#in order to draw a queer audience

[lokiiied]

thinking about loki’s 400 year long stare at mobius when he says, “it’s about who”

and then how he looks at sylvie and says, “i can rewrite the story” and how she has her own story - without romance. how she told him to “write his own story” and how he’s now canonically god of stories/storytelling.

thinking about how if they make lokius canon, marvel’s first major canonically queer character will have “rewritten” the cishet centred narrative that a major audience is expecting and just how powerful that would be.

because, as much as i like the bisexual “confirmation” scene - it was very easy to look over if you’re a homophobic viewer or don’t know what bisexuality is. because they never had either of them say the words, “i am bisexual”. that and how they “dealt” with loki’s genderfluidity.

but a major gay couple?? with the healthiest and most intimate relationship i’ve EVER seen marvel write?? that would not be so easy to ignore. especially when you go back and see that it’s been there the whole time. if you knew what to look for. which, is honestly probably the queer vision in a nutshell. because cishets will be blind to anything if they see a man + woman option. they need “undeniable” proof. marvel knows that & it’s why they’ve gotten away with this. why they’re still “safe” for most of their anti-queer audience.

but just imagine, if loki fixes all this, get his friends back, and shows mobius know how he really feels and basically says “this has been the love story the whole time” THAT will be his legacy. in all the glorious i’m a god and i’ve been bad and i’m good and i’m queer and i have inherent worth just like everybody else and i don’t give a fuck loki fashion. and i hope to gods we get to see that.

that’s the story i want to see.

because if they turn around and give us sylki — (and in doing so say here’s a perfect example of a healthy gay relationship but instead we’re gonna give you a toxic genderbent selfcest romance) regardless of the fact we know they are both queer — that is not what a homophobic audience is going to see. they’re going to be satisfied that they didn’t see two men kissing on their screen and call it another win. and marvel would be continuing to encourage the idea that us queer fans are delusional - despite the clearly intentional writing.

not to mention the exhausting, intrinsically homophobic harassment & clowning lokius shippers have endured would actually not be for nothing if lokius were canon and marvel were to decide btw queer people are real and so are their stories and so is their love.

if the show about the genderfluid bisexual god of stories can’t accomplish that after all this character development then. idk.

#like even if you ship sylki you have to understand this #marvel has one of the largest fanbases in the world #and they have queerbaited to the max with this show #in order to draw a queer audience #so yeah. if they make sylki canon OF COURSE it’s homophobic & sexist #and we have every right to be mad about it #marvel are fucking cowards all they care about is money #anyways #lokius endgame #lol #lokius #loki #loki season 2 #loki spoilers #marvel

[letmetellyouaboutmyfeels]

why are people so against oliver and ryan talking about buddie, don't we want this, don't we want buddie to be canon? i'm sorry are we rooting for buck to end up with tommy or something, like I don't understand why so many people are saying stop asking them about buddie?

If we want Buddie then shouldn't we be asking buddie questions? I mean I'm so sorry but I'm just very confused, shouldn't we be happy that buddie is getting this much press and love? Why are we against it?

Okay, this is going to be a long one.

There are a few reasons why people are concerned about publications teasing Buddie happening and using the ship name and asking Oliver and Ryan about the ship. I'll try to be as concise as possible.

I would like to note, I'm not going to answer a bunch of questions about this. Other people have answered similar questions plenty of times, if you take a bit to look around 911blr. I'm sure @catdadeddie has gone into this a few times.

However, I understand that we are getting a lot of new fans this season, and so I want to try and explain comprehensively for those who haven't been around. I hope this covers everything.

Whenever a ship is between two people of the same gender as opposed to two people of the opposite gender (I know, I know, but we can't get into the gender spectrum right now just play along with me), everyone involved has to be very, very careful when it comes to talking about that ship ahead of said ship going canon.

It is very easy to slip into something called "queerbaiting." I'm assuming that you and most people online and in fandom by now have heard of this term but just in case: queerbaiting is when a show acts like a queer ship might happen in marketing and promotion in order to draw in a queer audience.

Historically, this was done by having a main character played by a woman have a romantic thing with another woman (flirting, even kissing!) who was a guest star, hinting at the main character's bisexuality/queerness, only for that guest star to never come back and for the show to act like it had never happened. This was done during something called, IIRC, "sweeps week" which was basically an important week for TV viewer ratings in the 90s. It was a way to boost your numbers by drawing in queer viewers with the promise of actual queer rep that then wasn't realized. It's a marketing tactic.

Nowadays the nature of queerbaiting has changed a bit. It's an overused term that frankly people love to (mis)use whenever a ship of theirs doesn't go canon and a show dares to do things like having two people (like say Ryan and Oliver) who play the two halves of the ship do an interview together (whether you ship Buddie or not, they are close friends, and it makes sense that they'd do a few interviews together - that is not queerbaiting). A good example of real queerbaiting is Rizzoli & Isles which, among other things, took out billboards and magazine spreads showing the characters (two women) in suggestively sexual and romantic positions and with slogans hinting that the two had more than just friendship together, then never, ever delivered on it and in fact laughed at the idea of the characters being gay for each other.

(I WAS THERE, GANDALF!!!)

Because of this unfortunate treatment of queer audiences and the (historic) dearth of actual queer characters and queer ships going canon (it's getting better but still), networks, showrunners, and so on have to be very careful when, say, they want to make a queer ship canon.

Look at how ABC handled Chenford, a popular ship in their show The Rookie. Chenford was not a planned ship - the fans adored the chemistry between the two characters (Lucy Chen and Tim Bradford), the writers liked the idea and decided to lean into it, ABC gave the go-ahead, and the ship officially got together and went canon last season. ABC heavily promoted Chenford and the ship and made a lot of jokes about it in the last couple of seasons leading into the ship going canon, using the ship heavily in their marketing.

ABC cannot necessarily do that with Buddie, because even if Buddie is going canon, until that happens, they could get accused of queerbaiting. There's a much bigger minefield to navigate because of this historic misuse of queer audiences and queer characters.

So whenever journalists and publications use a popular non-canonical queer ship name for clicks and fandom interest, if that ship doesn't immediately go canon or if the network/showrunner/etc doesn't say "yeah they're totally gonna kiss! with tongue!" people accuse the show of queerbaiting. This is unfair to the show for two reasons: one, the network is not going to bother sending "shut the fuck up" letters to every single damn publication out there for using a ship name in their headline and talking about a ship - they'll be accused of homophobia and it draws even MORE attention to the issue re: the Barbra Streisand effect (look it up); and two, the people involved in the show are NOT going to spoil the anticipation and surprise by admitting ANY ship is going to go canon before it does.

This is simple marketing - the movie trailer doesn't (or shouldn't, anyway) show you the ending of the movie or everything that happens in it. TV shows want you to tune in every week and speculate and guess. They're not gonna spoil a ship ahead of time.

This means that when journalists and articles pull this shit, they're putting the showrunner, the writers, the actors doing interviews, and the network in a bad situation that they can't really do anything about. Not without causing more mess.

So that's reason number one why a lot of us are annoyed: by yelling about Buddie, these articles and journalists are setting the cast and crew we love up to get yelled at for queerbaiting if Buddie doesn't immediately happen, and there's nothing the cast and crew can do about it, and it's all so the journalists and articles can use us, the fandom, for clicks. So we're also kinda getting used here, and it doesn't feel great.

The second reason we're annoyed about Buddie questions is that it's being asked of the actors who, nine times out of ten, have ZERO CONTROL OVER THE STORYLINES.

Now, there are exceptions. Jennifer Love Hewitt, who plays Maddie, has pushed back on a couple storylines that were given to her and has therefore had a strong hand in shaping Maddie's character. One infamous (in a positive way) example is that Maddie and Eddie were supposed to be an endgame couple. JLH, however, immediately loved the character of Chimney and clicked with Chim's actor Kenneth Choi, so she asked if Maddie could get with Chim instead, feeling he'd be a better fit for her character. And lo, both the beautiful ship Madney and the insanity that is Buddie shipping was born because Buck ended up stepping into that co-parenting-Chris role that Maddie obviously would've originally filled.

