#I’m bi and this is culturally relevant so I will reblog

[leynaeithnea]

Introduction:

Hehylo, I'm Leyna or Ley

-> she/her, sometimes they

-> I can legally drink in the US (I won’t, I'm boring, I don't rly drink, smoke, i don't even drink coffee or energy drinks, I'm boring, I’m also not from that continent)

-> probably bi, idek not straight probably

-> trying to be a functional member of society but not doing great with that yet, keep questioning my life choices every few weeks

-> my blog is probably not family friendly

-> I'm mostly active on discord, you can add me under @ leynadeyemi ....but I tend to ignore unknown requests so maybe lmk on here first

Tags:

#LeyAnswers (ask replies)

#LeyWonders (asking questions to myself or others)

#LeysDoodles (stuff I draw or doodle)

#LeyRambles (ranting about stuff, probably trying to make a point)

#LeyWrites (anything related to my writing projects)

-> fandom tags

-> might add more tags i.e. for reblogs or stuff like that eventually

-> the writing projects get their own tags too

Content:

I'm a writer....well, I’m working on it, I'm neither good at writing nor storytelling, worldbuilding or character creation, but writing is the only thing that when I do it I don‘t feel like I’m secretly wasting my time, so imma keep doing it

Occasionally I draw and slowly getting a tiny bit better at that, mostly practicing digital, sometimes on paper, I also like playing around with all other stuff of digital arts: animation, trying to get into music again, editing,….long list, but mostly writing probably

Main writing projects:

Stolen Kingdom (working title) (#DayNightDusk): fantasy - trilology - no day-night cycle, political conflicts, no magic, mc wants to go home, enemies to lover's - worldbuilding, planning, plotting, character creation [-> still new and fully up to change]

Minto Wild (#MintoWild): epic/portal fantasy (probably?) - series - nine worlds, wild magic, the gods are gone, mc can manipulate and feel fear – worldbuilding, planning

Changeling King (#ChangelingKing): fantasy, folklore - novel (probably, duology maybe) - changelings, curses, withering world, otherworld, fairies – worldbuilding, planning

Starless - Starlit - Starborn (#Astaranay): gaslamp fantasy, galaxy core - series/triology - scholarship, constellations, stolen magic – worldbuilding

Rustle of Wings (#RustleOfWings): gaslamp fantasy, folklore - short story - moth, death omen, apothecary, fairies – editing

Shadows of Truth (#CakeMelonSword/ ShadowsOfTruth): lgbt fantasy romance - co-written novel (with two friends) - gods, fey, angels, truth and lies – plotting

(More that arent more than a single line or idea)

Hobbies/Interests, that I might mention or rant about:

Editing, history, mythology, folklore, fairies, writing, english, linguistics, culture, storytelling, witchy stuff, gardening/foraging, psychology, sociology, science like astronomoy (kinda, not the maths and physics behind it) probably more stuff

Fandoms I might reblog or mention/reference more frequently:

Epic the Musical

The Odyssey

Captive Prince Series

All for the Game series

The Silmarillion

Additionally:

-> reading mostly fantasy and lgbt, sometimes non fiction…mostly for research, sometimes for the brain

-> whatever I'm currently watching

-> i don't play a lot of games (mostly genshin and assassins creed syndicate) nor am I rly involved into any game fandoms, want to explore more games in the future though

Friend shenenigans with:

@underexasperation

@rudegizmo

@diovoppio

(Might start tagging interactions with #mydearestfriends)

#mutuals for interactions with other friends :>

Oh, i also tested out what these new communities were and made one for my stories, but considering I've only have two somewhat acceptable short-stories and an actually good co-written one, I don't think that's gonna be relevant anytime soon 😬 Unless you want me to ramble about my WIPs, in which case I wont refuse

[eulangelo]

callout for @genderfluidlucifer

google docs

tw for transmisogyny + TERFs + emotional manipulation

Transmisogyny

Lucifer is a huge transmisogynist who will complain 24/7 about how TERFs hurt the ace community, but the moment @randomclustermissile , a trans girl (who is not an exclusionist at all) tries to point out transmisogyny in inclusionist circles (in the most vague and general way possible, without pointing fingers nor calling anyone names) Lucifer will immediatly jump to block her and so they did with me (another inclusionist) and i have to suppose to everyone else who agreed with that post, even arriving to vagueing about us in private group chats to suggest that we were “sympathizing with exclusionists”. all because we dared point out transmisogyny in inclusionist circles. lucifer is TME but apparently they think they’re the authority on TERFs and their talking points but actual trans women are not, according to them, since this is the stuff that they would go and spew to other people. (screenshots from @enbyoctoling​)

here’s more examples of Lucifer (again, a transmasc person) going deep in detail about how according to them, TERFs/SWERFs hate aro/ace people and are an active threat to us

1. link

[Image ID: Three screenshots of a post by Genderfluidlucifer. The first screenshot is of a paragraph that reads, "Hey. So I can actually answer this. Anon your commentary about how you thought terfs would approve of sex repulsed aces is sort of it. Except...not. Basically terfs hate ace people for not wanting sex in the approved by terfs way. Terfs are actually extremely interested in [forcing] amatonormativity onto everyone. Because for as sex negative as terfs are...they don't want to actually acknowledge or change the fact that amatonormativity is at the root cause of rape culture and misogyny."

The second screenshot is a zoomed in section of the post that reads, "So yeah no I have NO idea where exclus allies are getting this idea from that terfs would even remotely care about the sexual rights of ace people. Terfs generally hate any sexualities in the LGBTQ+ acronym that aren't LGB because they can't force a gender binary onto those sexualities. At least, not as easily. That's why it's actually a massive sign of someone who doesn't call themselves a terf being a crypto terf if they use the term LGB in a positive manner. Along with the term SGA, as it is deliberately exclusive of nonbinary and not inherently SGA centric queer-aligned sexualities. /END ID]

link to the full post, these are just excerpts but the whole thing is just a very long rant about how TERFs hate ace people and so on (i think it’s worth noticing that although the actual post is kinda long, trans women are never once brought op in a conversation about TERFs issues and the only time transmisogyny is mentioned is not relevant to the conversation)

2. link

[Image ID: A screenshot of a reblog by genderfluidlucifer. The original poster is nothorses. It reads, "Because apparently I have to say it: Testosterone is not a 'violent' hormone. It doesn't make you 'more aggressive' or a worse person, it doesn't make you 'dangerous,' or 'toxic.' Transmascs do not need to be 'warned of the dangers of T.' We do not need to spend our transitions terrified that we're going to become a danger to those around us - that HRT is going to turn us into a monster.

Everyone experiences mood swings during hormonal shifts (pregnancy, menstruation, menopause, estrogen HRT, etc.) and while you might have grumpy moments or feel anger/frustration that you need to learn to handle differently, that doesn't make you a bad person.

Testosterone can change the way you access/process emotions somewhat, but if you're already thoughtful about how you handle your feelings and treat others, you're going to be fine. It's normal to lash out on occasion, by accident, then apologize and work to do better. It doesn't make you a bad person. Everyone on HRT is prone to this, and everyone experiencing hormonal changes is prone to this.

Getting HRT should be positive and affirming; you should not have to spend your entire transition terrified of becoming a monster."

The post then has a reblog by captainlordauditor that reads, "The big danger of T is that needle ouchy." /END ID]

here’s them reblogging from known transmisogynist user @nothorses (once again, the irony that a post about how testosterone is seen as the "aggressive hormone" does not mention transfem at all which are literally the main victims of this rethoric in the first place)

3. link (1), link (2)

[Image ID: Two screenshots of posts by genderfluidlucifer. The first screenshot reads, "Queer exclus: We're not repackaging terf rhetoric! Saying that is transmisogynistic! Also queer exclus: Remove the plus from LGBT!" and has tags that say, "I will pay these people to grow some god damn self awareness. Imagine being this dense. Queer discourse." The post has 15 notes.

The second screenshot reads, "Honestly it is so stupid and frustrating to see ace exclus continue to deny that the ace discourse was started by terfs. Proof was given countless times. And a big name terf like galesofnovember even admitted to starting it. Those of you who demand proof but ignore all of this never wanted proof to begin with." and is tagged with, "ace discourse. The post has 38 notes. /END ID]

heres another two post of theirs conflating TERFs with ace exclusionism

4. link

[Image ID: A screenshot of a reblogged post by furbearingbrick. The original poster is boxlizard, Lucifer's old account. The original post reads, "By the way for people still in denial about it, here's galesofnovember, a terf, admitting that she intended to start the ace exclus movement. She's taking credit for it. Normally if the victims of this behavior weren't ace/aro or other queer identities y'all be ready to rightfully lynch her. But since it's us, y'all just still wanna stamp your feet and go, 'Nuh uh!' instead of acknowledging facts." The part that says, "admitting that she intended to start the ace exclus movement" is a link to a galesofnovember post.

