#i follow creators that talk about this

[momo-de-avis]

I am eternally amazed at how sensitive the portuguese are at the subject of colonialism. The idea that we practised some sort of soft colonialism is so ingrained in our minds people will be fighting for their lives to defend this idea (which, btw, is still a remnant of Salazar's propaganda). Brazil's colonialism is such a hyper sensitive topic you can see the vein popping on the neck of the average Zé when someone even lightly mentions accountability. I dead ass remember my 7th grade teacher telling our class that Brazil's colonialism consisted of "jesuit priests playing music, which enticed the natives" and that was it (flutes too, to be precise, for some fucking reason) and everyone has just blindly believed this and refused to accept the actual horrible history we're a part of. Portuguese people will be fighting for their lives on technicalities. Say "The portuguese invented the slave trade" and Salvador over there will jump from under the table to explain that akshually african people were the ones to sell their own people as slaves!!! And askhually, slavery goes back for centuries!! You know what they mean, you know what needs to be discussed here, but my boy Salvador is on a mission. He doesn't even care that he's regurgitating fascist propaganda that was entirely built on ahistorical facts that specifically sought to promote colonialism and imperialism as a progressive idea, no, none of that matters. It matters that we are miserable people who will perpetually long for the past, look back on something utterly atrocious and willingly ignore the brutality of it, because we cannot come to terms with the fact that today we live in a country that's ripe with corruption, unlivable wages and high cost of living; we cannot come to terms with the fact that we did all this colonialism just to be a poor fucking country that's being exploited by digital nomads; in fact, we just cannot tolerate the idea that we're just a summer resort for americans and brits and have absolutely no economical relevance in the world, not even cultural, but hey, cultural meaning can be invented. So we look back, we wail and cry and look back at these centuries when we pillaged, enslaved and destroyed because at least we meant something, because we once divided the world in two with Spain, that's how big our balls were once, and because once people knew who we were, they our name beyond the one football player. We purposefully disregard the horrid shit. We coast through life without ever, ever acknowledging it ever existed. We're taught in school colonialism was soft core at best, tell some bullshit about some priests with flutes and be done with it, and then when someone finally confronts us for our history, on god, we'll be fighting with everything we have to prove to you that our colonialism was just fine, and we, white men of the 16th century, showed these countries the meaning of civilisation! Orgulhosamente sós, am i right bitches

#i love my country #but i just cannot identify with the portuguese people #I'm fed up with this shit #and i feel i have a responsibility as a tour guide #i dont actually talk about colonialism bc there's no time #we don't even talk about the discoveries #well okay we di briefly but it's because of the codfish actually #but if someone asks I'll answer #and i don't hold back #this is just so fucking stupid #i follow creators that talk about this #and I'll be watching an educational video and learning #and you open the comments #and there's santiago thinking he is a modern day afonso henriques #defending colonialism like this was 16th century #hell there's people out there who are proud of the fact that columbus married a PT woman #and was here before he went to isabella #my guy John II was genuinely a harsh even cruel man #and he even he told Columbus to pound sand!!!!! why do you want to claim him tf!!!!! #sorry for the rqnt #rant

[daftpatience]

this post reminded me of this ~scenario~ that happens to me and other fat folks quite often! thin folks that are our friends, support fat folks, but haven’t quite had the time or chance or willingness to unlearn fatphobic ideas in relation to themselves. we know you still think of fatness as inherently unhealthy and unattractive, work on it ♥

#any weirdos are getting blocked asap #and uhh if you come asking for advice or how to unlearn it idk man follow fat creators #listen to fat people talk about their experiences #follow fat instagram models and allow yourself to find them attractive #its fun i promise #youll grow i promise #finding beauty in a wider range of body types has only ever done my brain good #you learn to love yourself through loving others #cw weight #cw fatphobia

[ganondoodle]

i know im an overemotional, overreactive pathetic little wimp about my hyperfixation, and i dont even mean that derogatory, i think its both my best AND worst quality, im well aware of it, especially in moments when im already stressed i have a hard time to get my brain back into control, im so well aware of it that i HAVE been managing to learn how to deal with it actually which is why, instead of letting myself spiral any further, i went to bed to let my brain calm down

and it worked!

