#i mean those ones are both racist and misogynistic but you get my point

[thebreakfastgenie]

You spent this entire response talking about how, unfortunately, I wouldn't read it, and surely I would block you, and then at the end you basically asked me not to respond. Lol.

Unfortunately for you, I have never blocked a blog that wasn't a bot and my adderall is kicking in, so I read every word.

The reason my first response to you was so long is that I wasn't entirely sure exactly what point you were making, so I was trying to cover all my bases. I wasn't trying to put words in your mouth. In this second comment you've more clearly focused on the argument that TERFs use man-hating to cover for legitimate bigotry. Unfortunately, that argument is nonsense. None of the examples you gave are using man-hating as a cover for anything, at least not successfully. The bigotry in those examples is not subtle. If someone can't recognize racism or transphobia in rhetoric like that their problem is that they're not very aware of bigotry and just not very bright. I can't identify the exact logical relationship, if there is one, but this argument bears some odd resemblance to the point women often make, that people on the left often use complaints about cisness or whiteness or wealth as covers for their misogyny. But women don't ask people not to complain about cisness or whiteness or wealth, just to stop singling out women and being misogynistic. In this case your argument still leaves women out in the cold. Everyone else can complain about their oppressors, but women can't, because someone somewhere might use man-hating as a justification for something else.

At a certain point, hypothetical statements are meaningless without context. If a woman makes a post about misogyny and singles out Indian men, it might because she's racist or it might be because she lives in India. The words that are used may be very similar (although the first one is more likely to include some slurs) but the meaning is very different. One of the problems with social media is that posts are often seen without their original context. There is a long history of women of color being pressured to stay silent about misogyny within their own communities using the reasoning that the community must be united and any negativity will give ammo to racists. This puts women of color in a really difficult situation. It also serves to prevent them from forming solidarity with other women. The way forward is just to make an effort to recognize all forms of bigotry, misogyny included, when they come up. To make an effort to tell the difference between a good faith attempt to address one issue that's fallen prey to unconscious bias or systemic bigotry and a bad faith argument that's one issue as an excuse for another kind of bigotry. To be willing to both say and hear good faith criticism in the first scenario, to reform arguments without the bias instead of throwing the baby out with the bathwater. Man-hating is not a good proxy for other kinds of bigotry.

I have no idea what the transmascs bomb post is. In general, a post that singles out transmascs is probably not okay, because the relevant part is that they are trans, and being cruel to trans people is... wait for it... transphobic. In some situations, the point about intracommunity man-hating applies. Trans women may complain about trans men just as any other group of marginalized women may complain about the men in their own community. To some extent it's probably reasonable to say certain things should not be posted publicly where cis people can get ahold of them without sufficient context, but that's an intracommunity issue that I'm honestly not qualified to speak on, because I'm cis. I only bring it up because I've dealt with analogous intracommunity in some communities I am a member of; it's a fairly universal concern but the particulars here are outside my lane.

You focused a lot on whether or not TERFs like men, which was really tangential to the actual point of this post. "TERFs like men actually" was referring to their eagerness to form relationships with right wing cis men to gain political power. Also, before it finally got taken down, a decent number of the posts on the TERF subreddit were from cis men claiming to be radical feminist allies who the TERFs gleefully and hypocritically pointed to as "one of the good ones" while they bonded over hating trans women. TERFs live in the same society as everyone else (unfortunately) and in a society as patriarchal as ours, few people really hate men as much as they think they do. A similar phenomenon exists with other marginalized groups. Unconscious bias cuts both ways; not just unconscious bias against a marginalized group, but unconscious bias towards a powerful group.

Using man-hating as a shield for bigotry doesn't make a lot of sense because man-hating isn't socially accepted just about anywhere. It always gets pushback. Ask any woman who's made a negative general statement about men. And TERFs spend a lot of time with the far right, where hating men is certainly not acceptable. I don't know where you live, but on the anglophone internet man-hating is not generally accepted. And even when you do hear "I hate men," the power dynamics of patriarchy are such that it's just not a real problem.

Trans-exclusionary radical feminism is essentially a subtype of transphobia that uses an interpretation of radical feminist theory as a justification for transphobia, rather than religion or plainly homophobic rhetoric about sexual deviance (though versions of this argument surface in TERF rhetoric as well and there's a great deal of convergence with the social conservative version). Quite often in hate movements like that, the ideology is a post-hoc justification for the bigotry. So the logic of men oppress women -> trans women are men -> trans women are bad because they oppress [cis] women may be what TERFs say but it's often not an honest representation of their thought process. Both TERFs and garden-variety transphobes (who openly revere men) hate trans women for being, according to them, men who pretend to be women. TERFs will even say, disingenuously of course, that it would be fine if trans women would only live as gender non-conforming gay men. It's transness that transphobes despise, the act of existing while trans.

#Also one of your followers left hate in my DMs#not even an ask!#not even an anon#get braver followers.

I know my closing paragraph was a bit of a non sequitur. I am making an effort to end walls of text with something actionable, and since you'd brought up trans men I thought it might be worthwhile to end by talking about the issues they face and acknowledging the intersections they're dealing with in the current political situation where I live. I'm also really feeling the weight of the incoming far right government in my country so any time I end up in ~discourse~ with other progressives I feel the urge to remind both of us as well as anyone else who reads the post who the real enemy is. I'm caught between my ADHD and inability to let anything go compelling me to respond to comments on my posts and my feeling that fighting each other is a waste of time when the threat of the far right looms. Ending that way was my compromise for myself.

My followers are their own people with agency. I do not control them. I also don't choose who they are because I don't block or softblock and quite honestly there are enough of them that I don't have time to screen them, even if wanted to. Speaking to you in a DM with their URL attached doesn't sound cowardly. You can still publish screenshots of the conversation if you choose, choosing DM over ask just means they don't intend to confront you publicly. Nothing about how I run my blog has ever encouraged anyone to send hate in any form. It sounds like they were responding--however inappropriately--to your post. This really has nothing to do with me, my blog was just the vehicle by which they saw it.

Something I want this website specifically to reflect on! Are you mad at women for talking about men the same way you talk about cishets or neurotypicals? Why?

[thesmokinpossum]

Just saw a video of a short man throwing a fit in a bagel shop about how nobody wants to date short men (because it's somehow the fault of the girls working at the bagel shop I guess?), being loud, agressive and generally a pure asshole. Well, all the comments were about how this poor poor poor guy was probably bullied sooooo bad and how bad they feel for him so like...Are we ready to admit that the whole Karen thing is 99% misogyny and only marginally related to bad customer behaviors or are we still in denial about that shit?

[unforth]

I keep seeing posts comparing this to 2004 or other past election losses and how this feels the same or similar to those past times.

As another Old who voted in 2004 (and I missed voting in 2000 by a month and was furious about it) I really can't even put into words how vehemently I disagree.

In 2008, I remember very earnestly sitting down with some friends and saying that if somehow McCain beat Obama, I'd have to join the fucking revolution, because I couldn't believe that this country would elect a Republican AGAIN after the previous 8 years of bullshit. I look back now and think how incredibly naive I was, but I also look back now and think, damn, why aren't I 25 NOW? I can't join the revolution now, I'm 41 and I own a house and have two young children and one old parent depending on me.

Because honestly, truly, as someone who has been studying American history since I was 7, as a Civil War buff with expertise on the years before the Civil War, as someone who has at least some memories of every election since 1988... guys, this isn't the same as 2004. I was furious then. Swift Boat bullshit I swear to fucking dog. And I was and still am fairly convinced that the 2000 election was deliberately stolen. But also I still had every reason then to believe in the rule of law.

In 2004, I still believed term limits would be respected.

In 2004, I still believed a person who wasn't elected would demure gracefully to the winner.

In 2004, I still trusted the courts.

In 2004, I still believed that we'd made progress on bigotry.

I could go on, and to be clear, my point isn't "I thought these institutions were ~good~" in literally any objective sense. Y'all are cynical but my generation was raised by, surrounded by, Vietnam vets and trust me, there was no way to be a kid, seeing what the 70s did to this country, and not come out as cynical and furious as the best of um. (My grandfather was a World War 2 vet, as were his close friends. My father and both his brothers are Vietnam vets, tho my dad didn't go overseas.) But I did believe that even corrupt institutions, even broken racist systems, even fucking Republicans, would follow basic norms of democracy. They said they believed in the constitution and I believed them. I believed that, like Nixon, truly getting caught doing something insane would at least force a mea culpa and turn public opinion. I believed...

Well, I guess it doesn't matter.

Because I no longer believe any of that.

I have watched the guard rails disappear over my lifetime. I have watched the party who once spent 2 years pursuing a guy over a BJ in the oval office elect a convicted rapist. I have watched and at times I've participated and I've voted and I've organized and I've protested and I've read the news more days than not and I've lived and I've grown and I've learned.

I have been an adult, legally, for almost 24 years now.

Guys... there are no norms remaining on the far right. The guard rails are gone. The Fascists control the White House, the senate, the Supreme Court, and things aren't looking promising for the House.

The bus has no brakes anymore. They think they have a mandate - and I can't blame them, as horrifying as this mandate is, because if things had gone the other way and Harris had gotten these results I'd also think it was a mandate.

Please sit with what this means: Trump and the Republican party said, "hand us the reins and we'll make everyone you hate hurt," and more than half the people who bothered to vote said "sure buddy, here goes." We don't have a usurper this time. This is the country that the majority of Americans said they wanted. Whether they come to regret that or not, they saw open Fascism and went "oh yes, count me in." And it wasn't because of the electoral college this time. It was because this country is so bigoted and misogynistic that they'd rather have this than a woman of color in the office.

I'm sick of "well she didn't run a good campaign." (Lie.) I'm sick of, "well we didn't get a primary." (Who cares?) I'm *extremely* sick of "well, Palestine." (Yes! Democrats actions have made the suffering there so much worse! It fucking sucks! You know what's about to suck so much worse?)

15 million people who showed up for Joe Biden couldn't be fussed to place a vote for Kamala Harris. Whatever their reason for not voting, we all knew the outcome if she lost. And seeing open fascism didn't fire them up enough to make the effort, and that's fucking pathetic. The consequences of the worst happening mattered so little to them that they couldn't be fucking bothered to make the minimum effort to stop it, and now millions of people will suffer as a result.

Because here we are: the huge swathe of the country who wanted a strongman now have one.

Look, I don't know what happens next. But I do know, and remember keenly: after 2016, Trump did, or at least tried to do, most of the things he said he'd do. When he was stopped, it was often because of career government employees: judges, bureaucrats, etc. And this time, he's said he's going to purge those people. I don't know if he'll succeed, but I certainly believe he'll try.

This is not 2004 again.

This is 2024. The Republicans have ripped the mask to shreds, shredded apart the book of political norms, and empowered hate, and they've been handed a governmental mandate for stamped "have at with our blessing!" in exchange.

And now they'll use that mandate to make everyone they hate suffer: people of color, queer people, trans people, immigrants, non-Christians.

Don't assume the worst can't happen. I am a Jew, and I have a photo album full of black and white photos of dead people that constantly reminds me: the worst has happened and it can happen again.

Do not despair. Despair is enervating. Be furious. As we should be. These douche bags are repulsive. Be prepared to fight. Be prepared to flee. Be prepared to defend. Don't assume you simply can't do something. There's always something to do, and even the smallest act of defiance can help. There's never any knowing until after which acts of resistance will end up galvanizing the good and just out of their apathy. But that apathy is the enemy.

Because none of this is normal. None of this is "just like when..." Please stop saying it is.

And before anyone screams "privilege" at me, yes, I am in many ways. I'm white. I have access to some generational money even tho my own family lives paycheck to paycheck - we won't be rich but have enough of a support network to be comfortable. I live in a blue area of a blue state. But I'm also a woman (legally speaking, at least) married to another woman - since before Oberkfell, and yes I remember exactly what steps we had planned any time we wanted to leave our state. My wife has physical disabilities. We have two children. Both are biracial (half black). One is trans. We are caring for an elderly parent. I am Jewish and as my kids' birth parent, so are they. I own a publishing company that publishes the exact kinds of queer and kinky lit these people intend to ban. We tick so many boxes of what these people hate.

