#stop thinking women are inherently better please

[greymantledlady]

Someone else's post:

~

I have seen so many posts like the one above in the last 24 hours and honestly, it's starting to piss me off. I know the majority of tumblr users aren't wlw, but do you know how patronising this kind of thing is? This was the most beautiful, intimate, lovingly animated lesbian sex scene, between two rich, well-drawn, compelling characters, but over and over, I see people comparing it unfavourably to Jayce and Viktor's final scene. The story between two men is seen as more powerful, more meaningful, gayer, deeper, than the one between two women.

Look, it's fine to enjoy the mlm ship more. I support you! I think Jayvik is cool! But can you all please, please, stop acting like it's inherently better just because the lesbian story didn't happen to be written for your personal tastes, this one time?

(Also, to answer the question: as a lesbian, I promise you, the lesbian sex is much, much gayer. You're just not the target audience.)

[krill-joy]

if i see another "[wife of reprehensible politician] can do better" article i'm gonna scream.

[chaoxfix]

god i need the algorithm to stop recommending lore olympus to me.

reframing a kidnapping of a woman as romance, and painting her mother as an overbearing shrew rather than rightfully worried and protective, and portraying the kidnapper as sympathetic ... what about my overtly feminist ass makes anyone or any algorithm think i'd enjoy ANY hades/persephone romance retellings.

at this point the only hades and persephone retelling i'm interested in is a retelling that focuses on demeter's love for her daughter. one where persephone's abduction and transition from kore, the maiden, to persephone, goddess of the dead and queen of the underworld, was one where she carries out a revenge fantasy against her abductor... She cannot fully escape the underworld, no; she is death, doomed by the narrative. Underground she will stay for half the year. But she will not subject herself to be trapped with him.

hades dies at dawn; hades dies in the spring light, by persephone's power, and a knife garnished with evergreen thistles. demeter holds him down, and persephone cuts the head. judith slaying holofernes; persephone slaying hades.

[embers-of-the-oldest-lore]

@photomatt So I've noticed that you and the tumblr moderation team at large seem to view trans women as inherently sexual and in violation of the sites community guidelines by virtue of existing and before you start crawling through my side blogs and find That I do in fact have some content that is not tagged as well as it should be to remain in line with the strictest interpretation of the community guidelines on my sideblog, please know that I understand this and have come to terms with the fact that making this post will result in you taking advantage of this and removing my side blog and likely my primary blog as well.

However before you do this, I want to make sure that you have a full understanding of what you will be removing and in a grander sense what you have destroyed either through negligence or intentional malice by unfairly moderating Trans women on this website and allowing their harassers to thrive.

The girl in this picture was young and scared and trying so hard to be the man that she was supposed to be even though It meant pushing down a part of herself that was more real than anything she had ever actually lived before.

But then she found tumblr and was exposed to experiences like hers and people like her and was able to slowly become herself for the first time in her life. She had a joy and peace on this website that she would never be able to find in her real life.

It took time but eventually that joy and peace and freedom and exposure to so many other scared girls like her gave her the ability to finally admit she didn't have to or want to be the man that her family expected her to be. This is the last picture of her before she finally stopped giving up.

And it didn't happen all at once

There were problems, and stumbling blocks

But she had this site to come back to and find community and joy and she finally had herself

And now she's free and happy and full of so much joy.

She is so full of Love, and happiness, joy, and compassion for herself and the people around her

She lived and thrived and still finds so much joy in this community that saved her life.

I have found love, and kindness, and partners and friends on this hellsite. Most importantly I found a community. One that you would see destroyed. I know you don't actually care about any of this. You don't care about the unfair moderation on this site. You don't care about the trans women that are desperate for community. I don't think this is going to change your mind either. If I exist to you at all, it's only as a nuisance. You're just going to find some excuse to wipe my entire existence on this site that I have called home for twelve years away.

But i'm not really doing this for you.

I'm doing this because I hope that before you have the chance to wipe every trace of my exsistence from this website that some other girl that is just as scared as I was when I joined this community is able to see that there is hope, that things do in fact get better and that we can thrive and find family and a community. Part of me hopes desperately that Tumblr can continue to be a place for scared girls like I was and an even smaller part of me believes that this might find some place in your heart and take hold. But even if it doesn't, we will always find community. We will always find a place where we can become ourselves and find love and happiness and safety with people like us.

And to that scared girl

It gets better

I promise

: Your sister

[doctordragon]

That one post that's like "I'm no better than a man" for being attracted to Falin's bouncing boobies is 100% proof of how normalized terf rhetoric is on this awful website

1. The idea that literally just being horny somehow makes you "worse" is such an anti sex sentiment. Being horny isn't a moral failing, it's just a part of having a sexuality. Being horny is good because sex and sexual attraction can be extremely fun and pleasurable for some people.

2. The obvious "women are inherently better than men" sentiment, but not just that. Women are better because they're chaste and wholesome, unlike those gross dirty horny men. Not only is this hateful towards men in a classically terfy way, it's also pinning women's "goodness" on their sexual purity and chastity. This is of course where terf and conservative Christian rhetoric overlap and it's very blatant in this post imo.

3. The intent likely comes from the oversexualization and objectification of women in media. I don't think this is applicable to dungeon meshi specifically because the way the female characters are treated with genuine respect when they are sexualized, in addition to the equal if not greater amount of sexualization given to the male characters. But, even if the media is Problematique in the way it portrays its female characters, there's still nothing wrong with being horny for those women. Again, being horny is a good thing.

4. Specifically speaking as a transgender gay man, I fucking hate the way these people talk about men. I love men. It's kind of my whole thing. I love men so much that I choose to be one every day. Is being a man sexually attracted to other men suddenly making me worse? This post clearly dictates that women are better because of mens' sexualities, so what does that say about their view of gay and transgender men? It's impossible to express hatred for male sexuality without being transphobic or homophobic.

