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army-of-mai-lovers · 4 years ago

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in which I get progressively angrier at the various tropes of atla fandom misogyny

tbh I think it would serve all of us to have a larger conversation about the specific ways misogyny manifests in this fandom, because I’ve seen a lot of people who characterize themselves as feminists, many of whom are women themselves, discuss the female characters of atla/lok in misogynistic ways, and people don’t talk about it enough.

disclaimer before I start: I’m not a woman, I’m an afab nonbinary person who is semi-closeted and thus often read as a woman. I’m speaking to things that I’ve seen that have made me uncomfy, but if any women (esp women existing along other axes of oppression, e.g. trans women, women of color, disabled women, etc) want to add onto this post, please do!

“This female character is a total badass but I’m not even a little bit interested in exploring her as a human being.”

I’ve seen a lot of people say of various female characters in atla/lok, “I love her! She’s such a badass!” now, this statement on its own isn’t misogynistic, but it represents a pretty pervasive form of misogyny that I’ve seen leveled in large part toward the canon female love interests of one or both of the members of a popular gay ship (*cough* zukka *cough*) I’m going to use Suki as an example of this because I see it with her most often, but it can honestly be applied to nearly every female character in atla/lok. Basically, people will say that they stan Suki, but when it comes time to engage with her as an actual character, they refuse to do it. I’ve seen meta after meta about Zuko’s redemption arc, but I so rarely see people engage with Suki on any level beyond “look at this cool fight scene!” and yeah, I love a cool Suki fight scene as much as anybody else, but I’m also interested in meta and headcanons and fics about who she is as a person, when she isn’t an accessory to Sokka’s development or doing something cool. of course, the material for this kind of engagement with Suki is scant considering she doesn’t have a canon backstory (yet) (don’t let me down Faith Erin Hicks counting on you girl) but with the way I’ve seen people in this fandom expand upon canon to flesh out male characters, I know y’all have it in you to do more with Suki, and with all the female characters, than you currently do. frankly, the most engagement I’ve seen with Suki in mainstream fandom is justifying either zukki (which again, is characterizing her in relation to male characters, one of whom she barely interacts with in canon) or one of the Suki wlw pairings. which brings me to--

“I conveniently ship this female character whose canon love interest is one of the members of my favorite non-canon ship with another female character! gay rights!”

now, I will admit, two of my favorite atla ships are yueki and mailee, and so I totally understand being interested in these characters’ dynamics, even if, as is the case with yueki, they’ve never interacted canonically. however, it becomes a problem for me when these ships are always in the background of a zukka fic. at some point, it becomes obvious that you like this ship because it gets either Zuko or Sokka’s female love interests out of the way, not because you actually think the characters would mesh well together. It’s bad form to dislike a female character because she gets in the way of your gay ship, so instead, you find another girl to pair her off with and call it a day. to be clear, I’m not saying that everybody who ships either mailee or yueki (or tysuki or maisuki or yumai or whatever other wlw rarepair involving Zuko or Sokka’s canon love interests) is nefariously trying to sideline a female character while acting publicly as if she’s is one of their faves--far from it--but it is noteworthy to me how difficult it is to find content that centers wlw ships, while it’s incredibly easy to find content that centers zukka in which mailee and/or yueki plays a background role.

also, notice how little traction wlw Katara ships gain in this fandom. when’s the last time you saw yuetara on your dash? there’s no reason for wlw Katara ships to gain traction in a fandom that is so focused on Zuko and Sokka getting together, bc she doesn’t present an immediate obstacle to that goal (at least, not an obstacle that can be overcome by pairing her up with a woman). if you are primarily interested in Zuko and Sokka’s relationship, and your queer readings of other female characters are motivated by a desire to get them out of the way for zukka, then Katara’s canon m/f relationship isn’t a threat to you, and thus, there’s no reason to read her as potentially queer. Or even, really, to think about her at all.

“Katara’s here but she’s not actually going to do anything, because deep down, I’m not interested in her as a person.”

the show has an enormous amount of textual evidence to support the claim that Sokka and Katara are integral parts of each other’s lives. so, she typically makes some kind of appearance in zukka content. sometimes, her presence in the story is as an actual character with layers and nuance, someone whom Sokka cares about and who cares about Sokka in return, but also has her own life and goals outside of her brother (or other male characters, for that matter.) sometimes, however, she’s just there because halfway through writing the author remembered that Sokka actually has a sister who’s a huge part of the show they’re writing fanfiction for, and then they proceed to show her having a meetcute with Aang or helping Sokka through an emotional problem, without expressing wants or desires outside of those characters. I’m honestly really surprised that I haven’t seen more people calling out the fact that so much of Katara’s personality in fanon revolves around her connections to men? she’s Aang’s girlfriend, she’s Sokka’s sister, she’s Zuko’s bestie. never mind that in canon she spends an enormous amount of time fighting against (anachronistic, Westernized) sexism to establish herself as a person in her own right, outside of these connections. and that in canon she has such interesting complex relationships with other female characters (e.g. Toph, Kanna, Hama, Korra if you want to write lok content) or that there are a plethora of characters with whom she could have interesting relationships with in fanon (Mai, Suki, Ty Lee, Yue, Smellerbee, and if you want to write lok content, Kya II, Lin, Asami, Senna, etc). to me, the lack of fandom material exploring Katara’s relationships with other women or with herself speak to a profound indifference to Katara as a character. I’m not saying you have to like Katara or include her in everything you write, but I am asking you to consider why you don’t find her interesting outside of her relationships with men.

“I hate Katara because she talks about her mother dying too often.”

this is something I’ve seen addressed by people far more qualified than I to address it, but I want to mention it here in part because when I asked people which fandom tropes they wanted me to talk about, this came up often, but also because I find it really disgusting that this is a thing that needs to be addressed at all. Y’all see a little girl who watched her mother be killed by the forces of an imperialist nation and say that she talks about it too much??? That is a formational, foundational event in a child’s life. Of course she’s going to talk about it. I’ve seen people say that she doesn’t talk about it that often, or that she only talks about it to connect with other victims of fn imperialism e.g. Jet and Haru, but frankly, she could speak about it every episode for no plot-significant reason whatsoever and I would still be angry to see people say she talks about it too much. And before you even bring up the Sokka comparison, people deal with grief in different ways. Sokka repressed a lot of his grief/channeled it into being the “man” of his village because he knew that they would come for Katara next if he gave them the opportunity. he probably would talk about his mother more if a) he didn’t feel massive guilt at not being able to remember what she looked like, and b) he was allowed to be a child processing the loss of his mother instead of having to become a tiny adult when Hakoda had to leave to help fight the fn. And this gets into an intersection with fandom racism, in that white fans (esp white American fans) are incapable of relating to the structural trauma that both Sokka and Katara experience and thus can’t see the ways in which structural trauma colors every single aspect of both of their characters, leading them to flatten nuance and to have some really bad takes. And you know what, speaking of bad fandom takes--

“Shitting on Mai because she gets in the way of my favorite Zuko ship is actually totally okay because she’s ~abusive~”

y’all WHAT.

ok listen, I get not liking maiko. I didn’t like it when I first got into fandom, and later I realized that while bryke cannot write romance to save their lives, fans who like maiko sure can, so I changed my tune. but if you still don’t like it, that’s fine. no skin off my back.

what IS skin off my back is taking instances in which Mai had justified anger toward Zuko, and turning it into “Mai abused Zuko.” do you not realize how ridiculous you sound? this is another thing where I get so angry about it that I don’t know how useful my analysis is actually going to be, but I’ll do my best. numerous people have noted how analysis of Mai and Zuko’s breakup in “The Beach” or Mai being justifiably angry with him at Boiling Rock or her asking for FUCKING FRUIT in “Nightmares and Daydreams” that says that all of these events were her trying to gain control over him is....ahhh...lacking in reading comprehension, but I’d like to go a step further and talk about why y’all are so intent on taking down a girl who doesn’t show emotion in normative ways. obviously, there’s a “Zuko can do no wrong” aspect to Mai criticism (which is super weird considering how his whole arc is about how he can do lots of wrong and he has to atone for the wrong that he’s done--but that’s a separate post.) But I also see slandering Mai for not expressing her emotions normatively and not putting up with Zuko’s shit and slandering Katara for “talking about her mother too often” as two sides of the same coin. In both cases, a female character expresses emotions that make you, the viewer, uncomfortable, and so instead of attempting to understand where those emotions may have come from and why they might be manifesting the way they are, y’all just throw the whole character away. this is another instance of people in the fandom being fundamentally disinterested in engaging with the female characters of atla in a real way, except instead of shallowly “stanning” Mai, y’all hate her. so we get to this point where female characters are flattened into one of two things: perfect queens who can do no wrong, or bitches. and that’s not who they are. that’s not who anyone is. but while we as a fandom are pretty good at understanding b1 Zuko’s actions as layered and multifaceted even though he’s essentially an asshole then, few are willing to lend the same grace to any female character, least of all Mai.

and what’s funny is sometimes this trope will intersect with “I conveniently ship this female character whose canon love interest is one of the members of my favorite non-canon ship with another female character! gay rights!”, so you’ll have someone actively calling Mai toxic/problematic/abusive, and at the same time ship her with Ty Lee? make it make sense! but then again, maybe that’s happening because y’all are fundamentally disinterested in Ty Lee as a character too.

