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wenellyb · 3 years

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hey! every now and then i've seen random posts about sebastian's comment/s on colin kap kneeling among other things, but i've never seen any source material or hard facts. do you have any posts about this or deconstruction of your own? i'd be very interested, ty!

Hey yourself😉!

So I've found the screenshot of the post (at the bottom) and just so you know he also posted an apolology but that one I couldn't find a screenshot of.

There are plenty of posts talking about this but I think most of them are old so it would take some time for me to find them.

If you want my opinion. The whole thing was f*cked up and I remember being extremely surprised and unfollowing him after that post.

And he did apologize, which is good and I do think he understands that that post was not great, but it wasn't my main issue.

When the whole story with Kaepernick happened it was a real eye opener and exposed a lot of racists even among celebrities. I'm looking at you Christopher Meloni. But not only him.

So Colin Kaepernick was to kneeling to protest against police violence and racism.

And a lot of people reacted like a lot of White people react when the topic of racism arise: deny everything and get defensive "How dare he protest blablabala" "He's so rich and he's saying White people are priviledged..." "How dare he say there is racism in this country". You know the usual.

But the thing is to me, the way he protested was the most respectful, and most peaceful way to protest and also so impactful. And some people had still a problem with it...I don't understand how ANYBODY could have a problem with it ... unless they were racist in one way or the other. That was the bar for me... I could not have respect ANYBODY who had a problem with him kneeling, because their message was clear “just sh*t up and play football”.

To me, anybody who had a problem with Colin Kaepernick taking a knee... was automatically problematic and the worst.

For other forms of protests there can always be arguments against it, lousy arguments, but arguements nevertheless: "They're blocking the streets" "There was violence during the protest",... etc... But what is your argument with having a man kneel during the National Anthem, to call out something as serious as police brutality.

To me it was clear that they just wanted Black Americans to shut up, and stay in their lane. "Sports have nothing to do with politics blablabla"

And unfortunately history proved Colin Kaepernick right, and I don't think anybody could voice bad opinions about him today, but at the time, a lot of people were criticizing him, calling him names, insulting him, and even some celebrities were talking about how disrespectful he was.

They cared more about the way he was voicing his protest, than the fact that racism was a real issue.

And because of the protests last year, I think a lot of people tend to forget about that time, but Kaepernick faced A LOT of backlash, A LOT and for what....??? Absolutely no justification. With the way some people reacted you would have thought he burned the American flag on a daily basis, or used it as toilet paper.

So having that in mind, it was really disheartening to see an actor you respect take part in that...

And just to be clear, this is my personal opinion, but I don't think Sebastian had any bad intention with that post (not like other celebrities who were outright criticizing Kaepernick, for some reason I only remember Chris Meloni lol). But the timing, and the content, even as a joke, even as a promotion tool for his movie was extremely bad. You also have to understand the context, and how there were a lot of people rooting against Kap.

Worst case scenerio Seb’s post was racist and best case scenario it was tone deaf.

I can only assume Sebastian watches the news in the US, so he must have known what the caption "take a knee" meant and still decided to post it... So maybe he wasn't ill-intentioned, but to him the topic was light enough that he could post it on his social media...

My main problem isn't even with Seb's post, it was a weird way to promote his movie, or a joke I don’t know. Artists do problematic stuff all the time, and it's up to the fans who support them to decide if they keep doing supporting him or not.

My main problem was and still is the reaction of the fandom, where White Seb stans think they know and understand racism better than anyone else. And honestly this is not me saying that Seb is racist, this is me saying that we should be allowed to voiced our opinions without being silenced or accused of trying to villainize him or cancel him blablabla .

But the Seb stans don't understand that and prefer to turn a blind eye.

I make difference between stans and fans. The Seb fans are the ones who are willing to listen, understand why some people might be offended and admit that their fav f*cked up. The stans are the annoying ones who yould rather keep their head in the sand.

And nobody is even asking to stop supporting Seb... If I cancel an actor, I will stop consuming his content, supporting him, paying to see his movies etc... But I'm not forcing anybody else to do it... But I would like to be free to voice my dislikes especially if that actor was being problematic... without the stans complaining about how "I don't know their fave"

I haven't cancelled Seb btw, I just don't feel like finding him excuses and glossing over the words and if I think that something he did was racist, I will say that it was racist, not "problematic" or "tactless" or "clumsy"...

I think that a lot of people are confused about what racism is, and think it is only White Supremacists who want to harm all non White people.

But it's not only that and in my opinion, there are many layers to racism. If you have "nothing against Blacl people" but there is a part of you that believes you or White people are better than Black people, well you are racist... If not hiw would you describe it? I have already told this story, but I have a friend who swore she wasn't racist and we even had a big debate about racism, and a few weeks later, her boyfriend told me that during a family dinner, she had talked about a common Black friend of theirs saying "She is pretty for a Black girl"... But if you ask my friend, she will say she isn't racist.

If you try to silence people calling out racism, you are contributing to it instead of fighting it.

Another example, I received a lot of "problematic" comments at work from coworkers on my hair, my origins etc, but when I talked about it to my friends and said those comments were racists.. they said that I was "overeacting" that those comments were harmless or just my colleagues being "ignorant". But one time, I was done with it and I wrote to HR about it losting all the comments I had received and the HR director called me and told me that those comments were racist full stop, he didn't try to minimize it or act like I was exagerrating.

And that's how I see the reactions of Seb stans whenever something from him re-sufaces, like my friends who just act like it is nothing.

Just so you know you are not helping when you do that.

They act as if we're suppoosed to accept that because "it's not that big of a deal". Who told you that? How do you determine what is a big deal or not? Especially when you have never dealt with racism?

Fandom behaves as if people who were hurt or offended by that post were overracting. "It was a joke" "It was a long time ago" "He would never do somthing racist"

How hard is it to say " I can see that my fave did something problematic, or that what he did was racist, and I would still like to support him but I understand that people were hirt"??? How hard is it to continue to stan your fave WITHOUT trying to silence people who call out the behavior.

And also the way they refuse to use the words is annoying... it's always "I'm sorry if anybody was offended", never "What I did/wrote was racist and I know better now". If no one wants to admit it when they do racist stuff... nobody will never get anywhere... Like my friend who is convinced that she isn't racist but goes around thinking that White Women are more beautiful than Black Women, and even says it when surrounded by her family.

And people act like the people who were hurt have no reason to be hurt because he apologized, but I hope those people realize that it doesn’t work that way. An apology is great of course, but it doesn’t take out the hurt, or the feeling that if he was comfortable enough sharing this on social media, what is he comfortable doing in the safety of his close circle?, or remove the idea that maybe an actor you adored, and respected doesn’t view Black people struggles as a serious matter.

I personally don't hate Seb, far from it. And the reason why I have so many posts about him, calling him out or not, is that he is one of the very few White actors I'm interested in. I don't know him personally, but I enjoy his interviews with Anthony and enjoy his movies. But I'm not about to act like he is perfect like some of his stan do and also I have absolutely no issue with people who have "cancelled" him because of his past behavior, because I understand them and it's their choice, it's what works best for them... I don't want to force them to root for someone who maybe wouldn't root for us.

Last point, that I won't elaborate because I have already written way to much. There's a difference between people actively trying to be racist, and people who are racist and maybe don't realize it, or people who have prejudice but are working on it...

I hate it when White people act like the worst thing in the world is being accused of racism when the actual worst thing in the world is being racist. Because it shifts the conversation from... "Oh how can I improve myself and stop this racist thing I'm doing, or how can I work on this prejudice I have?" to "How dare you call me racist!!! I would never" all the while they continue doing the racist thing they do.

TL:DR: His Instagram post was f*cked up, and he apologized. And it's up to each person to decide if they still want to support him or not, but it would be great if thise who still support him stopped pretending that those whose don't are overreacting or had no reason of being offended.

#sebastian stan #asks #anti christopher meloni #I wrote too much ... I'll finish later lol #long post #I need to stop making long posts #at some point #I just have to stop wrtining #Also a lot of people think that I hate Seb because I call him out a lot.... But he's actually one of the few White actors I consider....#All of the other ones mean literally nothing to me #.... They don't even exist outside of the movies they play in

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a-shakespearean-in-paris · 3 years

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Hi! I found your Dragon Age fanfictions on Ao3 and love them and sometimes check your blog too but don't have tumblr. What is this whole controversy about being 30 and liking Cullen being wrong? I feel like I'm missing something. Anyway, I'm 32, married, expecting twins and never felt too old for Bioware games. WTF

Hi there, thank you for the support, it means a lot! And congrats! :D

Well, to make a long story somewhat short, recently a video circulated on tumblr from TikTok, one of those “what your favorite X says about you” videos that’s pretty common on the platform, if a bit overdone. This one was a “What your Favorite Dragon Age romance says about you.” Some jokes I’ll admit I found somewhat funny, others just made no sense. (Someone explain how liking Isabela gives you “mommy issues,” I still don’t get that.)

However, what was most egregious to many, myself included, was what this person said about Cullen romancers. According to this person, all Cullen fans are “thirty year old white moms” who are “creepy,” and “Cullen won’t save our failing marriage,” and we need to “go back to making our kids chicken nuggets.”

So, various bloggers broke down what was wrong with this, other than the fact that’s it’s just plain not correct about Cullen fans (Hi there everyone, in case you didn’t know, I’m very Polynesian and a huge Cullen fan, also not a mom yet, though I would like to be one someday. :) )But the breakdown of why these statements are problematic is as follows (under the cut for length):

1. The comments were ageist. The TikToker wielded “thirty year old white mom” like it’s some sort of insult. There is literally nothing wrong with enjoying a game at thirty, literally nothing wrong with being a mom and enjoying a game. I have news for everyone: when you have kids your life or personality outside of being a Mom doesn’t end. To this end, the comments came across as gatekeep-y.

2. The comments were also misogynistic. A woman in the kitchen joke… in 2020. Not only that, but related to the above, it implies that women can’t have hobbies outside of being a mom when they turn a certain age, and do you see the same thing being said about men and their sports teams, or fantasy football? I don’t know why it’s viewed as cringey to be a part of fandom when you’re an adult woman but dudes can still collect their Star Wars memorabilia into their thirties and beyond. Especially when:

3. Dragon Age is rated mature, and it’s always had the M rating even when it was just Origins. This is a game for adult audiences. If you’re engaging with the media online, I am going to assume you’re an adult. Not only that, this is an eleven year old franchise. People who played the games in 2009 can still enjoy them even if some of them have had kids during this eleven year period.

4. Related to that: most, if not all the developers, I’d imagine, are probably over 30. Should they stop making the games for us and make their kids chicken nuggets instead? Is this why we don’t have DA4?!

5. Cullen’s exact age is unclear from canon, he was probably around 18 in Origins, but there’s no way he’s not under thirty come Inquisition. A thirty-year-old crushing on another thirty year old is creepy because…?

6. I haven’t seen others mention this, but it’s something I gathered. To me, the video subtly implied the TikToker’s view that women need to settle down by the time their thirty with kids, which is pretty heteronormative IMO. I’m just not here for that you’re thirty you need settle down BS. I’m 26 and I get crap for being single, which is a whole other pile of BS I won’t get into here. I would like to someday, but there is nothing wrong with being 30 or above and single with no kids. No one has to “settle down” if they don’t want to, there’s no age where you have to “grow up” and stop engaging with things you enjoy.

Being involved in a few different fandoms I don’t see all the discourse but I did happen to see this, and as I said earlier I do not think the person who made the video meant any real harm. I understand the intent was to joke, but people can harm others under the guise of “jokes” all the time. I can tell you in my life, people have “joked” with me about needing to put on a grass skirt and dance the hula, and not understood why I’ve been offended because they just meant to be funny. Casual racism isn’t funny and neither is casual misogyny or ageism.

It was also discouraging to see people on the tik toker’s video laughing at the Cullen joke for being true, as apparently we need to “find a better romance.” And this lead me to say something in a post which I’ll repeat here, as this video managed to trudge up the same old discourse I’ve seen periodically on tumblr about Cullen since I’ve been here in 2017, and mind you, I started writing/tumblr THREE YEARS after Inquisition’s release: that all his fans are boring, basic, idiot women who just like him because he’s traditionally handsome and we just ignore his flaws in favor of his looks, and also he’s just the basic white guy in a slew of “more interesting” romances. Heck, early in this blog’s creation, I could see discourse within Cullen fandom about the “right” way to portray him. (I won’t get into this right now though, it’s a whole other kettle of fish, and this is a pretty nuanced topic in an already nuanced topic.) Speaking for myself, I actually don’t gravitate towards pretty boys. Cullen won me over with his mature romance route. And I like his arc in Inquisition and think it’s a good redemption-esque arc considering this franchise has a lot of characters to develop— but that’s another story as well.

Anyway, I digress. To me the post was less about Cullen and more about “older women” in fandom and how to some find older women here creepy. (and I’m sorry but if you think 30 is “old” I have to laugh.) Also, I have a secret for you: “older” women built fandom spaces as we know it, and we owe a lot of debt to those who paved the way for us to enjoy content, from the early days of the Star Trek fandom, and even before with fan zines.

Fandom is for everyone, and can we stop trying to box people who like A, B or C into certain categories, because your choices in a fictional game don’t speak for who you are in real life.

#fandom critical #replies #yeah lowkey nervous to bring this up again #but...#Anonymous #I did talk about this myself so it is what it is #lol I can’t imagine what tumblr discourse looks like when you don’t have it #😂#also had no idea you could send anons without tumblr

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im-the-punk-who · 4 years

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Hi! I’m new to the fandom and I’m simply curious (not trying to start a feud or anything), why don’t you like Steinberg?

Hello dear anon! And welcome to the fandom!

Oof. That’s a question. xD

I’m going to try and stay as uh. neutral as possible. Because I’ve already written the post I know I failed but, the intent in answering this is also not to start a feud or hurt anyone’s feelings.

Okay, so I got fairly negative in this chilis tonight, so I want to start by saying that even in light of the opinions I’m about to express, Black Sails is one of, if not my number one, favorite TV shows of all time. Certainly in recent memory - I’ve been hyperfixating on this show for 18 months with no sign of stopping, and I have a tremendous amount of respect for everyone who worked on the show - even Steinberg. (The one exclusion is Michael Bay, he can go twist.)

AND I think Stienberg is an incredibly talented writer. Black Sails is one of my favorite shows because it does such a wonderful job of weaving stories, creating characters, and melding things in a way that is both unexpected and makes sense narratively. I have changed as a person because of the show, and they will have to pry James McGraw and Thomas Hamilton from my cold dead knives-attached-to-them hands. None of what I’m going to say is meant to detract from that.

I will also say that a lot of these issues are not particular to Steinberg and are in fact a systemic problem with American TV + Film. And I’m not leaving Robert Levine out of my criticism, it’s just that Steinberg had the biggest hand in the pot(he wrote a full half the episodes) and a lot of what I’ve heard as far as talking about the show comes from Steinberg. So, he gets the brunt. But it isn’t that I think Steinberg was the only problematic element of the show.

Also, these are all my opinions and are colored by how I interact with my fandoms. I am not only a fandom veteran, but I work and pretty much live in the entertainment industry. I work in indie film and theatre and am surrounded by artists and creators of all walks of life, like, constantly. I know what is possible, and when I see something that can be improved, I want to note it because it is important to me to always be striving forward. Like Miranda says about Thomas, this isn’t out of malice, or out of hate. It’s because I genuinely love this show, and I love entertainment as a whole, and I think in order to get to a better, more inclusive industry we have to have hard conversations and look critically at the media we consume, and it is frustrating to me to time and again see the same faces in the room.

