#obviously except for anyone who hates trans people

[freckledsweetpea]

I will always immediately lose respect for any queer person playing the "we have it worse" olympics against another queer person.

[katyspersonal]

Hi there, I hope you don’t mind the random question but in your mind which fanbase would you say is worse, Elden Ring or Bloodborne in terms of annoying fans. I used to think Bloodborne fans could be bad but holy shit ER fans are something else when it comes to lore discussions. As someone who is pretty active in lore talk with both games do you find one side to be more exhausting to deal with than the other? Obviously feel free not to answer this if you think it might start drama

Honestly? I can't hate Bloodborne fandom enough.

Bloodborne was my first Fromsoft game and one keeping me hostage in terms of fixation for over three years, like I said! And yes, it has incredibly bad, toxic people in it - Maria fans who kept slandering Gehrman despite all the info against their takes, honestly believed there is anything problematic with Gehrmaria, had mental breakdown if anyone dared to see Maria as bi or straight despite her not having canon sexuality, believed that the whole story is either about man bad woman good OR was incredibly misogynist, no between. Close minded, toxic people who would deliberately bait anger and pain with placing their hate in the tags and then play victims when those hurt fans snapped back. Oh, I hate them, and revealing that Gehrman's "creepiness" and "misogyny" was completely and fully translation mistake, as well as pointing out how comes why nothing is wrong with how Doll is dressed with facts, is forever my most valid contribution to the fandom. More so than my ugly childlike fanart or convoluted theories could ever be. But, not THIS is why Bloodborne fandom is worse in my opinion.

Elden Ring fandom introduced not one but SEVERAL annoying and exhausting topics to deal with! I "affectionately" titled especially rabid Malenia and Miquella fans 'Twin Cultists' because this is exactly what their behavior is and have always been! Funny enough, a person who got mad at me for this one was someone who got alienated on Discord server for Miquella fans because owners started to insist that only their headcanons are valid AND admitted to me on feeling unsafe for not shipping Finlenia. I am dead serious! Malenia fans are strikingly similar to Maria pseudofeminist fans in toxicity, Miquella fans are like if you removed all likeable traits of Leda and replaced them with even MORE of undying vitriol for anyone who dares to interpret him as anything but perfect pure radiant sunshine. Mohg triggered a pretty awful discourse between those who insisted he was rapist molester whatever and if you interpret it differently you are insensitive and media-illiterate victimblamer and people who defended him "becoming the very thing they sworn to destroy" as well as also exhibiting cult-like thought control in their circles (they know who they are -_-).

But the DLC has changed things a bit, right? Some Twin Cultists are still spilling vitriol, except now they also claim that writers are bad, not only fans that disagree with them! Still, blessed, deserved vindication finally arrived! But what about others, whose situation never changed? Vitriol towards Godrick is ABSURD. You know how common fandoms L is that they judge and hate female character for something, but when male character did the exact same thing it is humored or justified? Godrick is this, minus the gender difference, yet everyone who points out his actual characteristics and the hypocrisy of his haters gets ridiculed. You thought that his fans would flock together to support each others? No, turns out that pocket are loosers who think people who don't headcanon him as trans are childish and ridiculous and loathe cishet Elden Ring fans in general. Fia and D are caught in the weird discourse loop where one is always simplified and idealized and another is demonized to Hell and beyond, when they both are strongly caught in religious brainwashing of sorts but also are sympathetic in their own right. Ranni's fans and haters both do not know the term of Machiavellian (aka "Ends justify the means" philosophy). She is the worst most evil character in the setting over what crimes she committed in order to protect the world from the problem of potentially anyone being able to grab the laws of nature itself and shape them according to their bigotries and preferences, OR she is a perfect innocent fighter against oppression and people who dislike her Just Hate Women TM. And of course we cannot forget the one above them all! The radiant, omnipresent, eternal!...

Marika truly brings out the worst of discussions! She has been before SOTE, but you YEARN for pre-SOTE times if you hate OR love her! Not because things changed, but because now discussion can't be avoided. She is THE Elden Ring character who is only ever demonized and idealized. Before SOTE, she was only ever just a tyrant who loves genocide OR simply a puppet of Greater Will (or rather Two Fingers claiming to speak for it as it turned out) who never meant to do that shit and finally heroically rebelled. After SOTE... hahaha, oh boy... we started to deal with the issue of excusing genocide. Her fans will claim into essays and more essays why Hornsent are all fundamentally dangerous race and Marika is merely trying to rid the world of filth that ruins it by sending Messmer. However, demonization didn't quite go away either, and her haters are so angry at writers humanizing her a bit more that they say WRITERS are pro-fascist!

So, why? I've described such horrid discourse, when Bloodborne fandom sounds like it simply has a few bad apples in comparison! What can be worse than Elden Ring fandom, after a description like this? Yeah, you see... Elden Ring fandom is thorn by awful arguments and discourse, it is hostile and dangerous for your mental health if you are invested into fandom beyond just "consuming content" and advertising your art for sale. Yet, it lives. It lives in the same sense as a land torn by earthquakes lives. It lives in the same sense a volcano that won't stop smoking lives. It lives in the same sense sea lives during the storm. But it LIVES.

Bloodborne fandom is a fucking Caelid.

If you question whether I'd be scared of "drama", I assume you are new here and don't know my epic lore. I am not afraid of anything because society made itself clear on what I am for it. In the most condenced way possible, one OF those toxic Maria fans didn't like me thinking for myself too much so they went out of their way to slander me for various -ists and -phobias. Their ableist friend that doesn't take racism seriously joined in. I was a victim of stalking, harassment, slander, witch-hunting and cult-like shunning for over a year, and so was every kind fool who treated me like a human - friend or mutual. I can NOT speak of Bloodborne fandom experience from personal standpoint because obviously it is not an objective experience (though someone who also got unfairly slandered by Maria fans too contacted me, so I question whether it IS a trend..?). Still, it isn't about me or my friends, we are an oddity. Bloodborne fandom for me was just a bunch of gullible, weak sheep who are okay with witch-hunt because letting just a few people get harassed is not worth souring their fandom experience. And I do not wish to turn back or even try to mend anything. I caught my stalker and exposed their crimes, I made everyone who believed they were innocent feel stupid and ashamed, it was all I wanted. I don't wish to "befriend" the fandom afterwards.

YEAH YEAH "THINGS ONCE BROKEN" WHATEVER

But I was still posting and drawing and playing and talking and writing, right? I was still present. So, I was at least observing what was going on. And what truly soured Bloodborne fandom was actually happening afterwards, what was not involving me or any friend or enemy I knew. The worst thing happened, worse for fandom than any amount of discourse. I call it "centralization", for lack of better term.

Bloodborne is a niche fandom, yet it had a sudden zoomers burst. And that led to dynamics of "fandom leaders", and stupid fucking Discord community that are akin to elite club in which if you are not invited you might as well not exist. It ALL became about stupid "web of mutuals" nonsense. It ALL became about some cool kids deciding what will be the ship or the take of the week/month, and soon you'd see NOTHING but this thing posted. Always through the exact same lense, too. Only to then be forgotten, because it was just a trend. Rom x Caryll comes to mind as a FAD of similar vibe. Micolaurence too.

