#coming from a trans person who would totally fall into that

[devotedcultist]

Funny little Magnus Archives theory I enjoy is that trans people are more likely to become avatars of the stranger then any other power because they already feel like they’re in the wrong skin.

[doberbutts]

You mentioned in response to another ask that you don't use "transandrophobia" because the trans theory you were taught by trans women told you that "transmisogyny" covered those things and that is a total revelation to me. I've been thinking for a long time that it seemed to me that the idea of transmisogyny *does* cover transandrophobia, it just impacts trans femmes and trans mascs differently a lot of the time. But I had no idea that there has been theory/discussion that says this. I'm more used to the idea of "TMA" with the implication that only trans women are affected by transmisogyny. Is that more of a new thing and transmisogyny used to be considered as a more broad term? And would you trace that change to the same issue you're talking about with a lot of current feminism forgetting how feminism is also a "men's issue"?

Idk if I would call it "new" per say. The word trans-misogyny was coined in 2007 and did not include trans men, but the book in which it was coined did mention that language was likely needed to describe the trans man experience as well. There have been a number of different attempts, but none have really stuck.

I went to college starting in 2010, so roughly 3 years after Serrano coined the word. While in college, my school's GSA wanted LGBT elders to come and talk to all the scared freshly-minted adults who were trying to figure out this being gay thing. The woman who ran my GSA found a Trans woman who was willing to be my mentor and sponsor, she wrote my letters for me back when that was still necessary for medical transition, and we met frequently for her to teach me more or less how to be trans safely. Some things she did not know- how to bind safely, how to attach a semi-permenant packer, etc. But others she knew very well, because she herself dealt with both being seen as a man by society as well as the effects of testosterone on her body for decades before she transitioned.

Anyway. This woman was great, and is a significant portion of the reason I'm still alive to this day. And she is who taught me the word transmisogyny, and that it should really cover all trans people because all trans people experience an intersection of transphobia and misogyny. Whether that was popular theory at the time or not, that is what us young kids learned directly from the mouths of trans women at my college, which to me means that others were also learning this particular version of transfeminist theory.

Unfortunately by the time I dropped out of college in 2013/2014, online trans spaces were having stupid arguments such as "transtrenders are bad" and "neopronouns are bad" and "nonbinary people are cis people who want to feel special" and "trans men should be hunted for sport" and "trans women are incel nazis" and. Well. I went "wow this place is a cesspit and I feel like no one here has actually talked to another transgender person face to face" and then did not engage with the online community. So I don't really know how common or popular the understanding I was taught was at the time, though it certainly seems quite rare now.

(As a caveat I don't really think trans people of any gender have anything that isn't similar with each other when it comes to oppression, outside of certain bodily things that can't be helped because that's literally the thing we're transgender about, and I think we all experience very similar oppression but sometimes with a different hat)

As for what caused this particular defining to fall into obscurity? I really can't say. I don't know how popular the transfeminist theory the trans women who spoke at my GSA meetings taught us actually was in the broader world. Every once in a while I meet someone who lived through that same time who remembers that theory, which tells me it had gained at least some traction if it was being discussed in multiple parts of the country, but... that's really it. And it's pretty unpopular theory nowadays, I get people calling me a scumbag and claiming that I say transmisogyny doesn't exist just for mentioning that the theory I was taught includes trans men in the discussion.

But I don't think it's specifically the whole TMA/TME thing. I think it's a lack of understanding of what oppression and what intersectionality are, how they operate, how they work, how we define things through them. There are many people who believe that men do not experience misogyny. But, they do, that's why it's an insult to a boy to call him a girl during a moment of femininity or vulnerability, as a means of calling him weak because girls are believed to be weak. There are many people who think intersectionality turns oppression into additives, as though stacking marginalizations like dnd buffs. This also falls apart because oppression is not like quick math where you add a +5 to every roll if any part of your identity is privileged and a -7 if any part is oppressed.

I've had people get mad at me for saying that straight people experience homophobia while we also have sitting politicians that make jokes on live TV about how they'd drown their (presumably straight) children if they found out their kids were gay. For saying that GNC cis people experience transphobia when butches are getting kicked out of bathrooms and drag queens are getting jumped in bars. For reminding people that when Sikhs are killed due to being mistaken for Muslim in this country that hates Muslims over a national tragedy our Muslim population did not cause, it's still considered and called Islamophobia, because just because Americans are too stupid to tell a Sikh from a Muslim doesn't mean they weren't spurred into that hate crime by their rampant hatred of Muslims and the sight of a turban and long beard.

[tocomplainfriend]

Danidraws again! Ace and Aro - phobia detected!

TW: Ace and Aro phobia, Arophobia, Acephobia!

Dani made fun of a AroAce Alastor fan for drawing him for AroAce PSA posts:

Person killing fun and comfort of other people, cause... IDK... you are just an asshole, I guess?

Why so mean about a AroAce doing a PSA for people in the fandom who have, time and time again, not known this same things. -And discriminate and attack people cause of not knowing shit.

This sounds like such a "UM! ERMM! Canonically, this character wouldn't b-" shut up. Let Aroace people have their conform and care to explain things to people! You are mean for no reason

Also, the fact of Alastor possible not knowing about Asexuality out of pure guess isn't correct. #1 People can fully use his character for pride month art and AroAce PSA stuff! #2 Asexuality as a term has existed since late 1800 and related stuff to rights of people of different sexualities. In the 1900 Schlegel was quoted: “Let the same laws for all the intermediate stages of sexual life: the homosexuals, heterosexuals, bisexuals, asexuals, be legal as they are now in existence for the heterosexuals” search it up. #3 what's stopping him from learning it, or making fan comics of him doing so?

Sorry, all your knowledge of previous queer awareness comes from the 1980s to 1990s only.

There are many stories of people (FROM AGES AGO) that fall into being Trans! That the term didn't exist all those years ago-it doesn't delete anything from that, or that people can see themselves in them and do PSAs with them in it!

He could've known or not.

(Dani, and anyone, would totally do something with characters they identify with in their own ways too, like this shit is so dumb to complain about as if no one did similar stuff!)

Literally a hypocrite:

Being mean to people about stuff!

(other things about DaniDraws)

[doink-boink]

Finally drew my interpretation of Zach's parents!

Have had these fellows in the works for a good while!

Really had to lock in when doing the writing here lol - my handwriting is normally a weird hyper mix between cursive and print. But messier. Hopefully its legible! Enjoy some more yapping about these guys below the cut >:D

Must mention this is within my own AU! My interpretation of Zach specifically is a trans man. So uh! No way in hell Arthur is supportive in that regard. He is a miserable man whose only concern is furthering the family business and his public image.

Really looked to both Moral Orel and Bojack Horseman as inspiration for how these two would be. Did not intend for Arthur to share a name with the character he is inspired by lol - but uhm! He specifically is like Arthur Puppington when Clay was a kid: Distant, cold, though not physically abusive. Emotionally? Oh brother, you bet.

Regarding Kim and Arthur's relationship, that was really dead in the water. Kim is a self published author, or rather, an ASPIRING self published author. She mostly writes crime novellas/dramas, though needed some outsider input regarding the legal side of her stories. So, of course, she decides to reach out to the biggest law firm in the area.

It is initially a short and sweet interaction: "I ask you questions, you give me answers and insight when you can." However, she grows to enjoy Arthur's company, falling for him quickly. VERY rushed marriage ensues! Good god! (Of course not ASAP, within a few months time of dating/correspondence) Not too certain as of right now where Zach comes into the mix, but definitely in that honeymoon stage of a relationship where you don't quite know the person yet to really gauge if things will work out or not.