I know ya'll are scared. Trust me, I'm terrified. But fear is paralyzing. And that won't help. Whatever happens, don't lie down and take this shit.

When Gore lost I was one month shy of my 18th birthday and already in college. I have been fighting my entire adult life, and I'm exhausted. I'm much less able to fight now, much more tied down with responsibilities. But the fight isn't over. I'm checking our passports. I'm packing a go bag. I've convinced one vulnerable friend to move here and I have another who wants to and we're figuring out how to make that happen. I'm protecting who I can, starting with putting on my mask first. I don't know what will happen but if in the end all I can do is uproot my entire life to protect my children then I am preparing to do so. I can at least save them if no one else.

None of this is normal.

And I'm not sure, after Trump's in office, that anything will ever be normal again in the US. At least not the old normal. And there are ways that's a good thing, so many ways that the old normal sucked for so many people, and I'm optimistic that there's a bright future ahead, but man it looks far away right now. I don't want to go back to the old normal, and I want to be part of establishing a kinder, more just, more equal new normal, but we're a long way from there.

Whatever happens, we must endure. We must survive. We must support each other. We must find our allies and be prepared to compromise with them. Don't try to save everyone. You'll fail. Help even one person and you can change the world. Everyone things they can't do everything and so do nothing. That's insane. Do a single thing and it will be better than nothing. One phone call. One letter. One act of defiance. Very few people get the opportunity to grand gestures that matter, and the rest of us will die waiting for that moment. But the secret is that what makes those moments - the time when one person is in the right place at the right time for their action to matter - is built on millions of small moments by millions of people doing what little they can to make things slightly better. Think of every iconic photograph of a Sole Resistor you know of and think about every single tiny thing that had to happen for that moment to occur. Most of us will never me that one person, but that one person is a myth anyway. Countless tiny unseen moments create those myths. Doing literally anything is better than doing nothing.

And tooth and nail, quietly and loudly, in our homes and our towns and cities, during protests or when they come for our neighbors, we must fight.

[magpod-confessions]

(loosely responding to a confession i saw a while back, but just a lot of stuff in general)

i don't like how the fandom is so quick to slap labels like 'sexist, racist, misogynistic, etc' onto anyone who dislikes a certain character. i know these things are very much an issue, especially in fandom culture, but it's really anoying when people will just throw those labels around just because people dislike a character that happens to be a woman of colour. because 1. people are allowed to just dislike characters 2. people can have perfectly good reasons for disliking minority characters that have nothing to do with them being part of a minority group

specifically i want to talk about preferring michael distortion over helen distortion. obviously michael is widely depicted as a white man, while helen is widely depicted as a black woman so it's easy to look at the general favouritism towards michael and shout racism and misogyny. but that doesn't account the numerous reasons people could have to prefer michael over helen that have absolutely nothing to do with helen being black or being a woman. So, I present several such reasons:

(now, to the people that are going to say "why are you comparing them?? they are different characters and you should treat them like it" first of all, why have you read this far. second of all, that does not apply here. these are not two seperate characters. these are two different interations/personas/whatever of the same being. comparison should be expected if not encouraged)

michael is more interesting than helen. becuase michael is the distortion when jon and the viewer know very little about the distortion and the fears, he gets to be more cryptic, he can hint at things and and be all mysterious and vague about the nature of himself and the world. helen on the other hand is the distortion when we have a much better idea of the distortions nature and the fears and how they work. thus, she has less opportunity to be cryptic and vague and mysterious, which , in my opinion, is one of michael's best qualities-and what makes him so loved by the fandom. helen attempts to be weird and cryptic like michael, but it's just very repetitive and boring because we already know how everything works and there is very little she can hide from us

michael is a more 'iconic' character. this basically comes down to, he's more quotable. he has his whole trademark laugh and all his great quotes "i am not a who archivist i am a what" "how would a melody decribe itself when asked" "does your hand in any way own your stomach" "there has never been a door there archivist your mind plays tricks on you" i could go on. i'm sure helen has some great lines as well but i don't know any off the top of my head, which honestly proves my point a little. anyway, helen doesn't have all that. probably becuase the writers didn't want her to feel too similar to michael but yeah. this reason is a bit basic but it's still true

michael is made to seem more important. I just want to clarify, what i mean here when i say a character is more importamt here, is that the podcast makes this character seem more important. they both had their effect on the storyline, but the show definitely makes one of them seem more important and influential (this reason encompasses a lot of things so i'm sorry if it gets a bit ramble-y) this kinda ties in with the michael being more mysterious thing. micheal is treated as this mysterious unknown character, a potential threat, an antagonist at some points. Michael affects the characters quite a lot, and jon specifically seems to dwell on him a lot. So despite having a lot less screentime than helen, he's built up to be quite an important figure. Helen is not treated as important by the show in the same way. by the time she comes along, the whole mystery and drama of the distortion has already happened, so she isn't that important. she becomes a little irrelevant to the plot, occaisionally popping in to bother jon. and that's what she's really framed as —an annoyance, a bit of a nuisance, but not that important or influential. especially in season 5, she becomes almost a comedic relief character. mag 187 is the exception to this, where she is very important for about one episode before being almost immediately forgotten about. her effect on the characters is made to seem important only in retrospect. michael remains relevant even after his 'death' because he plays an important role in jon's struggle with his humanity and his conflict over gertrude's morals. even though michael has very little screentime compared to helen, every bit of it is made to feel relevant and important to the overall plot. I AM NOT SAYING MICHAEL IS ACTUALLY MORE IMPORTANT THAN HELEN. YOU CAN LOOK AT HELEN'S EFFECT ON THE PLOT AS MUCH AS YOU LIKE. I AM SAYING THE PODCAST ITSELF CLEARLY MAKES MICHAEL SEEM MORE IMPORTANT. sorry i just want to be super clear on that

michael has a more tragic/serious backstory. we all know what i mean here. michael shelley being manipulated and decieved and betrayed and kept in the dark, to become a monster that's whole purpose was to do those same things to countless innocents—there's so much that can be drawn from that and it's so poetic and interesting. it's also relevant to the overarching plot of the podcast like i said before. and like i mentioned before, helen is treated as a more funny character, not as serious or tragic as michael. don't get me wrong, there is tragedy in her becoming but it is not explored in the podcast canon. you can definitely talk about the srious stuff of helen's character but it isn't as grounded in canon if you do. also michael's death seems more tragic because michael shelley was framed as super innocent and undeserving of his fate while helen richardson was canonically kind of an asshole (not saying she deserved it either of course)

helen replaced michael. this relates to what i said at the start of this list—helen is going to be compared to michael as she is literally his replacement. for one, that does set michael fans against her slightly already because she's complicit in his 'death' a tiny bit. but the real problem is, she's expected to live up to michael—while also being different enough that it doesn't feel like the same character—which i personally don't feel that she does. i think i'd like her better if she was her own character and hadn't replaced michael, and i think that's a big reason that many people that prefer michael don't like her as much. it's also a valid reason to dislike a character. also, this has absolutely nothing to do with her being a woman of colour in fanon. if she was another white boy i'd still probably dislike her when she didn't live up to michael standards.

that's all i can be bothered to write, i think i had more ideas but i forgot sorry lol. anyway, notice how none of those reasons had anything at all to do with helen being a woman or often being depicted as black? if michael had been a woman of colour and helen had been a white man instead, these reasons would still apply

anyway i spent so long on this i thought of a couple reasons someone might preferhelen because i still love her and i don't want to make it seem like i dislike her. i don't. i just prefer michael but helen is still definitely top5 tma characters for me for sure.

we get to see the distortion adapt to it's new identity as helen which is super cool (i do not understand why no one talks about this.like hello????? it's so interesting?)

sometimes it's nice to have a more funny character, especially the juxtaposition between the more dark stuff of the podcast and lighthearted moments between helen martin and jon in season 5

i like her more subtle manipulations and the whole 'fake friend' thing. i thought that was a really interesting concept and a good way of bringing something new to the distortion

anyway, i know that white-twink-favouritism is an issue within the tma fandom (and dare i say tumblr as a whole) but let's remember than not everyone who likes or dislikes certain characters or prefers one character over another does so because they are sexist or racist. there are so many different reasons for someone to dislike or like characters that have notihing to do with race or gender.

i notice this debate particularly with michael and helen and i agree there could certainly be an element of sexism and a bit of racism too (not racism so much because she is not canonically black it's just a fanon thing so racist people probably just see her as white idk) but i think most people have genuine reasons like these to prefer michael and should not be called sexist or racist for having preferences.

🗣️ if i remember right mod i know you prefer helen so disagree with me if you wish. I'M NOT SAYING MICHAEL IS OBJECTIVELY BETTER THAN HELEN I'M POINTING OUT REASONS THAT A LOT OF PEOPLE PREFER HIM. i'm not really here to debate whether michael or helen is 'better' i just wanted to point out something that annoys me a bit

oh my god you are so right anon. at the end of it all both distortions are just. the distortion. michael was more impactful to the actual story as a whole, being one of gertrude's assistants, but helen is also super important in jons journey into avatarhood. both of them affected how jon sees himself through this ( him seeing himself as a monster definitely is also from the distortion ) in their own ways , and while helen is more of comedic relief , she still is new. she's fresh. she is a blank slate for the distortion after having been michael for so long and that is so interesting , especially with how she feels at the very start after merging. - deceit

Agree agree agree. I love helen sm and I find her incredibly interesting (and well the disortion in general) and I do prefer her over Michael personally (partly bc im gay as hell), but I definitely understand why ppl love Michael sm. And yea I dont think ppl should be called sexism or racist over liking a character. Like theres a big difference between liking a character for genuine reasons and liking them bc you have a bias. Idk yea - Rosette

[thesunfyre4446]

OMG I cannot take this anymore, I’m so tired of expressing my opinions on team black and getting backlash for it. TB supporters need to learn to not be so aggressive when it comes to defending their “Innocent” team. I’m not a green supporter either but I find myself sympathising more with those characters because I feel like they have reasons as to why they are what they are.

When I’m watching the show, I find myself disliking Rhaenyra. She constantly complains about being a female but yet she never does a thing to support her cause. In the books, I’ve heard she disinherits Lady Rosby and Lady Stokesworth on account of their genders and gives everything to their younger brothers. I did read the passage on which it says this and it was said that both girls were never named heir but they were the firstborn and is it not Rhaenyra’s movement to show that women can rule?

Back to her not doing anything about it, she does things, not a lot but the stuff she does do is extremely damaging to her image yet she still acts on them impulsively; Going to the street of silk with Daemon which leads to her marriage with laenor WHICH leads to her bastard children. Had she just not gone and not interacted with Daemon, she could have picked what man she got to marry, it didn’t necessarily have to be love but she could of picked one that could perform their duty and she could be friendly with. She could have done this because her father was allowing her to pick which was rare in those days and just further proves that Visery’s would ignore the customs for her.

I truly do agree with Viserys when he mentions that Jeaharys would have disinherited her and I don’t think Rhaenyra realises how lucky she is to have him as a father. She abandoned him for 6 years, knowing he was dying of an illness and only comes back to beg him to get out his bed and put himself in pain to defend her which he does because he loves her. Adding onto this, Rhaenyra expects to come back to kings landing and everyone to just follow her just because she was named heir, she didn’t stay there to prove her worth or anything. She left it for the greens to manipulate and take over and she is mad that she has no allies there when she’s the one the went into hiding. She’s been named heir for around 20 years at this point, most of the men that swore to her are dead and like they said in the show, most of those oaths are stale now.

