#existing and being female uhhhh I mean being an influencer uhhhh I mean for doing her job (existing in the public eye sometimes)
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Kate Cassidy's video tribute to Liam
#anywayyyyyy here's a post of this video without any gross commentary attached about how fucked up Kate is for.... checks notes.....#existing and being female uhhhh I mean being an influencer uhhhh I mean for doing her job (existing in the public eye sometimes)#and... giving a shit about her boyfriend??? I GUESS?#liam payne#thank you to everyone who pointed me to where I could find it but I will NOT be reblogging that jfc#thank you also to everyone who did NOT put that kind of commentary on my dash
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SHADOWās Queer Coding
I first started exploring this idea of Sk8ā²s implicit queer rep (as in stuff other than explicit same sex intimacy) in this post.
I know we like to joke that Hiromi is the Token Straight of the protag gang, but I argue that heās as much an example of queer rep as any of our main characters, albeit in a less conventional and fanservicey way.
So thatās what this post is gonna be, an analysis of Hiromi/SHADOW as a queer figure, how his character fits the Jekyll/Hyde archetype as a metaphor for queerness and The Closet, the similarities between SHADOW as a skatesona and early drag, and how his character represents a larger problem of exclusion within queer fandom spaces.
The 1886 Gothic novella The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson is the origin of the phrase āJekyll and Hydeā. What Iām calling the Jekyll/Hyde archetype, refers to the same thing; it refers to duality, to a character who is āoutwardly good but sometimes shockingly evilā (as described from the novellaās wiki page).
And the Jekyll/Hyde dynamic has also long been associated with Queerness. The antagonism between Jekyll and Hyde as two sides of the same person resonates with many people as similar to the experience being in the closet, and many many scholars have written about this queer reading of Jekyll and Hyde. Do a quick google search if you donāt believe me.
Hiromi experiences his own Jekyll/Hyde duality through his SHADOW persona, which seems to entirely contradict with Hiromiās day to day personality.
Whilst Hiromi is sweet, romantic, and generally very cutesy, SHADOW is mean-spirited, sadistic, described as āthe anti-hero of the S community.āĀ And though these two personalities seem entirely at odds, SHADOW doesnāt exist in a vacuum, heās very much a part of Hiromi. In the show, this manifests as SHADOWās sabotage moves being all flower themed, as Hiromi works in a flower shop, and how heāllĀ āstep outā of character when playing babysitter to the kids.
Below is passage from an essay titled, āThe Homoerotic Architectures of Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hydeā which reminds me a lot of Hiromiās character, such that I think his character arc can be read as an allegory for coming out and self acceptance.
The closet, here, is a space not only for secrecy and repression, but also for becoming; it is the space in which queer identities build themselves up from ādisused piecesā and attempt to discover the strength needed for presentation to the world. The closet is both a space of profound fear and profound courageāof potentiality and actualization. (Prologue)
Unlike the kid/teen characters, the showās adult characters all lead double lives. When they arenāt skating, they have day jobs. Kaoru is a calligrapher, Kojiro is a restaurant owner, Ainosuke is a politician/businessman (but tbh his job is just being some rich dude), and Hiromi works in a flower shop.
But of the adult protagonists (so not Ainosuke), Hiromi compartmentalizes the most.
Kojiro leaves his face totally exposed such that he can be recognized both on and off the skate scene. Kaoru at least covers his face, but his trademark pink hair and constant use of Carla doesnāt make it very hard to connect the dots between him and CHERRY. Heās also always with Kojiro in the evenings, so if you donāt recognize him as CHERRY when heās on his own, you certainly will when you see him interacting with Kojiro/JOE.
Next to these two, Hiromi seems the more adamant at separating his Work from Play.
Even when heās been clearly found it, he still tries to deny that he and SHADOW are the same person. Miya even uses this to coerce Hiromi into helping him and the boys:
I donāt think itās a stretch to say that the separation between Hiromi and SHADOW can be interpreted as a metaphor for being in The Closet. As SHADOW, he leads a secret life, one characterized by an tight-knit underground community with a vibrant night scene, where he behaves in ways typically frowned upon by larger society. He worries about being found out and judged by the people close to him.
But in Ep 4, the walls of his Closet begins to come down, or in this case is literally imposed upon by other members of his community, by its younger members, who donāt feel the same need to hide their passion for skateboarding or lead the same kind of double life.
