About the Video
I have gotten so many asks (and messages from antis 🙄) about this video. Rather than turn my blog into a "video Q & A", I'll just give my thoughts on it here in one post.
Fake, fan fiction, CPN.
I'm going to start by saying that the very best response to negative buzz or attacks on GG and/or DD (which this video definitely is), is always to simply ignore, keep quiet and let it blow over. The more engaged we get with the subject, the more buzz we are helping to build around it. In situations like this, it is not in GGDD's best interests for people to freak out. Often the entire purpose of an attack like this is to upset people and stoke up fan wars.
I say this all the time and you'll hear me repeating it again and again and again - block and ignore (and report when appropriate).
If something comes up and you don't see me talking about it, this is why. I don't like giving more oxygen to garbage like this.
THE ROAD IS LONG
Being a (happy) turtle requires critical thinking, media literacy skills and a high degree of fortitude. This is all basic self-care and intellectual self-defense. I've been saying this kind of thing a lot and hopefully it's getting through to some people. If you have a heart of glass, if you are gullible and easily swayed, if you are easily thrown into fits of anxiety and self-doubt, and if you aren't willing to change your self-destructive social media habits, this might not be the right fandom for you.
As turtles we are often outnumbered by enemies who are trying to harm us, debunk our CPN, harm GG and DD, stoke up fan wars, push their own heterocentric agendas, spew homophobia, fandom-phobia and RP/CP-phobia, spread hate against one or both of the boys, make BXG cry, etc. etc. etc.
This fandom is not for the faint of heart.
Heteronormativity plays a key role, here
We've seen countless interactions and sweet moments between GG and DD that make this idiotic video look like a passerby patting a stray dog in the street, and yet there are STILL turtles who are shaken by it.
We have seen a ton of evidence of BJYXSZD, and candies and CPN coming at a regular pace, yet turtles freak out over a 2 year old sibling-ish video clip that has clearly been maliciously edited.
If this video makes you feel shaken about GG and DD it might be time to self-reflect on your attitude toward queer relationships.
Heteronormativity and 'burden of proof' is a huge part of how things get skewed in the fandom. The (often unconscious) assumption among most people is that heterosexuality is the default, and queer relationships don't happen. People need a PHD thesis and a grand jury to believe that GG and DD's relationship is even remotely possible, yet they need nothing more than a rumor and a badly edited video to believe GG or DD is dating a woman. It's insane.
GG and DD could have their tongues down each other's throats and people will still scratch their heads and hmm and haw about them, but the second either of them talks to or interacts with a woman, the immediate assumption is that they're going to marry her.
This is just the way everyone is socialized in our homophobic world, and it plays somewhat of a protective role for GGDD. They wouldn't be able to be as open about their relationship as they are if they were a heterosexual couple. Heteronormativity means that evidence of their being a couple is easily dismissed by most people and they're able to fly under the radar this way.
But as turtles we should know better. We should be able to recognize this dynamic at work and not be thrown by it.
This is not a 'cute moment'
If you are viewing this incident as 'the leaking of a cute moment between friends', or if you are worried about the implications for GG and DD's relationship, you are missing the entire point of the video.
This video has nothing to do with GG and DD. It has nothing to do with friendship. Quite the contrary. It's a targeted attack.
Make no mistake about it - the filming of this video was not an accident. The release of this video was not an accident. The timing of both the filming and the release of it were not accidents. The editing and removal of context were not accidents. This was an intentional attack on GG, aimed at hurting him.
I'm not going to go into all the details of it here. It's an unsavory topic that is best kept private. But if you see something causing a negative stir around either GG or DD, that's probably the entire intent of the situation. To cause a negative stir, stoke up fan wars, and ultimately to harm them.
Context is everything
I want to remind everyone of the context here. GG had earlier that night just enjoyed a major 'comeback' moment after 2/27, when his fans greeted him with a sea of red. If you weren't around back then, you might not understand the significance of what happened.
We had just spent several months watching GG get trashed and attacked and negatively discussed in the media. He had been lying low for months and months. Many of us wondered whether he'd ever recover. As we all know - in C-ent, artists are routinely canceled and blacklisted, often for apparently minor 'infractions'. We had no reason to believe GG would be able to bounce back.
Then Tencent Starlight Awards comes along, and here's GG on the red carpet and then onstage, singing in front of a huge audience, and there was a sea of red light banners that fans had smuggled in to show their love and support. And GG was clearly deeply moved by it all, to where he got choked up toward the end.
I don't think I was the only person bawling my eyes out at that moment. I STILL can't watch that video without getting choked up. It was such an important moment in GG's career.
And GG was visibly relieved. I can only imagine how elated he must have been after the event, to see that his career was going to survive.
I have no doubt he went to that party in high spirits, happy to be able to go out and enjoy an evening celebrating among other stars. His guard would have been down in this closed 'backstage' environment where cameras were not supposed to be. And some utter dirtbag decides to film his interactions, with their own agenda in mind.
The filming and editing and release of this clip, the timing of it, the hot search, everything about it is intended to harm GG and benefit others. This isn't the first time such an incident has happened, and GG isn't the first victim (and likely won't be the last).
It was an egregious violation of his privacy and of his trust, and as people who love him we should be addressing it for what it is instead of having our own self-serving anxiety about what it means for GGDD. You know what it means for GGDD?
Sweet FA.
It means less than nothing. Anyone who thinks DD is jealous about this moment has their head in a moist, dark place. Let me guarantee you, DD is as pissed as I am about what was done to GG, and isn't harboring some ridiculous insecurity about GG's interactions. DD knows GG's real feelings.
Any doubts turtles feel are their own, and have absolutely nothing to do with GG and DD.
Anyone who knows GG knows he's casual and affectionate with others. He had shared a stage with the other subject earlier in the evening, so it's not surprising he had a friendly exchange with her. He is that way with co-stars, with colleagues and with anyone he works with. He's a genuine, down-to-earth, funny, sweet guy.
Those tendencies in him were taken advantage of in some pretty unforgivable ways, here, and THAT'S the real story. Someone is attempting to benefit at his expense, and that's the real story.
This will blow over. Let it. Let's all stop giving this BS story oxygen, and instead focus on loving and supporting GG and DD.
EDIT: More on this here.
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On Homophobia Surrounding Queer Obi-Wan
Queer people get asked to settle or let things go so often that it baffles me. As a genderqueer, bisexual, and gray romantic person, my experiences get invalidated or criticized daily. It is exhausting. I feel that queer people are often pushed into scenarios where they have to prove who they are, but not too much, lest you cause discomfort to some cishet people who may be sensitive to "that sort of thing." Queer characters and expressions are, unfortunately, no different.
What's my point? My point is that I should not be up at 3 am, my stomach turning, because of something I knew was bound to happen. As soon as I read that Obi-Wan's identity was going to be elaborated upon in Padawan, I expected the incessant whinings. I expected the shocked, ridiculously wounded alpha-male routine. And yet, as @sunflowersinheaven 's post: https://www.tumblr.com/blog/view/sunflowersinheaven/691110776621219840?source=share crossed my dashboard, I began to spiral. At first, sure, it was vaguely amusing. Then, it became sickening.
Still, I have a few things I would like to address:
This is not new. Obi-Wan was referenced as bisexual in the Revenge of the Sith novelization. Those claiming that this is to fulfill Disney’s queer agenda need to admit to the fact they didn’t know everything prior to this now, and if they have such a problem with it, then why not call out Lucasfilm too? They aren’t trying to preserve representation that is marginally accurate, they’re being a bigoted assholes.
People saying this "doesn't prove Obi-Wan is queer" are fooling themselves. No, it's not pushing lgbtq+ identity(s) onto him just because he's around queer people. Obi-Wan uses gender-neutral language when expressing attraction, and he even addresses the fact that he generally finds the group of people he's with attractive. Obi-Wan says that he may want to kiss ALL of the people he's surrounded by, except for a character who uses she/her pronouns. Hmm. That does not sound super heterosexual to me. As a side note, for those who read this more in an a-spec interpretation, I am approaching this from an opinion that Obi-Wan experiences sexual attraction. I read this as Obi-Wan being confident that he finds people attractive but unsure whether he wants to act on that attraction. Therefore, somewhere in that bi umbrella is where I see his identity. At Obi-Wan's age (now, obviously, everyone's experiences with attraction are different and equally valid), I was sure I liked many genders. Now, what I wasn't so sure of was my romantic or sexual attraction toward them. Writing a character uncertain about their identity does not invalidate their current feelings. Sexuality and attraction (romantic and non) are fluid. And Obi-Wan being young is not an excuse to use homophobic/invalidating rhetoric to try to flip around on queer Obi-Wan supporters.
People who blame the author for "ruining Obi-Wan's character," need to do some serious self-reflection. Why does a character being queer ruin their character for you? That is astoundingly ridiculous to me, especially coming from a group of people who so often express the opinion, "Oh, well 'gay people' always make their sexuality their entire personality," and various other bullshit. Really? And yet, you can't seem to overlook a character's sexuality, which ruins everything they are to you. Some of these people are the same ones who were creaming themselves over the Kenobi show, TCW, etc. Which, I mean, hey! Kenobi has been my favorite man since I was five. I get it! And yet, I'm still a fan, unlike the manchildren wailing about the fact that Obi-Wan likes men. Sad. Now, if they're claiming that Obi-Wan being anxious and emotional in the book ruined his character... leave your fragile masculinity at the door and remember what it was like to be a teenager for fucking once. I only say "teenager" in this circumstance not because I feel adults can't feel this way (I am an emotional, anxious WRECK y’all), but because these are not traits Obi-Wan keeps into adulthood.
People who say this is either trying to invalidate his relationship with Satine or can't be true because of his relationship with Satine need to shut up. If you know my blog, you know I am a day one Obitine stan. What I refuse to engage in is bigotry based on my personal ship preference. (Although I am a multishipper). Select members of the Obitine fandom; do better.
To the people complaining: Please stop. I am tired, and people on the internet need to work on their goddamn (not so critical) thinking skills. If you don't want to accept part of a character, examine why. Your prejudice and weak claims that this is only to feed the "woke agenda" are rooted in misogyny, homophobia, and transphobia, and I hope I never have to meet any of these people in real life.
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I wish Akane’s development wasn’t so sudden. She was fumbling around her job for 90% of the season and all of a sudden, she’s all Sherlock? I don’t know, the transition is hard to swallow for me.
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Lesbians support transgender people
Lesbian trans-exclusionary “radical feminists” are claiming that transgender culture is erasing lesbian identities. Given all the noise they make, you may get the impression that most lesbians share their beliefs. This is not true.
In fact, my own experience from Norway tells me that most lesbians embrace the T in LGBTQA, and see that transgender people and lesbians face the same kind of oppression: Attacks from reactionary people who believe the cisgender/heterosexual gender norm should apply to everyone.
The lesbian erasure narrative
Over at Advocate the lesbian writer Sarah Fonseca (photo above) takes a look at Abigail Shrier’s transphobic book Irreversible Damage: The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters, and touches upon the the “lesbians are going extinct” narrative.
She writes:
Naturally, the assertion of Shrier that lesbians, tomboys, and lesbian tomboys are going the way of the dodo bird seeks to create pandemonium among queer girls who identify as such.
And Irreversible Damage dares to inflict this very damage at a critical moment when lesbian social spaces that weren’t already shuttered are suffering due to national lockdown, and our community’s women — sociable, tactful, and independent of others’ transitions — are left to their own devices...
As a lesbian reader of sound gender, I still find it enormously unpleasant to be repeatedly told that I do not exist or that my gender and sexuality will inevitably shift, all because of a societal trend and its societal pressures; it is all too reminiscent of the comments foisted upon many of us by heterosexuals upon coming out.
Fortunately, Shrier lacks two pieces of vital information. First, the lesbian is the mistress of silently and confidently auditing her own gender. She continues to exist because she abides by no one’s stringent rules...
We are hardly obsolete. If anything, we are just getting started. Our first mission? Disavowing Irreversible Damage. Our second? Taking care of our trans siblings. Our third? Reversing the damage that Shrier has done to lesbian reputation. The fourth? I do not know, but I hope it involves dancing and queers of every stripe, imagined and yet to be.
Abigail Shrier, who is a privileged white, straight and cis woman, is using the lesbian extinction scare to create a split in the queer community, not because she care about lesbians.
