#at least it's not ignoring canon bis/gay so. ??? but it goes against me trying to be Canon Compliant

[armatization-a]

the problem with canonically straight characters is i will, inevitably, commit Ignore Sexuality and make them bi

[matan4il]

Not to add to the debate, but well sorry I kind of am. But on your points about the donor storyline, my thing is yes, like they are unsympathetic as people asking for this. Not because they are straight, but because their logic is weird. They obviously have the money, and they don't really know Buck, (the whole nature vs. nurture thing). Would Buck be this Buck if there was no Daniel? He was the chosen one and raised as such without Maddie falling into her role? Plus, they act like vultures about the whole thing. The whole aspect of it is wrong. I would have preferred if it was even an old girl, Buck dated, who now has a wife. At least we could get bi hints.

But also it sort of runs against future storyline I would love for Buddie when they go Canon. I mean we all realize it is harder and will be more expensive when it is 2 gay men, that is just a fact. Of course I love the idea of them adopting but also I would kill for any scenario that involves, Maddies egg/Eddie's sperm, Bucks sperm/Eddie's sisters egg and someone carrying it. There are just all sorts of amazing possibilities we could get that tell the real story of gay men who want to be fathers and the financial cost but also the insecurities about being chosen if you try adopting.

Sorry for the ramble but I guess I was just stating for myself it is a watered down generic story that one day I pictured for real for Buddie.

Also, weirdly though, fun fact. I grew up in San Diego. Like 8 years ago, my best friend found out her dad fathered a kid no one knew about. But the weird thing was that when we were in high school, he worked at the stables we used to ride at. Like, we actually met him as just a guy!! I'm like, dude, you could have dated your brother lol!!! That's all I keep seeing is Bucks' future child meeting his bio child and kissing🤣😂🤣

Hi Nonnie, thank you for this ask!

Oh, you know what? Whether in the context of the sperm donor storyline or otherwise, I would actually REALLY love for an ex gf of Buck's to return and turn out to be married to a woman. It could be one of those potential storylines for Buck listening to her and maybe realizing a few things about himself and Eddie. ;)

I hear everything you say! I honestly don't mind which way Buddie would go about it, I just want the story shown of how a same sex gay couple goes about deciding on and fighting for their right to be parents. It's STILL not a given right in way too many places, and where it is, it requires SO MUCH, it's a story deserving of being told. And considering how much drama is involved in it, how many emotions, how much it can test a couple, but also bring them together and showing them fighting as one for a common goal, it actually does NOT makes sense to me that it's so underrepresented in media. Which makes me suspect that's due to a great degree to ignorance. And shouldn't we strive for queer rep to tear it down?

I think your penultimate paragraph summarizes perfectly a big part of how I feel about this storyline. Thank you for that!

(also, yikes about your friend's dad! That could not have been easy in any way whatsoever...)

Have a great day, lovely! As always, here's my ask tag! xoxox

[vampish-glamour]

I never watched G*od Om*ns, so it was fandom again with the "they're gay"???

At least Star Trek did this right, you know, not lying to please someone. Spock and Kirk was never a thing and also was never meant to be a thing. But the creator himself said, if you wanna see them like that, it's fine. Do what you want. But in canon it's not that way.

But really, somehow fandom seems to make it easy for creators to just bait, but never commit and they're happy, wtf.

And IF they get actual lgbt rep, they're upset because it's not the character they WANTED to be lgbt....

Actually, the fandom is largely against them being gay because they claim it’s “nonbinary and asexual representation”.

Which bothers me just because they’re basically applauding homophobic tropes simply because they benefit from homophobic tropes.

I want to make it clear that my problem isn’t “why aren’t you making the characters canonically gay?!!?!!? This is homophobic!!!11!1!1”. I’m fine with the relationship remaining a close friendship canonically. And canonically speaking, I think I might prefer that tbh.

My problem is with how the original homophobia in the book sort of goes ignored, and how the writer teases and hints and in this case I would actually say baits… and then receives praise from the fandom for doing what everyone else does when it comes to gay pairings.

Basic overview of the situation from my POV:

Book establishes a character as a gay stereotype

Immediately goes “but he isn’t gay because angels are sexless unless they make an effort” (IMO the sexless thing could’ve been established in many other ways. Did it really have to be done in a “don’t worry he’s not gay” way?)

Book proceeds to make the gay stereotype thing a running joke, with the character being called various homophobic slurs (but see, it’s funny because it’s misplaced homophobia. He doesn’t actually deserve the homophobia he experiences like an actual gay person would /s)

Show comes out, includes romantic music, lots of subtext, and the writer confirming that it’s a “love story”, as well as the actors confirming they acted “in love”. Except… it’s done vaguely enough that anyone can come away with their own interpretation. Which is nothing new. There’s literally nothing revolutionary about leaving a same sex relationship “up for interpretation”.

All the “representation” actually comes from what the writer says on Twitter. He goes on about how they’re sexless and therefore cannot possibly be gay but are also inherently “queer”… but doesn’t actually add this into canon. So casual viewers are not experiencing any sort of “representation”.

IMO this is a homophobic media trope. Give two men or two women scenes that would be explicitly romantic if it were a man and a woman, tease the audience with “maybeee~”, but still make sure that ultimately, homophobes won’t be offended and can come away from the material thinking “what good friends!”. Say “it’s up for interpretation”, which is something I hardly see with M/F pairings. Especially with the virtue signalling on social media.

Keep in mind, something isn’t “representation” if everyone comes away with different ideas of what was represented. If one person can think “they’re gay and married” and another can think “they’re aspec and in a QPR”, that’s not representation. Representation only happens when something is undeniable. For example, a character who is undeniably bisexual because they are shown to be interested in both men and women (biphobic pannies coming to their own conclusions don’t count here lol, since bi = pan and pan = bi, so even if they claim the character is pansexual, they’re still getting the same outcome)

Now here’s where my issue comes in.

