#also. society is generally less hateful to women for being gnc than men.

[crazyalien87]

you have a good point, but why can't you just use their chosen names? do you also refer to Katy Perry as Kathryn Hudson?

Yall notice how when Bruce Jenner transitioned he got mad publicity and won awards and shit, was basically worshipped. But then Ellen Page transitions and the response is mediocre at best? Its almost like people like to give glory to men more than they do women.

[bbgmessi]

ok but what if omega players were almost expected to be gay - or like there was less stigma around them because it’s thought that they’re already being gnc to their omega-ness by playing football so they’re probably gay right? and like it is borne out of misogynistic gender roles but it’s sort of true kind of like irl in many women’s sports. like these omegas still experiencing a lot of homophobia even if they’re not gay but not necessarily the same backlash you would expect if an alpha player came out - which irl and in this would be because being a gay woman/omega is seeen as “masculinising” yourself which is the “ideal” but being a gay man/alpha is feminising which is “wrong”

but also i feel like this would create an atmosphere where omega players would feel a lot more comfortable exploring their sexuality than alpha/beta players which i feel like could create some fun scenarios (eg o!foden/o!erling fwb u have mentioned before) but u could also have an omega coming from somewhere not as accepting towards gay/gnc players and starts out really gross and homophobic bc of how they were raised and then becoming more accepting and maybe having some realisations

ok i love this ask but i just wanna say as lesbians were not… really seen as ideal only in thought and when we’re not actively shutting men out from our lives and bodies 💔😔 but yeah i can really see how it’d be pretty expected for omegas in sports to also be gay like somehow they’re also taking a step away from their own “””role””” in society so society tries to make a new role for them but it doesn’t fit lol like for lesbians misogyny is very tied into the homophobia and the same would be for omegas like even if they’re not gay you could be hated for simply being seen as one and playing football would be kinda gnc, while for an alpha theyd go under the radar until they came out, and people would think it made them effeminate and like put them in the same category to hate on but it’s also different… i don’t have enough theorietical background to back this up rn but it’s an interesting difference where like gay alphas can still oppress omegas much more violently than omegas do to gay alphas? bc of like misogyny being such a gendered violence. ok getting off topic .

also omegas finding comfort in other omegas is pretty common and football in general is a sport where you are pretty touchy with your teammates so like two omegas on a team just finding comfort in each other but it’s also like a slow realization that they’re actually in love lol like the first time you meet other omegas who are in your situation and you just want to hang out with them blah blah and then you need help with a heat and better an omega and…. then it’s love

[alleycat4eva]

I figured I would chime in with my two cents. TERF (Trans Exclusive Radical Feminist) is kind of a branch of radfem ideology. Radical Feminism is also fairly trans-unfriendly, but is broadly less targeted at trans people specifically. Radical feminism is generally anchored that the belief that misogyny is the ultimate, central oppression, and as such all men are oppressors, and are actors of such in all situations, even when a man might genuinely be a feminist or faces other oppressions like racism, queerphobia, ableism, or classism.

As such you can see this is the start of a big radfem -> terf pipeline (also radfem -> white supremacy pipeline, but thats a bit off topic), where transphobia becomes a central motivator and trans women are specifically targeted as predatory men seeking to enter women-only spaces (hence the Bathroom Panic). Trans men only factor into this as innocent "women" and "wayward daughters" tricked into thinking that thousands in medical bills and hormone therapies and the immense social stigma are easier then just not associating with men to escape misogyny. Tracing back to radfem this is really just a natural conclusion of the ideology as its so rooted in assigning morality to gender, thus already establishing the bioessentialist groundwork that is also so prevalent in transphobia.

Specifically regarding the reproductive and medical rights aspect, that is still be misogyny but kind of... redirected to affect trans people by virtue of the degree to which they choose to medically transition. Also transphobia in that our society largely just... doesn't consider transgender people outside of transition treatments. For example a trans man who chose to and already had his tubes tied could be argued to have no stake in the current reproductive rights either. Infertile cisgender women, or intersex women as well. As the cisgender white man is historically- and thus generally today as well- medical default this does ultimately leave blind spots in the lack of information of those outside that demographic- so vaginal health and wellness is understudied. That could affect a cisgender woman yes, but just as much if not more than a transgender woman who had a vaginoplasty and suffers from lack of diverse study of the vagina. If needed you can specify "oh those affected by cervical cancer" or "those with their reproductive rights at stake". Really when discussing an issue its best to specify what the issue is rather that who you first think is affected.

