#don't get me wrong good Bi representation is hard to find

[geekynichelle]

See, my problem is Raven and Irene getting married makes for a great pride month comic event, but I also prefer bad mom Mystique, and granted I'm not up to date with every comic, however I'm a wee bit confused about how everyone currently feels about each other in that family. Also is Kurt now canonically Irene and Mystique's biological child? Because, tbh I think Rogue being their biological daughter makes way more sense, and that Kurt's dad can still just be Azazel. Then again this is the same company that apparently can't decide if Wanda and Pietro are Magneto's biological children or not so there's no point in making sense of anything.

[cultofsappho]

Ive come to the realization that the reason theres a small but loud group of people who are showing nothing but hate for the rwrb movie is because they have completely unrealistic expectations. People are forgetting that this is a cheesy romantic comedy, thats supposed to look and feel like a cheesy romantic comedy. This isnt going to be moonlight or gods own country or some other critically acclaimed, oscar nomintaed queer film that makes straight people go "hmm maybe they do deserve rights and respect🤷‍♀️"

Its gonna be a cheesy adult romantic comedy, thats gonna be a bit camp and over the top and thats exactly why its so good. I dont want to think about every gay movie I watch. I want to watch it and see two queer people fall in love and thats it. Thats how deep it goes. Maybe a sprinkling of politcal commentary in between.

There is this issue thats become bigger and bigger every passing year, that people expect every bit of queer representation to be the best thing ever. There can not ever be anything cringey or different or silly, and if it is then they send endless hate towards it, and in an industry that already hates to show queer people on screen, its this viscious cycle of someone finally being greenlit to make queer media, the media gets endless hate for not being perfect, the studio cancels the queer media before giving it a chance because theyve just 'proven that it wont make money', suddenly everyone is saying 'why do they keep canceling queer media😢', cycle repeats.

Im so over it. Let gay people be slightly cringy or cheesy or campy. Let queer media exist without putting it on this huge pedestal. Just enjoy things! And if you dont, dont watch it! Move on, find something better to do.

Yes!!! Thank you so much anon for putting this feeling into words much better than I could have!

"I dont want to think about every gay movie I watch."

Thank you.

I want light-hearted rom coms about queer adults just being queer adults and havig fun. I want comedy adventures where the characters just happen to be gay. I want more horror where at the end the final girl kisses a girl and can't belive they lived but not because they're gay. (suprisingly several of these exist and I love it)

I don't always want to think about the plight and horrors of being queer today with every queer movie I watch.

Sometimes, yes of course, I want to be seen on that level.

(Nimona, which came this weekend is a perfect example of a queer movie where I felt very very seen but also had a good time and was an incredibly silly fantasy adventure movie. But, still had the queer expereince intertwined.)

I'm looking forward to a movie that will be 90% rom com, and 10% realism/heavyness. re: being outed is a real thing that happens to people. famous people.

Alex and Henry go through some heavy shit. There's seriously traumatizing stuff at the end of the book. They're both dealing with mental illnesses, complex families, and rock-or-a-hard-place situations. I want all of that honored.

And, at the same time, I'm expecting a straight-to-streaming, mid-budget, movie that had to pass through a LOT of straight hands and board meetings to get to us.

Not to say we should love and accept every queer movie that comes out automatically, they have been done wrong in the past. (example: I skipped call me by your name bc the age gap still makes me too uncomfortable to watch)

But we have to give queer movies a chance to fit the genre they were made for, the tone they are made to be, and give queer creators a chance to show they are us annd they know us. The director is Bi. He's spent so much time going on about how much he related to Alex that he needed to make this movie. It's his first directing role, and I'm giving him a chance.

[the-missann]

I just remembered something I wanted to do.

Essentially, I grew up reading and watching yaoi (and also self-identify as a fujoshi) and it's always been a dream of mine to have a queer show go on for as long as something like Naruto or SpongeBob. You know, just longer than three seasons as is typical with shows that have queer main characters.

So, I'll share some of the stories of mine that either have MCs that are gay, have queer characters, or have a plot related around something LGBT.

Also, I wanna use this as a way to detail special cases in my stories as well.

! I am but a simple ally. So if something I say is wrong or there's a better way to phrase it, please kindly let me know. I truly mean no offense by anything here !

Stories with gay MCs

Tales That Were Told (Not written)

So, this is a story that's pretty much done but I haven't written one bit of it aside from a random scene I had to get out of my head. But, originally, this was just a story where two highschool kids were dealing with highschool shit. A slice of life story with two cuties. Then, it got turned into this new story (Tales That Were Told) that is a sequel to another story I'm still currently writing (Tales That Were Lived). It's hard to summarize, but essentially the main story is an adventure dealing with three characters and a fantasy world where they're all coming to terms with finding themselves and learning to love who they are despite where they may come from. In Tales Told, I intend for this story to have like relationship shit, but the relationship is two men *gasp*. It's not gonna be some weirdly specific thing; no, they're just two kids who have a crush on each other while other shit in the world is going on. Revolutionary concept I know.

Unnamed erotica (unedited, 40k wc with a planned sequel at 10k currently)

it has a name, but I don't really like it :(

I was a little iffy about writing this one at first because I'm the type of person who's extremely tired of queer media just being softcore porn. I just want a good story and the characters happen to be gay. But, I also know it's important to write stories like these as well to show all the different sides and to show people that there's not much different about anyone who happens to be lgbt. In this story, my MC Kit is a famous voice actor (like Johnny Young Bosch) and is a total asshole that everyone is scared shitless of. His soon to be boyfriend is a lovestruck puppy boy childhood friend who is desperate to be with him. He's so sweet it's almost sickening! They deal with normal relationship issues, societal problems, workplace harassment, as well as their own personal issues and some of their issues are even from each other. scandalous. Kit as the MC has a million and one issues within himself (including some from his family), but his loverboy is right there to help him! Also, here's another summary I wrote for this on my website that better explains the origin of the story.

Stories with queer characters

Orange Perfect (unfinished at 21k)

This is had a few mentions of queerness in it. A quick summary: this is a coming-of-age story where three kids (Cassie, Lucius, and Shay) are forced to become friends after all getting targeted by a gang. The MC named Shay is discovering himself. He doesn't know if he's gay, bi, non-binary, gender non-conforming, etc... and is conflicted about his various feelings as he wishes he had a simpler answer for how he feels. Another important character is a trans man (Gabe) who acts as a physical representation of Cassie's own realization of who she wants to be. It's tough for her to live as herself, so Gabe eventually reveals to her that he is a trans man. That his struggles to realize who he really was changed once he accepted himself. As well, he wants her to be different from himself as he's still living partially in the dark since very few people know he's trans.

Any story that has one character named Ren in it (too many to count)

Ren is my MCs twin brother (whenever I want her to have a twin brother) and he is always in a relationship with another character named Mari who I originally made as a trap (I was like twelve). Now a days, Mari is just best described as a twink, but I like his name too much to change it. So that part of the "trap" still exists. Ren is full on gay and screams it from the rooftops as he expresses his interest in men quite often. He's not a flamboyant gay, but he will openly tell people he has no romantic or sexual interest in women and isn't shy to kiss his boyfriend in public. Oh and bonus that women often like him and he has a ton of female friends.

The Entire Fourth Dimension Reality series (total wc of ~100k)

Aside from this story being one long shit post I thoroughly loved making. One of the secondary main characters is suppose to be pansexual. Why this is, is because she only interacts with the other three main characters because she finds them cute (one girl and two guys). Now, she's actually pan for a reason. It's mainly due to her family that made her desire to be loved by everyone around her. This manifested into her just liking anything that would show her affection. (dw Mandy, I love you💗) One of the villains I made to be feminine presenting because he was really pretty in my head when I first developed him. He was going to be genderless, but I decided to make him more feminine and most of that is just with his appearance, but he is defined as a man and acts as so, he just happens to have traditional female attire and mannerisms :)

All The Screams (unedited at 61k)

So, the main point of this story is about Cassie who ends up finding out that she's cursed, but she only does so after going on a mission to escort the prince of her kingdom to his lover. This mission is kept secret and why lies in who this lover is. It's a prince from another Kingdom. Kyo, the prince of Cassie's kingdom, is a little selfish brat who wants what he wants. He fell in love with another kingdom's prince and immediately chose him over his kingdom. With the other prince, his parents are actually gay as well and I made this story around the time I was heavily into yaoi and BL so that may have been an influence as to why tons of characters in this story are gay or why there's major plot points relating to it.

Characters that are iffy/I didn't plan to be queer

The State of Quandary (unfinished with ~60k)/ Before the Reignfall (finished with 45k)

Technically this involves two characters. One of the MCs (Fang) and the MCs friend (Dani) are in the same boat. Originally, Dani was suppose to have a crush on the other MC (Cassie), and that was suppose to explain why Dani even interacts with her in the first place and why they have such a close friendship. However, it felt queerbaity and I felt gross having that as a plot point when it's so obvious Cassie will never even get close to having romantic feelings for Dani. Then, I thought to have Dani be a lesbian because she has trauma with men and dislikes most, if not all, grown men in the world. Fang was the remedy with that as I thought to make them be in a relationship as Fang would be the first guy she ever met who isn't a total loser. However, Fang was originally going to be involved in a love triangle before I realized there's a bit to many conflicts in the story and got rid of it. So, I ended up in a gray area where Fang also doesn't show any interest in women (the result of the love triangle being removed) So, this was my fix. People can either think Fang and Dani are cute together and he manages to break through her trauma, people can think they're both gay and just show no romantic interest in the opposite sex, or their romantic feelings for anyone just isn't important to the story whatsoever. And tbh, I don't mind any one of those options. It's cool when there's different ways to interpret character relationships and it won't lead to fans fighting each other if even I don't really know what it is.

