW Extreme.

Add all the characters you’re interested in playing against into your Whitelist. So for this you’d put the following under the Playing Character box: Dirk Strider, Gamzee Makara, Karkat Vantas.

Go to the directory, and search for Looking For: Dave Strider. 

Step 1 Blacklists everything in the directory. Step 2 then Whitelists the characters you want to play against, thus any prompt with any of the three characters tagged will override the Blacklist and show up. Step 3 then searches for the character you want to play within that narrowed down prompt list. 

Yes it’s a bit wonky, and if you use the Blacklist/Whitelist for anything else you’ll basically have to erase it all and change it to do this. But if you don’t really use the Blacklist/Whitelist anyways or don’t mind jumping through the hoops I’m just here to say that this is technically a way to do this. It’s not perfect, but it works. 

So yeah, that’s all. Hopefully this helps at least one person out. Happy cherping!

Below I’ve just got the Maturity and Gender tags listed out for you, just for ease of copy/pasting in case you need it. 

All Maturity Tags: 

Safe For Work, NSFW Violent, NSFW Sexual, NSFW Extreme

All Gender Tags:

Cis Male, Trans Male, Cis Female, Trans Female, Intersex, Fantasy Morphology (Feminine), Fantasy Morphology (Masculine), Fantasy Morphology (Non-Binary), Non-binary, Genderless, Genderbend

[nohomobutactuallyyes]

Do u have any fav media rep of wlw? I want to find some new stuff. Thanks!

Ahhhh an ask!!

Ok I’m gonna try and keep this as canon as possible. Disclaimer: I am in no way qualified to give this information but here you go. These are just based on what I’ve watched and what I like. Different people like different stuff. (Also thanks to @artemis-sapphic for giving me some of the ships!!)

TV Shows

She-Ra and the Princesses of Power - if you are on tumblr you’ve probably heard of this one but cartoon where the two main characters go through an enemies to lovers storyline

Haunting of Bly Manor - another popular tumblr show but the main character is wlw and has a love interest in the show. It’s a horror show but there isn’t a real coming out scene, which I love because it’s more so just about being together than coming out

Wynonna Earp- I absolutely adore this show and the wlw ship. The relationship is gonna be endgame and between two main female characters. Both characters also have storylines outside being gay (that’s true for most shows on this list), which I love.

The Owl House - this is like somewhat canon. Cartoon where there is a main character who is a wlw but the couple does not officially get together in the end of the first season

Legends of Tomorrow - Many of the characters in the show give off a gay vibe but there is a main wlw relationship between two main characters. It’s a superhero show about time travel.

Supergirl - There is one canon wlw ship between two side characters and then there is a non-canon ship between the main character and someone else. Outside of wlw rep, there is also trans representation with another character in the show.

Atypical - While it takes a season or two to get to the real gay part of this show, enemies to lover trope once again. The wlw part of this show focuses on finding yourself and high school relationships.

Black Lightning - Main wlw ship. Once again a superhero show. I love the characters on this show, and who doesn’t like gay superheroes.

Movies

Happiest Season - Honestly it’s not a great movie but it is the closest I’m gonna get to a lesbian romcom anytime soon. It was a cute Christmas romcom. If you liked this movie, you might also want to check out Lez Bomb. It’s the same premise but set around Thanksgiving.

The Prom - I’m hesitant to put this on the list because I feel like so much focus was put on the other storylines, but this is a movie musical based on a Broadway show. The gay part is set around coming out and being gay in a rural community in high school

Rent - This is not like one of the best examples of queer representation, but the musical holds a special place in my heart. Musical set in the midst of the AIDS epidemic in NYC and has a wlw couple.

The Half of It - This is not a wlw relationship but the main character is a young high school lesbian. I really liked the storyline, and I related to a lot of the content in it.

I’m not a huge fan of the period dramas with wlw personally but if you’d like to watch those I’m sure there is a list somewhere with them on them!

