#god forbid women do anything in this society

[junosartsthetic]

she’s an alien queen locked underground laying eggs dead-set on murdering everything in her path as she fights against a different alien species in an intergalactic ageless battle they’ve been locked in with each other for centuries to YOU

she’s MY girlboss though

[jevilowo]

Sometimes in fnaf time travel fix it aus its so busy being dramatically dramatic about crying child and Mike and the bite of 83 they forget to give Elizabeth a personality beyond "kind of bratty"

[marciliedonato]

Honestly Gerard did not slay so hard he ended up on a top 100 best dressed of the year list not to get invited to the met gala.... This is an outrage and a travesty..... I demand justice for my sweet little lady who is also a middle aged citizen.... 😤😤😤

[laylamva]

I’m gonna fucking scream

[birbfeeder2artisticboogaloo]

shout out 2 my sister who watched ppl playing five nights at freddy's without headphones all night long _(:3」∠)

ive got those stupid jump scare sounds BURNED into my MIND. i can recite the first few lines of the phone man's dialogue. im even starting to hate the toreador song. that's terrible!! carmen is my favourite french opera!!! this is injustice ;A;

[sirfrogsworth]

There was a time when women did these jobs.

Some of them really liked the work and were keen to continue doing it. But society basically told them to collectively "get back in the kitchen" when the men returned home from war.

The tradition of conditioning women, from birth, to have a distaste for these jobs continued. Young girls are discouraged from even taking an interest in the toys representing these occupations. God forbid they put Barbie in the firetruck.

The truth is, most men do not want women doing these jobs. They complain about how dangerous this work is and use that as a metaphorical bludgeon in debates about equality. But when women actually try to be firefighters and combat infantry, they are told they *can't* do these jobs. They are inferior. Those who are hired have to work twice as hard to get half the respect. They are inundated with sexism and misogyny. And many end up quitting, not because they aren't qualified or they don't like the work, but because their male coworkers make the jobs intolerable.

And instead of fighting to make these occupations safer and valued properly, these men just complain that feminists don't know how hard it is and how they don't understand what it's like to risk their lives for no money or benefits. And then rich assholes like Elon stoke these flames because he doesn't want these men to realize this is a class struggle rather than a culture war. And that feminists and "woke activists" would actually be wonderful allies in helping them get better conditions.

Lastly, there are feminists talking about this. There are plenty of non-men interested in these jobs. But I doubt Elon keeps up with very much feminist discourse other than what he invents in his imagination.

Beyond that, feminists can't seem to prioritize stuff like this in the mainstream because they are too busy trying to regain control of their uteruses.

Did I miss anything?

Oh yeah, fuck Elon and fuck "End Wokeness".

[batmanisagatewaydrug]

hi sex witch! i'm fifteen and bisexual (probably? i've never actually been into a guy irl lol) and every time i look at a girl and find her attractive i feel really guilty about it and like i'm a pervert. like, god forbid i look at her boobs or literally anything that i find attractive about her and i feel like a huge pervert. i don't think this is internalized homophobia because i was raised in an incredibly supportive household and knew about gay people and stuff from an early age. do you like. have advice?

hi anon,

great bad news: that's still internalized homophobia.

internalized bigotry doesn't have to come from any particular source; the bigotry is baked into the very society we live in, no matter how accepting and affirming our personal upbringing was. even if you're raised by caregivers who actively give you messages to counteract these messages - hell, even if your caregivers are part of the same marginalized group(s) as you - they can't totally stop the worst messages from seeping in, because parents and caregivers are hardly ever the only source of information that a child has. perhaps the most obvious example would be that many children of color, even when they're raised by adults of the same racial identity, internalize racist ideas about themselves because white supremacy is fucking everywhere.

the point being: when gay people feel yucky and evil for experiencing gay attraction, yes, that is internalized homophobia. you're not bad or dumb for falling victim to it; it's just a thing that sadly happen to a lot of people who exist outside of acceptable parameters of society. society wants us to be "normal" and, failing that, to hate ourselves for being different, and there's a lot of pressure behind it!

listen: being attracted to girls is normal. it's not creepy and you're not a pervert. you're allowed to look at other girls and want to date them, kiss them, fuck them, whatever. none of those things are weird or bad, all of that's allowed.

and you can remind yourself of that all you want, but in my experience one of the best ways to help alleviate anxiety about the way you think or feel about something is to just immerse yourself in settings where that's normal. finding other gay people to hang out with is best, but music, TV, movies, books, youtube, social media personalities, podcasts, etc - all of these are venues to finding people who talk about being into women like it's a fine and normal and good thing. go immerse yourself, bby.

[julia4today]

hiii!!!

Can I request Hobbie w/ a gyaru gf, I can imagine it working with gyaru starting off as a rebellion against japan's beuty/ social standard <3

落ち着く？(calm down?)

