#inherently hate/ignore wlw ships?

[dxringred]

no, this is not intended to be anti-ste/ddie or mlm ships in general, i’m just an extremely tired lesbian who needs to vent.

i know i’ve already complained once today, but my god am i bitter about the amount of attention ste/ddie gets over ronance. don’t get me wrong, good for them, whatever, but they had significantly less canonical interactions, and yet somehow they’re doing double -- triple -- the numbers, and it infuriates me. i’ve seen numerous ste/ddie posts in my explore page on instagram but only one or two ronance ones despite actively searching for and saving them.

the ste/ddie ao3 tag has triple the amount of fics in it than the ronance tag, and a good 50% of the latter’s are also ste/ddie fics because for some reason people can’t type “background robin buckley/nancy wheeler” instead of the primary ship tag. meanwhile, the ste/ddie tag isn’t being even remotely clogged by ronance fics. and yes, i checked. on the first page, as of writing, ste/ddie only had two non-ste/ddie fics. ronance? thirteen. thir-fucking-teen. out of twenty!

the ronance tag on here? 9k followers, with 111 new posts today. pretty fucking cool! that’s easily the most popular thing i’ve shipped since swan/queen, like, four years ago. okay, well let’s look at ste/ddie.

oh.

29k followers. 489 new posts today.

#ronance #entering my feral arc #[insert audio of me screaming for a solid ten minutes] #GOD #i'm not ungrateful or anything bc you guys rock #i've read some awesome fic #and seen gorgeous art #but frick man #why do fandoms seem to just fricking #inherently hate/ignore wlw ships? #why do wlw ships have to do so much more fricking work #and STILL lose? #why are more people interested in eddie allegedly being acted as qu**r #than fricking CANON LESBIAN ROBIN #i just- #fricking hell man #and yes i know #there's the issue with the fetishization of mlm ships #i was once in a fandom that was notorious for it #but of what i've seen of ste/ddie #that seems to be the vast minority of what's being produced #and lesbians/wlw also get fetishized #it's just in the '''''real world''''' #instead of fandom #because men are less likely to engage with fandom the way women do #(esp. when it comes to writing fic) #and more likely to watch wlw smut than read/write it #censored myself bc this wasn't going in the tag :)))

[magpod-confessions]

i saw the ask that was saying jonelias hate was homophobic but wtgfs hate wasn’t lesbophobic and didn’t want to reblog it because i didn’t want to get involved in drama but. yikes.

the wtgfs thing- no, it is absolutely not lesbophobic to be more interested in the main characters than a side ship. that does not change the fact that misogyny and lesbophobia are a pervasive issue in popular and fandom culture. i feel like it’s possible to acknowledge that main wlw ships being ignored for a side mlm pairing is something that happens, and that’s bad, and it is also not inherently misogynistic to be less invested in a side wlw pairing.

the jonelias thing- yes, treating jonelias like some terrible morally reprehensible thing is silly, and no it’s not somehow inherently sexual. there are many darker/more questionable ships that are significantly more widely accepted, and not everybody is going to be interested in jmart. a lot of people like corruption arcs and would have found that to be more interesting. however, you cannot just call someone a bigot because they prefer the canon ship over your fanon interpretation. a lot of people aren’t going to like a ship like jonelias, for plenty of different reasons. maybe it doesn’t fit the way they see the characters, they would prefer jon regaining his humanity and healing in a healthy way, maybe they just don’t like it. that doesn’t make them inherently homophobic. you can disagree with someone and dislike their ships without it meaning they are a bad person.

the mean lesbian thing- i feel they missed the point here. the issue isn’t jonny writing women as mean lesbian stereotypes. none of the characters even have a canon sexuality beyond tim and jon liking multiple genders and jon being somewhere on the ace spectrum, and even those are vague. the issue is fandom stereotyping, seeing women in a terrible situation under pressure getting angry at a man and then deciding they must be mean man hating lesbians. seeing a man who has a sense of humor and is presumably bisexual and deciding he’s a flirty slut with the emotional capacity of a teaspoon. seeing a violent woman who cares for another woman and deciding she must be a masculine butch lesbian and other interpretations are somehow wrong. etc.

can we please all just acknowledge that nuance exists and differing opinions aren’t evil

.

#anon tysm literally this #can i hug or just. positively wave at you. whatever youre comfortable with ty for being right #magpod #tma #the magnus archives #magpod confession

[catgirl-catboy]

(this post doesn't apply to my mutuals because this is something I block super easily over, dw)

For all of the performative "I hate terfs" this website has, none of you actually know the signs of terf rhetoric, and will unironically say and do the most terfish/radfemish things I have ever seen. If you say you hate terfs and you do any of the following things, I'm gonna assume you don't know as much about terfs as you think you do.

Disclaimer: Trans people can and do parrot terf rhetoric.

"Men are trash" (and its subvarients, Straight men are trash, cis men are trash, and white men are trash)

Lesbian ships (by which they mean WLW ships) are inherently morally pure and fluffy. As a (nonbinary) lesbian, stop it. Please. WLW ships can be tragic and fucked up and gut-wrenching as any other ship.

Being overly curious about someone's AGAB when really its only relevant to their doctors and maybe long term sexual partners. The division of "AMAB trans people" and "AFAB trans people" (which completely ignores intersex issues, but thats another, longer point) isn't as big as they what you to think. Whatever genitalia I was born with changes upon what is more comedic in the moment, don't ask again.

The idea that certain traits that are perceived as masc/femme are inherent to humanity rather than cultural.

The idea that men (AMAB people is more accurate.) are always stronger than women. There are some cis women with higher testosterone levels than cis men, just due to natural human variation!!!

The idea that each LGBTQ identity has a unique and separate culture with little to no overlap. Nah, we are friends :)

Honestly, the idea that its unfeminist to point out any flaw a female character has. Female characters are flawed and thats why I simp for them. Hope this helps!

Anti-sex work. A lot of terfs are anti sex work, so its a red flag. Yes, even if its just anti those kinks.

#terf rhetoric

[whatiwillsay]

Can u do a pod where you talk about celebs who do a lot of gay stuff but you don’t actually think is gay to debunk the argument of “you lesbians just want everyone to be lesbian”.

Joint with a list of Taylor’s hot white friends we don’t ship her with (such as Blake etc.) as a debunk to the argument of “gaylors dont ship her with lena because she’s not hot” and “gaylors ship her with any hot white blonde girl who is already attached to a man”

I just haaate that they use those very arguments that have been used against every wlw to make us feel like predators. As if we are all racist predators who are not capable of critical thinking and will prey on any conventionally attractive woman we see.

ok so there's a lot here

anyone who uses an argument that says wlw are all predators is homophobic. i don't engage with homophobes. that is a hateful, harmful, untrue, CRUEL homophobic stereotype. if someone is using that argument you need to be blocking and moving on with your life. not hoping to engage in some kind of good faith debate of "see! we aren't all like that!" if i made a podcast that seemed to "debunk that." it wouldn't matter. if someone is a homophobe and creating their arguments around hateful stereotypes there is no reasoning with them.

everyone, certainly all white people, has inherent racism they need to deal with. we have a systematic problem that we all need to be cognizant of. both gaylors and swifties/hetlors should be reflecting on the state of a world in which taylor's ships are essentially all with white people. i'm not going to "debunk" the idea that racism has a hand in how we perceive the world as a fandom. we ALL SHOULD be inspecting the content/ships/media we like with a critical eye to see if or how its impacted by the racism that permeates the entire world. for the record gaylors do ship her with a black woman. that doesn't absolve the fandom of all racism ever because again, racism affects EVERYONE but what these people are saying about us is of course broadly untrue in at least that instance and i think it would serve them more to relect on their own issues and watch for racism in their own space.

there is no pleasing people like this. it won't matter if i make the episode. they will ignore it because it sounds like they're just here to circle jerk and hate on people. they're not here to have good faith discussions about taylor or her fandom. once an anti started talking such bad shit about me it stressed me out so badly that i went to them and offered to stop blogging about the thing they were mad at me for talking about if they would just leave me alone and they wouldn't take my offer. the anti wasn't ACTUALLY offended by the material they just wanted to talk shit. that's when i realized however wrong or right we are about stuff (and i will full throatedly, happily say, "we might be wrong about everything!") this corner of the fandom is basically the only one that wants to engage in good faith conversation/debate. if someone doesn't want to have a good faith convo you simply can't engage with them. it won't serve anything. it will just devolve into fights and anger and name calling. they will not care if i make an episode on this or that or this or that. what's better for you to do is disengage with whoever is saying this stuff. block from your dash and move on. enjoy spaces and content and bloggers you do like and love yourself.

