#because of the toxic masculine mold he is forced into

[waitineedaname]

I was thinking about binghe, as is typical of me, and specifically I was thinking about whether he's bisexual or gay, which of course led me to think about bingge and the harem and how what bingmei has that bingge doesn't is that he's loved, and then had the thought "the reason bingge's marriages were ultimately loveless isn't because of his wives' gender but because of his own" and then i had to fucking stop in my tracks for a second. It all always comes back to binghe transgenderism

[pass1onepr1ncess]

DON'T READ THIS BEFORE FINISHING DANGANRONPA TRIGGER HAPPY HAVOC CHAPTER 2

Below is an analysis of Boy's Life of Despair- particularly how the entire chapter as a whole revolves around gender, queerness, and internalized issues regarding the aforementioned topics!

I know I just posted about this but I started thinking about Ishimaru listening to Pink Pony Club and sobbing bc of his family and reputation. My personal headcanon is that he's definitely gay but never got to unpack that bc he was more focused on being the Ultimate Moral Compass. And then he meets Mondo and starts to realize who he is and that even though their situation sucks that without his family and their status hanging over his head he's free to do some introspection and then just as he's started to find out who he is he loses the one person he's ever gotten that opportunity with and then goes mad with grief and denial not just for Mondo but also for his own identity. He was both grieving his “bro” and the authentic queer man he could've been and it caused him to force himself into the closet in a fit of mental illness and thinking that it's not worth it to find himself if it endangers others. Also Mondo was totally having a very similar if not exact reflection of this with Ishimaru and his internalizes homophobia is what lead to Trial 2 in the first place.

Internalized Homophobia AND toxic masculinity, EPECIALLY on Mondo's side. They both dealt with toxic masculinity but in very different ways. For Ishimaru it was about being a leader and someone the people could follow and have faith in, just like his grandfather was once. A man unbothered by any dilemma who could be a pillar of strength and motivation for any person to lean on, unfeeling and confident and strong. A grandiose statue, if you will.

For Mondo it was about being tough and intimidating, making sure no one would fuck with you and being a more stereotypical Man (at least in Western society). Though these perceptions come from different sources and at different angles, they end in the same result where both of these characters- even subconsciously- feel like they aren't allowed to be themself and instead have to become this molded shape of a man that suits their role in society- whether that be a future Prime Minister who will clear his family name of scandal and debt or a ruthless biker gang leader who doesn't take shit from anybody. Even if they want to, they aren't afforded the right to reflect.

In my mind, while Ishimaru was blissfully unaware of his queerness, Mondo Knew who he was but felt like he couldn't Be that person due to not only being the leader of the Crazy Diamond biker gang, but also because he wanted to be able to fill the shoes of his older brother- especially considering the fact that he feels responsible for Daiya's death.

(Also hi Jojo fans, if you recognize the "Crazy Diamond" biker gang then fun fact! Mondo is a MASSIVE Josuke reference! From his hair, the gang name- even the fact that his and his brother's names spell out "Daiya"-"Mondo!" And it's not the only Jojo reference in the Danganronpa franchise, either!)

Anyway, back on topic. Mondo Knew that he was queer, or at the very LEAST that he wasn't the Man he made himself out to be and that he wanted to be someone different. Someone softer, someone who didn't have to be so tough and intimidate everyone around him for fear of being undermined and not filling the shoes his older brother left for him. So he bottles up his feelings, hides who he really is. He gets angry, not at anyone in particular but angry that he's trapped in this facade of his own making.

So of course, when he finds out about Chihiro (She/They/He in this post btw), he gets even more angry. Chihiro is someone who's been able to experiment and express their identity. She doesn't care what other people think of her and decides to present and express however they feel comfortable- at least in Mondo's eyes. Chihiro has the freedom that Mondo craves so badly, and when she asks Mondo for help to be more Manly- something that Mondo feels like he's a fraud in- of course he gets angry. To Mondo, it seems like Chihiro is throwing this freedom away. This isn't actually the case, of course, but that's how Mondo percieves all of this.

All of this isn't meant to excuse Mondo's actions because I will never excuse or dismiss Literal Murder, but it does provide an explanation. Especially because the way Danganronpa itself handles Chapter 2 is abysmal. I was talking about with a dear friend (Hi, Mattie!) and we were talking about how Chapter 2 as a whole is 100% centered on gender and gender expression but how because it was horribly executed- no pun intended- that it falls so flat despite having the potentional to have a really nice nuanced take on toxic masculinity.

Even Chihiro experienced toxic masculinity! Because they didn't fit the "Big Strong Man" mold at a very young age, they were bullied and harassed for being weak and frail. So, they decided it would be better to be percieved as a girl than to be bullied as an effeminate boy.

Taking this opportunity to talk about MY PERSONAL HEADCANNONS and OPINIONS of Chihiro's gender identity. Which may not align with Your opinion, and it definitely doesn't align with canon- but that is okay! That's why it's a headcanon :). Anyway, personally I do think the Chihiro found comfort in femininity through the years of dressing as a girl. I don't feel like he's fully a trans woman, but I do think he's transfeminine! But in any case, moving along!

Literally every aspect and character involved in the core of Chapter 2's case and trial is centered on how gender affects us- especially how it affects men and AMAB individuals (excluding the whole Byakuya, Toko, and Syo debacle because that is. Another issue entirely and I will likely do an analysis on That as well, especially as someone with DID.)

Unfortunately, Danganronpa as a franchise has some decent ideas and then completely stumbles over itself with 8/10 on them! However, this series is incredibly dear to me and I can't bring myself to hate it. But! It's important to consume media with a critical lense. Don't forgive, excuse, and/or dismiss the faults of your favorites pieces of media just because you like them.

Anyway! A lot of this is headcanon but I also threw in some actual canon in there as well just for funsies skdjhfkjsf

[wisefoxluminary]

Vigor: an essay on Toxic Masculinity in The Boys - character analysis of Soldier Boy and Homelander

So The Boys account posted the full magazine cover of Soldier Boy that Kimiko was reading in the recent episode and a interesting detail caught my eye. Years after his supposed death, Soldier Boy is a poster child of a men's health magazine titled Vigor, a word commonly associated with physical strength and good health. Soldier Boy is a symbol of a true patriotic America and how all men should act. They don't make men like that anymore because Soldier Boy's influence is still strong. This cover is very striking to me as it supports the idea that all men need to be strong and conform to the societal norm. Encouraging men to break up with their girlfriends or to not enjoy interests that aren't associated with manhood etc. There really is an underlying issue of toxic masculinity as Soldier Boy is a literal representation of it. Men are supposed to be strong and that by showing emotion, it is considered weakness. To fit into society, men need to adopt machismo traits in order to preserve their image. Soldier Boy represents how a man should act and behave, we see in season 3 about his outdated views on how men should dress and act, especially his belittling of Hughie.

Men who align themselves with toxic masculinity normally have toxic role models. People in the public eye who have a bad influence on young boys, they further encourage/bring out their toxic traits and mold them into the worst version of themselves per Soldier Boy's warped idolization of Bill Crosby whom he considers to be America's dad when he is far from it. Bullying and deliberately harmed others because they feel they are a threat to their masculine pride just like Soldier Boy's abusive treatment of Black Noir and Soldier Boy considering Homelander, his own son, a disappointment because he doesn't know how to be a father and he sees himself reflecting in Homelander's eyes, the man his father thought had cheated to get compound V in his system, passing on that cycle of abuse and toxic masculinity to Homelander who is slowly breaking under his own pressure and passing that down onto Ryan. We had the scene prior to this of Butcher and Soldier Boy talking about their own abusive fathers and this is key to his character. By becoming his father, Soldier Boy can reject his own flesh and blood and thus driving everyone else to turn against him. This is conflict uprooted in toxic masculinity.

Homelander idolised Soldier Boy way before he learned that he was his father and his desire to reunite stemming from his need to be loved and thus being rejected by him really shakes up Homelander's world. He goes through a mid-life crisis, has fears about becoming old and dives deeper into psychosis by using his power to make other men do things that bring harm to their strong masculine image (hence the blow a-train and the whole scene with Marty.) Homelander may have went back to the lab to come to terms with his past because he felt like he was hurting Ryan, but this was something he had to do for himself to grapple with the effects his father's rejection left on him, how his departure led HL to spend his life in captivity and torture, bringing out his depraved almost childlike ego. A mask he has to wear to hide his fragile masculinity which came out in full force after Soldier Boy called him a fucking disappointment to his face and that continues to slip away the more people challenge him/the more unstable he becomes.

