#two types of gay people

[tosahobi-if]

xst assigned lana, yul assigned luo binghe, who would win in a duel to the death 🤭😂😂😂

this is like asking me gay son or thot daughter and the answer is i support both of my children wholeheartedly HEHDJJF

[creativity-deficient]

Young adult creek but they both dress like dads submit post

[serpentface]

Given what you've said about braids and their relation to traditional feminity in the Wardi Empire how does it impact Couya as an odonii priestess and as an upperclass women very involved in politics. How is Couya wearing a men's cloak viewed? What are gender expectations for odonii priestesses?

Partially elaborated in another post, but I can expand. It's complicated because Odonii experience reduced pressure to conform to expected women's roles, and a degree of 'masculinity' is accepted and normalized.

This is most prominent in that they do not marry and are expected to remain celibate (marriage and childbearing is otherwise basically a given for women, especially in the upper classes in which marriages are almost invariably arranged and a means of brokering alliances between families). This both frees them from very practical social restrictions and costs, but also of perceived spiritual pollution otherwise considered inevitable to women via pregnancy and as receiving sexual partners.

Their involvement in the military sphere (otherwise considered wholly the realm of men under normal circumstances) also by proxy frees them of certain dress standards. A lot of their base clothing would be considered 'masculine' in other contexts, being less physically restrictive and more practical for free movement. (This style of clothing would also be associated with poverty- ie women who have to perform hard labor, but this association is offset via expensive blue dyes and other visual signifiers).

They occupy a unique, somewhat nonbinary space in the cultural gender framework- they are considered women but without flaws and weaknesses considered otherwise innate or inevitable to women (and in a material sense they are afforded legal rights and privileges otherwise only accessible to men). So a degree of 'masculinity' can be not only accepted but deemed highly positive, reflective of their superior qualities. But this is only the types of 'masculinity' already implied by their roles and function (ie physical strength, practical dress, an assertive and commanding personality, etc).

This doesn't mean they are entirely freed of gender presentation norms. Couya wearing a men's style cloak is in the 'acceptable' range (would be clocked as pretty masc, but acceptably so for her station- masc dress=freedom of movement and a display of strength, appropriate for someone who serves as a physical embodiment of military might). Frequently wearing hair loose and unbraided is Not similarly appropriate. It's not just that she's diverging from an expected women's beauty standard, but that it also culturally indicates laziness, looseness, and inappropriate masculinity. It (combined with everything else) crosses the line from appropriately de-feminized to inappropriately masculinized, and will receive some scrutiny and judgment. But the very, very powerful social status of Odonii means that most of the consequences are immaterial.

So Couya more or less gets away with it, but this has contributed to her being generally unliked and a frequent subject of gossip and jokes (tends to be of the 'good thing no one has to marry THAT' and 'she swore virginhood because no one was gonna fuck her anyway' ilk, including from other priestesses). And more of this social scrutiny means her other unfavorable traits become more apparent (social awkwardness, inappropriate bluntness, etc).

Just in general she was not set up for success. She is technically an illegitimate child- her father had an affair after his wife's second son was born fatally premature. She was claimed and given the family name to avoid the associated shame on her father and legal mother above anything else.

From a young age she was considered slow, antisocial, strange, devastatingly unconcerned with presentation, and annoying (she's autistic and does not exist in a context where that is like, understood and going to be readily supported), which only further disincentivized her parents putting any real efforts into developing her into a suitable female heir. They were kind of just running through the bare minimum motions of raising her. She grew up with the (TREMENDOUS) benefits of a very wealthy family, but had no chance at receiving a good inheritance and would have been married off at the first profitable chance. She and Janeys both experienced some pretty horrific parental abuse after Faiza was selected as an Odonii (chosen by the Odomache herself, a Big Fucking Deal) and removed from the household, and this four year period kind of shaped everything she is now.

Faiza was the only member of Couya's immediate family who actually liked her, and was motivated enough to get her out of there to persuade a senior priestess to select Couya as an Odonii. Their parents readily encouraged this once the possibility became clear (becoming a high-status priestess would be of greater benefit to the family than anything Couya could have provided via marriage, and it was a little concerning that they were losing out on another chance of producing legitimate heirs, but it would be alright since they had a legitimate son who was Totally going to do that). Couya performed very well in this context and was inducted and sworn, which pretty much saved her from a life of privileged misery.