“I love Ty Lee so much that I’m going to treat her like an infantilized hypersexual airhead!”

there are so many things happening in y’alls characterization of Ty Lee that I struggled to synthesize it into one quippy section header. on one hand, you have the hypersexualization, and on the other hand, you have the infantilization, which just makes the hypersexualization that much worse.

(of course, sexualizing or hypersexualizing ANY atla character is really not the move, considering that these are child characters in a children’s show, but then again, that’s a separate post.)

now, I understand how, from a very, very surface reading of the text, you could come to the conclusion that Ty Lee is an uncomplicated bimbo. if you grew up on Western media the way I did, you’ll know that Ty Lee has a lot of the character traits we associate with bimbos: the form-fitting pink crop top, the general conventional attractiveness, the ditzy dialogue. but if you think about it for more than three seconds, you’ll understand that Ty Lee has spent her whole life walking a tightrope, trying to please Azula and the rest of the royal family while also staying true to herself. Ty Lee and Azula’s relationship is a really complex and interesting topic that I don’t really have time to explore at the moment given how long this post is, but I’d argue that Ty Lee’s constant, vocal adulation is at least partially a product of learning to survive at court at an early age. Like Mai, she has been forced to regulate her emotions as a member of fn nobility, but unlike Mai, she also has six sisters who look exactly like her, so she has a motivation to be more peppy and more affectionate to stand out.

fandom does not do the work to understand Ty Lee. as is a theme with this post, fandom is actively disinterested in investigating female characters beyond a very surface level reading of them. Thus, fandom takes Ty Lee’s surface level qualities--her love of the color pink, her revealing standard outfit, and the fact that once she found a boy attractive and also once a lot of boys found her attractive--and they stretch this into “Ty Lee is basically Karen Smith from Mean Girls.” thus, Ty Lee is painted as a bimbo, or more specifically, as not smart, uncritically adoring of Azula (did y’all forget all the non-zukka bits of Boiling Rock?), and attractive to the point of hypersexualization. I saw somebody make a post that was like “I wish mailee was more popular but I’m also glad it isn’t because otherwise people would write it as Mai having to put up with her dumb gf” and honestly I have to agree!! this is one instance in which I’m glad that fandom doesn’t discuss one of my favorite characters that often because I hate the fanon interpretation of Ty Lee, I think it’s rooted in misogyny (particularly misogyny against East Asian women, which often takes the form of fetishizing them and viewing them only through a Western white male gaze)

(side note: here at army-of-mai-lovers, we stan bimbos. bimbos are fucking awesome. I personally don’t read Ty Lee as a bimbo, but if that’s you, that’s fucking awesome. keep doing what you’re doing, queen <3 or king or monarch, it’s 2021, anyone can be a bimbo, bitches <3)

“Toph can and will destroy everyone here with her bare hands because she’s a meathead who likes to murder people and that’s it!”

Toph is, and always has been, one of my favorite ATLA characters. My very first fic in fandom was about her, and she appears prominently in a lot of my other work as well. One thing that I am always struck by with Toph is how big a heart she has. She’s independent, yes, snarky, yes, but she cares about people--even the family that forced her to make herself smaller because they didn’t believe that their blind daughter could be powerful and strong. Her storyline is powerful and emotionally resonant, her bending is cool precisely because it’s based in a “wait and listen” approach instead of just smashing things indiscriminately, she’s great disabled rep, and overall one of the best characters in the show.

And in fandom, she gets flattened into “snarky murder child.”

So where does this come from? Well, as we all know, Toph was originally conceived of as a male character, and retained a lot of androgyny (or as the kids call it, Gender) when she was rewritten as a female character. There are a lot of cultural ideas about androgynous/butch women being violent, and people in fandom seem to connect that larger cultural narrative with some of Toph’s more violent moments in the show to create the meathead murder child trope, erasing her canon emotionality, softness, heart, and femininity in the process.

This is not to say that you shouldn’t write or characterize Toph as being violent or snarky at all ever, because yeah, Toph definitely did do Earth Rumbles a lot before joining the gaang, and yeah, Toph is definitely a sarcastic person who makes fun of her friends a lot. What I am saying is that people take these traits, sans the emotional logic, marry them to their conception of androgynous/butch women as violent/unemotional/uncaring, and thus create a caricature of Toph that is not at all up to snuff. When I see Toph as a side character in a fic (because yeah, Toph never gets to be a main character, because why would a fandom obsessed with one male character in particular ever make Toph a protagonist in her own right?) she’s making fun of people, killing people, pranking people, etc, etc. She’s never talking to people about her emotions, or palling around with her found family, or showing that she cares about her friends. Everything about her relationship with her parents, her disability, her relationship to Gender, and her love of her friends is shoved aside to focus on a version of Toph that is mean and uncaring because people have gotten it into their heads that androgynous/butch women are mean and uncaring.

again, we see a female character who does not emote normatively or in a way that makes you, the viewer, comfortable, and so you warp her character until she’s completely unrecognizable and flat. and for what?

Azula

no, I didn’t come up with a snappy name for this section, mainly because fanon interpretations of Azula and my own feelings toward the character are...complicated. I know there were some people who wanted me to write about Azula and the intersection of misogyny and ableism in fanon interpretations of her character, but I don’t think I can deliver on that because I personally am in a period of transition with how I see Azula. that is to say, while I still like her and believe that she can be redeemed, there is a lot of merit to disliking her. the whole point of this post is that the female characters of ATLA are complex people whom the fandom flattens into stereotypes that don’t hold up to scrutiny, or dislike for reasons that don’t make sense. Azula, however, is a different case. the rise of Azula defenders and Azula stans has led to this sentiment that Azula is a 14 y/o abuse victim who shouldn’t be held accountable for her actions. it seems to me that people are reacting to a long, horrible legacy of male ATLA fans armchair diagnosing Azula with various personality disorders (and suggesting that people with those personality disorders are inherently monstrous and unlovable which ahhhh....yikes) and then saying that those personality disorders make her unlovable, which is quite obviously bad. and hey, I get loving a character that everyone else hates and maybe getting so swept up in that love that you forget that your fave is complicated and has made some unsavory choices. it sucks that fanon takes these well-written, complex villains/antiheroes and turns them into monsters with no critical thought whatsoever. but the attitude among Azula stans that her redemption shouldn’t be hard, that her being a child excuses all of the bad things that she’s done, that she is owed redemption....all of that rubs me the wrong way. I might make another post about this in the future that discusses this in more depth, but as it stands now: while I understand that there is a legacy of misogynistic, ableist, unnuanced takes on Azula, the backlash to that does not take into account the people she hurt or the fact that in ATLA she does not make the choice to pursue redemption. and yes, Zuko had help in making that choice that Azula didn’t, and yes, Azula is a victim of abuse, but in a show about children who have gone through untold horrors and still work to better the lives of the people around them, that is not enough for me to uncritically stan her.

