#and queer ADULT characters characters at that

[rotationalsymmetry]

People keep wanting a narrative of everything's rosy and getting better or things are bad and getting worse, and it's always a mix of things going on.

There are some things that have been getting worse (people who thought the Nazis were kind of cool actually in the 90's and 00's weren't nonexistent, but there were a lot fewer of them, in the US, college used to be something you could put yourself through, police have been getting more militarized, climate change has very much shifted from a thing that might happen if we don't change to a thing that is happening, and we still need to change.) There are some things that have been getting better. Both coexist.

Anyways, on the cool stuff front -- you're always going to end up with a negativity bias from the news, that's just how following the news is -- I remember the first time I saw a poster intended to combat homophobic bullying in an elementary school. It was this utterly sappy thing, they'd held a contest for kids to make the art for it, it was two men holding hands and one of them was holding a baby, it just. You didn't. You just didn't.

Sorry. Words. For a long time there was this association that you know, being gay and being a pedophile were probably related, you know, that it wasn't safe to let gay men be around kids. There were teachers and stuff who lost their jobs. Anyways, I grew up in San Francisco, so, pretty queer-friendly, but there was still this idea that it wasn't quite appropriate to talk to kids about gay people, that it was too much like talking to kids about sex, it wasn't appropriate. There were some movies and stuff for adults with queer characters, but no mention at all in movies and TV shows and comics and so on aimed at younger kids, and if there was any mention in like PG movies it'd be homophobic or transphobic jokes. I mean, you could have Bugs Bunny crossdress, but it'd have to be played off as a joke, you know? (And I'm talking about homophobia against men mostly, but it's not like you saw lesbians in family media either.) So it just, it moved me in ways I have trouble putting into words, this completely wholesome and positive portrayal of Two Dads in an elementary school.

Has anything actually gotten better, for all the work you talk about doing? Or is it just treading water in misery forever?

Anon, ten years ago gay people couldn't get married in large parts of the US. AIDS was an almost certain death sentence when I was in high school. I was looking at job boards the other day and found a part time gas station job that had health insurance as a benefit, which NEVER would have happened 15 years ago. When I was a kid, hitting your child was extremely normalized in the US and my parents were the weird ones for not doing it. There is a vaccine for chicken pox. I didn't meet anyone who had transitioned until my 20s because it was so uncommon to transition in the aughts, and now there are some states that protect your right to have gender affirming care provided by your health insurance. It's not all states, but it's better than the number of states that had it in 2010, which was zero. THERE ARE TENANTS UNIONS NOW. WE HAVE A VACCINE AGAINST CERVICAL CANCER.

And all of that has been the work of a lot of individuals and organizations and research teams and activists.

[tossawary]

Every now and again, I'll come across some fanfiction in which an emotionally conflicted character will consult (usually kind of trashy) romance novels or in-universe fanfiction for advice or information. And it almost always snaps my suspension of disbelief.

If it's some terminally online teenage geek character or a hopeless romantic bookworm character? Sure! And, of course, there's great humor to be had in a sporty jock struggling with his queer awakening hesitantly picking up the bodice-ripper that his mum left on the coffee table. There ARE scenarios where "romance novels and fanfic as research" tracks just fine. I also understand the existence of the "I want to give this character I like the hobbies I like" / "I want to poke fun at this type / genre of fiction" aspect on the author's side.

But in any scenario with some normie adult man? Some straight, cisgender guy with normie dude hobbies and no evidence that he even CAN read, much less that he enjoys reading? Then it's a "not only would he not fucking do this, I honestly don't even believe he'd know this course of action exists" characterization situation.

Like, there are an astonishing number of people, especially dudes, who could not even name a romance novel to save their fucking life. No, not even a Jane Austen novel or "Twilight" or something. Their eyes glaze over that section of a bookstore. They are mentally filing that shit out to leave more room for sports or first-person-shooter video games or something. They have no respect for this type of fiction, if they're into reading fiction at all! They unconsciously or even explicitly believe that making eye contact with a bodice-ripper will permanently damage their masculinity, and they would flinch away from touching one like most people are scared of scorpions. They don't know aaaaanything about it! They have no concept of "the good stuff" versus "the bad stuff"; it's all soap operas and pornography to them, not a source of information.

