#in the context of the coding: Say It. Say the Slur We Know You Want To

[crowleysgirl56]

Ok, so I wanted to do a deeper dive into this particular passage of Good Omens:

For context, this is at the climax of the book, they’re at Tadfield airbase, the horsemen have been dispensed with, Aziraphale has his body back, and Satan is about to claw his way out of the pit.

In most of the proceeding chapters involving Crowley it talks a lot about how scared Crowley is. He is very scared of Hell.

One could perhaps say maybe he is scared of them due to The Arrangement, but that is never explicitly stated. I think it has more to do with Hell is bad, and Crowley has spent the majority of the book being yelled at by some entity through the radio or TV telling him how he’s going to be in super amounts of trouble when they get their hands on him. He is just scared of what will happen. When he comes across the book shop burning he doesn’t cry for his lost friend. He curses Aziraphale, and I think it’s because the one person who may have been able to keep him safe and protected from Hell is now gone.

So when he thinks to himself (as shown in the above screen shot) that there is now nothing left for him to lose, this is why I never thought (upon reading the book the first time that is) there were any romantic feelings between him and Aziraphale. I know that technically he had already lost Aziraphale. But by this point he was back again, and back in his body. If there truly were romantic thoughts between them surely the idea of losing him again would come up.

I have read so much fanfiction, some old, some new, and what they all have in common is the detailed inner monologue of Crowley’s turmoil over his feelings for Aziraphale and how he doesn’t feel like he can act on them. In the book we get nothing of the sort, from either character. Even when they’re separated there is hardly ever any description of them thinking of the other except occasionally to frame a short reference to something. Reading the book I never got the impression that there was anything more than two ethereal beings spending time and proximity to each other and doing work for each other for no other reason than they’re essentially a bit lazy.

I think they’re only queer coded for the fact that there’s the line about Aziraphale appearing “gayer than a tree full of monkeys on nitric oxide”, and Crowley is, well, very Freddie Mercury coded. Them being seen as gay together and all the gay slurs in the awful racist scenes of Aziraphale body hopping about in culturally indigenous people after the bookshop fire has more to do with the very typical 80’s/90’s trope of “being gay = comedy gold”, than them actually being together romantically.

I think the reason why they were shipped so much after the publication however is for the same reason we ship so many male couples (or female couple) in modern media, why we’ve always shipped them: because of the complete and horrid lack there of, of proper queer representation.

If you’ve ever seen the magnificent Russel T Davies TV series It’s a Sin, there is a wonderful scene where the character Ash starts a job in a school library and the headmaster asks him to go through all the books and find any book that has queer love scenes so they can be removed. Ash then gives a most beautiful and impassioned speech (albeit it turns out the speech is just in his head) of how there is nothing. Absolutely nothing. There is nothing to the point where they are nonexistent. They are invisible. They are not seen. (Or like, something to that effect. I tell you though, it’s bloody brilliant).

So I think that’s rather the point really. You have two iconic characters, albeit supporting bit characters practically, and I think a lot of our minds automatically get drawn to wanting to put them together because of the sheer lack of queer couples. People have been doing it for years from Frodo and Sam, to Harry Potter and Draco (or Ron I guess), to Sherlock and Watson (even before the Benedict Cumberbatch show. Also as an aside let’s not get into how obsessed people got about Sherlock Holmes back in the day when those books were first published. The obsession was the reason Doyle killed the character off the in first place, then after getting letters from people telling him they were literally going to kill themselves, the reasons why he resurrected him again. Don’t tell us that modern day nerds are weird and obsessive. We’ve ALWAYS been like this).

It’s for this reason why queer representation is so god damn important. Why I still support the idea of Good Omens season 3. Because regardless of how the characters were originally intending to be represented in the book, it’s very clear now that they are so much more than “Just friends”. And we NEED that! Whether you subscribe to the idea that they will be physically intimate with each other, the fact remains is they love each other. They love each other immensely. And that comes from years of Terry Pratchett (and the other guy) accepting that canon and telling fans that it’s true. Because Michael Sheen made a choice and held a belief about how he saw his character and then David Tennant followed suit. That literally tens of thousands of fanfiction writers have decided the same.

So that’s my take. I don’t think loving each other was ever intended that way in the book, but in the last 35 years their story has morphed into the ineffable husbands that we now know.

What are your thoughts? Have I rambled on long enough to make any sense? Do you agree? Have I missed something completely obvious and gotten it all wrong? Keen to hear thoughts.

[midnightluck]

Aventurine is Rom-Coded

Back on my bullshit with more over-analysis for my best blorbo LET'S GO

DISCLAIMER I am not Rom, I am just an interested party, pls correct me if i'm wrong or disrespectful here it's been a long time since I got to deep dive this topic. Will be also discussing the slur as context with full knowledge of the context. ALSO I am BIASED take this with a barrel of salt, and I haven't cited my sources since I did this research in high school for writing Dick Grayson fic okAY HERE WE GO

So like, can we talk about Sigonia??? Like???? What the fuck kind of culture has "may your schemes remain hidden" as a general wellwish? Can we talk about how "Sigonian" is a slur????? and ALSO they are so Rom-coded, CAN WE TALK ABOUT THE CULTURAL GENOCIDE PARALLELS PLEASE--

So FIRST OFF, Romani != Romanian, Romani != "gypsy", Romani != criminal. Romani is a tribe, is a culture, is a way of life. It's nomadic and art-centric and Romani, as a language, is not Romanian, no matter what some folk use in fic (sources: 1, 2, 3). It's a language that borrows from most European languages, and because Rom are nomadic, they then spread that back to those countries. For example, the English word "love" is used in Rom to mean "money," possibly the basis for the idiom "show me some love" meaning "pay up". (also, side note: as there are different groups and traditions, there are some pretty widely varying dialects; here's some more about that if you're interested.)

The Rom culture involves moving on and traveling. This is fascinating for townies (derogatory) and for the vast majority of people because it's an alternative lifestyle, and often children or teens or young adults would fall in love with the people or the lifestyle and follow the caravan, at least for a while. This led to the Rom's reputation as babythieves and childstealers. "Lock up your children," people used to say, "because the gypsies are coming to town." Maybe some caravans did take kids, we don't know, because fresh blood is important to continue family lines? But citation needed and A N Y WAY

So the Rom would roll into town, half-show and half-trading, perform for money, spend money, and move on. Because they were transient, there was less pressure to maintain a reputation, and a lot of the "tricks" and bad trades led to the term "getting gypped" being coined from the word "gypsy," which is why it's a slur; it literally means "someone who is intending to steal from you". One such common trick was Ekkeri, akkery, u-kéry an, which was a "magic spell". Put your money into this handkerchief, say the spell, it doubles. Do it again; it doubles again. Oh, you want me to do it with all your life savings? Sure, here's the hankie, the longer you wait to open it, the more it'll grow, buh-bye! Ekeri Aikeri is likely the original basis for the common rhyme Hickory Dickory Dock, and like all nursey rhymes was presumably a warning: if you hear this, be wary. (sources: 1, 2, 3)

So the Rom became more and more marginalized, and as any marginalized group will tell you, that's not a winning recipe for longevity. There's currently an inherent, unexamined bias all modern kids are taught, to be wary of strangers, to be wary of "gypsies" because they're enchanting magical creatures who will walk into town one day and leave with your money or your heart or your dreams (see Shakira's Gypsy), but they're not, the Rom are people, and people are not one thing. The stereotype of a "gypsy" is constantly enforced and as the population dwindles, more and more people are assuming that the Rom aren't real people, that the way of life has died out, and why be careful when there's no one left to harm? Only there is and they are trying but they no longer have the infrastructure to support themselves outside of society and they have to give up their culture to be a part of society because society thinks they're extinct fairy tales. It's a lot like what happened with Native Americans in the US, except that there were more Native Americans, they had settled land and history, and they fought back. The Rom didn't have a place to defend because nomads, couldn't point to history because oral traditions, and now there's so little to prove they ever travelled the entire continent of Euraisa and spread culture and art and magic. The only things the wider world has left of Rom culture are in our words, and even then those are carelessly used and more weapon than word.