(hobie x gyaru!gf)

warning: really bad translations!! i don’t speak japanese #sorry

a/n: technically, no gender is named in this. but it is DEFINITELY a fem fic. anyway: be who you want because at the end of the day, you're opinion is the only one that truly matters. #reqsopen #messageme #sorry this took so long my dad had surgery and i was stuck taking care of him but he's all good

ill provide translations dw

the stares weren’t unfamiliar, in fact, you embraced it. it came with having some semblance of a personality that these people clearly feared admired. you just wish yours, and hobie’s, appearance alike weren’t so abstract to the general public.

it's as if you were committing a war crime by having a tan. in japan, any difference from the norm is seen as an insult to those who surround you. truthfully though, that was why you began dressing gyaru in the first place.

conforming had never been your thing, especially when it came to how you dressed. you were always one to disobey even when you got a nagging grandmother in your ear.

"おじさんたちの前に姿をさらすことになる、" (cover up, you're exposing yourself to your uncles.)

a common phrase that plagues the minds of all young teens in japan. the idea that you need to cover up, instead of your uncles needing not to stare. she means well truly but it's just a showcase of how plagued the mind is of those who grew up and reside in japan.

"looking lovely as always my dear," his thick english accent coats your mind. a hand wraps around your shoulder.

hobie. at least you had one person that you could voice your woes to.

"hungry?" he asks as he stretches slightly. the two of you met in the heart of kawaramachi. a charming street that over looks a dazzling river. although you couldn't bring yourself to care in this moment.

you turn to look up at him, covering in diy piercings and tattered clothes that, even in london, are seen as trashy. although, he didn't seem nearly as bothered by the situation at hand. how people now adays sneer and turn away from any expression of a sense of self.

"いいえ, ぼくのおばあちゃん practically shoved fruit down my throat this morning," you say with a slightly exasperated tone. (no, my grandma practically shoved fruit down my throat this morning)

"wha's up, luv?" he say in a cool tone, but lying underneath holds a bit of concern for your, clearly annoyed, timbre.

"don't you think this is a bit bullshit?" you say looking forward as you walk side by side down the streets of kyoto. "like even a little," you say referencing the people who can' t seem to take their eyes off the two of you. like you're some zoo animal.

"wha? them people? don' pay attention to them. they're bloody barmy." he says, you're suprised he's missing the point.

you grumble at his words. "why do i have to be the one to ignore it. why can't they just not stare in the first place. we've got a myriad of tourist attractions and yet my makeup and clothes are the only things they can keep their fucking eyes on."

ordinarily, you'd wait to voice your opinions until you reach a more secluded area. especially since foul language is a more frowned upon subject. but today you felt like pointing out the issues with society. with the standards for women.

thin, fair skin, straight hair, minimal makeup.

pray tell you experiment with makeup. maybe wear a short skirt and vibrant colors. god forbid you wear anything revealing in public. may as well give your obaasan a heart attack the second you put any jewelry with color on yourself. (a commonly used name for grandmother, in japanese)

hobie hums and looks down at you. "you're really chuffed 'bout this aren't you dove?"

"you aren't?"

"im formulatin'" responds non chalantly. you take a deep breath. you knew you couldn't change the who world over night but if one person wouldn't gawk at you as you walked down the street that would be mighty nice. you lean into his side. "how 'bout we think how daft this is over a cuppa,"

you nod softly, almost undetectable to those who aren't paying attention to your every move. "do you get bothered by the stares?"

hobie looks up. considering his height, he practically towers over you and the rest of japan. his eyes scan the crowd, catching all the eyes that fall over him and you. he sighs.

"no' anymore," he says

"anymore?" you half expected hobie to just say no. to have always been as unbothered as he is now. to never have needed to learn the skill of ignoring the whispers and distraught stares that befall him.

he nods silently and leads you into a small restaurant. it smells of herbs and soup. a mix between sweet and salty. the scent of a tea immediately calms your nervous system. hobie slots the two of you into a corner.

"luv, i wasn't always li' this,"

"well i know, i just, you always seems so confident. like nothing gets on your nerves besides capitalism and those white dogs that are always barking." you say it semi sincerely but you smile when your joke earns a chuckle from hobie.

"you are a sight," he says glancing over you. it's a comforting feeling as he takes in your unique appearance. the tan you sport, even though it's nearing winter, and the colors too. almost completely neon, sans the animal print that you don on your boots.

he scans over your face. your eccentric makeup, all perfectly practiced and executed on your face. he grins.

"you 'on't need anybody else to tell you tha'," he says. "sure they might stare, but their opinion is rubbish."

you smile. it's rare you get hobie in such a state where he truly speaks from his heart. but you can't get enough. it's just you and hobie. at the end of the day, that's all you truly need.