But if that isn’t your cuppa, that’s fine! Fandom isn’t meant to be stressful and if all you want to do is watch a show about gay pirates that is your tomato and I applaud you. Have at it you funky motherfucker.

OH! One more. At some point I’m going to talk about Silverflint. When I do, it is NOT meant as a ‘you shouldn’t/cant ship this’ or ‘this pairing is bad’ or any negative attack on the people who ship that pairing. My criticisms in this post are exclusively about what it means for Steinberg as a writer and Black Sails’ representation of gay and mlm men. While it’s not my cuppa, this is a sail your own ship blog.

OKAY! SO!

My main criticisms of Steinberg & Co boil down to:

The homozygosity of the writers and directors shows a complete lack of desire to include marginalized people in the writing of a show that is about them. Which leads to:

The centering of white men while choosing a historical setting and time period that was in fact dominated by people of color and specifically a black woman,

The gratuitous inclusion of violence against women, particularly sexual violence, and again, that the female characters are often sidelined for the central male characters.

SO.

Black Sails is a show centered around queer, female, and black leads, and yet there were only two non white-male directors (one bi-racial man and one white woman) and only 7 female writers - one of whom was Latina. The entire rest of the major creative staff was white men. I’m not going to comment on sexualities but none of the writers or directors are out as queer according to a quick google search.

Let me reiterate the important bit there.

In Black Sails, where the last two seasons specifically feature around a real, actually-happened-in-history event that shaped black history in the Caribbean, there was not a single black writer on the entire show.

This is the main difference between inclusion for inclusion’s sake, and actually centering marginalized voices. Black Sails has a ton of gay, POC, and female rep in front of the camera but practically zero representation behind it, which leads to storylines and implications that Steinberg and his writers, as white men, simply would never realize.

It’s like why Silver and Miranda never realized the true reasons James was waging war on England. They just did not have the life experiences to realize they were missing a piece of the puzzle, and so they filled in their own without even realizing they’d done so.

Because no one in the room of Black Sails was a part of these marginalized identities, nuances get lost or mistranslated, motivations get muddled through a white man’s gaze(or a straight person’s) and implications that someone within those communities might think is obvious won’t even come up.

And again, because there were no writers or directors of color in the last two seasons (the biracial man directed episodes 2x02 and 2x04 - WHICH MAKES SENSE IMO) the entirety of the historical lore that the show bases itself on in its latter half is filtered through a white man’s lens. And so there is no discussion of how changing something changes the meaning, how leaving someone out or changing their role to be more minor might affect people for whom that is their heritage. How the entire story they’re telling might change with one simple exclusion or addition.

So, how does this relate directly to Steinberg, you ask? Well, simply, because it was his show.

Steinberg(and Levine) were involved in every major decision about the show, from its conception, to the script, to choosing the writers and directors. They chose how they wanted the show to look, to think, what stories to tell and how they wanted to tell them. Their decisions(and the biases that formed those decisions) are woven into the show.

And look. I don’t for a second believe any of this was willful or malicious. I don’t think that John Steinberg and Robert Levine sat down one day and said ‘you know what would make the gays really angry? If we locked the only two canonically gay men up in a prison camp.’

But the decisions that were made in the show were based in ignorance in a way that shows more than just simple negligence or laziness(especially given the attention to detail in everything else). The things they leave out or change in the Maroon War plotline for instance are not small details easily missed. They are big, giant waving flags. They are things that are irreplaceable to still have the same events and stories and tell them respectfully.

It shows an insane amount of privilege to, for instance, write a show airing during a time when the Black Lives Matter movement was at the forefront of the American conscience, include black characters and black storylines, and yet not include a single black voice on their creative team.

In a show that centers a gay man’s love and his journey in attempting to process the horrible things done to him and his lover because of it, we are given just forty minutes of the entire show dedicated to their relationship - and just fifteen of those minutes actually feature the lover!

(Relatedly, the entirety of the gay romantic rep is two kisses, and a forehead touch. That’s the entirety of your gay intimacy representation. And yet there are in the first two seasons alone - because that’s all I’ve clocked so far - something like twenty seven minutes of scenes involving a naked or half naked woman. Five minutes of that is explicitly wlw sex.

Again, I just want to reiterate this because it’s important in recognizing bias.

There is fully twice as much female nudity in the first two seasons, as the entirety of the time the two gay characters have together on screen. )

Steinberg is a perfect example of how a lack of understanding why the diversity you are representing is important, matters. I dislike Steinberg because he, just like every other straight white cis man I have known, profited off of marginalized voices without including them or creating with them in mind.

Art does not exist in a vacuum. You cannot create something - especially something as back breakingly, intensely a labor of love as Black Sails - without putting several pieces of yourself into it. But those pieces color your narrative. They will expose things about you that you don’t even realize. And it’s in these places we are weakest, and why a diverse group of writers with a diverse group of experiences can help a piece be stronger. But for whatever reason, John Steinberg thought that he could make art with only people who looked and thought and experienced like him.

The lack of representation behind the camera in Black Sails was evident in front of it and yet Steinberg is out here getting to pretend like he created the most inclusive groundbreaking show that ever existed. It is important to me, personally, to acknowledge that. And that it kind of makes my skin crawl in the way all media made by straight white (cis)men makes my skin crawl. I wish I didn’t have to feel that way about my favorite tv show just because it was created by a man of privilege, but here we are.

SO. I hope that helped? Feel free to take what you want and leave what you don’t!

Below the cut is a more in depth look at things that I think show what I’m talking about, but that up there ^^ is the gist. <3 |D

SURPRISE!

The Maroons and the Maroon War

So the first thing I want to point out is that the Maroon War was a real thing that happened. It lasted ten years, and resulted in the most substantial victory the Maroons ever achieved against the British. Not only that, there was in fact a KICKIN’ badass female leader of the maroons named Queen Nanny, who is to this day honored as a national hero in Jamaica. While they weren’t able to drive the British out, the outcome of this war led to a mostly self-governing Maroon population in Jamaica from the mid 1700s on. This was a long term fight that had a very tangible and real outcome, even if it didn’t end in the destruction of colonialism.

And what is this war turned into in Black Sails? A white ‘madman’s revenge’ that is doomed to failure after six months.

That, my dear pirates, is a problem for me. (And those familiar with my brand of spiceyness know that I do not ascribe to the ‘Flint is a Madman’ trope, but that IS what Steinberg ascribes to, what he seems to have written the show thinking.)

There was no narrative reason to include the Maroon War in the narrative of Black Sails. The Maroon War didn’t happen until a decade after the Golden Age of Piracy, and aside from Silver’s wife being a black woman there is no mention of Silver ever having contact with them. To me, this feels like the choice of a showrunner who found a cool historical event and saw a chance to up the stakes of their white male heroes while getting in some sweet sweet POC rep.

Except that they then took the major events of the Maroon War and gave them to their white characters, Flint and Silver.

Here’s the thing. If you’re going to take a piece of culturally important history and use it for your show, you NEED to have sensitivity writers. You need to have people who are at least familiar with those events and who care about them to do them justice. Have an expert come in and read your script or go over your ideas. Or just like. Hire a black writer. Hire ONE black writer. As a treat.

The important Maroon figures, Nanny, Cudjoe, and Quao, all get sidelined or ‘sexified’ and then used as plot points for the white characters. Nanny gets split into two women - the older mother queen and Madi, the young naive warbent visionary. Quao(Mr. Scott is the closest, or Kofi possibly) gets killed off because the writers realized they didn’t exactly have a place for him in their writing. Cudjoe(Julius) gets a few scenes and one good speech but his entire role in the war gets given to Silver. And THEN. That sexy Queen Madi figure gets used as emotional bait for Silver and then has to learn he has betrayed her and destroyed the hope and freedom she had wanted to bring to her people.

Gross, pirates. Gross.

Anne Bonny/Max/Mary Read - a heads up, this section includes a semi in-depth discussion of both Max and Anne’s sexual assaults. If that bothers you, the paragraphs talking about that begin with a ***

COOL NOW LET’S TALK ABOUT LESBIANS. Words my 20 year old self would never have imagined coming out of my mouth.

Specifically, I want to talk about Max, and Anne, and their backstories both involving extreme sexual trauma at the hands of men. And then Mary Read and the once again sexification of female characters.

(Actually while I’m here another criticism I have of Steinberg is that his writing does not seem to recognize how queer people existed in the past - again, likely because he didn’t have any gay historians to be like ‘actually buddy that doesn’t make sense also why is Anne not dressing as a man? If you want to fuck with anything and insert modern day terminology and ideas into this show, make her non binary and REALLY piss off the hetties.’)

(This same ficitonal gay dramaturg who is definitely not me has also questioned John Steinberg repeatedly about where Mary Read is, unsatisfied with the answer ‘well we wanted her to be hot so we made her a sex worker and then had Anne have to rescue her but then we realized it would be weird not to include her actual character so we gave her a five second cameo at the very end of the series and also made her like 13.’)

Anyway! So my main point in bringing up Anne and Max is the sexual trauma they are exposed to in the show, particularly being that they are the two primary wlw in the show, who Steinberg has said he views as being completely gay, and what THAT whole unexamined idea looks like.

***Max. My dear Max. There was literally no reason to have her be repeatedly r*ped(and for the love of god there was even less reason to make it that gratuitous and graphic). Max being assaulted like that did not add anything to the gravity of Eleanor’s betrayal. The traumatic event was being tossed aside by Eleanor, and that could have been just as emotionally damaging without the sexual assault. And the only reason for her to be continually assaulted was to bring her and Anne together.

***The reason imo that Max’s r*pe plot was added was because it was the only thing these white straight men could come up with that felt emotionally damaging enough to them. The act of betrayal itself wasn’t enough, the act of being thrown away, of having a lover put your life in danger because of her own ambitions wasn’t enough, they needed her to be r*ped to really drive home the point.

***Anne, on the other hand, is never shown being sexually abused, but we are given an explicit account of her own traumatic history and how Jack saved her from this vile beast who was passing her around to his friends.

But here’s the thing pirates - that never happened. According to every account we have of Anne Bonny, she chose her husband, and married him against her father’s wishes. They were probably relatively happy until her husband started being a pirate spy and Anne started cheating on him with Jack.

And yes, when they were found out. Her husband had her beat. That’s not fucking cool, and if they really wanted to go the damsel in distress route they still could have had Jack ‘save’ her from that. But at no point was she sexually abused by her husband(at least not in any accounts I’ve read.)

You know who did likely sexually abuse her or at least manipulate her and Mary for his own benefit? If you guessed our Rat man Jack Rackham, you would be correct, because when he found out about Mary and Anne’s (supposed, but probably real) relationship, it’s implied he extorted both of them into fucking him to keep their secret from the crew.

The addition of sexual abuse to Anne’s past isn’t done to be true to her character and was in fact explicitly untrue. Now of course I don’t know the reasons why they chose to do this, but I can guess. Just as with Max, the most traumatic thing a male writer can think of for a female character is for them to be sexually abused.

And the most disturbing part of this to me? The parallels it has to the real world of why straight men think lesbians exist. These characters who would be called man haters in present day are given these incredibly traumatic man-centered histories. It brings up something very uncomfortable in me about particularly wlw sexuality being viewed as a reaction to trauma at the hands of men. It’s just gross, I dont like it, and honestly there is no fucking excuse for it besides a room full of white straight men writing this bullshit. A room that Steinberg chose, because they fit his ideas.

In Fact heck, the women of Black Sails in general

***I honestly struggle to think of a single female character who I think was treated fairly in Black Sails. Miranda and Eleanor are killed for taking sides and not understanding their partners, Madi is betrayed in the worst way possible, Max is given a pseudo empowering ending but has that fucking terrible start. Idelle ends off fairly well, but tied to a man she may or may not have any actual feelings for, in what is essentially a political marriage. And Anne has her entire identity tied to a man who will be dead in two years as she is robbed of any agency whatsoever without him. (Oh, and the whole r*pe thing. And also her support for Max’s r*pe or death until she started having fee-fees. Who wrote this stuff. >_>)

Even though the characterization of each and every one of these women is PHENOMENAL - and again I will repeat that I absolutely LOVE these characters as they exist in a vacuum. I think they are well rounded, real, feeling people given motivations and drives and FEELINGS and they SHOW THEIR ANGER and i LOVE THEM.

But the show punishes them for it. Miranda is essentially fridged to move Flint’s storyline along, and to make room for Silver. Eleanor is killed for the emotional damage it will cause Rogers. Madi is placed at the center of a conflict she explicitly says she is willing to die for and then not only is her entire cause taken from her, but when she tells Silver to fuck off he - in possibly the most predictable white man move ever - says ‘no i will stay until you change your mind. I will never leave you. I don’t care about your choice in this matter, I will wait forever for you. I’m your biggest fan. I’ll follow you until you love me. papa, - paparazzi.’

And I touched on this before, but I want to talk in more detail about what is possibly my hottest take to date, the sexification of Mary Read and Queen Nanny, as they are presented in the show.

Max is to Anne what Mary Read is, historically. She is the lover that Jack Rackham discovers with Anne, and then he joins them in their bed. They form a triumvirate that upholds Jack at the expense of the women. But for some reason, Steinberg didn’t want to just include Mary Read as an actual character. For some reason he needed to make Anne’s love interest a sex worker who was in need of saving (and who, coincidentally, we never see working the brothel after she becomes lovers with Anne, because she is now a madam. :) Gross.)

And Madi. My dear sweet fucking Madi who didn’t fucking deserve any of this bullshit send tweet.

So, historically, Queen Nanny was the Queen, spiritual advisor, and the military tactician of the Windward Maroons. She would have filled both Madi and the Queen’s character roles(and Flint’s, but who’s counting. A BLACK GAY LEAD? Inconceivable. I digress.) But, I guess, because they were wishy-washing with Silver’s sexuality or felt they needed to give him a female love interest because of Treasure Island, or because they were leaning a bit too hard into the gay shit and needed to backpedal, they took Queen Nanny and split her into a character who is for all intents and purposes powerless in the war and Madi, who is young and naive and does not have any real world experience outside of the Maroon camp.

Because that’s sexy, or something. They could have had the Maroon Queen be a fucking badass lady who works and fights alongside Flint and Silver and one ups them and teaches them shit and has her own ideas about where the British can stick it, but instead they made her into the perfect caricature of a female monarch, letting the big strong men handle the dirty work or something. Because white male power fantasies.

Just let women be powerful and not nubile and let them have character arcs over fucking thirty and let them be CENTERED in their own. fucking. narratives.

God damnit Steinberg.

James Flint, mlm extraordinaire

Oh, my love. My most amazing child. The light of my life. My purest cinnamon roll.

~~And now we’ve come to the dreaded Silverflint criticism part of our programming. Please please know and remember this isn’t a criticism of people who ship Silverflint. As I said up top, Your Tomato Is Not My Tomato and that’s cool. Please don’t take this next part as an attack on Silverflint as a fandom ship.~~

My criticism of Steinberg as it relates to Flint is related to:

What a romantic/sexual relationship with Silver being the basis of the tension and plot means for Flint in particular as a gay or mostly mlm man.

