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The missing R and two Ds stand for Real Dick Down

Dick Gayson & Jason Thot send tweet

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Dick Gayson & Jason Thot send tweet

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Honestly, he did get more out of their relationship in comparison to what Kory got out of it 😭. They were very popular in their heyday in the 80s (after all, TNTT pretty much resurrected DC) and had a big revival with the Teen Titans cartoon, but yeah. On the scale of "are we benefitting equally in this relationship" Dick was definitely getting more out of it than Kory!

That's okay, relationships are complicated and no one should be on OP's ass about it 😭. Dick was an extremely intense and complicated character. Kory's storylines deserved more spotlighting with emphasis on her as a focal point, rather than as a device for Dick + other Titans' rumination.

I loved reading about Kory, Kom and R'yander (he's mostly in Omega Men rather than his short appearances in TNTT and that one time in the Supergirl comics which was lowkey random). I wish Starfire had a story focused on her where Dick only plays as a past reflection, the way Starfire often does in Dick's stories. It makes sense! This was a past part of each of their lives and both deserve to move beyond it. Dick has been allowed too, Starfire's character should be allowed to as well.

When Perez and Wolfman coined her as "Red Sonja in Space" I always hoped for her to one day have a solo story that would really play on that idea! I still do want to see Starfire outside of the context of the Titans and Dick. I want to see her doing her own thing!!

whenever dick is reflecting on his relationship w/ kory and he's like "she taught me to be emotionally open after me repressing my emotions so much with batman" I always feel like adding "And in return, I ignored her, condescended her, treated her like she needed to be restrained and there was something wrong with her and her culture and bitched at her to change but didn't actually end the relationship in any healthy manner"

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This is one of my fave comics that I own guys, the colors and line weights are gorgeous in its physical form. I truly miss this style of comic artistry. We can certainly have this while staying true to modern updates in costume and character design!

dick grayson by jerome k. moore

—edited from new teen titans #86

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tbvh people calling helena dick's sloppy seconds or jason's bitch are the one w issues. or 'being passed along' or whatever. in their anger towards dc's misogyny and bad treatment towards women these people who are allegedly fans and enjoyers of helena end up exhibiting misogynistic behavior as well. man. i get it cuz i fear for her character too (and jason's too) but the comic isnt out yet and the 'anxiety' people are exhibiting kinda feels too extreme

Yes! Sentiment I and many of my moots/server buddies share.

Listen everyone, I get that Helena's character has been really put through the wringer since the New52. This is a point I've brought up with others before. But, treating her like she's just another sidepiece through YOUR lens is what cages her in that box. Anxiety is certainly one thing, I feel like people are using these anxieties to push their visions of outrage.

From what I've seen on Felker-Martin's socials, she is taking it in stride despite the outpouring of hatred and anxious fanning that has come her way since the announcement dropped. I won't make any constructive critiques until I read issue #1 for myself and I should hope that others do the same.

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oh wow a man writing helena how progressive

its been two minutes you wanna fuck her so bad 💔 if you a woman imma let you know rn being a wlw doesn't make you less of a loser

im sorry bby im not a misogynist or a misandrist im what we call a normal person 💔😔

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I'm convinced some of y'all don't even like Helena the way you guys are reducing her to a side piece without having even read a comic that isn't OUT yet. I've seen so many people call her "Dick's sloppy seconds" or a "sidepiece" or "Jason's bitch".

You don't want her in the comic cause you think she'll be reduced. Okay, valid concerns. You fear DC will uphold some misogynistic stereotypes. You don't want her in the comic, so DC doesn't put her in the comic but then she's not in any comics and DC is still misogynistic because omg why are you not putting women in comics!!?

Babes. I am scared for Helena's characterization too. I am. I love her character so bad. HOWEVER, I'm not so far up my own ass that I'm going to start shitting on a Transwoman's writing of the comic when the comic isn't even OUT yet.