Please stop putting shit like that on my dash. Just say "I love Falin's big bouncy boobies and they make me horny" and stop trying to shit on men's sexualities every time you can.

[neyafromfrance95]

are we EVER going to talk about the ageism against women properly?

bc it has been growing rampant in gen z and the arguments against it aren't exactly addressing the issue through examining the double standards people have for women and men.

yes, ageing is a privilege but i don't think that this argument is doing anything to dismantle the patriarchal mentality that is ingrained in our culture.

in many ways, people's counterpoint to "women expire after the xyz age" is basically "well, ageing is a privilege and natural so you should be ok with being an expired undesirable grandma whose only purpose is taking care of children bc at least you're not dead". we are never going to actually dismantle the ageism against women if this is our only argument.

we have to address the fact that women aren't allowed the same standards that men are.

men are allowed to have two types of desirability - a boy and a man. we don't say that men in their 50s look good *for* their age, we say that they grew well into their age, we simply say that they are attractive 50 years olds.

but women can only be and feel beautiful and desirable if they are young. if a woman in her 50s is objectively fine, we say that she looks good *for* her age, insinuating that there is no way she could ever *just* look good at 50, no "for"s, since she isn't 19-25 anymore and that's the only age range when a woman is truly attractive and desirable.

isn't this actually abhorrent? the fact that people can live up to about 100 years but women are taught to believe that only in 6 of these years they are in their prime? that patriarchy tells women that after their early 20s they are expired and the only valid way for them to be desirable and beautiful is to try to replicate the qualities of the 20 years old version of themselves that according to the same patriarchy, older women can no longer posses?

and the argument that women should not wish to be desirable at all in the name of feminism is very faulty, imo. it often comes from young and pretty women who don't really understand what being deemed "undesirable" in society means. the assumption that women being ok with the patriarchy telling them that they should feel expired after 25, should feel like they looked better in their 20s even if they take a better care of themselves now, should just do the "grandma" stuff while their male counterparts still get to experience romance and the life to its fullest, is not going to be some kind of a feminism win.

the "ageing is a privilege" has started to feel like an argument for women to once again settle for the bare minimum (at least you aren't dead) and conform to the unfair limitations the patriarchy forces on women.

i think what needs to change is us giving these misogynistic double standards any sort of validation. they are not rooted in some kind of universal truth about the inherent difference between men and women, they are rooted in patriarchy. we need to stop acting like younger and older women are in competition and start acknowledging that both are desirable and beautiful in their own ways.

i know that this post won't get much traction, but i feel like we need to talk about this topic more bc the internalized ageism that gen z women have is going to mess them up and the counterpoints to their assumptions are sometimes weak and unhelpful.

edit: thanks for yall's input in the reblogs! i would love to hear more from people so please feel free to reblog and say all that's on your mind regarding this subject since we really need to start addressing this and keep the conversation going!

[offtorivendell]

On Elain, Gwyn and their apparent romantic worthiness.

TW: mentions of death, violent or sexual assault, infertility and pregnancy/childbirth related trauma. Please do not proceed if these topics bother you.

Disclaimer: please, please engage with this post with kindness. I promise I am not writing it to stir the pot, but because I - and many others - are fed up with seeing hurtful and harmful rhetoric spewed by the fandom, yet having no back up when dealing with it. Word vomit incoming, I'm sorry. This has been bothering me for a while.

My love to everyone who has been hurt by things they've read in this fandom. 💜

It's 2024 and I cannot believe we are still seeing posts, almost daily, about both of these women; all giving reasons why they cannot possibly be with Azriel. And I don't mean the debatable but utterly harmless discussions about Elain not looking good in black or Gwyn blabbing to Merrill when asked not to. Whatever, go nuts. I mean the truly horrific takes based around things these two women have had no control.

Now, my post history makes it very obvious where I stand in terms of ships, and yes, I'm well aware I've spoken before about the inherent power imbalance - that I perceive - which would exist if Azriel ever became involved with any of the priestesses in the women's shelter he is charged with protecting (to be clear, that's not me suggesting that Gwyn and her story isn't powerful, or powerful representation to those who see themselves in her, nor is it personal to Gwyn, or indicative of any of the sheltered priestesses and their ability to heal; it's purely a function of Azriel's position of authority over their sanctuary). I want to reiterate that my stating my feelings about this was never done with the intent to shame people who do ship them; we all ship who we like, and real world ethics should rarely come into it.

That being said, the following, in my opinion, is one of those times.

Firstly, I just want to say that lived experience informs how we interpret fiction, so please let me clarify something: the people who have said that they don't think Gwyn is ready for a relationship yet, and that NSFW fan art of her with anyone makes them uncomfortable, are not in any way in the wrong. They're simply the other side of the coin to those who find it empowering, and both are valid responses, often related to personal trauma. The problem lies with those very few who say that Gwyn could never have a romantic relationship, and call those who talk and/or post about it "gross." Some have called her "damaged goods." This is absolutely wrong and whoever is doing it needs to stop.

The entire fandom, even those who find romantic or NSFW content involving Gwyn uncomfortable to consume, frequently acknowledges that her trauma doesn't define her, and of course she should be able to enjoy love whenever she feels ready for it. Those who say otherwise are readily condemned from all corners. I've seen it happen and called the people out myself, as have many other Elriel shippers when necessary. However, Elriels are still very regularly and very publicly blamed for the actions of a few (some of whom I truly believe are burner accounts wanting to cause chaos, with their Elriel themed usernames and no post history), despite our largely collective action to call them out when we see it.

Could we do better? Absolutely, but so can you!

