#and a lot of cis people would do very well to explore their gender and expression

[hell0mega]

more cis characters named Moss and Fish and more trans and enby characters named Dave and Jennifer. and yes they're all chosen names

[cardentist]

Fam how can one be trans in the direction of their assigned sex? I'm not even trying to make the idea sound ridiculous or anything. I'm genuinely curious and want to understand. I thought the whole meaning of trans was that you feel or act in the opposite direction of your assigned sex; if you're transfem but you're afab then to me that's just cisgender??? But like please explain to me how that's not the case if that's what you and others strongly feel so I may grow my compassion

Context: [Link]

well ! while I personally am not intersex, I DO want to highlight intersex people first and foremost.

gender and sex are very Very complex, and I think generally people don't consider the way that being intersex can play a big role in that!

there are intersex people who are afab who are also trans women, there are intersex people who are amab who are trans men, there are intersex people with many Many different relationships with sex and gender and anywhere in between !

an afab person can be born with masculine sex characteristics and transition the way trans women often do. that person May identify as trans, they may not ! that trans person may not even consider themselves a woman depending on who they are and what they want !

I Do think there needs to be an effort to be aware of and make space for intersex people within the trans community, and really the wider queer community as a whole. as it's often something that's given a footnote without deeper thought into the ways that intersex people Actually interact with our communities.

which I don't blame people for not already knowing ! that's the whole point of trying to educate people in the first place ^^

.

and as for Myself

labels are, ultimately, a form of gender presentation. what you call yourself is an extension of not only how you see yourself, but how Other People perceive you.

I could call myself nonbinary or I could call myself trans masc, and both would be Accurate. but people have certain traits and expectations and associations when they see those labels. there are assumptions made about the kind of life that I live, the things that I want, the things I might experience, that change depending on which labels that I use.

and that's not Inherently a bad thing ! I mean, that's part of why people Like labels. but it Can be a struggle for people whose gender is Funny.

I could Also describe myself as genderqueer or multi-gender or genderfluid or gnc or-. I've tried on lots and lots of labels, and for the most part I haven't thrown any of them out, I just keep them in a box under my bed and take them out when relevant.

I've been wrestling with the feminine aspect of my identity for a very Very long time. I've been aware that I'm some level of trans masc. that part was easy. I want a deeper voice, I want things about my body to change, I don't want people to look at me and see a cis woman.

but I Also like femininity. I've found that after accepting myself as trans masc and slowly growing an environment where I am Perceived as masculine, I've started getting euphoria at presenting femininely in the Same way that I did (and do!) get about presenting masculinely.

but that feeling doesn't carry over when I'm perceived as a cis woman. it's Quite Uncomfortable for obvious gender reasons.

and while I may not know the exact Words that I'd use to describe it (as I've said, I've been chewing on it for Many years now), I've gotten a clearer idea of how I Feel.

I want to be Visibly trans. I want to be perceived masculinely And femininely. I want to transition masculinely to present femininely (and sometimes butch, sometimes like your dad at the ace hardware store, I contain multitudes).

and of course, figuring out what I have going on has involve a lot of exploration ! it's the same way I figured out the whole trans masc thing in the first place. seeking out other trans people and other Things About trans people feeling things out.

I find ! that I have a lot of shared experiences with transfeminine people. both in how I feel about certain things, some of the presentation that I want, and in how people would React To said presentation.

my femininity Is Trans, I don't relate to cis womanhood. but I Do relate to trans femininity. which is really awkward for me, because it's difficult to describe it to other people fjksldljkasfdjklfasd

(I don't personally consider myself a trans woman mind, but I'm certain there Are people who are trans men and trans women at the same time. gender is complicated, sex is complicated. labels are malleable and sometimes situational)

Could I describe myself with a different label? probably ! I've got lots of them. but when I Don't put emphasis on this aspect of myself people assume that it's not there. insist that it Couldn't be there, and I don't know what I'm talking about. and those people who Would act nasty towards me probably aren't gonna change their mind just because I changed my bio. but it feels Nice to assert that aspect of myself when other people are trying to tear it down.

.

part of me feels like I should post the intersex portion of this by itself, because people tend to engage more with shorter posts and there's nothing Short about my gender situation ljkfdasjkls

but ! I dunno, if this makes even one person understand the gray areas of gender and presentation a little more it'll be worth it.

thank you for taking the time to ask ! and especially for doing so kindly ! I do hope you'll see this

[prince-liest]

I know you’ve gotten asks already talking about how happy they are that you’re going more in depth on the subject of Vox being trans in your next installment, but I can’t help myself… I’m so excited that you’re writing about that. It can be difficult to find trans rep in fandom spaces sometimes and your stories are so well written that this is like a gift from god. SO ANYWAY I’m super happy and your works are amazing and I just hope you know how many people value your works for all that they give.

Secondly, I was wondering whether or not Vox would have been trans on earth or just in hell? I mean I’m sure it would be difficult considering the time period but I also couldn’t think of a reason why he would be cis on earth but trans in hell. UNLESS he realized he was trans in hell/was finally able to do something about it?? Anyway, all of this is just speculation, I am only curious!!

Regardless, great work. It genuinely means a lot to me, if no one else :)

Oh, man, I'm ngl, one of my little, "Wait! I can do anything I want!!!!" moments of going mad with power once I got more and more experience at writing was realizing that I could just trans anyone's gender at-will and I didn't need anyone's permission for that. I still remember the first time I quietly decided an OC of mine was trans (love you, Laledy, you obnoxious asshole). I'm always a little apprehensive to start writing trans characters in new fandoms, mostly because I've been in a number of fandoms that have corners that get very tetchy about their weird gender role stuff, but it's consistently been met with such a positive reaction that it really brings me joy. So thank you so very, very much!!

My personal take on Vox in 666 specifically (a lot of which isn't going to come up because he does not want to get into it) is that he wasn't personally really in a position or environment conducive to considering trans-ness as, like, a thing that happens when he was alive, and he put his all into putting on The Correct Gender Performance with the vim and aplomb that we see from him in canon, plus all the underlying bullshit that goes into maintaining that facade. So, y'know. The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, minus the Jewish. Which did not do amazing things for his mental health, not that he let himself pay attention to that at the time!

And then he wakes up, in hell, with this weird-ass demon body with a television for a head, and - well, it just makes sense to present as a man at that point, doesn't it? Hell is dog-eat-dog, and he's not going to pick the submissive gender to put himself on the back foot from the start!

