#the fact is that it IS done by homophobes and rightfully people call it out

[cosmicredcadet]

Some people don't seem to understand why it's not okay to constantly add on "As long as you're not sex/romance negative" onto every repulsed "positivity" post and I think the best way I can explain it is this:

Remember what Straight people say? "I'm supportive of gay people as long as they don't shove it down my throat!"? Yeah, we all know that's homophobic as shit right? Ok, so I'm going to ask you to look at a repulse "positivity" post and replace Repulsed with gay and sex/romance negativity with straight negativity or something similar. Suddenly it doesn't read so nice, now does it? Suddenly it's "Gay people are valid but make sure you're not shaming people for being straight!" So let me ask: what makes the sentence above worse than people saying the same shit but to repulsed people, On every single post.

The fact so many people feel like they need to Remind repulsed people to "not be dicks" and they never do it to literally any other identity because they would obviously be called out for being hateful... so tell me again, what makes it ok to say that to repulsed people every single time we speak up or get any sort of "positive" post?

[dalekofchaos]

Chappell Roan is right

Chappel rightfully called out her problems with the Republicans and the democrats and the choices we are given this election and people have a problem with it?

No one here had any issue with Macklemore outright saying he wouldn’t vote for democrats in the fall because of the genocide, and instead praised him for using his platform to speak out, but Chappell Roan says she can’t endorse Kamala but will still vote for her and she gets torn to shreds and “clearly doesn’t understand anything about politics.”

And then the white liberals and privileged gay men came out to smear her name and even began to question and police her queerness. I saw a looooot of progressive white gays side with Zionists in an effort to put a queer woman in her place for the last few days.... Ya'll are worse than the fucking MAGA cultists, at least their evil is obvious, ya'll act like condescending well meaningful bigots but dare to act better.

Notice how when a woman, especially a lesbian with strong convictions or morals stands up for what's right and calls out the hypocrisy of the democratic party, them funding a genocide and not doing enough for Trans people and the LGBTQA+ community in general, they all turn on her for not showing blind allegiance when they have shown nothing but broken promises in return?

Chappell Roan reasonably arguing that she would like better candidates, while clearly stating she thinks Harris is the better candidate. And then read endless comments from Harris supporters saying Roan is an idiot. This is cult behaviour. She's on your side, why demand absolute loyalty?

The people who support Kamala think a winning strategy is to belittle anyone who supports Kamala in the wrong way. Thereby driving away people who would otherwise support her. This, supposedly, is the grown up rational strategy.

And Chappell has a right to be pissed about how the Democratic Party's policies have failed Trans people and the LGBTQ+ community as a whole.

These are the polices that are harming Trans people.

This article alone just shows how the LGBTQA+ community feel unprotected and unheard by the democratic party.

It also doesn't help that in the most recent debate, seeing how trans and queer rights were not even once a topic of discussion. Seeing how trans and queer rights were not even once a topic of discussion. It hurts, and its a terrifying reality we live in.

It’s not just debates. Feel free to check the Democrats 2024 platform’s LGBTQ+ section (pp. 56-57), there’s almost nothing in there for trans people.

So I don’t blame her for not wanting to put her name behind someone who represents a party that just is NOT doing enough.

The way Chappell Roan is just saying we need to hold politician’s accountable to higher standards and demand more from them instead of just accepting their actions, is completely logical and reasonable. The fact that some on the internet has bullied Chappell Roan for dare saying republicans and democrats have both done a terrible job as leaders instead of just blindly praising them is crazy. Like she's saying she's still voting blue, but she's not happy with them which that's valid, that's what normal people should do, question your candidates and request them to be better the same way people are demanding Chappel to be "better." it’s so refreshing to see a celebrity actually talk about and criticize politics instead of just making an instagram post once and pretending everything will be fine once kamala wins. Also a lot of the people who are questioning her queerness on twitter. Gross. idc if you're mad about her recent stances or not, but policing someone's queerness is honestly homophobic and it shows the internet only accepts someone's identity so long as they always agree with them.

Make no mistake about it. Trump, Vance and the Christofaasicts are a clear and present evil.

But how do you decide to fight that evil with Bush and Reagan era republicans to endorse you? Reagan and Bush DESTROYED this country. You think Trump is bad? Everything you think Trump did bad. Everything you know is wrong with this country. It all comes back to Ronald fucking Reagan and there is a goddamned fucking reason why people considered Reagan the Antichrist. On his best days George Bush was a worse president than Donald Trump. The Iraq war was worse than anything Trump did. 2,000,000 civilians killed and 37,000,000 were forced to flee their homes. Nearly everything terrible Trump did in office, Bush laid the groundwork for it. and the fucking democrats rehabilitated him.

How do you look me in the eye and say Kamala getting that vile fucking goblin DIck fucking Cheney's endorsement is a fucking good thing? He should be tried for fucking war crimes, not endorsing Kamala Harris.

Not to mention a black muslim man was wrongfully executed two days ago and no one did a damned fucking thing. Not the so called "pro-life" Republicans and not the democrats. No one in the Biden admin fought for Marcellus Williams

It’s funny watching people go after Roan for having reservations about the Democrats on the same day that a report was released that Blinken knew Israel was starving Palestinians while the Biden administration pretended that it wasn’t happening so they could keep sending weapons.

People would rather smear Chappell Roan than hold politicians accountable. They would rather bury their heads in the sands. Unfriendly fucking reminder, THIS was liberals reaction to the names of Palestinian children being named at the DNC and wouldn't even invite a Palestinian to speak at the DNC.

THIS is the face of the democrat party and liberals. They have shown us time and time again that they are not on our side. They will defend white interests over the collective struggles of Black, Brown, poor and disenfranchised people around the world. This is what Chappell Roan is trying to tell us why she is unhappy with voting for Kamala Harris. Biden, Kamala and their ilk are funding and arming a genocide, not doing enough for LGBTQA+ rights.

They spend millions to billions of dollars on Israel's war crimes, meanwhile people still don’t have healthcare, access to affordable housing, affordable education, no clean energy, reproductive rights and LGBTQ+ rights are trampled on and disability benefits get denied to deserving applicants- and people wonder why I say I hate this fucking country.

I am so fucking tired of human rights being held hostage because YOU empowered the Republicans.

You had ages to Codify RVW and didn't fucking do it. You allowed the Republicans to kill it and you let them see what they can do and because of that we have Project 2025 on the horizon and you have completely and utterly fucked over women and the LGBTQA+ community just so you can hold our fucking rights hostage as leverage for us to vote for you.

Here's what's gonna happen. Either we get a straight up Christofascist dystopian nightmare or "nothing will fundamentally change 2.0"

UNFUCKINGFRIENDLY FUCKING REMINDER, WE HAD MULTIPLE UN RESOLUTIONS TO FREE THE HOSTAGES AND END THE GENOCIDE, BUT THE US CONSTANTLY VETOED IT.

So vote whoever you want for, but use critical thinking and for fuck's sake, if Kamala wins, don't act like this is over. Demand better. Hold Kamala and her administration accountable. If Trump wins, don't blame Chappell and don't blame leftists. Blame Kamala and the democrats for refusing to change. For refusing to fight for their voters interests. For refusing to stand AGAINST A FUCKING GENOCIDE!

“fuck Kamala, yet fuck Trump a bit more too. so I’ll vote Kamala if I have to, and nothing else. and will protest her everyday forever afterwards,” is *the* mainstream youth opinion, but white liberals and privileged white gays are too self-obsessed and self-absorbed to get that.

People have more expectations of 20 year old pop stars than of the government and I think that’s a major problem.

Chappell is a beautiful anomaly. Be like Chappell & demand more.

Chappell picks local drag queens as her openers, donates concert proceeds to charities supporting trans poc and palestianians, etc, wanted to read Palestinian poems at the white house when she refused to let them pink-wash her, constantly vocalizes what side of important issues shes on but the second she refuses to blindly endorse a candidate for valid reasons.

Her stance is the most punk rock thing I’ve seen from an artists since Green Day dropped American Idiot and since Sinéad O'Connor took a stand against the Catholic Church and stood up for Palestine. Truly, so eloquently put and she’s a rockstar and I need everyone to understand how much I love her.

It’s so refreshing to see a celebrity actually talk about and criticize politics instead of just making an instagram post once and pretending everything will be fine once Kamala wins.

I can't help but feel if a straight white male cis celebrity had said what Chappell said he'd be treated as some sort of political wizard.

This is from the same Chappell Roan who called out the incredibly parasocial relationships about celebrities is weird and dared to stand up for herself and put up boundaries and since then everyone has just been looking for a reason to be outraged by whatever she says/does

Chappell cares about Palestine. That's a huge thing with her. Right, like, right. And it's a huge thing with a lot of young people. Like, you're not really gonna get an enthusiastic endorsement from somebody who's very, you know. Anti-War in Gaza. You're like, "you should be settling." It's like, not your place to tell her what she does and doesn't value. Chappell's an artist. Chappell's not a politician. Chappell doesn't owe you a fucking thing.

So yeah, Fuck Trump and fuck Kamala and Chappell Roan, keep going because you are a star and an icon because for once we are seeing someone who won't spoon-fed propaganda and stands up for their convictions and morals. We are TIRED of the "lesser evil" So yeah Chappell is right.

[mikeellee]

Have you noticed about MHA that the characters Hori wants us to feel sorry for are written as terrible people with pretty weak reasons to feel sorry for them?

I.e Bakugou - fell into a river at 4/5 was helped out of it by Izu and somehow that inspired years of bullying and torment adding to the fact that Izu was born quirkless. There's no "abusive parents" in canon (although Mitsuki's behaviour is questionable from what we see) it's just Bakugou being an ass because he wants to be.

Shinsou - in canon there's no confirmed abusive parents, there's no bullying either he's unironically quirkist to others (his fans are quick to forget he called Ojiro a monkey.) And to add to this he's now shown no qualms about puppeteering friends against each other (Machia against AFO) which is normally a villain move in stories.

Toga - no confirmed abusive parents (they could have just taken bad advice from a quirk doctor), did she have friends prior to her snapping? Whatever, she's forgot about / doesn't care for them now. Sure, she has her madness from her quirk as a explanation but she's shown to be able to hold back if she wants to - so how mad really is she? Or does she just enjoy killing?

@doodlegirl1998 Hi

I like to begin this by saying...Fans complaining Kishimoto is sexist, homophobic, or whatever aren´t the same as people rightfully complaining about some of Hori´s choices in MHA.

"Sakura could have been great" What the fuck this even means? Nothing hinders Sakura except Sakura. She is what you get. The fandom loves to cry about how she was done dirty...when in reality she got all she wanted.

Now Hori? He is a writer who steps up an amazing concept to...glorify abusers and useless characters.

