#PRIDE MONTH MEME WOW THAT WAS A LONG ASS REPLY!!

[millicnreasons-blog]

how do you feel about lgbtqa roles in media? @ u

PRIDE MONTH QUESTIONNAIRE // accepting

Oh now this is a very good question.

I think comparatively, since the 1990′s there’s been a slow upward trend in lgbtqa representation, it’s gone from relatively few and negative images to a much more visible and positive representation. However, that isn’t to say the media doesn’t have a long way to go in providing more appropriate and positive healthy portrayals of lgbqa people. My main bug bear when it comes to queer representation is the trend of f/f storylines or even subtext f/f is still geared towards the straight male gaze. ( holla for hetero privilege yall can we say H E T E R O N O R M A T I V I T Y ). 

Another issue with lgbtqa storylines is that they can often be delivered in a way that is palatable to the masses eg. the trope of pairing male gay characters with a heterosexual female counterpart - will & grace is like the PERFECT albeit a little dated example of this-  by making the gay male character the female leads homo-platonic pseudo husband ( and even with will & grace fight me if there wasn’t this over whelming implication that they’d end up together by the fandom ).

THIS GETS LONG…. so I’mma read more it!!

       Let’s talk Buffy the Vampire Slayer; so this show was literally at the forefront of queer portrayals imo. the willow and tara love story was so beautifully crafted, and delivered with grace. it grew so naturally and, i know now from interviews with Wheadon that it was his intention from very early on to take Willow’s story down that route. and this was in the last 90′s, a lesbian full frontal kiss on primetime television, it was fucking visionary, and because of this show and this story line I was less afraid to explore my own feelings for the same sex.  Their romance would die ( literally when Tara died and oh god that hurt ) but what they did after that is arguable so important – and as much as I hated it at the time looking back now, giving Willow another female love interest, after Tara was so important. They didn’t just leave her to grieve and be alone, they gave her hope, a new beginning. And you might slate BTVS for a lot of things, but how they played out that story line in the late 90′s early noughties was spectacular. and they were anything but apologetic about it.  

     Now let’s talk about Grey’s Anatomy; this show has done wonderful at queer representation.  I might have such a love hate relationship with a lot of aspects of GA but queer rep is one thing is does exceptionally well, and it isn’t afraid to tackle very REAL problems that lgbtqa people face. the marriage story line with Callie & Arizona was so tasteful and so REALISTICALLY done. Callie’s  religious parents didn’t accept her.  her mother didn’t show up to her wedding; their wedding wasn’t legal because at the time the state of washington didn’t have marriage equality. While i think it’s very important to show healthy, stable relationships between same sex couples, what is even more important is to show their struggles. This gives lgbtqa people something they can relate to. Another story line i though was super important was the one with Ben Warren’s transgender MtF sister.  Ben struggled to come to terms with it, and displayed some wholly disgusting transphobic attitudes and comments. which, although enraged me to watch was relatable, and a true representation to a lot of trans* individuals face when coming out to their families. And finally, the Calzona court battle, gave such hope to not only same sex couples facing awful custody battles but ALSO to adoptive parents. I was extremely well executed.  So well done grey’s you’re doing pretty damn good at this.

    Other noteable, good examples of positive and realistic portrays is definitely Shameless (US) the Gallavich storyline.  A story of two rough kids from shitty neighbourhoods figuring shit out. And while their relationship was toxic at some points,  the growth and character development within it was intense. They loved each other very much, too much even, and in the end that love wasn’t enough to keep them together. it broke my heart i won’t lie. watching how far they came from Mickey’s outright refusal to label himself gay to standing up in the middle of the Alibi and declaring it everyone was fucking beautiful. Also, Shout out to Shameless also for their Poly representation.

 And the NOT so good, trend of QUEER BAITING. two of my favorite shows are guilty of this. They pull you in with this hint of a beautiful queer ship. ( Lexa and Clarke; Betty & Veronica ). maybe they even give you a kissing scene. a little development and then BAM they rip it away. In t100′s case by killing of a queer character for nothing more than shock value. or in Riverdale’s case,a little girl on girl for the ‘shock factor’ of attention whoring. With little consideration for how much that would piss off there queer fans… another Riverdale problem is Jughead’s asexual erasure, which, no isn’t just me pissed off at BUGHEAD. (i lowkey ship it; it gives a girl Literati feels okay??) i know that only one incarnation of the comics confirmed outright his status as asexual. but, for anyone who’d read the comics that doesn’t need to be said, it’s very evident without the outright language that Jughead is ace. What i would have liked to see was that being explored within a relationship. There is no reason why, Jughead, as an asexual could not be in a relationship. I would have prefered to see was how his sexuality would have affected said relationship, be that with Betty or anyone else for that matter, but unfortunately that isn’t a route CW wanted to take for his character, and as someone who identifies somewhere on the ace spectrum ( lil bi-demi right here yo ) that’s kinda sad to me.