I mean, things absolutely do NOT work out in the end, but they don't know that yet. Arthur I feel is the type to want a family ASAP. Need that sweet sweet heir to the company. Will accept nothing less than a son. Sucks for him, doesn't end up coming to fruition until much later! AFAB child, disappointment on Arthur's behalf, compassion on Kim's. Like a night and day difference - even after Zach does eventually transition (his mother is deceased by this point) his father refuses to accept it until he dies. By until I mean: "You still are not my son." *flatline*

Kim was there for Zach until the day she died, which would probably be around late middle school to early highschool? In that age range. Old enough to have fond and in depth memories. Which! Arthur is the one who discovers what had happened. Busy writing a novel when wham, sudden cardiac arrest - alone, as she tended to keep to herself. Entire family dynamic changes from then onward, though the abusive aspects of it were ever present. Arthur is generally unsupportive of Zach's endeavors, frustrated that he is going into science and robotics as opposed to law. (Though I do think he'd have been trained or prepped for a career as a lawyer throughout his teens-adolescence)

Zach is the closest to his mother, with most of his fashion sense coming from her. Gotta love the turtleneck sweater! @novazentryx came up with the idea that he inherited his early black sweater from Tazzy Chris from her after it shrunk in the wash, loved that so y'know what! This totally applies here. Not only did he inherit the sweater, but also her V-necklace! (Which, if you have seen Zoey, is where she gets it from! As well as she looks strikingly similar to Kim. On that front I think that was a surprise from Aviva, knowing how close he was to her)

Spitballing with this one, but I think it would be interesting if Zach had assisted in pitching ideas for Kim's stories! What aspects of it I do not know, but maybe names for the characters. Mayhaps that is where he gets ZACH from? Don't ask what his deadname is, haven't thought of that and would prefer not to lol

I think that concludes my rambling! Do not really have anything else that is coming to mind at the moment, so feel free to ask questions or leave suggestions about these two! I will more than likely respond ^^ (To asks or replies) Thank you for humoring me and reading all of this if you're here lol, I really appreciate it!!

[starrycassi]

I think a lot of young queers folks (like me. Not trying to be all elderly about this I'm literally a gen z) today need to watch the good oldies about our community.

⚠️: I don't mean, in any way shape or form to insult the newer queer shows/movies. I love SPOP. I love TOH. I read and loved Heart stopper. However, because of the restraint of mainstream media, they have a very... palatable?? way to portray the community. I am NOT blaming the creators (who I'm sure would love to go a bit further down on their portrayals if given the option)

SO! I have nice recommendations that I, personally, enjoy a lot. They're in no particular order.

A classic, for starters. But I'm a cheerleader!: Very campy, barbie-y, funny and free on YouTube. A cheerleader is sent to a conversation camp when her social circle realizes that she might be into girls. (It has a very unrealistic portrayal of conversation camps, though. Very cartoony) my comfort movie fr fr

Priscilla, queen of the desert: A trio of drag queens travel across the desert on a big, old bus. They fight, there's some falling in love. They talk a lot about gender identity, queer childhoods and similar topics. I've only been able to find this one (and most of the ones on this list, since I don't have any streaming devices) on illegal websites. There's very, very direct homophobia, SA, physical abuse, child neglect, yk, the American dream. The queens are the funnier thing ever, the romance plotlines are absolutely delightful and well-rounded. Focuses a bit more on the community itself and interpersonal relationships. All around, a solid 10/10.

Kinky boots: A very prude, engaged man inherits a shoe fabric. He's running out of ideas to stay in business, until he meets a drag queen. Same warnings (and themes!) as the last one. This one has a stronger focus on how the characters become more accepting and how our queen navigates being faced with them. I've rewatched it like a hundred times.

The birdcage (2000's) or le cauge aux folles (1970'): A gay couple runs a drag club. Their son brings home a conservative girlfriend and her family. This is more comedy lenient, but funny as fuck nonetheless.

Paris is burning: this one is a documentary, btw. Focuses on the life of drag queens in the 80's. Nothing I didn't already say on Priscilla tbh.

Saving face: A chinese-american girl that lives in a VERY conservatory and secluded community is trying (and failing) not to fall in love with a ballerina. At the same time, her mother (a widow, how scandalous!) gets mysteriously pregnant and gets kicked out of their family home. This one will hit close to home if you're from any ethnic, homophobic household. Cried a lot. Then cried some more. Happy ending, though!

D.E.B.S: THIS IS THE FUNNIEST, CUTEST MOVIE EVER. It's a full on romance comedy for when the mind is a bit too tired! The main plot is that, in a school of girls being trained to be top-notch spies (very totally spies type) a girl who's the top of her class falls in love with the biggest villainess they ever faced. More of a coming of age thing, that also explores the good old dilemma of choosing what the hell you're supposed to do with your life once you turn 18 (relatable tbh)

And now, for a book (in Spanish, though) we have "Las Malas": Narrated by a trans, poor prostitute. Extremely realistic in its narrative voice, cruel and very hurtful sometimes. This is actually one of my favorite books ever, it's so fucking underrated that I'm going to die if no one reads it. There's EVERYTHING. It genuinely drives me crazy to read this. We have queer moms, a child found in a freezing park, suicides, literally anything happens. I love it.

If anyone has any suggestions PLEASE drop them. I'm begging u

[batmanisagatewaydrug]

i think you're onto something with the romance novels world and plot points needing to mirror the kind of outlandishness of the love story. bc the main characters are already inherently acting absurd just by falling madly in love in a month or whatever and then if you add in the contrivances of romance tropes, it starts to feel like whiplash trying to pretend the characters live in any sort of grounded "normal" world. Like when the author adds in a family conflict subplot where the MC is like in absolute shambles because her mom said something slightly passive aggressive at lunch. that reads as more jarring to me than like conflict being something ridiculous that her mom doesn't want her being a marine biologist bc they come from a long line of fishmongers. Give me absurd drama to match the over the top dialogue and character emotions, I knew it would be unrealistic it's a romance novel! I guess this applies more to romcoms, but the same would apply I think to an analogous serious scenario. Or at least that's my take on it

okay so having just finished genuinely the most boring romance novel I have ever read in my LIFE I'm going to expand on this a little so thank you for sending an ask that gives me such a great platform to do that

I personally generally prefer a romance that just gets fucking silly with it, like really outlandish. A Lady for the Duke (Alexis Hall) is obviously the dream, being a whole swoony historical trans-affirming fantasy, but contemporary fake relationship stories can also be fun in their sheer ridiculousness, like Love, Hate, and Clickbait (Liz Bowery), which I actually liked, and Unfortunately Yours (Tessa Bailey), which I did not like but was very funny. and let's not forget queen Helen Hoang's Bride Test, which has a premise that dances perilously close to human trafficking but all works out in the end!!!

BUT HAVING SAID THAT. I don't think that something needs to be totally implausible to be a good romance. two of my very favorites romance novels anywhere ever are Helen Hoang's Heart Principle (no one should be surprised Hoang is on her twice I adore her) and Akwaeke Emezi's You Made a Fool of Death with Your Beauty. both of these books are very grounded in reality but with very uncommon situations to heighten emotions and add urgency; in Hoang's case it's a character's adult autism diagnosis + death of a parent and in Emezi's case it's a very sudden and #problematic attraction coming out of absolutely nowhere. the stakes are very real, mostly centering around being true to yourself v disappointing your family, but the circumstances are still wild enough to make you say "god DAMN" and keep turning pages. hell, I'll even be extremely generous and include Mistakes Were Made (Meryl Wilsner) which is kind of a flop but does have the intriguing premise of "what if you were fucking a milf but her kid was YOUR BEST FRIEND and it was a secret?"

those are like the two sweet spots TO ME, and this book I just read (which was Thank You for Sharing by Rachel Runya Katz, I feel so bad putting it on blast but I know people are going to ask) really solidified it for me because TYFS didn't fall into either of those categories. I'm going to say something absolutely insane, which is that multiple times while I was reading it I found myself wishing that the book was fanfic, because on its own it just... didn't bring a lot to the table? it falls into the grounded category but doesn't really bring any of those heightened stakes to the story, it's just 330 pages of people in their late twenties complaining about dating and their office jobs. if I wanted that I could just ask my group chat! there's nothing particularly particularly gripping about watching made up strangers do it!

but then I was like oh hang on... if this was two fictional characters who are usually fighting with swords or throwing cars at each other or something this would be so gripping. it's literally the coffee shop AU principle, right? like seeing people in a very mundane setting having an office job and going to a bar is very shrimpteresting when they're normally defusing space bombs. I was explaining this to my housemates and I couldn't think of a straight couple to apply it to (the book is m/f) so I said Naruto and Sasuke, which is crazy because I've never seen a single episode of Naruto, but like. idk Naruto being a museum curator who has to work with Sasuke, a marketing specialist who he had beef with a summer camp 14 years ago, sounds kind of compelling, right? definitely more than just two people I don't know.

there's a post on here that I think about a lot that talks about why advertising a story with tropes doesn't work for original fiction as well as it does for fan fic because knowing the tropes is more helpful when you already have a sense of investment in the characters and their personalities, and I think this is related to that! I think sometimes you NEED to have a wider sense of scope for the characters for them to be interesting in a very mundane setting!

