#smacks of gender

[theabigailthorn]

Bigshot Industry Guy: Sorry, I’m running late, can we push back our meeting until later?

Me: No, I have another appointment immediately after

Bigshot: Sorry, I’m with another client :(

Me: So tell him to fuck off?

#When You're A Little Fish People Just Straight Up Do Not Respect Your Time #You Chose This Time Dude Not Me #Don't Tell Me You're Gonna Do Something And Then Not Do It #Men #This Whole Thing Smacks of Gender #A Lack of Planning on Your Part Does Not Constitute an Emergency On Mine

[hughmanbean]

Are You Not Entertained?

The High Queen has a problem. Boredom! Just a tad. But boredom can lead to many things, like mischief and meddling. And the Ancients know what happens when the High Queen is bored.

So Ghost Writer has teamed up with some other the other playwright and novelist ghosts to find something to entertain her.

With a little advice from Clockwork, they find the perfect dimension to amuse the Queen. So they all draft up a plot and set off, influencing various events to lead to a way for the Queen to come along and watch as every little plan unfolds.

They're done now, so it's time to bring the Queen to watch something interesting.

---

Constantine inspects the various runes, glowing items, and green smudges on the table, the rest of the JL watching him expectantly.

"Well, what are they?" Flash speaks out nervously, fidgeting. He'd found several traces of this stuff in Central city, from cars to buildings to even people. The rest of the JL members had reported the same.

"Nothing good. From what I could gather these things are the work of the subjects of the High Queen."

"The High Queen?"

"Well Bats, officially it's the High Queen of the Infinite Realms. Ruler of All and whatnot. I'd say that this is the work of some of the Realms Beings that she controls. Though none of it is her directly doing anything from what I can tell."

The rest of the JL look at him for more explanation, Zatanna gives him a look that he's on his own for this one, and John inwardly curses at the fact he's the one that has to explain this.

"The Infinite Realms are the In-between. They're also The Beginning and The End at the same time. Anything is, was, or will be has at one point been there. The High Queen, as a result, controls all of this."

"What does that mean, Constantine?"

"Well dark and broody, that means that we're royally screwed."

#dpxdc #dp x dc #dp x dc prompt #dp x dc crossover #dcxdp #dc x dp #Oh Hugh why do you make Danny a Queen or lady all the time? #because I like it i dunno #high queen danny phantom #ghosts have gender set to optional #that moment when you become a shadow government so the Queen can have some enrichment #I mean it was only for a year but still. #My mind is a pendulum that smacks floating ideas #Cobbling them together like some sort of horrible machine

[abesetacringe]

his gender looks so stealable.....

#ride the cyclone #noel gruber #rtc fanart #no but fr can i steal it please #im gonna smack this gender with madscientist one in a same bowl #to create one gender that's beautifully obscure mess >:DD

[thelightofthingshopedfor]

Well—I’m actually in the waiting room now for my bilateral salpingectomy. Feels weird.

My brain’s been going overdrive the last few days trying to make sure I’m not going to regret it, but I’m like 99% sure that’s just a mix of completely reasonable nerves about surgery and my normal issues with indecisiveness and Wait No My Options because like…I’m a lot more concerned about the abstract idea of “what if I regret making this decision I can’t reverse” than I am about the actual concrete “what if I want to grow another person inside me later” that’s actually relevant to the specific situation at hand

Because. I still don’t want to do that. Realistically I can’t think of a situation in which I’d want to do that. I especially find it hard to believe that anything would genuinely override my years-long desire to not do that. Plus it’s…kind of a gender-affirming thing, in that I don’t really like having a pregnancy-capable body for reasons that are somewhat gender-related. and nerves might be…a little bit more at the forefront right now Because Surgery, but that doesn’t change the fact that I’ve wanted to do this for literal years.

#surgery cw #sterilization cw #this whole thing smacks of gender

[cuntylittlesalmon]

I came across one of your posts criticising Delilah Green, and the radfem-esque rhetoric of Ashley Herring Blake's works. I agree, I completely despised her works. But every time one of my friends or I spoke about it, we were criticised on bookstagram and book twt. I was curious to know your thoughts on these books, if you are okay with it.

i am aaaaaaalways down to talk shit about bad books! i’ve felt completely isolated in the larger sapphic bookish spheres because i hated AHB’s work, i’m glad to have found another one of us 🫶

this’ll be under a cut because it’ll be incredibly long, as every instance of me criticizing these books has been

DGDC - delilah green doesn’t care

APDF - astrid parker doesn’t fail

AHB - ashley herring blake

SO!

