i love writing a comment on a youtube video analyzing queer media talking abt my frustration as an aro/ace person knowing ill never see myself in a fictional character because a character who cannot be shipped in a traditional way isnt marketable and getting replies saying it was done in xyz. girl. that was not the point!!!!!

tuesday again 8/10/21

got a bunch of followers (many of you are Cool Teens, so also a reminder im 26 and an adult and you’re responsible for curating your own internet experience) anyway there’s a bunch of new folks since the last time this was a regular series, so i am going to pre-answer some things that popped up in my inbox last week.

a quick reminder that this is empathetically NOT a recommendations or review blog series. this is a quick snapshot of what i’m thinking about with regards to mass media this week, and sometimes i’m funny about it and sometimes i also do interesting diy shit

a work can be culturally or historically relevant and important in the history of a genre AND be extremely difficult to recommend unless i know you very well due to. hm. let us say many pitfalls due to the inherent nature of the genre or the time it was made in it any number of other factors that make it unpalatable to modern audiences but still worth knowing about. doesthedogdie dot com will be your friend here for anything i talk about ever

being critical of a work doesn’t just mean pointing out its flaws- was it successful in telling the story it wanted to tell? were the techniques it used effective? were the emotions it elicited in me probably the ones the creators set out to elicit? these are key components of a good review and often help me break down what i want to say about a particular piece of media in any given week, but this isn’t a review series of blog posts either.

i am literally just some guy and you should question everything i say

listening i’m gonna wash that man right out of my hair (from the musical South Pacific) brought to you by a random mix of classic movie musicals bc apparently im that kinda gay this week.

like a lot of other fifties media that aged like milk, i have fond memories of watching this with my grandmother. this isn’t even my favorite song from the musical (that would be bali hai’i) but i think it is one of the more technically interesting non-solo ones. specifically, the faint siren-y dissonance on “ahoy, ahoy!” has really been stuck in my head. the melancholy “ah fuck we’ve broken our hearts again” vibe on “rub him out of the roll call/and drum him out of your dreams” with all the girls singing is probably a result of a soprano-heavy cast, but it’s almost chimey in a way? the rhyme scheme of those lines has an excellent mouthfeel. ms gaynor singing “cancel hiiiiiim” has a very different vibe in 2021

two (really three? maybe four? the world is large and mysterious) things can be true at the same time: i don’t think i could watch this musical again as an adult because i don’t think there’s a good way to salvage or update it. the very qualities of this musical that make me go “fuckin yikes” as adult were the very qualities that made my grandmother love it so much. i can hold a bittersweet memory of a rare late movie night with a complicated lady and at the same time wish she were a better person. the dead never leave you with answers.

reading yet another fallow week. this field is turning back into forest

watching i often say “AAA video game (derogatory)” when talking offline about the bad batc/h, but this was a real bioshock ass lookin episode. i don’t think this show is succesful at making or having a point. mostly because it cannot contradict any existing lore in one of the most traversed time periods of this franchise, even with the expanded universe reboot. it falls into the uncomfortable realm of most starred wars media: this is a franchise for children but it also has to cater to legions of grownup fanatics with lots of money. but by god does it “feel” like starred wars. something not all the sequel trilogy movies or much of the clone wars series were successful at.

as a sidebar to that last sentence. the most memorable (imo) scene of the fucking sequel trilogy is the back-to-back battle couple thing in ep seven, which i have just rewatched, and it simply does not hold up. there are too many cuts to other sideplots, which kills any tension dead, and it’s mostly fighting on opposite sides of the room in frantic desperation instead of what i wanted, which was more than five seconds of synergy. it’s a bad rhyme of the final throne room fight in rotj and my memory of the thing is so much better, which is always disappointing.

back to the main point, i think a big part of something “feeling” like starred wars is big setpieces and fights that make you go “HAHA YES FUCKIN SICK WHY NOT!!!!” like, nobody ever Just gets shot in the head and temporarily incapacitated, they get half-vadered by the engines of a derelict ship trying to go to hyperspace while it’s grounded. this franchise has never met a location it couldn’t destroy in a beautiful and awful shower of light while the string sections of three combined orchestras play their hearts out.

this franchise is so fucking stupid and i am so invested in it

playing got my hands on the death trash early access, very hype to play it, have been too busy turning this apartment into a functional and comfortable space to live in for three separate people with their own separate toiletries and groceries and work from home/school schedules

making related to the above, the fucking kitchen table and chairs are done.

things wot i did friday night/saturday morning:

new rubber feeties on everybody

wrapped the legs that structurally couldn’t get new rubber feeties in jute to be kinder to my rental linoleum

bolted the legs back on the table and rebalanced it bc the jute wasn’t quite even

did a very halfassed job of fixing the drawer rails on the table

bolted the chair tubing back together

took all the old decorative tacks out of the backs of the chairs

scrubbed the seats and backs and the pieces the tacks were holding down with mild detergent (partially effective, it still has some patina but is sanitized)

re-covered the bottoms of the chairs in remnant black polyester to replace mildewed black canvas

put in new decorative tacks on the seat backs

bolted the vinyl parts to the chrome tubing parts (a long and frustrating process since there were two sizes of decidedly non-standard nuts and bolts)

wiped everything down again for idk good luck

sitting at my kitchen table in the sun eating a breakfast sandwich and some terrible iced tea on sunday morning was very nice. i lived in the south just long enough to get Opinions on iced tea and how the north can’t get it right. shouldn’t be gritty. shouldn’t be bitter. how is this even happening

some very very halfassed “during” pics

i’ve been thinking a lot about the ways that shitty ya narratives(twilight, after, kissing booth, etc) have shifted the way that people process and consume other medias, and i wanted to hear ur thoughts on how ya brainrot has affected the atla fanbase. the most obvious examples are obviously z*tara being a ship, and the way that many fans think of aang(both of these issues definitely also stem from racism but i feel like ya brainrot made a contribution as well) but i’m sure that since those stories have made such a big cultural impact, they’ve affected more aspects of the atla fanbase as well

this is a complicated question for me to answer, especially considering i haven’t seen/read any of the media you cited, though i am familiar enough with what they represent in the zeitgeist (twilight especially of course. anyone who was alive in the past 15 years is familiar with twilight as a concept, even if i couldn’t actually tell you the plot for the life of me). but i will say that not having made that connection to (harmful) contemporary ya romance, i still definitely think external pop culture has played a large role in how atla has been received by the (largely white american) fanbase. like i definitely think that fandom brainrot (with an emphasis on shipping, especially “shipping as activism”) plays a large part in why listening to 99% of atla fans’ opinions on the show and/or paratext (including internal fandom discourse) is insufferable at best, baffling and/or downright racist at worst. 

look, i don’t think the atla fanbase is unique in these general cultural biases, i just think that atla provides a perfect example of the “smart show stupid fans” axis on the chart, so it feels all the more frustrating. but honestly, this topic just makes me sad to think about most of the time, so instead of dragging obnoxious people with questionable worldviews, i’m just gonna recommend curating a circle of genuinely thoughtful, self-aware critical thinkers with whom you can productively discuss the art you consume. after all, this space is supposed to be fun, and it’s kinda hard to have fun when you’re hate-reading twilight just so you can have a take on it, instead of reading books you actually like, and appreciating your favorite shows on your own terms. shrug 

right away sorry if this gets too ranty I've just been Thinking lately and i feel like twn is such a good example of like. this idea that Real and Good film and television can only be made by Hollywood i guess? like there's even this polish saying that roughly translates to "you praise the foreign and don't know your own" which gets made fun of a lot but also. it's very true imo. like i still wonder what could've been if actual good polish filmmakers were entrusted with making a new witcher (1/?

and it would've been such a good opportunity for like. one showcasing that there Can be good art and entertainment made locally and two some genuine cultural exchange. like i know its too big of an idea for Capitalism™ but if there was a well made polish-language show on international Netflix like. idk i feel like maybe that could spark some interest in like broadening peoples horizons and changing their views on what fantasy looks like etc and its just frustrating that there wasnt even a chance

i really agree. i have been dreaming recently about what my ideal "visual adaptation" of the witcher would look like, and what i've come up with essentially is something like the polish audiodramas set to 2D animation by fans of the witcher. subs, not dubs, i guess?

audiodramas

gilthoniel1173 on youtube has uploaded many select clips of the audiodramas, translated them and set them to pictures. amazing work and i highly recommend this.

i really value the majority of sapkowski's prose, though there are faults with the witcher, his prose really has a marvelous quality to it and i am trying to think of a way to keep this intact. something like the audiodramas in which there are narration may be the best way to go, with subtitles so that

animation

it's the sort of thing i think about like, hey, if i had netflix's budget (approx. $70 to $80 million, [dies]), how would i make the witcher adaptation?

disclaimer: i hesitated to @ artists because i feel like it sends the message that i am saying, "hey you, specifically, should do this idea for free, also btw, i only see you as a witcher fanartist and nothing more :)" this is not my intention, what i want to do here is just want to bring light to these artists in the community and the work they have done, both witcher-related and original work (and i hope that i am in no way defining them as 'only-witcher' artists). additionally, this is in no way suggesting that i don't want to involve any artists i did not mention or that i do not adore the work of other artists in the witcher fandom, these are just the immediate two i think of when i think of animating the witcher.

i imagine it in the style of @paticmak , @astrolunos , @johix because they have done just such gorgeous art of the witcher... <3 (i hope everyone reading knows of these artists already, but if you do not, please check out their work and support!)

paticmak's cherry vodka, an original animation which you should watch: [x]

paticmak's witcher fanart: [x]

astrolunos' animations, including geralt and ciri from sword of destiny and yennefer and ciri from blood of elves: [x]

astrolunos' witcher fanart: [x]

johix's jadýrko, an original interactive story which you should check out: [x] [x]

johix's art (some ship and ns/fw): [x]

specific witcher pieces from these artists that i think about:

[paticmak / "The witcher drawings redraws and sketches"]

[astrolunos / slavic-inspired outfits]

[astrolunos / "yen and ciri’s room, ellander"]

[johix / geralt and dandelion at beltane (ship)]

other major inspirations in my dreams of this:

studio ghibli movies (spirited away and howl's moving castle)

independent animators like felix colgrave (double king)

laika studio animations (kubo and the two strings)

gobelins studio (sundown)

embracing the roots, introducing diversity

my main point in this section is that i believe the polish & eastern european culture of the witcher is essential to it, at the same time i also value diversity and uplifting people of color. i do not believe that these two concepts are in conflict with one another! a discussion simply needs to be held, which is something that netflix did not do because it had few eastern european voices on the set, and kept the voices of color it did have down.

