I actually love that Juliette has to be invited in. ESPECIALLY when it comes to what this means for her relationship with Cal. Because it forces Cal to have to think about the choice of letting Juliette in, instead of just having her cute vamp girlfriend climb through the window because she wants to see her, letting Juliette in has to be something wholly intentional. And it's also a Romeo and Juliet, throwing pebbles and climbing up the side of the house to climb through the window instead of the "I'm a vampire so I will watch from your window waiting to be invited in" trope. It's actually so cute and healthy, I love it.

I've seen a few people saying that Cal seems undeveloped in comparison to Juliette. But hear me out.

I know it seems that way at times because we do learn a lot about Juliette, but also I think that was intentional?

Like as a general rule, Cal is supposed to come off cold and aloof because initially, she is trying to suss out a monster.

But as time goes on, she's actually rather vibrant and earnest.

It also makes sense she's had a hard time establishing an identity because she has monster hunting and that's it. She reads books on school grounds and separates from everyone because she knows she will have to leave soon. She pretty much never finishes out a semester. But she collects the yearbooks from every school she's in and knows that most of them put on Romeo and Juliet. She is observant. Driven by desire to do what her family does, but also, a bit curious if all monsters are truly dangerous. She's clever and nerdy in a very Cal way and she has a tendency to take things very literally.

Honestly, they actually had such a short time to characterize these characters and managed to give us a surprising amount of depth into pretty much all of them.

Juliette also had a lot of people who knew her well that we could learn from. Like Sebastian, Margot, Elinor and of course Ben. Even Oliver gave us some insight into Jules and she into him.

Whereas Cal had her family who knew she cared about them, full stop. And also knew her favorite ice cream. But besides that, the Burns family and Cal, live and die by the Guild code and their love for each other. The only time we learn anything more about Cal is when she is telling Juliette about herself. So her character isn't so much underdeveloped as less openly shared than Juliette's.

I'm desperate for a second season announcement so we can learn more about Calliope Antigone Burns, a character that I'm so glad exists because she is complex and genuine and strong and messy and human and it is so damn good to see a black teenage girl get to be all of these things at once.

its literally so sad that so many people in this world dont understand that riverdale is the show of all time ever. because cheryl blossom is the Most character of all fucking time and everyone in the entire universe should know about her and cherish her. shes clinically insane. she experiences female hysteria like no other. she is the most seen ive ever felt by a lesbian in television because she is just off her fucking rocker at all times and thats the best representation i could ask for. she constantly talks like shes possessed by a victorian ghost. she once WAS possessed by a victorian ghost (her ancestor, also a lesbian, because lesbianism is genetic like being a serial killer is). she was also haunted by the ghost of a triplet she thought she absorbed but didnt actually absorb in the womb possessing a porcelain doll and then when they went to the 50s that porcelain doll became a real boy. her having lesbian sex saved the world. she faked stigmata for clout while canonizing herself as the first living saint in order to take over the musical theater cult her mother had started around her dead twin brother as a christ figure and maple syrup as the blood of christ, but cheryl succeeded in taking over the cult because she and gay kevin wanted to sing songs. she’s also committed to ruining gay kevin’s life just for funsies most of the time. she lives in a creepy gothic mansion and goes about wearing flowing dressing gowns and carrying candelabras despite fully living in the 2020s (except for right now bc everyone got zapped to the 1950s) because her life is a gothic horror. she kept the taxidermed corpse of her dead twin in the basement for a while just for funsies because she is balls to the walls insane. when her uncle found said corpse he attacked her and her girlfriend accidentally killed him so the two of them plus her creepy haunted grandma decided to gaslight the man’s wife and child into thinking they had cannibalized him over thanksgiving dinner (it was awesome). also shes really good with a bow and arrow for funsies. shes one of the few characters on tv that actually says “im a lesbian” out loud. she has magical witch powers and can blow people up with her mind, literally, actually. once she got so fucking mad at a the leader of a different cult she had gotten roped into because he said that she couldn’t run for prom queen that she managed to deprogram herself basically overnight. for a while she was building her own version of the winchester mystery house due to being plagued by hysteria. shes an incredibly skilled artist who did forgery for a while. she can control bees with her mind. She’s The Queen Of The Bees. she had a collection of small witch girls in the splinter universe rivervale that were all dressed like rei from evangelion for no clear reason and went about performing ritualistic sacrifices in the woods. she’ll say shit like “my dear antoinette thou hast beguiled me” and “im cuckoo bananas for you, obvi” and “do you think these loubotins are too flashy for kombucha brewing?” with the same level of utter conviction. she is so, so haunted. she has suffered more than jesus. she is a girlboss she is a lunatic she is a war criminal and she is never going to die.

(spoilers ahead) i wish my question were more positive, but mr gaiman, why did you choose to include wlw rep only to brutally kill almost every example of it?

just watched the first 5 eps of the sandman. i was loving it, until we met rachel and she died 15 minutes later. after johanna walked off into the rain i looked it up and found out she wasn't coming back. i was disappointed but kept watching. in episode 5, i was excited to meet bette and judy but as i slowly realised where the episode was leading i had to stop watching. i looked up spoilers again to confirm both characters died.

i felt sick to my stomach, and researched more to confirm that yes, there were no other wlw characters in the show. maybe i should keep watching, give the sandman the benefit of the doubt. but as a young queer woman desperate for positive representation, having 3 wlw character die brutally in the same episode they were introduced in, and the other written off...

i understand the show is intentionally dark, but considering i was drawn in by promises of positive queer rep, and knowing from my research that there are many mlm characters who don't die or get to live a long life, it feels your lesbian/bi female characters were given the short end of the stick.

at this point, i wish you hadn't included them at all, so i could be saved the trauma of becoming attached to characters i identify with, only to watch them all die in horrifying ways. this is a constant trend in media deep down, it reinforces the idea that queer women like me can never have a happy ending.

even if you don't have an answer, please acknowledge this ask in some way. thank you.

If there's a Season 2 you will see many of these characters again, because Death doesn't stop characters from being in Sandman. And if there's a Season 2 you'll meet several more important wlw characters who will survive much longer (and who may if we get the opportunity spin off into their own story, as happened in the comics).

Always remember though that Sandman is a show in which, given enough time or bad luck, people die. That isn't a judgement on anybody, as I hope episode 6 makes very clear. It's part of the human condition. It's also why people are complaining on Twitter that I've got it in for cis white males (many of whom die in season 1), and it's why you can get articles like the recent one in Gay Times applauding Sandman for its LGBTQA+ representation.

