#like the author has queer characters as far as sexuality

[theirwolfbicanthrope]

something about sex and gender in a particular monsterfucker series always has me...slightly on edge. and idk if i'm being too suspicious and uneducated and judgmental or if there's legitimate cause for concern. it sucks because while this series has some flaws, the stuff that works for me really works.

[pastadoughie]

i am literally begging people to stop putting sexism and transphobia on my dashboard please fucking think critically abt ur internal biases for 5 secconds and please accept even an ounce of critisism without assuming that someone is attacking you unfairly

alot of you have extremely sexist beliefs that you dont recognize because within social media as a whole these are incredibly normalized, covering blatent homophobia and misandry in tumblr buzzwords doesnt make you not sexist it just lets you be sexist and homophobic and transphobic in a way that is socially acceptable and incouraged within a queer centric space

i keep seeing posts talking abt how people actively like artwork (writing, photography, drawings) more when they find out its of a butch lesbian and not just a dude, and like, if your opinion on a peice of media can change solely based on the gender of the person being depicted by it, with zero change to the character, then that implies an inharent bias against men like, just because its men doesnt mean it isnt sexism

same thing where people think that media depicting gay men is better when it explicitly isnt written by a gay man, like that implies a fundimental disrespect of the work based on the sexuality and gender of the author. if you like an artwork but then you find out its written by a trans women, and all of a sudden you think its garbage, you are transphobic, but when people try to point this same bias out for the works of queer men this is largely written off.

i know ppl will argue abt punching up and whatnot, and while i do in some ways agree with that overall sentiment, i think that we should be striving to uh, not be sexist at all, rather then just being misandrists instead of mysogenists, like, if you only care about sexism when it hurts women/women ajacent people then you dont actually hate sexism you just want it to harm a different group of people, you dont hate the system you just want to be ontop of it and benifit from it

misandry and mysogeny present in different ways, they arent a directly comparable thing, different people have things worse in different ways so its rlly hard to take a group and say "this group has it worse", like yes generalizations like that can help in an extremely broad sense, but the world is not black and white and this kind of shit is mindnumbingly complex, trying to act like there is some kind of objective scoreing system for who is more oppressed then who is just unproductive and harmful

and moreover, someone having it worse then you doesnt make you less deserving of trying to make your situation better, i dont experience racism and in many many many ways i have it easier then poc people, that does not make me undeserving of support and that doesnt make me complaining or trying to better my situation unreasonable

we can care abt the lives and want to better the situation of different groups simoltaniously, we dont have to stop caring about racism because we want to better transphobia

i get that transwomen have it rlly bad and i do not experience the exact same struggles as them, and therefore cant comment on alot of them, but so often i see erasure of queer men in order to give more focus to transwomen, and just because trans girls go through alot of shit doesnt make that ok

one thing that people have to recognize about misandry and specifically transmisandry that you dont really have to see as much with its mysogeny counterparts is that they have far more attention and people care far more about activism for queer women/women in general, queer mens experience and specifically the transmasc experience is very very very often erased and written off even by supposedly trans friendly and queer sorces, people care more about butch lesbians then they do trans men dispite the insane ammount of overlap between the two groups, when researching about historical butch lesbians alot of them are just, trans guys that people are misgendering and mislabeling as butch lesbians because ooooo woemennnnn

being transmasc myself i can say that like, the erasure of trans men is an extremely large issue, for large swaths of history the experiences of trans people arent paid attention to at all, and even looking at media coverage today, if people are going to talk abt transgenderism they are talking about it specifically under the lens of trans women

this is largely because misandry (specifically, people thinking that having cock and ball makese u somehow predatory) makes trans women an easier punching bag, trans women get more attention because they are easier for radfems (misandrists) to be bigoted against in a more violent way, if you assume all men and amab people are violent and predatory by nature then this makes justifying violence against trans women easier

and yea being a punching bag for the media is fucking hard but it does mean that activism for that group is much much much louder, more people are complaining about trans women so more people know abt the specific issues they face

but dispite trans men yaknow, also existing and recieving a shit ton of transphobia and erasure over history they dont get talked about as much, people hate us and are violent twards us but we dont nessasarily get the same outrage for our treatment

trans men are just as often get the dismissal for being women, and the outrage for being men as trans women do we just dont get as much support and thats really difficult! often people seek to treat transmasculinism as some kind of new thing like, i get the comment often that "usually its boys that wanna be girls" and its like, no. its not. its simply that people care less about us

i think that its really easy to misenterpret me here so im gonna just get this out of the way, i dont think that women have it easier then men in a broad socital sense, but also, i dont nessasarily believe that means that my complaints are invalid, being a queer woman is not a walk in the park, and neither is being a queer man, and both groups experience homophobia transphobia and sexism in different ways, so acting as if saying one is objectively worse then the other is unfair and reductive

i think that if we want to get anywhere in regards to making it easier to be trans then we need to talk about all queer experiences, you cant just, only care about trans women you have to care about all trans people, and moreover queer people in general, this means you HAVE to be vigilant about people wrapping up sexism in a tumblr buzzword packadge, you need to consume things critically and you are not immune to pipelines, people dont just wake up and become radfems you get continually fed more and more extreme idologies, being fed things that you 90% agree with untill you eventually become completely removed from the groups you were supposed to stand with

you can care about the oppression of multiple groups at once, and if you think activism in any way involves the erasure of a certain group then you have fundimentally misunderstood what youre supposed to be doing, queer men exist and they deserve support and respect and you need to be able to support and respect them without being like "ohh she is soooooo trransfemme coded" like. men can be queer and still be men, they can be queer and still deserve your love and support, i am begging.

also yes i am aware that outside of my specific experience of tumblr people fuckin hate trans girls and women in general and they dont feel the need to do this shit. but that doesnt mean what im talking about is not an issue and is not something that people need to change and address. if you find urself doing this shit you have got to reflect on yourself, you arent immune to transphobia or homophobia or sexism ESPECIALLY if you think that you somehow are magically immune. nobody is. no identity is. everybody is suseptible to this shit and it takes active critical thinking in order to combat it

[kaiserdrgn]

Apparently I'm celebrating this year's Pride month by reading queer Ranma 1/2 fanfiction. I've read 3,151,333 words of worth of fic this month so far on AO3.

It's interesting to see how the fandom has changed since the old days. I got into Ranma 1/2 back in the late 90s when I was a teenager. I was just as a voracious reader back then, maybe more so, and I read all the classics and standouts of the fandom. As the fandom slowly shrank and died out in 2000s, I naturally migrated to other, more active ones in search of fanfiction. Though I still kept a few fics and authors on my radar even as my interest drifted.

About two weeks ago, I got interested in poking around AO3 to see what I could find for Ranma, and oh my, did I find gold. A veritable feast of Ranma fic, and most of it was wonderfully queer.

Queer Ranma fic isn't by any stretch of the imagination new, but it is different these days. The language we use to describe gender identities has evolved. Back then if you read a fic labeled as Ranma-Chan, you knew you were getting into a work were Ranma is a girl. And Ranma-chan fics were common. But you hardly ever saw the term transgender. And if you did, it was almost exclusively in context of referring to Konatsu and not Ranma.

There were great heart wrenching character pieces, and deeply moving love stories, and side splitting comedies, and edge of seat action stories. But they were all written mostly in the 90s, and mostly by male anime fans. They are definitely products of their times.

