#i feel guilty because its basically fanon at this point that he's gay

[mango-mya]

The duality of man

[doodliedoo]

Today's Post: Diversify

Guys I'm not even pissed about some of the lack of diversity in shows anymore. Okay that was a gross overstatement (that I'll get back to later), but like seriously, we are diversifying shit ourselves. You take a popular show, any show, and the fandom has reinvented the cast to be so diverse. Did Voltron mention that Keith is has Korean heritage? A whole discourse on race has begun until we decide that basically 90% of the cast is of some color other than white. It's not that we drew this out of thin air, that's not what I'm saying, I'm saying that we have gotten very good at taking little things and making them talking points for subjects that don't get enough media attention. As far as the fandom is concerned, Sherlock Holmes is gay and John Watson is bisexual. It doesn't matter that Moffat shit on us with season 4, we made the diversity we wanted to see in the world. We've fanonically given icons to so many races, genders, sexualities, mental disorders, and so many other kinds of diversity, that it almost has stopped mattering that the creators themselves aren't putting it in. Do you know how much easier it is to love the part of myself that is gay when I can take a buzzfeed quiz to find out which shade of the rainbow I am? The fact that it's so normalized in these circles spell out the fact that we fandom kids listened when Ghandi said "be the change you wish to see." We created the representation that was as diverse as us and it almost doesn't matter that the creators don't do the same. Notice that I keep saying almost. Because while the fans are doing their half and creating all this diverse media, the creators-- most of them, I'm going to be careful and say most of them-- aren't. We still have people saying that "a Hispanic character wouldn't really fit the role in the narrative," but why not? Does the pigmentation encoded by their DNA make them incapable of having the same personality traits and goals? We still have my little brother making fun of nonbinary genders, not because he has ever had a reason to dislike them but because of a systemized bigotry against them that he has been soaking up every day online and from other people; and there isn't a thing I can say that he'll listen to because "it's just a joke, chill." We still have tv networks afraid to broadcast openly LGB+ characters because they don't want ratings to fall. We still have mental disorders stigmatized to the point of parody, and therefore a lack of empathy for or sympathy with those suffering from these caricatures of a hormonal imbalance. And that-- the millions of little moments of oppression and institutionalized hatred that make me hate the parts of me that are gay, depressed, anxious, and ADHD-ridden-- that is on the media-makers who are scared. Too scared to take a leap of faith and change the way we see things. Too scared of the change they could create. Too scared of the bigots and the other fearers of change that will try to break down their door and smother their change before it takes its first breath because they are comfortable seeing themselves above the rest from their nests of white-washed, homophobic, cis-only, sexist, neurotypical media atop mountains of history of people making the same mistakes for themselves and their children and their children's children. They say the sins of the father will echo 7 generations, are we willing to wait for 7 generations before we begin to accept people as they are? 7 generations before the frankly terrifying trend of violence to both self and others is put to rest? 7 generations before a kid feels comfortable in their own skin, knowing they were born as intended and loved that way? Are we willing to wait 7 generations before people can express themselves freely? Like I said previously, I know not all media-producers are guilty of this; Rebecca Sugar, the Wachowskis, Lin-Manuel Miranda, and many others continue to make leaps and bounds in diversifying our media. They can't do it alone. Fans can't do it alone. To all those wanting a push, looking for a sign, waiting for someone to tell them to do it, to make that choice and put that little of diversity in their (or a lot of diversity, that's cool too): this is it. This is your sign. Do it. Make that character Puerto-Rican/Demisexual/Gender-Fluid/Mute/Missing a leg/schizophrenic. I'm actually begging you, because somewhere out there is someone looking for an idol, someone to identify with, someone to show them they're not alone. Do not wait for the sins of your father to make your mistakes for you. Help out the fans.