Tales That Were Told (Unfinished at ~90k words)

This villain is a doozy. Their name is Gage and when I first made this character, I pretty much was going to make a woman. However, when I started writing the story, she turned into a he and not even in a way like I intended to change the gender, but even now whenever I write Gage, they're a he. When I think of Gage, they're a she. I don't know what that's about, but even my mental image of Gage is that of both a woman and a man. (If anything, they're comparable to Leo from Tekken). So, to fix this in my head, out loud I refer to Gage as a he. I think of Gage as a she. In the story, the narrator doesn't use any pronoun and characters have conflicting usage as most characters refer to Gage as a he, but there are some who see Gage as a she or simply they/them. Oh, and no, just because Gage might be non-binary, that's not why they're evil. It's not even a plot point in the story. No vilifying personality traits over here lol

Unfinished/unplotted stories with queer plotlines

Unnamed romance (Pink and Brown)

I showcased a snipit of this story (also thanks for everyone who liked it 💕), but there's more to it than what I shared. Back when I actually had a friend, I used to tell him about ideas I had, then he would pretty much allow me to figure out what I wanted to do with it. I told him I wanted to make a story with these two girls I made in a picrew because they were so adorable and they ended up as a couple. I couldn't think of a name so they were named Pink and Brown based on their hair colors. I also couldn't think of the official story I wanted them to have. So, I simply came up with two of them. The first story is a slice of life where Brown and Pink are both in college (for IT and Art respectively) and Brown has a huge crush on two girls--one she knows through mutual friends and another being the artists of a webcomic she really loves. (I'm sure this isn't obvious at all). So, one day, Brown gets a call from Pink and she's really stressed out about something. Eventually, she explains she called her since an IT major could help her with someone hacking one of her social media accounts. Brown agrees and when she finds out what the account is, she's shocked to see that Pink is the artist of the webcomic she's been reading for years. I don't even have a damn conflict in this story so it is dead in the water. I'm sure I'll get some idea for it, but knowing me that'll be years from now, unfortunately. Oh, and the snipit I shared is suppose to be the comic Pink is drawing acted as an AU of the original story (if that makes any fucking sense)

Unnamed romance (Idol x non-idol)

This one feels like a fever dream because I don't even remember why I came up with it. Anyways, this is suppose to be a slight extension of the erotica. This is another famous person who ends up falling for an accountant after a random encounter he had with him after a concert. The accountant doesn't want to be involved with this celeb for several reasons, but mainly because he's known to sleep around. The celeb is determined and pretty much forces them to have a relationship by hiring him as his new money manager. He pretty much gets him fired from his old job and... that's all I thought of. It's suppose to end up being really cute as the celeb eventually reveals the kind of person he really is, but what that is, I'm not really sure.

Random Tangent

Now that I'm writing this, it does make me think about an abandoned story I wrote where a failing manager falls in love with a client who essentially saves him from losing his career. The erotica and it's extension are already related, and this other unnamed story (I'll call it The Client for now) had a connection as well. Real quick, all these stories are connected to Orange Perfect through Cassie and other relationships. Without giving away major spoilers (just in case) Cassie ends up as someone very influential in the media world by the end. As a college age girl, she's meeting with the Celeb and the Accountant; and, at some point in her journey, she meets and works with the Manager in The Client. Kit knows a ton of people in the industry and knows the Celeb, the Manager, and Cassie who he has a business relationship with. So, it's easy for me to add Pink. Pink could eventually be offered a contract to a major publication, and cross paths with Cassie through some means. There's even a chance for Kit to voice any character in her webcomic, the celeb to make music for it, and even the manager could help her somehow. Sometimes I get really good ideas for things that just are not possible. I would love to have these five stories apart of a collection in this "reality" I made up for them. Ugh. It sucks to not have this as my actual job. Anyways, I thought it would be kind of cool to have all these stories be related.

That might not be everyone, but I often use queer elements in my story so, who knows, maybe I'll update this in the future with more!

But, thanks for reading if you did~🍂

[sigynsilica]

Something I mentioned to my sister earlier that I have now been able to more thoroughly think through.

You know how the vast majority of media feels the need to generate some form of romantic subplot? To the extent that many romantic subplots are forced and don't fit into the themes or nature of the story? But the media creators feel obligated to put it in anyway?

I have a theory that this is why the representation of Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual experiences are so much more represented than Trans, NonBinary, or Asexual – especially Aroace – experiences.

Sidenote: I'm obviously not saying LGB characters are overrepresented, I'm addressing the Trans, Enby, and Ace characters being criminally underrepresented.

I can think of only five or six trans characters in media off the top of my head. Maybe three nonbinary characters, and in media that I have seen? Only one canonical aroace character. (That's Lilith Clawthorne, btw)

The theory states that since lesbian, gay, and bisexual identities all have to do with romance and who a person could potentially be paired up with and shipped with, it's far easier for their identities to be represented in media, due to that incessant need for romantic subplot. But since being trans and nonbinary have nothing at all to do with who a person can canonically be shipped with, and being Aroace excludes the possibility of a ship in the first place, they're not as commonly represented. They don't already neatly fit into the generated world and storyline of what would be considered a popular story.

A few weeks ago, I was storyboarding with my younger brother (no hate to him, he's still learning), and I mentioned that one of the characters in the story was a trans woman. He asked me why I had made that decision, saying your typical stuff about how it didn't add anything to the story, and it would be forced diversity. I countered him with this: name one character in media that is canonically trans.

He couldn't. He'd never even heard of one. Part of that is because our parents shelter him in the same way they sheltered me, but it's also because there aren't very many. So how can this be forced diversity when in the real world, people are trans, yet in fictional worlds, people very, very rarely are?

The more I think about it, though, the more I begin to question if he might be on to something.

There are a lot of stories where a character's sexuality is integral to the plot, and a character being gay or bi actually does drive the story. We have coming out stories all over the place, stories exclusively about the gay experience. But if we have any stories exclusively about the trans experience, I've yet to see or hear of them.

I'm currently working on a story that is about the trans experience, specifically finding confidence and making space for yourself in the world as a trans person. When I first got the idea for the story, I was concerned it would come across heavy-handed, or people would call it propaganda. But to be honest, I don't care. I want there to be more of this kind of book in the world, so I'm making one.

And to any cis ally authors, or allosexual allies out there who want to write trans or ace characters: Do it. Please. If you're afraid of getting something wrong or playing too hard into stereotypes or making "bad representation", you're probably right. I'm afraid of that, and I am trans. That doesn't mean it isn't worth it. Every character is worthy of critique, and the way you get to a point where we have lots of good representation in the world is by having a lot of bad representation first.

Do your research. Talk to real people who identify with the label you've bestowed on your character, and listen to what they have to say. And when it comes down to it, you have more wiggle room in your characterization than you might think. There's a million different valid ways to be trans and ace, so unless you're being actively offensive, you're probably good.

Please write us. Our stories are important.

[moonmoonthecrabking]

i'm going to go on a big season three bisexual rant because there are no thoughts in here apart from some gremlins chanting "bi bi bi bi"

very happy for redlyn being bi4bi, it's pretty rare to have on bi character, let alone two, let alone in a relationship

i really appreciate that it's a disney+ show aimed at a younger audience giving this representation. despite my thoughts on disney as a Company, at least there are creators within it who are like "you know what? queer rep."

neither ash nor red (presumably) cheat on each other when figure out their respective identities, and neither of them are really portrayed as promiscuous or super popular characters unlike brittany in glee or whomstever in euphoria. not that this is bad at all to be, and if people see themselves in those characters, then that's of course great!!! but having it in this way made me realise there's never been too much "kid-friendly" bi rep (luz from toh predating this by a couple of years), and i am so happy that we're now getting that

ashlyn being "nO I Just Like Her As A Friend" until the fireworks? iconic sapphic experience

her "I HAVE A BOYFRIEND WHO IS MALE" is kinda an examination into comphet and that experience of. well. i've liked men in the past and this is a girl and it's not exactly identical but it's definitely not a friend thing was really relatable to me

and while it hasn't really been confirmed if she's a secular or religious jew (because unfortunately i don't know enough about judaism, sorry!!), it seems that at least a little part of her was struggling with the intersection between religion and queerness. and again, while that's not a lot of people, there are religious people in the queer community and that representation can be really helpful for people who want the best of both world

also??? lesbian (yes i am assuming madmad are lesbians BUT I COULD BE WRONG) AND bi AND gay men representation???? quality content right here.

that being said, there are some flaws. i didn't love how we didn't get to see her come out to her friends or big red. i get that the latter was an intimate moment, but like so was the rina kiss. she mentioned that her "dating pool has expanded" but it didn't seem like she had told anyone yet, until carlos showed up with a pride pin (king behaviour btw).

it seems like the in-universe show is going to out her??? maybe she ended up putting something in the confessionals but... idk the way it was edited was really confusing to me

actually yeah that's really it. i'm so confused about the timeline and people's coming outs. for example, i assumed that when ricky looked at ashlyn for confirmation and she nodded she already knew, but i've seen other people interpreting that scene as her finding out??? i personally would've liked some things to be spelt out more.

