#im not cultured enough to know

[aziracrowz]

the only people im calling "hellers" are stupid destiel shippers who are also wincest deniers because theyre are the stupid ones. Everyone Should Be Shipping Every Ship In The Book Like I Do. everyone should ship wincest and destiel and sabriel and sastiel and daddycest and jo/dean and Everything. i think it will heal many of you to ship all of them in various ways because it is simply more fun like that.

[tea-n-ink]

Homesickness is where the heart is

[julijbee]

girlbossing too close to the sun.

[deimosatellite]

like idk it just seems actually nefarious to take one of the very few widely known instances of queerness in older history being a symbol to show queer people that we've always existed and aren't alone for CENTURIES and taking away the queerness from it. like. i know some people say that ''the queerness isnt important in the book" which i mean in my opinion i could go off for 10k words in an essay as to how basil's love for dorian is integral to the story BUT EVEN APART from that its really just. having a real explicitly queer character in such an old and widely regarded classic novel is HUGE for queer history and this is just. literally like. its 2024. why are you doing queer erasure to DORIAN GRAY

[lesbianralzarek]

"fuck, the goth outfits i can cobble together from clothes i already own look kinda bad" *remembers that being goth isnt about spending a million dollars on fast fashion*. "okay but what if i get judgmental stares from strangers?" *remembers that theres no way to deviate from the dominant culture without people judging you and so i shouldnt care*. "but what if other goths-" *remembers i live in Normietown, USA and not only are there no other visibly-goth goths, but also no one here has a frame of reference for what goth "should" look like outside of pinterest, which i actively ignore anyway*

[3liza]

me after narrowly avoiding another Tumblr thread where 60% of this website claims to have <1% incidence neurological phenomena because theyve never thought about what if the blue *i* see isn't the same color as the blue *you* see, man

[lillymakesart]

my new OC: cempaka!

she is based on the story/universe that my friend @haydardotjpg's OCs indra and yuwei exist in! pls go checkout haydar's art he is amazing!! his ocs can be found more easily on his ig but if you're lazy this is his oc indra (cempaka's one-sided love interest) and yuwei (indra's fated lover)

also, cempaka means "magnolia" in malay!! (she gets a flower name bc my name is lilly which is also flower c:)

bonus first iteration under the cut!

i accidentally had "poinsettia" flower in mind when i did this iteration instead of an actual magnolia, hence the color scheme. but yeah, this is as self-insert as it gets LOL like she's literally MEEEEEE but still very different and i love her as she is <3

[bacchuschucklefuck]

love thinking kipperlilly spends her afterlife looking for lucy in a familiar forest

[likeprongstostars]

ive long ago made my peace with not being credited but damn bro... purposefully hiding my watermark with text feels personal

[hauntingofhouses]

i know I've mentioned my interpretation of mizu's gender a million times on here but i don't think i ever fully elaborated on it.

so on that note i just wanna ramble about that for a bit. basically, it's my reading of the show that mizu is nonbinary, so let me dig into that.

putting the rest under the cut because it ended up being pretty long lol. also here have a cute mizu pic of her being happy and most at ease with herself, symbolised by her letting her hair down. <3 ok let's proceed.

thus, when i refer to mizu as nonbinary, i am interpreting mizu as a woman, but not ONLY a woman. not strictly a woman. she is also a man. she is also neither of these things, she is something in between, while at the same time she is none of these at all. i've said as much many times, but i just don't want people to think that when i say nonbinary, it inherently means a "third androgynous gender" that essentially turns the gender binary into a gender trinary. not only is that going against what the term nonbinary was crafted for (to go against rigid boxes and categorisation of gender identities), but also, not all nonbinary people fall under that category or definition, and that's definitely not the way i interpret mizu.

okay before i go deeper i'd just like to address some important things. first of all, this post is an analysis of canon, and thus everything i am arguing for is about my own interpretation of the show, and not some baseless projected headcanon i am projecting onto the character. please remember there is a difference between an interpretation (subjective; interpretations will differ from viewer to viewer, but ultimately it is firmly rooted in evidence taken from the source material) VS a headcanon (unrelated and often even contrary to what is presented in canon; opinions wildly differ and they cannot be argued for because there is no canonical evidence to back it up).

