#what do you identify as??

[lesbianballofgender]

Aziraphale would be livid

#I know Spotify is so awful at identifying music but seriously?? bebop #this has to have been on purpose #the Spotify staff knew what they were doing #I refuse to believe it was a bot that did this #good omens #aziraphale #crowley #aziracrow #good omens 2 #gomens #ineffable husbands #michael sheen #david tennant #ineffable sillies #it's ineffable #bebop #everything isn’t tickety boo #UPDATE: if you click on the hashtag it takes you to the good omens soundtracks STOP what is this madness #Spotify knows what it’s doing and I’m not feeling ok about it

[knifearo]

i hate the concept of platonic and romantic as a binary i hate the concept of platonic and romantic as a sliding scale of "less" to "more" i hate the concept of platonic and romantic as the only two options i hate the concept of platonic and romantic as significantly different things i hate the concept of platonic and romantic as all encompassing i hate the concept of platonic and romantic as the two halves of a shallow concept of love that doesn't actually encompass anything at all i think we need to overhaul every popular conception about "types" of love so we can talk about things that are real and true for once

#in conclusion. alloromantics stfu up about love challenge #hate using the term platonic so much actually. cause even if it has a definition that is what it Should mean #you know that people don't actually think about it that way. #you say 'platonic' and you might Mean an all-encompassing love. but how it's interpreted is shorthand for 'just friends' #so like. the word platonic isn't Really for me is it :| #platonic gets presented like a consolation prize for aro people no matter where you turn #but fundamentally rn it comes from a concept of platonic and romantic as the two kinds of love #where platonic is for family and friends and nothing More. #and romantic is for the relationships that overhaul all else #so 'aros can still feel platonic love!' ok. what if it's not platonic as you know it though. #'oh then it's romantic!' k but it's not romantic either. will your framework explode if i say that #'aros can still feel platonic love!' why do you say that like it's a second-best option and expect me to identify with it... #again. platonic might Actually mean smth i experience. but it won't be Heard that way. do you get what i'm saying #i don't experience 'platonic blurring into romantic' cause i will never feel romantic love actually. those lines are still blurring though #ummmmm in conclusion. killing and biting #aromantic #aromanticism #aroace #arospec #talking

[shmaroace]

"you can't be aromantic if-" actually labels are inherently personal, you aren't entitled to know why i picked a label, and also i can do whatever the fuck i want

#this might be a hot take but i do not care what kinds of people identify as aromantic unless they are doing it in a harmful way #it is your identity you know yourself better than i will #i will be welcoming and if you eventually decide you no longer identify as arospec that's okay #aro #aromantic #arospec #aroace #aspec #asaw2023 #1k #2k #3k #4k

[inkskinned]

it is hard to explain without sounding vain or stupid - but the more attractive others find you, the more you're allowed to do. the easier your life is.

i have been on both sides of this. i am queer and cuban. i grew up poor. for a long time i didn't know "how" to dress - and i still don't. i make my sister pick out any important outfits. i have adhd in spades: i was never "cool and quiet", i was the weird kid who didn't understand how "normal" people behave. i was bullied so hard that the "social outcasts" wouldn't even talk to me.

i got my teeth straightened. i cut my hair and learned how to style it. i got into makeup. it didn't matter, at first, if i actually liked what i was doing - it mattered how people responded to it. like a magic trick; the right dress and winged eyeliner and suddenly i was no longer too weird for all of it. i could wear the ugly pokemon shirt and it was just "ironic" or a "cute interest."

when i am seen as pretty, people listen. they laugh at my jokes. they allow me to be weird and a little spacey. i can trust that if i need something, people will generally help me. privilege suddenly rushes in: pretty does buy things. pretty people get treated more gently.

i am the same ugly little girl, is the thing. still odd. still not-quite-fitting-in. still scrambling. still angry and afraid and full of bad things. of course it became my obsession. of course i stopped eating. i had seen, in real time, the exact way it could change my life - simply always be perfect, and things can be easy. people will "overlook" all the other things. i used to have panic attacks at the idea others would see me without makeup - what would they think? even for a simple friend hangout, i'd spend a few hours getting ready. after all, it seemed so obvious to me: these people liked me because i was pretty.

