#fictional woman is a nonbinary gay then well she is. ok?

[t4tdanvis]

"you cant headcanon men as lesbian/sapphic thats lesbophobic" has to be one of the worst takes ive ever seen. tell me ur not normal about trans women without telling me ur not normal about trans women

[queer-reader-07]

op could you elaborate on the she/her muriel thing. because i totally get what you mean but i find it so hard to articulate why... its just like. mmmmm. canon they/them character. but you wont respect their prns. but then again i enjoy when people get genderwierd w the ineffable spouses. would you respect my prns if you cant even respect a fictional character. is that the same thing. idk.

hi anon! i'll try best to elaborate, but apologies in advance if it comes off a bit... intense?

to give some context to my words:

i am nonbinary

i am afab

my pronouns are they/them

most everyone with the exception of close friends and people on the internet misgender me with she/her pronouns because they perceive me as a woman.

i think the root of it for me is that muriel has no experience interacting with earth, let alone humans, before they're sent down to be Inspector Constable. and because they have no experience with humans, they most definitely have very little context for the human construct that is gender. muriel's pronouns are they/them because those are the default gender neutral pronouns in english. muriel (like the other angels and demons) is referred to with they/them pronouns because, for all intents and purposes, they don't have gender.

whereas aziraphale and crowley (and even gabriel to a certain extent) have interfaced with humanity enough to have developed some level of understanding regarding gender, and possibly even an understanding of what they want their gender to be/be perceived as.

additionally, crowley and aziraphale play with gender in a way that feels very intentional to me.

crowley has canonically, in the show, presented femme. meta writers far more skilled than me have examined how, during the crucifixion scene, crowley is very obviously dressed more like the women in the background than the men. and it's not just in the historical flashbacks that we see crowley's genderfuckery. his modern look is comprised of a combination of femme and masc pieces. he wears a woman's cut waistcoat and his "11 years ago" look features women's sunglasses. all while inhabiting a decidedly man-shaped body.

i'm also just going to remind the audience that crowley outright denies being "a lad" in season 2. he straight up told us he's not A Dude.

aziraphale's genderfuckery is definitely less obvious and some might say debatable. that being said, i would make the argument that aziraphale's tendency to dress and present in a way that results in him being almost universally perceived as not only A Gay Man, but an effeminate gay man at that, is a quintessential example of gender as performance. and i do believe that aziraphale is making a very conscious and deliberate choice to present as a gay man. for fuck's sake he calls himself THE Southern Pansy, he knows what he's doing.

also, i know it didn't actually happen, but we almost got both of them presenting femme in the 60s so like. there's that too.

so, to me, it's ok to fuck around with crowley and aziraphale's genders in fanfic and art and the like because they do so canonically. the book makes it very clear that they are "man-shaped" but not necessarily men, ie they have chosen bodies that are perceived as being A Gender but that doesn't mean they technically are.

whereas muriel does not. muriel doesn't have a concept of gender because they haven't been on earth or around humans long enough to develop one. they are only ever referred to with gender neutral language. so it just feels really gross to me when people choose to she/her them. because to me it feels like saying "well this body that appears woman-shaped to me must mean they are a woman" which is a sentiment i, unfortunately, know all too well.

muriel is a character that is canonically referred to with they/them pronouns, on a major TV show on a major streaming platform no less. so it really fucking sucks to see people disregard that because they "can't remember to they/them muriel" or because they "seem like they use she/her."

to put it bluntly, every single argument i've ever read in favor of she/her-ing muriel has boiled down to "i just can't be bothered to remember they use they/them" and if you can't use a fictional characters pronouns correctly then i have zero faith you can use a real person's pronouns correctly. all i hear when i read those arguments is "i can't be fucked to do the bare minimum of gendering trans people correctly."

and lastly, i know it's genderfuckery when people she/her aziraphale and crowley because they're "man shaped" in the book and played by male actors in the show. but i don't have much faith that it's genderfuckery when people she/her muriel because i can almost guarentee it happens for no other reason than the fact that Quelin Sepulveda is a woman.

[animentality]

I was going to unfollow after disagreeing with your opinions on Steven Universe

But your philosophical discussion on how mpreg and omegaverse are the collage girls and milfs of fandom?

That's content I just can't turn down.

Listen, I was around for when mpreg was hot.

Everyone used it as an example of how deranged the internet was. Now omegaverse is the new thing, and people don't really use mpreg anymore.

And you see way less negative reactions to omegaverse vs mpreg. Possibly because mpreg was this infamous creature of the early 2000s, which lurked on fanfiction dot net and other fan sites, this taboo little beast that people only brought up to laugh at.

But omegaverse is classier. It's evolved and matured.

It's no longer the screaming spring break college girl, but the older and wiser mommy who knows what she wants and isn't ashamed of it anymore.

She's a CEO in a sharp pants suit and 6 inch heels and glasses and a scarf that costs 40,000 usd.

I also propose the idea that omegaverse is more trans inclusive than mpreg, because it has a more nuanced understanding of how gender operates in this fanfictional word.

Back in the old days, mpreg was like...men shit babies out their asses.

Not many people really knew what else they could do.

They still wanted the gay sex but didn't understand exactly what they were craving.

I have always felt that "yaoi" and "bl" and m x m pairings all arose from this longing for connection.

See, in the 2000s, whether you watched Naruto or supernatural, you just noticed how female characters were just these... non people.

They were love interests. They were sexy and didn't do much, except get killed off for drama, or they were dutiful lovers, waiting for the main character to finish the plot.

Women gravitated towards gay pairings because first off, many of them are attracted to men, so two guys getting it on had this irresistible sexual draw for them. But also, these two male characters just had this genuine feeling of affection for each other.

They were well written and nuanced and had genuine connections. Women responded to that.

Where there was no compelling canon het relationship, women decided there would be a compelling, almost canon homo relationship.

So that's where boy x boy found a home.

In the hearts of women who wanted romance outside of romance novels, but didn't get compelling heterosexual ones in other media.

But mpreg was a weirder thing, where perhaps you want to impregnate this character...but he's male.

But you don't know how to do that exactly. So you go to this fictional thing...where men shit babies.

But omegaverse is better.

Omegaverse will do you one better.

It'll propose that we can acknowledge...that women can have dicks. Men can have vaginas.

Men and women can have both.

Omegaverse like...transitioned from mpreg!!!

It became gender fluid and gender inclusive.

I have always felt also that saying yaoi is just a straight woman's plaything to be wildly shallow and dismissive.

You know how many nonbinary and trans people who are afab realized they were not women through yaoi???

A thousand million trillion hundred.

Omegaverse is cool to me, ok.

Mpreg was alright, but it was sort of strange just so far as, you don't need to recreate a whole organ when you can just say, yeah. He's a man and he has a vagina.

So what.

Maybe he still has a dick. Maybe he doesn't.

But that's the beautiful thing.

He doesn't need either. He can have both.

A female character can have a big old dick too.

Gender is just...it doesn't matter.

You can prefer anal sex between two characters with penises, or you can prefer vaginal sex between a trans character and a cis one.

You can have two penises, if you want. Three. Four.

Spiked penises.

Doesn't matter.

Omegaverse to me was just like...the next step in fandom evolution.

It brought with it a whole other gendered system that I find interesting.

And fascinating from an anthropological standpoint.

I am pro omegaverse.

Not necessarily what I wank to, but...I like it better than mpreg.

I think it took the best of mpreg and tossed out the problematic side of it.

I think...the kids are alright.

And the girlies are wellfed.

Also on the Steven universe thing...I fully admit, my brain was sort intoxicated by a lily orchard video and another video by some guy.

I've been re watching it and I think I was too harsh.