these books suck. lmao. i don't think they're particularly interesting on the character-level, or the world-level, or the prose-level, or really anything at all. there are scenes here and there where i can see what AHB can do but she's too busy trying to seem like the funniest and the most progressive white cis woman out there--of course, without doing any of the actual work that comes with deconstructing the racist, transphobic, and homophobic ideology she grew up with as a person from the united states.

which leads me into my first complaint: everything to do with emery and their pronouns. every single thing in that scene felt like pandering, and the pronoun sharing aspect felt like word salad that needed to be edited down to a single sentence of "And then everyone else shared their pronouns". we're already deeply aware that every single person in this book sans emery is cis, i don't need that shoved into my face further with a cis woman expounding upon how she's terrified that she's going to fuck up somehow in sharing her own pronouns. unnecessary bullshit, since i'm guessing the point was to show that astrid is insecure, particularly around industry professionals, but with a slightly funny slant to it. this was not the place to show that, especially when there are so many other instances both before and after this part that show her anxieties better.

and frankly, in sharing this part with a friend, they thought it was astrid being insecure about getting emery's pronouns correct which....if your cute lil romcom protag can be see as an annoying and borderline transphobic cissie when they come face to face with a nonbinary person for the first time because your prose just sucks ass......maybe you shouldn't include that lol

and i think that leans in a lot to the "humor" of these books. at one point in ADPF, delilah makes a joke about fighting someone "like a lesbian", which in her eyes (and somewhat therefore AHB's eyes) means gazing disapprovingly at someone and making her mouth "look like a butthole" (paraphrasing, but not the butthole part. she really says butthole). i'm assuming this was supposed to be funny, but it fell so fucking flat with me. like, these books are supposed to be romcoms. romantic fucking comedies. but most of the humor is so deeply steeped in white millennialisms that it's actually unfunny unless you're like my gen x mother who spends 90% of her time on facebook.

which, i suppose that's my biggest gripe with the books, and with AHB herself. it's a lot of self-serving nonsense, with little to no introspection about why certain things are included versus not. i mean, i can say that about a lot of popular romance novels, but thats beside the point. there is no reckoning with institutions, despite all of the call backs to how rich people suck, or how white people suck, or how men suck. it's all so very wink-wink-nudge-nudge, "im in the know, can't you tell?", correct terminology wrong ideology kinda of stuff. ok yeah, white people as the institution suck. i think we all know that. but also, ashley, every single important character, every single side character (save a couple), and every single background character (save a couple), are all white. you are actively participating in the "white is default" ideology that you seemingly dislike and make fun of in your book. so which is it?

this disconnect between AHB's story choices (all white main cast, etc) and the prose-level choices is so fucking obvious throughout the entire body of both books:

the lesbian main characters cannot call themselves lesbians, but one will call themself dyke without a second thought.

the trans-positive lesbian main characters will talk about dating/being attracted to nonbinary people, but do not have any nonbinary friends, do not talk to any nonbinary people, and the one nonbinary character included thus far speaks one (maybe twice) just to give their pronouns.

the lesbian main characters call themselves butch (or are called so by other wlw (but not lesbian) characters) and yet are still conventionally feminine in their presentations.

men are the worst people in the world, and yet josh (an ex of claire from DGDC) is consistently trying to atone for his past harm, and within the story we're given, is like, an actually alright guy.

men are the worst people in the world, and yet the worst actions taken against iris was not by her ex-boyfriend, but by her butch girlfriend (which. i have a lot of thoughts on this).

the books say they believe one thing, but are never backed up with actually evidence that this is the case.

and so, when i say the books have some radfem-y bullshit in them, this is largely what im talking about. i have no clue if AHB herself is a radfem, or exactly what she believes in. im not combing through her twitter account because she as a person annoys me, and anyone promoting her work annoys me. but she is participating in some fucked up shit, and the fact that they are so beloved just makes my ass itch and i feel like i need to speak on it more than i already do now 💀

anyway. the radfem-y stuff.

the books use some pretty covert gender essentialism when it comes to the lesbian characters vs the bisexual woman characters. every single lesbian is said to be masculine (specifically butch) while every single bisexual woman (and every single ostensibly straight woman) is, while not called out as feminine, exclusively present femininely. which....is weird. i don't think i have to say why saving masculinity for lesbians (and men) is stereotypical, and kind of gross, especially coming from someone who isn't a lesbian.

but wait! its worse! masculinity (regardless of how prescriptive vs. descriptive it is) in these books are very much associated with emotionally unavailability and callousness toward the feminine (emotional) counterpart. and really, its even worse when you compare difference within the lesbian characters (delilah, jordan, and iris' girlfriend).