Conclusion

misogyny in this fandom runs rampant. while there are some tropes of fandom misogyny that are well-documented and have been debunked numerous times, there are other, subtler forms of misogyny that as far as I know have gone completely unchecked.

what I find so interesting about misogyny in atla fandom is that it’s clear that it’s perpetrated by people who are aware of fandom misogyny who are actively trying not to be misogynistic. when I first joined atla fandom last summer, memes about how zukka fandom was better than every other fandom because they didn’t hate the female characters who got in the way of their gay ship were extremely prevalent, and there was this sense that *this* fandom was going to model respectful, fun, feminist online fandom. not all of the topes I’ve outlined are exclusive to or even largely utilized in zukka fandom, but a lot of them are. I’ve been in and out of fandom since I was eleven years old, and most of the fandom spaces I’ve been in have been majority-female, and all of them have been incredibly misogynistic. and I always want to know why. why, in these communities created in large part by women, in large part for women, does misogyny run wild? what I realize now is that there’s never going to be a one-size fits all answer to that question. what’s true for 1D fandom on Wattpad in 2012 is absolutely not true for atla fandom on tumblr in 2021. the answers that I’ve cobbled together for previous fandoms don’t work here.

so, why is atla fandom like this? why did the dream of a feminist fandom almost entirely focused on the romantic relationship between two male characters fall apart? honestly, I think the notion that zukka fandom ever was this way was horrifically ignorant to begin with. from my very first moment in the fandom, I was seeing racism, widespread sexualization of minors, and yes, misogyny. these aspects of the fandom weren’t talked about as much as the crocverse or other, much more fun aspects. further, atla (specifically zukka) fandom misogyny often doesn’t look like the fandom misogyny we’ve become familiar with from like, Sherlock fandom or what have you. for the most part, people don’t actively hate Suki, they just “stan” without actually caring about her. they hate Mai because they believe in treating male victims of abuse equally. they’re not characterizing Toph poorly, they’re writing her as a “strong woman.” in short, people are misogynistic, and then invoke a shallow, incomplete interpretation of feminist theory to shield themselves from accusations of misogyny. it’s not unlike the way some people will invoke a shallow, incomplete interpretation of critical race theory to shield themselves from accusations of racism, or how they’ll talk about “freedom of speech” and “the suppression of women’s sexuality” to justify sexualizing minors. the performance of feminism and antiracism is what’s important, not the actual practice.

if you’ve made it this far, first off, hi, thanks so much for reading, I know this was a lot. second, I would seriously encourage you to be aware of these fandom tropes and to call them out when you see them. elevate the voices of fans who do the work of bringing the female characters of atla to life. invest in the wlw ships in this fandom. drop a kudos and a comment on a rangshi fic (please, drop a kudos and a comment on a rangshi fic). read some yuetara. let’s all be honest about where we are now, and try to do better in the future. I believe in us.

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cupidmybeloved · 4 years ago

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valentine's day│georgenotfound

summary: if there's one thing george hates, it's valentines day. this year, y/n decided against being alone and set up a surprise movie night for her and her dateless neighbour. when the day ends george comes to the conclusion that maybe valentines day isn't so bad after all.

warnings: none

a/n: ngl i kinda really hate this post but oh well i'm posting it anyways. also oops valentine’s day post in april

wc: 1k

george let out a sigh as he read the date in the bottom right corner of his laptop. february 14th. the day known best for stuffed animals, hard heart-shaped candies and, most importantly, love. the majority of people looked forward to the 14th, wondering if they had received any chocolates from secret admirers. george however, despised it. every year red hearts were plastered wherever he looked. unfortunately for george, instead of the bright red and pretty pink, all he saw was an ugly and unpleasant shade of brown. not to mention, he was lonely every year as well.

a buzz from his phone caught his attention. a text message from you. come over was all it read. george cocked an eyebrow in confusion but nonetheless, he complied. after all, anything would’ve been better than moping all day in his dim-lit room. as george made his way to your door he pondered about why you, his next-door neighbour whom he may have a teensy tiny crush on, wanted him to pay a visit.

just as george’s knuckles were about to knock onto the wooden door that stood before him, it abruptly opened, slightly startling him. george was instantly met with your charismatic smile (one of the reasons you were his favourite neighbor, unbeknownst to you).

“hey! you’re finally here” you greeted, excitement lighting up your eyes.

“calm down, it was only what? five minutes? what did you need me here for? i could’ve been on a date for all you know.” joked george.

“oh don’t be silly, you and i both know that the day one of us gets a date is the day pigs fly. which is why i invited you over. together we’re going to celebrate loneliness!” you exclaimed.

“celebrating loneliness without being lonely? sounds legit to me” he replied, a witty smirk etched into his face.

“oh shut up, you know what i meant. now close your eyes and follow my lead so i can show you the surprise. don’t peak or i’ll make sure both sides of your pillow are warm.” you giggled as you grabbed onto his pale, slender hands and cautiously dragged him inside.

your short journey didn’t end up being so cautious after all, as george had managed to bump his head into almost every piece of tall furniture and decor you owned. in your opinion, it was just his fault for being so lanky.

“you can open your eyes now” you said.

george didn’t waste any time opening his eyes, head filled with anticipation. george’s eyes finally adjusting to the brightness of your living room, noticed different shades of blue littering the space. there were heart shaped balloons, bunting banners, streamer garlands and even blue flower petals laid across the floor. this was completely different to the disgusting colour he had grown accustomed to seeing annually on valentine’s day.

“do you like it?” you squeaked out, eyes trailing down towards the ground.

without warning, you were swiftly encased in a suffocating hug, large hands wrapped around you. looking up you noticed how big george was smiling, in the three years of being his next-door neighbour, you’ve never seen him this joyous before and it filled you with triumph knowing that you could make him so happy.

“how did you find all these valentine’s day decorations in blue? did you get them custom-made? that would’ve cost you a fortune. oh please tell me you didn’t get the custom made for me-“ his worrisome rambling was cut short with your giggles.

“no no don’t worry i got them for almost nothing, party city got shipped a misprint and had them in the clearance section, i saw them and instantly thought of you. oh and some of the decorations are for gender reveals” you answered sheepishly as you pointed towards the tablecloth with it’s a boy! written all over it in fancy gold lettering.

he bursted out into laughter, you joined in chuckling. george’s knees felt weak from all the laughter and he almost fell to the floor thinking about how only you would even think about using gender reveal decorations for valentine’s day.

as georges dark brown eyes trailed across the tablecloth they stopped at the giant load of treats and chocolates carefully arranged on the table.

“come on, let’s grab some snacks and watch a movie together” he suggested, still in hysterics from the gender reveal decor.

and so the two of you spent the night cuddling against one another whilst discussing theories and watching films. your favourite theory to talk about was that giants had once existed. you enjoyed rambling on about it as much as george enjoyed listening to you go on and on about it.

the netflix show was playing quietly as your eyelids fought to stay open, not so you could keep watching the show but so you could continue admiring george and little details that you adored oh so much, like how his mouth would twitch on the left every time a character would say something snarky or how he would clench his fists in anticipation for a jump-scare.

“george?” you whispered.

“yea?” he mumbled.

“thanks for keeping me company today, i appreciate it” you drowsily muttered as you let sleep win you over and fell asleep on top of him, head huddled into his neck and arms sprawled across his chest.

george glanced down and smiled at your sleeping figure.

“those pigs must’ve touched the moon by now” george hummed to no one in particular.

aha get it? bc earlier on she said the day they would get date is when pigs fly? no? mkay i’ll leave

#georgenotfound x reader #georgenotfound #fluff #gnf #gnf x reader #dsmp x reader #dsmp x y/n #georgenotfound x y/n #mcyt x y/n #mcyt x reader

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pocketramblr · 4 years ago

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Many people claim second is either time traveling Bakugou or like fore father or smth because... Well look at him. Whats your take on it?

