#start putting genders in your tags afab / female reader writers!!!

[mvrders-are-okay]

the fact that female readers are so normalized that the authors don’t have to put the gender on their tags, only using, “x you,” “x reader,” “x y/n,” …sigh.

I SAY, YOU, FEMALE READER WRITERS, OUGHT TO STOP DOING IT AND PUT THE SUITABLE TAGS INSTEAD. PUT THE READERS’ GENDER SO THAT NO ONE WILL ASSUME.

you all get me?

[chaos-in-deepspace]

Hello, you can call me Hare (They/He), and this is an NSFW Writing blog dedicated to Love and Deepspace. I mainly write: Drabbles, Long Fics, and Scenarios. I do requests on occasion however I have a long list of things to write and can't get to them all in a timely manner. This blog is 18+ and minors are not welcome in this space as a majority of my writing is adult content.

Masterlist (Contains all my writing to date)

Want to hear me take on AI Writers or how to identify a post? Check out this post.

This is a side blog. My main blog is @havenofwriting

If you'd like to follow me on other socials, my X account for LADs is ChaoticRabbits (Mainly just reposts of fanart I enjoy, and sometimes ramblings about my current writing projects). You can also find me on Archive of Our Own at The-Chaotic-Rabbit.

For ease of access I have custom hashtags, so please read so you'll be able to choose if you'd like to block the hashtag to customize your experience on my blog. - rabid rabbit hours: Anything NSFW from asks to writing will have this hashtag. - hare speaks: All my ramblings and updates will go under this hashtag. - rabbit reblogs: This is made for reblogging things I enjoy. I sometimes forget to add this hashtag, however I'll try my best. - hare.ai: Anything related to my "witch hunt" on AI will be tagged with this. If this discussion upsets you, block this ASAP.

Content you can expect from this blog:

Will have SFW and NSFW fics written. NSFW will either be gender neutral or AFAB depending on how detailed it gets.

All NSFW fics will have content warnings on them. If I see a minor liking or reblogging anything, I will block immediately.

Posts will be put up randomly. I don't plan on having a schedule for things.

I don't take my writing overly seriously. There might be written posts that are more comedic if anything. I enjoy writing comedy as much as I enjoy romance.

I'm caught up on the lore so I will be writing for it, however I will also do AUs if that's what I'm feeling for the day.

There will be spoilers for the game. Again I'm caught up on content and lore and can't promise things won't slip, so if you don't want any spoilers then my writing isn't for you.

The Reader may or may not be a deepspace hunter depending on the fic or scenario.

Reader is 18+

Reader's: name, age, gender, appearance will never be specified. The most I will do is having the Reader look up at the guys which could show that they're shorter (The shortest love interest is Rafayel who is 6ft or 183cm). Reader will also have hair. Doesn't matter if it's a lot or a little, curly or straight. Hair might be mentioned from time to time but won't be specified on how much there is.

Everything is gender neutral. My biggest issue with Love and Deepspace, and I understand that it's not an English App, is that the MC is Female no matter what. She/Her pronouns and nothing can change that. This is my blog, my au, so I'll be using they/them pronouns.

Reader may or may not have an Evol depending on the fic. I know the real MC has an amplification type Evol so that will be the default for fics. If the reader has a different Evol then I'll state it in the Fic Description at the start.

Depending on the fic, Reader will either be in a relationship with one of the boys or it will be a harem situation. I will make sure to list it in the post so you can decide if you want to read it.

Depending on the fic the relationship could be established or not a thing yet.

Backgrounds might change depending on how I wanna write the fic.

If Caleb gets released I will not be writing for him. As someone who has a step-brother, the idea of him isn't appealing. Please respect this decision.

