#tw mentions of homophobia

[imbecominggayer]

Writing Advice: Stop With The Worldbuilding Homophobia

Write lgbtqia+ characters that want to be identified by random people as queer!

Write lgbtqia+ characters who don't have angst over their sexuality/romantic orientation/gender identity!

Obviously, if your character is based in pure reality in a homophobic part of the world then they might not do that for safety reasons.

HOWEVER, If you have any sense of fantasy in your book, why is it your first leap to say "this world/part of the world is homophobic".

If all it does is make this one or more character(s) more angsty and fit with your predetermined assumption that all queer characters are in agony of their sexuality then you can throw it away!!!!

There are thousands of queer people in the real world who don't live in constant agony and internalized homophobia. Why do authors willingly ignore this section of the spectrum!?!?!

It's not like all queer people are preuploaded with gay-based trauma!

If homophobia and discrimination is not one of the core themes you are working with then you can throw that cliche agony away and actually do some interesting character-specific angst!

[pokemon-ash-aus]

May I, learn some cool facts about the Genderfluid AU.

-In the beginning, Ash tried to use Miho to identify with his female part, essentially going 'under cover' bt ultimately decides to shed the name in the end and stick with Ash

-Pikachu is Nonbinary and thus has a rounded Tail

-James is Genderfluid, Jessie is Bisexual, Meowth identifies as Queer given that he doesnt know the full extent of his sexuality but he is firmly Cis

-Giovanni and Damien are still brothers, though Damien was in a coma for a short time due to an accident at a digsite and Giovanni didnt think to tell his brother's wife that he was under hospice care.

- because of the above, Giovanni and Delia have a very frigid relationship

-Giovanni is Ash's uncle and Ash exploits that greatly.

- While normally enemies on a day to day, when Pride day comes around, Ash and the Rocket trio are really close friends.

-Misty is Transgender but doesnt tell Brock or Ash for awhile. Ash finds out on the Orange Islands with Tracey -nonbinary- after a hard day. (M7sty also finds out Ash is Genderfluid)

-Ash and Misty dunk on Misty's sisters when Ash teaches Misty all that he learned from the Rocket Trio and vice versa with everything Misty learned from her sisters.

-Brock is Bisexual, but his fear of being called slurs mostly has him hitting on adult women even though it's not really for him. Its a strategy for him to avoid being called Gay.

-Ash feared coming out to his mother and had already planned a backup on the offchance that she rejected him (She didnt)

-Ash wears 3 bands on his wrist that he switches over deoending on how he's feeling. Blue on his right for Boy, Purple on his right for Girl, Green on his right for They, or all three if he doesnt care. As time goes on and he starts to feel more at ease, the number of bands on his right wrist vary.

-Lt. Surge is a Gay Army man who had a thing for Giovanni a while back.

-Giovanni is also Gay, but refuses to be in a relationship due to his profession.

-The first Pride of Kanto, which coincided a week before the Indigo league, had Ash/Miho running the Moltres Torch because the original runner was homophobic and planned to sequester the flames.

[mysuperdupersecretsideblog]

I've always known I like girls.

My first fictional crushes were girls, and my first real life crushes were girls.

I was outed when I was 11 because someone in my small, conservative, religious town saw me kissing my first girlfriend and I decided to own it because going back in the closet wouldn't do anything since everyone already knew.

So I came out as bisexual.

I only ever kissed, cuddled and held hands with people I dated between the ages of 11-13.

When I started highschool at 14 though, I actually started sleeping with people.

Guys and girls.

Thing was, I was always drunk, high, or both when with guys and half the time with girls.

I slept around A LOT.

I was very neutral to all sex when high or drunk, no matter who I was with.

i was only ever sober with some gorls and I enjoyed that and didn't even process that I had never been sober with a guy.

When exploring my own likes and interest through porn, dating sims, etc, I always found myself leaning more towards women but didn't fully connect.

I also, in highschool, found out about pansexuality and started identifying with that more so than with bisexuality.

So I was pan.

Around this time(16), I came out as trans and started identifying with he/him pronouns.

