#*makes another incredibly specific trans regular show post*

[angelogistics]

#benson #benson rs #regular show #regular show benson #trans #myart #*makes another incredibly specific trans regular show post* #I WILL SHOW TRANS BENSON....

[oviids]

pls share some of your spn fic recs 🥺🥺

ok, a few things first:

followers and mutuals who do not have supernatural brainworms, kindly avert your eyes

i don’t normally rec or even read much fanfic any more but this is a CRISIS ok (cont.)

there is so. much. content for deancas out there and i have incredibly high standards, several ancient ao3 bookmarks, can speedread, and want to spare you guys the experience of wading through it all.

i also have a section for spn femslash since I was pretty into that back in the day (sadly a lot less fan content for this :/)

I don’t really like au’s or pure smut (I honestly usually just skim or skip those scenes) so if you’re mainly looking for that kind of thing this probably won’t be very helpful to you. jsyk.

i’m not great at describing stuff but i’ll do my best, i’ll also try and add tw’s when neccesary.

i wil try and keep updating this with any other decent fics i find, feel free to rec stuff too since i’m like 7 years behind.(edit 1/25/21) this is getting looooong so i’m going to start making another list on my spn blog rather than update this one

(edit 1/3/21) since this has gotten pretty long i’ve added rating/approximate word counts and marked my particular favorites with an asterisk.

Dean/Cas fic:

So Says The Sword*** - explicit/85k. FUCK its good...au/time travel where dean is not pulled out of hell by cas and says yes to becoming the michael sword. honestly could serve as an alternative to actually watching the show, if you want to get into dean/cas without actually doing that to yourself.

Fata morgana.*  - teen/6k, pst s9 finale. very bela centric and i love it, she finds cas looking for dean in hell.

Redemption Road -misc/600+k. an incredibly long fic from a collaborative writing group back in the day. canon divergent from the end of s6 on, has a cool take on godstiel and the leviathans, as well as the lovecratian mythos connection. ngl when i reread it i only made it about 28% in but imo the casual reader can actually stop around there, the rest concerns a lovecraftian apocalypse that is still good (i think i don’t remember it very well) but not required to enjoy the first half. if you prefer i have an ebook version i can send you on gdrive.

Someone Who's Feeling For Me* - mature/45k, s12. they run into lisa braeden and dean thinks cas is into her while cas thinks dean still likes her. treats lisa way better than the show ever did and the miscommunication is pretty funny rather than annoying.

a turn of the earth - mature/95k. time travel fic where cas from s10 keeps showing up in deans life from a few years before s1 to right before the hellhounds take his soul.  slow burn, good character study, and at one point cas punches the dad in the face and it rules.

On the Wings of War - teen/85k, canon divergent s5. dean accidentally becomes the Horseman of War. plays fun, fast and loose with biblical lore, michael has some rights.

Named - mature/95k, alternate s5. EXTREMELY blasphemous in a fun sexy way. manages to predict metatron almost to a T. there’s one major character death and its literally jesus christ, everyone is very sad about it and it sets the rest of the story rolling. an alternate interpretation of cas’ mission to raise dean from hell which had me on the floor. ngl its kind of misogynistic at points, but its from 2010 and tracks with late oughts-2010 spn (sorry anna the author did you dirty here:/).

The Girlfriend Experience - explicit/15k. uhhh i don’t normally rec or even read smutty stuff unless someone i know is specifically asking for it but this has stuff like sam trying to be a good ally and dean thinking holding hands with cas is ‘kinda gay :/’ minutes after having gay sex with him.

i crippled your heart a hundred times - explicit/19k, s8. cas confesses his feelings and dean spends a long time getting his head out of his ass about it. truly hits different after the actual confession, despite being written six years early it feels like its actually what could have gone down more or less if the writers weren’t talentless demons who hate us.

My Roots Take Flight** - mature/125k. reverse au where cas is a hunter and dean’s an angel...OR IS IT???? an alternate retelling of s4. tw for briefly being set in a psychiatric hospital/the hospital being mentioned somewhat frequently throughout the fic, plus more references to torture in hell and heaven than usual.

The One Thing You Can't Lose* - teen/4k.you know those posts about how cas is a super-strong super-tough ancient warrior but he just lets dean tug him around because he likes it? thats it thats the fic.

Hands, From Which All Things Are Built - teen/14k, post s8′s ‘goodbye stranger.’ cas is on the run with the angel tablet but keeps in touch with sam and dean by text, he and dean still manage to be terrible at Actual communication.

Autrement, Danger - or, The Account of an Exceedingly Long Day - mature/30k, post s11. a monster that takes the appearance of your soulmate leads to some wild miscommunications and dealing with years of repression, also dean gets to see cas’ true form which is always cool. tw for non-graphic mentions of underage sexual assault/sex work.

Down to Agincourt - mature/explicit/900++++k, endverse continuation. endverse!cas survives his encounter with lucifer and discovers another time-displaced dean from s7. i’ve only read the two of four parts but its really good, veeeeery slow burn, has a lot of fun oc’s and takes a rather surprising but (imo) entertaining and intriguing turn into Hellenic history and mythology. usual tw’s for endverse/endverse!cas but nothing graphic, it’s actually pretty light-hearted (relatively speaking of course).

Nothing Equals the Splendor** - explicit/8k, THEE finale fix it fic you’ve been waiting for! posits that the entire final episode was just a (very bad and lame) djinn’s vision.

like moses and batman and james dean - explicit/31k, post s8. explores dean’s trauma and internalized homophoba from his technically canon experience with sex work and its impact on his relationship with cas. the sex work itself isn’t really shown in any detail but it’s still a relatively heavy fic.

Crazy Diamonds - explicit/25k, s4/alternate s14. fresh-out-of-hell dean and dean from 10 years in the future are displaced from time and sent to each other’s present.

where the weeds take root - explicit/30k. au where the men of letters kick them out of the bunker and they accidentally move out into the country, get over their codependence and semi retire. featuring chicken coop building, sam volunteering at a dog shelter, gardening, and blissfully mundane domesticity.

No Resting Place - teen/6k. djinn dream fic, switches back and forth between cas’ dream of being married to dean and retired from hunting to the aftermath when he wakes up. tw for brief mention of suicide since, y’know, djinn dream.

any port in a storm - mature/52k. post s8 finale. cas and dean have to pose as a couple going through a rough patch for a case and actually deal with their emotional baggage, cas struggles with being human and metatron is up to stuff.

all this and heaven too* - explicit/7k. in the author’s own words ‘...a love letter to every trans person who ever projected onto Dean Winchester.’ absolutely unzipped me emotionally and theologically, its just. so good. tw for very brief mentions of internalized transphobia/dysphoria.