i worry about how much i'm being a bad activist: i understand that "pretty" is determined by white, het, cis, able-bodied hegemonies. if i was really an ally, wouldn't i rally against all of this? recently there's been a "clean girl" trend which copies latinx aesthetics: dark slicked-back hair, hoop earrings. i almost never wear my hair like that; i can hear the middle school guidance counsellor advising me that i might fare better if i toned it down on the culture.

the problem is that i can take pretty on and off. that i have seen how different my life is on a day where i try and a day where i don't. i told my therapist i want to believe the difference is confidence, but it's not. and when you have seen it, you can't unsee it. it lives inside your brain. it rots there; taunting. i get rewarded for following the rules. i am punished for breaking them. end of story.

pretty people can get what they want. pretty people can feel confident without others asking where they got their nerve from. pretty people can be weird and different. pretty people get to have emotions; it's different when they get aggressive, it's pretty when they cry with frustration.

of course people care about this. of course it has crawled into you. of course you want to be seen as attractive. it's not vanity: it's self-preservation.

#pretty in this post is a stand in for . literally all forms of normativity #warm up #tbd maybe idk #ps! hi!! i'm queer!!!!!!!!! it is how i identify! if you tag this 'q slur' i will fight you!!! #i am using it here in the EXACT way it is NOT a slur !! i am identifying as a queer person! #this is EXACTLY how people reclaim it !!! #it's like practically ACADEMIC in this usage!! #please do any reading into what the fuck the history of the word ''queer'' is before telling me #as someone identifying as queer #that i'm a slur. that the place i find comfort in is a slur #''well it makes me uncomfortable if people use it for me'' #im sorry to hear that dude. that sucks. i hope things get easier for you soon #but you don't get to take it from ME #in case you can't tell by the REST of this piece #i DID hear queer used as slur against me. i DID get bullied with it. i DID hear a lot of shit said #i also heard it about lesbians #about ''being gay'' #about pretty much any fucking term that could describe me. #i like queer. i like how it feels. and it's mine. #you don't get to undo the work i've done personally because it makes u uncomfortable #it's ahistoric to pretend like there are ''safe'' ways to identitfy if ur queer. #none exist. it has never been safe to be like this.

[bowenoke]

edit: btw it is not safe to wear contacts in the shower! the option is included for accuracy, but please consider throwing on an old pair of glasses or just going blind into that wet box instead.

#this is NORMAL BEHAVIOR . its IMPORTANT to SEE in there. what if there are clowns or killers. #to be clear. all my soaps and liquids are very different shapes and identifying them is not a concern. its the terror of the unknown #edit: btw im not trying to convert anyone. but i am gonna shotgun more concerns: #facewashing: you hold the glasses in your hands (the arm between your fingers.) or you set them down for a little bit #the fog: this is a non issue /srs. i rinse them down before i do the rest so they don't fog up #the water: my lenses might be water repellent? idk. the drops that remain are small and unobtrusive #the hard water damage: again this is a non issue. the water where i live is not that hard. id be washing them in the water anyways #drying droplets: i wipe them with a glasses cloth after i get out of the shower #i do not care that you guys dont wear your glasses but i DO think you should google how to clean glasses before #telling everyone very confidently that getting them wet is?? bad for them??? clean your glasses dude

[hussyknee]

I'm really not a villain enjoyer. I love anti-heroes and anti-villains. But I can't see fictional evil separate from real evil. As in not that enjoying dark fiction means you condone it, but that all fiction holds up some kind of mirror to the world as it is. Killing innocent people doesn't make you an iconic lesbian girlboss it just makes you part of the mundane and stultifying black rot of the universe.

"But characters struggling with honour and goodness and the egoism of being good are so boring." Cool well some of us actually struggle with that stuff on the daily because being a good person is complicated and harder than being an edgelord.

Sure you can use fiction to explore the darkness of human nature and learn empathy, but the world doesn't actually suffer from a deficit of empathy for powerful and privileged people who do heinous stuff. You could literally kill a thousand babies in broad daylight and they'll find a way to blame your childhood trauma for it as long as you're white, cisgender, abled and attractive, and you'll be their poor little meow meow by the end of the week. Don't act like you're advocating for Quasimodo when you're just making Elon Musk hot, smart and gay.

