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#for them it was an important part of their story and that’s not fetishising
youneedsomeprompts · 1 year
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How to write: ethnicity & skin colour
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requested by: anonymous request: How exactly can I describe a characters ethnicity/skin color casually, without it sounding like a specific scene that just exists to describe the skin color? I hope this makes sense lmao… I just want to write a scene where I casually mention someone’s ethnicity or skin color
description of appearance: No matter if skin colour or hairstyle or clothes, a text is more dynamic if you don't dedicate an entire scene/paragraph to it but rather sprinkle the necessary information in here and there. However, there can be instances where it's conducive to the plot to put that entire paragraph (e.g. introducing a new important character with backstory). Otherwise, I'd say try to keep it short and put it where it serves the plot.
ways to incorporate...
... a description of appearance:
when a character makes their first entrance (describe everyone's colouring - POCs' and white characters')
the impression their complexion makes together with their clothes: "the bright yellow of their shirt complemented their dark skin"
the way their colouring interacts with lighting: "the grey weather took away the rosy hue of their fair skin"
when appearances create a contrast: "I immediately noticed them because they were the only other black person"
... ethnicity:
let the characters mention it where it makes sense
regarding the narrator you've chosen for your story, it can also be blended into an inner monologue
include parts of their culture: traditions, terms, family, etc. (this also allows to bring up their ethnicity repeatedly over the story and not only at the beginning)
show their struggles: are they affected by social struggles? then show it!
words to use to describe skin colour:
... basic colour descriptions:
brown
black
beige
white
pink
... more specific colours (try sticking to familiar/common words that can be easily visualised):
amber
bronze
copper
gold
ochre
terracotta
sepia
sienna
porcelain
tan
... prefixes or modifiers (can be easily combined with basic colours):
dark
rich
warm
deep
fair
faint
light
cool
pale
... undertones (pre-dominant colours underneath the skin - often warm or cool, sometimes also neutral and olive):
yellow
orange
coral
golden
silver
rose
pink
red
blue
... avoid food analogies as it's often received as offending, fetishising, and/or objectifying.
That's all I can provide as of now but I'm sure you guys have aspects to contribute. I'm very interested to hear your thoughts, so please feel free to add to this post whatever you like to/can share <3
And for more information, maybe also check out @writingwithcolor for more specialised posts on the topic <3
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hael987 · 2 years
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I’m so very tired of people saying nonsense about KinnPorsche the series and trying to bring it down.
I cannot stress enough how much the show means to me. Firstly because I’m enjoying it but more importantly because of what it’s showing, what it’s bringing into the world.
As Mile and Apo have continually been saying the series is showing love is love, we’re no different than the cishets. It’s telling queer people that they’re deserving of such detailed stories too. We also deserve stories that delve deeper than the superficial.
Let us have our complex characters. The morally grey or even morally black. The unclear, contrasting motives. Let us see healthy and unhealthy relationships. Fluff and action and torture. Let us have it all for once.
When we’re finally getting the variety we deserve, stop trying to restrict us back into boxes. It’s light, but it’s not superficial. It’s dark but it’s not gritty, there’s always some beauty to be found whether it be in the storyline itself or the shots.
Fair enough if it’s not to your personal taste/you personally don’t like it but to say such media shouldn’t be out there is wrong.
We get a story full of various kinds of love. Discovery and growth that’s flawed and rocky, an uneven and complicated path. A show that finally explores multitudes. A show through which I can finally feel connections to my own queer experiences but it’s subtle enough it’s not overwhelming and the story is varied enough with action, mafia plots and fluff that it’s enjoyable for the wider audience too.
We’re given NC scenes that feel beautiful, emotional, real and not fetishised. The joy and elation we get to see from them existing together. We’re given NC scenes that are dubious and darker. It doesn’t focus on just one aspect, we get it all. Layered and detailed for once.
They struggle to be together but it’s not because they’re queer, it’s because their lives are complicated and messy. It’s the casual normalising of it, shifting the focus to the people rather than focusing it on the sexuality.
Their words of support interspersed throughout the entire show. Telling us we’re supposed to be here. We’re seen. The effort Mile underwent to get this story out there, the improvements all the actors and BOC made to make the story better, less homophobic. How they changed part of Porsche’s storyline from internalised homophobia and that consequential struggle into something far more beautiful and relevant: an exploration of his quintessential self and his roles in life, his journey of self worth and happiness. How valid that makes one feel to watch such a series.
Chay setting out on his youthful love. Porsche only having his first dating experience in his adulthood. Tankhun feeling unsafe when he leaves his sphere, his use of fashion as a shield. Kinn’s struggle of duty vs heart. Pete and Vegas beginning to remove their masks. These stories, it’s all reminiscent of the very real queer experience. The differing journeys. The sex scenes, the fluff, the darker side. These multitudes symbolise the variety and varying paths of what the queer experience can entail.
The nod, the acknowledgement that there are so many differing queer experiences and stories to be told without reducing the focus to be solely on the sexuality. That queer people are people — as flawed, as varied, as complex as everyone else. Queer people don’t just have to exist one way or fit your ideals. Sometimes it’s uncomfortable to see, it’s the reality of existence.
Every single one of these points is why the show is important, necessary even.
I’m not claiming it’s the first show to do so, but I would say it’s the first show to express it so fully — it’s in every single inch of it. Stop trying to bring it down.
If you don’t like it that’s fine, it’s not for you. It’s for me. It’s for me and everyone like me that finally feels represented and loved and shown that we’re allowed to be complex. That we exist on equal ground and deserve to have equally complex media. That like our queer selves, the queer media we have shouldn’t be restricted to certain boxes.
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saintsenara · 6 months
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What do you think about mpreg in fics?
thank you for the ask, anon - especially because it combines really nicely with one i was sent by @sarafina-sincerity, and so now i have an excuse to talk at both of you...
