#she thinks it's *socially unacceptable*. which is a whole different thing

[the-eclectic-wonderer]

I always think about how in multiple episodes it's basically canon that Blanche is bi but considers dating women to be more hassle (which is a whole rabbit hole to go down - does she struggle with societal homophobia when she's with women? Has she only been with fellow high maintenance femmes when shes really after a Dorothy type? Has she internalized the idea that her attraction to women isn't 'real'? Her reaction to Clayton adds to these questions). Not to mention how this goes together with her relationships with the girls; making to kiss Rose that one time (and Rose multiple times seeming very aware of Blanche's proclivities), begging Dorothy for 'relief' and being convinced she's attracted to women too.

Yes, anon! It’s really interesting to delve into Blanche’s psyche about all this stuff!

I started writing down my thoughts and ended up with a long ramble -- allow me to place it all under a cut, so I don't clog up anyone's dash, haha.

Personally, I think she has some strong mental blocks when it comes to her sexuality because of the way she was brought up. I mean, she grew up in Atlanta approx in the 1930s/1940s — I’m sure I don’t have to detail the kind of casual bigotry she must have seen around her during her formative years! Just look at the story she recounts in S1E13 A Little Romance:

“Now, you have to understand that in those days in the South a lot of things were still taboo. Certain people were not to mix. So Benjamin and I had to meet in secret. Oh, we knew if any of the bigots in town found out about us, there’d be a terrible scandal.”

And all of this because Benjamin was a yankee… can you imagine what ‘the bigots in town’ thought about homosexuality? Yeah, I’m pretty sure Blanche learned to suppress that part of herself very early on. We know she turns to denial when she’s faced with uncomfortable truths and emotions she can’t deal with, so I think she likely just refuses to acknowledge that part of herself most of the time, and it only comes out (pun intended!) when she’s not paying much attention to things, or when there’s something more important going on. See the two examples you point out: when she tries to kiss Rose she’s concerned with not being kissed at midnight, and when she propositions Dorothy she’s, well… she’s desperate to get some, if we can be frank.

When she’s in a more rational state, her reactions tend to be more measured… but not by much. She does advise Rose not to date women (S3E10 The Audit):

“Oh, no, honey, don’t do that! No job is worth having to date women!”

But she’s also really flattered at receiving lots and lots of phone calls from women, after her appearance as a ‘lesbian’ on TV (S7E15 Goodbye, Mr Gordon):

“By the way, Dorothy, if I were a lesbian, I sure would be a popular one. Look at this, 20 calls.”

And of course we can’t forget her reaction to finding out that Jean has a crush on Rose in S2E5 Isn’t It Romantic?:

“Jean has the hots for Rose? I don’t believe it, I do not believe it! […] To think Jean would prefer Rose over me? That’s ridiculous! […] Now you tell me the truth: if you had to pick between Rose and me, who would you pick? Who?”

All of these are (likely) intended to be jokes about her vanity and her libertine nature (in the same way as Rose’s observations are), but considering a lot of the writers of this show were queer themselves, it wouldn’t seem strange to me if they were intentionally peppered in to suggest that Blanche might be a bisexual in denial. It certainly fits her character!

I haven’t spoken about her reaction to Clayton’s coming out yet, but that’s immensely interesting too, of course. I think Blanche has the same attitude towards homosexuality that I see in a lot of (mostly older) people in my Country nowadays: it’s fine as a general concept, but when it comes to her family (or, God forbid, herself) then the problems come out. See for example what she says about Jean:

“Well, I’ll never understand what Jean doesn’t see in the opposite sex, but if that makes her happy, that’s fine by me!”

Which isn’t a homophobic attitude at all! If anything, if you take her upbringing into account, it’s pretty accepting. But then, when Clayton comes out to her (S4E9 Scared Straight) and tells her he wants to get married (S6E14 Sister Of The Bride), this is what she says:

“Oh, Clayton, please be serious. You're just saying that so I won't set you up with any more women. […] Well, then you're saying it 'cause you're trying to get back at me for something. Clay, I know you too well for this. After all, I know it can't be true. You're my brother. […] Clayton Hollingsworth. You look me in the face and tell me you really are… what you just said you are.”

“I'm having a little trouble putting this all together. Clayton, I just feel like I don't know you anymore.”

“[…] Dorothy, that's different. We're talking about going out in public. Oh, what are people gonna say?”

“Will you tell me why you want to put yourself and Doug through this? You know how people can be.”

“Oh, look, I can accept the fact that he's gay, but why does he have to slip a ring on this guy's finger so the whole world will know?”

Quite the difference from her attitude towards Jean, wouldn’t you say? I think there’s three elements at play here.

1) When Clayton comes out to Blanche, she feels disoriented because this is life-changing information Clayton has never shared with her before. While her reaction as a whole isn’t ideal, personally I think it’s understandable. Clayton is her baby brother; she’s known him as straight all his life, he’s been married to a woman for years before his divorce, and she recounts an episode from their adolescence when he was on a date with a woman and very clearly implicated having a physical encounter with her. He's done everything in his power to pass as straight until this point in time -- I don't find it strange that Blanche would be shocked at his coming out, especially given her upbringing (and the fact that this is set in the 80s! We can't expect modern sensibilities from the characters!). Once again, her reaction isn't the best (she can't even bring herself to say the word 'gay' at first...), but the shock per se isn't that surprising, imho.

2) Blanche is scared because of societal implications above all. She doesn't necessarily see being queer as something wrong, but she's been taught it's not socially acceptable and acts accordingly. Notice how she's worried about what people are going to say, and she struggles to accept that Clayton wants the whole world to know about his relationship with Doug.

Societal expectations in general are a big theme for Blanche's character, and often drive her development; another big example of this is her attitude towards Rebecca's decision to get artificially inseminated, but it's a bit of a baseline issue for her, I feel. She has this whole thing about her beauty and her (supposed) youth and her attractiveness that has some inherent elements, but it's mostly an issue of how other people perceive her, I think, and her response to her brother's coming out is easy to relate to this theme. I mean, she even says it to Rose in S7E15:

"Well, I don't mind being labeled a lesbian, honey, but since I'm not, you just ruined my social life."

So yeah. I think it's safe to say her main concern is societal disapproval of queerness: she wants to be accepted and celebrated by the people around her, and she thinks that being openly queer will destroy her place in her social circle (and she's worried about the same happening to Clayton too, of course).

3) This is sort of related to point 2, but it felt distinct enough to treat it separately. I think she might have reacted so badly to Clayton's coming out (and especially to his showing up with a partner) because he's open about his sexuality, and she's not ready to face what that means for her. My lovely mutual @\hecatesbroom recently published her latest amazing work the odd one(s) out, on the relationship between Dorothy and her brother Phil and how Phil's open queerness might have impacted Dorothy; I think a similar situation might have occurred between Blanche and Clayton after his coming out.

Blanche has a sort of advantage on Dorothy because of her bisexuality, in the sense that she has 'passing privilege' (I really dislike this concept, but allow me to use it to make a point): it's painfully clear that she loved her late husband with all her heart, and she's obviously attracted to men as well, so she can pretend not to like women without too much of a hassle (whereas, if you believe Dorothy to be a repressed lesbian, her situation is much more complicated).

The issue with this is that this 'advantage' is a double-edged sword: she might have the comfort of being socially acceptable, but she's had to suffocate a big part of herself to obtain that comfort. And so, what happens when Clayton -- her baby brother Clayton, the one who's always been just like her, who's grown up with her same environment and influences -- begins openly living as a gay man? I'm sure the situation must have had a strong impact on her, even if just on a subconscious level; I've always found it curious that she seems to have a harder time accepting Clayton in S6E14 than she does in S4E9 (she even calls his sexuality a phase), and while a part of it may be attributed to the higher social exposure Clayton's commitment to Doug brings, I think this may be a result of her inner conflict, provoked by watching her brother live openly while she's been suppressing a part of herself all her life.

Here I'm assuming she's never acted upon her attraction to women before, but there's some space to believe she has done so and has decided it's too much of a hassle, as you say -- likely because she'd for sure do it in secret, given her fear of societal condemnation. If she has been with women before, and decided to give up on it, I still think she'd be greatly impacted by Clayton's coming out: it means her baby brother is a) braver than she is, and b) going to openly face (and likely suffer because of) the same social issues she's run away from. In this lens, I find it interesting that she cautions him about how people can be, almost as if they've both experienced it.

Whew. Wow, this was a lot more than I'd originally meant to write, haha! Seems you sparked a big train of thought, anon! I think all of the Girls (with the possible exception of Sophia) are really fascinating to analyze with a queer lens, and Blanche is always interesting to me, of course. As a final note, I'd like to point out that she does come around to Clayton's sexuality and his relationship, in the end: as often happens, she just needs the Girls' help to put things back in perspective, understand she's hurting someone she loves, and correct her actions. I'd like to think living with the Girls might lead to her becoming more accepting of herself, too.

[apocalypse-shuffle]

PETER HALE | “CREEPER WOLF” (teen wolf)

—

“A Different Breed” (Peter Hale x Fem!Reader)

| With Lydia (& Allison) unwilling to help, and Peter unwilling to let himself be pushed around and fucked over by children, Peter finds other means to unlocking the secrets trapped in his late sister’s claws.

| SFW, canon divergence, manipulative!peter (what’s new though really?), reader is of African and Irish descent -banshee!reader

| 1k+ words

“Y/n L/n.”

Instinctually your brows furrow at the sound of your name even as you’re still looking at the ledgers on the library table.

