#it’s giving misogynoir

[seapearlgoddess]

Listen, I didn’t hate Starboy before but now I absolutely do. Why is he dominating the Disney Wish tag more than the ACTUAL. FUCKING. PROTAGONIST???? Why are we giving more attention to the fucking concept character more than the actual BLACK FEMALE lead???? This is getting so ridiculous!

[evie-doesnt-write]

I don’t know how to say this exactly but like… fandom and show are kinda weird about Mel and Ekko and it is very much rooted in racism

[bootlegramdomneess]

if Sydney and Carmen's dynamic was purely platonic there wouldn't be this much awkwardness and tension between these two. Do you see how she interacts with Marcus vs how she interacts with Carmen?

The difference is so very clear and I won't go into detail about it because we all see it. There is so much tension between these two. It's a different kind of tension

Not to mention this...

and this

and this

and this

AND THIS

I'm a therapist. We have to be intuitive. We have to know people and their motivations through observing them, how they behave, what they say. I mean it's all right there in this dynamic. I'm typically not one to go this hard over fictional characters but I hate the feeling of being tricked on...Sure they can be friends. They respect each other yes, but

THEY ARE ALSO IN LOVE WITH EACH OTHER STOP THIS TORTURE. STOP THIS MADNESS. PEOPLE WHO KEEP SAYING IT'S PLATONIC NEED TO LOOK IN THE MIRROR AND ASK YOURSELF DO I REALLY BELIEVE THIS BECAUSE IT'S OBVIOUSLY PLATONIC OR DO I BELIEVE THIS BECAUSE I DON'T THINK (EITHER CONCIOUSLY OR SUBCONCIOUSLY), THIS BLACK WOMAN DESERVES TO BE WITH THE OTHER MAIN PROTAGONIST, THE HOT WHITE GUY?

[sanyu-thewitch05]

So the next time y’all think darkskin representation, non black racism, and colorism isn’t an issue, I just want y’all to remember these comments.

Edit: The comments are majority non-black men but there’s some black men degrading her in the mix too.

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A post shared by DESIRAESALOME ✨ (@desirae.salome)

A darkskin girl couldn’t even dress up as a princess for her 5th birthday without non black men(Arabs, Indians, Hispanics, etc) being bums in the comments and calling her racial slurs because she wanted to dress up as a princess.

Y’all better not start that POC unity mess anymore because time and time again the nonblacks have shown they don’t care for y’all despite all the fighting for their representation, image, and rights. Leave em be next time.

@thisismisogynoir

[starzalign]

Keke is my favorite Magha ever. This is such a leo scorpio conversation, Janelle Monáe is Anuradha w scorpio stellium (Keke is also Mula), would highly recommend y’all listen if you’re into topics like pleasure and how society can rob & restrict you of it but in order to be truly happy you must be your own individual.

It just makes sm sense that these naks would be talking about how as they present feminine to the world, it’s tried to contain them.

Also her album age of pleasure was 10/10

[bohemian-nights]

your attitude towards Black queer women is nasty and there's nothing stereotypical about a Black (possibly) lesbian character. on top of that, yall was on here the other day talm bout some "taking stuff from black men" but who woulda been seated for a yet another Black man chasing after a yt woman anyway and tryna use sex to control her??? franchaela are going to have a happy ending even if a little bit unconventional (we literally don't know how bridgerton's societal landscape will change by then) but what's the difference between them already living out quiet lives away from the ton and.....continuing to do that? it wouldn't be out of shame but out of what they want while it just so happens to protect them? what exactly would be different than what benophie woulda had to do??? who also had to go to the country to limit the risk of folks inquiring about sophie. it's the same thing and yet your issue seems to be that it's not a Black woman with a white man who harassed her to be his mistress and refused to see her as anything but that. i have no doubt the show will change that part of their dynamic but that seems to be something you want to stay in tact and you need to unpack that cause it's pathetic. you should want better.

