#tfemsly

[transfemsly]

following up on the last reblog...

i have a lot of nitpick with sparklecare/cometcare and how mentl health is portrayed.

its talked about a lot in sparklecritcism blogs, but i just hate how much how kneeby shows mental health in kits comics.

i hate how mental health is dumbbed down to names like "nervous nelly" for anxiety and "checks a lot" for ocd and "ultra mega sads" for depression, and so on and so forth. not to mention, kneeby just fucking REFUSES to give these stupid fucking names to disorders she has. the fucking double standard, i tell you.

dont mind me now, being a big mental health geek and advocate, im gonna go on a rant so forewarning for foul language.

sparklecare possible is the biggest fucking joke of mental health representation i can find ever. both it is portrayed horribly and the fandom treats the characters mental health like a joke. i literally cant say it any more than that. it genuinely frustrates me and aggravates me that kneeby has the double standard to make up stupidass names for real disorders, then just ignores how stupid it is that she also refuses to give silly names to illnesses she also has. maybe kit shouldve never even made up names for serious disorders! maybe then this wouldnt be such a big issue in the fandom!

my mental health shouldnt be dumbed down to just "checking a lot" or being "ultra mega sad" or shit like that. i get it, thats the popular symptom and stereotype, i get thats asy to show, and yes! kneeby gives somewhat good rep in the comic! but its still SO. DUMBED. DOWN. and SO. STEREOTYPED.

not even just looking at how sly is made fun of relentlessly for her depression and her addiction, but just how uni is relentlessly used to get peoples rocks off on how shes ill and enjoys barrys degradation, this is a real issue and a big mental health symptom. how people get off on making fun of hemeras mental health and then demonizing her for every little thing. how people make jokes out of moods pica and the bug eating incidents. not only just those. how much cometcare just fucking gets off on stereotyping ptsd SO HARD. episodes, breakdowns, all of that being stereotyped into easily being taken out of and being done in the blink of a fucking eye. this isnt ALWAYS the case, but its frequent enough in my eyes.

okay. this gets me really mad. kind of related to this kind of not. i hate how uni gets offs so hard on barry degrading her. its actually really disgusting me i hate how romanticized it is. why is it so romanticized. oh my god. this isnt just a kink culture thing, its just downright fucking disgusting and downright upsetting. its weird. its weird. its weird.

overall, kneeby makes fun of mental health so bad and its so obvious this is what she thinks of mental health as a whole. maybe kit doesnt say it publicly, but i know for a fact, many peoples works are a way for them to show their real fucking opnions. and i tell for a fact squeak most fucking 100% thinks other disorders that arent her own are a joke. you can tell me this isnt true, but this how been CONSTANT. kit and the fandom both. it is extremely upsetting. i dont care if other zcp staff have these disorders and allow it, kneeby runs this shit, and the jokes are just aggravating. mental health and the symptoms and the things we deal with that kneeby openly allows joking around with and kit herself joking around with, arent a fucking circus for kneeby and the fandom to play around with.

its not just the fact that yes, jokes and stuff are a real life upsetting experience, its the fact that outside the comic, the characters mental health is used a toy to juggle and laugh at when its disorders that large amounts of people deal with. i try and try to see the hilarity in the jokes, but it was barely every funny in the first place.

#tfemsly #transfemsly #sparklecare #sparklecare hospital #sparklecare criticism #sparklecriticism #sparklecare discourse #discourse

[transfemsly]

i just gotta say, as a big sly lover, i hate how kneeby portrays and treats sly as a character.

she claims to love sly and be obsessed with her, yet shes almost treated like a doll and reason to justify making fun of the real sides of depression in cometcare.

while i get the dynamic of siblings and parents not fully understanding what depression and other comorbidities, i hate how abused this is. its like. theres no way slys parents and her siblings dont recognize shes saturating and still not laying off the mental abuse on her? or trying to get her help? yknow??

i dont know. that just bothers me a lot. considering her character biography also is basically kneeby yapping and using every advantage to just make fun of sly, i dont think people are realizing how immature this all is.

as someone who deals with serious depressive episodes that causes me to not shower, making me constantly stay in bed, distressed through busy and regular or lazy days, the behavior kneeby and the comic portrays of sly and her being just traumatized and harassed practically, it feels like depression is being made into a dramatized and unrealistic disorder, as many people in real life with think depression is fake.

maybe im looking to hard into it. maybe not. any outside input is loved and appreciated in this case.