I hope this cleared somethings up for you, and that i managed to be as factual and unbiased as possible. As another long-time follower, I would hate to see you choose that path. This might sound sheltered but OTRAS was actually an eyeopener for me regarding the existence of the trans community, as theres a one-off line about Haku being DFAB and I wasn't familiar with the acronym. I think you're asking these questions in good faith but tagging "trans" "radfem" "terf" all together comes off as aggression on your part considering the vitriol trans people usually get from radfems and terfs, and radfems definitely want to flock to assure someone they think they can sway. Terms like "gender critical" "sex-based oppression" sound like neat and tidy clinical terms but they are ultimately considered transphobic dogwhistles, as they were created specifically to the exclusion of genderqueer perspectives.

It does clear some of the thing up for sure. And I appreciate you taking the time to talk about these things.

I can also see that trans issues and trans people aren't addressed outside of medical transition. But, and by God I do not mean this in offense even though I realize it might be improper to say, I see a lot of GNC activities shuffled into trans issues when it's like. Just a nontraditional activity or role.

I do see these opinions on transgender men in radfem posts, which seems somewhat infatilizing, but moreso? I... don't see transmen addressed in media and most all the posts. A lot of what I have seen is focused on transwomen? Like I just don't see many transmen in media at all. Which, when I looked into the assault numbers, it seemed like transmen were the majority in cases. And maybe that's because I don't have a huge window or wide enough lense or else it is literally observer effect. I very well could be wrong. (I also feel weird about self reporting in studies but I honestly see that that is a separate issue and am admittedly understudied in that area.)

As for the medical field, yes. I thing reproductive and sex specific issues are understudied in a specific sex. And so are symptoms as they pertain to that sex. And I see how that could pertain to people with vaginoplasty and effect them, but I am unsure if moreso. And then on that side, the failure to recognize that there are inherent (imo base) secondary sex characteristics that occur and give advantageous aspects in many areas is just. Like. Consistently unacknowledged or outright rejected, then laid at the feet of a certain group as not trying hard enough.

I also can see the need for more specific language in places but I also think that at times, instead of adding to the conversation, it detracts from it? Like, people with uteruses, yes, which are widely recognized as a certain word, but even those who identify as male and have a uterus should also check for or be aware of x, like . Almost creates a divide that is unessiscary in the contexts. Like I believe there is uniquely sex based oppression that has to be acknowledged and addressed, and those people empowered to be able to escape it, but it isn't because they are gnc and it would not be applicable to q trans in the same situation?

Like. Let say the church as an example (because I live life in areas where Baptist and evangelical churches reign). Now the church isn't jiving with almost all queers. But even if you were a transgirl growing up with church parents it would be a different discrimination than a girl growing up under heavily religious parents? Like, as a uterus owner a lot of the values and traits that made women less were sex linked. Not gender based.

And I had no idea the tags would be taken that way. I was trying to include tags that would be blocked so those that would be adversely affected by the issues of GC and terf stuff wouldn't have to see it. Is there a tag that I could add in there that would be better suited?

[rittz]

thoughts about being trans, idk where else to put them so here u go

it’s not like i don’t have trans guy friends to talk to about this, it’s just usually in the form of jokes or passing comments rather than an actually serious conversation. also, the transmasc people that i’m closest to identify more with the label “nonbinary” than i do-- it’s not like they couldn’t understand or relate to things i’m saying, but i’m just assuming that they probably don’t feel the exact same way i do

anyway, as a trans person we get often asked “so why do you feel like a [gender]?”, and the answer is usually some variation of “i just feel like it”. this is the most accurate but also vaguest possible answer, so i kinda wanted to break down my personal answer to that question?

basically, i identify as a man because i identify with men. in a general and also personal sense. gender stereotypes are something that trans people by necessity both embrace and reject. i relate to gender stereotypes about men more than those of women-- i’m less outwardly emotional, i like being handy, i don’t like kids, i have questionable personal hygiene, etc-- but obviously these things alone don’t make someone a man. however... you can’t deny that there is some general truth about behavioral differences between men and women (bc of society, not biology). men and women both experience different problems in the world, and each have trouble understanding the experiences and problems of the other. generally, i can relate to the experiences and problems of men more than those of women, even if it seems like i shouldn’t (for example, i am not afraid of walking alone at night, even though i am very tiny).

i, from a young age, have had a constant yearning for more male friends. i would occasionally choose to play video games as a male character. i was upset that i couldn’t be in boy scouts. i have been jealous of my younger brothers being treated by my parents the ways i wished i was treated. when i imagined myself older, i pictured myself less like my mom and more like my dad. when i’m around men, i want them to treat me like one of them. i want to be seen as a man.