ANYWAY. much to consider, etc.

[girlfromthecrypt]

i really love that your characters aren't like perfect and conventionally attractive if that makes sense? like basil having top surgery scars and just BEING trans and still being someone who's implied to be attractive, or small stuff like flo not being super toned idk it just makes me feel really happy that for once it's an IF whos potential romantic interests aren't "bland actual fucking supermodel", "bland actual fucking supermodel but with red hair" and "bland actual supermodel but 5'10"

sorry for rambling it's just like a game where I feel comfortable, that like in universe I wouldn't be given shit about what I look like y'know

also I liked Basil's joke about the MC (I assume this is only when picking the short option) being the same size as some of the kids. it made it feel like friendly and real

THANK YOU I'm serious this particular thing means so much to me.

I very much intend for my characters to be attractive, but each in their own way, not like the "bland supermodels" you described. Bc that's so real. In most romance fiction (not just IFs), I find that sooo many characters are just boringly beautiful. I have a hard time falling in love with the characters bc of that.

Also, I want each of my ROs to look according to what they do. Their appearance should suit their personalities and needs. Besides, "flaws" totally add to a character's charm imo.

-RO ramble incoming!-

To me at least, the SHC ROs are very attractive, but like in a normal, approachable way. I put a lot of thought into their specific kinds of attractiveness.

Basil is very attractive!! In a fox-like, impish kind of way, with his fairycore vibes and whatnot. I also love that you said "supermodel but 5'10" like 5'10 is short or sth lol. But I see what you mean! Basil, of course, is like 5'8 but I like to think anyone who meets Basil would be too distracted by the entire rest of him to even consider height. Besides, to me (I be gremlin) that's still kinda tall.

I figure being trans doesn't really factor into his attractiveness at all. From your ask, it sounds like trans people get described as ugly in a lot of fiction?? I wouldn't know, but if that's what you were saying, then that's a sorry state of affairs.

Flo is also attractive, in more of a "conventional masculinity"-type of way. But he's not well-dressed because he hates the feel of most fabrics, so he's only ever in his sweater. And of course he's not super defined! He has NO interest in being super handsome (aside from keeping his hair and beard shiny). He wants to be a tank. And he is a tank.

And if you consider how much food he consumes in the fairground-sequence alone (cheesecake, around five deep fried candy bars).... Yeah he loves to eat. Hence, he's got a bit of padding lol. There's no technical reason for the large nose ofc, I just thought that was cute.

Reem is the most "supermodel"-esque out of the ROs, I think. Although that's subjective. She's actually toned, but like... also very noticeably muscular. In that defined kinda way I might have intentionally avoided with Flo! But like, it makes sense that Reem would build abs and stuff for herself. She values her stage presence. She does want her performances and looks and outfits to be memorable, and HERSELF to be memorable. She's just raw, brutal magnetism. (Also I might have gotten inspired by BG3 Karlach when I first came up with Reem.)

Anita is pretty, too, but in like... a "cute" way. A Velma kind of way. With her, like, really thick glasses. Anita's appealing in a wispy, ethereal kind of sense. Or perhaps even slightly girl-next-door-ish, with an added academia vibe. Also, she's slim, not model-slim but "I forgot to eat/I'm stressed and have no appetite"-slim. This is really important to me. Will come up in the story, too. With that also comes her bad posture. She slouches a lot.

So yeah the ROs' attractiveness is rly something I put thought into, and I'm super happy you noticed. Makes my entire day whenever I get an ask like that. Thank you!

Also yeah hehe I was proud of that joke

[calweathers17]

HEADCANONS‼️

CAL WEATHERS!!

Fucking clumsy, by that I mean constantly falling, tripping, spilling things, knocking things, bumping into people seriously don't play basketball with this guy or especially not football, even falls while just standing in one place he probably wouldn't even dare to stand if he was forced to wear high heels.

Used to be in a Volleyball team

"You don't have to run up and down I think it's perfect."

Although he quit after getting into racing.

Welcome your local cat lover, small note here Strip is allergic to cats, must suck but anyways Cal once found a small family of cats, a protective yet sweet and clingy mother cat with 4 kittens. You must picture that scene where he found them in the barn but can't take them home due to his uncles allergies so after school or whenever he could he would check up on them bring the mother food and give them a nice ...place blanket or whatever (obviously after earning the cat's trust) and would keep it a secret but obviously Strip would sometimes go there and eventually Cal revealed the secret but begged his uncle and aunt not to move them. He didn't dare to take risks (my boy knows a lot about cats).

With a very cool person I know‼️ we made up the fact Strip is allergic to both cats and peanuts the same with Cal but he's only allergic to peanuts.

Trans, FtM ‼️

"I just never felt right being called Carol and being seen like that but when they called me Cal." - LIFE CHANGING QUOTE YALL

Has been living with Strip and Lynda since he was 13 and met Bobby in highschool → went to 2 highschools after hardly convincing his uncle to let him switch schools, 9th grade in a normal highschool before going to a school to learn coding and other computer things.......yes (quick note I have no idea how different the American and Hungarian school system is so if I got shit wrong I will remake it.) He met Bobby after switching schools.

Likes art and is quite good at it mostly drawing planes and cars sometimes people, but got into racing more after meeting Bobby who's been a big race fan for years...also likes graffiti art but only did them after switching schools.

Mostly grunge and rock music listener.

Plays the guitar.

Kinda random...once stole an ukulele from some small art meeting thing (IDK WHAT IT'S CALLED outside of school activity)

BOBBY SWIFT!!!

HERE COMES MY RACING FAN I don't have much for them YET

Got into art after Cal, being his biggest fan and supporter on the topic.

Was the first to befriend Cal once my boy moved schools

Likes cats but more of a ... Guinea pig person don't ask how.

Lives with their father, total dick though. They got the first ever support for their racing dreams from Brick (knows him since the start of Highschool, them, Brick and Cal made a pretty great trio)

Who's someone who gets under my hcs and doesn't have gender problems? Welcome my Agender dude (or demiboy, still deciding..)

"This he thing just doesn't seem to fit me, that's all."

It/they

Brick supports him, wouldn't hold back if anyone ever bullied them for it. Although Bobby never really told his father and probably won't.

Not much of a music listener but listens to whatever Cal does

Got into guitar playing after Cal and loves hearing him play it.

Small thing for my Swiftweathers fellas

After the meeting Cal started drawing people more and you could maybe guess who he was drawing!

Cal can talk for hours about cats and cars, Bobby would listen. Bobby can talk for hours about cars and racing and Cal would listen.

Graffiti art mentioned? Bobby already joked / stated if they ever become a racer their racing number would be 19 and their car would be....probably purple ( I got cool news!)

↓↓

Cal already could do graffiti art, his first one (on wall,.. if it makes sense) was the number 19, (obviously detailed and colored) small gift for Bobby (who still has it in their gallery and even as a wallpaper) although they eventually did get into trouble for it that was for something else but not the 19 one.

[foliejpg]

Ok I know people get kind of up in arms about clothes for FOB genderbends but thinking about how they would all dress is one of my favorite parts of it? Like I think pete and patrick especially would have very interesting relationships with femininity, especially coming up in a misogynistic scene like 90s/00s hardcore. Bc when I look at pictures from early FOB shows, the girls you see there are dressed pretty much the same as the guys, like girls were THERE but I very much get the feeling that the safest way to exist in that scene as a girl was to be as guy-ish as you could, but taking it TOO far would get you shit for [being gay or trans or generally gnc, I dont want to use period-accurate language right now], and it REALLY gets interesting if you're overweight, not white, not straight, not cis, anything that sets you as a woman apart from the dominant cultural image of "a woman" in the USA. Patrick personally is may favorite to think about because Ive been the fat girl in nerdy guy spaces and Im also a fat woman in a pretty dude-heavy professional field, so I can project my experience onto girltrick all damn day? (1/?, Continued in another ask bc Im going to hit char limit soon I think)

