In Defense of Shitty Queer Art

Queer art has a long history of being censored and sidelined. In 1895, Oscar Wilde’s novel The Picture of Dorian Gray was used as evidence in the author’s sodomy trials. From the 1930s to the 1960s, the American Hays Code prohibited depictions of queerness in film, defining it as “sex perversion.” In 2020, the book Steven Universe: End of an Era by Chris McDonnell confirmed that Rebecca Sugar’s insistence on including a sapphic wedding in the show is what triggered its cancellation by Cartoon Network. According to the American Library Association, of the top ten most challenged books in 2023, seven were targeted for their queer content. Across time, place, and medium, queer art has been ruthlessly targeted by censors and protesters, and at times it seems there might be no end in sight.

So why, then, are queer spaces so viciously critical of queer art?

Name any piece of moderately-well-known queer media, and you can find immense, vitriolic discourse surrounding it. Audiences debate whether queer media is good representation, bad representation, or whether it’s otherwise too problematic to engage with. Artists are picked apart under a microscope to make sure their morals are pure enough and their identities queer enough. Every minor fault—real or perceived—is compiled in discourse dossiers and spread around online. Lines are drawn, and callout posts are made against those who get too close to “problematic art.”

Modern examples abound, such as the TV show Steven Universe, the video game Dream Daddy, or the webcomic Boyfriends, but it’s far from a new phenomenon. In his book Hi Honey, I’m Homo!, queer pop culture analyst Matt Baume writes about an example from the 1970s, where the ABC sitcom titled Soap was protested by homophobes and queer audiences alike—before a single episode of the show ever aired. Audiences didn’t wait to actually watch the show before passing judgment and writing protest letters.

After so many years starved for positive representation, it’s understandable for queer audiences to crave depictions where we’re treated well. It’s exhausting to only ever see the same tired gay tropes and subtext, and queer audiences deserve more. Yet the way to more, better, varied representation is not to insist on perfection. The pursuit of perfection is poison in art, and it’s no different when that art happens to be queer.

When the pool of queer art is so limited, it feels horrible when a piece of queer art doesn’t live up to expectations. Even if the representation is technically good, it’s disappointing to get excited for a queer story only for that story to underwhelm and frustrate you.

But the world needs that disappointing art. It needs mediocre art. It even needs the bad art. The world needs to reach a point where queer artists can fearlessly make a mess, because if queer artists can only strive for perfection, the less art they can make. They may eventually produce a masterpiece, but a single masterpiece is still a drop in the bucket compared to the oceans of censorship. The only way to drown out bigotry and offensive stereotypes created by bigots is to allow queer artists the ability to experiment, learn through making mistakes, and represent their queer truth even if it clashes with someone else’s.

If queer artists aren’t allowed to make garbage, we can never make those masterpieces everyone craves. If queer artists are terrified at all times that their art will be targeted both by bigots and their own queer communities, queer art cannot thrive.

Let queer artists make shitty art. Let allies to queer people try their hand at representation, even if they miss the mark. Let queer art be messy, and let the artists screw up without fear of overblown retribution.

It’s the only way we’ll ever get more queer art.

_

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You know, as a Dean girl I do sometimes get annoyed when Sam girls imply there is nothing interesting about Dean beyond his relationship to Sam. Sure I personally think it's rather condescending and myopic, but it's at least an opinion clearly related to the actual show - Dean's life is inextricably tied to Sam, pilot to finale.

Conversely, that poll about whether or not you'd watch an SPN revival without Castiel is the second time today I've run across stans implying the same shit about Dean only being worthwhile as an accessory to their fave ... but in regards to Castiel. Marvel with me at the baffling stupidity of assertions like "a real deangirl wouldn't do SHIT without cas just like dean himself" - as if that was actually true of canon Dean, literally ever. Like, I can't see how you'd believe that even just watching episodes with Castiel in them it's so obviously untrue! Or "you cannot be a Dean fan without feeling compelled to defend Cas from his enemies" - not like Castiel repeatedly fucked Dean over in ways a Dean fan might be bothered by or anything. Not like they ~*somehow*~ find it very easy to separate Sam from Dean despite how close they are, that's ~*different*~! (Which doesn't even get into the questionably creepy framing of real people who don't like a fictional character as 'enemies'.)