They aren’t going to change shit because their MO isn’t to uplift Black women of any kind. So what you really want me to do is cheer on what will be a promiscuous Black woman chasing after or romancing a married white woman(her cousin-in-law) who will have to end up hiding out in the country for the rest of her life to escape persecution. You want me to pretend like it’s somehow the same/a better story than a Black woman being chased after, who gets the marriage, the adoring spouse, the children, doesn’t have to live in hiding or else she’ll be jailed, etc.

You don't care that they also ruined a Black man’s image too? Fine, but this isn't being done for us. We keep getting handed the “unconventional” which is why our image is always a fucking mess in the media.

If you want to play stupid play stupid, but I'm not playing dumb with you.

I’m not happy that they made Marina half-Black when they know she has to die to give Eloise a happily ever after. I’m not happy that they had Lady Danbury get raped every five seconds in Queen Charlotte and tried to play it off for laughs. Or that she remained alone with her children hating her. I wont even mention Guinevere, who is only there either to be a sexual experimentation or a side kick to the non-Blacks. Not to mention she like Lady Danbury is just another iteration of the strong independent woman who doesn’t need a man.

Alice is another side character so I'm not happy that the best we’ll get in terms of a Black-ish main character is Queen Charlotte who unlike the Bridgertons doesn't exactly have a fully functioning marriage. Lastly I’m not happy that they pulled this stunt after pulling the other fifty eleven stunts when it comes to their Blackish female characters. They do the bar minimum and give us the worst shit so no I’m not going to pretend like it’s all hunky dory.

I’m absolutely disgusted by the treatment we have received by this show. I’m tired of the disrespect. It’s one thing to add drama it’s another to add unnecessary trauma which is all they have given us.

I’m sorry, but it should tell you everything that they refuse to show a Black woman in a loving relationship with a man where shes desired and wanted. Every woman is afforded that but us? No ma’am I’m not falling for this bs.

Sophie should've been Black and this character they've created should’ve stayed in the rough drafts. No ifs ands or buts about it.

Actually read the books and pay attention to this show rather than listening to a bunch of psychotic racist ass non-Black women who are trying to sell you shit on a platter cause they don’t really give a damn since they have and will continue to get theirs.

[g0ldgauntlet]

Webtoon Readers Are Very Harsh on Black and Brown Female Leads.

I've had this thought for a while, and I'm likely not the first to voice it, but I do want to talk about it. It's certainly not a coincidence to me after seeing it happen multiple times. For you to understand my frustrations, I'm going to focus on comparing the female leads from 3 comics: Let's Play, Late Bloomer, and Brimstone and Roses.

(Quick Warning: Let's Play did not originally market itself as an 18+ comic at the start of its publishing, but it very much turns into one after Season 1. Please read at your own discretion.)

(Image description is in the alt text)

Here are the 3 leads of each Webtoon:

Let's Play stars Sam Young, a 22-year-old White woman.

Late Bloomer stars Mai Rose, a 26-year-old Black woman. (Mai is pronounced as "May")

Brimstone and Roses stars Beatrice "Bea" Rosario, a 24-year-old Mexican-American woman. (According to the author, Bea can be pronounced as "Bee" or "Bay-uh")

Let's start with Let's Play.

As a former reader of Let's Play (I read through all 3 seasons), I did observe how this story was perceived by others. The White main character was constantly coddled by readers in the comments section. I would argue that Sam has stunted mental and emotional growth because of her upbringing, and this stays relatively consistent throughout the comic. Her dynamic with Charles wasn't healthy, nor did it actually lead to any significant growth for Sam's character, and it took 3 seasons for people to even realize that. Sam is heavily dependent on Charles, who is way too possessive over someone who isn't even his girlfriend. Sam even acknowledges that he's too pushy for her liking.

There's also this:

Which is just a visualized way of saying "I can fix him." It's set up like she thinks that she alone can help unpack all of his problems if she just gives him some of her own love and care.