The worst thing about Tumblr is that the search blog function is so non existent that I can't even be sure you didn't try to see my opinion about this before asking, so I can't even blame you, but... Well:

This was my reaction to people continuing to suggest Bakugo was Second after we learned Yoichi's name

This was my reaction to a "reincarnated second" Bakugo ask

This was me making fun of the time travel theory by explaining that Ponytail Uraraka could actually be Third

And this was a post where I mentioned that I'm basically neutral on Bakugo as a whole because I really like some of his arc and his interactions, especially the remedial course arc, but that I really don't like him involved with the OfA plot line and feel it detracts from both he and Izuku

Ok. Let's go deeper then, and hopefully make this the last post I have to make on this subject.

tldr of the read more: I don't like Second as Bakugo and I actually think that the chances of Second as Bakugo's ancestor went down after the events of this week's chapter

So, I did see a lot of bak-u-go and I finally put my finger on why I hated it so much, (BESIDES the fact that I just do not think Horikoshi has done the set up for time travel in general or Bakugo in particular. Look, izuku should have told us already if Second was Bakugo. It just doesn't make sense for him to be, functionally) and instead of posting it on tumblr and dealing with people actually, like, seeing and reacting to it I just told two friends why I didn't like it thematically in a group chat. The text of my message is pasted bellow:

"So, like, even if Bakugo grows up and yeets back in time and somehow izuku doesn't recognize him with a little face scar which seems VERY UNLIKELY to me EVEN IF, then it COMPELETELY makes First's supposition pointless

the thing WASNT "second extended a hand to someone connected to and hurt by afo and freed first even tho he was nemisis, which is why izuku should extend a hand to tomura"

INSTEAD it was "Baku2 extended a hand to first because he ALREADY KNEW afo's brother was a hero and it would help all might and co and there was ABSOLUTELY NO FAITH, NO GOODWILL, NO OPTIMISTIC COMPASSION involved because baku2 KNEW what would happen and wasn't even really making a CHOICE so much as following the plan"

ahem. anyway thematically it is bad As Well as being functionally bad

is,,, bad theory,,,, i have nine very good Seconds, why would i want no Second and just dealing with bakugo more,,,

So yeah, that's my take on Baku2- it replaces the potential actual character of Second (who is someone I love exploring in many different ways) with a character we already have. And I don't hate the character, but when I'm thinking about OfA Stuff? I don't want him there! I just can't bring myself to care about Bakugo as Second. If I want to have fun with Bakugo, and I sometimes do, I have him go train and develope menteeship with Nejire. I give him some Dadzawa. I have him develop friendships and better himself with the remedial team. Getting rid of a character I like to cast Bakugo in Second's place? The least fun thing I can think of! I just don't want to do it. Have fun, write it yourself, and tag it properly so that I don't have to see it.

Ok. You also mentioned Bakugo as Second's descendent. Honestly, it's possible, but I think it's less likely now. Second has spikey hair but it looks just as much like Dabi's as it does Bakugo's. It's just how Hori draws spikey hair. They don't even have the same style, since Second has an undercut and his hair is shaded darker than Bakugo's. I also don't think that Second is going to have an explosive quirk, because Third just got one! Third's Fa Jin quirk "builds up kinetic energy and use that energy to release an explosive burst of power."

What would be the point of Izuku getting an explosion quirk from Second? It wouldn't make sense with the actual quirk lineage Bakugo has from his parents if they were trying to go that route, and frankly it's just like the Baku2 Problem: I already know how Explosion works! It's not interesting to me! I don't want to miss out on a new fun quirk just to see one I already know again.

I want Second to have a mental quirk, that's my first pick. A lighting quirk would be fine too since I really wanted Sixth to have one but then he got a stealth one so I guess I don't need Second to have a stealth quirk anymore. *Glances at Vaneer.*

Anyway so maybe Third with spikey hair that actually matches Bakugo's color is his ancestor. Maybe Second is. They both have the build of their costumes in a way that reminds of Bakugo's summer and winter hero costumes. Maybe neither of them are. I don't really care that much, because... I don't think Second likes Bakugo. I don't think he liked him at the start, and I don't think he likes him now. I'll quote a friend who actually brought this topic up before I could, and whom I agree with:

Friend: Someone asked me "Okay but what about Second being Bakugou's ancestor?" So, I had to refrain from answering "Well, if you want, but Second would probably be disgusted by Bakugou. He is a guy who sacrificed everything so some asshole with a strong quirk wouldn't do whatever he wants. What do you think he would think of Bakugou?"

Me: you're stronger than me i would have answered that and then gotten a dozen angry messages back like 'uhhhh but but hes CHANGED now if second can 'forgive' a toothpick of a man who never actually did anything to hurt him and was only considered a target because of a relative, aka bc of his genetics, then surely he'd forgive bakugo for uh activlely harming izuku bc of his genetics and openly mocking the past holder's pain, fight, and strength in a meeting he acted too good for!'

So I don't think Second would like Bakugo for those reasons, but also another one- he's naïve. Second didn't like Izuku trying to "save to win" Shigaraki, he thought it was foolish. I don't think he'd like Bakugo's "fight to win" focus either, because to him it wasn't "fight to win." It was "fight to survive" and I don't think that for a single moment he thought he'd 'win' because he was 'a hero' and 'heroes always win and villains always lose and that's why I want to be a hero.' there's a reason he didn't want Bakugo to keep OfA either, and it wasn't just because of a very circumstantial theory some vestiges have based off a sample size of two with absolutely no way to check other variables said that maybe it would kill a holder if they had another quirk.

Has Bakugo grown since those views? Sure. Do I think he's still naïve? Yeah. Do I think Second would see that growth of his, or even care? No. I don't.

I don't think Second hates Bakugo. I just don't think he likes him either. His opinion, I think, probably is similar to my own: "he's a kid who can really grow and be great... And I just don't want him anywhere near OfA buisness."

#it's funny i got an ask on Thursday the twentieth #going 'ugh i hope no one makes this chapter about Bakugo'#and i thought '?? no there's no way? it's dadmight and third right?#anyway. i underestimated the amount some people just want him to spotlighted with OfA i guys #*i guess #i can't relate #i just cannot care about him in that specific plotline i feel like it just makes everything worse #it like. warps the story #but I'm done #I'm done talking about Bakugo in ofa plotlines now ok #ask me something else about him if you want me to care #id love to try to convince you all why Nejire is the superior mentor character for him #and by that i just mean id link to my Hand-Picked chapter where she does just that while they spar together #id love to link you to my fun little piece about him being friends with Mina and Shoto (who should also be good friends but that's a #seperate post)#id love to brag for another week about how i was right on his hero name #I've been using Dynamight for a very long time lol #just. please. don't ask me about this again #i just spent two hours getting all the links and formating this ask. i do not want to spend any more brain energy or emotion on this #i can't bring myself to care enough to anyway #thank you for asking anon. i hope you find someone who can give you content or answers you actually want so you can have fun then #anon #pocket talks to people #ugh i have to tag this as spoilers but.#let's just hope it's not in the main tag #bnha manga spoilers #caps

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autisticburnham · 4 years ago

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Doctor Bashir, I Presume?

I've been putting off this episode bc I have a bunch of library books to read, not bc I'm scared to watch it after getting my diagnosis. Totally

Leeta, I love you

Rom, I love you

Heeeeelllllloooooo Leeta

Leeta, baby, you can ask him out

Quark, that's a disgusting comment to make to anyone, but especially since we know she's studying sociology just for fun

Ugh, Zimmerman

It's a wonder the doctor turned out as well as he did with this fuck as a personality base

Speaking of whom, btw, @ Picard or Lower Decks, can a get a name for him please?

Honey, the original EMH program will be replaced by the time Voyager's even able to talk to the Alpha Quadrant

I know the Federation is supposed to be idyllic and all, but it's horrific negligence if they don't train doctors to work with abuse victims. There's absolutely no excuse for Zimmerman to invite Julian's parents to the station after a reaction like that

The LMH is a bitch. And no offense to Siddig, but it's way less charming on him

Jadzia, honey, he absolutely did harrass you

I love that they imply Morn is so talkative and yet he's evidently got nothing to say on Julian

Miles, idiot, tell your friends you love them

Those fanartists that draw Bajorans with big mouse like ears are so right. Leeta would be adorable and so expressive with them

LOVE the implication that Rom needs to tune his ear like a radio to hear certain things

I hate how Zimmerman looks at Leeta

Hate this

He's so uncomfortable

He's clearly just shutting down

Benjamin, I love you, but this the second time in a season when one of your employees is very obviously under emotional duress bc of the presence of their parents. How are you not noticing this shit?

Don't fucking call him Jules

He reaches for Amsha's hand so mechanically, it's clearly just something that's been drilled into him that he's supposed to do

Dax, aren't you supposed to be a people person? Why are you all smiles rn?

At least she puts an emphasis on Julian's name when she says it. Maybe she thinks he's just uncomfortable bc they're deadnaming him and it doesn't go deeper than that?

Considering what we've seen of Zimmerman combined with the EMH's behavior, this offer seems much more like he's trying to isolate Leeta from her support group and make her feel like she owes him rather than genuinely trying to help her

He has no fucking reason to trust you, bastard

IT WAS YOUR FUCKING DECISION TO MODIFY HIM! DON'T ACT LIKE YOUR POTENTIAL PRISON SENTENC MAKES YOU A VICTIM

Chase Masterson, I love you

I see the acting choices that make people read Amsha as being just as much a victim of Richard as Julian is, but considering the way she talks about Julian pre engineering, she's absolutely an Autism Mom. She may have hurt Julian in different ways than Richard, but she absolutely hurt him. And of course that doesn't change the fact that she may be a victim too, but she's nowhere near as innocent as people portray her

Fucking idiots

Of course he's not less human, he never was. The problem is that you treated him like he was before the """"enhancements""""

Is that a bird feeder on Julian's desk?