We then see the line between Hiromi and SHADOW begin to blur.
He becomes less of an antagonist, and instead the audience sees him become a mentor and āmother henā figure for the younger skaters. Later on in Ep 4, we see him casually interacting with the other protags in full SHADOW mode, not as an āanti-heroā but as a friend.Ā In Ep 6, he acts as a babysitter for the kids, and we see him totally comfortable appearing both in an out of his SHADOW persona throughout their vacation.
And I think that this gradual convergence of Hiromi and SHADOW will culminate in this tournament arc.
Thereās something more personal thatās driving SHADOW to do well in this tournament. Itās not just for bragging rights or his pride as a skater, but the results of this tournament is going to have some kind of greater impact on Hiromiās personal life. Personally, my theory is that Hiromi is using this tournament to prove to himself that heās worthy enough to ask his manager out on a date.
Hiromi is no longer compartmentalizing, his two lives are overlapping and influencing each other. Recall the essay quote I cited earlier:
The closet... is the space in which queer identities build themselves up from ādisused piecesā and attempt to discover the strength needed for presentation to the world... of potentiality and actualization.
This is exactly the case for Hiromi. Through skating, he is piecing together the disparate parts of him such that he can present himself to the world as a more unified and confident being.
And the show presents the very skating community that Hiromi has been working so hard to keep separated from his personal life- Reki, Langa, Miya, Kaoru, and Kojiro- as the catalyst for that becoming.
That, my dear readers, is queer coding if I ever saw it.
But thereās probably gonna be people claiming something along the lines of āBut SHADOW canāt be queer rep because heās Straight!ā And I assume thatās because he shows romantic interest in his female manager.
First of all, Bisexuality. Also Ace/aro-spec people. And second of all, SHADOW is Hiromiās drag persona.
And before anyone can say anything about how Hiromi canāt do drag because heās straight (assumption) and cis (also an assumption) uhhhh no, fuck you.
Drag didnāt start with RuPaulās Drag Race, thatās just how it got mainstream. And itās also how it got so gentrified and transphobic. You heard me. But anyway.
Drag is, and has always been, first and foremost about exaggerated, and oftentimes satirical, gender presentation and performance. Itās about playing with gender norms through artistic dress and theater, not so much to do with sexuality or gender identity.
Literally, whatās the difference here?
SHADOW is a persona of exaggerated masculinity with a punk aesthetic. Regardless of his sexuality or gender identity, Hiromiās gender performance as SHADOW is drag- that makes him queer representation, change my fucking mind.
Queerness is more than same-sex romance, and by extension, good queer representation is not limited to canonized gay ships. The very word Queer, in itās ambiguity, is meant to encompass the richly unique experiences of everyone within the LGBTQ+ community.
In my opinion, Queer =/= Gay. I mean, theyāre colloquially the same yes and even I use them interchangeably. But for the purpose of this post, theyāre not the same, and thatās to argue that Hiromi/SHADOWās lack of acknowledgement as queer rep illustrates a larger issue of exclusion within fandom.
I mean, this is something we all kinda been knew, but in the case of Sk8 specifically, there are a two main reasons why I think Hiromi is rarely acknowledged as queer rep.
1. Heās not shippable with another male character
Fandom favors mlm ships when it comes to whatās considered good queer rep. And the ultimate mark of good queer rep is explicit acts of romance or intimacy between two male characters. Unlike with any of the other characters in the show, we canāt point to Hiromi and automatically clock him as gay, especially because he expresses romantic interest in a woman.
So by default, heās less popular, because āEw Straight Peopleā amirite /s.
2. Heās not attractive
This is really interesting, because like JOE, Hiromi is a beefcake.
But fans donāt thirst over him the same way they do over JOE. Granted, the show really plays up JOEās muscles in a very strip-teasey way that literally encourages viewers to find him attractive. By contrast, Hiromi is pretty much covered head to toe and he paints his face in theatrical makeup- the point is to look scary, not attractive.
In essence, even though Hiromi engages in ļæ½ļæ½ļæ½queer behaviorā through his SHADOW persona, his queerness isnāt palatable.
But I also think thereās some pretty insidious undercurrents of fetishization going on here, of both Asian people AND gay men. Which is... a whole other thing I really donāt have the capacity to unpack completely.