Refusing to confirm Thomas and James being alive at the end and honestly the whole finale in general but like I’ll try and focus.

The major problem I have with Silver and Flint being coded as in love with each other is the implications there in terms of gay men’s relationships to other men.

From every corner, men are inundated with the idea that any close relationship between them must be gay. That intimacy cannot exist unless there are sexual feelings involved. That a relationship cannot be close, deep and soul shattering and life altering, unless one guy secretly(or not so secretly) wants to bone the other dude. That two men cannot value each other as partners or friends or truly know each other unless they are gay.

Seeing both of the meaningful relationships Flint forms with other men be sexually coded feels a bit the same way as Anne and Max’s sexual assault plotlines does vis-a-vis being wlw. (Even with Gates, Flint never spoke about Thomas or his plans - Silver is absolutely the closest person to Flint besides Thomas and Miranda.) And this is just as true for Silver. Having both Flint and Madi - the two people he trusts - both be people he’s in love with also just feels. I don’t know.

It feels like a confusion between male intimacy and male love that is so so familiar to me as a gay man I could choke on it. Where they wanted these men to have a deep and really lasting connection, but could only figure out how to do it if they were in love. Friendship wouldn’t have been enough - only romantic and sexual love is enough for the gay man(or men, at all).

Just because it isn’t queerbaiting doesn’t mean it’s good rep, and I would have liked to see truly deep male friendships that did not center on sexual attraction - particularly for Flint as a confirmed mlm(and Silver too, if you’re counting him. The same arguments for why I dislike Flint being paired with Silver are also true in the reverse.)

Even if both Flint and Silver were confirmed mlm I still would have LOVED to see a platonic relationship between them. In fact I would have loved that EVEN MORE. Men! Who fuck men! Not needing to fuck each other to be important to one another! Who made this. Very delicious.

But because there weren’t any queer writers on the show, writers who understand this kind of struggle that gay and mlm men face, they thought ‘oh, let’s also have them be in love with each other. More gay rep is better gay rep, right?’ False. THOUGHTFUL gay rep is better gay rep.

Okay and here’s my last thing. The fact that Steinberg refuses to say whether or not the explicitly mlm men are alive at the end of the show - that the words he specifically uses are ‘up for interpretation’ is. Fuck, it’s gross, okay? It’s fucking gross.

I have been around enough men, enough people in power, enough people with leverage who also know how to play the field, to know that when someone wants a group’s support but does not agree with them, their go to phrasing is that it is ‘up for debate’ or ‘up for interpretation.’

Say the gays are alive. Steinberg refusing to acknowledge the reality of the ending of his show to maintain his own sense of artistic integrity is what, honestly, really sets me off about him and I don’t care if this is a nuanced take.

Like yes, death of the author. I honestly don’t care if he thinks they’re dead or alive. What I care about is that he thinks he can get away with being clever and leaning hard into a story is true/untrue’ - doesn’t realize what the implications of that are, and didn’t when he was writing, and didn’t have anyone else in the room who would think about it either.

ANYWAY. So this is....my long drawn out explanation for why I do not like Steinberg. Uhhhhh tune in next week for more of my totally unpopular opinions!

#good....fucking lord #i am so sorry #how many opinions can milo fit in one post #i mean i have more but yknow lmao #black sails #behind the black sails #milos black sails meta #long posts #my increasingly devoted attempts to find tumblrs word limit #Anonymous #john steinberg #js critical but the js is jon steinberg

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misterbitches · 3 years

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hi! this is long as shit i’m sorry. i hope it makes sense. i ahve adhd and like 5 million learning disorders so this is just word vomit cos there’s so many words in my brain. my b.

i’ve had such a tough day so thank you for replying and sharing! @yeedak

i was thinking about what i wrote and i meant to clarify that as well. some cases are fine for both parties and it’s not like you weren’t consenting and it seems like you were happy! same with my friend who was dating a 20 yr old. if they’re happy you know i’ll clown on ‘em but yea. so for anyone that sees these posts your relationship with your partner who is older or whatever. i’m some dumb girl on the internet okay. ill side eye older ppl tho

i think a lot of people feel the same way you do now (me included.) it feels really good at the time but alter we can see the dynamics playing out. i’m 29 now and i think aging is just such a huge process. it’s wild how you at 31 are a totally different person, right?

and the US racism is probably some of the worst ever in its iteration because of slavery which started from europe etc but USA is so fucking unique bc of columbus bringing slaves here and displacing indigenous peoples or hispanola and because america is so influential the way it views race, particularly with black people as objects, has so deeply permeated into the current historical psyche globally. it’s fascinating to track how necessary anti blackness is to the flourishing of america but also the world at this point. also want to point out how fuckign scary sinophobia is here especially for covid. one is a straight historical line (black ppl + the US) and the other had to be manufactured and to continue to exploit the non-white americans and keep antiblackness in tact.i could go on about this all day. the pain of this place is immense.yet as bad as it is here, this is still the only place i truly feel safe as a black person. because of the unique experience we have in america and through the diaspora especially because we are veyr much ocncentrated here. it would be nice to like move to norway and have some alleviation financially or get free healthcare it’s just not feasible if no one looks like me. it’s fucking tough.

i hope you don’t hate it here though and people treat you with respect. but as you know being a woman and jewish and an immigrant....shit is tough. the USA is a hellhole. :( america is so deeply tainted and desperately bad because it was founded on strife and blood and there’s no way to reverse that and what this country did in turn when it gained enough power and could capitalize off of the colonial forefathers. this is why we hsould all luv revolution!!!

HOWMEVERRRR

boy oh boy oh BOY OH BOYYYYYYYY. well wlecome to the world of BL lmao especially as an adult with some obviously deep perspective just given your background. it is a fucking mess and it’s a hard mess to like but it pulls you in. i approach it like i do with soap operas since these are essentially telenovelas, you know? just like the drama at a billion. but the tricky part of that is like....what parts of it do we understand for critiquing? because so many of the shows are so bad at being like good pieces of things to look at just production wise and story wise. but i feel like these shows ask us to take them seriously, so why shouldn’t we take the content seriously? and this is being primarily peddled to young girls.

i bring this up often but i read this thing about yaoi and the interest younger women/girls have in BL and its fascination with pederasty essentially. this component i think is key when we talk about who gets affected by these things the most. society in general is bad 4 girls bla bla we know lmao but in “more sexually conservative” societies it may be harder for these girls to feel safe even expressing normal emotions romantically and sexually and particularly with guys. some people hypothesized, and i think i agree with this hypothesis, that they can live through the casualness of BL. they don’t feel threatened because they can put themselves into the shoes of the other character. oftentimes, the more feminine or the younger. this was in conjunction with the age gap aspect (they say pederasty as well because there’s unethical age gaps that r gross and that is indeed what we would at least call a touch of sexual abuse if people dont feel like calling it an obsession with youth and power and uhhh young ppl and perhaps kids) where maybe girls could see themselves in these situations as the person being saved, loved, taken care of, and sadly also sexually active and penetrated.

i think that’s just one aspect of it but i do think there’s validity in who gravitates towards it. i cannot imagine seeing this stuff and not getting enough information as a young kid, i sure as fuck know i didn’t!, and seeing these things and you look at it with 0 critique because you’re young and you may have no interest in it or you simply cannot understand what is wrong. no one is teaching you these things and these shows confirm it. and it is wild how intrinsic patriarchy is to BL although in its existence it also can’t be in line with patriarchy given the nature of two [cis] men!

it begs the question about the replacement aspect. is it just so girls can put themselves in these characters shoes? if so then that means we believe that gender is so interchangeable within our relationships and interactions and that doesn’t seem right. there’s more to lgbtq+ than just existing; it’s finding ways to communicate, finding a family, safety, your people, being a free person. there’s a lot to gain and a lot a lot to lose. and a gay man is also not a woman because those are also two distinct experiences. especially in societies that have a more hidden aspect to sexuality (idk how to word this bc the BL industry would NEVER survive in america but in a way there’s a more “progressive” look at homosexuality but it’s still fucked up because we live in a Society, you know? at the same time look at what we are doing to trans kids. literally waging war so it’s bonkers how we all collectively have some real progress happening but at the same time not at all. the concept of ‘ladyboys’ and the frequency we see trans people in thai shows is wild and something that we absolutely do not see here in the US. still, none of these groups feel safe or are getting better material conditions in either place. we just show the ways we can try and tolerate oppression witout eliminating it imo)

to me it is clear: it’s money. which most things exist to make money so. but also who is the audience for these shows? and they have to market towards them. all that said all hope is not lost there are some decent shows. it’s just like regular media on TV though where it’s so fucking saturated as an industry that it’s literally sifting through garbage. and there are some days when you can handle the trash and others where it really fucking hurts to watch the violence, the rape, the manipulation, the violations, the stupid messaging. i have never seen more people trying to do mental gymnastics and seeing if things were “technically rape” than in teh BL fandom and that is so fucking sad.

i came into these shows at 28 with almost 0 clue of what as media BL was like esp as media that countries can use as soft power with the revenue. but i realize like...i’m 29 now and so many people don’t have a sizeable, though not huge, amount of life experience. and i wonder for people on the internet who are usually searching for something if they spend so much time on it like what a 15 year old girl thinks. what a 20 year old girl thinks.

it is incredibly problematic and so awful but there’s also some rewards. if you haven’t i would definitely watch i told sunsset about you which i don’t think i’m going to finish and i doubt i’ll watch the second installment (watch this be a lie) but when i say some fucking impeccable storytelling and art? phew. now that is a fucking piece of media that works. it takes from moonlight heavily and you can see like...the artistic dedication is there and the story makes its world and sets up its stakes extremely well.

i think because this is marketed towards much younger people too they know they dont have to try as hard. but they SHOULD because then you can have a fucking masterpiece like that. i think even this prolific gay thai filmmaker (who is like solidly against the government) who is so respected (and who i like a lot! if u wanna know i can tell u lmao but the films are very uhhhhhhhh “artsy”) would like i told sunset about you. i wish more people had budget like that and also just cared about the stories. it’s the fucking magic of art to figure out what you can do but there is very little incentive honestly. idk i am very pessimistic. there are days when it’s really a great pick me up and distraction but it is never a place i would love for to feel seen or heard but i’m more of the mind of i never trust the mainstream until they prove me wrong ;)

or i never trust the mainstream and i still buy into it anyway and then cry when i don’t like what i see adn i yell “BOO GET OFF THE STAGE!” when an old man won’t leave a teenager alone

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madmadmilk · 3 years

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tbh no offense but your post about white male centric media thing is kind of weird? i feel like it's super hypocritical bc you literally have a blog that predominantly writes about a white male actor in modern day settings (unlike mcu, star wars, and stranger things which are sci-fi).

also, like, does it make you feel "better" not being into predominantly white media and why? bc i see a lot of ppl on tumblr nowadays who are like "oh i'm into kpop (or any other poc artists/actors) now, thank god i stop liking *insert white artist/actor*" which just screams "i'm better than u bc i don't like white ppl". i mean i get it if these white ppl are problematic but most of them are not so i don't get why ppl do that??

🤷🏻‍♀️ lol again, i wasn’t gonna answer this cos i don’t wanna ‘be negative’ on ur feeds but lemme just clarify what i meant in > the post in question. < lol you’re confusing the context of what i said.

first, i’m not offended by this. ppl are entitled to watch (or not watch) what they please, just as i am not obligated to watch every lil thing a pretty white boy is in. i already said it in the original post, but i don’t feel like sitting through a white male struggle movie, written by white men for a white (male) audience. that’s it lol, there’s no need to poke more at that. if you enjoy it, good for you! but not every film is going to b relevant to YOU.

and just to help ya understand, here are some ‘critically acclaimed and recognizable’ movies/shows/series i simply do not care about:

Recent Oscar Noms like: Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Marriage Story, Ford V. Ferrari

lmao actually, all Quentin Tarantino movies make me queasy, i,.e. Pulp Fiction, Kill Bill etc.

The Revenant and ‘bros in the wild’ stuff like that

La La Land

The Wolf of Wall Street

any movie set in like medieval europe & centers around a king

and while growing up, Pretty Little Liars, The Secret Life of an American Teenager, The Hunger Games series, The Divergent series, The Maze Runner series, Teen Wolf series –– i feel nothing towards them

it took my boyfriend A LOT of coaxing to get me to even start watching Marvel Movies, Star Wars, The Lord of the Rings, Game of Thrones

lol and i’ve never seen a lot of “famous american christmas classics”

lol keep in mind i’m like a lil filipino girl in america. admittedly, i’m pick and sensitive and i didn’t care much about movies growing up but now i have so much enthusiasm and love to give!! it’s just that sometimes some stories just do not resonate or reach out to you. i’ve really only felt seen by movies a handful of times. I know not every movie is going to have a version of “me” in it, but..... i’m also not going to sit and watch stuff i don’t care about.

now about fanfic: >>> not necessarily an ‘exception to the rule’ but, fantasy and fiction are usually fair and fine. a lot of fanfiction (i read/write) is written by women, people of color, of varied sexualities, of different identities, of diverse personalities–– that’s The Distinction. that’s already a drastic change of perspective, consideration, and understanding from mainstream hollywood. i’m literally here rn stomping my foot thinking about a milllion shitty action movie ‘hero-gets-the-girl™’ plotlines that are just absolute shit to me, because it lacks a certain touch. but to each their own~

and lol if you’re trying to apply that stereotype & generalization to me–– you don’t know or understand me at all. lol which is fair, we’re just two randoms on the internet but–– where the hell did i ever give you that impression? i simply said i’m not interested in most white-male-centric films. i’m passive towards them, not hateful, critical, and often pay it no mind. i just felt like saying it that day lol.

TBH, u need to look inside yourself if you feel offended by ppl saying “i like kpop, glad i dropped x-actor.” their transition of enjoyment shouldn’t mean anything to you, no matter how heavy-handed they do it. i don’t really condone ‘celebrity/media’ bashing, because it’s a waste of time but–– don’t take it personally lmao. if you perceive it as “i'm better than u bc i don't like white ppl” instead of “i’ve branched out and chosen to support POC music, actors, & media” then................ . .. . . .. .. . .. .... .. . .. .. .. ... .. .. .. .. . 🤷🏻‍♀️

we watch and support different movies and media because they make us feel something. we all have different tastes. enjoy what you enjoy, and just skip over things you don’t care about. don’t take someone’s differing opinions to heart, and if they make u upset lol just unfollow them. that’s it 👏🏼👏🏼.

#Anonymous #lol does this make sense #personal #madmadmilk #madwatch #long post

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astudyindisorderlyconduct · 4 years

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I relate completely - I always feel panicky when the academic year ends! As a question, what annoys you most about the dark academia community? Do you find that people are more rude? (Personally I find some can be quite hostile to others). I understand that some are worried that people are encouraging elitism, fetishising mlm, and exclusion of literature by poc, which are all valid concerns. But I wondered what you think! There’s been a lot of discourse lately. Hope you’re well x

Heads up, long post ahead!

Ok, so here's the dealio...