I just hate this. The fandom stopped LIVING. I saw genuinely absurd things happen! Like someone drawing Mariadeline, one of the most popular ships in the fandom, yet they get completely ignored because they've failed to grab a beer at the bar with "leaders" of this ship who "hold" the distribution of that approval and love. Even worse; over a year ago, a very talented, fun, energetic and creative fan of Mensis Trio and Byrgenwerth squad showed up! They were SPAMMING art and writing, and all of that was good! So good that..... all of that barely got over 20 notes, maybe 30. Why? Because, again, you can't just post about blorbos and expect to be liked and approached. You have to get on the "good side" of "holders" of love for characters like Micolash, Laurence and Rom, or else they'll just side-eye you! But imagine this with literally everything else. I have been watching it happen all the time, to people that were not even targets for cult-like shunning by Alfred, Eugene or Anna for associating with me. You keep to yourself, you are shy, you are not on Discord with them, your headcanons are a bit different? Too bad, you may rot, because it is not about you! People look up to a few popular artists with shallow takes and so much creative liberties they might as well make OCs to know whether this or that person should be liked and reblogged, instead of JUST liking and reblogging them!

THIS is why Bloodborne fandom is Caelid. Not for toxicity, but because it is rotten. It used to be far less "organized" when I joined in. There were no trends to define fandomry for next few weeks decided on a party where ignored creators were not invited to. There was not hegemony of certain ships, designs and headcanons. There was no "web of mutuals" and pressure to either assert yourself by the good side or vanish. Everyone were doing their things and coexisting, nobody could determine who flourishes and who rots, diversity of headcanons and interpretations were celebrated. Oh, what's a matter? You really dislike that popular artist who infantilizes Marika and stripes her out of any agency over her actions? Well, so do like 500000 other people! Every popular take is ALSO popular to hate on in Elden Ring fandom! But if you dislike a popular take in Bloodborne then sucks to be you, because diversity of interpretations, opinions, preferences and takes just doesn't exist in it. Not anymore. Unless you "asserted" your novel idea to the "court" on some stupid Discord server and was "approved", of course.

Look. Elden Ring discourse annoys me to no end. I always get my headcanons and interpretations "corrected" in the worst condescending fashion. My friend posted a very well made lore post and got harped on because his take contradicted someone's idol's headcanons (with that idol approving of that harping) and I am still mad. I don't want to post my GEQ takes to be reminded that "aktualy" she is Melina. I dislike seeing claims of Miquella's nonexistent character assassination or Radahn hated just because some sexist Redditors were using him as a mascot. Nonetheless, deep down, I am THANKFUL. Because even really annoying debates end up being entertaining. Because people here TALK about things, REVISIT things, ARGUE about things, CARE about things, HAVE OPINIONS on things. They will annoy you in the comments or reblogs, but they SPEAK to you. No take is so popular that it defines all art and fanfics because every popular take is also popular to hate on. Things are disorganized. No fandom leaders, no elite club ignored blog wasn't invited to, no "web of mutuals" that should get sucked into a vacuum cleaner and never be seen again. Elden Ring fandom is a battlefield, but also free market minus the money.

To be honest, Bloodborne fandom was done for me when based people started to vanish. Fishbowlcarnage deactivated everywhere, Cuddlefish mysteriously disappeared and I worry whether they are even alive to this day, user Molluscock got bullied away... It felt like a bad omen, it happened before my drama, and I've never seen users like this before. Except I have been, but they all are now ignored because of this stupid high school dynamic taking over. Had Elden Ring hyperfixation not happened, I'd probably just end up blocking many Bloodborne accounts and never care for trying to make connections again, just post art and vanish to draw the next one. I did end up blocking some Bloodborne mutuals, after all. After it hit me, what was bothering me so much. Appreciate Elden Ring fandom and it's earthquakes, because shaking earth can't be bigger evil than stagnation. Bloodborne fandom no longer breathes, they are champions of not feeding the sparkles that were meant to become fire hoping they die down, and I hate every looser that benefits from that "system". In Elden Ring, ALL things flourish, whether graceful or malign.

[antiyourwokehomophobia2]

I guess I want to appeal to your compassion a bit as a trans person. Fsr I got recommended a post where you put forward the idea that transness is caused by trauma, and also maybe that it’s annoying/laughable to you. I probably couldn’t objectively say whether childhood trauma contributed to my dysphoria because everyone feels and does lots of things for reasons they can never be fully aware of. Transition alleviated the distress I felt extremely significantly though. If it is all a trauma response (which has not been properly methodologically demonstrated by anyone afaik, except for you afaict deciding correlation = causation while reading peoples personal anecdotes that they texted you, ig?) I’m just not clear on why that matters if transitioning has helped the person, or why people who are traumatized are worthy of having that trauma derided or picked apart. I would hope that would inspire some amount of empathy instead. I don’t know if this was worth the time it took to type out because it seems like maybe the algorithm or something has really sold you on certain ideas about trans people as a monolith that I think are more reflective of tiny microcosms of teen internet subcultures than of broader reality.

Oh boy lmao.

Well, I would have loved if you had linked the post. I'm not really certain what you're referring to, and I can't imagine what I would have said to make you think I was calling any type of trauma annoying or laughable? But oh well.

"if it's all a trauma response...I'm just not clear on why it matters if transitioning has helped the person"

Anon, do you feel this way about anorexia? Anorexia is also often caused by trauma. Do you have a hard time understanding why people do not support liposuction for anorexic people? After all, if it's all a trauma response...I'm just not clear on why it matters if weight loss has helped the person. Isn't that right? Why should things like alcoholism or drug abuse or self harm receive push back if it helps the person doing it? The only difference between being trans and literally any other condition where people hate their bodies is social perception. How is being obsessed with having or removing breasts not the same as being obsessed with weight loss?

"why people who are traumatized are worthy of having that trauma derided or picked apart"

Why is having trauma picked apart a bad thing? Therapy, as a profession, is literally focused on picking apart trauma and replacing it with rational thoughts. I'm not quite sure what you mean by this honesty? If trauma isn't picked apart then the only other option is leaving in place. Is that really the world you want to live in? A place where people who are obviously struggling never receive any pushback for decisions that are borne from those struggles? I think we have different thoughts on what does and does not help those who are traumatized. Anon, you sound a bit like an enabler.

"I would hope that would inspire some amount of empathy instead"

Of course I have empathy!! However, being empathetic does not mean that I should just be okay with whatever traumatized people decide to do with themselves. Do you think it lacks empathy to say that a suicidal person shouldn't kill themselves? I mean, having someone pour their heart out to you about how much they want to die only to tell them "you should live anyway" could come across as being very insensitive. But that displays the opposite of lack of empathy. How is it not empathetic to tell someone "hey, I know you're hurting but cutting off parts of your body and injecting yourself with drugs is not the answer"? Why does that strike you as cruel? Transitioning is a lifelong endeavor. How is it lacking empathy to say "hey, you shouldn't opt to spend your life as a neverending medical patient"?

"maybe the algorithm or something has really sold you on certain ideas about trans people as a monolith that I think are more reflective of tiny microcosms of teen internet subcultures than of broader reality."

Well, jeez! Those microcosm teens have a lot of power! I mean, fuck, biological males in women's sports? Women getting fired from their jobs for saying that males are men? Kamala Harris having *genuinely* been under fire for putting males in male prisons? Women being called bigots and facing extreme social consequences for being uncomfortable with male people in their changing rooms and bathrooms? Those teens that do not affect broader reality are supremely powerful! I'm impressed!

