#st sexuality

[emblazons]

STRANGER THINGS x PRIDE MONTH

@stcreators event 09: pride queer(-ish) characters + pride flags (ins/sp.) lesbian / bisexual / gay / questioning + bonus

[bumblingbabooshka]

Tuvok having a private sexuality/gender re-evaluation on Voyager after having never thought too deeply about it because he was busy being a monk and then being married is very funny to me. USS Starship Voyager is perhaps the worst time and place ever to go "I think might be bisexual?" [and yet, many such cases] + You knooow he's not confiding in anyone about that shit. Tuvok's gender just privately changing in the background, unbeknownst to anyone but him. 👍This is running in tandem to the crisis of faith he expressed for one line in 'Innocence', btw.

[byler-invested]

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles x Stranger Things official comic

Be prepared, because… there’s…..….

A LOT.

> “11 o’clock” in focus for no reason (Eleven symbolizes Will’s closet, internalised homophobia, innocence, virginity).

> open yellow curtain (probably signifies Will coming out in s5).

> “theme for the day” (meaning this sequence is thematic of something: Will’s trauma and coming of age).

> “Do whatever you want. Go see Mike and the boys… it’s up to you” (this refers to the perceived freedom of Will coming out or starting his sexual life).

> “not a trick?” (It is a trick unfortunately…)

> “Nope. I’ll even be your chauffeur if you need me. That means I’ll drive.” (gay top subtext)

> “For once, freedom is on the other side of that door. And it’s all yours.” (!!! — someone coercing Will into the gay sexual lifestyle before he’s ready or in an unsafe manner).

> Eggos and maple syrup are Mike coded. But orange juice is NOT! Mike would drink and is associated to white milk. This is a subtle hint that something’s WRONG.

“Technical” meaning in s5 they will start to delve into the mythology of the series.

But also… sexual subtext.

> “Time to get a move on, kid. Go before I realize this is a huge mistake” (something or someone coercing Will into letting go of heteronormativity and virginity).

> “It won’t… open”, “Just give it a push. You get everything you’ve ever wanted and you’re going to let a door stop you? There you go. Put some muscle into it.” (clearly subtext about coming out and first sexual experience from a bottom’s perspective).

Dustin is Jonathan in s5 when he realizes Will is being manipulated/ coerced by some guy.

The alarmed/ surprised turtle on the right is Lucas.

Raph (on the left) is Mike— he’s PISSED. Jealous Mike absolutely CONFIRMED.

> “Most importantly… why does Stockman want to open a gate, and why do they need him hooked up to that machine, too?” Lucas is absolutely shocked that the top (it’s his former basketball teammate Chance) is into guys and that Will, of all people, would be into Chance.

> “There are no good reasons to open a gate. They’re always bad.” Jonathan is protective of his little brother to whom he also represents a father figure. To him, it can never be good that Will’s having a sexual experience.

> “Maybe that machine is using her powers against her?” Meaning Chance is a dark mirror/ foil of Mike and one of the made-up characters we’ve been talking about.

> “Where are you going, Raph?” Lucas is surprised that Mike is so pissed and already springing into action (he won’t have come out at this point).

> “I’m gonna do the rescuing!” White Knight paladin Mike moment.

> “You can’t pull Eleven out. The mind is fragile.” (Will is in a vulnerable situation).

> “Donny, relax. I wasn’t talking about rescuing the girl”. This is the writers telling us this is all a metaphor and they’re not talking about Eleven, but Byler. They even make a point of showing us a bunch of Byler and Mike-coded stuff in the next image: two crossed swords, a walkie-talkie, Mike’s backpack and a huge phallic object…

> Mike makes use of his coding/ programming skills (Alan Turing reference).

> “Well, the two of them are definitely linked”. Mike and Chance are linked in some way.

> “Wait, so this whole thing is designed to create a big illusion? To feed Eleven a lie?” The writers referring to their gigantic five season long straightbait but also, manifestation theory IKTR.

> “Only those inside can shut down the projection”. Like I suspected, the scientists fucked up and Brenner as the lab leader was probably the one who made this decision of ‘trapping’ everyone in the simulation. Also subtext for “only those in Will’s trust and heart can shut down his illusion” aka Mike.

> Nice reference to The Cabin in the Woods movie there in the first pic (heavily recommend).

> Mike doesn’t even ask anyone and just brutally storms in to interrupt whatever Will and Chance are doing.

> We could even infer that his extreme jealousy straight up brutally OUTS Mike, not only to the audience, but maybe also to other characters. He unintentionally crashes down his own closet…

> “That’s not your friend.” Mike telling Will this about Chance.

> The background changes to orange as the villain (Chance) loses his disguise/ farce.