However, it should be noted that JLH was an established star before coming onto 9-1-1, and her husband is friends with Tim the showrunner. I would argue that the only other two actors who have any power on their storylines are Peter and Angela, the latter because she can do whatever she wants forever, and the former because (like Angela) he is an executive producer on the show.

It's not that actors never ever get to have a say ever, but the writers, showrunner, and network have much more power. They create the storylines, they make the decisions. Not actors. So when the actors are repeatedly asked about a ship, they're put in an awkward position where they might not even know the full storyline for their character that season and now they need to answer in a way that doesn't reveal any information they do know, but also doesn't insult shippers or dash their hopes. This is a double minefield for queer ships because, again: historic insults to queer fans and characters, nobody wants to be offensive.

The third reason is that this fandom has, historically, treated Tim, Oliver, and others like absolute dogshit over Buddie not going canon. Oliver's left Twitter and taken big social media breaks because of how he was yelled at online. It's not cool, guys. Vent all you want but directing it at the cast and crew isn't okay and maybe if it was just you talking sternly that would be fine (maybe) but when it's dozens of people? It's bullying. Full stop.

Every single time Buddie has not gone canon instantly, the actors and others have gotten verbally abused on social media. Every time the actors have been asked about Buddie and not said "ohmygod yes I want it to happen so bad" (they are not allowed to say this because it might create false hope because again: historical queerbaiting) they've gotten yelled at. We are tired of the actors getting yelled at over something over which they have no control.

The fourth reason is that Oliver, especially, has gotten asked about Buddie a LOT. A lot. The poor man is very tired. He's been cornered about Buddie and asked about it aggressively by certain journalists (one journalist, Max Gao, actually tried to corner Gavin who plays Chris over Buddie - this was a few years ago so Gavin was even younger than he is now and I personally think that is an incredibly unfairly loaded question to give to a child).

If I may dive into speculation for a moment, given how the actors have been SO gleeful about the move to ABC, the fact that they've admitted ABC is letting them do storylines and little moments that FOX wouldn't, and a few other things I won't get into here because this damn thing is long enough already... I suspect FOX would not let Buddie happen. If this is the case, then actors being asked about Buddie is even more loaded because they are being asked questions about it and they can't say "yeah we want to but the network won't let us." THEY WILL GET FIRED FOR THIS.

But, whether or not my speculation is true, the fact remains that when you are repeatedly, over and over, aggressively asked if this fan ship is going to happen or not, you get tired. There's only so many times that someone can give a diplomatic answer before you just want to snap "stop fucking asking me!" Journalists love to take advantage of fandom and social media chatter to get attention for their articles so asking over and over again about Buddie isn't because they genuinely care or think it'll happen, it's to get shippers reading their article, and so bombarding the actors and writers with this question when they've already kinda said their peace a lot about it is frustrating. Just! Leave them alone!

And AGAIN: if this was a M/F ship there could maybe be room for teasing the will-they-won't-they but because of historically bad treatment of queer characters and fans, THEY CANNOT DO THAT. So the only option open to them is to KEEP THEIR MOUTHS SHUT. And keeping one's mouth shut and threading that diplomatic needle for years is EXHAUSTING.

We do want Buddie to be canon, nonny, and in my opinion we are going to get it. All this recent PR supports that, (again: in my opinion).

However, we have seen Oliver get bombarded with what he thinks about Buddie until the cows come home, and he deserves a break. There's nothing new he can say, there's nothing new he's allowed to say. We have seen other parts of the fandom scream that we're being queerbaited because Buddie didn't instantly go canon, without any consideration for the fact that a) queerbaiting is a marketing tactic and b) there might be other factors at play preventing it going canon. We have seen journalists take advantage of us, the shippers, in order to get attention, and we have seen them create an awkward and embarrassing atmosphere in interviews by repeatedly asking about the ship. We have seen shippers make us look bad by hounding the cast and crew on social media about Buddie, treating every woman actress who plays a Buck/Eddie love interest like shit (yes, I know about Edy, but she could be a saint and parts of the fandom would still go onto Instagram to call her names), and generally being absolute pills that would tempt any showrunner, actor, or writer to say "y'know what fuck 'em let's not make Buddie canon I'm not rewarding this shitty behavior."

"If we want Buddie then shouldn't we be asking Buddie questions?" No. Not like journalists and fans have been. It's something to bring up - in my opinion - sparingly and with an awareness of how queer storylines and ships and fandom have been mocked, ignored, baited, and so on over the years. They don't ask about Buddie because they give a shit. They ask because they want our clicks for their ad revenue and they want our retweets and likes and comments. And it's certainly not something to bombard the actors with on social media and bitch at them if it doesn't happen. It just makes the rest of fandom look bad and makes us look like children.

Additionally: These are not new questions! They're not only asking these questions now that it looks like Buddie will go canon, with serious hope and consideration based on the marketing and storylines. They've been asking this since season fucking two, when Buddie was clearly not planned, just to get fangirl (gn) clicks. They wanted to get attention and teehee over how Oliver/Ryan/whoever reacted to people thinking Buck and Eddie should touch dicks. 'Kay?

We know the pattern. So when every piece of media is screaming BUDDIE!!! we are not seeing it as "OMG could we go canon?" We see it as another round of being taken advantage of for article attention, another round of parts of the fandom being bullies and yelling about being baited, and another round of the actors being backed into uncomfortable corners.

That's why we're concerned, worried, and annoyed.

*collapses* I hope this covered everything and explained it all.

#mads answers things #THIS IS SO LONG OH GOD #I wouldn't know concise if it smacked me in the face #making this rebloggable for now so people can spread the information if they find it helpful/informative #but the moment there is clowning (derogatory) I'm turning reblogs OFF I do NOT have the patience #I spent an hour working on this instead of the F&F AU so like not to sound aggressive but this BETTER have answered y'all's questions LOL

[olderthannetfic]

https://www.tumblr.com/olderthannetfic/746553097204203521/the-fandom-hates-women-response-to-lack-of-ff

The "fandom hates women" part of it comes from the fact that fandom as an entity just doesn't watch the kind of media that draws femslash, even if it ticks all of the boxes of things those very same people say they like. There are so many times I've watched a show that I've seen mega-popular Tumblr posts wishing existed, and then the fandom is so, so small comparatively and often in general. There have been superheroes, vampire/supernatural shows, fantasy shows, movies, books, the list goes on, that feel like they were generated out of Tumblr's desires for ideal fandom media, and everyone knows they're never going to attract anywhere near the same attention for fandom and fanworks because the common denominator just tends to be that if there isn't a full ensemble of attractive men to ship either with each other or with the women, fandom's not interested.

So it's not about prioritizing women in that sense, it's about people witnessing hypocrisy over and over again the second a show doesn't have a mostly-male ensemble. The people who are in these fandoms are frustrated that good faith attempts to get people interested are met with every excuse in the book that all eventually boils down to "I don't like watching stuff with women in it as much as I like watching stuff with men in it." And if that's how people feel about it... sometimes the conclusions are going to turn into the more uncharitable take of "fandom hates women."

--

Maybe, but whenever I see a "fandom hates women" reblog of my stuff, one or two reblogs further down the chain I get an overt TERF. I just had to go block several people today, in fact.

The first person to reblog with a comment like that is usually subtle, but their friends and friends of friends are not. The rhetoric that very quickly starts is the fandom equivalent of that "All the butches are becoming trans men! We're losing lesbians!" stuff.

