#and neil is cishet

[most-na-krzywej]

Okay, but how can I bring hope and positively change the world when the people I liked do shit like this? Now I don't want to be a kind person, I want to beat the living crap out of him.

And, well, Gaiman probably won't see it, but come on, man, think about your actions and your life. Are you fucking crazy, do you have the intelligence and human dignity to do such thing? Get up to speed and fucking bang your head against the wall and maybe you'll start thinking, you fucking idiot. What the fuck were you thinking? At what point did you think this was even a good idea? Have you even fucking thought? You made us believe you were a good fucking person and not trash in human skin, now what? Find god in your heart or something, god damn it. And for fuck's sake, you better have a good explanation since you haven't spoken yet, or at least face the consequences for your fucked up actions.

[usercelestial]

absolutely hilarious when people say 'you know neil gaiman wouldn't want you to do this" as if i, a lesbian, give any fucks about what a straight man would think of me

[dreamytfw]

Why would you leave this good and accurate statement in the notes?

"The theories and analysis the GO fandom has started is giving me BBC Sherlock flashbacks."

I agree, but also I find it really funny that back with BBC Sherlock, the theories and analysis was trying to figure out how a man survived/faked his own death. With Good Omens, the fandom are furiously analysing gay yearning looks and a 5 second kiss, while theorising ways that these two dumb gay 6000 year old men are going to make up, make out and hold hands. I love that for us.

[themoonking]

actually, genuinely, people who are defending or are still "on the fence about" neil gaiman, tell me, what do you think is more likely:

(a) two women who have never met, who live oceans apart, and who engaged in relationships with neil gaiman two decades apart, and whose stories line up down to the manner in which gaiman acted during sex and the way in which he abused them, both decide to lie about being sexually assaulted by a man who they were apparently actually in a completely loving consensual relationship with (one of them going so far as to file a police complaint in 2022 that lead to an investigation that is still ongoing), undergoing serious personal, social, and legal risk, all to gain the sweet sweet reward that i keep hearing women who come forward about sexual abuse by famous men receive but coincidentally never actually see them get. possibly as part of a transphobic psyop to get back at a different man for supporting trans rights, or potentially as part of a government psyop to win votes in an election in a country that neither of them live in, and that the one who filed the police complaint did not file it in. or, according to gaiman, because one of them is still upset about the ending of a relationship twenty years ago, and the other is delusional and formed false memories of assault due to a medical condition that she does not have and never has.

(b) a rich and famous cishet white man sought out relationships with much younger women who he was in a position of power over and sexually abused them

[wispedvellichor]

Other queercoded media shippers: They're gay!!

Author: No. (They're cishet and platonic and bros and I queerbaited for profit. They're gonna get wives now)

Ineffable fandom: They're gay!!

Our Lord and Savior Neil Gaiman: No. (They're so gay that the gay cancels itself out. They're lgbtqia in more ways than you puny mortals can ever imagine. Get trans'd)

[qweenofghosts]

Maybe the reason Neil gaiman is so good at making queer media despite being a cishet man is because he spends so much time on Tumblr

[harocat]

That Neil not only raped and assaulted all these women, but the main woman featured in the Vulture story? Is a lesbian, who told him as such before he raped her.

This disgusting man has not only been viewed as a 'feminist' writer despite behaving like this behind the scenes, but he's also pointedly and graphically raped, assaulted, and humiliated at least one queer person (a lesbian), and was continually heralded as a queer icon. All along he has been exploiting us; the feminist community, the queer community, and the massive crossover between the two.

In fact when this news first came out, there were people questioning the legitimacy of it because 'he's a prominent ally, so perhaps people just want to bring him down.' Because, the thing is, we accept the absolute bare minimum when it comes to cishet white men being 'queer allies.' And I think we need to stop.

It's not as if I believe we should all view these guys as secretly queerphobic; not at all. But we need to stop forming parasocial relationships with them that allow us to view them on the same level of genuine activists. It's great when our faves have progressive views, of course. You can be happy about that. But please remember that we know so little about them. Neil had been called out for homophobic comments before, but the people that called him out were mostly berated and harassed.

