#simultaneously queer and homophobic

[deathbycoldopen]

I find it really hilarious how old tv and movies (and not even that old tbh) will have the QUEEREST fucking storylines and then in a panic slap some bioessentialist comphet dialogue on top like that’s going to cover up the gay

I guess the no-homo intern has a much longer, prouder history than I realized

[thateclecticbitch]

Listen, as a queer trans guy I've been on the receiving end of some bizzarely contradictory homophobia for basically my whole life, but I think the one that takes the cake was that time in middle school I asked out a boy and was called a dyke for it (???)

[mikeslawyer]

never fails to piss me off how this fandom made steve into this huge lgbt ally, made him out to be practically perfect, forgot every bad thing he’s done in favour of his character development and yet seems to be simultaneously hating on jonathan.

jonathan, who has been the best older brother to will, a canonically queer character throughout the entire show, no matter what

jonathan, who understood what will was telling him in that one scene in s4 and told him that he knows and it’s okay and he loves him, always will love him

jonathan, who knows that will is in love with mike and has vowed himself to protect his younger brother from getting hurt because of it

but there is so much hate on jonathan, because god forbid a TEENAGER who’s been a glass child his whole life and practically has lived in fear of losing his whole family for the past four years - god forbid he smokes weed to cope with everything he’s been through, because - obviously - when he does, then ‘his character development has gone to shit’

so we can forgive steve for calling people homophobic slurs and still see him as a gay ally because he’s changed but we draw the line at an always canonical ally when he uses weed? yeah, okay

[istanchan]

Also one more thing, I find it so funny that there are (crazy) people arguing that Jes is homophobic for drinking before filming the sex scenes with Bible.

Like??? First of all I don’t really understand the argument, because filming a sex scene in general has got to be the most nerve racking shit ever. And hell if drinking a bit helps calm the nerves, I’m all for that!!

Like think of it you are at your most vulnerable in a very intimate position with someone. And simultaneously there are multiple cameras and people watching you, recording you for thousand a to watch. I totally understand Jes and any other actor that drinks before sex scenes. Which btw so many actors have talked about how they drink before a sex scene. (Margot Robbie, Dakota Johnson, Heath Ledger to name a few)

So I just don’t get that argument at all.

Also calling Jes homophobic is insane to me.

Look, some actors do BL shows to gain popularity, and then never really acknowledge the queer community. Some even use BL as kind of a stepping stone to go into other projects usually not queer aligned projects and never look back at their roots. (Not naming name but yeah..)

However, Jes has been in the Thai media industry for years and is very successful. He didn’t need to be in 4 minutes for his career to thrive. Not only that but he didn’t even audition for 4 minutes!! He was literally asked to play the lead role by the director?!!

Furthermore, (this is starting to sound like an essay) Jes has from what I’ve seen queer figures around him. He is always super respectful and he takes jokes lightheartedly. He seems very in touch with his masculinity.

And all of that combined he said yes to 4 minutes and he played his role I think perfectly. So really in itself that should rebuke the whole argument.

[gatheringbones]

["The entwined nature of neuronormativity and heteronormativity means that the compulsory performance of neurotypicality is never a gender-neutral performance, but instead is strongly tied to the performance of binary heteronormative gender roles. Normative performance of whichever gender one was assigned at birth is central to what it means to be "normal" in the eyes of the present dominant culture. Thus, when the enforcers of normativity demand that a child "act normal," it's ultimately a demand to either act like a "normal boy" or like a "normal girl," whether or not the demand is explicitly phrased that way.

Since normative performance is always gendered, deviations from neuronormative embodiment are also inevitably deviations from heteronormative embodiment. Whether a given deviation gets interpreted by the enforcers of normativity as a violation of neuronormativity or as a violation of heteronormativity often depends entirely on context and circumstances. In a context in which a child is known to be autistic (or neurodivergent in some other specific and culturally pathologized way), the child's non-normative usage of their hands is likely to be pathologized as a "symptom" of their neurodivergence. But in a different context, those who are policing the child's embodiment are unaware of the child's neurodivergence, the same non-normative hand movements might be flagged as gender violations: children whom adults have labeled as girls might be reprimanded for drumming on the table with their hands or running their fingers vigorously and repeatedly through their hair, on the grounds that such actions are "unladylike"; children whom adults have labeled as boys might be attacked or ridiculed for flapping their hands, on the grounds that such gestures are "gay."