He figures out what the fuck being trans even is eventually, just. Not for a while, and not until after someone like Valentino, having known and assumed that Vox is trans as a given for fucking months, mentions it offhandedly to Vox, who had been mentally describing himself as "just lying about his sex like those girls in stories that get shit done by dressing up as men". Then he gets to have his own little spiral about it, and also why it's upsetting him, and why he felt so vulnerable about Valentino knowing, and why Valentino specifically, Mr. Fishnets, Heels, and Microminis, is the one that ended up in a position not only to know this about Vox but for Vox to feel comfortable having any kind of sex with. It wasn't something Vox had to analyze back when it was just "her" freaky boyfriend being into pegging!

Okay, fuck, I have even more feelings about trans Vox than I thought I did, hahahaha.

Might fuck around and write a staticmoth-centric prequel interlude at some point if I have the brain cells for it. Vox is a lot more confident and comfortable with his gender now, to the point where he can absolutely see fucking around in a dress for kinky reasons as crossdressing and not being forced back into a box that doesn't fit, but it'd be neat to explore the earlier days. Val isn't here for gender, he's here to be sexy, but Vox... this IS the origin of the daddy kink, just saying.

[damnfandomproblems]

Fandom Problem #4188:

(ONE of!!) the things that bothers me so much about "genderbends are transphobic just make them trans instead!!" discourse is that, it ignores so many different elements or possibilities. It's not just changing how they look, but deciding which elements of their personality they would keep and what parts would change, and how that would effect they way world perceives them and thus how they interact with the world.

Example: I have one character who's a hyper-feminine, Instagram influencer, rich spoiled snobby model type, and (an OUT) lesbian. Now in a world where she were a guy, how would that work? There are a few different possibilities.

One would be to leave her entire personality completely unchanged--she would come off as a flamboyant gay stereotype. The way society as a whole perceives and reacts to a very feminine man is EXTREMELY different from how it would react to a feminine woman. Also, leaving EVERYTHING the same, how would that reflect on her attraction? would she stay *gay* and be attracted to solely men? Or, would she stay *attracted to exclusively women*? This would be pretty unexpected for someone looks and acts like most people's gay male stereotype.

The other option would be to swap her extreme femininity for extreme masculinity. I'm thinking, "Alpha male sigma grindset" variety of dudebro. Of course, these types attract a very specific audience who are NOT known to be very accepting. If he were gay what would be the reaction of people in his circle? How would he deal with knowing his entire career and public image could be upended if this were known to anyone? Would he stay closeted to maintain his position or would he be out and to hell with what people think of it?

There's too many different facets and directions to explore the idea of changing a characters gender to write them all off completely. To write them as specifically trans would be a whole other completely different direction.

A privileged cis man growing up in a world with "toxic masculinity" ideals would not likely have the same experience as a trans man who is otherwise in his exact same position in life. He would go from someone who has NEVER had to prove himself, to someone who CONSTANTLY has to prove himself and ALWAYS being doubted. Or if the same person were transfem, they have a LOT to risk and to lose, the relative privilege she'd been afforded up to that point would surely be pulled right out from under her if she were ever to come out or publicly transition, but would it be worth living a lie?

It's not a narrative NOT worth exploring as well, but shouldn't be the ONLY narrative. "DON'T DO GENDERBENDS JUST MAKE THEM TRANS!!" It is NOT as simple as just slapping the trans flag on them and then calling it a day. And it is not transphobic to examine a characters' relationship to their gender and the impact that has on themselves and the way they fit into the world.

[am-i-the-asshole-official]

aita for pretending to be cis online? im a trans man and have been trans for almost ten years now. i am pre-most transition even though i would like to fully transition, due to money and medical phobia complications. i do not pass irl.

a few years ago i attempted stealth (saying i was a cis man) on a discord server before ultimately admitting to being trans because i was afraid everyone could tell, and was informed that even though they even heard my voice on the server, no one there suspected i was afab, and even when i said i was trans, some people assumed i was coming out as transfem, because i had passed myself as a cis man so well. this gave me euphoria, of course, and made me regret telling anyone since i was apparently passing so well.

i held onto those feelings, and a year or so after that, quietly changed my bios and stuff to remove the trans part. a little while after that, i started actively saying i was cis male in my bios and to new friends.

i should clarify this is not out of safety or fear of transphobia, all my family and irl friends know im trans and are 100% supportive, im lucky enough to live in a very progressive area, and my online existence is small and filled with tons of trans and supportive people. it's only because i feel dysphoric when i know people can perceive me as afab, and since i don't have control over that irl, i just want someone in the world to see me as amab, even if im not and never will be.

i also am not by any means a transmed. i myself am also gnc, and many many of my friends are loud and proud queer weirdos, and i am too with everything but my agab. i love the wacky ways other trans folks present their genders and refuse to sanitize themselves for cisciety. i do not think anyone should ever have to water down who they are for any reason and i don't think being afab makes anyone less of a man, just i personally don't like facing the fact that i am afab and would rather people see me as a cis man whenever i can control it.

this might be where the asshole comes in here, because being gnc, being surrounded by so many trans people and being in many "afab dominated" spaces (such as fanfic writers, tumblr, fandom in general honestly) as well as having a lot of trans headcanons makes me paranoid people are going to clock me and even if they don't say anything they'll know im faking being cis. because of that, and to avoid the dreaded "egg" conversations (people trying to insist or imply that ill soon "find out" that im transfem) ive sometimes been telling people when the subject comes up that i had experimented with my gender before and thought i was transfem or nonbinary in the past, so i sort of fit the idea of cis+ and that might be why i feel more trans than cis even though im definitely cis.

i also tell them im intersex and have trans family (both of these are true, though obviously im intersex in a different way than i say) to get them off my scent.

i know i dont owe anyone my agab, but when all is said and done, i am lying about my gender and history with gender exploration, and i kinda feel like im disrespecting other trans folks by implying it would personally feel better to be cis, like i can't relate to other trans people saying they never want to be cis and the goal of being trans isn't to be cis. but i do. i also worry that having trans hcs (including in sexual contexts) for characters while im presenting myself as cis makes people think im a chaser.

anyway sorry this is long, but aita for lying about my gender?

What are these acronyms?

[kcyars99]

This is Imane Khelif. She is a boxer from Algeria. 🇩🇿

You're probably going to be hearing a lot about her from your bigoted uncle this weekend, especially now that everyone's least-favorite bigoted aunt, J.K. Rowling, has offered her incredibly worthless opinion on today's fight between two cis (aka BiOLoGiCaL for y'all that need that) women.

Things worth noting: 🇮🇹 The boxer who quit today's fight--Angela Carini of Italy--said her quitting wasn't political and that she was not passing judgment on Khelif's eligibility. She said the shot to her nose did something different to her than most hits she's ever taken.