[snaillock]

noo, bc i fucking feel yall. bc a fic i read thr other day?!? "gn!reader" the next line is "reader could arguable be considered afab" and then out of no where the fic uses female anatomy terms??? the reader is not "arguably" afab. it is afab, and a warning tag like "afab!reader, but no pronouns used" would have been a better explanation for your fic.

i fucking DESPISE when people do that and refuse to put the actual gender of the reader in the actual post or the tags. its really not that hard. as someone who writes both female and male readers, i know how to tell my viewers which one they are so they csn steer clear of something they dont like. its just female readers r considered "the standard" or "the default" with both female and male characters. (finding fem char x male reader is the hardest thing on earth omg but anyways)

and untagged drabbles are the WORST at this. there's no gendered tag and no warning at the top of the post so i assume the reader is gender neutral only to ve bombarded with fem terms. even if a creator doesnt want to put the reader's gender in the fic warnings, but it in the tags. it really isnt that hardddd. all tumblr writers need to have a seminar about tagging fics correctly and stating what is actually in your fic. or we all need to learn a03 etiquette or smth. bc being a male reader sucks����

(srry sbout this rant. i just needed to say it)

nsfw mentions for anyone else reading!

dude yesterday i saw a fic that was legit tagged “gn reader, reader is called mama.” like how is that a coherent statement. it’s almost comical to me. one of infinite examples of what it’s like to look for fics on tumblr. like im BEGGING and PLEADING to people to think about what the neutral part of gn means.

i hate also when writers do “gn!reader that could be seen as female” when 90% of the fic makes it so so obvious like shut up that’s totally fem reader.

when people use afab as some cool fancy ass synonym for woman also irks the shit out of me but that’s a whole other conversation.

i fucking wish putting “character x female reader” or whatever gender in the actual tags itself was a much more common practice so filtering would actually do something. unfortunately the only people who actually do it consistently are of course the ones who write male reader fics.

like people shouldn’t be allowed to leave their fics untagged if it isn’t 100% gender neutral. like give me some indication god please. it’s even worse when i’m going through the blue lock tag so most of it is just untagged fem smut drabbles so it’s like a double smack in the face for me. like give me a heads up at the very least.

honestly i should just start fining people whenever they screw up with their tags. like straight up start demanding money for emotional damage charges.

(speaking of fem char x male reader, once i transition into more multifandom, i’m for sure gonna start doing those as well. the lack of them just makes me so so sad)

also don’t worry about ranting bc im so glad i have yet another chance to complain about this for the second time today. being mad about this stuff is like the whole reason why i even made this blog

[bunnywritesmarvel]

Tips for Writing a Gender Neutral Reader

ive seen a recent influx of fics in various fandoms claiming their fics to be "gender neutral!reader," only to start reading and see repeated gendered terminology/pronouns used. heres a (hopefully) helpful little post to curb that and help people be able to make true gender neutral/inclusive fics.

lets start with this; no one is telling you all your fics have to be gender neutral. this is for the people who want their fics to be gn, or people that are claiming their fics to be gn but still include gendered terms and want to fix it.

1. first, lets talk about content warnings/tags/fic descriptions. these are a great way to let your reader know what theyre getting into before they get too far into it and realize theyre wasting their time.

please use these! no one is telling you not to write a white reader, no one is telling you not to write a short reader, no one is telling you not to write a skinny blue-eyed blonde-haired reader, just use warnings and tags!! nothing will make me stop reading a reader insert fic faster than a physically descriptive word that doesnt describe me. it immediately takes me out of the experience.

warnings such as 'white!reader' or 'short!reader' or 'AMAB!reader' are great to get the general point across. in the description of the fic, i encourage you to go into more detail. 'they/them pronouns used. AMAB genitalia descriptions used.' great, i can tell its written with a reader with a dick in mind. i dont have that, so i wont relate to the fic and therefore wont enjoy it personally. will i reblog it to help other readers who will relate find it? abso-fuckin-lutely, you bet your ass i will. writers support writers, right?

tags and warnings also pertain to any kind of explicit/violent content! if your fic includes hard kinks, even softer kinks, or any kind of violence please put warnings down! this could potentially be triggering to some people and putting these types of warnings will greatly reduce the risk of potentially triggering someone who is sensitive to those certain things, but thats an entirely different topic.