I get that many fans want a mlm and wlw story for both Jason and Helena. Hey, that'd be great! Some of y'all love Helena so much you will actively disregard how important Oliver is to Dinah and use the same horrible misogynistic mouthpiece to shit on Barbara.

My dears, you pointing out DC "passing" Barbara along (which is a HUGE issue and should have a CONSTRUCTIVE dialogue that doesn't still reduce Barbara by making it all about how DC lifts the Batboys balls) but STILL using misogynistic language against her by insinuating she IS something to be passed around and not another human character is still upholding patriarchal rhetoric. Y'all are still male-centered even when you think you aren't.

Stop masking your anger towards DC with hatred for some characters in order to APPEAR like you are a visceral supporter of the female characters you wish to see stories about. You aren't HELPING these wonderful female characters get any storylines that will uplift them, you alienate what they might need from a publishing standpoint to have a segway into their own major stories.

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I'm Going To Hold Your Hands When I Say This Guys*:

In UtRH, during Jason's confrontation with Batman and Joker, did Jason:

A. Demand Bruce kill the Joker

B. Demand Bruce choose between killing Jason to save the Joker's life or allow Jason to kill the Joker, thus giving Jason the autonomy to avenge his own murder

C. No, there is no secret third thing.

Quick, children. Look through those panels. Utilize those failing comprehension skills TikTok taught you all about.

Okay. Did you pick an answer? Good.

If you chose B, congratulations. You have correctly interpreted a series of panels that has an objective analysis while also allowing room for subjective analysis of the characters' relationships, motivations, feelings and emotions as an addition to the objective analysis and not an independent variable.

If you chose A, I regret to inform you that you are presently experiencing a lobotomy. Loboto-Hood if you will. Maybe Loboto-Bat, if you prefer. Maybe even Lobo, if you wanna ride a fucking dolphin. Also, Hood saying "If you won't kill this psychotic piece of filth" is actually not about that IN the moment, but as a statement towards Batman having not already killed the Joker prior to that moment. That one can actually be a little tricky to understand so I wanted to point it out lmao.

*OP respects your physical boundaries (seriously). OP prefaces this by saying they love both Bruce and Jason as characters. OP is NOT a stan of any one character. OP also apologizes in advance for the pedantic, rather condescending tone of the following:

OP is not usually so sarcastically salty but is TIRED of the global literacy epidemic in which people on the app formerly known as Twitter (and other social media apps, like this one, I'm aware of the irony) just throw around political terminology without actually understanding their meanings and of people attaching real world Liberalism vs Conservatism to fictional characters in which the moral/ethical righteousness of one is dependent on not acknowledging the loose ethics and politics of Billionaires and the moral/ethical righteousness of the other disregards the trope-idea of the "Noble Gangster" and the inherent violence of resistance/revolution utilizing a system against itself because everybody wanna say they are all for dismantling the system without having to say "Yeah, this shit gets violent" with their chest.

When the biggest difference in your deontological vs utilitarianism is that the writer will have one character kill the neo-Nazi trying to murk them and the other has to do backbends to condemn the defensive murder of the neo-Nazi while also not looking like they are supporting the neo-Nazi and your readers will STILL ignore the fact that one character is a Billionaire (and all the real life connotations of that tax bracket) but still apply real life sociopolitics to the OTHER character—**

**This is another example of intentional sarcasm, a literary device classified under verbal irony.***

***This is a PDF document with definitions and examples of literary devices, which has an objective definition in addition to informed subjective discretion, courtesy of this publicly available link. I care about y'all being EDUCATED when you yap back. If you can't access it lmk and I'll get it to you or stay quiet and perish in peace:

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Thank you for the tag bby 😚

Fave Color: I'm more of a color palette person. Colors that I think look good together for a certain mood.

Last Song I Listened To: Desire by Luna Sea

Currently Reading: law textbooks for the nonfiction stuff, The Water Outlaws by SL Huang for fiction.

Currently Watching: I really don't be watching shows that often, but I'm planning on rewatching Birds of Prey (2002).