🇹🇼 Last year, Imane (along with Taiwan's Lin Yu-ting) faced a ruling by the International Boxing Association that they--despite being cis or 'BioLoGiCaL🥴' women--had "advantages" of a genetic nature, leading to a decision not to let them fight.

🇺🇸 U.S. swimmer Michael Phelps, celebrated as the greatest swimmer of all time, has a genetic condition where his body produces half of the lactic acid of a normal cis man. For this biological quirk (along with his hyper-mobility) he is lauded.

🇩🇿 Algerian sports officials and other Algerian athletes have spoken in Imane's defense, including national team soccer player ​​Ismaël Bennacer who said Khelif is "suffering a wave of unjustified hatred."

🥇 The Olympics do not recognize IBA or its rulings and carried out their own set of testing standards which every athlete you see competing had to pass.

🇯🇵 Imane also fought at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, where she was beaten in the quarterfinals by Irish boxer Kellie Harrington--another 'BioLoGiCaL🥴' woman.

🥊 For the weirdos who obsess over genitals, this person was born with a vagina. Meaning that by y'all's weird rules where you want to check in kids' pants before they compete, Imane would be deemed "girl athlete."

🏊 Meanwhile, Katie Ledecky today became the most decorated women's swimmer ever by pulling in a silver medal, after yesterday continuing her long streak of dominating everyone in the world in the 1500, where she holds the top TWENTY best times. Ever. And people on the internet spent the day calling her a man.

🧨 This should be a nonissue, but JOANNE and Elon and your bigoted uncle are latching onto it because they want to continue to push the deadly narrative against trans folks via any possible means. Even in a case where the person they're demonizing isn't trans in the first damn place. If she as a cis woman has more testosterone than other cis women athletes, well, that's not all that uncommon. Y'all wanna tell women with PCOS that they're not really women?

🩺 I don't know how many times I've shared that Open Ocean Exploration thread, by a literal biologist, explaining how common it is that people have sex variations that they don't even know about. I'll share it again since it's just about the most concise look at X/Y diversity I've ever seen. It's really wild to watch folks who copied off of my in high school biology act like they know more than actual scientists and doctors every single time I post it. --Find that post here:

#ParisOlympics2024

#OlympiansMadeHere

#olympicsboxing

(This originally called Joanne a bigoted uncle while still using her correct pronouns which I think conveys that she's basically the living embodiment of everyone's metaphorical racist uncle, gender be damned, but a few people felt it was misgendering her which was very much not the point so I changed it just to stop infighting since there's already plenty enough fighting with actual bigots to be doing.)

[fanby-fckry]

Random Facts About UH3 Alastor:

His father was an on-again-off-again feature in his and his mother’s lives until Alastor was 12, and is a big part of why Alastor has BPD traits and gets along better with women than men.

(If you’re new to this AU, or missed my other Cluster B Alastor posts, hi! Author has BPD and accidentally projected onto Alastor. Now I write him as intentionally having multiple Cluster B traits that I do, as well as the ones implied by canon.)

His parents weren’t married – to each other; Alastor has a stepmother he’s never met and doesn’t want to meet.

He claims that drinking was more fun during Prohibition because it was illegal.

He has rose-colored glasses regarding the previous fact; Prohibition-era Alastor absolutely complained about how much harder it was to get alcohol after the ban went through.

He doesn’t view nudity as inherently sexual.

He’s still more comfortable with others’ nudity than his own because he equates it to vulnerability.

He’s panaesthetic and bisensual. He doesn’t know those terms even exist, but picking microlabels helps my writing stay more consistent.

His aesthetic attraction isn’t based at all on gender, but he tends to feel more comfortable with physical affection from women than from men, which skews the sensual attraction a bit.

He can be sensually attracted to men and is sensually attracted to Lucifer, but 1.) it’s rarer and/or takes longer for Alastor to develop sensual attraction to a man, and 2.) Lucifer isn’t a man in the human gender binary sense of the word.

Lucifer is the only nonbinary person Alastor has ever felt any kind of attraction to, but that has more to do with lack of exposure to nonbinary people than anything regarding Alastor’s tertiary orientations.

Alastor may or may not have some gender fuckery of his own going on, but I doubt I’ll ever be exploring that in the main series.

I would describe Alastor’s gender as “man by default.” He doesn’t think about it very often. He’s not exactly an egg; it’s not that he’s in denial or unaware that being something besides a man is an option, it’s that he doesn’t care enough to pick a different label. He’s not dysphoric about being a man, but he’s not supper attached to the idea, either.

I think if he was born into Gen Z, he might identify as agender or cassgender, but as it stands, he inhabits the liminal space between, “I don’t feel strongly about my gender, which means I’m cis,” and “I don’t feel strongly about my gender, which means I’m not cis.” (Both valid experiences, btw.)

He’s 100% the type of person to tell a traumatic story from his childhood as if it’s a funny one and not understand why everyone’s looking at him like that.

He legitimately thinks that these stories are funny, because he’s twisted them around in his mind as an attempt to cope, but they retain enough of the original detail that on the rare occasion he decides to joke about them out loud, people go, “that’s kinda fucked up, actually.”

He has low empathy, but not no empathy. Every now and again, he does actually get some empathy, and every time he does it feels like a slap in the face – surprising and very unpleasant. If he could turn it off entirely, he probably would.

Remorse is a similar ordeal, rare but not unheard of, and he actively denies feeling it.

I started to write more about Alastor’s relationship with the concept of remorse, and remorse vs regret, but honestly, it needs its own post.

I projected a lot of my ace experience onto him, including the idea that kissing is boring 9 times out of 10. Not necessarily unpleasant, just… Boring. If there’s blood or biting or some form of D/s element, then it can be exciting, but otherwise we don’t get it.

[bluedalahorse]

Blue’s Contrary Young Royals Opinions Poll (make your own if you want to!)

Just for funsies, I created a poll about my Contrary Young Royals Opinions. I’m calling them Contrary rather than Unpopular because different things are popular in different parts of fandom, and things cycle in and out of popularity, so who knows what’s popular even? Rather, these are just things that I am stubborn and ornery about. Some of them might be mainstream opinions, but I am stubborn and ornery about them all the same.

You all know that I am an August Enjoyer who obstinately ships sargust, so I did not put that on the poll. I also feel that my sargust shipping and August enjoying sometimes obscures my other contrary opinions because it’s like, my signature trait. So this is a chance to talk about other things!

Please vote and reblog for the sake of fun and interesting data. Add commentary in the tags if you feel like it. Also feel free to create your own Contrary Opinion poll, because I wanna see what other people’s contrary opinions are.

