#the internal misogyny is staggering

[mellorocket]

Y'know the fact that there are still transphobes on this site who just think they can post the most vile shit and just "get away with it" is funny enough, but there's something incredibly sad about seeing women proudly refer to themselves as "femoids" as some sort of "differentiating" tagline from Those Accursed Transgenders.

[gasolinerainbowpuddles]

Wow your hatred and blatant misogyny is staggering in your plus size fic thing… you need to do some deep work methinks… happy international women a day ig

catch ya later, ♥Puddles♥

[moonlightsapphic]

This might make some people super uncomfortable (just hear me out), but I genuinely feel like the negative reaction to Lacy has homophobic, biphobic, and lesbophobic undertones. Like, oh no, why did Olivia write this ✨confusing✨ song that is clearly not about a man?!

If it was made clear in the song that Lacy were a man, I think the backlash would have been cut in half at least.

But no, it’s clearly and boldly about a feminine entity. So, naturally, everyone is overanalyzing the lyrics.

Yes, it’s true that the lyrics are really fun and interesting, but she has lots of lyrically complex songs. There have been a staggering number of conversations about whether Lacy is about jealousy, or romantic feelings, fictional, biographical, about a specific person, about a collection of several people, about a concept, or just about drugs? Is the song too poetic, too soft, too well out of her comfort zone, boring, overproduced, underproduced? And wait, she said it was poem written for a class, that absolutely has to mean it’s fictional (because of course no one writes about their own life in English class ever), so we don’t even have to worry about the lyrics anymore, right? Right??

I’ve been a fan since Sour and I haven’t seen this community wondering back and forth that hard about any of her other songs (except maybe some instances arguing Vampire and The Grudge are about Taylor Swift). So, what does this song have that none of her other songs explicitly do? A feminine muse.

As a bi person, the song reads as obviously queer, regardless of whether it’s fictional or biographical on Olivia’s end. Queer women often mistake attraction for admiration and/or jealousy because of internalized misogyny. This may come as a shock to the straights amongst us, but we actually don’t know for sure that her songs about Bassett are about Bassett and her songs about Bia are about Bia either. Wild, right? And yet there’s no heated debates about those! Because they’re about men, and that’s normal, so people are busy simply enjoying the songs with all their complexity.

Somewhere, she and her team are looking at this mess and shaking their heads, fully unsurprised. I hope she’s not taking the backlash to heart, because it really is a beautiful song and as good as anything else she’s made. She’s even hinted at being queer on her socials, so it feels unfair that her fans (who are supposedly mostly young people) can’t just accept and enjoy the song for what it is. I never knew exactly how much I needed a homoerotic hate-ballad from Olivia Rodrigo, and honestly maybe we didn’t even deserve it.

[punkeropercyjackson]

The blue tea on the wide acceptance of bi boy crazy Percy vs the obscurity of trans femme Percy is Pjo fans are so obsessed with the male characters and bashing and erasing the female ones it clouds their reading comprehension to the extent they think Percy is the same,when she's absolutely not.Percy has always,constantly and nonstop been written as defying traditional manhood and this includes being a misandrist who thinks women are inherently better.And the thing is,it ain't 'internalized homophobia' because Percy IS right to hate men and perfer girls since she has way more reasons to love and respect the other women in the franchise than she does the boys since with the exception Hera,they're not abusive to her like they are!Like please be real,why is Percy's perception and views on men wrong?

Poseidon is a deadbeat who acts emotionally constipated instead of loving despite claiming she's his favorite,Smelly Gabe was physically and emotionally abusive no holding back,most of her bullies were boys,Luke groomed her into trusting him as the first positive adult male figure she thought she finally had only to have been framing her for a crime HE commited and take her to a secluded spot to try to kill her in the reveal after he traumadumping to her then spent 4 years straight as a serial pedophile in love with THREE of her female friends and a fascist who groomed an entire army's worth of kids she went to summer camp with just like he'd done her AND pretty much all the male gods she's interacted with exploited her to be their matyr

All the actual good men she knows are exceptions,not rules-Grover was her best friend before the trauma came fullforce and is emasculated often,Beckendorf was to her what she'd thought and wished Luke would've been because he was a black king instead of a white pig,Ethan was also an moc and Luke's victim like her,Frank is her cousin and an moc and constantly emasculated too,Jason and her met when she had amnesia and he's the personification of positive and healthy masculinity and Nico is completely nonthreating because he's a little kid compared to her and they have history and it resulted in them basically adopting eachother as an older sister/pseudo-mom and a little brother/pseudo-son

The rest of them have never given her any reason to change her mind or tried to get better so objectively,Percy makes way more as a transfem girlypop than as a genderconforming bi man and 'slutty bisexual Percy' is just fishing for brownie points for unneeded rep as almost every this verse's canon lgbt characters are mlm and it's ooc so that's why Rick said he never intended it and isn't gonna do it!Because it's not like of Percy to.The Pjo fandom has a staggering misogyny problem and this is pretty clearly shown in the hatefulness towards transfem Percy for no reason,the cutting out Rachel as a canon well-written love interest to say Percy only likes blondes which is ironically enough also misogynistic to Annabeth as the cause of this due to the overlooking of her in-universe hatred of being blonde as it has gotten misogyny thrown at her for shallow stereotyping of conventionally attractive fems and the leadup of Percy crushing on every and i do mean every blonde man in the franchise,including her aformentioned racist groomer and an older man she thinks is an annoying privileged manchild and never wants to be around that disregards her discomfort and disdain with and towards him to act friendly

Percy is still Percy if she's a trans woman since it dosen't require changing her personality except for positives like transitioning boosting her self-confidence and mental health as it does for irl transfems and tgirl Percy truthers aren't the ones shipping an 18 year old mc with mentally middle aged men or making jokes about her sexually harrasing the gay minor she raised more than his own dad did or literally gentrifying a punk role model for neurodivergent kids so she can be a male power fantasy who's only allowed to be pretty and feminine if she's still a guy.Transfem Percy is for the girls and the cultured gays,bi boy crazy Percy is for the tenderqueers and the pick mes

[nsk96]

Hey so I’ve been thinking about how on tumblr we can cater our experience and block people who irritate us.

And now I’m wondering why I haven’t applied this principle to other social media I use. I’m so slow.

I use instagram a lot because I like looking at funny videos and like to see posts from other women talking about important societal issues regarding women’s rights and safety. It helps me keep up to date on new laws and current events as well as things to be careful of. The comment sections however is what bother me the most.

Seeing hateful edgy comments from men in the comments section that tend to victim blame, make r*pe jokes (or make fun of the situation), glorify violence on women, invalidate the issues and concerns, etc. disgusts me. Makes me lose some hope.

Tbh, it also makes me afraid to date again.

