#10x as much gay pirates as - anything else

[bookshelfdreams]

I posted 2,492 times in 2022

That's 419 more posts than 2021!

422 posts created (17%)

2,070 posts reblogged (83%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@swords-n-spindles

@mikimeiko

@bookshelfdreams

@snake-snack-stede

@knowlesian

I tagged 2,449 of my posts in 2022

Only 2% of my posts had no tags

#our flag means death - 1,010 posts

#esc - 340 posts

#message - 101 posts

#crafts - 101 posts

#thoughts - 74 posts

#ofmd reader - 68 posts

#german stuff - 51 posts

#!!!! - 47 posts

#anonymaus - 41 posts

#fic - 31 posts

Longest Tag: 139 characters

#baby. theres spinning wheels for over 1000€ what makes you think you're gonna be met with thousands of ppl starved for things they can buy

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

random ofmd thought: I love that Stede is so cringe.

He's just. Awkward. Ridiculous. Unapologetically weird at all times and he never gets any cooler. Every episode has at least one Stede moment that causes me physical pain and I love that.

Because usually, if a character is this embarrassing, their arc is about learning to be less so, to be like anyone else, to be more normal, and Stede never does. He learns to be more confident, yes, but he never stops unapologetically being his awkward self, and that's so good to see? He's fine the way he is? He doesn't have to become less himself, he just has to learn how to own it better and that's so healing to see

2,133 notes - Posted May 14, 2022

#4

ofmd reader

aka Holy Shit Everyone In This Fandom Is The Smartest Person On Earth

aka a collection of my favourite meta, feel free to add your own faves!

(note that most of these don't actually have titles, I just tried my best to sum up the contents)

✬ On masculinity in ofmd by @edwardsilkheart

✬ The different genres various characters are in, and how they clash and synthesize by @fuckyeahisawthat (THIS is required reading and the reason this show works so well, all these different & contrasting flavours combined into something truly delicious. If you read nothing else on this list, read this)

✬ yk that Stede didn't actually have an evil plan to leave Ed all along right by @polyamoryprincess (on what really happened in Stede's head that night)

✬ these two posts by @mikimeiko about Ed and the mortifying ordeal of being known

✬ How does Ed like his eggs? by @forpiratereasons (on mirroring, learning how to be yourself and self-acceptance as the path to true love)

✬ Listen, I know everyone and their mother disliked Ed without the beard but I actually loved it. by @ruletogether

✬ Izzy Hands and the tenderness of violence, directed at him but not perpetuated by him by @ellicler with additional tags from @knowlesian

✬ Another one about Izzy, internalized homophobia, and subtextual queerness by @knowlesian

✬ The thing that ACTUALLY made Stede run away by @quillyfied

✬ Ed and the language of face-touching by @amuseoffyre

✬ anachronistinc costume design as a sotrytelling device by @ambassadorquark

✬ The Bathtub Scene (analyzing Ed's body language) by @orangechickenpillow plus this follow-up. I also recommend their post on clothes sharing

✬ beard media by @all-chickens-are-trans

4,851 notes - Posted April 11, 2022

#3

Crocheted Important Blue Internet Checkmark. Because why the fuck not.

(Pattern under the cut)

See the full post

4,982 notes - Posted November 11, 2022

#2

A brief conversation I had with @mikimeiko on their lovely meta about the motive of loss and abandonment made me think about miscommunication some more, and how horrible Calico Jack was to Stede.

When Stede meets Calico Jack for the first time this is what he says to him:

Who's the big gal?

Off to a terrible start, and it only goes downhill from there.

As others have pointed out, this is a very mean thing to say in general and absolutely unacceptable to say to a queer man in particular, and Ed knows that. He's trying to do damage control

See the full post

7,364 notes - Posted April 13, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

oh but I adore how everyone in this stupid pirate show is just a guy

I haven't seen ppl talk about it much but. the absolute lack of shredded abs. people show tummy and cleavage and there's not the barest hint of muscle definition anywhere

obviously some of them are very fit but it never leaves "works a physically demanding job and happens to be naturally thin" territory

and guys are fat! guys have bellies and rounded shoulders and chubby cheeks and imperfect teeth and thinning hair and are styled weirdly (that's a whole different post but the crew especially look so unprofessional styled it's great)

and they are still all hot! they are hot and desirable and find each other hot and desirable and I love that

I love to see it! nobody in this show looks like they had a personal trainer. and not just the side characters, not just a token fat guy - obv Taika Waititi is the most beautiful man you've ever seen and that little bit of tummy pudge spilling out of his crop top made us all lose our collective minds. but it's everyone else too; and it's not the extend of it either. no other show would have let black pete within 10 feet of a romance arc, much less been this sweet and sincere about it

this show is so comfortable with the human body in all it's glorious imperfection and I am in love with it

29,716 notes - Posted April 3, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

#omg madda!!hi! hi bestie <3 #year in review #housekeeping #lmao insane year #i knew that ofmd would be the top tag but i didnt think it'd be *this* ridiculous #10x as much gay pirates as - anything else #the only real surprise is the meta post i didnt think it had this many notes #anyway! yoho! i love everyone on this ship y'all are awesome

[toonbly]

Oh please do give us the essay I would LOVE to hear your thoughts.. your Freemind content is like kisses directly to my brain 's all so good.