And lots of people still don't even know that fanfiction is a thing. They go through life blissfully unaware of fandom wank. Or if they do know of fanfiction, it holds no appeal for them. Playing with other people's characters, or writing fictional stories about real people, is weirdo fanatic behavior to them! Not a source of information.

(And, to be clear, I'm not saying this tracks for all female characters. No, obviously, plenty of women don't like romance novels or fanfic. Plenty of women who do like those would never look at them as sources of information either, for a variety of very good reasons. It's just really funny when a story has the most normie bro guy to ever bro engage with this type of fiction.)

So, like, no, there are some characters whom I cannot be persuaded would ever read any of this stuff. (Speaking as a terminally online fanatic!) And honestly, there are plenty of more realistic and far funnier options for some normie dude character looking for love advice.

A) Friends and family. Or else colleagues and coworkers. It is almost always hilarious when a character goes up to someone else and says, "Hey, hypothetical scenario: [the stupidest shit you've heard in your life]. Any advice for that?" Also, you can have sincerely emotional conversations between friends! Or else good angst if the friend or family member reacts in a hostile manner or gives bad advice!

B) A magazine or chick flick movie. I can easily be persuaded that a normie dude would at least know these exist, or have one left at his house by an ex-girlfriend who made him watch it one time. Normie dudes are also more likely to consider these big publications more legitimate for advice than random romance novels or fanfic.

C) Some random advice column blog or non-fiction self-help book. Could be legitimately good advice for specific situations by a thoughtful professional, could be a money-grab scam written by a quack! How is some lovesick, emotionally dense guy supposed to tell by a book cover?

D) On that note: a relationship advice TikTok influencer or YouTuber or some random advice forum, probably Reddit or the like. The pros and the quacks are unhelpfully everywhere now! And possibly even have a live chat acting as their studio audience to make airing dirty laundry more toxic than ever. Potentially, you will find the kindest person alive with a terrible username willing to gently walk you through therapy, the online equivalent of meeting a figurative angel in a dive bar, but probably not. Bad advice is much more likely.

E) Doing no research, remaining uninformed, and blustering through the situation based on random pre-conceptions if anything. Honestly, I think some of these guys would just ignore the problem, even a potentially deadly problem, rather than touch a Harlequin romance novel, much less AO3 fanfiction. Sexism and internalized homophobia are a hell of a drug. It's just not happening.

I don't have a clean conclusion for this, it's just a funny thing that I've noticed every now and again. There ARE guys who like these types of fiction, of course! There ARE male characters who own an e-reader full of rom novels, sure, and don't give a shit what anyone else thinks. "This [normie male character who is both pretty offline and worries about appearing sufficiently masculine in a pretty toxic way] is reading a lot of romance novels and/or fanfiction as a form of research!" Yeah, no, that's really hard to pull off. If this guy is touching the internet at all, he's far more likely to make the most ridiculous Reddit post you've ever seen and then start belligerent fights in the comments.

[animentality]

I know x reader fans have always existed, and I don't generally mind them.

however I feel like the way they've overtaken fandom analysis/ shipping culture is an indication of the general decline of fandom communities.

they are normies, guys. I'm sorry.

it's not a slur, it's just a fact.

normies infiltrated fandom spaces because of covid.

they come in and just want to thirst after a particular character... and that's like. fine. of course it's fine it's always happened.

but they don't seem to actually care about the character being in character. nor does it really require any analysis of that character's motivations or story, or their relationship with others.

I know not everything HAS to relate to canon. like duh, we are here to make our own canon.

but come the fuck on. I go into a tag and it has a character tagged being some dommy daddy when that character is nothing like that in canon... and there's this line between making a character act a certain way bc that's your fetish, and completely ignoring who that character is entirely to the point where you could just replace their name with anyone else in any other show, and it wouldn't make a difference?

like that's... normie shit. it's people who do not think deeply or passionately about that media, it's just them having this surface level grasp of the physical attractiveness of the character.

and again. I'm not saying these people are stupid or whatever, just that the overabundance of this watered down ass content is an indicator of how much fandom has changed.

fans are not the socially awkward introverted queer voyeurs anymore, who enjoy fantasies and daydreaming about being someone else because of this disconnect with the self, or this fear of others that leads you to seek human connection in fiction.

they're the people who do just fine with other people ... and I'm not gatekeeping fandom from people who aren't socially awkward or anything.