Because, on the other hand, I've noticed that, whenever I or others have tried to explain why the pliable bones "theory" - which attempts to reason that Elain could never be endgame with Azriel, as she and any baby would die during the course of pregnancy or childbirth - is equally as harmful, we are met with people publicly and wholeheartedly refusing to understand why (especially recently). Some horrific comments have been made to my friends, not to mention all of those I see well after the fact, which are never widely condemned by any but us. People will argue back that we're wrong, and have even suggested we're weaponising infertility! On Mothers' Day, of all the fucking painful days to say that.

Some of the push back I've seen recently includes:

"Nobody has said Elain is infertile."

No, nobody has, and that's not what we're saying or have ever said. We know you don't think this, as the Elucien fandom loves to write and draw Elain and Lucien's hypothetical future children (which is super understandable, as this is a romantasy fandom after all - no shame, enjoy your warm fuzzies).

What we are saying is that, if it's true that Elain's anatomy wasn't changed as Feyre and Nesta's was - and to be clear I cannot stand that entire plot, I wish SJM had chosen literally any other reason why Feyre's pregnancy was dangerous, as it is simultaneously degrading and doesn't fit with her previously established lore - then Elain and Azriel, together^, would be functionally infertile. Yet it's only ever framed as Elain's body not being able to work with Azriel's, never the other way around.*

^Why didn't the bat boys have to sacrifice their wings to keep their wives/mates safe? Why did the women have to change their anatomy? Because it would make it harder for them to be all powerful? Well Nesta sacrificed her powers! Why not just have Feyre be cursed by an enemy or something, and Nesta found a way to use the Dread Trove to save them all. Ugh. I love SJM's books, but this was such a miss.

*HOSAB/HOFAS SPOILER: funnily enough, this was never said about Ruhn and his eventual mate, even though he actually did think he may be unable to father children, thanks to the Oracle's prophecy. People shipped the hell out of him and a couple of different women throughout the CC series, despite the chance he could never get them pregnant.

"People haven't called Elain damaged goods, so it's not the same. We're allowed to not like her."

My faerie porn* lover in christ, what the fuck do you think the pliable bones "theory" is actually doing? It is suggesting that Elain's hypothetical inability to survive having children with Azriel, and for those children to also survive childbirth, is impaired. Ergo, she's damaged.

We don't care if you don't like Elain, we're allowed to have different preferences in characters and ships. That has never been the problem.

*I use this term with affection as a great lover of the genre.

But "damaged" vs a functionally "impaired" uterus? It's the same damn thing, and sorry, it's misogynistic af, not to mention ableist and homophobic at a minimum. In the same breath you are also reducing your favourite to her apparently functional uterus (even though the pliable bones argument is medically inaccurate, by the way - this is really damning of the state of health education across so many countries).

"Hahaha/lol."

Yes, I have seen people laugh and treat this as a joke. As recently as tonight, in fact. It's disgusting.

Regardless of your lived experiences and shipping preferences, both of these takes about Elain and Gwyn are equally degrading and horrific and need to stop, but if you're only calling out the comments that hurt you/your friends/your ship and not the others, then you should maybe attempt some basic self reflection and analyse those double standards you're carrying.

This entire fandom needs to do better. I'll say again, for the umpteenth time, to any of my fellow Elriels that if you think mocking Gwyn's past is funny, then you're not mature enough to read an adult series. But this works both ways, and if you think mocking infertility is funny/use it as a win, then you're just as immature. I would really and truly appreciate it if we were not left alone to argue over and over again why discriminating against someone who couldn't "have a man's children" is wrong, and why many, many people in this adult fandom - that is largely comprised of women! - might find such a theory, and the resulting discourse, incredibly upsetting.

Infertility hurts; not having a kid when you want one can be viscerally painful. Besides that, I know very few people who have given birth who don't carry around some sort of emotional or physical trauma from doing so. Treating a character's hypothetical infertility with one man as a joke is gross.

Please don't call Gwyn "damaged goods" or suggest that Azriel would choose somebody else over Elain because she couldn't have his kids.

They are the same thing.

It's not hard to be kind. Pain is not a competition.

We should all do better, and take care of each other.

[lorynna]

Can’t be a radfem and have a boyfriend just like how you can’t be anti-pedophilia and date a pedophile

Every woman dating a man who killed her thought he was a “good one”. You are not special. You are not smarter than those women. You are just like those women. You do not have a special ability to judge men that those women who died did not have. You are not special.

Your comparison to someone dating a pedophile while being anti-pedophilia is a really bad comparison. Me being a radfem has nothing to do with me hating all men just because they are male. Maybe you do, I don't, so first of all, don't project this onto me.

Me being aware of male crime statistics and what harm males in general are capable of doing does not make me believe that every man is inherently evil. I am not saying that it is a radical feminist action to date a man, if i was saying that you would have every right to criticise me.

I stopped trying to be perfect in every way and following every guideline, because things are never black and white. I am living my life the way it makes me feel the best and in a way it is not harming anyone else, which my choice of partner does not, so it should not concern you. I am labeling myself a radical feminist because it aligns with my set of beliefs. But even under radfems they differ.

I was already aware that radfems(?) like you might come for me, simply for revealing that I am in a het relationship. Instead of attacking me for my personal choice that I am not even trying to frame as a feminist action, you could just go outside and breathe a bit. Never have I said that I believe I am special or better than other women or "know how to pick a good man". I think you are referring to one of my reposts (I linked it down below) where I already referenced this. But I am convinced you read the first line of my repost and went straight to sending me this anon without reading any further.

You judged and assumed I must think I was better than any woman that had died through the hands of their male partner, simply because I love a man and I said so in a post? No offense, but please go outside and touch some grass. Nobody suspects that the person they trust will someday kill them, that is not exclusively about male partners.