He wants to make himself better and by bringing this harm to others, it's making him fall down the path of becoming a monster, someone worse than even his own father. He considers humans to be below him because they are toys for his own amusement that he can burn down at any second. Someone that he can swoop in and save the day for but could easily control like puppets until they destroy themselves. A common attribute associated with toxic masculinity as males with this type of scorned ego seek to use their bad influence on people to make them feel smaller and to cause them to embrace this toxicity and fall down a dark path of violence and hatred hence falling into place like dominos. Sage encouraged him to adopt this mentality in order to crush the masses with his influence. He is influenced Ryan to embrace this dark behaviours, the same way Soldier Boy used it to put the fear of god into his teammates. Soldier Boy rejected Homelander and by doing that Homelander is falling down this rabbit hole of toxic and fragile masculinity. I'm not saying Homelander wasn't as much of a psychopath before this but it is further encouraging him to adopt this damaging traits and it has sent him too far gone into unhinged territory. Without the love of his father, Homelander has allowed that rejection to take power over him and to shape him into the unforgiving monster he is today. Homelander wouldn't be the way he was in season 4 without Soldier Boy. His influence is greatly felt this season and this is why Homelander has grown into a such snivelling monster hellbent on destroying all of mankind.

With this being said, Soldier Boy also deals with his own kind of fragile masculinity as seen in season 3 when others like Hughie challenge him as a way of emasculating his own overly assertive ego and how he thinks he is better than everyone else. He isn't exactly the red blooded American hero everyone thinks he is and there is something deeper underneath the surface. Soldier Boy serves orders blindly and unquestionably like a unforgiving soldier and is pompously up his own ass. He resorts to violence whenever someone challenges him because he thinks that by smacking the shit out of them, they'll do nothing to harm his ego. They won't expose him for the man he truly is. Soldier Boy really struggles to break out of this mold. He is compensating for his masculinity because he thinks that's how a man is supposed to be strong/fit in to the societal norm when he is far from it. The magazine directly challenges this, taking hits at Soldier Boy's fragile ego by saying is "metrosexuality threatening your manhood"

This takes us into a further deep dive into Soldier Boy's head and how people many years later perceive him. Metrosexuality is relating and denoting men from urban areas who pay too much attention to their personal appearance and cultivating a upscale lifestyle. Men who are obsessed with fashion and how they look, interests that are traditionally associated with women and gay men. It is basically like a heterosexual adopting trends that are stereotypical with homosexuals. Metrosexuals could be openly gay, straight or bisexual.

Soldier Boy is the definition of this term. He is seen in the past quite frequently with the way he performed on Solid Gold, the movie career he cultivated and his sexual activity such as his role in founding herogasm. Caring only about his appearance in public rather than anyone’s perceptions of him, getting lost to drugs and sex as all depraved heroes do. He was high on the eagle's nest. Soldier Boy could very well have experimented with bisexual tendencies at this time but chose to adopt toxic masculinity traits because homosexuality was considered as a crime and far too outside norm at this time and a damaging weakness to a man's ego so Soldier Boy had to keep up this macho facade as a way of not bringing shame to his country. Soldier Boy is the type of guy who is inquired about a fling with another man but then denies that it's gay because he is too strong and egocentric to admit that about himself. This is seen in the way he treats Mallory on the battlefield as his fragile ego gets tested. He embraces misogynistic and homophobic views as a way of looking down on people because he feels that he needs to deflect from the person he truly is. A defensive mechanism so to speak to hide who he truly is. That true part of himself he keeps under lock and key with this toxic persona he has cultivated for himself. By suppressing his true desires, Soldier Boy must become a literal monster and use that power to wreck people's lives with it. It's just as The Deep said, violence is power and that influence will cause others in their wallowing toxic masculinity to do unspeakable things.

I think in season five, we will see Homelander waking up his father from his cryogenic chamber and conspire a truce with him. Manipulating Soldier Boy to join his supe army in their global conquest in exchange for restoring his public image and redeeming himself in the eyes of Vought and the public. Soldier Boy is overbearing, controlling, not really in align with his son's ideas. He uses this partnership as a way of getting revenge on the people that trapped him in the box, mainly The Boys and Stan Edgar. With these issues I've talked about father and son facing, this could eventually lead conflict to stur between Homelander and Soldier Boy. Soldier Boy doesn't think Homelander is fit to lead his team as his power and insanity is slipping by the day. All he cares about is getting his father's approval for the heinous things he's done rather than confront the problem at hand. So Soldier Boy uses his toxic influence to turn the rest of The Seven against him, encouraging them to adopt violent tendencies and to no longer fear Homelander. This leads to Soldier Boy and Homelander to fight as this alliance is likely to end bloody for everyone. Homelander feels rejected and angry and it causes him to go completely off the rails, maybe even violently kill someone in public like the end of season 3 when he felt rejected by SB. I think this was subtly teased with the VCU slate back in episode 5 when a movie called Homelander vs. Soldier Boy: Annihilation was shown, hinting that eventually all blows over and they fight. A father driven to pure hatred of his only son who stages an uprising against him all because Homelander's ego is too fragile for him to handle and it will cause his inevitable downfall. A cycle that is too broken for them to fix.

So in conclusion, Soldier Boy is a character stemmed in toxic masculinity and that influence he carries has damaging consequences for his own son Homelander and everyone around him. By rejected Homelander, Soldier Boy gets rid of that fragile part of him he hated and suppressed for so long. Someone starved for attention and craving for love like he used to be.

End of essay

[goobtacular]

Be warned, longish mini essay about the Netflix Daredevil show from someone who hasn't finished season 1.

I think the similarities between Daredevil and Kingpin go hard. Both have very similar motivations and backstories. Ironically, Kingpin has a more traditionally good backstory. His harsh taskmaster was his father, and he rose to defend his mother, killing him in the process. But throughout the whole process, the torment of his father's rule, and dealing with the aftermath, he is in the company of his mother.

There is one thread throughout Wilson Fisk's life: he always has a companion. Not someone who can order him around, not always someone he can order, but always someone he is above in some way, and always someone who plays the role his mother did. Before he meets Vanessa, he has his assistant who chooses his meals, plans his itinerary, and is part of every difficult choice or conversation he must have.

Even Vanessa is, unfortunately, put into that mothering role, playing to the more traditional gender roles and even taking on the burden of the emotional turmoil his troubled past gives him. As long as he has his mother or a replacement, Wilson knows he's not a monster, and he can rationalize any sacrifice, usually on behalf of others. His decision to become a public figure is entirely out of his comfort zone, but also something he wouldn't have done if his assistant and Vanessa hadn't plotted to aid him in his turmoil. Functionally performing emotional labor on his behalf.

Daredevils, Mathew Murdock's, upbringing contrasts this. He had a loving, supportive father who had a violent career. Upon the death of his father to crime, he turns to another, harsher, violent father figure who abandons him when he gets attached. Every time someone fills a paternal role, they leave him. And there seem to have never been any takers for a maternal role. Instead, the influences on his life have always been highly masculine, sometimes soft, but always masculine.

In some respects, it seems as though Matt is a success story for toxic masculinity. He's a superhero and a lawyer, he's exceptionally romantically successful, he never lets anyone in, and he solves every problem as alone as he can with the strength of his body and his moral character. He suffers because of this, but even his downfalls still echo the toxic masculinity that's consumed his life.

But for all that, Matt and Wilson come at it from different angles, paternal and maternal, and they ultimately arrive at the same destination. They're both violent men trying to save Hell's kitchen through violent means. The only difference is the extremes they are willing to go to. And even then, Wilson is quite a bit older than Matt, and I'd be willing to believe a middle-aged Daredevil might kill.

Certainly, Kingpin's methodology is more classically villainous, but it is only Daredevil's superhuman abilities that allow him the moral high ground. They remove his ability to mistakenly target innocents, an advantage Wilson does not have.

It strikes me as interesting that the main difference between the two characters is what flavor of toxicity they were molded by: Wilson by a toxic level of support, by people egging him on when it might be time for introspection and pushing him forward when he turns inward and considers stopping. And Matt, by toxic masculinity, pushing him on even when he really should rest—not providing him the support he needed to heal from the trauma of his father's death or Stick's abandonment or even the emotional toll his vigilante career took. Forcing him to bottle everything up and 'stay strong' not to disappoint others, mostly Stick.

That's why I think, ultimately, neither should be doing what they're doing. Kingpin for, I think obvious reasons, he's doing just real bad stuff with vaguely good intentions, and Daredevil for less apparent reasons. He is doing good, and as Matt, I think his choices are solid, but as Daredevil, he's straight up using beating up people as a way to deal with his trauma. It's incredibly unhealthy and even if the violence doesn't take him out, he's still leaning on it to support him emotionally. I fear he can't stop, even if he wanted to. After all, if he did, he'd have to face his demons like the rest of us.

They're just two men running from their problems, and I guess I can't fault them for that. Wouldn't all of us if we could?

[alarrytale]

But how do you know the fake laddy image is fake and not how he wants to do. He was forced at a you g age into a plastic environment where he had to almost perform at all times to protect an image, what if he just feels comfortable being a little bit trashy?

Hi, anon!