i still hate the live action zelda thing, i still think it WILL be bad, and it will still negatively affect how i feel about the franchise as a whole, i am not spiraling out of control about it though, which i think is a win in my book, some people hate that i say my opinion at all though, more on twitter than here so hey, im grateful to not be called pathetic to my face bc i said something someone might decry as too 'weird'

#ganondoodles talks #zelda #yes this is about the live action zelda announcement #i hate it and it will be bad and yes its threatening my love for the franchise #as i said many tiems before all my previous hyperfixations died abruptly bc it went into a direction i didnt like #which probably plays into why i react so strongly to it #i dont WANT do lose this #any bad entry in a series i love will affect how i feel about it as whole #i dont think that is a strange concept #and “simply ignore it” isnt as eeasy as it may sound bc people dont tag their shit properly #well if its so easy to ignore anythign you dont like #why are you being an ass to me bc i said soemthing you didnt like #simply ignore it #the internet loves to pretend to love weird people but when someone is actually a little weird they point their fingers and throw stones #and i dont even think im being all that weird about it #dont want to know what weirder people with big followings go through #what i deal with is absolutely miniscule compared to big creators #i also know that

[meggie-moo]

he was my favorite in middle school

#I POSTED THIS ON THE WRONG ACCOUNT LMAOOOOO #if you saw this on my main no you didn’t #anyways i finally have time to draw and so i was planning on making art #this will probably be my only art of hazbin hotel though if not done through requests because i think the creator is kinda a weirdo 😭😭 #also i don’t want to support amazon <3 so like if you do watch it i recommend pirating lol #anyways i do like the show though :) and i’ve been following the series for a really long time!! so i’m down to talk about it lol #meg’s incoherent thoughts #meg’s more coherent drawings #hazbin hotel #hazbin art #hazbin angel dust #<- i cant type his normal name or else it will get censored because of drugs lol #fanart #hazbin hotel angel dust

[seasaltmemories]

I was wondering why I tend to more enjoy shoujo that predate the 2000s than contemporary stuff and at first thought it was history leaving the stronger works of past decades easier to find, but turns out there could be more than bias at play

Turns out there has been a censorship law since 2006 specifically targeting shoujo manga around sexuality. And suddenly the fact that shounen can get away with some much more content-wise than shoujo suddenly makes sense

#seasalt talks #seriously it clicked together so many puzzle pieces for me and just made me see red #like shounen can have panty shot and tiddies galore but it is shoujo that goes too far??? #like I am personally strongly anti-censorship but even if you dislike the idea of 'young girls' reading about sex #but like iconic shoujo works like Dear Brother or Nana or Mars are known for covering these topics #or like fucking Utena though I'm mostly familiar with the anime #but I noticed that the original manga was published in shoujo while the anniversary one was published in a josei manga #granted this could be to follow the audience who grew up with the original that's fairly normal #but still i can only imagine what sort of chilling effect this could have had on shoujo creators

[blueskittlesart]

have you ever watch jacob gellers "every zelda is the darkest zelda?"

people constantly recommend video essays and zelda fan content in general to me like this and like. genuinely i understand where you're coming from and i appreciate the thought but. well. i have this thing about zelda content. when you think about these games as much as i do there comes a point where like, almost anything that can be said about these games is something ive already thought about (and i know that sounds narcissistic and like i think im better than other content creators and i PROMISE that's not that. it's just that ive spent like every waking moment since i was 11 doing this. so like genuinely almost anything you can bring up about these games i have spent some time thinking about) and i've also been exposed to so many bad-faith interpretations of these games that at this point i'd rather avoid analysis than end up getting angry at a stranger online. another piece to it is that i don't really enjoy watching video essays on topics i'm already super knowledgeable about--i feel like video essays function better as dumps of information to people who WOULDN'T otherwise have thought about the topic than facilitators of discourse between people who DO care a lot about the topic already. a video essay isn't a conversation-starter, it's a presentation, and presentations are BORING when you already know everything that the presenter is saying. I much prefer talking to people about mine & others' analysis via tumblr like this, because there's a bit more room for discourse and explanation & bad-faith interpretations are less easy to get caught up in!

so tldr i haven't watched it and i probably won't simply because video essays arent my preferred method of engaging with this topic lol. i'm sure it probably makes some good points tho