As a radfem I first of all believe in helping all women and providing a safe space for them and I do not differentiate wether or not they are in relationships and with whom, wether they are brainwashed by gender ideology or if they are part of the pro life agenda (to name a few examples).

No matter their choices or how much I might not like them personally, I would still not wish abuse on them or rat them out to anyone for having an abortion/hiding from their abusive partner, whatever. I am for protecting and listening women in general, because they are women. And if a woman suffers from abuse by a man and tells me, I will not go up to her and tell her "I told you so, you thought you were better than the others, huh?".

Where should those women go if the general society rejects them for those, if her partner makes her feel unsafe, if her parents are conservative. I wanna make a space that makes them feel comfortable to talk and not feel like they are gonna get shunned. I don't have to agree with their choices but I don't want to shame them, because that does not help anyone.

Maybe you should too.

And in your eyes I might not be a radical feminist but I don't really care all that much about your opinion.

[flightofthejackdaw]

Me every time someone misgenders Yamato and Kiku:

It’s really not that hard to just use the right pronouns, even if you don’t believe Yamato is trans, he still uses he/him pronouns and literally EVERY OTHER character also uses them when talking to him

And Kiku is quite clearly a trans woman who openly states as much, and other characters only misgender her out of not knowing any better. Wano is an extremely backwards country, and most seem to accept she’s a woman unless when she’s in the position of a samurai as in Wano women can’t be samurai (which is a whole OTHER issue with Wano, but it seems they’re getting better post Wano arc)

If the reason you think Yamato must be a woman and can’t be a man is because he has boobs, I implore you to actually meet a trans man pre surgery/unbinded because guess what! They’d have tits! Because they either not had anything done about them, don’t want to do anything, or don’t have access to any way to bind/get surgery. The final one is the category I believe Yamato falls into, as I’ve just stated how behind Wano is as a society

Also if you think that Oda wouldn’t have trans characters, and he’s not “woke” or “political”ugh. I think you forgot what show you’re watching, you know the show that had the entire Queer community stage a prison escape and fight the government to help Luffy, or the show in which the government is corrupt and we’re literally going to tear it down!? That show?!

Also also, if you’re first thought when hearing about trans people existing in a piece of media is that it must be “woke” or “political”, please I beg of you…

GO OUTSIDE!!

Like sorry just for existing bro is guess trying to live my life is a political statement!

Trans people just existing isn’t inherently political but it can be used as a political statement, like showing how backwards Wano is though people from there misgendering Kiku but the Strawhat’s getting it right and treating her and Yamato with respect. Showing how those who lived closed off and away from the world form gated ideas, and how those who have had experience will understand more

One piece is full of beautifully colourful characters, yea Oda doesn’t always get it right but at least he’s putting in the effort. And on top of that he’s a brilliant character writer and story writer whose crafted a massive world full of every kind of person, and every human experience. And that’s what makes this series special

Please just actually watch/one piece before misgendering Yamato and Kiku, and just STOP attacking the people actually getting it right because you can’t accept you’re wrong

Yamato and Kiku are amazing characters and are both very high on my favourites list

[post-maester]

I'm stuck in a bit of a pickle at the moment. I've been a little kinda sorta completely fucking gutted by the election results. I feel so utterly saddened for 2SLGBTQIA+ people, BIPOC, women, people with disabilities who now have to live beneath that man's shadow.

Among the sadness is an ache.

An ache to do something. An ache to take action of some kind. I have no idea what kind yet, but I can't stop thinking about it. I am brewing. Do I mean to create something? I don't know yet. I'll figure it out. But I mean to do something.

Community.

I've been reading lately. A book called "How To Think Like A Woman," by Regan Penaluna. The book tells the author's personal memoir, as well as the stories of 4 Early-Modern philosophers (who were women). I'm not a particularly smart person, sometimes I needed to read a paragraph or even a passage multiple times to really 'get it,' but some things stuck with me.

These philosophers were steadfast in their beliefs that women were deserving of education, asylum from abusive husbands, that they shouldn't need to hide their sexuality, that they should be allowed to pursue their intellectual desires just as a man could. But in these demands they each were specific. These freedoms were not meant to enable selfishness in women, as they often did in men. They believed that these freedoms, for all people, also came with the duty to better one's community - to give back. That embracing the people, valuing the people, fostering each individual, would further the community.

This point of community is where I've been stuck all day long. We all need community right now. We need shoulders to cry on, we need friends to laugh with, we need wise folk to tell us what the fuck to do now.

I don't know what I'm going to do - or make - but community needs to be a central theme.

Queerness & Transness.

I also feel like I've created nothing inherently queer. I've abandoned writing for some years now, my projects are old. Older than my realizations about identity. Older than my epiphanies about transness. I want to do something fuckin' gay as hell. I want to pour energy into something that may in some small way counterbalance the hate being screamed into the universe, infecting the pretty space-dust that I wanted to use to highlight my blush. I want to create something that whispers with a forked tongue: "Fuck. You."

Fact or Fiction.

Will it be fact or fiction? Do I want to search for beautiful, real stories to tell and help spread them? Or do I want to create something entirely new? I'm not a documentary producer, but should I be? My heart is in crafting stories, but maybe it's time to set that aside for a while in order to spread true stories that inspire good and justice. Maybe I'd better stick to what I know and make something up.

Abilities // Restrictions.

I am one person. Alone I can write, but that is difficult without an idea. I have the tinder and plenty of firewood, but I need a fucking spark. Once I have the spark I can do more.

I'm a filmmaker, I produce and edit. That's what I enjoy doing best. Not shit I can do without the idea. So for now those sit on the backburner.

I also have a(n admittedly small) rolodex of lovely queer individuals who may also feel a little distraught at the moment. Might be time to meet with them to discuss working on... something?

