#they are not saying being a lesbian gives you a pass to be the worst to be around

[joyflameball]

"Everyone wants mean lesbians until they actually get one 🙄" Now this might confuse and surprise you, but there are such concepts like "'mean lesbian' does not mean 'lesbian who is an asshole to everyone'" and "people dislike it when you are a self centered asshole"

#''ohh but someone like susie deltarune-'' #she started as a lesbian who's an asshole to everyone #but then turned into sarcastic kinda rude jaded lesbian #which is generally what people mean when they talk about mean lesbians #when people say they want more mean lesbians #they mean that they want lesbians who are jaded and snarky and sarcastic #they are not saying being a lesbian gives you a pass to be the worst to be around #like bro being jaded and traumatized and bitter doesn't mean you can talk over everyone and then get mad when they push back on that #go to the server that's supposedly dedicated to shipping that's actually just ''let's talk about how COOL this person is'' #''if they make art let's SHOWER IT IN LOVE (if others make art let's give it like one or two comments lol)'' #''if they post a headcanon THE CONVERSATION IS ALL ABOUT THEM AND LET'S IGNORE EVERYONE ELSE'' #bro you are worshipped like a fucking god in every server i have seen you in #shut the fuck up and stop being a bitter asshole who talks over everyone and gets worshipped for it #vague #/nbh #since she blocked me lol #good fucking riddance please learn that being a lover of things is better than being a hater #''oh if you get talked over just drown it out in your love'' learn to do that yourself lol #you have ambient ''wants the world to fucking burn'' energy #i don't care if you're traumatized that doesn't give you a pass to be a self centered asshole to everyone #''haha here's a funny meme i made'' ''HE WOULD NOT FUCKING SAY THAT ARE YOU KIDDING'' #<- actual interaction i had with her. when she knew about my insecurities around mischaracterization. #which was followed by everyone as always going along with her #until i was like ''hi! that makes me feel shitty!'' #i think she blocked me after that lol #OH MY GOD #SHE DID #BROOOOO #''HI. PLEASE DON'T DO THIS THING THAT MAKES ME FEEL SHITTY. I'VE TALKED ABOUT MY INSECURITIES AROUND CHARACTERIZATION. PLEASE DON'T.'' #[GETS BLOCKED]

[cowboyjen68]

Hi!!

I just wanted to ask some advice from one butch to another.

I recently got my dream job of being a warden on a nature reserve (and i love it!), while interacting with people there I get called a young man very often (i am 18 lol) and it gives me euphoria to know im masculine enough to even pass as a man. I've also had some volunteers ask if I was a man or not (despite my feminine name).

But recently I got called a "lady" outside while out with my mother. It drove me INSANE I cried alot.

Don't get me wrong I do identify as a woman but I hate being seen as a lady.

I've even thought about using he/him pronouns recently and changing my name but i'm too scared to as most people won't understand bc im still a lesbian.

Is this strange?

ps love u and ur blog lots xx

This is an easy answer because I was 18 once and looked enough like a teenage boy that I got "hey sport" and "hey young man" all the time, especially when in my work clothes. I worked for The Mayor's Youth Corp in Iowa City in the summers of my 15th and 16th year. Mom and Dad let me get a work permit AND bought me a used Datsun Pickup so I could drive myself the 20 miles there and back each day.

I was a volunteer with the Corp of Engineers youth from 14 to 16 and Dad knew I was super excited about this job. Mom was not thrilled that I wanted to cut my hair but my "grand mullet" was really hot under the hard hat in the summer heat of Iowa. (in the 1980's boys and girls had the short in front long and permed in back look) We compromised and I cut the sides really short. (photo of my me at 16 in my uniform for reference)

Using "he" would never have occurred to me because "EWWW Boys". This is not to say, however, that I hated being mistaken for a boy, on the contrary, it felt good. When someone thought I was a young man it meant they treated me as such. They didn't talk down to me, I knew they assumed I was capable and willing to get dirty. I knew unconsiously that along with the mistaken identity came many perks. This was nothing I analyzed but little girls see very early on the difference in treatment they recieve from their brothers, male cousins and neighborhood boys. This difference leads us to become negotiators to control our circumstances and not entittled to treatment based on our skills and actual personalies.

When an adult recognized me as a boy, even for a second at first glance, I knew I didn't have to prove myself. They, for an instant, assigned to me words like "strong, capable, demanding etc". No negotations required.

When someone realized I was a girl they literally had a change in their face. They smiled at me, softened their voice. When I was called "young lady" or "Miss" it always seemed to be backed my the worst assumptions (in my mind anyway). Lady is steeped in all kinds of traits I didnt want assigned to me. "quiet, weak, likes to dress pretty"OR "motherly, submissive, meek" Nothing good in my teen brain, that is for sure. Lady felt so OLD, so married to a man and reliant on him for survival, so polyster pants and ugly flats and scratchy blouses with a flower imprint. NONE of these things are inherent to being a woman or even socially forced on us but that is not how things work sometimes. Words that describe people get stereotypes and myths and traits attached to them all the time. Woman and girl are no different.

I can tell you, the best feeling in the world when I was in that job was when my supervisor, who damn well knew I was a young woman, trusted me with all the same tasks as the boys. Who valued my opinions and abilities equally to the young men. He took time to teach me what I didn't know, just like with them and didn't assume I couldn't or didn't want to learn things on the job. He didn't shame ANYONE for not being strong enough or for getting tired or needing a break.

Don't let the assumptions of others force you into another box of conformity. You don't need a boys name or to use any pronouns you don't feel connected to just to please others. In fact, none of that effort will change perceptions of those around you. I can promise that one day being called Lady will just be another word that you can hear and know it does not change your personality or your interests or control the hope you have for your future. What does waste a lot of time and energy is trying to adjust things in your life to fit incorrect or snap assumptions about you as a person. You can never control the thoughts of those around you but what you can do is stop worrying about it and enjoy YOU.

You have a job you love and are sure to thrive in. You are solid in your sexuality and love of women, you are in a unique position to possibly change the perceptions of others when they think of "young women". Your interactions with the public are sure to effect the assumpions of at least some people when they think of young women and their roles in our society.

Congratulations on your new career and I bet you rock that uniform.

#lesbian #butch #stereotypes #careers #words #lady

[shitswiftiessay]

“multiple posts in support of the lgbtq community”

her LGBTQ “activism” pretty much started and ended with the lover era. she released the musical equivalent of “it’s ok to be gay,” she waited until she was in a blue state on the eras tour to even barely address the anti trans legislation that was being passed in OTHER states (states she had just performed in where her speech would’ve made much more of an impact). and telling people to go vote without specifying who you’re voting for or bringing attention to the important issues is not activism. it’s merely a voting reminder. which is fine, but, y’know, it doesn’t make you an lgbt advocate. which she promised to be as she accepted an award for it.

and despite the fact that she’s reportedly “spending a lot more time” in fuckass missouri to be with travis, she’s yet to say anything about the anti lgbt legislation being passed in that state.

she also went off tumblr because people asked her to talk about BLM and swifties act like it was the cruelest thing in the world to expect of her 🙄 but she made a whole thing in her documentary about wanting to be on the “right side of history.”

and taylor did the black square too so if you’re gonna attack joe for that 💀

and she made some promises on twitter to be “loudly and ferociously anti-racist.” then she went on to date racist pos matty healy… and use ice spice as a shield. AND she also made sure that her publicist let everyone know that the “controversy” surrounding matty’s racism had NOTHING to do with her decision to split from him.

so… yeah.