“Yes?” You turn towards the person, a man. Trying not to seem rude you do him the favor of not looking at him as if he’s crazy for coming up to you with your full government name in his mouth. “If you’re looking for Ms. Fields she’s in the computer lab.”

He shakes his head. Something about the way he’s looking at you makes you stay stiff as you try to place if you’ve seen him before while leaning back on the table.

“Oh no,” he smiles in a way that’s probably supposed to be pleasant, “I’ve found exactly who I was looking for.”

Mhm. Part of your soul starts to ring out with danger bells but you don’t let him see that.

Planting your hands behind you on the desk you lean back some, inclining your head softly to the side, “What were you looking for me for?”

“Help.”

You nod slowly, dark fingers tapping against the edge of the table. This man doesn’t exactly give off the vibe of someone who needs (or trusts) help from anybody, but part of your job was literally helping people so you couldn’t call bullshit just yet.

You make sure to keep your expression open.

“Cool. What can I help you with, Mr… ?”

At your light promoting it’s like a flip switches and he suddenly remembers he has to seem far less suspicious than he’s otherwise been coming off.

His face loses its tension and in response you relax the tiniest bit as well.

“Hale,” he easily answers the inquiry.

The name pings at something familiar in your head. Hale…Hale? Ah!

“As in Talia Hale?”

The man’s eyebrows go up and a cool smile takes over his face.

“Yeah actually. I’m surprised you’re old enough to remember.”

You give him a tight lipped smile. He definitely isn’t looking to make a light library request if he’s a werewolf whose purposely sought you out.

“I’m in my 20’s actually. I went to school with Derek.”

He hums, a sound that might actually be signifying a genuine moment of interest.

“You know what? I thought your name sounded familiar.” He points to you, a roguish smile stretches across sharp features. “You were the basketball team’s manager, weren’t you?”

You snort despite yourself.

Out of all the reasons he could have remembered you by - the most likely of which being that you were one of the scant few black student body that went to BHS - that it was for basketball was a pleasant enough surprise.

“Yeah, I was, actually - and since you’re not Derek I’m gonna guess you’re his uncle.”

“Yes well,” he makes a low sound and meets your eyes, “I am his uncle. Peter.” He holds out his hand.

You only have a second to eye it in contemplation before it becomes socially unacceptable, but he’s got a really intense stare and you’re already nervous about this whole thing, so you end up biting the bullet before you can really think your decision through.

Hastily, you accept his outstretched hand to shake and immediately he uses the connection to pull himself closer. It forces you to knock your head back a bit to keep looking him in the face, your own face heating up.

Peter chuckles. It’s smooth and feels just a little patronizing and makes your eyebrow raise.

Those alarm bells from earlier start kicking up a fuss, whirring through your bloodstream like a tsunami. You keep a tightly controlled lid on it, but just barely.

Even as a beta Peter Hale was dangerous.

“You gonna stare at me with those pretty eyes all day, or you gonna tell me what you need?”

The corner of his eyes crinkle and his smile widens. His hand is still inhumanly warm against yours.

“Don’t knock yourself short, your eyes are pretty too.” He blinks down at you, eyes twinkling for a brief moment. “Like cognac diamonds.”

You bite the inside of your lip as Peter leans in even more, planting one of his hands next to yours on the table. Your breath speeds up as your bodies graze one another.

Casual as anything Peter leans down till your heads are level so he can whisper.

“Let’s cut the pretense, shall we, I know what you are.” Instantly you tense up again, eyes widening. Now his presence so close to you feels burning hot; nearly suffocating. Your palm is getting sweaty and your fingers are starting to creek at his tightening hold.

You swallow thickly, licking your lips. His breath puffs warmth onto the shell of your ear causing goosebumps to sprout along your brown skin.

“I'm going to need to use those abilities of yours.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

You bite your lip harder after the poorly hidden shakiness in your voice meets your ears. The man - the wolf looming over you chuffs, voice going back to normal.

“Come on, Sweetheart. We both know that’s not true.” He straightens up then, his now free hand coming to press into his chest. “Let’s make this easier. I’m Peter Hale, big bad werewolf; and you’re Y/n L/n, prettiest banshee in Beacon Hills.”

“There’s other banshees in this town.”

He nods.

“Oh I know, but I’m not much into children and she wouldn’t be my type anyway. Now, you’re going to help me because teenage girls are brats.”

Your jaw works as you stare up at him. There’s not much you could even do in this situation other than go along or get your throat ripped out. You’d overheard some…things about Peter from your father the night he was admitted into the hospital that you’d rather not get a personal example of. Pack left hand, ruthless, it was good he wasn’t able to cause any more trouble.

“Fine,” you force out.

Eyes dropping, you glare daggers into the floor as he chuckles.

“Good choice.” He starts dragging you off towards one of the back rooms, “Now how advanced in your birthright are you? And who activated you?”

Your jaw clenches but you make yourself answer anyway.

“Since I graduated high school,” you glare at his back, “and not a who, a what.”

“Ah,” Peter nods and gestures for you to unlock the door. “The nemeton?”

Snatching your key ring from your pocket you shove the correct one into the hole and the second the key’s pulled back he’s knocking it open and shoving you in before him.

You stumble but quickly spin back around to keep your eyes on the werewolf.

“Yes,” you snap, “the nemeton was left defenseless and was just reacting to the only supernatural beings left, dormant or not.”

Peter locks and then leans against the door.

“Me and you,” he says, crossing his arms.

You hum an affirmative and go about shoving your rumpled clothes back into place.

“You’re a fucking asshole.”

“Noted.”

He has the audacity to throw you yet another one of those roguish smiles before those angelite eyes flash a supernatural electric blue.

That thing deep within you that turns your eyes white and forces a wail from your throat when death’s near rumbles inside your chest in response. You glare at Peter, shoving it down.

“Just tell me what you want.”

He claps before pulling a brown ornate jar out from behind his back.

“I want you to tell me what memory is trapped in these,” he scowls, “the full memory.”

“No shit,” you grunt.

When you reach for the jar he puts it more out of reach and inclines his head to give you a reproachful look though. You roll your eyes, the one time a man shows some interest in you and it’s this guy.

“I get it. The full memory or you’ll rip my throat out with your teeth or whatever.”

He scoffs but hands you the jar. You start to untwist it.

“The whole throat teeth thing is much more my nephew's style. No, I like to use my claws. There’s zero need for blood in my mouth when it’s sticking to my clothes.”

You grimace. Damn v-neck wearing bastard. No stable person talked like that, he was crazy, and you say as much out loud.

“So you're crazy?”

He laughs, sounding a little startled, and you dump the five werewolf claws into your palm. Ooookay.

“I’ve got to say, I like you way more than the other banshee I know.”

You grunt.

“Martin’s daughter, right?”

“Just the one,” he drawls.

You nod vaguely while inspecting the claws, turning them over with the fingers of your free hand. They’ve got a distinct hum of magic around them still, a particular frequency.

“These are Talia’s,” you state.

“Oh you are on a roll today, Sweetheart,” his eyes run over your body appreciatively before jumping back to your face. His smirk only widens at the unimpressed look you’re giving him, “now just tell me what she took from me.”

You give him one last pinched look before closing your eyes and clamping your fist around the sharp points. You exhale and focus on the frequency.

Alphas. Head of their packs. Crimson eyes. Leaders. Wolves. Chosen protector of Beacon Hills, burned alive on its lands after years of successfully protecting it and the people within it.

Your eyes snap open. They’re white. White like snow or powdered sugar. Like your mother’s favorite blanket on the back of the couch or like the steam from the pot when you whip up some soup when you’re missing your grandma like hell. White like the froth from crashing waves, like the blur between the mother, the spirit, and the crone when they flash before mortals eyes. White like the void between life and death.

The blank image before you, as you see with different eyes, flashes into one of a black haired woman. Talia Hale. She’s standing beside a chair, a chair Peter’s sitting in. Another flash and a screaming woman is there, talking about a baby and Peter and how it’s taking her power goddamnit!

You gasp, eyes blinking back to the present and keel forward, dropping the claws to the floor in the process. You barely make out the tiny clinks of them hitting the vinyl, hands resting on bent knees as harsh breaths rush from your chest.

Peter’s suddenly there, the claws are no longer on the ground and the jar’s nowhere to be seen. He grabs your forearms and then hefts you upright, shaking you.

“What? What was it? What’d you see?”

You groan and try to shake him off but he doesn’t budge. His grip only gets tighter.

“Fuck you,” you gasp. “You’ve got a kid - a Coyote wer - somewhere here in Beacon.”

NOTES: Hope you enjoyed!! I’ll catch any typos later.

In retrospect it really is wild how little black people were in Teen Wolf. Like, off the top of my head there was only four, I think.

btw: if you’d like to leave a comment I’d very much appreciate it! this is a sideblog tho so I won’t respond.

[olderthannetfic]

I think you've talked before about how it's wrong to assume the only people who enjoy taboo kink like race play are bigoted white people, right? Tumblr's search remains garbage. I've been trying to formulate some thoughts on it after seeing some videos on "bad books" but I don't really know enough about real world kink culture to know what's valid critique of racism or anti-kink just hiding behind it. So I remembered you'd mentioned the topic at some point and might have some thoughts?

--

Well, first, one should apply basic logic: If shittons of women kink on the ways in which society abuses women, why wouldn't at least some ethnic minorities kink on the way society abuses them?

Second, social media overflows with jackasses saying "Listen to POC" as a thought-terminating cliche, but it's good advice as long as you grasp that you do have to evaluate which people you're listening to and what basis you have for trusting that they know something about a subject.