The fics I found being written these days are different. And it's great. There is less bashing on characters in general. Even series designated punching bag Kuno often gets more nuanced characterization. Poly relationships aren't written as just harems for Ranma, and bi rep isn't limited to just fetishistic 'hot girl on girl action when the guy is busy elsewhere'. And the explorations of gender and sexual identities among the characters has been great.

As a transfem watching Ranma or any of the other characters explore their gender identity and break out of their egg, it's been a wonderfully fulfilling time to see these familiar thoughts and experiences reflected in fanfic for one of my favorite fandoms.

I don't really have a point to this post. I just took a minute to tally up my bookmarks on A03 and realized I've read over 3 million words in 2 weeks. And felt like rambling Ranma for a bit.

[hjemne]

I think a lot of the debates between fanfic writers / intra-community hostility (particularly around how 'accurately' characters are depicted in fic and how dominant explicit fics are becoming) are because the purpose and function of fanfic are fundamentally different for different people, and so fic authors play by very different rules while still using the same label of 'fanfiction' to describe it.

There's a spectrum to the purpose of writing fanfic that I think goes from 'fanfic as a form of literary character analysis' at one end, 'fanfic as smashing barbies together and putting characters in Situations' in the middle, and 'fanfic as a safe and communal space for exploring sexual fantasies' at the other end, which is an approach best summarised by this:

So fanfic writers and readers from the character analysis group might look at the fics written by that last group and go '??? WHY are they writing Mr Blorbo like this? this is so ooc what are they doing?' and the reason is that the fic has an entirely different purpose and is for an entirely different audience. We see so much in-fighting and morality policing over fanfic because people with VERY different expectations, motivations and priorities all share the same space.

A lot of the time when you come across a fic that makes you go 'what the FUCK is this, this is so ooc/fucked up', it makes a LOT more sense when you realise the author is much further towards the 'fanfic as a medium for pornography' side of the spectrum than you are. And when you see people complaining about the prevalence of x reader or explicit dead dove fics, instead of jumping into a pro vs anti 'fiction isn't reality' debate, consider whether they are a 'fanfic as character analysis' person expressing annoyance that it is (often) increasingly hard to find those types of fic.

Both of these uses of fanfic are valid, understandable and important to protect. It's no secret that the fanfic community is dominated by women and queer people, who haven't traditionally been the target audience of erotica/porn, and who absolutely deserve a space to express and explore sexual desires/fantasies. 'Fanfic as pornography' is not above criticism, but I think it's far more helpful to criticise it as you would more mainstream forms of porn.

'Thing X is getting increasingly common in fic and we as an entire community need to step back and consider the implications of X for how it fetishises Y minority group irl' -> yes

'Character A would NOT do [kink scenario]' -> you are missing the point of that fic, I fear

'I think it's frustrating how hard it can be to find fanfic about [theme in original work], everthing on AO3 is all just self-insert or ['''problematic''' ship no. 12457] fics :(' -> this statement is not a moral condemnation of these types of fic. people are allowed to not want to read 'fanfic as porn' fics. we don't need to start fights over this.

Horny fandom please remember you are in a fandom space where people are allowed to want fandom-centric stuff. Fandom-centric people please remember you are interacting with other people, who are allowed to be horny, and that fiction is absolutely the best and safest place to explore 'extreme' kinks. Yeah, it can be annoying that everyone gets crammed into the same spaces when we all have very different ideas of what we want fanfic to be, but this is the way things are, so we need to learn to understand each others perspectives and stop jumping into fights at the slightest perceived criticism of your personal way of doing things

[canmom]

reading Brainwyrms by Alison Rumfitt. it's interesting. clearly part of the post-Topside wave of trans lit, with the same 'plugged in to twitter' energy, but way more British about it. which means most of the allusions are very transparent to me. it's a combo of... hardcore kink driven romance as the main arc, in a near-future setting in which TERFism goes further to the point of outright bombings, and a scifi element with alien brain parasites that it's gradually building towards.

compellingly written, I'll give it that for sure - I lay down to read for a bit and before I knew it I'd read like a third of the book. the main character's disaffected, traumatised air is well observed, and the kink doesn't hold back.

I think my reservation with it so far is that it feels a little too much like a polemic blog post about the way things are going. the MC Frankie is a trans woman with a pregnancy kink who survived a bombing at a GIC and now works in social media moderation - it's all stuff that is blatantly Relevant To The Argument, as it were. it's tricky to criticise it for that because it's like, what you're saying is that it's tightly constructed and thematically consistent and that's bad somehow? but I think I've come to feel that I like fiction to bring me something a little new and unfamiliar.

the chapter I most enjoyed so far was actually a more metaphorical, abstract interlude, in which resistance to fascism is cast as becoming 'one mass of queer flesh, which now grabbed and clawed...'; 'faces locked in kisses until they became one face. the cops would try to pull at this mass, but to no avail'. very 'faggots and their friends between revolutions' stuff.

the chapters which are presented directly as social media posts and articles are also sharply observed. i think a lot of fiction in which the internet features heavily suffers from not understanding the internet very well (Hosoda's Belle for example), but for example the chapter 'Curious Cat' where an anonymous person (blatantly Vanya) is sending messages asking for help with a parasite, and getting rebuffed or misunderstood, and the chapter where Frankie relates a murder of an instagram model by a stalker who posts about it to a reddit community devoted to her, read as very real.

a lot of the story is about responding to a terrifying political situation in sexual terms - a flashback chapter depicting Frankie having sex with some terf's pretentious brother ("with each thrust from him, she thought to herself, I am a traitor, I am a traitor to the cause"), or the preface which jokes about how in another world the author would be writing 'cool horror stories about vampires raping werewolves, ones with no subtext at all'. I prevaricate a little on whether this is a compelling examination of a theme that I do find interesting (the mysterious origins of sexual desire) or just edgy for its own sake.

this is an odd novel for me in some ways because while on one level, this is about people who I could very easily be a single degree of separation from were they real, it's also about a facet of life that is still quite alien to me and in many ways I only know about second hand. I've never been to a kink club (that wasn't in an MMO anyway lol), I'm way too much of a nerdy autist shut-in to know what it's like to be someone who would feel put out if she hadn't had sex in a week. so even before the parasite stuff, it's hard to know how much of Frankie and Vanya's stuff is real, and how much is fantasy. is this really how things go between people? it sounds kinda fun, but unlocking the door this far has already taken years.

when I've read books about the crazy lives that American trans girls supposedly live and interesting sex they're apparently having, they've been at a certain remove, the other side of the Atlantic. and this book feels sort of similar, even though I know it's set right on my doorstep. idk, I've never been good at this.

anyway I don't think I want to write fantasy novels so directly about The Discourse of the day, but it's probably good that someone is. that said, it's hard to parse like... ok, it's titled brainwyrms, and 'brain worms' is a common way of describing an obsessive, cultish idea you receive from the internet.

and like if you look at the newspapers, or twitter trans discourse, you certainly could believe that this country is on a rapid slide to putting us in camps. however, my day to day life has been... it's not without hostility, but the average street harasser isn't doing it because of a Guardian or even Mail article. this country has a subculture of deranged weirdos who hate our guts, and a political class who will happily stoke culture war shit to score points, but most normies I've met don't care one way or another that I'm trans - they might mention a family member or friend they know who's also trans. the day to day conflicts are over way more prosaic shit, the landlord vs tenant forever war, or how the kitchen should be cleaned. which of these windows is more informative of the 'overall' state of affairs? not that a more violent terf cult is a bad premise to write a novel around, but a sense of impending doom is a pretty powerful mechanism to keep you scrolling, right?

like in 20, 40 years - will the terfs really be bombing the Tavistock and banning transness, as Rumfitt imagines in her near-future setting preface? or will they go the way of those newspapers in Thatcher's time who smeared the gay movement, just as they smear us today? of passing political obsessions like 'new atheism'? I don't know the half-life of cult shit.

anyway, time to read the rest of the novel, and see how it handles this brew that it's concocted.

