#because id made din donna because he had a kid and i specifically made him trans

[mykingdomforasong]

All of this reminded me of the time, in the old DinLuke server, I proposed a Hadestown AU with Luke as Orpheus (the idealist with magic powers who can restore balance to the force bring the world back into tune, with a wise mentor who seems to know the secrets of the universe), and Din as Eurydice (the pragmatist focused on finding regular food and shelter, who is willing to literally sell her soul to Hades to eat). To me, this casing seemed obvious. Gun to my head, I could not think of a musical theatre character more like Luke Skywalker than Orpheus.

But people bent over backwards to try and convince me Luke should be Eurydice. And for no real good reason, except, I can only assume, because she was the female character, and they could only imagine Luke in the female role.

I bring this up to emphasize that heteronormativity, heterosexism, and homophobia are rampant in this fandom and contribute both to gross mischaracterizations of the characters and (more importantly) the estrangement of actual queer fans. I'm not a gay man, but I am a queer woman in a same-gender relationship, so this kind of heteronormativity in depictions of same-gender relationships does affect me, and does grate on me.

I use this example specifically because it was not connected to Dark!DinLuke and was safe for work. These issues are not limited to Dark!DinLuke or even smut. I do think they can be most obvious in those space, but they are not exclusive to those spaces. This Hadestown example is one of dozens of experiences I've had like this in DinLuke - in sfw and nsfw spaces, in the old server (cannot speak to the new one, I am not in it), on tumblr, and on ao3. It's part of what makes browsing that ao3 tag such a pain in the ass. Because even once I block all the noncon tags, it still takes a lot of work to find a fic where Din and Luke feel like humans, not like Ken and Barbie.

I've brought this up in a number of posts today, but it got sidelined in favor of other (equally important) conversations, so I wanted to point it out specifically. I also want to emphasize that I'm not trying to distance myself from this issue or suggest I am innocent. I'm always open to critique, and I'm sure I've messed up before.