Thus, there are some autistic people who were forced in childhood to suppress their natural hand movements because those hand movements were flagged as "symptoms of autism" and targeted for elimination by autistiphobic adults, and other autistic people who weren't recognized as autistic in childhood but were still forced to suppress their hand movements because those hand movements were violations of heteronormativity that got them targeted for homophobic and transphobic abuse by adults and/or peers. And of course, there are many who were targeted on both neuronormative and heteronormative grounds at different times— e.g., autistics who in their youth were abused by adults for moving their hands autistically, and by homophobic peers who read those same hand movements as queer. The professional ABA perpetrator and the homophobic schoolyard bully are ultimately in the same line of work, enforcing the same compulsory normativity from different angles.

Since distinctively autistic movements of the hands violate the rules of both neuronormative performance and heteronormative performance, to refuse to suppress such movements functions as a simultaneous queering of both neuronormativity and heteronormativity. When an autistic person chooses to allow themselves to follow some or all of the impulses toward non-normative hand movement that spontaneously arise in them, rather than suppressing those impulses in the interest of normative performance, that's a form of neuroqueering."]

nick walker, from neuroqueer heresies: notes on the neurodiversity paradigm, autistic empowerment, and postnormal possibilities, 2021

[txttletale]

youve mentioned offhand ur issues with thirsty sword lesbians, have u talked at length abt this somewhere before and if not do u want to? i want to hear ur thoughts hehe

now before i get into this i want to clarify: i like thirsty sword lesbians, overall! i think it takes some of the best stuff from monster hearts and refines it -- i think it does great and exciting things with pbta playbooks -- i think anyone making a pbta game should check it out because it's full of valuable ideas -- and i've had a lot of fun playing it!

however, i think it's just as flawed as it is brilliant. there's a few different flaws but the biggest one for me is a catastrophic clash between two things the game is trying to be. one on hand, it wants to be a catradora rpg. there's no shame in that, i love games that wear their influences on their sleeves--TSL¹ wants to be a game about kissing your rival after you've both been disarmed, about having a fraught and complicated relationship with your girl best friend who abandoned you to serve the dark lord, about having homoerotic sword duels where your blades lock and you stare into each other's eyes for just one second too long before one of you kicks the other in the chest. i think that's an admirable goal for an RPG and one that TSL hits a lot of the notes of--the fact that the move to "Figure Someone Out" has special questions you can only ask someone when you're duelling them is incredible design. the Strings system, adapted from Monsterhearts, the ability to fluster your enemies when you use the Entice move, the constant focus on what characters desire and how their actions conflict with those desires--so much of the game is working towards that!

unfortunately, the game also wants to be about queer resistance to homophobia and capitalist/imperialist hegemony. this is clear in its sample settings, with their eyerollingly on-the-nose conflicts like defending 'queertopia' and fighting the evil sorceress 'repressia'. but much more importantly, it's clear in the game. several of the playbooks are defined by their relationship to sexual hegemony--the beast is about someone who is othered and monsterised for expressing their existence and the seeker is about someone sheltered and prejudiced moving past that and discovering themselvs and others. like, it's not subtle--

and to be clear, there's nothing wrong with that, either. just as i like a lot of TSL's swashbuckling girl-romancing flirting-at-swordpoint mechanics, i really appreciated how (although the game's outlook on what these forces are is predicably liberal and its tonal approach to these things is one that i personally find teeth-grindingly insufferable) these things are actually integrated into its mechanics. playbooks like the beast and the seeker (and the rest!) imply something about the world the game is set in and its sexual politics. this game is meaningfully queer in the way something like dream askew is, in that its mechanics ask you to actually explore your character's queerness specifically. this is good, and it's something that elevates it above about 90% of ttrpg stuff that sells itself as queer.

so if both these things are good, what's the problem? well, it's that they're two great (or at least--interesting) tastes that go fucking horribly together. the fundamental problem that i have with TSL and one that i think takes a lot of work to get around in your own campaigns is that it simultaneously wants you to be fighting (on the individual level) a lot of antiheroic ultimately sympathetic hot girls you can flirt with and kiss--a lot of 'i can fix her's or 'she can make me worse's--and on the broader narrative wants you to be fighting institutional queerphobia (and often, although this is nowhere near as actually supported by mechanics, a more generalized 'imperialism' or 'capitalism' or 'bigotry'). so you end up fighting 'those stupid sexy homophobes'--people who are according to the text (not just 'lore', but the rules text, the mechanics you're playing with!) simultaneously the violent enforcers of cisheteropatriarchy and a bunch of fuckable lesbians with sympathetic backstories.