Budget is zero. Don't know what the project is so right now necessary funds are also zero, which is great. But nobody's getting paid for whatever the fuck comes of this, unless I can be smart.

Ending For Now.

This is all I can bear to write and word-vomit for now. I have been so full of energy and stress thinking about this all day long. I needed to get my thoughts out. If you feel the same ache I do, if there's any way I can help you make your "Fuck. You." project, or if you want to contribute to mine, please DM me and I'll be so happy to discuss and talk.

Please be safe, please be there for your fellow human beings, please be good to each other.

[mamawasatesttube]

Cassierose, cass(cain)rose and cissieanita

WOMEN IVE HEARD OF THEM.

i love cassierose. deeply homoerotic absolutely insane. i definitely think theyve fucked. im always torn on whether i like them actually being in a relationship or just never actually unpacking all their feelings past some powerfully homoerotic """hate"""-fuelled makeouts. because i don't think cassie would like, be a total bitch to rose forever! she is generally nice she's just going through shit and kind of takes it out at rose for a minute (<- my interpretation of geoff making her catty and bitchy). but at the same time her internalized homophobia is SO strong. i feel like she'd be so ashamed of her attraction to/fooling around with rose. and rose would not take that well. she'd taunt cassie about being her dirty little secret (tim vc It is not a secret literally everyone knows i Literally walked in on yall hardcore making out in the communal kitchen please stop doing that btw.) but in actuality cassie being ashamed of her would make her feel SO shitty. i like this as a mess of a situation first and foremost i think. but yeah if you can't tell by the giant ramble paragraph it absolutely compels me skjdfhkjds

cassrose is similar, in some ways, except that it IS always marred unfortunately in my mind by how much i disliked batgirl '08 for slandering cass so fucking hard. but i mean. "is she... like me?" + the inherent homoeroticism of cass slitting rose's throat and knowing deathstroke wouldn't let her die. honestly (because there are so many things wrong with rose) i think rose gets flustered when she thinks about that later. i reiterate. many things wrong with her. like yeah she almost died but also... damn. i feel like... if they ever were to actually have feelings + act on any of them, it'd be a future scenario, not anywhere where they are at the present. like i think rose would have a "hate"crush on cass (and a lot of feelings about cass being the daughter of an assassin who got out and did better than she perceives herself to have done), but cass wouldn't realize she even likes women for long enough that rose's thoughts on her would fade for a few years. but then maybe later...!

cissieanita. they make a lot of sense and i do like them but they don't make me as insane as other ships do. part of this is bc i just like... need to figure out how to Fix anita's storyline in my head (like, i think her forced retirement was Stupid As Fuck, but then if she continues heroism that would introduce Issues with her and cissie's relationship that didn't exist in canon bc she retired, you know?) and bc i haven't figured out what anita's future looks like in my head fully, it's hard for me to have concrete thoughts on the two of them. that being said, there's Definitely something very compelling abt the way anita looked up to cissie and cissie got jealous of her for replacing her and they had to work through it. it's a good and solid ship i just need to work harder to be insane about it properly.

[beevean]

You know I actually think that Lisa flat out forgetting the fact that she had begged Dracula not to commit genocide, just so that she and him can have their happy ending, is actually far more problematic than any case of fridging from the games

Of course fridging a female character just to further a male character's story is absolutely wrong, but N!Lisa's very personality and character motivation for even loving Dracula in the first place (ie:the fact that he still had some good in him and the possibility for him to learn to coexist peacefully with humans) got completely flipped over their head just so that her husband could get an (undeserved) happy ending

The former sacrifices the character's life, the latter destroys their literal character

It essentially treats Lisa as Dracula's "reward" for...doing all the fucked up things that he did. It's an actual, textual example of objectifying a female character

I noticed some time ago that the show doesn't really judge Dracula's action morally, only logically.

Even the most Alucard can say is that it's a shame that his father won't use his genius and knowledge for good because the CHURCH BAD has pushed him to do evil, or that his victory would lead to an empty world. He never points out how utterly disrespectful Dracula is being to his wife's (Alucard's mother) memory: she wanted to help mankind, she (allegedly) cared about mankind, and he's honoring her by exterminating her own species that she wanted to help and heal. That is fucked up, and it shows that Dracula may have loved Lisa, but he did not respect her for who and what she was. But the story only beats you over the head with how stupid and shortsighted and self-destructive Dracula's mass slaughter is, eventually warping it to "ohhh he's just trying to kill himself the long way around 🥺 poor depressed little meow meow 🥺" yeah sure uhhhhh his demons ate babies and he was willing to let vampires starve to death as a price to literally kill everyone. If he only wanted to kill himself, nothing stopped him from stepping into the sun.

I also pointed out how Lisa shows no concern at all for her own son, not thinking about him in her last moments of her life, gleefully leaving him to his grief once she comes back to life (which is one of the parts in NFCV that personally insult me). Why? Because it's all about Dracula. In SoTN, Lisa talks to Alucard, she wants him to do the right thing, and only at the end she expresses her love for her husband - love, not "please stop my hubby from committing genocide because I know he will". Sure, painting Lisa as some sort of cross between Jesus and the Virgin Mary isn't exactly peak female representation because women are not inherently pure saints, but you know, it's still better than Lisa being written as the spineless wife of the Devil and a shitty deadbeat mother while still meant to be seen as this kindhearted person and Dracula's only morality chain!

I really, really am uncomfortable with how whitewashed Dracula is, and how this reflects on the other characters.

