#we ain't here for that right now

[nautilusopus]

AND ANOTHER THING lily orchard is walking proof that you can be trans and still say incredibly transphobic shit because those are the kind of statements you wind up making when you are dead set on defining One Specific And Correct Way To Experience Gender

i'm not even touching on how having an incredibly myopic worldview manifested in some race shit

[eddiezpaghetti]

It has come to my attention that SOME OF YOU who read my last Byler post remain UNCONVINCED. So I'm gonna tack onto it this:

I'm older than fucking God and air, and I've been out and proud since 2007. Yes, I know what homophobia is, and yes, I know what queerbaiting is. I know about Supernatural and Teen Wolf and Sherlock and blahdyblahdyblah. No new ground is being covered here. I thought I made that clear in the original post, but, clearly, I did not.

I am aware of queerbaiting and homophobia, and I'm still wholeheartedly certain in Byler being canon anyway.

Okay, so there are three types of relationship I want to discuss when it comes to queerbaiting. They're all, like, "queer relationships that could have happened, but didn't".

First off, queer-coding. This isn't really a thing so much anymore, but it still crops up every once in a while. I'd argue it probably happens most with male-male relationships in family shows these days. First example that comes to mind is Mr. Smiley and Mr. Frowny from Steven Universe. You can't make a relationship canon because some shitty overhead bastard overhead said no, so you get as close as you can without compromising the show. Can't make someone gay? Well, now their comedy routine is a blatant allegory for a romantic relationship. Boom-shaka-laka. This is something I don't see being a problem with regards to Stranger Things, but I want it to be there as contrast, a demonstration of one of many things queerbaiting is not. However, one could argue that, thus far, Will Byers is, canonically, queer-coded. It's pretty fucking heavily implied in the show, and the creators have confirmed it, and you're gonna be able to see it if you're not FUCKING BLIND, but word of god is not technically canon which means that interviews don't technically make something canon, blahdyblahdyblahdyblah, technicalities, Robin has been explicitly stated in the text to be queer while Will has, thus far, not, outside of good ol' Show-Don't-Tell. Of course, anyone with two brain cells to rub together can tell that that's going to change by the end of Season 5, but, hey, for what it's worth, I'm throwing this out there.

Alrighty, Thingamajingama Number Two: "Oops, I accidentally made the greatest love story known to man." AKA, a genuine, honest-to-goodness mistake. Unfortunately, we do live in a heteronormative society. Sometimes people who don't think about being gay much write a friendship that's incredibly compelling and don't even consider the possibility that it could have been read as romantic. Something something Top Gun something. This is, again, not queerbaiting. This is Steddie, this is Ronance, this is Elmax, this is your favorite flavor of non-canon ship this week, this is not Byler. The creators know DAMN well what they're doing. They've talked about it. We know this. Nothing new here.

Which brings us to the topic of discussion here. Actual queerbaiting. This usually starts out as an "accidental greatest love story", and then reacts to fan response. And when I say "reacts", I mean like a goddamn chemical reaction. Like bleach and ammonia, bitch. It's noxious and it's gonna kick your fucking ass without mercy. This is when a creator is like, "Hey, let's get our queer audience invested, but we're not actually going to give them what they want because our straight audience isn't here for that/we personally think it's gross/we don't give enough of a shit to want to research a goddamn thing to write a real gay character," blah blah blah whatever excuse they want to come up with this time.

And when you think "queerbaiting", I want you to think "bullying". Because that's what it is. It's lucrative bullying, like beating us up and taking our lunch money, but it's bullying all the same. And it's a real goddamn thing, even if people misuse the word a lot, often when they mean one of the two above, sometimes when they mean "bury your gays", which is another homophobic thing entirely that I'm not going to get into here. Queerbaiting is the thing we're focused on, and it's real, and it's bullying. And here's the reason I want you to think of it as bullying:

They

Think

It's

Funny.

They are actively making fun of us.

That's why Dean had the "Cas, get out of my ass," line in Supernatural. It's why the "Do you like boys?" line happened in Teen Wolf. It's why "Lie with me, Watson," happened in the RDJ Sherlock Holmes movies. Because "It's just a joke, mate." "It was just a prank, bro." "You didn't really think it would happen, did you?" "You should see your face."

So here's probably the biggest reason I don't think it's specifically queerbaiting in this specific instance of Will Byers and Mike Wheeler.

Stranger Things has never, not once, made a gay joke. Ever.

Every single time queerness comes up, it's dead serious.

Lonnie calls Will a fag, and the show is not at all reluctant to show what a goddamn horrible person he is. And when Hopper latches onto that, it's not as "Hahah, is he gay, though?" It's because he's trying to determine a potential motive for Will's disappearance, and even if someone had interpreted it as a joke, Joyce immediately has a line that functions as snapping her fingers in front of the audience's face and yelling "FOCUS" when she says "He's MISSING." Basically outright saying "This isn't funny!"