these same miserable fucking swifties used to praise joe alwyn for speaking out against men abusing their power over women in hollywood but now their whole blogs are basically dedicated hate blogs to him. because he committed the crime of not marrying taylor so now they’ve decided he’s the worst man on the planet. 🙄

meanwhile taylor’s working with rapist directors, hanging out with SA apologists and high-fiving an abuser at football games. her feminism and “advocacy” is limited ONLY to herself and it’s painfully obvious she does not give a shit about anything that doesn’t directly affect her.

also, joe’s name wouldn’t have been added to that ceasefire letter if he didn’t WANT it added. it’s a risk to anyone in the entertainment industry to openly support palestine and no one’s name is going to be “just added” without their consent. signing that ceasefire letter may be bare minimum shit, but it’s still more than anything Miss Americana has said or done regarding this issue, which is absolutely nothing, and you have to ask yourself WHY.

also if you’re upset about people saying that taylor was encouraged to be more political because of joe… idk what to tell you that’s literally a canon event that came straight from taylor’s own mouth.

and it’s not that i think she’d be a trump supporter without joe but… it’s pretty obvious that since they’ve broken up (and even in the year leading up to the breakup) she’s not dared to do anything remotely resembling activism or being “controversial.” if anything she’s just too fucking narcissistic and self-absorbed to care about anything going on in the world, just like her bestie selena.

#anti taylor swift #shit swifties say #joe alwyn

[suavis]

Never interacting with ST tumblr ever again. Went to the tag after Vol 2 expecting to see posts about the episodes/s5 set up, instead I got

Death threats to Duffer Bros for not making by//er canon

People who don’t support by//er are homophobic

Horrible hate to Mileven fans

Duffer Bros are homophobic for killing Eddie bc “Eddie is gay & they killed him bc they didn’t like Stedd¡e”

We’re sick & tired of El, she shouldn’t be focused on in s5, instead Will & Mike

Mike’s speech to El is out of character, he doesn’t love her

El is boring & her abuse for her entire life isn’t comparable to Will, his unrequited love for Mike is worse than her torture

Mike should’ve died instead of Eddie & he’s homophobic to Will, Mike is the worst person in the show

I’m also not interacting with ST tumblr again bc of the white mlm fetishizers. Billy was clearly racist to Lucas & abusive to Max (I understand he was abused but that doesn’t excuse his racism and horrid treatment of Max) but yet Steve & Billy is a popular ship. If Lucas was white, we’d see more Lucas/Dustin. But we don’t. Women are also always pushed to the side for mlm ships, so many posts diminish El for by//er

LITERALLY you’ve encompassed everything i hate abt the fandom 💀 it’s never really surprising when fandoms only care abt bland white men they can hc as gay/bi and then fetishize but truly the attempted character assassination of multiple whole ass children bc they don’t play into their specific narratives they want is extra foul.

i thought st*ddie was cute in passing at first but then the fans and esp eddie fans started acting Like That and i was outta there 💀 ain’t no way they thought it was going to end any other way have the ever watched this show before??? like he was fun but ultimately he was just some guy that some ppl in this fandom care more abt than MAX who’s been around for three seasons now like make it make sense???? and same with billy stans they just choose to ignore full on racism like i saw one say they did believe he was racist but still liked him 💔 truly no saving them the way y’all will cape for random white men even if they’re racist and abusive…… ur not seeing heaven

and YES the way this fandom passes over the black characters (the very few that exist 🥴) is sooooo…. obvious truly. billy apologists are obviously the worst of em but. if will had been in love with lucas and he’d been acting like mike first of all there wouldn’t even be a quarter as many shipper and second lucas would have been eviscerated 💔 people’s priorities in this fandom could not be clearer tbh

and people’s hatred of eleven is so transparent 💀 if she wasn’t in the way of that certain ship nobody would give a fuck but instead they’ll say she’s just his beard, she’s aroace/lesbian (which obvi i support hcs like this wholeheartedly but when the ONLY purpose is to try to make it so she couldn’t possibly be attracted to mike and so now will can have him???? gtfo), she looks like a man (which is mentioned MULTIPLE times in the b*ler slideshow LMAO make it make sense….. i’m a woman with short hair does that make my gf straight???), etc.

also yeah their fixation specifically earlier on the fact that mike couldn’t say i love you to her and then when he finally did it was out of character/him projecting his feelings for will on her??? it’s disrespectful to the characters tbh like the way they characterize mike idek how they like him anymore considering how they seem to believe he’s manipulating eleven AND being an asshole to will while still being in love with him??? i have truly never seen a fandom so deluded over next to zero actual evidence but i wasn’t around in the days of tjlc so 💀 but i’m definitely seeing some similarities LMAO it’s bad like. i think EVERYONE can agree that will is into mike but b*lers seem to think that means mike is going to have to be into will too like. ik they’re still hung up on their middle school/high school straight best friends (or are still IN middle/high school with that straight best friend 💀) and want to think that he’ll get the happy ending they didn’t but. truly i do think will deserves better than this even if mike DOES return his feelings like. they would not be a good couple 💔 here’s to hoping will gets a bf in s5 and all the characters get to be happy for once and b*let fans finally shut up <3

#this is gonna be a long one #anti steddie #anti byler #anti billy hargrove #anti eddie munson #kinda but i’m mostly putting it to avoid his fans SHDJD #stranger things #asks #anonymous #thank u for this ask btw anon it’s nice to know other ppl also see this bs JDDHDH

[aeskanera]

My personal ranking of Kotor companions from most to least favourite:

Juhani - naturally the top spot goes to the first lgbt+ character in star wars media. we love a lil lesbian

Mission Vao - this is my child, goes without saying

T3-M4 - he beeps! he goes deet deet! he has a flamethrower! he cost like a thousand credits though hence the third place ranking

Hanharr - so I know no one ranks him very highly ever or talks about him cause it’s actually pretty hard to get him in a play through but like. if you can find his dialogue options online and read through all his conversations I would so recommend it. He is absolutely fascinating whether you’re giving LS or DS answers and he’s an extraordinarily interesting character study (as are all the Kotor II characters but he’s a particularly underrated one). They took a lot of elements of Zaalbar but also Juhani and really fleshed them out and since Juhani’s my fav it makes sense I’d like him

Canderous Ordo - bioware let me romance him I’m begging you on hands and knees. that being said I know my opinion of him is biased for this reason so to be objective he’s a few spots down

Atton Rand - normally I don’t get the obsession when tumblr goes nuts for the most average men but like. i get it this time. Especially because he’s not average he’s arguably the most nuanced and complex star wars character to exist, even more so than Kreia (to me) with insane depth and his romance is certainly the best written romance in star wars. but also this man doesn’t shower

Mira - I feel like sis never gets enough credit for definitely (in my mind) being down bad for female exile. like she fully rejects male exile if he comes on to her and then when she comments to the other girls like “back off he’s mine” she follows up with clarifying that if anyone is going to turn him in for a bounty it’s her. and if female exile asks if Mira knows anything about men Mira’s just like “I know how to hunt them for bounties. What else could you possibly need them for.” and when you read her thoughts she only wonders how male exile still looks so young but for a female exile she specifically is like “she’s just so naturally beautiful” cue hearteyes. That being said her being wlw is not canon and she absolutely reeks of performative third wave feminism

Kreia - Kreia, sis, take a chill pill. wonderful, fascinatingly written character and all but like. damn. also middle of the list for being a parasocial mother figure to me in all the good ways and the bad. She would be lower but she was a fucking beast in combat plus carrying on the Star Wars legacy of losing hands in lightsaber duels