TL;DR I have a lot of feelings on this but LET'S GET TO AVENTURINE.

Unlike real Rom, he's got the eyes--everyone can see at a glance that he's a schemer, a liar, a storyteller and a gambler. He wears his heritage on his face and he doesn't try to hide it, just like he doesn't try to hide his serial number. Someone tried to own him, and he beat them. Someone tried to kill his culture, and he won't let it die. He's been a foreigner longer than he'd ever been Avgin, but that kind of heritage doesn't die, even when everyone else does. Take Sparkle looking at him and saying "What's one of your kind doing here?"

Sigonia IV is the planet; there were multiple races on it, according to the lore, and Aventurine was an Avgin, a race that was wiped out. "Sigonian" is like calling someone an "earthling"; you're not wrong, but you are grouping everyone in together, and the Avgin and the Katican are terrible enemies who would not appreicate that in the least, I assume.

In-game characters use "Signonian" over "Avgin" which feels like "gypsy" over "Rom". Aven is presenting himself as a "gypsy," letting people call him that, embracing the stereotype and leaning the fuck in because it's better to be a Sigonian than to let the entire Avgin culture die entirely.

It's a lot of weight to carry, but that's the thing about a magic trick: the real trick is hiding how hard it all is. Magic is the art of making the impossible seem easy and natural, after all; look at this shiny pretty distraction, isn't it flashy? Isn't it bright and pretty and so easy? Just a twist of the wrist to produce anything your heart desires, and never mind how long it took to set it all up (we'll discuss performative luck build next time!)

Anyway so that's my take on his identity and cultural issues; he's too visibly an outsider to ever be trusted, but he's too alone to ever be supported in a culture. He knows he's alone, and what's more, he knows that everyone is looking to him as their only example of what an Avgin is, of what they were. He is defining his entire culture, in defiance of society, and all he has to do that with is childhood memory. There's this fuckoff big weight on his shoulders which is part of why he can't die; his reputation is every Avgin's reputation, and he will defend that more bitterly than his own. Aventurine doesn't lose because Avgin don't lose.

[angorwhosebabyisthis]

i'm also just sitting here like literally a turning point in his backstory is fighting back against street harassment from a man who calls him a homophobic slur and then tries to beat him up. it's a 'G-rated' slur they could get away with putting in a YA book ('pansy') and it's the only use of that word in the entire series. standing up to it is also portrayed as part of him being pressured and groomed by a queer-coded older man. these people ain't subtle once you see it lmao

i started writing up a short bullet point highlight reel of Reasons Five is Gay-Coded and it is now thousands of words long and still going fsjdndmdl

[cedarnommer]

I've been thinking about this. There's this really interesting post from Pawberry about some of the issues with art depicting minors. And it got me thinking in a different direction.

Trigger warning for ahead, will be talking about sexualization and fetishized words that diminish trans femmes. Will also mention the sexualization of minors. Some will consider the usage of the word trap as just a slur. I'll be using it in this context for fetishized art of characters, which are floating between a weird gender presentation of boy crossdresser to trans femme. And either way, they're being depicted as both masculinized and feminized for the sake of fitting within fetishizing and turning straight something that is queer..

I think the usage of traps in the context of a western audience is really interesting. I'm from eastern Europe myself, so I've also been affected for a while by a false perception of what is deemed "normal" in Japan. Before I continue, I'd like to say that Japan has queer people. Japan has trans people. Japan has trans femmes. And if you belittle and summarize their experience as nothing more than "traps", than you're part of the problem and are perpetuating a fetishized version of trans people. It's also worth noting that Japan has a complicated relationship to queer culture as a result of many governments that have been directly tied to imperial Japan. And the country does try to limit the kind of depiction you can get for queer coded characters. It hasn't stopped the exploration of queer themes for the sake of provoking viewership and readership. But this is entirely from a consumerist need. And there are very few works that I would consider profoundly queer within a Japanese context. (Go read "How Do We Relationship?". Seriously, it's really good.)

Weebs and other kinds of weird people on the internet would like to say that trap is a concept of a feminine character that's tricked the "straight" man into liking another male character. A gotcha moment of "haha, they're feminine enough that it doesn't matter, right?". This leaves an easy way out for the person gripping with complex gender and sex dynamics by merely fetishizing the given character and removing all the uncomfortable queer context from the equation. It also creates an easy way into being a bigot by attacking characters that are outwardly queer. Because that's the other issue with traps and how they're depicted in Japanese media. You know that part about the conservative government not liking queer stuff? Well, they've also spent decades promoting cis heterosexual relationships. Oftentimes, traps will be depicted as so feminine, that there is no real distinction with female characters. And as a result, they can reinforce, rather than oppose a heteronormative idea of how to perform sex and gender. The men attracted to these characters can fetishize the idea of being into "dudes", while still reinforcing an aesthetic that says that going after the stereotypically feminine is the correct thing to do.

The problem is that this logic is then reapplied to any and all modern Japanese media. I've already given you a very queer manga earlier that's about lesbian relationships. And in recent years, there have been other works exploring characters that are not just a fetish or a bigoted parody of a character. Nor do they exist solely to provoke readership through "taboo" subjects. Instead, they're genuine demonstrations of queer characters. Bridget is my personal favorite example of this. The vitriol and hatred that the men deeply into the fetishized form of her is always quite something. They couldn't dare accept that a Japanese author could want to depict a queer character with dignity and respect. Then this logic starts being applied to people in real life. Your only option as a trans woman is being an overtly feminine male that is only there to trick men into fucking you, or else, being a hairy, overweight and sweaty caricature of a trans person.

What I'm saying with all of this, is that it's not helpful. I know that this isn't discourse prominent on Tumblr. But I have seen deep angry debates from trans people over their self identification with being a trap. And I don't want to police everyone. But I can also state my opinion on the matter. And I think traps are a bad self descriptor.

And now for the other big elephant in the room.

Trap characters are oftentimes underage characters. By focusing on these characters' surface level queer visuals, it opens up room to fetishize minors. And the further you go down that route, the more things you could justify as a result. Characters like Hideyoshi from Baka To Test can be shown as this hyper feminine girlboy and let's not think about the character still being in school or the weird obsession over flat chests.

And there has been genuine effort from Japanese writers to stop creating characters that are merely a fetish. Suddenly there's their relationship to their gender identity and whether they feel like a girl. Just a few questions like this can really undo some of the cursed work of making characters into "traps". Bridget is wonderful, because she's struggled and through her journey realized who she is and what she wants from her life.

If you're someone that has many kinks, I'm not here to police you. I myself as a plural system have a very complicated relationship to hypersexualization too. But if your kinks are here to directly harm others and for you to attack people and reinforce a heteronormative standard of being, you are not going to be respected by the queers. And your mouth foaming to Bridget using she/her pronouns, to her being considered just another girl, to her daring to be the scary tranny; perhaps stop watching sissy porn and actually talk to trans people. Because we're not sex objects. Just like cis women are not sex objects. Just like intersex people are not sex objects. Just like trans mascs and enbies are not sex objects. If you think that feminine = sex, turn off your porn and talk to other people. Seriously.