Here's the thing: I've been in ten billion fandoms that were so awesome and fit fandom's supposed tastes to a T and yet no amount of promoting them could get anyone to try the canon. This goes for canons that are all men or all white men or all majority ethnicity men or whatever else.

The default state of media is to not engender a big fic fandom.

I agree that the rare outliers mostly follow certain patterns, but we extrapolate too far when we say that a lack of those patterns is why a fandom is small.

A fandom is small because that's the near-universal default.

--

Yes, a small slice of fandom consists of guilt-ridden queer fujoshi who say they want more f/f but don't make much of a move to make that happen. I tend to run into that a lot because of my own tastes and having friends who share those tastes.

Far more of fandom is people talking generally about how representation matters without saying they would personally join these fandoms if they existed.

Neither group is large enough to be the real reason some woman-heavy canon fails to take off to HP levels.

The real reason is not hypocrisy but the fact that most things don't take off like that. Most things without massive, massive audiences especially don't take off like that. And the very few things that do are flukes and don't actually predict that another similar thing will take off in the future.

--

Go to AO3's tag search. Search for all canonical fandom tags. Sort by uses and descending order.

Right now, I get 64,390 tags.

The first page, 50 tags, goes from HP with 497,845 works to the Thor movies with 59,266 works. By page 6, we're below 10 thousand works.

By the end of page 10, we're down to Labyrinth with 3,906.

Somewhere in the top 500 AO3 fandom tags (many of which are just franchise metatags for each other), we go all the way from megafandoms to medium size and down to relatively modest ones.

That's not a lot of room for a big f/f-heavy fandom given the trends in mainstream media and that mainstream media is where most really big fandoms come from.

--

I also notice that you're conflating a lack of desire to watch something that's primarily about women with a lack of desire to watch something that includes women.

There are tons of fans who want something more like The Mummy with a leading man and leading woman they love.

Granted, that's not me and that's not a lot of my fujoshi/slasher audience, but it's extraordinarily common. I know plenty of people who don't like canons that are only dudes, but since they also don't like canons that are only ladies and they don't ship f/f, this gets spun into "fandom hates women".

--

Let me be clear:

Conflating "lesbians" and "women" is a radfem position.

[iridescentmirrorsgenshin]

An example of queercoding in Alhaitham and Kaveh's relationship: Madam Faruzan edition

Due to the rules in place for game development in China, the possibility for queer confirmation within Genshin Impact is denied, which therefore renders the usage of characters alluding to the potential romantic connection between two same-sex characters as impossible. However, the same insinuation can be made by omitting specific language which strictly conveys romantic sentiments, such as ‘couple’. Instead, the idea of secrecy or something unmentionable can be drawn upon as indicators, as this draws parallels to the taboo of homosexuality practiced within certain cultures and media forms, which the real world audience can identify.  

For example, Alhaitham and Kaveh as secret housemates. This can be used to convey an idea of ‘taboo’ as Kaveh desires to protect his reputation by concealing his shame of having to live with Alhaitham. In-game, the context here is that Kaveh wants to uphold his reputation of a successful architect, but within Alhaitham’s Story Quest, upon the player’s discovery of Kaveh living with Alhaitham, this context is omitted for some time. This prompts Paimon to question what exactly Alhaitham and Kaveh’s relationship is, with Kaveh denying that the two used to be friends but are not anymore: “I wouldn’t say ‘friends’ exactly”.

This tactic of double entendre can be seen again in A Parade of Providence when Paimon almost reveals Kaveh’s living situation to Faruzan.

Faruzan’s can be observed to resort to a thinking pose, in comparison with Layla, when Alhaitham is mentioned in relation to Kaveh wanting to buy property, as Paimon almost ‘outs’ the truth, that Kaveh resides with Alhaitham.

She then seemingly dwells upon the subject, as she returns to it after Kaveh requests for a change of topic later in the conversation. Here, Faruzan follows up on whether Kaveh lives alone, which he fails to deny. 

Here, it can be seen that she has already began associating Kaveh and Alhaitham, possibly speculating that the two live together. When Kaveh fails to supply an answer, therefore not denying her theory, she explicitly ties the two together, and asks if the two are “hiding” something.  

This question evokes a physical reaction from Kaveh, as he denies this question out of fear of being revealed, with Paimon opting to leave in order to cover her role in revealing Kaveh’s predicament.  

A deliberate potentiality has been created here in regard to what Faruzan has inferred, as her phrasing of “are you two hiding something from me?” is non-specific. Rather than asking: “are you two living together?”, she asks a question which holds multiple connotations. Due to the ambiguity of her meaning, her question can be observed as a non-explicit version of the: “are you two a couple?” question.

On the surface, this question is a reference to their situation as roommates, however, her phrasing is non-specific, and hints to another cause for “hiding” something. For Faruzan, Kaveh’s blatant evasion of the topic and dismissal of Alhaitham’s name, could easily be inferred as “hiding” a romantic connection – which is something that the player, too, can pick up on from her gesture of suspicion, her inquisitive questioning, and her excitement when piecing together the clues. The ambiguity of her question generates multiple meanings as to why she has surmised the two could be “hiding”.  

This overt secrecy in Kaveh’s living with Alhaitham, another man, prompts the player to generate associations between this in-game secrecy and real world queer shame. In this, there is an implication of the need for Kaveh to confirm the status of his relationship between him and Alhaitham. Not only does this scene connotate an ‘outing’, in which a queer character has their queerness forcibly revealed to a heteronormative audience, but this creates a sense of secrecy, which, again, can be interpreted by the player as ‘taboo’.  

Kaveh does not want to tell anyone of his living situation out of preserving his stellar reputation, however, Faruzan is missing this context. She relates Alhaitham and Kaveh together in the phrasing “you two”, coupling them together in a secret that they “hid[e]”. The player understands this as indicating to their living situation, however, this creates a separate context which Faruzan has interpreted and that, we, as the audience are not privy to, but can interpret based on her allusions to cohabitation between two men being a secret.

Whilst this is not explicitly romantic within Genshin’s world of nameless sexuality, Faruzan’s ambiguous questioning here draws parallels between real world understanding of sexuality and the connotations of queerness which stems from two men living together in secret. 

(Update: For more analyses like this, the essay this is taken from is now uploaded! It can be accessed here and here as as a pdf <3)

#faruzan needs to run away from these two im so sorry you dont deserve this #queercoding is alive and real in genshin impact #but we already knew that #the fact that alhaitham and kaveh are roommates but in secret is already extremely telling #and it's stressed that they are ROOMMATES and not landlord/tenant #this is just one example of queercoding from the queercoding section of the essay but i was going insane over it #i really recommend watching this particular part of a parade of providence because the stills of the animations dont do it justice #also why did faruzan react like THAT #that was not a normal reaction to have if you find out two colleagues platonically live together #the writing genshin is crazy #lets all be crazy together <3 #haikaveh #kavehtham #kavetham #alhaitham #kaveh #haikaveh meta #genshin meta

[bettyshoweduptotheparty]

Midnights is defined by duality: The story of an unreliable narrator and performance art (Part 1)

One year on, I think I've finally figured out what midnights is about. And it might surprise you.

The midnights album has just celebrated its first anniversary. And having listened to these songs for the last 12 months, staying up late to watch live streams of the Eras tour, and at times being unable to escape news about Taylor on every medium, I finally have an idea that makes all of this make sense: This is Taylor's duality era. And she wants us to notice. Join me on the ride if you want to know more :)

I made a post a few weeks ago about how the Midnights aesthetic has the ‘two Taylors’ duology: Private vs public, which is the lead theme that carries over into the music and most recently also into her public image. Midnights had a mismatched visual to it from the very beginning with the depressed 70s look (announcement photo and vinyl covers) and the glamourous midnight blue (cover image and public appearances).