Carth Onasi - they said cookie cutter hero even down to the dead wife but also give this man the worst trust issues you’ve ever seen and make him awful at flirting. I did not know the game pseudo forces you into his romance even if you reject him, cause I’ll not lie the first time I played through the game his awkward and downright terrible rizz captivated me. but also if I didn’t give Mira a free pass for product-of-its-time writing, it’s not fair if I don’t also judge Carth for that so like negative points for pushy sexism

Visas Marr - don’t like that if you’re a male exile it forces you to have only saved her life out of sexual desire no matter what you say about it. and if we’re judging Carth’s romance for that, we have to judge this too. plus she’s so bad in fights, I don’t know what it was but I could never get her to stay conscious for any fights even low level ones no matter what I did in a play through. But also my darling with the best fashion taste in these entire games. Shy lil sweetheart who also fully was preparing to slit your throat. Like I love her, the uselessness as a companion is fully the reason she’s so low

Bastila Shan - she is as preachy as everyone says and it’s so much worse when you learn she’s supposed to be like 20 years old (which yikes x1000 for male Revan) but even with female Revan I was always willing to overlook the preachiness as a character thing back when I thought she was closer to the same age as Revan, like in her 30s or close to equals at least. But it does become much harder to overlook the arrogance and lectures when this snotrag is like at least a decade younger than you. also what even is battle meditation it’s a stupid power. but I cannot deny the mommy issues did make me relate hard plus now that legends isn’t canon (not that it ever was) that means legends is whatever I want it to be so in my brain Bastila is at least 30

Zaalbar - I want to like him so much more than I do. He’s just I think one of the worst cases of Kotor I having a very limited system of good and evil so like all of the nuance that his character could have is pretty straightforwardly handled and very black and white

Jolee Bindo - take notes Kreia on the superior grey jedi (even though I ranked him so much lower than her lol). but yeah mad props for being the only true grey jedi to exist in these games, at least when you first meet him. I just unfortunately have adhd and since his whole character and all his interactions are just longwinded war stories, I get very bored very quickly. (and yes Canderous is similar but his stories are shorter and don’t make up his entire relationship with Revan and also I want to romance him)

Bao-Dur - we love to see disability rep just would be nice if I could have more than like three conversations with him. as great a setup and backstory as the rest of the Kotor II companions and then they do basically nothing with him even if he learns Force wielding

HK-47 - he’s mostly so far down because I think he’s extremely overrated. like he as a character is fun but he’s treated like the greatest cleverest writing to have ever existed when it’s literally just the same two jokes over and over again

Mical the Disciple - I do love him actually but yeah everyone’s not wrong about him being the blandest most milquetoast nerd to have ever existed. I do have affection in my heart for him but unfortunately he must also lose brownie points for replacing Dvakvar, an infinitely cooler character

Brianna the Handmaiden - this girl would have bullied me in high school I think

Dvakvar Grahrk - why did they replace this cool alien with yet another boring human. clearly they did not think it would be believable that Atton would be jealous of an alien’s relationship with f!exile or else he’d have been more jealous of Bao-Dur as well. star wars made aliens only to hate on them and quite frankly I would like to have recruited and possibly (depending on the quality of footage that could have existed) even romanced Dvakvar. Unfortunately because we know next to nothing about him he must come at the bottom of the list. RIP to what could have been

G0-T0 - I literally forgot about him at first, I simply do not care about this thing

Honorary mention: Bao-Dur’s Remote - he’s just a lil guy that zooms around! no flaws nothing but perfection. would be number one if I considered him an full companion. Also honorary mention to Trask Ulgo, gone but not forgotten

#star wars #kotor ii #kotor #kotor companions #knights of the old republic #star wars knights of the old republic

[im-not-a-joke]

this is me asking u about ur heartstopper rtc au

THANK YOU

ok ok ok so

noel (charlie) is the only (out) gay kid in the all-boys school, his best friend is ricky (tao), and they bond over being outcasts. ricky is a lot of noel's impulse control and vice-versa. They also have a mutual friend, penny (elle), who just transferred to the all-girls school in Uranium. there, penny meets ocean (tara) and constance (darcy), who are secretly dating, but aren't ready to tell anyone yet. in addition, talia (imogen, im basing this off the netflix series bite me-) goes to the all-girls school.

enter mischa bachinski, the new kid in noel's homeroom. ricky doesn't trust mischa at first because of course, ricky, noel, and penny have been outcasts their whole lives. noel sits next to mischa, kickstarting their friendship and noel's newfound crush.

talia quickly becomes friends with mischa, they bond over both being ukrainian, and mischa is adopted into her friend group.

they become really good friends, and, although ricky is happy for noel, he can't help but not trust him. he hears in passing that mischa spends a lot of time with ocean, and tells noel and penny about it. penny finds out that ocean has been helping mischa with his english and catching up from his move to canada, and that ocean and constance are dating.

mischa, as he is getting closer to noel, is starting to have questions about his own sexuality. he tries not to let this get in the way of his friendship with noel.

mischa is invited to a big party hosted by the wealthiest kid in Uranium. talia, who has a lowkey crush on mischa, asks him to invite her, to which he says yes. he then invites noel, because he thats who he really wants to hang out with. he considers noel his closest friend.

at the party, mischa is cornered by his friends, who know about how close he is with ocean. they talk, and ocean mentions that she and constance are dating, to which mischa is shocked but happy for them. he then is cornered by a very drunk talia, who tells him that she likes him, in vague english terms, because english is the worst and most vague language. he brushes her off, looking for noel, who wandered off somewhere while he was being cornered.

meanwhile, ocean and constance decide its time for them to let loose, and let themselves dance and have fun together and kiss in public (lets go lesbians).

he and noel meet back up, and they end up in some far, quiet corner of the venue, where mischa is emotionally vulnerable about how hes confused about his sexuality. they kiss, its cute, but mischa is cornered by his friends again. noel has a panic attack and leaves the party, and mischa is all :(( when he can't find him again.

meanwhile meanwhile, ricky and penny have a movie night, and they talk about how ricky is scared hes being replaced in noel's life. noel and penny are the only people to ever give ricky the time of day, so watching noel get close with someone else and not having penny at school is really bothering him. penny promises ricky that nothing will change between them, and they cuddle and watch movies for the rest of the night.

the next day, mischa shows up to noel's house in the rain, apologizing for being confused. they talk, and agree to keep whatever's going on between them a secret. they start sitting together at lunch, away from ricky, and mischa starts feeling bad about making noel keep them a secret.

ocean and constance start coming out more publicly, talia asks ocean of she and mischa are together, to which constance is exasperated (she loves her gf <3).

a few days later, talia asks mischa out in front of all their mutual friends, to which mischa says yes to get the attention off of himself. ricky and penny overhear this. noel then invites mischa to his birthday party, on the same day as mischa and talia's date.

mischa ends up talking to talia about it, letting her down gently enough, and they remain good friends. talia is so slay.

mischa goes to noel's party, ricky and penny are also there. ricky ends up telling noel about the mischa/talia thing, warning noel to not get too invested. noel is hurt, but, when he gets a moment alone with mischa, he explains what happened and all is forgiven.

penny decides its a good idea to introduce ocean and constance to ricky and noel, combining her friend groups. noel and constance get along swimmingly, noel and ocean bicker, in a mostly friendly way.

mischa, in his confusion, tells ocean and constance about his identity issues, and tells them about him and noel. neither of them are surprised.

soon, ocean and constance start seeing how obliviously pining ricky and penny are, so, they decide to meddle. with noel's help, the six of them (including mischa), go on a triple date.

it goes well, and penny ends up finding out about noel and mischa, but they make her promise not to tell ricky. she agrees, but tells them that they should tell him soon.