#i know LOTS of people ask me about these things bc theyre curious on my opinions #i got a lot of people asking how i felt about the thesis of oot a masterclass in subtext for example #but i'd rather not watch & critique video essays for two reasons. the first is one ive mentioned in the past but i have had some issues #with people siccing me on creators who they feel like are misinterpreting the source. sometimes without my knowledge #and im conscious of the fact that i have a large following and i never want to be the reason someone gets dogpiled on. #so i try to stay away from directly critiquing someone else's analysis/opinions unless they specifically ask for it from me #the second reason is like. a self-preservation thing. as someone who has dedicated a good portion of their life to these games #i don't like seeing them egregiously misinterpreted. and it's hard sometimes for me to hold my tongue when i see someone talking about them #in a way that i perceive as bad-faith or incorrect. but i recognize that video essays aren't a space for arguments or discourse #and the LAST thing i want to do is end up being the unsolicited 'well actually' guy in someone else's comments #so i try to stay away from analysis unless my opinion is directly asked for by another creator for that reason. i hope yall understand lol! #asks

[familyofpaladins]

btw the "ras at shadow dojo" is a running joke by now bc lego has uploaded the SAME DAMN CLIP 3 times in a row like its new content (first time was at least 2 weeks ago) when they very well know we´re hoping for a teaser or something hsjfdhjfhdgh <- if you wanted context on my silly post

we (ninjago fandom) are going insane in here btw; i think we even got to trending one of these past days bc of that lmaoo

LOL thank you for the context I was wondering what that was about

RIP the ninjago fandom, hope you get actual news soon

#Pfdkdhslndks that's really funny. But RIP to you guys #I'm not actively going in the monkie kid tag #But I know from people I follow that there was a while the fandom was convinced the new season was dropping soon #That one of the show creators got on twitter like ???? What are yall talking about 'drop dates' ?? #Lol #Ninjago #Sheo <3

[maddymoreau]

( •̩̩̩́ ᴗ •̩̩̩̀ ) I usually only recommend Visual Novels but if you’re looking for an incredible Horror Game I highly encourage you to play Broken Through!!!

#I watched my favorite Youtuber Berleezy play it expecting just a typical horror game _(:ì」∠)_ ♡ but oh wow . . . #I really wish I had played it myself instead because I know for a fact I would’ve been an sobbing mess by the end. #Don’t leave a lot of horror games feeling this warm and fuzzy yet emotional. #THE ENDING WAS SO AMAZING!!!! #｡°(°.◜ᯅ◝°)°｡ Can’t stop listening to it’s soundtrack WHY IS THERE LITERALLY NO ONE TALKING ABOUT THIS GAME!!! #The creator only has like 77 followers on Twitter THAT’S A CRIME!!!! #Broken Through #Indie Game #Horror Game #Horror #Itchio #itch.io #Broken Through Game #Indie Horror Game #MaddyMoreauPost

[garoujo]

TO ANY WRITERS WHO HAVE RECIEVED AN ANON IN THEIR ASKS TALKING ABOUT ME.

i wanted to actually post one final time about this since i’m feeling a lot better, unfortunately this anon just happened to crop up at a bad time.

as a lot of my moots already know, there’s been an anon on my blog and forcing themselves into other peoples safe spaces to spread rumours about me. not only are these rumours absolutely not true, but i also want to apologise to anyone who has been made uncomfortable by those allegations and has been roped into this drama.

this anon in particular has been following me on this app for around a year and a half. one of the points they have made is that i apparently was “chased off of my last blog” which again, is not true. the reason i left / deactivated my last blog was due to being one of the blogs who was doxxed in the hq doxxing discourse last year, that was the only reason because this same anon, was posting my personal information aswell as my ‘nudes’ and face reveals into my moots inboxes.

before the doxxing had taken place, i had 2 hate blogs made around that time [which again i believe to be the same anon / person who doxxed me considering they were made consecutively and seemed to pop up whenever i stopped answering their asks] one of which had began because they felt i wasn’t being inclusive with skin tone in my visuals, which is valid and completely understandable.