and i think that’s what being trans really boils down to. wanting to be seen as someone other than how everyone sees you. wanting what you see on the outside to match how you feel on the inside. this obviously extends to nonbinary individuals, who face their own struggle when it comes to presentation. but at the end of the day, i think that presentation is equally important to gender identity as internal feelings. i mean, i think we’re all familiar with the research proving that transitioning makes trans people happier. surgery is an invasive, expensive, painful process that i DON’T think is necessary for every trans person, and HRT isn’t always easy to get. but changing a name, getting a new haircut, dressing differently, binding, etc. counts as transitioning. you don’t have to hate your body to be trans, but wanting to alter it in order to better connect your internal identity with your presentation, i think is necessary in order to consider yourself to be trans. 

i will admit i am confused by “GNC trans men” i see on tumblr and insta, who use he/him pronouns but exclusively present femininely. i’m not talking about trans guys who don’t yet pass, i mean trans guys who don’t want to. i don’t harbor any ill will, i’m just confused. if i understand being trans to mean “wanting what you see on the outside to match how you feel on the inside”, you can see how. doesn’t that make you feel dysphoric? don’t you want people who see you to read you as male? how is your life different from when you didn’t identify as male but presented the same way? this isn’t me trying to gatekeep on who’s “trans enough”, and especially when it comes to nonbinary identities it’s arbitrary to harp on presentation like this. but like, what’s going on here?

taking a turn here that will come back around, an extremely key component to why i identify as and with men is my sexuality. i have always idolized, envied, and evoked various queer icons from media and real life. the hunky, grunting, macho, hetero version of “man” never appealed to me the way that the fashionable, artsy, flirty, homo version of “man” did. drag queens, my mom’s hairdresser, glam rock stars, i could go on. associating my more feminine qualities with GAY stereotypes instead of FEMALE stereotypes suddenly made more sense, and made me feel less dysphoric. it’s also something that took me a long time to realize, because i had surrounded myself with queers who were mostly attracted to women. transmascs and butch lesbians historically have a lot in common, but personally, i didn’t relate as much to lesbians as i did to drag queens. in dating and loving men, i developed my understanding of them. but my attraction to men was why it had taken me so long to realize i felt more like a man-- i thought i was just some weird straight girl.

now, am i calling these “GNC gay trans men” with long pink hair and poofy skirts and conventionally attractive bisexual boyfriends “weird straight girls”? ...well, not to their faces. but i have to admit that i’m thinking it. these people would never go to a predominantly-male gay bar, these people would never be harassed on the street. i’m not saying i know someone’s identity better than they do, but i don’t agree with the liberal utopian ideal of “let everyone do whatever they want as long as they aren’t hurting anyone” when taken to mean that we can’t question other people’s choices. “why do you feel like a man?” is a question that, coming from another trans person, isn’t inherently transphobic. it’s not “forcing” someone to “prove” their “transness”, no one “owes” me an explanation of their identity. i’m just confused. i don’t disapprove of the way these people live their lives, i just want to know why.

a straight girl being feminine is different from a gay man being feminine, because it has less to do with personality and more to do with society’s historic view of gay men as closer to female than male because of the loving and fucking men aspect. an AMAB gay man wearing makeup and a crop top probably just wants to look good, but he is also signaling to other men that he’s gay via gender non-conformance. by being AFAB and female-passing, wearing makeup and a crop top is not GNC. in fact it’s pretty GC, and gay men will not recognize you as a gay man.

it’s easy to say “gender is fake so do whatever you want”, but like, we have to acknowledge reality. time is a social construct too, but we still use days of the week when talking to each other. strangers will treat you differently depending on what gender they interpret you as. different people will be willing to date you or not. you have to choose which public bathroom to go in. if being misgendered doesn’t bother these people, then who cares? but if it DOES, which it usually does, wouldn’t you want to take steps to prevent being misgendered in the future? if your desire to present femininely is stronger then your desire to be seen as male, then like... why call yourself a male at all? ultimately nothing these people do will really affect me in any way. it just makes me wonder if these people will eventually go on to present as male, or if they will later ID as nonbinary or even cis. i encourage people trying out different labels and exploring their identity, so it’s not like i think these people SHOULDN’T identify as trans guys. it’s more like, i wish they were able to articulate WHY they identify as trans more than “because i said so”. not wanting to be a woman doesn’t automatically make you a man, it just makes you not a woman.

