#the very very very very very males who do have self control and don’t rape women even if she’s in her underwear or sleeping with you

[thedimenotmensioned]

when you realize that everyone who tried to gaslight you into thinking there’s something wrong with you for being against rapey predatory creepy perverted rapist actually WAS INDEED WRONG and you were RIGHT all along.

I’ve stayed the night and dealt with men (multiple occasions) who didn’t make me feel uncomfortable, nor scared, who didn’t force themselves on top of me after being told no and pushed away at the very least 6 fuckin times, who didn’t think that because it’s “night time” that I should already know wassup and expect to be raped, or because we’re opposite sex and hanging out alone that this is what we must do and it’s expected and demanded, or because we’re lying down/sleeping in the same bed, or because I fuckin SAT NEXT TO THEM, or because they got my attention now it’s required and expected that I give them my pussy too, or bc we’re simply hanging out.

This is all the shit rapist ass niggas, chaos officers👮🏻 and pickmes told me when trying to convince me I’m the one in the wrong, I’m a liar and these males did absolutely nothing wrong because I should’ve knew thats what were they were trying to do to me and their intent and, I must’ve been around them simply because I wanted to be raped and now I must be upset because “they don’t want me”.

NOW LISTEN

I have cuddled naked with, slept in underwear, showered with, made out with, humped, humped damn near naked with, got my titties sucked, neck sucked, gave hand jobs, and slept in the same bed as niggas who I told “NO”, FROM THE JUMP that never EVER raped me, nor made me feel as if they were about to. And to this day have never had sex with me. Even when i would get anxious and id tell them we should STOP this because I don’t want you to get the wrong impression and try to stick it in or take my panties off next. And THEY WERE THE ONES WHO would tell me to chill, and that they’re chilling/relaxed and they’re aren’t going to do that, and that they aren’t going to try to stick it in, they aren’t going to fuck me because they know I said no. They never ever scared me, held me hostage, balled up their fist angrily asking why can’t they fuck, they didn’t jack me up by shirt demanding my pussy, they DIDNT mark me up and fight me for it, they didn’t wait until I was unconscious to restrain me and make sure I can’t scream. They didn’t wait until my guard was off when I wasn’t looking and slam me down. They didn’t do any of that. So I thought interactions like that with males were pretty normal tbh and that most men were like that because all the men I had been around at the time were like that. that’s all I knew at that time……..

Meanwhile a RAPEAPE whom I’m NOT even flirting with, not cuddling with, nor doing anything sexual or intimate with whatsoever, not courting, not dating, not even sitting close to (intentionally), not allowing them to grope me, nor kiss me, nor rub me, absolutely NOTHING feels entitled and comfortable enough to pin themselves onto me and make sure I can’t scream, or full fledged attack and slam me down. And think I’m NOT supposed to be angry and upset about the shit. Let alone to think I’m NOT supposed to say something or feel a ways about the shit. Especially as someone who never had sex before at the time. And they think that I should’ve expected it, wanted it and knew it was gonna happen because we’re the opposite sex and alone or because the time of day it was or because they got my attention/number at the moment.

and since then Ive met only rape ape after rape ape. another. Then another. Then another. and the cycle just continued on. And I had to learn the hard way many men (majority) are absolutely nothing like the very few ones i met and are used to. But apparently I should’ve magically knew that already and expected to raped by majority of males i meet simply because they’re males with a Y chromosome (as told from rapist and police in different words tho���). I didn’t know that at the time, but baby I know now and i promise you I’ll never forget.

Stay ready to DrillaAyeP it’s most of them. And yes it is innate, involuntary, instinctive and their biology to attack and never take no as an answer. As told from a female officer who blamed me for what happen and told me I should’ve expected it. Well I will definitely expect it in the future. Ya know better, ya do better.

And shoutout to the handful (literally a handful🤲) of men on earth who knows what “No” means, have self control and don’t beat women up, or threaten and intimidate them for pussy. There’s not many of them on earth. But y’all are greatly appreciated by me. People are trying to convince me y’all don’t exist, but I know y’all do which is why I put myself in position to be raped to begin with because I thought most men were like that and that only 1% were rapist. I was wrong.

99% are rapist. And 1% are not. the police and rapist even agree with me. That’s why you don’t hang out with a man at night or alone. Even my rapist told me this and told me I should’ve protected myself better and he wouldn’t have did what he did. And he’s absolutely correct. He’s an innate rapist demonic alien beast who have no self control and who has no conscious nor awareness and is on rape autopilot.

[cryptidcircuswrites]

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☆ MENSTRUATING READER HEADCANONS - various characters x afab reader slight nsfw but not enough to be an nsfw fic || AO3

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☆ ONE OF THE GUYS - transmasc non-passing/fem reader is affirmed aggressively by Jeff

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[maya-matlin]

(TW tor rape mention)

So I think I saw you talk about this a while back, about how the Sav and Anya having sex was a disturbing since she lied to him about being on birth control. Do you think that it could technically qualify as rape that she did that. Cause Sav made it clear he didn’t think they’d be having sex and he didn’t bring protection so he likely wouldn’t have consented otherwise. I doubt this even crossed the writers minds as they could be very sketchy about male consent especially and they clearly wanted us to sympathize with Anya. I definitely don’t think she’d ever do something like that on purpose, and I guess her consequence was Sav dumping her, but again the writers tried to portray her as sympathetic and wrote it like Sav was the jerk for dumping her after taking her virginity. But that’s like the main reason their relationship never worked, they could never properly communicate or be honest with each other about anything. 95% of their relationship was one of them lying (and honestly…they tried to make it seem like Sav keeping her from his parents was this awful thing and while he may have not been entirely honest about it and it’s understandable that Anya was upset it wasn’t nearly as bad as Anya lying about being on the pill and then lying about being pregnant. Like Sav only didn’t tell his parents cause he knew it’d make their relationship harder. He’s still far from being the best boyfriend but as much as I do like Anya’s character and definitely believe she’s a good person at heart she was honestly worse in that relationship and I don’t think it’s talked about enough. And what makes me sad about it honestly is that this isn’t the last time they writers did something like this, and it was so underwritten and brushed off so easily that I didn’t even view it as disturbing until recently…I always knew it was a bad decision but it’s really so much more than that when you really look at it closely.

Honestly, yes. What Anya did to Sav technically falls under rape by deception. Sav only consented to sleeping with Anya because he was under the impression she was on birth control. Because he was unable to give his full, enthusiastic consent, I do think she violated him. Maybe not intentionally and with the full knowledge of the nuances of sexual consent, but Anya was fully aware that her lie is what allowed her to get Sav into bed that night. Even if we pretend that lying about being on birth control isn't a legal issue, it's a pretty fucked up thing to do to someone you're supposed to be in love with. Or fuck, anyone for that matter. It's a completely selfish and horrific thing to do. Degrassi halfway got this right? Once Sav finds out the truth, he's disturbed, no longer trusts Anya, and no longer wants to be in a relationship with her. His reactions are understandable and sympathetic. It's the least of what she deserved. But at the same time, yeah. We're supposed to sympathize with Anya. Based on how the episode played out with us seeing both Sav's (part 1) and Anya's (part 2) POV, I think the takeaway is supposed to be somewhere in the middle. Sav is sympathetic and understandable because of his parents' expectations. He's not choosing to keep their relationship a secret because he's an asshole and trying to disrespect Anya. He's doing it because the Bhandaris were strict parents who didn't want him to date anyone, especially not when they weren't Muslim. However, the lying to Anya and allowing her to believe his family is aware she's his girlfriend is also a problem. Anya is already pretty insecure and has a low self esteem. She puts so much emphasis on her love life and fully believes Sav is the one. So him constantly refusing to stand up to his parents for her kind of fucks with her head? Then suddenly, his arranged wife makes it clear she wants Sav for herself and is going to do what she can to undermine his relationship with Anya. The decision to sleep with Sav without protection in order to lock down their relationship (whether she was actively thinking about getting pregnant or not) was an impulsive one and definitely not something meant to harm Sav or make him feel violated. The thing is, that's what she did. Just because Anya's motivations leading up to the act were sympathetic doesn't absolve her from raping her boyfriend. In season 10, yeah. Any acknowledgement of what happened that night is completely gone. Sav just dumped Anya after they lost their virginity to each other. Her next act is to literally fake a pregnancy, albeit to help Holly J out. Somehow, Sav is charmed by this. What the actual fuck? It's complicated because the majority of teenage boys aren't brought up to believe that they can be sexually assaulted. Especially by a girl or woman. So for that reason, I have to believe Sav pushed down any conflicted feelings he had about their encounter and simply moved forward. I still don't think Sav being charmed makes any sense, though.

Anyways, yes! I struggle a lot with Anya now. It's taken several years for me to think critically about this story line partially because I didn't want to see it. She was one of my all time favorite characters for a long time. It's easy for me to call out Katie and Declan because their demeanors were very manipulative with both doing clear villainous things. Same with Owen, another character totally ruined for me after recent rewatches. There's very little redeemable there. But with Anya, you look at her and you don't think "rapist". You don't even think "manipulative" or necessarily a bad person. She's just so cute and relatable, right? She makes bad decisions and is kind of a disaster half the time, but she's still lovable. The issue is, she did a pretty unforgivable thing. Overall, Anya is a character that repeatedly has a weird relationship with honesty and does drastic things in the name of holding onto a man. Like somehow, she spends most of her last few weeks of high school dating Owen "#MeToo" Milligan after he sexually harassed Anya herself, forced himself on Alli, and committed hate crimes against Riley and Zane. It's a lot to overlook.

This is only tangentially related, but I can't help but compare Anya's behavior with Sav during those episodes to Zig's with Maya in #YesMeansYes. It's not an exact comparison because there's no birth control deception going on, but in both cases you have two desperate, insecure partners who just want to secure their relationships with their boyfriend/girlfriend and believe sex is the best way to do it. Zig never intended to scare Maya or violate her boundaries, but in trying to "be forceful" so that she'd want to sleep with him it led to the opposite outcome. Thankfully, Zig got the chance to correct this behavior and learned a lesson. Maya was given reassurance that she was safe with Zig and that he understood the importance of consent and how it works. But with Anya and Sav, there was no stopping it. Anya made this choice for both of them, and it was Sav who had to live with it.

Needless to say, it's appalling that Degrassi irresponsibly portrayed so many "grey area" sexual encounters throughout the years. Especially when they were either too uneducated or cowardly to explain exactly what was going on during these moments. Because to some degree, Sav, Holly J and Drew all suffered negative consequences for behavior that wasn't their fault. The fact it wasn't until Next Class that this behavior started to be corrected proves how important a franchise like Degrassi still is. Society is always changing, and we're still learning so much.