[quehecke]

chigiri yap session

i thought i'd just clarify my reasoning behind why i dislike the trans chigri headcanon so much since mfs got mad at me before when i said it without explaining myself

disclaimer, I myself am trans so this isnt me being transphobic, and its totally fine if u headcanon it, i literally dont care about any character being hit by the trans beam, go wild, but chigiri is my exception

i have different reasons for disliking mtf and ftm chigiri so ill be explaining both

yap session below the cut i guess

i understand that headcanons dont have to make sense but i feel like chigiri being trans would go against every part of him. My reason for disliking mtf chigiri is quite obvious i think, and that's that he makes it very very clear througout the entire story and almost every interaction hes a part of that he does not like being called a girl. He's always being called feminine things like princess or lady or missy but he always tells people to stop because he is a boy not a girl. So yeah thats why i hate that side of it so much

my dislike of ftm chigiri are a little harder to explain but uhh here goes. Its partly because of him being a more gender neutral/feminine looking character, because i love that men being feminine or not traditionally masculine can express themselves, but making him trans is kinda taking away from that by saying "a man expressing his gender in a way that isnt masculine?? i guess he must've been born a women then" Thats not actually that serious though because there are plently of feminine men who are trans, i love a ton of headcanons like that.

My biggest issue with ftm chigiri is actually how it affects every other character in the series. Because if he was, its basically character assassination for all of them. If chigiri was born a woman and transitioned into a man it makes literally every other character transphobic by default. Like he has repeatedly told them that he is a boy and not a girl but they continue to call him a lady, if chigiri was a trans man they would undoubtebly know, they've seen him in the lockerooms, they've seen him in the bath ykyk whatever. Point being they are constantly and non stop calling him a lady and if he was a trans man that makes the entire cast of blue lock all horrible people.

uhhh that's about all

obviously headcanon it if you want, im not trying to bash anyone and fandoms are suposed to be a fun space, but please don't try to tell me its implied because some people have tried to tell me it is and i literally cant think of anything less implied

[velvetvexations]

I'm being stalked by someone who screams that I can't stop talking about her despite her having it made it clear she wants "no contact" and then screenshots my blog to spread more lies about me in spite of the fact that I have her blocked and block evading is supposed to be one of my grievous sins

like literally the most I have talked about her recently was with a coded name that doesn't even reference her URL in response to her taking a screenshot of my post and calling me pro-American because memes are hilarious but IRL seriously I would have preferred 9/11 not have happened

I am still not using her URL or her fucking name while she goes around saying VELVET VEXATIONS SHOULD DRINK BLEACH BECAUSE SHE SAID DONALD TRUMP DOESN'T BELIEVE TRANS WOMEN ARE WOMEN NOW EXCUSE ME I SAW MY LEAST FAVORITE COLOR AND NEED TO COMPOSE A MELINCHOLY POEM TO PROCESS THE GRIEF IT'S CAUSED ME

every time a transradfem equates discussing how transphobes feel about us is the same as misgendering other trans people, that's fucking pathetic assuming it's a genuine belief and not just something to performatively break into tears over as intoxicatingly self-righteous justification for thinking only the people they fetishize should be allowed to exist

but apparently! this person has another stalker who sends her posts to other people! and that's really interesting to me, you know, because the only post of her's I've ever received from an anon was one in which she was talking about me! And when that person came off anon to say it was them that sent it, she took a screenshot of that admission but did not include me telling them off for stirring shit

too bad I decided to delete the admission due them using her name and can't prove I gave them that dressing down, clearly I shouldn't have fucking bothered since innocence itself is no protection

she seriously can't stop calling me a TERF while actual no-bullshit TERFs are openly calling on one another to email publishers trying to get me canceled for writing a fanfic where it's briefly mentioned a trans teenager wore her sister's clothes without asking, what the fuck does any transradfem know about TERFs when I'm dealing with actual TERFs and all they are to them is an abstract concept used to bludgeon trans men and non-binary people with

these fucking people do not experience actual fucking problems, they do not have any conception of what an actual problem is, they sit around lying about the traitorous Queen of Tee Em Eees, puppet of the completely fictional AFAB patriarchy, because they do not have real problems and have never had one in their entire lives, like all fucking people who can't go five seconds without reminding you they're a communist because they think it's cool and trendy and makes them sound smart to say things like dialetic materialist epistemology transubstantiating within the imperial core of the glocal northsouth without actually engaging in any of the actual ideals that make communism laudable and worthy of sincere pursuit

the temptation is to say that transradfems do it because they feel powerless to do anything about actual social issues on any level and lash out at anyone they can feel good taking a swing at, but I don't give a fuck, I'm not willing to give them that they're just misguided, I don't think there's a single atom in the being of even one transradfem that cares about about anything beyond the clout they can extract from it, at best everything they whine about is less than a fourteen year old on Livejournal writing about how unfair it is when their parents won't let them get a tattoo except usually the the fourteen year old would be relaying actual events that actually happened

and I straight up do not fucking believe anyone gets hate mail over interactions I've had with them either, I fucking do not believe those obviously bullshit lies while I still get anons calling me zipperits and trying to trigger dysphoria on the assumption that works on me for saying I think transmascs aren't cis men

in fact, I kinna half-joked about it before, but I think I now just fully believe it one hundred percent was a fucking trans rad fem - probably even this one in particular! - who sent my published work to that TERF the other day, because I haven't had that pinned or brought it up in months and I've never gotten attention from TERFs before this month outside of one or two comments that went nowhere

motherfucking hellsite

fucking internet

fucking stupid motherfuckers

[lizardsfromspace]

There's a type of person who finds it damning to compile every misdeed of a marginalized group they dislike, to document, say, every crime by immigrants or trans people or Muslims or whichever group, and pass it to like-minded people to say "here's the evidence we're right to hate them". You see a form of this online too (on Tumblr, ace discourse blogs compiled endless lists of posts by ace people, and see all the "receipt" blogs today run by TERFs and the like)

These people also genuinely have no response to anyone who doesn't find it damning. If anyone tells them "okay, but these are just a bunch of individuals, it doesn't mean anything. People from the majority group do the same things" they don't have an answer to that, except to throw even more "evidence" at them, since obviously they just haven't seen enough right? They straight-up cannot process that others see individuals as individuals, and no amount of "evidence" will make them see individuals as a faceless orc-esque horde instead

[johannestevans]

Always miserable stumbling across some transmed on twitter BC like. Those people are never satisfied with hating themselves, they're desperate to hurt any trans person in existence if it will make them feel better (it won't)

Thinking about writing a piece about transmedicalism and how as a cancerous ideology it eats its victims from the inside out and encourages them to cannibalise others as well like

It's easy to think they're pathetic for having low self esteem

Like it's obviously very sad, they want gender to be about ~medicine~ BC a lot of them are racist centrists and like. To challenge "objective" scientific beliefs would be to challenge other bigotries and issues in their worldviews

But it's just. Sad

Like these sad, lonely teenagers who are making up rules for each other for how transgender they are, and if they fail they're not allowed hormones / correct pronouns/ surgery / respect / kindness / sex

And like. I do feel compassion for them BC it's THAT sad

But also it's like. Rats locked in a box who are so starving they eat each other and so scared if they look out of the box that they try to bite anyone within reach too

Except they've locked themselves in the box and wrote a big sign that says REAL TRANSSEXUALS ONLY on it

[tsukimefuku]

— THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW

1. I’m here to have fun and make friends.

2. My kindness is not an invitation to treat me poorly.

3. I’m from the global south, bisexual, anarchist, polyamorous, autistic, person of color, married to a trans woman and vocally pro-palestine.