something netflix failed to do is acknowledge the witcher's cultural origins... at all. really, at all. in the writing, in the dialogue, in the set design, in the character and fashion design... and they had the opportunity to do this. this is massively disappointing and thoughtless.

my goal would be to bring polish & other eastern european writers who are fans of the witcher to work through the prose to tell the story. i would also like to have female and lgbt voices in this because the witcher has some elements that are...! disconcerting, let's just say. as we saw with lauren, having a woman in charge doesn't immediately make things not misogynist anymore, somehow she added to the misogyny of the witcher. but i think this is still a step in the right direction. additionally, this writing process would NOT look like writing fanfiction. it would really be going through and working with the artists and translating the prose, deciding what should be kept and what should be left out (some things like forest gramps should be left out, wouldn't you agree?).

new scenes could be added, but they would just have to be done for a reason. i believe the 2002 hexer did this somewhat-successfully in scenes such as this one, in which they develop relationships between characters just that little bit more and add to the pathos of the witcher (which is quite direct and does not "loiter" upon many things!)

i would also really value the voices of set designers, fashion historians, food historians, and cultural anthropologists who are from + study poland & eastern europe because i believe the history and culture should be integrated into the witcher and appreciated, demonstrated in a positive and celebratory light to the world, without doing so in a cultural appropriation-like manner (in which elements are just taken without any knowledge of where they are from and what context they hold). also, yes, the witcher is not a historical fantasy - but its setting is inspired by history and it would be rewarding to see a visual fantasy universe that is not based in english culture!

i think the witcher community is really vast and holds many opinions... this is both a good and bad thing, because "the witcher fandom" includes both people of color and like, white supremacists. i will say that i wouldn't want the latter working on the project, just saying. i would like to see designs of color for the cast of the witcher (i have done a few but hesitated to post them, lol) and sensitivity readings, NOT just diversity for views like netflix performed, but diversity that empowers, makes sense, and isn't "people of color are in this, they are either white-passing or just there to support the white characters." ... i also would like to think about how we approach diversity, as in, designs/casting of color should not be relegated to insignificant or evil characters, the good protagonists could be people of color. i would also like to think about and avoid problematic tropes such as when white characters in a media teach and "civilize" a young person of color, or when "monsters" or non-human characters are cast as people of color... i think people of color should be given roles in which they are in control, powerful, desirable, and good. we need to think about the message we send. in the end, my goal would be "genuine cultural exchange" as you said.

additionally: i think involving jewish and indigenous (broad terms, but i mean them to be broad) voices specifically in conversations about writing would be significant because sapkowski made some decisions in the witcher which can come off as offensive to these groups in particular (regarding the parts of the story about elves, dwarves, gnomes, dryads, and specific characters such as yennefer and regis).

music

honestly, not many thoughts here! can we really get any better than the soundtrack of the witcher 3? cdpr has many faults, but their music is not one of them in my opinion.

afterthoughts

i was displeased to learn that alik sakharov left twn because of not being appreciated and instead being fought on his writing, but i feel a project like this would actually value input like his instead of kicking him out and citing "creative differences"

what is really the most significant thing to me is good writing and ciri's relationship with her parents, because i believe these being taken away is one of the things which was most painful about netflix's "adaptation."

bearing in mind i havent been active in atla community in literal years (this is one of the only two blogs i follow that engage with it) and thus have no idea what the original post was about, but maybe dismissing the 'tired of shipping in general' arguments out of hand could use some clarification- while that might not be the case here, lots of posts along those phrased lines come from aro people understandably frustrated with fandom as a whole (not just atla). Not a big crit, just a heads-up

The post wasn't about being tired of shipping in general, it was about people being "obsessive" about Zutara. I'm tired of people obsessing about football but I don't go into football fandom and rant about how I don't like it and insult people who do. But men have been insulting shipping culture and women and girls "ruining" fandom with shipping and calling us obsessive for decades. That's the reason Bryke felt entitled to make jokes about their female fans.

There are also plenty of people who identify as aro who engage in shipping fandom, because shipping is about enjoying a dynamic between two characters, not about what you personally want out of a relationship. It's valid to want to see more celebration of platonic friendships, but it's not valid to insult people who like things you don't. People shipping things romantically are not taking away from platonic friendships. The assumption that shipping is all about sex, or even love, or that people who ship characters romantically don't also appreciate the platonic relationships or even other aspects of the show also comes from misogynistic stereotypes. Fandom was basically invented by women who loved Star Trek who were labeled as not real scifi fans because they also happened to like the idea of Kirk and Spock making out. I love Zuko and Katara's canon platonic friendship and most of the fic I have written has been about that platonic friendship. I just also happen to like the idea of them as a couple. A noncanon ship is kind of like the Joker's "multiple choice" backstory: sometimes I like it one way, sometimes the other.

It IS valid for aro people to want representation. I am disabled and would like to see more representation of disabled characters, especially in relationships, and I realized that I was subconsciously drawn to Zutara in part because of the disability narrative (one of their most important bonding moments is her empathizing over his scar!) But I don't go around saying that people who ship ships that don't involve disabled characters are just ableist. I think it is valid to talk about institutional ableism, but it's not valid to target specific groups of shippers. And on that note, people have different needs in terms of representation. Some people want more platonic ships, but as I said, disabled people are also underrepresented in romantic relationships, specifically. So are people of color, and MANY people love Zutara because it is an interracial ship between two poc, one a feminine and heroic dark-skinned girl. Targeting that kind of ship for "wow allo people are obsessed with romance/sex" is kind of short-sighted because media ISN'T oversaturated with those kinds of romances.

And the post also focused on how Katara could never love Zuko because she still held a grudge against him, which first of all, is flat-out wrong, and second, makes it clear that the problem here isn't romantic relationships overshadowing platonic ones. The post said they were good friends but then insisted that good friends can still hold grudges and that's why they would never be romantic with each other. Which is so bizarre, because 1) if you hold a grudge that deep against your good friend, you aren't really good friends, and probably shouldn't be, and 2) that has nothing to do with why a friendship wouldn't move to romance. I have many friends that I would not want to kiss, and none of them for the reason of secretly holding an intense grudge. And when people have to insist that the reason Katara would not want to be romantic with Zuko is because of some grudge, they are just revealing that they don't value the friendship and can't come up with a good enough reason not to ship it, that they see the shipping potential but are threatened by it, that they think without some kind of nastiness between them, good friends Katara and Zuko just wouldn't be able to keep their hands off each other.

okay ik ppl can ship whoever they want and i usually don't mind but...it kinda irks me when the fandom ships wen qing and yanli bc like. yanli is in love with zixuan!!! he loves her back!!! they're married!!! they have a kid!!! (and no im not gonna use past tense it hurts too much) what part of this is hard to understand???? like ive seen ppl get pressed when someone ships a canonically gay character with someone of the opposite sex (and i get that it's because they feel they're trying to "normalise" them by making them straight) so why do ppl do the same with straight characters?

Aw, anon, I feel you on the xuanli shipping but a) I think you’ve come to the wrong place because I’m also plenty fond of Yanli/Wen Qing (qingli? yanqing? i’m a multishipper and i can’t help myself) and b) there’s a pretty big difference between depicting or imagining characters who have canonically been in relationships with and experienced attraction to members of the opposite sex in queer relationships and portraying gay characters in relationships with people of the opposite sex. For one thing, there’s nothing in canon that tells us Yanli isn’t a bi woman who just happens to be in a relationship with a dude in canon. Shipping her with Wen Qing isn’t actually any different from shipping her with Mingjue or Xichen. People are sometimes going to look at a canon ship and be like “but what if” no matter how good that ship is.

More importantly, there’s a lot of baggage surrounding the depiction of queer people in media that is pretty directly and unpleasantly related to the fact that many straight people still think that a) we shouldn’t exist and b) they have a right to pretend we don’t that is being violated every time we hold hands in public or write ourselves into stories or their fellow straight people, looking at the world around them and then seeking to depict that world in their art, include us rather than airbrushing us out for their convenience. Writing gay characters as straight isn’t bad because it normalizes the character, it’s bad because it contributes to a homophobic culture that tells queer people, and gay and lesbian people in particular, that their existence is somewhere between evil and an imposition, and they’re abnormal or depraved or just going through a phase and one day they’ll meet the right person and settle down to live heterosexually ever after.

There is a tendency in fandom to declare that female characters who, in canon, are depicted as being in love with or attracted to men are lesbians, and I am very sympathetic to the generalized exhaustion with he was a boy/she was a girl relationships, compulsory heterosexuality, and the general lack of lesbian representation that I think underlies a lot of that impulse. I personally am basically always exhausted by comphet and want more queer women of all kinds in everything. I am nevertheless also occasionally a little frustrated with what sometimes feels less like a desire for more lesbian content and more an excuse to sideline female characters and declare shipping them with popular male characters off limits. I also get being frustrated by being told that a relationship you really like and enjoy and has lots of canon support is somehow bad or invalid. I fully support you in going forth with a xuanli OTP and refusing to consider any other options and being lowkey irritated that other people do not see the truth and the beauty and the light! But people who ship Yanli and Wen Qing are not doing anything wrong.

I Am Frustrated

I have mixed feelings about the popularization of fandom culture in recent years. On one hand, it's great that there are more people to interact with about the interests that I like, but on the other hand, I'm not really comfortable with letting anyone just walk into fandom culture, not understanding the point and intention behind it. To be honest, a lot of my worst experiences were scrolling through social media sites and seeing people who were obviously tweens and children trying to police a piece of ship art or an interpretation of a character they didn't like.

Fandom, while still having a lot of the problems it does now, it wasn't generally on the scale. I didn't get to live through most of this, because my interaction with fandom was limited, but back in the pre mid-2010's era of fandom if you wanted to enjoy fan content, you went on Wattpad, AO3, deviant art, and if you were feeling, extra spicy, you watched an AMV on youtube (although now they're called fan cams lmao). We're these sites perfect? No, of course not, but they were little niche spaces on the internet. Problems like ship wars, nsfw art being in places where they didn't belong, people bullying other people over the interpretation of certain characters, etc. were all still prevalent, but the thing was back then, they mostly stayed in their niche fandom corners, they weren't written about in big-name pop culture magazines like they are now with things like the Falcon x Winter solider or whatever ship.