So yeah,  in summary, we do have some very positive example of queer representation in the media, but even in those positive examples there is still heteronormative subtext. there’s still a lot of biphobia, transphobia and out right sexualities being erased entirely to make the content more appealing. ( everyone loves a romance plot, right?? ) what i would like to see more of is strong and important friendships between queer characters. platonic  relationships are important, not everyone needs to be fucking everyone to make good viewing. I would like to see more development of queer characters outside of the confines of BEING a queer character ( eg. Kevin Keller, can someone give that boy a decent storyline next season please. )

[millennial-ring]

Can we get more on the three P's? Pain, Pride, and Pure?

           17. PAIN

So this is actually the document where I saved the RP where Bakura came back to find Malik engaged to Seto, aptly named “PAIN” because it’s...fairly angsty. Me and this friend used to RP on Skype, making new group chats with side accounts before deleting them and leaving the two of us (which is so unnecessarily inconvenient lol but it’s what we had to do so we could rp multiple things at a time/not lose the rp in our regular group) and whenever we finished or got bored of an RP one of us would sit down, scroll all the way to the top, and copy and paste the entire thing into a word doc for re-readability. We rp’d it for well over a year, if not longer, so there’s no way to really reread it and condense it into a summary because sooo much happens. I guess highlights that I remember (or at least thing I remember fgjkdjh? we started this rp in 2016)

Bakura gives Malik a necklace he made himself (instead of a ring) before they part ways and Malik ofc keeps wearing it even after Bakura comes back and screams at them. There’s one scene early into the power relationship (when Malik still considers them fuck buddies) where Malik jumps into bed with Ryou, shoves his phone into his face, and starts screaming about Seto’s “you’re adorable” reply to a no-make up, bedhead selfie Malik had sent (bc how dare Seto be cute and do romantic things like that and kiss Malik’s hand and feed Malik chocolate covered strawberries before sex and buy him jewelry when they’re just fucking!) and Ryou’s just like “oh my fucking god just date him already gtfo my room I want to sleep.” Uhm... Malik and Seto are in the middle of wedding planning (visiting Isis and Rishid in Egypt at the time) when Bakura comes back, but they’re talking about a spring wedding in one of the parks/gardens in Seto’s neighborhood and Seto makes a comment about having the ceremony under the wisteria tree because he wants to see wisteria blossoms in Malik’s hair. Malik imagines brushing stray petals from Seto’s hair as they lean in for the kiss that will bind them for life - and then ALL HELL BREAKS LOOSE. Bakura passes out after using all his energy to scream at Malik (bc he JUST returned from the shadows, having had to go through multiple trials and actually give up some of his memories to be able to return) and they put him in the guest bedroom while Malik calls Ryou for help. While they wait for Ryou, Bakura wakes up and crawls out the window and runs away LOL. Uhm... Malik has a fluffy white therapy cat, ykno one of those grumpy looking smoosh faced ones, named Bakura. At some point while they’re still in Egypt Ryou takes Bakura to Kul Elna, where there’s a monument/memorial to the people that died in the massacre, and a very close knit community. Ryou takes Bakura to a community garden run by a pregnant woman named Adela who also owns a restaurant there - the food grown by the locals is used in the restaurant and iirc there was also some kind of donations thing going on where struggling families could come and take whatever they needed provided they bring back seeds or the scraps for compost or help a bit in the garden or something like that. I don’t think we ever made it explicit but we were pretty much implying that Adela was Bakura’s Actual Mom reincarnated. I think Bakura was also around for the birth, but I can’t remember much of it aside from him holding the baby. But the modern Kul Elna village actually practiced a lot of the old traditions and Bakura’s like “whoa... fuck it I might move here”. Uuuhh Bakura tells Ryou how every family in Kul Elna had a special “tzai” (tea) recipe and it could only be shared with people close to said family...before he makes some for Ryou. I think my friend got this from Star Wars? But I like it and we’ve included it in basically all our rps since. Uhm~ At one point Bakura kisses Malik and Malik slaps him and that’s how Bakura knows It’s Really Over. Malik and Seto play rock paper scissors to decide who bottoms every now and then, but it’s moreso a way to say “I want to bottom tonight but for some reason my pride keeps me from saying it outright” (dear 2016 us: bottoming is not shameful!) but also we never rp’d it, it was part of a time skip, but Malik and Seto had a threesome with Ryou and Ryou ate Seto’s ass. That’s all. We had Atem coming back and I remember he wanted to try and smooth things over but whenever Bakura saw him he had a panic attack. Uhm...that’s all for now lol, I can’t really remember much else.