Explanations below the cut. Click if you want to know more about what each poll button means to me in more depth.

Wille is demi and bi and should explore his gender more post-canon. Now, in canon, Wille is unlabeled, and I wanna respect that. So this is more headcanon than anything else. I know some folks read Wille as exclusively same-sex attracted. I do not (although I support people doing such) but I also read him as much more on the demisexual and/or demiromantic end of the spectrum than anything else. Of course I am aspec, so I’m seeing it through this lens. On the gender side of things, well, I just think it would be neat? Wille trying on nail polish and then furiously scrubbing it off breaks my heart. It feels like the royal fam has controlled Wille’s gender expression most of his life and made him present in this more conservative masculine way, and he hasn’t had many options. I also do think Wille’s explosive anger is something he’ll have to grapple with in the future, and I see his anger as tied to a lot of the masculine socializing he was raised in. So having outlets for his feelings that are a little less conventionally masculine could be good. Let Wille wear nail polish. Let him wear skirts. Let him experiment with his hair! I’m of the opinion that even cis people should explore their gender, so even if he played with his gender expression for six months and then decided he’d continue to present conventionally masculine again, that would be good for him. (But in my heart I’m a bit of a he/they Wille truther, not gonna lie.)

Simon does some things wrong and that’s wonderful actually. Let me explain what I mean by this. There is a popular view of Simon where he’s very selfless and makes sacrifices for his loved ones and stands up for what he believes in, while also having to suffer and do a lot of things out of desperation. This is true. There is also a co-existing side of Simon that’s a little less selfless, a little more ambitious, and a little bit more likely to make assumptions about what other people want or need without consulting them. There’s the Simon who feels he has to protect Sara when she clearly doesn’t want him to, and the Simon who hides things from Linda when he shouldn’t. There’s the Simon who calls Bjärstad shitty in a way that upsets Rosh and Ayub at the beginning of season 1, who enlists Rosh and Ayub to help intimidate August in 1.3 without fully thinking about how they might feel about it. Yes, Simon does a lot of things out of selfless care for others and out of desperation, but to assume he only ever does things for selfless, desperate reasons without any selfish impulses or ambition mixed in is… well, it misses some of the most fascinating contradictions in his character. Let Simon be a selfish teenager sometimes! It’s developmentally appropriate and it might one day save his life.

Dirtbag Erik > Perfect Brother Erik. I never really gravitated toward the perfectly supportive headcanon for Erik that was popular in some corners of fandom. I know this is not a radical thing to claim after season 3 and a lot of people are coming out of the woodwork and saying it. I think the point I want to make here is less that Ambiguously A Dirtbag Erik is canon and more that he’s inherently more interesting to me to read about than Saint Erik, Patron of Lost Little Brothers. I’m sort of fascinated by the way that interactions with family members always have layers, and that you look back on past events and uncover more of the layers as you grow up. That’s the shit I live for in fiction. I also don’t love discussions about “what would Erik do if he were alive” because I enjoy sitting in the horrific tension of characters not knowing but having to build a better world in his absence.

August/Nils should have a lot more fics on AO3 than it does. As far as I can tell it has one. One! I ship August with Sara first and foremost but August and Nils have some unexpectedly tender moments in season 3 that made me go “wait, that’s interesting…” about their relationship. Yes, August keeps calling Nils nouveau riche. Yes, Nils finds August’s perfectionism annoying. These are all just tensions to play on to make the eventual bittersweet, conflicted makeout scene more bittersweet and conflicted and hot. If August/Vincent can suddenly gain more fics post season 3, it surprises me that August/Nils hasn’t surpassed them.

Linda deserves to have a life and hobbies beyond her kids, and especially beyond being perfect for her kids. Don’t get me wrong, she does care about Simon and Sara a lot and does what she can for them. And because we’re watching a show centered around teenage characters, we’re mostly gonna imagine her in her capacity as a mom. But I also love seeing the moments in canon where Linda is less than perfect—when she embarrasses her kids, or when she comes down hard on them in ways that are less than helpful—because that shows the human vulnerabilities beneath. That she’s trying to figure things out in the moment, and she isn’t always right. That makes me love her more. And I’d desperately love to see Linda have a hobby like, I dunno, writing a crime novel every NaNoWriMo or something. (I have put this into a fanfic, actually.)

Frida and Malte and Nikita are the hottest of the Main Five actors. I get the appeal of Omar in abstract way, but he looks exactly like the crush of one of my chief OCs in a YA novel I was writing, so I think of him as OC Rose’s crush and feel no draw to him myself. Edvin is a great actor but does nothing for me aesthetically. Oh, aesthetic attraction. So individualized to all of us!

Salice is more meaningful to me as a platonic ship than a romantic one. I am so glad they bring people joy as a romantic ship, and I’m happy to gift the fic ideas I do get for them to the people who love them, but for me they matter more as best friends. When I write them, I draw on real platonic friendships I have had in my real life, ones that matter a lot. Sara breaking up with August to prioritize friendship feels more radical to me. Also sometimes I think I’m a Bad Sapphic for having these thoughts about Salice, but then I remember that Heart and Homeland has so much sapphic content involving Felice and other women, as well as just sapphic content beyond that, and I sleep easier.

Rosh should be shipped with all the other girls, and frequently and creatively. Yes, Madirosh is an overnight fanon sensation we should celebrate that. Yes, Stella/Rosh took us by surprise and by storm for a hot minute, and we should do more of it. But have we considered… Fredrika trying to angrily and messily seduce Rosh because Stella seemed to be crushing on her? How about Rosh and Felice as a glorious butch/femme power couple? How about if Sara is gonna date a tall athletic brunette she dates one who plays a real sport (football) and not a fake sport (rowing)? I hope we all see the vision.

Oops Vincent is sympathetic sometimes. Look, I am not going to deny that Vincent is a bully who sucks. I also think his first year letter was telling. In the letter, Vincent, at sixteen, has just received his ADHD diagnosis. That’s a long time for a rich white boy to go without getting one! That means he’s probably had sixteen years to struggle to pay attention in class—he’s probably acting out and moving around a lot, and internalizing the idea that he Can’t Do School. His parents probably make some “boys will be boys” excuse at conferences. Then he finally gets the diagnosis and gets put on meds. My sense is that Hillerska only cares that his meds don’t make him disruptive in class. They probably don’t care about teaching him alternative study methods that actually work for him, or creating an environment where he feels empowered to use accommodations. And as folks who are knowledgeable with ADHD know, if you get behind in school like that, it takes more than meds to catch you up and help you feel empowered in class. When we see Vincent after his national exams, he’s drawing dicks in the dirt, because he can only envision himself as the class clown who fails academically. He says the academics don’t matter as a self-soothing technique. He’s become mean—mean in a “funny” way—as a way of feeling like he has a “thing” at school. And yes, Vincent will probably be “fine,” he will remain rich and go big game hunting and marry a trophy wife into adulthood or whatever. Again, he sucks! That does not change the fact that Hillerska failed him and his neurodivergences, and that he could actually have a sense of real efficacy and self-compassion for himself as a disabled person instead of just being “fine.” Daddy I don’t love him. But Daddy I would like him to feel empowered to use his extended time on tests. Daddy I would like someone to teach Vincent the pomodoro method as a study skill.