INSTABLOCK: Racism, Ableism, LGBTQIAphobia, Zionism, Naz*sm, Alt-Right Takes, insults towards me.

Also, I will not tolerate catty behavior, shit-stirring drama, and stalking/harassment/mistreatment of my friends or myself.

It doesn’t matter who you are. If you’re nice to me, I’ll be nice to you. If you’re shit to me, I will block you.

— LIST OF RULES

- Minors, do not interact. Come back when you’re 18.

- TERFs are unwelcome. Leave immediately.

- requests are open unless stated otherwise. However, I will pick which requests I’ll write.

- if I’ve missed something you asked/commented etc., feel free to send me an inbox.

- Do not spam my inbox harassing me for any reason. You will be ignored or blocked, depending on how severe it was. I have a life away from the internet.

- If you feel offended or bothered by something I’ve said/posted, you can come and talk to me privately for us to sort it out or keep it to yourself. Shady posting = blocking.

- The fact we’re mutuals is not a silent agreement to reblog each other. I will not demand anyone to reblog anything from me, and I expect people to not demand it from me either.

- Hate inboxes will not be answered. The answer will always be “seek some therapy instead of hating on an online porn writer”. The only exception to this rule will be if I think my answer might help other people that have received the same type of thing.

- Writing is a hobby for me, and I will talk about my opinions and takes on writing here from time to time. These are simply my opinions so don’t take what I say to heart.

- If you break moots with me, I will most likely unfollow you too when I notice it. I just feel weird about following someone who has unfollowed me.

- don’t copy anything I write. As this is all fanfiction, it obviously isn’t copyright protected, but be mindful. If you wish to use the very same approach or concept to something I’ve written, just send me an inbox and we’ll chat. I don’t bite.

- don’t ask me to “rewrite” something someone else has written, especially if you’re mentioning their work in your ask. That’s just rude and you’ll either get ignored or lectured.

- my credentials for any discussion (apart from criminal law) are “I’m three mental illnesses in a trench coat and horny for fictional dick/pussy”. This is tumblr, not a ***** measuring contest. 

In the end, we’re all on the same horny boat to simp on fictional characters together.

Be kind, have some sense, and have fun. Following this, we probably won’t have any problems (: 

[yammoba]

It's like yeah, ultimatly who gives an actual shit about the specific name for something. I feel this way about identifing peoples identities and also when it comes to the words we chose to describe systems of oppression. Ultimately the importance lies in being able to communicate. And if a singular word doesn't apply, that just use a sentence. Thats probably what you'll have to do anyways 🙃 or multiple paragraphs that still end up meaning nothing.

Im just annoyed at the people who seem hellbent on subdividing transphobia experienced into the categories of "transmysoginy exempt" and "transmysoginy applicable" as some kind of universal truth depending on your agab and perceived transition "direction"? While also denying the legitimacy of transmasc specific transphobia. Like. They seem kinda contradictory.

Like, if transmasc are exempt from transmysoginy, (which could be debatable depending of the circumstance and deffinitions at play) than its extra fucking shitty to claim terms we use to describe "transmasc specific opression"* are like.... inherently misogynist or something i dont even know.

If you want to claim that the shit transmascs deal with is non-specific transphobia while specifying transmysoginy as something that blanketly does not apply to anyone except transfems than uhhh............. i do have some unfortunate information for you about the medical industry and how it treats transmascs. And how a lot of people veiw trans people as "just their assigned gender" even if they claim or act in support.

*if you wanna claim transmasc specific opression doesn't exist its a shit fuck rabbit hole and all i really want to say is like. obviously. It does. Fucking of course. Are you fucking stupid? This is why i hate all this to begin with. The "source" of that opression weather its out of a mysogonistic beliefe that ""womenhood"" must be protected or out of a belife that "men" are threatening etc is kinda down to the situation, and like most of trasnphobia, its a combo of both, in what ever ratio allows the most pain. The practical reality is that people get treated like shit by doctors and politicians. And like. Everyone.

I'm gennerally of the opinion that more terms is better, and if people feel like using tme/tma is helpful to decribe themself than cool. But like also... if you're working in that framwork than maybe think about why other people might make terms to describe their experiences. I guess I should too.

[whitegoldtower]

Masterlist of my Skyrim Headcanons:

Gay/Lesbian NPCs: Ancano, Vingalmo, obviously Nazeem, Elenwen, Ingun Blackbriar, Sibbi Blackbriar, Marcurio, Sybille Stentor, Faralda, Colette Marence.

Bisexual NPCs: most of them ngl. Peak bisexual man is Erik the Slayer. Peak bisexual woman is Ysolda.

Enby NPCs: The dragons, the daedra, the aedra, anyone who works in a temple. Vingalmo. Cicero.

Trans NPCs: Saadia, Garan Marethi, Cicero.

Ace NPCs: Serana (romantically interested in women? Maybe even queer platonic?).

I have a whole backstory to flesh out Ancano’s character wherein he’s a closeted gay man who joined the thalmor to blend in, and now that he’s surrounded by mages in winterhold it can go one of two ways; either he will go wild and do the canon thing of grasping the eye to gain power for himself (because he’s always felt powerless and if he’s gonna die he might as well go out with a bang because there’s no happy life waiting for him back in Alinor where the expectations of breeding perfect little mages await) or he’ll realise that he’s in the middle of buttfuck nowhere and do a runner if persuaded enough. Which is an option I wish they’d included. I wish they’d fleshed him out more. He could have been a meaner, bitchier Dorian Pavus (DAI Tevinter Mage) with the same daddy issues.

Ondolemar is a posh roadman. Rahh Minty where’s my baccy? Lookin ass

Ondolemar fucking hates his job and only does it because he comes from a long line of Thalmor military veterans and doesn’t want his family to cut him off. It’s expected of him and he’s a people pleaser. But man is he tired.

Elenwen gets white girl wasted.

The forsworn could churn out skyrim’s equivalent of witchers if they wanted to - the process of becoming a briarheart is similar to the witcher trials; survival of the fittest and mutations. Forsworn children are sent out into the wilds of the reach and those who make it back alive progress to the next stage, which, in my mind, is pretty much the same as the trial of the grasses. Young women are also selected to ‘ascend’ and those who succeed become Hagravens, mutated by magic, revered as priestesses.

The elves in Castle Volkihar were owned by Harkon and they all want to overthrow him. I use mods so that I can recruit them all as followers, so that we can all fight him.

Orthjolf is different. He’s Harkon’s favourite. He doesn’t want to overthrow him to have what Harkon has; he wants to overthrow him so he can BE Harkon.

Nazeem’s attitude is a bit he’s doing that only he finds funny.

Delphine and Astrid are TERFs. Just in case you needed a reason to hate them more.

I bring Babette with me to murk Erikur because Erikur seems like a nonce and Babette should have the pleasure of offing him.

Hert and Hern (Falkreath) have an agreement with Faendal in Riverwood; Faendal hunts animals for meat and delivers the fresh blood to them. Hert and Hern also hunt animals for blood and give Faendal the meat.

The anonymous Author of ‘Immortal Blood’ is the Bosmer, Galathil, The Face-Changer, in the Ratway. Galathil is a Bonsamu, a vampire that looks indistinguishable from a regular Bosmer, except by candlelight.