I know the internet being the internet is gonna amplify these things because it brings people with like thoughts from around the world together in one place. But holy shit, it’s overwhelming on Instagram in particular. Like they just can’t leave women alone, especially women who are self proclaimed “single and happy.” The “cat-lady” and “anti-depressant” remarks are so overused.

It was making me more depressed than I already am and then this week I was finally like “what if I just start blocking them”. Block them and the dudes who Like their comments. There’s so many y’all, it’s tiring having to block them all…but I feel like the more of these dudes I block, the less I see on new posts. Maybe some of them were just stalking women’s posts endlessly.

I also realized the amount of women with internalized misogyny is staggering. Not to mention the amount of teen boys spewing this nonsense as well as if the grown men commenting wasn’t enough.

I can’t help but wonder…wouldn’t it be funny if I started dating again and a guy of interest turns out to be on the block list? 😂 This thought actually makes me feel a little safer ngl but it would also be scary

[caffeine-n-andreneline]

SnV Qin Shi Huang || Ying Zheng/Fem!Reader

Warnings: First fic lol, historical inaccuracies, typical cannon violence, a kid with trauma and a wannabe therapist, Soulmate AU, slowburn(?), Warring States period-ish, JJK cross over kinda-ish, baby qin needs a hug, internalized misogyny.

Later that day, the diplomat's daughter decided to return to her chambers, and halfway through–encountered her ever so obnoxious older and only sibling. Michizane Satoru, the heir to the Michizane household.

Older by five years, the younger Michizanes' height barely reaches his staggering shoulders. This man child was an exact carbon copy of the patriarch. Although his childishness amplified tenfold.

You see, the girl has taken after her mostly after her mothers demeanor, cold, clinical and blunt–others also see her arrogant. Unlike his father whose appearance alone stood out like a sore thumb, may he be emphatic and literate, but he usually let pacifistic and people pleasing tendencies ahead of him as well.

Satoru was a cesspool, the worst combination of both, in her opinion.

"So, you've got an eye for a boy." The lanky teenager appeared from behind and leaned to her ear, causing her to turn her head from the source of his voice.

She continues to walk, making it seem like he didn't exist. As she does, Satoru begins blabbering words out of his mouth. Quickly catching up to the younger girl.

"Hey now, don't ignore me! I'll tell father you didn't bring me along while you're sneaking around!"

"It's not the fault of mine you slacked off and let me slip away." He was silent for a few seconds, unable to rebut and finally relenting to his defeat.

"I err–jeez fine. I see you've already taken care of that. But still, it's dangerous for you to be alone."

"I can defend myself quite alright, thank you very much." The younger Michizane sarcastically retorted back. While the older one playfully clutched a fist on his chest, in mock hurt.

"Ouch, Then what's the point of me being here then?"

"I question the same thing. How about we ask father once he's done with their meeting."

Soon enough, they stopped with their bickering. Thanks to her memory, unlike her brothers', they've arrived at their designated rooms quicker than expected. She entered hers, and much to her dismay, so did the other. She sighed under her breath, certain there is no escaping the blabbermouth.

She prepared a few stacks of paper along the compact ink powder and brushes she had bought along with her. Placing those to the round table in the middle of the room, the lanky man child plopped to her bed, and shut his eyes.

Now she had all the things she needed to start writing, and so wasted no time. It was a miracle for her that the brother of hers stopped his superficial chatter. Or so she thought.

"Seriously, pipsqueak, you're acting strange today. Don't you dare lie, I know that look on your face." He asked out of nowhere, luring his younger sibling to a prattle. And although wearing a bandage, her eyes twitched in annoyance.

"I'm afraid I don't understand what you're implying."

"Sure sure, whatever." He absentmindedly added.

It didn't take long for him to ask her again.

"What does he look like?" He arose from her bed, and trudged towards the table where she currently scribbled, tossing away the fact that she clearly didn't want to be disturbed yet he still did, anyway.

"Who?" She halted from writing, tilting her head. In Satoru's perspective, he could barely make out one or two characters from what she was writing. He's never been the one who has the passion for linguistics and leaning more towards mastering the arts of jujutsu.

"Don't play coy with me kid." His mouth curved onto a smirk, knowing full well he wouldn't leave her unless he was satisfied with her answers and knew the whole story. She could only sigh.

Poor girl. This was going to be a long day.

She couldn't lie to herself, however. It's no denying she finds him a little curious, and truly she got her eyes on him.

The sun had already fallen when Satoru decided to leave. And I am yet to be done. Usually before going to sleep, I've made the habit of writing about my day, where on each page, I write in a certain dialect, then another language in the next.

The wind was cold, the light from the lantern emanating the room, allowing me to jot down in the dark.

A gentle knock from the door drew my attention.

"May I come in?" I knew this voice quite well. Well at the least this time he was courteous enough to actually knock.

"Yes–you may, father."

He quietly slid the door, my eyes darting away to meet his gaze.

I see him holding a tray of porcelain tea cups, and a pot of what I assume is boiling water.

"What brings you here?" I said, reverting my attention to the papers. I could hear the light clinking of the tableware against the wooden table, as he made himself at home and sat beside me to take a peek at my work.

"Am I not allowed to visit my daughter, hm?" He said, placing his elbows to the table and his head above the back of his hands, tilting it slightly.

I close my eyes in expharation. My social battery drained. I'm not sure if I could deal with another white haired Michizane to a mindless chatter.

"If you're going to ask about–"

"Oh no, no. I'm not going to ask about that." Taking a handful of dried tea leaves, he started to brew a cup of tea. Though I didn't pay much attention to it, after a minute of meditative silence which only consisted of the sound the porcelain makes as it collides with another of the same material.

The calming and sweet aroma of the tea crept to my nose. It smells heavenly, I must admit.

My father slides the hot cup of fresh newly brewed tea beside my paper, although not that close where I could possibly spill it over when tapped.

"So how was your day?"

"Quite alright, I suppose."

"Your brother can be quite a lot to handle, isn't he?" He said, then taking a small sip of the tea.

"So why bring him along? It's starting to look like I'm the one to attend to him instead of him attending to me." I scoffed incredulously, still focused on the task at hand. But still I told no lies, my older brother is a child at heart, and could only be tamed with sugar.

There was a short pause and so I took that chance, to take a sip, the faint taste of something sweet embracing my tongue and filling my throat with warmth.

"Unlike you, he doesn't take his future seriously. I need him to see for himself what may be his standing a decade from now once I have stepped down upon my duties." He answered, swirling his already half empty tea cup, a habit I noticed he had picked up when he and his fellow vassals drank sake to their hearts fill.

"But have you asked him if that is what he wants?"

His eyes slowly land to mine, seemingly to contemplate something.

"No, not yet." He shook his head.

"Then I suppose you should. And once he has told you he holds no interest in such, I think it would be best for you and mother should start planning for another hei–" I suggested, but is interrupted with his coughs, eventually turning into a fit of giggles.