when i had received the first ask about it, i made a post about how i wouldn’t be doing anymore [n]sfw visuals until i was able to properly represent everyone and make them feel included, that’s always been the forefront of my blog and i want everyone to be able to enjoy my work. this was at around 7am before i left for work, i never heard again from that anon before my shift. [im not too sure if the anon who raised the issue first was the same one who then went on to make the blogs or if they simply used the ask for their own game, considering they’d already been harassing me in my asks for months]

since i couldn’t check my phone during work i then came back into tumblr after my shift to the anon, who now had a blog, doing the exact same thing as they’re doing now — they said i hadn’t been answering their asks so they took it to dash to tell people that i didn’t care and that i had no intention of changing [not true considering i had addressed it in my post prior to my shift] i then showed screenshots showing that i was at work with timestamps to when their asks were sent compared to when my shift started, but i still apologised and took accountability for it ever being an issue in the first place.

that blog was then deactivated suddenly, before another one came around 2 days later with the same issue, doing the exact same thing — forcing themselves into other people’s safe spaces to spread rumours about me. that blog deactivated and the next day, my personal details, full name + ‘nudes’ were in my moots asks, the blog who ended up exposing these people then was in my asks to offer me help and i deactivated for my own safety.

that is the reason i deactivated, it wasn’t to “start over” or “rebrand” like they’re claiming because i’ve always been emmie on my nsfw blogs, my aesthetic has remained the same as has my writing style. this anon has continued to harass me for almost two years and has been on every blog i have ever had, even before i came to this blog — i wrote tokyo rev sfw hcs for around a month, but they found me on that blog also.

again i apologise for anyone who’s been unfortunate enough to have this anon in their asks, my blog being inclusive is always my top priority when writing and putting out content and will remain one of the most important things to me while i’m here. so i apologise about issues like these being forced into spaces, i won’t be commenting on this again as i’ve already made around 4 posts concerning this anon before, but if anyone has any questions feel free to come into my dm’s.

— emmie. <3

#cw discourse #i hate to give them the time of day but i know they’re not gonna leave anyway #considering they still regularly talk about my ig + send my real name and details into peoples asks #again the ask and issue is completely VALID AND JUSTIFIED #i apologise if anyone had felt like they were excluded in the visuals i had made because again my priorities will always lie w being— #inclusive in everything i create #but i also feel like the anon who has been harassing me simply used the opportunity for their own benefit #also when the first blog got created a lot of people were pointing out how the url they’d used #which consisted of my blog url followed by ‘uwu’ was the exact same url used by blogs made for other creators before they were doxxed

[mintleafkitty72]

Omigosh you are so kind. I was not expecting to check my notifications and see the nicest reblogs ever hhgshgsgfg. You are a wonderful person and I am so glad I somehow managed to meet you on here.

Aww, thank you!! 🥹 have you met yourself tho?? You are literally so nice and friendly, I can't thank you enough for everything you've done for me and helped me with (especially with socializing lmao, but we don't talk about that 😅). Everyone who knows you is very lucky.

I genuinely really appreciate you and am so so so SO HAPPY that I was able to meet you on here as well!! 😁😁

Also, I was wondering if it would be okay if I dm'ed you if that's alright with you? I totally understand if you would prefer not to, I enjoy talking to you through asks and tags too 😊

Sending hugs (if that's okay with you) and wishes for a good night/day to be granted to you!!

#im sorry if this somehow comes off as rude #but #I literally didn't know how to respond #I don't know how to receive compliments because i genuinely appreciate them #But I am so worried about my response sounding insincere and I want to make sure the other person knows how much I appreciate them #and how they are such awesome individuals #this goes for anyone who talks to me #I'm sure this goes for any creator but i literally appreciate any like follow comment ask and anything of the sort #i love my overthinking brain /s

[ronithesnail]

Girl help why is top/bottom discourse so big on twitter rn holy shit

#imean- #personally i love top aziraphale #but like bottom is also cool like whats the big deal?? #i saw that thing from that chinese fan and imean i see a lot of their points and thats why that kind if fancontent isnt really my favorite #and i get what their trying to say and i think with things like this its interesting to see how cultural influences+social norms play into i #but like #its not that big of a deallll #its not the moral sin you think it is its just a different kind of content just calm down please #and now everyones all worked up about and iguess by even writing my thoughts here im contributing to that but… man… #i literally follow some of the chinese bottom!az x top!crowley creators theyre talking about #i know exactly what they mean when they’re complaining about that stuff i notice it too #but its not a bad thing? like yeah its not my favorite personally but like?? its just fanart??? and to some people its their favorite thing #this isnt a moral issue who do you think you are #good omens #aziracrow #ineffable husbands #aziraphale #crowley #aziraphale x crowley #crowley x aziraphale

[autistickaitovocaloid]

Thanks for telling me something I could probably already tell could you like. Do something about it maybe?

