#because these are nobles and their actions may reflect on their family.

[niteshade925]

Just a short post on the topic, since I intend to reserve the long version for my culture sideblog where this kind of post should belong:

Since many people (esp people in the west) tend to misunderstand what “Mandate of Heaven” really is, I’ll just explain it in a concise way.  “Mandate of Heaven”, or 天命, which really should be translated as the “Will of Heaven” or “Heaven’s Will”, actually reflects “the will of the people”.  I’m too lazy right now so I’ll just copy paste what I wrote in an addendum to someone else’s post:

Instead, "heaven" is better understood as "nature", one which can "reflect" the opinion of the people like a weird mirror of sorts.  To understand what Mandate of Heaven means, one absolutely must understand what "Unity of Heaven and Humanity"/天人合一 means.  In this concept, the opinions, thoughts, and actions of humans (not just ruling class people) are echoed by "heaven".  Which means that, yes, this concept is really all about the people.  Ideally, anyway.  This also means that every time a natural disaster happened, it was seen as the people's discontent or the ruler's mistakes/wrongdoings reflected in nature.  Thus, we see that when natural disasters happen in history, the emperor might issue a public confession (called 罪己诏, or "Edict of Self-Blame"), in the hopes that "heaven" (people by extension) might cease its wrath.  Sometimes these "signs from heaven" were also used as justifications for rebellions and uprisings like OP mentioned above, sometimes also usurpations.

And:

Now we come to the part of why I said "ideally".  In ancient China, there was a special social class that held just as much power as the emperor (sometimes even more than the emperor, for example the Three Kingdoms period).  This class was called shi/士 (sometimes translated as "scholar officials" or "literati"), and may be understood as the class of "elites" in ancient China.  Shi elites often exist in the form of clans or families who have a sort of "monopoly" on governmental positions, and they are not simply rich people or landowners or nobles.  Most importantly, they have knowledge, and they can control the dispersal of knowledge.  It was the shi elites who came up with this concept of "Unity of Heaven and Humanity", which meant they have the final say in what the "signs from heaven" actually meant.  In theory, the "humanity" in this concept should encompass all people, but in practice, it really only meant the shi elites.  So in the end, it was a nice idea, but its overwhelming reliance on human interpretation made it so historically the situation often became a tug of war between the ruler and the shi elites, and not the people putting a check on the actions of the ruling class.

To add on to that, here are more concepts associated with 天/Heaven:

天 (Heaven):  Heaven in traditional Chinese thought represents the supreme morals and natural laws of the universe, and is not a god (which means it is also not “the” god).  It’s above all gods.  It does not have a form and unlike many other deities in Chinese religions and culture, is not visually anthropomorphized.  It is also different from 老天爷 (”Old ‘Ye’ Heaven”) in common vernacular.

天道 (Heaven’s Way):  the natural laws by which everything in the world exists, operates, and changes.  Can also mean causality, as in the phrase “天道轮回，报应不爽” (”The Way of Heaven cycles around, and retribution will come sooner or later”; the implication is that if one does bad things, because of this cause and effect it will eventually come back to bite them in the ass).

天行 (Heaven’s Workings):  literally the way Heaven operates, or just the laws of nature.  As in “天行有常，不为尧存，不为桀亡” (”Heaven’s Workings is constant; it shall not exist because of a benevolent ruler like Yao, and shall not disappear because of a tyrannical ruler like Jie”) from 《荀子·天论》.

天理 (Heaven’s Principles):  the natural laws of the world, the supreme morals, and the ultimate truth.  Often used as the ultimate moral basis, as in “天理昭彰” (”Heaven’s Principles are clear and evident”; means that Heaven will uphold justice, punish those who are evil and reward those who are good).

天命 (Heaven’s Will):  the will of nature (which includes all people).  See above.

[princess-of-the-corner]

On the Winx Club reboot... Lightrock? Also, how does it go for Diaspro? In the early seasons, the poor girl always gave me the impression most of her bitchiness was caused by knowing she'd have to spend her life saving Sky and Heraklion from his recklessness (and eventually snapping when he was about to risk a civil war to marry Bloom), plus Bloom being revealed a princess suddenly stripping her of the one working solution to the love triangle she knew, that is marrying Sky for duty and let him have the red-haired commoner as a lover.

Diaspro my darling!! She deserved better lmao.

this is gonna get long so

So like.

Diaspro is from a high-ranking noble family on Eraklyon, and her parents have some deal going on with the Royals for her to marry Sky. This has been a fact of life for her for as long as she can remember.

Now, Diaspro does care about Sky. She grew up with him. She thinks she's in love with him because she's supposed to be. Because she never had a choice not to be.

She never really had a choice for much of anything, really. She was to be Sky's trophy wife. She didn't really need to do anything, he'd take care of it all. She could have a hobby here or there, something to entertain herself. But why bother worrying about a career or politics or anything when Sky will do it for her?

Sky breaks out of this mindset earlier and has tried to do more gentle rejections. But things kinda. Explode out of hand. Because when we're in Season 1 we have Sky and Brandon doing their swap thing, then Diaspro shows up and blows their cover and introduces herself as Sky's fiance when he's dating Bloom and....

Like he explains before anyone gets too mad at him, and it's. Being confronted with Sky actually dating someone else is the first time it really hits Diaspro that he may not actually want her, ya know?

Which. Has her hurt and confused because she literally doesn't have anything else in her life except being his future wife. And she does initially take that out on Bloom, seeing it as a 'he would be happy with me if it weren't for you!' thing.

This doesn't last long though. Because Sky puts his foot down on a lot of things as he's like. Aware of the problems on Eraklyon and wants to fix things and wants to actually be a good King to his people. (Like remember what I said about his parents being kinda assholes? And the reason for the Sky-Brandon swap is a whole 'political unrest that is causing assassination attempts' thing.)

Anyway.

During the end of Season 1 and the inbetween of Season 1 and 2, Diaspro does a good bit of thinking and reflecting on Sky's words and actions, and the potential freedoms opening up if she can be whatever she wants instead of just 'his wife'.

While her acceptance of this is shaky at first, she does start looking at the prospect of getting her life on track without him. Ofc her parents wouldn't let her actually do that but... well. If she tells them 'how about you let me enroll in Alfea so I can be closer and keep an eye on Sky and try to win him back from that harlot's clutches?', then they're totally gonna throw money at her education.

She has little intention of actually doing so and is like. Quickly dragged into the friendgroup during Season 2 because they realize she's actually going to be incredibly helpful to have. (her powers are earth/rock-based and they're going underground).

[th-xeno]

I. have thought about doing it for a while. and the recent drama's multiplied it. so, even if it's unusual for me,

an analysis of Mlynar Nearl (and the Nearls' arc as a whole) and Why He Is My Premium and Beloved Babygirl.

tbh at first I almost hated him when I read Maria's event. he seemed like an arrogant holier-than-thou asshole and I was like, you know what? fuck you for me and my little girl! she just wants to be a knight like her sister! 

but in Near Light, I started to like him. he was just so tired, so hopeless. he said he was dissapointed, but asked his friend to protect his nieces. his said he didn't care, but protected the Infected under assassins' attack. 

and then I thought, he lies. constantly, but mostly to himself. because he's not an arrogant asshole. he's just... so bad at feelings.

so deeply broken.

and now the Obscure Wanderer arrived and Oh My God.

first of all, there're multiple times when he says the exact opposite to what he does, so let's take this knowledge and come back to the start, Maria's event. 

he doesn't say "you're weak and useless to defend our glory" or "your sister is better than you" like I thought at the time. no, he tries to say, he wants her not to risk her life. not to let the system break her light like it broke almost everyone in his family. 

his brother and sister-in-law were great knights that fought for the glory of their country, and now they're gone. the system threw them away like garbage. his niece fought for their family, for the chivalric ideals, and she was hunted and then exiled. 

and finally, Mlynar himself. an idealist that found out, there's no point in fighting the capitalism. there's no hope. and between losing life in endless conspiracies and losing himself working for corporations but helping his family to survive, he chose the latter. 

but Maria didn't need to choose. she could be free of the weight of the noble titles, of the useless principles, and yet she chose to fight - and almost got killed, if not for her sister.

of course Mlynar was pissed. 

moreover, he was pissed because Margaret came back in the first place. she could have live a happy life far away from this rotten place. she didn't need to risk all of it for the country that will never remember her efforts. he was afraid for her. 

and then, Near Light. Nearl the Radiant Knight.

Mlynar saw her actions as a reflection of his own faults. Margaret tried to play the system's rules to change it, but Mlynar knew it was pointless. the system didn't care. the Radiant Knight will be forgotten, just like her parents. 

but when Margaret came back, she was different, and maybe she understood her uncle more then anyone.

she, too, saw defects of the system (how the Infected were treated). she, too, went through the war (with the Reunion).

but she didn't lose hope.

I may overanalyse it, but I guess she knew the power of the symbolic action because of Talulah. Talulah fucked up the Reunion, she lost, she was insane - and yet the Reunion didn't die in Chernobog, because Infected acknowledged that they can change the world. 

and Margaret tried to do the same. it didnot matter if she won or lost. it didnot matter if her false infection was made public.

she was the Light in the Darkness. she stood up for the weak. she was a Knight.

and that awakened something in Mlynar.

he decided to help the Infected so his family can leave in peace. to help the weak. to restore justice. to do the very same that he thinks a knight must do.

and so, he acknowledged the power of Margaret’s actions. that she really can change something. because she changed him.

she awakened hope in him, and he needed time to proceed it. 

and so (in less than 800 words haha) I come to the main topic, Mlynar's event. and oh boy, this i-am-not-a-knight is more knightly that many.

he shits on knighthood not out of hatred for chivalry, but out of belief in it. the modern knights do not care about the weak, so he doesn't want to be a knight nor be called one. because he is not interested in fight, but in help.

and he doesn't want anyone to see it.

stop corrupted corporation of taking important task? what a naive assumption! 

help two infected girls to stop the riots? pfft, what a joke.

fight a corporation so they don't hunt an innocent? MAYBE YOU'LL ALSO SAY HE HELPED CHILDREN IN DANGER??? 

but unlike in his youth, he doesn't challenge the system, doesn't try single-handedly to change the world. small changes that can make a little better.

gentle light, not blinding.

he hates what his country has become, but still - even as an ordinary man - even lying to himself - tries to make it better. that's why he want everyone to leave but himself. because deep down in his cynical, angry, depressed personality still lives an idealistic knight. 

still lives a hopeful man that believes that his brother and his sister-in-law are alive. that his family can be whole again, even if no one else do. 

he just cares for his family so deeply. he wants his nieces to live happily (somewhere else). wants them not to repeat his mistakes (even if it breaks their dreams). wants their parents back. he just can’t properly express himself. 

but the funniest thing? I think they know it. Margaret, because she knows how bad his trauma is. Maria, because she could see how office work and Margaret’s exile changed him. Zofia, because she knew him well enough.

and so, all of them were happy when he went to Rhodes Island. because they did the world better, and maybe will make Mlynar feel better. 

as a conclusion,,, GOD his depression and burnout are so big. TAKE THIS MAN TO THERAPY. HONEYBERRY, SAVE THE DAY. I LOVE HIM SOOOO MUCH. MY GRUMPY ANGY BABYGIRL.