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my general principle in fic is that i’ll read anything once, and so i - like you - have read some genuinely good fics which feature mpreg and a/b/o as central plot points - indeed, my first introduction to fan-fic, when i was a wee innocent of eleven, was lord of the rings mpreg, and it slapped - but i don’t read either of them much nowadays.
the issue with mpreg - and i do think it’s really important that we’re aware of this, even though people’s reading and writing tastes have no obligation to matter when it comes to real-world issues etc. etc. - is that the men who are getting pregnant within the trope are pretty much always cisgender men.
and, obviously, in a fantasy world in which magic exists, literally anything is possible. there could be spells to enable a cis man to carry a pregnancy; there could be potions; i tend to dislike creature inheritance fics, but you could have your character discover they’re part veela and all amab veela also have the requisite anatomy to get pregnant; maybe your character is a metamorphmagus and he is able to modify his body in order to carry a pregnancy; the list is endless.
however i do think that it’s important to acknowledge the gender issue with mpreg as a trope, even while being happy to read it.
the way that mpreg is often written involves an author expending a lot of energy coming up with a magical way for a cis man to get pregnant instead of just… writing him as trans, and i do think we have to ask why we as readers are so often happy to picture our fave lads as pregnant, but not as transgender.
the fact that many authors fail to explain how pregnancy functions in mpreg stories, reducing it simply to comments about being full or bred etc. fetishises the bodies of anyone who can become pregnant, regardless of gender, in a way which can often feel uncomfortable.
finally, we need to be aware as readers and authors that lots of slash (the place where mpreg is likely to be found) reproduces heterosexual romance tropes, and everyone ending up married with children is one of them. we need to question why, in stories where a queer couple have children, we may prefer mpreg (and, therefore, the couple having a biological child) to them adopting. and so on…
and i think that, really, my view of a/b/o is that it’s hamstrung by the same issues - especially the fact that mechanics of alphas impregnating omegas within cis m/m pairings is never explained - combined with the fact that the biological hierarchy replicates gendered tropes i personally find quite tiresome in slash fandom more widely, particularly the automatic equation of bottoming with being small, submissive, feminine, or physically fragile.
this isn’t me saying that people shouldn’t read and write these tropes, obviously. but i do think that they’re tropes which are worth examining more critically than they often are.
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dunkeyfromshrek · 1 year
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OKAY so im gonna be honest - i dont ship st3ddie
if you ship it that's okay i think we should all respect each other on this site (UNLESS YOU'RE A MILKYWAY OR HORNYGRAVE SHIPPER)
what i dont like about st3ddie is how it's compared to byler
so a while ago like in my twitter byler phase (the worst place to go to) i saw a user comparing st3ddie to byler saying how "both have the same amount of chemistry" and how they thought st3ddie apparently had more, and even though i was an early beginner byler, i still felt it was wrong because even then, i couldnt see any chemistry between steve and eddie, and couldnt draw any connections with a ship that has a story that predates the starting of the show, a romance that has always been present and lingering, even used in certain plot points of the show
moving on though, i just don't ship st3ddie because there's nothing between them and clearly i see it as a crackship
of course im a bi steve truther, but i actually see no chemistry between them
the toxic areas of the fandom just saw two conventionally attractive white males and paired them together to suit their fetishes
and yes, i do think a LARGE part of the st3ddie fandom is mainly fetishisers who constantly create inherently and purely shallow hypersexualised ideals of gay/mlm pairings and queer romances in general
what's wrong is how they compare this completely shallow and fetishised pair with a romance that's *real* and one of the most important pairings in the entire show.
in conclusion: i dislike st3ddie and their shippers; please just don't compare two ships with completely different interconnected dynamics
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zot3-flopped · 2 months
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It’s true that a lot of Larry-type thinking is about people (for whatever reason) not wanting Harry and Louis to have their own romantic lives, but it’s so much darker than that. They don’t want them to have any life that they don’t know about. Everything is up for investigation: their love lives, their random shags, who they party with, who they stand next to at a party (immediately those people become ‘friends’ - come on), their families, their friends, their families’ friends, their friends’ families, their music business dealings, their other business dealings, their promotional strategies, their homes, their gym, where they walk to and why. It’s exhausting.
And when the information isn’t forthcoming - which for the most part it isn’t because either that’s their private lives, or it’s business sensitive, or it’s nothing at all of significance, then they just lie lie lie and draw conclusions about things they have no understanding of. They don’t accept, or perhaps they can’t imagine, that they have absolutely no control over any of this, and they only see about 1% of Harry and Louis’ lives, most of which is not explained to them. So they bake things into the ‘canon’ and decide for these adult men that certain things were motivated by certain needs: not a shred of evidence or even fact but now they can spread those things as ‘reality’.
And what is it for? Some of them were maybe discovering they’re queer at that young age when romance seems very important - young teens - and they were sold a really potent story of forbidden love. I get it, but they have got to grow out of it!
Some of them are older women fetishising gay sex between young men (but let’s not forget Harry was a boy at the beginning of 1D; this is not some easy fantasy, it’s bloody dark). Those older women seem to want to shepherd the younger ones in some way, which is fucking creepy.
All of them seem to be really invested in fan fiction, like to a worrying degree. I wish they’d funnel that creativity in a way that didn’t perpetuate these fantasies for others.
Some of them just hate beautiful women, I think. I come from the UK and for me, the idea of shagging around a bit in your late teens/early twenties/late twenties is just kind of fine, some people do it and others don’t. I can see that if you come from a country where that’s a no, or a deeply conservative family in the US, say, then drivelling on about ‘stunts’ might make some warped sense. It’s phenomenally misogynistic, but they don’t seem to ever be able to analyse that for themselves. (I always think of Letdown nasty mod as one of these.)
But you know what’s saddest of all? That Harry and Louis are not even close to being special, throughout all this. Chris Evans fans are the same. Benedict Cumberbatch fans are the same. Outlander fans are the same. Supernatural. Name almost any male actor/tv series that appeals to online fans and the loneliest, most online of those fans are quietly generating a shit ton of crap. It eventually somehow becomes so intrusive that the object of their disrespect has to either say something, or conspicuously do nothing to pander to it. Cue more meltdowns every time. Larries are just another sad little group, out of a whole load of sad people who visit this disrespect on people they claim to love, but don’t know at all and never will. None of it is original. And then they wonder why famous people put on a bit of a persona: it’s to keep people like them away from their real lives 😖
Thank you for this! I agree with every word.