delilah and jordan, when you actually examine them, are feminine presenting. they both wear red lipstick, eyeliner "sharp enough to kill a man", and in delilah's case, heels. the most masculine aspects about them is that they don't wear skirts or dresses. literally. whereas, iris's girlfriend in APDF, who only wears suits, has short cropped hair, never wears makeup, and has a stereotypically masculine job. jordan and delilah are love interests. they're allowed to grow into emotionally available people by their love for their feminine partners. the butch girlfriend, however, is a cheating piece of shit who's entire point is to set up iris' storyline for the third book in the series (a role that could've been done just as well by her ex boyfriend, who she dated in DGDC, instead of what feels like a very pointed and spiteful subplot).

so, it becomes very clear to me that masculinity is the worst thing you can have in these books. none of the men are given grace either, and i touched on it a bit earlier talking about josh. he was flaky as hell with claire and their daughter before the events of DGDC, and so claire (and by extension, her friends iris and astrid) are wary of him when he comes back into her and her daughter's lives. but, for all of that, josh isn't flaky in the book. like he very much steps up to be a good dad to his daughter. is the best? no, obviously. i dont think AHB is capable of writing a "good" character. but he literally doesn't abandon anyone, despite us being constantly told that thats what he does, to the point that when he ends up being unreachable for a couple of days, every single character freaks out and treats him like a monster. iris fucking punches him for this, even though he actually had a good reason. and im not one to defend men like 💀 i am very much a manhater, but like. cmon. it feels entirely unearned. and its that disconnect again. AHB wants you to believe that josh deserves this because he's a man, so of course he's going to be terrible, its what men do, despite him, like, not being terrible.

(and its even worse in APDF, where astrid is literally disgusted to be in his presence point blank, period, even though hes been like. consistently a decent guy.)

and my last piece in this, is natasha rojas. the otherworldly sexy and gorgeous latina host of the reality show in APDF, who literally wears a clitoris necklace. like not only is it leaning on racist stereotyping, but she's the ultimate feminine who wears a literal piece of the vagina. yonic imagery is cool and everything (genuinely, there should be more!) but this is not only extremely heavy handed in a brick-to-the-face kind of way, but also as the Ultimate Feminine, she's this deeply warm and caring and nurturing person, who is never posited as a antagonist or anything despite her positioning as a literal corporate player for HGTV (the hallmark of home renovation. every fucking person on that network is some flavor of conservative). she very much could've been a stand in for the capitalist homogenization of the housing market that HGTV absolutely caters toward, especially when you take into consideration astrid original plan for the house that she's renovating (taking it from very classically victorian to white and grey contemporary), but instead she's positioned as a mouthpiece for the glory of the clit and female sexuality only. which is fucking frustrating. and so fucking weird.

but yeah. AHB has a very white millennial liberal queer view of gender and presentation and sexuality, which in and of itself is very essentialist. but she tries to play out of her biases as a white and cis woman by making in-narrative jokes about it, but they fall completely flat because she has no idea what she's doing, and thus perpetuates the exact same shit she's trying to make fun of. she's got a lot of unchecked bigotry rattling around in that empty brain of hers, which when you're trying to write a feminist book, leans itself to radfem & white feminist ideology (which. lbr. are the fucking same but whatever).

ik this was long as hell but ty everyone who made it to the end for reading 😤🙏💓

#asks #yayyyy being critical about books #TY FOR THIS BTW #i know most of my posts complaining about books lean a lot more into the comedic #but i do genuinely think the bright falls books are like. insidiously bio/gender essentialist #and i hope that people can work to recognize this kind of stuff (i know its a lot more obvious in m/f romance because of the overwhelming #obsession with the size difference between the f lead and the m lead) when its more quiet like this #because its fucking gross to be reading a (supposedly) cute romance only to get smacked over the head with covert conservatism #when the books are marketed & frankly pandered to people who are not conservative! #delilah green doesn't care #astrid parker doesn't fail #ashley herring blake #ashley herring blake critical #i realize that i spent a lot of time talking about astrids book more than delilahs book but. ah well. i read it more recently #and its more obvious that dgdc was 🤷‍♂️

[namespara]

Takes on mizus gender as a genderfluid half-white half-asian.

I know the creators of mizu refer to her as she, as he dressed as a man to get by, but at the end of the day, we see that mizu does not wish to conform to any gender roles. They regard it as a secondary thing to their goals in life. I don't speak for every non-binary experience, but to me, isn't that what it's all about?