The author wants her audience to believe that Sam is manipulating Charles during some points of the story, as Charles makes that point twice (Although, one of those moments is honestly just the author speaking through him), but Sam is portrayed similarly to that of a naive child who Charles takes care of at the same time:

(Context: She drank Irish Coffee sometime before this scene. She did not ask the waitress to elaborate on what it was, and for some reason the waitress herself didn't even tell her that either when she asked for coffee, not alcohol. Charles was left taking care of an intoxicated Sam from that point forward, and the question of whether he'd accept her offer to sleep with her was Season 2's cliffhanger.)

Sam is 22 and Charles is 26-30 (Confirmed in "Questions and Answers II"). They're both adults, obviously, but the way they act led me to believe that their mental and emotional maturity gap is significantly large (Meaning that I can more realistically buy Charles being 30 instead of 26). Sam is frustratingly naive, but someone who's been portrayed as having less power and awareness in the dynamic is a person who I have a harder time believing as being manipulative, compared to Charles, who is much more experienced than her and knows better. He admitted earlier in the story that their relationship was unprofessional and questionable, yet continued it anyway when he could have firmly said no.

Sam also is shown to leave her apartment door unlocked twice, despite knowing that a stranger could walk in. The first time Sam did it, she did it because Charles was coming over and she was going to take a shower, so she told him to let himself in once he got there. The second time was also because she expected Charles to show up, and she was relaxing in her bed while she was waiting for him.

Aside from Sam's character consistently being this glorified portrayal of innocence (seen through the lamb symbolism she has and how much Charles fawns over her because of it), she also isn't really relatable, something that the author tried to portray her as (given that she wanted a relatable and realistic story). Sam's dad is the founder and CEO of a software development company called Young Technologies, and her mom is a world-renowned model and actress. Sam herself is supposed to be a struggling game developer, but she also works at her dad's company as Charles's assistant. From a design standpoint, Sam is conventionally attractive just like her two friends, Angela and Vikki, with all three of them (and most of the women in this comic, honestly) having hourglass figures.

I'm not saying that pretty people can't be insecure or have problems, but every trait added together showcases that Sam, in comparison to most of her friends (Especially Dee, for example. Dee is a dark-skinned, plus-sized Black lesbian, and she works at a coffee shop), is insanely privileged. Given that she comes from a rich family that also has a high social status, with a dad who doesn't even take much convincing to do something when asked by his wife or daughter, Sam has no shortage of money to fund her game and can easily find help with marketing it as well (I'm aware that part of the story's conflict is that Sam doesn't want to take over her dad's business and wants to pursue a career in game development instead, but her dad's backbone is so non-existent that I doubt it would be that hard for her or her mom to get him to contribute towards Sam's games).

Next is Late Bloomer.

I read this comic before Let's Play was first published, so seeing the feedback between that comic and this one was like constantly being given whiplash. Mai works at a place called Galivoyage Travel Services. As the comic goes on, readers referred to her as lazy, spoiled, whiny, unsympathetic, desperate, inconsiderate, and horrible at her job (She is actually bad at her job, but I'll get back to that later). She was called shallow in Episode 8 for turning down Zander, a guy who admitted that he got himself arrested for attempted robbery at a pet store because of his fish obsession (she was also accused of hypocrisy for being put off by Zander's habits, since she has a trait that causes a rose bud to grow on her stomach).

Before this, Mai dated a blind guy in episodes 5 and 6. Because of what happened in Episode 6, readers later accused her of having a judgemental streak for turning down both Zander and this blind guy, claiming that she rejected the latter just because he was blind.