Currently Craving: In terms of food, the Southern Italian inspired lasagna I made earlier. In terms of superficial desires: witnessing the discourse that will absolutely occur with the new Red Hood series.

Coffee or Tea: Tea usually, but I won't turn down a good proper coffee.

tagging @beautyconsumer <3 no pressure

Get to know your mutuals!

Coping with some shit rn and being tagged by @atlasspade honestly helps! Thank you very much!

Favorite Color: Yellow and periwinkle blue and do not make me choose between the two

Last Song You Listened To: I Always Wanna Die (Sometimes) by The 1975

Currently Reading: The Odyssey. I know, I mentioned reading it like two months ago, it's going slow.

Currently Watching: Another comfort piece... Ugly Betty

Currently Craving: hugs and reassurance

Coffee or Tea: Black tea

Don't be a stranger <3 @lilsnatch @pinkberrytea @mercymaker @steel-valiant @not-those-kids and @song-writer-melo-wrath (even though I have a feeling I know answers lmao)

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Reblog to give prev the power to write their fanfiction

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@glitter-stained schizoaffective Dick justification once again.

But!! OP, you are so right to acknowledge the disparity between Dick's portrayal in the 80s-00s and now. It is a rather dramatic shift, and much of it so due to the great tonal shift DC had with its whole new52 and so forth.

I will never get over Nightwing being straight up called schizophrenic in the 80s. Nowadays DC writers will do circles around the subject of his mental health, barerly bringing back his hallucinations and sometimes making him behave in a depressed way but they never name the issue

Meanwhile 80s writers being like "nah, fuck it. This boy have some serious mental health problems. Lets call him schizophrenic"

I appreciate the boldness

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Tim is really out here chilling with Dick's (ex) girl TWICE. TWO different series, TWO different women.

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identical

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Guys...no Romani kid grows up ONLY speaking their dialect of Romani. 😭Most dialects are a closed language guys, sorry. He could very well have been speaking English if you are of the belief he was born in the USA lol. Since DC is pushing that Mary was a Romani woman from France, I like to say she was either Calé or Manouche, so he could have been speaking Spanish, Catalan or French. Doesn't matter, let your imagination run wild, long as you don't convolute and change our history to fit your superficial inclusivity.

Rant time😂

Just saw a post on TikTok where some gorja is telling everyone that Dick wouldn’t know English *because* he’s Romani, so obviously only grew up speaking Romani, right? It’s one thing if you head canon him to be from a non-English speaking country, but this was imagining a Romani Dick Grayson from America. And I couldn’t comment as my TikTok is literally my name and I don’t want it connected to me as I’m friends with colleagues, uni friends, etc

Repeat after me:

Even if we grow up speaking Romani from day one, we also speak the language of whatever country we grew up in because you simply cannot function without that. How do you expect to go to a doctor, pay taxes, fill out forms, or even buy milk without speaking the local language, for god’s sake. We’re isolationist in the sense that we’re a closed community, not that we live on some Uncontacted Romani Island. Wherever did this idea come from, I swear to god.

I get wanting to engage with certain aspects of a character - I made this blog so I could make a Romani-language joke about Dick and Kory. I actively share lots of information/my takes on the character as someone from the same cultural background with the intention of people reading it, and adopting those headcanons if they want. But for the love of God, if you’re going to ‘share information’ about Dick’s heritage, at least verify that what you’re saying is correct and not just pure bollocks! Speak to one of us beforehand - don’t just make stuff up which you think ‘sounds right’ because I’ve never heard such a load of crap in my life!

Anyway, rant over. TLDR: don’t just make up a load of shit when acting as a spokesperson for a community/culture/ethnicity you’re not a part of. I thought that would be common sense but apparently not.

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"Coffee Addict Tim Drake" real hotties know that Tim Drake would be creating the most abysmal concoctions out of Celsius, Diet Mountain Dew and Red Bull.