Now, issues are a lot more accelerated, because for some reason, instead of keeping it in niche zones, fandom decided to move onto bigger juggernaut websites such as Twitter and Instagram. This in itself isn't a bad thing, but it does create a bad situation of ANYONE being able to interact with fandom culture and insert themselves in. This leads to fandoms attacking other fandoms and mass bullying of shippers and fanfic writers, an even bigger fan entitlement, especially amongst the younger portions of the fandom.

Recently, there has been a lot of people trying to police the fandom, saying that it's meant to be for kids... Or that a certain property is for kids. I get this point for NSFW of kids shows, but that's honestly where this argument should begin and end. Fandom is not and has never been just for kids, it is for anyone who enjoys a piece of fiction and wants to show their appreciation of it via buying merchandise, drawing fanart, writing fanfiction, etc. etc. It's not just for you and other young kids, especially if the said property is

A. older than you are

B. Literally made with an adult audience in mind

You do not get to walk your 16 and under ass into the AOT or ATLA fandom and then have the nerve to be offended when most of the people there are adults.

Just recently, an extremely popular mod for the game Friday Night Funkin was taken down by the creator due to harassment from the fans. What was the harassment for you ask? It was because the mod added in a character that cussed and flipped off the player and that's offensive because FNF is a "kids game"... How dare someone put cursing into a Newgrounds game? Fucking criminal. That is the point we are at. Fandom Karens...

Honey boo boo child, I don't know what to tell you but uhhh *whispers* Friday Night Funkin was not made with kids in mind... It literally exists to be a tribute to Newgrounds and features characters like Tank Man and Pico from Pico's School. The only people who would know those characters pre-fnf are people who are old enough to have been on the early internet. The actual premise of the game as confirmed by Phantom Arcade is that Boyfriend is trying to have sex with Girlfriend every Friday night, but is always stopped and forced to do a singing battle.

The worst part is that people don't even want you to criticize kids who do this stuff because "they're just kids" and "of course they want a space for themselves" and "we were like that when we were kids". Bruh, shitty behavior is shitty behavior no matter the age or whatever other factors. There comes a point where it's not an excuse anymore. Mass harassing a modder because they put the word "fuck" in a Newgrounds game, or doxxing people over ships and fandom critiques, is inexcusable no matter what the age of the aggressor is.

this was written several weeks ago in response to asks i was receiving i am posting it now it is very long the longest i have ever made and it is not very well edited but here it is in this final essay i talk about how shitty rae is about black people in her writing as well as just me talking about how her writing sucks in general lets begin

hello everyone 

as you may know i have received a lot of anons in the last week or so about issues of racism in the beetlejuice community both just generally speaking and also within specific spaces 

i was very frustrated to not be getting the answers i wanted because i typically do not talk about what i do not see but in an effort to be better about discourse i went looking through discourse from before my time in the fandom and i also received some receipts and information from my followers and from some friends

keep in mind that the voices and thoughts of bipoc are not only incredibly important at all times but in this circumstance it is important that if a bipoc has something to add you listen and learn and be better

i admit that when this happened i wasnt aware of the extent of what occurred and im angry at myself for not doing more at that time and i want to work harder to make sure something like this doesnt go unnoticed again

im a hesitant to talk about months old discourse because i have been criticized for bringing up quote old new unquote but this is very important and i am willing to face whatever comes from to me

lets talk about this

content from our local racist idiot that may be months old but its important

putting my thoughts under a cut to spare the dash but before i begin obviously this is awful

lets fucking unpack this folks

right out the gate op states that she supports artistic freedom but then within a couple words she goes against that statement

being entirely canon compliant isnt artistic freedom and even so if this person has so much respect for canon they wouldnt be out here erasing lydias obvious disgust for beetlejuice in the movie or ignoring lydias age for the sake of shipping that shit isnt canon either 

also we love the quick jab at the musical there hilarious we love it dont we because god forbid a licensed and successful branch on a media have any standing in this conversation but whatever

now lets scroll down and talk about the term racebending

the term racebending was coined around 2009 in response to the avatar the last airbender movie a film in which the east asian races of the characters were erased by casting white actors in the three leading roles of aang sokka and katara 

whenever the term racebending is used in a negative light it is almost always a case of whitewashing like casting scarlett johansen in ghost in the shell or the casting of white actors of the prince of persia sands of time instead of iranian ones

this kind of racebending erases minorities from beeing seen in media and is wrong

all that being said however racebending has also been noted to have very positive after effects like the 1997 adaptation of cinderella or casting samuel jackson as nick fury in the marvel movies nick fury was originally a white guy can you even imagine

i read this piece from an academic that said quote writers can change the race and cultural specificity of central characters or pull a secondary character of color from the margins transforming them into the central protagonist unquote

racebending like the kind that rae is so heated about is the kind of creative freedom that leads to more representation of bipoc in media which will never be a bad thing ever no matter how pissy you get about it

designing a version of a character as a poc isnt serving to make them necessarily better it serves to give new perspective and perhaps the opportunity to connect even more deeply with a character it doesnt marginalize or erase white people it can uplift poc and if you think uplifting poc is wrong because it tears down white people or whatever youre a fucking moron and you need to get out of your podunk white folk town and see the real world

the numbers of times a bipoc particularly a bipoc that is also lgbt+ has been represented in media are dwarfed by what i as a white dude have seen myself represented in media is and that isnt okay that isnt equality and its something that should change not only in mainstream media but in fandom spaces as well

lets move down a bit further to the part about bullying straight people which is hilarious and lets also talk about the term fetishistic as well lets start with that

this person literally writes explicit pornography of a minor and an adult are we really going to let someone like that dictate what is and what isnt fetishistic

similarly to doing a positive racebend situation people may project lgbt+ headcanons on a character because its part of who they are and it helps them feel closer to the character and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that

depicting lgbt+ subject matter on existing characters isnt an inherently fetishistic action generally things only really become fetishistic when the media is being crafted and hyped by people who are outside of lgbt+ community for example how young teens used to flip a tit about yaoi or how chasers fetishize trans people

but drawing a character with top surgery scars or headcanoning them as trans is harmless and its just another way to interpret a character literally anone could be trans unless if their character bio says theyre cis and most of them dont go that deep so it really is open to interpretation and on the whole most creators encourage this sort of exploration because it is a good thing to get healthy representation out in the world

as for it being used to bully straights thats just funny i dont have anything else on that like if youre straight and you feel threatened and bullied because of someone headcanoning someone as anything that isnt cishet youre a fucking idiot and a weak baby idiot at that like the real world must fucking suck for you because lgbt+ people are everywhere and statistically a big chunk of your favorite characters arent cishet sorry be mad about it

lets roll down a bit further about the big meat of the issue which was when several artists were drawing interpretations of lydia as a black girl which i loved but clearly this person didnt love it because they have a very narrow and very racist and problematic view of what it means to be a black person

and before i move forward i must reiderate that i am a white person and you should listen to the thoughts of poc people like @fright-of-their-lives​ or @gender-chaotic it is not my place to explain what the black experience is like and it certainly isnt this persons either

implying that the story of a black person isnt worth telling unless if the character faces struggles like racism and prejudice is downright moronic 

why use the word kissable to describe a black persons lips now thats what i call fetishistic and its to another extreme if youre talking about a black version of lydia on top of that

the author of this post says herself that shes white so clearly shes the person whos an authority on the black experience and what it means to be a black person right am i reading that right or am i having a fucking conniption

how about allowing black characters to exist without having to struggle why cant a black version of lydia just be a goth teenager with a ghost problem who likes photography and is also black like she doesnt have to move to a hick town and get abused by racist folks she doesnt have to go through any more shit than she already goes through and if you honestly think thats the only way to tell a black persons story you need to get your brain cleaned

you know nothing about the complexities about being a black person and i dont either but you know wh odo black people who are doing black versions of canon characters they fucking know 

lets squiggle down just a bit further 

so the writer has issues with giving characters traits like a broad nose or larger lips if theyre a woman but if theyre a man suddenly its totally okay to go all ryan murphy ahs coven papa legba appropriation when approaching character design like are you fucking stupid do you hear yourself is that really how you see black men like what the fuck is wrong with you

none of the shit youre spewing takes bravery it takes ignorance and supreme levels of stupidity

do you really think you with your fic where a black lgbt+ woman is tortured and abused where you use the n word with a hard r to refer to her like that shits not okay its fucking depraved and yeah we know you love being shitty but like christ on a bike thats so much 

can we also talk about this

what the fuck is this fetishistic bull roar garbage calling this black character beyonce dressing her up in quote fuck me heels unquote are you are you seriously gonna write this and say its a shining example of how to write a black character youre basically saying ope here she is shes a sex icon haha im so progressive and i clealry understand the black experience hahahaha fuck you oh my god

on top of that theres a point where this character is only referred to as curly hair or the fact that the n word is used in the fic with the hard r like thats hands down not okay for you to use especially not in a manner like this jesus christ

oop heres a little more a sampling for you of the hell i am enduring in reading this drivel

oh boy lets put a leash on the angry black woman character lets put her in a leash and have the man imply hes a master like are you kidding me are you for real and what the fuck is with calling her shit like j lo and beyonce do you actually think thats clever at all are you just thinking of any poc that comes into your head for this 

also lydia fucking tells this girl that she shouldnt have lost her temper like she got fucking leashed im so tired why is this writing so problematic and also so bad

hold up before i lose my head lets look at some of her own comments on the matter of this character and what happens to her

hi hello youre just casually tossing the word lynch out there in the wide open world as if thats not a problem that is still real like are you fucking unhinged there have been multiple cases of this exact thing happening in our firepit of a country in the last five months alone like how can you still have shit like this up for people to read how can you be proud of work like this in this climate

and also what the fuck is that last bit 

what the actual fuck

i dont speak for black people as a white person but you do!? im sorry i had to get my punctuation out for that because wow thats fucking asinine just because one black person read your fic and didnt find the torture and abuse of your one black character abhorrant doesnt mean that the vast majority of people not only in the fandom but in the human population with decency are going to think its okay because its not 

i started this post hoping to be level headed and professional but jesus fucking christ this woman is something else white nationalism is alive and well folks and its name is rae

if you defend this woman you defend some truly abhorrant raecism

editors notes 

in order to get some perspective on these issues more fully some of the writing by the author was examined and on the whole it was pretty unreadable but i want to just call back to the very beginning of this essay where the person in question talked about holding canon in high regard but then in their writing they just go around giving people magic and shit and ignoring the end of the movie entirely like are you canon compliant or nah 

the writing doesnt even read like beetlejuice fanfic it reads as self indulgent fiction you could easily change the names and its just a bad fanfic from 2007

also can we talk about writing the lesbian character as an angry man hater like its 2020 dude and als olets touch on that girl on girl pandering while beetlejuice is just there like here we go fetishizing again wee

i cant find a way to work this into this already massive post but

im going to throw up

okay so thats a lot we have covered a lot today and im sure my ask box will regret it but this definitely should have been more picked apart when it happened

please feel free to add more to this i would love more perspectives than just my own.