There is then a reblogged addition from furbearing brick that reads, "archived versions of the receipts" and has two links to the webarchive. The tags read, "Bringing this back since it's apparently still relevant. Terfism mention. Aphobia mention. Queerphobia mention. Blocklist." and has 1,455 notes. /END ID]

this is their post that ive already talked about but basically they found a 52 notes post made by a TERF in 2012 and this one person said "i dont know why i dont get to be the princess of the anti-ace-brigade" and apparently they are convinced that this means TERFs started the ace exclusionism movement and that this is one of their goals. which is insane when TERFs in real life only care about making life miserable for transfem people first and foremost.

5.link

[Image ID: A screenshot of a reblog by genderfluidlucifer. The original poster is yu-gay-fudo. It reads, “Just in case you happen to be unaware, some of the “radfem lite” they post to warm you up to their rhetoric, just off the top of my head:

- Ace/aro exclusionism

- Bi exclusionism or claims that bi people are “less queer” bc of “straight passive privilege”

- Saying you have to be dysphoric to identify as transInvalidating nonbinary people

- Calling queer a slur regardless of context, saying people can’t identify as queer, and saying that it can’t be reclaimed

- “Mogai hell”, “kweer”, or otherwise mocking less common labels and claiming they are “just cishets who want to feel special”

- Excluding sex workers from feminist discussions or claiming that sex work is inherently evil

- Basically anyone who thinks they can determine what other people identify as”. The tags read, "queerphobia tw. twerfs tw. no id." and has 70,727 notes. It was reblogged on March 22nd, 2021 /END ID]

another example of conflating radfems to things that, while wrong, have little to nothing to do with them because being a radfem, again, is something very specific that has all to do with transfem oppression.

Emotional manipulation

Lucifer has done nothing but block, break boundaries, spread lies and vague about people, some of which were even mutuals with them knowing they would see the posts. when confronted about it Lucifer's only answer was "just say you hate me and block me" but they actually ended up blocking everyone first, making it impossible for anyone to set some boundaries with them or even just to calmly confront them about anything.

[proof: Io(popncourse) and Lucifer had a disagreement in a shared discord server, which prompted Lucifer to vague Io in a vent post. Io confronted them, as being vagued is one of buns triggers, to which Lucifer initially agreed to delete the vent post, but then proceeded to victimize themself and immediatly blocked Io. later on, Jude(malewifedeckard) was confronted by Lucifer, then after Jude told them “I’m worried that you’ll vague me just like you did with Io” they proceeded to block Jude and vagued about him too. when Io made a post (which was not a callout, it was just bun setting buns boundaries) explaining what Lucifer did, Lucifer immediatly jumped to victimize themself, acting like they were being called out and straight-up lying, even going so far as to say that no one tried to hear them out, which is a blatant lie if you consider the aforementioned Io and Jude’s attempts at doing so, with Lucifer immediatly blocking and cutting ties with the both of them. ] 

(screenshots taken by @popncourse and @malewifedeckard)

as seen in the proof above Lucifer’s behaviour is not ok because they don’t accept any kind of confrontation and immediatly jump to blocking, and after blocking, they'd immediatly go and vague about the people who confronted them pacificly, spreading more lies and painting themself as the victim and even arriving to say “no one hears me out at all” which is simply not something you can say when you block people who are trying to hear you out in the first place.

this is by no means an invitation to go and harass them, send them hate or anything like that. i absolutely don’t want anything even remotely hateful or negative to be sent their way after this post. 

this post was only made because:

1. as an ace person who fully supports the inclusion of aspec identities in the lgbt+ community i don’t want to support an enviroment that costantly downplays transmisogynistic oppression in order to be taken seriously. there are hundreds of ways to make aspec activism without acting like we(as in TME aspecs)are the victims of a system that seeks for the annihilation of transfemenine people in real life everyday. i especially don’t want to support TME individuals who act transfem-friendly but then block any transfem who tries to speak on transmisogyny without a second thought.

2. Lucifer’s behaviour has hurt two friends of mine and i don’t want to associate with someone who actively breaks people’s boundaries without taking accountability when messing up.

3. i cannot associate with someone who spreads lies about me accusing me of sympathizing with exclusionists all while having me blocked so that i can’t see it nor defend me. they complain about people not hearing them out but they’re the very first person who does not try to hear people out, and instead jumps to spread baseless rumors. this is not someone i can nor want to associate with. 

(image descriptions provided by @malewifedeckard)

[autiedragons-ismoving]

(we follow from another account

with a pink dolly parton pfp)

fronting: Kaz

pronouns: they/them

cc:

Sapphic/WLW/NBLW only blogs will be left alone when non-Sapphic headmates are fronting. MLM/NBLM only blogs will be left alone when non M/NBLM headmates are fronting.

NEED TO KNOW, BOUNDARIES, & GENERAL INFO BELOW

• polyfragmented diagnosed DID system of [number redacted bc it’s none of your business].

• we’re cagey with personal details & will not be showing the body’s face at any point. we avoid sharing face claims & headmate picrews. we’ve got toxic & abusive people chomping at the bit to find my online presence we do not wish to be identifiable. if lack of any personal info spooks you you’re free to leave but also… learn some internet safety basics

• we have a history of substance abuse and may talk about it from time to time. we are currently sober, in recovery, and doing so so much better. tagging isn’t always consistent on these things - we try to trigger warm but just a heads up.

• we have a history of substance abuse and may talk about it from time to time. we are currently sober, in recovery, and doing so so much better. tagging isn’t always consistent on these things - we try to trigger warm but just a heads up.

• if this is still the same paragraph like five times i’m sorry. no matter how many times i delete it it returns. it’s haunting me.

• if this is still the same paragraph like five times i’m sorry. no matter how many times i delete it it returns. it’s haunting me.

We Block:

racists

antisemites

TERFs & SWERFs

transmed/truscum

queerphobes

bi/pan/etc “lesbians” & supporters. lesbian is an inherently mspec orientation and overlaps heavily with other mspec orientations. the addition of other mspec labels to the term is rooted in TERF ideology.

anti non-binary/anti-binary/genderqueer/transmasc/gnc lesbians

transandrophobia truthers. the body (and most headmates) are intersex, many of us are transmasc, and some of us are trans men. the talking points and language used makes us (transmasc headmates) ridiculously uncomfortable and we do not want to be involved with it in any way.

maps/nomaps/p*dos

pro-ed blogs

discourse blogs

endo systems, non-traumagenic systems, pro-endo, & pro-non-traumagenic. esp pro-endo syscourse blogs.

autism $peaks supporters, firm believers of functioning labels, & people who think cringe culture exists

disability porn blogs

disability/queer/trans/fat/native fetishists

wh*rephobes

blood quantum bootlickers

Boundaries:

Christians, Neo-Pagans, & Wiccans please ask before following. I block liberally.

please use the terms headmate or systemmate to refer to individuals in this system. anyone who refers to us as alters, parts, etc will be blocked. it makes us extremely uncomfortable.

we do not consent to any interaction with members of other systems who are BIPOC, Jewish, Disabled, Autistic/Neurodivergent, Deaf/HoH, Chronically ill when the body is not. i don’t want to talk about cultural topics, community experiences, individual experiences, mobility aids, sign/ASL, access barriers, or anything else. Jewish headmates in a non-Jewish body who have gone through the conversion process in the outerworld are the exception to this.

we are not your litmus test, your DIY 23 and me, your emotional dumping ground, your guilt pit, or your personal wikipedia page. don’t ask me if you’re Native or not, Jewish or not, Disabled or not, Autistic or not, etc. I don’t know you! i’m not here to make you feel better for wearing a headdress 10 years ago, or saying a slur in the first grade. please don’t dump that on me.

Blog Structure:

There really isn’t one. Some of us tag special interests, others don’t. We do our best to tag common triggers. Headmates won’t usually be tagged individually when reblogging or posting unless deemed relevant.