& i just think those things are fundamentally at odds. the result is a game that if you try and play it at face value works at cross purposes with itself, attempting to do two perfectly valid things without considering what happens when the streams cross.

it also has a few other flaws--like many other PBTA games, its balance falls apart if you play any long campaign (my group and i had to figure out special alternative level-up rewards!) but it comes with no inbuilt way to neatly conclude a campaign or character. its tone is something that, as i often mention, i absolutely cannot fucking stand--it has a certain sense of humour that feels profoundly dated to me and was never my cup of tea when it was in vogue. this is something i try not to hold against the game bc it is very much a personal taste-level 'cringe' reaction but the game lays it on pretty fucking thick.

more to its detriment, it is profoundly, gratingly liberal in the exact way people who deploy that tone usually are. its understanding of anything outside queerphobia specifically is just a purely aesthetic & thoughtless 'imperialism is bad!'. it manages a more nuanced understanding of homophobia, but it only manages it on the individual level--for a game about queerness and about fighting systems of cisheteronormativity, it has no systemic or material understanding of these systems and no interest in establishing one.

and finally--and this is just one paragraph but it's so fucking awful i feel the need to complain about it here because i think about it often as an example of something i never want to write:

this sucks! real bad! so deeply fucking silly to reassure people in your game that you called Thirsty Sword Lesbians that it's okay if you want to be cishet. like, it would be one thing to make a game where you can neatly extract the lesbianism and have the same game, a surface-level aesthetically queer game with no actual interest in queerness except as a marketing term. it would fucking suck but this paragraph would at least describe such a game. but TSL isn't that!!! . 'thirsty sword cishets' would be a very different and much worse game! awful and self-defeating paragraph. deeply silly concern to address and give airtime to. i didn't buy a game called 'thirsty sword lesbians' to be told 'its okay to be heterosexual i pwommy'

so yea just to reiterate: i like the game overall, i think there's a lot of good valuable stuff in there designwise despite all this. but i'm very ambivalent about it--ironically, i feel a love-hate relationship with this game about love-hate relationships. i admire it and yet i despise it! i long to put it at the tip of my sword and slowly tilt its cover up so that the pages look up at me coquettishly but with burning anger in their page numbers. if this book was a person id hatefuck it, is the joke, thats the joke im making, here, in this post. thanks

¹ i call it TSL whenever i can because the name 'Thirsty Sword Lesbians' makes me cringe out of my fucking skin. genuinely horrible name. i'm sure it's funny the first time you hear it, i got a mild chuckle the first time i heard it to, but it's such an obnoxious thing ot have to say repeatedly when seriously discussing it. should have stayed a placeholder name amiguitas

[madlori]

I would just like to say that the reason people get triggered when bucktommy shippers are so insistent about eddie's "canon straightness" is because his character actually was kept in the closet by network interference. His character is literally a victim of homophobia and it gets perpetuated when people are so insistent that every single piece of proof that he was going to come out in season 5, and then in season 7, is meaningless. Lou ferrigno jr. was literally brought in for Eddie's coming out. He said so himself. You don't bring in an actor for a character's coming out on a random whim. That in itself is proof enough about the writer's intentions with Eddie (if again, the writing is too complex for you. His breakup with Ana was supposed to end with a gay realization. There is so much proof for all of this and you guys just downplaying all of it does feel like you are just perpetuating the homophobia that has kept eddie's character in the closet for this long.

Nobody has to be insistent on Eddie's canonical straightness. He is canonically straight. On screen, and according to the actor who plays him.

It's pretty hilarious to cry homophobia over a plot line that had a different male character come out as queer, while simultaneously leveling homophobic attacks at a canonically gay character because he isn't the Correct Gay for you. Seems like homophobia only counts if it's Eddie?

Network hesitation kept BUCK in the closet, not Eddie. Buck's queerness was the one discussed and floated in earlier seasons and nixed. Y'all act like there were scripts written and scenes shot and then the network banhammer said NO QUEER EDDIE when that just isn't it. Nobody has ever said that a queer arc for Eddie was discussed in earlier seasons. This Ana breakup thing is just speculation. You can read the situation like that, sure, but that doesn't make it true, and even if it is, it didn't happen.