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Okay, I've had the chance to finally read all of this and would like to offer another perspective from a different part of our diverse Romani heritages:

For background, I am Calé (this part of my family is from the southern part of Spain). I love that @nightwingsgypsyrep took the time to mention skin tone variations, as for many of us "Mediterranean" Roma, we are all often depicted with deeper brown skin tones in media (such as the mention of Esmeralda above, whom I could say A LOT about and pieces of artwork in both the traditional painterly sense and in multimedia. Take Noah from Full Metal Alchemist as another example. Another character I could say quite a bit about).

In my case, being brown-skinned is true. In the case of many of my family, its also still true and to varying depths of skin tone. However, it is not as though every single Roma person has brown skin.

This is like saying all people from India itself are brown-skinned which also isn't true. The South Asian subcontinent is full of folks with a large variety of skin tones. Yes, many Romani subgroups have a lot of European admixture depending on where they are from. I think this is another reason, us Roma groups from the Mediterranean tend to be casted as more brown skin in general, because of the type of admixture we have and the overall skin complexions of Mediterranean peoples in the Southern parts (the characteristic "olive tone").

Depicting Dick as lighter in color isn't a crime y'all. It moreso depends on what "type" of Romani he is and EVEN THEN, he could still be light skinned. In my other addition to a different post a little while ago, I made mention of my mother. She is FAIR y'all. In fact, when she was younger, she was so Fair I used to think her skin was like a creamy sheet of porcelain, like that of a Dolls. In comparison, HER mother has a very deep skin complexion. Those two are like on the opposite side of the modern day American foundation ranges.

The skin tone thing aside, which I just think is people being ignorant (I personally give Dick brown skin too, cause I'm a brown skinned Roma and so is a lot of my community. But there's no issue in him being lighter cause many Roma are), what I really want to say a little more about is the oversexualization and effeminate characteristics placed on Dick as a character from the perspective of a Romani person.

It's always bothered me, his oversexualization ESPECIALLY because we as a people group(s) already experience that all the time. I mean it guys, all the time. Payos expect that our women are especially promiscuous, money hungry and inherently objects of sexual desire.

You guys can see examples of this in practically ANY variation of Esmeralda's character (whom I do believe to be Calé because of her name and depictions in media throughout the years) and in another famous gypsy*: Carmen.

In media, we are something to be gawked at. An exotic spectacle of desire, God's test against righteous men (see: Judge Frollo from The Hunchback. Disney's song Hellfire is a great example of Esmeralda's sexualization through his eyes).

You think this also isn't true of our men? My uncle, very tall and well-built in his youth and quite handsome was once scouted in NYC for his "exoticism". He was quite young at the time, and new to the USA and didn't understand that these people were only interested in him as an object to entice an ignorant populace with sexual fantasies. Any other identity of his aside, he was meaningful to them for some of the particulars of his heritage, namely the Romani and Persian roots:

The mention of the Greeks characterizing the Achaemenids as effeminate? Yeah, that type of damaging depiction has followed us around for generations upon generations. I mean, look at the movie 300 (fuck that movie all my homies HATE that movie and only truly can enjoy it for that ONE fuckass line. Couldn't depict Sparta OR Persia right). Now, there are Persian Roma y'all 👋🏾. I think those of us with heritages based in the Armenian, Turkish, Persian or Mediterranean parts can truly say we've all had at least ONE experience as a cis man or woman where we are both seen as more feminine and willy JUST because we are Romani.

Its ridiculous! This is not to say that there are no feminine Romani men. Of course there are. But, I think many people place the more popular, more Western influenced depictions of genderfluidity on all male characters.

To me, this does not work for Dick narratively or in sense of his character background. Never understood why people make him short just cause he's an acrobat (much of our men, at least in my experiences with my community and when I visited the fairgrounds in England are actually quite tall and well built AND many of them are also quite acrobatic. Y'all have such a small scope of how acrobatics actually work. You look at the modern Olympic gymnast like Simone Biles and just think anybody with intense acrobatic talent/discipline is SHORT??? In a world of COMICS??? Where Dick Grayson did a quadruple flip as a CHILD?? I don't get it. I really don't understand that part). I also never understood why people make him naturally more femme presenting just because of his acrobatic heritage. I have several uncles and aunts who were a part of the circus from a very young age and there was such diversity in the gender expressions amongst them. One thing I can confidently say is that our Romani culture plays a BIG part in our gender expressions in both the traditional and social sense.