this got long as hell and i also never got a part 2 so i hope this is relevant<3

i definitely get that, for patrick especially to have to really conform to being “one of the guys” and acting like such so she doesn’t get called things like difficult or bitchy, and that definitely makes an impact on how she dresses. especially as a fat girl and i’m also a fat woman, so a lot of what i wanted to wear was either too tight and rolled up my stomach or my pants didn’t fit, OR was so lowcut because my cup size was too big and nothing fit correctly, so it was wear the big boxy tee shirt or have my tatas on display for people to look at. patrick, as a fat woman who is maybe not the most conventionally attractive, would really have to straddle a line of fitting in with all of these gross boys for the sake of the band and not being disregarded as a sexless fat chick. of course then it goes into slut shame-y territory if she ever god forbid wore something cute that made her feel good. maybe girltrick doesn’t wear a lot of dresses or skirts early on, but maybe during soul punk she explored a little more and maybe that carries over post hiatus. girltrick would rock a maxi skirt. comfy as fuck

i think about pete too as a woman in the scene at the time having to kind of play into what guys around her expect of her as a more sexual being bc like you said the misogyny was rampant and the easiest way, like you said is to go along with it. pete irl got boiled down to this sex symbol so early in fob’s career and had his body plastered all over magazines for people to drool over. to a point, we know that pete also played the “bad boy” schtick up because it was new and sexy and aimed at teen girls, so then girlpete did that too. irl pete dressed sexy and wore eyeliner so fall out boy would catch eyes, and it worked. so does girlpete, to the same extent. of course because she’s a woman she’ll always be sexualized worse than irl pete ever could experience.

look at pete now, he’s all comfort wear. those fucking meat shoes that haunt my dreams. girlpete is shy too. she’s also very business savvy and, like irl pete, knows she’s hot. she wears sweatpants and sneakers when she’s out and about, and baby tees and low rise jeans on stage, and maybe her bra is visible and rocks a whale tail sometimes as was popular early on. she was probably harassed endlessly but she’s not ashamed of herself or her body and dresses to fit her needs - like pete did irl.

and maybe this is controversial but i don’t think girlpete would have leaned into a more butch or androgynous style because realistically, pete didn’t. the eyeliner was an act of rebellion which is totally cool and 100% but let’s not pretend he was really challenging any gender norms here. girlpete as a business woman knows how to market herself to the people that will matter, the people who buy fall out boy’s music.

i think people forget that like, at the end of the day they are still pete wentz and patrick stump. the intentions, timeline, lore, personality - it’s for the most part all the same, but i think when people don’t acknowledge that their experiences in the scene would be drastically different from irl pete and patrick, it’s disregarding the misogyny in the scene entirely.

and also i want to put them in a skirt and it’s fanfiction so i can do what i want<3 if anyone has anything to add, pls send me a msg i love talking about my girls<3

[jakeluppin]

a couple asks ago, you said "whenever I start working on my novel, the first song I listen to is Pin" and now i'm super curious about your novel!! care to share any details??

okay so i have two (well, i have like twenty i've done bits on since i started writing but two that are still somewhat being worked on now) but one of them is barely anything beyond a rough idea so i'll focus on the one that's more legit

i wrote about 90% of a first draft (about 60K) and then realized there were some fundamental issues with it so i started over

i have about 16K done of my new draft, some of which is brand new and some of which is revised from the first

it's a ya romance because that's where my heart has always been

for main characters we have (which as i'm writing these i realize i am So Bad at describing characters in this way whoops):

jake - jewish trans guys who is only out to his older sister (rachel). at this point, their parents are gone/dead (i've been back and forth on exactly what went down) so rachel's raising him. he's been in love with his best friend (caleb) since basically forever. he does stage crew for his school's theater department.

caleb - jake's best friend. he's gay. he has a crush on their mutual friend peter. he's one of those people who are just so loving that it's so easily to just get lost in. but also a total dick at the same time?

peter - he's really into theater, always in every production, which is how jake and peter met. just before the story starts peter and caleb were running lines for something and peter kisses caleb. described by other characters as being the nicest person you've ever met.

and then there's asher - his family just moved to town as his mom is the new cantor at jake's synagogue. he's also into theater and auditions for the fall musical, alongside peter. jake and caleb are there watching and jake hears him sing and is like. oh. shit. i'm in love. it's not revealed until midway through the book but asher is also a trans guy.

it's basically just a coming of age love story where jake finds himself and love and it's just really gay and jewish and probably very self indulgent but who cares?

oh also i have switched which musical they do multiple times for various reasons and right now it's Newsies but it may change again. but obviously asher, my beloved, is cast as davey jacobs so it is pretty perfect in that regard

gonna just throw some random lines/short scenes from draft two under the cut because i can. feel free to not read them haha

“You can’t seriously be doing homework now,” Caleb scoffs a moment later. 

I look up from my assignment and just shrug. “I’m simply not as invested in this as you are,” I offer.

“But you should be. For me. This is an important moment in my love life.”

I chuckle. “I love you, Caleb, but I think overall if I was as invested in your love life as you are, that would be a little weird.”

“Nope. I’m pretty sure it’s in the best friend manual that you’re supposed to care about it as much as I do. Sometimes maybe even more.”

“Can I have a copy of this best friend manual? I want to check the exact wording on that.”

“Sorry, only one copy was made and I keep it under lock and key.” Caleb smiles bright, and I roll my eyes in response.

--

“But seriously, you were amazing at your audition. I’m not just saying that or anything.”

“Thanks. I grew up singing. I think my mom might have disowned me if I didn’t end up with a good voice.”

“Really?” 

Asher laughs again. “Wow, you are gullible or I am not as funny as I think I am. But no, my mom would not have disowned me if I didn’t have a good voice.”

It’s this moment that Rabbi Finkle steps out of her office and says, “Asher, don’t lie. No self respecting cantor could stand to have unmusical children, just like I couldn’t stand to have children who do anything but read torah all day.” She smiles at us both, light in her eyes.

“Isn’t your oldest an atheist?” I ask.

“Yes, but he still reads torah ever day.” She laughs.

--

“So how was it?” I ask, sliding in Caleb’s car. He smiles wide as he turns to face me.

“Peter was amazing. Obviously. There’s something just, sexy about watching a guy dance.” He pauses, sighing, and then says, “I’m really gay.”

I laugh. “Really? I had no idea!”

“Yeah, not like I told you for the first time when we were like, nine or something.”

“Oh yeah, that definitely never happened.” 

Caleb chuckles and drives off. 

I can vividly remember when Caleb came out, the emotions so strong they stay pressed in mind. I can remember his fear, his hesitation, as he told me in a small voice that he liked boys. I can remember the confusion, not understanding what he meant, not sure what that meant for me. I can remember the happiness and his smile when I said there was nothing wrong with him “like liking” boys. I remember the ache I felt, when after telling him I like boys too, he told me “girls are supposed to like boys.” That ache I didn’t understand, that ache I couldn’t place for years, that ache that would come when Caleb would refer to me as a girl. 

“Were you scared telling me?” I ask a few minutes later, even though I know the fundamental answer.

“Of course,” he says. “I was nine. I was gay. And you were my best friend. Why wouldn’t I be afraid?” 

I nod in agreement. It’s something that, of course, I can understand. Just the thought of it causes anxiety to crawl up skin, pulling tight at my throat. It stops me from saying the things I want to say, things I know I need to say. The things I can’t imagine ever actually telling him.

Like: I’m in love with you.

Like: I’m trans.

Like: Yes. That means I’m guy. Which, if you remember the I love you part, would make me gay too. Or bi. Not totally sure about that yet.

Like: Main point being, I want to be with you and date you and I know you probably don’t or won’t ever see me as anything but your girl best friend but maybe you could. 

Yeah. Probably a good thing I’m not saying any of that.

--

“...Honestly, the challah was so good and reminded me of mom’s that I had a breakdown. Standard stuff, ya know. Who doesn’t have breakdowns over delicious Jewish foods?”

“Are you even Jewish if you don’t have breakdowns over delicious Jewish food?” Asher counters.

[disillusioneddanny]

Day 2 Siblings || Play

Damian had been away from his daughter for just a little under twenty four hours and he was anxious. He didn’t like being away from his daughter, not when she was still so small and tiny and defenseless. And he loved Danny more than anything, and he trusted Danny with his life, but what if something happened? Would the halfa be able to handle it on his own? He wasn’t totally sure he would! 

But this was important, he had to tell his family that he would be moving out of the manor or else questions would arise and Damian didn’t particularly want to deal with those questions if he was being totally honest. 

