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punkeropercyjackson · 3 months

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Is the Pjo fandom aware that Percy is like.......actually not a normal person.Not the demigod thing,i mean he's neurodivergent and has mental illnesses from trauma so his set of beliefs,thoughts,onward actions and tastes are completely different from society's ideals and norms.It's not like he acts the way he does as a joke or to look cool,it's kinda a big thing he can't stop acting like himself no matter what???It gives him self-eestem issues but it really is for the better for everyone involved because it makes him an actual role model for irl troubled kids who got to read him grow all the way up until adulthood alongside us and him never masking being potrayed as what made him the best and realest hero in the whole franchise

He's never been tempted to join the gods and talks shit to them because he has no interest in power and they're child abusers who run an oppressive system,not because he's a BAMF and 'sassy'.He dosen't try to cover up his 'sensitive' and 'soft' emotions because he thinks they're stupid,it's a defense mechanism from growing up with an abusive stepdad,ableist bullies and teachers and a society that expects peak masculinity from him despite his desire for femininity instead and there's a reason why almost all his friends in the og series were girls and he insults other guys based on being too manly

Related to that,her complete lack of romantic interest in Nico wasn't because she's 'a tragically straight boy' but because she's A)At least only partially a man(transfem bigender)and he's gay and B)Too old for him and has some damn decency so she loves and treats him like her little brother and pseudo-son instead and she shouldn't be expected to return his feelings,much less be called a bad person for not,when she never fucking said she likes him or flirted with him and he loves her as his older sister/brother and sees her as mom/dad back and she also proceeds to do the same with Hazel within ONE book of knowing her since she's in the same parental situation as Nico and she used to take care of Tyson before he moved in with Poseidon and of Bianca as well before she died

Her loving and dating Rachel at one point wasn't 'toxic' or 'unrealistic' or especially not 'one-sided',they were just two teenagers finding solace in eachother due to similar experiences and being happy to indulge in the other's interests to the point where it became some of their's too and y'all deserve to get smacked upside the head for having the AUDACITY to make fun of her when Percy was all over her and Jason more than he was Book!Annabeth's little femcel ass(not you Leahbeth,never you Leahbeth)and erase her to say 'Percy's type is blondes' as if any actual punk like Percy would be into someone because they live up to traditional standards and when she hates 2/5 of the blondes y'all are talking about(Luke and Apollo)and her demisexual ass barely knows 1/5 of them,them also having an actual canon bf(Magnus + Alex)

They never wanted to be normal or special,they wanted to be ACCEPTED.They're an outcast because they can't hide who they truly are even though none of what makes them different is bad but they're not this or they're so that so it can't possibly be actually good that they're the way they are and do the things they do and that's how they get treated in-universe AND by bloggers who have 'a woman's place is in the revolution' or 'Boykisser' on their theme but get squeemish at the thought of positive change or queerness that's not packaged shipping tropes.Percy Jackson's not suddenly 'the standard protagonist' instead of a staple of representation for freaks because you're a poser

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specialshoesclub · 5 months

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Good I just realized I love wearing hoodies now that I'm a stoner because I don't shave my armpits so bras and tight shirts pull on the hair and I'm always tuning out that stimulus because I'm hyposensitive to pain due to my ADHD but when I'm high I can feel it and I realize that tuning it out was silently sucking my brains energy like how some appliances do that to your electrical bill if you leave them plugged in when they're off and hoodies are the only thing that's comfortable and I like how it looks since I think I could also wear loose, thin clothing but I don't like how I look in those because it's too revealing and I don't want men to lust after me due to the awkward situations it causes when I have to reject them. Men's clothing is designed to either make men's bodies look bigger and harder to evoke the instinct that they are a threat and protect them from the contempt of other men - the bigger and harder a man's body, the less clothing he need wear. Whereas women's clothing is designed to make women's bodies look either like better mates: softer and healthier and younger or like his mother - to protect us from male aggression. A man's mother is the only female he needs to protect without wanting to fuck due to our wild ape genes programming us to protect family. There is a genetic component to being queer but there's no one queer gene. Homosexuality is evolution's way of making the people who like casual sex the most not reproduce to slow population growth. But now we invented birth control and altered the course of our evolution even farther towards divorcing sexual behavior from reproduction. This is possible thanks to the industrial revolution giving us more time for sex. Being queer is the result of having and higher number of the genes that make you work together with other members of your own species. In biology this is called "sociality". It's is a species' size of group they're adapted to live together in. And it's behavior that is genetic. There are different genes that make people social like some of them make people more empathetic to other species and our surroundings. Some make you more self-sacrificing, that's what ADHD is. Some combination makes you autistic. And queer people have a combination that makes them less driven to reproduce but more driven to form larger social groups, less based on having less genes in common. Humans are a social species but ants and some bees and naked molerats, and a beetle and a shrimp are eusocial, meaning that they live in colonies where only some reproduce but their offspring are cared for communally by others who do not. Eusociality is more complex, and therefore more evolved than the amount of sociality that humans are at. This is why aliens should be written to be more like bees. This is what Steven Universe is about. It's a love letter from a more highly evolved society to a less highly evolved one. Religion, fandom, subculture and other forms of parasociality are just below eusociality because they still rely on leaders. It's eusocial behavior for those just a little less social. Living together in peace as one group allows us to have freewill because individually we have freewill but when large groups compete our behavior is predictable mathematically. Boom. I think I have to go to grad school and study psychology from an evolutionary perspective. I won't let it make me racist. I can prove that being racist is less highly evolved than loving all life. Maybe we can stop world leaders from using religion to sell wars if maybe we can prove it wrong by explaining more of the behaviors that make us the most human from an evolutionary perspective.

#🍃🍃🍃

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enchi-elm · 10 months

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Having some Turn thoughts tonight.

