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muttweed · 1 year

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quick pinned post:

i'm bone, i'm 26, i follow/like from @lhazaar; if i reblogged something from you that you don't want on this blog, let me know! i try to go to the sources of posts instead of reblogging them directly unless you're also an nsfw blog but sometimes you can't because people deactivate etc etc

i'm a white genderqueer butch [they/them], on T for the better part of a decade and post-top surgery. i'm fat, hairy, and basically the dyke version of a bear.

i'm polyamorous and live with the wonderful @starcrossedfemme and @packbutch

absolutely no minors, cishet men, terfs, transmeds, cishets on here for dd/lg, raceplay, incest fetish, zoo/beast/k9, or thinspo

i have a big personal space bubble and one of those yellow leashes that says NERVOUS on it

no, i don't know where my nipples went either

content notes under the cut:

this blog sometimes contains "hard" kinks under the cnc umbrella including somno, intox, heat cycles, hypno, and power exchanges. i think that roleplay is fun and extend that into my kink life. i'm a switch who is often on both ends of whatever i'm talking about; everything is negotiated and enthusiastically consensual. i don't reblog things that use the word rape out of personal preference but am aware that the section of cnc i'm into includes scenarios that have happened to people irl—i'm not trying to draw a moral distinction here between something like hypno and a rape kink. some of the things i'm into have been nonconsensually forced on me before. if that's also you, and you're not comfortable with seeing the appearence of nonconsent or dubious consent in roleplay contexts, that's totally okay and you're welcome to back out of this blog. i assure you i only engage in this kind of play in designated spaces, like here, with people whom i trust and have pre-discussed limits, preferences, and triggers with. this blog is always opt-in, not opt-out.

as a side note, i have severe ocd and a lot of my obsessions over my life have been related to the fear of sexual violence. if i'm ever overly specific or wordy about kinks, like i am here, it's because that's the context i'm coming from. engaging in kink communities that talk about how to safely navigate cnc play has been really beneficial for my mental health in that regard, actually, and has made it easier for me to live with the intrusives that remain. i think that talking about that could be helpful for other people too, so i keep doing it.

i also ask above that people give me space if they post heavily about incest, raceplay, or bestiality. while i find the psychological why of kinks interesting and i know that not everyone who roleplays xyz is going to do xyz, all three of these are deeply triggering for me or people i care about. i know too many incest survivors to be comfortable with it being sexualized + i'm white and thus won't touch raceplay with a pole.

i also work with animals and, while i'm a furry, i need to be very specific that i do not believe animals can consent to sex with humans and any contact of the kind is taking advantage of a power differential and communication barrier that makes it unethical. because i have been in the furry community for nearly 15 years, i am very familiar with the existence of online communities of zoophiles. i do not want to interact with people who consider themselves zoophiles. i do not want to debate the ethics of zoophilia with you. if you aren't hurting anyone, human or nonhuman, you don't need my approval, and if you are you are not going to convince me that it can in any way be consensual. fucking harkness test, people. i'm a furry because i'm into monsters. the ways i want beautiful dykes to call me a bad dog during sex and the things i want them to do to me would be considered unethical training and animal abuse if you did them to an actual dog. it's not that hard to draw a distinction

#pinned

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transmisogyny-explained · 4 years

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I would really appreciate if TMEs didn’t scroll past this post.

Generally, people (who aren’t transmisogynists that speak over trans women and brush aside our issues) seem to understand at this point that “f*mboy” is a transmisogynistic slur and transmisogyny-exempt people shouldn’t reclaim it. But I think it’s important to have a discussion about how the meme itself also ties into transmisogynistic fetishism, so that’s what I’ll be attempting to explain today.

CW/TW: Transmisogyny; perisexism; misgendering; talk of porn, fetishism, and genitals; uncensored slurs; homomisia mention; minor p*dophilia mention

The origins of the current mainstream image/meme of the femboy can be traced back to the anime/manga trope of the futanari, which is the Japanese word for hermaphrodite. In anime/manga (particularly hentai), a futanari character is a woman (or feminine humanoid) who is often quite voluptuous/attractive and who possesses a penis (sometimes in addition to a vagina and sometimes without testicles). The perceived “discordance” between an attractive woman and her possession of a penis is what the people attracted to futanari (usually cishet men) find at once jarring and enticing. It’s the simultaneous perisexist and transmisogynistic fetishization of the idea of intersex people’s and trans women’s bodies and denial of the idea that our bodies could even exist outside of these fantasies, rendering them “safe for consumption.”