[mama-qwerty]

do u have examples of ships u dislike based on how fandom is crazy with shipping

Okay, before I begin, I want to reiterate that I do not begrudge anyone's personal headcanons regarding any characters, be that sexual orientation, trans status, disability, or implied nationality, etc, etc. You do you, just remember that not everyone will share or agree with said headcanons. But if shipping is something that makes you happy, that's great and it's none of my business.

(Except any that pair canon Tails with anyone else romantically. Especially Sonic. Ick, miss me with that, DNI, gross. Super judgy in that regard.)

That out of the way, on to your question. There are so many different ships in the Sonic fandom, there's no way I could (or want to) cover them all. (A side rant is the insistence on pairing every character in a romantic/sexual way, not only in Sonic but every other fandom. Platonic friendships/relationships are possible, and can be just as rewarding and comforting as romantic ones. Two people can actually just be good friends, or really hate each other, without some romantic undertone.)

But anyway. That's a rant for another day. Let's get back to Sonic and talk about the elephant in the room.

Sonadow.

I personally headcanon Sonic as aro/ace, so shipping him with anyone just feels wrong to me. He just doesn't strike me as the kinda guy who'd be interested in that in the first place, and besides, he loves all his friends. Narrowing that focus to only one super special important person in his life just feels like it goes against his character.

And Shadow doesn't strike me as the type who would be interested in romance, either. He has a lot of personal trauma and identity issues he's working through, and throwing a relationship on top of that seems unnecessarily complicated, especially with someone like Sonic who just bugs the ever loving shit out of him.

That said, I have read some really good Shadamy stories, and I could see them working. Mostly because of how well Amy's personality would work against Shadow's.

But Sonic and Shadow? I don't see it. And feel it falls into the whole "They're rivals so OBVIOUSLY they are so hot for each other" schtick. Sometimes two people can just not get along because their fundamental ideals are different, and not because they're harboring some hidden lust for one another.

I feel like Shadow and Sonic respect each other, and will work together (begrudgingly) if they have a common goal. But their motivations are different, as well as how they go about achieving said goal. Fundamentally, they are coming at the world from different angles, and this would not foster a successful personal relationship between them.

Like I said, you do you, and if Sonadow is something that really makes you happy, I'm glad! I just personally don't see it working out.

[thrilling-oneway]

whenever people want to hate on d4dj why do they jump straight on "It's queerphobic bc..." as if it doesn't have the best queer rep of any rhythm game out there.

1757 words about queer representation in D4DJ and other rhythm/gacha games below cut

Like there are actual valid reasons to not like d4dj. There's definitely an issue with sexualising the high schoolers, I've made posts talking about it before. But at the same time, if you as someone who plays other of the major gacha/rhythm games is going to say that, you should probably address that SIF, bandori (and maybe enstars? it's been a while since I played) have some dodgy cards as well. Admittedly these cards are mainly old whereas D4DJ is still producing these, but you shouldn't act like your preferred game is perfect either.

But especially saying that D4DJ is queerphobic is so weird. To say that just proves you have no idea what actually happens in the game, and you're just taking screenshots out of context.

Firstly hayakoko. Okay so in the flashback where they get together they said "but we're both girls". Yeah, it's a cliche line that screams 'written by a hetero person', but within the context of the story it's not that bad if a little cringe. Neither Hayate or Kokoa had liked a girl before they started dating, this is literally stated on screen: Hayate says that she was a little surprised to realise that she had a crush on Kokoa. They're baby gay at this point in time. I think Kokoa's an interesting one to point out as well, because she's the one who said the line in the first place, and even after she admits that she likes Kokoa as well and they start dating, the True Love Kiss side story shows her being insecure about PDA in school. It reads a lot like she's had a very heteronormative upbringing, which is very common for queer people. It's probably more common in Japan where they still don't have equal rights for queer people (they don't have marriage equality, same-sex couples can't marry, the exception being if one is trans and hasn't legally changed their gender. and after they're married they can't legally change their gender). Not to mention she goes to catholic school, and as far as I know there's some issues there. So I don't see anything wrong with Kokoa not wanting to be out publicly, and being a bit insecure when she and Hayate confess. You gotta remember they are 15 as well (and ~14 when they started dating). Their relationship isn't going to be perfect, and that's normal.

And then Aoi and her gender presentation. Aoi has always been a very masculine presenting character, and is explicitly GNC, so I can understand that some people were disappointed with her wearing long hair and a ballgown in the Aoi & Haruna Relations event. But the anger some people hold towards this. Come on, how badly can you miss the point? Aoi's gender presentation has been a part of her character since her initial card story. She says she actually used to dress more feminine and have long hair in high school, but decided to change her look because she thought she suited the shorter hair. She also mentions that when she presented fem, she would be told she looked like a cross dresser, which obviously offended her. It's not hard to see that Aoi just wants to be seen as Aoi. It's not about how she presents her gender, she's still Aoi no matter how she dresses - Tsubaki mentions this in the A&H Relations. Nothing was retconned or de-canonised when Aoi wore hair extensions and a dress, it wasn't a sudden unnecessary change. The event explores the fact she wants to try different looks outside of her usual 'princely' one, but she's a bit of a people pleaser and is unsure about it because people associate Aoi with "androgynous good looks". There was no pressure from anyone to be feminine, there was actually pressure the other way. She wore a dress and had long hair for one (1) event, and 2 illustrations. Her most recent card has her in trousers with short hair again. Like you don't have to pounce on it being erasure because Aoi wanted to dress more feminine one time. She doesn't hate being GNC now, she's not permanently feminine now - Aoi being GNC is a part of who she is. Aoi being fluid with her gender expression is a part of her queerness and I don't get how you can miss the point so badly to call it erasure.

D4DJ is genuinely one of if not the best mainstream gacha/rhythm game for queer rep. There's so much more than just this: Tsubaki and Aoi are canonically in love with each other and there was even an attempted confession (they got interrupted), KyoShino have implied romantic feelings, same with NagiHiiro and RinMuni (mainly from Muni's side). Haruna was pretty much confirmed as lesbian during the A&H relations, and has had crushes on two separate characters. Saori's sapphic as well (there's one or two implications that she's bisexual). Having Hayate and Kokoa in a relationship opens the doors to more ships becoming canon in the future. The only negative representation I can think of in this game is Noa, so if you really want to go out of your way to say D4DJ is queerphobic, there you go. Noa likes cute thing, cute girls, and flanderisation took hold quickly to the point of her being creepily obsessed with the ri4 girls and a few others, and literally stalking them. Yikes. Her writing is improving though, especially in All Mix where she just occasionally comments on how cute they are without taking it too far, and they actually let her have other personality traits expressed that had pretty much been forgotten.

My point here is that if you're going to say D4DJ is bad rep or homophobic, you're admitting that your game is worse for representation. I'm not saying that the games in the "Big 3" (proseka/bandori/enstars) are bad by any means (idk about enstars actually I didn't play for very long), but D4DJ has definitely taken some big steps in queer representation that those games are seemingly too scared to make. Having a canon sapphic couple is a game like this is a huge deal, I'm not even sure if it's been done before. And before anyone says "but anhane and minoharu went on a double date in Buddy Funny Spend Time", neither of those pairs are stated or even fucking implied to be in a relationship outside of that event. It kinda just happens in one event, and even then it's still a bit vague on whether either of the couples are actually dating in the event. It's definitely heavily implied that anhane/minoharu have mutual romantic feelings, so they are arguably canon in that sense, just not in an established relationship sense. Bandori has done this as well with PareChu, have them go on dates and be clearly romantically interested in each other, only to never actually be a couple (I know tsumutsumu and reochi have called parechu an official couple, but that's word of saint paul rather than word of god, so take this how you will). Hayakoko is HUGE for this genre, and could mean good things in the future of other rhythm games (especially other Bushiroad ones).