[jesncin]

Hi again. Just saw the response and I just wanted to say thank you. I've been pretty scared since Indonesia has strict punishment for homosexual activity and I have fears about the Indonesian government funding my story and putting a tracker on me or something ( really stupid fears I know ) but you're right. Making queer representation is pretty risky. Especially good ones. And I myself feel like we should have more LGBT main couples than cis wlw or cis mlm. Like my main characters tiara ( Indonesian queer girl who isn't sure of her sexuality) and dezzy ( afro indigenous coded magical space person who's an enby lesbian) who are love interests. Again thank you so much for the advice. And best of luck to you and your future projects

Respectfully, while I relate to and understand the constant fear of creating queer art in a country as unaccepting as Indonesia, I do feel like the kind of fear you're describing stems from a lack of holistic context on the current state of queer creativity in Indonesia. I know I talk about being the first to create a queer Indonesian graphic novel to be published under american trad pub, but I'm far from the first queer Indonesian creative. It helped me to look at other queer artists like Kai Mata, or authors like Norman Erikson Pasaribu and Nurdiyansah Dalidjo to give me confidence even in something never done before. Something as big as Memories of My Body being able to exist even with the pushback it got still inspires me. Indonesia actually has a ton of queer films. There's loads of openly queer Indonesian influencers. Heck, I even got to talk about queer Indonesian culture on youtube through Xiran Jay Zhao's channel. It was a risk for sure, but I trusted the community Xiran fostered. To this day I haven't experienced any bigoted local pushback from that video.

All this to say I encourage looking at the queer community for inspiration and strength. I think it's easy to become paralyzed by fear and hypotheticals- isolating ourselves from the bigger picture. But it's so important to look at the community as a whole- what they've done and continue to do for us.

[fanhackers]

An Intimate Sound–Podfic and Confluence

This week, I’ve been thinking a lot about podfic, i.e.., audio versions of fanfic, read out aloud. Podfic, as an audio-based medium, sits at the confluence of disability accessibility, performance, and of course, simply being a new form of narrative text.

In the first ever published article on podfic, Olivia Riley states:

“Audiobooks, another auditory predecessor of podfic, share podfic's emphasis on fictional narrative and vocal performance as well as other qualities typical to all the audio mediums so far discussed, including portability and ease of access. The comparison of podfic to audiobooks is particularly important because in my investigation I ran across numerous instances of listeners explicitly comparing the podfic experience to that of an audiobook, while only one referenced podcasts in relation to these audio narratives; thus, we must take into account how fans theorize their own texts and experiences.”

This particular comparison between audiobooks and podfics interests me; podcasts, whether fictional or non-fictional, arguably may be more intimate, in so much as we may get to listen to the speakers’ personal opinions, thoughts, ideas, etc. And yet, podfic finds itself standing more with audiobooks, despite sharing half its name with podcasts. I’d like to complicate this further, drawing from my own experience of both running zines with audio components, as well as interacting with fellow fans who make podfic, and who have had podfic made off their own work: fans are sometimes hesitant to provide permission to have their work read out aloud, concerned about the voice and audio work “exposing” perceived flaws in their written texts.

There’s a certain intimacy involved in the process, certainly, more than just that of getting a work beta-ed, or proof-read. It’s similar to the collaborative nature of fanart for fanfic, except fanart is welcomed with a lot less hesitance.

In the same article, Riley further goes on to explore this very intimacy:

“The audio performances of podfic produce a queer network of relations between the performer, the text, and the listener. To begin with, the text itself is an actor in podfic. All the podfics examined for this article were explicitly queer in their content, featuring queer(ed) characters, queer themes, romance, and often explicit sexuality. The characters in these podfics carry variously transformed and reimagined genders and sexualities. These podfics are palimpsests of many texts and authors, including the fan fic being read aloud, the source text the fan fic was inspired by, the contemporary fanon and fan community that shaped the fic's production, the various music and sound effects often used in these recordings, and the labor of all the creators who made these media. Further, through the reader's performance, listeners receive a unique interpretation of the fan fic being read, conveyed through the intonations and other subtleties that emphasize and elide various textual significances. This profusion of overlapping and sometimes contradictory layers of meaning impact how a listener understands a character's gender and sexuality, refusing the simplicity of heteronormative binaries.” RILEY, OLIVIA JOHNSTON. 2020. “PODFIC: QUEER STRUCTURES OF SOUND.” TRANSFORMATIVE WORKS AND CULTURES, NO. 34. HTTPS://DOI.ORG/10.3983/TWC.2020.1933.

There is, then, a definite sense of vulnerability in getting podfic made off one’s work. But podfic, I’d argue, is almost the most celebratory fan-object fandom has ever produced—it sits again on a confluence, not just of medium and accessibility, but of multiple creatives, all of whom have a singular contribution in making the final product. Podfic is, in many ways, a community object, more so than most fan-objects, simply by its nature of needing multiple inputs. 

What are your thoughts on podfic?

[yurimother]

Asexuality in Yuri: The New "By Your Side"

This is a preview of an article from The Secret Garden, YuriMother’s exclusive series of articles, available only for Patrons. To read the full article, get early access, and help support Yuri and LGBTQ+ content subscribe to the YuriMother Patreon.

“Soba ni iru.” By Your side. “Zutto issho ni” We’ll be together forever. For decades these words were, for fans of same-sex relationships in manga and anime, the stand-ins for what we really wanted to hear.”

The opening lines from Erica Friedman’s By Your Side highlight the strenuous relationship Yuri and lesbian identity often have. It is a dynamic we have explored many times in this article series and will no doubt continue to delve into as the genre continues its rapid evolution and broadening. However, as I discussed in my article “Beyond The School Cathedral: How Yuri Grew Up,” Yuri and LGBTQ+ works are changing seemingly by the day. Moreover, while we celebrate the more explicit representation and discussion of queerness brought on by these changes, we also observe the growing intersection of other LGBTQ identities in Yuri.

In one of the first articles in The Secret Garden, I noted several works throughout history that explored gender and trans representation within or parallel to Yuri. Now, let us examine the presence of another important, though often sadly underrepresented, aspect of queerness, asexuality.

.....

Finally, Renmei’s 2021 series Lilies and Voices Born Upon the Wind (Yuri to Koe to Kazematoi) also presents a look into an asexual Yuri relationship, but without the romantic relationship of Doughnuts Under a Cresent Moon or Catch These Hands. Also, unlike those two titles, this manga notably openly discusses asexuality and LGBTQ+ identity using explicit terminology. Additionally, although lesbian attraction and the relationship between two women is at the story's core, its exploration of asexuality often takes an even more central role than in previous examples.