That confused me about my sexuality even more.

For a very short period of time, I identified as a straight trans man, but then I saw a pretty boy and when back to pan.

Eventually it changed again, I settled on demiromantic, pansexual, upon realizing that I was still very neutral to sex no matter what(I was still crossfaded 90% of the time) but that it was hard for me to properly connect emotionally to anyone until I got really used to them.(This was really mostly guys though. I wasn't with many girls at the time because I was getting physically assaulted for being queer and thought it'd be safer if I dated a lot of guys.)

It went that way for a long time.

Finally, at 23, after a death in my family, my stepdad, who had made it clear he didn't like my sexuality, gender identity, or religion, used that as an excuse to kick me out of the house.

I told my friends about this and some of them panic bought me a plane ticket to their state. So I moved halfway across the country and am living with them now.

Since I've been here, I've had room to explore myself and who I am without having overly scrutinizing eyes watching my every move.

I've realized that I am not a trans man and am actually genderqueer(It/They) and, after having sex for the first time SOBER with a guy and

not feeling neutral

in fact feeling disgusted and kinda sick afterwards

I decided maybe HE was just bad at it.

Despite him actually managing to pull out all the stops and make me cum twice.

Still grasping onto my heteronormativity like a lifeline.

Then another guy.

Great friend.

We date for a while.

Everytime he tries to do anything further than kissing and I actually feel sick.

I hook up with a girl I know as a one time thing.

It feels so right and amazing.

A wonderful experience.

Reminded me of the little flashes of enjoyment in the sober experiences with girls in highschool.

And I finally realized it.

I only like women.

I don't feel right using lesbian to define myself though.

As an afab enby individual, I feel uncomfortable pushing so much implied femininity into my label.

I know that there are a lot of enbys who identify as lesbians and that's fine. I'm happy they have a label that they are comfortable with. It just doesn't suit me, personally.

I did some research, looking up sexualities that define an individual who is not a woman or a man, who loves women.

i finally found it.

Donnasexual

An unaligned nonbinary person who is attracted to exclusively women.

[anniflamma]

So I’ve received a couple of anonymous messages telling me that they were really disappointed in me for liking Elian's Antinous fanart. Instead of answering them individually, I’m just going to make an angry rant post instead. Most of if probably won't make sense anyway.

This post have talk about SA, and homophobia. Be aware. I don’t ship genuinely Telemachus and Antinous, if that’s what you’re wondering. I didn’t even consider the possibility that ship could even exist. At the end of the day, I don't care about that ship.

And do you want me to explain that I know SA is bad? Or that I’m aware Telemachus/Antinous is a toxic ship? Do you think I’m dumb and don’t know that? You don't have to explain to me either, I know that SA is bad, I have experienced it, you don't have to explain to me, trust me I know.

I like Elian's art because it’s really beautiful. Her work is a huge inspiration and encouragement for me when making animatics. But do I REALLY have to spell out, word for word, that I know Antinous is an antagonist and tries to do bad things? Does it mean every time someone draws Antinous and I like it, I have to explain that I like the drawing because it’s well done, not because I support Antinous’ intent toward Penelope and wants to kill Telemachus?

I mean, I’ve seen tons of thirsty comments like, "I hate how Zeus treats women, but your design is really hot" or "Even if Poseidon SA Demeter, this Poseidon I'd go down on all fours for!"

I have seen some stuff….

I guess I could just imitate something like that????

But I know it’s a joke and I know its a fantasy that someone is expressing. Its not real, its fictional. I know all those thirsty ppl who simp over Poseidon, Zeus, or even Antinous aren’t supporting hatred and violence toward women. And yes, I am expecting that you should already know this too. Because if we gonna assume the worst of ppl… Then everyone who likes Greek myth/Epic the musical are pro SA. "Do you like Crice from Epic the musical? That means that you support her actions, you support SA!" "Oh you like Odysseus?! He killed a baby and all of his female slaves cuz they got SA by the suitors! You support infanticide, slavery and SA!" Do you hear how dumb that sounds? To be honest, I wouldn’t be that surprised if there are some who think like this. I mean, this discussion wouldn’t even be a thing, right.