The greens are definitely more politically savvy than the blacks which is how they gained so much support, had Rhaenyra stayed in the court and worked on making allies and proving her worth to the realm then maybe the Dance wouldn’t have started. Her hiding away in dragon stone also definitely helped the greens to take the throne because had she been in kings landing then she could have known straight away that her father was dead and the greens would have had a harder time getting the throne, but she left it open for the taking and gets mad when it is taken.

Forgive me for all this, I’m just so incredibly annoyed right now.

i completely agree with you, anon. some TB stans are just impossible to talk too. i usually love it when people with different opinions that mine leave comments on my posts, but i've gotten soooo many disgusting and disturbing messages calling me names, being racist, being incredible misogynistic towards alicent and just being very weird and aggressive.

idk it's very weird how personally TB stans take the criticism towards rhaenyra and daemyra. i mean, daemon gr00med and choked her - a lot of people are obvs NOT going to support this couple and find it very problematic.

i'm not a huge rhaenyra fan too . her character is kinda boring for me, she's giving me an overprivileged-rich-soccer-mom vibes. and yeah she def was not politically savvy (part of the reason i dislike her lol) and made a lot of mistakes. i think that rhaenyra is def a product of viserys's bad parenting skills. he never prepared her to rule, always justified and defended her mistakes (i mean, how are you going to grow as a person when your daddy defends everything you do no matter what?) and he gave her a false sense of security.

[charmedreincarnation]

https://www.tumblr.com/charmedreincarnation/735781939655622656/httpswwwtumblrcomcharmedreincarnation7357809

I don't think you have to stray too far to get to the wrong parts in reddit. It's filled with borderline predators who say disgusting things and justify themselves "cus shes 18". They act like such hornyfucks..just go to oldschoolcool or r/pics wherever theres a picture of a skinny girl/woman they have to act like creeps or rip any woman who doesn't fit the beauty standard to shreds. i know the general narrative is that women are bitchy and insecure jealous and all men are so lighthearted humorous and fun but then you see most of their comments and you understand why women had to struggle with their rights so much in the past and also in the present. They can be so nasty,mean, vile and just downright vulgar

girl I hate men (not my anons ofc but ykwim)you don’t have to tell me twice. I especially hate the basement dwellers on Reddit. Honestly with the internet, freaks can come together and be even more annoying vile freaks together lol. Plus Reddit is one large echo chamber depending on where you are depends which type you get. I suggest keeping it cute. Im barely on there and stay along the informational and spiritual aspects of Reddit. Just general advice though… as someone who used to mindlessly scroll and find and argue with idiots, incels, misogynistic barnacle heads, racists, etc.I promise you there is no point arguing with souless buttfucks lol. Most of their lives suck and that’s the the reason they can be so chronically online and stupid with no repercussions.

What you feed your mind is so important and also creates your perception. I’m not even talking about the law of assumption rn but yes that too but in general. Spend too much time around that stuff and you’ll find yourself being very nihilistic and violent. And because of your algorithm the more your angirly click, the more you see it, and the more people you think are like that! When I come across that stuff now I’m lowkey shocked because to me those people can’t engage or interact with me because I choose to not be aware of them. But then I recently downloaded instagram and omg both the men and women are misogynistic bitter losers, so I have to stop being aware of them as well which is hard bc it’s everywhere 💀 but in reality I don’t see or experience any of that sort of stuff in the real world, so let them have the internet it’s not real anyways.

[splatcat64]

i had a really long convo with my friends about this but it really seriously feels like ppl get rhys and fionas characterization switched up HARD. this is bc of the u choose the path thing but also a heavy hand in the misogyny and racism (and general way ppl tend to approach pandorans due to being effected by how jack talked about them . LOL) fiona is such a sweetheart whos working her hardest to protect the people she loves + imo shes the one who helped vaughn grow into someone who adores pandora as well. it makes me blow up. i have a few songs that have been making me go nuts about her . hai i got excited sorry

NOOO DON’T APOLOGIZE FOR GETTING EXCITED I totally get it my god,,, this blog is becoming so tales centric I’m sorry not sorry here we go. If you haven’t seen tales and want to be mindful of light spoilers. ⚠️

This has been talked about on my side a bit but I tooootally agree, Both of their characterization gets switched up BAD and it’s absolutely insane, both Fiona and Rhys are good people, but flawed. Flawed, but good people, and it gets constantly jumbled around in the fandom. I feel like a lot of people have a really hard time grasping that “choose ur own adventure” protags still have a core personality set, especially telltale. I always use Lee TWGD as an example, because sure you can portray him as either very very confrontational, or more soft spoken and sweet, but in the end of th edgy he still killed someone. In the end of the day he still ALWAYS cares about Clem. It’s not any different for those two idiots, they still have their respective arcs and the such.

I feel like Fiona gets a lot of shit specifically BECAUSE she’s snarky and she. speaks her mind. And god forbid a POC/Black coded woman do ANYTHING. Jack really messed up ppls views on Pandorans but the look into Sasha and Fi’s life is literally just more, HEY, they’re people!! Maybe don’t listen to the GENOCIDAAAAL [big arrows pointing to the word] MANIAC. It’s thrown right at your face. People take wtv the fuck Jack says way to seriously when he lies. So much. All the time. And I don’t get why no one takes it with a pile of salt constantly. When really she does just have a heart of gold, most of her being mean is literally just playful banter like hello. Sasha’s meaner than her by a mile but Fi still gets slaaandered for it. And even tho Sasha does have her really mean moments I will defend her to the grave with strangers bcus “hating her” without a valid reason gets veeerry racy really quick and as a black person it really does rub me the wrong way sometimes. So much mischaracterization everywhere. It’s a weird mix of a patriarchal, misogynistic, racist deal with EVERY character in The Group and I’m just… how do you manage to mischaracterize everybody from a game that’s all story.

And the point I made in a post somewhere about how Rhys is written differently than a LOT of men in borderlands and ppl have ran with it and decided hey this guy actually sucks. Or hey haha this guy can’t do anything. He’s completely out of his element on Pandora, of course he’s stumbling somewhat but bro is brave as hell for that shit. He’s a completely capable dude, yes he cares about Fiona and Sasha and Vaughn. Yes they care about him. I feel like people also get it twisted because of Fiona and Rhys in the intros, but people gotta remember that they’re acting like that because the game was episodic and we weren’t rlly allowed to know that they’re super buddy buddy. That’s one gripe I have w the game is that they made Fiona seem like she HATED his ass in some of the future settings in the beginning of episodes and people took it way too literally. Please I beg they’re besties,,, you’ve never boxed with a bestie before??? Either way it’s obvious that it’s blown out of proportion especially after Rhys’ whole arc concludes. You’re supposed to be like oooh he’s like that cause we couldn’t know. You look at Fi and you’re supposed to like daaamn she really cares about him/them they were all just split apart after extremely traumatic events. [I’m gonna stop here with this point cause it’s starting to be a run on but people do not talk enough about how traumatic both Helios’ crash, the wreck, and Gortys’ first fight was for all of them.]

I’ve talked extensively with a friend about this too but Tales had a looot of budget issues during its making cause of Telltale nuking itself, and the game was meant to have more time. ALL of them were!!! I always think about maybe if they all got more time they’d be treated this way less. But yknow,, whatever I guess.

AND THE VAUGHN THING UR SO CORRECT GOD. I think she really help him crawl out of his shell for a lack of a better term, both the sisters tbh I feel like they’re a very rare and cute friendship pairing and I need to see more of Sasha daring him to do shit like in the Chimera dome. They all care sooo deeply for each other and people even manage to miss that like god. One of Rhys’ core traits if you don’t make him abysmally evil is loyalty. LOYALTY. Fiona hasn’t had many, hell if any friends since tales started, She is SUCH a caring person of course she’s gonna ride or die for her friends. Like that one scene on Helios where Rhys can ask her not to leave, And she’s like “If I wanted to leave, I would’ve done it a looong time ago.” There’s so many points in the game I could,d bring up that show how great all of them are, Fiona, after knowing him for not too long at all, tries to convince Vaughn to be brave, and that he can survive Bossanova’s race. Yes, she had to do that so they wouldn’t die, but she went out of her way to say it in a way that was reassuring enough. That’s sweet. If she didn’t care about them she wouldn’t have played cards on the roof with Rhys, or play bunkers and badasses with the boys, or I don’t know, let them LIVE IN WHAT IS ESSENTIALLY HER HOUSE FOR A YEAR. /ref ep.3 of tales. I’m being dramatic, of course there are factors that didn’t let her kick them out. But, my point stands.

That wasn’t meaaan that was playful reassurance, she’s telling him she’s THERE FOR HIM. They all care sooosososo much. If none of the, cared about each other, any “betrayal” wouldn’t mean that much. People get hurt like that because of their bonds and yes, YES I’m being opinionated but they’re like the found family ever, god. Fiona is fucking amazing and she wouldn’t put up with anyone if she didn’t either have to, or care, and after a certain point it’s very obvious that it’s not the first one.

TLDR; Tales is great, stan Fiona, stan Rhys, Stan Sasha and Vaughn,,, my glorious queens and kings. Forgive any typos or grammar I wrote this on a passionate whim,

[yibeshistardom]

I feel like I have to address something about me and what I say, since I seriously have no filter and really hate when people start random stupid shit with me like I’m not gonna argue back.

Warning for me cursing btw.

I’m a twitter user, so that means I start discussion or conversation depending on the topic. I let others describe their opinion before I judge, and if I don’t and agree with you it’s a win-win for us both. But if it’s some weird misogynistic racist sexist type situation expect me to block, report, mute, and take all types of safety measures so that I can distance myself from that disgusting energy and behavior. I used big words throughout those sentences so that’s how you can tell I’m serious, or how some would say “DeadAss.” Quotation’s, or quotas are my favorite thing to use because they help me better express and explain the situation I could be in so people don’t start assuming shit about me. -1

I also enjoy writing essays and paragraphs as to whatever the topic is about, because it helps me as a person who has undiagnosed anger issues and a loud yelling voice to calm down. Another thing is music helps me with my mind so it can focus on plenty of things. For example, I’m listening to music right now and it helps me focus on what I’m writing/typing. For another thing, since there will be plenty, I am not one to support people who think women are sluts or men are useless. That shits annoying, and I hate the fact we have people in this world who think one gender is better than the other. Because if we really thought that then there would be a war going on between millions of people on which gender is better, and objectively, neither is. Both sides have done all types of retarded stuff because they think it’s “to prove a point.” Or some shit like that. -2

Anyways, I think that’s all I need to say. Basically places like twitter and tumblr are journals for me so I can get these thoughts out of my head so I don’t overstimulate myself thinking about them.

I think politics and anything government related is stupid and has nothing to do with me.

[aizenat]

I wanna know what reality you're from where Blaire White and Jeffree Star don't get called out for being transphobic.

That’s so crazy how those two ppl have been insanely transphobic and yet they get only a fraction of the amount of hate that women being just gender critical or whatever you want to call it are. Thee women are literally doxxed, their loved ones threatened, etc!

Like there is literally a Muslim woman rn being harassed just for being critical of a trans identified male (not shitting on trans ppl as a whole, not mocking ppls pronouns or harassing trans teens, etc) to the point of people posting her children’s school schedule so people know when and where she takes her children. They are looking for pictures of her without her hijab just so they can post it and humiliate her. And while I honestly do think she is transphobic, instead of just calling her out, people are taking it to an extreme that is just disgusting and, in this case, inanely racist and misogynistic.

That is my point. The energy is not the same. Admittedly, I don’t say I hate people often, but both Blair and Jeffree exist in a space where I feel, and I mean this with 100% sincerity, that the world would be a genuinely better place if they both died today. And when I hate ppl like that, I take them as far off my radar as possible. So, admittedly, my perception of no one calling them out is also my reality because I don’t go anywhere where anyone is talking about them. And, admittedly, also referencing more so watching them thrive in the height of their fame prior to being cancelled in 2020.