#fandom meta

[rotationalsymmetry]

No queer people (barring some radfems) will actually admit that they’re effectively pressuring bisexuals to only act on their “gay” attractions and not their “straight” ones, and generally not call attention to being bi at all. (Or rather: to either do that or the exact opposite: to either pretend we’re gay or pretend we’re straight.)

And yet all the time: “bi now gay later”, “gay or at least bi”, ew gross bi women bringing their boyfriends to Pride, ew gross m/f ships ugh the straights are so boring, straight this het that, ew straight girls kissing other girls while drunk for attention, men are gross, cishet men are especially gross, being attracted to men is gross, throw the whole man out, men who date women are so predatory, wlw relationships are so pure and wholesome, hey check out this asshole boyfriend on Reddit/facebook/TikTok/whatever (while never sharing examples of asshole girlfriends — they’re there, I promise you), 20 “gay” books in the bookstore for every one “bi” book, and when they’re fiction the books with canon bi characters get called (and often marketed as) gay/lesbian fiction, not noticing when groups or whatever just say “gay and lesbian” and not “bi”, completely ignoring bi issues (invisibility/erasure, harmful stereotypes especially around promiscuity and cheating, lack of representation, sexual health (hey guess what, people who have sex with men and women have different sexual health concerns than people who don’t!), rampant DV rates, high rates of substance abuse, need for discussion groups and studies and so on focused on us, intersectional issues with being bi and also poor, poc, disabled, trans, immigrant, homeless, incarcerated, etc), talking about bi celebrities as though they’ve betrayed the community or stopped being queer if they get into a m/f relationship, calling probably-bi historical figures “gay”, using terms like “wlw” and “lesbian” interchangeably or using “wlw” or “queer” but in a context that implies all wlw don’t ever date or have sex with men, assuming gay people can represent bi people but bi people can’t represent gay people, accusing bi people of playing oppression olympics and claiming we’re more oppressed any time we suggest we might have any issues at all that strictly gay people don’t (ie merely making the case that we’re not strictly less oppressed in every single regard), bi people can’t use butch/femme terms those are lesbian only terms and it’s appropriation, that comphet doc that’s basically “hey if you’re bi but want to convince yourself you’re actually a lesbian, here’s how to do it!”*, etc etc etc etc.

It‘s not always/usually actually cutting someone out of your social circle, telling someone to leave the group, or literally saying “there’s no such thing as being bi”, any more than terfs actually say “yeah we just hate trans women” or ace excleiionsts say “aces aren’t queer“ (they say “cishet aces aren’t queer”, which literally has the same meaning because it means aces are only queer if they have a queer identity other than being ace! It defines ace as not inherently queer.) It’s usually just… erasure and “ugh, men” and “straight-passing privilege” (ie: you’re less queer, you’re not really in need of attention and resources, and if you disagree with other queer people you’re speaking over people who are less privileged.) But that still has a huge effect.

(again: yes, there are things you experience/risk in relationships straight people see as gay that you don’t in relationships that they don’t. but there’s a huge gap between that concept and “so you’re basically straight”, but often when queer people say “straight passing privilege” they mean “not really a sexual minority/queer person, and someone who by definition doesn’t experience any downside to being bi relative to being straight” and that is not true.)

*I‘m sure there are many actual-lesbians who take a while to figure it out and need some help with “how do I know if I was dating that guy because I’m attracted to guys or just because I was expected to?” But the doc never once mentioning “and some people are bi, here’s a sign you might be bi” is kinda sus actually. Almost as though it was coming from a mentality of nobody is actually bi, ever.

#Bi bitterness

[i-did]

If you dont mind me asking, I'm really curious about your opinion of kevaaron as its growing increasingly popular. From the perspective of pairing a (bi?) guy with someone who is homophobic in canon. Often times it seems like Aaron overcoming his homophobia is rushed so that him and Kevin can get together.

Hey! So this is actually a very interesting ask because it shows how prevalent fanon is, that even you anon have stated that Kevin is bi and aaron is homophobic.

Aaron's homophobia is complicated but in my opinion there, especially considering it is 2006 and he is a straight guy. He definitely shows signs of being the "I'm not homophobic just don't shove it in my face/do stuff like that so public" type of homophobia. He is often HC as ace, sometimes ace/aro to combat this flaw and make him more likeable in a similar way people do with Kevin's homophobia.

Thats right! Kevin is probably homophobic! He never says a slur like seth, but going off of context he is about the level of homophobic as aaron, but in a much more dismissive rather than disgusted way. He says "it would be best for neil to remain heterosexual" (not a direct quote but you get the idea) this line is often used as evidence that kevin is bi in a similar way that Aaron's discomfort is used as evidence for him being ace. This type of dismissal and belief that being queer is a choice, is harmful. I've been told by a family member to stay in the closet because my life would be easier, and thats by someone who doesn't think its a choice.

Ace aaron isn't nearly the level of fanon as Kevin is bi is. But the other common HC of kevin is that he's ace/aro as well.

Again, as always, people can headcanon and interpret and interact with canon however they want. I think its just good to notice the line between fanon and canon. Fanon is inherently self indulgent.

I like to keep Aaron straight and homophobic because I think its important to show, and how people who are homophobic aren't secretly gay/bi the whole time trope. Also, ace people can be homophobic. Anyone can be homophobic. Its mostly straight people, but lesbians, bi non-binary people, ace women, gay men etc can be homophobic. Each group of queer person experiences homophobia uniquely, lesbiphobia is not the same as mlm homophobia, which is often based in femphobia, misdirected trans misogyny, and misogyny. And in fandom/media mlm homophobia takes on a whole entire form of fetishization (which isn't always inherently sexual).

Now! For my opinion on kevaaron.

I dont like it lol.

People can like what they like but personally if I don't like something I filter the tag and I have kevaaron filtered because I don't want to see it.

I think there is over emphasis on mlm ships with no chemistry over wlw ships that are arguably with more chemistry.

Overcoming your internalized homophobia is a real thing a lot of gay men have to face. And its hard, its really hard. And its not a thing to be rushed. A lot of peoples first gay relationship is really unhealthy because of this, dating someone who is closeted or freshly out, or being closeted or freshly out yourself is taxing.

Aaron and Kevin have less chemistry than renee and dan, (nora originally mentioned wanting them to maybe have something between them)

Most ships with aaron in my opinion seem to be based in the fact that it would be so cute for this short grumpy boy to be with someone so much taller, it also seems like a work around a lot of times with andrews trauma because you have his twin there.

Ships with aaron and matt are kind of funny to me because about all they share is a history with drugs. That's about it. Aaron is grumpy and matt is... actually not as sunny as fandom depicts him he's a lot more chill and less bubbly in canon but eh thats not really based in anything bad besides simplifying characters for fics and fandom.

I've never read a kevaaron fic but I wouldn't be surprised if they are rushed feeling like you said.

I still have internalized homophobia lol, and I've been out for 6 years now. its not an easy thing to undo.