At the start of the series, the main character Matoi identifies as asexual, describing it as a lack of romantic and sexual feelings, which, as a reminder, is a common definition in Japanese LGBTQ circles. According to her, “That describes me perfectly,” and the character even clarifies other aspects of their identity, like that she is not a lesbian and is cisgender. Renmei does this to affirm to the audience that Matoi truly believes she is asexual and that the description resonates with her. Although by the end of the series, Matoi’s identity evolves, the author wanted to make it clear that she is not a closed lesbian or in self-denial in any way. Thus the series set the boundaries for exploring her evolving identity within the umbrella of asexuality.

It is unclear exactly how far into LGBTQ+ exploration Matoi is. However, she is assumed to be relatively new to learning about queerness. In the first chapter, she is shown to be watching a video describing “a look at LGBT,” possibly an introductory survey of queerness. She may have even discovered the term “asexual” in this video and, finding it the most accurate summation of her experience, decided that it described her best.

Matoi’s assertions about her sexuality are challenged upon meeting Yuriko, a 22-year-old biker who is also asexual. The two start seeing each other frequently for karaoke, motorcycle rides, shrine visits, and other reactionary activities. However, Matoi’s feelings for Yuriko are something more. At first, she attempts to rationalize it, saying that it is just fun to hang out with someone who does not get involved romantically, comforted by the knowledge that she has no interest in being physical while obsessing over Yuriko’s presence and every word. This justification is a retreat into her self-perception of her identity. As of this point, she believes herself to be asexual, and ties romantic and sexual attraction together.

Only after meeting Rio, a panromantic, demisexual woman and guide to Matoi in the LGBTQ community, does Matoi admits her feelings for Yuriko and the challenge it has presented to her asexuality. Talking through her feelings with Rio helps Matoi learn more about different asexual identities, finding a new label that more closely aligns with her truth, “non-sexual.” This experience also galvanizes her to learn more and continue building her knowledge of queerness. Matoi’s convection leads to her meeting an older lesbian couple, Rio and Chihiro, who serve as further sages of queerness and, as they are openly affectionate and sexual, provide a stark contrast to the feelings of the asexual characters.

Matoi’s newly found identity, nonsexual (ノンセクシュアル) is a term unique to Japan, where often, as previously stated, the label asexual refers to a lack of both sexual and romantic attraction. Nonsexual refers to someone who feels romantically drawn to others but does not experience sexual attraction (“Asexual.Jp Info”). It is thus identical to alloromantic asexual, a comparison Renmei themselves makes at the end of Lilies and Voices Born Upon the Wind’s final volume. Even as the split attraction model and its associate labels gain popularity in Japan, the term nonsexual is still employed, with over 80 percent of alloromantic asexual people identifying as nonsexual and only eight percent deliberately not identifying themselves as such, and the rest being unsure or unfamiliar with the label or its meaning (Miyake and Hiramori).

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[niqosblog]

Gretchen Wieners is 100% Queer: An Analysis

Spoilers for the 2024 Movie!!!!

Analysis under cut!!!

Exhibit A: Her One-sided Crush on Regina

Her solo song (What's Wrong With Me) is very much just a love song. The lyrics are very much blaming herself for her just because she loves Regina too much to blame her. It's a song of unrequited love, and how she is fully aware she's being used. But she won't do anything because it's the Regina George.

If you're still unconvinced, here are the lyrics of Gretchen's song compared to Aaron's (Regina's ex boyfriend) song:

Gretchen:

Aaron:

As you can see, the lyrics are very similar. Aaron sticks to Regina because he actually likes her and wants to impress her. Guess what Gretchen also does...

Not only are these musical numbers back to back on the soundtrack, they are about the same person and their relationship with the singer. This could be pure coincidence but I do have other points to make besides the songs.

Such as this scene:

In the actual show, Gretchen is actually flattered by what Regina said. And she actually takes it to heart. The only reason why she told Regina about Cady's crush on Aaron was because she was slowly replacing her, and she got jealous.

Exhibit B: Jason Weems

Before we start, this is about their toxic relationship which I do not support and I'm only using for an example. And if you try to argue that they aren't toxic and are just a couple that has a lot of playful banter. The 2024 movie changes her love interest as she sees Jason as sleezy.

Gretchen likes Jason in the movie and that goes for the rest of the adaptations by Tina Fey.

But why?

Jason always cheats on her and hits on any girl he sees. Yet Gretchen keeps going back to him. It's assumed that he only does this to make Gretchen jealous. But he already has her wrapped around his finger, so why bother. Maybe he's just good at pleasing her, but that's not the case.

In a deleted scene in 2004 Mean Girls, Karen and Gretchen have a conversation about Jason. Gretchen saying it's 'the night for [her] and Jason' for Karen to say that they've already done it twice. But Gretchen says that tonight she's going to 'like it'.

This means, the two other times they've had sexual interactions she didn't like having it with him. And why she didnt like it goes unexplained. This ties back to Regina. Like Regina, Jason ignores Gretchen a lot. Much as far as to step over her at Cady's party in the movie when she falls to the floor while drunk. Yet Gretchen still craves attention from him and expects calls and texts back.

She has only shown this behavior toward Jason and two other character. Those characters are Regina and Cady. She yearns for Regina's attention while she's queen bee. When she and Karen go to another room, Gretchen asks to be let in. This leads to the 'What's Wrong With Me' musical number. She loves being with Regina and treasures every little interaction, even if it's through a door.

Now, when Cady is queen bee, she does the same thing. She asks her to make plans so they can hang out. And when she refuses, she uses Cady's crush (Aaron) as a reason to make plans. She's desperate to hang out with Cady and is at her every beck and call.

This could just be Gretchen sucking up to authority, but it's still very similar to how she is with Jason, her on-and-off boyfriend.

Exhibit C: Her Questionable Relationship With Karen

In every adaptation, Gretchen seems to always have a positive relationship with Karen. Which is the only character within the Mean Girls universe she has a positive relationship with (unless you count the Walmart ads as lore and consider her husband to be a character). They have many scenes to the point that TV Tropes considers them to be 'Heterosexual Life-Partners'.

Link:

But from what we know, the two don't have a set love interest. Unlike Cady and Regina who are Betty and Veronica to Aaron's Archie. Their onscreen relationships go as follows from the movie-musical-movie musical

Gretchen: Jason (movie), no one (musical), Kevin (movie musical)

Karen: Seth (kind of), no one, unnamed theater boy

These two do not have a set relationship with boys. Guess which other character this applies to.

Janis Ian or any other variation of her last name.

Janis was only written as straight once. In the 2004 movie with Kevin G. The other adaptations however...

In the musical, her sexuality is left ambiguous but she's single by the start and end of it. And BWW, her Broadway actress, says that she played Janis as queer. Then in the 2024 movie, she's a canonical lesbian and takes her girlfriend to Spring Fling. Meaning that Janis' relationship adaptations looks like this:

Janis: Kevin, no one, unnamed girlfriend

This is very similar to Gretchen and Karen's adaptations relationships. And when we consider how Tina wrote most of these adaptations we can conclude that Janis was at least queer when she first wrote her. And the same should go for Gretchen and Karen.