But basically, Hiromi doesnāt fit into any of the popular BL archetypes so heās less likely to recognized as Queer. Relatedly, heās also less often subjected to a fetishistic gaze as other characters. I mean...
So again, fans just donāt find him as appealing. Attractive characters are always more popular than ugly ones.
And Iām sure there are a lot of people who just donāt care for Hiromiās personality, thatās fine, he does act like an asshole sometimes. But this post is meant to illustrate that queer rep takes multiple forms, and unfortunately I think a lot of media just tends to fall back on stereotypical portrayals of queer people for the sake of broader appeal. And by consequence, the fandomās idea of what constitutes queer rep narrows to same-sex romance, usually between two cis gay men.
With the release of Ep 9, I know a lot of people queer people are going to find representation in the Kojiroās whole āunrequited loveā thing. But personally, I feel more represented by Hiromi, his journey of self-acceptance and subversive relationship with gender- thatās what resonates with me as a trans person.
And I think itās important to see that kind of less palatable type of queer representation more acknowledged in fandom, and in Sk8ā²s fandom especially, because I know the demographics of this fandom lean heavily queer.
But thatās all for now, lemme know what you guys think :)
#if there are typos forgive me i'm tired#i've been sitting on this take for a number of weeks now#i rlly hope i'm big braining rn#and not just like#yelling into a void#i love hiromi#yall Sleeping on my mans#hav u seen his leather clad ass???#bodacious#sk8#sk8 the infinity#sk8 theory#sk8 meta#sk8 spoilers#sk8 shadow
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Forgive me, I am new to the fandom but I noticed that many people don't talk about Mor or don't like her. Do you know why?
Welcome, my dear <3 and truly, I'm sorry if you're seeing it while it's a shit show lol.
Mor is a female character that just exists which means some hate will, unfortunately, follow her no matter what she does lol. Does Mor say some mean and unnecessary things to Nesta in ACOSF? Yes. Do I think that makes her public enemy #1? No. She's being a protective friend to Cassian but she came off as an asshole doing it. I felt a strong increase in the Mor hate because of this one scene in ACOSF.
When ACOWAR came out and Moriel ( Mor x Azriel ) ship sank because SJM changed up Mor's whole relationship with Azriel, there were people who disliked her because "she's been leading him on" and "why hasn't she told him she's not interested!!" and yada yada that I saw fueled the Mor dislike. This is a very bad take as Mor isn't leading him on when he doesn't get the message that she's not interested in him like that. He's a spymaster. It's literally his job to know things. Especially if this person is their best friend and they're uhhhh in love with them??? You'd think he'd notice??
But that whole thing was done so sloppy ( SJM checking off the lgbtq box all of a sudden out of nowhere to have "rep", not the fact that Mor is bisexual) it ruined what could've been such a wholesome friends-to-lovers trope between them. The way it sank made this idea of Mor leading Az on come to life as it turned him into some creep pining after her for a million years.
Those are the two main reasons I've seen people dislike her. I'm unsure if there's something else I've missed. I like Mor's character and think she's cool. I'd like to see more of what her character can actually do moving forward though! I would also like to understand her power better so I hope we get to see more of that, especially if she's going to tie into Azriel's book (which I think she should given what their relationship is).
Don't let other people's opinions on a character influence how you feel about them. I love all of these idiots even when they're acting like assholes so have fun with it! They may be fictional characters but they're huge comfort characters.
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i talked about this a bit on twitter but i wanna elucidate on it here so hereās another fucking post about the fucking dream daddy shit because i cant stop myself from being annoyed by the back and forth and misrepresentation and vague posts trying to act like theyāre just talking in general when its very obviously about this
strap in cause this is gonna be a long one
there are three points i want to make
1) criticism of media is important and needed, particularly in the realm of discussing representation and creator intent, since its overall purpose is to further discussion and foster overall improvement in future. criticism of a work isnāt always an attack on the people who like it
i mean, weāve all been there. it sucks to read when someoneās talking down something you like a lot, especially if its something thatās very meaningful to you. it happens to me too - i canāt count the number of times iāve read an article or essay ripping apart something i love and found it very difficult to disengage my personal feelings from it.