However, our bodies can, of course, exist outside of fiction and fantasy, which leads us to the discussion (which is deeply rooted in homomisic anxiety) of whether or not it’s “gay” for men to be attracted to “real life futanari” — Are you gay if the woman you find attractive turns out to have a penis? Enter the concept of “traps.” In anime, a trap is a boy who disguises himself as a girl, intentionally leads others to assume he’s a girl from his appearance, and often reveals himself to be (or is sometimes forcibly outed as) a boy only after other male characters (and, by proxy, the assumed straight male audience) have expressed interest in or attraction to him, shocking and embarrassing them. It is meant to be a source of comedy much of the time, but the narrative rarely questions the possibility that this character may identify as transfeminine and deserves to have their identity respected. They are always assumed to be cis boys who either simply enjoy looking like girls or have an ulterior motive for tricking people into thinking they are a girl.

When people started to realize that this was and is an extremely transmisogynistic trope (the idea that gay men will disguise themselves as women to “trick” straight men into sleeping with them is often applied to trans women and frequently seen as the only way a cis man could possibly be attracted to us), they decided to change the name of the game: Enter femboys. Femboys often look exactly like the standard trap — a very young, semi-androgynous, flat-chested, thin, white anime girl — though they’re frequently depicted even more salaciously because the artist has no reason to “conceal their masculine traits,” instead drawing attention to their genitals.

The default reasoning people use as to why this concept isn’t transmisogynistic is that femboys are gender-nonconforming boys who aren’t trying to trick anyone into believing that they’re girls. Unlike futanari, they aren’t meant to be women, and unlike traps, their appearances aren’t meant to be “deceptive.” However, this argument completely ignores that half of the issue with traps and futanari is that they are a fetish. In every instance, a great deal of emphasis is placed on the penis — it’s shocking and unexpected; it’s connotative of a cis boy in disguise; it’s accentuation goes hand-in-hand with male femininity, designating male femininity as inherently erotic. Trans women on this site have discussed this before, but the term “femboy” is literally used in porn to denote a fetish of transfeminine people. And it’s used right alongside other transmisogynistic slurs.

And these concepts — that trans women can be summed up as “women with penises,” that we’re an erotic curiosity to be simulated, that we’re inhuman, hermaphrodites, or “in-betweens,” that we’re men who want to trick other men into sleeping with us, etc. — are what get us reduced to our genitals, reduced to our assigned genders, dehumanized, and even killed. This is what you’re contributing to when you normalize the fetishization of “femboys,” the fetishization of the juxtaposition between a feminine presentation with a so-called “masculine” biology. If supporting trans women and fighting against transmisogyny matter more to you than just the appearance of being an ally, cut it out.

[Image ID: A banner of the pink trans woman flag with white text that reads, “I don’t want to see or be seen by transmisogynists” next to a green check mark /end ID]

#femboy #femboy discourse #fb slur #transmisogynistic slurs #fetishization #allyship #ask to tag #transmisogyny #anti transmisogyny #transfeminism #trans woman #transfeminine #lgbt #lgbtq #h slur #h slur tw

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transmalewife · 2 years

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There's this youtube animated webseries called 'no evil'. You might have heard of it, there was a post going around about it a while ago. It's been going on for close to a DECADE and considering it started as basically one person doing everything and their brother helping with voice acting, the quality is frankly amazing. the character design is varied if a bit furryesque, the premise is unique. it's just very fun and easy to watch, the episodes are just a few minutes long each. i'm going to spoil it a little bit so if you care about spoilers you should go watch it here first. (if you just want a taste of the vibe and not the whole thing i highly recommend episode 7, a fun music video with its own self contained story)

The reason i want to talk about it is that even though it's not technically fan content (it is based on Aztec mythology, but it's definitely not in the typical definition of fanworks) it's such a fascinating microcosm of fandom culture.

First of all, the sheer passion of it all is heart-wrenching in the best way possible. The author said at some point that they'd been thinking about this universe since they were in highschool, long before they started actually making it. they must be in their 30's by now, and they haven't given up on it, they're rolling with what's there, resisting the urge to cringe and abandon something they made so long ago and building on top of it. It's an artist's entire journey posted for the world to see with no shame. it's like a fic where you can see the writer growing and the quality getting better with every chapter. Like scrolling all the way down an art blog and watching the artist's hand solidify in reverse. You really only ever get that with amateur art, because amateur means doing something because you love it, not because you're good at it. it's time and evolution chronicled not in order of importance but archived fully, meticulously and indiscriminately, which is exactly what fandom does at its best. There's no entrance exams, no publisher to dazzle, it's just you, how much energy you have, and what do you love enough to spend it on.

It shows the community aspect of fandom too. As time went on more voice actors joined in, as well as colorists and background artists, people started supporting the project on patreon to pay for better equipment, coming together to make it the best it can be.