#sparklecare #sparklecare hospital #sparklecare criticism #sparklecare discourse #sparklecriticism #discourse #tfemsly #transfemsly

[transfemsly]

bringing this up as another sparklecritic blogs anon mentioned this and ive wanted to mention it as well...

i dont understand the arguement of people just saying "why isnt uni out in the comic!!". its a process. just because someones exposed to another trans person, does NOT mean they are comfortable coming out. it doesnt matter if theyve known for years. it is a PROCESS.

people need to realize what they say. imagine telling a REAL LIFE trans person, who maybe isnt out 100% publicly or something, "why arent you out yet? theres other trans people. youll be supported, dont worry i just know youll be fine!"

do you realize how STUPID that sounds?

im taking this and literally translating it to my own experience. this is risky, but i need people to realize in the fandom, that some of you are insensitive. sure, sparklecare isnt super realistic with the representation, but its still a process.

in my experience, i have always known i was trans. i knew since i was VERY young. but guess what! i was still scared to come out. there were large support systems! but i was still scared. my teachers were openly supportive or trans and queer kids! i was still scared. i had several trans and queer friends who were open about it! I WAS STILL SCARED. it isnt easy, at all. i didnt come out til middle of freshman year in highschool. even then, i was still exploring myself and trying to be comfortable with myself. i still am! it takes a LONG TIME to be comfortable and feel supported and KNOW youll be supported when you come out.

it does NOT matter if uni was 10, if uni was 17, if uni was 25, her current age, or even 40. it takes a long time. even if theres tons of trans people shes surrounded by, even if shes already open about being queer, it doesnt fucking matter.

sparklecare and cometcare representation isnt the best, but you have to realize even if this is a fantasy comic in a fantasy world, these characters are in a real world situation. in real world type traumas. in real world type settings. they may be furry creatures not very dimilar to us humans, but they operate the same as us. we process the same. get it through your fucking head that it doesnt matter how diverse a place is, that people will still struggle and feel alone before being open about literally ANYTHING ever.

#tfemsly #transfemsly #sparklecare #sparklecare hospital #sparklecare criticism #sparklecare discourse #sparklecriticism #discourse

[transfemsly]

kicking off this blog right away.

i wish there was ACTUAL trans representation within the comic and within cometcare. i get the ideal of having the characters "be born with their ideal name" in a unisex type deal that makes it fit for both masc, fem, and everything between, but at the same time, the trans rep is....it feels very limited and very vagued almost.

its such a crucial thing, too, it show a character transition and explore their identity, and it feels like in sparklecare/cometcare, youre just slapping eyelashes or tossing the boobs or just heavily masculinizing or feminizing them to show theyve "transitioned".

im not made with the full transitions, its just that we never get that inbetween, even if the few trans characters who arent already transitioned do still have that "lore" to transition, i know that nothings gonna come of it.

even with the already transitioned characters, like barry, we never see that transition point! im not implying i want to see deadnames or characters or see what they look like at birth to abuse that information, the representation of being trans is just so...not there!!!!! im trans myself, and transitioning in real life and in media is so important to people like me. especially being unable to transition/pre-transition, it affirms us and we dont feel glazed over in such rough times for lots of trans people, its a big adjust, and i wish we got to see them or get to see that. it just seems like its such a glazed over topic in sparklecare and it honestly upsets me.

sparklecare is so very important to me as its one of the few medias that portrays a lot of queer characters plus grabs my interest with it being a furry comic, it portrays a lot of my trauma as well and i connect heavily to it, and the potential of sparklecare being wasted just upsets me.

anyways, thats all. this has been brewing in my mind for awhile and being trans, it impacts me a lot for a comic ive loved for a good four years. might bring up another similar topic, but its also a topic i rant about a lot in general media for being a minority that might expose or point to my main. eeehhh. ill do it anyways probably. it isnt too uncommon in my circumstances i guess.