Does that help?

(Also a small footnote. Gay Times describes Zelda and Chantal as "twins". It's made clearer in the comic that nobody in the house actually knows their relationship. They are a couple of women going through life together with love, but whether they are physically lovers, related or just incredibly close friends is none of our business.)

Willow 2022 In Memoriam (for now)

Willow 2022 is no longer available for legal viewing in any format, anywhere. We hope it will be resurrected at some point, somehow, but TPTB at Disney have given us no concrete reason or timeline to expect its return. (Jon Kasdan, the show runner, has tweeted cryptic messages but is not in a position to make key decisions, nor to share details.)

First and foremost, I grieve for kids who now will not have the chance to stumble upon this wonderful show with a diverse/queer cast on a platform with the reach of Disney+. I can’t express in words how much I appreciated being able to watch this show with my enby 11-yo kid. Of course I also regret losing the opportunity to build the fandom over time with new viewers, as the Princess Bride did after a lackluster box-office opening in 1987, and I feel so angry on behalf of the creatives who poured their efforts and craft into this project. But I grieve even more the potentially life-saving representation that young people might have benefited from, and I fear for the chilling effect Disney’s decision might have on greenlighting queer/diverse projects aimed at younger audiences in the foreseeable future.

On a personal note: Actor Erin Kellyman has mentioned in interviews that playing the role of Jade Claymore helped her work on childhood issues, and I feel similarly about what watching the show has done for me. I was raised in central Kansas in the 1970s and 80s, a gender-non-normative “tomboy” lacking any mainstream queer representation. I don’t recall even learning the words “gay” and “lesbian” in the queer context until high school, and of course when I did, they were corrupted by ridicule and shame. Fortunately, I had a very strong sense of self and managed to survive and to thrive as a lesbian as soon as I went elsewhere for college.

I grew up as a fan of all the Lucasfilm franchises (including the original movie Willow, released in 1988). While I identified with both Leia and Han to a degree (and shipped them), something always felt off. There was something lacking in that magical Lucasfilm world. It was not just overt queer and diverse representation; it’s also the case, for example, that the entire original Star Wars trilogy does not pass the Bechdel-Wallace test. The original Indiana Jones trilogy barely does. (Criteria: there must be at least two named women who talk to each another about something besides a man.) Willow 1988 is the rare exception in early Lucasfilm that satisfies the Bechdel-Wallace test without our having to squint. As a fan of the original Willow, I found that Willow 2022 matched its spirit brilliantly and expanded its potential in such interesting directions.

I can’t begin to say how much it would have meant to me growing up to have had Willow 2022 within the Lucasfilm universe, for all these reasons. I really believe that a series like this would have changed the whole trajectory of my life - I am turning 50 soon - even when I count myself so very lucky to have had a supportive family and a strong sense of self. I am grateful that the first season of Willow 2022 exists at all, and it truly has propelled me to do a lot of important healing work around the childhood trauma of growing up queer at a time and place that was totally lacking in positive mainstream representation.

But it’s not enough: Willow 2022 should be made available for legal viewing in some form as soon as possible to keep saving lives and changing lives for the better.

Representing African-American Woman, Biracial, “fierce and strong” and hair questions

Anonymous asked:

I’m changing a character in a novel I’m editing to be a fierce, strong African American woman living with an anthropologist father and lawyer mother (I picture the mom like Jessica in suites). I also feel like being bi-racial in the south makes her a little conflicted. She sometimes wants to just “be white” to make things easier, but is so very proud to be African-American and bi-racial. She is also lesbian and a future love interest of the other main character However, I am white- so I have questions!! Here are 3 scenes I need help with:

1. Leigh is putting conditioner in her hair and hears the doorbell. She puts her hair in a silk hairwrap (is that ok to call it that?) after the other characters leave, she works on the computer and falls asleep. When she wakes up its 2:30. I was going to have her undo her hairwrap and run her fingers through her hair… but I know African American hair can’t be brushed, would running her fingers through it (even damp) ruin her hair? 

2. her and the other lesbian “anne” are getting ready at a hotel for an important event and Leigh comes out of the bathroom in a beautiful dress and an “afro blow out” (I have the photo of hair names saved from this group- just not looking at it as I type and will use the correct hair name in novel). When she comes out of the bathroom Anne sees her and is taken completely aback by her beauty. Her reaction makes Leigh uncomfortable and she asks if she should {straighten/presss} her hair. Which action is the correct word there? …to which Anne tells her no, she loves her natural hair because it’s who she is.

3. Later in the book, they are going to be heading to an archeological dig in the desert and I thought about giving Leigh “braids” with “coloured extensions/weave” .. is “tightly woven braids with (haven’t chosen colour yet)” appropriate? What should I say instead? This will also prompt a convo between the two main characters where Anne asks Leigh why she changes her hair so much. Leighs response will be “{As an African American} my hair is a large expression of who I am. Much like the clothes we wear for different moods or events, I change my hair to reflect what I am feeling or just as an outward expression of who I am” .. should I put the African American part in? I feel that hair is an expression to most people, but I know it is a huge part of African American culture and I want to get it right

Thanks in advance for advice!! This is a book I have always wanted to write, but it also became a book about “underdogs”. I really wanted to make a book with queer representation. I also realized I wanted to have an African American as there isn’t much representation for them either. I really want to show her as a fierce, smart woman (who of course struggles with the brevity of being “mixed race”) that isn’t a gangster, rapper, or the typical things we see in the media. I really want queer and/or African American young women to read my novel (eventually) and feel like it describes them well. Not in a stereotypical way they usually are portrayed. Anyways.. Sorry for the ramble, but thanks in advance for all the help!!

First of all, I want to address your use of “Strong.” It is not the compliment you may think it is and Black women do not always accept it well, particularly from non-Black people. Being forced to be strong, aka the Strong Black Woman, is not an ideal condition. So portraying Black women as such without nuance is not welcome representation.  

“I also feel like being bi-racial in the south makes her a little conflicted. She sometimes wants to just 'be white' to make things easier, but is so very proud to be African-American and bi-racial.”

Be aware that not every mixed race person has an identity struggle. But in a world where she faces racism, it could be realistic, a desire to "just be white.” As a visibly Black woman, though, she’ll always be seen as Black, and never just white, even if she’s mixed race or even lighter-complexioned. It’s part of the whole “one drop” perspective.

