#tomboys don’t hate women

[pricklypear1997]

And just cuz she’s a tomboy, doesn’t mean she doesn’t want to look pretty. It actually really bothers me when people think she’d dress only like a man… she isn’t butch or the straight equivalent of it lmao. Nowhere in the books does it even specify that she likes boy clothes over girl clothes roflmao. The problem is her insecurities. I was the same way to at that age… she does think dresses are pretty, but due to her insecurities, she doesn’t make any effort to dress or look nice, also she’s depressed. Ffs not all tomboys have to have the ugly baggy boyish clothes or whatever to be tomboys. It’s just one of many things that bothers me about how people miss Arya’s characterization, so I felt the need to mention it. Only show Arya refuses to wear dresses and has a disdain for anything remotely feminine while also being blatantly sexist, which is what it is at the end of the day. Tomboys are so much more than some crossdressing fad and hating on all things feminine. Ugh. Another tidbit; Arya prefers her hair long over short. Arya is so much more than a sexist one dimensional woman hating pick me stereotype that the show made her out to be, and tomboys are so much more than some crossdressing fad or hating girly things just because.

A challenge.

Find me some passages of Arya ever exhibiting NLOG behaviour.

[black-queen-rising]

The people taking this dialogue as a legitimate “character flaw” or literally just at face value at all and not as a continuation of the blatant disrespect the writers have not just towards Rhaenyra as the heir of twenty years, but towards anything that could even vaguely be construed as “women’s work”, is the most perfect encapsulation of just how entrenched misogyny is into the very heart of our pop culture and how the popularization of fantasy has managed to worsen our societal view of soft power by painting it as not only weak, but frivolously feminine, unimportant, and a waste of time.

Since the beginning of the show the writers have almost exclusively portrayed Rhaenyra as disinterested if not opposed to her role as heir, as a politician, and a woman in power broadly all against the original canon and all glaringly, not to make her look worse or better or likable or incompetent (they do all those things, almost every episode, with however they need her to affect the plot in that given moment because they’re incapable of having the characters drive it organically) because it’s not truly about her at all. It’s simply because they cannot fathom a story where a woman is politically adept and as a result either 1. evil or 2. boring, and that is fundamentally because once again they are so biased and against portraying anything that could even vaguely be construed as women’s work or at all “feminine-coded” in an even neutral-but-interesting way they do for (stereotypically) masculine-coded activities like sword fighting, horse back riding, dragon riding, hunting, archery, not to mention just the concept of the political conversations that drive these stories, let alone an actually positive way.

They have taken a story that at its core was always an indictment of structural misogyny and how it will literally cause societies to tear themselves apart over nothing. But because they decided at the outset they wouldn’t and couldn’t portray the structural part of said misogyny without scaring away their intended audience, and decided instead to base this all around ultimately meaningless ~team discourse~ (because literally everyone meeting their downfall as a result of the consequences of systemic misogyny is the point) their alternate path has been to over-exaggerate and ultimately turn to spectacle every single woman involved’s individual suffering at the expense of everything else about their characters. It doesn’t matter if that was the intent or not the principle result of this adaptation has been the continual disempowerment and degradation of women and their agency combined with an almost impressively voyeuristic portrayal of their suffering.

The women in this show are not allowed to have interests or hobbies unless it’s to serve to make them seem “bad” in someway, whether that be the discomfort around Helaena’s bugs, the total lack of any positive representation of Alicent’s religiosity, or how the women dragon riders are broadly painted as aggressive, violent, and unnatural. I don’t even have specific examples to list from the other “team” because in order to be portrayed as “likable” to the general audience the women of Team Black are barely allowed to have personalities, let alone distinguishing interests or characterizing hobbies. The agency and autonomy they have been stripped of, collectively, from both historical precedent and actual ASoIaF, is almost entirely in their refusal to allow women’s work to be portrayed positively. There are no balls, no sewing circles, no garden parties, no trappings of power and contests of will in the jewels and gowns Rhaenyra must now loathe to be (their deeply narrow and biased view of) “likable”, there are no female mentorships, and no female friendships, and at every chance they have had to portray these things at both a societal and personal level they have chosen to veer away and instead reinforce their suffering. They have removed women’s avenues and halls of power from this story, while making it very clear there are no others that exist in this world, and they cannot participate in the men’s; if they could this story wouldn’t exist. So we are left with a group of people who are supposedly driving this story, who this story is supposedly about, but they are internally and externally isolated, largely removed from the public eye, angry or distressed to be there on the rare occasions they’re present, disempowered, stripped of personal agency and will, and we’re still told they have power. But if we search for it the only logical conclusion is that any power which does not center on how much suffering they have been through, or how much more they may be dealt, is not only gone, it was never there in the first place.

I don’t enjoy Rhaenyra’s quasi domestic abuse any more than Alicent’s visceral sexual shame and I don’t enjoy the infantilization of Helaena’s character any more than the erasure of Rhaena’s and it is deeply concerning how many people look at these decisions, and nod their heads and say “yes, this is realistic, and not only is it realistic it’s, GOOD, because without horrific psychological and physical abuse and ultimately a complete reduction to every female character as peace loving victims of powerful men’s cruel machinations we could never even SEE how misogyny is so damaging.” And the mindset that drives people to claim that those of us who call out how this is, the definition of benevolent misogyny and say we’re crazy, that we can’t see the complexity, that actually we’re the ones somehow falling back into sexist tropes, or asking for a black and white story when instead the black and white has simply become an insultingly reductive view of evil men versus helpless women and when all else fails, accusing us of wanting a boring story because it’s either not focused on gratuitous individual female suffering, or is focused on the kind of political power every single featured female character on both sides of this conflict wielded in the original book instead of evil man conversations and eviler man dragon-battles, is at its heart why we have come to a place in pop culture where one of its most marquee properties displays and embodies these problems so glaringly in the fucking first place.

[pokemon-radical-red]

I hate it when I headcanon a character who’s canonically a girl as a trans man and make ships of him and a character who’s canonically a guy and I refer to it as a gay/mlm/guyxguy/whatever ship and someone gets mad. Like omg let trans people have FUNNNNN. Why are queer headcanons and genderbends cool until they’re saying that the character is trans???

“OMGGG you’re so misogynistic I can’t believe you would erase FEMALE representation!!!”

and like half of the characters in the franchise are women, and a total of… NONE of the characters are trans men. Also, my headcanon doesn’t change the source material. If my stuff upsets you, you can block me and go engage with the source or maybe every single other fanwork, since mine is the only trans man hc for this character that I’ve ever seen.

or when people are like “WTF??? this is so transphobic!!! how dare you imply that a character who looks like that could be a trans man?!?! do you think that trans men are women or something??? she uses she/her, and you’re misgendering her!”

No, I don’t think that being a trans man makes you a woman or vice versa. That’s why it’s a headcanon, and the headcanon is that this character is actually a trans man and not a woman at all! You’ll never guess what pronouns most trans men had to use at some point in their lives, and you really won’t like it when you find out about pre-(or no-)transition trans men… or trans men who are in the closet… or trans men who don’t know that they’re trans yet.

