i do not know where i saw the take that acofaf character choices were 2/3 poignant parallels for queer experience and 1/3 hot mess bird drama as a treat -- but i didn’t need confirmation from chirp that she was in love with a woman (not forgetting squak and theodore in EP TWO) to know that the lords of the wing have had equally queer stories from the start. they are trying to please a disapproving patriarch. they are searching for marital matches that will not benefit them individually. they are notorious for being messy, promiscuous and shit-stirring. they are to jumping through hoops to stay true to themselves behind closed doors. they are hiding big secrets. up to now they were even keeping things from each other. and they are balancing all that with tireless maneuvering that results in a mature, hospitable reputation. idk that sounds outrageously -- and loudly -- queer to me.

anyway there are layers and layers upon closets in the vastness of the queer experience. not all those stories are about coming out.

sometimes they’re about arriving fashionably late on an ostrich-chariot pulled by doves.

2.12 Chimney Begins - 2.09 Hen Begins - 2.16 Bobby Begins Again - 7.04 Buck, Bothered and Bewildered

Tommy's family arc

whenever i see someone who is like "yes but [x] isnt as oppressed as [y]!!" or "[x] is widely accepted now!!" as a way to like. disregard queer people's experiences. i'm just like. have you been outside? have you been in the real world?

.

As we're all very aware, we live in a time when open hatred of many marginalized groups has been growing. And as many others have said, it's super fucking important that we stop fighting amongst ourselves over relatively minor issues when there are people who quite literally wants us dead, or at the very least, silent and subservient.

Punching down and sideways to attack the people who are 99% on our side might make us feel superior for a little while, but it's important to ask ourselves if attacking other marginalized people helps anyone.

With that in mind, I wanted to remind all of us that language, culture, and iconography all change over time, and not everyone keeps up with those changes at the same speed.

As an obvious example, 'they' is now a much more commonly used singular pronoun than it used to be. It's meaning has expanded and changed subtly.

Another example is the comedy genre in general: movies and TV shows from even a few years ago relied on humor that many of us now see as tasteless at best and dehumanizingly cruel at worst.

Then you have things like reclaimed slurs. For some of them, their meanings have changed multiple times.

We've also got all of the microlabels among queer folks, which are rapidly multiplying and evolving. Many of them didn't exist 2 or 5 or 10 years ago, but now they might be the most central part of someone's personality.

Pepe the frog is an example of an image whose meaning has radically shifted in a short period of time. What was originally a harmless cartoon was appropriated by the US alt-right movement and is now considered a hate symbol (though the ADL acknowledges that 'the majority of uses of Pepe the Frog have been, and continue to be, non-bigoted').

On the opposite end of the spectrum, you have characters like Mickey Mouse and Felix the Cat, who were designed to be minstrels. Now, of course, almost no one associates Mickey Mouse with blackface or racism.

Those are just a handful of examples involving the English language and the internet's largely American-centric culture, but there are obviously many, many more. All of this is difficult enough for native English speakers to keep up with, but we should also bear in mind that, for many folks, English isn't their native language.

I've seen awful harassment by queer people against another queer person just because her English wasn't perfect and she used a term that, at that time, wasn't considered the correct one by the people who attacked her.

We should also keep in mind people who have other language or cognitive difficulties (I'm honestly not sure how to phrase this, so please don't assume I'm being derogatory or cruel—I am one of those people).

Even for those of us with the best of intentions, all of this can make online interactions feel like navigating a minefield because many people exclusively engage in paranoid reading of everything from novels to shitposts.

I think all of us would be better served if we stepped back for a moment to consider questions like, "Does this person have malicious intentions?" and "Is this something that causes real harm to real people or does it just bother me, personally?" and "Will calling this person out or shaming them help anyone?"

A lot of us are on the same side, and we might have slightly different beliefs, but we don't need to be enemies. Wasting our outrage on each other is exactly what our real enemies want.

YOUR bryce is a serious surgeon who likes to surf w a wife and kids. MY bryce carries a stanley tumbler, is going through years of cultural healing, and sleeps in shorts that say slut across the ass. we are not the same.

I'm gonna be honest I've been making throuple jokes in DMs and I don't think I'll be stopping any time soon this is THEE FUNNIEST way the writers could have gone about this I'm kicking my feet and twirling my hair and having a BALL.

"nehh mcr always pandered to the gays why is it ok when they do it but not when Taylor does" idk I don't rlly think they're pandering to the gays they just both have rlly largely queer fanbases (altho mcr def has more queer people, I've never met a cishetallo person who likes mcr)

I'm sure there's nuance but at the end of the day real people can't queerbait

That post about everything being "Nah" I felt in my core. I'll always respect people who identify differently but when they ask me "what's your pronouns?" Or "where do you lie romanticaly?" I'm just "eh call me whatever you want I guess" or *I don't feel romantically for much anything" maybe cause online people always thought I'm one gender and irl people always thought I was the other so I just responded with "sure I guess"

and it's honestly such an easier way to live ngl... like when it comes to people who Know that i use they/them, it hurts to hear my given pronouns. but when it comes to strangers and just people who i haven't told, it's like... "yeah. ok. ill put on this hat" it feels a bit like a performance. it feels Mischievous, even! ohoho, they've been Tricked!

When someone accidentally misgenders you and tries to correct themself

"other countries have poor people but worse, don't speak usamerican" fuck you actually. Shiver in my freezing ass cockroach infested poisoned water mold ladened lead paint flaking ass apartment with me. "At least you're not the REAL poor or getting bombed or whatever" repeat what you said back slowly and then jump into the poisioned river down my street. Starve with me. Bitch.

hello! quick reminder that as all the media surrounding demi lovato’s interview where they said they were “tired” of using they/them pronouns show misleading headlines about how demi was “exhausted from using they/them” what actually happened is that demi lovato said it was exhausting having to constantly explain themselves and constantly educate people on they/them pronouns.

I hope I get to spoil TF outta my boyfriend this Christmas because this is gonna be my first Christmas with a boyfriend 😭 also how FUCKING CUTE is this mudkip