[liyazaki]

in praise of complexity

it's way easier to write two types of parents of queer kids: the 100% accepting parents, and the in-your-face homophobic variety.

I've had my fingers crossed that My School President would opt for the third, more complicated kind. this show has been too nuanced and well-done for me to hop on any "Tinn's mom is probably the devil" bandwagon, anyway. in the end, they not only went the more complex route- they delivered in a big way.

when we first met Photjanee, she seemed like the stereotypical strict drama parent with sky-high expectations, thanks at least in part to her job.

we were slowly given insights into her and Tinn's relationship, and we got to see the affection and deep care they have for each other. it was heartwarming to watch, and establishing how loving their relationship was was essential to the conflict that came next.

in a little stroke of writing genius, most of Photjanee's struggle with Tinn and Gun's relationship- and with what that relationship meant for her son- were almost exclusively intended for our eyes only.

they gave us an unusually large amount of Photjanee-focused scenes (more than a few only had Tao in them), showcasing her growing suspicions and internal struggle. when she briefly interacted with someone else in these scenes- Tinn's dad, Gun's mom, Kajorn- the focus always remained on her and ended with her.

the writers easily could've given Photjanee expository dialogue during these moments- i.e. "I'm just struggling so much with xyz"- but for the most part, they didn't. they mostly opted for "show, don't tell"- another unusual but stellar move, especially for GMMTV fare.

Tao Sarocha took us on Photjanee's journey with mainly facial expressions, tone of voice, pauses and where her gaze lingered. we didn't need to be told this was a mother who loved her child dearly, while simultaneously struggling with revelations about who he is. we could see it for ourselves.

Photjanee wants Tinn to be happy and free, but she's afraid for him. she doesn't want him to feel rejected, but she doesn't know how (at first) to reconcile herself to a future she never imagined for him.

she didn't start as an open-arms ally, nor was she a bigot. she's an adoring, terrified mom adapting to change as best as she can. not a moment of her journey was rushed- these things can take time (sometimes a lot of it), and the writers gave that to her...to us.

Photjanee wasn't perfect- she was real (she sure as hell felt like it, anyway). and it made the beautiful, beautiful ending all the more meaningful.

[youraveragebtsstan]

Call Me Psychic, Cause I Called It: Lets Discuss 911 S7E6

First of all, what an amazing episode. I like that it was very Chimney centered for change and we got a little more insight on Kevin- which was long over due. I also enjoyed the little peak into Chimney's mind seeing as to how Doug acted as the little devil on his shoulder this episode, unexpected yet so fitting.

The bachelor party was absolutely nuts! Buck and Eddie need to be supervised at all times, I swear. The fact that they couldn't agree on who was Crockett and who was Tubbs is actually insane. And whoever in the wardrobe department decided to have Eddie walking around shirtless for the first few minutes deserves a raise.

Now on to the main event (of my heart, that is)- Buck and Tommy.

Buck telling Tommy to "be safe" when going to start his shift is so tooth rotteningly sweet. Their domestic already and I LOVE it. Plus, that kiss in the hospital entrance GAGGED THE FUCK OUT OF ME. I was half ass joking when I said I really wanted Tommy to show up to the wedding looking absolutely amazing and Buck thirsting over him hard but this...THIS WAS PERFECTION.

I mean it was everything: Tommy walking through the hospital doors covered in soot and smelling like smoke, yet Buck just couldn't help himself. He needed a taste- and a taste is what he was served... When I tell y'all I SCREAMED, bitch I yelped.

Tim Minear continues to raise the bar for ABC, while simultaneously gagging the FOX girlies and homophobes. I stan a queen who's knows her worth, I do.

By the way...

Homophobes, are you there? I'm curious, how does it feel watching us girls, gays and queers continuously win?

Anyway, until next time! BYE 👋🤡

[ecoterrorist-katara]

Idk about you, but there was a period of ATLA fans trying their damn hardest to convince me that Katara didn't get any hate. And then when I counted that yes, she did (I didn't make up all of 2020 and 2021 ffs), they told me to calm down?? Like, am I the only one who's experienced this?

The people who are so "neutral" in this fandom are actually the worst ones istg

IT’S SO WEIRD! It’s not even just revisionist history, it literally still happens today. Reddit is overrun with “haha Katara dead mom” jokes. Redditors really show their asses with their simultaneous contempt for Katara and their fervent defense of Ka/taang.