Instead of calling this out, the fandom runs with it and benefits from it. A vague relationship on screen allows them to claim representation for themselves, usually for made up labels like aspec, SAM type asexuality, queerplatonic, etc.

They praise the writer for being “inclusive”, and for “representing” them… when really this “inclusivity” is a result of homophobic tropes, and there’s actually no representation at all. Keep in mind, all the clues for what could be going on come from social media. A casual viewer is either going to see two gay men, or two good friends. They have no way of knowing about the woke “queer” bullshit unless they’re heavily involved in fandom.

The writer has a habit of teasing things and being intentionally misleading. Here’s an example

Not telling what’s going to happen and not giving spoilers, is very different from intentionally baiting. “Wait and see” sounds like a “yes”… because it would be incredibly shitty to lead people on when the answer is a solid “no”.

However, considering he’s only half of the writers, and establishing a relationship other than what he and the other writer discussed would be disrespectful… the answer is very likely “no”.

So just say “no”. It’s okay to say “no, they’re not getting together”. But he knows that people are more likely to watch if they’re waiting for the two to get together the whole time…so he has to keep it vague and mysterious and he has to keep baiting.

Of course the answer could very well be “yes” and that’s what he’s hinting at. But I highly doubt it, mostly because of the “only one author around” issue. So until I’m proven wrong, I will maintain that this is him being intentionally misleading, as he admitted to.

So that’s where I have the issue—I wouldn’t have an issue if he just straight up said “no, they’re not going to hook up, they’re good friends”. What is an issue, is perpetuating classic homophobic media tropes, of giving just enough but not too much…and then saying “it’s up for interpretation”. Which roughly translates to “here’s some crumbs for the gays”. What’s especially an issue, is then disguising this under woke kweer language and lapping up all the praise you can get for being such an “Ally” to “queers”.

And of course, I have an issue with how the fandom receives this. Because instead of calling the bullshit out for what it is, they actually call gay people talking about homophobia “aphobic discourse”, and say things like “gay men have enough representation!!”, and try to argue that actually, the homophobic trope of vague same sex relationships that are left up to interpretation, is actually super inclusive and amazing and progressive because it represents asexuals, aromantics, nonbinary people, queerplatonic relationships, etc.

Or they put down gay people for wanting more explicit representation, because “uhh… some people are aro!!! Some people are ace!!”. Despite missing that non romantic or non sexual relationships between men can be found in pretty much every single piece of media ever, and is 100% socially acceptable. Explicit gay relationships however, are still looked down upon.

And then they act like the religious homophobes, by taking “explicit gay representation” to mean “explicit hardcore sex scene”. Like I’ve seen nobody demand a sex scene when they’re talking about gay representation in G O. I’m certainly not. Yet the kweers always manage to interpret gay people wanting proper representation as “you want sex!!! You want porn!!!”. To me, it really seems no different from religious homophobes seeing an advertisement with two men and immediately talking about how it promotes “deviant gay sex”.

What worries me is that these types of fandoms—who applaud creators for giving gay people crumbs—set a precedent for other creators. They make it known that gay representation actually isn’t needed for media to be praised. They give creators a safe way to get out of representing gay couples—while keeping both the queers and homophobes happy at the same time. Now they can hop on social media and say “no, they’re not gay, but it’s up for interpretation!” And the queers will think this is top tier representation, and praise the creators for it.

As always, this turned into a long spiel lmao. But that’s an explanation of my thoughts and why I’m frustrated. Again—I’m not mad that a romantic relationship isn’t canon. That in itself isn’t homophobic. But the way that the writer and fandom are handling it, is.

I’m not familiar with Star Trek (I do want to watch it, mostly to understand the Star Trek vs Star Wars stuff lmao.), but it sounds like that’s a good way to handle it. If you don’t want to make a relationship canon—that’s fine. But be honest about it, don’t drag fans along with teasing and baiting.

[theflannelwizard]

please give us some Mr small or Mr cornelle (corniell? corneille?? how do you spell it) headcanons 😳😳

i will b honest i haven’t given enough thought to the frog man to have much of an opinion on him but!!! i will attempt to do both for u anon! hold on bc this is gonna be a long post!

here’s mr corneille-

gender- this boy is a trans man. not sure where this idea came from but i like it? especially considering how quickly he jumps at any chance to be seen as macho/masc

sexuality- maybe bi? he def has a thing for the school nurse in canon and i’m not opposed to that but they do need to work on honesty and genuine bonding in their relationship.

OTP- i’ve seen him shipped with the nurse and also with steve! both of these are entirely valid but i haven’t given enough thought to them to say either is an otp. i def like the idea of him getting involved in a workplace romance tho, whether or not it leads to drama and gossip amongst the other teachers

BroTP- this man is BEST FRIENDS with steve small and you cannot tell me otherwise!!!!! (unless ur going to tell me they’re dating, which, again, could b cute.) they talk about the students, steve helps him pick out books to teach when mr c gets too excited about multiple options, and they hang out in the teachers lounge together! since they have the same break schedule they also hang out over holidays and shit- maybe they have double dates with larry and the nurse? and they have inside jokes about the students and other teachers. usually it’s nothing hurtful, more just “you had to be there”

NoTP- i feel like there’s a slim chance someone tried to ship him with a student and again. pedo.philia is not allowed. otherwise i’m chill with him being in lots of different relationships! he’s enough of a blank slate that lots of dynamics could work!

