#they aren’t queer-presenting enough??

[vampstel]

LGBT discourse will never not make me both uncomfortable and pissed off

#꒰ v’s rambling ꒱ #This is specifically about an actor who got forced to come out as bi because people were accussing him of queerbaiting #It’s just #so messed up #no one owes you their sexuality #or gender identity #That’s all that needs to be said #but also #It’s just weird seeing so many queer people throw this term around assuming someone’s straight simply because… #they aren’t queer-presenting enough?? #or aren’t labeled/haven’t come out yet?? #Like what the fuck?? #y’all preach acceptance and breaking the binary #but then try to force heteronormativity on anyone that doesn’t fit your criteria of being queer #Do you hear yourselves?? You’re saying the same bs homophobes spout #‘break the binary’ but god forbid if you see a person you suspect to be cishet break gender norms #‘break the binary’ but also ur gonna use it as a guide to invalidate others and force them into a box #which is literally what you say you’re against #Please just… make up your mind? #I’m just. yeah no I’m done

[girlneuter]

well i've never felt belonging to the othereds just more alienation so rip

You Belong To Me Now. Call Me The Parental Unit, Protector Of The Wandering Queers

#there’s big queer community as a whole which we all belong to and then there’s local communities that we aren’t always accepted in to #for ex there’s a lot of racism and ableism in the queer community so if someone is disabled or a poc there’s a huge intersection of #communities and cultures and most of us belong to several #it’s not limited to just disability and race #sex and gender presentation are also huge factors like a trans fem will have a different experience than a cis gay but they might have some #overlap if they’re both fem #we’re all unlearning these things and I’m sorry you haven’t found a space yet that can accept all of your humanity #just keep in mind until you find them that those things are part of your humanity and just because you don’t have what you deserve doesn’t #mean you don’t deserve it #maybe you don’t belong in your local groups because they don’t have the love and support that you need #but you still belong to the community as a whole and i hope that’s a nuance that can soften the harshness of feeling isolated or othered #distant family that loves and wishes you well but isn’t familiar enough with your circumstances to offer more than a few words of kindness

[cock-holliday]

It’s so frustrating how often we as queer folks are expected to frame our experiences as “the opposite” of what bigots think. Bigots say that being gay is a choice and so we all rush to say no no it’s not a choice! And every queer who feels their sexuality is a choice they made is thrown under the bus. Bigots say being trans is a choice or a trend so we rush to say no no I was always trans from birth and always knew! And every trans person who chooses this or didn’t know until later is thrown under the bus.

Bigots say that trans women are trying to escape their male privileges and socialization so we say no no no I never had privilege cause I was always girl, if anything it’s trans MEN who are the privileged ones. Bigots say trans men are just trying to escape misogyny so we say no no no I was always a boy so I never could be subjected to misogyny, and to prove how not like a woman I am, I will perform misogyny.

Queer people are not allowed to have doubts, they have to be certain, but it can’t be your choice, it has to be that you were as much predestined for queerness as being cishet.

Trans women aren’t allowed to reckon with their pre-transition selves, and are expected to atone for being cursed with being “born a boy” and must perform hyperfemininity to be taken seriously, but do it too much and you’re trying too hard. Do it too little and you’re a threat. Pass or don’t, many will still treat you like you’re a cis man.

Trans men aren’t allowed to reckon with their pre-transition selves, and are expected to atone for choosing the path of the enemy. They must perform hypermasculinity to be taken seriously, but do it too much and you’re a threat. Do it too little and you’re not trying hard enough. Pass or don’t, many will still assume you are treated like a cis man.

You are not allowed autonomy in your identity, you are demanded to present with clarity, you cannot identify as anything middle ground or beyond a binary. You cannot as a trans person reconcile your experiences you had before transitioning—good, bad, or just neutral. How you identify is either disregarded or assumed in all situations to be how society treats you.

Trans men who pass as cis are threats. Trans men who don’t are jokes, or whining they don’t get the privileges they feel entitled to (but already have, of course). Trans women who don’t pass are threats. Trans women who pass are on thin thin fucking ice and if you act sexually or voice too loud an opinion or do anything with your performance of femininity that does not stick you in a corner where you can be forgotten about, as is your intended submissive place, you are a man and a threat.

We have got to stop playing by our oppressors’ rules because there is no way to win, certainly not without turning on each other. And even then, the win is so so temporary, because you are still not winning, you’re just a useful tool to ensure that your siblings lose.

#LJsm

[rebellum]

nooo i wrote a whole RESPONSE to this but then tumblr app crashed and then I had to type the whole thing out AGAIN on my computer and then in that time period the op turned reblogs off. Since they turned reblogs off, I decided to cover up their name, in order to kinda respect that.

my response:

No. It is important to create new words in order to discuss specific phenomena. That’s why words like homophobia, lesbophobia, transphobia, misogyny, transmisogyny, exorsexism, and transandrophobia were invented. 

Sure, lesbophobia is covered under “homophobia”, but lesbophobia is an important word for describing how misogyny and homophobia affect women’s experiences of homophobia. Transmisogyny is covered under “transphobia”, but it’s useful to have a term that specifically describes how trans fems experience the intersection of transphobia and misogyny, not just for being trans, but for being specifically trans feminine, and the ways that expectations of womanhood, femininity, manhood, and masculinity factor into their oppression because of their assigned sex at birth, their presentation, and their gender. Exorsexism is covered under “transphobia”, but it’s useful to have a term to describe how transphobia affects specifically people outside of the gender binary. Misogynoir is covered under misogyny, but the term was created to specifically describe how Black women experience the intersections of racism and misogyny. Of course my explanations here are a little reductive, each one of these examples has much more to it than what I listed. 

In a similar vein, transandrophobia is useful for understanding how transphobia, homophobia, misogyny, and the meta-epistemologies of those discourses affect trans mascs, not just for being trans, but for being trans masc. Oppression, both systemic and on individual levels of discrimination and prejudice, works differently for people depending on the intersections of their identity (assigned sex at birth, assigned gender at birth, presentation, gender identity, race, culture, ability, etc). 

So transandrophobia is useful for discussing specifics like:

The idea of “lost lesbians” and “the trans cult tricking little girls into mutilating their bodies”

The rhetoric of violence around testosterone-based HRT. There is the incorrect idea that people who take T become more violent because they are becoming more masculine. 