Jesus, this scene hurts so much

Why don't Federation schools have programs to help intellectually disabled students that would have noticed and help him?

At least the Federation doesn't consider Julian's Ambigious DisorderTM a "serious birth defect" that justifies genetic encoding. Although the ambiguity of that rule is still very uncomfortably eugenicist

Wishing he had accommodations for his disability instead of abusive parents who would rather rewrite his DNA than accept him as he was doesn't make him "spoiled"

Gross that the writing lowkey implies that their crime was robbing Julian of the potential to "get better" on his own and "not giving him a chance" rather than just the pure ableism and eugenicsm of doing that to any disability person, regardless of their ability to mask

Bitch, forcibly changing everything about him to fit the mold you wanted isn't love. And I don't care how much it "hurt you to see him struggling," I promise you it hurt him more to know that his parents thought he was worthless. It's so fucking disgusting how much media about disabled people focuses on the "burden" the disabled person is to their family rather than how much their family hurts them by constantly making them feel unwanted

And it works too! He hugs her! He thinks his existence was more of a problem than they way they treated him!

Fucking gross that the reason genetic engineering is outlawed is bc of the fear of there being another Khan rather than eugenics just being fucking wrong! I hate this goddamn episode and I hate how Star Trek treats disability!

Also, prisons should be obsolete in the Federation, but they somehow found a way to make that the less upsetting thing here

Disgusting that he forgives them!

Someone make a Short King Anthem amv for Rom!

I'm sorry Miles, how did you just pronounce "patronize"?

I know the darts scene is just supposed to be a meaningless funny bit at the end of the episode, but it's what! They! Should! Do! Provide accommodations for people with different ability levels!!!! Don't treat them like they're lesser or fucking restructure their DNA! Just give them a different starting point that evens things out!!!

Gross when Miles O'Brien does a better job at understanding the moral of the episode than the writers do!

Thank god for Rom and Leeta, otherwise this episode would be unwatchable. 1/10

#ds9 #my post #ds9 rewatch

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chamelis · 4 years ago

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I mean no offense in asking this but what about that "curry" song is offensive? Is curry not an important dish in Indian culture and eating beef against the majority religion of India (Hinduism)?

dude... are you kidding?? have you been reading any of the posts?

*sigh* ok. since u asked so nicely, let me spell it out for you. and for anyone who has been too afraid to ask bc they really should have caught on by now.

first, have a look at this post i made, where i talk abt what south asians face generally. in that post, i put a screenshot of some of the lyrics of that song. first of all, the whole tone of those words is extremely unsettling to me - two Korean men making a song about a culture that they're literally not a part of. like, don't even say "appreciation". if you want to appreciate my culture and food, just eat the fucking food??

but that's not even the main thing. the thing that quite literally made my stomach drop was .... i can't even bring myself to quote it accurately but, smth like "if two people were eating curry and one dropped dead, the other wouldn't notice"?? smth along those lines.

so you're telling me that you like eating indian curry so much that you went wrote an unnecessary song about it, and proceeded to make a disgusting joke about how made it smells??? comparing it to a literal corpse?? what the fuck???

and yes, i know this song was made in 2010 and the original artists have now apologised for making it. but it took them 10 years??? really??? other groups have done this before, btw. stray kids and oh my girl, as far as i can remember. and when they did this, their fans also spoke up about it. im not quite sure what the groups did in response, but, clearly this has been an issue within the last 10 years. but only NOW the original artists realised that they majorly fucked up by making this song??

and dont even get me started on their apology. it was full of "we love indian culture we just wanted to make a fun and catchy song about it". norazo, you didnt just do that. you made a song by taking random 'buzz' words from our culture ("shanti", "TAJ MAHAL", "namaste" and all that shit), referenced random things that we abide by without context (eating with the right hand, no beef etc.), and descriptions of curry that you thought were funny ("its yellow, but it doesn't smell nice" or some shit. again, these arent direct quotes because i refuse to look those lyrics up again.)

what you need to understand, anon, is that this is the worst way you could appreciate someone's culture. that song is made by people who clearly know nothing further and deeper about our culture and traditions past "taj mahal" and "namaste". they think it's hilarious that our food tastes so great but smells so shit. you mean to tell me they loooove our culture, but then thought it was okay to take random hindu terminology which has a deeper meaning and relevance, and just throw them in a song about curry??

by now, i really hope you're seeing why the existence of this song is deeply unsettling. but there's more of a problem here. clearly, over the recent years of kpop groups' controversial encounters with this song, svt never realised that the song is offensive. they've had the luxury of not learning why this song is stupid and derogatory and berating to our culture. they've been able to ignore the fact that south asians across the world are misunderstood and discriminated against because people like norazo reduce our culture to these songs with no meaning other than to """appreciate""" something in the worst way possible.

and that's the worst part to me. svt clearly dont have to care about racism and the struggles of other asians. they're famous and rich and they have a korean fanbase to rely on, so they dont have to care about the struggles of international fans. but south asian culture is REPEATEDLY used in kpop for the aesthetic - there are so many examples of this that you could probably Google it and find a plethora of kpop controversies explained by south asians.

and you know why this keeps happening?? because culturally, in korea, people aren't understanding why shit like this is dumb and wrong. when it comes to idols and their companies, they're either ignoring the uproar (like pledis), or making a half assed apology and then proceeding to appropriate and diminish another culture for their next comeback. so yeah, svt and other idols aren't forced to care about this shit, but they need to start caring. and if they don't, i and a lot of other south asian fans aren't gonna keep loving and supporting and paying them just for them to turn around and slap us in the face by perpetuating harmful and stupid stereotypes of us.

my friend v made a good post here which explains how kpop has brought global east asian rep and broke stereotypes, and now we need the same for south asian cultures. we have an incredibly beautiful and rich cultural background, but when people make songs like this and idols sing them and find them catchy or funny, they reduce our cultures to a couple words and stereotypes. they make us feel small. insignificant past being people that eat smelly curry with our fucking right hand. i am more than that. south asians are more than that. and at this point, i don't even know if svt, the people whom I've given so much love, know that.

I'd like to believe that they had no racist intentions. but that frankly doesn't matter either way. they fucked up by singing that song and seeing nothing wrong with it. and they're still fucking up by staying silent about it. and this is gonna allow some rookie group to make the same fucking mistake in the future, and the cycle repeats, and south asians are continually discriminated and made to feel shit about themselves because of some song that their favourite idols can't stop singing no matter how many times they're told to.

lastly, if you've read all of this and decided that south asian fans are being dramatic and we're "cancelling ppl for no reason", just send me another ask saying so. then I'll block your IP address.

alternatively, if you have a genuine question about this, if my wording didn't make sense at any point, my inbox is open. but pls be polite. it's the least i ask for.

you can refer to this post which is pinned on my page which has resources you can use to contact pledis and tell them to make an apology statement and urge svt to understand their mistake + inform themselves on this issue.

#asks #answered #anonymous #anon i just woke up and spent 30 mins writing that for you lmao pls be thankful #svt sitch.#ok to rb!

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daydreamindollie · 5 years ago

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+idea/teaser ⏤ bts ot7 | seven cursed princes

⇢ hi there :3

⇢ sooo...i have another idea based on yet another manga that I am currently obsessed with

⇢ I recommend you all to check it out, it’s currently on a hiatus for season 2 but after only reading season 1, I’ve been struck with inspiration!

⇢ the manga is called ‘Sincerely: I Became a Duke’s Maid’ by Jooara/Juara

⇢ give it a read, you won’t regret it!

⇢ ANYWAYYYYY!

⇢ lemme give you all a rundown on what I have in mind for my fanfic based on this amazing piece of art!

⇢ be warned, there will be spoilers/hints on the general plot of the manga so if you would like to read the first 45 chapters aka season 1 of the manga first then feel free!

