#boooo gay ppl

[intertexts]

ohhh mountain time... i forgor...

[telltaleanatomicalheart]

“non-binary folk” :))

[kindlespark]

this is gonna be SO long and rambly sorry anyway i saw a post abt how babel does queer characters and it got me thinking abt why the tropes it uses would usually turn me off other stories but didn’t here

MAJOR BABEL SPOILERS //

i feel like i’d be more mad abt how robinramy ended up in babel if it marketed itself as queer lit at all or if its fans were going “WOW AMAZING QUEER REP” abt it. but no one told me any of that, so finding out they were gay was just a fun little bonus surprise to me. i get why ppl are eh abt robinramy not getting together/technically still being subtext (which i dont think is really true btw like the book literally says “robin was falling in love” but idk i guess if you were stupid you might’ve assumed that it was falling in love with oxford given how romantic some of the other language is (WHICH IS ALSO THE POINT bc i think robin’s friendship with ramy blurring into romance is why he romanticised like all his friendships/experiences in oxford BUT IM GETTING OFF-TOPIC)). i just think robin’s repression abt being gay was intrinsically tied to his attitudes on imperialism (wrt refusing to acknowledge anything that complicated his life until it was too late) and i don’t consider it a cop out or queerbait. like i genuinely don’t think robinramy could ever have gotten together without drastic alterations being made in terms of plot and character. plus i think it’s clear that kuang didn’t want to write a story with any kind of focus on romance at all, because it’s not that kind of book. there’s no successful het romance either, so it grates a lot less. the only reason romance is included at all is to show the ways in which white entitlement manifests. so the tragic way robinramy played out just made sense to me.

and i speak as someone who accidentally spoiled myself on You Know What in the middle of reading and i was like ugghh boooo dreading it the whole time expecting to roll my eyes when it happened but then when it did i was like. wow im actually not that mad LMFAO 😭😭😭 actually thematically the book sets it up so well that i believed that this was unfortunately the only way it could’ve gone. babel is about the loss and tragedy and grief that colonised people experience. it’s about the lengths people will go to to uphold empire and the lengths ppl will go to to tear it down like idk 😭 i guess it is bury your gays but it didnt bother me this time because i thought it fit thematically ❤️ i enjoy tragedy as a genre a lot and i would’ve made it gay anyway you know. thanks rf kuang for doing it for me so i didnt have to.

WHICH IS ALL TO SAY that i guess if you’re going into babel for the queer rep without appreciating that the story is fundamentally a tragedy it would feel like it’s just reusing tired tropes….. but i think the choices kuang made were rly deliberate and not in a way that feels like trauma porn or shock value. the book is fundamentally about the struggles of poc so the layer of queerness that was introduced felt like a subtle extension of the experiences of characters of colour in the book, and i enjoyed and related to it as a queer chinese person who kind of realised they had to prioritise their fight for the liberation of poc over queerness mainly because the idea of western queer liberation cannot be dissociated from imperialism and many aspects of homophobia as we know it was an export of christian european empire into our colonised countries in the first place and FUCK THIS IS A WHOLE OTHER TANGENT ABOUT HOW I THINK RAMY AS A CHARACTER IS EMBLEMATIC OF THE TENSION AND STRUGGLE THAT QUEER POC DIASPORA HAVE BETWEEN OUR IDENTITIES GODDAMNIT OK FORGET IT POST CANCELLED i just rly think babel’s handling of queer characters is fine and makes sense and i like it personally and maybe i will make a coherent analysis about it one day but that day is not today byeeeeeee

[cruelsister-moved2]

Saying this as a big fan of the butchfemme dykes from sailor moon: utena is so much better it’s not even a contest because utena is the best show of all time. Plus the sm fanbase is aggressively het and creepy and 2/3 of the gay kisses in the manga are explicitly predatory PLUS I hope the author has never actually interacted with masc women irl bc I just know she would be sooo uncomfortably weird to them

literally i like the art of sailor neptune and sailor uranus (although they put her in a skirt boooo point to utena) but I have 0 desire to watch it. also literally the creepiness of the straight women in the fan base! there's other shows w creepier male fans but I literally think sailor moon might have the worst women euwowjdkwodjd.... I've read a lot about the Weird moments and i feel like i have insight by proxy via utena I also genuinely don't understand watching utena and then not becoming uncomfortable with (at least 90s) sailor moon as a result.