[official-curajoy]

People Danger is Real

The rat race starts young now! And it’s easy to get caught up in it.  As a parent of college-bound teens, I live the frenzy that often results from students (and parents) thinking that the rest of their lives are dictated by their college acceptance letters. High-achieving teens aim, at the very minimum, to maintain GPAs above 4.0, aim for spectacular SAT scores, and outshine each other in extracurricular endeavors. When you see everyone else going above and beyond, it’s easy to spread yourself too thin and out of balance. But there is life beyond college admission and lots of other important choices to be made. (As a reminder: your life will probably be fine even if you don’t get into your top choice colleges.)

How much time do you spend evaluating which person you should befriend, date, or marry?  Our choices in people are more important than students’ school choices!  On the heels of women’s Day, I challenge us to notice the difference in efforts we spend on college counseling, career development to social-emotional skill building, and spend some more time discussing relationship health and boundary setting with our teens, especially young women.  They grew up watching Disney movies, reading fairy tales about Prince Charming, or witnessing dysfunctional marriages.  It’s often difficult to discern who is actually good for you. Strong social emotional skills like self-awareness, conflict resolution, and impulse control are important preventative measures to avoid trauma.  More importantly, we need to start having these important conversations early and often and parent our kids beyond their GPAs.

The path to adulthood is littered with potholes. The average age of children joining gangs is 13. Twelve million Americans are victims of rape, physical violence or stalking by a romantic partner every year, and 1 in 3 women will experience such abuse in their lifetime (1 in 4 for males.)  The #1 cause of death in pregnant women and mothers who recently delivered is homicide by their spouse or partner.  

People danger starts younger than we expect.  33% of teens experience dating violence but won’t tell anyone–perhaps related to the fact that 81% of parents believe teen dating violence isn’t an issue. 61% of teen sexting go coerced into it. The elderly and disabled are 70% more likely to be abused.  

What do these statistics mean to you?  To me, they tell me that the problem is prevalent and there aren’t enough effective proactive measures taken to prevent these traumas. Prioritizing behavioral health by building social emotional skills is essential because abusers are often charming  People danger is not as easy to recognize. Some abuse leaves bruises and scars.  But the abuses that don’t manifest outwardly are just as destructive, if not more.  In fact, emotional abuse triggers PTSD symptoms in women more than physical abuse.  Trauma physically changes the brain and affects learning, emotional regulation, memory, and every part of people’s lives. 

Some lessons are important enough for us to repeat to ensure mastery.  We hold on to children’s hands for years, teaching them how to watch the lights and check for cars because the consequences can be deadly. Don’t let go of your hands yet! Crossing into adulthood, choosing partners, and watching out for toxic relationships require just as much attention as we are paying to academic or career achievements. 

Everyone needs a strong dose of social emotional skills to carry you far.  And you’re going to need those skills to be second nature to count on them in times of trouble. Our team works to cultivate a solid sense of self and personal boundaries so that people know what they are comfortable with, and practice asserting their boundaries with others. We help people invest time in relationships where there is mutual respect, understanding, and clear communication. Whether or not people danger is real, a lot can be gained by surrounding yourself with people who will support and bring the best out of you. These relationships form the support team that can carry you through challenging times.

If you’re currently in an abusive relationship, do not hesitate to seek professional support or call 800-799-7233.

Check out the full blog post at : https://www.curajoy.org/people-danger/

[radfemblack]

My two cents on non-monogamy. I’m neutral. It’s not any better or worse than any other relationship configuration involving men. Different relationship styles are just part of human diversity. If polygyny is treated as a man owning multiple objects, and polyandry is treated as one object being shared by multiple men, then the problem is women being viewed as objects — which definitely happens in monogamy too, the root problem being heterosexual relationship dynamics molded by the hierarchy of patriarchy. Which is why open relationships seem to be working fine for gay men.

I think in radfem circles a lot of the opposition to non-monogamy is reflexive due to its association with the whole liberal sex pozzie stuff, which is understandable because men have proven they will pursue more pussy at the expense of women’s wellbeing. But things must stand and fall on their own merit and not merely be deemed guilty by association. After all, abortion and birth control are things the liberal patriarchy has co-opted to increase male sexual access to women with less responsibility, but no radical feminist would argue that these reproductive rights our foremothers fought for are therefore intrinsically oppressive and anti-feminist.

As a matter of fact, it actually was radical feminists in the second wave who postulated that non-monogamy could be liberating for women. The origins of enforced monogamy aren’t very feminist either. It literally originated as affirmative action for low value men, a “pussy redistribution” so that a few men don’t take all of the women and leave the rest with no wives. The societal evolution away from polygamy wasn’t for women, it was for men. Either way, women are viewed and treated like objects with no will of their own, properties to be passed around and handed out for the sake of men and a supposed “greater good” of society.

And a lot of the “(radical) feminist” rhetoric around and critique of non-monogamy just comes off as condescending, presumptuous, and patriarchal. Open relationships are not infidelity — by definition consensual non-monogamy isn’t cheating. And yes, it’s true that said “consent” can be manipulated and coerced, but the same applies to just about any other relationship or action under the sun. Saying that polyamory is simply cheating because women be pressured into it is like saying that anal is automatically rape because women be pressured that. The problem is the pressure, which is by no means inherent nor exclusive to the practice. Somehow someway, some women are ok with these things and that’s fine! The personal preferences of particular women is not the hill that feminists should be dying on, so as long as they’re not immediately harmful. Don’t mistake “class analysis” as an excuse to invalidate people’s reality and act like you know them better than they know themselves. You sound like an ass.

Insinuating or straight up stating that women can never desire multiple partners or must have low self-esteem to be non-monogamous or anything along those lines is just mirroring the same traditional regressive notions around women’s sexuality. The old “women mono men poly” thing. Why wouldn’t women be able to be polyamorous? Why can’t women just desire sexual stimulation? And how would such an arrangement be “benefitting men” anymore than monogamous heterosexual unions are already generally benefiting men? As feminists we should be criticizing the harm these things can do to women without contributing to patriarchal or other oppressive narratives. Like how we must critique the hijab without increasing the burden of racist misogyny on those wearing it, or being condescending and presumptuous towards hijabis. It comes across as an arrogant savior complex that doesn’t have the best interests of women at heart, like talking at and about them rather than to and with them.

Clearly I take issue with a lot of the radfem hostility to non-monogamy, but also I obviously side eye the pro-poly crowd. It’s like a lot of them are willfully ignorant towards context and act like choices are desires are formed in a vacuum. Under a patriarchal society where sexual access to women is seen as a status symbol, isn’t it a bit suspicious for a man to leap at the chance to bed as many women as possible? As a matter of fact, I remember seeing a study claiming that monogamy in men is correlated with intelligence, same deal for atheism — the common theme is rejection of baser instincts and impulses. I don’t even like to call harems “polyamory” because 9/10 there’s no love in that, only hoarding women like resources. Of course these trends don’t apply to every single individual and relationship, we shouldn’t generalize, but it’s something to keep in mind.

And another thing, a lot of poly people are hyper “woke” and fancy themselves and their lifestyle the epitome of progressive, which is a bit… flawed. Preaching polyamory as inherently more “enlightened” and “forward” is also rather condescending and patronizing and naive. I’ve recently seen some claim that polyamory is a threat to capitalism, and that’s just a reach. I guess if you squint you can see where that conclusion comes from, because criticism of the (monogamous, heterosexual) nuclear family has been part of anti capitalism since Engels wrote On The Family. But private property existed back when polygamy was the norm. I believe it’s that capitalism produces monogamy (at least in women), rather than vice versa or non-monogamy necessarily subverting capitalism today. Capitalism is based on private ownership, so it fosters possessive mentality — women became the first private property because men needed paternity assurance for heirs. I’ve heard that certain tribes with a more communal style of living had more open relationships because they weren’t obsessed with guarding property and paternity, which is something that warrants more research. But now that capitalism is already established, it can’t simply be “undone” by popularizing polyamory. What is a threat to capitalism is communal living and strong networks of mutual aid, and it’s not necessary to fuck multiple people to have that.

Gender politics aside, I don’t think polyamory will ever be as common as monogamy for some good reasons, humans apparently tend towards monogamy. I did a poll on my Instagram stories (yes very scientific I know) on the topic of non-monogamy and most of the people who answered, like over a hundred, said it was terrible. Only a handful said it was good and they like it. So the minority who are “naturally” polyamorous should feel free to be so instead of making themselves and their partners miserable by repressing themselves, forcing themselves into monogamy. I’m supportive of polyamorous women, especially my fellow bi babes, but I remain very skeptical of (straight) men who want to be poly. Seeing a man with multiple women provokes my fight or flight response (lmao) because it gives patriarchal harem vibes, but if said man is respectful towards women and treats his partners like humans rather than objects, if there are no double standards, fine. Coincidences and unfortunate implications happen and I don’t think it’s right nor fair to demand individuals change something fundamental and inherent to themselves just to avoid bad optics or fitting stereotypes. Quality not quantity — if they’re not misogynistic shitpiles then a woman having three boyfriends isn’t more concerning than her having one.

[yandere-mha]

Time to be horny. What’s everyone 20+ on your favourite list’s favourite sex act?

This request actually won first place for the Christmas gift vote so congrats!! Also it’s always time to be horny and no this is definitely not a debatable or problematic thing to say.

TW: SMUT, NSFW, NON-CON, RAPE, DUBIOUS CONSENT, BDSM, BLOOD MENTION, ORAL, PERIOD SEX, ABUSE, BODY IMAGE ISSUES, MENTAL ILLNESS.

READ AT YOUR OWN DISCRETION:

My favorite Yandere BNHA AU character’s favorite sex acts:

Dabi: So... As always with this man, he has a duality in regards to this as well. As we all know, he craves your touch and he wants to feel cared for. If you were to ride his cock/top him while you body worship him, he would probably explode in more ways than one. Even if you were only to do it once, he would treasure that memory and crave that feeling again for the rest of his life. However, he doesn’t ever ask for you to touch him - he either silently expects you to volunteer or uses his body as a punishment for you because he believes that no one would ever want to touch him like that. Whenever there would be moments of powerlessness and anger for him, he would accommodate for that in the form of violent, dominant, and often non-consensual sex. When this happens, he’ll become very talkative about how no one else can touch you like this and make you feel this good, but his actual objective is to make you feel smaller than him rather than to make either of you feel good. To be honest, he’s not very creative when it comes to sex, but when he feel like this he likes to hit you from the back in doggy style. That way, he feels more in control as he grips your hips and uses your body to fuck himself dry while also not feeling the vulnerability of having you look at his naked body. He will rip all of your clothes off while keeping himself as covered as possible. This is this another power move for him.