And if you don’t know, I literally make thirst art of Poseidon (and that includes Zeus and Hermes), and you don’t see it as a bad thing??? It’s Poseidon… Do you know what he has done to women in the myths?!

Im going to ramble here and I will bring up stories from greek myth that have SA in it. So be aware.

One example is the story of Caeneus. When Caeneus was a woman, his parents left him to take care of the house while they were out running errands. Poseidon took that as an opportunity to break into the house and sexually assault him. This is probably the only myth where Poseidon actually feels bad after what he did, so he grants Caeneus a wish. Aww, how sweet~~~ /sarcasm.

Do I need to give an example of Zeus? We all know what Zeus does. But hey, I’ve made Poseidon/Hermes ship art. And guess what? There’s a story where Hermes breaks a woman’s leg so she can’t run away from him, and then he sexually assaults her. Isn’t that cute~~! /sarcasm

Heck, I can even go on with my biblical ships. David/Jonathan—David, a serial assaulter and murderer, and Jonathan, a mass murderer. But do I support their actions? No, I do not support mass murder, and its really dumb that I have to spell it out for you.

Daniel/Darius is even questionable too! It's literally a king and his servant, and that power imbalance is so big I don’t know what to tell you! Do I have to spell it out that I know that, in real life, king/servant relationships aren’t cute at all?!

All of these characters that I’ve listed have done or represent horrible things. And I have to tell you that I don't support their actions?! Really? You really can't think outside the box?

But do you see what I’m trying to tell you? We can simp over other ancient mythological figures but Antinous is the red line that we can never cross??? It’s hypocritical and immature, that’s what it is.

Right now, ppl loves the Ody seduces Zeus art I made. And that "ship" is well really questionable too! But nobody have called me a witch and tries to burn me at the stake yet. 😐

And the thing is, I can separate these fictional characters from the real world. I can also separate the fictional material from other fictional interpretations. Exemple, I like The Song of Achilles, in it, they are the same age, but I am also aware that in the Iliad, Achilles is 16 and Patroclus is 26. But do I automatically assume that Madeline Miller likes teens? No! Do I assume that everyone who likes The Song Of Achilles like that shit? No!

But we still can have a disscussion about it without making it into a witch trial.

As long as we can separate different fictional materials, then everything is fine. It only becomes a problem if a person can’t separate them. Then we have a problem. I can acknowledge that my depiction of King David from the bible is not the same as from the original story and that he is horrible person towards women. If I couldn't acknowledge that, then its bad! The same goes for Antinous if someone makes an AU or headcanon about him. If someone want so make AUs about Antinous, my first thoughts isnt "Oh they like to SA ppl!". At the end of the day, this is just a group from tiktok who didn’t like a toxic ship and decided to bully an artist while acting like they have superior morals.

And I get this type of shit from christians when I make my queer bible interpitations, both from those that don't like the queer stuff but also those that points out that David and Jonathan were horrible ppl.

So I rarely answer comments like this because they usually end up spewing beliefs filled with homophobia and Islamophobia. Heck rasism sometimes, apparently, Christians don’t know that the Bible takes place in the Middle East, and they are angry at me for drawing them looking like Arabs! I just delete their comments before they gets there. Making queer biblical animatics on TikTok that go viral on the Christian side is not fun at all guys....

And hate to say it but tiktok Epic fans sound really similar. You are acting like you’re on a pedestal, holier than thou. Its just a different font.

+ I haven’t forgotten all those homophobic comments I got on my David/Jonathan animatic that I posted right after my Ruthlessness animatic. Epic fans were saying they didn’t want “that gay shit” and wanted to see more Epic stuff. Hate to break it to you all, but the Epic fandom isn’t that innocent.

[changingplumbob]

Long story short paparazzi are vultures who make up lies to sell photos. And monarchies prefer straight members because their whole claim to rule is based on blood.

Trigger Warning for the Next Update:

There will be a conversation held between characters that mentions homophobia. I have appropriately tagged the post with the correct TW tags and also mentioned the TW on top of the post, but I am still putting this warning 30 minutes before just in case.