Between Benedict Arnold’s half-deranged-with-fear speech about “the smell of weakness” he was exposed to as a druggist’s apprentice, “the same stench that now emanates from my leg” and Lucas Brewster’s “What do you know of sickness” and Caleb’s aunt, uncle, and father being afflicted with palsy and his own brush with PTSD, not to mention Thomas getting a cough and it being one of the few moments we see Abe and Mary united in purpose in early season 1, Judge Woodhull’s bullet wound and his inability to rest... I’m sure I’m forgetting more, anyway, I could probably write a whole sickness-themed fic at this point

Did you know the historical Caleb Brewster suffered a back injury during the war that affected him for the rest of his life, enough to go through the hell of trying to get a disability pension from both the New York and Connecticut governing bodies, a process so frustrating and fruitless he wrote to George Washington personally asking for help?

People who’ve read my stories know that I like to bring up the wellness concerns that would have affected canonical and historical Caleb’s life, but maybe the others need a go too. Especially with what I’ve learned about the prevalence of tuberculosis in the 18th and 19th Centuries and what an absolute shit-show it was (Thomas getting a cough would have inspired a deadly fear in his parents, certainly. No wonder we see them so alarmed.)

Arnold’s speech, especially, struck me tonight as I rewatched S02E04: Men of Blood. I’ve always been painfully affected by that scene, though I know that many in the fandom use it as prime material to call Arnold a “creep”. Granted, he’s overstepping boundaries but his desperation is real and, to me, cuts straight to the bone. I think not being American and not having the complete understanding of Benedict Arnold the Historical Figure really helped me when I watched this for the first time. Instead of a great traitor, I just saw a man unravel from losing his purpose due to illness, something that will always resonate with me. And certainly considering the sliiiiightly ableist overtones in the show whenever it comes to strength and service, I’m always tempted to do a re-write or just do my own take on sickness in the American Revolution.

You know... maybe there’s something there. This whole spy thing is now on my mind too. Did you know that in the Cold War, homosexuals and queer folk were recruited to be double agents and informants? Specifically because it was suggested that they already had a skill-set that allowed them to live double lives and safeguard secrecy. Consider that. What if there was a story that explored that in the American Revolution? Queer or sick, hidden or dismissed. An infirmary is a haven of information anyway, you’ve got officers coming in and out of rotation. There’s something there. What do you think?

....

After I finish Wind and Water, which will be after I finish this semester. Cause priorities and sleep.

#turn amc #just ramblings #Apfelessig #ableism

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whatitis-inside · 1 year

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Regarding Tim shaming, I come from the Star Trek fandom and I remember interviews of George Takei admitting to bringing his boyfriends to the setting and nobody gave a crap (this was confirmed by Nimoy, Shatner and even the producers), and this was in the 60s and 70s, when being queer was a punishable crime still. That Takei wasn't afraid to bring his bfs on set and started the revolution for queer actors on TV/Theater productions to start being accepted and respected, becoming later in life an icon for the queer comunity, idk why Timothee doesn't do the same for films, esp living in a world that's more queer friendly and having the likes of Lee Pace, Zach Quinto, Ian Mckellen and Matt Bomer paving the way for it.

It's either he doesn't have the balls to start a revolution of his own and prefers to leave this to other smaller actors, or he is straight and used the queer community to build himself a fanbase in his early days and as a scapegoat for the Woody Allen fiasco and future fiascos. Hope it's the former and not the later.

Well, first of all - I think we all should remember that celebs do pr shams not just to hide their sexuality. Sometimes it's all for headlines and public interest. That said, not everyone needs to come out and not everyone wants to be this queer activist in Hollywood like for example sir Ian. Timbo doesn't need to start a revolution and for sure isn't required to do so.

Also, I don't agree that either he doesn't have balls or he used the community. That's such a black and white perspective to everything ... sexuality is a spectrum, almost everything is a spectrum! I'm all for calling the shit out of him, but lord let's have some logic there as well.

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leonardoeatscarrots · 12 days

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So i don't really know much about your fandoms or interests so... idk, would you mind giving me the rundown maybe? Like a little description about the games you like, or some info about your different comics? I want to chat more with you but I'm not sure where to start since I'm not familiar with your fandoms

Haha, that makes sense, my Fandoms can be considered a little niche.

First off, I'm super glad to finally meet you, lol. I've sorta been watching you and Pringles from afar, and you two seem like good friends.

But yeah, I'll happily give you a rundown, thanks for asking ^^

Pathologic/Мор: Утопия is a Russian videogame developed by Icepick Lodge. You play as one of three healers in a bo-hum steppe town, and your goal is to try and save the population from the outbreaking plague. The game has a lot of heavy theatrical influences and is well known for being extremely difficult and cruel. Which means the writing is perfectly catered to my tragedy-loving gay-theater-kid ass.

Karamora/Карамора is a show I got into a while ago. Basically, it's a fictional retelling of the Russian revolution (one of my special interests, lmao), except all the nobles are vampires. It's dumb but it's unironically so well made. Plus it has that twinky ginger guy, Evgeny Schwartz, in it. This show is also what got me on the Russian media pipeline to begin with XD

Lost Splendor was a memoir written by Felix Yusupov (aka the guy who killed rasputin, aka an important figure in the Russian revolution), and it's just incredibly funny for no reason. Man killed Rasputin, but all he could think to write about was how gay and ADHD he was.

Comics. I'm just very normal about them. I have a collection of around 80 different comics, single issues and graphic novels included. My favorites are queer and indie graphic novels, but im also a huge sucker for some of the classics like V for Vendetta. I have yet to purchase The Sandman comics, but they're on my list.

As for webcomics, I'm addicted to those too. I'm probably the biggest fan 5-ever of The Peculiar Compendium of Victor Van Wolfe on webtoons, and I've written a few fanfics and made fanart aplenty, as well as made custom stuffies of the characters. But I have a wide list of recommendations across a lot if genres XD

As for comics that IVE written, I currently have two open to the public on webtoons and tapas.

The first is Spaceships and Vodka, which is my primary comic. It's an anachronistic sci-fi surrounding a band of space pirates. It's a monster of the week style story with a lot of extra narrative told through backstories. It's currently still in the exposition stage and on hiatus.

The other is Gentle Hands, which is technically an AU of S&V. It's a gay romance following a disabled WWI soldier in a shellshock home and one of the nurses he has a crush on. This one is, alas, also still in the exposition stage, but is currently updating one page every other week.