Again I will state fandom is inherently self indulgent, I just also think that the core messages of the canon shouldn't be ignored and that people shouldn't say x charcters doesn't even have that flaw in canon. Characters are always multi faceted and complex if they're well written. They don't always have to be likeable. That's what makes them good, makes them foxes.

Its okay to like a character who is homophobic in canon and HC what you want, i have so many ideas for seth who I love, but I also want to make sure I dont fall into the "psych he wasn't a real homophobe-he was queer the whole time!" Trope because it inherently blames gay people for the homophobia they experience by making it a inter community issue where gay people just need to learn to not hate themselves, and "hahaha wouldn't it be so funny if this homophobe was gay, that'll show him" as if being gay and hating yourself and others is... a good thing to wish on others and the gay community. The truth is some, in fact most, homophobes are straight people.

That being said I have a headcanon that kevin is bisexual, aromatic, but is with thea his whole life despite neither of them not being very happy but content enough, he never realizes hes aro or bisexual, and it follows basically Nora's EC after that. And aaron is straight and haloy with kaitlyn but sometimes wonders if he held on so tightly and married her just because he already put in all that effort and not to prove his brother right when breaking up with her, but thats only when he's depressed otherwise he's happy and chillin.

There is a very low number of openly bi men compared to openly bi women "how many men would be bisexual if we let them" is a cool quote from tumblr, and an accurate one.

My headcanon isn't a happy one but in my opinion fits with canon pretty well which is why I like it. A lot of people don't ever fully find out who they are. That's the reality, and my fandoms elf indulgences are me giving myself more realistically canon "content" in my opinion. Thats how I self indulge but not everyone has to.

People who like kevaaron or aaron and matt, do you show the same support for renesion? For dan and renee, dan allison ? If not, why? They have the same level of chemistry, if not more.

Just some questions to wonder why you ship the things you do and why the bar for mlm chemistry is so much lower than it is for wlw chemistry.

#aftg #all for the game #ask #aaron minyard #matt boyd #kevin day #fandom politics #fandom psychology #mailob #fig writes

[bum-ju]

🔥🔥🔥😏

1. when katara and the pirate’s silver came out, a LOT of people kept using she/her pronouns for jiang. which isn’t inherently bad, esp if transfem people feel represented by jiang! but considering that the comic made a point not to use pronouns and present jiang androgynously, it doesn’t sit well with me that (cis) people looked at potential non-binary representation (regardless of how good that rep is) and decided to gender it. not to imply that gender = pronouns... but many cis people associate pronouns with gender and to me it comes across as ‘i will ignore the rep and perceive this queer-coded character as cis’.

2. fandom has made me hate mlm ships despite literally being mlm myself and this is because the dumbest crackship/rarepair (no offense to rarepair shippers in general but some ships are just ridiculous) and it becomes the biggest ship in the fandom (looking at zukka). meanwhile, wlw create spaces to promote their ships, their rarepairs, and nothing gets as much traction, no matter how nuanced, thought-out, or well written/drawn the content for their ships are.

3. on that note the ONLY mlm pairing i genuinely love is bakoda

#liyah tag #transphobia #fetishization #bakoda #jiang #ask #unpopular opinions

[bloodraven55]

I’m sorry. Did I actually just see someone who platforms T/auradonna shippers and thinks it would be cool to see a romance between Jaune and Cinder play out “for the angst uwu” and who claims R/enora is “more healthy” than B/umbleby because apparently Lie “I’m not good at talking” Ren and Nora “screw talking” Valkyrie communicate better than Blake “let me open up to you about Adam without prompting” Belladonna and Yang “allow me to share my abandonment issues with you just to help you sleep” Xiao Long accuse Bee shippers, most of whom are wlw, of fetishising same sex relationships based on the fact that to this clown’s mind hugs and hand holding are inherently sexual and also because it’s very convenient for them to ignore that literally all of Blake and Yang’s development in the show is emotional rather than sexual.

Did I actually just read that utter bullshit with my own two eyes?

Nevermind that there are countless asexual wlw like me who want hugs and hand holding etc. without ever wanting sex, but when you have to resort to using homophobic rhetoric while pretending to care about representation and the community and also apply massive double standards because you’re incapable of rational thought then you’re just a repugnant piece of shit. There’s no two ways about it.

Like... imagine hating a single harmless ship so much that you build your entire identity around making up harmful toxic garbage just to try and justify how much you despise it while using the most fucked up fallacies imaginable to defend your awful and damaging opinions. So glad I can’t relate.

When this is the level the anti-Bee people are reaching... y’all just need to shut up and go if you’re willing to agree with that shit just because you don’t like a ship. And don’t dare to call yourself an ally who cares about LGBT+ representation. Because you don’t.

#r/wby #rwde #b/umbleby #raven is salty about stuff #oh and imagine being a disgusting transmed who thinks you can gatekeep communities you’re not a part of at the same time #just imagine being THAT terrible a piece of trash #and no i’m not saying r/enora is less healthy than the bees #but that ‘argument’ is so unbelievably stupid #go and put your stone cold takes in the trash where they belong you two faced abuse apologist tumblr therapist transmed pseudo-intellectual

[dragynkeep]

I know you've likely done this but I humbly request salt on all current rwby moms we know

i haven’t done one of all of them together but should be fun! some of this salt is serious but most is just little things that bug me & luke.

summer.

i really don’t agree with a lot of fndm interpretation that makes her a ruby 1.0, i.e traits like being a wallflower, being socially anxious, etc. following on from that, i dislike her canon design. it’s very obviously just an older recolour of ruby much like the one in poser era & it’s just so lazy. they didn’t want to put anything more into summer than have her be an older ruby with a different coloured cape & dress. it’s just disappointing tbh.  —  owl.

raven.

A lot of people are very willing to ignore that she’s killed a lot of people and she’s responsible for countless people. She killed the spring maiden, implied to be a child, she destroyed an entire village. She used Vernal as a scapegoat and got her killed all while saving her own skin, knowing Vernal would be in danger. I don’t see half as many people defending other villain’s bad actions as they do with Raven.  —  luke.

i think that a lot of people are trying very hard to slap some form of disorder or sympathetic reasoning on raven to excuse why she left when canon has already spelt it out quite clearly, she left because her tribe meant more to her than her husband, child, brother or friend. a lot of people can’t deal with motherly characters that’re abusive & neglectful but raven is the perfect example of an abusive, neglectful daughter & the effect she’s left on yang shouldn’t be ignored or downplayed.  —  owl.

willow.

The DC comics did her so dirty. They took what was a compelling character, a neglectful alcoholic who still had very sympathetic traits and obviously cared for her children despite not being able to do very much to protect them and made her the stereotypical Stepford Wife trope who owns a literal zoo and is far more blatant and dramatizized in her abuse of Weiss, to the point of it not being realistic or redeemable to what we see her as in the show. The two iterations of Willow just don’t mesh together.  —  luke.

ironically for mine, i think the fndm plays down a lot of willow’s abuse, especially concerning her neglect of her kids. i get that she’s a victim of jacques abuse, but she had an inherent responsibility as the schneeblings mother to ensure their safety from their father, not just retreat into herself & leave them out in the cold. i wish that had been adressed more in the show.  —  owl.

kali.

I don’t find her that funny.  —  luke.

a lot of my dislike for kali stems from the fact that her’s and ghira’s inclusion in the story prompted a lot of problems for blake’s story, more than it’s worth & they were in the end, really a detriment. there were no meaningful scenes with blake & kali & when it was tried to be remedied in the comics, that was completely bollocksed up. also her design is again lazy, it’s older blake with a more japanese spin & her supposed allusion makes no fucking sense.  —  owl.

pyrrha’s mum.

I just wish that they confirmed that this woman was Pyrrha’s mum or not, I don’t get the need for there to be any mystery or secrecy around the topic.  —  luke.

ditto.  —  owl.

an.