And yes, the end really is sick from this point of view. I keep bitching about Lenore and Isaac's "redemption arcs", because one is still the callous abuser she was in S3 behind all the "bonding" and the other woke up one day and decided to become a hero but more or less only to feel good about himself and his life. But Dracula... didn't even go through that. He didn't even pretend to change, or realize he was in the wrong. He died only lamenting that he was killing his boy! That was what broke him! He was horrified that he was about to kill "Lisa's greatest gift to him"! Which sure, it's a wholesome sentiment, but he didn't even have the time to think that maybe his plan was just fucked up from the start. And he gets a saccharine good ending on a silver platter? Lisa is just forgetting that she died with the fear that her husband would kill everyone in her name, screaming to please not hurt her because Dracula is worse than Satan?

It really feels like he was a toddler throwing a temper tantrum, and Lisa was the pacifier stuffed in his mouth to keep him calm. There, wife back, now stop being evil. Not because he had a change of heart, but because he got what he wanted.

That ending is objectively awful under so many aspects, from a characterization and lore standpoints, and I know it was shoved there only as a response to backlash to S3's bleakness. No thematic relevance whatsoever - Isaac's comment that Hector shouldn't bring Dracula back because he has earned his rest feels like the remains of a first draft in retrospect. It's just "yay everyone not named Hector lives happily ever after <3 only good feels all around <3"

[m1edemafc]

blog navigation!

heya, thanks for stopping by my blog! i mostly made this because interacting on ao3 is a bit of a pain sometimes, and it's easier for me to take prompts/requests/questions on tumblr.

i'm so happy to take requests, so feel free to drop any prompts or requests! i'm not inherently opposed to writing anything, but forewarning, i hate every piece of smut i've ever written so it's highly unlikely that i'll publish anything with substantial smut. not ruling it out completely but it's just ~very~ unlikely.

these are my current works, you can find them all on ao3! unless it's a headcannon, my work will only ever be published on ao3. sorry to all the tumblr fic readers out there, but i promise ao3 is fairly easy to navigate even as a guest.

masterlist:

lucy bronze/ona battle

all these people think love's for show, but i'd die for you in secret

tags: established relationship, fluff, domestic fluff, karaoke

status: work in progress, eight chapters

jana fernández/jill roord

my heart has been split open (you see everything i'm hoping)

tags: hurt/comfort, acl injury, angst, fluff

status: coming soon, one shot

keira walsh/laura feiersinger

i just want to know you better (know you better now)

tags: 5+1 things, situationship, getting together, kind of a slow burn?

status: complete, one shot

mapi león/ingrid engen

let our hearts be the only sound

tags: established relationship, proposal, fluff

status: complete, one shot

alexia putellas/jenni hermoso

you'll find that you were never not mine

series: inked on my soul

tags: alternate universe, tattoo artist jenni, footballer alexia, getting back together, jealousy 

status: complete, one shot

fc barcelona femení

bilbao is one hell of a drug

tags: uefa womens champions league, winning

status: complete, seven chapters

alessia russo/leah williamson

hearts collide, souls intertwine

series: country girls universe

tags: kid fic, forced roommates, getting together, potential slow burn (i haven't decided)

status: coming soon

the way the moonlight dances in your eyes

series: country girls universe

tags: kidfic, fluff, literally just fluff, new kit pics!!

status: one shot, complete

caroline graham hansen/marta torrejón

forever is in your eyes

tags: kid fic, post retirement, marriage, domestic fluff

status: coming soon, one shot collection

a little about me:

i'm a 23 year old gemini vegetarian from australia! i've been an arsenal fan (both women and men) for quite a while now, but recently become a barca femeni fan. obviously being australian, i am a huge huge fan of the matildas (less so a socceroos fan tho, but up the boys).

although i love football, i am the least coordinated person and have not ever played football outside of pe lessons in school. i grew up as a competitive swimmer before i quit when i was 16 and i also played a few seasons of club netball during high school (i was not that great). i mostly am a pilates girlie now, but also have decided to start running this year and am running my first 14k race in august (please cross your fingers that i make it out alive).

although i've been an avid fic reader for over a decade across quite a few fandoms, i only started writing fic this year. that mostly happened because i've been on somewhat of a sabbatical for the past few months, and am not currently in uni or working so i've finally had time to actually put pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard) on all the words that have been floating around in my brain.

in saying that, my self declared sabbatical will be ending in july so i cannot promise any consistency around posting. i don't mind some gentle pushing but please keep in mind i usually take a full time course load at uni, work two jobs and also have a social life, friends, family and also a whole host of health problems so sometimes my life gets a bit too out of hand and it kinda is out of my control.

i really am trying to enter my era of a healthy work-life balance though, so i'm hoping we won't reach the same level of chaos that my life previously has been.

anyways, if you have made it to this point, you are a real trooper and thanks for reading through my rambles!

:))

[yoonyia]

😨 ok this is your open invite to talk about val!!

MY QUEEN

THE FORGOTTEN MIDDLE CHILD

how dare you all disrespect her majesty like this

you all should repent for your wrong doings

it pisses me off that a lot of people forget about val

and critique Val for never getting a life and following the tails of her brothers

but like do you not get the point of her character

she is the human representation of altruism and living for other people

like the reason her life revolves around other people is because that's who she is

she bends to no other will but her own

she not submitting herself to live someone else's life its a personal choice and her virtue to do so

THIS IS NOT HEADCANONS BY THE WAY IT IS LITTERALLY THE CANON AND I WANT PEOPLE TO SHUT THE FUCK UP AND STOP CALLING VAL A BADDLY WRITTEN CHARACTER

IM SORRY IF ITS PLAYING INTO A TROUPE OF WOMEN WHOS LIVES REVOLVE AROUND MEN BUT SHE HERSELF IS COMPLETELY INDEPENDANT AND LIVES BY HER OWN NEEDS AND WANTS, HER OWN NEEDS AND WANTS HAPPENS TO BE OTHER PEOPLE BUT SHES SACREFICING NOTHING