#this is one of the reasons why #although i would kill antis in real life if i could #i also don't trust anyone who identifies as 'pro-ship' #it's just an excuse to shut down legitimate ethical questions and engaging in honest self-reflective media consumption and critique #art doesn't exist in a vacuum #it's a flat impossibility for it not to inform nor be informed by real world politics and attitudes #because that's what it means to be created by human hands #we can't even make machine learning thats not just human bias fed into an algorithm #if the way we interact with art truly didn't influence anything then there would be no value in it #just because antis have weaponized those points in the most bad faith ways possible #doesn't mean you can ignore them in good faith #anyway fandom stans villains because society loves to defend and protect abusers #it's not because you get the chance to be free and empathetic and indulge in your darkness and what not #it's just people's normal levels of attachment to shitty people with an added layer of justification for it #this blog is for boring do-gooder enjoyers only #lol #knee of huss #fandom wank #media critique #pop culture #fandom discourse

[weepynymph]

Hiccstrid really are that perfect combination of autistic guy who literally cannot stop talking even when he wants to, and autistic girl who is so irritated by people breathing near her that she is driven to violence.

#hiccstrid #and yes I headcanon both of them as autistic what are you gonna do??? #and I identify strongly with both #httyd #how to train your dragon #hiccup haddock #astrid hofferson #hiccup x Astrid

[blueskittlesart]

deeply refreshing to see someone critical of Swift who also like, genuinely likes her. Like i'm neutral to positive on her, but the online discourse has been absolutely rancid. flipping between "Taylor Swift has never done anything wrong ever and she's a fucking genius" and "Taylor Swift is the worst lyricist of all time and also a bad person" is exhausting, so thank you for like. nuance or something lmao

not to make it serious for a sec but i genuinely think that being able to like things that are bad is really important. like I think that it's an important skill to be able to look at something and see what you personally enjoy about it and then take a step back and acknowledge that objectively it's flawed. and to also be able to acknowledge that liking something isn't necessarily an identity or a moral stance. and i think that fandom space in general could really benefit from more people taking the time to learn how to do that. it's okay to like things that are bad

#people ask me sometimes why ill occasionally talk about something i like and then go 'but it's bad' and the answer is usually because it is #i love teen wolf. i love genshin impact. i love detective conan. and i fucking LOVE taylor swift. that doesnt mean theyre good #it just means i like them. and recognizing their flaws actually helps me better identify what i like about them! #it's like. in my mind bad > good is the x axis and i like it > i dont like it is the y axis yk. they're not mutually exclusive #tldr it's not that serious. we can all relax a little #irt taylor swift i do also think she has done some real harm to her fans in enabling them to deflect all criticism of her as misogyny #and i don't think it's fully the fault of these people who are parroting that response bc so much of her marketing has deliberately #reinforced this idea that to be a swiftie is to be a part of a sisterhood and that any attack on taylor is an attack on all of those women #who are in that in-group. when that's obviously not the case. but she's marketed herself as. for lack of a better term. 'girl music' #to the point where it makes her fans feel as though any criticism of the music or the woman responsible for it is an attack on their #personal experience of womanhood/girlhood/sisterhood/etc. and that's how you get all of thess bad-faith accusations of misogyny #i don't necessarily think this was her deliberate goal with her marketing tho because like. on first glance such a strong sense of communit #among fans sounds like a great thing. the friendship bracelets i got at the eras tour movie are really genuinely special to me. #but it does present a problem when your fans are unable to separate how they feel about the community and experience your music has fostere #from how they feel about you as a person. especially when you are a billionaire who absolutely CANNOT be above criticism in this economy #anyway. tldr i love taylor's music and i don't think swiftie hivemind is as deliberately malicious as it may seem #but it's obviously necessary to be able to take a step back and look objectively at what you're participating in. #anyway stream ttpd or don't idc <3 #taylor swift

[seaweedstarshine]

“They engineered a psychopath to kill you.” “Totally married her. I'd never have made it here alive without River Song.”