Honestly, I don't think this topic is that complicated. There are just a lot of cowardly white people around who are too scared of ever being seen as wrong to be willing to do a little research or stand up for anything even remotely controversial. They'll parrot the first anti they run across but not bother to engage with the comments of nonwhite kinksters who are long-time community members with informed opinions.

The person I'd listen to, personally, is Mollena Williams-Haas, a kink educator and submissive. She has talked about race play here, among many other places.

Her comments boil down to it being about consent. If kinksters want to play with a concept and everyone involved is on the same page, it's not the business of outsiders to tell them it's off limits.

Playing with heavy topics in an agreed upon way is completely different from having that thing sprung on you without warning. We're used to making this distinction when people are playing with the trappings of rape but, somehow, lose our goddamn minds when the topic is racism.

Now, yes, there are plenty of gross white creeps who think nonwhite kinksters will inherently be interested in this sort of thing and should cater to them... but how is that any different from your usual pest in a bar chatting up uninterested parties and refusing to take no for an answer? The problem isn't squicky kinks that many of us don't want to hear about: The problem is jackasses treating others as a fantasy and/or kink dispenser instead of a person with feelings and needs.

Frankly, most of the arguments against this sort of kink are your usual "As a woman, you should be setting a good example!" bilge that's leveled at all submissive women but on steroids because a woman of color is extra, extra, extra responsible for living her whole life as An Example. (And I notice that it's generally submissive nonwhite women who come in for the most abuse even though plenty of other dynamics exist. Quelle surprise.) It's bullshit. People should mind their own damn business.

As for "bad books"... Are we talking bodice rippers with nonwhite heroines or what? Are we back to colonizer romance wank? Books about characters engaging in race play in a BDSM context? I think it's reasonable to critique books that don't seem to know what they're doing—e.g. not seeming aware that a rape scene is one—but stupid to worry about iddy trash that is trying to be iddy trash. People will always like socially unacceptable id fodder. Some books will always cater to that.

[brf-rumortrackinganon]

Let's talk about the racism that Meghan experienced in UK

"I do think Meghan did experience some racism in the press - like that horrible monkey photo after Archie was born - if not as much as she said."

If all Meghan had done was said “this isn’t right and you know it” every time there was legitimate racism (aka, speak softly), the public would’ve hung, drawn, quartered, flayed, and burned the press alive for her (the big stick).

Firstly, the radio personality who posted that monkey photo to his social media had done that for every single royal baby since George. He did it for George, Charlotte, Louis and Archie. It was his way of mocking the idea of royal babies being paraded as if they were performing monkeys. The image he used was of a real life socialite couple from the 1930s who kept a monkey and dressed it up and paraded it for amusement. It hit badly with Archie because he is part black and the radio personality claimed he didn't know Meghan or Archie were black because he doesn't follow the royals at all and was aware that Harold had married, but not the minute details involved.

He publicly apologised profusely after he found out and pulled down the picture immediately. As a very public radio personality with over 30yrs standing, he'd never shown or said anything racist that we were aware of, and had a spotless record which made his public explanation believable if you lived in the UK. Other countries, having different racial history and different relationship to their public figures refused to accept his explanation and also refused to accept that this was a one off incident by one person, a radio personality on his own IG account simply tarred entire UK media with this incident as did Markle and Harry. 

Secondly, the girlfriend of a far right political leader had a very public racist twitter conversation about Archie and Meghan. The DM publicly shamed her and published her twitter thread as the perfect example of unacceptable behaviour from public figures and their WAGs. 

Boris Johnson's sister wrote about Meghan's exotic blood adding to the thin blue blood of royal family. This is a template article trotted out every time a royal gets married. It is a celebratory article that points to the most obvious difference between them and frames it as advantageous for the royals to have the new in-law because it improves their thin blue blood!!

The language is always unfortunate no matter which royal bride they pick on. 

For Kate, the same article described  how her working class blood from her coal miner ancestors would enrich the thin blue blood of the royals. Honestly, the way they repeatedly reported on Carole's working class, coal mining roots, you'd think that Kate had emerged from the coal mines a minute before her engagement photocall. There was a strong element of calling Carole and Kate upstarts for daring to emerge from their coal mining ancestors to marry the Prince of the realms. You see this point geing made even in comedy shows like The Windsors where Kate is depicted as having travellers ( Romani people) background. 

If you google archive articles written about Sophie, Fergie and Diana, you'll find that this type of article was written about them too. 

In Diana's case, her article was framed as Charles marrying up because the Spencers are trophy aristocrats whose titles are *older than the Windsor titles. 

*There is a whole aristocratic snobbery thing about dates titles/ dynasty are created. The older the title/ dynasty creation date, the more aristocratic you are perceived to be. So the Spencer title/ creation created in the 17th century is more aristocratic than the Hanoverian/ Saxe- Coburg-Gotha/Windsor titles/ creation. Ditto older and more aristocratic than Philip's Edinburgh titles which is why Diana could be cheeky to him about it. 

In Meghan's case, this template article hit badly because the language used to describe her difference has become racialised in some instances and so this article was interpreted as racist. 

Ditto the straight out of Compton article which can be substituted for the many, many articles written about Kate and her coal mining ancestors. 

The headline came from a clueless editor who thought they'd be witty by using the title of same name movie that was out around this time and had played very well in the UK. 

Reading the article, i was struck at the class digs therein. Just like the class digs at Kate 7yrs earlier. It was quite offensive in that respect. But everyone chose to read the headline and nothing more and be offended by their racist interpretation of the headline and ignore the more offensive classist article. 

For your point about the public coming to Meghan's defence when each of these things happened.....they did. The whole country was outraged. The popuoar radio personality was sacked less than an hour after that monkey picture went up and despite understanding his explanation, he was cancelled and remains cancelled to this day. He has disappeared completely from the public. Not even one of those 'where is he?' Type artivles/ pap pics retrospectives about him. Gone. Finito. Never to be accepted back in public life.

Ditto the political leader and his girlfriend. It says alot when even our own far-right figures find that kind of language from their own leaders unacceptable. He resigned from the party within days of that article. Cancelled never to be heard from again. 

The problem is that Meghan and Harry keep repeating these ergregious incidents as if they were happening repeatedly, and that entire UK media was engaged in them and also remove context so that uninformed public think that Megyan was continually racially abused by UK media. 

Between you and me, i think the DM tried to walk back their straight outta compton article by going on a crusade to shame other more ergregious racists to distract from their own mistake, but also to show Markle that they could and would defend her. Other UK media took the same route, but unfortunately for everyone, she didn't accept and instead twisted their defence to pretend the UK media was actively and deliberately racially abusing her. And that's the narrative that has stuck. 

*****

Old ask from March 4th. It’s from the discussion we were having about Scobie’s handling/presentation of racism in Endgame. I think you can find some of the earlier conversation in the Endgame tag.

[ourlordandsaviorgojira]

Seems like you've got a lot of thoughts on sacred bodies! Tbh I didn't entirely get it and moreso liked it for the art. Would love to hear your opinion :)

As the author says, Sacred Bodies is about "what different people/s see as taboo, and the socio-cultural lines that delineate propriety and deviancy." Which is a fascinating topic! They've created a really interesting world with a lot of really interesting character relationships and concepts but all of it fell JUST short of having real depth and punch. When I say I liked the idea of everything but found shortcomings to pick at with all of it, I mean it.

Barely organized ranting and a lot of it under the cut.

I should say right up front that I'm both a hopeless romantic and a conneseur of monster loving. However, the simple presence of either in a narrative isn't going to cut the cheese with me, it's gotta be Good. So here we go.

The World:

This relationship between humans and garaang as cooperative in the holy space above the clouds, viciously antagonistic below, is really interesting and I have a lot of questions about it. What made these apex predators choose to give up their perfectly successful biological niche and live mutually with their prey? What made humans decide to trust them enough to go along with it? The comic implies divine intervention, at least as far as the characters know, but that's a narrative cop-out, and I think there could be some interesting things done with that. Especially with the implication that this ostensibly utopian society is actually quite cult-ish. Garaang are expected to perform various levels of self mutilation to remain pure, its implied that mating with the matriarch leads to the males being cast out below the clouds, and a certain amount of abuse is definitely happening amongst humans. Nothing is what it seems here and there's a lot of potential in that.

Also humans are the ones who are raising garaang children, so what's up with that? Is having garaang chicks imprint on humans a key part of this coexistence, so that they instinctually see humans as "people" too and not automatically as prey? I'm also very curious about this thing where garaang have a hive-like biological/social structure. That's rare in anything more complex than insects and I'd think it'd have a lot of complications for a fully intelligent species. None of that really gets addressed though.

I'm also frustrated that what constitutes "sin" is more specific for the garaang (being predators) but not so much for humans. Obviously sex is meant to be strictly for procreation and there's an apparent aversion to meat(?) but does that mean humans here are vegetarian? Are the garaang allowed meat and humans aren't? Are there protocols to make meat acceptable vs unacceptable? Like it's generally implied that humans are more concerned with controlling sexual appetite and not what they can or can't eat, which is something in cultures that fascinates me personally (I'm a huge Dungeon Meshi fan btw). More on this when I talk about characters.