That was not the reason why Mai declined on taking the relationship further. The date was a bust, as neither parties were being fully honest with one another (Mai didn't even know that the guy was blind because he kept that information from her). The blind guy took her to a candlelit dinner that was pitch black, and he had his friend coaching him the whole time. Mai picked up on how sketchy he was acting, and things started to escalate. Her outfit caught on fire because the blind guy accidentally knocked over a candle, and Mai was drenched in water that was thrown at her via a bucket to put it out. Mai did not blame the guy for anything and even acknowledged that her friend, Flora, lied about things on Mai's dating profile while creating it. Mai simply wanted to forget that the night happened and hoped all parties would put it all behind them, but as she's leaving, the blind dude reveals his true colors: He's an asshole. He gets mad at her for leaving and insults her appearance, then proceeds to victimize himself by blaming her rejection on his blindness.

Readers were asking for Mai's character development by Episode 10. At the time of when I read this story (2017), I remembered readers also threatening to drop the comic if development didn't happen after this point in the story. Those comments may have been removed by now, but there are still others who say that they find it hard to like the comic with such a frustrating main character.

Onto Brimstone and Roses.

I'll admit that I'm a new reader for this comic. I'd heard that it featured a bisexual woman of color as a main lead, and the story deals with her personal struggles alongside a demon that she summoned. Bea is a very flawed character, and I appreciate that about her. She has flaws that revolve around the career she wanted to pursue, her complicated family life, and her romantic relationships - Aside from her having a demon, there was nothing really out of the ordinary all things considered.

What shocked me was that it only took 8 episodes for the readers to completely turn on Bea (though negative reception already had quickly built up to that point) and call her all types of names. The readers deemed her unlikeable, selfish, petty, stupid, childish, and a pathological liar. One person stated that they were now only reading the comic for Lazareth, the demon that Bea summoned. Others stressed that they wanted to see character development from Bea as soon as possible.

We are 8 episodes into the Webtoon. That was all it took.

Are you seeing the problem yet?

I need to stress that I'm not saying that Mai and Bea are above criticism just because the former is Black and the latter is a brown Hispanic woman. Far from it, actually.

Mai's work ethic is, like I mentioned earlier, not great. She prioritizes dating over her job, and consistently gets bad reviews from her clients. She and Flora are called out on this multiple times, and are both implied to be dragging the rest of their team down.

Bea, on the other hand, is desperate, selfish, and jealous of her ex-girlfriend despite pretending that it's the opposite. Lazareth calls her out on her behavior, and she comes to accept very early on that he is right. Now she has to deal with the consequences of summoning a demon for petty reasons.

These two leads being called out for their actions isn't the issue. The problem is that Sam constantly gets passes from readers despite having glaring flaws and little to no actual character growth, yet she is praised for having an "empowering" and "relatable" story. There is nothing relatable about a daughter of a CEO and model who has three conventionally attractive male love interests, and whose initial story about becoming a game developer is sidelined after Season 1 in favor of her pursuing her horny, BDSM-loving boss (No shade to anyone who likes BDSM, it's not inherently a bad thing. Charles is just very unprofessional and his unhealthy sex habits are part of the reason as to why). Sam's "empowerment" comes from her changing herself to please a man. Everything that Charles tells her, from how she should act to how she should dress (Wearing revealing or skintight clothing does not automatically make you a more confident person), is based on what he personally likes. Sam even bases some of her own choices on what she thinks Charles would like as well, rather than what she likes.

Sam does not learn much of value from Charles despite her initially claiming that he is the only one who's helped her improve. Her development is mostly stagnant until Monica and Marshall are around, as they're the only ones in the comic who give Sam actually decent advice (I'd count Olivia as well, but she hasn't been relevant in so long that I forgot she even existed). Sam's flaws are usually glossed over, and when she is called out, it's not for the right reasons (i.e. victim blaming, as she is somehow the real manipulator and not Charles).

Mai and Bea are much more heavily scrutinized in comparison, and in Mai's case, not all of it is for the right reasons either. As stated before, Mai did not leave her blind date because he was blind, and the guy's friend even calls out his behavior. The friend states that, because of him, Mai nearly received burn injuries and had her entire appearance ruined when the fire was put out. All she wanted was to go home, and she was within her right to do so. Again, Mai also acknowledged that she and her date weren't completely honest with one another about their identities. However, even though what happened was an accident, the blind guy's lies and planning caused more harm towards Mai compared to vice versa.