"Alright, alright, I hear you sunshine." Laughter gradually fading, he drank the last drop of the tea.

"It matters not to me if the Michizane is led by a woman." He added.

"Are you implying for me to take the seat?"

"Why not? What a functional community needs is someone who is capable, smart, responsible and assertive. You clearly display those traits."

"But I am a woman."

"And?" His eyes rose, expecting me an answer…an answer that I can't give justification to, for some reason. It took me for a while to come up with a decent refutation.

".....It will look strange upon their eyes. A woman has never led within their household, let alone an entire community. That's nothing more than a pipe dream." It is true, no man would listen to a woman, never they will respect one's authority merely because we are nothing but child bearers to their perspective. It makes me truly wonder how my father came to exist.

He who views his lover his equal. I am fortunate to have him as a father, but I hate him for fueling a fruitless dream would only leave me in vain.

"Then how about we make it into reality?" I scoff. Where does he come up to even think of such things?

"That's absurd. Are you sure you have not drank half seas over?" I leaned to his arm, sniffing the fabric of his garb.

Concern is what was written on his face, as he did the same, but with the vacant sleeves of his other hand.

"Do I smell like it?"

He didn't smell anything, much to my not-so-disappointment. Because it could only mean he genuinely means what he had proclaimed.

"No."

"Then there's your answer."

It makes me feel at ease for my father to acknowledge my abilities alone, but for him to entrust the future of the Michizane upon my hands?

Never had I thought of such.

"If your brother refuses, then I'll make you Yamato's first female daimyo." He added, patting my head, before deciding to garner up the mess on the table as both of us were done drinking the warm beverage.

".....If that's what suits you." I said, before he proceeded to stand up and leave my room.

"I reckon we should retire. It's been a long day for all of us." Nodding, he excused himself, but before he could,

"If–if you do not mind, father, could you sleep by my side?" I blurt in the heat of the moment. Fear coursed through my veins. The fear of sleeping alone in a room I am not familiar with overpowering my reasoning.

"You didn't have to ask, kid. I'll return this for a minute and while I do, you should tidy up, alright?" Offering me a genuine smile, I let my tensed shoulders relax.

"Yes." Without question, I did what he had told me to do.

I lay on one side of the bed, my eyes focused on the ceilings. It all consists of gray. The amount of gray, or red with my colourblind lens, I've sighted today may rival the gray I have seen throughout my entire life. I guess this is their signature colour. It's not overwhelming per se, but over time I feel like I'm starting to get tired of it all.

Father announced his return with the cautious and agonizingly slow sliding of the door. Traveling to the empty vacant side of the bed, he laid down to the side, turning his body to face me. I copied him, mirroring my ocean eyes in his.

"Goodnight." I whispered, and shut my eyes to slumber.

"Sweet dreams, moonlight." Everything was starting to go faint, but I still did hear it, my consciousness slowly drifting onto black. The gentle repetitive taps on my shoulders akin to something nostalgic, the calm beating of something as I curled, snuggling to the warmth. Allowing the realm of dreams tonight to engulf me into slumber.

That very same evening, a boy with a pair of eyes dyed in blood red cries himself alone to sleep. Missing the embrace of she who made his life less bleak.

Notes: Ok, I was supposed to be updating every 10 days, midterms just rlly fcked me up lol.

Anyways, this was supposed to be just some fluffy chapter but when I was nearby just the end of it, Somebody to Stay in my shuffle started playing and like gave me so much baby qin feels so I said f*ck it why not. My duality be showing lol. I'm so sorry.

And originally, I planned on having Yuuta Okkotsu to be the one who's supposed to be with Y/n, but I thought their interactions sounded too bland. So I switched it up with Satoru and so sassy sibling slander ensues.

I also love me some supportive dilf. Plays daddy issues*

[thewritingcoroner]

If there's anything that'll turn me into a toxic man-hating lesbian it's women's athletics.

Like okay yeah ball size in women's rugby is the problem and totally not the prevalent misogyny in the way women's sport is marketed, shown, and trained. Sincerely fuck all of you.

Like world rugby guidelines talking about "right brain" and "left brain" gender research old enough to vote but refusing to put any thought or nuance into trans player policies and just outright banning trans players altogether? Fuck you.

Sports institutions would rather the "problem" of women's sports to just go away rather than lean into the MASSIVE market there is for women athletics. I mean, Caitlin Clark in collegiate US athletics has made a bigger impact on the world of sports than any big name male international soccer player idgaf.

Like, shattering records and skyrocketing to fame as an athlete in men's sports is like a drop in the bucket of importance to sport than it is to be such a prolific athlete that viewership statistics stagger marketing experts around the world for singular women's games in tiny (comparatively) country specific sports.

What's more impressive, an international soccer superstar jumping viewership by 44% but not even topping number of viewers total from a game that happened 13 years ago, or a college-level basketball player drawing such a huge crowd that she eclipses viewership of the most popular sport in the world debuting the most popular athlete in the world in a new league by 18.5 million viewers?

Over and over and over again women's sports are proving that there's a huge audience here, and yet there's still shit stain men out here claiming women's sports are still "boring" like tell me you never have been and never will get laid without telling me you're a raging misogynist.

Women's MMA is floundering with lack of athletes, women's soccer athletes are struggling to pay their bills, the Dallas area of the US has lost 70% of their adult women's club rugby teams in the last five years. The problem is not that women's sports aren't interesting, it's that men are actively sabotaging women's sports. I'm tired of the distracting discoursers and the stupid rule changes and the insincere concern for athlete safety.

You want athlete safety? Fuck off about trans players and start ousting the sexual predators on coaching staffs and executive boards. Want a faster game? Invent one idgaf. Want advertising money? TELEVISE WOMENS SPORTS.

Women have been screaming into the void for decades about all the issues with women's sports and none of them involved trans athletes or rule changes. Talk about rule changes when you've handled the sexual harassment and assault, the pay disparities, the air time disparity, the funding disparity, the discrimination, the racism, the disregard for world class athletes thriving in their sport.

🖕🖕🖕🖕

[roleplayhonestybox]

People who refuse to include or write women or opposite women are exhausting tbh...like bro forget ships or preferring certain pairing dynamics, the lengths people go to shut out even significant female side characters, give them any development or interiority is staggering. groups that don't let you make your first character female. the mary-sue accusations that happen by default if you have a female oc, but male ocs are god's gifts. replacing female characters' roles in narratives with men. rewriting female characters to be homophobic one-dimensional shrews in service of whatever plot you're doing. the rpc's misogyny, internalized or otherwise, is breathtaking

[radiodont]

several things. one: going through ex-terf tumblr is supremely healing and i wholeheartedly recommend it, good luck to all the people currently dragging themselves out of that particular hell

two. almost every ex-terf i could find was deradicalized by one of two things.

