#sorry this might be my hottest yj take which is why i'm not tagging it

[antlerqueer]

i'm tired of the "jackie taylor couldn't be mean" concept because people can be mean even with the best intentions, and while i don't think she would purposely hurt anyone without reason, she's not immune from being an ignorant teenager.

(long post, if you wanna argue i'll be annoyed bc this is just what i think and i GET why ppl are saying what they're saying.)

she was a privileged, selfish teenager. those aren't negative things, but they do mean she's got blindspots.

there are so many explicit times she isn't kind to shauna and thinks she's being helpful in the pilot alone; she shuts off shauna's music the moment she gets into her car and insults it, she offers randy (who is clearly disgusting) to shauna as though he's on her radar, she insults shauna 3x before telling her "you're the best friend I've ever had, you know that, right?". sure, part of this is shauna's fault for not calling her out when she hurts her, but that doesn't change that it happened. are these all heinous, terrible things? no. but they grow on someone.

she's learned love from an abusive mother. she doesn't know how to express it in a healthy way. she is a teenager, teenagers rarely have that emotional intelligence.

the reason jackie's ghost is kinda mean is because it's exaggerating what shauna's memory of jackie is. we have to believe what shauna says about jackie pre-crash because the evidence supports it.

when jackie does absolutely nothing to help the girls in the wilderness? no one is surprised, they don't bother her about it because there's no use - she only listens to shauna.

when the girls figure out she's gone off with travis? van says "that is so jackie".

when she insults nat and slut shames her? no one looks surprised.

taissa, actually, looks surprised when jackie says something nice and true about her in the pilot.

we also see her purposely be mean to shauna (which shauna deserved don't get me wrong) when she says "I'm just trying to get you help for your baby" and "I wouldn't want us to fight over some guy" and when she forces shauna to tell everyone she's pregnant.

jackie may not INTEND to be cruel, but she is capable of it. to say she couldn't say something mean is to ignore reality - people can be hurtful even if they don't mean to be. and she did hurt shauna, even if shauna waited until the last possible minute to tell her, even if she didn't mean to.

like i've been the jackie in this scenario before. she doesn't know she's hurting anyone! that's not her fault! she's just selfish! she can be well-intentioned and bitchy sometimes, it's the duality of fucking existence. let your faves have flaws.

#also sorry i'm just mad someone got on my headcanon post and was like NO ACTUALLY bc make ur own post im just trying to have fun #sorry this might be my hottest yj take which is why i'm not tagging it