Mai was also within her right to turn down Zander. There's nothing wrong with him dressing up as a fish if that's an interest of his, but robbery and crimes are a dealbreaker for multiple people in the dating scene. It's not her job to help him through what's clearly a deep-rooted problem - as readers had claimed she should - since they'd only been on the second date thus far. None of this makes her shallow or picky, and it baffles me that the author of Late Bloomer was shamed by readers for writing this.

Sam's arc and initial plot can remain mostly static and many readers won't complain, but they turned on Mai and Bea because their character arcs weren't moving fast enough for them. Why is Sam's character allowed to move so slowly for multiple seasons, while Mai and Bea have a time limit of about 8 to 10 episodes to receive character growth before readers get bored or angry? If their arcs had moved that fast or been completed in that amount of time, their stories would be rushed.

It's explained later on in Late Bloomer that the reason why Mai is bad at her job is because she never received proper training, and Joune (Pronounced as "June"), a manager at a different branch in the company, shows her what's she's supposed to be doing. The audience is also shown that Flora is one of the main reasons why Mai continues to be distracted from her work. Flora is the one who came up with most of the dating plans for Mai, and constantly has her running around with her to go places. Mai obviously can say no to her, but Flora is characterized as being pushy and dragging multiple people into her antics. Readers knew that Flora was a bad influence and still put most of the blame on Mai anyway.

Eprille (Pronounced as "April"), Mai's boss, is one of two characters who chew Mai out for her unprofessionalism and bad work ethic, but he's shown to be a hypocrite throughout the story since he's just as unprofessional as Mai is, if not more. Eprille is insanely petty, using work as a means of getting back at his ex, Marche (Pronounced as "March"). Both Joune and Cloud (Joune and Eprille's friend) call Eprille out on this, and he's also playing favorites with Mai at work. It's later revealed that the reason why he was so interested in Mai, and the only reason why she didn't get fired from her job sooner, is because he's been fetishizing her rose bud. That bud is part of a process that Late Bloomer calls "Botanical Development." Mai's family line on her mother's side has a symbiotic relationship with a plant in their body, which grows more when it detects their destined partner. If the person chooses to sleep with that partner, the fully grown plant will fall off. Eprille knew about people with this trait, and he had been pursuing Mai solely so that he could have sex with her to see if her plant would detach (assuming that he's her chosen partner). By this point in time, Mai had also found out that Eprille had hooked back up with Marche, but Eprille didn't tell her as he had been pursuing her. He then proceeds to blame her for flirting with him despite him leading her on the whole time.

It was also Eprille's responsibility to train his employees, but he never did. The irony of him chastising Mai for not being a good worker is that her being that way is his own fault, because she improves significantly after Joune shows her the ropes.

Eprille is later demoted from his position by his grandmother (the founder of Galivoyage) for his consistently bad management, and Marche is also fired for being irresponsible at work and causing drops in sales.

As for Bea, I've heard plenty about how her character gets better and even more interesting as the story goes on. Although I haven't read much myself, I consider the author to be very talented for being able to get me hooked after 6 episodes while setting up the trajectory of Bea's journey towards healing as a person. That leaves plenty of time to carefully unpack her baggage and tackle her emotional instability instead of rushing through it just to get to an ending.

I focused on just 3 comics for examples, but I could have mentioned more, such as Haxor and Lookism. Some readers of Let's Play have actually referred to Haxor in the comments as a series where you can find "sjws,"-

oh man if you guys wanna find the Tumblr sjws just read big jo or haxor. the comments on the 1st ep of the latter is YIKES

-which I suspect is because of Iso, the comic's Black female lead. The "yikes" comments being referenced were part of a conversation that happened because non-black readers didn't understand why some people were genuinely ecstatic about seeing a Black girl as a main character in a comic. As a result, Black women ended up having to explain to White people why this was personally important to them, and the author himself was glad that Black women were enjoying his comic.