Even if our parents/creators see a necessary, objective choice for a she/her, we can still see how this character would present regarding gender if given the chance. And as I interpret the character as of this point (After season 1), I don't think it would be as either gender alone.

#i have so many thoughts about them. i am rambling #this character has resonated with me on every level imaginable like a bell being smacked on the head with a metal pole #what a show #i think that the complexity of their gender left ambigious is 10/10 and i wouldnt want it any other way #just my thoughts #mizu #blue eye samurai #mizu blue eye samurai #gender #nonbinary #enby

[bluebluebluewoods]

of snakes and cicadas and similar creatures

#the smurfs #brainy smurf #This Whole Thing Smacks Of Gender I holler overturning papa smurfs barbecue grill turning the Smurf of July into the Smurf of Shit #body horror tw #but in a good way. body horror as an expression of joy and gender euphoria

[corvigae]

Essek "Nobody can see my body under these Massive Fucking Robes and huge shoulder mantle" Thelyss is transmasc bc I said so

#you take one look at that dude and tell me he doesn't SMACK of gender #cr2 #critical role #essek thelyss #personal grumblings

[ragsy]

Been thinking more about updating dogmark's lore, and I'm definitely changing the rules of his curse

Rather than "he has a neutral human form and a monster form that is triggered by a fight or flight response," I'm thinking about flipping it on it's head and making his dog monster form his neutral state, and he's constantly putting 100% of his focus and energy into holding a mostly human shape, and getting surprised or angry or scared will just make him more likely to slip

#ragsycon exclusive #also it smacks more of gender this way. you know #dogmark mandog

[moongothic]

Absolute hate how all Oda has to do is make one (1) fictional man with pretty hair to give me raging gender envy

Like this was so unnecessary and cruel, towards me specifically

#Moon posting #OP Meta #Think I'm just annoyed because One Piece doesn't really have very Gender characters **for me** specifically #'Cause most of the characters are either built like shit brick houses or have horrendous fashion senses #Which also applies to King. He is a Fucking Unit and his gimp suit looks horrendous #But you take off his stupid mask and let his pretty hair out and oh no he looks like he looks like a metalhead oh no that's kinda gender #(Like at most there was Sanji Sometimes because he's sufficiently twinkish and I like some of his suits.) #(And look I love him and his stupid self-loathing self-sacrificing ass but also I need to smack the shit out of Sanji and throw him in jail #(Do not let me get started on Hawkins very specifically in his fight against Killer because jesus christ) #(Toei did not have to go that hard on making Hawkins' hair look THAT FUCKING GOOD in that fight) (Dying of jealousy) #(I just want to have pretty long hair (but in a masc way) is that too much for me to ask) #((Feeling down and desperately need some serotonin so I picked up Wano again. Been a while 'cause I was so frustrated with the pacing))

[ireallyamabear]

i have seen it time and again but the "here we have a popular ship with two men, one of which is a bit of a reserved character and the other one more outgoing and social to: these two characters are depicted as the most crude caricature of a heteronormative relationship, complete with rigid imposed gender roles of big bad aggressive "masculine" and meek nurturing helpless "feminine" guy, sprinkled in with a radioactive dose of top/bottom dynamics and gender essentialism, garnished with wildly transphobic depictions of bodies" - pipeline is real and a fandom history that is so self replicating it is predictable

#this has smacked me in the face today again #dinluke #sterek #oh all the sterek there is so much to unpack here #i love a good exploration of gender identity #catch me biting into a/b/o when it is actually saying something INTERESTING about gender as a social construct #oh and dont forget the racism #on which better people have said better things #is engaging in fandom a mistake #is it better to exist with a 1000 downloaded actually good fics on your computer #my posts #mp

[earthlyruins]

you don't understand yamato and sanji would've been best friends if given the chance okay

#.txt #yamato #black leg sanji #op #why why why does oda pull the shtick of ''sanji freaks out abt trans ppl'' STOP ITTTTT THAT'S MY GUY. FUCK OFF ! #he and yamato would've been SUCH A GOOD DUO and it would've confused Everybody. kambakka kingdom comes back to smack sanji in the face #and he goes to yamato and they just talk until sunrise about gender and what it means to each of them. yamato whacks sanji at some points #sanji almost throws himself out a window at others #but like... does anyone see my vision it's so bleak out here

[thelightofthingshopedfor]