Because it is* - mature/6k, finale fix it. killing chuck does not bring back anyone back and the winchesters spend a very long time dealing with what they’ve lost, cas and dean SOMEHOW still manage to have signifigant communication issues even after the confession. tw for suicidal thoughts/brief attempt.

Vena Amoris and Other Old-Fashioned Bullshit* - teen/4k, s6. when cas fell for dean it automatically soulbonded/angel married them, shenanigans ensue when dean finds out during the angel’s civil war. funny and actually written back when s6 was airing so cas is still (or at least pretending to be) kind of an OP asshole which is fun.

Rinse, Repeat - teen/3k, s8. angsty character study of cas as he’s reprogrammed and trained to kill dean. not really dean/cas since its just cas’ pov of canon events but its beautifully written and ends with him snapping out of it through the power of love (also now a canon event!).

Emergence - explicit/59k, canon divergent after s11. dean meets a hunter he only recognizes as their friend claire novak’s missing father, but soon realizes he might be the answer behind the mysterious void in his memories and feelings (aka everyone’s memories of cas are completely wiped away for three years).

Cuckoo And Nest - explicit/10k, early established relationship/character study, cas tries to figure out how he fits into dean’s life and space in the bunker.

Build a Home* - teen/20k, canon divergent s12. sam and eileen are cute and turn the bunker into men of letters/hunters hq and everyone but cas moves in, mutual miscommunication issues and pining ensues.

Down in the River - teen/5k, early s8, cas prays to dean in purgatory while sam and dean try to figure out a way to get him out.

Teaching Poetry to Fish* - mature/52k, ?? BC through the entire series/canon divergent s14 and 15. retelling of crucial scenes throughout the shows timeline from cas’ pov, feat. actual fish and poetry.

the minor fall, the major lift - gen/4k, post confession/finale fixit. dean goes into the empty to save cas and runs into several old friends (and enemies).

With the Kisses of His Mouth* - teen/3k, gen later seasons. dean and cas keep kissing by accident.

Remaining Grace - explicit/109k, alternate s6. au where cas asks dean for help with raphael and dean, of course, does. tw for temporary major character death/semi-graphic depictions of alcohol withdrawal.

The face of heaven.* - teen/10k, au, dean is a regular guy and cas is a fallen star (think ‘stardust’, kinda).

Stories Are Made of Mistakes*  - teen/5k. newly human cas has trouble getting used to a human body and humanity in general, but still figures out that he and dean are A Thing before dean does.

Hurry Up And Wait - mature/21k, canon divergent s12. a fairyland and quite possibly LOTR related case comes up and dean goes full fanboy, mary is introduced to the wonders of the peter jackson adaptions, many references and comparisons (including between cas and dean’s ‘friendship’ and arwen/aragon). also charle is still alive and has just been doing fairy stuff this whole time.

There Are Many Things - explicit/28k, s9. cas is extremely lonely/touch-starved and trying to figure out this whole human thing, as well as where he and dean stand after being kicked out of the bunker.

It's A Long Life to Always Be Longing - teen/40k, post s11 finale. amara helps dean by putting him in a magical coma so he can finally get some much needed rest and show him possible futures for him, sam and cas. meanwhile sam and cas go on a roadtrip (or several) to find componets for a spell to wake dean up. really good sam and cas friendship, they actually talk about their shared lucifer trauma and stuff.

Non-Photo Blue - gen/2k, s4/5/alternate s5. fifty moments from cas’ memories of dean.

Tall Grass - explicit/57k, canon divergent post series. cas becomes the ultimate plant dad. feat the wayward sisters gang, cathartic character growth, fun oc’s, domesticity, and lots of actual botanical info-dumping.

on vessels - no rating/gen/2k. established dean/cas, cas tells dean about how he used to imagine what it would be like to have him as his vessel.

search for tomorrow on every shore* - teen/11k, post-finale (extremely derogatory). some angels in jack’s new heaven act out and dean gets temporarily resurrected in 2003 and runs into his younger self.

Architecture of the Minotaur’s Heart - explicit/45k, very canon divergent post s1. dean’s new house seems to have a life and mind of its own, while in his dreams he sees glimpses of a world and apocalypse that never came to be and an angel that looks strangely like his mysterious neighbor, cas. loosely inspired by the book house of leaves (which i highly recommend for fans of weird horror).

The Distance Of The Setting Sun - explicit/17k, post s5. established dean/cas relationship, team free will finally takes advantage of cas’ abilities to go on vacation around the world.

diamond star halo - teen/5k, s11. dean lets cas use him as a temporary vessel while he recovers from rowena’s spell, sam is a long-suffering third-wheel.

Make Known** - teen/16k, s6/7. dean struggles to understand how cas could have become his enemy and whether he ever truly knew him in the first place.

blunt little instrument* - mature/1.4k, post finale. dean finally confronts his father in heaven, very cathartic.

my heart a compass*** - teen/10k, post confession. the empty forces cas to re-experience his most regretted moments while dean tries to snap him out of it and bring him home.

A Crash Course in Someone Else's History - teen/11k, s6. cas from the very start of s4 is brought forward in time by s6!cas to distract the brothers from his and crowley’s plans.

The Cuckoo Father - mature/8k, s7 au. the woman who found cas in the river post-leviathans does not marry him bc he was sent to her by god or whatever, but actually identifies him as jimmy novak and sends him back to claire and amelia.

The Dead Dean Clause* - teen/5k, post alt s5 ending. team free will celebrates surviving taking down lucifer by getting blitzed, cas lies to a cop and gets an impromptu driving lesson. title/description sound dark i know but it’s actually very funny and light.

Suck It, Judy Garland - mature/20k, s12 (after the ‘i love you...i love all of you’ episode). cas and sam have to pretend to be a couple for a case and dean is NOT happy about it.

By Daylight and In Dream - teen/16k, s5. pre-dean/cas, dean invites cas to use his dreams to hide from the other angels. tw for very brief mention of a memory/dream of alastair sexually assaulting dean.

The Five People You Meet in Heaven - mature/22k, post-canon. an actually happy (if sometimes bittersweet) heaven endgame written several years ago, though some details are rather eerily similar to the show’s ending.

heaven is a place on earth* - teen/2k. dean’s pov of some of the times cas left him behind throughout the show, and one alternate ending where he finally gets to stay.

I Cleanse The Mirror - teen/20k, alternate s6. dean’s body is stolen by an ancient elemental and his soul has to hitch a ride in cas’ vessel.

an exploration of gender; angelic*** - mature/4k. *oscar isaac voice* lets get into angel gender politics!! aka cas is trans.

Zenith - explicit/33k, s9. after 9x06 an angry witch curses cas with the ability to see supernatural beings and human souls.