This association of masculinity with violence, and how that affects trans mascs. For trans people regardless of gender, proximity to masculinity puts people in danger in queer spaces. People are treated worse if they are trans masc, trans fem and don’t pass well enough to the surrounding people, or nonbinary and not sufficiently ‘safely’ androgynous (skinny, hairless, and white, with no prominent secondary sex characteristics). 

How trans mascs are treated differently when they come out, or when they start to transition. Many people find that people are colder to them, they experience higher rates of abuse, and if they are trans men they are told to not talk about their experiences because ‘they are men and can’t possibly understand misogyny’. The voices of people who aren’t trans masc often end up being listened to more about trans masc experiences, than the people who have actually lived through those experiences. Like, people are shitty to trans people that are masculine specifically because they are masculine.

Corrective rape 

Many people, even in feminist and trans spaces, believe that a man’s gender cannot factor into his experiences of oppression. Eg believe that the fact that they are men is irrelevant to trans men’s experiences, believe that a Black man’s masculinity has nothing to do with how he experiences racial oppression, etc. There are even some vocal people who believe that men cannot be oppressed, and that trans men cannot be oppressed, specifically because being men means they CAN’T experience oppression. 

The idea that trans men transition in order to try to escape misogyny 

Discrimination in reproductive healthcare 

A lot more, it would take ages to list the different kinds of transandrophobia

I also noticed you said “continue to feel its effects if they don’t pass”. But that idea is part of the issue: trans mascs continue to experience oppression for being trans masc when they DO pass. Even if someone is well passing, and stealth, they still directly experience discrimination for being trans masc through things like access barriers to reproductive healthcare, higher rates of abuse, sexual assault, etc. 

So transandrophobia (trans andro + phobia, not trans +androphobia as some people against the concept seem to believe) is, like other specific terminologies of oppression, really useful as shorthand for the specific forms of oppression people face not just for being trans, but for being trans masc.

#transandrophobia #transphobia discussion

[nix-that-rad-lass]

🌈Happy Pride Month🌈

🌸To the lesbians told they are transphobic for refusing biological males

🌸To the lesbians hiding their true orientation for fear of discrimination from the same movement claiming to support them

🌸To the lesbians who wonder if maybe it would be easier to identify out of it and pretend they are a man in a woman’s body

🌸To all the lesbians feeling left behind by mainstream pride

🌈Happy pride month🌈

🌻To the gay men called transphobic for refusing biological females

🌻To the gay men who hide their true selves to appease their peers idea of how they ought to be

🌻To the gay men who wonder if maybe they should give in and try to change yet again

🌻To all the gay men feeling left behind by the mainstream pride

🌈Happy pride month🌈

🌺To the bisexuals who are told they are transphobic for refusing someone that believes in outdated gender roles as an identity

🌺To the bisexuals told they aren’t gay enough to be LGB and aren’t straight enough to be “normal”

🌺To the bisexuals who feel like they don’t fit and are always having to change and hide bits and pieces of themselves to be accepted

🌺To all the bisexuals feeling left behind by the mainstream pride

🌈Happy pride month🌈

🌼To the dysphoric people told their bodies are wrong and should be medically harmed

🌼To the dysphoric women and girls seeking to escape the trauma of sexism and misogyny

🌼To the dysphoric men seeking to escape the trauma and toxicity that seems to infest most masculinity

🌼To all the dysphoric people feeling left behind by the mainstream pride

🌈Happy pride month🌈

💐To all the people whose identities aren’t just an identity, but a part of them, a biological reality

💐To all the people who reject ‘queer’ because same sex attraction and dysphoria are not strange or weird

💐To all the people told to follow a political movement that claims to support them despite actions showing otherwise

💐To all the people left harmed by the medical industry as it preys upon individuals with dysphoria or those struggling to come to terms with their sexuality

💐To all the people told that their desire for simple acceptance and normalcy is politically incorrect

🌈Here’s to a pride month for everyone, and a hope for a better future for all- regardless of ones orientation, presentation, or politics🌈

#pride #pride month #lgbt #lgb #lesbian #gay #bisexual #dysphoric #detrans #feminism #radical feminist #gender critical #terf safe #radfem #radfem safe #radical feminism #pride month: gender critical edition #pride month: radfem edition #pride month: gencrit edition

[therainscene]

Will Byers: Be gay do crime, amirite?

Growing up means putting away childish things, choosing between marrying a woman or remaining celibate, becoming a wage slave with no free time, and accepting that this is how life works.

Fuck that!

Will would rather spend his time doing things he actually enjoys with the people he loves, and if he has to break some of society’s rules to do so... well, clearly the rules were bullshit to begin with and deserve to be broken.

But the spark of defiance we see in the van is a smoldering ember compared to the fire of S3.

Will jokes about Vegas and D&D, but that’s all it is -- a joke. Getting to spend the rest of his life with Mike has begun to feel like a silly fantasy, akin to using superpowers to commit fraud as a minor.

It doesn’t occur to him that Mike’s cries for help could be because he wants to escape comphet, not be pushed further into it. He weeps quietly over his self-inflicted heartache, back turned and mouth smothered, like there’s something unreasonable about his feelings.

What happened to the brazenly authentic boy who openly admitted that he expected to spend his life with Mike? Where’s the offended boy who called Mike out on his performative heterosexuality? The furious boy who screamed and sobbed and swore as he felt society’s homophobic standards closing in on him with all the inevitability of growing older?

Will is authentic and headstrong, but even he is getting slowly crushed under the boot of forced conformity.

Some of the GA think this is an acceptable outcome; just an inevitable part of growing up gay in the 80s. It’s realistic and relatable. Great queer rep!

Others decide that Will should become a villain -- after all, hasn’t he earned the right? The narrative has done nothing but torture him, so doesn’t he deserve to go a little apeshit? As a treat?

Henry Creel: Be gay do crime, amirite?

Henry is scathingly critical of society’s rules. He refuses to compromise his true nature by playing along, and no amount of punishment can force him to change.

His backstory is presented in a way that makes it difficult to sympathize with him -- I mean, ok, maybe he didn’t deserve to be jailed and tortured when he was just a child, but surely the Soteria was necessary, right? He’s dangerous.