[unreadpoppy]

bg3, infographics, mysogyny and you

Preface: this is a long ass post that I wrote some many weeks ago, and that because of some stuff I've seen, I'm compelled to finally post it. It's very like a spurn of the moment thing, not extremely well thoght out but I still think it's relevant.

.

Recently, a few people have posted some, in my opinion, really insightful infographics showing the difference in content to how many works (in AO3) there are to the female characters vs the male characters of BG3 and I've been thinking about how it relates to fandom in general, but also...everything.

As a quick rundown, what happens is: almost all of the female characters have a lot less content when compared to their male counterparts (at least writing wise). And I think this is a great moment to stop and think on why is that.

There's a lot of point to begin with but I want to begin with something larger and that is the society most of us are raised in. Obviously, I can't speak for everyone, but I think it's fair to say that most people grew up in places that had its fair share of sexism and give it or take, that does shape how we view the world.

I'll speak from my own experience. Even thought I had a mostly liberal upbriging, I went to a very conservative school and when I was growing up, I saw a lot of videos on youtube that anaylized media in what i can only describe as "god forbid women do anything". Video after video, I saw people commenting on how x female character was a mary sue, how she made no sense and ruined the plot, so many video essays on the """strong female character trope"""" that would end up just enforcing gender roles again. And I'll be honest, this DID affect how viewed female characters.

The best example I can give of this is with bg3 itself. There was one day that I stopped and realized that Minthara was the first time I ever obsessed over a fem character as much as any male character. And the second thought I had after this was 'oh my god why???'

Why did I always cater more to the male characters than I did to the female ones, when most of the times, I liked a lot as well?

I'd like to point out that I've seen the topic of "Most fic authors are cis straight women" being brought up a lot and frankly, I'm not the biggest fan of it. First, because I think it's overall a very...heteronormative way of seeing stuff and it's assuming a lot of stuff that puts a sour taste on my mouth (as a queer woman myself, I really don't like that implication but that's on me). Second, because saying that 'obviously women are going to write more about men' feels very...weird. Third, I just think that this argument fails to really question the why of it all and gives too simple an answer to something is anything but.

One can make the argument that these female characters are written differently than the men, and yes that is true and it's even historical (I wrote a whole project on the invisibility of women in theater through the ages and a lot of it has to do with how women were written, but that's a story for another time).

But I don't think that's true for all cases. It's easy to blame an imaginary writer's room than question that you might have internal biases.

Because at least it's what happened to me. I grew up hearing how female characters were inferior to the male characters and it affected how I viewed them. It's something I had to stop and reevalute and it led me to appreciate characters I once loathed.

And it sucks to realize that. It sucks to realize that even as a woman myself, I was not immune to commiting sexism, that I hadn't fully outgrown the shit I saw as a kid. Does that make me a bad person? No. You're not to blame for being raised in a way that leads you to have certain prejudices.

But it doesn't mean you can't do anything about it.

And no, the solution is not to suddenly go write a bunch of femslash. Because no one is saying that you should feel ashamed for writing more for men, or forcing you to like female characters. But, I ask you to do something much simpler.

Think on the why. Why, even when we love female characters, we don't show them as much love as we do to the male ones. Why we might feel more compelled to write for the men than for the women. Because sometimes it's questioning ourselves that we can find something about us we didn't know and change how we engage with media.

And you can brush this off as just fandom stuff, but I think it does, in some ways, also reflect a bit on how we act as whole as a society. Hell, writing this whole thing made me think of how the way I was raised still interferes with my own sexuality (which is a very personal topic for me to get on here but it was worth mentioning). What I'm trying to say is that sometimes something small is an easier way for us to understand the bigger, systemic issues around us.

I know that it sounds like there's nothing to be done cause fandoms have always been like this. But, personally, this sort of conformity to the norm causes more harm then good. Things won't change unless you decide to do something about it. And the good thing about fandom is that it's small enough that doing literally anything can create some impact than, I don't know, trying to solve big, real life societal issues.

This is getting long so I'm gonna try to wrap this up quickly. No one is shaming you if you write or obsesses more or even care more about male characters than you do female ones. I just ask you to think about it and be honest with yourself. Because then maybe, just maybe, next time you engage with another media, you might end up enjoying a female character much more and obsessing over them just as much.

[morphean42]

Working on my soulmate WIP diligently, it’s 10k words already and it’s sort of all over the place (I have too many ideas and might need to just take some parts out and write another fic with them) but here’s a preview of what’s to come

I wanted to explore a world where soulmates are less of a “true love” sort of thing and more “someone who will be important to you in some way”. Of course, society treats the idea of soulmates as a strictly romantic thing (especially in Edwin’s time) and many people use their apparent soul bond as an excuse to harm others.