just let her have a one-liner next season like "I'm too hot and bisexual for this" it's not that hard???

while i would like redlyn to stay together, i understand that you can't always get what you want. IF they have an amicable break-up then i think that there are a lot of potential fun scenes there!!!

btw ricky bowen? not straight. no way. elton with his storyline may be harkening back to the og trilogy's "gay coded but...". gina and kourtney could be straight but i don't want them to be. and i would love it if there were some aro/ace/trans/enby representation with any new characters!!!

also rip to portwell shippers, congrats to rina shippers. good luck to both of you

[two-sides-samecoin]

holy shit dude, leave byler fans alone!! stop putting your "aggressive byler fan" stuff in the tag because we do not care. if you want to criticize constructively then that's okay, but, you're not doing that, you're just blatantly shitting on us and being rude in our tag. you are the one being aggressive here.

and i'm sorry to break it to you but having a same-sex couple in a show like stranger things actually would be groundbreaking and it's ignorant af to say otherwise. yes, obviously, other forms of media exist. LGBT people have always known this because we have to actively search for niche media in order to find representation.

a ship like byler being canon in a show as famous and mainstream as stranger things is something we never ever get and it would mean the world to us, especially because unlike 99% of mlm ships, the byler fandom is majority queer people. we're not the straight girls fetishizing the ship, we're actual gay and bi people who want to see people like us represented on-screen.

you being asexual doesn't give you the right to speak on all queer people, especially not gay or bisexual people...so maybe don't do it? keep your passive aggressiveness and rudeness to yourself.

Okay I see why I’m being annoying and aggressive but also I put the aggressive fans for a reason!!! Because I’m not including people who just vibe with it. Literally a lesbian character exists and y’all ignore her. Also I get that me saying my sexuality is annoying but I’m also kind of trying to make a point that people like me don’t get any rep. Legit someone saying that they were asexual in ‘sex education’ was an amazing thing for us. Which also ‘sex education’ is a huge hit in Netflix and it has black gay representation so there’s also that. But it was so big for asexual people because we don’t get anything. Meanwhile half the shows who do get queer representation only talk about people who are gay and the main popular ones. I didn’t even know asexuality was a word that I could use until like maybe 6 months ago. (I’m in college rn so I feel like that should tell you something). And I’m not being the voice for other queer rep. Saying that this ship is groundbreaking is making one big generalization of queer people. I have talked to my friends so many times (who are queer) who just don’t give a shit about byler at all. Because they don’t agree that it is good representation. So I do know from experience that some people don’t consider it groundbreaking. Also while this isn’t the topic people who are on the ace spectrum and other sexualities get shit compared to gay and bi and lesbian people. I legit have seen stories on tumblr saying how some people aren’t even welcomed in pride parades. And while that’s in real life and this is a show it’s still important because that’s how people get treated. It’s also common for people on the ace spectrum to actually define what it means to be ace instead of people just knowing. I really am a chill person but this is why saying byler is groundbreaking hurts me personally. Because people actually have gotten so much representation meanwhile others are left in the dust. It just hurts me seeing the fandom I love talk about this ship as if it’s some savior and worship it so hard that I feel alienated. That I feel like I’m somehow wrong for just wanting them to be friends and for friendship (which has been the main theme since season 1) to be the main theme. Instead I’m meet with ship wars and gross accusations that I’m somehow the enemy. Also I’m not trying to weaponize sexuality. Im just trying to be myself and be open about it because so many other people get to be open about their sexualities online so why can’t I? Why can’t I say that it hurts me that I barely get any rep? Why can’t I say that to me saying byler is revolutionary is doing more harm than good for my mental health?? Because seeing mike and will be friends to me is more groundbreaking than a ship. To me seeing two boys who are vulnerable with each other and love and care about each other because they are friends is something that I find more groundbreaking than a stupid fucking ship war.

[ordinaryschmuck]

What I Thought About "Eda's Requiem" from The Owl House

Salutations, random people on the internet who certainly won’t read this! I am an Ordinary Schmuck. I write stories and reviews and draw comics and cartoons.

...

...

...HOW IS SEASON TWO SO GOOD?! WE'VE HAD SEVEN EPISODES SO FAR, AND EACH ONE OF THEM WAS A HIT!

Take "Eda's Requiem," for example. It's yet another episode where I have NOTHING bad to say about it! That's two weeks in a row where that happened! HOW DOES THIS HAPPEN?!

HOW!

HOW!

...But anyways, "Eda's Requiem." It's another fantastic episode, and I'm about to dive into explaining how and why. Just keep in mind, it's gonna require spoilers to do so, so be wary of that as you keep reading.

Now, let's review, shall we?

WHAT I LIKED

Eda’s Checklist and Grom Photo: Within the first second, "Eda's Requiem" perfectly sets up Eda's central conflict in the episode. Despite spending years being on her own and looking after herself, she now has two kids that she's constantly caring over. Eda can try all she wants to say that she doesn't care, and I bet she has in the past. But given the hard work she's putting into getting King and Luz what they need and having a grom photo of the three of them together pinned in her mirror, it's pretty clear that those two knuckleheads wormed their way into her heart and are never getting out.

Eda’s Worried About King and Luz Leaving: And thus, that's precisely why something like this bothers her so much. Eda inadvertently adopted two rambunctious rapscallions (Yeah, I know. I'll get to it), so the idea of them not being around her anymore is going to be terrifying. That is a situation most parents, especially mothers, can identify with. It’s called empty nest syndrome and it proves just how much Eda loves Luz and King that she can't stand the thought of her babies leaving the nest. It's yet another well-made, wholesome, found-family moment that this series continues to excel at each week, making me extra excited for more like it to come...while also readying myself for heartbreak when one of them eventually does leave Eda.

Eda and Raine’s Music: Ok, I don't know the exact instruments that were played during this episode, but I also don't care because it was all (for lack of a better term) music to my ears. Every time Eda and Raine played resulted in melodies that are so beautiful and filled with so much emotion and feeling that I'm honestly tempted to listen to them again, multiple times, on repeat. Shows rarely do that for me, as background music doesn't always draw me in as much as lyrical songs do. Usually, it takes something so extraordinarily composed to give me the desire to listen again, and that's the case here. So huge congrats to Brad Breek for doing so. Seriously, the man's been killing it this season.

Eda’s Bard Magic Causing Things to Turn to Ash: This was assuredly a surprise side-effect of the curse. The fact that Eda can sort of do magic at all was its own shock. To then reveal that a specific type can do dangerous things to people and environments is...Well, it definitely brings up its own fair share of questions. Like, how can she do this? Will she do it again, one day? And are there other types of spells that can be negatively affected by Eda's curse? We don't get answers for any of these questions, and odds are, we never will. But that's alright with me. Because if a show makes me consider these many possibilities after a brief amount of time, it is a show that has to be doing something right. Even if I don't get the answers I want, the fact that it caused such a reaction makes me less willing to care.

Raine Whispers: Hey, would you look at that. Another fun, interesting, and compelling character added to the list of this shows' other fun, interesting, and compelling characters...how is this series so good at this!?

Joking aside, Raine's pretty good. I like Raine. They could have been this super serious leader who lost all their fun after years apart from Eda, but I'm glad that they're not. There are moments when Raine takes their job as leader of the BATs seriously, as one would, but I still prefer the fact that they kept a jovial nature despite how grim their situation is. It's an admirable trait to have, and it avoids the trope of making leader characters boring just because they're the ones who have to take things seriously.

Oh, and also, Raine's Disney's first non-binary character who has a stake in the plot. This is a tremendous deal, as you don't usually see that many non-binary characters in children's animation, let alone ones that hold importance to the story. So it's pretty cool for the writers to feature Raine, as it helps several kids feel as though they're finally seen and respected. And the fact that Disney of all companies gave the thumbs up is even more impressive. I hear people say that Dana Terrace should have pitched The Owl House to more progressive networks to avoid pushback, and while I absolutely see your point, I'll have to respectfully disagree. Disney is the largest entertainment industry of all time, so if you want to make LGBTQA+ representation normalized, you gotta stop making splashes and start making waves. Because if the same company that made three racist cats in the span of a few years manages to say that being gay is a-ok, then you know there's something wrong with you. Yes, Disney ended up screwing over the show anyway. But for that one moment, when kids felt pride after seeing a character like Raine, then, in the end, it's kind of worth it.

Also, if you're still having issues with more representation like this popping up in kids' shows, then allow me to redirect you to the complaint department.

...I made that post earlier today for this bit. YOU HAVE BETTER APPRECIATED IT!

Day of Unity is meant to be a Secret: At least, that's what I got when Raine stumbled over their own words. So if it's true, then I wonder why? Why does Belos want to keep the most critical change in the Boiling Isles a secret? Does he want to make it a surprise for his grateful subjects, or does he not want to spread worry and fear amongst the wild witches? It has to be something big if he doesn't want his followers to even say the words "Day of Unity." Whatever reason he has, we most likely won't know until the future. A future that I grow more and more afraid of each week.

Hooty Eating Echo Mouse: My heart sank in that brief moment when I thought that Hooty intensely screwed Luz over in getting back home. But looking back...it is pretty funny.

Just the suddenness of Hooty eating the poor creature that Luz desperately tried to earn its trust is priceless in how shocking it was. And also, Luz's expression.