[kingofdersecest-2]

Hey there, you made a post where you said-"Gamzee is back, and he's talking about a redemption arc, all the while saying "My ninja" which of course is code for "My nigga" because why not make all those things people said about Gamzee being a black stoner true! Ha ha, so progressive!" And I just wanted to add some context.

Using ninja instead of the n word is very much so a white juggalo thing, like, outside of homestuck. It's not a good thing (let's be real, most things inherent to juggalos are sus at best) but it is very much so a real life thing that real white trash does and has been around since the early 2000s when people started telling ICP and Twizted that the n word was off limits. I really can't speak for the Homestuck writers intentions or wether they even know about juggalo lingo like that but "Magic Ninjas" is the name of the label that Twizted owns and at their shows you will hear (white) people chanting "magic, magic ningas, what!" Instead of the traditional "whoop whoop!" Of ICP.

Who knows what the hs2 writers were thinking really, but I thought it was worth mentioning the context they pulled that lingo from.

Lmao thats kinda funny. I mean i believe anyone can use any words at any time for any reason. But I can see why ICP probably wouldnt want their crowd spamming the n word. So ninjas are the substitute. So we're basically as close to the n word being canon in Homestuck as we can possibly be with that whole ninja thing, arent we? That is probably the most hilarious goddamn thing thats come of the Epilogues and HS^2. Some people think retarded is a slur, so I guess Homestuck has already broken its slur virginity, and technically the trolls have slur names for different blood colors. But its still really fucking funny.

[sharky857]

was that teacher written out with toxic positivity in mind? (in amirs flashback in your fic)

It pretty much was. :°D

And, as everything else in those flashbacks (both Amir and Jun's), it was also inspired by RL experiences, some witnessed, and one first-hand. :°)

Infodumping further details under "keep reading".

The unnamed "special needs" teacher She's been inspired by a combo of teachers I've seen across my school years and "unlicensed assistive personnel" (for Pasta speakers: ye olde "OSS", aka: "Operatore Socio Sanitario"). A common trait I've noticed with both categories was this "forced positivity" which they would interact with their students/patients, no matter what. I always found that mildly irritating, not to mention, at least as an external observer, it looked more like they were "baby talking" the single person. ---

Amir's fuglyass flashback Vaguely inspired by an episode happened in HS. One of my classmates, as well as another bunch of us, was good friend with a student from another class. In time she started to develop a crush, because he seemed so kind and also always ready to crack a good joke, and she also went this close -> 👌 to ask him out on a date. Next thing we knew, this classmate of ours one morning came in like a Quite Upsetty™ Wrecking Ball and, when we asked her wtf happened, she said that she saw that other boy leaving his own classroom with the only special needs teacher of our school (along with that teacher's small bunch of "special needs" kids, mostly students with Down syndrome), and then, in that genuine shock, she blurted out that "I was about to ask a[n R-SLUR here] out!! 😱" while also saying to be very glad she never mustered the courage to ask him out sooner. (On the flipside: unlike what happened in the fic, in my school there was a virtually non-existent bullying towards the so-called "special needs" kids. They were all treated the same way as any other of us by the other students) ---

Jun's fugly flashback Loosely inspired by an episode happened to yours truly in MS. For context: it was some time in late spring, and unless you're attending some kind of expensively private school, there's zero dress code in Italian schools. The context is to say that it was not unusual to see tween and teen boys completely bare-chested during recess, especially considering that they would've never missed an opportunity to play either football (NOT the American kind) or, more rarely, basketball. Anyways! During one of the post-lunch recess times, there was this usual bunch of kiddos playing football without their shirts. Me and another bunch of girlies were some several feet away from the bunch of kiddos (our school yard was just that vaste). Some girlies had zero problems in voicing their own teenager-like, hormonal-induced thirst over the kiddos. I was just staring silently, mostly trying to grasp what they were even seeing in those boys several feet away (tweensie Sharkey had several years to come before learning about the wonders of "ace" AND "aro" :°) ). One of the girlie noticed and asked me who I was "drooling after". I just spat out the name of the one I was randomly staring at. Next thing I knew, not even two days later that same kiddo came to me during another recess time and asked me something on the line "why tf are you saying we're going out together?" To which the already social-anxious me promptly sputtered as the brain entered a BSOD-like state. The other kiddo probably took it as a weakass attempt to make up an excuse/a lie on the spot to cover something up, and next thing I knew (again) was him saying something on the line: "Just stop that. You know that no one would EVER want to go out with you". (MS was the funniest of times, yes. :°) Alas, I was no "Jun". So at that time I just sucked everything up, gave another reason to be made fun of for the next week or two, and never knew who I should've thanked for all that.)

[trans-leek-cookie]

the thingw the orcs in dunmeshi is sth i skirt around bc like u said it is. not a great modern take on orcs. obv not the worst it could be and kui at least did engage w trying to write a more involved lore on them rather than just having this be the same “orcs are big uncivilized brutes” version 8000000 but that element is still there. and i do think “its not the worst” is hardly what i would want to set my highest expectations to jdhdgksgd

tumblrs being a bitch n not letting me put images in so I'll just paste the text from the other ask

Nodding. ty for the info on the ways halfling racism can be compared to irl examples in “the middle east” like that rly is such a close comparison i wonder if it was at all intentional… AND FR on the whole . wishing we knew what they called themselves bc the “halfling” “half foot” thing i rly cant help but think abt how it feels like irl examples of certain groups being denigrated to category slurs its like. LOL. dunmeshi makinh me feel party to fictional racism and microaggressions against my will...

Idk Abt skirting around bc I think it's smthn we should face head on, but at the same time I'm not in a place where I can really add onto the discussion wrt orcs as a white/East Asian person. IIRC ppl have said tolkiens orcs are black and/or central Asian (Mongolian I believe) coded, which is meaningful cause he's influenced so much of modern fantasy, and thats. Y'know. Not great. Also the orcs in dungeon Meshi are essentially an indigenous group from what I remember so that's also a whole mess. Again, my opinions arent very meaningful when it comes to this, but I feel like it's incredibly disappointing to see an author who's clearly capable of nuanced and interesting commentary on racism in the context of real life and fiction (even if it's not always great it's clear she's thinking about it in some depth) really just. Fall back on tropes. Bc for the other races - human is a wider category than usual, tall men aren't always the Everyman, elves are long lived but that doesn't make them wiser, and halflings are mature, worldly and resourceful, which I feel like does a lot to break free of typical fantasy pigeon holeing. But the orcs are just sorta... The Bad Guy but Not That Bad I guess? Theoretically it's a departure from the "super evil forever no exceptions" idea of the but it's still so far behind what needs to be done to make it less of a lazy, racist trope.