Other

Stardew Valley - This is a video game where you can play as a farmer, but all of the dateable characters in the game are canonically bi. As such, you can date anyone regardless of your character’s gender. (Also highly recommend playing with your s/o it’s very cute)

Heartstopper - This is a graphic novel by Alice Oseman. The lead couple is mlm, but the way it’s written is so relatable to like any teenage gay person (at least in my opinion). Also a side couple is wlw

(I need more wlw book recs myself)

[collaborationandresearchproposal]

Thursday 29th April, Research Report: Lycanthropy and the hays code

Notable points * lycanthropy seems  to be synonymous with homosexuality- parallels between Teen Wolf and Buffy The Vampire Slayer's respective coming out scenes. * The Queer-ness of the character Remus Lupin from the Harry Potter books and film series. Many fans head cannon and write slash fics about Remus and Sirius' romance and relationship, reading the characters as queer. The ship, named 'Wolf Star' is quite popular and well known within the fandom. Many fans feel there is enough evidence to build this relationship on; Remus and Sirius' ghosts stood next to each other in the resurrection stone, mirroring Harry's parents,  a canonically married couple. They also bought Harry a joint present for his birthday and know the intricacies of each others personalities. Dumbledore also infamously told Sirius to 'lie low at Lupins.' But the problem here, as the article points out, is that Rowling doesn't acknowledge Lupin as queer, despite the homoerotic cues in the writings,  and instead gives him a female love interest and admits that Lupins Lycantrhopy is a metaphor for AIDS/HIV. She has further dismissed any alternative readings of the character, disappointing fans' hopes of there being a shred of representation in a queer monster who is actually queer. This sort of behaviour from authors and creators is what turns Queer-coding into the more harmful and frustrating Queer-baiting. A large majority of queer representation comes from connotations and interpretations. the clues are there and queer audiences do pick them up. However this grey area allows allows straight culture to use queerness for pleasure and profit in mass culture without admitting to it. Modern examples of this are CW's Supernatural and BBC's Sherlock. I can't personally speak for Supernatural but having watched Sherlock with the advantage of a queer eye, I can say with confidence that it is a prime example of queer-baiting. there is clear homoerotic subtext between Sherlock and John and even Sherlock and Moriarty. I Personally think it's entirely romantic as I head cannon Sherlock to be Asexual or at least on that spectrum but the point is, it is not just wishful thinking or pushing of a narrative. It's manipulation. Queer-baiting takes advantage of an already vulnerable group of people by preying on their desire for representation in the media.

In modern media werewolf's are often portrayed as having chiselled bodies and looming over each other. The 1985 Teen Wolf received a television reboot and it's fair to say it got reasonably more progressive.  It seemed interested in queering the werewolf narrative and in a sly moment of gender-bending the traditional Little Red Riding Hood narrative, protagonist Scott receives the Bite from a male werewolf while wearing a Little Red Hoodie (‘Wolf Moon’). Additionally, the show features LGBTQ characters while Scott’s human best friend Stiles visits a gay bar and makes friends with a group of drag queens in startling contrast to the gay panic of the 1985 film’s version of Stiles. By midway through the show’s second season, the slash pairing that had proved dominant in the fandom was Stiles and wannabe-Alpha Derek Hale. The two characters, who operate in the narrative as belligerent and begrudging allies, rapidly became a slash phenomenon, due, in part, to the chemistry and comic timing between actors Tyler Hoechlin and Dylan O’Brien. The narrative is further subverted when Derek is raped by an adult  human woman.