A) they left a harmful church/cult/family situation and once they were out of it, they started reexamining their views

B) they met a real-life trans person and, upon realizing that trans people are just regular people and not vicious predators and/or brainwashed waifs, their entire worldview crumbled.

like. that's it. meanwhile, if you ask them why they got into being a terf, it'll almost always be "i was in a really low point in my life and they seemed like the only people who understood me" or "i was 15 and my brain was still easily malleable" or "it felt good to hear that i wasn't imagining misogyny and it spiralled from there". like, the contrast is staggering, and it's no wonder terfs are so hateful and insular; their entire worldview is built around suffering and being victimized and not being able to trust anyone.

it's almost painfully transparent that they're trying to cope with various traumas, but through some lack of accessible help or desire to have a scapegoat, they lashed out. it's a desire for control in a world that's frequently uncontrollable and unfair; it suddenly isn't enough that institutionalized misogyny benefits most white men through a complex system of bias. that's big, and hard to fix, and frustrating, and not knowing who to trust is terrifying. it's much easier to write off all men as inherently unsafe and predatory because then there's no possibility of being hurt.

and into this worldview of fear and paranoia enters trans people. under this lens, if all men are evil and incapable of experiencing joy and fear and love as purely as women do, then there should be no reason for a trans woman to transition except to prey on weak and vulnerable women (which is a layer of internalized misogyny so complex that it would take litres of mane and tail to detangle).

and, under this lens, there's no reason for a trans man to transition except to escape the Inherent Suffering and Oppression that women face. they're so consumed by their worldview of suffering that it's impossible for them to imagine someone doing something to follow a good feeling, rather than escape a bad one. it's this view that also fuels their staunch opinion that trans women are "performing a persona and making a mockery of womanhood"-- seeing someone be unabashedly happy being a woman and engaging in stereotypically feminine things is inconceivable to them. women who enjoy heels and makeup and being sexy are just brainwashed by the patriarchy-- so why would a trans woman, who was raised without that societal pressure, want to do it, except to make a mockery of the Suffering And Tragedy of all womanhood everywhere?

it's all so tangled in trauma and misery and fear, and it's no surprise that almost every ex-terf describes an immediate relief and freedom upon deradicalizing. it's exhausting to operate like half the population is a threat-- i would know, because despite making up a small, small percent of the population, the assault and rape rates among trans people are higher than either cis men or cis women. and despite that, and despite all the laws making it illegal for me and people like me to live happily, and despite all the misinformation and hatred and vitriol, i am joyful. i am kind, and patient, and not once have i ever resorted to kicking someone more marginalized than me to make myself feel better. i feel sorry for terfs, but not sorry enough to forgive them.

[sleepymarmot]

Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992)

[Rewatched on May 21st]

Bram Stoker’s Dracula is one of the films that I watched perhaps a bit too young, and my teenage self was quite impressed by it. The vague but fond memories lingered until last year, when I participated in Dracula Daily and realized what this adaptation had done to the characters and storylines from the book. At first I wanted to rewatch it, but I didn’t want to spoil the novel for myself with whatever this adaptation did get right; then, the deeper into summer and autumn, the more I was repulsed by what I remembered of its portrayals of Lucy and Mina. Now enough time has passed that the impressions of my first reading feel distant enough for me to stomach whatever crimes this adaptation has committed, and the new round of Dracula Daily has reminded me of my plans to rewatch this through a new lens.

[Warning: spoilers for the movie and the book]

Well… my impressions are about the same as I expected. The only thing that surprised me was that I underestimated the level of character assassination involved. Lucy and Mina got the worst of it, but pretty much everyone’s personality and motivations are sanded down to the most superficial characteristics and dragged through dirt. Jonathan and Mina(!) don’t have any personality left whatsoever. The less said of poor Lucy, the better. The way this 1992 film is by far more misogynistic than the 1897 novel is absolutely astonishing. The film’s internal system of values is completely incoherent (as opposed to the novel, where it was very clear even if obviously dated). The story keeps switching back and forth between “edgy smutfic that has little to no basis in the novel” and “abridged adaptation that proudly insists on bringing up minor characters and events for a minute or two” which leads to the extreme inconsistency of the narrative and especially Mina’s character. All of the tense and suspenseful parts of the novel are galloped through at a breakneck pace that drains them of all emotion.

I guess I did watch it at the right age after all; as a teenager randomly catching this on TV I was susceptible to all the dramatic romance and sucking blood from the chest and whatnot, but as an adult who has read the novel this is unwatchable. Even worse is seeing people call this a faithful adaptation. If you think the novel is too bland and want to do your own thing that’s fine, but why drag Bramothy’s name and characters into it then?! This could have been either a decent gothic romance or a passable Dracula adaptation, and by trying to do both (and also due to their staggering misogyny and love for victim-blaming) the director and the writer achieved neither.

An extremely frustrating thing is that “loving someone who became a vampire, and being willing to follow them into undeath” is compelling, and it didn’t come out of nowhere! Mina’s compassion for Dracula and identification with his plight, and Jonathan’s devotion to Mina even at the cost of their souls is a potent but underdeveloped part of the novel that I would love to see elaborated on in an adaptation! In the film Jonathan is even allowed to keep two whole lines that gesture at these conflicts! But instead of simply turning this aspect of the Mina/Jonathan relationship up to eleven, the screenwriter cuts and pastes it into the Mina/Dracula relationship without adjusting the rest of the story accordingly. There’s also something that is present in the novel and removed from the movie even though it would have helped make Mina/Dracula more believable. In the novel, vampiric transformation completely changes one’s personality. This serves as a major source of horror and raises questions like: can the vampire version of your loved one be considered the same person? would you kill their vampire self to release the real one? shouldn’t any vampire, no matter how vile, deserve compassion on behalf of their original self? Under this interpretation, it would have made sense for Dracula’s wife who only knew him pre-vampirism to continue loving him even as a vampire. But in the movie, vampirism only makes people more sexual and aggressive, and otherwise there is little change: Lucy is shallow and vulgar even before being turned; Mina loves Dracula and wants to be with him even before being turned; as for Dracula himself, the narration describes his atrocities but doesn’t specify whether he committed him as a human or a vampire. This is a huge disservice to all characters involved, and to the entire story.

Congratulations to the costume designer and the cinematographer for being the only people to do a decent job in this bloody circus. Gary Oldman and Keanu Reeves look nice but that doesn’t help much when the script messes up their characters so badly.

Current rating: 6/10 for the visuals and the parts of the story I actually like. Might lower it later.

---

Liveblog / notes about specific scenes

As much as I hate to see Dracula/“Mina”, good for him for turning against the church that declared his beloved damned. Giving him Jonathan’s traits right within the first five minutes, huh. The bleeding cross is pretty silly, though.