And the musical and 2024 movie put some interesting moments between them.

This isn't even the half of it, I've heard they've done a gay thigh touch in some productions.

Mind you, the second photo was during Spring Fling after dumping Jason.

As you can see they don't exactly have a straight relationship. Not to say they both are gay and should have been canon in the 2024 movie hahahahaha.. But the two have very obvious chemistry and love each other. Whether platonic or romantic.

And in an interview, Avantika, Karen's 2024 actress, says that Karen is pansexual. And from this analysis, we can say that at the very least Gretchen is some form of queer. Whether it's bi, pan, unlabeled, or even if you headcanon her as lesbian and think of Jason as her beard.

At the end of the day, it's your decision to believe me or not. But it is 3:09 right now (sorry for any typos), and I've been meaning to make this post ever since I saw the 2024 movie in theaters.

Remember, this is all analysis through a queer lens. You can still think of her as straight, or think of the adaptations having different sexuality. I don't want to force what I think onto anyone that they don't believe in. This is just a post by a silly gay person.

[all-seeing-ifer]

Aromanticism in Academia

Since it's currently Aromantic Spectrum Awareness Week and I'm currently in the middle of a master's research project about aromanticism and asexuality, I figured I'd contribute by putting together a list of some books and other academic sources I've read so far that deal with aromanticism! There's very little written about aromanticism in academia, so I think it's important to spotlight what we do have.

DISCLAIMER BEFORE THE LIST: Due to the lack of discussion of aromanticism specifically in academia, most of what I've found are texts that are primarily about asexuality but also discuss aromanticism. It's unfortunate, but it is also where we're kind of at right now in terms of academia, so bear that in mind.

Books:

Ace Voices: What it means to be asexual, aromantic, demi, or grey-ace by Eris Young - Definitely has the most focus on aromanticism of everything that I've read so far, this book draws from a combination of the author's personal experiences and interviews with other members of the a-spec community, including aroace and alloaro people. A good source of discussion of aro issues and how they interact with things like gender stereotypes. Also notable for its discussion of QPRs, a topic which I find has generally been ignored in academia about a-spec identities.

Ace: What Asexuality reveals about desire, society, and the meaning of sex by Angela Chen - Primarily deals with asexuality, as the title suggests, but also contains some relevant discussions of aromanticism, including the experiences of aroallo people. If you're going to check out the book, I would especially recommending looking at chapter 7: Romance, Reconsidered, which features most of the discussion of aromanticism and non-normative relationships

Refusing Compulsory Sexuality: A Black Asexual Lens on our Sex-Obsessed Culture by Sherronda J Brown - Again, asexuality is the main focus here, but I would still recommend checking out this book as it does still contain some useful discussion of aromanticism, particularly an extended critique of "singlism" (i.e. discrimination of single people) and how it is weaponised against aros. I also find Brown's criticism of the dehumanisation of aromanticism in media to be very compelling!

Minimizing Marriage: Marriage, Morality, and the Law - I would be remiss not to mention Brake's work here. While Minimizing Marriage is not specificallly about aromanticism and deals with marriage reform and the concept of amatonormativity more broadly, I think it's fair to say that many of Brake's ideas (particularly her coining of amatonormativity as a term) have become vital to the aro community and aro activism in recent years. Definitely a must-read for anyone interested in deconstructing amatonormativity and in contemporary critiques of marriage as an institution, though it's worth noting that this is a work of moral/political philosophy first and foremost, and as such it gets very into the weeds of things. Available on the Internet Archive here

Academic Articles/Essays (all can be found in the collection Asexualities: Feminist and Queer Perspectives):

"Why didn't you tell me that I love you?": Asexuality, Polymorphous Perversity, and the Liberation of the Cinematic Clown by Andrew Grossman - A really interesting and engaging analysis of the archetype of the silent film clown, and how it can be read as an a-spec figure. While Grossman uses the language of asexuality, his analysis makes it clear that he is looking at the clown as both an asexual AND aromantic character.

On the Racialization of Asexuality by Ianna Hawkins Owen - A personal favourite of mine. I think many parts of this essay will be very relevant to aromantic people, particularly Owen's investigation of how romantic love came to be pedastalised and her critique of attempts to normalise asexuality by distancing it from aromanticism.

Mismeasures of Asexual Desires by Jacinthe Flore - A critique of the pathologisation of asexuality that also discusses how aromanticism challenges common discourses around intimate relationships

Finally, I would like to mention the work of Bella DePaulo, who has written extensively about singlism and compulsory coupling, and who Brown uses extensively as a source in their writing on aromanticism. I didn't want to make this part of the main list because I haven't yet had a chance to get stuck into DePaulo's work, but based on Brown's mentions of her work I believe she has some very interesting ideas that are very relevant to aro people.

As you can probably tell, the list of academic sources dealing with aromanticism and aro issues is very limited. However, while aromanticism is vastly underdiscussed in an academic context, I'd like to point out that this is also only what I've been able to find so far. If anyone has any other recommendations please do add them to this post - I for one would love to hear about them!

[the-obnoxious-sibling]

What I don’t understand in shuggy is why oda added that brothers line. The in universe explanation of marines didn’t knew works, but we as readers? Why he decided to add that? I heard people talking that Japan is very specific about sworn brothers and shuggy are not but why even write that line? I don’t get this decision. Unless he wanted us to think they were like that or idk Did you ever talked about it from the author pov? Like everything author puts in his work he does on purpose. That line has to have a purpose. And what do you think it was? I’m not attacking, just finding good writer who likes shuggy so can answer that in smart way

well, first off i have to disagree with you: oda isn’t doing everything on purpose.

i mean that both in the sense that we know not everything about one piece has been planned all along, and in the sense that we know he’s added elements to his story and world unthinkingly. sometimes he forgets to draw things! sometimes he makes a joke and didn’t think through the implications! you should look through the SBS catalog sometime, it’s fun to see him come up with explanations for some of this stuff after the act.

now, is the sworn brothers line one of those unthinkingly added elements? probably not. it feels like something written with intention to me.

what intention? as far as i can tell, just the textual one: to show how limited the marines’ understanding is.

the marines looking at buggy’s history with shanks and calling them sworn brothers shows how, even with all the facts in front of them—like viewing the complete impel down prison footage and deciding that luffy and buggy had the breakout planned from the start—the marines will consistently come to wildly incorrect conclusions about who buggy is, and why he does what he does.

