#but its so interesting and refreshing to see

[diangelodork]

OKAY HERE IT IS FOLKS!!! - thank you to @chaotically-gay and @paraphwrites for giving me permission to quote them :3

(i couldn’t figure out how to get the actual word doc in here without doxxing my email and real name so sorry for the shit formatting lmao 🧍- also let’s hope my prof doesn’t decide to look through my page and figure out who wrote this 😟😟)

also, the end is a bit EUGH bc i was nearing the deadline so pls pls don’t judge me too harshly 😬

also also, it was meant to be 2-3 pages… it’s 5 🧍 LMAO DONT ASK ME TO WRITE ABT MY POOKIES IF YOU DONT EXPECT THIS LEVEL OF COMMITMENT 😭😭

Sociological Concepts as They Relate to Netflix’s “Dead Boy Detectives”

Netflix and Steve Yockey’s Dead Boy Detectives is a TV show that effectively addresses several different sociological concepts such as sexuality and gender, race and ethnicity, and deviance, in a very refreshing and enlightening way. This program was released for streaming on April 25th, 2024, and its popularity skyrocketed among adolescents and young adults in particular, as it follows two boys who are eternally 16, living their afterlives as phantasmic detectives with a strong and diverse supporting cast. One of these protagonists, Edwin Payne (played by George Rexstrew), was alive in the mid-1910s whereas the other, Charles Rowland (played by Jayden Revri), lived in the late 1980s, yet they navigate the modern world as they interact with people from the current times, such as the primary supporting cast, Crystal Palace (played by Kassius Nelson), and Niko Sasaki (played by Yuyu Kitamura). 

This show not only has a supernatural aspect to it, but it details stories of love, loss, and goodness despite the bad that must be faced. These themes hold significant relevance to the current times as we actively witness human rights lying up for debate. This show helps to teach people to remain kind in spite of the evils of the world.

One such example of the use of sociological concepts is the majority of well-represented queer characters. Many fans have reported feeling a sense of accuracy in the queer representation within this show far surpassing that of other queer content in media, as Tumblr user @diangelodork states, “this show exemplifies queerness through a queer light, and it’s very clear who the intended audience is for dbda” (dbda being a shortened form of Dead Boy Detectives commonly used by fans). Another user, @chaotically-gay, added to the sentiment within the same thread, writing, “i don’t really know how to explain it, but it’s like hs and rwrb have QUEER characters, while dbda has queer CHARACTERS,” when discussing this sense of representation in comparison to shows in the same vein of queer stories (hs standing for Netflix’s Heartstopper, and rwrb referencing Amazon Prime’s Red, White and Royal Blue, being a rather popular queer show and movie, respectively). It is very evident that the fanbase feels strongly about the importance of this show. It represents several different queer relationships, attractions, and identities whilst also never labeling a single one. One of the primary protagonists, Edwin Payne, has several different love interests, all of them being men, and he very clearly struggles with the implications of that, having been born in a time that oppressed him so heavily that his cause of death was, undoubtedly, his queer identity. Edwin was sacrificed to a demon for his lack of conformity and is even called an offensive term from the time period whilst being sacrificed, even though his queer identity is not given an explicit label. The Cat King (Lukas Gage) is another character that effectively plays with both his sexuality and gender presentation, acting as a symbol of desire within the show and wearing a skirt in nearly every scene he appears in. It is important to note that we see him acting as a symbol of lust and desire for Edwin, despite also having a romantic subtext with the female antagonist Esther Finch (Jenn Lyon). The difference here, once again, is the way that the show never forces stereotypes or conformity onto these characters, providing a more genuine and honest feel to the queerness exhibited within this show. 

It also has a rather large focus on feminism, with a significant portion of the characters being strong and willful women who have explicit motivations that drive their characters rather than being considered flat supporting characters to the protagonists. There are several subplots that follow themes of female justice, power, and vengeance, especially within the character of Crystal Palace. In one episode of this show, episode 6, “The Case of the Creeping Forest,” Crystal enlists the help of all of the women in her bloodline, tapping into the feminine and mystical powers of all those women she descends from. Furthermore, the primary antagonist, Esther’s power, comes from a deal she made with a Goddess of wronged women to take vengeance upon those who harmed her in her past, harming young girls in her desire to maintain her power. She is then defeated in the name of justice for the young girls she took advantage of, which tells us that the focus on feminism is prevalent in both the motivation for the antagonist as well as in the protagonists and their eventual success.