Now, to your specific questions.

Black hair questions - are these the right terms?

Leigh is putting conditioner in her hair and hears the doorbell. She puts her hair in a silk hairwrap (is that ok to call it that?) 

1.)

It’s hard to answer if this sounds realistic without knowing what products Leigh is using in this situation.

Is Leigh using a leave in conditioner or a conditioner hair masque? The former is what you’d use to style and add moisture to hair. It’s fine to leave that in and go about your day. The latter is something you would wash out after use. 

Also, I wonder if you’re referring to a silk hair bonnet or scarf in your description of a silk wrap? She likely wouldn’t put on a bonnet or silk scarf if she had a mask in that she was going to wash out. If she did, she’d need to clean it to get the product off of it. 

For comparison, imagine you put a hat onto your head when you still had shampoo in it. Wouldn’t that be strange and messy? 

Now, there are hair wraps and shower caps used for conditioning hair. The material is made for being washed out or disposed of after use.

“I was going to have her undo her hairwrap and run her fingers through her hair… but I know African American hair can’t be brushed, would running her fingers through it (even damp) ruin her hair?”

Yikes. Who said our hair cannot be brushed? One has to be more careful and curly/coily hair may not use the same brushes as straight-haired folks, but we can and still do brush and comb our hair. Popular brushes are boar brushes (although I find these too “rough” on my fine coils) and detangling brushes.

And there is no one shared “African American hair type.” Please look into the range of hair styles belonging to Black women, mixed or no. From thick and course, fine and soft, straight and/or straightened. 

And, again I’m not sure what kind of conditioner was left in her hair. If this was a wash-out hair conditioner, and her hair was fully covered, it’ll likely still be damp. Some leave those on for hours, although the directions usually say 20-30 minutes is enough.

Long story short, her hair isn’t going to just be destroyed from running her hands through them, even if it’s really curly or coily. Hands don’t ease through certain curls in the same way it does straight, but you can roll over or around curls to avoid tangling and snagging, particularly if you carefully follow the flow of the curl itself. I am idly finger-combing a coil of my hair as I write this!

See also Black Hair Couple Interactions: Boyfriend Playing with his Black Girlfriend’s Hair

2.)

“Leigh comes out of the bathroom in a beautiful dress and an ‘afro blow out’" …her reaction makes Leigh uncomfortable and she asks if she should {straighten/presss} her hair. Which action is the correct word there?”   

You seem to be using the right terms. Blow out (you wouldn’t need to add "Afro”) and straightened are fine to use. I wouldn’t imagine her saying “should I press it?” To a white woman, though. 

I don’t have your photo references, but Google should’ve produced the correct results. Blow outs add volume to afro hair. Depending on how its done, heat level, etc. it can make hair look like a bigger fro, or make it straighter and stretched out. The more heat and time devoted to styling, generally the straighter you can get the hair.

3. 

“Is 'tightly woven braids with (haven’t chosen colour yet)' appropriate? … ;{As an African American} my hair is a large expression of who I am.; should I put the African American part in?”

While I’d leave out referring to the hair as extensions or weave, saying "tightly woven braids” is a fine description! 

And honestly, I'd suggest leaving out the As an African American portion. Coming from a non-Black voice, it may be taken as speaking for Black people. Also, not all Black people may agree with that statement. Hair has important cultural aspects for many, absolutely! So i’m not saying it’s wrong, but its best to Keep her statement individual, her own perspective, not a statement about the whole race. Again, coming from a non-Black voice, especially.

Characterization

“I really want to show her as a fierce, smart woman (who of course struggles with the brevity of being ”“mixed race”“) that isn’t a gangster, rapper, or the typical things we see in the media. I really want queer and/or African American young women to read my novel (eventually) and feel like it describes them well. Not in a stereotypical way they usually are portrayed. Anyways.. Sorry for the ramble, but thanks in advance for all the help!!”

I do think you need to do a lot more research on Black women, stereotypes, hair, and being a mixed race Black woman before writing this story. Our blog is a general resource, though just the start.

I appreciate your efforts to tell a story that isn’t built on stereotypes or the typical portrayals of Black people. Now, mind that some people may fit “stereotypes” but they are not stereotypes - they’re people.

Another thing - her being mixed race. While it’s fine to portray a mixed race character, and your intentions seem good, some writers choose this route because it’s “easier” and anchoring the Black character to whiteness (or even anyone other than Black) makes them more palatable. I only ask, if you had the intentions of representing Black women, why not write a non-Mixed race Black woman?

After evaluating your characters and the language used, you would benefit from a beta-reader, Black + queer or otherwise, reading your story before publication. They’ll be able to help you “get it right” and note any areas that cause pause or need correction.

I hope this was helpful!

~Mod Colette

The Ship of the Day: Buddie

Character names: Evan “Buck” Buckley x Edmundo “Eddie” Diaz

Ship name: Buddie 

Original Content:  9-1-1

Info about ship: 

Continuing with our firefighters theme from the previous post, 9-1-1 is a TV show following a fire house in Los Angeles as they go about their daily lives, saving people in daring rescues, dealing with funny accidents and being all around badasses. At the centre of the show is the 5 main firefighters, 118 Captain Robert “Bobby” Nash, paramedics Henrietta “Hen” Wilson and Howard “Chimney” Han, and finally, the topic of this post, special rescues duo Evan “Buck” Buckley and Edmundo “Eddie” Diaz. 

Yes, firefighters apparently really like their nicknames.

(Also, just look at Eddie's left hand placement in that gif, that's a strong grip on Buck's waist)

Buck and Eddie are the young, traditionally handsome members of the team, performing daring rescues with an ongoing repartee with one another. Best friends by their own descriptions, they were not always as close as they are in the later seasons. During Eddie’s introduction to the show, Buck was very against him joining, feeling as if he were invading and taking his role. It was only after pulling a grenade out of a man’s leg together that they learnt that they could get along and began their friendship. A true enemies to lovers story.

Buck helped Eddie find special needs childcare for Eddie’s young son, Christopher, and has stepped into the role of second parental figure for him. Buck is very good with Christopher and takes care of him often, even saving his life after they end up in the middle of a tsunami. Christopher absolutely adores Buck, going to him for help when Eddie is not available or is the reason for Christopher’s ire.