Every time I come across one of those posts or fics about how Andrew should feel bad about choking Kevin/how it was bad writing for Nora to have Andrew do it, it always seems to be Kevin superfans who are upset that Kandreil didn’t make it into the final draft. And every time I’m just baffled. How can people possibly feel so slighted by the exclusion of a pairing that Nora has said wouldn’t have made sense or been healthy in the final story anyway? The entitlement is just ridiculous

wowowow some juicy unpopular opinions are on the menu today!

i have a lot to say so buckle up. it’s gonna be one of those rants.

i have answered an ask about choking already. to sum it up: is choking kevin an acceptable mature way to express frustration at your bf being kidnapped by the mafia? no. is it in character for andrew? yes. will andrew apologize for it? no. will he and kevin still be friends? yes. 

first of all, i personally don’t see why kandreil would be unhealthy. i haven’t read nora’s statement about it but she didn’t elaborate, did she? it would be interesting to know why she thinks so but that’s unlikely to happen seeing as every word she utters about the characters she created gets her unproportional amounts of hate.

that being said, i totally see why kandreil would be out of character for the versions of kevin, neil and andrew that we see in the books. the relationships between kevin and the other two are certainly intense but i wish i didn’t have to suggest in the year of our lord 2020 that relationships can be intense without being sexual or romantic.

lets look at neil who’s canonically demi which means he has to have a profound emotional bond with a person in order to feel something like that for them. he has developed this bond with andrew throughout the books because they have similar backgrounds and are uniquely positioned to understand each other but more importantly because neil was put in a situation where he had to constantly actively communicate with andrew. andreil dialogues take up a large part of the books and enable us to see how andreil develops and works. nothing comparable happens between neil and kevin. they have a different dynamic altogether where neil looks up to kevin in the beginning for his exy skills and in turn kevin looks up to neil in the end for his being feisty in the face of imminent doom skills. neil chose to throw his anonymity away in order to stand up for kevin at kathy’s show which must mean he values kevin a lot, but he also antagonized him throughout the books, faulted him for not getting over his trauma in a timely manner and said the meanest things to him. a great and complex dynamic by all means. i have no complaints whatsoever and certainly don’t see them falling in love.

now lets look at andrew who isn’t aspec and has probably checked kevin out seeing as kevin is conventionally attractive. kevin & andrew is one of the most complex and interesting relationships i’ve ever seen in fiction. when we first encounter them their interactions are so intense that many readers (and neil) have interpreted them as a couple (because like i said before we tragically live in a society where tension is always seen as sexual). kevin and andrew met at such a time in their lives when they sorely needed something only the other was able to give: for kevin it was someone to stop him from returning to an abusive environment and for andrew it was someone who could see his real potential and worth behind his hostile manic exterior. so they started this weird co-dependent non-friendship which didn’t turn into anything else because - my big guess - neither of them wanted it to. andrew knows when he wants to fuck someone and knows how to arrange it but he didn’t with kevin because he already was a more important person to him than, for example, roland. the risks outweighed the benefits. but andrew did “arrange” it with neil probably because neil had something to offer which kevin had not. unlike kevineil where extensive relationship development had to take place in order for it to happen, kandrew could happen just because one of them suggested it. but guess what neither of them did and it’s canon. i for one am very happy that this unique exciting relationship wasn’t spoiled by romance.

finally lets look at kevin who isn’t a pov character like neil nor a character who’s constantly in neil’s focus of attention like andrew. we don’t have a comparable amount of information about kevin’s inner world so we have to surmise a lot of it just based on what neil cared to impart. so naturally the interpretations will differ. i personally see no signs of kevin being attracted to any person or any gender at any point in the books. there’s thea of course but she’s such an obvious last minute addition that i don’t even want to consider her. the kevin i know is living his best life as an unmarried childless aroace exy legend surrounded by friends and family and friends who are family. i’m aroace and imagining kevin single and happy is very important to me. it’s probably equally important to kandreil shippers to see some good polyamorous rep which is only slightly less rare in media than aroace rep. but the difference between me and kandreil shippers is that i have a magical ability to disagree with the author without cursing the very earth she walks upon.

ah yes, another difference is of course that they have an argument set in stone - kandreil was canon in earlier drafts. but do you know what else was there in the earlier drafts? jean was dead in them. so was erik in some of them which made nicky a different person altogether. also i distinctly remember nora writing that she has been developing this story for so long that she has shipped all the possible pairings at some point or another. kandreil aren’t special in that sense. what i am getting at is that in order to have a productive discussion we have to choose a particular draft of the story and stick to it, so if it’s a kandreil draft we have to know what else was different in that version, and if it’s the books then well kandreil isn’t canon in them end of story. 

that of course doesn’t mean that people can’t write absolutely stellar kandreil fanfics but it does mean that they have to dial down what you called “the entitelment”. because aftg means different things to different readers and if you insult the author for writing it the way you don’t like you also insult the readers who see themselves represented in the way the story is written. and kandreil fans are so aggressive. it’s smart of you sending the ask on anon cause otherwise they’d come for you so fast you wouldn’t know what hit you. just the other day i saw a post which basically said that the reason kevin is portrayed in fics in such a reductive way and writers don’t know what to do with him except make fun of his exy obsession and alcoholism is because andreil is built on the bones of kandreil and, being excluded from this relationship by the author, kevin can never be happy. this take right here illustrates very clearly that the shipping culture damages human brain in such a way that a fulfilling life outside a romantic relationship becomes inconcievable. fic writers diminish kevin to those things not because nora decided she wants her final draft to be about andreil, but because most of them aren’t able to write about a character unless they’re in a relationship. maybe some day fanfiction will develop past that but today is not that day.

i have read some kandreil fanfiction to see what the fuss is all about and my expert opinion is that all of it is ooc. clearly in order for kandreil to happen some manipulations with the existing characters have to be made. i consider myself a kevin superfan but i mean the kevin as he is in the books (and in my awesome hc). the kevin in kandreil fics i don’t know, he’s a character from a book i didn’t read so he can do whatever and date whoever, i don’t care either way. i only care when people insult the books, andreil or nora because they’re bitter that their ship isn’t canon. what a way to live in the year of our lord 2020. 

Disability and James

@zarohk asked for my thoughts on a Disability Studies/Media Studies perspective on the disability depictions in Animorphs.  [PLEASE NOTE: I am nondisabled, so if I err, please tell me so.]

I’ve mentioned before that James is one of my faves, and possibly my favorite minor character who isn’t a yeerk host.  His introduction pulls off a seemingly impossible feat through not only creating a likable Sixth Ranger, but creating a likable Sixth Ranger who comes after David.  James is also a complex, nuanced character whose disability is a feature but not a summation of his personality.  Plus, he’s a masculine boy who is all about about nurturing others, which always makes me happy.

A few places where I commend the depiction of James:

He leads a social community of disabled kids who help each other.  It’s a big part of third-wave progressivism to emphasize sub-communities and various identities helping each other out: women supporting women, queer pride, Latinx-American culture, etc.  That’s what we see with the Auximorphs, especially James.  James’s motivation is somewhere between 99% “help my roomies” and 100% “help my roomies.”  His initial response to Jake and Cassie explaining the war is “so what, a bunch of ableds are gonna get taken by yeerks, not my problem.”  It’s only when Cassie points out that the yeerks are eugenicists who murder disabled humans that he switches to “okay, I guess we’ll go fight in your stupid war.”  He insists on even the kids who won’t be fighting (Pedro, Tuan) getting the power to morph, and tells Jake that he’ll take suggestions but not orders.

He emphasizes his own and Pedro’s bodily autonomy.  James actually goes so far as to throw Jake onto the floor when Jake tries to grab his wheelchair — a move that emphasizes James has the right to move his own body around, and that that includes prostheses.  Everyday ableism too often involves random strangers taking charge of the bodies of disabled people, attempting to guide blind pedestrians or push wheelchairs around without asking permission to move a person’s body like that.  "My body, my business” is obviously a huge motif in Animorphs, and James pretty explicitly extends that to prostheses as well as fleshy limbs.

He’s nobody’s sidekick, and nobody’s fool.  When the Animorphs first tell James that they’re alien-fighting shapeshifters, he assumes that they’re here to prank the disabled kids who they think must be desperate for attention.  He barely gives them the time of day even when they prove themselves, and he doesn’t “play nice” even when they add him to the team.  James defies the cliché of the disabled kid desperate for the approval of nondisabled peers, and specifically calls it out.  He’s the leader of a semi-independent unit who has his own agenda, rather than being at the original Animorphs’ beck and call.  Like Toby and her hork-bajir, he’s here to make sure that his group and his loved ones don’t get left behind when the war ends and intersectional identities threaten their rights once again.

He kicks ass.  James is competent, tough, skillful, and self-confident with or without the Animorphs.  There’s a fairly realistic period where he has to learn the basics of morphing along with the other Auximorphs, but once he learns he’s highly effective.  He saves Jake’s life during the Air Force battle (#53), rescues the original Animorphs from Tom’s yeerk (#50), and helps Ax and Cassie escape a mob of morph-controllers who have them cornered in a subway tunnel (#52).  He’s agentic and powerful, something we don’t see enough of in disabled child characters.

He emphasizes that the more-privileged communicator has to be the one to do the work of meeting in the middle.  Cassie notes in #50 that James puts in a lot of work to communicate with Pedro (who is paralyzed) and Timmy (who has a speech disorder).  James is the one who can hear/speak in a fairly normative fashion, so James often “translates” for Timmy — but he always does so by letting Timmy finish a sentence rather than cutting him off by trying to guess what he’ll say next.  James is the one who can work the stereo in his and Pedro’s room, so he makes sure that he always lists genres and waits for a blink of confirmation before he changes the music.  James also defers to Pedro’s request for country western in spite of being a punk rock fan himself, because James remains conscious of the fact that if he doesn’t like the music he can always leave the room, while Pedro doesn’t have that option.