The fact that her last name is REN, because of how they changed Ren’s name. His name was introduced in the typical way for asian men and Ren itself is a Japanese first name. The fact that this was changed so now all of Ren’s friends are calling him by his Last Name, including Nora who’s known him for years, is aggravating and nonsensical.  —  luke.

i don’t have any complaints about an that hasn’t been said, she was done very well for the small role that she needed to serve.  —  owl.

terra & saphron.

I wish the fndm would stop ignoring the actual wlw ships like saphron & terra while crying for rep like, they’re Right There.  —  luke.

again, nothing to do with the actual canon but more the fndm jumping on two unspecified wlw to paint them as lesbians & only that, being rude or aggressive to others when the allusion for saphron, sappho, was bi. her bisexuality was erased & it’s annoying to see that continued in a fandom space.  —  owl.

salem.

No one has said anything about Salem being abusive to her children. Ignore Ozma for a moment, take him out of the equation ; this woman murdered her children. She also wanted to use them to repopulate remnant, probably ignoring  any of their own autonomy or wishes and it’s weirdly . . . not addressed.  —  luke.

the idea that salem’s endgame is her getting reunited with the souls of her husband & children, who she murdered via magic & burning alive, is honestly disgusting to me & i hate that this idea even exists in the fndm lmao. salem is going the way abusers do in rt, to her own death & ozma will finally be free of her.  —  owl.

#rwby #rwde #summer rose #raven branwen #willow schnee #kali belladonna #mama arkos #an ren #saphron cotta arc #terra cotta arc #salem #q #owl.txt #answered

[megashadowdragon]

summer.

i really don’t agree with a lot of fndm interpretation that makes her a ruby 1.0, i.e traits like being a wallflower, being socially anxious, etc. following on from that, i dislike her canon design. it’s very obviously just an older recolour of ruby much like the one in poser era & it’s just so lazy. they didn’t want to put anything more into summer than have her be an older ruby with a different coloured cape & dress. it’s just disappointing tbh.  —  owl.

raven.

A lot of people are very willing to ignore that she’s killed a lot of people and she’s responsible for countless people. She killed the spring maiden, implied to be a child, she destroyed an entire village. She used Vernal as a scapegoat and got her killed all while saving her own skin, knowing Vernal would be in danger. I don’t see half as many people defending other villain’s bad actions as they do with Raven.  —  luke.

i think that a lot of people are trying very hard to slap some form of disorder or sympathetic reasoning on raven to excuse why she left when canon has already spelt it out quite clearly, she left because her tribe meant more to her than her husband, child, brother or friend. a lot of people can’t deal with motherly characters that’re abusive & neglectful but raven is the perfect example of an abusive, neglectful daughter & the effect she’s left on yang shouldn’t be ignored or downplayed.  —  owl.

willow.

The DC comics did her so dirty. They took what was a compelling character, a neglectful alcoholic who still had very sympathetic traits and obviously cared for her children despite not being able to do very much to protect them and made her the stereotypical Stepford Wife trope who owns a literal zoo and is far more blatant and dramatizized in her abuse of Weiss, to the point of it not being realistic or redeemable to what we see her as in the show. The two iterations of Willow just don’t mesh together.  —  luke.

ironically for mine, i think the fndm plays down a lot of willow’s abuse, especially concerning her neglect of her kids. i get that she’s a victim of jacques abuse, but she had an inherent responsibility as the schneeblings mother to ensure their safety from their father, not just retreat into herself & leave them out in the cold. i wish that had been adressed more in the show.  —  owl.

kali.

I don’t find her that funny.  —  luke.

a lot of my dislike for kali stems from the fact that her’s and ghira’s inclusion in the story prompted a lot of problems for blake’s story, more than it’s worth & they were in the end, really a detriment. there were no meaningful scenes with blake & kali & when it was tried to be remedied in the comics, that was completely bollocksed up. also her design is again lazy, it’s older blake with a more japanese spin & her supposed allusion makes no fucking sense.  —  owl.

pyrrha’s mum.

I just wish that they confirmed that this woman was Pyrrha’s mum or not, I don’t get the need for there to be any mystery or secrecy around the topic.  —  luke.

ditto.  —  owl.

an.

The fact that her last name is REN, because of how they changed Ren’s name. His name was introduced in the typical way for asian men and Ren itself is a Japanese first name. The fact that this was changed so now all of Ren’s friends are calling him by his Last Name, including Nora who’s known him for years, is aggravating and nonsensical.  —  luke.

i don’t have any complaints about an that hasn’t been said, she was done very well for the small role that she needed to serve.  —  owl.

terra & saphron.

I wish the fndm would stop ignoring the actual wlw ships like saphron & terra while crying for rep like, they’re Right There.  —  luke.

again, nothing to do with the actual canon but more the fndm jumping on two unspecified wlw to paint them as lesbians & only that, being rude or aggressive to others when the allusion for saphron, sappho, was bi. her bisexuality was erased & it’s annoying to see that continued in a fandom space.  —  owl.

salem.

No one has said anything about Salem being abusive to her children. Ignore Ozma for a moment, take him out of the equation ; this woman murdered her children. She also wanted to use them to repopulate remnant, probably ignoring  any of their own autonomy or wishes and it’s weirdly … not addressed.  —  luke.

the idea that salem’s endgame is her getting reunited with the souls of her husband & children, who she murdered via magic & burning alive, is honestly disgusting to me & i hate that this idea even exists in the fndm lmao. salem is going the way abusers do in rt, to her own death & ozma will finally be free of her.  —  owl.

atlesianic said: can i just personally say, as someone’s who’s been eternally uncomfortable when raven’s on screen because she mirrors one of my abusers, i agree that the fandom doesn’t take her abuse seriously. she’s not a good person, she hurt her family and abandoned her daughter, but people see her as just another hot anime MILF and that doesn’t matter anymore

fyrecrackeruwu said: I’ve had an abusive father (emotionally, verbally and mentally) and Ravens actions mirror alot of what he did Walking out on my mother and I for no reason. Manipulating me into thinking my Mother, family and friends were the ‘crazy’ or 'stupid’ ones and that he was the only one I could trust Any bad traits/traits he didn’t like of mine were 'from my Mother’, and any 'good’ traits I had came from him

fyrecrackeruwu said: Never being able to admit he was wrong, sorry or that he did wrong and because of that he would blame someone else or make out like he was the victim The ‘I’m strong’ complex It scares me how much Raven mirrors these traits and I don’t get why people sweep don’t acknowledge this.

#rwby #mama arkos #saphron cotta arc #terra cotta arc #salem rwby #rwby salem #ironpines #raven branwen #rwby raven #raven rwby #summer rwby #rwby summer #rwby summer rose

[sometimesrosy]

Hey, 2 weeks back I asked you about the hate towards Kim by the fandom regarding her past statements and if it's justified or not. You stated that you could at length about this topic but that wasn't the time. Is it okay to talk about that now?

well it’s about racism and this is a delicate time racism wise.

But I’ll just get it out quickly And try to avoid ranting...

I did not avoid ranting. Or rather I don’t think I ranted, but maybe lectured. So it’s going below the jump to hopefully avoid trouble.

They don’t like her because they think she is biased against Bob and Bellamy and For CL and Clarke and the white girls. 

They think she’s a racist because she whitewashed Bellamy and said he had white privilege, when he’s a half filipino man. 

This is true. She did that. 

But she hasn’t done that since. and doesn’t seem to me to be against Bellarke or Bellamy, but rather FOR Clarke. I think Clarke is her favorite and she writes Clarke development regardless of love interest. In this fandom if you focus on CLARKE and not how Clarke feels about Bellamy, it’s considered anti-Bellamy, because many people feel Clarke should only exist in Bellamy’s sphere of interest. She should only be concerned about bellarke and love, rather than leading or her past or personal development. It’s a bit misogynistic.