[hamliet]

Once again I apologize in advance if this comes across as rude, I think it’s just how I talk lol.

I understand that Adam’s issue was not simply that hilled that human, or that that scene was the only reason he became evil, I know what his larger problems where but the narrative paints him killing that human in self defense as a reflection of said larger issues, as a sign of the dark path he was on.

Wether or not it was the first choice to kill Adam or fight the ace ops it was still shown to be the right choice, and not as signs of some larger issues with team rwby. Another example I forgot to mention was the happy huntresses

the white fang tried non-violence, they tried it for YEARS before sienna took over, sienna took charge because ghira’s methods weren’t getting the results the fuanus wanted.

Yo are right that sienna’s methods aren’t explored. and that’s very much part of the problem. The narrative simply accepts ghira’s methods without any challenge whatsoever. There is currently nobody who will challenge or even question his methods.

You are also correct that the white fang is not the only aspect of Blake’s character. In fact I agree that every other aspect was generally very well handled. But in regards to her activist side it really seems unlikely it will be improved even ignoring recent severely unfortunate revelations

Sorry to come across as rude, that wasn’t my intent and I do apologize for that,

Thank you; I appreciate it. Apologies for leaping to conclusions as well.

I think we'll have to agree to disagree.

I don't personally think the show has ever endorsed fullscale pacifism--I mean, the opening trailers involved all the girls fighting, but learning how to fight smartly. RWBY is not against fighting. RWBY is against treating people like pawns or collateral damage. Hence the consistent chess motif.

I genuinely do not think it frames the faunus as wrong for fighting and I don't understand how people seem to view "don't murder innocent people" as "just accept things." it frames Adam as wrong for using pain to create more pain. It suggests fighting to protect what you love and for equality is good. That's the climax of Volume 5, too--with Ilia, with the Belladonnas, with the faunus arriving at Haven.

In fact, Blake's whole arc is that she needs to fight. Her problem is that she runs. In volume 5, she needs to persuade the faunus to act.

Fighting is good in RWBY. It's just saying don't call killing other people noble or good, because it's not. And as much as I have issues with Adam's character, his death is seen as tragic--a relief, sure, but it's not something the characters cheer for. Some people wrote really good replies to my initial post that you may want to check out.

Adam's framing in that moment is only as you say if you take the events chronologically, but not the story. Meaning, if we lay out Adam's life step by step, yes, that's earlier. But if we look at the events in the order that the story reveals them, it's pretty late in the game. There's a reason we first learned about Adam through his relationship with Blake and his cult-like actions before we learned about that moment. You are supposed to see that as him revealing the parts of himself that we, the audience, already know are there, not as a plot twist that we didn't see coming that recontextualizes everything.

I think you may also be confusing the White Fang with the faunus. The majority of faunus are not members of the White Fang, and this is hammered home in Volume 5. The idea that the narrative accepts Ghira's methods without challenge is also not true according to canon and according to your own points; he lost his position in the White Fang because he wasn't effective, and almost had his family murdered. That is, simply put, a challenge. He only becomes more effective when Blake and Sun and Ilia help him. (We also haven't seen the faunus arc in Atlas play as much of a role; I would think it'd be capped off in Vacuo.) The point is that the faunus as a whole, including Ghira, have to fight.

And the narrative doesn't condemn Sienna either; her death is portrayed as wrong, and Ghira himself says that even if they didn't agree on methods, she was a powerful force for the faunus and they supported the same cause of liberation. That itself could of course be explored if it was a greater focus, but there's not time for it alas.

Anyways, those are my thoughts. I kinda don't have energy to continue this discussion, but thank you for weighing in, and for your explanation of your original asks. I hope you have a good day.

[horizon-verizon]

It’s so funny because Jaehaera died because Unwin Peake tried to do for his daughter the same thing Otto did for Alicent. It started with the Hand of the King making moves to pimp his daughter to the widowed king, and so like that it ends. Truly poetic.

I can already hear the comebacks: "Aegon III wasn't widowed like Viserys was!" or "Book!Alicent wasn't a child or 'underage' like Jaehaera when Alicent married Viserys!"

Not the point.

Jaehaera was like Alicent, but the girl was a literal, maddened child with no agency at all or ability to fight back as Alicent had. Through her father reducing her status in the line of succession and the war whittling down the people who could have protected her, Jaehaera was ultimately doomed for the similar reason that Rhaenyra was: her femaleness valued less than maleness. Jaehaera's only "usefulness" to anyone was her womb producing heirs that come from both the greens and the blacks. Her marrying Aegon was to prevent any green supporter or Alicent from using Jaehaera or any child she may birth against Aegon the Younger and drawing Westeros into another potential civil war. Once again, this part of the society does not care so much about noble girls and noblewomen apart from their reproductive labor, and actively discourages or tries tp prevent women and girls from living as their own persons/leaders (have agency or have similar powers and privileges as men/boys). This entire hierarchial system makes it much easier for disabled people, poor people, women & girls, etc. to fall victim to those seeking power; "power" comes down to how one (usually a man) has "claim" over other people's bodies & labor.

One of the green supporters in the war--who also was in the Caltrops meeting before the second Tumbleton battle--was the same one to have the only Green descendant left killed to make room for his own daughter to become queen to the current king and thus gain more power for himself and his house's glory and other benefits. Like Otto, he ignored the desires, will of the king (for him, which is Aegon III), and used the king's more vulnerable state of mind for his own purposes. Here the said state of mind was severe depression and being also a comparatively powerless child.

Jaehaera and Aegon III are clearly meant to echo Viserys and Alicent's and be the more vulnerable, choiceless couple. Why are they so vulnerable and choice-less, so unprotected? Well, who started this war by usurping a female heir, the only one left to a past king (for a time), and his first wife? (Jaehaera was Aegon III's first wife as Aemma was Viserys'.) Jaehaera's immediate family and faction, the greens. Who starred a war where all the dragons ultimately died and continued to die despite some people's efforts, thus denying these two children some sort of power they could have had against such predatory people like Unwin? The greens.

The greens ultimately so weakened the Targ dynasty (mind you, Alicent's four kids are all Targaryens with these own claims) in usurping someone -- because they wanted power for themselves and used the societal value of femininity and womanhood against said usurped person -- that one of their own, a girl herself, the last one, couldn't consolidate power for herself. nor was thought to deserve her own life unattached to the present king and the welfare of the entire realm despite her being a disabled child.

Unwin Peake was always mostly in it for himself and so chose the side that seemed to go for his own greedy aspirations. It reflected the Targ greens' and Alicent's greed and envy and was the consequence of the greens' actions. Both her and Aegon's conditions were consequences of their ancestors, including Viserys.

[eternalflashh]

thoughts slash word vomit about sparkle // hsr 2.2 spoilers

i do overthink, but i genuinely keep wondering there's more to sparkle's role in the penacony arc (cf. her character, although there being more to her role would have to correlate to there being more to her character/personal motivations).

in all fairness i am all for her simply being a menace and looking for chaos, as aha themself seems to operate, and having no other ulterior motive; though it would be unconventional, it would be very true to her character were she to simply be "meaningless" in her role in this arc, aka a red herring—there only to incite suspicion when there was no harm, only fun, to begin with. it would be in line with her beliefs; it would be like sampo in belobog, not worth much with respect to the story and motives not so clear to the end. and i could get by that reality, because it does reflect her identity as a masked fool.

maybe it's really just because i'm used to conventional narratives that i find it hard to believe she has no other role than to be a little silly. "no useless characters", and whatnot.

to be fair, it's not like i think she might have a secret motive because "she's secretly kind and just wants everyone to be happy". she's terrible and immoral and that is what makes her a good villain (to me, if to no one else); she doesn't show sympathy towards "death" (although, maybe she's always known the truth? wouldn't be out of the question), nor is she hesitant in mocking people for their grievances, even race.

that doesn't mean she doesn't have a philosophy, though, and it's that philosophy that begets actions. thus far, too, it's clear she does have reason and ambition—she is far from the "meaningless" masked fools are often described in. we know she's passionate about acting and amusement. she also talks about working "behind the scenes", even mentions that her reason for being there has to be aligned with aha's reasons for sending her. laughter and amusement is not nihilism. as for what she'd do to get that Laughter?

data bank and SU index say that the elation would do anything, often invoking chaos or massive change, to bring joy and laughter to the world. in which case, the actions she is doing must revolve around making a huge change. yet she has done so little���of what we can see, anyway; she pushes us into the real dreamscape, yes, and she's been suggesting things to aventurine. was this her simple role, to be the imperceptible catalyst to change and destruction? then why does she keep appearing, still, with these mutually assured destruction buttons, when we hardly see them used either? or are they used, but we just did not see them? is her role in this arc, too, going to be something purely behind-the-scenes, something we'd never come to witness?

and then, on the deeper note: is the amusement watching the dream collapse, or is it something more inherent than that, more "noble", per se—like, say, spreading true elation? this may sound quite ironic considering people seem to be happy in the dreamscape, yet sparkle's going about revealing unhappy truths hidden in the dreamscape. but perhaps, does she believe true joy can only be obtained beyond the confines of a dream—in life?

it's a reach, i admit. but something else has been mildly bothering me that has led me to entertain this idea: sparkle's powers emanate from the Harmony. first i only thought it mildly interesting because penacony is governed by the family, and it was a nice coincidence. but in the 2.2 mission we got a new path for our trailblazer, after confronting sunday's ideals and being glanced upon by none other than xipe themselves. the power of paths said to be based on recognition, so it would imply that xipe recognized sparkle's beliefs— that it resonated with harmony. which i initially thought ironic, because followers of the elation typically are characterized by chaos.

but whereas chaos is the antithesis of order, it is not so the antithesis of harmony per se; in fact, you could interpret harmony as peaceful coexistence of differences (whereas, like sunday's ideals, order seems to be concerned with everyone believing in one structure, following Laws, rather than freedom amongst difference.) i'd think sparkle, too, respects that people live varying different lives (a thousand faces, etc); that she wouldn't want humanity's free will to be taken away, because it is against true Elation as she defines it. again, all conjecture, little evidence, just food for thought.

tl;dr: it bothers me— what she's really been doing (if she's doing anything substantial for the plot), the why's, what she really believes in... why she knows so much, says less than she can, why she keeps appearing (especially in this patch) with seemingly little reason.

and also: in the cutscene with a bunch of them, sparkle was lying down on the ground. WHY

i also wonder what the answer is if you'd chosen the fact about sparkle when we're unveiling that the first "ending" was a dream. whether it would tell you that's the flaw. because i chose the misha one and it immediately said that's the flaw. so i can't tell if there's only one right option or all of them would be correct. i'll search it up eventually! i'm Too Curious!

can't believe now i have to wait six weeks for another update that mAY NOT ANSWER MY QUESTIONS i genuinely hate this game.