(this has become a common theme with buggy & the marines in the years since marineford—just look at cross guild!)

i’m not even saying this as someone who views that relationship as romantic. shipper goggles off, i’m saying i simply do not believe buggy considers shanks a brother.

we’ve seen a sworn brothers’ bond before: the one between ace and luffy. we know how buggy thinks of shanks. the two relationships could not be more different. thus, by having the marines misidentify the buggy & shanks relationship as 兄弟分, as kyoudaibun, as sworn brothers, oda shows that the marines don’t understand buggy at all.

i really don’t think it’s any deeper than that.

oh, what, you wanted to see what else i had to say? okay, then. but this bit gets kinda mean.

listen.

i am certain that oda does not intend for a queer reading of shanks and buggy. i’ve said it before: oda is a remarkably queer-friendly shonen author as far as gender is concerned—though not so queer-friendly that one of the main characters of the series isn’t deeply transmisogynistic—but queer sexuality is just not present in the text.

now, that doesn’t do anything to stop me from having a queer reading of shanks and buggy. that doesn’t stop any of us from having all kinds of queer readings of one piece!

but it does mean that when you ask me, “i understand your point about the marines being wrong in-universe, but why did oda use the phrase sworn brothers?” a big part of me wants to say, “i don’t know, and i don’t care.”

i’m not a mind reader! i can’t tell you what oda was thinking! and frankly, it doesn’t matter to me what he was thinking! death of the author, you know? our interpretation as readers is equally, if not more, important than any theoretical authorial intent.

and even if oda does someday condescend to answer an SBS question about a five hundred chapter-old turn of phrase, and it turns out i’m totally wrong about everything… so what?

you’re not gonna “prove me wrong” about shuggy. i am under no delusions that i am “right.”

[saintsenara]

For the unpopular opinions ask game, 🏳️‍🌈 and 💔?

thank you very much for the ask, anons plus @princessofshazabah, which i have combined into one!

which character who is commonly headcanoned as queer doesn't seem queer to you?

having an answer to this is a skill issue! the very point of shipping is that any expression of human sexuality [very rarely as fixed and unchanging as many people like to believe] is possible if an author has enough nerve.

which means that any way of writing a character's sexuality is inherently plausible, and trying to argue otherwise ["omg noooo he only likes women!", "omg nooooo he's a gold-star gay who'd be sick if he saw a cunt"] is unimaginative.

if you had to remove one major character from the series, who would you choose?

grawp. he's pointless.

what is a popular [serious] theory you disagree with?

that lord voldemort cannot feel love because of the circumstances of his conception.

the two things i particularly hate about this fanon are the fact that, firstly, it suggests that anybody who was conceived because of rape - which is going to be a far greater number of people than perhaps we like admitting - is irreparably damaged.

and that, secondly, it continues one of the main issues with how the harry potter series portrays voldemort’s childhood by completely overlooking the failure of the state in how he ends up as he does.

the institutionalisation of children is a profoundly traumatising practice, and the vast majority of orphanages - both historically and in the parts of the world where they persist - do not have the resources to provide the children in their care with the support they need [no matter how well-intentioned the staff]. 

the young voldemort learns as a baby not to waste his time on crying, because he’s not getting the attention he needs from it, and there are other signs in canon that he’s not had a great time in the orphanage [especially, as i’m always going on about, the sinister implication which can be read into his extreme fear of doctors…], but dumbledore pays no attention to the role the state and its institutions have had in shaping his [undoubtedly] concerning persona.

the harry potter series does this a lot - ignoring the role of the state in favour of locating good and evil within the individual - but that doesn’t mean we have to. there doesn’t need to be a supernatural reason for voldemort’s voldemortishness… it just fucks up kids to be raised in what is, essentially, a pen.

[i also hate this fanon because it forces me to defend jkr - which i loathe doing - and point out that she explicitly refuted it.]

which character is not as hot as everyone else seems to think?

there is no suggestion anywhere in canon that either lucius or draco malfoy are attractive.

[deramin2]

Izzy the Leather Daddy: Queering the Father Figure Lens

In Vanity Fair’s interview with David Jenkins, he says, “We felt like Izzy’s story had reached its conclusion, where we put him through enough. And then there was the realization that he is kind of a mentor to Blackbeard and that he is kind of a father figure to Blackbeard. It felt nice to have him die and have Blackbeard be upset by it, because Blackbeard killed his father. But this is a father figure that he’s losing that it’s hard for him; it's sad and he doesn't want him to go. Izzy has such a beautiful arc in season two; he does a lot of the things, has a lot of the breakthroughs that you want that character to have. It felt like: It’s time to give him a full meal. And it’s also a pirate show, so he’s got to die.”

That’s been taken to be in a very child-like way, but that's not the only type of daddy in queer culture. Let’s examine Izzy as Ed's leather daddy figure. A kink dynamic sense of a masculine authority figure with a tough and painful love and a man who wants to be driven to greatness by submission. Not necessarily sexually, though that was always possible, but a sort of roleplay dynamic they fell into that satisfied them. Their costumes are literally leather daddy kink subculture.

Ed does have daddy issues. He rejected his own father and his abuses with violence, but we also see that left a void. He’s sought out other older masculine authority figures who promised a sort of found family, but they’ve always been just as toxic and abusive as his own father. Like Hornigold who glorified toxic masculinity and twisted Ed into needing to create the Blackbeard persona to survive. Where the abuse of Hornigolds authority begat a brotherhood beteen those who survived it like Calico Jack (and many didn’t like Felix). Even pop-pop the fisherman treated Ed with violence and reproach when he clumsily sought to reform himself into a calmer life. The men he’s looked up to have treated him as inherently worthless unless he can prove his worth. They’ve fed his self-hatred to fuel ambition.

Izzy viewed the Blackbeard persona as a revered golden child it was an honor to serve under. Even when Ed made a mess of things, Izzy saw him as worthwhile cleaning up after and protecting. He pushed and challenged Ed to further greatness and while there was still a violence to it, Ed could feel like he was finally living up to an authoritative man’s respect.

Izzy pushed Ed to keep being Blackbeard too long and it had become an unhealthy dynamic. There are also tones of Izzy being like a toxic manager who pushes a rock star too far to secure his own place. They’re both dependent on each other, using each other, and are bonded by having been to hell and back together.

Stede offered Ed a new role to play. We saw that with the clothes swapping right from the start. Stede is also assertive and dominant but in a gentler way. Ed and Stede both started reshaping each other for new roles. And then Stede paniced and abandoned him like every other man he’s sought approval from.

This pushes Ed further into Izzy’s construction where Ed plays the monster in charge that Izzy wanted him to be. But it’s goes off the rails this time. The monster that comes out is The Kraken with Izzy cast as Ed’s father. Blackbeard nearly kills Izzy and leaves him forever changed. Izzy has to rebuild himself from the ruins Ed left him in emotionally and physically. This dynamic and role for Izzy is dead.

And with the death of that role, Izzy feels like he must die. He doesn’t see any place for himself in life disabled and fallen from Ed’s favor. He begs for it. He feels like being kept alive is a cruelty and doesn’t understand why the crew won’t let him go. He only survives Ed handing him the means for suicide by chance. He stays drunk as he heals to not feel.

But the crew love who he could be (if not who he’s been), and encourage him to make a new place and take on a new role. They make him a new leg out of the damaged ship and encourage him to be a unicorn, a legendary beast of his own (one whose arrival foretells death in some stories). It’s drag mother Wee John who gives Izzy another sense of himself by giving him a Look and a new role.

He watches Ed toss his leathers overboard and the next time they speak tells Ed to listen to it and find himself. Meanwhile Izzy grapples with who he is now. He tells Stede that he’s good for Ed, but also reminds him that when Izzy said he loved Ed, Ed shot him. Izzy’s really passing on the role here. He was Ed’s partner in these scenes but it’s not healthy and it needs to be Stede and his gentler ways, now. Izzy’s figured out that’s not his place anymore. I think he’s grappling with what that place is.