That was the look of a young girl who immediately shoved her hand down an owl demon's throat the second the scene cut away. The Owl House may not always be a hit in the comedy department, but scenes like this prove that when it's funny, it is hilarious.

Luz and King Entering the Grand Prix: Not much to discuss here. It's just a cute subplot that adds frivolity to the intensity of what's going on through Eda and Raine's story. But I will say that I love how both stories occasionally interconnect with each other through the many moments of Eda being worried about King wanting to leave to find his father and avoiding any conversation about it. It helps both plotlines feel like they belong together, without being something like "Through the Looking Glass Ruins," whereas both stories could have been in their own episode. Which is neat.

How Bard Magic Works: I really love how this season is diving into how the other magic types work. More specifically, the ones that seem a little vague. I mean, stuff like healing, potions, and plants are easy to figure out, but what does it mean when a witch's talents are construction, beast keeping, and bard magic? We've been getting a lot of clearing up lately, with bard magic looking like a witch can control their environments and enemies through the power of music. Which is fair. Music is pretty powerful in the metaphorical sense, and I actually love that it's powerful in the literal sense when in the Boiling Isles.

The BATs: Not much to comment on these three either. The BATs have the potential to have an entertaining dynamic, but they do very little in this episode that I can't say much other than I hope they make a return in the future. But I will make this claim: Amber is my favorite. I'm sorry, but her screaming "You're not our mom!" to then go, "Bye, mommy Eda" is just too precious for me not to love.

I'm a simple man who falls for cute s**t. Leave me alone.

Raeda (RainexEda): Well, EdaxCamila, you were a fun crack ship while it lasted, but I'm afraid that this is now goodbye. The current canon has provided an incredibly adorable and believable relationship that I would be a monster not to support with my whole bi-heart. It's been real.

Ok, back in serious mode: I love these two together. Eda and Raine are grown-ups, and they still act all flustered near each other as if they were still Luz and Amity's age. It's definitive proof that you're never too old to get flustered near a crush, and seeing them interact adds a sense of wholesomeness when seeing them together as well as heartbreak when they're forced apart. Plus, we get confirmation that Eda's LGBTQA+! Whether she's bi, pan, or whatever, now that we know Eda can catch feelings for someone like Raine, it's yet another case that The Owl House is the most important series to the community. Because having the main character be queer is fantastic in its own right. But having the same apply to the motherly mentor figure? That's is an extra bit of normalization that anybody would be willing to appreciate.

Unique Guard Designs: Not many fans are going to appreciate this, primarily compared to everything else this episode does perfectly. For me, I actually like that you see a few Coven Guards looking differently from the others, as it helps make them less like clones and makes it seem like anybody of any body type could be a part of the coven.

Gus Looking Uninterested when Presenting Grand Prix with his Dad: I am positive that you didn't notice this (I didn't even notice it until someone else pointed it out), but there's something to dissect here. It hints that perhaps Gus isn't as interested in his father's field of work as one might think. If he did, he would look a lot less bored and much more excited to be helping Perry Porter present the race. It could just be the race itself, but judging from Gus' expression, it really seems like the kid would prefer to be anywhere but there. And why would he have that reaction to a race that his best friend is competing in? To me, this seems like an inkling of what Gus' relationship with Perry could be, which may not actually get time to shine, what with how little wiggle room the series has now (Thanks Disney). Regardless, it is interesting to notice, and it will certainly have fans thinking for a while.

Bump Being Smug of Luz Being in the Lead: That's it. Principal Bump looking smug as his human student is beating the students of his rivals is yet another moment that proves why Bump is easily the best cartoon principal.

Darius: First of all, this guy is f**king fabulous, and I love him. *Snaps*

Second, he is definitive proof that you do NOT want to f**k around with Coven Leaders. Lilith may have had her intimidating moments, but none of them compare to the guy who can turn himself into an abomination monster where only magic that hasn't existed before can take him down. It's genuinely scary to see Darius lose control, and I fear for the day when Luz inevitably ends up in his crosshairs.

With that said, Darius' still a ton of fun! He may be threatening, but he's just a flamboyant guy that hates the idea of getting his outfit the tiniest bit dirty. And I love that. I love that these Coven Heads have actual personalities instead of being generically evil. I consider it preferable to make villains entertaining rather than blatantly scary as I'll remember the personalities first and the villainous acts last.

Eberwolf: But this one's my favorite. I told you: I'm a simple man who gets easily swayed by cute s**t. And Eber? I mean, just look at her:

She's just a cute widdle rascal! I just want to pinch her cheeks, give her a belly rub, and--

...Eberwolf is not a cute widdle rascal. She is a strong, independent woman, and I will respect her as such from this moment forward...lest I feel her wrath.

That is all. Let's move on.

Eda and Raine Attempting a Final Performance: This was the best scene of the episode. It looked gorgeous, it shows the dedication Eda and Raine have for stopping Belos, and it says so much through so little. Go back and look at how Eda and Raine regard one another when performing Eda's requiem. Through their expressions and a few short words, you know they understand that if they complete the song/spell, they probably won't make it in the end. And yet, they don't care. They both know bad stuff will happen if Belos wins, so Eda and Raine put everything to the side, both their feelings for one another and the people they leave behind if it means putting an end to a tyrant. That level of dedication...Words can't fully describe how powerful that is.

Raine Sacrificing Themselves Instead: But in the end, Raine can't do it. Not when they know the life that Eda has and the people she'll be leaving behind. It's an extra bit of nobleness to the character seeing that Raine refuses to take away a woman from two kids who need her the most. A tad bit selfish, sure, knowing what Belos has planned. But when it comes to love, the romantic, familial, or platonic, the best decisions aren't always the logical ones.

Eda Crying: Luz crying tears me up, but seeing Eda cry is a whole different level of heartbreak. Like Lilith, Eda has her emotions locked up tight, with the closest she came to weeping were those two tears in "Young Blood, Old Souls." In "Eda's Requiem," she cries but almost quickly stops herself. As if she knows that doing so isn't going to save Raine. That is...even worse than seeing Luz break down after losing Eda. The fact that Eda refuses to give herself time to mourn losing someone she loved is tragic because crying is the most natural way of showing grief. Turning that off isn't healthy, and seeing her do it with little resistance is sad to me. It's sad to see a character I love can easily shut off all emotions despite how badly she may want to embrace them. It's one of those moments that, again, by doing so little, it shows so much.

“No one watches Crystal Balls anymore. It’s all about streaming.”: Oof. Even I felt that burn towards cable.

King’s Message: King's message was the pick-me-up I needed after the heart-wrenching sadness this episode put me through a few minutes ago. Seeing King say who he is and listing all the things he loves is nothing short of adorable. On top of that, I adore that Eda willingly recorded the whole thing. She may not want King to leave, but that doesn't mean she'll sabotage the one thing he wants. Especially not after Raine gave up everything so Eda could be with her kids. The opening scene may prove how much Eda cares about a rascal like King, but this heartwarmingly sweet moment reveals just how far she'll go to make him happy.

King’s Dad Reveal: ...ok, I'll be honest, I did not think we'd get that reveal this soon. Dumb of me to say, considering the number of times I've said that these writers don't waste time getting to the s**t, I know. But still, it's pretty cool knowing that King's dad is alive and well, added with the fact that we've got a fair idea of what he looks like. At this point, it's only a matter of time before we see him figure out where the Clawthorne residence is and witness the tear-jerking moments that will follow.

King Changing his Name to King Clawthorne: Not the official adoption I was expecting Eda to make...but DANG IT, is it still diabetes-inducing levels of sweetness!

Personally, I feel like the main reason why Eda breaks down this time is not only because she shouldn't be worried about King leaving her life, but also because Raine's sacrifice wasn't in vain. Her kids really do need Eda because no matter how far apart they'll be, she will always be a part of their life...dang it, I'm going to cry too!

What those Coven patches really do: Well...that was horrifying to see.

...Writers, if you kill off the best non-binary character in animation (it's a short list, I know), we are going to have PROBLEMS!

IN CONCLUSION

"Eda's Requiem" is--surprise surprise--another A+. The emotions hit hard, the representation hits harder, Raine is a fantastic addition to the cast, and it was all surprisingly cute at times. Season Two is currently on a hot streak, constantly winning with every episode that's come out so far. When a bad episode does eventually show up (IT'S GONNA HAPPEN!), I'll be sure to sing my requiem then. For now, I'm just gonna enjoy the ride.

[itsclydebitches]

1. It really bothers me people use LGBT people to deflect criticism. No spoilers, but The Last of Us 2 has story issues. A lot of confusing writing decisions and overall lackluster compared to the first. It's a disappointment for me. A group of people don't like the game because it has lesbians and trans characters. Those people are shitty. Problem is people group all critics of the game as those bigots when there is legit criticism from people who aren't those bigots.

Ngl, finding that balance is really hard. Like: 

Me: Hmm. First 100% canonical queer character is the would-be murderer of her crush’s parents and uses those unrequited feelings as an excuse for her actions. That makes me very uncomfortable 

Others: Oh, so you hate lesbians and bi women. I get it. 

