#wheeze i had to upload it to yewchewb before tumblr would even let me embed it

[lakesbian]

@bestbutchbracket

Rationally I am aware that this bracket is Not That Serious. For fun, even.

This did not stop me from accidentally putting together an entire campaign video and essay for Lake. She's butch butch, in the way that was incredibly important for me to see on TV, and seeing her in the bracket made me legitimately really happy. I wanna share the butch Lake highlight reel with the participants who haven't heard of her before and don't have time for 1 1/2 hours of television over a Tumblr poll!

So I present to you all: An organized highlight reel (of lots but certainly not all) of Lake's Butch Moments, plus a bonus essay. The people should be properly informed about their candidate options before they vote!

She really does deserve a win, despite not being one of the "iconic" options. She's one of the best butch characters I have ever seen, and I'm damned picky about what I call butch representation. She's not just gender non-conforming--she's the main character of an entire season about her struggling against systematic oppression and asserting her right to exist no matter how many times she's told she's not a person. She faces police brutality, she faces dehumanization, she faces constant bias, she faces being systematically discriminated against in favor of a gender-conforming girl and a boy, she faces being told that she doesn't even exist, and every step of the way she defiantly asserts: I am a person, I am not the feminine girl you want me to be, and I am going to keep living no matter what.

And she's just so deeply butch even beyond the big sci-fi metaphor-driven narrative about oppression. She's cool, she's strong, she's kind and thoughtful but she doesn't take any shit. She loudly criticizes toxic masculinity. She's brave, she's scared, she's tough, she's silly, she's angry, she's loving, she's loud. She contains all the multitudes I recognize and love in other butches. She's the sturdy person her friend can lean on when he accidentally steps in mud and needs to lift a foot to shake it off. She blushes and stammers when a group of pretty girls compliment her buzzcut. She's got massive boots and a DIY'd tank top. She hates cops. She gives hugs that could break backs. She's eking out an existence in a world that explicitly doesn't want her.

Lake is honestly something special. Infinity Train was the only time I've ever gotten into a completely mainstream and fairly popular show and then, out of nowhere, received an entire season explicitly about someone like me living my experience. I know that Sailor Uranus and Mo and Jess Goldberg and all those characters are iconic, but I'd legitimately place Lake in the same tier as them in terms of quality of representation. I cried the first four times I rewatched her season because of how familiar it was. Infinity Train is a sci-fi show, but it's primarily about people being people, and its depiction of Lake's gender non-conformity (addressed primarily through a very literal sci-fi metaphor in which her being made of metal acts as a handy stand-in for gender non-conformity whenever her appearance is being discussed) is painfully, wonderfully, recognizably true to the butch experience. She's the bracket's baby butch--both a relatively newly made character and canonically young--and she deserves a win to welcome her into the ranks of famous butch characters.

C'mon, vote Lake so she can proudly show off her new crown to all the older, more famous butches in the poll. They'd be proud of her. After all the time she's canonically spent being unfairly stuffed into boxes, she deserves a little recognition for what she actually is: hands-down one of The Best Butches you can find in any media.