#mikeyposts

[k1ng-ej]

bf!Steve who always apologizes with your favorite flowers and candy.

bf!Steve who is clingy and protective of you, wrapping his hands around your waist in public or pulling you to his side to show everyone your his.

bf!Steve who always comes to you for help in school, but always ends up distracting you from studying and you two end up making out until it’s time for him to go home.

bf!Steve who is completely oblivious as to why his favorite hoodies and shirts are going missing, only to find them laying about in your room with a “hey i’ve been looking for this!”

bf!Steve who has made it a routine to take you to a little dinner date every other weekend, even if he doesn’t have the money for it he will still make it work, just for you.

bf!Steve who loves trailing kisses from your jawline and down your neck, whispering sweet nothings to you.

bf!Steve who’s love language is physical touch, no matter the setting or time he will find a way to be touching you, whether it’s holding your hand, mindlessly playing with your hair, resting his leg against yours, or just resting his chin on your shoulder from behind.

bf!Steve who is just so sweet, always quick to correct his wrongs and apologize, he treats you with the upmost respect and care.

bf!Steve who would gladly take care of you while your sick, not caring about your germs and still giving you loving kisses all over your face. he even makes soup for you and makes sure you’re taking your medicine, and even tucks you into bed.

[d3vdgvrrll]

don’t ask me to babysit no damn kids unless they know how to narcan me

[ftm-hotch]

thinking about how haley and hotch really were great together but the fandom fundamentally misunderstands their relationship because of misogyny

this is my white whale. I believe the tiktok girlies call it a "roman empire." I am Haley Hotchner's defense lawyer, and I work pro bono.

I started to draft this in my head and then I realized you know what I hate? I hate it when I'm in my own little corner of fandom and someone comes in from another corner and makes baseless accusations. So while I will be engaging in some counter-bashing, it will not be baseless, because for you, dear mutual, I have entered the belly of the beast.

Let's get into it, and then into what we actually see from Haley in the show.

Note: I'm going to stay in my lane here, my lane being ao3. It's been five years since I was what I would consider active enough on Criminal Minds tumblr to give an accurate report from the front lines, so I won't try.

So first of all, there are only 22 works. Not a lot to work with, but taking a look at the most commonly occurring tags within this one, we see:

Dr. Spencer Reid appears more in the "Not Haley Hotchner Friendly" tag than Haley Hotchner herself. 22% more, in fact (81% to 59%, Haley appears in roughly half of the works in a tag that has her name in it). Not looking good on the "erasing women" front. Haley isn't even present in a lot of these fics to show her side of the story, and she's often shunted aside in favor of Hotch/Reid. Nothing wrong with Hotch/Reid at all btw! But when a woman is consistently sidelined and demonized to make room for a man, there's a problem with how the fandom as a whole is thinking about women.

And sure enough, that's what's happening. Haley is serving as Hotch's tragic backstory in a lot of these fics, and not in the way she does in canon. In a perfect world, I would skim these fics and find out exactly how many this trope occurs in, but one of them is 10k words of omegaverse and it's two in the morning. I can tell you anecdotally, though, that it's a lot, and that the theme continues outside of fics explicitly tagged "Not Haley Hotchner Friendly."

The "Additional Tags" section doesn't show me much, which isn't surprising considering there are only 22 fics.

Now on to the content of the fics. Like I said, I didn't read or even skim every single one of these, but I did pull two that I consider representative of the two dominant strains of Haley hate: cheating and abuse.

Note: one of these fics is what I would consider an outlier. It's a fic depicting Haley sexually assaulting Hotch in a very dubcon way, and having read it, I would consider it more like a huge departure from canon than a misogynistic misreading of Haley's character. The author wasn't concerned with Haley and Hotch's canon relationship, but rather with themes of sexual coercion. That's not the kind of Haley bashing I'm talking about. I'm talking about misogynistic interpretations of canon.

Cheating:

Ah, the trope of the cheating bitch. Yes, it is implied that Haley was cheating in canon (I'm 99% sure it was in 3.02 where they had the hang-up call to the house and then Haley's phone started ringing). So if she's canonically a cheater, where the hell am I going with this?

Well, context is important. I am of the opinion that Haley's subplot was a (clumsy) commentary on gender roles and female dissatisfaction. Haley was not getting what she needed or wanted from Hotch. I am absolutely not condoning cheating under these circumstances, but narratively, the function that her cheating was serving was as a commentary on female dissatisfaction, and I think overlooking that is a bit misogynistic and unfair. Just as Hotch had his reasons for doing what he was doing, Haley had hers. And again, Haley is often absent from these stories, just like she was in the overwhelming majority of canon.