I’ve always been interested in soulmate AUs, how they would affect the society and way relationships form, and I thought DBD would be a fun fandom to explore that in. So yeah, Edwin and Charles aren’t soulmates in this, because they aren’t supposed to meet. How wonderfully romantic it is to fall in love anyway?

(Please if you enjoy this at all let me know, as I said my Google doc is a mess right now and I need motivation to edit and finish it)

It is in the summer of his 16th year that Edwin Payne meets his soulmate. It is July and he would quite literally like to be anywhere else, the heat is oppressive even indoors as he sits stiffly on the chaise longue beside his betrothed.

She wears a respectable pale blue dress that flares out at her ankles, her blonde hair is neatly tied up, and she never once smiles with her teeth. In fact, they do not so much as look at one other during their conversation, opting to stare out the bay window across the room.

“You seem like a very lovely young lady,” Edwin says, because he has no clue what else to say. She nods once at the compliment and does not seem offended by the lack of emotion he holds towards her.

“I look forward to our continued courtship.” In the corner of the room Edwin can feel the heavy stare of his soulmate’s governess. He knows this is utterly wrong (they are soulmates, the woman should have to beat them away from each other. Yet, the idea of trying to kiss this girl sends a shudder through him), but he does not know how to fix it.

They met the way offspring of the rich often do; parents having hired a professional soulmate tracker. After a month of worrying (what if she was lower class or, god forbid, not English. If his soulmate was of lesser stock, obviously it meant he was too and his parents would not hesitate to send him away for good) he finally received the notice— Miss Eliza Geralds had been located.

So, here he sits. She is of noble blood, the match will be beneficial for both of their families. Edwin tries, as he looks at her, to imagine all the things he should feel; the overwhelming love, the feeling of two puzzle pieces snapping together. The problem is he doesn’t feel anything of the sort— just vaguely sweaty.

The whole soulmate business was something he never quite got, after all. Here they were, the intangible red string that proclaimed them to be the perfect match for each other laying neatly between them, and he felt nothing. Yes, objectively he could say she was pretty. Yes, objectively he would say she was smart. In fact, as they met and talked and he realized this was the woman he would be married to in just a few years, Edwin could not say he minded her being his soulmate. If it had to be someone, he would take her.

But, and there is always a but where he is concerned, he does not love her. While he is not an enjoyer of romance novels (preferring detective stories in which the mystery overshadowed any relationships) he knew the basics of how this was supposed to go. Man meets woman, they are soulmates, they fall madly in love at first sight. He doesn’t feel anything except slightly uncomfortable as the future Mrs. Payne smiles (tightly, showing no teeth) and says he is ‘not as bad as he could be’ (Sherlock Holmes had a point when he said “the motives of women were inscrutible”, because what the devil could that mean?) as their initial meeting draws to a close.

When he goes to bed that night he runs a finger over the red string that sits upon his wrist. It is more a curse than ever, tying him to a life he wanted to escape. There’s a war on, they say it will be over soon enough (they have been saying that for two years now), and Edwin knows if it lasts much longer he will be sent off with the rest of his class. He will be sent off with his class to drown in mud and bullets and gas, and when he returns (will he ever return?) there will still be no escape, for Eliza will be waiting and he will be responsible for her.

His future is mapped out and crystal clear. Fight for England (try not to die). Go to law school (graduate early, do not be there longer than he has to). Marry the girl (the wedding will be small and he will practice in the mirror until he looks in love enough as to not break her heart). Have children (he will try to love them, better than his parents did for him, but he will mess it up of course. He only hopes they turn out more like their mother). Die (It will be nice to finally rest away from the expectations that weight down his every step. He can only hope it will be quick). He tugs the string that chains him down and felt a distant thrum of unease mingle with his own anxiety. Eliza is just as doubtful as he, it seems.

The thing about a soulmate is that they were truly nothing but a wild guess, a stab in the dark, an attempt at unconditional love. Edwin knew of soulmates who could never imagine life without the other. Edwin knew of soulmates who fought violently and spewed hateful words. Edwin had heard of a man and woman who were soulmates, the man murdering the woman in the middle of a crowded street. So, soulmates. Was your supposed other half your better or your worse?

Fight in the war (don’t die). Go to law school (do it quickly). Marry the girl (learn to fake it well). Have children (they will be the best part of him). Die (quick, in his sleep, no suffering).

Five months later Edwin accomplishes the last one. He was right, the actual dying bit is very quick. There is suffering, though. He suffers more in those last seconds than all his years on earth. He doesn’t notice the string fade to gray and slip from his wrist as his body is disintegrated and dragged to Hell. There is no comfort in Hell, after all, not even from a girl he could only teach himself to love.