ocean and constance end up locked in a practice room after the triple date, and ocean opens up about her insecurity in their coming out, to which constance reassures her that theyre in it together, and that things will be okay with time.

mischa and talia's friends notice that mischa is spending more time with noel, and invite him to hang out with them. they end up harassing noel about being gay. noel leaves early. mischa's firneds continue talking about noel, and one of them calls him the f slur. mischa proceeds to attempt to beat the shit out of him, and leaves, angry and confused and sad.

ricky finds out about noel and mischa, and is hurt that noel didn't tell him. he ignores noel's attempts to apologize, throwing himself at penny to make himself feel better.

noel is very insecure about his place in mischa's life, even attempting to figure out how to end whatever they have going on.

the all-boys school and all-girls school have a combined sports day, in which noel and ricky make up, and ricky and penny have a moment (tm)

at this point, mischa realizes that he doesn't care what other people think about him, as long as he has noel. he pulls noel aside and tells him such, noel cries, so does mischa, theyre both very "why are we like this"

the two of them have a day out, in which they go to the beach. mischa tells noel that he's ready to come out as bi. noel asks if this makes them boyfriends, mischa thought that that was obvious. theyre cute, i love them

#i could make this a whole thing #i already did but #THEM #anyways i have another ask about this but the other direction #carson rambles #rtc #ride the cyclone #nischa #nischa rtc #spacedolls rtc #blackrose rtc #asks #long post #heartstopper!rtc au

[angorwhosebabyisthis]

[cws: non-detailed discussion of both fictional and irl SA/CSA/abuse dynamics, apologia for the previous, homophobia, fetishization of wlw, and anti rhetoric.]

-

having a lot of thoughts about the wider fandom's treatment of the various abuse dynamics present in sdmi--supposedly in the name of being anti-abuse--and how instead it's propagated deeply anti-survivor/abuse apologist sentiment and behavior through where they choose to apply that rhetoric, and where they choose to look the other way.

(first off, if you're someone who does not and has not done this, thank you from the bottom of my heart. second, this is not at all exhaustive of my feelings on the subject and there will probably be more posts about these dynamics and people's behavior toward them in future. as you can imagine by the length of this post that is saying something lmao)

one of the reasons i feel as strongly as i do about the way both canon and fandom have historically been about pericles, pericky, and shitting on anyone who likes them because it Normalizes Abuse(tm), is that their fans are pretty open and emphatic about the fact that it's Fucked Up. it's why we find it compelling. it is vanishingly rare that we don't.

meanwhile, velma is the UwU Cute Sassy Lesbian Icon whose relationship with shaggy was Cringy and Immature (and mutually so 🙃) at worst, when it directly mirrored such visceral aspects of my experience with CSA that i almost threw up rewatching the second episode.

and that's not even getting into how normalized it is for women to abuse men in a relationship, in broad fucking daylight in front of other people, and how men are supposed to Always Want It and it's an insult if they don't, and how the vast majority of CSA--which it overtly is in shaggy's case, he is implied not to be an adult yet--is perpetrated by other kids.

and it's also not getting into the fact that the ~cute lesbian relationship~ is almost certainly going to end up with the other queer girl in the show also being abused, because abusers are not Magically Cured by True Queer Love's Kiss. how it is incredibly difficult for survivors of abuse in a wlw relationship to be acknowledged or get support because then they'd be a Traitor, or people would rather maintain the feel-good fuzzy feelings wlw exist to give them, or they're closeted and it's not safe to let people know they're in a relationship with a woman. how queer relationships, especially between women, are fetishized as cute pure healthy fairytale romances and not dynamics involving real people who might harm each other or be harmed and need help.

and that's not even getting into the fact that mlm are seen as inherently predatory to an extent that the majority of other queer identities are not. how older queer men grooming boys is a classic homophobic stereotype used to justify violence toward them, up to and including lynchings, and how that is the abuse dynamic everyone in the show and fandom latched onto to revile as the Disgusting Evil Predatory One while giving everything else a pass. how mlm have a long history of forced institutionalization and psychiatric torture and abuse, and the Predatory Gay Man is subjected to decades of--you guessed it!--forced institutionalization and psychiatric torture and abuse, which is framed as what he deserved and where he belonged. how he's supposed to be unattractive (and the majority of the people who do this shit lean hard on that), while people are way more likely to give Charming Attractive Aesthetically Pleasing abusers a pass.

this is just..... normal, to the fandom. it's treated as completely normal. and i think that's a whole lot more fucking harmful than finding emotional catharsis in exploring an abusive dynamic that would not fly in broad daylight irl in a million years.

#sdmi #scooby doo: mystery incorporated #professor pericles #velma dinkley #shaggy rogers #SDMItag #cws in post #like. everything about shaggy and velma's dynamic in and related to the first half of S1 is *gutwrenching* #it took me up until this rewatch to realize why every time i try to rewatch the show in linear order i can never seem to watch past E02 #and end up just skipping around #and time and personal experience have *really* made the 'fairytale queer romance that is a missing stair right into a bottomless pit' #thing hit harder #whereas exploring pericky when i was younger *made me realize things about their relationship were abuse that i hadn't understood before* #'okay so if i go back and fix *this* part that'll make it not abusive anymore and they can be happ--oh. oh geez. this goes deep doesn't it' #and the people who don't like pericky will do the opposite and *actively claim the abuse dynamics that are there do not exist* #because Then It Would Be Shipping and That's Just Gross UwU #because 'this can't have been [X kind of abuse] because [X abuse] is Gross and its potential existence near me makes me uncomfortable' #'you're the one who's gross for seeing it and pointing it out; ew how dare you ruin people's day by making them think about that' #'thank goodness it didn't happen and we can all move on with our lives (and you won't like what happens if you dare bring it up again)' #isn't. you know. famously a thing that happens all the time to gaslight and silence survivors irl and take our words away from us lol #anyway as you can maybe imagine i am bitter about this lmao #but also i just generally think it's worth talking about; especially if even one person understands their own experiences better for it #the crit files #the salt files #SDMIcrit tag #pericky #dyn: when i die i want you to die too

[mshexley]

Question this is going back to the whole Giselle debate on bleach.

But how do you think how Kubo handles his lgbtq and trans coded character? Are they good or they could be be improved. I have been seeing mix reactions saying Kubo is anti lgbtq and transphobic because his characters. But to me I think he handle them pretty well. I can see how people can say why since how he handle Giselle and Charlotte but then you have characters like Soi fon, Chizuru, and Yumichika yes they don't get much spotlight authentic rest of the cast but in some ways they all have good personality

Personally, I feel like it usually depends on a person's experience. I also like to add the disclaimer that I'm not trans or Japanese, so take my stance with a grain of salt. I also want to make it clear that I'm not making excuses for him.

TLDR: He wants to clearly add more queer characters to his work but he doesn't seem to know anything about queer culture even in Japan which is where you would assume he gets most of his inspiration but he seems to take his knowledge from a very pop-culture view of queer people.

I don't think it's out of malice but he can definitely improve by putting in the research work especially if there's going to be another Bleach arc and especially for any added arcs of Burn The Witch and he wants to add more queer characters.

(The longer version is under the cut)

But in general, I feel Kubo has the same approach to writing queer characters in the way that early Togashi (HxH, Yu Yu Hakusho) did. In that way where he's trying but it's....just not good. It just reads that way to me.

And it very much paints the picture that Kubo wants to add queer characters to his stories because they tend to fit the themes of his works but he is not around a lot of queer folks and doesn't know much about the culture and what he does know is formed from a sort of pop-culture understanding of Japanese LGBT+ culture and when mixed with Japan's own queerphobia, it just doesn't mix well.

