#my topic was fully queer and about a piece of media! and because of the niche topic i kinda know very fast if anybody has stolen my shit :) | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

tiffanylamps · 2 years

Text

Lee Dong Sik does have a type

Hello! I am here to once again harass this tag with my opinions.

I love this complicated character. I just want him to heal and live a happy life. I have so many feelings about him and because of him.

This post is another section of the essay (I have previously mentioned) where I lost all interest in being formal in the slightest. So, this doesn't read as a serious analysis of Dong Sik's character, more of a shit post. But nevertheless, it's written with good intentions and genuine interest. Again, this is an excerpt from a bigger piece, so it feels unfinished that will be the reason.

[Please note that Dong Sik and queer-coding are very intricate topics, I am not able to explore them fully with just this post. also: I use the word queer as an umbrella term when discussing the character's sexuality. It is not meant as an offensive term.]

~ Now that the disclaimers are out of the way, I hope you enjoy this absolute mess

[Previously discussing Joo Won's queer coding] 1 2

Dong Sik on the other hand… There isn’t a big romantically coded scene for him, definitely not along the same lines as Joo Won's scene in the rain. We gain knowledge of Dong Sik’s thoughts and feelings for Joo Won through his facial expressions and actions. We get to see it more often because - despite his tendency to mask his emotions behind the veil of other people's assumptions - he is a lot more forthcoming with his feelings. By nature, Dong Sik is an affectionate person with a lot of love to give. Within the show, he is the main character used as a vassal for the creators to explore the Ancient Greeks’ philosophy of the seven kinds of love. Here’s a quick breakdown of the love in Dong Sik’s life:

Eros: Han Joo Won

Philia: his friendship circle: Ji-Hwa, Jung-Je, Ji-Hoon, Jae-Yi, etc

Storge: his sister, his mother, Kang Min-Jung

Agape: music, food, nature

Ludus: Han Joo Won, Lee Sang-Yeob

Pragma: what his relationship with Han Joo Won was blossoming into

Philautia: he struggles with this one but we get glimpses of it throughout

(information source: https://www.wellandgood.com/greek-words-for-love/)

Dong Sik is a bit of a tease, in the sense that he enjoys teasing people, and Joo Won is the perfect person for him to do that. I believe he was attracted to Joo Won from the moment he met him- no, from the moment he heard his voice.

That shot though, jfc. It is very common within visual media to use the suspenseful storytelling tactic of “look! The two main characters have met and this is important- pay attention to this”. The story will stop in its tracks because the two main characters or the two love interests have met for the first time. Their interaction and the importance of this first meeting will be displayed by the characters either:

Stopping what they were doing

Becoming awestruck

The camera lingering on their reaction

Beyond Evil uses all three of these common visual storytelling tactics to tell the audience that this moment is important.

And… Okay… I know everyone stops what they are doing to pay attention to Joo Won’s arrival, as it’s a great way of other-ing him from the first episode… But if we look at it from the perspective of the character, Dong Sik is so affected when he sees Joo Won for the first time that he stops writing his police report. We had just seen how driven and motivated Dong Sik can be, he was going to write up that report and no one could stop him, not even the threat of physical violence could stop him. The fact that Joo Won does cause him to stop could be interpreted as a (very) loose play on the trope of Distracted by Sexy or Love at First Sight. Either way, no one could stop him apart from Joo Won. Through the visual language, this seems to be the creator's way of informing the audience of Joo Won’s immediate effect on Dong Sik’s life.

This sequence also plays on the (debatably) romantic trope of Stalker’s Meet Cute and Weaponized Meet Cute: “When one party has arranged the "chance" encounter for the purpose of romance, it's a Stalker's Meet Cute. (This is very common.) When it's for dark nefarious purposes (i.e., not romance; usually a crime of some sort), it's Weaponized Meet Cute.” tvtropes.org, Meet Cute. Joo Won has been "investigating" stalking Dong Sik for the purposes of his investigation. He takes photographs of Dong Sik at his workplace and when he is with his friends. Then purposely gets himself transferred to the same substation to get closer to him. Which signifies from the outset that the nature of their relationship is far from normal.

But it is how Dong Sik reacts to the new Inspector that is very interesting...

During my first watch-through of the show, I missed Dong Sik’s quick off-the-cuff remark of “he’s not my type” when speaking about seeing Joo Won for the first time. Which… okay, firstly, no one asked him. It is the first thing Dong Sik has to say about Joo Won. Also, this kind of language screams romantic undertones. To have a “type” is a phrase often used (in western parts of the world, at least) when describing a person you fancy, i.e find attractive. It’s an odd thing to say and it could just be a funky translation. But Dong Sik decides to tell his best friends that the “handsome” (as other male characters had already noted), successful, fashionable and so painfully metropolitan new (boy toy) Inspector is not his type… Which begs us to question: why did they use this kind of language? If the creators wanted us to know that Dong Sik and Joo Won weren’t going to get along because they were judging each other, another perfectly non-romantic way of telling us would be for Dong Sik to say: He’s just another Seoul detective. This could then start a quick back-and-forth. Someone could say: But you were a Seoul detective. Causing Dong Sik to give us a reply along the lines: You know I was never like them. (or something better than that) If the conversation had been structure in this way, the creators would be conveying that there is a distinction between the city police and the police in this small town. Also, it would give us the insight that Dong Sik never felt like he fit in in Seoul and that he has a close connection to his hometown. [not confirmed as true] Instead, we get “he’s not my type”. I believe this is the first time we see Dong Sik’s character being queer-coded.

“Queer coding is the subtextual coding of a character in media as queer. Though such a character's sexual identity may not be explicitly confirmed within their respective work, a character might be coded as queer through the use of traits and stereotypes recognisable to the audience.” Wikipedia.org, Queer Coding.

This framing, as well as other pieces of information about his character, supports the queer coding theory.

Firstly, let’s take the context into account: Dong Sik is a man in his early forties who has experienced deep trauma. He lives alone, is not married, is not divorced, has male and female platonic friendships and at no point in the show is the history of his love-life explicitly confirmed. The only time in the show that Dong Sik himself talks about anything closely relating to his romantic life - or having a “type” - is when talking about Han Joo Won and talking to Lee Sang Yeob. Any other time Dong Sik’s sexuality or love life is brought up is by other characters, predominately by Joo Won.

Joo Won isn’t Dong Sik’s type. And perhaps not. Having worked (and lived) in Seoul for many years, Dong Sik has probably met many rich, good-looking, privileged, up-themselves Seoul boys. So, he would know.

So, if Joo Won isn’t Dong Sik’s type, who is? Do we get examples?

Yes but very subtly via the process of elimination. Throughout the show, Dong Sik only flirts with men. So that and other factors (which we will discuss later) rule out women as romantic love interests. He only flirts with men. Sometimes he does this because of genuine attraction or because he’s trying to unnerve them. He uses his ambiguous sexuality as a way to make other men uncomfortable when in a sparring match of intellect. The people he flirts with when trying to unnerve are:

Lee Chang Jin

Lim Gyu Seok

Kang Do Soo (very minorly: the good looks comment in episode 4)

Park Jung Je (very very minorly: although, they have a very complicated/ queer coded relationship) These men often bristle or become uncomfortable when Dong Sik uses this tactic.

Do they have anything in common that could help us decipher if he has a type? Well, not really. They are of all different ages, stature, occupation, personality, looks, statuses, and financial backgrounds. They’re different. The only commonality they share is that at some point, they were getting in Dong Sik’s way. So, he used this proven tactic to deflect their gaze, so he can continue on undetected.

(what a whore)

There are two other people that Dong Sik flirts with aggressively, either because one) distracts them from the truth and two) because he seems to enjoy it:

Lee Sang Yeob

Han Joo Won

What is interesting about these two characters is that they don’t react the same way the other men do. So, how do they react?

Lee Sang Yeob shows quiet patience and (not unkind) indifference like he is used to it. In the situation they were in, he doesn’t let us know if he likes or dislikes it- there’s just silence. Which, within South Korean media, speaks volumes.

In South Korean media (like the majority of the world), when the male lead’s sexuality is questioned, it is common (and expected) for them to show disgust or make it into a joke, or both (Vincenzo has two very long scenes where Vincenzo has a paddy about having to pretend to date a man is a great example). Queerness is not treated seriously in the majority of the media. It is shown as something uncomfortable; to be mocked, or as a hurdle in the male lead’s journey. As a whole, it is not something that is explored with sensitivity or sincerity. (there are obviously exceptions to this "rule". I'm speaking in more generalised tones.)

So, to have two male characters in a car together, and to have one ask the other if they are on a date and the reaction is silence, shows us how Beyond Evil approaches queerness in a very different way from the majority.

Dong Sik’s flirtations with Han Joo Won are a little more complicated. At first, Han Joo Won doesn’t seem to understand flirting, full stop. All signs of attraction and affection from anyone make him uncomfortable. But as time passes, he starts to accept it and then even starts to return the attention. Out of all of Dong Sik’s interactions with the people he flirts with, Joo Won is the only one to genuinely flirt back. Not only does he flirt back but he enjoys it, as does Dong Sik.

Other than this, do Lee Sang Yeob and Han Joo Won have anything else in common? Yes.

They are both (at one point in time) Dong Sik’s police partner.

They are the same age and thirteen years younger than Dong Sik.

They went to KNPU and were in the same year.

They are attractive, successful, from wealthy families, ambitious, stubborn, intelligent, naive; metropolitan (working/living in Seoul), and both are passionate and impulsive: going headfirst into danger. They both act like a “prince” and are “burdens”.

Later, they both cause Dong Sik unbearable amounts of heartache.

The most important comparison is that Dong Sik cares about both of them deeply. So, there are two characters Dong Sik flirts with for the sake of flirting. They have similarities that go beyond age, race and gender. Through the process of elimination, we can say with a level of certainty that Dong Sik (on a basic level) does have a “type”.