The two Taylors in the Anti Hero mv really drove home the message for me that this album is about two versions of the same story, and Taylor is the writer and narrator. And while I'm sure that these two versions have existed for a lot longer than the midnights era, they have not previously been so prominently next to each other. In fact, the very point of having the public narrative, is to keep Taylor's private life out of the public eye. She has never shied away from providing the 'stories' that her fans want to see in order to relate to her music, and as the girl that made her fame with songs about heartbreak and fairytale princes, that usually meant being seen with a man that these songs could be attributed to. And she made sure people would make the connection, be it with scarves that change ownership, or foxes on shirts:

(Btw you can't deny how effective this was, with just a few photos she managed to hang an entire album on each of these men!)

So, acting is not new to Taylor. In addition to appearing in a few feature films and TV shows since 2010, she's done this public performance for well over a decade now. And she has been vocal in recent years about her intention to go into filmmaking, so we know she's able to tell stories in multiple ways. She's a storyteller first and foremost, maybe the best of our generation. But is she a reliable narrator?

What does 'unreliable narrator' mean?

A story told by a so-called unreliable narrator, is usually a first person narration, where it turns out that the person telling the story was either lying or in some other way unable to give a truthful account of events (e.g. hallucinating or dreaming). That usually means that the audience is left with having to interpret for themselves what really happened and what was real or not real. Famous examples of this kind of storytelling are the 2010 psycho thriller 'Black Swan' with Natalie Portman, or the YA novel 'We were liars' by E. Lockhart. If you like stories that leave you guessing, check those out ;)

So, why is Taylor an unreliable narrator? For those fans that have paid attention to her lyrics, it has long been evident that her songwriting and public narrative don't match up. The most obvious theme being her 17-year run of writing songs about secret relationships and hiding, while she was parading men around in public to be photographed with. But, as we know, most people ignore it because it's just easier than digging deeper into lyrics. But now with Midnights, I'm starting to think she wants people to notice the duality and start to question her narrative. The sheer number of songs on that album that have strong double meaning or draw attention to lying or distorting the truth is astonishing: Right out the gate with track 1 we have Lavender Haze, a pretty loud song about bearding using the very well established queer reference of lavender. (And maybe she leaned out of the window a little too far with that title, because we all know the gaylor uproar was so loud when the title was revealed, that she had to backpedal and hetsplain it.) Immediately followed by Maroon, the song that has probably singlehandedly turned the most swifties into gaylors since Bettygate of 2020... Then on to Anti Hero, the ultimate duality song that also makes mention of lying and scheming, same as Mastermind. High Infidelity and You're Losing Me join the ranks of songs that look like they are about romantic relationships on the surface, but could also be interpreted to be about Taylor's relationship with fame and her fans. High Infidelity is a play on words of the term High Fidelity or HIFI, which is a 90s sound technology that refers to truthful reproduction of sound. High INfidelity is therefore a genius way of referring to both cheating and unfaithful reproduction of sound, almost like someone who makes music that isn't quite truthful... We also know from Aaron Dessner that this song was written following the 2021 Grammys and in the light of the whole William Bowery grammygate situation... I think there is point to be made about this song drawing attention to lying in a big way.

The timing of the release of You're losing me right around the time that her breakup with Joe made the news also feeds the narrative of a breakup song. But in this very 'breakup song' she says You say, "I don't understand," and I say, "I know you don't" and talks about sending signals that fall on deaf ears. Doesn't that sound an awful lot like 'I gave so many signs'? What does she know the addressee won't understand? Is it that when she finally reveals all her lies 90% of her fans will be shocked to their very core? On the exclusive CD version that has this track on it, it also immediately follows Dear Reader which on the track list looks like this:

Dear Reader You're Losing me (Does that look like a message? I think it does...)

By the time we make it to Dear Reader, she's basically told us 'I'm a liar who hides behind fake lavender relationships who charms everyone like a sleezy congressman, I'm the narcissistic Anti Hero you can't trust who schemes like a criminal and plans out everything like the puppet master I am, just so you like me and therefore you shouldn't look up to me, but I know you still will.' If that doesn't scream 'I want you to question everything I say or do' I don't know what does. Which brings us to performance art.

What is performance art?

Performance art is any kind of visual art that involves a dramatic performance aspect. To explain how this relates to Taylor and who she may have taken inspiration from, I refer to the brilliant Kristina Parro on TikTok:

Ok, groundwork is laid, but this is getting too long. Part 2 will be relating this to upcoming music releases and media coverage but that will have to wait til tomorrow.

As always, thanks for humouring me guys!

#taylor swift #gaylor #eras tour #midnights album #one year of midnights #performance art #unreliable narrator

[captain-lovelace]

I think the thing that really makes it so frustrating that people insist that you can write good horror without liking or reading or watching horror is that it comes from a refusal to acknowledge that horror as a genre requires skill specific to it. It's this assumption that because they've felt fear they understand it, and can therefore inflict it on their audience using whatever skills they already have. There's just one issue: not a single person on this planet has never been afraid, so it's a really easy emotion to get wrong in fiction. It's extremely easy for a portrayal of fear to come off as, for example, cheesy, or unintentionally funny, or disingenuous, or for it to just be too personal to be scary to other people. Studying how fear is written and portrayed, both effectively and ineffectively, makes you better at doing those things yourself. In order to write better horror, you have to treat horror as a genre worthy of attention and study. And I, personally, would argue that means that you have to interact with it.

One of the biggest and most important pieces of advice that I got as a writer was to read. It's hard to be a good author who doesn't read, and it's even harder to be a good genre author who doesn't interact at all with the genre that you're writing in, because you have massive gaps in your knowledge that you're not even aware of. You might not even be able to properly critique your work! You have nothing to draw from, nothing to be inspired from except things that were not made for the purpose of inciting fear-- you're fitting a square peg in a round hole and hoping it works.

The people who say no, you can write horror without having read horror, are the same people who would never say the same thing about whatever genre they like the most. On some level they're aware of how much it sucks to have someone with no experience in a genre come in with 100% conviction that they are actually the genre's savior, before coming up with something stale, bland, and full of half-baked inspirations from whatever bits and pieces of genre media they picked up through cultural osmosis, all of which they're convinced are so original because they have no idea they're drawing on any sort of larger tradition. But, because it's horror, this for some reason does not cross their minds.

The argument seems to be that you don't have to read horror to write horror. You don't have to like horror to write horror. You don't have to care about horror to write horror. It's a genre that requires zero effort, zero knowledge, zero skill you can't get elsewhere. It has no value-- but you, the person who doesn't know anything about it, you can give it value.

They don't seem to realize just how insulting that is to hear.

(Final note: queer horror and horror by POC both have rich histories, as does horror that isn't USAmerican or Western European in origin. It's a genre that is popular almost worldwide and has a lot of really excellent offerings from everywhere. Also, in addition to horror movies and novels I really recommend checking out horror short stories/anthologies, which can really show where the genre shines. Don't shy away from older horror, as well! Some of my favorite horror stories are from the 19th century.

If you love the idea of horror but have never really found anything that clicked, I guarantee that there is something out there that you will probably like, and if you want to write horror seeing the sheer breadth of what's out there will help you write better horror-- if at least to show you what you would like to see more of, or what might be missing.)

#horror #writing #horror is a lot like romance in that people who don't know what writing a good HORROR STORY or ROMANCE looks like come in convinced they #know how. and they don't even think #'hey maybe writing A ROMANCE is different from (e.g.) including a romantic subplot. hey maybe writing A HORROR STORY is different from #including horror elements in a story that is ultimately Not That.' #they're treated as Trash Genres. 0 effort all reward. #also 'i don't connect to anything that's out there right now' is not an excuse for IGNORANCE of what's out there right now

[dice-wizard]

Hello everyone looking for a new fantasy tabletop game!

As it nears backer release, there's never been a better time to pre-order Exalted: Essence

Pre-ordering gets you access to the beta document and the early release backer pdf.