Many Larries do seem alarmingly puritanical. They believe that when Louis accidentally got a woman he'd only known a few months pregnant it was some deadly sin, but their notion that Louis is employing a child to fake being his son (which is illegal under child labour laws) is somehow fine because 'that's what happens in the entertainment industry.'
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admin-resources · 15 days
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— 𝐥𝐞𝐭❜𝐬 𝐭𝐚𝐥𝐤 𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭: 𝐨𝐜𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐟𝐚𝐜𝐞 𝐜𝐥𝐚𝐢𝐦𝐬
༊*·˚ what are they and why are they important
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༊*·˚ what is an oc?
↳ ❝ oc = original character. this is a character created by your hand regardless on whether it is inspired or based off something else. an oc is separate from a real person in different ways depending on the context and platform and is a character you portray outside of yourself. ❞
༊*·˚ what are face claims?
↳ ❝ face claims are the faces given to specific ocs on various platforms to give those who interact with them an idea of what they look like. face claims can vary and are used in published books as well as video games. a face claim can be the base model for your character in which you build upon or they could look exactly like them. ❞
༊*·˚ finding and crediting face claims
↳ ❝ within the chatbot community, originally the face claims that were used were only k-pop idols, over time, faceless ocs started to pop up before influencers and western celebrities were brought into the mix. any person can be used as an oc but please be mindful and respectful about those whom have said that they do not want their likenesses used in these ways. when crediting the face claim, you can simply provide their user but it isn't always necessary. it's just a nice thing to do. ❞
༊*·˚ are there any differences between a chatbot that uses an oc and one that uses an idol?
↳ ❝ short answer: no. i will talk about the strange stigma around ocs below but there is no real difference between them. they are original characters regardless of using a popular face claim or an influencer. the only difference is that one uses the real name of the idol and one does not. the moment you change the person's background, concept, age, or anything, they become an oc. some people simply have a harder time separating the face claim from the real person when their real name is used. ❞
༊*·˚ stigma around female ocs
↳ ❝ without getting into the previous history of female ocs and how they were once targeted and treated by the community, the stigma around female ocs has always been a topic talked about, especially amongst those who have female ocs. part of this conversation will touch upon subjects such as selectiveness and sexuality which will be discussed in a different section in depth. female ocs were always viewed as an attempt to get y/n interactions and while, in some cases, this may be true, it isn't true for the majority. everyone has their own discomfort about female ocs but it can sometimes come down to the selectiveness around people not wanting to rp with a female character as opposed to a male character. of course, this isn't a 'one size fits all' type of situation and there can be many different reasons why female ocs as a whole are ignored but from personal experience, i've seen it boil down to three reasons:
people wanting to have gay ships. i've noticed there are a lot more male ocs who are gay and chatbots who only date other males. this is a preference that the admin may have and is, on most occasions, okay but there are some cases where some people fetishise and chase the ships of particular idols.
people only want their own female oc interacted with but refuse to give that same time and attention to someone else's female ocs.
the female oc has been thrown together and there is a lack of character and substance. this usually comes from people who are trying to get a y/n experience or simply do not know how to build a character from scratch. ❞
this is not to shame the people who do these things, this is simply something i have noticed a lot as a female oc admin and have heard similar stories from fellow admins who also run female oc chatbots. there should be no stigma, no prejudice or selectiveness around female ocs especially for this community to be inclusive for everyone. ❞
༊*·˚ faceless chatbots
↳ ❝ faceless chatbots are ocs who do not have a specific face claim and uses a lot of faceless pictures rather than a set person. while nothing is wrong with creating an oc like this, most people find it hard to interact with a character with no physical features or face. they have a harder time getting attention and interactions and take some perseverance to make work. ❞
༊*·˚ important note
↳ ❝ a lot of this information can be debated, talked about and edited but this is all coming from the things i have seen throughout the years and my personal experience. i run both ocs in the sense of changed names and real names and always notice the large difference in who gets interactions. ❞
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capseycartwright · 2 years
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but isn't that fetishizing? like even with buddie we are y'all people so obsessed with watching people fucking?
i’m about to be fairly inarticulate about this because i’m hungover but here’s the thing: the whole sex scenes are bad nonsense is just puritanical culture being repackaged as fake woke bullshit and asks like this VERY much feed into that. sometimes there should be sex scenes for plot, sure. and sometimes there should be sex scenes because it’s a story about romance or whatever and in that instance a sex scene just feels fitting.
sex scenes are not necessarily necessary (ha) but going down the route of we don’t need to have sex scenes and shouldn’t ever be like hey, wow, that was a good sex scene, just gives into the implication that sex is a somehow inherently bad thing or something to be ashamed of - and i like to think we’ve come far enough as a society not to backslide into an era where sex is something we feel like we can’t or shouldn’t talk about because it’s ~ pRiVaTe ~ because fuck that, frankly. if you don’t want to watch sex scenes or talk about sex or read smutty fic that’s absolutely fine, but this policing of anyone who might ever say wow that couple kissing was hot af is wild.
fetishising is also a wildly different conversation and is one focused - largely - on lgbt folk and people of colour and how their sexuality has been fetishised as being something hot and not something that’s just. part of them. if i turned around and said i ship buck and eddie because i think it’d be hot if they fucked that would be fetishising. but i ship them for a whole multitude of other reasons and because for me, personally, sex is an important and interesting part of a relationship, that aspect of their relationship is appealing to me.
i like sex and i like talking about it and i just think buck and lucy are hot. nothing more too it. it was a good kiss. don’t be that person who’s being puritanical about sex and kissing under the guise of it being for a cause because it’s stupid and painfully see through. you clearly just don’t like lucy and are trying to find some grandiose and self important reason to judge me for the fact that i think her and buck kissing was firstly, pretty hot, and secondly an interesting plot point.
