#gender roles 2

[someoneintheshadow456]

Idk what tag to use to describe the phenomenon of "Tiktok/Instagram Reels being full of toxic femininity/Gender Roles 2 but I just want to make a thread of examples of batshit takes I have seen from Instagram Reels (I don't have examples for all of them):

"I hate playing with my kids because I think they're 'emotionally abusive'/'gaslighting' when they change the rules every 30 seconds and rough house with me. Also, only fathers can enjoy playing with kids because they don't parent like mothers do (being a mom is soooooo harddddd). I refuse to teach my kids how to play nice and go shocked Pikachu when they don't."

"If you're over 25 you will never find a partner ever and should just get an arranged marriage" (said by someone IN THEIR LATE 20S)

"Sleep studies are all based on mens' needs women actually need 10 hours of sleep because uterus"

Just a whole lot of "Girls are mature well-behaved angels until they hit their double digits, then they become satanic demons from hell. Meanwhile boys are satanic demons from hell BEFORE puberty instead."

"Children produce more oxytocin around their dads because dads are the fun parents and they will never appreciate the hard work their mothers do"

"Bullying is good actually because something something evolutionary psychology. I am very smart, I was a gifted kid in high school"

"Men are useless overgrown children who can't keep house or be trusted around babies. But if a man can keep house and/or is good with children, he's either 'not a real man', a pedo, or gay."

"Some women??? Beat their kids??? To cope??? Kids should understand when mommy brings out the chapathi roller it's because they're just ungrateful brats! Being a mother is sooooo harddddd"

[cry-ptidd]

How to serve a man

[tavina-writes]

I'm not exactly sure how I want to phrase this yet, but I think a lot of the utterly weird takes I see sometimes float by me on our cursed blue hellsite (esp when it comes to mdzscql fandom) is coming from a refusal to meet the genre where it's at.

Like, why are we trying to interrogate classism in MDZS society, MDZS is a romance, the societal worldbuilding is just enough to support some general big ideas and the provide context for the romance. We can't get ANY kind of read on general classim/sexism/anything else from. this source material. if you think you can get granular when your sample size of characters from various social and gender strata are so small and we don't know how the vast majority of people in here live you are making stuff up.

Like, meet the story where it's at: it's a romance novel.

[heavenlymorals]

Sadie and Arthur and the Affects of Gender Roles in 1899 America

(warning: there is sexism and sexist ideas in this analysis because I refuse to sugarcoat the time period that RDR2 takes place in. Arthur is a product of his time and though it isn't shoved in your face, it's still there. Understanding the gender dynamics of this time period makes the characters much more understandable, nuanced, likeable, and better, if I'm being frank.)

I don't ship Sadie and Arthur, at all, it makes no sense to me besides two people liking the characters and thus putting them together. I like them as friends but that's about it.

And let's be so real for a second- even if they do get together for whatever reason, they absolutely wouldn't be compatible as partners because its been shown time and time again that Arthur believes in gender roles and gets visibly annoyed or angry when a woman takes up a man's role when a man is there or when a woman does something he thinks is unladylike in their line of work (just listen to his antagonization of Abigail (for her past as a prostitute, usually), Sadie, Karen, prostitutes, and female performers, all women who take on unconventional roles in their life(also pay attention to certain mission dialogues, and cutscene body language)).

Sadie proves herself as capable, and Arthur works with her, but he makes quips about her behavior or subtly judges her or makes fun of her("Oh, I'm sorry princess. Was there an insufficient feather in your pillow?" "You got a pair of pants and all of a sudden you think you're Landon Ricketts?" "You want to ruuuunnnn with the men?" "Few more like her and there wouldn't be much of a world left." "That ain't what you mean- I can still fight!" Or him being visibly annoyed when she doesn't take his hand to enter the boat and other similar things like that)

Arthur believes that a man should be the one doing the work that revolves around such physical exertion and if he isn't the one doing those things for a woman, he feels as if he is failing in his role as a protector and provider, which then provokes annoyance or in some cases, even anger. Sadie doesn't care about this obviously, and Jake Adler didn't either, hence why they worked so well together as a couple.

Not Arthur though. To put it quite simply, he prefers and is compatible with women who believe in the same gender roles as he does (Mary Gillis, Abigail Roberts, etc.).