A fun dynamic they would have- i bet he’s the kind of Cool Teacher that really inspired Clare and her classmates! I would love to see his teaching style and know how he interacts with his students! it could be especially fun to see him and Anaïs interact, because he’s either one of the most positive and encouraging forces in her life (this could be a sweet bond) or he has a different favorite student, which could lead to her either resenting him or working overtime to become the teachers pet. personally i see anaïs as the type that teachers love and dote on bc she’s so smart and clever and she prefers to hang out with the teacher at lunch and recess since she doesn’t have many friends

Any other fun headcanons or things i wanted to elaborate on- again, this character is kinda new to me, but i like to think he becomes a pacifist after his terrible experience in the ring, which makes the nurse like him even more (he’s sweet and sensitive!!) and also strengthens his bond with mr small, who tries to rope him further and further into hippie culture.

and mr. small!

gender- i like to think he’s nonbinary!! he uses he/they pronouns in his personal life but usually sticks with he/him and mr. while at work (and i’m gonna use he/him for convenience in this post)

sexuality- i mean. he sure is gay for men. maybe bi/pan, but he definitely likes men.

OTP- again, i may be basic but stevelmeyer/smallarry/etc is endgame for me uwu. that said i’m not gonna rain on anyone’s parade if they have a different ship! i talked a lot about these two in the last post, but i didn’t mention that i think they were both absolutely useless before they got together. steve thought he could flirt by just being really nice and always giving larry a tip and being ambiguously very affectionate and it worked but it also threw larry for a loop because 1) is this flirting? not expressly but also no one is nice to larry so maybe it is? but on the other hand- 2) he did this starting the first time he saw larry. maybe he’s just really nice to everyone. larry gets so flustered around steve that he sometimes welcomes him to the wrong store. also steve is enough of a good and decent person that he doesn’t aggressively flirt with people while they’re working and he waits until he finally catches larry on a break/off day to actually make a move. also once they’re more comfortable together larry uses steve as a pillow and eventually rob does the same

BroTP- mr. corneille!!!! bffs!!!! once mr c becomes a pacifist steve is all “hey do you wanna go to a rally with me? it’s for peace” “how do you rally for peace?” “we mostly just hold signs and sing kumbayah but at the very least it’s peaceful within the rally” and “hey do you wanna go thrifting with me? i try to only buy things that are used or recycled” “uh... sure, why not?” “oh thank god larry is at work and rob is at school” “wait, you mean NOW? steve, we’re at school too”

NoTP- i don’t want to see him dating any of his coworkers except maybe mr c. i’m not entirely sure why this is but i feel like he’s not really a dating within the workplace kinda guy. also obviously no minors

A fun dynamic they would have- i LOVE seeing him at work with students, but i wanna home in on him and rob. rob starts coming to him because he’s either sent there or wants to get out of class, where he feels simultaneously ignored and judged. at first he doesnt say anything, just sits there holding his knees and refusing to make eye contact, but eventually steve is able to earn his trust and they start actually talking. rob gets more and more open about his past, his lack of a family, his troubles with making friends and feeling wanted (or even noticed), and all the other shit he’s been through, and steve is actually able to help. his advice isn’t always perfect, but he does a pretty decent job when given a specific problem to fix, and he’s so loving and well intentioned that rob doesn’t hold any mistakes against him. rob accidentally calls him dad during a session once, and it makes steve cry. he immediately goes home after school and asks larry if he wants kids. yes he does adopt rob. yes it does make both of them insanely happy. steve is the cool dad who doesn’t care what rob gets up to as long as he’s safe and not hurting anyone, and rob is so proud that he’s earned his dads trust that he usually does a pretty decent job staying out of trouble. steve is also careful to never smoke in front of rob, even tho rob absolutely knows his dad isn’t sober by a long shot.

Any other fun headcanons or things i wanted to elaborate on- working as a guidance counselor is actually the only job he’s ever had. he spent his 20s really deep in drug/hippie culture, and even tho he never wanted to “escape” it, he did realise eventually that he needed a job if he wanted to make it. his parents were always very supportive of him, but they naturally grew more distant as he became an adult. part of the reason he was able to have such a laid back childhood and young adulthood is he had their support. also, as much as he advocates for alternative medicine, he’s not an anti-vaxxer. he’s about learning what herbs and natural medicines can do for you, and using stuff like vaccines and medicines where they’re needed rather than as a first resort- if a tea can cure a headache, why take advil? and he painted janice himself! it took forever, and he’s so proud of her (and himself)

[yenneferw]

Can you please rant about jk Rowling she’s fucking awful with her queerbaiting, racism, and transphobia. Like I need someone else to validate me for not liking her

absolutely i hate her!!!!! this is a REALLY long post but she’s written so much and she’s been in the spotlight since her books got famous so like… there’s a lot to talk about i guess. anyway @ jk rowling get ready to be called out 

racism

first of all on this valid bitch of an i hate jk rowling post, the ilvermorny houses. it’s like…. Big cultural appropriation of native american ideas and stories, twisting them to fit her narrative for harry potter and completely disrespecting their history and origins. the history she creates for north american wizards is shit too, saying that native americans would “primitively” practice magic until europeans civilized them with wands (even tho…. it’s like really impressive to do magic without wands in her universe??? like sounds like the native americans were way ahead of europeans, but ofc she twists her own narrative to make the natives primitive). her whole history or north american wizardry also apparently just follows white wizards immigrating to north america and shit…… 

this video is……. a really good poem on the stereotypes and fetishization of cho chang and there’s no way i can reword what the speaker says bc she says it too good so,,, watch it

jk rowling is also really good at speaking out about racism when she wants to on twitter and yet all of her canonical poc characters in the books are background characters. i know hermione is black in the cursed child play, but that feels a bit like the dumbledore thing to me, like they never actually talk abotu it in the books? and if she wanted hermione to be black why didn’t she have any protests about emma watson being cast? if she wanted harry to be brown why didn’t she have any protests about daniel radcliffe being cast? i don’t know if she had any say in that, but i guess she had a say in insisting that the actors had to be british, so if she cared about making a main character poc, why did she not have any qualms about the cast, even in retrospect, even respectful ones like “i love daniel and emma to death but in retrospect i wrote them as characters of color”?