--Break here where I went on a tangent about non-D4DJ queercoding--

Outside of schroedingers dating, both bandori and proseka have characters who are implied/canonically queer. I'll make this short because this is getting really long now and I apologise to anyone who's still reading.

For bandori, Arisa has a crush on Kasumi, Kaoru can be considered as canonically lesbian just from how she's presented, YukiLisa has a lot of implications for romantic feelings, as do MocaRan. Himari is also an interesting case, as she could be read as bisexual or comphet lesbian, it's never really made clear (at least as far as I know, I stopped playing bandori a while ago, and am not up-to-date on story, so anyone who's still reading feel free to add to this or correct me). There's probably some stuff missing here as well.

As for proseka, it actually has quite a lot of queercoding. I already touched on anhane and minoharu earlier, but Kohane and Minori are both heavily implied to be lesbian, An as well (although there's like one or two hints that she could be bi. I can cite them if needed). Mizuki is canonically transfeminine (their gender is unconfirmed), and they have been shown to be attracted to women. ShizuAiri and AkiToya have a lot of romantic implications in their relationships, EmuNene has gradually been getting more and more actually (Amidst a Dream). Ena is implied wlw and Rui is implied mlm okay I think I got everything tangent over.

--End of break--

Regardless of my criticisms, all of the games I've mentioned definitely show how much queer rep has grown and become a lot better in the last decade or so. While not focused on the rhythm game, the first generation of Love Live (2010-16) queerbaited* a fair amount. To give one example, there's an 'interview' with Honoka from 2015 where she heavily implies that she's straight, despite having ship tease with other female characters. Compare that to what we have 8 years later, and you can definitely see improvement. However I think it still needs to be addressed that what we have isn't perfect, and it probably will take while to get to a point where we can have more openly queer characters/couples, especially considering Japan as a country (and american/else localisation teams). But I think more people need to recognise how important D4DJ is for queer representation within this genre. It's really not common to have queer romance and gender presentation be directly addressed and frequently shown, and not just for the sake of making money.

I'm bad at ending essays.

* Queerbaiting - intentionally and maliciously leading a queer audience to believe they will receive representation which is then not provided. Whether the rhythm games mentioned do this or not is... debatable? It's done for the money which ticks the intentionally malicious box, queer people aren't for capitalising on. But a good amount of the time it's done to bait straight people who like yuri/yaoi. I do think it's queerbait though like heavily ship teasing a couple and then throwing in a line to imply one of them is straight definitely queerbaiting. april edit: it took me over a month to realise that there were words missing in that last sentence sorry about that. hi anyone who's reading this in the future

[aromanticannibal]

Transfem Katsuki (edited as of Nov. 2023. Katsuki hadn't died yet when this was written so bear with me.)

In honor of "fuck I thought about transfem Katsuki and now I'm in love with her again" and also because of a shitty discourse post I saw. Enjoy.

She will NOT figure it out until at least second year of UA.

She's always been uneasy about the whole boy thing. Specifically boy. Like she's one of the guys ok sure but she's not a boy.

We know how kind Aldera is to anyone who's slightly out of the norm (ie Deku) and Katsuki is especially aware given she was part of the problem. So yeah, internalized transphobia (+homophobia) we love to see it./s

Getting into UA and quickly realizing that like more than half the class is openly and proudly queer in some way gave her whiplash, and as much of a bully as she still was at this point, she didn't say anything.

She tried to convince herself it was to not get in trouble and gamble her place at UA, but really she was just glad to not be somewhere as fucked as her middle school.

And if the trans ponytail chick makes her question who she really wants to be... well that's nobody's business.

As I am very subtly implying, Momo ends up being a big part of Katsuki accepting herself and her identity as a trans woman.

Katsuki loves her friend group (she'll never admit it but she does, so much) but she associates them with her old group from Aldera somewhat unconsciously, and is terrified they'll push her away, even if she knows she's just. Straight up wrong.

As in, so incredibly wrong. Sero and Jirou are non binary ("Whatever the hell that means") Kirishima is a proud trans man ("More of a man than any of the cretins at Aldera will ever be") Mina's dating a trans girl from another school ("Camie Utsushit or smth") and Kaminari is so many different flavors of queer its almost impressive.

Really, her friends are probably the ones that should be worried, she tries to remind herself, hammering it in her head. Katsuki was an asshole for most of her life, they should be the ones scared of her. They're not though. For some fuckin' reason.

So yeah, talking to her friend group is out of the question. Momo though.

Momo is a special kind of trustworthy. Momo is the kind of person you'd give your entire life savings, your child, your car and your wife to. Katsuki hates that, she hates trusting people, it always ends badly, so she prefers doing stuff on her own.

Except it doesn't always end badly. Especially not with Yaomomo.

Every early saturday morning, Katsuki's and Momo's workout sessions happen at the same time. Eventually, they start talking during that time. Katsuki eventually asks about Momo being trans, more or less convinced she'll tell her to go fuck herself (she obviously doesn't).

It helps, despite the fact that her experience isn't the same as Katsuki's at all. Momo always knew she was a girl, her parents always were supportive about it, and money really wasn't a problem to help her transition once she was old enough to make that decision. Hell, she can literally make estrogen.

Katsuki then comes to the realization that yeah, she's probably a girl. Not like I'll ever do shit about it, she thinks.

Things kinda stay stagnant for a time then. Katsuki has way more important stuff to worry about (like exams and also her and her friends almost dying etc etc) and the self-hatred that simmers in her head constantly doesn't make it really fun to actually think about herself.

Second year comes around.

Because this is me, and my blog, and I do what I want, I present to you my son, Shinsou. Most trans guygirl t4t lesbian of all time. In my heart.

So Shinsou is very trans in the most mysterious way you could think of, so mysterious he himself doesn't really know what is going on with his gender. He doesn't exactly care, he just vibes (any pronouns).

They're pretty knowledgeable on queer stuff because it loves to read wikipedia pages until 5AM when it can't sleep and got lost on multiple LGBTQ+ related forums when she was 13. (He also knows a lot about chickens and lizards.)

She can just breathe the queer coming out of Katsuki, but when they ask they're just met with "oh Bakugou? Yeah no, he's cishet. Our token straight man. To prove we're diverse, etc." (-Shouji, entirely serious). Shinsou's not buying it but she doesn't like assuming, so he shuts up.

Meanwhile, Katsuki has nothing to think about anymore now that things have settled and she's not getting attacked by her self-hatred constantly, so she unfortunately ends up thinking about her gender (truly tragic. Genuinely though, it's almost distressing because she pushed the thought down for so long that it's scary to think about).

Because early mornings and nights are a time outside of our world, it's again around 5AM that Katsuki talks to someone who might help her with her gender problem. Shinsou in fact, who's of course awake on a Monday morning after a sleepless night, eating cereal out of the box.

Katsuki finds herself chatting with the weirdo and eventually asks what the fuck kinda gender it is, if only to be able to call her something else than the weirdo in her head.