             18. pride

Unfortunately, again, this is not a document about prideshipping. Every so often I get emotional and I start writing emotional things that I think I’ll post to Facebook, but then I either chicken out because I don’t want to be known or perceived. Let people continue to think I’m a hyperactive halfwit and have no deeper meaning to my thoughts. It’s chill. 

But this one was about the concept of LGBT Pride and how I felt about it, how startled I am sometimes when I run across support and acceptance in unconventional or unexpected places, how I worked hard to be comfortable enough to make the “because I’m gay” jokes out loud because growing up in a rural Kansas town I was exposed to my fair share of homophobia, both from family and from community, and even the people I called friends. It was gonna be one of those “wow I love my friends and family because now that I’ve weeded out the assholes I’m surrounded by love and support and this is exactly how much it means to me and why!” kinda posts, but I’m really bad at those, so this stayed in my WIPs. Maybe when Pride month rolls around again and I get nostalgic and emotional again I’ll finish it.

             19. pure

This one’s a “fic” written about mine and my friend’s OCs from an old superhero/supervillain RP group. My character, Zaine, was separated from his girlfriend, Tansy, during a battle with heroes that killed a lot of supers and civilians alike. They were reunited after a few years (both had assumed the other had died and somehow hadn’t run into each other at all asdkja, it was our excuse as to why the characters had changed so much (since we were coming back to rp these characters after a few years ourselves, and wanted to revamp them a bit without them losing their relationships or experiences). But in that time, Zaine became better friends with his buddy Forest, and before the gal who made Tansy rejoined the group, me and the guy who made Forest were debating if Zaine and Forest should get together. But Tansy came back and Zaine got back together with her, but I made it canon that Zaine was crushing on Forest prior to that/still a bit after Tansy came back. Zaine is in a band and it’s sort of a running joke that his band members are all betting how long it takes for a threesome or for Tansy (who’s a bit possessive) to attack Forest, and they constantly tease Zaine about how much time he spends with Forest, make “hey don’t fuel the shippers” jokes, some other stuff along those lines, etc. It’s all good natured tho.

Anyway that’s all canon. The fic was “pureshipping” - Zaine, Tansy, and Forest. It was kinda me exploring how a relationship might develop between the three of them and I was writing little bits for my friends at work based on the answers they gave me to the “How would they react to/feel about this” questions I asked before turning that into a proper story. 

It started with Tansy trying to remember when exactly she became open to the idea of polyamory, since as I said, she’s a bit possessive and got jealous easily. She recalls a night Zaine brings Forest back to their apartment after a bachelor party, with them plastered and barely able to stand. They fall down, and Zaine shushes Forest because Tansy has her laptop out and she’s working. Forest shushes Zaine back, they put their fingers against each other’s lips and keep shushing each other, drawing closer until the only thing separating their mouths are their fingers, and Tansy’s just like “whoa” and something clicks because A) she sees Zaine’s lids lower while looking at Forest the way they do when he wants to kiss HER and B) why is she not freaking out about this isn’t she a poisonous little viper that hisses at anyone that tries to flirt with Zaine? But nope, she’s never been jealous of Forest even if his and Zaine’s relationship is fairly intimate for what most consider friendship. And then a few days later she sees one of those memes that’s like “Zaine has two hands” (bc Forest is also a famous musician, and he and Zaine do a lot together, both professionally on the music front and in like. Idk, livestreams and general hanging out. so ofc weirdos ship them, and since Zaine and Tansy went public there’s gonna be ppl that include her in the weirdness) on a TVD fan page she follows so she understands some of Zaine’s inside jokes and she sees a comment from Zaine’s official facebook that’s like “these hands were made for holding!” 

and Tansy’s like. “Oh shit. Zaine DOES have two hands!” so a few days later over breakfast she asks Zaine how he REALLY feels about Forest and ofc he’s like “he’s my best friend???” and Tansy’s like “ok but no for real how do you REALLY feel about him” and then calls him out about about having a crush on him and Zaine, who’s canonically weirdly monogamous is like “no!!” but Tansy whittles him down until he admits he “HAD” a crush on Forest before he and Tansy reconnected, but swears nothing happened between them and Tansy’s like “WOULD YOU LIKE TO?” and brings up the idea of Zaine dating Forest, and Zaine’s like “I’m with you, Tans, I didn’t mean to make you feel inadequate” and she’s like “I appreciate it but not what I meant. I know you, Zaine, I know you’re a lover and not being able to tell Forest how you really feel is hurting you, so if you want to then I highly encourage you ask him out” and after like 2 whole days of debating Zaine comes back to her saying he was going to, and then a few days later they invite Forest over to have The Talk and Tansy says they’re free to date, but Forest is still mourning Kelvin, his fiancé that “died” ((in quotes bc these aren’t our characters to actually kill so all characters are just assumed dead if the roleplayer didn’t rejoin but ofc if they came back “hey surprise i’m alive!) in the war between heroes and villains and says he needs time to think about it. He thinks it over for two whole weeks -and in the meantime, Tansy is happy to see his and Zaine’s relationship hasn’t changed at all- before agreeing. They sit down to discuss boundaries and permissions and whatever, and this line: 