[bettyshoweduptotheparty]

Happy 4th December - No, we are not there yet

Sorry in advance, this is a bit of rant, which is not something I usually post. But it's a wet Monday morning and I've had a really frustrating weekend, and today, on this anniversary of maybe the biggest piece of gaylor lore, the pictures and headlines I'm seeing just tipped me over the edge into a rant.

So, on this 4th December 2023 it is 9 years to the day that the world woke up to grainy pictures and videos of Taylor Swift, the world's most famous popstar and America's ultimate good girl, allegedly kissing a woman at a 1975 concert. And the tabloids and social media went crazy over it. And not in a good way. I remember the way I felt, so very nauseated about reading words like 'lesbian affair', 'shocking' and 'fling', not just on Taylor and Karlie's behalf, but the way it made me feel about myself, too. I was brutally reminded that 'lesbian' in 2014 was still seen as a dirty word and society's default was to see sapphic relationships as something scandalous and a fall from grace, rather than something beautiful. To this day I look at this photo and can't help but feel awed by the love and intimacy that their body language exudes, but the world didn't see it that way, they were just obsessing over whether they kissed or not and how to spin that into a dirty story.

That was almost a decade ago. So, have we made progress? Is it all fixed and every queer person (especially artists and celebrities) can live authentically and freely? Well, no, of course not, as was possibly proven again this weekend by Billie Eilish, who confirmed that she is gay (more or less unplanned) in an interview. Nobody should be surprised as she was never subtle about her queerness, yet it cost her over 100,000 social media followers in just 24 hours after explicitly coming out. Being gay, especially for women, is only acceptable when mainstream society don't have to see it. Don't talk about it and God forbid, don't kiss in public. Never mind that straight people do it all the time. The very same tabloid paper that printed kissgate pictures with the word 'shocking' next to them, put Taylor on the cover two years later and described her romance with Tom Hiddleston as 'exciting' and 'sexy'. And on the very morning I see the tweet about Billie, I find this message in my inbox:

Why indeed...? And I was of course expecting Taylor to show up at another football game, but to see her looking somber in a Carol-esque red fur coat, while her partner and all her friends are having a lovely time in LA... it just makes me angry today. Yes, maybe we've made progress in same ways, but we are still so far from where we need to be for everyone to be able to come out without repercussion. In a better world, Taylor would have been in a gorgeous dress next to her wife, rather than sitting next to the girl who would have bullied us in High School.

(And btw, not only was Rebel Wilson blackmailed into coming out by the Sydney Morning Herold, she has lost thousands of followers and has pretty much focused on film making rather than acting since coming out. Maybe this was always her plan, but also, maybe not. Interesting, that film making is also seemingly becoming Taylor's second career leg...)

So, anon who sent me the question above, take this as my answer. Why is the most famous popstar in the world not out in 2023? Most likely because it would cost her so much of what she's worked hard for over the last 17 years. Not withstanding that the answer may also be 🛴 and what he did in 2019 that prevented her from coming out then, the world is just not a very good place for a celebrity to be anything other than straight, white and cisgender. And after 10 years of activism in LGBTQ+ organisations, today I feel a bit deflated by that. But with every single person who feels brave enough to shout their truth from the rooftops, we break down the walls a little more each time. 🌈

[liquidpaperfoundation]

Is there a middle ground between toxic diet culture and fat activism? I'm really sick of the only sides of discourse being either "IF YOU HAVE EVEN THE SLIGHTEST HINT OF BELLY POOCH OR GOD FORBID CELLULITE YOU ARE A DISGUSTING PERSON" or "ACTUALLY OBESITY IS ALL GENETICS AND BEING 400 POUNDS IS HEALTHY ACKSHUALLY". Like, You Are Both Insane.

Yes, obesity is unhealthy. It increases your risk of so many problems, like heart disease, stroke, diabetes, arthritis, skin infections (from moisture trapped under fat rolls), blood clots, infertility, and so much more.

No, shaming people is not kind or helpful in any way.

Yes, genetics, chemical exposure, mental illness, and so much more can make it difficult to control your weight. Yes, different people have different natural body types.

No, weight loss is not impossible. No, you are not "genetically" 300 pounds.

Yes, society's beauty standards for women and men are ridiculous and even contradictory and have nothing to do with what a healthy human body actually looks like. Yes, you can't necessarily tell if somebody is healthy just by looking at them. Yes, BMI is BS. Yes, the ghouls are always making up some shit about cellulite or buccal fat or hip dips just to make you feel bad about having a perfectly normal body.

No, that doesn't mean that all bodies are healthy. Eugenia Cooney is too goddamn thin and Tess Holliday is too goddamn fat.

Toxic diet culture tells us that our bodies are bad and morally wrong and we should be willing to do anything to get thinner. That's bad.

Toxic fat positivity tells us that becoming addicted to junk food and getting morbidly obese is "self love" and that wanting to eat healthy or exercise at all is tantamount to anorexia, and that if you don't want to be hundreds of pounds overweight you are a bigot. Also bad.