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itadori-san · 8 months
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You do know that in multiple interviews in Japan Gege confirmed Gojo to be a straight man who’s only into women right? I don’t really get the whole force shipping. It’s uncomfortable to me. It’s also fetishing lgbtq community instead of protesting for real representation
hello anon. let's talk shonen.
the shonen industry has always focused creating male protagonists and (extremely frequently) other male characters in a sort of hypermasculine but also the 'we're-united-with-the-power-of-FRIENDSHIP' kinda way. and why do they do this? to try and replicate an inseperable and extremely important bond between these characters. they do this to generalise the nature of the relationship among the people in the fandom for everyone to understand, and then commercialise it back to the fandom.
in other words, they want you to invest in these relationships. they want you to speculate on who these characters are. this generates the business in their professions.
and honestly? these tropes you see in shonens are the milder tones of the relationships largely portrayed in shonen-ais and yaois. sure they're forced to stay in their own spheres and tropes, but the type of relationship they're trying to get across to you is quite similar.
now let's talk jjk.
you do understand this is fiction right? satosugu is among the biggest ships in jjk. hell, it even reached #49 on the top 100 ships on tumblr last year. this isn't 'forced' per se, given how the shonen industry structures its stories. if you're signing up to these stories with the sole intent of sexualising two fictional men, well THAT'S fetishising. to quote one of my friends on here (hi al!), we're just here because satosugu breaking up in front of a kfc 'reminds us of our first gay ass teenage heartbreak'. further, you can just choose to relate to it emotionally, and maybe you'd see parts of the fandom that speak of this emotionality and how delicate their relationship is (which is all i see tbh), not abt them fucking or whatever idk
sure, there are parts of this fandom that are freaky asf and mischaracterisation is quite a problem on here BUT don't misread the room here. this is, at the end of the day, a fictious story.
also the sentence 'gojo is a straight man who's only into women' makes me giggle.
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taikanyohou · 2 years
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Can I ask you something? If Bls fetishize gay men, is there really anyway to ethically consume any series at all?
hiiii anon!!!!
oh good question.
ok. so. i think recent bl's, i'd say .... from 2020-ish, maybe even 2018/2019 tbh, have taken that step forward where, they're tryna move away from blantant fetishising, and become more progressive, not just towards gay men, but the asian queer community in general, and anyone who identifies themselves within that community.
that being said, of course there will be instances where queer asian people, including queer asian men, will be fetishised.
i think the biggest example in terms of progression has been in the sheer amount different genres of asian queer shows that are produced, and in addition to that, in the increasing number of people who both behind the cameras and in front of them identify as asian and queer too.
also i feel like the way sex is used in asian queer shows has shifted. yes, of course, there are still instances of rape/non-con/dub-con, but there was a time when sex was Literally Only used within asian queer shows For That Only. now? sex is used to explore dynamics, explore feelings, progress a story, progress a relationship. its treated as a character, in a sense, and given some meaning and substance. also, that includes the whole top/bottom discourse too. like. i think there's just more looseness and freedom to it now? like. yeah, some characters LIKE bottoming, some LIKE topping, some ARE versatile! for example, i call pete from kinnporsche a pillow princess ALL the time, and thats bc he IS. thats with no malice or rudeness or any intent to fetishise him as being all weak and delicate, usually the traits that are associated with "being a bottom", bc he isnt weak or delicate! but during sex, he LIKES being the taker, he likes receiving, and that plays a huuuuge part in his character's development later on in the show.
i'd also say "coming out stories" have recently not been .... THAT heavily used, within recent shows that i have watched? and thats not to say that coming out stories arent important! of course they are. or there's a lesser case of characters having internalised homophobia, filled with shame and self-loathing bc they realise they're queer, in recent shows i have watched. thats not to say they dont question who they are, they do, but they dont hate themselves for being queer. its more a case of exploration. and its so nice to see that for a change? asian queer characters being gentle on themselves, learning to treat themselves with patience and time to navigate their identity. and its so nice to also see asian queer characters for a change who are just, queer! loud and queer!
what i'm trying to say is that they are all stories at the end of the day. and all forms of story telling, from healthy to toxic, from stories of kids in school to students in uni to working adults, from coming out stories to stories that talk about sparking a political revolution, stories that are coming of age or a slice of life, stories that span all types of backgrounds and time periods, should be able to be told. and sometimes they'll have characters that are already so comfortably queer in their own skin and some that aren't, and there'll be some stories that are more tame in terms of how physical they are and like to explore the more emotional nuances of the story and some that like to explore sex in a multitude of ways. there's really no right or wrong in terms of wanting to set out a story and choosing which way to tell it. the scope is so huge.
now. like i said. not every asian queer piece of media will be faultless, and there will be instances of fetishisation. but i also want to look at how far we've come! i've been around watching asian queer media since ... god .... i cant even remember how long, its been that long, and ive seen how far we've come. as an asian queer person myself, it gives me so much pride and joy in seeing that!
and i think, the older and more mature i have gotten, my mindset has changed a lot. now, i like to see stories and media as a whole thing. that, yes, there will be faults and its not going to be perfect. but as someone who can compartmentalise, as a consumer, as an audience member, as an asian queer person, as someone who is watching this as a form of escapism, i'll recognise the faults and the things i'm not fond of, or that dont sit right with me, and put them to one side, and still allow myself to enjoy the rest of the story/media. otherwise, i'll never be able to enjoy anything ever again, if i scrutinise every single little thing and every little detail ethically. like i said, not everything will sit right with me, but i can work with that and say "yeah i didnt like that narrative choice" and put it to a side, and move on. and if its reeeeeeally bugging me, i'll just drop the show. now, some people like doing that (scrutinising every little detail through ethical lenses) and thats their choice in how they view media. but ig i'm not like that? and i can let myself enjoy asian queer stories that are trying to say something, to convey something, as a bigger picture.
and yeah, there will be instances where queer characters in asian media will get fetishised, there will be the whole "husband and wife" and "girls on campus stalking a queer couple" etc etc etc. but i can look at all that and say to myself, yeah, work needs to be done here, whilst also enjoying the rest of the show and what its trying to convey or tell.
so yeah, i do think you can, if as a consumer, you can appreciate the bigger picture whilst also understanding that we've still got some room for progress.