like she didn’t have to push dean and cho and the very small characters of color to the side but she did. she didn’t have to stereotype cho but she did. there are no poc in fbawtft, or there aren’t in the movie at least – and if she’s so happy about johnny depp and can speak out about that relentlessly, but she wanted there to be characters of color in fantastic beasts, why can’t she speak out about that? 

like the cultural appropriation is enough to see that she’s clearly a racist asshole who doesn’t care about the cultures of people who aren’t white, but it’s also clear to see in the background of her writing that she doesn’t care about research for shit if it’ll help to respect people of color in her stories, and she certainly doesn’t care to ensure that there are important characters of color for people to look up to when they read her books or watch the movies about them 

transphobia 

i guess she liked a terf’s article on twitter? like i dont’ knwo how reputable my sources on that were or if she meant to, but if she did, yikes

and from what i saw of the article it was Deep Terf Rhetoric, and tbqh i wouldn’t put it past her to have meant to have done that

i’ve seen ppl saying harry potter has transphobic aspects to it as well but i couldn’t find anything under all the times she’s “defended” trans ppl on twitter like idk i can’t take anythign she says on twitter by heart bc everything she does feels performative and fake af, and i haven’t read the books in like four years so i can’t say for sure based on my own memory 

also she wrote a trans woman in a more recent novel and she’s apparently totally impulsively violent like wow great way to conform to nasty stereotypes about trans women lmfao

like esp bc of this i wouldn’t put it past her to be a terf

homophobia & queerbaiting

saying! dumbledore! is gay! after! the fucking! book series! is not! representation!!!!!

even if she HAD make him gay during the series, he’s not good rep??? he was a manipulative asshole who let a child stay in an abusive home becuase he was too big of a dumbass to think about a way around the issue so that a little boy could live in a home full of people who treated him fairly. so uhh?? the cishets can fucking have him, i don’t WANT him in the goddamn community. 

but she thinks that she’s not homophobic bc he’s the only gay character who never even got to talk about being gay, who we never see in a relationship with a man. like throwing gay ppl scraps isn’t?? rep??? it’s queerbaiting you dumb bitch @ jk rowling…. 

she specifically said herself that werewolves are meant to represent diseases like AIDS, and characters like fenrir greyback are predatory werewolves who want tos pread around the AIDS-like disease, conforming to 1980s homophobic stereotypes against gay people for “wanting” to spread around AIDS like how can you in one breath say you want to bring light to diseases like AIDS and in the next make a character who literally models homophobic stereotypes with the same disease?? 

also, remus was supposed to be gay apparently, but he “changed and fell in love with tonks” like ok first of all bi people exist, second of all why would you write a straight person who’s supposed to basically have AIDS when that sounds a hell of a lot like “predatory gay man infects poor straight kid” like there’s SO MUCH wrong with that, and yeah you kind of have to dig into it a little bit to get there, but when you’re writing about risky topics and you literally admit to it, you need to be WELL-VERSED on what you’re writing about!! and to say you’re writing about AIDS is deeply mixed with gay history! and to say that the main character who is a werewolf was SUPPOSED to be gay and then pretend you’re NOT associating it with gay people is just… such cognitive dissonance, or maybe really ridiculous ignorance

also, dumbledore is dead. so even if he was good rep, and it was within the books, he’s fucking dead. another buried gay, fuckos! pile em up! 

and i’ve heard there’s a shit ton of queerbaiting between harry’s son and draco’s son in cursed child? which like…. may just be subtext, but there’s a huge section of the fandom who’s all about harry x draco (i have not good feelings about that ship personally but to say it’s not popular is to never have seen anything in the fandom), and she must know that? like she’s not oblivious is she? so why would she like…. put subject between their sons? ?? it feels like it’s a bone to “hey i never gave you harry x draco, so here are their sons, who i’m also never going to give you” 

also? if grindelwald WAS dumbledore’s bf at some point, what does that say about what she thinks about queer men? he’s deeply predatory and preys on credence in a very creepy way that plays on stereotypes about older gay men preying on younger gay boys, and he’s also a disgusting villain played by johnny fucking depp, an abuser (who SHE SUPPORTS) of all people. what does that say about what her mind goes to when she thinks about gay men????? 

i don’t actually know her role in those films, but she has said she loves depp, what he’s done with the character, and where the darkness of grindelwald is going in the first movie and its sequels, so even if her role is very little, she supports what is being done. 

also…. um apparently newt scamander created a werewolf registry…. a little honest to god werewolf registry in the fucking 40s….. ??????????? what r we supposed to think here, about a registry of discriminated ppl in the FORTIES…….????? and that’s the protag of fantastic beasts… cool it’s fine it’s fine

ableism

when talking about irredeemable characters like voldemort, she literally said that “whether it’s a personality disorder or illness” they’re not redeemable…. !!!?? here is a post on that subject with links to the sources of the interviews she said this in. 

i don’t know where to put this bc this could be any number of things but i just thought about this so i’ll put it here: the thing that’s created in fantastic beasts, where it’s like basically a personification of anguish from suppressing magic – that’s quite blatantly a reference to any number of minorities, like gay people suppressing their sexuality, trans people suppressing their gender, the mentally ill and disabled pushing themselves too hard or trying to ignore/hide it… and credence was vilified and killed and the protags weren’t even… really sad about it?? and the ministry of magic never really THOUGHT About that they just killed him….. and that’s okay…. that’s fine… they’re just going around killing a bunch of KIDS who are inconvenient to them and who basically symbolize a whole number of oppressed groups. cool, it’s fine

you could also make a point that werewolves also represent the mentally ill, and all the same fucked up shit basically applies here

she also said that everything that muggles can get can be cured by magic, thereby effectively giving some bullshit reason for not actually having any disabled or mentally ill characters, also assuming that it’s not totally ableist to just…. “cure” all that? she didn’t say it specifically about mental illnesses and disabilities, but it’s clear to see that with her attitude on “irredeemable” mentally ill people, she would 

fatphobia

most fat characters in harry potter are shitty people. the dursleys, pettigrew, and umbridge – all characters we’re supposed to find deeply wrong, the ones we’re supposed to hate the most other than, like, voldemort. like…..? a lot of the other fat characters are all “matronly” like molly weasley or stubborn and “lazy” like cornelius fudge who allowed voldemort to rise to power. like what’s that supposed to say about what she thinks the extent of fat people is? stubborn, evil, or motherly? 

