#yay for polyam rep !!!

[a-moth-to-the-light]

Songs of the Summer, 2023: #13

[intro & rules]

Touching Yourself by The Japanese House (June 30, 2023)

i used to cry about her on laundry days  maybe because i had too much time to think, then on those open-window, hanging-sheets afternoons once a week, i would notice the breeze gently pushing me to move on tea in the microwave and half-a-tomato on the cutting board, i find time to think   we should buy a coatrack, or maybe wall hangers, and a weighted blanket—sage green? 

--

Yeah, I admit it, I don’t mind when The Japanese House is boring. I mean, “Something Has to Change” is still one of my favorite songs of hers, and it’s just as simple and repetitive as “Touching Yourself” is. I could have put “Sunshine Baby” or “Morning Pages” in this spot on this list—they have these beautifully immersive lyrics that I could analyze for forever—but when it comes down to it, this one, the boring one, is my favorite.

I guess it's actually easiest to talk about "Touching Yourself" in the context of my love for "Something Has to Change". To be fair, it's not quite as ethereally beautiful as its predecessor (if it were, it would be in the top 5 of this list), but “Touching Yourself” has a similar magic. What I love about “Something Has to Change” is that it’s a mantra of sorts—the simplicity & repetition of the lyrics, and of the light, pleasant groove that backs them, manages to capture so much anger and frustration and desperation and strength and determination, too, and channel all those feelings into a speech that, as I sing along, I feel like I’m giving myself (and boy did I need that speech, back when I first stumbled across the song). I love its directness, especially compared to the rest of The Japanese House’s discography, as her music tends to be melty-sounding and uncertain in vocals and lyrics and production, too. That isn’t a bad thing—I love so many of her songs—but “Something Has to Change” has been a standout to me for as long as I’ve been a fan, and I like the way "Touching Yourself" follows in its footsteps.

Even compared to "Something Has to Change", Amber Bain's performance in this new track feels unusually direct, simple and sweet and genuine, like I'm listening to singer at a coffee shop or on a park bench. That lack of mystery is unexpected, but it's quite charming, too. And “Touching Yourself” has its own mantra; it caught me on first listen and brings me back again and again: “Know I shouldn’t need it but I want affection / Know I shouldn’t want it but I need attention / Know I shouldn’t say it but I had to mention…”. It’s not a statement of determination to do the right thing, to be kind to yourself for once, like in “Something Has to Change”; instead, it’s just an expression of gloomy anger channeled into a satisfying rhythm. Can you fix your problem, claw your way out of this depression? Hell if I know, but at least you can enjoy this little tongue-twister of a bridge while you wait for answers.

“Touching Yourself” is tired, and resigned, and weird, and fun—and after spending most of the summer listening to “Dionne” and “Sunshine Baby”, which are also tired and resigned and weird but most certainly not fun, “Touching Yourself”, with its awkward, even comedic, sci-fi-sounding synth and general lack of subtlety, became a late-summer classic. It’s a sing-along anthem for three in the afternoon, and since my summer felt like one giant late-afternoon daze, including it here just feels right.

[jitteryjive]

Ok so I dont really use Webtoon because Im not much a comic read/reading in general. So what up with High Class Homos? Is it like the High Gardian Spice of Webtoon?(Ie: has a lot of LGBTQ+ representation but 1.) has horrible story telling or 2.) doesn't represent the LGBTQ+ comunity respectivly)-C

oh my god. okay. I’m gonna do an entire rant underneath the cut because it’s really bad

tldr: it’s horribly racist and stereotypical and it is basically a way to lure queer people even further into shitty stereotypes. stop praising it for being like progressive or whatever the fuck it’s supposed to be

okay where do I start. basically I may not be allowed to say most of this stuff since it was so bad that I stopped reading it around like. episode 15/16? inform me if I need to change anything

okay so. I don’t remember anyone’s names except for augustus and sapphia so I’ll nickname the other important characters as knight [mlm love interest], maid 1 [first wlw love interest], and maid 2 [second wlw love interest, one with the lighter hair]

first of all: the fucking RACISM oh my god.

so basically here’s the main cast okay? all of them are white. the same exact skin tone [except for maid 1 who’s tanner but white]. except for knight, who’s black.

repeatedly throughout the panels, knight’s skin tone is always saturating and lightening and usually never stays a darker tone? which is? very blatant whitewashing??? dude just pick a fucking tone and stop being weird

and then. god okay. so the main “character trait” of knight is that he’s stupid. he’s described as being like teehee I’m so ditzy and gay and stupid and there’s a scene where I have no idea what gay means or what it is!!!!! which is fucking awful and racist already. and I do understand that in medieval times it wasn’t uncommon to be illiterate but every other person in the cast can read and write and yet the knight’s ENTIRE plotline is having no idea how to read or write which. if you’re following that’s just. literally why the fuck are you emphasizing that the ONLY black character’s stupid and illiterate. literally what the fuck is wrong with you.