Talking to Banes, Izzy evokes the same sense of community among pirate crews that have drawn queer people together for centuries through good and bad. The sort of dynamics so present in queer theater and then films like The Boys in the Band (1968, 1970, 2020) and Love! Valour! Compassion! (1995, 1997), and Fire Island (2022). Groups that are bound as much by the ways they have been hurt and hurt each other as the ways they love each other. But always push each other to be better and they will always take care of each other in meaningful ways. They’re a family and they can nurture each other. They don’t need a tough love violent daddy keeping them in line. And in a sense it’s here that Izzy makes the leap Michael from The Boys in the Band or John Jeckyll from Love! Valour! Compassion! never could: he changed before it was too late, and everyone mourned him.

In the end Izzy represents everything that drove Ed to be Blackbeard. He was Ed’s mentor for that life. He represents the old guard of piracy and their toxic ways, and even though he’s unlearning them as a character, he’s also a symbol of all that. He ends up the only casualty in a raid Ed thought was a suicide mission. Stede’s way wins the day, but at the literal and symbolic cost of Izzy’s. The death of the mentor signifies the end of what they can teach you and the hero’s call to be your own person. In a way that honors the master but puts its own path, with the student eventually returning as a new teacher.

Queer media is often very cyclical. In season 1 Ed’s wheel of fate started high and crashed down. This season it’s been dragged through the mud with the weight of the world on it. Izzy is ultimately crushed under that wheel. But he looks up seeing Ed rising again into a new cycle unlike anything he’s had before. A cycle Izzy never quite achieved, but made peace with. And so he tells Ed to go and be happy and live. The best revenge on Banes he could get is to live and die free surrounded by love and loyalty.

In queer media you often see characters who are facing death become a sort of mentor figure. Setting their affairs in order and finishing their business, they end up trying to answer what was worth living for. Buzz Hauser and James Jeckyll in Love! Valour! Compassion! or Andrew Beckett  in Philadelphia (1993) or Kit Cowan in Spoiler Alert (2022). Queer media has such a rich legacy of stories where death is not a punishment but the great reckoning with oblivion we all face. The constant companion we all walk hand in hand with not knowing when it will yank us away. For people with dangerous lives often too soon. The construct of a good death where you’ve finished your business, learned your lessons, and said everything that needed to be said. Where maybe there was so much more to live for, but at least you got closure.

He was mourned by people who often see their community through funerals burying their friends. With shock and familiarity and holding themselves together because it will not help right now to fall apart. They honor what made him him in life, and their complicated relationship like Roach getting one more middle finger in with a sad smile before passing Izzy’s grave marker along. His memory passed between all of them. Spoken of both lovingly and honestly of his faults. Because he’s all of it. His beauty was in his fullness. And he outlasted many other pirates they’ve sailed with that lived just as hard.

Izzy represents the stakes they’re facing that they’ve miraculously been lucky enough to dodge at the last moment. Like Ivan’s off-screen death and many unnamed crew members, he represents how deadly this profession is. Izzy was always afraid Stede was going to get him killed, and he was right. But it was a heroic death for a greater cause instead of for ruthless plunder. Izzy came to believe in the pirates as a revolution, not just in varying stages of fucking each other over. And in that way carries on queer media traditions of a meaningful death as revolutionary.

[frogs-and-books]

My frustration has very little to do with what's canon and a lot more to do with the way fandom shippers feel like the lack of explicit confirmation can be used as a bludgeon against people expressing discomfort with the ship when fandom is a media space rampant with romance-centrism and when the coding is as explicit as it is. And then try to throw out "I accept he's "canon" ace" as a way of shielding themselves from criticism despite that not actually being anymore canon than anything else. Also, frankly, I think people would be entitled to get mad if they walked back from this coding. You talk about fighting for representation, part of doing that is voicing criticism when representation falls flat. (And walking back the coding would be falling flat even if that wasn't the intention.) I don't actually think Riz is canon ace or canon aro. Because I do believe in death of the author and that the ability of the audience to interpret art is very important. And I agree that heavy coding alone isn't enough to make something inarguably canon. The problem I have is the way that so many fans go out of the way to dodge Riz's potential as representation and refuse to support aro fans who see themselves in Riz. Mostly, as far as I can see, for the sake of continuing to ship a pretty bland ship. And a little bit to protect the creators from some potentially deserved criticism. (Also, having not watched Voltron, I can't speak to the accuracy of the Klance comparison. But generally ship happy fandom exaggerates queer coding on everything except ace and aro coding. So I'm inclined to suspect it's not entirely apt)

There's is no problem with aro people relating to Riz and seeing him as Aromantic, but if you don't like when people ship Riz with people, just block them. Other people shouldn't have to stop having different interpretations because they make you uncomfortable.

Maybe people are dodging representation for the sake of a ship! But if that's your issue, I think you're talking to the wrong person. I'm not saying he isn't, and I'm not trying to ignore the coding. I'm simply saying that it isn't canon. That doesn't mean that the characteristics that make people believe he's aromantic aren't there. He still has those traits no matter what his sexuality is.

I have said over and over that there is a lot of coding, and it's obvious why some people believe that he's aromantic, but stating that he isn't canonically Aromantic isn't an attack on anyone, it's a fact.

Also, please don't get mad at Murph if he doesn't make Riz canonly Aromantic. Coding doesn't equal representation, and it's his character.

[melanielocke]

Book recommendations: queer adult fantasy romance

This is a relatively new genre. Before, pretty much all YA fantasy books are heavy on the romance, but that's becoming more popular in adult, creating fantasy romance as a genre. I read mostly queer fantasy romance. Unfortunately, there aren't many traditionally published ones yet, I think the top rowin the left picture is all of them (if there are any I didn't know of, please let met know). I've excluded sci-fi romance for this post (which is why Winter's Orbit isn't here).

In indie books, I think there are some more, but I'm not super familiar with the indie market. The bottom three in the left picture are all indie books that also come in paperback (many are ebook only and I don't have an ereader). Most of these books I have talked about before but not all of them.

A Taste of Gold and Iron by Alexandra Rowland

This is a prince/bodyguard romance set in a kingdom inspired by the Ottoman empire. Kadou is the queen's younger brother, and after a mistake puts him in a bad situation with his sister and the body father of her child, he has to help her uncover a conspiracy to do with forged money.

He gets a new bodyguard, which in this case has both the task of being a guard and being a personal attendant. Evemer hates Kadou at first. He's very duty bound and thinks Kadou does not take his duties as prince seriously.

But they will have to trust each other if they want to get to the bottom of that forged money conspiracy.

Evemer is a very stoic guy. He doesn't talk much. He can go entire days only saying 'Yes, my prince' 'no, my prince' or simply 'my prince' when he tries to convey he is annoyed or disagrees.

Kadou has very well written anxiety, and deals with this in numerous ways, including at first drinking far too much wine to dull his fears. Evemer is at first very judgemental, but over time he comes to understand Kadou better.

There's lots of discussion of ethics in this book, partially to establish how a relationship between them could happen without there being a power imbalance because of it.

Also by this author: several self published books, in 2024 comes their next trad published book, Running Close to the Wind, which is a queer pirate book pitches as Our Flag Means Death x Six of Crows

A Marvellous Light & a Restless Truth by Freya Marske I've already talked about several time

And yet I'm going to do it again. I love the each book features a different couple structure and I'd love to see this more often. It's a great way to have many different major characters but also give all of them their moment to shine and have properly development instead of trying to balance three romances in the same book.