No one should be above criticism.

This is not a 'gotcha'. No one but Neil (and Amanda imo) are to blame. But please, please try to disconnect in the future. I've seen so many people devastated over this.

No one deserves to find out their hero is a horrific person. Believe me, I've been there multiple times. But in the future, can we use caution? Be wary of putting these men up on pedestals (women too). Over and over, this happens. We don't know these people.

[nualaofthefaerie]

I will post this once.

This is the 5th ask of this kind only this week. I deleted all the hurtful words, hoping they would stop. They didn't. So now I am forced to write this.

Don't be that person.

This is very hurtful to me as a creator who loves one character so deeply, I dedicate hours of my life every day to her.

This is very disrespectful to the community Neil Gaiman has built, and it goes against every principle in his body.

Lastly, Sandflower is not a cishet ship. I have said and shared that multiple times.

I am really starting to feel like I'm not wanted... and I don't know what to do anymore. I simply exist in my corner. Don't treat me like that because I don't like something you do.

I am sorry for the sudden post, but I love what I do, and this type of asks really hurts me.

Still Love,

Li 🪷

Small Update: I did turn off the anon asks, and I see all the love pouring my way. It's so much it's overwhelming! Thank you, everyone 🪷🩷

[cardentist]

my big ol breakdown on good omens' nonbinary/genderqueer/agender rep is over here: [Link]

but allow me to illustrate my issue

2019: "good omens is queerbait ! neil is saying they aren't boys just so he doesn't have to make them gay ! they didn't name their relationship on screen so that basically means it's not queer at all ! they're Basically cishet men!"

me:

2023: "they kissed on screen and acknowledged that they have a kind of relationship so that Must mean that they're not a qpr. I can't believe neil would take away an aroace reading just to make them canon gay. so much for non-traditional queerness"

neil has intentionally avoided specifying many aspects of their relationships and their identities with the intent of allowing people to read them how They'd like to. the only things written in stone (and has been reinforced over and over again) is that they aren't binary and that their story is a love story. what you take from that is what you Want to take from that, and that's still true

But I Really Wish People Would Stop Pointing At The Traits That I Have And Going "well this Can't Be [what I am]"

[howlsmovingmind]

The phrase “The Oscar Wilde sort” is one of my favorite things ever. It used to be as readily understood as “fruity” is now, but if I tell someone I’m “the Oscar Wilde sort”, ALMOST EVERYONE AROUND ME IS CONFUSED. And that’s hilarious.

“Friend of Dorothy” has, in a way, kept its previous meaning and use because it’s still coded to be something mostly only queer people understand. My brother is a well read person whom I typically expect to understand my references. I said something like, “Well, I am a friend of Dorothy after all.” And he looked at me with such confusion. My brother, the most well read person I have met in my small town (keeps himself informed on current events, history, and internet culture) didn’t know queer history hardly at all. Lavender Menace, Lavender Scare, the YMCA, Sappho, the word Sapphic, Plato and his Platonic ideals, cowboys, or Polari.

This made me realize just how little cishet people know about queer history. Maybe even how little queer people know about queer history. We aren’t really taught these things in the States and the people around us don’t typically have knowledge about any of it either. We have to go digging for it because we want to know about the people like us. We want to know more about our history. Because it is ours. It’s personal and special.

Him not knowing these bits of history confused me. I thought, for some reason, he knew everything I knew and then some. But he was just as uninformed as I was. But he didn’t care. Because it didn’t mean anything for him. (And that’s not a problem!) Polari seems like a dead language a lot of the time. But interactions like this make me realize that there is actually still a place for it. Because, really, it has evolved to look and sound different, but it’s still there.

I feel like I’ve lost the plot of this post, but I’m gonna keep going because I want to.