Type of ship: Queer Bait 

The show is not scared of queer representation, it contains many characters who are part of the LGBTQ+ community including Hen being a married lesbian with a son and Bobby’s wife, Athena’s ex-husband being gay and after the divorce getting into a gay relationship. However, this seems to be the edge of where they go, they refuse to take this final step and instead insist on edging the fans on the will they, won’t they of Buck and Eddie. 

Firstly, there is a whole lot of longing staring at each other, like a lot.

Buck’s early behaviour towards Eddie is described by his sister Maddie as a “boy-crush”.

Additionally, both of them are incapable of keeping relationships with female characters. Most of these female characters are brought in simply and solely to act as possible vessels of relationships and so are incredibly one dimensional. The only female partner who is more than that is Eddie’s wife, who firstly disappears from Eddie and Christopher’s lives and then, once she is back, very quickly dies. Eddie describes dating, or more specifically dating women, as “putting on a performance”. 

Well, that’s a pretty queer-coded thought Edmundo. 

Most people headcanon Eddie as a gay man who was pressured into a straight relationship due to family and so married the first girl he could, before he then spent most of his married life deployd halfway across the world for the Army. Buck, on the other hand, is pretty often headcanoned as a bi-man who isn’t so much closeted as just doesn’t really talk about it. It's something about him, but it's just that his past few partners have been girls and so people assume he is straight. 

Going forward with more reasons Buddie is a queerbait, we return to Christopher Diaz. As mentioned earlier, Buck has taken up the role of a secondary parental figure for Christopher and this extends even into law. After Eddie is shot, something I’ll return to, and nearly dies, he ends up in the hospital for an extended period of time. Buck takes up the role of full time parent, firstly being the one to tell Chris that Eddie is hurt and then being the one to take care of him, getting him to school, bringing him to visit his dad. Altogether giving him full-time care. This is happening while Eddie has a girlfriend, a girlfriend who is a special needs teacher who knows how to take care of Christopher, and yet the job is still designated to Buck. As Eddie is healing he reveals to Buck that he changed his will and that, if he dies, Chris’ guardianship will pass to Buck. Not his girlfriend. Not his grandmother or aunt who he visits religiously, not even his parents. His best friend.

Baby trapping, anyone?

So, getting hurt. They both do it a lot. And I mean a lot. But it is not so much the injuries themselves that are important but the reactions of their other halves. When Eddie has a well collapse on top of him, Buck breaks down and starts trying to dig desperately with his bare hands, when Buck has a fire engine land on his leg and crush it, Eddie holds his hand and keeps him company while everyone else is working on getting the rig off of him. When Eddie is shot, Buck is the one to save him, facing one of his worst fears and going back under a fire engine for the first time since he got his leg crushed under one, to pull Eddie to safety. When Buck is struck by lightning, it is Eddie who screams for him, who lowers him from where he is hanging off the ladder and also the one performing CPR. When the medical professionals say they will do their best, Eddie tells them to “do more”. They both save each other's lives, they both are often fuelled by emotions when the other is hurt. It is very romance-coded. This is not to say platonic relationships can’t have this care, but it is almost always romantic relationships that have this care displayed on TV.

And the final part, the most damning evidence of the studio intentionally baiting fans. The Couch Theory. The Couch theory was created by fans and means the following: Buck’s couches are metaphors for his relationships. Every time he gets a new partner, a new couch happens, and every time he breaks from a relationship, the couch is gotten rid of. When he is questioned about this by other characters, he always says that it's because the couch is never right.

So where does he find the most comfortable couch, I hear you ask. Well, he often ends up on Eddie’s couch, even sometimes asleep there. So many of Buck and Eddie’s most important moments, their most queer-coded moments, occur on that couch. And in the most recent season, it seemed that fans were gonna get their way and the baiting was going to spawn into true queer. Throughout the season there were many inferences about the couches, Buck is unable to sleep on his couch so he goes to see Eddie and falls asleep on one side of the couch. Later in the season has Christopher falling asleep in the middle of the couch, and Eddie sits on the other side that wasn’t occupied by Buck earlier on. This creates an image of a family on that couch, two parents bookending their child. And what do the creators do with it? With the perfect set up they’ve built?

They give the two of them very hastily thrown in female love interests that have absolutely no background or connection to anything and then end the season before we can see any actual development. 

The creatives intentionally took the focus of a queer theory and set it up for an apparent result only to swipe it straight out from under the fans. It was a spit in the face to fans and the fans were not happy with it. Queerbaiting is one thing but queerbaiting with fans own queer metaphors is a new low. And yet Fox did it. 

Admin🦉

Just watched good omens season 2 so here are our thoughts :

SO OBVIOUSLY BIG SEASON 2 GOOD OMENS SPOILERS AHEAD!!!!!!!!

- don't like the Aziraphale slander, let characters be ✨flawed✨ and not perfect little beans

- not really fond of the fan theory that Metatron did put smth in Aziraphale's drinking cuz it would miss on the whole Aziraphale' struggle with his morality and basically religious trauma, AND the fact that Metatron clearly pushed him into it, Aziraphale has lots of issues with the statue quo and authority figures, so Metatron clearly coming in right after Crowley left (I'd think he likely saw them kissed, or at least see Aziraphale emotionally distressed) so Aziraphale has no time to think, Aziraphale clearly hesitates but Metatron pushes and pushes again

- love (tho emotionally destroyed us as well) the scene in which Aziraphale is waiting for Crowley to bring him to hell because he lied, as if lying is worse than killing CHILDREN because it's god' ineffable plan, this whole scene really shows the lack of understanding of humankind from angels and God AND how authoritarian god actually is, which is why when Crowley says in the last episode they're toxic, it really hits on point, how cult-ish it almost looks and how it destroys your own morality, how Crowley who is a demon is supposed to be bad but is doing good things and angels are supposed to be good and do constantly bad things, and how Crowley is "bad" only cuz he asked questions (it also makes us wonder, are all demons stereotypes bad or are some shut down/pressured into acting bad? Like the angels can be shut down/pressured into not thinking too much?)