⇢ this 👏🏼 is 👏🏼 going 👏🏼 to 👏🏼 be 👏🏼 a 👏🏼 reincarnation au 👏🏼 people! 👏🏼 - something i never thought i’d play around with in this lifetime but here i am, inspired and ready to write an entire multichapter fic on this

⇢ 👏🏼 LETS 👏🏼 GET 👏🏼 IT!

⇢ to start with, reader is reading a novel about BTS ⏤ all of whom were cursed and, therefore, ridiculed by society despite being a part of the royal bloodline, in fact, they were going to be the crown prince of their kingdom

⇢ note: all of them come from different kingdoms (all of which i do not yet know the names of) that are under massive tension around each other - their relationship with each other isn’t very good, lets just keep it at that, no trust, no solid alliences, no nothing.

⇢ their (bts’s) curse was the only thing that brought the kingdom’s leaders/kings and queens together for only a breif moment

⇢ The princes were born at different times and since the curse was the same for all of them, they were all forced to live in the same secluded mansion deep in the woods, owned by some insignigicant and greedy count/baron (clearly i need to research these terms of heirarchy so ignore me for now)

⇢ after each new prince of a different kingdom was born with the same curse, they were immediately sent away to live in the same unkempt mansion, however, most of them never knew of each other’s existence as no grand welcoming ceremony/party was hosted for their arrival

⇢ lemme give you some details of the curse, this is going to be fairly similar to how the curse affects the host in the manga i read so be warned :

⇢ the curse makes the princes look younger in terms of their body size as they can’t stomach any food ⏤ this stunts their growth and makes them look half their age so jinnie who would be 20 years old at first meeting actually looks like a 10 year old instead

⇢ they have constant bags under their eyes, unhealthy pale skin bc they can bearly walk outside for their daily dose of vitamin D

⇢ one hald of their skin is slowly rotting off corresponding to the side that has the curse marks circling their wrist, kinda like a singular hand cuff

⇢ they are always weak, dizzy and just really really unhealthy, as a result, they can’t ever bring themselves to look in the mirror from how hideous they look ⏤ their appearnce makes the maids and servants vomit

⇢ their eyes are dull and faded in colour because of the lack of nutrients and their hair is spindly thin too

⇢ sometimes, they can’t even drink water and puke it up despite how incredibly thirsty they are

⇢ because they were ostrasised to such an extent, they never knew love or were showed any affection when growing up ⏤ this seemed to make the effect of their curse worse

⇢ not only that but the maids and staff never approached them willingly or treated them well because of how disgusted their appearance made them feel

⇢ this only made our beloved bts princes feel worse about themselves

⇢ an untimely storm, thankfully, was able to give them hope because it made them realise that they weren’t the only people in the world that had the horrible curse inflicted onto them

⇢ the storm forced the count/baron to renovate the mansion as the roof fell through and the princes were sent to another one of his properties where the count’s niece was visiting

⇢ i am naming her Areum, okie? (don’t blame me if your name is Areum, blame on of the many korean birthname websites out there)

⇢ upon seeing the princes, she screams and calls them disgusting monsters, this helps the princes lean on each other for the support and love that they were deprived of since young

⇢ this ultimately leads to them developing an open/poly relationship with one another

⇢ note: poly relationships weren’t uncommon during these times as many royals had concubines and such, it was only uncommon that the partners were all the same gender

⇢ the knowledge of no longer being alone helped them recover from the curse. They also gave and recieved love from each other which vanquished the curse enough so that they grew healthy and finally looked their age

⇢ their recovery was only to an extent however, as they still felt weak and still had the curse marks as well as some rotting skin on areas they were able to easily hide

⇢ eventually, word of their recovery from the curse came out and they were welcomed back into their kingdoms and invited to the annual celebration in worship of the holy beings

⇢ in this celebration, they meet Areum once again, who they had long since forgotten because of their love for each other

⇢ in this meeting, Areum actually acknowledges them as ‘human’ bc their curse wasn’t as bad. she shows them an act of kindness that was never shown to them before so they instantly fall in love with her

⇢ since falling for her, they strieve to win her heart as well but were rejected as she was already engaged to the crown prince

⇢ this crown prince is taehyung’s younger brother, who had ‘replaced’ him because he was cursed and the kingdom still needed an heir to the throne ⏤ this was the same case for all of the princes as they could no longer be the crown prince of their kingdom due to their curse

⇢ when the new crown prince (taehyung’s younger brother) found out that tae was actually his brother all along, he was overjoyed and tried to get close to him but was treated bitterly by tae and the rest of bts bc of Areum

⇢ despite taehyung projecting hate onto his younger brother, his younger brother only admired him and wanted to get to know him as he grew up lonely and craving an older sibling

⇢ bts ended up leading a rebellion in order to win Areum’s heart but their attempts failed and led to their execution

⇢ while reader was reading this novel, she cried and felt only pity and a want to help the fictional cursed princes bc she was able to see how truly sweet they were and reasoned that they deserved so much better than how they were treated

⇢ however, reader knew that she couldn’t do anything as they were just characters in a fictional world

⇢ thankfully, there was a sequel that was published just as reader finished reading the first novel. in this sequel, some type of redemption was given for the accursed princes

⇢ unfortunately, just as she finished the prologue and was midway through reading this first chapter, reader got caught up in an accident (maybe i’ll make it a car accident but that’s too cliche for me so i don’t know...)

⇢ and when reader wakes up she is in bed being nursed by a character from the novel ⏤ the kind hearted chef of the baron/count’s manor who hoped and wished her cooking helped the boys recover somewhat from their curse

⇢ the chef told her that she found her out in the forest in the heavy rain and was about to shout to her when she collapsed

⇢ to thank the chef for saving her life, reader became a maid of the manor as they were fairly understaffed. after stumbling into one of the prince’s rooms she realised that she was reincarnated into the novel

⇢ it was strange though bc she doesn’t remember a maid being called (Y/N) in the novel ⏤ she was possibly a new side character or another insignificant role of the plot...

⇢ that didn’t matter though bc no matter who she was or what she did, she wouldn’t be able to return to her original life as Charlotte the aspiring singer and musician that had yet to make it big

⇢ since she had died as Charlotte in the real, modern world, there’s no way she could ever even think of going back

⇢ instead, she’ll become the best maid and best companion the princes had ever had

⇢ she’ll change their pitiful fate and give them the happy ending they deserve

A/N: NOWWWW THEN! If you’ll all excuse me, I’ve got some major planning to do!

masterlist

#i wish this manga plot was my idea #but i gave it a twist of my own #that i'm not revealing here bc i'm planning on making this a fic #bts ot7 x reader #bts poly au #bts prince au #remember the novel's sequel - that's important

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blackwoolncrown · 5 years ago

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I also think that gay and lesbian people need to recognize that many of you are understandably very upset with the fact that cishets often pressure and needle you about not being who you are and expecting that underneath it all you’re ~ a little bi~.

I get that and it’s wrong of them but what needs to be addressed is that y’all sometimes surreptitiously take this out on bi ppl. We end up representing, to you, the shadow you straight ppl project your way; the bi woman who like lesbians loves women but still also likes men- a concept that understandably frustrates and even disgusts you. The bi man who loves men but still also is attracted to women, just like you have to assert you are not when heteros badger you about it.

And it’s irritating bc we’re already that shadow self to straight ppl- many of whom are NOT actually straight but still closeted, many of them closeted bisexuals who due to bi invisibility feel caught between having to ‘decide’ whether they are l/g or straight. And actual straight people see us the same way many l/g ppl do: as potential defectors, promiscuous threats.

See a bunch of y’all have identities in which repulsion towards the ‘opposite’ gender is a factor, and I can’t speak on that bc that’s your life but I will tell you that when you project that on us, it’s a problem. You see us as traitors bc we’ll sleep with, love and identify with your ‘enemy’. But y’all have GOT to stop projecting your issues onto other people and refusing to see our identities as valid in and of themselves and not allegories for your personal struggles.

It may be easier for you to keep forgetting to mention us but it also seems like you don’t want to give us visibility bc our existence may come too close to validating that which you’ve spent so long saying doesn’t exist in you personally.

You can’t keep ignoring our very valid presence in the community just because it muddies the way you talk about it. We blur lines, I know. That’s why both straight and LGBT communities have problems with us. In many of the same ways trans/nb ppl bug cis ppl bc we fuck up their neat compartmentalized concepts of gender, we often bug ppl whose concept of attraction works on an ‘either or’ basis instead of ‘and’.

Again: that’s a YOU problem. Stop projecting it on us.