The part I didn’t want to get into before is that the people who rightly accused Kim of whitewashing Bob and Bellamy and thus, of being racist, are the exact same people who whitewashed me personally, as a mixed race half latina, because they wanted to silence me, keep me from disagreeing with their meta, and not allow me, a mixed race person, to speak about the mixed race characters and interracial ships. I was literally told not to speak over darker skinned people when I talked about my experience as a mixed race person. I was silenced. My identity was erased. I have been called, again and again, a white feminist because I speak of intersections other than black-- like mixed race, or refugees, or people in poverty. 

So without a rant, the people who accuse her of whitewashing are ALSO guilty of whitewashing. And they want to silence me because they don’t want me to say she might have grown since then since they think she is irredeemable. Meanwhile, if I DON’T say people can grow past this kind of ignorance, then they themselves are irredeemable racists. Anti-miscegenation is RACIST and is one of the tenets of white supremacy. White washing  and claiming mixed race relationships are bad is racist. Institutionally. 

Yes colorism in the black community IS involved with this. The idea that lighter skinned people (especially women) are better and more beautiful. And some people’s internalized racism makes them want to choose a white or light skinned partner. THIS IS INTERNALIZED RACISM AND COLORISM AND MISOGYNY. But that doesnt’ mean that light skinned or “white passing” mixed race people are not POC or are instead just white, and don’t count. This is why I didn’t want to talk about it in the first flush of the BLM protests. It’s a struggle within the POC community, about who counts and who gets excluded for not being POC enough. And it sucks.

That is racism. While pointing out other people’s racism, our fandom fell into racism themselves. White washing is racist, no matter who does it. And yes, the POC community does it a lot. As a blanquita who grew up in Harlem and the South Bronx I can assure you it’s real. Also the racism that is against mixed race couples. I saw Raven Symone got married to a white woman this weekend, and half the comments on twitter were about how awesome that she’s in a wlw relationship, and the other half were about HOW DARE SHE MARRY A WHITE WOMAN WHAT A BETRAYAL. So like, this isn’t just me being self centered or well, racist for not supporting black people to the exclusion of everyone else. I’m mixed race. This is me. My identity. Fandom, and leaders in fandom, declared mixed race families inherently racist and therefore inferior. 

This is why I didn’t want to talk about this. Because it’s about the racism within the POC community and is seen as divisive when we are trying to support BLM. There’s a ranking in minority communities, and some people have a more powerful voice within the community. And if you are not part of that dominant community you are expected to support them anyway and they’ll take care of you when the time comes. Although, when we don’t listen to the minority voices and their needs, no one will think to support them, and we end up with things like American Dirt, being supported by Oprah. And realize also that it was written by a partly Puerto Rican, (who had identified as white) writer about Mexican immigrants, so I’m not saying that there isn’t racism WITHIN the lantinx community also. And it’s true that Black people and Indigenous people have suffered the most at the hands of racism in America. Without a doubt. But that doesn’t mean that we, as a POC community are free of our own racism. We aren’t. It’s an issue because we are all raised in this racist society. And perhaps it’s considered a lesser sin when mixed race people or light skinned people are erased from the POC community because they can “pass,” but it’s still racism. And it comes from the people who are supposed to be your allies. It’s like the gatekeeping that happens in the LGBT community against bi and ace people. They are not REALLY LGBT, or they can “pass” as straight so they don’t count. 

Erasure of identity is not a privilege. It is oppression. 

But it’s one of many oppressions faced by POC and other minorities, in a time where black people are being murdered in the streets. So it seems like not the time to deal with it. Although it ALWAYS seems like not the time to deal with it. Doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be dealt with. 

[piccolina-mina]

I cannot speak for anyone else, and I'm not trying to. I can only speak for myself as an observer and a friend. And sometimes I feel really bad for bisexual fans, especially the bisexual men who are out, open, or quietly observing, and still active in the RNM fandom.

There used to be many bisexual men who shared their thoughts, but a few I remember left fandom. There are many women, but it still comes with a pressure and expectation to only appreciate specific parts of the series or face erasure if they don't comply.

It must be gratifying to have a strong bisexual character let alone a male character like Michael. You don't see it often at all. Bi characters are rare and bi men are like unicorns on TV, and how they are represented can vary. But one thing that has been consistent and obvious is that Michael is a character Carina has invested in a lot.

A lot of effort and care goes into how he's portrayed as a bisexual man. She seems very in tune and careful with how she wants to depict that, for better and worse, and sometimes at the expense of other aspects of the show that require sensitivity, awareness, and care too.

And I have seen how important that is to many bisexual fans but particularly bi men. But I can only imagine how difficult it has to be when you're seeing your representation onscreen -- you're seeing yourself reflected -- and you constantly see it regarded as "bad bi rep" usually over trivial things.

Michael is confident, out, unapologetic. He has an interesting story of presumably when he realized he was bisexual. He has those moments of insecurity, but he's consistent. And he's never treated as less than or not "manly" or anything like that by the majority of the characters -- the important characters.

His Bisexuality is never treated like a character flaw by the others.

His friends, acquaintances, siblings, and love interests don't look down on him for being bisexual. It's not the sole thing that drives his arc, or the only reason he's "relevant." He's a multi-dimensional character who happens to be bisexual instead of "the token bisexual character."

It seems pretty damn awesome.

But sometimes I imagine it has to be hard to see all of these factors and then see the frequent takes that he's "poor bi rep."

And it has to be invalidating that only one of his relationships matters and the other one is constantly torn apart.

Isn't that part of the "pick a side" frustration bisexuals face way too often? Why unwittingly perpetuate it so much?

Isn't the whole idea supposed to be that both of these relationships are valid and meaningful in different ways, and that's OK?

On the show you have Alex and Maria, and neither of them make Michael feel like crap because he's bisexual. Alex doesn't treat him like he's less queer for dating and sleeping with women. He doesn't shame him (something that has been known to happen with some popular queer ships like Calzona on Grey's Anatomy, for example) for being bi.

Any of the issues they have, have absolutely nothing to do with Michael's sexuality. That has to be refreshing.

And Maria doesn't judge Michael for being bisexual either. All fandoms as a whole, in general, tend to fetishize and/or love mlm ships, but as we know, irl wlw are fetishized and revered more, usually by straight men who think a woman's bisexuality is for their sexual pleasure, gratification or chance to have a threesome.

In real life, it's obviously difficult for bi men dating etc. For every Maria, there's a woman who only thinks she's a "beard" or pitstop until her bi lover is gay, or feels insecure that she can't give him something someone else can, or a plethora of other misconceptions and ignorance.

But Maria isn't like that. None of the drama surrounding her relationship with Michael had anything to do with him being bisexual. It was never about the parts of who he slept with, but her relationship with who he slept with.

And to hit home that Michael being bisexual didn't make him less desirable or attractive to her, they kissed after the truth came out. And they both enjoyed it.

People hate that and tear it apart, but I imagine that was also something important to show.

And then, fandom, fandom from all walks of life and different genders and sexualities find this bisexual character attractive and desirable.

It has to be messed up as a bi male fan to see part of the fandom, a great deal of them straight women be shamed or ridiculed or referred to as homophobic for liking Michael and Maria.

It has to be messed up for bi female fans to have their sexuality completely invalidated because they like miluca. To be called homophobic or biphobia despite being bi themselves for liking Miluca.

Or to have their love of this ship and this representation that is important to them reduced to them just wanting to self-insert with Michael (I mean, hey, what if it's about self-inserting with Maria? Because that's what a hell of a lot of queer miluca fans are thinking about).

Or to have them criticized for it if that's the case, but it's widely accepted that bisexual and straight fans can thirst over the two men just fine.