OKAY SO LIKE. quick tw for discussions about internalized transphobia and internalized homophobia

QUICK CLARIFICATIONS: I’m a queer transmasc nonbinary and some of this is projection. A LOT of this is cherry-picking from and overanalyzing little bits of FM canon.

im gonna put this under a readmore to save yalls dashboards

HERES WHY FREEMINDS NARRATIVE IS 10X MORE INTERESTING IF HE’S QUEER:

So some things to cover: We’re cherry picking from canon and MOST of this is based off of fanon interpretations of freemind’s character. i should also clarify that I myself am asexual and nonbinary transmasc (though i only use they/them pronouns), im not entirely sure of my romantic orientation but yknow, obviously im not cishet lol. Some of it’s self projection, some of it is character study, either way I think it’s important to clarify that some of this is my OWN experience and that what im outlining here obviously isn’t the universal queer experience.

SO COVERING CANON. like okay, most of us tend to go down the route of “Freemind is gay/bi/otherwise queer in terms of attraction and he’s just in denial of it” in our freemanverse content and like, if you pick apart the source material there’s canon backing for this! (ie: Freemind saying he can’t wear earrings cause sailors do that and sailors are “kinda gay”, then later going on and on about how he wants to be a pirate and how he should’ve done that instead of being a scientist.) LIKE OKAY, OBVIOUSLY THIS WAS JUST ROSS MAKING A HOMOPHOBIC JOKE AND PROBABLY DIDN’T THINK ABOUT THE IMPLICATIONS OF THIS AT ALL. obviously that is the case, but as most freemanverse content does we are casually Throwing That Out The Window and cherry-picking from canon because Freeman’s Mind is full of gross content and we are simply here to take whatever we want to and RUN AWAY AS FAR AWAY AS WE CAN WITH IT. What I’m saying is basically, yeah, there’s some canon backing for Freemind possibly being gay/bi/whatever and just in denial of it due to internalized homophobia and some toxic masculinity issues. In terms of toxic masculinity he constantly brags about how cool and tough he is, makes himself out to be an invincible genius, etc. He very much frames himself as the “Tough man who feels no emotions because ReAl MeN dOn’T cRy.”

That’s basically all we need from canon. Accidental subtext on Ross’s part implying internalized homophobia and Freemind’s constant attempts to frame himself as what a “real man” would typically be considered as resulting of toxic masculinity.

Now moving onto fanon: Many fanon narratives take Freemind’s character and try to give him a redemption or healing arc. Basically the guy learns that he’s allowed to show emotions and that this doesn’t make him pathetic or lesser than anyone else, and usually he does so with the help of those around him (typically the other Freemen, sometimes Eddie, hell sometimes h/lvrai characters like Tommy!) So here we have the narrative of “A man struggling with toxic masculinity and self worth issues learns to better himself, he lets others in and starts to be true to who he actually is strengthening both himself and the connections with the people he loves.” This is an arc I love and have incorporated into a LOT of my works involving Freemind! Hell I think it’s difficult not to take his character into that direction.

But, okay, what does this have to do with Freemind being queer? Obviously I’ve mentioned the internalized homophobia subtext and all that but up until now it seems like I’ve only really mentioned the more emotion-based aspects of Freemind’s arc. Well this is where we get into my own personal interpretation of Freemind’s story.

My version of Freemind is a gay trans man, he realized he was trans sometime in his teens but only came out and transitioned sometime during college. In my version of the story, I think Freemind grew up around a kind of rough crowd. He’d hang out with those sort of boys at school that were just the EMBODIMENT of toxic masculinity, and I think he kind of internalized a lot of what they told him? They told him things like “Boys don’t cry” and “Boys are tough” and “Boys can’t like girly things” and “Boys can’t like other boys, that’s weird.” etc etc etc. He hung out with a rough crowd and didn’t have the best support system at home, and a lot of this resulted in his more egotistical larger than life personality- He acted out a lot both because his peers told him to and because hey, at least it got him some form of attention. He was a smart kid, sure, but that was never really enough to impress anyone around him. He kinda developed this “I’m better than ALL OF YOU” attitude as a defense mechanism, and as he started coming into himself and actually accepting that he was trans he took those things that his peers told him “””real men””” do and don’t do and cranked it up tenfold, just to further prove that he was better than all of them and than he was even more of a “””real man””” than any of them could tell him. He took these toxic view points and internalized them, making them a key point of his personality just so he could prove himself and put himself above others. I don’t think he struggled too badly with internalized transphobia, at least in the “I can’t be trans cause that’d be bad” sense. I think he struggled with it more in the “I have to do all of this or I’m just lying to myself and doing this for attention” sense. Granted, he never held anyone else to this same standard, he’ll never admit it but to him things are always different when it’s him. Sure Freeman and Feetman can have their little boyfriends and do gender nonconforming things, but that’s different, they don’t have to prove themselves for anything, they’re not held on the same pedestal as he is, they’re not Gordon Freemind. It’s different whenever it’s him.