The Characters:

I love the idea of a neurodivergent/autistic character in general (hello, hi) but especially one who is used as an offering/sacrifice, something which probably did historically happen. Dualayim's abuse at the hands of her mother in some ways leading to her "promiscuity" is interesting but that's a whole can of worms that I don't feel the comic addresses honestly. I don't believe sex is inherently bad or evil but an autistic woman trying to cope with her abuse by having casual sex is... not a choice I'd make easily as a writer. Especially within the context of a society that, apparently very reasonably! associates promiscuity with death and suffering. Like, both garaang and humans have a very good reason to fear and abhor the feral urges that lead to the MASSIVE amounts of suffering that goes on below the clouds, it's not a theoretical. Dualayim's mother, abusive as she is, technically has a very good reason to fear and hate her daughter (some more). Somehow though, I doubt that justifying this prejudice in the narrative was Ver's intention.

Tolpan is... so fucking disappointing. I love me a good monster character but Tolpan is the quintessential monster husband archetype and it breaks my damn heart. He's big, outwardly scary but apparently harmless, he instantly respects Dualayim and asks nothing of her, he's deadly afraid of appearing threatening to her despite her having no reason to do so, he's attractive by the standards of his people and he has a respectable job. This is like a teratophile checklist, it's painful. He has basically no personality of his own. He barely even provides any interesting context for his culture aside from what's directly relevant to the story. He exists to be cutely awkward at over eight feet tall and fit the shape of Dualayim's needs and that's about it.

It's a stereotypical romance dynamic and it's boring boring boring. Tolpan and Dualayim never have any significant conflict aside from the very end when she misinterprets his bloodlust as sexual lust and it leads to the biggest flop of an ending I've read in a while. The whole story is about cultural propriety and deviancy and the two deviants don't even get to release their feeling of repression on each other? And yet this is a good thing because the story has established that he wants to fucking Eat Her, because he apparently doesnt have sexual desires. So while the theme is ostensibly "giving into natural desires" neither of them... actually does. And if the theme should instead be "outcasts finding interpersonal connection" then it still fails, because what they find is still only surface level because the characters have one pivotal moment of understanding and then... hug it out, DESPITE the narrative establishing their desires VERY EXPLICITLY. This could be a story about two people discovering a shared nature between them as animals that have multifaceted interconnected desires and needs, but instead it's satisfied with them just acknowledging that those distinctly separate desires exist. It makes no damn sense to me, and it shouldn't make sense to anyone who's been told to wait just a little longer for dinner or gotten interrupted while trying to get off.

Basically, Ver is a very good artist but they are not a very good writer and bit off WAY more than they could chew to try and cram into 60 pages. This is the kind of story that could be told by someone with a lot more experience in literal volumes of material and also the help of an editor who knows from more than AO3 fics. I want more. I want it to be good. It has SO FUCKING MUCH POTENTIAL it makes me want to tear at my hair! But every time I read it I keep asking questions that the narrative doesn't seem prepared to answer and I get more frustrated every time.

[sevensistersofsussex]

for the choose violence asks let’s go with 1, 8, 14, 17, 21, 23, and 25!

the character everyone gets wrong

Caroline or rather how some interpretations turn her into a perfect girlboss.

She had some relatable flaws.

Being jealous of her friend and being in a one-sided competition with her. Not having a filter and letting the insensitive, socially unacceptable things come out of her mouth. She was downright harsh. Not being able to keep a secret.

The whole "being a vampire made her better" thing is strange to me. She was still wildly jealous. With Tyler and that random party girl. With Stefan later when she thinks he and Elena are getting along too well?

I think the only thing that changed with her character is that the telegraphing of those scenes are done in a way to make it seem like she's a boss when in reality, she is still that insecure girl. Which is understandable and relatable. How many of us have insecure moments?

common fandom opinion that everyone is wrong about

Some people act like the sire bond broke after Elena turned off her humanity and I think all that happened was she got a reprieve from it but every time we see her after she is tortured gets her humanity back is a moment when she's sired to Damon.

It's why she handles his death so differently than the other deaths she experiences. I think the sire bond was trying to drag her down with him.

that one thing you see in fics all the time

Reading mostly Klena, I see a lot of Klaus being obsessed with the bite mark he would have left on Elena and making him possessive over it.

there should be more of this type of fic/art

More rarepair art and fics! I honestly just love them. They aren't canon? Good. They barely had scenes together? Fantastic. They weren't even in the same show? Stellar.

On a real note, the thing I think I'm starting to pin down about my love of rarepairs is how creative you have to be to write them. There is no canon to follow. This is all from your own head and I eat it up.

part of canon you think is overhyped

Klaroline.

I just - don't really understand where the connection was supposed to come from. He put her life in danger to show Tyler the control he had over him and then heals her. And she's like "are you going to kill me" and he's upset that she thinks he'd be a monster on her birthday. And that made him like her?

Ultimately Caroline chose Stefan, the man she'd been pining for since the first episode despite his commitment to her friend and Klaus never really did much to pursue her. He wanted to be her last love but then just...meh?

It just seems people mostly like how those two actors look together and the chemistry they had. Which....the show is full of hot people. They all mostly had chemistry with each other.

ship you've unwillingly come around to

Forwood.

The vocalness of the KC fandom made me just want to turn my brain off for this but the more I think about it the more I like their early days. One of the rare friends to lovers ships that I enjoy. And I think a lot of it had to do with him being there for her with Matt and her being there for him with his supernatural journey.

They really could have been cute all the way through. Just a stable, supportive couple for the entirety of the series. I think it needed some stability in that way.

common fandom complaint that you're sick of hearing

Elena is a crybaby.

And so what if she does cry a lot? So what if any of the female presenting characters cry? What is it about women crying that makes us point to them and claim they are too "emotional" as if it is a bad thing but when a male character kills someone's friend or relative because he got rejected that isn't "too emotional".

[photogirl894]

Why I love the Bad Batch: A deeper analysis nobody asked for 😅😁

I think I’m starting to realize the deeper reasons as to why I love “The Bad Batch” so much...

I mean, there’s the obvious: it’s a good show, the characters are awesome and fun (and certain ones are hot as hell 🥵 Y’all know who I’m talking about), there are a lot of good morals and lessons in each episode, but upon reflection, I’m starting to realize why this show resonates with me so much...and it all comes back to this quote in the Clone Wars episode where we first the boys of Clone Force 99.

For those of you who don’t know, I work in special education. I’ve been a para or an aide who works with special needs kids and I’ve been doing that for over a decade in different capacities, but mostly in schools. I work every day with a range of kids who are seen as different. I work with higher-functioning kids that need academic help and have ADHD, dyslexia, high-functioning autism, etc., and I also work with more physically and mentally-disabled children, like kids with Downs Syndrome, etc. All of the kids I work with are different than most in one way or another. This quote from Clone Wars stuck with me since I first saw it and I loved it. I actually have it as part of my email signature at work, so anyone who sees an email from me reads that, too. I felt it was perfect for my line of work. Embracing those who are seen as different can really fill a void in your heart and soul and some of those people can be the sweetest, most loving individuals you’ll ever meet in your life. I had friends who were special needs growing up, I have autistic cousins and I’ve also been fortunate to work currently and in the past at schools where the special ed students are loved and accepted by their gen ed peers and I’ve had some students who have worked with them that have said they absolutely love it. This line of work is very fulfilling, which is why I firmly believe the second half of the quote above that says “for that makes you whole”. I have a lot of experience being around people that are different from “normal” people.

The Bad Batch are seen as different from “regular” Clones. 

I’m not saying that the Bad Batch are special needs individuals or anything, but they have certain things about them that differentiate them from everyone else, some physical and some mental, just like the students I’ve worked with. Society, however, looks at them and sees them as freaks or not as important as other Clones. Their whole situation just resonated with me from the very beginning. I’m someone who sees another person get treated badly because they’re different or special needs and I just get furious. I recently came across a TikTok where it was a social experiment with a rude customer in a restaurant being horrible to a young man with Downs Syndrome. At first, I couldn’t tell it wasn’t real and I was about ready to scream at some of the things the customer was saying. Even after I realized it was all staged and they were experimenting to see how other people would react, I was still just fuming because that sort of behavior is just unacceptable. I saw the Bad Batch being treated that way and I remember feeling something similar the first time. Even though they might look different and have different traits than everyone else, why should the Bad Batch be treated badly?

We see Rex embrace the Bad Batch for their differences and he came to realize that they were excellent at what they do and were good men, even praising them as “the finest soldiers he’d ever fought alongside”. We see Echo embrace them for their differences because he himself found that he was now different from the rest of the Clones after his experiences at the Citadel and Skako Minor and he found himself another squad to belong to. We see Omega embrace them for their differences and she finds safety and the family she’s always wanted with them. Just because someone looks different or acts different than you for any reason, whether it’s a disability or not, doesn’t make them less of a person. We are all human and we all deserve to be loved. 

What I also find inspiring is that the Bad Batch know they’re different and they too embrace themselves and their differences. They know who they are and nothing anyone else says influences the way they see themselves and each other and I think that’s something we all sometimes struggle with. It’s easy to take the negative things people say about us to heart and let them make us miserable, but if you really know who you are and accept everything about yourself, including your flaws, then nothing anyone can say can affect you. We all should learn to embrace our own differences and that too can make you feel whole. When you know you’re different from other people, accept it and are even proud of it, then you will find that life will be a lot happier that way 😊 Of course, I understand in some cases that can be easier said than done, but it’s never too late to start! It took me a long time to accept certain things about myself, but once I embraced the fact that I’m a nerd and that I’m crazy about different things than other people might be, I’ve been a lot happier and have a much more positive outlook on myself as well as better self-esteem. Be proud of who you are! 💜

Embracing others for their differences truly does make you whole. I see that lesson not only with the Bad Batch, but I’ve learned that with my work helping special ed students in several different capacities and it has truly blessed my life. It’s something that has influenced me and how I treat others in many ways.