People really need to stop spitefully taking the most extreme opinions. It helps nobody except the jerks who want to sell us stuff.

[nicosraf]

Hi Rafa!

Back again in your inbox and I have what’s probably a silly question but I am nothing but silly and goofy so I’ll ask anyway

I was thinking about yk the verious depictions of lucifer (as every sane and normal person does) and it got me wondering onwhat made you decide to characterise Lucifer the way you did, mainly because usually in modern media he’s very much seen as a anti-hero and mostly he’s seen as a good (-ish) guy that didn’t do too much wrong, the rebellion is usually very much written off as something akin to teenage rebellion and God is just seen as a disappointed parent that had no other choice but teach a lesson to his kids (and well that is of course because gods forbid someone sees God as anything less than the perfect father but I digress), for example the Lucifer series does this and in part too hazbin hotel.

And idk it was refreshing to see your read of Lucifer, he starts good and very much kidlike and then his wonder and love become corrupt I’d say, I struggle to call him evil because well for one I have what could be considered too much sympathy for him and I understand him, he was set up to fail in a lot of ways. So I guess I just wonder what made you say “no I’m going to keep the “bad” and “evil” that is in him”

(I am aware that the answer is probably just well he’s like that in most classical depictions but idk I want to hear you ramble about Luci and his development because that’s always interesting and I love it ajdhsh)

Sorry for the confused ramble anyway lots of love from Italy <3

-J :)

Hello! This is a dangerous question!! I have many many essays I'd love to write about the depiction of Lucifer in media and about what eventually led me to making Lucifer like that. It's also fresh in my mind right now because I saw that Lucifer Hazbin Hotel episode recently. (I actually don't have a ton of thoughts on Hazbin Lucifer. He is very cute, but Hazbin isn't trying to be theological I think; it's just having fun with the mythology.)

I would say that societal depictions of Lucifer always mirror a lot of the way that society has come to understand not the devil, but God, parent-child relationships, authority, tradition, and so on. Some people think Paradise Lost was the first to make Lucifer a hero, but it's actually very clear that Milton wanted his flaws to outweigh the good things, to make Satan ultimately a bad person, and to justify God's actions to us.

Like 200 years later, William Blake started saying that Paradise Lost was pro-Lucifer, though by accident: "Milton was of the Devil's party without knowing it." But Blake lives in a very different time, during the French and American revolutions and the industrial revolution. Old traditions and empire are getting shaken up, the story of Lucifer looks a lot more heroic.

I won't get too much into how Satanic panic affected things (or even the rise of anti-theist communist regimes!), though I think the Satanic panic of the 90s really exacerbated Lucifer's connection to teenage rebellion. (Also, I'm focusing on the US because of how much their media is exported and influences other countries).

But so then we got the modern Lucifer I used to see quite a bit — suave, night club owning, slutty, probably referenced bisexual, manipulator of women. I always thought this development was kind of strange. It's almost like what Blake did to Milton's Lucifer; we didn't change how the people before us thought of him, we just decided that the Lucifer we're supposed to hate is actually super cool.

But I was not super compelled by this Lucifer. And I reference these lines a lot, but the idea of Satan in Western Christianity came from several passages from the Bible, one of which is Ezekiel 28, and I was really struck with line 14: “You were blameless in your ways from the day you were created till wickedness was found in you," as well as the multiple times the chapter stresses that the cherub of Eden fell because of his corrupting beauty above all.

I realized I never really saw "blameless" Lucifer, innocent Lucifer. In a lot of interpretations, he's just sort of born wrong or always a little Evil. But the lines say that he was innocent once, and I got really caught up in that. I thought of God watching Lucifer be beautiful and innocent in all that time (like a voyeur).

It felt like the next step in Lucifer's development to take the child-parent relationship between him and God and make it ugly. (Though sticking with the dichotomy of good vs evil didn't really work for me. Lucifer isn't good but he's not evil either, and the weird love and hate mixture is what brings him closer to how God is, too (to me)).

We live in a day and age where all authority is being critiqued, where we don't laugh at teenage rebellion as much. I mean, if you watch any recent Disney movie, you'll see parents learning from their children to stop the cycle of generational abuse. And, of course, with Lucifer becoming so associated with queerness (Lil Nas' MONTERO for example), the framing that he's just a metaphor for a teen rebel who will one day realize his dad was right... falls apart. Lots of teens kicked out of their house for being gay are grown up now and making shows/movies/etc.,. And I think it's always better not to shy away from trauma victims being imperfect and, occasionally, cruel.

So. yeah! I've always been surprised that Lucifer as an imperfect victim of parental abuse, running away, taking some of his sibling with him, isn't more common in general.