Enriched by trans people
In an article in the British Independent, Carrie Lyell puts it this way:
I don’t recall a plethora of columns offering solidarity from heterosexual “feminists” before so many latched on to lesbians as a way to push their agenda on trans issues. There was no faux-concern from our “straight allies” on any of those occasions, no calls to celebrate my swashbuckling swagger. Straight women were often the first to tell me to grow my hair, shave my legs or be more “ladylike”.
Instead I found comfort in the LGBT+ community and learnt resilience from those around me. While the world tried to box me in and crush my queer spirit, I was lifted up by lesbians, gay men, bi people and, yes, trans people.
Lyell (photo from twitter above) is the editor of DIVA, a queer magazine. She writes that she has never met a trans person who has tried to convert her.
“Not for one minute have I felt erased by trans people,” she writes: “If anything, I feel enriched.”
The great majority of lesbians feel this kind of kinship with trans people, and support them.
They used the same tactics against lesbians
In another article Fonseca points out the similarities found in the way the cis/heterosexual majority used to invalidate and attack lesbian women:
Queers and trans people have historically witnessed our bodies be weaponized in pursuit of the same old Cis American Dream by those on both sides of the political divide.
In the sensational Women’s Lib text The Feminine Mystique, Betty Friedan was quick to distance herself and her movement from lesbians, writing them off as “disruptors” and members of “extreme left groups.” ...
Unsympathetic to lesbian concerns about child custody and sexual liberation, she referred to the burgeoning group of dykes seeking representation in the larger women’s movement “the lavender menace.”
The same tactics were used against gay men and lesbian women as the TERFs are using now: the sexual predator tropé, the mental illness narrative and the “stupid people seduced by extremists” invalidation.
All the leading lesbian magazines support the trans community
Remember that back in 2018 the world’s leading publications for lesbians came together to send a message of support and solidarity to the trans community. They wrote:
DIVA, Curve, Autostraddle, LOTL, Tagg, Lez Spread The Word, DapperQ, GO Magazine and LezWatch.TV believe that trans women are women and that trans people belong in our community. We do not think supporting trans women erases our lesbian identities; rather we are enriched by trans friends and lovers, parents, children, colleagues and siblings.
We strongly condemn writers and editors who seek to foster division and hate within the LGBTQI community with trans misogynistic content, and who believe “lesbian” is an identity for them alone to define. We condemn male-owned media companies who profit from the traffic generated by these controversies.
We also strongly condemn the current narrative peddled by some feminists, painting trans people as bullies and aggressors – one which reinforces transphobia and which must be challenged so that feminism can move forward.
We are really concerned about the message these so-called lesbian publications are sending to trans women and to young lesbians – including trans lesbians – and we want to make in clear this is not in our name.
Photo of Sarah Fonseca from Posture Mag.
See also: “Lesbians Turning On Elliot Page Is Not An Isolated Event, And We Need To Talk About It.”
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The Myths of Forced Diversity and Virtue Signaling.
In my novel Mail Order Bride, the three main characters are a lesbian and two agendered aliens. In my novel Scatter, the main character is a lesbian, the love interest is a pansexual alien, and the major side characters include a half Cuban, half black Dominican lesbian, a Chinese Dragon, a New York born Jewish Dragon, and a Transgender Welsh Dragon. In my novel The Master of Puppets, the Main Characters are a lesbian shapeshifting reptilian alien cyborg and a half black, half Japanese lesbian. The major side characters include three gender fluid shapeshifting reptilian alien cyborgs, and a pansexual human. In my novel Transistor, the main character is a Trans Lesbian, the love interest is a Half human/Half Angel non-observant Ethiopian Jew, and the major side characters include a Transgender Welsh Dragon (the same one from Scatter), a Transgender woman, a Latino Lesbian, an autistic man, three Middle Eastern Arch Angels, and a hive mind AI with literally hundreds of genders. In my novel The Inevitable singularity, one of the main characters is a lesbian, another has a less clearly defined sexuality but she is definitely in love with the lesbian, and the third is functionally asexual due to a vow of chastity she takes very seriously. The major side characters include a straight guy from a social class similar to the Dalit (commonly known as untouchables) in India, a bisexual woman, a man who is from a race of genetically modified human/frog hybrids, and a woman from a race of genetically modified humans who are bred and sold as indentured sex workers.
Why am I bringing all of this up? Well, first, because it’s kind of cool to look at the list of different characters I’ve created, but mostly because it connects to what I want to talk about today, which should be obvious from the title of the essay. The concepts of ‘forced diversity’ and ‘virtue signaling’.
For those who aren’t familiar with these terms, they’re very closely related concepts. ‘Forced Diversity’ is the idea that characters who aren’t neurotypical cisgendered heterosexual white males are only ever included in a story because of outside pressure from some group (usually called Social Justice Warriors, or The Woke Brigade or something similar) to meet some nebulous political agenda. The caveat to this is, of course, that you can have a women/women present as long as they are hot, don’t make any major contributions to the resolution of the plot, and the hero/heroes get to fuck them before the end of the story. ‘Virtue Signaling’, according to Wikipedia, is a pejorative neologism for the expression of a disingenuous moral viewpoint with the intent of communicating good character.
The basic argument is that Forced Diversity is a form of virtue signaling. That no one would ever write characters who aren’t neurotypical cisgendered heterosexual white males because they want to. They only do it to please the evil SJW’s who are somehow both so powerful that they force everybody to conform to their desires, yet so irrelevant that catering to them dooms any creative project to financial failure via the infamous ‘go woke, go broke’ rule.
What the people who push this idea of Forced Diversity tend to forget is that we exist at a point in time when creators actually have more creative freedom than are any other people in history. Comic writers can throw up a website and publish their work as a webcomic without having to go through Marvel, DC or one of the other big names, or get a place in the dying realm of the news paper comics page. Novelists can self-publish with fairly little upfront costs, musicians can use places like YouTube and Soundcloud to get their work out without having to worry about music publishers. Artists can hock their work on twitter and tumblr and a dozen other places. Podcasts are relatively cheap to make, which has opened up a resurgence in audio dramas. Even the barrier to entry for live action drama is ridiculously low.
So, in a world where creators have more freedom than ever before, why would they choose to people their stories with characters they don’t want there? The answer, of course, is that they wouldn’t. Authors, comic creators, indie film creators and so on aren’t putting diverse characters into their stories because they are being forced to. They’re putting diverse characters into their stories because they want to. Creators want to tell stories about someone other than the generically handsome hypermasculine cisgendered heterosexual white males that have been the protagonists of so many stories over the years that we’ve choking on it. A lot of times, creators want to tell stories about people like themselves. Black creators want to tell stories about the black experience. Queer creators want to tell stories about the queer experience.
I’m an autistic, mentally ill trans feminine abuse survivor. Every day, I get up and I struggle with PTSD, with an eating disorder, with severe body dysmorphia, with anxiety and depression and just the reality of being autistic and transgender. I deal with the fact that the religious community I grew up in views me as an abomination, and genuinely believes I’m going to spend eternity burning in hell. I deal with the fact that people I’ve known for decades, even members of my own family, regularly vote for politician who publicly state that they want to strip me of my civil rights because I’m queer. I’m part of a community that experiences a disproportionately high murder and suicide rate. I’ve spent multiple years of my life deep in suicidal depression, and to this day, I still don’t trust myself around guns.
As a creator, I want to talk about those issues. I want to deal with my life experiences. I want to create characters that embody and express aspects of my lived experience and my day-to-day reality. No one is forcing me to put diversity into my books. I try to include Jewish characters as often as I can because there have been a number of important Jewish people in my life. I include queer people because I’m queer and the vast majority of friends I interact with on a regular basis are queer. I include people with mental illnesses and trauma because I am mentally ill and have trauma, and I know a lot of people with mental illnesses and trauma. My work may be full of fantastical elements, aliens and dragons and angels and superheroes and magic and ultra-high technology and AI’s and talking cats and robot dogs and shape shifters and telepaths and all sorts of other things, but at the core of the stories is my own lived experience, and neurotypical cisgendered heterosexual white males are vanishingly rare in that experience.
Now, I can hear the comments already. The ‘okay, maybe that’s true for individual creators, but what about corporate artwork?’. Maybe not in those exact words, but you get the idea.
The thought here is that corporations are bowing to social pressure to include characters who aren’t neurotypical cisgendered heterosexual white males, and that is somehow bad. But here’s the thing. Corporations are going to chase the dollars. They aren’t bowing to social pressure. There’s no one holding a gun to some executive’s head saying, “You must have this many diversity tokens in every script.” What is happening is that corporations are starting to clue into the fact that people who aren’t neurotypical cisgendered heterosexual white males have money. They are putting black characters in their shows and movies because black people watch shows and spend money on movies. They are putting queer people in shows and movies because queer people watch shows and spend money on movies. They are putting women in shows and movies because women watch shows and spend money on movies.
No one is forcing these companies to do this. They are choosing to do it, the same way individual creators are choosing to do it. In the companies’ cases the choices are made for different reasons. It’s not because they are necessarily passionate about telling stories about a particular experience, but because they want to create art to be consumed by the largest audience possible, which means that they have to expand their audience beyond the neurotypical cisgendered heterosexual white male by including characters from outside of that demographic.
And the reality is, the cries of ‘forced diversity’ and ‘virtue signaling’ almost always come from within that demographic. Note the almost. There are a scattering of individuals from outside that demographic which do subscribe to the ‘forced diversity’ and ‘virtue signaling’ myths, but that is a whole other essay. However, within that demographic, lot of the people who cry about ‘forced diversity’ see media and content as a Zero-Sum game. The more that’s created for other people, the less that is created for them.
In a way, they’re right. There are only so many slots for TV shows each week, there are only so many theaters, only so much space on comic bookshelves and so on. But at the end of the day, its literally impossible for them to consume all the content that’s being produced anyway. So, while there is, theoretically less content for them to consume, as a practical matter it’s a bit like someone who is a meat eater going to a buffet with two hundred items, and then throwing a tantrum because five of the items happen to be vegan.
The worst part is, if they could let go of how wound up they are about the ‘forced diversity’ and ‘virtue signaling’ they could probably enjoy the content that’s produced for people other than them. I mean, I’m a pasty ass white girl, and I loved Black Panther.
So, to wrap out, creators, make what you want to make, and ignore anyone who cries about forced diversity or virtue signaling. And to people who are complaining about forced diversity and virtue signaling, I want to go back to the buffet metaphor. You need to relax. Even if there are a few vegan options on the buffet, you can still get your medium rare steak, or your chicken teriyaki or whatever it is you want. Or, maybe, just maybe, you could give the falafel a try. That shit is delicious.
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Let’s talk: Grievances and Cuteness - BTS on You Quiz on the Block
by Admin 1
Today BTS were guests on You Quiz on the Block, a very popular Korean variety show on tvN, and it was a wonderful mix of fun and hilarious, but also serious, vulnerable and honest. Seeing as we don’t have subtitles yet, merely the things our marvelous translator ARMYs managed to translate for us—the episode was 100 minutes long so there was a lot going on and being said—I don’t want to get into detail in this post and instead will wait with that until we have subs and I’ll be able to sit down and watch it properly again, focus on things that stick out to me and I would want to talk about. So that I can do their words justice.
Instead I want to use this post to air some of my grievances, directed at fellow ARMY, “ARMY” and shippers, as well as just gush a little about a few cute moments. The more serious things will be in a different post sometime soon. I hope that’s okay.
Grievances
What is the point of Bangtan going on a show like this, especially one that is broadcast on national TV and very popular with the general public? It’s to share not only their funny side but also their honest and genuine one, share stories that, though some we’ve heard before as ARMY, they’re things the general public doesn’t necessarily know. The point of them sharing vulnerable moments and memories with us is to simply be honest and transparent, something they’ve always highlighted as important to them.
What is the part we play in this, what is it that we should do? We are simply supposed to listen, understand the things they are telling us, put things into perspective so we know what they felt in certain moments and periods of their lives, understand that they’re human too with struggles, fears and sadness, and we should cherish the fact that they tell us any of it at all. They could just as well only show up whenever there’s a new album and comeback and then disappear again, share nothing personal at all and put on entirely fake personas. But they don’t. And we should be grateful for that and happy because of it.