But the real threat that Henry poses isn’t his willingness to kill -- it’s the power he has to rewrite the rules. And both he and his oppressors know it.

By locking him up (forcing him into the closet), torturing him (subjecting him to homophobia), and implanting him with Soteria (castrating him), they stripped him of agency and reduced his options to a rock and a hard place:

Continue suffering in obedient silence.

Go apeshit and commit whatever atrocities are necessary to escape. Embrace his role as the villain in a story where people like him aren’t allowed to be the heroes anyway.

(Hmm, those are same options that Will is expected to choose from. What an interesting yet surely meaningless coincidence.)

The tragedy of Henry’s story is that he did end up conforming to the rules in the end.

He didn’t choose the option his oppressors would have preferred, but he did choose an acceptable one -- he became the monster they’d already branded him as. Once upon a time his fellow outcasts might have gladly allied with him, but now they’re forced to stop him.

I love the symbolism of this shot. El’s rainbow is larger and pushes Henry back, while his is upside down, foreshadowing how the battle is going to end -- but more than that, it symbolizes their approaches in battle.

The motivation that Henry is using comes from the same place as El’s -- a desire for self-preservation, to defy authority, to fight for the rights of fellow outcasts -- but his has been twisted. He advises her to use a memory of injustice that makes her feel angry and sad...

...and while it’s very effective, it’s not enough. It isn’t until she thinks of a memory that makes her feel loved that she’s able to gain the upper hand.

Interestingly, the lights surge around her as she does this, bathing her in an ethereal white glow:

It fits the symbolism of the rainbow room perfectly -- after all, what is white light if not a focused rainbow?

But more importantly: where have we seen this before?

Will Byers carries the light with him wherever he goes, because he has the benefit of something Henry was cruelly robbed of: the unconditional love and acceptance of his family and friends, which helped hinder society’s efforts to crush the authenticity out of him.

So why should Will suffer the same fate as Henry? What’s stopping him from being the hero and earning the happy ending he wants, instead of the tragic ending homophobes expect him to settle for?

Like Henry, Will has the power to rewrite the rules -- and this time, they’re actually going to be rewritten.

#stranger things #will has powers #byler #will byers #henry creel #el hopper #my analysis

[cosmic-ghost-hermit]

Take what resonates and leave behind anything that doesn't but of course, be open to new experiences! However, for this specific reading if you aren't already kind of questioning your gender, I suggest you do not participate in this one. 🩷🩵🤍🩵🩷

PILE 1

Crystal: Tigers Eye Bracelet

Astrology: Aquarius ♒️, Libra ♎️, Gemini ♊️

Aesthetic: Boho

Welcome pile 1! So first I’ll talk about how you feel about your gender currently. You have been extremely frustrated with it but your aggravation is a bridge to self discovery and relief. This discomfort is necessary so you can fully embrace who you are! Femininity and masculinity subconsciously do not make sense to you but you are still trying to make one of them work. The best way you can explore your gender more is to try an absence of it. A neutral expression might help you find what truly works for you. I see that you might find more masculinity in your clothing choice as you start to explore which could be something you aren’t super used to. Or you could dress without gender in mind at all and just pick what feels good. The more you go outside your comfort zone in expression the more you are going to see just how much binary gender confuses you and isolates you. The card's advice is to walk away from trying to fit into a binary. Sometimes deciding not to decide is good enough to move foward.

💚🤎🧸🐍♻️🚬🔑🪘🪇🐢🪲🍀🌴🍵🐻🕰️🥙🥝🥑🌳🐉🦥🛎️📻🐛👒🇨🇮⛰️

PILE 2

Crystal: Bloodstone Bracelet

Astrology: Aries ♈️, Virgo ♍️, Cancer ♋️

Aesthetic: Grunge

Hello pile 2! You currently feel pretty outwardly confident in your gender but this is all on the surface. You present very femme but you may not always relate or feel comfortable in the feminine experience. You usually ignore that discomfort as a way of peace keeping. It might stir up a lot of commotion for you to do anything different. The commotion could be in your environment but I also see that for most of you in this pile, it could just be your fear of imperfections. The emotional commotion is the most likely possibility in these cards. You don’t need to be afraid of rejection from anyone but yourself. A good way to explore your gender more in a safe way is to try out masculinity in small amounts. Take it slow and do not push yourself if you feel more uncomfortable trying new stuff than remaining in the old. Just know butch women exist and they are not obligated to trans their gender just because they want to dress more masculinely. You are safe to explore I promise. And you will still be pretty if you do. You are absolutely gorgeous.

🕷️🤍🕸️🐚🕶️☠️🖤✒️🔪♟️👻🎬🎹🎱☕️🦨🐼🃏🦷☁️⚽️🔍🩶🎵♣️🏐⌚️

PILE 3

Crystals: Quartz & Howlite Bracelet

Astrology: Scorpio ♏️, Pisces ♓️, Capricorn ♑️

Aesthetic: Cottagecore

Hi, pile 3! My dear friend, you know you are transgender. You know. You really don’t need me to tell you that. You might even be in mid-transition. Your body is starting to match how you have always imagined it. Some of those who picked this pile I see are two-spirited, bigender or genderfluid. The best way to traverse your gender expression is to make a statement. Instead of starting an expedition to be more masculine or more feminine. Just try looking more gay. Dress yourself as queer as possible. Let your inner child have fun with your outfits. Dress like a mermaid or try on some drag. Embrace dressing emotionally rather than trying to conform to a specific experience. You are so unique and you need to try to express that outwardly more. You will have so much more fun.

🎂🧋🍉🌤️🍓🦯🍒🍎🍄🐰🌹🧣🍅🌶️🧘🏽🧺🥖🕯️🗝️⛱️⏰🎈📝📿♥️🐚🕊️🎋

PILE 4

Crystal: Rainbow moonstone bracelet

Astrology: Taurus ♉️, Sagittarius ♐️, Leo ♌️

Aesthetic: Pastel Goth

Thank you for joining me, pile 4. So, before I address how you feel about your gender. I’m gonna talk about how everyone else seems to think they know better than you about it. I can definitely see how that might be very annoying. They may say things like “you are in a glass closet” or they may claim that you are transgender if you identify as cis or claim that you are not transgender if you identify as trans. You don't dress to conform. And to that these cards express how much those people don’t know what they are talking about. No matter how you look outwardly, you know who you are better than anyone. So what if your presentation is conventional or digestible? It doesn’t matter what they think. You are perfectly you. You are comfortable as heck in your gender expression and you have already explored everything under the sun. The only advice the cards have for you is to stay strong in your decisions and don’t let anyone’s opinions sway what you already figured out.