she actually has a character grow fatter and fatter based on how shitty she acts towards harry because of a magic mishap. she also usually describes the nice fat people as “plump” and “pleasant,” while she describes dudley as “so much like a pig” that he couldn’t even be turned furhter into a pig when it was attempted, or as a “killer whale,” or vernon dursley as “having no neck”

her fascination with abusers

exhibit a: she loves johnny depp, she loves him for the part of grindelwald, she praises what he’s done for the character, she praises his casting. he’s abused his wife..................

exhibit b: she loves dumbledore. he is constantly manipulating harry and not actually helping him get out of difficult situations at home or at school, putting him and the other kids in danger multiple times, not talking about important information to keep them safe, like?? 

exhibit c: snape. a fucking nasty ass creep to lily. neville’s GREATEST FEAR. like i dont’ even need to talk about this, we all know snape, dumbledore, and johnny depp are shitty lmfao

and yet she named harry’s kids after dumbledore and snape, like they didn’t fuck harry’s life up, especially snape, who terrorized him and his friends. 

in conclusion fuckos

she’s nasty!!!!! i was going to do a section on sexism but i can’t find anything – i think she’s too much of a White Feminist to be sexist, probably. likely she cares more about researching feminist issues than she does about researching native myths before she steals them for her own gain lmfao. there is the fact that she supports an abuser like johnny depp, tho! 

she is constantly like… going against all this on twitter too lmfao, like it’s hard to find good articles on her shittiness on the first page of google bc most of it is “jk rowling defends trans people against transphobic tweet, jk rowling defends muslims against islamophobic tweet, jk rowling defends [this group or that group]” and yet she includes so much bigotry hidden in the details of her books and what she says about her books. like i know some of this isn’t quite on the surface, but ultimately when you write a book with subjects you don’t really know about, your inherent biases are going to be apparent under the surface, and since she’s such a famous author with so many books and so much spotlight on her, if you dig in a little you can make easy conclusions/clearly see what she thinsk about minorities. so it’s really fucking annoying that she’s so “good and progressive” on twitter because it’s obviously performative so she can get the progressive points required for more people to buy her shit. like that’s the best word i can think of to describe her: performative. 

[agnesgoesadventuring-blog]

Complaining about people calling you a lesbophobe but you know, if it quacks like a lesbophobe. You're even talking AGAIN about lesbians and gay people having PRIVILEGE, just like you did with Beau. You were saying Beau, a gay woman, was privileged and entitled and here you are again talking about how we're privileged and have power so you can act all worried about us having a problem with people with actual straight passing privilege

Ask #2:  Look, I’m cool with ace and bi people and I totally think you guys are part of the lgbt community, but you are saying that gay people have power just for being gay and that’s pretty homophobic.

Note: I have a policy of writing fic whenever I get hateful messages, so there’s Critical Role fic at the end of this post! If you want to read the fic but not the response to these asks, scroll down a bit!

There’s a lot of ignorance in these messages.

To start with, the concept of privilege is not some flat thing where a person either has it or they don’t. There are a lot of different kinds of privilege, as privilege is based on several different kinds of cultural and social power structures. A straight person has privilege over a gay person, but if that straight person is black, they do not have privilege over a white person. A white person has privilege over people of color, but if they’re poor they do not have privilege over the wealthy. Privilege, as I’m pretty sure I’ve discussed before, is a complex thing. A white gay person is going to have privilege over a black gay person. A white gay person will have a certain level of privilege over a black straight person, while the black straight person will have a certain level of privilege over him. Privilege comes from all kinds of things, from race, sexual identity, gender, wealth, mental illness, level of education. Sometimes those things impact each other. And ery, very few people are going to have privilege in every one of these power structures.

Every kind of community or segment of a culture/society is going to have power structures, and that includes the queer community.

I didn’t say that anyone has power just for being gay. I simply said that there are power structures that exist within the community, as there are in every community, that allow for the existence of a good deal of gatekeeping, exclusion, and erasure. That is not remotely the same thing as saying “gay people have power because they’re gay”.

As for Beau, you are, yet again, misrepresenting a discussion that was happening where people were discussing their personal experiences and how that effected their reactions to certain things. The most that was said about the canon of the show, aside from the person who sent the initial ask which led to the discussion, was that Yasha’s side of it was vague enough, based both on what she said and did in the scene and Ashley’s comments on Talks Machina, that it led to them having that uncomfortable emotional reaction.

There has been discussion about Beau potentially growing up with the privilege of wealth and how that might influence her behavior and interactions with people in different ways and in different situations, but as has been explained, it is not homophobic to recognize the privilege that a queer person might have in other areas of their life.

Just as people, many of whom were asexual, discussing how their personal experiences of having their agency, autonomy, and boundaries violated impacts the way they reacted to a specific scene isn’t homophobic, discussing the power structures that exist in a community that fosters gatekeeping and erasure/exclusion of certain identities isn’t homophobic, either.

The idea of “straight passing privilege” is, at best, flawed (here are some good pieces that talk about why).

To the person who sent the first message, perhaps your ignorance and lack of understanding of the complexities of privilege and the power structures that exist in all communities, whether willful or otherwise, is one of the things that’s making it difficult for you to accept bi and ace people as a part of the community. Either way, gatekeeping is pretty ineffective when you don’t actually know what you’re talking about.