I've talked about this many times before, but it's about who you think Louis is when he's totally himself, when he doesn’t have to put up a mask or project a certain image. It's about who you think he is when he's with Harry. His image in 1D weren't totally him, but it wasn't that far off. His current image is an image that is curated to gain male fans, set him apart from the other 1D members and make him look straight and a father. Louis Tomlinson tm really wants to be indie, he really wants to be looked at as a common lad and as someone who grew up in the brit pop era listening to Oasis and Blur. It's pretentious, it's really far from the truth, and it isn't genuine or authentic and it shows. There are elements of it that’s real, but it's more about how he wants to come across rather than who he really is. He badly wants to look cool and he seeks male validation.

What we do know for a fact is that when he says in interviews that he got into music at 12-13 by listening to Oasis, that's a blatent lie. He was the biggest S club 7 fan according to his mother, he listened to Nickleback and got a Far Away tattoo. He went to see the Script in concert. His old bebo account doesn’t lie. He raves about the Artic Monkeys being from close to Doncaster but he's never said he saw them perform as a teen. He simply wasn't into that kind of music back then. He was more likely to jam out to ABBA or top 40 songs, than indie music. He looked up to Robbie Williams and he was too busy drooling over Chad Michael Murry in One tree hill and being a sappy romantic to listen to broody realism lyrics and heavy guitar music.

I do think Louis has changed and developed. I do think he loves football and sport and always have, i do think he's more comfortable in joggers and a t-shirt. I don't think wearing suspenders was him. I do believe he's caring and loving and a hopless romantic. I believe him when he says he's a half glass full kind of person. I don't believe him when he claims to be into punk rock and the anarchy tattoo makes me cringe.

Louis is a gay man hiding his natural flamboyance and mannerisms to come off as more masculine, straight and cool to an indie and male audience. He's deeply insecure, because he's been told by powerful people that he can't come off as gay, because he'll lose fans. He is still adhering to the same self-policing since the 1D days and still being self-concious. His image is still straight, even straighter than he came off as while in 1D. It's even worse trying to appeal to an indie audience and a male target group than teenage girls. He's trying very hard to fit the indie mold in all ways possible. But it's not totally him.

Also, he might love the athleisure wear and the 28 official programme stuff, i can believe that. I don't think he hates the indie image they're going for. I think it's something he thinks he can pull off, but they do need to exaggerate and build a narrative to sell the image because it isn't authentic nor genuine. That's important in that genre and to his target audience to be looked at as cool and accepted.

At the same time, he should also know that most of his fans aren't british and brit pop nostalgic like he's going for. His fandom still msotly consists of women who loves his softer side, his pop ballads and are into his looks. They reject toxic masculinity and most know he's gay. Louis praising Liam Ga*lagher is a red flag and is extremely off putting. Louis can want to be as trashy as he likes, but he's not gaining fans doing what he's currently doing. It's that simple. He's not indie and he's not genuine. It's easy to see he's still insecure, still not free and himself and he's trying really hard to come off as cool to indie fans and men.

I'd love to see more of the real Louis. Real Louis is a multidimentional man. He's not a laddy lad who is emotionally stunted, and only smokes and drinks, and brags on social media about his drug use. He isn't someone who mocks his fans and yells at them. He's not the stereotype he's trying to live up to.

I do think he's tired of complying to the cleanliness clause he was under in 1D, so hence the exaggerated and juvenile drinks and drugs promo. But it's very much a concious decision to perpetuate an image. It's not cute, and it's only slightly attractive to 14 year olds.

Regardless, he can do whatever he likes, but that choice has consequences. He's starting to see those consequences more and more. So is he going to do something about it to mitigate the consequences or not? I think he should if he wants to continue to be a world touring artist, but maybe he'd rather go full indie and play for fifty male indie audience members in Scunthorpe.

[sorrelchestnut]

YES, this is it EXACTLY, thank you OP for expressing something that has been low-level bothering me for a while now. His story gets so much more compelling if you engage with it from the lens of That's Just What Men Do™, because Steve's whole character arc is about being the embodiment of the unspoken default. His whole point was being the bland milquetoast villain from eighties movies who stumbled into the wrong narrative and just kept truckin'. I think it's crucial to understanding his narrative that he never really breaks out from his baseline mold; he never stops being the popular small-town boy who does all the normal and expected things like taking local girls on dates to high school basketball games. He's relentlessly adopted by a bunch of weirdos and outcasts and loves it, but it also never changes him in any fundamental way.

Which I think is awesome! I appreciate a good "normie corrupted to the darkside" narrative as much as the next resident weirdo, but there's something so incredibly charming about just a normal-type dude who stays so unrelentingly, unpretentiously himself in the face of all the monsters and social pressures and the boring grind of young adult life. In a story that very frequently - and very explicitly - talks about how changing yourself to fit it is a death sentence, I think it's incredibly important that they show Steve being an absolute walking cliche and all of his friends love him anyway.

Also, I do think that dismissing the influence of toxic masculinity completely misses one of the biggest points of Eddie's character arc in season four. Eddie's whole thing on his introduction is about how big and bad and in your face he is; he's not afraid of the jocks or the normies or all the little sheeple who are just too square to understand the truth, man! I love Eddie, he's a great character, but he's not some unique breaking-the-mold butterfly, he's just as much a stereotype as Steve. And it's a really explicitly male stereotype, too, which is all about being brave enough to stand up to the forces of conformity, preach the gospel to the masses, etc etc. His courage is a cornerstone of his identity... and then along comes the Upside Down to shatter that self-perception into pieces, because he's always thought of himself as the kind of person who doesn't run.

There's a reason Steve and Eddie are so explicitly contrasted against each other the whole season: Steve is everything Eddie hates and derides, but also, he's the epitome of the masculinity that Eddie aspires to be. Steve looks like the kind of normie who'd fold like a wet paper bag in real danger but then it turns out he's genuinely brave, he stands up and takes the hit because that's what men do, when all Eddie did was run away. Men are the great protectors and Steve is there protecting the kids, protecting the girls, taking the hit, while Eddie... doesn't. In fact, Eddie gets explicitly cast as one of the kids in Steve's paradigm: when he tells Eddie and Dustin not to be heroes, it's putting him and Dustin on the same level, kids that need protecting while Steve goes out to take the hit Like Men Do. While I think everything about the lead-up and framing for why Eddie turns around is stupid and doesn't have enough narrative support, the emotional framework for why he makes the decision was never a surprise. His self-image was shattered, first by running and then by realizing that his Designated Male Rival was actually a Better Man than he was, and he had to do the Big Male Self-Sacrifice to go and earn it back.

It feels like there's this narrative that fandom keeps wanting to explore, with Steve Harrington, about this very specific type of martyrdom where self-sacrifice is an expression of a lack of self-worth. And, like, yes, write the narrative that's meaningful to you, and yes ok Steve does admittedly get beaten up a lot, but -- legitimately I do not think this narrative is actually Steve's story.

Like, without gendering things too much, there is something in the Steve fanon that I keep seeing that's so reflective of the specific kind of sacrifice and societal pressures exerted on girls, specifically -- this story of 'you make yourself worthy and worthwhile by carving pieces out of yourself', of believing that you must always give and never receive to justify the space you take up in the world. Yes, boys can experience this same pressure (and obviously trans and nb people of all genders run into it as well! sometimes a lot!), but especially in the mid-1980s cultural context where Stranger Things takes place, it's just...really not likely to be a dominant narrative for Steve to be operating under? It doesn't even really match the Steve we see on screen -- who is happy to make sacrifices for the sake of others, yeah, when needed, but who's not particularly kind or giving unless somebody asks first.

And Steve does get hurt a lot on other people's behalf! And this is a problem! It's just a completely different problem than the one fandom keeps writing.

Steve, and I'm going to say this forever, is a story about toxic masculinity, which the show may or may not even know it's writing. The archetypes influencing Steve's character as it shows up on the screen (and the stories and messages that Steve would actually be surrounded by in his actual life) are not deconstructions of suffering heroes who never should have had to fight in the first place and were destroyed by it. That's the Buffy the Vampire Slayer story. Steve's not Buffy. Steve's cultural context is Indiana Jones.

Steve is The Guy! And part of being The Guy is that you're expected to take the hits -- not because Steve is less important than the women-and-children he's supposed to protect, but because, the story says, he will get less hurt. Why should Steve get in between Billy and Lucas? Because Steve is an eighteen-year-old athlete and Lucas is in middle school, and of the two of them, Steve actually stands a chance. (And yes, Steve got badly hurt there, and Max had to save him -- but if Lucas, if Max had taken that beating they would not have been running through those tunnels later.) Was somebody else better-qualified to dive down to the uncertain bottom of a cold lake in the middle of the night? Steve doesn't list his credentials there as a way of justifying some ideal of martyrdom; he is literally the most likely person on the boat not to drown.