However, it also highlights some flaws. A story with no clear plan will meander before it figures out what its plot is. That's not inherently a bad thing, stories don't need an overarching plot to be good, and forcing one on them can be actively detrimental (see every single sherlock holmes adaptation).

Even if a story is heading towards a conclusion, it can be nice to go the long way and take a tour of the world before you get there. But there are issues with that. Foreshadowing only works if you know what you need to be foreshadowing. Pacing is pretty much impossible to get right if you don't know where the story is heading. I don't know how much the author had planned out before going into this, I'm mostly talking about the vibe i get from it, and it's something i see in many fanfics and webcomics, or any other type of serialized online story.

The other thing is the ending itself. There's this thing about fandom spaces, especially tumblr, where unlike mainstream media it isn't geared exclusively towards cishet abled white men (and increasingly women), has a larger focus on underrepresented communities and a higher awareness of social justice issues. This is undeniably a good thing. More rep is absolutely needed and it's one of the noblest thing to come out of fan culture. in this series i especially appreciate the characters who use asl, as well as the captions on every video which is more than many major media corporations using youtube bother to do.

Striving for social justice and expressing your ideas for a better world is a huge part of why people make art in the first place, and has been for ages. This is also a good thing. What I'm talking about is that, ok

A happy ending is by far not the only fanfic premise, but it is extremely common, and very often the main motivation of fanfic writers (including myself) is literally fixing canon, undoing a tragedy. It's hard to write compelling conflict and hardship when you love the characters and are dedicated to making them suffer less than they did in the original, or letting them heal from the trauma they have (again, guilty as charged). But a story needs conflict. A happy ending gets that much more satisfying for every hurdle they have to overcome to get there, it's literally worth more if it cost more to achieve. But online media criticism steeped in fandom culture sometimes doesn't really allow for that. There's this blueprint developing of a story that must be 100% unproblematic at all times. There's an assumption that anything in a story reflects the views of its author. You cannot revenge kill the villain if you believe in prison abolition and rehabilitation. You cannot have a character act in homophobic ways if you are gay/an ally. You cannot have a toxic relationship or you are literally an abuser yourself

And I absolutely get where that comes from, because we do, in fact, live in a society. Most romances written like, ever, have glorified a harmful and damaging view of women. Many shows and movies in recent years have been very dark and full of pointless shock value deaths. and reality is also kinda shit right now, it's perfectly understandable to want to escape to a happier, simpler world when no one really gets hurt. I think that's why children's cartoons are so popular in fandom. It's certainly why i like them.

But, I recently saw a gay youtuber get asked "would you rather all media had queer characters in it, or all current queer characters got a happy ending?" and i was shocked when they chose the second option, because to me the first one is so obvious. Queer people are everywhere. if you've got 20 characters in your story, statistically anywhere from 1 to 10 of them should be in some way queer. And realistically, most of them will go through some painful shit in their lives, because most people do. This video was a few years old, and I do remember the vibe back then when it seemed like literally the only thing you saw in queer media was bury your gays, so i'll give them a pass for wanting to fix that, but although the question was purely hypothetical, if you actually immerse yourself in the rules of would you rather for a second its a bit horrifying right? You have two options, the first is this group of people that exists absolutely everywhere gets to be explicitly included in media, where they rightfully belong. the other is this group can only ever get a happy ending. can you imagine how othering it would be? you're still only given crumbs of rep, but the ones you do are all sunshine and rainbows no matter how little that works with the premise of the story. the reality is, in my country surveys show the vast majority of lgbt teens are suicidal. seeing only positive stories would feel like a lie.

Which brings us back to No Evil. I watched the whole thing a few years ago, then remembered it this year and caught up. I was excited to see it had reached the climax of the main plot so far, but what i got instead was more of a fizzle, which got me thinking about all this. They defeat the big bad offscreen, and immediately turn around and mom him into literally undoing all the harm he caused. It's not a bad conclusion to the story (nor is it the ending as far as i can tell, there's a new plot/extension of the old one building), it fits the themes and why the conflict was there in the first place, and the character that saved the day is very pragmatic, it makes sense for her to act the way she did and immediately turn towards enforcing community service. Having the villain immediately made to undo the shit he did is quite fitting, it runs with the general vibe of the story being very comforting. I'm not at all saying this plot needed a different ending, or that the villain needed to be punished (i think losing an arm is already more than enough punishment). I also don't think the story would have benefited from a game of thr*nes everyone dies setup, the fact the characters that got hurt can be saved actually adds something to the tension. you have to defeat the villain before he hurts more people, but also save him from himself so he can revive your friends. all the criticisms i might have (the pacing, the inconsistencies) are easily explained by the series being made over, again A FUCKING DECADE, which honestly inspired me to keep creating more than anything ive ever seen in my life.