Yeah, again I'm not west Asian or Arab like I said, but between reading stuff ppl online write n talking to my Iraqi friend + rereading dungeon Meshi and really trying to analyze it, it kinda stood out to me. I will say I was a little unconfident posting about it bc it's 3 things (4 if you count the name note) but theyre still really notable at least to me. The hand/foot cutting is I feel the most explicit? Because that's such a fucked up stereotype it just stands out immediately. I don't necessarily know if the half foot/middle east connection was intentional, because I assume Japan/Asia in general has a different relationship with West Asia (since they are the "far east" in comparison, so "Middle East" wouldnt really make sense?), but it could be one of those things that colonialism managed to spread. I'm not very knowledgeable about that, but even if it wasn't intentional I think it's a very interesting parallel in how language can be used to categorize people as "normal/other". So i can't say if its intentional or not, but it's definitely an interesting lens to consider the story thru. Id also say I believe halflings are said to be native to a place that's east from where the story takes place, but not the eastern continent (which is p much easy Asia). I've seen some ppl take this to mean eastern Europe, and I don't think that's wrong, but I think u could also think of it as west Asia? Idk if we ever got much info on it in story, so I might be missing some details. (Honestly I'd personally HC that halflings are generally mixed Eastern European/West Asian- not to conflate the two, but rather Im imaging the majority of them are in a kinda blended culture).

[sapphosarchive]

She can't win. I'm a lesbian and people are calling her homophobic when she isn't lol. It's ridiculous to me as a lesbian. She's not homophobic imo. She's shown nothing but support. Accusing her of gay baiting is wrong. People project bisexuality or homosexuality onto her. She doesn't write anything saying "I'm in love with a woman." People project that. We can all relate to her music. She even said these songs are for us once she releases them to the world. But I get what she's talking about here. It's like she hangs out with men, everyone harasses her. She hangs out with women, they assume she's dating them too. And people are saying lover era was homophobic but I disagree. I feel like the "gay pride makes me, me" quote from miss americana doc is taken out of context a little. Was it clumsy allyship? Yeah maybe, but she shouldn't be burned at the stake for it imo. Actual homophobic people hate gay people and say slurs etc. If she's bi she'll say if she ever wants to say. But it's not okay to speculate imo. I'm not saying she's bi, I'm just saying if she was, she'd tell people if she wanted to. She's always clearly shown she isn't homophobic. And the line about those who saw her allyship in the prologue is not lost on me at all. I think she's trying to say she's just an ally, but of course people will ignore that. She worked with so many lgbt people for yntcd! They felt comfortable and secure with her. She treats lgbt people with respect. She's said before she's scared to make a mistake, she said it paralyses her. I understand that. Her mistakes are never forgotten, they're never let go of. People love to hate her, and women who make a mistake are harassed 10x more. But she has shown support for lgbt people pretty consistently to me. I mean was gay marriage even legal in America when welcome to New York was released? Or was it about to be legal? She showed support in that song, and it's significant given the time. Tldr: people need to stop speculating, stop harassing her when she's hanging out with a man or a woman, stop saying she's homophobic because ur mad, and just leave her alone to live her life!!

Sexualising her ans Travis, harassing her and speculating every time she's with a guy is just as bad as speculating when she's with a woman. SOMETIMES people focus on gaylors when they do the same shit gaylors do almost, think haylors for example. People need to just be normal and leave her alone. She can date who she wants, she isn't dating the whole world, and speculating about her sexuality is wrong. She doesn't "gay bait" people project shit onto her. Wearing a rainbow dress isn't baiting. It isn't a secret code. You've fallen into conspiracy thinking because the human brain loves to connect patterns etc and its why conspiracies exist. All that being said, I've realised alot of gaylors don't even like Taylor. They seem to hate her, honestly. I went on their subreddit and they just love the version of her they've created in their own head. Maybe thats true of everyone, but they don't seem to like her as an artist. They only like her so long as they're in the conspiracy. Some swifties are homophobic, but it's not inherently homophobic to call out the conspiracy theorists. And I saw someone say "her music is only good if it's gay." But that's such a sad perspective. Sure, if you as a gay person listen to "I know places' u can interpret it differently. Anyone can listen and think "oh imagine it's a same sex couple hiding etc." But listening from the perspective of "it's so hard to date as a celeb and u need to keep it private to avoid harassment" etc. She was brutalised when she dated Harry. 1d stans went insane lol. And saying her experiences are shit or not as good is just weird and sad.

[princecrows]

while i agree with most of this post, i think its fatal flaw, as is most peoples fatal flaw with understanding representation of queerness in op, is that they apply a western-spefifically-very-gen-z way of understanding it, which is not the rules one piece itself is playing on.

for example, saying yamato is "trans coded" because of the language used to describe yamato in the manga (mainly as a currently a woman, wanting to transition into a man) is flawed, because one piece subscribes to the idea of queerness as action rather than inherent. Yamato IS trans, is a trans character because he wants to be a man and is currently a woman.

It's the understanding of being trans as that action, rather than Yamato being a man born in a different body. (this is literally apparent in the vivre cards every transphobe likes to point out as "proof yamato isnt trans")

more inclusive language is used for people who have transitioned (not always medically) in one piece because i think oda understands queerness as an action, rather than inherent to yamato. this is the definition of being trans, as it has been for most of our lives, as a woman who will become a man, hence transitioning.

and i think oda knows yamato is trans and fully intends him to be, as in the bath scene yamato takes the chance to go with the men than with the women and that is an act of transness. (under this established understanding of queerness)

there's another blindspot, which is that you claim sanji doesn't have internalized transphobia. sanji is referred to as an okama (which is a slur mainly used for transfems and gay men, which is a identity overlap many cultures have.) and since in one piece okama is used to refer to a large group of trans people mainly/also referred to him, as well, and we all probably agree sanji has internalized homophobia, internalized transphobia is apart of his character?

(which results in him presenting in drag during the 2 year period, a literal bit of the story where all the strawhats were finding themselves. as well as other shit yk its fucking sanji and im trying to keep this brief)

and applying the label of "cis" onto him when in manga he is literally apart of the transsexual brigade seems ignorant, and inherently westernized. I'm not saying he's not cis, (because the language used for him is not definitive, and that within our label focused understanding of queerness is not validated.) I'm saying it's functionally useless to label him as cis and not genderqueer at least, because thats the western equivalent of the language used by oda.

not acknowledging that and applying a westernized, "new" understanding of queerness onto these characters is. expecting them to view queerness as something inherent rather than discovered, and expecting a character whom a main theme for him is gender presentation and how he doesn't fit into man or woman perfectly (which is literally explored on transsexual island) to use definitive labels is not helpful, definitely not helpful to trans people who want to get into one piece and need to understand where the commentary on queerness within op is coming from. oda overwhelmingly, for the majority of op has provided us wonderful rep. i think we should respect the language and understanding and cultural context of these characters.

Could you also upload that trans one piece timeline? It’s pretty neat!

sure !

if you ever wanted to get into one piece as a trans person, especially if it's for specific characters you've seen, heres a timeline of trans representation and how it's handled lol (as vague and spoiler free as possible)

[alphabetsoup-blogposts]

I didn't know her at all...

...and she didn't know me at all. End of. She talked a bit about culture vulturing when we met. I didn't talk and didn't share. That's the beginning, middle and end to it. Or it was, until 8 March 2020 when she came in and told me—with all the horrible, familiar undertones of a knowing subtext—to "cheer up" because "you and I are getting paid very well, aren't we?" She also conveyed or implied the usual suggestion from the high-falutin types that the people whose morale was really suffering were employees. (I'll assume that thesis has been thoroughly debunked by now, if nothing else.) That precipitated some kind of stress-related breakdown on my part as a result. I screamed and cursed my lungs out in my own kitchen for hours, then I got very ill, then we found ourselves in the middle of a pandemic. I would say that there was a direct line to my resignation and subsequent stress-related physical symptoms but it was, very clearly, only the accidental "last straw".