🖤🩷🪮⚔️💣🎀⚖️🎮🌸🦢🐭🕷️🏴♠️💞📓🐮🚬🌬️🎙️💻⛸️🫖🍙🐦‍⬛🐾🌷

#astrology #tarot #tarot reading #pick a crystal #pick a pile #crystals #tarot pick a card #gender identity #gender #transgender #pick a card #pick a reading

[griancraft]

I’m not going to reblog the post because I don’t want to directly cause anything but this is my blog and I deserve to make posts about things that make me uncomfortable. The post saying that “Grian being made a trans man is just to make him feminine” comes across like it is implying that trans men aren’t men/queer people must be feminine. It makes me very uncomfortable as there is a major issue in the queer community where older trans men who pass as men aren’t allowed into our spaces because they aren’t feminine enough.

When someone draws Grian as a GNC trans man it’s is often trans men drawing a character they enjoy with their body is being presented as fetishization. Especially when it comes to shipping! Of course someone who is a gay trans man would be excited to draw a character who is able to be feminine and a guy and have a gay guy who loves him. It also feels like it’s falling into “women good men bad” rhetoric. I don’t think they intend any of this at all but it makes me uncomfortable as a trans man.

#discourse #im a fat hairy trans man dating another man <- my credentials #also the fact we are talking about this in my gender studies class rn

[strangestcase]

the one/main thing I don’t get about the transandrophobia discourse is that a lot of the stuff it’s posters posit as “unique transmasc struggles” aren’t really unique yknow. being misgendered no matter what you do, even “playfully”. being affected by misogyny (transfems because they’re women, transmascs because they’re misgendered as such). being demonized within the larger queer community. being snubbed within the trans community if you’re not “good enough”, “quiet enough”, “palatable enough”. being scrutinized for your presentation (if you’re GC you’re sexist, if you’re GNC you’re not really trans, etc) by cis and trans people alike (hello, truscum!). being targeted by TERFs albeit for different reasons (transfems to always be exterminated, transmascs to be converted if possible and exterminated if not). being fetishized. and the shit ass allys. the one unique thing I can see as a transmasc myself is the constant infantilization and mysterious cloak of invisibility thrust into us, which is but the rather milder (but no less unpleasant) cousin of the constant hypervisibility transfems face. while transfems are turned into a boogeywomen and blamed for all that’s wrong with the world (within the queer community as well!), transmascs are reduced to a footnote, a “oh, I didn’t know you could be THAT”, a “who cares”. what bugs me about all this discourse is that a lot of energy could go into fighting that invisibility while uplifting trans women as a True Trans Unity (rather than empty, pithy cries for tolerance and of course the ugly “stop complaining, you should fuck me instead” streak). but instead a worrying amount of discussion about the transphobia faced by trans men and transmascs goes into rather misogynist places and/or pretends things that happen to all trans people are unique to trans men; it’s the odd logic that just because some elements of transmisogyny are unique to trans women, there must always be a male equivalent. And so we get: “why are transfems complaining about the ridiculous amounts of transmisogyny directed at them so much when we too are victims of transphobic abuse? Are they silencing us?” “why can’t we be as visible as trans women are? what do you mean, visibility doesnt equal good publicity?” “I saw this trans woman say she hates men, clearly she’s transphobic because trans men are men” and etc etc etc. dunno where I’m going with this but the moral of the story is that Trans Unity isn’t bitching about mean trans women and then saying you’re an ally, just… fucking listen to trans women and what they have to say about the rest of the trans community and their implicit transphobia, then judge by yourself if they’re being reasonable or not, and, spoiler alert, most of the time they are. and I know most of you want real actual unity and such, which is lovely, but the first step is being sincere . ok bye

#doc talks #long post #transmisogyny

[dinitride-art]

Why Byler Would Be a Failure of a Queerbait

Queerbaiting is used to draw in an audience and usually results in a strong fandom. It’s goal is to gather a larger audience, and the audience that would not want queer characters. What I’ve noticed about it, is that it usually is comprised to two straight characters who are good friends. They then sprinkle stuff into interviews outside the media from actors. Things like, maybe she likes her? I guess you’ll just have to find out in the next season! Or saying they could see it happening. Basically anything that would draw in people who want to see a queer pairing, but keeping a reasonable amount of doubt available to those who don’t want to see a queer pairing. Also fan service when the queer bait is being directed at an audience of mostly straight women shipping two male characters. It’s a marketing tactic.

Queer baiting does sometimes result in queer characters, but not the ones that they’re marketing. Or if it is the ones their marketing, they immediately die. The Queer baiting and bury your gays combo. See, supernatural. Having canon queer characters usually isn’t what is intended. They aren’t important to the plot, and can be easily disposed of once they’ve played their part. Their part being covering up any trace of queer bait with the argument that they actually have a queer character in their show. These characters, more often than not, are one dimensional side characters and aren’t there to stay. Main characters revealed as queer, can’t be more than one, and are only revealed at the last possible moment as not to lose the part of the audience not being queer baited.

Stranger Things has two characters that are canonically queer and are relevant to the plot. Robin on her own could be seen as potential queerbait, if byelr were at that time, popular enough to warrant baiting. The queer side character backtrack comes after pressure from a queer baited audience. Not before. Prior to season four, there were more people on tumblr who shipped Mike and El, than Mike and Will. On tumblr. In fact, there were so few byler shippers, that they were in a position where they could be targeted by Mike and El shippers with no consequences. In season three there would be no reason to even think about smoothing over anger from a baited fandom. There was no fandom to be baited. The audience being baited needs to actually be present for it to work.

With one queer character introduced there is no need for another. If Robin were a side character who died in season three then that might allow for another queer character to be introduced in season four. However, Robin is very much alive in season four. She’s not going anywhere and actually has a character arc discussing both her as a person, and her experience as a lesbian in the eighties in Hawkins. That’s pushing it for queer bait. It’s really pushing it.