No, what i'm talking about here is not at all a problem with the story, but a realisation i had after watching it, about my own writing and fandom in general. I'm using it as an example of a wider trend, even though the story on its own is completely fine.

Because bad things, pain, shitty behaviour, mean horrible endings, awful people doing sympathetic things and sympathetic people doing awful things, aren't the price we pay for satisfying stories, they're what makes the story satisfying, and most importantly, interesting in the first place. toxic, horrible relationships in media are compelling for the same reson fantasy and sci fi are. real life is boring sometimes, and it's fun to root for a self descructive character sometimes, even though we'd cut them off irl). (there's also the fact watching those relationships can be cathartic to people who have experienced similar things, especially if the ending is some sort of revenge or closure)

Which is all really quite obvious if you think about it, but it's easy to forget if you spend too much time on tumblr. And like, i do read, and I watch films outside of the context of fandom, but i guess i just always kept online media and 'real' media as discrete categories in my brain. but like... why? I guess it's understandable bc as i've shown they do operate on slightly different rules and have a slightly different purpose, but there is undeniably shit online darker than anything shown in theaters. and conversely there are mainstream adaptations of classics significantly less satisfying and just... good than fanfic about the same. So why should one be criticized for any sliver of darkness while the other is praised for it?

A tangentially related thing to wrap this up is how criticism works. It's interesting to me how comfortable i felt writing this while focusing on no evil, as oposed to a fanfic. but reviewing media, even critically, is normal. it's the most basic way of interacting with stories. it's literally a job. however, there's this idea in fandom that criticizing fanfic is unacceptable. And on one hand, i absolutely get that, because it kinda sucks to put a lot of work into something for free then get a negative response. but there's different kinds of criticism.

I once got a really long, critical comment, and i actually got excited at first because writing is very much a hobby for me, i've never purposefully tried to learn how to be better at it, english is not my first language, i'm making it up as i go along. but then the entire comment was just "i don't like this, this and this plot point, you should have done this instead" like... okay. go read a fic that has that then. what about the themes? the structure of the story? how do you think i handled what i actually wanted to do with the plot? I'd love to get constructive criticism like that from someone who knows what they're talking about. feel free to write a full mean breakdown of my work if you want to, i'd love that, as long as it's not just entirely subjective, or easily solvable by 'maybe this just isnt the story you wanted to read.' (i obviously only speak for myself, don't do that to other fanfic writers unless they asked for it)

And yeah, fanfic is different because a published author will not get a notification if you criticize their work, unlike ao3 comments. but there are mainstream creators who are online, and seemingly no one thinks twice before sending them all their criticism (it often amounts to hate, which is not at all what i'm asking for. there must be a middle ground here somewhere) directly. However, we've been able to discern between someone saying 'i hate this bc its not what i wanted' vs actual in depth reviews for a long time, and i see no reason why we shouldnt try to apply that to fanfic as well.

there's a difference between someone complaining that "there isn't enough action" in streaming site comments under the shape of water (actual thing i saw) or people sending creators death threats on twitter, vs an actual review that engages with what the story is trying to tell and criticises how it does it. the internet is blurring the lines here again, because on youtube many people's job is in fact to make long reviews that are just "here's all the reasons i didn't like this and i'm gonna frame them as objective truth". but yeah, we can't both want fanfic to be respected as real writing and refuse to accept criticism, because that's an unavoidable part of showing your writing to the world.

anyway, go watch no evil, it's really fun. And in the spirit of open criticism I'll add that I found it easier to stay focused on it when watching in 1.25 speed (not the songs though, obviously watch those as they're meant to be).

#fandom #fandom culture #fanfiction #no evil #the creator is on tumblr so i could have just not tagged it but i don't think theres need to hide #anyway if you do see this (and bear with me till the end bc wow this got long. what did i say about meandering)#i love your work and honestly few things motivate me to keep creating as it does #also i used they/them pronouns just in case bc i can't find if you have yours listed anywhere #feel free to correct me and i'll edit the post #mine.#found this in my drafts #from like half a year ago #oh actually the post has links in it so it won't show in the tags anyway #i need a queue tag #long post

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the-ghost-king · 3 years

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You know how everyone has at least one minor rrverse character with no significance but they're you're favorite? Okay Mitchell from the Aphrodite Cabin is one of mine...