BUT, as he begins to grow and learn and not hold himself to such a high standard, Freemind begins to learn that all of these things aren’t true. He learns that showing emotion, being gender nonconforming, being attracted to men, etc. doesn’t make him any lesser than the others around him and there’s no “different standard” for him JUST BECAUSE it’s him. Hell there’s no different standard for him at all, there never has been, and the people who told him otherwise were just toxic assholes who he shouldn’t have to please in order to exist as himself. As he is, he’s good enough, he’s always been good enough, and allowing himself to be vulnerable and accepting who he is doesn’t make him lesser than those around him.

What I’m saying is this: Freemind’s narrative outlines the journey of a man learning vulnerability and learning to accept himself and allow others into his life. His character arc cannot be complete until he does these things, and in certain stories Freemind’s inability to be vulnerable and accept who he is might become a detriment to his goals and the goals of others around him. If he doesn’t learn to accept himself and open up to others he will fail to achieve his goals. Ultimately it is Freemind allowing himself to open up, accept himself, and be vulnerable that saves the day. Alone, this is already narratively interesting, but if you also mix in the ideas of him being queer in any fashion and learning to accept that and that there’s no “right way” to be himself, it adds a LOT of layers to the narrative. It becomes less a story about some dudebro learning that he’s allowed to feel emotion and more a story about a queer man learning to accept who he is, being proud of who he is, and how allowing himself to be vulnerable contributes to this acceptance. It becomes a narrative about how being open with yourself and others can lead to you discovering who you really are and accepting and loving yourself for it. Freemind’s identity as a queer man becomes DIRECTLY TIED into his character arc of learning vulnerability and allowing himself to make connections and I feel like that’s really important! Sure, not every narrative needs to be about a queer struggle and frankly I don’t like tackling it constantly myself, but Freemind’s story in particular becomes much more interesting under a queer lens especially considering how you could very easily tie the discovery and acceptance of his identity into his general character arc. It’s a story about a queer man learning to love himself and becoming a happier, better person for it.

TL;DR: As a queer transmasc nonbinary myself, I find the idea of Freemind’s narrative being queer incredibly interesting. It’s easy to tie in Freemind’s identity to his character arc of becoming more vulnerable and open about both who he truly is as a person and in an emotional sense, and I think it’s really interesting to make a character’s identity relevant to their arc somehow. Granted, this doesn’t always need to be made the case because queer struggle narratives can get tiring on some queer audiences, but in this specific case I think it’d be an interesting character study. 

#long post #Anonymous

[groundramon]

Let me be very clear:

- it is homophobic to say gay people cant be villains

- it is racist to say POC can’t be villains

- it is transphobic to say nonbinary people cant be villains

- so on and so forth

To say “no, gay people cant be *insert non-sexuality-based thing here* in fiction” is homophobic.  You are saying a gay person cannot be something a straight person can be.  You are saying that on the basis of sexuality, gay people cannot be something straight people can be.  This applies to stuff like...being attracted to the opposite gender (unless they’re bi or pan, in which case they can be attracted to both and still call themselves gay) or heteronormativity, but other than that?  No, a gay person can be anything a straight person can be.

Am I saying that a gay stereotype isn’t offensive?  No, not at all.  But you need to have context to the show and context to the creative process.  A flamboyant gay man who is clearly demonized for his sexuality is offensive.  But a gay man who happens to be flamboyant, as well as many other things (perhaps nerdy, overly enthusiastic about his interests, ect), is not an offensive stereotype - ESPECIALLY if he’s in a story with a bunch of other gay men.