maybe i’m particularly cynical because of the MULTIPLE times that people with larger online followings who identify and present this way have later turned out to be lying, manipulative people. hopefully it goes without saying that i do NOT think that everyone who identifies and presents this way is a toxic liar. the reason i bring it up is because some people genuinely can’t understand the possibility or purpose of misleadingly claiming a marginalized identity, but it can and does happen. an analogy could be made here about white people claiming indigenous heritage. we all WANT to believe what people say about themselves, and asking for “proof” is a social no-no. but we shouldn’t just... automatically trust everything someone says about themselves, right? and as bad as i WANT to live in a world where gender doesn’t matter and everyone default uses neutral pronouns and there are no divisions in clothing stores and bathrooms, we don’t live in that world (yet). when you are AFAB, /extremely/ femininely presenting, and have little to no plans of transitioning, saying “i am a man” will not make other people see you as one. and if you don’t want to be seen as a man, then maybe you aren’t one.

[githvyrik]

this is just gonna he a random word dump because I wanna get some Thoughts out so like basically consider each paragraph as sort of having its own Point also I’m aware that none of these ideas are exactly original or insightful nor are they good and full essays but I just wanna rant

like rly I just wish we lived in a society world where it was seen as totally normal to question your own gender and sexuality because like. it totally is normal to, a lot of people aren’t cishet, but it’s not seen as normal and that’s the thing. like a lot of the time it’s framed as “oh I just KNEW” but that isnt the case for everybody and I wish people were able to like actually explore themselves without the stigma around that bc tbh even in some lgbt spaces I’ve seen it criticized to be unsure of yourself and also to express your sexuality or especially gender in a way that doesn’t fit with like societal ideals (truscum come to mind) and I know the obvious answer is that we have to fix it but that’s gonna take a long long time and I do want it to be so much easier for people in the future but for now a lot of ppl are still screwed over and might live their whole lives without ever knowing who they really are because of societal pressure. and also I wish ppl would recognize it’s okay to question your gender and/or sexuality even if you eventually come to realize that you’re actually cis/het because that often leaves you with a better understanding of yourself and of other people so really it should be a scenario where you don’t lose but the fact of the matter is that since society hates lgbt ppl most ppl probably won’t even try it!!!

also I wish that more cishet ppl knew they’re allowed to be gnc. obviously cishet gnc ppl are not my priority for that, I will always protect and support gnc lgbt ppl above them (particularly gnc trans ppl), but I think a lot of cishets would be more comfortable with themselves if they recognized they were allowed to be more feminine if they’re men or masculine if they’re women and like I think a lot more women allow themselves to recognize this but are still scared to actually fully express it because of societal pressure, and men are a lot more nervous because being seen as feminine is still a bad thing and feminine men are just seen as funny and silly and for entertainment which stems from like. sexism and transmisogyny and racism all that fun shit. and in my experience a lot less cishet ppl are gnc than lgbt ppl but I can’t tell if that’s just like a thing that happens naturally or if it’s just a societal thing or both. AND THIS IS NOT TO SAY THAT CISHET PPL ARENT PERPETUATING THIS SHIT, THEY ARE THE BIGGEST CONTRIBUTORS TO THE ISSUE AND TBH A LOT OF CIS PPL IN GENERAL. idk not to further speak about Gender Roles but I genuinely think a lot more ppl would be happier if they were allowed to actually explore their relationship to their gender and like present more masculine (if theyre female-aligned) or feminine (if they’re male-aligned) rather than just like accepting it.

[freedom-of-fanfic]

how radfem lite rhetoric echoes the social effects of misogyny

@rainbowloliofjustice wrote a quality post about absurd and condescending it is to judge women for their life choices, as if they didn’t actually choose those things for themselves. and it struck me that the things they described shared a consistent message.

(vocabulary note: 

‘women’ means ‘women’ - trans, cis, intersex, or otherwise

‘(perceived) women’ encompasses (1) women, trans, cis, intersex, or otherwise, and (2) anyone that others - radfems, etc - mistakenly perceive as women (nb afab, sometimes trans men, etc)

‘women and/or people presenting as women’ encompasses (1) women, trans, cis, intersex, or otherwise, and (2) anyone of any gender who chooses to present as a woman for whatever reason, not limited to genital arrangement.)

so ….

you know how I’m always on about radfem lite rhetoric? as in: people who don’t even like non-intersectional radfems, much less their subgroups (terfs & swerfs), will say this stuff without understanding the buried connection to radfem thinking?

the examples rainbowloli used are all that kind of rhetoric - or closely tied to it.