That is just another reason to add to my ever-growing list of why I love the Bad Batch so much 🥰💜

[one-page-a-day]

Asma Barlas on the Qur'an and patriarchy (1/2)

(min. 7:56) "When it comes to qur’anic hermeneutics and method, what is it that you seek to critique and what are the alternative methodologies that you are asking your readers to take?"

"Well, essentially, I’m critiquing dominant interpretations of the Quran that allow Muslims to associate God with women’s abuse and oppression. And of course, most Muslims may not think it’s oppressive to claim that God has made men superior to women and prefers them to women, but I feel that such a view is at best theologically indefensible and at worst sacrilegious since it makes God a partisan in men’s sexism and misogyny.

I also think that such a view is unacceptable from a strictly interpretive and hermeneutical perspective since it arises from focusing selectively on only those six or so verses and partial verses out of a total of 6236 in the Quran that give men and women some different rights and such readings also fail to contextualize these verses or to accept that we can interpret them differently than they have been interpreted in the past.

And what I find ironic is that the same Muslims who insist on the fixity of the Quran’s meanings like to boast that Arabic is so rich that it has 100 words for a camel. They even admit that the Quran has at least two levels of meanings and if they incline to Sufism that each verse has thousands. So only when it comes to men’s rights does Arabic suddenly become plain sense and monosemic and the Quran the only text in the world’s history to have just one fixed and transparent meaning.

So, those are the tendencies I’m critiquing. As far as my own methodology… well, firstly I acknowledge that there is a relationship between meaning and method, so that what we take the Quran – for that matter, any text – to be saying, depends on who reads it, how, and in what sorts of social, political and historical contexts and circumstances.

I also take it as a given that languages and texts are polysemic and that interpretation is “an open process which no single vision can conclude” – that’s from Paul Ricoer. More to the point, I read the Quran in light of its descriptions of God because after all the Quran is God’s word and I feel we ought not to ascribe ideas to it that run counter to its claims about God. So for instance, it says, God is one, God is just, God is incomparable, so I read the Quran in light of these precepts of divine unity, justice and incomparability.

To give just one example, since God is unlike all else in creation and since the Quran forbids using similitude, that is to say comparisons for God, or calling God “father”, I think God to be minimally beyond sex and gender and since God rejects patriarchalization, in other words, God rejects being a patriarch, I take the Quran’s own episteme, and I use the word loosely, to also be anti-patriarchal.

On this note, I’ve applied a comprehensive definition of patriarchy to the Quran which, it appears, no prior reader had done, at most amina wadud had argued in her book that it’s “neutral to social and marital patriarchy” though without clarifying what she meant by the term.

The way I define it (patriarchy) has appeared in two major forms: one is as the historical tradition of rule by the father/husband which in its religious iterations draws on depictions of God as both male and as father; and the other is the more modern politics of sexual differentiation that privileges men and discriminates against women because of their biology. So this half of the definition I borrow from my colleague and friend Zillah Eisenstein.

Lastly I’ve drawn on some criteria the Quran itself suggests like reading it intra-textually, that is as a whole, contextualizing some of its provisions, since it refers to what Kenneth Cragg calls the “necessarily periodic nature of some of its contents”. I privilege it’s foundational aya [verse] and I search for the best in its teachings because these are all things the Quran urges us to do and I know that we may differ on what is best but my own view is that an exegesis which offends against God’s self-disclosure or ignores the Quran’s holism and/or the context of specific verses is contextually a misreading.

So it’s based on this approach that I’ve tried to illustrate that the Quran doesn’t advocate patriarchy and in fact that its foundational teachings incline towards sexual equality and as for the hierarchy verses I argue that these refeel (?) an infinity of traces, I have borrowed the phrase from [Antonio] Gramsci, of the 7th century tribal Arab patriarchy to which God first spoke but which, as we know, has long since passed into history along with its specific forms of male authority and gender hierarchy." (min. 14:01)

Asma Barlas, “Believing Women in Islam: Unreading Patriarchal Interpretations of the Qur'an” (U Texas Press, 2019), New Books in Islamic Studies, 3.8.2020, Spotify.

[answersfromzestual]

I want phallo so bad. I've dreamt of having both sets of genitals since I learned what genitals were.

But i am so intensely afraid of looking anymore trans than I already do. I can't even confidently wear a packer without fearing someone is going to harass or assault me because I am non binary and even though I try not to look like a "woman" my body is.... so stereotypically "feminine" that I don't know what someone would do if they noticed a bulge in my pants.

Other than the whole "risks of surgery", this I'd a huge reason I'm scared to get phallo. And I'm not sure what to do. Because getting phalloplasty will give me the body I've always dreamed of, but will present me with a new challenge in life that I honestly don't know how to handle as someone who will never pass as someone who "should" have a bulge in their pants...

Okay first, I don't have personal experience in the non binary area. But, I will tell you about when I was not passing and I wore a packer and a binder (idk if you bind or not).

I wore a packer, I always was worried about people feeling it/ touching it. At the time I was not in a trans friendly environment. But I even wore a Stand to Pee packer (STP packer) that allowed me to urinate with my packer. I would avoid bathrooms near my classes most of the time, but use (what I wanted to use) the men's room. Yet in one building I had to use the women's room because I didn't pass. But I was really the only person who would be in the building to use that bathroom. It still stucked, but i was still wearing my packer. I was still called "she/her" while wearing my packer.

It was weird at first, I felt paranoid, but you gain confidence over time. People speak a lot about genitals, but they don't bother to really look. And you can usually buy different sized packers, maybe try a smaller size at first? It is intimidating but there isn't as much bulge as people think, even if you brush by and people touch it (which has happened) they don't know what they touched and whether they did or not they won't say anything. It's just a socially unacceptable thing to bring up, so most people will just move on.

You just be you. Get a packer and try it out, you dont have to wear it everyday if you don't want to. At first try when you're feeling comfortable (at home or to a friends house). You will realize that people actually don't look, or care about genitals as much as you think.

Maybe wearing them with baggy pants at first will help.

I'm not sure if you buy men's pants or women's or both. But men's have space for your genitals that give more space and hide. The zipper makes a bigger buldge to be honest.

If you want to pack I highly suggest men's pants. They have skinny pants and pants that can let's say "imitate" the look of women's jeans but with room for a penis and testicles.

I feel like once you gain confidence wearing a packer you will find it easier to make your decision about phalloplasty.

The nice thing about phalloplasty is you can also pick your own size, many clinics also offer debulking (making your phallis not so thick), and your own size of testicles.

If you are non binary it doesn't matter what is in your pants, people will feel how they will, sadly you can't force them to change if they have negative feelings.

I think being in the trans spectrum we tend to overthink a lot of things, especially revolving around our body parts and genitals.

People dont stare at your crotch, they don't touch it on purpose, someone isn't going to bring up they just touched your genitals, again it's something that we subconsciously find socially unacceptable and awkard to mention and talk about (at least in open company).

Life is like a videogame, if there wasn't any challenges it wouldn't be any fun, or worthwhile.

A new challenge is a new road to pave for those behind you and you to be proud you made.

Also I went to highschool with a cis male who for many people they didn't not know his gender. He looked feminine and talked feminine but had a male name and went by he/him. He was just a gay male. Some people aren't traditionally masculine looking and thats okay. Also there is a condition called Gynecomastia that causes cis men to basically have more chest fat and it seems like they have "breasts".

I think that you should see what life is like wearing a packer, then see how you feel.

I'm sorry if I didn't really help you.

I wish you the best in life, and I believe you will have the body you desire one day.

Stay Golden ✌️ 💙 💜

[veilchenjaeger]

Who are some of your favorite wlw in myth? What about non-explicit women in myth you believe to be wlw and why?

Ohhh, this... touches upon an entirely different topic that I'm pretty passionate about, which I happen to want to make my Actual Research Focus, a.k.a. queerness in ancient history. Disclaimer here that I'm literally only vaguely knowledgeable about Greek mythology, with a tiny bit of Roman on the side, so that's what I'm going for here.

The thing about wlw in Greco-Roman myth is that they're rare. I recently read Female Homosexuality in Ancient Greece and Rome by Sandra Boehringer, which is a book that frustrated me in parts but is still a very good, very detailed introduction to the topic of queer women's ancient history. Boehringer lists... two myths, I believe, that she thinks actually talk about desire between women. (I agree on both accounts.) Only one of them is explicit.

What I think gets lost a lot in the discussion on Greco-Roman history and mythology and how queer it was (which btw is a hellscape of a discussion in the first place; ancient Rome was not a queer utopia in the slightest) is that sexuality between women was seen in a completely different light from sexuality between men. It's true that the concept of homosexuality and heterosexuality, as in "the capability of a person to be attracted to a certain gender", essentially didn't exist in ancient Greece and Rome. People apparently were aware that some people are only attracted to certain genders and not to others, but there was no clear opposition made between homosexuality and heterosexuality, or even homosexual and heterosexual behaviour. Relationships between two men did not automatically belong in the same category because they were happening between two men. (More on this in Roman Homosexuality by Craig A. Williams.)

And while all this is true and thus certain kinds of male/male relationships were socially accepted in Greece and Rome, the situation was completely different for women. Boehringer essentially argues that the concept of homosexuality did exist for women in Rome, because any sexual relationship between women was automatically unacceptable. It's more complicated in the case of Greece, partially bc Greek history is stupidly long and varied and partially bc we don't have sources. After Sappho, it's very rarely talked about. There are some sources that acknowledge sexuality and love between women, and it apparently wasn't seen as something to be mocked the way it at times was in Rome, but what I'm getting at here is that we just don't have any stories about wlw in myth akin to, like, Apollo and Hyacinth or Zeus and Ganymede or even Achilles and Patroclus.