I run across takes I don't agree with about the canon all the time, but that's just what I'd expect of fandom - especially one this big and varied. The extent to which some people have overwritten the actual show with weird obsessed shipper tumblr brainrot batshit in their heads still manages to catch me off guard sometimes, though.

C.S Lewis: Now for Calormene, I think I’ll draw inspiration from a few different sources from Middle Eastern history. But mainly from ancient cultures that practiced things like slavery. The religion I’ll base off old pagan beliefs from the time of the Bible, wherein bestial gods were worshiped and human sacrifice was still practiced. After all Tash will be my analogue for the Dev-

Woke fans: Oh my gosh! ISLAMOPHOBIA!?!?!?!?!?!??!?!? This violent cult reminds me of Islam! Which means Lewis hated Muslims!!!!

C.S Lewis: Did you miss the part where I gave Tash a bird head?

does anyone else feel like being a fanfic writer has become increasingly lonely recently? i think it's all fandom creators, really, but i haven't been doing other forms of content creation recently. does anyone else feel like they're sitting in a glass box and loads of people are walking by, looking in the windows, but almost no one thinks to acknowledge you with a wave, and even fewer bother to say hello?

Since the discourse came up repeatedly in different ways and regarding different tags lately, let me say this:

I tag explicit J2 tinhat content as J2 tinhat and nothing else. I tag J2 shenanigans that could be seen tinhatty or not as J2 and J2 tinhat.

Alas, I tag explicit wincest as #wincest and wincest fic or wincest art or whatever applies but nothing else.

I do not tag general, non-explicit brother content as wincest. Especially not gifs from the show. And I appreciate everyone who doesn't either. Because otherwise people who have wincest blocked will never see most of the Sam and Dean posts. (My tag for canon brotherly love, btw.)

For years and years people have complained about hellers spamming the supernatural tag with destiel. Let's not do the same. Not only to not be annoying, but also to keep canon content visible for everyone.

Also, PLEASE, if you are not the creator of some fanwork, don't add a ship tag with your reblog that wasn't put there originally (when it's not explicit). That post is then forevermore hidden for people who have that tag blocked. You're literally diminishing the creators exposure.

Lastly, with rpf shipping, it's just as disrespectful to put tinhat content under an actors name as it is to put hate under an actors name, IMHO. Both to that actor and other fans.

Please don't clog tags. Thank you.

There are much better ways to create moral complexity for Azula than “Does she care about Zuko or not?”

monster high re-sellers really be like: this doll its broken, missing parts and accessories, hair its now ball shape if not missing and its stained-- that'll be 120 bucks thank you!!

I did not know that some of you thought the arts I reblogged are mine even though I added proper credits and gave original links. Bro I am not an artist. It's just a harmless Toji fanpage and I always give credit to original artist and if I don't find source I mention it too.

I AM NOT AN ARTIST.

Just a Toji fan blog here. I search for Toji arts online (sometimes links are DM'd to me). Generally artists are okay with reposting arts with credits but if the artist contacts me to take it down. I do that. Besides as many DM with links only, I have no way of knowing which artist is not okay with reposting or not.

Once again, none of these are my art as I'm NOT an artist.

And please don't send anon or DM if the artist is not okay with reposting.

Y’know I’m convinced most people in this fandom aren’t ready to accept the fact that Underlust was never supposed to be an easy-to-swallow AU.

The whole purpose of UL was to address very difficult and dark topics, ideally in a respectful and proper manner. It was built to address subjects that cannot and should not be sanitized or watered down. It was a serious AU at its core. It’s not supposed to make you feel comfortable, it’s not supposed to be easy to sit with. It addresses a lot of problems present in our society today and it’s supposed to make you think.

The original creator of UL was very much weird asf and I do not support them in the slightest as I have said multiple times, and there is definitely room to question their motives, but for the most part, at least in the properly canon parts of the AU and from what I remember, these darker aspects seemed to be handled with a lot of gravity and seriousness.

I’m tired of seeing people trying to “remake” Underlust. I’m sick of AU’s seeking to replace it. Because while it is definitely a flawed and unfinished project, riddled with strange remnants of its creator’s concerning behavior, it is now public domain and therefore we have the right to try and fill in the blanks and clean it up, to do it justice. We don’t need to replace it, it’s laying on the ground right there, we need to fix it. And you know what fixing it doesn’t entail? Erasing the serious subject matter.