And make no mistake: when Steve's pulled into the Upside-Down, he survives the bats long enough for backup to get there. Realistic or not, he's apparently tough enough that he's physically capable of hiking barefoot through hell without much slowing down. Steve is the tank for the same reason as any tank: because he literally has been shown to have the most hit points in the group. You cannot honestly engage with Steve in this context without dealing with the fact that he's right.

AND THIS IS A PROBLEM! This is still a problem! But it's not the same problem that fandom seems to expect. It's not an expression of caretaking or the need for self-sacrifice; it's not an issue with Steve valuing himself less. It's an issue of toxic masculinity so ingrained that Steve doesn't even recognize he's suffering from it, because one of the tenets of toxic masculinity is that Big Strong Guys don't suffer. It's just a concussion, it's fine, he'll walk it off. It's not that Steve thinks he deserves to get hurt, or even that he's less deserving of safety than the others. It's that absolutely nothing in his cultural context allows him to admit that he can be hurt in a significant way.

There's still so much tension that can be gotten out of this situation, I swear. There's so much that can be explored in writing! Hell, the show itself is deconstructing some of this trope, believe it or not, by giving us a Steve who absolutely can take all the hits thrown his direction but still doesn't know what the fuck he's doing with his life. It turns out that doing his job as The Guy is only mildly helpful in horror movie situations (mostly by buying time for smarter, squishier people to do the damage from behind him), and somewhere a little worse than useless in everyday life.

But Steve does not go out of his way to self-sacrifice, he really doesn't. He just does his job. He's The Guy. Of course he's not going to let a kid or a girl or some scared skinny nerd who just learned about monsters yesterday take the hits. Of course Steve's got this.

[happysharkintensifies]

Booktok makes me sick, not just because of all the shitty books. It's the prevalence, no, the celebration, of toxic masculinity. Every single booktok book features some variation on the same man. And without fail, against all sensible reason, these characters are portrayed as handsome and charismatic and desirable.

It makes me sick when these authors hold up these toxic, predatory traits and put them on a pedestal as some kind of Ideal Man.

It makes me sick when their aggressiveness and possessiveness is treated as romantic. It makes me sick when these shitty men forcibly grab women, invade their personal spaces, and render them helpless by 'purring' in their ears, every. single. fucking. time.

It makes me sick that these misogynistic, heteronormative, and hypermasculine social conventions keep appearing in so-called feminist literature.

Strip away the idealized elements and you have what is basically the rich, white, cishet, alpha-male archetype. He's tall, usually six feet, physically fit and muscular with obligatory six pack abs, and conventionally handsome, with a chiseled jawline. He's usually clean-shaven, and any hair he may have on his body is minimal. He maintains composure at all times and rarely shows anxiety or uncertainty. He exudes raw charisma and charm and navigates social spaces effortlessly.

His hobbies, if he has any, are stereotypically masculine. When it comes to sex, he's confident, skilled, exclusively dominant, and always knows what to do without communicating with his partner. The sex he enjoys is usually rough, animalistic and overpowering. He may have been with several women in the past, and he may be regarded as a sex god, both in-universe and out.

His toxic traits are rarely portrayed as negative. But when they are, they're usually held up as some edgy, anti-hero persona and the reader is inevitably manipulated into sympathizing with him. He'll be portrayed as a tortured, wounded animal, and his female love interest (and, by proxy, the reader) will decide on some variation of 'I can fix him'.

He is essentially the unrealistic standard the ideal Proper Man; the one that men are expected to emulate, and that women are expected to swoon over.

But what really irks me is the lost potential.

If there are men who don't fit into this mold, they are depicted as pathetic, ineffectual, or any number of negative traits.

The narrative quietly and passive-aggressively mocks them and portray them as boring and un-sexy.

After all, is this the kind of man who will bravely swoop in and sweep a helpless woman off her feet? Of course not. Such men are boys. Wimps. Cowards.

These books are supposed to be fantasy: a genre in which easily anything can be explored. If faeries, magic, and contrived mating bonds can exist, then why can't we also have male characters who exist outside the stereotypical, hypermasculine mold?

Why is it that we can have so many fantastical, impossible, and wondrous magical forces, creatures, and peoples, but we can't have men who aren't possessive, abusive, or controlling?

Why is it that male characters, have to be so innately dominant, abusive, and violent? Why do they have to be so fit and muscular and strong?

Even worse, why is it treated as something that is so natural, so inescapable, even in the realm of fiction?

Where are the men who aren't tall and fit? Where are the men who don't have sculpted abs or chiseled jawlines? Where are the men who aren't lean and muscular?

Why can’t we have men who are skinny or overweight? Why can't we have men who aren't handsome or attractive, but just average looking? Why can't we have men who are shorter or just average height?

Why can't we have men with non-stereotypical hobbies? Why can't we have men who love to read, or paint, or write, or sing, or dance, or build model kits?

Why can’t we have men who are timid and shy? Why can't we have men who feel anxiety, fear, and sadness? Why can't we have men who aren't afraid of crying openly?

Why can't we have men who aren't sex gods? Why can't we have men who aren't confident in bed? Who are anxious, or even scared, at the prospect of sex? Who are passive instead of dominant? Who want to experience intimacy and affection?

Why can’t we have men be kind and gentle and sweet for once?

I'll tell you why we can't. Because booktok says men like these are not 'man' enough. Booktok says men like these are the 'boring' option, and completely devoid of interesting quirks, traits or personality. Booktok says men like these are underserving of attention, and only fit to be background noise.

As far as booktok is concerned, men like these can't exist.

[sxfik]

let's talk about han seo, hockey and his relationship with vincenzo!

disclaimer: probably more unorganized than usual lol but i had a lot of thoughts on this. feel free to add on!!

hockey has been a connection to han seo that we have seen throughout the drama. hockey is a traditionally masculine sport, and focused on team building and brotherhood between the participants. hockey is also a violent sport, often very rough on the body and rigorous. the show utilizes hockey as a symbol of masculinity, and a representation of brotherhood, especially for han seo.

from very early on, hockey sets the dynamic between the brothers: the ice is a punishment and a reminder of han seo's relationship with his brother who uses hockey as a punishment for his brother's mistakes as well as a way to let off steam. the first notable utilization of hockey was prior to jun woo's reveal as han seok. we watch as han seo explains himself to han seok and han seok repeatedly hitting the puck into his stomach when angry and unsatisfied with the answers. this is the first real relationship we see between the two brothers. han seok uses han seo as a punching bag in order to let off his anger that he feels on a day to day basis and as a reminder to han seo of his place beneath him.

we can use this scene to infer about their relationship in their childhood. Mr. Nam has mentioned that han seo was abused by his brother as a child and has gone to therapy his whole life. as a young adult, he turned to drugs and partying and it is implied that he has wound up in the police station many times. han seok has used han seo as his punching bag and han seo molded his personality and actions in order to avoid provoking his brother. han seok has constantly reminded han seo that he is beneath him, both in blood along with intelligence and stature, and in order to satisfy him, han seo leveled himself down.

it’s important to note that this is certainly not true about han seo. we have seen that han seo picks up on situations much faster than han seok thinks (gummy bear scene), but refuses to let his brother notice as it can result in more abuse. the only reason han seo comes off as a bumbling chairman is because he isn’t as “cunning” as vincenzo or jang han seok.

it's also important to note that while there have been moments of a cordial relationship between the two, it is still an abusive relationship. even after moments where han seok has shown kindness to han seo, it is no excuse for the abuse that han seo has suffered. it is also not a reason to say that han seok is caring brother despite his abuse as he does not care for han seo beyond preserving him as an escape out of jail or death.

it's safe to say that han seo has never had a real brotherly relationship neither has he had a role model in his life and it shows in the early episodes. we see han seo mimic han seok's hockey tactics and throw pucks at his advisors (idk what to call them tbh) and even force the board members to drink spicy food without water (maybe this was a way han seok punished him when he was younger). han seo mimics his brother and attempts to be like him in these episodes. that is also why he sends thugs after cha-young and vincenzo: he is attempting his brother's scare tactics but it is clear to see that han seo is not the one for strategizing and well, being a villain. furthermore, we have noticed han seok's attachment to hockey sticks and how he deals out punishment (i.e. killing the prosecutor with a hockey stick, defending himself against intruders with the hockey stick, smashing in the car window glass with hockey stick) and han seo has bound to pick up this toxic relationship with hockey, and as an extension in the way he views his relationship with his brother.