To the person who sent the second ask, your approval of our existence in the community means very little when you’re fostering attitudes that lead to our exclusion.

Now, as per my “fluffy fic in response to hate” policy, here’s some fluffy fic. Since there were two messages, I wrote two fics. The first one is fjorester. The second is Beau/Kara. Follow the read more cut to the fic!

Love LineJester/Fjord. Rated T.

“Guess what, Fjord!” Jester said as she bounded over, skipping up to him with her hands clasped behind her back.

“What’s that, Jester?” Fjord replied, looking up from the map he was examining.

She plopped down in the chair next to him, smiling as she looked at him from under her lashes. “Molly taught me how to read palms.”

Fjord put the map down, turning his full attention to the woman next to him. “Did he now?”

“Mmhmm….” she hums out, nodding. “Would you like me to do you?”

Her voice sounds innocent, but he’s familiar enough with the way she talks to recognize the intended innuendo. He wants to respond in kind, say something that will maybe make her blush for a change, but his mind brings up nothing and his throat goes dry as he feels the heat rise to his cheeks.

Instead, he thrusts his hand out toward her, trying not to sound too off of his rhythm when he says, “Knock yourself out.”

She smiles at him as she takes his hand, placing it in one of her’s and dragging the finger tips of the other down his palm. There are jolts of electricity left in their wake that zip straight to chest, making it difficult for him to breath for a moment.

“Hmm,” Jester lets out, looking at his hand thoughtfully as she traces one of the lines with her index finger. “This is your life line.”

“What’s it say?”

“You are going to live for a very, very long time.”

“Well, that’s a relief,” he chuckles.

“You’re very healthy,” she continues, her finger still stroking back and forth over the line. “Very strong. And reliable.”

“Yes, that does sound like me,” Fjord replies, making his voice sound very serious. The giggle he gets out of her is very satisfying.

Jester’s fingers jump to another line in his hand. “This is the…” she trails off for a moment, tapping her heel against the floor in the way she does when she’s trying to think of something. “The money line!” she bursts out, looking quite proud of herself.

“I hope that line is really, really long,” he says.

“Not really long,” she says. “But not short either. You’re going to have just the right amount of money. Not too much, you know? Some people just have too much money. You’re going to have the exact right amount money.”

“Well, I wouldn’t want people thinking I’m greedy or anything.”

“Exactly!”

Her eyes meet his for a brief moment, her smile wide and her eyes bright. His smile softens as the look at each other, and the look on her face makes his throat dry again, so he clears his throat, looking back down at his hand.

“What about that other line?” He asks, motioning with his chin to where his hand is still resting in her’s.

“Oh, that’s the love line,” she says, taking her index finger and moving it down the line in his hand at an agonizing pace. Her voice drops in octive and volume as she leans closer to him, just a bit.

Fjord can’t help but swallow again, his throat now feeling perpetually parched. “Yeah?”

“Yeah,” she replies, her eyes flicking up to his for just a second before returning to his hand. “Your’s is really, really… really long.”

“Is it?” he croaks out, quiet and scratchy.

“Oh, yeah.” She’s smirking at him now, once again looking at him from under her lashes.

“Well,” he says, swallowing hard, summoning up whatever small amount of smoothness he can. “I haven’t received any complaints.” And then he winks at her, enjoying the way her smirk turns into a slow smile. She watches him for a moment, and for some reason that throws Fjord, her smile slips just before she looks back down, her finger stroking the line in his hand aimlessly.

“Do you want to know what else it says?” Jester asks, and the suggestive tone is gone. Her voice is smaller now, a little curious.

“Yeah. Of course.”

“It says that… sometimes you wait too long to take action. To act on your desires.” This is no longer flirty, confident Jester, who always seems to want to make him blush. “And, you know, those desires can only be patient for so long.”

Fjord’s throat goes dry again, but for a completely different reason. “Yeah. I know,” he’s finally able to push out.

“Do you?” she asks in a small voice, not looking up at him.

His hand closes around hers and he leans forward. He can’t see all of her face, but what he can see looks sad.

“I do,” he whispers, using his real voice.

That makes Jester look at him, her head snapping up, her eyes wide and surprised. She looks at him for several long seconds that seem to stretch on forever. Finally, she smiles. It’s not as big as he’d like to see, and there’s still a little doubt at the edges of it, but at least she doesn’t look so sad anymore. “Okay.”

Fjord squeezes her hand, and she squeezes back. Then she’s up like a shot, her pace fast as she walks over to where Beau and Caleb are sitting. “We should play some cards or something,” she says louder than necessary, and as she sits down, Fjord can see on her cheeks just the faintest blush.

He’s not at all surprised when, later that night, he discovers that Molly doesn’t know how to read palms.

ImpressiveBeau/Kara. Rated T.

“That was impressive.”

Beau whips around, the voice she hears only just familiar enough to keep from lashing out with her fist at the surprise. The tavern is quiet, with most of the people in town at the festival, and the voice is loud in the otherwise silent room.

It’s Kara standing there behind her, a smile on her face and an ale in her hand.

“Huh?” Beau asks, the fatigue in her bones from a long day of festival fun and fighting leaving her unintelligible.

It makes Kara chuckle as she sits down on the other side of the table, placing her ale on the table as she leans her chin on her palm. “The tournament. You and your friends.”

“We lost.” Her voice is blunt and defensive. She and the rest of the Nein had taken a hell of a beating in that last round and she wasn’t in the mood for sarcasm or mockery.

“You made it to the final round,” Kara responds. “You were one of the only two groups to do so. It’s not often that a group without much of a reputation manages to do that.”