Now, the reason why I even wanted to write this in the first place is this:
Many, and I mean many have decided that instead of doing what I’ve highlighted a moment ago, a far better course of action would be to twist their words, manipulate them, use them to victimize the members (and especially Seokjin), and try to overanalyze them in favor of their desired narratives and especially their ships, even if whatever was being said had absolutely nothing to do with any ship at all.
Before the episode even finished airing, solos/mantis were already up in arms “crying” about mistreatment and victimizing Seokjin because *insert demands they have no right to make at all* and when Seokjin, bless him, was on weverse, he actually replied to a post where he basically said that parts of what he said were too sad/depressing, so he simply asked the You Quiz staff to cut them out, which would explain why he seemed to have “less to say” during his interview section with Yoongi. Did that help? Of course not. Even though it showed not only that he did say more, that he likely said more vulnerable things, but also that he made the decision for himself that he did not want to share that yet, because he’s not ready for it or because he came to the conclusion that he simply doesn’t want to period, and that his wish for them to cut it out was met. Even though it wasn’t BH controlled content, but You Quiz.
More below the cut:
What does this tell us? The members have control over what is aired and what is not. If they feel something is too personal or would come across wrong, they can voice objection and chances are their words will be met and followed. They aren’t victims in need of saving, aren’t helpless boys with no idea what they’re doing. They are serious musicians, respected and treated well. This is a good thing and I’m glad he told us that, even if many don’t want to hear it and immediately claimed that “oh yeah BH told him to shut us up”. The mental gymnastics some are willing to do to make things fit their agenda truly baffles me sometimes.
On the other hand, I’ve seen shippers try to twist words or put others into the members mouths to push their agenda, and we’ve even had one or two asks being sent to us basically sadly wondering if maybe Tae isn’t who we thought he is for Jimin, and neither is Hobi, because of something Jimin said. Even though the thing Jimin said had quite literally nothing to do with either Tae or Hobi. In a way, I get where such vminnies are coming from, as vminnies we would love to just hear vmin talk about each other all day because it’s cute and we love their bond and stories, but it’s not like we didn’t get that. Because we did. Unprompted. Jimin mentioned Tae during their trio interview and told a story, even if we’ve heard it before to a certain degree. And yet it still wasn’t enough? Like come on, please don’t do this. Don’t reduce everything the members do and say to just ship related and non-ship related (thus uninteresting) statements and actions, as though the latter is worth less.
Here is the moment in question:
The way I see it, the only thing we should take away from this is that despite these very human fears and struggles, wonderings if people only care about Jimin because he is BTS Jimin and not Park Jimin, he still had and has good people in his life that’ll remind him that he is appreciated and loved for who he is, and not just for his celebrity status. Friends even outside of Bangtan. Why do we have to take something so incredibly personal, this moment of vulnerability from Jimin, and try to overanalyze it? To twist it to fit a ship? Regardless which one. Or to twist it to fit some kind of narrative, whatever one it may be? Please don’t do that.
Sure, Admin 2 noticed his use of ‘chingu’ when talking about this friend that told him that, and sure it reminded me of what Jimin said to Tae in the FESTA 2020 Rolling Paper, but neither Admin 2 nor I will go and claim that oh he must’ve been talking about Tae but didn’t want to use his name to avoid XYZ because we are not in his head and, at the end of the day, it’s irrelevant who exactly said that to him. That wasn’t the point of that story. Like at all. So why are some people disregarding the point in favor of speculations? Why are some completely ignoring his words, downplaying them as just potential ship material instead of appreciating the fact that he told us that at all?
It’s unfair toward Jimin, and the other members as well when they tell similar stories. Their lives aren’t fictional stories that revolve around romance. They are real people with real lives and more friends than just their fellow members and that’s a good thing since it surely gives them the opportunity to feel less isolated, cut off from the world by nature of their occupation and status. Besides, in the past Tae said something similar as well, how he used to be a social butterfly and make friends easily wherever they went but eventually he understood that people didn’t really care about Kim Taehyung and instead just wanted to know BTS V and be able to use that to brag, so he stopped being so outgoing. And we’ve also seen Jimin talk about cutting out friends in the past if they said something negative about Bangtan, then, a few years later, saying that he’s grown more as a person and learned to not allow these things to affect him as much, to surround himself with genuine people.
So, in light of what he said in that segment, we should be happy for him. And that’s it.
We also saw people use what Tae said about his dad to push the he must be 100% heterosexual because he said he wants to be a dad narrative which, where do I even start. Perhaps with the fact that this statement relies on a mistranslation? Because he didn’t say he wants to be a dad but that he wants to be a person like his dad, that’s his dream. Perhaps with the blatant homophobia this statement is laced in? The disregard for how queer people can also want to have kids, be parents, just like anyone else? Perhaps with how these things oddly seem to just be done to Tae and Namjoon, and especially Tae to use it for ship purposes?
Instead of jumping to conclusions, overanalyzing stories we are not supposed to analyze but instead to simply appreciate, please wait until we’ll have the full episode with subtitles (even though from the past we know that some of it may be simplified so reading what our translators wrote is also a good thing to get the whole picture) and even then, just enjoy their silliness and listen to their words of honesty. Listen to the fact that their fame was and continues to be a heavy weight on their shoulders, how instead of becoming cocky assholes they remained humble and genuine because that’s the kind of people they are and want to be, listen to what they want you to hear and now what you want to hear.
Also, to shippers—this isn’t the place to look for ship content of any kind, for some romantic confessions or whatever, because this was about Bangtan as seven members and their stories of the last ten and a half years since Namjoon joined BH and the idea for BTS was started.
Cute and silly things
Now that that's done, let’s talk about some fun and cute things to lighten the mood, shall we?
One of my favorite moments was when the MIC DROP ARMY came in as a surprise for the members, her confidence was off the charts and the guys looked so genuinely happy. After all it’s been so many months since they’ve last seen ARMY! And I’m so glad she was such a wonderful representative for us all, how she didn’t react with fear or shyness, didn’t scream or cry, but instead did her thing like a Queen. And the way the members reacted when she sent them a finger heart during one of the dances? Absolutely adorable!
Also, she truly must’ve saved some kind of nation, or maybe two, in her past life since she also was gifted a chicken leg pillow by Tae. He’s just so kind and lovely.
Then we had the members play a game of trying to guess a song merely by the first second (I think) and then having to sing it, though who sang which part didn’t follow the actual order in the song but was chosen by someone off screen which meant that, for example, Tae was doing one of the rap line verses as well as singing Jimin’s part in another, Hobi showed off his vocal skills, and of course, the highlight, Namjoon singing a part from Spring Day. Even though we know Namjoon’s skills when it comes to singing are not the greatest, which I mean in a very loving way, no tea no shade, and yet he still went for it. It was hilarious and cute and showed that he is willing to be silly even if others might laugh at his expense.
Sometime after the episode aired Namjoon actually came onto Weverse to talk about the episode and, among other things, apologized for not singing Seokjin’s guide all that well. One thing I’d like to point out is how, originally, he wrote Jinhyung but then changed it to Seokjinie hyung, which is just a small and precious little detail:
Another cute moment was during ‘dance mafia’ when Tae turned to Jimin to ask him if they did well and Jimin replied that yes, he did well (both using this adorably soft tone with each other), they also hugged for a moment while smiling brightly. See, I said not to look for ship moments, but this is just cute regardless if you ship vmin or not. Admin 2 though would like to comment on how they could’ve given us that hug from a camera that’s a little further away so we could have a more proper look, or a longer shot of it, please?
Honestly that game was hilarious and the members who were mafia did a wonderful job tricking the others, particularly JK was fantastic at it since the second time around no one suspected him at all. Also, the fluffy ear muffs with cat (?) ears on them were adorable. At the end of the segment they were all supposed to strike a pose but Tae didn’t manage to put his ear muffs back on, so they fell to the ground and so Jimin lightly hit/caressed his chest and turned toward the MCs to ask if they could try again so that Tae could look good in it as well.
Actually, speaking of adorable in regard to Jimin, when they were introduced at the beginning of the show as RM-jagi-nim, jagi-nim being the name used for all the guests on the show and also the name on the necklace (given to guests who are fans of the show by the producers) Jimin showed off on weverse in his selcas, Jimin corrected the MC that it’s not Jimin-jagi-nim but Mini-jagi-nim which just…my heart. Too cute.
Lastly, I want to mention how all of them were asked what the first sentence would be if their lives were a book and their answers were just so very…them.
Namjoon: Predictions in life often turn out to be wrong
Tae: I’m a chameleon
Hobi: Dear, people who’ve helped to lead me here
Yoongi: You lived life to the fullest/hard/well
Seokjin: Dope, worldwide class!
Jimin: What kind of life do you want to live?
Jungkook: Hello?
Overall it was an amazing episode that was so fun to watch even without really being able to understand any of what was being said. Still the members genuine personalities shone through brightly and I’m glad they had fun and felt comfortable, especially since it’s been a while since they were last on Korean variety shows and some of their past experiences were…not great. I can’t wait to watch it again once we have subs and to write a more proper post about it then. I hope you didn’t mind this more…serious and “angry” post and understand where I’m coming from with my complaints, but also that you enjoyed the cute moments I highlighted.
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hi, maybe you're tired about this kind of convie regarding hange's gender but i really need your opinion. is it that wrong if i consider hange as a she? istg i'm not anythingphobic, i'm just still stuck with female hange in anime. i stan aot since 2013 and felt just fine to open up about my preference in hange's gender but lately, considering hange as a she is like the most sinful thing in the whole planet and even being attacked and i don't know what to feel about it. 😩
Thank you for the ask anon!
Lmao, I am tired of this discourse but I’ve kinda accepted that it’s never gonna end really so I’m still happy to give you my opinion about this again.
I have written about it here.
Before I go into this long ramble again I’d like to clarify some terms which tend to pepper the discourse of gender, sexuality etc etc etc.
Biological Sex: What genitalia where you born with? Either born male, female or with both genitalia.
Gender: What do you identify as? CIS, Trans, Nonbinary etc.
Sexuality: Who are you attracted to? Homosexual, Heterosexual, Bisexual, Asexual, Pansexual etc.
Gender roles: Where do you fall on the gradient? Feminine, Masculine etc.
And the point of this is, the discourse on gender is soooo complicated. Like very complicated because Hange being interpreted as NB to some people only covers the question of gender. Like these do not cover every other facet of the gender sexuality discourse.
Because everything up there is ‘mutually exclusive’ to a degree because everyone is so complex. Like you can take a random option in each of those, fit it together in our heads and you would still come up with a realistic person. Because that is how complex human beings are. I have friends who decided to get a boyfriend, realized they were trans, transitioned to male but had both boyfriends and girlfriends. I have a butch lesbian friend who dated a few guys then decided to date girls then decided to transition. You have me who literally tried everything on the sexuality spectrum, crushed on a few girls in high school, crushed on a few more girls in college, thought I was asexual for a while, fell in love with a guy and realized I love dick.
You can actually have a biological male who identifies as nonbinary but is bisexual but has feminine tendencies.
And that’s why even I find it so confusing to address the issue of non binary Hange vs female Hange. Because they are not even in the same bracket. Like we can have a non binary female feminine bisexual Hange all at the same time if you think about it.
If you have read all my fics and all of my meta about Hange, you would see that I refer to her as a ‘she,’ but at the same time, I do not portray Hange as overly feminine. I headcanon that Hange has tried dating women and I also head canon that Hange has female genitalia (yo, I write preggo Hange fics). She actually falls somewhere in the middle. And what makes the gender part so hard to consider is because usually whether someone decides to identify as CIS, NB or Trans is up to the person.
And there are just so many other hcs I want to tackle as a fanfiction writer and as a Hange stan beyond her gender and that’s why I don’t really headcanon the whole discovery part because even as a kid, I have never been so particular about my gender. I know I’m a biologically a woman, I have feminine and masculine tendencies. I have loved both men and women. but gender just seemed like just a decision which I just didn’t want to think too hard about.
I mean where I live, my first language doesn’t have gender pronouns so I can avoid the whole discourse altogether by just using Tagalog. I’m the type of person who will just have this person think I’m a man all the way until they meet me because I just wanna get things done and I feel no need to correct people. My first crushes were all women, despite my being a woman and the first people I have ever loved were women and I didn’t want to decide whether I was bisexual, heterosexual, homosexual etc. yet because even teenage me just found it way too complex and too final and just went around saying I liked this girl or I liked this guy and generally because I’m that type of person, I don’t spend a lot of my time thinking about gender even in a fandom space unless somebody asks.