In retrospect, I still think the pink diamond reveal wasn't well thought out and was an easy cop out...but I still like the series in general.

The music and the visuals and the world itself are fun. It also did way more for gay rep than its haters will admit.

So I admit my brain was seeped in toxic fumes.

But anyway.

Omegaverse.

Good thing.

Classier.

[kitsunebishake]

this is just a little rant about how queer fire emblem engage is

I abstained myself from going on this rant on the tags of anotjer post because I know I'm annoying as hell lmfao

also mild spoilers tho I already speak vaguely by nature so nothing huuuge

OK SO can we just take a moment??? to think about how fucking queer this game is???

we have diamant pondering how pretty alfred is and comparing him to a serene and beautiful flower covered scenery

we have rosado wanting fogado to think he's the cutest person ever

whatever the fuck was that support with alcryst and fogado

MARYGOLD AND ETIE???? FEELING EACH OTHER'S SKIN????? LIKE????

rosado's entire existence is queer no matter from which side you look at it too, transfem? transmasc? fem gay? nonbinary? all of them, literally could be all of them

ivy in general is peak pathetic woman OTD material, she IS the fictional lesbian standard

(yes I am aware they're technically all bisexual but me HC 2 of them as gay/lesbian is not bad... I think)

kagetsu and alfred @ diamant and boucheron is so fucking queer too like I couldn't stop laughing because they made me feel a bit self aware LMFAO (they could be a polycule too who knows)

and speaking of muscles, why the fuck bunet was so okay with the idea of alfred licking his muscles? 💀 THAT'S NOT NORMAL MY DUDE, I MEAN I KNOW ALFRED IS PRETTY BUT DAMN

I think celine and chloe were also very 🏳️‍🌈

and merrin, which is literally inverse rosado

I have not watched all the supports but I'm sure if I did I'd find even more stuff to point at like a wojack meme and go "queer."

the resident cis gay man on my Facebook friend list who is constantly talking about wanting to get railed also has deemed male alear is extremely queer just for existing, so has one of the 50 lesbians on my twitter friend circles

and you know what? I think I can see why

there's also THAT scene during chapter 10 which made the VTuber I watch go from shaming his chat for being thirsty for the evil dragon to "oh shit, I get it now, that's kinda hot" which is like peak homoerotic violence

I'm sure there's more I've seen but I have forgotten

back to thinking about diamant and alfred kissing

EDIT: I wrote this on the 15th, it is currently the 16th and I have to say... I was right, there's a lot more queer

I have officially watched all of rosado's supports and some of them in Japanese, and it is incredible how they just didn't translate some parts? I need a transcript to confirm, but I'm pretty sure rosado uses 中性 to describe his townsfolk... that means gender neutral, literally the kanji for medium/middle + sex/gender

he also specifically mentions cutesy men and cool women, confirming people from his village are not just cute but in general showcase different types of beauty, regardless of gender (and yes! he also says the "regardless of gender" part in Japanese too! I love him sm)

there's also the first support with louis which I think is really funny because the ENGLISH VERSION JUST REMOVED TJE PART WITH "EVEN THOUGH I'M A BOY????" LMFAO

I imagine because they thought it was offensive or something? but I think it makes sense, fogado said to celine the firenese appear unsociable and closed off to those from other lands, closed off being the key word here

rosado obviously doesn't care about gender, much less his own, and he clearly doesn't even care when people find him cute and stare at him, he was quite comfortable with seadall and fogado staring, so he was probably just surprised a firenese (*he probs doesn't know mauvier was firenese, he doesn't seem to talk about that too much) would find him please to look at as well, much less on the level louis was staring lol

also, I think in general the Japanese version was cuter, cuz it has louis explicitly saying he doesn't give a shit about gender/sex :3

(also my HC is currently that rosado is a fem transmasc and merrin a masc transfem... balanced, as all things should be)

EDIT 2: it's the 18th and I have no idea why I didn't mention seadall at all

but he is also queer, everything he does is extremely queer

him watching rosado bathe is... certainly something

(also him being the "women looking unkempt after using 83738477448 skin and hair care products vs men looking perfect after washing with only water and soap" meme with rosado is god tier content)

[tincansamurai]

a long post about my exp figuring out gender

i'm seriously so glad that it's so easy to find information about gender these days. just knowing certain things are possible is so important to figuring out who you are.

when i was like 11 and becoming a Junior Poster, even with all the lurking i did i only saw people talk about trans women. of course, this was because people are fucking horrible and love to make fun of trans women. i liked to read webcomics and therefore also read people talking about webcomics and webcomic drama. there was this one woman who got shit on all the time. her webcomic was bad, that's true, but there was also a lot of precursor-kiwi-farms type shit about her personal life and her other website about being trans. people were accusing her of being a groomer (wow! things sure have changed!) because she had a quiz up for boys to take to see if they were trans. for some reason who knows why i was really fascinated by this and read a lot of drama about other gender-y webcomics, and of course i took that quiz. the result was essentially "you're not trans, you're a regular boy." i didn't really know that you could be trans in a way other than being transfem, so i just kinda shrugged and went "ok, i'm not trans". like, i wasn't stupid, and even the tg fetish webcomics everyone liked to laugh at included women turning into men sometimes. but no one talked about those fictional moments with the same terms, and i didn't have any examples of real life people, so i guess i assumed that transmasculinity was a separate, theoretical thing. and if it was only theoretical it couldn't apply to me, of course.

then when i was around 13 or 14 i was reading tab's khaos komix and when a gay trans dude was introduced i kind of broke. like, wait, you can be trans in that direction, for real? wait, you can be trans AND gay?? two big parts of why it was obvious i wasn't trans crashed around me and i absolutely had a crisis about it. entirely internal, of course, because i knew how much everyone hated trans women. and if they thought being a trans woman was stupid and fake, there was no way this new (to me) thing would be well received either. i can perfectly picture standing in the shower, staring at the faucet handle, completely still - or more like stuck, and thinking "i'm a gay man". without qualifiers and everything, no "i think" or "i might be", like i 100% came to that conclusion. it made sense.

i talked myself out of it because it was terrifying. some of the stuff i used to talk myself out of it turned out to not be signs i wasn't trans, but signs i wasn't binary, but i wouldn't know that existed for even longer. plus i had mentally shock therapied myself hard enough that when i did find out you could be nonbinary, i avoided learning more. honestly thank god for tumblr and patient art school mutuals, who have probably (more like hopefully) completely forgotten me arguing with them about how nonbinary identities don't make sense, lol. sorry for being a dickhead. but thanks to this space i couldn't avoid exposure anymore, and that was really good for me. i can't even imagine how miserable i would be. actually that's a lie, i can picture it pretty easily lol.

anyway the fact that kids can get online and learn about just about any kind of gender anybody has ever thought of, and find real people talking about their experiences, and form or join any kind of community about those shared experiences is so so good. meeting nonbinary kids makes me so fucking happy. i'm so glad that it's at least a little easier to figure out who you are these days.

[jaspertheshark]

🖊??

cracks knuckles ok you didn't specify so lemme tell you about Adam

Adam Takahashi is a 23 year old Japanese American person, 5'10", non-binary, he/him pronouns only, who is exclusively attracted to men. His parents are both Japanese but his father has lived in America since he was a child. They're divorced, but on great terms. Adam has an older sister who is a lawyer and has a boyfriend and a child.

Adam lives in a studio apartment in Brooklyn, New York and attends the Pratt Institute pursuing a Fine Arts degree. He also works full time as the assistant manager at a local coffee shop. The job pays pretty well but only because I say so I don't wanna think about money in fictional worlds his manager inherited the place and cares about paying their employees well. Adam used to live with his ex-girlfriend and current best friend Bennie, but didn't get a roommate after she left because two people in a studio apartment isn't ideal. They're still neighbors. (side note: the two of them broke up several months before Bennie fully realized she was a woman. Adam being very openly nonbinary helped her get there.)