La cucina. - gen/3k, alt s9. dean goes wild helping a newly-human cas find out what kinds of food he likes, or the early s9 domesticity we deserved!

Dean Winchester, Cocksucker at Rest***** - teen/7k, post-finale. john and mary finally come over for dinner and john reacts to dean/cas in a rather predictable fashion. SOOOOOOOOO good omg, its so funny and a little sad and very very cathartic. part of a series that has a few other really good short fics.

The Way You Didn't Go - teen/5k, s15. coda to 15.09, dean has nightmares about the moc!cas timeline.

On Drowning - teen/28k. dean saves cas after he nearly drowns, they both try and deal with the physical/mental fallout (aka the fic where thee iconic “you only touch me when you think I’m dead or dying” originates). tw for realistic depictions of drowning/triage/misc medical information.

The Thirty-Six Questions That Lead to Love* - mature/13k. claire has dean and cas pretend to be her gay dads for a case and they play the titular 36 question game, get mistaken for swingers, and birdwatch, among other things.

Assorted F/F stuff:

Deep Breaths* - mary/ellen, au where mary said no to azazel’s deal and let john stay dead, still becomes a milf.

Like Rebel Diamonds - krissy/claire, they become hunter gf’s on the hunt for cas to kick his ass for taking jimmy. not-so-stealth dean/cas as well.

To Ash and Bone - anna/ruby, same author as the previous fic (p much all of her stuff is good from what i recall). au where ruby is a witch and helps anna when she’s cursed.

Holy Clockwork Angels - jo/ruby, STEAMPUNK au with very cool worldbuiilding.

At Day's End - jo/anna (my fucking KINGDOM for more jo/anna content, the dean/cas parallels are allllll there), au where they are both at the camp in the endverse and gfs.

these posts - ok so not actually a fic but i’m now obsessed with this hannah/meg dynamic.

Tagelied - mary/ellen, the true story of how ellen got into hunting before angels interfered.

Hell's Bells** - meg/abaddon, alternate s8/9 where meg survives crowley’s attack with sam’s help and teams up with abaddon (who she has a sk year old crush on) to take back hell.

The Ecstasy of the Rose - anna/ruby, anna travels back in time to escape heaven and becomes a signifigant part of ruby’s old human life.

Angel Underground - anna/jo, kind of an urban fantasy au with a very intriguing premise (sadly its very short, i’d love to see more if this ‘verse).

Clover, Flame - billie/mary, billie was always the reaper that showed up to take mary after her death(s) over the years.

Drag Me To Heaven - anna/ruby, a variant on the ‘last night on earth’ thing with dean.

Come Home* - jo/anna, canon-divergent au where anna is the new waitress at the roadhouse and helps jo set up a (probably not really) haunted house for halloween.

#if you told me i'd be doing this in 2020 three weeks ago i'd have laughed in your face :/ #deancas #supernatural #fic recs #spn femslash #destiel #fic #the alie tag #spn posting

[duhragonball]

Obligatory Destiel 2020 Post

Look, I barely know what goes on anymore, but I have one pressing question: Why did the guy get sent to super mega hell?   Like what even is that?    Do they actually call it that on the show?   

Destro: Careful, buddy.   Until we seal that portal, anyone who confesses their true love will get sent to hell, but not just the regular kind!   This would be like a super mega hell, that makes the normal hell look fairly okay by comparison.

Ariel: I don’t care, Destro.   The only one I’ve ever loved is yooouuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu...

I mean, I know that’s how these urban fantasy things work, they all gotta be flip with the magical lore, but this sounds like having a character in a drama write a check for “one zillion dollars” and they actually show the letter ‘z’ on the check.

This reminds me of the same gripe I have with the overuse of “gods” in fantasy stories.    Dragon Ball Super really leaned into that nonsense, but you see it everywhere nowadays.    People will talk about how the Avengers and the Justice League are gods who have fought literal gods.   Meanwhile both teams heavily feature regular-ass dudes who shoot arrows and climb ropes.   They have gods on their rosters, but usually the writers spend most of their time trying to make them look as vulnerable as possible so the guy with the arrows doesn’t look completely useless.    Then they’ll run out and defeat an evil god, who’s usually just a large mean man whose divinity is only shown in that he’s strong enough to beat up the Incredible Hulk.

To a point, I get it.   It makes the characters sound impressive and important.    And not every god has to be an omnipotent, omniscient being.   Sometimes it can just be an immortal dude who runs fast, or a guy who can beat up the Incredible Hulk and not much else.    But they always try to have it both ways.   They use the word “god” specifically to evoke the idea of an all-powerful being, but then they just end up being not all-powerful, which diminishes the term.   

This is one major reason I hated the Zamasu arc, because this is a guy who got beat up by Goku in his first appearance, and then he spent the rest of the story crowing about how important gods are. Even the other gods in the story are like “Wow, this guy’s really got it wrong, everyone knows we suck.”   So how the hell did Zamasu get this idea of a fire-and-brimstone All-Father in the first place?   In his world, there’s no such thing, and he knows it.    But in our world, the concept does exist, so he’s playing into that imagery to make himself look more compelling as a villain.   Then Trunks cuts him in half like it’s no big deal, so what does that make him?   It’s dumb is what it is.   One of these years they’ll make Dragon Ball Super II, and introduce the Grand Mega Ultra Supreme Zeno, and everyone will tell Goku that he’s the real top god, and all the other gods are just dumb jerks.  

Same problem I have with “hell”.   If you’re going to have a hell that’s even worse than hell, wouldn’t you just call that place hell and call the lesser hell something else?    Hell Junior.    I Can’t Believe It’s Not Hell.    Practice Hell.  

Regarding the queerbaiting aspect of it, I’m reminded of this clip I found on YouTube where Quagmire from Family Guy beats up Brian from Family Guy.    On the show Family Guy.   I enjoyed it, mostly because I had watched another clip of Quagmire being pissed off at Brian and this seemed like a good payoff.    Mostly I just enjoy watching cartoon characters beat each other up.   But then I found out the larger context of the episode, and it’s this transphobic shitshow, but the truly galling part was when I looked up the episode on Wikipedia, and there were quotes from Seth McFarlane about the negative reaction, and he seemed genuinely surprised that the LBGT+ community found it offensive.   Like, he seriously thought they would love it or something.   So it doesn’t shock me much that the people who write Supernatural were aware enough of the shippers to cater to them, but tone deaf enough to completely botch the execution and expect a pat on the back for it.  Same shit, different decade, basically.