Troy calls him a fairy, along with targeting Lucas and Dustin for their skin color and disability respectively, and Mike gets damn near murderous. Troy is portrayed as a goddamn monster and the show portrays it as justice when El makes him piss his pants and later breaks his arm.

Steve calls Jonathan "queer" as a slur and gets the shit beat out of him for it.

Billy's father is revealed to be homophobic and abusive in the same breath.

Mike says "It's not my fault you don't like girls!" and we're shown how devastated Will is and Mike immediately follows him to beg for forgiveness.

There is a joke in Robin's coming-out scene, but it's not at Robin's expense. It's at Steve's. Specifically for being heteronormative.

Jonathan has multiple scenes where he's trying so hard to tell Will that he's always going to love him as he is, whether he's gay or not, without pressuring him to come out before he's ready.

Even when there's a little bit of ribbing at Robin's expense, it's always because she's an awkward nerd who's nervous around pretty girls, just the same as Lucas and Dustin are teased when they both first develop crushes on Max, and even then, even then, it always comes as a package deal where they make fun of Steve's girl problems at the same time.

Stranger Things is an emphatically pro-gay show. It may not be the core point of the show the way it is in, say, Our Flag Means Death, but there is nothing less than respect for its queer characters. Its queer characters are always taken completely seriously. No one is making fun of us. They never have. That's why I have serious doubts that this is queerbaiting. It would come completely out of left field for the bullying to start in Stranger Things' final season.

So it's not at all likely to be queerbaiting because queerness is taken completely seriously. The creators have talked about Will's queerness, at least, so it's not an accident. And queer-coding would be silly to expect from this show when it's already on its final season. Like, what is Netflix gonna do? Cancel it? Not to mention all the explicit queerness that's in there already. And no one's gonna "What about the children?" a show that's had sex scenes in it since the first season.

There's no fakeout here. It's gonna happen. Breathe.

[vaguely-concerned]

I don't know what I love more, the fact that as rook you can make a statement in NO uncertain terms that you are NOT responsible one way or the other for the theological implications of the shit you're discovering in the 'regrets of the dread wolf' memories. not my jurisdiction. quite simply none of my business. not my chantry circus not my chantry monkeys. irrelevant to the matter at hand here we'll kill that god if we get to him he can get in line. or if the best thing about it is seeing the lone little 'lucanis approves' that pops up right after choosing it. corvid with a knife about to commit deicide keeping it real and sensibly, pragmatically, wilfully agnostic with me here in this magical lighthouse today

[musesforthedamned]

[letmetellyouaboutmyfeels]

Everytime i see that New Girl/Buddie gifset, i think about that post you made (or was it an answer to an anon? Idk) about straight pairings and years-long slowburns wayyy back when season 4 aired.

I'm pretty sure i told you this back then as well, but as someone who has been pretty firmly believing in Buddie endgame since Eddie begins, that post was so validating. We could never (and still can't) know exactly where this story is going, but to see that someone else recognized the pattern and believed that them telling Buck and Eddie's story like that was an actual possibility felt really great.

I'm such a sceptic by nature, but i actively chose to be an optimist this time and i just...can't believe this is our life now. Investing in that clown make-up was so worth it.

Ahaha that was a post I'd made, yeah. It was probably also an ask, too - I've talked about this quite a few times starting in the season three hiatus. The deal for Buddie was sealed, to me, when Eddie said there's nobody in this world that I trust with my son more than you. Because now to give either of them a love interest was to supplant Buck in Eddie's life as the co-parent and earn Eddie's trust with Chris more than Buck had, and would supplant Eddie and Chris as priorities in Buck's life - and the audience was going to have a very hard time accepting that.

Of course I wasn't 100% sure at that point but that was when I went from "okay yeah this is a fun ship but people have the shipper goggles on" to "...wait this actually is a possibility."

From that point we've seen the classic slow burn tropes that I haven't seen recently as we have, sadly, moved away from longer seasons and guaranteed renewals and once-a-week episodes into short, bingewatching, constantly-about-to-be-cancelled formats. I don't necessarily blame people for not recognizing. I certainly don't blame singed and exhausted queer shippers from being unsure. But I admit it is quite the vindication to see that I was right to compare Buddie to seasons-long slowburns that we've gotten with straight couples for decades.

I'm so glad that I could help validate your own feelings. I feel season three was truly the testing ground for Buddie and season four they went in fully prepared to make it canon, and have just been forcibly delayed since then. It's been a frustrating experience at times, and disheartening. We never would've gotten canon on FOX, we would've gotten canon in season four/five like originally planned if they'd been on ABC... etc.