This doesn't mean he dislikes Sadie, because it's quite obvious that he is fond of her, but given the intimacy of a relationship, Sadie would get fed up with him trying to be the ONLY provider and protector, and him getting fed up with her by encroaching on what he sees as his duties and responsibilities. He works with her in the way that he does because he has to and he respects that.

Some people may disagree with me on this analysis and that's fine, but to me, it feels like the most realistic outcome if they did become romantic partners. Another reason why I say this is because my mother comes from a culture that still operates a lot like 1899 America and I've seen this dynamic between men and women so many times that it's ridiculous- men who will accept working with a woman in more traditionally masculine roles and prefer partners who are more traditionally feminine.

[mostlyvoid-partiallyflowers]

The most recent episode of Interview with a Vampire let's us see Lestat's side of the story and see how it compares to Louis' accounting of their relationship. As a result, it reaffirms just how unreliable of a narrator Louis is, but it also further illuminates elements of his character that the director and writers have been playing with since the beginning of the show.

There's this part in the episode where Lestat turns to Louis and apologizes and it's framed with Lestat turned to Louis on one side and Claudia on his other side. They're the angel and devil on Louis' shoulders, but who is the angel and who is the devil? And as my friend said, Armand and Daniel are placed into that same dynamic with Louis later on. We are being asked to decide who to trust, who's telling the truth, who's the good guy, but the fact of unreliability robs us of that decision.

This whole story is about Louis, he's the protagonist, though not the narrator, and he is constantly being pulled in two directions, no matter when or where he is in his story. He's a mind split in two, divided by nature and circumstance. He's vampire and human, owner and owned, father and child, angel and devil. He's both telling the story and being told the story. His history is a story he tells himself, and as we've seen, sometimes that story is not whole.

Louis is the angel who saved Claudia from the fire but he's also the devil who sentenced her to an life of endless torment, the adult trapped in the body of a child. He's the angel who rescued Lestat from his grief and also the devil who abandoned him, who couldn't love him, could only kill and leave him.

He's pulled in two directions, internally and externally at all times and so it's no wonder that he feels the need to confess, first to the priest, then Daniel, and then Daniel again.

He's desperate to be heard, a Black man with power in Jim Crow America who's controlled by his position as someone with a seat at the table but one who will never be considered equal. He doesn't belong to the Black community or the white community, he can't. He acts as a go-between, a bridge, one who is pushed and pulled until he can't take it anymore. He's a fledgling child to an undead father, he's a young queer man discovering his sexual identity with an infinitely experienced partner. He's confessing because he wants to be absolved, that human part of him that was raised Catholic, that child who believed, he wants to be saved. He wants to be seen.

Louis wants to attain a forever life that is morally pure, but he can't. He's been soiled by sin, by "the devil," as he calls Lestat, and he can never be clean again. Deep down, I think he knows this, but he can't stop trying to repent. He tries to self-flagellate by staying with Lestat and then tries to repent by killing him, but can't actually follow through. He follows Claudia to Europe to try and assuage his guilt. He sets himself on fire, attempts to burn himself at the stake, to purify his body, rid himself of the dark gift.

Louis is a man endlessly trying to account for the pain he has caused and he ultimately fails, over and over again, because he can't get rid of what he is. A monster. He's an endlessly hungry monster. He's hungry for love, for respect, for power, for forgiveness, for death. He's a hole that can never be filled. He can never truly acquire any of those things because he will always be punishing himself for wanting and needing them in the first place. He will never truly believe he deserves them and as a result, can't accept them if they are ever offered. He can never be absolved for he has damned himself by accepting the dark gift and thus has tainted himself past the point of saving.

[terfism-unmasked]

presented without comment i guess.

[menlove]

the thing abt the roman empire trend is it was very funny when it was ppl asking their white cishet husbands/fathers/brothers how much they thought abt it bc it was like. a subtle dig abt how a lot of white cishet men are very obsessed w war in history and nothing else and glorify an era that they saw as hypermasculine and White

like it started out good it started out funny

it got annoying when people started going "omg what's the roman empire For Girls? it's (poetry/bridgerton/ex best friend)"

like no I'm sorry the equivalent For Girls™️ (aka cishet white women as a critique) would be true crime. like in the same way cishet white men think obsessively abt war and hypermasculine periods of history, cishet white women obsess over true crime very unethically despite numerous victims and family of victims talking abt how harmful the true crime community is. they are obsessed with the violent death/rape/torture of people without regard to their real lives or their families. THAT is the "girl roman empire" and it has the same tongue in cheek critique as the og

but noooo we just wanna say War Is For Men and Poetry Is For Women bc the white cishet women missed the joke and just wanted to recreate "girls go to college to get more knowledge boys go to jupiter to get more stupider" but in their 30s

like it's not that serious I know but. I'm autistic and I notice these things lmao.