He’s thoroughly individuated.  James likes Blink 182 and dislikes reality TV.  He uses his morphs for agility — peregrine falcon, lion — more than firepower.  He spends a lot of time on his hair, and he treasures privacy as much as he values his friends.  He repeatedly calls Cassie and Jake on their bullshit, in spite of being visibly scared to do so as the new kid on the team.  One wouldn’t necessarily think that these are huge accomplishments (and to be clear, they’re not) but there are way way too many minor characters in wheelchairs, especially sci-fi stories, that don’t get characterized beyond their various emotions and thoughts that directly relate to their wheelchairs.

A few places where James falls into the common traps of implied ableism creeping into fiction, as written about in Narrative Prosthesis:

He gets “cured”.  The fact that James’s body is, however implicitly, depicted as a “problem” that must be “fixed” suggests that the theoretical ideal point is the nondisabled body he would have had if not for the car accident.  Like I said, it’s 100% fine if a disabled character gets written as preferring to be nondisabled, but if the series offers the unquestioned assumption that the “correct” body is the nondisabled version, then that’s... not great.

His disability is presented as a mystery that needs solving.  Like Loren, James gets presented with an implicit frame of “why are you like this?” that assumes his body is “abnormal” and therefore begs a question.  In James’s case, it comes in the form of Collette explaining why he’s disabled (a car crash) before we ever even hear from James himself.  Again, it’d be fine if this was the only time this happened, but the fact that the series “explains” almost all of the disabled characters (Taylor, Loren, Mertil, Kelly, Pedro) suggests that disability is something that needs explaining because it’s aberrant.

Some of the physical descriptions of James are a bit eugenicist.  After he first demorphs, Cassie says “standing over the group now, steady and strong, was James. He was taller than Jake, broader-shouldered... long and muscular” and describes how James helps to carry the other Auximorphs as they acquire battle morphs (#50).  James gets presented as a contrast point to the Auximorphs who remain disabled, because his body is presented as “correct” while theirs are not.  If it was just Cassie, that’d be one thing, but Ax says “unlike James, the others are physically helpless” (#50) and later Jake describes the contrast between James being strong and the other Auximorphs being “weak” and “faintly pathetic” (#53).  In the process, the descriptions tie together the ideas of being masculine, being independent, being physically strong, and being worthy of respect.  American rugged individualism, especially as it applies to white men and boys, has a dark side in that it often regards physical dependence on others as a sign of cowardice or weak will or moral failing.  That assumption underwrites some of the way that James gets described by the other Animorphs.

He gets killed.  By killing off James and his fellow Auximorphs, the series falls into the “kill or cure” narrative that Mitchel and Snyder trace throughout history for the overwhelming majority of disabled characters.  Disability is too often presented as being necessary to “solve” through death or cure, to the point where the Fries Test (designed to be a minimum threshold for disability representation, like the Bechdel Test for women) requires that disabled character(s) make it to the end of the story without being eradicated through cure or kill as the bare minimum condition that a story be somewhat less ableist.  Animorphs does not pass the Fries Test, because it eradicates its disabled characters through a combination of cures and kills.

Specifically, he gets killed to manipulate the emotions of a nondisabled character.  When Visser Three kills James, the moment is presented through Jake’s point of view, and it leads up to Jake’s decision to flush the Pool ship.  Maybe my biggest frustration is that that moment only serves to cause Jake pain and help push him off the rails.  It doesn’t change the plot of the final battle the way Tom’s death does, it doesn’t stop to give James a conscious choice the way Rachel’s death does, it just makes Jake sad and mad and reckless.  It’s the same dang dynamic as women in refrigerators: the less demographically privileged character becomes a prop for a more-privileged protagonist to have emotions about.

Anyway, to say it again: none of those individual elements of James’s story — death, cure, urgent backstory — would be necessarily problematic if there were equally-major disabled characters in Animorphs who didn’t demonstrate those elements.  It’s the fact that James demonstrates all of those elements and so do most of the other disabled characters that makes me wish the series had done better.

Yeah!! you're right, also that part of the toxic fandom does not realize that if they continue like this they will achieve the opposite of what they want (that is, Buddie becomes canon) and that Oliver and Ryan feel annoyed with the ship (something that I am sure they are starting to feel or already feel)

So I took some time to ponder over this because I’ve been seeing this general assumption/fear going around not just in the 911 fandom but within other fandoms as well, past and present. And I just became curious as to why we as an audience feel like if we make a wrong step--like being too pushy about something we do/don’t want--that creators will do the opposite to spite us.

In this day and age, it is very easy to access content creators, even ones who exist as part of a larger corporation. I did some research about how fans have generally been able (or unable) to impact how a show or movie has moved forward with any particular story and it seems that those who have (shows like Arrow that changed up storylines/pairings to suit comic book fans or fans of other ships) have been met with backlash and ultimately no satisfaction for anyone. I’ve also read of some shows (example like BBC Sherlock) adding in meta-level “fans” to their show, or writing in “undertones” to please fans, and that backfiring because the show didn’t actually want go forward with it, so when they backtracked (or didn’t make certain plotlines/ships canon) people were upset because of the false hope they were given.

We’ve also seen the rise in fan support saving certain show from cancellation. We watched it happen with One Day at a Time and with Brooklyn Nine-Nine. What was important to realize on that end, was that the shows weren’t “saved” by their original networks, but were instead bought up by other networks who believed the show could fit their brand and wanted to continue it and still felt like they would find those fans shifting to watch wherever the show went. These shows were saved not because of fan support (although that was a big factor) but mostly because the networks that bought them saw potential in continuing the show.

On the flip side, we’ve seen fan petitions to do things such as re-make the entire last season of Game of Thrones, or remake Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. Neither of these fan petitions ever even came remotely close to influencing creators. But then we have the negative backlash of things like Sonic the Hedgehog where fans literally bullied the animation team into redesigning (and therefore re-making entirely) their film. But in that case the creators didn’t necessarily change up the story but rather a character design. Still, it showcases that fans DO have some sort of power to influence things that happen higher up. But how much really? In my opinion, way way less than we think we have.

From what I’ve read (and you can google ‘fan impact on tv shows’ if you want to read some older and newer articles), when it comes to the writing of shows, most creators and their writers are not writing to give the audience every little thing they want--but rather, they write to create the story that the writing team wants and the story that they best feel suits the characters. And this might not always line up with what the fans believe best suits the characters. Of course, TV shows WANT fans to enjoy what they make. They want to have fans in the first place. But because of how active people are online, and how easy it is to have your voice and opinion reach someone high up, fan voices are beginning to be drowned out--purposefully. 

When you have large-scale protests, such as the huge backlash The 100 and several other shows received for perpetuating the “bury your gays” trope, these criticisms are not petty complaints about ships or contradictory lore, these criticisms are about socio-cultural level problems that NEED to be addressed due to the harmful and deadly ramifications they can have on real world people. These protests are needed so that going forward, other media are AWARE of what ramifications may come from such decisions and can make better choices when telling their stories. Shows that have failed to comply often face heavy backlash--or are quick to get the boot (looking at you The Magicians). For problems like this, creators absolutely should be listening to their fans. For things like shipping, or other minor disagreements that are based heavily on individual fan preference, creators can very easily let that roll off their backs.   

My point is that with the ever-closing gap between fans and creators, fans voices have grown louder, yes, but creators ability to tune it all out has grown stronger. TV shows want passionate fans. And those who have been in the field for a while know that comes with having obnoxious, disrespectful, and rude fans as well. At the end of the day, unless a show is writing in storylines or character stereotypes that are disrespectful or harmful to groups of real people, they should not have to bend to every will of every faction of fans. And most won’t. Because you can’t please everybody, so the writers and creators are going to choose to do what works best to them. At the end of the day creators/writers are going to do whatever they want and take the storyline wherever they think is the most interesting (and logical) for their characters. (An aside to say I’m talking about shows that actually know what they’re doing in the writers room--not shows like Riverdale (no offense)).

Shows (like Supernatural for example) are always going to choose to do what they want to do above anything the fans say they want. If they want to make a certain ship happen, they’ll do it. If they don’t, they won’t regardless of how vocal fans (or antis) are. What show writers do and don’t want may shift over the course of time. It happens. (Like for example, in my personal opinion, I don’t believe the writers were at all trying or necessarily wanting to write Buddie as a legitimate thing/possibility in s2, but with s3 I feel that has changed). When writing to please fans, you can risk certain decisions coming off as pandering (like in Star Wars:TROS). And when certain decisions feel inauthentic to the show or underdeveloped/OOC for a character (even things that people claim they really wanted) it can feel disappointing even to the most loyal of fans.

For 911 specifically, we’ve seen that the show can and does focus on character’s love lives. It’s not unreasonable to expect that from them like it might with say shows like The 100 where the plot-heavy sci-fi action has always been the priority for the show’s writers, above whatever romantic side-plots they have with their characters. And we’ve seen that 911 is generally positive when it comes to how they represent queer characters (as for other minority rep, 911LS has some issues on the muslim rep, but I am not qualified to speak on that as someone who is not muslim). The show is not perfect in it’s writing, they’ve made mistakes or done things that not all fans have liked, but from my perspective (and I think a lot of other people’s perspectives too) the show does its best to remain true to its characters and tell a genuinely interesting and engaging story. The show (both the writers, producers and actors) seems to care for their characters and the stories they give them a whole lot.

So, tldr, no. I don’t think the writers would simply choose to not make buddie a thing if they genuinely thought it would work for their characters and the story they want to tell. Even if the shippers are obnoxious and annoying. Even if the actors may occasionally get frustrated with shippers online. If it was right for the show, and right for the characters, I do feel like 911 would go for it. Hell, they might feel like buddie is right for the show/characters but not right right now, and that’s where character development, plot development and relationship development comes in. Ladies, gents and non-binary pals, that’s where patience comes in. 

In the meantime, show your enthusiasm! But be respectful, always.