Being out here hard for us, too. It’s not easier in any way because you think we ‘pass’ as this that or the other or can have ‘straight’ relationships or whatever. All of us are affected by homophobia and restrictive notions of gender. All of us. And then at the end of the day a bunch of ppl who SHOULD understand us don’t really gaf bc you see this as some stupid battle with sides and shit. Ain’t no sides fam that’s not how this works.

So like I get that there are issues when society can often treat lesbians and gay ppl like they don’t know themselves and underneath it all ‘you’re a little attracted to men/women still, right?’. But it’s fucked up to see us as representations of your discomforts and not real people with a valid sexuality.

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janiedean · 5 years ago

Note

what are your thoughts on the claim by antis (the people who I have seen reblog the post happen to be fi**Xrey shippers) that reylo being canon is racism winning or that kylo ren getting focus is racism etc or say the trio is finn/rey/poe even though that poe was intended to die in tfa

in order:

'reylo being canon is racism’ is ridiculous because if it wasn’t obvious from tfa it was obvious from tlj and like........ it’s not like they could cast a nonwhite kylo since he’s supposed to be the son of two white people and if rey was nonwhite people would scream that it’s racist for other reasons, and on top of that finn and rey never were written as love interests from the get-go and it’s obvious

also considering that finn a) had rose who was a canon love interest that was scrapped bc people bitched about it [asian], b) went nowhere with jannah who was the obvious rose replacement just cooler either [black], c) didn’t have the mlm romance with poe with whom he had more chemistry than anyone else anyway [oscar is latino] if I had to go for their reasoning then it’s kind of racist that the black main lead had no actual canon love story RESOLUTION with none of his THREE possible love interests all of which were not white, but nah, it’s racism just if he doesn’t end up with the only main white woman his age? ... I mean, sorry but this is not progressive whatsoever and I’m dying on that hill *shrug*

also reylo is a ship between an abuse victim who did a lot of bad shit and someone who sees the good in them in which the abuse victim turns their life around eventually so miss me with ‘racism winning’, it would have been ‘you can do good things with your life still’ winning if he survived but whatever

‘kylo ren getting focused on is racism’ the dark side has been more popular than the light side han excluded since sw was a thing and at the end of it ben solo was the objectively best written character in this trilogy (saying this as someone whose fave was poe), I’m sooooo surprised! also he’s the main dark side person, if they don’t focus on him who are they gonna focus on? *shrug*

re poe: if I was in the shoes of these people I’d be here protesting about that disgusting retcon space drug trader storyline GIVEN TO THE LATINO CHARACTER GOING AGAINST COMICS CANON because that was pretty fucking offensive. also, poe was not killed in tfa and it was a decision taken before they shot the movie because oscar was like ‘do I really have to die again in the first fifteen minutes’ while in talks for the role so the fact that he was supposed to die means absolutely shit because making him live was not a decision they made at the last minute, so miss me with the poe should have died discourse. however as someone who’d have appreciated good trio stuff in tros, they completely fucked up 80% of that starting with the retconned storyline and not giving finn a proper character arc so like... idk if people want to discuss racism in this sequels maybe they should talk about how the trio part of the movie fucked over both finn and poe as characters, about how tros sidelined the other nonwhite actresses and fucked over rose, while jannah could have been cool but oh hey ‘some stormtroopers feel the force and leave others don’t’ nice calvinism there, and zoe... I mean she didn’t even take the mask off but okay sure that was absolutely progressive? also lando was back but he was there for five minutes??? I mean.... sorry but considering that tros treated like shit all the nonwhite characters who could have had a storyline all on their own instead of revolving around a bad copypaste of troj made to retcon tlj never mind the disrespect to the actors (I can’t forgive them for making oscar play that fucking drug backstory when poe was a character who was NOT supposed to be a latino stereotype in the goddamned established canon, and kelly marie tran... let’s not even touch the fucking disrespect of her being in that movie for ONE MINUTE AND A HALF), I think that the problem isn’t reylo smooching or kylo ren/ben solo existing. poe/finn/rose/jannah/zoe/lando could have had decent storylines on their own..... and the only one who sort of had one was poe and it included that dumbass retconned backstory so if people want to cry about rey and kylo locking lips when they had been told since the trailer from tlj instead of pointing out that this movie’s plot/treatment of nonwhite actors was atrocious then... well. sorry but it’s typical anti armchair activism IF worrying about SW is even activism. miss me with that shit either. and whether poe should have been part of the new trio or no is completely irrelevant given this background. like, they had a lot of nonwhite characters, they could have done really good/nice things with them, they didn’t, but sure, the problem is ben solo’s existence and that he and rey kissed when tlj made it blatantly obvious they would. k.

*shrug*

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mithliya · 1 year ago

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i agree that in the end there's no one we detransitioners hurt more than ourselves. and i too have to admit that it also hurted immensely to watch your favourite media personalities turn to gender shit.

i was gnc even before i realised that im a lesbian. i grew up in eastern europe, and didn't know that real love between women is even possible, that its called being a lesbian. everything around me implied that im bound to marry a man in the end, give birth to children and be a mother. and it was scary. i secretly dreamt of waking up a boy one day because then i would be able to marry a nice girl. when i got my own access to the internet, i was exposed to even more misogyny and it made me spiral even further to the point of dreading growing up, feeling disgusted and trapped in my own body etc. but on the other hand i slowly found about homosexuality and other stuff. and so i discovered other gnc women. famous gnc women. when i was a teen, i think i had a celebrity crush on Rain Dove(i still find her very attractive), and listened to JD Samson and LP. (i sorta built my own teen separatist utopia in my online space, when i only watched and listened to and read what gnc and lesbian women had to offer) it was like a breath of fresh air for me. and then women who were just like me, whom i looked up to one by one started to proclaim themselves non-binary and proceed to promote that rhetoric further. it threw me back so hard i got depressed. i was bullied by my dad for "looking too much like Jolie's tif daughter". it took me long to stabilise myself back. im still dysphoric, some times feel worse than others, but nothing i can't bear really.

now i don't think that those women caused more damage than my misogynistic environment,my school, classmates, dance class, family, social media etc., they just reopened the old wound in an unstable teen. but i can't help feeling wronged by them a little bit. i don't place the whole blame on them, at least not equal to what misogynistic society's done to me first. as well as i don't think that their fault as celebrities is anywhere near to anything that a regular detrans woman may have of feel. but i do think that people like them, who helped to spread those ideologies, even if it came from their own traumas and discomfort caused by misogyny, have to take some responsibility for their actions, once they decide to detrans or desist. at least for leading young, gnc, lesbian, mentally ill or unstable, autistic girl to the gender bs.

(thanks for reading my rumbling. i can also call my feelings very subjective, because i acknowledge that after all this time i still feel angry at the world, and at the environment those women had become a part of, that led a little anxious insecure girl i was to think there was actually something wrong with her. can also be the case. bc page's transition also hit harder than i wanted, even though i already was a radfem)

btw shiloh jolie (john) is not trans, shes just a gnc girl and i think its awesome that her mom let her explore that stuff and called her john (as shiloh requested) bc its what allowed her to grow up to be gnc unapologetically rather than self-hating.

i get where ur coming from though, i think its a pretty toxic cycle in general, like many gnc women & girls buy into that ideology because of how it targets them & then further promote it which slowly impacts more and more gnc people negatively. i just think that people have a lot of unnecessary hostility and presumptiveness towards detrans people that acts like these detrans people were personally responsible for this cycle existing, as if they also werent harmed by that same rhetoric and aren't actively fighting against it by being vocal against it. that said, of course it's important to go against your past wrongs and to try to right them, my issue is that people assume the worst of detrans people & don't realise that its detrans people fighting against those wrongs the hardest right now, alongside gnc people.