I'm wary of criticizing the DA community as a whole for a number of reasons:

1.) I've only very recently gotten into the aesthetic. 2.) I rarely interact with the DA community apart from liking/reblogging DA stuff so it's hardly my place to characterize DA community members let alone criticize the community as a whole. 3.) I think recently it's become kinda "trendy" to criticize the whole of the DA community when it's really just a few problematic people. And of those few, the majority are likely young teens who don't know better, and I'm not gonna go after a bunch of kids who are acting the way I would've been acting if I had discovered DA at their age. 4.) From the general understanding I have of the discourse surrounding DA, it seems a lot of the criticism is more about, or at least largely overlaps with, criticisms of academia as an institution. DA is just an aesthetic, and many of the problems with it are the product of Euro-centrism, classism, and misogyny in larger institutional academia, not because tumblr user xyz reblogs a moodboard without any poc.

All that being said... here's what I find most annoying disappointing about Dark Academia:

Oscar Wilde worship

I adore Wilde's writing, but I'm not gonna pretend his writing doesn't include some pretty anti-Semitic and misogynistic things that seriously don’t sit well with me at all. I get that no piece of media is completely pure and unproblematic, especially when we're dealing with the 19th century, but I've occasionally seen posts that talk about Wilde like he's some kind of god. He was a real, extremely talented but flawed person. And people aren't meant to be worshiped.

Misinterpretation of "The Secret History"

This is THE Dark Academia book. I've read it and I loved it, but I feel as though I don't see enough appreciation of it as a criticism the upper class and elitism in higher education rather than an aesthetic piece of literature. Tartt does an absolutely excellent job of presenting us with a group of characters that are the epitome of youth, beauty, and pleasure then one by one, reveals them for their true natures: manipulative, ignorant, selfish, spoiled, pretentious, and representative of something so utterly and unequivocally detestable... and I wish more of that criticism of elitism made its way into the DA community to the same extent as the aesthetic aspects of the book ie. learning Greek, holding a Bacchanal, hedonism, etc... I actually might make a separate post about my own reading of TSH (and how underrated Richard is a character through which Tartt explores the reality of being poor in higher education).

Pretentiousness as a desirable trait I think a lot of this comes from more of the younger members of the DA community so I can't criticize the community too harshly for this one. Again, if I had been 15 when I discovered DA, I would have been doing that exact same shit, but now that I'm older, here's what I have to say: I don't know how else to say that you should not be striving to act pretentious; it doesn't make you mysterious or interesting, it makes you an unlikable asshole. A higher education, the fact that you like classic lit more than modern lit, or you can speak Latin or Greek doesn't make you better than anyone else, it means you've had the privilege to an education and now have a responsibility to make the world better for those who have not been afforded the same privilege. Be humble, be kind, recognize that every privilege you've been afforded has been a product of luck.

Whiteness I could never really commit myself to DA and one of the biggest reasons is just how white it all is. From the movies to the books to the art to the goddamn moodboards, the DA aesthetic is overwhelmingly white, understandably a produce of romanticizing mostly European works but still disenchanting to a poc like me. HOWEVER, I'm actually seeing a lot more of DA posts that are more inclusive, so this is one my lesser criticisms.

For anyone who has no idea about all this DA discourse, I highly recommend going through the dark academia discourse tag on @punkenglishnerd who is quite vocal of their criticisms of DA, more eloquent about it than I am, and is literally one of my favorite users of all time.

#ask #dark academia discourse

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molusca · 3 years

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she apologized for how she handled the situation and apologized for brushing off someone's honest criticisms as hate. what more is she meant to do? throw herself onto a pyre? is she not allowed to feel lousy that this whole thing blew up in her face? because she's an adult and she made a mistake, she's not allowed to be sad or stressed? she's still an imperfect human. apologizing immediately usually means people are still sensitive to their own hurt of being called out because it's fresh and on their mind so it tends to slip into their apology, but if she had waited any longer to compose herself, you guys would probably have an issue with how long she took. also, in aaaaaallll of this, I've have yet to once see what exactly about her work is so problematic? I've read her fic and I personally can't see anything wrong, although I will admit that yes, I'm a white ciswoman but I'd like to think I'm aware of negative tropes. but the only thing touted is "it made an mlm uncomfortable" but HOW??? honestly, I want to know! if anything so I can avoid doing the same thing! how is anyone meant to learn when you're not bringing up these points as often as you're explicitly laying out the problems in her apology and whatnot. I've seen 6 posts about how shit the apology was and for why and I've not once seen the original comment detailing why the fic was problematic, and I've been looking on twit, tumblr, insta, and ao3. if it's been deleted, why isn't anyone stating again and again what's wrong? also, if someone is making fic/art you don't like, don't. interact. with. it. there's tons of stuff on ao3 and twit that I don't like, some of it that I think is disgusting (do you know how many fics there are with keith/kosmos?) and I just scroll past it cause it can't hurt me if I don't read it. there's one artist that's pretty popular on Twitter and I personally really hate they way they draw klance but it's all over my tl. I respect that person's art style and creativeness and keep on moving. other people enjoy it, good for them. and if I start reading something and get surprised with something I dont like, I leave! find people who write things you like and stop engaging with creators who's things you don't like, as far as I know no one is holding a gun to your head making you read problematic fic. also for as much as you rag on her for the words she used to apologize, you don't seem to be considering your own words when offering criticism. if Taylor mistook the person's words as hate, couldn't it have been because the way he worded the complaint was done hatefully? lastly, no one, absolutely no one, is required to talk about world issues when they're running a fandom account,no matter how "big" they are. we all know what's going on in the world, we're surrounded by sad and stressful stories practically 24/7 and if someone isn't, they're probably curating their social feeds to be that way (like you should do when it come to kl content creators you don't like). people sending hate in Taylor's defense are in the wrong I agree, and this isn't hate its critism its a discussion, but Taylor isn't responsible for, how many people did you say? 16k on twit? even if she said hey guys stop, you think they would? she's can't control all those people and expecting her to is nonsense. I see so many younger fans expecting perfection in their fandoms and that just isn't going to happen. yes we should be striving to be better but no one is ever going to be perfect. not you, not me, not the mlm person, not Taylor, not anyone on any side of this argument. the only way to avoid this kind of circular dog piling and hate sending is to better curate your fandom experience by ignore those you have issues with.- 🦛

she apologized for how she handled the situation and apologized for brushing off someone's honest criticisms as hate. what more is she meant to do?

im pretty sure i said its good that she realizes she handled it poorly. but she makes the whole apology about this, doesnt directly talk about the issues and i know someone went to her to talk about it. also, it took her a day to say something about it so it wasnt exactly immediate (in the sense people had already stopped talking about it but that doesnt mean they werent still bothered). the apology was directed at mlm, and i havent seen one saying it felt genuine. of couse she can be hurt but when you apologize to a marginalized group the focus shouldnt be your feelings, but the feelings of the ones you have hurt.

I've have yet to once see what exactly about her work is so problematic?

she admits to be projecting on lance. so she makes him very femine and keith very masculine. and ok, gay couples like that do exist, but she is a woman projecting in this situation so this bothers people. putting mlm in this position is a harmful steriotype, bc it feels very heterosexual. this is a trope, it unfortunately happens a lot and its harmful. women need to be aware of what they are representing when drawing/writing mlm because well, real mlm are going to see it, and no one likes to feel like a fetish to others. and its not our place to question if the criticism is right or wrong when we are not mlm, so if you read this and think “but thats not a problem thats not a fetish etc” well, its not your place to judge that. theres more to it and you probably could get a better answer from a mlm sorry.

if someone is making fic/art you don't like, don't. interact. with. it. there's tons of stuff on ao3 and twit that I don't like, some of it that I think is disgusting (do you know how many fics there are with keith/kosmos?) and I just scroll past it cause it can't hurt me if I don't read it.

please, lets not compare a minority pointing out harmful tropes with. something fucking illegal.

as you said, you are a cis woman, of course its not going to hurt you in this case. but if people are making harmful content its not a simple matter of “dont interact with it” because they will still be promoting it, other people are going to read it, and media influences how we see minorities so of course people will not like when they see bad portrayal of them. also, tumblr sucks so even if you want to just “dont interact with it” its hard because even after blocking you can still cross the content of someone. not sure how it works on twitter but anyway this discussion started on tumblr and tumblr doesnt stop people who were bothered by her to avoid her by blocking.

if Taylor mistook the person's words as hate, couldn't it have been because the way he worded the complaint was done hatefully?

i think she deleted the ask by now, but i dont remember the ask being hateful. i remember someone asking if she was a fujoshi, and another person mentioned that mlm didnt like the way she portrayals klance. i dont remember it being hateful. but again, she apologized for handling it badly. its just that she stops there.

no one, absolutely no one, is required to talk about world issues when they're running a fandom account,no matter how "big" they are. we all know what's going on in the world, we're surrounded by sad and stressful stories practically 24/7 and if someone isn't, they're probably curating their social feeds to be that way

ignoring world issues is a privilege. if someone is able to turn off from all the problems in the world, its a privilige. yes no one should talk aobut it all the time thats not even healthy, but to never talk about it is a privilege. thats what black people are saying, they cant just turn off from racism, so yes they are going to expect white people to do something. online honestly i cant do shit, i dont think anything i reblog here does a difference and i do what i can in my own country, but she has a plataform that could help bring awareness. again, its a privilege to be able to curate your social media to be a perfect happy place.

even if she said hey guys stop, you think they would? she's can't control all those people and expecting her to is nonsense.

maybe they wouldnt, but if people were doing this type of thing in my name, in my defense, i would at least say something about it idk. she cant control them but she makes nothing to show that she disagrees or look for the people being harassed to say something about it.

the only way to avoid this kind of circular dog piling and hate sending is to better curate your fandom experience by ignore those you have issues with.

when it comes to simple things like “i prefer taller lance and i dont like taller keith” yeah, its fine to ignore people who draw taller keith and move on with your life or something like that. but we are talking about mlm, a real group of people, being upset for being portrayed in a harmful and steriotype way. its everywhere in fandom, and in real life. they cant escape from real life, and then they come to fandom where everyone wants some escapism and have to deal with more issues. its tiring

#well. good morning #anon

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joshler · 4 years

Text

regarding my last post

tw// topics relate to suicide/suicide prevention, racism, and bullying

before i get put on blast for “being white” or whatever the replies have accused me of: no, i’m actually a queer asian poc! my dad is a chinese immigrant from hong kong and my mom is cambodian who immigrated to america from vietnam during the vietnam war. i support blm 1000% bc i feel that as a fellow minority, we are on the same team. we’ve felt oppression, in different degrees, yes, but oppression nonetheless. i wanted to clear the air in regards to myself personally because the things aimed at me in the replies of my last post were insensitive and ignorant when you do not personally know me.

i would like to say i’m more of an update page at this point for TWENTY ONE PILOTS. i’m not here to get political, but i do want to say some things in regard to yesterday’s twitter incident with tyler joseph. first of all, YIKES. the joke was distasteful and the entire “thread” on everything he made yesterday had the worse timing in the history of ever. the platform “joke” was in regards to everybody pressuring for him to say something on current events such as blm, lebanon, etc. those things are very important and i have already done many things on my part to support blm and lebanon including donations, signing petitions, and posting on my main social media accounts (i’ve really ghosted tumblr) with ways others can help. i put links to resources, petitions, and places to donate among other helpful sites. the way tyler handled things yesterday was really idiotic on his part. with that dumb joke, he could have immediately linked blm and apologized right afterwards which is what should have been done. instead, he moved on into a tangent regarding mental health and suicide awareness. i understand what he was trying to say, but in the heat of the political movement RIGHT NOW, shifting the conversation to mental health while it should have been about blm was a terrible choice on his part. even if he connected how mental health and blm tied in together, it would have been great for what he was trying to say.

WHAT HE MEANT for all of the sjws jumping on this bc “a white man is being racist and using his privilege”: september is suicide prevention month. tyler’s intensions with the platform tweet was to make fun of everyone mass tweeting him for the past few months (you cannot make people do things). he was NOT mocking blm or any political movement. that platform joke was supposed to lead into talking about mental health. for anyone who doesn’t know, tyler is a very meticulous person. there’s no doubt he’s planned talking about this stuff for a long time. the fucking band’s moto is “stay alive” so of course mental health is a huge part of twenty one pilots culture, and tyler would want to talk about it. at the same time, that doesn’t mean i’m at all excusing him for not immediately speaking on behalf of blm in yesterday’s tweets. once he saw that what he was saying was not received as he thought it would be, tyler apologized for hurting anyone and sent out the links.

this is not the first time he has talked about blm either (as seen above). his band mate (josh) and wife (jenna) have spoken on behalf of blm as well. debby ryan (josh’s wife) has been the most vocal in regards to everything going on right now. for you strangers out there to jump on here and to call him this and that is doing nothing but spreading negativity. you are wasting your own time. instead of badgering people, how about taking your business elsewhere or at least trying to educate others. do not come onto my replies just to make trouble. as fans, you can’t just say “we don’t personally know them” while you know even less than we do since you just popped in when shit hit the fan for them and they turned “problematic.” tyler did what was right at the end of the day. i am not praising him at all, but he has at least apologized and learned his lesson.

in regards to them being rich and not donating: nobody knows what they’ve done behind the scenes. i personally donated to many blm funds and to the red cross in lebanon, and nobody knows that until now! just because you donate does not mean you are obligated to publicly blast that for everybody to know. your money is going to a cause that you support, and that should only really matter to you. celebrities are no exception to that idea.

fun fact: tyler has a niece named mercy on his wife’s side! she is black and tyler and his wife are extremely close to her and her family. to come out of no where just to call him racist and all that when you in fact don’t know a thing about him besides some surface tweets is uncalled for. in regards to being silent on the crisis in lebanon, tyler is part lebanese! without a doubt, he’s donated to some sort of lebanon aid fund. but again, we will never know.

for those of you upset about the platforms: dollskill isn’t the only site that sells those boots! dollskill is certainly the most popular brand the shoes are on, but if you look them up, the platforms pop up else where as well. to blatantly say “oh he supports dollskill so he’s racist/homophobic/supports the police/all the shit that company stands for” is just as ignorant as you think he is! dollskill as a company is complete shit. i don’t support them at all. many people think they’re from dollskill mainly because of this one instagram page that’s all about finding the exact/similar clothing to what tyler/josh/jenna/debby have worn, but we cannot be 100% sure that they were purchased from dollskill. that shit company steals from other smaller artists/designers, remember? (that same instagram account reuploaded a link to a different store who is selling them, as found here)

if you still have beef with tyler and what he said, there’s really no point in bickering just to call complete strangers “stupid” or “clowns” or just really hurtful names! you are screaming into an abyss and hurting others at the same time. there is a fine line between straight up bullying and educating others on bettering their understanding with what is currently going on. my intensions behind the post was to show that he had become active again. we are a fandom, and i like to update my page when they post new pictures. that is simply what i did. i made THIS post to clear the air on what people were saying about ME. i deleted tumblr off my phone because what was being said was just belittling and i didn’t want to see that when this whole situation with what tyler did already made me upset. feel free to dm me if you would like to talk about anything. i would be happy to discuss any points that i’ve mentioned. i would much rather have a civil conversation than be picked on through replies and anonymous messages.

at the end of the day, not everyone can always have satisfied and that’s okay. if anything, this entire situation truly opened my eyes to that. hopefully you read through this whole thing before you put anything on blast again.

here’s this, too. they do care.

summary: sorry on behalf of tyler joseph. he needs to work on reading the room better.

