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putnamcapital · 10 months

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Queerness and power in YR / why the best comparison is Normal People and not Heartstopper

It’s a big week for Heartstopper - Young Royals comparisons and i’m not on here to throw any shade on Heartstopper. I haven’t even watched all of S2 yet and i know i love it! But thanks to the absolutely stunning, spell-binding work of fiction called the Normal People AU, i’m more and more convinced that Heartstopper and YR have …. not really that much to do with each other — aside from being tremendously good stories, amazing performances, stellar cinematography and direction etc.

Lisa Ambjorn and the team behind YR have been frequently heard saying that they didn’t want to make a show about homosexuality, where the queerness of the relationship between W&S was “the problem” that drove the plot. Heartstopper, on the other hand, is very much a story driven by the tensions and joys of budding queer and non-conforming relationships, sexualities, and identities. But does that really mean YR isn’t about queerness? I think it’s still about queerness, but with a framing that has kind of been lost from view in the post-AIDS crisis / post-gay marriage era.

I didn’t really appreciate this until I thought through the intense parallels with Normal People - as the author of Obviously has so powerfully drawn out. Normal People is about power; and if you’ll forgive me the short-cut, once upon a time, queerness (in modern global North society) was also about power. In NP, the anchoring drama, and the elemental wound, that both Marianne and Connell face rests in power structures that oppress them - in Marianne’s case, the emotional and physical abuse in her family, in Connell’s case, the abuse that capitalism inflicts on him and his family as the working class. They both seek to become who they are in spite of this power structure - while at the same always being molded by it. There is not so much a core identity to either character that seeks to ‘set itself free’ or ‘reveal itself’ by overcoming power but rather a character who comes into fuller awareness of themselves while being shaped by their contexts. For example, in that scene by the fountain in Italy, where Marianne/Wille acknowledge they have never had to think about money, and Connell/Simon says winning the scholarship has changed his life so that there are things he no longer thinks about - and then between them, they bring to the surface that Marianne/Wilhelm’s mother has been paying Simon/Connell’s mother dirt wages for years, and Marianne says out loud how she knows that there is this basic harm in the way they came to know each other - a wound that is not of their doing, but from their class positions, and yet could never be forgotten as part of their story and part of who they became as a couple. The scene is not - we can run away from all this or i see the ‘real you’ behind all this - but, we can love each other and be who we are and yet still be where we come from, with the consequent constraints on our worldview and possibilities for action. “Men make their own history, but they do not make it as they please; they do not make it under self-selected circumstances, but under circumstances listing already, given and transmitted from the past.”

Basically i think that in YR, Lisa is giving us back a much more Marxist / power relational form of queerness - where queerness is refracted through and emergent from material conditions, as opposed to being purely about declaring identities [“i was born this way”] and thus essential truths or essential desires, but about the ebb and flow between people, where that ebb and flow is mediated by the power structures in which we cannot help but experience our lives. For Wille, the power structure is obvious: the Crown. But it’s there for everyone. For Sara and Simon, it’s three-fold: the power dynamics around class and race, and the power dynamics from an abusive household / childhood trauma. For the other characters, too, it is not far away. August’s struggles are with his family’s expectations, and with a drug addiction and eating disorder that speak to the pressures of hegemonic cis-het masculinity. For Felice, she deals with racial bias and the pressure to be the perfect image of a woman her (thin, white) mother wants. It’s true for all the students at the school - the scene on parents’ weekend as all these parents swarm in is utterly stifling, as every student feels the structure they are meant to conform to. BTW it’s a subplot, but YR seems also to be saying that capitalism and class structure harm even the rich. People - everyone - experience their gender and sexual identities through and in between all that power - it’s necessarily shaped by it.

To me, this is the root of what is so intoxicatingly liberating about Young Royals (and by extension, Obviously) - that i just don’t feel watching HS, or even reading the canon NP - of the possibility of emancipation. It comes about not principally through outward facing revolt, though there is some of that, but catalyzed by a kind of relational self-growth: the characters grow into themselves as a result of their relations with others. It’s not at all about Wille walking this road alone - despite what Simon says he must do in S1/E6. It’s actually about the characters growing together, in a kind of solidarity against the power structures they rebel against. After all, it is Simon’s confession in the cloakroom, and then the look he gives Wille from the choir stand when August is about to give the speech, that compels Wille to his feet to claim his power, on his terms.