I didn't get very far with Haxor, but from what I did read, the audience would point out that Iso has a huge ego, and that she needed to be humbled. While being too confident is certainly a character flaw that is acknowledged during the story, as I was reading, I couldn't help but wonder if some readers would be this critical if Iso was White, since many White characters who have her traits are praised for being who they are unapologetically. Iso canonically is a young prodigy in the story, and several people depend on her for support. Obviously she isn't perfect, but it's easy to understand where her overconfidence comes from.

Lookism was a completely different case, featuring Park Hyung-Seok - known as "Daniel Park" in English - the comic's light-skinned Korean male lead. Daniel, for all intents and purposes, is a pathetic and unlikeable (though somewhat sympathetic) character when he is introduced to the audience. He disrespected his mom in the very first episode, as well as Episode 2, because he couldn't bring himself to admit to her that he was getting bullied and also prioritized how he was being perceived by his female classmates (who he repeatedly objectifies). Daniel did this while knowing that his mom was working hard at her job to provide for him, and also knowing that she was trying to defend him against his bullies. Despite this, Lookism is one of the most popular Webtoon comics, as many people kept reading and got the chance to see Daniel grow as a person. Daniel is referred to by readers as having a "great personality" (which I agree with, his character development is great).

If these readers have White and light-skinned characters with similar flaws and circumstances to that of some Black and brown characters as their favorites, but they react more negatively to the Black and brown ones, then they need to ask themselves why.

Why did they dismiss Late Bloomer's Black female lead as just lazy without knowing the full story? Why did they shame the comic's Black female author for not having her character settle for the first two men that she went on dates with?

Why is Brimstone and Roses's author not allowed to let Bea take her time to grow? People with her issues don't change in a day, or even a few. Why are readers less patient with her in comparison to White or lighter-skinned Webtoon leads who are just as flawed?

I am asking Webtoon readers to please give these characters the same grace and patience that you would your favorite White and light-skinned characters. If the story or characters aren't for you, that's ok. I've dropped plenty of media that I wasn't interested in after watching a few episodes of a show, or reading a few chapters of a book. However, when it's the very beginning of someone's story, you very well could be missing out on something great if you're disproportionately judging these women of color far too quickly, especially when many of you will sit through Webtoons that contain hundreds of episodes in them (As for the Let's Play fans, many of you guys sat there seeing nothing wrong with what was going on with Sam and Charles's entire dynamic until the second to last episode in Season 3, when Charles searches through her phone when he thinks Sam is asleep).

I'm not even saying that these stories are perfect, either! I had plenty of criticisms surrounding Late Bloomer as I was reading it, but I still love it despite its flaws. I'm saying that if you can enjoy flawed stories with heavily flawed White and light-skinned leads, you can do the same for flawed Black and brown female leads as well.

[icanseethefuture333]

I've realized I've grown when I realized how corny these whole high value, femme fatale, and hyper femininity blogs/influencers be sounding

[sleepynegress]

Love this interview... I have been semi-checking in on Zawe's journey since before certain stans were feeling some kinda way about her recent familial additions. I do for certain Black actors/creators especially, who seem to be moving in interesting ways in entertainment/film media...

-A remnant from a period when I used to go to screenings and blog about films (and was published a few times in a major national newspaper)... So, I knew of Zawe through the grapevine of her mentorship, i.e. she is the reason why Rege Jean Page of Bridgerton fame got to work in U.S. markets, as she sponsored him. And she is known, as one of those "good eggs" who will be accessible and help/advise especially young actors of color. ...But, I have some other stuff to say. This isn't about proving that she's an amazing human being. It's about a certain brand of misogynoir that some of these people far beneath her in self-knowledge, self-love, and just plain grown-ass-woman-personhood...keep letting fly in what they *think* are compliments, but actually are just trite microaggressions. Saying things like "as long she makes [T-blank H-blank] happy then she's alright" as if he's the centered human and her attachment renders her worthy somehow. Babies, as long as SHE'S happy. Yall. He's marrying up.