Bakugou- HAD A HAPPY CHILDHOOD, IS RICH AND HAD A QUIRK. THIS ASSHOLE IS ENTITLED AND UNGRATEFUL. The people who say "Mitsuki abused him" are solely mistaken or never saw the show but read a fic. He abused Izu for no reason...and when Hori tried to explain...it makes worse. And I´ll say HERE: GUYS PLEASE STOP WITH THIS "QUIRKLESS ARE SUBHUMANS" BC IT OFFERS AN EXPLANATION FOR BK´S ABUSE ON IZU.

Shinsou- I think the bullying scene comes from a person asking or commenting "wow, please don't brainwash us" She could be joking here. But SHinso and the fandom took literally, and you see so many fics where he is abused beyond human abilities...and for what? Actually, if he was abused as the fics said...why he would want to be a hero? Yeah, this is smth the fics never answer (mind you, Hitoshi has a power and color similar to a Marvel villain Killgrave aka the purple man) like if people toss trash at him and shit like that...why he would want to protect them?

Toga- GOD, I HATE THIS "HER QUIRK BRAINWASH HER" NO, it would only take her agency. She can control herself just fine. She is just completely delulu. Actually, Toga is totally delulu. And the whole thing "her parents abused her" is not true and is also lazy. YEAH, ANOTHER PARENT WHO ABUSED THE CHILD IN THIS STORY WOW HOW ORIGINAL.

To sum up, Hori can´t write those characters at all and is always using lame excuses to "forgive" their horrible actions.

[burningtheroots]

‘As for gay men, we criticize them as much as straight men but not more for being homosexual.’

Your movement doesn’t. Maybe you do individually. But I’m telling you that when I open most radfem works, I see a visceral disgust towards homosexuality. I gave you the example of the radfem who said that gay men were ‘more prone’ to being csa offenders and she received absolutely no push back from her fellow radfems.

Many classic radfem works describe gay men as extreme sexual denegerates as if your boyfriends aren’t degenerates.

Radfems are absolutely spreading engaging with accounts which claim that gay men are paedophiles and that they groom young boys, and often posting these claims themselves, which contributes to a lot of violence and discrimination against the gay community. The person who runs Reduxx, for example, just decided to criticise a young man who was trying to share his experiences of being HIV+ and educate others and most of the other radfems didn’t make her accountable for this. I think when when a gay man criticised this you all accused him of using male privilege against you or something to that effect.

But here’s the thing: feminism is supposed to be a woman’s movement. There’s absolutely no reason for you all to spend an equal amount of time criticising gay men, as you supposedly do, because the vast majority of misogyny is perpetrated by straight/bi men. There’s also no reason for you to insert yourselves in their affairs and get angry about their hookups and drag shows like this. They don’t even want you to be involved but like libfems who have taken men’s mental health upon themselves many radfems won’t stop. I don’t watch drag but the majority of performers are just experimenting with gender. There are lesbian drag kings too.

Also, American radfem organisations like WoLF willingly ally themselves with homophobic Christian organisations. Because homophobia simply doesn’t matter to them.

You’re a bi woman. What do you gain from trying to defend homophobic straight women?

You gave an example, but I can’t judge it without having seen the context myself. Link?

Again, no radfem I know thinks like this of homosexuality. In fact, we focus a lot on LGB rights, though our focus is on lesbians, not gay men.

Most men, except for a handful maybe, are degenerates. The accusations against gay men I‘ve seen are usually based on things some of them have actually done. I agree that demonizing them for being homosexual is wrong, and older radfem works lack nuance, but I think the key to it is that they‘re MALE. And straight men receive as much vitriol, even more (and rightfully so). Radical feminism gets regularly judged and demonized for "hating" heterosexual relationships and advocating for female separatism.

Can you show me the Reduxx post?

And again, I never said that women who jump onto radfeminism can‘t be wrong and fuck up. Radical feminism is a theory, an ideology if you like, and we have our principles set in stone. Homophobia occurs in every feminist movement, and needs to be fought, but it doesn’t change the fact that the movement itself is pro LGB.

And I don‘t defend homophobic straight women, I exclude them from my personal life & am perfectly capable of calling these women out, even when they have written a useful book.

I literally have to tip-toe on my own blog to a certain extent because of the pushback female separatists receive from other "radfems" or people who think someone who doesn’t like d!ck is a "vagina fetishist".

[melodramas]

i’ve been holding this in for a very long time but i finally feel that i can share my experiences with tori, @lizzo. though this is just one interaction that i had with her that sent me over the edge, tori (a 24 year old white woman) has a history of harassing both people of color and minors (or people who are both, like me). when confronted about her disgusting actions, she acts like a typical white woman: being angry and defensive at first and then making herself out to be the victim time and time again. 

solely for context purposes, this post also brings up alana, @seegoldendaylight, a 34 year old woman who runs a sideblog for the film call be my your name, a film with blatant and graphic pedophilia. when i confronted her about this (completely civilly), she also made herself the victim and claimed that she was being bullied by someone who was half her age at the time. i don’t have the screenshots for the conversation as of right now, but when i did discuss this with her, i remained civil throughout; until she began accusing me of baseless bullying. 

the incident covered in the screenshots below happened on november 2, 2020 (a day before the elections in the usa). 

it’s important to note that this is not an isolated incident. i know for a fact that tori has harassed other minors and people of color in the time between november 2 and today, but it is not my place to share what she has done to them unless and until they feel safe doing so.

the post continues under the cut because it got quite long. please share this and block tori to reduce this racist woman’s platform on this website. 

at the time this occurred, i was 16 and tori was 23. trigger warnings for racism, lgbtqphobia, and pedophilia mentions.

for context, tori was discussing how important she felt it was to cut off conservative friends and family completely because they “didn’t care about lgbtq+ people and Black people.” she brought up her own experiences and how she, personally, was able to cut off conservative people in her own life and asserted that anyone who wasn’t able to do so was a terrible person. 

as seen in the last screenshot, her main point was that even if it was unsafe for someone to disagree with conservatives, they needed to do so.

tori then elaborated and went on a rant about her own situation and how she, personally, was able to successfully get out of a homophobic area and cut off these conservative people, saying (presumably to the other people in the conversation) that she was “tired and angry and somebody should be.” 

at this point, i entered the conversation and (as a moderator) tried to defuse it by speaking civilly with tori and trying my best to explain how tori’s perspective was often unfeasable, especially for people of color and minors. rose (notably a non-usamerican white adult) also agreed with me for the most part.

when i brought up the opression faced by lgbtq+ people in other countries, tori mocked me (and rose) for bringing up these other nations. as soon as we pointed out her aggression, tori made herself the victim by claiming that we were undermining her.

here, the conversation shifted. realizing that there was no way she could spin this in her own favor, tori switched gears, bringing up a conversation between me and her friend alana, @seegoldendaylight. as mentioned above, alana is a pedophilia apologist who is an avid fan of the film call me by your name and believes that all criticism of the film is a personal attack on her. 

tori mentions the old discussion once again, claiming that i undermined her experiences by accurately stating that it’s impossible for some people to cut off conservatives. she also asserts that cmbyn is a film without any pedophilia, all while knowing that it features a graphic, sexually explicit mlm relationship between a 17 year old boy and a 24 year old man. 

she doesn’t let go of the idea that “things are different in italy” to justify her baseless argument. she claims that i, a minor of color, harassed her friend when i civilly approached alana about the issues with the film.

she gaslights me, saying that i’m trying to manipulate her by telling her that pedophilia is bad. she makes another baseless claim when she says that i am only ever sporadically active “whenever i have a point to make.”

she brings up the baseless bullying claims at the same time that she is actively harassing me for expressing my discomfort and disgust towards pedophilia as an lgbtq+ minor of color and ceaselessly asserts that she is in the right.

as soon as other members enter the conversation, tori makes herself the victim again, calling me the bully. she shifts all blame off herself by refusing to acknowledge her aggression by saying that she was “apparently” rude when multiple members in the server were uncomfortable with her behavior.

she brings up alana once more, talking about her friend’s panic attacks that she gets because she is scared of being called out for supporting pedophilia in media. when i bring up my own panic attacks that i have experienced over the course of my time on tumblr that have been caused by the fetishization of lgbtq+ minors of color by white adults, she dismisses me entirely. she has the audacity to claim that all i care about is winning this argument when she mentions my supposed “moral high ground” when the actual issue at hand is her blatant racism and aggression towards a minor of color.

the discussion closes with this. tori summarizes what she believes has happened, completely leaving out how aggressive and blatantly racist she has been throughout the conversation.

apparently, she hates conservatives because they constantly undermine lgbtq+ people and people of color but is unable to have a single civil conversation about her own racist behavior.

please do not engage with tori and just block her. once again, her url is @lizzo. she has a long history of harassing minors and people of color while refusing to learn and grow after her disgusting behavior. she consistently acts like the victim when she is rightfully called out and expects people of color to be civil to her when they explain, time and time again, how she has been openly racist to them in the past. 

thank you for reading!

[avgeriss]

Everything I hate about tlou2 :)

SPOILERS! (I’ve tagged the post but just in case the tag doesn’t work)

I wasted 20 hours on this bullshit, so now it’s time for me to talk about everything I hate about it. This is going to be a very long and very messy post.

Not in chronological order, or in order of how much I hate the particular moment/thing.

Also, I think I should just state, these are all my personal opinions, please don’t attack me over them

 1. the transphobia (I don’t care about the plot, I’m so fucking mad that Lev was deadnamed so. Many. Times)

2. the homophobia (I can’t believe this piece of shit actually called Ellie and Dina the d slur...)

3. the racist writing

4. the sexist writing

5. the fact that ALL the trailers where fucking lies

6. and they were lies because ND knew everyone was going to hate it, but they needed people to think it was good so the fans would buy it

7. the fact that they knew people would be upset with part two but went with in anyways

8. Ellie being forced to listen to Seth apologies for being a homophobic piece of shit

9. Joel dying

10. Jesse dying

11. (the /way/ Joel and Jesse died)

12. Tommy becoming a selfish fucking asshole at the end

13. Tommy and Mariah breaking up

14. the fact that Ellie and Dina didn’t even stay together? They fucking broke up at the end, what the fuck (can that be considered queerbaiting?)