And its funny to bring up Soi Fon and Chizuru because I think they're a clear example of this as both fall into the "predatory lesbian" trope. Chizuru with Orihime and Soi Fon with Yoruichi. When Kubo writes well, he writes WELL but when he flops, HE FLOPS and he tends to drop the ball with a lot of characters. The only thing we know about Chizuru is that inappropriately touches Orihime a lot and the only thing we know about Soi Fon is that she's hardheaded and has been obsessed with Yoruichi since she was a child. And I can.....sort of give it a pass cause it was the early 2000s and...dear god those years were the worst.

In the cases of Yumichika and Charlotte, it feels like they can be read as deep but the whether it's intentional or not is up for debate just because of Kubo's track record. Like Yumichika and Charlotte are the best queer characters he's written because of how they both can be read. And again, there's no telling if that's intentional or not and that's what holds him back.

I already touched on Yumichika as a closeted gay man who lashes out on other queer people and I think the biggest issue is that there isn't a much clearer emphasis on Yumichika being the one in the wrong because Kubo has no issue with named characters getting told off for being wrong, especially when they're being backwards and narrow-minded. IMO, I think a small clapback of Giselle saying "you smell semen often" would've been way more relatable in terms of queer insulting and I feel like it would've put them on even ground somewhat but again, Kubo wouldn't know that because he doesn't know much about the cultures of queer people.

Charlotte gives strong drag queen vibes for me. Like compared to the drag queens I watch, Charlotte feels very much like them and everything about her personality is a campy bit right down to her super long attack names.

I also see some folks not want to claim Giselle which is their prerogative but it sets the precedent that queer people have to fit a certain mold in order to be queer and I feel like it's unfair to Giselle as a character because she's the not the only character that is morally bad. Mayuri exists and he shows no remorse for constantly abusing Nemu and takes pride in his experiments on other species like Uryu's grandfather and the Arrancar, Szayelaporro exists and he was so bad he went to Hell, there's also Nnoitora who actively attacks Nel because she was a woman ranked higher than him. Even among the Quincies, there's Quilge Opie who takes pleasure in ruthlessly murdering Arrancar prisoners and PePe who's power is to literally force people to "love" him, even using it on other Quincies.

I would understand if Giselle was isolated in that type of personality but the reason people "aren't talking about it" is because it comes with the food at this point. The Sternritters are literally modeled after Nazis (the guy that leads them literally built his power by killing the "mixed blooded Quincy), most of them are gonna have personalities that people may find deplorable.

In general, if Kubo wants to commit to it, he should put in the work and learn more about Queer culture because there are different implications when you write queer characters a certain way. Because I feel like with his style of writing, he can make it work.

#Bleach #giselle gewelle #yumichika ayasegawa #charlotte chuhlhourne #Soi Fon #yoruichi shihouin

[sagesilentfire]

"not cishet" So does all the stuff he's made featuring Lumity Raeda Veesha and Aladarius not count?

Of course it counts. But. Nothing he's made gives me the impression he knows what being non-cishet is actually like. Like most of his stuff, it's all surface-level. Because being queer is not just fluff and maybe being slightly nervous you'll mess up your coming out. Maybe for the Boiling Isles ships this isn't an issue, but on Earth... there's a lot of baggage and community that comes with being queer. Because if your coming out turns out badly, the worst that could happen is not awkwardness, it is that you could literally die. We see jokes and funny coming outs here on tumblr, but that is with kids who are 100% sure that their parents will accept them. If there's even slightly a doubt, that is dangerous. I am fortunate that my parents have just been happy to completely forget that I'm nonbinary. Other people I know have been kicked out of their houses and are no longer in contact with their parents. Queer people gravitate to each other because community is rare and difficult to find. Morningmark doesn't get that, but he also doesn't get any in-jokes or any indication of the sheer relief living on the Boiling Isles would be to a young queer person. Here's a hint: homophobia is not some guy saying rudely incorrect things to the lesbian couple so that a straight guy can make them go away, or whatever trope Morningmark comes up with next. Homophobia is the politician passing laws to legislate you out of existence. Homophobia is the preacher telling your parents that you are a sinner if you accept who you are. Homophobia is the proud boys showing up with guns to your storybook hour. Homophobes are common, and they are not people you can reach with kindness or epic owns.

And being queer is fighting that. It's finding community with every queer person you can find. It's finding refuge from an unaccepting world with the people you meet who will accept you. It's in-jokes, found family, and deep friendship. It is deeply rewarding to be queer, but it is scary.

It's frankly quite insulting that Morningmark keeps insisting that Luz becomes friends with her bullies. Because Luz was canonically bullied for traits common to queer and neurodivergent (I could talk about that too; awkwardness and nerdiness do not a neurodivergent character make and Morningmark doesn't understand this either), insisting that her bullies think her girlfriend is awesome or like her palisman or whatever is, quite frankly, insulting. They hated her for those traits; you're saying that the solution to queerphobic, ableist bullying was to get more queer and more obviously neuroatypical? She should become more queer and more obviously neuroatypical for herself and completely ignore the bullies' attempts to force her back into any box because she doesn't care what they think. And that should be the end. Not everyone will accept you, and that is completely fine.

But nooo, everyone has to accept you! After all, there's no difference between you and straight couples. Love is love. Yaaaaay.

#queue queue #morningmark #sigh #again not a bad guy he just doesn't understand things every queer person gets from age 5

[yurisorcerer]

So, I've been sick the past couple days. This led to me watching the Code Geass compilation movies. I don't know, the brain works in mysterious ways.

God, Code Geass.

This was another one of those anime things that was just omnipresent for a while in the late '00s. I think it's held up a lot better than its one-time sort-of-rival Death Note, but that's a very low bar to clear (I do not like Death Note at all). Code Geass, or at least the refracted form of it presented here in these recap movies (and going off of my own memories of the original show), is a series I like but don't really....respect. I don't personally get that feeling super often, usually it's the other way around.

It's hard to pin exactly why that is. It's not the campiness---I love that stuff---and it's not the characters, most of whom I genuinely really like. I think it's down to the narrative and what comes out of that narrative. Code Geass' themes and *especially* its political ideas are very....haphazard? They're definitely there; the idea that power corrupts, the question of what it means to deceive, political ideas about war, genocide, colonialism, and so on, but they feel surprisingly incoherent for a show whose central premise builds off the fact that it's taking place in an occupied country. There's a very strong FEELING of there being a big struggle between ideas, but I think that feeling is mostly illusory. The show's characters end up being defined more by their personal connections. Even the proposed duality of Lelouch as the pragmatist and Suzaku as the idealist seems to exist mostly to be taken apart over the course of the story.

On the other hand, maybe that's a good thing? Maybe---intentionally or not---that's what we should be taking out of this, that big ideals tend to falter in the face of the much more immediate pull of the people we love and hate? I don't know, that feels like giving the series a pass in a way I'm not sure I'm totally onboard with.

I'm spending a lot of time criticizing it here, but I do actually like this series. I think for its faults it works really well on a moment to moment level and it hits just an absolute ton of my personal buttons; big mecha fights, rapidfire mind games, and a generally theatrical sense of characterization.

The movies also change a few things from the original series. Mostly these are for the better; Shirley survives the entirety of the recap films, for example, and the entirety of Mao's character and plotline are---thank fuck---ommitted. Some of them I don't really get; Nina is less driven by being a Crazy Lesbian TM which is a good thing for sure, but also the motivation that makes up for that (mostly just being a hysterical racist) clunks off the narrative in a really uncomfortable way, since the series doesn't really address it. Ech.