So, here he was, sitting amongst his father and siblings eating family dinner just as they did every Sunday evening upon Alfred’s request. Even Todd was here for the ordeal, it was the only time he would willingly come to the manor. 

“I am moving out tomorrow morning,” Damian said, breaking the comfortable silence that was their dinner. 

“I’m sorry, what?” Bruce asked, looking up from his newspaper to give his youngest son a look of surprise. “What happened to waiting until you completed college?”

“Things change, Father. I am moving out in the morning, my boyfriend will be coming by with my daughter to help me get everything moved,” he said, wiping his mouth with his napkin before he stood up. “Now, I must get back. I don’t like leaving them alone for long,” he said, pushing his chair in before he left his family sitting at the table dumbfounded. 

As soon as the door shut behind Damian his family exploded. 

“He has a boyfriend?” Tim hissed out, looking at his family in shock. “Since when?”

“Not only that but a daughter!?” Dick shrieked. “My baby has a daughter? When did this happen? Why didn’t he tell me he was a father?”

“Something’s gotta be wrong. Maybe that’s a clone of Damian, it’s not the first time Talia has replaced him,” Duke whispered.

“No, that was way too in character for Damian, definitely not a clone,” Jason said, frowning, his brows furrowed. 

“I can’t believe he didn’t tell me,” Dick whimpered, a single tear welled up in his eye as he thought about his baby bat having a daughter and a boyfriend. 

“He’s a private person, it makes sense we didn’t know,” Steph reasoned with Cass nodded her head in agreement beside her. “I wonder who the boy is! Or how long he’s been hiding the fact that he has a daughter! Wait– if he has a boyfriend how does that work?”

“Maybe the boyfriend is trans,” Tim said with a shrug, already pulling his tablet out of seemingly nowhere. “But that would mean that he’s been with this guy for at least nine months if they have a child together. Not only that but how old is the daughter? How long has he been hiding this secret double life from us? How long has he been in a relationship? Damian doesn’t seem like a one night stand kind of guy or to just knock someone up on accident. Dick, you’ve had the sex talk with him, right?”

“He’s twenty!” Jason exclaimed. “Of course he knows how sex works! Right?”

“Yeah, I gave him the talk when he started high school,” Dick mumbled, the tear now falling down his cheek. “Why didn’t he tell me he had a daughter? Or a boyfriend? I thought I was his favorite brother?”

“Um guys,” Duke called, now standing beside their father. “I think Bruce is broken,” he said. 

And sure enough, there Bruce sat, staring at the wall frozen, not even blinking, the newspaper he had been reading crumbled in his hands. 

“Well Gramps, aren’t you excited?” Jason teased, a shit eating grin on his face. 

“I’m an uncle!” Dick sobbed loudly, slamming his face into the table.

“Jesus Christ Richard get a hold of yourself,” Tim snapped, typing away on his tablet. “We need to figure out who this is and what they’ve done to our brother! What if he’s brainwashed and that’s why he’s suddenly moving out and has a boyfriend and daughter? What if it’s a rogue controlling him?”

“Or maybe he just hasn’t told you guys about a private part of his life?” Barbara said, frowning at the siblings all imploding. “It’s like Jason said, Damian is really private–”

“You knew!” Tim shouted, pointing an accusing finger at Barbara. “You knew this entire time.”

Barbara sighed and set her fork down and rubbed at her temples. “Yes, I know. I didn’t know about the daughter, that’s new. But Damian has been dating this guy for six months now, they knew each other for six months before that too. His boyfriend works in my library,” she said. “And no, I’m not telling you anything about him and if you show up at the library I’m calling the cops. Tim.”

“I got kicked out one time and now I have a life time ban,” Tim mumbled, crossing his arms as he fell back into his seat. 

“Let’s just take this at Damian’s pace. He’ll tell us about his family when he’s ready, besides it sounds like you guys will get the chance to meet them tomorrow morning when they come by to help Damian move out.”

It was a shame no one actually listened to Barbara’s idea because really it made the most sense. But these were the Wayne children she was talking to. They didn’t know sense if it was slapped in their face. 

Which is why Tim had gone looking and found a certain Danny Fenton who worked at the library as a writing tutor who also happened to work at his favorite coffee shop and had also worked in one of Damian’s art classes just a few semesters back. He had then been able to easily find Danny Fenton’s information at Gotham University and bingo presto chango he found Danny’s house! It seemed that the civilian rented an apartment in the nicer parts of the Bowery, which there weren’t really nicer parts but compared to Crime Alley it wasn’t terrible. 

And that was how the siblings found themselves standing under the window of Damian’s boyfriend’s apartment. 

“Are we really sure that this is a good idea?” Duke asked, staring up at the window. 

“He’s a civilian, what’s he going to do, kill us?” Tim said with a snort before he headed up the stairs to the apartment door. His siblings followed close behind and waited impatiently for the vigilante to pick the lock. They made their way into the apartment and stopped short when they saw the place and looked around. 

“That’s a lot of Damian’s art,” Jason said lowly. 

“Uh um, uh guys,” Duke said, swallowing slightly. “Do-do you guys see the shadows or is that just my powers messing with me?”

“What shadows?” Dick asked when the living room suddenly got much, much darker, and shadows slithered closer to the siblings. 

“What are you doing in my home?” A voice hissed out, the words drawn out and staticky. The siblings immediately put their hands over their ears at the noise. Jason opened an eye and let out a gasp at the monster before them. A being floated in front of them, hair white as snow, long fangs escaped from under his lips, green fluid reminiscent of Lazarus Water dripped from its maw, large claws protruded from its fingertips. It was the thing of nightmares. 

“I said what were you doing in my home?” He snarled out once more just as Damian came out of the bedroom sleepily.

“Danny, stop, it’s my idiot siblings,” Damian said with a yawn as he flipped on the light. Suddenly the monster shifted and a human man stood in front of them looking annoyed beyond belief. 

Dick didn’t know where to look, at the human that he was pretty sure was actually a monster that was going to eat them, or at Damian who was holding a sleeping baby to his chest. 

“It’s four in the morning, who breaks into an apartment at four in the morning?” Danny hissed, glaring at the group of Wayne Siblings. 

Damian just let out a sigh. “It is just how our family operates, unfortunately,” he murmured and pressed a kiss to Danny’s lips. “Take Cecilia to bed, please.”

Danny nodded and took the baby from his boyfriend and trudged back to their room. They hadn’t bought the stuff for Cecilia to safely sleep in her own room alone so right now she was sleeping in a bassinet in Danny’s room until they got everything they needed for the baby. 

Damian waited until his boyfriend and daughter were gone before he crossed his arms and looked at his siblings. “You could not wait until we came over in the morning to meet her and Danny? You had to break into his home?”

“We were worried,” Dick mumbled, looking chastened already. “You’ve never told us about a boyfriend.”

“Because this family does not know any boundaries! I didn’t want Danny to be stuck dealing with you insane people!” He hissed out, glaring at his siblings. “Have you ever thought about that? That you all are just a little too overbearing and don’t know what it means to give people space? You knew that I was coming tomorrow and yet you still broke into my boyfriend’s home in the middle of the night and scared him enough that he felt the need to use his powers to fight you. Of course, I didn’t tell you about my boyfriend!”

“I’m sorry you felt that way,” Tim said softly. “We didn’t mean to upset you, we were just worried. You seemed very out of character during dinner and we were concerned.”

“I don’t care. You scared my boyfriend and you woke up my daughter. Now leave,” he ordered, pointing at the door. “You can meet Danny and Cecilia in the morning when we go to the manor to collect my things. Until then, get out of here,” he snarled. He watched as one by one the siblings made their way out of his apartment, each one looking thoroughly chastened by the time they walked out of his apartment and left. 

Damian let out a sigh and went back to his room, knowing that tomorrow his siblings were going to have far too many questions. He didn’t blame Danny for turning into his ghost form to scare off intruders but damn would his family want answers. 

He shut the door to the bedroom and climbed into bed beside his boyfriend after looking over Cecilia and finding her fast asleep. 

“Your siblings don’t understand boundaries, do they?” Danny mumbled, pulling Damina closer to him. The human chuckled and maneuvered them around until Danny’s head was resting on his bicep and he was holding the half-ghost close to his chest.

“No, they do not. But they have been chastised and I hope that this means they will understand in the future that they cannot just barge into our home whenever they want answers,” he said with a huff. Danny just chuckled and pressed a kiss to Damian’s cheek. 