but unless the person making the criticism is specifically going out of their way to sayĀ āand all the people who LIKE this thing are fucking gibbering idiots who wouldnāt know good quality if it punched them in the faceā, then the criticism isnāt an attack on you personally, and you have to find the place to disengage that emotional attachment and at least tolerate the criticism of the work. you may accept and agree with it or not, but understand that the critic is (probably) not directly attacking you
and raising potential problems on the representation side of the work is important, because it highlights potential problems for people interested in it that they might not have been aware of before, like creatorās personal views influencing development of the work, or unfortunate implications of plot beats within the work
thereās definitely legitimate cause for concern in game grumps involvement with dream daddy. in my personal experience, the grumps arenāt particularly forward thinking in a lot of respects - arin and danny are quick to lapse into bottom of the barrel racist accent humor (particularly with asian characters), or āhey, isnāt being gay kind of weirdā straight guy nonsense. the understanding theyāve showcased of lgbt concepts and issues leaves a lot to be desired (last i remember, arin still consideredĀ ācisgenderā to be a slur despite being told what it actually means)
and every time this is brought up, i see fans sayingĀ āoh but theyāre better now, theyāve learned!ā and i have to say, i still watch them fairly regularly and...they really havenāt! theĀ āprogressā is minimal at best, its like watching someone push a boulder up a hill. they havenāt really changed all that much in the last few years to be frank. so the concern with them being involved with, and putting their name on, a game where the focus is on mlm (and has transgender characters) has definite grounding, given how theyāve acted before.
and the cult ending naturally has unfortunate implications - the idea that every character in the game is being tricked into being forever single, their misery being used to fuel some sort of demon...i mean, given how gay people have been treated throughout history and in media, at the very least itās pretty regressive. you canāt fault someone for reading the transcript and feeling a little sick
the raising and highlighting of these things isnāt a personal attack. itās overall, to help people make an informed decision, and be aware of the things that arenāt so great - that might be a dealbreaker, on a personal level. criticism is valuable, and useful, and we should recognize it as such
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2) on the opposite hand, EVERYTHING we read, watch, or play is guaranteed to have a problematic element of some sort, and nothing you ever enjoy is perfect. expecting something to conform to a 100% ideologically pure standard is unreasonable and ultimately a foolās game
my personal favourite game of all time, ever, is killer7. itās the game that bought suda51 to prominence in the west. itās a weird blend of first-person shooter, rail shooter, and rpg. the story is outright bizarre, with disorienting visuals and surreal events like a lucha wrestler headbutting a bullet out of midair, a ghostly man wrapped in bdsm gear popping up to give you advice, and giggling zombies that explode on contact
its also got quite a share of shitty moments - a rape scene, the female characters leave a lot to be desired, its got a frankly weird interpretation of a lot of psychological disorders, and a good chunk of the game is dedicated to character development of a pedophile
suffice to say it probably wouldnāt be a big hit with a lot of people here. but does this stuff mean its completely reprehensible, and not worth spending any time with? i did just tell you itās my favourite game so you can probably guess how iām going to respond to that rhetorical question. this post is long enough without me spending several more paragraphs explaining to you why i think killer7 is worth giving a shot, so iām going to skip to the point that this example is illustrating - the things we love, our favourite things, are probably just as, or maybe even more problematic than the things we donāt.
iām not going to cite any further examples since i donāt know what you, the reader, personally enjoys or loves, but like...i guarantee you, its probably done something pretty shitty with its running time. iām fairly confident iāve never read or enjoyed something that didnāt at some point play into some shitty trope about lgbt people, or people of colour, or women - and if didnāt somehow, chances are itās because it never showed them in the first place, because its focus is on straight, white, cis men, which is, naturally a problem of its own
if youāre willing to shrug off shitty opinions of creators of things you love, or bad tropes and plot elements in things you love, then why is it so different for the things you dislike? to write off dream daddy entirely, because of the involvement of game grumps, and the existence of one bad ending with shitty implications, and ignoring its more positive elements while praising the things you love that have more than likely done shitty stuff too is...frankly ridiculous
it perhaps may not seem like much to you, but dream daddy getting the kind of coverage and attention it has is...kind of a big deal as far as iām concerned! games with narrative tend to be pretty hostile towards gay men*, so for a game that presents an overall sincere and positive representation of gay men to see this much attention and get to no. 1 seller on steam a significant step forward, i think. itās not revolutionary, but personally, as a gay man, it means a lot to me, and i know a few other gay men who would feel the same, and that surely counts for something
and as far as killer7 goes, well...waypoint explains it better than i could, but i would just like to say: that pedophile character i mentioned? that part of the game ends with you beating him in a duel so hard, he falls over and gets eviscerated by a machine designed to cut out organs. so itās not all bad.