Adam is a painter who mostly paints transitional pieces, a lot of man-made things becoming nature and people becoming animal or machine, things like that. His most hated paint to work with is watercolor. Oil is a close second because it takes so long to dry and he doesn't have a lot of space. His manager lets him use their coffee shop as a kind of gallery space, but they also have commissioned a few pieces from him as gifts and permanent decor.

He doesn't really listen to music for fun. He mostly listens to TED talks or puts cooking videos on in the background, but also podcasts and sometimes radio dramas. When he does listen to music it's usually traditional-style Japanese music or like John Mayer or Michael Buble

Adam has a relatively dry sense of humor, mostly on purpose. He enjoys the reactions he gets, especially from people who aren't expecting it. He's a pretty relaxed kind of person, keeps to himself, doesn't really go out much unless it's with Bennie. He doesn't like to drink much but he will. He's also one of the gays who CAN drive but come on he lives in new york. He doesn't have a car. But he can drive and often is the DD for Bennie if her boyfriend can't be there.

It usually takes a lot to bother Adam for his own sake but for the sake of other people he gets pretty mad and will get right up in your face if you're being an asshole. He's very protective. He isn't one to start physical altercations though, and mainly will try to diffuse situations by calling attention to them.

Adam is also very good with kids. He doesn't want any of his own, but he's really good with those he interacts with; he's very patient and tries to be interested in what they have to say, and they think it's really cool that he can paint.

hm hm what else.

Well I think that's it for now :P thanks for your interest!

[redroseworks]

you should talk abt your earth-116 oc kids 👀

Akajsjakakah ok you asked for it lol

Idk where to start

Oh wait the three dc ocs that are kinda sort of their own thing except for one anyway

Lynn Small aka Selkie. Gothamite. Half Atleantean. Hates their dad. Goth. Eventually a sorcerer. Bad at coping.

Quatashia McFadden aka Lady Iris. Wonder Woman stan. Her mom is the goddess Iris. Would be offended by the pjo books. Retires from being a hero very early in life.

Jivika Chabra aka Kali. Her bio mother is lady shiva who donated her egg for a gay assassin couple to use with a surrogate. Yeah it's a long story. Also jivika isnt happy that they wanted her to be an assassin later in life. But like she only finds that out when they're both dead? They weren't planning on actually training her till she was 18 anyway. At least she can yell at their ghosts. Would kin Danny Phantom. She ends up dating Emiko Queen while in college!

Now my dickroy kiddos

Valerie Harper-Grayson. Adopted when she was three. Part Atleantean. Damian is her favorite Uncle bc he is almost always up for taking her to the aquarium. Then again Damian is basically all the Harper-Grayson kiddos fav Uncle. She never gets into the whole vigilante/hero business.

John Bo Harper-Grayson. Yeah John Bo is his whole first name. He goes by Bo. Hes biologically Roy and dicks kid. He'll eventually become Nightwing but he stays out of vigilante stuff till hes about 19.

Dylras Harper-Grayson. He was adopted as a baby from New Tamaran! He was rescued from uhh human/alien traffickers. He becomes Flamebird to Bo's Nightwing.

So now Bo's best friend: Jordan Lance-Queen! Haldinahollie's kid.

Jordan is biologically Hal's and a surrogate. They literally tried to find a surrogate that looked like Dinah. Jordan ends up being nonbinary so luckily they already had a gender neutral name. They'll eventually become Green Arrow! Their main goal in life is to make Bo suffer.

And then there are the Kent-Waynes and Allen-Waynes. Timkonbart kiddos.

Logan Kent-Wayne is tim and kons kid. Hes a really sweet kid though I havent wrote him as well him yet since I've mainly written him in a time period where he hasn't come out yet. He literally named himself after an actor cough garfield logan cough from a science fiction show he liked but then he found out said actor is friends with his uncle dick and he will never admit this.

Then there are the actually older than Logan twins. Except their clones. Made by lex luthor with DNA from kon and tim, Clark and Bruce Kent-Wayne use to be known as Alexander and Alexa Legacy. Maybe they were a little evil but they changed. They wanted to choose new names for their new lifes and asked tim, bart, and kon about names. Bruce's gender identity came out when he choose the name Bruce. Bruce and Robbie Troy end up dating (for a second time, first time being back when b was a little evil) and doing humanitarian work around the globe while also being heroes. Clark ends up going to Metropolis University to study elementary education!

And then there are tim and bart's pair of twins Meloni and Dana Allen-Wayne. I've only written them as babies so far so I havent given them much thought

Oh that reminds me Thad Allen (used to be Thawne but I feel like thad would change it) has an adopted son who he named Max

Now these two aren't kiddos but: Ezra and Amber Kane, Bette Kanes parents. Ezra is the youngest kid of whatever the fuck martha and Jacob's parents names were. He was a bit of a surprise considering his parents were pretty old when he was born so hes like 20 years younger than his closest sibling in age jacob. Hes also only like 8 years older than bruce and doted on his nephew as much as he could and hes the inspiration of the whole brucue wayne playboy act despite him not being a playboy at all but anyway. Hes also a pro tennis player. Amber Kane is his wife and best friend. She once dated Janet Drake. She had a shitty life and despite being an actress her childhood is still mainly secret. A few vague details are known but not specific not that it matters anyway. Her parents died when she was young and was taken in by some not so good people who got away with it bc they had money. Ezra and Amber spend any minute they can with Bette bc they love her and she is the light of their lives (well besides each other).

Then there's Faith, Bane, and Soledad Kerzner. Scandal, Kay, and Liana's kids. Faith and Bane are biologically Lianas with Thomas Blake as the sperm donor. Soledad was adopted when she was two . Faith... is a bit rebellious and gets caught up in some shit she really shouldn't have. Bane and Soledad are two characters I havent really explored yet but anyway they all love their three moms.

Viola and Robin Thomas are Duke Thomas and Jackson hyde's adopted kids. Viola is Martian which is really difficult considering her abilities. Shes a sweet kid though and really likes to help her dads! Robin is an Atleantean baby Jackson saved and brought home and it was kinda like that icarly meme (duke: jackson what do you have there? Jackson, holding robin and a smoothie: a smoothie) but like more dramatic bc Jackson was injured and had only come home because it was close and he really needed to actually go to a hospital anyway yay. Viola will become the signal and robin will become aqualad on day

Oh and there's Lilith "Lili" Bloomberg. Shes rose Wilson and eddie Bloomberg's daughter. She likes to watch blue devil. Shes really sensitive. Rose and eddie never got married to each other but Rose and Mia dearden married when Lilith was sorta young and eddie was married to jason todd for a little while before they got divorced and later he enters a relationship with zach zatara but I havent decided if that will last or not. Lilith is really close with tommy Blake bc hes kind of like an older brother to her

And then there's mystery girl wilson... I have yet to name her but shes a character I'm working on but her dad is slade

And that's it for now. There's more but I dont feel like going into then right now. But there more like Jason Todd's group of adopted kiddos and some others but I feel like this answer is getting way too long

[midnight-fox-boy]

More About me/Views/Etc.