As for like individual OCs, I mostly obsess over my comic characters. I don't typically make Fandom OCs.

My absolute pride and joy is Craig. He's also the fan favorite thus far.

I don't even know where to begin with him.

I have a bio for him and some other OCs I think, but I have yet to actually fill out any more >>_>> executive dysfunction my beloathed.

The full main cast list includes

Craig

Mirium

Derick

Terric

Carl

As well as Erasmus, Rusty, Cipher, Jadyn, and Jesper as some other extras.

So long as I'm here I may as well finish all the bios and make a master post lol...

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spiritofjustice · 2 months

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omgg 6, 8, 9, 10, 25, 30, 46, 79 for that big ass AA meme :3

Ace Attorney: 100Q Ask Meme

WAA thank you Ruby!!

6. Favourite Antagonist (in the role of the antagonist! e.g Edgeworth in AA1 counts but only in AA1.)

Ohh, man. Good question. I don't think she's the best one, I just really like Ga'ran. I think she has a lot of potential as a villain and they did a pretty good job building her up throughout SOJ. I also like the personal connections she has to the main cast. It adds a lot of stakes and it is a great thing to flesh out. I especially like her dynamic with Nahyuta. It really grabs me, but I love her dynamic with her whole family, too. She's one of the worst prosecutors but she is a great villain lol.

In terms of best antagonist, I think maybe Dahlia Hawthorne. She's my favorite antagonist from the original trilogy, at least.

8. All time favorite character?

Nahyuta!!!!! Before I played SOJ it'd have been Fulbright, and before the AJ trilogy it would've been Ryunosuke. And before TGAA it would've been Edgeworth or Franziska lol. But at this point Nahyuta is my number one. I think he's such a great character. I actually don't think his writing is as bad as it seems either after replaying Magical Turnabout last night. It's definitely underbaked but man he is so fucking funny and likable. Yes, he's quieter and less of a stand out than some other prosecutors but I like how impersonal he is. It's kinda the point, innit? That nothing of his real self is left and he's got nothing but the sanitized version of himself that keeps him alive?

I could write about him forever. Obviously. The question is just if I manage to finish anything now lol.

9. Least favourite character?

Honestly? Klavier.

There's probably other characters that annoy me more but I just don't like this guy. He kinda just gets on my nerves and he didn't click with me at all during AJ-- though that entire game did not click with me, so that could also be it. He's kinda boring. His personality is really weak, his dynamic with all of the characters feel really weak too and I feel like it says a lot that most of the dynamics he has is just people being annoyed that he exists KRKFJ

Sorryyy not to be a hater I know a lot of people love him. He just ain't for me.

I also don't particularly like Larry but he's kinda easy to forget about. But any time he shows up I'm just like -deep sigh-. He's pretty funny in the first game though, so there's that.

10. Favourite trial from all the games?

KMS I FORGOT THIS ONE ORIGINALLY SORRY

Anyways that's a good question. I think it's gotta be The Resolve of Ryunosuke Naruhodo. It just goes so hard, it's so satisfying to play because you keep solving each layer of mystery and have to go deeper. I think the deus ex machina with the "and I was recording the whole time!!" thing is stupid as FUCK but the rest of the case is legit great. This also includes the previous case since it's just part 1 and 2.

Fave original trilogy case is probably Bridge to the Turnabout or Farewell, My Turnabout. fave AJ trilogy case is probably Turnabout Revolution.

25. Favourite rare pair?

Is Skye/madhi a rarepair. It's rare compared to more popular Yuta ships at least, and it's my fave AA ship overall. They're t4t and Ema makes Yuta want to be a better person and he admires her so much for everything she is and everything she is capable of. And she thinks he's hot KRKFJK

I also like them as a QPR, but them being a QPR and them dating basically is the exact same to me. Trust me I am an expert (<-- aroace). I originally headcanoned Nahyuta as being a bisexual aromantic (and same for Ema) and I'm not sure if I still do so if he is (because ultimately to me he is just queer. What he is is none of my business KRKFN), QPR, if not, bi4bi t4t couple. Well, that's them regardless, but you see how it is.

My issue with the rarepair term is I really don't know what necessarily counts as one in a fandom as big as this, so in this instance, I'm just going with "lesser popular ship" or "ship that isn't the most popular for a character." I'm used to being invested in ships where I am, quite literally, the only person who ships them, so it's hard coming to a fandom where I like ships other people like too KRKF

Otherwise, idk, Black/bright if that counts? I love them a lot. And if that doesn't count. I don't fucking know. Dhurke/Datz then KRKD

(don't want this winding up in ship tags so putting slashes lol)

30. Character you’d push off a cliff with no hesitation?

Inga. I don't think I need to explain this one KRKF

46. Character you thought you were gonna dislike but loved in the end?

NAHYUTA!!! I watched videos ranking the AA cases after I finished the original trilogy. I didn't mind the spoilers because I didn't know how to emulate DD or SOJ so I didn't know if or when I'd ever play them. I let them convince me he was a horrible boring prosecutor. I let them convince me that I was really going to hate SOJ and then I DIDN'T!!!! He's great!!!

79. How long have you been in the fandom?

It depends? I played the original trilogy early last summer after buying it for like 3 dollars on the 3DS shop before it closed. I was out of games to play and I'd had it for months so I said fuck it and played it and really liked it, but it didn't get me super invested in the fandom the way I got into it this year. I played TGAA that summer as well and that really compelled me. So I was def into the series last summer, but I only got insane about it after playing the AJ trilogy after the remaster came out.

So... in a normal sense? Last summer. In the "this is my special interest" sense? February of this year.

#brutalitybunny #Psy's replies #asks #aa tag #THANK YOU FOR SENDING!!!! i love being humored!!!

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nekropsii · 2 years

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not the biggest fan honestly :T

I feel like the biggest issue with modern homestuck fanon is that whether people liked it or not, and how if its concidered dubiously canon or not, hs^2 and epiloge characterization has bled into fanon. the majory of hs fans hate hs^2 (and for good reason), yet Jane hate has gone up, people are being sooo unnecessarily weird about davejadekat (/all of its pairings) and bi characters in general, rosemary is deemed boring (killkillkillkill-), people don't see jake as a person will feelings, karkat?? kanaya?? trolls?? never heard of them, unless you mean those.. things we keep around to fuel the humans plots sometimes and act as the occasional therapist. Also... Dirk...

