#as it is we already have a canon bisexual character with taigen and i think that’s wonderful

[blue-eye-samurai]

Thank you @sitephi and @dicapiito for speaking up about this topic.

I completely agree — at first glance it doesn’t feel wrong at all. Headcanons can be fun and it’s normal for different people to interpret fictional media in different ways. However, it stops being fun and starts getting problematic when certain people begin to act like their personal interpretations MUST be accepted as irrefutable facts.

We see white queers doing this ALL THE TIME with non white characters who are marginalized in other ways. They are not used to consuming media that is not centered around them and their lived experiences, so they immediately start projecting themselves onto those characters because otherwise they can’t relate to the narrative of the story.

It’s really frustrating how so many people think it’s okay to discount Mizu as woman when she gives us (the audience) a very clear and valid perspective of what it’s like to be marginalized as a cishet woman of color. It’s upsetting how so many white minorities continue to act entitled to stories that are not about them and were not created for them in the first place.

I mean, even the show’s writers knew this would happen. They knew that the audience would watch the first episode and assume that Mizu is either A) a cishet man, B) a transman or nonbinary person or C) a butch lesbian. They knew people were going to think this way because “nobody this cool could ever be a cishet woman”. And then they accuse the show’s creators of “queer baiting” them simply because they didn’t get what they expected from Mizu.

Whether they want to admit or not, these are still the assumptions that many folks always make when it comes to women who are not traditionally feminine.

Women of color in particular are always expected to overcompensate and must be hyper feminine in order to even be seen as “women”. We grow up disliking our own ethnic features because we’re taught to think of ourselves as either ugly or as just a sexual object, so because of this we always feel like we have to make up for something when it comes to society’s ideal beauty standards.

Example: as a mixed race person, Mizu is seen as unattractive in 1600s Edo, Japan. Mikio’s first words to her were “you’re not as hideous as I expected” and he says this so causally because they both know she’s not considered beautiful in their society. Mizu is not even considered truly “Japanese” even though she was born + raised there, only speaks Japanese and also had a Japanese parent.

Even while presenting as a man, people everywhere are constantly saying that Mizu is ugly. Women aren’t considered “women” if they aren’t beautiful and traditionally feminine, so for Mizu to be both mixed race AND an unattractive woman (again, in their mind), that just makes her double the sin in society’s eyes.

Up until this point Mizu had never even been allowed to live publicly as a woman because her “mother” stripped away her womanhood since birth and insisted that Mizu “must always be a boy” in order to survive, so I don’t doubt that also contributes to Mizu’s pain and trauma. She has never been allowed to be fully herself. Not even once. Mizu is miserable living this way and it’s frustrating how white queers don’t realize that because they’re too busy projecting themselves onto her.

They see a strong able bodied character who is not traditionally feminine and decide that is not a woman.

They see a character who binds their breasts and decide that is a transman or nonbinary person.

They see a character who is not very outwardly emotional and decide that person is autistic.

They see a character who has other priorities besides sex and decide that person is asexual.

And so on, and so on … it’s all just one projection after another. And a lot of them will say things like “Mizu is too cool to be cishet lol” and I’m like??? Since when are stories about cishet women of color considered too boring for audiences? Last I checked — we rarely get representation, much less good representation that is both well written and well researched.

Also, it’s so interesting to me how many of them have such an easy time accepting Akemi as a “woman” but not Mizu. And we all know why — it’s because Akemi is exactly what society thinks women should be: delicate, submissive, thin, rich, “pure blood” and traditionally feminine. Basically she is all the things that Mizu lacks in their eyes. And again, the writers know this too because that’s exactly why Mizu hates Akemi at first.

Mizu is jealous of Akemi because she gets to live publicly as a woman and is openly accepted by other women around her. One of the reasons why Mizu is so angry is because she was denied womanhood! All Mizu really wants is to be accepted as a fellow Japanese woman and yet white queers are genuinely out here constantly arguing otherwise. 🤦🏻‍♀️

On first glance theres nothing inherently wrong w lgbt/nd hcs of characters of color or whatever. But on a more deeper level it says something when white minorities keep making theories and hcs about characters of colour (who are cishet and nt) because they cannot relate to them otherwise. like w the mizu thing - most of the time i would encourage lgbt hcs, ace hcs, autism hcs etc but especially in the shows context..no. shes literally a cishet woman! its not even a zhu chongba situation where someones faking being a man but is also genuinely nonbinary/possibly transmasc. mizu is not lgbt and thats fine. mizus opression comes from her race (specifically being mixed with white) and gender (the swordsmaster accepts her race and past, but doesnt listen to her when shes going to confess being a woman) . Also shes FORCED to be a man and its not even like a "i was forced at first but now im content and i might be a man all along" like no.

Note: since i tagged this and strangers might see it- im a bi white+asian trans man whos autistic. So dont pull the 'ur just bigoted' shit.