What is wrong about thirsting after one or both parties of miluca in equal measure as one would Malex? And doing it with them as a couple rather than individually? Why is that only an option with them separate but not with them together as it is with Malex?

Like, a (so far) straight female character is criticized for having feelings for this bisexual man and straight female fans are criticized for liking miluca, or hell, self-inserting with miluca, and finding this male character, who happens to be bisexual, attractive and sexy.

Bi female fans are criticized for liking miluca or self-inserting either way with Maria and Michael. Their sexuality is always questioned for enjoying this ship as if they're somehow less queer for enjoying it.

No one ever considers that they're enjoying the hell out of thirsting over Maria via this relationship. It IS Maria after all.

Michael is hot. Maria is stunning. Only one of these relationships is giving queer miluca fans Maria, right? Why is enjoying that via their relationship not an acceptable option? For bi fans of any gender? For straight fans?

To Maria, to the fans of the miluca ship, Michael's bisexuality doesn't matter or make him less than, or less attractive. He's accepted and cared about and desired.

And some people read that as latching on to a straight presenting ship and thus being inherently homophobic and biphobic, instead of seeing, and appreciating, and enjoying that there are no qualms, no judgment, no prejudice, no second guessing about shipping a presumably straight woman with a bisexual man.

His sexuality never hinders him from being shipped with anyone. It never stops him from being desired. It doesn't stop fans from enjoying and self-inserting either. He didn't stop being viable when it was revealed that he was bisexual.

And if people can see that and respond that way to a character they love, then maybe it breaks the stigma about dating, falling in love with or sleeping with bisexual men. Maybe people can apply that to real life too.

And that's the power of representation in media, and how influential it can be. That's something special and important too.

It's not something that happens easily, and like with any disenfranchised group, experiences are always different. It's not always the same for bi men versus bi women. Intersectionality comes into play. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to know that just a basic understand of people and their experiences.

Ironically, both experiences by both male and female bi fans are being invalidated and/or erased here often when it comes to this, which is very unfortunate and sad to see.

I mean, I can't shake the concept of someone's experience battling being rejected or invalidated, and then watching something where someone like you isn't being rejected or invalidated for their sexuality, and many of the viewers and fans aren't rejecting or invalidating this character's sexuality ... but then seeing some of those fans are rejected and invalidated for enjoying one or both of this characters' relationships. 🤔

Their acceptance, not tolerance, their acceptance of bisexuality is rejected and criticized. It doesn't make sense.

And yeah, it's a love triangle. But it's a love triangle between a bi man, a gay man, and a woman. Something you do not see often at all. And sexuality isn't the root of the tension or conflict. Nowhere. Not once.

It's played out like any other love triangle. It's normalized because the whole point is that bisexual people being attracted to more then one gender is normal.

They're subjected to the same things as everyone else, including love to hate love triangles.

I don't know. This isn't even in response to anything specific, it's just, sometimes, I really sympathize for the bisexual fans and friends, and I really feel bad for the bi men in the RNM fandom who thoroughly enjoy having this representation and enjoy both relationships and the depiction of what it's like having feelings for two different people for different reasons who then see parts of that which they appreciate and make them feel seen always ripped apart so often.

Man, it must feel like A LOT sometimes.

But again, I'm not presuming to know how anyone feels, and I certainly can't speak for them, but I would be lying if I said it didn't cross my mind on occasion.

#it's a lot to see and a lot to hear so i know it's a lot to experience #like damn ... sometimes different perspectives on this are not considered at all #roswell new mexico #anyway ... carry on i guess #don't forget to spell my name right when you bash me *finger guns* #rnm discourse #rnm notoriety #rnm fandom fkery

[raywritesthings]

Hey fandom, we need to talk about Ryan Sinclair

No really. That’s the whole point of this post. We actually need to talk about him. The sad thing is that a post like this is necessary.

The new Team TARDIS is a group of many firsts, but Ryan is the third black man to have a major role in Doctor Who’s history. And considering the show and fandom’s previous track record...we gotta step up.

I’m not saying this has to come at the expense of Yasmin or Thirteen or even Graham. And I realize there’s a lot of understandable buzz around Yasmin at the moment because she’s the one we know the most about at this point. But here’s the thing, I’m not worried about any of them. Fandom has already been generating content for Thirteen and Yasmin, and Graham will have a following partly thanks to Bradley Walsh’s career and partly due to his inherent privileges.

But Doctor Who, the show and its fans, has had a real problem with how they treat black characters.

Look at Martha. Look at Bill. They were main companions, and yet fans largely ignore them - in Bill’s case, people who’d dropped the show were making posts about how Doctor Who wasn’t diverse enough while she was on the show! She was there, yet they didn’t care to support her. Martha never had a chance the way the narrative was stacked against her, and to this day content about her does not get nearly the appreciation that other companions do even when people have stepped back and said her treatment was unfair. The BBC only this spring made a video promoting their female characters and left Martha out! Where was the outrage?

Now look at Mickey. Look at Danny. Are you seeing a pattern now?

I am worried that without concerted effort, Ryan is going to get lost in the shuffle. That he will become the hanger-on, the least favorite of the group, because fans will not bother to care about him. And if the fans don’t care from the start, the people making the show definitely won’t bother to try and make you.

Being shunted aside or not being paid attention to is only the least of my worries, though. Folks, I know it’s early, but we gotta talk about shipping.

Please, I beg you: If Ryan is portrayed in a romantic capacity with either Yasmin or Thirteen, for the love of God, do not mindlessly pour the hate on him. Or, and I can’t believe I have to say this, his actor.

You can have shipping preferences, of course. But tumblr has a nasty habit of demonizing black men for coming in between their wlw ships the same way it has of demonizing female characters for coming in between their ‘slash’ ships. It is neither the actor nor the character’s choice what ships will be canon - if any! So just...do not be like any of those other fandoms I could name.

Here’s the thing: I want to believe in Doctor Who fandom. We asked and begged for years for a female Doctor, for the show to become more progressive. And in return, we got far more than we asked for with Yasmin and Ryan as two of our new companions. Now we have to step up and show that we’re just as progressive as the show is trying to be, if not more.

We need to start generating content for Ryan. Fanart, meta, edits, graffics, moodboards, fics if you’re the kind of writer who doesn’t wait till the premiere (I am the kind of writer who waits, and I don’t blame you if you’re not writing now).  I’ve seen the content for Thirteen and Yasmin, both separately and as a ship. Most of the Ryan content I’ve seen is him with the whole group (and those have been lovely!), but we need to do more for him as an individual, especially once the show gets underway in October.

Comic Con is coming up. Tosin Cole will be there with Jodie Whittaker and Mandip Gill! This would be a great time for any attendees to show how excited we are for him and the others. Now I have no idea how specific they’re going to be able to get, but ask him questions! What he’s excited about, anything he can say about Ryan, favorite moment on set so far, favorite Doctor Who monster/alien, anything! Make sure he knows he is seen and he is appreciated.

Because he needs to be. We need to do better than we did with Martha and Bill, and certainly with Mickey and Danny. We need to break this legacy. As a white person myself, I know I need to do everything I can to help Ryan and Tosin succeed.

Please, fandom. The time is not now. It is past time.

So get talking.

#ryan sinclair #tosin cole #doctor who #thirteenth doctor #yasmin khan #bbc #chris chibnall #emerson rants #sorry i've been thinking about this for a while

[illusory-torrent]

🐝 vs blacksun/freezerburn discourse (rwde warning)

can we talk about this? 

i’ll put the thread under the “read more” cut to not bother anyone who doesn’t wanna talk rwde.