It’s a profoundly ‘class consciousness’ form of identity formation and self-actualization - like they become who they are through their struggle in concert with others. It feels utterly foreign and refreshing to me, because it’s just not the dominant discourse for queerness in popular culture, and it helpfully puts the power struggle back into queerness - it recenters the feeling of community, of joint struggle, of solidarity, and yes, of resistance.

This is how it is. This is how i feel.

#young royals #normal people #heartstopper #AO3 Normal People AU #young royals analysis

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chonkymoth · 7 months

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good omens 2: hey neil,,, where was my gentle romance? what was that ending?? jfc. i am left ruined. binged heartstopper (twice) as therapy. was still hopeful for ofmd

ofmd s2: wow! this season has been grea— hey what the FUCK?! my fav character dies and i'm in denial (if lucius can survive against all odds + buttons can turn into a fucking bird, then i'll easily stay delusional)... yk what, it's ok I'll watch loki be a chaotic little shit to recover, it's not like my ship will have much traction anyways in canon haha

loki s2: is spoonfed lokius every episode?? and everyone else, even non-shippers, is seeing it too so it's not just me reading into shit?? i'm foaming at the fucking mouth. gods, please let me have a win here

#dont get me wrong #this is disney and mcu after all #am i hopeful? yes. do i actually expect anything to happen? absolutely not #*but* in the event they dont go canon or -much worse- they continue to push him + sylvie #i will be in the upmost trenches of ao3 for the forseeable future that's for damn sure #lokius #loki series #loki laufeyson #mobius m mobius #mcu #marvel #loki season 2 #loki

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booksandpaperss · 8 months

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kind of obsessed with the fact you've slowly gotten more blatant with heartstopper hate lmfao😭 it's like. fine to me it's cute but NOTHING SERIOUS IS EVER GOING ON so I gotta be in a really specific mood for it I still haven't watched s2. definitely couldn't be a fixation. and everyone fucking loves it it's the best thing since sliced bread and I'm like. why tho. and then any critique of it is sorta dumbed down to "oh you just don't like how sweet it is but teenagers deserve sweet romance" like ok but why's it gotta be boring though. and too healthy like beyond normal levels of healthy. like this is missing even the usual human levels of miscommunication. and it gets resolved too easy. sorry this was supposed to cut off 4 sentences ago I'm realizing now in your inbox that I apparently have beef with heartstopper

LKSSJJSJS LISTEN listen. I don’t even hate it. truly. I even genuinely enjoyed myself during the nick and Charlie parts bc that’s the part that thought is actually put into. I just hate how much everyone loves it so blindly

honestly my biggest beef with it is that it’s marketed and treated as the most genuine and diverse groundbreaking queer storyline there is when that’s literally so far from true and it really really shows ppls true colors when they think this bc the sapphics and POC are literal props it’s actually absurd for a show that’s supposed to be a safe space for queer ppl

and god do I hate that part of the reason it’s so popular is bc it portrays these queer teenagers as never having a single, physical thought in their entire life. there was this whole plot centered around one single hickey that Charlie had??? and something abt the physical attraction portion of it all, which they did try to show btw, felt disingenuous to me. and I know that’s why it’s so palatable to a mainstream audience and it pisses me off and again it just doesn’t feel genuine. which is ironically one of the main arguments against heartstopper criticism: “it’s not cringe it’s just earnest” when yeah maybe it’s Trying to be earnest but when u look at it from more than a surface level lens it’s not rlly succeeding

and I know the aroace storyline in season 2 with Isaac resonated with a lot of people and I think that’s wonderful, and I actually do think that was something that was done well, but how can you have a storyline around asexuality when you don’t show the contrast in how it is being an allosexual queer person. there was a whole lot of romantic attraction going on but even more tip toeing around the sexual attraction aspect. and I don’t expect it to be like sex education for example in terms of the focus on sex obv , but the lack of acknowledgment of that aspect of the queer experience paired with how much the uwu wholesomeness of it all is played up rlly rubs me the wrong way. once again: it feels dishonest

I was actually talking about this with one of my mutuals the other day and they pointed out that it is very plain that alice olseman did not consult a single queer man in the writers room. and if someone can prove this wrong be my guest but I rlly don’t think the whole physical attraction component would have been done so badly had an actual queer man been on the team. feels kind of like back in summer 2022 when byler shippers would literally shun and harass anyone who even implied that Will’s feelings for Mike probably included physical attraction meanwhile Noah Schnapp himself was making jokes about it bc he’s an actual gay teenager.