Secondary characters shouldn’t have to be wilmon shippers to be likable to fandom. It throws me out of a fic or a headcanon when secondary characters only are there to support Wilmon being the cutest soulmates ever. I don’t mean when someone like Felice offers a supportive comment to them as a couple, or occasionally thinks they’ve done something cute. I mean when characters sound exactly like shippers in fandom, with similar talking points, and when we as readers of the fic are supposed to sympathize with them because they sound exactly like us. People… don’t talk about friends and family and classmates the same way they talk about fictional blorbos.

YR does not share a universe with RWRB. This idea was more widespread in the old days of fandom, so this Contrary Opinion feels more vintage. As far as what I do think it could share a universe with, I vote for Tana French’s Dublin Murder Squad novels, for the class conflict and the incredibly complex characterization. I would also say Ashley Herring Blake’s Girl Made of Stars has a lot in common with YR in terms of how it approaches trauma and family relationships.

The intimacy scenes in season 3 (especially the big one) made me feel kind of uncomfortable, actually. Something about the changes to directing style and how they were filmed. I don’t really want to explain this one right now but maybe I will someday. So this one is also there for folks who viscerally felt that too.

[autistic-trans]

The more I learn about LGBT history and lesbian community lately, the more I realise how diverse lesbians are as a group.

Like it sounds strange to say doesn’t it? Of course lesbians are diverse, but it feels like when I was growing up, I was told again and again that only cis women could be lesbians!

Which is wrong!

When your only representation for a lesbian is a skinny, cis, conventually attractive white woman, who’s feminine enough to pass as a straight woman.. I think it says “lesbians are just like you, straight audience. They’re girls who like girls” without diving deep into what it means to be a lesbian, and how diverse our understandings of ourselves is.

And how you don’t have to be a woman to be a lesbian.

I think when most people hear that, they think “straight men pretending to be lesbians”, and that idea has been used a lot to scare questioning lesbians out of coming out.

Like, if you figured out you’re trans first like me, and you’re very confident in your identity, you’re scared to use a label that would make other people assume a gender you’re not.

I’m not a woman, I’d say my gender is Non-Binary but filling parts of a masculine gender role. Which I think butch describes well.

Coming to the conclusion that I was a lesbian, wasn’t just as simple as “I like girls”, it included changing how I thought about the term Lesbian and how butch identity has been erased in mainstream media. And what really helped, was reading books about butch experience.

Stone Butch Blues is an incredible book (but please read the trigger warnings first), it changed the way I thought about myself and my community.

It also helped me to realise, that the lesbian community has always had trans people in it. Not just trans women, but also trans men and non-binary people. The main character read incredibly non-binary to me, and the way it explores butch identity helped me with figuring out my own.

And I think if we bottle down what a Lesbian is, and we sell it to straight people as “girl who like girl” we do ourselves a disservice. Because what they think a girl is, is a skinny, cis, conventually attractive white woman, who’s feminine as a straight woman.

It’s like that idea in media, that if you’re writing about lesbians your main audiences are going to be gay women and straight men. Why do we have to appeal to straight men? Why does our media have to erase and tip toe around trans and butch lesbians?

Anyways. Ending this post, I’d like to recommend reading Stone Butch Blues and Dykette as they’ve really helped me understand myself as a non-binary butch lesbian.

[sapphic-agent]

Momo rewrite anon here!

I've been toying around with the idea of trans girl Izuku for the rewrite, and I'm really liking. I was thinking of her preferred name being Izumi. Izumi means "spring" or fountain", I think it is still in align with her character. Izumi is someone who grew up not knowing a lot about queer stuff, and kept all of their thoughts and feelings about their identities to themselves. They get to see and explore with their classmates, who are more openly queer. Which causes her to question her own identity, and knowing her, does extreme research. Like holy Hell, you can change your gender?? Just like that?? She's very conflicted about the whole thing and it takes awhile for her to be comfortable, and open about it. One of Izumi's flaws is that she is terrible at opening about her feelings. Once she does, the girls are excited to have another girl in class. Since UA can allow things like hair dye and piercings, I'm sure it'll be fine to get Izumi a girls uniform. Izumi still does get... assholes who are transphobic and stuck in their old ways. However, due to her getting more confident she stands up to them. I think it would be really cute if she grew out her hair, puts it in a high ponytail, and ties a yellow bow around it. Bc obviously to resemble All Might. Also a tie in with Nana for the ponytail, as well. Ik Horikoshi's trans rep is just... could be a lot better, let's put it that way. Also we get a protag that still has the next generation tie into it. The next generation being more open minded, and let go of harmful ideologies, and accepting of people. Izumi sheds her old skin and embraces who she is, is like peak trans to me. Again, this is just something I'm playing around with as an idea. Plus sapphic Izuocha (And if anyone is wondering, I am a trans male!)

I can definitely get behind MTF Izuku! I've played around with fem (trans and cis) Izuku in my head a lot. It goes well with Izuku as a character and could fit very nicely. I definitely like it a whole lot more than trans Bakugou because it feels like a tactic to make Bakugou more sympathetic, as Bakugou fans tend to do.

And like, it's fine. I don't care that people hc Bakugou as trans. It just doesn't do anything to endear me towards him. Whereas with Izuku (or Todoroki or literally anyone else), it would just add a lot of meaning to the character.