Make him Italian, probably Southern Italian I like to imagine his family immigrated from the Florentine area

Trans masc

At first he thinks he's just a gnc trans guy but after he starts medical transition he realizes he's nonbinary

Uses he/they pronouns generally

But when people he's close to talk about or to him and they're using nouns to describe him they use female gendered nouns (ex: daughter, lady, girl, etc), and yes these are a part of his gender expression

Also the type of person to hyphenate their deadname with their original middle name as their new middle name

They definitely are the type of person too who just invites invasive and awkward questions (as long as they're being asked in good faith) for educational purposes, and he'll give you the most derailed answer if that's what you want

Also he might be femme but he's not weak and he will beat you up if you're just being unnecessarily transphobic

His dad is a high quality fashion designer and because of this Mitchell is kind of spoiled (okay very spoiled) about clothes, always having high thread count clothes and also personally tailored pieces

They've got some casual plans to take over their dad's business but he thinks that he wants to expand it out into a more affordable fashion market for the average person (they like affordable and sustainable fashion too! The artistic pieces are nice but it's not a long-term sustainable business model!)

He personally dresses very camp, even the cishets look at him and go "oh he's you know... _/‾"

They love a good suit, very gender to him

Him, Nico, and Chiara all getting together to talk in Italian; and have culturefests or something

Watching Italian films, and TV shows, updating Nico on modern Italian culture, etc

Bi or Pan, but doesn't really feel the need to label himself, usually just says multisexual or mspec unless someone doesn't know what that means

His attraction to women is gay, his attraction to nonbinary people is gay, his attraction to men is gay... If you can't handle that you're not their target audience

Idk how old they are but Rick's timeline is fake and so are ages then, so him and Austin are dating

Very cute couple, very casual dynamic, probably have won "cutest couple award" or something at some point

Definitely went to all their high school dances together

Their favorite color... Probably green or pink... Yellow is also a good option

Mitchell probably wears glasses for the "aesthetic" but has worse vision with them on

Would not put it past him to be a social media influencer but have a secret Twitter account for BL

He definitely reads GL too

Very into anime, jdrama, and manga, likes manhwa and kdrama and any other variation of those things

Yeah probably kpop too

They probably like stuff like "My First First Love" and "Cherry Magic!" etc

First anime was probably one of the ones everyone seems to start with so maybe "Your Lie in April" or "Ouran High school Host Club"... His all time favorite is probably "Given"

First Manga... Probably "Orange" or something unexpected like "Black Butler"

He's definitely the person who introduces Nico to anime and such... The whole thing just sort of confuses Nico but he likes a couple of them, "Death Note" and some other psychological or horror type stuff

Definitely has some talent when it comes to hair styling, lots of people at camp are always going to him for haircuts and styles so he starts charging $2 or something for it and basically has a summer job at camp

He lives in the New York area year round (honestly, he probably goes home on the weekends sometimes from summer camp and goes to camp for the weekends sometimes in the school year)

Because of how close he is to camp other people in the area will often call him to do their hair and makeup for homecoming/prom/etc and he always agrees unless he's visiting family in Italy or he's touring with his dad

Likes to chill with Austin at the infirmary, partially to hang out but also probably because that's one of the few places in camp that has air conditioning

Will is always getting after him for sitting on the counters, something about it being unsanitary but they don't think it should matter as long as they're not in any of the operating rooms

Austin likes him too much to tell him no but yeah it's not sanitary, but to Austin the choice is a sanitary counter or a happy and comfortable boyfriend... He's picking happy boyfriend

Also Mitchell is very supportive of Austin's music career and always trying to convince Austin to let them use tracks of his music on the runways at their dad's shows

But Austin always says no because he wants to "make it big on his own" which Mitchell thinks is a bit silly but if it's what Austin wants he'll support it

Mitchell is super into camp's drama, they don't do anything with the information or all the secrets they just like knowing all of it

If you ask them to keep a secret they absolutely will

But that embarrassing story about you that went around camp five years ago that you lowkey wish everyone would just stop talking about, he's the one that keeps restarting the cycle

He babbles to Nico all the time about all the ongoings of camp because Nico is also good at keeping his mouth shut, but Nico doesn't care about the drama for the same reasons though (Nico: "Hold on, back up, you said Drew knows Sadie Kane? Interesting..." Mitchell:"okay Mr. Ominous, and also yeah, I did say that, so anyhow... ")

Very artistic person in general, he can probably play the piano okay, he's no professional and no Apollo kid but he can play some songs, and they have enough practice to learn new songs on their own!!

Definitely was voted by camp to have the worst taste in music though

Says his favorite movie is probably "Bring It On" or "Heathers" of something similar, but his actual favorite film is one of those cliche silent black and white ones that's only available in French

They definitely did dance for a few years growing up, has a ballet, tap, and hip hope background to work with but he left it behind when we was 13 or so but eventually they start to get back into hip hop and keep up with various types and lessons and places through their 20s

He's always the person to start groupchats

They think they're fun but they rarely take off without prompting from him

Also often times plays matchmaker for people ("they would be a cute couple wouldn't they? I don't know though, does she like girls? I think so?")