SHES ACTUALLY FORCING OTHERS INTO BEING BETTER PEOPLE EVEN THO THEY PERSONALLY HATE IT

I NEED YOU ALL TO UNDERSTAND

anyways enough about that

Val is a weeb

she had posters of anime characters when she was on earth

she would sneak in manga spoilers into demonsthes, especially if it was a manga peter was also reading

unlike Peter she hates k pop and ender sings it to her to piss her off

Val is like a sassy aunt towards ender and ender treats her like an older sibling that keeps barging into the room

very sibling dynamic with both her siblings, she dosent care about the fact they're world dominating leaders she sees them being idiots and calls them idiots and loves them dearly (ofcourse she loves ender a lot more as altruism dosent always comes with equality)

she gives people haircuts

she's super tall but enders taller (this does mean Peter is shortest of all the siblings and I find that fact hilarious)

she's really bad at cooking and made sure that if she ever got a husband he would do most of the cooking and cleaning

she values equal participation in projects but is more then ready to take on a leadership role

she's very flexible and unlike her brothers she is great at socializing

she reads constantly, ofcourse a lot of manga but also books in other languages that she manually translates using a dictionary

she really likes learning of different cultures and telling random facts about the world to others (and by others I mean ender, she talks to him a lot and vice versa)

she's emotionally intelligent but she dosent have the patience to say the things she knows is the right thing to say so she just ends up screaming the truth and letting it marinate as everyone around her is in tears asking her "I know what you're saying is correct but please stop screaming"

not ender tho, he just sits and listens and then agrees to it or add at it even if Val is getting real aggressive about it, he's calm and Val is impressed at his calmness

it's really hard to say stuff about Val without mentioned other people because her life so tightly revolved around helping them

I hope yall know that this isn't an inherently bad thing

she's atheist, and she's the only one in her family who is truely atheist. she personally dosent understand the concept of religion and thinks it's a bit silly

espicially when she gets to lustainia

she is a wine aunt but not a wine mom

she and her husband are both jokesters

Val is very funny

Val is like the comedian Taylor Tomlinson

she dosent like her mom always being a cheerleader but she herself is also quite the optimist

she's says things like "the world's gonna end tomorrow" and cheers everyone up

she hates corn, she will spit every kernel out one by one if the food has corn in it

this includes popcorn

never take her to the movies

she also has a really weird schedule

wakes up at 11am, does some stretches, goes eat lunch, does work, talk to ender for 3 hours, reads, exercises, eats dinner at around 2am, socializes with others till 5 then goes to bed at 6am

time zones fear her

she likes the cold, she loves snow

she likes having a fan on whenever she sleeps

her favorite food is pho (so is enders)

she wears the same thing every single day and she genuinely wears the same clothes as steve jobs

if you ever see me draw Val in anything other then a black turtleneck and jeans and I don't call it out that ain't me that's a skinwalker and I want you to kill it

her and her husband's relationship is actually really sweet

they compliment eachother like how you need salt in baking

also she just in general also brings out the best in people

she's just real nice if you ignore her impatience and lack of understanding

she dosent have a lot of empathy but she knows what will help you

she is warm and soft and comforting if you sit with her long enough to get used to the cold temperature of the room she's in

she's a born teacher, great at figuring out what her students need

she's also vegan, and forced ender to go vegan too

or it was the reverse

I cant make up my mind

this one's long cause I really like Val and I don't ever get enough Val content

if I were to rank my love for the wiggin siblings it would go ender most Val second peter last (like their parents actually JDKDKD) AND IM SO SORRY PETER FANS I JUST LOVE MY SARCASTIC PROFESSORS THAT ARE COMEDIC

also yes I belive that both Val and ender are both comedic and funny

I refuse to believe that ender is constantly depressed and is :| all the time

both of these kids are doing the Anya face half the time or laughing at a joke no one gets

Val tries to influence ender a lot and get him out of his low self esteem and self hatred

I mean she influences him a lot but sadly never got to fixing that issue

anyways yea that's my Val for yall

give more respect to this women she built her life in a way were she would be the happiest

GOD FORBID SOMEONE WANTS TO BE HAPPY AND HEALTHY IN THIS UNIVERSE

[theblimpfruit]

Female friendship in the Cosmere series

So after a few years of being out of the fandom, I got back into Brandon Sanderson books/the Cosmere, and have been devouring everything that's come out in the interim. It's been a fun time! But I've been reminded of something that bothered me back when I was getting into these books and world for the first time, and it still kinda does. This is a bit of a ramble, so bear with me.

Okay, so for those of you who didn't know, Sanderson's posted a draft on his website of "Mythwalker", a shelved novel he wrote very early into his attempts at getting published. It's a clunky read- it's got a lot of flaws, and obviously needs an editing pass, and I can see why Sanderson stopped working on it. I read it anyways back in high school, hungry as I was for more Sanderson.

There's a bunch that'll probably stick out to you if you're a Cosmere reader: the main character Devin has shades of Kaladin in terms of arc, there's the terms skaa and koloss (although here koloss are the nobles), and then there's another plot with "Siri" and "Vvenna". As you can probably guess by their names, these characters and their plot would be adapted into what became Warbreaker.

A lot of the broad strokes are similar: Vvenna is the perfectly poised, in control of her emotions, ideal noblewoman, engaged to a deified Emperor. Siri is the younger, more brash one, and more frequently flouts the rules of high society. But what really struck me reading this as a teen is this difference from Warbreaker: Vvenna and Siri are not sisters. They are friends.

Well, strictly speaking, they're lady and handmaiden, since Vvenna is so high a noble that lower nobles are her attendants, but they're a lot closer than their prescribed roles.