Sources: Let's Kill Hitler, Diary of River Song: My Dinner With Andrew, Closing Time, The Husbands of River Song, Diary of River Song: The Furies, Diary of River Song: Animal Instinct, The Ruby's Curse, Time of the Doctor

#I don't know if this makes sense but I'm having fun #this is not an attempt to assign meaning to 'psychopath' but to explore how river relates to the identifier in relation to her trauma #and obvs not trying to equate implications of what river does with kovarian- rather examine how the abuse shaped her #river song #doctor who #ive got so many ideas for these and im wasting my 'time off' making gifs instead of taking advantage of #the ability to ignore work emails to get done other massive work projects. oh well #you know what. since this is my second media set in a row ima start tagging them like so- #edits by seaweed #words by seaweed #madame kovarian #crispy!master #the master #I deliberately didnt include the psychopath lines from Picnic at Asgard bc im saving it for a set about River as a demiurge :D #oh and I'm saving 'my bespoke psychopath' for a possible yowzah post surrounding 'two psychopaths is too much for one tardis' line #is SO much easier to do this to express my thoughts than writing words. you don't even KNOW how many incoherent essays in my drafts #okay ima get back to work #and then sleep

[liquidstar]

i missed this shot of the extended crew in the other post

background lesbians spotted! thank you again vivinos

#i mean there are foreground lesbians too #well. i think mizi is bi personally actually #maybe sua too but we dont know a whole lot abt her since she fucking doid #but its a series literally made by a sapphic creator and their girlfriend so i mean what do you expect #(idk vivino's personal way of identifying i dont wanna assume that either) #alien stage

[aropride]

"no guys i swear the cishet intruders are real this time, they're really invading our community, theyre taking our resources for real this time, trust me, they love getting called slurs and being discriminated against, this is a real thing thats really happening and affects me in real life, my exclusionism is good this time i SWEAR"

#text #discourse #like what fucking world r u living in 😭 'i dont mean trans people' what Do you mean then. #like give me 5 examples of this happening in real life and causing harm to literally anyone #i prommy cishet invaders arent identifying with slurs and intentionally putting a target on their backs like that #especially in this political climate #you are just being.. either biphobic or nbphobic or both most likely. probably some secret 3rd 4th 5th 6th 7th 8th 9th etc things too

[takonxmz]

Prompt by @butterfliesandresistance: "Ratatouille au (who's under his hat? 👀) if you can make it xiyao, even better"

WHO COULD POSSIBLY BE UNDER JIN GUANGYAO'S HAT!!????

it's....

... COROCOROKURIRIN!!!!!!!!

Causing havoc for the ever poise Jin Guangyao (he's helping guys)!!!!!! 🐹🐹🐹

#mdzs gotcha for gaza #mdzs sanrio #thank you for your prompt and donation! #i am so obsessed with this prompt? #i wanted to do dedenne at first but not everyone is into pkmn and may not know what a dedenne is #so referencing the mdzs x sanrio collab was perfect here! #mdzs x sanrio #the collab is a gift that keeps giving 😭 #anyway #highly identifying with corocorokuririn here yall #mdzs #my art #pentel brush pen #xiyao #ink #jin guangyao #lan xichen #lan xichen x jin guangyao #watercolor #tuxedo sam #corocorokuririn

[alexkablob]

not to wade into discourse about shows online which I swore to stop doing but I think some of you need to recognize that not every piece of media is about you, and that focusing only on the themes that you personally identify with while erasing the ones you don't is Not Great

#some of you only know how to analyze things through a VERY specific queer lens that matches your own personal experiences and it shows #and I just think there is a lot more to enjoying narratives about having a complex relationship to gender in a very specific historical era #than arguing about what specific pronouns and labels they would use in 2023 #and that white queer people reducing stories that are about a character's struggle with being multiracial #to *only* the queer elements that we identify with is. not great??? #you can't separate these things you can't just ignore them #I'm obviously not equipped to do in-depth *commentary* on that aspect of mizu's character because I am in fact a white queer #that is for other people to speak about and I'm enjoying reading their takes on it #but like. you need to engage with media that is not about you. you need to assign artistic merit beyond what you personally identify with. #you can find things that resonate with you in them but you should not make the whole thing about you

[lettuce-king]

I feel like wwdits is a show written to be in the worst timeline. Its like the characters choose all the wrong options. There were so many options, so many ways things could've gone and these characters continue to surprise us by choosing the dumbest, the most rediculous, the absolute worst options.