And maybe these two issues tie together somehow.    The disconnect seems to be that a lot of these showrunners only see “gay” or “trans” as gimmicks, like “super mega hell” or “god-but-we-don’t-have-the-budget-for-that”.   So they’ll use it when it suits their purposes, or just to get some attention, but they’ll never stop and think about these as identities instead of labels. 

I dunno, I’m just thinking out loud here.  Mostly, I kind of want someone to tell me that “super mega hell” is a gross exaggeration and the real concept is a lot less sensational, but I’m pretty sure that’s not how SPN rolls.    I’m still trying to figure out why BBC Sherlock had Moriarty kill himself in the first season, and if tumblr has taught me one thing, it’s that all these moonspeak shows all eat the same stupid pills.

[tiergan-vashir]

as someone who genuinely doesn't understand, why is it specifically that liking futa/gay stuff is so bad? some people are assholes about it sure, but there're plenty of people who aren't. what makes it so specifically much worse than liking straight stuff? especially given that futa/trap are 99% of the time not being used for/as actual trans people.

H’okay. I’m going to naively assume you actually want to know why, but I’m also going to shove all of this shit under a cut, because it’s going to be very, very long I’m pretty sure people are likely tired of seeing this by now and it might even be triggering for some folks.

The TL;DR of it all is that:

Fetishizationdoesn’t exist in a bubble - it propagates harmful stereotypes and ideas that hurt living people. So even though you’re probably using those words and phrases to describe your ERP video game smut character and not a living, breathing trans or intersex person - by helping keep those words commonplace and in use by others, you’re helping spread stereotypes and ideas that harm real, live people.

Even if you - yourself - are not using the word to describe actual trans folks, you’re normalizing it’s usage and some other dumb fuck you may have been interacting with WILL use it to describe an actual trans person.

All people want is Respect. Respect for their bodies. Respect for their life experiences and struggles. Respect as fellow humans. If you can’t give them that over some shit you really really want to use for your ERP cat girl smut in your japanese vidya games, then you’re honestly just a dick. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Massive trigger warning for me talking candidly about all of the above.

Fujoshi and the “gay stuff”

A quick disclaimer.  I’m not a gay man.  I’m a pansexual nonbinary person.  I don’t feel super comfortable speaking as any kind of authority figure at all on a topic that veers so closely to gay male experiences.  I’m going to speak on what I’ve heard, directly, from actual gay men I’ve spoken to and what I’ve seen with my own two eyes.  However, other gay men might have different opinions than what I’ve written here and if it differs from my words,  those words have more weight, because … ya know, this is their lives.  They’re the authority on their own life experiences.There’s next thing I want to get out of the way is that not “gay stuff” that’s bad.   There’s nothing wrong about being gay.

People explicitly mention fujoshi, because they’re essentially yaoi-super-fans.  Yaoi in particular gets a bad rap, because while I’m sure some exist that depict healthier, more realistic relationships - a whole lot of them simply reduce gay men down to sexual objects for the pleasure of straight women (it’s written by and for straight women after all) and often comes packaged with A LOT of harmful ideas on gay relationships that don’t actually have anything to do with what real gay relationships are like.

It would be one thing if every single woman in the universe looked at Yaoi and had the immediate understanding that “the shit I’m seeing in my japanese anime mangos about two slender effeminate men categorizing themselves by uke and seme while doing the horizontal mambo with pretty questionable consent practices and having hands WAY too large to be human is pretty divorced from the reality of what actual gay male relationships are like. I should not bother any actual living gay man with this stuff and I should respect them as people.”

But again - fetishization doesn’t exist in a bubble.  While some consumers of yaoi have enough awareness not to be gross about it, there are WAY too many others who get very accustomed to seeing gay men and their bodies purely as objects for sexual gratification - not people to be respected.  Some of them even still consider gay men and gay relationships “sinful and forbidden” - and their yaoi characters as their “sinful gay babies!” that are only acceptable within the confines of spank-bank material.

This is where people get pissed.

To rip from a previous post of mine:

I have heard stories from gay male RPers about how fujoshi RPers were super down to RP yaoi shit with them …right up until they found out WHOOPS, wow you are an actual gay man and not a fellow straight woman? No. Sorry. I can’t RP with you. Your lifestyle is sinful and wrong.

Or they see two gay men kissing and cuddling and start talking about those two living, breathing men as though they are some yaoi-comic stereotype with an uke and seme instead of… just regular, actual human beings with complex romantic and sexual lives of their own.

In 2017, a really beautiful animation came out about a young school boy struggling with his budding crush for another boy.  

The joy of seeing really adorable animation showing a rare depiction of young, innocent gay love was temporarily tarnished by the fact that in the beginning there was a flood of comments was about “omg YAOI. IT’S SO GREAT SEEING YAOI.” “ANY OTHER YAOI FANS HERE?” (the comments section has since cleaned up a lot, thankfully, but it definitely happened).  

Any decent human being would’ve seen the animation for what it was - a really sweet animation depicting young love that LGBT folks could actually relate to.  Fujoshi on the other hand had become so accustomed to seeing any romance between two boys or men as material for their sexual fetish, that they couldn’t even turn it off when looking at an animation about one underage minor having a crush on another, two little school boys in a romantic, non-sexual context.  

In those folks’ eyes - those two boys were not seen as sweet characters representing budding gay love that lots of LGBT folks could relate to - they immediately became objects for sexual consumption.

This is not to say that anyone who is writing a character that doesn’t align with their own gender/sexuality is an immediate shitlord.  

I’m a pansexual nonbinary person writing a pansexual cis male dude in a very LGBT FC.  I don’t really write or draw Tiergan in too many sexual or romantic contexts to start with, just because of the way his character is. 

When I did do so however, I noticed I was fine drawing or writing heterosexual romances with my character, but when it came to anything remotely approaching Tiergan being intimate with men - I was intensely anxious about making any of my gay/bi male FC-mates uncomfortable.  My FC-mates are awesome people and their feelings are important to me. I wanted to honour those feelings and their life experiences.

I ended up just talking to folks to see how they felt, what I should do, how I should treat everything.  Of course gay/bi men are all different, because we’re all human and may have different perspectives or feelings on the matter so someone else may feel differently, but what I was told by everyone in all my discussions was that it boiled down to Respect. Treating gay/bi/pan men, their relationships, and their life experiences with the respect they are due and not simply as tools for getting off.

Fujoshi are often not respectful of gay men beyond their use as sexual objects - so why should anyone give them respect in return?

“Trap” and “Futa”

I’m going to go on a limb and assume you’re here because you read this post here.  Where I mentioned the Trans Panic Defense and how actual trans women find the word “trap” triggering because they get beaten to death IRL by cis straight men for “trapping” them.

If that really wasn’t enough, please look at this video by ContraPoints, which gets into more detail about why the word “Trap” is so hurtful from the words of an actual trans woman.