The gist of the screaming was "I've spent 3 years under siege, fearing for my life, shutting down my entire life piece by piece, being accosted by strangers, being pretend shot to death at work, dealing with eccentric ganging-up on the one hand and inexplicable scorching humiliation on the other. If you know anything at all about me, you know there is not one person I can turn to or lean on and that my private life is lonely and a bit fraught. Now, unseen manipulators are sending in random people to convince me that I'm fine." The neighbours must have been intrigued but they said nothing. Her "getting paid" comment was eccentric and inexplicable—neither true (in relative context) nor her business. She would have had to go and find some info from somewhere, which is an odd thing in itself, and then, well... she would have known that I had no institutional pension and/or legacy benefits. I've vaguely wondered since whether she meant "we're all making a profit on your personal, private, market sensitive info, aren't we?" but obviously I still hope and trust that would be a wild, vicious slur on my part. The point is, I don't know her, I didn't get a particular "vibe" and I have no way to interpret what she did or said.

That vignette aside, the most characteristic thing was simply the constant push on ESG. That was perfectly explicable IRL without any resort to conspiracy theories or "green" codes but it became personal in the sense that I gradually gathered the impression that the drive was not to make the whole organisation do the ESG work (which was the right outcome, given my wholesale lack of expertise or interest) but to make me do it personally and put my name to it. I had a vague unease about that* but I am perfectly happy to be told I was mistaken. I also vaguely wondered if it tied into the bit where a couple of members of staff went Musk-Tesla-crazy but I put that down to fashion and just being Millennials.

She was introduced to me by one of the strange platformers at TR who always seemed to have an angle and to be pushing code while basically picking my thoughts (I lay no claim to brains). Other weird platforming by TR included the woman whose presentation reminded me very strongly of Kimberly Guilfoyle (or, rather, vice versa) and who subsequently moved to California, and a bloke who wanted to talk Crypto to no obvious end and who was definitely pushing code.

In my own mind, I've vaguely written in a marital connection to the BBC and British Intelligence. I was, however, profoundly disengaged and have no idea whether those details were interpolations from my own schema or whether they are, indeed, remembered facts.

And that is all. *shrug* As I said, she didn't know me and I didn't know her. She mostly seemed nice enough.

*It was one of only a very few times when I wondered about being "groomed", "shaped" and "vetted" for a different job. That is why I told every senior person I could think of that I didn't want anything to do with what I guessed might be a planned career path. Most ardently of all, I didn't want to remain in the Group (cult?) but that is—i can see in retrospect—a difficult thing to communicate because the Group is, in manifold ways, both an implicit and explicit assumption they make. I'm sure they will confirm (because true) that in my final 6 resignation phone calls I said that they were "the very last people I would want to have any influence over the direction of my career" but whether they would acknowledge all the ways in which I said the same thing gently, moderately and politely in bilateral contexts before that—often while taking the blame on myself and my emotional fragility—I don't know. They certainly should.

[taetaesbaebaepsae]

i don’t know if your drabble game is still going on but if it is, could you write ‘wrath’ with jungkook?? give me all the angsty smut .. i WANT it (self sabotage at its finest)

All I can say is well, you asked

Warnings: uh, just a lot of sad angry horny but definitely rough sex, degradation, little spit kink, unprotected sex (pls don't have unprotected sex with your toxic ex like JK in this), lots and lots of sad, it's consensual but it's hate sex at the end of the day, not betaed

Word Count: 2130 (don't read into how this got away from me)

College hasn’t been what Jungkook had thought it would be.

He hadn’t imagined failing three of his classes, being in danger of being kicked off the soccer team. He hadn’t imagined going out every night and trying to make it to class hungover or still drunk at 8am on a Friday, but he also hadn’t expected you.

Well, he had, but not like this.

He heaves a sigh when he hears it, pebbles dinging against his window and when he opens the window one flies just over his head.

“Fuck!” He curses, softly, so that his roommate doesn’t wake up. Jimin is a bitch when he doesn’t get his full eight hours of beauty sleep.

You’re standing barefoot in the grass, dressed in a hot pink minidress and he lets out a long breath through his nostrils.

“Let me up!” You yell, and at least your words aren’t slurred, this time.

He shakes his head, slams the window shut and winces when Jimin grumbles and rolls over on his bed.

When the pebbles start up again he groans and tugs on a shirt, closing the dormitory door softly before storming downstairs.

You’re still throwing rocks when he pads barefoot out onto the grass.

“You have to stop doing this,” he says, and sets his jaw, willing himself not to weaken but you turn toward the sound of his voice and this big smile breaks out on your face.

“Kookie!” You beam, and he fucking hates himself for how it makes his heart race.

He remembers you at 16, biting your lip when you looked up at him, brushing your hair back behind your ear. He remembers you at 18, biting your lip again but in a much different context, tears streaking down your face.

“I just…I don’t think it’s a good idea,” you’d said, brokenly. “We can’t have the college experience if we’re still dating each other.”

He’d just stared at you, shell shocked, something bitter in the back of his throat.

Jungkook hadn’t known what to say then and he didn’t know what to say now, never seemed to have the ability to tell you no, even when you were breaking his heart.

Just like you’re breaking it now, running to him and jumping up into his arms and he catches you, always catches you even if he stumbles back a step to do it.

You smell like vodka and lavender and he wants to turn his face into your neck, breathe you in and he hates himself for that too.

“Take me home,” you murmur against his ear and his heart aches because he doesn’t know where that is if it isn’t with you.

“Is Daeun home?”

You shake your head, putting your head on his shoulder and he knows where he’s going, knows he’ll carry you across the campus back to your room, knows he’ll stay the night and listen to all the sweet lies you whisper into his ear but the more this happens, the more that bitter feeling in the back of his throat grows. He feels his face heating up when he puts in the code to your dorm room, when you finally let him put you down and you hum a little when you go off to the kitchenette to get a bottle of water out of the mini fridge.

“Didn’t see you out,” you comment idly.

“Wasn’t out,” he barks, and he wasn’t, spent the night playing beer pong with Jimin and Hoseok instead of the studying he meant to do, but at least it kept him from wondering where you were and who you were with.

He doesn’t know why you chose to still attend the same college as him when you’d both had all these plans to be together, to move into an apartment after freshman year, to get engaged, to continue all your teenage true love dreams.

Nobody tells you what to do when true love doesn’t last, when you split apart and there’s nothing left but memories and anger boiling somewhere deep inside you. He didn’t talk trash about you, defended you to his friends, even when you’d been seen out with the captain of the lacrosse team at the first of sophomore year.

It wasn’t as if he’d been celibate, after all, it’d been three years, but…you kept coming back. Throwing pebbles at his window. Texting him at 3am.

Where are you?

Come get me; I miss you.

How can he date someone else when you’re in his bed almost as much as in his head, still? How can you date someone?

Jungkook tries not to think about it, averts his eyes when he’s out downtown and he sees you dancing with some guy, shakes his head when someone asks him if he’s heard who you were dating.

“I don’t care who she’s dating,” he said, as nonchalantly as he could muster but then he’d stare at his laptop for two hours without writing a single word of his essay before grabbing his jacket to find a party or a club or something to stop thinking.

He stands in your dorm room awkwardly, breathing harder than he should be, looking at your unmade bed and the letterman’s jacket thrown haphazardly across your desk chair.

“Where’s your boyfriend?” He asks, and you pause, frowning as you’re tugging off your dress.

“I don’t have a boyfriend.”

Jungkook snorts, his face feeling hot because fuck he is angry, as hard as he’d tried not to be, even right after the breakup when he’d been all to pieces all he’d been able to think about is that maybe one day you’d get back together, maybe you’d come to your senses, had told Namjoon as much while he was throwing up in his toilet.