Edit: This is a dashboard unfucker only thing so like. Obviously I don't expect the script author to fix tumblr's horrid bot problem so I retract my statement. I went into this in the tags before I knew this so read those for clarification.

#art talks about stuff #i'm assuming this is something staff's implimented. there's a dashboard unfucker option for it #like i don't think this is what people meant when they asked you to deal with bots #if this is just a dashboard unfucker thing that's fine the creator of the script can't magically kill every bot obviously #but based on the follows you banner i think this is staff's doing #id in alt text

[eve-pie]

TW?

Gore/ disturbing imagery?

At least I guess this counts I'm not taking chances

.

.

.

Wake up

Wake up

Wake up!!!

sleep? was I sleep...was that seriously a dream...no that was too real way to real... it felt too real

Frantically frazzled is definitely a way to describe Patches poor thing barely gets any sleep Because of these dreams... dream's? No no not dreams their to real to be dreams

She has to fake a smile while shaking their hands otherwise they might catch on by how scared she really is what do they want form me her misery needs company

Why does this have to happen to me why am I seeing this now....I need a therapist maybe dream is open... Wait! I can't just tell her about my dreams what if she tells everyone...fuck

The rainbow neighborhood au belongs to a cool moot of mine @//the-rainbow-neighborhood

Yes that's their account name follow them!

But Patches bashful belongs to me!!

#i absolutely not only adore the au BUT THE SONG IS FIRE!!! #OH MY GOD I LOVE THE SONG #you guys need to listen to the rainbow neighborhood by rockit gaming #and also while we talk about welcome home songs LISTEN TO UNDER THE WOOL #HOLY SHIT I LOVE THAT SONG #anywho I'm rambling but i just love these songs so much!!! and I patches design for this au #and TRN Creator whom I'ma call Ace has worked hard for this au them and their friends #i suggest that you follow them wnd reblog their post 10/10 would listen to the lore all day! #but that's all i have to say don't forget to wave up high! #welcome home puppet show #the rainbow neighborhood #welcome home oc #patches bashful #welcome home au #oc art #tw gore #tw disturbing imagery? #welcome home

[miss-wizard]

Going after someone on anon doesn’t prove a point it’s actually just harassment. Maybe if you pulled your head out of your fav creator’s ass for two fucking seconds you’d see some fucking sense and that they’re a bully.

??? what

#what is this talking about #i have literally never been in the situation being described #and i definitely dont follow any ''creators''

[linalilia]

I also want to know why it has an arrow and gradient. Maybe it means trending? But really I have no clue.

NO I'M SO CONFUSED like i was like "yeah maybe it's just because it's popular rn let me check the other ones" and i went to check the tags for other games/media and. if that's the case ARE YOU TELLING ME THAT TWST IS MORE POPULAR THAN GENSHIN RN?? I WON'T BELIEVE YOU

#it's probably a good thing because we're trying to reblog more of twst creators' works rn #but i still doubt that's the case because again hsr and genshin tags don't look like that rn and i'm sure they're more popular #i'm not sure about the other tags i follow like pjsk but i don't think they have that arrow and gradient? #i'm not even gonna talk about milgram the tumblr fandom is tiny #lina's ask box time! #lina's friends! #friend: taruchi! 🌊

[marypsue]

Ahh also as an addendum to my previous ask about the age swap (which I might’ve accidentally labeled as the body swap fic due to the foibles of being awake unexpectedly early ), I was curious what your criticisms are regarding Robin and Will’s treatments by the Duffers? I know you’ve alluded to being bothered by both but I’d be curious to hear more ( if you have the time/hankering!)

Hooboy. Okay. Buckle in. 

Obviously this is going to be a combination of actual literary analysis and Big Feelings That I Have, so like, please don’t take this as any kind of moral dictum on what to or not to watch, or how to or how not to interpret what you watch. Also, a lot of what makes me uneasy and unhappy about how canon deliberately handles queerness (as opposed to when it does queer things apparently by accident, which as you may have noticed, I have considerable amounts of fun with) has to do with behind-the-scenes context I’ve read about, so there’s a certain degree of Telephone involved. And I’m still only halfway through season four. There’s just so fucking much of it. 