Will Byers is in love with Mike Wheeler. That’s canon in season four. It’s been built up to since the beginning. If Stranger Things was baiting a queer audience, this would be a weird move. Considering that Byler shippers have never been worth noting before season four, and that Will’s the character that they built the foundation of the show off of, this is a terrible option for queerbaiting. Not because it wouldn’t draw a queer audience that wasn’t to see queer characters, but because it would push away the audience that doesn’t. That is a line that they cannot cross. Will Byers would be crossing that line, and then some. This character is not one that can be thrown away without consequence. He’s important and affects almost everything that happens. I have never seen a main character be queer, and have their story represented in a genuine manner. Never would it affect a central straight relationship. They wouldn’t dare lose a single member of a heteronormative audience.

Two queer characters that are this important are not queer bait. They are not a marketing tactic, they’re integral to the story. Their experiences are integral to the story. Robin Buckley was the first straightbait I have ever witnessed. She is a queer character who was a character first, and queer after the work was put in to make the audience see her as a person. This character is enough to say that Stranger Things represented a queer character well.

Will Byers says that Stranger Things is about queer people. He’s in love with another main character, and it’s affecting the plot. Will Byers being in love with Mike Wheeler is actively changing Mike and El’s relationship. It has been since the beginning.

You can’t queer bait an audience that isn’t there. You can’t bring in a queer character to cover your asses when no one’s accusing you of anything. This isn’t something I’ve ever seen before. Robin is introduced in preparation for Will. It’s the literally opposite of queer baiting. It’s creating a story with queer characters, about queer characters, and marketing it to a straight cisgender audience.

Queer baiting has never been done like this. Because this isn’t queer baiting. It doesn’t effectively function as queer baiting because there was no audience, and their largest audience is the one they’re testing. It is more of a problem to lose a straight audience than a queer one that barely exists.

Byler cannot be queer bait because that’s not how queer bait works. There are not two canon queer characters in a queer bait. Certainly not one of the characters the plot has been centred around since the beginning. And definitely not a character that they would lose members of their audience for writing him as gay.

Will Byers is in love with Mike Wheeler. Will’s relationship to Mike is still important to both of them even after the audience sees this. In fact, Will is affecting Mike’s decisions, and it’s stressed how much he cares for him. Mike and El’s relationship is in shambles and Will is the character they’ve chosen to get involved in that.

This doesn’t happen.

Will is in love with Mike, and he’s still someone who Mike cares about. There’s no distance put in their relationship. They actually spent an entire arc repairing and strengthening it.

Will Byers is in love with Mike Wheeler.

And he’s still alive. He’s still important. He’s still important to Mike.

I literally don’t know what to do with Mike and Will. Because it’s not queer bait. It doesn’t function as queer bait because queer bait is not an aspect of the story. It’s always marketing to an audience. Never an experience or a conversation or anything that’s significance goes further than saying there’s a queer character for the sake of having a queer character.

And it’s never a main character.

When your main character is queer, your story is queer.

They cannot use queer bait as a marketing tactic because they’ve already committed to writing a queer story. Their main audience is not queer. There’s no reason to queer bait a straight audience that doesn’t want queer characters in the first place. It doesn’t work like that. Queer baiting has never worked like this.

This isn’t queer bait. It never has been.

They’re going for it. They are actually going for it. And I can’t wait to see it.

#it just hit me #it’s always been about this #byler #stranger things #oh #I’m in this story #oh fuck #I’m gonna start crying

[stormblessed95]

https://www.tumblr.com/stormblessed95/732209717977448448/not-you-who-used-to-say-they-were-couple-and-fight

Lord knows i cannot stand people like this who honestly think that the way to know people are dating or not is by their “moments”. Anon, I didn’t know we were all watching a Jikook movie. It is like Jimin and Jungkook aren’t real people who deserve a right to privacy, no they always have to brandish their lives to us 24/7 cuz they need us to always have proof of them being a couple or not.

It seems to me that some of you just do not understand that when circumstances change, certain things change as well. Look at you talking about Jikook having no moment. Anon, how are we supposed to see their moments as much when we aren’t getting as much content of them as a group anymore? How do u expect to get the same kind of moments when everyone is pretty much busy doing their own stuff now? Unless u are a fly on the wall or u have a camera hidden in Jikook’s houses, how tf would u know what they are up to? See you talking about “Jk keeps saying he is busy but has time to hang with his gang while Jimin is home alone” lmaooo. Anon, since u live with Jikook and know what they are up to all day, can u tell me what Jimin had for breakfast this morning? I’d really like to know. People like you who think they know all all the boys’ movements really make me laugh. Tae literally posted a photo a few weeks ago of vminkook in Jeju. If Tae didn’t post those pics would any of us have ever known those three were in Jeju together? Did u see them, did they tell you? We know that sometime (maybe) around chuseok Jikook were probably together doodling on their phones. Did u see them do that anon? Jk said Jimin keeps coming to him and saying “peuriri” and he’s heard it soo much that he is scared he might say that on stage by mistake. So i guess Jk was hallucinating when Jimin kept coming to him and saying this cuz according to your logic, Jk is “busy” and doesn’t have time to see Jimin and only makes time for his gang, yet we keep getting information that shows that they actually see each other much more than we know. Do u honestly think the only way Jimin and Jk can see and spend time with each other is by going out to hang out or doing challenges together? How shallow are you? Yes the truth is that these days, we don’t have enough information to really determine the nature of Jikook’s relationship. We see very little of them and know very little too and i guess that it why it is safe to say they might or might not be cuz things change, but judging from the “2 sec Live” we watched a few days ago, and everything else that has happened in chapter two with Jikook, it seems like nothing has changed about how they feel for each other. It is clear that they still love each other so much and are still very present in each other’s lives. The only thing that is different is that we don’t have content anymore. So stop with ur stupidity anon.

Also, queer people sing about straight sex and girls all the damn time u idiot. Do u think artists only sing songs they personally relate to? Artist sing both songs they relate to and songs that they don’t. They may release songs that are trendy, or that sell. So u think that Jk singing about girls debunks Jikook is one of the stupidest things u can say and i hope u don’t repeat that anywhere else. For one, Jk didn’t write any of those songs. Scooter braun literally brought “Seven” all prepared and wanted Jk to sing it cuz he thought his voice will match well with the song and Jk liked the idea. The song is catchy and trendy. Jk too had no writing credits for 3D. He is JUST the performer and while the performers may relate to the songs they sing sometimes, they don’t always. Besides what on earth did u expect? Did u expect Jk to start singing about fucking men when he is still (probably) closeted? Lmaooo. Some of y’all are really stupid.