I genuinely think a lot of people's affection for it is largely aesthetic + nostalgic. like I agree it's really pretty but I have friends who loved it as a kid and then rewatched and were like. oh is that it. comparing it to utena is like comparing pokemon to nge or something ngl like they're on different levels of maturity 😭

it's also crazy crazy to me when people treat it as gay rep because it seems like gay characters are often treated as predatory and like i love harukas design but I can see the way it's very like... for het women etc. like sorry you could NEVER be the wlw version of plato's allegory of the cave (rgu). it's interesting though because I guess the gay rep in sailor moon is like more explicit and also explicitly worse so it's an interesting marker of ppl who would rather engage with uwuuuu girls kissingggg than anything which actually tells a more complex story abt the lives of gay people yk

[swimminginyokohamasrivers]

Nah i get bored taking breaks boooo i love the gay ppl in ny celluar device

💌 send this to the twelve nicest people you know or who seem to have a good heart and if you get five back you must be pretty awesome. 💌 (for the ooc)

(ooc) AWWHH?!??!!? SENDING THIS BACK TO YOU.

[bybdolan]

How are you going to call your party "christian" and then refuse to care for people fleeing from terrorism........ The fucking audacity to use your "Christianity" as a reason to vote against gay marriage but do jack shit when it comes to helping those struggling in your country + the world as if that isn't the BASE Christianity is founded on.

[robotpussy]

Ive only seen bi women get shitted on constantly (especially on tiktok for some reason) for just existing even when they're not in het relationships or whatever like ive never seen anything insulting being said abt bi men..... why do weird mfs stay in their business lmao it's always the "they're not oppressed for liking men" mf who said anything abt oppression leave bi women tf alone stop being annoying boooo zero gay ppl are having these conversations irl

lets not lie, misogyny is in the mix with all of this but tik tok and twitter HATE bi women i dont understand why they are so quick to tell everyone that bi women arent oppressed for liking men when nobody said that! and in all honesty, if you dont want to hear abt bi women talk abt men just scroll past and mind ur business, the rage i see ppl exhibit when bi women are just existing and talking abt their attraction is astounding like why is it making u itch so much.... do they not understand that bisexuals are attracted to everyone? the attraction includes men

[pinkpruneclodwolf]

Doomscolled Into the Wrong Side of TWST—

TWST and the Audacity of Some of You Bitches.

I think the reason I've been so inactive recently stems from me doomscrolling into a post complaining about people Headcanoning Vil as Trans or the entire Pomefiore dorm as GNC af.

Their post was basically: "Vil's character is effective as a cishet man but effeminate because the point of Chap 5 is fighting against the current and staying true to yourself."

But they turn around and say shit like—"anyone who does not view Twisted Wonderland in the same lens of a 'unrealistic progressive' more commonly 'expected' in Western cartoons are shunned"

What in hell's name is that supposed to mean???

First I'm gonna start off by saying that Vil being hc'ed as transfem, transmasc, nonbinary, demiboy, or just a plain ass white boy who wears makeup in his freetime and fears potatos won't change Vil fundamentally—he's a character in a game about fantastic mental breakdowns due to systems that they cannot control and can only find peace in themselves and support from their friends..

Many genderqueer ppl find him relatable bc being gnc is apart of his character, instead of it being just a one off thing— he doesn't view masculinity and femininity as two fucking boxes the whole human population has to fall into—and he isn't made fun of for it in the story as much. (Outspoken feminine coded people face more flak in fandoms)

You whining about people making him trans does nothing, changes nothing, isn't a new take, isn't hot,, just lackluster, and old as shit. I've seen too many posts that boil down to shit like this and have others cosign it— stop that shit, real talk.

