#that's absolutely not their dynamic. even aside from the fact they're both gay as fuck LMAO

[jerreeeeeee]

the thing is i very much understand the appeal of lupcretia narratively bc they are foils who betray each other and then forgive each other because the force of their grief and guilt brings them to an understanding and i also understand the appeal of blupcretia bc its a three person relationship who disagree on something major and split apart leaving one party feeling abandoned when the other two agree against her and what does that mean for the fact that the rest of their lives outside a horrible timeloop are supposed to start soon Because of that decision and disagreement like i get it narratively its interesting!! but here’s the thing: i just have an unshakeable belief that lup is straight

#+ w/ regard to blupcretia the appeal of that one depends on the Assumption that romantic relationships are prioritized #yk what i mean? #like its only really interesting if you assume they’re intending to also be life partners/prioritized in each others life #thats why the creeping feeling of betrayal in lucretia is interesting at all #bc she’s assuming the three of them are a Unit #like thats why its more interesting romantically than platonically (still very very interesting platonically) #but i really don’t think romantic relationships Are always prioritized and i especially don’t think LUP of all people does so #the most important person in her life is taako and he’s just chilling in this scenario LMAO #he has no skin in the game so even if youre like yeah lup DOES prioritize him over both her romantic partners it doesnt… add any depth #and taako and lucretia have their own extremely complex & interesting dynamic and that doesnt benefit from lucretia being w/ lup either #like i tend to think taako and lucretia were already pretty close w/out lupcretia being a thing so that doesnt lend any more complexity #+ all that's not even to mention that i dont think lup or barry as characters really have romantic chemistry w/ lucretia #that and i just really do think lup is straight #taz #mine #ive also seen a fic abt taako/lucretia where she feels betrayed bc he chose his family over her (his girlfriend?) #which i guess is interesting enough but i truly truly cannot ever see them in a romantic/sexual relationship #that's absolutely not their dynamic. even aside from the fact they're both gay as fuck LMAO #not trying to vague something very specific dont anyone go like. hunt this down and harass the author ofc #just thought it was interesting. another concept that in theory could be narratively fun but i cant ever see happening. except way stronger

[gloriousmonsters]

God I LOVE the way you write the vees especially Velvette

Do you have any more poly vees headcanons

ty!!! and i absolutely do they just all tend to leave my head when I'm asked about them lol. I mostly remembered mothdoll focused ones but there's some others too :P

Valentino and Velvette are both bored by basic porn and reality TV content after seeing it created all the time and will mainly watch Hell bootlegs/remakes of things that fall on the spectrum of 'excessive violence, depressing' and 'weird and fucked up in a sexual manner'. they will both check their phones and talk through the entire film but get incredibly annoyed if Vox asks them if they want to maybe switch off Oldboy because they've been debating whether Zestial and Carmilla Carmine are fucking for twenty minutes. they're paying attention on levels you can't even comprehend. neither of them remember what the movies were about afterward except in the vaguest terms

Velvette had Valentino on a livestream to promote the launch of Love Potion (it's a perfume and you shouldn't ingest it wink wink its slight sexy influential qualities grow 100x more strong when mixed with liquid wink wink) and their chemistry worked so well onscreen that she's invited him to a few since then, mostly just to build parasociality with their audience hang out

Velvette will let Valentino do her makeup + hair sometimes because it's one of the things he can't really play with himself (his features/skin don't lend themselves to makeup and. no hair 😔) so it lets him live vicariously. Plus it functions as one of the only bits of (mostly) nonsexual intimacy they have.

aside from 'darling' and 'V', Velvette will occasionally call Vox 'prince charming', which has to be used sparingly because it puts his ego at dangerous levels for the rest of the day. Val gets 'handsome', 'pretty boy', and 'perv' or 'lech' (affectionate).

Vox and Valentino - Val especially - mostly don't get genuinely angry at Velvette, but one of the most aggravating things she does is follow them around at a slight distance with her phone out and ready to film like she's trying to catch a cat doing something funny on-camera

Velvette and Vox's monetary relationship swings back and forth between sugar daddy from Vox's end and findom from Velvette's end (Val is envious and confused about the fact that Velvette can somehow always make Vox hand over the money she wants until he figures out it's a kinky thing and it all makes sense).

this will be the focus of a fic but Vox essentially had another sexuality crisis around Velvette showing up because he'd lowkey considered himself gay despite being in denial about it because the only people he'd been genuinely interested in and the most enjoyable sex he'd had was with men so encountering a woman he was attracted to as a person took some mental adjustment

Velvette was an invaluable addition to the team but sometimes when Vox catches her and Valentino making some kind of significant eye contact when he says something 'very white', apparently, for the fiftieth time, he maybe regrets allowing this dynamic to form just a little

#the vees #poly vees #replies #this took 1000 years... but everything has recently lol #hopefully it's fun anyway #vic talks #happy days in hell (hazbin tag)

[munku-collar]

I’ve seen multiple people recommend reading your post about the bi erasure in the cats fandom but I can’t find it, do you have an approximate date so I know how far to scroll or any other help finding it cause I want to read it 😔😔

I'm flattered so many people are recommending my posts omg 💀 You're not finding any posts though because they're less coherent PSAs and more me flinging out words in anger and justified rage randomly, so they're incredibly difficult to find. I'll try to sum them up here, as well as a few connecting issues. Extremely long post!