We care!!! A lot!!!! About tradition!! Its how our culture and language stays alive amongst polities who would rather see us assimilated or dead.

Even in TNTT and all throughout the 80s, Dick is a much more traditionally minded person when it comes to romance, sex and nudity. He isn't a promiscuous person not even a little bit. There are TONS of panels across tons of issues supporting this. There are character sheets where he is described as quite serious and conservatively minded (in the sense of his romantic values). When I was reading those comics as a kid and later on, I felt it SO relatable. It was such a reflection of the values my culture had, values our men have.

I'm not saying Dick shouldn't have certain features, I'm just saying I think a lot of you attach him to this constantly young-to-mid effeminately depicted pretty boy with a short, weak body because you don't even realize you are ignorant and play into stereotypes that we as a collective group of people have had negatively impact us for GENERATIONS.

Devin Grayson's Romani depictions weren't great. You know what? I'm still glad she wrote that in. I'm glad she at least TRIED when many of you run with Romani stereotypes all the while patting yourself on the back for your performative inclusivity. We have such little GOOD representation in media as is. Even if Grayson's attempts were poor, they still mean something to ME as someone who read Dick as Robin and in TNTT first and as OP has shown, he means something to them too.

There is so so so much to say on how Romani peoples in general are more susceptible to being SA'ed and oversexualized. So so so much to say. I'm going to leave it at these unpolished, hastily typed words for now. I think a dedicated, orderly post is needed to truly talk about all these facets.

*the term gypsy is used by many Roma to identify themselves. Many also consider it a slur. Depends on the subgroup. Leave Romani people alone about using it lol, of all people to haggle about the use of the term.

Ok so might accidentally end up doxxing myself with this one but here we go…

The Himboification of Dick Grayson, and Why It Sucks From A Gypsy Perspective

Warning: this is a long one! Also tw for brief mentions of Dick’s canonical SA/rapes, and discussions of purity cultures.

And disclaimer: none of this is intended to slut-shame anyone, so hopefully it doesn’t come across like that. I’m just hoping to explain the weird sexualisation of gypsies in the media, vs our more conservative attitude to sex. This also isn’t meant to shame anyone or tell you how you must imagine Dick Grayson - if you like dark skinned, more-fem Dick, then you keep on enjoying that! This is just what I’ve noticed as someone who is a gypsy, and some patterns I’ve seen in how Dick is portrayed and received.

So, I have a lot of problems with the depiction/perception of Dick Grayson, and particularly the hyper-sexualisation we see. I am not alone in this, and I know it’s something which has been discussed a fair bit in the past.

Honestly, I don’t even know where a lot of this came from? It’s only really in the past decade or so that we start to see it emerge properly in canon; prior to this, whilst it was agreed that Dick is good looking, he was kind of able to get around as a normal guy, and was praised a lot more for his capabilities and athleticism than for his looks. But with the New 52, there seemed to be this shift where Dick is really reduced to his looks. The Grayson/Spyral comics are particularly guilty of this: so many times we see Dick called an idiot (even if somewhat affectionally), sexualised (even by teen-aged girls when he is in his twenties), and reduce himself to his looks (Dick himself even says something along the lines of ‘It’s a good thing I’m pretty’). You can argue that the whole point of Spyral is that Dick was undercover, but it’s something we still see today (I’m thinking the 2025 Valentine’s Day Damian storyline). We can dismiss this as being ‘out of character’, but with how it’s been a gradually accepted part of DC canon over the last decade especially, I don’t know how long we can reasonably make that excuse.

The gypsy perspective isn’t necessarily the main reason I hate this, it’s just one which I feel capable of offering. (if you’re new here, hi, I’m a traveller/gypsy/showman/whatever you want to call me from a fairground and circus family in the UK. I’ve always stuck to fairgrounds myself but a lot of my family were/are still with the circus so I’m not an idiot and it’s all closely related anyway. I also grew up speaking Romani so there’s that.)