15. ND trying to make us sympathies with Abby after she violently tortures and kills Joel

16. And they try to make us sympathies with her by making her grow attached to a child, just like Joel did with Ellie. It just makes her a fucking hypocrite

17. That fact that ND even thought they could get us to sympathize with Joel’s killer after we grew attached to Joel through the first game

18. That fucking sex scene oh my goodness (which includes a man cheating on his pregnant gf, yikes)

19. Joel dying AT THE BEGINNING OF THE FUCKING GAME

20. How most of the fucking game we end up playing as Abby

21. The fact that Joel and Ellie don’t even fully make up before Joel was killed IN FRONT OF ELLIE

22. That fact that the actual scene of Ellie finding out Joel lied to her was so short

23. Mariah being a bitch. They made Mariah a fucking bitch in the second game. Even more so then she was in the first game (I understand her concerns in the first game, and at the beginning of the second game, but holy shit dude)

24. We never found out what happened to Cat. She seems to be so important, but we only know about her from Ellies diary. Is she even still alive?

25. No closure for anyone. No, Ellie did not receive closure (Ellie especially didn’t receive closure)

26. The fact that Yara died (and the way she died. I had to look away)

27. the plot is horrible, as I’ve mentioned, but it’s also just a fucking mess

28. Neil trying to make us feel bad for wanting revenge on bad people? What the hell

29. Neil thinking his game was so fucking edgy and cool, when in reality it was just torture porn

30. And once again, the people who suffered this torture where: poc, women, trans and lesbian characters

31. How they built up Joel and Ellies relationship in the first game then fucking tore it down so horribly

32. The fact that ND is one hundred percent going to try and hide behind how ‘diverse’ their game is when rightfully angry fans complain

33. The fights scene where very underwhelming compared to the trailers. might just be who I watched though

34. Holy shit. The fact that Ellie didn’t even end up killing Abby, after ALL SHE WENT THROUGH! She killed all those people to get to Abby and then didn’t even end up killing her

35. I know ND isn’t about giving players choices that may affect the game dramatically, but the fact that we couldn’t even have chosen to stay with Dina?

36. That Neil’s self insert oc fucking spitting on Joel’s mangled dead body,,,, that just shows how much respect Neil has for Joel as a character.

37. I know I’ve talked about it already, but they fucked up with Joel and Ellies relationship So Fucking Bad

38. Ya’ll wanna know how mad this game made me? Towards to end, when I thought they had killed Tommy, I got so fucking mad, that my emotions just. Shut off. I was /literally/ so mad, that I couldn’t even feel how mad I was. I ended up skipping pretty much to the end fight with Abby and Ellie, which I also ended up skipping half of it anyway. How bad do you have to fuck up to make someone feel like that? That’s not easy, my dude.

39. Not one character death made me think ‘wow, that was a good death, what a way to send of this character.’ It was literally all for shock value

40. Ellie ending up alone, after she states, not once, BUT TWICE in the first game, that that’s something she doesn’t want to happen. She tells Sam that’s her biggest fear, and then tells Joel everyone she loved has died or left. That was such a big thing in the first game and ND just shit on that

41. This one is just me being a little sensitive, but ND put Ellie in her own little house, as apposed to her living with Joel. One of the most important people in her life, even after he lied to her. I might be able to understand her moving out after Joel told her the truth, but not as soon as they get to Jackson. That doesn’t fit her character At All

42. Basically, I think they just fucked up with the characters and their relationships. like don’t get me wrong, I adore Dina/Ellie, but their whole dynamic…. I just can’t place it (mainly their relationship at the beginning, it gets better towards the end, until the real end)

43. Also I feel like the only real mourning any character did was Ellie mourning Joel, and even that was done badly. I felt as though she moved on too fast, she only really started experiencing ptsd with that traumatic scene towards the end of the game. I also feel like Jesse wasn’t really mourned properly

[skunked-up-kicks]

About Allison yeah. I think people acknowledge she’s a bit ableist and classist but they erase the fact she was fine/complicit with Seth’s homophobia and treatment of Nicky (tbh it seems like all the upperclassmen were??) + what that post said. This isn’t hate I love Allison! But I think she’s much more interesting as a character with flaws that make sense with her upbringing and backstory rather than just #girlboss.

okay my response to this is ungodly long so, if you're interested...

1. her ableism

the thing is when people do acknowledge her ableism it's always with how she treats andrew (which makes sense cause it's the most obvious, and they're not wrong) but it kinda results in an issue. the way these fics that acknowledge this usually go is that allison calls andrew 'monster' and maybe talks about how he's 'psychotic' or something. then it goes one of few ways:

1) neil tells her (and usually all the upperclassmen as they get grouped together seeing as they all do this) not to speak about andrew like that, maybe he threatens her or something. the problem with this is that he's just scaring her into being silent, her mindset doesn't actually change.

2) neil gives a speech about how andrew is actually good, and generally how he's 'not as bad as she thinks' or something. now correct me if i'm wrong, but the issue i see with this is that, it's not actually telling her that her mindset about people with mental illnesses and/or trauma is wrong- just that andrew isn't the right person to direct her ableism too, but there are people out there who are 'as bad as she thinks'. it's kinda like the attitude that as long as andrew does enough to redeem himself he can be treated as human and not a 'monster' which is... yeah.

3) basically the same issue as the last one, andrew proves he's actually good because allison and the others see him do something outwardly affectionate. thereby proving he is actually all good now.

sometimes fics have a mix of these but basically the thing is that her ableism is never actually 'fixed' (for lack of a better word). most that happens is that it's no longer directed at andrew, but this is a worldview that she has, it's not just a dislike of andrew- realistically it's not just isolated to him.

to clarify though, i'm genuinely not intending to shame people who write these fics cause they are acknowledging her ableism, which is good. and similar with how people approach aarons homophobia, it's incredibly hard to write someone overcoming a prejudice. i certainly couldn't do it, and realistically maybe it's not somethìng that can be done in a fic. given that often it's a long-term process where you have to check yourself often.

it's especially complicated because she somehow needs to come to the realization that villifying andrew isn't right because despite the wrong that he has done- and he has done wrong, we can't deny that- he is still a person deserving of at least the deceny to not be compared to a monster and dehumanised in that way. she needs to realise that while andrew shouldn't do those things and can be called out for it, that the way he acts is a product of his trauma. BUT he is still responsible for his actions, and while she can rightfully choose to not associate with andrew, she shouldn't discourage others from doing so in the way that she does. it really is complicated and there's a lot of nuance there which makes it a hard topic to deal with cause... how do you write someone learning that?

but yeah, that's my thoughts on that.

2. her classism

i honestly don't see people acknowledge this a lot? i think one of the ways we see it manifest is how she talks about the way neil dresses... and in fics she often insists neil buys better clothes, usually more expensive ones. which is portrayed usually as her being a caring friend, which i get, but i think neil would actually find this really annoying lol.

i think an interesting way to look at her classism would be in her and dans relationship given the extreme differences they grew up. same thing with her relationship with seth, as he grew up poor too.

with seth, she might have sometimes been ashamed of the way he acted and dressed, maybe of the way he spoke too...? i can picture them fighting over that and her being a bitch about it. she would probably speak badly about the place seth grew up in too..

with dan, i feel like dan might get frustrated when allison, for example, doesn't know how much ordinary things cost (a thing a lot of celebs have shown to have no knowledge of). or dan might even get jealous or angry at the way allison can just throw away her moneyvand buy things carelessly (think of her reaction when her car got trashed, she could just get another 'toy'), while she was brought up saving money at any instance she could.

not much to say on this tbh... i think it would be cool to see this explored a bit more though.

3. complicit in homophobia

someone made a post on here about how allison would be the type of girl to preach equality while having a homophobic boyfriend... and yeah.. that's it really lol, hit the nail on the head.

again, a lot of people make her very progressive and woke, and i think this is tied to the very common hc of her being bi. (despite the fact that when betting on neils sexuality she doesn't consider bi an option which makes me think she is canonically straight..). i think it's hard for people to address the fact that she is complicit in homophobia while also headcanonning her as bi, cause it seems like she wouldn't be if she actually was bi. from my knowledge, bi women (and bi ppl in general) not being supportive of gay people and/or not standing up against homophobia isn't really a common issue? (pls correct me if i am wrong though) usually prejudice goes the other way due to the biphobia in the LGBTQ+ community. so it's hard to think about and write about.

when it comes to the other upperclassmen, i seem to remember dan and matt standing up against seth? though i could be remembering that wrong or getting it confused with a fic.

4. #girlboss

i highly agree with you that she really does just get reduced to just a #girlboss a LOT. and i think the same thing happens with the other female characters... i mean, just look at katelyn. there's no evidence that she is some kind of badass but many want to make her one.. but she can be an interesting character without having to fit this ideal #girlboss.

i understand wanting to make female characters cool and badass but in the process it feels like we're losing variety... i personally don't want the exact same personality and way of acting plastered onto every female character.

a strong female character is not defined by how much they can kick a guy in the balls but rather how well they are written, and to be written well they need flaws. and when making female characters #girlbosses we usually lose the flaws :(

like you said, this isn't to hate on allison. i just think sometimes we miss the parts of her character that make her truly interesting.. and i think that's a real shame..

anyway, i think that that's all that i had to say lol. if you read up till this point, thank you! and thank you for the ask anon :)

[goddamnalientourists]

Yesterday Labour put out this tweet:

People rightfully called them out on this because their party is doing absolutely nothing to challenge Homophobia, Transphobia or Biphobia.

Their leader did a PR stunt at a church that supports conversion therapy

MP Jess Phillips has helped spread an extremely anti trans conspiracy theory that accuses a cis murderer of actually being trans. You can read about in this brilliantly put together piece:

And then, Rosie Duffield.

Yesterday, she was re-elected as Chair of the Women's Parliamentary Labour Party, and made a post where only people she follows could reply.

Rosie Duffield follows LGB Alliance. You know, the anti trans hate group that was made a charity for its acts like *checks notes* supporting conversion therapy!

Not just the LGB Alliance either!

Rosie "I'm not transphobic" Duffield follows "TerfMcTerfyFace" here!

In fact, let's have a look at Rosie Duffield's follow list

She's following this man, whose latest tweet compares trans women to chimpanzees

Followed by Rosie Duffield:

Followed by Rosie Duffield, account made April 2021 so she followed recently:

This account, which equates trans children and child abuse (fucking disgusting), is followed by Rosie Duffield, who sees this and goes, hmm, seems like a good account to follow im not transphobic btw i just get bullied on social media by big meanies bc im a woman 😔:

This account mocking pronouns:

This account, literally using the JK Rowling dogwhistle hashtag:

There are way more than just these few, and Labour has done absolutely nothing about complaints regarding Duffield's behaviour. Two lesbian staffers who worked for her had to quit and Labour did nothing. In fact, yesterday they reelected her position.