[m00nstorm]

Is it normal that most of the guys that give me gender envy need help in some sort of way lmao

[confessmau]

I find it annoying when people make Laurance hyperfeminine and everything feminine and Garroth hypermasculine and everything masculine.

Calling Laurance 'the mom friend' and Garroth 'the dad friend' saying Laurance is clean and likes to take care of himself while saying Garroth only washes his face. Letting Laurance break gender roles while not letting Garroth do the same. Having Laurance be comfortable with his feminine side and Garroth not, taking away Laurance's canon strength and athleticness, to go along with all the feminity, implying feminity excludes people from being strong. He was a top soccer player in mystreet and got into the possible jo9 members list. He is strong, even if it's with fastness and agility. Whatever fighting style you give Laurance; canonically, he can hold his own ground VERY well. Making Laurance sweeter than he is in canon, a "people pleaser", and making Garroth less so. And always giving Garroth the more traditionally masculine thing when assigning things to him or making an au and always giving Laurance the more traditionally feminine thing.

I don't know. It ircs me when I see this happened, I hate it so much. It doesn't need to be for fetishizating reasons and I am not implying it is or that you can't headcanon what you want. But it just makes me hurl.

This especially ircks me when it's done in mystreet where Garroth canonically does do it and Laurance doesn't.

In Diaries this is less the case, Garroth doesn't canonically break genderroles that much. But he still is very flustered during his crush on Aphmau, moreso than Laurance. And is actually pretty emotional? But tries to push his emotions away (and fails repeatedly). And regardless, doing that still makes me uncomfortable honestly.

No offense to the people that do it. It just, ircks me y'know?

~~

[daily-hanamura]

[carlyraejepsans]

saw your most recent post about really good fics that contain uncomfortable kinks and i immediately thought "ah, biscia must be reading the mpreg soriel fic" and almost left a reply talking about it but i stopped myself because i realized that would be an insane assumption to make. needless to say i felt so vindicated when i saw you link it in an earlier post.

like. HELLO?

HELLO???????

[coochiekrab]

Dylan's mom has such a cute design. I think she should divorce whatshisface and get lesbian married to uhhh that sheep you drew once if the age gap isn't horrible 👍

Kim and kuri/dylans dad were never married both of kids were born of WEDLOCK

[heavenlymorals]

what do you think if arthur’s partner was against/doesn’t follow a traditional relationship? would he not go through with that type of relationship at all??

Hi anon 🥺❤️❤️

Believe me, I want to say yes- I'm a feminist from a very anti-feminist culture, so I just want to say yes, he would stay with you and love you either way, but my heart says no.

And to be honest, I don't think it'd ever come to that point either because Arthur would never want to be interested in a woman like that anyways. He makes a lot of snide comments regarding Sadie in cutscene and in antagonizations/greets. He is VERY mean to women performers if you antagonize them ("This ain't ladylike!" "Go cook someone some supper! "Go back to the kitchen!"). Antagonize lines are just as canon as greet lines and it's honestly super clear what he believes because of these lines.

He believes in gender roles, point blank period and he gets visibly annoyed or even angry when both women AND men refuse to conform to it.

He makes fun of John for not taking care of his family and for making excuses for that and he gets pissy at Beau when he wasn't there to get Penelope from the cabin.

Note the women that he is or was CANONICALLY interested in. There is Mary, who is very much a lady of her time and wouldn't even bother trying more traditionally masculine roles. There is also Abigail. Abigail is a hard worker and in the epilogue, she helps out John in terms of making money and getting the ranch started but she was still mostly just a housewife, but in RDR1, she is ONLY a housewife as John knows what to do and Jack has grown up to take up his share of the work.