#k talks

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winchesternova-k · 4 years

Note

Iden is right there. Want a lead with color? Play Battlefront 2. Stop lying and saying that was the most requested thing. It never was. If so, how comes Jedi Fallen Order did as well as it did with a white lead? Despite you people claiming you was going to boycott. How comes it’s getting a sequel? How comes that same white lead is getting a whole franchise? How comes it was nominated for a BATFA. I don’t even want to come across as rude but they gave you a game with a WOC and people ignored her and now she’s barely even talked about. It’s about the money. Disney are business people.

this is a lot of assumptions for someone who doesn’t seem to know what they’re talking abt. have u spoken to star wars fans of colour recently bc yes, it is the most requested thing. did u see what happened w finn? or did u ignore that?

u have literally no idea whether i’ve played battlefront or not. i haven’t, but that doesn’t change the fact that there should be more than one lead of colour. if i had that wouldn’t change the fact that i can still criticise other parts of the franchise. i adore tfa but im incredibly critical of the rest of the sequel trilogy and it’s mess of bigotry and abuse apologism bc surprise! i can like things and be critical of them at the same time!

this is the first star wars game i’ve played and there WERE a lot of requests for the lead to be a poc. i literally saw it. i don’t recall anyone saying to boycott but sure keep that victim complex up 😋

and what the fuck do u mean by “you people”? bc that feels distinctly racist. leave poc alone and let them be upset w disney (i’m white too which just shows that u assume everyone who calls out racism must be a poc which is interesting, and by interesting i mean racist)

also, i literally fucking said in my post that cameron monaghan did a good job. i love him as an actor and he did a good job. disney still should’ve hired a person of colour.

i said NOTHING abt the game’s content. the plot is sound and the chs are good. doesn’t change the fact that disney’s fucking racist. even if i agreed that them hiring another white man wasn’t problematic, there’s still the whitewashing in game and the cultural appropriation woven into the entire canon. and the second sister who is acting as cal’s foil is a woc! having a single person of colour from any race or ethnicity in a piece of media and making them evil and have to be defeated by a white person is always racist! and that’s just from where i am at chapter three.

battefront is a completely different type of game. i literally didn’t know abt it until recently. disney also did next to no ads for it so when it didn’t do as well bc of the lack of ads shitheels like u would say white leads r more popular. then they can say “ooh look! white ppl sell better!” that’s a pretty common marketing technique amongst racists. netflix has done it repeatedly. the lead for battlefront should be more popular, but do u know what i saw the last time i saw an ad for battlefront? rey. and the time before that? obi wan. this is literally the first i’ve heard abt there being a woc as the lead. the only ads i ever saw for it emphasised the fighting rather than the story, which from a quick browse was apparently badly written. the ads made it sound like it was in a similar style to injustice

also r u rlly saying that poc should have to play a shooter game as opposed to an action game to have a lead of colour bc that’s racist pal. poc should be able to play any genre of star wars game (or any franchise) and find a ch of colour and guess what! they can’t do that! bc disney!! r racist!!

ur right the battlefront lead should be more popular and well known and fandom should acknowledge her more. she should’ve gotten better from both disney and fandom. that doesn’t change the fact that cal should’ve been played by a moc.

and srsly, ONE lead of colour? as opposed to HOW MANY white leads of the years? get over urself. poc deserve better than that and u know it

also pal, if u think going “but,, but the money!!1” is going to make an ANTICAPITALIST sympathise w disney u came to the wrong fucking blog. everyone should do the right thing even if it costs u profit.

anyway disney know that poc leads r just as profitable as white ones. y’all r v quick to forget how profitable black panther was

and surprise surprise sometimes ppl who want more diversity still play games that don’t have it. what exactly is ur point?

but sure, keep telling urself that a man of colour wouldn’t have done as good a job 🤷 ur racist and lying and it shows and YES ur rude

tldr; disney didn’t advertise battlefront having a woc lead which is shitty. fandom also erased her which is equally shitty. one lead of colour in the entire franchise is not enough and cal should’ve been a moc. fuck disney and their corporate greed.

eta: tfa is also a goddamn racist mess, i meant to say that i was critical of it as well as the rest of the sequel trilogy and my adhd made me forget fvgfvg

#star wars #fallen order #cal kestis #anti disney #alex talks #fandom racism #asks #anonymous #if anyone knows anything abt battlefront feel free to add on #bc literally until right now i had no idea there was a woc lead bc all the ads featured white ppl and that it was a fighting game #like injustice #so if that’s not true disney certainly didn’t want anyone to know abt it #anon if i catch u sending similar messages to bloggers of colour i’ll steal ur kneecaps #also what kind of gotcha did anon think this was? what a mess #long post #gaming

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neongreengummiebears · 4 years

Text

Thoughts on Isaac and Representation

I don’t have a point- let me just say that now. This also stands to be perhaps my most controversial post, but that’s a risk I’m willing to take in order to get my thoughts out. This will be long and rambling. You have been warned.

With the release of Sex Education Season 2, fans have been introduced to a character named Isaac, to mixed response. He is Maeve’s new neighbor, a barrier to her relationship with Otis and potentially a new love interest.

It’s not unusual to introduce a new love interest into a show to prolong the drama and keep the tension will-they-won’t-they romance alive. In season one we Otis in love with Maeve, thwarted by the fact that Maeve was dating Jackson, and that Otis never really believed that Maeve could like him anyway. Resigned with this fact, Otis attempted to move on with Ola who had appeared conviniently around the time that Maeve had realized her feelings for Otis and ended her own relationship. It was all very ships in the night.

In season two we get a sort of role reversal: This time it’s Otis in the relationship and Maeve left pining, thinking that he could never love her. It makes sense that this would be the time to introduce a new love interest for Maeve, sort of HER Ola, if you will. The difference here is that Ola is sweet and wonderful and Isaac is sketchy AF.

I hate him, and I’ve made no secret of hating him, because personally I find him sketchy and manipulative. There are other fans who like them though and ship the two of them. That’s fine; it’s a perfectly valid opinion, and shipping wars have been around as long as fandom. That’s nothing new. There is another issue though...

Isaac is in a wheelchair.

While that isn’t necessarily a problem in GENERAL, it is something that effects the way his character is handeled, as well as viewer interpretation. It’s my experience that in media, certain characters are usually gifted a sort of “plot armor.” While that term is most commonly directed towards characters who play too pivotal a role in the story to be written off, I find it often also applies to characters who fit into the role of “representation.”

But wait, you might say, that doesn’t sound right. POC and queer characters get killed off all the time. It’s practically a horror movie trope, and “Kill your gays” didn’t come from nowhere. To which I would reply: Exactly. We have all seen it a million times, have raised it as an issue, and I would like to think that as a society we are attempting to move past it. That gay characters are less likely to die because of the attention brought to the “kill your gays” trope.

It’s my understanding that these common minority tropes originally stem from their initial introduction into media. At first they didn’t have any representation at all, and then gradually they were allowed to be incorporated in media in small ways that didn’t offend anyone’s delicate sensibilities. A very famous example would be the inclusion of African Americans: At first they weren’t in movies at all. Then they were(sort of?) but they were represented by white actors in blackface. Then when black actors were allowed to play their own roles, those roles were harmful stereotypes; You wouldn’t get a black actor playing a heroic lead, but he would be the brutish savage, or the “mammy” character. They were either relegated to minor side charactes, comic relief, or the villain- roles that didn’t challange the views of society.

There was a similar experience in regards to homosexuality in films, where once gay characters started appearing they were portrayed as sexless comic relief or villinous. The general idea behind it seemed to be that there could be homosexuality in films, but it had to be shows as wrong and corrupt, or destined to end in tragedy. After all, how could anybody in such a relationship possibly be happy? Ridiculous.

While media (and society) are still making strides towards diversity and inclusivity, you can’t say that media isn’t in a better place now than it was even ten or twenty years ago. I was born in the 90′s and the amount of difference I see even in the twenty-seven years I’ve been alive is actually a little astounding. I can’t even imagine the difference for people who are older than I. Even just since I graduated highschool (2010) I’ve seen such a huge difference in regards to representation across the board and while we still have a ways to go we are certainly far from where we started.

But what does any of this have to do with Isaac? He isn’t a POC, he isn’t in any way queer. No, but he is disabled which is another sort of representation and one that doesn’t get as much publicity. As such it is admittedly one that I don’t know as much about, but If I had to guess it’s probably because theres never (to my knowledge) been a big court case about whether or not disabled people deserve rights. It’s never been a hot button issue in a political debate the way that race politics or gay rights have and so I feel like it hasn’t gotten as much attention. Still disability representation is still a topic that comes up in conversation when discussing media.

So what does that have to do with anything? Why was I talking about plot armor? I had a reason, I promise. I’ve found that due to the problematic history of representation, shows (at least the socially aware ones) have been taking strides to try to avoid falling into the same harmful patterns as their predecessors. Since there was a long history of POC characters being cast as villains, evil characters to be defeated by the white protagonists, there was a stretch of time there where you wouldn’t see a single POC villain at all. It wasn’t quite true equality, but it was an effort to combat the harmful stereotypes that the media had perpetuated for so long.

Eventually we got to a place where it was generally acknowledged that you could have a POC villain as long as they weren’t the ONLY POC in your entire movie. The same goes for people of various gender and sexual identies. You can have a gay antagonist, but it’s impportant to include other gay people who ARENT evil to show that it’s the character that is evil, indepent of his sexuality. This isn’t seen as often however, probably due to the relative novelty of the inclusion of queer characters, which is why my examples for these points are POC characters who have a comparitively longer history of inclusion. That’s not to say that the history has always been positive, just that queer inclusion is a newer development and active disability rep seems even more recent.

I apologize if I’m phrsasing any of this poorly, but I’m hoping that you’re tracking the main points. Now. I repeat: What does ANY of this have to do with Isaac?

Isaac is, as of now, the only disabled character in Sex Education. As such, I feel like it’s kind of expected for him to be given “plot armor”, not in regards to being killed off but in his depiction. As the show’s only example of disabled representation, as well as his introduction as a love interest for Maeve, I feel like the expectation is that he would be a protagonist. At the very least he would be a good guy. And maybe some people think he is? I don’t know, he has his fans, but I’m not one of them.

This is the part of my post where I stop having a point and just start listing my thoughts.

When I met Isaac I expected to like him and I wonder how much of that stemmed from the fact that he was in a wheelchair and as such I expected that the show wouldn’t possibly portray him in a negative light. Even when he was rude to Maeve in the beginning I was willing to forgive it- I don’t mind my characters being prickly and Lord knows no other character on this show is perfect. And he was handsome, and snarky, which are usually traits that I love and I really REALLY expected to love him. However as the show progressed he just gave me bad vibes. I find him manipulative and untrustworthy.

I’m not going to go into my feelings about Isaac because I’ve already made one very long post duscussing his character, but instead I’d like to discuss his role in the show and how his disability factors into that role.

As I said before, it makes sense that this season would introduce a new love interest for Maeve. It’s not a terribly uncommon formula in shows like these. Considering that Maeve is considered the “bad girl” (even though we all know she’s a cinnamon role that just deserves ALL the love) who has self esteem issues and an inaccurate view of herself, I was honestly surprised that the show gave her such a cute, healthy relationship with Jackson. Were they perfect for each other? I don’t personally think so, but there wasn’t anything inherently problematic in their relationship. Jackson is a legitimately nice guy, I wish him the best and he was a pretty good boyfriend.

It wouldn’t be unheard of though to see her fall into a more toxic relationship, and while that’s a very strong term that even I am hesitant to use toward Isaac at this point, it does look as if the groundwork might be there for that kind of subplot. It could really go either way at this point- maybe Isaac’s actions are influenced by his own personal insecurity and he would be much nicer once they were in a relationship. Or maybe he would be scared of losing her and things would get worse. It’s not just the fact that he deleted her message in the last episode, but that he’s seemed very manipulative throughout the entire season.

It seems to me that Isaac fits the stereotype of the abusive boyfriend- He’s handsome and charming, but also very skilled at manipulation. If you watch their relationship, it also falls into a lot of the same patterns as romantic comedies. That’s not meant as a compliment however, a lot of romantic comedy relationships are built on very questionable foundations. The leading men do a variety of unethical things, but are forgiven on behalf of being handsome and funny and those actions are forgiven and even romanticized for the sake of the love story. This also reminds me of Maeve and Isaac. How often does he push himself uninvited into her life? How often does he managed to get out of facing the consequences of his actions?

It’s a fairly common trope tbh, and the only thing that isn’t common is that he’s also physically disabled. Which honestly lead me to doubt whether or not he was being sketchy or not. Like, could I be wrong? I eventually concluded that I don’t think I was, but it leads me to consider the fact of his disability on viewer perception.

Are viewers more likely to forgive his behavior because his wheelchair paints him in a more sympathetic light? That isn’t to say that everyone who likes him only does so because of the wheelchair - I’m sure some people just legitimately like him- but I wonder how many do? And why? Is it because you feel bad for the character? Or is it because, as our only disabled character, we are programmed to view him as a protagonist? Is his disability part of an effort to be more inclusive, or to subtly subvert our expectations regarding his character? Neither? Both?

If he is indeed going to be an antagonist then that raises further questions in regards to Isaac as disability representation. On the one hand, it’s not like being in a wheelchair automatically makes someone a good person- as with any other demographic of people there are going to be nice guys and assholes.

Is it better that they’re treating him like they would anyone else? Like, he’s just a regular guy who happens to be in a wheelchair, and the guy that he is, is prone to questionable behavior. Is it better that they’re treating him the same as they would any other able bodied character in this role? Or, as their only depiction of a disabled character, should they be portraying him in a more positive light? I personally find him to be very manipulative, and often he uses his disability as a part of his manipulation. Is that just an example of Isaac being opportunistic and using the resources available to him, or is it indicitive of a larger problem with his depiction?

Have physically disabled people faced the same issues in media as other groups, in that their depictions were historically negative? I’m going to be honest with you here, that’s not a question I know the answer to. I haven’t seen them largely portrayed as villains, but that doesn’t mean that it hasn’t happened.

I don’t know the answer to any of these questions, and I won’t until I see where season 3 plans on taking this, but these are the thoughts that have been circling my mind since I finished season 2. Do you agree? Disagree? Did any of this even make sense?

#sex education #isaac #maeve #sex education season 2 #sex education spoilers

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fantasiesandbooks · 4 years

Text

Tenerife Sea x

I don’t own any of the photos.

Prologue Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 Part 8 Part 9 Part 10 Part 11 Part 12 Part 13 Part 14 Part 15

Soundtrack 1

Soundtrack 2

The day of Exo’s comeback finally arrived and with it Chanyeol’s birthday too. You were on your job and luckily for you this was the last day in which you had to hand in your most important project. You were at your desk, taking few a minutes to relax after all the stress and anxiousness you were feeling not too long ago at the meeting. You checked Chanyeol’s conversation and noticed that he hasn’t seen the birthday message you had sent him at midnight.

He must be busy you thought.

With all the work and meetings you had throughout the day you hadn’t seen the boys MV which it was a bummer considering you could see all your social media exploding because of it but you had to “keep it together” at the office. You felt exhausted from these past few days and there was still two days left from the week. I don’t know how would I manage to live until Friday. You thought and rested your head in your hands. Suddenly you remembered that the party for celebrating Chanyeol’s birthday and also the guys album was that day and cursed. You weren’t not feeling in the mood for partying. The only thing you wanted to do was to fall into a coma and sleep for three days straight but you knew you couldn’t missed it giving that they really counted on you for you to be there celebrating their success. You decided that the rest of the week you wouldn’t attend to any of your classes after work and only head home to rest.