Another sociological concept addressed within this show is the implications and mistreatment of individuals based on their race and ethnicity. One of the most prevalent characters, Charles Rowland, died because of his decision to stand up for a person who was part of a racial minority group. He saw a boy of Pakistani heritage being berated and physically assaulted and stepped in, the bullies redirecting their abuse onto him. He eventually died from his injuries. He himself states that it “Just didn’t seem right. Letting that kid get beat on ‘cause he’s from Pakistan. I mean, I’m half-Indian. Why am I so different?” To which Edwin replies that this is “…a fair point. They were the same country back when [he] was alive.” In this exchange, we see the boys break down the barriers of ethnicity and showcase how unimportant a thing like ethnicity is in relation to a person’s character when it can change in a matter of decades. Despite their generational gap, they can still connect and understand the lack of importance of their backgrounds. Furthermore, of the main four characters that we see, Niko, Crystal, Charles, and Edwin, only one of these is a Caucasian person; although, like how they treat the sexual and gender identities of the characters, they never play into any racial stereotypes. Their ethnicities make a small impact on their characters here, too, never shying away from the fact that Niko was born and raised in Japan, that Charles is half-Indian, or that Crystal is Black, but it never affects the plot in a significant or archetypal way. They are very clearly and adamantly racially diverse, but it is never made a spectacle or a show. Another Tumblr user, @paraphwrites, said, “he's lonely because he attends a boarding school [with] rich racist pricks. he's lonely because never once in his life has he admitted how the intersection of all his identities puts him in a situation where he is completely alone,” in reference to how Charles deals with the aspects of himself that isolate him. They touch on a very important aspect of his character, which is his intersectionality. The main topic of their original post was how this show caters to the lonely, discussing several instances in which the characters feel isolated and alienated from the world, Charles’ race and ethnicity are one of many reasons of this within his character in particular. They also discuss the parental abuse he faced and the subtext of his mother not doing anything to stop it. There is some subtext that the abuse he and his mother faced from his (White) father may have to do with his mother’s heritage and that they also faced suppression of expression of their culture by their father and husband, respectively. 

Finally, the concept of deviance is represented in just about every aspect of this show. Edwin was murdered for his deviance from the norms of masculinity the times forced onto him, further deviating when he escapes Hell not once but twice, defying the institution he is forced into and having to resocialize into society. Charles deviates not only from the racial norms of the school he is in but also in his style, wearing punk clothing and an earring and refusing to follow the rules placed onto him by the Afterlife institution. Crystal is a deviant because she is neglected and ignored by her parents, causing her to lash out and cause problems for herself and others. Niko is a deviant because of her interests and her more childlike and whimsical nature. Jenny Green (Briana Cuoco) is a deviant because of her style, donning a neck tattoo and dark clothing in this somewhat conservative town. 

All of these different concepts and ideas are well represented within this show. Marx’s conflict theory would have interpreted the show to be an indicator of the social change that happens through societal conflict. Had deviation in the same vein that the characters Charles and Edwin exhibited not occurred, society would be far more regressed than we see now through the more modern lens of characters like Niko and Crystal. Marx would say that all of these different characters, especially Charles and Edwin, experienced inequalities and that these inequalities gave power to the individuals who placed these boundaries on them, allowing for their groups to be pushed down even further. Postmodernist theory would likely have a stronger focus on the differences between Edwin and Charles in comparison to the characters like Niko and Crystal, looking at the way that they interact and especially at the way that they were/are treated in their respective time periods. Postmodernist theory would highlight the differences in the treatment and identities of the boys in comparison to the girls because of the times in which they were born, also looking at the differences between Edwin’s time period and Charles’ and how their different identities would have affected how they were raised. 

Overall, this show successfully represents several different sociological concepts and is reflective of both this time period and the ones represented by the characters in the show. This provides for a very sociologically active show.

References

holy shit guys.

my assignment in my sociology class is to fucking write an essay on the sociological aspects of a favorite piece of media of mine.

THATS LITERALLY WHAT I DO EVERY NIGHT. I GET TO WRITE ABOUT THE IMPACT AND WAY THAT HUMAN SEXUALITY, GENDER (the emphasis on the feminine characters being well-rounded and dynamic as well as tck’s gender non-conformity), THE WAY RACE AND ETHNICITY (mainly charles’ death/the bullying of the pakistani boy that he stood up for), AND DEVIANCE (edwin going to hell for his orientation and then escaping hell which is an institution and how he has to resocialize into society as well as the way that the antagonists are presented) ARE REPRESENTED WITHIN DBDA. FOR A GRADE. I DO THAT SHIT FOR FUN ALL THE TIME. THIS IS THE BEST ASSIGNMENT EVER I LOVE COLLEGE 🗣️🗣️🗣️‼️‼️‼️

[kerizaret]

People who draw Torpekasa rarely take advantage of the fact that he can be such a little bitch

[halfstayed]

富察·容音 Fuca Rongyin from 延禧攻略 The Story of Yanxi Palace (2018)

TV APPRECIATION WEEK 2024 — free choice: favourite chinese period drama character