“But the character is a kid!!! Saying they’re trans is sexualizing them.”

I’ve seen this one from other queer people. Like did you miss when all of the homophobes said this about your identity, or do you think that bigotry is only bad when it’s directed at you?

“Why would you say ‘testosterone could fix her’??? Are you trying to call her a delusional woman?”

Why would your brain even go to that first? This literally has to be a bad faith reading, because there’s no way that someone could see what I said and get this unless they were specifically looking for something to be mad at me for.

(Note for anyone unaware: “Estrogen would’ve fixed him!” was a meme going around at the time I said this. I’m not sure if it’s still super big, but this was a joke to the effect of that.)

“So girls can’t be tomboys anymore? You just wanna trans everyone?”

This is like actual real life transphobic rhetoric. This isn’t even just shitting on my headcanon, but in fact, sending transphobic hate to a trans man. Thanks 👍. Maybe you should go send JK Rowling another message about how much you loved her essay instead of bothering me.

[corruptedcaps]

Mallbrat

This story is based on this wonderful tweet by @shadow211e. Enjoy!

Despite Mel coming from a rich family, she had always seen herself as someone who was above the shallow, materialistic pursuits of the women who frequented the upscale mall in the neighboring town called Eden. She hated how bitchy and superficial the people were that frequented Eden, she was much more at home on the soccer field. Yet, today was different. She had come here with a pure intention: to find the perfect gift for her friend Katie.

Katie was a huge lover of fashion and followed all the latest trends but could barely afford the clothes she bought from the thrift store. Katie often told Mel that she was happy with her thrift store finds, that it made her more resourceful but Mel could see the sadness behind her best friend’s eyes.

Mel knew it would be hard, being a tomboy shopping for a dyed in the wool girly girl but she was determined to get her something perfect. It was just so overwhelming. The mall's glistening storefronts, adorned with designer labels, had always made her uncomfortable, but now she felt exhausted looking at a myriad of shoes, dresses and makeup, not knowing where to begin.

Taking a moment to sit down and gather her thoughts she watched as the bitchy girls of her school stride past flicking their hair and giggling at a joke she was sure she was the butt of.

As she was about to get up suddenly a perfume saleswoman appeared and sprayed something in her face. “Hello Miss, don’t you just love the smell of our new signature scent, ‘Entitled’. It’s such a hit that the mall will be pumping it through the air conditioning for today only. Make sure to buy your bottle before you leave today.” The saleswoman said to Mel who was coughing as she took the sweet fragrance in the face.

Before Mel could complain the woman had disappeared into thin air. Annoyed but undeterred from her task, Mel went back to walking the mall. As she strolled past boutique after boutique, something strange began to happen. Her posture straightened, and her steps became more deliberate, mimicking the confident strides of the women who were impeccably dressed around her. She pushed her chest out in front of her and walked with her chin high in a superior pose.

As she walked past store front after store front gazing at the opulent wears in the windows her mind started to drift from whether ‘Katie would like that’ to ‘I’d look good in that’. One outfit in particular caught her eye. It was a snakeskin style top that looked to have less fabric than her soccer shorts but she felt inexplicably drawn to it. She couldn’t stop picturing herself in its revealing curves.

She would have walked straight in to try it on only she got a look at herself in the windows reflection and nearly gagged. Her hair was messy, face dirty and her nails were chipped. She viewed her own reflection like the girls she saw earlier viewed her.

Mel sauntered into the upscale mall salon, her confidence preceding her. Locking eyes with a poised beautician, she snapped, "I need my hair cleaned and styled. My skin cleaned and moisturized, and my nails manicured. Make it quick." The beautician, catching the haughty undertone, nodded energetically and led her to an open chair.

As Mel settled into the plush seat, the beautician picked up the shampoo bottle labeled ‘Entitled’, the very same brand as the perfume that was spurted into Mel’s face earlier and worked diligently, washing away the remnants of soccer practice and transforming Mel's unruly hair into a sleek masterpiece. Meanwhile Mel found herself in a state of unexpected euphoria, a sensation induced by the intoxicating scent of the shampoo. The fragrance, like a veil of opulence, enveloped her senses, lulling her into a blissful reverie.

So enamoured with the aroma that Mel barely registered when the beautician put a facial mask on her as her hair dried. Her face tingled as she felt the dirt lift, bruises erase and her skin became smooth and imperfection less.

By the time her hair was dry Mel instinctively held out her hand, waiting for the beautician to start work on her nails. The beautician however was a pro and was manicuring Mel’s nails within seconds.

While the beautician worked, Mel’s internal dialogue shifted to a self-indulgent narrative. Thoughts of striving for success in soccer and excelling in academics seemed distant, replaced by a fixation on social standing and personal allure. "Who needs soccer? I'm destined for a life of extravagance," she thought, her mind now captivated by visions of high-society events and glamorous soirées.

As the beautician skillfully completed her work, Mel, now adorned in the aftermath of pampering, gazed for the first time at her reflection with a sense of vain satisfaction. The sleek hair, the impeccable facial, the manicured nails, and her impressive breasts painted a portrait of indulgence she couldn't help but revel in.

Maybe it was how straight her posture was now and how she stuck out her chest and held her chin high but Mel absolutely adored how big her tits now looked. They were practically spilling out of her top and she knew her cleavage would have heads turning.

“Good,” she thought to herself. “It’s about time I caught the eye of a man who can treat me to the finer things in life and is my monetary equal. I’ve wasted so much time with the boys at school. I need a man.”

The beautician, seemingly now intimidated by Mel, inquired cautiously, "Are you happy with the results miss?" Mel's eyes met her reflection once more, and with a dismissive wave, she retorted, "You didn't do much, darling. It's hard to improve upon perfection." The words hung in the air, leaving an awkward pause as the beautician grappled with the unexpected critique.

“But I suppose I better pay the ‘the help’. Here charge it to my black card.” Mel said coldly handing the beautician here matte steel credit card, the one her parents had given her but she had refused to use but now could think of nothing more satisfying than maxing it out.

“Thank you miss, we hope to see you again.” The beautician said as she quickly disappeared out of sight as Mel stared at her with disdain. Mel liked how it felt to have someone fear her. It made her pussy tingle.

Mel, fully immersed in the conceited realm she had embraced, stood up out of the chair and sauntered out of the salon. As she expected and enjoyed, all eyes were on her as she walked the mall floor.

She strode confidently into the store that held the outfit that had caught her eye earlier and snapped at the shop assistant to get it for her. The shop assistant quickly leapt to attention and got the outfit for Mel who rolled her eyes at the shop assistant for taking so long.

In the dressing room Mel joyously slipped into the tight outfit perfectly, her body contouring to fabric as if it was made for her. As she gazed lovingly at her reflection, a far cry from the girl that had entered the mall a few hours ago, something began to nag in her mind. This wasn’t right, this wasn’t her. She had come her for Katie not for herself.