Me: I am a bi woman?? Which is why I’d like some representation that’s not all doom and gloom. I get that it’s a preference but it’s still a valid one. Not all of us want “problematic” rep but rather something more loving and stable. Like Blake and Yang. I think they could be really good moving forward

Others: They absolutely could not. Here’s an extensive list of every way that their romance has been “forced” on the viewers. They single-handedly ruined RWBY

Me: Okay Number One, there isn’t actually a canonical relationship yet so I don’t think we should be discussing their situation like there is--

Others: OH so you’re one of those aphobic critics who just ignore all the buildup and coding we’ve gotten. It’s not a “real” relationship unless you kiss, huh? 

Me: No! I’m saying that RWBY hasn’t given us anything irrefutable, something to get the bigots off our backs. I 100% believe that the coding reads as romantic but if we never go past coding that’s going to turn into queer baiting, something we’ve been criticizing for years. This need for canonization doesn’t exclude the potential for any sexuality, including making one or both of them ace, but RT needs to have them come out in some way in order to solidify that rep. The “Dumbledore was always gay” argument isn’t enough for 2020.

Others: Do you have any idea how rare it is to have a lesbian or bi relationship in media?? Of course they need to kiss. You claiming they don’t just proves how out of touch you are.

Me: ...okay, can we just agree that it’s impossible for one ship to please everyone and this is why we need LOTS and LOTS and LOTS of representation so that two characters aren’t trying to shoulder the weight of everyone’s identity? We’re moving on. Number Two, Blake/Yang has been no more “forced” than thousands of straight ships out there. If we can accept a guy and a girl being madly in love after looking at each other once, why does a queer couple need a dissertation’s worth of evidence to “prove” that love? 

Also Me, a Volume Later: Hey, I love Blake/Yang but they’re caught up in this whole “protagonists can do no wrong” theme which means that not only are they written as really co-dependent but that co-dependence has led them to making reckless choices without consulting others. Can we maybe let them talk to the other team members? Learn from their mistakes? The relationship - when we hopefully get it - will read as much more healthy and compelling if we let them grow as characters. Here I’m criticizing the depiction of a (potentially) queer relationship, not arguing over whether that relationship has a right to exist at all. Sure, queer characters have the right to be written “badly” just like their straight counterparts, but considering RWBY as its own, autonomous story, don’t we want the writing to be the best it can be? I don’t need to be a world renowned pastry chef to “justify” making a cake. The cake is allowed to be shitty. But wouldn’t I want to try and improve my baking skills if given the chance? Surely we can give queer characters the same pass straight couples get while also pointing out ways to improve their depiction? 

Others: Ah ha! You do hate them! 

Sadly it’s a lose-lose, anon. If you support queer ships you get backlash. If you criticize the writing of queer ships you get backlash. I’ve gotten angry messages about it all. All you can really do is listen when you feel it’s warranted, stick to your beliefs when it’s not, and block/delete at your discretion :/

(Also I’ve been meaning to play The Last of Us at some point so that’s something to look forward to now lol) 

[elsafowl]

Spoilers for Las Chicas del Cable season 5!!!

I love how the civil war is depicted. I thought they would tone it down a bit or protect the main characters, but they absolutely didn't. I was shocked by the violence in the first episode, with each character not being on the same side of the war, with both sides doing atrocities to civilians and soldiers alike.

The main story (Lidia going back to Espagna to find Sofía) is a little weak at first, but it allows a lot of secondary (and more interesting) intrigues to be put into place.

Carlos: there is so much to say about him. I am a Carlos fan since the beginning, I liked Lidia/Carlos more than Lidia/Francisco. After the first episode of season 5, I knew there was no way they would go back together, and I was waiting for a redemption arc, but I still didn't expect his death. It's realistic, he was a spy and he double-crossed his side... but still, I couldn't believe it at first. I don't know how to feel or think about his death yet: knowing the context, it makes sense some people would die. But also, Carlos was really played dirty by Lidia, leaving him behind and basically stealing his daughter away from him. But then, he could have tried to contact his daughter during the seven years, instead of becoming a freaking Franco supporter.

Carlota: what the f*ck are you doing, Carlota??? I mean, don't get me wrong, I'm a fan of her being a journalist and wanting to take pictures and information directly on the front, but her behavior with Óscar?? Shitty, really shitty. For once, we have a lgbt couple, with great representation (they're both bi, with Carlota being a ciswoman and Óscar being a transgender man), and they want to fuck it up? This is really shitty, so I hope they won't make them break up in the second part (if they're not already broken up already). Then, James seems like a nice guy and I liked his little talk with Oscár while developing the photos, but I don't want a new and completely out of the blue stupid and useless couple!

Oscár: well, it wasn't a good half of season for him, for sure. I think I felt the most heartbreak for him: the scene with the Franco general in the room was so frightening and humiliating. I think the actress did a great job portraying her inner heartbreak. She's losing Carlota and her identity, and no one seems to notice.

Marga: SHE WAS SO AWESOME!!! Omg, she was so badass when she tried to oppose the Franco soldiers! A little crazy too, but this season really shows how she changed and became even stronger after these three years of conflict. Also, I loved how she was helping selflessly her neighbours and strangers, I think she was the only character to help others without some sort of secondary purpose or goal behing her actions. And her friendship with her boss (I don't remember his name tho) is cute, I'm glad there wasn't any ambiguity between the two, even when Pablo left to go to the front. Very happy Pablito and Julio managed to survive too!! I don't know how they made it back, but I'm glad!

Sofía & co: I quite liked the new team. They were cute, the romance with Felipe was predictable for a mile away, but I also liked Rosero and Marina (I think? the one who was hurt), they're representing the youth fighting for their ideals, even three years after the beginning of the war. And Sofía and Lidia's relationship was very well developed too: I wasn't expecting them to be so close, but I like it. It's a good homage to Angéles I believe: Sofía is her own character and person, she's new enough to be separated from her mother, but she's also similar to her mother in many ways.

The rest: I didn't mind Francisco being almost non present in the first part. He will probably be more present in the second part, and it made more sense story-wise to have him with Eva in New-York. Plus, it let the space to have Lidia and Carlos share a few scenes together before killing him. Same with Eva: she's 7 or 8 years old in 1939, so she wouldn't be easily inserted in a civil war context. Doña Carmen being the head of the camp was like O.o for me, she is so evil it's not even surprising anymore, actually I even laughed a little because WHAT ARE THE ODDS?? I bet she won't even care that her son died. Also, where is Eliza? I liked to see Cuaves too (is it his name? the police inspector), even if it was for a very short time.

That's it for the moment!! Overall, I truly enjoyed this first part of season 5, I was surprised by some events, shocked by others. If we forget about the state of Carlota love life, I don't think there is an element I totally didn't like - and there is still the second part of the season to repair that. The casting is stellar, the old members like the new ones, and I love the Espagna of the 30s, the architecture and the cars and just the vibe is beautiful, it must have been hard and fascinating to design each decor.

Now we just have to wait for the second part, but I guess it won't be on Netflix for another few months...

[kathyorihara]

About me unpopular opinions

(I'm not gonna tag I'll get attacked if I do)

I'm anti feminist/sjw rhetoric as in I do believe everyone should be accounted for and be equal but just not in the way that hurts others:

( I mean this)

I am skeptical of those that use they/them pronouns in their bio. Mostly because I've seen too many people use them and claim that they don't need gender dysphoria to be trans.

I like pineapple on pizza

White milk is gross I prefer chocolate

It's latino not latinx

There are some white people that are racist and there are some straight/cis people that are homophobic/transphobic. However, that doesn't mean they all are and I wish people would stop generalizing it as so.

I hate black and white pictures they feel empty. I legit colored the pics in my friends binder in freshman year because they were in black and white.

I hate Trissia paytas, James Charles, Onision people like that.

I don't find Dan and Phil attractive like don't get me wrong I can see how others are attractive but they're too much like me to be my type.

Worms are gross

I am for woman to have abortion rights however I do not like that some woman will use abortuon as another form of contraception despite having one already( use pills/condoms)

I am in between on legalizing weed mostly because I feel like a few will over use the power and not let people that need it medically get it.

Free the nipple is kinda dumb cuz a lot of women use it to just flaunt their titits. No it's ok to say it when a mom should be allowed to breast feed in public nit when you want to be naked.

I think men should have more say in custody battles too many shitty moms walk away with the child because the law said the man has no say.

I can respect others opinions be it political or not as long as we are mutually respectful of one another.

If you say your pan I will question if you mean it as in that's a most comfortable label for you or if you think bi is against trans (it's not)

3rd person pov in fanfic sucks there are some that are good but most are hard for me to focus on.

Facial hair on guys is gross this is just my preference it has more to do with how my dad has facial hair and the saying that your partner is like the embodiment of your parent.

Insects are cool

Pancakes are gross

I'm ok with others not shippinh what I ship. We can all be respectul of others ships it's not that hard.

Live shows are boring

There can be change without being mean to one another

Poc people can be racist I have seen them be racist to other poc people and to white people (yes you can be racist to white people)

The light furry is beautiful

If you want representation make it don't just bitch about not beinh any in other shows.

Vaping and smoking is gross but please be mindfull if others around you if you do vape/smoke.

I do think farm animals should be treated better but I'm not gonna be begam because of it.

Books I hate are 50 shades of gray, hunger games, twilight, and the fault in our stars ( had to write a page why I hate it in Highschool).

Dyed hair, piercings, and tattos should not be considered unprofessional.

Parents should let their kids have privacy but at the same time they should let them be open about their feeling.

I don't mind someone's religion as long as they're not jackass to those that don't believe.

Ghost can be explained by science

Boys/Men should be able to express emotion and be open to others if they experienced abuse or rape.