‘f-o-f, you’re trying too hard. it’s women looking down on other women for their choices because of internalized misogyny.’

well the funny thing is, nonintersectional radical feminism totally encourages (perceived) women to look down on other (perceived) women for their choices.  The difference is only that:

radfem rhetoric judges (perceived) women for what they see as ‘catering to men’/’the patriarchy’ too much*

misogyny judges (perceived) women for not catering to the patriarchy enough(or not doing it ‘the right way’).

(*’catering … too much’ should be read as ‘doing something that might conceivably please men, even if it also pleases the (perceived) woman doing it.’)

In short: both radfems & patriarchal social structures try to control and police the behavior of (perceived) women.

That’s why radfem rhetoric can easily flourish among the unaware: the behavior it encourages replicates the behavior encouraged by patriarchal/misogynistic social structures. It’s only the reasoning that’s changed.

Let me demonstrate:

“Wow, I feel so sorry for women dating ugly dudes like girl you can do so much better.”

this is closest to internalized misogyny. In general, when a woman is seen as significantly more beautiful than her partner we assume the guy is somehow buying her affection, and we judge her for being bought off. that’s internalized misogyny.

But lop off the ‘ugly’ in the middle of that sentence and you’ve got word-for-word radfem rhetoric. ‘I feel sorry for women dating dudes like girl you can do so much better.’ because dudes are always hopeless, self-centered trash and women are always attentive, woke angels. That poor silly woman. she needs to find a good wife who will make her happy. Dating men is an act of catering to the patriarchy.

and no: neither misogynists nor radfems consider that maybe the woman is happy with the man she’s dating, nor are they willing to respect her choice to date whomever she likes, for whatever reason she chooses.

“I feel so sorry for girls who spend hours doing their makeup and they can’t catch a break from the patriarchy.”

as is often the case, there’s a grain of truth in here. Dress codes & appearance standards for (perceived) women in client-facing jobs are often more strict than those for (perceived) men, and certainly more expensive to maintain (jobs that require women and/or people who present as women to wear makeup should have to pay for it. just saying). Plus, those standards are often set by (cis) men who are in positions empowered to make those calls. There’s also plenty of internalized misogyny involved in the social perception that anyone who is and/or presents as a woman must maintain their appearance at a certain standard to attract a (male) mate, whereas men are seen as capable of attracting a woman via qualities other than appearance.

But the idea that all people who present as &/or are women are forced or brainwashed into a makeup & beauty regimen purely at the behest of men/patriarchy is both an insult to free will and too narrow a look at daily primping. Plenty has been written by others about how applying makeup often isn’t about men/attracting men at all. and men and/or male-presenting people are also under social pressure to meet certain beauty standards to be seen as attractive (though perhaps not to the same degree).

‘women are forced to do [thing] by the patriarchy/the only reason women do [thing] is because of patriarchy,’ where [thing] is something that women and/or female-presenting people choose to do for many reasons, is a radfem dog whistle. 

The underlying assumption is that any (perceived) woman who says they do [thing] for a reason other than ‘i’m forced to do it for the pleasure of men’ must be a brainwashed victim of internalized misogyny; the only way to truly free oneself of patriarchal brainwashing is to submit oneself entirely to a husban– I mean, the radfem worldview.

And the third statement has the same energy:

“I feel sorry for women who enjoy [insert thing] because they’ve been socialized to enjoy it.”

Here’s another statement that presumes that women only do [thing] because they were tricked or brainwashed into it. Here, the word ‘socialized’ stands for ‘taught by patriarchal society’ - i.e. (perceived) women only enjoy [thing] because men & misogyny taught them to enjoy it.

and hey: our society is patriarchal. and hey: that totally does influence how women are socialized and how women think about themselves and others in negative ways. but this statement once again takes it too far: it posits that women functionally have no free will and are more or less mind-controlled by the influence of patriarchy into all their likes and dislikes.

If you’re having a hard time seeing the radfem influence, insert ‘giving head’ for ‘[insert thing]’, and ‘taught by men’ for ‘socialized’: ‘I feel sorry for women who enjoy giving head because they’ve been taught by men to enjoy it.’ because to a radfem, (perceived) women doing anything that gives pleasure to a (cis) man cannot possibly be a pleasure to herself as well. It’s impossible for a (perceived) woman to choose such a thing of her own free will.

And no: radfems do not respect that some people they see as women enjoy things that they find reprehensible or disgusting. instead, they see that perceived woman’s enjoyment of what they hate as traitorous to the cause of womanhood. These traitors - who are also victims - must be rescued from their own desires, even if that means screaming at them daily about how terrible they are and how they’re hurting and betraying their fellow women and how they’re harming themselves. (because screaming at (perceived) women about how terrible they are isn’t at all a carbon copy of the behavior of misogynists towards women.)