Poor economies

Alternator Generator and E-vehicles as machines eliminates oil completely as well as artificial made oil for oiling machine parts and thats the major economic activity of Nigeria as a country thus a finished economy as well as her cooking palm oil finished by artificially made 1 where a little amount poured on water in a bucket then many sprinkle water and boom its formed. By the above now, even the machines and vehicles they made the other African nations have learnt the same so are plunged into shivering as how they will feed their population, so looking to settle their population in other nations using people they sponsored to disturb in pretense of monitoring peoples food so they see if u can share your food once the above happens. Rather they could left Kebi and Not play part in Amon’s death to think now the innovation remain to them only, so can pride themselves with slogan such as proudly made In Nigeria. Not bad off as now gadgets u don’t buy but just looking 4 food like from Cameroon, the next nation next door, do not worry dude, eat less now to save 4 ya poor population or create a fund 4 the same or make artificial supplements to save ya nations export. Other feasible solutions to evade war or public disgust as people trusted on ya a long time as u r geared towards justice yet now u join the bad side and help Mr white-man to down play other black men, if u had rocket and internet as far as 2015, why hide it, u could have told Mr Hindu to back off, but better of u shy people away from Christianity because many deemed ya more Christian than others to follow ya

The white Canadian women eyeing very well the money Kebi claimed to leave, which if he does the same they came up with excuses again that his money in the bank. Folks hard to explain, how can i tell them, my intention wasn't money but equity to all, if i take that cash they claim the same and adds to their ego of finding me which i want not cause am another fellow altogether as above. They want people with money yet proclaim they are helping Africans who are poor as with my case taking it back and forth. Then they wanna say i wanna live big, so bring kids around, i cant live that way myself yet i challenge them, can we go to the bank i give ya that cash to a big group of people u put to investment, me i only take $ 1000 4 my toilet and fake electronic like phones and computer to be using to save me cyber money, they want not but want it all alone. They want to eat my corpse saying am Jesus, if u partake such like they did in blood donation previously u became innovative which aint the case as show with every world nation making gadgets yet they have not eaten my corpse or blood while the Kenyan counterparts doing the same yet they lag behind in their innovative quest than nations like Nigeria or Ghana who have not done such cheated acts by the Germans or Americans. Eating corpse wont help ya if u dont practice what is described in tumblr a/c sirjustice202.

Another they want to exhume my grave 4 the above trying to kill me or make me take my life, which if i say, the hole be dug deep and heap of concrete added they are left stranded as well as me being cremated. Thinking that they can do that to my head then take other parts, led me be immersed in hot metal b4 people as i will pay that then stranded again and if that fail they want me oversees to frustrate me in snow or use a coin that cut the leg to amputate my appendages to make much corpse out of it to be eating forever as the remainder always make much as well as the initial, can even be eaten 4, 1 century to delude not knowing folks that the gateway to be innovative in machines to make it a culture to get many to hell as seen by ya hand fingers, kinda, pulsing up and down. Or get me to jail take blood samples and do the same as well as shooting me as astray bullet or knocking me down on roads to loose part of my appendages 4 the same above.

For better big car, when hurling cold water as described above using bottle nozzles as with sanitizing bottle or syringe, u can mix the water inside with strawberry or animal blood. U may not know of this but improves the car image as durable or not durable just the same with place ices on the offerings as dough, grain,hay, chaff or on sewer water b4 the above done. If u think its a lie then if u know how to make machine parts try and compare the products with or without the same. Let it be diluted dude and tell me whats up homie!!!!

For more they even aid with local people if u inquire of their machines online, bad character dude, they r of Kamba blooded as well as Germans so alias dude and even Canadians. Worker and vineyard parable to bring reality dude, wanna remain in this world alone, is that true dude, not wanting it 4 others as u want it 4 ya self.

If u got the below gear, u can locate an old car and buy such 2 and connect to make ya own movable E-car esp the 1 tied with the motor and 1 without 4 it to be more soft, stop spending much on already made e-car, make yours today and save much a big time

https://www.alibaba.com/premium/Speed+Reducers.html?XPJAX=0&product_id=60750472126&tagId=c146910&pcate=146910&cid=146910&src=cpm_fb&ver=76w_20190529&account=DPA&campaign_id=6114792212116&campaign=mc_pc_pclp&ad_set_id=6114792213716&ad_set=pc_mc_completenewpclp&source=fb&placement=Facebook_Desktop_Feed&ad=mc_pc_newpclp_frame&fbclid=IwAR00s52JEI72fmQgGiACeJW_tOpTD9M-K8Ce6rUzYz7R2MLBQwZSsaT2N5M

Overseas shipping details in the link below

https://www.facebook.com/imailkenya/

Do adhere to Govt set rules even if u know they are heading no-where, just try not to get into the hands of the police by just appeasing them, anyway covid medication is grown ginger and many have bought such to cure them, the reason why such cases have diminished even if the govt is playing dice. Most such pretenders are of Kisii blood who just follow things to benefit and its a blessing in disguise as they are known that way. Always almost these people when they triumph, they can be tyranny or of bad character. U’d rather oppose such to portray a character of wanting development to many as opposed to the former case.

I need a spinje like the Jerry joe in the link below

https://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/Surround-Stereo-6-5-Big-Power_60584981171.html?spm=a2700.pcdrm.normalList.241.feefKYoaKYoaNR

Uganda as well claims they have known to build roads and structures such as buildings they way explained in tumblr a/c sirjustice202 as in the link below trying to explain

https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=1618395448308920&set=pcb.1618395504975581

https://www.facebook.com/kiiramotors/videos/179889533365237

Nigeria made hexacopter in the link in below

https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=804971810011442&set=a.563821404126485

1st Ghana made aircraft in the link below

https://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http%3A%2F%2Fkantanka.net%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2019%2F06%2Fghana-airways-1024x702-1.jpg&imgrefurl=http%3A%2F%2Fkantanka.net%2Ffirst-ghana-made-aircraft-takes-to-the-skies-3%2F&tbnid=nofkJZBegIhrdM&vet=10CJwBEDMorQFqFwoTCLj01dTb1ukCFQAAAAAdAAAAABAP..i&docid=Ib-gPB3a58J6mM&w=1024&h=702&q=kantanka%20military&ved=0CJwBEDMorQFqFwoTCLj01dTb1ukCFQAAAAAdAAAAABAP

In the link below is made in Ghana train

https://www.facebook.com/398698357548638/photos/pb.398698357548638.-2207520000../619818148769990/?type=3&eid=ARASO2wOo8XqtxcsrAXwlgXqJVhDnyxPX42dgPkmutUR6A-6hw4kiFmSxWUiqaJD52mo3eOXW_Rz7x8a

http://kantanka.net/first-ghana-made-aircraft-takes-to-the-skies-3/?unapproved=1100&moderation-hash=52a29b059f94c9dd7324bc8985f0f393#comment-1100

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghana_Railway_Corporation#/media/File:Train_In_Accra_005.jpg

Nigeria launches space rocket in the link below as Germans buying their boats to affirm quality and forging alliance to finish Kebi utters delanu, my buying me food friend.

https://www.africanmilitaryblog.com/2019/10/race-to-space-nigeria-launches-homemade-rockets?v=65d8f7baa677

https://www.africanmilitaryblog.com/2020/05/germany-buys-nigerian-epenal-boats?v=65d8f7baa677

Made in Rwanda Laptops in the link below dude, just click and get a glimpse

https://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.twimg.com%2Fmedia%2FCVHahh1WIAAm44b.jpg&imgrefurl=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.com%2Fngwata_%2Fstatus%2F671558160453357568&tbnid=BFMjvfMZvFRpoM&vet=12ahUKEwiXzPj24tbpAhUhAmMBHasGBdgQMygNegUIARCFAg..i&docid=9IGQVcTXnls_WM&w=1024&h=768&q=train%20made%20in%20rwanda&ved=2ahUKEwiXzPj24tbpAhUhAmMBHasGBdgQMygNegUIARCFAg

North Korea 1st made airplane and South Korea fighter jets in the link below

https://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.rnz.co.nz%2Fassets%2Fnews%2F84349%2Feight_col_plane.jpg%3F1475560645&imgrefurl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.rnz.co.nz%2Fnews%2Fnational%2F314906%2Fchinese-firm-flew-nz-made-plane-in-north-korea-show&tbnid=gqk4Th2J-7Jd3M&vet=12ahUKEwjXnPWv5NbpAhUR9OAKHVHhD5oQMygIegUIARD3AQ..i&docid=gLgJ7A7n64dtNM&w=546&h=341&q=airplane%20made%20in%20north%20korea%20images&ved=2ahUKEwjXnPWv5NbpAhUR9OAKHVHhD5oQMygIegUIARD3AQ

https://www.defensenews.com/air/2018/06/29/south-korea-unveils-first-images-of-kf-x-design-with-european-missiles/

https://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http%3A%2F%2Fstatic.rappler.com%2Fimages%2Fkorean-fighter-jet-20130130.jpg&imgrefurl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.rappler.com%2Fnation%2F20754-ph-to-buy-12-south-korean-fighter-jets&tbnid=ySCDyCeMq0jHLM&vet=12ahUKEwiRheaQ5dbpAhUS-4UKHRQPCFoQMygKegUIARD9AQ..i&docid=o1ZJyEg6aQ3KqM&w=640&h=360&q=south%20korea%20made%20airplane%20images&ved=2ahUKEwiRheaQ5dbpAhUS-4UKHRQPCFoQMygKegUIARD9AQ

what are some under used marvel female characters youd love to see in the rpc?