Jimin and Jungkook’s lives are not up for display. They don’t live their lives to provide “moments” for shippers. If u want to think Jikook is not real because u don’t see their moments anymore, be my guest but keep ur stupidity to urself and stop being a pest on Jikook blogs.

*sorry I'm late posting your response to that previous anon, i dont have anything to say really, but happy to post your rant for you*

#jikook antis #jikook #kookmin

[literary-illuminati]

Book Review 46 – The Spear Cuts Through Water by Simon Jimenez

Okay the month of August was essentially a write-off for...a lot of things, but non-web serial reading among them! Now trying to claw my way out of the pit and back on the horse. So, some high concept genre fic full of queer people and war crimes, just what the doctor ordered.

The Spear Cuts Through Water is the fantasy epic and love story of a pair of warriors – one a generally despised one-armed checkpoint guard, the other a positively reviled princeling – as they escort the moon goddess in her attempt to escape the prison her sons had trapped her within as they tyranize and empire that spans a continent. As told through a dream/vision of the Inverted Theater, where shades throughout time are called while they sleep to witness a performance put on by the favoured child of moon and sea. Intercut with the same tale as told through out POV’s grandmother, along with vignettes of his life as the son of a failing cloth merchant centuries in the future as the world goes through its equivalent of WW1. All this metaness and layering is either the book’s strongest point or it will make your eyes roll back into your skull so, you know, make an informed choice here.

Being entirely honest I don’t remember exactly how this book ended up on my radar – I believe I was first pointed towards after I expressed some dissatisfaction with this year’s Hugo nominees as something that would have been a more deserving inclusion on the short list. Certainly I’d never heard Jimenez’s name before picking it up. Entirely happy I did, anyway – whoever first rec’d it yes, this does deserve a Hugo nod way more than some of the other nominations.

The plot itself is quite well done, but absent any of the stylistic flourish wouldn’t really have been anything that memorable. The layered framing devices – and the way that they intrude on the narrative in a hundred different ways, switching from depicting the action to saying how it was staged and presented or how the narrator heard the tale told – are really just fantastically well done, enough that even when it got all meta and self-referential I was still enjoying it more than enough to just go with it.

Not that our heroes aren’t fun in their own right. They’re both at times profoundly unlikable, and other times utter idiots, and always totally and completely incapable of intelligibly expressing their feelings. It’s great, love them. Even if on occasion I also wanted to throw rocks at them. The main supporting cast – or at least Defect the tortoise and the moon/empress herself – are even better, really.

Though as far as characterization goes its the extras where the book really shines. It has a trick I really, really like where little snippets of the internal monologue or history of some fellow traveller on the road or sentry being gutter from behind are interspersed into the action in italics like this. Diegetically this would be the chorus in the theatrical performance, but regardless it does a shocking amount to make the world feel like it’s full of actual people and not just mannequins forming a backdrop for the characters who matter.

The book fits into the honourable tradition of modern SFF with cool-eyed and unsentimental portrayals of feudalism/imperialism, war crimes and general oppression (including in this case very plot-relevant and character-informing ableism) but only a vague and attenuated sort of 21st century homophobia, if that. Like all modern queer genrefic it’s also at least kind of in conversation with the looming shadow of Burying Your Gays, with a bait and switch tragic heroic sacrifice that seemed very conscious and pointed.

The framing devices lend themselves well to the book being written in a kind of mythic register, which I very much enjoyed. The epilogue felt like an intrusion of history on mythology, and I do mean that as a compliment, full of messiness and ambiguity and short on heroes and golden ages or utopias. Overall very much enjoyed the book, perfect reading for being stuck in a waiting room for a passport renewal.

#the spear cuts through water #simon jimenez #sff #map fantasy #book review

[orionsangel86]

Watching The Sandman again for the hundreth time and I know everyone always loves to focus on Dreamling, but can we talk about Rose Walker for a moment?

The Sandman is often applauded (and complained about) for being an extremely gay show, but I particularly love how even the characters who aren’t canonically gay come across as extremely gay.

Take Rose Walker. The main character of The Doll’s House story. Neither the show nor the comics ever give Rose a sexuality, but there are some very glaring factors that heavily support her being queer.

The first time we see Rose is in episode 5 24/7. Judy, the lesbian at the diner who has had a fight with her girlfriend Donna, calls Rose and asks if Rose knows where Donna is. We know that Rose considers both Judy and Donna close friends and has a picture of Judy in her apartment.

Rose’s only other friend that we know of besides Lyta Hall (who she got to know via proximity since they were neighbours) is her friend Carl who she clearly is close enough with to let him house sit for her (even though he has sex with The Corinthian on her bed!).

So her closest friends are a lesbian couple and a gay man. I know I know straight people can be friends with queer people but statistically speaking queers flock together. Its more likely that Lyta is the token straight in the friend group than Rose AND Lyta both being straight.

I also question her choice of seeking out accomodation in Cape Kennedy. Isn’t it interesting how she ends up in a very strange B&B also managed by a gay drag artist and filled with colourful characters including Chantal and Zelda (I know their relationship is supposed to remain ambiguous but imo the show also leans more into them being lesbians due to Chantal’s dream where she calls them “soul sisters” and “gothic brides” and I dunno I just think the fact she refers to them as brides is pretty telling!)

Of all your accomodation choices in Florida, this in particular seems like the kind of place one would go to if they were specifically looking for somewhere advertised as “LGBT friendly”. All the characters staying at the B&B are either canonically queer or heavily queer coded.

Gilbert/Fiddlers Green isn’t technically human, but his whole aura is distinguished older gay man - he’s played by Stephen Fry after all!

Also I could go on about Barbie (who I theorise found the accomodation for her and Ken) but without revealing any comic spoilers, she also later surrounds herself with basically all queer people. I know in the comics she is strictly heterosexual, but nah she dreams like a queer theatre kid on speed or something lmao. That girl is a bisexual disaster all the way and yeah I may be projecting on her as a fellow blonde overly dramatic dreamer and disaster bisexual but I claim her for my own okay just let me have this.