not gonna even get into right now how Tara and darcy felt even more like props this season than in the last one and I didn’t even like watching their scenes bc the writing itself felt performative. that’s a whole other post.

and man, wouldn’t it have been so nice if there had actually been people of color in that writers room. On a purely surface level heartstopper has a very diverse cast but once again, peel away even one layer and you realize it’s a bunch of tokenism, which brings me full circle back to my original point: you can’t say it’s peak representation and diversity when it’s whitewashed as hell and doesn’t gaf abt sapphics despite literally being written by one. guess she chose her whiteness over her queerness even when writing a queer story which wowwww sooooo original.

okayyyy anyways did NOT mean to write a whole essay but u discovering ur own beef reminded me of mine lmaooo

all of this was to say that basically I’m not gonna pretend I didn’t enjoy myself during parts of the show, and I don’t wanna shame ppl for liking it that is not at all what I’m trying to do here, it has its own place in queer media and if a show like this came out in like 2010 it would be groundbreaking despite its issues (but again it’s literally 2023 do fucking better) , but I take issue with people treating it like something it’s not and with the amount of love it gets I feel like I have to be really loud about my criticism of it, especially bc usually the criticism of the show that gets any attention isn’t even slandering it for the right reasons and like. if ur gonna hate on something queer and popular do it right

oh and heartstopper writers? maybe try speaking with an actual teenager once in your life before writing their dialogue they do not fucking communicate that well

okay I’m done now finally 🫡

#sorry rori I don’t know what came over me #booksandpaperss asks #should I make myself a rant tag #elli rants

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chemtrail-notes · 3 months

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I’m not sorry, where was the “big asexual news” that was promised? Because I didn’t see it at all. Yea this is about Heartstopper s2. *Originally posted 08/05/23*

This rant and or essay or essay rant will be through the lens of an asexual, aka my asexual lens. If you are asexual and you disagree with me, valid. Regardless I got things to say. And it is a rant so don't be surprised when I get blunt and sharp and harsh with what's down below.

First, what I liked about the show in short, good. It gave exactly what I expected it to give especially going off the vibes of s1. A whole lot of kissing vs actually talking to show their intimacy but hey, thats that.

Again first, what I liked about the asexuality aspect in the show.

1. There's an asexual/aromantic character.

2. Shout out to 'Summer Bird Blue' (aroace main character) and 'Ace: What Asexuality Reveals about Desire, Society, and the Meaning of Sex' as I have read them both and love them. (Wouldn't recommend 'Ace' to someone who is just realizing they are asexual without reading a less theorized/asexuality book prior to but it was wonderful to see it.)

That's it.

Like if you have never seen asexual rep in any form of media until now, I'm glad you got to see it here but when I hear "BIG ASEXUAL NEWS" I expect it to be big. This wasn't big. It was small, medium at best and I wasn't satisfied.

My first impression of Heartstopper was just basic curiosity back in 2022. I only heard of the name from seeing the graphic novel in my library years prior. And when the trailer came out, I had already read 'Loveless' by Alice Oseman (I was reading any book with ace characters and waited patiently to finally get my hands on this book that was wonderful for me) so I recognized the name. And watched it. I had no expectations then. The expectations came when I discovered after watching s1 that Oseman tweeted this:

That is when I had expectations for s2 and held her to that. And I had full faith. Oseman is literally aroace! Oseman has said openly that having aro/ace characters in their stories is extremely important to them! Oseman is basically an aroace activist and their name is one of the known names in the community! So of course, I was happy to not only watch s2 of Heartstopper but also support her as she is a voice I believe that can more people recognize asexuality. And I still do believe that; this rant isn't about her personhood, ethics or vibe. We have seen how many famous people show us that we do not know them at all so I'm not making any statements about who they are as an individual - nah I'm over doing that. I'm criticizing them as an AroAce author/activist plus Executive Producer of Hearstopper that has openly stated they want to show more ace and aro rep in media. My question is, the minute you saw your rise in fame and rise in popularity of Heartstopper the tv show why didn't you run to add that purple, black, gray, and white in the show? Because of all the shows to showcase asexuality on a main stage, Heartstopper can and dammit should be that.