And yet the longer she stared at her magnificent body the more she didn’t care. The once happy thoughts about friendship and empathy gave way to daydreams of a luxurious lifestyle, filled with adoration and admiration. "Katie can fend for herself. It’s time she learned that this world can be cruel… and so can I." Mel mused, her thoughts betraying a growing detachment from her former priorities.

Leaving the dressing room in the outfit she was about to pay for, she didn’t give a second thought to her old clothes laying on the floor until the shop assistant asked sheepishly what she should do with them.

“Burn them for all I care, they’re paupers rags as far as I’m concerned.” Mel said with cold detachment. She looked at the pile as a representation of her past life.

She spent the next few hours at the mall on a shopping spree. One outfit would not make up for years of neglect of her wardrobe. She needed clothes that reflected her station in life, one she had refused to embrace until now.

Along the way the same girls who had scoffed at her appearance earlier approached her cautiously but with new reverie. “You’re Mel right? You go to our school? We should hang out, girls like us need to stick together.” One of them had said.

Mel looked at them with a cold gaze, observing their demeanours. They were pretty and mean but Mel could see they feared her. She smirked knowing they’d be putty in her newly manicured hands. They would be perfect betas.

“If you must, but keep up I don’t have all day. Oh and it’s Mercedes.” She said with a turn on her expensive heels as she walked fast to make the girls try and keep up with her.

Before long the girls had filled her in on the most eligible men and the juiciest gossip. Their last leader had moved towns and they had a power vacuum that Mercedes was now only too happy to fill and they were only too happy to follow.

Mercedes was having such wicked fun that before she knew it the mall was closing. She had bought so much stuff that her new clique each held numerous bags for her as they followed her to the exit. Along the way Mercedes was sure to pick up several bottles of the perfume ‘Entitled’ as she left. She just loved its aroma.

Outside Katie stood waiting for Mel. Mel had told her at the beginning of the day that she had a surprise for Katie and to meet her at the mall. But now after waiting several hours Katie was beginning to worry.

Mercedes and her gang left the mall and made their way to the waiting limo Mercedes had ordered. Mercedes spotted Katie and with an evil smirk got close enough so her former friend could hear her say, “I really wish the mall would keep the riff raff further away from the property. They are ungodly eyesores.”

Katie went beet red at the cruel comment and quickly made herself scarce. She didn’t recognize this new girl that seemed to have her bully group ensnared but there was something so familiar about her.

The End

[tuesdayisfordancing]

Feel very weird about this genre of post because my older sister was literally a tomboy who had to work to reclaim her sense of femininity like she very much did suppress her feminine side out of shame! That is a type of girl that exists, and I know because. I literally know her. She lives downstairs from me and my parents. Plus there’s a ton of transmascs and enbies (including me) who have the experience of, once their gender starts to be validated sometimes, realizing they actually like (pink, sparkles, skirts, multiple of these or other feminine things they were uncomfortable with), they just hated feeling like they were putting themselves further into the girl box socially, and I can’t imagine there aren’t cis women who have that exact process as well.

And on the other hand YEAH FUNNY HOW IN MEDIA IT ALWAYS GOES THAT DIRECTION. Wonder what that could mean. I wouldn’t, personally, mind a moratorium on that character arc until we’ve reached a certain number of character arcs going the other direction, but… idk that girls like my sister don’t need that story to stick around, yanno? Just give us more of the other thing, please.

[francesderwent]

hiii if you can, could you expand on your hate for Greta Gerwig's work? I've only seen a few of her movies, so I don't have much of an opinion haha

it is occurring to me now I think I’ve only seen one film of hers haha but I felt VERY strongly about that one, and I feel like I’ve read enough about her Little Women that I can justly hate it, too

I talked at length about my issues with Barbie here with some addendums here and also here

and Little Women I have a few beefs with!

first of all, why get so many English actors to play Americans when their American accents, by and large, suck

I find Gerwig’s choice to import biographical information about Alcott’s writing of the book into the story itself obnoxious. if you’re gonna adapt a BELOVED CLASSIC, I think you have to accept that people love the book, even if the author played around with the book being something else! if you found letters saying Austen had thought about marrying Lizzie off to Col. Fitzwilliam would you make a film that leaves it ambiguous which man she gets together with? of course not! because it would be a terrible adaptation and a terrible film since the book is obviously a finished whole the themes of which were tending in a specific direction. I think Gerwig does Alcott a serious disservice in thinking that she didn’t do her absolute darndest to give her book a satisfying ending. and I think she insults a lot of Little Women fans, as well! the only reason she lets Alcott’s personal life color the plot of the film is because it happens to align with Gerwig’s own values. so if you didn’t like the values that are actually in the book, don’t adapt the book!!!!

I think she plays with gender in her film in a way that’s anachronistic. Jo is a tomboy in the book, but in a way I just can’t easily explain, the flavor of an 1800s tomboy not fitting into the mould of a typical lady is very different from a 2010s feminist rebelling against the expectations of society for women.

the book states very clearly that Meg and Amy have a closer relationship, and Jo and Beth have a closer relationship. so Gerwig deciding she wanted to put the primary focus on Jo and Amy’s relationship is very annoying to me, and feels like disrespect to Beth. Amy outshining Beth feels like it sums up a lot about Gerwig and where she sees value

[starlightrosari]

Gender struggles from childhood to now (22)

I don’t look like the other girls

I don’t get along with other girls

I get along better with boys

I want to be one of the guys

I wish I looked more like a boy

I don’t feel I belong in women’s spaces

I feel uncomfortable with female gender expectations and experiences

I feel jealous of how my friends who are boys are developing into their bodies

I feel uncomfortable with my genitalia

I feel uncomfortable with my body

I want to look more androgynous

I hate my body

I don’t mind my name, but it feels too feminine. It’s okay on other people, but I’d prefer a nickname for myself

The first nickname was cool, but still felt too feminine. This new nickname sounds really androgynous though, it feels good being called it

I feel like a tomboy

Am I transgender?

Do I have internalized misogyny from having mostly male friends?

I wish I could get along with women so I was treated equally

I just feel small and infantilized, I have to dress more mature and womanly and then I’ll love my body

I’m depressed and dissociated from myself because of people pleasing and trying to fit in with heteronormative people

Who am I?

I’m just a lesbian having a hard time with my sexuality, that’s why I have these body issues and gender issues. And I just don’t know who I am because of depression and trauma

I stopped being called my birth name entirely. I guess family can still call me it even if it feels weird, but it feels good being called “Ari” at my college and by my friends

I stopped people pleasing

I feel better now that I’m dressing masculine

I feel better now that I’m not being called pretty all the time

Maybe I actually am trans?