Hilarious to see the title “Bram Stoker’s Dracula” after this intro that completely goes against the letter and spirit of the book.

Huh, Renfield is serving him already?.. LMAO they merged Renfield with Jonathan’s employer! That explains it. A pretty fun choice, actually.

I don’t think I’ve mentioned this, but I’ve always continued to picture Jonathan like Keanu Reeves in this movie, throughout the whole book. No good acting or chemistry found in the first scene with Jonathan and Mina, unfortunately.

The typewriter! She types so slowly though lmao.

Woow the carriage scene completely misses the point of the original. Why is the driver not trying to save Jonathan? What does “For the dead travel fast” even mean when you don’t have Dracula arriving earlier than the humans hoped?

Not a fan of Dracula brandishing a sword at Jonathan straight away.

Love the giant London map. And Dracula’s misplaced shadow, lol.

“They say you are a man of good… taste.”

Um, they pulled this diary entry about Jonathan not wanting Mina to be spoiled out of their asses, right??

Why does Mina have a random book with smutty images on her desk and also act scandalized about it aloud when she’s alone?

How old are Mina and Lucy supposed to be? They act like they’re fourteen or something… They’re of marriageable age, surely they know what it entails!

I didn’t know how good I had it during the Dracula-Jonathan section. It’s truly painful to watch the character assassination of everyone involved.

Wow, Lucy says her dumb innuendo (an invention of the script, obviously), then Quincey immediately calls her “little girl” (as in the novel) not even half a second later. That was certainly a choice.

Jack comically tripping and falling is the only good thing about this scene.

I’m sorry why does Renfield’s asylum look like THAT?!

“A foul bauble of man’s vanity!” He said the thing!

Just as I was about to type “Where’s the Lizard Fashion?”, here it was.

Is it supposed to look hilarious when one of the three weed smoking girlfriends rises from between Jonathan’s legs? Because it was hilarious.

Oh good point actually; did Jonathan in the novel leave the crucifix at his bed instead of wearing it?

The staging of the three vampires’ scene and a hard cut to Jonathan calling himself “faithful” in the letter… The film positively hates him.

On the other hand, the film not only adds sex to Dracula feeding on Lucy, but very pointedly specifies that it was not consensual. What was the intention here? “Punish” her for being “promiscuous” in the interactions with the three suitors?

What in the award season red carpet is this dress

Mina as a title-seeker who is jealous of Lucy and her fiancé and immediately becomes interested in Dracula when he says he’s a prince — pray tell, which part of the novel is this supposedly based on? That’s right, you pulled this disgusting slander right out of your ass.

Of course the suitors talk about Lucy in a rude way and dismiss her illness. And Arthur has a pervy smile on his face as he watches the sick Lucy. This film is determined on character assassination for absolutely everyone involved.

I admit, I still think “I have crossed oceans of time to find you” is a good line.

Cute fluffy doggy :3

Cute fluffy bat :3

Van Helsing saying “My god, she’s only a child” as the camera severely oversexualizes Lucy is also a choice, see above.

“Don’t worry about spoiled little Lucy” — this is the first in-character thing that Lucy has said. 1 hour 12 minutes into the movie.

“Perhaps, though I try to be good, I am bad.” Great dialogue writing here. /s

“A bitch of the devil, a whore of darkness” I hate this movie as much as this movie hates women.

“She is a willing recruit, a breathless follower, a wanton follower.” Wait, no, it would be impossible to match this script’s misogyny, actually.

Absolutely reprehensible how this movie has the female victim herself specify that what happened to her was against her will, then has a male character waltz in and state that she “asked for it” anyway, and the narrative seems to side with him. Rape culture on steroids.

They just completely skipped past the entire “Mina learns what happened to Jonathan and types up the first half of the novel”… Why did they even show the typewriter then?

Men will read a scene in which a woman is semi-metaphorically raped and think “yes I will turn this into a romantic scene in which the woman confesses her undying love and declares her intent to be together forever”

God, I remember how betrayed I felt last autumn when I reached October 3rd in the novel and realized that the scene I found romantic and sensual as a teenager was based on that… And on rewatch, even without taking the novel into consideration, the film’s version doesn’t make internal sense. When Mina started weakly punching Dracula it looked so unserious that at first I thought she was playfighting, not reacting to the revelation that her lover had raped and murdered her best friend and imprisoned her husband.

It’s also notable that the film adds several rape scenes that weren’t in the book, but throws out the rape scene that was in the book. I interpret this as the creators confessing that they don’t seriously care about turning the “vampirism = sexual violence” subtext into text, and everything the movie did to Lucy exists because they thought it was hot and wanted the viewers to find it hot too. Absolutely vile.

Why does Mina cry “Unclean! Unclean!” in this version if it was her idea… Or was that supposed to be mind control as well, even though Dracula was arguing with her?

(Unexpected addition to my yonic wound list though)

Spent all this time thinking that at least van Helsing remained in character (except for the misogyny), and now he’s making out with Mina.

The final scene in the chapel was surprisingly good, all things considered. “Mina” tenderly kissing the bloodied lips on Dracula’s monstrous face still works for me. And she looks her best with her hair down.

So what is supposed to happen after this? In this version, Jonathan is mediocre, and Mina doesn’t love him as much as she loved Dracula — does she just go back to him for a loveless marriage?

[bellamygateoldblog]

I get it, Lexa's death was handled extremely poorly and the writers deserve to be criticized for it. But it's worth pointing out that a major (major, i got sick of it and stopped scrolling after a while) chunk of comments in response to that tweet seem to only want to talk about Lexa, and not the racism or misogyny prevalent within the show, too. These are things we should be talking about in equal measure. Like it just reminds me of a completely tone deaf post I read a while back that said bellamy, the biracial asian male lead, is the "safer" and better option to die in the end simply because he's a man and "it's not a good look to kill off their bisexual protagonist" on a show with a habit of murdering black men.

[aro-and-tired]

Since people are arguing whether or not alloromantic people should ship aro characters, I’d like to give my opinion. Now, I’m not going to say that you or can’t do something, I’m just a random person on the internet and I’m not the ultimate authority of what can or can’t be done. You want to write that aro character in a romantic relationship? No one is stopping you. But more than doing or not doing something, I’d like it if people were coherent, honest, and aware.

Coherent - is your reaction to a character being aromantic the same as a character being another queer orientation?

Say there was a character who was a gay man, or a lesbian. Say I decided to write them in a relationship with a person of the other binary gender. I could tell you that some gay people still have relationships with members of other genders and that some gay people still describe having very strong feelings for those partners, that maybe they weren’t really attracted to them but they still cared deeply about them.

If you would say “you can’t ship gay people with someone of another gender no matter the circumstances”, but see no issue with shipping aro characters because some aros are romance positive, you are not being coherent, you have a double standard there.