Other reasons I hate it include: the double standards of objectifying Dick being treated as almost acceptable because Dick is a man; Dick as an SA/rape survivor; and the fact that it’s bloody stupid because Dick is a highly competent vigilante and detective - a partner of Batman, then Batman himself, who even on his sick days is solving cold cases for fun. He is a genius ffs.

But anyway, onto the potentially doxxing gypsy perspective.

I know that Dick’s ‘gypsy rep’ has been a bit touch and go over the years. Grayson’s run is quite infamous for her handling of this (the whole internalised racism she gave him during his Tevis mob era, and Bruce’s stereotyping in Gotham Knights still makes me feel icky), and it’s only recently that it’s really been discussed again, mostly being ignored by writers in between. However, I’ve also mentioned before that to me, the writer with the most accurate representation is ironically Morrison (because he wasn’t trying). The thing is, even if writers have kind of circumnavigated the whole ‘gypsy’ thing (a term I use because it’s common in the UK, and is one Dick uses himself, alongside ‘carney’ which is the American English version of the British ‘showman’, a subtype of “gypsy”), it’s been canon since Day One that Dick is from the circus. And due to how circuses work, especially with the hereditary nature and how it was more common for the gypsy family who ran the circus to perform in the 40s when Dick was introduced, even if it wasn’t explicitly stated, Dick Grayson has kind of canonically (or at the very least, subtextually) been a gypsy since his introduction.

So now that bit of house keeping is out of the way, why does the himboification of Dick Grayson really annoy me, as a gypsy/showman/carney myself?

So, the first issue I have is really the exoticism. There’s been a large push especially from fan-artists (though it has been very subtlety reflected in canon) to have Dick portrayed with darker skin, to more “accurately” portray him as Romani (spoiler: this is not accurate). There is a fantastic post which explains this further, but it’s actually kind of colourist to say that Dick Grayson is whitewashed. I’m a full gypsy, not a diddakoi or anything, and I’m pasty as fuck. Sure, my dad was often mistaken as South Asian in his youth, as his family are all very olive-skinned and tan dark in the summer, but my mum is white as a sheet (much to her own father’s annoyance) and I take after her. This is the case for a lot of us, especially in the North of Europe. And yet, I am still ethnically a gypsy. Dick does not lose his ‘gypsy card’ for being white. And the fact that many of the fandom view it as necessary for Dick to have a darker complexion to fit this perception of what a Romani person looks like (especially since this perception largely comes from gorjas who’ve never knowingly met a gypsy before in their lives) is not only inaccurate, but kind of problematic. I don’t mind seeing a darker Dick Grayson, but it’s how people act like he has to be dark skinned to be Romani which is frankly just incorrect.

This is doubly problematic when people use his being Romani to exoticise and sexualise Dick. Like with Esmerelda in the Hunchback of Notre Dame, I’ve often seen the fandom (and even canon, to some degree) use Dick’s heritage to make him seem other, and almost remove some barriers for proper conduct (i.e. be overly affectionate, etc). We see this kind of sexualisation with a lot of non-white characters, like Talia for example, and I think that the push for a visibly non-white, exotic Dick Grayson does fall in line with the same kind of racist hyper-sexualisation we see there. Alternatively, maybe this idea of a ‘sexy gypsy from the circus’ has its roots somewhat in real life, but actually results from major misunderstandings: until the sixties, it was common for circuses to have peep shows, with girls outside advertising it in their underwear; the misunderstanding comes in that these girls were not gypsies themselves (see my next point) but hired gorja staff who worked for or alongside us. It’s not unreasonable, then, that a child visiting the circus (and thus shaping their idea of what a circus is) up until the 60s might misinterpret this as being related to gypsies ourselves (songs like Cher’s Gypsies, Tramps, and Thieves, also add to this misconception that we’re the ones in the peep shows when we are not, even if that song is a bop) - if that child then worked for DC or was in the fandom, as writers/artists/fan-fic authors/fanartists in their 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s, from the 80s to the 2000s, they might have mistakenly thought this was part of our culture, and not a business running parallel to ours (I hope this makes sense?). This is just a theory, but one of the only places I can think of this stereotype coming from, besides just plain racism?