The takeaway is this:

When you see a blanket statement about how women* are forced, tricked, coerced, trapped, etc by patriarchy, men, or misogyny to do [thing], please consider whether or not it respects autonomy/free will before resharing or agreeing with it.

It’s true that patriarchy influences the lives of people of all genders, and that much of that influence isn’t for the better. it’s true that it particularly harms anybody who isn’t a cis man (and even cis men, if they don’t perform masculinity to satisfaction). but arguing that patriarchy robs people, particularly (perceived) women, of all their free will is a step towards trying to control the actions of those (perceived women) for their own good - and that’s gateway radical feminism in a nutshell.

*in this context, ‘women’ often means ‘afab’ (as in, exclusionary of trans women + erasing trans men/afab people off the binary). Sometimes it means ‘afab people & trans women’ (erasing trans men & afab ppl off the binary. radfems usually consider trans men as sharing the disadvantages of women b/c of presumed genital configuration & afab nb people to be misguided GNC women.)

if this sounds transphobic & gender essentialist ... that’s because it is. b/c radfem ideology naturally points towards becoming a transphobic exclusionist.

[reconditarmonia]

Dear Trick or Treater

Hi! Thank you for writing for me! I’m reconditarmonia here and on AO3. I have anon messaging off, but mods can contact me with any questions.

Alternate Universe Works | Assassin's Creed | Far from the Madding Crowd | Fidler Afn Dakh | Simoun | Sleep No More

General likes:

– Relationships that aren’t built on romance or attraction. They can be romantic or sexual as well, but my favorite ships are all ones where it would still be interesting or compelling if the romantic component never materialized.

– Loyalty kink! Trust, affectionate or loving use of titles, gestures of loyalty, replacing one’s situational or ethical judgment with someone else’s, risking oneself (physically or otherwise) for someone else, not doing so on their orders. Can be commander-subordinate or comrades-in-arms.

– Heists, or other stories where there’s a lot of planning and then we see how the plan goes.

– Femslash, complicated or intense relationships between women, and female-centric gen. Women doing “male” stuff (possibly while crossdressing).

– Stories whose emotional climax or resolution isn’t the sex scene, if there is one.

– Uniforms/costumes/clothing.

– Stories, history, and performance. What gets told and how, what doesn’t get told or written down, behavior in a society where everyone’s consuming media and aware of its tropes, how people create their personas and script their own lines.

Smut Likes: clothing, uniforms, sexual tension, breasts, manual sex, cunnilingus, grinding, informal d/s elements, intensity; stories whose resolution isn’t the sex scene. DNW "pussy."

General DNW: rape/dubcon, torture, other creative gore; unrequested AUs, including “same setting, different rules” AUs such as soulmates/soulbonds; PWP; food sex; embarrassment; focus on pregnancy; Christmas/Christian themes; focus on unrequested canon or non-canon ships; unrequested trans versions of characters.

I am requesting exclusively fic, but open to art treats!

—

Fandom: Alternate Universe Works (Treat or Trick)

Character(s): Female Li Shang (Mulan 1998), Female Ishmael (Moby Dick), Female Captain Ahab (Moby Dick), Pokémon Trainer Harrowhark Nonagesimus

Female Shang - I would...just love it so much if you Monstrous Regiment-ed this canon up. Shang also being a woman would give her even more reasons to be a hardass (is she in disguise, and thinks that her regiment failing would invite suspicion on her? is she openly female and needs to prove that she’s as good as her father and the country need her to be? is she paranoid about other women in the army, or does she want to have a female regiment?) If you want to write F!Shang/Mulan, I’d also love to know how falling in love with a woman plays into Mulan’s whole arc - it’s certainly not what her family was preparing her for, but neither was being a soldier and saving China. What does seeing another woman dressed as a man (whether Shang is openly female or not, I imagine she’d wear men’s clothes), or a group of women dressed as men, make her think? What are Yao, Chien Po, and Ling like in an AU where they’re also female, if that’s what you choose to write?

I’d be happy for just about anything in this vein - Shang character study, Mulan/Shang romance/sex (this is a canon that is a Lot about bodies and clothes), gen shenanigans with the rest of the squad, both? During canon or post? I love loyalty kink and butch characters a lot.