we see this change as we watch the scene where han seo and vincenzo are on the ice together. both are stood opposing each other but in the same pose and in hockey gear. this establishes them as equals as both are equipped with the same armor and the same attack sticks. both of them have an equal chance at the puck. it heavily contrasts the scene we see where we see han seok, fully in armor and equipped to attack, and han seo in the lone suit with no protection or means to attack him back. we also note that when han seo scores, we see a genuine smile on his face and as vincenzo threatens light heartedly to "come here" and makes a move towards him, he playfully skates away. this is similar to how many brother's play on the playground together as kids: competitive but never cut-throat or attempting to maim each other. we also note han seo asking from approval from vincenzo, like a little kid would from their older sibling, asking if they did good, and vincenzo responds like an older sibling with playfully underplaying their contribution. we also see vincenzo granting han seo good advice to use/train his brain and asks him about his studies, the same way an older brother checks up on a younger one.

we can note that han seo feels comfortable around vincenzo in a way we don't see with his brother. vincenzo makes a move to throw a puck in his direction when he drops honorifics but we don't see han seo flinch in the same way that he does with han seok. even when vincenzo makes moves towards him, or gets closer he doesn't flinch, he just glides back. it shows that han seo trusts Vincenzo in a way he hasn't before. he also shyly thanks him for the advice and expresses a certain love to vincenzo, beyond just the admiration that everyone has for him (aka the vincenzo effect).

of course, we see han seo skate toward vincenzo and losing control but vincenzo catches him. he is caught off guard as he is caught though which might be telling us that han seok would have never made a move to protect his brother like that. even though i've seen many people criticizes the usage of "is this love" during that sequence, i don't believe it's used mockingly like adrenaline is. "is this love" is the song used when vincenzo develops a serious relationship with someone, most notably cha-young. what this song is doing in this scene is establishing a sibling relationship between vincenzo and han seo and noting that there is a specialty to their partnership, just like how cha-young and vincenzo's relationships are special.

most importantly (and what breaks my heart), han seo asks vincenzo repeatedly whether he will kill him. while this fear is warranted as han seo has aided han seok in many ways prior to him seeing the light and teaming up with vincenzo, we also know that han seo was fearful for his life with han seok. han seo walks on a thin line with han seok and never knowing when his life was going to end at his hands. han seok continually teased him and threatened him (we can infer this from the gummy bear and "are you going to kill me like you killed our father" and when han seok held the knife to his neck). not to mention, han seo now carries a watch gifted by han seok: a reminder that han seok has control over his life. han seo is continually fearful of when his brother will murder him and take that watch as his next trophy. except this time, we can note that han seo says something along the lines "i know you won't but i can't help but feeling uneasy." it really enforces how far han seok's abuse has hurt han seo. even with reassurances, he is still fearful that his brother, or someone he views as his brother will take it away from him.

it's important to note that hockey is a sport that emphasizes team building and brotherhood also encourages a little rough housing. han seok and hockey vs. vincenzo and hockey are the two opposite ends of what hockey is supposed to be as a sport. han seok and hockey empahsize the violence, and rough nature of hockey, where han seok is using the puck and the hockey sticks as weapons to attack defenseless people (han seok, those prosecutors, that poor car and also zumba snake choi and mr. han). han seok uses it to crush down han seo instead and leaves behind the team aspect. vincenzo on the other hand focuses more on the team building and brotherhood MORE than the violence, their scenes focused more on vincenzo giving advice and building han seo up rather than crushing him and pushing him down. we see han seo actually scoring and both of them being playful with each other, building a rapport with each other.

in episode 18, we can note that han seo is acting more and more like vincenzo (like how in the earlier episodes han seo acted like his brother). when revealing his hand in han seok's demise, he acts similar to vincenzo, leaning in and explaining how he pulled the rug from underneath his feet. we also see a new kind of boldness, a fire behind his eyes we don't see before this moment when he speaks to han seok. the same sport that was used to torment han seo has provided him the support and advice he has needed to turn his life around. i believe that having a genuine support system for the very first time has provided han seo the platform to change and grow, as well as gain confidence in himself and his abilities. in episode 19 and 20 i want to see han seo and vincenzo grow together and evolve into a relationship where both are comfortable and able to give mutual support and love to each other.

[queerpiracy]

Ed Teach, Izzy hands, and the inter-generational trauma of it all

Ed’s character is such an excellent look at the societal role of manhood and what it takes to break out of that mold.  Men are told to be brutal, be efficient, and then stuff everything else down until the day they die. Connection? Emotion? Softness? Never.

We all agree this is Bad!  However, I’ve been marinating on the idea that, when we get down to it, our prejudices may suffocate us but they also keep us safe.  It’s a twisted safety that perpetuates terrible trauma and stifles the human spirit, but it also provides material security in a society that is poised to grind you up and kill you young if you show signs of Otherness.

This brings me to Israel Hands. Izzy has kept Ed safe in the context of pirating society.  He has maintained Ed’s image as the most feared and brilliant pirate in the history of the world.  In fact, Izzy-as-toxic-masculinity has been so successful that everyone throws themselves out of Ed’s path to avoid him! The infamous Blackbeard just has to hold out his hand and people will give him whatever he wants.  And, Ed’s life is so empty and meaningless he’s going mad.

David Jenkins tweeted “A lot of what we’re taught about being a man is wrong”. Ed’s character arc is about choosing to (and learning how to) leave behind the toxic pirate culture of Izzy (who is traumatized, misguided, acting out of fear and self-loathing (and love))  and embrace the expressiveness, softness, and Otherness of Stede Bonnet. 

But--and I love that OFMD very clearly shows this--it’s not a simple choice.  In many ways, choosing softness paints a target on your back (and gets you tied to a rowboat and stoned).  Izzy/society knows this, which is why he tries to “save” Edward from Stede (i.e. force him back into the box of What A Real Man Does) again and again.  And the fucked thing is that I kind of see where Izzy is coming from. I mean, and we’re shown again and again that he is the antagonist and we the audience shouldn’t want him around, and I am onboard with this.  But we’re also shown that when you trade in the power of fear and obedience for the much more vulnerable state of connectedness, you can not only lose the social capital provided by toxic masculinity but also open yourself up to the terrible hurt of rejection.

Here’s my original thought that launched this meta and a bit of a left turn, sorry, but whatever you’re not my advisor: why does Izzy move me?  I think it’s because he represents not only the dangers and suffocation of societally prescribed masculinity, he also represents the people in our lives who pass on generational trauma because that is the only way they learned how to love us. I see so many of my family members in Izzy Hands.  I see family members who, out of their hard-earned fear, tried to teach me how to protect myself from the world and only ended up teaching me to hate myself and shut myself away.  I also see a bit of myself in him.  My own fear response, my own internalized homophobia.  We’re in it, folks. We gaze into the darkness and it gazes back with hazel eyes and a raspy “fuck”.

Ed needs to find himself, still, because remember he went back to Izzy, called on Izzy to bring him tea, and ultimately violently subsumed himself in the role that Izzy demanded of him.  He can’t un-love Stede Bonnet, though. I predict that part of Ed’s character arc will be him accepting that he has to choose between Izzy and Stede, because right now he keeps trying to balance the two (when Izzy lost the duel and was preparing to row away, Ed yells something like, “You shouldn’t have dueled him, Izzy!  We could have worked this out!” Yeah, no. Intolerance and fear can’t coexist with curiousity and openness).

This isn’t to say I think Ed needs to kill Izzy.  Since Israel Hands’.... everything.... is an allegory for trauma and toxic masculinity, I think one of the most powerful things the narrative could do is allow Izzy to live.  Because, at the end of the day, we overcome our toxic and limiting beliefs not by cutting them out of our bodies like a tumor (it doesn’t work like that, sadly) but by recognizing them for the trauma response they are.  By holding them gently but firmly.   By separating ourselves from them.  By thanking them for trying to protect us in the only way they knew how, and firmly moving away from them in a search for new ways of doing things.

Though if Izzy refuses to separate and continues fighting to keep Ed in the role of The Kraken, he may need to take a long walk off a short pier.  y'know. Healthy boundaries and all.

[ale-jate-misericordia]

if you hc remus as a dick too, i might agree with you. like i like sirius as soft n cute only because remus stans in the wolfstar fandom make sirius a horrible prick and then remus a soft cute lil babygirl. like sirius also deserves love. but it seems folks really can’t love him when they write him as a masculine dick.

oh for sure remus is a dick too. i don't really like when either is portrayed soft and cute. i mean remus was fully ready to murder peter too, so he's not nice and innocent. i just see it more often with sirius. i can see both of them being bitchy pretentious pricks and i like them like that. personally, i like them a little toxic and obsessed with each other but, if they are healthy, i still need them kinda dickish. if not to each other, to others. they need to be if they're pulling a bunch of pranks with the marauders.

i do have some qualifications when it comes to them being dicks to each other though. for instance, i hate the shit where remus makes jokes about loving regulus more and thinking he's the better brother. i like them obsessed with each other. plus, i don't think sirius could be with someone who didn't adore him and him alone. he seems like he needs that constant praise. admittedly, sirius making remus jealous sits better with me cause sirius doesn't give a shit about anyone else outside of his circle and they know that. i fucking hate sirius cheating with remus. it just doesn't make sense to me. remus having a beard fits more considering he's more careful and he is used to secrets. sirius doesn't exactly wear his heart on his sleeve and he has secrets, but he's more reckless which makes me think he wouldn't bother having a beard.

and i feel the same way about the feminization of remus as i do about sirius. it just feels like people trying to fit them in a heteronormative mold. it's highkey gross to me. in any queer pairing, i hate when heteronormative gender roles are forced on characters. if one is already written feminine and the other is masculine, then that's different. obviously, that queer relationship exists both in fiction and in real life. nothing wrong with that. just kinda icky when those roles are put on characters that don't display those behaviors already. but to each their own ig. these are just my opinions

edit: i feel like i should add that i like fem sirius personally. it's just when they change his personality to fit certain gender roles that i can't stand. maybe i didn't make that clear so i'm stating it as clear as possible. fem remus is fine too.