I do not condone such actions nor support those, and what I've written, what the characters had said, does not reflect my beliefs and principles. I also consulted my friends during the drafting stage to know if I have constructed the conversation in an appropriate way.

[allthesame-notthesame]

can i just say i am so sorry to all the gay, bi and just queer men in this fandom who have to witness this horrible amount of homophobia over tommy and just his fucking presence in the show as bucks boyfriend!

you all deserve better than this toxic bullshit from the fandom, you deserve to be able to see people celebrating this gay relationship without people saying they want tommy to die because he gets in the way of buddie, or that he is horrible for making a joke after they were both vulnerable and buck literally set him up for it!!!

and to all the people in the fandom who are actively spouting this homophobic bullshit, maybe think for a moment about why you hate this gay man so much, and why you hate this queer male relationship, and why your response to hating it is talking about how the gay man is toxic, predatory and corrupting sweet innocent buck. maybe consider how this narrative isn’t as innocent as you may think it is and how it might be indicative of some prejudice and homophobia in yourself!

and a reminded you are not immune to being homophobic just because you are queer!!!

[pawsmos]

100th post special!!!

this is art for my “Prince and the Knight” AU ive been working on for some time now.. here’s a meal whace nation!!

lore under cut!

KEHRHHEEB J LOVE THEM SO MUCH DUDE

vvvv

(im not that good with writing nor am i well versed in medieval honorifics and terminology or anything like that so there may be anachronisms)

(this is a separate au from any other medieval aus!! I’ve seen those and love those though)

(the rest of the drdt cast also exists in this au too btw. im considering making charles a butler or a lord or something. none of the cast are the king or queen by the way! that’s aces parents / Eden’s parents. ace also still has all his siblings)

tw for mild homophobia

- Prince Ace, a soon-to-be king, is arranged to marry Princess Eden from a nearby kingdom.

- Both Ace and Eden are upset about the marriage, as Ace is gay (he’s subconsciously aware that he isn’t attracted to women) and Eden is lesbian.

- They both feel resigned to their fate despite their discontent.

- While coping on the back balcony, Ace meets Sir Whit, the newly promoted head of the royal guard. (somehow. who knows how whit got promoted tbh)

- They talk, during which Whit makes joking advances towards Ace.

- Ace, though flustered by Whit’s passes, thinks about the consequences of both liking a man and betraying the kingdom.

(he doesn’t personally care about the latter but he does fear that his father would… idk execute him or something. he is also in denial.)

- Much to Ace’s dismay, they become close friends. However, Whit is aware of the upcoming marriage, so he tries to shut off his own feelings to save himself from feeling bad.

- A few months pass, in which Whit helps Ace overcome his own fears and come to terms with his feelings and sexuality. They start slow (like doing horseback riding together haha), but end up routinely sneaking out together.

- On one particular night, on the same balcony they met, just a day before the wedding, something happens. In a spur-of-the-moment decision, Ace kisses Whit and REALLY likes it.

- He realizes that he wants this man. But, realizing that he might get caught, Ace runs away.

- Before the wedding, Ace and Eden finally meet. While preparing for the ceremony, they bond over their shared reluctance of their marriage.

- Eden confesses that she’s actually a lesbian, and there’s a lady back at her kingdom that she’s deeply in love with. (it’s arei LMFAO)

- Ace bluntly replies that he’s gay too.

- insert uhh lightbulb ding effect

- They conjure a plan to get married for convenience, and to appease their parents, but mostly so that they can pursue their own partners. They worry about the kiss though and the people who might be watching. Especially Whit and Arei.

- Skip to the wedding day, Whit suppresses his feelings (like usual) and claps while he watches someone he loves dearly get married off to another. Whit excuses himself from the wedding.

- For post-ceremonial reasons, Ace can’t apologize or even talk to Whit for another week.

i haven’t really thought about the rest but i assume that, once Ace is allowed to go out, he will be the one confessing his love to whit. whit gets “caught”, miscommunication,,,, idek they just… ARE IN LOVE. HAHA.. if you want to write any fics about this or make any art feel free! use the tag “#whace prince and knight au”

thank you!!