Fandoms in general, and this fandom is no exception, have a misogyny and biphobia issue and the two are definitely intertwined. Male characters always get more attention, more development, more love and fanart and content than female characters, even from the canon creators. The queens are constantly overlooked or flat out removed from the narrative to make more room and give more attention to the toms. I test this theory a lot and I've found that a cast photo of a tom will absolutely get more notes than a photo of a queen, and even in group photos, if there is a queen in the photo it will get less notes than a photo with just toms in it.

Regularly I find queens removed from narratives or having their established dynamics with another character, especially a tom, eradicated or extremely downplayed and relegated to loose friendship in favor of shipping that tom with another tom. I've seen this happen with Munkustrap and Demeter, Rum Tum Tugger and Bombalurina, Plato and Victoria, as well as with Demeter and Macavity, among others. Repeatedly the female romantic interest is pushed aside so the man can be shipped with another man. No one denies certain toms having chemistry, but the women get pushed out of the picture entirely or become props for the new ship, and that's really disheartening.

And many claim to headcanon several toms, like Munk and Tugger, as bisexual. But here's the thing: their female love interests get ignored. It's like 'yes they're allowed to be bisexual, but only be in same sex relationships.' People completely erase their established attraction to women, and spoiler alert: being bisexual means being interested in more than one gender. Yes Rum Tum Tugger is a bi icon!! But he's only allowed to be in love with Misto. He doesn't love Bomba. Yes Munkustrap is bisexual! But he's only allowed to be in love with Misto, or Alonzo, or Mungojerrie, even though he and Demeter clearly have something going on.

It's this constant pushing away of female characters that's frustrating. Because a lot of bi people enjoy poly content, and we'd love to have poly ships for our favorite characters, but instead the women are always pushed aside and ignored, and as a woman myself it's very frustrating. It feels alienating and unwelcoming. It's like women don't have a place in the fandom, and neither do bisexuals.

There's a major problem in society when it comes to bisexuals in general. You're always pressured to "choose a side." Either you're gay or you're straight. Everyone wants to ignore the fact that you're both. That's the whole fucking point. And you're alienated from both communities. You're not gay enough, you're not straight enough, you're just stuck in the middle by yourself. So seeing that choice forced upon people in fandom content too, and always in favor of the gay side and basically shaming the straight side is really hurtful. Intentionally or not it makes people feel bad about themselves and about the content they enjoy, as well as how they fall in love with people in real life.

And on the off chance the women are mentioned at all in dynamics or narratives, their personalities are often skewed to an unrecognizable degree. In times past Bombalurina has been portrayed as a petty, jealous bitch in order to justify Tugger choosing Misto instead. Oftentimes Demeter gets portrayed as wimpy, frumpy and self conscious, when she's quite confident in her sexuality and is very brave despite her anxiety. Why aren't female characters allowed to exist as they are? This problem honestly applies to male characters too, especially when they get put in ships. Not only do they frequently have their bisexuality erased but their fundamental personalities get skewed too. This happens to Misto frequently, and the same can be said for Macavity. Fundamental character elements get stripped away for the sake of mlm ships. This is not an opinion, this is a fact, and nowhere is double standard more clear than when it comes to the fandom's treatment of Macavity.

He is either made such a dark, irredeemable monster that no one should ever speak to him, or he is made to be a good guy who enjoys family and kittensitting and having a good time. Neither are accurate, and both treatments are applied in order to create gay ships. The first, naturally, to create wump and dark ship content, and the second to create unrealistic fluffy scenarios where he's the perfect lover. That's acceptable in itself, if acknowledged as an AU, but here's the issue: Neither of these options are ALLOWED when the ship in question is Macavity/Demeter, aka his only canon love interest.

Demecavity content gets swept under the rug or sometimes outright disdained. My second week in the fandom I made a post about a passing thought of the last time the two were together romantically, and how conflicting it must have been for Demeter. I got an angry ask in my inbox accusing me of having r*pe fantasies and supporting toxic relationships and that I was fucked in the head. My realistic interpretation of a toxic relationship where one partner knows they love the other, but must leave for their own well-being, a concept that is frequently encountered in real life situations and indeed in my own life, is deemed 'fucked up' and unenjoyable simply because one of the love interests in question is a woman. Because NO ONE ever makes these arguments against the myriad of mlm ships for Macavity. Gay Mac ships get applauded and frequently reblogged and fawned over. My Demecavity posts get around 10 notes AT MOST. It's the double standard for me. Mac is allowed to be romantic and adored and shipped as long as it's a tom he's shipped with. If he's shipped with Demeter, it's toxic, it's taboo, and it shouldn't be spoken about. That's messed up! It's incredibly messed up and a source of frustration for me daily. What is even the point? What are people trying to say? That women can only be victims and aren't capable of having complicated attractions? It's dehumanizing.