And does it make me homophobic/LGBT-phobic etc etc for deciding to use ‘she’ and deciding to tackle questions about Hange beyond her gender? No. Like this conclusion is inherently flawed. I was hella gay for a huge point in my life. 99% of my crushes were women. Then there was this period where I didn’t enjoy romance The only guy irl I have ever crushed on is my current boyfriend. But even when I explored my own gender, sexuality, it was always an ‘in the back of my mind’ thing. I didn’t have huge personal metas about what exactly my gender was or where exactly I fall or what pronouns I prefer.
And nobody is obliged to look so deep into this discourse. The important thing is in real life, we respect people’s pronouns, we respect the names they want to go by and we respect people’s preferences (as long as they aren’t dangerously criminal.)
And the thing is, this isn’t even real life. This is a fandom space. And in a fandom space, everyone is literally interpreting characters however they want. We have people literally pairing off Levi with both men and women and technically we’re assuming Levi’s gender, sexuality etc. Sure it might diverge from canon but does that make our headcanon any less than the others? Like Levi’s sexuality has never been confirmed and technically we’re all just assuming what kind of person Levi would have wanted to fuck right? Like every yaoi pairing, every ship is just fans assuming someones gender, assuming someone’s sexuality.
And sure people could argue, ‘Yams’ didn’t confirm her gender. But Yam’s didn’t confirm anyone’s sexuality either but here we are pairing Mikasa off with Annie then pairing Mikasa off with Eren. Like same energy with ships, are there ships which are inherently superior to others? And technically, I could headcanon Levi as a woman if I wanted to and no one could stop me. I mean sure let’s celebrate that some of our headcanon and preferences have been acknowledged but what battle are we trying to win here really.
To answer your question, it is not wrong. Having any opinion and having whatever headcanon you have about any fandom in this space is not wrong.
Sure, Hange is a comfort character to many people for various reasons. Hange is a comfort character for me but Hange is not any single person’s comfort character. Hange is a gift to us by Yams to interpret and play with however we want. Hell, every other character we’ve ever grown to love was a gift to all of us by the author. And we can choose to hc them however we want. That is the magic of fandoms.
If I wanted to, I could make some eruri and ereri mpreg fics for the kicks, I could interpret Levi as every single gender, sexuality on the spectrum and it would be just as valid. I mean I won’t because I don’t jive with those headcanons or those types of ships but I would respect people who have those types of preferences.
This space is free for everyone. We can choose what we want to consume and we can choose how we want to interpret characters.
The only responsibility we have as fans is to use the right warnings when we post shit and to respect everybody else’s preferences.
What I would consider ‘sinful’ is just dropping some unnecessary hate into a place which is supposed to be our safe space or pushing an agenda or an opinion and being hateful about it in the process. Like sure, spread your agenda, spread your opinions and your headcanons but please be nice about it.
We’re all just sad people trying to survive in this crapsack world.
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Queer Representation; An Essay
Since the LGBTQIA+ community doesn‘t have a lot of representation in the media, we tend to take it into our own hands and find queer subtext in Tv shows and movies, like Supernatural (fml) and Hannibal (fml2.0).
The reason The Gays do this is to find just the tiniest amounts of representation even if what they found that was a tad bit gay, was unintentional.
This leads to ships, some reasonable, some that are stupis, and some that are just straight white girls fetishizing men tearing each other’s asses up.
Anywho, queer ships. That’s what I’m talking about.
There are tons of gay ships, more male ones than female ones (again, fetishizing). people tend to have a lot of concerns on the fact that people are shipping two heterosexual men/women together, but when it comes to people shipping men and women together, there are no boundaries. Welcome to being queer, where straight people can get away with anything as long as they’re straight (yes; i’m generalizing, fuck off).
Representation is a big thing for any community, not just for the lgbtqia+, like, for example, colored people like to see their own color on screen as a main character or someone in the movie/show.
Representation matters a lot because of how it shows that you are not alone and not everyone is like you, so it sends a good message to show how diverse this world really is.
Q&A for things I see often (but then again what I see these things, they aren’t question, so Q&A doesn’t really work, so that was unnecessary and so is this but here we are).
”’Why can’t anyone be close friends anymore?’”
Okay, for years, people of the same sex have always been friends, just look at history, the gay eraser has been used to the max. You have plenty of straight representation, and yet you still want more. When there is a straight ship, I don’t see anyone saying anything like this, so there’s a double standard here. Yes, I get the fact that people get irritated that people try and push the “faggy agenda“ on them but trust me honey, it’s not hurting you, the fact that there is hardly any representation for the queer community is the thing that is hurting people. The thing is that, why do the same-sex always have to be friends, why is it always heterosexual? There is so much potential in some ships that have more build up than straight ones, yet, as long as it‘s not straight, it’s shit and shouldn’t happen because they are just friends. I’ve seen plenty of movies where the two people of the opposite sex were way more better of as friends than they were lovers since it had hardly any build up, that’s what makes gay ships so great, the writers try to avoid it so much, but you can’t destroy it. It’s always there, deadass. Like, look at destiel, look at hannigram, stucky, and fuCKING CHERIK, HOLY SHI-
Harmful Representation
I’ve seen a lot of queer movies (what I mean by a lot, I mean only five because there are only five movies that aren’t oversexualized and fetishized) where the main character always has internalized homophobia, it’s really harmful for those who are still closeted because they think that it’s normal and okay to have internalized homophobia, but it’s not; you’re gay and it’s fine. I get that having some internalized homophobia at the beginning of the movie shows how much the character has grown by the end, but they just add too much self-hate to every queer movie. Another example of harmful representation is queer side characters. The writers of the show claim that they’re coming of age writers but they never give queer characters the spotlight, only giving them the role of the goofy side-character that gives the show comedy. Queer people aren’t your gay best friend, they’re their own person, not just some person to move your plot forward because guess what? the world doesn’t revolve around you, you aren’t the main character. Stereotyping is also a HUGE problem in queer movies, they always make lesbians super butch and they gays really feminine and queer men not like sports. It’s not alright to just make someone so obvious that they’re gay, queer people are just the same as straight people, your sexuality doesn‘t decide your personality.
Why are there so many gay ships compared to lesbian ships?
Butt sex. and fetishization.
Why are there so many toxic ships?
My take on it is that people tend to like enemies to lovers (like stony, which-🤢 hurts my soul to type), but even if it isn’t gay, that trope is toxic altogether so I just stick to those who are friends and actually have romantic subtext. Also, since there aren’t many plausible queer ships, a lot of them are toxic because people tend to get confused when it comes to sexual tension and wanting to tear each other’s throats out. Hannigram is a good mix of both worlds, which actually have sexually tension and ‘I want to kill that guy, but..’. That ship is super-duper toxic but like, we’ll deal with healthy relationships when there are actually decent queer couples.
Feel free to add something else!
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Oh so the Depopulation agenda is real. Not like I didn’t doubt it given the Left’s push and glorification of abortions and alternative lifestyles through indoctrination, social engineering and mass media propaganda activism since the 1960s.
It all comes together and serves their end goal.
But they only push it in western nations... white people are only about 8%-10% of the whole world’s population, under half and this agenda is being promoted to them specifically. It is no secret the Marxist Left hate whites and heterosexuals and want nothing more than to have complete control over every single natural aspect of our lives.
Something is seriously wrong with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
During an off-the-rails Instagram Live session on Sunday night, the 29-year-old lawmaker argued that people should consider not having children due to climate change.
“Our planet is going to hit disaster if we don’t turn this ship around and so it’s basically like, there’s a scientific consensus that the lives of children are going to be very difficult,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “And it does lead, I think, young people to have a legitimate question, you know, ‘Is it okay to still have children?'”
Ocasio-Cortez then attacked Sen. Dianne Feinstein over an incident that that took place in the California Democrats office last week.
A far-left group called the Sunrise Movement brought a group of young kids into Feinstein’s office to demand her support for Ocasio-Cortez’s Green New Deal.
Feinstein stood firm, refused to endorse the socialist measure, and told the kids that she was not going to be bullied into supporting something.
Ocasio-Cortez was not too happy about that, and argued that Feinstein’s response was “not good enough” because climate change is “going to kill us.”
“This idea that ‘I’ve been working on this for x-amount of years,’ um, it’s like not good enough,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “Like, we need a universal sense of urgency, and people are like trying to introduce watered-down proposals that are frankly going to kill us. A lack of urgency is going to kill us.”
“The issue has gotten worse,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “So I don’t think that working on an issue for 30 years alone is what qualifies as, as what someone qualified to solve an issue.”
“That said, there are a lot of people that have been doing this work for decades that have proposed ambitious solutions for years and have not been listened to,” Ocasio-Cortez added.
She continued, “So it’s not just, ‘I’ve been doing this for 30 years,’ so we need to listen to them because frankly people have been failing at the same things for 30 or 40 years. What we need to do is say, ‘What solutions have not been tried yet? And what ambitious scale have we not shot at yet.’ And let’s do it.”
https://twitter.com/GobAbiertoBOL/status/1099833156063113216
https://twitter.com/GobAbiertoBOL/status/1099834318329970690
Beyond her own ignorance, most Americans do not support her socialist Green New Deal because it could literally bankrupt the nation over time.
A new study reveals that the price tag for socialist measure comes out to $7 trillion.
In fact, a recent study from PJ Media found that the estimated $7 trillion projected cost is painfully low, and that it could actually cost nearly $50 trillion, which would be roughly seven — SEVEN — times more than that.
The “Green New Deal” will cost approximately $49.109 trillion in the first ten years, enough to fund Trump’s border wall 8,616 times over. The president is requesting $5.7 billion for the wall.
Ocasio-Cortez has also called for a smart power grid to replace the U.S. power grid, an estimated cost of $338 billion on the low-end ($476 billion on the high-end), according to the Electric Power Research Institute. This kind of transition may be a good idea in general, but it drives up the cost of the “Green New Deal.”
All that “free” stuff Ocasio-Cortez keeps promising sure is expensive, but she probably doesn’t care so long as Soros is providing a ton of funding behind the scenes.
Sick degenerate fucks these pathetic excuses for human beings are. Garbage stains. And they call other people “nazis and extremists” and a “threat” ?? That is a very unfunny bad joke from you PC control freaks.
The typical far-left ideologues always seeking more power and control over others and lie saying it is for the “greater good” yeah we’ve heard that bullshit before by dictators who held the same utter trash outdated beliefs as you and it leads to mass murder. Drop dead AOC and all that follow you. Ignorant cunts.
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I wonder how comic writers feel about ppl wanting peter to be canon bisexual. Fans have thought it for decades, but with society being more progressive, with lgbt+ ppl being able to safely discuss it online, with andrew’s push for it, they’re probably more aware of it than ever. I’m sure there are some writers who want that, even tried to imply it (especially with spideypool/spideytorch plots) with no baiting intentions. But I wonder how much it’s actually been discussed by bigger comic writers.
which is where i am grateful for the spider-man/deadpool series because it’s so gay and i love it.
to answer your question, i am craving for a time when marvel writers will stop with their heteronormativity and forcing the characters into heterosexual relationships to the point of even making peter parker extremely sexualized (honestly they made peter kiss with black cat when he was 15 and she was over 20, and like, dude? also all the irls he has been with, chill the hell down). i am waiting for times where the heroes in the marvel comics could have boyfriends instead of just spidey attending a gay wedding and deadpool being his extremely pansexual self (still he dates only women in the comics *sigh*). some of the marvel characters come across as magnificently queer, yet the writes still push the hetero agenda, and it’s been like over 70 years, aren’t they tired of it?
i also hate the opinions where people say that it’s the sign of our times that we think every hero in the comics is queer. like, no, my dude, it’s only about the fact that in the xxi century we feel more free to talk about it, even though homophobia is still a big thing.
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take me on a spin.
Someone must have dropped a bludgeon on his head last night.
Giri wakes up with a splitting headache, every inch of his body ache painfully, and a tremble that doesn't have anything to do with the cold air.
"Good morning, sleeping beauty," someone murmurs from his right, settling a cold hand on Giri's forehead.