“I just beg the days come by quickly” you sighed and got back to work.

It was already 03:00 am of the following day. The boys just arrived to the dorms after working basically the entire day and having dinner after it due to Chanyeol’s birthday. Everyone went straight to their rooms to call it a day. Chanyeol was getting ready for bed when he remembered he hadn’t seen nor reply the messages in his phone- The day had been hectic with all the variety shows they had to attend and the recordings for the live show of the day.- Although his phone was buzzing all day with calls and message notifications he only took a little bit of time on his break to reply some of them. He laid on his bed with his phone in hand and started scrolling throught the thousands of messages that were waiting on his inbox. He came upon your message and read it it.

Happy birthday Yeol!!!!! I hope you will have a beautiful day with all your loved ones. Continue to be that cheerful, hardworking, kind, dorky, amazing being. <3 I feel truly thankful for having you in my life and know that I will always have your back. P.S I really hope you will have nice wine at the party because I’m in need of one glass ASAP.

Chanyeol chuckled at the last comment and also at the meme you had posted below the text that had a Baby Yoda with a birthday hat.

Maybe your words were not out of the ordinary but they warmed his heart. Also, he didn’t expect for them to be so since he knew your writing was more on the side of creating stories and not pouring your feelings out through words. He tried to come up with his reply as he felt that a simple thank you wouldn’t be enough but found it it hard to do so as he was having trouble with finding the right words to say. He decided to leave it last to continue reading and answering the rest of the messages.

Man, this is gonna take a while... he thought as he released a sigh and started typing.

The alarm set off for you to go to work. You woke up, took a shower and got dressed up. You were having breakfast and checking your social media when you noticed Chanyeol’s message. You opened it and read it:

Thanks so much y/n :) I also feel thankful for having you in my life and for you being my best friend. With you I have learned many things and know that although I can be selfish and act like an asshole sometimes, I will always care about you no matter what I say even if I’m drunk, or angry or fighting with you. Ps. I look pretty cute with that hat. - referring to the Yoda meme- and Yes! There’s gonna be good wine and I’ll be waiting for you with glass in hand ;).

You chuckled at the last part of the message but some of his previous words were the ones that stuck in your mind “I will always care about you”. You knew he was sincere about it but that also made you think about the future. There will come a day in which he would have more important people in his life. A wife or another girlfriend that treats him better that Sojin, children perhaps and that thoughts only had made you fearful, sad and anxious about it. If you couldn’t dare to tell him what you feel for him, maybe you should stop being friends as you couldn't fathom the idea of seeing him build a life with another woman while you would only be by his side pretending to be fine when you knew that neither your mind nor your heart could bear it. Being apart from him would be the only solution which you could think of and that wasn’t a good option either. You shook your head, trying to dissipate those thoughts away. I don’t have time for that right now you thought as you looked at the clock and saw you were already 10 minutes late. You rushed to leave everything as good as possible at your home and headed to work.

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Finally Friday had arrived. The Exo members were checking the last stuff for their party- The place was a well-known bar that was located in one of the most famous and modern skyscrapers of Seoul. It had a big terrace and a wonderful view of the city’s night life. The music was blasting with a DJ at the inside of the bar. You could see some waiters walking around carrying boxes full with booze and others helping the bartender setting up the bar.- Chanyeol was looking at his phone with a big frown on his face when Baekhyun approached him and padded his back.

“I can wait for the party to start” The now white haired boy said excitedly and Chanyeol turned to look at him, frowning still.

“What’s the matter Yeol?” Baekhyun asked, his smile fading slowly at seeing his friend’s face.

“I’ve just got a text from Sojin. She’s coming over” Chanyeol sighed.

“You’re joking right?” Baekhyun huffed and Chanyeol gave him a serious look.

“Look” The tall boy said and showed his phone to Baekhyun so he could read the message. After reading it Baekhyun let out a groan “Come on man! Why did you invite her?” He whined.

“I swear I didn’t. She heard about the party at the Studio” Chanyeol explained. Baekhyun gave a frustrated sigh.

“Can’t we just prohibited her entrance?” Baekhyun suggested and Chanyeol gave him a pointed look.

“Even if we do that She will call for me” Chanyeol said matter of factly.

“She’s problematic” Baekhyun pointed out and Chanyeol averted his eyes at the floor, he was starting to feel stressed about it.

“I don’t know what to do to fix it” Chanyeol confessed. Baekhyun was beginning to feel stressed too, he knew Sojin there would meant trouble of some kind, specially if she came across you. She would be on Chanyeol’s back the entire night just so everyone could see he was taken.

“Ok, we just have to keep her distracted and sober... and away from y/n the rest of the night” Baekhyun said thoughtfully. Chanyeol doubted they could do the tree things altogether but kept quiet and let his friend kept talking.

“Yeah but I don’t want to be stuck with her the entire night” Chanyeol said, concern readable on his face.

“You won’t be. I’ll help you and we will have to tell the rest of the boys about this unexpected guest” Baekhyun said.

“Thank you man. I really need help with her” Chanyeol said relieved.

“Ok course. That’s what bros are for... to keep you away from crazy girlfriends” Baekhyun said proudly.

“Hey, do you know anything about y/n?” Chanyeol asked trying to sound calmed. He haven’t mentioned anything about he being in love with you to any of the boys. Nor even Baekhyun. The least he wanted right now was hearing his friends teasing and jokes about his unrequited love and comparing him with Jackson.

“Only that she’ll be here after work and that she’s coming with Jackson” Baekhyun explained “why?”.

“It’s nothing, actually. It’s just that I sent her a message an hour ago to see if she was already on her way but she didn’t answer” Chanyeol answered.

“Maybe she didn’t listen the notification.” Baekhyun said nonchalantly. “She’s fine. Plus, she is coming with her boyfriend”.

“Yeah” Chanyeol couldn’t help but rolled his eyes at the mention of Jackson.

“Why you hated him?” Baekhyun asked amused.

“What?! I don’t hate him” Chanyeol said trying to feign incredulously and Baekhyun gave him a quizzical look. “Ahg... I think he’s trying too hard. You know like hanging out with us and giving us presents just so y/n can see him as the finest gentleman she had ever came across with”.

Baekhyun sneered at that. “Isn’t it normal that he is trying so hard?. Come on Yeol! We are both men. We know that men only try that hard when they are really interested in the other person. If that’s the case, you more than any of us, should feel happy that she is with a good boy”.

“Or maybe he is just pretending to be interested and the only thing he wants is to jump into her pants. You know there’s that chance too”. Chanyeol retorted.

“I hardly doubt that. I know him and he is just not that kind of guy” Baekhyun said calmed.

“You don’t know him too well. Neither do I and let me tell you that only over my dead body he will lay a hand on her” Chanyeol countered back.

“You know she’s probably not virgin right?” Baekhyun pointed out, giving him an amused look. At the thought of that Chanyeol couldn’t stop feel angry. He knew you have been in relationships before, so have he. But now just the thought of you getting touched by other men irked him like never before.

“Yeah well whether she is or not I’m gonna make sure he doesn’t find out” Chanyeol said determined. Baekhyun rolled his eyes at his friend. Everybody close to Chanyeol knew the boy went overboard sometimes with the things that matter to him, specially regarding his friends and family. The people who spend a lot of time with him, like you or the guys, have learned to live with the ups and downsides of it.

“How could Yoora was able to marry, with you being his brother?” The white haired boy asked although he didn’t expect an answer.

“Believe it or not my dad was tougher than me” Chanyeol explained and Baekhyun shook his head.

“Baekhyun” Junmyeon said while approaching the two men.

“Jongdae is looking for you. He said there is something wrong with the bottles you ordered” The redhead said.

“What?! This can’t be happening right now.” Baekhyun said storming out to find the other boy. Chanyeol and Junmyeon looked how his friend walked away and the last one turned to look at the tall man.

“Is there something wrong?. You looked worried.” Junmyeon asked him.

“Sojin is coming to the party. Baekhyun suggested to basically babysit her the entire night but honestly I feel so tired to do that on my own and he said I’d asked you guys for help” Chanyeol said and his leader released a heavy sigh.

“I’ll help you when she arrives” Suho said resigned. “Now come on. I need some help with checking the waiters who are preparing the snacks trays”.

“Thank you” Chanyeol said sincerely and both men headed towards the kitchen.

It was 09:00pm and you and Jackson were arriving at the party. You were not feeling as tired as you had imagined which giving the tough week you had had was like a miracle. You were wearing a knitted brown sweater with black jeans and flat boots. Your wavy hair in a long ponytail and natural makeup. Your “boyfriend” on the other side, was wearing a dark red jacket with brown jeans and sneakers. When the two of you arrived at the floor where the party has been held you noticed a lot of people was already there waiting in line to pass.

“Now this is a real party” Jackson said while looking at his surroundings.

“Don’t you guys do the same at your company?” You asked intrigued.

“Not even close.” Jackson stated. “We do have parties but not like this” he said gesturing at the whole place. - it was a massive room beautifully adorned with fancy furniture and sculptures, all of it surrounded by enormous crystal walls. There were huge posters promoting the boys comeback and a few ones of Chanyeol with the “Happy Birthday” sign And his birthdate written on them. You could see a DJ on one side of the room and a beer pong table with people around it at the other side.- The place was crowded but it was big enough for you to not feel suffocated. Luckily the people at the row were passing quickly and after 20 minutes you and Jackson were inside. You took Jackson’s hand and started walking around the bar.

“Y/n” someone called you and you turned to looked at them. It was Jongdae. He spotted you from across the room and headed towards you.

“Hi Dae! Good to see you” you said excitedly and hugged him. “Congratulations on your guys comeback and also for hosting this party. Clearly you wanted it to do it memorable”.

“Thank you” Jongdae said and turned to look at Jackson.

“Hi man! How are you?” Jongdae greeted him and give him a pad on his back.

“I’m good thanks man. What about you?” Jackson said cheerfully.

“Same. I’m glad you two came” Jongdae said.

“We couldn’t miss it, right Jack?” You said.

“Yeah.” Jackson said.

“Hey Dae! Have you seen Chanyeol? I want to give him his birthday present” you asked your friend.

“I saw him at the terrace a couple of minutes ago. He was chatting with someone guys” Jongdae explained.

“Oh! Well I’m going to go and try to find him. Are you gonna be alright?” You asked Jackson.

“Sure! I’ll be around here” he said nonchalantly.

“You should come with me. Last time you didn’t finish telling me and Junmyeon about some thing we’re curious about your album” Chen said and put one of his arms around the other boy’s shoulders.

You saw the two boys walking away and you turned to walked towards the terrace. Outside it was cold, the night air hitting you in the face and making you want to come back inside. There were tables with little bonfires above them and couches next to them. Some people outside were chatting, others smoking and having drinks at the tables. At one corner you could spotted Chanyeol. He was wearing a large sand-brown coat and jeans.

He looks so handsome you though.

You went straight to him and touched his arm gently.

Chanyeol was chatting with some on his friends when he sensed a light touch on his arm and heard you greeting him.

“Hi Chan!” You said cheerfully.

He turned slightly to look at you and smiled. “Hey!” He said. The other people around him scattered leaving only the two of you.

“How are you?” You asked him.

“I’m good although this whole thing it’s crazy. There are more people than the ones we had invited” He said looking around at all the people outside.

“You know it always ends up like that when you throw a party” You chuckled. “Oh, before I forget this. Here! Happy birthday.” You said and pull out of your bag a little blue box with a silver ribbon around it. Chanyeol looked at you surprised and took the box.

“Well it’s just a half of the entire present. The other half is at your room” you explained.

“You sneaked into my room?!.... but how?” Chanyeol said baffled.

You smile amusingly at him “It wasn’t me. It was Myeon the one that put it in there.”

He look at the box again and took off the ribbon, he opened it and inside of it there was a silver guitar pick. On one side it had carved one of his many nicknames “Yeol” and at the other it had the silhouette of a puppy that look like Toben. He look at it and smiled. You knew he liked everything that had a personal touch of him and for what you remembered he didn’t have a guitar pick with his name, nickname nor his dog on it.

“So I can asumme the other half of the present it’s a guitar?” He looked at you quizzically.

“It could be a stripper too. I’ll guess you will find out once you see it” You said nonchalantly and he laughed.

“Wether it’s a girl or a guitar it’s gonna be good so thank you” he smiled widely at you.

You laughed slightly “You’re welcome” you said and engulfed him in a hug.

Chanyeol closed his eyes for a moment and rested his head upon yours, it was a habit of his every time you two hugged since he was taller than you. That way he could sniffled the essence of your hair and your perfume he had come to love so much. He had a big smile drawn on his face, he know that, and maybe everyone around would look at you two and see him as an idiot because of that but he didn’t care. He needed his safe place even if it was for a couple of minutes after the exhausting week he just had had.

“Am I interrupting?” Someone said in an annoyed tone. Just with that he came back to reality. Chanyeol recognized that voice, it was Sojin’s. He opened his eyes abruptly and saw the other girl standing in front of you with an irritated look on her face. When you heard her too you quickly broke the embrace. You felt uncomfortable at the daggers Sojin was throwing at you through her eyes and averted your gaze.

“Sojin” was the only thing Chanyeol said. He looked clearly embarrassed and uncomfortable as well as you.

“Hey Sojin” you said although you couldn’t sound so happy when you greeted her.

“Would you care to explain what was happening here?” She asked.

“I was just congratulating him for his birthday” you explained.

“Oh! Well in that case I believe it’s my turn to congratulate my boyfriend. Excuse me” she tossed you aside and stood between you and Chanyeol. She grabbed the tall boy’s face a little bit harshly and kissed him.

You let out a huffed and rolled your eyes. By the looks of it it seemed that Chanyeol was taken aback for her sudden move and it seemed like he was trying to break the kiss. Your anger at Sojin’s childish behavior and Chanyeol’s passive attitude was starting to build up.

I don’t need to watch this you though and walked away from them.

For Chanyeol everything happened so quickly he didn’t know how to react. He saw how Sojin had pushed you aside but he didn’t have time to said something when he felt Sojin’s hands on his cheeks and her mouth over his a moment after. He tried to move his face away from hers but at the same time he didn’t want it to do it aggressively so when he finally could got away from her hold, you we’re already gone. He looked from side to side in case you were still near but he didn’t see you. Then he looked at Sojin and grabbed his hair in frustration.

I can’t keep up with this he thought.

You went inside in search for the rest of the boys or Jackson. You didn’t want to ruin your night with seeing Chanyeol stuck to Sojin. You spotted Jongin and Sehun at the bar. You approached them and greeted both boys.

“Hey guys!” You said to them.

“Y/n you came!” Jongin said cheerfully and Sehun waved at you while having a zip of his beer.

“Of course. Baekhyun told me the bar would be open for me.” You joked and both guys laughed.

“Well technically we are in charge of checking the booze request but we could have a deal if you bring us your homemade lasagna next time you go to the dorms” Sehun tried to bargain.

“A smooth move Oh Sehun” you said and extended your hand at him to sealed the bargain “Ok deal. Now, can you order a glass of wine for me?”. Sehun took your hand smiling mischievously at you and called for one of the bartenders for him to take your order. “Did you just arrived?” Jongin asked you.