second: the horrible stereotyping and further fetishization + demonization of orientations. + bad trans rep

alongside that, every single character except for the transhet character and the trademark #”evil nasty cishet” character are gay or lesbian. unless something was stated that I missed in the more recent episode, a webtoon that’s praised for having amazing “””lgbtq+ themes””” only has gay and lesbian, not??? arospec or multiro or any other romantic orientations????? not to mention that they are pretending aspec people are nonexistent and everyone is definitely allosexual without a fault. but the thing is. this tiny representation of a huge community is. so. just absolutely awful.

prince augustus and knight are both represented by being uwu soft boys because they’re gay and always being nervous oh no!!! what if he thinks I’m weird >~< type of characters. honestly just say you fetishize gay men to be crammed into your soft owo yaoi boxes and get the fuck out of here.

princess sapphia and the maids are either fetishized or demonized as well. princess sapphia plays into the disgusting stereotype than lesbians are furious, violent monsters due to her constantly destroying things and yelling at everyone and generally being a huge asshole. maid 1 isn’t as bad and has a grasp on sense but she’s still incredibly rude. then maid 2 is forced to be like a soft cute lesbian who’s clueless to the fact that maid 1 loves her!!! she’s so cute and sweet and has no idea she’s in love with the lesbeans!!!! god grow up is it not hard to treat lesbians like real people.

and oooh yay they’re pretending [identity] doesn’t exist again! assuming from webtoon’s ads spoiling everything, there was a heated love triangle between the maid characters and the princess oh no!!!! as someone who’s polyam I think I’m gonna lose my mind if media keeps mislabeling weird love corners as love triangles and ignoring the fact polyam people. exist?? like it’s not weird for three or more people to enter a relationship????

with that said, every single mlm buildup scene is soft and >w< and completely non-sexual while there’s a fucking scene where maid 1 walks in on sapphia with only a bra on and she freaks out because OMG!!!! with that being the only chemistry at all between them.

plus that. from what I read of course the author mainly only focused on the mlm relationship and only made sexual/weird jokes about the wlw relationship as it was pushed aside. at least make the attention equal if you’re gonna ONLY make cis gay and lesbian characters.

finally the trans character has fucked up rep. fortunately they aren’t pulling the sad depressing #brocken💔 “I don’t fit in this body……….” trope or having every character misgender them repeatedly until they’re “””fixed””” but instead he mysteriously says “once upon a time I wasn’t called lucas….!” and then it’s. never mentioned ever again. hey, if you’re gonna make an amazing webtoon with fantastic queer rep maybe you shouldn’t vague the entire trans umbrella and never talk about it again

and it’s not super related but they’re making the only cishet character portrayed as some sort of evil antagonistic person which. is a shitty thing to do because it shows that in media with good queer rep there’ll never be a cishetallo character who isn’t repetitively seen to be some sort of monster

okay. rant over. I hope more people stop getting into high class homos and blindly praising it with so much love

[vtori73]

Im probably not going to finish this series, at least now it feels less like pulling teeth and more like I'm just bored very rarely laughing or chucking at a joke.

So for now my overall thoughts are this after watching almost 3 episodes:

As much as I don't think stereotypes are bad, because they AREN'T necessarily, especially IF the Queer rep was diverse but... it's not, not really. This comes off VERY much as being for White gay people and possibly even cisheteronormative gay people. And looking it up I see some Queer people who are talking about Q-force saying they like it, related to it, think it's good, etc and that they like it because it's gay and doesn't shy away from it and I honestly just... I don't feel that way AT ALL.

I don't feel represented with this show which is fine/doesn't make the show necessarily bad its more so that I feel is it VERY much comes off as a VERY binary take/rep for Queer/Gay people and their lives. I said it seems like its for White gays/cisheteronormative gays for a reason, because while yes, it doesn't shy away from being gay, actually showing gay sex, and whatever else people say we need more of with gay rep it does still feel like the LG are the only ones getting it and are prioritized... again.

Q-force comes off very much more so as G-force, G being for Gay because Queer too MANY of us in the community is a political statement about not being what the Cisheteropatriarchy sees us as, being stereotypical or not & not toning it down for them and being whoever we want and going directly AGAINST them & while the show doesn't tone things down it definitely works from a binary with its lack of interest in those of us who are outside these identities such as Bi, Ace, Aro, Trans/Nonbinary, etc! Like I said though I've only seen 3 episodes (there are 10 in total) so it's a bit early to say for sure but I believe one person talking about liking the show did mention it doesn't have any trans characters/rep which too me REALLY says something about the show.