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rollercoasterwords · 1 year
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hello!
this is a little bit away from your last post but i think a lot of “hot take activism” has stemmed from oh they have a point! i’m going to drive this in further so i don’t look like a bad person!
even though some hot takes are subject to opinion
for example a lot of fan fiction writers have been slated for their E rating on mlm fanfiction and many of the critics are cishet women, whilst men in the fandom have taken no issue
now if a man were to take issue that’s entirely valid however a lot of people critique unprompted which then leads to a kind of mob mentality in a way where all of a sudden all explicit mlm fics are crucified and deemed fetishisation (even though no one had a problem before this one critique)
a friend of mine had written a fic that had been quite popular in a small fandom and was basically bullied until it was taken down even after he explained that he himself was a gay male
i’m all for calling out harmful issues when necessary: call a spade a spade
but i think sometimes people’s intention can be misconstrued and imo more harmful than the actual writing itself
(i’m on 2 hours of sleep and i have more to say! but i’m gonna keep this anonymous just in case i wake up and think “i didn’t mean to phrase it like that” although i think i got my general point across)
yeah i mean. i tend to think that most online discourse which takes nuanced issues and boils them down to one or two sentences is more about virtue signaling and performing morality for an audience than it is any sort of real activism, because flattening what should be a complex conversation does more harm than good. i don't necessarily think it's all ill-intentioned though, more just....people falling prey to the social media panopticon unfortunately
one thing i do wanna push back on a little though is that it seems like you're placing a lot of emphasis on the identity of the critics/people being critiqued, and that is part of what i'm trying to stay away from. like u say many of the critics are cishet women, but is that true? how do u know? do they all have "cishet" in their bios or something? like i'm not being sarcastic here and i'm not trying to be snippy, i am genuinely just like. asking u to reflect a bit on this point and get back to me. because part of what i said in my original post is that even if u are 100% sure about the way someone identifies, it still is not productive to treat identity as a fixed and static category. someone who identifies as a cishet woman could identify as something completely different the next day, and that's entirely valid imo
similarly, when u say "well it's different if a man takes issue with it," i just...do not necessarily think that's true. obviously it is important to take into account the ways in which someone's gender identity will affect their personal experiences and inform their critique, but i think the content of that critique matters more than the specific identity of the person making it, y'know?
like, i don't want to unfairly represent either side of this conversation. and if one side is people going "oh everyone writing these explicit mlm stories is cishet women!!" and the other side is going "oh everyone complaining about fetishization is cishet women!!" do u see how. both of those stances are operating from the same premise. and will therefore never be able to have a productive dialogue with each other. personally, my impression is that the majority of the people involved in this conversation on both sides are not, in fact, cishet women--at least in the marauders fandom. i'm not going to say that's 100% the case because it's impossible to do any sort of statistical analysis, especially given the fluid nature of identity. but do u see how the fact that we have different perceptions of who is actually talking about this makes a focus on identity in and of itself a bit of a non-starter for talking through the issue?
i do agree w u that mob mentality is a big part of this though, and what happened to your friend sucks + is definitely an example of the way this sort of policing around who can write what is ultimately going to hurt queer people more than it does anything to like. dismantle systemic homophobia. but i just wanna reiterate that the core of the issue to me is not so much "people are taking the conversation too far" as it is "the premise of this conversation seems to rely on an understanding of identity that is rooted in gender essentialism."
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melodramaschild · 1 year
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Funeral prompt :
Remus giving beating reader the “go ahead princess, see what happens” look from across the room (full of people) right before she does something bratty
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Robie’s funeral
Funeral
In memory, prompt with any character you want. All your comfort characters are dead and you’re remembering them, just remembering on good old day when they were alive.
It is posted here!
And please before you read Funeral by Phoebe Bridgers:
Thank you so much for requesting that and reading this.
This story means a lot to me. It’s also a first story I’m writing after almost two years of a writing block.
I was so hard on myself those last three years that I felt I can’t write anymore. I felt like I’m not meant to write anymore.
I wanted to write something where I put some work into. So I did that. I gave myself the time to put my ideas a words down and I made that. With this story I’m trying to free myself from my bad habits so thank you so much for being with me and reading that.
I also wanted to write a story where I can say “Look what I made!” without feeling guilt of not working enough on that or without feeling shame that it’s too cliché and plot too fast.
So thank you once again for allowing me to present you that story.
Also: something that I do find very important.
First of all; I’m not black. But Dorcas is and she’s dark skinned too.
I read articles and some accounts on how to write for a black character because: 1. THATS LIKE THE BARE MINIMUM OF ME
2. I wanted you all to know that she’s black since Dorcas been whitewashed way too many times.
3. I didn’t want it to sounds like I’m fetishising her (I think that this is the word, correct me if I’m wrong please) because I listed to black women and they agreed that being described as “Dark chocolate.” or “Exotic fruit.” isn’t something that they desire to be described as.
Which I wouldn’t say, it’s only for the point here. If you get me.
So please, when you get into Dorcas part and you’ll see something that isn’t sitting right with a description of black woman, please definitely let me know.
4. Representation matters and since I’m writing Y/n as neutral as possible, I saw that as a right and the most bare minimum thing to do.
Second of all; I’m not disabled that I need to use walking cane.
Again; I tried to avoid any sentences that could look like I’m fetishising or overhyping it. But if you see any, please let me know.
Third of all; I’m not welsh. But Hope (Remus’ mother) and Remus are.
I also did my research on this one and used many websites and translations on how to use welsh slang or what are the most common welsh words.
So if you see something that isn’t… when you see that the welsh isn’t welshing also please reach out to me.