In another occassion, Giri would've leaned into the touch, desperate for any physical contact. This time, however, he feels raw, frayed on the edge, and as the hand lands on his forehead, Giri finds himself stumbling off the bed, bile rises up his throat.
"Bathroom! Bathroom!" Another voice comes, carefully directing him to another room which Giri assumes a bathroom. "Shit━"
Things blur into the background a while after that. He could hear panicked murmurs in the background but they are all drowned under the sound of Giri retching into the toilet. When Giri finally comes to his senses, he has his forehead pressed against the cold toilet bowl.
"Fuck," he says, voice scraping raw on his throat, and next to him, Tio is patting his back.
"There, there," Tio murmurs, gently massaging his shoulders, and Giri groans, emptying the lining of his stomach into the toilet, "Eddy is getting you water and hot tea."
Water sounds amazing, Giri loves water a whole lot. "'Kay," Giri coughs out, legs wobbling as he rises to his feet. Tio is on his side immediately and he has an arm around Giri's waist.
"Fuck you, Tio. Not going to party with you ever again."
"Hey," Tio looks mildly offended at that, "at least I still managed to fetch your unconscious ass from the party."
"What happened though?" he adds, frowning in concern. "You took drugs, didn't you?"
Giri nods, the slight movement causing pain to bloom behind his closed lids. "Yeah, but I don't know what it is."
And that is when last night's recollection runs over him like a truck.
--
One drink turned into two, three, five, seven, until it was too much for Giri to remember, but all he had in mind was he felt lighter than he ever did for years.
"Hey," the man he'd been drink with whispered in Giri's ear, "I have something for you. Open up."
He should've known better not to let a stranger popping a pill into his mouth. But it seemed that his brain had shut itself down when Giri started to drink, thus Giri let his mouth fall open, tongue sticking out. It was a small pill and Giri swallowed without a care, a grin taking over his feature.
The stranger laughed and he too, popped a pill into his mouth, before he leaned in to slant his lips against Giri.
Normally, Giri would push him away because like it or not, he didn't agree to be kissed on the mouth. He was straight, a heterosexual man with no attraction towards another man. This, the kiss, shouldn't feel this good.
Brightness exploded behind his eyelids, euphoria bubbling up inside Giri, and he let out a soft moan, eagerly returning the kiss. The lazy way their lips move against each other sent thrill up along his spine. Giri knew that a kiss with another man shouldn't feel this good,
but it did, and Giri couldn't bring himself to care.
"You're feeling it?" Voice low and sultry, matching the wandering hand all over Giri's shoulders and arms. "It hits, doesn't it?"
Giri laughed, feeling hot inside out from the touch. "So good." The immediate effect was terrifying, something Giri couldn't control: his heart was pounding in an irregular rhythm, hands going clammy, but Giri could hear his blood rushing loud in his ears. "Fuck, I'm horny."
The last bit was unintended, but the other man chuckled at that. "Do you want to have sex?"
Of course Giri did. "Yes, yes, please." His skin felt raw, his pants were way too tight for him, and a single touch could unravel him in the most delicious way possible.
"You friends?" The man was already pulling Giri up to his feet and Giri followed suit, head going blissfully blank. "Where are they?"
"No idea." Who did he come here with? Oh, right, Tio and Eddy. If things went awry, Giri could always blame the two of them for abandoning him. "Fucking, maybe." Giri couldn't contain the bitterness that welled up inside him at the thought; he shouldn't care anyway, he was a straight man. Definitely not jealous at his two friends spending their time with each other.
Another kiss stole his attention and when Giri blinked out of his thought, he found himself pressed up against a wall. "Aw," was all the man said, "don't worry about them, we are going to have fun."
--
The rest of the night blurred out, all broken in Giri's distorted point of view. Maybe he spent the trip to a nearby hotel making out with the man, he had no idea. The next thing he knew, he's got himself pinning the other man on the bed.
"What's your name," Giri demanded in between kisses, a leg slotted in between the stranger's thigh. They were trying to rip each other's clothes off and while Giri had no idea where the urgency came from, he found this exciting to do. His hand found bare skin, muscles rippling under his touch, and the moan the stranger let out was gratifying.
This time, his pants flew across the room. "Adam," the man━Adam━murmured against Giri's lips, biting down on his lower lip hard. "Fuck, come on, fuck me."
Without the influece of drug, maybe Giri would chicken out of this. He never had sex with a man, nor did he know how. In theory, he did, since he'd been watching gay porn just for the sake of research. In reality, his heart beat erratically, not to mention he trembled a little as he rolled a condom down his penis.
"Just put it in me," Adam murmured and Giri did, pushing in slowly, exhilaration causing his head to swim. "Fuck, you're big━"
Giri couldn't hear the rest of the words because pleasure drowned all his senses, sending tendrils of heat coiling around his spine and a pit of fire bubbling up in his stomach. It felt amazing, everything was beyond compare even in his twisted state, yet there was something off about this for Giri.
He carefully stuffed the thought into the back of his head and got on with the agenda.
They didn't start slow; Adam was very demanding and Giri could only give him what he wanted. Even through the rubber, Giri could feel how hot Adam was gripping him, the way the other man whined when Giri rolled his hips; each thrust tipped him closer to the edge.
It was very different than sex with a woman. Rather than hearing soft and breathy moans, grunts filled his hearings, but Giri didn't mind. He had another man's penis in his hand and rather than putting his mouth to a good use on a breast, Giri sank his teeth on Adam's shoulder and bit down hard. The erection inside his grip jerked, dripping ejaculate, and along with it was a moan; Giri grinned at that. Adam enjoyed this as much as Giri did.
"Come on, come on━" Adam hissed, pulling Giri down for a kiss, and wound his fingers on Giri's hair. He tugged just right, causing Giri to whine into Adam's mouth because it hurt so good, the sharp pain and pleasure of having his hair pulled was unexpected. "I'm close━"
It had been building up inside him, the tightness in his belly. Giri twisted his wrist as he tugged, hips rolling in an angle that caused Adam to clench down almost painfully on him, and with his lips pressed against Adam's ear, he murmured,
"Come."
Adam did, cumming all over Giri's hand and pelvis with a long-drawn moan, almost sobbing. His muscles clenched down on Giri and that was it, Giri let out a choked moan, gripping Adam's waist hard and like a glass shattering, he emptied himself into the condom. Underneath him, Adam had found a place to bite down, now sucking hickeys on Giri's neck and shoulder.
The high, coupled with the sudden rush of happy hormones from the drug, caused Giri to whimper, torn between crying or laughing. Everything was so intense, his brain felt swollen inside his skull and his visions were too sharp that Giri couldn't open his eyes.
"Fuck," was all Giri could say, panting heavily against Adam's neck. After a moment, he pulled out of the other man, hands twitching as he tied the condom before discarding it to the floor. "Oh God."
Next to him, Adam laughed. "Fuck indeed," he said, scooting closer to Giri. A soft kiss on his cheek caused Giri to open his eyes a little, the muscle on his cheek twitched as he tried to smile. "That was amazing."
"Yeah." To his surprise, Adam didn't say he wanted to do this again nor did he snuggle into his arms. Underneath his juddering heart beat, Giri felt relief. He didn't think he could have anyone except Eddy and Tio sleeping in his arms. "That was great." He carefully didn't say how this was his first time having sex with a man.
Adam yawned, already tugging the blanket up his chest. "I'm gonna sleep for a while. I have to be up in several hours."
Giri didn't understand how the other man was able to string up a sentence with more than three words in it but he nodded his head.
He slept.
--
In the present time, Giri whines, covering his face with a pillow. He was so god damned stupid and reckless; he could've had died. Maybe it is his paranoia speaking, but Giri is sure Adam could kill him when he sleeps. Giri doesn't even know whether Adam is his real name or not.
"How did you get here?" Giri asks, peeking from underneath his pillow. Next to him, Tio is staring at him with a frown on his face, forehead creased. Giri doesn't like the sight.
"You sent me a text," he says carefully, "saying that you're staying in this hotel, at room 782. The key was in the receptionist."
Giri sighs at that, gingerly putting the pillow down. The nausea is controllable now, less daunting, and slowly, he pushes himself to a sitting position. At this point, he doesn't know whether last night really happened. Maybe it was just a fragment of his hallucination and he had sex with a ghost.
He just hopes it wasn't the case.
The only thing that gives him a clue is that he's naked. The pillow next to his is also crinkled, a sign that someone has slept on that last night. Giri's clothes, however, are neatly folded on a coffee table in the corner of the room.
"That wasn't me," Giri sighs, trying to muster up a sheepish grin at Tio. "That was━"
"Did someone drug you last night?" The fierceness in Tio's voice surprised Giri a little. Tio looked genuinely upset about this, which confused Giri as well. "Was your drink spiked?"
Giri shakes his head, sinking back against a stack of pillow. "No, I took the drug willingly."
Something crosses Tio's eyes, too fast for Giri to catch, but for an unknown reason, he feels his hackles rise. "What?"
"No, no," Tio quickly waves a hand, a faint smile on his lips, "I'm just surprised, that's all. You slept with someone, huh?"
"Yeah," Giri hums, tugging the bedsheets higher to cover his bare chest. He feels oddly exposed eventhough he's just stripped naked for a stranger. "Yeah, I did."
"What's her name?"
"It’s a guy," Giri corrects, "Adam."
Giri glances up to see Tio gawking at him and it's peculiar how a simple stare could rub him the wrong way like this. "What?" he snaps for the second time, frowning even deeper.
"But," Tio pauses, head tilted to a side, "aren't you straight?"
Ah. Giri deflates at that, shrugging a shoulder. He has no idea as well but Tio deserves an answer, he supposes. "Not really. I have been... questioning myself." Giri carefully doesn't say why, he can't deal with that right now.
"Maybe I'm not straight."
The door swings open, revealing Eddy with a plastic bag full of bottled water and both hands holding two paper cups. His eyes grow wide at the sight of Giri and he grins, wide and bright, looking genuinely happy. "Bang! How are you feeling?"
Giri stretches his upper body, slow and languid. "I'm okay," he says, accepting a bottled water from Eddy. He takes a sip, feeling no resistance from his stomach, and gulps down the content.
"Fuck, so good," he groans, falling back into the bed. "Thanks, Ed."
Eddy is blatantly staring at his bare chest, to which Giri tugs the blanket up higher to cover his shoulders as well. "Uh," he says belatedly, averting his gaze away, "you're welcome. Bang Tio, your coffee."
Tio is still staring at Giri, something unfamiliar is lurking behind his gaze. "Huh," is all Tio says, taking the cup from Eddy, "thanks, Ed."
Giri could swear he's distracted. What's so surprising about his confession anyway? It's not like Tio doesn't like men too, judging from the way he and Eddy had been fucking like bunnies behind his back, he likes men a whole lot.
Ah, still bitter. Giri decides to finish his bottled water.
"Where did you go last night, Bang?" Eddy asks, face lined with worry. "We were looking for you."
Giri squashes down his guilt. "I was at the club before I went here with someone."
A frown appears. "Did you sleep with someone? What's her name?"
Here they go again. Giri rolls his eyes, a little exasperated. "Yes, I slept with someone. His name is Adam."
Eddy blink. "That sounds like a guy name."
"Because he is," Giri explains, feeling antsy all of a sudden, "he is a guy. I slept with a man last night."
The room is deadly silent all of a sudden. It irks Giri in a way, especially when he catches Eddy gawking at him in the same manner Tio did. The said man is sipping his coffee, watching Giri from above the rim of his cup.
"The fuck is wrong with you two? You guys aren't the only one who could fuck men," Giri grumbles, making to get off the bed only to realize that he's naked. "Where were you guys anywhere?"
Eddy has the audacity to blush at the question. "Uh, we━"
"Sorry we left you, Gi." At least Tio sounds genuine with his apology yet it irks Giri in some ways. He's staring at Giri with sincerity in his eyes but Giri looks away.
"You both know how I hate being around strangers, how anxious I could get from behind in a crowd," Giri says, leaning back into his stack of pillows, feeling weary. There is this unsettling feeling clinging to him that threatens to take over him if he's not being careful. "If it wasn't because of Adam, I'd probably pass out in the toilet from drinking all the liquor in the club."
Tio opens his mouth to say something but Giri waves his hand dismissively. "Nevermind. I'm going to go to sleep, if that's okay." It isn't a request; Giri is already curling up underneath the blanket. The nausea has returned along with the gloom that has made a nest inside the hollow of his chest. Giri just needs to sleep it away.