[riszellira]

Memorial of Our Lady of the Rosary

Reflection: The Samaritan’s Example

It is not uncommon to hear some people nowadays complain about erring civic and church leaders: “Where have all the few good men gone?” It would be good to remind ourselves that goodness is cultivated early on in one’s life.

Jesus’ Parable of the Good Samaritan in today’s Gospel reading challenges some aspects of our notion of goodness. Has it ever occurred to us that the act of the Samaritan was good not solely because he attended to the injured man but because this was something he had been doing all his life? Thus, what seemed to be one man’s random act of kindness—his attending to the injured man—was simply second nature to him. This benevolent gesture, however, was magnified when contrasted to the hesitation, if not the total indifference, of the priest and the Levite. By virtue of their race and religion, they are both naturally expected to rush to the aid of the injured man. Unfortunately, they did not.

Through this story, Jesus is trying to teach two things to the scholar of the Law. First, goodness is cultivated through the practice of good habits and noble character in our families. I don’t think the Samaritan started out his journey that day thinking about the good that he could possibly do for others. When the need arose, nevertheless, he was ready to respond in charity and mercy. He may have been immortalized for his charitable act, but to a selflessly good man, doing the right thing is a must.

Second, through the Samaritan’s example, we see that goodness is not only a habitual discipline that requires practice but also entails making sacrifices. Because the Samaritan took care of the injured man, he was inconvenienced and his journey interrupted. The Samaritan did not only bandage the wounds of the injured, but he also brought him to the nearest inn and provided for his immediate and subsequent needs. He went the extra mile to help the needy man.

Today, Jesus reminds us of the importance of cultivating goodness in our homes among our children early on in life.

~Fr. Rick Montañez, AA

How can you keep doing good until it becomes a reflex action?

Lord, help me to do good even if it means I have to go the extra mile. Amen.

Prayer

… for a deep and profound respect for life, especially for the unborn.

… for the strength and healing of the sick.

… for the healing and peace of all families.

Finally, we pray for one another, for those who have asked our prayers and for those who need our prayers the most.

GOD BLESS!

[khloeblair]

Reflection:

I’m feeling insecure about seeing the protagonists in Hirogaru Sky Precure take care of a baby.

Their actions are truly compassionate and noble, but the idea of the expectation to have a baby is something that scares me in the context of Seth and I as a couple.

It is absolutely something worth celebrating to create a child, but I also believe that not having a child is equally worth celebrating.

Being a parent must be a wonderful experience, and not being a parent is equally wonderful.

With the guarantee of eternal existence, I’m sure I want Seth and myself to be the only members of our nonphys “household.”

Partly because I do not feel comfortable guiding another creature in its existence. Mostly because I am entirely unwilling to share Seth’s affections in that way…or even mine.

This may be what’s right for Seth and I, but the idea of a traditional family is always a valid and beautiful choice as well.

I do not know how this variety of dynamic unfolds in a nonphys environment, but I suspect it would involve joining various realities as a group where either set roles are universal or everyone takes turns.

Maybe everyone even competes for their favorite roles, who knows?

But it could certainly become something of a game between friends and family.

Joining realities as a group is probably a lot of fun and probably challenging in different ways than joining solo, which is also its own ridiculously cool way to do things.

[crdenhart]

Religious Reflections - Luke 18:9-14

06/09/2023

Today’s designated Gospel reading from The Book of Common Prayer is Luke 18:9-14. The text is as follows in the NRSVue version of the Bible:

(9) He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and regarded others with contempt: (10) “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. (11) The Pharisee, standing by himself, was praying thus, ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people: thieves, rogues, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. (12) I fast twice a week; I give a tenth of all my income.’ (13) But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven but was beating his breast and saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ (14) I tell you, this man went down to his home justified rather than the other, for all who exalt themselves will be humbled, but all who humble themselves will be exalted.”

ANALYSIS:

An important message from this passage is to be humble. The Pharisee boasts about how “amazing” he is and how he is “better” than “bad” people while the tax collector comes before God acknowledging his faults and unworthiness. Even though it is good to live a noble and righteous life, one should not relish in comparing himself or herself to those who are seen as the “scum” of society or brag about his or her holiness being above others. One should humble himself or herself and realize that there are always aspects of his or her life that are lacking and can improve. It is through strength and establishment in the true wisdom of God that one can set a good foundation for his or her life and evolve to become a better person and help others to achieve betterment as well.

CALL TO ACTION:

My call to action from this passage is to be humble. Whenever you achieve greatness it is all right to share and celebrate your accomplishments, but do not boast too much or use your achievements to put others down because it will make them feel bad and make you look even worse. Realize that none of us are the “greatest” and that we all have faults to some degree, but it is okay to admit them and work to overcome these issues to become truly better individuals. We all may fall short sometime, but having a good group of friends, a supportive family, and a deep connection with the divine can help us to improve for the greater glory of God.

[paulamoon1]

Stop justifying siblings hatred as an excuse for Sansa’s mistakes.

Sansa was wrong. Plain and simply. Her actions had negative consequences and her wrong judgment have got her where she is.

Unlike Jon, Bran, Arya, Danaerys, Tyrion,Theon, and even little rickon if we were able to see his POV they were drag to where they were yet remain true to themselves to the one they valued and love. They face so much danger yet they also exposed themselves to so much for protecting others who they believed where at a disadvantage when they themselves weren’t fare much better.

Sansa is a selfish character, and she continues to be one even to the last chapter in TWOW but that doesn’t mean there isn’t growth in her. She is changing her perspective and that is interesting to see. However, Sansa has a degree of responsibility to where she is right now.

Take Arya as an example. Arya took Yoren’s aid when Ned died even though she didn’t know who he was, she didn’t know if he would murder her, raped her, or sale her out.she took her chances because she knew she needed to get out. She saw through what Yoren told her about her losing her girl looks so that she may remain safer while in the road. However, that doesn’t mean she was safe.

She was starve, she had to see people be torture, raped, she suffer so much sexual harassment, beating. She had to work until the skin on her finger peel. Yet she still carried Wiesel, she still protected Gendry and the others.

Sansa had the chance to pick between little finger and the Hound. There is a connection between Sansa and the hound. He was the only person to protect her while in KL and she still took Little finger why because at least she would have food and live in a castle. Sansa even reflects on this. She wonder where she would be if she had taken the hounds offer. Has she help anyone in the novels other than herself? No. Have she taken a destiny turn thinking of others and how her decision may affect others no. Sansa has a very define personality in the nobles. Her fans refused to see who she is and they loved justifying her behaviour as naiveness, fear, immaturity and so on. But being unloyal is one that surrounds all of Sansa’s POV and plot just like it does on Theon.

In the Sansa tag there is a hybrid Sansa made by her own fans.

A weird combination of

Arya, Danaerys, Margaery and even Cersei in there.

They give her intelligence like Tyrion, Jon and Bran.

Give her leader a qualities found in Jon and Danaerys.

Maternal and protective family qualities found in Arya, Catelyn and Danaerys.

They mix show Sansa but they booster her so much and they don’t see Sansa in the books at all.

They want Sansa to be like Lyanna and they refused to see that in plain English George has written that lyanna used to behaved like Arya. She had Arya’s mentality since young. Ned recognized his sister in his younger daughter. While Catelyn can see herself in Sansa.

They don’t even understand who Sansa is.

But Sansa is a very childish, selfish, disloyal character. Yet loyal to herself. I give her that. She always thinks about her benefits before others which is not a bad quality to have but does not make a very liked characters.

My focus is book Sansa. No show Sansa. Dany!sansa, Arya!sansa, lyanna!sansa, fans!sansa, queen!sansa, or j0nsa!sansa, fansansa and or all mix together as they do in most of the informative tags found on the Sansa tag.

Sansa could never understand how two sisters, born only two years apart, could be so different. It would have been easier if Arya had been a bastard, like their half brother Jon. She even looked like Jon, with the long face and brown hair of the Starks, and nothing of their lady mother in her face or her coloring. And Jon’s mother had been common, or so people whispered. Once, when she was littler, Sansa had even asked Mother if perhaps there hadn’t been some mistake. Perhaps the grumkins had stolen her real sister. But Mother had only laughed and said no, Arya was her daughter and Sansa’s trueborn sister, blood of their blood. Sansa could not think why Mother would want to lie about it, so she supposed it had to be true. - Sansa, AGOT  

Sansa loved Arya so much that she wished Arya was a bastard like Jon, awww 😍😍😍😍, Stark sisters foreva!! Truly, Sansa loves Arya so much. It’s just siblings being siblings to want one’s sister to suffer ostracization and be dehumanized as being less than simply on account of one’s birth. Such love! Truly. Can’t wait for them to meet and braid each other’s hair 😍.

[etherealhighpriestess]

Pick a Pile: Message from the Mermaids

Take a deep breath and choose one of the options below according to your intuition 💜✨💜✨💜

Pile 1 - Fertility

Potential, powerful creative energy, initiation energy.

We mermaids are creatures who bring to you now a powerful force: the power to create, begin, initiate and grow - some call it fertility and they consider it to be only to do with the act of conception - you are now a fertile being - a being who is ready and has all the energy, and richness and goodness needed to bring forth a great project. This is the moment of decision for you: will you use this great power, and seek out what it is you need to seed your own fertile waters?

