#so apologies if this is wrong ladhjsjs

[bitchapalooza]

Looking into pre-christian Viking culture to see if they were homophobic only to find out it’s possible, not yet clear, that they had no problem with same sex relationships— they just had a problem with effeminate men.

Like your status in society all depended on on your honor and reputation. One slip up could not only damage you but your family and clan as well. Gender roles were really important and if a man came off as feminine, their reputation could be ruined.

So what I think Sweden specifically really struggled with was not the fact that he’s gay, even after homophobia may have entered the picture. I think he always felt proud of himself and his sexuality, felt like he was normal, he accepted himself the whole time. No, what he struggled with was literally toxic masculinity in the modern sense of the word. Like he enjoyed voyages, farming, battle, ect. But he also played with the idea of caring for a family, doing mundane chores, which were exclusive to the female role. Nowadays he can freely enjoy that, he doesn’t have to daydream about doing it, he actually can settle down and be a father if he wants to. He can do all these things that back then would have ruined him socially. He still struggles with the pressure of “being manly”, don’t get me wrong. He’s still stuck in this mindset of strict gender roles, that if he slips up and acts far too much feminine, then he’s going to be scrutinized and ostracized.

#still looking into all this tho #I have to get ready for work before I miss my bus lmao #I don’t clock in til 1:00 and it’s only 10:00 now but traffic could start any minute now so 💀 #BUT YEAH this topic is actually really interesting and I wanna do a deeper dive into it lol #so apologies if this is wrong ladhjsjs #I only got to read a couple articles that had reliable references listed #hetalia #hetalia headcanons #hws sweden