- was destroyed by the fact that Crowley opened up to Aziraphale on his feelings to end up being emotionally so fucking hurt to the point of putting his GLASSES ON WHICH HE NEVER DOES BEFORE INSIDE AZIRAPHALE'S BOOKSHOP

- love the lesbians, so glad Nina was able to break up and so glad they opened up with Crowley on how THEY also play with human lives as if it's funny and/or entertaining and not considering humans' relations and feelings which is in fact a replica of their own relationship to each other (also as a way to not emotionally open up to the other)

- the way God is treated in the show really keeps reminding us of the way God is shown in Angels before Man by Rafael Nicolás (really recommend ! especially if you're a queer with religious trauma)

- happy for Belzebub and Gabriel tho'

- glad to have wheelchair disabled representation, as a wheelchair user as well ☺️

- loved the tension between Michael and Uriel (they should angrily smooch)

- love the fact that both Crowley and Aziraphale use god' imagery to do good when it was not god' intention to do good, the whole morality thing is even furthermore questioned there (let there be the light by Crowley episode 1 and the whole situation with Job)

- Crowley has religious trauma but acknowledge it and Aziraphale don't

- Mr Fell, i don't know i just feel like his name being FELL when trying to pass as human, is kinda funny and ironic and maybe means something more

- Aziraphale being a landlord is UGH SIGH BIG SIGH, however that he is bad at it is actually good and it just furthers (along with his capitalist bullshit ranting when in Scotland) him wanting to follow the statue quo and what authority portrays as good even within the human morality is, well, it says a lot

- Aziraphale wanting to be saved by Crowley cuz 1/maybe it means in his thinking that it means Crowley can be saved/redeemed 2/Aziraphale likes being saved, taken care of 3/Aziraphale kinda puts his authoritative issues (trusting someone too much bc they have an authoritative power over him) on Crowley those moments cuz Crowley is the one deciding and taking control, but at the same time they are on equal foot and everything so it may mess up Aziraphale furthermore into his own personal dilemna

Here's for now, thank you for reading 😭

...So, we've been reading a few posts about how "Warrior Nun" is the best because it isn't like all the other queer shows, where apparently the queer couples have sex right away or non-queer shows that queer bait viewers, etc.

Let's just get something straight:

The original L-Word came out in 2004. That show was criticized for being too white, too narrow, too limiting in its depiction of gay women. In fact, it was mostly lesbians, and one bi woman (Tina) and most were femmes. Over the years, the show tried to course correct with the addition of other characters, most notably Max (Daniela Sea) and even that was fraught with controversy. At the time, Daniela Sea was interviewed about this and she had said (and we're paraphrasing here, that was a long time ago), that L-Word doesn't claim to represent all gay women, and she had hoped that there would be more representation of gay women, more movies, more tv shows to show the diversity, the variety, the spectrum of the gay experience.

At the time, pre-L-Word, there were only a handful of les/bi movies, mostly indie, some of questionable quality (there were a lot, we're not going to name names), some good (our favorite being "When Night is Falling" and "Incredibly True Adventures of Two Girls in Love"). On TV, we had "Ellen" which was groundbreaking and promptly cancelled, and there was "Carol the Lesbian" on "Friends", who was treated more as a joke, along with Chandler's trans-mom.

Cut to now - where we have so much more to choose from: we have period dramas with A-List directors and actors ("Carol", "Tell it to the Bees", "Portrait of a Lady on Fire"), we have shows on TV networks and online streaming platforms (tho the line between those are blurring). So we can watch Cyrano de Bergerac style movies ("The Half of It") or Asian American ones ("Saving Face") or pretty straightforward ones, really ("Imagine Me and You"), and though some, if not half or most series/shows have been cancelled ("Teenage Bounty Hunters", "I Am Not Okay with This", etc.), we still have more shows/series now that tell our queer stories than ever before ("Buffy the Vampire Slayer", "The 100", "Glee", etc.) and we still think that's better than the time the only thing we had was stories with only subtext to keep us company ("Fried Green Tomatoes", "Thelma and Louise", "A League of their Own").

So, whenever we feel like it's getting bad, let's also remember the time when queer stories weren't even mainstream, when directors and actors wouldn't even touch or go near our stories, when we didn't have as many allies in the industry willing to put our stories out there. A lot of our queer stories from before, though far from perfect, paved the way for stories like "Warrior Nun"to see the light of day. And we love that yeah, "Warrior Nun" is about a friends-to-lovers queer story, but that isn't just the one queer story that can be told. The diversity and complexity of the queer experience can hardly be encompassed by just one series and it's not fair to ignore or put the others down just because they don't fit what you like. We like that we have the more adult, they-had-a-one-night-stand-right-away-and-fell-in-love story of Kacy on NCIS Hawai'i, the sex-positive one of Leighton on "The Sex Lives of College Girls", the stranded-on-an-island one of "The Wilds", the vampire-and-vampire-slayer-falling-in-love narrative of "First Kill", etc.

So, let's keep celebrating the diversity and complexity of the queer female experience onscreen but still honor the stories that came before them. They may not have been perfect, hell, they were even problematic, but, again, at least we got these stories and our lives are better for it.

And let's keep pushing for "Warrior Nun"and other stories to keep getting made and renewed.

Like and reblog if you agree.

Drop your favorite queer women story (movie, series, show) below.

Calliope already knows her name! Says they have English together. And then Juliette all nervous and smiley lists the other two classes they have together.

Apparently this is a reference to a similar conversation from The Vampire Diaries. One of the meet-cutes is a similar exchange but with the guy kind of sultry and mysteriously lists the classes. I love that Juliette is just face to face with her crush and her behavior is fully just a nervous ball of energy. No seductive manipulative energy to be found.

so many movies and stories about the romantic era are about the byron/shelley circle’s time spent at the stormy villa diodati in 1816 when mary wrote frankenstein. but where is all the representation for their equally chaotic adventures in italy circa. 1821???