ALSO please note that nonbinary is an umbrella term. this means that it applies to a vast range of gender identities. other identities that fall under the nonbinary umbrella include agender, bigender, genderfluid, and so on. however, it's my personal preference to use the term nonbinary as it is, simply because i'm not a fan of microlabels (more power to you if you do like them and find they suit you more though!).

also, before anyone fights me on this, let me clarify further that gender means something different to everyone. it's not your biological sex or physical characteristics. but at the same time, gender is not mere presentation. you can be a trans woman and still present masculine—either because you're closeted and forced to, or because you just want to—and either way, that doesn't take away from your identity as a woman. same goes for trans men. if you're a trans man but you wear skirts and don't bind or don't get top surgery, that doesn't make you any less of a man. because gender non-conformity exists, and does not only apply to cis people! some lesbians are nonbinary and prefer using he/him pronouns while dressing masculinely, but that doesn't mean they're a man, or that they're any less of a lesbian. neither does this mean that they're a cis woman.

the thing about queer identities in general is that, like i said, they mean something different to everyone, because how you identify—regardless of your biological attributes and fashion or pronouns—is an extremely personal experience. so a nonbinary person and a gnc cis woman's experiences might have plenty of overlap, but what distinguishes between the two is up to the individual. there's no set requirements to distinguish you as one or the other, but it's up to you to decide what you identify as, based on what you feel. either way, by simply identifying yourself as anything under the LGBTQ+ umbrella, you are already communicating to the world that you are not what a conservative, cisheteronormative society wants you to be.

which is why i find all this queer infighting on labels to be so ridiculous. because we're all fighting the same fight; the common enemy is a societal structure that divides us into set roles and expectations purely based on our biological parts. that's why biological essentialism in the queer community is a fucking disease. because by arguing that women are inherently weak and fragile and soft and gentle and must be protected from evil ugly men, while men are inherently strong and angry and violent and exploitative of women, these people are advocating for the same fucked up system that marginalises and abuses women as well as effeminate and/or gay men.

anyway. i'm going on a tangent. this was meant to be a blue eye samurai post. so yeah back to that— the point i'm trying to make is that there's no singular way to identify as anything, as everyone's views on gender, especially their own, is specific and personal to the individual.

so with that being said, yes you can definitely interpret mizu as a gnc cis woman and that's a totally valid reading of the text. however, interpreting her as nonbinary or transmasc also doesn't take away from her experiences with misogyny and female oppression, because nonbinary and transmasc folks also experience these things.

me, personally, i view her as nonbinary but not necessarily or not always transmasc because i still believe femininity and womanhood is a very inherent part of who mizu is. for example, from what we've seen, she does not like binding. it does not give her gender euphoria, but is instead very uncomfortable for her both physically and mentally, and represents her suppressing her true self. which is why when she "invites the whole" of herself, she stands completely bare in front of the fire, breasts unbound and hair untied. when she is on the ship heading to a new land in the ending scene, she is no longer hiding her neck and the lack of an adam's apple. we can thus infer that mizu does not have body dysmorphia. she is, in fact, comfortable in her body, and relies on it extremely, because her body is a weapon. instead, what mizu hates about herself is her face—her blue eyes. she hates herself for her hybridised racial identity, hates herself for being a racial Other. hates that she has no home in her homeland. thus it is important to note that these are not queer or feminist themes, but postcolonial ones.*

* and as a tiny aside on this subject, i really do wish more of the fandom discussion would talk about this more. it's just such an essential part to reading her character. like someone who's read homi k bhabha's location of culture and has watched this show, PLEASE talk to me so we can ramble all about how the show is all about home and alienation from community. please. okay anyway—

nevertheless, queer and feminist themes (which are not mutually exclusive by the way!) are still prevalent in her story, though they are not the main issue that she is struggling with. but she does struggle with it to some extent, and we see this especially during her marriage with mikio, where we see her struggle in women's domestic spaces.

on the other hand, though, she finds no trouble or discomfort in being a man or being around other men—even naked ones—and does not seem stifled by living as one, does not seem all that bothered or uncomfortable navigating through men's spaces. contrast this to something like disney's mulan (1998), where we do see mulan struggle in navigating through men's spaces, as she feels uncomfortable being around so many men, always feeling like she doesn't belong and that she's inherently different from them. mizu has no such experiences like this, as her very personality and approach to life is what can be categorised as typically "masculine". she is straightforward and blunt. her first meeting with mikio, she tells him straight to his face that he's old while frowning and raising a brow at him. she approaches problems with her muscles and fists (or swords), rather than with her words or mind. compare this with mulan, who, while well-trained by the end of the movie, still uses her sharp wits rather than brute strength. this is a typically "feminine" approach. it's also the approach akemi relies on throughout the show—through her intelligence and persuasive tongue, she navigates the brothel with ease. mizu, in contrast to someone like mulan and akemi, struggles with womanhood and femininity, and feels detached from it.

thus, in my opinion, mizu is not simply a man, nor is she simply a woman. she is both. man and woman. masculine and feminine. she has to accept both, rather than suppress one or the other. her name means water. fluid.