According to him, Joo Won isn’t it. Personally, I believe that Joo Won was Dong Sik’s “type” the entire time. But because Joo Won is (in the beginning) a stereotype, Dong Sik is put off by his prickish facade. Also, Han Joo Won reminds Dong Sik of Sang Yeob from the get-go, and he doesn’t want to go down that route because it’s a deep trauma for him that he’s not over.

So, when Dong Sik says something so romantically coded as “he’s not my type”, it shines as false in the most wonderful way.

[Dong Sik interacting with three younger men. credit: 1, 3]

Dong Sik is... so into Joo Won. As Dong Sik gets to know Joo Won, he becomes interested in this difficult man. Within the context of the thriller-mystery narrative, he decides to use Han Joo Won so he can bring the serial killer to justice. But over time, he starts to genuinely care for him. Which wasn’t the original plan. One could justify this by suggesting that it just proves that Dong Sik is a protector by nature; he cares for those younger than him, and he fears losing people so much that he’ll even care for the little annoying prick that is Han Joo Won. This is true but the thing about Dong Sik is that if he doesn’t want someone in his life, he doesn’t include them, or he waits patiently until he can move on. Joo Won is not one of those people, which is proven by how he displays his feelings throughout the first act. Dong Sik proceeds to provoke, get up in Joo Won’s personal space, tease, flirt with him, actively pull him into his life, actively try to get to know him, and actively care for him, whilst trying to save that boy (toy) from himself and anyone else who may hurt him… And it only intensifies in the second act. He seeks him out and always has a (literal) open door for Joo Won to walk through because, despite the fact that Joo Won can be difficult, Dong Sik enjoys him and wants him in his life.

The fact that Dong Sik enjoys Joo Won’s personality is shown throughout the first act. Contrary to the fact that Joo Won gives Dong Sik many different reasons for him to run away screaming “red flag”, he does the complete opposite.

A brief list of just a few examples of Dong Sik enjoying Joo Won:

Episode 1: when he offers Joo Won a handshake and is rejected, calls him a "prince" (or something similar)

Episode 1: smiling when Joo Won is talking about his views on friendship, then proceeds to tease Jo-Won.

Episode 2: when Joo Won has the same thought as him (going to the shop in the rain scene), Dong Sik watches Joo Won walk away and smiles after Joo Won gazes back at him.

Episode 2: getting in Joo Won’s personal space (and making eye contact) to ask why Joo Won is “so interested” in him.

Episode 2&3: the entire interrogation scenes: yes, he's annoyed by Joo Won but come on, he's also having so much fun.

Episode 3: After Jung-Je has told Dong Sik that Joo Won knows that he’s put the case files back, Dong Sik is very non-plus about it until Jung-Je tells him that Joo Won laughed “like a madman”. Jung-Je is disturbed by the whole thing, which is a very normal reaction. How does Dong Sik react? He becomes excited, smiles, and then laughs, agreeing to stay at work (despite being traumatised by recent events).

(this look screams: I've got you all figured out.... and in retrospect, I'm like: Oh honey, oh no no no no, JW's better and worse than you think) And so on, and so on...

Dong Sik was attracted to Joo Won from the moment he met him and could see through his pretty rich boy bullshit super quickly. We get to see Dong Sik's good nature and attraction to Joo Won, even from the first episode. There are so many examples (here's one) At the beginning of the series, Joo Won is purposely unlikeable. He doesn’t want to make friends because he’s never had a friend that wanted just him before; they’ve always wanted something else from him. Joo Won doesn’t trust people and doesn’t pick up on the majority of social cues, especially ones of genuine kindness - his lack of experiences and insecurities make him believe that people are being conceited, and by extension trying to control him. Joo Won doesn’t seem to believe that anyone could love or like him for him just being himself. So, he isn’t himself as a way to stop getting hurt. (Dong Sik really doesn’t let him continue that charade)

Dong Sik’s first act of showing… let’s call it a kindness (if we’re being optimistic) to Joo Won on a personal level is in Episode 1. It is so subtle that it went over my head on my first casual viewing. Dong Sik singles Joo Won out (obviously, Joo Won is the newbie of the substation) and tries to show him that his insecurity of “people only want me because of who my dad is” is not true for Dong Sik; and by extension, Manyang. He does this by not taking Joo Won’s shit, physically touching him, and by actively poking fun at Joo Won’s dad. By saying, “I don’t give a fuck who your dad is or where you come from” in the subtext, he’s trying to tell Joo Won that he’s different (Manyang is different). He’s not going to suck up to him, he’s not going to ask for favours, he just doesn’t care for any of that because he’s not like that. Manyang isn’t like that. From the get-go, Dong Sik is telling Joo Won and the audience that if at any point Dong Sik is kind to Joo Won, it is because it is genuine. And not for any other conceited reason.

(That is not to say that Dong Sik is always kind… ooooh no, for a lot of the beginning, he isn’t.)

Joo Won found it amusing though…

Despite all of this, despite every reason there is for the two of them to not get on (for Dong Sik to absolutely despise Joo Won), they don't. Far from it. I like to describe their chemistry are magnets and like all magnets, they want to attract. So without rhyme or reason, without their control or common sense, they turn and yield, and allow themselves to attract. [Before I beat the horse dead, here is a link to the rest of this thought process, including some sexy screenshots]

[ I am losing steam here and getting distracted. So, I'll include a brief summary before I go. ]

A brief overview of Dong Sik's interactions with five younger men + one male of the same age:

Lee Sang Yeob: flirts with him, finds him annoying (affectionately), cares a lot for him, gives him heart eyes, nearly (does kill?) kills someone because they murdered him- Touch: his stomach to try to save his life Oh Ji Hoon: teases him, has a laugh with him, protects him and tries to be an older brother/mentor. He sees himself in the younger man- treats him like a much younger brother- Touch: doesn’t, idk... maybe a brief touch to the shoulder (?) Club man: Is aggressive with him because of the fucked-up shit the guy is doing. But still has a ~certain~ energy with him. Touch: pins him against a wall. Lim Gyu Seok: finds him very annoying, doesn’t like him much but does have odd energy around him- similar to the energy he has with Han Joo Won. Touch: gets in his personal space and puts his lanyard around him in a very ~certain~ way, holds onto his shoulder- the same he does with HJW. Han Joo Won: flirts with him, bullies him, protects him- he’s in love with him, let’s not pretend. Touch: all the fucking time mate, loves it. Can only think of two times he stops Joo Won from touching him.

Bonus: Park Jung Je: Jung Je grabs Dong Sik’s arm once and it makes Dong Sik super angry. He yanks his arm out of the other’s grip. An odd reaction considering they’re best friends. Dong Sik treats Joo Won differently only because Joo Won encourages him. It's this battle of ego and wit. They're both trying to be right, (both being dramatic), trying to impress and wanting to impress, wanting to be seen They enjoy being around the other; not being able to stop themselves from caring, flirting, battling, repressing, restraining, fighting, protecting... attracting.

Han Joo Won is very annoying. But Dong Sik likes him so much, he's just his type.

---

Dong Sik's queer coding is not shown through grand gestures or grand romantically-coded scenes. He isn't overly flamboyant or "camp". He only flirts with men and does have a type. There is so much more that could be said about Dong Sik's queer coding. For one, we could talk about the religious symbolism throughout the show and Dong Sik is his most "religious" when he's falling in love with Joo Won. Please remember that this is from a larger piece that focused on the first half of the show, which is why the second act isn't explored.

There is sooo much to say about him. I feel like this overly long post is only scratching the surface and is probably unnecessarily long-winded. But alas, it is how I have chosen to approach it. Thanks for sticking around this long. Ta ta!

#this is a mess!!#beyond evil #jtbc beyond evil #beyond evil analysis #lee dongsik #han juwon #jwds #han joo won #shin ha kyun #beyond evil meta commentary #beyond evil is a romcom part 123344567898765432 #i love him. i don't feel like i've done him justice

242 notes · View notes

drdemonprince · 1 year

Note

Can you talk more about the "doing harm" thing or share some reads you like about it? Everyone seems to have a different definition and I struggle with the difference of what's offensive to an individual vs harmful to a community

My sense of this is something that I have developed over the course of years, based on reading fairly widely about systemic oppression, boundary setting, activist organizing, and interpersonal dynamics. And for me it never stops developing as I continue to reflect more and see how various takes on the topic play out in various communities.

I don't have any specific resources to recommend that spell out how to develop that sense per se, because that all comes down to personal discernment, but I would encourage people to read authors whose analysis of systemic oppression is firmly rooted in anti-capitalism and abolitionism. If someone's perspective on social justice is not rooted in collective liberatory work, then it's just using identity as a means of selling a personal brand a lot of the time.

Writers that i've gotten a lot from include: bell hooks, Angela Davis, Rabbi Ruti Reagan, Aubrey Gordon, Emma Dabiri, Captain Awkward, Koa Beck, and Julia Serano. Some of these writers are more explicitly political than others, but even the ones who are more focused on social norms and boundaries (like Captain Awkward and Ruti Reagan) take a focus that is pretty targeted and practical.

Ultimately, you are gonna disagree with people sometimes about what is harmful. For example, I do not think thought crimes or emotion crimes are a thing. I don't even really think taste or media consumption crimes are a thing. My sister is eagerly playing the new harry potter game right this very moment and I fully do not give a shit. I would rather that she find a way to pirate it so that she wasn't compensating JKR by playing it, enriching JKR is undeniably harmful, but I have zero interest in convincing her not to like a media property, because in her personal conduct she is the only stalwart advocate I have in my family, and I've seen the positive impact that she has on the queer kids at the high school where she works.

my sister's real-life impact on the world matters to me a lot more than her liking this stupid ass game, enough for me to not choose this particular battle. I don't think fighting with her about it would bring any good into the world. In fact, it would drive us apart and make my life, her life, and our mother's life significantly worse. I could understand why people would disagree with me or handle their own affairs differently.