THESE ARE ALL THINGS FROM HS^2, THE COMIC YOU HATE!!! WHY ARE YOU LETTING IT LIVE RENT FREE IN YOUR BRAIN??

karkat is probably one of if the my most favorite character, I think hes interesting as hell!!! but alot of what makes him intersting comes from how he fits against troll society/against other trolls imo??? his mutation, his dancestory/him being the litteral second coming of christ, the significance of his secretly caring personality in a violent child soldier evil murder military state and what it says about it as a whole with his role as the alternian equivalent of the 'everyman', his familial relationship with kanayah, his unique relationship with romance, etc, these things all mean jack shit to humans, and shine best around other trolls, yet all he is now is daves side bitch, i feel fanon has sorta moved away from hs and into earthC, noone really cares about alternia anymore as trolls are just seen as humans but grey. even comander!karkat focuses more on dave angst than karkat, a minority amongst his people, leading a revolution a'la signless style??

idk i just feel like hes just been watered down into the easily digestible 'angry character' who is sad sometimes for,,, resons. i feel like this disconnect from alternia in general just sort takes away depth from beta troll characters in general?? even metorstuck content now feels shallow and disconnected??

And what sucks is that i like davekat, and people are right about them being a great pairing for working out their issues together , but at the same time i miss litteraly ever other karkat ship, i miss the days of the karkat x beta trolls harem and being able to use quadrants for him without being deemed problematic for not adheering to queer identity of a race that dosent exist and dosent effect anyone because real life has no oppressive poly romance system, and im just sick if this ship reducing the characters down to a pinterest black and red asthetic moodboard when they are so much more than that.

oh wow sorry this is too long, i dont think i did the best job at following a single line of though and went on a bit of an unnecessary tangent abt fanon and hs^2 so srry about that, I hope my general thoughts were still decipherable??

Id have to say mituna is my second favorite but i dont need to tell you whats wrong with his fanon character lol. I really appreciate all of your alpha troll analysis and you art is cool as hell!! srry that this fell into more venty teritory and for any spelling mistakes, i hope you have a good rest of your day/night!!

I say this with no disrespect at all, in fact I am enthralled: I didn’t even know asks could be this long!! Thank you for your input, I agree with you! And don’t worry- you were quite clearly comprehendible! You covered a lot of ground already, but allow me just a moment to commentate on specific points…

The bleeding of HS^2/Epilogues content/reinterpretations into the larger sphere of full-fandom fanon has been a slow, insidious process. I think the fact that most people have not taken the time to reread Homestuck proper, be it due to lack of time/energy or fear of its length, has really added to this- because a gradually slipping grip on what is and is not canon simply doesn’t pair well with rather disagreeable dubiously canon sequel content having come out fairly recently. The thing about DubCanon is that, whether you or I like it or not, people are going to apply those particular reinterpretations of the characters to what their idea of canon is, and- typically- they will fail to remember that the changes made to the characters were changes in the first place. Rather large ones, at that. This is not only how and why people are out here thinking that Jane was not only legitimate Troll-Racist in Homestuck, but also how and why they get the idea that she’s always been that way.

I’m not sure if my memory is failing me or not, but as far as I remember, while biphobia has always been a problem in the fandom- baffling, considering most characters are textually bi- it really does seem like it’s at an all-time high right now. People are adamantly refusing the idea that some characters are bisexual. Dave and Karkat are the ones I see the most regularly erased, but Jake is also pretty high up there.

The current drought of Alternia content is so sad. Earth C is great, don’t get me wrong- it’s the planet I most regularly work with/develop because of Sovereignstuck- but people oft throw out the concept of conflict when using it. Especially, like, social/political conflict. Earth C is basically synonymous with Flawless Utopia, at this point. It’s a petty complaint, sure, but I don’t like it. :(

I absolutely despise how trolls have been turned into gray humans with horns! They’re bug aliens!! Bug aliens!!! That’s so much cooler than gray humans with horns!! Fuck!!

I kinda disagree that a change of setting takes away from the Beta Trolls as characters- I think the issue isn’t the fact that there’s a setting change, it’s that the writers aren’t really willing to work with the fact that, uh… You know… The Beta Trolls have vastly different socializations and come from a vastly different cultural background than the Beta/Alpha Kids? You could very easily find conflict and development with the setting change. You’d just have to keep in mind the way that their upbringing would affect them and how they’d respond to their new environment. Old habits die hard, you know? It’s a whole new planet, a whole new myriad of cultures, and whole new societies with whole new rules and whole new customs. There’s so much intrigue you could get with that fact alone!!

I like DaveKat, too. It’s fall from grace is astounding, and it’s honestly made me like them less, which is a shame because it was pretty important to me when I was younger, and Dave and Karkat used to be top favorite characters of mine. They’re basically just… Blank slate characters now, made to slap whichever miscellaneous scenario or random romance trope onto, without any regard to what their characters are or what made their dynamic good in the first place.

It’s funny- I don’t think the Quadrant Queerness was made into a huge deal in canon or anything? At least, I don’t quite remember it being a federal fucking issue. Yeah, Karkat’s Quadrant struggles were there, but I don’t think it was really… Associated with being “Troll Gay” or anything. I’m at least 80% sure that was just something the fandom latched onto and blew out of proportion- I see more talk about Karkat being “Pan-Quadrant,” I believe the term was, than I see content of any other part of his character arc? Crying shame, too- considering, again, as you said, he’s the fucking Second Coming of Jegus.