The pair 'Sterek' gained so much traction that it caught the attention of MTV and the cast and crew behind the show. So much so that they released a video of Hoechlin and O'Brien cuddling on a boat, asking fans to vote for Teen Wolf for this  years Choice Summer TV Show at the Teen Choice Awards. This  was big as it acknowledged fans and slash flics and the pairing itself as a possibility and many queer voices who watched the show felt heard and validated. However this didn't last long. MTV released a video on the official Teen Wolf Facebook, this time featuring O’Brien asking fans to vote for Teen Wolf in a TV Guide Poll. O’Brien joked that if fans did not vote, then the show would kill off its sole remaining gay character and one of the few remaining non-white characters on the show, Danny. The Teen Wolf Facebook released the video with the following caption: ‘Keep #TeenWolf in first place! Heed Dylan and Linden’s advice or we might have to. #KillDanny’ (Teen Wolf). The show’s social media team then attempted to make the #KillDanny tag go viral on Facebook and twitter, but fans, understandably, were not amused, primarily using the tag for outraged tweets to MTV (Baker-Whitelaw).Such blatant disregard for fans’ concerns about queer representation on the show alienated a large number of fans, especially when coupled with Jeff Davis’ more frequently dismissive and condescending comments about the Sterek pairing where he had been enthusiastic and even encouraging of the ship. As seasons wore on without any indication that Sterek would indeed become canon, it became clear that MTV and Jeff Davis had been queer-baiting Sterek fans as a marketing technique and that the unique interplay that fans had enjoyed with Davis, which offered a new kind of truly interactive fandom had, in fact, been something of an illusion. ' serial killer Hannibal Lecter and his love interest Will Graham in Hannibal, and reanimated gay corpses Kieren, Simon, and Rick in In the Flesh. Notably, both series have received an overwhelmingly positive response from fans and critics who have applauded the series for taking their queer monsters beyond mere coding and into explicit text. The warm reception of Hannibal and In the Flesh’s handling of queer representation by fans, and the continuing frustration with Teen Wolf’s queer-baiting and the appropriative nature of Remus Lupin’s narrative in Harry Potter, belie a desire not only for better queer representation, but also for more complex re-articulations of queer monstrosity' the symbolic and narrative trappings of monsters are often used as metaphors for queerness without actually acknowledging the positive behind that queer identity or even confirming the queer identity at all. Another positive example is the miniseries Good Omens. Based on the book of the same name, written by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman. Pretty much the whole fandom believe That the two leads, Crowley and Aziraphale are in a romantic relationship. They've known each other for centuries and perhaps what was the main fuel to this ships fire was the episode 3 cold open. Even fans who have only read the book seem to support these two as a couple and what's perhaps even more amazing is Gaiman’s response on twitter. "I wrote it as a love story. They acted it as a love story. You saw it as a love story. How much more proof do you need?" and "I wouldn't exclude the ideas that they are ace, or aromantic, or trans. They are an angel and a demon, not as make humans, per the book. Occult/Ethereal beings don't have sexes, something we tried to reflect in the casting. Whatever Crowley and Aziraphale are, it's a love story." It's beautiful because not only does it confirm that they are in love but it also leaves room for interpretations of what kind of relationship they have together.

https://dialogues.rutgers.edu/images/Journals_PDF/2017-18-dialogues-web_e6db3.pdf#page=164

In the year 1922, when cinema was gaining traction and popularity, The Motion Picture Producers and Distributors Association (MPPDA) hired a devout Presbyterian, Will H. Hays as its head. Eight years later, in 1930, the MPPDA ratified the Motion Picture Production Code. Also known as the Hays Code, these guidelines were set up as “a list of rules that studios could follow to avoid the censors’ wrath” one specific line read “sexual perversion or any inference to it is forbidden” This era in censorship set the stage for a culture in which the stereotypical behaviour of homosexuals, or any behaviour deviating from the traditional gender roles, is seen as dangerous, evil, and even fatal. By representing coded homosexual characters as depressed, perverse, and succumbing to punishing ends, it shifted social subconscious beliefs of LGBT individuals in real life to those represented on screen. Media often teaches us how to feel about others and ourselves – e.g., it promotes specific body types and clothing styles. In the same way, by promoting gendered behaviour and banning homosexuality, it spread a message that homosexuality was not fit to be viewed openly. Although themes of homosexuality were banned they were definitely alluded to and that continues today.