The bed creaks as if a weight has been lifted. They're leaving, then. That's great, Giri is going to be left alone again.
What Giri doesn't expect is a solid body pressing up against his back and an arm slung over his waist. "I'm sorry," Tio murmurs, rubbing comforting circles on his bare arm. "I'm glad you're okay."
Eddy settles on his left, making Giri sandwiched between the two men against his will. He doesn't mind, he never does, but in this ocassion, the close proximity rubs him the weird way. He doesn't know whether he wants Eddy and Tio to leave or stay with him here the whole day.
"Did he treat you good?" Giri hears Eddy murmurs. The man is not laying down; he's sitting with his back against the headboard, hand patting Giri's hair. "Did you enjoy it?"
Giri hums, trying not to arch into the touch. "Yeah, he was okay. I enjoyed it but, I don't know, the whole fucking stranger stuff isn't for me, I think. I feel like there's something missing."
"Hm," Eddy hums, running his fingers through Giri's hair, "something missing, huh? Like feelings?"
Giri shrugs, unsure about the answer. "Maybe." He never really thought about it. "I just don't usually have sex, even with my ex-wife."
There is something weird going on between the three of them, something Giri couldn't put his fingers on. He feels less like a thirdwheel at this moment yet it's not entirely pleasant for him to be the center of the attention. It must be the drug; it has messed him up inside and out.
"I think he gave you molly," Tio says, words pitched low, flowing soft. "You're going to feel... like a mess for 2 days, at least."
Great, just what I need. Giri voices that out and he figures something in his voice sounds wrong because Tio wraps his arms firmly around his waist. This is the closest they have ever been since the incident, physical and other aspect wise. It makes Giri queasy, their close proximity, but he keeps his mouth shut. He doesn’t feel like starting a fight between them.
"It's fine," Tio murmurs, Eddy joining him with a hum. "We will take care of you. Don't worry about it."
Giri doesn't know how to respond to that so he sighs, settling firmer on the bed before he lets his eyes flutter close. Whatever happened to them, Giri would deal with it after he wakes up.
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Is reality a social construct?
In the beginning, God speaks. His language is a creative force. Through the language of God, darkness and light, earth and stars, living creatures, man and woman come into existence. The modest power of our language is described in two modest verses of Genesis Chapter Two:
(19) Now the Lord God formed out of the ground all the wild animals and the birds of the sky. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name. (20) So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds of the sky and all the wild animals.
Now whatever you make of the Genesis stories this shows us something very important about our relationship with God and His created reality. Our role within reality is to name and describe it; through observation, science and discover. We ourselves do not created reality through our language, yet this is a central tenant of social constructionist theory.
Social construction theory suggests that there is no reality, only language-based descriptions. These descriptions are used by those who have the means to produce them as a coercive force to exact power over people. The theory suggests that by “problematizing” and undermining the descriptions, humanity will discover its truly humane-nature which is being hidden from us by the wicked forces of capitalism, patriarchy, religion, heteronormativity and scientific fact. This is very convenient if you find that you do not like reality, and through whatever maladjustment do not feel yourself fitting into it. You can insist that it is not you who is maladjusted, but that you are excluded from the prevailing description, and it is this exclusion that is causing your guilt, shame, sense of alienation, addictions, mental health issues and suicidal thoughts rather than the maladjustment (indeed it is a “violence” to even describe it as a maladjustment).
It is interesting to me that two of the most influential thinkers in the area, Michelle Foucault and Judith Butler, were/are gay. I am not suggesting that social constructionism is a queer conspiracy but as both Foucault and Butler live(d) in maladjusted, misdescribed realities, it is no surprise that they find themselves at home with the theory and that it has found such traction amongst LGBT people. As a recent essay I was reading pointed out, gender is not a social construct, unless you are trans in which case it is. I would say it is the case for LGB people too, and indeed, it seems to be that case LGBTQ people are at the forefront of the social constructivist movement. It suits them to push the idea that heterosexuality and non-trans gender identity are social constructions too. The “truth” they are attempting to reveal is that once we are free of authoritarian descriptions of gender and sexuality we are just flesh blobs, and in a free society there would be no differences between any of us. Paradoxically this shows a deep desire to free on the way in which they have found themselves (mis)described. They want to fit in with reality, but they want it to be their own, socially constructed, misdescribed reality. Their frustrations grow from mainstream, non-LGBT people’s lack of interest or belief in their theories, being as they are (more or less) correctly described and therefore already living freely within their naturally derived identities (although let’s not stray into the dangerous territory of imagining that state of heterosexuality is salvation itself or that secular understandings of heterosexuality are not riddled with delusions, but that’s for another time).
The relationship between a social constructed identity and nature is then an interesting one. When I believed I was gay my desire was led by head. Fantasy played a key role. I would look and imagine, and then become aroused. Even in sex, I would have to close my eyes and imagine because that is where my arousal came from. Desire for women is led by my body. It requires no conscious effort. It begins in lips, which push forward, undulates down my spine, hits my lower back and forces my pelvis forward in and out in a slow rhythm, arousal is softer and more-steady. However, for this to happen, I have to allow nature (God’s created reality) to happen and this is something that I was unwilling to do for a very long time. Both Susan Sontag, in her Notes On Camp, and Camille Paglia write about the artificiality of homosexuality and homosexual tastes. Homosexuality is a conquering of nature, and nature is viewed with a sense of disgust and alienation. Paglia’s visceral description of female sexuality in the open chapters of Sexual Personae helped me to understand what I was repelled by both in women and in my own body; I was repelled by nature which I was not in control of. That was a definite maladjustment.
Social constructionists are disgusted by and fearful of nature. To them it is violent and beyond control. Instead, language and theory are everything (Paglia also points out the ludicrousness of gender-theories that make no reference to biology). But, whilst if we misdescribe reality we can hope to shut nature out, it still works its way in. When we deny nature, mental health problems follow as our bodily subconsciences beg our consciences to notice them, and these problems are outworked through destructive behaviours enacted against the self and others. But nature isn’t the only thing at play here. Paglia’s work is a lot of fun to read, but it is entrenched in a pagan spirituality of nature. The God of The Bible is for Paglia a “sky-cult;” that is a social constructed force to control the cravenness of naturalist earth-cults. This removes God from reality, leaving only nature to go wild and Paglia can sound quasi-fascistic in her calls for “strong-men” and “strong-women.” This is a problem for a lot of pro-science secular thinkers; there is a lack of grace. If you are maladjusted, then you are pretty much on your own. They can sound harsh and unsympathetic. There is no tool for change. However, through God’s word and His spirit, we can discover the desire and understanding we need to admit to and take responsibility for our natures. Christianity is an antidote to the chaotic, uncontrolled forces of Paglia’s sexual earth cult, but it is not a high-minded clamp of artificiality that shuts nature out (although it can easily become that when it is misunderstood). As with everything in God’s plan, body/nature and mind/language serve each other and they become Godly when we understand the relationship between them.
The language of God created the universe, time and everything. However, when he created man he gave us free will. This means we have the capacity to interpret reality in accordance to our own suit, but without His guidance we are lost to the forces of our natural bodies and have no tool of understanding what those forces mean. Any meaning we ascribe to them can be accused of being an arbitrary social construct to fit the real or imagined agenda of the describer. This is why He has given us His word. Setting aside the institution of the church and its myriad of problems, if we personally construct our subjective, conscious realities on His word, then the true nature of objective, created reality is revealed, bringing with it peace and contentedness. Even for Christians describing reality is hard though, and we are constantly tempted to describe it in a way that befits us most (even though that never works out well). The true nature of reality will only be revealed fully at the end of time, and until then we must manage as best we can to view it through the lens of scripture.
For now what we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I shall know fully; even as I am fully known.
(1 Corinthians, 13:12)
Is reality a social construct?
That depends. If facets of reality are described correctly, then no it isn’t. If the facets of reality are described incorrectly, and attempts are made to live by those descriptions, then yes, it is.
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Episode 24: Victory for Whose Sake?
Summer 797/488. The season wraps up on the Alliance side with the failure of the coup d’etat, as Yang attacks them in two ways: one, with bad PR, broadcasting a “confession” by Baghdash that the coup was actually instigated by Reinhard; and two, with what I can only assume is totally accurate and brilliant physics, flinging gigantic chunks of ice at near lightspeed into the Artemis Necklace that surrounded Heinessen and completely destroying it. After Reinhard’s agent, Admiral Lynch, reveals to the rest of the military council that Yang’s propaganda was accurate, they kill him to eliminate evidence of the Empire’s involvement, but not before he shoots and kills Admiral Greenhill. In happier news, Merkatz (and Schneider) show up at Iserlohn and Yang decides to trust them and offer them sanctuary, demoting Schenkopp to having only the second best eyebrows in the Alliance. Sorry Schenkopp!
Frederica
The emotional core of this episode centers around Frederica, who receives the news that her father committed suicide after the defeat of the coup.
Okay actually Lynch shot him, but close enough.
Back when Frederica first found out that her father was involved in leading the coup, I pointed out that her main visible concern is whether Yang would fire her because of it; beyond seeing her anxiety over possibly losing her position and her relief when Yang in fact keeps her on, we’re not given any real view of her emotions about her father’s actions, other than initial shock. Throughout the battle against the 11th fleet she performs her duties as Yang’s adjutant without any apparent distress.
From episode 21, 8:53...
...and 12:14. Sorry animators, I'm calling you out. It's like a spot-the-difference puzzle. Can you spot it?
˙ʇɐɥ s,ƃuɐ⅄ :ɹǝʍsu∀
Now that the fleet battle is over and they’re heading to Heinessen to fight against her father’s military council directly, however, cracks are showing in Frederica’s emotional armor; she spends the first half of the episode sitting in the background of every scene looking completely miserable.
Although we get a peek at her melancholy mood in these shots, she never (that we see) articulates any objection to their plan of fighting to bring down her father’s council, or indeed vocalizes her emotions or opinions on the matter at all (more on this in a sec). While the personal situation is obviously difficult, there’s no indication that her ties to her father outweigh either her loyalty to Yang or her own political opposition to the coup (we don’t know what the main factors really are, because—again—she never tells us). Her suffering here is silent and entirely in the background.
But after they successfully destroy the Artemis Necklace that was theoretically protecting Heinessen, Yang’s fleet is contacted by some other admiral from the council, who delivers the news that Admiral Greenhill committed suicide. This is a lie (although it’s hinted he may have been considering it), but let’s take a moment to parse what this news means to Frederica: Although Yang used a combination of propaganda and unmanned ice chunks destroying unmanned satellites in order to strip away that power of the military council rather than attacking them by force, the result of his actions (as far as she knows) was to shame her father so utterly that he took his own life. And she herself had a role in carrying out this plan; at the very least she never openly opposed it.
So how does Frederica take her father’s death? After showing her immediate horrified reaction, eyes wide and trembling, the camera gives her a bit of privacy; we zoom in on Yang lecturing about despotism and free speech to the military council guy for a few minutes, and when we finally pan out again Schenkopp has come to replace Frederica at Yang’s side.
I love the subtlety of this camerawork, and the tiny worldbuilding detail of Schenkopp moving in to fill the vacancy. I suppose the commander is never supposed to be without an attending officer?
Frederica has braced herself against a desk off to the side to try to steady herself, and when Yang goes over to her, she asks him for two hours off to compose herself. Yes that’s right, two hours to get her emotions under control after the actions of her own fleet caused her father to commit suicide in shame after violently overthrowing a democratic government.
Asking first for one hour and then amending it to two makes it sound like she sees two whole hours as indulgent. Seriously Frederica, a true professional could pull herself together in fifteen minutes max.
Notice how hesitant and awkward Yang is in this scene; in the gif above he checks his impulse to comfort her with a hand on her shoulder, and here he haltingly resorts to trite words of encouragement. Both his sincere concern for her and his discomfort and fear of crossing any professional boundaries are clear.
Sure enough, by the end of the episode Frederica is back to dispassionately performing her adjutant duties, and brushes off Yang’s concerned look with assurances that she’s fine and keeping busy.
She is still visibly downcast here, but again, Yang doesn’t feel comfortable pressing further when she doesn’t want to discuss it.