The overarching plot in the trilogy has to do with the conspiracy Robin and Edwin begin to uncover in the first book, something that threatens all magicians of england.

A Marvellous Light features a himbo x librarian m/m couple. They're the softest, sweetest couple of the three in the trilogy to be sure, and I'm planning to reread soon.

A Restless Truth features a sapphic rake x wallflower couple. They're both very chaotic, and I love Maud's energy, as well as the whole sexual awakening arc she has in here, which is so funny.

The third as of yet unpublished book is a Power Unbound, featuring a couple that I think is grump x sunshine but in a asshole x asshole way and it sounds like it's going to be amazing so definitely keep an eye out for that one coming November.

A Strange and Stubborn Endurance by Foz Meadows

This is one I don't think I've talked about before. Before reading this, definitely check the content warnings. There's a pretty graphic rape scene very early in the book, as well as several moments of suicidal ideation. That said, this is a healing story, and the character this happens to is doing a lot better when the story ends.

Vel is a prince who ends up in an arranged marriage to a noble girl from a different kingdom. When his preference for men is revealed in a pretty awful way, his family is ready to disown him. But the envoy of his betrothed's family had a better idea, marry his former intended's brother instead.

But before Vel arrives at the castle of his betrothed, he is attacked and nearly killed by assassins who clearly do not want his marriage to take place.

When attacks keep happening after Vel and Cae have gotten married, they will have to rely on each other to figure out what's going.

I love queer arranged marriages in stories, like in Winter's Orbit, so I was super excited when I first found out about this book. This book ends with everything wrapped up, but there is a sequel coming out this December. Unfortunately, that's still pretty far away, but there has been a cover reveal and blurb. The sequel will feature the same main characters.

Then to the indie books

Prince of the Sorrows and Lord of Silver Ashes

These are the first two books in the Rowan Blood series, which the author intends to be an eight book series in total. But since it's an indie series and the author is a pretty fast writer, they come pretty fast after one another. The first one came out last March, and the second one October, and the author released a different book this February. The next book in this series is schedule for late spring somewhere.

This series is set in a fae world, with a parallel historical human world we don't see much of.

Saffron is a beantighe, which is a human servant who is raised in the fae world after his parents made a deal with the fae. His patron sends all these children back to the human world once they become too old, but Saffron wants nothing more to stay in the fae world. To do that, he'll need an academic endorsement from a fae so he can stay and study.

When he accidentally finds out the true name of prince Cylvan, the two strike a deal, Saffron will help him find a way to remove the power on his true name, and Cylvan will give Saffron an endorsement. The only problem is, Saffron has no clue what he's doing and barely taught himself to read.

In the meantime, beantighes are getting killed one after another by a mysterious person known as "the wolf" and it will be up to Saffron to stop the killer, because no one else will.

The first book ends on a cliffhanger, but the second is a bit more wrapped up so I'm not sure what's going to happen in the next book since there will definitely be more. Fortunately, the wait is not super long, but the release date and covers are released much later than for trad publishing

Last is the Fox & the Dryad by Kellen Graves

This book is set in the same world as the Rowan Blood series, but it is a standalone in the modern time period.

Briar is a ballet dancer, and while he enchants many people on the stage, he cannot get the attention of the one person they really want to notice them. So they strike a deal with a fae lady, if he can perform one perfect dance she'll make him the most enchanting thing on two legs. Of course, a dance is never perfect and now he's stuck dancing for the fae lady whenever she asks him too, despite him getting worn out and injured from it.

Malric is the son of said fae lady and used to be a dancer himself. All his siblings are artists and their mother abuses their talents to entertain people at her revels, all at their cost. Malric left, but he finds out his mother struck a deal with Briar, who is now his replacement. Malric wants to rescue Briar, and tries to help him posing as his new dance teacher in the human world as well as a mysterious masked fey lord at the revels. But then he starts developing feelings for Briar, and he has to ask himself if what he's doing is really helping him.

This book takes place a lot more in the human world than the main Rowan Blood series, which ballet playing a big role which I think was done really well. Briar is a masc enby and uses he/they pronouns, and use alters through the book. I think this is the author's best book so far and if you're not looking to get invested in a long unfinished series yet I would try this one first and maybe start Rowan Blood afterwards.

I'll probably do trans characters next as the Wicked Bargain has arrived and I'll start reading it tomorrow

@alastaircarstairsdefenselawyer @life-through-the-eyes-of @astriefer @justanormaldemon @ipromiseiwillwrite @a-dream-dirty-and-bruised @amchara @all-for-the-fanfiction @imsoftforthomastair @ddepressedbookworm @queenlilith43 @wagner-fell @cant-think-of-anything @laylax13s @tessherongraystairs @boredfangirl16 @artist-in-soul @beyondlifebeyonddeath @ikissedsmithparker

[sweetfirebird]

you all know I don't watch Bridgerton or anything... I don't think I even spelled that right. But anyway, apparently the hints for the next season involve f/f and a black/white pairing for that f/f (and I know it's gender swapping someone from the books in addition to ... is the term race swapping? well that too) and apparently this has made a lot of romance and Bridgerton fans very angry.

And a lot of other romance readers/writers were surprised by this. I am not blaming them for being surprised but let me tell you... There is more than a mere streak of conservatism among romance readers. It is built in to the genre I think. And yes, I mean even the ones who read m/m and post rainbows in June are often conservative, and you know one thing those readers hate? Well, two things those readers hate? Women who do not center men in their lives and also black women as romantic leads.

They will say they don't, but they also will not read or watch anything like that. And if they do, they will be harsher than they would ever be to the worst written m/f out there.

(I also suspect this discomfort extends to queer stories featuring vaginas/vulvas in any way. I don't mean vaginas as in, "vaginas means women" I mean, there is a lot of misogyny in the romance genre but also specifically these readers dislike stories that mention vaginas in anything other than a 50 Shades "her inner goddess" way. Cocks are allowed. Cunts are not. So, some trans romances, f/f, any romance that isn't cis m/f in which pussies are talked about in noneuphemistic ways, freak them the fuck out and that makes them angry as well.)

These kinds of readers will suddenly get super critical of writing and pacing and technique and historical accuracy in a way they do not give two shits about with cis m/m or m/f. And if anyone involved in that romance is not white, or more particularly black, that part of the audience is especially inclined to do this.

And this show apparently replaced some "beloved" male character from the books with this black woman for this romance, and oh yeah, that actress is going to get hate and Netflix had better have her back. Actually, she probably is already getting hate because even the original author of the books is getting hate right now and Julia Quinn is, as far as I know, white.

But anyway, no I was not surprised at the anger and the strength of the backlash. Romance has a lot of internalized misogyny and also a lot of racism baked right in. If this had been a side ship, they would have just ignored it completely. But because it's replacing a major m/f white, ship, people are losing their minds.

... Actually if an interracial f/f couple were side characters on most shows, they wouldn't even be a ship. They would already be together and kept away from any sexual tension or wooing or will they/won't they vibes. Or they would not even be a ship until they show was about to be canceled and then the producers would throw in an awkward kiss or something in the final season.

Anyway. I am rambling now but like, yeah. Not surprised at the hate. Only surprised that Netflix is having it be an actual romance on screen.