Also for some reason I wrote that they’re in Yorkshire because well… maybe they moved out there! Maybe they like there! Maybe it was just fitting to my plot!
Plus Remus looks like Yorkshire too- (like the ugly ass dog)
And also I probably didn’t use any of British slang, so sorry Sirius and James but I simply forgot-
Now it would be great and brilliant to say something about Y/n being dead but uh… whatever is fitting your imagination about why Y/n is dead… it happened.
Enjoy your reading 🤍
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illcasthealinghands · 3 years
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welcome to my stream of consciousness because i’m bad at words: i’m so glad that i’m not on cr twitter and my corner of tumblr doesn’t buy into the weekly discourse from those who need to find a problem with the cast
like people who are still saying that sg was baiting because it wasn’t one of the main focuses of their arcs it’s almost as if asking the dm to spend more time on a romance would be unfair on both matt and liam because it takes time away from the actual plot and the other people at the table
sg wasn’t a focal point of either character’s story and it doesn’t have to be to be considered representation and to label it as malicious is exactly why mainstream media doesn’t touch us because it’s wrong to prioritise a queer relationship but also wrong to not do that? pick a lane and stay in it.
and people calling by predatory and fetishising because the cast make sex jokes and marisha posted about her lockscreen, it’s pretty apparent that the cast have a generally crass sense of humour and will apply that to whoever of their characters they choose (except caduceus after he said he ‘wasn’t into that’ wow so harmful) women having an interest in sex isn’t allowed i forgot.
people wouldn’t have a problem with this if marisha was openly queer but yes let’s pressure a group of people who are consciously private about their lives to justify the five minutes of outrage from people that have nothing better to do than consume the free content we get from these people and then spam abuse
wlw being comfortable in their sexuality after a campaign of growth and supportive moments is fetishising but because mlm didn’t kiss or fuck in game yet still got confirmed is baiting and you want to talk about fetishising queer characters that’s awful funny isn’t it
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eremin0109 · 2 years
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I read this amazing post by @anpanman95 and they literally wrote down everything I thought about that scene!
But still, to add to their train of thought--yes, sexual preferences do NOT matter. Not in a fictional space, neither in real life. And especially in queer relationships. That's only a tiny part of people's overall identity.
That being said, I can't express in words how important it is that they showed/implied Pran, a gay man, topping his taller, muscular bi/pan boyfriend. Usually in BLs, there's this very toxic trend of feminizing the gay dude in the relationship, especially if the other partner isn't exclusively gay too. Same with the "wife" trope, it's always the gay partner who gets called that. Now there's nothing wrong with being a feminine gay man, but when you continuously portray that single image as representative of a diverse community, it's so harmful to the men who are gay but do NOT fit that particular mould.
Pran is gay, but he isn't effeminate. He isn't as traditionally masculine as Pat either (who, let's be real, has many feminine attributes to himself as well). However, as is evident throughout the series Pran likes to be dominant. He likes being in control. It's just his preference. I'm sure he wouldn't mind being on the receiving end too, if that's what Pat wanted. They're flexible that way. If I'm not wrong, P'aof himself confirmed them to be switches/verses.
And this is a very, VERY significant thing when you compare it to how sex is portrayed in other BLs. You would usually expect a character like Pat to be the top. Why? Just because he's physically bigger/buffer than Pran and/or he's more outgoing, flirty, naughty yada yada. But most people, especially those who fetishise mlm relationships, don't realise that that's not how it works. Physical appearance and personality has NOTHING to do with what you prefer in your bedroom. So Pran could be reserved and even embarrassed in public when Pat gets handsy but be an absolute monster in bed. Ever heard of "Saint in the streets, Satan in the sheets"???? Both are not mutually exclusive Lmao.
Anyway, just wanted to reiterate why P'aof choosing to make it clear that Pran topped for their first time is such a big deal. Again ideally, it shouldn't be because it has no effect on either who Pran and Pat are as people or the overarching plot of the story. But it serves as a good slap in the face to folks who just couldn't stop enforcing their fetishistic hetereonormativity on the boys DESPITE the series telling them otherwise over and over again.
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140smashedguitars · 3 years
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Something that I love about Cherry Magic is the way it ignores a bunch of tired/toxic tropes in stories about queer people. I'm gonna list them under a read more because this is gonna get kinda long.
No homophobia This is the big one, obviously. Every story about queer people involves the main character and/or the love interest fighting homophobia. You have the character(s) dealing with slurs, mockery, being isolated from people who they thought cared about them and potentially violently abused. Instead, the only thing vaguely homophobic thing we hear is episode 7 when Adachi is worried about the fact that they’re both men, but then moves past it and tells Kurosawa that he wants to be with him. The only time anyone is suspected of being homophobic is when Minato thinks Tsuge is being homophobic towards him and Rokkaku, a (presumably) cishet character, stands up for Minato and is ready to throw hands for him, until the mistake is quickly rectified. Homophobia just doesn’t have a place in this story, and I know that homophobia is rampant in the real world, I’m not saying it’s not, it’s just that so many stories are already about that and it’s nice to see a queer story focused on someone learning to love and accept themself and realise and accept that they are allowed to be happy.
No coming out Someone made a post about how mainstream stories about queer people are about coming about because that’s what affects cishet people and mainstream media wants to cater to them. I am so tired of this; cishet people being focused on/pandered to in stories about queer people. Our stories are not about you. The stories don’t need to be for you. You can enjoy them, but you don’t need to be the centre of them for that. Instead of having literally any coming out in this show, whenever anyone is revealed to be queer, it isn’t made to be an emotional, important scene. The revelation happens, and the other character accepts it and doesn’t make a big thing out of it. When Adachi finds out for definite that Kurosawa likes him, he doesn’t think “Wait, Kurosawa likes men?” He thinks “Wait, Kurosawa likes me?” Again, I know in real life that coming out is a big and terrifying thing for queer people, but it’s not the only part of our life.