(I promise I am not deliberately ignoring anyone here, I apparently just only have the brain capacity for Twitter most of the time now, which is...not good, I know)

it took a long damn time, partly because insurance stuff and partly because ADHD and also hating the phone, and as usual with major things I kinda don’t want to talk about it as if that’ll jinx it somehow, but I now have an official date for a bilateral salpingectomy (what they actually do now instead of tubal ligation) and I’m…excited? like that's definitely the thing I'm feeling. I'm sure I'll be at least a little nervous as I get closer but right now I'm just kinda excited. partly it’s just relief to be getting this done because it’s, you know, one thing I can control in an increasingly uncertain, fucked-up world--I have no idea just how bad the future might get in however many ways (fascism! climate collapse! an even worse pandemic! who knows!) and realistically there's not a whole lot I can actually fix or prevent in advance, but I can take one thing off the table and that's something.

but also. I think it’s partly a Gender or Gender-adjacent thing because I just don’t LIKE having a pregnancy-capable body, you know? like even beyond all the practical reasons I very much want to avoid that, it just feels wrong that I came equipped with a built-in organic 3D printer I didn’t ask for, so I’m pulling the fucking plug on it.

also it’s exciting because actual surgery means I can take several days off without feeling guilty about it at all, which is...a different problem entirely, yes.

#surgery mention #this whole thing smacks of gender

[pied-piper-pluto]

freiren sounds so up my alley and the one thing that's holding me back from watching it is that I hate the costume designs.... this is not a freiren-exclusive problem i feel that way about most fantasy anime these days it just bothers me with freiren because otherwise i Want to watch it

#i have trouble putting the beef into words but here is an attempt: #the outfits feel too much like something you'd see someone wearing In Real Life and it breaks my immersion #this would be less annoying to me if it felt equal between male and female characters but the boy outfits feel more fantasyish #but it feels more pronounced with the girl characters #makes it feel like the goal was 'make them cute and fashionable by Anime Standards' was the primary goal #and 'character build or worldbuild via costume design' ws at best a distant second #i could abide Aesthetic First costume design if it was an aesthetic i like but i don't like the aesthetic theyre going for #feels overly cluttered with small details that feel very Modern to me #and also it always bugs me when it feels like a show defaults to Thighs Visible on Only the girl character designs #freiren does not seem particularly fanservicey and that almost makes it more grating for me #if it didn't Smack Of Gender it wouldnt bug me #if short shorts are an element of your fantasy setting why not have at least one dude wear em is all im sayin #anyway apologies to any freiren fans who stumble upon this post like i said it sounds good and i want to watch it #and am happy you can enjoy what i cannot #rambles

[citrine-elephant]

there is nothing strictly heterosexual about the way leon looks at other men, i swear

#resident evil #imagine if a line was added along the lines of #'chris is hot and all but ada' #i saw that one image of leon looking at patrick from infinite darkness and #look i'll still headcanon leon as being extremely bad at socializing either due to neurodivergency or him suffering massive trauma #as a fresh adult #flirting with mfers and not understanding why cuz he's no good with social cues #unintentionally #but i know long time fans gotta think the same thing #leon kennedy is hot as fuck and every gender across the board wants to bang him right #if my guy was a lil bi it'd be dope yknow idk #he can still be loyal to ada and casually admit men are hot yknow #yknow im just saying #dedicates his life to one woman doesn't mean he can't have a lil crush on christopher redfield #the fans have valid reasons to smack their lil dolls of leon and chris together to make em kiss #but i mean if anyone's got a strong theory of being gay it is chris hell yeah #chris = gay 100 #leon = 'straight' but someone didn't measure properly cuz that line is a bit fucked up #which is to say maybe bi cuz it feels like he's mostly into women but got a way he looks at guys sometimes yknow... yknow #i need to go take a nap man

[mrsmarlasinger]

Cis femme she/her lesbian but in a stoner dudebro frat boy loser kind of way

#does this make sense #like yeah i wear a shit ton of jewelry and makeup and i like dresses and have long-ass hair and my favorite color is pink but #i lowkey get gender euphoria from wearing men's clothes and cologne and acting specifically like some loser dude #like smacking my partner's ass and drinking beer and talking all ''fuuuck dude. sheeeeyit'' like i just hit a joint. lmfaoo #sometimes i just love wearing gym shorts and a wifebeater or a big-ass ugly t-shirt and no make-up and calling myself some dude #idk why it HAS to be a loser of a man but nothing gives me gender envy like Just Some Guy smoking a cig outside a college party #with like a beer and a beanie and ripped jeans and a shitty old hoodie and he has big-ass bags under his eyes. a line cook dude #that's literally me sorry #if i were to be any other kind of lesbian it would be rue from euphoria 1000000%. she is my exact gender #oh and kurt cobain also gives me gender envy lmao #personal #gender #gender identity #lesbian #butch #femme #wlw #adventures in gender