Also the pacing of the three films both individually and in aggregate is absolutely horrible, like, people complain about pacing in stuff *all the time* but this is some of the worst I've seen in a modern anime production. An advantage the original series had was that, for all its weird detours about, say, Kallen's mom being a fantasy-drug addict or whatever, you got to spend more actual *time* with the characters, so they felt a bit more fully realized. This is definitely a case where the recap films do expect you to be familiar with the original despite making some of those changes. Which is itself fair enough in of itself I suppose, they are called RECAP films after all, but it did make me cognizant of the fact that like, it mostly sort of smears over the reasons people got super attached to characters like (again) Kallen, or Jeremiah. They both get plenty of screentime in these movies and they're absolutely great in what time they do get (and this is the case for a number of other characters as well), but the sheer difference in how these things are structured vis a vis the original show does reveal a few shortcomings of the format. IDK, I feel like I'm writing in circles at this point and again am coming off as more critical than I want to be.

Let me talk about something I think really shines in the movies. You know who's great in these films? This fuckin guy.

Lelouch is, to me, a hysterical fucking character. Bundle of contradictions, impossibly cool loser, gay as hell but always ends up with a woman because Reasons. When I was a youngish teen and watched Code Geass for the first time I had zero idea who Char Aznable was, but, like, this is pretty uncontroversial, right? Lelouch Lamperouge is the millennial Char. He is our forefathers' accomplishments handed down to us as farce. I absolutely hate him, and I hate that I still think he's as super fucking cool as I did when I first watched this story at age 14. My favorite scene in all three movies combined was when he got stabbed in the heart and died, and many of the other scenes I really liked involved him doing something extra. I'm going to bet his death doesn't stick, given that the sequel film to this trilogy (which is an original story!) is called Lelouch of the Re;surrection. What is that semicolon doing there. I'm the last person on earth who should be talking about semicolon placement but come on.

Some other thoughts:

When I was in high school I got into an argument with a friend over whether Kallen's knightmare frame (god, the mecha are fucking called knightmare frames), the Guren, was the coolest giant robot of all time. I don't stand by that assertion itself, but I do think its big hand weapon the Wave Surger is one of the sickest fucking things in this or any mecha series

For being in large part about how colonialism sucks, this series sure isn't in a hurry to visit any part of the world that's actually affected strongly by it IRL, huh? I get that there are Watsonian reasons for this but c'mon.

Kallen and Lelouch's romance in this is even less convincing than it was in the original series which is honestly impressive

Opposite of the above, I find Lelouch / C.C. a little more believable this go-around. Not sure how much of that is it being meaningfully different here vs. me just changing as a person as I've gotten older vs. who knows what else

the entirety of the World of C stuff is still so fucking bizarre to me. it's been years and I still cannot figure out for the life of me why that was how they chose to resolve that whole thing. It feels deliberate, though, because it's not really altered in any major way here and Gorou Taniguchi did something similar in Back Arrow (it kind of fit better there because that show is just weird as hell to begin with, but still, the similarities are striking).

the battles in this are really grandiose and cool and carried the movies for me when the plot did not

I love Kallen so much you guys, you don't even understand

the above bullet point again but about C.C. this time

I miss the gratuitous Pizza Hut advertisements so much. I don't know why. The fact that I do feels like a sign that something is deeply wrong with me.

They cut The Table Scene. Because of Woke, I assume.

god this got long for me just basically being like "I like this but it has a lot of problems." Whatever, no one reads these LOL

#code geass #yurisorcerer talks about media

[lovecatsys]

I'm thinking about what would happen if Ellie and Shela interacted...

Shela sees this punk, former goth lesbian, and wonders why on Earth she looks up to Emma Frost so much. "Don't you know the kind of person she is?" Shela explains the way Emma has mistreated her, why she hates Emma now even though she used to look up to her as an aspiring teenage supervillain.

Ellie looks at Shela and knows that this girl will never understand the horror of what Emma has had to go through as a teacher and a mentor of young mutants. Ellie herself is quite literally a symbol of what Emma has lost trying to protect mutant children from hate.

Shela's parents accepted her for being a mutant, even if they were transphobic. Shela lived as a human passing closeted mutant for most of her life. She's never experienced any real mutant hatred until now.

Ellie died for being a mutant. She said it herself - she didn't come back from that, not truly. Not in any way that counts.

Even though Shela is now getting a taste for what being a mutant really means, especially as she's getting closer to Martha, who has arguably experienced some of the worst of mutant hate. (losing her body, her entire autonomy, being forced into an identity she didn't want but couldn't change for so long, is worse than death in so many ways.) She's hanging out with the New Mutants, who have this long history of being kids who fought against Emma Frost and her pupils. She's not going to warm up to Emma any time soon if she continues hanging out with them.

Ellie could give her an insight into Emma that few else could, especially since Ellie is also young and queer, which is something that would make Shela much more likely to listen than if she was trying to be convinced by say, Julian or Esme.

They've never interacted and likely never will, but I think this would be a very interesting way for Shela to understand Emma's perspective, and warm up to her again.

#shela sexton #ellie phimister #emma frost #i love thinking about what would happen if young marvel kids who've never met interacted #especially if theyre both queer #x men

[gerrysherry]

saw your post on tgs tag. post your essay. i like tgs but i hate the fandom most of the time since they treat it the way christians treat the bible so

Thank you dear anon. You give me hope.

"OMG it's like J/H but finally woke", like no it's a white feminism level reading of Jekyll and Hyde and Jekyde bait. I just pray the ending is good. Literally all the characters deserve better.

Ask and you shall recieve: The essay with fanfic promo

TGS deserved better

Rachel deserves better than to serve every man she comes across (or falls for)

Virginia deserves better than to be a trans lesbian who pines for a gf and never does any alchemy besides help Jasper

Jasper deserves better than being a transmasc punching bag and deserves an anger arc and more creature scenes

Jekyll deserves a heart to heart and a man who actually loves him. Also he can't hide (hardy har har) behind internalized homophobia for all his problems

Lanyon deserves a writer than can decide to make either a villain or a love interest but not sexy bad boy who keeps breaking our MC's heart till the end. Cotungo also helped popularize the "Lanyon/Utterson is just jealous of Hyde" trope and I hate them for it.

Hyde could stand to be scarier and a whole lot smarter (you know like Stevenson intended, Hyde is smart. The simian brute is scary because he's smart and that doesn't just scare victorians, it scares us today) and also why do the fuck doesn't he share memories with Jekyll if Cotungo claims he DOESN'T have DID?*

The age lift doesn't work at all

De-aging the characters never really worked for me. Why transform from 35 to 25? Also Hyde looks way too old to pass as Jekyll's son son but everyone believes that?! Also the fears of aging and dying alone and losing childhood friends is completely erased. To me Utterson staring at the grave of one friend and the corpse and will of another reminds me of my grandfather saying "after you lose your childhood friends, it's never the same no matter what new ones you make"** Here Jekyll's friendship with Jasper and Lanyon seem almost interchangeable down the romantic subtext.

Queerer than Fiction / Utterson and Harker-verse/Lambs to the Slaughter/Zone trilogy/Jekyll Saga

Queerer than Fiction: I legit re-wrote some of my interactions between Jekyll and his apprentice after reading "sad people dance too"

In Queerer than Fiction my OC Svetlana finds out the truth about Jekyll and Hyde and recreates the potion. Originally this was a gender-bent Henrietta Jekyll who left for America. This didn't work and I created Svetlana Raskaynaya and her alter ego Ellis Gage***.

This freed up the original Jekyll to interact with Svetlana. His care is that to a patient and then an acquaintance and he is neutral to positive about her gnc ness. Sveta never gets to come out to him because he dies and there is a fear of hers that he wouldn't accept them as Ellis Gage. If you read my other works you'd know he wouldn't but the tragedy of not knowing is what this story is about.