What's Exalted you ask?

Exalted is an epic fantasy TTRPG where players play the titular Exalted - humans elevated to superhuman/demigod status - in a wild and unique setting that draws inspiration from the ancient world rather than medieval Europe. Creation (the setting) draws key inspirations from the entire world. If you're used to having to make yourself visible on your own in other fantasy, there's probably some representation in Exalted.

It has explicit queer and trans themes about finding your people, creating your own identity, and having the power to punch back at the people who hate you. This isn't incidental. The writing staff is queer as hell. You can hear me break this down more here.

Curious to learn all you can? Well you can get a detailed overview of the entire game on the podcast Systematic Understanding of Everything hosted by myself, @presidentofbirds and @phillycuriosity

If I'm used to D&D 5e why should I pick this up?

Well, I presume if you're reading this post you're already interested in trying something new, so:

The entire game in one book. Exalted: Essence is self contained, character types, equipment, enemies and all!

An exciting style of fantasy that's different than classic D&D but like, textually gay, and very easy to have scenes like ballroom fights, epic galas, and touching homoerotic healing scenes - no house rules required.

But also, tactical depth and combat you can really sink your teeth into if fighting monsters and villains is your bag.

An excuse to use all your d10s at once

Character building and advancement mechanics designed to be familiar to a 5e audience. Characters "level up" based on story beats, and have Advantages, which are functionally similar to class and race features.

A world welcoming to most heroic archetypes, so it's easy to convert your favorite OC.

Extremely kissable dragons, demons, gods, elementals, ghosts, faeries, and unnamed ancient horrors

I'm a fan of a previous edition, what's Essence got for me?

Design focused on alleviating some of the previous versions' missteps

Virtues are back, baby

2e fans will find it an improvement from second edition's mechanical strengths - it's pretty easy to convert all your favorite 2e Charms to XS.

Streamlined versions of familiar rules to make it painless to introduce new friends to the game we love.

The Cliff's notes on Ex3's new Exalt types.

Did I mention it's all of Exalted in one book?

How does it play?

d10 dice pool looking for 7,8,9 as successes. 10s count as two successes, which can lead to explosive, heroic outcomes

Combat system designed to keep all players engaged the entire time - even characters who aren't focused on fighting at all.

Combat also narrows the gap between experienced and new players and players who want to win at RPGs and players who just wanna vibe so GMs aren't tearing their hair out trying to balance encounters.

Social system designed to resolve in a single roll so you can be immersed in role play and not interrupt it with constant rolling - without sacrificing a variety of social approaches

"Ventures" system for characters working on long term projects from traveling across the world to crafting magical wonders to building communities without forcing this to be "downtime" activity

Characters have access to Charms - exception-based special powers that make them extremely good at whatever they focus on.

It's easily my favorite game (and the project I developed that I'm the proudest of), so I'm excited for everyone to try it out.

#TTRPG #Ttrpg recommendation #exalted #Exalted Essence #d&d #dnd #dnd characters #d&d 5e #Exalted RPG #dnd 5e #dungeons and dungeons #dungeons & dragons #exalted rpg #ttrpg #podcast #fuck wizards of the coast #Try a new game! How about this one? #Cmon in the water is fine #ttrpgs #tabletop rpg #tabletop games #tabletop role playing game #tabletop #tabletop roleplaying #onyx path publishing

[notanerdyprude]

richie headcanons because by GOD do i love this

appearance

• richie is TALL. lanky mf. he was shorter that pete in middle school and then shot up to 6’3 in highschool.

• richie constantly dyes his hair. paul hates it, mainly because of the mess he makes of it. its partially a stress thing partially him wanting to make it gleamingly obvious that hes queer.

• has like an Okay sense of fashion, mainly thanks to ruth. he took the idea of layering stuff and RAN with it.

• always has a shit ton of pins and badges, some anime themed, some themed with other stuff.

• paints his nails sometimes. he tried nail art and it turned out shit but he liked it anyways.

personality

• this. man. is. a. BITCH. if max wasn’t the coolest guy in school richie would be such a cunt to him. well, more than he already is “i didnt mean to walk through YOUR hallway 😒”

• very blunt, he will tell his friends what he believes without sugar-coating it.

• richie is his friends number one hype man if he actually believes in them. in the audience of every school show screaming at the top of his lungs when the tech crew get thanked.

general

• gay, trans man. he/him pronouns user

• plays the drums! yes this is because i play the drums get out of my house.

• LOVES photography, will take photos of pretty scenery whenever he gets the chance. paul got him a proper camera for his 18th and he nearly cried.

• listens to 80’s rock/indie rock

• blur fan. not elaborating.

• will order boba tea or coffee that is 90% milk + sugar whenever the nerdy prudes get drinks.

• HUGE sweet tooth.

• theatre kid, the only reason he doesnt do the school musicals is that he thinks theyre all shit.

• works after school in a bookstore, spends most of his time studying or drawing.

• had a massive among us phase. he refuses to speak of it.

relationships

• paul is his uncle, emma is basically his cool wine aunt. she helps him dye his hair most of the time, and they gossip together.

• him and ruth are basically brother and sister, attatched at the hip, basically have twin telepathy. richie is the ultimate wingman.

• had a crush on pete in middle school that he got over. he still hasnt told pete about it.

• stephanie: kys

richie: you first whore

stephanie: do u want chilis

richie: yes

• (no one dies/everyone lives au) max and him have a frenemy type thing going on. after max DIDNT fall at waylon place, richie saw that max was less god more human, and felt more comfortable arguing back with max. they both prefer this, it makes class more fun.

• once made grace cry with the shit he said about his anime crushes in a groupchat

richie: i wanna #### him and ### his ####

grace: I hope I get to watch God offer you His divine judgement when you reach the gates of hell so I can laugh as you are banished from the Kingdom of Heaven.

#nerdy prudes must die #npmd #npmd richie lipschitz #richie lipschitz #richie lipschitz headcanons #i just think hes neat

[luimnigh]

Okay, I've seen quite a bit of talk about queerbaiting recently, and I'd like to reiterate:

Queerbaiting is when the creators of a work tease the existence of queer characters and relationships, in order to draw in a queer audience, and then never commit to actually depicting them.

It's inherently a very subjective thing, because a lot of it revolves around the intent of the creators, and because we the public will almost never get a clear picture about what happens in production. Maybe the creators did intend to depict a queer character or relationship, but executive meddling occurred.

But there is a perfect defense against accusations of queerbaiting. One thing a work can do, and render any calls of queerbaiting invalid:

Actually depicting queer characters.

If a work actually depicts queer characters and relationships, and doesn't immediately write them off or kill them off, then it cannot be queerbaiting.

Yes, even if it continues to tease a queer couple getting together. Because that's just "Will They/Won't They", which is a staple of serialized fiction the world over.

So the next time someone accuses your favorite show of queerbaiting because the main queer couple hasn't kissed yet, don't give wishy washy "the show hasn't ended yet" excuses. Point out the existing queer characters and relationships.

Stop ceding ground to the assholes misusing the phrase to bash shows they don't like.

#queerbaiting #IF A WORK HAS PROMINENT QUEER CHARACTERS IT CANNOT QUEERBAIT #STOP WATERING DOWN YOUR ARGUMENTS

[lunarlines]

CAREER BOY: SELF PORTRAIT

Text ID for Statement Image:

18 x 26, colored pencil and oil pastel on paper

There is inside of me another self, who is almost wholly unobservable through the eyes of another person. Only I can perceive him although he is what I consider to be the truth of my existence. As a gay genderfluid person, I relate to the concept of masculinity in a very flamboyant and queer way– although I do not have the luxury of physically expressing myself in my everyday, public life. In this art piece I have through use of color, setting, and dress attempted to display this queer masculinity for the gaze of an audience.  