My point is, Joseph in Dream Daddy?  Call it a missed opportunity if you’d like, avoid the game if you’re personally uncomfortable with it all you want (seriously if someone tries to shame you for personally being uncomfortable with it then slap them, you’re by no means required to like the game), but for christ’s sake, demonizing the game and the creators and saying to steal from them is fucking ridiculous and gross.  First off I dont think turning into FUCKING SATAN is a gay stereotype, but if you’re arguing that “oh he could’ve been a great example of a religious gay person”/”homophobes often view the LGBT community as a cult of sorts” then yeah I see your point on how he himself could have some bad implications but...he’s in a game full of single men and single dads?  Were it him on his own then yes, he could unintentionally spread some harmful assumptions about gay people.  But any homophobic mindsets he’d spread are immediately canceled out by the fact that he’s IN A DATING SIMULATOR FULL OF GAY DADS, said gay dads are also well-rounded and lovable characters.  He basically cant contribute to homophobia because he’s locked in a cage full of gay positivity.  Also, a bunch of LGBT+ people worked on the game, so you’re literally calling LGBT+ creators working on an LGBT+ game homophobic and saying that stealing from them is okay.  Nice.  See it’s people like you that are the reason we dont have more LGBT+ creators, but I digress.

I am SO TIRED of hearing “dont make fat characters like food!!” because I know the people who say these kinds of things have good intentions, but you’re focusing on the wrong issue.  The issue is when it’s their only defining trait, or their main defining trait, or one of their main defining traits.  The issue is NOT that they like food.  I’m sick and tired of hearing “Steven and Amethyst are fatphobic” because no, no they fucking aren’t, please stop.  Steven isn’t even shown to like food that much and Amethyst has a lot more to her than the fact that she eats everything.  Amethyst’s love of food is used as a comic relief every few episodes.  That’s it.  And Steven?  The first episode happened, but after that...?  He’s not shown to like food anymore than any other kid.  You’re making me feel bad because I’m a fat person who likes food.  Like I’m all for fat characters having personalities that dont include that personality quirk, but you need to not immediately get up in arms just because a fat character likes food and instead focus on the fat characters that ARE no more than stereotypes.

I get that homophobia and fatphobia are on two different levels as far as stakes go (to the point where I dont even like calling it “fatphobia” but whatever I’m too lazy to not use that term) but it’s the same mindset.  Saying that a character of a certain minority group cannot be a certain vague thing without it being racist/sexist/homophobic/transphobic/fatphobic/ect is bigoted against said minority group, and I will defend that mindset to my grave.

“Oh but you shouldn’t speak over gay people1!!!”  Listen.  You’re are FREE to be uncomfortable with the game.  I am completely okay if the concept makes you uncomfortable, and I apologize if it’s plastered all over your dash and your blacklist feature can’t get it, or whatever else. (BTW I dont tag Dream Daddy half the time so if you follow me and the game makes you uncomfortable, or any other game/show makes you uncomfortable for that matter, feel free to ask me to tag it!)  You shouldn’t be forced to be exposed to something that you dont like.  But you also shouldn’t force people to not enjoy something just because you find fault with it, and you ESPECIALLY shouldn’t encourage people to FUCKING PIRATE IT.  As I mentioned earlier, YOU ARE TAKING AWAY FROM THE VERY LGBT+ CONTENT CREATORS YOU CLAIM TO BE SUPPORTING.  And besides that, I’m not going to fucking call up my gay friends and be like “uhhh hey can you support what I’m saying so I dont look like a homophobic prick?” because that’s 10x more homophobic than anything I’ve said here.  I’m not speaking over gay people, I’m just agreeing with gay people that disagree with you.  “Listen to gay people” applies to gay people that disagree with you, you know; it’s not a free pass to shut up straight and ace/aro people.

I’ve seen people call Steven Universe homophobic for falling back on too many stereotypes that could give viewers bad impressions of lesbians.  Steven Universe.  And you know what?  Those people express their concerns in a fair, understandable way, and they are 100% allowed to do that and I encourage them to continue dissecting SU as such.  Even overanalysis is beneficial to the content creator.  But SU is also created by a bisexual woman and loved by millions of LGBT+ fans, many of whom have said they’ve become more comfortable with themselves because of SU or have otherwise been helped by the show.  To say that it’s 100% homophobic and enjoying it as pro-LGBT is wrong and that people should be shamed for doing such is taking away other LGBT+ people’s right to enjoy something they love.  Again, “listen to gay people” applies to gay people that disagree with you, too.  You need to listen to them to the same extent that you expect them to listen to you.

But point being, the fact that people are analyzing Joseph’s arc as problematic is okay.  My problem is forcing that on other people.  Making people hate a game even though it brought them some joy at one point because of how you interpreted something, ignoring how revolutionary said game or piece of media is.  Something can be revolutionary and still have problems, so you’re allowed to nitpick and analyze.  But don’t force other people into the same bubble of overanalysis that you’ve found yourself in.

Let people enjoy Dream Daddy without accusing them of being horrible mlm fetishists.  I know for a fact that while I’m sure there are some fetish fans out there, there are plenty more who are in it for the representation and the cute storyline.

#stormy speaks