Underlust’s more serious topics shouldn’t be swept under the rug or removed, they should be handled with care and tact, treated with the respect they deserve. Because while these subjects should never be glamorized, romanticized, or fetishized, they very much should have a chance to be depicted realistically. Not gratuitously, not graphically, not vulgarly, but realistically. Respectfully. Carefully. Accurate and respectful depictions of serious subject matter are a very important aspect of trying to combat their romanticization.

And I am sick and tired of seeing people claiming Underlust to be nothing more than that, and that no one should like it or try to do it justice. I’m tired of people just throwing it to the pro/shippers to be regarded as that kind of material when all that does is let the pro/shippers win. Don’t let them win, don’t throw UL to the dogs. It has the potential to be a very meaningful story if given care and time.

none of this is to say that you always have to depict UL in a super serious manner, nor is it to invalidate the discomfort some may feel surrounding its creator, but what I am trying to say here is to try and make future fleshings-out of this AU more considerate and to not villainize it. It just aggravates me how people will harass others for liking UL or will try to remake it in a super sanitized, comfortable manner, because UL is public domain and can be so much more than the strange actions of its creator, and at the same time it’s not supposed to make you feel comfortable. These subjects are serious, they’re uncomfortable, that’s natural. Making them seem comfortable just normalizes them.

hoping all this makes sense I promise I’m not angry I’m just- yeah

I find it really weird and disjointed to see people insist that SasuSaku is extremely toxic and evil in Boruto and pushing them to be the epitome of an unhealthy marriage... When, it's just a guy who works a lot of hours but respects his wife? Like, everything I have seen and read Sasuke is pretty respectful towards Sakura's abilities as a shinobi, watches out for her, and comes to her for advice and actually holds the advice pretty high. He just isn't very emotional, but he likes her?? And liking your wife is toxic now???

I am not even a SasuSaku, but this feels led by misogyny a bit, because a man who likes his wife is unfathomable to some of y'all.. And I refuse to get into how some of you all hate Sakura to the point where you would blame Madara's actions on her.

A lead character is in every episode, or nearly every episode. Where that means they might miss one or two episodes, not half a season's worth.

A protagonist character is one the overarching plots centrally revolve around and act upon, without whom there would be no story.

These are words with generally established meanings, not "opinions". Which makes certain factions of this fandom intensely buttmad because Castiel is quite obviously not either.

So they make up nonsense categories that have no set meaning and therefore can include whoeverthefuck they want like "main character" and pretend it's synonymous to lead and protagonist to artificially elevate Castiel. Or try to insist SPN had no lead characters to pull the actually central characters down to his level.

If they echo chamber bleat it back and forth enough at each other, that makes it truefax everybody agrees with except those evil delusional bronlies! He was on alllll the promotional material, he can take Jared's place in the show and at cons and the GA will be fine with that, and the revival will finally focus on the D/C storyline that totally exists outside their delusional fantasies about lighting and wardrobe!

Sure, Castiel was more prominently featured for a longer span of time than any others in the supporting cast. I don't think anybody is disputing that. Which is not remotely the same thing as actually being on an equal footing with the two leads who were there, consistently working, while he had weeks or months of time off. Obviously. It doesn't magically make him integral to any of the A plots that genuinely existed in the actual show that aired. Obviously.

No matter how many times they desperately try to stretch the definitions of lead and protagonist. No matter how many storylines they try to meta into existence out of random background minutiae. No matter how many vague, undefined umbrella terms they make up to pretend he was as central to the show as the Winchesters. But after all these years, it's no surprise when once again, logic and reality are not their friends.

I just saw a video on YouTube that said that Ki-Adi-Mundi was a sociopath and deserved to get shot. Why are anti-Jediists like this?

By chance is that the one where the guy was accusing him of violating the Geneva Convention for ordering his men to use flamethrowers? Ignoring that flamethowers are used by pretty much everyone in Star Wars without comment?

In any case I think the reason why has multiple factors. One of the biggest (among the non-Anakin apologists, not to be confused with regular Anakin fans) reasons IMO is the obsession with moral grayness. It's common practice now to accuse any good entity in fiction of something heinous whether it makes sense or not in the name of trying to "prove" they're actually bad.

It's similar to why there was a long spree of Superman adaptations that weren't actually about Superman but an evil version of him. Because certain writers and certain vocal fans didn't think they'd enjoy a simple tale of good vs evil.