Hi to the non-asexuals reading this -

homoromantic (gay/lesbian) asexuals exist - biromantic asexuals exist - panromantic asexuals exist - trans asexuals exist - heteromantic asexuals exist - nonbinary asexuals exist - it's just little to no sex involved

the same goes for aromantics just in reverse - aromantic bisexuals and so on

I don't want to hear anything about taking away from the other queer identities present in the show. I'm aware of how little gay or bi or trans or otherwise queer character shows the community gets. But do you want to know how many asexual characters shows the community has? Dare I add "main asexual characters that are explicitly mentioned by name or by how they are in relation to society"? ............. Exactly. Not many. Because from 2010 till now there has been a nice chunk now and growing gay, bi, or even trans mainstream media or characters in said media (even when they are cancelled, they still existed and do exist). Having the main characters of Heartstopper have some asexuals in the show wouldn't take away anything. And it should have happened. No, no, no, no not minor characters. Main. Cast. Asexuality is insanely diverse and has so much intersectionality within it, it CAN work! Would it change the canon from the graphic novel? Yeah, but who cares, the canon was already changed!

As I was watching s2 and realize that this big asexual news was making an insanely late debut, I was already ready to write this post. By episode 6 we had gotten a little attention to asexuality being mentioned with Issac getting more screen time (oh my gosh he actually gets more time on screen and lines??! Because he was literally a background character despite being in the main friend group) and that was it. But I was like "let me not run my mouth, maybe in the graphic novel Issac had way more time to shine and then it led into him being asexual seamlessly." So I go to the wiki and learn all about the Osemanverse - all Oseman's books are in the same universe - and all the characters of Heartstopper and to my surprise Issac didn't even exist in the novel! Lol! So now knowing that, I know all about Issac and can now run my mouth.

Issac was created for the show most likely to replace a character named Aled who was gay demisexual and also the main character for 'Radio Silence' another book of Oseman's but was part of the friend group in Heartstopper graphic novel. I find it really weird that the ace character got cut because it "wouldn't fit with the timeline" as he was a main character in another story but whatever (Oseman on tumblr says here). They bring us Issac. And in s1 he is the quiet one (literally he barely has lines) who holds a book all the time listening to his besties romance antics and sometimes being a voice of reason (within a minute to 3 minutes cause thats all he gets). And in s2 he is STILL the quiet one who has little screen time but a little bit more lines holding a book all the time listening to his besties romance antics BUT NOW has an intro to a guy who he likes but is questioning how far that "like" extends to then realizing the term aromantic asexual resonates with him....in the quickest, exposition-based way I have seem.

'Heartstopper' Season 2 Will Explore Isaac's Asexuality, Says Alice Oseman (collider.com)

WHEN?! Because it seems like any time to Issac was rushed. Am I supposed to appreciate the literal 1-to-2-minute discussion with the AroAce artist while we barely saw the actual art piece and then the exposition-like description of living in a world heavily toward romance or sex? Were the little purple graphics supposed to make my heart leap? Nope that is reserved for another character of a different show (more on that later). It wasn't explored - not like the relationship between Tara and Darcy or the connection between Elle and Tao, who are also not the main-main characters! Secondary characters if you will. I didn't add Charlie and Nick because of course most screen time would be dedicated to them, they are the primary characters. But shit! Even the two gay teachers had a more intimate and kind handling of their gay experiences and then falling for each other! And they are tertiary characters we just met! I---. I can't get it. Why didn't Issac get the same level of focus in this show? Explored? It was barely shown sans Issac telling James he didn't feel what he thinks is romance toward him. And then at the end where Issac grabs the 'Ace' book. I mean okay then...

Now for Oseman. Listen, I do not know her entire ace life story. However, I did read interviews about them and their quest for asexual representation and also aromantic representation. In a Guardian interview states - "'The world is obsessed with sex and romance. And if you don’t have that, you feel like you haven’t achieved something that’s really important,' she says. Oseman tries to highlight the importance of platonic relationships in her own work – even in Heartstopper, an out-and-out love story, friendship is hugely important – and to include asexual representation in her books."

I will say, friendships are shown to be highly important in the show so I have no qualms with that. I do have qualms with what she states next: "As much as Oseman and others like her are trying to start conversations about asexuality, she doesn’t think it’s going to be a widely talked about subject any time soon. 'We’re never really going to see much cultural change in terms of awareness until a big celebrity comes out as being asexual,' she says. 'And there’s nothing I can do about that.'"