[thevindicativevordan]

On Wonder Woman's Rogues

Wanted to offer some thoughts on Diana's Rogues. Frankly I think they're stronger than many would give them credit for, just horribly underused. I'm leaving Cheetah and Circe off of this since I'd like to get to them separately some day. Obviously this doesn't cover everyone, but here's some of my thoughts on the major players.

Ares

Other than Cheetah and Circe, Ares is probably Diana's greatest foe. Traditionally he's been the embodiment of everything Diana is opposed to in Man's World: toxic masculinity, war, greed, pride, and so forth. George Perez gave him a killer design for Post Crisis, and that really helped to carry him. Problem is that Ares as a character is pretty flat and one note. He's evil... because he's evil. Not necessarily a dealbreaker, not every villain needs a sympathetic backstory or goal, but when your first confrontation with Wonder Woman involves plotting to start WW3 as a gambit to become king of the gods, only to have Diana point out that would kill humanity and thus rob you of worship, where exactly can you go from there? Outside of that one story, writers struggled to figure out what to do with Ares. Peaking in your intro leaves you nowhere to go but down.

Personally I think the best solution is to mix what Perez and Rucka have done with Ares and what Azz did with Ares. I think that Ares works best as someone with some sympathetic traits, but ultimately should still be a villain at heart. I personally would make Ares a Ra's Al Ghul figure villain for Diana. He wants Diana to take his place as God of War, or at the very least to embrace war as a tool. Perhaps he wants this in order to free himself from the restrictions being the God of War place upon him, perhaps it's a simple "fuck you" to Athena by taking her champion for his own, perhaps he has another motive altogether for why he seeks someone to take his place. Regardless that's what I think his interest in Diana should stem from.

His end goal should be to convince Diana that Man's World can not be changed peacefully, only by force. Basically he wants Diana to end up like her Flashpoint incarnation, and he's the villain whose goal is to break Diana and then mold her into something resembling himself. Ares should constantly be offering her advice and tempting Diana with taking the easy route of forcing her beliefs on others. Resisting his toxic influence and not becoming the monsters she fights against is as key a part of Diana's conflict with Ares as stopping his plots to trigger bloodshed.

Dr. Cyber

Rucka's WW Rebirth run really made the character click into place for me, along with a bunch of the other WW Rogues. Before she was a character I didn't get the appeal of. Was cool that she was created in the Mod Era of WW, but I didn't really see how she could fit into a modernized take on Diana. Really enjoyed the Rucka revamp, and her personality and connection to Cale as established by him are features I'd like to keep. Really weird how she has yet to return since Rucka's run, does no one else see any potential in her?

Best way she can serve as a foil to Wonder Woman is by contrasting Cyber as the prophet of the singularity in contrast to Diana preaching the Amazon Way. Diana seeks to bridge the gaps between the sexes by promoting love and acceptance, by sharing the philosophies created on Paradise Island. Cyber seeks to eliminate all differences of gender, race, or creed by transforming humanity into a posthuman technological race like she is. Diana is not an imperialist, she doesn't spread her beliefs by force, and she attempts to understand the myriad beliefs of humanity. Cyber holds the current "meatbag" ways of belief in contempt. She intends to force "ascendance" upon everyone, believing that by doing so she will eliminate inequality and help humanity achieve understanding. Where Diana has the Amazons Cyber has Godwatch, the organization she "inherited" from Veronica Cale.

Both want to eliminate prejudice, discrimination, and injustice, both are powerful women who have powerful organizations behind them, and both are motivated by their personal philosophies which they believe can solve humanity's problems. I'd even deliberately call back to Rucka establishing Cyber as being a WW fangirl pre-transformation, and say Cyber is deliberately crafting Godwatch as "Anti-Amazons". Really do think Cyber has a ton of potential there if someone is willing to build upon the foundation Rucka laid.

Dr. Psycho

Guess I have to say one nice thing about Harley Quinn: I'm glad her animated series made more people aware of Psycho. He's such a shit and that works great. Of course there's going to be a villain who hates Diana simply because he's a misogynist, and wants to break the uppity bitch who is talking nonsense about "rights for women". Psycho is a great foil, the exact kind of guy Wonder Woman exists to fight against, and his mental powers make for a good contrast with her physical ones. Do think he should be balanced out by having a woman counterpart on Diana's side either as an Amazon or a Holiday Girl if he's going to be a dwarf/little person. My favorite Psycho incarnation is actually Morrison's take in WW: Earth One, Psycho as a PUA works surprisingly well. Overall Psycho works pretty great as he is, just needs to get used more.

Guess I'll just throw out my controversial take on Psycho here: Given his powers and his nature I just can't not see him pulling a Purple Man at some point. Just no way can I buy him not abusing his mind control powers like that. Frankly given the type of issues Diana deals with, I don't think a rapist villain should be off the table, but it's obviously something that has to be handled with extreme care and to avoid titillation. Maybe best explored in a Black Label WW book outside of main continuity.

Mayfly

God damnit this one I'm really conflicted about. On one hand, Batman has Deathstroke and Deadshot, Superman has Lobo and Bloodsport, Wonder Woman should have a mercenary villain who is only in it for the cash as well. Mayfly is great she looks cool, she has cool guns that can hurt Diana, and she's in it for the money. It's nothing personal just business. But Steve Orlando wrote such a great issue in WW #51 where Diana actually reforms Mayfly over a period of time. Feels too depressing to just undo that, so I'd turn another one of Diana's Rogues good as compensation, and make it so that Mayfly isn't dragged back into crime by choice. Have Circe or Cale basically press-gang her into their service, Circe would do it just as a middle finger to Diana. Mayfly should always be conflicted about being a criminal again and want to leave, but is more or less boxed in by outside forces.

Minister Blizzard

Weird that this guy doesn't get more use. Diana's one of the most religious superheroes around, building Blizzard as a contrast to that feels like a slam dunk. Make him either a delusional melomaniac who thinks he's on a mission from God to freeze the entire planet as punishment for it's sins, or make him an actual contrasting champion of divinity. Blizzard serves much more malicious gods with a much more malevolent plan for mankind than the mission Diana has been entrusted with, and their fights are as much ideological as physical. If both have been entrusted with divine mandates who has precedence? Can Diana truly claim Blizzard is any less just if he truly has holy backing? Explore Diana's religious faith by contrasting it with Blizzard's, that's an underexplored topic when it comes to Wonder Woman.

Red Panzer

Dude has a shit load of alternate looks that I can see and somehow they're all amazing? How does someone who looks so cool get such little use? Anyway he's a NeoNazi, he and his fascist leagues are a perfect choice for simple evildoers Diana has to stop. Why haven't he and Gundra teamed up yet? Have them be part of the same fascist organization. Make him into a hammy Dr. Doom type villain for Diana to beat up where he only refers to himself in the third person, that would be a hoot.

Silver Swan

Right so in exchange for Mayfly returning to being a (reluctant) villain, I say let Diana redeem Vanessa. Let the Silver Swan mantle be taken up by someone else or have Vanessa turn it into a heroic identity, either way let Diana finally make up for failing Vanessa so hard in the past. Cheetah now fills that role post-Rebirth of "former female friend/confidant that believes Diana abandoned her", so I think a Vanessa redemption has a chance to stick. Feels like that's an acceptable compromise for putting Mayfly back in play in my opinion.

That should be the ultimate culmination of a lot of hard work on Diana's part however, not something that happens overnight. Would be cool to see Phil Jimenez write that story as part of a Black Label book, but regardless it's something I'd like to read.

Giganta

Giganta is simple and straightforward. She hates Wonder Woman for foiling her schemes and just wants to get rich. It works and is enjoyable, just please stop making her job all the time. Go use a Greek myth monster or one of Byrne's OCs for that role please.