Girls/Woman can be pedophiles, rapist, abusive, shitty in genereal.

Hitting or insulting your child is not discipline.

People of the opposite sex can just be friends.

Gold fish are hard to take care of

Periods are gross

There are rules to crossing the boardsr and they should be respected. This is coming from an actual illegal immigrant (that's a post on it's own). (I am not pro trump btw) it's worse for most people that cross illegally. There are some illegals that are good but there are also some that are bad.

Taylor swift is like wine or cheese her songs get better with age.

Tacos (latino or american) are not that good.

Pickles and olives are gross so are pickles.

Pigeons are cute

Going braless or sleeping in underwear is gross (for me that is)

Shoe brands like Nike, pumas, and adidas have the ugliest shoes I've seen.

Colone is gross it makes me want to vomit from the smell.

That's all for now but please do not reblog this I don't want to get attacked.

[titsthedamnseason]

Another ☕ 'cause I'd really like to have your opinion: I rarely ship non-canon lgbt+ characs because fanon headcanons are one thing, actual canon rep is another. While for some ships (see rosastairs, heronchild, lucelia or heronstairs) I see where people might be coming from I find it hard for others (see lilia, or the hype about grace/anna who haven't even interacted yet). And being bi sometimes this makes me feel a little bad, like I don't place fanon queer ships above the canon straight ones

okay here’s the thing, as ashamed as i am to say it, i’ve always been someone who is very influenced by canon ships. i would even say a good 9/10 times i ship canon ships just because….i don’t know i guess i’m unoriginal and they’re put right in front of me so i accept them(unless they are very obviously problematic or something but you see my point). ANYWAY, this of course results in not too many lgbtq+ ships because there is such a lack of those ships in ya. i try to read books that have representation and while i give props to cassie and the shadow world ya really needs to get better about representation. for me, in the shadow world it honestly depends, for example, lilia is MY SHIT but rosastairs is not for me. this doesn’t make me a bad person and it doesn’t make you any less of a bi person. as a bi person myself i’ve felt the way you feel before but i always need to take a step back and remember that i’m not against those ships or hating anyone for shipping them or thinking they are disgusting, i simply don’t see the appeal, the same way someone may not see the appeal to a straight ship. just because you are a part of the lgbtq+ community doesn’t mean that you can only ship lgbtq+ ships which is something that i think a lot of people lose sight of. don’t get me wrong because i love lgbtq+ ships but i also love straight ships!! the goal is equality not to minimize any group of people, and that includes gays and straights. don’t let anyone make you feel as though you aren’t part of the lgbtq+ community just because you don’t ship the same lgbtq+ ships as people or as many as other people. it is the way it is. if that makes someone upset then tell them to fuck off and block them because they need to mind their own business. i have more to say about this but i’m tired

[masculinetransman]

Because that isn't enough representation. And it is in a Rated R movie. Most LGBTQ film is Rated R. Some of it is because of content unrelated to the lgbt characters. Others because it's just really hard to find a movie with lesbians without a sex scene.

Our culture is sexualized and it's stigmatized. Over and over and over again. And we don't have enough representation because statistically about 4.5 percent of the population is LGBTQ but we don't see that number reflected in our media. Comics are getting a lot better about showing it. But we need more. We need to he seen on the same level as those who are straight because really there's no difference.

Sure Harley Quinn is bisexual but she's bi in a rater R movie. She's bi in a movie following one with the straightest most toxic relationship in the entirety of everything. She's bi in a movie that doesn't even feature her comic canon girlfriend.

And actually she's not bisexual

You're wrong!!!

Harley Quinn is canonically pansexual. You not knowing that shows exactly what I'm trying to prove. Even with these characters we still know little about their sexualities outside of their partners.

Renee Montoya is a badass GCPD lesbian but you know what the Question doesn't have?

Renee does not have her girlfriend Kate Kane. Kate's in a whole different universe.

You know what TV features a canonically bisexual superhero? Supergirl. That's right the Girl of Steel is bisexual. It's canon. DC has never given her a female romantic partner. Not once. It's not even acknowledged in her TV show.

And while I'm on it. Going back to it being a rated R movie. It's rated R. The people who need to see this (especially young LGBT kids who want to see themselves in media they enjoy) can't cause it's rated R.

Now if you wanted a new example I'd suggest you reference Runaways. That's good representation that everyone can access and if we're lucky Xavin will even be the genderfluid badass she is in the comics.

And even then. Is one movie enough to combat hundreds of movies with straight white people?

We flock to those movies cause they're all we have. Movies with diversity are less advertised.

Birds of Prey might be a good third step (See Runaways and Doom Patrol for steps one and two)

But the movie/comic industry still has a long ways to go

For more info let me refer you to this link to my other blog where I discuss all the LGBT diversity in comics.

https://cursed-to-be-a-sidekick.tumblr.com/post/180604345098/a-list-of-every-single-lgbt-character-i-know-in

When I get to school I'll make sure to add my link to the powerpoint I did on lgbt representation for my GSA student.

“Brie Larson Wants Marvel to ‘Move Faster’ on L.G.B.T.Q. Representation”

[lululawrence]

Hi! I'm dinosaursmate's sexuality anon, I hope you don't mind me bothering you. I know things are kinda blowing up right now so please don't worry about responding asap. Could you maybe help me understand what the difference is between bisexual and pansexual? And if you have time, can you maybe explain the ace spectrum a little more in depth for me? I think I might be on the ace but idk what's really going on with me lol. Thank you for your help and I hope you're well 💕🌈💐

hello darling!  i defo don’t mind you “bothering” me hehe . this got incredibly long, so i’m putting it under the cut.

okay, so i have a hard time understanding pan because i feel like it is something that is hard to describe unless you feel it and identify as pan, and i don’t lol what i understand (and please someone kindly correct me if i’m wrong) is that when someone, like me, identifies as bisexual, you are sexually attracted to two genders.  i feel like the genders are in some way associated with the sexual attraction, like the physicality of it?  like i am a boob girl.  hard core.  all about the breasts.  i think they are beautiful and sexy and hot and damn i love them.  i also love how soft women can be.  that’s what attracts me to them.  for men, i’m about the shoulders, arms, and backs.  those just...yeah.  fabulous.  haha i like their shape!  so that’s why i identify as bi.  now, for pansexuals it is my understanding that the specific physical representation of the genders doesn’t really play as important a part as just the person being a person.  that gender doesn’t really define their sexual attraction to someone.  i’m sure there are still the physical aspects and physical preferences, but literally one of my pan friends once said, “i don’t give a fuck what gender you are.  if i find you hot, i find you hot.”  so...that’s what i got and i just shrugged and moved on.  haha  so this is a long way of saying since i don’t really fully understand it myself, if bi doesn’t feel like the right label for you but pan does, then awesome!  you identify as pan and what that means for you might be different from someone else and that’s okay.  it’s also okay if you identify one way and change your mind later.  sexuality is such a fluid thing and our understanding of ourselves is always changing, so our labels for ourselves could potentially change through the rest of our lives, should we even choose to use labels at all.

okay, ace spectrum!  this is where i know a bit more because i’ve had to do a lot more research in order to understand what it means in general as well as what it means for me specifically so i’ll do my best to help you with this part too.  

okay, so as you said it’s a spectrum and even on the spectrum there are terms that are more like umbrella terms too.  so there are people who are ace who are sex repulsed, aka they can’t even handle the thought and mention of sex without feeling uncomfortable about it.  there are those who are interested in the...how do i describe this...like the functionality of sex?  like how it works, why it’s enjoyable for people, etc but then once it’s time for them to experience it themselves they can’t handle that and therefore decide that while they don’t mind talking about it, reading about it, learning about it, and sometimes even watching it, it is just not for them to personally partake in.  for others it can manifest in that it doesn’t make them uncomfortable to partake in, but they don’t really enjoy it either.  this was me for a long time.  i didn’t really care either way.  i was just fine going 22 years without it and i would have been just fine to continue in that way, but then i got married and thought i was broken because i wasn’t enjoying sex and my husband thought he was just bad at it...but nope.  anyway, there are those who enjoy masturbation but don’t enjoy sex with others.  what it comes down to and how i try to explain it to others is we understand about sex, but don’t necessarily feel the attraction to sex.

and then we get to the gray ace part of things.  lol  the gray ace identity that i think people are most familiar with is demisexuality and i think more people actually identify as demi than people realize.  demisexuality is where you can and do feel sexual attraction to people, but only once a strong emotional bond has been formed.  it’s like a door has been unlocked, but again, this still depends on a number of other factors.  it’s not like people feel sexual attraction to everyone they are emotionally close to.  

now, when i was looking into asexuality, i was like yeah that’s me for sure at least in some way, but like...i do sometimes enjoy sex.  i do sometimes crave it and feel sexual attraction...but only sometimes.  what about that?  it doesn’t seem to have to do with emotional bond cause...yeah.  so what gives?  well i found that while you can just say gray ace because it’s that weird middle ground between total asexuality and allosexuality (aka anyone who doesn’t identify as ace) and be good with it, i wasn’t quite.  i wanted to know more, and that is when i learned about ace flux and ace spike.  so ace spike is where you kinda fall on the ace plane most of the time.  you don’t really feel sexual attraction, but sometimes you do, and when you do it is fast, it is strong, and it often leaves just as quickly, just like a spike in a heart monitor, yeah?  