[lady-green-sleeves]

One of the things I find most funny about hotd is how much they tried to make it (specifically Rhaenyra) super feminist and stuff but then completely took away her political ambitions and made her passive especially to the men in her life. I often see it said that Alicent is the passive one but imo she’s the least, even less than Rhaeynes, we often see her stand up for herself and her children, go against her husband (as much as she can he’s literally the fucking king) and even her father who’s been controlling her since forever. (Ex the whole “you can do what you like husband when I’m cold and dead” or whatever exactly it was and her standing up for Rhaenyra against the brothel claims which ended up costing her a lot)

If anything Alicent is just more level headed and has a better understanding of the feudal patriarchal society they live in and sees it much more realistically. Rhaenyra and Rhaeynes are both people who’ve given Alicent whole speeches on how much she plays into the patriarchy and how she just lives to serve the men around her when that’s what the other two have always done.

Rhaenyra is completely reliant on her father to pull her out of any mess she gets into and has no plan to actually change the order of succession to go solely by order of birth and not have gender play a role as shown by her saying Beala’s (or Rheana but pretty sure it wasBeala’s) SON would be king not like child or first born but specifically her son.

And now for Rhaeynes, she gives Alicent the stupid little window in your prison speech after pumping her 12 year old out to the king bc her husband wants his daughter on the throne and being convinced Daenyra murdered your son at said daughter’s funeral but then still being fine with your husband picking male heirs that aren’t related to you at all over your daughters own children (ik Laenor loves those boys and no matter biology was their dad but that’s not the point rn we’re talking Westeros and feudalism)

Now I could go on a whole rant about Targ women and the oppression they face in an incest blood pure obsessed family and how that could absolutely play into the way they view themselves vs Alicent but ik for a fact what I have to say isn’t at all what the show writes we’re going for when they did this.

They simply did this to make these women morally white characters instead of keeping them grey bc god forbid we have complex female characters they either need to be boring saints or psychotic harpies that will eat your soul and cut off your testicals. If they hadn’t made it seem like these two women where just giant hypocrites who didn’t understand many social and political aspects of their own world I would have liked them a lot more

[soupbitch-moneybitch]

comprehensive list of how ofmd characters would fare if tasked with destroying the ring of power in the fires of mount doom

would be immediately corrupted by the ring:

badminton twins

prince ricky

would use the ring for evil and/or chaos for fun:

calico jack (and it would get Weird(tm) )

spanish jackie (jackie loves her some eternal power over all living creatures in middle earth)

roach (love the guy, but the chaos would be too enticing)

ned lowe (duh)

anne bonnie and mary read (sometimes you gotta spice things up. god forbid women do anything amirite)

evelyn higgs (god forbid women do anything x2)

pre-stede, peak blackbeard era ed (his heart wouldn't really be into it, but it would be expected of him, and he'd do it for the image more than anything else)

would make an attempt to get to mordor but wouldn't make it:

pirate queen zheng (has too much power already, she'd pull a boromir, or more likely, pull an aragorn and accept that she can't be the one to take it, and instead would take down saruman and lead the battle outside the black gate)

ivan (has good intentions, but is too much of a traditional pirate and would inevitably get corrupted)

the swede (he would give it the ol' college try, but would get lost, and fall into the dead marshes, or get stepped on by a tree ent or something)

ed and stede (they would try, but would 10000% lose the plot, probably as early as rivendell when they start dicking around dressing up as elves and pretending to be elven royalty, and then, through a series of wacky misadventures, would somehow end up opening an inn in the shire and being completely unaware of the fact that all the hobbits really don't love having men living among them, but they sell cheap drinks and good food, and that's all hobbits really care about so they let them stay)

wouldn't go to mordor in the first place:

lucius (um, that sounds like a LOT of walking, and he has much better things to do)

pete (would volunteer, but it would be unanimously decided that "maybe you should sit this one out, bud")

wee john (the ring is too basic and tacky and wouldn't go with his Look(tm), and also he'd prefer to stick to what he's good at: napping, sewing, and arson)

archie (would be prepared to go, but the second she gets her hands on it, she would start using it as a party trick like, "lol, look guys, i'm invisible!" and then would inevitably get murdered by ring wraiths)

could go to mordor and destroy the ring, but wouldn't:

auntie (she could definitely destroy the ring, but she's too busy making sure the red flag stays afloat, and keeping the pirate navy in check--she doesn't have time for petty concerns like "the fight between good and evil")

buttons (mad galadriel energy--would be able to refuse the ring, and this would then elevate him to the next phase of his transformation into an all-knowing, all-powerful being, who is also probably a bird)

would make it to mordor but wouldn't destroy the ring:

frenchie (he gets to the fires of mount doom only to realize he dropped the ring somewhere along the way and has no idea where it is)

mary (could make it to mordor, but the feeling of power for the first time in her life after years of being subservient in a shitty society would make the allure too strong in the end)

jim (would probably become corrupted if they were the one carrying it, but could 10000% act as a cutthroat body guard throughout the trek)

would make it mordor and would be able to destroy the ring:

oluwande (the purest of heart, perfect cinnamon roll, too pure, doesn't know how to pronounce "china"--he would never become corrupted)

doug (he would be the sam to mary's frodo, but in a very casual chill way, like "oh, you're being corrupted? no worries, babe, i got it")

is gollum:

izzy hands

my assessment is perfect and correct, but feel free to add your thoughts if you think i'm wrong (but i'm not)