I kind of like they/them pronouns

Maybe not, I’m okay with my body now and people think nonbinary isn’t real. This is too complicated

I still feel uncomfortable calling myself or being called a woman though

I don’t want to base my identity off the misogyny I deal with anymore, I feel most comfortable calling myself nonbinary for now, and it’s okay if it’s a phase, I just need to explore how I’m feeling

I don’t like using she/her pronouns

I’m terrified to come out to people, maybe I should just tell them I use she/they pronouns so it’s not as big of a deal

I came out to people, but now I feel like I shouldn’t have given them “she” as an option at all

I still wish I were more like a boy, but I don’t think I have gender dysphoria

I’m so envious of my favorite fictional boy characters, I want to cry, I’m nothing like them

I wish when I were out at night I didn’t look like such a girl. I want to look like the beautiful men and androgynous people I see. I want to cry, I hate my body sometimes

Actually I do have gender dysphoria and always have

I wish I were able to be androgynous in the way men can be

I feel uncomfortable being viewed as the feminine bodied person in a relationship. In fantasies I’m always masculine

I feel dysphoric every time I lump myself as sapphic, but maybe it’s just internalized lesbophobia?

No, I prefer calling myself queer. Just because identifying as lesbian stopped me from being cis/heteronormative and was an important part of finding my true self, doesn’t mean I have to keep identifying as it. Still don’t know if I’m attracted to men though

Actually I was attracted to men all along, I just wished I were viewed by strangers as an mlm couple and hated the idea of being viewed as a straight relationship. It was easy to mistake as being lesbian because it at least felt better being seen as a queer woman than a straight girl, so I avoided that possibility altogether by refusing that I was attracted to men because it felt too dysphoric to imagine

I often get really depressed being misgendered, and I feel really detached from myself most days. I don’t want to keep feeling this way

I definitely don’t feel good being called feminine terms or dressing feminine, trying to be more of a girl didn’t make me feel better about myself, I’m absolutely trans and don’t have to doubt myself anymore

I don’t feel dysphoric calling myself nonbinary and neutral language, but I don’t feel euphoric either. How do I identify and what do I do about my dysphoria?

Do I want to transition? It’s so confusing and scary, I wish I were binary trans so I wasn’t so afraid of the irreversible changes

Weighing out changes of the body on T and pros and cons of being off or on T, I’m definitely feeling like some of the changes would make me really euphoric compared to being without it

I actually kind of like calling myself masculine terms. I don’t feel like a man, but maybe I’m a demiboy?

I wanted an androgynous body when I was very young, and I still want one now. I was gaslit by cis people that how I felt about my body was just insecurity, when it was in fact gender dysphoria. I want to transition to a body that feels like me

I like he/him pronouns and feel affirmed being called masculine terms. I’m going to use he/they pronouns and I identify as a nonbinary boy

I’m terrified of having to deal with transmasculine erasure and transphobia coming out, but I can’t keep staying in the closet. It hurts too much. I need to come out

[deathnguts]

hi! i’m in love with all of your rabastan/regulus headcanons. i’m not sure if you answered this before but how does regulus’s journey as a trans person go in this scenario? when does he realize that he’s a man and when does rabastan? how does it affect their relationships? does regulus ever come out and transition at all?

Hello! I’ve actually never gone into trans regulus in any context even though regulus IS trans to me, like if I see any cis regulus I view it as an AU because trans regulus is real

I think regulus knew there was something off about him. Like he didn’t know he was a boy per day, but he knew he hated the way he was perceived and being referred to as someone’s little girl or all dressed to the nines in lace and skirts made him cry when he was like four. It all got better for a little when he just wore pants and kept his hair stylishly short when he was like 8-11 because girls were allowed to do those things, but then it immediately got worse when he went through puberty because he started to realize what it was he didn’t like. He didn’t like being perceived as a feminine girl, but he didn’t know yet that it was because he was a boy he thought it was because of the expectations that came with being a girl in his family that he viewed as beneath him. He wanted more than being married and having kids, he thought he only hated being a girl because it came with that tragic life. He ignored how he had a huge problem with his own body because all girls hate their boobs and don’t master bait because they hate their vaginas, right? … right?

But, no, he did not realize he was a boy for little too long of a time. I don’t think he knew it was possible to be trans until he was an adult anyway, or at the very youngest late teens. I think he did immediately know that he was a transgender man when he found out that option existed, but he hated it. He did not embrace it with the satisfaction of knowing himself, he despised that this couldn’t have just been easy for him. Of fucking course he couldn’t just be born correct with the right brain and the right body, fuck this. I think he went through a phase especially at the beginning of his and Rabastan’s marriage where he was hyper feminine. He forewent his attempts at just being a tasteful ‘tomboy’ (it was more like women in suits sort of vibe because tomboy was too unrefined to him) and he went all in on the like Lana del ray core style femininity for a solid five or more years. It was a desperate fail safe attempt to be what was expected of him, everyone who saw him married to Rabastan already viewed him as some small young girl who was doe eyed in love with an older man, who cares if he plays the part everyone already sees him playing fuck you.

Anyhow it failed, he was miserable the entire time but keeping it simmering under his skin hoping it would like permeate away but it didn’t, it never does. He grapples with the idea of doing anything about this for another few months I think, slowly deconstructing his feminine mask and testing if the work of deconstructing himself is worth it. He experiments with himself, mostly alone or among his friends. They’re the first to know because of course they are, and obviously they don’t mind. They always kind of noticed, and now that they have a name for what regulus went through it makes sense.

Rabastan kinda notices? Like he obviously knows something is wrong, but he doesn’t know why and he doesn’t know to ask. So I don’t think he does. When his wife starts wearing dresses and ribbons and growing out her hair he tells her she looks beautiful, when she very suddenly stops doing that he kisses her temple and asks if she needs new clothes. But then there’s a little bit of a strange phase where regulus is suddenly very affectionate. He’s always been, whenever he was happy that is, but now it’s almost clingy and regulus has never been clingy.

Inside, it’s because regulus thinks that rabastan will not only leave him if he comes out, but be personally offended that he made him be even perceived to be romantic with a man. Their families are extremely homophobic and transblind, regulus thinks that Rabastan would be in the right to hate him for this. So he hides it, for just a little longer. He loves his husband for as long as he can because he’s sure he’ll be gone forever when given the chance.

But then the day comes, regulus has Barty on speed dial just in case shit hits the fan, and he sits Rabastan down and tells him that everything’s ok they never have to talk again and the cut can be clean and easy and regulus won’t mind (he will) because he’s… he’s a boy. Rabastan didn’t marry a boy. Regulus lied, he supposes, so Rabastan should be allowed to leave.

Rabastan’s…. Confused? Why do you want me to leave? What did you lie about?

Regulus explains further, panic rising in his chest and rabastan gets it after a bit. He doesn’t know what to say.

Regulus, I love you. Not the little girl with tears down her cheeks and not enough words to explain why, not the short hair and fear of her own body, not the dresses and ribbons, not the clinging touches and kisses, I love you, not the phases of what you used to be. I love what you are, if you think that’s a man then I guess I love a man. You won’t get rid of me that easy.

So yeah, it’s a lot of up and downs but he figures it out and embraces it eventually and rabastan’s there for all of it, in summary. Rabastan is a lot of things and their relationship has its insane issues, this funnily enough, isn’t one of them. While Rabastan does sort of think this might be another phase, he’ll never say it and he takes it seriously to make sure regulus knows he knows it’s important to him. Rabastan loves his husband just as much as he loved his wife, it simple to him.