Namjoon had just sighed, rubbed his back, and Jungkook had been grateful he hadn’t told him he was an idiot.

Now he’s thinking that Namjoon should have told him he was an idiot because that would be better than getting these little pieces of you, all this empty bullshit and if you didn’t come to his window or blow up his phone every couple of weeks he started to miss it, even this

“You don’t have to lie to me anymore, Y/n. It’s not like we’re….”

“Kookie. Don’t be like that,” you plead, your eyes filling with tears and he turns his head, won’t look at you.

“I can’t do this anymore.” It comes out weak and broken and the tears at the backs of his eyes sting so he rubs his hands across his face.

“Don’t…don’t, just…let’s just lie down, okay? We can just-”

You take a few steps forward and touch his arm and he jerks away from you as if you’d burned him.

“No. No, fuck this, Y/n. Fuck you.”

He does look at you, now, and you’re crying and you’re biting the skin off your bottom lip and his chest hurts. He knows he should leave you here with your ruined eye makeup and your dress half off, leave you here like you’d left him, shellshocked and unable to speak more than a stutter while you left him at the airport.

Instead he grabs you by the arms, pushes you onto the bed and you don’t cry out, don’t try to get up, just look up at him.

Jungkook pulls his shirt off with one hand, reaches down with the other to palm himself through his sweats and he watches your eyes dart to his crotch and he smirks down at you.

There’s something buzzing in his head, all the anger he should have already felt.

“This is what you want, right? This is why you come to my house, throw rocks at my fucking window?”

You don’t speak, don’t even say his name, just raise your knees up, tug your dress up around your hips and he can see now that you aren’t wearing panties.

It’s strange, the combination of lust and rage that spears through him because he can imagine you dancing at a club, some guy in a letter jacket working his thigh between your legs and he grunts, spreads your knees further apart.

He looks you in the face before leaning over to drop a gob of spit on your pussy, roughly spreading the saliva between your lips, dipping two fingers shallowly inside you.

You gasp out his name and he moves his hands to wrap around your calves, yank you to the edge of the bed. Your thighs tighten around his hips instantly and still he’s wondering if someone else had done this very thing on your very bed and he hates it.

He shoves down his sweats, lines up to your entrance, guides just the head of his cock inside you, watches you writhe on the bed and his mouth runs away with him even though he’d thought he’d slept off most of the beer before you’d started chucking pebbles at his window.

“That letter jacket belong to the guy who fucks you here the nights you don’t come to me?”

You rock your hips up even as you frown up at him.

“D-don’t say things like that, Jungkook,” you say, but your thighs are trembling.

“This what gets you off? Coming to me even after you’ve been fucking him? What is it, sweetheart? He doesn’t fuck you the way I do?”

“Fuck you,” you say, but it’s mostly a whimper and you turn your face away.

He pulls out of you, watches your face.

“Tell me to stop,” he commands. “Tell me to stop if you’re so fucking mad at me.”

“Shut up and fuck me,” you whisper, and he laughs a little and it’s bitter.

“Don’t tell me what to do.”

He does it anyway, lifts your knees over his forearms and pushes into you. You’re slippery wet as soon as he enters you.

“You do like this,” he teases, pulls out almost all the way before ramming back into you and he can barely think he’s still so fucking mad but his balls ache.

You cry out his name, move your hands to twist your nipples beneath that slutty dress you’re wearing and he leans over you to get you to look at him.

“Tell me, Y/n. Is it that I’m your dirty little secret? Hmm? Or do you just like to fuck with my head?”

“I-I-” you stutter, locking your ankles at the small of his back. “I just miss you.”

Jungkook laughs again and there’s nothing funny about this, nothing funny about the mascara streaking down your face or how angry he is because he wants that to be true so badly.

“Liar,” he spits out, fucks you hard and fast and sloppy where it’s usually kisses and soft words, your fingers fisted in the hair at the nape of his neck.

You let out a string of curses, always had a much dirtier mouth than he did, even when you were kids. So far it’s felt like the roles are reversed, tonight, but this is familiar and he fucks you harder, hoping to kill the ache in his chest.

You lean up on the bed and try to kiss him and he turns his face away so you latch onto his throat and that’s better, hotter, and he can ignore that he still loves you despite everything, despite how you left and how you’re still the first thing he thinks of when he opens his eyes in the mornings. He can ignore that no matter how many women he brings back to his dorm room after putting a sock on the door, he imagines it’s you beneath him when he closes his eyes.

He feels you clenching around him and even that’s familiar and he buries his face into your hair when he spills inside you, breathing hard, and then suddenly he’s fighting tears when his knees come on to the bed and you wrap your arms around his neck, put your fingers in the hair at the nape of his neck.

“It wasn’t supposed to be like this,” he mumbles and he hopes you don’t hear him but you must, you pivot so that he slides out of you and pull him down on the bed next to him, stroking his cheek.

“I know,” you say, your voice choked with tears and it turns out he really can’t do this, he shakes his head, pushes you away and stands up, grabbing his shirt in a stumble on the way out of your dorm room.

Half of him thinks you’ll follow him. Half of him hopes you will.

The next time you throw pebbles at his window, he squeezes his eyes shut and covers his head with his pillow.

[claudeleine]

Did it ever occur to anyone that Wanda’s Roma background in the comics was BUILT on racist stereotypes? Similarly to M’Baku but also several others. And maybe that’s why the show runners stepped away from that..?

okay, so i think what we have here is someone who skimmed the original post in question (paragraph 2) and likely didn’t ready any of the links attached because that first message has been addressed already... but for anyone else in the same boat:

from gavia baker-whitelaw’s article:

Wanda and Pietro's Romani heritage was canon for decades (including in their non-mutant backstory), although this depiction often had problematic undertones. Wanda is literally a mysterious foreign witch, a damaging stereotype that acquired more nuance in later comics. But instead of updating Wanda and Pietro as modern Jewish/Romani superheroes (much like how Black Panther's charismatic M'Baku started out as a villain named "Man-Ape"), Disney whitewashed them. This casting choice was divisive in 2013, when The Atlantic highlighted the negative connotations of casting a white blonde actress as Scarlet Witch. Roma people are a marginalized ethnic minority, and Disney chose to erase their presence from the MCU.

...This rewrite was rather tone-deaf, because it involved Wanda and Pietro volunteering for neo-Nazi experiments. In the comics, their original parents were Holocaust survivors. Whedon also ignored the most obvious solution to Wanda and Pietro's non-mutant backstory: Django and Marya Maximoff, their Romani parents from the comics.

white washing characters is never the best solution. it doesn’t address the issue in so much as it just sweeps it under the rug. as well as perpetuating the idea that white is some unproblematic neutral that ppl can just default to. like can you imagine if in an attempt to “fix” how m’baku is portrayed in the comics, they just...put a white guy in the role? you can’t just remove a characters racial or ethnic background. no one is saying that her comic background hasn’t been problematic, but this isn’t the way to remedy that.

@scarlet--wiccan has an amazing post about the erasure of this whole family’s ethnic identity in the fox x-men films (x).