The realization that gender is a construct and doesn't really fucking exist so it doesn't actually matter is somewhat of an epiphany for Katsuki. Like she's silent for multiple minutes. Shinsou is getting scared

Quietly, she mutters a small "I think I'm a girl" to Shinsou. It smiles and says "Nice. There's not enough girls in this class." and goes back to its cereal.

Katsuki has no fucking idea how that fucker exists. He's an anomaly in the timeline. Katsuki adores them.

(Platonically. Girl doesn't have time for romantic love. Yes I'm also making her aromantic, because aro Katsuki is the loml and one of my fave hcs.)

After that weird but insightful conversation, Katsuki finally asks Momo for help, taking her up on an offer she had made one morning. ("If you ever need my help for anything concerning [your gender bullshit], come see me.")

Momo being the absolute QUEEN that she is, she assembles all transgirls and cisgirls of the class + whoever else would like to join (which ends up being Jirou, Shinsou and Aoyama) and they all go on a shopping trip with Katsuki to help her figure out what she likes.

Does she want to wear makeup? Does she want feminine clothes? Or long hair? Does she want boobs? Or thinner traits?

Does she just want different pronouns and to be addressed viewed as a girl?

Mina shortens that as "What kinda girl is Katsuki".

I'll do you the answer here so this doesn't take forever, because the process of figuring it out must be long.

Mainly, the verdict will eventually be that Katsuki didn't really feel comfortable in the box she, her parents and Aldera put her in, which is a sort of vague idea of a Boy, Man, Son. She's mean and a bitch and probably a tomboy and she's a girl. That's all. She doesn't want of any of that flowery pink crap and being "gracefully feminine" like Momo is, she'll still kick your teeth in. Being a girl isn't fundamentally part of her identity or her personality, but it's who she's comfortable being.

She does enjoy skirts once she feels comfortable enough to wear them. She grows her hair a bit too (because she doesn't wanna look like her mother at first, but she ends up liking the look) and puts it up in a ponytail.

Makeup is a bitch but it looks cool, so she lets Mina, Aoyama and Shinsou use her face as a canevas for their weird makeup experiments. She thinks she looks like a clown half the time though (she doesn't, she's really cute). She mostly does eyeliner, which she already knew how to do before starting her transition, and very rarely lipgloss.

She doesn't really care about having breasts or softer traits, mainly because her traits are already pretty androgynous when she looks at herself, and she's already got big pecs so like. Basically tits. It's the same, it doesn't really matter. She's happy with how her body looks, she worked to have a healthy body and she doesn't care if it's "not a woman's body" or whatever the fuck. She likes how her body is and she doesn't really care about changing it.

She thinks of using she/they (like Jirou) but doesn't exactly care about they/them? Like they're not bad to have used on her (way better than he/him) but she prefers just using she/her.

She doesn't change her first name. It means victory, so it's already perfect for her. It's her name.

Some of her friends (the ones who aren't scared of death cough cough Shinsou) call her Katsuki-chan (Kacchan is copyrighted) but most her friends call her Kats', because she let slip one time she thinks it's cute.

To end this because good lord I've been typing for some time, here's my Transfem Bakugou pinterest board. I actually have a bunch of transfem characters pinterest boards lmao

Also realizing I almost didn't talk about Izuku. Damn I've really betrayed myself as a bkdk truther. Rip.

[thatfeyboy]

I want to talk about something I know is rough but, I don't think the language we use around sexism is very effective. The current lens of much of the language and academic study is directly a product of feminism. This is not evil nor is it unexpected. Much of the social and legal change around gender over the last 100 years has been towards women. That has resulted in many great changes like granting women the right to vote, to property, and to monetary independence from men.

While technical battles like those were going on, more loose social issues were also being discussed. Structures like patriarchy, gender roles and stereotypes, and sexuality were also being questioned and brought forward. These ideas and the language around them however have sat inside certain echo chambers for decades, resulting in many of the gender critical and terf like beliefs we see today. More over, language intended to describe a limited female perspective is being forced as the only acceptable terms to discuss other gendered issues, like sexuality, gender identity, intersex rights, and most obviously any sexism posed towards men.

I get the impression from a lifetime of experience that words like patriarchy and toxic masculinity for example, are often counter intuitive. Patriarchy means, very simply, a society run by only men. It's undeniable both America and much of the world was strictly patriarchal within the last 100 years(and some definitely still are). That being said, we do not currently live in a patriarchy(USA), even if there are people in America/etc that hold patriarchal views(including women). Regardless, I rarely see patriarchy being used in regards to a society's government. It is more often used as a way to describe a nebulous, nefarious group all men are a part of and benefit from with a handful of approved exemptions(gay/trans). It as a term is used to not only silence male-perceived individuals from speaking, but to place an undeserved privilege on top of their suffering to make it ok to punch at them. The fact is most men/male-perceived people do not benefit from "patriarchy" and never have. It's the exception among men, not the rule. The same would be true in a matriarchal system, as both require sexism and gender critical ideology to function.

Toxic masculinity is even worse. Frankly, it's just used to lampshade telling people to fuck off and deal with their problems alone. I cannot stress enough how this word, made by men to describe effects of sexism from other men in terms of gender conformity, is now used to shift blame onto men for being solely responsible for their own suffering and that feminism has no place with it. Ever more so, it's used to tell masculine people, including women, that people treating them as a threat is ok because the masculinity that they naturally have is evil.

None of this even gets into the language that is denied by these movements like misandry or transmisandry, as the idea someone could hate men or masculine people for a bad reason simply cannot exist to them.

In the end though, what I'm getting at is that the discussions involving gender lack nuance and a multiple lens structure, and suffer for it. These groups who have been insulated have rotted and become toxic to the rest of us seeking gender equity. Their beliefs about the inherent nature of men, women, and society will be the death of the movement and all unisex gender rights. Please, if you can bare it, be open to language and theory evolving as more men or male-pervieved people tell their stories of sexism. Treat them as you would treat anyone, with compassion and willingness to listen. I promise things will be better for all of us in the end if we listen to each other rather than salt the earth to separate ourselves from what we find icky.

[sortyourlifeoutmate]

So I've seen a lot of interesting opinions regarding the riots or, rather, interesting opinions regarding the response from the authorities to the riots, and a lot of these interesting opinions have also been bad opinions.

I am not the ultimate arbitrator of what is and isn't correct, obviously, but I'm better than some it turns out, so let's give out a little. Because damn.

(And even by my standards this is a little verbose and angry, so let's just put in a little read more here to spare people.)

As you may or may not be aware, there were some riots recently. Who am I kidding, you're aware. You also probably have a fairly solid idea of what lead to what. Horrible murder, ridiculous lies, racists, Gregg's gets looted. It wasn't pleasant.

With that as preamble, let's see some nonsense.

So yes, this seems like a great place to start. A sober and level-headed analysis of the riots that immediately veers into "The foreigners are united and invading" and operates from this baseline, assuming that it is common-sense and just plain reality.

No, sir. You are silly. The riots may have been racially-motivated in the main (we can piss and moan and poke and probe about the corrosive effects of austerity and other such interesting causes but they sort of lose a lot of their heft in the face of predominantly white crowds yelling 'We want out country back') but assuming that the racist people racistly rioting had a point is, uh, wrong. They don't and didn't, and neither do you, you big cocking racist.

Attempting to conquer and colonize indeed. They're not, and saying such things make you sound like a person who does not perhaps have a solid grasp on, well, anything. I assume you can put your trousers on yourself in the morning, but frankly I'll be happy never know.