[cowboyjen68]

hello, jen! i just wanted to say thank you because it is so comforting to have you around especially when you don’t have older butch women to look up to. i live in a third world country and that is why sometimes it gets too hard to imagine that i’ll get to mature from a baby butch into a full grown one and your presence is what makes this hellsite so home-y. thank you ^_^

Hi from Iowa. I can imagine, only in the most slight way, how hard it is to feel isolated and wanting to find mentors and friends who have been where you are now but not having any access those people. Growing up, and it is NOT the same thing as what you are going through, there was not much representation out there. The butch women I came accross were not vocal, or out so I could only guess that we shared something in common. I could not be sure.

I went from a tomboy to an awkard teen who didn't really fit in with the girls and the boys were outgrowing being friends with me as they hit puberty. I really did figure I would outgrow whatever it was that made me hate dresses, walk "like a man" and "act like a boy". I would often be told, "try to act more like a lady" or "Young women don't do that". I tried to conform but in my head I was constantly rolling around the thought of "why am I like this/" and "what is making me act different"? I knew that it took effort to be "same" but no work to just be me. This led me to believe I was broken because i had to try so hard to NOT be myself in order to gain cultural approval.

As I grew older, became more confident and met actual butches in real life, especially older ones who shared stories with me and let me know I was not alone or an outlier, that others were just like me, I became comfortable it just being me and stopped attempting conformity.

I hope that with the power of the internet, even on places like Tumblr, where I know things can be weird, you find some community and build your own confidence. It is for young butches like you that I maintain this blog and my other social media. I know how important it is to see your "future" in others and to have hope for a life free of constantly battling your own comfort for the expectations of others. I wish for you a life where you are free to just exist without the work to fit in or even to keep yourself safe.

[masokawa]

local trans boy vents bla bla bla

i am SO tired of the people who claim transandrophobia/transmisandry/anti-transmasculinity/any term related to transmasc oppression “doesn’t exist” because its just transphobia bc apparently not a single person on earth hates trans men for being men, it’s just because we’re trans!

if i were not a man, i would not be trans.

if i were not trans, i would not be a man.

you cannot separate those from each other. i am not just trans. i am not just a man. i am a transgender man and both words are intertwined with each other in an inseparable way.

“nobody hates you because you’re a man. it’s because you’re trans.”

is it?

the people who say i should be a straight tomboy or a butch lesbian. “just because you dress up as a boy doesn’t mean you are one. it’s okay to like boy things and be a woman.”

the people who threaten me with violence. “oh since you wanna be a man, you can get your ass beat like one.”

the people who tell me i’m a traitor to women. “why would you choose to become the oppressor. kill yourself.”

the people who tell me to get raped.

the people who tell me to get assaulted.

the people who hope i get murdered.

the people who tell me to commit suicide.

the people who don’t think trans men exist.

the people who prioritize CHASERS above trans men.

the people who refuse to hear the cries of trans men when we are hurting.

the people who center other people in discussions about US and OUR oppression.

the people who believe we are worse than cisgender men because we “chose” to be men.

all of this is only because we are trans? not because we are transgender men?

at what point does it end? what will it take for people to listen to trans MEN about OUR fucking issues? when will people stop belittling us, mocking us, ignoring us, because we dared to have feelings about how we’re being oppressed?

ignoring us is the last fucking thing we need right now.

i’m tired of it.

[possibilistfanfiction]

Genuine question, how did you figure out or realize the whole being butch thing? What does being butch mean to you?

idk if it was like… figure out? more so just putting a name to something i’ve always felt or known about myself. i came out as a lesbian, then i came out as nb, then i was like well i want gender affirming care so that must mean i am Trans™️, & it’s like… none of those words or kind of… vibes (lol sorry) quite fit? i don’t feel like a cis lesbian, & i actually kind of despise non-binary as a concept (don’t send asks abt this i won’t answer them lol, do ur own thing if u love it that’s cool); i think for me personally Transness is a little too serious & intense & limiting to how i feel. & im a white afab person in a smaller body, & honestly…….. we are often the wooooorst demographic of trans ppl lmao so i just didn’t even rly like some spaces i was in. i got the most important gender affirming care i wanted, i moved & i got married, i got to work remotely etc

& so just sitting with all of that it was like. ok well a lot of neoliberal queer spaces piss me the fuck off; i’m not cis, but i’m not TRANS in the way a lot of ppl (very validly) feel; i do Not like nb. i’d read stone butch blues before, i have a degree in critical theory where i worked a loooot w queer theory, obviously i’ve written abt queerness for ages lol. so then i was just like ah. butch. dyke. YAH! sweet. 100/10 feels amazing i love it

& i think for me i love those words most bc they’re rooted in really radical belief that i have. they carry an ethic with them that, at its best & most intersectional ofc, i want to act on, all the time. i want to show up for people & be protective & tough & strong but i also so deeply want to be nurturing & nourishing. i want to allow myself to be nourished & cared for. i think it feels rly wonderful to have a word for transgressive gender that sums it all up bc people lived it before me. they made that very specific & particular space to experience femininity in a way that doesn’t feel like a noose.

i think also butchness is so expansive! something that never sat right w me abt the way we talk abt transness in the west is that i don’t think there are ‘pre’ & ‘post’ transition selves. like… i’ve never been Not Me? like i came out of the womb a dyke. all i did my entire childhood is run around in the mountains, catalogue leaves, play w my dog, read nancy drew, & avidly watch + play any women’s soccer i could. i loved to fish & mountain bike, i grew up in the desert so gardening to me was a miracle. i never cared abt gender at all beyond like ‘well i guess i’m a girl & the women i admire just won a world cup, they’re badass’ & that was it. i liked boys clothes bc they were practical & felt better, but i just. didn’t think about it. ppl called me a tomboy which was fine, i liked scout in to kill a mockingbird so whatever. but i never felt “non-binary” & i certainly never felt like a boy.

& i am… still just like that lmao. i hated my boobs, point blank day 1 lol, but that doesn’t have to mean i’m trans, or that i’ve somehow changed in a way that requires separation from who i’ve been my whole life. i HATE the language of ‘dead/lived’ name; i hate the weird expectation that u should allow the state to have all of ur gender stuff on record (no fucking thank you, y’all can keep my legal name & i will be flying under the radar lol). so i think western transness rly just. irritates me. doesn’t fit. hasn’t ever fit.

so butchness is like. i am 8 year old jude, i’m just older now. if this makes sense ur butch lmao but. it’s this rly free space to play w masculinity in a way that doesn’t necessitate western transness, & also doesn’t necessitate a separation from maternalism, which i fundamentally believe in. i don’t even rly think of my own care as “gender affirming” & more just like… essence affirming. i didn’t want top surgery so my body could be read as male; i wanted it so i could look like me. i want my clothes to feel & fit in a Very particular way bc that’s how i like them. it’s abt practicality, efficiency, comfort.