“They’re lucky I didn’t send them to the nightmare realm,” Danny murmured. “Having CeCe has turned me into an overprotective monster.”

Damian stilled. “What did you just call my daughter?” he demanded venomously. Danny let out a snicker and shook his head. 

“Cecilia is just such a big name for such a little girl. I thought CeCe would be a cute little nickname!” Danny insisted. 

“You are not going to give my daughter a name as undignified as CeCe, her name is Cecilia,” Damian said, scowling at the halfa. 

“How about Lia?” Danny asked, tilting his head back to look at Damian better. 

“Why not the name we gave her, Cecilia?” Damian retorted. 

“Pick one, do you want me to call her CeCe or Lia,” Danny said simply. Damian let out a sad sigh, burying his face in Danny’s hair. 

“Lia, at least it sounds like a real name,” he mumbled, running his fingers through Danny’s hair once more. Danny snickered and kicked his leg over Damian’s waist and held him close. 

“I apologize for their behavior,” Damian murmured, holding Danny close. Danny simply laughed and kissed Damian softly. 

“Don’t be, you’ve warned me many times now that your siblings have no sense of boundaries. I just wasn’t expecting a bunch of vigilantes to break into my apartment at four in the morning. Now can we get back to sleep?”

Damian chuckled quietly but stayed quiet as his boyfriend fell fast asleep in his arms once more. 

Damian sighed as Danny opened a portal for the couple and their daughter to step directly into Damian’s bedroom. From there Danny set Cecilia down on Damian’s bed for her to lay on as they started carrying things through the portal and directly into Danny and his bedroom. 

“This is much easier than I ever imagined it would be,” Damian said as Danny carried a stack of clothes from the room to the apartment. 

“I know,” Danny said with a grin. “Don’t you love having a ghost for a boyfriend? One who can make portals?”

“I just love having you for a boyfriend,” Damian said softly, pulling Danny close to him and giving him a soft kiss. 

“I love you,” Danny said in response, kissing Damian once again just as a knock sounded on the bedroom door and the portal snapped shut.  “Reflex, sorry. I’ll reopen it,” he said with a chuckle. 

Damian laughed and pulled away from his boyfriend to answer the door to find Dick standing there, hand raised to knock once again. 

“Yes?” He asked, raising an eyebrow in curiosity. 

“We didn’t hear you come in,” he said hesitantly, looking between Danny and Damian. 

“Oh, well we have been here for quite some time now. I have most of my things already moved over,” he said, leaning against the door jamb. 

“I wanted to apologize, we all do. But they kinda just sent me first,” Dick said, giving his baby brother an awkward smile. 

“It’s fine, I just wish that you all would respect my boundaries from here on out,” Damian said quietly. “Danny and I are hoping to give Cecilia a better childhood than the ones either of us had. That means teaching her what boundaries are, even as a baby, she deserves to have boundaries, and as our parents it is up to us to ensure her boundaries are respected.”

“That’s amazing of you, Dami. I’m glad you’re realizing this for yourself. And I’m sorry we did not respect your boundaries the way you wanted us to. We’ll do better in the future.” 

Damian smiled. “Grab the others, you all can come in and meet Danny and Cecilia, I’m sure you all have questions, especially after Danny’s display of powers last night.”

Dick gave him a small smile, looking relieved that Damian had forgiven him so easily. He turned and called out for their siblings before he stepped into the room and walked toward Danny. He held out his hand. 

“I’m Damian’s oldest brother, Dick. I apologize for our behavior last night. We’ll do our best to be better in the future.”

Danny smiled. “I’m Danny Fenton, it’s nice to meet you. Dami has told me a lot about you,” he said politely.

“All good things, I hope,” he said anxiously. He looked over at Cecilia and looked back at Danny. “I have a lot of questions,” he admitted. 

“We’re going to answer them once all your siblings make their way inside. It’ll be easier to explain once than multiple times.”

Dick nodded and soon the rest of their siblings piled into the room. 

“Where is Father and Alfred?” Damian asked, looking around curiously. 

“Bruce had a meeting this morning, Alfred had to drive him to it,” Tim explained before he introduced himself to his brother’s boyfriend. 

“It’s nice to meet all of you,” Danny said with a small smile. “Under much better circumstances this time. I apologize for my behavior last night, I didn’t mean to scare any of you.”

“Could uh could you explain what happened by any chance? Maybe start from the beginning?” Duke asked, looking between Danny and Cecilia, an uneasiness in his eyes. 

Danny grinned and picked Cecilia up and handed her to Jason who had taken a seat on the bed beside her. “Here, hold your niece,” he said softly, helping position Jason’s hands around her. He glanced over at his boyfriend with a crinkled nose. 

“I see what you mean my star, your family has experienced a lot of death. Is there even anyone in here who hasn’t died at least once?” He asked, glancing over at them only for Duke to raise his hand.

“I haven’t,” he said, blushing slightly. 

Danny just snickered and took a seat. “Dami and I met in college. But I doubt that’s the story you’re wanting,” he said with a small smile. “I died when I was fourteen but I died wrong and turned into a half ghost, half human,” he said before his form changed to something similar to the one they had all seen the night before only less terrifying. “Turns out even after being a retired vigilante, I still managed to get mixed up with you guys.”

“You’re that teen hero from Amity Park!” Tim exclaimed. “I’ve heard about you, Phantom, right?”

“Just Danny now, I retired,” he said with a small smile. “Things quieted down in Amity after the ghosts got a council of leaders to keep them in line. Didn’t need me to stop them from destroying my hometown. Now I just want to live a mostly normal life. Which Damian’s mother doesn’t want to happen, I guess,” he said with a laugh. 

“Wait–Talia?” Jason asked, looking up from where he had been looking at Cecilia. Cass had moved to sit beside him and look down at her new niece, tickling her chin lightly. 

“Yes, Talia thought it would be a lovely idea to gift Danny and me with a baby to celebrate the fact that we are in a relationship,” Damian said with a sigh. “So she made a clone of the two of us and gifted her to me just a week ago. Danny and I are slowly trying to figure out how to be parents and raise her. It has been a learning process for the both of us.”

“Sounds like a Talia thing to do,” Dick said with a snort. Duke chuckled and sat beside Jason on his other side to also coo over the baby. 

“Well, there is the story. It is rather condensed but that is the entire explanation. Now, while you three watch over my daughter, will the rest of you help us move everything else over?” He asked as Danny opened another portal and started to grab Damian’s easels from where they sat in a corner. 

Tim looked between the portal and the rest of the stuff in the room and nodded. “Got it.”

“If any of you make my sweet little Lia cry, I’ll destroy you,” Danny threatened before he walked through the portal. 

“Well, you picked the perfect partner, Damian,” Jason said with a snort. “He’s just as feral as you are.”

Damian just sneered at his brother before he looked at where his boyfriend walked through the portal. “Yes, I love that little buffoon,” he said with a soft sigh before he started to gather more of his things to carry through, Dick and Tim following behind him to do the same. 

@dpxdc-familyweek

Part 1

Part 3

[the-catboy-minyan]

i'm trying to comprehend your points about the terf-focused jkr discussion instead of holocaust denial focus, you are getting at something here i want to really understand from your perspective. i think people often come at these events through the lens of their own experience - for me i would fall under the mentally ill group that nazis identified as unworthy of existence but i don't see the holocaust at large as a primarily mental health community focused event, it was obviously an ethnic cleansing. i never put myself into the place of people targeted for ethnicity, religion, etc. by the nazis. i guess i'm asking - are you asking people to remember the totality of the holocaust and its staggering impact on Jewish people, not just take a detail and magnify it to focus on groups that have gained visibility in recent decades? if i misunderstand pls let me know! i want to understand these topics better, but if you don't want to explicate it that's all good too!

hi anon, thanks for the ask. sorry that my post wasn't clear, my thought process is a bit weird at times and i sometimes accidentally try to make multiple points at once, or forget my point halfway.

my problem wasn't that people are focusing on queer aspects of the holocaust too much, I'm queer myself. my problem was that people (in general) looked at JKR's behaviour and acted like:

of course she would stoop this low to engage in holocaust denial, she's a terf! only "evil" people can do such a vile thing as holocaust denial.

saying Nazis didn't burn books about gender affirming care is the worst act of holocaust denial you can engage in ever!!!

it being holocaust denial is a major part of why it's horrible.

now for why I think that:

pretending like only objectively horrible people like JKR are the only people who engage in holocaust denial is ignoring the rise of holocaust denialism we've seen from both the right and the left in recent months. there are people who have actively denied parts of the holocaust "calling out" jkr on it, while also insisting they're not denying parts of the holocaust because "they're right and the history books are wrong actually".

people are tweeting "hitler was right" or "hitler should have finished the job" every fucking day, recently AI translated videos on one of his speeches got circulated on social media positively. people are denying the death count is really 6 million Jews, or that the holocaust happened at all. JKR is denying specific books were burned, not that book burnings never happened or that they "weren't that bad", it's disgusting but it's nowhere near as bad as people make it out to be.

she's not denying those book burnings because she thinks there's no way Nazis would have stooped this low or whatever, she's denying them because she can't fathom trans people existing in history (the horror!). is it holocaust denial? well it's an important event that happened as part of the holocaust and she's denying it, so technically yes, but she's denying it because she's transphobic, not because she's actually denying a holocaust event. like, the reason people are mad isn't because they were burned during the holocaust and she saying they weren't, it's because it was books about trans research and she's saying they never existed.