#transfemsly #tfemsly #sparklecare #sparklecare hospital #cometcare #cometcare au #sparklecare criticism #sparklecare discourse #sparklecriticism

[transfemsly]

I kinda wanna hear your opinion about hemera and how the fandom treats her

i have very strong feelings about this oh my god

i HATE how the fandom treats hemera. theres such a fucking double standard for hemera compared to literally any other character ever.

people treat hemera like actual shit whenever she acts out or acts out of favor of the fandom, and yet when another character acts the same, the fandom doesnt even bat an EYE.

i feel like it comes inherently from the less screentime (by a little) she gets anyways, that people believe disliking a character = removal of that character as a whole. they forget that she has a full purpose in the comic and that shes still such an enjoyable character as the others. im not gonna lie, i used to have a dislike for hemera, but not as violently as the fandom gets, like around the unfavorable scenes she has.

otherwise, i have no freaking clue what makes people hate her with a burning passion when shes basically no different from the other characters. what i notice is that hemera acts somewhat like barry in terms of unfavorable scenes, but hemera gets 10000% of the possible backlash where barry gets like 2% of it. infact, barrys WORSE than hemera yet she STILL HEAVILY outnumbers the amount of hate???

ugh. i just hate how they treat her. i hope as the comic goes on that people stop hating her so much...

#sparklecare #sparklecare hospital #sparklecare criticism #sparklecriticism #sparklecare discourse #transfemsly #tfemsly

[transfemsly]

this is just a minor pet peeve of mine, but i hate how sparklecare and cometcare shows relationships as nearly always perfect, happy at the end, and no real representation of breakups or bad relationships.

i guess its not really necessary it the bigger picture, and its mentioned breifly in some character bios and all, but its just like...with the caroline and doom think in that kissmas? i think it was? little mini comic. while there was internal rivalry on carolines end, it was so anticlimactic and acted like relationships are so happy go lucky and always work out in the end.

where are the breakups? where are the bad but healthy relationships? what about ending on good terms? not everything is linear. while i get we dont 100% know all character backstory, im just bothered by the fact its like. all characters in relationships get into one relationship (monogamous or polyamorous) and then suddenly its their [projected] life-long relationship.

i guess its silly to think of this and be bothered by all the happy couples in sparklecare and cometcare, but considering the mixtures of poor mental health, aromantic characters, asexual characters, etcetc, i feel there SHOULD be some development in characters that highlight poor relationships, or relationships that just dont work out, or relationships that make characters realize theyre asexual or aromantic!

i dont know. thats just me.

#tfemsly #transfemsly #sparklecare #sparklecare hospital #sparklecare criticism #sparklecriticism

[transfemsly]

oh my god okay i get i like half abandonded this blog (cause of exams and all) but lord i just had an amazing sparklecare idea.

so, you know how i brought up how confusing it is that characters cant see others brightening or darkening and stuff. right. get this.

a type of anthry OR a condition in the sparklecare universe where they can SEE the brightening or the darkening of characters colors.

i need this NEOW.

okay guys i will now disappear probably for a good week (4 more days til final exams! wish me luck).

#tfemsly #transfemsly #sparklecare #sparklecare hospital

[transfemsly]

ugh whenever i see your posts (or just any sparklecrit really) i feel really bad and stuff, esp since most the stuff you say is accurate. like i especially feel icky about the stuff where it's almost like making kneeby out to be a bad person. idk if that's ever been your intent but like ugh. i don't wanna block you cus you are one of the cooler sparklecrit blogs out there (like you have kneeby blocked just so squeak won't see these posts) but like idk.

i just wish i wouldn't be made to feel wrong about my enjoyment of sparklecare every time i see a sparklecrit post. esp since a lot of people making sparklecrit posts are themselves fans

sorry for putting this pointless rant in your inbox

i would be like nice and shit over this but im saying this now: i literally dont give a shit what you think. i intentionally am straightforward in my posts but in a way that isnt bitchy, but i wont lie in my posts what i think about kneeby and her media.