#wishing for your coffin to close for you once instead of wishing to be able to eat human food or go out into the sun unharmed? #covering all the mirrors with rags instead of just painting over them or breaking them when you're on the run hiding your vampiric identify #telling your family you haven't seen in 10 years that you were working for a popup Panera bread at the rail roads instead of just saying- #that you got a better more stable job? #being able to resurrect anyone and only chosing to do podcasts and interviews instead of bringing back preformers #they're all idiots your honor #wwdits #what we do in the shadows #guillermo de la cruz #nandor the relentless #laszlo cravensworth #nadja of antipaxos #wwdits guillermo #nandor wwdits #wwdits nadja #wwdits laszlo #i mean-Jackie Daytona

[carlyraejepsans]

for real WHERE does the idea that [utdr humans] are nongendered so that "you can project on them" come from. their literal character arcs are about NOT being a blank slate to be filled in by the audience

i think i understand the assumption on some level for undertale, because there is a very intentional effort to make you identify with the "player character" in order to make your choices feel like your own (the beating heart of undertale's metanarrative lies in giving you an alternative path to violence against its enemies after all, and whether you're still willing to persue it for your own selfish reasons. YOUR agency is crucial).

of course, the cardinal plot twist of the main ending sweeps the rug from under your feet on that in every way, and frisk's individuality becomes, in turn, a tool to further UT's OTHER main theme: completionism as a form of diegetic violence within the story. replaying the game would steal frisk's life and happy ending from them for our own perverse sentimentality, emotionally forcing our hand away from the reset button.

i think their neutrality absolutely aids in that immersion. but also, there's this weird attitude by (mostly) cis fans where it being functional within the story makes it... somehow "editable" and "up to the player" as well? which is gross and shows their ass on how they approach gender neutrality in general lol.

but also like. there's plenty of neutral, non PCharacters in undertale and deltarune. even when undertale was just an earthbound fangame and the player immersion metanarrative was completely absent, toby still described frisk as a "young, androgynous person". sometimes characters are just neutral by design. it's not that hard to understand lol.

anyone who makes this argument for kris deltarune is braindead. nothing else to say about it.

#this is a very difficult topic to discuss imo because on Some level I don't completely disagree with people who make that argument for chara #in SPIRIT. if not in action. like my point still stands characters can just Be neutral. and if that level of customization had been intended #well Pokemon's been doing the ''are you a boy or a girl'' shtick for ages. no reason why that couldn't have been included as well #but i do feel that we're supposed to identify with chara within the story. not as in chara is us but as in we are chara #and i think someone playing the game without outside interferences and (wrongly) coming to the conclusion that chara IS literally #themselves in the story. and thus call them by their own name (the one they likely inputted at the start) and pronouns #will be someone who grasped undertale's metanarrative more than someone who went in already spoiled on the NM route who thinks of chara #(and on some level frisk as well) as completely separate from us with independent wills and personhoods at any time #who treats them as nonbinary. even if their approach is more ''appropriate'' to a gender neutral person #systematic error vs manually changing every measure to fit what you already think is going to be the correct result. ykwim? #of course this opens a whole new parentheses while discussing the game outside of your personal experience #because even if you DO see chara as a self insert then they are a self insert for EVERYONE. women men genderqueer people #i don't call chara ''biscia'' even though that's what i named the fallen human in my playthrough. neither do i use they because i also do #if you're describing the character/story objectively in how they are executed then you're going to talk about them neutrally #because you ain't the only sunovabitch who played the darn game sonny #so like. either way you turn it. even in the most self insert reading you'd STILL logically use they/them so ¯⁠\⁠_⁠(⁠ツ⁠)⁠_⁠/⁠¯ git gud #answered asks

[woah-uhuh-uhuh-uhuh]

whats that joe iconis? you want *me* to be in charge of the jeremy outfits from now on?? well if you insist....

#ngl i dont think he would have the confidence to wear anytihng like this til hes like 23 but #um have you considered what if he did and he got to be fluffy and express himself right now #like have you thought about that ////lh #jeremy heere #bmc jeremy #jeremy bmc #be more chill #bmc #my art #my posts #jeremy #art #wuuujer #posts #<- thats me making a tag for my own jeremy dont worry about it sldjkfdslkf #hes converging with flint lockwood now i really have to backpedal #i wanna do a closeup of his and michaels phone cases i think michael would bully him #btw my headcanon for his queerness in this image is he just opened the possibility of identifying as something other than cishet #and is like oooh i might be aro and nonbinary or something #may or may not be true in the long run but thats how he feels now!!