If you actually humored me and watched that video instead of blindly digging in your heels about how bad you want to keep using a word, it should be incredibly clear by now that the word “trap” is really hurtful to trans women and reminds them of the fact that they literally get killed by people just for walking down the street and making some cis dude’s dick tingle in his pants.

To put things in a different context, this is an extreme example, but there was a time the N-word was used regularly.   But now, you likely never do, because you know it’s offensive and hurtful to black people.  What’s the big deal though - right? It’s just a word.

But much like “trap” reminds trans women of the possibility that cis straight men might beat them to death in a fit of “trans panic” and the long history of trans women being viciously murdered even today for “trapping” men with their “trickery”.  The N-word reminds the black community of a long, vicious, painful, hateful legacy of racism, slavery, and oppression. That’s why civilized adults don’t use that word, even as an insult.

If we want a way less extreme example than the N-word, we have words like “Negro” and “Oriental” which are dated and offensive terms for Black and Asian communities respectively in the United States, because in the US it reminds those communities of painful, racist histories.

“Trap” reminds trans people of really bad fucking times. It reminds them that they can be murdered. Just stop using it.

Futa/Futanari, as mentioned in my previous post, literally means “hermaphrodite” which both intersex and trans folk find offensive to be referred to as because it doesn’t actually describe them.  So regardless of whether you’re using the word to describe a trans female character or an intersex person - it’s still offensive to either group, because that’s not what they are.

I’m assuming when you say you don’t use it on actual trans/intersex people, you mean you’re just using Trap/Futa to describe your character falling into a very specific anime hentai bucket.  However, every time you use the word “trap” or “futa”, even if you’re not talking to an actual trans woman - you’re normalizing the idea that it’s totally okay to keep using this word.  And even if YOU are careful not to blurt it out in front of an actual trans person, and use it only in reference to your pretendy-times triple-dicked cat girl character, you can’t count on all your buddies to do the same. Or your buddies’ buddies, or your buddies’ buddies’ buddies - etc.

If you ACTUALLY CARE about the feelings and comfort of trans/intersex folks, then you’ll not use the word “trap” or “futa” anymore, so that it stops being commonly, casually used.  All folks want is respect. Give that to them.

If after all of this, you still at the very least don’t see why using the word “trap” is no bueno despite the history of literal death behind it, I don’t know what to tell you other than that you’re placing greater importance on a singular word to describe your fap material before human beings, and that kinda makes you a dick.

What makes it worse than Straight Stuff?

Let’s do a quick exercise.

You have 10 seconds to think of one commonly used, popular term with the same ubiquity as trap, futa, or yaoi that encapsulates a harmful, fetishistic sexual stereotype specifically about cis straight white relationships.  You can even use Google if you want.

I specify white, because things like “yellow fever” have explicitly to do with race and thus don’t count.

If you can’t think of jack shit, it’s because “cis straight” is considered “normal” by our society - and anything that deviates from that is considered “exotic” or “different” and gets fetishized.  

If you’re a straight person, you likely have NEVER had to deal with someone fetishizing and objectifying you simply for your straightness, because it’s “normal”.  What is there to fetishize? They might objectify you for other reasons, like your gender, your race if you’re PoC, your weight (aka fat fetish), etc.  But being objectified through your straightness - if it happens at all - is so minuscule in comparison to what LGBT folks have to go through on the daily that it is insanely unbalanced.  It’s worse than “straight stuff” because LGBT folks have to go through it WAY, WAY more often than straight people do.

#discourse #tw: transphobia #tw: homophobia #Anonymous

[mothergwendoline-blog]

My Kind of Healthy – Entry 1

Disclaimer: This is a staggeringly homo blog and I will not be offering definitions for the terms used because it would turn my journal entries into a dictionary. If you are unfamiliar with a term you will be able to find a definition online.

This blog contains discussion of suicide and depression. If this makes you feel unsafe, please leave.

 Fat Hides No Sins

 So I turned into a fat bitch. It happened so quickly. I used to be skinny, I used to be underweight but then depression hit me full force. A little background, I’m transgender and I went for full Facial Feminization Surgery in another country. Now, good people in the global trans community will often tell you not to pin all your hopes and dreams on surgery. Especially if you already have a mental illness, it is incredibly dangerous to your mental stability to hold expectations that things will radically improve. Things may get considerably better, they may get worse, or they may not get better at all. For me, it was the latter. As much as I tried not to hope, I had dreams that my ability to “pass” for female would miraculously improve, but they didn’t. Even in the good months after my recovery I would still be misgendered half of the time, about at the same rate as before my surgery to fix my face.

 There are a few reasons this may be the case, most significantly is that I am quite tall, flat chested and have a naturally deep voice. Even with the benefits of a natural looking feminine face, I was still mistaken for a man with considerable regularity. People noticed my femininity and assumed I was a gay man, a common phenomena for trans women. This was heartbreaking for me. Some trans folks are happy and content with not passing. You have your Alok Vaid-Menon’s and your Jacob Tobia’s, wonderful nonbinary folk who find meaning and identity in looking visibly trans. And there are even binary trans people who are content with not passing. I am not one of them, unfortunately. I wish I were but then again, the grass is always greener. But for whatever reason I am born with the condition of being trans, I am also saddled with the need to pass. I’m your stereotyped-to-shit, run of the mill, boring old binary trans woman replete with body dysphoria. I’m just a regular girl who wants to be seen as such, although unfortunately I have trans obstacles in my way. And for me, they are obstacles. There have been people who have encouraged me to embrace my obvious transness but for me it is not so simple. I don’t just want to pass, I need it to live my authentic and true self.

 Now, instead of doing the clever thing and seeing my FFS as one stepping stone in the much larger pursuit of transition happiness, I stopped caring about my body altogether. I drank heavily and regularly, took up vaping and most of all, I binge ate my way to obesity. Now I am severely overweight. My doctor has started to worry for my health, and so have I. A lot of my fat friends talk to me about internalized fatphobia, the societal shame we inherit about our fat bodies. They tell me I have this fatphobia materialized in my desire to be skinny again. After all, as they tell me, there is nothing wrong with being fat. And yes there is truth to this, there is nothing inherently immoral about anyone’s body, be you fat, skinny, average or uncommon weight. I believe this. However, fatness brings with it a form of androgyny. As I’ve gotten fatter I have been more consistently misgendered and this is something I need to remedy with fitness, exercise and weight loss. I have been told that “fat can hide a lot of sins for trans women” through providing us with bigger hips, breasts etc. Well this may be true for some trans women but not for me. Even though I have been on hormones for the better part of a decade, I still carry fat like a man. Huge stomach and arms, less added comfort for my hips, butt and breasts. So weight loss is a must for me. As far as I see it, losing fat to get back to my normal weight is as essential as going for breast augmentation and genital reconstructive surgery.