If you would tell me “I don’t think you actually care about those gay people who have had that sort of relationship, you are just co-opting their existence to justify a ship”, but then get mad if someone accuses you of co-opting romance positive aros for your ship, you have another double standard.

If you would say “yes, some gay people can have romantic relationship with people they aren’t attracted to, but it’s a delicate topic and if you haven’t lived that experience you risk writing a narrative that hurts a lot of people”, but then think anyone can ship an arospec character without any particular research on how to do it, that is another double standard.

Honest - when you say you are writing that character as a romance positive aro or as arospec, are you really doing that, or are you just writing an alloromantic character with the serial numbers filed off?

We’ve all heard of show, don’t tell, so once you’ve told me you think that character is romance positive aro, show me. Make the character open their mouth in the story and say they are aromantic. Show me their internal feelings, the way they care about their romantic partner but not in a romantic way. Give me a grey- or demiromantic character being taken aback by their feelings, not knowing how to deal with them. Have your arospec character set boundaries in the relationship that most people don’t have. Give me an allo partner who is supportive, or confused, or otherwise feels some sort of way about their aro partner’s identity.

If your aromantic character in a romantic relationship is written just how you would write an alloromantic, then you are not writing an aromantic character. Either be honest with me and tell me you have decided to ignore that character’s identity, or put some effort into it.

Aware - are you aware of your own biases?

You see, fandom has always had trends of certain minorities being pushed aside. A few years ago, it was women - the amount of misogyny in some fandoms, especially in m/m fic, was staggering. Female characters in fic would get bashed and villanized all the time, even if that character had never done anything wrong in canon. While this problem has somewhat abated, fandom still has issues with portrayal of characters of color, who get ignored, or shoved into stereotyped roles. If you have been in fandom for more than a few weeks, you have probably seen a lot of these discussions crop up.

And if a specific person hates a specific female character, it doesn’t mean they have internalized misogyny. If a specific person prefers the white character to the character of color, it doesn’t mean they are racist. But if fandom as a whole ignores a fleshed out, compelling, important character of color in favor of the white side characters, there is a bias there. Again, it doesn’t mean everyone who prefers the white character is actively racist - but fans of color will still get the message that they are not welcome. It is always worth sitting down and thinking do I really not like this [insert minority] character, or is there an internalized prejudice informing my decisions?

A similar thing happens with aromantic character. Do you really think that character is romance positive, or are you just arophobic? Do you really think that those characters have chemistry, or has amatonormativity just conditioned you to see romance everywhere? And is your fandom, as a whole, biased against aromantic people? Do you think that dozens - if not hundreds, for some fandoms - of alloromantic authors writing only about romance positive aros in romantic relationship will make real romance positive aros feel seen? Or are you sending the message that aromantic people only matter if they can be put in a romantic relationship, that romance repulsed and nonpartnering aros are uninteresting?

Once again, I can’t tell you what to do or what not to do. If you thought this post is a load of bullshit, I also can’t change your mind there. If you want to tell me that it’s just fanfiction and it doesn’t matter, you’re entitled to write whatever fanfiction you want to write. Just kindly start being honest with all of us and tag your content as “alloromantic [character]” so we are all clear on what’s going on. You can’t honestly tell me you wouldn’t be mad if you went looking for a character that represents your identity but then what you found was all deeply alienating if not straight up -phobic, so don’t expect aros to be happy if 90% of content that features aro characters turns them allo.

[emeraldspiral]

Only watched a handful of eps and the amount of overt misogyny was staggering. Like, he made a contest out of getting his interns to steal his boss’s underwear and explicitly stated that the purpose of the exercise was to undermine her authority. The entire premise of the show was that House’s talent gives him the right to be as disrespectful, bigoted, and unprofessional as he wants and people still have to kiss his ass and beg him to use his brilliance for the benefit of mankind, like all those Hollywood sex pests people want to excuse because what would we do without their creative genius?

House M.D. Confuses Me

The show gets so much praise in TV critic circles but all I see is a pretty average procedural with a central character who the show clearly thinks is an antihero, but is basically just a bigot.

I’m currently in the middle of the first episode to directly show Thirteen’s bisexuality. And of course it’s full of gross cliches, stereotypes and House leering like a teenage boy over the idea of two women having sex. A previous episode featured a patient who was a gay man living with HIV. He was every bad stereotype in one poorly drawn character - hard partying, drug taking, casual sex having, condom averse - and House used every opportunity he had to make offensive gay jokes at his expense. 

House is a racist and a homophobe, he treats women like shit and makes anti-semitic remarks towards his Jewish colleague. Yet the show frames him as the hero, as the guy who we’re all supposed to be rooting for. It frames his bigotry as not just something which is excused because of his supposed genius, but as something we should laugh at, as an entertaining character quirk which shows how “no nonsense” he is. 

I have a huge amount of respect for shows which don’t require their lead to be likeable, which challenge us to be interested in the story of someone we don’t like or root for. What I don’t understand or appreciate is just how hard the writers of House M.D. want me to like him. I’d be far more interested if the show condemned his behaviour and challenged us to praise his medical skill anyway. Instead they try so hard to get us to find his bigotry charming, and this is where they lose me. 

I get the distinct feeling that the only people who really like Greg House are the kind of people who think “political correctness” is a bad thing, who think that everyone is really just as bigoted as them and just not saying so. A guy I knew at uni - who was a racist and a homophobe - LOVED House, because “he said what everyone was thinking” and “didn’t care about offending people”. I feel like the people who wrote House used him to say everything they really thought - which was horrible racism, homophobia and misogyny. 

Watching House feels like watching a dudebro’s power fantasy - where the white guy who feels persecuted because people don’t find his superiority complex amusing anymore, gets to say whatever he wants to every minority who comes through the door. And he gets away with it, because of course he’s a genius. Every female character is either a nag, a sex object, overly emotional or all three. The one regular queer character is used as a punching bag for House’s homophobia: he continually embarrasses, undermines and sexually harrasses her whilst of course insisting that her bisexuality isn’t real, or is just a synonym for wanting a threesome. The black character is the butt of every criminal joke. The show reinforces this bullshit too, not least by refusing to punish House for his gross misconduct. Thirteen’s on screen relationships with women are largely shown as flings, mistakes, or part of her “going off the rails”, and of course any sex scenes are eroticised for the male viewer to objectify. Foreman is a successful doctor who has a criminal record for gang involvement in his youth. House deploys him every time he wants someone to break into a house. The writers create a world where House is always right and this only continues when House is spouting bigotry. 

What confuses - and scares - me is that people love House, the character and the show (and the character is basically the whole show, aside from him there’s very little to write home about, especially when the same sequence of events happens every episode). House M.D. is consistently listed as a critical favourite and House himself as a great character. The show ran for 8 seasons and was pretty much a phenomenon. It’s scary that so many people bought into House as a character and the way the writers presented him, that audiences liked him and his bigotry and enjoyed watching him win every time. It’s worrying to think that so many people are “really thinking” everything that House is saying.