So yeah, in summary Labour can take its post and shove it up its ass because no, not having this. Empty words like "we stand against transphobia" mean nothing WHEN YOU DON'T STAND AGAINST TRANSPHOBIA IN ANY WAY AT ALL

[temperate-rainforest]

Cannot believe I'm saying this, but destiel is canon and I actually love how it was portraid and this why:

Dean was in shock, horrified and devastated, Jensen showed that all from his small "nos" with the shake of his head, to going white as a sheet once it really sunk in and crying. He is someone who has had severe trauma since birth, as Cas said. Dean raised his own brother, as a child himself with no one else, knowing and preparing for the only way his baby brother would live and hardened himself, creating a desonence between his emotions and what "needs to be done" which (I have this so don't jump me) definitely turned into an ultra Independence trauma response to it all. Jensen acted ✨phenomenally✨ according to all of that. Dean compulsively keeps people out of arms length because he can't have anyone to challenge what he believes kept him, his brother, and everyone else alive. So of course he would gawk at someone saying they REALLY know and LOVE him and proving it all in one go.

Cas was right, Dean sees himself as their enemies do. This changes him all the way down to self-worth and who he is to himself and who he can be to the world. Selfless, he is smart, never forgetting his company's own history in this moment, and the baffling history they share.

An angel, of the devine creation, born in the beginning of time with a God his sisters, brothers, and others didn't agree with and lost faith in. All ended up killing, dying, and being eternally punished for the God. However, Cas heard all of the prayers of, for years, a HUMAN he really believes in unlike the god who created him. Castiel was able to become free from heavans birdcage with love, admiration, care, respect, joy, self-assurance, and so much more.

Dean freed Cas, and Cas freed Dean the same day they met. Every day the flame becoming alive between them. They know this too, but unlike Dean, Cas feels that the freedom of expressing it all made him happy enough that he doesn't care about being caged away again because he finally was spiritually free. His search was over, his longing and desire to finally be free. He found his belief and died for it, happily. Dean and love. Love that Dean taught him.

Dean is angry, rightfully so that Cas would confess this way to him and do this to him. Cas knows this two, matching his anger at himself for a moment, before the apologetic/loving/guilty/revelation crying mixed with the fact that neither of them can stop the rush of pure happiness at the connection.

Once Cas is gone, Dean literally almost passes out after losing this. You cannot tell me this man didn't look like he is in shock, disoriented, disassociative and we see his face pale before he slowly tries to comfort himself after ignoring his brothers call definitely breathing super shallow and fast. Panic attack at losing the love of his life, /his MORTAL/ life and feeling guilty for an immortal angel to be eaten by nothing.

I am baffled people think this was homophobic in any way, and this is coming from someone who stopped watching SPN years ago and literally moved onto better written fiction and went to school for it.

THIS is a BEAUTIFUL Greek tragedy, an immaculate Shakespearian Romantic tragedy, a beautiful work of art that I found myself comparing to the works and studies I've done on classic literature and media throughout history

I think everyone on the internet needs to take a breath and realize they are starting to put everything into boxes that I think are compulsory reactions and perceptions influenced by the world around them both personally or not.

This was a masterpiece.

Don't @ me. You're wrong.

Go read Shakespeare or Homer or Oscar Wilde or fucking something. Educate yourself.

[into-the-daniverse]

PSA: A toxic fandom isn’t one that strives to grow and inform. A toxic fandom is one that insists on perpetuating racist/anti-Semitic/homophobic stereotypes and ideologies while refusing to acknowledge them.

If you think fandom is toxic because you’re getting called out on doing/saying “problematic” (read: racist/anti-Semitic/homophobic) things then you really need to take a step back and think outside of yourself for once.

Refusing to acknowledge your mistakes is what makes a fandom toxic. Playing the victim card when people rightfully get upset by harmful ideologies makes a fandom toxic. Saying things like “It’s just fiction” while ignoring that fiction is rooted in fact and those facts can be extremely harmful to the groups they are based upon — is toxic.

Fandom is meant to be a safe space in that all people should feel free to be themselves, love who they love, write what they want, and draw what they want within reason. “Safe space” does not mean that you are exempt from criticism or change, and if anything, as someone who benefits from the space, you should be more than happy to grow and adjust to make the space bigger and more accessible for others.

I have been on this website for almost a decade, seen many a fandom rise and fall. None have been perfect, but I can say without a doubt that I have never felt more supported and loved in any fandom than this one. And it’s because so many of you are open and kind and you listen when something you’ve done is wrong or problematic. That often gets overshadowed by the louder voices that refuse to listen and grow and change, but I promise, as a whole, this fandom is an amazing one.

If you feel like your personal fandom experience is toxic, or if you’ve only heard bad things, maybe it’s time to look around you a little more and branch out of your close circle. There’s so many awesome creators here with so many unique and captivating characters (that aren’t problematic), and they all deserve to feel safe and loved in this fandom.

[weaselbeaselpants]

I have a lot to say and not enough time to say it. It hurts, but ya’ll know what this is about so if you want my full fandom retrospective opinion thing guys, here.

I’ve been following Vivienne’s art and career since I found her on dA in 2009. I’ve basically grown up with her and have a wide range of opinions up and down her collective work. I must stress that I do not know her as a person and no matter how critical I get in my personal time if I somehow met her in real life or converse with her online again (like, back in the day we went back and forth. She was pretty nice to me), I’d be humble and congratulate her for her success.

Critique does not, EVER equate to attacking people.

But

the reason I don’t call myself a VivziePopVivzmind-fan is the exact same as to why I don’t like the proud use of ‘anti’. Let me try and explain -

The vast majority of Viv fans are just that: fans. Viv’s one of their favorite artists and they’re happy for her and obviously defensive when some mouth breather pops into their fan discussion calling her and all of them trash. Quite a lot of the Hazbin fans I know in my circle of friends are all pretty accepting and agree on the problematic notions and implications of her work.

HOWEVER, there’s a vocal minority in the VivziePop fandom that were and still are toxic. Their specific interest in Viv back in the day was toxic...and now that she’s moved on into a successful career I doubt they’ve gone away, considering the things I’ve heard. These people - they’d flood Viv’s comments sections and stuff with messages like they were talking to her when they weren’t and they’d unironically call her a god in a way that feels like gaslighting, ex: “I’ll NEVER be as good as you Viv! My art is just sooooo unpopular oh god you are incredible no one will ever like you as much as meeeee”. It made me uncomfortable. It made me not want to be around her because these people took Viv’s role in their lives so seriously and their demand for her attention...it struck a nerve.

These same fans have been around long enough to see actual shitlords - the likes of Kiwifarms and tapatalk wikis - come in and actually harass Viv. Viv’s been sent revenge porn by sick freaks who think they’re funny and believe she deserves it. No. In my non-name fan bystander opinion, Viv’s got some shit to work on, but no one deserves raperevenge porn. EVER. It was genuinely bad and yes Viv and her base have every reason to NOT TRUST these communities. Unfortunately, when these incidents happened, these particular fans took it upon themselves to gatekeep the fandom and act like Viv’s unofficial guard against any kind of decenting opinion of her, all without her say so.

((to the critics who will be all “but Viv or Faust said THIS to their fans-”, like I said, Viv’s far from perfect but regardless of how much she prolly wanted people to side with her I’m gonna guess that she didn’t want people sending transphobic death threats to DollCreep. Again, and this is coming from a bystander here, I have a feeling Viv knows about some of the toxicity but doesn’t know how/want to address it - which is a conversation all it’s own.))

This particular breed of VivziePop “fan” holds so much toxicity in her fandom(s). They aren’t the only cause, but they’re there. They feel entitled to her attention and her approval. They creep me out. Having spoken to other much-less critical admitted fans of Viv around me, these fans appear to creep everyone else out and put the rest of the fandom on edge. They’re gatekeepers. They’re creeps. Like the bronies and SU fans of yestertodayyears, they know harassment exists and that people have crossed the line - so they think any means is necessary to prevent that is automatically good. I could pile together all the incidents and folks who’ve had bad runs ins with this aftershock of Viv-obsession, but I do have a life of my own and this post is already stupid long so I’ll just list out the biggest examples and provide receipts when asked.

Critical blogs have gotten RAPE and death threats because they don’t like Viv’s art. HonestZoophobiaCriticisms, a blog I interracted with back in the day, def got one. Now Viv’s opinion of crit-blogs is that they’re “bad takes” but I can assure you she doesn’t want that shit being said on her behalf.

I’ve seen young artists get blacklisted from sites and forums cause they so much as post a redesign. Viv and co get told through the grapevine that someone’s making hatespeech and so preemptively block said person (prolly cause they’re in the middle of WORKING and can’t deal right now) only to find out after the fact that no, it was just a kid drawing their version of her characters. There’s serious miscommunication issues within the fandom about who’s ‘good’ or ‘bad’ and once you get the actual staff involved in this game of telephone you’re begging for trouble. The problem acknowledged, however, it’s souly from the “Viv never did anything wrong camp”. No word is said about how ugly the fandom is under the surface it’s all one type of person’s fault and not complicated’. Blah

I’ve only ever had ONE obsessive ‘fan’ who’d stalk me, mock me, and then redraw my art just to get attention from me. That shit fucked with my head. As a follower hundreds of miles away from Viv who’s agreed/disagreed with her through the years - I absolutely believe her when she says she hates ‘creeps’ and that she doesn’t want anyone in her fandom spreading hate on her behalf. It’s the one thing about her I’m POSITIVELY sure of. Whether she believes that said underlying harassment exists and/or is even a problem within her fandoms is anyone’s guess. That’s not what I’m here for. I’m here to write stupid blog entries like this, talk about fandoms and media and how they and the real world affect one another, and rb fan art I like. I’m cautiously optimistic fan with a side of salt.

Mixed opinions and critique within a fandom CAN and SHOULD exist. Hazbin Hotel has been greenlit by a studio! It has a product line of merchandise you buy. Helluva Boss is getting eight more episodes this coming year (yeeee:3yeeee). Two of Viv’s properties are now products. Nothing is immune from critique. And in critique you will find a lot of people who are not ‘nice’. Critique or analysis doesn’t have to be nice. There will be, in Viv’s words’ ‘bad takes’ on her writing. Maybe they will be actual CinemaSins-styled bad takes or maybe Viv is just mad that people don’t love and feel inspired by her characters the way she wants them to - it’s a fact she’s going to have to get used to.

((TBH, I’m pretty sure she’s already realized that criticism of all types need to exist. It’s just that, again, her and the SpindleHorse staff are kind of overwhelmed by all matter of takes and opinions coming their way they kinda can’t deal weeding out the fair ones from the assholes, so she lumps them all together.))

Shitposters, ironic fans, unironic fans, critical fans, just critics of Hazbin and Helluva CAN and WILL exist. They should exist and not feel threatened by the megafandom. There are people out there who are one step further and rightfully bothered by Hazbin/Helluva’s use of incorrect symbols, portrayal of certain topics, and the response by creators. These people have strong opinions and are actually disgusted by Viv. They deserve to exist too and should not be vilified because, like me, they’re commentary doesn’t consist of anything personal towards the people at Spindlehorse or the fans of her works. They can rant, they can be professional, they can be petty and they can be fair. But they will exist. You have to deal with it.