Hello everyone~! This post will explain more about me, my views, and anything I flnd important to add. This will be kinda long so please buckle up ;3 

General Information

Age: 19 

Gender: Demifluidflux trans guy 

Pronouns: He/him, they/them is cool too

Sexual orientations: Gay, Demisexual

Romantic orientations: Gay, Demiromantic

Alterous Orientation: Homoalterous

Other: Polyamorous

Relationship status: Taken

I love anime, video games, drawing, singing, and just browsing the web. I like to learn new topics, and explore new ideas and sciences. I want to be a therapist someday, but if it doesn’t happen, that’s chill too. I’m polyamorous currently in a monoamorous relationship. I don’t usually participate in discourse but I do have opinions/views on different topics. I am mentally ill and prefer not to be attacked. If I do something wrong or say something offensive, I don’t mean it, or I’m simply uneducated on the topic when I thought I was. I’m happy to take polite criticsm and never mean to do harm to others. So nothing I say is ill-intended. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Views on certain discourse topics

Aspec Discourse: I believe that aromantics and asexuals are inherently LGBTQ+ and should be welcomed. However, it’s up to them if they choose to identify with LGBTQ+ or not. 

Nonbinary discourse. Yes there are more than two genders. And no it doesn’t mean “Neither male or female” Nonbinary means: “Not explicitly a single binary gender” Which can mean someone can be both binary genders, one binary gender and other nonbinary genders, no binary gender, etc etc. So yes. I CAN be a guy and nonbinary. 

Xenogenders: I may not be able to comprehend it 100% But I KNOW that gender is diverse and confusing and you can label your gender however you want. Just be you! You have my support.

Nonbinary Gays/Nonbinary lesbians: YES nonbinary people can be gay or lesbian. Many of them are nonbinary women or men. Meaning they identify with womanhood/manhood no matter how that is. Maybe they have a primarily woman or man gender, maybe they’re man/woman aligned. Whatever. You do not get to dictate who is gay enough or lesbian enough :) 

(NO)MAPS: Are scum. Do not interact, do not pass go, do not collect 200 dollars.If you support them then get the f**k off my blog please! I am a CSA survivor and will NOT tolerate pedophilia.

Am I a transmed/truscum? Am a tucute?: Well, no. I’m none of those. I do not believe dysphoria is required to be trans. As many studies show gender incongruence is all you need, dysphoria manifests in some trans people as a result of incongruence. Gender euphoria also exists. This is not a topic I would like to debate. However, I do believe that dysphoria or incongruence should be medicalized in SOME form in order for trans people to be able to get gender affirming treatments. (Hormones, surgeries). I would love to live in a world where those things are free regardless, however :/ (P.S. I am dysphoric)

Kink/BDSM: Well. I participate in BDSM and kink, but I do not post about it or discuss on my blog. I have spaces for that and this isn’t one of them. So no worries about running into any kinky posts on my blog. That wont happen. If it ever does, it was an accident. 

Transtrenders: I DO believe that RARELY, some cis people will pretend to be trans, not necessarily as a “trend” but to gain something in return, usually online. They may use it as an excuse to chase other trans people, or to have more “power” in a trans based argument. However, when people are accused of being trenders, they are usually not, they are just not what YOU feel gender should be. And people who fear they’re trenders? Impossible. You would know if you were faking. 

Self Diagnosis: I’m divided on this. You shouldn’t self diagnose many things. Like a heart condition, or cancer, or other extremes. But if you know you’re depressed all the time and can’t see a therapist, you probably have depression. If you haven’t been diagnosed with PTSD but experienced something trauamtic and show symptoms of PTSD, You probably have PTSD. If you were confirmed to likely have a certain mental illness but perhaps didn’t fit the “age requirements” for said diagnosis, you can probably take that as an unofficial diagnosis. As long as aren’t flaunting it to seem “cool” (and most don’t) and are using those self dx’s to find help resources online and such, you’re probably good. 

Fujoshis: Touchy topic I know. I do not agree when this word is used in specific contexts.

1) when girls think MLM relationships are “hot/sinful/sexy/dirty” , especially IRL MLM relationships, I think that’s fetishization, much like how many cishet men view WLW relationships  2) when it’s directed as a hate word towards gay trans men. I’ve been called a fujoshi for being a gay trans guy, and many of you probably have to. It’s wrong y’all. Gay trans men are gay men. Gay nonbinary men are gay men. 

Pansexual vs. Bisexual: Both are valid labels. All multisexual labels are valid. Labels are for you to feel comfortable with, and as long as you aren’t choosing one over the other due to biphobia/internilized homophobia, you’re probably good. Bisexual attracted to all genders? Valid. Pansexual with preferences? valid. Bisexual attracted to many genders? Valid. Pansexual and feeling attraction regardless of gender? Valid. Bisexual and identify the same way? Valid! 

Genital preference: Another touchy topic! The sad truth is that genitals DO matter to many people. Maybe it’s from truama, or an actual repulsion to a genital set. However, it should never EVER be used to excuse transphobia. You can not want to date a trans person who is pre-op, that’s fine, your loss not theirs. However, you cannot use that genital preference to see them as lesser, or as not “real” men/women. I personally have a preference for penises, but it’s only a preference. I would still potentially date a trans guy who is pre-op or never-op, but I prefer penises. But as I’m also gay, I likely wouldn’t date a trans woman who is pre-op/no-op. Because well, she’s a woman. So to summarize, genital preferences are OK as long as you aren’t a dick about it, or transphobic. :) 

Trans people and gender conformity: Alrighty. This is a favorite topic of mine. Do trans people owe gender conformity? Do nonbinary people OWE people androgyny? Nope. Cisgender people are gender-nonconforming all the time without dysphoria. We see butch cis women and Fem cis dudes all the time. So I say, why do trans men and women owe something different? While it is true that early in transition being GNC CAN cause dysphoria, that isn’t always the case. Early in transition I usually avoided feminine things and interests unless I was in the comfort of my home, but now I’m open to, and embrace my feminine and androgynous side. I’m in no way a woman, I just happen to enjoy some stereotypical feminine things. Many trans men do. As for nonbinary people, they can present however they want. Androgynous, feminine, masculine, fluid presentation, mixing it up, genderf**k, whatever. Their body, their choice. Sometimes you may be able to “tell” someone is nonbinary by looking at them, and that’s totally okay. There is no “looking nonbinary”. All looks on a nonbinary person are nonbinary. 

Anti/Anti-Anti?: Honestly I’m still confused in all of that stuff. Fiction CAN and HAS affected reality. That’s not to say that you can’t enjoy certain thinsg seen as “taboo” but there is a line that shouldn’t be crossed. PEDOPHILIA. You should not write, nor consume, fiction that presents a CHILD with an ADULT. It’s true that some pedophiles will write these to bring minors in and harass them. Even then, it gives stories for those sick f**ks to read. Do you REALLY want a pedophile reading your story? I guess I’m anti-ish. You can enjoy things that are otherwise problematic as long as you don’t let it affect how you treat people in the real world. Maybe you liked reading that fictional story about kidnapping and got off to it or something weird like that, as long as you aren’t trying to kidnap anyone or shit like that, I guess you do you, keep it to yourself though.

“NB” - Nonbinary or Non-black?: I went with POC voices on this. I will no longer use “NB” to mean nonbinary on my blog. You will likely just see “nonbinary” or “enby” used by me. 

Aspec, autistic spectrum or Asexual/aromantic spectrum?: I’ve seen very little evidence or claim on the side of “autistic spectrum” being the term. Many responses ive seen and sources claim it means asexual/aromantic spectrum, and has even been echoed by autistic people, a lot of them. If I see evidence suggetsing otherwise, I’m happy to change my language. I don’t want to be ableist. 

Butch/Femme, lesbian terms only?: I say no. I’ve seen a lot of articles, personal accounts, and history on the use of butch and femme. And none suggest they were terms only used by lesbians. From what I can tell, this idea seemed to be spread by “radical” lesbians and TERF’s. In history, many lesbians tried to distance themselves from all men, and encouraged non-lesbian women not to associate with men. This is obviously just a small tidbit of what they did in that time. However, I personally don’t use butch or femme, and don’t really plan to.