I think broadly speaking most of the social justice oriented internet has wildly lost any reasonable sense of scale or priority as well as tactics on a variety of matters, so we wind up creating tensions within our communities over smaller or symbolic forms of harm even when that makes it more difficult for us to tackle more significant sources of harm in a shared way. my sister cares about trans people, she fights for abortion rights, she's anti cop enough to have persuaded someone close to her not to go to the police academy, and she also is a potter enjoying disney adult. i love her to pieces and im so glad she is alive and i know she's a net positive on this earth. i dont think me haranguing her over her media habits leads to her having a better impact on this earth, and i know it would fuck my life up.

that said, i can't determine what is harmful (or on what scale it is harmful) for anybody else. many people would be very reasonably torn up over their beloved trans friendly sibling still being interested in playing the mega terf antisemitism game. that's all real, and that game and the person who birthed its IP are truly terrible. but i tend to see even the problem of harry potter's success as being a systemic one not an individual choice driven one, so. in this case it's one i let go of.

55 notes · View notes

ziezie13 · 2 years

Text

Fanfiction has a certain reputation. Erotica, porn, smut, whatever you want to call it — there’s a long tradition of sex in transformative works. But there’s another side to fanfiction, one of self-expression and identity. Unlike traditional media, it’s not hard to get a fanfic published, all it takes is the click of a button. And because there are very few barriers to becoming a fanfiction writer, we end up with a diverse spectrum of voices — marginalized people whose stories rarely get told. To me, that is the beauty of fanfic — the idea that someone out there can recognize a part of themself in a character, even just a tiny bit, that they can then turn that flash of recognition into a fully realized idea and share it with others…

I didn’t start reading fanfiction until college, mostly because of its previously mentioned association with porn, but once I discovered the existence of ‘gen fic’ I couldn’t get enough. Wolfstar was my first slash fic and I remember it vividly. I read a headcanon that interpreted Remus as the biggest troublemaker amongst the Marauders — the one that came up with the best pranks, had the quickest wit, and the mouth of a sailor — but he never got in trouble, because in the eyes of the teachers he could do no wrong. I instantly fell in love with the idea and needed to read more, but all the best Remus fics included wolfstar. Thus began my descent into the world of slash. Years passed, I discovered that I am in fact asexual, and then I stumbled across a new headcanon — this one involving Sirius. When I was first presented with the concept of Sirius as aroace I was skeptical, after all this is a character that is often interpreted as hyper-sexual or at the very least a huge flirt, but the more I thought about it the more things began to click into place. He never shows interest in anyone in canon, either romantically or sexually, his most important relationships are his friends, and the one time we see someone flirt with him he remains completely oblivious. It wasn’t a lot to go on, but it was more than enough for me to launch onto, especially since this was the first time I had seen any character described as aspec canonically or not. I immediately turned to AO3 and never looked back.

Sex, Love, and Rock ‘n Roll is a collection of some of my favorite aspec wolfstar stories that I’ve read over the years. This anthology isn’t meant to represent the full spectrum of experiences under the ace umbrella, for that would be a truly impossible task, rather it collects the fics that were meaningful to me personally — the fics where I was able to see a piece of myself. That said, there’s still a wide range of identities and experiences featured within. Many of the included authors write from personal experience while others have done research to accurately portray aspec identities. They all demonstrate respect and care for the identities they are portraying (much more than I would expect from the original author of Harry Potter).

I feel this is a topic that must be addressed. In 2020, J. K. Rowling made a series of statements that aligned her with the Trans-Exclusionary Radical Feminist (TERF) movement. Her words were extremely damaging to the queer community and she has continued to express hurtful and hateful ideas and sentiments regarding transpeople and their rights. Among other things, she has expressed support for transphobic individuals, organizations, and legislature. The works included here do not support J. K. Rowling or her views. In fact, many of the stories feature gender-queer identities whether that be an interpretation of the characters as gender-fluid, non-binary, or just non-conforming to gender norms. It is impossible to separate the work from the artist, but these stories and characters hold significant meaning to people all over the world. I think it’s important that we analyze the original work, recognize its flaws, and strive to do better. Because this fandom has transcended so far past the original work and continues to do so.

It is my hope that this series helps to preserve the history of this fandom and its works. So often queer stories get lost to time, and this is my attempt to push back at that. Despite what they say, the internet is not forever and by giving these stories physical form they may last for generations. These characters and these stories are important and they deserve to be elevated to the same status as any traditionally published work. And I speak directly to the authors now. when I say, thank you. Thank you for telling these stories and for sharing a part of yourself. This collection is my gift back to you.

18 notes · View notes

veemark · 1 year

Text

Get to know me tag

@gunsatthaphan tagged me years ago and only now did I get my brain to work (oops).

Three ships

AltMalMar. Battle trio! Enemies to lovers x2! Malik and Maria falling for the man that messed up their lives big time hits so right. I don’t know a novelisation; I get to decide what’s canon here, and so my 12th century polycule totally happened.

SeiSub. CLAMP is fully responsible for my warped taste in ship dynamics. These two fucks thrive on deception, tragedy, betrayal, mutual obsession, and questionable behaviour. Subaru was left so mentally and emotionally fucked up by everything Seishirou did to him that he only wanted the man to kill him so he could have some kind of twisted relevance in his life. Seishirou was so possessive he passed his eye down to Subaru so he could erase the mark another bloke left on him (it is a known fact an eye exchange is equivalent to common-law marriage in any CLAMP universe lol). They’re such good foils they were doomed from the start.

VeeMark. They’re morons. They’re terrible.They pulled the nastiest shit on each other. They neither caught a break nor got their happy ending until their mid-thirties/early forties. At the end of the day, they do deserve each other. I’ll never stop bitching about how I wish I could change the second half of the 2022 series or how much I hate that the script didn’t fully commit to the physical cheating and instead watered down their relationship to make these idiots palatable. I wanted them fully toxic and morally rotten because I love their dysfunctional asses so much! They’re the best at their worst 💙💜

First Ship

Probably TouYuki or SeiUsa

Last Song

Padre nuestro - Los Fabulosos Cadillacs

Last Movie

El señor doctor (1965)

Currently Watching

Fourteen or fifteen shows at the same time (I’ve honestly lost count). My ADHD is all over the place right now, so I’m behind on some.

Currently Consuming

The Satanic Verses - Salman Rushdie

Lectures on Russian Literature - Vladimir Nabokov

La revolución mexicana - Ricardo Flores Magón

Documentaries and podcasts on a wide array of topics since I refuse to be left alone with my thoughts at any given moment

Currently Craving

The only thing I want out of life is a new YinWar series with a script worthy of their talent. PLEASE just let these men graduate from uni and star in some dark stuff.

Eight shows to get to know me

Cardcaptor Sakura (1998). My child self was living for all the gay, lesbian, and nonbinary representation even though they were pretty clueless. The Latin American Spanish dub was lovely and didn’t try to censor anything, so that was a plus.

31 minutos (2003). This was a Chilean puppet show (kind of a news satire) most Latines in my generation grew up with. Some episodes haven’t aged well in the slightest, but I still enjoy watching them from time to time. A lot of moments mutated into memes over the years because they’re that legendary.

Hanazakari no kimitachi e (2007). I once had a huge thing for any piece of Japanese media that involved girls who had to disguise themselves as boys for some plot-pertinent reason (life gave me some answers years later lol). Many actors that would later become huge started here. No one told me OFC’s Mr. Takeda had been hiding under the terrible noughties hair all these years!

Fullmetal Alchemist (2009). There’s absolutely nothing I can say that could ever do justice to what a masterclass in character development, storytelling, and worldbuilding this is. Shounen peaked right here as a genre.

Tumbling (2010). Actually my favourite J-drama ever! I ate up everything and anything Yamamoto Yusuke filmed, and this series was right up my alley with a plot revolving around a gang leader forced to join his school’s male rhythmic gymnastics team. It had friendship, family, team sports, and canon queer representation.

Love Sick (2014). I didn’t even know BL was a thing back when I first watched it, but in no time I fell so deeply in love I didn’t mind waiting for fansubs to drop or the second season to air. Thailand showed me a messy bi awakening with a side of cheating and I could never look back.

Mr. Robot (2015). This is the one show I wish I’d forget just so I could experience it all over again. The narrative rewarded attentive viewers (could never be me), the plot was carefully crafted, and those four seasons had a perfect finale.

Pose (2018). What can I say? It was so good. At some point I spent nearly every episode crying my eyes out when things got too real. I’m always here to watch the Black and Latino queer community being celebrated.

#outing my trash taste today #not tagging anyone bc this is so old lmao #abt mir

1 note · View note

yurimother · 4 years

Text

LGBTQ Light Novel Review — I'm in Love with the Villainess

A stunningly profound, entertaining, and queer title that eclipses other isekai and Yuri series

There are few titles the general public seems to be as excited about as Inori and Hanagata's I'm in Love with the Villainess, as it has been sitting at or near the top of Amazon's LGBT Manga list for months and Twitter is consistently abuzz with the latest news on this isekai Yuri series. I was somewhat more skeptical, as I have had relatively poor experiences with isekai and fantasy Yuri. Still, my excitement went through the room, and I eagerly boarded the "hype train" upon the cover reveal for the third volume. Yuri families, where two women raise children together, are one of my greatest desires and something I rarely see portrayed in the genre. However, I still had mostly low expectations for the series going into the first volume. I looked forward to some light meandering comedy and typical boring trope-filled isekai shenanigans. However, I'm in Love with the Villainess more than exceeded my expectations. No, even this statement is far too moderate to describe how utterly stunned and blown away I was by Inori's creation. I'm in Love with the Villainess is completely shattering and easily one of the greatest light novels I have ever read. Thus, I have no choice to award a perfect 10/10 score, my first ever for a light novel.