But even then, Blair especially made her entire career shitting on trans ppl (I mean, libs in general, but her specialty was shitting on trans ppl). That is why people even know who she is. Like she literally profited off of being transphobic. Meanwhile, jkr said “hey maybe we create spaces where women can talk about their material reality of being oppressed by virtue of our sex,” and everyone decided she literally called for the mass genocide of anyone gender nonconforming. And are calling for the end of her career despite, again, Blair still being able to thrive in her spaces and Jeffree himself gearing up for some sort of launch.

Blair is so safe she literally had to fake being jumped for wearing a MAGA hat fucking Jussie Smollett style just to pretend her life is in risk. Meanwhile, this random Muslim woman I had no idea existed until today is terrified to even take her children to school because ppl doxxed where her children go in order to stalk snd harass her. The energy just ain’t the same, nor is it adequately reciprocal to the “crimes” or offense. People questioning are virtually lynched while people aggressively transphobic (and coincidentally male/amab) are just a couple of tweets saying they’re gross and then everyone moves on. It’s not the fucking same and I want to know what reality YOU live in where they are.

[jyndor]

Sorry but maybe it’s time to stop trying to find parallels between literally everything. Bix and Jyn are nothing alike, their relationship with Cassian are nothing alike and their arcs are completely different. How is Bix being tortured by imperials a parallel to Jyn being interrogated by the rebels? How is Jyn being sent to a labour camp a parallel to Bix getting arrested for informations? Yes I agree that people should stop this bullshit of comparing them, mainly because they have >nothing< in common besides having some kind of relationship with Cassian at some point at their lives. But they’re not defined by what they mean to some man, just stop it. Also these ‘parallels’ will just make people compare them even more, so if it wasn’t your intention you should reconsider what do you want with that

eat my asshole since you’re so far up it already anon

the interrogation wasn't the point, it was about how they're both hiding how they are actually resisting the empire behind the smokescreen of petty crime/black market business. don’t act like you care about the details of any of this, if you’re the same anon (and again anons don’t get a shred of benefit of the doubt from me) you’ve proven yourself to be uninterested in the film and its characters.

part of character analysis IS comparing and contrasting, just not the nasty ways that a lot of fans do it - in misogynistic, racist ways. ever heard the term foil? it's a character that contrasts with another character to highlight these characters’ traits. comparing and contrasting characters is not necessarily a bad thing - it’s about how are we handling it? for instance: i’ve seen some racist, xenophobic behavior from jyn fans through the years (and honestly i’ve not even seen the majority of the early fandom shit because i wasn’t on tumblr as often - i saw that later on) that makes me question some jyn fans’ thoughts on bix because i know how this shit goes. and of course shippers are incapable of respecting the fact that people can have multiple important relationships in their lives without devaluing them, and often women characters get backlash for being *barf* in the way~~ of their ship or whatever.

what they mean to some man. are you serious right now. first off i have critiqued andor for bix’s arc in particular being pretty shallow in comparison to other characters’ arcs, and how she suffers an extreme amount in the service of pushing a man’s story forward. but also... the show is about cassian andor. it’s his show. in some way each of these characters will be there in service of CASSIAN’s story.

a big part of andor's thesis is that cassian is a mirror to the lead from rogue one as well as a foil. parallels aren't necessarily intentional by writers or even real parallels, and fans have a tendency to point out like things where a writer is just unoriginal and call it a parallel (see: steven moffat’s doctor who lmfao). my guess is when it comes to bix, they aren't entirely intentional - except of course the shots that are similar to shots of jyn. i understand how some people might find it annoying to see people pointing out random shots and thinking the fuck the context is totally different - but i deliberately made the gifset with some meta in mind. like i’ve got explanations for all of those scenes. maybe i should have just included it in the original post instead of writing it on a reblog like i’m currently doing but whatever.

i’ve been trying to give a lot of space to bix fans on this because i’ve seen jyn fans act up and i don’t want to spark some bullshit or play on racist, xenophobic and misogynistic shit in fandom. and frankly some bix fans, or people who claim to be idk yall don’t get to claim anything if you take the cover of an anonymous identity, have been horrible to cassian fans and jyn fans, and its felt similar to the melshi/cass shippers who have been harassing wlw rebelcaptain shippers and...

idk some of you either need to learn to block people whose content you don’t like and/or blacklist tags you don’t want to see. i tag really carefully so if you never want to see jyn erso content, you don’t have to. you don’t have to see my content because guess what? you can block me. i won’t miss your ass. if you were someone who actually liked my content or my blog or whatever, you’d have dm’d me with your concerns privately. because i’m gonna consider criticism from people who do that a lot more thoughtfully than some anon. i get not everyone feels comfortable contacting people off anon, which is why i always keep it on because really lol most of the time even idiot asshole anons are funny to me. but in all seriousness if you don’t feel comfortable saying this shit off anon, then maybe you should reconsider who you feel comfortable following and engaging with.

[femenaces]

Hi there. You’ve really sent me a gargantuan ask here, but I don’t mind that cuz at least you’re trying to meaningfully engage. For those reading, though, this means this post is about to get really, really long.

“It’s amazing that you can recognize the pattern of racist/right wing/ethnonationalist rhetoric that overlaps with radical feminist spaces both online and offline (to an alarming degree) and then make no further analysis of that observation.”

Just because you haven’t seen it in your brief perusal of my most recent posts does not mean I haven’t made further analysis on the topic. But for your ease of access, I’ll repeat it here. As someone who has personally observed this pattern on my own posts, this is what I have noticed as to which posts get co-opted by conservatives/ethnonationalists (good word thanks) and why:

Posts about male violence

The pinned post on my blog offers a good example of this phenomenon. Racists will take radfeminist posts about male violence being an issue in society, and add their own conclusion on top of it that “society is only like that because of XYZ group of foreign men.” This is obviously stupid, and is a trick every group of men on earth employ to distract women from the part the men in their own communities play in their violent oppression. Again, please take a look at my pinned post.

Posts about how porn culture/prostitution is bad.

Conservatives agree with this, but their reasons for it are completely different. Conservatives think women should be private property/belong only to her family/that sexual activity “ruins” women, so obviously pornography breaks these values. They also tend to be overly concerned about what it does to men & how men are suffering from being porn addicted (probably bc lots of right wing dudes have a porn addiction they’re ashamed of). Radical feminists oppose pornography for the dangers it poses to the women in it and for the message it sends about and to women: you are consumable goods. This is the phenomenon that has normie dudes going out and asking random women they find attractive if they have an onlyfans/if they’ll make one. Right wingers want women to be private property, left wingers want women to be public property, radical feminists don’t want women to be property at all.

Posts about how men can’t be women

Conservatives like these posts for a couple reasons: one, it gives them one more group of men to pin the issue of male violence on while sidestepping their own/ the men in their communities' role, and two, they’ll never miss an opportunity to shame and mock men for being feminine (common homophobic passtime) and believe men being feminine is somehow “degrading” society, which again, is stupid.

The two main reasons radfems refuse to accept male people as women are again, completely different. Later in your ask you say that you agree with the concept of sex-based oppression, so I hope you understand the first reason radfeminists do not accept men as women; it is offensive and illogical to accept a member of a class of oppressors as a member of the class who they oppress. If you accept that male people can be women (and vice versa), you lose the ability to do meaningful analysis regarding sex-based oppression– since not all women have female anatomy, and some men do, suddenly issues such as abortion access or rape culture become vague “people’s issues” not caused by men denying women bodily autonomy, but by “bad people” denying “other people” their rights. It’s important to be able to name the root of our oppression as women, and trans ideology denies us this by adopting a heavily postmodern view of the world where nothing can be defined and therefore nothing can be addressed. Onto the second point, believing men can become women requires one to have a definition of “woman” that relies on misogynistic stereotypes. There is literally no way around this. As I say to everyone, if you can show me a definition of woman that does not rely on gender role stereotypes or circular logic, I’d love to hear it. Because the only one I’ve found that satisfies that criteria is “woman= adult female human”.

“[radical feminism] functions by procuring full on conspiracy theories that echo predecessors like ‘cultural Marxism’ and ‘the great replacement’, or that it finds itself agreeing with white supremacy on an alarming number of topics.

I’ll be the first to admit I’m not well versed on the examples you give, but even still, what conspiracy theories does radical feminism "procure"? I truly don’t know what you’re getting at here. More on the white supremacy accusations below:

“rejecting the womanhood of many non white women through unachievable physical or chemical standards”

This straight up does not happen. If you can actually pull examples and aren’t just regurgitating anti-radfem talking points, I'd love to see them so I can personally address it since denying the womanhood of non-white women is directly against the tenets of radical feminism and is racist as hell. The only standard of womanhood in radical feminism is being female. That’s it.

“Denying the dangers of white womanhood when weaponized against non white men/ rejecting advocacy for prison abolition”

This is actually a hotly debated topic whenever it comes up on radblr. The most recent example of this I can recall was the case of a mother who called the police on her daughter’s boyfriend after he beat her, and then the police went to his school and shot him dead right there because he was black. Some people were saying she shouldn’t have called the police at all bc she should have known what might happen, and people were accusing people who said that of not caring about the safety of women. Others were saying that she didn’t do anything wrong by calling the cops and that abusers get what they get, and people were accusing people who said that of not caring about black people. My personal opinion is that we need some sort of policing entity to address male violence, but the one we currently have is not cutting it and often does more harm than good to the vulnerable populations it's supposed to protect. It’s obviously a very heated topic even outside of radical feminism, and I’m not surprised the controversy continues even within it. All this to say that radfems as a group are by no means decided on the topic and a lot more discussion needs to be had, with particular attention paid to what black radfems have to say.

“facilitating the spread of western ideology to previously colonized countries, etc”

You’re gonna have to elaborate because I'm not sure what you’re referring to here, sorry. Radical feminism by nature threatens male power and so does not spread easily no matter where it goes. Maybe I’m misunderstanding what you’re trying to say though.

“modern radical feminist movement is a literal organized hate group”

It’s literally not, unless you consider criticism of men and the patriarchy “hate,” but okay.

“[radical feminism is] large groups of individuals organizing on the basis of their hatred and disgust for a small marginalized portion”

The radical feminist perspective that men cannot become women (and vice versa) is not hatred in and of itself. It is also, by the way, not the main point of radical feminism at all. The only reason it comes up so much is because, as I said before, trans ideology prevents analysis of sex-based oppression, which IS a core point of radical feminism.

I will say, though, there are a lot of people who hear “radical feminists don’t think men can be women!” and jump in without understanding our reasoning or any of our other beliefs, because they want a way to bully GNC people and think this is the community for them. This phenomenon is actually aided by the lies people spread about radical feminism, because it makes these idiots think they’ll fit right in based on what they’ve heard about us. It’s an actual problem and I personally am having to address it constantly when these idiots jump on my posts about actual radfeminist theory about like, criticizing heterosexual relationship dynamics or something, with “uhhhhh this isn’t what I signed up for, wtf is this?” bc they don’t know what the fuck radical feminism is and think it’s a fun anti-trans people club or something.

Although, weirdly, in your second ask you seem to acknowledge this phenomenon by stating you agree with the radfeminists in your country and specifically have a problem with:

“the literal cult that has been invented largely by bouj white women in the west and spread in every white-majority British colony, the same cult that is brainwashing women online and offline through conspiracy theories like ROGD or whatever the fuck into believing that their primary oppressors are a small marginalized group that is disproportionately affected by male violence.”

which sounds like you and I are basically in agreement? In which case… yay?

[snifflesthemouse]

This morning, I read an article titled “I went undercover in the sinister world of Meghan Markle hate accounts" posted to Refinery 29. The title gives the impression of a journalist disguising one’s self as a “Meghan Markle hater” for the sake of getting to the bottom of something. However, the content of the article is nothing like its title.