And that’s that. The season is over for the Alliance, and (spoiler) Frederica never mentions her father’s death again or seems at all outwardly traumatized by this whole sequence of events. Two hours of lying in bed looking at a photo and crying, just two hours to “compose” herself, and then seamlessly back to work. What’s really salient here isn’t just her stoicism; it’s how clearly she’s exerting conscious effort to push back her emotions and refrain from letting them get in the way of her job. She’s obviously struggling—that’s clear in her downcast gazes early in the episode, her trembling reaction to the news, and her carefully controlled but still dejected expressions at the end. But her work seems to come above everything; just as not getting fired was her main visible concern when her father first overthrew the government, her effort in this episode is directed toward not spending more than two hours away from her job of giving Yang papers to sign.
Which brings us, finally, to an important question about Frederica, which I confess I’ve spent the whole season somewhat skirting around:
….What the hell is her deal??
Frederica is, at this point, a bit of an enigma. She feels like a main character, both as one of the primary assistants to Yang and as a clearly marked Potential Love Interest—treated blatantly as such by her father, Schenkopp, and Yang himself (more on that below); and yet, we’ve been through a whole season and not once has she made a single decision that affected the outcome of events, or expressed an opinion that differed from the people around her. We haven’t seen her do anything just for fun or discuss her hobbies or personal life (beyond her eight-year adoration of Yang).
This contrasts with Julian, whose identity also revolves around his role in Yang’s life and who also hasn’t been in a position to drive the action yet; but we’ve seen him taking care of Gensui, playing 3D chess, and here entertaining the Cazellnu girls. Even the several times we’ve seen him in civilian clothes all subtly build personality; we’ve only seen Frederica out of uniform in El Facil flashbacks.
(From episode 16.)
Even Konev, with a total of about five minutes of screentime so far, feels in some ways more fleshed out than Frederica, with his love of wordplay and crossword puzzles as well as his habit of betting on battles with Poplan. And of course Poplan is shown here engaging in his favorite hobby of uhh, acting super heterosexual the moment right before a battle I guess?
(From episode 21.)
Frederica graduated second in her class at the military academy, but we’ve never been told anything about her career aspirations or what she envisions for her future. Being the adjutant to the commander of the Iserlohn forces at only 23 years old might in fact be super impressive (I’m not an expert on how promotion through these various military positions works); but while we’re told repeatedly that she’s great at her job, it’s a job that seems to be all about executing someone else’s decisions.
Like Julian, Frederica’s most salient skills fit into gaps in Yang’s own skillset; in Julian’s case it’s housework and physical combat, while in Frederica’s it’s logistics and technology.
(From episode 19.)
All of which is to say, it’s difficult to know much about Frederica right now by just looking at her, herself. She is defined so far by her competence at and dedication to her job, her history of idolizing Yang, and beyond that mainly by negatives: lack of arguments with anyone, lack of questioning other people’s decisions, lack of glimpses into her life outside of work, lack of extreme displays of emotion—shown most notably in this episode with the effort she puts into not letting her father’s death by suicide interfere with her duties.
Frederica and Gender Roles
Meanwhile in the Empire...
(From episode 18.)
Since we don’t have a lot of information about Frederica herself, it’s interesting to compare her to other characters in narratively similar roles. One of Frederica’s distinguishing features is that she’s a woman operating in an almost entirely male sphere; indeed it’s tempting to throw up one’s hands and attribute her lack of exercising any narrative agency or pursuing any agenda unrelated to a guy she has a crush on as simple lazy sexism on the part of the creators. But (repeat after me) this is LoGH, and before we jump to that conclusion the creators deserve for us to try to look deeper. And as soon as we glance around at the other women we’ve met so far, we find, well…
...Jessica, who also filled the Potential Love Interest narrative slot for part of the season; but unlike Frederica we got to see her have substantive conversations with Yang about their views on the war and Alliance politics, and she also pursued her own political and activist goals independent from Yang’s or anyone else’s agenda.
(From episode 21.)
...And Hilda, shown here approaching Reinhard, the rising political and military star of the Empire, and talking him into giving her a written guarantee that her family will be well taken care of once he overthrows the current social order. God damn Hilda is badass.
(From episode 18.)
...And Magdalena, who unlike Jessica and Hilda (and Frederica) does not throw herself into traditionally male realms, but embraces her life as a noblewoman and navigates it with her own personality and values. Here we see her fuck with poor Kircheis while her minions look on; she’s also one of the few among the nobility who’s tried to be a real friend to Annerose. I love how Magdalena (and Hortence on the Alliance side—be patient okay) provides an example of a woman seeming to thrive without following a more typically (for their society) masculine path. (From episode 9.)
So, no: While the world of LoGH is certainly male-dominated, this show knows perfectly well how to imbue its female characters with aspirations, agency, points of view, and personalities that aren’t defined by the men around (or in power over) them. So when after a whole season Frederica still seems primarily defined by what she’s hidden from us, we should pay attention to this as a conscious choice by the writers.
I said we haven’t seen Frederica push her own agenda or disobey orders but that isn’t entirely true: The one time she did was this attempt to get Yang to take better care of his physical health during a battle. By appealing to Julian’s authority. Unsuccessfully—the battle starts back up and Yang brushes her away and says he’ll eat later. Whatever the precise opposite of the Bechdel test is, I think this scene passes it.
(From episode 15.)
As I struggled to piece together a portrait of Frederica in my mind from what we’ve seen this season, the list of her prominent traits started to sound rather familiar: working to keep her emotions below the surface; silent in meetings; never openly ambitious; rarely making jokes; focused on performing her duties at all costs (including uh, getting her boss coffee tea with brandy). Spend a few minutes googling around for articles on struggles women face in predominantly male careers and you’ll find pretty much this exact list. While Hilda is just beginning to throw herself into politics by aligning with Reinhard, and Jessica pivoted into activism from teaching piano after her love interest was fridged, Frederica by this point has come all the way through the military academy and spent time after that doing information analysis before ending up working under Yang. She’s been studying and working (very successfully!) in an almost entirely male environment for about seven years by now. Could her all-business, eager-to-please, show-no-weakness style have been learned in response to the general sexism of that environment in some way? That’s certainly not unrealistic, and worth keeping in mind.
In the brief flashback montage that we see while Frederica lays in bed remembering her father, we get a couple of further glimpses into their dynamic. Like most things about Frederica, why she chose to join the military in the first place is a mystery; was it to make her father proud?
As far as we know, Frederica was close to her father; but remember that we’ve seen him appear to blatantly matchmake her with her new boss, which is, well, messed up. Contrast this with Hilda’s father, who we see openly encourage her to be politically ambitious in her own right.
Frederica and Yang (and heteronormativity)
Frederica...what even is that expression? You know if you have aspirations of getting closer to Yang personally you’re gonna have to get used to him going off on monologues about the nature of war, right? It’s kind of his thing.
(From episode 16.)
There will be plenty of time to talk about the dynamic between Frederica and Yang, but while I’m laying the groundwork for Frederica Discourse heading into season two, it’s worth summarizing a bit. We haven’t seen them interact much at all so far outside of the context of work; and within that context, from the beginning Yang has been very obviously conscious of the fact that, unlike everyone else around him in his daily life, she is a woman.
This was not Yang’s finest moment, completely failing to contain his surprise that his new adjutant was female. Here we see the cycles of heteronormativity and sexism: Yang is a victim of societal norms, as we’ve discussed; but he’s also helping perpetuate them, since his stress about the mere potential of romantic (sexual) expectations being placed on him means that he lets the gender of his adjutant affect his behavior toward her more than he should.
(From episode 6.)
...Not that he’s about to let societal norms about how to behave in front of women get in the way of his naps, of course.
This is the one time all season that Yang directs one of his musings on war at Frederica. Between her dumbfounded gaze (see screenshot above), his embarrassment after he remembers she's listening, and her quick transition back into fetching him tea rather than engaging with what he said, it's clear neither of them is comfortable with this interaction. There’s something (hmmm what could it be??) stopping them from having the same kind of friendship Yang has with Cazellnu, Dusty, Schenkopp, even Julian. (Both from episode 16.)
But Frederica isn’t just a woman who happened to become Yang’s adjutant; she has a very specific history with him, which is the one thing in her life she’s not very shy about.
When Julian asks Frederica about her memories of El Facil in episode 17, he points out that Yang might have ended up happier if he hadn’t become a “hero,” but Frederica is quick to object that Yang would have just been captured by the Empire if he hadn’t successfully evacuated the planet. I don't know if that’s true—could Yang not have escaped himself, as his commanding officers did, without also evacuating all three million civilians? What is true is that Frederica herself, and her mother, would have likely been captured or killed.
(From episode 17.)
Her first meeting with Yang on El Facil wasn’t just about thinking his dislike of coffee was cute: He saved her life. He is very literally her hero, and she has a deep personal stake in this major turning point in his life which, as Julian points out, was not entirely positive for him. Since we first met Yang in “My Conquest” we’ve known that his actions on El Facil brought him more attention than he ever wanted—specifically romantic attention from women that he didn’t feel interested in or comfortable responding to; Frederica is the love letters he didn’t answer in “My Conquest” brought to life. And she’s also his direct subordinate. While their working relationship seems functional and positive enough, it’s no wonder that personally it feels strained.
Icebergs Canon: The three pink ones are from Frederica.
Julian
Julian Mintz.
Age: 15.
Likes: Yang; tea; 3D chess; Yang; the color purple; cats; Yang; pointing guns at people; housework; Yang; Kircheis.
Dislikes: Baghdash.
After struggling to understand what’s going on behind Frederica’s carefully controlled exterior, Julian is a breath of fresh air. As always he wears his heart completely on his sleeve, to the extent that I feel a bit invasive watching him.
Yesss, demolish it all! Julian’s into it.
“God damn Yang has a great ass.”
—Julian’s Iserlohn Diary, the unpublished pages
...Okay not actually, but come on, we don’t need to read his diary when that open-mouthed smile already says everything.
I’ve so far hedged a bit about declaring Julian’s obvious idolization of Yang to be an official crush, but hell—no one in the history of the world has ever watched someone clumsily burn his hands and then jump over a chair with that specific appreciative smile when they didn’t have a crush, so I’m ready to call it. Congratulations Julian, you are hereby Officially Canonically Smitten.
Just like his probing about Yang’s interactions with Jessica in episode 10, here we see Julian a couple of times in the background clearly paying attention to the dynamic between Yang and Frederica, and specifically to Yang’s awkwardness in knowing how to comfort her about her father’s death. While it’s subtle, in context this slightly heightened interest in Yang’s relationships with women is another hint that Julian’s own feelings are at least slightly romantically tinged.
Of course, Julian is also friends with Frederica (after all, he has the most in common with her…) and probably also worried about how she’s doing. But we don’t see him interact with her directly at all; we just see him look thoughtfully from her to Yang.
Now, despite my having declared Julian’s feelings a crush, I’m not claiming that he actually frames it to himself that way; after all not only do they live in a deeply heteronormative society, but their situation in particular is obviously...well, complicated. As I’ve discussed, Julian has always treated Yang as a mentor or commanding officer rather than as family; but the power dynamic remains, as well as the age difference, and I don’t imagine that Julian is in fact doodling “Julian <3 Yang 4 ever” in his notebooks and dreaming of a big traditional wedding. But crushes on mentor figures are common; and I believe we see enough in his gazes to tell us that his appreciation of Yang is the sort that makes his heart race in a way that constitutes a crush, whether or not he’s able to put it to himself in those terms right now. How these feelings, and his own awareness of them, evolve as we head into the next season is definitely something we’ll be looking out for.
In the meantime, please enjoy this gif that I randomly just love for the body language animation—the contrast between Yang’s slouch and Julian standing eagerly at attention; Julian skipping so nimbly out of the room while closing the door behind him. Also hmm, I think I’ve seen that lamp at Ikea...guess some things don’t change in 1600 years.
Stray Tidbits
Back in episode 16 Admiral Sitolet told Yang he was going to retire and start beekeeping, and hey, looks like he’s followed through! At least someone in this miserable galaxy is successfully living out their dream.
I will never watch the scene of Yang describing his plan to destroy the necklace without laughing out loud. I have no idea whether his application of the theory of relativity is uhh, scientifically sound—didn’t Yang flunk every class except history, or something?—but what I’m more interested in is where the fuck they came up with dozens of gigantic chunks of ice on such short notice.