After waking up in the world of her favorite otome game, Revolution, protagonist Rae is ecstatic to be faced to face with Claire Francois, the game's villainous rival. However, Rae never played Revolution for the thrill of romancing any of the three attractive young princes. She was always in love with Claire. She attends the academy and studies magic in the fantasy world alongside Claire, the princes, and various other supporting characters. Using her skills from the modern world and her encyclopedic knowledge of Revolution, Rae manipulates the situation to be close to Claire, becoming her maid, and garnering status and money along the way. As an inevitable conflict looms closer, Rea begins to enact plans to protect herself and Claire, many of which are not fully understood or explained until the finale fantastically reveals the reasons for her actions. There is a natural and steady pace to the narrative that awards readers’ predictions and attention to detail.

I'm in Love with the Villainess has some excellent supporting characters, all of whom have unique personalities, histories, and abilities, some of which are revealed by Rae's exposition and others naturally throughout the novel. However, the stars of the show are the central couple, Rae and Claire. Claire is an elite aristocrat and extremely bratty. She often sneers at commoners and makes her disdain of Rae very clear from early on. On paper, she sounds like the perfect villain and someone all readers would despise. However, Rae's utter devotion and infatuation with Claire is so sincere that we cannot help but be pulled in and adore Claire and all her tantrums. Rae is a delight herself, continually flirting and poking fun at Claire, which gets her verbally berated, much to her masochistic pleasure. However, she is also exceptionally cunning and intelligent, and some of the light novel's greatest joys are listening to her analyze a situation or watching one of her plans fall into place.

“Ah, I’m… Well, it doesn’t matter. I mean, it’s irrelevant to cuteness—because, Miss Claire, you are cute.” “Huh?!” She pulled away. It was perfect—such a pure reaction. “Miss Claire, you hate me, right?” “Of course!” “That’s fine. Please keep teasing me. I love it.”

The beginning of the book does not immediately clue one into its brilliance. Sure, Claire and Rea get some great one-liners as they bully each other, and the scenarios are authentic and fun, but it is nothing shattering. I was feeling pretty relaxed and having a lot of fun with the characters, their relationship, and the various slice-of-life style scenarios they encountered until one section, I remember the exact page, 81, as it stopped me dead in my tracks. I was flabbergasted and briefly frozen before shooting up out of bed, shouting expletives as I ran to my office to immediately record what I had just experienced. It all begins with the line, "Hey, Rae. Are you what they call gay?" What followed was one of the most thoughtful, condensed, informative, and nuanced discussions of gay and queer identity (both terms used in this scene) I have ever seen in Yuri. Everything from representation in media, the perceptions of and prejudices against gay people, and the role gender plays in romance for bisexual and gay people are analyzed. Its commentary is succinct yet so respectful and forthright that it could have only come from genuine experience, thus selling the book and its characters so much more.

"Queer people were still overwhelmingly closeted in this world, which was rife with prejudice and nurtured little understanding. As I noted, the queer people depicted in the story were either the sex fiends Claire imagined or the free-loving sort Lene had in mind. Diversity and acceptance were a long way off.”

Thus, Inori's writing's beauty exposed itself, and the book opened itself up to a delightful cycle. The narrative masterfully integrates isekai slice-of-life hijinks, like running a cross-dressing café or battling a giant slime with nuanced and challenging moments that dissect complicated topics. The latter mainly consists of a growing rift between the aristocracy and common people, mirroring real-world wealth gap issues, but the novel also touch on matters such as unequal prison sentencing and segregation. Every scene helped further the complexity of the characters and their relationships or else built onto the world of Revolution. Speaking of which, I'm in Love with the Villainess has some of the best worldbuilding ever seen in a light novel.

Initially, brief exposition establishes much of the world, which is adequate if not exciting. I will mark up to a casualty of the light novel's serialized nature, as it must present readers its setting immediately. However, Inori does not stop here. Through the narrative, new elements are established, such as a magic system and the kingdom's politics. Rea notes and describes how the world, while clearly based on medieval Europe, has many modern Japanese attributes, as Japanese game developers created it. Her pointing out the intersection of the two is fascinating. Furthermore, A great deal of time is spent establishing characters and organizations all have their own wants, agendas, and methods, many of which are not even directly involved with the story. Instead, they act as a background and help further contextualize others. For example, the Church publicly appears to lean towards supporting the commoners in their efforts for equality but has its own agenda of superseding the nobility. While they play little role in Rea and Claire’s adventure, they are one of numerous factors contributing to the unrest of the lower class. All these additions are interesting, and it never feels like the story or characters suffer for their inclusion, quite the opposite.

“The Bauer Kingdom had started a step behind other countries when it came to magical research. They dominated the surrounding countries in military strength, and this had made them complacent, leading them to underestimate the value of new magic technology until the best researchers had all been enticed to other countries. Even after the king came up with his magic-focused meritocratic policy, Bauer lagged behind.”

I can only make complaints by scraping the very bottom of the barrel. Hanagata's beautiful art is too infrequent to add much to the light novel, and many scenes crying for illustrations are left to the readers' imagination. However, Inori so wonderful writes the story that one hardly cares and can easily picture every moment with delight. Besides, the manga adaption will nullify this issue. Where I cannot complain at all is the spectacular translation by Jenn Yamazaki and Nibedita Sen, one of Seven Seas best (which is high praise considering the competition). Sure, I was slightly disappointed at first to see the adaptation left off honorifics, but the more I thought about the setting, the more sense it made. I am sure people much smarter than I gave the issue much more consideration, and I am happy with their decisions.

I'm in Love with the Villainess left me reeling with how pleasurable and powerful it was. The story and characters are such a joy, and I cannot wait to see Rea and Claire bully each other again in the next volume. Astounding worldbuilding and powerful, thought-provoking politics surround their antics and the high stakes plot. Every moment of their journey will enthrall readers as they squeal with glee at its hilarious set pieces or are shocked by its commentary of society's most significant challenges. Inori has created one of the most delightful, heartfelt, complex, profound, and genuinely queer light novel series ever. If you only read one thing I recommend this year, let it be I'm in Love with the Villainess.

Ratings: Story — 9 Characters — 10 Art — 5 LGBTQ — 10 Sexual Content — 2 Final — 10

Review copy provided by Seven Seas Entertainment

Purchase I’m in Love with the Villainess in digitally (9/23) and in print (11/10) today: https://amzn.to/32NEyG1

Supports creators by purchasing official releases.

#yuri #lgbt #lgbtq #reviews #lgbtq+#i favor the villainess #i'm in love with the villainess #girls love #gay #queer #light novel #manga #gl #politics #feminism

2K notes · View notes

fortheloveofqueer · 2 years

Text

Intersectionality in Queer Media

Hi all, my name is Cora and I’m fully new to Tumblr, but let’s skip the pleasantries and get right to it :)

As someone who has identified as queer as long as I have labelled my sexuality, I have always liked seeing queer people who are like me in popular media. While I do love reading queer theory and find that texts and essays that are a part of throrough queer analysis, media in the form of TV, movies, podcasts, etc. is much easier to consume. It is less dense and typically more likely to reach a broader audience than dense essay collections that typically would have to be searched for deliberately in order to be seen. While some media that depicts queer people does so in a tokenistic way in attempts to seem inclusive, there is also a lot of media that actually depicts accurate representation of queer people and doesn’t ignore a queer character’s intersectional identities.

One show I love and I feel actually is inclusive and attempts to bring about discourse on why ignoring that intersectionality is harmful is Shameless. Shameless not only features a plethora of queer characters, it does so in a way that also acknowledges their race, gender, class, and disability or mental illnesses that all need to be seen in order to truly understand who the characters are.

Don’t get me wrong, I love the show as just a consumer of the media as well (#Gallavich ftw) but I think it’s an amazing piece to look at for a show that is in its roots a comedy/drama.

One thing that has always stood out to me in Shameless is the way it takes its main family of characters from the South Side of Chicago and consistently depicts the disparities between the Gallaghers as a poor family and other characters like Jimmy/Steve and his family who come from wealth. Particularly, in the queer interactions between these to families is between Ian and Jimmy/Steve’s dad, Ned. The two spark a sexual relationship through encounters in a gay club, but there is a huge difference looking into the way these to characters handle their own sexuality. Ian, coming from a poor family, is confident in his gayness; his family knows his sexuality, he’s completely open to them about other gay relationships he has had, and he doesn’t hide the fact that he works in a gay club. Ned, on the other hand, is married to a woman, has had multiple children with her, and only expresses his sexuality in secret. The disparities between the twos class backgrounds lead into why they are expressing themselves the way they do; Ian has always had to be close to his family, they went through a lot together from being separated into foster care/group homes or having to all find ways to make money in order to have food and a roof over their heads, the Gallagher family is a tight knit group. Oppositely, Ned is completely closeted. He and his family are well off and have the means to keep their personal lives separate, and have not had to form the same reliances on one another in times of despair like the Gallagher family. These differences highlight how people are able to hide their sexualities if they have the means to create a facade of a straight-lifestyle. We see Ian getting bullied through school for being gay, while nobody even knows Ned is gay because he has a wife and only expresses his sexuality when he feels like he can/ when he wants to.

A topic for another day but I’d like to mention is the way Shameless also opens up for a discussion regarding race and class in its latter seasons with the way Liam, as a black person, is raised by a completely white family and only begins to learn about black culture when he begins going to a wealthy school and talking to the one other black person he has grown up around, V. The show is not afraid of having the “tough conversations'' and has had a platform to bring about useful discourse through its airtime and beyond.

#shameless #gallavich #intersectionality #queer studies #lgbtq #sexuality #class differences

15 notes · View notes

tiriansjewel · 3 years

Text

alrighty I’ve seen some discourse over this but I want to post my thoughts because it’s been bugging me too. Let’s talk a bit about the lgbt characters and the erasure of their sexuality in fandom. This is mostly directed at the fact that I’ve come across a few Alex Mercer x female reader fics in the past few days, and something about that just really doesn’t sit right with me. I’ve seen some arguments which say things along the lines of, “people take straight characters from media and headcanon them as gay/lesbian/bi/etc. all the time, so why is it wrong for someone to take a gay character and headcanon them as straight?” At first glance, this seems like a plausible argument, the overall objective actions are the same, but all of these people who say this forget that there are years of history and cultural context to show why it’s a problem.