(PS: What the fuck does 'if the native British want to survive they need to unite racially' mean, exactly? Working off the basis that you are a big cocking racist I can just assume you mean 'White people have to keep everyone else out' but that's not really, uh, that's not great? What's British, exactly? What's native British? Do Normans count? How far back are we going? Why are we even bothering to ask because, at this point, we realise we are talking to be a big ol' racist.)

Moving on.

Okay look. No-one likes the idea of the government arresting you for saying something and that's, you know, fine, but there seems to be this idea that the UK government is on a tear right now just locking up anyone who so much as mentions riots or immigration and that's... not... true...?

You see in this country a thing you can get in trouble for is incitement of violence or racial hatred or some combination of those things. Now normally, thanks to the parlous state of the courts and the police your odds of getting away with that sort of thing are pretty good, but in the wake of explicitly racist riots you being cheeky and posting that hilarious "We should totally burn all the brown people, let's all meet at this location at this time and 'peacefully protest' (wink)" meme is likely to be viewed rather more dimly.

(As an aside, despite what certain elements would also have you believe, this lackadaisical attitude towards dealing with hate speech and such online does cut both ways - the police aren't going to kick down your door for saying all trans people are sexual predators or whatever (with probably one or two exceptions just so people can roll them out and point at them gleefully) while ignoring racists. They're just going to ignore pretty much all of it all the time anyway. There's a lot! Just normally not riots.)

They need to make a point, basically, and need to make it clear that even if you didn't go out and, say, loot a Gregg's or burn a library or something else similarly patriotic, you're not going to be getting away with being a big ol' riot-organising, hatred-stoking racist.

Is that good or bad? I suppose that depends on how much you enjoy being a big fucking racist on the internet, but if you want to criticise the government - and I enjoy it, personally - you can still do that without ending up in jail so, I don't know, maybe put Orwell back in his box, eh? Maybe let's keep him in our back pocket until we need him, yeah?

Christ...

Oh and by the way, should there be consequences for lying? I don't know. Maybe? Depends on what your lying does! Nowadays it seems to be the bread and butter of a lot of people to just talk shit and then shrug and say well they didn't know any better. Was the attacker Muslim? Oh I don't know, so I'll just err on the side of the caution and say yes he was an an asylum seeker at that WHOOPSIE oh no a riot oh well not my fault my hands are clean oh and by the way we're being invaded.

Normally you'd probably get away with that! Not after a riot! Again! Context!

Argh.

And in a similar vein.

You're just wrong. The UK is not going to be sending out international goon squads to nab citizens of other countries who have been talking shit. We don't have time for that, we don't have the money for that.

(Also no-one is apolitical, don't be silly.)

And again, there's this notion that the merest mention of the riots is sufficient to attract governmental ire and, like, no, we'd never get anything done. And the very euphemistic 'discussing the people's demands within these riots' given that what that is gesturing vaguely towards is, you know, the racists.

The racists who rioted? The 'enough is enough' nazi-saluting, 'Are you white if not we'll drag you out your car' crowd? I wonder why discussing them might be bad? Could it be because the people who do that are also racists operating from the position that the riots were, if unfortunate (because they made them look bad), stemming from a legitimate source? So they tend to circulate the same lies that caused the fucking riots in the first place?

Well, 'caused'. Built the bonfire and set the kindling. You know what I mean. The people who bang on for years about 'invaders' and 'failure to integrate' and 'ooh er Muslims they're a bit shifty' and then are shocked - shocked! - when some people act on these statements! Shocked I say!

I'm veering off-course. It's been a long day.

In summation. No. You are wrong. You are all wrong and, in one instance, just a fucking racist.

The rioters were racists. They did not have a legitimate cause of concern or issue or any solutions or anything really at all. They were violent cunts out to be violent cunts and found a good reason to be violent cunts. They don't like Muslims, they don't like brown people, they tend to assume most brown people are Muslim, they like fucking shit up. They are not complex.

The swirling melange of things feeding into the riots? Maybe more complex. And by that I mean the years terrible rhetoric where immigrants and asylum seekers and Muslims are used as sticks to poke and prod an electorate having its life ruined by terrible policies and a world that's just generally getting worse.

See them? It's their fault! Don't look at us! It's their fault!

That parts sort of interesting. But that's not what we're talking about. We're talking about racist, violent cunts. We're talking about people trying to set hotels on fire when people were inside. We're talking about people punching people in the face because they dared to be black and walk near them. We're talking about people on the internet spreading what they know are lies with the specific purpose of making things worse and intentionally triggering what they hope against hope is going to be a race riot, because that's their deal.

So yes, make all of the Keir Jong Un jokes you like. They're going to bang some rioters up, throw some online idiots in jail as an example to others, and then get back to the serious business of making all of our lives worse by cutting public services.

And stop, uh, being such credulous idiots. Basically.

Extraditing non-UK citizens indeed. Fucking listen to yourselves...

We're not America! Or Mossad.

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RWRB - thoughts

Already did this on the bird, so might as well retype it here:

Some thoughts on Red White and Royal Blue, and why I feel a little disappointed in some of the reactions I've seen because I need to caffeinate and also type this out into the void.

I want to preface this by saying that obviously we all consume and experience media in a vast myriad of unique and different ways, and my opinions aren't stated for the purpose of diminishing or belittling anyone else's. If you read this & disagree that's your right!

I went into RWRB expecting it to be NOTHING like the book (for ex I was aware major characters had been cut and some exposition revised). Also, the book is generally better than the adaptation - that's my mantra (w exception of Good Omens and Sandman; the Neil Gaiman effect is strong).

What I did NOT expect was how MONUMENTALLY touched I would be by such open, romantic, and intimate representation of a m/m love story on my screen. There are multiple scenes between Alex & Henry in RWRB that I have never seen so touchingly depicted before (and perhaps I'm missing other movies that do it! Drop them in the replies!) RWRB earns that R rating but it does so in such a gorgeous way - it show cases the love of these two men as a beautiful, NORMALIZED thing.

I know, you're saying - that's the bare minimum!

And it is. But, the state of our world, especially when it comes to the representation and the rights of our community - is such that I feel the need to take joy in even what is the bare minimum for people like us. (Speaking of people like us - the B in LGBTQ plus is not a silent letter!!) You can read about the importance both Casey and the director of RWRB placed on bi rep in this film in this piece.

A very important example is the sex scene in the movie, which is likely the most explicit m/m sex scene I've seen in a mass distributed highly promoted film since - ever? This is important because it's done ROMANTICALLY. And mind you - it's still leaps and bounds from explicit sex scenes in a het rom com film, which is why it's so important that we have this.

Normalizing intimate contact between couples other than those who are heterosexual is monumentally important. I for one would hate to see any negativity leveled at this film due to the (fair & justified!) disappointment folks may be having because it's different from the books take away from that very important aspect. (Also why aren't we talking about the trans rep?! Aneesh Sheth stole the show for me as Amy).

I think that's where my feelings of sadness ab some of the reactions are stemming from. I had similar thoughts when folks were upset over S&B not being identical to the books as well, but it feels even more vital for us to celebrate RWRB for everything it brings to the table and to our community instead of focusing on what its missing from the books.

I am very grateful to have a story like RWRB in existence, and I hope it leads to many more, because queer love is beautiful in all aspects, and it deserves to be seen and celebrated in ALL mediums.