Female Ishmael, Female Ahab - I’d love to know more about these female sailor(s) and what drives them. A female Ishmael might still decide to sign on to a ship whenever she gets the blues, but it’d be socially fairly different, mightn’t it? (Worldbuilding-wise, I’d be more interested in a world where sailing and whaling are still typically male things as in our world, even if you make them a little less exclusively male, than an egalitarian or matriarchal world; something that women might do, without necessarily disguising themselves as men, but a GNC thing to do.) Would her already diverging from the “expected” female path in this regard affect her reception of Queequeg as someone who’s an outsider to Nantucket society? And, if Queequeg is also female, the the intimacy she offers? What does she still find outlandish? (If you also write f!Queequeg, is her life a typical female life for her home culture, or not?)

As for Ahab - just imagine this fanatic, tragic, vengeful character as a woman - with the willpower not only to do all the things canonical male Ahab does but also in a society where women aren’t really supposed to sail or kill or lead! Is she the odd one out in an otherwise male crew, or are there more women in the crew by the time she’s captain?

Pokémon Trainer Harrow - It's a great idea!! I think she'd have a Duskull, but I'm very open to any choices you make in Pokemon-ing this universe up. Do different houses tend towards different types or no? What are their different cultures around Pokémon raising, training, and fighting? What is Harrow's relationship with her Pokémon like, singular or plural? (I don't need you to think through the implications of what Lyctorhood entails in this setting if you'd rather just write slice of life, and, you know, I was writing this and realized that that might make Harrow's Pokémon Gideon. Thanks, brain, I hate it. DNW Gideon as a Pokémon.)

—

Fandom: Assassin's Creed (Treat only)

Character(s): Aveline de Grandpré

I'm close to finishing AC Liberation and I love Aveline a lot! I really like how she basically makes New Orleans into her own little fiefdom and does what she feels like doing. Not in a #girlpower way, but in the sense where she considers herself to be the best person to judge and decide in any situation and to deal with happenings on any level in her various personas, and where becoming a business magnate is actually a part of her character and plot in a way that it wasn't so much for earlier Assassins? I imagine Assassins from other places talking about New Orleans and going "oh yeah, Aveline de Grandpré runs that whole city from the shadows," and then you go there to talk to her and she pulls a Lexa (as in The 100) where she uses her slave disguise to eavesdrop on you while you wait to meet with this Assassin lady merchant.

I like her friendships with other characters too - Gérald being there as the loyal support guy, Élise and Roussillon being the people she can be at ease with (she seems so happy to see them - "Bonjour, smugglers!"). I'd be happy to see something set in New Orleans as she takes it over or after she takes it over, in the Bayou as she lives there in a very different way (where and how does she sleep when she's there?), or in Chichen Itza if you want to expand on her discovery of all the weird shit. [Edit: I've finished the game now and I also like the aspect of her mission with Connor that's about how sometimes Assassin "brother"s from other locations will show up where you, another Assassin, are because there's something they need to find or do, and you'll work together? I guess that's also the premise of AC Rev, but.]

I do ship her with Élise and would love to read that if you do too! Fighting together, whether in the Bayou or on a mission further afield that's just them; Élise visiting Aveline in New Orleans for some reason (what if they go to a fancy party together with Élise dressed as a man?); downtime fluff?

Fandom-Specific DNW: Aveline/men, even mentioned or out-of-focus.

—

Fandom: Far From the Madding Crowd (Treat or Trick)

Character(s): Bathsheba Everdene

One thing that always sticks in my mind about this novel is the way Hardy calls Bathsheba “the young farmer” just as he refers to the men as farmers - which, just saying, is more than most people writing about this story can do - and so, that being the case, what I’m most interested in is something about Bathsheba as farmer. One day in the life or four seasons in the life or five plantings/harvests in the life, or pseudo-academic fic about a case study of a woman farmer in the Victorian era, or a conflict between the farm and nature that Bathsheba has to decide how to solve.

Feel free to bring in other characters if it suits what you’re trying to do, but what I’m really looking for is a focus on Bathsheba’s work, determination, and process of learning. (I like how Bathsheba’s relationship with Gabriel ends up playing out in canon, but I don’t want shipfic.) Other ideas: something like a merchant ship AU (as the first alternate setting that came to mind where it would be not exactly the done thing for her to captain her inherited ship and make commercial decisions herself - although I do have to point out that contrary to popular belief, there were a lot of women on shipboard in the age of sail, may this be useful - but also where nature and luck/fate are as influential as they are in the original setting), or something in which the land, superstition, and ritual are more overtly magical. I LOVE English folk magic and ritual shit.

I’ve requested both tricks and treats for this fandom, but would prefer that the outlook of the fic, including if you decide to incorporate non-canon magical/spooky/occult elements, be ultimately positive rather than the doom and gloom that canon leans toward at times. A seasonal treat would be right up the alley of this request.