No one is already in a relationship Films like Imagine Me & You and Free Fall (both of which I like) have one of the characters start the film in an opposite sex relationship which they seem happy in, until the other character of the same sex as them comes along and confuses them and then they either want to or do cheat on their current partner and then they have to choose who they want to be with and it’s just a mess. Queer people aren’t just homewreckers or need a special person to come along and make them realise they were gay all along. Bisexual people do exist and can have happy relationships with people of the opposite sex. Who knew! Instead, all 4 members of the couples are single until they get together. Kurosawa isn’t trying to avoid his feelings by being with someone he doesn’t really like and then breaking their heart. Adachi and Tsuge obviously aren’t in relationships because that’s the point of the plot and Minato is single as well. It all works out nicely. There’s no going behind a partners back or promising to leave the partner, but they don’t want to upset them. Just 4 single people who find each other with some bumps along the way.
No aggression at realising they’re gay Brokeback Mountain, Free Fall and a bunch of other films about queer men will do this and I HATE it. One of the characters will fall in love with the other and accept that part of themself, and the other character will start sleeping with him and then get angry and then potentially physically violent if not just verbally abusive because he can’t deal with being attracted to a man and the other character will just continue to love him and want to be with him despite that. Just. Why? Queer people aren’t just toxic or drawn to toxic relationships. This is an awful narrative, especially when the films are catered towards cishet people. Instead, Kurosawa loves and respect Adachi so much, putting his needs first, going at his pace, letting him make the first moves. In return, Adachi loves and respects Kurosawa even if he is nervous about it. He’s respectful of Kurosawa’s feelings and wants him to be himself around Adachi. They love each other for who they are. We get constant shots of them smiling at/because of each other. After Adachi reveals his magic to Kurosawa, Kurosawa doesn’t get angry or upset and only interupts Adachi after he starts insulting himself. And when they break up, again, Kurosawa isn’t angry (though he’s obviously upset), but doesn’t take that out on Adachi. Instead, he takes him back literally with open arms because he understands that Adachi’s problem is with himself and that he needed time to work on that. Kurosawa wants Adachi to see himself as a good person, and Adachi wants the reverse. And even though we don’t see much of Tsuge and Minato, we know that Tsuge is so happy to be with Minato and Minato is clearly happy with Tsuge even if he has a harder time communicating. They both respect each others boundaries as well and Minato goes slow for Tsuge their first time in case Tsuge wants to stop. The relationships have clearly made all 4 of them happy and it shows the queer audience that they can be in happy, respectful and non toxic realtionships too, as is what we deserve.
No fetishisation The fact that this show is based around the main character and his best friend losing their virginities yet there’s no gratuitous sex scenes or even a kiss from the main couple is quite astonishing. Most films about queer people (especially queer men) will have so much explicit sexual content, which is probably there for the cishet female gaze. All 4 members of the couples are treated with respect within the narractive and when one of them does get overly sexualised (Kurosawa) it’s seen negatively. It forces us to see all the characters as human beings and focus entirely on their stories. What wer get instead of the fetishisation is better as well. The first time Adachi and Kurosawa hold hands makes my heart swell. Kurosawa grabbing Adachi’s hand nervously is an amazing shot and it’s so wonderfully intimate that no kiss or sex scene could’ve beaten that. And when we do get a kiss (from Minato and Tsuge) it’s there to make a point. Like I said before, it shows Minato cares about and respects Tsuge’s feelings. We know they had sex, same with Adachi and Kurosawa in the finale but they don’t show it. They don’t need to. Also, Fujisaki is very intersting this aspect. She’s the only female main character and not only is she not fetishised, she’s aroace and it’s completely accepted by Adachi. She’s treated like a human being, and she doesn’t fetishise Adachi and Kurosawa.
No one dies and both couples get together and stay together Self explanatory, but how many stories about queer people do we know of where after everything, one of the main characters die, or the couple just simply don’t end up together? I’m sick and tired of watching so many stories where queer people fight to be themselves and be with someone they love only for that fight to be futile. What’s the point? So seeing a show with FIVE queer people in the main cast who are happy and 4 of them end up in relationships with someone they love that are not toxic that we know will actually last is so refreshing. The show takes the bury your gays trope and says ‘fuck that, we’re not about that’ and I absolutely love it for it.
This show all in all is quite fascinating. It’s 5 hours long and takes all these tropes and throws them in the bin. It tells a compelling, beautiful story that I and so many other queer people really needed. It gives us hope that maybe one day we can find someone who loves us for who we are, be it a friend or romantic partner. It shows us that there are other people like us and we can find them. We are not alone. It shows us that even if we don’t love ourselves, we are still capable of loving someone else and someone else can still love us.
I love this show, and it means more to me than I can explain. I didn’t expect this to get mushy towards the end, but honestly, I want to say thank you for everyone who made Cherry Magic the way it is. It’s a truly amazing show and it’s sad that more people won’t get to see it, but I’m glad I did. ❤️
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scriptlgbt · 3 years
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I am a guy (trans actually but haven't told my readers) and I'm writing F/F stories. A minority of those are non/part human and one can physically change sex and has been M before. I don't get why many readers (the only ones I know the gender of are female) keep calling me being fetishising. I honestly haven't written any offensive and my lesbian friends tells me there's nothing fetishising. Then a few claim that it is a fetish simply for a male to write F/F. Uhh.. Help???
Honestly, you’re better off asking for an open call for the readers calling you fetishized to give you guidance on why that is and the details involved. What you’re talking about seems to be a broad range of stories.
Some things that might help to be transparent about as an author:
Why do you write these stories?
Why do these characters resonate with you?
To what extent are you writing for yourself and to what extent are you writing for others?
Have you had an actual (professional or otherwise) sensitivity reader help edit or advise?     (If you talk about this, do not use it as any kind of excuse, but only to express transparency about the fact that you are working on it.)
*Only if you’re comfortable with it* - what relationship have you had with F/F fiction and that community over the years? How has this genre and community helped you ?
There aren’t wrong answers to these, just answers that help establish a healthier relationship with this community.