ace flux, on the other hand, is kind of like a wavelength.  while i think most people’s sexual attraction and desire is like a wavelength that is constantly moving up and down, the kinda base zero is different for those who are ace flux.  this is how i identify, because sometimes i’ll go a couple weeks where i desire sex, though my desire is still far lower than my husband’s on a usual day lol.  sometimes it’ll be as short as a couple hours and sometimes longer to a few weeks at a time, but most of the time i hover around indifference.  sure, we could have sex if you really want to, but i’m more than fine without it.  there are also times, though, where i’m almost to the level of being sex repulsed.  i don’t wanna talk about it, don’t wanna read it, i hardly even want to cuddle.  because that’s another thing that’s fun about the ace spectrum, is some are good with physically intimate actions like hand holding, kissing, snuggling, basically everything but sex, while others can’t really handle any of that.  and when i’m on my “low” as i call it, i can barely handle hand holding.  times like that i wonder, am i really ace flux?  i feel absolutely zero sexual desire or attraction, like, how could i say i’m bi at all?  i’m obviously full on ace.  and then when i’m on my “high”s i wonder the other way.  am i ace at all?  or am i just bi?  what’s going on with that?  so basically it’s a fun mixture of always questioning myself.

so....this is a really long answer that basically comes down to, it’s different for everyone, but there are so many variations and labels even within the ace spectrum that if you want a more exact label, there probably is one for you.  it can just take a lot of research to find.  so i hope this helps!  please feel free to come back with more questions.  i’m more than willing to go into more detail about any of this the best that i can, but please know this is just my view of things and what i’ve found through research/experience so others could very possibly disagree.  hehe . big hugs and good luck figuring out how you feel about things!

[thefloatingpoem]

I don't want to be disrespectful, but I don't understand your issue with sherlock and "queerbaiting." I'm all for representation in media, however, realistically not everyone is gay. John has said multiple times in the show that he isn't gay, and he was married to a woman. Two men are allowed to be close friends without having to satisfy a tumblr-worthy homoerotic fantasy. As I said, I fully support representation, but just because two characters aren't gay for each other doesn't make a show bad

There are many things I’d like to unpack in your ask, nonny.

It’s difficult to know where to begin. I’ll start by saying I’m glad you agree that queer representation is important. So let’s start there, with the textual representation of queer people in Sherlock.

The characters who are textually queer in Sherlock include: 

-Moriarty (confirmed most recently in TFP when he jokes about his bodyguard having ‘more stamina, but is less caring in the afterglow’), -Irene Adler (established as gay during the Battersea scene with John, in which to his assertion that he’s not gay, she replies, “well I am. Look at us both.” More on John later. She also nonconsensually drugs and whips Sherlock, which I think is extremely out of character for a professional in the kink community) -Culverton Smith (who has an honest to god hard on when he’s suffocating Sherlock and breathes his fear of death in and says in the most rapturous voice, “lovely”), -Eurus, (who suggests that the victim of her brutal rape could have been a man or a woman and she wouldn’t have noticed)-and to some extent Magnussen (who creepily kisses Sherlock’s hands, among other weird bodily power things he does, like flicking John’s face).

Perhaps you’ve noticed that this is a list of villains, all of whom are queer coded, and most of whom to some extent have the hots for Sherlock and violate Sherlock’s bodily autonomy when he is otherwise incapacitated (other than Eurus, because equating queerness with incest would be a little much even for this show).

So for our queer representation on this show we get 6, count em, 6 queer monsters, 6 queer psychopaths.

Forgive me if I’m less than thrilled about this.

BUT I was willing to overlook this, I was willing to forgive this, because to my view, the plot was inching forward towards a realistic portrayal of queer love—a nuanced and hard won happy ending, a love narrative that would speak to the complexities of human nature and queer identity.

Let’s turn to that question for a while. Queerness does not exist in a vacuum. It exists within a highly oppressive heteronormative framework. And so when you tell me, John has said many times that he isn’t gay, I say unto you: so did I.

My only way of surviving a homophobic environment was to swallow whole the lie that I was straight, to try as hard as I could to believe I was straight. This is compulsory heterosexuality. The result of this doublethink was that I had no interest in romance or sex. But I publically feigned interest in men for many years. I worked hard to convince myself that I was straight and normative. I was trapped deep in a subconscious closet. We often talk about the closet being something that we know we’re in and we want to be out of it. But I tell you, I honest to god thought I was straight. I thought I would marry a man and have children and live in the suburbs. As it turns out, none of those things have happened, thank god. But I spent many years of my life telling people I wasn’t gay.

By the way re: John and his marriage to a woman, being married to someone of the opposite sex has virtually nothing to do with whether you’re gay or not in a world where visible gayness is met with violence, death threats (my gf has literally been chased with a knife), rape threats (this has happened at least three times that I can think of off the top of my head), judgment, discrimination, and hate. Also, many people, like a younger version of myself once did, believe that they are straight and do their best to act accordingly, including marrying someone and finding out later that they were wrong in doing so. All this being said, John could easily be bi or otherwise queer. Suggesting that his marriage to Mary should preclude any and all attraction to men or taking that as proof of straightness is frankly biphobic and erases the bi experience.

But let’s move away from the personal significancer of a John Watson coming out/discovering himself narrative, and towards addressing your other comments.

Regarding your comment, “Two men are allowed to be close friends without having to satisfy a tumblr-worthy homoerotic fantasy”: From my perspective, summing up what the Johnlock fandom does as “tumblr-worthy homoerotic fantasy” is infantilizing and doesn’t give full credit to the depth of thought and nuance that goes into these transformative works.

I can name on one hand the pieces of mainstream media that tell a story like mine. Blue is the warmest colour is one, Carol is another.

The work these fanfiction authors are doing for representation by taking mainstream stories and queeriung them is monumental. But it is still not mainstream media representation. And we deserve that.

And now we come to the queerbaiting portion of my response.

Tropes are what tell us what kinds of archetypal stories are being invoked in the telling of a new story. In TV, there are many different kinds of tropes: plot tropes, lighting tropes, musical tropes, dialogue tropes, camera angle tropes, etc. For example a long lingering gaze in television codes romance for us. It’s a romantic trope. 

For more on tropes, here are some useful resources: http://thorinlock.tumblr.com/post/132779606878/romantic-shots-in-bbc-sherlock

http://ifyouhaveenoughnerve.tumblr.com/post/76422437022/the-unabridged-dictionary-of-johnlock-tropes-157

http://tvtropes.org/

As a culture, we tell a lot of straight white love stories that end happily. Most of our romantic tv tropes come from these stories.

As a culture, we don’t tell many gay stories, and usually when we do, they are tragic and someone dies (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/BuryYourGays). A common trope in stories about lesbians that I hate is that one woman leaves the other for a man—and that’s supposed to be a happy ending.

The point is, the filming and story telling tropes of romance are all over this show and these characters. Close shots of them gazing into each other’s eyes, the soft looks they give each other when they think the other won’t notice, the soft lighting accompanying these scenes, the dialogue, especially in the scene in ASiP at Angelo’s. As an exercise, try imagining that scene if Sherlock were a gorgeous woman.

JOHN: So you’ve got a boyfriend then?


SHERLOCK: No.


JOHN: Right. Okay. You’re unattached. Like me.  Fine.  Good.(modified from this transcript )

And then John licks his lips.

This is where it becomes queerbaiting. When the BBC tweets “Sherlock’s in love, but with who?” in order to promote s4, in which Sherlock’s romantic life is not shown to be developing at all, that is queer baiting. And it’s cruel.

More on queerbaiting:

https://www.autostraddle.com/how-do-we-solve-a-problem-like-queerbaiting-on-tvs-not-so-subtle-gay-subtext-182718/

http://www.afterellen.com/tv/471593-lets-end-queerbaiting-2016

Basically, the idea of gayness between Sherlock and John is a running joke on the show, a joke which has no pay off. Perhaps your sexuality has never been thrown in your face, or laughed at. Perhaps you have never been threatened violence or stalked or whistled at. But I have experienced all of this, just for holding my girlfriend’s hand in public.

So in sum, we have a show using romantic film tropes in order to make a joke about my sexuality, a joke at the expense of the marginalized.

Of course I’m upset and angry.

If this is a show about an epic platonic male friendship, that’s fine.

(Epic platonic male friendship is the oldest, most done narrative in existence, by the way. This is an excellent if somewhat dry book about the cultural shift in the twelfth century from tales of epic brotherly love/devotion between knights to tales of chaste courtly love between men and aloof women).

But in that case, stop it with the romantic TV tropes, stop teasing queer fans on twitter, stop making homophobic “no homo” jokes for the straight audience to have a laugh at my expense, and for god’s sake, stop writing all of your villains as queer coded psychopathic monsters. Was that really necessary??? It’s homophobic and it’s bad, lazy writing, and we deserve better representation than that. We deserve more than psychotic gay villains and desperately unspoken hidden subtext and winks and nudges on twitter from the creators. We deserve real representation, no hinting, no winking, no implying. Real, textual queer representation.

My last comment to you, nonny, is this: Indeed, not everyone is gay. And neither is everyone straight. I’m tired of never seeing myself or any part of my identity reflected in mainstream media.

For more information about media’s skewed representation of the world, see this GLAAD report. 

[spacemomalex]

So... Sera being unpopular is sexist, but you admitted you don't like her either... so are you calling yourself a sexist then?