Specifically “weird” or crazy seeming kinks/BDSM styles: All I say is, you do you. If all parties are adults and consent to it, good on you. Just, keep it to yourself or in spaces dedicated to those things. As long as you don’t get off to ACTUAL CHILDREN, or try to bone or jerk it to an animal, you’re probably okay. Also don’t do incest, that stuff is bad. 

!!If there’s a discourse topic you’d like to see here, you can PM me or send me an ask. I’m happy to shed my opinions on stuff, but they will go here!!

[embersofstardust]

For the OC ask, if you don't mind, all of them? I like all the names and am curious about snake boi! 😊

:D absolutely!!!! But it’s gonna get long, so i’m throwing it under the “read more” (also sorry it took so long! I tried to do it before work, but didn’t have enough time so i had to wait until i got home)

ok, so i’ll do snake boi first then!

Full Name: he doesn’t have one yet lolGender and Sexuality: Male (currently debating nonbinary), and asexualPronouns: He/HimEthnicity/Species: He is a snake hybrid sort of deal. Not a naga, but has reptilian eyes/toungue and is coldblooded and prefers his food extremely rare even though it might stain his nice dress clothesBirthplace and Birthdate: No birthplace, but birthday is April 19thGuilty Pleasures: His favourite band is ABBA but he thinks it’s embarrassingPhobias: Crickets. they terrify himWhat They Would Be Famous For: writing the book he’s been working on for the past 10 yearsWhat They Would Get Arrested For: god um, maaayyyybe being involved in a fight? but only like, if one of his friends was getting the shit kicked out of them. he hates confrontationOC You Ship Them With: none atm!OC Most Likely To Murder Them: i honestly don’t knowFavorite Movie/Book Genre: movie is suspenseful thrillers, but book is romcom novels! another guilty pleasure tbh. even tho he’s asexual he likes the romance side of it and the cheesy lines always make  him laughLeast Favorite Movie/Book Cliche: the fact that EVERYONE has to end up with somebody, and it’s usually a straight coupleTalents and/or Powers: no powers, but he can touch the bridge of his nose with his tongue! also he loves gardening and has a green thumbWhy Someone Might Love Them: he’s really just a mellow sweetheart with questionable fashion sense. he has green hair/stubble but likes to wear warm coloured dress clothesWhy Someone Might Hate Them: he really is almost unbearable mellow. he doesn’t get riled up very often and can talk for HOURS on book analysisHow They Change: he really hasn’t too much besides going from a more closed off type of character to just laid-back and sweet!Why You Love Them: he is literally the ONLY one of my characters with a decent amount of chill and i love his design so much

up next: Callalily! (also i’m  just realising i forgot two whole ocs, but i’m not gonna throw them in bc i don’t have anything other than their design and that they’re dating)

Full Name: Callalily MortrinskaGender and Sexuality: Female, lesbian (she dated a few guys, but eventually decided not for her)Pronouns: she/herEthnicity/Species: black and cyborg! and not shy about it either, she makes sure her cyborg parts are made of shiny gold. it was the only thing they could do for her after a nasty accidentBirthplace and Birthdate: i don’t think i have a birthplace for any of them tbh but her birthday is November 3rdGuilty Pleasures: nothing is really a “guilty” pleasure for her? She is pretty open about everythingPhobias: one of her parts malfunctioning, someone she cares about getting hurt, miceWhat They Would Be Famous For: shooting someone who deserved it (she’s a sniper)What They Would Get Arrested For: shooting someone who only SHE thought deserved itOC You Ship Them With: none atm!OC Most Likely To Murder Them: none atm!Favorite Movie/Book Genre: probably the political fiction stuff!Least Favorite Movie/Book Cliche: how pink = girly girl and that they’re always airbrainedTalents and/or Powers: an incredible sniper! Also a really smooth flirt when she wants to beWhy Someone Might Love Them: she has a huge heart for people she cares about and is willing to go to the ends of the earth for themWhy Someone Might Hate Them: if you’ve pissed her off there is no mercy or second chances unless your apology is REALLY goodHow They Change: hasn’t really! i like it too much :)Why You Love Them: i love the thought of a badass, sniper cyborg woman who loves pink, skirts, and girls and has both aesthetics at the same time

Xinae!

Full Name: XinaeGender and Sexuality: agender/omnisexualPronouns: they/them she/her he/him (technically her race doesn’t deal with gender/pronouns/sexuality? they’re heavenly bodies soooo)Ethnicity/Species: a living starBirthplace and Birthdate: noneGuilty Pleasures: her moonPhobias: being locked away and forced to forget her moon (which has since happened)What They Would Be Famous For: defying a sunWhat They Would Get Arrested For: defying a sunOC You Ship Them With: her moon, who doesn’t have much of a design yetOC Most Likely To Murder Them: the jealous sunFavorite Movie/Book Genre: soft romance and fantasy fictionLeast Favorite Movie/Book Cliche: forced romances that don’t develop/make senseTalents and/or Powers: she has intense light and heat, and can maneuver her way across the night sky to light the way for lost wanderersWhy Someone Might Love Them: she is gentle and kind, motherly almostWhy Someone Might Hate Them: she can sometimes not keep her mouth shut and if the reward outweighs the risk she’s not afraid of  consequencesHow They Change: no changes, shes new!!Why You Love Them: i love her story and design

Alrighty! Onto the twins Aven and Neva!

Full Name: Neva CarmondyGender and Sexuality: female, bisexualPronouns: she/herEthnicity/Species: human, idk ethnicity just yet but she’s pretty tan naturallyBirthplace and Birthdate: birthday is March 7Guilty Pleasures: Cheap beerPhobias: she’s actually really afraid of needles and blood in general for some reason?What They Would Be Famous For: whatever she got arrested for tbhWhat They Would Get Arrested For: public disturbance or climbing something she shouldn’t. maybe getting in a fightOC You Ship Them With: none atm!OC Most Likely To Murder Them: her brother tbh lolFavorite Movie/Book Genre: she doesn’t really read books, but she likes audio ones! and actually really loves historical fictionLeast Favorite Movie/Book Cliche: I hate you! oh i love you now!Talents and/or Powers: well i actually have them in BNHA, so they do have powers! She can alter/add something to people’s memories! she also took gymnastics for 8 years as a kid so shes pretty flexibleWhy Someone Might Love Them: shes fun! and totally willing to throw down for someoneWhy Someone Might Hate Them: a bit airheaded and doesn’t like to focus on serious things, she’d rather focus on having funHow They Change: honestly not too much? maybe a little less thot and a little more party but nothing major lolWhy You Love Them: it’s just a fun character!! and her dynamic with her brother is great

Full Name: Aven Carmondy (their 1st names are just reversed of each other lol)Gender and Sexuality: male, questioningPronouns: he/himEthnicity/Species: again, idk ethnicity yetBirthplace and Birthdate: March 7Guilty Pleasures: dumb looking t-shirtsPhobias: worms (his sister thinks its hilarious)What They Would Be Famous For: being a philanthropist idk he hates being the center of attentionWhat They Would Get Arrested For: beating somebody for hurting his sisterOC You Ship Them With: none!OC Most Likely To Murder Them: none atm!Favorite Movie/Book Genre: sci-fiLeast Favorite Movie/Book Cliche: inaccurate fake science lolTalents and/or Powers: again, has powers so! He can erase parts/whole memories!Why Someone Might Love Them: is the Mom Friend and very caring and protectiveWhy Someone Might Hate Them: painfully shy at first and a buzzkill at times worrying too muchHow They Change: he’s actually gotten a little more reserved! sorry buddy lolWhy You Love Them: i just do! also looking back at it we are pretty similar 