You as an individual human on this Earth can't change that yes but lets stop pretending you don't have strong influence now, from your Webtoon days and now to Heartstopper TV days. Oseman even recognizes the attention and new fame that has come to them since the show premiered and became so popular that even Netflix (Mr. Let me cancel a show that people actually liked) renewed it for s2 and s3 practically a month after its premiere. So, I don't get it? Why not add in more asexual rep in the show? Why not run to do so especially because you didn't back when you first starting your author journey? Again, I've read up on them; I know Oseman may have discovered the term asexual at 18 but didn't claim it then and had many years of questioning themselves (not looking into asexuality, believing they may be demisexual, trying to like boys etc) until 2020 when they came out publicly when 'Loveless' debuted. So their old stories wouldn't have asexuality in them. Heartstopper may have been wrapped for s1 production by that point, but Heartstopper said officially on Sept 22, 2022 that production had started. Which really means from the end of spring into the summer s2 had started being produced and written. AGAIN, as the executive producer seeing the massive popularity for this teen show, why didn't you say "hey this is different from the graphic novels but thats okay because we can have two different forms of canon in these two different forms of media (novel, tv) - but lets make a main character(s) be on the ace/aro spectrum! The audience will be open to it!" And who would I make asexual as a main character? Easy peasy - Nick.

I refer you to the italicized words above with all the labels I listed. Anyway. The bisexual to asexual pipeline is real and many aces say that before figuring out they were ace they assumed they were bi because they didn't have a preference toward a gender and assumed either was good. I literally thought it for a long time myself. And it can work perfectly because Nick in s1 and s2 was thinking about his sexuality. The scene in episode 6 where things get intimate, and Nick stops Charlie as he isn't ready to do anything more than kissing though he says he wants to just not at that moment. Charlie literally states, "And I'd only wanna do it if you did, and...if you didn't ever want to do it, then I wouldn't either." THE STAGE IS SET. And what could have happened next is Nick goes on his phone (they on them phones all the time anyway) to look up why he's nervous about having sex despite liking his boyfriend, scrolls down page after page, sees posts about the pressure to have sex, in the article it mentions asexual people. Boom! Seed is planted. Obligatory: Aces can have sex as asexuals can fall under sex-favorable, sex indifferent (the two that would or could engage in sexual activity), sex-averse, and sex-replused. Then we would have Issac and Nick, both aces showing the beautiful spectrum that is asexuality and a dab into aromanticism. And yeah, I read that Tori will be officially stated as asexual and aromantic in Volume 5 of the graphic novel but as of now thats only for the graphic novels.

I don't write fanfic nor will I so no I won't just make up a fannon to satisfy me but when I hear Big Asexual News I expect it to be big. Because while Issac's realization of asexuality may have been nice I've seen better. Remember that character I mentioned before? Yea well its no surprise, its Todd Chavez from BoJack Horseman and not only was it actually built up longer with more focus on Todd, it was also the main queer sexuality in the show. Besides the former producer man who was gay (and Bojack ruined his tv career), then got cancer and died - Todd's asexuality was the main focus - main character - for diversity and I loved every second of it. You saw him not only realize something was amiss with him, go to an ace meeting and see differences in the ace spectrum, get a gf, realize the gf and him didn't have to date just bc they were ace, not back down when others would question if he could have romance, and eventually find a nice girl and move in together. Not to mention how the show pokes fun at allosexuality in a satire way. And you would think a show like Heartstopper with the influence of a literal AroAce person could match this or surpass this for the 13 to 17 teen audience (BoJack is good but heavy so kids shouldn't just watch it lightly) but it just fell flat.

I really feel like asexuality and aromanticism was pushed to the side by allosexuality and alloromanticism yet again, but it irritates me this time because it didn't have to be. And if Oseman didn't say anything, didn't hype the asexuals desperate to see more asexuality on screen in mainstream pop culture, then this post would have never existed. Yea the other producers and writers and blah blah blah may have stopped them, I can see how one executive producer doesn't have all the power but damn that tweet had me convinced that they had a significant amount of influence. And yes again, can 1 person change everything? NO. Oseman cannot be the only AroAce person to change the tides, we need more activists and people demanding to see more ace or aro rep. Yasmin Benoit is a great one who is getting more and more known by the day, more asexual books are being bought and in libraries, asexuality has more of an understanding than it did years ago (still a long way now). But in terms of asexuality in media.....not just the dumb stereotype of a robotic person or the "well you arent conventionally attractive or charismatic so it fits that u are aro or ace or aroace" or soley based on they had a trauma (bc that isnt a prerequisite for asexuality)....there's not many.