@villyns also has a good post outlining some examples of the mcu white washing rather than actually fixing the problem (x).

and here’s a decent article on white washing in media and why it’s a problem (x), quote from this article below:

Making a movie is not an easy feat; there are many things to take into account and even more people that you have to please, but there are also standards and morals to uphold. Whitewashing, blackface, brownface or yellowface is not just about denying jobs to minority actors, appropriating the stories of these groups, perpetuating stereotypes or keeping them invisible, it is about undermining their value as human beings and turning them into stepping stones, props, for white artists.

as for the second part. i think that’s entirely possible, actually. it’s done a lot to characters, where they won’t explicitly state their ethnicity but give them attributes from one (often stereotypes) and make them a caricature without making it, like i said, explicit. take the concept of jewish-coded villains in media. no one from disney has ever said that mother gothel in tangled is jewish, but it’s been pointed out by everyone that she’s jewish coded through stereotypes, ones specifically often used for “evil” witch-type characters, which is no coincidence: large, hooked nose, curly hair, greedy, etc. edit: hollywood uses coding like this often for racial/ethnic groups and the lgbtq+ community.

the maximoffs in the mcu and xmcu have never been explicitly made romani, with disney going so far as to change their parents romani names (django and marya) to oleg and irina. the name changes were unnecessary, except to distance the maximoffs from their original romani identity. the mcu changed their origins stories and cast non-romani actors to portray the maximoffs, and considering they went as far as to remove their jewish heritage as i mentioned before, it’s not a stretch that this is all an attempt to veil their romani background too. while they often joke about stealing and fortune tellers and poverty (the wv halloween episode really put it all in one place, but they’ve been doing it forever in the xmcu and mcu), i wouldn’t say this is an attempt to make them romani as much as it is to use a romani-esque caricature, to use it as a sort of “aesthetic” for the twins without acknowledging that it’s an ethnicity. the aspects they choose to keep are often either negative or painted in a negative light. i think the fact that el*zabeth ols*en continuously uses the g-slur to talk about wanda and costume design, speaks to that. 

and even if the mcu came out and said, “oh, our wanda is romani,” that wouldn’t change the fact that she’s played by a non-romani actress (who continues to use anti-romani slurs, despite knowing she shouldn’t) and that so far, they have not explicitly stated in the mcu that she is.

from gavia baker-whitelaw’s article:

Wanda and Pietro's whitewashing feels like an attempt to "neutralize" them. It frames their ethnicity as a problem to be avoided, rather than an opportunity to celebrate an under-represented group. This also meant that Marvel could cast famous white actors instead of sourcing an unknown Romani actor, during a period when the MCU was visibly uninterested in racial diversity.

But Marvel Studios wanted to have its cake and eat it, too. While Wanda is now white and Sokovian, her role isn't completely divorced from its Romani origins. It can't be, because everything in the MCU is informed by the comics. That's how we end up with El*zabeth Ols*n describing her Age of Ultron costume as "kind of this g*psy, vagabond feel"—terms that usually wouldn't come to mind for a simple black minidress and maroon jacket. Wanda's Romani heritage remains visible through veiled references and superficial costume choices, sidestepping any hint of meaningful representation.

from jessica reidy’s article:

Today, some Roma do call themselves witches, and serve as healers and spell-casters in a community, but make no mistake, being a witch is a job like any other. I was trained by my grandmother, I studied hard, I started a business, and I take bookings in my Google calendar. This is the context that most people miss when creating (or, in this case, adapting) Romani witch characters like Wanda Maximoff, and while the Scarlet Witch has plenty of magic, she does not need to fall into the stereotype, nor have her identity erased.

Representation matters. Wanda’s Romani ethnicity has been well-stated in the comic books, sometimes capturing the discrimination and violence that Roma face, and other times falling flat and stereotypical. Marvel also owes us, as Roma are often rendered as mentally unstable thieves, such as Dr. Doom, Wanda and Pietro’s community, and Wanda herself, and the entertainment giant capitalizes off of these stereotypes, reinforcing them all the while.

Every opportunity we get for accurate and positive representation is essential to us because it shapes the way people understand us.

linking the post i made again, because it has a list of articles and posts i’d recommend really taking the time to look through and engaging with them, as well as following folks like jessica reidy and @scarlet--wiccan​ on social media for more info from romani folks. 

[opinated-user]

LO so clearly just uses buzz words to make herself look better and those that she criticize look worse.

Rebecca Sugar is a nazi sympathizer because of SU, but that's not how that word works. Sure SU is about fixing conflicts with talking rather then violence and the diamonds do have an authoritarian gov, but they are in no way nazis or coded as such. So clearly RS isn't a nazi sympathizer--that would require the diamonds being at least coded as nazis.

Meanwhile it is no secret the sith are nazi coded, yet lily isn't a nazi sympathizer for writing a whole story about how actually the sith are the good guys and ends it with them having a utopian empire where they can kill you without trial with their secret police like cop sith fighters.

Essence of Thought is a violent terf because they made a video critical of LOs interactions with minors. According to lily saying that a trans women could be sexual predator=terf. But that isn't what the word means. Terfs are specifically people who want to exclude trans people from anything, don't belive trans women are women, restrict or want to restrict access to gender affirming care and see all trans people as predators.

EoT was critical of 1 trans woman for her own shady behavior. Yes, terfs do see trans women as sex predators, but thinking 1 specific trans woman is an abuser is not the same as thinking all trans women are inherently dangerous.

Meanwhile LO has dragged multiple trans people through the mud, while also at times using their wrong pronouns. She also says queer is a slur and ignores that that train of thought was started by terfs.

She has even admitted to calling her detractors terfs on purpose because it annoys them. She is mudding the waters by slapping anyone she hates with as terrible a word as possible. Yet everyone calling her antisemitic or racist is taking her actions out of context, and slapping insulting labels on her (which is unforgivable when it's done to her).

i want to concentrate on that last parragraph for a second, anon, because that actually encapsulates perfectly the level of selfishness that LO operas with. just like she misuses the term nazis because she knows it's more impactful than "fascist", she also misuses terf. terf it's not an insult to thrown around willy nilly and for no reason nor a "buzzword," it's the name for an actual problem of a real group of people who use a specific kind of rethoric to justify hatred. a terfs are just as real as a disease and we can't spread treatment about that disease if we use keep using the same name for everytime someone sneezes. at some point there has to be a distinction so people know how to talk about that disease, what that disease implies and how we can prevent. by LO calling that to anyone who criticized her for being a creep, she's also saying that she doesn't care about protecting any trans women, trans people or anyone but herself. she comes first and foremost, everyone else second, and that applies just as well on the kind of words she uses. the problem of her doing this is that inevitably is going to cause trouble for her audience too, who will get out with a false idea of what a terf is or how to recognize one. this is beyond irresponsible, it's disgustingly malicious of a misinformation to do just so she has an "insult" that is bad enough.