Hawks: Another one with a similar duality. He’s very touch starved due to isolation and he wants to feel your body against his. His absolute favorite sex position would be you sitting on his lap with either you facing him in a tight embrace while he slowly slides himself up and down your tight pussy, wrapping his wings around your exposed form or if you were to hit him from behind as he lays flat on the bed and you put your full weight on top of him. However, like Dabi, he will not voice this desire to you because of how self sacrificing he is and the fact that he would rather you feel protected by him than the other way around. Though he usually wants to be a bottom, he’s usually a very soft dom. He’s very careful not to hurt or overstimulate you and he prioritizes your pleasure over his own. Because of this, his most commonly used sex method is giving you very slow oral as you splay your body on the bed or couch and sling your legs over his shoulders.

Shigaraki: His favorite act is you body worshiping him as he power bottoms you, either slamming your hips down on his cock and fucking himself or controlling the tempo from the back. He simultaneously wants to be taken care of while also feeling the need to be in control. Because of this, though being a bottom would be the most pleasurable for him, he would not admit this to you and if he’s especially angry, empowered, or embarrassed, he’ll insist on being the dominant one. In times like these, he loves to fuck your face, pulling your hair back minus one finger in a non verbal threat to behave and worship him as he slams his hips down your throat and makes you gag.

Twice: Another one who wants to feel as close to you as possible. Any sex position or location won’t matter to him as long as you’re in a tight embrace that makes him feel your heart beat in your chest. If you even so much as loosen your hold or your arms get tired, his feelings will be hurt and he’ll begin to cry, begging you to just hold him.

Fatgum: As I’ve expressed before, yandere!fatgum has a bit of a weird relationship with gender roles even with a male s/o. I don’t specifically want to say that he’s sexist, he loves powerful and intelligent women, but he desperately wants to have the most average family you can imagine since he sees himself as the perfect father figure and you as the perfect mother figure. He wants to win the bread for you and your kids as you play the role of the main caregiver. Because of this, we wishes he could be a top, but he’s very much aware of his size and has a fear of crushing you, so he will never risk topping you. However, he finds other ways to feel more dominant like controlling the tempo of your thrusts. His absolute favorite thing is when he comes home from a tiring day at work and you gently pull out his enormous cock, doing your best to please him with your mouth as he sits back with a beer and lets you take care of the rest. Bonus points if whenever you come up for breath, you feed him food you’ve prepared for him. You have such a great way of taking care of him.

Stain: He is very dominant during sex and will never let you do any such thing as top him. In fact, he is the one who chooses when, where, and how you have sex. However, his immediate goal is to pleasure you rather than himself. His mindset is that he knows your body better than anyone else, including yourself, and if you say that you don’t want something you’re wrong because he knows that you do. His favorite thing to do is to use his quirk on you, making your body go limp so that he can use it however he sees fit. He doesn’t like to hurt you more than he sees necessary in cutting you for your blood, but he will mercilessly suckle and nipple at the wound in the hopes of any more blood seeping out of it. He has a blood kink, so he loves to do this while he lays you out on your side, resting your top leg between his thigh and hip as he sits upright on his knees and pounds into you from the side, filling you in the most foreign of ways while he gently grips your injured hand in his maw with an adoring look on his face. He also loves to give oral if and while you’re on your period.

Aizawa: While he mostly likes to be dominant, he is very shy about it and prioritizes your pleasure over his own, so if you want to do something else, he’d be flattered that you’d want to do anything with him at all. He’s also very affectionate during sex and will need to physically feel your shared adoration instead of just petty sexual longing. If you’re not either making intense and unbroken eye contact, softly caressing each other’s skin, or kissing in some way he wants nothing to do with it. His favorite position is when he straddles your hips as you lay down on the bed and he slides himself back and forth much too slowly while looking down at you with tears in his eyes. He also loves sleepy morning sex where you both cling to each other on your sides or spoon as he thrusts into you slowly while sucking on your neck. You always have to be facing each other or spooning.

Overhaul: Much like Stain, he is the soul person to decide when, where, and how you have sex. However, unlike Stain, he will not entertain the idea of caring to pleasure you as this is solely for the purpose of him letting his need for dominance and aggression out on you. He’s a germaphobe, so he won’t like anything messy like coming anywhere on your body besides your holes (pussy, ass, and mouth). You are never in control even in terms of oral and the only time you’re allowed to pleasure him with your mouth is if he’s fucking your face. If you get any drool on him or fail to swallow all of his cum, making a mess of yourself, he will drag you by your hair to the sink to wash your mouth out, saying how disappointed he is in you and how disgusting you are. Because of this, his favorite sex act is pounding into you against the shower wall as the water washes away any sweat, tears, or cum between the two of you. His idea of after care is scrubbing you with soap until you feel your skin tear. Just to be clear, he isn’t sadistic, he just doesn’t care about your comfort.

Miruko: She can’t get off on gentle sex and will always need to be violent towards you in one way or another. She has a very high sex drive, so she loves to overstimulate you and make you cum until you pass out. She loves choking you and picking you up over her shoulders just to show you how strong she is. However, she’s a sucker for a challenge and her favorite thing is for you to try to dominate her... Don’t actually succeed though or she’ll get Mad. She’s extremely creative with sex since she needs it often and she gets easily bored, but one thing that always remains the same is her dirty talk and teasing. She also very much enjoys is tying your hands up, edging you, and leaving the room before finishing you off. She thinks it’s hilarious.

[mhevarujta]

Zoya and the Darkling [Rule of Wolves Spoilers]

It’s a pity that fandoms mostly focus on romantic/sexual relationships, because The Darkling and Zoya have one of the most epic dynamics in the Grishaverse. The way they affect each other is so complex.

Zoya did not go to the Little Palace after being tested in the usual manner of Grisha travelling across Ravka to recruit children with powers. She was a young girl, a child really, living with a bitter and broken mother, in a home where her Suli inheritance was not appreciated, in a country that would condemn her both because of the power she let her demonstrated AND because of who she would have been without it. She was basically sold as a child-bride and her mother deluded herself into thinking that her daughter would not be raped by the old man she was marrying so that she’d feel better about herself, not to mention that she poisoned Zoya with her fears and made her afraid of her own heart. At the wedding her power broke loose and her aunt took her to a hard journey to the Little Palace so that Zoya would be tested and have a chance at a better life.

Zoya was taken in and she was separated from her family, but her aunt was ALWAYS in her heart. She started training and she was stronger than most, she was also driven and resilient. She arrived at the Little Palace when she was 8-9. When she was 13, she was the youngest one to be chosen as part of a group that would travel with the Darkling to Tsibeya to find the white tigers of Ilmisk because one of them was supposed to be an amplifier. By that age, Zoya was half in love with him already and she lived for his rare appearances at the school. She was the best, she had fought to be so, and he wanted him to see it. The Grisha were focused on hunting the female tiger, but the amplifier was a male one. He tried to kill the female’s cubs and Zoya gave them the protection of her body, she got scars that she never had tailored and she almost died, and killed the tiger to defend the cubs; not for the sake of power.

It wasn’t HER turn to get the amplifier, but since she killed the tiger only she could claim it. And THIS brilliant scene happens:

Some part of me always feared that he would send me away, banish me forever from the Little Palace. I told him I was sorry.

“But the Darkling saw me clearly even then. ‘Is that really what you wish to say?’ he asked.”

Zoya pushed a dark strand of her hair behind her ear. “So I told him the truth. I put my chin up and said, ‘They can all hang. It was my blood in the snow.’”

Nikolai stifled a laugh and a smile played over Zoya’s lips. It dwindled almost instantly, replaced by a troubled frown. “That pleased him. He told me it was a job well done. And then he said … ‘Beware of power, Zoya. There is no amount of it that can make them love you.’”

The weight of the words settled over Nikolai. Is that what we’re all searching for? Was that what he’d hunted in all those library books? In his restless travels? In his endless pursuit to seize and then keep the throne? “Was it love you wanted, Zoya?”

She shook her head slowly. “I don’t think so. I wanted … strength. Safety. I never wanted to feel helpless again.”

  “Like calls to like” fits the Darkling and Alina, but it also fits Zoya and the Darkling… in fact it fits Zoya and Aleksander even more so. Both were powerful and KNEW it. Both eventually learned to be unapologetic about it and saw it as their safety net. Both were taught that power would give them safety, survival, fulfillment in some ways, but not love. And yet, as much as they denied it and hid their hearts they DID want to be loved more than anything.

Zoya only rises thereafter. She gets her rank, she is one of the most valued Grisha in the Little Palace, she is admired for her strength and beauty, she armors herself with arrogance, and ruthlessness. But she has not friends. Both her and the Darkling are surrounded by people, they are admired, but they don’t have people close to their heart. The Darkling always cared about Baghra as much as he could still manage and Zoya cared only bout Liliyana and Lada (an orphan girl that her aunt had taken in).

The Darkling SAW her. He saw how she tried like no other, he saw her pain, her anger and he considered these to be things that he could use to control her and to push her towards the direction he desired. And despite not being appreciative of her devotion when he had it, he missed it when it was gone.

When Alina got in the picture everything changed for Zoya. Yes, Zoya had feelings for the Darkling and I DO believe that her feelings and vanity would have been hurt to some extent by the intimacy in the way he approached Alina, but the primary problem was Zoya’s sense of injustice. Zoya had tried for YEARS, had trained hard, had sacrificed to be where she is. Alina never asked for any of it, but from Zoya’s perspective Alina would have been an untrained Grisha who got all the status, power and recognition that SHE had fought for without even trying. Until then, Zoya had been praised for wanting power, but when her anger is not convenient anymore, the Darkling punishes her for it and does not have a second thought about her.

And yet she remained loyal as always.

Even more so than rank, the Darkling and Liliyana were Zoya’s safety-net. And in ONE MOMENT, by genociding Novokribirsk, Zoya’s own mentor, the one who gave her safety and who was meant to create a haven for the Grisha, a person who KNEW her and who KNEW that she had family there, showed that he had no care for her, not care for human life and she wiped out the last people that Zoya loved.

He left her broken inside. In Siege and Storm, Zoya was at her lowest. She has to plead to Alina to have a position in the second army and she has to reveal a part of her heart; not just her loss of Liliyana. Her voice BREAKS when she says that the Darkling could have warned her of his plan; her pain at the idea that he did not give a crap about taking EVERYTHING from her is raw and cutting.