So it warms me to know that with all the ups and downs you felt that my meta and observations could help support your own feelings and be a reassurance. That truly means a lot to me. I feel we're genuinely in the home stretch and it fills me with buoyancy. I'm all floating and giggling ha ha.

Investing in that clown makeup was SO worth it! *honks my big red nose*

[hopeinthebox]

tagged by the exceptional @cordiallyfuturedwight and @cosmicdreamgrl thanks ever so much my loves <33

now tagging some heroes @aprylynn @thvinyl @visionsofgideontheninth @hoseeok @btscontentenjoyer @jihopesjoint @monismochi @raplinenthusiasts <333 and everyone else

[forgivenpunishment]

reunited (at what cost?) part 1/2

a ffxiv/trigun rp verse snippet

[herrmit]

not to start shit but. tell me you didn't understand princess jellyfish without telling me you didn't understand princess jellyfish

[actual-corpse]

Broooo

I can't imagine how fucking lit Pride month will be this year.

[danwhobrowses]

Okay cool so this is was me all of this and last week fretting years off my life about the episode and I guess it's gonna be me next week fretting years off my life about next episode coolcoolcoolcool

[azurescaled]

My apologies for being kinda quiet today.

[dirtyoldmanhole]

it kinda just hit me like a load of bricks how indescribably, textually horny the last few chapters of married-gunter!revelation are gonna be. :')

[dodger-thirteen]

FINALLY GOT MY DAMN TEST RESULTS. Called the urgent care again, was routed to the contact center (CC) again. Talked to the LOVELIEST HUMAN BEING /notsarcasmatall who listened to me explain the situation. They tell me that I should have gotten my results within 5-7 business days, and we are way past that, so they're going to call the location and put me on the phone with them.

So, I told them what happened the last time, when the CC forwarded me to the location and no one picked up and I had to leave a second message asking "WTF mate." They were like "okay, let me call them and talk to them first, make sure you can actually talk to a person there."

So they put me on hold, and I wait a while. They come back and are like "okay, so they have the test results and they say they are on the portal on their end, but for whatever reason, they aren't showing for you. So they said you'll have to make an appointment to discuss the results."

Me: Okay, but then I have to pay my co-pay again.

Them: I know. :( But that's all they're giving me.

Me: Is it possible there just isn't a box checked that should be or something?

Them: Hm...let me call them back.

Only, this time, they keep me on the line instead of putting me on hold. I caught on pretty quick that I was to keep my mouth shut and just listen. They talk to the front desk attendant (FDA) again, who seems to be having just not a good day or hates their job (fair) and is just NOT IN THE MOOD to be dealing with this.

Finally, the contact center person is like "okay, but if [she] makes another appointment, [she] has to pay [her] co-pay again for test results from an appointment [she] has already had."

FDA: *long-suffering sigh* Hang on. *puts us on hold*

CC: You get all that?

Me: OH YEAH.

So we're on hold for a bit, then the FDA comes back to confirm my birth date and puts up back on hold. Waiting, waiting.

FDA comes back on the line.

FDA: The provider will put the results on the portal shortly, when she's done with her current patient.

Then she basically hangs up on us. And my CC person is back on the line with me like "okay, you got all that, right?"

Me: So...they said the results were on the portal, when they weren't, but now because we made a fuss, they are actually going to authorize the portal to show my test results.

CC: Yep!

Me: What a wild ride. Thank you so much for your help.

I am honestly sad that I didn't get a prompt for a review for my CC person because they were awesome and so nice.

[lananiscorner]

Repeat after me:

There is no job or hobby manly enough that you cannot get a girl interested in it if you try, or that a girl can't excel in it if given a decent chance.

There is no job or hobby feminine enough that you cannot get a boy interested in it if you try, or that a boy can't excel in it if given a decent chance.

saw this very [ben affleck depressed smoking image] comment and thought why does blue job / pink job sound like an established concept so I looked it up.....

what's next?? having a bank account is a blue job 💙🏦☺️ not being legally recognised as a person in your own right is a pink job 🩷🥰💅

[peacerisendove]

Me: -Watching 9-1-1 Season 7, Episode 5-

Me: -SPECIFICALLY WATCHING MADDIE AND BUCK'S CONVERSATION ABOUT HIS SEXUALITY AND HOW IT'S SWINGING BACK TO EDDIE-

BUCK, YOU'RE IN LOVE WITH EDDIE.

[galaxietm]

i haven't been on much due to life reasons (im on dis.co often!) but ya'll, im about ready to ]lose it this morning lol

honestly? gimmie a bit and i'll pop on to post about muse bdays + see if i can post those last 2 robin starters i owe