but they come here, and they do shit like say you can't like this ship bc it's morally wrong .. you're not allowed to thirst after an 18 year old that makes you a pedophile... I'm 15 and I'm allowed to lust for Gojo but you a 25 year old woman, aren't allowed to write itafushi fanfiction.

go back to taxes and your job!!!

like that drives me fucking insane. these people want to insist they're not normies but they then go around insisting that being over 20 means you need to Work and Be a Normal Adult... bitch.

adults make fandoms. not you fucking children. you don't know how to build communities, you barely know how to make friends.

attacking people who like the same thing you do? is that what you think community building is?

oh this poor generation. anyway.

they come here and are disgusted by weird fetishes and obsessions. and by people sharing sexual headcanons or ideas about sexuality that make them uncomfortable because they've never ever been counter culture, they've never felt the need to go against the status quo.

they're cis straight girls/women mostly, whose mothers basically fuel the ya spicy romance booktok industry.

they're just younger and think it's trendier to be "in a fandom" than a fucking book club.

they're modern day bodice ripper fans... which again

would be so fucking fine, if they weren't doing the youth version of karening the fuck out.

and flooding the fandom with both hyper criticism of how you conduct your business AND an aggressive market for just imagining yourself with a character.

like fandom was originally just hyper passionate freaks.

they discussed movies and TV shows like life and death. they were fucking nuts but in the way where they needed to seek one another out, to share in this joyous sensation of being a freak obsessed with something beyond the point of reason.

now?

now it's like ... oh.

Sally from Bio thinks your love of Gaara is super creepy when you're 19. like what, are you a pedophile? why are you imagining him getting married to Naruto? are you a fucking pedophile who gets off to teens making out? they need to check your hard drive!!

like ok Sally.

ok.

I just think x reader is such a strong indicator of what kind of fan you are.

and if a fandom is mostly x reader... then it can't be that popular. it can't be a proper community.

how can it be?

it's as watered down and generic and bland as a marvel movie. it's stripped down of anything unique. it is pruned of controversy and humanity.

you are literally stripping yourself down into a non character.

you're not truly projecting yourself into a character, because the you that you read about is nothing. a placeholder. you are a passive observing robot who exists only in the form of a faceless and personality less entity.

and I don't get it.

what's the point then?

isn't fiction about realizing something about yourself or others

if your only manner of engaging is stripping yourself of personality... is it engagement at all?

or is it just more mindless consumption?

just watch law and order, man.

watch the good doctor or some shit on lifetime.

there's shows with passionate fanbases who theory craft and endlessly obsess with relationships and world building, and then there's shows with x reader only content and you know exactly why now.

[utilitycaster]

#critical role#yea#and tbh? these are mostly western white queers#not esxclusively because we def have this type of people here in eastern europe as well. but the whole thing is very western#(not to derail the post but most of attempts to see some charackers as fantasy polish were. uhm. not good. which is very in line with#western fandom way of microdosing on *other cultures*. pick some aesthetic level things and not ask anyone from said culture for input)#(there were some subtle ones that were fine! but most was. like. firstly. why) @gendertrickery (moving this from the post about centering white queer (and frequently middle class & western) experiences above all

GOD what a mood; obviously I am also western, white, queer, and middle-class but I've had a wild (negative) time as a Jewish person in fantasy fandom spaces my entire adult life, with people interspersing posts based on surface-level misinterpretations of Jewish culture they've headcanoned (rather than like. seeking out Jewish characters in other works) and fighting harder against goblins and the word "phylactery" than like, real-world antisemitism. I still think about how one of the people in this fandom who is quickest to claim everyone else is a bigot not only did various character nationality posts seemingly without input but has an entire headcanon involving the most basic Spanish error that literally anyone familiar with Spanish on any level would have noticed.

It really does feel like a lot of people want the appearance of being accepting of diverse experiences but refuse to accept anything that challenges their personal perspectives and hate that this is a contradictory set of desires, and so they only engage through headcanoning characters who aren't sufficiently like them as more like them (often by making characters who are not explicitly textually queer, queer) or characters who are already like them (again, often by being queer) as belonging to other cultures without ever exposing themselves to a variety of perspectives coming from that culture - when they do actually talk to someone it's usually someone they already mostly agreed with and often someone who is fairly westernized. I am genuinely wary around anyone who gets super into headcanons and defensive thereof because while on the surface it's harmless, a lot of them use headcanons as ammunition to prove they are open-minded without ever having to open their mind.