But she is not a quitter. She adjusts, she pulls her pieces together fast, she is a warrior and she stays on the right side without a question.

Then the Darkling attacked the very Grisha he was supposedly fighting for and killed half the people that Zoya had EVER KNOWN. And she still keeps fighting.

 Enter Rule of Wolves. There is SUCH DEEP IRONY in this book and the way Zoya and the Darkling’s arcs interconnect is a prime example of Leigh’s amazing writing.

The Darkling had told Zoya that they would change the world and he completely stopped paying attention to her the moment the potential of Alina’s power blinded him to anything else. And yet, when he returns Zoya has gained the kind of power that could eventually rival his own. But he STILL thinks that he should be the one to rule Ravka. He still thinks that he is the best option for the country. And once more, he criminally underestimates Zoya and overestimates himself.

Who else is vengeful and afraid of his own heart, I wonder…

Aleksander considered Zoya weak for the very same things that were his own fatal flaws.

But unlike him, Zoya SAW her flaws. The Darkling shut himself off more and more in order to save himself from pain. Zoya eventually opened up her heart to grief and pain to become the person her country needed and to embrace her power. She opened the door, when the Darkling did not manage to do so. She showed more courage than he did… and he SAW it.

Aleksander hoped to become the savior during the battle, he wished to demonstrate how only HE could save Ravka. But seeing Nikolai and Zoya defending the country is the first time it registers that there are others who are up to the task and who may be better suited than he is.

And he becomes essential in Zoya being accepted as a saint and in her rise to power partly because he wants to gain her favor but also because he finally sees all her potential, all she can achieve, how a Grisha queen of such power might give the Grisha the haven they need, when he clearly can’t.

And what is left for him to do? What does he want? He wants to serve the country he loves in a way that will affirm his sense of self-importance (he wants to offer something that no one else can) and he wants to be loved. So his new objective is to stop the blight.

The blight was created because of his own power. This man who hunted down and ruined the life of a young girl (Alina) in order to force her to be his balance, so that he could freely use his power in a very imbalanced way, finally realizes that HE is responsible for his power and that HE can be the only one to balance it and himself. So there is a new path he sees ahead of him: he can sacrifice himself to stop the blight and in the process Ravka might finally see that he always wanted to protect the country… and it might love him back. He KNOWS that he has committed crimes, he does not seek redemption, but he desired for all he has done to matter. And it can’t matter if he is not at all responsible for its country’s well-being and if everyone hates him. He has lived so many lifetimes without happiness or fulfillment and they would all have been wasted.

But he can’t achieve this by himself. This man who always thought that he could do things alone, and who took away everything Zoya had fought for, NEEDS her allowance for his centuries-long life to gain a scrap of meaning. He needs her allowance to be appreciated and loved.

I can’t be the only one who sees what a beautiful twist of fate this is.

At the same time Zoya herself understands the Darkling. She understands how anger and using power as a coping mechanism can corrupt. Knowing herself and seeing how he turned out are essential in her becoming a good ruler. He is the cautionary tale of what she could but will never allow herself to become.

When he explains his plan, she KNOWS that he’ll be in eternal pain and she has does not mind that his will be his fate. But when she sees the aftermath of his sacrifice and when she feels the kind of pain he’ll be experiencing for eternity, it leaves her shaken. She feels that pain in her own heart and this is not a fate that she wishes even on him. Genya and Alina are very much willing to let him rot but Zoya, who also believed that she could forgive him, feels that she has to.The Darkling has not redeem himself. He is doing penance. But as Genya mentions, there’s a fine line when one has to do the math of how much a person has to pay and of how much pain they have to feel before their punishment stops being just and they become victims instead. Zoya, being afraid of becoming him, knows that learning to show forgiveness is the only way forward, it’s the way for her to keep her heart open and not become the avalanche.

Zoya Nazyalensky has become everything that Aleksander Morozova, the lost boy, wished to be. Poweful, eternal, with friends, with a true partner, holding the best position a Grisha could imagine without forcing her rule and finally giving their people a true chance without comprominsing them. 

The Darkling was hoping that Alina would have been his balance. We are told how she might make him a better man and she might make him a monster.

But at the end of the day it’s Zoya who allows the Darkling to become the closest thing to decent that he can be at this point.

It’s the Darkling’s life that allows Zoya to see the lines that she will not cross and how to not become a monster.

And it’s Zoya’s ability to forgive him and her willingness to save him that becomes the backbone for the next phase of the Grishaverse, whenever Leigh decides to write it.

The way their paths entangle will always be at the core of the story.

_______________________

@myfriendscallmeraba​ I’m tagging you because you asked for it. It’s very encouraging to have someone interested in my ramblings.

[cryptixani]

Hi! Could I (she/fae) request a BNHA matchup with either a hero student or a villain (male only)?

I’m usually calm, peaceful and observant. I’m shy, sweet and romantic and love love but my mind sometimes gets haunted by psychosis and paranoia (also telepathic abuse). I’m a skinwalker who can shapeshift into any animal (provided I eat their flesh and blood) and can speak with guardian angels.

I’m also very emotionally understanding, innocent, affectionate, cuddly and intelligent. Also naturally very helpful and warmhearted, wanting my loved ones to be safe and warm. I wish to shower them with love and affection and love being coddled and spoiled like a baby (I age regress to cope with depression and anxiety).

But sometimes I can be overcome by rage, depression and grief due to flashbacks of having been raped and having gone through narcissistic abuse. There are days where I feel every emotion very deeply and days when I’m numb and emotionless. Days when I feel dead and wish I was a child again, filled with light, love and happiness.

I need someone who can free me from self judgement and societal shackles of ‘normalcy’ and from feeling the need to be ‘happy and positive’ to be liked and that being angry, bitter and rage-full are sides of me that are also accepted, cherished and loved by my f/o. Someone who can battle and stand by me during the darkest nights and protect me from my demons, but also learn how to live with them, love them and understand them.

(Also I’m ace and sex repulsed so). I have long, curly brown hair that looks like selkirk rex cat fur and bright, clear and innocent dark brown eyes. I’m also petite and have milky white skin and love cats, wolves, panthers and lions the best and wish for someone who is soft and loving to me only, someone I can help break down his icy walls of abuse scars into loving warmth.

I wish for someone who’ll treat me like I’m the most precious thing in the whole world.

I love sour candy, protecting animals as my calling, romantic movies and my family. (I don’t want children though)

I hate abusive, manipulative narcissists, antisemitism, pedophiles and rapists.

Thank you ⛈🌸

hello lovely, sorry this took a while but i hope you enjoy your matchup!!

i match you with...

eijirou kirishima!!

• i dunno, this one felt like an absolute no-brainer for me, i think you and eijirou would be perfect together!!

• first of all, he thinks you're so awesome and brave and cool and amazing and, of course, manly, for just being who you are and for working through everything you've been through, for your quirk and just everything about you. he is absolutely devoted to you in every sense of the word, thinks you're as close to divine beings as people come

• eijirou is always perfect at helping calm you down if you need it, he's very observant and in tune with you emotionally and so if flashbacks/anxiety attacks of your past overcome you, he is by your side in an instant, always seeming to just know what you need

• your soft and sweet nature makes him melt, he thinks you're so precious just by being you, and when times get tough and the rage becomes too much to bear, he is right there to help you through it. he knows that bottling things up makes it worse, and he has experience with explosive behaviour (cough cough bakugo cough cough), so he works on trying to help you find an outlet for your anger in a way that won't cause harm to yourself or others. maybe sparring is an option? or he could take you to a remote rooftop to scream into the dark night sky? or does running off the anger sound more appealing? whatever it is, he wants to help you express that anger in a controlled manner, and he loves it as a part of you

• in terms of sex, no one chugs respect women (and literally everybody else) juice like this guy, so all you need to do is establish the boundary and he will take note of that and remember. he's a little clueless sometimes so he might have to ask a few questions ("can i hug you, is that okay? what about kisses? on the cheek? on the nose? what about-") but no matter your answer, you will never have to repeat yourself with eijirou

• all in all, this man is an absolute and complete simp, would do anything for you, and i firmly believe in kirishima eijirou supremacy

hope you enjoyed <3

[the-chaotic-neutral-pansexual]

Hello Everyone

I’m J.T and this is my fanfic blog

I made this blog to post my self indulgent fics after being inspired by others so it is gonna have nsfw writing. I’ve had Tumblr for a while however this will be my first time posting anything let alone my writing. I am still new to being an active poster and writer so please be patient as i find my footing.

My fics will usually include:

- A black and or poc reader/oc (since i am black that's what I relate too most and I hope other poc readers can feel represented in my stories seeing as there aren't enough out there)

-G/n or fem reader/oc (i don't have the most experience writing from a male perspective however i hope i can use this blog to practice and gain feedback. I will mostly start out writing wlw, wlm, nblw, nblm, ect)

-Smutty or suggestive fics (this blog will not only be 18+ content however since there will be a lot if smut it is 18+) 

-There will also be some extreme sexual content so i would suggest you read all the way through his post before following but even if you don't all of my works will have TWs and CWs at the very beginning.

-Fluff

-Angst

-AUs (married, hybrid, mafia. a/b/o, soulmate).

-Yandere/Codependent toxic relationships (some will be fluffy and romantic however I do not condone this irl)

My writing will center around some of the fandoms that i am currently into however because i am neurodivergent that list tends to change based on what I'm hyperfixated on at any given moment.

Who i write for(will change fairly frequently)

K-pop

-Ateez

-TBZ

-BTS

-NCT(all units)

-Enhypen

-TXT

-Twice(pls recommend more girl groups)

-Got7

-E’last

-Cix

-SVT

-Victon

-MX

-p1Harmony

Anime:

-BNHA(Aged up)

-Seraph of the End

-Demon Slayer

-Jujutsu Kaisen

-Naruto

-One Punch Man

-Assassination Classroom

-Balance Unlimited

Other

-Marvel 

-DC

-Obey Me

-The Umbrella Academy

-Alice in Borderland

-TVD/The Originals

i will try to take requests however its hard for me to write good works about ideas that I didn't think of or aren't interested in.

NSFW:

This is a mostly Dom!reader blog. Most of my stories will be either dom!reader switch!reader or no express roles will be stated. I need to be in a specific headspace to write sub!reader so when that happens i will make a post asking for sub!reader ideas and requests. Only minor FICTIONAL CHARACTERS will be aged up I will not write about “aged up” real people for example aged up Bakugo is fine but no aged up Huenigkai. Real minors and or barley legals will only have fluff and angst about them no smut or even suggestive. 

I will make sure to add TW and CW at the beginning of all of my stories to avoid accidentally triggering someone. I would like people who aren't into all of my depraved shit to still be able to safely read and enjoy my blog.