I don't care about spoilers for s3 so, in the future, before I decide to watch or not, I am seeing if more aroace identity is directly present before I decide to support the show in streams. Which won't matter in the long run because 1 person not watching won't hurt its popularity and I don't want it to. I don't want to hurt the show or dismiss how it is a showcase of lgbtqia in a happy, comforting, fantastic binge worthy show. I just want more for asexuality in media and this show could have launched it far if they actually made it big.

#heartstopper #issac heartstopper #Issac heartstopper aroace #issac heartstopper asexual #asexual #asexual rant #honestly I could tag the one the only themselves but I've chosen not to #but I am still going to talk #I said what I said #heartstopper netflix #netflix #kit conner #heartstopper alice oseman #heartstopper tv #heartstopper s2

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young-royals-confessions · 3 months

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Sometimes I wish I would’ve watched yr a lot earlier, but then I realize that that wouldn’t have probably happened. It would’ve been great if I had watched it in 2021, but back then I was very into youtube and couldn’t have anyway because I didn’t have netflix. I found out about yr in I’m assuming september ish of 2022 because my friend told me the story of the first season then told me about the release date for s2. (I genuinely thought that I had learnt about in early 2022, but then I looked up the release date for the announcement of the date for s2 and I was very confused). But, I kind of forgot about it because I still didn’t have netflix. Flash forward into early 2023 I got netflix, but I had forgotten all about young royals because my friend didn’t talk about it to me (she wasn’t a super fan, loved the show, just wasn’t obsessed). I think I remember it flashing through my thoughts briefly but at the time I was obsessing over something else so it didn’t stay long. Another flash forward to August of 2023, and the release of the 2nd season of heartstopper came out, I was hearing all about it so I thought I would check it out, then that prompted me to think about young royals again so I ended up watching it, loving it, and now I’m thoroughly obsessed and just becoming more and more obsessed everyday (if that’s even possible). I will never forgive myself for not watching it in early 2023, who knows where I’d be.

💜

#young royals #yr obsession

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chipcheesesandwich · 9 months

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Heartstopper S2 finally gave us the queer revenge we were looking for, or maybe at least I have been looking for.

I've always tended to steer away from queer media these days, because all have been quite depressing. The couple breaks up, one of them dies (or maybe both!), the show gets cancelled after 1 season after promising us with a second (I'm looking at you Amazon and the execs who cut League of Their Own, pay your actors and writers!!!), etc... But what really makes me depressed, is the "forgiving queers" arc.

In almost every queer coming out type story arc in a show, set in the modern day, there is a bully. They will give the characters their first taste of slurs, shaming, and threats to harm them for being openly queer. Through the experiences from the bullying, the coming out character usually becomes tough (maybe after a few mental breakdowns here and there) and fights back the bully, or just ignores them and show that they can live a happy life, or they find out the bully is actually queer too and/or have a reason behind their actions (homophobic home environments and trying to please the people around them, which tends to be the case). And usually, when the queer character finds out about the bully being queer or has their reasoning of "acting" homophobic, they are forgiven. And all I can think watching this unfold, is that is just a load of straight guilt forgiveness smeared on the screen.

Because, tbh, why do we have to forgive them? Why do we have to be the "great learning lesson" for the people who do not have the decency to think of people's feelings? And don't get me wrong, I am not always about this. I have done a fair amount of forgiving in my time of coming out, educating people, being the first contact of this queer world, etc. But it should never be the one and only recommended way of dealing with hate, because those people still hurt us and scarred us for life. It is our life, it is our decision to forgive or not.

So when I saw Charlie, blocking away Harry and Ben's ask for forgiveness with grace, was so, satisfying. And such a great decision in the creatives/writers on this. It was almost like the reverse queer baiting we got from Our Flag Means Death and got slapped into the actual desired direction that no one could dare to wish. It was what I actually wanted to say to those people who asked me for forgiveness after making me think I am not worth living; fuck. off.

...