There are a lot of issues with regards to power dynamics and dehumanization with men writing women characters in general, let alone writing WLW, that I’m sure you have some grasp on (because We Live In A Society and this is hard to ignore). It’s understandable that a lot of people aren’t okay with it regardless of what you’ve written. Our communities in general have a lot of diverse opinions and none of them are necessarily wrong.
Insisting you haven’t written anything offensive and that other people say there’s nothing fetishizing may help you with getting a diversity of opinions, but none of these opinions should get more gravity than others until you’re really at the root of it. Insisting these opinions are worth more to you is only going to instigate further backlash from the people who you are trying to stave off. I think you need to stop trying to stave them off. I’m not saying you should necessarily make them above the other opinions you’re getting, but equalizing the playing field with who you listen to matters. You need to be able to understand and validate where they are coming from in order to have a healthy relationship with a community that (I assume) you’re not a part of.
You need to be open to hearing out the people who feel differently than you and taking their guidance into account. Important note: Guidance involves something you can use as advice on how to move forward. Not all criticism counts as that because a lot of people understandably do not want to invest in pushing others forward or be around to hold you accountable. Shit is complicated. You need to be accepting of the complications and nuance and the way this kind of thing can be a complicated journey.
I also want to mention that asking lesbian friends is probably not enough to really grasp what’s going on here. Your friends are your friends and are more likely to share perspectives with you, for one.
I would genuinely look into hiring (if you can’t afford it, consider a labour trade) someone who is a sensitivity reader or consultant to help you interpret these kinds of comments and take them into account.
- mod nat
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ouyangzizhensdad · 3 years
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unpopular opinion: most of the mxtx critical discourse happens becouse people cant let go of their prejudes against bl genre
Somewhat agree? I know you used “most” so you already acknowledged that there are other factors at play, but I do think it’s important to consider that reactions like these generally do not have a single, easy answer. 
While people tend to conflate danmei and BL, we can’t ignore that there have been larger discussions about how women *should* or *should not* engage or produce m/m content, in and out of fandoms, in ways that even people who haven’t drunk the anti-fujo kool-aid are inherently suspicious of “straight women” writing m/m stories (the Love, Simon controversy is an example of that where the author was forced out of the closet for the crime of writing a m/m story as a presumed straight woman). But danmei/bl being non-western, non-white genres certainly accentuate many of these tensions. Racism funnily both play into the patronising/otherising takes regarding how ‘terrible’ danmei-bl is compared to other m/m content, but also in the criticisms of westerners who engage in danmei-bl: ‘so you guys just want to fetishise asian men/asian gay men’.
As well, there’s been so much discussions about what *should* or *should not* been written when it comes more broadly to romance and sex, about what is problématique or not, the conclusion of which seems to lean toward the idea that any content that is not a safe, sane and consensual PSA or entirely wholesome simply should not exist. And that’s not even mentioning the sort of “psychologisation” or “trauma-turn” of these discussions, where people assume the psychological states of people who write or engage with problématique content, or propose that only people who have the right list of traumas can produce or engage with these types of content. And that hangs heavy not only in the mind of people who produce content but the person who consume it. If the only reason you could possibly want to engage with anything problématique would be that you are, in a way, deviant or broken, then perhaps you will start consciously avoiding these types of works or people who produce them. And all these relate to large discussions about how “””fiction impacts reality””” and discussions about social justice and consent, etc. etc. Once more, we have overlapping discourses and so, so much intertextuality. 
And the thing is that, generally, it’s not like these discourses are “rotten to the core,” ie that there is not important conversations to be had about these topics or that real issues did not spark these conversations in the first place. However, many people tend to want to collapse these complex discussions with complex and sometimes contradicting conclusions into a single, convenient answer by going to the extreme. And we have to recognise that there is something rewarding about feeling like you’re in the right, especially when these discourses become moralised. The trade-off between giving up entirely on something for the reward of taking the moral high ground seems very appealing! And it’s a lot less difficult than to navigate on a case-by-case basis works of fiction or fandom discussions, or to figure how to like something you might also disagree with or question regarding certain aspects. 
However, not only is it a vain effort, it is also denies art its capacity for meaning. It is vain because, well, the sources of the issues are unlikely to disappear and will probably only move onto a newer manifestation, and because humans be problematic 🤷‍♂️ and we be living in a society 🤷‍♂️. It doesn’t mean we should not be critical and have debates and conversations and expect better--but it means that this belief that the internet will be a good place if only we can squash fandom group X is just..... a fantasy. A comforting one, perhaps, but one all the same. I wouldn’t mind it as much if there wasn’t harassment and aggression resulting from these beliefs, and if it didn’t stifle art and creativity, the latter relating to an underlying assumption that there is nothing of worth in exploring in fiction difficult or shocking themes, or relationship dynamics that are not perfect or healthy. And that is just..... fundamentally misunderstanding the point of art and fiction. 
As well, somewhat in relation to these discussions, it’s important I think to accept that a lot of people who engage with MDZS in bad faith do so after they have been exposed by takes demonising the work that they took at face-value. It takes a lot more energy, good faith, critical thinking, and good reading comprehension to end up finding arguments against a perception of a work that you already accepted as true before you read it. Especially since social media has made it so much more dependent on other people’s opinions to decide what we engage with, and in which manner we will, I don’t think it can be understated. If you have already been served an opinion, it is easier than having to form your own, and easier than challenging it. Especially if people frame that opinion as morally right, and the people who disagree with it as degenerate sickos. Wouldn’t want to side with the freaks!!!
Finally, MDZS is not a work of fiction that can be read on the surface, and is a work that likes to play with tropes in a manner than is not necessarily a complete and total subversion, things that make it easier for people to miss the point of many of its elements. It’s even harder considering the level of the available translation and the framing of said translation--and the fact that many of the readers are not part of the intended audience and lack many of the cultural or literary knowledge that would help them navigate the novel. And, let’s be honest, it’s easier to miss the mark at times when a writer decides to handle more complex and controversial topics. It’s not like I don’t think MXTX could have not done some things better.
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