#homestuck #homestuck meta #homestuck analysis #homestuck fandom #the homestuck epilogues #homestuck^2 #alpha kids #beta trolls #jane crocker #karkat vantas #dave strider #karkat.pdf #nekro.pdf #nekro.sms

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brightlotusmoon · 1 year

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The older I get, the more queer I become, and I really mean that. I'm not even sure you'll really know until you tip over the horizon of forty? It's a shift. I've always been bisexual but I didn't come out until my early 20s. Over a decade later I realized I was pansexual. Then, demisexual. Then, non-binary with undefined gender mixes (trans? not yet? maybe?) and polyamorous. And it's been so long, so many years, two teenagers worth of years. If I were to say, "you're very young, this won't make sense until you're older" that's what I mean. I was there. I grew up in words and deeds that were still sprouting. They may be the words of the young now but they were planted by the queers who babysat me in the 1980s.

But also, neurodivergence is often intrinsic to queerness and I like that there's words like Neurogender.

#being queer in fandom was a revolution #queer as in fuck you

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likealittleheartbeat · 2 years

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Just going through the gay subtext tag as one does, and it’s just amazing to see so many characters and series mentioned that really center on super masculine environments, or, more specifically, homosocial groupings--and by that i mean a singly gendered group to the exclusion of womanhood and femininity. and so even as these blogs are shipping two men together, both characters get to preserve their masculinity as they work in and for the proliferation of their masculine groups--boat crews, armies, sports teams, rock bands.

It’s such a shift from the prominent understandings of gay coding from the past 100 years, where you’d be looking for the “sensitive boys,” lovers of the arts (and those arts they loved would often be threaded through queer history), the bullied and lonely who find that one true friend and maybe an inspirational teacher along the way. It was a pretty Platonic understanding of queerness in the relational aspect for better or worse. And it centered the swishy and effeminate for their marginalization.

The new “gay subtext” draws focus to more masculine characters who tend to exist easily enough in hyper masculine spaces and groups without discomfort. You’ll see comic characters like Bill and Ted loving their bros or militant types like in Master & Commander constructing intricate rituals among a whole hoard of other men. And shows like or Black Sails and Our Flag Means Death are making these kinds of gay relationships narratively explicit, but by situating them within a highly masculine context, even a typical effeminate character like Stede is validated through his participation and upholding of the masculinist exploits of the crew and the patriarchal laws of the sea.

In these iterations, the emotional arcs of characters can hyperfocus on the challenges of deviant sexuality and coming to the conclusion that, actually, its not really disruptive or deviant to these environments. There’s more humorous levity in a lot of these depictions, which I really appreciate. But does the audience’s allowance for that levity come from a stronger sense of security for these characters? A masculinist gay sexuality tightens the knot of patriarchal power in a lot of these depictions, creating repackaged separate gender spheres that exclude women from participating in masculine exploits. Yes, they offer representation of transness, and, in fact, i’ve noticed a lot of trans-masc folk being drawn to these kinds of depictions, but the stories instate a culture in which trans folk have been assimilated into gendered categories that have merely accepted trans people without reducing hierarchical separation.

when the netflix wave of avatar the last airbender fans arrived into the fandom, it was striking who they shipped: a pairing that had been rare in the fandom up to that point. not only the who but the how stood out. these two male characters were loveable as goofs, as clowns, as bros--just guys being guys. this pairing was perfect for fluff and modern au’s. they were devoid of the angst and passion that had previously marked the ships (and the infamous shipping wars lol), because they as a pairing were kind of devoid of the show’s central integrated themes. while together, they could suggest a resistance to empire, their time together in the show and in fan portrayals is marked by tropes of masculine revolution--protecting/saving women, shallow and befuddled emotional communication, and urges toward revolutionary violence. these are not bad things necessarily. the interest in these motifs simply stands out in this wing of the fandom when we compare it to the broader pacifist and feminist center of the show. the willfulness of this audience to focus on characters that provide potential for more traditionally masculine themes is telling when you have actual protagonists, aang and katara, who embody and force the audience’s contention with feminine values and their integration into a larger understanding of power structures, especially colonial power structures.

when i look at this trend of centering homosocial gay relationships more broadly, what i hope is that it’s simply making a pocket for the experiences and values considered masculine to exist peacefully and without shame. everyone has the potential to experience and participate in them, after all, and they can be important. my fear, though, is that it indicates acceptance of a “diversified” patriarchy, in which defined representation of diverse identities is a more important narrative goal than questioning broader hierarchies of power that limit and oppress the characters and force them into definitional boxes, especially definitional boxes that allow them to retain their unearned societal privileges over others. there’s just some level of responsibility that one can take when they choose their brotp’s and create content to still illustrate the limits of homosocial gay representation, to see how little two gay bros do to narratively disrupt much of anything.

#meta

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ilgaksu · 7 months

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2, 29, 42 for the fanfic writer's ask game! :)

from this ask game, which I'm still answering if you're so inclined

I'm doing all of these on my phone so they're taking a little bit to complete, but I LOVE this meme and I love talking about my writing because who doesn't:

2. Go to your AO3 “Works” page, to the sidebar with all the filters, and click the drop-down arrow for “Additional Tags.” What are your top 3-5 most used tags? Do you think they accurately represent your writing habits?

Okay, I laughed, because they are as follows:

Trans Xie Yuchen (42)

Post-Canon (22)

Alternate Universe (15)

Established Relationship (14)

Character Study (13)

I....would say those are pretty accurate, yeah, but you'd have to tell me.

29. What songs would be (or are) on a playlist for [insert fic]? Explain your choices if you want!

As a joke, I'm working on a playlist for blind boys don't lie, a vampire heihua fic inspired by the lost boys, where every song is period-accurate. I generally have a playlist for every fic I've written, even if it's just a handful of songs - for a long time, I made fanmixes rather than write in fandom - so do you have a specific one you'd want to see??? I can dig them up.

42. Have you ever received a comment that particularly stood out to you for whatever reason?

I'm actually going to discuss two of them, if that's okay, because they've stayed with me ever since.