We mermaids say that it may be time - that you have all that is needed, desired to richly provide life to creations, ideas, people, dreams... it is now time for you to decide how this will be worked with, used and explored.

You are a fertile, enriching being - and new life and growth is ready to spring from your mind, your emotions, your body and your soul.

Mermaids' tips:

- If you are having difficulties conceiving a baby you may need to balance your hormone levels, create a healing diet and series of exercises to support and nurture your own physical fertility and of course seek medical help.

- Do not let this fertile time come to nothing. Sew the seed of ideas, of dreams, and action them out into the world, into reality. The mermaids know you are the right one to bring this idea or being or project through.

Pile 2 - Freedom

Independence, self-determination.

Sometimes in life, we identify and define ourselves by the groups or organisations we belong to. Somewhere along the way, our unique energy can be muffled. With this card, we mermaids are asking you to consider who you are, when you are not a member of a family, or a relationship, or an organisation. It is time to be self-determined - rather than considering the needs of the group, which is noble and wonderful and ...oh, it is so good! We are asking you to be independent! To have, at last, your own source of money - just a small account will do, where you place money for your dreams.

To have a sense of who you are whether in or without a loving relationship! To know who you are - and what it is you love and like and wish for and dream of and desire for the world, apart from the desires of the family or group. Because the group mind, has, at this time, dominated, however gently, your own independence and self-determination. So take some time. Detach from the group. Watch. Observe. But go within, and feel. And begin to note what it is you wish for - and begin to contribute those dreams to the group. Too long have you kept silent about your needs and desires, placing others' before your own! When this card comes to you, we mermaids are saying it is your turn - but first you must get to know yourself, your true self, all over again.

Mermaids' tips:

- Ask yourself this very simple question...if you were alone, for a week, and there were no groups around to ask you to vote, or think, or look or be a certain way who would you be? It may be that you have changed your appearance, your beliefs and even your body to please or be more closely aligned with another.

- Don't change your appearance, interests, religion, and manners to fit into someone else's life or preferences.

Pile 3 - Farewell to the moon

Appreciate and enjoy the lunar light and cycles.

We love the Moon...for she is precious, and yet we are bidding her a long farewell, appreciating her energy. Humans are not so long-lived, and their priorities often reflect their lifespan, but we know the beautiful Moon is distancing herself little by little...and the power of the Sun grows stronger. So we connect as much as we can, when she is present. And if you too watch the sky and her crystal ball, you will feel the sea mother's tides and cycles dancing with the sacred moon's waxing and waning. That all in the Universe breathes as one. And that what is above, connects and affects what is below.

You humans too respond to the moon's tides, to the solar tides, to the galactic tides. The great ocean may respond more readily, but the firm earth also breathes in and out, as do the waters of this beautiful planet - all dancing with the Moon, and observed by this beautiful Being of the Sea.

Connect with her - for she moves you, always... come to know her, and you will know the mystery of life, without ever being able to speak it... it will live in your bones, blood and cells, in the water of your blood, and you will be free of the falsehoods of your human time, and come to know the times and cycles that are old, wise and powerful.

Mermaids' tips:

- Observe the moon. Be under her light. Withdraw with her darkening. Know what her phase was at the moment you first drew breath. It need not be complex. The simple connection will change you, so that your true essence can come forth and be known by the world.

- Trust more in your intuition and instincts instead of relying only on your logic.

- Ethereal High Priestess

[quasieli]

Can you believe!!! It's been three years!?! Happy anniversary to the Reforged Campaign!!! Today in 2019, some of our little blorbos met for the first time, gathering up some new friends along the way. We've been through so much together and I just wanna get gushy and talk about my lovely friends who have made this little fantasy game so enjoyable and have contributed to my D&D brain rot for all this time lol.

@army-of-bee-assassins Joyce, playing Whitlock: the axe-swinging, tubthumping, Fighter/Wizard of our dreams ✨️ There's a reason we've said that if you don't love Whitlock, you're wrong. While a badass in combat (I'll never forget the fireball that took out nearly a dozen ghuls at once 🤩🥰), outside of our intense fights, Whitlock is the epitome of kindness and caring. It only made sense that this care combined with his love of the arcane led him to the school of Abjuration, he is a protector through and through. One thing that continues to astound me about Whitlock is that even after almost drowning (multiple times) and losing his home and his whole old life to the seas, Whitlock still has fought for elementals who have been enslaved and mistreated, because that's who he is. He stands up for the little guy, even when the little guy may be much bigger than he is. He is selfless in his actions, some may call him reckless (like being the first to charge into an unknown encounter, even if his initiative score doesn't usually reflect that lol), but I wouldn't. I would call it faith, because he has faith in his skills and he has faith in his friends, to be there right behind him, as he is always behind them. Love our sailor boy, I am forever on Team Beans 💙

@lacklusterlexicon Alyx, playing Kempa/Eun Ha: the best shirtless dragonborn Barbarian bhimbo you could ask for⚡️Alyx first joined our group as a guest, playing the lovely tiefling druid Kaia and it was a pleasure to have hir at our side as we fought the terrors of the Shadowfell and the corruption it brought to the Prime Material. But as that mini arc drew to an end, we as players knew we had found something special with Alyx and knew we couldn't let them go so easily. It was then that we were introduced to Kempa (then Eun Ha) and it soon felt like she had been with us since day 1. Oh Kempa, my beloved Kempa. She had been through a lot before reaching our little group, things that made her angry and that rage fueled her fight. But the rage did not consume her, she instead used her pain to push forward, to try and find her lost friend, and found a new family in the course of that mission. Kempa can sometimes be the goofy jock barbarian stereotype, but she is so so so much more than that. She brings kindness and empathy into everything she does. When we learned a lackey that we captured and interrogated was just a person down on their luck looking to make a living, we could've just let them go and been done with it, but not Kempa. Kempa gave them money, not wanting to contribute more pain into an already harsh world. Sure she can shoot lightning out of her mouth and decapitate a bad guy with a single swing of her halberd, but the core of Kempa is compassion, listening to others to understand rather than just making harsh judgements. I'm glad to have her on our side 💙

@lichfucker Tess, playing Ingot the Feather-Light: the sharpshooting, noble-turned-hero tiefling Ranger/Rogue 🏹 Ingot Ingot Ingot, what's there to say about him (that I can say without crying lol)? From the outside, it may appear as though everything was given to Ingot on a silver platter, what with his noble upbringing and having received the highest standard of archery training. But to look at him through this lens would be to do the utmost disservice to his character. Ingot has worked for everything that he has. He was the one who chose to veer off the path his parents had set for him and for what reason? To stand up for a stranger, a prisoner of war who just so happened to be just like them, a tiefling. Since that day, Ingot started to become the person he was truly meant to be, his upbringing and any devil’s contracts be damned. The real Ingot is not a good little soldier boy who just takes orders from the war machine. No, Ingot is a fighter, using their bow and arrow when they damn well please. You do not want to be on the wrong end of Ingot's ire. But more than that, Ingot's learned to be a lover as well. Despite his cold upbringing, he has forged a new family of his own, one that loves him for him, not for what he can or can't do. Ingot is not a soldier, he is a friend, a damn good one at that, even when he may act like a bit of a bitch. It's okay, we still love him, and it has been an honor to be on Team Tief with him 💙

@keplercryptids JD, our dearest creative, dedicated, a little bit insane (affectionate), and all around amazing DM and friend 💚 Thank you for creating Z’ress and Mahety and Suri and Dagen and Lorne and Nabil and Najiba and Temza and Gell and Ohestra and Z'rael and Levsais and Cover and Ildan (🙄 /j) and Polodren (:fearhamster:) and just the whole entire world that is Sirona, and the planes beyond the material! This world you have created is expansive and feels so real that it makes it so easy to feel like we are our characters, walking through it and living out their adventures. Thank you for the weeks and months and years of hard work you have put into making out little fantasy game. Never did I think we'd have what we have now three years ago, that not only am I still involved with this super cool game, but I made long lasting friendships with some of the best people I've had the pleasure to meet (online at least, but hopefully soon we'll all be together!). You facilitated that, you brought us all together and have kept us together and that's not an easy feat for five adults lol. Thank you for the cool mechanical parts of this game that have been the most insanely fun encounters that really challenge us to think creatively, even when we may get stumped by a puzzle where the answer was we had to walk into an unlocked room to get a key 😅. Thank you for the world of NPCs with vibrant personalities and who are complex and complicated and messy and funny and interesting and loving. Thank you for their wisdom and their friendship. Thank you for your friendship, you've taught me a lot and I will value it forever. Thanks for just being awesome 💙

And last but not least, shoutout to JD's best friend, who played the gentle titan of destruction, Salvador, and @artemissoteira AKA Rowan, as Ithren (if that even is their real name lol) for joining us along the way as guests, who made our little world all the more special. I appreciate and love all of you. Here's to many more years in our funny little fantasy worlds 💙💙💙

[kingdoms-and-empires]

Patch Notes!

I've been hard at work making changes to the actual demo and most of it is coding to set a foundation so that I may stop breaking the saves of my readers lol (I swear I'm almost there!!!).

Patch Notes:

"Reputation" Some patch notes include having a new addition to the Reputation menu bar! Reputation will be used as a meter for how famous you are, which includes your legend. Currently, you won't be seeing much reaction to your Reputation level, but once we get going at the Academy Arc, the potential to win and lose Reputation will be aplenty, especially afterwards of the Academy Arc! Example, after reaching the positive ends of some scenarios, you will start to become more renowned, leading to characters and npcs to remark upon your failures, or your successes. The Reputation menu will also house "Standing"!

"Standing" will be separated into 4 groups and measure how pro-something you are. Are you pro-noble? Pro-commoner? Pro-military? Or pro-merchant? The more you gain in standing with a political group, the more benefits and options given to you! Of course, being too pro-military will cause the merchant class to suspect you as a warmonger who only sees the merchants as piggy banks. Being too pro-merchant will cause your military to think you too soft and money-grubbing. Depending on your playthrough, and your goals for that playthrough, you will have to decide which political parties to cast your ambitions with. Only a high Politician MC will be able to securely navigate all the political factions and create a working, if strenuous balance.