& lastly to me butchness has a remarkable space for tenderness that masculinity on its own just cannot hold. like. it’s abt being protective & strong, sure, but it’s in service of others. always always always. so sometimes that looks like communicating calmly, sometimes that looks like infinite small acts of service for ur friends or ur partner. when i think of settling into myself it’s more about returning to who i knew i was when i was a kid, when i was the only person my dog liked & how it felt to sit on the swings when the sun was setting after the monsoon; it’s allowing myself to love like that — caring, & quiet, & full.

ultimately to me butchness is about devotion, more than anything in the world. devoted to safety, devoted to community. no one is devoted the way dykes are bc it’s how we survive. it’s how we have always survived — the steadfastness, the faith, the joy, even thru suffering, to not be boxed in. to help each other. to be funny & kind & thoughtful & not reject the absolute best parts of womanhood for the sake of a western box. to demand care. it’s so beautiful. devotion.

tldr it’s the best

[branwendaughterofllyr]

passing you the knife, branwen 🔪 8. common fandom opinion that everyone is wrong about & 25. common fandom complaint that you're sick of hearing 🔥

Ohhhh these are some good ones.

8. Common fandom opinion that everyone is wrong about

Maester Gyldayn is Team Green. Maester Gyldayn is Team Black. Maester Gyldayn is a misogynist who simply hated to see a girl boss winning-

Wrong. All wrong. Gyldayn was initially writing for Aerys II but had to one-eighty when Robert won. So now he has to suck off the Starks, Arryns, Baratheons, Arryns, and the Lannisters. He’s team neither. And I constantly see people acting like Gyldayn hated every single woman in power, when some of them get pretty decent treatment, like Johanna Lannister and Alysanne Blackwood (huh. What do these two have in common?) Even Samantha Tarly gets something of a pass despite having an affair with her step-son and running over the High Septon with her horse, and even gets called a paramour, rather than a mistress or even a whore. Even Alyssa Targaryen’s bawdiness is treated pretty lightly and positively. The sexual vitriol is pretty much reserved for Rhaenyra, Saera, and the other “bad” Targaryen women. Which probably has to do with the fact that the Targaryens just got overthrown and people would be gleefully reading about how fucked up their women are, bc it’s so much more fun to hate women 🫤. So, yes, Gyldayn is an misogynist but he definitely treats some women worse than others, and he takes the low hanging fruit when he makes villains but it seems to be based more on house, and he’s certainly not taking the side of team green bc he hates women. (He’s not taking the side of team green or team black, guys, to be clear. Both get equal screentime of shitty behavior.) He also seems to have the same bias towards tomboys that George has so, (compare Baela’s treatment to Saera) so do with that what you will.

25. Common fandom complaint that you’re sick of hearing

Okay, I might catch some actual flack for this one. “The show cut the only canon lesbian ship!” Did it though? Did it really? There’s one line about Rhaenyra being fond and more than fond of Laena. There’s not a lot to go off here, they could have been friends and this was turned into yet another salacious relationship to pin to Rhaenyra. And the people complaining about this are mainly using it to shit on Rhaenicent, or to turn it into a polycule with Laena being okay with Rhaenyra and Daemon’s flirting, when we just don’t know how she felt about that. I think this a pretty silly complaint about the adaptation of the show, considering the amount of stuff that got cut and relationships that never got explored.

[bohemian-nights]

There’s something I’m really trying to wrap my head around: if you hate Nettles for breaking up Daemon and Rhaenyra then what difference does her skin color make?Like, I’ve definitely criticized Martin for his habit of having an older man finally meet his soulmate who just happens to be a young dark haired tomboy but I’m consistent about it. Why would Nettles being white make her more palatable? She’s still breaking up a ship

When I say that Nettles being race-bent would make her more appealing to this fandom, I’m basically going off of the pattern with other fandoms when it comes to Black female love interests and how this fandom has been treating her so far.

Go into any fandom(The Bear, The Flash, Marvel, Sleepy Hollow, Vampire Diaries, The Flash, Twisted, Riverdale, you name it, it’s there) and watch how they act when a Black girl might get/gets with the resident fandom hottie that everyone lusts after.

Like clockwork suddenly there are a million and one excuses on why she can’t get with the guy or how their relationship is “wrong”(she doesn’t need a man she’s strong and independent, why can’t she just be friends with him, they have no chemistry, it’s abuse, she’s a lesbian, etc).

Google fandom misogynoir and what pops up will leave you feeling a mix of vindication cause you aren’t going crazy and severely depressed because no one really accepts accountability or gives a sh*t so the problem keeps festering for years.

People will try to gaslight you into thinking nothing is wrong(which is what they are currently doing with Nettles since her fanbase is small) until people are finally forced to admit that there is a problem once they've been called out by white people or several articles have been written about their vicious behavior. By then it's too late.

Most Black people leave fandoms for this kind of abuse because when you are treated like less than in real life then when you try to have some fun like everyone else you are still treated like crap. Fandoms should serve as a source of escapism, yet for Black fans they are just another headache.

The only reprieve Black women have is when we create our own shows and movies (which people still get mad at but that's another discussion) and even then sometimes you are still dealing with a load of bullcrap(Shonda Rhimes I am looking at you).

The reason why this happens is because sadly fans use most of these female characters as self inserts. And while Black girls have no problem seeing themselves in other women the same isn’t true for other women(and that has to do with the ignorant belief that they are better because they aren’t Black).

These people are not used to not being put on a pedestal for nothing other than having the right skin tone so when once in a blue moon that doesn’t happen(or it looks like it won’t happen) it sends some into panic mode and thus comes in a need to put those Black characters back into the undesirable box.

The HOTD/Dance fandom in particular has a problem with this.

See how before this show Laena used to be thought of as Daemon’s great love, but the moment she became Blackish she was tossed to the side in favor of saying Miss Maegor was his great love, called her N-word, and compared her to a monkey. People don't have a nice word to say about show!Laena unless it's to support a ship where their self-insert is at the center of that didn't even happen with essentially no canon basis.

And you can’t use the excuse that the fans don’t ship it because Daemon was a crappy husband to Laena. After all, Dumbnyra wasn’t portrayed in a healthy light either yet it’s the most popular ship in this fandom by a long shot.

Now, I obviously don’t think everybody would suddenly start shipping Dettles if she were white or race-bent, but for a great deal of the people objecting to the ship and hating on her, it seems that Nettles’ race is the main reason why:

The fact that you have Dumbnyra stans(the last highlighted one) respecting Alys(a character from another team who they actively dislike) more than Nettles says it all and if that’s not enough then you also have this:

I guess props to them for at least acknowledging that Nettles is Daemon’s lover, but saying it’s fine to replace her with a white woman? Okay😒

Another anonymous individual straight up admitted they don’t want Daemon with a Black woman:

And it’s not as if people haven’t actively wanted Nettles to be race-bent, denied she’s Black-ish in the first place(see people thinking that it’s impossible for Black people to have brown skin🙃), or said that she was going to be played by insert non-Blackish.