I hope this makes more sense, thanks again for the ask, I highly respect people going out of their way to listen to other people's perspectives (this is something I also try to do myself). please feel free to engage with and discuss this post and my take, this is my personal opinion, not an objective fact, and others may see this differently.

[shakespearean-snape]

Hi there! so glad to see you posting again I like a lot of what you have to say about Snape. I noticed you say a few times tho that your visual headcanon for Snape isn't conventionally attractive and I just wondered if you had any reference of what he looks like in your mind? An actor or other famous person? just someone like that?

I'm just curious how you imagine Snape because I admit I just see Alan Rickman as Snape in my head since I started with the movies as a kid and didn't read the books a few until years later. It always interests me so much when people say they read the books before the movies or read the books with the movies coming out and saw Snape as someone else.

Its ok if you can't think of anyone just thought I'd ask. thx!

Hello!

*waves enthusiastically like an idiot with zero chill*

I get so giddy when someone sends me an ask like this so I hope no one thinks I don't enjoy questions about Snape or my headcanons. As anyone who knows me knows, I think a lot and especially about those things I love so I always have lots of thoughts rolling around in my head I can be positively overeager to share with anyone interested.

So to answer your question, I don't have a specific person pinned down that is 100% like how I picture Snape in my mind but some close candidates would be a young Adrien Brody (which I think is common enough among Snape fans as a choice, right there with Adam Driver these days), obviously the man that JKR based Snape around, John Nettleship, someone like Adarsh Jaikarran as a potential Hogwarts-era and early 20s Snape (even if he is more good-looking than I usually lean, in some pictures he just channels Snape vibes for me quite a bit) and a very young Julian Richings if you've ever seen photos of him in his younger years (I have two here for you so you can see my point a bit, here and here).

Ironically, Julian Richings in the later years of his acting career would probably have been my first choice for a Voldemort fan cast back in the day when any Harry Potter reboot was purely in the realm of the hypothetical (I mean, c'mon, look at this and tell me you can't see it too) but as JKR is an unapologetic anti-feminist/TERF I provide no monetary support to any of her projects including any licensed games, the watching of future reboots or purchasing of future tie-in books in the HP universe, officially licensed HP merchandise, or even by giving traffic to what was formerly Pottermore, etc.

All I bring to the fandom now is my fan theories and love for Snape, which she not only does not benefit from but never seemed entirely at peace with given how the character got away from her and took off. I can't think of a better way to spite someone so utterly spiteful herself than to take the character she was most shocked by people loving in any capacity and celebrate him in every incarnation (gay, bi, trans, ace, autistic, poc, etc.) with my queer, gender-nonconforming little heart while she gets zero money off me for it.

Anyway I hope the visual guide gives you a little more insight into my mind. I've never seen Snape as "ugly" (even when I joke my Snape is "ugly" and I like him that way) but my mental picture of him is of a man whose looks might fall into that unconventionally attractive sphere or what some people call homely. Occasionally I veer off that a bit, as with Adarsh Jaikarran, oh, oh! And also Lee Soo Hyuk, Song Jae-Rim and Kento Yamazaki (ever since I saw him in the live-action Bloody Monday manga series adaptation)!

But yes, my favorite Snape and the Snape I love isn't usually model attractive but also not quite the gargoyle Harry describes (that kid had some ridiculously high standards of beauty tbh, about the only characters he didn't have mentally critical notes on their appearance was the unnamed Veela, Fleur, and Narcissa Malfoy so yeah he totally thought "Draco's mom has got it going on..." Lol!) but somewhere in that "unconventional" categorization of attractive which I feel really suits a man who so often defies easy categorization in general.

(Excuse all the edits. After I gave a few examples more started hitting me and I was like ohhhhh I should have shared them, why didn't I think to share them? So I may come back and make more edits throughout the day, no promises I won't! Lol)

[echidna-auxiliatrix]

There's a post going around that mentions American Girl's first boy doll and it drudged up the two big reasons I and other people in the fanbase were pissed off about it. In no particular order:

1. It's ALWAYS things for girls that have to capitulate -- AG was founded with the intent of encouraging young girls to become interested in history and the humanities more broadly in higher education. It filled a void in both history education and the market for dolls.

History education, especially at the K-12 level, often leaves out girls and women entirely. Prior to AG, there were baby dolls and fashion dolls, and that was it. Baby dolls encouraged girls to be mothers and fashion dolls encouraged girls to pursue fashion and makeup (if anyone comes at me defending any of these things I will unleash a nuclear bomb of an argument on you that would make the CIA in fall of 1962 blush), but the AG dolls, at least at first, were all fleshed out characters that girls were meant to relate to and learn from. The target age range for AG was originally 8-12, something that's easily lost nowadays when people with too much money give them to their toddlers.

Boys' properties never do this without making the single girl character a stereotype, a smurfette, or a love interest. Boys' properties also generally create spinoffs that target girls instead of integrating girls into the mainline property (LEGO Friends et al). When these fail, they use it as an excuse that girls aren't interested in XYZ type of play.

2. The face mold that they used for Logan (I hate that I even remember his name) was created for Kaya, an indigenous historical character, for whom smiling with teeth was a cultural taboo. Logan was not from the same nation as Kaya, nor was he indigenous at all.

AG had deliberately only ever used that face mold for Kaya and had used this fact to publicize how respectful and culturally sensitive they are, only to throw all that away.

Logan and the two dolls he was marketed with tanked and so he hasn't been available for a while now. But they are still selling boy dolls -- all of which smile with no teeth, because that looks goofy and feminine I guess 🙄

Addendum 1: people have been making custom boy dolls for decades at this point. They would buy a doll secondhand and put a short wig on it. Ironically a lot of these people were conservatives who were outspoken about being homophobic and tranphobic. The irony of their boy doll being trans was totally lost on them all.

Addendum 2: way too many people take AG's depiction of history as gospel. There are so many historical inaccuracies, particularly with character design and names. Samantha, Kirsten, and Molly -- the first 3 dolls -- all have uncommon and unpopular names for their time period. These names were deliberately chosen because they were popular in the 80s, when the dolls were released. All three of them also wear thick, blunt, pie slice type bangs which were not common until after WWII. All 3 of their stories predate the end of WWII. AG was well aware of this -- look in the book illustrations. Almost no other characters have these bangs.

Felicity's name is also woefully inaccurate (she also has one of the most heavy-handed names for a fictional character ever lol). She was originally supposed to be named Lucy. Also, wearing a ponytail AND a mob cap was unheard of. According to social conventions of the time, if she was out of the house, her hair was up and under the cap. But a long shiny ponytail is more marketable!

There's also a lot wrong with Kaya's story culturally -- just do a Google search for "Kaya AG criticism" and you'll find a detailed blog post written by an indigenous person about it.

[d4t-webserial]

D4T: Page 6 (Alice POV)

//cw: transphobic slur// go here for more info on d4t

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Alice’s been able to get Lu to hang out very often (pretty much whenever they both have free time ;p). Having this large amount of time in person she’s been able to realize some more things about him.