Also, as my user suggests, I'm weak for sapphic ships. So sapphic IzuOcha is a win for me

[bytedykes]

maya fey for the character ask thingy :3

Sexuality Headcanon: WOMEN!!!!!! maya likes women for SURE i dont have like, a specific label for her but she is into women

Gender Headcanon: honestly i dont really think abt it that much so i guess cis woman but i have seen some really good transfem maya stuff before!!! im not a transfem maya truther but i believe in their beliefs <3

A ship I have with said character: basic ass answer is franmaya... i do actually like them together, i think it could be a rlly fun dynamic to explore. also maya/regina was cute in case 2.3 (one of the only things i liked about it rip) i've seen some good maya/blackquill stuff before also but its not really something i ship just an interesting dynamic. in general though i dont really devote much time to shipping maya w anyone i think her canon platonic/familial relationships are already very interesting

A BROTP I have with said character: PHOENIX!!! nick and maya 4EVER they are so good. !!!!! i loveee their dynamic, they work so well together and really bounce off each other well. i also like the more serious aspect of how mia's death connected them and how they both share this grief even in very different ways. i like how even if mia hadn't died they still would've probably been friends when she introduced them :) anyway phoenix and maya are very fond of each other and i think it's really sweet - bridge to turnabout is one of my favorite cases in part bc of the very present bond between them and how much phoenix cares about maya (same w the engarde case, but that one is almost better in this regard bc of how maya's care for phoenix is also heavily present). also big fan of the silly part of their dynamic where maya steals his wallet and hits him over the head with evidence <3

another really interesting relationship that's less canonically present is maya & godot. what we see of them in bridge to turn about is soooo compelling, and i would have loved to see more of them. i think in a world where godot eventually gets out of prison he and maya could work to have some kind of relationship to both their benefit. <- its interesting how mia and mia's death is kind of a driving force for maya's connections to people, maya & mia is also deeply interesting and compelling but i could write an essay about them so i will just say that i love them a lot as well lol

A NOTP I have with said character: phoenix... dislike the age gap + i just think they're better as a platonic relationship lol. maya/phoenix is like the one aa tag i actually have filtered kjaskd

A random headcanon: if u assume that in aaverse lawyers are famous and there is law twitter fan spaces . maya 100% has an account where she posts "lawyer spotting" pics of phoenix (and also edgeworth). neither of them know abt it . maya is lawtwt famous

General Opinion over said character: I LOVE HERRRR she's the og aa weirdgirl !!! maya is very dear to me, she's definitely one of my favorite characters and i love seeing her. currently my friend and i are playing aa4 and i miss her so bad :'( maya in general is a very endearing character, and she + her family is a big driving force in the trilogy which i find very compelling. she's also just cool! i love it when teenage girls have weird superpowers! i think maya is a very caring character who is silly but has really impactful serious aspects to her which are so awesome to see <3 anyway i did draw maya every day for months last year so like yeah u could say i like her a normal amount lol

TY FOR THE ASK CHEREN <3 mayaaaaa maya fey i love her sooo much. girl ever<3

[nicosraf]

Hi! I saw your tweet about reading Angels Before Man for the Trans Rights Readathon (which I will absolutely do, I'm so excited 😍) and I wanted to ask if any of the characters in the book are trans too? 🏳️‍⚧️

Hello! I was going to answer jokingly/cryptically by saying, "All of them," but I'm having a lot of feelings because of what's going on for trans rights in the U.S. so I'm going to be serious aha. Big warning for moderate spoilers though. Sorry!

First, I'm kind of surprised that people have read the angels in ABM to be cis men. They're not. None of them. I kept it purposefully subtle because it's book 1 and gender is a human concept that will be introduced later, along with the angels' struggle to see themselves in a binary that will be imposed onto them. The trilogy, at its core, is about gender. It's all just a convoluted story about enfleshment as gender. Lucifer and Uriel's discomfort with their bodies is about dysphoria.

Also, I didn't actually think I was subtle. Lucifer says "cock and cunt" twice, and the very lyrical language regarding sex in the book (ex. ‘Here, you’re like the pistil of a flower.’ Fingers searching, exploring — ‘petals, here.’) is because angels are, in simpler terms, intersex. Though they don't have a concept of gender or even sex in ABM, so they wouldn't use that term or understand themselves to be anything other than, well, angels. The title is actually a silly little nod to this: "Angels Before Man": angels before male, angels before masculine-gender.

Does this mean all angels are genderless, though, and if they better understood pronouns, would they all use "they"? Nope. This will happen later, but some angels will try and place themselves on the binary of human-gender and others will think of themselves as trans in a more familiar way. That said, they will all have gender issues, hence why I like to say they're all trans.

And while I'm at it, God is also not a cis man. Relevant lines in ABM: "My womb is built from will," and "She, who was Father."

Basically, there's a lot of gender fuckery going on and it's going to get way more blatant once humanness gets introduced.

And just in case anyone's curious, I'm not pulling this out of nowhere. One interpretation for the dual-narrative of creation in Genesis is that Adam was originally made intersex in the image of God – God and the angels, if you interpret the "our" to be God and the angels (which I have):

Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image..." (Genesis 1:26)

So God created mankind in his own image,     in the image of God he created them;     male and female he created them. (Genesis 1:27)

Oh, also, I'm trans. I feel like I haven't mentioned that on here sksksjkfdl but yes I hope this gives you a good answer? Angels Before Man is about gender, and the following books are also about gender. It's ridiculously gay and trans, and it's going to get even more so.

I hope you enjoy reading! But please consider donating to trans organizations and checking in on your trans friends too. Things are rough.

[the-snowy-river]

Can't sleep, so I'll talk about how I write my male muses' genders. This will reference both of my blogs, be posted on both and each will have an @ to separate one half from the other, although I highly encourage for the entirety of the post to be read. Very long post ahead.

TW for abuse and self hatred.

@crystals-and-claws

Cyrian

One thing that I wanted to explore with Cyrian was embracing the "standard" for masculinity. As I mentioned in a post about how he approached his own gender and sexuality, Cyrian was created rather than born and later chose the labels of 'cis' and 'hetero' for himself. While I do plan to explore Cyrian's attraction as possibly not being hetero, that is another subject that I might talk about in the future.

What I want to focus on here is the fact that Cyrian basically chose to and continues to follow what the general perception of the [americanized] world sees as 'masculine', a perception that has been set [by my knowledge] by the patriarchy - which, as a politician, Cyrian would have technically been a part of. However he comes from a background where the toxic beliefs and mentality that usually comes with being masculine in the way that he is aren't present and has avoided and pushed back against those beliefs and mentality.

This also ties into the theme of 'embracing the monster' in his character, as his specific kind of masculinity does focus on being threatening, imposing and dangerous [e.g. soldiers]. He has no problem with taking advantage of his stature, previous status and the "natural" weapons he has in forms of claws.

What keeps him from falling into the toxic stereotype is the fact that, to him this was, in fact, something he chose to adapt to rather than something he was indoctrinated into. In the post about glancing into his memories, I made a reference to a church. He was part of this church and had entirely different ideals he was taught. I will not go into them here either, I may do so at some point. The point is, his masculinity is something he grew into as an outsider.