Anyway, this hyper-sexualisation is ironic because a big part of our culture is actually that it is a purity culture, with equal expectations on both sexes to maintain modesty and virginity prior to marriage (of course, it’s a bit more relaxed nowadays but the expectation is still there, even if you’re in your 30s and unmarried!). This is drilled into us from a very young age, so even if Dick was removed from his culture by the age of eight, in a real life situation, he would likely already be well versed in this aspect of our culture. As I mentioned earlier, even before Dick was explicitly stated to be a gypsy, I think it’s definitely possible to read a gypsy upbringing into his character, even if unintentional, as written pre-Grayson - there’s one discussion Dick has about his anxieties about moving in with Kory whilst unmarried (I forget which comic this is from), and I cannot help but feel this resonate with me as a gypsy.

Then there’s the element of dress. TV shows like ‘My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding’ have done a lot to convince people that we all dress immodestly, but first of all: MBFGW focuses on another subtype of gypsy, Irish travellers - not showmen/circus like Dick is portrayed to be; and secondly - it’s such a small percentage of the population who do dress like that, that it cannot be taken as truth. I’ve a fair few cousins who are half-Irish traveller, and none of them dress like that. You’re far more likely to find a gypsy man wearing a shirt, a jumper, a pair of jeans, and boots than any of the gelled hair and vest top combos you see on there.

It’s a big thing that Dick has some questionable fashion choices (which are often featured as justification for his supposed ‘himbo-ness’), and this is definitely true in canon (Discowing, that one polka dot shirt, the mullet era… oh Dick, you disaster), but I’ve seen a lot of people correlate that directly with his growing up in a circus. As someone from that background, let me tell you that is just a Dick thing. It has nothing to do with being from the circus, we all dress rather normally - I’m sat writing this in a blue T-shirt, a pair of navy jeans, and a pair of boots - aka the kind of thing Dick wears more often than not in later not-the-80s canon! The thing is, this kind of presumption is something I’ve experienced myself in real life. I was doing some charity work, and there was a press element - when the journalist found out I was a gypsy from a circus family, and that I had horses, I was told to come to the photoshoot in my ‘little pink sparkly dress or whatever it is I ride in.’ I ride in jeans and a T-shirt btw. They just presumed because my family owned circuses, I must do vaulting and perform and I don’t - I worked in the kiosk or on the rides. The point is, people make a lot of presumptions about us just because we’re from the circus, and it’s not accurate.

Then there’s also the fanon effeminising of Dick: often giving him softer, feminine features, make-up, etc, to make him ‘pretty’. Like with the skin-colour issue, draw Dick however you like. You do you. But don’t use his being a gypsy to justify that. Tbh, the vast majority of gypsy men I know are extremely masculine: physically, the cis-men of our community tend to be quite tall, stocky, with calloused hands and broad shoulders, by virtue of the fact that we have to build up everywhere we work, and that’s a lot of physical labour. In Europe, there’s a big drinking culture, and playing football, etc. Men also tend to dress quite masc and practically for blue-collar work. And whilst I am sure that there are some more gender-fluid gypsies out there (I have quite a few gypsy friends who are openly queer, or trans), I have seen so many posts on Tumblr with Dick presented as being quite soft and feminine looking, with make-up etc, and when people in the notes ask why he’s drawn like that, the artist replies ‘He’s Rom!’ and I just want to facepalm. You can be a gypsy and masc-presenting. You can be a gypsy and fem-presenting. However, being a gypsy ≠ being feminine, and I’m really sick of seeing it. As someone who studies ancient Persia (like, I have a degree in it and am writing an academic book), the similarities are so obvious with how the Greeks portrayed the Achaemenids as effeminate, and like with the Achaemenids, it’s just not accurate. Again, if that’s how you headcanon Dick, then that’s great, but let’s not pretend that Dick being a gypsy has anything to do with it.