Dr. Poison

Ok I think this is a rare case where Rucka's Rebirth revamp wasn't an improvement. Look at her, Poison looks cool and fucking terrifying. Roll with her being an absolute sociopath who is only interested in creating better and better bioweapons. All Poison cares about is continuing her research into toxins, plagues, and all kinds of sicknesses. There's no one she won't work with, no job she won't take, no man, woman, or child she won't experiment on to finish her life's work. Her dream is to create the ultimate poison, one utterly incurable, and who better to be a test subject upon which to test her creations than the immortal Princess of Themyscira? God help us all if Poison succeeds in achieving her goal, for the probability of her simply storing such a creation on a shelf is.. unlikely.

Grail

Look there have been a lot of attempts at making an "evil Wonder Woman" besides just turning Diana into that. Conceptually I don't have much objection to Grail. Batman has Bane and Ra's, Superman has Bizarro and Zod, "evil counterpart" is a classic component of a Rogues Gallery. Darkseid fucked an Amazon at some point and that Amazon gave birth to Grail on the same day as Diana was born? Sure, why not, I don't have any real objection to that. Diana has ties to the Old Gods whether through the blessings of the goddesses or Daddy Zeus and her mother's Amazon heritage, Grail her evil counterpart gets her powers from her New Gods/Amazon heritage. Makes for a nice simple conceptual contrast.

Problem is that Grail is a fucking mess when it comes to what her goal is. At first she wanted to kill Darkseid, then she wanted to raise him to not be an evil monster, then... I guess she changed her mind and helped him return to his old form and power? So what exactly does she want? To serve her father? You could get some mileage out of that with Diana having a loving relationship with her mother while ignoring her father, while Grail betrayed her mother to seek her father's approval. But why does she want that? Someone needs to try to untangle the mess this character has become and frankly I'm not sure it's worth the effort. Grail has a cool design and a simple origin that lets her serve as an effective foil for Diana in an easily understandable way, so I suspect she will stick around and they'll try to make something of her again at some point. Hell if she's serving Darkseid now, make her the Leader of the Female Furies, that would provide another nice contrast with Diana's status as Princess.

Ran out of images spaces so I'll make a part II to cover the last two villains I wanted to talk about: Maxwell Lord and Veronica Cale

[thegayhimbo]

@spaghettificationandpretzels for Character Asks for Jason Stackhouse 7, 9, 12, 14, 25, 28, 30.

7.) A quote of them that you remember?

“People are always trying to fuck up other people’s lives by telling lies about them. You wanna really fuck someone’s life up? Tell the truth about them. They ain’t never gonna be the same.”

9.) Your least favorite outfit of them?

I can’t really think of an outfit Jason wore that I ever hated.

12.) Sexuality hc!

He’s secretly bisexual, or at the very least bi-curious, but keeps that part of himself hidden because he knows how homophobic and biphobic Bon Temps is. I even did a post on this 2 years ago.

14.) Best storyline they had?

The Fellowship of the Sun arc, playing The God Who Comes to save Sam, his developing bromance with Andy, working with Andy to take down the Hate Group in season 5, attempting to rescue Jessica from Vamp Camp in season 6, his hunt for Warlow, and the sibling moments he had with Sookie.

25.) When do you think they acted the most ooc?

When they introduced Violet’s character in season 6 and tried to force Jason into a relationship with her. I honestly don’t know what the point of this arc was, but it was terrible. Watching Violet try to mold Jason into her idea of what a man should be (which reeked of toxic masculinity) was infuriating.

28.) The most unnecessary thing they ever did?

Letting Crystal live after she gang-raped him. I get there may have been a part of Jason that chose to be merciful towards the person Crystal once was before Felton got her hooked on the V, but I wouldn’t have begrudged him if he had killed Crystal. There was no way for her to come back from what she did.

30.) The funniest scene they had?

Tie between getting priapism from drinking V in season 1 and the scenes he had with the Newlins in season 2. Playing The God Who Comes was also a hoot! 😂

Thank you for the ask! :)

[variousqueerthings]

Daniel & Johnny if they were canonically queer...

oaky real talk what I like about Daniel and Johnny is how tragic the whole thing is, because I love a tragedy 

two boys coming-of-age in the 80s - arguably one of shittiest times to be queer, one of whom “passes” as straight while he performs the toxic masculinity he’s inherited from three male role models (his dad, Sid, Kreese), but always with the awareness that it wasn’t natural - he forced himself into that mold because he himself was a sensitive, hurt boy

the other who arguably doesn’t pass - or has that classic “I don’t know why I dislike him, but I dislike him” queer subtext to him that leads to him getting bullied, because he’s too small, he’s too pretty, dammit it’s too easy to punish him for not being masculine enough

and then it switches on its head and Daniel wins and Johnny hands him the trophy and tells him he’s alright and Kreese punishes Johnny - almost kills him - for failing to Be A Man

and there’s a version of this story where after Miyagi saves Johnny, he and Daniel could’ve become friends, could’ve figured out how to deal with dead fathers, absent fathers, emotionally and physically abusive fathers, (man there’s a Message here about fathers and legacy huh), and... who knows...

but instead they go their separate ways and whatever brief moment of togetherness they experienced as teens with a lot in common that remains unspoken is seemingly washed away by years of never getting to face whatever “waves hands” all of that meant, a connection that was so strong that it lasted across 34 years - 

Daniel’s story continues in the movies obviously, so we see how he goes through it with cobra kai himself, but he emerges out the other side with an on-the-surface decent life that hides all of that repression and insecurity (still coming back to being a man - a good man, but a man who’s also performing through the act of money, and wife, and kids, and house), because Miyagi’s legacy hangs so heavily on him, and so does his past as being poor and smaller and bullied and less-than... 

And Johnny just crashes and doesn’t stop crashing. You get a feeling that there were attempts that probably largely ended once his mum died (which I only just realised was very shortly before Robby was born) and by the time he and Daniel meet again he’s absolutely resigned to the role he’s been cast in this time - from star athlete with a whole future ahead of him to a middle-aged man who can’t hold down a job and doesn’t know how to use a computer 

Both of them constantly, constantly struggling with what is expected of them, either by pushing themself to present the perfect front or by entirely giving up

And neither of them ever acted on the feelings they’ve had about men, starting with the complicated relationship they’d had with one another and then continuing to repress and repress and repress...

Until there it is, the only versions of themselves they’re allowed to be as ostensibly “straight men” - successful business owner with two kids on one side, failed father and alcoholic on the other

and all that time - 34 years - they’ve been circling each other! There were so many opportunities too see each other for years and neither of them took one, even though they’ve clearly been thinking about one another all this time!

and then they meet due to fate’s facepalm making sure that Daniel’s daughter was in the car that rear-ended Johnny’s, that the car was sent to Daniel’s workshop, that Johnny’s son ended up as Daniel’s student... and everything that happens in the show

I don’t even usually like soulmates as a concept, but these two really are fate’s stupidest dumbest most idiotic soulmates, who could’ve been so good for years and years, and now, finally, when they’ve spiralled back into each other, they’re so affected by so many years of not even close to dealing with anything, they don’t even know where to begin, it’s like open wounds of emotions and because they’re the eye of the storm of each other’s lives, they take it out on each other, not realising that they’re the only two people who can help each other make sense of any of it...

As always, there’s three versions of the story - there’s Daniel’s, there’s Johnny’s, and there’s the truth...

[princess-unipeg]

It’s Father’s Day and I felt like it’s the perfect time to rank the dads of Fox Animated Shows I have seen from best to worst

Beef Tobin

The guy is basically Ron Swanson when you take all his positive attributes with a mix of emotional issues and a hint of blindness to social cues and put them in an animated character. He’s an Alaskan father of four who makes a living as a fisherman. Even though The Great North has been on for only one season so far I could tell he’s a quality father figure. He represents positive masculinity and isn’t afraid of being emotional nor of shedding tears in public. He’s very accepting of his middle son Ham for being gay and the fact that he’s the town “cake lady” and very supportive of that fact. His eldest son Wolf absolutely worships him. His youngest son Moon, only daughter Judy and daughter-in-law Honeybee have shown to respect him as well. The fact that they all enjoyed being on the fishing boat with Beef helping him work pretty much states that his good parenting more then made up for his ex-wife Kathleen’s terrible parenting.

Bob Belcher

Even with his struggling business and his refusal to compromise on how he runs things he’s always made sure that his kids have good lives. As a child who grew up with a tough homelife (an overly criticizing father and a dead mother) he made sure to give his children the best things in life even if they can’t be luxury goods or even third hand goods. All of his kids have rooms that reflect who they are and they aren’t ashamed of who they are. He’s an accepting and open-minded human being and will do pretty much anything for his family even if gets hurt and/or humiliated in some capacity. You can tell Linda is pretty content and happy with him even though it all started from a simple high five in lieu of an engagement ring.

Jack Harris

He’s pretty much the standard bumbling dad you would see on cartoons but is a little more emotionally open. As someone who had a terrible father growing up he’s made sure to break the cycle with his own kids. Jack gives his adopted child the same amount of love and care he gives his own flesh and blood kids. He’s shown to make sure his kids are loved although it does tend to make him too lenient at times.

