#i dont think sub bucky is inherently insulting to all trauma victims but anyone who has spoken to me probably knows i find it unhealthy

[lesbiradshaw]

your explanation about how bucky isn’t female/woman coded was so interesting and well said! i’m worried after reading it that i’m unintentionally giving bucky traits that he doesn’t have on screen in my writing. I often write him as submissive, and now i’m worried that I do that because of some misconception that’s actually damaging. how do I know and how do I stop?

well. i’m not sure i can give you an unbiased answer to this because 1) i don’t know what you’re writing 2) i’m unable to set a personal boundary for you and 3) to be frank i don’t personally sub bucky at all. the aversion stems from a lot of personal reasons with how i see his character/things i’ve seen within the community of authors/artists and dislike of things like i went into detail on during the woman coding post + the fact that a lot of the fics i’ve seen featuring him are trauma porn, but with that being said, i’m aware not every fic is like that at all. it’s just not something i’m personally comfortable with.

i’m not trying to “more righteous than thou” you, because i think it’s actually nice that you asked and are trying to be self critical but i guess the question you should ask yourself is: why do you write him, both as submissive, and in general? is it because you see that trait in his personality on screen? because you think it’s healthy and beneficial with his history? because you think it’s hot? do you write fic trying to adhere to his on screen characterization? do you try and retain his canon personality regardless of a fic’s setting/situation?

you can replace the word submissive with a lot of others, but this is the example, and with bucky’s characterization i think answering these questions can sometimes get convoluted because of his history both pre/post hydra and what weight each individual writer think it holds. a lot of people like erasing “the pain” from his character as a whole, which kind of leaves him an innocent blank slate in some cases, while others have it debilitate him to the point of him being unable to function on his own. there’s damage done on both ends of that scale to some degree.

since we’re different people, we’re going to have different answers about these things and i can’t tell you what is right and wrong about bucky’s characterization, what should/should not be written, or how you should go about writing fic/what reasons you have behind it. but i can tell you that misconceptions are something that can hinder us all. i’ve written fics before that i now find personally icky when it comes to personal preference stuff because after asking myself questions and reevaluating, my opinions on things changed. such is the way of life and growing up. sometimes things that we prefer are later realized as superficial or stereotypical. sometimes they actually make more sense than we thought. sometimes they are part of a larger problem. it depends. “how do i know and how do i stop” are the questions you’ll have to ask yourself again at the end, and as with the other questions, only you are going to have the answer to them.

#anyways i hope this was helpful im sorry i dont have a clear answer #but i dont want to be accused of telling people what to do #the world doesnt revolve around my preferences about bucky (but it should) #i dont think sub bucky is inherently insulting to all trauma victims but anyone who has spoken to me probably knows i find it unhealthy #only for him specifically #but thats a personal preference based off of my reading of him and i know this #anyways dont mind me #thank you for asking