2. now lets talk about physical descriptions. we'll cover the basics of hair, skin tone, genitalia, height, and weight, and touch on the tagging subject a little bit more.

avoid hair descriptors! i have straight, medium-length hair. i wont relate to a reader described as having short, curly hair. some people have no hair, surprise surprise! focus on the face, not the hair. “he cupped their cheek” instead of “she ran her fingers through their hair.” people with extremely kinky or curly hair wont be able to relate to that.

you can usually pretty easily avoid skin tone descriptors. but blushing is different! you cant really see (as far as my knowledge goes) blushing on darker skin tones. focus more on heat factors! “heat rose their cheeks,” “their face grew warm,” “they felt their cheek heat up,” etc etc. i personally use the word “flushed” a lot, e.g. “their face flushed.”

now lets go to the genitalia aspect. this will just circle back to the warning and tags. if you’re writing smut and need to use descriptors for genitalia, just make sure you put the assigned sex at birth in the warning! AMAB (assigned male at birth) and AFAB (assigned female at birth) go a long way in helping trans readers avoid sudden dysphoria when reading smut fics, especially if youre writing with a trans reader in mind. tags such as “transmasc afab” or “transfem amab” go a really long way!

theres also plenty of gender neutral anatomy terms. for example, opt for chest instead of breast, or just focus on the nipples!

height!! again, just circles back to the tags, but avoiding phrases such as “they looked up at him” or “you peered down into his eyes” help avoid attaching a height to the reader. “tall!reader” or “short!reader” are great if the fic is mainly focused on that. but just throwing in a “reader is briefly described as shorter than (insert character)” could be helpful!

weight! i know i know, the “he picked me up and spun me around” tropes are so cute, but fat people exist! some people just dont like to be picked up and some people are heavy and thats okay! maybe just opt for the big tight im-never-gonna-let-you-go-again-ever-in-the-history-of-the-world hug, i promise it will still get the point across.

i personally, love to throw some manhandling in my smut fics. im small, so i find it hot if someone can throw me around and move me where they want. this just, again, circles back to adding the proper warnings. just throw ‘manhandling’ or whatever else into the description and let any potential readers decide if theyre into it or not. if its one line, just say ‘brief manhandling’ and some people may be able to just skip over the line or ignore it and not let it ruin the immersive experience. ive read plenty of fics i absolutely adore, and theres one teeny tiny line that doesnt describe me and i have no issue moving on and not letting it pull me out of the fic.

thats all that i can think of off the top of my head! thanks to anyone who read all of it, and anyone more equipped to talk about this subject, please feel free to chime in, add some more tips, or correct me on anything i got wrong!!

please reblog to spread the word! id love to start seeing more inclusive fics for everyone to enjoy!

tagging some people, let me know if youd like to be removed: @phoebe-danvers @murrdxcks @murdicks @waspswidows @h-llfire @matt-erialgirl @wannabemurdock @thirstybitchs @alilfreakydeaky @sobachka-korol

[caelestis-composition]

What about those who write afab reader for smuts? Female anatomy but pronouns are still gender neutral? I know a lot of people write afab cause that's what they know and a lot of people don't like to write with other body parts cause that's not what they're familiar with. I don't have a problem personally cause it's still gender neutral, but I'm curious on what you think about it

gonna keep this as vague as possible and put it under a cut cuz i want my blog to stay as sfw as possible, but i still wanted to respond to this. also reminder that i am an adult, if anyone would like to discuss this further for whatever reason, you can always private message me.

this is a bit of a grey area, in my opinion. because it’s very possible to write completely neutral smut, but nsfw writing also tends to be more specific and include more detail, which can sometimes make it hard to stay truly neutral. and like you said, a lot of them are just writing what they’re familiar with, regardless of their agab, which is also understandable. and again, that’s because of the amount of detail that’s usually put into smut writing.

it would be nice for more nsfw writers to put in the effort to make things completely neutral, just so there’s a wider range of content/writers like that. i follow/know of multiple writers and fics that are truly gender neutral, they just put in a little extra time and care to make sure their works end up that way. in my opinion, it’s really not that hard to do.

however, i also find i don’t really mind smut fics that specify an amab or afab body but use gender-neutral pronouns for the reader. so long as it’s properly tagged and the gendered description is literally just for the anatomy and nothing else regarding the reader, i don’t have a huge problem with it. again… because of the graphic detail typical in nsfw works. i do, however, have issues with fics that claim to be gender-neutral with a gendered body but were obviously written with a gendered reader in mind. can’t tell you how many fics i’ve started (both nsfw and sfw) and had to put away because i was randomly hit with a gendered term in what was supposed to be a gender-neutral fic.

i more or less agree with your stance. again, would be really nice if more people wrote truly neutral fics, but i also understand why a lot of people specify anatomy because of what smut fics entail LOL. it’s a grey area, but it bothers me a lot less than gendered sfw fics—which, in my honest opinion, do not ever “need” to be gendered.