Hank Hill

He’s a pretty rigid father figure. He has a tendency to be scared off by new ideas especially if they tend to be of a overly sexual nature. Hank does the best he can to make sure his son Bobby is raised properly especially since he gets influenced pretty easily. He’s had a pretty terrible father growing up but even then he’s been better about raising Bobby without utilizing the harder aspects of Cotton’s parenting. Though ironically his father thinks more highly of Bobby then he does Hank.

Homer Simpson

Over the seasons he’s been a flip flop between worst parent and parent of the year. Though that might be mostly because of how many writers the show had gone through in its decades long running. He’ll choke Bart when a joke calls for it, he will have wronged Lisa then learn to make up for it in the most asinine way and even forget that Maggie exists to emphasize what a flawed father he is. Though when it comes down to it he loves his family and will go to hell and back for their sake.

Stan Smith

It’s a given that he’s pretty terrible especially to his family. He’s the epitome of right wing fascism and white male cisgender male privilege. He forces his toxic beliefs on his kids and tried to mold them to his standards of wholesome American families. Though there’s still a part of that cares about his family. Even though he keeps learning the same lessons over and over (as a given for long running shows that adheres to status quo) he’s capable of being open minded.

Peter Griffin

I don’t even know where to begin. For a show that says Family Guy he’s not really for his family. Always thinking of himself and not considerate of how he treats people it’s a wonder why he’s still a father at all. Don’t even get me started on the way he treats Meg. Not that his wife is any better.

[sokkagatekeeper]

hey!!!! nonbinary sokka

hey!!!! idk if you’re asking me for an analysis on nonbinary sokka or not but that’s the only thing i’m good at so you’ll get it anyway!! so basically i’m using zuko as a contrast to sokka mainly because they are foils and zuko specifically is sokka’s primary foil. sokka is constantly chasing after this unatainable image he has of his father, which he associates with the ultimate presentation of masculinity, being a warrior and a soldier and a good fighter and a protector. but the thing is sokka is not a "natural" at being a warrior and a good fighter. sokka is a strategist, an artist, a scientist, yeah, and that can make him good at certain aspects of fighting, but the fighting itself is not his thing. as he measures his self-worth by how close he is to achieve this impossible ideal of what it means to be a man he overlooks the qualities that make him different and its value for the sake of it. he is a selfless and thoughtful brother that allowed katara to stay as brave and hopeful as she is, he is incredibly intelligent and creative and resourceful, and he possesses a certain duality once he acknowledges these strengths he has and applies them to fighting. maybe sokka would value these qualities if he had all of them and was good at fighting, but he isn’t, therefore he believes he is disposable and worthless and a “failure” of a man. unlike zuko and his suppresion of traditionally feminine qualities, sokka doesn’t hate himself for the qualities he has, but for the qualities he does not.

yesterday i talked about how sokka’s master is an ode to queerness and neurodivergence, and how it points out that sokka is different and that’s a good thing, and a thing he should be proud of, but i do not think i can pinpoint an exact episode in which i can see this solid manifestation of sokka as nonbinary — rather, i think about how his arc is about learning to not measure his self-worth by how traditionally masculine he is like but a combination of him being equally masculine as feminine as everything beyond and in between, mainly in comparison to zuko; zuko is also molding his idea of a good man in his aggressively masculine father, and he needs to embrace his traditional femininity that he demonstrates constantly are a core aspect of his personality and deeply affect his worldview, so he needs to let go of this incredibly toxic and harmful masculinity, and he does! and this i interpret it as him being gay. zuko never becomes a woman, yet we see him go from overperforming aggressive masculinity in book one to everything that happened with the gaang in book three — zuko allows himself to be gentler. sokka never has this problem, albeit nurture plays a part in it, but we don’t have time to unpack all of that right now. sokka’s problem is that he doesn’t seem to be able to find a balance between his traditionally masculine qualities, his traditionally feminine ones, and the ones that are just sort of... his. while zuko’s arc forces him to embrace his femininity to achieve vulnerability and healing and self-worth, sokka’s arc forces him to let go of an idea of a masculinity that was never his, in order to appreciate himself as a person rather than a man. i personally think he’d be able to find himself comfortable in his boyhood as well as his... not-boyhood eventually, and while this is not by any means a definitive analysis (see: the only correct way of interpreting it) i think it’s plausible enough.

[maybeeatspaghetti]

Would you say Marvin is an example of toxic masculinity? In 'This Had Better Come To a Stop' Marvin sings "Whizzer's supposed to always be here. Making dinner. Set to screw. That's what pretty boys should do" and it's mentioned many times how Marvin needs everyone to love him. In the line he is implying that he thinks Whizzer should take the "housewife" role in the relationship. The whole In Trousers is basically about how Marvin has the need to be "the man" in everything.

Toxic masculinity is defined by the Good Men Project as:

a narrow and repressive description of manhood, designating manhood as defined by violence, sex, status and aggression. It’s the cultural ideal of manliness, where strength is everything while emotions are a weakness; where sex and brutality are yardsticks by which men are measured, while supposedly “feminine” traits—which can range from emotional vulnerability to simply not being hypersexual—are the means by which your status as “man” can be taken away.

What I’m going to do is list a number of toxic masculinity behaviors and see how Marvin embodies these behaviors. And I’m going to focus solely on Falsettos since I know this show much better than In Trousers and I have notes and annotations written in my Falsettos script that I can draw from. 

Stoicism – not showing “weak” emotions

Marvin certainly does not show his vulnerable side in Act I. He reroutes his disappointment and upset into anger and condescension.

Being Aggressive and Violent – the need to prove masculinity in this way

This is essentially an expansion of stoicism in that aggression and violence are considered “masculine” emotions, whereas anything less is perceived as “weak” and “feminine.” In “The Thrill of First Love,” Whizzer begins by needling Marvin about picking up his clothes and about his dress sense, but Marvin seems to be more the instigator when it actually comes to physical fighting (”when he pushes, I pull,” ”let’s both fight, Whizzer,” “so I’ll cheat, Whizzer, and I’ll shove”). It’s shown over the course of Act I that Marvin can be quite aggressive—he punches the wall and kicks the suitcase, etc.—which culminates in him actually slapping Trina in the face. 

Physical, Intellectual, and Sexual Dominance – real men are supposed to be dominant, another way to prove their masculinity

Marvin definitely has a need to be the dominant one in his and Whizzer’s relationship. He’s likely threatened by the fact that Whizzer is physically taller than he is, so he asserts his dominance by insisting on having the final word and pushing Whizzer around and trying to mold him into a housewife. Marvin also requires intellectual dominance over Whizzer, beating him at chess, needing to be the “smart” one. In terms of sexual dominance, the following section explores this more at length, but in terms of what happens onstage in the 2016 revival, Marvin flips Whizzer around to press up behind him, and then pulls his shirt open and his belt off and pushes him down on his back at the end of “The Thrill of First Love.”

Sexual Aggression – among other things, the belief that men are entitled to their partners’ bodies

Marvin is sexually aggressive toward Whizzer from what we see in Act I. He absolutely believes he is entitled to Whizzer’s body. Case in point, the line you mentioned, anon: “Whizzer's supposed to always be here, making dinner, set to screw.” It’s clear that Marvin feels entitled to Whizzer’s body whenever he wants, and that Whizzer should expect it and be ready for it. Another line that backs this up is “now Whizzer, ciao Whizzer, bend,” wherein “bend” can be interpreted as an order to bend over for Marvin in a sexual way.

Rigid Heterosexuality – the belief that homosexuality is less masculine; showing violence or anger toward gay men

Marvin definitely has some internalized homophobia in Act I and struggles with wanting a traditional tight-knit family and Whizzer. He and Whizzer have an incredibly dysfunctional relationship; Marvin tries to force Whizzer to be his housewife, as though trying to preserve some illusion of heteronormativity will somehow cushion him and allow him to keep his masculinity (as if he would have lost it by being in a relationship with a man).

Not Engaging in Household Tasks – not participating in any kind of cleaning, cooking, etc.

Housework is still generally considered a “feminine” task, but especially in the 70s, and a man participating in it would be seen as emasculating. Whizzer picks up after Marvin, and because Marvin expects him to, we can safely assume that Trina almost certainly cleaned up after him their entire married life. Marvin also expects Whizzer to cook for him (”Whizzer’s supposed to always be here, making dinner”), which Trina did for him, as she says it is her duty as a wife. 

So in conclusion, the answer to your question is a definite yes. Marvin is a very good example of toxic masculinity. But on the flip side, he’s also a good example of how much a person can change their behavior; by the time Whizzer reenters his life in Act II, Marvin has lost most, if not all, of the behaviors that define toxic masculinity (and I say “most” because, for example, we don’t see anything about housework in Act II, but pretty much everything else we do see at least a glimpse of is much, much healthier).