Directly inspired from the drag king and musical artist Dorian Electra’s track ‘Career Boy’ I have situated a vibrant drag persona of myself into a busy office setting. This is an acknowledgement of my longest held job as a receptionist, which I recently left in order to come back to school to study art. Instead of my typical appearance I have opted to display myself in fantastical, saturated colors in exaggerated makeup and a twirling mustache to make tangible my internal reality rather than reflect the physical one. 

I wanted to portray a vibrancy and playfulness in every element of the piece with a wide variety of colors but still have it remain visually cohesive. I opted to make the prop elements all colored with the same yellow, orange, pink, and purple palette to contrast with the color tones of the figure and desk. I hoped to create eye flow around the canvas by grouping the different objects in this way. However I also utilized warm pink tones near the eyes to draw in the audience’s eye to the face so the figure would not appear to be incidental in the larger scheme of the composition. 

#original #lunarlines #traditional art #self portrait #artists on tumblr

[korkiekenobiconfirmed]

okay I’m late to the game but I just found out about the whole “tyler posey queerbaiting”shitshow and can I just say, I think we need to take away the word queerbait from everyone. nobody’s allowed to use it until you can all learn what it means…but never fear! I’m here to educate the masses.

queerbait (noun/verb): when the makers of a piece of media (show, movie, book, etc) hint at a queer character or relationship in order to draw in queer audiences, all the while having no intention of paying it off.

queerbait is a fictional phenomenon. it’s something people do with fictional characters and worlds. REAL PEOPLE CANNOT QUEERBAIT. real people can profit off of creating an image around the queer identity (ie, everyone calling harry styles a queer icon when he neither identifies as queer nor does anything significant to support queer communities) but that’s not the same thing.

tyler posey coming out as some ambiguous sexual identity IS NOT QUEERBAIT. do y’all get how unbelievably fucked it is to hear someone announce their identity to the world and then everyone just decides “nah, he’s lying”??? what the FUCK. cardi b got called a queerbait despite having been openly bisexual for ages. rita ora was forced out of the closet in 2018 bc people accused her of queerbaiting with a song she’d written. kit connor, at the ripe age of EIGHTEEN, was forced to publicly come out to millions bc people said his portrayal of nick Nelson on heartstopper was queerbait.

REAL PEOPLE (listen close now, ik I’m repeating myself) CANNOT QUEERBAIT. why do you care what a washed up d-list celeb (no offense tyler) calls his own sexuality?? who are you to decide what someone else’s identity is?

#sorry but pls get a life #queer #queerbait #tyler posey #teen wolf #nick nelson #heartstopper #queer fiction

[ranchthoughts]

thinking of pat and pran and genre awareness

I've been thinking a lot about this as the Bad Buddy x A Tale of a Thousand Stars Our Skyy 2 episodes air. Like @lurkingshan notes here, Pran is self-aware enough to notice the parallels between his situation and Tian's, and I've seen a lot of people wondering how Pran's self-recognition through Tian (and perhaps Phupha's self-recognition through Pat) will contribute to the emotional and narrative conclusions of these episodes. Furthermore, Pran and Pat keep talking about trope moments - either their own from their series (e.g., Oishi green tea) or Tian and Phupha's which they know about from Tian's posts online. Pat and Pran take it upon themselves to replicate trope moments from ATOTS (like the looming mosquito net hanging) for themselves, and to discuss how to leverage classic romance tropes to get Phupha and Tian back together (e.g., getting them drunk and singing karaoke together). Self-awareness, and the related genre-awareness, are the Bad Buddy brand - we've seen how well Pat and Pran know how to weaponize BL tropes to get what they want.

Bad Buddy itself is a show that was created by genre-aware people to be genre-aware. @miscellar writes here about how Bad Buddy's directors and actors set out to make a BL while being fully aware of the pitfalls of BL. Bad Buddy includes soooo many tropes and other genre conventions (being set at university, the sound editing, etc.) which place it firmly within the genre of BL. However, the show deliberately subverts BL conventions in order to make broader points about the genre itself - I go into (a lot) more detail here. As miscellar says in this post: Bad Buddy labels itself a romcom to subvert romcoms.

Bad Buddy also demonstrates its genre- and self-awareness through its repetition of tropes and callbacks. We see that especially now as the Bad Buddy Our Skyy 2 episodes are airing (@grapejuicegay outlines many of the parallels between the original series and the Our Skyy episodes here). The show remembers what it did and repeats them, intentionally, to draw new connections and make new arguments.

So the directors, show runners, and actors of Bad Buddy are genre (and self) aware... what about the characters?

In this post miscellar makes an interesting point - to the BL viewer, the first three episodes of Bad Buddy seemed like a pretty typical university BL, and it seemed clear that Pat, the deliverer of most of the tropes, would be revealed to be in love with Pran. But that's not what happens.

I talked about this here, but to recap: in the lead-up to his episode 5 revelation, Pat often fulfills the active or seme role in tropes (grabbing Pran, looming over him, saying flirty things, etc.). However, Pat is not genre-aware in the first few episodes of Bad Buddy: he does not know he is in a BL, so he isn't analyzing these interactions through the "code" of a BL, therefore he doesn't recognize these moments as significant. To a BL-literate audience, Pat seems the perfect "seme", but he doesn't even know he's in a story with a "seme" yet.

On the other hand, Pran has been in love with Pat for ages, and he is fully aware of how their story reads. He does not take the active/seme role in tropes very often in the first few episodes (and when he does, it's an accident, like their wrestling match) because he is trying not to be in the romantic narrative, he's trying not to pursue Pat. Pran is genre-aware, he recognizes all of their looming and suggestive commentary as BL tropes, but he knows that BL stories typically end happily. He knows they are in a queer love story (he's in love, after all), but he doesn't see any way this can be a happy queer love story, not with their families.

This is why Pran's "You can't keep doing this to me Pat" line on the roof at the end of episode 5 hits so hard - Pat has been acting like the lead in a BL series to genre-aware folks like Pran and us, the audience, but he doesn't even realize what he's doing. And to Pran, who is painfully aware of what type of story they seem to be in, but he doesn't think they can ever truly fulfill, this is devastating. Pran is trapped, with narrative awareness, in a story that can never come true, with someone who doesn't realize how they are playing along, hurtling the story towards its inevitable crash.

In episode 5, Pat comes to the realization that he is in love with Pran, and that Pran is/has been in love with him. In this post, @functionalasfuck writes how back in high school when Pat first heard Pran's song, he recognized it as their story but didn't see where Pran was taking it (even when Pran mentions secret crushes). Only on second thought does Pat realize what Pran meant by that and what the song was conveying. Pat and Pran's story slams into context (and genre) for Pat: this is a classic enemies-to-lovers, childhood-friends-to-lovers, long-term pining story; this is a BL.

And after Pat's episode 5 realization, things change. Pat acts again like a typical seme trope-wise through episode 6, as he follows Pran on the architecture retreat. He's trying to get Pran to talk to him, to join him in the BL he now realizes they are in. But Pran doesn't want to go down a road that he believes will end in heartache - he's known, from the beginning, that their story can be read as a perfect BL, but he's also known it can never end happily, not with their families - and so he avoids it, and Pat, at every turn.

It's finally at the end of episode 6, with the bet, that things change again. Both Pat and Pran realize they are in a romantic narrative. Pran has learned Pat isn't interested in Ink, so there is one barrier towards their genre-typical happy ending eliminated. Their families are still a concern, but Pran's in love and who can resist a bet, so they go forward.