“No, I arrived almost an hour ago but there was a lot of people outside trying to get in and then Jackson and I came across with Dae and he took him away. I don’t where they are now” you explained and Sehun gave you your drink. You started to drink it as if it was water. The wine was burning your throat slightly but it had a nice flavor.

“You should drink slowly. At least enjoy the flavor of it” Jongin suggested.

“I did that. That’s why I want another one” you said and gestured the bartender to gave you another glass.

Jongin and Sehun exchanged a quizzical look for a moment and you asked them “So where are the rest of the guys? Myeon and Baekhyun.” You clarified.

“Junmyeon was supposed to be at the entrance telling the guards nobody can enter from now on and Baekhyun was looking for Chanyeol a couple of minutes ago. Have you seen him?” Sehun asked you.

“Yeah” You said and turned to said thank you to the bartender for your drink.

“He was outside... with Sojin” you said annoyed.

“Oh” both boys said at unison, not sounding very happy at the mention of her name.

“So everyone has the same feeling towards her, huh?” You asked rhetorically drinking your glass in one go. “You could say that” Jongin answered hesitantly. “I think the only one who’s trying to not dislike her is Junmyeon”

“Yeah because the man is an Angel” you said and both boys chuckled.

“I think it’s more because he knows it has been difficult for Chanyeol seeing she don’t match in our group like you or Jackson”. Sehun thought out loud and Jongin nodded in agreement. “Yes. I mean you are our friend and Jackson is trying to be but he doesn’t make a fool of himself” the blue haired boy said. You nodded in understanding and thought about the first time you have started talking with all of them. Everyone was so friendly with you that you wished you could be friends with all of them and you were so thankful that became true.

After a while of you talking with the boys you were getting slightly worried about Jackson. He came with you after all and you had just left him with Jongdae. You thought he had to be fine as Dae wasn’t much of a drinker either but the part that made you worried was that you haven’t seen him around since you went to look for Chanyeol.

“Guys” You said louder so Sehun and Jongin could hear you above the music. Both men turned to look at you.

“I’m gonna go to find Jackson” you announced.

“Do you want us to help you looking?” Sehun asked you.

“It’s ok, I’ll do it alone. If I can’t find him then I’ll come back for you. Thank you.” You said and the boys nodded.

“See you” Sehun said as you turned around and walked away.

You were walking between bodies dancing and drinking. You were beginning to feel suffocated by how close each person was with another and decided to walked around the dance floor.

“Ah y/n” You heard Sojin called you from behind.

Fuck you thought annoyed and turned around to see her.

“Are you looking for Chanyeol?” Sojin asked you.

“No. I’m looking for Jackson” you said nonchalantly.

“Probably he got bored and left.” She said and wave her hand dismissively at you.

“He is not like that” you said and she snorted.

“If you say so...” Sojin said. “Hey now that you are here. How about we play some beer pong?”.

“I’m good thanks. I have to find Jackson” you said an feigned a smile at her.

“Come on. It’s a quick game actually. Or do you think you can’t handle the drinks?” She asked with a smug smile on her face. You thought about saying no again and go to find your friend but you also didn’t want to granted her the pleasure of calling you a quitter. There was something in the challenge of it and the satisfaction of seeing her face contorted in anger that made you agree to her request.

“Fine! Only one game” you said sternly.

“Ok” she said amused and you two walked towards the table. The people around it started cheering at the two of you, their new contenders.

“Do you know the rules of the game or should I explained them for you?” Sojin said arrogantly.

“I already know them. Let’s get this over with” you said. You were so done with her attitude that now more than ever you wanted to win.

“Very well then. You shot first” She said and one person of the crowd handed you the little ball. You focus you gaze at one cup in Sojin’s side, inhale slightly and exhaled when you threw the ball. You could see the ball going inside the cup and splashing a little bit of the drink on the table. People yelled excitedly and you smiled at your small feat. Sojin grabbed the cup and drank it without problem.

Ok maybe I can win this You encouraged yourself inside your mind.

Let’s kick this bitch’s ass

The game was going smoothly. You on the other hand were starting to feel dizzy and a little burn inside your stomach. You tried to suppressed any sign that would indicated Sojin or any other at the table your state so you keep playing. It was almost the end of the game and you were winning 19-18 until Sojin scored another point and you had to drink the cup. It was the last shot for each of you. If you scored you would be the winner. You took the ball and looked around. Everybody was looking expectantly and Sojin was giving you a wicked smile as she noticed you were starting to look drunk. You had good aim but she had a better alcohol tolerance. You breathe deeply once again focusing only on the last cup at one side of the table and shot the ball. Thankfully the ball reached its target and went inside the cup. The crowd cheered and you could heard some people groaning at losing their bets and you smiled at Sojin who looked annoyed at your winning. You pushed passed the people surrounding the table and walked in search of a bathroom.

Once in there you leaned over the sink and splashed water on your face. You turned to look at yourself at the mirror and didn’t recognize the person in front of it. You had your cheeks bright red as if you had a fever. Your lips dry as you were feeling thristy. You felt your legs weak and the dizziness was increasing inside of you.

I need to sit you thought and went outside.

Near the restrooms were a couple of stairs that leaded to the kitchen. You took a seat on them and leaned over the wall.

After you went looking for Jackson he came over with Jongdae and Junmyeon to where Sehun and Jongin were sitting. He asked about you and the boys had told him you were looking for him too. He suggested calling you but the boys showed him you had left your purse with them and inside of it was your phone. The other boys offered to look for you too and everyone scattered around. They had agreed to call the others if anyone found you.

Baekhyun was walking around the bar searching for Sojin. It was his turn to keep an eye on her since Chanyeol and Junmyeon had been stuck with her since she arrived. He was doing a great job he thought, trying to have a conversation with her even though she was moody because she had seen you and Chanyeol hugging and it looked like her boyfriend was having the time of his live by doing it. Her words not his. She was complaining about it when a couple of Baekhyun’s friends came over to him and greeted him. He talked with them for what he thought were like 3 seconds and when he turned around to introduced Sojin, the girl was already gone.

Shit he muttered and excused himself to went after her.

In times like this when he would have to look for someone he hated the fact that a lot of people had came to the party. He couldn’t find her anywhere and felt stressed about it. He stopped at one side of the restrooms and decided to wait there for a couple of minutes in case she was inside the ladies room. He groaned in frustration.

I take back what I said earlier about not hating her... I totally do now he thought.

He scanned the place and saw you sitting at the stairs. Oh my god, that’s y/n. He thought alarmed when he saw you leaning over the wall with your eyes closed. He walked rapidly towards you and shook your arm.

“Y/n are you ok?” You heard Baekhyun said and felt your arms being shaken. You opened your eyes and smiled at him.

“Baek, you’re here” you slurred.

“Are you drunk?” He said surprised and you nodded.

“But you don’t drink that much. What happened?” He said surprised.

“Beer pong. Sojin challenged me” you said between breaths.

“My god! ” He said. “But you didn’t drink beer, right?. There’s no way you could get drunk that fast by only drinking beer”.

“Beer, tequila, vodka...” you counted. “And more”. Baekhyun sighed heavily. He definitely hated Sojin now.

“We need to get you a bottle of water and take you home. Can you stand up?” The white haired boy asked you.

“Yeah...” You said hesitantly and loosed your balanced. You would have crashed against the wall if Baekhyun hadn’t grabbed you.

“Ok no” Baekhyun said as he struggled to keep you balanced. He put one of your arms over his shoulders and leaned your weight on him.

“Let’s go to the bar for some water” he said and you two started walking.

“Jackson” You said and Baekhyun side eyed you.

“What?! I didn’t hear you well” he said.

“Where is Jackson?” You asked.

“That’s something I would like to know too” he said between breaths.

You two arrived at the bar. Baekhyun placed you in a stool and asked the bartender for a glass of water.

“Baekhyun!” Jackson yelled as he was approaching. You could tell his face was growing with concern as his vision became clearer and he saw you weren’t all right.

“Hey!” Baekhyun said.

“Y/n!. What’s wrong with you?” He said as he cupped your face.

“She’s drunk. Sojin challenged her to a beer pong game” Baekhyun explained.

“But she doesn’t drink. At least not like that” Jackson said turning his gaze from you to the other boy.

“I know. That’s why she’s like this” Baekhyun gestured towards you.

“We need to give her food and water to reduce the symptoms.” Jackson said.

“I’ve already ordered a glass of water and there’s no food left. It ran out” Baekhyun explained. Jackson felt his phone vibrated in his pocket. He took it out and saw Jongdae was calling him.

“Shit! I forgot to call the other guys. We had agreed that whoever find her first, he would have to call the other guys that were looking for her too” he explained. Baekhyun nodded and went to take the glass of water from the bartender and gave it to you. “Dae, I found y/n. Me and Baekhyun are with her at the bar right now. She’s drunk but overall she’s fine. Yeah, we are not moving from here. Please tell the others about it. Bye.” Jackson said and hung up. He turned to look at you and shook his head in disapproval “what were you thinking?”.

“That I wanted to beat her ass” you said and Baekhyun snorted.

“And did you?” The white haired boy asked you.

“Yes” You said with a smug smile on your face.

Jackson chuckled and Baekhyun praised you “That’s my girl”.

Chanyeol was inside the bar as the night air was colder than it was a couple of hours ago. After getting over the jealousy scene Sojin had made at seen you and him hugged he texted Baekhyun saying he needed help ASAP. His shorter friend came 5 minutes after that and the tall man made up an excuse for getting away from Sojin at least for a couple of hours. He wanted to go after you and apologized for the girl’s behavior but some friends and acquaintances intercepted him during his quest and just now he was able to continue with it.

Chanyeol was walking around when he spotted Jongdae’s head between the sea of people. He called his name and the other boy looked at him surprised. Jongdae got out of the dance floor and went straight to him.

“Hey man! I’m looking for y/n. Have you seen her?” The white haired boy asked.

“I’ve just talked with Jackson through the phone. Y/n is drunk. Jackson is with her at the bar” The shorter boy explained.

“What?!... How did that happen?. Did he make her drunk?” Chanyeol said baffled. Anger building up inside of him as he imagined Jackson was the one responsible for your state.

“No. It was your girlfriend” His friend stated.

“Sojin? How could she do that?” Chanyeol asked intrigued.

“Apparently she challenged her to a beer pong game” Jongdae answered while they were heading to the bar.

Chanyeol pinched the bridge of his nose trying to contain his anger. He couldn’t believe all the troubles this girl has caused.

They were the first ones to arrived at the bar. They saw Jackson and Baekhyun surrounding you and went closer.

“How is she?” Jongdae asked.

“She’s still dizzy but at least she hadn’t vomit” Baekhyun said, his eyes catching the other ones.

“Y/n are you feeling better?” Chanyeol asked taking a step forward so he could grabbed your hand.

“Channie you have come” You said cheerfully and touched his cheek.

“Apparently she is the happy drunk kind of girl” Baekhyun said amused.

“We need to take her home.” Jongdae said.

“Yeah! I think so too” Baekhyun agreed to what his friend’s just said.

“I’ll take her.” Jackson and Chanyeol said at unison. Both men turned to look at each other. Jackson with a serious face and Chanyeol frowning at him.

“I came along with her. I’m responsible for her tonight” Jackson explained.

“I’m her best friend and I’m always looking after her not just tonight” Chanyeol countered back.

“You have a girlfriend to take care of” Jackson said matter of factly. Chanyeol was feeling his inside burning “And if you had taken care of yours this wouldn’t had happened”.

“Same goes to you” Jackson huffed.

“Ok let’s calmed down guys” Baekhyun said trying to loosen the mood. “How about I take her home?” The shorter boy suggested. “No” Jackson and Chanyeol roar at the same time while they turned to look at him quickly and went back to their hate staring contest.

“I’m tak...” Jackson got cut off by his phone ringing.

“Shit! Hold on” he said and got out of the circle the boys had created around you.

“Like hell he’s taking her” Chanyeol said to the rest of the boys. Everyone could see he was mad now and the boys got worried at that. Chanyeol was the kind of people who could loose his temper easily.

“Calm down man” Jongdae grabbed him by the arm. “We don’t want the two of you to cause a scene here”. Jackson returned with you. The boys could see on his features he was upset.

“Ahg...I’ve got a call from Mark. He said my manager need us urgently. I have to go” he said reluctantly. Baekhyun and Jongdae nodded at him. Chanyeol on the other hand was pointed looking at him with his arms crossed over his chest.

“Don’t worry, we understand. We’ll take care of her” Baekhyun said reassuringly and padded his friend’s back.

“Can you take her home?” Jackson asked directly at Baekhyun, ignoring Chanyeol’s hard gaze. At hearing that, Chanyeol was ready to complain when he felt Jongdae squeezed his arm to hold him back from it.

“Sure. I’ll keep you informed about her” Baekhyun said.

“Thanks man” Jackson said and gave him a pad on the back. He turned to looked at the others and you. His gaze changing from a worried one to a hard one when it lay on Chanyeol.

“See you”. He said and hurried up to the entrance gate.

The rest of the Exo members looked at him walking away and turned to you. “Ok let’s go ” Chanyeol said and hunched to grabbed your arm and put it over his shoulders.

“Chanyeol” Baekhyun said sternly.

“Come on. Let me take her home” Chanyeol whined.

“What about Sojin?” Jongdae asked.

“I don’t care about her right now” Chanyeol said.

“At least you know her enter code?” Baekhyun asked inquisitively.

Chanyeol kept quiet for a moment thinking about it. -He knew the code until you two last fought. The last time he went to your place he was so caught up with chatting that he didn’t see if it was the same or not and now he wasn’t sure of it.-

“I’m... not sure” The tall boy admitted. Jongdae gave him a pointed look and Baekhyun facepalmed himself.

“Then take her to the dorms.” Jongdae said. “Kyungsoo’s and Minseok’s rooms are empty”. Chanyeol nodded and grabbed you by the waist to steadied you “I’ll see you at home” and started walking.

“Let us know when you get there” Baekhyun yelled and he could heard a “yeah” coming for his friend.

“What a good night” Jongdae said sarcastically.

“Tell me about it” Baekhyun said. Chanyeol was feeling a slight back pain from the hunching as he was walking towards the entrance.

“Channie. I’m not feeling well” You slurred.

“I know. We are going home. Hang in there” he said to your ear so you could heard him through the music. You were almost at the elevator when Chanyeol felt a firm grip on his other arm.

“Chanyeol” it was Sojin looking at him furiously “Where are you going with her?”. His girlfriend spat.

“I’m taking her home. As you can see she’s drunk. Thanks for that by the way”. He said annoyed.

“Please. She had a couple of drinks” she said dismissively.

Chanyeol glared at her, refraining himself from arguing. “We’ll have this discussion later”. He turned to keep going and Sojin stood in front of you.

“If you go with her we are done”. She threatened him.

“Fine.” Chanyeol said bluntly and walked around her.

She huffed and started ranting about it.

Chanyeol didn’t hear her once you got into the elevator. You started laughing out of nowhere and Chanyeol look at you weirded out.

“Why are you laughing?” He asked you.

“She looked so mad” you said between laughter. Chanyeol snorted. Never in his life he or the other boys have seen you drunk. You’ve always tried to behave yourself and usually it was you who kept them at bay with alcohol.

“Yeah well, you helped with that too” He pointed out.