 So like too many fat bitches I’m making a blog. The key difference between me and most of my fat friends is, unlike them, I actually see fat as a bad problem and wish to remedy this. Obesity is unhealthy. Fatness is a lifestyle choice for some, sure, but not for me. My fatness is a symptom of my depression, and it is putting my wellbeing, physical and mental at serious risk. This blog is my place to post updates about my transition, specifically my journey to a fitter and healthier body. My goals are simple; I want to pass, I want to be fit and I want mental stability. I used to be skinny and fit and I’ll become that way again through hard, steady, constant work. And I can pass too, by paying the same attention to my overall physical wellbeing as I place on exercise and diet. As for mental health, I have depression, anxiety and psychosis; but through consistent medication and therapy I will manage my mental disorders and live a meaningful quality of life. Eventually my hope is to return to the sex industry as an escort. I miss escorting, it was good money and worked well with my life as a writer, allowing me to pick and choose my own hours around my creative work. But the sex industry is stuck in the 90s and you can’t make work as a fat tranny. Sure, there are some curvy cis women who make money in strip clubs or as escorts but they are an exception. I want to be skinny, to get fit and fuckable, I want to buy a pair of banging tits and have a flat stomach. And I want to make men pay to suck my tiny dick before I get rid of that too.

 I exercise six days a week, a mixture of cardio and weight training. I use the elliptical and cycle machines, and rotate my weights from day to day using a mixture of squats, leg press, reverse sit-ups and rows. This will likely change as I get fitter, but for now my main goal is to start building back the fitness I’ve lost. I also use time restricted eating, consuming food only between 11:00 am and 07:00 pm. And the food I eat is different now. No more junk food. No fast food, only dark chocolate (none of the fattier delicious milk chocolate), no candy or soda pop and all vegetarian. And no alcohol. I binge drank and ate my way to this obesity and I am now paying the price.

 My starting weight is 377.43 pounds

My original weight goal is 202.82 pounds

I have had FFS

My surgery goals are BA and GRS

 So join me, if you like, on my journey to a better trans self. The planet is hurtling at an alarming rate towards a climate change induced apocalypse. Most people my age (I am in my late twenties) cannot expect to live to an old age. As the planet dies, so too will human civilization crumble. This journal is as much a saga of my transition and fitness as it is a memoir of my final years on Earth. My plan is, once I have reached my original weight, obtained my surgeries and conquered my mental demons, to revel in my new body, enjoy the pleasures of youth and then end my life on the footsteps of our government who has so callously rejected the cry of nature in her death throes. I cannot yet say when my suicide will be, for I do not intend to be stopped, but I will make it known as the date draws closer. I have no desire to grow old and watch the end of the humanity I so love, rather I shall terminate my life at my peak and pass on with happy sentiments and an existence well spent.

 I encourage anyone reading this to consider the same. As society falls I fear we will see humans grow cruel and turn against each other. Ideally the poor will rise up and viciously devour the rich who have neglected us, but of this I cannot be certain. What I believe is that Suicide Hysteria will sweep the globe. We see it kindling in the memes of youth, gallows humor making light of suicide and depression. The next step is action. When we common people become fully aware that all is lost there will be nothing to lose. I suggested Suicide Carnivals, maddening, beautiful, loving revelry dancing the dance of death together. Direct your violence and hatred to those in power who mock and neglect us. To each other, show unconditional love and bask in the beauty of death as one people. Would you rather endure historically unprecedented suffering as the planet burns us alive, fresh water shortages, crop failure, sea level rise, war for arable land, poverty, famine and death? Or would you rather live gloriously, peacefully and embrace the end before the storm? With the global rise of right wing extremist hatred, it is certain those in power have abandoned us. Many of the masses are either too ignorant, stupid or cruel to realize the peril we face. Use what power you have to convert those around you to recognize the immediate danger threatening all life on Earth. And if this results in you joining me in suicide, so be it.

 Mother Gwendoline

#Apocalypse #Fat #Fatphobia #Fitness #Health #LGBT #LGBTQ #Lifestyle #Queer #Trans #Trans woman #Transgender #Transition #Weight loss

[sarahreeese]

The diversity issue One Chicago isn’t fixing any time soon

6 years on TV 15 seasons of all the One Chicago shows combined. 94 regular and recurring characters 2 specifically stated LGBTQ+ characters that were on for more than an episode. One who died due to man pain, and the other a manipulative awful girlfriend of said dead woman.

That’s about 2% of the characters on all of the shows.  

Their only significant gay character died in 2014. That’s nearly 4 years without any kind of representation. When One Chicago was criticized for having a lack of racial diversity on their shows, they made Med, whose cast is nearly half people of color. (Though they don’t all get equal air time or story quality but that’s another post.)  Justice took it one step further and had more people of color than white people.  So they can take criticism and change tactics, they’ve shown that. So why not change this? They’ve had time, characters, and 2 shows to correct this glaring problem. Why haven’t they?

It wasn’t planned from the beginning/The characters haven’t shown any signs of being gay. Sexuality isn’t something that needs to be revealed right away, there are so many storylines especially in the field that these characters work in that would make for great drama AND great representation. Give me a fire fighter or a cop who is gay, and hides it from the team because they don’t want to be seen differently by their team. Or a new character who had a horrible experience with their old team or house or whatever, and decides to come out only after they trust people. Or we could just have a great storyline where someone is out and proud and everyone deals with it respectfully. As for trans characters, all of the above apply, but they could also have a doctor transitioning, and we see the medical storyline play out as well as the emotional one with the doctors. People discover these things about them later on in life, there is no reason any character couldn’t be made to have these thoughts and feelings. These storylines write themselves and are incredibly easy to weave into the shows naturally. You’re just being lazy One Chicago.

It doesn’t have network appeal/wouldn’t play well with the demo. There are currently about 36 regulars/recurring characters active in the One Chicago Universe. No one is being threatened by putting any LGBTQ+ characters into the storyline. Also if people aren’t exposed to this in television, how will they be introduced to these ideas if they don’t know anyone personally. Also queer people exist and watch this show. We want representation too. And 18-49 is definitely going to have some of us in it.

They’d have to bring in new characters in order to have LGBTQ+ ones. No, they wouldn’t. See the first mock question. But also in the past 2 seasons they have introduced about 7 recurring or main characters. All of them straight.

You don’t know if they’re straight, you’re assuming. Yeah, because that’s the intention that the shows are going for. In order for representation to exist there needs to be some sort of explicit statement or act to show it. Otherwise it doesn’t count.