as a side note, while i do believe mizu is nonbinary, i also primarily use she/her pronouns for her, but this is a personal preference. i find it's easier to use in fanfic (singular they is confusing to write stories with, but again, that's just my feelings on it, and this is coming from someone who uses they/they pronouns). i also lean towards she/her because it's what the creators and all the official promotional copywriting of the show uses. and even though i am a "death to the author" enjoyer, i feel that when interpreting things that are left open-ended, it does help to look at the creators' take on things. also because, in general, being nonbinary simply doesn't necessitate the use of they/them pronouns. nonbinary is not just a third gender. it's about breaking the binary, in any which way, and that's exactly what mizu does, constantly.

also, i'd also like to mention that one of show's head of story even referred to her with the term "nonbinary", rather than simply "androgynous" (see pic below). and it's possible this could be a slip up on his part, in which he believes the terms are interchangeable (they're not btw), but regardless i find it a very interesting word choice, and one that supports my argument.

so anyway yeah that's my incredibly long rambling post.

TL;DR nonbinary mizu rights 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻 congrats if you reached the end of this btw. also ily. unless you're a TERF in which case fuck off. ok i'm done.

[familyabolisher]

Can the day you make a Joan of Arc post be today? pretty please?

the gloss of it is that i hold similar suspicions towards appeals to joan of arc as an articulation of ideas around martyrdom, "girlhood," lesbianism, transness, masculinity, etc, as i do towards eg. appeals to butch chivalry via the vector of like, knighthood, the latter of which i find tedious and problematic for how it fails to understand how the construction of 'chivalry' is grounded in catholic crusading cultural narratives & the masculinity of knighthood in these imaginaries is one similarly soldered to narratives of white christian supremacy. joan of arc has significant currency within both historical and contemporary french nationalism to the point of being a symbol used by far-right french political movements; crudely, her appeal to catholic fascists lies in these same logics of military martyrdom that people who identify her as something of a patron saint of contemporary lesbianism/transness draw from.

i don't think appreciating joan of arc makes you "problematic" lol but i do think a good portion of this website's userbase just aren't especially mindful towards why she holds the appeal that she does and where else this appreciation for catholic martyrdom might find traction. whether or not she can be "reclaimed" from catholic fascistic narratives is a different question (that i frankly don't care about because i don't see the appeal), but that's not what's taking place in her current cultural circuit, because these narratives aren't being taken up and engaged with at all as far as i'm aware.

[almayver]

The most annoying thing about stories doing the least to forgive the parents is that actually I would eat up that storyline if done right. An actually well done story where a parent accepts that they have done wrong and puts actual effort in fixing the relationship while the kid properly deals with all the complicated feelings about that situation? I would be SEATED

Actually if anyone has any recs of stories like this do tell.

[finalgirlsamwinchester]

Rebecca A. Brown. 'Of Radioactive Sprites and Diminutive Tyrants: Hammer’s Monstrous Children' + Dustin Freeley, 'The Monstrous Child Replacement and Repetition in The Shining' from Monstrous Children and Childish Monsters

[storywestistrash]

i am actually so tired of the way westerners treat eastern europeans

[megumi-fm]

.

[rose-n-gunses]

I'm late to the party, what's going on in hellcheer land?? I knew grace is dating a johnny depp fan but has more happened? (Feel free to just ignore this if you don't wanna answer btw, i know you might not wanna invite drama onto your blog!!)

I am going to risk answering this but only because I have no idea.

I am honest to God probably the worst person to ask about this because I am so extremely Out Of The Loop when it comes to the goings on of celebrities because, to be quite frank, I don't care. What famous people do in their personal lives doesn't affect me and my opinions on things are rarely anything more than "oh cool" or "ew". The most involved I get is following some on Instagram but even then it's only a select few.

I think a lot/the majority of whatever is going on is/was happening on twitter and i don't have twitter so i've only ever seen whatever's trickled onto here (which even then is very very little because, again, it doesn't affect me and also I think I've just tailored my blog to my tastes so that stuff doesn't typically cross my feed beyond the occasional reblog from a mutual or that one anonymous ask I got one time)

That being said, fiction ≠ reality and characters ≠ the individuals who portray them. I am in hellcheer land, as you put it (which I like that btw, I'm going to keep using it lol), for Hellcheer The Characters. I will acknowledge that there is "drama" that is either starting or continuing to infiltrate hellcheer land even though it has no place to do so. Hellcheer is fictional and fandom is supposed to be a fun community experience and by allowing your feelings about Certain Matters to significantly affect the fandom and other people you are making it an unfun community experience and that's kind of mid tbh :( If there's going to be drama (which there inevitably will be) it needs to, imo, not be brought into hellcheer land because, again, hellcheer is fictional and characters are not real people and real people are not characters