And now onto the big two!!!! :D

Full Name: Kronixus (Krow) Lioneheart (lion-heart)Gender and Sexuality: male, GAAAAYYYY AFFFFFFPronouns: he/himEthnicity/Species: changes depending on my mood bc i use him in a bunch of stuff? but always a mixBirthplace and Birthdate: October 31stGuilty Pleasures: pop musicPhobias: snakes, has a legit phobia of a certain shade of pink its weird as hellWhat They Would Be Famous For: being a mad scientist/famous inventorWhat They Would Get Arrested For: beating somebody for hurting his sister/just getting in a fight in general OC You Ship Them With: none atm! (it’s usually with canon characters lol)OC Most Likely To Murder Them: ravenna tbhFavorite Movie/Book Genre: sci-fi and gritty romanceLeast Favorite Movie/Book Cliche: ALSO inaccurate fake science. if its not plausible he throws a fitTalents and/or Powers: very smart!!!! has a great knack with machines, but shit at math it’s weird. also pretty musically giftedWhy Someone Might Love Them: he looks like a hard ass but is pretty sweet when you get to know him and v sensitive but still ready to fight someone for you w/ no questions askedWhy Someone Might Hate Them: ready to fight someone w/ no questions asked. also everyone thinks he’s straight so a lot of people get mad that their girlfriend thinks he’s hotHow They Change: was actually originally just a genderbend version of my main oc, but now is his own character completely with a different (more chaotic) personality! also was pan, but slowly evolved into just gay lolWhy You Love Them: he’s great! he’s such a chaotic gay energy but hides it under a hard-ass facade and i love him. i’ve also had him a while so yeah lol i put him in a lot of different aus/fandoms

The main one!!! My babey!!!!!

Full Name: Ravenna (Raven) Lioneheart (lol get it, raven and crow?)Gender and Sexuality: female, pansexual!!!!Pronouns: she/herEthnicity/Species: again, idk ethnicityBirthplace and Birthdate: October 31stGuilty Pleasures: ummm? partying i guess? sometimes she loves it alittle TOO much lolPhobias: snakes, the dark, swimming (shes says drowning buttttt)What They Would Be Famous For: her music getting bigWhat They Would Get Arrested For: getting in a fight, public disturbancesOC You Ship Them With: none! just canon characters ^^’OC Most Likely To Murder Them: none?Favorite Movie/Book Genre: high fantasy and sci-fi!Least Favorite Movie/Book Cliche: dumb romance/heavy political stuffTalents and/or Powers: she has powers depending on the universe, and they change on my mood so not listing that. But she’s pretty good with machines (Krow is better) and really good at the arts! Much better than Kronixus! also very smartWhy Someone Might Love Them: will go to the ends of the earth for the ones she cares about, and it takes a lot to break her trust once she has it. can be very lovingWhy Someone Might Hate Them: is loud and not afraid to voice her opinions. thinks she’s bigger than she is and sometimes gets her ass kicked for itHow They Change: she was actually originally a self-insert a LONG time ago, but has grown with me and developed into her own person! obviously we still share similarities, mostly in what we like, but i’ve had her for so long it’s really hard to remember what it was like without herWhy You Love Them: again, i’ve had her FOREVER! and i just love tweaking her to fit whatever au i’m doing atm!

[seasonscozy]

Also here’s what the anon sent me earlier, hope you’re happy now

well, for starters, the entire plot is the authors’ gay conversion fetish.

if you go to the creators fb pages and go back to before the show started, you’ll find both of them, along with other crew members, are obsessed with poly gay conversion. if you’re not familiar with this particular fetish, it’s getting gay people into a poly m/f relationship (usually a bi person and a het person), and slowly over time making the gay person bi by slowly pushing their boundaries (be it in sex or general relationship stuff, like the other partner coming in and joining the sex, even when the gay person protests, and little things like shaming the gay person for not being more affectionate with the other partner/not being equally affectionate with both other partners). it’s defended as “exploring sexual fluidity”, but if you’re not aware, that’s the new term for conversion therapy (“SAFE-T: Sexual Attraction Fluidity Exploration (in) Therapy” where they aim to effectively make gay people bi) so it’s pretty fuckin obvious how the creators feel about actual gay people.

esp when you know that, word of mouth, from the creators themselves stated when asked about mid-way through season one, once the sens8 happens and everyone is connected, they feel each other’s feelings, and therefor everyone is now pan.

but there’s a lil problem with that. I mean, not only is it literally gay conversion, making gay people not gay anymore (as remember, the goal has been moved. “SAFE-T” practitioners no longer aim to make gay people straight, they now aim to make us bi, since grooming us into thinking we also feel m/f attraction is a lot easier than completely suppressing one attraction and fabricating another to replace it) but the straight characters aren’t changed. for all intense and purposes, stay straight. we never see them express same-sex attraction, and they only ever have m/f sex, while the previously gay characters are shown having m/f sex and loving it, multiple times.

and also, that excuse is even more bullshit when you notice, even though it was said that they’re “all feeling each other’s feelings” their sexuality seems to be the only part they each feel. you have men and women connected, including a trans woman, yet none of them are nonbinary, nor do any of them ever feel the trans woman’s dysphoria or gain any dysphoria of their own from the connection. this whole “feeling each other’s feelings” ONLY applies to sexuality, and only actually affects the gay people, whom the creators love “fixing”.

and another kicker, is the two gay men, and the woman who completely fetishizes and dehumanizes them. throughout their story, she does nothing but treat them like yaoi (gay male Japanese media) fangirls/fujoshi (extreme yaoi fangirls) treat fictional gay characters. like they’re nothing but manga (comic book) characters for her to squeal over and masturbate to, which is exactly what she does.

she literally watches them having sex, and takes pictures of them without their knowledge or consent, and when confronted about this, when it’s shown how terrified one of the men is to be outed, he’s attacked and chastized by the other gay man for not considering the straight fetishist’s feelings, who’s upset that he doesn’t completely love how much she fetishizes them.

every single interaction she has with them is her treating them like pure fap material for her enjoyment, and they turn on each other, doing things no actual gay person would actually do (that whole ‘why won’t you come out of the closet, are you ashamed of me???’ thing? complete straight bullshit, as is a gay man not only being ok with a straight girl treating them like this, but chastising his own partner for not being ok with it. that shit, just straight up does not happen)

and this is literally just the first season stuff! I mean, idk what definition of homophobia you have, but methinks you need a refresher, cause this is literally definition homophobia, and in fact very real violent homophobia and actual rape if the authors’ made their fetish a reality outside of their show and facebook posts.

a show can be diverse and seem progressive, but be the exact opposite. just cause a minority wrote it doesn’t mean it’s inherently good. a black gay man is the head writer for the Dear White People TV series, who’s goal with the show was to challenge how black gay men are viewed and portrayed in the media, and he wrote a “lesbian” teacher having an affair with her male student and denying it by continuing to claim she’s a lesbian while he makes comments about how she “isn’t a lesbian when she’s with [him]”, rolling lesbianism not being real and lesbians being pedophiles/predators all into one awful caracature of a character. just cause he’s a gay man doesn’t mean he can’t be homophobic. just because the creators of sens8 are trans doesn’t mean they can’t be homophobic. just cause a show is diverse doesn’t mean it can’t be the mouthpiece for bigotry. bigotry doesn’t only come from the completely privileged in shows that only have token minority characters.

I get that on the surface the show might seem good, that if you didn’t know any of the background stuff on the authors you wouldn’t know any of that, but the two gay men and the fetishizing straight woman alone should have been enough to tip you off that something isn’t right with the show, and the fact that you really can’t see anything wrong with that is really, really telling.

[hextual]

Podcast Recs

The following recs/summaries may contain light-to-moderate spoilers, though I try to keep things vague and rot13 the more specific stuff! Here is an abbreviated spoiler-free rec list, for the sensitive among you.