So yeah, the queer friendship groups, the specific seeking out of an LGBTQ friendly b&b in Florida, and the fact that she literally wears rainbows in her hair and I think its clear enough that that girl is a baby queer if ever I saw one.

Due to the merging of Rose and Lyta’s stories in the Netflix show, we should actually get to see more of Rose in future seasons. In the comics, after the Dolls House book, she doesn’t appear again (unless she turns up in the Wake since I haven’t read that far ahead), but by making her Lyta’s companion in the show, we know she will appear again since Lyta and the baby (Daniel not that he has been named yet in the show) are reoccuring characters throughout the entire Sandman comic run.

Maybe I just crave more lesbian and bisexual women rep in my fave shows, but sitting here watching this show again it just tickles me that in the entirety of season 1, it is so easy to view practically every major female or female presenting character as queer. Joanna Constantine and Rachel, Judy and Bette, Lucifer and Mazikeen (bring on the make out scene in season 2!), Chantal and Zelda, and in my opinion, Rose Walker, Barbie, Lucienne, and Gault are all queer coded WLW.

(Lucienne and Gault is just a ship I love okay but you can’t deny there was some flirting in episode 10!)

It’s been such a crappy year for lesbian rep with lesbian shows getting cancelled left right and centre. I just think lesbians should therefore claim the Sandman as theirs. if nothing else, claim it out of spite. It’s a fantasy show with a pathetic wet cat emo boy as a main character who literally surrounds himself with lesbians, is probably in love with his best friend, and considers a slutty gay serial killer with teeth for eyes his greatest ever creation. It just seems to me like the kind of show that should appeal heavily to WLW okay! Plus there are more lesbians coming in season 2! Encourage your lesbian and bisexual friends to go watch The Sandman now!

#The Sandman #rose walker #lgbtq #queer coding #queer coding in the sandman #please talk to me about this show #i love it and i really wanna talk about it now #even the non queer characters are queer #the angry straights were right when they said every character in the show is gay #even the non gay characters are gay #its the gay fantasy show to go with the gay pirate and vampire shows #my stuff

[compacflt]

Okay, so I was re-reading your Slider one-shot for like the twentieth time, and what really struck me (beyond the brilliance of your writing, and the way you’ve presented the disillusionment of growing up, expecting the world to be a certain way, only to realize that life doesn’t quite work out the way you think it will, when you’re seventeen), is the casual sexism just tossed ‘round by our main characters!! :o We have canonical evidence of both Ice and Mav being pretty sexist (what with “the plaque for the alternates is in the ladies’ room” and the downright stalker-ish behavior exhibited by Mav at the O-club…), but it still surprised me a lil’ when twenty-y/o Ice was just like: “The Soviet Union did the impossible and taught women to drive” —and I realized that ah, he truly was born in 1959, or something. There’s little scenes throughout your story where I find myself wondering, which one of them is better, in this sense: When Ice tells Mav that Sarah isn’t talking to him ‘cause of his combat kills, justifies it by saying: “You know how women are”, and Mav tells him all women aren’t the same… I thought that maybe, it was Mav; but then later, Ice shows a distinctive amount of empathy for Juno, sees and respects her for the skilled pilot that she is… and I thought that maybe, it’s Ice after all—he does seem to be more progressive and accepting than Mav, in general? It also made me wonder, that if either of them had been a woman, would they even have respected the other person enough to consider them to be a rival??—or would it have a been a mildly-amusing circus side show for them, to have a female pilot at TOPGUN?

Ty for the ask anon!! ice is more socially progressive than mav yes.

But—maybe this is my experience growing up in one of the bluest counties in Commiefornia and then going to one of the most leftist-coded colleges in one of the most leftist-coded cities in The World; uhh, even if a white man votes D all the time & has professional respect for women/minorities to their faces etc, get him in a room with a bunch of other white men, especially in a masculine and competitive environment like the gym or the navy, and uh. progressive or not, what you get is a lot of “The Soviet Union did the impossible & taught women to drive.”

And it was the 1980s. (As a reminder, in top gun’s 1986, less than 45% of Americans even approved of interracial marriage.) It sucks to say it, but if Ice was making fun of Cougar for quitting the navy cause of his psych issues such as they may be, and openly calling bullshit on Maverick’s MiG story in front of everyone, I am quite confident in saying he Would Not respect a female pilot to her face—if they were the same rank. At the same rank, it’s a competition. All weaknesses, even perceived biological ones, are to be exploited and called to attention. —But, once he’s advanced in rank, proven his own superiority, he’s more inclined to favor a meritocratic “sex doesn’t matter just fly good” attitude, ergo his relationship w/ “Juno” (she’s just a literary symbol to show that Ice may have respect for other minorities in the Navy “your career speaks for itself” but NOT FOR HIMSELF as a closeted man). This “who cares about gender/race just fly good” attitude is probably where 50s+ Maverick lands too, which is why no issues with Phoenix.

but jesus GOD maverick is a sexist in the original Top Gun. That’s why I wrote the prologue to WWGATTAI—a part of me definitely believes both he and Ice are definitively queer, but a part of me also wonders, are they just also conditioned to dismiss women as intellectual/societal equals because of their time in the 1980s male-dominated Navy? CAN they really only have a truly equal relationship with another man? I have no idea what my Ice’s sexual orientation is for exactly this reason. Yes, he’s functionally gay by the end of it, and that’s what I keep calling him—but sexuality is fluid & complicated. It’s definitely more-than possible he’s mostly straight and it’s just the circumstances of his wildly intense trauma-bond relationship with Maverick that led to their relationship as I wrote it. If you don’t LIKE/understand/respect women, and only feel at home/excited by committing acts of male-typified violence with the few men you respect, how does that bend your definition of the word straight? ...its still straight, but only straight-ish!

not to take it a step further, but WHY ELSE is canon maverick single in TGM? he canonically can’t make it work with women until he retires from the navy!!! he doesnt know how!!! His military environment is not conducive to normal long-term relationships with civilian women!!!