Kinks(some are extreme so please leave my blog if that will trigger you):

-BDSM

-Overstim

-Orgasm Control/Denial

-Femdom

-G!P

-Feminization

-Crossdressing

-Mommy/Daddy

-Sensory deprivation

-Marking

-Breeding

-Goddess/Worship

-Dollification

-Objectification

-Dumbification

-Pet Play

-Caging

-Knifeplay

-Cumplay

-Watersports/Omo

-Spitplay

-Yandere/Obsession

-Cnc/coercion (agreed upon beforehand)

-Humiliation

-Public/exhibitionism

-Voyeurism

-Somonophilia

I won’t write(hard limits)

-Scat

-Vomit

-Rape

-Incest

-Beastiality( only human form hybrids)

[sheluvshiro]

DNI LIST, RULES, ETC !!

dni (do not interact) !!

if you write or read smut about minors. asahi, tanjiro, hinata, itadori, inasa, and izuku antis. yagami yato listeners/supporters. if you're homophobic, transphobic, islamophobic, ableist, racist, colorist, sexist, fat phobic, etc. if you call yourself a weeb. if you fetishize people of color. if you sexualize or romanticize self harm or mental illnesses. if you're younger than 16.

and if you're white, please ignore my account completely. i specifically write for black people and just knowing that non poc could be reading my stuff makes me uncomfortable. even though i would prefer if white people would avoid my page, i can not force anyone to not read my content, but it's still makes me feel icky knowing that non poc will be reading my posts that are targeted towards black people.

do not request the following !!

rape, beastiality, pedophilia, incest, stepcest, necrophilia, etc (not limited to what is listed). kinks that have anything to do with feces, feet, piss, age play, ddlg, ddbg, the word daddy/mommy, pregnancy sex, throw up, cnc (consensual non consensual), bathroom control, pet play, dubcon, race play, etc (not limited). adult x minor, student x teacher, yandere, smut for characters under the age of eighteen, suicide/self harm, racist, homophobic, transphobic, ableist, colorist, sexist, fatphobic, islamophobic (etc.) themes (not limited)

rules !!

i don't do requests as much as i used to but i'll talk about requesting rules anyway. if you want me to write anything, please leave it in my asks or message me on here, thank you. if you request something in the comments instead of in my dms or in my asks, then i won't pay attention to it and i won't write it. i need you to be as specific as possible with any request you may have in order for me to write your request decently.

i need to know the character, the genre, what kinks you want involved if you want smut, what personality you want y/n to have, if you want y/n to be short, tall, chubby, etc! i am not a mind reader and i won't assume what you want.

i don't want to see any discriminatory, racist, massa, wade and the water, slave, racist headcanons about any character i write. any comments that have a negative connotation towards y/n or any of the characters i write for. seeing these type of comments is frustrating in itself but it's also weird, what would even possess you to comment some fuck shit like that ? lmao.

when it comes to smut, do not kink shame in my comments. people are into different things and that's okay, as long as it's legal then what turns you on is none of my concern. however, if it falls into the "do not request the following" section, especially in the first couple of sentences...then i'll silently judge.

i do not write smut for characters under the age of eighteen. the reason why is so obvious, i don't even need to explain myself.

do not rush me. i am an eighteen year old who is starting college very soon! i'm not always going to be able to update. if i stay on top if my grades then y'all might get an update once a month..LMAO

additional stuff !!

i only write smut for fem readers but i'm currently working on trying to write smut that's gender neutral. i don’t write smut for male readers, however, i do write fluff and angst for them! 

constructive criticism is always welcome, as long as you’re respectful then i don’t mind if you give me any advice (especially when it comes to smut) just dm me :) 

[lochnessies]

I guess my discomfort with the AM route could actually be summed up as

“I went straight from playing The Gayest House to the Most Heteronormative and Patriarchal House and even though it makes sense from a worldbuilding and storytelling standpoint, it still made for a very uncomfortable experience for me, the player.”

i’m not here to say what can and cannot make a person uncomfortable since that’s so heavily subjective and i personally also don’t like patriarchal undertones as well so i completely get it. however, i have always found it weird when people refer to the black eagles as the ‘gay house’ and act like that makes it superior to the others. i mean… i like edel, dorothea, and linhardt but their sexualities don’t make or break them for me as characters. and the ‘gayness’ of these characters only happen if you happen to s-rank them as the same sex and has no impact on the story. plus you can recruit 2/3 of them out of house and marry them there so it’s kinda irrelevant. the only house that doesn’t have canonically lgbt characters is golden deer and i’ve never seen people use that as a reason as to why they don’t like them. hell, i’ve seen people call them the ‘gayest house’ before. also blue lions does have a canon bisexual… mercedes. plus a lot of endings for the characters have a lot of homoerotic subtext… mercedes/annie, dedue/dimitri, dimitri/felix, sylvain/felix, dedue/ashe. opening an inn together, living together, being buried together, dying on the same day, loving a man more than his wife…. last i checked these are not very heteronormative things. quite the opposite actually lol

as for patriarchal…. are you sure you wanna say that about the kingdom rather than the empire? what makes the kingdom more patriarchal than the place that has a man drill into his daughter how to be the perfect wife, the emperor has lots of concubines, daughters are thrown to the streets, women are desperate for husbands bc it’s the only ways to gain stability, a woman used as a broodmare till it kills her, a noble woman with a crest can’t inherit her house and her daughter is almost forcibly married and raped to have children by her step father.

is it because a lot of the main characters for the plot are male rather than female? that’s not patriarchal it’s just slightly lazy bc patriarchy is systemic not a a problem of plot structure. once again, the golden deer only has judith as a female general/essential npc and the rest are men but i don’t see people get upset about that.

Imagine if I only played AM and I came away thinking this was a typical medieval fantasy where the men are all in leadership roles,

not all the men are leaders and some women are too. such as cornelia and edelgard and they hold a lot of it.

the women are all relegated to support roles and struggling against forced marriages,

no they are not. once again, edel and cornelia are major characters and definitely not supporting roles. also, nobody is being forced into marriage in the blue lions. ingrid’s father suggests suitors but she has complete control over saying yes or no. and in her endings she gets to be a knight. however, we do know forced marriages are a thing in the empire.

men act out their feelings with violence,

yeah, dimitri does get violent but it’s seen as extremely negative and as a sign of his poor mental health and lack of ability to rule at the moment. if this was a typical fantasy game then his violence would be praised and a sign of a warrior and king. dimitri has to let go of his violent impulses in order to become a good kings and as shown in ss/vw he will die if he continues down his self destructive path.

in azure moon byleth and everybody else is constantly telling dimitri to get his shit together where as cf everybody just vapidity nods along to edelgard’s violent impulses.

women in power are inherently suspect,

women are not inherently suspect due to their sex. they are suspect bc the main female characters are suspicious and they do shitty things that hurt the other characters and they are rightfully angry. hell, even male characters are suspect. for example thales and even dimitri himself is seen as suspicious during the academy arc.

hints of flirtation between women are aggressively shot down,

i assume this is about ingrid? i hate to tell you but rejecting somebody’s romantic advances isn’t homophobic and if you don’t respect people’s boundaries then i don’t want to be around you. all other female relationships are treated very well and the female characters admire and respect each other.

hints of feelings between men are treated awkwardly and uncomfortably.

once again, with feeling this time, opening an inn together, living together, being buried together, dying on the same day, loving a man more than his wife are not examples of feelings between men being treated awkwardly. hell, most of the deep and loving relationships are between men. some are strictly platonic (rodrigue/dimitri & gilbert/dimitri) and other are much more 👀. dimitri was even critiqued by some straight men bc he was so open about his feelings with bylad and many people read him as bisexual (my sister even hcs him as completely gay). he literally calls another man ‘irreplaceable’ and ‘cherished’ while he’s apparently shirtless.

Not knowing there’s a whole other route where multiple women are in charge,

just because a woman is in charge doesn’t mean she’s good at it and we know edelgard isn’t a good leader and is willing to stoop to the lowest of the lows. just bc she’s a lady doesn’t make her horrific actions suddenly #girlboss and #feminism

men pay women respect and never degrade them,

women are not above critique. and men don’t violent degrade women for no reason on blue lions (you could say felix and his ingrid supports but he’s a dick to everyone and sylvain whos a rampant misogynist regardless of route and the same could be said for lorenz on golden deer). also hubert does degrade petra and that’s a cf exclusive.

nobody ever suggests that there are inappropriate roles for any gender,

and i have good news! neither do blue lions! ingrid is wholeheartedly supported by her male peers and dimitri (by op’s definition a violent man) even wants her to be his knight and serve in his guard.

men are allowed to be soft,

dimitri, dedue, and ashe??? hello?!??

women are allowed to be aggressive,

ingrid and catherine??? hello????

everybody has at least one potential gay ending and it’s not treated as a shameful secret. 

i hate to be the one to tell you but none of the characters from any routes have explicate gay endings outside of the few with byleth. you can read into something all you want and make headcanons but that doesn’t change what is provided in canon. i find all the same sex endings in azure moon to have romantic undertones (outside of gilbert of course go home to your wife dude). and NONE of the endings are treated as a shameful secret. homosexuality is never talked about as being shameful in the game and that sounds like you projecting.

[comrade-meow]

Why do so many young women hate feminist trailblazers like me?

For anyone uninitiated into the various waves of 21st-century feminism, this will no doubt come as a shock. But in my opinion, what passes right now for modern feminism is doing women more harm than good.

Many young women today are not only pandering to men in their so-called feminism, but seem utterly unconcerned that the hard-won rights achieved by older women in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s are at risk of being catastrophically eroded.

They are helping everyone but themselves. In many ways they are betraying everything I and my brave colleagues fought for. This is the worst clash across the generations I have witnessed since coming to feminism in 1979, aged 17.

In universities around the UK and beyond, women are being fed a type of faux feminism, often by men reluctant to lose any of their privilege.

Julie Bindel, who came to feminism in 1979, says the rights achieved in the 19060s, 1970s and 1980s are at risk of being catastrophically eroded. Pictured: Julie (left) with Emma Humphreys in 1995 after a campaign to free her from jail for killing her violent partner

These women are being bullied and cajoled into accepting nonsensical concepts that are, at best, naive and, at worst, downright dangerous.

Prostitution, say these young women, is a job just like any other. They also argue that pornography is liberating. And finally, that trans-women should share female-only spaces such as hospital wards and domestic violence refuges.

This last makes me want to weep. It was women of my generation — often called second-wave feminists — who, 50 years ago, built rape crisis centres and refuges with no funding or salaries. To see them being dismantled by the very women who may one day need them is heartbreaking and infuriating.