them being friends with a chaotic lesbian/trans couple (writer david lyndsay and isabel robinson) and mary shelley helping the couple skip the country and go to france with fake passports she procured so the two could live as a married couple,

percy dealing with john keats dying in rome & simultaneously saving byron from dying of STDs in venice where he had over 200 chaotic affairs with men and women who were literally dying and brawling over him,

byron becoming a captain in the mob faction of the carbonari during the italian revolution, his palace becoming an artillery & living with one of his sassy countess mistresses teresa who had to get consent from the pope to divorce her crazy old husband who was a powerful assassin just so she could be with byron, and byron & co. having to deal with shootings and sword fights outside his apartment all the time, in which mary shelley and teresa were once interrogated by police for hours after someone was stabbed & byron had to pay the bail,

claire clairmont (mary shelley’s step-sister) who secretly plans on kidnapping her and byron’s daughter from byron’s custody and/or fleeing & eventually does flee to become a russian nanny and live in anonymity after their daughter tragically dies in a convent and she becomes fed up with everyone’s chaotic bullshit and converts to catholicism, turning down multiple men to remain a single working woman by choice,

percy having to act as the go-between messenger for claire and byron since they refuse to talk to each other,

percy having or adopting a mysterious child who died young but who many thought was his and claire’s, although it possibly belonged to his nanny elise and/or male servant paolo, who both claimed it was claire’s, despite there being no evidence she was pregnant — percy and claire nonetheless having to battle rumours that they were a couple for this and a million other reasons, byron believing percy/claire had an affair, mary having to quell the rumours (but we still don’t know the entire truth about the mysterious child’s real parentage, or whether shelley had affairs with elise or claire???),

percy and mary basically becoming pseudo-swingers with a couple they lived with — edward & jane williams — jane being a cool sexy singer and guitar player who inspired a lot of shelley’s poems after he fell in love with her, and the bisexual mary admitting she found jane attractive too — and jane marrying one of shelley’s best friends after shelley died,

byron and percy sailing around 24/7 with edward trelawny the eccentric traveling pirate/sailor daredevil (who was also probably attracted to percy and demanded to be buried next to him after keeping his memory alive for 50+ years after he died despite only knowing him for ~6 months - and later writing a lot about him and byron, the stories of which were embellished and changed over time),

byron saving percy from drowning and chastising him for reading while sailing, percy refusing to learn how to swim, percy commissioning a fancy sailboat to be built and then byron renaming it after his own poem (don juan) as a prank, percy and edward unable to scrape the new name off, then byron having a huge pleasure yacht built just because he wanted a boat that was bigger than percy’s, but then he barely even used it and had to get rid of it which started a huge feud with trelawny and the boatmakers that lasted for years,

percy (and edward) dying in a boating accident with john keats’ poetry in his pocket, rabid tourists/fans trying to crash the funeral, byron then spending the funeral getting drunk, throwing up, practically trying to drown himself bc they all decided to go swimming during the cremation and byron stayed in the water for hours only to become deathly ill for the rest of his life afterwards from getting heat sick, byron trying to steal percy’s skull from trelawny, leigh hunt trying to steal percy’s heart, mary keeping percy’s heart in her desk next to his and byron’s hair, the heart being wrapped up in his poem adonaïs which he wrote for john keats death but which she noted was also mysteriously fitting for his own, mary later dying while staring at percy’s heart which no one knew was in her desk til then,

mary shelley hating italy in general & having miscarriages, her and percy going insane from grief and percy hallucinating their dead kids, percy/byron/leigh trying to form a newspaper together and then failing, etc.???,

byron inviting leigh hunt and his six rambuncious children to stay with him and then proceeding to be driven mad by said children who he called “yahoos” and “blackguards”, then hunt writing a passive aggressive thinkpiece where he roasts byron for singing loudly whenever hunt was trying to concentrate and get stupid drunk and would ride on his kids rocking-horse,

byron and edward trelawny fucking off to go be key figures in the greek revolutionary war bc why not (& partly out of tribute to percy who was obsessed with greece—although byron/trelawny were also obsessed with greece, there is some evidence that percy inspired them to join the war) . . .

i mean really. netflix, stop fucking around!

the thing about the mha ship war of izuocha vs bakudeku is that the former being canon is normal but the latter? monumental. huge. meaningful. potentially life-saving. and i don't think the straights understand that.

like this isn't bella-must-pick-between-two-socially-acceptable-partners (in the fact that they are both men). this is: are we staying with the norm because we have to (izuocha) vs. can we give the gays a win (bakudeku)?

if deku was a girl, i 100% believe people would see the canon validity of bakudeku more and see ochaco as someone with an unrequited crush.

queer people have been told we are delusional about ships our whole lives. most queer ships never make it to mainstream. (we have to be delusional in order to see queer representation in media).

we are relegated to LGBTQ, BL, or GL categories. god forbid the general public have gays or lesbians in their normal stories! that must be separated!

so idk that's why i think these ship wars are so heated. queers are fighting for representation while straights are just fighting.

side characters ONly can be gay!!11!1! yep

I could write an essay about the way Marvel is just the reflection of how mass media deals with the queer representation "problem" nowadays

(I should study for my exam but fuck it I have time)

first of all, how many queer characters actually are part of mcu's big ass cast?

Searching on the internet they'll tell you about twenty- but it's enough to read who is queer to understand that they only care about seeming all woke and you know, kind and allies and all that good shit, but the truth is that if you're queer you'll get no more than five minutes of screen time

Loki is a bisexual genderfluid god, it's canon in the comics and in the shows/film, but does he actually acts on it? like, does he ever talk about the men he had a thing with? does he talk about his gender identity? no. and you know what, I don't want a long speech about feeling accepted and finding your place in the world and understanding yourself, I'd be ok with him being like "yk what, i feel like cunt today" and poof tom hiddleston is no more man.

we have a two second shot were he's labeled as genderfluid. that's it. he has a love story arc with his female alternative version.

like saying the bar can't get lower- all the time there's a man at his side, and they're so queer coded guys. they are so fucking queer coded. they'd have all the potential to be a good couple, and they prob could since Loki is canonically attracted to males too! but no.

let's choose the female you over the dilf grabbing your waist and telling you that you're more, that you matter and have a chance to be good.

can Loki count as representation? maybe.

it's shitty representation, tho.

then there's America.

America's a lesbian, daughter of two lesbian women, and they were proud of it probably- if it weren't for the fact that America's there, she live the adventure, and she has a lgbtqia pin. a pin. all her identity is expressed in a pin.

one could say, but the film is not ab America and her non-male partner, is about the story yk?

then why does every fucking marvel film features a man and a woman being in a relationship?

i guess that when it's about man Tony Stark and woman Pepper Potts everything's ok, you can give all the minutes you want to their sweet relationship- but if they're queer I'm sorry, the best thing you'll have is a pin.

then a few gays out there.

random man in endgame missing his bf. random girl in hawkeye mentioning her wife (slay). that one sexy dora milaje who has a sexier gf. slay you too ig. that Eternals guy who kissed his bf on screen (first time ever, and they feel revolutionary. fucking 2021).

the only thing that can be saved is Thor 3/4 because of Taika Waititi. the queerness is something Taika did because he wanted to.