THAT BEING SAID! I support Artemis and Kallisto in their lesbianism, but what really gave me brain rot was Boehringer's reading of Iphis and Ianthe. Which is afaik the only truly explicit myth about wlw, given to us (in an apparently edited version; this is not straightforward mythology as in "a story told in this way for generations") by Ovid.

If you're familiar with Iphis and Ianthe, you probably know that Iphis is a girl raised as a boy, falls in love with a girl, and is in the end turned into a man by Isis so that she can marry Ianthe. I'm using she/her pronouns for Iphis pretty deliberately here, because while the whole metamorphosis of her sex does happen, Iphis is pretty solidly a girl and identifies as a girl until the end of the story. (There is imo evidence for trans people in classical antiquity, which is something I still have to read up on, but I don't think Iphis and Ianthe is that. (Although it can of course be adapted in that way for a modern audience, that's cool and valid.)) The way Boehringer reads this story, which is a reading that compels me a lot and that I'd tentatively agree with, is that Iphis' struggle is not with her gender but with her own attraction to another girl. In her monologue, she points out that her own father, Ianthe's family, Ianthe and herself all want the wedding to happen, that nothing stands between them at all but the fact that they're both girls. She calls her own desire monstrous, worse even than Pasiphae's desire for the bull. She's in love with Ianthe and Ianthe is in love with her, and still this relationship and this marriage absolutely cannot happen because there is no man involved.

From a wlw perspective, I don't think this myth has a happy ending. It's necessary for one of the girls to become a man in order for them to be together, which is... oof. But I also think that from a modern perspective, it reflects a feeling I think a fair number of wlw have experienced - that pervasive idea that erotic love for women is inextricably linked with men, that loving women makes you less of one or that you can't truly love women if you are also a woman. It also reflects the whole bullshit we have still going on in society re.: wlw relationships not being real relationships.

And like, I want that happy ending. If I were to write about Iphis and Ianthe, it would be about Iphis discovering that changing her body did not change the way she feels about her gender, that she's happy with Ianthe but not happy as a man. I like to imagine that she comes clean eventually, and that Ianthe and Iphis, AFAB AMAB cis trans woman, can live their best queer life in the privacy of their home. That's my personal favourite outcome here, but I also think this story could be adapted in a number of ways that reflect wlw experiences. I think it would be cool as a story about butch experiences, for example, or trans lesbian experiences.

So, my current favourite wlw in myth are Iphis and Ianthe, only partially bc there aren't really many others.

I'm also what I call vaguely pagan, so speculating about the sexualities of Gods in ways that might go against the way they were worshipped (e.g. Athena as anything but a virgin Goddess) is not something I usually do, but if I were to write a myth adaptation about these Gods, I might portray Athena and Pallas as pretty dang gay just bc it'd be sad and romantic, and looking at the Kallisto myth, I think there's a pretty solid basis for making Artemis a lesbian. What does "virgin Goddess" mean, anyways? How was virginity conceptualised in Ancient Greece? These are things to read up on.

Anyways, this is probably way too long and not at all what you asked for, but thank you for the opportunity to talk about Girls!!

[thelonesomequeen]

Speaking of hockey players, did anyone read about the madness a month or so ago about how this girl on BookTok kept making these super inappropriate comments about a hockey player? Who's married, so it makes this even worse. I don't know if she tagged him or tried to contact him, but eventually he and his wife had to say something because they were both so uncomfortable by what this girl was doing. And instead of apologizing to the hockey player and his wife, the BookToker doubled down and got super defensive about it. Another example of how bad parasocial relationships have gotten and unhinged fans

Omg yes! That was WILD! She had made these videos like “he can find all of my holes!” and it was awkward and a bit cringe. She then tried calling out the hockey player’s wife for making comments about him too, but it’s like, girl that’s HER husband. That’s not exactly the same thing. She’s his wife. You are not. End of story 😂 But then the booktoker got angry and essentially said the wife was just mad because he just have been cheating or something(with absolutely no evidence of that) which was why her content sexualizing this hickey player was unacceptable.

I do think she had a point to make though when she said the team encouraged some of the fan behavior by making some videos of the hockey players stretching like “oh this one is for booktok” and all that. BUT. The difference is when the player and his wife came out and said “hey, can this all just stop? I’m not comfortable with being sexualized in this way” the team immediately stopped and then deleted all of their thirst type videos and that was the end of it. The booktok fan decided to just get pissed and double down on it all and basically tried to blame everyone she could to avoid taking any accountability in any of it. Or just simply…removing the content and moving on.

But watching some booktok fans of hers then track down the hockey player and his wife on social media and leave disgusting comments on all of their photos, including ones with their kids, just took it to another whole level of unacceptable to me. It’s like…are people unable to self reflect and see when their comments or behavior are out of line?

But yeah. That was a wild thing to watch. 🦎

[unidentifiedfuckingthing]

idk i feel like the goal of intersectionalism is understanding that all systems of oppression are arbitrary and post-hoc justifications for forming a society where some groups are systemically disadvantaged and other groups give up some part of their freedom of expression (as in, that which associates them with the underclass) as an agreement to willingly keep the other people disadvantaged. right. and it seems to me like still trying to sort out whether *discrete incidences* of prejudice are actually transmisogyny* or another thing because the person being victimized isnt a trans woman*

*literally anything but this is the thing rn

is unhelpful because the system punishing people for transgressing acceptable social categories is the whole point. so firstly whether an instance of prejudice was "misdirected" or not, it serves to publicly reinforce the boundaries between acceptable and unacceptable for people on both sides of the line. a cis woman getting fucked up for looking like a trans woman is straightforwardly transmisogyny; which is a separate discussion from whether she's systemically targeted by transmisogyny; which is even a separate discussion from whether she's the social and economic target of transmisogyny on a cultural scale. it's untruthful to say it wasnt transmisogyny just because its victim wasnt a trans woman, and it's also untruthful to say that experiencing transmisogyny on an incidental or interpersonal level is equivalent to being targeted by systemic transmisogyny or to being within the category of people transmisogyny is intended to subjugate, because all of those are just different things.

secondly the invocation of "intersectionalism" to mean that each axis is its own straight line and they only "intersect" at single points is materially, a bad analog of the function of oppression, and theory-wise, serves to create a lot of discussion of exactly which oppression or misdirected oppression someone faced in some incident that doesn't actually like, benefit the discussion at all. it isn't like, *either* misogyny or transphobia or intersexism or ableism when cis women with nonnormative presentations receive aggression, because those are all a coherent spectrum of the same thing. the reason you notice the same punishment of forbidden gendered embodiment as misogyny and homophobia and transphobia and intersexism in racism and ableism is because they grow from the same taproot. and honestly i would assert (and my experience is) that the fact it's consistently so difficult and contentious to pare apart different axes of oppression to analyze & discuss them individually is the proof that it's an incomplete framework and the point at which you should be asking questions about missing links that would square that circle.

so the main point im interested in making here is that tme/tma (and "straight/lgbt", and "white/nonwhite", and "abled/ablebodied/disabled", and...) are useful rules of thumb, because describing the effects of vectors of oppression that naturally operate on an impersonal, systemic, theoretical scale, on individual people and especially individual incidents is usually relevant and useful while generally not cleanly accurate. tma and tme don't literally mean "will or will not receive all possible transmisogynistic aggression" and taking such strong offense to the use of the words or the framework implies to me either:

literally genuinely thinking that the extent of transmisogyny is whether strangers have harassed you on the street. which is a shamefully common mindset and speaks to a perspective that has blissfully never once interacted with the multifaceted reality of oppression but still insists on being an important part of its discussion;

an insecurity in ones own victimization and the right to claim it when thats not actually being challenged (which, like, nobody can take that from you, but it's stupid and childish to refuse to recognize a boundary between real aggression and other people having discussions you can't look at right now);

or else, plainly being against the discussion of transmisogyny, and just conveniently finding an explanation for that Bad Vibe it gives you in the terminology being bad and bigoted. this just sucks man it's incredibly fucking frustrating to throw a fit at feeling implicated in culpability or complacency in discussions of/by a class you aren't a part of but also thinking you deserve to be seen as an ally. have a little fucking grace

the second point is if every time people argued about whether something was *really* transmisogyny or homophobia we replaced it with synthesizing the shared characteristics of different axes of oppression and how movements in one affect the other we might get somewhere more useful

[bongkillua]

xander 7 tucker 4!! aaaand 19

XANDER: 7. Is there something that could cause your oc to question their identity? What?

OHHHHH MY GODDDDDDD okay so yeah xanders identity has changed a lot over the years.

this question is rly good bc there’s a rly big difference between “questioning” and “changing” . xander changes his identity a lot-he’s bigender but even beyond that he likes being what people want from him, whether that be in regards to his gender or her sexuality. but because he’s always changing he doesn’t question his true identity a lot. there’s only been like a few times where life events that have forced him to self reflect and change himself.

i just wrote and then deleted an entire paragraph because it gave away a ton about xanders backstory LOL but tldr 30-50 years before the wolfsbane narrative xander identities as a binary trans guy. he presents almost exclusively feminine but it’s all a performance due to [life circumstances]. his need to perform for survival caused him to completely lose touch with his own femininity which is why he identified that way. but then like [the horrors] happen and he has to completely rewrite himself to avoid the law and when he finally stumbled into some sort of security (with the help of a very very loving drag community and also tucker’s weird gender presentation), she actually starts to think about her own femininity again and how a performance can still be personal in a way? xanders whole story reflects my struggles with dissociation and identity and the resolution is accepting that he can inhabit multiple different roles/personalities/lives and for all of them to be genuine. idk. i could say a lot more but i don’t want to completely spoil everything lol!

