#whatever Lisa is she’s not a straight woman fetishising queer men

[orenonahaichigoda]

So, it’s apparently super normal and OK that the whole fandom fetishises Japanese people and queer men instead of treating us both like human beings, but I thought y’all’d like to know about your in-story proxy for your homophobia.

Taken from a VHS tape I made off the computer, with altered subtitles to watch with friends who don’t understand the audio, and while there are issues with them, this scene fully checks out.

This is the one time we actually see what Lisa reads. This will also serve as image description. While they have Ichigo on the walking machine before he yells that it’s designed to suck up his spirit pressure

—note that I’m translating because fetishists, while cosplaying Japanese people, do real violence to Japanese people for speaking anything ever other than the English of someone who has a PhD in it while they themselves can’t spell their only language, look at fic, so, regardless of whether or not this is made-up Bleach terminology, I have been made to feel unsafe to even use that because of the way the bulk of Anglophone people and especially Anglophone fandom for Japanese anything, treat actual Japanese people—

Anyway, when Ichigo is actually huffing and puffing on what kinda reminds me of 1970s treadmills, to be honest, the Vaizards are all just hanging out having usual banter. Kensei reprimands Lisa, as he wraps his arm in the boxing bandages, that she’s supposed to be watching him. Then we see over Lisa’s shoulder as she says she is and he calls her out. She’s looking at some magazine and we see a not terribly detailed and perfectly acceptable for prime-time/pre-watershed TV image of a woman with blondeish wavy hair on the beach wearing a two-piece swimsuit, though the subs block the visibility that the swimsuit isn’t a one piece. The subs show Kensei calling Lisa’s bluff that she’s not watching Ichigo and is just looking at swimsuit idols.

My best guess is that it’s a swimsuit photo book of a (made up, of course) idol (ie: this is gonna be someone who sings and acts both, like Jennifer Lopez in her heyday, except is more about the age of debut Britney Spears, which yes, the level of sexuality between those sort of photo books and Spears’ Bad Catholic Schoolgirl thing… except for the light in which they are cast, wherein the idols will be shown with a more ‘innocent’ air—and yes, I can list many male idol groups in the 70s and 80s—Spears’ video I mentioned was definitely more “sexy bad girl.” Other than that, same sort of thing. I didn’t go for this thing then, nor do I now, I’m ace and I think modern music generally sounds terrible besides, but I’ve definitely heard about 21st Century Disney stars trying to break out of the Disney stereotype also taking a similar tack to Britney Spears, from what I understand, so your “Japan sexualises children but Good and Pure White Countries Would Never (tm) “ is invalid racist schlock, shut up. Yes, idol contracts are way overreaching, and it’s wrong, but that’s not this subject)

Now that I’m done the SECOND disclaimer to ward off racism, anyway, so generally idol photo books are going to be each focusing on a specific idol. Again, I’ve never gone for these, just the actual records and tapes if I like their music. But you’re not gonna find Shibugakitai in a Hori Chiemi photo book. So, Lisa bought a book to ogle women in swimsuits.

I mean, beyond straight and gay exist, so she could totally still like men, and I was extremely disappointed that Lisa wasn’t Nanao’s mother and that there was nothing about Shunsui and Lisa reuniting (and who says he also can’t be with Juusirou? Or they both can’t also be with Juushirou? My exact reaction to the song “She’s My Only Lover” was and still is “congrats on being mono with someone of the opposite binary gender and therefore having the only type of relationship society allows???” or at least did allow at the time)

Regardless of whatever you want to *transform* Lisa’s sexual or otherwise anything into, claiming she is canonically into homophobic fetish stuff , at least according to the TV show, no, she’s not. She’s not looking at boys/men at all in this.

[orionsangel86]

I agree with the overly fetished views that fandom seems to have of gay men. As a gay man who’s really short, it’s soooo fuckin weird to have people assume I’m a bottom??? Like, I don’t even know you enough to disclose my sexual life and you’re making? weird? assumptions?? Also, there’s a certain fan artist who shan’t be named who makes a certain shorter character super feminine and it kills me every time

EXACTLY

Urgh I’m sorry fandom makes you feel that way.

I’m gonna put this under a cut as I am about to rant about this topic because it is my biggest gripe within fandom. Don’t read on if you are here for fun happy positive things. Beware fair readers, there be strong potentially offensive opinions and plenty of fandom wank down below...

Fandom is unfortunately filled with CIS het women who like to stereotype and force men into their preconceived internalised misogynistic perceptions that to be short or slender means you are the weak dainty “girl” in the relationship and that’s why whichever character they deem the “girl” is also ALWAYS the “bottom”. It also is the same way fandom tends to muddy the waters between sexual positions top/bottom and BSDM terms dom/sub, where bottoms MUST be submissive as well. Half the time you will see posts talking about character traits which perhaps might indicate a submissive streak, and people will take that to mean that a character is a bottom, when the two do not correlate and it is highly problematic to assume that they do.