The trope usage becomes deliberate - and it's always been deliberate on the part of the directors and show runners, they've always known what they have set out to do (make a BL that hits all the BL conventions yet subverts them) and have deployed tropes intentionally to uphold the messages and themes they want to explore (more here) - but now it is deliberate on the part of the characters too. Through the first part of the series, genre-aware Pran was trying to avoid acting the seme, trying to halt the progression of the romantic narrative he believed could only end in tragedy, and genre-unaware Pat was throwing himself into trope instances headfirst without realizing. Now, they have made a pact to both be the active pursuers, the seme: whoever falls in love first loses. They both deploy BL tropes with razor sharp precision (Pran looms, Pat takes off his shirt and douses himself with water, etc.) showing that they do understand what these actions mean, how they fit into and read in a BL-coded context. The most obvious example of this in episode 7 is when Pat and Ink and Pran and Wai eat at the noodle stand together. Pat and Pran leverage their respective "faen fatales" (more on that here) to make the other jealous by deploying a litany of BL tropes (feeding the other, wiping their mouth, etc.). Pat and Pran show they know what these actions mean in the context of a BL story, like their own.

Pat and Pran are in on it now - they are self-aware enough to recognize their genre, they know the beats of that genre, and they know how to manipulate them to get the outcomes they want.*

And it soon becomes apparent to us that Pat and Pran are in on more than just the genre of their show - they are onto the fact that there is an audience. @miscellar writes here about how Pat and Pran break the fourth wall several times throughout the course of Bad Buddy (e.g., Pran's comment about not needing to be called wife, or the voiceover in episode 12, which @chickenstrangers also talks about here, where Pat and Pran reveal they hid their continued relationship from their friends, their family, and us, the audience).

I'm very curious to see where these final two Our Skyy 2 eps take us, as Pat and Pran have shown they know Tian and Phupha are in a gay love story; and have shown they can identify the trope moments we, the BL-literate audience, notice too; and Pran at least has shown he recognizes the parallels between his own BL narrative and Tian and Phupha's. How will Pat and Pran's genre awareness, and their self-recognition through the other, affect the resolution of both pairs' story lines?

*(side note: this reminds me of @chickenstrangers' post on Bad Buddy and queer futurities - Pat and Pran have to work for their happiness, to make joy in the face of hardship, to claw their story back into a happy ending that Pran didn't even think was possible at the beginning of the show. They know they are in a BL, and they are going to get that genre-typical happy ending on way or another.)

#bb #bb meta #os2 #os2 meta #bad buddy #bad buddy meta #our skyy 2 #i'm just going to write a quick little meta on this as we head into the second week <- famous last words

[sauntervaguelydown]

every time people on the internet are like "everyone in comics is gay EXCEPT the JOKER lol" (although thankfully they do this less now than a few years ago) I want to go into a category 4 Well Actually event

DC as a franchise has been queercoding the Joker since the Bronze Age of comics--literally every time they want to make him "ooh scary crazy watch out" they layer on the queercoding again

look at this comic cover. LOOK at it.

Look at the gargoyle posturing--

His body is skinny and "effeminate" in comparison to the chunk of beef super hero, grotesquely displayed in contrast. He is lightweight and yet he is dominating, subverting the correct order of nature. Thigh garter, women's shoes, drawing attention to the red lipstick in a way that makes it look less "clown" and more "crossdresser". Boxers, so you know he's a man, increasing discomfort. But I want you to notice the pink hearts. In the early 00's that sort of thing WOULD get you called gay. In real life.

This is all the ugly bad homophobic short of hand you can shove into one character, only a little bit more in-your-face than whatever Moffat was doing with Moriarty in the BBC show, but for the same reason--when you want to make the audience uncomfortable about your "crazy" character, but the "craziness" is just aesthetic, you have them violate the social order. And queercoding is a free & easy way of violating the social order, bonus points because it makes your straight male audience viscerally uncomfortable. That audience wants the good and natural order restored.

The downside of this is, of course, that your audience may also contain a sleeper cell of women, queers, and queer women, who think this is very interesting and would like to talk a little bit more about that, please

I could go on but I think you get the picture. Literally look at the picture, why did I even bother to write this.

Truthfully, the point behind this point is that I don't want homophobic-queercoded-Joker to be whitewashed out of the records of popculture only to be replaced with Straight Wife Beater Joker. I like the gay ass joker in this horrible art. I like that he's dangerous and confident and unstoppable, I like that he's flamboyant. Supervillainy is drag, fight me about it.

They (the franchise, the artists, the writers) made their bed and now they have to LIE in it. They buttered their toast and now they have to EAT it. Commit to the bit, you cowards.

The joker is for ME now, and you can't take him back. If you want to make amends so badly, let your heroic chunk of beef have a turn in heels.

#rant post #lol

[swampstew]

Blind Date Event - Yamato X Reader

Thank you to everyone who submitted applications for my Blind Date Matchmaking Event. I hope you enjoy these lovely bedtime stories during this week of overpriced chocolates, flowers and heart shaped things.

Mostly fluff, SFW, Yamato(he/him) X GN(they/them) reader, first blind date experience. WC: 930. Minors DNI - my content is for mature audiences only

Yamato was practically bouncing in his chair at the ramen shop he had taken you for your blind date. The ride to the small restaurant was quiet as you held on to his waist. He had picked you up in his teal MotoTec Phantom 49cc – and not having ridden a motorcycle before – you were silent via anxiety as your arms gripped him tightly when he rounded corners. You didn’t see it happen, but the action made his face split with a smile each time.

The ramen shop is called Oden’s Pot. You were both new to match making so you’re both equally nervous. Excited jitters rippled through Yamato while the waiter refilled your glasses, taking your orders.

“_______ tell me more about yourself! We’ve been talking about my background and job as a bouncer at the hottest queer bar in the city but I really want to know more about you!”

You sip on your water as you try to summarize yourself in as few words as possible.

“Oh um, well I already told you about my job. Hum…I guess I’m just down to Earth. I enjoy simple pleasures like playing video games, watching movies and YouTube essays, and I’m a big fan of listening to music while I do art or other creative endeavors,” you slowly trail off, hoping he won’t ask to see any of it.

“Wow can you show me your art?!”

Damn.

Fingers trembling, you pull out your phone to share one of your finished pieces. You’re quite proud of it, even if you won’t say so yourself, trying to downplay your own work.

“Nope, not buying that _____. Art is subjective, there is no grading scale that determines how good it is. If you feel proud of the work you put it, that’s the real value of your art. Personally, I’m not that great beside some doodling but THIS <points to your phone> is damn good!”

You smile bashfully. He said the same thing your close friends have told you countless times. You felt like you could share more of your artwork and not once did he subject you to unsolicited constructive criticism or ask you to draw him on the spot.

When your food arrived, you took turns playing 21 questions and other ice breaker games provided in the blind date packet you received from the Medium Matchmaker. Yamato was enthusiastic through it all, even during the slightly more uncomfortable games and topics that were suggested in the pack. You were skeptical of the whole idea when you saw the online application. However, now that you were here and actually enjoying Yamato’s company, you were glad your best friend forwarded you link.

Yamato wasn’t rude or aggressive with you like your previous disaster dates had been. He wasn’t some meathead gym bro even though he had impressive muscles on his tall body – he swears its hereditary, his family being from a different country. He’s incredibly handsome without being arrogant and you appreciated that. He was down to earth and easy to talk to. Being easy on the eyes and having magnificent hair was a bonus too, you felt butterflies in your stomach.

Not wanting the night to end, Yamato ordered several desserts for you to share. “I just want a taste of everything,” he speaks softly, blushing furiously as he drains his water. It made you giggle.

“Oh wait that’s not an innuendo!” alarm flashes on his face, sputtering water to the side. That made you laugh out loud; you reached out to pat his hand in understanding before he really panicked.

Through dessert, the topic of conversation got a little heavy. Yamato was brave enough to disclose the abuse he suffered from his father who raised him single handedly. Not because he wanted you to pity him but because he’s an open book. He has nothing to hide nor shame about his past. You were impressed with his strength, with his ability to cut out the toxicity from his life and move on to build himself up with no one else to support him. You felt like this is a person you can get close to. A person you can share intimate details of your life without fear that he’d freak out or reject you.