TUCKER: 4. Is your oc's environment supportive about their identity? How does this impact them?

umm ok so tucker’s OLD environment was very unaccepting both of his queerness and just of him as a person lol. werewolves are interesting critters though bc they naturally have an over abundance of testosterone so tucker like. passes before he comes out but his father is still very angry about the way he identifies. it makes for a rly strange social experience where he isn’t accepted but still, for the most part, looks the way he wants to? but yes tucker’s dad is a piece of shit it’s like the biggest conflict tucker faces in the pre-narrative. he escapes to jordan’s house a lot because jordan’s dad was RLY COOL and even after he dies jordan’s mom kinda sucks but she’s like fine with the whole queer thing.

umm CURRENTLY tucker’s environment is a LOT better obviously. like better than he is lol. tucker struggles with internalized shit for a lot of the early narrative and when ur only friend is xander it tends to come out a lot lol. but one of the first things xander does for tucker is just completely pay for his top surgery because he’s hiring tucker to be a performer and tuckers a lot better of a performer when his body doesn’t make him want to kill himself all the time.

from there tucker still has a lot of repression to work through (a lot of it moreso to do with being a werewolf but i explain why that’s the same as internalized queerphobia below lol) and xander forces him to get into drag to help learn to accept himself. from there it’s pretty smooth sailing in the queerness boat and post-narrative is just about their queer liberated future where tucker gets to just ride the ebbs and flows of his identity and doesn’t have to like. fucking worry about it. most conflict he has with his queerness at that point is deciding what kind of bottom surgery he wants. lol.

19. Do you have preferences about depicting homo/transphobia in your stories? What, and why? Does it vary by story?

this is actually really interesting. i tend to try and stay period-accurate but i usually don’t make homo/transphobia the, like, biggest conflict in the story. I also often prefer metaphors for queerphobia over actual homo/transphobia because i think it’s more productive to discuss how a fear of queerness impacts people as opposed to just depicting, like, surface level hate crimes.

for example: tuckers dad is extremely hostile towards tuckers gender and sexuality. like, blatantly. but the more prevalent conflict between them is tucker’s dad’s anger over not being able to control tucker, and to form tucker into the perfect werewolf. this conflict would still exist even if tucker wasn’t queer, and would still probably come across as queerphobia (“don’t act like that or people will think you’re gay!”). when tucker finally leaves that environment he struggles to accept his identity as a werewolf and his ability to love others but again those struggles reflect and include his actual queerness (how he feels about xander, how he feels about jordan. Weird Body Stuff that just makes him feel Bad). the way that discrimination against monsters is portrayed and the way that monsters deal with their own identities often mimics queerphobia, and then is made deeper by the actual inclusion of queer characters. hopefully that makes sense.

all of my other stories are a lot less fleshed out than wolfsbane but still follow a similar vein of thinking. i guess my fantasy stuff doesn’t have as much of the blatant queerphobia; since there’s no way to be “period accurate” it doesn’t really make sense to make queerphobia exist in the same ways. but the conflict still arises from people trying to instill a certain set of beliefs or norms into a group and that ultimately leading to a worse world, which is like. a queer line of thinking among many other things.

[funisanecessity]

Responsibility towards vs. Responsibility for the gaps, holes, and pits of life.

"Life has a gap in it—it just does. You don't go crazy trying to fill it like some lunatic."

I have a tendency to browse libraries, pulling interesting things off shelves.

During college I pulled out a copy of Take This Waltz, thinking it would be about dancing (I love dancing), but it turned out to be a fascinating novel-like musing on love, life, addiction, fidelity, art, and the ways we try to fill the gap, the hole, the pit that is that aching part of consciousness. I was in the midst of what would become an almost five-year relationship when I watched the movie alone in an empty seminar room, rapt.

I can't remember a whole lot about the movie. There was cooking. There was a gym. There were swimming classes and two competing partners and the artsy, unsafe one won out and there was more sex than my prudish brain was comfortable with at the end so I kind of fastforwarded through, terrified and fascinated.

But the stickiest stuck thing was that first quote about the gappiness of life. ***

I was talking with my therapist today, having a very triggered six-on-the-enneagram conversation about a fear of my social world dropping out from under me if I managed to do enough unusual things to be deemed wholly unacceptable.

She asked what I was really afraid of, and I said The Pit. The pit of depression, but also the pit of loneliness, of having to do this inhumane task of living on a planet in the face of death and suffering alone, without people who know, who care.

And she asked me about the worst case scenario, about what it said about me if that happened.

And it was oddly calming? Like if the worst case scenario happens I'm no longer falling, I've fallen, and there's a bottom.

What drives me a bit mad is the uncertainty.

Like I know there's a bottom, or strongly suspect, due to the whole mortality thing, but this interim period of doing life, so full of love and loss is so tricky.

And I've bought into the whole free will thing, I'm willing to play the game that assumes that my choices matter. Which is freeing and hopeful but also rife with responsibility.

To myself, to other people. That was another thing Kelly, my therapist, pointed out. That I seemed to be very interested in responsibility. She talked about being responsible towards people as being different than being responsible for people and their reactions, which felt really liberating.

We talked about ways to interact with people with whom I'd had very gappy/holey/pitty relationships. Ones I valued, but ones that didn't always hold my weight.

I talked about ways to be responsible towards them without being responsible for them. I could act within my values, then step back, hoping for the best, but expecting nothing.

****

Dear Person,

I have seen the ways you've tried to get in contact with me.

I would like to say "Don't worry, I'm not avoiding you," but the thing is,

I am avoiding you, and while I don't want you to worry (the world has enough to worry about), I do want you to think.

I haven't been in touch with you because I have felt like you decided that something about me was unacceptable to you.

According to you, have a partner isn't smart enough for me. You have a history of judging people's partners, and that makes me feel like you're unlikely to change. I know you want the best for me, but your version of "the best" left you in a very abusive relationship, so I want you to keep your opinions to yourself, and I also want healing for you, but I don't know how to tell you that without hurting you, and I don't want to hurt you, so I've been silent.

According to you, I owe you thanks and attention simply for doing part of what you said you would do, then breaking your promises in other ways. You expect me to move on when you lie, with minimal if any accountability. I've tried telling you what would help heal those tears in trust, but you haven't engaged in ways that show progress. I want to keep trying, but it hurts my heart to fall in a similar hole again and again. I'm done for a while. I'm not going to tell you that, though. I'm just going to keep my distance. We'll be on a need-to-know basis, and I'll watch and pray for signs of transformation.

We haven't talked in ages because the last time we talked you seemed resentful that I wasn't more responsive. You've talked about resenting other people who stopped talking to you. You said stuff about a friend who has significant struggles not struggling in real ways, not struggling as much as you. And I do not know whether or not you were joking, because if you weren't joking, your idea of your own pain is pretty wild. I am not comfortable in our friendship if that's where you're at, though I am guessing life has hurt you terribly for you to be there. I haven't wanted to tell you directly because I don't want to hurt you worse by giving you my reasons for my silence, and I don't want to lie to you either just to smooth things over. I want the distance I've created, unless something significant has changed for you. That said, I know we'll run into each other eventually because our friend groups overlap and I want to set some intentions. I like our shared hobbies, we have some nice memories, but I'm not available to be responsible to you in the ways I've observed are important to you, and I understand that that might not feel good to hear. I don't mean to hurt you, and I do wish you well. I hope we'll be able to interact well when our paths cross, and if you find that you have a genuine openness to casual interaction, I appreciate it. I'm sorry I'd seen down for traveling to visit you in the past then hadn't followed through. The desire was there both times, but my willingness to spend money and complete the logistics, paired with some concern about how we'd coexist in the context you invited me to just wasn't able to make the visits happen. I hope I'll have the courage to ask for clarity or be clear on my no's rather than lingering if there are future encounters between us.

I know I agreed to be responsive to our mentoring, and I suggested a time frame when I would be able to do our next meeting. You wanted it to be sooner, which is fair to request, and I tried to stretch, but we weren't able to find a date. I'm game to re-engage after the original time I'd suggested for one of these three times (1, 2, 3). If none of those are available, could you suggest some that are? I understand if the scheduling aspect of our mentoring collaboration has become unwieldy--it's okay if it's a goodbye for now. I'm sure many others will benefit from your time and I am grateful you are doing work that seems to nourish you and while also benefitting others.

I am checking in about the question regarding filing locations and timings, and touching base about the upcoming application. I'll be in NYC as of September 18th at _____TIME____ and am hoping to get my application turned in and biometrics completed as soon as possible. I saw there were requests for further information, and a few more documents to complete. I've completed those requirements as best as possible, and here are my remaining questions: What if I don't know my return date? How many family/community statements are helpful/recommended?

Hi there, thank you for your patience with delays in communication. I'm grateful for your grace and for your willingness to share your expertise. I'll be home by early October and would love to schedule a time to check in with our investment relationship, to see how my accounts are doing, and to plan for some values-based investing and immigration planning in coming years.

****

I think these notes may help sew patches across some of the holes, plug up some of the gaps, or toss plywood over the pits.

I think they'll meet my responsibilities towards communicating with reasonable promptness with people without me making myself responsible for their feelings.

And I hope they might help you build some bridges in your own life. These are real drafts of messages I hope to send or speak.