HMMMOkay, so I’m trying to think OBJECTIVELY here and not just rattle off the female characters that I personally like, and more “I’m surprised that there’s not more blogs for this character, whether or not I personally am a fan” ....because I missed the “you’d love to see in the RPC” bit because I’m dumb, and then I wrote this whole list without regards for that part. So this came out as less “female characters I personally want” (who would all be stupidly obscure and irrelevant anyway) and more “female characters I think the RPC should give some more love to, whether I personally am into them or not”:Definitely ALL the girls in the New Mutants and Generation X! I see a fair few blogs for Magik and Jubilee, but I really don’t see any for the others. I get why Magik is going to be more popular---she’s in more stuff, she’s currently much more relevant in the comics, and her backstory is so goddamn compelling---but that doesn’t mean the others shouldn’t have ANY blogs out there. Wolfsbane, Magma, Karma, and Moonstar are all extremely complex and compelling characters with their own struggles and triumphs too, and I think they deserve just as much love. Likewise, I get why Jubilee will naturally get more blogs than Husk, Monet, and Penance (depending if you count Penny as a separate character or not...) due to her being in more stuff, having bigger arcs, etc. But it still surprises there’s NO blogs around for those ladies! I know there was that Monet blog awhile ago, and @badmusesdoitwell had an Amara that’s now part of their multimuse, as well as a Rahne, but that’s still nowhere near enough love in the RPC for these Junior X-Ladies, in my opinion. Speaking of Generation X, I’m also a bit surprised no one has picked Cordelia Frost up, given that we’ve got plenty of background canon for her via Emma’s history yet Cordelia herself has LOTS of room to go nuts with headcanons, like it’s just the perfect opportunity! And I’m sure lots of Emma blogs, of which there are MANY, would love their little sister around for some family threads. Fuck, I would pick her up myself if I were more into Emma and the Frost family as a whole. She’s hardly the most relevant, recent, or even interesting character around, she’s done very little and shown up very briefly, but the fact she’s related to Emma Frost makes me think SOMEONE would have an interest in her.Madelyne Pryor, for sure. Like, I love Maddy, but it’s not just my favoritism talking here. I think she’s pretty decently well-known in the comics fandom, and she’s a tragic villain, which usually pulls people in big-time. She’s got a grudge against the good guys, and it’s actually more legitimate than most, which I’d think would also attract people, since a lot of villains fans like to blame the good guys no matter what and THEY’D ACTUALLY HAVE A GOOD ARGUMENT HERE? Plus she has very strong connections to other, more popular canons, with a ton of fodder for angst and drama threads, which people just LOVE. I have seen a few Maddy blogs pop up in the past, and I always get so excited, but they never seem to last very long :CDr. Moira MacTaggert deserves ALL the love and respect in the world/fandom! She’s been a staunch supporter of mutants since day one, she’s a total badass, she’s super smart, she calls Xavier out on his shit ALL THE TIME, she’s the survivor of an abusive husband, she had to make terrible choices about her son that no mother should ever have to and then live with the consequences of those choices, and SHE GOES AFTER A KELPIE WITH A GODDAMN MACHINE GUN! She’s been a part of the X-Men comics for such a long time, and is very significant in them, it really surprises me that I’ve never seen a blog for her besides just ONE and it was for the XMCU sexy American CIA agent Moira, who is NOT Moira in my book and NEVER WILL BE. Speaking of, Moira will ALWAYS be human to me, I think making her a mutant all along REALLY undermines a big part of her character as just an unyielding mutant ally. Though I think her being human, combined with being an older female who isn’t anyone’s love interest (unless she’s, gasp, getting in the way of CHERIK aka the ultimate fandom sin how dare she the harlot -.-), is probably WHY she’s so damn ignored -.-Frenzy hasn’t been in THE most recent stuff, but she’s still been relevant recent enough that I think one or two blogs around would have happened if she weren’t black. Yeah, I hate to be THIS person, but any black character who isn’t Storm doesn’t get love, for all that the RPC likes to yell about being diverse and progressive. Remember all the Captain America and Iron Man and Hulk and Quicksilver blogs that popped up after their movies? Yeah I saw like ONE T’challa blog after Black Panther came out. Then again, I’ve yet to see blogs for Pixie or Firestar either, who are white, and I feel like they both were fairly interesting and well-known in fandom? Same for the Academy X girls like Sofia Mantega, Mercury, and Wallflower. Luna Maximoff FOR SURE. It SHOCKS me I haven’t see more than a couple short-lived blogs around for her, just given her family connections. Now, I don’t think a character deserves love just because of who they’re related to---in fact it annoys me when a characters gets a ton of attention and it’s very obviously just for that---but Luna has SO MUCH going on? The problems between her parents, her mother being absent so much, her father exposing her to the Mists, dealing with her powers, being a child of two very different worlds and cultures, it just goes on and on. Luna has had to grow up so fast, she’s such a strange and stoic child as a result, and though her situation is very fantastical, having to be the mature one at an early age because all the adults in your life won’t be is something a lot of people have to cope with and I think would find relatable; I especially love how she lives in this world where there’s no bad guys, like neither Crystal nor Pietro were the villains in her situation, just hurting messed up people, which she also recognized in Magneto and maybe also even Maximus . And there’s so much that could be explored with her too that hasn’t been in canon yet---for instance, her choice to identify with her Inhuman heritage and why that is, and the journey of identifying with your heritage but also looking at the horrible things in their history, I think that’s a story that a LOT of people from MANY backgrounds can relate to. It surprises and frustrates me that both writers and fandom don’t really seem to care about her or remember she exists; one the only two blogs I ever saw for her seriously got someone asking them “why would you make such a weird OC” like SERIOUSLY! Luna needs more love, big time. Any female Avenger that’s not Wanda or Natasha. I don’t read Avengers, I’m just an X-Men fan, but I know they exist and they shouldn’t have to be in a movie to get love. Ditto for She-Hulk, I’m not a Hulk reader but I know she’s a prominent character who has been around a long time and has a very developed personality and stories of her own, yet I’ve only ever seen her on @getreadytosmash‘s multi. I’ve also never really read Alpha Flight, but its main ladies ---Snowbird, Aurora, Vindicator---all seem awesome in their own different ways. Alpha Flight isn’t very popular to begin with, of course, so I don’t expect them to have as many blogs as, say, major X-ladies, but I think one apiece or so would be very justified.KWANNON!! I actually get why we didn’t have any blogs for her BEFORE now, because we knew NOTHING about her, she was just a very tragic prop for Betsty’s body-swap plot and a way to give her insta-ninja-skills, but now she’s come back and has HER OWN NEW SERIES in which we’re finally learning who she is and her background, I hope to see a blog or two around for her eventually!Destiny aka Irene Adler. Like. Do I even need to explain WHY? I think people just don’t want to play an OLD woman, especially one whose primary/only ship is going to be with another woman.Maaaaybe Clea Strange? I don’t know shit about her, never read Dr. Strange, but like, people make blogs for Sigyn literally just because she’s Loki’s wife, and Clea at least seems to like...DO stuff? IDK, not sure on this on, but figured I’d make an honorable mention.Siryn, Boom Boom, and Dr. Cecilia Reyes are all X-Ladies that I really don’t know much about. Like I know basic things like their powers but I don’t know their story arcs and such. But as with Clea and the Avengers ladies and She-Hulk, I just have a HUNCH there’s a lot there getting ignored by fans.Silhouette Chord is a longtime member of The New Warriors, and, like Alpha Flight, New Warriors doesn’t really have a fanbase on Tumblr to speak of, so it’s not surprising to me she’s not got any love here. And even within the pages of her own comics, she’s generally pushed aside, underused, and underdeveloped compared to the other characters, generally more a prop for her boyfriend’s stories than anything else. But she DOES have a personality, a REALLY cool backstory, and she’s like...look, the RPC claims to love diversity and representation and all that, right? Silhouette is a mixed-race WOC (half Black, half Cambodian, and I have NEVER seen another Marvel character of Cambodian heritage who wasn’t connected to her) who is also very visibly physically disabled, her legs are completely paralyzed and she is never without her braces/crutches, yet she still fights PHYSICALLY (something very rare for physically disabled characters, they usually are more like Oracle or Prof X) and is depicted in a sexual relationship, and there’s never any kind of fuss or angst about it or anything treating her as delicate or less than or anything like that. She’s just completely adjusted to it in a way that’s very rare in media. And like I said, she’s not a flat character, I’m not saying she should be more popular just for ticking off the diversity boxes, she manages to be really intriguing to me despite how little focus the writers give her, and I think that she and the other New Warrior girls (Firestar and Namorita) have a lot to offer the RPC. But I have to give a special shoutout to Sil since she’s my fave, as the neglected ones alway are.Meggan Puceanu is probably most familiar to folks here as Kurt’s love interest in Age of X, but she’s been around since the 80s. She’s a longtime member of Excalibur, and she’s just...fascinating. She’s a Romanichal mutant (though often hinted to have magical/mystical heritage too, perhaps fairy like Pixie) who has empathic, elemental, and shapeshifting capabilities. However, her empathic and shapeshifting tend to overlap, so she changes her form (and her mind) according to the feelings, fears, and desires of others. So for instance, there’s this one time where a group of men are checking her out, and she feels that “They love me...I want...to love them in return!” and she morphs into this sexxed-up version of hersef on the spot. This isn’t played for kinkiness or laughs either; Meggan’s identity struggles are a HUGE part of her character. She has no idea who she is because her powers make her reflect and respond to the feelings of others around her, internally and externally. She doesn’t even know what she actually really LOOKS like because of this; her powers were present since birth, causing her to grow fur instantly as an infant due to it being winter. This caused her parents to keep her locked up in the camper trailer, where she was raised alone with the TV (she’s also illiterate, which causes her to feel dumb a lot) and as more and more people around her spread rumors about the monstrous child inside, she psychically absorbed those beliefs and her physical form changed to reflect them, making her more and more monstrous as she got older. She didn’t know she was a shapeshifter, she just really thought she was a hideous monster. And even when she found out the truth, she STILL didn’t know what she really looked like, as the beautiful form she took on (basically Pamela Anderson with elf ears) was to please her boyfriend Captain Britain (whom she is really unhealthily dependent on starting out because of her situation)Meggan is insecure, she doesn’t know who she is, she has to cling to a man in order to have anything because no one else has ever loved her, she easily becomes jealous of other women near him, she gets made fun of for being a bimbo and she often feels she is because she can’t read or understand “clever words” due to her isolated upbringing...and she gets through this! She develops! She becomes STRONGER and she becomes SECURE and she gains CONTROL of her powers and SHE KICKS ASS and she FORMS AN IDENTITY!  And then Meggan SACRIFICED HER LIFE to buy time for Captain Britain, Psylocke, and Rachel Summers to repair the tear in reality caused by House of M. She ends up lost between dimensions and TRAPPED IN HELL, where she uses her empathy to rally the lesser demons against THE LORDS OF HELL ITSELF and wages a war IN HELL for which her demon followers dub her “Gloriana” and she forms a sanctuary there called “Elysium” where souls can escape torment!  AND THEN SHE FINDS HER WAY HOME!THIS WOMAN KICKED ASS IN HELL AND WON!! Like she just goes through SUCH an arc, and I admit I have not read it myself yet, she’s on my list of characters to read EVERYTHING on and I’m still only familiar with her very insecure Excalibur days (which I love a lot, I just feel so much for Meggan and her struggles, I think she’s very much a reflection of a LOT of real-world issues, ranging from mental illnesses to just EXISTING as a woman) but I already have a ton of feelings about her and I think she’s more than prominent and accomplished enough to merit more attention in the RPC. And this is less of an “actually has reasons the RPC should love her” character, because really there’s no reason they should, she’s not prominent or relevant or or anything, but more an interesting “did you know”---did you know there was a “young female Wolverine clone” in the comics BEFORE Laura Kinney? Avery Connor! She pre-dates Laura by a year and has a VERY similar story, yet she never took off in popularity and very few people know her. You can read about her HERE on my Marvel blog. Again, would not say there’s actually any reason she’s earned love from the RPC like, say, Meggan or Luna, but I just thought I’d toss that in as a tidbit for the Logan family fans, as I know there are many.(Also, cheating because these are dudes, but: I’m not a Banshee fan but I am surprised I’ve never seen a blog for him, nor for Sunfire. Or for 616 Pyro. Or...)

quick warning: this is going to be a long post, so if you’re not wanting to read a lot of text, keep scrolling! 