i love kneebys work, its great, its my special interest, but i still have a lot of strong feelings over her work. it needs work itself. if you have such mixed feelings over me being correcf, then block me. i promise, i literally do not give a shit at all.

i dont say this with mean intent, its just that im not gonna let people bitch and whine over me being right in my inbox. i get it, its kind of upsetting that sparklecritic blogs are right, but it doesnt give you right to be upset that your favorite media isnt all sunshines and rainbows.

even then, i try to lay off on being so harsh especially on things like artstyle and stuff like that. i give myself a boundary that i know tends to make people angry because i said something we know is all right. at least in my head.

i still allow for people to disagree to me, and i dont take it poorly.

however, taking into account you want to block me over pointing out kneebys actions are quite literally making her a bad person, just outright block me now. i dont like kneeby kitself that much because i am firm on the fact that peoples works reflect their true ideologies. you can tell me that not true, but that is the one thing i dont and will never think that it isnt true.

actually, its not her media, its literally how she treats her characters like reasons to make fun of groups of people, especially mentally ill people. so.

also, you mention how sparklecritic blogs make you feel "icky" over your favorite media being constructively criticized. uhhhmmm. saying this as nice as i can. you shouldnt feel that way. you NEED to be critical of media in general, and not feel pity for it. all media has flaws. you shouldnt be pitiful of media needing constructive criticism. i still love sparklecare despite me literally criticizing it. i dont feel bad about loving it while nitpicking its issues. i know that feels very rude to say and thats also cause im very apathetic, but...you shouldnt really get pissy over media needing constructive criticism...

#tfemsly #transfemsly #sparklecare #sparklecare hospital #sparklecare criticism #sparklecriticism #sparklecare discourse #discourse

[transfemsly]

I just wanna say thank you for being one of the only few critic blogs I can find that isn't straight up just transmisogynistic or bigoted in some way. To clarify I don't hate critic blogs my issue is some of them say stuff like "Uni / Sly shouldn't have been transfem and [this] instead" which for starters is just inherently transmisogynistic and lastly typically becomes a dogwhistle for other bigoted people. I think what would help more is instead of changing a pre-existing characters identity is to just make new characters to balance out the lack of representation.

yes! ive noticed that a lot as well. it upsets me greatly, to be honest. people have been openly saying that kneeby shouldve never made either transfem, when there is nothing wrong with that. i get the anger or frustration with it feeling like the few gay (nwlnw) ships being dropped, but people are taking it so violently to be transmisogynistic like...ew.

i agree, its frustrating that were limited on our nwlnw ships! uni and sly could both be transfem and not insinuate that theyre no longer gay as theyre both nby still! (at least i think so. uni is tfem nby i believe.) but its just that people have a hard time rasping that transfem does not equal transwoman, and vice versa for transmasc/man.

and id partially agree, characters can still openly shift identity as the owner/curator wants. its just that in sparklecares case, there isnt even distribution as we all want, thus making it something that people dont enjoy i believe. but yes, it would be nice just for more characters to be added to fulfill the lack of representation.

#sparklecare #sparklecare hospital #sparklecriticism #sparklecare criticism #sparklecare discourse #discourse #anonymous #transfemsly #tfemsly

[transfemsly]

continuing the off-binary/non-binary talk...

ive generally witnessed a large problem in sparklecare that when nonbinary and complete off-binary characters are represented, they always. ALWAYS. get paired with a "male-" or "female-" infront of them. i understand multigendered nonbinary people, but, theres only like. 5 fucking complete off-binary characters in all of kneeby media i swear.

adding onto that, the fandom and i feel even the zcp never use they/them for those masc/fem nonbinary characters anyways. the fandom even makes completely off-binary characters masc or fem!!!! which!!!! seriously???????

kind of like the intersex topic, i feel like kneeby in general uses the nonbinary label like an accessory. its practically non-existent in its use outside trying to show "nonbinary rep" in a primarily (very) binary queer comic.