And then there are the outright misogynistic takes on the whole thing:

"Cheating Aaron Hotchner" is paired with "Aaron Hotchner Needs a Hug." "Cheating Haley Hotchner" is paired with "Not Haley Hotchner Friendly." Hotch is assumed to have complex and emotionally charged reasons behind his cheating. Haley is assumed to be a bitch. Again, any narrative about female dissatisfaction, anything that would give Haley a sense of interiority and well-roundedness, is ignored in favor of Hotch angst.

That brings me to an important point. The discerning reader doth protest: "Mikey! Just because the fic is tagged 'Not Haley Hotchner Friendly' doesn't mean the author hates Haley! It just means the narrative isn't friendly to her, which could be for a variety of reasons, including that Hotch's POV is inherently skewed. After all, didn't you just write a few fics from the POV of a narrator you disagree with?" And to that I say, fair point! But. But. A few things are relevant here. One is that Hotch is just not that unreliable about Haley. He gets frustrated with her, but let's not forget "what I want, I'm not gonna get" (3.14). Hotch loves Haley, and consistently expresses his desire to go back to her. A Hotch who thinks badly of Haley is not a canon-accurate Hotch, and I think reading that into him shows bias on behalf of the author. Another relevant thing is that in reality, a lot of these authors ARE using the tag both to express the narrative's dislike of AND their own dislike of Haley. A third thing: we aren't just talking about individual conscious intent here; we're talking about fandom trends. Haley is not the first female character to go through this. There's more to this, on both sides of the coin, but it's still 2am and my head hurts now.

Abuse:

Now, here, I'm going to lay down a ground rule, and that rule is that whatever you accuse me of, I will not tolerate being accused of denying the reality that women can be abusive. I've been assaulted and abused by women and AFAB people. Don't even try me.

Back to my case studies. For this, I'm going to quote from a fic in the "Not Haley Hotchner Friendly" tag to show that portrayals of Haley as abusive are misreadings of canon.

Spencer didn’t press further, waiting for Aaron to continue. “We fought a lot…on the bad days”, he murmured, looking back down at his knees. “She never understood this - our- job. [...]"

Nah. Haley very much understood Hotch's job, and Hotch knew that. In 5.09, when Rossi asks if Hotch has told Haley yet that he's going back to the BAU, Hotch says he doesn't have to and that she already knows. Haley understood the demands of the job, and what it meant to him. She understood it well enough to put up with it for a long time, even though it put a hell of a lot of stress on her.

This quote also shows a willingness to overlook Haley's side of the story. In canon, as much as it could possibly be said that Haley misunderstands the job, Hotch misunderstands her stress even more. She's essentially a single parent, by Hotch's own 5.09 admission. Once, Hotch forgot a hospital visit for what sounded like a pretty serious condition Jack had as a baby.

“Haley said I wasn't prioritizing our family. Me ”, Aaron chuckled self deprecatingly.

I love Hotch with my whole heart. I really do. But in the early seasons, he consistently made choices that showed he prioritized his work over his family, and was even willing to be pretty cruel about it (the 3.02 fight where he uses the horror of the case as leverage in an argument).

"But wait! Mikey! Remember your own note about extreme canon divergence???? What if that's what this is?" Even if it is, this writing betrays subconscious misogyny. Haley is being used as a tool to create Hotch angst instead of being considered as a well-rounded character. She's being sidelined in favor of men, and the choice to use her as Hotch's abuser when the prompt this fic was based on mentioned nothing about her is in itself a misogynistic rewriting of what was actually going on in canon.

I'm tired now but I rest my case.

[vampiricgerard]

i shouldn't be allowed on picsart

[livingdeadgirl3]

mikey !!!!!!!!!