Current Interests:

Animal Crossing

Supernatural (i know)

Our Flag Means Death (i KNOW)

Squishmallows

Mushrooms/Mycology

Medical Science

Bee & Puppycat

Star Wars

The Simon Snow Series

the House of Romanov

Cows

Jewish History & Culture

Indigenous Culture & Practice (particularly SE Turtle Island)

Indigenous Art & Art forms

Meteorology (esp the April 2011 Super Outbreak)

[positivityforlesbians]

(Not a positive post)

There’s really something to be said about how lesbians are currently vilified for saying the most simple things. For talking about our sexual orientation, our perspective as women and specifically homosexual ones. Yesterday I’ve been witnessing this lesbian who is very big in the butch-femme community here on tumblr being dragged in the mud for making a post about how she hit “peak trans”. I don’t know her, I don’t recall ever interacting with her blog or reblogging one of her posts but maybe I did, it’s not the point. She brought up her perspective on how gender politics is messing up with the lesbian community and at large also gay men and bi people, how it’s destroying the butch-femme culture she loves so much. I don’t know much about these blogs as I’m personally neither butch nor femme but as a lesbian of course it’s something I want to protect. ✨

It’s her point of view, she has been supporting gender activism for decades and now she doesn’t because she says she sees the homophobic sexist damages it causes. People can like or dislike what she said, everyone has their own opinions. Her post however is making her the target of so much harassment that it is difficult not to see what’s at play here. I checked : most of the hateful comments, threats of violence, insults and desire that she kills herself are made by bloggers who haven’t got the word “lesbian” in their bio. So you have bisexual and more vaguely “queer” people or even straight ones who are harassing this lesbian like a damn crowd in fury. Again I don’t know her, from what I see from her bio I probably disagree with her on many topics but that’s something common, we all disagree with many people and it’s okay, what’s relevant here is that she’s a lesbian and she’s attacked online.

When lesbophobes say horribly sexist homophobic sentences somehow all of it seems to not exist, to not matter, to not be worrying, but when lesbians are fed up with said blatant sexism and homophobia to the point of making a long post about it then it’s time to dunk on her. Formidable ! She doesn’t recognise the butch-femme community in what she sees on tumblr from blogs that pretend to be about it, I get that, I understand that, from having read some awful posts that you would have sworn were written about straight people, about straight sex, about violent men and their oh so docile women/objects (?). It’s because there are so many ppl who invade our spaces and fill it with their opposite-sex attraction, lesbians can and should talk about it if they want (we do). So anyway this was a longer post than expected but all this to say : lesbians deserve to be respected. This woman did not advocate for violence against anyone, did not express hateful views, did not do anything else than writing her opinion on what she sees as a problem for the community and a contradiction at large, yet was met with vitriol. 🧐 @persistentlyfem I’m sorry I’m talking about you at length here but you don’t deserve this hatred. Just know that there are safe spaces for lesbians and that we support any lesbian speaking her mind (you weren’t expressing any bigoted/hateful view), don’t feel awful because non-lesbians (and lesbians with so much internalised lesbophobia that they side against their own people) are attacking you. Solidarity. 💜💜 Xx

[malewifemammon]

♡ hi !!! this is my otome blog :o) my about and dni are under the cut ! please at least read my dni before following / interacting ♡

DNI:

♡ MINORS. even if you're 17, almost 18— i don't care. if you're under 18 years old, do not interact. my blog is generally sfw, but i share posts from a lot of people who aren't comfortable with minors interacting. also, if i ever post the occasional suggestive thing, i don't feel comfortable with minors interacting with it. please respect my boundaries and those of my friends. thank you.

♡ typical dni stuff (racists [this includes people who get pissy about artists of color drawing characters as nonwhite!!!], antisemites, ableists, trans/homophobes [this includes terfs and truscum/transmeds!!!], ace/aro exclusionists, etc.). of course i know these people aren’t going to respect boundaries, this point is more of a statement that i don’t want this on my blog and if you see anything like this on here let me know because i probably just didn’t realize the issue with it - but i’m always willing to learn

♡ proshippers/anti-antis/pedos and their apologists.

♡ people who ship irl people [for example, dni if you ship the youtubers dan and phil] [if you selfship with irl people and interact i probably just won't follow back or whatever. i don't mean in like a "celebrity crush" way, i mean like... post selfship content about irl people, if that makes sense.]

♡ adults who age up minors to ship with them, or anyone who makes nsfw content of minors

♡ this blog will generally be sfw, but if anything suggestive comes up it will be tagged as #suggestive or #nsfw [or "#nsfw text" if relevant]

♡ don’t interact if you have a problem with selfshipping or support cringe culture! i’m here to have fun! also this is an otome blog why are you here lmao

ABOUT ME:

⚝ hi! you can call me finn, olivia, or really any nickname lol. i'm also currently trying out the name milo so that works too. my main is @caladir​

⚝ 21 (birthday feb 26)

⚝ they/he

⚝ white and tme

⚝ demisexual bi + genderfluid + polyam

⚝ i am incredibly strong and powerful

⚝ it is a-ok to use my art as a profile picture or things like that! just make sure to credit me somewhere, a link back to my blog (either here or @finiel​ works) :-)

⚝ feel free to ask me about anything i post on here, like my mcs or headcanons or ocs! i’m always willing to talk!!! especially if it’s about hnkna. please

⚝ this blog will probably be a lot of reblogging, but i’ll post my otome related art here as well! my general art blog is @ finiel if you’re interested in seeing more. i also have a general selfship blog, if you’re interested in seeing that dm me!

⚝ I AM CRITICAL OF ALL MY INTERESTS

⚝ if i ever post something gross here please feel free to dm me or send me an ask! however if you’re going to make accusations against someone (ie an anonymous ask saying “xyz is a p*do”) i’m going to need to see some kind of proof. i won’t just spread that shit about someone based on hearsay

⚝ if you ever need something tagged, send me a dm or an ask saying so and i will do my best to tag it. just a disclaimer though, if it's like instances of a certain word you need tagged, i'm not always the best at remembering to tag it, because my brain can just kind of skim over stuff like that. also please note that on this blog as well as my others, i will probably use the word "queer" in a reclaimed sense at some point, as it is how i refer to myself and my own complicated experience with gender and sexuality. if the thing you need tagged is something i post about untagged very often, it’s probably better if you just don’t follow

⚝ if you ever need something reformatted for accessibility, please let me know! i'm trying to get better at adding image ids to my art, so if you have any pointers or suggestions on how i might do it better, i would love to hear them.

[olderthannetfic]

I just realized it’s Fandom First Friday and the topic is meta!

For months, I’ve been slowly working my way through How To Be Gay by David Halperin, which talks about drag queens and how certain aspects of gay male culture appropriate from women to empower gay men. (Halperin uses the word ‘appropriate’ extensively, not necessarily in a negative context.) He brought up some points I thought were highly relevant for thinking about slash.

Last February, I went to Escapade and chatted with a bunch of acafans. To my total lack of surprise, they too love Halperin’s book and had the same reaction I did. I thought when I finish the book, I’ll write up some meta. But I got busy, and it’s a long, dense book. So then in August, I went to the final Vividcon. There, I ran into Francesca Coppa and mentioned this idea. Her response? “Oh, I just wrote a journal article about that.”

…

AHAHAHAHA! Oh god, we are the same person.

(NB: We are not actually the same person.We just have similar first names, similar fandoms, and similar flists back on LJ, have done similar fandom history oral history projects, go to the same cons, and have both been on the OTW board. Laura Hale once went so far as to “out” me as her. And now we like the same academic books too. Heh.)

So, obviously, now I have to write meta about this, and Fandom First Friday is the perfect time to take a stab at it. I have so much more to say and I want to go back through How to be Gay and pull out many more amazing quotes, but better to write something than wait for perfection.

What I found the most interesting about Halperin’s analysis was that he points out that women may find these funhouse mirror versions of femaleness upsetting, and those feelings are completely understandable and valid, but they don’t make drag any less empowering or significant for gay men. He neither thinks that we need to get rid of drag nor that women should stop having those reactions.

He also talks about how subtext is often more appealing than text: when he first started teaching his college course ‘How to be Gay’, on which the book is based, he assumed that students would connect more with literal representation of their identities. That’s the narrative we push: now that we have literal X on TV or in a Broadway show, we don’t need subtextual old Y anymore! Instead, many of his students loved things like The Golden Girls and failed to connect with current gay representation.