#and it’s well well documented that career military service does this to you! #Jesus look at cops. 40% etc. #yeah mil/LEO relationships with women are historically quite bad. #if you only respect men & then a man comes onto you—might be easier to sustain that relationship than with a woman you do not respect #I forget where i read it but this is the element of the homosocial vs the homosexual. i want to say Foucault but I think thats incorrect #EVE KOSOFSKY SEDGWICK. from her 'between men: English literature & male homosocial desire.' I think she's the preeminent homosocial scholar #if ur interested in 'further reading' not to sound like a geek #fellas is it gay to like women #after all…women kiss men…so if u kiss a woman ur kissing something that’s kissed another man…gay #ice (mid-makeout): well mavericks kissed women before so really this is the most heterosexual thing i could do #anyway #pete maverick mitchell #tom iceman kazansky #top gun #top gun maverick #icemav #asks #edts notes #mav is a social libertarian live & let live & keep the govt out of my bedroom (except for my marriage license uwu) #ice is a social moderate liberal. donates to actblue firmly believes diversity is the militarys greatest strength etc. #(i hope this isn’t too provocative to say but) look at ices outfit in tgm. libcoded. those gay little round glasses? solid lib. #the interracial marriage stat is from Gallup btw; 94% in 2021. weve come a long way. a lot has changed since 1986. #but our fav characters are FROM 1986 too so... we still cant forget that

[katsco]

Good omens is so unapologetically queer and it’s one of the reasons I love it so much.

You have multiple characters that use they/them pronouns and it’s never explained or made a big deal of it’s just simply existing.

You have multiple gender fluid characters who are shown to present different ways through the show again without it being a big deal it just simply is.

You have multiple queer characters whose sexualities aren’t necessarily defined because they just love who they love and that’s enough.

There doesn’t have to be a specific explanation for any of it and it doesn’t have to be made a big deal it just simply exists and it makes me happy.

#good omens #it’s just nice to see #so many shows will make the one queer character a joke #or make that the only thing about them #but good omens just has it simply exist #it doesn’t have to be brought to attention #or explained #it’s just there #neil gaiman #crowley #aziraphale #it just makes me happy #especially the causal they/them #and the causal wlw #it’s so hard to find #so it makes me happy to see #david tennet #micheal sheen

[m4ndysk4nkovich]

karen jackson and debbie gallagher.

something i’ve briefly mentioned before is how similar the characters karen jackson and debbie gallagher are, and i’m going to try to articulate my views the best i can, but it’s kind of hard to explain because there is so much to say.

big tw for rape

so, i’m not going to start off with the heavy stuff, just the basic similarities. for the record, i like debbie a lot more than karen because despite them doing similar things, karen’s intentions were always much more malicious.

a basic similarity between them are their parents. sheila and monica and frank and eddie aren’t very similar, but they are in the basic ways. karen and debbie were both raised by mentally ill mothers who were never able to do enough or be there for their daughters. their daughters ended up parenting them more than they parented their daughters. as for their fathers, they were physically present, but never emotionally present. eddie was more financially stable, and i don’t remember if he was an alcoholic, i don’t think he was, but regardless, they were both that type of father. and, they were always fighting with their wife, giving their daughter an unhealthy relationship with the men in her life.

karen lost her virginity at 11, debbie at 14. karen sexualized herself a lot, and so did debbie. both of them most likely attached their worth to their bodies, we know that debbie did. this doesn’t really count, but both girls are queer (karen is bi and debbie is a lesbian).

then, the rape. or the, as matty calls it, “statutory raping yourself”. for karen, she had the intention of raping frank. she saw him stumble into the basement, drowsy due to the pain medication (that he actually needed for his injury), started recording, and had sex with him, despite him begging her to stop. she recorded it to not only piss off her own father, but so that when someone with authority would stumble across the recording, frank would be arrested for statutory rape, because despite what happened, legally, karen was raped. for debbie, she doesn’t mean to. she’s told by people like mandy, (kind of lip), holly, and ellie that consent is something it isn’t, and she assumes that consent is basically just him being erect. she doesn’t even know what statutory rape is, or that when you’re drunk you can’t consent (i mean for fuck’s sake, look at frank and monica, who was going to tell her that?). but, karen and debbie basically did the same thing. guy much older than them is intoxicated, and then they have sex with them. the intentions were different, debbie wanted to lose her virginity and pursue a relationship with matty, and karen wanted revenge + frank to be arrested.

then, the baby-trapping. i have mixed emotions about them both in this case. for karen, she gets pregnant with a child that isn’t lip’s, and technically she doesn’t say it is lip’s, but she doesn’t deny that it is, either. i honestly wouldn’t consider it baby-trapping had she not said in 3x09 that all she needs to do to get lip back is “poke a hole in a condom” because it worked last time. debbie did mean to baby-trap derek, but her intentions were different. debbie heard from derek’s sister-in-law (or whatever the fuck she was lol) that if she had a baby with derek, she would get to be apart of a new, loving family. something that at the time, she didn’t really have (of course the gallagher’s love eachother, but season 5 was not a good time for them). so, she lies about being on birth control to derek (just like karen did to lip/timmy wong because according to lip, she was on the pill), has sex with him, and gets pregnant with franny. she’s so excited, and tells derek, and tries to start planning a family with derek, but derek runs away, and ditches her. the big difference is that karen didn’t want hymie, and debbie really wanted franny. plus, derek didn’t want franny (until later on but like fuck you derek), and lip really wanted hymie, (until he found out that hymie wasn’t his).

and we know that karen used to be a sweet little girl with a good relationship with her father, who fell victim to the world around her and was ruined. does that sound familiar? does the scene where karen destroys the basement in her dress, screaming about how she hates her father while her mother comforts her remind you of debbie hitting frank while her family watches in shock? it should.

they both get shitty endings, too. they started off as great characters, and then just were ruined. i love debbie’s character arc, especially in season 11, and i don’t necessarily think her story was ruined, but as a person she was. for karen, she was literally just ruined. like, they sent her off of the show by giving her brain damage and having her move to arizona to get some weird fake healing thing. debbie was just given a shitty, dangerous girlfriend who could probably hurt her or franny and also intends on leaving her and going to texas.

#shameless #shameless meta #debbie gallagher #karen jackson #debbie and karen #frank gallagher #matty shameless #shameless us #1x10 #1x11 #3x02 #5x03 #shameless rant #shameless parallels #lip gallagher #hymie jackson #jodie silverman #sheila jackson #eddie jackson #monica gallagher