[thewillowbends]

I keep seeing this argument that Deckerstar is a bad pairing. It really wasn't. It was, in fact, extremely organically done up through the Fox era. Understand that it's not that Chloe and Lucifer's relationship wasn't developed past S2. It develops through S3 just fine. A key part of the narrative is that they're regressing and sabotaging themselves precisely because Lucifer isn't taking his own advice to his mother that they can only move forward not back. Deckerstar stagnates and starts to crumble in S3 because they won't let it move forward, and Lucifer realizes he has to take the leap at the end and tell her the truth so they can move forward together. So through S1-3, Deckerstar is fine. Well developed, even.

The Netflix era is where it all goes to shit, and it does for two major reasons, which I go into below the cut:

1.) Misogyny. I cannot stress how ridiculously sexist the Netflix era is. Joe and Ildy hate women. They don't realize they hate women, but they do. It infiltrates every part of the Netflix era narrative.

Up until S4, Chloe is the straight man to Lucifer's more manic behavior, but she is NOT a flat character by any means. Her acting and characterization is more subtle, but it is very complex. In fact, we know more about details about her character's backstory than we do his since the show never bothered to touch what actually happened with the rebellion. I'm not joking when I say I used to recommend this series precisely because of the female characters: not only were they well done, but they weren't young, sexy twenty-somethings. They were mature women in their thirties with lots of baggage and emotional complexity.

From S4 onward, the dive in the quality of the female characters is staggering. Linda becomes a mother and that's all she wrote, y'all. It subsumes the majority of her character's plot purpose. The therapy scenes dive in quality along with it. She goes from being one of the most interesting side characters to just...a terrible friend and therapist who serves little real plot purpose. (For that matter, TWO women get pregnant in the Netflix era, and not a single fucking moment is spent with them thinking over the choice to have this baby or how it would impact their lives, even though these are both women in their forties with difficult life situations that would make babies extremely inconvenient. It's just automatic that they want them because lol women made 4 making baby, right? Yet the two father have entire episodes dedicated to their fears and anxieties over it. Unbelievable.)

Ella was always boring and fairly flat (which is fine - she's a side character, they're supposed to be less developed!), but she finally got interesting in S5A only to be given an extremely gross storyline where her love of bad boys accidentally leads her date to a serial killer, where we then get to watch her internalize that guilt and horror in S5B instead of grappling with it meaningfully. S6's solution to this is to let her meet the man she "needs" to treat her right. Also gross. (At least she got to grapple with it somewhat, I guess. You know who also dated and was manipulated by a serial killer but never got any of her pathos over it examined? THE LEAD FUCKING FEMALE CHARACTER.)

Maze is just....completely fucking off the rails. Her character is abrasive and abusive but never has any meaningful repercussions for any of it but is then framed as badass and assertive. Punching people doesn't make her a strong woman. She's just a violent asshole who expecting everybody to serve her emotional needs while overlooking theirs.

Goddess goes from having one of the most complex, fascinating, and moving antagonist arcs in the whole series in S2 to showing up in S5B just so she can take her abusive husband back. In other circumstances, this would be fine because they're gods and human rules, power dynamics, and morals don't need to apply, but compounded with all of the other misogyny around it, it's awful.

Eve is...holy shit. I cannot even begin to start with how clearly she was only ever designed to be a Deckerstar cockblock who shoves Chloe out of the colead role so they don't have to develop her. She's great in S4 right up until they no longer need her, and than she just goes completely off the rails. They literally make her the crazy, hysterical ex girlfriend wrecking Lucifer's life. When she showed up in 5B, I nearly had a fucking aneurysm, y'all. Imagine having such a great character and completely fucking wasting her the way they did. Moreover, imagine sticking her in an f/f pairing that had so much incredible potential to be interesting but which was just thrown together because lmao, bisexual people just be like that, right? Our love lives don't require development or complexity. (Or sex! Because you can bet that once these women are in romantic, loving, monogamous relationships, their sexual desires barely exist. It's all tepid kisses and sultry jokes but passion goes out the door, apparently. Bis and gays can marry, y'all, but we apparently can't fuck. Oh, and we definitely got to Hell at the end of the day, too!)

Oh, but I can imagine wasting her because the most wasted female character of them is Chloe Decker, the literal fucking colead. What goes wrong in the Netflix era is a lengthy list of issues, but perhaps the biggest one I see people skimming over is that they never bothered to give their female colead an actual character arc. After S3, Chloe stops being a person. She's just a thing to move around on the chess board for Lucifer's character. Her character background is routinely gutted to serve the plots of other characters, particularly male characters, usually in the pursuit of ANGST. We spent three seasons watching Chloe deal with things in a fairly logical, rational manner, even when she was scared or didn't understand things. In S4, we toss that all away because having Chloe turn into a hysterical women who runs off to another fucking continent so we can have some dumb betrayal plot that splits Deckerstar apart AGAIN for an entire season and so we can shove Chloe's storyline aside so they don't have to tackle the miracle reveal. S5A manages to be a brief, shining moment where my bad bitch S1 Chloe returns, but then right back into S5B we're shoving her into a passive role where she exists to be sad about Lucifer and....nothing fucking else. S6 is...I cannot even begin fam. They gut her character's history of having her father literally murdered and her daughter kidnapped by a corrupt cop so they can prop up Amenadiel's story by making her the stupid white woman who doesn't understand racism and thinks the system is perfect.

SHE WAS MARRIED TO A LATINO MESTIZO MAN. HER DAUGHTER IS A MESTIZO LATINA GIRL. IN WHAT FUCKING REALITY WOULD SHE NOT KNOW WHAT RACISM IS? SHE LITERALLY HELPED LUCIFER AND AMENADIEL IN TWO DIFFERENT SEASONS GET A YOUNG BLACK MAN OFF UNFAIR CHARGES. IN WHAT REALITY DID CHLOE DECKER EVER FUCKING THINK THE SYSTEM WASN'T FLAWED? SHE'S LITERALLY A VICTIM OF POLICE CORRUPTION. JESUS CHRIST. IT MAKES ME SO ANGRY.

And then there's...God, so much else in S6 that's just jaw droppingly sexist, the kind that's almost shocking on television in the year 2021. She can't have the piece of the blade because power makes her going fucking insane, apparently. She finds out she's going to be a mother in episode 5 but literally doesn't bother checking that she's pregnant until four episodes later??? Her daughter from her previous marriage stops mattering as much as the one she has with Lucifer?? What?? She suffers through six seasons of obstacle to be with Lucifer, gets a whole six months with him, and then she spends the rest of her human life alone, raising two children by herself, having to lie and traumatize her children to maintain some stupid goddamn time loop. (How insulting to stay at home and single parents to act as though the work they do every day isn't extremely difficult, time consuming, and draining.)