It’s a long book, but what many of his ideas boil down to is that a Broadway show that is massively subtextually queer allows the viewer to identify with any of the characters or with all of them simultaneously or with the situation in general. It’s highly fluid. Gay representation often means a couple of specific gay characters with a rigid identity. Emotionally, that can be harder to connect to.

Sometimes, allegory gets closer to one’s own internal experiences than literal depiction does.

Coppa’s article (book chapter?) is about exactly that. It’s titled: Slash/Drag: Appropriation and Visibility in the Age of Hamilton. She uses Halperin’s book but extends the idea further. I particularly liked her example of how female fans use Bucky to tell stories that are essentially (and often literally) about rape. His story is about a loss of bodily autonomy and about having one’s boundaries violated in a way that is familiar to female fans, but he’s a male action hero, so those stories don’t have the same visceral ick factor as writing about literal rape of literal women.

Partly, that’s due to how society treats men vs. women, but it’s also about which fans are writing these stories and which fans are the target audience of them. Just as a cis gay man appropriating Joan Crawford to talk about his experience of gayness isn’t really for or about women, most slash fanfic about Bucky being victimized isn’t really for or about cis gay men.

It was on the dancefloor at Vividcon that I realized that, as a woman, I have this unconscious feeling like I am appropriating gay men’s culture when I’m into Joan Crawford and other over-the-top female performers. It’s ridiculous! How can I be appropriating a female celebrity from gay men? But it’s an experience I share with lots of other women. Telling women we have no right to things is the bedrock of our culture.

That feature film Slash, which featured a bunch of cis male slash writers was inspired partly by the male director going on Reddit and finding a bunch of gay guys saying that slash squicks them. He felt that he was being progressive by erasing women.

On Tumblr, the fujocourse gets reblogged not just by toxic pits of misogynist, delusional bullshit like thewoesofyaoi, but also by seemingly reasonable fans. Hell, I’m pretty sure I used to suffer from this problem myself: I remember a time when I felt like I, as a bisexual woman, liked slash better, differently, and more correctly than straight women did.

I no longer feel this way.

There are lots of reasons for caring about slash, some of which are just about the pretty, some of which are more about gender, and some of which are more about sexual orientation, but after seeing decades of arguments about who is allowed to like slash, I have come to the conclusion that none of them are valid. All of them are “Not like the other girls!” and hating on femaleness. Some of the fans who do this are female and some are not, but it all boils down to not feeling like women have a right to a voice.

And then there’s Halperin calmly asserting gay men’s right to self-expression!

It struck me like a bolt of lightning because it was so self-assured. He never doubts that there’s something valid and important about giving gay men space to explore their own emotional landscapes. Literal representation is important, sure, but so is the ability to make art that speaks to your insides, not just your outside, and that sometimes means allegorical, subtextual art played out in bodies unlike your own.

“Fetishization” a la Tumblr often means writing stories with explicit sex or liking ships because they’re hot. Sometimes, it means writing kinks that are seen as dark or unusual. Frankly, this sort of fujocourse boils down to thinking that sex and desire are dirty and that m/m sex is the dirtiest of all. I do write some ~dark~ kinks in my fic because, for one thing, I’m a kinky person in real life, and for another, I often use fic to explore the experience of having dark thoughts and wondering what that says about me.

A lot of slash writers are exploring feelings of victimization. Another big chunk of us explore things like rape fantasies from the bottom: maybe we have and maybe we haven’t experienced assault in real life, but for all of us, having that kind of rape fantasy brings up questions of whether we’re asking for it, whether it’s okay to be into that kind of thing, whether it means something. Another chunk of us are exploring a different kind of “bad” thoughts: feelings of aggression, violence, dominance. In my own work, I’m interested in sadists and how they come to terms with their desires, but I think slash is also often a way to explore any sort of violent, dark feeling, not just rape fantasies from the top. Society tells us women aren’t allowed to have dark thoughts–hell, that we’re not capable of impulses that dark. Sometimes, it’s easier to write even a relatively banal action story about a male action hero because he, in canon, is allowed to have the feelings and impulses that interest the writer.

The fujocourse is all about saying that women aren’t allowed to have dark impulses ever. That we’re not allowed to be horny. That we’re not allowed to enjoy art for the sake of an orgasm. When we depict people not precisely like ourselves, we’re overstepping. When we make art for our own pleasure instead of devoting our lives to service, we are toxic and bad. Any time. Every time.

It’s just another round of saying that women’s pleasure is not valid and women’s personal space should not be respected. No hobbies for you: only motherhood.

And yet that’s not actually what most slash fans think. I was heartened to read Lucy Neville’s Girls Who Like Boys Who Like Boys: Women and Gay Male Pornography and Erotica. A friend read it recently and was trying to guess which quotes were from me. I have to admit, I was playing that game too! I honestly couldn’t tell, until I looked at demographic info, that some could not have been mine. They sounded so familiar. On Tumblr, I tend to wade into meta discussions, so I see a lot of loud, divisive views. I especially see a lot of views that, over time, make me start to wonder if I’m a crazy outlier. Intellectually, I know that this is all down to bad curation of my dash and a love of browsing the meta tags. I didn’t realize how much it had crept up on me unconsciously–how much I had started to feel like I had to justify and explain the most basic and common experiences of being a slash fan.

What was interesting about Neville’s book is how alike many of the women sounded. Now, no one book represents everybody, and she makes no claims to have figured out the exact size or demographic breakdown of fandom. Her focus is on women who like m/m material, whether slash or porno movies or anything else. At the same time, though, she surveyed heaps of women, and the responses were amazingly similar. Nearly every quote in that book strikes a chord with me. Nearly all of them, with a few minor variations, could be something I’ve written. Gay, straight, bi, asexual: we all had many of the same things to say about slash and what it means to us.

So, some brief, and more digestible thoughts:

Slash is “overrepresented” in meta and scholarly literature because people still ask us to justify ourselves constantly.

People ask us to justify ourselves because they assume that “good representation” is literal representation.

There are key emotional, psychological aspects of our experiences that are often better expressed allegorically, whether we’re gay men doing drag or women writing slash or any other sort of artist.

Here are some choice quotes from Coppa. (I will restrain myself and not just try to quote the entire thing. Heh.)

“There are endless transmedia adaptations of characters like Sherlock Holmes or Batman, so it is clearly not appropriation that’s the issue: it is the appropriation by the other—by women, in this case.

One could argue then that it is our awareness of this appropriative doubleness—of the familiar characters acting in an unfamiliar script, of the female storyteller animating the male characters— that boots slash out of “literature,” with its illusions of psychological coherence (see Edwards’s Chapter 3 in this volume), and puts it instead into the category of performance, itself so often associated with the fake, the female, the forged, the queer. My argument in this chapter is that it might be useful to compare slash to other forms of appropriative performance; drag comes powerfully to mind and, more recently, the musical Hamilton. These are forms where it’s important to see the bothness, the overlaid and blurred realities: male body/Liza Minnelli; person of color/George Washington.”

“In his book How to Be Gay, David Halperin (2012) discusses the ongoing centrality of certain female characters to the gay male cultural experience and takes as his project an explanation of why gay men choose those particular avatars and what they make of them. Halperin argues that gay men use these female characters to articulate a gay male subjectivity which precedes and may in important ways be separate from a gay male sexual identity (or to put it another way, a boy may love show tunes before he loves men, or without ever loving men). The gay male appropriation of and perfor- mance of femininity effectively mirror—in the sense both of “reflect” and “reverse”—slash fiction’s preoccupations with and appropriations of certain (often hyper‐performatively) male characters in service of a female sensibility; in both cases, appropriation becomes a way of saying something that could not otherwise easily be said.”

“A character like Tony Stark or Bruce Wayne speaks, obviously, to boys who are getting mixed messages about what successful manhood looks like in the twenty‐first century—it was hard enough in the old days to be Charles Atlas, but today you have to be Charles Atlas and Steve Jobs at the same time, which is a problem of time commitment just for a start. But these characters speak to women, too: differently. The doubled nature of the paired male characters taken up by slash fandom—these aliens, these costumed heroes, these men wearing man suits, men in male drag—make them appealing sites of identification for women, or proxy identities, to use Halperin’s (2012) term; that is, they provide “a metaphor, an image, a role” (185). They are sites of complex feeling.