I don’t think these women — almost all of whom would call themselves feminists — realise they are complicit in eroding our rights, for the simple reason they are no longer taught feminist history in universities. Instead, they are fed a sop of incomprehensible post-modern claptrap by ivory tower academics.

Feminists of my generation are not just ignored, but actively disparaged — or worse.

Since January 2004, when I offered an early opinion on the trans issue for a national newspaper, whenever it becomes public that I am about to speak at an event, always about an aspect of male violence and always as part of my campaigning work, a mob forms with the aim of bullying the organisers into un-inviting me. This is always played out in public and it is always humiliating. Sometimes the organisers capitulate.

I have been invited then uninvited from numerous events at universities following protests from trans activists and supporters of ‘sex work is work’ politics. I have also been invited to, then de-platformed from a number of events exploring free speech.

By contrast, genuine achievements of the past go unrecognised. From the very beginning of my involvement in the women’s liberation movement, we were out on the streets, waving placards, carrying banners and shouting through loudhailers, protesting the laws we wanted to change.

Julie said feminism has been rebranded and repackaged as ‘just be kind and nice to everyone’. Pictured: A 1970 women’s liberation protest

It was our campaigning that led to the introduction of the offence of coercive control; that barred the use of a woman’s previous sexual history in rape trials and ensured anonymity for the victims of sexual assault; and outlawed rape in marriage, which — young feminists are often astonished to discover — was perfectly legal in England and Wales until 1992.

Absurdly, there is no longer any expectation that being a feminist requires you to do anything feminist at all. Instead, and ironically given my experience, feminism has been rebranded and repackaged as ‘just be kind and nice to everyone’. Young women are told it is simply about the ‘choice’ to be who you ‘want to be’.

But if feminism is about choice, what does this mean for the women and girls who don’t have any? The girls forced into marriage, the women pimped out by violent boyfriends, the women on benefits living in temporary accommodation with young children they can’t afford to feed?

For feminism to mean anything, it has to be for all women and not just the privileged few.

Do young women even know about ‘the battles we’ve fought for them

You might ask, as many young women do, what is there still left to fight for? Although my generation of feminists and those that came before chalked up numerous victories, women are far from liberated. Levels of male violence towards women and girls are off the scale, as we have seen with the tragic events of recent weeks.

Conviction rates are so low that rape has been more or less decriminalised. Sexual harassment is endemic in our secondary schools and still a problem for many women in the workplace.

Many young women claim to be feminists, but seem to spend their time dismissing those of us who do the work — as opposed to simply talk the talk — as ‘irrelevant’, ‘bigoted’, and ‘past it’. Do these women even know about the battles we’ve fought and won to afford them some freedom?

Julie said in the current climate of misogyny, many young women are turning on feminists like her rather than pointing the finger at abusive men. Pictured: A rally to celebrate International Women's Day in 2020

In 2018, for example, Ash Sarkar, a media commentator, tweeted about the proposed changes to the Gender Recognition Act, claiming the introduction of ‘self-identification’ would not have any effect on the rights of others. I replied: ‘Unless you are a female in prison, one of the most disenfranchised groups on the planet of course.’ It was a reference to the case of Karen White, the transgender sex offender placed in a female prison who went on to sexually assault two female inmates.

When, in reply, Sarkar claimed ‘bigots’ like me didn’t ‘care about women in prison’, it was too much. Had she known her feminist history, she would have been aware that I am the founder of Justice for Women — a campaign I began in 1990 — and have helped countless abused women get out of prison.

When I came to feminism, there were no laws protecting lesbians from discrimination and abuse; violent men often won custody of children when women left a marriage; and domestic violence was treated by police as a ‘private matter’. All of this changed because of active feminists, as opposed to those who sit on social media virtue-signalling.

In fact, a woman reporting rape five years ago had a much better chance of seeing justice done than she does today. There were 1,917 fewer rapists convicted in the year to December 2020 than in 2016-17, a decline of 64 per cent.

In the current climate of misogyny, many young women are turning on feminists like me rather than pointing the finger at abusive men. Yet there are young feminists doing invaluable work to challenge male violence and bring about women’s liberation.

Julie said social media activism isn't the answer, as the #MeToo movement is no substitute for action. Pictured: A women's liberation protest in 1971

The campaigning group We Can’t Consent to This, which successfully abolished the ‘rough sex’ defence so often used by men who kill women, continues the work I was involved in as a young feminist when we, too, abolished the insidious defence of ‘provocation’, used by a number of men who’d killed their wives because of ‘nagging’ or alleged infidelity.

Of the 1,000-plus women attending the 50th anniversary of the Women’s Liberation Movement conference in London, in February 2020, a minority, but significant number, were in their 20s.

And when I launched my new book last month in London, well over 100 of the 250 books I signed were for women under the age of 30, with some in their teens.

Right now, we need feminism more than ever, but not the kind that puts men first. In the real world prostitution is not a liberating career ‘choice’, and increasingly violent pornography is not ‘sex-positive’.

Neither is social media activism the answer. The #MeToo movement is no substitute for action. Let’s point the finger at men who rape rather than expecting yet more women to lay bare their horrific experiences.

We live in a world in which rape, femicide and everyday abuse and harassment are ever present.

To change it, we need to be united and not divided by generational conflict. Somehow, and urgently, we must find a way to bridge the gap. Fighting among ourselves wastes time — and there is no time to lose.

Feminism for Women: The Real Route to Liberation, by Julie Bindel, (£16.99, Little Brown) is out now.

[anncanta]

English defence

Fandom: Dracula (2020)

Characters: Count Dracula, Agatha Van Helsing

Relationship: Dracula/Agatha Van Helsing

Rating: Explixit

Warnings: Rape, Non-Con

The English defense in chess is a kind of opening, distinguished by a variety of strategic ideas and the extreme flexibility of the schemes that are formed in it, as well as ample opportunities for various permutations of moves and transition to other openings.

This opening is used by chess players of the highest level.

Well... Now we have our couple in a very strange situation. Personally, I don`t think that there`s a real rape here, but warning is needed anyway.

Thanks to @khyruma​ for help with editing. I appreciate your support and guidance as a beta in all circumstances.

@alma37 @hopipollahorror @ravenathantum @flutteringphalanges

Read on AO3

Or read below

Agatha had a disturbing dream. Nothing definite, just some vague flashes and shadows. She remembered the feeling of a long wandering in the dark. When she woke up, she sat up in bed and lingered for a while, breathing heavily. It was strange that she had fallen asleep at all, she thought, getting out from under the covers and going to the table on which was a jug of water. It's strange that she could sleep here at all.

With a quick glance out the window, Agatha saw that the distant peaks of the mountains had already turned gold.

Dracula brought her to the castle last night. Looks like he decided to use her as a reserve for the future – which could last as long as he`d wanted, from a couple of weeks to several days. Agatha didn't ask. All the way to the castle she sat motionless in the carriage, replaying the same memories in her head.

Going out to the yard, she sees a black wolf there. Here the skin of a wolf rears, a cut appears on it, and a human hand protrudes from it. Here Agatha cuts her own hand and teases the vampire with drops of fresh blood. She leaves, confident that she has left the last word for herself.

Dracula appears in prayer, wearing a traveling cloak and holding a long sword at the ready. With a deliberately loud roar, he rushes at Mother Superior. She recoils, turns around, and runs. Then – memory gives to Agatha the picture of the nuns pushing and rushing about the chapel, screams, she feels again the awareness of her stupidity, and fear, flooding her mind.

She didn't run away. She forced herself to stay where she was. She walked through the crowd of frightened women, approaching him. Said: ‘Stop it, Count Dracula. Leave them alone. Please.’ Then she held out her hand. ‘We both know you don't need them. I have offended you – take me.’

He did. He sheathed the sword, accepted the offered hand, and, finally, baring his teeth towards the still heart-rending nuns, silently led Agatha behind him.

Deciding that she would not fall asleep today, Agatha washed and dressed, went to the window. It’s not very pleasant to be someone’s food. She chuckled, tossing back the hair that had fallen on her face. The veil was missing. Over the years, Agatha got used to it, and despite the fact that it was much easier without the dense fabric covering her hair and neck, she felt a little insecure.

‘I love it when the sun appears there, behind the distant ridge,’ came a voice behind her. Oh, of course. She turned around.  

‘The game of courtesy is over,’ she stated, looking around at Dracula, who had entered the room. On the way to the castle and then – showing her quarters, – Dracula, contrary to Agatha's expectations, behaved calmly and restrained. She even thought that it was due to fatigue – but most likely, his thoughts were just busy with something else. Now, probably... ‘Hungry?’ She suggested.

‘I just decided to find out how you’ve settled down,’ said Dracula.

‘At half-past five in the morning?’

‘I go to bed late.’

Agatha nodded. She thought that perhaps she was wrong – it was almost kind of him to start a conversation before... She might even feel something like gratitude if she was not so angry.

Turning abruptly, she walked back to the bed and sat down. She looked defiantly at Dracula.

‘You were not satisfied. In the evening,’ she remarked tartly. ‘And you hardly hunted at night. Don't be a gentleman. The table is set – what are you waiting for?’

Dracula looked at her curiously.

‘Do you think I only need this from you?’ he asked at last.

Something in his eyes, in the way he looked at her, in their brooding gleam, led her to a new thought.

‘You are a filthy animal!’ Agatha snorted. ‘I have no doubt that you will use me.’

Dracula raised his eyebrows.

‘Use? I like your line of thought.’

Agatha grimaced dismissively.

‘Nothing unexpected.’

For a minute he looked at her in silence, then walked over.

‘Agatha, did you expect something concrete? Something... specific from me?’

She watched in bewilderment as he stopped by the bed.

‘I don’t understand what you mean.’

‘You understand, very well so. If you thought I was an animal... you should have expected me to behave accordingly.’

‘You have confirmed all my guesses.’

‘Agatha,’ Dracula smiled, ‘I'm glad to hear it, but I have to tell you... You don't know me at all.’

‘What I know is enough,’ Agatha snapped angrily. ‘Your propensity for violence is terrible,’ she added. ‘But threatening and intimidating me will only waste your time. Use my body if you have no one else to do this with,’ she finished with a scornful look.

The silence was long and soft.

Dracula suddenly laughed.

‘I love these games,’ he said, looking down at Agatha. ‘Are you sure that by doing as you say, I will become a rapist? But didn't you yourself... invited me?’

‘Empty speculation,’ Agatha said. ‘You know very well that I don’t really want to. Therefore, you are a rapist.’  