She takes her role very seriously, and on a more personal level her unconventional presentation is a matter of pride. She's kind of flaunting her status by consistently presenting this way and experiencing few consequences worse than mockery. She gets to behave and present in ways that she was punished for throughout her childhood, and there's nothing anyone can really do about it. There's definitely a "FUCK YOU MOM" undercurrent to it, but it also pleases her on its own terms. (On a less profound level, she just prefers this style of clothing, likes having a masculine presentation, and doesn't like how braided hair feels).

So like all that being said, her status as an Odonii is a powerful protection against things that would otherwise be RUINOUS for a woman of her stature, and she is Not a good case study for how her presentation would affect a woman of her political standing. She gets away with a lot and faces mainly petty social consequences.

[fisheito]

Found a BL manga at the library (amazing. I'm living in the world of tomorrow )

The back cover goes "in a SCHOOL where BOYS are subjected to a TIER SYSTEM that forces MC to BE BOTTOM BITCH to all the TOP RANK DOGS" and I'm 😬 eugh no thanks

Notice MC kind of looks like nerdkumo Images flood my mind with deplorable despicable humiliating things being done to him

...

Yeah alright

takes the book to checkout

[james-spooky]

this is a test

[madootles]

this still counts as escapist media even though it made me sad 

[prolibytherium]

Absolutely death gripped clenched trying not to comment on reductive posts on ancient greek homosexual relationships

[splorpo]

What are you hating on lately? Not judging I want to join you

can we kiss on the mouth

[leafycasper]

Ok so I got this idea of Luis being a fulcrum agent because of course, it’d be perfect. This is what my brain manifested out of that. My messed up lads, I love them dearly.

[my-thoughts-and-junk]

the thing about chilshi is that i see it as super one-sided on chilchuck's part and that's some shit he's bringing to the grave with him

[accidentalcookies]

not whump (yet), but i wanted to post something for funsies, and also i wanted to introduce my ocs somehow, so have this!

for context, in this scene, aristides and shaoyuan are interacting for the first time, on the way home after aristides essentially bought shaoyua. it's somewhat BBU-adjacent, but most of the standard BBU stuff isn't really my thing. so here, it's more that sy is a highly trained assassin who is somewhat owned by an agency due to backstory reasons, and aristides has bought out that contract to put sy under his service instead. it's a sort of mafia, criminal underworld-type world, with aristides as the head of his own criminal organization.

enjoy!

“In the interest of full disclosure, I did request to have you programmed,” Aristides said.

“Oh, no,” Shaoyuan deadpanned. “What a surprise.”

He chuckled. “I didn’t think it would be, no. But it needed to be said regardless. I take calculated risks, not reckless ones. And a little loyalty will go a long way.”

“Loyalty, huh,” Shaoyuan mused. “I’m not sure if you’ve heard, but I have a bit of a reputation with disloyalty. Are you sure you ran those numbers right?”

Aristides chuckled again. “I suppose only time will tell,” he said. “Tell me, how do you feel about me, now?”

Shaoyuan paused. “Honestly?” he asked.

“Honestly.”

“Completely ambivalent. I don’t really care about you at all.”

Aristides nodded. “Good.”

“Was that on purpose?”

“A little bit, yes,” he said. “I don’t like getting something I haven’t earned.”

“You want to… earn my loyalty,” Shaoyuan said slowly.

“No,” he corrected. “I expect to earn your loyalty.”

“...You're interesting,” he finally said. “Not what I was expecting, when they told me someone bought out my contract.”

[transzilla]

The boyfriend of bi girlfriend thing at pride is real first of all pride is extremely straight now it's a corporation fair don't go unless you plan on getting started with bank of america... i saw a dude I knew at a pride thing with his girlfriend who likely wasn't even bi and he starts telling everyone he saw me there ;_; like that was just a straight couple walking their dog. full of booths ran by straight people. it's mostly just a neoliberal circle jerk now all pride is really good for is to argue about. that being said the internet arguing s3ems very out of touch like do any of yall even go to pride events they fucking suck like I guess if you like getting your face painted and wearing a pride flag around your shoulders and being outed at work it's your thing

[stabbingandorbeingstabbed]

mom for the FIRST TIME noticed me they/theming one of my friends when talking abt them and took the cue to follow suite instead of being like What Do You Mean They major W for christyheads everywhere

[keepthemacramesecret]

ok ok i know no one but me probably has read fathers of men but. did hornung name his semi-autobiographical self insert character [firstname] 'Chips' Carpenter after noted gay writer and activist Edward 'Chips' Carpenter...