This honestly is also why I always feel weird and not fully get when White gays/queers talk about "yeah, not sorry to be gay/queer, I am stereotypical so this is good we need more stuff like this etc" I mean... these stereotypes have been around for forever, do you just want to see it done by gay people instead now? What does that exactly do FOR Queer community in general though? I'm not saying no stereotypes ever but fuck, what I want is some shit that ISNT what I've seen all my damn life but now it's okay because yay a gay person did it! No, I want QPOC, maybe they are the stereotype instead that are usually thrown on white people, that would at least be more interesting to see because we are hardly depicted in general while ALSO actually avoiding racial stereotypes along the way! What about Fat, disabled queer people who are aromatic or nonbinary, or bi or polyam or all those things but we won't get that with mainstream media because mainstream media DOESNT want that and honestly....

this might be a HARD pill for many gays/queers to swallow who like this show and stuff like it but if this show was ACTUALLY all that progressive and challenged anything it would most likely not even exist or be aired and if it does end up being/becoming so it most likely will get cancelled for it. Our society isn't going to promote things that question it, why would it, and honestly I feel this show just helps demonstrate how more and more the LG community is becoming assimilated into mainstream culture and how many of us don't really seem to mind that.

*I know I know, some don't think thats a "bad" thing, you might not understand why but basically the problem is this kind of conditional acceptance ALWAYS comes at a cost, once they get their acceptance they pull the rug out from under the rest of us, keeping it to themselves and not caring whatever happens to us. Also, I'm not saying that's the shows fault, I want to be CLEAR that's not what I'm saying I just went a bit off track a bit, my thoughts started off as "my thoughts on a Gay show" and ended up rearing off track into a discussion on White LG communities attempts to assimilating and why that bad. I mean, I most likely have ADHD so me going off track isn't new, lol.

[mul71v3r53-is]

Also I would like to just sell this poly as a whole because yay more polyam rep we love to see it (also note it's my first non-closed polyamorous relationship before i make all the au sanses collectively go "fuck it" and date each other, considering Fluffycrossmare is a closed triad here so fuck yeah wider range of diversity!!)

Okokok so Omnipaper is just awesome because Omni?? Matching PJ's changing body and gender??? Because she loves them and wants to support them???? Absolutely stunning, thanks very much. Also Mono is an absolutely awesome kid and if you disagree we can't be friends /j

Freshpaper for previously mentioned reasons and also!! Idk why but i've always envisaged PJ liking 90s bands like the Spice Girls and Backstreet Boys and wanting to collect memorabilia and going to reunion concerts and Fresh is the fucking MVP in that he always finds just what PJ is looking for before even they know it and they'd just chill whenever they're not terrorizing others with furbies (PJ's not as big a fan of them as Fresh but hey, they enjoy watching people squirm, it's an Error trait they got passed down) and just vibe to old CDs and chat about their other common interests (lowkey think they'd both love bowling and their games would get super intense and shit) whilst Omni and/or Lux are doing other things. Also Fresh would be a good hugger and PJ would love it no matter how much they'd say they didn't and you can't tell me otherwise

Ok and PJ and Lux just,, feels so right to me??? It's ironic considering i ship their dads together (all their dads together even 😳) but cmon man, they actually had the courage to tell each other how they feel (cough coUGH ERROR AND DREAM) and they just give me so many fluffy vibes. PJ never learned to cook because Error was busy with raising their siblings and Ink is banned from all kitchens permanently so Lux would definitely teach them and PJ finds they really enjoy baking bread especially and research different ways to do it and without fail Lux is always cheering them on amd man that's just one of the many reasons why i think they'd be so cute aLSO LUX WOULD BE BADASS AS FUCK AND RIDE A MOTORBIKE AND SHIT AND YOU CAN'T TELL ME THE EDGY TEEN INSIDE PJ WOULDN'T FIND THAT HOT AS FUCK MAN JUST AAAAAGHH

Also!! All three of PJ's spouses would team up and organise stuff for them whenever they were feeling down or it was a special occasion, like Lux would make food, Omni would organise decor and outfits, Fresh being the sly charismatic fucker he is would find people for hire like DJs or find cool stuff to do (even if it's not for the reasons mentioned!! Sometimes he just wants to treat the kids to something nice and man does PJ melt with love when they first find that out) and likely get it for free and just- they all fucking love their grumpy clingy spouse and hhhhh it's so cute

A concept: PJ gets all the bitches (/hj)