—

Fandom: Fidler Afn Dakh (Treat or Trick)

Character(s): The Fiddler

I would love to read about the Fiddler from the recent Yiddish production of Fiddler on the Roof, understanding him/her/them as a real person with a backstory, present and future rather than a symbol. They seem to be female (and their actor describes them as female) but wear men's clothes and are on the men's side at the wedding, and everyone seems cool with that? I'm 100% on board with any gender identity you decide you'd like to write them with. How did he/she/they come to be who they are, and what are their interpersonal relationships (platonic, familial, romantic, any gender) like? What might an encounter between them and the supernatural be or have been like? Have they always lived in Anatevka or do they wander from village to village?

Fandom-Specific DNW: antisemitism as the focus of the story. I've requested both tricks and treats, and I acknowledge that it'd be unreasonable to pretend that antisemitism doesn't exist in the world of the story, but I would prefer for any dark/scary elements to come from supernatural horror (I grew up with Singer and other Jewish folklore horror, give me as many dybbuks and demons and witches as you like) rather than the human capacity for racist violence.

—

Fandom: Simoun (Treat only)

Character(s): Neviril

I've just completed a rewatch of this show, and it has reaffirmed for me that I love Neviril. She's a leader in both a military and a religious sense, respected by her squad and by the populace, but figuring out what that means to her is such a personal journey. I still love her scene in the hearing where she speaks aloud what no one has wanted to admit or talk about - that they're soldiers now, this is war, can they still call themselves priestessses? - but I was also struck on this rewatch by how Chor Tempest increasingly becomes a player in itself in the politicking (the bit in Episode 21 where the whole lot of them fly out against orders, because it's what they, with Neviril leading and giving voice to the group, think is what their role is about), and by the scenes of her blessing the people (when iirc she is needed elsewhere by the military governor for flight purposes) and Paraietta (after what Paraietta did to her).

I love the military aspects of this canon in general (and the associated tropes of loyalty and trust and bravery and positive/negative relationship to authority) and that definitely ties in to Neviril figuring out what her role is as the squad leader, but I'm also just here for that very process of figuring it out and defining it for herself.

So...what happens to her post-canon? What is the "new world" and her travel in it like? If she makes it back to the main world when war is brewing again, but her old cohort can't fly anymore, what does she see her role as being - a leader for peace, for war, something else? How do she and Aer interact with Paraietta, Rodoreamon, Floef, and/or Vyuraf?

Ship-wise, Aer/Neviril grew on me a lot! I appreciated Aer more as the determined bit-of-a-loose-cannon type than as the manic pixie this time, and noted Neviril's comments about how she was drawn to Aer's determination. But I'd also be up for a poly situation where she's involved with both Aer and Paraietta, who are friends, or, I guess, one where it's a three-way relationship, although I don't personally know what the Aer/Paraietta side would be like! (I do like how they work together in battle even when they're shown as having personal issues.)

—

Fandom: Sleep No More (Treat or Trick)

Character(s): Bald Witch, Sexy Witch

One of my favorite things about Sleep No More was the idea of this world of darkness and magic that’s underlying or intertwined with the social world, rather than in a separate space - I loved seeing the Witches at the ball and, holy shit, Bald Witch pulling off her wig after the ball in her solo ritual thing! (I hadn’t realized it was a wig until that moment.) So -

how do either of these witches interact with the normal world (Paisley/the hotel/etc.) or deliberately carve out other spaces (like the apothecary shop)? For that matter, I love the apothecary shop and Bald Witch's scene in it A LOT, so more about that would be awesome.

How did the Witches find each other - was it before or after they were witches?

Are they immortal, and if so, what’s that like for either or both of them?

How much do they have a day-to-day life vs. witching all the time?

Their card game is super cool and I'd love to know more about the Witches and cards.

I was very struck on my last visit by Sexy Witch's dance for Hecate after the rave. The fan material seems to describe it as her having trouble coming down, but it felt to me like pleading with Hecate for more power, more magic.

If you want to ship them together, and/or with Hecate (or both) I’m very up for that as well. Some sexy prompts if you go in that direction -

ritual sex magic to make something happen or share power?

If they have non-witch personas and sleep together while they’re being normal people, is there still magic?

Sex in one of the play locations - the apothecary, the ballroom, the bar that’s the empty shell of the real bar?

Slow dancing nude, or another inverted version of something in the normal world?

Fandom-Specific DNW: f/m ships with requested characters