But what these characters are metaphors for, what they make us feel, is not simple, singular, or easily reducible. Halperin takes hundreds of pages even to begin to excavate the complicated web of meanings around Joan Crawford; I am not going to be able to unpack any of these iconic male characters in a few paragraphs, and it is also the nature of fandom to build multiple and contradictory meanings around fan favorites (and to get into heated arguments over them).”

[In Halperin’s class] “Works that allowed gay men to be invisible were preferred to those where they were explicitly represented. “Non‐gay cultural forms offer gay men a way of escaping from their particular, personal queerness into total, global queerness,” Halperin (2012) writes. “In the place of an identity, they promise a world” (112). I would argue that slash offers something similar—that queer female space, as well as the ability to escape the outline of the identity that you are forced to carry every day—and that for gay men and slash fans both, the suggestion that you would restrict your identification to those characters with whom you share an identity feels limiting.”

“Visibility is a trap,” Phelan (2003) concludes, referencing Lacan (1978) (93): “it summons surveillance and the law, it provokes voyeurism, fetishism, the colonialist/imperial appetite for possession”—and fans on the ground know this and talk about it in very nearly this language. Again, this is not to say that fans—or gay men, for that matter—do not want or deserve good representations: female fandom, slash fandom included, championed Mad Max: Fury Road, Marvel’s Jessica Jones, and the new, gender‐swapped Ghostbusters, all of which have multiple and complex female characters. Rather, I am arguing that representation does not substitute for the pleasure or power of invisibility; for, as even the most famously visible actors say, “But what I really want is to direct.”

[kastartss]

I really need help with my mental health condition, please take your time to read my story (if you are willing to only)

Here’s an introduction. Hey, my (not real) name is Kat. I’m 14 (yes, I know, a literal fetus) and I’m from Vietnam.

Two weeks ago, I was diagnosed with anxiety, and honestly, I was not surprised. But then the more I think about it, the more I realize that I have had it for almost my entire life, and I have only been around for 14 years. I felt my social anxiety kick in when I was about in year one in primary school. I remember how bubbly I was of a toddler, always waving and saying hi to adults in my neighborhood. But then I went to school and things changed. I got 2 close friends, let’s call them A and P. I hung out with them, but before I had those two friends, I never recall being in a place without friends. In kindergarten, as far as I could remember, I have many friends. So when I go to school for the first time, I didn’t have close friends. I was still bubbly at the time, talking to kids in my class, but in break time, I have no one to talk with. Even after I got A and P as my friends, sometimes they would gang up on me and I would have total breakdowns and sitting alone, feeling betrayed because no one likes me.

I think that's when I started being less of an exuberant child. I noticed that I have stopped waving to adults, I became more terrified of being around strangers or performing on stage (which was a thing I did all the time in kindergarten). And as time goes on, I develop the fear of trivial things, getting worried every time I go on a trip or holiday (eg. fear that the plane will crash, fear that there would be tsunami at the beach, etc.) or having existential crisis or death related worries. And then when I reach grade four, I got my first crush, I spent all night crying because wow, new emotion unlocked. He’s this sporty boy, sitting next to me in classes, and guess what? He had a crush on my then best friend. I slowly realize, when I reach secondary school, that I am less valuable than many. 

On the second week of sixth grade (secondary school), I had a mental breakdown and I stayed in the bathroom for the entire English lit lesson. The teachers found me, but I couldn’t explain why I ran away. I found it too embarrassing. I ran away because every seats next to a girl is taken and I would’ve had to sit next to this big, scary boy. I didn't know why I felt that way, why I panicked over such a small and stupid thing, but that night I went home, told my mom school’s fine, and found a knife to just end myself.

But of course I didn’t. I was afraid of getting hurt. I was afraid of seeing the life leaving my body. And I remember my mom telling me my life is the most important thing I have.

The reason I’m afraid of getting hurt is pretty damn simple: my mom hit me all the time as a kid. I’m not traumatized by it. But do I cry at night, getting upset and guilty about the things I did to deserve it? Yes, yes I did. But did I think much of it or find ways to stop getting hit? No, no I didn't. I got hit all the time for lying, for not obeying, for being lazy. But my mom really loves me, she does. She yelled at me, she slapped me, she threw books at my face, humiliated me sometimes in public, and hit me with broomsticks and clothes hangers because she said “she wanted the best for me”. She wanted me to change for the better but haha jokes on her, the more she hit me the more stubborn I get. And so update: I’m still getting hit by her for doing shits recently. I have questioned if it’s abusive or not, because I know she got anger issues and she said that herself, to not let her get angry. But in my country, getting hit by your moms is like a casual thing. It’s like depression jokes, we joke about our fucked up mental health and in my place we joke about getting hit my our moms. It's too common that I don't know if it’s abusive or not anymore, that’s one thing I need help on.

Back to the main story. So sixth grade is the time I start feeling conscious about my body. I’m gonna bluntly say this: my body is disproportionally fat. It was as a kid, and it still is now. My legs and arms are normal, not too skinny, but normal, but my body, the torso and chest area, oh boy, that's where all the fat is. If my body fat is spread out evenly, I wouldn’t have complained, it would be beautiful. But despite how much I tried, the fat would only be in that area, and I look ugly in everything. I got self conscious when we did a movie project, I got self conscious when I have to wear stage costumes, and I start acknowledging that I’m not the popular girl. I don't get why girls my age use lipstick and make up, and how they have money to buy expensive clothes. I was naïve, and I wanted to be like them: popular and valued by people. I was the wallflower, no one knows me except my few friends and I don't expect them to. I started developing a mindset that no one remembers me, and I’m insignificant. 

Grade seven, I changed school. And it’s when I found out about fandoms. I liked Harry Potter, and I wrote some fanfictions that one of my friends encourage me to post it on Wattpad, so I did. That’s when I made internet friends, and I got exploited to issues like lgbtqa+, pop culture, and mental health. One of my internet friends, let’s call her W, is queer and got depression. That’s when I started digging deep in these issues, learning about mental health and how to help people with them. And that’s when I start realizing I may have a mental health problem. W attempted suicide last year, in 2017. Fortunately, she survived. I had spent many nights texting her out of it, cheering her up, and the more I’m around her, the more I discover about myself.

This year, I’ve learnt things about myself that I would've had no idea about two years ago. I identify as bisexual, and thinking about a year ago, I still thought being gay is unfortunate. In my country, same sex marriage is legal, but is not very welcomed by the people and is considered a touchy subject. Many consider it an illness and pity people whom identify as such. Generally, no one really cares until it’s their children. My mom didn't like it. She thinks it’s a phase (classic.) and being bi would bring disadvantages to my life (she’s very wrong I daresay it’s literally 20gayteen and two women from the Bachelor Vietnam just ditched the guy for each other???) and that makes me doubt if my mom is ever right (she’s very convincing in most situations, unfortunately). 

I also learnt about my anxiety, like I noted. Two weeks ago, I seek help from the school counselor after being tempted to kill myself out of pure self hate. I have had extreme self hate for the last month but I thought it’s normal. One event that lead to me thinking this way is that one fight I had with my parents that my mom threatened to jump off the window to die and to leave the house forever, she said how terrible I am and I felt like being slapped across the face being it just hit me then: I am terrible. When I was younger I thought people don't like me because im ugly and I really wanted them to like me for my personality. But then the fight happen and I found out: im ugly both inside and outside. That’s when I started to lose hope, my grades (which was going bad before) got worse and when I got a bad result for maths finals, I got devastated and got a panic attack. I climbed to the tallest floor in my school building and lie there, falling asleep and let my mind shut down. My plan was to jump off the building and end my life but the door to outside was locked so I just curled up there and cry. I got found two hours later, and the teachers told me absolute bullshit because my country is absolutely obsolete about mental health. 

It just got worse and worse since March. My mom says I should stop being lazy, stop procrastinating, be more productive and I hate being at home, because my mom use my bedroom as her workplace and I have no privacy. I have to face my mom all day in summer, and that drove me crazy. Even when I had the chance to go to England for a month for summer camp, I still feel insignificant and lonely when I stare at the crowds being happy. My anxiety is super clear, but oh boy how funny I was. 

I thought I was faking it. I thought all of this is me wanting people to pity me, so I have to fake my anxiety and depression. Most of the times I look up for symptoms of depression and anxiety, I hope those symptoms match. Because I wanna be right, I don't wanna be an attention seeker, I want something to blame for my behaviors. 