Queer history is so beautiful and human. It’s so unbelievably human. That’s why literature like “The Picture of Dorian Gray”, “The Price of Salt”, and “Maurice” are so important. Sappho’s poems and knowing they’re about women is important. Knowing Walt Whitman was queer is important. Knowing Emily Dickinson was queer is important. This is a whole group of people who have been hidden from the public eye and hated and scorned and killed because of who they love. And it is about who they love. You cannot tell me this is simply about the physical aspect of it all. Because it’s not. It’s really not. The AIDs crisis? There was no way that was just about having sex. AIDS was such a problem because they wouldn’t help the queer people affected by it. Only when straight couples were being affected did they do anything.

Queer shipping does not lose the plot of stories or discount everything that a piece of media has explored and built up. Like people shipping Anderperry. It’s not a crazy thing! It does not take away from Neil’s acting being a point of contention between him and his father. It could add a layer to maybe why it was such a big deal beyond his father simply being a controlling jerk and not allowing Neil to engage in something outside of what he’s “supposed” to do. Mr. Perry made Neil drop the school paper at the beginning because it would be “distracting”. We know that Mr. Perry is controlling and never would have allowed Neil to act no matter what. Because it wasn’t the plan. But Neil being queer adds a layer to this narrative that a lot of people have seen and found themselves in. It doesn’t have to distract from the story and the themes that the author or creator is presenting. It can add a layer. I mean, Walt Whitman being such a huge part of the film and message all throughout adds to the queer message.

I just think that… it’s interesting and important and it means more to so many people than we assume. History and every aspect of humanity is important.

And saying “I’m the Oscar Wilde sort” is objectively hilarious.

An Oscar Wilde Fan,

Howl

[t-s-n]

i am terribly attracted to neil patrick harris

[weirdly-specific-but-ok]

maybe tumblr will get me back into writing.

Hey my maggoty loves sooooo well, as you might know (because of this chaotic mess of a thread on Neil's blog, oops) I've rooted up a WIP from last February. And I want to finish it. The time on that thread that I said I'd write, I actually wrote for three hours and wrote 3000 words and actually had so much fun? And I haven't written since then but it's made me realise if I keep myself accountable on tumblr then I'll actually do this thing that brings me so much joy.

Sometimes you need to be kicked in the ass even to do things that you like. In chemical kinetics it's called activation energy, if I remember correctly. Ass-kicking energy has more pizzazz.

Sooooo I'll make a tag and I'll just keep making stupid lil updatey posts, y'all feel free to ignore it (or maybe, if you need to write too, take them as a reminder and motivation, the way I took Neil's post as my ass-kicking energy. anything you like). Writing is a messy messy thing but hey we can do it together!

I'll use the tag Asmi's birds of paradise because the ship name I use for my two OCs, Rian and Avi, is Avian. And well, avian = birds. Flashy queer birds. See I'm putting so much thought into this :")

Alright I'm going to write a scene I've been wanting to, where Rian (who knows nothing about cricket) has to commentate on a game of it along with Avi (who's extremely good at it but is out of the game because injury). I wonder if Avi will realise that Rian's not even trying to commentate properly, he's just trying to make Avi laugh. Fucking fools I love them.

Let's fucking go! @howmanyholesinswisscheese writing with me, dad? beating those cishet allegations?

[wynn-ing]

i didnt even think abt pasha mb being trans, i was just like "has pasha ever been a normal kid? nah hes always been feral" if we want an in fiction reason mb kid pasha just cut her hair short herself with scissors cuz its always getting in the way. yeah that make sense - dw abt how hunt knew he was a boy before pasha not important ajjcnfnxbxb

also he got the long quiet/the hunted testosterone so u know that shit is strong (also the sideburns are more feathers than hair by the time hes an adult i think)

Hunted: -arrives in this kid's head- boy i need you to listen to me Pasha: !?!??!?!?!? wait. boy? Hunted: ? Are you not? Pasha: ......... I'm allowed to pick? Hunted: yes Pasha: oh. Okay I'm a boy then. I'm Pasha. Who are you? Hunted: I'll explain in a second but we need to go into the woods RIGHT NOW Pasha: they said not to go with strangers Hunted: okay. I'm not a stranger, I'm Hunted. I live in your head. go in the woods. Pasha: okay! I like the woods -cue feralification-