Firstly, we live in a heteronormative society. Why is this important? Well, the majority of people are heterosexual, and it is the only sexuality that is societally accepted by all people. Therefore, when you are born, people assume that you are straight. You never have to “come out” as straight, or explain to people what it means to be straight, because being straight is the default. It is what is expected of every person until they say something to the contrary. Queer people on the other hand are in the minority, and not all people are accepting or believe that homosexuality is even real. When you are born, people still assume that you are straight, but when you figure out that you are not, you then have to “come out” as gay/lesbian/bi/etc, and you usually have to explain to people what that means to you. Your sexuality is different from the majority, and so it usually becomes a very defining factor in your identity and in your life because of how the world around you perceives you.

All of this is reflected in media. Characters, just like people, are assumed to be straight until something is said to the contrary. This means that characters are rarely confirmed as “straight”, whereas characters who are lgbt have to “come out” as gay. So to say people are taking straight characters and headcanoning them as gay isn’t necessarily accurate- even if a character is in a relationship with a person of the opposite sex, they usually aren’t confirmed as “straight”. There is plenty of room to believe that they are bi/pan, or fully homosexual depending on the text of the show. There is also the topic of queerbaiting and queercoding, and many of the characters that people headcanon as not straight have subtextual hints which point to that. As well as the fact that the majority of people are straight- so to view a character otherwise isn’t erasing straightness from a piece of media, because heterosexuality is everywhere.

But with gay characters, it’s a whole other conundrum. Firstly, lgbt characters who are portrayed in a positive light are relatively new, and even then, many positive portrayals are still based upon stereotypes. It is rare to find an lgbt character in a mainstream piece of media that represents the community well and isn’t just there for wokeness points. Secondly, since these characters are so rare, they are almost always confirmed as gay by the creators of the show. Therefore, their sexuality is in stone within the canon. It isn’t left ambiguous, it is stated and it is usually a major part of their character arc and their identity. Thirdly, just like in real life, the gay characters are always in the minority. With JATP for example, the only canonically queer characters are Alex and as a byproduct, Willie. Most shows won’t even have a canonically queer character, and if they do they are almost always in the background unless it’s marketed as a “gay” show. We only get so much rep as it is. Erasing that rep and such an important part of a character’s identity is disrespectful.

Now, I’m not here to tell you that you can’t make fics or headcanons that erase a character’s sexuality. You can do whatever the fuck you want. I’m just sitting here and telling you why you shouldn’t. It’s in bad taste and disrespects the lgbt community, and so with that said, I will personally be blocking/ignoring people who do this. The reason I decided to make this post is hopefully to explain to some of you why it’s so offensive and why people get pissed off by it. At the end of the day, us queer people are looking for the crumbs left over in the pan of brownies that’s already been eaten by all the straight people. Don’t sweep away our crumbs. That is all.

#fandom discourse #julie and the phantoms #jatp #alex mercer x female reader #alex mercer #lgbt #media

102 notes · View notes

kaizokuou-ni-naru · 4 years

Note

I’m super curious now about what you mean with Sanji being super none-cishet and I would love to hear more about what you think of Sanji in terms of his sexuality or sexuality in the one piece world in general!

okay, uh, first of all: death of the author is an idea that’s often misunderstood, but basically all it means is that the text is all that matters when it comes to interpretation of a work. even if you know that the interpretation you draw from that text is not what the author intended, that doesn’t matter. it’s not a free license to turn a blind eye to flaws and bias in a work, but rather a way to allow media to be opened up to perspectives and interpretations other than those of the author.

cool? cool.

oda didn’t mean to make sanji queer. i feel confident in saying that given how canonically queer characters (like bon-chan and ivankov) introduced in the first half of the story are portrayed (kiku and yamato are a different story, but that’s a topic for another day). but he did write this amab character who is deeply, irrationally invested in gender roles and chivalry and what it means to be a man, and wrote that character getting swapped into a female body and being so thrilled about that as to actively beg not to be swapped back, and like, That Sure Is Something.

likewise, sanji is, as we all know, written as being absolutely fucking obsessed with women, in an incredibly over the top manner, which oda intends as just the stereotypical pervert character/ladies man running gag that it is- but remember, we don’t care about what oda intends, we just care about what’s in the text, and from a queer perspective it’s really easy to look at that character trait and say something like That Sure Is Some Repression And Redirection You’ve Got There, Buddy!

the reason i originally mentioned this with regards to the punk hazard bodyswap situation is because i think that’s where it’s by far the most obvious, but it applies to sanji’s characterization as a whole. basically, oda went so hard making sanji a Girl-Crazy Straight Man that he accidentally looped around the other side into a portrayal that makes it really, really easy to, if you want to, interpret him as some sort of repressed queer, be that with regards to sexuality or gender identity or both.

obviously you don’t have to interpret sanji this way; if you wanna read him the way oda intended, that’s fully alright. this is just my personal interpretations- and i just think it’s really cool when fans and fandom explore and reinterpret stuff like this where the author never will.

#im a big fan of fics that explore sanji and gender/sexuality for this reason tbh #odas given us a lot of pieces to work with #even if what we put them together into isnt what he intended #long post #sanji #jonny answers #character meta #one piece #not japanese #this whole concept also applies to lgbt headcanons in general #but this post is specifically about sanji cause 1- thats what the question was about and 2- theres SO much to work with with him

404 notes · View notes

spookyboogie3 · 3 years

Text

The trope Last Minute Hookup shouldn’t be used for LGBTQ+ relationships.

AND DEFENDING MY LAST POST ABOUT THIS.

I DO NOT hate any of these pairings. A good many of them could have been handled differently by the creators, writers, and networks. But this isnt me hating the relationships or characters or shows. Just going off about how they shouldnt have been tacked on at the end of their respective series.

As of writing this all of these shows have ended their original runs. Except for Supernatural which is on its last few episodes. And Supergirl, which announced its coming to end with season 6.

LGBTQ characters and relationships aren’t as common in the media as straight-cis characters and relationships. Sure things are improving but a lot of networks and writers still don’t fully understand why representation is important why they can’t keep using the same throwaway tropes they’ve been using for the straight-cis relationships.

You could name any piece of media and find and name one character that isn’t LGBTQ+, but you can’t do this with LGBTQ+ characters. We haven’t gotten to the point where they are as common as non-LGBTQ characters.

I have a whole paper I wrote on why asexual representation is important to have in the media and the same logic applies to any part of the LGBTQ+ or anything that falls under minority.

Back to the topic on hand. The trope of “Last Minute Hookup.”

Its exactly what it sounds like. Characters get to together at the very end of the story. These characters could have a on and off again relationship, lots of ship teasing, the classic “Will They or Wont They?” trope. What makes it different for non-LGBT characters in relationships to do this, we know what these relationships look like. Not to say the that both Non and LGBT relationship cant have similar struggles, however members of the LGBTQ+ community know how hard it is to feel like your identity and self matters and is normal.

I know that the whole “will they, wont they” thing is done for drama and networks and showrunners think if they give the fans what they want that they’ll start losing viewers and they have nothing to look forward to. Which is true to some degree. But most of this comes from the writers not knowing how to fucking write relationships.

Let’s just focus on whats it like to be in a non-straight relationship.

Heres an example: you have an action series, with 2 male leads and halfway through the show, they get together. Cool. Now you have a Battle Couple.

By making LGBTQ relationships happen at the end of a series that’s already had plenty of other non-LGBTQ relationships happen before it, it makes it look like the people in charge don’t care for it or were afraid of backlash. But it’s the end of the series so its not like they can get the show cancelled or anything. (The only people who are going to lash out at LGBT couple or characters are homophobic people, we don’t want them around any way so just make stuff super gay, so they’ll leave)

This is especially a problem when the writer and network have spent the whole series queerbaiting the audience with these characters.

Side note for anyone is doesn’t actually know what queerbaiting is:

It’s a marketing technique used in entertainment, which the writer or creators hint at but then don’t actually depict sex-same romance or LGBTQ representation. They do this to attract (bait) the LGBT/queer or straight ally audience into the show with the suggestion of representation but at the same time avoiding this as not alienate other audience members *cough* (homophobes) *cough*

Definition is from Wikipedia, not a reliable source says my highschool teachers and college professors but fuck em

The Legend of Korra is a great example of Last-Minute Hookup. Korra and Asami had VERY little ship teasing, and that was in the last 2 books/seasons. Any thing that was perceived as romantic came from the fans wearing shipping goggles. So to a lot of people just casually watching, yes this looked like it came out of nowhere. Nickelodeon had some serious balls to say how brave they were for putting 2 girls into a romantic relationship.

Theres a few problems with this.

A. It never actually aired on TV (to my knowledge). The last 2 seasons of Korra were put on Nicks website.

B. The confirmation that this Korrasami was canon had to come from the creators on twitter because of how unclear it was.

C. The show did the bare minimum when it came to hooking them up in the series. They walk off holding hands (very cute btw). They didn’t even get a kiss. Aang and Katara had a Last Minute Hookup at the end of ATLA after 3 seasons of ship tease and THEY GOT A KISS. Hell the original end of LoK*, has Korra and Mako kissing. *(the first season, they didn’t know they were getting more seasons at the time, no matter what you hear the writers say, they’re full of shit)

D. Anything continuation of Korra has come in the form of comics, which her and Asami are in a fairly well written relationship. Yes, they do kiss. Yes it would’ve been great to see this stuff happen in series.