Night Vale Presents

The three non-WTNV shows have all finished their first seasons (and Alice Isn't Dead just started its second). They're relatively short and contain complete story arcs. 

WTNV: The ur-podcast, the light horror fiction narrative that kicked off the trend. Y'all know it or you don't. If you've somehow never heard it and don't want to start from the pilot, I recommend trying Episode 13; it's a stand-alone episode in a slightly different format than the rest, but it gives a good sense of WTNV's general aesthetic. Also it's just really really good.

Alice Isn't Dead: A surrealist horror roadtrip about a trucker searching for her wife Alice, who isn't dead. She's got nothing to lose and a lot of dangerous road to cover.

Orbiting Human Circus: Bizarre and magical and a little bit heartbreaking, like all good circuses should be. Julian is the janitor of a heavily fictionalized Eiffel Tower, and he desperately wants to be part of the Orbiting Human Circus show that he cleans up after every night.

Within the Wires: Dystopian sci-fi 1980s AU, told through a series of 'relaxation' cassettes. More grounded in reality than the others, though that's not saying much. The medium is also foregrounded much more in the narrative.

Hiatus

Wolf 359: SUPER dark, though you wouldn't know it from the first dozen episodes. However, the inflicting-trauma to coping-with-trauma ratio is low enough that I listened to the whole thing and will almost definitely listen to Season 4 when it's released starting this June. Also, no queerness whatsoever (making it unique on this list).  

Eos 10: Spaceship sitcom. Less artistically ambitious than most of the others on this list, which is not necessarily a point against it. 

Airing

The Strange Case of Starship Iris: Newer sci-fi podcast that I absolutely love; it ticks all my very specific boxes (including medium-as-message) and is also just really well constructed and executed. I adore every single one of the main characters. There are only 4 episodes but I'm so hyped about it. 

The Bright Sessions: Audio files from a therapist to teens and young adults with superpowers. Everything I ever wanted X-Men to be: light on the fight scenes/explosions, heavy on exploring what it means to have superhuman powers and how that might affect your life/relationships.

The Penumbra Podcast: Cyberpunk noir pastiche that sometimes gets a little too broad for me but is generally good fun of the Thrilling Tales! variety.

Ars Paradoxica: Time travel in one of its more complex interpretations. Paradox is a major plot element. Kind of sci-fi historical fiction?

Now for the more detailed writeups, including overviews of queerness and genre. As I said before, potential spoilers are rot13′d...but Here There Be Dragons etc.

Night Vale Presents

All of these are incredibly solid shows with an otherworldly feel to them that I love, despite being otherwise quite different.

All main characters are queer; WTNV has queer side characters (including nonbinary characters), but afaik the only other explicitly queer characters in AID/ORC/WTW are love interests of the MCs. That's pretty understandable, though, given that the casts of the three non-WTNV shows are exponentially smaller, and they've aired significantly fewer episodes.

I want to mention something in a totally value-neutral way: none of the shows feature homophobia or directly discuss queerness (lowkey exception for one episode of WTNV). I actually enjoy that, personally; it's usually very restful to spend time in worlds where queerness is normalized and unremarkable. Occasionally, however, I do want a slightly more direct approach, so I wanted to make a note in case you're in that kind of mood. 

Welcome to Night Vale The first and only podcast I listened to for about a year. Honestly, do I even need to say anything about WTNV?  I do want to mention that I think it's gotten a little bogged down in continuity over the last year. AFAIK it wasn't conceived as a long-running narrative arc, and a lot of its early charm came from the total lack of context. After Year 2, I feel like it did start spending a little too much time explaining things and filling out backstory for elements that, frankly, didn't need them. YMMV ofc, and I still listen to/enjoy every new episode, but I'm not madly in love with Year 3 the way I was with Year 1-2. Queerness: Queer af! The main character gets a full same-sex romance arc; V'q pnyy vg 'unccl-raqvat' ohg vg'f fgvyy batbvat nf n ybivat naq urnygul eryngvbafuvc, juvpu vf rira orggre. Multiple side characters are queer, including a few nonbinary characters who use they/them pronouns.  Genre: tucking into a short stack at 2am in a diner in the American Southwest, slowly realizing that the woman behind the counter called you by name even though you've never been here before, and also you can't quite remember how you got here in the first place. Alice Isn't Dead Beautiful, creepy, and acted by the brilliant Jasika Nicole. I'd place this more firmly in the horror genre than the others, so if you're sensitive to that kind of thing, take note; there's some suspense and a little bit of violence. That said, I am usually MASSIVELY sensitive and can't even watch trailers for horror movies (I have made my peace with never ever seeing Get Out), and I was perfectly fine with it. Queerness: The main character is a woman married to Alice, who isn't dead. It's like the opposite of the Bury Your Gays trope. Genre: driving along a nameless interstate late at night, the world around you narrowed to the section of road thrown into sharp relief by your headlights, and the occasional glint of animal eyes. The Orbiting Human Circus of the Air ORC is the most fanciful of the Night Vale family. The other shows seem like they take place in realities just a shade off from ours, but ORC completely throws any pretense of realism out the window. There's no real sense of a world outside the Circus, and why should there be? The Orbiting Human Circus of the Air has an infinitude of fantastical delights: singing saws, a bird that can mimic (almost) a full orchestra, tap-dancing mice. There's no trick or sleight of hand involved, not even a dusty tome of magic spells. ORC simply presents a world in which these wonders exist in hidden corners. The story is sometimes melancholy, and there are regular hints of a deep sadness underneath the surface, but the main character is defined by his determination and...well, 'optimism' would be too strong a word, but he has an unyielding sense of hope. He doesn't actually think things will turn out well for him (and he's so often right about that), but he clings to the hope that this time, maybe it might. Queerness: Gur znva punenpgre nyyhqrf gb na rk-oblsevraq bapr. This is one of the lighter touches of queerness in the Night Vale family. Genre: peering through a dusty velvet curtain just offstage, while brightly-costumed creatures dance to a tune you haven't heard since you were a child. Within the Wires While all Night Vale Presents shows have some kind of narrative conceit framing the audio medium (community radio station, trucker radio transmissions, broadcast wish fulfillment), those tend to be vehicles for the story and stylistic flourishes, rather than core elements of the story itself. WtW is presented as audio cassettes on full-body relaxation, and the cassettes themselves become key actors. This is not a story that could be told in any other medium, which personally I freaking love. This is also a more sci-fi show than the others, despite being set in AU 1980s, and more blatantly dystopic. The world-building's a little more evident, which is neither a good thing nor a bad thing; I think it's a side effect of being more sci-fi than fantasy. Everything feels like it has an explanation, even if the explanation is not provided, and it all fits together smoothly. Also: the narrator has a mild kiwi accent, which I find incredibly soothing. Queerness: Yep. Gur znva punenpgre unf n pbzcyvpngrq ohg qrpvqrqyl abg cyngbavp (s/s) eryngvbafuvc jvgu gur jbzna gur gncrf ner vagraqrq sbe.  Genre: lying quietly in a sensory isolation tank until you inexplicably start crying for the first time in years.

On hiatus

Wolf 359 So, there are a couple voice actors in Wolf 359 that don't do a whole lot for me, performance-wise. I don't want to get more specific because YMMV and I'm also just a really picky audio consumer, but there you have it. Mostly it's not an issue, though. This is also one of the darker shows I listen to, although it starts out with more of a zany sitcom vibe. There's a fair amount of murder, murder attempts, and general people-being-horrible-in-ways-they-believe-to-be-justified. It's not something I think I could sit through again, but it is a captivating story told well. There's a lot of focus on the emotional arcs and characters dealing with trauma, which I am All About in sci-fi. 