[rocals]

how can a smile be so big and so little all at once

[lawnofthedead]

what the fuck do you mean mikey way came on stage at a fob concert to play bass for saturday in the year of our lord 2023. WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU MEAN

[fentweznor]

[brofanatic]

Not me waking up at 1am bc I need Him VISCERALLY

[postapocalyptic-cryptic]

trying to revamp this tumblr bc I looked back at my 2022 stuff and wow I've really fallen off

[katin-biscuit]

I have to leave tumblr for the night now but before I go here is my last contribution (for today) to the Mikey Way trending cause

[k1ng-ej]

Halloween with Leon

I wrote this with re2 leon specifically in mind. (Requests are open)

Leon intertwined his fingers with yours, offering a gentle squeeze and a bright smile as he guided you through the aisles of the store, his eyes eagerly scanning the array of costumes. The station was hosting a costume contest, and when Leon discovered the news, he rushed home to you, brimming with excitement like you had never seen before. He had the brilliant idea to invite you to join him and create a couples costume together.

With the party only a few hours away, you couldn't help but smile like a fool as you watched Leon eagerly sift through various costumes. He would turn to you, flashing a beaming grin, eagerly awaiting your thoughts on each choice.

At last, the two of you settled on a classic theme: a vampire and his unsuspecting victim. After shopping for costumes, you returned to your shared apartment to prepare for the evening. Leon was quick to get dressed, donning a ruffled blouse complemented by a timeless cape and sleek dress pants. He had reached out for your assistance in piecing together his costume, and now, you found yourself sitting directly across from him, intently focused as you carefully applied contour to his cheeks. As you worked, you couldn't help but admire the charming little imperfections that dotted his features, like the gentle light freckles that adorned his skin and the alluring beauty marks positioned near the corners of his mouth and along his jawline. Being so close to him allowed you to truly appreciate the captivating oceanic shade of his blue eyes, which seemed to brighten even more under the warm touch of sunlight streaming in. You lost yourself in this moment, captivated by the delicate details that made him uniquely beautiful.

As you meticulously added the final details, applying fake blood around his mouth, you became entirely engrossed in your work. In this moment of concentration, you didn't notice Leon's intent gaze on your lips. Before you could react, he leaned in, pressing his lips against yours in a kiss that was both tender and filled with desire. The fake blood you had smeared on the corners of his mouth was now transferring to yours, and you couldn't contain your laughter. This caused Leon to pull back, his expression shifting to one of confusion as he looked at you.

"What?"

"Nothing, it's just I was putting hard work into that blood and now it's smeared," you chuckled, gesturing to the stains on your lips.

"Oh, I'm sorry." He grinned playfully, tilting his head as he closed the distance to capture your lips again.

After you both finished getting ready, you set off for the station, where Leon's excitement was palpable. His grin stretched from ear to ear, and you could almost see him bouncing in his seat. Upon arriving at the station, Leon eagerly assisted you out of the car and led you inside. Everywhere you looked, Halloween decorations were festooned in every corner, and everyone was dressed perfectly for the festive occasion. Leon held your hand as he took you around to meet all of his coworkers, each of them complimenting your costume.

The night unfolded perfectly, with you and Leon savoring drinks and fully immersing yourselves in the evening's ambiance. At one point, Leon approached a coworker, eager to capture a photo of the two of you. He guided you to a designated spot, confidently placing his hand on your lower back as he gently leaned you backward. A playful smile lit up his face as he lowered his lips to your neck, feigning a bite where fake blood had been applied, creating the illusion of drawing your blood. Unable to stifle a giggle at the ticklish gesture, you found it adorable, and the result was the cutest photo of you both—so charming that the station even framed it and hung it up for all to see. And not to your surprise, you won best costume.

[fathermushroom]

Im so sorry to mikey but i will reblog evwry post i see bullying his bread it’s so funny😭

[ftm-hotch]

Need yall to know that my dad calls Hotch “Sam Eagle” because

[iatrophilosophos]

Force agere-ing your headmate because it's a dipshit and should actually just be a baby for a while to practice Remedial Cognizance and Being Alive. Just....play with your toys and work on existing without panicking for five minutes.

[livingdeadgirl3]

I LOVE ALL THE PPL WHO WERE NICE TO ME WHEN I SHOWED MY FACE TO THEM. LIKE MY HUSBAND(@iamthedisappearingboy) SAID I WAS ETHEREAL?! LIKE WTF POOKIE I LOVE YOU SO MUCH. BUT ANYWAYS, TO ALL THE OTHER PPL WHO SAID I WAS PRETTY AND STUFF I LOVE ALL OF YOU SO MUCH IT WAS SO INCREDIBLY SWEET OF YOU!!!<33333 GIVING YOU ALL BIG FAT KISSES ALL OVER UR FACES!!!! XOXO LOVE YOUUUUUU<333333

🩷🩷🩷🩷