A show that handles this a little bit better is Adventure Time. Not by much though. It implied several times that Princess Bubblegum and Marceline have history together and its shown more and more in its last few seasons that there is some ship tease happening. However its not until the finale where they kiss, and they are shown in the last minute of the show cuddling together in Marcy’s house. HBO has picked up Adventure Time and has a miniseries called Adventure Time: Distant Lands, where Bubblegum and Marceline’s past relationship is shown.

I had brought up in my original post about being upset with networks making LGBTQ+ relationships canon in the last season/episode. I originally had Catradora tagged. While Catra and Adora have history together, they did not become official couple until the end of the series.

Yes, I was wrong about the network making things canon in the last episode as they’ve always had ship tease with each other, and it probably was the writers’ intent to put them together by the end. They do technically fall under the Last-Minute Hookup, however.

I wanna talk about Once Upon a Time really quick. Fans of the show were hoping and wishing for an LGBTQ couple for the show as a lot of characters, especially Regina and Emma, have alot Ho Yay moments. The showrunners weren’t going to put those two together, for whatever reasons they may have for that (im indifferent on all the shipping going on with this show). The showrunners thought to put two characters together, and hoo boy did it not make people happy. The characters they put together are Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz and Ruby the red riding hood, which would be fine if they had properly been developed.

The entire episode they did this in was a mess. They stopped the current arc during the season 5 episode ‘Ruby Slippers,’ to go over the characters that haven’t been seen in years, Dorothy was introduced and last seen in season 3, and Ruby was introduced in season 1 and was last seen in season 5 before ‘Ruby Slippers’. The characters get together in the same episode the meet in and are never seen again. The characters barely interacted, barely got along, and showed little to no ship tease or interest in each other and BOOM they are in love and together aaaaaannnnndd they’re gone. Other than having One Million Moms, a Christian fundamentalist organization, protest against the show and want it taken off the air (yes this really happened). The fans weren’t please with this development of the characters either.

(also Mulan was right there and already knew Ruby from a previous episode, and Mulan already is established to like girls as shown by her being in love with Aurora. Don’t know why the writers didn’t just put these 2 together but whatever I guess)

So they tried again in season 7 with MadArcher. The characters of Alice, a version of Alice in Wonderland from another realm (its complicated) and Robin, the daughter of Robin Hood and the Wicked Witch (it’s also complicated). And the writers did a lot better here. Both characters were allowed to have time together and have a history together too and it was done over the whole season. Not just one episode.

Now even though the writers decided to do something different with the last season and it could be detached from the previous 6 seasons, MadArcher is not really a Last Minute Hookup per say but still falls under my thing about it being the last season so who gives a fuck if One Million Moms gets mad us and tries to get us cancelled again.

I would like to say I have never watched a single episode of Supernatural in my life. I may one day. But as of right now my knowledge of it is coming primary from what ive seen on tumblr. You know a great source for doing research and looking for reliable information among the piles of shitposting.

From what I know from fans, the writers of Supernatural have been queer baiting for years. I mean it’s the CW, I’m not that surprised. What also wouldn’t surprise me, that by the end of the series Castiel is back and he and Dean actually start and relationship or strongly hint at starting one. I actually fear for the writer lives if they threw out a confession scene after years of queerbaiting and potential ship tease (debatable) and they don’t put them together. Fans are going to be angrier than they probably ever have been with this show and the showrunners and writers really would be known for queer baiting.

From what I know about how previous shows have done and if anyone that has ever worked on this show wants to continue living, Castiel will be back from Super Hell (is that what yall are calling it?) and he will get together with Dean. And they will fall under the Last-Minute Hookup trope and my networks make LGBTQ relationships canon last season.

One last show I want to talk about is Supergirl, which in has been recently announced that the 6th season will be the last. The show started on CBS but moved to the CW after the end of season 1. So more CW bullshit. There is no confirmation about whether the CW or any of the Supergirl writers are planning to do this, its all speculation. Supergirl is more LGBTQ friendly than some other shows on the Network. One of the main characters came out a few years ago and had a girlfriend a season and has had plenty of hookups with other ladies around the Arrowverse. They even introduced a trans-woman superhero in the form of Dreamer.

Let’s talk SuperCorp. Lena Luthor was introduced in the 2nd season and has been a major character in Kara’s life ever since her introduction. Even if she isn’t involved in the plot, Kara always goes to her to talk and check in on her and worry about her. They are best friends. Since the 2 have met, there has been plenty of Les Yay going on. The writers seem to be aware of the fans wanting SuperCorp to be canon and they keep throwing in moments like Kara and Lena struggling together or Kara carrying Lena bridal style.

Why I bring this up after the announcement of Supergirl’s final season to start next year. We may get SuperCorp. Kara has a relationship with William in the show and not a single person likes this relationship. The writers may scrap it and get put Kara and Lena together for the final season. This is a big maybe though. The Supergirl writers and crew get called out a lot for queerbaiting.

Let me know if you guys have any other examples of last season/last episode LGBTQ+ hookup.

And please let me know if you see any mistakes. This was all done in one sitting so I may have some things wrong.

Also check out the video by @aretheygayvideos on this topic too.

undefined

youtube

43 notes · View notes

sailorsally · 4 years

Note

Your top 5 favourite things about Black Sails and yes you only get to choose 5

ONLY FIVE??????????????? I’ll try

1. Flint & his soft/menecing duality. I’m such a sucker for characters who are scary but as soon as somebody they care shows up they turn into a tiny puppy. In other words, I love seeing the self assured people unhinged because it’s hella hot. 2. The Hamiltons - I just love them& their relationship, the love they have might not be “conventional” but at the same time few “conventional” couples share the level of trust they have between them & I really admire them for it. Plus the way they handle James as their equal from day 1 is very sexy of them. (Btw same goes for Jack and Anne & I also love them dearly) 3. The hetero bating - this is absolutely something I still can’t seem to fully belie... I mean you gotta understand, before this my big fandom was BBC Sherlock which is famous for queerbating like no other show... So Black Sails really is a gift in that regard. Every time I rewatch the scene where drunk Flint leans into Eleanor only to kiss her forehead I go NUTS because I can’t believe the writers made that choice. (Not to mention the full Flint being queer story) 4. How Black Sails touches on so SO many topics without taking sides and how those topics from 4 centuries ago are still relevant today 5. The power of story - I have said this before on this blog & I will say it again - Black Sails will always win against any other piece of media because no other piece of media welcomes the audience to the same extent Black Sails does. It doesn’t only acknowledge the existence of audience but it gives up autonomy and says that what matters most is what audience wants to matter most. Which ultimately is the continuation of the freedom theme that runs throughout the entire show. Your fave could & would never. Thanks for asking this! I adore this show (as you very well know :D)

#black sails #james flint #thomas hamilton #miranda barlow #anne bonny #jack rackham #heterobaiting #storytelling #sally blogs #lovely people lovely asks #solraneth

49 notes · View notes

lil-outsider · 5 years

Text

Michael Sheen is a literal angel, y’all.

Let me tell y’all a story...

First, you need to know a little bit about my year so far. In the year of our Lord, Twenty-Nine-Sheen, well, my life has really spiraled. I’m a grad student at the University of Texas at Austin in the MA in Media Studies program, and I fully intended on graduating this past May. Unfortunately, in January, mere days before the Spring semester that I was registered and ready to go for would begin, I found out that I had to have surgery. I moved all my coursework online to address the problem. Well, financial problems caused by insurance issues left that process in paperwork hell until May, and, simultaneously, my grandmother fell ill in February, and we soon learned that she had quick-onset dementia. She also became incontinent during this time. Very rapidly, she went from somewhat independent to needing care 24/7. I became her new caregiver. My schoolwork got pushed back... Well, I kept working on it, but email communication often failed me and I found myself hoping I could go back to Austin, but nothing was slowing down. In fact, things started building up. My dad started working more, and I had less time to go to my undergraduate school here at home, Texas A&M University-Texarkana, and get work done. I knew I wouldn’t graduate in May, but my dad and I had pooled our money together to pay for one more semester. We chose the summer session because it was cheaper, and we were sure that, if I was given the freedom to work, I could get things done on time. My dad started working even more--3 people were fired from his job at the water treatment drinking water plant here in Texarkana. He was working every single day. I was trying to find any second to show up at school, and I was also very, very exhausted.

In a particularly heavy moment of stress and impending due dates that I couldn’t foresee making, I tweeted Michael Sheen with a funny picture of my cat and some icons @Kiyye had created, and I wrote a little note about how he made me smile in these dark times.

Now, this message definitely uplifted my spirits. My best friend, @vacationingatthepond, randomly checked Twitter while we were on the phone together, getting ready to watch Masters of Sex, and found out the news. We were both ecstatic, as she is mentioned in the original post, too. Like everyone else in this fandom, we’ve been connecting over Michael Sheen content since Good Omens, so we’ve made a nightly ritual of gushing about Michael and watching his movies/shows. We connect over this since we’re hundreds of miles apart and we miss each other a lot. When we watched Bright Young Things, I even found my chosen middle name in Michael’s character. My love for him is real, and this little note made me feel loved, too. Well, last night, my grandmother had a bad night, so I stayed up and decided that I would make a GoFundMe page to try and earn money to pay for the Fall semester at UT-Austin. It was getting dire. Tens of thousands of dollars of loans in, and I was about to have to quit because I couldn’t pay for one more course and I hadn’t applied for FAFSA because I intended on graduating in May. I also went ahead and applied for FAFSA, but this option was really daunting, considering it would triple the cost of school AND the coursework--to get loans, you must be full-time. While I need 3 hours to graduate, I’d need 9 to meet grad school full-time status... The GoFundMe page was a last-ditch effort to secure my spot in school, and remains an effort to get me back to Austin where I can work in-person with my advisor.