"Stat Changes" Sooooo...I may have said screw it and chose to rewrite my stat systems! Stats will now be similar to the attribute system used by Fallout or the old Elder Scrolls series. Particularly, there will no longer be percentage bars representing your stats. Instead, they will be represented by a scale of 0 to 20. Your Education stats will be similar, also having a scale from 0 to 20. Because of this, it is required to start the game over and replay it from the start to get your stats in order. I will be making minor changes to the story (where you would gain attribute increases, it will now be that and/or education) to reflect the change. Along with this change is the inclusion of "Traits"!

"Traits" Traits are now included! This means that Personality stats will no longer be reflected off of percentage bars! It is my intention that players now choose two personality traits from the original 4 (Imperious, Stoic, Friendly, and Careless) and roleplay as using whatever combination you want. Say you wish to be Friendly or Careless with your friends and family, but Stoic or Imperious when the situation calls for more gravitas. Thats for the personalities, but for actual Traits down the line, you will be locked from certain dialogue trees or actions if you lack a certain trait! The Trait system will also be used for when you gain new skills and abilities, and will be gained by certain scenarios, your stay in the academy, and when you interact with the Champions in their Spiritual Domains when they impart ancient knowledge to you!

"Chivalry and Dread" The last topic for my patch notes is Chivalry and Dread! They are the replacement for Heroic and Cold! Inspired by Total War Medieval 2 and Machiavelli's The Prince, I decided to implement something interesting. In Total War Medieval 2, you can have generals that are Chivalrous and respected who are loved by their people and enemies, or have high Dread and make them a force of terror that may make men from the other side flee at mention of their name. Machiavelli in his book The Prince asks the famous question of "Is it better to be feared or loved?" Of course, that's up for you to decide as certain actions will increase your Chivalry or Dread stat up! Depending on which Trait you have, certain scenes will play out for you, characters will remark upon it, and there will be pros and cons for both sides! Chivalry and Dread will now be Traits as well! Meaning the MC will only be able to choose one trait and roleplay with it. A Chivalric MC will be much more idealistic and prone to making decisions that may bite them in the ass, while also giving you the opportunity for making friends and long-lasting good karma coming back to reward you unexpectedly. This is for a more traditional isekai experience! Think of all the isekai animes and JRPGs with the super nice MC. Dreaded MCs will be choosing decisions that may make you look more like an anti-villain than hero! Think of Vlad Tepes and his forest of impaled corpses that made Mehmed II turn right back. Finally, certain moments in the story will allow your character to choose either Chivalric or Dreaded without having the choices locked. Choosing opposite of your trait will incur a Mental Cohesion Hit!!!

[nasirofmanderlys]

owenstark​:

.

“Of course. It is my desire to ensure we do what we can to keep those who follow the Faith of the Seven feel … close their gods in the North. I am uncertain of how that works.” Owen spoke curiously. He didn’t understand the new Gods, his wife came from the Vale and his sister Lyanna came to them from the Riverlands after years and it made him wonder if she also followed these new Gods. 

Owen never sat down to have these hard conversations because he never knew where to start but he needed to know these things. 

“For…I wish to understand. My wife’s way. Your future daughter will marry my son, a grandsire should know the ways of his grandchildren. My wife has taken to the Old Gods though I worry she is in need of her own just as much as I would be were I in the Vale. I trust your choices. Let us hope this current situation will reach a peaceful end. If it is possible when men fight over crowns be they wrought in iron, gold, or glass.” 

A beat. 

“Do you worry this corruption will hurt things in White Harbour? We are a world away in the North, it’s easy to drown out the sounds beyond the Neck when there is so much happening around us here. I say this to same should you need anything that I can provide to you as your King and your friend then I will do what I can.” 

nmm.

The King of Winter had a valid question to ask regarding the mechanical ivy that spread within the Starry Sept, that tainted strand that would only become a perfect reflection within White Harbor's Sept of Snows, that great domed Sept within the centre of the city. All knew of the nature of the game of thrones within the South, where words were laced with what may as well be the tears of lys and faces looked one way but truly meant another; it was different for them in the North, where their reliance on the bluntness of truth was believed to be what made men, men. 

“The people of White Harbor and the surrounding settlements do feel at ease to practice their faith.” His words were resolute, as though to assure the King that on the front, they were handled. “The majority of such isolation does not come from the actions of Lords, but would come from the actions of those we will never know.” Smallfolk interacting, merchants. “They are safe whilst you and your kin rule the North.” 

These discussions did not entirely sit comfortably upon the shoulders of the ruling Lord of White Harbor, perhaps because he understood the heavy weight of those who looked to him for protection. It were more than ensuring they remained fed, it was about genuine protection: a minority, in a land where the nobles had no qualm with them. But what of the smallfolk? What of the thinking that never truly reached them in their positions in society? 

“The corruption of the Starry does not harm White Harbor nor the Sept of Snows; Septon Fadel has maintained a close relationship with my family. As is the way.” There was another beat. “What will harm the people of White Harbor are other Northerners. Once this has been dealt with, it is about time we drew up laws. Make it a crime, with consequences. Allow justice to teach.”

And yet, the North seemed to underestimate the power that came in cunning, in playing the game of thrones in the way the South did; the bastard within the Dreadfort was only an example of such a thing. Lies did a great deal within the North, all without them truly noticing nor understanding. The North seemed to underestimate the power that came with progress, that came with unleashing practices and beliefs that were only present because the heavy weight of history rather than of it being of any true use. And yet, look at where it had gotten them. 

He paused, wordlessly leaning over to take a goblet of wine as the two men sat in silence for a moment, listening to the crackling of the hearth. He were thankful that his King was understanding; understanding even of what he did not truly nor fully understand. It were better than nothing: showed the man beneath the crown. “Will you slow down your ideas?” Nasir asked, his tone quiet. The two had always agreed that modernisation was not soft: it was hard, like a slap in the face. The others, including Brandon Karstark, did not believe that as much. 

[windvexer]

Greetings!☆＊*

I would like to do a spell in order to help me win scholarships and find a nice part time job that grant me enough money to get away from my family. Need propels magic, but I can't yet bring myself to do something that might come to bite me in the ass later / may be unfair to others who are trying for the same thing.

What do you think about it? Of the moral side of it and the practical one...

Ahh, lovely!

This is one of the first ethical dilemmas I encountered when I very first got into witchcraft. The argument goes as such:

"As a witch, you cultivate abilities that others do not cultivate. These abilities give you a competitive advantage. This competitive advantage makes it more likely for you to succeed. Succeeding may be bad because it wasn't fated/you're stealing your success. Therefore, it is immoral to do magic unless it is an extreme or emergency circumstance."

Which is just the silliest.

The absolute silliest goose of an argument.

Once I was trapped in a very bad headspace. I told my therapist, "I know what the other person was feeling, I know what happened to them."

My therapist said, "no, you don't know."

At the time it was a slap in the face. Of course I knew; I was there, I saw it all happen. But after reflection I realized she was right.

I didn't know what other people were going through, I didn't know their backstories, I didn't know how they felt or what happened afterwords.

Instead, I assumed I knew, and used my assumptions of the disadvantages and pain of others as an anchor around my neck to prevent me from ever rising up and helping myself out of my own situation.

Do you know what unfair advantages the other candidates already have? Do you know the unfair biases the hiring managers already have? Do you know what wonderful goodness may come out of you getting the opportunities you need? Do you know what horrible badness may come out of the wrong person getting the wrong opportunity?

No, you don't. Deciding that it is unfair for you to help yourself because you have imagined what it might be like for hypothetical people to not get certain opportunities isn't a noble, ethical stance.

I think it is wise and considerate of you to take a step back and say, "how do my actions affect others?"

I do not think it is wise to say, "if I do what is right for myself, I am doing what is wrong for others." That doesn't track. Life is not a zero sum game.

As for the practical application side of things:

There are many ways to limit unintended consequences. A great way is to start with divination and understand the effects of your spell before you even cast it.

Another way is to really think through your spell, understand what you're asking for, and to use a limited number of powers/ingredients to formulate it. Too many spices in your first batches of soup may make very wrong flavors; best to get experience with each one first.

Also remember the old adage: magic follows the path of least resistance. Many magical "horror stories" come from people who raised up lots of energy with no possibility of manifestation, so it backfired; or, people who really didn't understand what they were asking for, and then got it. Think things through (which I see you already have a tendency to do!), go forward mindfully, and act with confidence.

And learning a counter-spell early on doesn't hurt ^-^

[potteresque-ire]

Can you talk more about the usage of the word "wife" to talk about men in the BL context? I've noticed it in BJYX (particularly with GG), in the (English translations) of MDZS, and then it came up in your recent posts about Danmei-101 (which were super helpful btw) with articles connecting the "little fresh meat" type to fans calling an actor "wife." My initial reaction as a westerner is like "this is very problematic," but I think I'm missing a lot of language/cultural context. Any thoughts?

Hello! First of all, for those who’re interested, here’s a link to the referred posts. Under the cut is arguably the 4th post of the series. As usual, I apologise for the length!

(Topics: seme and uke; more about “leftover women”; roster of feminisation terms; Daji, Bao Si & the origin of BJYX; roster of beautiful, ancient Chinese men; Chairman Mao (not part of the roster) ...)

[TW: feminisation of men]

In the traditional BL characterisation, the M/M (double male) lead pairing is essentially a cis-het relationship in disguise, in which one of the M leads is viewed as the “wife” by the creator and audience. This lead often possesses some of the features of the traditional, stereotypical female, but retaining his male appearance. 

In BL terms, the “wife” is the “uke”. “Seme” and “uke” are the respective roles taken by the two male leads, and designated by the creator of the material. Literally, “seme” (攻め) means the dominant, the attacking / aggressive partner in the relationship and “uke” (受け), the passive / recipient (of actions) partner who tends to follow the seme’s lead. The terms themselves do not have any sexual / gender context.  However, as male and female are viewed as aggressive and passive by their traditional social roles, and the attacker and recipient by their traditional sexual roles respectively, BL fandoms have long assigned uke, the passive, sexual “bottom”, as the “woman”, the “wife”. 