No big deal, though, guys, because life is just a blip you see! The writers told us so! (We won't get into how grossly evangelist that thinking is, not to mention thematically contradictory - if life is a blip, why the fuck is it determining human eternity?? Why does fixing racism or other damaged human systems matter??) Because women literally exist just to suffer for the men to do what they need to in this story, apparently. Their feelings and desires don't matter. Chloe watches her daughter fade away in 6x10 telling Lucifer to abandon her and apparently has not one word to say edgewise. It's all good!

One final note on the miracle reveal...let this go down as the single most outrageously wasted thing I've ever seen introduced in a show. You literally have a character who is a gift from God, and that's what you come up with? Literally, thousands of options to play around with why she was put there, abilities and purpose that could have linked her arc to Lucifer's to develop alongside his to prop up the narrative...and they blew it. They had THREE SEASONS to come up with something interesting, and they just don't. It's just mindblowing to me. I cannot imagine being that incompetent as a writer.

But conclusion: they didn't view Chloe as a person the way they did Lucifer. They didn't see her story as valuable as his, so they never bothered creating an arc. The problem is that she is the COLEAD OF THE NARRATIVE and a huge part of Lucifer's life, so by crashing her narrative, they also crashed his, because the two are intertwined.

2.) The writers saw Deckerstar not as key part of the narrative that drove Lucifer's character development and propped up a key part of the found family theme but as a way to consistently frustrate the audience and keep them engaged by constantly keeping them waiting for the payoff that never came.

Think of all the great moments Lucifer and Chloe have with other partners that they never have with each other. Think of all the great couples moments that get handed over to other, less important couples in the show.

Eve gets the devil face kiss with Lucifer. Chloe never gets anything like this with him.

Marcus gets Chloe's an emotional confession about the pain of her father's death. She never even gets to discuss this with Lucifer after.

Eve (and lots of other men and women) gets to have fun, kinky sex with Lucifer. Chloe has passionate, public sex with Pierce. Lucifer and Chloe never do either of these things together. They're the lead couple, and they get a whole two barely PG-13 sex scenes, one of which canonically leads to pregnancy.

Eve and Maze get a big wedding scene. Amenadiel gets to commute and be with his family and see them grow. Lucifer and Chloe get neither of these things.

Trixie gets to talk about her mother being happy with Pierce in S3. She has a big, powerful family moment with Lucifer and Eve in S4. In S5B, Lucifer doesn't hold Trixie and Chloe in their moment of grief over Dan's death, while other characters openly embrace in the background. Instead, Deckerstar has two fights across two episodes instead of finding comfort with each other. In fact, all of the great little family moments we expected with TRIXIE after S5? Went to Rory instead. Trixie gets tossed to the side.

Rory's sole purpose in the narrative, just like Eve, is to split Deckerstar up.

The thing that should kill you is that they did this on purpose. They told us they did. Joe openly said they wanted to frustrate fans. They basically damaged their own story and found family narrative, stripping away all the emotional intimacy from S5B and S6 that would have propped up the underlying themes in order to make fans want more by giving them nothing. For six seasons, we waited to see Deckerstar get together and be happy together...and we couldn't even have that. They never get a fucking break. Amenadiel gets handed the story and rewards of a narrative that Lucifer did all the work to receive. In the end, Deckerstar literally exists just to generate angst. We were asked to invest and then never got paid the dividend of that investment.

tl;dr it's not that Deckerstar is a bad pairing. It's that the writers actively sabotaged it by being sexist idiots with no respect for their lead characters' narrative. They went for the laziest, most superficial route possible to drum up drama and pretend it was deep. Great job, guys! You gave D&D a run for their money for fucking up the landing, that's for sure.

[nothorses]

Alright so controversial question but do you think there could be some value to FtM separatism within the trans community? The amount of NBs and transfems I’ve encountered who just blatantly don’t understand the unique struggles of trans men or lie/deny that we even have any is just staggering. I know that separatism typically never results in anything good but at the same time I’m losing faith that our needs as trans men can truly be met by the general community as long as it’s dominated by the voices of trans women who more often than not talk over us and silence us. I wish there was some way to make a grand statement that was basically like “hey fucking stop and listen to us” that the larger community would be unable to ignore.

No.

Separatism always comes from this exact place: we feel like the wider community isn't meeting our needs, can't understand us, actively silences us, won't work with us, hates us, is a danger to us, can't possibly be safe for us to be around...

And yeah, to some extent, those feelings are probably coming from a legitimate place! It's easy to feel like we're the only ones looking out for each other, like the whole world is against us, like there's just no way to get them to listen.

But here's the thing: that's not true.

There are also a lot of people who are great allies to us; who see us, recognize our struggles, build solidarity, boost our voices, and even actively fight alongside us.

There are also a lot of people within our own community who have internalized these things, and actively work against us. When we try to separate ourselves out by identity instead of individual ideology, we're ostracizing allies and welcoming in people who do want to hurt us.

And what about the people who don't know they belong with us yet? People who need to dabble in our spaces to learn, who need education and welcoming? What about people who think they're one of us, then realize they aren't? Should we ostracize them just because they don't meet our arbitrary identity standards? Will the space they're in- where they've built their support networks and relationships for maybe even years, by then- reject them and eject them? Will it try to force them to remain the "acceptable" identity so they can belong, even if that's not true to who they are? What about people who fit into multiple communities; are they unwelcome in ours? Do we only accept the most "pure"?

How do we "do" separatism in the first place? Communes come with all these problems and more; rejecting solidarity with the trans community from an activist standpoint deprives us of valuable allies, visibility, and resources; asking trans-centric organizations not to include us, even so we can make our own, deprives vulnerable people of necessary resources...

Not to mention how intertwined out issues are with the rest of the community. We can't really talk about transandrophobia without talking about transmisogyny at some point, or exorsexism, or wider experiences of transphobia, or even homophobia and other branches of misogyny/gender-based oppression. We can't really talk about our identities and experiences in a vacuum separate from other trans and otherwise queer identities and experiences.

Having smaller spaces and communities for transmascs is great, and even necessary at times! But none of those can exist in a vacuum without connection to the wider trans community.

It is slow going at times, and it's frustrating at times, and it is certainly painful at times; but separatism only exacerbates those problems.

Build solidarity. Build allyships, connections, and community. Build power together. We have a responsibility to the rest of the trans community just as much as they have a responsibility to us.

[reflectingiridescent]

Love getting sex shamed in the sex positive space I personally helped create…for free.

This shaming absolutely came from a place of insecurity and is just this…staggering reminder that the corner of the internet I hang out in has a deep history of internalized misogyny and “not like other girls”-ing. And it shows.