Those are just some ideas off the top of my head, hopefully you enjoy!

#i also think it's important to mention that some of these headcanons I picked up over the years from other people's fics and works etc #so some is mine but some is not and now he has a personality!!#mitchell aphrodite cabin #mitchell #pjo

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chroma-imp · 4 years

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Everytime there’s a video talking about badly done diversity in mainstream media (aka tokenism but they don’t call it that) there is a comments section full of people talking about how diversity has gone too far and hiring ““tumblr artists” for animated shows is bad because they will just make it bad and cringy and how diversity isn’t about race or sexuality or gender but also about “““diversity of thought”““ I am so uncomfortable. I obviously can’t speak for anyone else but I don’t think??? the diversity is the issue? Like??? If a diverse show is bad, it just happens to be a bad show. That’s not on diverse creators or the diversity of the characters. There’s sooo many terrible shows that are populated almost exclusively by cishet white men but no one says the issue there is the character designs.

Also a lot of it is bad because they don’t actually employ diverse writers or sensitivity readers to make sure it’s not actually a caricature they’re writing instead of a diverse character but oh well

#wren rambles

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meggannn · 6 years

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(based on your previous ask) do you mind if I ask how you feel about lok? is there a general consensus if it's good or bad? youre really insightful and just wanted to know if there were any major issues you had with it

yeah sure, i’ll do my best. if you want a quick answer to your question, here is a link to some of my other korra posts where i say pretty much the same thing as i do here, just in fewer words. cause this post will be mostly an unhappy summary of my experience watching the show. this post will contain spoilers, and disclaimer, i am a really biased, disappointed asshole, so i’ll just admit that now.

short answer: i liked the concept of lok more than the product we got. a lot of that is because you had a physically buff brown wlw protagonist written mostly by cishet white men and, as you can imagine, it wasn’t handled great. when i think of lok now i tend to fluctuate between bittersweet nostalgia and quiet, simmering rage.

if you don’t care about the show summary, skip at the middle paragraph break down to my tldr.

so for those who don’t know, LOK was really my first “big” fandom on tumblr. when it was announced, a bunch of ATLA purists were already hating on it because 1) brown woman, 2) it was unrealistic to go from ATLA’s technology to streampunk in 70 years, and 3) it wasn’t ATLA, basically. it was my first big interest that i got to participate in as it was airing, and i was really excited about it. i defended it, i wrote meta, i liveblogged, i wrote tons of fic and spammed theories/wants before the damn show even had a release date. all that is to say, i was Invested, and i believed in it before i even saw it. people called me a bnf, i’m not sure if that’s true, but i did gain a lot my followers in my first few years on tumblr by posting korra stuff. a lot of them – hello – i think are still around today (i’m not certain how all the video games hasn’t scared them off yet)

i should say at this point that my opinion of LOK the show has been really wrapped up in the ugly stain left by the fanbase. korra the character has been the subject of tons of racist, misogynistic criticism since the moment we saw her back; when she showed up on screen as a proud young woman who fought with authority and stood up for herself, that was the nail in the coffin for her reputation. i agreed that she had a bit of growing up to do, because ATLA/LOK have always been stories about coming of age and maturing, but i disagreed strongly with this notion that she deserved to be “humbled,” which is what a lot of fans were looking for.

the overall consensus on if it’s “good” depends on who you ask. most people agree that ATLA is better overall: it was better plotted because it benefited from more writers in the room and more episodes to flesh out the world. opinions on LOK specifically range based a lot on their opinions of the K/orra/sami pairing, if they were involved in or what side they were on in any of the fandom wank, and also just complete random chance.

i’ll go more in depth into my ‘history’ with the show below, but i just wanted to mention that all the while the show was airing, korra was being hit with waves of criticism by so-called fans for basically being a confident brown woman who were calling for her to learn her place, respect her elders, etc. another common theme was fandom’s brilliant fucking idea that asami, a light-skinned feminine non-bending woman who was more polite and reserved than korra, would’ve made a better avatar. because you know why. (korra was often described as brutal, rough, unsophisticated, next to pretty, perfect asami. and asami is a fine character, to be clear, but that’s what she was – fine. nothing really stands out about her, which is a fault of the writing, because she had a lot of potential too.) so anyway all of this did sour my mood toward engaging with other fans outside my friend circle.