[eldritchmochi]

oh fuck this is my time to shine!!!

- any of iron circus' smut peddler series. theres 8 volumes currently, all anthologies, with a wide variety of themes and individual comic styles/relationships/vibes

- yes roya by c spike trotman & emilee denich. f/m/m with a femme dom, set in the 50s iirc. absolutely beautiful art, and very fun

- *i want that twink obliterated!! an anthology produced by bona books, all based around taking (typically kinda homophobic) camp horror tropes and reclaiming them. not 100% smut but there are some explicit stories within

- *heckin lewd anthology edited by mx nillin lore. trans and nonbinary specific smut

- patience & esther by sw searle. absolutely beautiful sapphic regency erotica, does not shy away from the reality of the era for its characters

- *chromatic fantasy by H. A. transmasc erotica in this kinda medieval illuminated manuscript style? i havent read my copy yet but its absolutely beautiful to flip thru

- crossplay by niki smith. beautiful vignet style stories based around a group of cosplay friends at a con, and what happens in the hotel. features Neat Things with gender play and presentation

- *les petites morts, edited by evelyn freeling. sapphic erotic horror anthology

- anything by chuck tingle tbh. there are physical editions of his books and surely ebooks are available

- microcosm publishing has their whole queering consent line, which has a wide variety of queer erotica

- rolasarian has a handful of print editions of their comics, which may be available to some libraries. the ones i have are "darlin its betta down where its wetta" sapphic mermaid smut, "this book is full of filth" and "adult activity book", and "hexual fantasy vol 1" and theyre all a ton of fun

- sunstone by stjepan sejic. its a fairly long and fairly accessible (since its published by image comics). sapphic bdsm

- the pervert by remy boydell & michelle perez. very lovely melancholy comic about a transfemme character and her journey through early transition, relationships and iirc sex work

- *best lesbian erotica (yearly volumes) edited by mr sexmith. i just ordered these so i havent flipped thru but i do know theyre less "soft", based off the other work ive seen of mr sexsmith

i have not read all of these, i just have an absolutely massive collection. if its marked with an * i havent read it. everything has been published within the last 10 years so shouldn't be a struggle with out of print issues (i have other things that i didnt list that WOULD be an issue)

I talk a lot about requesting queer books from the library, but someone reminded me that requesting queer smut is specifically important.

So please recommend queer smut books for me to request from my library!

[psymachine]

omg you probably get his comment like 15 times a day but the way you work with colours is fucking sublime. you could try to convince me you don’t see the secret shrimp colour spectrum but I will never fucking believe you. you use such bold colour palettes that I would never imagine to put together but they WORK SO GODDAMN WELL EVERY TIME. also your mind. rcg NEEDS to get you in the writers room I think you might know the characters better than they do

thank youuuu 😭😭😭 coloring is honestly my least favorite part usually lmaooooo so i try to have fun with it.

bro i wish i had the secret shrimp colors; i think about them everyday----

lmao i know the characters that I FEEL these characters should COULD be at least.

[fauxfrog]

I have a tattoo in a similar style but for the Don't Hug me I'm Scared boys on my arm.

Can't wait to get this one on my other arm!

[tealottie]

Supa Late to my own art event, and also Supa Out of Order with how I'm getting these pieces done!

I believe Pinups Please was for Day 6, Saturday <3

below the cut is an explanation of Dewey's tattoos:

scrooge's cane, donalds hat, webbys bow, and others that arent pictured for LP, Beakley, and Della are just little items representing his family around his wrist. the biggest mandala at his shoulder is a mix of m for mom and m for melissa cause he loves them both layered on top of a capricorn sign for melissa. the red mandala is for huey - it has arrows on it cause huey's a guiding force in his life and the fire is because of huey's passion. on top is meant to be the same bandages della has around her prosthetic (again he loves his momma). the third mandala is for louie - it has layers because of his brothers complexity and is laced and edged in gold. the water and sky beneath those layers are representative of donald and della - his parental figures growing up. donald parents the first half of his life (lower) where della parented the second half (higher). and then the buckles have his and his brother's colors as accents (and also all throughout his sleeve there are motifs of three because he loves being a triplet)