WAY UP and the fact that he knows this? Actually elevates him. She's been there.

She tells a story in the above interview that reminds me of Uzo Aduba's anecdote about her name , - of an incident when she was called to an early job (at 6!) and someone there said she wasn't pretty because of her gap and her Ugandan mother took her on past this person and into the room, ANYWAY.

... She learned a specific self-knowledge and self-love, that is necessary in very white western spaces that constantly pressures a narrow sense of worthiness and beauty, especially from Black women, something a lot of these small-minded stans don't even have a notion of seeing beyond. Zawe is biracial, and her features, aside from her skin tone are very African. So while she benefits from colorism, featurism is something I've seen those bigoted stans, pick on as well. She knows those features are what makes her beautiful and knew that, w/o and before her partner saw that too. And people who aren't blind narrow-minded ignoramuses can *also* see that. This is why I assert the fact of featurism needing to be in the conversation of light/dark privilege conversations. Lips, nose, gap, and even the set of her eyes are ethnic beauty markers within quite a few spaces in the Black African diaspora... My mom was an absolute stunner because of her gap.

Even the old school white model Lauren Hutton got there because of her gap. Uzo Aduba, who I have already mentioned has a deeper skintone and has similarly large round striking eyes, gap, and a non-pinched-nose *rightly* played Glinda in NBC's production of The Wiz a few years back, with Dorothy saying she's so beautiful *because* of those features, not despite them as a very narrow white-washed gaze would wrongly assert.

And while we're here that includes sizes and shapes too. I'm saying your boy is enjoying all that plush. A lot of yall need to read or reread Maya Angelou's Phenomenal Woman, for comprehension.

Anyway... All this to say I know Zawe is and will be fine regardless.

P.S. Maya Angelou *also* had height, and gap and was very much known for her beauty/magnetism as a woman when she was alive. :

[pearsonspearson]

Yall are truly insufferable… if u want a firefighter/paramedic show literally watch Chicago fire or station19 or fire country… 911 is a show about the first responders who respond to 911 calls that’s fire, police, dispatch and paramedics… yall don’t bitch when there’s dispatch episodes… it’s just one common denominator with the fandom complaints and it’s almost never about the yt members of the cast…

[sovietunion]

Girl literally whatever... white fandom moment.

[bellepeppertronix]

Why every other time I find a Pinterest board or Tumblr with pics of Black women with cute natural hairstyles, I scroll twice and suddenly end up neck-deep in pics of Black women in tight clothes with their boobs and asses photoshopped to look bigger

[thegetdownrebooter]

The whites are turning on Caitlyn Clark for possibly being a democrat.

[andyxcds]

okay 🫡

tw: for discussion of SA

mary’s treatment in so many marauders fics is just str8 up dreadful, even in several popular fics. she’s usually objectified which, as much as i love it, was a trend started by ATYD. Like I know why the author did that; they wanted to write a sex-posititive female character and wanted a realistic portrayal of 1970s misogyny. Sirius objectifying Mary isn’t portrayed as a good thing, but it’s not condemned by the narrative either? Mary doesn’t need to go on a whole monologue on Sirius’ mistreatment of her, that would probably come off as pretty corny, but so much of her role is centered on being a support for Remus/Sirius. She doesn’t seem to have many flaws or goals or anything going on internally, which could’ve helped in making her a more well rounded person so we could take Sirius’ words with a grain of salt. And while this isn’t as extreme of a problem as it is in other fic, it did start a trend where Mary is just kind of the “hot popular chick who does all of the emotional labor for two of her male friends but doesn’t seem to care about anything outside of that”. Not saying Mary can’t be hot or popular or sleep around the problem just comes when that’s all she is. And many fics don’t even afford her that so she just turns into a shell for people around her.