I am an ADD/OCD ridden autistic woman with serious anxiety issues who has no one to talk to half the time and so only HAS my fandom to communicate with. But that’s just it - it’s a fandom. A community. You have to learn to not think souly of yourself and of others in a community. A fandom doesn’t exist just for you or any one person. You have the right to be angry and defend or be offended. And it’s in the spirit of that that I ask, prrraaaaaay even, that I please

NOT BE CALLED AN “ANTI-ANTI” for not liking the moniker?!

I DON’T TO BE AN “ANTI”. Not ironically, not unironically. ‘Anti’ should be for politics and shit like pedophiles, necrophiles, nazis, serial killer stans, Trump, racists, antisemites, terfs, animal abusers, rapists, and antivaxxers. Anti should only come into critical media analysis when these ethical issues follow suit IN TO fandom discussion. ((EX: Anime and MLP proudly waving their cp and non-con into the public eye; Hazbin appropriating cultural symbols which are not satanic; Basically anything that concerns John K or Butch Hartman.))

If your DNI list unironically consists of the entirety of one fandom:  CONGLATURATIONS! You have done the exact same thing these particular creepy Viv fans have done: monopolize the conversation. And yes, people I’m referring to, IT’S STILL A PROBLEM EVEN IF YOU’RE FIGHTING RACISM/SEXISM/HOMOTRANSPHOBIA.

There are hundreds of Vivziefans who ARE more critical, accepting of faults, interested in discussion and especially rewrite and redesign stuff who would LOVE to engage with you and give you a follow. There’s hundreds of people who no doubt agree with you!

But the thing I’ve seen these very proud AntiHazbinVivzieHelluvaWhatever blogs do is lash out at fans for continuing to like Viv and consume Viv’s art in a healthy way. What the actual fuck is your problem?

I get it. Say a crazy Hazbin fan gets on your case for even SUGGESTING Viv could be homophobic ((”SHE’SBIANDWORKSWITHGAYPPLblahablahblah”)). They get in your face, make some callouts, try to rile up support against you, leave disgusting harassment throughout your social media? Absolutely ban worthy. After that it’s perfectly understandable why you don’t want to engage with anything HHHBZPVivzierelated because you’re so fucking tired of being labeled an abuser or “just jealous” for having an opinion on a show you don’t like. I’m with you!

But,

A fan agrees that something in the canon is bad or that Viv did something they don’t like?

A fan likes your silly shitpost meme?

A fan asks if they can like Hazbin and follow you at the same time? 

A fan does fan art of something you don’t like?

If your response to any of these ^^^ things is to get LOUD and accusatory, Vivsplain them about how they’re an absolutely awful person to ever question YOUR opinion, or just block them without a second thought? You’re a petty, vendictive shit and you also need to learn to let things go. I’m sorry but you do. As I already said, Viv’s work is a brand at this point, not just the work of a singular person. As such, there are gonna be mixed opinions and you can’t judge every single one of these people by what they like. You’re a shitty critic with a shitty attitude and yes that will demean the value of what you’re saying. This is bad because, if you’re trying to point out how Angel Dust’s abuse IS handled terribly; gay rep in Viv’s work is weak and terrible; the show appropriates closed practices; the fandom makes excuses for predatory artists and creepy behavior and individuals who have sketchy pasts - I’M WITH YOU. WE NEED TO BE TALKING ABOUT THIS SHIT. JUST BECAUSE THESE ARE ADULT CARTOONS SET IN HELL MEANS THERE SHOULD BE ANYTHING CLOSE TO 2013 PONY-TUMBLR. <<<---- this shit is as important to me as it is to you and I really don’t like being called an abuser or apologist for saying “hey maybe blowing up at ppl for the shows they like ISN’T the way to go about this”. 

But I have, just like the good old days of 2015 Zoophobia of yore, been blocked because I admit to being tired of ‘Anti’ being equated to ‘critical’. Same with hater.

Critical DOES NOT = Anti+Hater. I’m fucking tired of people saying it does and I’m tired of people taking up the term as some weird form of fandom reappropriation. It’s stupid.

Tl;dr: Once upon a time, I was in a budding fandom for something I liked made by an indie artist I watched on dA. I wanted to be a bigger fan than I was already, but was told by toxic people within said fandom that I couldn’t be part of it for reasons they’d made up in their head about my ‘motives’ against Viv. My admiration for Viv or what I liked about Zoophobia didn’t matter because I thought the story was really rushed and people weren’t being truthful with how they really felt about it - ergo, I HAD TO GO. 

Flash forward 8 years later- My opinion of Viv’s body of work has changed but I still find myself in love with her style and some of her characters. I want to be on a forum or service that gives a healthy look at the problems there are with this series and fandom...and I’m met repeatedly by petty bs where people are again at each other’s throats. And yes, I do think it’s causing more harm than good especially when you insist there’s a “x person shouldn’t be trusted” mentality when fighting actual fucking racist, xenophobic, predatory bullshit.

[kaypeace21]

something i noticed, during the s3 byler argument, Mike says “El’s not stupid, it’s not MY fault you don’t like girls.” Mike’s “it’s not my fault” doesn’t fit as a retort, the theme of his retort should be defending El. He should have said “it’s not HER fault you don’t like girls”. Knowing there were other versions of that line the writers must have consciously chosen to leave this one in, knowing how it could be interpreted. anyway, do you have any idea why mike even said that line?

Yes, I have talked about it -here (in my long ‘why Mike is gay post’). But since so many people misinterpret the meaning of Mike’s words- might as well do a shorter/more brief version .And do a post focusing on it. HE’S SAYING THIS TO HIMSELF!

First some background

Mike DOES NOT think Will is gay. Dustin foreshadows their fight in s1 saying “Dustin: “He’s just jealous.”  Mike: “What?” Dustin: “Sometimes your total obliviousness just blows my mind?”  Dustin: “ What matters is, he’s your best friend. And then this girl shows up… and all you ever want to do is spend time with her!” Mike: “that’s not true!”

Dustin:  “Yes it is! And you know it. And he knows it. But no one ever says anything until you’re both start… yelling at each other like goblins with intelligence scores of 0. And now everything is weird”

Mike: “He’s not my best friend! … I mean he is. But so are you.”

 He won’t let himself consider that Will could be gay because then it would be harder to pretend he isn’t gay himself . That it isn’t just a weird phase that he’ll grow out of. We see that throughout the show Mike is projecting his feelings for Will on to El . Who in s1 was described by 5 characters as looking like a boy (and specifically like Will, by 3 characters ). There’s just way too many examples of him projecting to list here. But s3 we see Mike is trying to mimic romantic moments between him and Will (from s2) to El (in s3). In order to transfer his romantic feelings for Will on to El. The “blank makes you crazy” vs “crazy together”, the shed scenes of “most important thing” vs “the best thing I’ve ever done”,etc.

The difference between past seasons though, is that Mike is now conscious that he’s doing this. The more feminine El gets- the harder for him it is to pretend. Especially now that they’re going through puberty- and the physical differences between boys and girls is becoming more prominent. We see this in the first ep of s3.  I talked about it more here, but the Duffers use music with all the characters to convey plot points or the emotions of the characters. One example is when Mike forces Will to dance with a girl so he ‘fakes a smile’. 

So yes, the fact that the very first lyrics that play when we see mileven kiss for the first time  is “Just a little uncertainty can bring you down”-  reflects Mike’s true feelings.And we know this is how Mike (not El) feels about their relationship because he begins to sing the song right after this lyric.The song is even from the album titled “boy in the box”. AKA: Mike is in the closet

“And nobody wants to know you now. And nobody wants to show you how.So if you’re lost and on your own. You can never surrender.” He fears that if he isn’t straight everyone he cares about will abandon him, and that he’d be lost and the only one ‘like this’ -all alone.But he can’t ‘surrender’ the false-idea of being in love with El (out of fear). This is the rural Indiana in the 80s- at the height of the aids epidemic. People on the news said gay people were being rightfully punished with the ‘gay cancer’ (aids). They equated being gay with being a perv, p*d*phile, murderer, or mentally ill. Churches said you’d ‘burn in hell’. In rural areas people would form gangs and murder people they thought were gay. Of course Mike is terrified and wants to be straight! His parents in s2 were Reagan supporters. And Reagan was notoriously homophobic. He’s probably afraid his parents will hate him, kick him out, or that someone will kill him or he’ll die from aids by simply kissing a boy.

  We see Mike is doing his own f-ed up form of conversion therapy. He kisses El but he puts on the wall a drawing of Will so he can look at it while he kisses her. Probably hoping to transfer his romantic feeling for Will on to her.

Like that’s Will! He has light brown hair (not black) and Will is the only one associated with fire and has drawn himself with fire in the past. And Will even overlaps with the rainbow drawing that reads “mike”  before we see the mileven kiss. It was intentional.

So when Will Says “you’re ruining everything (their relationship) .And for what?! So you can swap spit with some stupid girl.”

This infuriates Mike because he thinks swapping spit with El is the best way to save their relationship! And he’s been trying to ‘fix himself’ so Will doesn’t hate him- and it hasn’t been working, to Mike’s frustration. So he screams “El’s not stupid, it’s not my fault you don’t like girls!” because he’s projecting. And although, he loves Will… a part of him probably is a bit angry that he’s making him feel this way. 

Mike never actually says to El’s face that he loves her- he even says during his fake-confession  “[old people] say it”.And later Mike apologizes to El and says “sorry, I sound like a [7 year old].” Aka the number Will rolled in s1. Right after he discusses d&d with Will and talks about seeing both of them for the Hollidays. So it’s telling that after he says “El’s not stupid . it’s not my fault you don’t like girls” (to himself). He immediately regrets yelling at Will. He even closes his eyes and takes a breath before continuing.  And apologizes,  by giving a heteronormative answer of:  

“I’m not trying to be a jerk, but [we’re not kids anymore]. What did you think, really?! that we’d never get girlfriends. That we’d just sit in my basement and play games for the rest our lives?” 

Mike is yelling this at himself to keep his feelings for Will under control.El is an idea to Mike about what adulthood is- which is why he doesn’t really defend el (and his ‘love’ for her) but just talks about “girlfriends” in an abstract way.  This was essentially Mike telling  himself-  he’s NOT allowed to just be with Will and never have a gf. He has to grow out of his ‘childish feelings’ for Will- before it’s too late, because being a gay man is dangerous.  That’s why when the camera is on Mike (when he looks back a the byers house -and they only show Will and Mike). The dialogue is  “But I know you’re getting older, growing, changing. I guess, if I’m being really honest, that’s what scares me. I don’t want things to change.”He doesn’t want things to change (and his feelings for Will to evolve into love, because that means Mike has to admit he’s gay and accept his future as a gay man-which at the time, didn’t seem very bright). They both are afraid of the future because of this. Mike tries to act like a ‘straight-adult’ and Will tries to revert back into his childhood because of this. 