First off he isn’t a chaser… well he is in that he’s a “man” (we’ll get into that later) who likes trannies, but he doesn’t fit with… what you'd call the stereotype of “chaser”, but that’s not what made her come to this conclusion. No, it’s whenever she calls him a chaser he’ll visibly cringe, most men who are shameless enough to use 4chan *and* openly admit to dating tgirls are more than comfortable using chaser to describe themselves, so something about it has gotta be off to him. Secondly he’s really feminine like *super*, don’t get her wrong she wasn’t one of those weirdy homophobic girls who usually call themselves allies but would rather their boyfriend cheat on them than be bisexual, and she always knew Lu wasn’t exactly… super masculine (the idea of him doing typical straight man posturing was both ridiculous… and upsetting), but he’s *so* feminine in how he holds himself and talks... and honestly even his body (his hands are so smooth). This leads her to a simple conclusion, he isn’t *really* a chaser but instead a repper in denial (honestly she should have seen this sooner it’s a classic chaser archetype), now other girls usually talk about these chasers as bad and to be avoided, she didn’t know if this was cause there was something inherently bad about your boyfriend trooning out on you or is it’s just about the gender, due to not knowing she assumes the latter and luckily for her she’s a **massive** bishit (she has decided this as of now) and if he (or should she switch to "she"?... nah, she’ll give him the benefit of the doubt) takes the pinkpill she can still make him her girlfriend… unless he was straight technically but he obviously isn’t (he’s the dictionary definition of agp t4t transbian… except he isn’t into diapers… she hopes).

While hanging out they tended to fall into an interesting pattern whether it’s at her house in her room or at his dorm when his roommate’s out, he’ll sit at some large but not too noticeable distance away from her (he isn’t as subtle as he thinks), then while they’re talking or watching one of his shows or playing video games (well he plays she just watches, unless it’s mario kart she’s the fucking best at mario kart) she’ll move ever so closer, bit by bit so he can pull back if he wants (he never does) until she’s right next to him, she doesn’t go overboard only the sorta interactions that’d make sense for… completely platonic friends (but like… gal pal friends). Whenever she leans on him he stops making much sense like his brain is malfunctioning, and she can totally hear his heartbeat. One time she caught him looking at her and could’ve swore he was gonna kiss her… but he didn’t, ever since then he’s been a bit more distant, not much tho… just, a bit.

gsrtgsgkgnrstlhnrturwlj okay… okay… it’s okay… she’ll just wait for him to be ready, she’s okay with that, he’ll make a move… eventually,... but he *is* autistic like sooooo autistic, he might not know she’d like it, maybe if she told him… oh god…

Tranny Mona Lisa (Alice): “hey lu”

trashbag_minister (Lu): “hi”

Tranny Mona Lisa (Alice): “i have smth i wanna tell u”

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trashbag_minister (Lu): “what is it?”

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she starts typing

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Tranny Mona Lisa (Alice): “if you want to date i would like that”

trashbag_minister (Lu): “oh”

Tranny Mona Lisa (Alice): “i kno u said u werent dating a while back i just”

Tranny Mona Lisa (Alice): “if u wanted to kno i guess”

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trashbag_minister (Lu): “i’m detrans”

Tranny Mona Lisa (Alice): “what?”

trashbag_minister (Lu): “i was a trans girl for,, a while, but i stopped”

Tranny Mona Lisa (Alice): “i kno tht”

Tranny Mona Lisa (Alice): “or i didn’t kno u were but i kno what detran means”

Tranny Mona Lisa (Alice): “why?”

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Too anxious to wait for a response she put her phone down… fuck, he’s a detransitioner. What does that mean? Like why tho… the only detransitioners she’d seen were the bald ones on twitter saying she was in a cult, she didn’t even know trans women detransitioned, well like obviously they do at least one did, but like… she hadn’t thought about it. Is he like… one of those ex-gay people, using her in the same way an “ex” gay uses anonymous hookups on grindr to satisfy some repressed desire. Did he think his body was mutilated, or that hers was? Why did he identify as a chaser, or go on /tttt/? Did he actually like trans girls… she had thought he did but was “chaser” just an excuse to be a cis man in trans spaces? He always seemed so supportive, but she thought detransitioners hated the trans community for “ruining” their bodies. Did he hate all trans people or only himself… Was he still the same person, Her Lu?

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[koudelka-bloodmire]

So, it's Friday night. After waiting ten years and a day for the sequel to a beloved RPG franchise I've been a fan of for 12 years, made by a studio whose games I have been losing myself in for 27, I find myself neither playing the game, nor listening to its music, looking for fan art or joining online discussions. Instead I am judging the game for what it truly is, listening, hearing and seeing reports of what's happening behind the scenes, and even as I write this now, I am watching any and all criticism of the game, its development, and its developers, being eradicated in front of my eyes by those trying to peddle a product by smothering all unwanted opinions. Whether it's copyright takedowns, forum bans or even requests to "ban all bad comments", one's choices are either to slavishly supplicate to the blighted entity Bioware has become, stay totally silent on the subject, or leave the mono-minded community. None of these options are attractive, and the thought of having to turn away from the fandom because I won't worship the cultism of this product is deeply and indelibly isolating. Beliefs evolve and mature over time, in response to events and interactions with other people. My thoughts on Dragon Age: The Veilguard may be just one evolution in a series I will make in my lifetime, but despite the danger, threat and fear the community at large may make me feel for having these opinions, I would rather share them, and fall by their weight, than erase them, and therefore, my current self.

I am a proud gay man who has gone to the wall supporting the trans rights movement ever since I knew what a trans person was. If someone wants to change their gender, change how they dress, change what it says on their driver's license, and have surgeries to achieve it, then they have my blessing and support. It's no one's business what you do to your own body.

But in this arena, my arena, I'm saying enough is enough.

Dragon Age: The Veilguard is a wildly unprofessional, dismally executed and childishly written propaganda manifesto on gender identity. We are transported to the medieval, high fantasy realm of Thedas where... people label themselves as "trans", "non-binary", have double mastectomies, top surgery scars, and forced pronouns. In a cutscene I've watched about ten times with increasing appall, Isobella is having a conversation with someone who was (count them with me): born a woman, looks like a woman, has the face of a woman, and sounds like a woman. When she says "she" instead of their demanded "they", a simple "oh, okay, sorry" won't do. Instead she has to physically punish herself... for the fact that her human brain has learned how to interpret and understand the physical sex of other humans at an innate, natural level from a very young age. She is punished for the fact that language forms around a human's perception of the world around them. Dragon Age: The Veilguard wants us to support the physical punishment and public humiliation of women who, even accidentally, don't obey the status quo opinion.

And deeper we go into this mirror of 1984. Two prominent people at the studio, the lead developer and a writing consultant, are both male to female transgender. I can't speak for their intentions when contributing to this game. I won't lower myself by talking about how they look or sound or act or present, that's not my business. My business is the product they built with the intellectual property I once considered a safe haven. They have taken the monument that is Dragon Age and defaced it with painful, hurtful, outrageous and insulting nonsense. Their graffiti on this monument, their daubs of multicoloured paint, their cuts and stabs at the marble, all demean the most basic tenants of what it means to be a human, to be a woman. The monument may remain standing, but if it falls, the sound of it crumbling will echo in the world of video gaming for years to come.

As the defacers walk away, task completed, the dust settles, the paint dries. I am left here with these opinions, trying not to think something I might regret. But the thoughts come all on their own.

If you want to change your sex, and the end result is not convincing enough to make people believe you're a woman, you cannot use brute force to make people think you are. If you are a woman who doesn't want to be a woman anymore, but have done nothing to change your body, affect, or sound, you cannot punish people who look at you and innately know you are a woman by virtue of having a woman's body. There is a line that was crossed, and I draw that line around this damaged monument. Enough must be enough. I simply cannot support this absolute delusion anymore. I can't support the idea that anyone who even dares whisper this counterpoint is fascistically branded as the being the enemy within, of being a transphobe, of being a nazi, of wanting trans people to die because these people can't have their own way with the minds of other men and women.

Gay people fought to the death to get to where we were in the early 2010s, and none of it necessitated threats, humiliation, degradation, or hatred. Gay people are born gay. We don't need surgery, a diagnosis, pills or procedures to prove it. We don't need anyone else's loyalty or servitude to keep the pilot light on. We don't need money, pity, support, labels, ideologies or chastisements to fuel the fire. Dragon Age and the community around it was once a home to me and others like me, but now at age 32, I find it unrecognisable. I walk away from the monument in silence, wondering what will happen to it after I'm gone.