So I’ve now discussed the sexualisation aspect of Dick’s character a bit (I’ve probably left something out but oh well), and now I’ll speak a bit about the ‘dumb’ part. This is a far more recent thing, I think, and I suspect it might be because: a) people have weirdly tagged Tim as the Smart!Robin (they’re all geniuses) and thought this somehow means the rest must be dumb?, b) because of how sexualised Dick is, they’ve gone full himbo (see: Dick in the Grayson comics saying ‘at least [he’s] pretty’). However, from a gypsy point of view, this really annoys me as well.

When travelling with the fairground/circus, it is difficult to get a stable education. We tend to go to school in the winter months, but in the warmer months, we are more homeschooled (maybe using education packs from our normal school), or at larger fairs/events, a special teacher may be present. It used to be common that if we were at a ground for two weeks or more, we’d be enrolled temporarily in a local school for that time, but this isn’t really realistic today. However, it is also true that traditionally, our schooling was quite halted. Whilst less common, it’s still fairly normal for us to leave school early - for example, I left school entirely aged 13 to work full time on the fairgrounds (yes this goes against child labour laws but nobody actually cares). As a result of this, a lot of us have very limited education (illiteracy is not unheard of in the older generations), so it’s not uncommon for people to mistake this for us being stupid. But the thing is, this isn’t true. My dad left school aged 11, and eventually got a gorja job in his late 30s - he is now the top in the country at his job. I left school when I was 13, but decided I wanted to go to university, so I sat my GCSEs without studying, got into college, and whilst also working a full time job, got my A Levels and got into what is ranked the number one university in the world. When I got in, people really could not believe that someone of my background could do it, so it was on national news and television. It’s not that other travellers/gypsies are incapable - for the most part, we just don’t see the point as we’ve got a job and a culture wrapped up in one which we want to keep alive and successful. The point is, it’s so common for us to be underestimated, and part of what I loved about Dick’s character is that he is unapologetically clever. But over the last decade especially, Dick is once again being reduced to just a pretty face. Now, growing up, it was a cultural expectation to take care of your looks, and whilst I think I always looked ok (washed hair every day, showered, ironed matching clothes), it was not my primary interest in the same way that it was for a lot of my peers. So having a character who was from the same background as me and allowed to be intelligent and respected for it in a way I sometimes wasn’t was really special. So to see that intellect being taken away from Dick, somewhat, does strike me. If Dick is reduced to just being pretty and flirty, that’s as stereotypical as it comes in my community, and I love it when he can be more. I’m not saying that Dick has to be super serious all the time (that’s what makes Dick’s character so great, even if he is a bit more serious in canon than in fanon, though to be fair that’s probably because canon is a lot harder on him than fanon), but he can be hot and flirty without being dumb and overly objectified.

I hope this makes sense and I also hope that none of my relatives or uni friends see this and immediately work out it’s me - there’s a reason I started a whole side blog to separate my silly little nerdy interests from anything my friends might see - but Himbo Dick Grayson is something which I can’t get behind. Let him be smart. Let him be hot but not overly exoticised.

[manyu-ten]

karen should have Pre-crisis Earth-Two Helena W back though

Not an unpopular opinion at all! Though in the world of comics, I think Helena Wayne's reintegration into the main verse would be placed in some convoluted multiverse event that settles in some deus ex machina fashion, as is the trend with most things comics.

I'd love to hear thoughts on how fans of Helena Wayne would integrate her into the modern comics templates, given the scope of the Wayne family + Batman Inc. (Ik y'all. Ik) and Bruce and Selina's own current complications.

Her character predates all the Wayne siblings except for Dick, whose existed almost as long as Batman and while the whole shabang surrounding Karen has more or less made itself stagnant in the grande scheme of the multiverse, I know fans still have their own discrepancies with each depiction.