It’s not realistic to the type of jobs. Really... There are no gay cops or firefighters, or doctors?

These shows are about the jobs not the personal lives. Sexuality and gender expression ARE NOT PERSONAL LIFE THINGS. It’s who someone is, and that’s One Chicago’s specialty. The characters stop them from being just like every other procedural on every other network. And if you have time to show us scenes of every other heterosexual couple you have time to show us queer ones.

Stop watching the show if you don’t like it. No. I love these characters and that’s why I want these shows to do better, and be better. I’d also love consistent writing, which I’m not going to get either, but I can still ask for it.

Now here’s a list of characters who could easily be either read as queer or could discover they were queer. (Also PS, I’ll be using gay in the colloquial manner as in Make this Character Gay, which also means like make them queer or any kind of LGBTQ)

Starting with the newest regular characters.

Ava Bekker: Definitely brought in to be the new lady Connor fucks, but hey you could make her Bi or Pan. She made a comment about liking dangerous men, does that mean she doesn’t like dangerous women? Make her gay 2K18. Wouldn’t it be interesting to see her not wooed by Connor’s charms and become Zanetti 2.0? She could use a great girlfriend, or non binary friend. Maybe a sweet smart bundle of anxiety who is a second year psychiatry resident? You could show possible anxiety she might have about coming out when she’s in line for a competitive position.

Hailey Upton: Possibly had an affair with that dude. Alright. Make her bi then. Or if she didn’t have that affair, make her gay. There’d probably be very positive feedback, and her character might be better received if it didn’t look like she was taking Erin’s place completely. She’s cool, and calm, and doesn’t do a million illegal things an episode like some other characters. Gay Icon 2K18. Make it happen PD.

Stella Kidd: She’s got a thing going with Severide. That’s great, you can be Bi and in a relationship with a dude. That’s what bi means. Have her talk about an ex who is not a dude. Or if you’re going to make Kelly find himself for the umpteenth time instead of getting them together, have Kidd find a nice not cis-guy to date. 

Isidore Latham: Sure he had that mean sex worker trick him at the conference he went to with Connor, but we don’t know any indications of who he is interested in. Why not make him queer?

Looking at characters who have been around for a few seasons.

Sarah Reese: She comes from the east coast with a very wealthy mother and absent father. Her mother was never home, and we are shown her numerous confidence issues. If she was bi or pan, she would probably not express it because she wants to stay in the shadows. We can see that in the pastel neutral colors that she dresses in, and her over all demeanor. Show me a Sarah who falls for someone who she thinks she shouldn’t, and have her wrestle with those feelings and come out ahead of them. Then we can see her date a super intelligent and confident heart surgeon from South Africa. Sarah is also young and has super liberal leanings, making her the most obvious choice in Med.

Maggie Lockwood: We know next to nothing about Maggie. She’s an open book and has no restrictions put on her by previous statements. She’d be an excellent lesbian who is proud of her sexuality and is one of the most respected people in the ED.

Noah Sexton: Give me something that would make me stand Noah as a character. Show him dealing with his identity as a latino man from a religious background. It would be interesting and much better than his sexual harassment storyline we’re going with in this season.

April Sexton: Very similar to Noah with regards to being latina with a religious household, but she also has very strong desires to please her parents, and falling in love with someone who isn’t a man would be a challenge for her to over come. 

Kelly Severide: I mean who says he hasn’t slept with someone who wasn’t a woman before. Again, he can be with Kidd or whoever else they want to put him with, and mention an ex-boyfriend. Or maybe he doesn’t mention it and it comes out and we see a respected queer lieutenant. And who wouldn’t want to see Taylor Kinney maybe make out with a dude?

Connor Rhodes:  Bad boy who bucks familial conventions by being bi. It’s one of the reasons he ran off when he graduated school. Now he’s back in Chicago and is juggling his identity with the expectations of his family, name and this fellowship. Ava finds out he’s bi too, and they become ONLY friends. But good friends. 

Kevin Atwater: You’ve given him 0 romantic options in the show in 5 seasons, while Ruzek has had 2 engagements...(different post...) Maybe it’s because he’s gay. He and Peter Stone had excellent chemistry on the Justice crossover, delve into that. Show this badass strong and sensitive guy with a great boyfriend.

Sylvie Brett: Maybe she ran away from her wedding for more than just cold feet about missing out on the world. Maybe she never acknowledged those feelings inside her and she wants to date someone other than a guy? I don’t know. Possibilities are open.

This is just a small amount of options. You could write a scenario for nearly every character in this universe. So why don’t they? 

PS: I’m horrible at coming up with Trans and Ace/Aro head canons so if you have any please reblog and put them. I want to read them very badly. ALSO if you have any head canons about this reblog and put them. Let’s get diversity in fanon if we’ll never have it in canon.

Special shoutout to  @lesbianhaileyupton, and @xelmanrique318 for bringing this up in the tags and causing me to get pissed enough about it to write this whole thing out. I reblogged their posts, and they’re 100% worth a read.

#chicago med #chicago pd #chicago fire #lgbtq #one chicago #all the characters #there's too many to tag

[chocolatequeennk]

Breaking my silence

I’m ready to share why I’m not excited about the casting of the Thirteenth Doctor. It has nothing to do with Jodie Whittaker (love her) or with the idea of a woman taking the lead in a science fiction/fantasy show.

I’m very concerned about the inherent gender issues. Specifically, I’m concerned with how it will look and feel to trans and other gender non-conforming people. 

People who don’t conform to the gender binary have to fight constantly to be seen as the gender they are, not the gender they might be presenting. A trans man with a very feminine body will be constantly misgendered by people who don’t know them, and some who do. I see regular posts on my dash--multiple times a week--from gender non-conforming people reassuring each other that “you’re still a boy even if you’re on your period,” and etc. 

So what message do we send those people when our reaction to the Doctor’s casting is, “The Doctor is a girl now!” The Doctor, who in fifty-four years of television history and 2000+ years of his own life has never balked at being referred to as male.

The message I hear is that gender is defined by the body you are in, and that is transphobic. 

Now, it’s possible that this could be handled on the show in a way that’s very sensitive and fulfils two needs. It could give little girls the chance to see someone who looks like them onscreen doing all the fun, incredible things the Doctor does, and it could give trans men the chance to see the Doctor as a trans man. I’ve seen a few posts about the Doctor still preferring masculine pronouns and going by John Smith as his alias, and I would honestly love that. 

However, I don’t trust the show to do that. For one thing, if you thought casting an actress in the role got people up in arms, making the character transgender would add a whole new pile of vitriol. 