Before I go further, let me stress the importance of perspective. My post isn’t an attack on the article’s author. I’ve never even heard of the author before now, and I’ve no right or reason to attack a perfect stranger because I vehemently disagree with the content of their work. Making assumptions about someone solely on what they write is lazy and sloppy in my opinion. I may be lazy and sloppy, but a hypocrite I try not to be. Therefore, go forward remembering my issues are with content, not creator.

The article starts out explaining the origins of the term “Megxit”. It continues with other hashtags, conspiracy theories, and so on. The article even mentions various media platforms “attacking" the Duchess, as well as crude posts witnessed by the author.

Then the name dropping begins. First with Murky Meg, then Sue Blackhurst, then According2Taz, then Skippyv20 on Tumblr, then Yankee Wally. Eventually, names of Royal Rota journalists are dropped. Then people like Angela Levin and Omid Scobie get mentioned, with interviews from the latter. Instead of an undercover sting, we get a “Who’s Who" of Megxit, a few anonymous Sussex Squad quotations, and Omid trying his best to be fair.

What this article accomplishes is very little when it comes to objectivity. The title is a misconception, and the content essentially paints targets on the backs of the people the author carelessly considers “Meghan Markle Haters". The article reduces anyone who disagrees with Meghan’s behavior as racist, misogynist, conspiracy theorist nutters. So, not only is the content of the article sloppy and lazy, it also lacks originality. We’ve all heard this sad song-and-dance number a million times.

I guess at face value, it becomes very easy, effortless really, for outsiders looking in to reduce an entire group of people with similar views to the basic stereotypes as old as time. It takes very little thought, consideration, or critical analysis, to assume things because they seem to correlate. But correlation is not causation. Just because some people opposing of Meghan Markle’s behavior happen to be racist doesn’t mean every single opposing person is also racist. Again, lazy and sloppy.

Just like assuming every single Meghan Markle fan is also vegan, anti-monarchy, feminist, woke warriors is downright sloppy and lazy. This author has personally interacted with and found common ground with Sussex Squad people many times. Some even became social media friends. They believe what they do, and I believe what I do. We do not agree with most things regarding Harry and Meghan, but we do agree to disagree and be civil.

So, contrary to the article, not all people “hate" Meghan Markle just because they detest her behavior. It’s important to remember extremes exist for all spectrums. Every topic, especially those politicized or made popular by media platforms, have extremes. There is no denying the fact that there are people who hate Meghan Markle because of her ethnicity. Those extremists who hate Meghan for her ethnicity ironically do not discriminate, though. If they hate her for her ethnicity, they hate ALL people of that same ethnicity.

On the flip side of this coin, is the other extreme. The face is the same on each side because the face represents extremism. There is no denying the fact that there are extremists who see anyone opposing Meghan as racists. Extremists who, by default, view every issue in the world through the lens of racism. While racism is a serious problem that deserves no place in society, assuming racism is the root cause of every conflict is also lazy and sloppy. And the same could be said that these extremists do not discriminate, either. If they see race as the only issue for why people “hate" Meghan Markle, they see race as the only issue for most everything.

The problem with both extremes is when everything and everyone is reduced to racial identity, racism only continues to exist. A racist using skin color as a disqualifier perpetuates racism. Assuming racism is the only reason behind disdain for someone only perpetuates racism. Focusing on race or racism allows no room for content of character.

Especially when people defend Meghan Markle being the victim of racism with a racist rule. When opposing critics say “I didn’t even know she was Black" or suggest her physical features, her Hollywood CV, or past involvement with Black causes were nonexistent before she became a duchess or stepped down from being a working royal, the extremists on the other side often resort to the One Drop Rule.

Which means their defense for calling Meghan Markle “haters" racists, even though they might have never knew she was mixed race, is a form of racism. The One Drop Rule was borne from the Reconstruction Era post-Civil War. The “rule" essentially said anyone who appeared to have Black features were considered Black.

The One Drop Rule was the precursor and eventual backbone to Jim Crow Laws of the South. It was used to oppress and segregate Americans based on physical appearance. Considering most people who never heard of Meghan before Harry came along were ignorant to her mixed heritage, it seems grossly negligent to assume race is the real issue. How can one be racist toward Meghan when they didn’t know she was mixed race? This author wasn’t aware of Meghan’s ethnicity prior to it being pointed out (by her and Harry. Repeatedly.), mainly because this author didn’t care.

Like so many, when I first saw Meghan and Harry together for the engagement interview, I was more excited about a fellow American joining the Royal Family. After learning she was biracial, well it was even better. It represented change and progress. Does that mean I saw the Royal Family as racists beforehand? No. It means I saw them as exactly the opposite. Had they been racist, she’d not be a duchess. Her being American and divorced was more a shock to me than being mixed.

The point of all this is there are extremists on every spectrum. For a journalist to say they went undercover, when in fact they did not, to expose the true motives behind Meghan Markle “haters", only to find they did very little to really understand the other side was disappointing. Not surprising, just disappointing. This could’ve been an excellent opportunity for someone to take the reigns and make bridges between two very passionate factions. Instead it became nothing more than a hit piece.

The article fails to acknowledge the possibility – no, the probability – that most people who object to Meghan Markle do so because of how she behaves. The article only considers one possibility behind this “hate". And by calling the objections “hate", the article in turn defines all criticisms as hate speech. Again, unoriginal, sloppy, and lazy.

So here we have it, yet another article grouping and stereotyping anyone who disapproves of Meghan and Harry as racist haters. Yet again, another article name dropping people “deemed racist haters", essentially painting even bigger targets on the backs of those people. Like they didn’t already have enough hate mail. Yet again, another sloppy, lazy, article that never digs below the surface to understand why instead of assuming it.

This isn’t new, it’s just another slop drop from the sensationalism machine that has replaced fair, legitimate journalism. It would be different if there weren’t so many questions surrounding the births. It would be different if Meghan Markle actually lived by the example she so vehemently preaches. It would be different if Meghan Markle would make amends with her own family before telling the world how they should treat people. It would be different if Meghan Markle were a strong woman instead of claiming to be one.

But it’s not different. She hasn’t spoken to her father since two days before her wedding three years ago. She denies the family connections that existed before her fame. She ghosts people once they are no longer of benefit. She preaches equality and universal service while using her title every chance given. She and her husband criticize the “family she never had" while naming their second child after that family’s Matriarch. All of those are behaviors that incite strong emotional responses. Behaviors. And behavior has no racial identity.

A final note… hypocrisy is the main reason people have issues with anything. When one group of people tells another group to stop attacking a public figure, while using assumptions as their crusade call, it’s hypocrisy. One cannot say “if you can’t take the heat, then shut up!” to another without being a hypocrite. When that happens, don’t be surprised when the same exact thing is said back. If Meghan or her fans can’t take the criticism, they shouldn’t participate in it. We all have the right to choose. Just like if I couldn’t handle the criticism, I’d not be writing this.

Life is not fair. The world is a dark, cruel place. When we expect the world to bend to the will of a few, we are setting ourselves above the majority. A strong woman would know this. A strong woman fighting for others would also know that the only person responsible for how one feels is one’s self. External feedback isn’t responsible for internal turmoil. Internal feedback is. That is all.

REFERENCE:

Amoako, A. (2021 June 11). I went undercover in the sinister world of Meghan Markle hate accounts. Refinery29. Retrieved from: https://www.refinery29.com/en-gb/2021/06/10518195/megxit-meghan-markle-anti-fandom

[writing-for-life]

Long rant ahead (probably a bit less diplomatic than I usually am)…

I used to say this tbh because I was fairly anchored in another DC fandom for a long time (Batman), which I’ve more or less left for exactly those reasons. It’s one of the most misogynistic, racist, queer-phobic (despite the obligatory gay ship) spaces you will ever find (and it’s full of very young white fanboys who automatically lecture you if they find out you’re a woman, even if you were already in the fandom when they still shat their pants). That was already the case before social media took over (yeah, I’m really that old, I remember fandoms when all we had were comic cons and the odd real life meeting), and during those times, the Sandman fandom really *was* nicer and far, far more progressive (although Hob/Dream was also a thing back then, but it was a really small ship compared to what you see now. It already started with Ao3 before the show to be frank—fandom’s gonna fandom).

The longer I see the Sandman fandom on Tumblr (and social media in general), the more I change my mind about it. I had to block people because they inboxed me shite or passive-aggressively posted on their own wall every time I was just remotely critical about anything that seemed to threaten the ship (and I am usually fairly diplomatic in my phrasing)—even if it wasn’t about the fucking ship!

I don’t even have a problem with m/m ships. I'm bi and horny enough to find m/f, f/f and m/m interesting. Generally speaking though, I’m not a shipper, but I believe in SALS. Shipping quite frankly doesn’t interest me, and I am far more rooted in the comics than the show. I am much more interested in literature (that’s where my own writing comes in I guess), philosophy and ethical questions, and I think that’s where it starts. Because none of the problems are really “the ship”—the ship is only a symptom. But it’s impossible not to talk about the ship because it is so symptomatic for what’s going on that you can’t avoid it (or other people throw it at you, even if you haven’t mentioned it).

And it’s impossible to “curate your own space” if the ship dominates all the main tags; you can’t just “filter it”. And “creating your own content” is also a bit ridiculous if 76% of Sandman Ao3 tags are m/m (let’s face it, it’s one ship) and only 4% are f/f, with m/f making up the other 20% (so even straight (relation)ships hardly exist). It’s hard to “create your own experience” if people either can’t find it because it gets drowned out, and/or they refuse to reblog/share it. It becomes a self-perpetuating pipeline that’s impossible to break through at this stage. And if we don’t get that’s discouraging, and that people will stop creating content at some point if they don’t feel seen and supported after putting in so much work, then I really don’t know what else to say apart from: “That’s exactly how fandom pipelines work until only one thing exists.”

So one non-ranty, proactive suggestion: Even if you’re personally not super into one particular thing, but you care about your mutuals and their niche and want them to stay, just reblog their stuff (if you see it. I admit I don’t always, and things slip through because we’re not all on here 24/7, but it’s more about general trends than individual posts). It won’t kill you, there’ll still be enough left for your own interests.

But of course most don’t care if that content disappears because they don’t want to see it in the first place. And that’s why the fandom space is not fully inclusive—if there’s nothing left for some people’s interests, be it as a creator or consumer (and I dare remind people we’re not even talking about some super niche kink here), they will leave, or at least feel fairly alone.

I mean, we’ve seen it with the Femslash content. The amount of engagement, both here and on Ao3, is basically non-existent compared to other stuff. People don’t even give stories a chance. And most of that stuff was really well written. Again: I don’t always find the time to read a million fics either, but a simple like or reblog won’t hurt (even if you haven’t read it yet).

Funny anecdote: I currently publish a m/f OC fic, and while that has developed some traction over time and now does fairly ok (for a no smut, no reader-insert fic), I posted a chapter with Hob in it on Monday (he has one appearance in chapter 26 of 28). So I finally tagged him. Guess what happened to my hits? It was like magic! 😂

People aren’t even interested in Dream it seems (I sometimes think fandom actually hates him, but he’s good enough to be twinkified, feminised and fucked by Hob I guess), but if the two names appear in the tags together, they immediately check it.

Rachel and Johanna however? Firmly stuck on 27 hits, and that’s a canon relationship. Two women though, one of them black, nothing to see here, moving on.

It honestly is dire.

The (internalised) misogyny is staggering. I don’t care what people’s sexual fantasies are, in fact, I wholeheartedly support them. But I honestly need brain bleach when (mostly straight) women spout performative crap like: “Only m/m ships are truly equal, and by shipping m/m, we smash the patriarchy.”

Speak after me: “It’s okay if I want to see two guys fuck because I heavily project on at least one, if not both of them.” Part of “smashing the patriarchy” is owning up to your full being without shame, that includes your sexual fantasies. Making excuses for it with ridiculous mental gymnastics like “smashing the patriarchy by only centering men in everything” is internalised misogyny in full swing, but people can’t see it. And oh, it’s also homophobic, because it’s not inclusive but othering. But you’d probably need to be queer to actually understand why.