You know what I’m sick of? People coming into fandom spaces with no knowledge of fandom culture and disrespecting or calling it ‘cringey’. 

I, like a lot of people on this site, have been in and am part of many fandoms, and I have noticed this sort of behaviour time and time again, however it seems to be becoming more popular, or at least more noticable. Maybe this is due to the rise in popularity of Tik Tok and the abundance of fandom related culture and posts cropping up on the app, and the accessibility of creators on Tik Tok to spread whatever they believe to be ‘cringeworthy’ if they so believe it to be. 

For example, I am in the MHA fandom, which for a while has gained a lot of heat on Tik Tok, for certain behaviours of fans, which is actually really common in most fandoms. While I agree on some points that certain ships are completely disgusting and should have no content made for them, blaming all shippers or shipping to be ‘ruining the fandom’ or ‘ruining the show’ is complete bullshit. Most people claiming this probably have never been in an actual fandom before and lack the knowledge of fandom culture, and criticize it from the outside, lacking actual knowledge of what being in a fandom actually means.

 Another complaint that has cropped up regularly is that cosplayers are annoying and cringey. Cosplay is a huge part of the fandom community across many different pieces of media, especially for anime and comic characters. While it can, admittedly, be strange for those who are not used to cosplay, especially for people who like to act in character, it’s not really as weird as people make it out to be. While normally people will only see it at cons, cosplay has become more accessible due to the rise of social media platforms such as Instagram, Youtube, Tik Tok, and of course Tumblr. 

Many people during the pandemic have discovered fandoms and cosplay through these sites, and have joined the community, which is wonderful! But what isn’t wonderful is the people who discovered it and immediately decided it was ‘cringe’ without doing any research or caring to look into anything at all. Then, instead of deciding that if it wasn’t for them, they’d just not interact with it, they decided to show all the world what they had found and thought was annoying or weird. 

If you take a look at the majority of people doing this, you’ll see that it’s mainly men, fully grown men. Which, y’know, is really weird because a lot of the creators of this call out videos are often big fans of anime or comics themselves. This is not at all to say that men are exclusively the problem, cause I’ve seen so many different types of people do it, but it does add to my theory. This is just a new form of gross gatekeeping that has become really easy for people to do, and sometimes even anonymously. Instead of asking people to name facts or say that they’re ‘fake fans’, they’ll just say that you’re ‘just in it for the ships’ or that you ‘make everything gay and gross’. These sort of videos and fans tend to scare away newer fans to both the pieces of media and to fandom itself, which sucks because fandoms are supposed to be a  safe place where people can talk about their interests and create content based in and around it. 

This just goes to show that people have always despised younger, newer fans, and people who like the piece of media and create media related to it that doesn’t fit the bill of being perfect and ‘normal’ (which is just something people use to be homophobic). This doesn’t even cover the sheer amount of shit people get just for saying they like something thats cringey too! Because it’s not just limited to fandoms, it’s extended to all different things, like fashion or music or hobbies, etc. It’s just... frustrating. 

also I believe half of this just stems from like deep-rooted ableism, sexism and racism, but that’s a whole nother thing    

btw pls don’t come into my notes saying that you think the mha fandom is cringe or annoying. 1, I know we have problems and there is some really shitty stuff in the fandom but I don’t condone any of it and 2, you missed the entire point of this post and/or skipped it to complain about the fandom. Please fuck off.

Honestly, you are so right. So often in media I see these close m/m platonic bonds that I feel have so much potential for m/m romance, only for both of them to be shoved with a female by the end. I am so used to it by now, but that doesn't make me any less sick of seeing that happen. I don't get why these "pro-lgbt" people think that there is a shortage of m/m platonic when there is definitely a shortage of good, and HEALTHY m/m romance in media.

I feel like it’s my duty to answer this in full because this issue frustrates me so much. Sorry I took a while to answer, I was simultaneously doing some work which includes page moderation so my wrist got thrown out of wack after typing for 4 hours straight.

Shipping fandom culture was created by a lot of women and queer/lgbt folks trying to find stuff that wasn’t otherwise provided in canon. Some women would even grow up to relate to these fan-made media to find out they were suppressing a part of themselves in terms of sexual expression or gender expression. We’ve literally had these wacky m/m friendships along with gal pal “chick flicks” self reflection journeys forever and you can’t really call yourself a journalist who could otherwise be a great writer if you haven’t studied media history, tropes, and patterns. Your job as a journalist, regardless if you write serious articles for some big name media outlet or fandom articles is to recognize historical patterns, and alert people to them, and tell a story that informs people who know nothing about it, or to remind people who have forgotten.

I’m 25 years old, graduated with a major in art and anthropology, and run my own radio program where I talk about Queer/LGBT topics at a non profit radio station. So I make it my business as an artist to get involved in fandom cause that’s what I like, and I make it my business as an anthropologist to recognize historical patterns which goes hand in hand with the media justice work and recognizing those patterns as well. When I was in college, we talked a lot about media representation of marginalized groups, tokenization, virtue signaling and caricatures. So growing up queer, (if we want to get nitty-gritty, i roll with bi-romantic demisexual trans masculine with he/they pronouns) I saw a lot of forced m/f relationships that would have panned out better as friendships, m/m friendships that…could interpretively have been more but men are repressed with their emotions. People are scared of legitimately loving relationships between men as they are afraid of seeing true love that’s respected and supported between interracial couples that doesn’t have someone putting the other down in some way (because that’s what we frequently have seen in the past). This is the same for healthy f/f relationships where they are just gal pals with potential to be more or they’re portrayed as catty or fighting for a male interest and I’m tired of it getting twisted now by putting down gay men in the queer community for having the experiences they do, and not to mention that before there was marriage equality, gay couples WOULD adopt each other as one’s son or daughter so they could STAY together so the nuances of gay history is lost to those who haven’t studied it like I have. Seriously google it.

I’m digressing a bit from the point, being that people are scared of legitimately loving relationships and if they see you happy with something they don’t have, either they must have it, or destroy you and it for having it at all which is a part of supremacy which is to retain feeling superior than you.

Ace person here- I'd say I've experienced something similar to the other anon. I've seen people in fandoms I've been in be acephobic or ignore ace headcanons deny the possibility a character might be ace. Meanwhile, my dad was the first person I came out to, and he was supportive, interested, and even brought up a coworker of his who was ace- and I've gotten similar support from other people I've told. I might just surround myself with wonderful people, but either way, there is a difference.

I spent quite a bit of time thinking about this last night, and while I do think that I, personally, have experienced acephobia and erasure in fandom probably more frequently than I do out of fandom, I don't think I'd necessarily say that it's worse. I think that the frequency does come at least in part from the way shipping is prioritized and the way people's misunderstandings of asexuality make their ships feel threatened, but I also feel like it might just have to do with it being a sort of more concentrated microcosm of culture and society.

When it comes to online life, I've definitely faced more acephobia and ace erasure in fandom than outside of fandom. Obviously that's not to say that I haven't experienced any, because there are a lot of parts of the online queer community that are exclusionist. But it's much more frequent and intense in fandom, for the reasons I discussed above.

But the real world offline is a whole different ball game. Obviously there's always going to be a difference between online and offline prejudice just because of the fact that offline interactions come with a physical component. But physicality does play a huge role.

It's not as frequent offline as it is online, but there are definitely a few reasons for that. The major one being that, because pretty much all of what I do online is media and fandom analysis with a great deal of it being done through the lens of asexuality, my asexual identity is something that's almost immediately known about me. It's something I include in my tumblr and twitter bios, and it's something I am frequently discussing. So anybody who comes into contact with me is likely going to just automatically know that I'm ace, and if they don't automatically know it, they come to know it very quickly. And because so much of what I talk about has to do with asexuality, a lot more of what comes back to me in discussion or responses or passive aggressive vague posting or whatever has to do with it as well.

That is obviously not the case offline. People coming into contact with me are a lot less likely to know that I'm ace. There's no bio or description stamped somewhere on my body that mentions that I'm ace, most of the things I do and talk about don't have anything to do with it so they wouldn't identify me as ace. For someone to know that, I would either have to directly tell them or they'd have to be told by someone who knows. So I'm already going to be experiencing less ace erasure and acephobia offline because my offline identity and activities are much wider and more varied, and I'm not likely to experience such things unless the topic comes up, which it frequently doesn't.

But the severity of it is far, far worse. For one thing, when it happens offline, it's more often specifically directed at me, whereas online it's more of an indirect erasure or acephobia, directed at characters and headcanons.

The big thing, though, is that physical component. That's not to say that a person's boundaries when it comes to agency and autonomy can't be violated online, but it's very different when it's a physical thing, and unfortunately a huge part of acephobia and ace erasure is that physical violation from people who don't believe you, or think you just need to be "fixed", or who think that your asexuality makes you an object with which they can explore their curiosity about it.

The acephobia and erasure in fandom, while perhaps more frequent, is generally just incredibly frustrating. The acephobia and erasure in the offline real world often comes with threats of corrective rape, people putting their hands on you without your permission, entering your personal space, and otherwise violating your physical and emotional boundaries in ways that are specifically directed at you, and that's way more than just frustrating. It's upsetting, dehumanizing, and borderline traumatic.