With all that said. 

The behind-the-scenes context I’m most specifically concerned with are the season-one pitch bible(? I think that’s what it’s called) (which, it should be noted, ended up diverging in some quite significant ways from what ended up in the show) where the Duffers first raised the possibility that Will might be gay, and the anecdote that Joe Keery and Maya Hawke were the ones who decided Robin should be queer and had to really push for it and wrote and choreographed that scene in the bathroom. Put the two together, and it tells you that the Duffers planned that there would be One (potentially) Gay Character in their show. 

And that character was the one they spent an entire season directing violent, vicious, eventually outright murderous homophobic hatred at through the mouthpiece of a couple of bullies. You can say what you want about revenge narratives and those characters ultimately getting their comeuppance, but for Me Personally, it sucks all the fun and escapism out of season one to watch it thinking that those bullies only got punished when they aimed that vitriol at someone to whom it didn’t literally apply. Also I still have to sit through however many episodes of that vicious homophobia onscreen regardless, so, like, that’s a walk in the park anyway. /sarcasm 

And then there’s that whole bad business in season three, where it’s never been quite clear to me if we’re supposed to see Mike as having been in any way in the wrong. Kind of scuppers the argument, to me, that we’re supposed to be on Will’s side. And season four, which so far has had Will tagging along after people who are supposed to be his best friends but mostly don’t seem to give a single damn about him, doing absolutely nothing but looking morose and sullen and tragic and *coughcough* Artistic, and causing Problems for the nice straight couple. 

(Tangential to the point I’m coming to, but also, my son deserves better than to be reduced to a soggy cardboard standee with ‘GAY’ scrawled across it in magic marker the way season four seems to be angling toward. All the Byers, but especially the Byers boys, deserve better than season four seems interested in giving them. But I digress.) 

Also. I love Robin. If you follow me, you probably know that. I’m a hardcore, ride-or-die Robin girl. But. With Robin, from what I’ve heard of the context, the Duffers never intended for her to be queer. They wrote a girl who was smart and funny and sharp and talented and a little bit mean and a little bit insecure and a little bit weird but in an interesting, endearing way - as a love interest for Steve. 

And then, as soon as season four rolled around, once they’d been pushed into making her canonically, on-screen queer (in a beautiful, tender, heartfelt, true-feeling scene that they didn’t fucking write), suddenly she’s had a complete personality transplant. Suddenly, she’s an awkward, bumbling, annoying loser who’s only funny when she’s the butt of the joke, who’s no good at anything and who nobody really likes except maybe for Steve, an outcast even amongst the freaks. When she does do something smart or competent, everyone around her reacts with shock, like it’s wildly out of character instead of how her character was originally written. One of these versions of Robin was written with ‘gay person’ in mind, and it unfortunately wasn’t the one we were obviously supposed to like. 

In both cases, I get the feeling that the storytelling issues stem from this like...assumption that queerness equals isolation and misery and tragedy, and that there’s nothing to queerness outside of that. That there’s something inherent to queerness, something pitiable but repulsive, that causes the isolation and misery and tragedy (not that those things are imposed from outside, by, say, violent homophobia). That it would be absurd to imagine that queerness could ever be joyful, or playful, or that someone might ever, given the chance to choose, not choose to be straight instead. Or that there could be enormous friendship and community and heart and pride in queerness, or even that queer people might find friendship and community and strength in each other. Or even fucking talk to each other, ever. 

Which is especially infuriating, because the whole central theme of season one (besides surface appearances being deceiving) is that community and care between people who are very different but discover they have more in common than there is that separates them is what saves the day! That love comes in all kinds of forms, and they’re all important, and that love can be stronger than fear! 

But apparently, according to the Duffers, queer love doesn’t count and queer community doesn’t exist. It’s just isolation, misery, and tragedy, and I guess we the watchers are supposed to sit outside of it and pity Them for it (and be quietly, sneakily, a little bit nastily grateful that it’s not happening to Us). Because of course nobody watching the show is queer. Of course. This show is made for normal people. 

It’s part of the same attitude I’ve also seen play out with the Duffers’ inability to just let a white dude be bad. Oh, they want to talk a big game about how they’re on the side of the freaks, and bullies are bad, and everybody should be respected and appreciated for who they are. But when it cuts down to the bone, when applying that precept to a girl or a person of colour or a queer person makes a straight white guy come off as a monster, they keep trying to dodge it. 