Also goes for posts that address this. I honestly think people are even scared to reblog certain content at this point because they worry they get harassed. And they do, we’ve all seen it. I was honestly a bit nervous to post that thing about “smashing the patriarchy via m/m ships”, but I guess once your reputation is ruined, you’re free 😂

And it must be possible to address fandom misogyny and racism without making it personal and insulting individual people. That’s the only hard limit for me because I lost someone to suicide four years ago, and while relentless online bullying and harassment weren’t the only reason, they were instrumental in her following through. So if it gets personal, I disengage. It’s just sometimes good to remember that we don’t always know everything about everyone, and that our assumptions about their choices and motivations might be wrong, but that just as an aside.

I generally don’t harbour any bad feelings or hold grudges against anyone, no matter what they ship or don’t ship. If people are arseholes, I unfollow or block. My mutuals come from many different corners of the fandom, and I appreciate them all, otherwise we wouldn’t be mutuals. But people need to check in on their discomfort around addressing problems in both fandom and text (I love Neil and think he’s trying to change what needs changing after all these years, but the comics aren’t always unproblematic, neither did everything work out perfectly for bringing it to the show) if they truly want the inclusive space they’re always talking about.

And yes, I freely admit it: Deep down, I *still* want to believe that it’s possible to remember what unites us in the first place (our love for a particular piece of art) while acknowledging and accepting we’re not all here for the same reasons (mostly thirsty escapism vs deeper engagement, although they’re definitely not mutually exclusive 😂). That it would be easier to listen to (and actually hear) each other, and bring on some sort of change, if we did. But it does feel hard to hold on to that belief sometimes. Because escapism is not an option for some people if they don’t feel included…

canon typical sunbreak bitching about their main fandom

i have seen multiple people saying s andman is one of the nicest fandoms they've ever been in and i'm like??? i'm glad it hasn't been a horrible experience for you. and i have met some absolutely wonderful people here that i hope to continue talking to for years to come. but also i feel like labeling this fandom as 'nice' does an incredible disservice to the appalling amounts of racism and misogyny here. the show's cast is made up of so many interesting and complex women, primarily black women, and yet most of the fandom gets tunnel vision about the white guys in this show. who are, in fact, in the minority. it makes me upset. in this aspect the s andman fandom is in no way a progressive, or kind, or a positive space to be in

[ashdumpsterpile]

Ohmygod YES Susan Pevensie is awesome please talk to me about Susan i want to know everything you have to say

Literally THANK YOU for asking me this bc Susan Pevensie is a character I never get asked about and I have So Many Opinions.

I'm going to start by saying that Susan used to be my least favorite character in the series. This goes for the books and the movies. Some of it was for personal reasons--she reminds me of a couple of annoying ppl I know irl--but it was also bc I watched Prince Caspian which shoehorned her into a relationship with Caspian which I hated.

HOWEVER. I ended up rethinking this position after interacting with Susan fans and realizing that there are so many wonderful things to love about her!

(putting under the cut bc this got long)

Things Ash Loves About Susan Pevensie

Aight I'm not going to do a formal analysis yet on her, but instead rant about some of the unrelated things I adore about Susan Pevensie.

Susan the Archer

Look we all love archery here. I don't have anything more to say.

Okay, I actually do have more to say. I love the fact that Susan is a complete badass with the bow. You get the general impression that she's one of the royals in charge of public relations, traditions, foreign policy, etc. and yet she's the most competent archer in the series. One of the few things I liked about the movies is how they didn't downplay this. They actually let her be a badass and show off her skills.

Also the part where she kicks Trumpkin's ass was awesome.

Susan the Gentle

Susan being the most passive Pevensie was something I definitely underappreciated as a teenager. I think my non-ability to see past "I'm not like other girls" narrative and the combination of Susan being described as the most traditionally feminine woman in the Narnia series is what initially turned me off from her.

HOWEVER, now it's one of my favorite attributes! I love that Susan is a badass and the most beautiful woman in Narnia. She has hair down to her feet, every man and woman in the kingdom want to fuck her, and she's still a fucking badass who will not hesitate to kick your ass.

Susan the Sister

Most of my thoughts of Susan as an older sister mostly stem from my own personal headcanons, but she is an awesome sister to her siblings. She's Peter's voice of reason, Edmund's sass partner, and Lucy's big sister.

Susan the Mom-Friend

She is a literal mother-figure for Corin.

"[...] the most beautiful lady he had ever seen rose from her place and threw her arms round him and kissed him, saying: "Oh Corin, Corin, how could you? And thou and I such close friends ever since thy mother died. [...]"

-The Horse and His Boy, 33-34

Most everything I have to say about this ventures into headcanon territory, but I love the idea of Susan basically adopting Corin after his mom dies. The way she trusts Cor--who she thinks is Corin in this chapter--is really sweet and I wish we could've seen more of that relationship.

Susan the Flawed

Something I notice from the fandom is a lot of people who hate Susan tend to because of her flaws. On the other hand, most Susan stans like to wave away these flaws and blame C.S. Lewis for being misogynistic or Aslan for being a "cruel god" and ignore the fact that she is a deeply flawed person.

Susan gets something of a "reverse redemption arc" in The Chronicles of Narnia. This makes her not only a fascinating foil to Edmund--as both are analytical, logical people--but an interesting character by herself.

She starts out in TWW as very skeptical of Narnia and it's whole deal and also very condescending to Lucy throughout. She ultimately does admit that Lucy was right and does get on board with the whole prophecy at the same time Peter does, and ends the book being crowned "the Gentle Queen."

In The Horse and His Boy, she has a very interesting dynamic with Edmund and in even more interesting relationship with Rabadash. They don't even interact on-page with each other, but it's highly implied that she was interested in him when he was a guest in Narnia. His behavior obviously changed when she visited him in Tashbaan, but you have to wonder what their dynamic was like before for her to travel all the way to his home when relations between the countries were strained at best.

Prince Caspian is where the cracks start showing through. Susan has lived an entire life as an adult in Narnia, gets thrown back to England with her siblings, and is yet again in Narnia as a child. This book is what really emphasizes her one fatal flaw: convenience.

(Put a pin in that thought, I'll get back to it.)

Susan denies once again that Lucy saw something that the rest of them can't seen. She continues this narrative until every other sibling finally acknowledges Lucy in the right and only then does she apologize.

The last mention of Susan is in The Last Battle, where all of her flaws rise up against her in the worst way possible. I have a lot of controversial opinions on this that I'm going to address later, but I just want to say that Susan's reverse-redemption arc is something I actually like about her.

(There is also evidence that Susan does get a full redemption arc, just as Edmund and Eustace did, but C.S. Lewis was pretty much done with The Chronicles of Narnia at the point and instead encouraged fans to write their own version of how that went down.)

Okay, back to convenience being Susan's fatal flaw. So the one thing that comes up time and time again in the series is that Susan is very focused on material comforts. I believe it's implied that she's vain, and it's canonical that her own personal comfort spurs her to make decisions.

"[...] I really believed it was him — he, I mean — yesterday. When he warned us not to go down to the fir wood. And I really believed it was him tonight, when you woke us up. I mean, deep down inside. Or I could have, if I'd let myself. But I just wanted to get out of the woods and — and — oh, I don't know [...]"

Prince Caspian, 81

Prince Caspian has the strongest examples of Susan doing this, but certainly there's evidence elsewhere. There are a lot of fans who are distressed by this, claiming that Aslan and the others are too hard on her and shouldn't judge.

Honestly, I like that she's written with this flaw. Not only is it very relatable--(my own personal comfort and convenience is something I highly prioritize too)--but it humanizes a character who otherwise is ridiculously op and basically the Helen of Troy of the series. It may sound like I'm using this as an excuse to rant, but I really wouldn't have her any other way.

Susan As Portrayed by Anna Popplewell

Movie!Susan is a fucking delight.

She's sarcastic and badass and awesome and I could spend hours heaping praise on Anna's acting and her portrayal of Susan, but I can already tell that this post is going to be long so, I'll just stop here.

(10/10 want to be stabbed by her tho.)

Personal Headcanons

Let's talk about my fanon thoughts. I have many.

Susan is Aro

There's canonical evidence for this! Susan is a character who is heavily pursued by suitors everywhere, and even lets herself be courted by many of them, but chooses not to settle down. Even when she gets back to England and is described as only having interest in parties and material things, boys aren't mentioned.

I like to think that in The Horse in His Boy Susan was interested in Rabadash at first because he was a brilliant conversationalist. Nothing she says about him implies romantic interest, before and after she realizes the truth of his intentions.

Susan and Edmund Were Best Friends

This might be my love for The Horse and His Boy showing itself, but I think Susan and Edmund were thrown into circumstances where they interacted the most with each other.

Edmund is the ruler in charge of politics. Susan is the ruler in charge of Cair Paravel's public image. I imagine they spent time as ambassadors to other countries and planning royal functions.

They're also the most level-headed and logical out of their siblings, so they probably found a lot in common.

Susan Fancast

I literally just said I loved Anna's potrayal of Susan's (and I love what they gave us of older Susan too in LWW!), but I read the books in 2008 and my parents didn't let me see the movies bc I was like...nine years old and they thought it would be too scary.

So I had to headcanon my own interpretations.

Queen Susan the Gentle:

For some reason Merlin wasn't too scary for me to watch and I fell in love with Katie McGrath in like. Two episodes so. (On an unrelated note, I also fancast Bradley James as Peter at the time.)

Anyway, fanon Susan is basically Morgana Pendragon pre-evil arc. Sassy as hell, hot as fuck, and can kick your ass.

Unpopular Opinions

Yeah, feel free to skip this part if having controversial fandom opinions is a deal breaker for you.

The Problem With Susan Isn't Actually A Problem

I'm about to start so much discourse in the Narnia fandom, but C.S. Lewis's choices with her in The Last Battle weren't misogynistic. Bear in mind, I'm not saying that all of his writing choices in the series were A++ or excusing away certain racist/sexiest bits, but it's honestly baffling to me that people are so up in arms over Susan's exclusion in the final book.

So the part that everyone loses their shit over is as follows:

"My sister Susan," answered Peter shortly and gravely, "is no longer a friend of Narnia."

"Yes," said Eustace, "and whenever you've tried to get her to come and talk about Narnia or do anything about Narnia, she says 'What wonderful memories you have! Fancy your still thinking about all those funny games we used to play when we were children.'"

"Oh Susan!" said Jill, "she's interested in nothing now-a-days except nylons and lipstick and invitations. She always was a jolly sight too keen on being grown-up."

"Grown-up, indeed," said the Lady Polly. "I wish she would grow up. She wasted all her school time wanting to be the age she is now, and she'll waste all the rest of her life trying to stay that age. Her whole idea is to race on to the silliest time of one's life as quick as she can and then stop there as long as she can."

The Last Battle, 83-84

There's a lot to unpack here and I first want to say that everyone's opinion on this part, no matter how different than mine, is valid. I'm going to be quoting some other ppl's opinions on here and by no means am I bashing them. I just want to address my feelings on the matter and the best way to do that is to cite the thoughts of ppl who have opposing ideas.

Here are some arguments on Tumblr I've heard regarding "The Problem of Susan":

"How about we talk about what might have happened if Narnia hadn't deserted Susan? [...] What if we didn't tell Susan she had to go grow up in her own world and then shame and punish her for doing just that? She was told to walk away and she went. She did not try to stay a child all her life, wishing for something she had been told she couldn't have again."

"Narnia is filled with metaphors (often not very subtle ones) that are supposed to teach us how to be, and the most glaring one for any young girl to absorb is that it's okay to be a girl like Lucy, unthreatening and cheerful and valiant and faithful, but to be a girl like Susan gets you punished - in fact, you aren't just punished, you're destroyed."