(he actually didn't go into the woods until he was a little bit older, bc Hunted wasn't sure his tiny baby hands were strong enough to start a fire or carry things yet. Second he managed to make a trap and catch a rabbit for the first time they were gone.) also SO true. Mannnn im jealous imagine having a voice in your head that gives you the hormones u want, even if only based on your belief that they're capable of doing so. Actually that's a good point. Their power changes and increases based on their own belief and the belief of their hosts, so I feel like if you have a Voice in your head, placebo effects work REALLY well on you compared to regular humans. ESPECIALLY if you have one of the body-affecting Voices like Hunted, Paranoid or Stubborn. You could literally transition off vitamin gummies if you genuinely believed they'd work.

Nobody in this cast is cishet except for Etienne's nice older coworker Neil.

[issela-santina]

David Tennant and Michael Sheen

🤝

Simon Pegg and Nick Frost

S_a_ed (Spaced/Staged)

cishet white male besties with queer disaster energy and amazing chemistry to show for it

soft and silly and willing to rescue your pets, look after your kids, and fight monsters under your bed (maybe)

bouba and kiki effect: one of them is built for dexterity and known for sci-fi while the other is built for strength and known for fantasy

one plays a bitchy artist with bleached hair and the other plays a Matrix agent wannabe who wears special glasses and proves too chaotic good to be a militarized terrorist

the guy in glasses tends to cause drama during a paintball battle

Doctor Who

at least once they have kissed each other

zombies

one of them can impersonate John Lennon

one has brown eyes and the other has heterochromatic blue eyes

ice cream

Neil Gaiman has trolled half of each couple just by telling them to wait and see

[letrune]

You know what annoys me in Harry Potter?

And let us imagine for a moment that the author is Hatsune Miku. That it is an adaptation of Neil Cicierega's Potter Puppet Pals. That Warner Bros is not holding the franchise with patents and trademarks well beyond the powers of even millionaires.

Ah, nice to imagine, isn't it? Still with me?

The books are wasted potential. Every new thing coming in helps to show how the magical world is as flawed and xenophobic as regular, mundane version of it. Slavery, segregation by "blood purity", racial segregation, magic supremacy and cishet white male magic supremacy, too.

And then a downtrotten guy shows up. He is a hero, has loads of cash and a fame beyond his age. You would think the dude from the literal closet would CHANGE THE SYSTEM. To push along a new, better, more liberated, more equal world. Maybe even prevent the next bad guy from rising by removing the key aspects that made him rise to power, like slavery, the segregations, the supremacist ideas, and so on. Even if just pushing it in a way.

You would think the main character would fix the system. You know why?

Because every fantasy story, even if by just getting the just and wise king or queen on the throne, does that. The Lord of the Rings does not end by blowing up Sauron. It goes on, the world has to be changed to prevent a new, different Sauron. We saw glimpes on how anyone, even the purest heart, could go down that path.

So why can't this boy who lives in a closet? It is WASTED POTENTIAL. Imagine the stories you can tell! Now that you got a better world coming, would the old jerks not hate it? Would some change? What new issues arise? It is a fantasy, so you can do whatever you want - and then go the Man in Black route and have the magical slowly dripped into the mundane. Or, again, as with the (comic book) Men in Black, we had shown how even the utopian parts get issues not seen before, all based on xenophobia, human folly, etc.

You make a status quo that sucks, and then GO AND CHANGE IT. The big bad in a bad system is not the guy with the biggest gun, but the system that fails.

Oh, sure, you can make a story about the cyclical nature of revolutions - and yes, a bloodless revolution is the best for the little people, but in fiction, we may have the bad guys represent issues. So, you can make a story where a revolution leads to another in the next cycle. But...

You have to change the bad systems. Say that some things may change. Even if it is just a new school being put forward in the end, with empathy, and two characters talking about how the world will change if they keep going on... You have to change. The utopian status quo is the only one what the audience may like to be returned to.