#anonymous

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puthyjuth · 4 years ago

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a current reflection of my life– and a really scattered journal entry about art and capitalism and communism

i find that i’m always found between two extremes, a binary lens of life. as a viet diaspora in the US, im told to reject communism (viet immigrants who move to US to flee war + communism... many of whom are very conservative & trump supporters). as a femme, i’m told to exist as a woman. as a person existing in capitalism, i’m told to subject to the system or i’m not worthy of living. obviously big generalizations but i think specificities in each of these is easy to see

but its like as a communist how do i exist for myself but also for my community? it’s a growing question and i’m not saying i’m there yet. My entire waking life could be constant organizing and going around the country to organize, and yet here i am. Not. to be fair, it’s a pandemic & i don’t have a car. that in itself makes it really difficult for me to do anything really. but i’m proactive in ways i can be at home these days

i feel shame, ofc, in not organizing (and i don’t think “activists” should be the only ones organizing. i think its weird to separate that in the same way people separate politics from life experience. activism = caring for people, shouldn’t we do that anyway??? sorry, i don’t want to live solely for myself. i feel so fulfilled when i know i’ve helped someone) but i think this shame is what will push me

i also find myself in a strange conundrum of art and capitalism, i think art truly is beautiful because it can be anything. how it can be propaganda but also mean nothing or just be a result of boredom, i just love that we can use art as a means for ourselves or for another cause and in that process we create something beautiful or ugly or dialogue at the very least. art is anticapitalist! so i hate when ppl commodify art in such disgusting ways like biennials + certain gallery settings

and yet I chose art to be my method of exploitation, all careers will be exploitative, but i do find a lot- WAY MORE fun learning about art and graphic design and motion graphics 3D animation all of that than fucking research. and honestly this is my flex, that i chose to do this even though i think i had a good chance to succeed in capitalism. i think i could’ve pursued med school or pharm school or nursing school because i am smart and diligent but i’d also be SEVERELY!! DEPRESSED!!!!!! (Not that only “smart & diligent” people will be able to succeed, there are lots of factors even if u are that would stop you like being able bodied, not being seen as a threat (relevant to race & gender), lack of accessibility to mental health services etc.)

i could probably never face myself not only having to literally suffer to learn shit i dont wanna learn under the guise of helping ppl yet knowing that the medical apartheid exists and that i’m part of that... at least with my art there is some aspect of control

i think even with art too i could achieve “capitalist success” if i’m going to be truly truly honest, but ultimately i dont think i’ll ever want to be rich bc i want most if not all the money that doesnt go toward food/housing/personal joy to go to mutual aids + people who need it. We will all be exploited, everything is unethical. my peace will come from knowing i’m not only doing what i need to be doing to survive but i’m actively helping my community with all the power possible to do it as long as i can

Its ok that i’m not 100% the person i want to be. I will be that person. I am only 21. It’s ok. I’m allowed to exist, and I’m allowed to grow and change. it is ok. i will be better.

#journal #x #j

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amorrdemiel · 5 years ago

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Rewatching the L word.

I remember the first time I saw this show, I would watch it secretly on YouTube when my parents were asleep and I would stay up so so late just learning more. I was fascinated. I’m sometimes still confused about my sexuality. But then, I felt I knew this was me. This is what I was. (Similar to the time that I watched greys anatomy and there was a character that slept with Cass and she said it felt like she could finally see) I AM attracted to masculinity, but I’m also not sexually attracted to men, but also I love big arms, I always have, and I like masculine looking people. But I also like feminine masculine energy? And I like feminine women, and I’m attracted them, but I think my desire to be close to my dad, brought on a lot of misguided affection, and also I’m generally into gender bending sort of things. I think it’s attractive when a woman looks very man-like. I just do. But I also can’t discount the way society and especially a machista Mexican culture has instilled in me an idea that I MUST be the woman and have woman like roles and my partner MUST be a man, and have man like roles. As much as I love classic Hollywood films, sometimes I wish five year old me had never witnessed and absorbed what was going on, because I remember being ten and seeing the manliest guy in a show, looking Mexican, and thinking “oh, I have to like him” like when I saw Shark Boy. I thought I had to like violent, aggressive, Latino men. But also mostly all the men I’ve dated or had huge crushes on, were gay or perceived as feminine. And I felt most comfortable with my last SO who even my sister said had a very feminine aura. Sexuality is confusing when you overthink the way I do. Because I don’t just follow my body, I don’t listen to it. Like even these days, I remember having sex with Liza and it was my first sexual experience with a woman (besides that one girl I slept with in Corpus, but she was very aggressive and I faked an orgasm bc I didn’t know how to tell her it hurt like hell the way she was fingering me lmao) but when I slept with Liza, it wasn’t love but it was so...sensual and normal and I remember thinking wow. So you DON’T have to feel like sex is a burden? You don’t have to feel an ounce of disgust? You don’t have to make it kinky? You don’t have to close your eyes and avoid all eye contact with him or god forbid his dick? Or just wait for it to be over? It felt like the most normal sex ever and that in and of itself was a liberating experience because all the sex I had had with all of my prior boyfriends despite feeling the truest love of who they were as people, still didn’t feel as normal as what I experienced with Liza, whom I didn’t even love. The only awkward thing about Liza was my own failure to be vulnerable with another human being. And when I tried to be present and vulnerable and really really there with my last dude, Jordan, even though I really liked him, I was drawn to him for some reason (ironically, all his exes turned out to leave him for a woman and many people mistakingly thought he was gay) I loved watching him at work and hearing him speak and interact. And even then, having sex with him, even as present as I was, looking him in the eye, I GOT PNUEMONIA. In JULY. And it FELT like my SOUL had traveled so god damn FAR from my body, it hurt so much. Even my sister felt like I had left me. I had abandoned me. I had betrayed me. so SEXUALITY IS CONFUSING WHEN YOU OVERTHINK. And I guess you could say I’m being challenged to be in my own body but what if being on your body SUCKS. and I guess I’m saying that from a very unmindful space. I reblog all those beautiful quotes about being here. Being present. Today exists, you exist. Live in it. Love in it. And I feel that, but sometimes I get so stuck in my head, it’s a sickness. I get so stuck in my head and I tend to want to stay there because it hurts to be in my body. I feel anxious and terrible. And it’s hard to be here and receive, when you’re so god damn scared of your own life and your own power and the power of others and the life of others.

You’re so god damn terrified to look anyone in the eye, even yourself.

I’ve been having a lot of nostalgia. Listening to The Adults are Talking by The Strokes, laying in my room (my pug just had surgery so I have to stay here quarantined with her) looking at my lights, and my tapestry, and my crystals and my piano, watching the l word, remembering high school. The way I would come home and lay down and listen to music and just stare at my surroundings. The way I would feel, the way I thought life would be. How it felt being so sad and introspective and so full of art and music. So quiet. So shameful. So pained, so much tearing to be free. So confused. So in my head. So in my head. So in my head. And I feel in my head because it hurts to be here in my body. And before it hurt because of pain. I sat and I felt that pain, I sat for a whole summer, last summer. I worked only five hours a week, I saw a therapist twice a week, I woke up every morning and sat naked in my one room apartment and would rewatch mister Rogers and just cry and cry and sob and sob and curse my past and my feelings. And I cried all summer until I stopped crying and I felt love. And I felt so much happiness and freedom this past year. The rivers even spoke to me. They gifted me wisdom, and advice. They told me “run the only way you know how to run.” But

It’s so different

When you’re doing it all, in real time.

Sitting with past pain is one thing. I was so grateful I got to pause my life, that my ex supported me, that my sister was there to text, that I got therapy from a wonderful man, that I had my own self to hold. But to be here, awake.

Jesus fucking Christ that’s hard and scary

And that brings me to the stupid Wikipedia quote. She is so consumed in her own self loathing. She has no other energy to put outwards. Misery is her mirror and she is forever gazing in it. I feel like that has been me. I wonder if that is me now. Everyone hated Jenny, but I adored her! I wanted to be like her. Now I see her more clearly but watching it again, remembering the nostalgia, I feel a lot like her sometimes. Which is Terrible. I wanted to imitate her before because I thought she was beautiful and soft and light. And I thought that’s what women should be. Wrong. Some women are like this. Some women aren’t and neither is wrong or right it just is. But I read this quote and I think.

Is this my life? Do I want misery to be my mirror?

And it’s funny that this quote particularly stands out to me because it’s so similar to one of my absolute favorite quotes from my favorite book the prophet. I want to gaze into the mirror of beauty, of life. Of me.

I want to make eye contact with me

I don’t want to be no face.

I feel so strange. Always. All the time.

I know this has all been a huge rant. And I am doing it on here because I can’t write in my journal without my pug attacking my own.

I know I’ll feel my body, and I’ll be here, right now. I know the universe will guide me back to me again, and again, and again.

Just like any river, no matter what mountain it comes from, no matter how high it begins, finds itself at the mouth of the sea, swallowing it into wholeness.

I know everything will be okay.

#personal #my biggest rant yet #the l word #the prophet

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