The ride back to your home was more relaxed. You felt secure in his company as he swerved between traffic; not once showing off in a way that would put you in harm’s way. He walked you up to your front door, fingers twitching as he considered how to end the night. Not quite wanting to leave but also not wanting to make assumptions.

“_____, I had a really nice time tonight. If you feel up to it, I would like to take you on another date. Maybe see that new blockbuster horror film that comes out on Friday?” He tapped his forefingers together nervously as your eyes widened.

You smile, “I had a nice time with you too. I’d love to see that film with you for our next date.”

He looked so relieved. “Yeah? Awesome! I can pick you up then, same time as tonight?”

“That sounds like a plan,” you twiddle with your keys in hand.

“I don’t want to be presumptuous but do you want to come inside? I could go for a cup of tea and some Mario Kart. Unless you don’t like the taste of dust as I leave you at the starting line.”

Yamato’s gorgeous orbs lit up, “Oh you’re SO on _____. I call dibs on the Flame Runner bike!!”

#yamato x you #yamato x reader #swampstew bedtime stories #reader insert #Raven the Matchmaking Medium #blind date event #happy valentines day #op fanfic #swampstew stories #swampstew #yamato one piece #yamato #one piece yamato #yamato x y/n #kozuki oden

[thehairpindrop-13]

In order to discuss a queer take on Taylor’s Easter eggs, life, and lyrics we have to understand the term FLAGGING.

Simply put, flagging is to draw attention to information that you think is important, (especially by putting a special mark next to it.)

Since queerness existed (literally forever) flagging is something the community including myself, has done in order to discreetly and openly show that we’re part of the LGBTQIA community.

This has been done through color coding, wearing pins or buttons, shoe laces, handkerchiefs, terminology like “a friend of Dorothy,” clothing items, slang, referring to movements as a “hair pin drop” etc.

In true swift fashion, taylor is quick to hiding secret messages in her music videos, photo shoots, concert visuals, outfits, and so much more.

Since Debut, she has been hiding messages in her lyrics and planning announcements, songs, future activities, and ideas.

Only recently has she began to openly support the LGBTQIA community through creating music for queer perspectives like You Need to Calm Down. (Pictured above).

Since it is still illegal in many countries and punishable by death is is extremely difficult for world famous icons especially at Taylor’s caliber to comfortably come out without harm to their income, reputation, and mind/body. Leaving me reason to believe that IF she is queer, she has not openly come out to protect herself and her loved ones from harm. I mean, who can blame her?

I believe—that Taylor Swift uses her music and expression to flag. A huge portion of her audience is the queer community, regardless of the truth she continues to use her platform to not only express herself but also make music and moments for everyone to enjoy, debunk, and share.

From secret loves to hiding in plain sight her music is undeniably reminding us of an all too real queer experience that many of us face on a day to day basis. Her music is like a note, telling us that she sees us, she understands, and she’s here to stay.

#taylor swift gifs #taylor swift #taylor swift polls #taylor swift debut #lover era #fearless #lover #i love taylor swift #speak now tv #back to december #gaylor #kaylor

[solar-plant-princess]

Some people seem to think they aren’t canon, but I will simply state that they’re missing the point that they don’t need to explicitly say it.

“”The themes speak for themselves, and make it clear what the intent is. In this actual mini-essay I will actually talk a bit about why focusing on ships being “canon” is wasting the potential of queer representation, in particular reference to Lycoris Recoil.

Lycoris flowers represent a lot of different things, most famous is that red variants symbolize death and final goodbyes. However, of that same species are also a pink variant which symbolize love, passion, and … ahem “feminine beauty”.

There are also yellow and blue variants in other species of Lycoris plants. Yellow represents cheerfulness, courage, and cherishing what you have. While blue represents being calm and dependable, but also freedom.

It hardly gets more on the nose and it’s clear how these apply to the characters and the themes of their arcs. And how the story overall is at the intersection between love and death.

Plus there are literally multiple homages to pieces of media where the characters have been thought of as gay in the story or by audiences. In particular the scene in Stand By Me where the characters kick each other, which the animators made the deliberate choice of copying the overall mannerisms of to draw a direct parallel.

The story is about a hell of a lot more than just a romance, and that is a good thing! I don’t need every piece of representation to be about just romance. And you’d also have to be joking me if you don’t see them using the term “partner” even after retiring from being Lycorises to describe their relationship, as being tongue in cheek about how there is so much media where the characters are obviously but not explicitly queer. Throughout the show they are constantly making references to other ambiguously queer media, and using common language that is unclear about the exact nature of their relationship. Like, everyone wants their confirmed representation I get it, but could we also not call the show doing the most on the nose and tongue-in-cheek queer coding of their main characters “queer baiting”.

The creators have clearly purposefully evoked when not just directly referencing other media where the characters have been queer coded, or queer audiences have resonated with the experiences of the characters. This isn’t subtext that went nowhere, this is a deliberate choice to code the leads as queer by reclaiming things and phrases that have been used as subtext. And then, this is the important part, actually reframing the context to emphasize when they are doing it. See no further than the picture below this. “Partner” has a long and storied history of being used ambiguously, because how we use it slots between purely romantic and purely platonic, and can mean either depending on ... that’s right the context. Now let’s imagine you’re a restaurant employee, two women come in and order drinks. When one of them gets up to pick up their drinks and brags about the other woman being her “partner”, and reiterates the point. Now what sort of meaning can we imply from that context? Because if it was a straight couple, nobody would for a moment doubt that partner is in a romantic context.

Like c’mon people, they aren’t hiding it, but they don’t have to look directly into the camera saying they’re a couple for it to be obvious they aren’t “just besties”. Also I don’t even have time for going to go over how all the official art that’s come out since, and the fan art by the creators hasn’t been at all shy about showing them being more intimate than you’d expect from “just friends”.

Or that the season ended with them vacationing in Hawaii of all places. Or that the whole show had a rather open ending clearly hoping for more seasons, and this probably isn’t the end of their story together. Or that one of the original writers who was behind the entire idea for the show, and was a lead writer for the screen play has publicly stated on twitter he’d love to make them official, and told fans asking if the show would end up being a yuri show to “stay tuned for future stories“

Update: and behold, literally new art and products just got released of them literally in wedding dresses together. It’s more than obvious what exactly their intentions are with these characters. So please, please, understand that queer baiting is not just when a relationship you wanted doesn’t happen on screen. Queer people don’t only start existing once they’re in a fully intimate relationship. And queer people not ending up together at the end of what will probably be the first of multiple seasons is not the same as queer baiting. Especially not when the creators have clearly taken a lot of time and effort to consistently code them both as queer, in high effort and direct references to other media. (In a country like Japan where acceptance of queer people is certainly rising, but is also let’s be frank, far from in a good place and there are clear pressures to not show genuinely good representation for fear of upsetting a bunch of weirdos from the publisher’s perspective) (Yes I know the new Gundam show has lesbians in it, that’s also one of the biggest, most profitable, and longest enduring cross-media franchises in Japan, which is in a lot safer position to risk alienating bigots in their audience than a fully original animated show that didn’t get manga or light-novel deals until after the show was already being released and doing well. And an update since this was posted: the publishers of Gundam literally tried to retcon their queerness. This is my point, if you are expecting a country that hasn’t even legalized gay marriage yet to give you explicit queerness consistently you are barking up the wrong tree. They’ll literally try to walk it back if they think they can make more money off of retconning an explicit gay marriage out, you can’t rely on profit-driven corporations to actually care about making and keeping explicit queer relationships in their media just because it’s the right thing to do)

#lycoris recoil #lycoreco #yuri #they’re gay and in love #they’re lesbians harold #chisato nishikigi #takina inoue #chisato x takina #lesbian #anime