“I know. That’s why it’s even funnier for me.” You said amused. The elevator stopped at the main entrance of the building and Chanyeol took you to his car.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chanyeol closed the door once he settled you on the couch. He was exhausted for almost dragging you from the parking lot to the lobby and then from the elevator to the dorms. He gave a sighed and turned to look at you. You were still mumbling random things and got slightly touchy with him during the whole ride to their home. At least she didn’t vomit in my car he thought relieved.

“Ok now. We need to get you to bed” He said. He approached you and was standing there thinking in which room he should left you. He decided to take you to his room in case you destroyed anything inside of it. He carried you bridal style and walked through the hall rapidly.

“Good God woman! You are definitely putting on some muscle” he said short of breath. You hummed in agreement. He kicked the door open and laid you on his bed.

“Chanyeol... I don’t feel well. I’m thirsty” you complained.

The tall boy was beginning to normalize his breathing when he said “I’ll be right back”.

He went to the kitchen for a bottle of water and jogged back to this room. He was at the door when the view in front of him took him by surprise.

“What did you do?” He almost yelled when he notice you were sitting on his bed without any pants.

“They are uncomfortable” you explained and pouted at him. He tried not to look at your legs and your underwear and handed you the bottle.

“Here, have this. It should help you a little bit” He explained, trying to look at anything but you. You noticed your best friend had his face and ears slightly red because of the embarrassment and made you chuckled. “What’s wrong? Clearly you had seen women’s legs before” you said amused. He didn’t answer at your statement and went to sit beside you. You took a zip of water and sighed in satisfaction.

“Better?” He asked while looking at you.

“Yeah” you said. Your drunken mind still taking the reins of your actions.

“You are bad” you said and slapped slightly his chest.

“Me?! I took you home” Chanyeol said offended.

“Jackson would have...” you said.

“Your perfect boyfriend couldn’t do it because he had other things more important to do” Chanyeol said bitterly. “He’s not my boyfriend” you corrected him.

“He’s not?!. Then you are friends with benefits” Chanyeol said sarcastically and you sneered.

“Psh... I wish. I mean have you seen him?” You said and Chanyeol gave you a judging look.

“I don’t like your drunk self” He pointed out.

“He is hot and he dances like OH MY GOD” you said and slapped his chest again. Chanyeol grimaced and grabbed your hand to prevent another slap.

“I got it. You are head over heels for him now shut up” Chanyeol said irritated.

“Not as I am with you” you said amusingly and leaned your body against his.

“What?” Chanyeol turned to look at you baffled.

“You” You said, cupping his cheek. You were looking at his lips. They seemed so soft and pink and juicy.

I wondered how they would taste like you thought.

It was like you didn’t have control over your body as you leaned forward a little bit more and smashed your lips against his. Chanyeol had a bewildered look on his face. You had your lips pressing against his. For what he felt was a minute he stood there frozen. Your lips caught his lower lip and you caressed it gently with your tongue.

Chanyeol could taste the mix of different drinks on your lips and when he felt the feathery touch of your tongue against his he gave in. He closed his eyes and gently grabbed your arm. His lips caught yours and his tongue started tracing their edges. He felt an explosion inside of him. Even thought the kiss was slow he felt a storm of emotions; fear, shyness, love. He thought it was the best kiss he had ever received.

“Fake” you muffled against his lips.

“What?” Chanyeol reacted at hearing your voice. The memories of tonight flashing in his mind and he remembered your drunken state. He broke up the kiss and looked at you.

“He” you whispered and before you could join your lips again you felt asleep. Your head crashing against Chanyeol’s chest.

He grabbed you and carefully laid you on the bed. He turned around and saw near his desk there was an acoustic guitar with a blue ribbon stuck to it. He went over to grabbed it and take a better look at it. The body was smooth and have the name “Loey” beautifully carved at one side of it. It was a good brand too. He put his fingers over the strings and noticed it had a nice acoustic. He smiled at the sound of it but it quickly faded away as he remembered your last words.

“What was she talking about?” He asked to himself. He laid next to you and turned his face so he could take a look at you. There was no way that you would answer him now. Fake. He. What is fake? And who is he? Was she talking about Jackson? Or me? Will she remembered this tomorrow?

Chanyeol’s mind was fill with so many questions right now. The tiredness from the day soon catching up with him and he felt asleep.

Tomorrow it would be a day full of explanations.

Thank you for the support and the love. I hope you like the series and enjoy this chapter. I’ll try to come up with the next one as soon as possible. Are you getting ready for the holidays?. Also If you have any comments regarding the series feel free to send me a message. I think it would help me a lot.^^

#chanyeol #exo au #park chanyeol #exo #chanyeol au #pcy #chanyeol fanfic #chanyeol series #exo fanfic #fic #exo scenario #chanyeol scenario

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nerdsideofthemedia · 5 years

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Faunus and the White Fang: The Portrayal of Racism

RWBY has been adored by the progressive community due to the portrayal of 4 strong young women, at least 2 of whom are LGBTQ+. Not to mention the inclusion of other LGBTQ+ minor characters.

Despite this, the show is far from flawless, and it’s time to address what is probably its biggest problem: the portrayal of racism. I suspect this may end up being my most controversial post yet, but, like someone said, “It’s both possible, and even necessary, to simultaneously enjoy media while also being critical of its more problematic or pernicious aspects”.

Before I start I think it’s important to clarify that unlike in conversations about being a woman and LGBTQ+, in this one, I come from a place of no experience, since I am a white European. I do not intend to speak over POC, nor do I claim that my knowledge on the subject is flawless (far from it). Hopefully, this is only the start of a conversation and not the entirety of it.

To be clear: I am not a part of RWBY hatedom. While it’s flawed, I like it, I wouldn’t be doing it if I didn’t. I am criticizing this aspect because racism exists in real life, so how the subject is handled is important and I don’t want the edgelords controlling this entire conversation because their stance on racism in real life is: it doesn’t exist.

Lazy worldbuilding

Like Bright and Crash, RWBY, for the most part, frames individuals as the main culprits of racism instead of the systems which favor certain groups over others. We see this with Cardin, Cordovin, V1 Weiss, Roman and the village people (in the Adam short). Yes, those racist individuals exist, sometimes like caricatures however, they are far from being the only or even the most relevant type of prejudice.

By putting the blame on very specific characters, racism is presented as something easily identifiable and fixable when it’s neither of those things for a significant portion of the population. People often ignore that though laws have changed, biases didn’t magically disappear, segregated neighborhoods didn’t desegregate themselves and the wealth accumulated before wasn’t redistributed. The racist policies of the past created the now and will affect the future unless we try to fix the system.

Keep in mind that the Faunus Rights Revolution happened after the Great War, so… less than 80 years ago. Considering this timeline, it’s just unlikely the Faunus would be equal anywhere, let alone in 2 kingdoms (Vacuo and Vale) and the only thing we see in Mistral is the possibility of discriminating with the ramen shop owner.

The mere fact this sign exists shows discrimination is possible but that shouldn’t be the only thing shown.

Atlas is the exception. In “Tipping Point”, we can hear a conversation about the Faunus, which mentions economic disparity and lack of opportunity, but it quickly fades into the background.

In terms of race issues, Remnant is wildly unexplored, even the renowned for its racism, Mistral. Maybe the writers just thought digging into politic could make for a boring story or maybe they didn’t want to risk alienating the portion of the audience that listens to edgelords. In either case, it makes no sense to have racism as a major theme.

Justifying racism

“Early men were scared to death of the Faunus, and honestly, it’s not too hard to sympathize with that. Seeing something that looks like you and acts like you walk out of the forest and reveal a pair of fangs, can be a little… upsetting.”

Qrow, World of Remnant about Faunus

This does sound a bit like justifying racism and trying to present as understandable. This is an idea that I see a lot. In a review of a book that had a new species and racism as a theme, one of the complaints was that there was no justification given for the treatment like welfare and gangs. Those aren’t causes of racism – they’re just excuses. If anything, they have a lot more to do with stereotypes and wealth disparity caused by racism.

RWBY does make this mistake with Blake’s speech in True Colors, which is reminiscent of when people hold all Muslims accountable for an attack done by one, judging them all for that person’s actions, even though we’d never do that for our own race.

“We’re just as capable of hate and violence as the humans, but I don’t think any of us would jump at the chance to point that out. So why are we letting Adam do it for us? By doing nothing and staying silent, we let others speak and act in our place. And if we’re not proud of the choices they make, then we have no one to blame but ourselves.”

Ghira does the same in the Adam character short, claiming Adam’s violence is the reason why people attack them. If you judge an entire race based on the actions of a few – that’s on you.

Um, actually Antifa is the problem

While the White Fang is not the only group of people fighting for Faunus rights (in the first episode, we learn they interrupted a peaceful protest), they are definitely the ones who are given the spotlight and it’s very unfortunate how they’re portrayed. With the exception of Ilia (and arguably Sienna), they are shown to be so radical that they are not only OK with destroying cities, but also mass murder. They are terrorists and don’t even deserve a face.

In contrast, the racists both deal with their shortcomings fast (Weiss and Cordovin), they all are worthy of sympathy and redemption (even Cardin and the ramen shop owner). I think the writers were going for “racists are people too”, which is a troublesome stance to take when you frame the ones fighting racism as flat out evil.

I imagine that Atlas is going to be shown to be more unforgivably racist and the Faunus will be more sympathetic, but… even so, it kind of feels like trying to make a case for “both sides”. Yikes!

Menagerie

I’m not entirely sure Menagerie was meant to be a paradise. It looks like it, Sun expresses loving it, but Blake quickly claims it’s overcrowded. I’ll give it that it seems a lot less developed than the other kingdoms judging by its constructions, but that’s about it. I think that if they were not going for a positive perspective on it, we should have been made more aware of Menagerie’s drawbacks.

To be clear, it’s wrong to force someone to live somewhere they don’t want to live, but I think it’s a bit problematic to present it as a paradise when in the real world, white supremacists are increasing and their way of speaking is by defending a white ethnostate, claiming homogenized societies are better.

Due to the lack of good characterization of the rest of Remnant, it makes it harder to believe Faunus really went to Menagerie due to being too jaded to be somewhere else because of racism.

Adam’s scar

I have written about Adam before and just so we’re clear, I stand by my post – I’m OK with him being there to be Blake’s cruel obsessive ex-boyfriend who wants to harm her and that he basically represents the last obstacle to close Blake and Yang’s arcs of running away and facing abandonment issues, respectively.

This been said, considering the story, the scar was a huge mistake and I have no idea why someone thought it was a good idea. We’re not supposed to feel sorry for him, it doesn’t make us empathize with him – he’s clearly beyond redemption when it’s revealed and it doesn’t tie to his main motivation, his obsession for Blake, which is the cause of him being in the story. The scar would only make sense if he was an anti-villain, someone with a good cause, but evil methods (Black Panther’s Killmonger). That has never been his story though. He’s always put Blake above his cause and ultimately, he meets his end because of his obsession with her, not because she decides to confront him about his methods. Not to mention that if the scar was tied to his motivation, we should have seen it a lot earlier, not 2 minutes before he died.

Giving him a scar that reveals a cruel treatment of Faunus by humans for no other reason than to show racism is going to have a spotlight in the next volume is incredibly cheap and an awful idea, especially when it basically means nothing for Adam himself and doesn’t humanize him at all – he’s literally trying to kill 2 main characters at that point.

“Remnant can’t be racist, because…”

I also want to counter a few bad arguments against the idea there can’t be any systemic racism in Remnant. The examples usually given are Leo being the headmaster of Haven Academy and Neon representing Atlas in the Vytal Festival.

Leo

Thanks to Raven, we learned Ozpin chose the headmasters in other academies, therefore it’s possible to infer Leo was Ozpin’s attempt at fixing Mistral’s racism.

Neon

Yes, she studies in Atlas, but the headmaster is Ironwood, chosen by Ozpin and probably is also fighting against racism as far as the academy goes.

“They wouldn’t allow a Faunus to represent their kingdom”.

The equivalent of “I can’t be racist, I have a black friend”. Allowing a Faunus to go helps with the “we’re not racists, we even have a Faunus representing us”.

Other than Ironwood, I see no one else who could even have a say in that decision.

“She wouldn’t accept to represent a racist kingdom”

This either reveals an incredibly dishonest take or an almost child-like naivety. I am sorry to burst your bubble, but often people do go against their own interests provided the salesmen know how to sell it (there are Muslims who voted for Trump, women who fought against women’s voting rights, etc.). We can have prejudices against groups we’re part of.

Many will gladly go against their groups’ interests, provided they have something to gain (more than a few people spring to mind).

In this case, her decision doesn’t even hurt Faunus as far as we know – it just advances her fame.

“The townspeople weren’t racist since they were wearing masks and had weapons and we never see what’s inside of the truck”

I cannot believe I have to dignify this with a response… First, the inside of the truck is irrelevant. We had no reason to believe it was anything bad and one certainly can’t start shooting someone else just because they find them “suspicious”. Murders have happened because of racist jackasses who wanted to play hero by attacking a black “suspicious” person. Second, it’s Remnant, a place so full of monsters, teenagers are allowed to have weapons. They are clearly needed to go from one town to another. Sure, they could have dropped their weapons, but that still doesn’t change they weren’t attacking, not even in self-defense. Third, Ghira was still in charge of the White Fang and we know that during this time, the methods of the group were mostly peaceful, even if they were already wearing masks.

“They allowed an army of Faunus to go to Mistral”

OK, this is by far the most difficult one to justify, but not because of race – it’s just the authorities should have handled it all by themselves and I highly doubt they would allow civilians to fight against a terrorist attack. As for the racism point, the Faunus clearly warned the authorities, so I think it’s very unlikely they were bad guys and their weapons were awfully rudimentary. It’s not a great explanation, but I don’t think it’s more of a hit on verisimilitude than letting civilians fight.

Conclusion

I think the problems in the portrayal of race is due to a lack of understanding of racism, insufficient worldbuilding which should have been done before beginning to write RWBY and, probably, trying to avoid alienating any groups in the audience, which is not likely when the subject is racism and should not be the goal. This resulted in a mess where it feels like there is a need to frame racism as wrong, yet understandable (WoR), easy to fix, and too worried about holding the audience to task, hence sticking to cartoonish racism. While all of that is already pretty bad, it’s impossible to deny that it isn’t made worse by the rise of white supremacist groups.

I wish the writers will be more careful during the Atlas arc, but I fear we might be entering a white savior’s narrative as Weiss will probably be the focus of it. I tend to give credit to RWBY for putting the minority character at the center of their struggle, but ultimately Blake was there to fight her own and I suspect they will do the same with Weiss – she will fight her father for the rights of the Faunus (at least partially) and she will be the one who ultimately fixes racism…yeah, we might be heading to a white savior narrative.

I am hoping for the best while preparing for the worst. Still, no matter how well the next arc is handled, it cannot fix the past volumes retroactively.

One last note, I think the election of Trump should be more than enough to reveal that racism is alive and well, but if you want to understand systemic racism and the portrayal of racism in media, here are a few links:

7 Ways We Know Systemic Racism Is Real;

Adam Ruins Everything (it’s a video);

NCSC Implicit Bias;

ContraPoints – America: Still Racist (also a video);

Bright: the Apotheosis of Lazy Worldbuilding (video);

Renegade Cut - Green Book - A Symphony of Lies (video).