Even when that beach photo was leaked no one really bothered looking for the two Black actresses in the pictures(some dumba** literally thought a obviously Black woman wasn’t Black and instead was a white woman in Black face because she wasn’t the color of the night sky🤦🏽‍♀️).

Team Green is not innocent either because the only value they see in Nettles is as a prop for a racist white woman’s awakening or as a gotcha moment to say Daemon is a pedo:

I would take you guys saying she's a child and her relationship with Daemon is icky seriously if you didn't ship the white version of Dettles, Alysmond.

All of this isn’t a coincidence. Nettles’ race is literally the thing that makes these people uncomfortable with her character, her relationship with Daemon, and her presence in the show(and the book for those who actually read it and didn’t immediately descend into a fit of rage at the mere mention of her name). She’s disrespected and treated like sh*t from this fandom because she's Black.

Again everything wouldn’t be peaches and cream if Netty wasn’t who she was, but as it stands, Daemon and Nettles would not be met with such visceral hate and repulsion if Nettles were white(or even non-Black) instead of a Black girl which non-Black fan girls refuse to actually relate to.

[the-sappho-of-lesbos]

Do you have any recs for fiction with a main cast of butch women? Doesn't necessarily have to be butch4butch in a romantic sense, but anything that depicts the human relationships between us. I feel like that's so rare, and it drives me crazy as someone who personally NEEDS other butch women in her life to feel sane and normal. I hate that most fiction treats us as male-adjacent stand-ins with femmes or as accessory side characters. I want to see us fleshed out for once.

I’m really sorry that there aren’t more stories easily accessible that have this kind of dynamic. I haven’t actually read all of these , so I can’t say if it really fits, but I’ll do my best to give you some recommendations! Hopefully you are able to find a couple in here ☺️ And definitely check the comments! There might be more suggestions there.

I went through my saved books and the ones I own to come up with this list.

I think older lesbian books in general would be a good starting ground! Especially from like 80s-early 2000s. While some of them might not necessarily use the word butch, they definitely have a lot more gnc women or just none feminine women in general.

- Leave A Light On For Me by Jean Swallows. I’m not too sure how many of the cast are butch, BUT, I do it it’s primarily about lesbian friendship.

- You’ve probably already heard of this one, but Dykes To Watch Out For is always a good one!

- A nonfiction rec would be : Tomboys Tales Of Dykes Derring-Do by Lynne Yamaguchi and Karen Barber.

- This book doesn’t delve into the relationship between butch lesbians, however, it does discuss in parts what you are talking about , from the perspective of a butch lesbian who lives on a farm, which is The Grass Widow by Nanci Little. It has a very beautiful seen between the two main characters discussing how she is still a woman.

- I didn’t know if this one really fit the mark, because I can’t actually remember if the other woman was butch or not (or considered more butch for the time ) but Stonehurst by Barbara Johnson has a section where a younger GNC lesbian gets sort of taken in by an older lesbian for safety and protection.

- I haven’t read it so I don’t know if she has relationships with other butch lesbians, but I do know she is a butch lesbian. Lilac Mines by Cheryl Klein.

- again I haven’t read this one, but given the time period and what it’s about I’m assuming the main character has friendship relations with the larger lesbian community: Shoulders by Georgia Cotrell.

- I started reading this one a while ago but sipped for some reason. I think I remember it being about a butch woman - but at the very least it’s about lesbian friendship: Working Parts by Lucy Jane Bledsoe.

- Untamed Desires : A Sydney Lesbian History by Rebecca Jennings. (I haven’t read this one either but I gave it a quick flick through right now and it seems like it could have what you are looking for)

- Missouri Vaun is a butch/gnc lesbian and all of her books have butch women in them. I can’t remember about their friendships much. But if you want a butch lesbian written from the perspective of one I would go with her!

- The Little Butch Book by Leslea Newman. A sweet little book fully dedicated to butch women!

- Rode Hard Put Away Wet has a butch x butch erotic short story in it. I would post it on here but I’m pretty sure tumblr would take it down right away.

I can’t really think of anymore right now. But I’ll reblog this again if anything comes up!

I’m sorry I wasn’t able to help more. And I’m sorry we are in a world that doesn’t provide you with the love, respect and fictional representation you deserve. I can only hope things get better and you are able to find many more wonderful butch lesbians in fiction 💕

Thank you for popping in! I hope you have a beautiful day ☺️💕💕

[jynjackets]

Sorry to ask but why did you call Adria sexist? What has she done?

I don’t mind the question. I think it’s important to back up my claims so here we go.

If you watch her interviews, she's weirdly consistent about this really odd opinion she has about women.

Here she basically says men and women have different attributes when it comes to strength and toughness (which is sexist). Talking about her character that is known to "talk like a woman, walk like a woman," I don't even know what this means. But it comes off that she thinks there exists a single way a woman should act. Her character being a typical feminine-damsel type also implies her preference for this stereotype.

Reading through her other interviews she has a very narrow idea of what a woman should be, especially when it comes to ‘taking care of men’ and whatnot. I want to be clear it is one thing with having personal preferences to how you want your female characters to be presented, which is totally fine, preference is preference. But why this is problematic and moves past mere preferences is because she is saying one is better than the other. That women should be represented in this certain way.

She's done this not with just her latest character, but a lot of them.

Here she says her character is a "real woman" implying that there is a way to be an authentic woman as opposed to an inferior type. She also implies that her character is a real woman because she takes care of people. I don't feel the need to explain the issue with idealizing this.

It's again, her weird notion there's a difference between "tough" and "strong". Here she adds that women should 'own their femininity,' as if the opposite is what women are experiencing.

Not that this completely applies but it’s common for women who perceive other women to be adopting too ‘boyish’ of traits, to believe they are misogynists and rejecting their own kind. But this generally isn’t true— and the real issue with this is that it’s actually those that show conventionally masculine traits that are typically a minority and/or marginalized across women. Studs, butches, and tomboys helped pave the way and redefined culture for all women. In reality, they can be considered the epitome of feminism – proving that you don’t have to look, think, or act “like a woman” to be a woman.

It's, again, fine she may have had a preference. But to make a whole career where women are meant to be portrayed a certain way is such a red flag for me. Especially when she likens herself to them.

The rest of her snippets, to be very honest, it's just a bad fucking vibe I get from her, man. Like why would you say this?

and this?

"Sexist," one might say, might be a rather strong claim for someone who may, arguably, insist on a certain portrayal for women?

No, it fits because not only is this "preference" already largely overrepresented in media, but there are several ways of being sexist. The actress especially is exhibiting what is known as benevolent sexism, a more socially accepted form of sexism prevalent among both men and women.

Examples of benevolent sexism include:

basing a woman’s value on her role as a mother, wife, or girlfriend

focusing attention and praise on someone’s appearance rather than their other attributes

believing that people should not do things for themselves, such as manage money or drive a car, because of their gender

A lot of these can be done without intentional malice very easily! It could be seen as a complement telling someone "wow! I love your braids and lipstick, you really look like a real woman," or "my character is special and great because she is such a good friend and so loyal to this male character" without adding anything else. These, no matter the intent, are still very stupid and sexist to say.