They still have a similarish initial relationship to Vivenna and Siri- fondness for each other tempered by some barbed feelings for each other's personalities, but the fact that they get to be really close with each other but not have their bond be familial really stuck in my head. And I think that was because that sort of connection between female characters was, and is, still pretty rare in Brandon Sanderson books?

I'll admit I don't remember all the details of all the books, but it seems like a consistent thing both in what was out when I read this years ago, and today. Please correct me if I'm forgetting or misremembering other relationships like this, with major characters.

In Mistborn era 1, Vin has basically no other women to connect with, there's Kelsier, his crew, Sazed, Elend.

Era 2 has Steris and Marasi, who are half-sisters. MeLaan is there but is mostly close to Wayne.

Stormlight has Shallan and Jasnah, but they're teacher and student, not really friends, although of course they do care about each other, but it's a different kind of relationship. Venli's main relationships are with her sister/mother. Lift is Lift, Syl by her nature is mostly with Kaladin and other male characters. I can see why Navani and Raboniel captured a lot of people's hearts though.

I can't remember much with Elantris and who Sarene interacts with besides Raoden and Hrathen.

Warbreaker is like I said, Siri and Vivenna are now sisters (and again to be clear I don't dislike the change inherently- it's not a worse relationship/book for it, and the change makes sense with how different the plot is).

I've only read the first graphic novel for White Sand so as far as I know, Khriss hasn't talked to another woman lol

And then, what's there in the others? Tress's major relationships are with Charlie/Huck, then Crow and Fort, and then ig the lady who's really into guns. Yumi's whole deal is that she has no one to talk to besides Liyun who piles pressure onto her, never mind a female friend. In Sunlit, again, Elegy and Rebeke are sisters.

I guess you could say this is a subset of the issues with having few female characters in general (and I'll be the first to say Sanderson is doing better than he has been on this front), but idk. This was something I hadn't even noticed until I read those Mythwalker chapters and found it really refreshing despite the fact that "women being friends and supporting each other" really shouldn't be something that's refreshing!

If you've read this far, I'll reiterate again that I do enjoy these books but this is something that's been really niggling at me, and I'd like to know if it makes sense to anyone else.

[beanghostprincess]

I love trans women usopp. She would be so pretty but still be the same goofy ass usopp as usual. She still lies (she likes to add flirtatious charm or empathy. Babe learned how to cry on command.) Still cowers, dramatic as fuck and bickers with her crew

Sanji would swoon and act a fool towards as he does to Robin and Nami. During fights he jumps in wanting to protect her. 'Don't worry usopp darling! I'll save you! My sweet!'. Before he could finish his affections she's already sprinted the fuck out of there with out hesitation.

She's more touchy with Robin and uses her a Zoro 2.0 and hides behind her and drags her into her shenanigans. Robin likes to use a disembodied hand to shove her or smack the back of the head if she does something stupid. (Platonically of course you know the straw hats. Their Love language is physical violence towards each other)

Her dynamic with Nami did not change. They still cower in fear together, run away together, fight together and yell at Luffy together. They've only gotten closer, they even started fighting with each other more.

Her relationship with Zoro didn't change that much either girly still be yelling at him and criticizing his sense of direction. They still fight with each other, call each other names. Zoro still sees usopp as his equal she's still usopp. Is she still a liar, she's still over dramatic, Still a coward but she never misses her target and that's all he cares about. If only she'd stop nagging him.

She still thinks Franky is cool and is amazed by his engineering. His poses tho are kind of lame to her now but in a cute way. She will laugh whenever he does it. Franky sees her as a little sister which isn't saying much because he used to see her as a little brother. Brook is the same, nothing changed but he does ask her about her panties and you wouldn't believe this but she did let him see them. once!! and only once she was very strict about that and he never asked again.

Her and Luffy are still best friends and still good off. They're still very touchy and grabby. (I love how he doesn't see women's bodies as inherently sexual he just sees them as bodies) He still will wrestle with her, wraps around her and fall asleep next to her or on top of her. He has landed on top of her many times and she has yelled at him many times that he can't do that anymore! her boobs aren't cushions they hurt!

The only real change was sanji (I ship them but for the sake of this post it's one sided) sanji is a gentleman chivalry is his policy and he will treat any lady with the utmost respect (At least that's what he tells himself) he makes her drinks, treats and puts a lot of effort into the dinners that she eats like the other girls. When she started transitioning and developing he started going nuts for her. Usopp ate that shit up not only was it gender euphoric to be treated like the other women but she can ask sanji to do or buy her anything and he'll do it. She fucking loves attention that hasn't changed

Sometimes he'll revert back to his old ways with her especially when they get into an argument. He doesn't care if she's a gorgeous woman with pretty hair, a luscious body and smells like lemon and rosemary! (He does care. He cares so much. It's pathetic) stop bitching and start fishing!... Please darling.

Her fashion sense tho. It's the same but better She has sun hats, cabbie hats, brimmed braise, regular berets, beanies, buckets, cloche, and so many headbands. Short overalls, baggy overalls, jumpsuits of various sizes. She doesn't like wearing shirts she never did, unlike the other women on the boat she doesn't like letting her girls loose. It's not practical or functional for her line of work. She wears a sports bra or something with great support. Her favorite top is a high neck sports bra with a zipper in the front. Her hair is usually in a protective hair style. French braids with Afro puffs in the back or regular ponytail. She likes to let it down sometimes but it gets in the way. She's not that girly but she still wants to turn heads

In short she didn't really change and her crew treats her the same and the changes that did happen benefited her

See??? You send me asks like this one and then I don't have anything else to say because everything here is just perfect!!!

Transfem Usopp has changed my life for the better and this whole text is so so beautiful because this is exactly how I imagine her dynamics with the crew!!