Here is the link to the gofundme, if you would like to donate or signal boost:

https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-rein-graduate-utaustin-grad-school&rcid=r01-15656318453-90964e8dfd13406f&pc=ot_co_campmgmt_w

I tweeted it to Michael, along with a thank you for his sweet words to my grandmother and I. I simply requested he signal boost my GoFundMe page. Instead, y’all, he donated the entire amount. And he told nobody. He just left it there for me to find. When I came back from changing my grandmother’s diaper this morning, I had a notification from a facebook message that a friend sent that read, “You probably still don’t realize what has happened.” I had sent her a link to the page only 30 minutes before. Within 30 minutes, Michael Sheen single-handedly reached my goal of $3000 and saved my academic career. I’ve only got a little work left on my project. I will graduate now. I cannot even fully process it. Kudos to @neil-gaiman for recognizing that Michael Sheen is actually an angel here on earth.

He told nobody about this. He kept this entirely to himself and the small group of people I have circulated this to. He didn’t share my post or anything--he did something better; again, he just single-handedly saved my academic career. It was instant stress relief. This has been the heaviest year of my life, and he’s made it better. He’s obviously invited to my graduation! Hook ‘em! For those that are interested, my Master’s Report will be available to the public. Here is a description I wrote for the last GoFundMe update: “The project is designed to be accessible to academics and non-academics alike. I have chosen Prezi as the format for 3 reasons: 1. Talking about asexual Daryl Dixon is a fun topic for academics, fans, and queer folx alike; 2. Prezi is a free, accessible service, meaning there are no gates of publication in the way of accessibility; and 3. Prezi allows academic discussion and artistic expression to co-exist for the purpose of the argument/story you want to tell. This particular presentation, "Why a 'Somewhat Asexual' Daryl Dixon is Not Enough: The Importance of Labels in Queer Media" is a particularly meaningful discussion I want to put out into the world--it is dedicated to one of my closest friends, who feels as though non-negative media representations of asexuality are few and far between. Now is the time to talk about asexuality, not as an absence, but as an equally whole and wonderful experience of existence--and a valuable piece of our society.”

@vacationingatthepond, @everybodyownsascar, and I have been miles and miles apart, and we’re all connected daily through our love of Michael Sheen. We’ve jokingly termed the year, “Twenty-Nine-Sheen,” but he really did make my year today. Thank you, Michael.

#Michael Sheen #Aziraphale #He is an actual angel though #Neil Gaiman #good omens #The Walking Dead #TWD #UT-Austin #Acafans #Crowdfunding #Gofundme #I am so happy right now #I love him so much

121 notes · View notes

ourkinfolx · 4 years

Text

No. 1: Fania

Fania Noel is a woman with plans. And not just the vast, sweeping plans like the dismantling of capitalism and black liberation. She also has smaller, but no less important, plans like brunch with friends, hitting the gym.

“Every week, I put in my calendar the times I need to be efficient,” she explains. “So I put what time I work out, with my friends, my time to watch TV shows, to read. And after, I can give people the link to put obligations.”

The link she’s referring to is her online scheduling system connected to her personal website. It’s one I’ve become well acquainted with after our first two failed attempts to schedule interviews. We had plans to meet in person, in a Parisian Brasserie she’d recommended, but between canceled flights and buses, Skype turned out to be the most practical option. Our disrupted travel was just one in a long list of inconveniences brought on by the virus safety measures. It might even be said that the coronavirus also had plans.

The global pandemic and subsequent slowing of—well, everything comes up a few times in our conversation. Like some of the other activists I’ve talked to, Fania sees a silver lining, an opportunity.

“This might be the only sequence of events in the history of humanity that you have the whole planet living at the same tempo, being in quarantine or locked down or slowed activity,” she says.

“So we all have a lot of time to think about how [society is] fucked up or the weight of our lives in terms of this society. And I think we have to ask if we want to go back to this rushed kind of living. It’s really a game changer.”

I first heard of Fania, a Haitian born afro-feminist, earlier in the year, while talking to a Parisian friend about the need for more black spaces in the city. She angrily described how a few years ago, Fania tried to have an event for black women, only to be met with fierce backlash and derision from not just right-wing groups, but anti-racist and anti-Semitic groups. The event wasn’t actually Fania’s alone; it was an effort by Mwasi Collective, a French afro-feminist group that she’s involved with.

Either way, it was a minor scandal. Hotly debated on French TV and radio. Even Anne Hidalgo, Paris’s mayor, voiced disapproval. Critics claimed the event, called Nyansapo Festival, was racist itself by exclusion because most of the space had been designated for black women only.

Despite all the fuss, the Nyansapo Festival went on as planned. Several years later, following the killing of George Floyd and the international movement that followed, Anne Hidalgo published a tweet ending with the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter. I found it curious, she’s always struck me as more of an #AllLivesMatter type.

I ask Fania if, given the tweet and possible change of heart from the mayor, she thinks her event would be better received in the current climate. She points out that there had been two Nyansapo Festivals since, with little to no media coverage, but seems overall uninterested in rehashing the drama.

“We’re way beyond that now,” she says, shaking her head. She ends it in a way that will be familiar to anyone who’s ever been almost imperceptibly corrected by a black woman, and I quickly move on to the next topic.

It’s not until later, when reading some of her other interviews, that I’m able to fully contextualize our exchange. It’s common for activists, especially those working in or belonging to a culture where their identity makes them a minority, to be asked to view their work through the lens of conditional acceptance of a larger group of oppressors and/or gatekeepers. Asking feminists what men think, asking LGBT how they plan to placate heterosexuals. In her dismissal, Fania resists the line of questioning altogether, and in another interview, she makes the point more succinctly when explaining why she doesn’t believe in the concept of public opinion:

“As an activist, the core ‘public’ is black people and to think about the antagonism and balance of power in terms of our politics rather than its reception. It’s normal in a racist, capitalist, patriarchal society that a political [movement] proposing the abolition of the system is not welcomed.”

One might argue if you’re not pissing anyone off, you’re not doing anything important.

Rolling Stone’s July cover is a painting featuring a dark-skinned black woman, braids pulled into a round bun on her crown. She has George Floyd’s face on her T-shirt and an American flag bandana around her neck. One of her hands is raised in a fist, the other holds the hand of a young black boy next to her. Behind her, a crowd, some with fists also raised, carry signs with phrases like Our Lives Matter and Justice For All Now.

According to Rolling Stone, they tasked the artist, Kadir Nelson, with creating something hopeful and inspirational and he “immediately thought of Eugène Delacroix’s ‘Liberty Leading the People,’ the iconic 1830 painting that depicts a woman leading the French Revolution.”

Regarding his choice to center a black woman in the piece, he explains: “The people who were pushing for those changes were African American women. They are very much at the forefront in spearheading this change, so I thought it was very important for an African American woman to be at the very center of this painting, because they have very much been at the center of this movement.”

During our call, I mention the painting and ask Fania her thoughts on why, so often, we find black women at the forefront of any social justice or human rights movement.

“Women have always organized,” she says simply. “Women work collectively, they run organizations.” She points to the church and organized religion as an example.

“Look at the composition of church. Who’s going to church, who’s going to ask for help from God?”

Anyone who’s spent time in the houses of worship for a patriarchal religion has vivid memories of the very present men in the room. From the booming voices and squared shoulders of the pulpit to the stern, sometimes shaming looks of brothers, uncles, fathers. But the women, often more numerous, run the councils and the choirs. Around the world women pray more, attend church and are generally more religious. And the men?

“In a context of church, it’s really acceptable to ask for help from God. Because it’s God,” Fania says. “But you don’t have a lot of black men, a lot of men in any kind of church.”

That isn’t to say that men, especially black men, are complacent. Fania notes that traditional activism goes against the patriarchy’s narrow view of masculinity.

Activism, she explains, requires one to acknowledge they’ve been a victim of a system before they can demand power. And for a lot of men, that’s not an option.

“They want to be seen as strong,” she says. “As leaders. They want to exert control.”

In short, both black men and women acknowledge the system would have us powerless, but while women organize to collectively dismantle it, men tend to stake out on their own to dominate it.

Black capitalism as resistance isn’t new, and was more prominent during the civil rights movement, which was largely led by men. In 1968, Roy Innis, co-national director for the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) opined,

“We are past the stage where we can talk seriously of whites acting toward blacks out of moral imperatives.” While CORE’s other director, Floyd McKissick, reasoned,

“If a Black man has no bread in his pocket, the solution to his problem is not integration; it’s to get some bread.”

More recently the dynamics of this played out in real time on Twitter as Telfar, a black, queer-owned fashion label, sent out notifications of a handbag restock only to be immediately descended upon by a group of largely black, male resellers. Telfar describes itself as affordable luxury for everyone, and for many of the black women who buy Telfar, it exists as proof that class and fashion need not be so inextricably linked. But for the men who bulk purchased the bags just to triple the price and resell, these were just more items to wring capital out of on their quest to buy a seat at the table.

Of course, it’s not unreasonable to argue that the purchase of a product, regardless of who makes it, as a path to liberation is still black capitalism. And in another interview, Fania specifically warns against this type of consumption. “Neoliberal Afrofeminism is more focused on representation, making the elite more diverse, and integration. This kind of afrofeminism is very media compatible. Like great Konbini-style videos about hair, lack of shades of makeup, and [other forms of] commodification.” But, she explains, “The goal is a mass movement where our people are involved, not just passively or as consumers.”

But can consumption be divorced from black liberation if it’s such a key aspect in how so many black people organize? I bring up all the calls to “buy black” that happened in the wake of George Floyd. Some of it could be attributed to the cabin-fever induced retail therapy we all engaged in during quarantine. And for those of us who, for whatever reason, were unable to add our bodies to a protest, money seemed like an easy thing to offer. Buy a candle. A tub of shea butter. A tube of lip gloss. But what did it all really accomplish, in retrospect?

“We have to think about solidarity,” Fania explains. “Solidarity is a project. When we say support black-owned business, we still have to think about the goal, the project. So if we support coffee shops, bookshops, hair dressers that have a special place in the community and are open to the community and in conversation with the community, it’s good and it can help. But if it’s just to make some individual black people richer, it’s really limited.”