It’s so fucking problematic and I don’t think that these (mostly straight cis female) fans realise that by encouraging these harmful stereotypes, they are actually also being totally misogynistic and anti feminist. Women are not all bloody Anastasia Steel’s for christs sake (and don’t get me started on that god awful book/movie series). A women can be tall, broad, muscular, she can be dominant and strong and she can damn well top a man if she wants to.

When it comes to shipping male characters in gay/queer relationships, fandom MUST stop inflicting outdated heterosexual stereotypes on them. It seems like fans find a pairing they like (for instance Dean and Cas) and then immediately have to decide which one of them plays the female role. They then twist and change the characters, their traits, the way they look etc, so that one of them is basically a woman. That character then MUST be the submissive bottom and URGH I HATE IT.

(Making a quick note to say that whilst these particular common stereotypes within fandom are very much a problem, this is not to be confused in any way with fans taking their fave characters and headcanoning them as trans or nb or anything else genderwise which reflects an even more marginalised group and is usually a type of fanwork created by fans who are in fact trans or nb themselves.)

I’m not gonna comment on specific artists, but I tend to block urls of bloggers whose stuff I feel is particularly problematic and I also now have the WONDERFUL post blocker xkit extension OMG it is a GODSEND I highly recommend it. If you keep seeing a post on your dash because everyone is reblogging it even though it is super squicky to you (like for instance an obviously feminised Cas or Dean is squicky for me) you can use the extension to block that particular post so you never have to see it again regardless of how many of your mutuals reblog it. Its amazing!

I know that on this hellsite we like to encourage everyone to be as creative as possible and that everyone is valid and we don’t kinkshame and everything etc etc, and I’m all for that, whatever floats your boat and all that. But there is a line, and the line is when what you are doing becomes offensive to the marginalised groups you are supposedly supporting. Like I really don’t care if you are into tentacle sex or hell, even a furry, but I do care if the only way you can comfortably support a gay ship is to force either of the male characters into a “female” template and give them a “self lubricating asshole”. Like... come on. This is why I hate A/B/O. If you have to force gay men to fit a hetero model, you aren’t supporting gay men, you are fetishising them. You are also probably kinda homophobic.

What I really hate about this stuff is how it always seems to be the problematic stuff like this that blows up and becomes a trend and suddenly everyone is jumping on board and no one is given a second thought to how fucked up it is. WHY IS A/B/O EVEN A THING?!? It started as a J2 beastiality fic like WHY DID IT BECOME SO POPULAR?!

Why is Twist & Shout so bloody popular too? Its not even in character. They aren’t even Dean and Cas! Cas is a pale skinny little TWINK?! WHHHHYYYY? I don’t understand it if you ship Destiel wouldn’t you at least want the characters you are reading about to BE Dean and Cas?!? Don’t get me wrong I love AU fics, but I still want to be able to picture and hear Dean and Cas in the characters being described.

Why was it such a thing in the early seasons to make Cas a girl? (that’s hyperbole obviously but he might as well have been based on some of the early fanfics/fanart I’ve seen and immediately noped out of.) Misha Collins has never looked anything like that! He’s never been feminine looking and just because the dude can pull off a dress doesn’t mean you can force him to suddenly be the cute tiny pale perfect curvy pretty submissive beauty you can’t help but imagine Dean with. If you want that for Dean, ship him with Lisa. Stop forcing Cas into a model that just doesn’t make sense for the character.

This goes for Dean as well of course. The dude may have a thing for pink panties and ballet shoes and taylor swift sure, but can we not feminise him to the point he is unrecognisable as the character please?

I know that a lot of this has routes in YAOI. Something I have generally avoided because quite frankly it disgusts me. I find the whole thing just super uncomfortable and messed up and see it purely as a straight womans fetish. So much of fandom shipping behaviour comes from YAOI and its caused a lot of the toxicity we have seen over the years. I think it has got a lot better in recent years though because the queer community is slowly gaining a monopoly in fandom (imo) and as they (we, I should say, as my bisexual ass has quite clearly had enough of this) become more interested in shipping and fandom culture, we can also start educating those straight fans who might be willing to listen and learn. Maybe one day we can say goodbye to the problematic trends of today, or at least, keep them on the fringes of fandom as more and more people wake up to the fact that they are harmful.

And if that means I never have to look at an image of a short pale “pretty” Cas with womanly hips again, I’ll crack open the prosecco and consider it a win.