‘You don’t want to,’ he said slowly. He ran a finger over his lips and tilted his head. ‘But you won't resist?’ he clarified.

‘No, I won't,’ Agatha said with a shrug. ‘You are stronger than me. What would be the point of this?’

‘But what about the protection of a maiden’s honor?’

‘Such nonsense has not worried me for a long time.’

He smiled again, now anticipatory.

‘Well, will you lie down and endure?’

Agatha forced herself to chuckle contemptuously.

‘Obviously,’ she said.

‘Lie down then,’ he said calmly.

‘Didn't you think – What?’

However, Dracula no longer listened to her. Turning away from the bed, he was undressing. Without budging, Agatha stupidly watched his actions: vest, shirt, trousers, underwear.

‘You've already seen me naked,’ his voice interrupted the long silence.

Soundlessly nodding, Agatha got up and, just as, without a single word, quickly took off everything that was on her. She climbed onto the bed again and lay back. She closed her eyes.

Agatha did not know what she was expecting – in general, probably nothing. She knew theoretically about what happens in the bedroom between a man and a woman from the books she had read. Those were anatomical treatises, usually. They were quite good when you had to imagine volume, color, and size. As she understood, the average duration...

A warm naked male body covered her completely and at once. It clung to Agatha, touching every part of her skin, but without collapsing and falling with all the weight. Agatha opened her eyes. He... hugged her. If she could think of a name for it. Embracing her arms and legs, he pressed tightly, reclining on her. Agatha felt his elbows, knees, and hips, felt the hairs on his chest slightly tingling her nipples; felt him... down there.

‘What are you doing?’ She said in a low voice.

He didn't answer. Bending down, he pressed his lips to her neck and drew a wet trail with his tongue. He slipped into the depression of the subclavian fossa and froze, listening to the racing pulse. Agatha freed her hand and touched his shoulder, the back of his head. She shuddered when his palms gently cupped both her breasts.

‘Tell me when it’s unbearable,’ he smiled, squeezing her tense nipple between his fingers.

Agatha exhaled and inhaled, clutching the tangled strands at the back of his head. She leaned back exhausted on the pillow as his hands roamed her knees and thighs, her waist and abdomen. She screamed as he touched the core of her being.

Lightly stroking the damp doors, cruelly slowly he penetrated her with one finger. Agatha froze, trembling. Through the fog of pleasure, a thought flashed, which has been long flickering on the periphery of her consciousness.

‘You... if you... you’d cripple me,’ Agatha whispered, lowering her eyes. The place where he caressed her definitely had a name... a simple Latin word. Agatha knew it. She could remember it.

‘You were going to be firm and tenacious,’ Dracula said as he came out of her. She breathed quickly and unevenly. ‘I will definitely do it,’ he added, bending down; Agatha opened her mouth, but he pressed a finger to her lips. The same finger that he just used for... ‘Surely. You will love it when I do this, believe me. But not today,’ having said that, Dracula traced the outlines of her lips with a finger and, bringing it to his mouth, licked it. She groaned.

Agatha Van Helsing, warrior, fearless and proud, she thought. Always on top, always confident, and self-controlled. She despises her opponent's intemperance and weakness. And here she is – with him, allowing herself to be fondled in the most shameless way.

‘Agatha, I assure you, this is not the most shameless that I am capable of,’ Dracula laughed, clearly understanding what she was thinking about, and went down below.

Sitting between her outstretched legs, Dracula leaned over and kissed her.

Agatha made an inarticulate sound – something between a sob and a groan.

Smiling, Dracula raised his head and entered her again with one finger.

‘So tight…’ whispered and, bending down, lightly touched her with his tongue. And he didn’t speak again.

***

‘I want to die,’ Agatha moaned, burying her face in the pillow.

‘Better death than dishonor?’ asked Dracula.

Agatha did not move.

‘Anything is better than you,’ she muttered without raising her head.

Two large palms rested on her shoulders, pulling her along.

‘You are hard to please,’ Dracula laughed, pushing the hair from her back and touching her nape with his lips. ‘You are too obstinate. When we arrive in England –’

‘I'm not going anywhere with you!’ Turning around, Agatha tried to free herself from his hands. ‘Finish me here.’

‘What, kill you as a fallen woman?’ He laughed so loudly that Agatha was offended. ‘Agatha, harlots haven’t been stoned for a long time. Are you not attracted by the thought of traveling by sea? New knowledge, impressions... Distant countries. England gives people opportunities that many cannot even imagine. Many, but not you. I know you dreamed about it. Agree,’ he breathed into her neck, ‘I promise to behave myself.’

Pushing him and pulling the covers over herself, Agatha sat up in bed. She looked for a long time at Dracula lying supine – naked and carefree. She sighed.

‘When does this stupid ship of yours leave?’

[floatingbook]

Habit shift #12 - You too can kill god

- practical actions that can be taken to fight internalized misogyny

Why: Religions featuring male gods are heavily misogynistic. In these cults, women are dispossessed of the ability to create life and birth children to the advantage of a god-in-the-image-of-man, building people from clay or his own flesh. Women are robbed of their autonomy, placed under the guardianship of their father and then their husband, never their own persons but possessions to be exchanged from one male hand to another. Women hold no power in the religious hierarchy; often only men can be priest and lead the cult; women in religious institutions have to settle for less pomp and are sometimes used as slaves or sexual partners for the cult-leading men. Women are the cause of all misery, having eaten the apple or opened the forbidden box or just dared to breathe. Every female pain, from our menstrual pain to the pain of childbirth to domestic violence to rape is touted as a consequence of the sin that is our existence as women, for daring to be alive and want a life. Women are separated from their mothers and sisters to be sold to men as brides and baby-makers, fighting for scraps of recognition, ready to throw the next woman under the bus to catch just a little break, to not be the one punished. In these religions, women are often second-class citizens, afterthoughts, good to make the food and clean the house and raise children but not good enough for salvation and celebration. Religions worshiping male gods feed women inferiority and unquestioned obedience from the moment they enter them and tolerate no mistake, no stumble, creating a constant climate of fear.

How: You too can leave. Will it be painless and easy? As all great endeavours, killing god is a hard task. Honestly, seeing the state of this world, if there is a god, he doesn’t care about us or the planet. If there is a god, do you really want to please a being that’s letting things play out the way they are playing out, with rampant injustice and inequalities and violence at every street corner? And do you really want to live with the weight of a man’s - even a god’s - judgmental look, doing the right thing only to gain access to paradise in the next life? You’re alive right now. What matters is what you think is right, not what some men wrote down in mistranslated books thousands of years ago. That’s your first step to burning god down : whether he exist or not, he doesn’t matter. You can breathe. Nobody’s watching over your shoulder and weighing your soul. Test the boundaries of the belief that were instilled in you. What if god exist, what if he doesn’t? Follow these questions to their pragmatic ends. God is already dead because he was built on such shoddy foundations. You don’t need god; your life so far is proof of it.

The second step to killing god for yourself might take longer. Disentangle yourself from the physical manifestation of the religion. Weigh the risks and plan carefully. Map out who’s likely to lash out when it becomes evident you’ve left god to bleed out. Find allies, friends that aren’t suffocated by religion, make sure you have a support system. Jump out once you’re certain you know how to swim. Recite the alphabet or poems or your favorite movie lines in your head when religious chants or prayers come to you. Don’t step in the cult locations of your former religion. Stop swearing by god’s name, be it “o my god” or “lord” or whatever variant you use in your mother tongue. Talk about the pain and abuse (because it was very likely abuse) you’ve suffered at the hand of god and his ministers on this earth. Denounce it, speak up, words too can kill and maybe you’ll help a few women along the way. Ask for help and guidance from the women in your life, because what has god done for you? You’ve done it for yourself, and you can do it again. Rely on your female friends; they might fail you some times, but bear in mind that a male god has done nothing but fail you. Remember that you are of the sex that can build bones and whole bodies and bring children to life; remember that you are, as a woman, a wonderful and complex creature, a full person, deserving of love and happiness at least as much as any man; remember that you are not responsible for any man’s deed or mistake; remember that you did not commit the original sin; remember that you did not release misery and despair on this planet; remember that you do not have to toil your life away to erase a mistake men made.

No one can do this for you, this murder of god. But your breathing will get lighter. You will forget the fear and the self-control. You won’t have to tone yourself down or bite your tongue or lie awake at night wondering if you will burn in hell. You will forget the name of god, you will forget that he ever existed, you will forget that you had to kill him with your own hands.

Note that this is a lesbian perspective as an ex-roman catholic. However, most patriarchal, male-god-worshiping religions function on a misogynistic basis so this is still applicable. Feel free to discuss your personal experiences of sexism in religion and of how you dealt with it, if you left that religion, on this post. I’d love to hear your thoughts.

[antigonick]

FIVE CHARACTER TROPES

RULES: List five tropes applicable to your character, then tag others to do the same. (Tropes Wiki), repost / do not reblog.

(okay apparently it’s a Una day today, let’s do this). 

tagged by @forestcreatures​ and @impossible-rat-babies​ ♡ thank you, I’ve been losing my mind on TV tropes for a full hour. Tagging @ace-of-kings @mihqorio @heartbrreak and @ardellian​ if you want to!

Una.

FALLEN HERO / ANTI-HERO / FACE-HEEL TURN Not all villains are born. Some are made, and none are more tragic than the Fallen Hero. As the name implies, the Fallen Hero used to be a hero before doing a Face–Heel Turn. They may even have been an Ideal Hero or another equally optimistic archetype, up until the moment when they suffered something bad enough for them to lose all faith in good and idealism, be it the loss of a loved one, too many good deeds coming back to bite them hard, betrayal by someone they trusted the most, too much distrust from those who should have been allies, or some other faith-shattering event. It might even be a drawn out process of seduction to The Dark Side or fall from grace. Some Evil Old Folks happened to be this type in their younger days.

What they choose to do about it determines what they become:

If they retreat into themselves and fight evil mercilessly to dull the pain, they become an Anti-Hero, though if this fight is motivated by vengeance, they may run the risk of becoming like the very monsters they have sworn to destroy.

DETERMINATOR

A character — good or evil, male or female, young or old — who never gives up. Ever. No matter what.

There is no stopping the Determinator. They do not understand tact. They do not Know When to Fold 'Em, and it's a waste of time to tell them the odds. No one can reason with them. They'll do whatever they have to without question. No price is too great to pay for success, up to and including their own life. Do not expect them to realize they might be better off letting it go, even if they can barely stand. If you're ever kidnapped or lost with no hope of rescue, they'll be the one who will find you. Their adversaries will shout, in exasperated rage, "Why Won't You Die?!". For them, there is no line between "perseverance" and "insanity."