the whole ‘Mary being a tool of development for male characters’ is especially disgustung when ppl depict her SA in fics. I don’t think I’ve seen a single depiction of Mary’s assault that was actually focused on her, esp esp in popular fanfics. Mary, the victim, becomes a conduit for the reactions and development of the men around her. Which is just like….fucking insane to me lmao. Sexual assault in general is one of the most traumatic events a person could go through, but since this is also most often written as a hate crime (Mulciber specifically going after Mary bc she’s a muggleborn) that adds an entirely different layer of sickening that ppl just?? Don’t engage with?? Because a victim’s SA should be used in service of development of male blorbos ig. Instead of the actual victim herself.

This also bleeds into my opinion on Mary and oblivation. I actually like the Mary oblivating herself headcanon. I think it’s unhealthy, irrational, morally dubious, extreme, and something someone in her position would do when pushed to the absolute limit. It’s compelling! But apparently ppl are fucking boring bc some ppl hc her being oblivated by dumbledore??? For some fucking reason???? Why would he ever do that???? It literally makes me want to tear out my cuticles seeing ppl rather rip away a woman’s agency than have to be conflicted by a character for five minutes. Let her make bad decision instead of no decision at all!!!

Christ this fandom doesn’t know how to write women

First off, this fandom revolves around men and male relationships, and that is evident in the fact that 70% of this fandom's works are made up of M/M fics. It's been like this for years, and to each their own of course. But when you bring up the undercurrents of misogyny portrayed in fics, people claim that it doesn't exist and they just prefer more gay relationships. That's okay, but don't dismiss the fact that you use female characters as a catalyst for your coming-of-age-esque relationships. ATYD (especially it being one of my first and favourite fics) was a prime example of pushing the dumb-hot-ex-girlfriend agenda through Mary. The author did very bad for never resolving her attachment and detachment to Sirius, or even explaining that being a young girl in a 1970s Scotland boarding school will mess with a woman's mind, and hell, no one else called bullshit so we ran with it.

Oh, don't mention the sexual assault of a black female to the crowd. It's not about her right now. They don't really care. They haven't cared for the past twenty years and the misogynoir is really showing up and showing out! When they cannot give her any other trauma due to the fact that they have provided her no goals and prospects and no real battles and actions, they go ahead to give her one of the worst they could find, then make sure to leave it at that. Can we talk about how fast they resolved the assault? Can we talk about how Sirius and CO. has fucked up the lives of many women but has been brushed under the mat because this is a wolfstar-centric/jegulus-centric story? No?

I've said it before, and I will never stop mentioning it, the microagressions Mary faced with the heavy agressions is what makes me even more pissed at her story. They take her emotional vulnerability (the effect of being a black young muggle in the 70s who portrayed herself as being sexually positive and active, play around it and spit her out) and turn her into a plot device when she's just as valuable as every other male character that is being written. When she was given the chance to have something for herself, do some damage after all the damage was done to her, we gave the blame to Dumbledore? Like I know we blame Dumbledore for everything, but are you going to take away the only thing this woman has done of her own selfishness and make it a man's?

Write those mlm fics if you want, but if you cannot make female characters as dimensional as every other male character, shut the fucking laptop. Give these women motivation. Give them anger and make that anger real and feasible. Make them selfish. Stop embarrassing yourselves!

[prettyymafia]

hearing ab matt healy and ghetto gaggers all over again on my fucking dashboard and trying to not let it ruin my mood for the week 😁😁

[rottenlittlefink]

“Black girls and black women haven’t earned protection” but little Susie and I are supposed to fight on the frontlines for these bitches? These “kings” (🤮!!) Divestment is LITERALLY self preservation for me and I’m not fucking budging on this, fight your own damn battles you dusty bitch