[yandere-romanticaa]

From one writing blog to another, I suggest just stopping to reply to the people who think they have a right to say anything about how you write your reader inserts. It is your blog, your writing, your imagination, and no one else has any right to dictate it.

It's a fact that the majority of the writers especially on tumblr are female, or afab, or female-aligned, whichever, so when we do our best to write amab or gn it will eventually be torn apart by others who think it wasn't amab or gn enough. And it's getting so old. Once you answer one complainer (who should be ashamed to even consider complaining!) they come swarming in trying to make themselves feel better in their rightousness while never even having thought about one other human than themselves and maybe their mom. And it honestly fills your blog with so much unnecessary hatred and tearing you, the writer providing FREE OF CHARGE AMUSEMENT, down. As a frequent reader of your writing it makes me sad and mad for you.

People wonder why there's so little fanfiction without afab? This. If you constantly reprimand writers for one little thing you don't consider amab or gn enough, while ignoring the effort, time, skill, and research they put into everything else, they will just stop—for the better. Why bother? It's so easy to get hung up one detail you hated, it ruins your whole experience, huh? I never saw someone afab complaining when writers use chest instead of breast. And as far as I know I have kissed boys with lips much softer than mine, so what is the big deal?

Personally,I have already started disliking having to tiptoe around what I want to write just to suit everyone's taste. If I want someone to bite their lip idc if it's a fetishized female/male version, my characters just do. And while I agree that it's meh that some writers tag every gender in their one gendered post, it's still their thing. Go to Ao3 where the tagging is better if you're so bothered anons, but leave us out of it. As long as you're not the CEO of tumblr you don't get to play fun-police.

It's 2022 people, get mad about climate change but not the people using their skills to provide free entertainment, just out here living their silly internet life.

Also sorry ana that I used your inbox to rant but with the overwhelming amounts you get on this topic, I really hope you can draw a line soon. It's a really personal topic by now for me because it keeps popping up on every blog I go. You are so awesome, please always write exactly as you want and as you seem fit, no one else but you really matters when it comes to your writing. And I never took offense to your writing, so please don't think it's an universal experience for all your followers. There are just some bad eggs who think they are in the right about literally nothing. Delete, block (complainers don't deserve your mercy and work), whichever you want, and move on. It's not worth ruining your reputation (because as you can see people just interpret your responses however they see fit and accuse you with fractions of them) and fun for this blog.

You have a point luv!! I actually received so many asks on that subject, some good others not quite. A lot of heavy words were used and I just didn't feel like posting them ;)

[belfrygargoyles]

*whispers* I would like to hear what you have to say on reader inserts in the SW fandom because I too have a problem with them and I feel like not enough people are calling it out 👉👈

I’ve made a few posts about it in the past but I think it’s high time I actually Do This and really get into it.

Before I start: 1) This will be in specific reference to fanfiction written for the Star Wars fandom, particularly tcw and the mandalorian eras, 2) A lot of the issues come down to racist fetishization of men of color by white women; I am white, so there is much that is simply not my place to make statements on. What I can speak most on is my take from the gender side of things.

I’d honestly recommend reading this post by @nibeul with addition by @clonehub first, as they discuss the core issue with reader inserts in the Star Wars fandom.

And 3) some of this will involve discussion of sexual acts (as they relate to fanfiction) and sexual fantasies. These discussions will be non-explicit, and no pornographic text or content will be displayed.

Also. I’m GNC and nonbinary. I’m also a very feminine looking person that falls under the generalization of “small and petite.” I don’t have dysphoria, I like my body and the traits I have, and treating them like inherently female sends me into a blind fury. This is, unfortunately, important.