"why do we call it ‘the problem’ where’s the problem about a young woman dealing with her trauma and choosing her own path, actively making the choice to keep living and to stay and to carve a life out in England when her siblings couldn’t? what is the problem about susan forgetting to somehow cope with what she’s experienced? why is it ‘the problem of susan’ that she recontextualised her faith?"

And then there's JK Rowling who said this:

There comes a point where Susan, who was the older girl, is lost to Narnia because she becomes interested in lipstick. She's become irreligious basically because she found sex. I have a big problem with that.

It's weird how I'm still finding new ways to hate JKR in the year 2021. Again, there is absolutely zero implication that Susan had sex when she came back to England. ZERO. Did she actually read the books? IDK. If someone shares this opinion pls reply with actual canonical evidence.

Back on topic, I'm a firm believer of death of the author and interpreting art via your own experiences. Which is why I'm also going to share my own interpretation by saying y'all are wrong.

Susan Pevensie was not abandoned by Narnia. She was not barred from Narnia because she is traditionally feminine or because she "owned her sexuality" (another opinion I didn't have time to condense down for this post) or because she recontextualized her faith or even because she deserved to be punished.

I also fail to see how Susan recontexualized her faith, as the entire point of it all is that she has none. Bringing this back to Susan's fatal flaw (personal convenience/material comforts), her prioritizing herself over her own faith is the reason she is "no longer a friend of Narnia." Not...whatever fanon y'all are imposing on her character.

Susan is not being punished for liking lipstick and looking pretty. Susan's not even being punished. Y'all read Neil Gaiman's The Problem of Susan and forgot it wasn't canon.

There are many reasons Susan is not in Aslan's Country (one of them being that she's not actually dead yet), but the main one has to do with this:

"[...] But there I have another name. You must learn to know me by that name. This was the very reason why you were brought to Narnia, that by knowing me here for a little, you may know me better there.”

Voyage of the Dawn Treader, 215-216

Yeah, okay that's why Susan is no longer a friend of Narnia. The implication when the Pevensies are told that they can no longer enter Narnia is that they are to find Aslan in other places. Susan doesn't do this, instead choosing to focus her life on material things. It isn't the lipstick, it's that she only wants the lipstick.

Susan Had Sex In The Books

Oh and not in the context y'all are thinking. (Again, there are no implications that Susan was barred from Narnia for having sex or that she had sex when she came back to England.)

So there's actual canonical evidence that Susan and Rabadash had a sexual relationship. Sort of.

"What think you? We have been in this city fully three weeks. Have you yet settled in your mind whether you will marry this dark-faced lover of yours, this Prince Rabadash, or no?"

-The Horse and His Boy, 35

Edmund calls Rabadash her lover. Not her suitor. I don't know if the word had a different meaning in 1954, but it feels like C.S. Lewis is saying that they're fucking. I'm not really happy with the idea of Susan sleeping with an abuser, but really proud of her for Getting Some as a woman born in a time period where having premarital sex was a big no-no.

This also invalidates the weird opinion going on that Susan was barred from Narnia because she had sex.

Suspian Is The Worst

I haven't really talked about Movie!Susan much, but as long as we're talking unpopular opinions, it's worth noting that I hate Suspian. Some of it is the "Susan is Aro" headcanon screaming inside of me, but it's also the fact that it's written poorly, does nothing interesting for either character and generally comes across as awkward.

I feel like they were trying to make Prince Caspian sexy and relevant to teens. It came across as super heteronormative and unnecessary.

It also gets really really weird bc the next movie then gives Caspian and Edmund mad chemistry and we're all just like........ok.

Final Thoughts

Susan may not be my favorite character in the series, but she's grown on me over the years. I have many issues with fanon interpretations of her--which definately fueled some of my disdain for her initally--and I don't identify as a Susan Apologist.

I do however adore Susan and have many headcanons for her not mentioned here. I love reading fanfic, writing fanfic and meta, and generally having conversations about her and would love to talk more about it.

I welcome criticism (CONSTRUCTIVE) and conversation on all of my opinions and observations. Please drop into my inbox. <3

[seancekitsch]

Out of the Rain: a Marko x Reader fic

Warnings: bloodplay goes without saying bc vamp, rough sex, dirty talk, semi public sex, telepathy?? me projecting my music taste on this fic again. drug use, fast and loose use of vampire lore bc when i write i am god and u cannot stop me. also can u tell i have like…. v clear descriptions of the setting like i used to work at the place im describing but its not in california

No one had come in for hours. What's the point of staying open? You dim some of the lights in the store, which is one of three head shops in Santa Carla, but the only one open late. You're not really sure why this is the only store that stays open, why everyone else if worried about the three am walk back to their car on a weekend night. You've never seen anything of suspicion, just sometimes that biker gang watches people shuffle out. That was almost comforting, though. People didn't like those guys, so no one would make you use your switchblade if they were around.

The bright while fluorescent lights of your typical daytime ambiance faded away, and now green light bathes you in the “mood” lighting your boss thought was a good idea. The green lighting reflects off of the glass counters, shining it back at the ceiling and making everything that much more green. It fits, you think with the overall vibe of the store. The stale scent of weed, gently and miserably covered up by some nag champa incense, always burning in at least four different spots within the store. You'd long since gotten used to the smoke in your eyes. The music does everything to add to the ambiance. You always have full control of the music in the shop, usually because no one else is willing to take the night shift in Santa Carla. In fact, most of the boardwalk shops had a revolving door of night shift workers. You never got why, something clearly spooks them that does not spook you. Whether that makes you brave or stupid, you dont know. Jefferson Airplane’s Surrealistic Pillow pumps through the speakers in the store. But I suppose no one knows, you're my plastic fantastic lover.

The rain batters the boardwalk outside, a roar much different than the typical hustle and bustle of drunk teens, of the cliques and crews that come in and out; the few that sit and snicker in the doorway, never entering. Some too afraid to be associated with the implication of being spotted in the shop. We sell jewelry and vinyl too, you always say, when they balk at the idea of being in the same room as a bong or incense.

But then there's the other group that stands and idles in the threshold, also not entering. It's that biker gang. Four guys, a girl, a kid. Maybe he’s the brat of the girl and the one who takes himself too seriously, but maybe not. She looks too young for that. They'd been hovering around quite a bit lately, always after dark. You’d spoken to them, at least the ones that are talkative. The hair metal wannabe and the cute short one. Paul and Marko. You knew the dark haired one was Dwayne, but all he ever offered you was a curt nod and a tight lipped smile, respectful but indifferent. They're nice, not worth the spooky reputation they have. Any time it's not just you at the shop, your boss tries to spook them away. Good thing your boss isn't here tonight, because one of them is prowling around the storefront in the rain. That is, if it's not your spliff induced haze playing tricks on you.

No, one of them is out there. Without his little pack. The cute one. Marko.

You walk over to the door, which you haven't had propped open since the rain trickled in as a drizzle at the beginning of your shift. At least he had enough sense to be huddling under the awning. Fuck, he’s handsome even when he looks like a drowned rat.

“What are you doing out here?” You scrunch up your nose as you ask.

“Y’know, waiting for you to show up.” Wanted a look at that cute ass.

You blink at him. Did he really just say that?

“Okay… well, you know it's raining out there, right?”

“I might,” he offers noncommittally, eyeing the spliff still in the hand that's not holding the door. If it were anyone but him, you'd probably get fired for it.

Why is he just hanging around out here? That's hella weird. His curls are getting matted to his forehead, slick with rain, his jacket starting to look a little sad.

“C’mon in, Marko. It’s too wet out here. You’ll fuck up your jacket.” You nod towards the interior of the shop holding the door open as he passes you.

Wrong move, sweet cheeks.

“What did you say?” What did he mean, wrong move?

“I didn't say anything,” he offers nonchalantly as he thumbs at one of the tapestries on the wall. A garish mess that’s supposed to be the worm from Alice in Wonderland, but it’s distorted by a botched tie dye job of dark muddy colors. Every time you look at it, you assume one of the day workers did it.

“No, you said something.”

“Do you want me to say something?” there's both a threat and an innuendo in his tone. Maybe you do, but you just laugh, a sharp exhale through your nose, and bring the spliff to your lips again as he follows you deeper into the store.

You jump up onto the counter next to the ash tray, easy reach for each time you need to ash.

“So why are you really here?” your eyes narrow at him, kicking your sandal off on the floor where it lands a few inches from his boots. He looks uneasy in the space, like for all the wild shit you assume he’s into, he might not actually belong in it. He sways a little to the music, perfectly in tune with the rhythm. You sway along too, and suddenly he fills the space like he belongs. He just needed someone along for the ride with him.

“Do you ever come around during the day, or just at night because I’m so fun?” You’re teasing him, but it’s a nice easy feeling between you.

“Not really a sun guy,” bullshit, he would look beautiful with a tan, “but I do drag everyone here just to see you.”

“Awww, all for me? Do you have a crush, Marko?”

It’s more than that. You hear the words clearly, but his smile doesn’t move. You kick the other sandal off.

“I can hear you, I don’t know how, but I can. I bet you can hear me too.”

I can. You’re wrong about the tan thing.

You straighten up, mind clearing as you blurt out your next question. Something absolutely stupid.

“So what are you, a vampire or something?” he laughs at you, but his big toothy smile doesn't reach his eyes. No, there's something predatory, extremely dark in his eyes. Otherworldly.

How could you guess?  

“Well, that for one big fucking clue.” You ash the spliff for the final time, leaving the roach in the tray. You would think you’d be more surprised, more upset that you just found out vampires were real, and that you were in the same room as one. You have to say, weirder things are probably afoot in Santa Carla. Murder capital of the world can’t all be from some rowdy teens and a ten year old.

“You do those surf nazis?” is all that leaves your mouth. You kind of hope it was. They were the fucking worst. Racist, misogynistic, destructive. You’d had to threaten them a few times to leave your store on your shift.

“The—? Oh! Surf nazis. Yeah that was us. Ate a few of them.”

“Good for you. I mean— murder. bad. But they were nazis, and now they’re dead. so…” you trail off. Not really sure what to say next, but then you keep going. Remember everything you know about Marko.

“No, no I mean, it makes sense. Right? You and the guys only hang around at night. Aren’t vampires solitary hunters though? I don’t remember Dracula being in a frat.”

“They’re my pack. We take care of each other.” He says it with such fondness and devotion.

You feel a pang of jealousy run through you. You work alone for the most part, live alone, you’ve got friends but they’re all over the place. He belongs to something.

“And you're down with this?” he’s legitimately asking. You nod. You don't really have a choice, you're down or you get eaten, but like genuinely you are down with it. If he was going to eat you, he probably would have by now. There's probably a reason they've been hanging around the store, and in your sightline while you close up. You're putting things together.

“Like really?”

“Well, you haven't made me a kebab yet.”

He shrugs, frowns.

“Could still skewer you on something.”

Laughter erupts from your lips while you roll your eyes, music to Marko’s ears. This is why he took a shine to you, it's easy to get along with you, and you're not one of his brothers.

Something heavy falls in the room, and it's not the haze of the incense. He steps towards you, big blue eyes raking over your body, but always coming back to meet your gaze. He closes the space between you, easily fitting between your thighs; the rough patches of his jacket brushing against your bare skin where your shorts ride up. He leans in, like he's about to kiss you, and against all better judgement, you're going to let him.

You're going to let him.

The record skips. He holds out his hand, more like a gentleman than a biker gang killer, and helps you off the counter.

“Hold on, let me pick out a new record,” you turn without waiting for his confirmation, not at all surprised when Marko follows hot on your heels to the back room. Your boss’ office, the record room. Whatever you wanted to call it. His hands ghost over your arms as you push past the wooden bead curtain to enter the room. You can feel his presence close enough to touch. That's it, right where I want you. There’s his voice again.

He lets you actually pick out a new record. You slide it out of the sleeve and walk it over to the player. The static buzzes and pops as the needle finds the groove.

“Ocean Rain, you heard it?” No. He shakes his head, and you can feel it as he leans into your back.