The first one was on kick at the darkness, which is a klance fic that starts off as a queer pastiche of Dirty Dancing, and rapidly becomes a coming of age story about queer immigrants in 20th century America (the main three characters are a Cuban man post-Revolution who works in customer service in Florida, a disabled Japanese survivor of the WW2 internment camps, and the son of Koreans who fled the Japanese Occupation of Korea). The title is literally from a line in the song Lovers in a Dangerous Time (you gotta kick at the darkness/till it bleeds sunlight). I spent a lot of time researching the experiences I was going to be touching on in what was both an interracial but interclass love story that needed to feel hopeful and defiant without undermining the reality of being undesirable in America. Anyway, I once got a comment from a reader who said the backstory for Lance in it exactly echoed how their family had arrived in America, and that it was the first time they'd ever seen it be given to a romantic lead as a story. I think about that one a lot and how it made me feel all that risk and effort had paid off. I hope they're doing okay.

The other comment was on Twitter during my xiyao pandemic days, which I since deactivated so I'm going to have to paraphrase. I was basically told I view people in my writing with both warm empathy and a surgical precision, and am unflinching in facing the mechanisms of cruelty, but that the entire time it feels as if I'm holding the reader's hand. I love that. It speaks to a lot of how I perceive the world outside my work, but also makes me feel my ethos behind writing comes through: I don't want to be viewed as handing something down to an audience. We are in communion, despite never having met, for the time you're reading.

#i always look forward to your asks!!!#tinbramble #asks

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just-an-enby-lemon · 2 years

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Enjolras being missrepresented and having his queerness erased is not even a new thing, but still makes my blood boil.

All characthers in the Brick represent an important aspect of the society they are part of and Enjolras represents the ideal France in a lot of ways, he being pretty is lit a reference to this simbolism. He is the revolution and the end goal, the fervent desire to change who has to be paired up to the reality and deselusion pos the napoleonic era (represented by Grantaire).

And at the same time he is a view on the privileged student class of Paris being part of the revolution narrative (the idea that education and clarity lead to revolution as much as experience). He is a complex characther in a complex narrative that it is in many aespects a social-political review.

But fanon has the unfortunate tendency to reduce him to angry pretty boy. Unfortunally the new fannon that came with ST more than most. But the true issue here is the queer erasure.

There is a lot to lose on general ny taking Les Mis out of it's political context into a simple fun fictional narrative. But there are more modern storys with similar impact that are more relevant now days, so I can bregrundgly tolarete when people do that.

The queer erasure is different. Because by ignoring past queer coding, we help the narrative that queernes is new and that the LGBT+ experience is a recent thrend and not a part of human culture (an untrue and harmfull narrative). By making Enjolras straigth to apell to a cishet audience (that includes to appel particulary to the person doing that, you can yourself be the cishet audience) you are ignoring the amazing truth that a book wrote in 1867 had queer characthers and if you can't see the problem in that well I don't want you in my fandom.

#enjolras #les mis #queer erasure #i belive it will pass if we just let it alone #i also belive most people writing straight Enjolras have no ill intent #but intent is irrelevant here #i hope they understand it #gatekeeping #not all gatekeeping is bad just most of ot #yes i am gatekeeping

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youarelikethegalaxy-blog · 11 months

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Cottagecore script

This video describes the internet based aesthetic trend “cottagecore”, and discusses the concept of “escapism” when exploring the cottagecore aesthetic. the concept of ‘colonizer vibes’ is also explored as it is intertwined with cottagecore in online spaces. But we have to define the concept of cottagecore? From my research, I believe it can be described as a sum of its parts many but it is the aestheticization of cottage living, baking beautiful desserts, crafts with fruit, mushrooms, frog motifs, a flowery meadow, bright sunshine, long flowy dresses and most importantly the absence of men. This intention of this video to complicated the cottagecore aesthetic and place it within the legacy of ongoing settler colonialism. I argue that internet aesthetics trends can entertaining and enjoyable for many but cottagecore is deeply affected by its history and the tendency to tried and treat it as apolitical and ahistorical.

Pandemic

Cottagecore is one of many internet aesthetic trends created in the sometime in the last decade and was coined on Tumblr in 2018 (Jennings, 2020). This aesthetic is canonically queer and Sapphic, allowing lesbians and bi women a space free of the male gaze, from the heteropatriarchal society. The cottagecore aesthetic grew exponentially in 2020 as it functioned as a way to romanticize the conditions of pandemic living, social distancing and quarantining. Cottagecore as an aesthetic gained popularity on Instagram, Tumblr and TikTok as escapism from the realities of living through a global pandemic as well as the realities of being lesbian/Sapphic/queer/bi women in a heteropatriarchal society.

Centering queerness

As of March 10, 2021 The Tiktok hashtag for cottagecore boasts over 5 billion views as of March 3, 2021. For context it was in the 200 millions in June 2020 (Phelan, 2020). According to Slone (2020) the cottagecore aesthetic is very welcoming to queer people and allows queer people (mostly women) a place away from the heavy objectification and sexualized that queer people face mainstream media (Slone, 2020). As a lesbian myself I fully see the appeal of cottagecore as an escapism fantasy free from heteronormativity where queer women are allowed to be visibly queer and feminine without being perceived by the male gaze. Cottagecore offers a version of the world a place for queer women to be comfortable and at peace, even if that peace is an escapist fantasy. The appeal of cottagecore is that is in not a banishment or forced isolated it is instead a curated world, one that is joyful and free.

Escapism

The cottagecore aesthetic allowed some to escape an inescapable lockdown reality (Jennings, 2020). Everyday pandemic life was romanticized into something wholesome and beautiful (Jennings, 2020). The influence of cottagecore even comes from the 19th century art movement of Romanticism which began as a response to the Industrial Revolution (Jennings, 2020) The history of escapist fantasy is long, and for this video essay I focus on escapism from technology, urban life and commodified time, and the reality of living through a pandemic. Although everyone has the ability to live out this escapism it is important to discuss who is afford the luxury. Stitch (2021) states that all experiences of escapism are not created equally and that is attributed to racism. They explain that fandom culture is extremely white which is very similar to the just like cottagecore (Stitch, 2021). Tiktoker @gucciijesus explains that to them the lesbian beauty standard of cottagecore is all pretty white women and this aesthetic of pretty white women on picnic in a field had “colonizer vibes” and that one is not able to change their mind. Sying something has vibes tends to mean different things for different people but in this case it seems to represent to @gucciijesus on tiktok that cottagecore either holds colonizer values or appears to hold colonizer values. This tiktok servers the purpose of explaining that cottagecore is exclusionary, but also is deeply racist and troublesome. Smith (2010) argues that the despite the white queer attempts to reject or refute white supremacy white queers are fact complicit the status quo of white supremacy in a society based in settler colonialism (Smith, 2010, p. 49). This becomes very clear when recognizing and acknowledging the similar the aesthetics of cottagecore and the aesthetics and digital culture of tradwives.