THANK YOU FOR READING MY CLICHE YAOI FANFIC ILY IF YOU GET THIS FAR.

THANK YOU FOR 75 FOLLOWERS TOO!!!!

id also like to say that i might start opening commissions because i need a form of making money. but umm i don’t know how to start a paypal or venmo or anything like that. LOL. digital gift cards could work i guess, uhhhh idk. dm me for info!

[imbecominggayer]

Writing Rant/Advice: Part 2, OOC

It is 8:52 and I am slighly off my rocker again so why not rant? Again. Previously I hated on oversimplifying/changing characters with a specific focus on distilling down a character through TOO MUCH BAD ANGST and unrealistic sympathizing. Now we're on too:

FEMINIZING CHARACTERS:

this section will involve how fanfic writers tend to associate "sympathetic characters" with matriarchal figures. While this isn't necessarily bad, it tends to either go way too far or be mysognistic/homophobic/transphobic.

FIRST INSTANCE: Chicks With Dicks (sorry, that's just the name)

You(aka Me) wanted to read a fic about your favorite mlm queer ships! Maybe you are way too obsessed with fandoms on life support so you ship something like Saiouma or Wrightworth. Maybe you're a bit of a classic so you want Klance. Maybe you're a crack shipper so you conjure up some voodoo and pick 2+ names out of hate.

Either way you go onto AO3 looking for mlm ship content but something seems amiss? Your normally fiesty male lead who wears only shirts and pants now suddenly behaves like the most submissive "man" on the planet who goes by femboy and only wears skirts? Maybe your male character has turned to the holy yet sexy madonna herself for his "alpha macho manly man" who plays with red flags?

I AIN'T TALKING ABOUT TRANS MEN: WE SUPPORT TRANS RIGHTS HERE

NO! The problem is the fact that the bottom in the relationship has been socialized like they're a stereotypical woman from a horrible romance novel or WATTPAD.

Literally!:

Referred to as a "boy/girl" instead of man?: CHECK!

Huge Madonna/Whore Complex?: CHECK!

Sexualized Due To Their Innocence/Virginity?: CHECK!

The Huge Prevalance Of Female-Dombinated Tropes?: CHECK!

Shipped With An Absolute Red-Flagged Macho Man?: CHECK!

You can see what I mean right? Literally the bottom is just if a "female character" changed their pronouns to he/him. Not even the descriptions change! I want to read Character A fall for Character B! Not feminized madonna who maybe has a dick and sorta looks like Character A but shorter and tinier fall into "love" with toxic as f#ck macho man who sorta looks like Character B but taller and stockier.

It's also just shitty because it's obvious these stories aren't meant for queer men to read otherwise the author would know better than to associate men to these heteronormative ideals of gay sexuality which conforms to old school stereotypes of the "Sissy" and markets itself the same way that straight stories are! It also tends to be:

MYSOGYNISTIC: Expect every single woman character to be either relegated to the side and never mentioned or horribly changed into a monsterous obstactle for the relationship.

HOMOPHOBIC: It's pretty homophobic to believe that what makes a queer character a queer character is not their existence but their presentation and actions. Turning queer men into simple caricatures of weak femininity and toxic masculinity is pretty shitty!

TRANSPHOBIC: Oftentimes these high fem characters are made to be trans which kinda sucks due to the association that a trans character must OBVIOUSLY act like their opposite gender! It tends to fetishize trans men in NSFW works :(

Seriously, just tag your stories as original works! I wouldn't have a problem with these stories if they weren't shoved in my face all the time!

[just-antithings]

Just anti things, anti-fujoshi edition: Being against "fudanshi" as well to make a homophobic joke!

[lgbtqtext]

[intothedysphoria]

Going from a social outcast to seemingly universally desired was a change that Billy found himself sorely lacking the capacity to deal with.

It felt like barely a year ago he was just the fat kid with the asshole dad. The kid who was more comfortable speaking Irish than English. The weird kid who couldn’t sit still in class and had “outbursts” that would leave a classroom completely overturned.