Queerness: zero. Zip. Zilch. It doesn't feature any romance arcs at all, though, so...I found it tolerable. Honestly, if it hadn't come so highly recommended, I probably would not have given it a shot. Genre: placing your hand on a rusty, unmarked door that wasn't in the ship schematics, and knowing you must step through—you must step through. Eos 10 After my first pass at this write-up, I realized that I was being really negative—far more negative than this show deserves. So I want to be clear: I listened to and enjoyed every extant episode of Eos 10, and I'm looking forward to Season 3, whenever it's released. It's a pleasantly entertaining space sitcom and I've gotten attached to the characters; the writing's solid and the voice acting is generally pretty great. It's just not quite tailored to my specific tastes. Ok, back to what I originally wrote: This podcast feels a lot more mainstream/conventional in its tropes than the others. Unlike most of the podcasts I listen to, the medium is invisible to the characters: it's not pitched as a radio show or a voice recorder or a series of motivational tapes. To me, this adds another layer of remove between the audience and the story. It's fine, it's just very straightforward in its presentation, with no medium-specific conceit or anything. It’s not really outsider art in any sense, and could legitimately be a TV show if it had the budget. That's a pretty good description of the show as a whole, honestly. It makes no pretense at being high-concept, it just does what it does. Queerness: This one...is not very queer. One of the side characters is gay but it doesn't really come up a lot. There's also a gay minor character that gets mentioned but never appears, and it's kind of a running gag that the gay character has a thing for the main character, who insists he's straight. It's a gross trope and I kind of winced at it, but it's usually framed by other characters as "are you sure you're not interested, because [gay character] is way out of your league and you're really not going to do better," which mitigates it somewhat for me? Also, gurer ner uvagf gung gur znva punenpgre zvtug npghnyyl or vagrerfgrq va gur tnl punenpgre, but only time will tell whether it's queerbaiting or not. Look, it's not an ideal situation. If it’s a dealbreaker, I totally understand, especially since there's no clear answer to the "is this queerbaiting" question and due to some unfortunate creator health issues, we might not get one for a while. Genre: ducking out of the way as a harried-looking man in a lab coat and stethoscope pelts down the hallway, yelling "GET ME FIVE UNITS OF ALIEN SEX POLLEN, STAT!"

Airing

The Strange Case of Starship Iris

I love this show a disproportionate amount, given that only four episodes have aired. This is a newer podcast, and one I stumbled on completely by accident! I wasn't expecting much, but it was sci-fi and the main character's last name was Liu, so I decided to give it a shot. And then it turned out to be not only awesome but also totally queer! I think I actually said "HAH! YES!" out loud when the queerness was canonized within the first few minutes. (This is why I live alone.) Plus, this is a small thing from a throwaway line, but...the main character weighs roughly the same amount as I do. Do you know how often that happens with Asian characters? Never, is how often. For possibly the first time in my life, I feel like I can legitimately headcanon a main character who looks exactly like me. I'm definitely going to do some incredibly self-indulgent fanart at some point. Unprecedented overidentifying with the main character aside: honestly, it's like this podcast was tailor-made for me. MAJOR SPOILERS FOR EPISODE 1 (and kind of 2): Vafrpher ovbybtvfg wbvaf ent-gnt perj bs fzhttyref jvgu n sbhaq-snzvyl ivor naq nyvra phygheny pynfurf, nyy senzrq va n fvavfgre zrgnaneengvir gung hfrf gur zrqvhz nf n cybg qrivpr, CYHF cbgragvny ebznapr orgjrra na Rnfg Nfvna jbzna naq n Fbhgu Nfvna jbzna? Um, sign me the fuck up.  The only downside is that this has definitely raised my expectations for new podcasts by an unreasonable amount. Every new podcast I've tried since Starship Iris has been vaguely disappointing. My podcast standards are way too high now, and it's all Starship Iris's fault.

Queerness: YES. The main character is a queer woman, there's a nonbinary alien species and the alien crew member uses they/them pronouns, and there's a trans guy. Also, this is wild speculation, but V guvax/oryvrir/ubcr gung bar bs gur bgure srznyr perj zrzoref vf orvat frg hc nf n ebznagvp vagrerfg sbe gur znva punenpgre. There's some explicit discussion of gender identity in a non-traumatic way which tbh is like water in the freaking desert.

Genre: ??? it's too new and I love it too much to assign it a genre. 

The Bright Sessions

As I said in the spoiler-free summary: this is everything I wanted X-Men to be. Hell, it's everything I ever want superhero stories to be, and it's why I've been drawn to superhero stories since I was a teenager. The Bright Sessions deals with the complex consequences of, e.g., having empathy powers as a teenager while learning how to manage your own emotions and maturity. The main character is Dr. Bright, a therapist specializing in people with superpowers, which naturally provides the perfect angle for those people to get really navel-gazey about their lives. There is an actual overarching plot with a shadowy government agency, of course, but that's definitely not what I'm here for and luckily that’s clearly just a vehicle for the feelings.

Queerness: One of the main characters has a m/m romance arc; another main character is asexual; a side character (who may soon be considered a main character?) is bisexual. Because the conceit is therapy sessions, Dr. Bright does inquire delicately about how her patients may or may not be coping with emerging/existing queer identities, but none of them find it traumatic.

Genre: telekinetically fiddling with a desk puzzle limned in afternoon sun, as the doctor asks: "And how does that make you feel?"

The Penumbra Podcast

I'd had the Penumbra Podcast on my radar/subscriptions list for a while, but I'd never quite finished the first episode...until the remastered/rewritten first story was released. The difference is astronomical. The creators talk about audio quality etc. in their reasoning for recreating the first story, but for me, the main distinction is the skill in storytelling and the confidence to create noir without relying on questionable tropes to signal "hard-boiled!!!" I sometimes think the writing and characterizations are a little broad, but that may be down to genre. Penumbra doesn't really go for 'subtle' or 'realistic.' An important format note: there's a main character with episodic adventures, but in between the two-part adventures, there are one-shots in various genres. I actually skipped most of the one-shots because I'm not great with horror or kid stories.

Queerness: The main character of the main story is queer (jvgu na qryvtugshyyl rzbgvbanyyl pbafgvcngrq z/z ebznapr nep gung'f abg va n terng cynpr evtug abj), as are numerous side characters. It's a noir pastiche, though, so the main character is pretty self-sabotaging in all areas of his life; a 'happy ending' doesn't seem incredibly likely. One of the stand-alone stories is a queer Western, which I found delightful. It's also one of the few stand-alone stories that has a bonus follow-up episode.

Genre: taking a long, slow drag on a cigarette as the rain blurs the neon lights and filth of the alien city below.

Ars Paradoxica

Ars Paradoxica shares a producer with The Bright Sessions, which is why I tried it! Like all decent time travel stories, Ars Paradoxica is meticulously planned with a lot of moving parts. The worldbuilding is intense and requires actually paying attention, which can be challenging for me since I typically listen to podcasts while multitasking.  Frankly, it moves a little slow for me...which is odd to say about a show that regularly has timeskips of months or years and literally involves time travel. I guess I feel that way because there's a lot of attention paid to the action and plot, but less to the emotional character arcs. And obviously my narrative preferences run a certain way, so I'm only really paying attention to the character stuff. Which, to be fair, certainly exists and is carried through well—it's just not in my preferred proportions. Plus, the cast is quite sprawling compared to most other podcasts, and the tone is almost Crapsack World but not quite. 

Queerness: The main character is explicitly asexual and briefly explains it, and there are a handful of queer side characters. It's semi-historical, and there's some discussion of managing visibility etc. 

Genre: staring into the dusty gears of a massive clock running backwards as the minute hand slowly approaches a blinking red light.