“Echo and the Bunnymen. They've got a new album coming out this year.”

You turn to face him and his fingerless leather glove clad hands cover your cheeks.

He kisses you gently, tenderly. Not at all the way you’d expect. He’s eager, kissing like there’s something to prove. He licks his way into your mouth, tongue pushing your lips apart and you let him. His arms tighten around you as you kiss, tongues now greeting each other playfully. Your tongue explores his mouth, running along each and every tooth in his mouth. Huh, no fangs, you realize, and maybe he isn't actually a vampire. As if he reads your mind (maybe he does), he pulls away.

“They're, uh, hiding,’ he nods, almost to himself more than you. You nod as well, slow and uneasy, not quite believing him, but he pulls you back into a harsh kiss, more of what you expected. His hands roam your body as yours bury themselves in his curls. Still damp, but long and beautiful just as well. He shrugs the jacket off his shoulders, and his hands only briefly leave you to throw it and his gloves somewhere else, leaving him just in a thin white tank top. His mouth leaves yours to trail lower, kissing your neck. Your pulse point. Fucking irresistable. No, that's definitely his voice. Is this the end? Could be.

“I can smell you, hot stuff,” he moans into your ear, sending shivers down your spine. You find yourself gripping onto his shoulders a little tighter, but he lets you sink. He guides you, again more gently than you thought he would; bare knees brushing the threadbare carpet floor before you plant yourself. You look up at him through your lashes and he all but bites back a groan.

“You gonna join me down here?” You lick your lips, waiting for something.

“Nah, I’m gonna let you have a head start,” there's a joke in his tone. You're learning that’s normal for him. He’s silent, or playing jester. It’ll be interesting when you let him fuck you. Shit, did he hear that?

“Quit thinkin’ so loud!” he runs an affectionate hand through your hair. “But yes, I heard you. Glad you're as eager as I am.”

That's encouraging. You take your time undoing his belt, connected to faded and soft leather chaps, not bothering to push them down his thighs before you move to the top of his jeans, teasing your fingers at the skin just above the waistline. He shudders under your touch, extremely reactive. Does he get touched like this often? Or is it just quick fucks? You don't want to think about who else he might be doing this with, focusing again on his body, and all of the offending clothing covering it. You unbutton them slowly, teasing. For a member of the undead, he seems to be out of breath under your movements. The zipper is pulled down just as slowly. You run your palms flat along the bottom of his stomach, to his hips before pushing his jeans down to around his ankles, hooking his boxers on your finger along with them. He’s beautiful, and you can help but stare. Hard, eager, and thick, greeting you with a small trimmed patch of golden blonde curls. You wrap your hand around the base.

You never expected a vampire to whimper, but that's exactly what happens when your tongue darts out of your mouth to lick the head of his cock. Quick, tentative little lick, testing the waters. Your tongue swipes across the slit at the tip of his thick member and his hands animate like you flipped a switch, rising up, going to your hair, rising up again, slamming down against the desk. Your boss’ desk. You lick a long stripe to the underside of his cock, paying close attention to the prominent vein there.

“So good, so good, oh you feel so-” he pants out, hands white knuckling the edge of the desk. Heat pools in your core, loving that he’s so vocal. Fuck, if he could just keep speaking. Your other hand moves to your shorts, sloppily and hastily undoing them and wiggling them down to your knees. You wrap your lips around the head of his cock and sink down on it, taking him as far as you can, until you couch when he hits the back of your throat.

“You look fucking beautiful like that. Please move, Please move, you’re so fucking good at this.”

You do, starting to bob your head up and down on the length of him, hollowing out your cheeks and flattening your tongue against him, cupping and massaging his balls in your hand. Your free finds itself between your legs, rubbing gently at your clit, stirred and encouraged by his praise.

“Does sucking me off get you hot and bothered?” Yesitdoes.

You keep bobbing your head, rubbing your clit, eyes trained on his until his eyes squeeze shut. His cock twitches in your mouth.

“Don't wanna- don't wanna finish in your mouth,” he’s urgent, grabbing you by the chin and pulling your mouth off of his cock. He pushes you back by your shoulders, letting you guide yourself back to lay on the rug. He pulls your loose shorts easily off your legs and settles himself between your legs, too eager to bother with removing his boots and everything.

“I’ve been wanting to do this for so long. Do you know how bad I wanted this?”

“Fuck me, Marko, dont say it. Just do it,” youre breathless under him, wanting nothing more than for him to be fucking you. He pauses.

“I dunno…” his thumb swipes up along your clit, drawing a whine from your throat, “For some reason I think you like it when I say things.”

You nod, knowing words will fail you. And he gives you what you want, lining himself up and sinking into you, groaning as he buries his head into the crook of your neck.

“Oh I knew your pussy would feel like fucking heaven,” he pants against your neck, pressing a harsh kiss to the underside of your jaw. He sets the pace quickly, unmerciful and fast, fucking hard and deep into you. His hands push up your thin tee shirt, and you can feel his sigh of relief when he gets a handful of bare breast. He doesn't have to deal with a bra tonight. You hike your knees up, opening yourself as much as you can to him, wanting him to fill you to the brim. He looks into your eyes while he fucks you, which comes as a surprise to you. Maybe it shouldn't. You wonder what it would be like to be a victim of his. Does he treat them well? Have fun with them like this? Or is he vicious? You don't know if you could picture him like that… vamped out.

“What does it feel like?”

“What?” he thrusts sharply, snapping his hips into you, making you yelp.

“To be fed on, but not to die.”

Are you serious? You hear him in your head.

YesIam. He thrusts like that again, earning an identical yelp, now coupled with your thighs squeezing him around the middle. You're close already, and he can tell.

He nods, a question; You nod, confirmation.

He pulls at the neckline of your shirt, already scooping so it doesn’t ruin, and exposes your shoulder. Somewhere non lethal. His other hand comes up to grip your jaw, covering your neck but being careful not to squeeze it. You hope he bruises your jaw, you realize. A physical way to feel him when dawn comes. He slows his pace to a rocking, grinding into you, staying deep.

Then he bites. Stars erupt behind your eyes, and it feels like your blood has turned to seltzer. Every nerve in your body is in overdrive as you moan and shake and come undone around his cock. You're the kind of girl that comes from the bite of a vampire, apparently. He doesn’t let up. You can faintly hear him moaning against the open wound in your shoulder, and you hope you taste good to him. He licks the wound a few times more, softly, carefully, like he’s trying to soothe you when he finally lets you come down from your high.

When he pulls back to let you see him, his features are gruesome, full vampire with sharp brows and cheekbones, pointed nose even that much more so almost birdlike. Fangs and bottom half of his face covered in blood.Your blood.  He’s panting like an animal after the kill. But he doesn't scare you. Maybe he should, but he doesn't.  It's just Marko, no matter what, and if he wanted to eat you he would have. Several times now. His hand finally releases your jaw, to wipe the blood from his face. He wipes his hand then on your face, covering you in your own blood, hot on his fingers and palm.

“Fuckin sexy,” he pants, voice deeper and distorted. His thrusts speed up, trying to find his own release as your nails dig into his back, maybe making him bleed as well. You feel the rug burn forming on your back, you feel tears in your eyes. It's never felt this good with other guys.

When he comes, he comes with a howl, buried deep inside you as he shouts and shivers then stills above you. Your chest is heaving, trying to regain yourself as his face slowly fades to normal, and he slumps down on top of you. He buries his face in the crook of your neck, near the wound he tore open, now no longer bleeding. He mouths at any bare skin he can find, lazy half kisses as he spreads more mess and blood on you. Your fingers find his curls again, winding them around your digits as you stare up at the sickly green mood lighting bathing the walls of the room.

An hour later, Marko is helping you lock up early.

He makes sure to dump out all of the ashes from spliffs and incense, makes sure the vinyl is all in its right place while you make sure the register and inventory is all in its rightful place and order.

“You’re dangerous, you know.”

“Me?” you scoff, “That rich, coming from you.”

I’d do a lot of things I’m not supposed to for you. You kinda don't want to ask him what he means by that. For some reason that feels like a conversation you shouldn't have tonight. 

He leaves the store before you, holding the door open for you and letting you lock the doors. He slings an easy arm over your shoulder, not bothering to shield either of you from the rain as he steers you towards your car. You can feel the rain cleaning your face, the blood flowing away and saving you the shower you were going to take before collapsing into bed tonight.

“Where’s your bike?”

“I flew here,” he says with that devilish smile, and you're really not sure if he's joking or not. Your arm sneaks its way into his jacket and wraps around his waist, holding him close as he makes sure you get home same. Marko makes you feel calm, in a way you didn't feel before you moved to Santa Carla. How long had he been waiting to make his move? And does this mean he and his brothers would be coming around more often? Maybe being more friendly towards you. Each step towards your car feels heavy; You don't want to go home alone without him, but somehow you know he won't come with you. 

“Will I see you again?”

He grabs your car keys from your hand, and sticks them in the door handle. Of course you will.

Right. You just have to be near the beach at night. You know, where you work.

He kisses you full on the mouth, holding you close and tight, like you could slip away at any second. When he finally lets you go you pull away to be met with his face, full on grinning, his eyes still closed from the kiss. He doesn't look like a killer.

Marko watches you as you pull open the door to your car and more or less throw your ass into the seat.  He holds the door as he gives you one last smile, and says:

“You know, you should never invite a vampire into your life. Renders you powerless.”

And he winks. 

[battlestar-royco]

okay here it is... THE acotar show announcement post with all my opinions in it

first off, i see ronald d moore is going to be involved. aka the creator of battlestar galactica. he really gave me my rights just to revoke them huh 🤡 (i mean i stopped trusting him after season 4 and the fact that he runs outlander but wow bro u really going stupid now)

secondly, yes i will be watching it. if there is a visual adaptation of a book i've read, i watch it on principle. this isn't out of spite (though the spite will surely come). i do genuinely like to see different interpretations of a book, and i love tracking production from start to finish! so i'll be evaluating the show both as an adaptation and a story.

which leads me to my third point: i've always thought that the first adaptation never got off the ground because the concept of adapting this series is just ridiculous. the plot of acotar never held water, and the series gets progressively more outlandish, rushed, problematic, and nonsensical as it goes. sjm is working on the pilot now, so we can assume she'll be close to the writing (maybe not a full-on WRITER, but possibly a consultant or exec producer or smth) and that she'll want to adhere to the book plot. assuming they do the 1 book=1 season formula, seasons 3 and on are just gonna be soft porn. just the scintillating television we need 🤡. maybe they'll retcon the plot to make sense, but i genuinely don't see how they can do that because the fuckery is so deeply rooted that you kinda can't (ie, the entire 1st book being retrospectively 100% unnecessary, the reasoning behind rhys being "evil," all the inner circle info-dumping their personalities onto feyre mid-acomaf, etc)

four: i really want to talk about something sabaa tahir recently posted on her stories: that she's been struggling to get aeita picked up for film/tv because there's way more likelihood for hollywood to buy rights for fantasy books written by white people and then race-bend the characters. we've seen that with like... 100% of all ya book-to-screen adaptations. so the fact that this horribly misogynistic, racist, homophobic, transphobic series is getting picked up and will most likely be race-bent before we see pretty much any ya adaptations written by poc is just extra salt in the wound.

which leads me to five... the CASTING. are they actually going to race-bend people? i think so? and if so, what ethnicities will they go for? will the stans still love rhys if they "officially" make him brown?? i've talked at length about how the illyrians are just white dudes with tans, based on textual evidence, official fan art, sjm's social media etc. so for all those reasons i honestly feel like a race-bent acotar will be more deplorable than an all-white one. as stated above, the fact that this woman who doesn't care whatsoever for poc will be able to use actors of color to promote her own racist books and fake feminism before authors of color get to see their work adapted is a no from me. and here are the canonical reasons why poc!illyrians doesn't work. and we have the whole lucien scenario now as well, so there are many ways this can and will all go wrong.