There was nobody to talk to him and ease him into it with talk of 'oh, you are not a monster' and later on radicalize him. He saw this as something monstrous and decided that what this image created was the best fit for him. Another important aspect of his belief is that this embrace of being monstrous should apply to himself and others that have clearly chosen to do so. It is a self conscious lean into what could very well turn a person toxic and hateful, if not for that self awareness.

This is why Cyrian also struggles with being genuine and vulnerable. This masculinity does not allow for it, as it breaks the image of what a powerful man is supposed to be. He is trying to come to some kind of conclusion that would allow him to be masculine in this "monstrous" way while also being genuine and vulnerable.

Nox

Nox is supposed to have the viewpoint of somebody who is terrified to become what Cyrian has rejoiced in. He is AMAB and while he does consider himself gender-nonconforming, he is still very much cis.

Being raised by a single mother, one with a situation as unstable as Emi's, he saw very well what people that were victim to this sort of belief dealt with. He saw men hitting on and just outright hitting his mother. He's heard her complain, when she taught he wasn't around, about all kinds of assholes and creeps. He even knows that Emi forcefully worked for Cyrian.

Due to this and the fact that Emi has raised him to be much more open about his emotions and allowed him to be more vulnerable, he stays away from the "standard" of masculinity. Especially what is shown to the masses

After already dealing with a lot of shit in the Feywild as a child, he never saw the adventurous and righteous in the stories he was shown in books and television as models, but as something adjacent to what his mother was dealing with, just put in a twisted light to show them as being 'good'.

Nox does his best to be as non-threatening as possible. He doesn't carry weapons, not even for self defense. His hemocraft, jinxes and magic are all that he has gotten and even those are very hard for him to use - the only edge case is using them to subdue animals that are too aggressive or dangerous to be handled without any form of restraint. He does not know how to fight, just barely able to defend himself.

While not an outright people pleaser, he does put the comfort of others way above his own and changes himself regularly to make this criteria happen. He does not want to be seen as a threat, he does not want to fit the patriarchal view of what 'masculinity' is and he is actively working to tear it down by being as gentle and caring as he can be.

He is still very much developing his own view with his gender and has to develop in that aspect still.

@we-the-witch

WITCH

For this one, I will stick mostly with Blake as I believe I have the most to say about them. They do identify as nonbinary, but are AMAB and their relation with being perceived as male is something important enough that is still worth talking about here.

Carter and Torrid do lean into the 'protector' and 'hothead' stereotypes respectively, which are mostly seen as masculine. But they are alters that have only relatively recently become part of the system and their sense of self is something I am working on still.

Rune, on the other hand, is technically genderfluid. The only reason Rune has went strictly by 'he/him' so far is that the body itself is AMAB, and Rune attempts to have as little internal conflict as possible. Thus Rune chose to go by he/him while fronting.

Whereas Nox has seen the effects of masculinity forced by the patriarchy and has fought against them, Blake has directly suffered from it. Both at the hands of their father and the leader of the coven.

Blake does not identify as nonbinary because they do not feel male or feel as if being nonbinary is 'right'. Blake identifies as nonbinary because being perceived as male seems to only bring negative things. Blake is constantly worried about seeming like a creep, seeming like a danger, but at the same time they are worried about the possible other dangers out there - which, to them, are also most commonly male.

It came in the face of their father, who was physically abusive and had anger management issues. It came in the face of the coven leader, who was manipulative and mentally abusive. It came in the face of every single boy the same age as them that ridiculed and marginalized them for not being the same.

Where Nox simply didn't want to become 'monstrous' in the same way Cyrian did through his actions, Blake saw themselves as such purely because of something he was born as. So they chose to identify as nonbinary to at least have some sort of agency and feel as if the ridicule came from something they chose, at the very least.

Unlike Nox, Blake was not given a space to be vulnerable in. He was not able to be coerced into toxic masculinity or the role of a sacrificial lamb not due to having a set of belief that morally opposed either but due to the self hatred. Blake hates seeing themselves in the mirror, they hate not being able to always pass off as nonbinary, they hate their height, body shape and face shape giving away the fact they AMAB, they hate being perceived as anything close resembling masculinity.

Thus, Blake chose an identity that doesn't fully encompass them. They basically forced themselves into another way of making people perceived them, just to not be perceived as male.

[spidermanifested]

this is not my usual type of post but ive been rotating some thoughts and i guess my blogs as good a place as any to get them organized. okay so this is basically my take on the entire discourse surrounding the "feminine (presumed cis lets be honest) women are uniquely oppressed for being feminine/making female characters quote unquote Less Feminine is antifeminist" thing. which i keep seeing come up. on this internet of ours

context being im a trans guy. grew up largely seen by others as female, probably, sort of. was about as far from a cishet womans feminine as you can imagine. not in a cool tomboy way. not in a way that society had a box for. and thats the thing, is that when you fail at gender, whether youre conscious of it or not, theres this extremely profound loneliness that comes with it. part of it was the autism but i made like 6 real-life friends total from ages 4 to 18 and there were no examples of anyone with an even remotely adjacent experience i could find in the media or irl. anytime a female character skirted a little too close to actual masculinity in a tv show or movie shed get that makeover eventually. i was bullied by both boys and girls but the girls who bullied me were uniformly very feminine.

and so i see people talking about how hard feminine women and girls have it, how the world hates them for being beautiful, and on the one hand its like okay, Misogyny Exists. thats not really refutable thats just the reality of it. society hates women. and as for eurocentric femininity specifically i understand its a hard tightrope to walk!!! you have to put on all these masks BUT make them seem natural, youre forced into these narrow boxes of acceptable behavior and appearance and desires, and if you under- or over-shoot then people get reminded the whole thing is a farce and get mad (often violently!) at YOU for it

........but then my thing is, that on one side of the tightrope, the "overperforming eurocentric femininity" side, the tradwife or girlboss or blonde bimbo side, theres an entire history of structural trope-crafting to break your fall, right. like its a shitty box but its the box society WANTS you to be in. they look at you and go "yep thats a woman. we dont like those but that sure is one". there are known social niches to carve out. theres a script.

on the unfeminine side theres just. nothing. its stone cold concrete down there. and apparently twitter would have you believe its actually that the "more masculine" somebody presumed female appears the more society respects them but that to me is the wildest and most nonsense take on the planet because if people see you as a woman or girl who has not taken the needed steps to justify your place as one of those things you might as well be an alien, or even a monster. theres no script at all. and i feel like this is one of the major experiences that trans and gnc people of every gender share-- god knows trans women get the brunt of the vitriol-- and from my knowledge a lot of nonwhite people too, and also fat and disabled people, like. there are SO many things that affect your ability to achieve even a fraction of success at this aspirational femininity.

ive had to see people for real make the argument that princess peach making an angry face is masculine. i think the most masculine woman anyone on twitter can imagine right now is like a businesswoman in a form-fitting pantsuit and light mascara. maybe the struggle of succeeding at femininity under patriarchy deserves exploration, ive seen plenty of coherent and reasonable points, its not without worth as a discussion. but i do not trust the general public with the topic without immediately sliding into bog standard gender policing and transphobia, and so in closing, when the mainstream feminist take on the whole thing seems to be "the more you perform the femininity expected of you the worse you have it", i get the sensation that nobody told me it was opposite day and im about to feel real silly

[layingeggs]

I think I actually feel disappointed by the ending of Okaeri Alice.

spoileys spoileys spoileys.