Alrighty I hope you’re sitting down because boy howdy do I have a rant for you!

Why I dislike Sera as a person, not a character

As a writer (like many on here) I have an interesting relationship when it comes to my feelings for a story, it’s characters, and my own morality. That means, I am perfectly capable of being incredibly approving of, fascinated by, or even adore a character who’s morality is very different from my own.

This is very true for Sera. As a character, Sera is a complex thought provoking creature. 

As an elf, one would expect her to have an understanding of why racism against elves is such a terrible thing, but she doesn’t. Instead of caring about elves and the struggles they face, she ignores and dismisses them as simply being “too elfy”. Which is a throw back to the people in our world today who are the ones effected by racism, but deny that it exists for “points” with their oppressors/to avoid being oppressed/don’t want to admit how oppression affects them.

She of course brings to our attention racial stereotypes, (her conversation about how most elves can’t actually shoot a bow), but again doesn’t seem to realize that those stereotypes can be harmful to other elves. (Say, an elf who can’t shoot worth a damn is brought along and given a bow and told to fight. Despite their protests that they can’t shoot one, they are dismissed and as a result people get hurt and killed and the elf is blamed for not helping. Even though they made it clear that they could not shoot, the fact that the stereotype was so reinforced in everyone else’s mind, they ignored that fact and it would be their fault people were hurt. Not the fault of the elf who couldn’t shoot in the first place and tried to prevent this from happening.) 

This applies to when talking about the Dalish. Sera constantly refuses to understand them or their ways, or why city elves try to follow the old customs. Writing them off as simply ‘old’ and therefore not worth her time to learn or apply to her own life. She simply refuses to see how human oppression of elves truly affects elves and firmly believes that the only problem is the nobility and pride.

Even when supplied with firm proof that the elves have every reason to be “elfy”- as shown with the scroll about Red Crossing and the temple of mythal- she is steadfast in her denial of elven culture.

This makes her fascinating. It makes her a commentary that we should look into and ponder over our own actions and thought processes regarding race and oppression. I love her as a character because we get to see this young girl, hurt by a parental figure be allowed to grow into a young woman who still feels the affects of that. We get to see this young woman who is not shamed for her past and allowed to make mistakes because of it.

As a person though? Sera is a willfully ignorant prideful little shit who doesn’t want to admit that things are more complex than what she wants to believe. Why? Because she doesn’t want to admit she was ever wrong. I can understand why she feels this way, having been raised by an abusive human, but I was also raised by abusive racist, sexist, ableist, homophobic assholes and I will always fight for the rights of the oppressed groups these things hurt. Because I know better about how my privileges and the parts of me people are trying to oppress. Sera never learns how to be a better person and understand her own race better.

This mindset is one in the world today that we are all watching destroy our freedoms. I dislike Sera as a person because she is the exact kind of close-minded person that allows racism and other oppression to roam free, and at times even contribute to it, that I try to fight against. 

Why Sera is Horrible LGBTA+ Representation

As I said on the confessions, Sera should not be considered good representation of a lesbian relationship. Why? Because she’s childish and manipulative and close minded.

That really should be enough, but let me go into explicit detail.

On the childishness of Sera, let’s talk about her prank pulling. I will say this, her prank pulling and hatred of the extreme magical bullshit going on was refreshing. It was so nice to see a character who was just an every day person getting caught up in things far beyond the natural world. Even more nice to see a gut busting girl who didn’t care what others thought of her and was solely herself and enjoyed bringing stuffy folk down to a more human level. The problem with this however? It plays into her utter denial of the elven gods and culture and to things outside of the “norm”- such as Cole. It plays into her prank pulling actually being cruel at times because of her lack of awareness for the suffering of others.

When she spoke to Cole, she referred to him as a ‘thing’. She never considered the possibility that someone so different from herself deserves recognition as a person- and that’s a shitty fucking thing to do. Cole may not have started out human, but he tried so hard to be kind and to help others, she, as somebody who was not normal herself and had faced dehumanizing treatment, should have known better. After Cole had proven time and time again that he did not deserve the awful treatment, she never changed from that hateful dismissing stance about him. (not that I saw anyway) 

(Note; I also realize that Vivienne and Blackwall were not the nicest to Cole either, but I could write a ten page book on why Vivienne is a boss anyway because, at least, she avoided Cole and had some fucking class. Blackwall I just despise in general and I will always hate that creep)

When she pulled her pranks, she never considered the potential harm they could do. For example, making Cullen’s desk wobble? Amusing, definitely, had Cullen been a normal man. But Cullen is a recovering drug addict and a survivor of some rather extreme trauma, it’s obvious he suffers from severe PTSD. I’m positive that any “controlling” behavior he had towards his own personal desk space did stem from a need to control his surroundings after the terrible events he suffered. Her making the desk wobble could potentially cause a minor break for Cullen if it was a bad day for him. But she doesn’t take that into consideration, she only blows off Cullen as “too uptight” without seeming to understand. Like, there’s plenty of pranks you can pull on somebody that won’t have a negative effect on them. And what about the water bucket on Josie? Granted meeting with nobles is boring and annoying, but the Inquisition NEEDED their support. The Inquisition needed important allies so that they wouldn’t be attacked or turned against. She could have turned away potential allies just because she wanted to humiliate Josie. And Josie didn’t even deserve that! Josie (and Cullen!) worked so hard to keep the Inquisition from going under so that they could save the world. I didn’t see Sera consider these consequences and that bothers me to no end. Pranks are fun, but there is a time and place for the, and a way to do them. Sera didn’t do any of that. (She also put lizards in Solas bedroll- what if one bit him and it was poisonous? Would she have cared?)

And! She doesn’t take her relationship with the Inquisitor seriously at all at first! She writes off the Inquisitor’s interest and says she only wants fun. Somebody who’s only looking for a fling and basically says they do not want to have a relationship with you is not somebody who is ready for a relationship. Especially since later she basically tells the Inquisitor that they do have a relationship and that the Inquisitor can either choose to keep Sera by saying her entire culture is a lie, or lose Sera. What a terrible thing to ask somebody to do. 

If someone who was barely a christian demanded that I give up my gods just because they didn’t believe in them, I would tell them to take a fucking hike off a cliff. A god you don’t even really believe is not more important than the gods I have devoted myself to. What you want and you believe should not matter more than what I want and believe. If you cannot respect my beliefs, then I have no respect for you and you clearly do not love me enough if you cannot respect my love for them. And, if you ask me to give up my gods for you, then what else will you ask of me? What else will I have to lose to satisfy you? This is the logic I apply to any and all relationships.

Again, while this makes for an interesting story and dynamic between the inquisitor and Sera- what does love mean between the two of them. In my rather hefty experience in the dating world, it sets up a platform for abuse and manipulation.

So let’s review; Sera doesn’t consider the consequences of her actions in relation to the thoughts, feelings, and needs of those she says she loves. Is that somebody we really want representing lesbians? As a (genderfluid/demi) girl who wants a relationship with a woman, Sera is not someone I want people to look at and think ‘oh, so that’s what women who like women are like’.

Especially when compared to literally ANY of the other women available for a lesbian romance. Or are they simple not up for considering because they’re bi in many cases? Are bi women who love women somehow less important to you? Think on that before you consider Sera as a good representation of a gay relationship please and thank you.

Character Critique VS Sexism

And now onto the main point you are so backwardly trying to be clever about.

When it comes right down to it, you can dislike a female character without it being sexist. For example, I dislike Sera, as a person, because, again, I find her childish, arrogant, and borderline abusive.

The reason such characters like Sera are generally unpopular does have a lot to do with sexism I will not deny that. And it has to do with having so few genuinely interesting female characters, that many will take whatever they can get. But not enough of them will. Many are still stuck in how wonderful and amazing the male characters are, that many females characters fall to the wayside. Sera is no exception. Because she is not an attractive male that they can ship with another attractive male, Sera is simply not going to have as many supporters as say, Dorian (whom I have an entire rant on why he’s good gay representation, but also cliched). That means they are going to be more critical of her flaws and failings, without taking into account why she is such a good character because sexism in the offline reality is so critical of women in the first place.

Sweeping statements of Sera being annoying “like all women” or writing her off as only childish without understanding her own problems with accepting herself because of her foster mother’s abuse, is sexist. I am capable of feeling sorry for Sera and wanting the best for her, while also understanding that she is not the only representation of all lesbians. Not everyone is capable of doing that yet. People, especially men, brain washed women, and younger folk, simply do not have the tools at their disposal (nor want them) to understand that Sera is simply one kind of woman and should be thought about more deeply.

And that doesn’t take into account how Sera is not a dynamic character. She just barely changes throughout the story line. She (along with others, and I have some major words to share with Bioware about the lack of character growth in their stories) remains the same childish, mildly manipulative, arrogant, brain washed racist and does learn any lessons from her time with the Inquisition. Her character, and her story line, I chalk up to male writers just, being honestly not very good writing female characters in general. She could have been an amazing character, a really amazing person, but all in all I feel she just falls flat on the things that truly matter to me as a person.

I could go on, but I would be repeating myself on this particular section.

So, TLDR; Your reach is not clever. If you had bothered to actually read my post you would have seen that I brought up legitimate points of criticism of Sera’s character- such as her deep set racism born of self loathing and brain washing, her manipulative and childish behavior and her lack of change through the story line. I’m not impressed by your salty attempt to make me look bad because you don’t like what I had to say about Sera.