I guess it's important to note where I am coming from and it is that I fucking hate toxic radfems. I hate how lesbian spaces drown out studs and mascs. I hate terfs and people who gatekeep identities because a certain representation isn't good enough for them. And while this actress's crimes are likely a misdemeanor compared to these awful gatekeepers, I cannot stand the stupidity of any hint of lateral violence. Especially when you’re relatively rich and famous you have a responsibility to not hold people back.

I can see that for others it’s not a big deal, hence “socially acceptable”. But it’s ideas she spouts like these that are poisonous to progress. The point should be that there should be no expectation for women. You can be anything you want because you want to. It's when I see comments to the things she says that make my blood boil like “yea! I love women who aren't so in our face ” (aka I don't want female characters with agency or opinions or as the lead) or “this is what a real woman is, sensual and feminine” (aka sexualized, long hair, tits, and ass).

I’m not above giving her the benefit of the doubt that she’s just kind of dumb. Like she’s not out here with a tradfem agenda or whatever. Outside of sexism she’s just bad at explaining anything. This is the last time I’ll probably criticize this woman because I already blocked her tag and she’s a flop anyway so she's easily ignorable. I really hate hating on women because they’re criticized enough, but there is a standard to be met when it comes to being aware and respectful. I wish I was cherry picking but I found all these interviews in like a 20 minute Google search and that's pretty damn telling of her career. She's also like 30 something years old. It's difficult watching a full adult infantilize her own character or see people believe she's "just naïve" when you can just say that they're being sexist.

[imhereformr]

Saw this. Thought it seemed fun to share the opinions I have that none of you asked for. I'd credit the original creator of it, but I found like 5 people claiming it's theirs 🤷🏻‍♀️

Favourite character: Musa

I feel like this one needs little explaining.

She's been my favourite since I was 9/10 (which, yes, was in 2004 when the show first came out). I'm pretty sure Musa had a major influence on my current taste in women (that is, dark haired tomboys)

Least favourite character: Faragonda

I've got issues with this shady bitch. She acts like she's all for helping her students and then turns around and keeps major secrets from them. Not to mention she sends teenagers on death missions (Saladin gets a pass on this cause that's literally what his students are at Red Fountain to do and Griffin doesn't do it cause she's a queen).

All in all, fuck this woman and her fake-ass grandma attitude.

Favourite villain: Darcy

Yes, specifically Darcy. Stormy is close behind, but I just don't like Icy enough for the trix as a whole to be my favourite.

Darcy not only has, by far, the coolest powers on this show but she's also the most interesting villain. Whereas all the other villains are obviously in it for power or for fun (looking at you, Stormy), it seems like Darcy isn't quite as set on power. She's putting in the effort, but I feel like, if it weren't for Icy (mostly) and Stormy, she would never have seeked out that power.

But also her character design is beautiful. I mean, the 70s aesthetic… amazing.

Least favourite villain: Tritannus

I just really don’t like looking at him.

Also I feel like his story is weak af. Just give him some land (water?) to be duke of or something.

Also also that Tritannus/Icy thing 🤢

Most overrated: Flora

BEFORE YOU SEND ME ANGRY MESSAGES: I do not HATE Flora.

I just don’t understand why people love her so much. I just don't think she’s interesting enough. Canon Flora is boring. She has no spice. All of her flavour comes from what the fans have made of her.

Fanon Flora, love her dearly. Canon Flora, equivalent to flour (heh, get it? Flour, Flower).

Most underrated: Timmy

A king.

This man does not get the love and appreciation he deserves. Not only is he brilliant, he is also adorably nerdy, he is kind, he is loyal, he is patient, he is a god-tier boyfriend, he is a lovable and honest friend. 

TLDR: He is too good and pure for this world.

If you dislike this man, kindly remove yourself from my page. That shit will not be tolerated. This is a no Timmy slander area.

Favourite season: Season 2

This season holds both some of my least favourite episodes as well as my most favourites. We’ve got an interesting relationship, me and season 2.

That being said, it holds a special place in my heart. Mainly because of the Musa/Riven development, but also the addition of Aisha.

Least Favourite season: Season 5

I only picked season 5 because i don’t think ive ever seen season 6 or 7 fully. I’ve seen parts of season 6 (the ones that pertained to Musa and Riven), but I don’t think that’s enough for me to judge it properly.

Season 5 is just bad all around: mediocre villain, juvenile, probably some bad Bloom/Sky drama that I blocked from memory, that infuriating episode where they forced Tecna and Timmy to go on a irl date, that stupid ass plot where Musa thought Riven was cheating on her, the fucking ridiculous Helia/Flora/Krystal drama.

Favourite fairy form: Enchantix

Beautiful. Classic. Ethereal.

Least favourite fairy form: Sirenix

The Sirenix song, an absolute bop. Sirenix itself, hard no. It’s just… 🤮🤮

Now, again, I am not considering season 6 and 7 as I haven’t seen them properly. Butterflix is a strong contender for least favourite, though.

Favourite episode: Season 2 Episode 15 – The Show Must Go On (Magic in My Heart in 4kids)

Musa performing for the first time in the show. Musa and her dad starting to work on their relationship. Riven putting himself out of his comfort zone for Musa. It’s beautiful 🥲🥲🥲

Least favourite episode: Season2 Episode 9 – Professor Avalon’s Secret (The Angel of Doom in 4kids)

The one where Tecna trades in her base fairy form's hat for a tinfoil hat.

This episode gives me so much secondhand embarrassment.

Favourite couple: Musa and Riven

I mean…. Yeah, obviously.

Least favourite couple: Aisha and Roy

Nabu should never have died

But he did and I have begrudgingly accepted that

BUT FFS LET AISHA MOURN. You made Nabu her soulmate, made them literally perfect together, killed him, made her rage for A SINGLE episode, be sorta sad for the rest of season 4 and the BOOM! Season 5 happens and she’s basically forgotten Nabu ever existed

NO! NON! JE REFUSE! C’EST D’LA CRISS DE MARDE. NON. NON. NON. NON. NON.

Also Roy’s hair looks like a highlighter. Like, y’all make fun of onion boy's hair (as do I because seriously why the fuck is with Riven's hair design), but this man looks like an office supply that has a single use. Onions are not only good to cook with in almost every single recipe in existence (barring desserts) (I am a very bad cook, so do not question me on this) (I am a great baker though, so I know for a fact that onions and dessert is a no no). but they’re also great for throwing at people!

Favourite sidekicks: The Specialists

Look me in the eyes and tell me you believe these idiots are anything more than sidekicks to their girlfriends.

If you said yes, ask yourself if you can remember them going on a single mission without it being to assist the winx since season 1? No. That’s right. You can’t.

These pretty boys exist solely to assist their girlfriends on missions and be eye candy. That’s it. That’s their purpose in life and they are excelling at it.

Least favourite sidekick: The pets

I hate the pixies, but they had their funny moments. These things on the other hand are abso-fucking-lutely useless.