Beau watches Kara, listening to her words carefully. She can’t help the sort of knee-jerk reaction of feeling like she’s being made fun of, but Kara’s words seem genuine, her tone warm and her smile reaching her eyes.

“Oh. Thanks,” she says after a long moment. She’s starting to get that weird feeling again, where she feels like she wants to say the right thing but can’t figure out what it is. As she wonders why she’s feeling that way, she looks again across the table and sees the way Kara is looking at her, with her cheek resting against her palm, a smile that feels, to Beau, private and secretive in a way.

Is she flirting with me? The thought has her filing through her brain, trying to remember the things Fjord and Jester had told about talking to people.

“Impressive,” she blurts out. At Kara’s raised eyebrow, she continues. “You are, I mean. Impressive. Too.”

Kara’s brow furrows in confusion, but her smile grows. “What did I do that was impressive?”

“Um…” Beau is floundering as she tries to remember the tips her friends had given. She thinks for a moment about trying to smile, but she remembers the reactions people have had to that, the way they seemed more scared or put off than anything else. So she keeps racking her brain, trying to think of something to just, at the very least, not ruin this.

She’s looking at Kara. Pretty, elven Kara who works for the Gentleman and helps to plan political coupes. And it’s then that she remembers something Jester had said to her. Just say what you mean, she had said, like it was the most obvious thing in the world. If there’s something you like about them just say it.

“Working for the Gentleman.” She blurts it out in a hurry, then takes a deep breath to calm herself, hoping her next words come out in a bit more of a normal way. “I mean, he seems to trust you. And you’ve worked for him for awhile. So you must be pretty impressive if he wants to keep you around. Pretty special.”

Kara lets out a breathy chuckle, biting her lip as her smile stretches even wider across her face. Beau feels her own lips lifting at the corners, the smile coming on by itself rather than being forced. When Kara meets her gaze and sees her smile, she doesn’t look freaked out or put off. She just keeps smiling, her fingers playing idly with her mug on the table.

It’s at that moment that a very loud Molly bursts in to the building, with an almost-as-loud Jester and typically quiet Yasha on his heels. Kara looks over at the group for a moment, and then back at Beau. “Well, your friends are back,” she says, and lets the sentence hang in the air.

Beau feels like maybe she’s supposed to do or say something but she’s not sure what it is.

After a few seconds Kara stands. “I should probably go.” She leans over the table, placing her hand on top of Beau’s, getting as close to her face as she can. “Maybe I’ll see you tomorrow at the festival, yeah?”

Beau can’t help but notice the view Kara’s position gives her. It’s pretty modest, really, but she takes in the line of her neck, the delicate collar bone, and the soft skin that disappears under her dress. She swallows hard and meets Kara’s eyes, nodding. “Yeah.”

Kara gives her one last smile before she straightens up and walks out of the tavern.

As soon as she’s gone, Beau downs the rest of her ale in one gulp, then reaches to the other side of the table and does the same with the ale that Kara left behind.

So at least she’s feeling warm and fuzzy when the questions and comments start later in the evening, after the rest of the group has gathered around that table and Molly, with his smug grin, tells the rest of them what was going on when he walked in to the tavern.

Beau kicks him under the table and grumbles the whole time, but she has to fight to push down the smile that keeps wanting to climb it’s way up to her face.

[littlemunchkitty]

About to lose it. A rant about buzzwords and head canon hypocrisy.

When you accuse someone of being homophobic in the wrong context, you delegitimize that word. Saying that someone has no basis of being gay and assuming that they are gay is exactly the same as someone assuming that someone is straight with no basis. I don't care what you headcanon. The point is, don't you dare call those who delegitimize your argument for the same reason you delegitimize theirs, homophobic. Especially If it is 2 sides of the same coin. If you want to go down that road then you'd be heterophobic (and just so you know, that’s still not okay either). Asking why you decided to make this character gay and that it doesn't make sense to the continuity of the show is not homophobic. Questioning someone's sexuality and demeaning them for it is. Saying "those characters can't be gay because it's disgusting" is very homophobic. Don't delegitimize one sides arguments if you are going to turn around and cry "homophobe" if they do the same to you. Don't use that word like a random buzzword. And don't use it to look as if you are suddenly in the right when you are also in the wrong. Also, stop using it to delegitimize an argument in the wrong situation. Ship who you want and they can't force you otherwise. But stop calling those who simply disagree for a constructive reason "homophobic". Buzzwords will be the fucking death of this world. Use the word right or not at all.

Under this cut is in response to a specific rant made by someone about me and i’d like to let my piece be known. I am the “homophobic anon” and you will find out why i don’t care what you call me under the cut.

Now on to that bullshit you call a rant

1) The point of highlighting that phrase was because it didn’t just say “dude what the hell are you doing” he specifically stated “What are you doing taking off ANOTHER MAN’S shirt” This isn’t about the sexual harassment. It’s about the wording. Obviously Yuma didn’t appreciate a man, SPECIFICALLY A MAN, ripping his shirt off. It does’t matter about previous relationship. Even if you hated someone, why would you specify why are you ripping off “ANOTHER MAN’S shirt”. Why would you point out the fact that he is of the same gender as you if it didn’t matter? 

2) I chose Laito because he is extremely aroused by the thought of watching another man have sex with a woman and the thought of it makes him aroused. He physically doesn’t care who is doing it as long as the act of sex is getting preformed. Which does hint at some pansexuality or bisexuality. Kou? I did choose him because the way he carries himself. 