Danmei has kept this “semi” and uke” tradition from BL, taking the kanji of the Japanese terms for designation ~ 攻 (”attack” is therefore the “husband”, and 受 (”receive”), the “wife”. The designations are often specified in the introduction / summary of Danmei works as warning / enticement. For MDZS, for example, MXTX wrote:

高貴冷豔悶騷 攻 × 邪魅狂狷風騷 受

高貴冷豔悶騷 攻 = noble, coolly beautiful and boring seme (referring to LWJ)  邪魅狂狷風騷 受 = devilishly charming, wild, and flirty uke (referring to WWX) 

The traditional, stereotypical female traits given to the “uke”, the “wife” in Danmei and their associated fanworks range from their personality to behaviour to even biological functions. Those who have read the sex scenes in MDZS may be aware of their lack of mention of lube, while WWX was written as getting (very) wet from fluids from his colon (腸道) ~ implying that his colon, much like a vagina, was supplying the necessarily lubrication for sex. This is obviously biologically inaccurate; however, Danmei is exempt from having to be realistic by its original Tanbi definition. The genre’s primary audience is cishet females, and sex scenes such as this one aren’t aiming for realism. Rather, the primary goal of these sex scenes is to generate fantasy, and the purpose of the biologically female functions in one of the leads (WWX) is to ease the readers into imagining themselves as the one engaging in the sex.

Indeed, these practices of assigning as males and female the M/M sexual top and bottom, of emphasising of who is the top and who is the bottom, have been falling out of favour in Western slash fandoms ~ I joined fandom about 15 years ago, and top and bottom designations in slash pairings (and fights about them) were much more common than it is now.  The generally more open, more progressive environments in which Western fandomers are immersed in probably have something to do with it: they transfer their RL knowledge, their views on biology, on different social into their fandom works and discourses. 

I’d venture to say this: in the English-speaking fandoms, fandom values and mainstream values are converging. “Cancel culture” reflects an attempt to enforce RL values in the fictional worlds in fandom. Fandom culture is slowly, but surely, leaving its subculture status and becoming part of mainstream culture. 

I’d hesitate to call c-Danmei fandoms backward compared to Western slash for this reason. There’s little hope for Danmei to converge with China’s mainstream culture in the short term ~ the necessity of replacing Danmei with Dangai in visual media already reflects that. Danmei is and will likely remain subculture in the foreseeable future, and subcultures, at heart, are protests against the mainstream. Unless China and the West define “mainstream” very similarly (and they don’t), it is difficult to compare the “progressiveness”—and its dark side, the “problematic-ness”—of the protests, which are shaped by what they’re protesting against. The “shaper” in this scenario, the mainstream values and culture, are also far more forceful under China’s authoritarian government than they are in the free(-er) world. 

Danmei, therefore, necessarily takes on a different form in China than BL or slash outside China. As a creative pursuit, it serves to fulfil psychological needs that are reflective of its surrounding culture and sociopolitical environment. The genre’s “problematic” / out of place aspects in the eyes of Western fandoms are therefore, like all other aspects of the genre, tailor-made by its millions of fans to be comforting / cathartic for the unique culture and sociopolitical background it and they find themselves in. 

I briefly detoured to talk about the Chinese government’s campaign to pressure young, educated Chinese women into matrimony and motherhood in the post for this reason, as it is an example of how, despite Western fandoms’ progressiveness, they may be inadequate, distant for c-Danmei fans. Again, this article is a short and a ... morbidly-entertaining read on what has been said about China’s “leftover women” (剩女) — women who are unmarried and over 27-years-old). I talked about it, because “Women should enter marriage and parenthood in their late 20s” may no longer a mainstream value in many Western societies, but where it still is, it exerts a strong influence on how women view romance, and by extension, how they interact with romantic fiction, including Danmei.

In China, this influence is made even stronger by the fact that Chinese tradition  places a strong emphasis on education and holds a conservative attitude towards romance and sex. Dating while studying therefore remains discouraged in many Chinese families. University-educated Chinese women therefore have an extremely short time frame — between graduation (~23 years old) and their 27th birthday — to find “the right one” and get married, before they are labelled as “leftovers” and deemed undesirable. (Saving) face being an important aspect in Chinese culture introduces yet another layer of pressure: traditionally, women who don’t get married by the age agreed by social norms have been viewed as failures of upbringing, in that the unmarried women’s parents not having taught/trained their daughters well. Filial, unmarried women therefore try to get married “on time” just to avoid bringing shame to their family.

The outcome is this: despite the strong women characters we may see in Chinese visual media, many young Chinese women nowadays do not expect themselves to be able to marry for love. Below, I offer a “book jacket summary” of a popular internet novel in China, which shows how the associated despair also affects cis-het fictional romance. Book reviews praise this novel for being “boring”: the man and woman leads are both common working class people, the “you-and-I”’s; the mundaneness of them trying build their careers and their love life is lit by one shining light: he loves her and she loves him. 

Written in her POV, this summary reflects, perhaps, the disquiet felt by many contemporary Chinese women university graduates:

曾經以為，自己這輩子都等不到了—— 世界這麼大，我又走得這麼慢，要是遇不到良人要怎麼辦？早過了「全球三十幾億男人，中國七億男人，天涯何處無芳草」的猖狂歲月，越來越清楚，循規蹈矩的生活中，我們能熟悉進而深交的異性實在太有限了，有限到我都做好了「接受他人的牽線，找個適合的男人慢慢煨熟，再平淡無奇地進入婚姻」的準備，卻在生命意外的拐彎處迎來自己的另一半。

I once thought, my wait will never come to fruition for the rest of my life — the world is so big, I’m so slow in treading it, what if I’ll never meet the one? I’ve long passed the wild days of thinking “3 billion men exist on Earth, 0.7 of which are Chinese. There is plenty more fish in the sea.” I’m seeing, with increasing clarity, that in our disciplined lives, the number of opposite-sex we can get to know, and get to know well, is so limited. It’s so limited that I’m prepared to accept someone’s matchmaking, find a suitable man and slowly, slowly, warm up to him, and then, to enter marriage with without excitement, without wonder. But then, an accidental turn in my life welcomes in my other half.

— Oath of Love (餘生，請多指教) (Yes, this is the novel Gg’d upcoming drama is based on.) 

Heteronormativity is, of course, very real in China. However, that hasn’t exempted Chinese women, even its large cis-het population, from having their freedom to pursue their true love taken away from them. Even for cis-het relationships, being able to marry for love has become a fantasy —a fantasy scorned by the state. Remember this quote from Article O3 in the original post? 

耽改故事大多远离现实，有些年轻受众却将其与生活混为一谈，产生不以结婚和繁衍为目的才是真爱之类的偏颇认知。

Most Dangai stories are far removed from reality; some young audience nonetheless mix them up with real life, develop biased understanding such as “only love that doesn’t treat matrimony and reproduction as destinations is true love”. 

I didn’t focus on it in the previous posts, in an effort to keep the discussion on topic. But why did the op-ed piece pick this as an example of fantasy-that-shouldn’t-be-mixed-up-with-real-life, in the middle of a discussion about perceived femininity of men that actually has little to do with matrimony and reproduction? 

Because the whole point behind the state’s “leftover women” campaign is precisely to get women to treat matrimony and reproduction as destinations, not beautiful sceneries that happen along the way. And they’re the state’s destination as more children = higher birth rate that leads to higher future productivity. The article is therefore calling out Danmei for challenging this “mainstream value”.

Therefore, while the statement True love doesn’t treat matrimony and reproduction as destinations may be trite for many of us while it may be a point few, if any, English-speaking fandoms may pay attention to, to the mainstream culture Danmei lives in, to the mainstream values dictated by the state, it is borderline subversive.

As much as Danmei may appear “tame” for its emphasis on beauty and romance, for it to have stood for so long, so firmly against China’s (very) forceful mainstream culture, the genre is also fundamentally rebellious.  Remember: Danmei has little hope of converging with China’s mainstream unless it “sells its soul” and removes its homoerotic elements. 

With rebelliousness, too, comes a bit of tongue-in-cheek.

And so, when c-Danmei fans, most of whom being cishet women who interact with the genre by its traditional BL definition, call one of the leads 老婆 (wife), it can and often take on a different flavour. As said before, it can be less about feminizing the lead than about identifying with the lead. The nickname 老婆 (wife) can be less about being disrespectful and more about humorously expressing an aspiration—the aspiration to have a husband who truly loves them, who they do want to get married and have babies with but out of freedom and not obligation.

Admittedly, I had been confused, and bothered by these “can-be”s myself. Just because there are alternate reasons for the feminisation to happen doesn’t mean the feminisation itself is excusable. But why the feminisation of M/M leads doesn’t sound as awful to me in Chinese as in English? How can calling a self-identified man 老婆 (wife) get away with not sounding being predominantly disrespectful to my ears, when I would’ve frowned at the same thing said in my vicinity in English?

I had an old hypothesis: when I was little, it was common to hear people calling acquaintances in Chinese by their unflattering traits:  “Deaf-Eared Chan” (Mr Chan, who’s deaf), “Fat Old Woman Lan” (Ah-Lan, who’s an overweight woman) etc—and the acquaintances were perfectly at ease with such identifications, even introducing themselves to strangers that way. Comparatively speaking then, 老婆 (wife) is harmless, even endearing. 

老婆, which literally means “old old-lady” (implying wife = the woman one gets old with), first became popularised as a colloquial, casual way of calling “wife” in Hong Kong and its Cantonese dialect, despite the term itself being about 1,500 years old. As older generations of Chinese were usually very shy about talking about their love lives, those who couldn’t help themselves and regularly spoke of their 老婆 tended to be those who loved their wives in my memory. 老婆, as a term, probably became endearing to me that way. 

Maybe this is why the feminisation of M/M leads didn’t sound so bad to me?

This hypothesis was inadequate, however. This custom of identifying people by their (unflattering) traits has been diminishing in Hong Kong and China, for similar reasons it has been considered inappropriate in the West.

Also, 老婆 (wife) is not the only term used for / associated with feminisation. I’ve tried to limit the discussion to Danmei, the fictional genre; now, I’ll jump to its associated RPS genre, and specifically, the YiZhan fandoms. The purpose of this jump: with real people involved, feminisation’s effect is potentially more harmful, more acute. Easier to feel. 

YiZhan fans predominantly entered the fandoms through The Untamed, and they’ve also transferred Danmei’s  “seme”/“uke” customs into YiZhan. There are, therefore, three c-YiZhan fandoms:

博君一肖 (BJYX): seme Dd, uke Gg 戰山為王 (ZSWW): seme Gg, uke Dd 連瑣反應 (LSFY): riba Gg and Dd. Riba = “reversible”, and unlike “seme” and “uke”, is a frequently-used term in the Japanese gay community. 