As I unravel this love I have for Charlie's queer revenge, I cannot stop thinking of the last moments we had with Ben. As Charlie and Nick walk away, leaving Ben completely alone, the beautiful rainbow colors of the queer art gallery just overflow towards him, just inches away. We see him hesitate to leave, but ends with him fully turning around and walking away in the opposite direction. And as viewers, you cannot help but hear your own heart shatter for him. We all know how he wants those inches to reach the rainbow, but it is just far too wide. It's the biggest leap all queer people have experienced. Charlie and Nick have, and they could be Ben's guide to help him cross this. But at the end, it is Ben's decision to make and how he gathers his courage. And all we can do, is watch.

#heartstopper netflix #heartstopper #heartstopper season 2 #heartstopper spoilers #heartstopper s2 #tv shows #nick and charlie #heartstopper ben #heartstopper charlie #lgbtq #queer #coming out #heartstopper nick #heartstopper harry

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heartslobbf · 10 months

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i watched heartstopper s2 because i was an avid osemanverse enjoyer in my early teen years (back when alice oseman still had anons on rip) and owe some of my aspec self-discovery to their writing. i knew they had written an aroace storyline into this series and wanted to see it because whilst i knew as an aroallo lesbian i wouldn’t totally resonate and might be a bit cheesed off by aspects of it, i enjoy aromantic crumbs, and i enjoy discussing aspec Stuff even more. it was……. an interesting experience? has certainly given me a lot to think about. gushy rant below the cut :)

i will say, i think that the amatonormativity is still strong, and rigid in this show. it’s like, isaac is the exception to the rule and his true love is books, and he gets to yell at his friends for all being so damn couple-y and romance-obsessed but there’s no resolution to that. is that realistic? yeah, sure, allo friends can fucking suck, but heartstopper is the kind of show aiming to do certain things for queer kids where id expect a dialogue about this. you know, charlie & co coming to understand aspec identities and becoming more conscious of how amatonormativity affects them, interrogating it in such a way that these queer couples can also be liberated from its trappings. juicy shit like that. didnt happen tho. isaac gets a book about asexuality (no mention of aromanticism on its cover!!! the word is used by the artist who vaguely explains both terms to isaac, but there is a much greater focus on asexuality, so much so that this morning i saw pink fucking news celebrating isaac’s asexual storyline without a mention of his aromanticism) and that’s it.

a lot of that criticism is arguably coloured by my experience as an aroallo person, because i just want aromanticism to be engaged with as aromanticism. you know aroaces we are besties in arms solidarity and all that, and im so fucking happy you got some great asexual rep that frequently used the word asexual, as well as your flag and iconography. like fuck yeah!!!!!! let’s go!!!!!! however, aromanticism is not a subset of asexuality, is not an ‘extreme form’ of asexuality, does not necessarily have anything to do with asexuality. im sure the aspec folks know this, but allo fuckers dont and that means that this canonically aromantic character who was emotionally affecting to me is one that im gonna be barred from resonating with again and again.

you know, moments of isaac’s story were so profound and moving for me. i cried at the kiss scene in episode 5, it was probably the single most relatable moment of tv (related to my experiences with sexuality) that ive ever seen. its certainly not my favourite tv moment of all time lol, relatability ≠ quality, but when youre part of a marginalised group and experience a lot of loneliness and alienation surrounding your identity it is great to see it reflected. i honestly loved that shit!!!!! ive been there!!!! that’s me!!!!!! the wanting and the not wanting!!! the jealousy and confusion and alienation, the longing to be able to feel what you can’t just so you don’t have to be so lonely, the knowledge that you’re just not that person…… oh it was great. it was fucking great. so you can maybe appreciate how upsetting it is for other people to neglect the aromantic facets of this canonically aromantic character, when we dont get shit.

having said that, asexuals also dont get shit; my issue is absolutely not with isaac being aroace, but rather with how mainstream understanding of aspec identities is still so piss poor that people neglect the aromantic aspect of that identity. i found isaac to be a relatable character and i enjoyed and appreciated that about him; i wish more people would talk about him being both asexual and aromantic, because aromanticism does not get talked about enough as anything other than an ‘extension’ of asexuality, an idea which only diminishes the complexity and vastness of both (fucking awesome and beautiful) identities. love and light and solidarity forever with all other aspec folk <3

#im not tagging this as anythjng lol this was just for me hence the cut #i am once again riddled with osemanverse opinions #shut up daisy

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