3) Im so tired of hearing this same recycled bullshit. These boys have been portrayed as straight by Rejet. They have only been portrayed by rejet as liking girls. If they wanted to portray them as any other sexuality, they would have hinted at it at the very least. They fight tooth and nail for ownership of the heroine. Just because something isn’t clear doesn’t make it fact. If it’s not clearly stated either way you can’t use that as an argument. That’s like saying “Ayato is not Asexual” so you assume that he’s transgender? What kind of sense does that make? Saying “I like girls” doesn’t suddenly mean they are bi nor does it allude to it it can contribute but it is not grounds to say that. So that’s not an argument. Second part of this post you talk about gender roles. Obviously this game was made for girls and even if a guy were to play it, that doesn’t change the game in the slightest. If a boy played with barbie dolls does barbie suddenly become a man to fit their demographics? You can say “Sure” but that doesn’t make it an adamant truth. But don’t be alarmed when someone tells you Barbie is portrayed to be a cis-woman and not a man. If you are going to project something onto a character, fine, but don’t sit around and CRY when people say, “That’s not how the relationship really is”. Nobody is saying “You can’t be here” Just stop acting flip when someone says anything that goes against your agenda and engage in constructive arguments instead of hitting block when someone challenges an idea. FFS

4) If you knew how the mind work and how children actually learn to make opinions and have opinions in the first place you’d realize that this point is bulllshit. Yuma was a child in the church, no doubt about that. His environment was made up of centuries ago church teachings. Whether you denounced god or not, you still hold onto some of those morals and teachings. You don’t just become a blank slate. You can learn, but those morals will always be there whether you change them or not. How do you know that he just doesn’t like gays? He won’t say that they are going to hell. But he may find them off putting. There’s simply no way to know. Unless of course you ask Rejet. You can head canon all you want to. But someone is always going to challenge that. Unless you have definable evidence, someone is going to find a way to challenge your thought. That’s what your brain is for. To think.

5) What is your point? There are plenty of LGBT catholics. I know some too.  However most were afraid to come out due to the church and how they would be seen. The only reason for gays being prosecuted WAS the church after the fall of the roman empire. The argument stands that if you are homophobic and religious then often times your hate stems from those teachings. Religion and the LGBT community are still at odds in case you forgot about Westboro Baptist Church. Damn it’s like you don’t watch the news at all. 

6) Tellling a bi person that the character that they don’t personally know, FAVORITE or not, might have conflicting views is logical and is called begging the question. How do you know Yuma’s stance on the LGBT community? I don’t care how hard you shutter. Using your brain shouldn’t be that painful. You don’t know a damn thing about these boys political lives. For all we know all of these boys could be the most homophobic, racist, sexist, ablest, ageist bastards on the planet and you would have no fucking clue. We already know that they are sexist and ableist and in lost eden, some were racist against the ghouls. So what is stopping them from being homophobic? That’s right, your mental barrier. You and i could be totally ignorant to that fact forever if rejet doesn’t say anything in any capacity. Does that matter to your head canon? No, and it shouldn’t. But when people challenge your idea’s don’t make a fucking mockery of yourself by just throwing around buzzwords and prance around thinking you’ve won (or defended yourself for that matter) after blocking them. 

7) I don’t know if you know this, but you don’t understand the definition of the word homophobia. Besides, How do you know why they disagree with you if you block everyone the moment the go against your idea? You don’t know why these people disagree with your choice in head canon because you are to scared to engage with them. You assume it’s because they “don’t like gays”. That’s not true if you just fucking ask them instead of straw manning them to get to your own conclusion and look like righteous LGBT friendly SJW blog owner. So you have no right to call anybody “homophobic” when you are so closed off to another way of thinking. Even if it is in the LGBT community. Just because you are an oppressed minority doesn’t make everything you say undeniable fact and if you disagree you are *Insert -ist/est, -phobic, here*. 

Don’t fucking play with me and paint me as an enemy. I will show my face as “Homophobic” anon. Cause that word carries no value with the way you use it towards me. If you see this. You know who you are and i don’t care what you feel about this but don’t EVER try to make a fool of me. Flattered, Disgusted. It doesn’t fucking matter if this message makes you ball up into tears. If you attack me after you start some antagonizing bullshit, then it’s not going to be pretty. Rant over.

[agnesgoesadventuring-blog]

The fandom does have a problem with bi people but I think it has an even bigger problem with ace people. At least bi people are like remembered as existing when people talk about what sexuality characters might be. Finding someone who says a character might be ace is like finding a unicorn. We exist and it just feels like every time people make a post about the characters sexualities that never mentions ace or makes posts about how they must be gay because they said something nice to character

who's the same sex it feels like people are just telling us we don't exist. I'm sure I'm not the only one who ends up feeling like I'm not welcome or like I'm about as big as an ant whenever shipping talk and stuff like that comes up and since that's most of what the fandom is obsessed with I end up feeling that way a lot.

Let’s not make it a contest about who has it worse in the fandom. There’s a lot of both bi and ace erasure, and trying to make it into some kind of “but we have it worse” thing is counterproductive.

But you are right about how rarely asexuality is considered a possibility. Honestly, I would think that there would be a little more recognition and acceptance of it as a possibility considering the fact that Keyleth being ace in the last campaign was a huge possibility, but I guess I shouldn’t be surprised because that potential asexuality is often erased or ignored.

You’re not the only person who has told me they feel isolated, ignored, and small because of the overwhelming importance placed on shipping and interpreting every moment between characters as being romantic in nature. I’m so sorry that it makes you feel that way, and I do wish there was more sensitivity in that regard. Just know that if you ever need a safe place, you can come here to my tumblr to vent.

Looking at the group and what they’ve said and done in canon (and in at least one case what’s been said on Talks Machina), I’d say there’s the possibility that Caleb, Nott, Yasha, and Molly are ace and/or aro. I definitely headcanon that for Molly just because I love how openly affectionate he is in platonic ways and I think that’s sort of an interesting contrast that goes against the norm, being so physically affectionate when it comes to platonic relationships, while having no interest in an affectionate romantic/sexual relationship. I headcanon Yasha as at least being aro, based on her comments on Talks Machina. I don’t have any headcanons for Nott or Caleb, but I can definitely see them being ace/aro.