Mike also mentions “games’ because d&d is a symbol of byler’s romantic relationship. He’s just pretending to not enjoy the d&d game. Mike says they have to get girlfriends and they can’t play games for the rest of their lives. But that’s what Mike wants- he just wants to be with Will for the rest of his life (playing games) without either of them having girlfriends. Because, we see Mike never took any of Will’s d&d art off his walls.Even though he changed his poster (from the same wall  that had will’s drawings on it) Mike couldn’t remove any of Will’s d&d art.  It was an act - which is why he was upset (in the last episode) when Will was donating the game, and why during the Hopper speech,  it pans to Mike as Hopper says “I miss playing board games every night.”

Mike even has a binder filled with every d&d drawing Will has ever given him.

In the pilot, they even say Will uses d&d to “escape” his insecurities about his sexuality “like mike” & Mike uses d&d to “escape” his insecurities about not having a gf.  * And no, dustin & Lucas didn’t use d&d to “escape” anything- in the pilot script.

And right before Mike says the famous “crazy together”line it zooms in on Mike’s d&d set.

The  “crazy together” scene is romantic since both Mike & Flo both equate love making you ‘crazy’. Mike saying “it makes you crazy” and Flo saying saying in s1 “ only love makes you crazy and that damn stupid”). 

(x)(x)

Mike is lying about his feelings for El- and El is just confused about her feelings for Mike.  The only one’s with mutual feelings for Mike is Will! Will even has a breakdown and goes ‘crazy’ after seeing a pic of them the night they promised to go crazy together - and then Will repeatedly calls himself ‘stupid’ . Because this is when he realizes and admits to himself he’s in love with Mike. And so he grabs a bat (that his dad- who called him a ‘queer’ taught him to use) and destroys castle Byers in a fit of anger and self-hate. That fight was what caused Will to realize his feelings for Mike and the jealousy he had been feeling were because he was in love with Mike. When Mike asks “what did you think, really? That we’d never get girlfriends… play games for the rest of our lives?” 

Will is 100% honest a says brokenly “yeah. I guess I did” And then says angrily “I really did!” . Even if both don’t understand the gravity of their words in that moment Will was honest- he doesn’t want to ever have a girlfriend he just wants to be with Mike for the rest of his life. And Mike, who assumes Will is straight, is shocked that this conversation upset Will. Or that he would disagree with his words.

And again their last conversation (about d&d is very telling and is foreshadowing). What Will meant when he said ,  “I’ll just use yours when I come back- I mean… if WE still wanna play”. Is essentially foreshadowing that the ball is in Mike’s court. If he wants to be with Will for the rest of his life he has to initiate it and prove he loves Will after pretending for so long to love El, instead.

gif credit:  first 2 gifs ampwn98 , 3th gif by janebycrs, 5th gif Cath-avery , 4 & 6th gifs mine

[kob131]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XVDx8WQGS4o

‘Oh how these pretigeous voice actors are scared of a little youtube channel.-’

So by your logic, anyone you’ve ever blocked you were just afraid of.

Because your judging what Neath did on the very basic action rather than the the context of said actions.

‘I have a lot of respect for Monty and did a lot research into his work ethic-’

And yet not enough to respect what he would have wanted AKA not insulting his friends which is a DOCUMENTED issue Monty had with people. Apparently your research couldn’t bring that up...a whole argious ONE TWITTER SEARCH (’from:montyoum my friends’ 

https://twitter.com/montyoum/status/365439142722666496 ).

(Mind you, the thing he was linking to was someone saying Barbara is terrible at voice acting and that Arryn and Lindsay were better. What do you think his response would be to the shit being flung around NOW?)

‘*Mockingly replaces Neath’s use of ‘homophobic’ with ‘Buzzword’*

Glass houses motherfucker-

‘Buzzword (RWBY) Buzzword (Voice Actor) is very mad at Buzzword (us)’

Almost 50% of your own fucking video title, not to mention your thumbnail, is meant not to inform your audience or be representative of your content but is to elicited an emotional reaction out of your audience. You can tell that because you referred to Neath in your thumbnail as a voice actor, given how your videos often portray voice actors, rightfully or not, in a negative light.

‘‘After reviewing their Twitter Feeds-’ Lol how pathetic of Neath!’

Glass houses AGAIN-

You’re likely to take a tweet with three retweets and five likes and portray it as something representative of a group numbering beyond the teens.

You look just as pathetic without your audience bias to shield you...Except Neath is talking about the subject of people being toxic about his brother (His ORIGINAL Tweet) and you’re, by your own standards, just afraid. (See how stupid your fucking standards are?)

‘Hey look, this person whose been complaining about my videos for two years now-’

Glass houses thrice- You’ve been doing the same shit about RWBY for the same theoretical period of time

And I do mean ‘theoretical’ because I managed to track this ‘stalker’ down. It’s Pendantic Romantic. Her earliest mention of Hero Hei dates to Jan 21...2020. (https://twitter.com/PedanticRomantc/status/1219776744640503808)

Nice try dumbass.

‘That person made a smear campaign against me and Neath retweeted it!’

Said Smear campaign just pointed out that you said the AnimeLog thing was done by Japanese studios when it was done by an American company Next10Ventures (your own little ‘correction’ where you’re being pendantic about it being an american captialist FIRM when PR was focusing on the American aspect shows the founder’s name: Benjaimin Grubbs. Fun Fact, he is NOT Japanese. He’s not even Asian.)

If that’s a smear campaign then your video is a next level smear campaign.

‘Neath retweeted from someone trying to destroy what I built up!’

With one thread and a couple miscellaneous tweets....over nine months.

What would you call someone making constant clickbait videos misrepresenting situations about people? Mass Murder?

‘Lol, I’m living rent free in Neath’s head!’

And Pendantic Romatic apparently has you in submissive contract. Also nice job proving your malice dumbass.

‘How dare Neath Oum lie about me in frong of his audience and mischaracterize my community!’

While you do the same to Neath AND Pedantic Romantic with an audience SEVERAL MAGNITUDES GREATER than theirs COMBINED? (12.8k Neath + 11.8k PR = 24.6k. Hero Hei- 192k Subscribers. 192/24.6 = 7.80487805). At this point, you’re throwing sonic grenades from within your glass city.

‘He won’t show you how I’m lying!’

And you lied to represent this stuff by making PR look like a stalker and ignore Neath’s reasons for his response while acting like him giving a reason is calling you directly a liar. (No really, how can Neath give his explanation without saying what he thinks of you?)

‘This is startlingly authoritarian and pathetic.’

Hey I think Hero Hei found a mirror.

‘You targeted an entire person in your community with hate!’

So did you...twice...in one video. Among HUNDREDS where you showcase their tweets.

‘How many times have I used the word pathetic in this video?’

About as many times as you proved yourself to be.

‘These grown adults act like middle schoolers man.’

And you’re acting like an elementary school bully, getting pissy when things don’t go your way.

I have no reason to pity or even not think of you as deserving this indirect shit flinging when as I look into your video(s)- you do the SAME SHIT, WORSE at some points and with a GREATER REACH. All things you condemn apparently.

All I see is hypocrisy, projection and proof you’re a parasite.

[mahvaladara]

Shah Talks - Simblr, George Floyd, Racism and Accountability

Non of you need to know, from a white person, why racism is bad and why reverse racism doesn’t exist and why you need to be held accountable for your actions. We all know that, but it seems some people still think there’s no racism.

Racism is a problem.

Long talk ahead.

Now, racism is not a problem of “late”. Racism has always been a problem. 

Police has been killing black men and women for decades, people have been saying racist remarks for decades, people have had racist behaviours for decades. 

It is not a problem of late, every few weeks someone is being called out on simblr, SIMBLR, a Sims tumblr community, for being racist. And you’d think there’s nothing about sims to do with race, but there is! 

In a game you can literally make purple vampire alien dragons if you have the right mods, a world with no sims of colour is a red flag.

The latest problem in the simblr community was related to racism.

I don’t know both sides of the story, so I will take a neutral stance. But I do agree it is fair for people, for the followers of our stories to see more diversity expressed in them, to see their own ethnicities and groups portrayed respectfully in stories and not just as caricatures or token.

It’s like Tolkien saying there are no black people in his world because it’s a fantasy world. So basically, you created your own world, with talking trees, and you decided it didn’t need black people, just caucasian people of tall, dwarven, normal and hobbit sizes. So four different species of white people, but not black people, or people with different skin colours and ethnicities, just a bunch of different white people who are very tall and can have blond or white hair depending.

So basically racist.

I mean, if it was Avatar and you decided to say my world has no black people and no white people either because it’s a fantasy world where it’s inhabitants are all tall, lanky blue apes and not humans. Cool, makes sense. Not human.

But if you create a world with humans, and don’t give humans any different skin colours (as if the sun and tans and melanin and evolution don’t make part of humans) because it’s a fantasy world? I’m sorry, but it’s not because magic means the sun doesn’t hate us, it’s because you’re a racist who doesn’t like black people so don’t want them represented in your media or world.

The person of colour does not have the duty to educate them about it, but I think it should stand as a way for the person that was called out to look well at what they have done and how to fix it. 

Give them a chance to better themselves. But if they don’t improve, call them out. Don’t let it go!

AND RIGHTFULLY SO!

And for the person called out? It is a chance to grow, instead of running away.

Because you know what? I was a teen once, and I was young and ignorant once, and we grow, we learn and we evolve. It is up to you to know if you wish to grow or remain in the dark ages.

This just to show, racism is transversal to every topic, every community and every platform. And it’s not an issue of late.

What’s really happening is that people, namely white racist assholes, don’t like how vocal people have become towards racism and towards stopping it. And it’s letting some people (racists) very uncomfortable.

And that is good! We should not stand for racism. We should not let people get away with racism. And people should be very vocal about it. We should make them very uncomfortable!

It’s 2020, nothing justifies four types of jokes: racist jokes, homophobic jokes, sexists joke and rape jokes.

(If we’re lucky and Covid teaches us anything to mankind, by 4040 we can also outlaw blond jokes).

On twitter, facebook, reddit and even here, on tumblr I have been following actively the news. I am a supporter of the Black Lives Matter movement, so I have been watching what happened to George Floyd and the riots and this terrible, terrible tragedy. It has actually crossed international waters.

Not kidding.