The more antagonists they try desperately to rehab without ever acknowledging why they were antagonists in the first place, the more it starts to look like they simply don’t really believe that the people those antagonists hurt really matter. That, somewhere deep down where the assumptions that are so baked in you don’t even realise they’re assumptions live, they don’t really believe that girls, or Black kids, or queer people are as fundamentally human and deserving of respect and compassion as their beloved awful straight white men are. That what they really think about bullies is that bullies are bad because the bullies picked on them, instead of the kinds of people who deserved it.

(See also: that time a twelve- or thirteen-year-old Sadie Sink didn’t want to have to do a kiss in the Snow Ball scene, so the Duffers, who had just been joking about having her do it, actually made her do it. For multiple takes. Specifically because she didn’t want to. And then later related that anecdote to the press. Because they thought it was funny.)

Anyway. Personally, I’d prefer canon just never say anything definitive on the matter of Will’s sexuality and stop trying to push the narrative in that direction, so I don’t have to watch the Duffers spectacularly fumble yet another attempt at Writing About Marginalised Groups. 

(Also, this is absolutely not me saying Watch A Different Show - I’m here writing fanfic for this stupid show, it’d be pretty fucking rich of me to try to tell people to stop watching it. But I’d really love for many of its fans to get some more exposure to less-mainstream, more deliberately queer literature and film, so y’all can see what it really feels like to be seen and acknowledged and loved by a story, on purpose. I get it! I do! I too have wanted very badly to feel like something I loved, loved me back. 

But you don’t have to content yourselves with scraps. And you definitely don’t have to be so concerned with those scraps that you blame your friends, cousins, siblings, brothers in arms for ‘stealing’ some kind of ‘representation’ from you by asking to be seen and acknowledged and loved as well. The bastards who’ve been withholding that recognition from all of us would love nothing more than to watch with amusement, gorging themselves on a banquet, while we tear each other apart over a couple of discarded bones. Don’t give them the satisfaction. We don’t have to be isolated, pitiable, pathetic, miserable tragedies. Put the hollow promises of exclusionism and respectability down. There is queer art and literature and film and community and joy and love in abundance that you don’t have to beg anyone for, and you are invited to participate. This is me inviting you to participate. 

And cordially inviting the Duffers to meet me in the woods behind the 7-Eleven.)

...

tl;dr the way the Duffers treat queerness when they do it on purpose feels like a combination of othering, contempt, and misery porn, and I hate it. And that, in a nutshell, is the rant I’ve been sitting on for the last two-and-a-bit years. I’m getting down off the cafeteria table now. 

#chatter #stranger things #i have been first uneasy and then very fucking angry about all of this for Quite A While Now #but robin's personality transplant broke open the fucking dam #it's worse because they did such! a good job! with seasons one and two! #obviously Not Perfect but also painfully obviously Better Than This #and then I guess they'd made enough money for netflix that they stopped having creative reins and restrictions placed on them #and it all went to shit #just total anne rice/stephen king editor syndrome #anyway I won't be following anything they do after this bc i'm pretty sure I like the show in spite of its creators instead of because of th #*them #they also aren't applying season one's theme of appearances being deceiving when it comes to queer people! #they keep saying every shitty shallow queer stereotype is true! #(the tragic gay martyr #slash the obsessive possessive friend-borderline-stalker) #(the unfuckable lesbian) #(the predatory gay villain - I didn't talk about closeting and s2 Billy Hargrove bc hoo boy that's a can of worms #but I do think they took that angle with him on purpose #especially since his 'redemption arc' goes hand in hand with suddenly switching his focus from steve to karen #and he stands to gain nothing by manipulating karen in s3 so it's pretty obviously a cheap dodge #so the duffers can go 'what? no he wasn't sneeringly derogatory toward teenage girls bc he was so deep in the closet he could see narnia' #'nooooooooo he just...only likes ~mature women~' #which. yes boys jennifer coolidge was hot in american pie but please grow up.) #anyway yes that loss of sight of that central theme is exactly how we got the russians in season three #and we all know how much that fucking sucked #i do hope having the word 'fuck' in the tags still hides a post from search