For the sake of making sure I come across as clearly as possible, I will be writing as though the reader of this post has never read or is broadly unfamiliar with reader-insert fanfiction.

Without further ado.

Hey, Star Wars reader insert fic writers? Please get your shit together.

INTRODUCTION

I’ve been reading reader-insert fanfiction since I was a grade schooler waking up early to check Quizilla. I love it! It got me into fandom, kept me engaged, helped me make and develop some of my oldest OCs, and it’s just fun to read and write- it’s like a self-indulgent little gift you can give to a bunch of people all at once. Because who doesn’t like the idea of starring in their own little adventure, usually alongside some of their favorite characters? It can be fun, immersive, get you attached in ways other ways of fandom interaction may not, make you feel just a little bit special, or be a way to express some feelings you might have about canon and the way the story went.

Like any form of fiction, it ends up saying more about the author’s feelings than anything else, whether the author realizes it or not. For many, many authors of reader-insert fanfiction, the primary enjoyment comes from writing “themselves” into the story- before the readers, the author most often makes the “reader character” someone they, themselves, can relate to and substitute for themselves. They write to live out a self-indulgent fantasy they have, and their readers can come along for the ride.

Some writers do actually try to write as diverse or as vague of a reader character as possible- as few details about the body, identity, etc. as possible so anyone could superimpose their image without the narrative directly contradicting it. This is not the kind of reader insert author I will be discussing.

The kind of author I will be discussing is the one most common in the Star Wars tag on Ao3: White, AFAB, cisgender, gender-conforming, able-bodied women who assume all of their readers are also White, AFAB, cisgender, gender-conforming, able-bodied women. Yes, you can tell.

ISSUE: fetishization of men of color

Again, this post puts it in the best words, but there is a rampant problem with Star Wars reader-inserts, particularly those involving the clones, Boba Fett, and Din Djarin, fetishizing characters played by men of color as either “physically aggressive and threatening, hypersexual and dominant, big strong men who are scary because they do violence and fuck constantly when they’re not” or “completely inexperienced baby who doesn’t know anything about things and needs a gentle nurturing guiding touch to introduce him to the mere idea of a vagina.” The former is common across all of them, the latter most common among clone trooper fics or Din/Reader.

I went into the Boba Fett/Reader tag on Ao3, because I like him and hoped to find something alright. Here are some stats I tallied up (give or take some) based solely on tags, summaries, and warnings:

There are 284 works in the Boba Fett/Reader category as of the time of this post.

198/284 are rated E for explicit sexual content. 69.7% of all Boba Fett/Reader works are sexually explicit.

259/284 are in the F/M category. 91.2% of all Boba Fett/Reader works involve an explicitly female or AFAB reader.

24/284 are tagged with or mention “Age difference,” “Older man/Younger woman,” “Innocence kink” or “Virginity kink.” 8.4% of all Boba Fett/Reader works are written explicitly with an age gap, with Boba Fett as the older party

26/198 E rated fics are tagged with or make reference to “Daddy kink” or involve the reader being called some variation of “little girl” by Boba. 13% of all E-rated works under Boba Fett/Reader are daddy kink fics, or allude to Boba Fett being a daddy dom/sugar daddy.

102/198 E rated fics are tagged as, make reference to, or suggest in the summary that Boba Fett takes a dominant sexual role with a submissive reader involving rough or painful play, or make reference to Boba Fett being frightening, physically intimidating, having a power dynamic over the reader, or being possessive or violent. 51.51% of all E-rated works under Boba Fett/Reader portray Boba Fett as sexually dominant and/or enacting use of physical force or pain play.

Just using this as an example, because it’s the easiest stats I can gather and also what made me realize there was a pattern.

The problem isn’t even necessarily that people write explicit fic about Boba- it’s that 1) over half of all fics in the category are explicitly pornographic, and 2) the way those pornographic fics are written. The two things compound on each other. They’re dominance fantasies projected onto a character of color in which he becomes extremely sexual, physically rough with the reader, possessive, and demeaning towards a reader character who is always written as White, AFAB, and petite.