But also, there’s the line from the Doctor in “World Enough and Time.” “We're billions of years beyond your petty human obsession with gender and its associated stereotypes.” To me, that is setting up a situation where they will regenerate from Capaldi into Whittaker, look down at their new body, shrug, and accept all the human labels that go with looking like a woman. 

And on one hand, yes--it is completely realistic for an alien race to not have the human concept of gender. It is completely plausible that the reason the Doctor has never balked at being called a man is because they don’t care one way or another and they know that’s how humans think. 

But the show won’t be watched by agender aliens. It will be watched by gender non-conforming humans who see yet another example of people insisting that outward presentation defines gender. 

I just can’t get excited by that. I see too much room for people I love to be hurt.

My thanks to @lastbluetardis @jem-scribbles @madegeeky @joi-in-the-tardis @theybecameanimagi @rundalek @krazy-ky-sta-hatter @pellaaearien and others for listening and being so supportive in the last few days as I processed the news and how the reactions made me feel. 

#doctor who #meta #13th doctor #thirteenth doctor #gender issues #13 discourse

[isaiahrippinus]

Flying for Punks: Aboard BrewDog Airlines’ Last Flight

Costumed as fuzzy green dragons and purple she-devils, 264 craft beer enthusiasts pre-gamed in the Columbus, Ohio, airport on Halloween night, Oct. 31, 2019. They were waiting to board an unusual charter to Edinburgh, Scotland. The sold-out flight was carrying BrewDog employees and investors in the Scottish brewery’s Equity for Punks (EFP) crowdsourcing campaign across the Atlantic for a fun four-night Scottish tour.

It would be the third and last round-trip flight for the airline, which took its maiden voyage — from London to U.S. headquarters in Columbus — in February and had dropped off group No. 2 in Columbus earlier in the day. This was to be the first eastbound trip, consisting of two days in Edinburgh and Aberdeen, a visit to corporate HQ in Ellon, and time at Speyside/Highlands Scotch distilleries, plus a cooperage. The Americans were excited.

The sold-out 767 took off at 9:32 p.m., and brewery co-founder Martin Dickie came onto the PA system to introduce Cloud 9, a New England IPA brewed specifically for drinking at altitude.

“This is an awesome experience,” Dickie said over the speaker, “to be on an airplane having a little bit of fun. That doesn’t usually happen.”

BrewDog Airlines’ final flight on Oct. 31, 2019 ended with a tour in Scotland.

Dickie explained that he’d made this beer a little sweeter and saltier than most to overcome the dampened sensory perception travelers experience in an airplane’s dry, air-conditioned atmosphere. Thanks to its intense dry-hopping, the 5.1 percent ale retained its aloe, fresh greenery, and tropical stone fruit aromas, while the flavor balanced resiny, earthy hops with sweet malts.

When asked what he and partner James Watt would do with the recipe now that they’re retiring the route (because, as he says, “It’s not a financially sustainable model, we more or less cover the costs”) he answered, “Hopefully we can get it onto some airplanes. (Pause.) What’s your favorite airline?”

I hate to say it, Martin, because the rest of the trip was perfectly executed and your employees ooze no-b.s. hospitality, but not this one. Though the toilets didn’t stop up like they did on the first two outbound flights, and everyone arrived safely, more than a few people grumbled the cabin felt incredibly cramped. The seat width and legroom were average, but this regular-sized woman still found it nearly impossible to stuff a pillow, branded BrewDog blanket, water bottle, and sweatshirt next to her while stuffing a backpack and shoes under the seat and a few empty cans of BrewDog in the forward pocket.

The cushion sliding forward when the back reclined added a nice touch. But finding any relatively comfy position for sleeping in that space? Forget it.

Passengers couldn’t control their own air vents, so the temperature hovered around hellfire, and at least a few dozen omnivores had to eat tasteless Lebanese veggies and rice because the galley somehow ran out of beef stroganoff.

The drinks cart came around more often than on a normal flight, but the liquid was far from free-flowing. Worse still, instead of the certified Cicerones the brewery promised as “crewmembers,” one flight attendant couldn’t pronounce the names of the five BrewDog beers she served, much less explain them from the notes she’d been given to study in advance. And the marketing team missed an opportunity to verbally mention that the spirits had come right out of the BrewDog distillery in Ellon. Had all of the passengers realized that, they surely would have loved to sample some.

BrewDog’s Equity for Punks investor program helped the brewery get started in 2007.

Despite the — admittedly insignificant — inconveniences, everyone did appear relaxed, and, as Dickie observed, “People are standing up, chatting, having a beer. People seem happy to be on an airplane.”

In all, the passengers behaved themselves better than expected. No one acted rowdy, drunk, or even loud. Truth be told, a surprisingly high percentage of passengers had gray hair and, as Dickie noted, “The day flights are a little more lively.”

The group comprised mostly of EFPs, who paid £1,350 per person (approximately $1,740) or £2,550 ($3,290) per couple for the package, which included transport, accommodations, tours, and £250 ($320) worth of “brewbucks” to buy beer, food, spirits, and merch at BrewDog locations in the U.K. Dickie says he loves getting to spend the airplane time getting to know his EFPs and employees, and giving them an opportunity to socialize with one another.

The journey also opened some people’s eyes to the rationale behind Equity for Punks, which skeptics criticize as a way for millionaires Dickie and Watt to fatten their private business, pull pricey public relations stunts, and run trans-Atlantic trips, all on the backs of suckers. But the facts prove far more wholesome.

After the two friends (and a dog) opened BrewDog in a rundown industrial unit in 2007, banks refused to loan them the money they needed to get out of the space and into the next level of production. Instead, EFPs provided them with capital.

The Doghouse, a BrewDog hotel in Columbus, Ohio, is the first hotel located inside a brewery.

Now, 12 years and eight rounds of EFP funding later (along with a 2017 venture capital infusion of $265 million), BrewDog sends 602,000 barrels of beer around the world from a 20-acre campus in Scotland, a production brewery in Columbus, and two more on the way. It also serves 2 million patrons a year at nearly 100 pubs across 15 countries. Without EFPs, Dickie and Watt may never have gotten out of that garage-sized site.

“This trip is about showing what our EFP community has allowed us to do,” Dickie says. “We were two guys with a very small brewery making some O.K. beer at that time. [Everything we do now] is only due to the belief that some of these guys had in us.”

It’s a nice success story to share right before BrewDog opens its third round of U.S. EFP funding. That said, if they do decide to bring BrewDog Airlines back, we might suggest springing for a cushier plane… with a few more toilets.

The article Flying for Punks: Aboard BrewDog Airlines’ Last Flight appeared first on VinePair.

source https://vinepair.com/articles/brewdog-airlines-review/ source https://vinology1.tumblr.com/post/189550105794