Ragnarok's about this dude, his bi brother, this guy who flirts with both of them and has orgies with all kind of beings, a lesbian valkyrie and a gay rock. Love and Thunder is about this guy, his bamf ill girlfriend, a lesbian valkyrie who's trying to find some girl to eat out, a gay rock that ends up having strange sex with his bf, and greek people fainting after seeing said guy's naked body. (and that weird moment between Thor and Peter? that was made to be gay guys)

while it's not perfect, it's one step above everything else.

Taika Waititi's film's queerness is not there for looking more inclusive, it's there because gay people are there, we actually exist dude, and they deserve their space, and they should have it.

and like Taika Waititi's said, the world will be healed when people will stop saying "oh you know that new marvel series? yes, there's a gay gal in there", when people will treat queer people like the people they actually are.

it's like walking around in a forest and being like "oh look, a tree!". we aren't a different species ffs

representation is good, and of course gay characters sometimes are gonna be just there on the side cheering on the main character- because that's how life goes. I'm the cheering-from-the-side girl queer friend to my straight friend, and mcu stories are told by straight people, so it's kinda natural that we're kinda useless.

the thing that really, really makes me want to cry our is how they're able to destroy any queer "lead" they put here for us, for me, and I'm starting to believe behind those scripts there are some seriously repressed gay dude who can only express themselves by writing those things.

like Steve and Bucky? the classic we're best friends and we totally didn't have sex?

or Bucky and Sam?

why was the chair scene necessary? If i see something like that happening to a woman and a man my first thought is "they're a thing", and it was the first thing I thought with Sam and Bucky too- but ofc people will tell us "y are you making everyone gay?" it's not my fault princess it's the writers'

or, again, Loki and Mobius?

"you can be good, just in case no one ever told you" WHAT THE HELL DUDE

and you know, those things can be said between two friends too, but people gets disperate. I get disperate, after watching hours upon hours of two guys eye-fucking each other and ending up being all "yeah bro i love you this is my girlfriend amy". so I wrote, I draw, I think about them being "hey dude, d'you want to be the amy to my myself?" because the alternity is writing a fic about a random man who says he misses his husband on a three second scene.

(in a fandom like good omens I don't have to worry about it. I have my queer besties, my fav lesbian couple, and a lot of representation.)

so.

mcu's representation is bad representation.

every time they write a queer characters they're all "you see that? we did that!" like they did something special- but they didn't.

they write gays for the straight, in order to feel better about themselves and make straight racist sexist homophobic ppl (the "I'm inclusive guys!!!" kind of person) watching it feel better ab themselves.

(I'm not gonna start talking about the fact that this entire post talks more than anything else about the way the mcu treats women, bc it's a rabbit hole I'm not ready to talk ab cause I've been jumping in it for too many years.)

(sorry anon ily)

10/20 edit: valkyrie is bi my bad🧎‍♀️

It's fine...

I did not like the Barbie movie. I didn't hate it, it was just a slog to get through. I was cringing, bored or annoyed. I didn't expect it to be groundbreaking, but I also didn't expect it to be a generic pop culture icon comes to the real world hijinks movie either. I thought it would be this eras Mean Girls, oddly insightful message hidden in a unassuming package. I was a bit let down. 1. The messaging in the movie is so convoluted. There is some basic feminism about women being allowed to be imperfect people, who grow and change, but then they have women save the day by seducing men, feminine wiles to distract them, and sew discord amongst them like woman are accused of, instead of any real innovative non-stereotypical plans. Men aren't really shown to be malicious, just misguided, unappreciated and incompetent, but they essentially wanted to run barbieland/kendom as a gentleman's club/hooters/ a brothel (if they knew anything about sex), they suffer no consequences for this. The movie "don't worry darling" that people shat on last year because of drama had a way more consistent message and theme than this. 2. The kens are so ugly. The Barbies except for like one or two are supermodel types, yet all the kens are just men you'd find in a parking lot of a Walmart, even the ken that belongs to the stereotypical Barbie is old and has an old man's body. If the Barbies are supposed represent perfect womanhood, why not the men? I know i'm a lesbian but other than the barbie that is clearly a man with plastic surgery uncanny valley face, and nasally voice, they all are hot. They just picked random men to be ken, like if Kens are supposed to be decorative accessories, how come Kens can be shlubby and old. And Barbie can't. You could say it's supposed to be that way, but they write it like Ken's are equally objectified, or a perfect specimen of manhood, but they don't have to look nearly as good as the barbs. 3. I expected weird Barbie to be our lesbian representation, I hoped a subtext of her weirdness meant she wasn't het, they didn't even have to give her a girlfriend, Kate carries lesbian subtext with her, but they had Kate McKinnon say a line about wanting to see Ken's smooth privates despite earlier in the movies Barbie and Ken don't know what sex is. Was it written just to make sure we don't think she's a lesbian? Alan is implied to be gay, by a line or two, but I just think it is a wasted.

4. The dialogue is too plain to be surreal. It wasn't transported to this world, I was lectured to, by a teacher speaking through dolls/puppets. I won't complain about it not being funny, because I know comedy is subjective, but the dialogue did nothing for me. It was preachy in a lot of areas, and I wouldn't have some a problem with preachiness if the message didn't suck. "We just need to coddle and comfort men to get/maintain our rights?"

5. There wasn't a single line or reference to tomboy girls, masc girls, gnc girls/women, like the existence of women who may not want living bright pink empty existences. I wouldn't count weird barbie as gnc, because it wasn't a natural feature of hers, not something she chose. Main Barbie at the end just looks the same, and probably has the same interests, she just wears flat sometimes. GIVE BARBIE A BUZZCUT and some combat boots. IDK Mean Girls had a more radical consistent message in the 2000s.

I don't think I am explaining it right, but why not have Sasha, gloria's daughter be a tomboy that genuinely isn't into this stuff, instead of just pretending she's too cool for it. It is just always a little bit of a let down when a film/movie claims to be speaking to women but instead it speaks to femininity/instead of femaleness. i.e, I do like that barbie when to the gyno.

6. I don't think this movie would be as popular as it is, if it was just about a generic doll, and not connect to the barbie brand name. There is absolutely nothing in this movie that stands out to me. It is barely better than a sonic comes to the real world, or smurfs come to the real world story to me. It's fine. Every woman who said she felt a deep connection with the women they watched it with, I am jealous of you, like what are we connecting over? Our joint love of clothes, pink, our goofy yet lovable boyfriends? I feel nothing.