All the tests I took for depression tell me I have severe depression. But some days I don't feel down or anything. I just felt fine, and deep down I feel guilty for not caring, because does this mean i’m faking my mental illness oh my god. I have a girlfriend. We broke up once, and now we are talking again. She’s in America and we only can text each other, but I don't feel like im ever good enough for her. All I feel is self hate and unworthiness. 

This is the thing I want you guys to help me about: Do I really have these mental illnesses? Am I making it up? Am I just paranoid and crave attention?

The thing that makes me doubting myself is the fact that around me, many kids are raised like me. Being hit my their moms, have the same education, but they’re not depressed. they don't have social anxiety. They’re doing alright. So I’m afraid this is because I got myself into this myself by going on the internet and reading about gay shits and befriend depressing people and got this myself. I’m afraid I’m making this up to be relevant. 

Please help me with this, or just reblog to help me find an answer. I’m so sorry I’m wasting your time. But please, I need to find myself. I don't want to feel suicidal again.

[wedontcareaboutyourbinary]

comphet is a lesbian exclusive term. other sexualities can use coercive heterosexuality though. but no one except lesbians can use comphet, that term is very important in lesbian culture and other sexualities do not have the same relationship to it.i just wanted to let you know that it's not appropriate to use compulsory heterosexuality as a term if you're not a lesbian and it's also rude to associate that term with TERFs as saying that implies all lesbians are TERFs when that is not the case.

this is the same anon who just sent an ask on comphet) also i’d like to point out i’m not a lesbian (i’m a gay trans guy) so take what i said with a grain of salt. i don’t intend to talk over lesbians, i just wanted to make that known. also if you’re not a lesbian and youve felt pressured by heterosexual society to be het youre probably experiencing some form of internalized homo/pan/biphobia

“comphet is a lesbian exclusive term. other sexualities can use coercive heterosexuality though” in spite of your attempt to not talk over lesbians, I can assure you that, as was pointed out in the posts on this subject, coercive heterosexuality is literally just an alternative term to comp het to distance it from terf associations.

I got both the fact that “comp het” has terf origins and that “coercive hete” is the alternative to distance it from those origins from literal, actual lesbians like in this post, as well as the fact I have the ability to google. Adrienne Rich was the coiner of the term, and the fact that she was transmisogynistic has been pointed out multiple times.

I don’t think I or anyone else on this blog would ever say that it’s good to be wary of lesbians. All non-straight, non-cis identities, but lesbians especially, have a strong history of being painted as predatory, and therefore it’s entirely reasonable for someone to wonder if, when someone is wary of lesbians, if it might be motivated by lesbophobia. However, never once have I or any other mods claimed otherwise.

So, short version: Saying “compulsory heterosexuality” was coined by someone who was a TERF or at the very minimum found their ideology acceptable is historically accurate (and if you’re saying pointing out any TERF influence ever is lesbophobia, then consider you may possibly need to re-prioritize here), and coercive heterosexuality is literally an alternative to compulsory heterosexuality. Seriously. That’s the only way I’ve ever seen it be used. So if you’re saying “one term is used for lesbians, the other is for other people!” Your entire argument is kind of standing on a weak knee already.

In this post, what was being discussed was primarily the phenomenon grouped under coercive heterosexuality, and the fact that while these phenomenon are typically framed as being almost lesbian-exclusive, that someone can still experience the effects of heterosexism grouped under coercive het, and it be due to another orientation they experience; that extremely similar effects of coercive het manifest in people who aren’t straight but who also aren’t lesbians. I never outright advocated for other people to start using the term- I think heterosexism functions fine. 

But one is left to wonder that, if those phenomenon can be experienced by other people, why is it just the term itself that others aren’t allowed to use? From what I can find, “compulsory heterosexuality” has also been talked about in relation to gay men and other non-lesbian identities since at least 2003 in Academia, perhaps longer in casual contexts. I’ve also found actual lesbians speak on the topic, primarily about how coercive het affects bi women by googling and using tumblr’s tags function (one of the posts explicitly mentions bi women, the other is in the bi tag so i’m left to assume it’s meant to include bi women as well). So there’s that.

This was me explaining and interpreting another post another mod reblogged at request. That person does not have an about so I cannot check to see, but for now I’m going to operate under the assumption that if they were making a post on intersectionality and how the term “comp het” ignores it, that they are a part of groups that have a right to speak on that intersectionality.

(Of course, the lesbian community is not a monolith of thought. Not everyone is going to agree with every point on this post, but, it’s clear that from the sources cited here, and what I’ve been able to find, what the blog has stated aren’t some new fangled attempt to steal lesbian terminology, and rather the things discussed on here have been around for quite awhile, and have also been pointed out by lesbians, which is the group that primarily uses the term “comp het” or “coercive het”)

Sidenote: Please be aware that speaking authoritatively on a subject and then tossing in one “take this with a grain of salt” does not negate the fact that you’re still trying to speak authoritatively on the subject. Sources are always suggested when you send an ask like this (unless you are drawing off of personal experience with a term, experience, etc. to make your argument in a conversation where yours is relevant, because there are some conversations in which personal experience and perspective can be highly important).

-Mod Sully

[gnclc]

Bi King Wonho Masterpost

!IMPORTANT: this is mostly just for fun and for lgbt monbebes. i want this to stay on tumblr, so please don’t repost on other websites. shippers or heteros do not touch this post. 

• allegedly dated a cis girl and trans boy in his uzzlang days, (some reports say that they are the same person but i highly doubt it, some say he dated the boy to protect him from the rumours, who knows, look it up if you really want to know)

• him being captivated by other male idols:

• eunwoo (feat. the rest of monsta x - once during fighter era and once during beautiful era) [ fighter era here & beautiful era here ] • jaehyun during a radio show, he even forgot the question he was asked [ here ] • honestly? shownu as he was speaking japanese [ here ]

• just for fun him sporting gay fashion with multiple prints here + him being the  king Of Fashion . more: here ; here ; here  and there is a whole twitter dedicated to this rich king’s fashion here 

• speaking of fashion and said blog, they mentioned wonho wearing safety pin earrings, which apparently is a statement in support of women, immigrants, lgbt people, minorities, etc. tweet here . might be true, might be just wonho wanting to put safety pins on his ears, either way he’s either a good person which is gay culture, or just a disaster gay, which again, is gay culture. notable is also at the golden disk awards in which he’s wearing safety pin rings again in support of good causes. [gda rings tweet here ] 

• also him participating in the polished man campaign raising awareness for child sexual violence. you can see that he is a very supportive and inclusive person, and even if there was a chance he was straight himself (which is minimal tbh) he’d still be a supporter. 

• his most iconic look up to date  no hetero man is this stylish by himself and if you don’t think so you can keep lying to yourself 

• in the beautiful era mnet meet and greet they had to act in pairs, wonho was paired with changkyun in a romantic scene and looked like he fell in love when changkyun grabbed his face [ timestamp: starting 40:55/ find here ]

• during mxray season 2 in the drama acting episode it’s a gay gold mine, first of all saying that changkyun is a guy with gorgeous lips, mentioning stuff abt kihyun’s lips too, falling in love with girl hyungwon and saying he wants to be lovers with her - watch it [ here ] and here are some screencaps | gifsets highlighting what happened (worth mentioning: changkyun & minhyuk’s gay moments there too, forming the chaotic trinity of monsta x) 

• gave minhyuk a lap dance on jamelia’s stop, we love a suave, smooth legend   [ timestamp: 14:47 / find here  ] 

• i could not find the video anywhere else but there is a cute moment with wonho going to a girl and her caressing his face, i better see none of you complain about this he is the Bi king for a reason [ timestamp: 6:33 / find here ]

• from zero, the song he composed, arranged and wrote the lyrics to has no gendered pronouns, plus the iconic move in the hyungwonho version

• in a pretty old post i’ve made  asking lgbt monbebes to tell me their bias, roughly 1/3 of the ones who reblogged either put wonho as their bias or pointed out that he is the highest possibility of a non-straight member, (some cases, along with minhyuk*/and changkyun), with a rough difference of 57 answers from the other members. you can argue that it’s because of his popularity, but second came changkyun, and it is very likely for lgbt fans to pick the one they identify with the most as their bias 

• speed round → taking every chance he has to mention male monbebes, or just overall being a gender inclusive king who gives no fuck: 

• shows a lot of love to male fans, always blowing them kisses (happened on after school club multiple times) and saying he loves them

• was extremely excited when he read a comment on a vlive calling him “wonho hyung”