[beaulesbian]

i think what made me actually interested in reading one piece from the start (and wanting to catch up quite quickly after watching opla), was seeing how is it now continuing with all the main characters.

that the core of the strawhats are all there, especially zoro and nami who were with luffy since the beginning, that all the strawhats are sticking by luffy still after 1000+ chapters and episodes, and made me so curious to dive into the story, and reassured me that it will be worth my time

[paging-possum]

3.5 hours of sleep does crazy things to ones brain and by that I mean. Murderbot gender thoughts

[maognu]

reread a fic recently

[martyrbat]

im so considerate.... (<- guy not ranting about a thing it hates before its friend is done with the media)

[princekirijo]

Something I didn't really notice until replaying Royal but Ryuji really doesn't let the past hold him down? Like in the rank 2 scene he tells Akira that he doesn't want to focus on his past and he's more focused about the future.

I think that's kinda neat tbh he doesn't wanna let the stuff with Kamoshida or his dad drag him down, he just wants to keep going forward.

[cruelsister-moved2]

God your post about how people treat masculine women in media and irl hit the nail exactly on the head. I also keep seeing these people rejoice when a masc woman is forced to present femininely bc it's now "genderfluid rep" or whatever which makes me feel kinda sick ngl bc it's so clear that they think being a butch dyke is a shallow uncomplicated gender experience but being forced to be feminine is more moral/attractive/complex. Haruka Sailormoon is like one of my favorite fictional characters ever but the amount of tepidly queer sm fans who openly hate butches while championing heterosexuality and gender conformity under a thin veneer of progressive language make me want to lose my mind

YES to everything!!! the weird delight when a masc woman does something feminine is actually so uncomfortable and it's like... they've literally BEEN being gnc every day of their life but it's not enough for you until its watered down to just like a generic androgyny its so weird anddd i think combined with the belief that butch women are doing that as some kind of statement and denying them the understanding thats afforded to other women that like they sometimes just do the stuff they do because they enjoy it and it feels natural. thats actually my favourite thing about haruka (and i liked it about utena too which actually comes out n SAYS it when wakaba is like "but this IS what's normal for you", and that still went massively over ppls heads) like she is so casually masculine and like she's just like that. not only is butchdykery so much more complex than whatever tepid futch androgyny people would prefer, even if it wasn't its like literally just how people are helloooo like butch lesbians arent there to be controversial and make a statement ... you should not be responding to the denigration of the gendered boundaries someone has set for themselves like ever in any context anywayyy. but let alone in the group whose boundaries people are probably the most determined to deny (not that people don't do this with all gender nonconformity but theres nothing like the desperation with which people want an unapologetically masculine women to make just one concession to femininity). the whole 'compensating for short hair with big earrings and winged eyeliner' girlboss in menswear industrial complex is why butchness is uniquely predicated on not JUST the embrace of masculinity but also the exclusion of coercive femininity completely at the same time like it's really hand in hand and its to do with a wider social labyrinth of coercion that every woman navigates so you can't just brush it off with choice feminism type platitudes because ummm we live in a society

[theheadlessgroom]

@beatingheart-bride

"I had no idea," Randall admitted, as he held Emily close, rubbing her arm gently to bring her some comfort (as well as to bring himself some too, given everything weighing on his mind as well). "I...there's a lot I didn't know they'd say since you got here!"

His parents offering her the key to the house as a gesture of trust, being so sympathetic to her story when they heard it, wanting her to have a place in their family through their marriage, assuring her that she would have their support no matter what...it was all completely unexpected to him, especially in the face of their previous rejection of her, but it was far from being an unwelcome change of heart, that was for sure.

"I know it feels...really surreal, honestly, but...I'm still happy with how this has all gone since last night," he confessed, smiling lightly to her: How could he not be? His parents were able to mend fences and make amends with Emily, they'd gotten to truly know her, to trust her, and had come to care for her, enough to welcome her into their home and their family with open arms. It was the outcome he'd hoped for that night he brought Emily home to reveal the big news to them, and although that outcome had been delayed, he was glad it came to fruition after all.

The elephant in the room was still there, of course-the topic of mortality versus immortality, a life shared eternally, or to be doomed to be parted once again by age and time...but Randall just didn't want to think about it now. All he wanted to think about was Emily, the sensation of her in his arms, and how at peace he was with her.

[rodrickheffley]

tumblrs recommended posts algorithm is so bad

[summersunqueen]

rebloged for the hashtags :)

The Percy Jackson renaissance and The Hunger Games renaissance happening in the same year is something so special to me

[myungnyangz]

so glad leehan decided to be a singer and not a farmer or a marine biologist

[5-pp-man]

FINALLY someone said it.

[motherforthefamicom]

this video is so fucking good

[technicolorxsn]

hbomberguy save me.... save me hbomberguy...