Like today at work, this french kid who practices Taekwondo with me shared the “I can’t breath” poem and I am like: Oh my dragons! Make this shit be heard! Yes! Cross sea boundaries. Black lives matter!!" And of course, there was that white dick commenting on it, being a racist asshole.

(I have actually learned something from tumblr. I don’t block anyone on tumblr, I like to give them a chance here to redeem themselves, but I have certainly started blocking people on Facebook. So many racists, everywhere... So many idiots...)

And today the internet has brought something very dangerous for racists.

And that is ACCOUNTABILITY!

You no longer can be a closet racist, or just racist with your friends, or a joke racist. Basically RACIST, because people will find out and call you out. It’s not cool to do racist jokes anymore.

AND RIGHTFULLY SO!

(Reminds me when Borat came out and those two kids who made sexist remarks on film without knowing got a fine. I hope they learnt from this experience, grew up and are now better people - they probably didn’t, they’re probably still sexist dicks).

Nowadays if you’re racist online expect to be fucking crucified.

AND RIGHTFULLY SO!

Now they no longer can be racist pricks because the world won’t find it as funny as their racist prick friends do. 

Boohoo.

White girl tears.

(I never got this term. My tears are usually of pure unfiltered rage, pretty sure you can light them up on fire).

Now, on simblr I have tried to stay out of “drama”, as people sometimes like to call it, but a man’s death, an innocent’s man’s murder is not drama you stay out of! The abuse of authority that causes the suffocation and murder of a man is not something you should choose to stay out off.

I let my privilege speak for me. 

I am caucasian. Fate decided I should be white (tan easily and get vitiligo. Because fuck you, you get localized sunburns for the rest of your life). And as a white and furthermore european person I will never experience racism. I will experience other things, such as sexism, queerphobia or ableism, BUT racism is something I will never experience.

Because of this I have the privilige to chose not to comment on it. But this is what is wrong, choosing not to comment on an issue just because it doesn’t affect you is a problem!

By being quiet you are being compliant and an accomplice of problem displayed. It’s like if you just saw someone be bullied and you decided to be quiet instead of warning the teachers!

You just helped that bully ruin another kid’s day!

The same way, if you stay quiet, just allowed a murderer to get away with killing another black man.

Because truth is, this affects us all. 

This affects PEOPLE! This is what humanity is! People, white’s, blacks, reds, yellows, greens, grays, pinks, blues and purples, bieges and browns. But Caucasians are safe, everyone else is in danger, with black people being the ones more affected by this!

The great problem is this, racists, white people, somehow have divided humanity in two. Whites, and People of colour.

(I’m not even going to throw religion into the mix because Akatosh knows that’s one can of worms not even Namira will willingly open!)

It may be the result of decades of racial societal segregation and even continental division that has lead us all to think in an “us-them” mentality, but it is time to stop this. 

This is dangerous, for we should not stand idly while people are being abused, opressed, persecuted, having their rights stripped or their lives violated just because some trigger happy asshole thinks he deserves to be alive more because he gets to look like a lobster if he tans too long.

(Racism is white people being jealous at the fact the sun hates us *shrugs*. Just saying.)

And the anger white people, racists, feel when called out is ebcause they don’t want to be held accountable for being dicks to “the others”. 

“But he is great man. It’s just black people he doesn’t like.”

If you’re shity to people just because they have more melanin than you, you’re not “a great man”, you’re a racist prick.

White people, RACISTS, hate being held accountable for being racists, they hate being called out by the outrage of people rightfully have against them. 

And what does a racist do when he’s held accountable for his behaviour? 

Cue in:

“Well” Reverse Racism exists too!”

No. It doesn’t!

Let’s talk about George Floyd.

Now, I’m not going to speak on the why and how it happened. There are literally videos on it. 

But, as someone who practices martial arts, who is trained by a cop I have been thinking. 

If you are a person and you have the strength to immobilize an adult man and hold him crushed by the neck with your knee under you, you clearly have the strength necessary to easily handcuff and throw this same man in the back of police car without the need to FLAT OUT MURDER HIM. Because this is what happened, MURDER. 

A police officer killed a man just because. 

Homicide!

Now, I am not going to talk about the allegations or the accusations that lead to this event, because they don’t matter. They don’t change the fact that a police officer, a man whose duty is to protect the public and uphold the law, killed by choking, an already handcuffed and immobilized unarmed man, to death. 

Now, in the comments on the whole tragedy, there were comments about him resisting arrest officer fearing for his life. Now, I am sorry, but if you’re that strong, strong enough to hold an adult man crushed and struggling under you, your life? It’s not in danger!

Even if he resisted arrest, again, they immobilized him, handcuffed him, from there on, the police officer’s actions are unjustified. It is disgusting what the officer did. Murder happened on that day.

My Taekwondo master, a police officer, is a skinny man, and slightly taller than me. Which isn’t much because I’m like probably 5′4 in the USA metric system. The man’s a hobbit, and I have seen that hobbit of a man throw and immobilize a man twice his size and weight like he was a ragdoll in seconds!

So don’t tell me that cop had to do that, because that is bullshit. 

George was not carrying weapons, he was not resisting. All he wanted was to breath and live and he wasn’t allowed either. George was murdered.

That cop was neither alone or in danger. That cop acted on whatever delusions of power and justified racism and killed a man just because he could and he knew there wouldn’t be any accountability.

Normaly. But we have the internet. And the internet tell us it’s not the first time this cop abuses his authority.

But!

Because there’s always a butt.

Somewhere along the line appears the comment: “You white people are the ones that are dangerous to us.”

Wait, that’s not the but. That’s actually true.

I think that if that white Karen in that NY park taught us anything is that that comment is 100% true. White people hold the power to harm people of colour with just a phone call. And that is very dangerous and very scary for any black man or woman, to any person of colour, to anyone who doesn’t appear “white”. 

Because this again takes us to that divide, where these people, these heartless racist assholes see “The White (TM)” and “The Others(TM)” as two different things. "The White” don’t see “the others” as people, so they don’t see the harm in their actions and they don’t think they should be held accountable because they’re not really harming “people”, in their twisted mindset. So when you yell “you’re racist” you’re suddenly calling out their behaviour and holding them accountable for it and telling them “this isn’t okay!”.

Now, comment section. Facebook comment, section, twitter comment threads are where the gold is. There is where you find the people to block. Where you find the racists, the ignoramous and the idiots. And, as a therapist, I love reading them.

And there it was. The ugly can of worms, thrown straight as an answer to the above comment. The dreaded monster - “Reverse racism”.

“*annoying Karen voice* You can't say that! That’s reverse racism.” Followed by the obvious slew of not all white people are like that.

And you’re right, not all white people want to harm black people or people of any other ethnicity. But that doesn’t change the fact that they are dangerous still because they will always have the racial upperhand. 

But saying “all white people are evil” is not reverse racism. It is discrimination, though that sounds more like a joke, but definitely not racism. If there’s two black men walking down the street and they step to the other side upon seeing my white ass, they are not racist, they may be discriminative by thinking I may pose a danger to them, but they certainly aren’t “reverse racists”.

If a white person, a person in a position of power, a person from a specific ethnic group known for oppressing other ethnicities, were to say “Black people are good only for basketball”, that’d be racist. 

If a black person was to say “All white people want slaves”, it would be prejudice.

Racism is discrimination or prejudices based on beliefs imposed, unwillingly, in minority groups of another race by the oppressing or majority race. All prejudices have been imposed, mocked, caricatured and created by white people and placed on people of colour and other ethnicities. Every single racial prejudice was created by a white person. “Latinos are drug lords, blacks are thugs, asians are cheap, jews are greedy.” And so on, so on, so on.

Prejudices in white people however, are born from cultural differences and NOT race, and are usually created by other white people. These prejudices have no weight, whatsoever in the wellbeing or opportunities white people have access to, while racist prejudices actively hinder the life of people colour and put them in danger.

Portuguese people who are caucasian have this cultural prejudice that we are always late, but if I go to a job offer at no point will this cultural prejudice hinder my chances to get a job.

It is this main difference that makes it so clear, there’s no reverse racism! There is discrimination, but not racism. 

Second thing is that most prejudices associated to white people can literally be applied to anyone, while racist ones instantly connect to one specific minority group.

Thirdly, often reasons of discrimination towards white people result of previous experiences, needs for self-preservation, or equalitarian policies of opportunities given to minorities harmed by racism.

One common complaint white people have against black people are towards scholarships given only to specific communities and minority groups, very common in USA. Though these scholarships can be considered discriminative in a positive way because it helps people less fortunate to have opportunities, they are not racist. For a matter of fact, these policies often exist to try and fix what racism and segregation have caused.

This doesn’t make it racist because it does not, in any way affect the ability for a white person to reach the exact same opportunities.

Again, it is only racist when a prejudice associated with your race affects your safety, your access to opportunities, the way people treat you or see you.

So it can’t be reverse racism because discrimination towards white people usually affects other people too and it’s rarely ever caused by their race alone.

And this can of worms is a long one.

And I have so much more to say, but this has gotten so long and way out of control I think I’ll end it here.

Bottom line.

Stop being a racist dick.

Be vocal when someone is acting wrong.

And Reverse Racism is bullshit.

Also sign the petitions to bring justice to George Floyd. This man has died, brutally murdered by an officer, no amount of justice will ever fix this, but making sure the officers that allowed this to happen will never have the power to do it to another black man, woman, person again should be the first step of bringing justice to his family.

And if I said anything here that was wrong or inaccurate, don’t hesitate to let me know.

This was Shah,

Stay safe, be vocal and don’t let wrongdoings slide away.

I’m done here.

[dgcatanisiri]

I had the thought recently about how the idea of “canonical character interaction is antagonistic which leads to them being shipped” is DEFINITELY representative of heteronormative attitudes - We have, for good and for ill, been brought up to believe that “pulling pigtails” is a sure sign of attraction between little boys and little girls, and this is then transferred over into a same-sex pairing. As a trope, this goes back AT LEAST to Shakespeare and The Taming of the Shrew.

Problem is, that’s NOT the same-sex attraction experience. The same-sex attraction experience is that someone of the same-sex shows us the smallest ounce of decency and kindness, we will spend years following in their shadow and building an image in our head of them being our perfect example of love. 

*ahem* What, why are you looking at me like that?

Anyway, there are two particular examples in my mind that kinda emphasize just how this plays out when it comes to media and the fans reactions of same-sex pairings, at least on the M/M end. And they make a case for certain problems within fan communities, with the respective media they’re for reacting in different ways, and, in my personal opinion, show how the people running the shows and the fan responses don’t get the differences.

(Even though, yes, I realize, both of my examples are helmed by gay men - it’s not like their staffs were gay and the studios were not, so that is less of a thing for the purposes of what I’m trying to say here.)