On Tumblr I blame the Zu/kka shippers lmao (who also tend to be the ones who claim to be neutral multishippers, as if multishipping wasn’t the norm in this fandom, yes even amongst the ZKs). Some m/m shippers really want to get rid of the female character in the way of their m/m ship. Which, hey, shipping is supposed to be fun, and if you put Katara with Aang or Azula or Haru or Suki or whoever with zero development for the purpose of your Zu/kka, there’s nothing wrong with that! They do that with Mai and Ty Lee, no drama, bc Mai is not so well developed as a character.

It’s just that…instead of admitting they want to get rid of Katara so that they can enjoy their Zu/kka, they emphasize how she’s so mean to their woobie Zuko, or to their woobie Sokka. Then you get absolutely wild mental gymnastics that are just Katara slander with more steps, like the baffling “homophobic Katara” headcanon (as if Katara, who allowed a fortuneteller to dictate her breakfast and spent the entire show waffling over whether she likes a boy, is any less likely to be queer). People on Tumblr don’t hate on Katara directly anymore because they know it’s misogynistic, so instead we are subjected to a wide variety of random ass takes. The latest form of Katara slander is “just let her be a kid” and assigning her qualities to Sokka, which I categorically refuse to read, because it pisses me off. People are so weird about Katara.

I think this must be something specific to Zu/kka, not m/m ships in general. My first major ship was Klaine and female character slander was not an issue at all. Anyway I ship all variations of Fire Sib x Water Sib (except the incest ones, which apparently requires clarifying nowadays), but Zu/kka is becoming my least fave of the bunch due to fandom shenanigans.

[deramin2]

Tonight I got to show my boyfriend Big Eden (2000). I love that movie so much. It's sappy and cheesy but no one had EVER made a gay romcom like like that. No queer movie had existed with that softness and living acceptance. It's 5 years older than the homophobic misery porn of Brokeback Mountain being held up as representation we should be grateful for. Big Eden broke as many barriers as Philadelphia (1993) or The Boys in the Band (1970).

Queer romcoms are only now becoming common 20 years later. Bros (2022) would have no queer Hallheart movies to simultaneously mock and long for without Big Eden. No The Way He Looks (2014), no Cloudburst (2011), no Fire Island (2022), no Spoiler Alert (2022), no Booksmart (2019), and no countless other films.

They exist because Thomas Bezucha said we deserve these stories, too. We deserve gentleness and love and small town crushes held onto for decades and someone who pours all their feelings into cooking for you and pretends it's not him because he's too shy. He deserve a Greek Chorus of old men who do nothing all day getting roped into it and hardware store lesbians and an old busybody playing matchmaker that realizes her errors. We deserve silly love triangles with gentle endings for everyone. We deserve the fantasy of it all. We deserve no queer people dying or being pressured by their family or corrected by anyone. Just love. Sappy, soft, gentle, healing, protective love. We deserve our own take on old tropes. And that's still something special.

[eddiediazismyhusband]

These people will never experience the pain hearing from the causal viewers and THE SR that we who view those characters as queer, are delusional. We were told, it’s in “our heads” and what you see “is your interpretation” NOT what’s on the script. OH CANT FORGET MY FAVORITE, “go write your own SHOW”. Imagine for 6 years viewing buck as queer coded and told you were dumb and “it’s never gonna happen”. For 6 YEARS!!!! It literally took them ONE EPISODE AND MOVING TO A NEW NETWORK for bibuck to happen. And these people think this couple who ONLY HAD 3 dates (1 of them a failed one), and 2 kisses is endgame? 💀💀💀imagine your ship not having any depth to where they stopped caring about them after making buck bi💀💀💀. Where are their scenes? Oh it’s “enjoy it while it lasts”. It’s them having barely 20 minutes of screen while the “non ship” has x2 has much in 10 episodes. Did they forget their fav said this💀💀💀💀

💯no notes agree with everything you said 👏👏👏

and also even that lfj quote pissed me off when it came out bc i was like “how are you gonna stand here and tell me to be grateful for a relationship that came out of left field with no chemistry?” like even if it does lead to buddie i will still hate that whole arc because it could have been handled SO much better and without bringing back a racist character, played by a problematic person, ON TOP of causing the biggest shipping controversy to ever hit this fandom… that man has given me the ick since day one of s7 and when the cameos started and he started encouraging his fans and egging on the bullshit i was done w him.