Black capitalism vs anti-capitalism remains an ongoing debate, but shouldn’t be a distraction. In the end, everyone will contribute how they best see fit and we still share a common goal. Besides, we’ll need all hands on deck to best make use of our current momentum. And that’s something Fania underscores in one of the last points she makes during our conversation:

“Something we have to repeat to people is that these protests: keep doing them. Because you have years and years of organization behind you. People came out against police brutality and a week later we’re talking about how we move towards the abolition of police, how we go towards the abolition of prison. How we move towards the end of capitalism. And this is possible because you have a grassroots organization thinking about the question even when no one else was asking it. So now we have the New York Times and the media asking if these things are possible. But that’s because even when we didn’t have the spotlight, we were working on the questions about the world after. And every day radical organizations, black liberation organizations, are thinking about the world after and the end of this system. And when protests and revolts happen, we can get there and say ‘we have a plan for this.’”

2 notes · View notes

neurodiversenerd · 5 years

Text

How to Include Autistic Women in Your Feminism

Hey, given that this is an activist post, I might be mentioning certain issues that might be triggering to some. Check the tags and stay safe. Ily. ❤️

Ever since activist and feminist Audre Lorde devised intersectionality as a way of describing the experience of multiply-marginalized women, feminism has adapted to include women of color, trans women, queer women, disabled women and religious minority women. Although white, non-intersectional feminism is still pervasive and is the dominant ideology carried on by cishet white women, a significant portion of the feminist movement has embraced the identities and diversity among various groups of women.

Intersectionality allows for us to look at the various ways womanhood affects those experiencing it, instead of just slapping one catch all experience of femininity onto all women. It lets us understand that a woman of color, for example, has less amounts of racial privilege than a white woman and must deal with the burden of specific stereotypes around being a woman of color. Intersectional feminism centers the women with multiple identities, or “intersections,” that society considers unfavorable or marginalized.

However, with all the strides intersectional theory has made in social justice circles, the plight of Autistic women is largely ignored by even the most inclusive feminist circles.

Disabled women as a broader group are often lumped together, even though cognitively disabled, intellectually disabled and physically disabled women contend with incredibly different forms of ableism. Alternatively, the feminist movement also tends to cater to physically disabled women who often have more visibility (which, granted, isn’t a lot) and acceptance than those whose minds are thought to be lesser.

It’s common in the disabled community for people to justify their humanity by asserting their neurotypicality, while erasing and oppressing non-neurotypicals. The pro-Autistic movement itself is mostly made up of women, queer individuals and people of color, and yet somehow it always ends up headed by cis white men. In both feminism and Autistic advocacy, women (especially ones with multiple intersections) are ignored and pushed to the sidelines despite typically facing greater oppression than cis autistic men.

Thus, it’s important to make sure to be inclusive towards autistic women and GNC individuals in both feminism and disabled activism. Here are some ways that I’ve compiled on how to make your feminism both inclusive and accepting as a queer, Autistic feminist.

1. Mention Autistic Women and Bodily Autonomy

Women’s rights to their bodies are an important topic to discuss in feminism, but Autistic women deal with specific challenges in regard to consent and access to care and their bodies, so it’s important to bring up these issues in your discussions.

For starters, the court case Buck v. Bell still stands to this day. The case itself took place in the early 20th century during the eugenicist movement, and the court’s ruling allowed the forced sterilization of anyone labeled feebleminded. It’s legal for parents and guardians of the disabled to sign paper and sterilize anyone under their control regardless of whether the person in question consent to it even now. This is especially unsettling for women of color, who have historically been abused by eugenicist doctors. (See The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks and the book Imbeciles for more information on these topics).

In the medical industry, there are also barriers Autistic women must deal with. Today, there are still ableist debates about whether Autistic and other disabled people deserve emergency medical treatment and organ transplants. Once again, this is especially bad for women of color who deal with medical abuse and malpractice committed against them in modern times.

The gist is, the most vulnerable Autistic women often don’t have the ability to consent to harmful and damaging procedures.

For transgender Autistic women, the burden is tenfold. Many Autistic trans people on social media have shared their stories about how people struggled to believe that they were trans because of their neurological difference. This makes transitional care and access much harder for GNC Autistic people and trans people, as their gender identity is viewed as a symptom.

2. Talk About Consent

Along with consent to medical procedures, there’s also the fact that Autistic women are particularly vulnerable to the whims of violence against women. Here are some ideas to mention when talking about consent.

First off, many Autistic women use alternative methods of communication. Neurotypical women can usually say an explicit ‘yes’ or ‘no,’ though they still face violence. For Autistic women who are nonverbal and communicate through AAC, in a victim blaming culture such as ours their hindered ability to consent can be used against them.

Through ABA therapy, Autistic women are also further taught that their ‘no’ doesn’t matter. True ABA therapy, created by Ivar Lovaas, is essentially legal conditioning. The aim of this psychological form of abuse is to train Autistic children into seeming more Neurotypical instead of embracing their unique neurology and changing their environment to fit their needs. These kids are taught to obey authority at all times, or else they’ll deal with the use of an aversiv e. This of course, discourages their active consent to a situation and puts Autistic women in a dangerous position.

If they are physically as well as cognitively disabled, they may not physically be able to resist or run from an attacker. In many cases, an incidence of assault is justified by the perpetrator claiming that the victim wouldn’t have had a consensual encounter otherwise because they are “ugly” or unworthy of a healthy relationship. Autistic women are often considered to be such..

Trans women and women of color, who are often assaulted more frequently than cis white, women are of course very vulnerable when it comes to this issue. As such, it’s vital to mention this at any discussion of consent.

3. Know that Toxic Femininity Affects Us More than Neurotypical Women

To preface this, I want to say that there’s nothing wrong with being feminine. I myself identify as a femme woman, out of my own personal fashion sense and aesthetic. I like being a feminine woman and wearing dresses and having long hair, though these also aren’t the only ways to be feminine, of course. Embracing femmeness does not mean that someone is servicing the patriarchy, and embracing androgyny and/or butchness also doesn’t mean said person has internalized misogyny. Everyone is entitled to the way they want to present, and feminism should be about uplifting how people choose to present themselves instead of putting down women they don’t think look “liberated” or “feminist” enough.

That being said, the patriarchy tends to enforce feminine roles on cis women and police the feminine expression of transwomen to make them “prove” they’re really trans and “sure” about being women. I like to call this “Toxic Femininity,” the way that women are pressured to conform to Eurocentric femininity regardless of how they actually want to present, but then oppressed for both their femmeness or their alternate presentation if they disregard the aforementioned. Either way, women can’t win.

Abiding by gender roles is exhausting for anyone, but for Autistic women who have limited energy to go into their daily activities and deal with sensory issues and neurotypicals. As such, gender presentation is often pretty low on our list of priorities. Autistic women are often unable to conform to society as our hindered social skills prevent us from perceiving these norms. It’s hard for us to fully conceptualize what’s acceptable and what’s not. As such, it takes extra effort for us to live up to Toxic Femininity.

With our sensory perception, certain clothes are uncomfortable for us and it’s sometimes a necessity to wear certain textures. Men’s clothing or androgynous clothing are often more comfortable, so it’s not uncommon to find us wearing those. As such, we are often labeled butch or non-femme regardless of how we actually identify our presentation. We are cast aside by Toxic Femininity.

This is of course, even more true for fat women, trans women, and physically disabled Autistic women, who’s bodies already don’t abide by the unattainability that Toxic Femininity forces us to live up to.

4. Downplay the Voice of Neurotypicals in Autistic Women’s Issues

Despite their position of being privileged oppressors of the Autistic community, most of our advocacy is done by parents and relatives of Autistic people who believe that they are more entitled to our community and voices. They are the “Autism moms” and those with blue puzzle piece signs in their backyards, constantly yelling over us.

Most of the Autism organizations are run by these people, who often don’t consult with Autistic people about the needs of our community. Even though most of them don’t think they hate Autistic people and may even share common goals with the community, they still oppress us because they’re centering the voices of the privileges instead of the voices that are affected no matter how supportive they are.

An Autistic inclusive feminist space means downplaying Neurotypical rhetoric, meaning stopping the use of hate symbols like puzzle pieces and functioning labels. Cut out the influence of ableist organizations and monitor the use of words like “retarded” in your space. This will be difficult in a pervasively ableist society, but it will be worth it in making a more united social justice movement.

It also means allowing Autistic people to have input in their own issues, and allowing them to reclaim their agency. Know that no matter how many Autistic people you know, if you’re Neurotypical, you will never truly experience being Autistic even if you know more about the condition.

5. Autistic Women Can Still be Racist, Homophobic, or Transphobic – Don’t Be Afraid to Let Them Know

There are usually 2 stereotypes Neurotypicals believe about us, and strangely enough, they’re complete opposites. We’re either hyperviolent, unfeeling school shooters to them or perfect innocent angels who never do anything wrong. Obviously, these are ableist because they assume that all Autistic people are the same, but most people tend to look at us as the latter stereotype because it’s more “politically correct” even though both viewpoints are hurtful in different ways.

As such, when Autistic people are genuinely oppressive, they aren’t held accountable. I’ve had interactions with homophobic Autistic people who accepted me for my Autism but not the fact that I was a girl who loved girls. I’ve met misogynist Autistic men who viewed me as an object and wouldn’t respect my boundaries and right to say ‘no’ to a relationship. As an Autistic white person, I myself hold institutional power over Autistic people of color and as such, am able to be racist.

Autistic people shouldn’t be given a free pass for their bigotry, and assuming that they should denies them their agency and oppresses others in that space.

Autistic women have a lot to contribute to feminism, and neurotypical women should allow them the opportunity to rise against their own oppression. Thanks for reading and for making your feminism inclusive –

Trust me, it means the world to us.

245 notes · View notes

tcplnyteens · 4 years

Text