This brings me to the next issue.

ISSUE: The way sexual relationships are portrayed.

Let me clarify so there is no chance of me being misunderstood: sex is good. Liking and wanting and enjoying sex isn’t bad. It is not bad if you are AFAB and have submissive fantasies. It is not bad to be sexually attracted to a man of color. You can write about sex even if you haven’t had it. Writing about sex can be a good way to express some more complicated feelings you could have about certain things. It doesn’t even have to be realistic. It has its time and it has its place.

This being said.

Sexual relationships as they are portrayed in the vast majority of E-rated Star Wars reader inserts are… not great.

The reader is always AFAB. I can think of maybe one fic off the top of my head where an AFAB reader was written with they/them pronouns and not just she/her.

The reader is almost always submissive, the dominant character is almost always portrayed as cis male. Even when the characters are supposed to just be having spontaneous casual sex, D/S or BDSM aspects will be introduced with no prior discussion or talks about it afterwards. Sometimes characters will start using dirty talk and it just does not fit at all, but it’s what the author thought was hot.

Sometimes, it just reads like a quick smutty oneshot. More often than that, it reads like the author doesn’t realize that sex… isn’t always a dom/sub thing. Or that someone can take the lead in sex and that doesn’t automatically make them a dom.

It’s not bad to be inexperienced. It’s not bad to have preferences or kinks or specific turn-ons.

But it gets… tiring to read, over and over and over and over, because that’s all there is.

That and… I dunno, it just has me a little worried? It doesn’t make me feel good knowing so many people can only portray a sexual relationship if it’s dom/sub. I don’t know why it makes me so uneasy.

Vanilla sex isn’t a bad thing I promise. It's this feeling of insistence that something "spicy" absolutely has to happen for it to be worth writing that gives... some weird vibes.

I’m going to move on to the next Big-

ISSUE: Every “reader” character is exactly the same

By which I mean the following:

Always cis AFAB female

If a character is written with gender neutral pronouns they will always be AFAB and written like Girl Lite

I have never seen an explicitly stated nonbinary/gnc reader character unless it was a request specifically for a nonbinary reader

I have never seen a gender neutral reader insert fic where the reader was AMAB

I have seen a grand total of 1 cis male reader fic and 1 trans male reader fic. The trans male reader fic was about dysphoria.

The reader is allowed to have one of the following backstories: slave/runaway, mechanic, medic, ex-Rebel, secret Jedi, bounty hunter.

The reader is allowed to have one of the following personality traits: throws knives, babysitter, completely civilian, WOMAN, says curse words.

The reader is never written with any narrative agency- things only ever happen to the reader character or around the reader character, they are never written to take charge and actually affect things on their own. Essentially the sexy lamp trope.

Remember when I said the majority of people writing Star Wars reader-insert fanfic on Ao3 were White, cisgender AFAB women who are gender-conforming and able-bodied? This is how you can tell.

It’s at this point where you can tell they’re really not meant to be reader-inserts, but author-inserts with the names removed- they were only meant for a very narrow selection of readers.

I’m nonbinary, I’m gnc, and I’m a very feminine looking person, generally speaking. I’m used to people looking at me and assuming oh, girl. I’m at peace with that.

I can barely stand reading some of these fics just because of how much the author emphasizes that the reader is FEMALE shes a WOMAN with BOOBS and a VAGINA and FEMININE WILES. There’s barely ever even a chance to give myself room to mentally vault over all the “she”s and “her”s because then I’m getting hit with Din or someone calling the reader “girl” or “the woman.” It’s unbearable, and I even fall into the general description every fucking fic author uses for their generic protagonist!

Even with the “gender-neutral reader” fics, it is just. Painfully clear that they just wrote a female character and changed the pronouns- no, there is no such thing as “male behavior” or “female behavior,” and I quite heartily rebel against the concept of gender essentialism. And honestly, I can barely even begin piecing together how I know it and what it feels like, because it’s just one of those vague conglomerates of cues and writing patterns I can’t consciously pick up on but I know it’s there- it’s frustrating, it’s demeaning, and it feels like you’d have to threaten these authors at gunpoint to get them to write a reader character who was any major deviation from the same three cutouts they use every time.