Tradwives

Tradwives are extremely right-wing white women who advocate for regressive gender roles of the 1950s and 1940s. The main difference between cottagecore and the tradwife reactionary movement is that cottagecore does not serve the tradition gender binary and gender roles (Slone, 2020). However this difference is not distinct enough to separate it from the history of white supremacy. As Kelly (2018) explained there is something sinister behind the tradwife yearning for agrarian motherhood which is a front for the authoritarianism of the tradwife ideology (Kelly, 2018). The intend of the cottagecore aesthetic and the tradwives aesthetic are not at all the same. Cottagecore is canonically queer and always for an escapist fantasy without the presence of men. But both tradwives and cottagecore are niche digital subculture but the aesthetic overlaps with hyper-femininity, baking, romanticizing pastoral or farm life, and long flowy dresses. The cottagecore aesthetic of images of white women in pretty lace dresses is very similar to the tradwife aesthetic (Woolley, 2020). Woolley uses the term serendipitous to explain how cottagecore became a canonically queer aesthetic and digital subculture while the imagery of cottagecore could have easily been co-opted by tradwives and fascists (Woolley, 2020). The extremely right-wing digital culture of tradwives is abhorrent, racist and hate-filled. But similar to cottagecore this is also a form of escapism driven by the same things mainly technology, from urban life and commodified time (Kelly, 2018). The fact that this aesthetics are visually similar is a function of white supremacy. Cottagecore might represent itself as a curated world where queer women are allowed to be free to be queer and feminine without the male gaze. But what is a curated world other than a white colonizer escapist fantasy? It is therefore necessary to deconstruct the cottagecore aesthetic and its underserved treatment as ahistorical and apolitical.

Gender and race

White supremacy and heteropatriarchy are basis of settler colonialism. It is necessary to understand settler colonialism as an ongoing structure and not a single past historical event (Glenn, 2015, p. 52). Canada and the USA were built on settler colonialism and the ongoing structure of colonialism is still how race and gender are contextualized (Glenn, 2015, p. 52). the settler colonial structure of North America imposes ‘raciality’, sexuality and the relationship between the racialized and gendered other and the state (Tuck and Wang, 2012, p. 5; Arvin, Tuck and Morrill, 2013, p. 9). The aesthetic of cottagecore is based on a curated queer fantasy without the male gaze but that is impossible within the structure of ongoing settler colonialism. Settler colonialism is heteropatriachal and this quality is responsible for the sexualized indigenous people as well as attacked traditional familial and gender roles for the purpose of assimilating indigenous people into the structures of white settler societies (Morgensen, 2012, p. 4). One of the main facets of cottagecore is escaping heteropatriarchal society but the escape is a to an imagined and romanticized image of stolen native lands (Morgensen, 2012, p. 4)., Despite attempts to disavowal colonialism, the white queer is firmly rooted and complicit within the structure of present and future heteropatriarchal colonialism and white supremacy (Smith, 2010, p. 49). it is extremely important to therefore recognize and acknowledge that settler colonialism bases narratives of sexuality and gender based on native absence or disappearance (Morgensen, 2010, p. 120). It is subsequently necessary to understand the cottagecore aesthetic within by understanding the relational nature of colonialism, patriarchy and modern sexual regimes. Cottagecore aims to escape but patriarchy and modern sexual regimes but does not aim to deconstruct them therefore reinforcing the structure of settler colonialism.

Commodification

Cottagecore also has a problem of being highly commodifiable and being a part of the hyper-consumerism of modern capitalism. Elements of the Cottagecore was very noticeable in the summer of 2020, on high fashion runaways with sun-drenched and dreamy campaign imagery. It is likely this was an opportunity to capitalize on the summer that people did not get to have, based within this illusion of escapism to a cottage lifestyle, only this time it is being sold to everyday consumers (?). There was commodification of cottagecore within high fashion brands such as Gucci, Anna Sui, Ulla Johnson, Simone Rocca, and Cecilie Bahnsen and well as more affordable brands like H&M and Free People. This commodifiable of the aesthetic is based in the same romanticization of nature, beautiful landscapes while modern capitalism and hyper-consumerism is at the heart of the environmental devastation of these lands (Kendall, 2020). This is not only an issue of commodifying the aesthetic but also commodifying the aesthetic of escapism within games such as Animal Crossing and Farmville for a virtual experience of living in nature, in a cottage or on a farm. What started as a small online digital culture and aesthetic for queer women and youth becoming highly commodifiable, whether it is high fashion, fast fashion or video games.