> “Fine, I’ll gladly stop pretending to be this buffoon.” Chance stops pretending to be nice and/or is revealed to be a Vecna/ Mindflayer trap.

> “Like it or not… this place is mine”. Mike and Chance will fight and compete for Will.

Note: Chance is heavily associated with orange even in the show, because of being a Tiger in the basketball team.

TAKEAWAY:

Unfortunately, I think at some point in s5— besides the supernatural plotline— we are about to witness Will delve into real unhealthy coping mechanisms (prematurity, hypersexuality, low self-worth and/or drugs) and reliving the trauma with his father (attraction to unhealthy people, as Chance will remind Will of a mix of both Mike and Lonnie).

These are extremely common results of CSA in many people.

Jonathan, Lucas and especially Mike will save him.

There’s a lot more. I just picked some of the most incriminating pages lmfao. And I’ll leave you with this Paladin Mike bonus:

[buck1eys]

guys i am begging you to consider the parallels

[rtc-confessions]

guys can we NOT sexualize the choir, theyre children. "oh but im a minor/younger than them!!" that doesnt matter they are either 17 years old or freshly 18, you shouldnt be sexualizing people that young. like i dont need someone telling me that they want to go down with mischa that is weird and disgusting to say. its not normal to lust over these characters i dont care if theyre played by adults the characters themselves are kids pls stop it

~~

[waterlilyvioletfog]

Criston making Alicent give him his favor ohhhhh the layers of chivalric romance are INSANEEEEEE!! Chivalric romance is of course, a facsimile, a public display of courtly behavior that at its ideal execution conveys a chaste, pure, non-sexual regard, a way to put nasty issues like sex and violence in pretty terms. Alicent’s furious with Criston at this moment and Criston is mad at her for making him babysit her brother, and also they had sex last night, but they’re in public so instead he does the asshole move of making her play along with the old chivalry script, the same one that made her give a favor to Daemon Targaryen once.

[wheekingpig]

the fnv brotherhood of steel being such an intense parallel to being stuck with an abusive conservative family explored largely through a lesbian character whose constantly making excuses for them gighhrggurughh

[purpleenma]

✨ This June 16th prepare your bodies for my collaboration with the amazing CampySpaceSlime (@ex--astris--scientia) for the T'hy'la Reverse Bang 2024 : Shore Leave (@thylabang)! It's going to be a Vulcan religious experience. ✨

To start the appetite here is an extra sketch of Spock in traditional Vulcan underwear.

✨ See below the cut for a little teaser of CampySpaceSlime's awesome writing. And believe me, you want to read it.

And the tags for good measure.

I'm really excited for you guys to see what we both came up with! It's been an inspiring collaboration experience, and it was even more incredible seeing my art come to life in such beautiful writing 💜 I feel so so honored!

[ronanceisintheair]

"You don't care about Robin's sexuality because you don't ship her with vickie" is probably top tier the dumbest thing I've heard from this fandom...specifically those st*bins.

It was clearly not a post actually caring about Robin and more concerned with the idea of Robin dating Steve's ex😢uwu under the guise of actually trying to make a point.

[tothemaxi]

i love william riker.

i love him for so many different reasons, but he's just so.

and there are ppl out there who's like "no he's a predator!"

but that is simply not true.

like, yes, he is sexual.

yes, he's in tune w his sexuality.

yes, he knows what he wants.

but every time there's a um, sensual scene w him he ALWAYS gives the other person an opportunity for an out.

if his partner is in anyway hesitant, or just blatantly not into it, he will stop, and pretend like nothing happened in that moment.

every scene, there's an opportunity to say no, and we all know he would immediately back away.

and think abt 1x03, the naked now? when deanna came to him he knew that she was intoxicated, and he knew, w/out a second thought, that he needed to get her to sick bay, and get her safe. the thought of taking advantage of her never crossed his mind.

no matter what deanna did, what she 'wanted' he rejected. bc he knew that would mean he was taking advantage of her.

point is, if u think will rikers a predator, just leave.

[emblazons]

Since I’ve now been thinking on it: the most canon-compliant way I can think of for Will to have a tiny “normal teenage sexuality” moment given the circumstances is to have him be off in his head while out somewhere…only for Jonathan to notice (like he always does) & try to do classic brother bonding by saying something like “Han Solo is pretty cute, yeah?” pointing to a tattered movie poster as they walk (past The Hawk theater or the video store maybe? Idk) trying to get back to everyone—

—only for Will to frown, roll his eyes, say “stop it Jonathan,” and keep walking…and then half smile 10 seconds later because it got him out of his head enough to say “but yeah. yeah he is.”