Utterson and Harker: We pause our monster of the week detective stories for a brief story of grief and acceptance

Utterson and Harker is the crossover nobody will write The Harker family and Gabriel Utterson (assisted by his clerk Mr Aloysius Guest). In a dark story where Utterson dies, Guest has to assume his mentor's role and finish finding out what happened to Svetlana.He arrives to end Gage and prevent another Edward Hyde, he ends up legitimizing Ellis Gage instead.

When Mr. Guest comes to investigate whether Svetlana has Jekyll's formula which legally belongs to Gabriel Utterson, they bond over their respective second names (Ms. Ilysa Outguess, Mx. Ellis Gage) are of a different gender than theirs and being nerds.

Utterson who is canonically accepting of eccentricity finds Gage disturbing for the wall climbing, calledisclopic shifting pigmentation, and penchant for petty crime and yes recreating his best friends worst project. But the androgyny that's fine go knock yourself out.

Lambs to the Slaughter: What if Silence of the lambs but with Gothic Lit characters and not transphobic?

While some people are convinced that canon Jekyll is trans and call all those who disagree transphobic and lacking imagination I don't personally write him as such. I have no problem with such views. My friend's oc Possum is a rp blog here and it feels one of the most accurate takes on Hyde I've seen in awhile. This friend is why I am on tumblr in the first place and I post asks there every other day. All versions of his Jekyll are trans men.

I have only one story with such a premise the steampunk silence of the lambs story. The premise is that are Lucy is murdered by the Phantom of the Opera, Mina embarks on a quest of revenge which brings her behind the only man who can catch this monster, Dr. Henry Jekyll. The only problem is the man is currently serving a life sentence under the name of Edward Hyde.

It will include the following reveal:

Hyde (our Hannibal Lecter) : Based on the first two murders younger me would have been his type

Mina Harker (our Clarice Starling): But Eric only kills women...

Hyde: What do you think young Henri Jekyll was back in the day?

Mina: well then...

Also

the little girl from chapter 1 comes out as well and when he asks Hyde for a good boy's name he suggests "Henry" since Hyde isn't using anymore.

Zone trilogy: Dark satire that might be too harsh

The Zone trilogy is a series of hand-drawn comics that follow the misadventures of two children of Jekyll/Hyde and many other pop-culture characters.

Basic plot of the abyss

Edie Hyde is the daughter Edward Hyde only. Or so her father Dr. Jekyll insists. He also insists that the two alchemists living in one of his estates aren't his beneficiaries but still sends them money. He denies ever meeting Gabriel Utterson, despite Gabrielle Anna being Edie's mother. Hastings Jekyll lost his father young and was raised by his mother. When Edie dragged him into her world he is delighted to meet a version of his father but is disappointed to see he is a cold-hearted hypocritical bigot. He is drawn in the same color scheme as TGS Jekyll and his treatment of not-Jasper, Helio Lockhart, cements that saying "No one will ever believe you, they just play along" does not acceptance make. I'm sure I'll get death threats for posting that comic

Jekyll Saga: What if Jekyll had children and they all had the two body thing.

This was actually written as monster high fanfiction but I soon realized that I could actually like sell this. Currently Henry Jekyll's story is partially out and I'm editing my story about Ash and Jenny which is basically a dark highschool rom com. Hastings' story will be a spy thriller and Gabrielle Mina's story might not be out for years due to lack of material. Dorian's stories will be out as soon as I edit them.

In my penultimate and final Jekyll saga stories I explore the lives of Ash Burns and Harland Jekyll/ Harley Hyde. Both are trans and explore this in different ways when Ash (and later their child Dorian) asks the ghost of Edward Hyde what he thinks of their transition he is mostly positive.

Follow me for more trash fires like this.

Notes

*I have OSSDD-1 (formerly 1b) and my handwriting is the same for all parts, DID people often have different handwriting for each alter. Jekyll is likely higher up the scale than I am so he outnought exhibit hollywood did symptoms. Laugh all you want in 50 years handwriting tests will be called the Sheridan Tests and it will help determine severity of a Dissociative Disorder.

** This line will surely out my alter ego when she mentions this as herself years later if I become famous.

***Gage is named after Phineas Gage who through losing a quarter of his brain changed for the worse (in victorian terms, swearing and lying as well as loss of math skills) but recovered and lived 12 years many of which were relatively fulfilling. He apparently became a completely different person after the accident. Gage was no longer Gage, said friends.

#tgs critical #tgs is transphobic and ableist #jekyll and hyde #strange case of dr jekyll and mr hyde #dr jekyll and mr hyde #essay #charlie explains #literary analysis with cecil #literary analysis with leo

[cowboyjen68]

just wanted to say how happy it makes me to see an older butch living your best life out in the Midwest! I've lived here my whole life and I've always wanted to keep a modest little farm out in the country but I've been too scared to being queer. but seeing you and your critters having a wonderful life fills me with so much hope and happiness. have a lovely day / evening / night, Jen!

I did not choose where I lived carefully. My girlfriend at the time saw the house, loved the house, decided we could afford the house annnd suddenly, we owned a house with 6 acres. She left 6 months later.

It just so happens we got (I got) lucky. We are a short commute to larger cities, the county is rural but spread out and populated with people who work in larger and cities or own local small businesses that employ the local citizens.

My advice is find and area with a doable commute to a larger city because jobs are easier to find, more resources tend to be available and people are less isolated. Make sure wifi, clean water, propane for heating and electrical is readily available on a stable grid, healthy well.

Make sure your fences are well build and your neighbor is not an obvious ass hole. (messy, dogs, livestock or kids running wild). If there is a junk yard in the yard next door or broken fences, run down house and barn, take a pass and keep looking. Age is one thing, clear neglect of his property is a good glance into how he might behave. And if it is close by, those conditions can affect your home and yard. Think rats, fleas, dangerous dogs, sick cats infecting yours or kids getting into things.

Living on gravel is cheaper because suburbanites want hard surface. I am one mile from a highway giving me privacy but that small stretch of gravel made my home more affordable, less affected by traffic (except during harvest) and pretty easy to navigate except in the worst of snow storms.

It is completely possible to be a visible lesbian in a rural setting but learning about the locals and the political climate can help. Don't wait for the perfect plot of land, just one you fall in love with and can afford, then make it your home.

One last piece of advice. If your girlfriend finds a baby goat (or 2) and the guy selling them says they live 4 or 5 years he is lying and try to get her away from them ASAP. :)

#lesbian #rural life #advice #acreage #owning land

[youleavethetardisbrakeson]

I had literally the most out of nowhere dream last night I don't even know how my sleeping brain came up with this shit. So everything was the same in House of the Dragon except Corlys was Angela Bassett with the white hair from her Marvel projects and Corlys x Rhaenys were gay as hell and snuck off to Braavos to get married with Alysanne's blessing and there was added depth to her being passed over as Queen cause *misogyny AND homophobia*. Literally everything else was the same, I woke up so freaking confused like brain wtf how are Laenor and Laena still here tho was Vaemond a surrogate for Rhaenys or something I am so confused but I'm gay and kinda here for it cause Angela Bassett and Eve Best holy fuck. 🤔

Hats off to your gay subconscious brain because HOLY FUCK indeed. Never say advertising doesn't work because clearly all the promotional Black Panther stuff got in there somehow lol

(Also, side note, Angela Bassett as Marie Laveau lives rent free in my head)

I forgot about her hair being white in the movies. This works a little TOO well for a gender-bent Corlys, good lord.