i think, almost, the nonbinary label in sparklecare is there just to justify shipping masculine characters with lesbian characters. theres NOTHING wrong with heavily making lesbian ships, but, i feel like theres practically no diversity in terms of gay ships.

our few gay relationships were practically robbed when kneeby decided to drop the bombshell of sly and uni both being transfem, and erasing that transfem nbys can be gay and transmasc nbys can be lesbian. great! straight rep! but ooouhhh...even less rep of the little rep we already have.

the general diversity of kneeby media is just so. somehow, limited. kit broadens being queer into a furry comic then decides to dumb everything down and erase representation people preached and desired then got ignored. how does one even do that?

#sparklecare #sparklecare hospital #sparklecriticism #sparklecare criticism #sparklecare discourse #discourse #transfemsly #tfemsly

[transfemsly]

this is admittedly a dumb nitpick but the fact the characters in universe dont notice the saturation bothers me specifically because some colors get completely changed. like. Caroline looks completely different in the hospital and in cometcare color wise. for most of the colors i can understand it and stretch my imagination but for blue and red the way they get changed its just like. idk!! unless all these mfers are colorblind idk how they couldn't notice???

no, exactly. thats why it didnt make any sense that other characters couldnt see saturation. these characters like...really change color and NO ONE sees it?

now.my thing is. what color DO they see if they cant notice saturation and all? just the color they originally were prior to trauma? do they see the healed color also?? in that case, isnt is concerning that one day you see another person who youve been next to your entire trauma just suddenly go from their regular, say, i dont know...lets take uni for example as i remember her prior-to-trauma color, a deep dark purple. okay. now. yadda yadda trauma blah blah healing yadda yadda. okay. then BOOM shes PINK. like...

that cant be not concerning a least a little.

its not only just when characters saturte tht their colors change a lot, but when they HEAL is the big thing. like. they have such a big color jump theres no way people dont not see it. like. CMON.......

edit: i also understand theres gradual change, but its like, what happens in the inbetween then? with the trauma? like how uni goes from deep dark purple -> bright purple -> pink, if they do see the healed color, then itd be really confusing to see her go from deep dark purple to gradually pink all of a sudden.

#tfemsly #transfemsly #sparklecare #sparklecare hospital #sparklecare criticism #sparklecriticism #sparklecare discourse #anonymous #discourse

[transfemsly]

cuddles shoudlve stayed tmasc

REAL. SO FUCKING REAL. ive seen this kicked around with other sparklecriticism blogs and with a lot of thought, i honestly agree.

i get the justification of not having a trans villain, but even then, it glazes over the fact that in reality, trans and generally queer people too can be evil.

i can also see why kneeby doesnt want cuddles to be trans as not to demonize trans and queer people, HOWEVER. there are implied "villains" in the comic already like the nurses and doctors, who are very obviously queer and trans, so it kind of throws me for a loop.

its not like its a bad thing to have trans villains, trans and queer villains are portrayed in SO much queer media!!! it will not hurt to have ONE queer or trans villain! while i get if only cuddles was the only trans or queer person, why itd come off as wrong, but like i said and other sparklecritcism blogs have said, there already are tons of trans queer characters. he practically blends in if hes trans and/or queer.

in general, i wish media didnt entirely label cis and straight people 100% always the villains in queer media. i feel like as we modernize, queer people always demonize straight and cis people even if theyre either trans and straight or cis and queer. on either end of the spectrum, people tend to demonize the other and portray them so terribly either because they harmed them once or generalized the cis/straight community so much or generalize all cis/straights with homophobes/transphobes. this is already such a controversial topic to bring up, but the more queer media i read, the more i find that people hate to make cis or straight characters while being queer or trans (respectively).

preach trans straights and cis queers. they need the love like trans queers and cis straights. we need equal rep of them all in all media.