it pisses me off bc they act like buck has to go through some sort of “queer bootcamp” before he can date eddie and im like…. no he doesn’t?? he doesn’t need some sort of “gay yoda” or whatever they called t-rex in the beginning bc there is no rulebook to being queer… so the whole notion of “working out the kinks” (which is an extra level of icky coming from someone like lfj, and looking back after the daddy joke in 7x10) never sat right with me… and the whole “what if buck got with eddie and didn’t like it?” if he meant that literally as “what if buck didn’t like it” my brother in christ theses are fictional characters, they’re not sims, the writers have full control over literally everything that happens… why would they write them if buck “wasn’t gonna like it” (which is bullshit bc we all know he 1000% fold immediately if eddie kissed him)… if he meant “what if the fandom didn’t like it” (which is an odd way to word that question if this is what he meant) WDYM IF THE FANDOM DOESNT LIKE IT EVEN HALF THE BT SHIPPERS HAVE BEEN SHIPPING BUDDIE FOR ALMOST SIX YEARS????

the whole situation drives me up s wall bc not only have we simultaneously gotten so close yet so far to getting buddie, we also now have to deal with these wack-ass fans policing people, calling queer people homophobic, sending death threats and violent hate speech to people who don’t like their ship, actively talking bad about oliver bc he clearly isn’t a fan of lfj or the way this storyline was handled, on top of having to deal with the show’s retconning of typhoid’s character and trying to brush his shit under a rug using queerness as an “excuse” and thus enabling these people to use the “homophobia” rhetoric when someone doesn’t want a boring ass rewash basic ship.

[kinardsboy]

Find it really ironic how the people screaming “we arent homophobic” are actively being more homophobic than the people who are mad at “buck suddenly being gay” or “wokeness infecting tv”

because yeah, some of the GA is homophobic, but the things they’re saying? Run of the mill shit. Homophobia still yes, but it’s nothing compared to the vile and deliberate homophobia perpetrated by Tommy haters. They are deliberately using homophobic stereotypes to justify their hatred of this man, stereotypes that are used in real life to make violence against queer men “okay.”

I don’t care that Tommy is fictional. The queer men in this fandom arent. We see your words and your actions and how you willfully misinterpret every single thing he does to make him out to be a “predator.” While simultaneously claiming that you want representation for queer men, gay men especially now that Bi Buck is canon.

[ladyloveandjustice]

Fall 2023 Anime Overview: I'm in Love with the Villainess

Premise: Rae is reincarnated as the heroine of her favorite dating sim. But she has no interest in romancing any of the boys- she's head over heels for Claire Francois, the villainess of the game. Claire is horrified to find the major target of her bullying suddenly enjoys it, often pleading "step on me harder". But Rae isn't just here to flirt with Claire- she has a plan to save her beloved from a horrible fate.

I'm allowed to have a problematic gay fave. In fact, I would call it my right as a lesbian. And I enjoy I'm in Love with a Villainess a lot, despite some bumps in the road. It's tropey as all get out and a story that shows signs of having an inexperienced author, but it has real heart to it, it's full of joy, and connects with me in surprising way.

I'll try not to ramble too much, since I'm planning on writing a longer article on this series-- so keep your eyes peeled.

I'm in Love with the Villainess might not always be polished or expertly crafted, but it is very fun and entertaining. Rae ignoring all the male love interests to stan for her mean girl fave is ultra relatable to me, and her gremlin energy is off the charts. Claire is also a super fun character-- if you love ridiculous ojou-sama characters, she is max ojou sama. But she's also hiding a lot of insecurity and of course, a secret soft side-- her character arc over the course of the series is really satisfying.

However, Rae's pushiness might be a sticking point for some. Her worst moments are mostly contained to episode 2 where she does inexcusable things like ogling Claire while she's changing (against Claire's wishes) after having wriggled her way into a position as her maid (against Claire's wishes, though Rae does have secret noble reasons for that one). This is her worst moment and she calms down a bit from there as the story starts to find itself. Her pushiness remains, but gets a bit less uncomfortable as it becomes clear Claire likes her too.

This pushiness clashes a bit with a really interesting thing ILTV does--which is engage bluntly and honestly with homophobia and stereotypes. There's a great moment in episode three where the series. Rae is asked point blank if she's gay, she responds yes. When Claire moves away from her in response, it's pointed out to her that's a form of homophobia, and it's pointed out how screwed up it is to believe anyone who's gay is automatically going to creep on every girl they see. Rae also gently corrects someone who gives her the common "she just happened to be a woman, you're just falling in love with the person right? Your love just transcends gender?" line, (which is a common line that's used to avoid talking about queerness directly in manga and anime) with "no, I'm a lesbian, I only fall in love with women."

And yes, homophobes got big mad at this scene. How dare a yuri anime be gay! I'm in Love with the Villainess does not let homophobic yuri fans feel safe.

It's really refreshing to see a silly isekai series directly engage with stereotypes and lesbian issues like this, and it was a very pleasant surprise when I read the novels.

However, this message is a little muddled by the fact Rae did harass Claire, so Claire has every right to feel uncomfortable around her. The show does acknowledge this. The story makes it clear it knows Claire has a right to distrust Rae and it's her responding badly specifically to Rae saying she's gay is the problem. But it's still very weird to simultaneously have a "gay people aren't automatically predators!!!" coupled with "well also our gay main character does commit a little sexual harassment sometimes".

(Some of this weirdness could have been rectified if the story had character besides Claire act badly to Rae saying she was gay, and have them get the lecture, since the point was supposed to be that gay people don't hit on every member of the same gender they meet...but again, that point falls flat if the lecture recipient is Claire, since Rae has already been hitting on her).

I don't really begrudge the author this- Inori was obviously just engaging in the unfortunately typical anime tropes, but also decided to also use her story to passionately educate about and defend gay people and couldn't quite reconcile the dissonance. However, it is very "have your cake and eat it too".

But ILTV does do a very interesting thing with the common anime trope of the overly demonstrative lesbian character who does wacky hijinks and declares her love in a "funny" way. Rae reveals she's so used to being treated badly and rejected by friends and crushes for being gay that she treats her feelings as big joke as a defense mechanism. Because she’s so used to being rejected for her sexuality, she’s given up on earnestly pursuing Claire from the beginning. She doesn’t think she has a shot and she doesn’t want to risk being rejected. However, if she’s loud and obnoxious about her love for Claire, the inevitable rejection doesn’t hurt so much.

She makes it so Claire’s rejecting her for being a weirdo, not because she’s gay. If it's a joke, then when everyone laughs at it and dismisses it, it doesn’t hurt…and she can still be honest about and open about being gay. She can fool even herself and stay around Claire without any of that heartbreak and awkwardness that destroyed relationships the other times she confessed her love.

Rae's arc throughout the show is overcoming her assumption that Claire would be happier with a man and there's no point in earnestly courting her. She's so used to being degraded, she thinks it's impossible she could give Claire a good life and impossible that her real feelings will be accepted.

It doesn't excuse Rae's actions, but it does make her a very interesting character, and one that's meaningful to me as a lesbian. It adds surprising depth to a usually tired trope.

There's also some other interesting aspects of the anime, like how Rae simps for Claire but doesn't simp for her classism. She often gently challenges her on it, and the "commoner uprising" plot, while pretty weirdly paced and (temporarily) resolved, does treat the commoners sympathetically. Considering how other kinds of isekai regularly excuse shit like buying slaves, it's nice to see one that very much sympathizes with marginalized.

Though the commoner uprising plot does lead us to the other huge caveat with the anime- incest. Yeesh. There's a plot twist where it's revealed that side characters are in an incestuous relationship, and they're treated as tragic and sympathetic, they have a love that cannot be accepted, etc. The anime makes this worse by having Rae say "homosexuality isn't the only kind of forbidden love", which (unintentionally?) equates queerness and incest, which is something homophobes often do too. (The novels aren't innocent either, Rae laments "Why can't people be free to love who they want" at one point in a way that less explicitly equates the two things). However I was able to stand this because it's mainly executed as a plot twist. We don't get any details about the character's relationships, we barely see them even stand next to each other, and they're out of the plot fairly quickly. I can absolutely see this being a deal breaker for someone less numb to anime bullshit through.

And finally, a character comes in who acts fairly manipulative and skeezy towards Rae herself, though the drama she does stoke is great stuff.

So yes, I mean it when I say it has problems! But I find the fun shenanigans, blatant lesbian wish fulfillment, honest advocation for queer people, and the joy and earnestness of the series worth it enough I can grit my teeth through it all. It should also be noted that Inori, the author, is a trans lesbian, and that's another big reason why this is so special to many people-- it's a lot easier to forgive a new author for some uneven writing when she has a stake in telling queer stories.

The anime is obviously one that doesn't have a lot of resources (and I missed some of Rae's interior monologue, which gets more into what a nerd girl she is) but it does a decent job with what it had (though I would have liked it to condense or cut some of the magic duels and Rae doing harassment to focus more on the stories strengths, but alas). I have my fingers crossed for a second season, but the yuri don't tend to get those, so I'm not holding my breath.

Is ILTV's pacing sometimes weird? Yes, the commoner uprising doesn't get as much attention as it should. Is it sometimes clumsy? Oh yes. Do I still get a joy like no other when Rae kicks aside the screen prompting her to choose a male interest to yell for Claire instead, or when she fantasizes about herself and Claire being warriors together? Hell yes.

ILTV is often silly, often flawed, but you know what, queer people get to have our silly, flawed, but still occasionally touching stories as well. Straight people have has a monopoly on it too long. It's not a series for everyone, but it's a series that spoke to some struggling queer people regardless, and it's a series that makes me smile, and that's all that matters at the end of the day.

[woundmypride]

explaining my "constance is a trans man" headcanon yaya all of this is headcanon im not actually implying that constance is transmasc coded or whatever.. just for fun!!! 1. Personality & people-pleasing behaviors & town's attitude — Constance is much less of a people-pleaser than someone like Ocean, but she still has those qualities. She stops believing her town is cool once she learns other people think it's lame, and also laughs at men's jokes so she doesn't get called names, etc. — Uranium City is implied to be homophobic, given that Noel's mom tells him to "dial it back" with his queerness and then the 7/11 thing lol — She might not have came out yet because of these. Social pressure to not disappoint or confuse the people who previously knew you as a girl, and also homophobic peers, would have an insane influence on Constance.

2. The fujoshi to trans man pipeline — A fujoshi is a woman who fawns over gay relationships. Obviously, Constance is one of these, with her lines about enjoying when Mischa+Noel kissed. — It's a common trope among transmasc people to have liked gay ships before realizing they were trans (maybe because they wanted to be the men instead of liking them, or both). I think it's possible that Constance is in the early stages of this. 3. Appearance — I think this ties in with Constance being a people-pleaser, but she has some subtle rebellious features. Her dyed hair, men's shoes, and popped collar remind me of myself- trying to subtly alert other LGBTQ+ people that I'm also queer, while simultaneously trying to stay under the radar of homophobes. I think she does the same. that's all i have now x3 but thank you for reading!! i haven't thought of an alternate name for her if she were to change it- that's always felt confusing/awkward for me, but please feel free to suggest one!!!!!

[akookminsupporter]

I'm laughing...

The energy that was there last week with the entire fandom posting Taekook last week, is mysteriously missing that week. Instead some are trying to cover their obvious disdain for Jikook by posting Vmin moments of this week. Which- I'm really happy that Vmin are also getting their spotlight, but it's hilarious that they also had some very cute interactions last week but the same people who posted about them now didn't bother last week and were obsessing over Taekook😅

ARMYs don't realize that by behaving this way, they are exposing what really lies deep inside their subconscious. It's no secret that a very big majority of ARMYs are homophobic. And it's telling how they like to double-down on the 'they are bros' comments unprompted, unprovoked when it comes to Jikook, while simultaneously avoiding those two men's interactions altogether. If they were so confident Jikook's bond is just like the rest and that JK is like Jihyun in Jimin's eyes, as they always say, why is the reaction and treatment never the same?

All this time as an ARMY and I've never once come across those "they are so soft for each other, they love one another please, I'm gonna cry" posts for Jikook that I encounter about any other BTS duo every other day. Not unless it's from a Jikooker lol.

And I don't even think they (ARMYs) realize how they move. The need to pretend not even a FRIENDSHIP exists between Jimin and Jungkook, the knee-jerk reaction to convince everyone that when Jikook see each other, they feel as if they suckled at the same breast, when the video they are commenting under is not even edited in a "shippy" manner. Those two just breathing next to one another clearly triggers that familiar disgust and intolerance they hold for Queer people that is just always just simmering beneath their skin, and it's time motherfuckers asked themselves "WHY?" that is.

You know, I don't think it's very deep or subconscious anymore. They know exactly what they're doing, and they don't care because no one will do anything about it. Jikookers aren't powerful enough to make a difference. Jikookers always end up being the villains, no matter what.

I've said it a thousand times and I'll say it a thousand more, they see what we see, and it makes them uncomfortable. For the reasons you mentioned, and because deep down, many of them are envious."