I wish you gentleness for your days, and good rest tonight,

ANM

[atqh16]

I think the fact that I’m late to the fandom also plays a part. Cause I find few haters and more JC supporters. One of my biggest pet peeve isn’t even how some of them unfairly put down other characters to prop up JC. It’s how in an attempt to protect JC some of them will see him only as a victim and strip him of his flaws and mistakes when no, that’s what made him compelling in the first place! That’s what makes his growth so satisfying by the end. And tbh I think the fact that a lot of people agreed with my original post shows how extreme JC lovers have been.

Though I’ve had arguments with antis too. Like the whole homophobic thing is so stupid. I like it as a fanon gag or crack but like you said everyone is a little homophobic in the story.

Context definitely matters when it comes analyzing material but I think at the same time it’s also important to know when to break out of it. Like the amount of people who use the context to justify the killing the Wen remnants, to the point where some see it as deserved is alarming. Like the context definitely adds layers to the logic used in universe but it absolutely does not justify what they did. It’s another issue I have with many JC lovers who freak out at the idea of JC having done anything horrible. That Loki effect where they take the woobification too far. Like I said, maybe if I didn’t make it clear in my original post, my issue is with fans who insist on justifying their favs even when the story itself makes it clear that they were in the wrong.

When it comes to JC’s treatment of Jin Ling I’m simply very particular about any adult verbally degrading a child, especially if they are that child’s guardian/parent. I think it gets swept under the rug as being acceptable way too often when it absolutely should not be. It has nothing to do with gentle parenting or any of the like. I simply think verbal insults and threats (even if they are empty) towards a child is unacceptable. Especially since at one point the child themselves would not have known they were empty. As I’ve said abuse is an extremely complicated issue that is rarely black and white. A lot of times it’s mixed up with genuine affection and love that is simply warped by a person’s interpretation of how to express it. Like I had no doubt that no matter what Lady Jiang did Jiang Cheng still loved her with everything in him. Even then I’m not saying Jiang Chengs actions towards Jin Ling makes him an irredeemable monster. I think he simply needs to self reflect and recognize his own faults and the fact that he’s proven to be capable of doing these things is one of the reasons I adore him as a character. I don’t think the fact that therapy was non existent in that era or the fact that his actions were culturally and socially acceptable is a good reason to excuse his behaviour. It makes them very understandable but there’s a difference.

I definitely disagree with you in regards to Lan Zhan. That might simply be how we both interact differently with the source material, which is valid, but I find him to be just as compelling as Jiang Cheng or Nie Huaisang or Wei Ying. Especially after we find out more about the past version of himself. Mxtx does this thing with her characters where you are meant to read between the lines and she allows room for readers to simply fill the blanks with their own thoughts and theories and it’s one of the things I like best about her writing because it allows more reader-content interaction. Some might consider that lazy writing but I disagree. It’s why I don’t have an issue with different interpretations of a character. Simply the resistance to criticism. I love Wei Ying but absolutely understand many of the issues people have with him though I do think some readers are more harsh with him than they should be and I think it’s a product of him being a main character and being a character that’s generally loved by most readers. Which is unfair but that’s a topic for another day.

Like people keep saying that Wei Ying kept running away from giving Jiang Cheng the answers and explanations he deserved to know and in a way he did but I disagree as to why. I think Wei Ying genuinely thought he was protecting Jiang Cheng by hiding the truth (he wasn’t). I think his actions came out of a place of love instead of selfishness especially since we have a lot of proof that Wei Ying loved his siblings dearly. I think he let Jiang Fengmian’s last words get to his head. I think the idea that he had a savior complex is an unfair oversimplification of his character the same way some people simplify Jiang Cheng to simply being a bitter hateful person. I think he’s just as much a victim of generational trauma as Jiang Cheng is but his detractors don’t take that into account the same way they do with their favs. I think by the end of the story him leaving wasn’t about him running away but about him sincerely thinking his presence would be a hindrance to his brothers healing journey and after seeing the level of contempt his brother showed him at his return, I don’t blame him for thinking that. Even if I do disagree with his decision. BUT I think the hint of reconciliation that we saw between them during the climax was mxtx’s way of giving their relationship an open ending. I think their story would have required an entirely different book and I get that mxtx might have felt it was not a story she could tell or was ready to tell. Disappointing but it’s only her second series so I’m giving her room especially since tgcf shows how much she has improved. It’s why I frequent mdzs fanfic spaces more than I do tgcf. Haven’t read svsss cause I’m finding it super hard to find a readable online version cause I don’t have the choice of getting the physical copy.

I think in regards to Wen Ning it’s really unfair to judge him for being harsh with his words. Especially since we give Jiang Cheng himself SO much leeway for being a consistent ass throughout the story and the golden core reveal was one of the few moments Wen Ning allowed himself to be emotional. He’s tried his best to take accountability for his actions throughout the rest of the story and for a character who has basically lost everything I think it was understandable to see him react the way he did with Jiang Cheng who was physically fighting with a defenseless Wei Ying at the time even if the latter ‘started it’. I think it’s really telling that it took Jiang Cheng raising his whip against Wei Ying for Wen Ning to step in. I don’t know if Wei Ying ever talked about how Lady Jiang used zidian against him as a child but I think it’s still significant enough to note.

But I definitely still think his intention was to shake Jiang Cheng out of his denial and I still think while awful, everything Wen Ning said was something Jiang Cheng needed to hear. Even if he was incorrect with some of his points. I don’t think Wen Ning was meant to be entirely accurate with his words. I think like you said he is his own unreliable narrator but he still provides a valuable perspective. Jiang Cheng didn’t need to just hear the truth. He needed to decipher some of it himself. I think it’s why his words during his confrontation with Wei Ying at the climax about how his anger was still valid was so very very important because it was. It very much was. But him recognizing that it didn’t justify his actions was what was pivotal.

Can you tell that Jiang Cheng is my Roman Empire and the resistance towards criticism by some fans is what irks me the most and not actually his character?

I don’t think Wen Ning told Jiang Cheng about the golden core because he wanted him to know he owed Wei Ying or any of the sort. Like a lot of people seem to think that and therefore conclude Wen Ning was out of line. But it’s more likely that he did it to give Jiang Cheng the wake up call he needed. Because he has lived for 13 years in denial of the truth in that Jiang Yan Li’s death was not Wei Yings fault and he himself had a hand in his brothers demise. It was meant to be a reminder to him of who Wei Ying actually is and the made version he has in his head is a perception that has been warped by his anger and grief. It’s meant to be a reminder of how much Wei Ying loved him. Jiang Chengs anger is understandable but it doesn’t justify him treating Wei Ying the way he did and putting all the blame on him without ever trying to comprehend the choices his brother made and why he made them.

[butterfrogmantis]

Smurfs Discord suggested I make a SmurfSapphire to oppose SmurfRuby and well my ideas went off

SmurfSapphire and SmurfRuby were actually delivered to the grove on the same day, tho at different times. They’re not related, but were both names after gems partly for this reason, and it led to them being ‘shoehorned’ together a lot as kids. Right from the start, Sapphire has been the more confident, more assertive and popular Smurf, whilst Ruby kinda hung in the background, shyer and less self-assured, generally just cheering her friend on from the side-lines. Sapphire SOAKED up attention, and wanted – no, NEEDED – to be the shining star amongst her peers, and especially against Ruby who she kinda kept around to make herself look better, which Ruby didn’t deserve but never complained about.

Some years later, Ruby gets her first crush and can’t stop DOTING on the guy. This makes Sapphire kinda … angry. She’s never really had a crush because she couldn’t see anyone being even close to her level, but to think that Ruby might hit a milestone before her was unacceptable, cause Sapphire is a bitch like that. She decides this won’t do and sets out to subtly (and sometimes not so subtly) compete with Ruby for Handy’s attention. It doesn’t work for either of them, but the two are kind of locked in this ongoing war behind his back. That is, until sometime later, when Handy announces his new relationship. Ruby is upset but decides to back down, and assumes Sapphire will too. Thing is, for Sapphire this has now become fixation outside of her rivalry with her ‘friend’. This is an OBSESSION.

She sneaks into Willow’s hut one day and steals her book on forbidden potions, which includes a chapter on love potions, forbidden because they take away a Smurfs free will. But Sapphire doesn’t really care at this point, she’s completely blinded by the need to outdo Ruby and prove herself capable of this. And, it does work. Sapphire finally has Ruby’s crush in the palm of her hands, and feels back on top of the social tier. There is … one little problem tho. Clumsy. See, a love potion does as it’s advertised, it creates a pretty intense but ultimately fake form of love, which works but is no match for the real thing. Having Clumsy around puts the plan in serious jeopardy since he could undo the effects so … Sapphire decides he’s got to go. But she needs to be more subtle about it, since Clumsy is obviously extremely upset and confused about the whole thing. She tries to convince Clumsy that she just ‘won’ this one, and better luck next time dude.

Ah but Clumsy has a secret weapon Sapphire kind of overlooked – the twins. She doesn’t think too much of two small Smurflings running about under her feet, but they can be as crafty as they are mischievous, and together they kind of piece together what’s happened by observing and stealing a bottle of Sapphire’s love potion and bringing it back to Clumsy, who then takes it to Papa, who takes it to Willow, who all confront Sapphire. Clumsy is, of course, capable of breaking the effects of the potion, the twins get thoroughly rewarded with cool new gadgets and smurfberry ice cream for their efforts, Sapphire gets to spend some time in a jail cell and Ruby is hopefully gonna find better friends :)

Handy and Clumsy (c) The Smurfs

SmurfSapphire and SmurfRuby are mine