#sparklecare #sparklecare hospital #sparklecriticism #sparklecare criticism #sparklecare discourse #discourse #anonymous #transfemsly #tfemsly

[transfemsly]

It's meant to be like "it's clear to us but it's not as clear to the people in their reality" Which is similar to the real world. You can't really tell that most people around you have experienced trauma unless they reach out and say something. Yes we notice how traumatized the characters are from their saturation but in their reality they don't have that clear sign that someone is going through something. Human beings don't suddenly become a brighter color after experiencing trauma after all. In reality, most forms of trauma go unnoticed until someone says something.

ohhh this actually helps a lot...

thank you for the explanation!

i never really made that connection, i dont think i wouldve either way as im not good at processing or connecting the dots like that haha.

#sparklecare #sparklecare hospital #tfemsly #transfemsly #anonymous

[transfemsly]

I know i'm gonna probably seem like a bitch writing this but I feel like a good amount of the critic blogs make a unnecessarily big deal over the AUs (with some exceptions since I'll admit the Sly cum joke was indeed very weird). Kittycorn makes a lot of art of the AUs because it's a hyperfixation. Berating kit for it effectively does nothing. Saying this as a person who goes through them myself but sometimes it literally HURTS to not share and talk about the things I like and Kittycorn to my knowledge goes through that too. Yes it would be great if we were more updated on progress of the comic but realistically the creators have listened more when people reach out to them. Most of them are pretty young and don't have much professional experience which is something they shouldn't be treated like shit for. Actually going out of your way to discuss it with them whether it's from an ask, reply, or through their discord (if you're a member of it) has been a lot more helpful than masking away behind a blog dedicated to mostly negativity with the claim that you "just want to help the comic improve." I wouldn't make it an issue if some of these blogs didn't handle it so immaturely and unprofessionally. I'll be honest you're one of the few critic blogs I've seen to actually act mature. Like not to bitch on the others but c'mon some of them make big fucking deals over minor nitpicks. Don't get me wrong I don't hate critic blogs I think they can be effective it handled well. But come fucking on there's been literal transphobia, ableism, and just straight up hate in general from some of them.

while i agree the unnecessary hate towards kneeby regarding cometcare is frustrating, the main issue is just that kneeby crams all of kits content into squeaks, supposed, sparklecare-centric blog.

people, including myself, just dislike the cram of kneeby putting all her media (cometcare, darker matters, etc) into a blog thats meant to be used for updates and important notices on sparklecare. even then, the hate for cometcare and other media is most definitely insane and just plain stupid. i see that.

and even with the possiblity of contacting kneeby, most people are NOT comfortable with that. im not comfortable with that. many critics arent comfortable with that. kneeby is an adult and it is projected majority of the fandom and critics are minors, thus many arent gonna go up and find kneebys contact or even just dm kit on tumblr and list all these issues. i just personally dont think its professional to dump all of my issues with the comic on her either way, thus, i created this blog.

i wanted outside input on topics i find issues with in sparklecare and other kneeby media, as its not easy nor do i find myself comfortable just asking kneeby this and that and this issue and this and all that, yknow.

but yes, i guess i can say i handle criticism of sparklecare and other kneeby media "effectively" and "in a mature way". i dont like calling it that, but given the impression other blogs have created, i guess you could describe me as such.

#tfemsly #transfemsly #sparklecare #sparklecare hospital #sparklecare criticism #sparklecare discourse #sparklecriticism #anonymous #discourse

[transfemsly]

What's with other critic blogs and bringing the transfem Uni discourse back up after it settles down LIKE WE GET IT ALREADY PLEASE

its not even only that, its just that they use that upbringing of uni or sly being transfem to be transmisogynistic or terfy, every single time. its so odd. people are just so mad at characters being characters. lord.

#sparklecare #sparklecare hospital #sparklecare criticism #sparklecare discourse #sparklecriticism #discourse #anonymous #tfemsly #transfemsly

[transfemsly]

Honestly I'm just glad you actually listened to the explanation on why the saturation is like that instead of just shutting it down.

had a feeling someone would say this...gosh. some sparklecriticism blogs are so rigid and rude...

#tfemsly #transfemsly #sparklecare #sparklecare hospital #anonymous