(the one person he’s half out to and trusts trying to console him by giving him a quick opportunity to be normal + an in-character celeb/character crush…and Byers brothers bonding in the apocalypse. Boom). 😂

[laundrybiscuits]

Just curious and i like hearing your thoughts on this stuff. May i ask what aspect of steddie fanon you're referring to (which don't fit IRL queer culture so accurately)?

Ahaha...okay so. IMPORTANT NOTE: fandom is not that crucial, do whatever you want, run free through daisy fields of whatever headcanons and characterizations you please. Also, fic is not real life and that's okay!!

That being said, fandom can get slightly weird about sex, especially queer sexual cultures and especially historical queer sexual cultures. I mean, I get it! Our current hegemonic understanding of sexuality is actually pretty recent; I studied sexuality from a sociological perspective as part of my undergrad degree, focusing on moral panics (gosh I wonder why Eddie's character arc appeals to me! so mysterious!), and I know just enough to know that I don't know shit. So I certainly don't expect anyone to be doing paradigm-shifting sociohistorical research for a fic. That would be ridiculous.

All of this is leading up to say that based on 1) the relayed experiences of queer mentors who were in the scene in the 80s 2) the secondary sources I’ve researched 3) personally having many gay male friends who love oversharing through the last ~15 years, I believe that if canon-compliant gay Eddie Munson is a virgin, it’s largely by choice. 

I've seen it suggested that Eddie's poor academic performance and nerdy interests would be, essentially, a dick deterrent. And like...I enjoy Eddie’s weirdo loser vibe as much as the next fan. I fully support him not being in any way smooth or cool with boys. But even when I myself was in my late teens/early twenties, many of my closest friends were awkward nerdy twinks who absolutely managed to get laid every weekend because MSM* hookup culture is eternal. 

And in the early 80s, when Eddie would’ve been in his late teens, MSM hookup culture was at its peak. AIDS still wasn’t being taken that seriously, and transmission etc. wasn’t really understood because…well, you know this story. It’s not a good story. Fuck Reagan. 

In short, I really can’t emphasize enough how certain types of sexual contact were extremely available for men seeking sex with men. A pretty young thing like Eddie could have literally as much sex as he wanted. Nobody is asking him for a high school transcript or anything about his hobbies, they’re asking if he tops. 

Now, would Eddie actually participate in the hookup culture of the time? That's a more complicated and speculative question, and not actually what you asked, but I'm going to talk about it briefly anyway.

In the 'yes' column: he has his own vehicle**, zero supervision, and a penchant for risky behavior.

In the 'no' column: the boy has at least three extremely involved hobbies eating up his spare time and energy; he's also a not-so-secret romantic.

Personally, I can see the pseudo-intimacy appealing to Eddie's tendency to keep people at arm's length, and I think it’s very plausible for him to be curious and experimental enough to want to explore a bit. I tend to land on 'tried it a few times, doesn't make a habit of it' in my backstories. I also tend to hint at the softer, friendlier side of hookup culture in my fics, just because I don’t often see it represented. 

Of course it’s like any other scene, there are bad actors and generally shitty people/situations, and sometimes the MSM scene specifically can be a bit of a soul-draining meat market. (ETA, because I am not white and neither are the vast majority of my friends and I felt increasingly weird not mentioning it even though it's not relevant to Eddie's situation: the scene is often also super racist, among other things! But that's a whooole other complicated kettle of fish, and again, not relevant to Eddie's situation.)

But there’s also space for casual sex to be part of a friendly relationship, in a way that I don’t really see in hetero circles. It’s hard to explain. It’s one of those dynamics that basically never shows up in mainstream media at all, so I absolutely don’t blame fics that don’t show it either. It’s just one of those things.

This is a step to the left, but I recommend checking out Dykes To Watch Out For: it’s practically an anthropological document depicting dyke culture in the 80s, it’s often funny as hell, and it’s just a fantastically detailed and relatively accessible window into a particular way of life that doesn’t really exist anymore. 

*MSM = men who have sex with men. It’s a sociological designation; not everyone in this category identifies as gay, bi, queer, etc. It may be useful to think about sexuality as having three distinct components: behavior, identity, and desire. The term “MSM” puts focus on the behavioral aspect, because it’s most relevant in this context. 

**As someone who has experienced several other countries' driving cultures, I just want to emphasize to non-Americans how willing many Americans are to drive for multiple hours for basically any reason whatsoever.

[bumblingbabooshka]

[TUVOKTOBER: Day 15] At First Sight. [Patreon | Commissions]

[depressedhatakekakashi]

I just want fandom to be fun again with silly headcanons and ridiculous au’s and for people to seriously stop acting like Kakashi was the worst sensei ever when there are countless worse sensei’s in the naruto series alone

[faithandarisadventures]

Gateway to Pride, Part 6/10 July 14, 2024 Missouri History Museum St. Louis, Missouri