Now he’d lost weight (not by choice), had to speak English if he didn’t want to be uprooted for a third time and was supposedly taking his adderall post ADHD diagnosis. Neil was still an asshole but that would never change.

He was desirable now. A hot commodity. Had the approval of everyone apart from his own fucking dad.

In short, Billy was absolutely miserable.

He missed California a lot. He missed Belfast even more. He missed being fat. He missed his mam and grandad. He missed everything.

Showing any signs of weakness was how it started though. So Billy did what he always did. He adapted.

Harrington was weird. Taking the crown from him was almost too easy. For all the talk he’d been fed about King Steve, what Billy got was a teenager who couldn’t make eye contact, spent an hour reading two pages of a textbook and walked like a penguin when nobody was watching.

Good thing Billy didn’t mind weird.

The usual taunts didn’t really work. All it really achieved was getting Harrington flat on his back on the gym floor and that got Billy thinking about sex which wasn’t helpful.

Harrington just stared up at him with these big startled eyes. Like a damn deer. The pointed star he wore around his neck swayed as Billy let him up. Jewish maybe. Billy felt his hand unconsciously drift down towards his own pendant, the one his granny had given him.

The one that would help him find his way back home.

They fought within a week. Arsehole had Max holed up in a strangers house. It made Billy’s skin crawl just thinking about it. Especially after having to flirt with Karen Wheeler just to get any answers, All he could remember was that he was winning then the world started going black.

When he woke up there was a dead something in the fridge. He probably hadn’t woken up at all then. His body took that hint as a sign to collapse again.

He woke up again. A small woman with mousy brown hair and a nervous tic was cooking. Billy could hear The Clash drifting from another room. Christmas lights were scattered across the wall. It was the first place in Hawkins that had actually felt like home.

The woman’s name was Joyce. The house he’d found Harrington and Max and the nightmare in had been her house. She was dressed practically and smelled like paint and reminded him so much of his own mam that his heart hurt.

She was a good cook. The soup wasn’t like anything he’d ate before, probably Polish but it was fantastic. She asked if he wanted to stay the night. He said no.

Neil would be waiting. He always was.

Neil had burned the damn book. The one Billy had wrote when he was seven, colouring all the words in orange and white and green. It hurt more than any punch every could have.

He was under house arrest again. Only let out when Max needed a fucking taxi to a Christmas dance. Harrington was a couple of cars away, fussing over a boy of about thirteen who could have been his younger brother.

They weren’t biologically brothers. But Henderson was his cousin. So they were in spirit. Those were some of the things Billy learned from a few strained sentences of conversation.

He apologised in a way so Billy reluctantly returned one. Apparently he hadn’t realised how fucking dodgy he’d looked with Max.

Billy was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt.

Neil kicked him out of the house on Christmas Day for hanging an Irish flag on his door. Billy went to the Byers. Joyce’s family didn’t exactly celebrate Christmas but she still gave him a present.

She gave him gorgeous Polish cakes which were fucking delicious and some of Jonathan’s old vinyls which he didn’t listen to anymore.

That day Billy discovered The Specials and tucked the vinyl under his weed stash in the Camaro boot. Somewhere Neil would never think to look.

Harrington was tolerable after Christmas break. Tolerable in an infuriating way because Billy still wanted to fuck him. The queerness wasn’t something he’d told anyone about though apart from Patrick McKinney so he kept those thoughts to himself.

He spent more time at the Byers, learned what Shabbat was, came out to Joyce in a flood of tears, kissed Harrington, wrote a letter back to Ireland for the first time in two years and made a plan to get the hell out of Hawkins Indiana.

Harrington managed to pass high school with a lot of bribery and tutoring and kissing at his place. Jesus but Harringtons house was a bloody mansion. Billy had spent his first eight years in a terraced shared accommodation where his entire extended family had lived. Harrington had five bathrooms and his own television. Not even in black and white.

Billy got his predicted mix of A’s and B’s so he was happy and spent most of the weekend post graduation floating on his back in the Harrington pool, beer in hand. He couldn’t afford to slack off completely though. So he got a summer job.