[sourscratched]

got caught in one of the back wheels of the bandwagon, extended corniverse headcanons be upon ye

my bryce and clark are based on the lovely lovely designs for them made by @gaybearwedding !! (well they at least were initially. things may have gotten away from me)

additional dumb doodling under the cut

(and one for my little team illinois + nebraska ocs ⬇️)

notes, headcanons, etc:

- the Wicked shirt and the blue button down (from the group pic in the first photoset) are both shirts i’ve owned for a long time and are still in my closet right now

- the team illinois and team nebraska captains are named dani (daniela) and miya and pretty much exactly what happened between bryce and clark also happened with them. they also spent a summer road-tripping together; prime grounds for homosexual thoughts to happen

- for anybody who’s watched the off book episode The Kids Are At Night with Mary Sohn (10/10 episode highly recommended), i imagine that most nights after clark gets done helping his sisters* with their homework he’s probably looking up online editions of Boy Boy Magazine. gotta get connected to the culture

* = my headcanon is that he has two sisters, one older one younger

- the Away Team is from the same country as Princess Emily but they’re diehard Nothing Everything Children Glass fans (is there an actual name for the group who made it?? tag with your headcanon for the band name) and there is a rivalry between the two factions

that’s all ive got for now thanks for reading all my weird little ideas!! 💖💖

[sprnklersplashes]

"this character wouldn't say that about their sexuality-"

maybe he would if he was written by a young queer person exploring their identity via fanfiction. just an idea.

[fire-in-my-woods]

Tell Me Why is part of the LIS franchise. To me

[henry-fox-biggest-stan]

More aroace book recs

Just found this book, and while it hasn’t come out yet it sounds like something out of my wildest dreams (comes out january 29)

Autistic aroace main character and queer side characters

“A great death is in the air” Arlo is lost. He thought he had everything figured out. Go to university, fall in love, get a job. But life doesn't always work like that, and before he has a chance to figure it out, he dies. In the space of a night, Arlo is plunged into a world of blood and immortality and finds a group of people who swear to always have his back. Dying is never easy, and they promise him eternal safety. But something is after him, something no one could have ever predicted. He craves to figure out his purpose before he falls into something he can never come back from.

There’s also vampires

[ferronickel]

Thinking bout the time someone yelled at me because they didn't understand butches.

[writing-with-olive]

Just spent the last week reading one of my absolute FAVORITE new finds for the year - We Set the Dark on Fire, and We Unleash the Merciless Storm by Tehlor Kay Mejia

it's a YA set in a world heavily based on hispanic culture, where a rags-to-riches hopeful (who's also an illegal immigrant) is graduating school to be the perfect wife to one of the island's most elite in the top of her class, in a corrupt-as-fuck world, and is trying to grapple with all that, when a rebel decides to try to blackmail her, and all of a sudden, her whole role, that involves making sure she's involved in exactly zero scandal, gets really tense, and she's gotta navigate the newly-high-stakes environment she's in. Also there's queer enemies to lovers that's really fun.

second book follows the girlfriend, but i'm not gonna describe it as much because i don't wanna do spoilers

[novelconcepts]

Doing a bit of a Santa Clarita Diet rewatch, and while I don't know intentional any of Abby's queer-coding was (and how much was just Hewson's vibes), her relationship with Eric has such teenage comphet energy. Like whenever Abby's like "I really care about you, more than anyone, but it's hard for me to pretend I'm into the physical; this has maybe a 2% chance of working out," my lesbian ass is just nodding so hard. Like, yeah! Exactly! You don't know you're gay yet, or you sense it in yourself and try to veer away, so what's the easiest option? You find the soft nerd boy, your best friend in the world, someone you absolutely trust to have your back no matter what, and go, "Yeah, uh huh, sure. I'll try that one." You absolutely look for the most non-threatening dude in the vicinity. And then it's improved by Eric's whole thing being like "yeah, this is absolutely someone I am down bad for, but if she doesn't wind up digging me that way, she's still my best friend." It reads so true. No idea if they were ever going to actually walk down that road, but in my heart of hearts? Here for it.

[nkirukaj]

Our Renaissance-Chapters

1920s AU! Human!Alastor x Human!Voe (Fem!OC)

art by @hazbinhotelie

Part 1

1919 | 1922*| 1925

_________________

Part 2

1928*| 1931* | 1933*| 1935

*= smut

Also available on AO3: