#speepstakes play

[callmearcturus]

One thing I hated about the Jake thing was how the story started objectifying him?? And like, how yes, Jake wanted to be seen as attractive and desired, but not like that. I can’t really articulate this well, I’m sorry

oh no i mean that's the point

this ties into the entire kit and caboodle of Jake And Gender but jake actively wants to be sexy and desireable and hot, but he wants to control that. he wants to pick out his sexy shorts and his cool lara croft thigh strap. he wants all that!

but the moment someone crosses the boundary between what he wants and what is Expected Of Him for dressing like that, he's the most unhappy motherfucker ever.

(also i don't think its a coincidence that jake freaks out the most when women who sexual/romantic interest in him, i'm not going to get into it but i used to hc jake as bi, now i think he's Theoretically Bisexual Practically Gay because his intense discomfort with female attention and how it forces him to play a gender role he does not want, see exhibit B: Jake Is Boy With An Asterisk)

ANYWAY

the fuck was i saying

anyway yeah when jake lives alone and when he enters the session, he gets to dictate how he looks and he's super cheerful about it and gets to live the dream of his "shorter shorts + lara croft holsters" good for him. but when his agency in that is removed, he's fucking despondent and he even screams at Jane "I DON'T WANNA BE A MAN" and he freaks tf out at Aranea's advances

what's interesting about all this is that is a very very female coded conflict. we're mostly used to seeing this kind of this with female characters. but jake himself is VERY female coded in a lot of archetypical ways. he's the princess in the tower, he desires masculine protection from threats--

(i feel like ppl forget that before brobot arrives, jake canonically doesn't really leave his fucking globe, even if jake has mixed feelings on brobot, its presence is what enables jake to fuck around the island, knowing he'll never be in true danger, see: brobot defending him from the giant goatlusus.

add to that, the entire existence of BGD, oh my god.)

even his role models are all female. so jake and gender and agency over his own desireability, all of that is tangled up in how he Rigged The English Speepstakes. even that, i think, you can count as female-coded, that kind of emotional intelligence and trying to pick your suitor.

its ALL OVER jake english, this boy* contains SO MUCH GENDER. and imo he loves to play around and Be A Boy... right up until someone expects any of the baggage that comes with that gender role from him. then: total meltdown.

god i love jake english

[thelifetimechannel]