Some fun Fire & Blood lore for ya: a lot of the Targaryens are hella queer, especially the ladies. HELLA. Maybe it's the bisexual in me or maybe it's just Eve's tendency to stand a little too close to female scene partners, but Rhaenys gives of a feral bisexual vibe (honestly, Corlys not understanding that both his kids are gay/bi is so funny because LOOK AT YOUR WIFE).

So anyways... when you mentioned 'how did the kids happen?' we can find the answer in Princess Rhaena Targaryen. She was the eldest sibling of Jaehaerys and Alysanne (so Rhaenys' great aunt). She was first married to their brother Aegon and they had twin girls, Rhaella and Aerea. Then Maegor killed Aegon and forced Rhaena (and several other women) to marry him because he wanted heirs. Once Maegor was dead, Rhaena married a younger man, a minor lord's second son, Androw Farman, but it was the WORST KEPT SECRET that she did it because she was in love with his sister Elissa. The three of them moved around Westeros as a unit, eventually finally settling on Dragonstone (where Androw murdered a ton of people, but still). Very much lesbian Rhaenys and Corlys with Vaemond as third wheel vibes.

I'm here for it.

#ask #angela bassett #corlys velaryon #rhaenys targaryen #house of the dragon #hotd #fire & blood #asoiaf

[nerdychickshavemorefun]

8 Brief Thoughts About Van Helsing (2016)

It's now been a good chunk of time since Van Helsing (Syfy) final season came out on Netflix, and I would like to take a look back at some things from the early seasons that had such great potential and were ultimately squandered. Maybe one day someone can take some of these good ideas and have another go at it.

As a preface, in general I think that if this show had taken itself a little less seriously, been a little less unironically 90s-comicbook-style edgy, and just had more campy fun, they might've been able to keep the plot from flying off the rails at the end of season 3 and maybe would've been able to keep the MC likeable enough that they didn't have to stuff her in a closet for over an entire season.

And now, 8 things that could have been good:

1. the idea of a reverse vampire (someone who can bite vampires to turn them back into humans). I love the idea of being able to walk up to a classic, arrogant Gothic style vampire who remembers the Crusades and thinks humans are basically cattle, and just absolutely wreck them thematically and literally with just a little ~nibble~

2. Combining the classic "zombie apocalypse with fast zombies" setting (with half-starved feral vampires as the fast zombies), with having actual, intelligent villiand (well, varyingly intelligent) who can have the usual villian hierarchies and dynamics. Like if the various bad guy factions of The Walking Dead were lightly fantasy flavored and also not meant to just further bash into your head that all humans are horrible terrible monsters.

3. On a similar note, just having a show in an apocalypse setting that says "Humans aren't the worst, actually, because the vampires definitely are, and you have to magically and horrifically strip a person of their connection to emotion and humanity to get that". And if that's the opposite of the writers intentions and I've read it completely wrong, then I think they might've chosen being edgy and nihilist over being interesting.

4. Diversity. Not just in the representation of bi women, lesbians, BIPOC actors and characters (I cannot stress enough how big a deal having a confirmed-in-season-one bi female protag was for 2016), but in the in-world diversity of vampire clans/subspecies.

4.5. The Sisterhood. Obviously.

5. Putting a SHOCKINGLY gripping murder mystery in the middle of the first season of your post-apocalypse fantasy show.

5.5. Making Christopher Heyerdahl the murderer. The man never misses when it comes to playing compellingly unhinged characters. If you want a show with a script and plot that doesn't do him dirty like season 4 did, watch the first season of Hell on Wheels.

6. Having your mid-level BBEGs Tragic Backstory be "I was into BDSM in the 1700s and I had HORRIBLE taste in choosing a new dom and now here we are". I'm sorry but that is glorious and I still can't fathom why they waited until we no longer cared about the character to reveal it. They could've played it for comedy, they could've played it for developing the character (trust/control issues etc), and instead we got to wave at it as it passed us by on its way out the window.

7. Lady Dracula instead of good old Vlady, and the Three Spouses of Dracula instead of three wives. Liked the idea, felt the execution was lacking (but, to be fair, it was equally as lacking as everything else plot related in the later seasons). Please, someone just give me a modern Carmilla in vampire fiction.

8. A short list of themes they could have developed or developed better with this setting and these characters, and chose not to:

Human capacity for empathy and connection, and how that relates to ones definition of humanity.

In what ways does the fact that "humanity" can be given or restored in this setting conflict with the characters' assumed definitions of humanity. Further, address the fact that almost every single vampire killed in this series was originally a person who didn't want to be a vampire, and who could have been a human again. What are the personal and moral implications of actively killing a vampire when you could have just as easily turned back? Is there any real difference than just killing a human at that point?

The line between love and obsession/possession and the toxicity therein. After they mentioned that most vamps have a very limited emotional range, I would have loved to see this theme played out more in the vampires who still have close familial or romantic relationships (or, uh, I guess both), especially when you have Phil to contrast it with.

Found family and redemption arcs. Oldies but goodies. The amount of these themes/tropes they did have within the side characters' stories was most of what made the later seasons watchable for me, but I sometimes think we all might've got over the fact that Julius used to eat babies just a little too quickly.

#van helsing spoilers #van helsing (2016) #van helsing syfy #vanessa van helsing #van helsing #van helsing series finale

[radkindoffeminist]

Do you think the tide will ever turn with the trans movement? It has gotten insane and I don't know how much longer I can handle it. Most women I know are blindly pro-trans just because it's what's "in" right now.

Maybe I’m hopeful, but I think the tide will turn. I’ve been around long enough to see more and more people question trans activism. I remember joining r/Gender Critical at like 20k members and it got up to 50k before it was finally deleted two years ago. (RIP r/GC. You are missed.)

The thing with the trans movement is they keep pushing and every time they push for something else, people begin to question how much it’s needed and how important biological sex is in some of these decisions.

Like, first it’s wider access to transition and it’s like okay, kinda get that they want an easier time accessing medications that they ‘need’ to survive. And being able to change their names and pronouns and better acceptance which also made sense.

Then it’s bathroom and other public space access for some trans people and like okay, I get it. If you pass quite well then you’re probably not going to want to go into the bathroom based on your sex.

But then it was puberty blockers are essential. And lying about the side effects from these medications, especially the long term effects. And actually bathrooms and changing rooms need to all be based on self-ID which will never be abused. No, actually they should just all be gender neutral because that’s more inclusive and there’s literally no reason why women would want to have separate spaces, right?

And then it’s cotton ceiling. Not dating trans people is the worst transphobia in the world. It’s literal oppression against trans people. Lesbians are TERFs and gay men are TEHMs for their refusal. (But we’ll ignore straight people who do this. And I guess trans people get a pass for triggering dysphoria.)

And trans women need to be in women’s sports because there’s literally no difference between them and cis women and actually everyone has some biological advantage of some kind and so their advantages from being a male in female sports is basically moot. Like Michael Phelps competed in men’s swimming with so many advantages which is why he was just ahead in his field and often got beaten or had close wins especially later in his career so this male weightlifter can compete in women’s sports and yeah he’s much older than most other weight lifters but don’t worry about that because his maleness gives him literally zero advantages!

And anyone who dares to criticise any of this -saying lesbians don’t owe anyone sex and don’t have to fuck dick; supporting sex segregation in sports and other female spaces; mentioning that puberty blockers have side effects- is a fucking transphobe who wants to genocide trans people and therefore deserves death and rape threats. No, it doesn’t matter that they actually support trans people because they’re still spreading TERF rhetoric which is transphobic.

TRAs are responsible for their own downfall. Push too far and people realise that it’s not just about the right to exist or just wanting to use the bathroom.