[dark-nimbus]

My Opinions on Anime and Manga in Western Countries

CW: fetishization, oversexualization, racial stereotyping, as always lmk if I’m missing anything

Everytime I tell someone I'm not an avid fan of anime or manga, the usual response is shock and confusion, paired with "how?? But you're Asian!"

What hasn't occurred to them, I assume, is that those kinds of stereotypes are part of why I'm not a huge fan

Do I hate all anime and manga? No, not at all. In fact I do have a few books and shows that I enjoy, my favorite manga of all time being Arslan Senki (go check it out, the series is criminally underrated). However, I'm very picky about which ones I read and watch, and for very good reason. To be more specific, I'm not a fan of anime and manga as it's been generally received by Western countries

For the record: if you're from the Americas and like manga and anime, this is not me dogging on you. Everyone has the right to enjoy what they do, as long as they aren't harming anyone or their integrity

Now unfortunately, in my experience I've had to deal with the not harmless enjoyers more often than not

Take the first sentence of this post as an example. People always expect me to be largely enthusiastic about East Asian-originating media, despite knowing I've spent the vast majority of my life living in the middle of the US and was raised by people who are the furthest thing from Asian. I know next to nothing about my heritage or my culture and have grown up completely in American society, but even with this knowledge I'll still be met with shocked expressions when I say I've never watched whatever show or how anime isn't my favorite thing in the world. All because I look a certain way

That stereotyping attachment of race to media is just one of the many reasons I don't like anime or manga, and it unfortunately goes deeper than that

Japan already has an issue of oversexualizing women in their media, and you can see it in the skimpy outfits, big boobs, giant eyes, petite forms, and overall simping mannerisms they have towards male characters. This is by no means found in every show or book, but it's present in most. Even Arslan Senki, my favorite manga, favors putting Farangis, a priestess, in a sexualizing outfit over living up to the rest of the story's historical authenticity. With anime and manga growing more popular in the West, the impact of how women are portrayed is reflected in how people interact more and more

I can't tell you how many times I've had to hear about how people, from first dates to classmates to random strangers have fetishized Asian women because they wanted someone to live out their weird anime fantasies with. Hell, I have some stories of my own too. I've known Asian content creators who've been left creepy comments from viewers, some of which asking for them to talk in a high-pitched whiney "anime girl" voice and say a sexualized line using Japanese honorifics in a fetishizing manner. Asian cosplayers will constantly get demands to dress up in a maid outfit or cosplay certain anime characters for them to "simp" over

Even other cosplayers aren't safe from fetishizers. Other PoC cosplayers, black cosplayers especially, are consistently put on blast for cosplaying anime characters because those characters "aren't black." If it's not an Asian cosplayer, the creeps' fetishizing fantasies can't be lived up to, so they give black cosplayers shit instead. But gods forbid they do the same to white cosplayers, since being white is always the default to them apparently. How dare anyone try to give a white cosplayer shit for cosplaying a Japanese character when all anime characters are Japanese, that's unfair to them, right? But it's okay to have a double standard because the characters look white enough, right?

There was even a Japanese boxer from a few months ago that people latched onto, because apparently any East Asian guy with messy blond hair looks like Bakugo. MHA fangirls, many of which being minors, went crazy on him, making comments that are far from appropriate for that kind of interaction and fully reimagining this completely real human being as a fictional character for their own fetishizing purposes

If we're not stereotyped, we're being sexualized. The spreading influence of fetishizing Asian people only grows with the popularity of anime and manga in countries further west. It's been used to thirst, hit on, even threaten East Asian people, women especially. Our safety and comfort has been royally screwed by anime "simps" and it only continues to worsen, even more so for Asian Americans and content creators

One of the worst things about being Asian and growing up in America is how anime was the closest thing to connecting to my culture, and what did anime tell little me about being Asian? That my skin had to be pale, my eyes wide, I had to be short and curvy, and I had to sound ultra-feminine. Those were the values that the world expected out of me. Cassandra Cain was there to be my saving grace, thankfully, but the impression anime girls have on others will never be a positive or realistic one unless Japan re-evaluates its media as a whole and non-Asian viewers can find the maturity to not implement the same things on other people