The women he's interested in are women who believe in what he believes. Now, do I think Arthur wouldn't mind if you knew how to hunt, skin, shoot a gun, ride a wagon, and all that? Yea, he would feel very comfortable if you knew how to take care of yourself when he's not there and I doubt he would care if you occasionally do it, but all the time?

I just doubt that.

Also, let's look at it psychologically. Men being able to take care of their families by themselves was not only the standard, but men would also get punished socially by other men and women if they aren't able to do that. The woman would also get shamed too. Pride is a huge thing in American culture and back then? It extended to that too.

Arthur puts extreme value on a "man being a man" to the point where he'd call other people out on not being that even if it's none of his business, so that would extend to him too.

A woman having to work because the family and man are struggling like Abigail does? Sure, fine, but wanting to take on non-traditional roles just cause? Absolutely not. Arthur just doesn't vibe with that, even in canon.

Love back then wasn't like love now. Love back then was going into a relationship with the intent that you already know what you need to do for your partner in terms of the culture back then. Love now is about the person and working things out along the way.

Thank you so much anon, love dissecting gender roles 🙏🏼🙏🏼❤️❤️

[wall-maria-around-ba-sing-se]

[crescent-moon-mollymauk]

Mollymauk Tealeaf: A Fundamentally Queer Character -- My Final College Paper

After a long semester of work, it is finally complete!! I'm proud to finally share it with you all! Shoutouts to all the wonderful people that helped me make this happen!!

[sephtissss]

God was playing a prank on me when he decided I couldn’t draw bc why am I plagued with visions of feminine Neil AND I CAN’T SHARE IT????? Pls I have SPECIFICS.

The internet is talking about Neil again. He’s prone to scandal, but this time it’s not his fault. Conservative exy fans are PISSED bc he decides to grow out his hair past shoulder length and his face is just too pretty (This is canon) so with the long hair combo they think he looks too girly (and ofc Neil claps back with a long response on twitter that basically just says Fuck You but with a Kendrick diss track level of animosity). ANYHOO

One of his favorite fits rn are these oversized overalls that Renee bought but couldn’t fit. He wears them year round with a lose t-shirt on warm days and thick sweatshirts/sweaters on cold days. You’ll often see him around campus in these overalls with his hair down or maybe pulled half up.

And the VISION I had of Neil in 2 French braids that just reach his shoulders. Dan thought it would be fun to braid his hair since it’s gotten so long and Neil genuinely loves the braids and refused to take them out. He looks adorable in his sweatshirt just chilling in the lounge after practice.

Allison teaches him how to do makeup and at first Neil finds it a pointless hassle and quickly decides he doesn’t want to waste time hiding his scars. But the eye makeup was kinda fun and he found he liked playing with the colors and glitter. And he always liked when Andrew wore eyeliner when they go to Edens so he wouldn’t mind putting on some quick makeup when he feels like it. Sometimes it completes the look :)

During after game interviews, Neil has his hair pulled up in a ponytail and he’s wearing his bandana but he still manages to get long strands of hair plastered to his face with sweat and its not not a good look…

Occasionally people spot him on the street during his runs in his usual atrocious running shorts and hair pulled back or walking casually, hair in a bun and his shorts and baggy tee combo (Neil is LUCKY those big ass jorts are trending). One day he sticks a pencil in his bun and forgets about it all day and it kinda slayed.

At banquets and formal interviews/events, Neil likes playing with makeup and wearing loose flowy pants that, when he stands with his legs together, look like a skirt.

Dan and Matt have gifted him a lot of jewelry over the years, so now Neil has a collection of rings and necklaces that he wears occasionally. He likes the look of them but they do tend to bother him if he wears them for too long. They tend to be reserved for Edens or banquets.

Andrew is getting gayer every day but he’s lowkey part of the problem. He studies Neil’s new style and buys him SO much clothes. That man spoils his not-boyfriend so much. He’ll be at Target buying like batteries or smth and then randomly come across pretty hair clips or some pants he knows Neil will love. Oh he’s definitely responsible for Neil’s entire shoe collection bc that man would wear the same ratty old sneakers every day if it weren’t for the red converse and doc martens that Andrew bought him.

Anyhoo, that’s pretty much it. It’s been almost 2 years since he’s been on the run and Neil’s realizing what his style really is. Clothes have no gender, he likes the look of his long hair (which is very different from his dad’s hair), and he’ll wear whatever the fuck he wants thank you very much.