Nothing draws the ire of the moral grayness fans like something heroic or good in fiction. They'll search for anything to say, "Actually, hero bad." Meanwhile if Ki-Adi-Mundi did the same exact thing as whatever the video was complaining about while declaring himself to be morally gray I don't think there'd be any videos saying he deserved to die. Rather there'd probably be one boasting about how awesome he is.

I keep seeing people say Yutamaki would be better if it was yuri

I hope you queer shippers know that this is only proving us right about why you hate Yutamaki (people who mostly like queer ships not queer people who ship fyi)

I know posts like this have already been made before but…

x fem! reader fic writers…please…for the sake of all the is holy:

GIVE👏🏽READERS👏🏽WARNINGS👏🏽OF👏🏽THE👏🏽GENDER👏🏽OF👏🏽THE👏🏽READER👏🏽

I personally don’t get major gender dysphoria over x fem! reader fics but I still don’t feel the most comfortable reading them, and it feels really disheartening when I find a cool character x reader fic and find out with no warning that the reader uses she/her pronouns. And I can’t imagine how people who do get actual gender dysphoria from those fics feel about it whenever that happens to them too. And even then there are others like me who while don’t get gender dysphoria probably still don’t feel the most comfortable reading x fem! reader fics.

so please, specify the gender of your reader. A simple f!reader or “the reader uses she/her pronouns” is enough.

Thank you for sharing, anon. I too find some of the excuses (particularly from Will) pretty ridiculous. I think some of the excuses from other fans come about because they know that if Jared really is breaking away from CE cons, then it won't be long before CE SPN cons are over (or at least, drastically reduced).

What they don't seem to understand is that if CE cons are reduced, it opens up the opportunity for Jensen and Misha to visit other cons in places not normally frequented by CE (much like Jared has done with RICC, FanX, and the other European cons). And who knows, if Jensen and Misha both attend the same multi-fandom con, the organizers might request they do an SPN panel together (and include other SPN guests). I see people panicking, but this really can be a good thing for all involved. Jared gets his autonomy, and the rest of the cast can cling to SPN as much as they want (without CE prices). It's a win-win! (Well, except for CE, lol!)

And I agree about J2 being mostly work friends now, and that's okay. Friendships change with circumstances, time, and location. It can happen even if there's no conflict, I mean, how many people are still friends with the people they spent the majority of time with in school? (Speaking as someone who just ignored their 25th school anniversary.) Whether Jared is closer friends with Jensen than we see, or whether he's not, whatever it is, it's working well for him. Jared looks healthy and happy, and that's all I really want for him.

As for your request, anon, you're welcome to send me more info. and I won't publish, but please don't feel like you have to, especially if doing so might violate NDA's or get you in trouble. You don't need to prove yourself to me, or anyone else on the internet. You know who you are and what you know, that should be enough. People are always going to have their opinions, but it's important to remember that it's the opinions of the people closest to you that really matter, not those of online strangers.

Again, thank you for sharing. I know it may have been hard for you after having been maligned, but I appreciate you reaching out. I wish you the very best and hope all goes well with your work!

hi, Mr Badge, have you heard about elon musk (OpenAI) trying to exploit AO3?

I had read about it, but I also had read some discussion that I think...not overblew it, but didn't perhaps have the full context? I saw a really good breakdown of it in the reblog chain here, which I think balances "Yeah this fucking sucks" and "Don't panic" pretty well.

Before anything else: Yes, AO3 is aware of this, don't put a ticket in, all you'll do is waste their time closing tickets.

Ultimately, the problem is that scrapers gonna scrape -- it's just not that hard to get an AO3 login or spoof one (as the post I linked to above discusses) and locking your fics is your prerogative but may harm you more than it prevents anyone from scraping your text. At the actual reddit they seemed more concerned about how easy it was to use it to make erotica.

There are already AIs who can generate prose pretty realistically -- there have been articles about using AI to write the fill prose in indy romance novels (ie, you lay out a scene and the AI writes it for you) since early this year. So to me the "AI writing a book" is not a new phenomenon, and the "AI scraping AO3 to do it" is like...unfortunate, especially since Sudowrites is for-pay and they're scraping free text to make a profit. But unless you want to start lobbying for the regulation of AI (not a bad idea) there's not a whole lot you can do about it. Unless you want to take your fanfic back underground to mailing lists, your text is going to get crawled.

It'll be interesting to watch it unfold, in any case; it's no more dystopian than anything else big tech has its fingers in.