It seems like they can’t possibly force themselves to write a reader character who isn’t meek and submissive or has the sole personality traits of “mean and can hit things”- you can actually strike a balance between “absolutely no personality” and “fleshed out oc” you know? And you don’t actually have to tell the reader what their hair looks like or how full their figure is

It’s like 2:20 AM and I started this at like 8something PM but.

I’m someone who loves reader-inserts. I enjoy them. I still check for new ones regularly. I’ve been reading them for well over half my life now.

So many of these authors are just locked in on exactly one way to write things and it fucking shows. It’s like a self-feeding loop, they just keep writing the same things and the same dynamics because they see each other doing it and they never think about taking a step back.

It’s… exhausting. I’m exhausted. If you’re a reader-insert fic writer and you want to improve your reader character inclusivity and have also read this far, you can DM me or shoot me an ask.

[snaillock]

(Related to what you said in this post)

I AGREE. Honestly, for me personally I don't really know how to write gendered stuff. I can only write gn!reader and that's kinda it besides my occasional fem!lesbian!reader (but that's always for self-indulgent funsies and I feel like even those could be read as gn if it wasn't for the fact that reader is a lesbian)

Of course people are allowed to and should write gendered stuff if that's what they feel comfortable with and enjoy, but the "gn!reader but..." or "reader is fem coded" (and then it's obviously fem!reader) ARE SO....HUH??????????? I see that and think "just say it's fem!reader............" Notice how that doesn't happen with male!reader?🤨 Because fem!reader is the standard in fics.

And don't even get me started on untagged fics where in the middle of it reader is fem out of nowhere. Imo, if there's no reader's gender tagged it should be gn!reader by standard and then not randomly give reader a gender.

Idk if it's weird for me as a fem alligned person to "complain" about this but I don't really feel any connection to my gender and one of my friends is masc so we talk about this sometimes. I have many thoughts on this😔

Anyways. I hope you'll never receive a fem!reader request. May your anons always read your request rules

ONGGG this is why you’re one of my favorite mutuals

i remember when people constantly requested fem reader fics from you and thinking “you are so damn patient. i could never.” i applaud you so much for that cause i would’ve been so angry and probably wouldve done those all those requests as male readers purely out of spite.

well to be honest, spite is the reason why this blog even exists.

idk why but gender neutral writing comes so easily to me. maybe it’s because i jumped around the gender spectrum a bit but i can easily tell what feels feminine and masculine. and even though i used to identify as a woman for many years all while being a fanfic reader, i don’t think i can even attempt fem!reader stuff LMAO.

i don’t even get how so many people screw up gender neutral tagging so much like we need to hold a mandatory seminar for fic writers to teach them what gender neutral actually means. i really wish more people tagged their “gender neutral” fics like, “afab!reader that uses gender neutral pronouns” or anything like that. i just want them to quit saying gn reader when they don’t mean gender neutral overall.

it’s even worse when they add x male reader to the tags so i’m kinda forced to see it anyway. i don’t even do that on my legitimate gn writing. i only put any gender neutral tag that fits; none of that extra “x female reader, x male reader” tagging shit for a little bit more clout because doing that just makes tag filtering a lot more inconvenient for others.

also the untagged fem reader fics made me so distrusting of any untagged fic because i either assume it’s gender neutral and get so invested in the story only to get smacked upside the head with extreme feminine terms and/or pronouns OR i’m always slightly uneasy when i read them because now i expect them to secretly be fem!reader all the time.

being perceived as anything but a man is one of my biggest dysphoria triggers so reading fanfics for comfort is such a double edged sword.

also it’s not weird at all for you to complain about this because honestly the more, the merrier. i need a lot more people talking about this constantly.

i never gotten a fem reader request before, so if i did now then that would be pretty fucking funny. that would mean someone saw my account and essentially thought “you know what this dude’s blog needs? a good ol female reader fic. time to skip reading his rules and go straight into the ask box”

anyways to wrap this long ass rant up, gender neutral should really be the default here. i really don’t see why it’s not.