The nobility of their goal is not necessarily proportionate to their persistence. This is just as often an obsessive rival with a grudge as it is a hero on a chivalrous quest, and where their willpower ultimately leads them will depend both on their role and on where the work stands on the Sliding Scale of Idealism vs. Cynicism.

TELL ME HOW YOU FIGHT

and I will tell you what you are. You can tell a lot about a person by the way he fights. This is when a character's fighting style reflects his personality or methodology. Similar to Weapon of Choice except here, it's not so much what you use as how you use it.

• Suicidal Tactics: Character launches forward, not caring about leaving himself wide open to attack. It is a style appropriate for Blood Knight, a Death Seeker, a Leeroy Jenkins or a Berserker. Could be an Action Bomb.

• Self-Imposed Challenge: Character eschews weapons when everyone else uses them, or otherwise limits his power (and it may not be by choice); appropriate for a Proud Warrior Race Guy or variety of Martial Pacifist or "smiling, wrinkly old man" types. May be used by Blood Knights or Worthy Opponentswho can't get a satisfying fight any other way, which shows deserved overconfidence. May be fond of saying I Am Not Left-Handed.

• Fights Like a Normal: If a superpowered character prefers good old martial arts, then either he is too arrogant (villain) or afraid (hero) to use his powers, or he might simply find "normal" skills more enjoyable (either hero or villain).

• Close-Range Combatant: The character in this case is strong, confident and/or reckless, shining on hand-to-hand combat and often overlapping with the suicidal tactics described above, but with an emphasis on this character's lack of reach being a potentially crippling weakness.

ENEMY WITHIN

A specific form of Split Personality. Maybe the Body Horror became a bit too fused with someone. Maybe the Unstoppable Rage is getting... too unstoppable. Perhaps The Atoner's past is taking on a life of its own. Either way, the enemy is behind the hero's eyes, and its time is coming when it can take over. Until then, it'll do all it can to control him and get him to give in to its Horror Hunger. The thing to stress most is that the Enemy Within is the hero. He or she cannot simply exorcise it out. Often the Enemy Within is the cause of the powers that the hero has that allows them to do what they do. With Great Power Comes Great Insanity, remember?Often, since Evil Is Cool and Evil Feels Good, other characters may realize the danger before the hero and need to convince him.

SHE WHO FIGHTS MONSTERS

Usually, not quite a villain, but they act antagonistically enough that they're little better. Something has happened to our Fallen Hero: his village was destroyed, his friends killed, his puppy roasted on an open spit, his bike stolen, whatever. All that matters is that It's Personal, and he feels that the law just isn't suitable enough (or has become too corrupt and ignorant) to be of any use to him in settling the matter. He may justify his actions by claiming that it's Justice he's after, not vengeance, but anyone with half a brain can easily see that he's out for Revenge... unfortunately, we can also see that the more he hunts the cause of his woes, the more he takes on the villain's personality and mannerisms—something that our "hero" is too blinded by his single-minded goal to realize.

Our avenger may have good intentions—the fiend may well be too dangerous to be kept alive—but ultimately, his obsession with dealing out due punishment (or worse) and his refusal to think about what he's doing twists him into a monster just as bad as, or even worse than, the one he's hunting. And even before he gets to that point, it's nigh-impossible to turn him away; calling him out on it will be ignored or retaliated against. The Power of Friendship and The Power of Love were lost to him the moment the atrocity that sent him on his wild goose chasehappened; he feels that Team Spirit is just a hindrance, and that Love Is a Weakness that he can't afford to have.

Also includes, but not limited to (can you tell I’m cheating yet?): What You Are In The Dark, Beneath The Mask / Becoming The Mask, Escaped From the Lab / Become a Real Boy, Unreliable Narrator, No-Holds-Barred Beatdown, Berserk Button, Blood Knight / Knight Templar / Death Seeker / in Harm’s Way, Don’t You Dare Pity Me!, Heroic Sacrifice, Cute Bruiser, Mugging The Monster, Jerk With a Heart of Gold, Sir Swears-A-Lot, Telepathy, Love is a Weakness, Mind Rape, Roaring Rampage of Revenge, Humans Are the Real Monsters, The Power of Hate, and, indulgently, Birds of a Feather, Interplay of Sex and Violence, In Love With Your Carnage, Undying Loyalty, The Only One Allowed to Defeat You, I Know Your True Name. 

[hutchhitched]

And training has begun. Our favorite duo is impressing the gamemakers and learning to tie knots. How very non-domestic of them. Here are thoughts and musings on Chapter 7 for @everlarkedalways​ THG reread.

 Currently, I’m reading a book called Jesus and John Wayne, by Kristin Kobes Du Mez. The general thesis of the book is that white evangelicalism is obsessed with patriarchy and masculinity and celebrates that rather than emphasizing the gentler, more peaceful teachings of Jesus Christ. (While I have some issues with the larger historical study, I don’t particularly disagree with her thesis. Her book is the most gendered studies of American evangelical Christianity I’ve read in a long, long time.) A friend from work invited me to an online discussion group about the book with some friends of hers and the topic of gender roles played prominently in our conversation. Mostly, I kept thinking about portrayals of Katniss and Peeta and how those have sparked debates and arguments over Peeta’s masculinity or lack thereof.

 Peeta is strong, but he’s an artist, a painter, and a baker. He’s gentle and compassionate and kind, and he’s in love with Katniss. He’s been emotionally and physically abused by his mother, and he knows brute strength can’t help him win the game because Katniss will die if he tries. He makes a decision to protect her, but to do it behind the scenes. He can’t puff up his chest and kill the people who want her dead, so he does it by sacrificing himself for her long before they’re in the area. As such, many critics of the series (more so the movies than the books, I believe), including the actors themselves, often referred to Peeta as the damsel in distress who has to be saved by Katniss.

 There is a fundamental lack of critical examination in those interpretations of Peeta’s character. He is the epitome of non-toxic masculinity, but there is a rejection of that by society. Remember the Gillette commercial a few years ago that showed men being kind and gentle? Remember the backlash from it? Society is obsessed with strength and violence, and looks down on men who aren’t hypermasculine and/or show what are considered “feminine” qualities. In other words, Peeta has been emasculated.

 In the book itself, Peeta’s mother emasculates him by brow-beating him into submission and running her family with an iron fist. Mrs. Mellark is a strong woman, and in this context, that’s not a good thing. She’s overbearing and a “witch,” according to Katniss. She’s taken power away from her husband, evidenced by him not buying squirrels from Katniss unless Mrs. Mellark is absent. She’s also taken Peeta’s self-esteem and self-worth away by abusing him and telling him she thinks Katniss is a survivor, implicating that Peeta is not.

 Historically, masculinity has played a significant role in the development of the United States. White masculinity was codified in a series of laws in colonial Virginia in the seventeenth century, and southern masculinity was glorified and adulated during the antebellum period and beyond. Non-white men were emasculated in order to highlight the power of white men. Some examples:

Traditional gender roles in European societies centered on men providing for the family by owning land, farming, running an estate and so on while women’s roles were to work within the home. Rich men hunted for leisure (think fox hunting in packs, hunting quail, that kind of thing). Traditional gender roles for many Native American groups included women farming and gathering, while men hunted. Europeans believed Native American men were lazy because they played all the time (went out in hunting parties), while the women worked the fields. As a result, Native American men were emasculated and had their power stripped by European colonizers.

Africans who were enslaved were not allowed to legally marry under the system of slavery. Despite that, slave owners encouraged their slaves to “marry” (lived together as man and wife without the legal protections that entailed) because enslaved men who were married tended to be better workers due to fear that their wives and/or children would be punished if they rebelled or misbehaved. They had no control over their own families because enslaved peoples could be sold at any time at the whim of their owners (fathers sold away from wives and children or vice versa). In addition, white men often raped female slaves in order to a) terrorize the enslaved and b) impregnate the women who would give birth to more slaves. In addition, matrilineal succession was codified in a series of laws that ensured the offspring of an enslaved woman would follow the mother, not the father. That allowed white men to enslave their own offspring without consequence, and it emasculated male slaves in numerous ways. For example, enslaved men were not allowed to protect their spouses from being raped; enslaved men were not able to pass on their family names due to matrilineal succession; and enslaved men frequently had “wives” with children from another male. Each of those methods took power away from black men and put it in the hands of whites.

In 1676, Nathaniel Bacon asked for permission to raise a militia to fight a group of Native Americans who he believed had attacked his land. The governor refused permission, so Bacon did it anyway. He mustered yeomen farmers (poor white landowners), indentured servants (often Irish or poorer English contract workers), and slaves (African men). With this group, he challenged the wealthy white men in colonial Virginia.

What does all this mean? Peeta is a male with characteristics that are typically viewed as feminine (point 1), who is forced against his will to perform/work for the wealthy and privileged (point 3), and is unable to protect the woman he loves from harm (point 2). In other words, Peeta has been emasculated by Panem’s government and society.

 Please don’t read this as me saying Peeta is not masculine. I personally don’t hold to this idea that men have to engage in toxic masculinity in order to be male. My personal preference is a man who is compassionate and caring and nurturing. What I’m saying is I understand why people can read Peeta as weak, even if I don’t happen to agree that his characteristics are effeminate.

 Collins presents Katniss as a scared, angry, determined girl who engages in activities that aren’t necessarily feminine. Hunting and killing game, trading, and so on are very different activities than most of the women in Panem. She is, figuratively, bringing home the bacon and the primary breadwinner (ha!) for her family. Her role as a strong and independent and working against traditional gender roles is celebrated while Peeta’s are criticized. I find that fascinating. It’s kind of like it seems normal for women to dress in pants and t-shirts, but Harry Styles can’t wear a dress without causing an uproar. Oh, the double standard.

 I won’t get into how the movies and press marketed Katniss as a badass warrior. Let’s just say it pisses me off and absolutely misses the point of the books in my opinion.

 One last point since I’m headlong into gender theory here. Katniss and Peeta work as a team, equal partners as they negotiate their way through training. Collins seems to be a proponent of men and women carrying equal loads in relationships, and I’m here for it. Peeta doesn’t look down on Katniss as someone who needs to be protected (although he wants to protect her in any way he can), and Katniss doesn’t allow Peeta to make all the decisions for them. They work together, and it’s a beautiful thing. They have no idea the effect they have…on me when they do that. It’s my life’s goal to find someone who wants to be with me because I’m capable and not someone to be rescued. Katniss can rescue her own damn self, and I’m here for it.

 Okay, I’m behind again, but I’ll get there. If you’ve read all this, thank you for your consideration!