So, example one: Glee. Glee is, rightfully, a dark period of time we are truly better off pretending never existed, but it’s useful for my point, so please bear with me. IN CANON, Kurt spent much of the first season hopelessly head over heels for Finn. This was an actual, ongoing subplot through the first season, up to the point it culminated in the mess it that it did we’re not here to go into that god I really could rant on Glee if I were going to...

Right. My point. Sorry. Glee does that to me.

Anyway, Kurt’s canonical attraction in season one was towards Finn, and, while we all knew it would never happen, that the intent was always going to be towards the heterosexual breeding pair of Finn and Rachel... At this point in time, when I was in the Glee fandom, the main pairing was Kurt and Puck. 

Puck, the guy whose INTRODUCTION was leading a pack of bullies in tossing Kurt in a dumpster. THAT was where the majority of the fanfics I came across at the time were looking towards. 

Fandom saw “bully and victim” and took it to “Puck is expressing his repressed feelings for Kurt by bullying him.” 

And stick a pin in the concept of “fandom” in general, I’m going to come back to it after the second example.

Now, and brace yourself, because I’m about to say something positive in regards to Glee, the response on the show was to turn around and, the following season, not only introduce a new bully for Kurt who WAS doing what fanon!Puck had been doing, which lead to Kurt actively refusing a relationship with him, while also getting a canonical boyfriend. Yes, I call that a positive.

Because while I was closeted throughout my time in public school, I was still bullied and mistreated by other students, if not due directly to my sexuality. It did not lead to crushes on those guys. Hell, there were a couple of guys who spent a good amount of time pretending to be my friends, and if it had been a few years later, that might have become a crush. Instead, though, they revealed themselves before that happened and I completely cut them out of my life when they revealed themselves. And I’ve never felt bad about that.

The gay experience is not crushing on your bullies. It’s crushing on your friends, on the people who you know will be there for you. You don’t see the bully as “disguising their feelings.” No, that you’re gonna take at face value, because the alternative may well be dangerous to you. At least if someone’s been kind to you, they’re more likely to keep up that behavior. But why would you EVER put your heart - and your LIFE - on the line by telling someone who has shown you nothing but disdain “I’m attracted to you”?

Now, for the second example. If Glee was the good one (because the law of averages say it had to happen), then Teen Wolf is the bad one.

See, we all know that Stiles and Derek (no I am NOT going to refer to it by the ship name, I do NOT need that drama showing up in my feed) were considered the fandom darling. 

BUT... They were the above “bully/victim” ship. Their interactions in season one were very distinctly antagonistic. Meanwhile, in terms of positive pairings that could be teased, there were a few - Scott/Stiles (bromantic best friends), Scott/Danny (Scott canonically cuts in between Danny and his Prom date so that he can hide the fact that he’s not supposed to be there by making Coach look homophobic), Scott/Derek (Derek talking about how they had a bond as pack), Stiles/Danny (”Am I attractive to gay guys?”). 

But no. It was Stiles and Derek that became the runaway darling in the fandom. To the point that, eventually, the show engaged actively in queerbaiting, throwing them together more and more often, but ultimately never doing more than teasing before throwing female characters at the both of them. 

(Granted, I also don’t think that any discussion of that particular ship is valid unless you also acknowledge the racism involved, considering that the ship itself features two white guys, while the other two characters I mentioned are, respectively, Latino and Hawaiian, very clearly not white - you will note that Scott and Jackson had a similar antagonistic relationship, and THAT pairing didn’t get much attention at all, despite not having any competition with the “main” ship. In particular, I think that it was entirely valid for Tyler Posey to have seen this reaction and condemned the ship, because it was basically people diminishing him and his character to focus on white guys, especially when you consider how often Scott’s traits ended up being transposed onto Stiles... Okay, this is starting to move beyond the scope I wanted for this.)

Now. back to the issue of “fandom.” Because you know... I don’t think the “fandom” of either of these pairings, Kurt and Puck and Stiles and Derek consisted heavily of actually gay fans - not that they weren’t out there, but I don’t think they were the bulk of the initial fans of the first season, only really coming on board after season two and the active queerbaiting. I think they were, at the time of the first season, heavily made up of teenage girls.

And I’m not saying this as part of the general habit that there is in media critique to just dismiss teenage girls as a demographic as cringey don’t-pay-attention-to-THAT-crowd. It’s just my observation that, for teenage girls, all the things we say about women in fandom exploring their sexualities are magnified - what’s the common observation, that women in fandom use M/M pairings to explore a “safe” dynamic that they can observe and play out harmlessly for themselves, something to that effect?

So that’s the awareness I’m coming into this with - those teenage girls (and I’m emphasizing teenage girls because we have high school dramas, where I’m fairly sure these are the primary audience) use the awareness that they had of “how relationships work” when it comes to heterosexual relationships and were simply applying it to their perceptions of the gay pairings they were looking at. That “pulling pigtails” is the trope this audience associated with attraction, and so it’s how they applied.

THIS IS NOT CONDEMNATION. I really feel I have to hammer this point - I am observing a trend, in the name of awareness and understanding, I am not trying to say that anyone who was doing this or is still doing this has done ANYTHING wrong here. I want that to be very clear. This is me having spotting this trend and wanting to give it some attention, because look at the age of the examples I’m offering - both these shows lasted for six seasons and have concluded their runs, I’m only looking at their first seasons here as is, we are not talking about recent stuff, just history of fandom. I could have looked at more and seen if there was a universal trend or just a trend of the times or what. While this certainly could be grounds for one, this is not me having done some massive research project consisting of multi-media examinations of fandom and queerness, I’m just connecting dots and trends that I have seen to look at this thing that, going forward, I would like to see us pay attention to and be aware of.

Because my point is (for the TL;DR summary) that same-sex attraction manifests DIFFERENTLY. To express attraction to the person who is mistreating you is to invite harm being inflicted. The gay experience is to pine from afar because they were nice to you. And, obviously, a straight person is not going to know this inherently - this is part of an experience that they don’t have. 

I’d just like to see this recognized in the future when it comes to how people respond to and react to the popular same-sex ships in fandom - are they being shipped by actual queer people, or is it prominently the straight fandom using their view of things and latching on to a ship, rather than being actual queer fans expressing themselves.

Like, that’s one of my big things - I often don’t feel very... I’m going to hedge this as “noticed,” rather than any other term, within fandom a lot of them time, as a queer man and queer creator. The big names in fandom, writing for the popular ships, still tend to be female creators, which... I’m not discounting the queer women who are writing and making art and all that featuring M/M pairings, but I do feel like they get elevated to a point where the queer men doing the same creation do not, which can seem like a problem, even if I recognize that it’s as much an issue of who even picks up the pen or opens the word processor or whatever as it is a matter of promotion - I do recognize that it may be as much that queer men aren’t creating as much as it is anything else, there is a complex ball of interconnected issues pushing and pulling on one another.. 

It’s just a frustrating feeling of not seeing your experiences being given your voice - it means you have to depend on others to speak your story. Which, surprise, surprise, is not exactly encouraging to gay people, who’dve thunk?

[blackwoolncrown]

that incel post used "autistic" as an insult and called someone a f*g, why is everybody reblogging it like it's heartwarming that this homophobic jerk finally got a social life without ever unlearning his toxic shit? Like incels are dangerous bc of their fucked up social values, this guy moved out of a depressive stage in his life but he clearly still holds those values and I don't get why we're supposed to be applauding him

1: Thank you for pointing that out. I reblogged that on mobile which is harder for me to see on, and greentext is p hard for me to read, so I skimmed that post bc I’ve seen ones like it and this time I wanted to reblog one, but those are violent terms so I deleted it; sorry for the stress that may have caused you or anyone.

2: ‘Everybody’ isn’t reblogging it.

3: I want to focus on the latter part of your ask here because your phrasing ‘without ever unlearning his toxic shit’ is irrelevant and false. That person is not done, grown or dead. People you see progressing through their garbage are all in a state of progress. It’s absolutely fair for you to feel the way you feel, but the assertion that  ‘everyone’s reblogging it’ while he’s not pure and unproblematic yet isn’t quite…relevant.

4: This is a bad example (that post) but it does still stand- as someone who used to be on 4chan waaaay back (I left before it got super horrible apparently but it was ALWAYS horrible to be around, some boards were just less incel than others), it’s inherently a huge step for the kind of idiot boys it radicalizes and traps to understand that 4chan isn’t awesome, to understand that it feels bad to engage the way they were, and to recognize they were in a depressive slump.

And I’m pretty sure with all the recovery posts on here we can understand that just because you make a turnaround doesn’t mean you’re at the destination.

I want you to imagine that being a 4chan incel is like sitting on a giant pile of horse shit. They get used to the horse shit. To us it smells awful but to them it’s  home. Now, it may occur to someone to move off of the horse shit, but it’s a pretty huge pile. The horse shit is deep and sticky and wading through it is an effort. When you’re done wading through the horse shit, it’s still all over you and you still smell like shit and you’re still just inches away from the shit. Anyone judging you would rightfully say you are covered in shit and you reek.

But you’re not in shit anymore. And you’ve recognized you want to leave it.

The dude in that greentext was off the pile, but not out of his shit. Believe it or not human beings are not static, they are not done, and in fact that greentext was written at some point in the past. On this very day, he could have grown so much more, and if you found him, he might be at a point where he regrets the things he’s said and the fact that they’re out on the internet forever.

What people are going to have to understand is that bad people do bad things usually because they’re fucked up and if they ever make a move towards progress without having hit rock bottom first, that’s great. And unfortunately all of their progress at first is going to look like utter shit.

But we do need them to do it.

That dude won’t be able to learn how to fully be a decent human being until he can do the work. And he can’t do the work if he’s depressed, sitting on 4chan.

So like I said, sorry, that’s fair, and god do I ever just…not like tumblr on mobile (I have some screen adjustments that just make it worse).

And lastly:

5: No one is ‘supposed’ to do anything. You can see things on the internet and not react, because no one is actually saying what to do. In fact that specfic post, OP was just saying they were happy for the dude, not what anyone else should do or feel. There are probably going to be a lot of young people turning away from certain net circles of chan bullshit, and they’re probably going to be patting each other on the back for leaving parts of it while still embodying others, because it’s a process and they were in one of if not THE worst websites on this side of the web. They’re going to be problematic af, so fair warning to everyone. Because we’ll have to find some way to discourse around that/them without radicalizing them back to their shit piles the way they ended up there in the first place: shame.

*I say around bc I am NOT suggesting ‘hey everyone be nice to ppl who use slurs bc they may have come from 4chan! They don’t know better uwu pls just talk to them ;)’. I am saying open circulating discourse needs to be had around this so they can see and continue learning their way off of the pile.