–

it was around maybe the middle of book 1 that i realized the writing for the show was simpler than what i was expecting – not that it was childish, which it was (because it was written for children, i understood that), but i felt like the plot meandered and the twists came out of nowhere. it felt like they were making it up as they were going, and it opened threads it didn’t answer. one of the biggest threads was the equalist revolution, which was a very sensitive topic that got jettisoned when the leader was revealed to be a fraud, and that devalued the entire movement in an instant. really disappointing, because i was looking forward to seeing that addressed. for a lot of people, this was a dealbreaker, and they started walking. i stuck with it, but loosely.

book 2 aired, focusing on the spiritual world and some really cool history. it still suffered a lot from awkward b-plots and loose threads it didn’t know how to tackle. korra lost her memory and then regained it 2 episodes later with no consequences, mako flip-flopped between korra and asami because bryke don’t know how to write teenage romances without making it a love triangle, and at some point bolin kissed a girl against her will and they didnt acknowledge that at all? i honestly don’t remember. anyway at the end of book 2, even though korra saves the day and prevents the world from descending into darkness for ten thousand years, due to events beyond her control, korra loses the spiritual connection that ties her to all of the previous avatars – aang, roku, kyoshi, wan, everyone. and people hit the fucking ceiling. “korra’s not a real avatar if she lost her connection to the old ones! that’s the entire point of the cycle! this show is bullshit, it’s not canon anymore!” (the entire point that finale demonstrated that korra’s power alone was enough to save the world and she didn’t need anyone else. but people found that ~unrealistic~ i guess). as you can imagine, being a fan of LOK is starting to get a little tiring by now.

books 3-4 is where the korra haters got to love the show again, because they were both straight-up torture porn. after everything she did saving the world, this is the arc where korra got beat down, tortured, dragged into the dirt, swallowed and spat back out. book 3 is a lot of people’s favorites because it was the first book that felt fully plotted out before it was put on air, which is why i enjoyed it too. but for me it was difficult to see a girl, whose identity revolved around being the avatar after being raised and sheltered to think it was all she was good for, effectively abandon her life and even her name by the beginning of book 4 because the events of book 3 were that traumatizing for her. somehow this was character development. we were encouraged to stick with it because we hoped korra would find herself again. and she did, sorta.

but it makes me furious that people who had quit in books 1-2 came back during 3 because they heard these books were better – aka book 3, the book that featured korra the least, and books 3-4 in which korra got her ass handed to her in some of the hardest fights vs some of the cruelest villains of the series. (nevermind that the book 3 villains suffer from the anime villain curse: they quickly went from “cool character design” to “wait, how does this rando group of villains show up with powers literally no one in the universe has ever heard before?” – questions no one ever answers)

anyway book 4 is a mish-mash of… i’m not sure. i’ve rewatched all the books but i don’t know if i’ll ever touch this one again. the culturally appropriating airbender wannabe, zaheer (a complete rando who somehow masters airbending enough to fly, which was a huge middle finger to airbending masters aang and tenzin for no reason) a guy who literally tortured korra one season before and put her in a wheelchair, is the one who the writers send korra to for her spiritual awakening that lets her save the day. not tenzin or jinora, her spiritual teachers with whom she has positive, healthy relationships – they send her back to her abuser who terrifies and degrades her a bit more before deciding to help. this was a pattern: the writers made both korra and asami face their abusers (in asami’s case, her father) for catharsis instead of gaining peace over their trauma another, healthier way because…. i’m not sure why. there is no reason why. and then there’s the guilt tripping nonsense of asami feeling as if she had to forgive her father, who tried to kill her, because he said he was sorry and sacrificed himself for her in the finale. it’s angst galore, if you like that kind of thing, which i normally do, except this is less angst and more just the writers trying to hammer in torture porn, grimdark, and poor attempts at morally gray nonsense into their finale season.

anyway at the end of her journey, korra, our buff brown woc, learns that she had to suffer to learn how to be compassionate and relate to her enemy. i’m not exaggerating, she literally says that. which is lovely.

–

tldr: i wasted a lot of emotional time and energy into this show and was extremely disappointed when some of the ending’s notes were “you had to suffer to become a better person” and “forgive your abusers/villains because aren’t we all the same in the end?”

but also on a strictly narrative level, LOK also bit off way more than it could chew both emotionally and thematically. it had an amazing premise, but it was not committed to

utilizing the steampunk genre to its best potential in the bending world (after the creativity in the rest of the worldbuilding, the LOK series finale was literally fighting a giant robot – seriously?)

giving its hero the respect and character arc she deserved. and i don’t say that because i think korra had no growing up to do in b1, she did, but she didn’t deserve for it to happen like that.

so basically i realized that a lot of the writers that made ATLA great weren’t brought back for LOK, and it showed. i realized that the LOK writers, when they listened to fans, were listening to the fans that whined the loudest, or (more likely, since they plan seasons years before we see them) they thought from the beginning that it was a good idea for korra to go through years’ worth of pain just to be spat out a humbler, “better” person

the reason i told you all that about me defending LOK in the beginning is because i need you to understand that i believed in LOK longer than i probably should’ve. i wanted it to be everything i was expecting in a diverse children’s show with an unorthodox female protaganist. but just because they had a brown wlw heroine doesn’t mean that they deserved to be praised for it when they treated her like garbage.