Okay yeh it's Mitani and Ren's ending. LOL Mitani and Ren's stories are literally just unfinished.

Yohei and Kei's stories I feel like you could poke holes in. Especially if you're not inclined to psychosexual transsexualism. 'eurgh what was that, they switched bodies but they're still male? where's my gender gend'.

(Of course, as all of us know, they did actually switch bodies and switch genders and switch biological sexes. It was very clearly a symbolic representation of transcending those boundaries. People who complain that it wasn't enough just aren't really looking.)

But Mitani and Ren? The last time we saw Mitani, if you don't count the final pages where really we're just seeing her from Yohei's perspective, she was literally retreating from the offer of transcending boundaries and instead retreating into her established toxic pattern of seeking comfort in the familiar.

Mitani has frequently displayed transmisogynistic lashing out and predation throughout this manga. Frankly, I was fully expecting her to just turn to exploiting a young trans man as a new coping mechanism! To hear that her and Ren are just doing well, and there's no further elaboration beyond that? They're just doing well.

Mitani explicitly has not yet worked through what it actually is about femininity that makes her feel restricted or inadequate. Ren hasn't actually worked through her gender feelings yet.

That scene where Kei tells Ren that she can still be a beautiful feminine girl even being tall and having small boobs. Was THAT supposed to be Ren working through her desire to live as a different gender? Just getting one brief compliment and then being happy as a girl again, was that it?

Honestly, I do feel it's Shuzo Oshimi revealing a bit of a weakness for writing a different perspective of questioning and exploring gender. He writes such incredible and profound narratives around camab gender variance. And he's good at writing cis women too! But he tries his hand at one "girl questioning if maybe she would actually prefer to be a boy" and just regurgitates the same shame and gradual acceptance of femininity.

Come on. This is weak. Kei got to actually transition. Let Ren transition too for pity's sake.

Further compounded by the fact that this is a disturbing consistent pattern across anime and manga. A lot of authors write storylines about 'young girls exploring possibility of being a boy', and there's a certain amount of genuineness there, right up until they write in the detransition narrative and the 'loving triumphant return to femininity'. It's horrible, I hate it.

Surely, surely, our beloved horrible weirdo Shuzo Oshimi wouldn't just play into a trope like that. And yet here we are.

The other thing that Shuzo Oshimi is excellent at is exploring abuse and trauma. So once more, it's not just that I'm mad that Ren never transitions, just sits on the fence and thinks about it. But also that there was a very obvious narrative branch there that could lead to Mitani abusing Ren and it just goes completely unexplored.

Again, I return again to that scene in the hospital room. Kei and Yohei coming to a mutual understanding of dysphoria and desire to heal from it. Realising that Mitani and Ren are there witnessing that change, and trying to extend it to them and welcome them in on it.

Only for Mitani to retreat and lean on Ren to comfort her. What about Ren's desire to work through her issues! If not to transition then at least to carve out a space away from restrictive patriarchy femininity!

Ren could have been there with Kei and Yohei. She could have gotten in on the breaking down and rebuilding of self visions that they had. But no, instead she has to be the big strong one for a neurotic cis girl who has repeatedly shown avoidance of introspecting more deeply on why she is so neurotic.

This is prime Shuzo Oshimi material. This is exactly the sort of thing that he writes. And all we get to follow it up is an epilogue saying that Mitani and Ren are doing okay?

I really just don't believe this story is supposed to end here. I think it's supposed to keep going. I think it was a mistake to end it here.

[rollercoasterwords]

i agree about gretta gerwigs work, i feel like there are some pieces of femininity and what its like to grow up as a girl that she nails every time, like at least for me personally her portrayals of grieving past versions of yourself and your life always resonate (but maybe thats because thats a pretty universal experience? im not sure), and her interfamilial relationships feel very tangible to me,

but yeah when it comes to her resolutions and her looking forward moments i feel like i dont really follow where her brain goes, it sometimes feels like she just ends up back where she started. and she doesnt play with gender and sexuality much, which is a shame because i feel like she could do it well?? idk maybe its fear, maybe shes cis and straight and those themes just dont resonate with her idk.

i also feel like shes almost choses stories where she wouldnt be forced to confront those topics? like little women has always had the same conclusion, she certainly did add her own artistry to the story but its not like she would have been expected to explore queer experiences there. and the same is true for barbie, barbie isnt exactly known for being a space that plays much with gender, and i highly doubt mattel would have approved a story that included too much queerness bc theyre trying to tell toys to conservative moms right? idk sorry this got long, your comments on gerwig just got me thinking

yeahhhhh exactly like. i am not a huge gerwig fan (not that i dislike her or anything; i'm just pretty neutral towards her as a director) + i only watched ladybird back when it first came out + barbie now. have never seen little women but based on what i know of the book yeah i imagine it's not like a movie where you'd expect lesbians lol nor was i expecting any particularly insightful exploration of queerness from barbie (although i do think it's nice that many people have been able to find meaningful aroace readings of the film)--and like i don't think it's gerwig's responsibility to explore such themes if they are not things she relates to or has an interest in exploring!

i feel like this is moreso just a problem with reception when any certain artist or work of art gets venerated as like....the pinnacle of representation for 'womanhood' or 'girlhood,' which is a category much of gerwig's critical reception seems to fall into. bc there is no single monolithic experience of 'womanhood,' the cultural consensus about what representations set the standard for such experiences always tend to privilege certain experiences (white, straight, cis, etc), oftentimes at the expense of erasing others. and this has been a particular aspect of some of the barbie praise that's grated on me; i've seen a lot of people talk about how it so perfectly encapsulates 'the female experience' and as a gnc lesbian i'm just like. alright then lol. think the treatment of queerness by the film as a whole was also just like....odd. generally speaking. honestly still parsing thru my thoughts on it but sometimes the framing of the movie made it a little difficult to tell whether i was being laughed at or laughed with tbh