And unsurprisingly it isn't just male characters getting their bisexuality stripped away. WLW ships are rare in the fandom, especially if you're searching for fan content, but even in that sub community biphobia runs rampant. Say Demeter and Bombalurina get shipped together. It immediately becomes "look at these sexy man-hating lesbians they're so cool." Or Victoria. "Look at this gorgeous little lesbian she would never be with someone like Plato." Once again the subconscious (or honestly, BLATANT) idea that being gay is better than being straight or bisexual is propagated. These are all characters that have sweet, fun and interesting dynamics with male love interests. WHY are they not allowed to be attracted to men and women at the same time? Why is it always immediately one or the other? Why is it so hard to work with a character's established canon instead of ripping it away and putting something else on them? Acknowledging that Demeter finds Munkustrap kind and charming and that she has a place for him in her heart would absolutely NOT interfere with her being in a loving relationship with Bombalurina. Rum Tum Tugger getting heart eyes and butterflies whenever he sees Bombalurina would NOT make him unable to have a loving committed relationship with Misto.

There seems to be this underlying, almost fanatical insistence upon monogamy, specifically gay monogamy, beyond the normal definition. A character is only allowed to EVER be interested in one other character their entire life. They are not allowed to find anyone else attractive or have a crush on them ever, especially if they're of the opposite gender. Which ties in the hatred of polygamy aforementioned.

Claiming to headcanon so many characters as bisexual should mean that poly ships are way more popular than they are. Cats is the perfect vehicle for something like this! Just watch the damn show! Within the first 15 minutes you see Munkustrap have a tender moment with Demeter, and an equally tender moment with Alonzo. Munkustrap jumps to protect Demeter from Mac, and Alonzo jumps in to protect both of them. Why is it such an insane concept to think that the three of them could be interested in each other? And especially with the tribe being portrayed as very communal, even when it comes to taking care of the kittens, it honestly makes sense that there would be poly partnerships.

Even beyond strictly romantic relationships, I can imagine quite a bit of co-parenting or queer-platonic relationships in the tribe. But all of that gets ignored in favor of a myriad of mlm ships that may or may not eradicate a character's bisexuality. Non-ship content is difficult to find in the fandom as well, and is often overlooked. I've seen some incredible fanfics or drabbles written about characters like Gus, or plenty of fanart simply portraying a character that isn't easily shipped or is less favorably shipped (like the older queens for example) get ignored or significantly less notes than a gay ship piece will.

I'm not saying this out of hatred; this is a fact. Search the new posts in the Tuggoffelees tag and compare the note count of several posts there to the note count for new posts in the Demestrap tag. There is a MAJOR disparity, despite Demestrap being the canon other big relationship in the show. And if you make a post just about Demeter, or even, I've noticed, depending on the type of ship post you make, you're liable to get less notes. If I make a Demestrap post that is about Demeter fawning over Munk, it gets more notes than if I make a post about Munkustrap fawning over Demeter. There is just this inherent disdain for female characters! I don't understand it!

And once again, just a post about a female character in herself (or just a male character alone) and discussions about their characterizations or headcanons about THEM and not a relationship they're in get less attention. It really gives the tone of "a character is only good for shipping," which is not how it should be, especially when that shipping erases their canon attraction preferences and personalities.

Bisexuality is not the enemy. You can put a bisexual character in a same sex relationship WITHOUT completely erasing their canon ties. I promise it's possible, and people need to start doing so more often. People need to examine how they approach shipping and characters in general, and take a good hard look at their content, and decide how to move forward more inclusively. Because as a bisexual woman of color, I'm getting really, really tired of feeling left out or lesser in every community I step into.

There's probably more to say, but this is all I can think of for the moment. I hope whoever reads gains a bit of insight from this. This is not meant to demonize mlm ships, this is to bring to attention the problematic approach people have towards them, and the mistreatment of all characters in the fandom. Everyone is allowed their fun, but if that fun repeatedly injures others, conscious effort should be put to rectify that. That way we can ALL have fun together. Because at the end of the day, creating and consuming fanwork is meant to be fun, and if you're constantly having your connections to your favorite characters, such as bisexualty, stripped away or intentionally or unintentionally being deigned inferior, it's not fun for anyone anymore.

No one says you need to ship a certain ship either. We all have our preferences. I certainly have mine. Just be more conscious about how you treat other ships, or characters around your favorites. A character you might not think much of could mean the world to someone else. Just treat it all with respect.

I will not be entertaining arguments or opposite opinions. I am a marginalized person and I refuse to have my experiences invalidated or spoken over. Don't agree, simply keep moving.

#and no this will not go under a cut actually #people need to read it #asks #cats the musical #cats 1998 #my shit