Long story short Vil being hc'ed as genderqueer isn't gonna hurt you.

We also need to talk about how yall play in my face about East Asia being the monolith of purity especially in anime spaces—"anyone who does not view Twisted Wonderland in the same lens of a 'unrealistic progressive' more commonly 'expected' in Western cartoons are shunned"

Anime has always had the potential to portray BIPOC, Michiko and Hatchin, Yoshihiro Togashi been making trans characters ?????

So, what the hell does that mean exactly???

And the fact they used Yana being overworked as a shield to diss people who rightfully call out the racism and fetishism that is rampant in the game and fandom.

Like bro FAIRY GALA started off with Crowley rounding up Leona, Kalim, Jamil, and Ruggie and Malleus even says [botched quote] "fairies of pixie hollow want to feel exotic— the elegance of another country" as if Rook isn't from the same land of Leona why wasn't he selected hmmm?????

Some of yall definitions of fantasy exclude BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ and it shows every fucking day.

"The hunted become the hunter, oppressed become the oppressors, all in the name of equity and equality"

Bitch are you serious????

This is the same white supremacist logic that gets people fucking killed—so many people get killed just by that idea omfgg????

No matter how loud black people, poc, lgbtq people are let's not forget how long it took to get to that point, Civil rights movement isn't even in it's hundreds yet, Gay marriage across all 50 states is barely a decade old (legalized in 2015) , and trans people are constantly having their laws overwritten wtaf is wrong with some of yall?????

And the fact that it's reblogged as "this is important" bitch gtfooo leave, boooo brick brick brick im actually throwing bricks.

Yall play in my face like East Asia is a monolith of purity like they weren't out here murdering and colonizing like Britain was going out of fucking style, Manchuria, Taiwan, Korea don't ring fucking bells for you dimwits???

Ainu people are literally suffering from Linguistic Purism and colonialism as we speak.

Yall like East Asia because of how homogenous it is, and, I dare say how white it is, bc you wouldn't have to face bigotry affects BIPOC in a space where everyone looks like you and if they didn't you could get the free pass of bullying them because you "didn't know any better"

Yall excuse the bigotry of East Asia because "uwu they just don't understand"

They do.

They aren't fucking babies, yall infantilizing JP/East Asia is a form of fetishization in of itself.

They do know what the fuck they're doing and will keep doing it bc yall like to defend them vehemently so its why Korea can plagiarize black culture and get away with it, its why Korean idols can post themselves holding a racist caricature of a black person and smile knowing that their fans will defend them using that logic.

Go directly to hell with that "The hunted become the hunter, oppressed become the oppressors, all in the name of equity and equality"

Thats not how shit works at all this isn't some fucking animal kingdom where only the apex predator or the fucker who managed to overthrow the previous leader decides how the world works, touch some grass and realize you're a goddamned human, have some fucking decorum.

I swear humanity will never progress bc yall have zero imagination of what the world could be like if yall weren't assholes to a certain group of people.

[papers4me]

Pour one out for all us yuki/kakeru shippers that find the relationship to have more depth and chemistry than yuki/machi but bc of the shojo culture, a not straight end game romance is impossible to have BUT I CAN DREAM! (minor spoilers ahead but like just to explain why this ship never came to fruition)

For reals tho I really do love Machi and her development and truly, she and Yuki have a lot in common and great character interactions, I just feel like Yuki also exudes gay and Kakeru (who also has a gf in the manga boooo but I love her) just loves teasing the hell out of Yuki and their bromance just would have made a better romance I think....

In general I think it has a lot to do with late 90s early 2000s shojo culture wherein LGBT content in Japan was more or less R18 by default and outside of jokes, it never played a role in big series

Hi. I can’t comment on yuki/kakeru having more depth and chemistry than yuki/machi since I’m not a manga reader & se03 hasn’t aired yet. Moreover, I’m not a shipper by nature but I enjoy analyzing literature, narratives & artistic media. So, I’ll approach your question from n analytical pov based on furuba’s content so far!