[RWDE WARNING]

i’m sure you all know of gillfish. he’s some 🐝 shipper that hates blacksun (obviously), sun wukong (obviously), thinks every song about team rwby or blake belladonna is about 🐝 (like all that matters and this time), and is more well-known for threatening to beat up some disabled rwby fan on tumblr. 

ok kiddo.

first off, someone expressed their fucking opinion. i don’t know what planet you come from where stating your personal opinion on a ship isn’t allowed. i know for a fact that OP didn’t tag their discourse on 🐝 as b/umbleby, so i’m not sure how you even found it (unless you were looking for it) and why you feel the need to call them an asshole for not liking 🐝. 

people are entitled to their own opinions.

second off: discrimination based on race, discrimination based on sexuality, and discrimination based on disability are three completely fucking different things. 

they are not the same. the fact that you white gays even think they are the same thing shows how ignorant you guys are of POC discrimination. when people look at you, the first thing they see is race color. people can discriminate POC based on names alone. that doesn’t happen with gay people.

LGBT+ people have their own struggles. you can get kicked from your own home for identifying as LGBT+. that doesn’t happen with race. my parents are brown and i’m brown too. they aren’t gonna kick me from my house and home for being brown. 

disabled people have their own struggles, like being looked down upon, treated like children, or taken advantage of. or worse.

it’s like comparing apples to oranges. yes, both are fruits. but both are entirely different fruits. one type of discrimination isn’t inherently “worse” than another. it’s all subjective to the POV of the person facing one of many different types of discrimination.

finally, i’d like to add this. gillfish. it’s really funny how instead of looking at what the OP said and maybe... i don’t know... seeing if it applies to you? you just bashed them and merrily continued on with your day like the bully you are. 

OP said you guys don’t "completely understand the concept of racism and what being a faunus and the struggles they face suggest in rwby”. they’re right.

because if you did, you wouldn’t approve of a song like “this time” about the struggle of the faunus (and blake, sun, and ilia’s rise over adam’s violent ideals) and turning into a 🐝 shipping spree.

i’m just gonna say this. you can think 🐝 is healthy. i don’t care. you can think blacksun is unhealthy, and i’ll understand where you’re coming from. you can think freezerburn is unhealthy (despite them never having actually seriously fought tooth and nail over anything iirc). 

but you don’t get to shame people in the LGBT+ rwby community for critiquing a wlw ship. it’s as simple as that. 

#blacksun #freezerburn #rwby #rwde #seriously rwde #gillfish #gillfish123 #fandom discourse #mona.txt

[stargir1z]

a message for cishet people this upcoming pride month

this is from my sc story but i wanted to post on here too in case someone has an ignorant straight bih who needs to be served a hot plate of education. it’s all under the cut !

- being an ally isn’t just NOT being a homophobe. don’t call yourself an ally unless you’re actively supporting the lgbtq community. that means appreciating and supporting gay media that is often marginalized, not saying offensive shit even if everyone else says it, and calling people out when they’re homophobic/transphobic, even if they’re your friend. be constantly educating yourself and be critical about how the world around you characterizes gay people, even if it makes you seem argumentative. if you’re not gonna do anything, don’t say you support the community. and even if you do these ally things, don’t expect some sort of gold star or reward. this is somehting you should be expected, as a cishet person, to do, and while it is your choice whether to do it or not, this should be completely out of care for other human beings rather than some sort of self validation from being the straight savior.

- if you are straight, and you like a character or person just because they are gay rather than their actual personality/life/appearance/impact, then you are. part of the problem. you are fetishizing gay people, no excuses. same goes for straight fangirls who ship dudes together just because they’re ‘my sinful little gay bbyz uwu’. that is NOT appreciation of gay people, that is the objectification and sexualization of gay relationships. i encourage you to support gay ships, but only if there is legitimate chemistry in them. (this is why anime like yaoi is problematic but o well). as well, if you’re a straight boy, the opposite is true for you: if you love lesbians but only if they’re conventionally attractive, or watch lesbian porn, or get turned on by girls kissing each other at parties, but otherwise don’t support the lgbt community or hate gay men/make gay jokes, Stop It or square the fuck up. you are sexualizing wlw, and as a wlw, i am disgusted by you.

- be aware that many companies will capitalize on pride month. please DO NOT support them or congratulate them for making something rainbow as a Token Gay Item. an example of this is the rainbow mickey mouse ears Disney made last year. i love Disney, but they have literally done nothing for the lgbt community besides that one good luck charlie episode with the gay moms, so they have no right to call themselves an ally. instead of buying these kinds of products, support actual gay/trans/etc designers, artists, musicians, and creators! if you need suggestions for these, i would be happy to rant about lgbt people i love. same goes for gay media like movies, books, and tv shows that actually realistically portray gay people. (psst watch love simon)

- this is blatantly obvious but ive seen it so many times that i still feel the need to mention it: having double standards for gay pda is! not good! it supports the notion that gay people are somehow more dirty or inappropriate than straight people, and this reinforces the heteronormative rhetoric that society has pushed on us. if you don’t mind when a cishet couple kisses or holds hands or flirts in public but then cringe when two girls or two guys do it, you are an ass and need to address that internalized homophobia. as well, please don’t say that a work of art like a movie, book, song, or tv show is ‘too gay’ or that ‘there doesn’t have to be gay people in everything’! that’s like me saying ‘why is there straight people in everything’.... do you see the problem now? supporting and normalizing gay and transgender people in media is one of the key ways to eradicate oppression of people with sexualities and genders other than cishet. it also helps people with these sexualities and genders feel normal and good about their identity! i would never have been okay with my bisexuality without the exposure to gay media, and that’s true as well for pretty much every gay person ive ever spoken to.

- nonbinary people are a thing! gender is not sex, gender is a social construct, gender is a spectrum. your enitals should not define who you are, and the misunderstanding of both trans and nonbinary people is a result of the societal norms pushed on penises and vaginas. also, 72 gender jokes are not funny and also make absolutely no fucking sense. go fuck yourself in the conservative ass. what does it have to do with you if someone doesn’t want to define themselves as a boy or a girl? if you need help understanding this, just ask me. although it honestly shouldn’t be that hard to understand that you shouldn’t be bossing around other people’s gender identities. imagine me coming up to you and declaring that you are the opposite gender/nonbinary... that’s how non-cis people feel every day, bitch.

- there are lots of jokes gay people make that you just wont be able to understand! respect that and accept that you just aren’t meant for them. jokes about straight/cis people are perfectly okay when within a gay community, because while gay/trans people are oppressed and have been for centuries, CISHET PEOPLE ARE NOT. AND ARE THE OPPRESSOR. accept that you have internalized homophobia and transphobia, because everyone does. be aware of how this influences you and why it makes you so pissed when a gay person says ‘straight people suck’. they’re not referring to you. theyre referring to how, historically, straight people have been the ones to make gay people feel like shit. there is also no such thing as the gay agenda; that’s just a joke we make.