and korra and asami walk into a beam of light together in the last second of the show and i’m supposed to applaud the writers for their bravery or something

#megan talks about korra #Anonymous #askbox #this is a very condensed summary because otherwise i'd be here all day talking about the pro-asami anti-korra fandom wank

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witchycreek · 6 years

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10 facts about ya boi

tagged by @witch-of-the-ocean-deep (i prob won’t be tagging anyone bc there’s no one i would tag who hasn’t been tagged already yet lol)

1. i go to art school! i’m majoring in industrial design, even tho my main craft is in fiber working (knitting, crocheting, weaving, etc). i’m transferring schools next fall tho to get back to biology tho soooo 😬😬

2. on that note, biology has been my biggest interest since i was a wee lad! i love reptiles of all kinds, as well as birds, dinosaurs, and deep sea creatures! (also, fantasy bio has been such a huge love of mine. DRAGON DIAGRAMS AAAA!! pokemon genetics!!!!!!!! i LOVE)

3. i’m a ravenclaw! i thought i was a hufflepuff for the longest time until i realized that just bc i’m not good at school, doesn’t make me stupid. i also hyperfocus and obsess over things for........ hours/days/weeks at a time :p

4. my favorite number is 4!!!!

5. i love podcasts!!! my faves are mbmbam, taz, and critical role! sometimes i listen to / watch the rt podcast too but not as much recently

6. i’m kind of a picky eater! i can’t stand fish and i didn’t start liking eggs until last year

7. i loooove tattoos and piercings! i don’t have many tattoos but i literally just got a new piercing today lmao! i love love love body art and body mods 💚💚💚💚

8. i unironically love shitty drama tv. dr phil and jeremy kyle r my faves. i just !!! love them bc they make me feel so much better about my life lmaooooo

9. i love video games!!!! pokemon, animal crossing, and monster hunter are my favorite franchises, but i also play a lot of other nintendo titles and LOTS of indie games!! i especially love HORROR !!!! i love bein spooked by a game bc they always have the most interesting lore and stories!

10. i could babble on abt art history for so long i love discussing art and its history, it’s such a fascinating subject imo! history in general is super interesting as long as it’s not focused on white cishet men lol!!!!!!

#long post #bo.exe

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bikiniarmorbattledamage · 7 years

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@wolfscythephotography said

So i just want to say that, aside from a few small gripes (mainly the seeming assumption that only cishet males promote the objectification of women in games. Feel free to tell me if i misunderstood that.), i love this blog. It does address many of the issues in modern media in regards to women. While there still seems to be a small bias it is easily ignored for the most part as the information provided is useful to designers. Thank you, though, for keeping things as straight forward as possible

Glad we can be of service! I did want to clarify our “assumption that only cishet males promote the objectification of women” because we do see people trying to throw the objectification blame around as if that’s productive. We never meant to imply that only cishet males objectify women, just that design decisions that lead to things like this are usually made to appeal to the cishet male demographic, or even just to their cishet male designer. Anyone can objectify a character, but that doesn’t mean that the character was designed to be consumed in that way by certain demographics. With how many “men only” game ads we see, I think we can agree they aren’t pandering to queer women.

-Icy

And on that note!

@ikuni-shock said:

I follow quite a few women / nb people in the anime and games community who are attracted to women (I'm a straight woman), and sometimes I see them enjoying or creating art that is objectifying and makes me uncomfortable. One example is Camilla from FE Fates, and the 'damaged-clothes' pictures in FE Heroes. I see women / nb people finding these things sexy. I don't want to tell LGBTQ people what they should or shouldn't be attracted to though. Do you have any thoughts on this?

Anyone can objectify anyone else, but in western society, women are often seen as objects meant for the consumption of men. As I said above, sometimes there comes a person who claims that “well, Chris Evans is objectified too! Look at all the gifs of his butt that are on Tumblr!” and that’s not how systemic discrimination works.

There is no social structure in place that routinely supports male objectification or places queer people in the same position of power over women as it does for cishet (white) men.

That said, we don’t tell anyone, even cis straight men, who and what they should be attracted to. We just want people to be aware and critical of those things and consider the bigger picture of what that attraction means. Especially if that thing comes from mainstream media that inevitably builds the collective image of the world we live in, and not from, say, niche kinky corners of the Internet.

Hope that answers your questions!

-Icy and ~Ozzie

#commentary #ask #reply #wolfscythephotography #ikuni-shock #double standards #BikiniArmorBattleDamage #Bikini Armor Battle Damage #BABD

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