BJYX is by far the largest of the three, likely due to Gg having played WWX, the “uke” in MDZS / TU. I’ll therefore focus on this fandom, ie. Gg is the “uke”, the “wife”.

For Gg alone, I’ve seen him being also referred to by YiZhan fans as (and this is far from a complete list):

* 姐姐 (sister) * 嫂子 (wife of elder brother; Dd being the elder brother implied) * 妃妃 (based on the very first YiZhan CP name, 太妃糖 Toffee Candy, a portmanteau of sorts from Dd being the 太子 “prince” of his management company and Gg being the prince’s wife, 太子妃. 糖 = “candy”. 太妃 sounds like toffee in English and has been used as the latter’s Chinese translation.) * 美人 (beauty, as in 肖美人 “Beauty Xiao”) * Daji 妲己 (as in 肖妲己, “Daji Xiao”). 

The last one needs historical context, which will also become important for explaining the new hypothesis I have.

Daji was a consort who lived three thousand years ago, whose beauty was blamed for the fall of the Shang dynasty. Gg (and men sharing similar traits, who are exceptionally rare) has been compared to Daji 妲己 for his alternatively innocent, alternatively seductive beauty ~ the kind of beauty that, in Chinese historical texts and folk lores, lead to the fall of kingdoms when possessed by the king’s beloved woman. This kind of “I-get-to-ruin-her-virginity”, “she’s a slut in MY bedroom” beauty is, of course, a stereotypical fantasy for many (cis-het) men, which included the authors of these historical texts and folklores. However, it also contained some truth: the purity / innocence, the image of a virgin, was required for an ancient woman to be chosen as a consort; the seduction, meanwhile, helped her to become the top consort, and monopolise the attention of kings and emperors who often had hundreds of wives ~ wives who often put each other in danger to eliminate competition. 

Nowadays, women of tremendous beauty are still referred to by the Chinese idiom 傾國傾城, literally, ”falling countries, falling cities”. The beauty is also implied to be natural, expressed in a can’t-help-itself way, perhaps reflecting the fact that the ancient beauties on which this idiom has been used couldn’t possibly have plastic surgeries, and most of them didn’t meet a good end ~ that they had to pay a price for their beauty, and often, with their lowly status as women, as consorts, they didn’t get to choose whether they wanted to pay this price or not. This adjective is considered to be very flattering. Gg’s famous smile from the Thailand Fanmeet has been described, praised as 傾城一笑: “a smile that topples a city”.

I’m explaining Daji and 傾國傾城 because the Chinese idiom 博君一笑 “doing anything to get a smile from you”, from which the ship’s name BJYX 博君一肖  was derived (笑 and 肖 are both pronounced “xiao”), is connected to yet another of such dynasty-falling beauty, Bao Si 褒姒. Like Daji before her, Bao Si was blamed for the end of the Zhou Dynasty in 771 BC. 

The legend went like this: Bao Si was melancholic, and to get her to smile, her king lit warning beacons and got his nobles to rush in from the nearby vassal states with their armies to come and rescue him, despite not being in actual danger. The nobles, in their haste, looked so frantic and dishevelled that Bao Si found it funny and smiled. Longing to see more of the smile of his favourite woman, the king would fool his nobles again and again, until his nobles no longer heeded the warning beacons when an actual rebellion came. 

What the king did has been described as 博紅顏一笑, with 紅顏 (”red/flushed face”) meaning a beautiful woman, referring to Bao Si. Replace 紅顏 with the respectful “you”, 君, we get 博君一笑. If one searches the origin of the phrase 博 [fill_in_the_blank]一笑 online, Bao Si’s story shows up.

The “anything” in ”doing anything to get a smile from you” in 博君一笑, therefore, is not any favour, but something as momentous as giving away one’s own kingdom. c-turtles have remarked, to their amusement and admittedly mine, that “king”, in Chinese, is written as 王, which is Dd’s surname, and very occasionally, they jokingly compare him to the hopeless kings who’d give away everything for their love. Much like 傾國傾城 has become a flattering idiom despite the negative reputations of Daji and Bao Si for their “men-ruining ways”, 博君一笑 has become a flattering phrase, emphasising on the devotion and love rather than the ... stupidity behind the smile-inducing acts. 

(Bao Si’s story, BTW, was a lie made up by historians who also lived later but also thousands of years ago, to absolve the uselessness of the king. Warning beacons didn’t exist at her time.)  

Gg is arguably feminized even in his CP’s name. Gg’s feminisation is everywhere. 

And here comes my confession time ~ I’ve been amused by most of the feminisation terms above. 肖妲己 (”Daji Xiao”) captures my imagination, and I remain quite partial to the CP name BJYX. Somehow, there’s something ... somewhat forgivable when the feminisation is based on Gg’s beauty, especially in the context of the historical Danmei / Dangai setting of MDZS/TU ~ something that, while doesn’t cancel, dampens the “problematic-ness” of the gender mis-identification.

What, exactly, is this something?

Here’s my new hypothesis, and hopefully I’ll manage to explain it well ~

The hypothesis is this: the unisex beauty standard for historical Chinese men and women, which is also breathtakingly similar to the modern beauty standard for Chinese women, makes feminisation in the context of Danmei (especially historical Danmei) flattering, and easier to accept.

What defined beauty in historical Chinese men? If I am to create a classically beautiful Chinese man for my new historical Danmei, how would I describe him based on what I’ve read, my cultural knowledge?

Here’s a list:

* Skin fair and smooth as white jade * Thin, even frail; narrow/slanted shoulders; tall * Dark irises and bright, starry eyes * Not too dense, neat eyebrows that are shaped like swords ~ pointed slightly upwards from the center towards the sides of the face * Depending on the dynasty, nice makeup.

Imagine these traits. How “macho” are they? How much do they fit the ideal Chinese masculine beauty advertised by Chinese government, which looks like below?

Propaganda poster, 1969. The caption says “Defeat Imperialist US! Defeat Social Imperialism!” The book’s name is “Quotations from Mao Zedong”. (Source)

Where did that list of traits I’ve written com from? Fair like jade, frail ... why are they so far from the ... “macho”ness of the men in the poster? 

What has Chinese history said about its beautiful men? 

Wei Jie (衛玠 286-312 BCE), one of the four most beautiful ancient Chinese men (古代四大美男) recorded in Chinese history famously passed away when fans of his beauty gathered and formed a wall around him, blocking his way. History recorded Wei as being frail with chronic illness, and was only 27 years old when he died. Arguably the first historical account of “crazy fans killing their idol”, this incident left the idiom 看殺衛玠 ~ “Wei Jie being watched to death.” ~ a not very “macho” way to die at all.

潘安 (Pan An; 247-300 BCE), another one of the four most beautiful ancient Chinese men, also had hoards of fangirls, who threw fruits and flowers at him whenever he ventured outside. The Chinese idiom 擲果盈車 “thrown fruit filling a cart” was based on Pan and ... his fandom, and denotes such scenarios of men being so beautiful that women openly displayed their affections for them. 

Meanwhile, when Pan went out with his equally beautiful male friend, 夏侯湛 Xiahou Zhan, folks around them called them 連璧 ~ two connected pieces of perfect jade. Chinese Jade is white, smooth, faintly glowing in light, so delicate that it gives the impression of being somewhat transparent.

Aren’t Wei Jie and Pan An reminiscent of modern day Chinese idols, the “effeminate” “Little Fresh Meat”s (小鲜肉) so panned by Article O3? Their stories, BTW, also elucidated the historical reference in LWJ’s description of being jade-like in MDZS, and in WWX and LWJ being thrown pippas along the Gusu river bank. 

Danmei, therefore, didn’t create a trend of androgynous beauty in men as much as it has borrowed the ancient, traditional definition of masculine Chinese beauty ~ the beauty that was more feminine than masculine by modern standards.  

[Perhaps, CPs should be renamed 連璧 (”two connected pieces of perfect jade”) as a reminder of the aesthetics’ historical roots.]

Someone may exclaim now: But. But!! Yet another one of the four most beautiful ancient Chinese men, 高長恭 (Gao Changgong, 541-573 BCE), far better known by his title, 蘭陵王 (”the Prince of Lanling”), was a famous general. He had to be “macho”, right?

... As it turns out, not at all. Historical texts have described Gao as “貌柔心壮，音容兼美” (”soft in looks and strong at heart, beautiful face and voice”), “白美類婦人” (”fair and beautiful as a woman”), “貌若婦人” (”face like a woman”). Legends have it that The Prince of Lanling’s beauty was so soft, so lacking in authority that he had to wear a savage mask to get his soldiers to listen to his command (and win) on the battlefield (《樂府雜錄》: 以其顏貌無威，每入陣即著面具，後乃百戰百勝).

This should be emphasised: Gao’s explicitly feminine descriptions were recorded in historical texts as arguments *for* his beauty. Authors of these texts, therefore, didn’t view the feminisation as insult. In fact, they used the feminisation to drive the point home, to convince their readers that men like the Prince of Lanling were truly, absolutely good looking.

Being beautiful like a women was therefore high praise for men in, at least, significant periods in Chinese history ~ periods long and important enough for these records to survive until today. Beauty, and so it goes, had once been largely free of distinctions between the masculine and feminine.

One more example of an image of an ancient Chinese male beauty being similar to its female counterpart, because the history nerd in me finds this fun. 

何晏 (He Yan, ?-249 BCE) lived in the Wei Jin era (between 2nd to 4th century), during which makeup was really en vogue. Known for his beauty, he was also famous for his love of grooming himself. The emperor, convinced that He Yan’s very fair skin was from the powder he was wearing, gave He Yan some very hot foods to eat in the middle of the summer. He Yan began to sweat, had to wipe himself with his sleeves and in the process, revealed to the emperor that his fair beauty was 100% natural ~ his skin glowed even more with the cosmetics removed (《世說新語·容止第十四》: 何平叔美姿儀，面至白。魏明帝疑其傅粉，正夏月，與熱湯餅。既啖，大汗出，以朱衣自拭，色轉皎然). His kick-cosmetics’-ass fairness won him the nickname 傅粉何郎 (”powder-wearing Mr He”).

Not only would He Yan very likely be mistaken as a woman if this scene is transferred to a modern setting, but this scene can very well fit inside a Danmei story of the 21st century and is very, very likely to get axed by the Chinese censorship board for its visualisation. 

[Important observation from this anecdote: the emperor was totally into this trend too.]