- additionally, lgbt people have culture because we have been forced into having a community due to the struggle against homophobia. the lgbtq community has a unique and beautiful history that is worth learning about. there is no straight people culture, because societal norms in themselves are straight people culture. society is so heteronormative and dominated by straight attitudes that there was simply never a space for a phenomenon like ‘straight culture’ to develop, and no need for it either. you have never been oppressed for your sexuality! be happy about that! don’t whine about me saying your sexuality has got no culture. also, gay people will make jokes about straight people culture as a way to mock cishets who claim it exists. ACCEPT THAT. RECOGNIZE YOUR PRIVILEGE.

extra notes about bi people because im tired of questions about my sexuality:

BI PEOPLE ARE USUALLY NOT FIFTY FIFTY BOYS GIRLS. SOME PEOPLE FLUCTUATE BETWEENWHIHC ONE THEY LIKE MORE. SOME PEOPLE JUST ALWAYS LIKE ONE OR THE OTHER MORE. WHEN A BI PERSON LIKES/IS IN A RELATIONSHIP WITH SOMEONE OF THE OPPOSITE GENDER, THEY ARE STILL BI. IF A BI PERSON LIKES/IS IN A RELATIONSHIP WITH SOMEONE OF THE SAME GENDER, THEY ARE STILL BI. SOME BI PEOPLE LIKE GENDERS UNDER THE NONBINARY UMBRELLA TERM. SOME DO NOT. BI PEOPLE AND PAN PEOPLE ARE ALSO ESSENTIALLY THE SAME THING, BUT IT DEPENDS ON WHICH TERM THE PERSON IS COMFORTABLE WITH. BI PEOPLE ARE ALSO NOT INHERENTLY SEXUAL, AND NEITHER DO THEY EXIST TO PLEASE YOUR SEXUAL FANTASIES. BI PEOPLE ARE REAL AND WE DONT HAVE TO ‘CHOOSE A SIDE’, AND IF SOMEONE IDS AS BI BUT THEN DECIDES TO BE GAY OR STRAIGHT OR ACE, IT DOESNT MEAN THEY WERE FAKING IT. SEXUALITY IS COMPLEX AND IN SOME PEOPLE, FLUID. 

thank you for reading this and i hope you have learned something

#pride month #lgbtq community #lgbt #gay #bi #lesbian #mine #*

[fandompitfalls]

Ew, Het!

Originally posted: 6/18/2021

Today we’re going to discuss a hidden secret in the fandom community; queerphobia.

Now you might be thinking, Fandom Pitfalls, you’re absolutely wrong on this one, the fandom community is utterly inclusive! And you’d be partly correct.  Fandom is inclusive, so long as you fit specific rules.  One of those rules is: “all characters are gay” (or at least, the important ones).

If there are two hot guys*, it stands to reason that they will get shipped. (*the nature of the two hot guys have been mention in other posts). And that is valid.  Shipping is personal. You ship who you love, ship what you like, and all ships are valid. Fandom is inherently queer, it had been for centuries, as long as there have been stories, there have been people secretly (or not so secretly) rearraigning characters to fit their personal head canons.  As far back as Conan Doyle, Wilde, Shelley, Stoker, the Bible, readers have taken characters and fit them in their own image. If that image was two men living together in secret domestic bliss in a set of rooms in London or a vampire having a lascivious affair with both the woman of his dreams and her fiancée, fandom has always prospered.

And until recently, everyone has stayed in their corners and lived and let live.  The invention of the internet and the ease and availability in which people from all over the world can share now share their own thoughts and theories had brought rise to not only the positive aspects of fandom, but the negative as well.  And one of those negatives is queerphobia.

Let’s just put this out there. Characters that identify as opposite sex can have a relationship and it not be a heterosexual relationship.  Let me repeat that.  Not all opposite sex relationships are heterosexual relationships.

This new knee jerk response of “Ew het!” invalidates queer and gender fluid relationships, making it sound as if the only valid relationships are gay relationships.  (When I say gay, I mean the aforementioned two hot men as wlw relationships, unless specified in the canon series, are usually ignored.)

This time around I’m going to be daring and use examples. The most godforsaken, dumpster fire triumvirate of fandom shows ever; SuperWhoLock.

The first in this fandom dumpster fire is Supernatural. On the air for fifteen seasons, there have been many minor queer characters on the show.  Some were the victim of the week, some were there to show that some couples can get out of the hunting business intact. Some, like Charlie, were major minor characters. The popular ship of Destiel ships an angel in a male body with one of the main male characters.  There is also gatekeeping in the fandom regarding a romantic relationship between Castiel and any character identifying as female.  This is one of the fandoms where “Ew het” is automatically thrown around.  Many of the women that are shipped with Castiel in fandom are immortal beings that are genderless and are merely taking on a female form.  Meg, a demon and part of another of the well-known ships in the fandom, is a demon and therefore has no form.  They have taken the form of a female host over the years, but at one time possessed the body of another of the male lead characters. Hannah, an angel that has also been shipped with Castiel, is also genderless and while they have taken the body of a female host, they have also inhabited a male host, that was received positively by Castiel in both forms. While Jimmy Novak, the body that Castiel originally inhabited and then just took the form of in later seasons, was heterosexual, it’s been noted that the angel Castiel, having no preference to gender, could be seen as pansexual or omnisexual.

The actual characters that are gay or lesbian in the shows are often forgotten or pushed aside in favor of a fan favorite ship.  All ships are valid, but automatically insisting that a male/female presenting relationship is automatically heterosexual, especially in this scope of the fandom, is erasing genderfluid queer relationships, making it inherently queerphobic. Seeing Dean Winchester as bisexual but invalidating his romantic relationships with the women in his life is biphobic. Bisexual people have relationships with people of the opposite sex.  It doesn’t make them less bisexual and it is gatekeeping at its worse to insist that only the same sex relationships count.

Continuing with the gender fluidity is Doctor Who. The last two years have brought this fandom its first female Doctor. A year or two before, Moffat paved the way by not only showing that Time Lords can willing change genders in their regenerations in the 50th anniversary episode, but also introducing Missy, the Master’s latest regeneration. The Thirteenth Doctor canonically makes the Doctor gender fluid thereby making any relationship they’ve had a queer relationship.  Their canon second wife, River Song has been acknowledged to be bisexual, making their marriage a queer relationship, despite seeing River only with the male versions of the Doctor so far.

Even other previous relationships with the Doctor, for example, the fan favorite of Ten/Rose, would be in actuality a queer relationship because Time Lords are canonically gender fluid. Even before Ten, Nine actively kissed Captain Jack Harkness, a canonical omnisexual man. The new incarnation of the show has never shied from the Doctor kissing anyone which is refreshing.

The final example in the disaster shows is Sherlock. As mentioned earlier, Conan Doyle’s beloved characters have been the subject of study since the late Nineteenth Century. Now, with the incarnations of BBC’s Sherlock, Robert Downey Jr.’s Sherlock Holmes and even Netflix’s The Irregulars, the subject of Sherlock Holmes and John Watson’s sexuality is a hot button topic for many.

At least 95% of the fandom, the Sherlock fandom, not the literary fandom, would agree that Sherlock Holmes is not 100% heterosexual.  But neither is he 100% homosexual. Most of the consensus will agree that the great detective is queer, whether it be bisexual, demisexual, ace, grey. His relationship with Irene Adler, a dominatrix who said she was gay but also was attracted to men, making her (allegedly) a bi/pan lesbian, as well as his relationship with Jim Moriarty, canonically gay, showed that Sherlock could be attracted to people, perhaps not for the attractiveness but because who they are (as also shown in the relationship between he and Molly Hooper, another gatekept ship). The popular ship, Johnlock, has Sherlock in a relationship with his roommate/friend John Watson. Watson, who was married and has a child, would at most be bisexual. Erasing the canonical women John Watson dated, slept with, and married is again bi erasure at best.

Gay, as defined in the Oxford Dictionary, is: “a homosexual person (typically referring to a man)” (Oxford.com). By this definition, women and nonbinary people cannot be gay as they are not men.  Using it as a “catch-all” in fandom is not only incorrect but queerphobic to the rest of the LGBTQ fans who also identify with these characters.

Shipping is fun. Fandom is supposed to be fun. All ships are valid, and one person’s ship does not invalidate another person’s ship. Even canonical ships don’t have to ruin other people’s ships.  But to use “canon” as a trophy, a sort of “we won, you can’t ever ship your ship anymore because it’s not canon” is horrible gatekeeping.  To insist that a person who ships a m/f relationship is “gross” or “promoting heterosexuality” or “heteronormativity” is also gatekeeping.  Not all m/f ships are heterosexual. Jumping immediately to that conclusion about both the ship and the person shipping it is not only the worst type of gatekeeping, but it is also extremely queerphobic.  Don't turn into the people other's hate, this universe is large enough for all of us.

#FPBlog #queerphobia #toxic fandom #fandom wank #fandom bullshit #blog post