Working at the community pool was fine. As long as Billy didn’t think about the middle aged women staring at him like a piece of meat. Fucking perverts. Heather was fun though. Funny. The only lesbian he’d met in Hawkins apart from Buckley.

Neil had started acting even weirder than usual after a night Billy had slept over at his boyfriends. He’d taken to ice baths and Billy swore he’d seen the man drinking bleach. Ugh.

Max was pretty obviously freaked out though so Billy slowly phased her into spending most nights at the Byers or the Sinclairs or Steve’s. Susan wouldn’t budge. Something in Billy’s chest felt a bit sick about that.

The Fourth of July they were in the mall, the one Steve worked at. Something even more hellish than the thing in the fridge stood above them. And Neil just stood by with blank, hateful eyes and let it happen.

He died. Billy killed him. Stabbed him in the chest then the monster went away.

Steve was gripping his shoulders as he stood there, Neil’s blood on his jacket and he cried.

Susan left.

Social services took Max. Billy cried a lot that day. She was living with some family in Michigan. They promised to keep in touch.

Billy went to therapy twice a week. A guy from County Mayo who Billy trusted immediately.

There was no point really in Joyce adopting him as he was over eighteen. Besides she didn’t need to. Billy knew who his family were.

A letter came back from Belfast. Inviting both him and Steve back to his grandparents house. Steve had never left the US, had never really left the Midwest actually. Billy wanted to show him everything.

The years went by and Billy regained weight. He stopped speaking English as much and was determined to teach Steve Irish. He still sometimes forgot to take his adderall and had awful nightmares but Steve was there to make it better.

He was alive. And life was pretty ok.

[shaylogic]

The way Edwin looks at Charles right after he claims without hesitation or consideration: "Nah, they're just best mates." !!! [and not for nothing, look at how Charles looks at Edwin as he says it]

"If I tell Charles. . . is this what he would think of us? Is it an option? Would he even consider the notion?"

[pinkeoni]

Oh. “Zombie Boy” is a homophobic nickname

I guess this should’ve been pretty obvious. I mean, Will is a confirmed gay character, who is walking around town and having a mean nickname constantly hurled at him. Clearly there is some queercoding in that.

But does that mean that the nickname is homophobic in universe? If that were the case, why not just call him homophobic slurs in the first place?

The nickname Zombie Boy always was kind of strange to me as well. Why make fun of a kid for coming back to life? Wouldn’t that be a cool thing? Maybe it’s a little odd, but why be so mean about it?

Unless it’s not the only thing they’re making fun of him for

TW for discussion of rape below cut

To understand the intent behind the Zombie Boy nickname, we need to go back to Will’s dissapearance in season one. Our boy Troy lays it out pretty plainly what everyone in town thinks happened to Will.

Not just that Will was killed, but clarified as “killed by some other queer.” The emphasis on sexuality adding an implication to his statement. What Troy is really trying to say is that Will was raped and then killed by a gay man, otherwise why bring up sexuality at all?

And to be fair to Troy, that is kind of what happened.

But of course the town doesn’t know this. The story that was told is that Will only got lost in the woods. That was the story published in the Hawkins Post, so that’s what everyone believes, right?

This is the version of events that Lucas tells Max, and he is immediately met with skepticism from her. Lucas then tells Max not to ask Will about it because he’s very sensitive about it.

I’m not saying that the town believes that there is something supernatural going on, but rather I’m thinking that the people of Hawkins at least suspect that there is something about Will’s disappearance that is not being talked about openly. Let’s not forget that the “Zombie Boy” note that Will receives in his locker is a desecration of the news article sharing his story.

So here’s what the town initially believed happened: Will was kidnapped and raped by a gay man before being thrown into the quarry.

And here’s what the town knows: Will went missing and was found in the woods before being hospitalized. He is very sensitive about the topic and doesn’t like to talk about it. After being released from the hospital, he is now occasionally pulled out of school early for doctor’s appointments—

Oh.

I mean, it is any coincidence that all of this is happening while Reagan’s name is plastered all over town? Is it just a coincidence that the anniversary of Will’s disappearance falls right on Reagan’s reelection day?