The adjectives and phrases used above to describe these beautiful ancient Chinese men ~ 貌柔, 音容兼美, 白美, 美姿儀, 皎然 ~ have all become pretty much reserved for describing beauty in women nowadays. Beauty standards in ancient China were, as mentioned before, had gone through significantly long periods in which they were largely genderless. The character for beauty 美 (also in Danmei, 耽美) used to have little to no gender association. Free of gender associations as well were the names of many flowers. The characters for orchid (蘭) and lotus (蓮), for example, were commonly found in men’s names as late as the Republican era (early 20th century), but are now almost exclusively found in women’s names. Both orchid and lotus have historically been used to indicate 君子 (junzi, roughly, “gentlemen”), which have always been men. MDZS also has an example of a man named after a flower: Jin Ling’s courtesy name, given to him by WWX,  was 如蘭 (”like an orchid”). 

A related question may be this: why does ancient China associate beauty with fairness, with softness, with frailty? Likely, because Confucianist philosophy and customs put a heavy emphasis on scholarship ~ and scholars have mostly consisted of soft-spoken, not muscular, not working-under-the-sun type of men. More importantly, Confucianist scholars also occupied powerful government positions. Being, and looking like a Confucianist scholar was therefore associated with status. Indeed, it’s very difficult to look like jade when one was a farmer or a soldier, for example, who constantly had to toil under the sun, whose skin was constantly being dried and roughened by the elements. Having what are viewed as “macho” beauty traits as in the poster above ~ tanned skin, bulging muscles, bony structures (which also take away the jade’s smoothness) ~ were associated with hard labour, poverty and famine.

Along that line, 手無縛雞之��� (“hands without the strength to restrain a chicken”) has long been a phrase used to describe ancient scholars and students, and without scorn or derision. Love stories of old, which often centred around scholars were, accordingly, largely devoid of the plot lines of husbands physically protecting the wives, performing the equivalent of climbing up castle walls and fighting dragons etc. Instead, the faithful husbands wrote poems, combed their wife’s hair, traced their wife’s eyebrows with cosmetics (畫眉)...all activities that didn’t require much physical strength, and many of which are considered “feminine” nowadays.

Were there periods in Chinese history in which more ... sporty men and women were appreciated? Yes. the Tang dynasty, for example, and the Yuan and Qing dynasties. The Tang dynasty, as a very powerful, very open era in Chinese history, was known for its relations to the West (via the Silk Road). The Yuan and Qing dynasties, meanwhile, were established by Mongolians and Manchus respectively, who, as non-Han people, had not been under the influence of Confucian culture and grew up on horsebacks, rather than in schools.

The idea that beautiful Chinese men should have “macho” attributes was, therefore, largely a consequence of non-Han-Chinese influence, especially after early 20th century. That was when the characters for beauty (美), orchid (蘭), lotus (蓮) etc began their ... feminisation. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP), which started its reign of the country starting 1949, also has foreign roots, being a derivative of the Soviets, and its portrayal of ideal men has been based on the party’s ideology, painting them as members of the People’s Liberation Army (Chinese army) and its two major proletariat classes, farmers and industrial workers ~ all occupations that are “macho” in their aesthetics, but held at very poor esteem in ancient Chinese societies. All occupations that, to this day, may be hailed as noble by Chinese women, but not really deemed attractive by them.

Beauty, being an instinct, is perhaps much more resistant to propaganda.

If anything, the three terms Article O3 used to describe “effeminate” men ~ 奶油小生 “cream young men” (popularised in 1980s) , 花美男 “flowery beautiful men” (early 2000s), 小鲜肉 “little fresh meat” (coined in 2014 and still popular now) ~ only informs me how incredibly consistent the modern Chinese women’s view of ideal male beauty has been. It’s the same beauty the Chinese Communist Party has called feminine. It’s the same beauty found in Danmei. It’s the same beauty that, when witnessed in men in ancient China, was so revered that historians recorded it for their descendants to remember. It doesn’t mean there aren’t any women who appreciate the "macho” type ~ it’s just that, the appreciation for the non-macho type has never really gone out of fashion, never really changed. The only thing that is really changing is the name of the type, the name’s positive or negative connotations.

(Personally, I’m far more uncomfortable with the name “Little fresh meat” (小鲜肉) than 老婆 (wife). I find it much more insulting.)

Anyway, what I’d like to say is this: feminisation in Danmei ~ a genre that, by definition, is hyper-focused on aesthetics ~ may not be as "problematic” in Chinese as it is in English, because the Chinese tradition didn’t make that much of a differentiation between masculine and feminine beauty. Once again, this isn’t to say such mis-gendering isn’t disrespectful; it’s just that, perhaps, it is less disrespectful because Chinese still retains a cultural memory in which equating a beautiful man to a beautiful woman was the utmost flattery. 

I must put a disclaimer here: I cannot vouch for this being true for the general Chinese population. This is something that is buried deep enough inside me that it took a lot of thought for me to tease out, to articulate. More importantly, while I grow up in a Chinese-speaking environment, I’ve never lived inside China. My history knowledge, while isn’t shabby, hasn’t been filtered through the state education system.

I’d also like to point out as well, along this line of thought, that in *certain* (definitely not all) aspects, Chinese society isn’t as sexist as the West. While historically, China has periods of extreme sexism against women, with the final dynasties of Ming and Qing being examples, I must (reluctantly) acknowledge Chairman Mao for significantly lifting the status of women during his rule. Here’s a famous quote of his from 1955:

婦女能頂半邊天 Women can lift half the skies

The first marriage code, passed in 1950, outlawed forced marriages, polygamy, and ensured equal rights between husband and wife.  For the first time in centuries, women were encouraged to go outside of their homes and work. Men resisted at first, wanting to keep their wives at home; women who did work were judged poorly for their performance and given less than 50% of men’s wage, which further fuelled the men’s resistance. Mao said the above quote after a commune in Guizhou introduced the “same-work-same-wage” system to increase its productivity, and he asked for the same system to to be replicated across the country. (Source)

When Chairman Mao wanted something, it happened. Today, Chinese women’s contribution to the country’s GDP remains among the highest in the world.  They make up more than half of the country’s top-scoring students. They’re the dominant gender in universities, in the ranks of local employees of international corporations in the Shanghai and Beijing central business districts—among the most sought after jobs in the country. While the inequality between men and women in the workplace is no where near wiped out — stories about women having to sleep with higher-ups to climb the career ladder, or even get their PhDs are not unheard of, and the central rulership of the Chinese Communist Party has been famously short of women — the leap in women’s rights has been significant over the past century, perhaps because of how little rights there had been before ~ at the start of the 20th century, most Chinese women from relatively well-to-do families still practised foot-binding, in which their feet were literally crushed during childhood in the name of beauty, of status symbol. They couldn’t even walk properly.

Perhaps, the contemporary Chinese women’s economic contribution makes the sexism they encounter in their lives, from the lack of reproductive rights to the “leftover women” label, even harder to swallow. It makes their fantasies fly to even higher, more defiant heights. The popularity of Dangai right now is pretty much driven by women, as acknowledged by Article O3. Young women, especially, female fans who people have dismissed as “immature”, “crazy”, are responsible for the threat the Chinese government is feeling now by the genre.

This is no small feat. While the Chinese government complains about the “effeminate” men from Danmei / Dangai, its propaganda has been heavily reliant on stars who have risen to popularity to these genres. The film Dd is currently shooting, Chinese Peacekeeping Force (維和部隊), also stars Huang Jingyu (黄景瑜), and Zhang Zhehan (張哲瀚) ~ the three actors having shot to fame from The Untamed (Dangai), Addicted (Danmei), and Word of Honour (Dangai) respectively.  Zhang, in particular, played the “uke” role in Word of Honour and has also been called 老婆 (wife) by his fans. The quote in Article O3, “Ten years as a tough man known by none; one day as a beauty known by all” was also implicitly referring to him.

Perhaps, the government will eventually realise that millennia-old standards of beauty are difficult to bend, and by extension, what is considered appropriate gender expression of Chinese men and women. 

In the metas I’ve posted, therefore, I’ve hesitated in using terms such as homophobia, sexism, and ageism etc, opting instead to make long-winded explanations that essentially amount to these terms (thank you everyone who’s reading for your patience!). Because while the consequence is similar—certain fraction of the populations are subjected to systemic discrimination, abuse, given less rights, treated as inferior etc—these words, in English, also come with their own context, their own assumptions that may not apply to the situation. It reminds me of what Leo Tolstoy wrote in Anna Karenina,

“All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.”

Discrimination in each country, each culture is humiliating, unhappy in its own way. Both sexism and homophobia are rampant in China, but as their roots are different from those of the West, the ways they manifest are different, and so must the paths to their dissolution. I’ve also hesitated on calling out individual behaviours or confronting individuals for this reason. i-Danmei fandoms are where i-fans and c-fans meet, where English-speaking doesn’t guarantee a non-Chinese sociopolitical background (there may be students from China, for example; I’m also ... not entirely Western), and I find it difficult to articulate appropriate, convincing arguments without knowing individual backgrounds.

Frankly, I’m not sure if I’ve done the right thing. Because I do hope feminisation will soon fade into extinction, especially in i-Danmei fandoms that, if they continue to prosper on international platforms, may eventually split from c-Danmei fandoms along the cultural (not language) line due to the vast differences in environmental constraints. My hope is especially true when real people are involved, and c-fandoms, I’d like to note, are not unaware of the issues surrounding feminisation ~ it has already been explicitly forbidden in BJYX’s supertopic on Weibo. 

At the same time, I’ve spent so many words above to try to explain why beauty can *sometimes* lurk behind such feminisations. Please allow me to end this post with one example of feminisation that I deeply dislike—and I’ve seen it used by fans on Gg as well—is 綠茶 (”green tea”), from 綠茶婊 (”green tea whore”) that means women who look pure / innocent but are, deep down, promiscuous / lustful. In some ways, its meaning isn’t so different from Daji 妲己, the consort blamed for the fall of the Shang dynasty. However, to me at least, the flattery in the feminisation is gone, perhaps because of the character “whore” (婊), because the term originated in 2013 from a notorious sex party rather than from a legendary beauty so maligned that The Investiture of the Gods (封神演義), the seminal Chinese fiction written ~2,600 years after Daji’s death, re-imagined her as a malevolent fox spirit (狐狸精) that many still remembers her as today.

Ah, to be caught between two cultures. :)