• he was asked about a group’s performance but all he kept saying is that they’re really handsome

• says that he enjoys wiping the sweat off his members

• “headband is not only for girls, no difference for gender, so i can wear it” + calling shownu the most beautiful and saying “beautiful isn’t for girls only” ( also, the members kept calling wonho beautiful in the same vlive the headband thing happened, which you can find here )

• when members were asked about their ideal type, he said someone that can cook ramen well, and proceeded to tell that gender doesn’t matter as long as you can cook ramen [ here ]

• i couldn’t find a video but during kcon mexico when speaking about monbebes he said “everybody my girl my boy” ft. changkyun who said “beauties and handsome guys, please be quiet” [ here’s a gifset that shows the points i mentioned before + this one ] 

• read a comment about monbebes becoming female characters from internet novels on their "love story" with monsta x and he said "i bet there's also male characters since there's also male fans!” [ here ] 

• him getting scared at everything which you may think is not relevant but it is actually gay culture [ here’s a cute compilation ]  

• a fansign was held at a wedding hall and him and changkyun walked together as ‘grooms’ while the rest of mx was singing wedding themes (ft. hyunghyuk) [ here ]  

• him respecting women: in dukgune during their freeze game wonho’s question was “how many sub vocals are in wjsn?” he answered with: “there is no sub vocal in wjsn, they’re all main vocals, they all sing well” video here, another comedy gold

• the fact that he can’t shut up whenever he feels like mx are being wronged and how open and kind he is, how much he loves monbebes, his sensitivity, him being a water sign, being petty when he gets interrupted, that’s gay culture too now folks, tag yourself i’m him being petty when he gets interrupted n being a water sign

feel free to reblog and add on, i probably missed a lot anyways!

[medicinemane]

These are some thoughts on Judaism and LGBT; things relating to that post I reblogged along with whatever else is on my mind. Just so you know what’s after the read more

Just as a note before I go any further, I’m a straight white guy. I’m not much of anything. I don’t really talk much about my identity or labels because most of the time they’re not relevant. What really matters to me is how I act, so I generally try to let me behavior speak for itself. So normally I wouldn’t bring this up, but I thought in case someone was wondering where my perspective is coming from and what my biases are, this might give a baseline.

I guess I’m just really unsettled by the current political climate. There’s this disunity pretty much everywhere. The left and right have always been at odds in the US, but it’s worse now. The left itself is really fractured. I don’t participate in much, but I tend to have my ear to the ground when it comes to the communities people I follow are in. Like I see a lot of fractures in the LGBT community with things like ace exclusionist stuff.

I think the way the left is always at it’s own throat is what bothers me most. As someone who falls pretty far left on most things, I tend to want to see the left succeed. To me things like universal healthcare, and LGBT rights, and dealing with things like antisemitism and racism; those are all leftist causes. Right now though there seem to be a lot of very dogmatic people on the left, people where if you disagree on even one thing they want nothing to do with you. You can agree on almost everything else, but if for instance you don’t think their approach is going to work, then you’re out. It’s part of why I avoid talking politics so much.

You see things like a LGBT group deciding that Jewish people aren’t the right kind of LGBT. It’s this whole “not the right kind of” thinking that just... it tears things apart. There’s so much wrong in the world and instead of focusing on what we have in common, there are some many people I see insisting it’s our differences that are important. Not important because they enrich the world and that we’re better for mixing our culture and experiences, but important because they’re how we should be divided out. I find that so troubling.

Then you have people arguing things like that bi and ace people are “het passing”. They say that aces aren’t LGBT and act like bi people are less LGBT or traitors or something, I see people say they don’t have as much to deal with. These very same people sit around spewing out the same kind of nasty mentalities as an old bigot. I don’t know. I don’t know that I have some coherent point, it’s just that this kind of thing really gets to me.

I was watching an interview with Stephen Fry where he was talking about being a liberal among other things(I’ll like it when i get done with this). He talks about how a liberal is very “oh can’t we all get along”, and honestly that’s very me. Maybe that’s not what I should be, but honestly I just want every thing to be as good as it possibly can be for as many people.

Well, to try and make some point to what has by and large been incohesive, I’ll say more or less the same thing I said the last few times I wrote something like this. I want whoever is reading this to know that I support you. I support who you are. Whatever makes up your identity doesn’t matter, I support it. There are ideas I don’t like, but whatever your religion, or ethnicity, or gender, or sexuality; I’m glad you’re how you are. Once again since I’ve seen bits of nastiness towards Jewish people, and bi people, and asexual people; I want you to know I think you’re fantastic.

I’ve been having this idea lately that’s in the back of my head. If I was more social, if everyone lived closer together, I’d really like to just invite people over for dinner. Just give a place to feel wanted, and accepted, and know everyone really wants them to be there. I’m not LGBT, or Jewish, or anything else; but I’d like to be able to make people feel like someone’s in their corner. With all the exclusionism I’ve been seeing, I just wish I was in a place to make my house have an open door policy and make sure people feel accepted.

I’m a big fan of Mr Rogers, he’s the kind of person I want to be. If I’m honest right now I wish I could tag him in for a round two and let him take my place. I don’t know. If you want a take away from this it should be that I don’t know, and that I want things to work out for everyone in the end. I don’t know how to help, I don’t know that there’s much that I can do, but if you need something you let me know and I’ll do what I can. I can’t do much, but at the least I can listen and try and make you feel valid.

I know you are all out there trying your hardest. Sometimes it may not feel like you’re able to do much, or like you best isn’t very good, but I see just how much work you’re putting in. Don’t stop

[anti-yuri-on-ice]

LGBT Representation and Westerners’ PC Misconception in Anime - by a bi asian girl

Before you read: the definition of canon is ‘the material accepted as officially part of the story in an individual universe of that story’.

This is gonna get really long because I have been meaning to write this essay for a very long time, and this blog gave me a chance to finally express my opinion on tumblr, a western website where anime has gained huge popularity, but is often misused and misread in the eyes of western fans. This is not a ‘cultural appropriation’ lesson, it’s just a small insight on how asian fans actually view anime, and why westerners ought to put on their cultural glasses and look at anime a bit more differently instead of shoving westernised ideas on asian media products.

Very often in anime even when you see a m/m couple even in a non-BL genre, it is STILL very intended to attract female viewers and generate profit from it. That’s the blatant truth and I don’t think I am at fault to just outright say this. Yes, Shion and Nezumi did love each other, and they are, as western fans like to call it, ‘canon’, but are they really that good for a ‘LGBT representation’ that are not ‘targeted at fujoshis’?. Take a look on their doujins on myreadingmanga. Same as Samurai Flamenco, whose couple’s legitimacy is outright denied by the creator of the series. I will not say that there are no LGBT representation in anime AT ALL, I’m am telling you that if it’s a m/m couple in a seemingly non-BL genre, it’s almost always marketed at girls OR fudanshis, who are willing to throw money on official merch and create doujins; this is an undeniable fact. Anime with lots of pretty guys and gay undertones ALWAYS do better even if the story has a shit plot because girls love it and will buy anything related to it(look at y o i).

There are 3 more ‘recent’ anime with actual LGBT characters whom I believe are not created to woo the audience, nor the anime was solely targeted at people who only like m/m ships (i.e. 80% of vk shippers, please get off your high horse, you certainly do not hold moral superiority to fujoshis or anyone else).

Sailor Moon: Before you tell me Haruka and Michiru aren’t actually ‘canon’, go take a look at this link. Sailor Moon has aired in my local TV channel in the 90s when it is still a very conservative time (it still is) and did not censor the parts that show they are lovers. On top of that Sailor Moon is targeted at a younger audience so there is no way this couple is created for fanservice. It is still an ongoing series too, and continues to inspire new generations of kids.

Mahou Shoujou Ikusei Keikaku: Sister Nana and Weiss are a confirmed couple, but much like Korrasami, their relationship is quite subtle and because they aren’t main characters, AND because MSIK is not 100% targeted at girls, this couple is often left out as legit LGBT characters as far as i can see.

DANGANRONPA: I think it’s safe to say (at least in Asia) that danganronpa has a generally equal amount of male and female viewers, so it was very surprising to me that they actually included a LGBT character, Juzo Sakakura, who is considered a main supporting character and whose sexuality is actually relevant to the plot. Again, he is often neglected because there seems to be a trend that (spoilers alert) ‘if the character gets killed off then they are no longer a good LGBT representation’.