[evfryder]

quirezia's psa abt anti romanism w/ the khajiit

so, as we all know, the elder scrolls is a pretty racist game series. this is a well known and pretty indisputable fact, demonstrated by things like the heavy anti indigenous racism, the orientalism with the dunmer and other stuff, but something i personally haven't really seen talked about is the incredible amount of anti romanism w/ the khajiit. which, yknow, i'm not exactly upset over as the vast majority of tes fans aren't romani, but! it's still bad and it makes me so goddamn uncomfortable at the best of times! i don't deserve to have panic attacks over the amount of racism that is subjected to my eyes over cat people! so here is my public service announcement

note: i'm not like, 100% sure the writers of the elder scrolls were intending any of this or meaning to code the khajiit as romani, and i'm not going to claim that, but that doesn't change that i have seen people use real life nazi propaganda to justify why the nords are right to hate the khajiit or that most people who notice these things read the khajiit as romani lmfao so! and i'm also not an authority on this and i don't want to be treated like one. this is just my romani opinion, other romani people might have differing opinions and that's alright. gadje don't get to argue w/ me abt any of this tho ❤

note part two : gypsy is a slur. this is not debatable, do not try to debate it with me, and do not use it. remove it from your vocabulary. any uncensored use of it within this post is because i'm romani and allowed to use it lmfao

so anyways, most of the romani coding comes from skyrim, by way of introducing the khajiit caravans, full of people hailing from a south asian coded country with a history of slavery, that travel from city to city, relying on nomadicism, due to being barred from the cities because of stereotypes that paint the khajiit as thieves and drug addicts who face racism as a result of things like that.

if you know anything about the romani, this probably sounds familiar! as we're also a south asian diaspora who are traditionally nomadic and have been enslaved, who face severe racism and are heavily stereotyped to be thieves and drug addicts. i've even personally been told that i'm dirty trash who shouldn't be allowed in a city! fun.

this alone isn't a problem. i would love to have some representation, even in the form of cat people, and if this was all there was with the khajiit and romani coding i would honestly be overjoyed! but alas.

the problem is that the khajiit are actually portrayed as thieves and drug users within the games. in ESO, the baandari clan honor the bandit god and follow a code that allows thievery, and practice fucking fortune telling. in skyrim, in skyrim, ri'saad is a fence for the thieves guild who accepts the offer after being given moon sugar and ahkari is hinted to be involved with to the skooma trade. the khajiit overall are cultural drug users, and while there is absolutely nothing wrong with cultural drug use and drug use in general i hope you can see why its bad in this context.

and even with all of this, if this was where it began and end, it wouldn't be that bad. as far as i know, this is all accidental, and none of this is what keeps me up at night. what bothers me is how fans react to the romani elements of the khajiit.

i've had to see the use of the g word, something that is personally very triggering to me, almost everywhere, both casually and in a demeaning manner. i've seen the khajiit described as the scum of tamriel that live in scum infested sewers hooked on skooma and live off of imperial assistance (which is another thing that i've been told in regards to my people, that we're scum who live off of government assistance). i've seen khajiit called useless drug addicts who have no home. i've seen people say they see khajiit as dirty, filthy gypsies and tend to imagine skinning them for wall hangers.

it's tiring. it fucking hurts on a whole different level to see a slur utilized against your people and against you everywhere, hurts to know that people still view you and your people as a dirty and subhuman, and i'm honestly pretty done if we're being honest. tes has been ruined for me because of this stuff. and i'm not even asking for y'all to pay for me Ethnic Therapy Tm lol all i'm asking is that gadje learn about anti romanism and what that means, learn how they can support romani people, that they stop using the g word and perpetuating anti romani things, and that y'all don't let others get away with racism against romani people anymore

[puzzle-paradigm]

How to appropriately use the word "Jew"

I've had a lot, and I mean a lot of people ask me if "Jew" is a slur. The answer to that is actually more complicated than a simple "yes" or "no", but I think it's important and that we should be talking about it, so hold onto your kishkes, because it's education time. Let's start with some simple guidelines: Jew should NEVER be a verb. Some examples of using "Jew" as a verb are as follows:

"They Jewed me out of my money"

"I can't believe they Jewed her out of her bonus"

Both of these use "Jew" to denote a greedy, selfish, or conniving individual. This perpetuates harmful stereotypes that have caused great harm to Jews throughout history. In this situation "Jew" is certainly a derogatory word, though I do not think it can be defined as a slur.

Jew should NOT be used as an adjective, unless you are specifying that something has the quality of being Jewish.

A bad usage: "It's awfully Jewish of you to be a doctor."

A good usage: "Yes, that is a Jewish organization. It was founded by Jewish immigrants to the country."

The first example makes assumptions on a person based on two unrelated facts: they are Jewish, and they are a doctor. This perpetuates harmful stereotypes (all Jews are wealthy, all Jews fall into certain professions, etc.) and is inappropriate.

The second example uses the word "Jew" to denote two simple facts: the organization is a Jewish one (such as a charity, shul, or hospital), and was founded by immigrants who were Jewish (relevant to the previous part of the quote). NOTE: using "Jew" in this manner is NOT acceptable when discussing conspiracy theories ("did you know all of the wealthiest media heads are Jewish?").

"Jew" is SOMETIMES ACCEPTABLE as a noun. This one depends on many things, such as context and tone of voice. "Jew" on its own can usually be replaced with "Jewish" or "Jewish person".

"Don't be such a Jew"

"I am a Jew"

"They are a Jew"

Example one once again implies an inherent negativity to being a Jew. It says "Being a Jew is bad. It is something you do not want to be".

Example two shows an individual self-identifying as a Jew. This is them stating a fact about themself and has a positive or neutral connotation.

Example three is ambiguous, because it depends on the tone of the speaker. If the speaker shows other signs of antisemitism, or is using a derisive or otherwise negative tone, "Jew" is not acceptable and is being used in a derogatory manner. If they are not, it is more likely that they are using it appropriately. Context is an important clue.

Finally, why do people think calling someone a Jew is a slur, but have no issues with calling someone "Jewish"? I think the answer comes from several causes, but two are especially prominent in my mind.

The antisemitism ingrained in many cultures leads to people internalizing it as an insult. This makes the most sense when looking at phrases like "Jew down" or "Being Jewed".

The systematic appropriation of Jewishness by antisemitic entities. This is something that is more complex that I may have to go into more detail on later, but in essence antisemitic groups frequently attempt to co-opt Jewish language and identity as dogwhistles and code, working to stigmatize our own language while simultaneously attempting to cause us harm. By perpetuating the idea that our word for ourselves is a slur, they can change our name itself into a forbidden word. Might have to make a separate post on this because it's a thing and it is Bad.

[bluewinnerangel]

https://tiredtiredlouis.tumblr.com/post/652107424866631680/im-not-saying-that-he-said-pussy-but-no

What is watermelon sugar about again? Also watermelon sugar gay?

~didn't hold back on the slurs just be warned but I mean if we're gonna talk about Watermelon Sugar you know that's gonna happen~

post you linked hehe

Soooooo you want some "Why have your dad and all his colleagues been humming along to an ode to Louis' banana in recent years" resources? (kidding, I mean I don't think WS is just that, although also not not that) I can do that.

Lemme take you on a watermelon sugar drive

First stop @skepticalarrie's summary of how we can talk about this endlessly kinda in a final conclusion context post after some bUt ItS aBoUt PuSsY discourse. Gives all the nuances, love it.

Second stop, this analysis is by far the best THE BEST BIG BRAIN all-encompassing explanation of WS without going into the details of the lyrics. So although I don't think this song is out there for the purpose of us cracking the code of harry dick or pussy hey harry pussy or dick?????, and even then, you know...

...I do think he alludes to it. It's kinda hard to ignore it's there, the euphemisms for oral sex. But then if we really look into the lyrics, the put-a-strawberry-on-a-lipstick-and-tell-me-if-that-more-closely-resembles-a-dick-or-a-pussy-lyrics, I think we can break down what he's going on about. Just emphasizing again to me that's not just what this soing is doing (I mean the above linked analysis says it all), it's the watermelon highs of life and love mixed with going for a bop hit and welp that just includes the love for the banana.

Then in this analysis by @greedy-queen and in this analysis by @ialwaysknewyouwerepunk those allusions to it in the lyrics are elaborated (also my yelling in the tags in both)

Also just putting this like.... gay shit masterpost here if you feel like this lil field trip wasn't enough for you lol.

Watermelon sugar goodbye