Speaking of which, I love this screenshot and I encourage you to use it in a wide range of contexts.
Meanwhile, welcome to the Alliance, Merkatz and Schneider! We’re thrilled to have you, but I suppose this means it’s now my job to try to figure out what exactly is going on here... *thinking emoji*
Come on Greenhill, everyone knows never read the comments.
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Big Gipp Gets Dragged After Pushing For Heterosexual Pride Month
Source: Johnny Nunez / Getty
ATLien and Goodie Mob MC Big Gipp is catching heat after posting his views on the family structure and sexuality.
On Friday (Dec. 27), Big Gipp took to Instagram to show his support of a proposed “Heterosexual Pride Month.” The image features a heterosexual family with the couple shielding the child from a rainbow with a caption pointing out that no matter what a person identifies as, we all come from a man and a woman.
“With The Total Push of Other Ways Of Living…Let’s All Please Remember We All Come From This Right Here,” Gipp wrote on Instagram. “No Disrespect 2 No One But Let’s Push This More N 2020.”
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#MessageofThaDay With The Total Push of Other Ways Of Living…Let's All Please Remember We All Come From This Right Here…No Disrespect 2 No One But Let's Push This More N 2020 ..#Scripture
#SouthernAllience
Zagga
A post shared by Big Gipp (@gippgoodie) on Dec 26, 2019 at 12:28pm PST
While Gipp captioned the photo that he meant “no disrespect”, the image still had many fans taken aback, with many calling the post insensitive to those in the LBGTQ community.
“This like when white folk try and throw the race card,” one user wrote in the comments.
While he received some backlash, there were also an onslaught of followers who supported Big Gipp’s stance noting that loving his heterosexual identity isn’t bashing those who aren’t. Veteran New York DJ, DJ Kay Slay, weighed in on the subject, calling out those dragging Big Gipp for being intolerant.
”I see a lot of HETEROSEXUAL BASHING going in within this post
I wonder if that’s a crime also ?
,” DJ Kay Slay commented.
While Big Gipp has yet to respond to backlash or further clarify his post, that’s not stopping Black Twitter users on both sides from sharing their opinions regarding the post. With some championing the “Stepping Out” rapper as being real, while others are condemning him for causing further division within the Black community by attempting to exclude those who identify as LBGTQ.
The LGBTQRS need to realize that they wouldn't exist if it wasn't for a heterosexual couples and Families. Leave Big Gipp alone alone and stfu #StraightPride pic.twitter.com/RkXetli911
— Honest Sin (@10400gohard) December 27, 2019
Neither do I. Big Gipp ain’t been relevant since the ‘90s & never without @goodiemob . This “Heterosexual Pride Month” nonsense is his @staceydash & @ChrisetteM moment-a means to get attention.
— Timeeka (@HalterTop34) December 30, 2019
Although many are coming forward to show their support of Big Gipp’s message, a quick view of the trending topic on Twitter will give you an understanding of why many feel it’s an “All Lives Matter” move. From being called out of their names, to derogatory terms, those who seemingly support the “heterosexual pride” are doing so by doing what has always been done to minorities—bash them. From calling for boycotts of celebrities against the idea of setting aside a month for straight people, to negatively bashing homosexuals, the feelings being conveyed are exactly why PRIDE month is a big deal for those of that community.
It’s evident that entitlement is still rampant and Black people are just as guilty as our own oppressors when it comes to it—especially when it involves tolerance. Anyone in their right mind can see that what many are labeling as an “agenda”is really just simply representation. At a time when young men and women are still being murdered for their orientation, are we going to really act as if straight people are really facing obstacles for being straight? Better yet, are straight children being kicked out of their homes for being straight, or bullied to the point of suicide? Those are the issues that the LBGTQ community face on a daily basis, so to have a month, week, day or even year where they choose to celebrate their strength, is none of our heterosexual business; as one user points out.
“Well, pride month is about people who have been persecuted for being different, so I don’t think heterosexuals can lay claim to being persecuted for that reason,” the user wrote. “I would urge you to reconsider this, as I’m sure that there are truly marginalized people who support you and your music.”
Overall, I am hoping that 2020 will bring a resurgence of folks learning to stay in their lane, instead of focusing on who or what I allow in mine.
source https://hiphopwired.com/833522/big-gipp-heterosexual-pride-month/
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In terms of continuing the conversation, ill-advised as it may be
So when it comes to my OTT emo post about all the ways in which Amy Sherman Palladino has personally victimized me:
@dollsome-does-tumblr said:
I think that fundamentally it seems like ASP started out making what was, at its heart, a feel-good sweet show – and then something in her just totally balked at the idea of having to stick to writing something that was sweet and kind at its core, or something.
I think something as relatively simple as Luke and Lorelai never saying “I love you” in a healthy, ordinary context because ASP thought it was too cheesy really shows the disconnect here. And to be honest, until I got on Tumblr again I never even noticed that because what I wanted from the show was so little that it wasn’t a big deal to me. After everything that the show put us through with these two, just accepting that they are together and that they ended up with a happy ending was enough.
And that’s what still upsets me about the whole thing. I didn’t ask for much, only for her not to break our hearts (and Luke’s) irrevocably. Yes, there’s something to be said for sometimes giving the fans and the story what they need instead of what they want, but it wasn’t necessary to ruin things in the most horrendous way possible just because you got bored and wanted to focus on your beloved side character. None of this had to happen at all.
I wanted to think more of ASP. I wanted to believe in her more, that she wouldn’t eventually betray us like this. I wanted to be wrong about her. But I wasn’t.
The one stark difference I really notice between s6 and s7 is that s7 doesn’t seem to have that same awkward wariness re: leaning shamelessly into good emotions.
It really feels like there are a lot of moments in season 7 where the show is like, “It’s okay for you to feel good about this character/relationship/etc.!!!”, or “It’s okay for you to want Luke and Lorelai to get back together with your entire being! We want that too!!”
I also feel like the writing of Luke, Zach, and Logan finally really shook off the ‘men suck and are emotionally inaccessible and relationships with them will always be hard and require a lot of secrecy and uncertainty and the communication will never be good and it’s just something you have to deal with as a heterosexual woman’ vibe that had become really pervasive over seasons 5 and 6.
and
@aetw389 said:
So. Much. Word. And why not be proud of being angry? You speak for many of us. ASP is a brilliant writer, but the characters eventually could and did exist outside her sphere. ASP would never have given us the karaoke scene, and yet it's perfect and iconic and totally in character. I don't even know where I was going with that ... but I was in the middle of agreeing and got distracted. So - yes. Preach it.
As someone who was a late season 7 viewer, it definitely has its rough spots but I feel that overall the writers were not emotionally involved in pushing any particular aspect of the love triangle. Christopher and Lorelai can be over in their corner doing their own thing and then Luke can be over in his corner taking care of his daughter and nobody has to be the villain. It’s a nice contrast to what I thought was really cruel about the last half of season 6, that Luke is ripped down so much and becomes such a jerk, just so Christopher can be built back up. And I just felt like the agenda ASP was forcing on us is almost semi-offensive, because we’re supposed to resent Luke for trying to be a responsible father. It’s almost like it’s a battle for his attention between Lorelai and this kid who was totally innocent, and he ultimately fails in some way because he doesn’t prioritize Lorelai above everything else, and she has to punish him in the most savage way possible.
As bad as his behavior got, he deserved better than that. We deserved better than that. Ugh, Lorelai, how could you? OK, I’m stopping now on that train of thought.
I kind of feel that in season 7 as much as I didn’t want the Christopher/Lorelai thing to happen ASP wrote her into that corner and they had to go with it. ASP made her be obsessed with marriage: ASP made her be a person who wanted someone emotionally open. Christopher offers all of those things and we can see why Lorelai decides that it’s good enough, and overcompensates with the PDA when Luke starts circling her orbit again because she knows that something will never be quite right there. We can also see that Luke will always be there for her in a way that Christopher never will, because during all of this time he’s allowed to be a good guy, too.
I still think that a lot of the positive stuff that happened in season 7 wouldn’t have been possible under ASP’s watch. She would have shrugged the karaoke scene off as being too cheesy. I doubt she would have had Luke and Lorelai do something as healthy and positive as take responsibility for their awful behavior and apologize to each other . Luke wouldn’t have developed a healthy relationship with April on his own: he wouldn’t be allowed to win that custody battle and have something apart from Lorelai that isn’t a competition for her affection.
(And that’s a whole another issue which ASP got so wrong in the revival. There are definitely points in season 7 where I felt the whole Lorelai/April thing seems a lot warmer and healthier than it did in the revival, because ASP seems to really obsess with letting us know that he always seems to prefer Rory a little more. But that’s it’s own issue, even in a ASP-slagging post).
@dollsome-does-tumblr continues:
And that got so rambly! Basically: ASP, she done us all wrong. (I am still going to enthusiastically watch The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, but in a way where I’m just going to expect everything I love to get torn from my hands at any moment. Granted, TMMM feels like it’s got a much more caustic heart from the get-go, which is probably where ASP is comfortable as a writer?)
I understand that not everybody holds grudges like me, and that’s cool. Even though I’m not emotional about it, I kind of feel that the Rory plot twist was worse: ASP’s goal all along was to ruin Rory’s future and all of the sacrifices that her mother had spent her entire life making for her. The entire mission of the show was to end in misery and despair! The only reason it’s not really so bad is that she got kicked off and Rory had a nine-year interval in which to accomplish her own goals and cushion the blow. So knowing all of that, I wouldn’t want to see what she dreams up for her next set of characters. It could get really, really rough.
Thanks everyone for putting up with this glut of long-repressed angst! I think I’m done now. Hopefully.
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I just wanted to say thank you for your comments on the post about casting a female doctor. People on this site tend to forget change doesn't happen overnight and tend to get angry if it doesn't happen immediately. I think people forget that a big change like a female Doctor has to be done gradually. And they have done that with River, the comment about the timelord that changed genders in the Doctor's Wife ep, Missy, and hopefully a female Doc next
Exactly. Like, Rome wasn’t built in a day. No one’s saying that if we get a white female Doctor, the war is won, because that obviously isn’t true! But I feel like some people let themselves get caught up in this website and its ideals and forget about the real world sometimes. The world where whiteness, heterosexuality, and straight cis men still rule over everything.
Like, jeez, look at the amount of protest when Jenny and Vastra had that kiss (which had an ulterior motive of ‘sharing oxygen’ to begin with). Britain is still full of conservatives, y’all.
The showrunner has to get approval from the (conservative) BBC over major elements of the show like Doctor and companion casting. God knows what fight Moffat might have had to win to get Michelle as the Master. The BBC are still almost definitely going to be very resistant to a female Doctor, even with so many people screaming for it.
Some people don’t seem to realise how lucky we’re going to be to even get a white woman, let alone any other kind of woman. And yes, it sucks that it’s the best we can really hope for at this stage, but these things take time! Sadly, a white woman, in this case, would be revolutionary!
(As would a man of colour. I would say that men of colour need more positive rep in the media than white women at the moment, by a longshot. Where’s Riz Ahmed? What’s he doing? Get him an audition, asap! I’m not saying that a MoC would be more revolutionary in this circumstance, because I’m not sure if I think that’s true in this particular case, but they do have a much bigger gap in positive representation and that part isn’t up for debate.)
I’m still worried Chibnall doesn’t have the guts to do the female Doctor thing, quite honestly. I don’t really trust anyone but Moffat to push that agenda, at this point (though, to be fair, it’s not like anyone else has had the chance yet, it’s just that Chibnall has already said something about a ‘gimmick’ casting which make me very worried, and Moffat is pretty much the only straight white male writer I trust these days).
Moffat’s laid as much foundation and pushed it as far as he physically can without actually taking that final step:
Anyone with sense knows he would have almost definitely given us a female Doctor, had he been staying long enough to cast Thirteen, but I like to think he would have sat down with Chibnall and had a firm talk with him about the important of continuing to improve diversity in the show.
Still, like I say. I’m scared to be hopeful because I just don’t currently believe anyone but Moffat has the guts to make that kind of statement, even with half the viewers of the show screaming for it.
But, that being said, Chibnall has some fantastic female characters in Broadchurch, and if there was ever a time to take the risk, it’s now, and he must know that. So…I really hope so. I really hope so.
I mean, seriously. Thirteen just sounds female. Make this happen Chibnall, make this happen.
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