Frontier

Ollivain warns in her 2020 article that one should be careful with in the romanticization of pastoral or frontier living because of it’s extremely dark history. Cottagecore’s base of women and queer people makes it easy to consider it wholesome and harmless but it is a shield. It is used to more easily disregard the sinister and harmful aspects of cottagecore which is the history of settler colonialism. The cottagecore aesthetic has the ability to both ignore the history of colonialism in favour of a fictionalized escapist fantasy and reinforce a re- romanticization of colonialization and frontier living. Arguments in defence of cottagecore often use its aesthetic as refashioning and reinvigoration which has been often difficult in living during a lockdown. It can be argued that it serves as an appreciation for nature this time in a digital space (Kendall, 2020). From a critical perspective is that argument valid? Slone argues that cottagecore depicts a wholly unrealistic life, that is so filtered beyond reality but that does not mean there no romanticization of frontier and pastoral living. I argued that cottagecore is and examples of what Gandy (2006) called ecological nostalgia for an imagined past (Gandy, 2006, p. 65). The cottagecore aesthetic is similar to the eighteenth-century concept of the semiwild aesthetic which was a fascination with a romanticized picturesque of idealized nature (Gandy, 2013, p. 1305). It was visual simulacrum as it the cottagecore aesthetic. Woolley (2020) explained that for some cottagecore is an idealized nature were queer people can be visually queer in rural spaces (Woolley, 2020). Cottagecore’s intend is not to preserve nature but instead to edit and curate nature for a beautiful imitation of the real just like with the semiwild aesthetic (Gandy, 2013, p. 1305). Morgensen (2012) stated that settler colonialism functions under its own ideology to project any “empty lands” as the newest frontier Morgensen, 2012, p. 2). During the pandemic physical space was hard to come by for most allowing for the exploration of the colonial frontier of virtual spaces in games such as Minecraft, Animal Crossing, Farmville and Stardew valley (Skotnes-Brown, 2019, p. 144). These terraforming games, allow players the ability to emulate and curate cottagecore styles of land cultivation through either the games own built in assets or community created assets. This allows for the continued romanticization of pastoral and frontier living and development and curate land for one’s self in virtual spaces (Skotnes-Brown, 2019, p. 144).

Conclusion

The aesthetic of cottagecore, paired with pandemic living, and a predominantly queer base demographic allowed for an interesting exploration into Sapphic escapist fantasy. Despite "escapism" being a central tenet of this aesthetic movement, Cottagecore is unable to exist within an ahistorical and apolitical fantasy world as it is a part of the same legacy of settler colonialism which it inherits from its Romanticism origins, as well as its uncanny similarity to tradwife aesthetics. Cottagecore’s attempts to escape the heteropatriarchal binary gender roles without attempting to decolonize therefore allows settler colonialism ideals to persist within the aesthetic. As such, Cottagecore has fashioned itself into a seemingly apolitical and escapist aesthetic which, especially in the midst of a pandemic, has made itself an extremely viable digital experience to commercialize. Its most notable commercial presence is within various terraforming games. Through these games, the players can live out their pastoral living fantasies which works to translate settler colonial visions from the real and practical world to the digital realm. This video seeks to raise questions about pertinent issues surrounding the cottagecore aesthetic and to address the way in which ongoing settler colonial ideas continue to pervade contemporary aesthetic movements. I have neither the formal background nor experience in applying de-colonial practices, nor do I want to risk my privileged position placing my voice over that of another (Arvin, Tuck and Morrill, 2013, p. 25). I am hoping this video presentation, and any criticisms that would arise after the viewing of it, covered the breadth of the topic effectively enough to create a space to question and experiment with the colonial legacy surrounding the cottagecore aesthetic (Arvin, Tuck and Morrill, 2013, p. 25).

Bibliography

Arvin, M., Tuck, E., & Morrill, A. (2013). Decolonizing feminism: Challenging connections between settler colonialism and heteropatriarchy. Feminist formations, 8-34.

Gandy, M. (2006). Urban nature and the ecological imaginary. In the nature of cities: Urban political ecology and the politics of urban metabolism, 63-74.

Gandy, M. (2013). Marginalia: Aesthetics, ecology, and urban wastelands. Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 103(6), 1301-1316.

Glenn, E. N. (2015). Settler colonialism as structure: A framework for comparative studies of US race and gender formation. Sociology of Race and Ethnicity, 1(1), 52-72.

Jennings, R. (2020, August 03). Once upon a time, there was cottagecore. Vox. Retrieved February 1, 2021, from https://www.vox.com/the-goods/2020/8/3/21349640/cottagecore-taylor-swift-folklore-lesbian-clothes-animal-crossing

Kelly, A. (2018, June 01). The Housewives of White Supremacy. Retrieved February 20, 2021, from https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/01/opinion/sunday/tradwives-women-alt-right.html

Kendall, Z. (2020, May 27). How cottagecore became this season's most idyllic trend. Retrieved February 23, 2021, from https://i-d.vice.com/en_uk/article/k7qam9/how-cottagecore-became-this-seasons-most-idyllic-trend

Morgensen, S. L. (2010). Settler homonationalism: Theorizing settler colonialism within queer modernities. GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies, 16(1-2), 105-131.

Morgensen, S. L. (2012). Theorising gender, sexuality and settler colonialism: An introduction. settler colonial studies, 2(2), 2-22.

Ollivain, C. (2020, September 8). Cottagecore, colonialism and the far-right. Honi Soit. Retrieved February 1, 2021, from https://honisoit.com/2020/09/cottagecore-colonialism-and-the-far-right/

Phelan, G. (2020, June 22). What is cottagecore and why is everyone so obsessed with it? Retrieved February 1, 2021, from https://fashionjournal.com.au/life/what-is-cottagecore-and-why-is-everyone-so-obsessed-with-it/

Skotnes-Brown (2019). Colonized Play: Racism, Sexism and Colonial Legacies in the DOTA 2 South Africa Gaming Community Penix-Tadsen, Phillip (2019) Video Games and the Global South. Carnegie Mellon University. Book. https://doi.org/10.1184/R1/8148680.v1

Slone, I. (2020, March 10). Escape into Cottagecore, Calming Ethos for Our Febrile Moment. The New York Times. Retrieved February 1, 2021, from https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/10/style/cottagecore.html

Smith, A. (2010). Queer theory and native studies: The heteronormativity of settler colonialism. GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies, 16(1-2), 41-68.

Stitch. (2021, January 28). Who Actually Gets to "Escape" Into Fandom? Teen Vogue. Retrieved February 1, 2021, from https://www.teenvogue.com/story/who-actually-gets-to-escape-into-fandom-column-fan-service

Tuck, E., & Yang, K. W. (2012). Decolonization is not a metaphor. Decolonization: Indigeneity, education & society, 1(1).

Woolley, S. (2020, February 12). Cottagecore is the pastoral fantasy aesthetic taking over TikTok. Retrieved February 3, 2021, from https://i-d.vice.com/en_uk/article/g5xjgj/cottagecore-aesthetic-lgbt-teens-tumblr-tik-tok?utm_source=stylizedembed_i-d.vice.com&utm_campaign=k7qam9&site=i-d

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