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3) (this is the big one) this site has a big fucking problem with virtue signallingĀ
perhaps its bad of me to assume something of people, but iām going to go out on a limb and say at least one person immediately closed the tab the moment they read that line, and i wouldnāt blame them, because the problem with saying something likeĀ āvirtue signallingā is that the alt-right and gamergaters have tried their absolute hardest to make that phrase essentially mean nothing by throwing it at anyone who shares a dissenting opinion of any kind. but despite their efforts, virtue signalling is a phrase that does actually have a meaning, and its the meaning iām using here
iām going to take a quick excerpt from hbomberguyās video on the subject (itās worth watching, itās only 10 minutes long and pretty funny) Ā -Ā āThe term was originally coined[...]to decry people who say,Ā āI donāt like this thing very muchā, in order to feel good about themselves, and then just, vote Labour every few years or whatever and take no stake in actually making things better.ā
tumblr (or at least, the part of tumblr i engage with) does this, a LOT. itās in the smug, one lineĀ āuhhhh, yikes, lmao š
ā rebuttals to arguments against the thesis of a given post. itās in the strawman cartoons and chat posts that cast opponents of the OP as self-contradicting fools. itās in the āso jot that downā responses, the āiām side-eyeing everyone who isnāt reblogging thisā, etc. etc. everyone has done this. you have probably engaged with this. i definitely have - at least one of my popular posts, if not more is, basically me, doing this thing! to be fair i had no intention those posts being popular, but then one never does, do they?
in the case of dream daddy, itās āme: yāall:ā image edits snarkily demonstrating how theyāre SWERVINGĀ āthat dad dating shitā, chat posts casting defenders points asĀ āWHY CANāT YOU JUST NEVER CRITICIZE ANYTHING EVERā, posts smugly announcing theyāre going to pirate the game just to take money from arin hanson, as if thatās how game development works, and i think itās whatās led to a huge amount of misrepresentation about this game in particular
iāve seen people acting like the game grumps are like, directing and writing the game, when, as far as iām aware, all they did was provide funding and voice acting. and the big thing that really got my goat, was someone describing the cult ending, and listing the implications iāve already gone over myself, and then saying that this was the gameās true ending
this...literally could not be further from the truth. for starters, no-one has actually gotten this ending from playing through the game naturally. the reason? because you CANāT. it was found through data-mining - it isnāt accessible through regular play. itās either content that was cut from the game late in development, or, as the theory goes, intended to be a non-canonical or fake ending added in as halloween DLC come october (given the tone of the whole thing it sounds reasonable to me) which has, unfortunately, now been ruined due to this whole debacle
to do this kind of thing, to describe this asĀ āthe true endingā borders on being an out and out lie for the purpose of making dream daddy look way, way worse than it actually is. thereās no justice here, thereās no attempt to inform accurately. itāsĀ āhey, check out how shitty this thing is! iām good for disliking it, arenāt i? ignore the context, or the fact that iām literally lying about what this isā
look, okay, iām getting a little vitriolic - people can make mistakes, misunderstand things, it happens. everyone does it. me too. but this posing, thisĀ ālook how good and cool i am, for not liking this thingā, it helps nothing at best and actively harms at worse. misrepresenting positions, context, and events for the purpose of satisfying the ego of whoever is making the statement - it helps no-one, except that person, in the most minor and meaningless of ways
i want to be clear - this final bit is just as much a memo for myself as it is for everyone reading this
be critical. donāt take things at face value. read into issues, understand context. get as close to the source of the issue at hand as you can, and determine the truth from there. resist the urge to be smug, detached, and dismiss those who disagree with your position - resist the urge to laugh at them, they may just not know. try and engage them in honest debate. if they resist that, if they donāt want to meet you on an equal footing you are within your rights to disengage.
be strong. support the things you love, and remember where the line is
we can all be better
*iām not saying that other groups arenāt treated with hostility in games and gaming - trans women certainly get it really, really bad. just personally saying, in my experience as a gay man, the gaming community, and subsequently games with a focus on narrative themselves, have a sort of...special hatred of mlm. not necessarily worse, just...uniquely hostile
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