Reasons why I believe the writer went for machi/yuki end game rather than other yuki pairing:

It has to do with yuki’s goal in se01, ep.12. He stated that he wanted: (1)warmth, (2)friendship & (3)home:love. Ever since that ep, the writer has been moving yuki steadily towards that goal. 3 sub goals meaning yuki’s journey will have 3 parts. If it was all found in kakeru, then yuki’s journey will be cut short for him. Yuki needs to interact with 3 different types of ppl to achieve his goal. This way his growth will be more wholesome & complete.

Yuki’s aspiration is centered around: friendship just like how kyo’s aspiration is centered around: love/family. From the beginning yuki wanted to “befriend kyo”, he envied kakeru & kyo for how easy ppl befriend them without the two needing to wear a fake mask or pretend to be kinder. We even saw how kyo was annoyed by his two buddies who tease him all the time, yet he allowed them to be near him. Yuki was shown craving that exact scene. Yuki got it. Kakeru teasing him & annoying him, yuki allowing kakeru around. Kyo has friendship but he doesn’t crave it, what he craves is a family that love him for who he is without fear or disgust. His family went thro extreme methods to leave him: (mom: suicide, dad: repulsive hate). kyo’s desires a family who’d want to stay with him, be always together with him by choice. He’s got kazuma, but kazuma chose baby kyo first, kyo needs to choose love by himself, that’s why tohru loving him isn’t important, it is kyo’s love for her that should free him from his trauma. Exactly like kakeru’s friendship with yuki freed him. Cuz yuki chose kakeru as his friend by himself. Yuki has haru who befriends/cares for him. But it IS kakeru who yuki chose to know. These two boys (yuki/kyo) will be freed by choosing their own aspiration in life by themselves.

Yuki/machi doesn’t need to be deep or extremely meaningful. I believe furuba presents different kinds of romance & friendship. (Kaker/yuki: best friends who know everything abt each other & share secrets, stay friends forever: amazing friendship), (kyo/his two buddies: best friends who are casual, don’t share secrets or deep personal info but can be friends forever if they chose: amazing friendship). (kyo/tohru: roommates to best friends to lovers, the change is very slow since you can’t decipher if you care cuz you treasure them or care cuz you fancy them, confessing can mean loosing the other if the feelings aren’t reciprocated & you can become awkward afterwards. but if love is mutual then: happiness!). (yuki/machi: from strangers to lovers. machi isn’t close to yuki much as she rarely talks or engage in the groups shenanigans but yuki is noticing her as an individual person & is attracted to her, if the feelings are mutual then it is a fast romance with the majority of knowing each other happens while dating: happiness!).

I personally believe that “ transforming after hugging someone from the opposite sex is a gimmick. The synopsis of the show says nothing abt child abuse, trauma, coming of age, youth struggle. It simply poses as a romantic comedy that tricks you watch the show. Honestly, the animal transformations stop as soon as “ the zodiac intro ep ” is over & they’re all comedic in nature except 3 times. One is the true form which is the manifestation of trauma & abuse, followed by kyo willingly hugging tohru in an emotional wrap of the night’s truma, even the transformation smoke is not shown as it’ll lessen the emotional weight, we just see kyo in cat form in her lap. The other two are momiji’s after tohru hugs him in Se01 after his mom’s reveal & se02 after akito’s abuse & it’s done to comfort poor baby momiji.

I wished that yuki’s romance doesn’t happen much onscreen & more like it’s sth he’ll be able to do once he graduate high school cuz yuki has just “left the nest” a while ago, I’d want to see more “normal yuki” as opposed to yuki in stage 3: love. but all is good. The writer already set her goal from ep.12.

I know that you probably didn’t want to hear my boring analysis & I’m not criticizing you at all. I believe fans are free to ship whoever. I wish I was like you, but I usually look at the show as a story unfolding in front of me & I’m extremely fascinated by onscreen /canon dynamics & relationships as they’re my insight into the author’s mind! To see through the author’s eyes is highly fascinating to me! but this doesn’t mean I won’t criticize the authors at times.

Thank you for the ask!