So now you may ask: are you calling all those m/m anime ‘queer-baiting’, then?’. Yes, yes I pretty much am calling them that in English, but at the same time, I am not because THERE IS NO SUCH CONCEPT AS ‘QUEERBAITING’ IN ASIAN MEDIA. We dont have the term queer bait in our vocabulary and fans certainly do not accuse producers of queer baiting in any way shape or form. If there is gay undertone OR actual m/m ships, they are, again, often marketed at girls (fujoshis) because their series will be more successful with more supporters. On the other hand, there are rarely ANY actually confirmed, CANON LGBT characters in anime anyway, so what are they gonna bait you with? Oh right, gay undertone WHICH IS TARGETED AT FUJOSHI. Now we are just going on a cycle here aren’t we?

You cannot call Free or K or any other anime with popular m/m ships ‘queer-baiting’ (not even y o i) because 1. it is an anime targeted at fujoshis, therefore contains loads of fan service 2. it has gay undertones but no characters are actually confirmed as LGBT and no ships are EVER going to become ‘canon’ in the first place and 3. it was never intended to give any LGBT representation. By giving anime such a high standard and ignoring the cultural context on why it is created and whom it is created for, western fans are just going to be more and more disappointed as more fanservice anime disguised as ‘real lgbt rep’ and ‘serious ice skating anime’ gets released.

Please stop trying to enforce the western PC culture on Asian popular culture. It’s not a thing here and probably will not be for a very long time.

In conclusion: looking for good LGBT representation in Japanese anime, or any Asian media at all, is a bad idea because Asia is still very conservative and as I stated in previous asks, the media producers literally do not give a flying fuck about ‘lgbt media representation’ because ALMOST NO ONE IN THE GENERAL PUBLIC CARES ABOUT THAT in our current generation. We do in fact care more about promoting equal marriage rights, discrimination laws, and civil partnership domestic violence laws. Maybe things will change, and I hope things will change, but now can we all just take a moment and realise that Asia and the West is still fundamentally, culturally different and cannot be viewed and judged by the same set of standards. Yes, Y o i is targeted at fujoshis, there is NO DOUBT about that, and no, it is NOT a LGBT representation and I am very sorry and devastated for you if you thought it was, but it really isn’t. Y o i is merely a carefully packaged anime targeted to girls and it is guaranteed to do well in the west because it has ‘diversity’ and ‘canon LGBT characters’ and ‘POCs’ and even a well thought out ship name that is CONVENIENTLY English. y o i is not a revolutionary or groundbreaking anime because it is just doing what every other fujoshi-orientated anime is doing, but with more PCness and celebrity promotions.

My English is terrible and i had a long day before writing this so please try to understand what I am talking about here. Feel free to send in arguments but please do be polite and don’t be racist.

Also reblog this if you can please, I want more people to see this and i spent a lot of time writing this. Thank you for reading!

- by Mod 2

[une-dyke-tragique]

updated blog description p1

you might want to read this

I am a huge fucking poseur and I don’t even know that much about the stuff i post but here’s a list of stuff I’m loosely into that I reblog, which can be loosely sorted into two categories:

arts, entertainment, and culture

plastic / fine arts- impressionism, sculpture, portraits, pop art, surrealism, comic book/graphic novel art, medieval art, and classical art, mostly ancient jewellery castles cool historical figures, esp cool female historical figures architecture photography- nature, animals, portraits of people, industrial things aesthetic fashion… which is once in a while actual ‘high fashion’ but mostly goth, punk, alternative, hippie etc style or random items of clothes that i like (but like, fuck the “fashion industry” as a concept am i rite lads?) jazz hip hop music & culture punk music & culture metal music & culture web art cool gifs anime- I actually don’t watch any anime right now, when I do post it, it is to appreciate examples of really great animation art. However I’ve almost every episode of Sailor Moon and most of the Studio Ghibli movies. Gifs and frames from movies. I love vintage movies aesthetics, especially those of the late 60s and early 70s. nature- sunsets, plants, volcanoes, landscapes animals, ranging from the fuzzy cute puffy floofs all the way to the weird slimy monster-creatures science, but most of the science-related content I reblog is intended for the average audience so it will be easy to understand as I am not a scientist bands and artists whom i like guitars other musical instruments comics & graphic novels dank memes social justice, feminism and sociology

so I pretty much have removed myself from “The Discourse” on tumblr as I don’t wish to be involved in wasting time in petty fights with strangers over the internet. Also I have been too focused on school to concentrate on “blogging” or the news right now and actually have not been on tumblr as much in general as I used to be, but I particularly have slowed down on making posts about social justice stuff over tumblr.

I should also mention that I find much internet activism has been counterproductive, unhealthy, and takes a toll on the individual participating in it without much actual positive outcome for the oppressed group being discussed. And I do daresay that well, yes, sometimes people can be ‘extreme’, which to me, means focusing their energies in the wrong places. So I have withdrawn from activism/social justice the past few months, but do have certain radical views left over from it. Oops.

But when I do post about this social justice it is usually in the realm of…

feminism more specifically, I am interested in lesbian feminism, anarcha-feminism, and womanism. I would like to participate in feminism that takes women of different backgrounds, nationalities, abilities, etc., although I don’t claim to have achieved perfect ideology yet or anything. American politics Canadian politics anarchism and communism. I still have not done enough theory readings to have made up my mind on what the best “system” or lack thereof is, so don’t jump to conclusions about my views, but I lean towards anarchism and communism / anarcha-communism, in some respects. this includes the black bloc, anti-fascism, and modern anarchist tactics and strategies. PS HI FEDS. autism- I am pretty sure I am on the spectrum and am planning to be diagnosed shortly. racial issues, particularly violence against black and indigenous populations, but I try to educate myself about racism and xenophobia that is directed towards varieties of peoples. I’m white so this is mostly stuff that I signal boost if I think it needs to be seen. I don’t really involve myself in these conversations or make original posts about racism with the goal of it getting notes. the effects of colonialism, and decolonization LGBT issues. I have focused in the past on issues revolving around Women-loving-Women, trans people, bi people, and gay men; as the struggles of LGBT people who live with poverty, addiction, and trauma; as well as the intersecting identities of disabled, non-white, otherwise marginalized, LGBT people. But now I mostly just post about lesbian issues because that is what is most relevant to me and my life, as a lesbian.

[meliorn]

Normally I would be open to that but considering your friends I don't exactly feel safe doing that but honestly just read the post a little more carefully the homophobia isn't really hidden

look, i’m sorry, i’m really trying to be open here and i get not feeling safe enough to come off anon so i’m not judging that but you can’t justify not being willing to talk to me in private with “considering your friends”. what is that even supposed to mean? it might have been a mistake reblogging that post, i’m willing to talk about that and i try my best to be open to changing if i’m called out on something problematic, but what the fuck am i supposed to do with that? which of my friends are you even talking about? why is it relevant what my friends think if it’s a private conversation between us? why do you think insulting my friends is a good way of going about this conversation? i’m so confused and i don’t know how i’m supposed to react to this

and i have read it through and as i said in my tags, i don’t agree with the positioning of gay/bi/binary people as privileged because it’s easier to find terminology for those identities. i definitely don’t think there’s any systematic power given to gay people just because gay is a more well-defined term. i don’t think gay people have it easier than people who self-identify as queer. i really, really don’t. i know that a lot of lgbt people have issues with the word and for cultural reasons (in sweden where i’m from it’s common practice within the lgbt movement to use queer as an umbrella term), that never occured to me until i came in contact with the international lgbt community. but now i know better so i’m working on removing it from my vocabulary when i’m talking lgbt issues in general.

however! i do think there’s a lack of general, inclusive language to describe people who don’t feel comfortable with single labels, or who for various reasons need multiple labels for themselves, or who just don’t feel comfortable with labels such as gay, bi, pan, etc. these people aren’t more or less oppressed than gay, bi, pan, etc people. just because i think there’s a value in finding vague, inclusive language to include the people who aren’t included in “lgbt”, doesn’t mean i think gay people aren’t oppressed anymore, or that ppl who self-identify as queer are more oppressed. i genuinely don’t think so. but as someone who’s struggled with labels and not really fitting in anywhere, queer has helped me a lot. and i know it’s not good to use it about lgbt people in general, and i’m working on not doing that anymore, but it’s an extremely useful word for me personally and as the post said, to my knowledge there’s no other word that has that function. so for me, i’m using queer because i don’t have any other word that works for me.