When Bilbo comes back to the Shire, it is almost the same, but Bilbo himself changed. It was a bit for the better, but not that much that new stories could not be told... and what he thought as the status quo is shown to have changed. He became more artistic. He wrote a book, inspired by his "miserable adventure"... and then, later, Tolkien slipped in the ring from the sequel. It was not in the original draft! The ending did not changed, but we had a plot hook.

Though, Tolkien already had given us all the potential in the story. He hinted at a bigger world.

So imagine Miku, writing a thing but then she does not develop the things. The potential goes wasted, and when it returns, it has this "stop nagging me, here, a stupid retcon for your stupid questions" thing. Potential squandered! Wasted! No wonder the fans would go to write their own, for better or worse.

I am so happy Hatsune Miku is a talented writer and not some woman slipping into right-wing hatred, akin to some dude who loves gold and the aesthetics of power, and having none of it in his tiny hands or something. That would be-

Oh. I just realised the intro to this rant. Well, now that the train is deralied, what is my point?

If you write a story with systemic issues, you should at least attempt to resolve some of them. You got slavery? Have the main character and their friends free slaves and ban slavery when they get the power to do so.

You got a sort of space cyborg wizard nazi movement? Your character has the potential to punch them in the face, alongside B. J. Blazkowicz and Captain America, WHILE ALSO breaking the systems the space cyborg wizard nazies rely on. In fact, it should be what you do, because while your heroes give the cool action scenes, they also show their intelligence and empathy by PREVENTING new space cyborg wizard nazies coming into existence and fixing the inequalities in the world.

Sure, it is not as cool to see Mr. Potter to write a new constitution about equal rights than seeing him in a wizard duel with wizard nazies, but you can have both. This is fantasy!

You can get the audience to believe that a man can fly, that a single guy can save the world by throwing a ring into a volcano, or that a boy living in a closet is a chosen one - letting them change the world for the better is not a stretch, it is catharsis! That is where the happy ending happens.

[freakytofu]

Podcasts take ages to put together (plus researching). Its unlikely it's in response to David Tennant because that was only a few days ago (it was probably in the works pre election announcement too)

Plus think about this in regards to the general public- are they going to go 'an author who's work david Tennant been in has been accused of sexual assualt? Hes so wrong for supporting trans rights!'

If someone was going to make stuff for TERF reasons, wouldnt they accuse a trans person?

(Also I'm so mad that a cishet guy being accused of rape has become a conversation about trans people. This sucks)

I never said it was in response to David Tennant directly. I understand how long it takes to produce and research articles and podcasts because I work in media/journalism.

I just think this is very advantageous for them in terms of SEO as these names are often associated with each other, and having a major streamer like Netflix drop information about Sandman yesterday means Neil Gaiman's name is probably doing well on Google Trends today. Google Discover picks news up and pushes it aggressively for about 48 hours, and Tortoise Media probably wants to ride that wave. And if not, it was very, very fortunate timing for them.

Think about it this way. If something like that podcast is as thoroughly researched as you say, they likely had this information ready to go the moment it was needed. How do we know the podcast wasn't recorded in advance, perhaps tweaked a little to sound more relevant, and then pushed at an opportune time?

I would not put it past someone to have said "we need something on X to go out now", and then the newsroom made it happen. The founder of Tortoise is James Harding, former BBC News director and editor of The Times (Rupert Murdoch's centre-right publication). This is a vocally pro-Israel Cambridge boy who is absolutely connected and this is the sort of "evergreen" story that isn't time-sensitive that can go out when it is most convenient. Breaking a big, exclusive story like this would be huge for them too because they rely on subscriber memberships.

I do not like that these possible SA victims' experiences have been co-opted for political purposes. I do not like that trans rights have been co-opted either. But the truth of the matter is that trans rights is a big point of debate in the upcoming UK General Election, and the UK public more or less just knows that Gaiman is a famous leftist author and trans rights supporter, and has vocally opposed Rowling and her ilk in the past. I would not be surprised if this was a calculated move, even if we the public can't fully see why the move is being made.

Again, I'm not excusing anything here, I'm only reminding people to pay attention to the source and context surrounding the news they consume.

Also, why the anon?