And just to cut through all the shit and stop being vague, I’m talking about the AIDS epidemic of the 80’s, and yes I think that part of the town believes that Will has it.

I recently read a post from @emblazons that struck me with just how laden the AIDS metaphor is in season. To quote the post as best I can, there is something described like a disease attacking Will’s body and slowly killing him, and the Reagan administration government scientists are trying their best to prevent the truth from spreading and view the possible death of a queer person as a non-issue.

Starting to think about it through this lens, a “zombie” is the perfect metaphor for how Hawkins now views Will. He isn’t technically dead, but they suspect he has a disease with an incredibly low life-expectancy at the time, so he’s essentially a walking corpse.

The nickname doesn’t start and end at simply making fun of Will for having a disease. What do zombies do? They try to bite and turn other people into zombies.

The town doesn’t just see Will as someone who has been infected by someone else with an illness, but as someone who has been infected and is going to spread his illness around.

The rhetoric regarding queers as people who spread disease and kill continues in season 4, when we see Eddie reading the article that links sodomy with satanic practices, violence and murder. We then go on to see the entire town blame Eddie and his group of “satanic” outcasts for spreading death in the town. This attitude is certainly not lost on Hawkins, and the show doesn’t shy away from showing it.

The way that characters in the show use and react to Zombie Boy match this as well. There is a certain level of vitriol that comes with Zombie Boy, and the nickname is what leads Jonathan and Will into their extremely coded conversation about being a freak.

If Zombie Boy is an intentionally homophobic nickname, then does that mean that in this scene she's actually saying...?

So I actually don’t think that Snowball Girl is being intentionally homophobic here (although, saying what is essentially “Hey f*****, wanna dance?” is still CRAZY)

I think it’s less realistic if the entire town is in on this conspiracy and more believable if say, the nickname was started intentionally as a homophobic jab by some of the townsfolk, but is ambiguous enough to be picked up by more naïve kids like Snowball Girl who may not realize the actual meaning behind it. It may seem like it’s only about his ressurection on the surface, but when you peel back the layers you see just how offensive it really is.

Using a vague nickname is also very intentional by the Duffers as well. If they wanted to be subtle about Will’s sexuality before later confirming it, then having a more ambiguous moniker rather than just having the entire town call him an evil queer.

Even if the town really is just making fun of him for coming back to life and nothing else, and there isn’t actually this rampant rumor spreading across Hawkins about Will spreading disease, the heavy coding and intention from the writers is still be there.

[boneywones]

its genuinely fucking baffling at how prevalent homophobia, transphobia, ableism and racism is in the utmv fandom

the amount of utmv people i see say the most racist shit under posts showing human sans designs people made that dont fit their criteria of “white, short hair, skinny and buff cis dude” is??? literally?? what??? seeing the comments under fishee’s human sans posts is one prime example.

the only thing that has slightly gotten better in the past years were its homophobia and ableism, but its still there. homophobia as “stop making everything shipping/gay!!!” “they’re only friends” and ableism as demonising or infantilising ink. “ink has a lack of empathy so he must be evil!!!! he doesn’t care about his friends at all!!!!” or “ink did nothing wrong, hes just a baby, just a little guy” OR just basic ableism about peoples head-cannons that revolve around mental illness, physical illness, etc (and before you say “i havent seen that!” i literally got laughed at in a hc channel not too long ago for saying “chronically ill geno and classic, they use mobility aids”)

now onto the rampant transphobia, its gotten worse. people just genuinely cant grasp that jakei themselves said that cross is trans-coded. actively denying and saying the post itself is fake even though jakei had most likely gotten backlash from transphobic bigots that try and dictate how jakei should make their characters which ensued them deleting said post. if you’re a person whos doing exactly that, you ARE the problem. let jakei have their well needed break ffs

[ohjustrandomfandomstuff]

I live in hope that one day the fandom can have a constructive discourse at how a lot of the abuse towards George is steeped in homophobic and sexist undertones, especially when coming from a certain driver and team principal.