Tansy would never dream of forbidding them from doing anything that she and Zaine would do, especially because Zaine was a lover. He loved with all his heart, soul, and body, as if his purpose in life was to treasure his partners so thoroughly they would never question his feelings for them. It would be unfair to Forest and downright cruel to Zaine for Tansy to restrict them.

aaaa I know I wrote it but I love it. So after boundaries are discussed and all that Zaine and Forest have their first proper kiss, and it’s so sweet Tansy feels breathless alongside them. The three of them cuddle up to watch a movie but Zaine’s paying more attention to the two of them, taking turns kissing each of them while Tansy and Forest accidentally start competing for who can pull the most reactions from Zaine. Forest starts spending every weekend at Zaine and Tansy’s place and it always ends with them cuddling on the couch while watching movies, Zaine between them, but overtime Forest and Tansy become more affectionate with each other and end game was obviously the three of them, but I stopped writing it just after Forest spent the first night in bed with them.

Tansy smiled and looped her arm around Zaine, cuddling up to his side like a cat seeking attention. Zaine’s own arm found its way around her shoulders to keep her close. The last thing Tansy saw before her eyes dropped closed was Forest on the other side of Zaine mirroring her, and the last touch she registered was Forest’s hand brushing over her arm.

[rigenadriftwooduniverse]

KNOWING YOUR PARTNER WELL CAN POTENTIALLY MAKE WRITING TOGETHER A LOT EASIER.

1. BASICS

NAME: Katy, its not my full or real name, but its the name I go by the most and is most comfortable people in real life calling me.  PRONOUNS: Eh. I normally settle with female, but I have not flinched with male or ambiguise pronouns personally either. 

SEXUALITY: Female  ZODIAC SIGN: Scorpio TAKEN OR SINGLE: Taken for a decade now

THREE FACTS:

1. To this day, I am not brave enough to look at a mirror in the dark. This sir is a big ass NOPENOPENOPENOPE

2. Like fluffy and fuzzy things. I own a fuzzy blanket I snug under and rub my chin against or roll into a burrito when I’m feeling really down. 

3.  My favorite food is chili

2. EXPERIENCE

HOW LONG (MONTHS / YEARS?): I've been role playing since I was 8 years old, so a good 22 years. My mom introduced me to it, she started pulling D&D adventures for me and my brothers as family time. My first RP OC was a fairy.  PLATFORMS YOU’VE USED: The table, instant messengers: yahoo, msn, google hang out, skype discord, WoW, Wildstar, forums. BEST EXPERIENCE: A two year story involving a rp partner of mine dealing with inevitable death, love, pride and stubbornness. 

3. MUSE PREFERENCES

FEMALE OR MALE:  Female MULTI OR SINGLE: multi. To be honest I always have some new voice in my head I want to try out after a while. Sometimes they stick and I keep them, sometimes they don’t and I shelve them, or sometimes they really don’t and they are drown by the other voices in my head

4.  WRITING PREFERENCES

FLUFF, ANGST OR SMUT: Fluff and Ansgt! Truth I love adventure, I LOVE PUTTING MY CHARACTER THROUGH THE SHEER FIRES OF HELL AND ANGUISHED UNTIL THEY ARE CONSUMED BY THEIR OWN WONTON DESPAIR- and then have happy comedy moments! I love tragedy, I love comedy. I love dark rp, light rp, adventure rp, mystery rp, fluff rp, house rp, mystic rp, drama rp.. just not smut rp.  PLOTS OR MEMES: WHY MUST I CHOOSE?! I love plots. I love storylines and character development. But I love memes, where you think of a situation and just thrust that character in it. I will forever do both LONG OR SHORT REPLIES: I tend to stick with short, but when I need to I will go long. It all depends on how much detail I wish to express or need to provide to those around me. 

BEST TIME TO WRITE: This is important.. the best time to write... is when I’m not stressing out at something, and not caught up with either a book or show series. My best work isn’t hindered by distractions.  ARE YOU LIKE YOUR MUSE(S): Not really. My muses are things I want to explore in some way. Some of them I wish i could be like... otherwise I claim no responsibility for *coughrigsisnotmyfaultcough*

Tagged by: @wilder-weave

Tagging: @breir-loose-leaf @thegreatersunbro @samibrightberry @cyrexhatesstuff @tiaraniaroiyaru