7. Ken, Ryan Gosling, was given too much screen time without Barbie. Everyone online is singing his praises. Saying that he was the best one in the movie, what were they talking about? He was doing Saturday night live worthy performances. I am starting to think these people just love men. Because the only value this movie had is the few scenes where Margot Robbie is allowed to show genuine sadness, dismay and existential dread.

8. The parts I appreciated: a) Barbie meeting that older woman on the bench, b) am I a man without power a woman? c) Barbie deny Ken's any real power. (They should have exiled the Kens to fucking the desert!).

Overall, I like a line or two lines, but all together it is just a confused movie. Not confusing, but this was a movie talking in circles to distract you that it is saying nothing of value really. Real throwing shit at the wall kind of messaging. It's like a whole movie of not a single new or exciting idea or concept being is introduced to you. I wouldn't care to watch it again, or spend time ranting and raving about it online. But I just felt like sharing. I will forget the contents of the movie in a day or two.

If you hadn’t heard of this show yet it’s probably because it’s on Peacock and not the more mainstream Netflix and Disney plus.

I watched the first season out of curiosity and I gotta say I was surprised that I actually enjoyed the show. It’s a shame that the show doesn’t get the attention it should because it deserves all the seasons it needs to tell their whole story.

The story by the way is about these 5 teenagers living in New Orleans who are chosen to save the world following an accidental release of a malevolent spirit. Each of them have been granted a special ability bestowed upon them by these ancient spirits. Soleil elemental powers, Stanley knowledge through touch, Missy strength, Maybe the ability to see and talk to the dead and Pat the ability to hear voices of those unheard by others.

I’ll admit the animation does have it’s wonkiness and they could have made their characters more expressive but it’s not the worst I have seen but they could do better.

I wasn’t a fan that the two main female characters have beef with each other but at least their motivations are explicitly linked to them as characters and completely unrelated to the relationship to the other boys on the team.

It gets points for having casual LGBTQ representation with Soleil having two happily married lesbians as parents.

Not to mention the fact they actual went into depth about the voodoo religion and how it’s not about these weird dolls you use to torture people. So it’s one of the very few stories out there to not have a simplified surface level understanding of the voodoo practice.

I also like how multidimensional the characters are and I especially give them props for what they did with Pat. He’s a plus sized character but his personality and trait doesn’t revolve around neither food nor his weight. He gets to be the expert. The guy with all the know how who gets to be part of the important stories and gets to have a heart wrenching subplot with his dead father.

I also want to get into the big bad and the compelling way they compare and contrast with the main character Soleil. She’s the girl who enjoys scaring people for fun and games whereas the big bad scares people for the sake of gaining power. A goal he seeks to achieve by any means, especially murder. Soleil, the girl who enjoys the spooky and supernatural, learns about the true fear that anyone can face in real life. A powerful man who has no qualms hurting innocent people to achieve terrible power.

It was the perfect new series to start off the Halloween season with and I can’t wait to see more.

Do you have any recs for fiction with a main cast of butch women? Doesn't necessarily have to be butch4butch in a romantic sense, but anything that depicts the human relationships between us. I feel like that's so rare, and it drives me crazy as someone who personally NEEDS other butch women in her life to feel sane and normal. I hate that most fiction treats us as male-adjacent stand-ins with femmes or as accessory side characters. I want to see us fleshed out for once.

I’m really sorry that there aren’t more stories easily accessible that have this kind of dynamic. I haven’t actually read all of these , so I can’t say if it really fits, but I’ll do my best to give you some recommendations! Hopefully you are able to find a couple in here ☺️ And definitely check the comments! There might be more suggestions there.

I went through my saved books and the ones I own to come up with this list.

I think older lesbian books in general would be a good starting ground! Especially from like 80s-early 2000s. While some of them might not necessarily use the word butch, they definitely have a lot more gnc women or just none feminine women in general.

- Leave A Light On For Me by Jean Swallows. I’m not too sure how many of the cast are butch, BUT, I do it it’s primarily about lesbian friendship.

- You’ve probably already heard of this one, but Dykes To Watch Out For is always a good one!

- A nonfiction rec would be : Tomboys Tales Of Dykes Derring-Do by Lynne Yamaguchi and Karen Barber.

- This book doesn’t delve into the relationship between butch lesbians, however, it does discuss in parts what you are talking about , from the perspective of a butch lesbian who lives on a farm, which is The Grass Widow by Nanci Little. It has a very beautiful seen between the two main characters discussing how she is still a woman.

- I didn’t know if this one really fit the mark, because I can’t actually remember if the other woman was butch or not (or considered more butch for the time ) but Stonehurst by Barbara Johnson has a section where a younger GNC lesbian gets sort of taken in by an older lesbian for safety and protection.

- I haven’t read it so I don’t know if she has relationships with other butch lesbians, but I do know she is a butch lesbian. Lilac Mines by Cheryl Klein.

- again I haven’t read this one, but given the time period and what it’s about I’m assuming the main character has friendship relations with the larger lesbian community: Shoulders by Georgia Cotrell.

- I started reading this one a while ago but sipped for some reason. I think I remember it being about a butch woman - but at the very least it’s about lesbian friendship: Working Parts by Lucy Jane Bledsoe.

- Untamed Desires : A Sydney Lesbian History by Rebecca Jennings. (I haven’t read this one either but I gave it a quick flick through right now and it seems like it could have what you are looking for)

- Missouri Vaun is a butch/gnc lesbian and all of her books have butch women in them. I can’t remember about their friendships much. But if you want a butch lesbian written from the perspective of one I would go with her!

- The Little Butch Book by Leslea Newman. A sweet little book fully dedicated to butch women!

- Rode Hard Put Away Wet has a butch x butch erotic short story in it. I would post it on here but I’m pretty sure tumblr would take it down right away.

I can’t really think of anymore right now. But I’ll reblog this again if anything comes up!

I’m sorry I wasn’t able to help more. And I’m sorry we are in a world that doesn’t provide you with the love, respect and fictional representation you deserve. I can only hope things get better and you are able to find many more wonderful butch lesbians in fiction 💕

Thank you for popping in! I hope you have a beautiful day ☺️💕💕